551. And shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.- That this signifies, that they desire to destroy the faculty of perceiving the good which pertains to spiritual life, but in vain, is evident from the signification of dying, which here denotes to destroy the faculty of perceiving good, of which we shall speak presently, and from the signification of death shall flee from them, as denoting that they cannot destroy, thus that they desire in vain. By dying is here signified to destroy the faculty of perceiving good, and by dying mentioned above is signified to destroy the faculty of understanding truth, because every man has two lives, the life of the understanding, and the life of the will. The life of the understanding is the faculty of understanding truth, and the life of the will is the faculty of perceiving good; hence death is the deprivation of both the one and the other. Death in the first case signifies the deprivation of the faculty of understanding truth, and in the second, the deprivation of the faculty of perceiving good, because both these lives are the subject of that which precedes, and because, in the Word, where truth is treated of, good is also treated of, and this on account of the marriage of good and truth in every detail of it: see above (n. 238, 288, 484). It is therefore evident that by the death here mentioned, is signified the deprivation of the faculty of perceiving good. It is for this reason that two nearly similar expressions are used together, and also that to seek death is stated of those things that belong to the understanding, and to desire death, of those which belong to the will. For since the spiritual life proper to man rests in these two faculties, therefore also it is signified that they desire to destroy spiritual life. To every man there is also given the faculty of perceiving good, as well as that of understanding truth. For truth loves good, and good loves truth, and therefore they continually desire to be conjoined, and they are conjoined, as will and understanding, or as affection and thought; when this conjunction takes place, then the understanding thinks truth from the affection of thinking it, and then the understanding sees it, and the will perceives it. To perceive truth from the affection of the will is to perceive good, for truth is changed into good, when man wills it or is affected by it, that is, while he loves it; for this reason every thing that is loved is called good.