Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10150

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10150. 'And I will sanctify the tent of meeting' means reception of the Lord in the lower heavens. This is clear from the meaning of 'sanctifying' as the reception of what is Divine and the Lord's, dealt with immediately above in 10149; and from the meaning of 'the tent of meeting' as the heavens, dealt with in 3478, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9963, the reason why the lower heavens are meant here being that the higher heavens are meant by 'the altar', see 10151 immediately below. What the lower heavens and the higher heavens are must be stated briefly here. The heavens are divided into two kingdoms, the celestial and the spiritual. The celestial kingdom comprises the higher heavens, and the spiritual kingdom the lower heavens. The intrinsic good of the celestial kingdom is the good of love to the Lord and the good of mutual love, whereas the intrinsic good of the spiritual kingdom is the good of charity towards the neighbour and the good of faith. The difference between these kingdoms is like that between the power of understanding and the power of will in the case of a person who has been regenerated, in general like the difference between goodness and truth. The nature of this difference may be recognized from what has been shown regarding those two kingdoms in the places referred to in 9277, also in what has been stated in 9543, 9688, 9992, 10005, 10068. The will furthermore is inmost in a person, being the person's true self, whereas the understanding lies adjacent and is subservient, and so is more external. What is more internal is also called higher, and what is more external is also called lower. For the correspondence of the celestial kingdom to the will and of the spiritual kingdom to the understanding with a person who has been regenerated, see 9835. All this shows what should be understood by the lower heavens and what by the higher heavens.


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