Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. I (1750)

44. Note: The previous text discusses the "understanding" and the "will." Understanding is hearing the Word, and the will is doing it. To hear the Word and not do it is to say that one believes, yet live otherwise; such a person separates the two and distracts the mind, and is called a "foolish" man by the Lord: "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will compare to a prudent man who built his house upon a rock; but everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not do them, I will compare to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand," Matthew 7:24, 26. Those things which belong to the understanding are signified, as shown, by the reptiles that the waters bring forth, and by the bird above the earth and upon the face of the expanse. Those which belong to the will are signified here by the living soul that the earth produces, and by the beast and the creeping thing, as well as the wild beast of the earth.

45. Those who lived in the most ancient times signified those things belonging to the understanding and those belonging to the will in this way; hence, among the prophets, and consistently in the Word of the Old Testament, similar things are represented by kinds of animals. Beasts are of two kinds: they are evil because they are harmful, and they are good because they are gentle. Those that are evil in man are signified by such beasts as bears, wolves, and dogs; those that are good and gentle are signified by such beasts as bullocks, sheep, and lambs. Because the subject here is the regeneration of man, the beasts are "good and gentle," signifying affections. Those things which are lower and draw more from the body are called the "wild beasts of the earth," which signify desires and pleasures.

46. That beasts signify affections in man—evil ones in the evil, and good ones in the good—can be seen many times in the Word, as in Ezekiel: "Behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, that you may be tilled and sown; and I will multiply man and beast upon you, and they shall be multiplied and bring forth fruit; and I will cause you to inhabit [the land] according to your ancient times," 36:9, 10, 11. This passage speaks of regeneration. In Joel: "Do not fear, beasts of my field, for the pastures of the desert have become green," 2:22. In David: "I was as a brute, and I was as a beast before God," Psalm 73:21. In Jeremiah: "Behold, the days are coming, and I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast, and I will watch over them to build and to plant," 31:27, 28. There, too, it speaks of regeneration. That "wild beasts" signify similar things is seen in Hosea: "In that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild beast of the field, and with the bird of the heavens, and the creeping thing of the earth," 2:18. In Job: "You shall not fear the wild beast of the earth, for your covenant is with the stones of the field, and the wild beast of the field shall be at peace with you," 5:22. In Ezekiel: "I will make a covenant of peace for you, and will cause the evil wild beast to cease from the land, so that they may dwell in the desert confidently," 34:25. In Isaiah: "The wild beast of the field shall honor Me, because I have given waters in the desert," 43:20. In Ezekiel: "In its branches every bird of the heavens nested, and under its branches every wild beast of the field gave birth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations," 31:6; this refers to the Assyrian, by whom the spiritual man is signified, and who is compared to the garden of Eden. In David: "Praise Jehovah, all His angels; praise Him from the earth, you whales, fruit trees, wild beasts, and every beast, creeping thing, and bird of wing," Psalm 148:2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10. Here exactly the same things are named—whales, fruit trees, wild beasts, beasts, creeping things, and birds—and unless they signified what is living in man, it could never be said that they "praise Jehovah." The prophets carefully distinguish between beasts and wild beasts of the earth, and between beasts and wild beasts of the field. Indeed, good things are so often called "beasts" that those who are closest to the Lord in heaven are called "living creatures" (animalia), both in Ezekiel and in John: "All the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped the Lamb," Revelation 7:11; 19:4. They are also called "creatures" to whom the Gospel is to be preached, because they are to be created anew: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," Mark 16:15.