64. This, then, is the internal sense of the Word, its very life, which is nowhere discernible from the sense of the letter. Yet so many are the arcana that several volumes would not be sufficient to explain them all. Here only a very few have been stated, such as may serve to confirm that the subject here is regeneration and that this starts with the external man and moves on to the internal. This is how angels perceive the Word. They know absolutely nothing of what belongs to the letter. They come nowhere near knowing the meaning of one single expression, let alone the names of the lands, cities, rivers, and persons which occur so frequently in historical and prophetical sections. They have a concept only of the things meant by expressions and names. By Adam in Paradise, for example, they Perceive the Most Ancient Church, yet not the Church but that Church's faith in the Lord; by Noah the Church surviving among its descendants, and which lasted down to the time of Abram; by Abraham they in no way perceive the historical character but a saving faith, which he represented; and so on. Angels in this manner perceive matters of a spiritual and celestial nature totally detached from expressions and names.

605. Verses 5-7. And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth unto the ages of the ages, who created heaven, and the things that are therein, and the earth, and the things that are therein, and the sea, and the things that are therein, that there shall be time no longer. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God shall also be consummated, as he hath declared in good tidings to his servants the prophets.- "And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth," signifies the Lord, to whom all things of heaven and the church are subject; "lifted up his hand to heaven," signifies affirmation before the angels concerning the state of the church; "And sware by him that liveth unto the ages of the ages," signifies truth from his own Divine; "who created heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea, and the things that are therein," signifies the Lord as to all things interior and exterior; "of heaven and the church that there shall be time no longer," signifies that there would be no longer any understanding of Divine Truth, nor any state of the church therefrom. "But in the days [of the voice] of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound," signifies the last state of the church, and then revelation of Divine Truth; "the mystery of God shall also be consummated, as he hath declared in good tidings to his servants the prophets," signifies prediction in the Word concerning the coming of the Lord to be fulfilled when the end of the church is at hand.