8497. 'And all that is left over put aside for yourselves to keep until the morning' means the enjoyment of all goodness and truth then as if from what was their own. This is clear from the meaning of 'putting aside what is left over till the morning' as enjoyment on the sabbath day, the reason why the enjoyment of goodness and truth is meant being that they were to put aside what was left over from the things they baked and boiled and to eat it on that day ('baking' means the preparation of good, and 'boiling' the preparation of truth, as has been shown immediately above in 8496, and 'eating' means enjoying and making one's own, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 3832, 4745, 7849); and from the meaning of 'for yourselves to keep' as, as if it - the enjoyment - was from what was their own. The reason why these things are meant by those words is that goodness and truth which flow in from the Lord are joined together and so to speak made the person's own. This is what the joining of heaven, that is, of those in heaven, to the Lord is like. The words 'as if from what was their own' are used because the good of faith and charity can never be imparted to man or angel to be actually his own, for men and angels are merely recipients, or forms properly adjusted to receive life from the Lord, and so goodness and truth from Him. True life comes from no other source; and since life comes from the Lord it cannot be more than what seems to be a person's own. Those who abide in the Lord however clearly perceive that life flows in, consequently that goodness and truth do so since these are contained in that life. The reason why life seems to be a person's own is that in His Divine Love the Lord wishes to impart and join to a person all that is His, and so far as it can be done He does join it. What is then the person's own, yet is imparted to him by the Lord, is called a heavenly self or proprium, see 731, 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891, 3812 (end), 5660.

2891. Those who have become spirits only recently torment themselves very much by trying to grasp the idea that no one is able to do good of himself, or to think what is true of himself, but that he does so from the Lord. For they believe that if that idea is true they would accordingly be like mere machines and have control of nothing at all; and that being so they would let hands hang down and allow themselves to be acted upon. But they are told that they ought by all means to think, to will, and to do good of themselves, and that in no other way could they have a heavenly proprium and heavenly freedom. But they are also told that they ought nevertheless to acknowledge that good and truth do not originate in themselves but in the Lord, and they are informed that such acknowledgement and indeed perception that this is so exists with all angels. And the more keenly they perceive that they are led by the Lord and so abide in Him the more they are in freedom.