12. The sixth state is when he utters truths and performs good deeds from faith and consequently from love. What he brings forth at this point are called a living creature and a beast. And because at this point he starts to act from faith and also simultaneously from love, he becomes a spiritual man, who is called an image. The spiritual life of that man finds its delight in, and is sustained by, the things which are associated with cognitions of faith and with charitable acts, which are called his food; and his natural life finds its delight in, and is sustained by, those which belong to the body and the senses. The latter give rise to conflict until love rules and he becomes a celestial man.

5797. 'Let your servant, I beg you, speak a word in my lord's ears means a pleading to be received and heard. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking a word' as an influx, dealt with in 2951, 5481, and as it is an influx reception on the part of the other is meant, 5743; and from the meaning of 'ears' as obedience, dealt with in 4551, 4653, in this case a sympathetic listening or hearing, since an inferior is speaking to one superior to himself. From this it is evident that 'let your servant, I beg you, speak a word in my lord's ears' means a pleading to be received and heard.