798. To blaspheme His name, signifies by falsifying all the quality of Divine truth or the Word. This is evident from the signification of "blaspheming," as being to falsify the Divine truth, thus the Word, which is from the Lord and which is the Lord (See just above, n. 797; also from the signification of "name," as being the quality of a thing or state (See above, n. 148, 676), here all the quality of Divine truth or the Word; because it is said "His name," that is, "the name of God." "The name of the Lord" means in the Word every good of love and every truth from that good from which He is worshipped (See above, n. 102, 135, 696). From this it is clear that "to blaspheme the name of God" signifies to falsify all the quality of the Divine truth or the Word, also every good and truth by which the Lord is worshipped. That those who separate faith from good works both in doctrine and life falsify all the quality of the Divine truth, or all things of the Word, has been explained in the preceding article. This can be concluded from what has been frequently said above, namely, that such shut out love and charity, from which works become good and from which faith derives its essence, that these may not, together with faith, be means of salvation; thus they not only falsify those passages of the Word that teach about love to God and love toward the neighbor, but also those passages where "works," "deeds," "working," and "doing," are mentioned; and when these are falsified all things of the Word are also falsified; for the remaining things of the Word, which are called its truths, live from these; and when life is withdrawn the other things are dead. Furthermore, there is everywhere in the Word the marriage of good and truth, as has been frequently said and shown above; consequently when good is taken away the truth that remains is falsified, and truth falsified is falsity. That all things of the Word are falsified by reasonings that confirm faith alone or faith separate will be illustrated by several examples at the end of this chapter, where the signification of the number "six hundred sixty-six" will be explained.

[2] Since in the Christian churches in which faith alone is received as the head of their doctrinals there are those who are learned and those who are simple, also those who separate faith from the goods of life and those who conjoin faith with these, thus those who falsify the Word much and those who falsify it little, and since the preceding article treated of those who so falsify the Word as altogether to close heaven to themselves, so now those shall be treated of who do not so falsify the Word as to close heaven to themselves. These are such as confirm with themselves that the faith that justifies and saves produces goods of life as a tree does fruits. With those who confirm that doctrine in the life heaven is not closed, but its lowest part, where there is an entrance, is open. The reasons are as follows:

[3] First, although they invert the Divine order, which is that charity produces faith, and not that faith produces charity, yet with those who confirm that conjunction in doctrine and in life that inverted order can afterwards be reversed; and when it has been reversed they enter heaven in its lowest parts. They do not enter interiorly because their faith, by which they believed themselves to have been justified and saved, is derived more from falsities than from truths; and in the lowest parts of heaven are they who are in falsities from doctrine and religion and yet are in the good of life. Their falsities are appearances of truth from the sense of the letter of the Word, all of which have life as their end. It is almost similar with everyone who is being reformed; he first forms doctrine for himself out of the Word, and distinguishes in it between the things that are to be believed and the things that are to be done. The things that are to be believed he calls faith, and the things that are to be done he calls charity, but as the order with everyone has been reversed from birth he looks to faith in the first place and charity in the second. Yet if he lives the life of faith, which is charity, the order is by degrees turned about and restored; and from charity he lives faith. Then so far as his faith is from genuine truths he enters heaven; for, as has been said above, the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord makes heaven and is heaven. From this it can be seen how at the present day faith has become the first and chief thing of the church, namely, because they have followed the order reversed from birth, and because they have been satisfied with the life of the world, and have been led by the pride of self-intelligence; and for this reason they have stopped at the first stage of reformation.

[4] The second reason that such do not close heaven to themselves is, that good works are love and charity in act, and it is from these that heaven is heaven; for all angels and all spirits are affections and thoughts therefrom; or what is the same, are loves and intelligences therefrom; and there are two loves that are the universal and fundamental loves of all, namely, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, which is called charity. In these loves are all who do goods from the Word; for all good is of love. Now since those who confirm with themselves in doctrine and life the belief that faith produces good works as a tree does fruits look from faith to good, therefore they have conjunction with heaven, not however with the spiritual heaven, but with the natural heaven, which is in things ultimate and may be called the entrance. Such cannot be admitted more interiorly for the reason that until faith becomes charity in form it is natural, and the natural can produce only what is natural. It is otherwise when faith becomes faith from charity; then faith becomes spiritual because charity, from which is faith, is spiritual. With these the spiritual mind is opened, but with the former only the natural mind is opened; yet this is opened more deeply and interiorly according to the quality of the faith and the quality of the life therefrom. The mind of these, viewed in the light of heaven, appears snowy, such as rational light is; and the rational is intermediate between the spiritual mind and the natural mind.

