- And Moses went and spoke these
words to all Israel.
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- And
the Divine Word further instructs those who are regenerating,
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- And he said to them, I am an
hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in:
also the LORD has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan.
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- And teaches them that life derived from the implantation
of truth has now come to a full and complete state; and cannot flow into
the soul and operate in the recurring stages of regeneration without
another instrument; and also perception is given from the Lord that a
new principle must govern the mind, as the soul passes the boundary now
reached between the external and internal man.
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- The LORD your God, he will go
over before you, and he will destroy these nations from before you, and
you shall possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before you, as the
LORD has said.
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- The Divine Love and Wisdom themselves lead the
mind, and will destroy the evils which oppose regeneration in the
internal mind, and goods shall take their place: and Truth combating
against the evil and the false is the new principle which shall guide
the soul as appointed by the Lord.
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- And the LORD shall do to them
as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and to the land of
them, whom he destroyed.
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- And the Lord shall do to these evils as was done
to the loves of self and of the world in your external mind, with all
the evils thence derived, which have been destroyed as far as they
prevented regeneration.
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- And the LORD shall give them up
before your face, that you may do to them according to all the
commandments which I have commanded you.
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- And the Lord shall drive them from the interiors
of your mind, that you may be enabled to reduce all things into heavenly
order, according to the precepts which have been given to the soul by
truth from the Word.
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- Be strong and of a good
courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD your God, he it
is that does go with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you.
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- Strive with all your might, and as if it depended
on yourselves alone; be determined to overcome evils: have confidence in
the Lord, and be not disheartened with the power of evil: the Lord, who
has been through the same struggles in His Humanity, and is omnipotent,
is present with you in the conflict; He will not fail you, nor forsake
you.
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- And Moses called to Joshua, and
said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage:
for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to
their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.
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- If And Divine truth now appoints Truth combating
against the evil and the false, the leader of the soul; and, as is
clearly perceived throughout the spiritual mind, endows it with strength
and courage: for this is the principle which must lead whatever is capable
of being made spiritual in the soul to heaven, according to the promises
of the Lord by the Word in those states that went before; and this
principle when followed out will cause the mind to inherit heaven.
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- And the LORD, he it is that
does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, neither
forsake you: fear not, neither be dismayed.
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- And it is the Lord Himself that leads the mind
through this principle; He will be with you, He will not fail you, nor
forsake you: fear not, neither be disheartened at the stubbornness of
evil within you.
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- And Moses wrote this law, and
delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the
covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.
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- And Divine truth delivers all these commands from
the Word, and impresses them upon the faculties in the soul which are
derived from the good of charity, which receive influx from the
celestial principle of love from the Divine Human of the Lord; and upon all
those principles in the mind which are in genuine spiritual wisdom.
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- And Moses commanded them,
saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of
release, in the feast of tabernacles,
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- And the Divine law instructs them that after the
period of struggle with evil, when a time of peace conies from the
soul's resigning all it has to the Lord, in which the soul will be
relieved from the infestation of hell, and will be recreated and
protected by Divine good. [Note.— The feast of tabernacles
represents the implantation of good in the soul.]
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- When all Israel is come to
appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose, you
shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
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- When all the principles of the soul which are
capable of being made spiritual are brought into heavenly order by
Divine Goodness and Wisdom, and to the states derived from the Divine
Humanity, then will the Divine commands be obeyed by all the spiritual
faculties of the mind.
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- Gather the people together,
men and women, and children, and your stranger that is within your
gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD
your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:
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- And all things in the soul must act from them as
one; both the understanding, the affections, the undeveloped faculties,
and the external things of the memory that serve the spiritual man, that
they may attend to and receive the instructions from heaven, and fear to
act contrary to Divine goodness and truth, and make it their chief study
to conform their life to the Divine law;
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- And that their children, which
have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God,
as long as you live in the land whither you go over Jordan to possess
it.
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- And that the innocent and undeveloped faculties of
the mind which have not yet been receptive of either good or evil may
thus receive influx from heaven, and thus be taught to fear to act against
Divine goodness and truth in all the new internal states to which the
soul is progressing.
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- And the LORD said to Moses,
Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present
yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a
charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the
tabernacle of the congregation.
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- And it is perceived from heaven in this state that
the soul can no more live under the guidance of Divine truth alone: it
is necessary that it should be conjoined with a determined warfare
against every evil in the soul; and this combating principle and Divine
truth must approach the Lord in the inmost of the soul, and take their
commands from Him. Thus the Divine law, and Truth combating against evil
and falsity, occupy the centre of the soul in a state derived from the
love of good.
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- And the LORD appeared in the
tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood
over the door of the tabernacle.
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- And the Lord is perceived present in the inmost of
the soul, in the literal sense of the Word enclosing the spiritual
sense: and Divine truth in the sense of the letter of the Word is
present at the place of communication between the interior and exterior faculties
of the soul (the internal sense being for the one, and the literal for
the other, see AC 10551).
