8858. A person's whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life; this is what marks him off from others. His heaven is formed in accordance with it if he is good, or his hell if he is bad. For it constitutes his true will and so the true being of his life, which is unchangeable after death. From all this one may see what the life is like in a person who has been regenerated, and what it is like in one who has not been regenerated.

904. Verse 14. And I saw, signifies prediction respecting the separation of the good from the evil. This is evident from the fact that "seeing" involves the things that are seen, and these are what now follow; and as these involve in the spiritual sense the first or general separation of the good from the evil, so here, "I saw" signifies prediction respecting this separation. It is to be known that in what follows in this chapter separation in general is predicted, and in the following chapters separation in particular, or specifically, which is described by "the seven angels having the seven vials of the wrath of God." It is according to Divine order that the separation of the good from the evil should be thus described, which order is that what is general should come before the setting forth of the particular and the most particular or the specific things. It is according to Divine order for what is general to precede, in order that particulars may be introduced into them and rightly arranged, and made homogeneous and joined together in close connection.

(On this subject see what is set forth in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that general things precede, into which particulars are introduced, and most particular things into these, n. 920, 4325, 4329, 4345, 5208, 6089).

That with the man who is being regenerated general things precede, and particular and most particular things follow in order, n. 3057, 4345, 4383, 6089.

That afterwards there is a subordination of all things under the generals in man, and thus connection, n. Arcana Coelestia 5339. That generals may be filled with innumerable things, n. 7131.

That such as a man is in general, such he is in every particular thing, n. 917, 1040, 1316.

That what reigns generally is in all things and in each thing, n. 6159, 7648, 8067, 8853-8857, 8865. All this has been presented to make known why general and generic things are here first stated, and afterwards the particular and most particular things.)

7648. 'And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians' means that falsity will reign in every single thing in the natural from the inner part of it to the outermost. This is clear from the meaning of 'being filled' as reigning, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'Pharaoh's houses, the houses of all his servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians' as every single thing in the natural, dealt with in 7753, 7355, at this point from the inner part of it to the outermost, in keeping with the explanation above in 7645. The reason why 'being filled' means reigning is that when a person's mind is filled with falsities arising from evils, filled so completely that leading others astray by means of falsities and doing evil give him delight, he is said to be ruled by this delight; and the actual affection that controls him is called his reigning affection. That which fills a person's entire mind, that is, both his thought and his will, is said to reign everywhere; what a person loves above all else and has as his end in view reigns in that universal way. It is present within every smallest part of his will and thought. What it is exactly that reigns everywhere may be recognized from the person's pleasure when he attains his ends, or his disappointment when he does not. That which reigns everywhere in a person shapes the contours of his spirit; the face of his spirit is in exact accord with it. If evil and falsity reign, his spirit is clothed with a devilish form; but if goodness and truth reign the form is angelic. For regarded in itself the spirit is affection embodied in a form; and the dominant affection is the essential form itself, while all its other affections adapt themselves to this.