Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons) n. 231

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231. [verse 3] 'And the One sitting looked like a stone of jasper and sardius' signifies the appearing of the Lord's Divine Wisdom and Divine Love in ultimates. A 'stone' in the Word signifies truths in ultimates, and a 'precious stone' truth transparent from good (n. 915). Of the rest of the colours in the spiritual world two are fundamental, the colour white and the colour red. The colour white originates out of the light of the Sun in heaven, thus out of the spiritual light that is gleaming white; and the colour red originates out of the fire of the Sun there, thus out of the celestial light that is flaming. Spiritual angels, because they are in truths of wisdom derived from the Lord, are in the gleaming white light, and are therefore clothed in white; and celestial angels, because they are in goods of love from the Lord, are in the flaming light, and are therefore clothed in red. Consequently these two colours are also in the precious stones in heaven, where they are very plentiful. This is why precious stones in the Word signify such things as are either of the truth of wisdom, or the good of love; and a 'jasper', because it gleams white, signifies the things that are of the truth of wisdom, while a 'sardius', because it glows red, signifies the things that are of the good of love. These stones signify the appearing of Divine Wisdom and Divine Love in ultimates, because all the precious stones in heaven originate out of the ultimates of the Word, and are transparent out of the spiritual sense of the ultimates there. That this is the case may be seen in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (n. 44, 45). The ultimates of the Word are the truths and goods of its sense of the letter. It can hardly be believed by anyone in our world that this is the origin of the precious stones in heaven, because he does not know that all the things that come into existence in the spiritual world are correspondences, and that all the things that come into existence in the natural world originate therefrom. It has been granted me to know as a result of speaking with angels, and to see also with my eyes, that this is the origin of the precious stones in heaven, but the formation of them is from the Only Lord. Black colours, however, originate out of hell. There are two of these also. One of them is in opposition to white-this blackness being with those who have falsified the truths of the Word; and the other is in opposition to red-this blackness being with those who have adulterated the goods of the Word. The latter blackness is diabolical, but the former is satanic. What 'jasper' and 'sardius' signify may be seen [in] more [detail] in the exposition of chap. xxi ii, 18-20.


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