432. Verse 5. Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed; of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand sealed; of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand sealed.

5. "Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed," signifies love to the Lord, and that all who are in that love are in heaven, and come into heaven n. 433; "of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand sealed," signifies the light of truth from that good, and that all who are in that light are in heaven and come into heaven n. 434; "of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand sealed," signifies the consequent good of life (n. 435, 436).

553. In heaven those who are moved by mutual love are constantly approaching the spring-time of their youth. And the more thousands of years they live the more joyful and happy the spring-time which they are approaching. This process continues for ever, constantly bringing increases in joy and happiness in proportion to the advance and upward progress in mutual love, charity, and faith. Those of the feminine sex who have died worn out with age but who had lived in faith in the Lord, in charity towards the neighbour, and in happy conjugial love with their husbands, as the years pass by come more and more into the first freshness of youth and early womanhood, and into a beauty that excels every idea of beauty which the eye can possibly behold. In fact it is goodness and charity forming and producing a likeness of itself, and causing the joy and beauty of charity to shine out of every individual feature of the face in such a way that these too are forms of charity. When some people have seen these they have been dumbfounded.

[2] The form which charity takes is so plainly visible in the next life that charity itself is that which produces the form, as well as being that which is portrayed within it. Indeed that form is such that the whole of an angel, especially the face, is so to speak charity - charity which is visible to the eye and perceptible to the mind. When it is beheld that form is one of indescribable beauty which stirs with charity the inmost life itself of the beholder's mind. Through the beauty of that form truths of faith are displayed in a visual image from which they also are perceived. People who have lived in faith in the Lord, that is, faith that inheres in charity, in the next life become such forms, that is, forms of beauty. All angels are such forms, endlessly varying; and it is these forms that constitute heaven.

436. From this it can now be seen what the three tribes first named, "Judah, Reuben, and Gad," signify in particular, as also what the three signify in the complex; for the names of persons and places in the Word signify things, not only each by itself signifying its own thing, but in the complex they signify the thing in series. The thing in series that is signified by these three names, "Judah, Reuben, and Gad," is that all who are in love to the Lord, and from that in truths, and through truths in the good of life, are in the inmost or third heaven; for such have the three degrees of life opened; the inmost degree is where love to the Lord has its seat, the middle degree is where truths from that good have their seat, and the ultimate degree is where the good of life has its seat. In every man there are three degrees of life; in those who are in the third heaven the inmost degree is open, for this is opened immediately from the Lord with those who are in love to Him, for through love there is conjunction and thus reception; because of this they are in all truths, which they see in themselves, and by means of these they are in the good of life. (That there are three degrees of life in every angel may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 33, 34; that the third degree is opened with those who are in the third heaven, n. 208, 209; what the quality of the angels of the third heaven is, n. 24-26, 267, 270, 271.)