Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 337Be wakeful, therefore, praying at every season, that ye may beaccounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, andto stand before the Son of man (21:36).Here, also, “to he wakeful’ means to receive spiritual life; “to prayat every season” signifies to prepare oneself.[6] In Revelation:Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that is awake, and keepethhis garments, lest he walk naked (16:15).Here “to be awake” signifies to receive spiritual life from the Lord,as is evident from its being said, “Blessed is he that is awake andkeepeth his garments, lest he walk naked;” “garments” signifyingthe knowledges of truth and good by means of which man hasspiritual life; and “to walk naked” signifying life without suchknowledges as means, thus life not spiritual but merely natural.(That “garments” signify the knowledges of truth and good, seebelow, n. 195, and that by “naked” is signified the deprivation ofthese, sec Arcana Coelestia, n. 1073, 5433, 5954, 9960.)[7] In Lamentations:Arise, cry aloud in the night, at the beginning of the watches; liftup thy hands to the Lord respecting the soul of thy babes, who havefainted through hunger at the head of every street (2:19);here, as above, “night” signifies a state of no faith; “the beginningof the watches” signifies the state when faith begins, thus a state ofillustration, which is when man becomes spiritual. By “babes” aremeant those who love truths, and long for them; “to faint throughhunger at the head of every street” is to be deprived of spiritual lifethrough a lack of the knowledges of truth and good. (That“hunger” means a lack of knowledges and a longing for them, seeArcana Coelestia, n. 1460, 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5360,5376, 5893; and that “streets” are the truths of doctrine, n. 2336.)