1162. The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her.- That this signifies all those who gained honours and wealth by that religion, and thereby the good things of wealth and position, which are things auspicious and magnificent, is evident from the signification of merchants, who denote those who procure for themselves those things that are signified by riches in the Word, for it is said, The merchants of these things (see also above, n. 1138); and from the signification of being made rich, as denoting to acquire those things, and to make gain by them. The good things of position and wealth are here meant, which are signified by things fat and splendid, and these are things pleasurable and magnificent of an external nature separated from internal things, thus the goods of the world separated from the goods of heaven. For those who belong to Babylon do not know what internal pleasures are, because they do not read the Word, and look to the Lord, but they only know what external pleasures are, and in these things they find their sole delight; internal pleasures they are not capable of receiving.
Similar things are signified by the answers of those who were invited to the great supper, one of whom said that he had bought a field, to which he must go, another that he had bought a yoke of oxen, which he must prove, and a third that he had married a wife (Luke xiv. 18-20). The goods of the world are meant by all these things, or external goods without internal goods. Similar things are also signified by the Lord's words in Matthew, that they ate and drank, married and gave in marriage, and knew not until the flood came, and carried them all away (xxiv. 38, 39). These things were spoken by the Lord concerning a last judgment. Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, signify things similar to those meant here by fat and splendid, namely, external joys and delights, which are called pleasures of the body and the world, and not of the soul and heaven.
From these things it is evident, that by all the merchandise enumerated in this chapter are meant external goods and pleasures, and which are not at the same time internal, and that, consequently, by the merchants who are made rich by these things, are meant those who are in them.
[2] Continuation.- The eighth law of the Divine Providence is, That the Lord is continually withdrawing man from evils, so far as man from freedom is willing to be withdrawn. That so far as he can he withdrawn from evils, so far the Lord leads him to good, thus to heaven; but so far as he cannot be withdrawn from evils, so far the Lord cannot lead him to good, thus to heaven. For so far as he is withdrawn from evils, so far he does good from the Lord, which in itself is good; but so far as he is not withdrawn from evils, so far he does good from himself, which has evil in itself. Man, in regard to his speech and the actions of his body, is in the natural world, but in regard to the thoughts of his understanding and the affections of his will he is in the spiritual world. By the spiritual world are meant both heaven and hell, each being divided in the most perfect order into numberless societies, according to all the varieties of affections and the thoughts originating in them. In the midst of these societies is man, so bound to them that he has no power at all to think or will but in connection with them; a connection so close that if he were severed from them, or they from him, he would fall down dead, his life remaining only in that inmost, by which he is a man and not a beast, and by which he lives for ever. A man does not know that as to his life, he is in such inseparable union, and the reason why he does not know this is, that he does not converse with spirits, so long has he been in ignorance of this state. But, that it may not be for ever concealed from him, behold it is revealed. It is necessary to state this before this law of the Divine Providence can be understood.
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