429. Verse 4. And I heard the number of those sealed, signifies the quality of those who are in good who are separated from the evil. This is evident from the signification of "number," as being the quality of the thing treated of (of which presently); also from the signification of "those sealed," as being those who are in good, distinguished and separated from others (of which just above, n. 427. "Number" and "measure" are mentioned in many passages in the Word, and it is believed that these mean simply number and measure; but "number" and "measure" in the spiritual sense mean the quality of the thing treated of. The quality itself is determined by the numbers expressed, as here by the "hundred and forty-four thousand," and afterwards the "twelve thousand" out of every tribe. What is signified by these numbers will be told in the following article. Number signifies the quality of the thing treated of for the reason that the Word is spiritual, and therefore each and every thing that it contains is spiritual, and spiritual things are not numbered or measured, but still they fall into numbers and measures when they come down out of the spiritual world or out of heaven where the angels are into the natural world or upon the earth where men are; and likewise in the Word, when they come down out of its spiritual sense in which the angels are into the natural sense in which men are; the natural sense of the Word is the sense of its letter. This is why there are numbers in that sense, and why the numbers there signify things spiritual, or such as pertain to heaven and the church. That the spiritual things of heaven, such as the angels think and speak about, also fall into numbers, has often been shown to me. When they spoke with each other, what they said was determined into pure numbers, which were seen upon paper; and they afterwards said that this was what they had said determined into numbers, and that these numbers in series contained everything they had said; I was also taught what they signified and how they were to be understood; this will be spoken of frequently in what follows. (But respecting writings in pure numbers out of heaven, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 263; that all numbers in the Word signify the things of heaven and the church, see above, n. 203, 336[1-10])

418. Again, the immensity of the heaven of the Lord is confirmed in this, that heaven in its entire complex resembles one Man, and also corresponds to all and each of the things with man, and that this correspondence can never be filled, since it is a correspondence not only with each of the members, organs, and viscera of the body in general, but also with all and each of the little viscera and little organs contained in these in every minutest particular, and even with each vessel and fibre; and not only with these but also with the organic substances that receive interiorly the influx of heaven, from which come man's interior activities that are serviceable to the operations of his mind, since everything that comes into existence interiorly in man does so in forms which are substances, for anything that does not exist in a substance as its subject is nothing. There is a correspondence of all these things with heaven, as can be confirmed from the section treating of the correspondence of all things of heaven with all things of man (87-102). This correspondence can never be filled because the more numerous the angelic associations are that correspond to a single member, the more perfect heaven becomes. For every perfection in the heavens increases with increase of number. The reason is that all there have one end in view, and look with one accord to that end. That end is the common good; and when it reigns, there is, from the common good, good to each individual, and from the good of each individual, there is good to the whole community. This comes about because the Lord turns all in heaven to Himself (see above, 123), and thereby makes it possible for them to be one in Himself. That the unanimity and concord of many, especially from such an origin and held together by such a bond, produces perfection, everyone with a reason at all enlightened can see clearly.