643. And if anyone will hurt them, thus must he be killed, signifies that according to their endeavor to inflict evil they perish. This is evident from the signification of "will hurt," as being the endeavor to inflict evil, for to will is to endeavor; also from the signification of "to be killed," as being to perish, here in respect to spiritual life, which is destroyed solely by the evils and the falsities of evil, for such are the cause of spiritual death (See above, n. 315, 589). It is here again said "If any will hurt them," because it is meant that everyone perishes according to his wish or endeavor to inflict evil, for it is the will that makes the life of everyone. Everyone perishes according to his wish to hurt "the two witnesses," who are the "two olive trees and the two lampstands," that is, the good of love and charity, and the truth of doctrine and faith, because he is in the opposite will, and the will that is opposite to the good of love and the truth of doctrine is hell in the measure of such opposition; consequently "thus must he be killed," that is, perish, so far as he desires to hurt them. Moreover, every man and spirit is under the Lord's protection, the evil as well as the good; and to him who is under the Lord's protection no evil can happen: for it is the Lord's will that no one should perish or be punished. But so far as anyone is under the Lord's protection he abstains from doing evil, but so far as he does not abstain he removes himself from the Lord's protection, and so far as he so removes himself he is hurt by the evil spirits who are from hell; for infernal spirits have an unceasing desire to do evil to others; and so far as any are outside of the Lord's Divine protection, that is, so far as they do evil, they come into the power of those who do evil to them by inflicting punishment and depriving them of such things as belong to spiritual life. In a word, so far as anyone desires to hurt the goods of love and the truths of doctrine he is "devoured by fire and is killed," that is, he is possessed by evils and the falsities of evil, and so far he spiritually dies, and this comes to pass not from the Divine but from the evil itself that he does.

208. One heaven is united to another (or a community of one heaven with a community of another) by the Lord alone, through a direct and an indirect inflow. The direct is from himself, and the indirect is sequential through the higher heavens into the lower ones. ¹

Since the union of the heavens through inflow is accomplished by the Lord alone, the greatest possible precautions are taken to prevent any angel from a higher heaven from looking down into a community of a lower one and talking with anyone there. The moment this happens, the angel will lose intelligence and wisdom. The reason needs to be stated. Every angel has three levels of life, like the three levels of heaven. For the ones in the inmost heaven, the third or inmost level is opened and the second and first are closed. For people in the intermediate heaven the second level is opened and the first and third are closed; and for people in the outermost heaven the first level is opened and the second and third are closed. The moment an angel of the third heaven, then, looks down into a community of the second and talks with anyone there, the third level of that angel is closed; and when it is closed the angel is deprived of wisdom because her or his wisdom dwells on the third level, with none on the second and first.

This is the meaning of the Lord's words in Matthew:

Let those who are on the roof not come down to take what is in the house; and let those who are in the field not turn back to take their garments. (Matthew 24:17-18)

And in Luke:

Let those who are on the roof on that day while their belongings are in the house not go down to get them, and let those who are in the field not turn back to what is behind them: remember Lot's wife. (Luke 17:31-32)

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