Arcana Coelestia, Vol. VII

For it pleased Him to glorify Himself, that is, to make Himself Divine, according to the same order as that in which He regenerates man, that is, makes him spiritual (n. 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490, 4402), namely, from external things, which are memory-knowledges and the truths of faith, successively to internal things, which are of charity toward the neighbor and of love to Him. From this it is plain what is signified by the following words in Hosea:—

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt (xi. 1);

that these words were spoken of the Lord can be seen in Matthew ii. 15.

4965. And Potiphar bought him, Pharaoh’s chamberlain. That this signifies that it was among the interior things of memory-knowledges, is evident from the signification of “Pharaoh’s chamberlain,” as being the interior things of memory-knowledges (see n. 4789); his “buying” signifies that he ascribed these things to himself (n. 4397, 4487). The interior things of memory-knowledges are those which approach more nearly to spiritual things, and are applications of memory-knowledges to heavenly things; for these are what the internal man sees, when the external only sees the memory-knowledges in the outward form.

4966. Prince of the guards. That this signifies those which are primary for interpretation, is evident from the signification of “prince of the guards,” as being things primary for interpretation (n. 4790) : things primary for interpretation are those which primarily conduce to the interpretation of the Word, and thus to the understanding of the doctrinal things of love to God and of charity toward the neighbor, which are from the Word. Be it known that the memory-knowledges of the ancients were altogether different from those of the present day. As before said the memory-knowledges of the ancients treated of the correspondence of things in the natural world with things in the spiritual world. The memory-knowledges which are now called philosophy, such as that of Aristotle and others like him, were unknown to them. This is evident also from the books of the ancient writers, most of which