xviii. 19.) Nevertheless when the Lord raises up to life, or regenerates man, he permits him at first to suppose that he does good, and speaks truth from himself, inasmuch as at that time he is incapable of conceiving otherwise, nor can he otherwise be led to believe, and afterwards to perceive, that all goodness and truth are from the Lord alone. Whilst he thus thinks, the truths and goods which are in him are compared to the tender grass, and also to the herb yielding seed, and lastly to the tree bearing fruit, all of which are inanimate; but now that he is vivified by love and faith, and believes that the Lord operates all the good which he does and all the truth which he speaks, he is compared first to the creeping things of the water, and to the fowls which fly above the earth, and also to beasts, which are all animate things, and are called living souls.
40. By creeping things which the waters bring forth, are signified scientifics, which belong to the external man; by birds in general, rational and intellectual things, of which the latter belong to the internal man. The creeping things of the waters, or fishes, signify scientifics, as is plain from Isaiah: "At my rebuke, I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst; I clothe the heavens with blackness," (1. 2, 3.) But it is still plainer from Ezekiel, where the Lord describes the new temple, or in general a new church, and the man of the church, or a regenerate person, for every one who is regenerate is a temple, of the Lord. The words are these: "Then said he unto me, these waters issue out towards the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed; and it shall come to pass, that every living soul which shall creep forth whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither; for they shall be healed, and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Eu-gedi even unto En-eglaim; there shall be a place to spread forth nets: their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many," (xlvii. 8—10.) Fishers from En-gedi unto En-eglaim signify those who shall instruct the natural man in the truths of faith. Birds signify things rational and intellectual, as is plain from the prophets, thus in Isaiah: "Calling a ravenous bird from the east, a man that executeth my counsel from a far country," (xlvi. 11.) And in Jeremiah: "I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled," (iv. 25.) Again, in Ezekiel: "I will plant a cutting of the high cedar, and it shall lift up a branch,—and shall bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell every fowl of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell," (xvii. 22, 23.) And
