2325. 'And Lot saw' means [their] conscience - that is to say, the conscience of those with whom the good of charity exists but whose worship is external. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'seeing'. 'Seeing' in the Word means understanding, see 897, 1584, 1806, 1807, 2150. In the internal sense however 'seeing' means having faith, a meaning which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed at Genesis 29:32. The reason why conscience is meant here is that people who have faith have conscience as well. Conscience is inseparable from faith, so inseparable in fact that it makes no difference whether you speak of faith or of conscience. By faith is meant faith through which charity comes, and which derives from charity. This being so, it is charity itself, for faith without charity is not faith at all. And just as faith is not possible without charity, neither is conscience possible without it.

1624. The form of one of the large rainbows was shown to me, so that from it I could get to know what their smallest forms were like. It was a pure white light with a kind of border, in the middle of which was a dark object as if made of earth. This was surrounded by an extremely luminous halo, itself variegated and divided up by another luminescence that had yellow dots like tiny stars. Additional variegations were produced by flowers of different colours entering the luminous area. The colours of these flowers emanated not from a white light but from a flame-like one. All of these appearances were representative of celestial and spiritual things. All the colours that are seen in the next life represent that which is celestial or spiritual. The colours emanating from the flame-like light represent things that belong to love and the affection for good, whereas colours emanating from the white light represent those that belong to faith and the affection for truth. These are the sources of all colours in the next life, and they are therefore so resplendent that the colours of this world cannot compare with them. Colours also exist there which are never seen in this world.