6023. 'He brought with him to Egypt' means that they were gathered into the Church's factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming (or going down) into Egypt' as introducing and gathering truths into the Church's factual knowledge, dealt with above in 6004, 6018; and the same thing is meant by 'bringing with him to Egypt', see 5373, 6004. They are introduced and gathered into it when factual knowledge is ruled by truths, and it is ruled by truths when truth is acknowledged because it is what the Lord has said in the Word; after that, factual knowledge which endorses it can be accepted, and that which refutes it can be banished. In this way truth becomes master of the facts that endorse it, while those that do not are cast aside. When this is the situation a person is not carried away into falsities when he bases his thought on factual knowledge, as happens when truths are not contained in that knowledge. For in themselves facts are not truths; they are such only by virtue of the truths they hold within them. And according to the nature of the truths they hold within them, so is the nature of the truth in general which presents itself as factual knowledge. For factual knowledge is merely a vessel, 1469, 1496, which can receive either truths or falsities, and in vastly differing ways.
[2] Take for example the Church's knowledge that the neighbour is every person. A vast quantity of truths can be introduced and gathered into this known fact, such as the truth that every person is indeed the neighbour, but that any one individual is so in a different way from another; also that in a supreme sense the neighbour is someone who is governed by good, but again in a different way from others, according to the essential nature of that good. Then there is the truth that neighbourship has its origin in the Lord Himself, so that the nearer people are to Him, that is, the more they are governed by good, the more they are the neighbour; and the further away they are from Him, the less they are the neighbour. Besides these there is the truth that a community is the neighbour more than an individual person, and one's country as a whole more than a community, though one's country comes before other kingdoms; and that the Church is more the neighbour than one's country, and the Lord's kingdom even more than that. Then there is the further truth that the neighbour is loved when a person discharges his duties correctly for the good of other people, or of his country, or of the Church, and so on. From this one can see how numerous are the truths that can be gathered into that one fact known to the Church. Indeed they are so numerous that it is difficult to divide them into separate categories, assigning specific truths to each category in such a way that one can distinguish and recognize it. This was something that people in the Ancient Churches were keen to do.
[3] The same known fact can also be filled with a vast quantity of falsities, as may also be recognized when people turn those truths upside down by saying that everyone is neighbour to himself, and that each person should trace the origin of the neighbour back to himself; and by saying that therefore he is especially your neighbour who shows you the greatest favour, identifies himself with you, and thereby presents himself in you as a reflection of you. Indeed people say that your country is not your neighbour either, apart from what you can get out of it for yourself. And there are countless other truths turned upside down by them besides these. Yet the known fact is still the same, which is that every person is the neighbour; but it is filled by one person with truths, by another with falsities. The same is so with all other factual knowledge.
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