1077. Are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, signifies which are falsities and evils interior and exterior. This is evident from the signification of "peoples," as being those who are in truths, and in the contrary sense those who are in falsities (see n. 175, 331, 625); also from the signification of "multitudes," as being also those who are in truths or in falsities, for "multitudes" mean people of a lower kind; also from the signification of "nations," as being those who are in goods, and in the contrary sense those who are in evils (see n. 175, 331; 452; 455; 625); also from the signification of "tongues," as being those who are in various confessions and perceptions of good (see n. 455, 625, 657, 990). "Peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues," signify falsities and evils interior and exterior, because the truly spiritual sense comprehends things abstracted from persons; and thus when you take away from "peoples," who are those who are in truths or falsities, all idea of person, truths or falsities are signified instead. The same is true of "multitudes, nations, and tongues." Falsities and evils are signified, because the "earth" signifies the church, and therefore "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues," signify the things of which the church consists, which are either truths and goods or falsities and evils; and as every church is internal and external, because its truths and goods or falsities and evils are interior and exterior, therefore these are the things that are signified by these words. This follows also from the signification of the "waters upon which the harlot sitteth," which it is here said are "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues," as meaning the holy things of the church that have been profaned (see above, n. 1033), and the holy things of the church which have been profaned are falsities and evils, for they are the truths of the Word falsified and its goods adulterated.
(Continuation respecting the Word)
[2] The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this, that in every particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which testifies that the Word is the Divine proceeding from the Lord, which is the Divine good and the Divine truth reciprocally united; and also testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven and the church, which also is reciprocal. There is a marriage of good and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal. This reciprocal love the Lord teaches in John:
He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him (John 6:56). In the same:
In that day ye shall know, that ye are in Me and I in you. He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and I will love him (John 14:20-21). The reciprocal is that they are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, also that whoever loves the Lord, the Lord also will love him. "To have His commandments" is to be in truths, and "to do them" is to be in good. [3] The reciprocal is also described by the Lord in His union with the Father, in these words:
Philip, How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? Believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me (John 14:9-11). From this reciprocal union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord proceeds the reciprocal union of the Divine good and the Divine truth; and this proceeds from the Lord's Divine love; and the same is true of the Lord's reciprocal union with heaven and the church, and in general the reciprocal union of good and truth with an angel of heaven and with a man of the church. And as good is of charity and truth is of faith, and as charity and faith make the church, it follows that the church is in a man when there is a reciprocal union of charity and faith in him. Again, as good is of the will and truth is of the understanding, and as the will and understanding make man, it follows that man is man according to the union of the will and all things belonging to it with the understanding and all things belonging to it, and this reciprocally. This union is what is called marriage, which from creation is in every particular of heaven and in every particular of the world; and from this is the production and the generation of all things. That in every particular of the Word there is such a marriage that good loves truth and truth loves good, thus mutually and in turn, the spiritual sense of the Word reveals; and it is from this marriage that good and truth are one and not two, and are one when good is of truth and truth is of good.
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