Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3691[5] In Hosea:I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as thefirst-ripe in the fig tree in its beginning (Hos. 9:10);“grapes in the wilderness” denote rational good not yet madespiritual; the “first-ripe in the fig tree” denotes natural good in likemanner; “Israel” denotes the ancient spiritual church in itsbeginning (“fathers” in this and other passages not being the sonsof Jacob, but those with whom the ancient church was first set up).[6] In Micah:There is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first-ripe. The holy isperished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men (Micah12:1–2);the “cluster to eat” denotes the good of charity in its beginning;“the first-ripe” the truth of faith also at that time.[7] In Amos:Behold the days come that the ploughman shall reach the reaper,and the treader of grapes him that draweth the seed; and the mountainsshall drop new wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring backthe captivity of my people, and they shall build the waste cities, andinhabit them; and shall settle and plant vineyards, and drink the winethereof; and they shall make clusters, and eat the fruit of them (Amos9:13–14);it treats here of the setting up of a spiritual church, which is thusdescribed—the conjunction of spiritual good with its truth by the“ploughman reaching the reaper”; and the conjunction of spiritualtruth with its good by the “treader of grapes reaching him thatdraweth the seed”; the goods of love and charity therefrom aresignified by the “mountains dropping new wine and the hillsmelting”; “bringing back the captivity of the people” denotesdeliverance from falsities; “building the waste cities” denotesrectifying the falsified doctrinals of truth; “inhabiting them and