9514. And the cherubs shall spread out their wings upward. That this signifies the elevation effected by the truth of faith, is evident from the signification of “wings,” as being the truths of faith (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “spreading out the wings upward,” as being to be elevated; for in the spreading out of the wings upward there is the endeavor to elevate one’s self, the act of which is elevation. From this it is plain that by “the wings of the cherubs being spread out upward” is signified the elevation of good to the Lord by means of the truths of faith; for by “the cherubs” is signified approach to Him through good. It shall here be briefly stated how the case is with the elevation of good by means of the truths of faith. There are two things to which all things in heaven, and also all things in the world, bear relation, namely, good and truth. Good without truth is not good, and truth without good is not truth; for good without truth has no quality, and truth without good has no being; for truth is the very form of good, and there must be form in order that there may be quality; and good is that very being the manifestation [existere] of which is truth.

[2] Good is to truth exactly as the will is to the understanding, for the will has been allotted to the reception of good, and the understanding to the reception of truth. The will receives its quality from the understanding, and the understanding its being from the will; for the will is formed in the understanding, and thus puts on quality. Good also is to truth as the body is to the arms and feet, and in the case of flying creatures, as the body is to the wings. A body without arms and feet, or without wings, cannot move itself, but with their aid it moves itself. Moreover, in the Word the body corresponds to good, and the arms and wings to truths, and also to the powers of good through truths. From these comparisons, which are also correspondences, it may be known how the case is with the elevation of good by means of the truths of faith, which in general are called “spiritual” things. (That “wings” denote the truths of faith has been shown in n. 8764)

7441. Behold I send against thee, and against thy servants, and against thy people, and into thy houses, the noisome fly. That this signifies that they would have the falsity of malevolence in all things and in each, is evident from the signification of “Pharaoh, his servants, and his people,” as being all things and each that belong to the natural mind (see n. 7396), and as “into thy houses” is added, there is also signified into the interiors of this mind (as above, n. 7407); and from the signification of “the noisome fly,” as being the falsities of that evil which was signified by the portent which precedes, thus the falsities of malevolence. What falsities, therefore, and of what kind, are here signified by “the noisome fly,” is clear from the evils from which these falsities come. That these evils were the evils that are in the outermost parts of the natural mind, thus that are in the sensuous, see above, n. 7419; and the falsities that are from these evils are of the same kind, and are the falsities which are signified also by the “flies of Egypt” in Isaiah:

It shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Asshur; and they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the rivers of desolations and in the clefts of the rocks (Isaiah 7:18-19);

here “the fly in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt” denotes the falsities that are in the outermost parts of the natural mind, thus that are in the sensuous nearest the body. These falsities are compared to such an insect, because the things in this part of the mind are like insects flying in the air, obscuring interior things and also inflicting injury on them; for they are mostly imaginary, and are fallacies, the reasonings from which are like castles in the air. The “noisome fly” of this kind is mentioned only in David (Psalms 78:45, and 105:31), where Egypt is also spoken of. Be it known that all the flying things mentioned in the Word signify things of the intellect, and consequently truths, and in the opposite sense falsities (n. 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988, 3219, 5149); but flying things of the lowest sort, which are insects, signify truths, and in the opposite sense falsities, which are more ignoble and obscure in proportion as they belong to the sensuous, for unless these things are enlightened by things more interior they are in total obscurity and darkness, being next the body, and consequently near to earthly things, where heavenly things terminate, and are immersed in thick darkness.