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47—50.] had the time for so doing yet arrived. On this account they called no one Man but the Lord himself, and the things which were of Him; neither did they call themselves men, but only those [principles] in themselves,—as all the good, of love and all the truth of faith,—which they perceived they had from the Lord. These they said were of Man, because they were of the Lord. Hence in the prophets, by Man and the Son of Man, in the supreme sense, is meant the Lord, and in the internal sense, wisdom and intelligence; thus every one who is regenerate, as in Jeremiah: "I beheld the earth, and lo, it was vacuity and emptiness, and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled," (iv. 23, 25.) In Isaiah, where in the internal sense, by man is meant a regenerate person, and in the supreme sense, the Lord himself, as he alone is Man. "Thus saith Jehovah the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded," (xlv. 11, 12.) The Lord therefore appeared to the prophets as a man, as it is said in Ezekiel: "Above the firmament was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it," (i. 26.) And there appeared to Daniel one called the Son of Man or a Man, which is the same thing: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed," (vii. 13, 14.) The Lord also frequently calls himself the Son of Man, or a Man, and, as in Daniel, speaks of his future coming in glory: "Then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," (Matt. xxiv. 30.) The clouds of heaven are the literal sense of the Word;—power and great glory the internal sense of the Word which has reference solely to the Lord and his kingdom, in each and every passage, and from this, that sense derives its power and glory.

50. The Most Ancient Church understood by the image of the Lord more than can be expressed. Man is altogether ignorant that he is governed of the Lord by angels and spirits, and that with every one there are at least two spirits, and two angels. By spirits man has communication with the world of spirits, and by angels with heaven. Without communication by spirits with the world of spirits, and by angels with heaven, and thus through heaven with the Lord, it would be utterly