452. Verse 9. After these things I saw, and behold a great multitude, signifies all those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths, as is evident from this, that "the twelve thousand sealed" out of each tribe meant those who are of the church in which there are genuine truths; for "the twelve tribes of Israel" mean those who are in genuine goods and truths, and in an abstract sense all goods and truths of the church; therefore these now treated of mean those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which nevertheless there are no genuine truths. That this is the meaning of "a great multitude" can be seen also from what follows in this chapter, where it is said, "These are they who come out of the great tribulation" (verse 14), which means out of temptations, for those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths, in the other life undergo temptations, by which the falsities of their religion are scattered, and genuine truths implanted in their place (on this more will be said in what follows). From this it can be seen who are meant by "a great multitude" (which is treated of in what follows to the end of the chapter). It is to be known that no one, either within the church where the Word is or outside of that church, is damned who lives a good life according to his religion, for it is not the fault of such that they are ignorant of genuine truths. Moreover, as the good of life holds deep within it the affection of knowing truths, when such come into the other life they easily receive truths and drink them in. It is altogether different with those who have lived an evil life and have made light of religion. (Those who are not in genuine truths, and thus are in falsities from ignorance, and yet in the good of life, have been treated of above, n. 107, 195, 356; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, where the peoples and nations outside of the church who are in heaven are treated of. Also in the Arcana Coelestia, as follows: There may be falsities of religion that agree with good, and falsities that disagree, n. 9258, 9259; falsities of religion, if they do not disagree with good, produce evil only with those who are in evil, n. 8311, 8318; falsities of religion are not imputed to those who are in good, but only to those who are in evil, n. 8051, 8149; truths not genuine, and also falsities, may be consociated with genuine truths with those who are in good, but not with those who are in evil, n. 3470, 3471, 4551, 4552, 7344, 8149, 9298; falsities and truths are consociated by appearances from the sense of the letter of the Word, n. 7344; falsities are made truthlike by good and become soft when they are applied to good and lead to good, and evil is removed, n. 8149; falsities of religion with those who are in good are received by the Lord as truths, n. 4736, 8149; a good that derives its quality from a falsity of religion is accepted by the Lord if there be ignorance, and if there be in it innocence and a good end, n. 7887; the truths that are with man are appearances of truth and good, tinctured with fallacies, and yet the Lord adapts them to genuine truths in the man who lives in good, n. 2053; there are falsities in which there is good with those who are outside of the church and thence in ignorance of truth, also with those within the church where there are falsities of doctrine, n. 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 3778, 4189, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256)

6048. 'And says, What are your works?' means and to know your forms of good. This is clear from meaning of 'works' as forms of good. The reason why 'works' means forms of good is that works originate in the will, and what originates in the will is a form of good or a form of evil, whereas what originates in the understanding, such as spoken words, is a form of truth or a form of falsity. The 'works' done by Jacob's sons, and also by their forefathers, consisted in tending livestock, thus in acting as shepherds; and by these 'works' too forms of good are meant, in particular forms of the good of truth. This meaning has its origin in correspondences, for lambs, sheep, kids, and she-goats, which are members of the flock, correspond to forms of the good of charity; and so do young bulls and oxen, which are members of the herd. The fact that these animals have this correspondence is clear from the consideration that when angels, moved by a heavenly affection, talk to one another about forms of the good of charity, flocks and herds are seen in some places in the world of spirits and also in the first or lowest heaven. Flocks are seen when they talk about interior forms of the good of charity, but herds when they talk about exterior forms, see 3218-3220. This explains why in the Word such deeds are meant by 'flocks and herds'.

[2] In general it should be recognized that every spiritual meaning contained in the Word has its origin in representatives in the next life, and those representatives in correspondences. The reason for this is that the natural world derives its existence from the spiritual world in the way an effect does from its cause, to the end that the spiritual world may flow into the natural world and act as the causes behind things there. In this way everything there is maintained in its proper path and order. For the whole natural creation is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, that is, of the spiritual and celestial realities there, see 2758, 2987-3002, 4939, 5116.