2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. -Genesis 2:1-3 King James Version (KJV)
Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10], at sacred-texts.com
...CHAPTER 2 1. And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the army of them. 2. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. 3. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because that in it He rested from all His work which God in making created. 4. These are the nativities of the heavens and of the earth when He created them, in the day in which Jehovah God made the earth and the heavens. 5. And there was no shrub of the field as yet in the earth, and there was no herb of the field as yet growing, because Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. And there was no man to till the ground. 6. And He made a mist to ascend from the earth, and watered all the faces of the ground. 7. And Jehovah God formed man, dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul. 8. And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree desirable to behold, and good for food; the tree of lives also, in the midst of the garden; and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and was into four heads. 11. The name of the first is Pishon; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12. And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13. And the name of the second river is Gihon; the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush. 14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth eastward toward Assyria; and the fourth river is Euphrates. 15. And Jehovah God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden, to till it and take care of it. 16. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden eating thou mayest eat. 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.
THE CONTENTS. When from being dead a man has become spiritual, then from spiritual he becomes celestial, as is now treated of (verse 1)...
Afterwards his intelligence is described by the garden in Eden, in the east; in which the trees pleasant to the sight are perceptions of truth, and the trees good for food are perceptions of good. Love is meant by the tree of lives, faith by the tree of knowledge [science.] (verses 8-9).
Wisdom is meant by the river in the garden. From thence were four rivers, the first of which is good and truth; the second is the knowledge of all things of good and truth, or of love and faith. These are of the internal man. The third is reason, and the fourth is memory-knowledge [science], which are of the external man. All are from wisdom, and this is from love and faith in the Lord (verses 10-14).
The celestial man is such a garden. But as the garden is the Lord's, it is permitted this man to enjoy all these things, and yet not to possess them as his own (verse 15).
He is also permitted to acquire a knowledge of what is good and true by means of every perception from the Lord, but he must not do so from himself and the world, nor search into the mysteries of faith by means of the things of sense and of memory-knowledge [science]; which would cause the death of his celestial nature (verses 16, 17).
THE INTERNAL SENSE. This chapter treats of the celestial man, as the preceding one did of the spiritual... But as it is unknown at this day what the celestial man is, and scarcely what the spiritual man is, or a dead man, it is permitted me briefly to state the nature of each, that the difference may be known. First, then, a dead man acknowledges nothing to be true and good but what belongs to the body and the world, and this he adores. A spiritual man acknowledges spiritual and celestial truth and good; but he does so from a principle of faith, which is likewise the ground of his actions, and not so much from love. A celestial man believes and perceives spiritual and celestial truth and good, acknowledging no other faith than that which is from love, from which also he acts. [2] Secondly: The ends which influence a dead man regard only corporeal and worldly life, nor does he know what eternal life is, or what the Lord is; or should he know, he does not believe. The ends which influence a spiritual man regard eternal life, and thereby the Lord. The ends which influence a celestial man regard the Lord, and thereby His kingdom and eternal life. [3] Thirdly: A dead man, when in combat almost always yields, and when not in combat, evils and falsities have dominion over him, and he is a slave. His bonds are external, such as the fear of the law, of the loss of life, of wealth, of gain, and of the reputation which he values for their sake. The spiritual man is in combat, but is always victorious; the bonds by which he is restrained are internal, and are called the bonds of conscience. The celestial man is not in combat, and when assaulted by evils and falsities, he despises them, and is therefore called a conqueror. He is apparently restrained by no bonds, but is free. His bonds, which are not apparent, are perceptions of good and truth.
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