Prefatory to this chapter the
Lord's words in Matthew 24, verse 42 to the end, remain to be
unfolded. These words are the last in that chapter which treat of the
consummation of the age, or the advent of the Lord, and which in the
letter are these:
Watch therefore, for ye
know not what hour your Lord cometh. But know this, that if the
master of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he
would assuredly have watched, and would not have suffered his house
to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready, for in an hour
that ye think not the Son of man will come. Who therefore is the
faithful and prudent servant, whom his lord hath set over his
domestics, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that
servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I
say unto you, that he will set him over all his goods. But if that
evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth to come; and
shall begin to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with
the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he
looketh not for him, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall
cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
What these words involve may be
seen from the series of things, for the subject treated of in this
whole chapter of the evangelist is the last period of the church,
which in the internal sense is the consummation of the age and the
advent of the Lord. That this is the case is evident from the
explication of all the contents of the chapter, as may be seen in the
prefaces to the immediately preceding chapters of Genesis (namely, 26,
n. 3353-3356; 27, n. 3486-3489; 28, n. 3650-3655; 29, n. 3751-3757;
30, n. 3897-3901; 31, n. 4056-4060; 32, n. 4229-4231; 33, n.
4332-4335).
[2] What these contents are in a
series has also been there stated, namely, that when the Christian
Church that was set up after the Lord's coming began to vastate
itself, that is, to recede from good, then:
(1) They began not to know what
good and truth are, but disputed about them.
(2) They despised them.
(3) Next they did not at heart acknowledge them.
(4) Afterwards they profaned them.
(5) And as the truth of faith and the good of charity were still to
remain with some, who are called the "elect," the state of faith at
that time is described.
(6) And then the state of charity.
(7) Lastly, the beginning of a new church is treated of; and,
(8) The state as to good and truth within the so-called church, when
that church is being rejected and a new church is being adopted.
From this series it may appear what is involved in the words that
have been transcribed above, and are the last of the chapter,
namely, that they are words of exhortation to those in the church,
that they should be in the good of faith, and that if not they must
perish.
Scarcely anyone knows how the
case is with the rejection of an old church and the adoption of a new
church. He who does not know man's interiors and their states, and
consequently man's states after death, cannot but infer that those who
are of the old church, and in whom good and truth have been laid
waste, that is, are no longer at heart acknowledged, are to perish,
either as the antediluvians perished by the flood, or as did the Jews
by expulsion from their land, or in some other way. But when the
church has been laid waste, that is, when it is no longer in any good
of faith, it perishes chiefly in respect to the states of its
interiors, thus in respect to its states in the other life. Heaven
then removes itself away from them--and consequently the Lord--and
transfers itself to others, who are adopted in their stead; for
without a church somewhere on the earth there is no communication of
heaven with man; for the church is like the heart and lungs of the
Grand Man on the earth (see n. 468, 637, 931, 2054, 2853).
[2] They who are then of the old
church, and thus are removed from heaven, are in a kind of inundation
as to their interiors, and in fact in an inundation over the head.
This inundation the man himself does not observe while he lives in the
body, but he comes into it after death. In the other life this
inundation plainly appears like a thick cloud by which they are
encompassed and separated from heaven. The state of those who are in
this thick cloud is that they cannot possibly see what the truth of
faith is, and still less what is its good; for the light of heaven, in
which is intelligence and wisdom, cannot penetrate into this cloud.
This is the state of a vastated church.
What the Lord's words quoted
above involve in the internal sense may be seen without explication;
for the Lord spoke them not so much by representatives and
significatives, as by comparatives. There shall be stated merely what
is signified by the words of the last verse, namely: "He shall cut
him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there shall
be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
He shall cut him asunder; signifies separation and removal
from goods and truths; for they who are in knowledges of good and
truth, as are those who are within the church and yet in a life of
evil, are said to be "cut asunder" when they are removed from these
knowledges. For the knowledges of good and truth are separated from
them in the other life, and they are kept in evils, and therefore also
in falsities; which is done in order to prevent them from
communicating with heaven by the knowledges of truth, and with hell by
evils and the derivative falsities, and thus hanging between the two;
and also to prevent them from profaning goods and truths, which is
done when these are commingled with falsities and evils. The same is
also signified by the Lord's words to him who hid the talent in the
earth: "Take therefore the talent from him; and give it unto him
that hath ten talents; for unto everyone that hath shall be given, and
from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away"
(Matt. 25:28, 29); also by what the Lord says in another place
in Matthew 13:12; and in Mark 4:25; and in Luke
8:18.
[2] And appoint his portion with
the hypocrites; signifies his lot (which is his
"portion") with those who outwardly appear to be in truth as to
doctrine and in good as to life, but inwardly believe nothing of truth
and will nothing of good, who are the "hypocrites." In this manner
they are "cut asunder." Therefore when their externals are taken away
from them, as takes place with all in the other life, they appear such
as they are as to their internals, namely, devoid of faith and
charity, of which they nevertheless have made a show in order to win
others and acquire honors, gain, and reputation. Those within a
vastated church are almost all of this character, for they have
externals, but no internals. This is the origin of that inundation of
their interiors which has been already spoken of (n. 4423).
[3] There shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth; signifies their state in the
other life, "wailing," their state as to evils, and "gnashing of
teeth," their state as to falsities. For in the Word the "teeth"
signify the lowest natural things, in the genuine sense the truths of
these natural things, and in the opposite sense their falsities. The
teeth moreover correspond to these things, and therefore the "gnashing
of teeth" is the collision of falsities with truths. They who are in
mere natural things, and who are in these from the fallacies of the
senses, and who believe nothing but what they see thereby, are said to
be in the "gnashing of teeth," and also in the other life appear to
themselves to be so when they draw conclusions from their fallacies
concerning the truths of faith. In a church vastated as to good and
truth such persons abound. The like is signified elsewhere also by the
"gnashing of teeth," as in Matthew:
The sons of the kingdom
shall be cast forth into the outer darkness, there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12);
the "sons of the kingdom" are
those who are in a vastated church; the "darkness" is falsities (n.
4418), for they are in darkness when they are in the thick cloud
mentioned above; the "gnashing of teeth" is the collision of falsities
therein with truths. In like manner elsewhere, as in Matt.
13:42, 50; 22:13; 25:30; and Luke 13:28.
