450. Amongst these twelve tribes, from each of which twelve thousand are said to be sealed, the tribe of Dan is not mentioned, but in its stead the tribe of Manasseh. The reason of this is, that the tribe of Dan represented and signified such as are now treated of in this chapter of whom John thus speaks:

"After this I saw, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, out of every nation, and [of all] tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands" (verse 9).

For these are they who were not in the very (ipsis) truths of heaven and of the church, but in the good of life according to the doctrinals of their religion, which, for the most part, were not genuine truths, but falsities, and yet were accepted by the Lord as truths, because they were in the good of life, in consequence of which the falsities of their religion were not tinctured with evil, but inclined to good. The reason why they were taken instead of the tribe of Dan, is, that the tribe of Dan was the last of the tribes, and therefore in the kingdom of the Lord, signifies the ultimates, in which those are who are in the good of life and of faith according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths. Concerning the tribe of Dan, see the Arcana Coelestia 1710, 3920, 3923, 6396, 10335).

39. Finally, a certain arcanum respecting the angels of the three heavens, which has not hitherto come into any one's mind, because degrees have not been understood, may be related. In every angel and also in every man there is an inmost or highest degree, or an inmost or highest something, into which the Divine of the Lord primarily or proximately flows, and from which it disposes the other interiors in him that follow in accordance with the degrees of order. This inmost or highest degree may be called the entrance of the Lord to the angel or man, and His veriest dwelling-place in them. It is by virtue of this inmost or highest that a man is a man, and is distinguished from irrational animals, for these do not have it. From this it is that man, unlike the animals, is capable, in respect to all his interiors which pertain to his mind and disposition, of being raised up by the Lord to Himself, of believing in the Lord, of being moved by love to the Lord, and thereby beholding Him, and of receiving intelligence and wisdom, and speaking from reason. Also, it is by virtue of this that he lives to eternity. But what is arranged and provided by the Lord in this inmost does not distinctly flow into the perception of any angel, because it is above his thought and transcends his wisdom.