1185. And the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard in thee no more.- That this signifies interior and exterior joys no longer, is evident from the signification of the voice or the sound of various instruments of music, as denoting joys from internal and external affections. The signification of these things arises from concord; for musical sounds express affections, and call them forth attended with joy. Stringed instruments signify spiritual, and wind instruments celestial things; that they correspond to affections, may be seen above (n. 323, 326.) But what the voice of the harp, of the pipe, and of the trumpet signify specifically, cannot be seen except from the affections; and these are of two kinds, spiritual and celestial, the spiritual being from truths, and the celestial from goods. They are, moreover, of three degrees - inmost, middle, and outmost - the inmost being such as are in the inmost heaven, the middle such as are in the middle heaven, and the outmost such as are in the ultimate heaven.
[2] Continuation.- The tenth law of the Divine Providence is, that when eminence and opulence lead astray, it is man who from his own prudence has led himself to them; for he is led of the Divine Providence to things that do not lead astray, and which are serviceable for his eternal life; for all things of the Divine Providence with man look to what is eternal, because the Life which is God, and from which man is man, is eternal. There are two things which have a supreme effect on men's minds (animos), eminence and opulence. The former originates in the love of glory and of honours, the latter in the love of money and possessions. They particularly influence the mind because they specially belong to the natural man; and therefore the merely natural have no other notion regarding them than that they are real blessings, which come from God, although they may possibly be curses, as may be clearly inferred from the fact that they are possessed by both the good and the evil. I have seen the eminent and opulent in the heavens, and also in the hells. Therefore, as has been observed, when eminence and opulence do not lead astray, they come from God; but when they do lead astray, they are from hell.
[3] The reason why man does not in the world distinguish whether they come from God or from hell, is that they cannot be distinguished by the natural man separated from the spiritual; they bay, however, be distinguished in the natural man by the spiritual, but even this with difficulty, because the natural man is trained from childhood to counterfeit the spiritual man. For this reason he not only affirms, but also can persuade himself to believe that the uses which he pert onus for the Church, for his country, for society and his fellow-citizens, and thus for his neighbour, are done for their sakes, although probably he has done them for the sake of himself and the world as an end. Man is in this state of blindness because he has not removed evils from himself by combat with them; for as long as evils remain he cannot see anything from the Spiritual in his Natural. He is like a man in a dream who imagines himself awake, or like a bird of night which sees darkness as light. Such is the natural man when the gate of heavenly light is closed; this light being the spiritual principle which enlightens the natural man. Since then it is of the greatest importance to know whether eminence and opulence, the love of glory and if honour, the love of money and of possessions, are ends or means - because if ends, they are curses; yet if not ends, but means, they are blessings - we shall treat first of ends amid means.
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