48. From these considerations it is now clear that the fifth state is one in which a person speaks from faith which is part of the understanding and in so doing confirms himself in truth and good; and that what he produces at that point are the animate things called 'the fish of the sea and the birds of the air. ¹ It is also clear that the sixth state exists when he utters truths and performs good deeds from faith which is part of the understanding and so from love which is part of the will. What he produces at that point is called a living creature and a beast. And because at that point he begins to act both from faith and from love simultaneously, he becomes a spiritual man, who is called an image; and this is dealt with next.

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1871. The appearance that the Word of the Lord takes on as it is seen by the angels defies description; yet some idea of it may be had by those who have seen in places where curiosities are housed those optical cylinders in which beautiful images are produced from projected components that seemingly lie around without order. ¹ But although these components which lie around one another appear to have no form, sequence, or order, and appear to be wholly shapeless projections, yet when they are all directed towards the cylinder they produce a lovely image there. So it is with the Word of the Lord, especially in the prophetical part of the Old Testament. Almost everything in the literal sense there seems to be without order, but when it is read by man, and especially by a very young boy or girl, it becomes by degrees more lovely and delightful as it ascends, and at length presents itself before the Lord as the image of a human being in which and by means of which heaven is represented in its entirety, not as it is in fact but as the Lord would like it to be, that is, a likeness of Himself.

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