41. Anything that is man's own has no life in it; and when depicted visually it looks like something hard as a bone and black. But anything that comes from the Lord does contain life. It has that which is spiritual and celestial within it, and when depicted visually it looks human and alive. It is perhaps incredible, but nevertheless absolutely true, that every expression, every idea, and every least thought of an angelic spirit is alive. In even the most detailed areas of his thought there is an affection that comes from the Lord, who is life itself. Consequently all that derives from the Lord has life within it, for it contains faith in Him, and is here meant by 'a living creature'. It then has the outward appearance of a body, meant here by that which is moving, or creeping. To man these matters remain arcana, but since the subject here is the living and moving creature, they ought at least to be mentioned here.

2937. 'For the full price' means redemption by means of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, and from the meaning of 'let him give it to me in - that is, for - silver', as buying, and in the spiritual sense as redeeming. For spiritual people are called 'those bought with silver', see 2048; that is, they are redeemed by means of truth. The reason for this is that they are being regenerated, that is to say, are being initiated into good, by means of the truth of faith. For the spiritual man, unlike the celestial, does not have any perception of good. Instead he knows through truth, and after that acknowledges from truth, that which is good. And when he acknowledges and believes, truth to him becomes good and he experiences it as good whose essential nature is the same as the truth with him. This is why spiritual people are called those redeemed by means of truth. Yet the essential nature of the good is not born and produced from truth, but from the influx of good into truth of that nature.