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.

4548. 'Who answered me on the day of my distress' means within the state in which truth is placed above good. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785. As for 'the day of my distress' meaning a state in which truth is placed above good, this becomes clear from what has been stated above in 4542, for the expression 'the day of distress' used here embodies the same as the words used there, 'When you fled from before Esau your brother'.