201. Since the character of the earliest people in the times before the Flood is not to be seen or found these days, it is not easy to explain the real meaning of these words. The real meaning is common knowledge in heaven, though, because those angels and angelic spirits who are called heavenly have the same nature as regenerate people of the earliest days, before the Flood. But the angels and angelic spirits who are called spiritual share the characteristics of regenerate people living after the Flood. Both natures come in unlimited variety. ¹

Footnotes:

459. There are three heavens. The first is where good spirits are, the second where angelic spirits are, and the third where actual angels are.

Spirits, angelic spirits, and angels are each as a group divided up into heavenly and spiritual types. The heavenly ones are those whom love has led to receive faith from the Lord, as those who were part of the earliest church did; they have already been described [§§32:2, 34, 202]. The spiritual ones are those whom religious knowledge has led to receive a feeling of charity from the Lord and then to act on it.

More on this subject follows at the end of the chapter [§§537-546].