1125. Death, and mourning, and famine.- That this signifies, when there is no longer any good, or any truth, but only evil and falsity, is evident from the signification of death, which denotes when there is not any good, for then a man is spiritually dead (that death, in the Word, signifies spiritual death, may be seen above, n. 78, 387, 694); from the signification of mourning, which denotes when there is no longer any truth, that is when the church is desolated, as may be seen above (n. 1119); and from the signification of famine, which denotes when there is nothing but what is entirely evil and false; for in the Word famine signifies a want of truth and good and yet a desire for them, those who are in such want and desire being meant therein by the hungry and famished. Famine also signifies a want of truth and good where there is nevertheless no desire for them, thus to be deprived of them. Such a famine comes upon those who are utterly in falsities and evils, as may be seen above (n. 386).
[2] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed, and concerning the Lord-There can be no idea of the life which is God unless there is also an idea of the degrees by which life descends from inmosts to its ultimates. There is an inmost and also an ultimate degree of life, and there are intermediate degrees of life. The distinction between these is like that between things prior and things posterior; for a posterior degree exists from a prior one, and so forth; and the difference is like that between things less and more general, for what belongs to a prior degree, is less general, and what to a posterior degree is more so. These degrees of life are in every man from creation, and they are opened according to his reception of life from the Lord. In some the penultimate degree is opened, in some the middle degree, and in some the inmost. Those in whom the inmost degree is opened become, after death, angels of the inmost or third heaven. Those in whom the middle degree is opened become, after death, angels of the middle or second heaven; but those in whom the penultimate degree is opened become, after death, angels of the ultimate heaven.
[3] Those degrees are called degrees of the life of man, but they are degrees of his wisdom and love, because they are opened according to his reception of wisdom and love, that is, of life from the Lord. Such degrees of life are, also, in every organ, in each of the viscera and members of the body, and they act in unison with the degrees of life in the brains by influx, the skins, cartilages, and bones forming their ultimate degree. The reason why these degrees are in man, is, that such are the degrees of the life that proceeds from the Lord; but in the Lord they are life, while in man they are recipients of life. It should be known, however, that in the Lord there are degrees still higher, and that all of them, both the highest and lowest, are life; for the Lord teaches that He is life, and also that He has flesh and bones. But concerning both these and continuous degrees, see Heaven and Hell (n. 33, 34, 38, 39, 208, 209, 211, 435), where they are more fully described. A knowledge of these ought to be acquired from that work for use in what follows.
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