Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 411Set thee up signs, place for thee high pillars, set thine heart to thehighway, the way thou mayest go; return, O virgin of Israel, return tothy cities (31:21).The restoration of the church is here treated of. “The virgin ofIsrael” signifies the church; “to set up signs, and to place highpillars,” signifies instruction in such things as are the fundamentalsof the church, which are called “high pillars” because they sustain;“to set the heart to the highway, the way thou mayest go,” signifiesthe affection of truth leading to life.[4] In David:I will judge in uprightness; the earth and all the inhabitants thereofare dissolved; I will make firm the pillars of it (Ps. 75:2, 3).“The earth dissolving” signifies those of the church who are not intruths but yet long for them; “to make firm the pillars” of itsignifies to sustain the church by those truths upon which it isfounded. Again, in Job:Who causeth the earth to shake out of its place, so that the pillarsthereof tremble (9:6).“The earth” here signifies the church, and “pillars” the truths thatsustain it. That:The pillars of the court of the tabernacle (mentioned in Exod.27:10–12, 14–17);also signify the ultimate truths sustaining the higher ones, seeArcana Coelestia, in the explanation of that chapter and thoseverses. Like truths are signified by:The pillars of the house of the forest of Lebanon built by Solomon(mentioned in 1 Kings 7:2, 6).[5] Similar also is the signification of: