694. And thine anger is come, and the time of the dead to be judged.- That this signifies the last judgment upon those who interiorly possess in themselves nothing of good and truth, is evident from the signification of anger, as meaning in reference to the Lord, a last judgment (concerning which see above n. 413); that this is signified here by anger is clear, for the words, "and the time of the dead, to be judged" follow; and from the signification of the dead, as denoting those who interiorly possess in themselves nothing of good and truth. Such are called dead, because the very life of man is his spiritual life, for through this he is a man, and is distinguished from the beasts, which have only a natural life. In man the natural life without the spiritual life is dead, since it has not heaven in itself, which is called life and also eternal life, but hell, which is spiritually called death. That those who live a natural life merely, and not at the same time a spiritual life, are meant by the dead in the Word, may be seen above (n. 78). That death, when spoken of man, means a lack of ability to understand truth and perceive good, may also be seen above (n. 550); and this defect exists when the internal spiritual man has not been formed, for this is formed by means of truths from good. In this internal man resides the faculty of understanding truth and of perceiving good, for this man is in heaven and in the light thereof, and he who is in the light of heaven is a living man. But when the natural man only has been formed, and not at the same time the spiritual, then there is no faculty of understanding and perceiving the truths and goods of heaven and of the church, because such a man has no light from heaven; for this reason such a man is called dead. That those who do not interiorly possess in themselves anything of good and truth are here meant by the dead who are to be judged, is evident also from what has been said before about the separation of the evil from the good before the Last Judgment, and from this, that the evil, when they have been separated, come into their interiors, which abound in mere evils and falsities; this makes it clear, that interiorly they were dead, although in the external form they appeared to be living.

8985. 'And if the slave says plainly' means thought then springing from the implanted truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as thought, dealt with in 7094, 7107, 7244; and from the meaning of 'the slave' as truth without complementary good, dealt with in 8974, at this point this truth when it has been strengthened and implanted, since it is speaking of that slave when about to go out, 8984. 'The slave' is said to mean truth, though a person imbued with truth devoid of complementary good is meant. The reason for saying that 'the slave' means truth and not a person imbued with such truth is that when angels speak they do so in the abstract, that is, without envisaging actual persons. For in heaven they think about matters without envisaging persons, because when their thought involves persons it brings to mind a community associated with the matter they are thinking about; and when this happens their thought is narrowed down to and becomes fixed on that community.

[2] In heaven thinking about a place leads to being present in that place, and their presence in that community would attract towards itself the thoughts of those within the community, and so would disrupt the inflow from the Divine there. It is quite different when they speak in the abstract about some matter; their thought then spreads out in every direction in accord with the heavenly form which the influx emanating from the Divine produces, without causing disruption in any community. For it reaches into communities' general spheres, yet without having an effect on or unsettling anyone within the community, and so without impairing anyone's freedom to think in accord with the inflow from the Divine. In short, abstract thought can pass through the whole of heaven without hindrance anywhere; but thought narrowed down to persons or places becomes fixed and static.