9062. And if he shall knock out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth. That this signifies if he shall destroy truth or the affection of it in the sensuous man, is evident from the signification of “tooth,” as being the exterior intellectual, and consequently truth in the natural man (of which above, n. 9052), here truth in the ultimate of the natural, that is, in the sensuous, because it is said of a manservant and of a maidservant; from the signification of a “maidservant,” as being the affection of this truth (of which also above, n. 9059); and from the signification of “knocking out,” as being to destroy. (What the sensuous is, and what is its quality, see n. 4009, 5077, 5079, 5084, 5089, 5091, 5125, 5128, 5580, 5767, 6183, 6201, 6310, 6311, 6313, 6315, 6316, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6948, 6949, 7693)

6313. When a man is being elevated toward interior things, he comes out of the gross sensuous light into a milder light, and at the same time is withdrawn from the influx of scandalous and filthy things, and is brought nearer to the things that belong to what is just and fair, because nearer to the angels who are with him, thus nearer to the light of heaven. This elevation from sensuous things was known to the ancients, even to the Gentiles, and therefore when the lower mind is withdrawn from sensuous things, their wise men said that it comes into interior light, and at the same time into a tranquil state, and into a kind of heavenly bliss; and from this they also concluded that the mind is immortal. Man is capable of being elevated still more interiorly, and the more interiorly he is elevated, the clearer is the light into which he comes; and at last he comes into the light of heaven, which light is nothing else than wisdom and intelligence from the Lord. The three heavens are distinguished in no other way than according to elevations toward interior things, thus also according to degrees of light; the third heaven, being in inmost things, is in the greatest light, thus in a wisdom which far surpasses the wisdom of the lower heavens.