665. The spirit of life from God entered into them.- That this signifies enlightenment and the reception in some of Divine Truth from the Lord for the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of the spirit of life from God, as denoting the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord, concerning which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of entering into them, namely, into the witnesses that were slain and cast forth, as denoting enlightenment and the reception of influx, namely, of Divine Truth, which is signified by the spirit of life. That this takes place with some for establishing a new church is evident from the verse that follows, where it is said, that they ascended into heaven in a cloud, thus with some. For the two witnesses signify the goods of love and truths of doctrine, and those are meant with whom these are, for all such are witnesses.

[2] When the end of the church is at hand, it is then provided by the Lord that a new church shall succeed, because without a church in which the Word is, and in which the Lord is known, the world could not continue to exist. For without the Word, and the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord, heaven could not be conjoined to the human race, and consequently the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord could not flow-in with new life. And without conjunction with heaven, and by that means with the Lord, a man would not be a man, but a beast; for this reason a new church is always provided by the Lord, when the old comes to its end. The reason why the beginning only of a new church is meant, and not yet its establishment, will be shown in the explanation of the verse that follows.

[3] That by the spirit of life from God, or by the spirit of God, and by the Holy Spirit, is meant the proceeding Divine from the Lord, called the Divine Truth, from which are all wisdom and intelligence, has been said and shown above (n. 24, 183, 318). It is this proceeding Divine that illustrates man, and flows into him, when he is being reformed and regenerated, thus when the church commences and is being established in him, as is very clear from the passages quoted from the Word above (n. 183), and also from this in Ezekiel:

Jehovah "said unto me, Prophesy about the spirit, and prophesy, Son of Man, and say unto the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovih, Come, O spirit, from the four winds, and breathe into these slain, that they may live; and when I prophesied, the spirit entered into them, and they lived again, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army" (37:9, 10).

[4] This treats of the dry bones seen by the prophet upon the faces of the valley, by which the house of Israel is signified, as is plainly declared in verse 11 of the same chapter. And the house of Israel signifies the church, which house or church is there compared to dry bones, because it possesses no good of love or truth of doctrine. The establishment of a new church by the in-breathing of new life, or by regeneration, is described by the sinews, flesh, and skin, with which the bones were clothed and encompassed, and especially by the spirit which entered into them, and from which they lived. The spirit in them also signifies there the reception of the influx of Divine Truth, and spiritual life therefrom. The prophet said unto the wind, "come, O spirit, from the four winds," because the four winds signify the four quarters in the spiritual world, and the four quarters there signify the goods of love and the truths of doctrine in their entirety. Concerning the signification of these things it may be seen above (n. 417, 418, 419, 422, and in the Heaven and Hell, 141-150).

4067. 'And behold, he was not at all friendly towards him as before' means that towards the good meant by 'Jacob' the state was completely altered; yet nothing had been taken away from that good, for it possessed what was its own as it had done previously, apart from its link with [the intermediate good]. This becomes clear from the statement that 'he was not at all friendly towards him as before' meaning that the state had altered completely towards Jacob, that is, towards the good meant by 'Jacob'; and from what was said previously [in 30:31] about nothing being received from Laban, that is, from the good meant by 'Laban'. Rather it possessed what was its own as it had done previously.

[2] To enable people to understand the way in which goods and truths exist with a person, something scarcely known by anyone must be revealed. It is indeed known and acknowledged that all good and all truth come from the Lord; and some also acknowledge the existence of influx, the nature of which however remains unknown to man. Now because no knowledge exists, at least no acknowledgement in the heart, of the truth that around man spirits and angels are present and that the internal man dwells in the midst of these and is thereby governed by the Lord, there is little belief in that truth even when it is spoken about. Countless communities exist in the next life, and these are arranged and set in order by the Lord according to all the genera of good and truth; also communities that are the complete opposite, according to all the genera of evil and falsity. They are so arranged and set in order that no genus of good or truth exists, nor any species of that genus, nor even any specific difference, which does not have [a link with] such angelic communities, that is, to which angelic communities do not correspond. Nor on the other hand does any genus of evil or falsity exist, or any species of that genus, or even any specific difference, to which communities of devils do not correspond. Interiorly, that is, as regards his thoughts and affections, everyone is within a community of such angels or devils, although he is not actually aware of it. Everything that a person thinks and wills originates there, so much so that if the communities of spirits or angels in which he dwells were taken away from him, he would instantly cease to have any thought or will at all; indeed he would instantly fall down completely dead. Such is the nature of man's state of being, though he believes that he himself is the originator of all he thinks and wills, and that neither hell nor heaven exists, or that hell is far removed from him, and heaven too.

[3] What is more, the good present with a person seems to him to be something that is a simple or single whole, but in fact it is something so complex, consisting of so many varying features, that he cannot possibly explore even so much as its general ones. And the same applies to the evil present with a person. But as is the good present with a person, so is the community of angels present with him; and as is the evil present with a person, so is the community of evil spirits present with him. A person chooses certain communities for himself, that is, he places himself within one of these; for like is brought into association with like. For example, one who is grasping chooses for himself communities of like-minded spirits who are motivated by his kind of desire; one who loves himself pre-eminently and despises others chooses for himself others who are like himself; while one who takes delight in acts of revenge chooses for himself such as delight in these; and so on with everyone else. Those spirits are in communication with hell, with man in the midst of them and utterly under their control, so much so that he is not under his own jurisdiction but under theirs, although he imagines from the delight he experiences, and so from the freedom he has, that he is in control of himself. But one who is not grasping, or one who does not love himself pre-eminently and does not despise others, or one who does not take delight in acts of revenge, dwells in a community of like-minded angels and through them is led by the Lord, and indeed by means of freedom to everything good and true to which he allows himself to be led. And as he allows himself to be led to good which is more interior and more perfect, so he is conveyed to more interior and more perfect angelic communities. His changes of state are nothing else than changes of communities. The truth of this is evident to me from continuing experience which has lasted for several years now, from which it has become something as ordinary and everyday for me as any ordinary everyday thing experienced by anyone since he was a young child.

[4] These considerations now make clear the situation with the regeneration of man, and with the intermediate delights and forms of good by which a person is conveyed by the Lord from the state of the old man to that of the new, that is to say, it is effected by means of angelic communities and by changes of those communities. Intermediate forms of good and delight are nothing else than such communities, with which the Lord brings man into contact so that by means of them he may be introduced to spiritual and celestial kinds of good and truth. Once he has been conveyed to these, those communities are separated, and more interior and more perfect ones become linked to him. Nothing else than this is understood by the intermediate good meant by 'Laban', and nothing else by the separation of that good, which is the subject of the present chapter.