"whose head was of gold, the chest and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet partly of iron and partly of clay" (Dan. ii, 32, 33).

The state of the church from its first time to its last as to good and truth, is here signified; its last time was when the Lord came into the world.

When it is known that gold signifies celestial good, silver spiritual good, brass natural good, and iron natural truth, many arcana in the Word where those metals are mentioned can be known. For example, what is signified by these words in Isaiah:

"For brass I will bring gold, for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron; I will also make thy government peace, and thine exactors justice" (lx. 17).

[3] But as the signification of brass is what is here treated of, as being natural good, it is necessary only to adduce a few passages where brass is mentioned and signifies that good. Thus in Moses:

"Asher acceptable to his brethren, and dipping his foot in oil; iron and brass thy shoe, and as thy day, thy fame" (Deut. xxxiii. 24, 25).

Asher, as one of the tribes, signifies the happiness of life, and the delight of the affections (see Arcana Coelestia, n. 3938, 3939, 6408); to dip the foot in oil signifies natural delight (that oil denotes delight, see n. 9954, and that the foot denotes the Natural, see above, n. 69); the shoe being iron and brass signifies the lowest Natural derived from truth and good, shoe denoting the lowest Natural (see n. 1748, 1860, 6844); iron is its truth, and brass its good, as above. Again,

"Jehovah thy God will bring thee into a rich land; a land out of whose stones thou shalt cut iron, and out of whose mountains brass" (Deut. viii. 7, 9).

And in Jeremiah:

"I will give thee unto this people for a fortified wall of brass, that they may fight against thee, and not prevail over thee" (xv. 20).

And in Ezekiel:

"Javan, Tubal, and Mesech, they were thy merchants; with the soul of man and vessels of brass they gave thy merchandise" (xxvii. 13).

In this chapter the merchandises of Tyre are treated of, by which are signified the knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth. By the names Javan, Tubal, and Mesech, are signified those things that pertain to good and truth, to which the knowledges relate: the soul of man denotes the truth of life: vessels of brass denote scientifics of natural good. [4] (What is signified by Tyre, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia, n. 1201; what by merchandises, n. 2967, 4453; what by Tubal and Mesech, n. 1151; what by Javan, n. 1152, 1153, 1155; what by the soul of man, n. 2930, 9050, 9281; what by vessels, n. 3068, 3079, 3316, 3318.) Again, in the same prophet:

The feet of the cherubs "shone like the appearance of polished brass" (i. 7).

(What the cherubs and the feet signify, may be seen above, n. 69.) And in the same prophet:

I saw, and, "lo, a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, and a thread of flax in his hands; he stood in the gate" (xl. 3).

Because the angel here mentioned measured the wall and the gates of the house of God, which signify the externals of the church, his appearance was seen to be the appearance of brass.

He who knows that brass signifies the external of the church, which in itself is natural, may in some measure understand why the altar of burnt-offering was overlaid with brass, and the gate round it was of brass, and the vessels of brass (Exod. xxvii. 1-4), also why the great vessel, which was called the sea, with the twelve, oxen under it, and the ten lavers with the bases, and also all the vessels of the tabernacle for the house of God, were made by Solomon of polished brass (1 Kings vii. 43-47). He who knows what brass signifies, can also enter into the arcanum why a serpent of brass was commanded to be set up for the people to look at, concerning which it is thus written in Moses:

"Jehovah sent serpents among the people, which bit the people. And he said unto Moses, Make thee a serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he hath looked upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that when a serpent had bitten any man, and he looked upon the serpent of brass, he lived" (Numb. xxi. 6, 8, 9).

That the Lord was signified by that serpent, He himself teaches in John:

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (iii. 14, 15).

By the serpent is signified the ultimate of life in man, which is called the external Sensual, which is natural. To represent this ultimate, which in the Lord was Divine, among the sons of Israel, with whom all things were representative, a serpent of brass was made; and the signification was, that, if they looked to the Divine Human of the Lord, they would revive, that is, if they believed in Him, they should have eternal life, as the Lord himself also teaches. (That to see in the spiritual sense is to believe, may be seen above, n. 37, 68; and that a serpent denotes the external Sensual, which is the ultimate of the life of man, see Arcana Coelestia, n. 195-197, 6398, 6949, 10,313.) That brass and iron in the Word also signify what is hard, as in Isaiah xlviii. 4; Dan. vii. 19; and other places, will be seen in the following pages.