Page:Arcana Coelestia (Potts) vol 1.djvu/25

N. 25] And again, where the advent of the Lord is openly spoken of:—

that is, He does not break fallacies, nor quench cupidities, but bends them to what is true and good; and therefore it follows,

Not to mention other passages to the same purport.

. Verse 8. And the evening and the morning were the second day. The meaning of "evening," of "morning," and of "day," was shown above at verse 5.

. Verse 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to one place, and let the dry [land] appear; and it was so. When it is known that there is both an internal and an external man, and that truths and goods flow in from, or through, the internal man to the external, from the Lord, although it does not so appear, then those truths and goods, or the knowledges of the true and the good in the regenerating man, are stored up in his memory, and are classed among its knowledges (scientiftca); for whatsoever is insinuated into the memory of the external man, whether it be natural, or spiritual, or celestial, abides there as memory-knowledge (scientificum), and is brought forth thence by the Lord. These knowledges are the "waters gathered together into one place," and are called "seas," but the external man himself is called the "dry [land]," and presently "earth," as in what follows.

. Verse 10. And God called the dry [land] earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He seas; and God saw that it was good. It is a very common thing in the Word for "waters" to signify knowledges (cognitiones et scientifica), and consequently for "seas" to signify a collection of knowledges. As in Isaiah:—

And in the same Prophet, where a lack of knowledges (cognitionum et scientificorum) is treated of:—