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.

661. Standing beside the sea of glass, having harps of God. This symbolizes the Christian heaven at the boundaries [of the spiritual world], and the faith accompanying charity in the people there.

Since the sea of glass symbolizes a gathering of people who have religion and worship indeed, but lack any goodness of life (no. 659), therefore those whom John saw standing beside that sea symbolize the Christian heaven at its boundaries, consisting of people who have religion and worship and possess goodness of life, because they had the victory over the beast and over its image.

A higher Christian heaven was the subject of the preceding chapter. Those of whom that heaven was formed are meant by the one hundred and forty-four thousand whom John saw standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, as explained in nos. 612-625. Their harps symbolize a confession of the Lord in consequence of spiritual truths (nos. 276, 616). Spiritual truths are those of a faith springing from charity.

[2] John's seeing the people with harps and hearing them sing a song, as we are told next, was a representational depiction of a confession stemming from a faith accompanying charity. The affections in the thoughts of angels in heaven and the consequent intonations in their speech are heard in various ways in the spiritual world below, either as the sound of water, or as the sound of thunder, as in chapter 14:2 above. Or it may be heard as the sound of trumpets, as in chapter 4:1 above. Or, as in the present case, as the sound of harps, as also in chapter 5:8; 14:2. But still, it is not the sound of water, nor the rumbling of thunder, nor the sounding of a trumpet or harp; indeed, it is not the sound of singing. Rather it is the speech of angels and their confessions in accordance with their affections and consequent thoughts that are thus heard below, from which one may perceive the character of their love and wisdom.

The ways angels' speech is heard is due to the correspondence of affection with sound and of thought with speech.