1185. Verse 22. And the voice of harpers and musicians and pipers and trumpeters shall not be heard in thee any more, signifies no more any interior or exterior joys. This is evident from the signification of the "voice or sound" of various instruments of music, as being joys from internal and external affections. They signify affections because of their harmony, for musical sounds express affections and produce them with joy. Stringed instruments signify spiritual things, and wind instruments celestial things, and that they correspond to affections may be seen (n. 323, 326). But what "the voice of the harp, the voice of the pipe, and the voice of the trumpet" signify in particular, can be seen only from the affections, which are of two kinds, spiritual and celestial; spiritual affections are from truths and celestial from goods; but they are of three degrees, inmost, middle, and ultimate; the inmost are such as are in the inmost heaven, the middle such as are in the middle heaven, and the ultimate such as are in the lowest heaven.

(Continuation)

[2] 10. The tenth law of the Divine providence is that man has led himself to eminence and riches by his own prudence, when these lead astray, for by the Divine providence man is led only to such things as do not lead astray and as are serviceable to eternal life; for all things of the Divine providence with man look to what is eternal, since the life which is God, from which man is man, is eternal. There are two things that especially influence the minds of men, eminence and riches; eminence relates to the love of glory and of honors, riches to the love of money and possessions. These especially influence men's minds because they belong to the natural man; consequently those who are merely natural have no other idea than that eminence and riches are real blessings that are from God, when in fact they may be curses, as may be clearly inferred from this, that they are the portion both of good men and of evil men. I have seen the eminent and the rich in the heavens and I have seen them in the hells; therefore, as has been said, when eminence and riches do not lead astray they are from God, but when they do they are from hell.

[3] In the world man does not distinguish between their being from God or from hell, because the natural man separated from the spiritual cannot perceive this distinction; but the distinction can be seen in the natural man that is from the spiritual, and yet with difficulty, because the natural man is taught from infancy to counterfeit the spiritual man; and in consequence when he performs uses to the church, to the country, to society and his fellow citizens, thus to the neighbor, he not only professes but also is able to persuade himself that he has done it for the sake of the church, the country, society, and his fellow citizens, and yet he may have done it for the sake of self and the world as ends. Man is in such blindness because he has not put away evils from himself by any combat; for so long as evils remain man can see nothing from the spiritual in his natural; he is like one in a dream who believes himself to be awake, or like a bird of night that sees the darkness as light. Such is the natural man when the gate of heavenly light is closed. Heavenly light is the spiritual that enlightens the natural man. Since, then, it is of the greatest importance to know whether eminence and riches, or the love of glory and honor, and the love of money and of possessions, are ends or are means, ends and means shall first be defined, for if these are ends they are curses, but if they are not ends, but means, they are blessings.