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- And the LORD said to Moses,
Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up,
and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither
they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant
which I have made with them.
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- And it is perceived in the interiors of the soul
that a new state is to be entered upon in which Divine truth will lie
dormant and concealed in the interiors; and the falses which favour
hereditary evils will make their appearance, and the soul will be
seduced to trust in falses from the fallacies of the senses which exist
in the interiors of the unregenerate mind, and will leave the truth, and
break off their close conjunction with the Lord by neglecting to seek
the wisdom that comes from Him.
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- Then my anger shall be kindled
against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my
face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles
shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these
evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
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- And it will appear as if the Lord is angry with
the soul in that state, and that He has left it, and that His mercy is
departed from it, and the spiritual life will be consumed and inundated
with evils and troubles; and the soul will then begin to inquire whether
these evils have not come upon it because the Lord is no more within it;
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- And I will surely hide my face
in that day for all the evils which they shall have worked, in that they
are turned to other gods.
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- For in every state in which man is in evil and
lives from false doctrines, the Lord cannot remain in the interiors of
the soul.
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- Now therefore write you this
song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their
mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of
Israel.
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- Let the internal man, therefore, plainly testify
the doctrine of truth received from the Lord, and teach it to all the
soul; let it flow forth into the external mind, that this
acknowledgement may be a witness for the Lord throughout all the
spiritual mind.
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- For when I shall have brought
them into the land which I swore to their fathers, that flows with milk
and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen
fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and provoke me,
and break my covenant.
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- For when the Lord has brought the spiritual man to
the regenerate state in which he is gifted with a new will to serve Him,
which is the purpose of the Lord for all who are in good, a state
abounding with the delights of spiritual good and the delights of
natural good; and when these are imbibed, and fill the life so that the
regenerating soul feels itself satisfied with good things; then will it
be drawn away by falses which favour its hereditary evils and serve
them, and turn from the Lord, and neglect to live from His commands.
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- And it shall come to pass,
when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall
testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of
the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go
about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.
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- And it shall come to pass that when many evils and
troubles have befallen the soul, the truths that are acknowledged by the
internal man shall come forth to testify against its evils; for they
shall not be forgotten out of the understanding in any future state; for
the Lord knows the depravity of man's heart which will lead him astray,
and foresees it from the first, and provides accordingly before He gifts
him with a new will, and brings him to the heavenly state which He
designs for him.
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- Moses therefore wrote this
song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.
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- Divine truth, therefore, impresses deeply upon the
soul in this state the acknowledgement and confession of the truths
necessary for salvation, so that they permeate the whole spiritual man,
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- And he gave Joshua the son of
Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for you shall
bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them: and I
will be with you.
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- And particularly instructs him that it is
necessary he should fight perpetually against hereditary evils, and the
falses favouring them; that they must be contended against with all the
might of the soul, and with full trust and confidence in heaven: for by
this means alone can the soul be brought to the heavenly state designed
for it by the Lord; who Himself will concur with it in every effort.
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- And it came to pass, when
Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until
they were finished,
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- And it came to pass that when Divine Law had fully
impressed these commands on the memory as much as could be received,
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- That Moses commanded the
Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,
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- That all those principles in the soul which are in
good, and which love the Lord as revealed in the Divine Humanity, and
hold Him up as an example to the soul, gladly receive the Divine
commands,
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- Take this book of the law, and
put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that
it may be there for a witness against you.
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- And the Divine Law is stored up in the inmost of
the soul in the principles derived from the Lord's Divine Humanity,
whereby alone is conjunction with His Divine Goodness and Wisdom, and
there it will correct the soul of its evils and falses.
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- For I know your rebellion, and
your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you
have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?
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- For the soul is naturally against Divine truth,
and averse to receiving the Divine influx from heaven in regeneration;
in a state when Divine truth was present and leading the soul it has
rebelled against it; and how much more when truth is indrawn, and
hereditary evils are permitted to infest it!
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- Gather to me all the elders of
your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their
ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them.
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- All the primary truths with which the mind is
stored are therefore now collected into heavenly order with those
principles by which the conduct is actuated, that they may receive and
obey the influx from heaven, and that both internal and external
principles may be in a position to instruct and warn the soul.
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- For I know that after my death
you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I
have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because
you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger
through the work of your hands.
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- For it is foreseen that in the new state when
Divine truth is indrawn in the soul the corrupt evils of the will will
come forth to turn it aside from the only right way, namely, from acting
out the Divine commands; so that evil will come upon the soul in the
states which will succeed; because it will act against what it knows to
be right, and be led astray from the Lord by its own perverted
self-will.
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- Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they
were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:
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- And the Word brought to the apperception of the
whole spiritual man the following acknowledgement of the Lord and Divine
truth, as much as could be received.
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