230. (Verse 15) I know thy works. That this signifies the life of faith alone is evident from the signification of works as being those things that belong to the interior life of man, because works proceed from those things, and are their effects (concerning which see above, n. 157, 185). Here therefore they signify the life of faith alone, because this is treated of in what is written to the angel of this church. To each of the churches it is premised, "I know thy works," and in every case it signifies the things belonging to the church there treated of (see above, n. 98); therefore the quality of the life of faith alone, or of faith separated from charity, is described in what now follows.

157. And thy works, and the last to be more than the first. That this signifies external things thence derived is evident from the signification of works, as being things external in which are things internal. For works are ultimate effects, in which internal things are made manifest together and are there in a series; they form their ultimate and fulness there. Those are called internal things that belong to the thought and will, and, spiritually speaking, that belong to love and faith; these things are in works; therefore works are ultimates. (That interior things, which are of the mind, flow into external things successively, even into the extreme or ultimate, and that therein they also exist and subsist, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 634, 6239, 6465, 9215, 9216; that in the ultimate they also form simultaneous order, in what series, see n. 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099; that the whole man is in his deeds or works, and that what is only willed and not done, when man can do it, does not yet exist, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 475, 476.)

[2] To these things I wish to add an arcanum not hitherto known. Man's spirit appears in the human form after death, and that form is more or less beautiful according as his affections, while in the world, had been influenced by heavenly or earthly love; this is why angels are forms of love and charity. But they have a form so beautiful, not from the affection of the thought and will alone, but from their affection in deeds or works; for deeds or works from the affection of the will and thought, or of love and faith, produce the external form of the spirit, thus the beauty of his face, body and speech. The reason is, that, as interior things terminate in deeds or works, as in their extremes, so also do they terminate in the external form of the body; for it is well known, that everything pertaining to a man's will terminates in the extremes of the body; that part of the body in which the will does not terminate is not a part of the body, as is evident from even the most trifling actions of the body, which all flow from the direction of the will, and are manifested in the extremes of the body (see the work, Heaven and Hell 59, 60; and the small work, The Last Judgment 30, 31).

[3] The same is evident from the fact that man's spirit is altogether like his will; not his will which does not go forth into act when possible, that will being only thought in which there is an appearance of will, but the active will, which desires nothing more than to act; this will is the same as his love; according to this is the whole spirit, and its human form. (That the will or love is the spirit itself, may be seen above, n. 105; and in the work, Heaven and Hell 479.) This is why it is so often said in the Word that man ought to do the precepts of the Lord, and that he will be rewarded according to his deeds, that is, according to the love in the deeds, but not according to the love without deeds, when they can possibly be done.

[4] It is said,

"I know thy works, and the last to be more than the first."

By the last being more than the first is meant, that such works are fuller of love after the conjunction of the internal man with the external. For the more the internal is conjoined with the external, so much the more of the internal there is in the externals, consequently in the deeds or works; for external things, or works, are nothing but effects of the interior things of the will, and thence of the thought; and effects derive all their quality from the internals from which they exist, as motion from its effort; effort in man is will, and motion therefrom is action.

[5] From what has been explained in this verse it is evident that the order of the conjunction of the internal with the external in the man of the church is described, as follows; the internal by "I know thy works and charity"; the good of the internal and its truth, by "ministry and faith"; the conjunction of the internal with the external by "endurance"; and the external things thence derived, by "I know thy works, and the last to be more than the first." But that such things are involved in these words, no one can see from the sense of the letter, but from the spiritual sense which is within the sense of the letter.