Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons) n. 940

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940. [verse 5] 'And night shall not be there, and they have no need of a lamp and of the light of the sun, for the Lord [God] enlightens them' signifies that in the New Jerusalem there will not be any untruth of faith, and that the men will not be in cognitions of God there out of the natural light that is derived from self-intelligence and from the glory arising from pride, but they will be in spiritual light out of the Word from the Only Lord. By 'night shall not be there' much the same is signified as above (chap. xxi) where are these words:-

The gates thereof shall not be closed during the day, for night shall not be there (verse 25);

by which is signified that those who are in truths derived from the good of love from the Lord are continually being received into the New Jerusalem, because there is no untruth of faith there (n. 922). By 'they have no need of a lamp and of the light of the sun, for the Lord God enlightens them' is signified much the same as above (chap. xxi) where are these words:-

And the city has no need of the sun and of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God has enlightened it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb (verse 23);

by which is signified that the men of that Church will not be in the love of self and in self-derived intelligence, and consequently in natural light only, but in spiritual light out of the Divine Truth of the Word from the Only Lord (n. 919). But instead of 'the moon' there it is here said 'a lamp', and instead of 'the sun' there it is here said 'the light of the sun'; and by 'the moon' just as by 'a lamp' is signified natural light derived from self-intelligence, and by 'the light of the sun' is signified natural light derived from the glory arising from pride. [2] But what the natural light derived from the glory arising from pride is shall be expounded in a few words. There is given a natural light derived from the glory arising from pride, and also not from pride. Those have a natural light derived from the glory arising from pride who are in the love of self and consequently in evils of every kind; and if they do not do them out of fear of the loss of reputation, and if they also condemn them because they are. against morality and the public good, they still do not consider them as sins. These are in a natural light derived from the glory arising from pride, for the love of self in the will becomes pride in the understanding, and the pride from that love can raise the understanding even into the light of heaven. This [faculty] is given to the man because he is a man, and so that he can be reformed. I have seen and heard many absolute devils, who understood the arcana of angelic wisdom when they heard and read them, just as the angels themselves do; but immediately on their returning to their own love and their own pride therefrom, they not only understood nothing about those arcana but also saw contrary things by reason of the light of the confirmation of untruth with themselves. But a natural light derived from the glory that is not from pride is with those who are in a delight of uses derived from a genuine love towards the neighbour. Their natural light is also a rational light in which there is inwardly spiritual light from the Lord. The glory with them is derived from the brightness of the light inflowing out of heaven where all things are bright and harmonious, for all the uses in heaven shine brightly. By reason of these uses the pleasantness in the ideas of the thoughts with them is perceived as a glory. It enters in through the will and its goods into the understanding and its truths, and is presented in the latter.


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