5228. 'Saying' means the perception resulting from this. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, dealt with in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509. No intelligible explanation of what is meant by perception resulting from thought can be given because no one at all at the present day knows what spiritual perception is; and what he knows nothing about makes no sense to a person, no matter how well it is described to him. For perception is nothing else than the speech or the thought of the angels who are present with a person. When that speech or thought passes into him it becomes the perception of whether something is true or untrue. This however happens to none but those in whom the good of love and charity is present, good being the channel through which it reaches him. With these people that perception is what engenders their thoughts; for the power of perception which they possess is the general source of their thought. In reality there is no such thing as perception resulting from thought; it is only an appearance. But nothing more can be said about this arcanum because, as has been stated, no one at all at the present day knows what perception is.

2619. 'As He had spoken' means as He had thought. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking' as thinking, dealt with in 2271, 2287. Perception, which is meant by 'Jehovah said', flowed from the Divine celestial, but thought, which is meant by 'Jehovah spoke', flowed from the Divine celestial by way of the Divine spiritual. This explains why in the sense of the letter there occurs an apparent repetition, namely 'as He had said' and 'as He had spoken'. But what perceiving from the Divine celestial is, and what thinking from the Divine celestial by way of the Divine spiritual, does not come within the range of even the most enlightened capacity to understand by means of the things which belong to the light of the world. This shows how infinite everything else [in the Word] must be. The fact that thought stems from perception, see 1919, 2515. With man the position is that good is the source from which he perceives, but truth the means by which he thinks. Good exists in love and its affections, and for that reason is the source of perception, whereas truth exists in faith, and for that reason faith goes with thought. The former is meant in historical parts of the Word by 'saying', but the latter by 'speaking'. When only the expression 'saying' is used however, it sometimes means perceiving and sometimes thinking, because 'saying' includes both.