Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. I (1750)

Because the lights represented and signified love and faith in the Lord, it was commanded in the Jewish Church that the "perpetual light" Referring to the Menorah in the Tabernacle. should be kept lit from evening to morning. For whatever was commanded to that Church was a representation of the Lord. Regarding this light: "Command the sons of Israel that they take oil for the light, to cause the lamp to ascend continually. In the Tent of Meeting outside the Veil, which is over the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall arrange it from evening until morning before Jehovah" (Exodus 27:20–21). That these signify love and faith, which the Lord ignites and causes to shine in the internal man, and through the internal man into the external, will be shown in those places by the Divine mercy of the Lord.

32. Love and faith are called first "great lights"; then love is the "great light," and faith the "lesser light." It is said of love that it will rule in the day, and of faith that it will rule in the night. Because these are arcana Arcana: hidden, spiritual secrets, and are especially concealed at this end of the ages, it is permitted, by the Lord's Divine mercy, to open them. The reason they are especially concealed at this end of the ages is that the consummation of the age Consummation of the age: the end of a church or spiritual dispensation is now, and there is almost no love, and consequently no faith. As the Lord Himself predicted in the Gospels: "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken" (Matthew 24:29). By "the sun" here is understood love, which is darkened; by "the moon," faith, which does not give light; by "the stars," the knowledges of faith, which fall from heaven—these are the powers and authorities of the heavens. The Most Ancient Church acknowledged no other faith than love itself. The celestial angels also do not know what faith is, except that which is of love. The entire heaven is of love, for in the heavens there is no life other than the life of love. From this comes all happiness, which is so great that a portion of it cannot be described, nor can any human idea ever grasp it. Those who are in love love the Lord from the heart, but they know, say, and perceive that all love—and thus all life, which belongs solely to love—and consequently all happiness, comes uniquely from the Lord, and that they have not a whit of love, life, or happiness of their own. That the Lord is the One from whom all love comes was also represented by the great light or sun when He was transfigured: "His face shone as the sun, and His garments were as the light" (Matthew 17:2). Intimates are signified by the face, and those things that proceed from the intimates by the garments. Thus, His Divine is signified by the sun or love, and His Human by the light, or wisdom from love.

33. It can be known to everyone that there is no life anywhere without some love, and that there is no joy anywhere except that which flows from love. But such as the love is, such is the life and such the joy. If you were to remove loves, or—which is the same thing—desires, for these are of love, thought would cease immediately, and you would be like a dead thing; this has been shown to me vividly. The loves of self and of the world provide a kind of resemblance of life and joy, but because they are completely contrary to true love—which is to love the Lord above all things and one's neighbor as oneself—it is evident that they are not loves, but hatreds. For the more one loves himself and the world, the more he hates his neighbor, and thus the Lord. Therefore, true love is love toward the Lord, and true life...