Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 142They said to Jesus, What shall we do that we may work the worksof God? Jesus answered, This is the work of God, that ye believe on himwhom [the Father] hath sent (John 6:28, 29).The night cometh, when no man can work (John 9:4).“Night” signifies the last time of the church, when there is no faith,because there is no charity. (That “night” signifies this time, seeArcana Coelestia, n. 2353, 6000.) “Works” are so frequentlymentioned, because the sense of the letter of the Word is made upsolely of things external, which are in nature and which appearbefore the eyes; and this in order that there may be a spiritual sensein each particular, as a soul in a body, for otherwise the Wordwould not be a means of communication with the angels, for itwould be like a house without a foundation (see above, n. 8, 16).From this also it is that when “works” are mentioned, angels,because they are spiritual, do not understand works, but the thingsfrom which works spring, which are, as was said above, the will orlove, and thought therefrom which is of faith. (This subject youwill find more clearly explained in Heaven and Hell, n. 470–483,where it is shown that man is after death such as his life was in theworld.) “Toil,” in the spiritual sense, means all things that manthinks, because spiritual toiling is thinking. And “endurance”signifies all things that man does, because “to endure” here meansto be assiduous, and to put away the obstructions in the naturalman that are continually rising up and hindering.99. And that thou canst not bear the evil, signifies that they rejectevils. This is evident from the signification of “canst not bear,” asbeing to reject, for what a man cannot bear he rejects. “The evil”signify evils, because the thought of angels is abstracted frompersons; when, therefore, in the sense of the letter of the Word “theevil” are mentioned, angels think of evils; for by “the evil,” menwho are evil, thus persons, are meant. The thought of angels is ofthis character because they are in heavenly wisdom, and thatwisdom has extension into the universal heaven; if therefore theyshould think with thought determined to persons, that extensionwould perish, and their wisdom with it. In this way the spiritual