9233. That I might know what was their quality, some were let down from on high where they thundered, and what is wonderful, one carried another on the back, and thus the two approached me; they appeared of a countenance not unhandsome, but longer than the countenances of other spirits; their stature was like the stature of a boy of seven years old, but their bodies were more robust; thus they were dwarfs [homunciones]. 1 was told by the angels that they were from the Moon.

9234. He who was carried by the other, on being let down, came to me, applying himself to the left side beneath the elbow, and thence discoursed, saying, that when they utter their voice, they so thunder, and that thereby they terrify the spirits who are disposed to do them evil, and put some to flight, and that thus they go safe whithersoever they will. That I might know of a certainty, that such was their noise, he retired from me to some others, but not absolutely out of sight, and in like manner thundered. And they further showed, that their voice, emitted from the abdomen like an eructation, thus thundered.

9235. It was perceivable that the ground of this [phenomenon] was this, that the inhabitants of the moon did not speak from the lungs, like the inhabitants of other earths, but from the abdomen, and thus from some air there collected, by reason that the moon is not encompassed with an atmosphere similar to that of the other earths.

9236. I have been instructed, that the inhabitants of the Moon in the GRAND MAN have reference to the ensiform or xiphoid cartilage, to which the ribs are annexed in front, and from which descends the fascia alba, which is a fulcrum for the muscles of the abdomen.

9237. That there are inhabitants even in the Moon, is known to spirits and angels, for they often discourse with them; in like manner that there are inhabitants in the moons or satellites which revolve about Jupiter and Saturn. They who have not seen and discoursed with spirits from those moons, still entertain no doubt but that they are inhabited by men, because they are earths alike with the planets, and wheresoever an earth is, there are men-inhabitants; for man is the end for which every earth was created, and nothing was made by the Great Creator without an end. That the end of creation is the human race, as a supply for heaven, may be manifest to every one who thinks from reason. The angels also say, that an earth without the kuman race cannot subsist, because the Divine [being or principle] regards all things in an earth for the sake of man.

9238. At the close of the following chapter will be shown, why the Lord was willing to be born on our earth, and not on another.

EXODUS.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-THIRD.

THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY AND FAITH.

9239. MENTION is made of believing in God, and of believing those things which are from God. To believe in God is the faith which is saving; but to believe those things which are from God, is a faith which without the former is not saving; for to believe in God is to know and to do; but to believe those things which are from God, is to know and yet not to do. They who are truly Christians, both know and do, thus believe in God; but they who are not truly Christians, know and do not; these latter however are called by the Lord foolish, but the former prudent, Matt. vii. 24, 26.

9240. The learned within the church call the above faith, which is saving, trust and confidence, which is, that God the Father sent His Son, to reconcile mankind to Himself, and thereby to save those who have that faith.

9241. But in regard to the trust and confidence, which is called faith itself, the case is this. They who are in the love of self and of the world, that is, who are in evils and the falses thence derived, cannot have that faith, for their heart is not to God, but to themselves and to the world; whereas they who are in charity towards the neighbor, and in love to the Lord, they can have such faith, for their heart is to the Lord. This also the Lord teaches in John, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, believing in His name; who are born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," i. 12, 13; they who are born of bloods, of the will of the flesh, and of the will of man, are they who are principled in what is evil and false derived from the loves of self and of the world; and they who are born of God, are they who are in the good of charity and of faith from the Lord, see n. 5826.

9242. Confidence, which in an eminent sense is called faith, appears as spiritual confidence even with the evil, when life is endangered, and when they are sick; but they, inasmuch as they then think concerning the state of their life after death, either from the fear of hell, or from self-love in regard to heaven, have not the confidence of faith; for what is of fear, this is not from the heart, and what is from self-love, this is from an evil heart; wherefore such persons, when they return to security of life, or when they recover from disease, return

to their former life, which was a life of no confidence, or a life of no faith. From these considerations it is evident, that faith, which is called confidence, cannot have place except with those who are in charity towards the neighbor, and in love to the Lord. 9243. The faith which is meant by believing those things which are from God, that is, the truths which are from the Word, in like manner cannot have place with those who are in evils derived from self-love, or the love of the world; for the love of self and of the world either rejects, or extinguishes, or perverts, the truths of faith, n. 7491, 7492. Hence it is further evident, that neither can such persons have the confidence of faith; for he who does not believe the truths which are from God, cannot believe in God, because to believe in God is to do so by virtue of the truths which are from God.

