412. Little children are instructed chiefly through representations accommodated and suited to their natures, of such beauty and at the same time so full of interior wisdom as can scarcely be believed in the world. I can cite two of these representations here, from which conclusions may be drawn in regard to the rest.
Little children once represented the Lord rising from the tomb, and together with it the union of His Humanity with the Divine. They presented first an idea of the tomb, but not at the same time an idea of the Lord, except so remotely that one scarcely perceived that it was the Lord, and then only as though at a distance, the reason being that in the idea of a tomb there is something funereal, which they thus removed. Afterwards they carefully let into the tomb some sort of atmosphere, yet having the appearance of a thin watery mist, by which they symbolized, also by an appropriate remoteness, the spiritual life in baptism.
Later I saw represented by them the Lord's going down to those who were bound, and His ascent with the bound into heaven. 1 And, in typically childlike fashion, they let down delicate and fine little threads, almost invisible, by which to raise the Lord in His ascent, governed always by a holy fear lest anything in the representation touch on any point in which there was not something heavenly.
I could mention other representations besides, by which, as by games compatible with their infantile minds, little children are brought simultaneously into concepts of truth and affections for good.
Little children are led by the Lord to these and similar activities by the innocence passing through the third heaven, and spiritual elements are thus insinuated into their affections and consequent tender thoughts, in such a way that the little children do not know but that they do and think these things on their own, by which their understanding begins.
Imibhalo yaphansi:
1. This reflects, apparently, the belief held by many Christians that after His death, Christ descended in spirit to a state or place in the nether world to rescue the souls of pre-Christian people who were waiting to be redeemed. It is based on such Biblical passages as 1 Peter 3:18-20 and Isaiah 42:7, among others. The descent of Christ into hell appears as an article of belief in creeds dating from the 4th century.
