7217. 'For shortness of breath' means because of the state in which they were close to despair. This is clear from the meaning of 'shortness of breath' as a state in which a person is close to despair; for those passing through that state experience shortness of breath. ¹ That state is meant by the burden which Pharaoh placed on the children of Israel - to gather their own straw to make bricks - as shown at the end of the previous chapter. The fact that 'shortness of breath' means a state in which a person is close to despair may be recognized from the consideration that those passing through this kind of state suffer inward distress and at the same time actual shortness of breath. In the external sense 'shortness of breath' is a tight feeling around the chest and an apparent inability to breathe properly. But in the internal sense it is distress caused by being deprived of the truth of faith and the good of charity, and is consequently a state close to despair. A feeling of tightness and the distress caused by being deprived of the truth of faith and the good of charity go with each other as natural effect in the body produced by spiritual cause in the mind, as may be seen from what has been shown in 97, 1119, 3886, 3887, 3889, 3892, 3893.

[2] Those without any faith or charity are unable to believe that the deprivation of spiritual truth and good gives rise to such distress and consequently such shortness of breath. They suppose that anyone who feels distress on account of that deprivation must be weak in the head and mentally ill; and the reason why they suppose this is that they see nothing real in faith and charity, or thus in the things that belong to their souls and those that belong to heaven; for them only wealth and prominence, thus things belonging to the body and the world possess any reality. They also think, 'What are faith and charity? Are they not mere words? And what indeed is conscience? Feeling distressed on account of these is feeling distressed on account of the kinds of things that insane imagination causes a person to suppose to be something when in fact they are nothing. But what wealth and prominence are, we can see with our eyes and feel with pleasure that they really exist, for they swell the body and fill it with joy.' This is how people who are wholly natural think and talk to one another. But those who are spiritual think in a different way; for them the life in their spirit is primary, thus the life in the things that belong to the spirit, which are faith and charity. Therefore when they think that they are being deprived of the truths and forms of good that compose faith and charity they suffer agony like those undergoing the throes of death, for they see spiritual death, that is, damnation, before them. As stated above, these people are seen by those who are wholly natural to be soft in the head and ill in mind or spirit. But they are sound in the head and healthy in mind, whereas those who are wholly natural see themselves as being sound and healthy, as indeed they are physically. But they are completely unhealthy in spirit, because spiritually they are dead. If they saw what their spirit was like they would acknowledge this; but they do not see it until after the death of their body.

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97. A further reason why life is described as breathing and breath is that members of the Most Ancient Church perceived states of love and faith by means of states of breathing, which states changed step by step in their descendants. To say anything as yet about that type of breathing is not possible since it is completely hidden from men at the present day. The most ancient people were well acquainted with it, and so are people in the next life; but nobody on earth up to now has been acquainted with it. This is why people used to liken the spirit or life to the wind, including the Lord when talking about man's regeneration, in John,

The spirit (or wind) blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who has been begotten of the spirit. John 3:8.

Similarly in David,

By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all their host by the spirit (or wind) of His mouth. Psalms 33:6.

And in the same author,

You gatherest up their spirit, they breathe their last and return to their dust. You send forth Your spirit, they are created, and You renewest the face ¹ of the ground. Psalms 104:29-30.

That 'breath' stands for the life inherent in faith and love is clear in Job,

It is the spirit in a man, and the breath of Shaddai ² makes them understand. Job 32:8.

Also in the same book,

The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of Shaddai ² has given me life. Job 33:4.

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