Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3861The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over Babylon,for no man buyeth their merchandise any more; merchandise of gold,and silver, and precious stone, and pearl, and fine linen, and crimson,and silk, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel of most preciouswood, and of brass, and iron, and marble (Rev. 18:11–12);in this passage all and each of the expressions signify such things asare of the church, thus such as are of truth and good; but here inthe opposite sense, because spoken of Babylon. Everyone can seethat such things would never have been enumerated in the Wordwhich came down from heaven, unless there was somethingheavenly in each one; for why should mention be made of worldlywares in treating of Babylon, by which is signified the profanechurch?[5] Again in the same:Woe, woe, the great city, she that was clothed in fine linen, andcrimson, and scarlet, and gilded with gold, and precious stone, andpearls (Rev. 18:16);that every detail here signifies some heavenly Divine thing isobvious in the same book, where it is said of fine linen that it is the“righteousness of the saints”:The time of the wedding of the lamb is come, and his wife hathmade herself ready. Then to her was granted that she should be clothedin fine linen, clean and bright; for the fine linen is the righteousness ofthe saints (Rev. 19:7–8);that “fine linen is the righteousness of the saints” is because all whoare in truth from the Divine put on the Lord’s righteousness; fortheir garments are white and shining from the light that is from theLord, and therefore truth itself is represented in heaven by what isshining white (n. 3301, 3993, 4007). It is for this reason also thatthey who are taken up into heaven out of a state of vastation appearclad in shining white, because they then put off that which is oftheir own righteousness, and put on that which is of the Lord’srighteousness.