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.

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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