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.

5801. 'Have you a father, or a brother?' means the good that is the source, and the truth that is the means. This is clear from the representation of Israel, to whom 'a father' refers here, as spiritual good or the good of truth, dealt with in 3654, 4598, good that is the source being meant because spiritual good is the source from which truths in the natural derive; and from the representation of Benjamin, to whom 'a brother' refers here, as truth, truth that is the means being meant because truth is the means by which the truths of the Church present in the natural, represented by 'Jacob's sons', are joined to spiritual good, represented by 'Israel'. And since the joining together is effected by means of that truth, much is said about how their father loved Benjamin, who represents that truth, and about how Judah together with the rest could not return to their father unless Benjamin was with them. For more about that truth, see below in 5835. ¹

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