822. Whose stroke of death was healed, signifies and thus the discordance was cleared away by devised conjunctions of works with faith. This is evident from the signification of "the stroke of death was healed" with the first beast, as being the discordance apparently cleared away by devised conjunctions of works with faith (See above, n. 786), where the same words occur). It is said, the discordance cleared away by devised conjunctions of works with faith, but what the nature of the conjunctions devised by them is, namely, that they are rather separations, may be seen in the place cited above.

[2] As it has been shown that in the Word of the Evangelists the apostle John signifies good works, which are also called the goods of charity and the goods of life, and that it was on account of this signification that John reclined on the Lord's breast, I will now show what good works are; but here only that they include in themselves all things of charity and faith that are with man. No one has known heretofore that all things of man's life are in his works, since works seem to be mere movements, which are called actions because they are alive with man, and are called speech because they are effected by movements of the mouth, tongue, and larynx. And yet these are what make manifest the charity and faith in man, and also complete and perfect them; and this for the reason that neither faith nor charity is with man until they actually exist; and they actually exist in works.

[3] All the things of charity and faith that are with man are in works, because works are the activities arising from his will and thought; and all things of the will and thought are brought forth and poured out into works, precisely as all things of cause into effects, and all things of a seed and tree into fruits; for works are their complements. That this is so is not apparent before man's eyes, but is apparent perceptibly before the angels. When man is in the exercise of charity the sphere of all his affections and of the consequent thoughts is seen about him like clear water, and sometimes like a cloud, either bright white or obscure; and this sphere contains all things of his mind in their complex; and from it what is the quality of the man in respect to all things belonging to him is known to the angels. The reason is that everyone is his own love; and the works therefrom are what cause that love to be active, and when it is active it pours itself out round about him. This spiritual sphere manifests itself not only before the sight as an undulation, but also before the sight in various representative forms, and this to the extent that by those representatives the man, spirit, or angel, is seen precisely as he is.

[4] Another reason why works contain in themselves all things of the mind is that all successive things, which advance in their order from highest to lowest, or from first things to last, form in things lowest or ultimate what is simultaneous, in which all things higher or prior coexist. But what successive order is and what simultaneous order is may be seen above (n. 595, 666), also in the Arcana Coelestia 634, 3691, 4145, 5114, 5897, 6239, 6326, 6465, 9215, 9216, 9828, 9836, 10044, 10099, 10329, 10335. Moreover, works are the ultimate things of man springing from his interiors, which are in successive order. From all this it is clear that in these works all things of man's will and thought, consequently all things of his love and faith coexist. This, then, is why works are so often commanded in the Word by the Lord, and why man must be judged according to his works.

[5] From this it is clear what kind of man he is who separates faith from works, namely, that he has no faith, and that his works are evil, springing from the love of self and of the world, covered over and encompassed by such things as pertain to faith, but contaminated and profaned by the evils that are within. When, therefore, such a man is let into his interiors, as takes place after death when he becomes a spirit, all things belonging to his faith, which constituted the circumferences, are cast off and scattered. From this it can be seen why John, who represented the goods of charity or good works, reclined at the Lord's breast, and that he and not Peter followed the Lord; also why he abode with the Lord's mother after the Lord's resurrection.

5114. 'And on the vine three shoots' means derivatives from this even to the final one. This is clear from the meaning of 'the vine' as the understanding part, dealt with immediately above in 5113; from the meaning of 'three' as complete and continuous even to the end, dealt with in 2788, 4495; and from the meaning of 'shoots' as derivatives; for since 'the vine' means the understanding part, 'shoots' means nothing else than derivatives from this. Because 'three' means that which is continuous even to the end, that is, which goes from first to last, 'three shoots' means derivative degrees extending from the understanding part to the final level, which is that of the senses. The first in the sequence is the actual understanding part, and the last is the senses. In general the understanding part is the sight which the internal man possesses and which sees by the light of heaven radiating from the Lord; and everything it sees is spiritual or celestial. But the senses, in general, belong to the external man; and here the sensory power of sight is meant because this corresponds to and is subordinate to the understanding part. The sensory power of sight sees by the light of the world radiating from the sun; and everything it sees is worldly, bodily, or earthly.

[2] In the human being there exist derivatives from the understanding part that dwells in the light of heaven; and they extend to the senses which dwell in the light of the world. Unless these derivatives existed the senses could not possess any life of a human quality. A person does not owe the life which his senses possess to what he sees by the light of the world, for the light of the world holds no life within it; he owes it to what he sees by the light of heaven, for this light does hold life within it. When the light of heaven falls on the perceptions a person has gained by the light of the world, it brings life to them and enables him to see objects in an intelligent manner, and thus as a human being. In this way a person possessing factual knowledge born from things which he has seen and heard in the world, and therefore from those which have entered in through the senses, comes to possess intelligence and wisdom, on which in turn he bases his public, private, and spiritual life.

[3] As regards derivatives specifically, the nature of their existence in a person is such that no brief explanation of them is possible. They exist as degrees, like steps, from the understanding part down to the senses. But no one can have any conception of those degrees unless he knows how they are related to one another, that is to say, that they are quite distinct and separate from one another, so distinct that interior degrees can come into being and remain in being without exterior ones, but not exterior degrees without interior ones. For example, a person's spirit can remain in being without a material body, as it also actually does when death separates it from the body. For a person's spirit exists in an interior degree, his body in an exterior one. Similarly with a person's spirit after death. If he is one of the blessed his spirit exists in a final and outermost degree when in the first heaven; in a more interior degree when in the second; and in the inmost one when in the third. When it exists in the inmost it exists at the same time in the other degrees, though these are inactive with him, almost as the human body is inactive during sleep, but with this difference that interiorly angels are at such times fully awake. Therefore as many distinct and separate degrees exist in the human being as there are heavens, apart from the final one, which is the body and the bodily senses.

[4] From all this regarding a person's spirit one may gain some idea of the way derivatives are related to one another from the first to the final one, that is, from the understanding part to the senses. A person's life, which he receives from the Lord's Divine, passes through these degrees from the inmost to the final one. At every degree there exists a derivative of that life which becomes increasingly general, until in the final degree it is the most general. Derivatives in the lower degrees are merely combinations - or to put it more appropriately, structured forms - of the individual and particular constituents of the higher degrees ranged consecutively, with the addition of the kinds of things drawn from purer nature, and after that from grosser nature, that can serve as containing vessels. Once these vessels are done away with, the individual and particular constituents of the higher degrees, which had received form in those vessels, move back to the degree immediately above. And because in the case of the human being there is a link with the Divine, and his inmost being is such that it can accept the Divine - and not only accept but also make Him its own, by acknowledging and having an affection for the Divine, thus by a reciprocal response to Him - and because he thereby has the Divine implanted within him, he can never die. Indeed what is eternal and infinite exists with him, not only through their flowing into him but also through his reception of them.

[5] From this one may see how uninformed and senseless in their thinking regarding the human being those people are who compare him to animals and imagine that he will not be alive after death any more than they are. Such people do not take into consideration the fact that with animals there is no acceptance of the Divine or any acknowledgement or affection leading to a reciprocal response to the Divine by making Him their own, or any consequent joining to Him. Nor do those people take into consideration the fact that, as the animal state is like this, the recipient forms of life which these possess are inevitably dissipated; for with animals that which flows into them passes through their organic forms into the world, where it comes to an end and melts away, never to make any return there.