1144. And of silk and of scarlet, signifies truths and goods from a spiritual origin that have been profaned. This is evident from the signification of "silk," as being truth from a spiritual origin (of which presently); also from the signification of "scarlet," as being good from a spiritual origin (See above, n.1142). This good coincides with truth from a celestial origin, and therefore that, too, is signified by "scarlet" in the Word. But "silk and scarlet" here signify such truths and goods profaned by Babylon, which are profaned when spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor, has been perverted; for those who are in such love of self as the Babylonians are in, can have no love to the neighbor; if they love others it is for the sake of self, so that the end is the man himself and love to the neighbor the means, and the end loves the means so far as the means are serviceable to it; and casts them away when they cease to serve it. This can be seen in all the particulars of their works. Love towards the neighbor in the spiritual sense is the love of uses; and when uses are for the sake of self, it is not a love of uses but a love of self. That "silk" signifies truth from a spiritual origin, can be seen from the passage in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:10, 13) which has been explained just above (n. 1143). "Silk" signifies truth from a spiritual origin because of its gloss, for silk is glossy from light, and "light" signifies the Divine truth, which is also called the spiritual Divine.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] It has been said that the love of self and the love of the world are hell, but the source of those loves shall now be explained. Man was created to love self and the world, to love the neighbor and heaven, and to love the Lord. For this reason when a man is born he first loves himself and the world, and afterwards, so far as he becomes wise, he loves the neighbor and heaven, and as he becomes still wiser he loves the Lord. Such a man is in the Divine order, and is actually led by the Lord, although apparently by himself. But so far as he is not wise he stops in the first degree, which is to love himself and the world; and if he loves the neighbor, heaven, and the Lord, it is for the sake of self before the world. But if he is wholly unwise he loves himself alone, and the world and also the neighbor for the sake of self; while heaven and the Lord he either despises or denies or hates in heart, if not in words. These are the origins of the love of self and of the love of the world, and as these loves are hell, it is evident whence hell is.

[3] When a man has become a hell, he is like a tree cut off or like a tree whose fruits are malignant; or he is like sandy soil in which no seed will take root, or like soil, out of which springs nothing but the thorn that pricks or the nettle that stings. When a man becomes a hell the inner or higher parts of his mind are closed up and the outer and lower are opened. And as the love of self determines all things of the thought and will to itself and immerses them in the body, it inverts and twists back the outer parts of the mind, which, as has been said, are open, and as a consequence these incline and bend and are borne downwards, that is, towards hell.

[4] But since man has still an ability to think, to will, to speak and to do, and this ability is in no case taken away from him, because he was born a man, so having become inverted and no longer receiving any good or any truth from heaven, but only evil and falsity from hell, he acquires a kind of light by confirmations of evil from falsity, and of falsity from evil in order that he may be eminent above others. This he believes to be a rational light, when yet it is an infernal light, and in itself fatuous, producing vision like that of a dream in the night, or a delirious fantasy, by reason of which things that are appear as if they were not, and things that are not appear as if they were. But this will be seen more clearly from a comparison between an angel-man and a devil-man.

1127. For strong is the Lord God who judgeth them, signifies through the Last Judgment. This is evident from the signification of "strong is the Lord God who judgeth her," as being the Last Judgment upon them. That the Last Judgment is meant by these words follows from what goes before, for it is said that "in one day her plagues shall come, death, mourning, and famine, and she shall be burned up in fire," which signifies that when they reach their last state, which is when there is no longer any good nor any truth but only evil and falsity from their diabolical love, they will then perish by the Last Judgment. That they did perish by the Last Judgment can he seen in the small work on The Last Judgment and on Babylon Destroyed.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith and respecting the Lord)

[2] That all things are from the life itself which is God and is Man, can be illustrated by man who was created, in that he is man as to his ultimates, as to his intermediates, and as to his inmosts; for a man who in the world has been merely corporeal and consequently stupid as to his life, appears nevertheless after the rejection of the material body as a man in the spiritual world. A man who as to his life in the world has been merely sensual or natural, thus who has known little about heaven although much about the world, nevertheless after death appears as a man. A man who as to his life in the world has been rational, and has thought rightly from natural light, when after death he becomes a spirit appears as a man. A man who as to his life in the world has been spiritual, when after death he becomes an angel appears as a man, perfect in the measure of his reception of life from the Lord. A man in whom the third degree of life has been opened, thus who as to his life in the world has been a celestial man, when after death he becomes an angel appears as a man in all perfection.

[3] The life itself that is in him is the man, whether it be sensual or natural, or rational, or spiritual, or celestial, for so the degrees of life are called. Man in whom these degrees exist is only a recipient. As it is in the least types so it is in the greatest. The whole angelic heaven in every complex is a man. Each heaven by itself, the first, the second, and the third, is a man. Each society in the heavens, greater or less, is a man. Even the church on the earth in general is a man; likewise all assemblages that are called churches are by themselves men. It is said the church, but it is meant all in whom the church is in the complex; thus does the church on the earth appear to the angels of heaven. It so appears because the life that is from the Lord is Man. Life from the Lord is love and wisdom; consequently such as the reception of love and wisdom from the Lord is, such is the man. This shows in the first place that all things have been created from the life that is God and that is Man.