8644. Moses’ father-in-law. That this signifies from which is good conjoined with truth Divine, is evident from the signification of “father-in-law,” as being the good from which is the good that is conjoined with truth (see n. 6827); and from the representation of Moses, as being truth Divine (n. 6752, 6771, 7010, 7014, 7382). The reason why “a father-in-law” signifies good from which is good conjoined with truth, is that “a wife” signifies good when “the man” signifies truth (n. 2517, 4510, 4823). As in what follows, the conjunction of Divine good with Divine truth is treated of, whereby a setting in order may be effected in the man of the church, be it known that between Divine good and Divine truth there is this distinction: that Divine good is in the Lord, and Divine truth is from the Lord. It is as with the fire of the sun and the light which is therefrom; the fire is in the sun, and the light is from the sun; in the light there is not fire but heat.

[2] Moreover in the other life the Lord is the Sun, and also is the light. In the Sun there, which is Himself, is Divine fire, which is the Divine good of the Divine love. From that Sun is Divine light, which is Divine truth from Divine good. In this Divine truth there is also Divine good, but not such as is in the Sun, it being accommodated to reception in heaven; for unless it were accommodated to reception, heaven could not have come into existence, because no angel can bear the flame from the Divine love. He would be consumed in a moment, as would a man if the flame of the sun of this world should blow directly upon him.

[3] But how the Divine good of the Lord’s Divine love is accommodated to reception, cannot be known by anyone, not even by the angels in heaven, because it is an accommodation of the Infinite to the finite; and the Infinite is such as to transcend all the understanding of the finite, insomuch that when the understanding of the finite desires to look in that direction, it falls as into the depth of the sea and perishes. (That the Lord is the Sun in heaven, and that the Sun there is the Divine good of His Divine love, and that the light therefrom is Divine truth, from which is intelligence, see n. 1053, 1521-1533, 1619-1632, 2776, 3094, 3138, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3339, 3341, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4180, 4302, 4408, 4409, 4415, 4523, 4533, 4696, 7083, 7171, 7174, 7270, 8197)

4533. Among the wonderful things that take place in the other life is also this, that when the angels of heaven look at evil spirits, the latter appear altogether different from what they appear to one another. When evil spirits and genii are by themselves, and in their own fatuous luminosity (which as before said is like that of a coal fire), they appear to themselves to be in a human form, and also according to their phantasies not uncomely. But when the same are looked at by the angels of heaven, that luminosity is instantly dissipated, and they appear with totally different faces, each according to his genius. Some are dusky and black like devils; some have ghastly faces like that of a corpse; some have almost no face at all, and instead of a face there is a mass of hair; some are like grates of teeth; some like skeletons; and what was still more strange, some are like monsters, the deceitful are like serpents, and the most deceitful are like vipers, while others appear differently. But as soon as the angels remove their look from them, they appear in their own previous form, such as they have in their own luminosity. The angels look at the evil whenever they observe them trying to get out of their hells into the world of spirits, intending to do evil to others; and in this way they are detected and are cast back again. The reason why there is such an efficacy in the look of the angels, is that there is a correspondence between intellectual sight and that of the eye; and therefore there is a sharp-sightedness in their look, before which the infernal luminosity is dissipated, and evil spirits appear in the form and genius that belong to them.