Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. IV (1750)

and truths, which He made Divine. For the Divine Itself needs nothing, not even that intermediate good, unless it wills that all things should come to pass according to order.

4066. "And Jacob saw the faces of Laban," signifies a change of state regarding that good when the good understood by Jacob receded. This is evident from the representation of Jacob as the good of the Natural, and from the representation of Laban as the intermediate good, which have been discussed frequently before. It is also evident from the signification of "faces" as the interiors (see n. 358, 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573), here meaning changes of the interiors, or what is the same, changes of state. For it is said, "He saw his faces, and behold, he was not at all toward him as yesterday or the day before." The reason why interiors are signified by faces in the Word is that the interiors shine through the face and present themselves in the face as in a mirror or image; hence, faces or countenances signify the states of thoughts and the states of affections.

4067. "And behold, he was not at all toward him as yesterday or the day before," signifies a state entirely changed toward the good signified by Jacob, from which, however, nothing was taken away, for it had its own as before, except for the state regarding conjunction. This is evident from the fact that "not at all toward him as yesterday or the day before" denotes a state entirely changed toward Jacob, that is, toward the good signified by Jacob. And from what precedes, it is clear that from Laban—that is, from the good signified by Laban—nothing was taken away, for it had its own as before.

To understand how it is with goods and truths in a person, it must be revealed that which is known to almost no one. It is indeed known and acknowledged that every good and every truth is from the Lord, and it is also acknowledged by some that there is an influx, but of such a kind that the person does not know it. But because it is not known, or at least not acknowledged in the heart, that there are spirits and angels around a person, and that the internal person is in their midst and thus is ruled by the Lord, it is little believed, even though it is stated. There are innumerable societies in the other life that are disposed and ordered by the Lord according to all kinds of good and truth, and societies that are in the opposite, according to all kinds of evil and falsity. So much so that there is no kind of good and truth, nor any species of that kind, not even any specific difference, that does not have such angelic societies, or to which angelic societies do not correspond. And conversely, there is no kind of evil and falsity, nor any species of that kind, not even any specific difference, to which diabolical societies do not correspond. Every person is in the society of such beings as to their interiors—that is, as to their thoughts and affections—even though they do not know it. Everything a person thinks and wills is from there, so much so that if the societies of spirits and angels in which they are were taken away, in that moment they would have no thought and no will; indeed, in that moment, they would fall down completely dead. Such is the state of a person, even though they believe that they have everything from themselves, and that there is neither hell nor heaven, or that hell and heaven are far removed from them. Moreover, the good in a person appears to them as something simple or as one thing, yet it is so manifold and consists of such various things that they can never explore it, even as to the generalities. It is the same with the evil in a person.