894. 'At the beginning, on the first of the month' means a starting point. This is now clear from what has been said above. Everything that this statement embodies is an arcanum so deep that it cannot be described, except for just the point that no definite period of time ever exists when anyone is regenerate enough to be able to say, 'Now I am perfect'. In fact an unlimited number of states of evil and falsity exist with everyone, not only simple states but also varied and complex ones which, as has been stated, have to be disposed of in such a way that they do not recur. In some states a person can be called fairly perfect, but in countless others he cannot. People who have been regenerated during their lifetime, and in whose lives faith in the Lord and charity towards the neighbour have been present, are in the next life being perfected all the time.

7443. 'And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, on which My people stand, so that the noxious flying insects are not there' means that they will not be able to use malevolent falsities to molest those who belong to the spiritual Church even though they are near them. This is clear from the meaning of 'setting apart' as separating to prevent communication; from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, so that 'setting apart on that day' is separating during that state; from the meaning of 'the land of Goshen' as the middle or inmost part in the natural, dealt with in 5910, 6028, 6031, 6068, and also, since the children of Israel were in the land of Goshen, as the Church, 6649; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom 'Jehovah's people' refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 7439; and from the meaning of 'noxious flying insects' as malevolent falsity, dealt with above in 7441, so that 'the noxious flying insects are not there' means that they will not be able to flow in, and therefore not be able to use those falsities for molesting others. The reason why they would be unable to use those falsities to molest with is this: Those falsities are falsities arising from the evils present in the outermost parts of the natural mind which form the level of the senses, and those who have what is good and true within them can be raised above that level, and so above the falsities there, as accords with what has been stated immediately above in 7442. And when they are raised above it they are also separated from those who are steeped in the falsities there.