Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3964that by “I fear God,” when predicated of the Lord, is signifiedDivine love, thus the Divine.5460. If ye be upright. That this signifies if they are truths inthemselves is evident from the signification of “being upright” asbeing that they are truths in themselves (of which above, n. 5434,5437).5461. Let one of your brethren be bound in the house of yourcustody. That this signifies that faith in the will must be separated isevident from the representation of Simeon, who is “one of theirbrethren who was to be bound” (verse 24) as being faith in the will(see n. 3869–3872, 4497, 4502–4503); and from the significationof “being bound in the house of your custody” as being to beseparated (n. 5083, 5101, 5452, 5456). The case herein is thatwhen faith in the will, or the will of doing the truth of faith, isseparated from those who are in the truths of the church, thenconnection with the Divine is so slight that it is hardly more thanacknowledgment; for the influx of the Divine from the Lord withthe regenerate man is into good and thence into truth, or what isthe same, into the will and thence into the understanding. Insofartherefore as the man who is in the truths of faith receives goodfrom the Lord, so far the Lord forms in him a new will in hisintellectual part (that it is in the intellectual part may be seenabove, n. 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113), and sofar the Lord flows in, and produces the affection of doing what isgood, that is, of exercising charity toward the neighbor. From allthis it is evident what is meant by faith in the will (represented bySimeon) being separated before the intermediate, which is“Benjamin,” became present.5462. And go ye, bring produce for the famine of your houses. Thatthis signifies that in the meantime they are free to look out forthemselves is evident from the signification of “go ye,” after theirbeing bound and one of them being held in their stead, as beingthat in the meantime they were free; from the signification of“produce” as being truth (see n. 5276, 5280, 5292); from thesignification of “famine” as being a lack of knowledges and