6797. Verses 23-25. And it came to pass in these many days that the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God took knowledge. “And it came to pass in these many days,” signifies after many changes of state; “that the king of Egypt died,” signifies the end of the former falsity; “and the sons of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage,” signified sorrow on account of the attempt to subjugate the truth of the church; “and they cried,” signifies entreaty; “and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage,” signifies that they were heard; “and God heard their groaning,” signifies aid; “and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob,” signifies by reason of conjunction with the church through the Lord’s Divine Human; “and God saw the sons of Israel,” signifies that He endowed the church with faith; “and God took knowledge,” signifies that He endowed with charity.

6798. And it came to pass in these many days. That this signifies after many changes of state, is evident from the signification of “days,” as being states (see n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850); thus “came to pass in many days” denotes after many states, that is, after many changes of state.

6799. That the king of Egypt died. That this signifies the end of the former falsity, is evident from the signification of “dying,” as being to cease to be (see n. 494, 6587, 6593), thus the end; and from the representation of Pharaoh, or the king of Egypt, as being false memory-knowledge (see n. 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692).

6800. And the sons of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage. That this signifies sorrow by reason of the attempt to subjugate the truth of the church, is evident from the signification of “sighing,” as being sorrow; from the representation of the sons of Israel, as being the truths of the church (see n. 5414, 5879, 5951); and from the signification of “bondage,” as being an attempt to subjugate (n. 6666, 6670, 6671).

6801. And they cried. That this signifies entreaty, is evident without explication.

6802. And their cry came up unto God by reason of their bondage. That this signifies that they were heard, is also evident without explication, for the statement follows that “God heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”

6803. And God heard their groaning. That this signifies aid, is evident from the signification of “to hear,” as being to obey (see n. 2542, 3869, 4652-4660, 5017), but when said of the Lord it denotes to provide and bring aid, for the Lord hears him to whom He brings aid; and from the signification of “groaning,” as being sorrow by reason of the attempt to subjugate by falsities.

6804. And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. That this signifies by reason of conjunction with the church through the Lord’s Divine Human, is evident from the signification of “covenant,” as being conjunction (of which in what follows); and from the representation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with whom a covenant was made, as being the Lord’s Divine Human. (That Abraham represents the Lord as to the Divine Itself, Isaac as to the Divine rational, and Jacob as to the Divine natural, see n. 1893, 2011, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3194, 3210, 3245, 3251, 3305, 3439, 3576, 3599, 3704, 4180, 4286, 4538, 4570, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6425.) That where mention is made of “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” in the Word, in the spiritual sense these men are not meant, can be seen from the fact that names never penetrate into heaven, but only what is signified by those who are named, thus the things themselves, their quality and their states, which are of the church and of the Lord’s kingdom, and which are of the Lord Himself.

6805. And God saw the sons of Israel. That this signifies that He endowed the church with faith, is evident from the signification of “seeing,” as being to have faith (see n. 897, 2325, 2807, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 5400); hence “God saw” denotes to endow with faith, for faith is from God; and from the signification of the “sons of Israel,” as being the church (n. 6637).

6806. And God took knowledge. That this signifies that He endowed with charity, is evident from the signification of “knowing,” when predicated of God, that is, of the Lord, as being to endow with charity; for it is charity which conjoins the Lord with man, and causes the Lord to be present with him, consequently to know him. The Lord indeed knows all in the universe, but not as a father his sons except those who are in the good of love and charity.

6807. On the spirits of the planet Mercury.

6808. What the spirits of the planet Mercury bear relation to in the Grand Man, has also been disclosed to me from heaven, namely, the memory, but the memory of things that are abstracted from what is earthly and merely material. But as it has been given me to speak with them, and this for many weeks, and to learn their quality, and to explore the condition of those who are in that earth, I would present the actual experiences.

6809. They once came to me and searched the things in my memory. (Spirits can do this with the utmost skill; for when they come to a man, they see in his memory everything he knows.) When therefore the spirits of Mercury searched out various things, and among others the cities and places where I had been, I observed that they did not wish to know about the churches, palaces, houses, and streets; but only what I knew to have been done in these places, and also matters relating to the government there, and to the genius and manners of the inhabitants, with other things like these; for such things cling to the places that are in man’s memory, and therefore when the places are excited, these other things also come up. I wondered at this character of the spirits of Mercury, and I therefore asked why they passed by the magnificent features of the places, and only searched out the facts and doings there? They said they have no delight in looking at material, bodily, and earthly things, but only at real ones. From this it at once appeared that the spirits of that earth relate in the Grand Man to the memory of real things when abstracted from things material and earthly.

