651. And shall overcome them and kill them, signifies the consequent destruction of every good and truth of the church. This is evident from the signification of "to overcome and kill the two witnesses," as being to destroy the things signified by "the two witnesses," which are the good of love and charity and the truth of doctrine and faith. That these will be destroyed by the affections of the natural man separated from the affections of the spiritual man, which are evil cupidities of every kind arising from infernal loves, is signified by "the beast that cometh up out of the abyss;" and that it was foretold that this would come to pass at the end of the church, when the Last Judgment takes place, has been said above. "To kill" signifies in the Word to kill spiritually, which means here to destroy the good of love and the truth of doctrine, as may be seen above n. 315.

The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.