9244. All who are in heavenly love have confidence that they are saved by the Lord, for they believe that the Lord came into the world, to give eternal life to those who believe and live according to the precepts which He taught, and that these He regenerates, and thereby renders them meet for heaven; and that He does this Himself alone without the aid of man, out of mercy. This is meant by believing in the Lord.

pure

9245. That they alone are in faith, who live according to the precepts of faith, the Lord teaches in John, "Light is come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their works were evil; every one who doeth evils, hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved: but he who doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his works may be manifested, that they are wrought in God," iii. 19, 20, 21; to come to the light is to faith in the Lord, thus to faith from the Lord. In like manner in Luke, "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? every one that cometh to Me, and heareth My discourses, and doeth them, is like unto a man that built a house, who set the foundation on a rock: but he who heareth and doeth not, is like unto a man building a house upon ground without a foundation, vi. 46 to the end; they who do the Lord's discourses or words, are they who love the neighbor and love the Lord, for whosoever loves, he does; John xiv. 20, 21, 23, 24; chap. xv. 9 to 17.

CHAPTER XXIII.

1. THOU shalt not bring a report of vanity: put not thine hand with the wicked to be a witness of violence.

2. Thou shalt not be after many to evils; and thou shalt not answer upon a dispute to decline after many to pervert [it].

3. And a poor man thou shalt not revere in his dispute. 4. When thou meetest the ox of thine adversary, or his ass, going astray, bringing back thou shalt bring it back to him.

5. When thou seest the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest cease from removing [it] for him, removing thou shalt remove [it] with him.

6. Thou shalt not turn aside the judgment of thy needy one in his dispute.

7. From the word of a lie thou shalt set thyself far off; and slay not the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the wicked.

8. And a gift thou shalt not receive, because a gift blindeth those that have their eyes open, and perverts the words of the just.

9. And a sojourner thou shalt not oppress; and ye know the soul of a sojourner, because ye have been sojourners in the land of Egypt.

10. And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather together the produce thereof.

11. And in the seventh thou shalt let it rest and be still, and the needy of thy people shall eat together, and the residue thereof the wild beast of the field shall eat; so shalt thou do to thy vineyard, to thine olive-yard.

12. Six days shalt thou do thy works, and on the seventh day thou shalt cease, to the intent that thine ox may rest, and thine ass, and the son of thine handmaid may respire, and the sojourner.

13. And all that I have said to you ye shall keep and the name of other gods ye shall not mention, and it shall not be heard upon thy mouth.

14. Three times thou shalt keep a feast to Me in the year. 15. The feast of unleavened bread thou shalt keep; seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded thee, to the stated time of the month Abib, because in it thou camest forth out of Egypt: and My faces shall not be seen empty.

16. And the feast of harvest, of the first-fruits of thy works, which thou hast sown in the field; and the feast of gathering together in the going out of the year, in thy gathering together thy works out of the field.

shall year

17. Three times in the to the faces of the LORD JEHovah.

every

male of thine be seen

18. Thou shalt not sacrifice upon what is leavened the blood of My sacrifice: and the fat of My feast shall not pass the night even to the morning.

19. The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of JEHOVAH thy GOD: thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of its mother.

20. Behold I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place, which I have prepared. 21. Take heed of his face, and hear his voice, lest thou embitter him, because he will not bear your prevarication, because My name is in the midst of him.

22. Because if hearing thou shalt hear his voice, and shalt do all that I speak, I will act as an adversary to thine adver saries, and will act as an enemy to thine enemies.

23. When mine angel shall go before thee, and shall have brought thee to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and Perrizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I shall cut him off;

24. Thou shalt not bow thyself to their gods, and shalt not serve them, and shalt not do according to their works, because destroying thou shalt destroy them, and breaking in pieces thou shalt break in pieces their statutes.

25. And ye shall serve JEHOVAH your God, and he will bless thy bread and thy waters, and I will remove disease from the midst of thee.

26. There shall not be what is abortive and barren in thy land; the number of thy days I will fill.

27. My terror I will send before thee, and will disturb all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will give all thine adversaries to thee, the neck.

28. And I will send the hornet before thee, and he will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee.

29. I will not drive him out from before thee in one year, lest peradventure the land be desolate, and the wild beast of the field be multiplied upon thee.

30. [By] little [and] little I will drive him out from before thee, until thou be fruitful, and inherit the land.

31. And I will set thy border from the sea Sulph, and even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness even to the river; because I will give into thine hand the inhabitants of the land, and I will drive them out from before thee.

32. Thou shalt not strike a covenant with them and their gods.

33. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest peradventure they cause thee to sin to Me, when thou shalt serve their gods, be cause it will be to thee for a snare.

R:

THE CONTENTS.

9246. THE subject treated of in this chapter, in the internal sense, is concerning the avoiding falses of doctrine and evils of