Page:Arcana Coelestia (Potts) vol 1.djvu/124

 bodies, He hath bruised the head over much land; He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall He lift up the head (Ps. cx. 1, 2, 6, 7),

. That by "trampling on" or "bruising," is meant depression, so as to compel it to "go on the belly and eat the dust," is now evident from this and the preceding verses. So likewise in Isaiah:—

Again:—

. That by the "heel" is meant the lowest natural or corporeal cannot be known unless the way in which the most ancient people considered the various things in man is known. They referred his celestial and spiritual things to the head and face; what comes forth from these (as charity and mercy), to the chest; natural things, to the feet; lower natural things, to the soles of the feet; and the lowest natural and corporeal things, to the heel; nor did they merely refer them, but also so called them. The lowest things of reason, that is, memory-knowledges (scientifica), were also meant by what Jacob prophesied concerning Dan:—

Also in David:—

In like manner by what is related of Jacob, when he came forth from the womb,

for the name "Jacob" comes from the "heel," because the Jewish Church, signified by "Jacob," injured the heel. A serpent can injure only the lowest natural things, but unless it is a species of viper, not the interior natural things in man, still less his spiritual things, and least of all his celestial things, which the Lord preserves and stores up in man without his knowledge. What are thus stored up by the Lord are called