1158. Verse 14. And the fruits of the desire of thy soul have departed from thee, signifies that the gladnesses and joys they expected from worship and life according to the traditions of the Babylonish nation are turned into weeping and mourning. This is evident from the signification of "the fruits of the desire of the soul," as being the gladnesses and joys they hoped for from worship and life according to the traditions of the Babylonish religion. This is the signification of these words, because the things enumerated in verses 12 and 13 signify all things of the doctrine and worship of that religious persuasion from which those who believe in a life after death expect gladnesses and joys; therefore these are "the fruits of the desire of their souls." Also from the signification of "have departed from thee," as being that these have been dissipated, and have been turned into weeping and mourning, because into the torments of hell. Those gladnesses and joys which they expect are merely external, thus corporeal and worldly, for such do not know what internal gladnesses and joys are, because they have no truths from the Word, thus no truths from the Lord, but only from him whom they call His vicar, from whom falsities can come forth but no truths, because they have dominion for their end. Therefore that the people may be kept under the yoke of that dominion, such things from self and the world as delight the body are offered them.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] 7. The seventh law of the Divine providence is, That man is let into the truths of faith and into the goods of love by the Lord only so far as he can be kept in them until the end of life; for it is better that he should continue to be evil than that he should be good and afterwards evil, for he thus becomes profane. The permission of evil is from this cause. To every man of sound reason the Lord can give the affection of truth and faith therefrom and the affection of good and love therefrom by withholding him from evil loves, which belong to his own [proprium] ; for so far as man is withheld from these he is in the understanding of truth and in the will of good. I have seen the very devils brought back to such a state; and while they were in it they talked about truths from understanding and faith, and did good from will and love. They were brought into this state because they had denied that they were unable to understand truths and do good. But as soon as withholding from their own loves had relaxed, and they had returned into the lusts of their loves, in place of faith in truth they had faith in falsity, and in place of love of good they had love of evil. This has often been witnessed, and in the presence of many. From this it is clear that everyone is capable of being reformed, and that being reformed is nothing else than being removed from evil loves. How man is removed from those loves has been told above. The Lord does not thus withhold man from evils for the reason that those who come into the affection of truth and thence into faith, and into the affection of good and thence into love, and do not continue in these affections to the end of life, but fall back into the loves from which they had abstained, profane holy things.

[3] There are many kinds of profanation, but this kind is the most grievous of all. The lot of such after death is terrible. They are not in hell but beneath hell; and there they neither think nor will, but merely see and act. They see things that are not, and do not see the things that are. They act as if they were doing everything, and yet they do nothing. They are nothing but deliriums of fantasy. And as they neither think nor will, they are no longer men, for the human is thinking and willing.

Consequently they are not called "he" nor "she," but in the neuter gender "it" or "that." When seen in any heavenly light they appear like skeletons covered over with a black skin. Such is the condition of those that have been reformed and do not remain so. Why their lot is so horrible shall be told. By their reformation a communication is established between them and heaven, whereby goods and truths flow in; and by these the interiors of their minds are opened, and evils are removed to the sides. If they remain in this state till death they are happy, but if they do not they become unhappy, for the evils that have been removed then flow back and mingle themselves with the truths and goods; thus hell is so mixed with heaven in them that the two cannot be separated; for if anything has once been impressed on the mind of man by love it can never be rooted out; since, therefore, after death the goods cannot be separated from the evils nor the truths from the falsities, the mind is wholly overthrown, and such spirits no longer have any thought or will, but what remains is like a shell when the kernel is removed, or like the skin with the skeleton when the flesh is gone, for this is all that is left of the man. Let it be known, therefore, that the danger is not in passing from evil to good, but the danger is in passing from good to evil.

7441. 'behold, I send onto you, and onto your servants, and onto your people, and into your houses, noxious flying insects' means that malevolent falsity will be present in every single aspect. This is clear from the meaning of 'Pharaoh, his servants, and his people' as every single part of the natural mind, dealt with in 7396, and when 'into the houses' is added, an entry into the interior parts of that mind as well is meant, as above in 7407; and from the meaning of 'noxious flying insects' as falsities arising out of the evil that was meant by the previous wonder, thus malevolent falsities. Exactly which falsities therefore are meant here by 'noxious flying insects', and what type they belong to, is evident from the evils they spring from. And those evils were evils that exist on the outermost levels of the natural mind, thus on those of the senses, see above in 7419. The falsities which spring from them belong to the same sort.

[2] The same falsities are what are also meant by 'the flies of Egypt' in Isaiah,

It will happen on that day, that Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is in the furthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Asshur. They will come and all of them will rest in rivers of desolations, and in the clefts of rocks. Isaiah 7:18-19.

'The fly in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt' is falsities which reside in the outermost parts of the natural mind, thus on the level of the senses nearest to the body. These falsities are compared to an insect like that sort of insect because on that level they are exactly like insects that fly in the air, obscure the things on more internal levels, and inflict harm on them. For the things which are there are for the most part figments of the imagination; they are illusions giving rise to reasonings that are like buildings founded on nothing but air. Mention of this kind of noxious flying insect occurs again only in David, in Psalms 78:45 and Psalms 105:31, where also the reference is to Egypt. It should be recognized that flying creatures in the Word all mean things that are connected with the understanding, consequently truths or in the contrary sense falsities, 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988, 3219, 5149. But the lowest sort of flying creatures, which are insects, mean truths, or in the contrary sense falsities, which are quite low-grade and obscure, as those are which belong properly to the level of the senses. For unless they receive light from the more internal levels, gloom and darkness completely envelop them; for they are nearest to the body and therefore close to earthly things that form the base on which heavenly things rest, and are immersed in thick darkness.