6810. I have been told that their life in their own earth is of the same character, namely, that they care nothing for earthly and bodily things; but only for the statutes, laws, and governments of the nations there, and also for the things of heaven, which are innumerable. And I was further told that many of the men of that earth speak with spirits, and from this have knowledges of spiritual realities, and of the states of life after death, and from this also they have contempt for bodily and earthly things. For they who know with certainty and believe in a life after death, care for heavenly things, as being eternal and happy, and not for worldly things except insofar as the necessities of life require.

6811. With what eagerness they search out and learn knowledges, such as are in the memory that is raised above the sensuous things of the body, was made evident to me from the fact that when they looked into what I knew about heavenly things, they ran over them all, continually saying, “That is so-and-so, that is so-and-so.” For when spirits come to a man, they enter into all his memory, and excite from it all that is suited to themselves; nay, as I have often observed, they read its contents as from a book. The spirits of Mercury did this with greater skill and quickness, because they looked at the real things themselves, and did not delay over such things as are slow, and which confine and consequently retard the internal sight, as do all earthly and bodily things when regarded as an end, that is, when loved in an extraordinary degree. For realities to which earthly things do not adhere bear the mind upward, thus into a wide field; whereas merely material things bear the mind downward, thus into a narrow one. Their eagerness to acquire knowledges also became evident in the following manner. Once when I was writing something about the future, and they were at a distance, so that they could not look at it from my memory, they were very indignant because I would not read it in their presence, and contrary to their usual behavior they desired to upbraid me, calling me the worst of men, and so forth; and in order to show their anger they induced a kind of contraction on the right side of my head as far as the ear, that was attended with pain. But such things did me no harm. But as the spirits had done evil they went still further off, and yet they waited; because they wanted to know what I had written about the future. Such is their desire for knowledges.

6812. Above all other spirits the spirits of Mercury possess knowledges of real things, both of those within this solar system, and also of those which are beyond it in the starry heaven; and what they have once acquired they retain, and also recall, as often as like things occur. This shows very plainly that the memory of spirits is much more perfect than that of men, and also that what spirits hear, see, and perceive, they retain, especially such things as delight them, as the knowledges of real things delight these spirits. For all things that cause delight and love, flow in as it were spontaneously, and remain; other things do not enter, but only touch the surface and pass by.

6813. When the spirits of Mercury come to other societies, they search out from them what they know, and as soon as they have done this they depart. There is such a communication among spirits that when they are in a society, if they are accepted and loved, all things which they know are communicated, and this not by any speech, but by influx. By reason of their knowledges the spirits of Mercury are more conceited than others, and they were therefore told that although they know innumerable things, still there are infinite things which they do not know; and that if their knowledges should increase to eternity, they would not attain even to a knowledge of generals. They were told also of their conceit and elation of mind, and how unbecoming this is; but they answered that it is not conceit, but only a glorying in their faculty of memory. In this way they can excuse their faults.

6814. They are averse to verbal speech because it is material, and therefore I could talk with them no otherwise than by a kind of active thought. Their memory, being of real things, and not of purely material images, supplies the thought with its objects more closely; for the thought which is above the imagination requires for its objects things abstracted from what is material. But in spite of this, the spirits of Mercury excel but little in the faculty of judgment. They are not delighted with matters that belong to judgment and to conclusions from thoughts; for bare knowledges are their delight.

6815. I was allowed to insinuate the question whether they did not desire to perform some use by virtue of their knowledges; because it is not sufficient to be delighted with knowledges, seeing that knowledges look to uses, and uses must be the ends. From knowledges alone, I told them, there is no use to them, but only to others to whom they may desire to communicate their knowledges; and it is by no means proper for a man who desires to be wise, to halt in knowledges alone, because these are only instrumental causes, intended to serve in the search for uses, which must be of the life. But they answered that they are delighted with knowledges, and that to them knowledges are uses.

6816. The spirits of Mercury are quite different from the spirits of our earth, for the spirits of our earth care not so much for real things as for material, worldly, bodily, and earthly things. Therefore the spirits of Mercury cannot be together with the spirits of our earth, and so whenever they meet them they flee away; for the spiritual spheres which exhale from the two are almost opposite. The spirits of Mercury have a saying, that they love what is drawn out from things material, and that they do not desire to look at the sheath, but at things stripped of their sheath, thus at interior things.

6817. The subject of the spirits of the planet Mercury will be continued at the end of the following chapter.