5200. 'And fat-fleshed' means which are embodiments of charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'fat' or 'fatness' as that which is celestial and which is used here to refer to good which flows from love and charity, dealt with in 353; and from the meaning of 'flesh' as the will part of the mind when made living by good received from the Lord, 148, 149, 780, 999, 3812, 3813, and thus also good which flows from love and charity. From this it follows that 'fat-fleshed' means matters of charity, while 'beautiful in appearance' means matters of faith. Thus the truths belonging to the natural, meant by 'the cows', are described here - what they are so far as form is concerned and what they are essentially. In form they are matters of faith, in essence they are matters of charity. The truth of this cannot be seen from the sense of the letter.

2891. Those who have become spirits only recently torment themselves very much by trying to grasp the idea that no one is able to do good of himself, or to think what is true of himself, but that he does so from the Lord. For they believe that if that idea is true they would accordingly be like mere machines and have control of nothing at all; and that being so they would let hands hang down and allow themselves to be acted upon. But they are told that they ought by all means to think, to will, and to do good of themselves, and that in no other way could they have a heavenly proprium and heavenly freedom. But they are also told that they ought nevertheless to acknowledge that good and truth do not originate in themselves but in the Lord, and they are informed that such acknowledgement and indeed perception that this is so exists with all angels. And the more keenly they perceive that they are led by the Lord and so abide in Him the more they are in freedom.