[5] Thirdly, if the state of the mind and life of those who believe that faith produces good works, and who also do them, is explored more interiorly, it will be seen that they are interiorly natural; since their faith is simply a knowledge of the commandments of the Word; and when the interior natural sight, which is called the rational, enters into this faith, an acknowledgment is produced that those commandments are Divine; and when love becomes active in this acknowledgment it becomes obedience. But the love that operates into this acknowledgment can be no other than a love of reward for the goods done, and to them this reward is eternal life. And as love of reward is not from God but from man, for in reward man regards his own good and not the good of the neighbor, it follows that this love is natural; consequently that the state of mind and life of those who believe that faith produces good works, and who do them according to their faith, is natural. But if they do not do good works from obedience, the love that leads them is the love of the glory that comes from erudition, or the love of the reputation that comes from being raised to honors, or from gaining riches. Such, however, merely say that they acknowledge and believe; in heart they do not acknowledge or believe; therefore they are the lowest natural, and heaven is altogether closed to them.

[6] In order that it may be known that to do good from obedience is from the natural man it shall be told briefly what it is to do good from charity. No one can do good from charity unless his spiritual mind is opened, and the spiritual mind is opened only by man's abstaining from doing evils and shunning them, and finally turning away from them because they are contrary to the Divine commandments in the Word, thus contrary to the Lord. When man so shuns and turns away from evils all things that he thinks, wills, and does, are good because they are from the Lord; for the Lord is continually present, knocks at the door, is urgent and wishes to enter, but evils oppose; therefore man must open the door by removing the evils, for it is only when evils are removed that the Lord enters and sups there (Revelation 3:20). It is said that man opens and removes, because it is from self that man does evils; and inasmuch as the Lord is continually present, knocks at the door, and is urgent, as has been said, man has the ability to refrain from evils as if of himself; this ability is also given to every man. This is why, since man can of himself close heaven to himself he can also as if of himself open heaven, provided he thinks and wills to refrain from evils, looks to the Lord, and when he refrains acknowledges that it is from the Lord. When, therefore, evils have been removed, whatever man does is good, since it is from the Lord; and whatever man does from the Lord is not natural-moral, but is spiritual-moral. Since, then, charity is from the love of doing good for the sake of good, thus from good, consequently from the Lord, it follows that doing good from charity is spiritual, but doing good from obedience, since it is from a love of reward, is natural. Such is the natural in which those are who are in the entrance to heaven; and to this those come who do good only from obedience, who are such as confirm in themselves, in doctrine and life, that faith produces good works as a tree does fruits.

[7] Fourthly, moreover it is to be known that those who believe that faith produces good works as a tree does fruits believe also that heaven is allotted them before evils are removed; and yet so long as evils are with man whatever goods he does are not good, for from an evil tree no other than evil fruits spring forth; therefore the only way to heaven is for man from the Word to abstain from evils because they are sins, which unless they be first removed, the Lord cannot enter and bestow heaven.

[8] The fifth reason why those do not close heaven to themselves who confirm themselves in doctrine and life in the belief that faith produces good works as a tree does fruits, is, that they do not falsify the Word as those do who believe in justification and salvation by faith without good works. Those who believe in a faith without good works falsify all things of the Word that mention and enjoin love, charity, goods, works, deeds, working, and doing; and this they do even to the destruction of the Divine truth in the heavens, by understanding them as meaning either faith, or the moral and civil goods of the world, or as having been said merely for the common people on account of the simplicity of their faith. Thus they destroy the Divine truth itself by arguments from man's inability to fulfill the law, by the nature of the good that is from man as not being good, and by the removal of the merit that inheres in goods from man. But those who in simplicity join good works to faith do not falsify all those things of the Word, and thence do not remove faith from the love to God, and thereby remove the Divine operation in all the particulars to be done by man, as also in all the particulars to be believed by man; for they think and say that good works are to be done as if by man, for he who does not act and believe as if of himself believes nothing and does nothing, and has no religion. And yet, since they have no genuine truths, while they do not close heaven to themselves they can advance no farther than to the threshold of heaven. To such of them, however, as have loved truths for the sake of truths heaven is opened when the Divine order has been restored with them, and that is done when charity and its good are in the first place, and faith and its truths in the second, for they are then like those who go on in a straight way with the face looking forward, while before they were like those who go with the face looking backward.

