7966. 'And the people carried their dough before the yeast was added' means the first state of truth from good, in which there is no falsity at all. This is clear from the meaning of 'dough' as truth from good, for 'meal' and 'fine flour' mean truth, 'dough' that is made from them means the good of truth, and 'bread' that is made out of the dough means the good of love; and when 'bread' means the good of love the other things - 'dough' and 'meal' - mean forms of good and truth in their proper order (for the meaning of 'bread' as the good of love, see 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4117, 4735, 4976, 5915); and from the meaning of 'before the yeast was added' as that in which there is no falsity at all. For the meaning of 'yeast' as falsity, see above in 7906.

[2] This is plainly their first state, that is to say, when they were delivered, since it says that the people carried the dough; they were doing so when they went out. Their second state however is described in verse 39 below, where it says that they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes since no yeast had been added, meaning that from the truth of good further good was produced that had no evil at all in it. These are the two states in which those belonging to the spiritual Church, when governed by good, are maintained by the Lord. In the first state good present in the will is the standpoint from which they see and contemplate truth; in the second good and truth now wedded together are the source from which they produce truths, which through the willing and doing of them become further forms of good, and so on repeatedly. Such are the direct products and further developments of truth among those who belong to the spiritual Church. In the spiritual world this whole process is portrayed in a representative manner, as a tree with leaves and fruit. The leaves portray truths, the fruit forms of the good of truth, and the seeds forms of good itself from which everything else springs.

3464. 'And pointed out to him the reasons for the well which they had dug; and they said to him, We have found water' means interior truths obtained by means of these. This is clear from the meaning of 'a well' as the Word, dealt with in 3424, and from the meaning of 'water' as truths, dealt with in 2702, that is to say, truths drawn from the Word. 'Pointing out to him the reasons for the well which they had dug' accordingly means concerning the Word, the source of matters of doctrine; 'and they said to him, We have found water' means that it is in these, that is to say, in matters of doctrine, that interior truths reside; for as stated above, all matters of doctrine drawn from the literal sense of the Word include interior truths within them. For the literal sense of the Word is like a well with water in it, in that every single thing in the Word holds within itself the internal sense, which resides also in matters of doctrine drawn from the Word.

[2] The situation with matters of doctrine drawn from the literal sense of the Word is that when anyone possesses them and at the same time lives according to them a correspondence exists within himself. For the angels who reside with him are alive to the interior truths when he is alive to the exterior; and in this way he has communication with heaven by means of matters of doctrine, though this is conditioned by how good a life he leads. For example, when at the Holy Supper this person in simplicity thinks about the Lord from the words 'This is My body' and 'This is My blood' the angels residing with him have in mind love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour; for love to the Lord corresponds to the Lord's body and to the bread, while charity towards the neighbour corresponds to His blood and to the wine, 1798, 2165, 2177, 2187. This being the nature of the correspondence, there flows from heaven by way of the angels into that holiness present with the person at that time an affection which he receives according to the good within his life.

[3] Actually angels dwell with every person in the affection that belongs to his life, and so in the affection for the matters of doctrine according to which he lives, but never in the matters of doctrine with which his life is at variance. If his life is at variance with them, as it is if his affection is to gain position and wealth for himself by means of matters of doctrine, the angels in that case depart and spirits from hell dwell in that affection. These either instill their confirmations into him that favour self and the world - thus a false persuasion, which is such that he does not care at all whether a thing is true or false, provided people's attention is drawn to himself - or they take away all faith, in which case the doctrine on that person's lips is merely a sound prompted and fashioned by the fire of those loves.