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Arcana Coelestia #4803

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4803. A matter wholly unknown in the world and worthy of mention is this: The states in which good spirits and angels live undergo constant change and perfection. In this way they are conveyed to the more internal parts of the province in which they dwell, and so into more excellent functions. For in heaven purification takes place constantly, which is so to speak a new creation. Yet the situation is that no angel to all eternity can possibly attain complete perfection. The Lord alone is the perfect One, He being the root and the source of all perfection. Those who correspond to the mouth constantly wish to be speaking, for speaking gives them utmost pleasure. While undergoing perfection they are restricted to speaking nothing but that which is beneficial to companions, the community, heaven, and the Lord. The delight they take in speaking in that way grows in the measure that the desire to regard themselves in what they speak and to strive after wisdom from what is properly their own passes away from them.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia #9515

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9515. 'Covering over the mercy-seat with their wings' means spiritual realities that provide cover. This is clear from the meaning of 'covering over the mercy-seat' as providing cover for the good through which lies access to the Lord; and from the meaning of 'wings' as the truths of faith or spiritual truths, dealt with immediately above in 9514, and in 8764. The spiritual realities are said to provide cover for the good because in heaven what is celestial, the good of love, manifests itself as something naked; but when it manifests itself through spiritual realities, which are the truths of faith, it is seen as something clothed.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia #9008

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9008. 'Shall surely die' means damnation. This is clear from the meaning of 'surely dying' as damnation, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494. The reason why 'death' means damnation is that with those who have been damned the truths of faith and forms of the good of charity have been wiped out. These are what constitute the most real kind of life a person has, for they are received from the Lord, who is the one and only source of life. When they have been wiped out their place is then taken by falsities and evils; and these, being the opposites of truths and forms of good which are the constituents of life, are therefore the constituents of death - spiritual death, which is damnation, hell, and eternal unhappiness. The reason why those immersed in evils and falsities, that is, those who are in hell, continue to be alive is that they were born human beings and consequently have the ability to receive life from the Lord. And they do receive life from the Lord, as much life as will enable them to think, reason, and speak, to make their evil look like good and their falsity like truth, and so to give the appearance of life.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.