Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5469

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5469. We are surely guilty concerning our brother. That this signifies that they are to blame because they have alienated the internal by non-reception of good, is evident from the signification of "being guilty," as being to be at fault and under the imputation of rejection of good and truth (see n. 3400); and from the representation of Joseph, who is the "brother concerning whom they were guilty," as being the internal they had rejected or alienated. For by Joseph and Benjamin is represented the internal of the church, but by the other ten sons of Jacob its external; for Rachel, who was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, is the affection of interior truth, and Leah is the affection of exterior truth (see n. 3758, 3782, 3793, 3819). In this chapter, by Joseph is represented the celestial of the spiritual, or truth from the Divine, which is the internal; by Benjamin the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediate proceeding thence, and by the other ten sons of Jacob the truths of the external church, thus truths in the natural (as often said above). This chapter treats also of the conjunction of the internal of the church with its external in general and in particular; for every man must be a church in particular in order to be a part of the general church. But in the supreme sense the subject treated of is the Lord, how he united the internal with the external in His Human, that He might make it Divine.


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