62. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA

Love is the esse of man's life (n. 5002). Man, spirit, and angel, are altogether as their love is (n. 6872, 10177, 10284). Man has for an end what he loves (n. 3796). What man loves and has for an end reigns universally with him, that is, in each and all things (n. 3796, 5130, 5949). Love is spiritual heat, and the very vital principle of man (n. 1589, 2146, 3338, 4906, 7081-7086, 9954, 10740). All the interiors with man, which are of his understanding and will, are disposed in a form according to his ruling love (n. 2023, 3189, 6690). Love is spiritual conjunction (n. 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195-6196, 7081-7086, 7501, 10130). Hence all in the spiritual world are consociated according to their loves (ibid.). Affection is continuation of love (n. 3938). All delight, pleasure, happiness, and joy of heart, are of love; and their quality is according to the quality of the love (n. 994-995, 2204). There are as many genera and species of delights and pleasures as there are of the affections which are of the love (n. 994-995, 2204). The delight of the love is more vile in proportion as it is more external (n. 996). Man after death has such a life as is the quality of his love (n. 2363).

2204. 'And my lord being old' means that the affection for truth was amazed that rational good to which truth was allied was also to cast off the human. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham', to whom 'my lord' refers here, as rational good and from the representation of 'Sarah' as rational truth, dealt with above in 2198 and elsewhere; and also from the meaning of 'growing old' as casting off the human, also dealt with in 2198. Human rational good is such that it has much within it which is derived from worldly delights, for that good is formed not only from truths but also from the delights of the senses and from many other delights that exist in the world. When a person is being reformed and regenerated spiritual good is implanted by the Lord in those delights, and by means of this good that which is worldly is mellowed, and after that accordingly receives its happiness from that spiritual good. But the Lord completely expelled from the rational everything worldly and so made it Divine. And it is this that amazed rational truth meant by 'Sarah'.