[9] Sixthly, there are also many who make charity the essential means of salvation, as others do faith, and yet do not live the life of charity; but since their charity is merely a confession of the mouth that this is the truth, it is their faith alone; therefore their charity likewise is not living but dead, and in consequence they differ very little from the confessors of faith alone, having a like heart but an unlike soul, but yet the one like the other closes heaven to himself.

2781. 'And saddled [his] ass' means the natural man which He prepared. This is clear from the meaning of 'an ass', dealt with below. In man there are things of the will and there are those of the understanding; with the former go those things which spring from good, with the latter those which spring from truth. There are various kinds of animals, by which things of the will springing from good are meant, such as lambs, sheep, goats, she-goats, young bulls, and oxen, see 1823, 2179, 2180; and there are also those by which are meant things of the understanding springing from truth, namely horses, mules, wild asses, camels, and asses, in addition to birds. 'A horse' means the understanding part of the mind, as has been shown above in 2761, 2762; 'a wild ass' means rational truth separated from good, see 1949; and 'a camel' means factual knowledge in general, and 'an ass' factual knowledge in particular, see 1486.

[2] There are two elements which constitute the natural degree of man's mind, or what amounts to the same, the natural man - natural good and natural truth. Natural good is the delight that flows forth from charity and faith, natural truth is knowledge of these. That natural truth is what is meant by 'an ass', and rational truth by 'a mule', becomes clear from the following places:In Isaiah,

A prophecy of the beasts of the south. In the land of distress and repression are the lion and the tiger, and from them come the viper and the flying fiery-serpent. They will bear their riches on the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures on the humps of camels - on a people [who] will not be any use [to them]; for the Egyptians will help in vain and to no advantage. Isaiah 30:6-7.

The expression 'the beasts of the south' is used of those who possess cognitions of good and truth but who make them matters of knowledge, not of life. In reference to those beasts it is said that those people 'bear their riches on the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures on the humps of camels', for the reason that 'young asses' means facts in particular, and 'camels' facts in general. 'The Egyptians', of whom it is said that they will help in vain and to no advantage, means knowledge, see 1164, 1165, 1186. It is evident to anyone that this prophecy has an internal sense and that without this it is understood by nobody, for without the internal sense no one can know what 'the prophecy of the beasts of the south' is, or what 'the lion and the tiger', or what 'the viper and the flying fiery-serpent', or what is meant by the words that 'those beasts were to bear their riches on the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures on the humps of camels', or why the assertion immediately follows that 'the Egyptians will help in vain and to no advantage'. 'Ass' is used with a like meaning in Israel's prophecy concerning Issachar, in Moses,

Issachar is a bony ass lying down between burdens. Genesis 49:14.

[3] In Zechariah,

This will be the plague with which Jehovah will smite all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem. It will be a plague of the horse, the mule, the camel, and the ass, and every beast. Zechariah 14:12, 15.

'The horse, the mule, the camel, and the ass' means things of the understanding residing in man which will suffer from the plague. This is clear from every single detail before and after those verses, for the subject there is the plagues which are to precede the Last Judgement or. Close of the Age and to which John makes much reference in Revelation, as do the rest of the Prophets in various places. Those who are going to wage war at that time against Jerusalem, that is, against the Lord's spiritual Church and its truths, are meant by those animals. It will be the things of the understanding that will suffer from such plagues

[4] In Isaiah,

Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send forth the foot of the ox and the ass. Isaiah 32:20.

'Sowing beside all waters' stands for those who allow themselves to be taught spiritual things - 'waters' meaning spiritual things and so things that constitute an understanding of truth, see 680, 739, 2702. 'Who send forth the foot of the ox and the ass' stands for natural things that are to be of service, 'ox' meaning the natural as regards good, 2180, 2566, 'ass' the natural as regards truth.

[5] In Moses,

Binding his young ass to the vine and the foal ¹ of his she-ass to the choice vine. He washes his vesture in wine and his cloak in the blood of grapes. Genesis 49:11.

This is the prophecy of Jacob, by then Israel, concerning the Lord. 'The vine' and 'the choice vine' stand for the spiritual Church, external and internal, 1069. 'Young ass' stands for natural truth, 'the foal of a she-ass' for rational truth. The reason 'the foal of a she-ass' means rational truth is that 'a she ass' means the affection for natural truth, 1486, while her foal means rational truth, see 1895, 1896, 1902, 1910.

