17. Every wild animal that is with thee of all flesh, both fowl, and beast, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, bring forth with thee, that they may diffuse themselves in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon 18. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, 19. Every wild animal, every creeping thing, and every 20. And Noah builded an altar unto Jehovah; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered 21. And Jehovah smelled an odor of rest; and Jehovah said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more on account of man; for that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done. 22. During all the days of the earth, seed-time and har- 832. The subject which now follows, according to the series, is the man of the new church, who is called Noah ; and indeed his state after temptation, even to his regenera- 833. His first state after temptation, and his fluctuation between what is true and what is false, until truths begin to 834. His second state which is threefold first, when of faith with charity; and afterward, when the goods of charity shine forth - verses 6-14. 835. His third state, when he begins to act and think from charity, which is the first state of the regenerate verses 15-19. 836. His fourth state, when he acts and thinks from charity, which is the second state of the regenerate verses 20, 21. 837. Lastly, the new church, raised up in the place of the former, is described verses 21, 22. INTERNAL SENSE. 838. In the two preceding chapters, the new church called Noah, or the man of that church, was treated of; and indeed first his preparation for receiving faith, and by faith, charity; next his temptation; and afterward his protection, when the Most Ancient Church perished. What here now follows, is his state after temptation, and the order which it followed and at the same time the order of this state with all who are being regenerated; for the Word of the Lord is such, that wherever it treats of one person, it treats of all men, and of every individual, with a difference according to the disposition of each this being the universal sense of the Word. 839. Verse 1. And God remembered Noah, and every wild animal, and every beast that was with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. "And God remembered," signifies the end of temptation and beginning of renovation; by "Noah" is signified, as before, the man of the Ancient Church; by 'every wild animal and every beast that was with him in the ark are signified all that he had; and by "God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged" is signified the disposal of all things in their order. 66 840. And God remembered. That this signifies the end of temptation and the beginning of renovation, is evident from what precedes and follows. That God remembered signifies, in particular, that He is merciful, for His remembrance is mercy; and this is especially predicated after temptation, because new light then shines forth. So long as temptation continues, man supposes the Lord to be absent, because he is disturbed by evil genii, and to such a degree as sometimes to be reduced to such despair that he can scarcely believe there is any God. Yet the Lord is then more intimately present than he can ever believe. When however temptation ceases, then he receives consolation, and then first believes the Lord to be present; and so here, because this is the appearance, God is said to remember, to denote the end of temptation, and the beginning of renovation. God is here said to remember, and not Jehovah, because as yet man was in a state before regeneration; but when he is regenerated, then Jehovah is named as at the end of this chapter (verses 20, 21). The reason is that faith is not yet conjoined with charity, for man is first said to be regenerated when he acts from charity. In charity Jehovah is present, but not so in faith before it is joined to charity. Charity is the very being and life of man in the other world; and as Jehovah is Being and Living itself, so before man is and lives, Jehovah is not said to be with him, but God. 841. That by Noah is signified, as before, the man of the Ancient Church; and by every wild animal, and every beast that was with him in the ark, everything that belonged to him, is evident from what was previously stated concerning Noah, and concerning the signification of wild animal, and beast. Wild animal is taken in a two-fold sense in the Word, both for those things in man which are alive, and for those which are dead. It stands for what is alive, because the word in the Hebrew tongue signifies a living thing; but since the most ancient people in their humiliation acknowledged themselves to be as wild animals, the word became also a type of what is dead in man. In the present pas sage, by wild animal is meant both what is alive and what is dead in one complex- as is usually the case with man after temptation, in whom the living and the dead, or the things which are of the Lord, and those which are man's own, appear so confounded that he scarcely knows what is true and good; but the Lord then reduces and disposes all things in order, as may be evident from what follows. That a wild animal signifies what is alive in man, may be seen in the preceding chapter (vii., verse 14) and the present chapter (verses 17, 19); that it also signifies what is dead in man, is evident from what has been shown above respecting wild animals and beasts (n. 45, 46, 142, 143, 246). 842. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. That this signifies the disposal of all things into their order, is evident from the signification of wind in the Word. All spirits, both good and bad, are compared and likened to and are also called winds; and in the original tongue spirits are expressed by the same word that means winds. In temptations which are here the waters that assuaged, as was shown above — evil spirits cause an inundation, in entering by influx in crowds with their fantasies, and exciting similar fantasies in man; and when these spirits or their fantasies are dispersed, it is said in the Word to be done by a wind, and indeed by an east wind. It is the same with one man during temptation and 2 when the commotions or waters of temptation cease, as with a multitude - as I have learned by repeated experience; for evil spirits in the world of spirits sometimes band together in troops, and thereby excite disturbances until they are dispersed by other bands of spirits, coming mostly from the right, and so from the eastern quarter, who strike such fear and terror into them that they think of nothing but flight. Then those who had associated themselves are dispersed into all quarters, and thereby the societies of spirits formed for evil purposes are dissolved. The troops of spirits who thus disperse them are called an east wind; and there are also innumerable other methods of dispersion, called also east winds- of which, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, more will be said hereafter. When evil spirits are thus dispersed, the state of commotion and turbulence is succeeded by serenity, or silence, as is also the case with the man who has been in temptation; for while in temptation he is in the midst of such a band of spirits, but when they are driven away or dispersed, there follows as it were a calm, which is the beginning of the disposal of all things 3 into order. Before anything is reduced into a state of order, it is most usual that things should be reduced into a confused mass, or chaos as it were, so that those which do not well cohere together may be separated, and when they are separated, then the Lord disposes them into order. This process may be compared with what takes place in nature, where all things in general and singly are first reduced to a confused mass, before being disposed into order. Thus, for instance, unless there were storms in the atmosphere, to dissipate whatever is heterogeneous, the air could never become serene, but would become deadly by pestiferous accumulations. So in like manner in the human body, unless all things in the blood, both heterogeneous. and homogeneous, did continuously and successively flow together into one heart, to be there commingled, there would be deadly conglutinations of the liquids, and they could in no way be distinctly disposed to their respective uses. Thus also it is with man in the course of his regen4 eration. That wind, and especially the east wind, signifies nothing else than the dispersion of falsities and evils, or, what is the same, of evil spirits and genii, and afterward a disposal into order, may be evident from the Word as in Isaiah Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel (xli. 16). Here dispersion is compared to wind, : |