52. So long as man is spiritual, his dominion proceeds from the external man to the internal, as here stated: "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth:" but when he becomes celestial, and does good from love, then his dominion proceeds from the internal man to the external. This is the case with the Lord Himself, and also with the celestial man, who is his likeness, as He declares in David: "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the fields; the fowl of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea," (Psalm viii. 6—8.) Here, therefore, beasts are first mentioned, and then, fowl, and afterwards fish of the sea, because the celestial man proceeds from love, which belongs to the will, differing herein from the spiritual man, in describing whom fishes and fowl are first named, which belong to the understanding, as having relation to faith, and afterwards mention is made of beasts.
53. Verse 27. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. The reason why image is here twice mentioned is, because faith, which belongs to the understanding, is called his image; whereas love, which belongs to the will, is called an image of God, which in the spiritual man follows, but in the celestial man precedes.
54. Male and female created he them. What is meant by male and female in an internal sense, was well known to the Most Ancient Church, but when the interior sense of the Word was lost amongst their posterity, this arcanum also perished. Their marriages were their chief sources of happiness and delight, and whatever admitted of the comparison they likened to marriages, in order that thence they might perceive its felicity. Being also internal men, they were delighted only with internal things, viewing externals with their eyes merely, whilst in their thoughts they regarded that which they represented. Thus external things were as nothing to them, serving only as means to lead them to reflect on what was internal, and from these to what_was celestial, and thus to the Lord,—their all in all. In this way they were led to reflect on the celestial marriage, whence they perceived the felicity of their marriages to flow, and on this account they called the understanding in the spiritual man male, and the will female, which, when acting in unity, were spoken of as married. From that church was derived a form of speaking, which came afterwards into general
on account of its harsh sound to an English ear, is here retained, both as being more correct, and as having reference to an important fact connected with the internal sense of the Word, which is explained at n. 374.
