Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5134

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5134. And bring me out of this house. That this signifies deliverance from evils, is evident from the signification of "bringing out," as being deliverance; and from the signification of a "house," as being good (see n. 710, 1708, 2048, 2233, 3128, 3652, 3720, 4982); and therefore in the opposite sense, evil. Hence it is plain that deliverance from evils is signified by the words, "bring me out of this house," and this also follows in its order from the things which precede. When faith is received in the exterior natural (which is here treated of, see n. 5130), correspondence is effected (n. 5131), and charity is received (n. 5132), and thus communication is effected with the interior natural (n. 5133), which is then delivered from the evils whereby the celestial represented by Joseph (n. 5086, 5087, 5106) was alienated; which alienation is signified by his being "carried off by theft," as presently follows. Moreover, when the natural is being regenerated by means of charity and faith, it is delivered from evils; for evils are then separated, and are cast out from the center where they were before, to the circumferences, whither the light of truth from good does not reach. In this way are evils separated in man, and yet are retained, for they cannot be entirely destroyed. But with the Lord, who made the natural in Himself Divine, evils and falsities were utterly cast out and destroyed; for the Divine can have nothing in common with evils and falsities, nor be terminated in them, as is the case with man; for the Divine is the very being of good and of truth, which is infinitely removed from what is evil and false.


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