2249. And Abraham drew near, and said. That this signifies the Lord's thought from the Human, which thought adjoined itself more closely to the Divine, follows from the things that precede, where the Lord's thought concerning the human race is treated of: thus without explication. That in this chapter in the internal sense the state of the Lord's thought and perception is so fully described, and at the beginning the state of the conjunction of the Lord's Human with His Divine, will possibly appear to man as if it were not of so much importance.
[2] And yet it is of the greatest moment; for before the angels, to whom the internal sense is the Word, these things are presented to the life, together with their representatives, in a most beautiful form; besides numberless things that follow from them and bear their likeness, concerning the Lord's conjunction with heaven, and the reception of His Divine in their human; for the ideas of angels are such that they relish such things above all others, and perceive them as being most pleasant; and they are also enlightened and confirmed by them more and more in regard to the unition of the Lord's Human Essence with His Divine Essence; for the angels have been men, and when men they could not but think of the Lord as a man, and of the Lord as God, as also of the Divine Trinity, and form for themselves various ideas, although at that time they knew not of what quality these ideas were.
[3] For heavenly arcana are of such a nature that although they surpass all apprehension, yet everyone forms for himself some idea of them; for nothing can possibly be retained in the memory, still less enter into anything of thought, except by means of some idea formed in one way or another. And because their ideas could not be formed otherwise than from things in the world, or from things analogous to those in the world; and because fallacies then insinuated themselves from things not understood (which in the other life alienate the ideas of thought-which are then more internal-from the truth and good of faith),[4] in order that such things may be dispersed, so much is said in this chapter, in its internal sense, about the conjunction of the Lord's Human with His divine, and about His perception and thought; and accordingly when the Word is read, these things are so presented to the perception of the angels that their former ideas, formed from other sources and from scruples easily springing therefrom, are gradually dissipated, and new ideas are insinuated that are in conformity with the light of truth in which the angels are. This takes place more with the spiritual angels than with the celestial; for according to the purification of their ideas are they perfected for the reception of celestial things. It is known that heaven is not pure before the Lord; and it is a truth that the angels are continually being perfected.