[6] In former times a judge used to ride on a she-ass and his sons on young asses, the reason being that judges represented the goods of the Church and their sons truths derived from those goods. A king however used to ride on a she-mule and his sons on mules, the reason being that kings and their sons represented the truths of the Church, see 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069. The fact that a judge rode on a she-ass is clear in the Book of Judges,

My heart goes out to the law-givers of Israel offering themselves willingly among the people. Bless Jehovah, you who ride on white she-asses, you who sit on Middin. ² Judges 5:9-10.

The fact that judges' sons rode on young asses,

Jair the judge over Israel had thirty sons who rode on thirty young asses. Judges 10:3-4.

And elsewhere in the same book,

Abdon the judge of Israel had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy young asses. Judges 12:14.

David said to them, Take with you the servants of your lord and cause Solomon my son to ride on the she-mule which is mine. And they caused Solomon to ride on King David's she-mule. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed him king in Gihon. 1 Kings 1:33, 38, 44-45.

The fact that the king's sons rode on mules,

All King David's sons arose, and they rode each on his mule and fled because of Absalom. 2 Samuel 13:29.

[7] From all this it is evident that riding on a she-ass indicated the judge, and riding on a she-mule the king; riding on a young ass indicated the judge's sons, and doing so on a mule the king's sons. They indicated these personages because, as has been stated, 'a she-ass' represented and meant the affection for natural good and truth, 'a she-mule' the affection for rational truth, 'an ass or young ass' natural truth itself, and 'a mule' as well as 'the foal of a she-ass' rational truth. This shows what is meant by the prophetical words that refer to the Lord, in Zechariah,

Exult, O daughter of Zion! Rejoice, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King will come to you. He is just and having salvation, humble and riding on an ass, and on a young ass, the foal of she-asses. His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. Zechariah 9:9-10.

The fact that the Lord wished to ride on these when He was about to enter Jerusalem is well known from the Gospels. The event is referred to in Matthew as follows,

Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a she-ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, meek seated on a she-ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. And they brought the she-ass and the colt and laid their garments on them and set Him on them. Matthew 21:2, 4-5, 7.

[8] 'Riding on an ass' served to indicate that the natural was subordinate, and 'riding on a colt, the foal of a she-ass' that the rational was so; for 'the foal of a she-ass' is similar in meaning to 'a mule', as has been shown above, where Genesis 49:11 is referred to. ³ From this - the spiritual meaning of these animals - and because it was the right of the supreme judge and of the king to ride on them, and at the same time so that He might fulfil the representatives of the Church, the Lord was pleased to ride in this way. His doing so is described in John as follows,

The next day a great crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! Jesus found a young ass and sat on it, as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a she-ass's colt! These things however His disciples had not understood at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of Him, and that they had done these things for Him. John 12:12-16; Mark 11:1-12; Luke 19:28-41.

[9] From an this it may now be clear that every single thing in the Church of that period was representative of the Lord, and consequently of the celestial and spiritual things that are in His kingdom; even the she-ass and the colt of the she-ass were so, which represented the natural man as regards good and truth. The reason for the representation was that the natural man ought to serve the rational, and the rational to serve the spiritual; but the spiritual ought to serve the celestial, and the celestial to serve the Lord. This is the order in which one is subordinated to another.

[10] Because 'an ox and an ass' meant the natural man as regards good and truth many laws were therefore laid down in which oxen and asses are mentioned. At first glance these laws do not seem to be worthy of mention in the Divine Word, but when they are interpreted as to their internal sense, that which is spiritual and of great importance is seen within these laws, such as the following laws in Moses,

If anyone opens a pit, or if anyone digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or an ass falls into it, the owner of the pit shall recompense its owner with silver, and the dead animal shall be his. Exodus 21:33-34.

If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going astray you shall certainly lead it back to him. If you see the ass of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you are disinclined to remove it, you shall certainly help to remove it from it. Exodus 23:4-5; Deuteronomy 22:1, 3.

You shall not see your brother's ass or ox falling down in the road and hide yourself from them; you shall certainly help to lift them. Deuteronomy 22:4.

You shall not plough with an ox and an ass together. You shall not wear mingled material made of wool and linen together. Deuteronomy 22:10-11.

Six days you shall do your works, and on the seventh day you shall rest, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and the son of your woman servant, and the settler. Exodus 23:12.

Here 'ox and ass' in the spiritual sense means nothing other than natural good and truth.

Footnotes: