9671. 'From violet and purple and twice-dyed scarlet and fine twined linen' means the forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together there. This is clear from the meaning of 'violet' as the celestial love of truth, dealt with in 9466; from the meaning of 'purple' as the celestial love of good, dealt with in 9467; from the meaning of 'twice-dyed scarlet' as spiritual good, dealt with in 4922, 9468; and from the meaning of 'fine twined linen' as truth from a celestial origin, dealt with in 9469. From all this it is evident that those four mean forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together within the uniting intermediary. The implications of this are that those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary represented by the veil have forms of the good of love and forms of the good of faith joined together within themselves. Through the forms of the good of love they are joined to celestial angels who are in the inmost heaven, and through the forms of the good of faith to the spiritual ones who are in the middle heaven. For the good of love to the Lord is called celestial good, and the good of faith in Him is called spiritual good.

[2] Those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary are called celestial-spiritual and spiritual-celestial, the former being represented in the Word by Joseph, the latter by Benjamin. For the meaning of Joseph in the representative sense as the celestial-spiritual, see 4286, 4592, 4963, 5249, 5307, 5331, 5332, 5417, 5869, 5877, 6224, 6526, and Benjamin as the spiritual-celestial, 3969, 4592. Joseph is accordingly the internal uniting intermediary and Benjamin the external uniting intermediary, 4585, 4592, 4594, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639, 5686, 5688, 5689, 5822. What the celestial-spiritual and the spiritual-celestial are, see 1577, 1824, 2184, 4585, 4592, 4594.

[3] The difference between those in the heavens who are celestial and those who are spiritual may also be recognized from their opposites in the hells. Those in the hells who are the opposites of celestial angels are called genii, while those in them who are the contraries of spiritual angels are called spirits. The genii, the opposites of celestial angels, are at the back, whereas the spirits, the opposites of spiritual ones, are at the front; and those between genii and spirits are at the sides. Being the opposites of celestial angels the genii are steeped in evil more internal than that present with spirits. Regarding spirits and genii, see what has been said about them from experience in 5977, 8593, 8622, 8625. The hell of genii has been set completely apart from the hell of spirits, so completely that those in one cannot pass over into the other. For there are intermediate spirits there who link the two together; and these spirits are the opposites of the intermediate angels in the heavens.

986. That 'the fear of you and the dread of you' means the lordship of the internal man - 'fear' having regard to evils and 'dread' to falsities - becomes clear from the state of a regenerate person. A person's state prior to regeneration is one in which the evil desires and the falsities that belong to the external man predominate all the time, which gives rise to conflict. But once he has been regenerated the internal man rules over the external, that is, over his desires and falsities. When it is the internal man that rules, the person has a fear of evils and a dread of falsities, for both evils and falsities are contrary to conscience, and to act contrary to conscience is abhorrent to him.

[2] It is not however the internal man that fears evils and dreads falsities, but the external; hence the statements at this point about the fear of you and the dread of you being upon every beast of the earth and every bird of the air ¹ , that is, over all evil desires meant by 'beast' and over falsities meant by 'bird of the air'. ¹ This fear and this dread are seemingly the person's own, but the reality is this: As stated already everybody has at least two angels with him through whom he has communication with heaven, and two evil spirits through whom he has communication with hell. When the angels rule, as is so with a regenerate person, the evil spirits who are present dare not do anything contrary to what is good and true, for they are at that time held in bonds. And when they do try to do anything evil or to utter what is false - that is, to activate it - some hellish kind of fear and dread instantly overtakes them. This fear and this dread are what a person feels within himself for things that are contrary to conscience. This also is why, as soon as he does or utters anything contrary to conscience, he runs into temptation and the gnawings of conscience, that is, into a kind of hellish torment.

[3] On the point that fear has reference to evils and dread to falsities, the situation Is this: The spirits that reside with a person are less afraid of practising evil deeds than of uttering falsities, the reason being that a person is born again and receives a conscience by means of truths of faith, and consequently spirits are not allowed to activate falsities. Indeed nothing but evil is present with every one of them, so that they are immersed in evil; their whole nature, and consequently everything they attempt is evil; and since they are immersed in evil and their own life within them consists in evil, their performance of evil is ignored when they are serving some use. But they are not permitted to utter anything false, for the reason that they may learn what is true, and in so doing may be corrected, so far as possible, to perform some inferior kind of service. But more concerning these matters will in the Lord's Divine mercy be mentioned later on. It is similar with a regenerate person, for his conscience is formed from truths of faith. Consequently his conscience is a conscience for what is right. For him the very evil of life lies in falsity because falsity is the reverse of the truth of faith. But with the member of the Most Ancient Church who had perception it was different. He perceived evil of life as evil, and falsity of faith as falsity.

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