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28 understanding is thereby opened towards the Lord’s Divine Humanity.

80. King Solomon gave unto the Queen of Sheba, not only all her desire whatsoever she asked, but also what he gave her of his royal bounty, (1 Kings x. 13,) to instruct us, that the Lord grants all the petitions of His children, not merely according to the measure and extent of their wishes and apprehensions, but according to the measure and extent also of His own infinite and most adorable mercy and love towards them.

81. Silver was nothing accounted of in the days of king Solomon, (1 Kings x. 21,) because in the church triumphant, when the full purification and regeneration is effected, and all spiritual combat ceases, through the harmonious conjunction of goodness and truth, the principle of good is exalted to pre-eminence, and in this case truth is made good, and is no longer regarded as anything in a state of separation.

82. In the great spiritual famine or desolation in the regenerating mind, though one child be boiled and eaten, yet the other is hidden; (2 Kings vi. 27–29;) in other words, though all the knowledges and perceptions of truth are desolated, yet the will and affection of heavenly good still remain, though in a concealed State.

83. The axe’s head [or iron] always falls into the water, when it is borrowed, (see 2 Kings vi. 5,)