Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 40725662. And he said, Peace be to you, fear not. That this signifies thatit is well, let them not despair is evident from the signification of“peace” as being to be well (of which in what follows); and fromthe signification of “fear not” as being let them not despair. For theinternal sense treats of a change of state, in that they no longerprocure truths and through them good by their own power; but arepresented with them from the Lord. And because they supposedthat they would thus lose their own, thus freedom, andconsequently all the delight of life, they were in despair, as is plainfrom what has gone before. Hence it is that “fear not” here signifieslet them not despair; for fear arises from various causes (see n.5647), and therefore also signifies various things.[2] That “peace” denotes it is well is because it is the inmost, andhence the universally reigning thing, in each and all things inheaven; for peace in heaven is like spring on earth, or like the dawn,which does not affect us by sensible changes, but by a universalpleasantness that flows into everything that is perceived, and fillswith this pleasantness not only the perception itself but also theseveral objects. At the present day scarcely anyone knows themeaning of “peace” where mentioned in the Word, as in thebenediction, “Jehovah lift up his faces upon thee, and give theepeace” (Num. 6:26); and in other places. Almost everyone believespeace to be security from enemies, and also tranquillity at homeand among companions. Such peace is not meant in this passage,but a peace which immeasurably transcends it—the heavenly peacejust now spoken of. This peace can be bestowed on no one unlesshe is led by the Lord and is in the Lord, that is, in heaven where theLord is all in all; for heavenly peace flows in when the yearningsarising from the love of self and the love of the world are takenaway. These are what take peace away, for they infest man’sinteriors, and at last cause him to make rest consist in unrest, andpeace in annoyances, because his delight is in evils. So long as manis in these he cannot possibly know what peace is, nay, he so longbelieves that such peace is nothing; and if anyone says that itbecomes perceptible when the delights from the love of self and theworld are taken away, he laughs, because he makes peace consist inthe delight of evil, which is the opposite of peace.