Page:Arcana Coelestia - Volume I.djvu/31

35—89.] and celestial, both in general and in particular, which are compared to the changes of days and of years. The changes of days are from morning to mid-day, thence to evening and through night to morning; and the changes of years are similar,—from spring to summer, thence to autumn and through winter to spring. Hence come the changes of heat and light, and also of the fruitfulness of the earth; and with these are compared the mutations of things spiritual and celestial. Life without such changes and varieties would be uniform, consequently nothing [deserving the name of life]; nor would goodness and truth be known or distinguished, much less perceived. These changes are in the prophets called ordinances (statuta), as in Jeremiah: "Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night" (xxxi. 35, 36.) And in the same prophet: "Thus saith Jehovah, If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth," &c, (xxxiii. 25.) But more will be said on this subject, by the divine mercy of the Lord, when explaining Genesis viii. 22.

38. Verse 18. ''And to rule over the day, and over the night and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good''. By the day is meant good, by the night, evil; wherefore good actions are called works of the day, but evil deeds works of the night; by the light is meant truth, and by darkness the false, according to what the Lord says, "Men loved darkness rather than light. He that doeth truth cometh to the light" (John iii. 19, 21.) Verse 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 39. Verse 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the creeping thing, the living soul; and let fowl fly above the earth, upon the faces of the expanse of the heavens. After the great luminaries are kindled and placed in the internal man, and the external thence receives light, then the regenerating person begins first to live. Heretofore he can scarcely be said to have lived, inasmuch as the good which he did was supposed by him to have been done of himself, and the truth which he spake to have been spoken of himself; and since man of himself is dead, and there is in him nothing but what is evil and false, therefore whatsoever he produces from himself is not alive, in consequence of his inability to do good which is good in itself. That man can neither think what is good, nor will what is good, consequently cannot do what is good, except from the Lord, must be plain to every one from the doctrine of faith, for the Lord says in Matthew, "He who soweth the good seed is the Son of Man," (xiii. 37.) Nor can any good come but from the real Fountain of good, which is One only, as he says in another place: "None is good save One, that is God," (Luke