Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 291These things no one can understand unless he has a knowledge ofthe spiritual or internal sense of the Word. He will believe them tobe mere comparisons, in which there is no spiritual signification;when yet all the particulars therein signify things of heaven and thechurch; therefore they shall be explained briefly. “Asshur” is therational of the man of the church which is illustrated; this is called“a cedar in Lebanon,” because a “cedar” has the same significationas “Asshur,” specifically truth from good in the rational; and“Lebanon” is the mind where the rational resides, because therewere cedars in Lebanon.By “his branches that were multiplied” are meant truthstherefrom; “the fowl of the heavens that built their nests in hisbranches” are the affections of truth; and “the beasts of the fieldthat brought forth under his branches” are the affections of good;the “great nations that dwelt in his shade” are the goods of love;“his heart lifted up in his height” is the love of self; “to be giveninto the hands of the strong one of the nations,” and “to be castdown by the violent of the nations,” means that evils from that lovewill destroy goods and truths; “the peoples of the earth that wentdown from his shadow and abandoned him” are all truths of thechurch. From this it is manifest that “nations” signify goods, and inthe contrary sense evils; by “the nations that dwelt in his shade,”goods; and by “the nations that cut him off, and cast him down,”evils. (See, moreover, what is said and shown about nations andtheir signification in Arcana Coelestia, namely, that by “nations” inthe Word are meant those who are in good, and consequentlygoods themselves, n. 1059, 1159, 1258, 1260, 1416, 1849, 6005;“the assembly of the nations,” truths and goods, n. 4574, 7830;“the holy nation,” the spiritual kingdom, n. 9255, 9256; when it issaid “nation and people,” by “nation” those who are in celestialgood are meant, and by “people” those who are in spiritual good, n.10288. That by “nations,” especially the nations of the land ofCanaan, evils and falsities of every kind are meant, n. 1059, 1205,1868, 6306, 8054, 8317, 9320, 9327).176. Verse 27. And he shall rule them with an iron rod, signifiesthat he is about to chastise evils by means of truths that are in the