Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3604chiefly for the reason that those who are in truth and good naturalnot spiritual, who are here represented by Potiphar and his wife,regard spiritual truth and good, which is represented by Joseph, nootherwise than as a servant; for in both life and doctrine they are ininverted order, because with them the natural rules and thespiritual serves; when yet it is according to order that the spiritualshould rule and the natural serve; for the spiritual is prior, interior,and higher, and nearer the Divine; while the natural is posterior,exterior, and lower, and more remote from the Divine.For this reason the spiritual in man and in the church iscompared to heaven, and is also called heaven; and the natural iscompared to earth, and is also called earth. Hence also it is thatthey who are spiritual, that is, in whom the spiritual has ruled,appear in the other life in the light of heaven with the head upwardtoward the Lord, and with the feet downward toward hell; whereasthey who are natural, that is, they in whom the natural has ruled,appear in the light of heaven with the feet upward and the headdownward, however differently they may appear in their own light,which is a fatuous light resulting from the evil affections andconsequent fantasies in which they are (n. 1528, 3340, 4214, 4418,4531, 4532). That natural men regard spiritual things assubservient, was also represented by the Egyptians regarding theHebrews no otherwise than as servants; for by the Egyptians wererepresented those who are in natural knowledge and who thereforeare natural, but by the Hebrews, those who are of the church andare therefore relatively spiritual. Moreover the Egyptians regardedthe Hebrews as being so vile—as servants—that it was anabomination to them to eat with the Hebrews (Gen. 43:32); andthe sacrifices offered by the Hebrews were also an abomination tothem (Exod. 8:26).5014. To mock us. That this signifies that it rose up is evidentfrom the series itself in the internal sense, and also from thesignification of “mocking,” when said with vehemence as being torise up.