792. 18:22 "The sound of harpists and musicians, flutists and trumpeters, shall not be heard in you anymore." This symbolically means that they will not have in them any affection for spiritual truth and goodness, nor any affection for celestial truth and goodness.

A sound means tone, and every tone corresponds to some affection relating to love, since it originates from love. For this reason, the sounds of harps, music, flutes and trumpets, because of their correspondence, symbolize affections.

Affections, however, are of two types: spiritual and celestial. Spiritual affections are affections connected with wisdom, while celestial affections are affections connected with love. They differ from each other in the same way as the heavens, which have been distinguished into two kingdoms, celestial and spiritual, as we have said several times before.

The sounds of some musical instruments, therefore, relate to spiritual affections, and the sounds of others to celestial affections - the sound or tone of harpists and musicians relating to spiritual affections, and the sound or tone of flutists and trumpeters relating to celestial affections. For instruments whose tones sound in distinct intervals, like stringed instruments, belong to the spiritual class of affections, while instruments whose tones are continuous, like wind instruments, belong to the celestial class of affections. Thus the sound or tone of harpists and musicians symbolizes an affection for spiritual truth and goodness, while the sound or tone of flutists and trumpeters symbolizes an affection for celestial truth and goodness.

That the sound of a harp, owing to its correspondence, symbolizes confession from an affection for spiritual truth, may be seen in nos. 276, 661.

[2] The meaning here is that no affections for spiritual truth and goodness and no affections for celestial truth and goodness are found in people who are caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion, because we are told that "the sound of harpists and musicians, flutists and trumpeters, shall not be heard in you anymore." None are found because in their case none are possible; for they do not have any truth from the Word, and lacking truth, they do not have any goodness. Goodness is possible only in people who desire truths. But the only people who desire truths from a spiritual affection are those who turn to the Lord. After death they are instructed by angels and receive truths in accordance with their desire.

The external affections they have when they hear masses said and in other devotions, being without truths from the Lord through the Word, are nothing but merely natural, sensual and carnal affections. And because that is their character, and they have no internal affections from the Lord, it is no wonder that they are brought in that dark and blind state to a worship of men, living and dead, and to the sacrifices of demons, called plutos, to atone for their souls.

276. Each having a lyre. This symbolizes a confession of the Lord's Divine humanity springing from spiritual truths.

We know that in the Temple in Jerusalem, confessions of Jehovah were made with songs and musical instruments, and these had a correspondence. The instruments were principally horns and timbrels, harps and lyres. Horns and timbrels corresponded to celestial goods and truths, while harps and lyres corresponded to spiritual goods and truths. The correpondences were with their sounds.

The difference between celestial good and truth and spiritual good and truth may be seen in the book Heaven and Hell, 13-19nos. and .

That lyres symbolize confessions of the Lord springing from spiritual truths can be seen from the following passages:

Confess Jehovah with the lyre; make music to Him with a harp of ten strings. (Psalms 33:2)

...on the lyre I will confess You, O God, my God. (Psalms 43:4)

...I will confess you with the instrument of a harp... I will sing to You with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. (Psalms 71:22)

Awake (me), harp and lyre... I will confess You among the nations, O Lord. (Psalms 57:8-9; 108:2, 3)

Answer Jehovah by confession, make music to our God with the lyre. (Psalms 147:7)

It is good to confess to Jehovah... on the harp, and on the melodious sound of the lyre. (Psalms 92:1-3)

Make a noise to Jehovah, all the earth... Sing to Jehovah with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of singing. (Psalms 98:4, 5)

And so on in many other places, as in Psalms 49:3-4; 137:1-2, Revelation 14:2; 18:22.

Since lyres corresponded to a confession of the Lord, and evil spirits cannot endure it, therefore David used a lyre to drive away the evil spirit from Saul (1 Samuel 16:14-16, 23).

To learn that it was not lyres that John heard, but confessions of the Lord that sounded like lyres, see no. 661 below.