Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 40945703. And they sat before him. That this signifies that they wereset in order by his presence is evident from the signification of“sitting” as here being to be set in order, for they were placed inorder by Joseph, as appears from what follows (for they wereamazed that the firstborn should sit according to his birthright, andthe youngest according to his youth); and from the signification of“before him” as being by his presence. The case herein is this. Inthe supreme sense by Joseph is represented the Lord, and by Israel’ssons, the goods and truths in the natural; when the Lord is present,then all things are set in order by his very presence. The Lord isorder itself; and therefore where he is present there is order, andwhere there is order he is present. The order itself is described inthe pages that now follow, which is that truths be rightly set inorder under good.5704. The firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngestaccording to his youth. That this signifies according to the order oftruths under good is evident from the signification of “sittingaccording to birthright and according to youth” as being accordingto the order of truths under good; for the sons of Israel representthe truths of the church in their order (see the explication of thetwenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters of Genesis); and therefore to sit“according to their birth” is according to the order of truths. Butthe truths of the church which the sons of Israel represent do notcome into any order except through Christian good, that is,through the good of charity toward the neighbor and of love to theLord; for in good there is the Lord, and hence in good there isheaven; consequently in good there is life, thus living active force;but never in truth without good. That good sets truths in orderafter its own likeness is very manifest from every love, even fromthe loves of self and of the world, thus from the love of revenge, ofhatred, and of the like evils. They who are in these evils call evilgood, because to them evil is delightful. This so-called good oftheirs sets in order the falsities which to them are truths, so thatthey may favor it, and at last sets all these falsities which they calltruths in such an order as to effect persuasion. But this order is suchas is the order in hell; whereas the order of truths under the good ofcelestial love is such as is the order in the heavens; and from this theman who has such order within him, that is, who has been