255. Here I will add this Relation. Lest anyone should enter into the spiritual sense of the Word, and pervert the genuine truth which pertains to that sense, there are placed guards by the Lord, which are meant by cherubim in the Word, which are the four animals here: that guards are placed, was thus represented to me. [2] It was given to see great purses, which seemed like bags, in which silver in great abundance was stored up; and as they were open, it was perceived as though anyone might take the silver out of them, and even carry it off. But near the purses there sat two angels who were guards. The place where they were deposited appeared like a manger in a stable; in the next apartment were seen some modest virgins with a chaste wife; and near that apartment stood two infants; and it was said, that they were not to be played with in an infantile manner, but wisely; and afterwards there appeared a harlot, and also a dead horse. [3] On seeing which I was instructed, that by these was represented the sense of the letter of the Word, in which is the spiritual sense. The great purses full of silver signified the knowledges of truth and good in great abundance. Their being open, and yet guarded by angels, signified that anyone might take from thence the knowledges of truth, but that care is taken lest anyone should falsify the spiritual sense, in which were nothing but truths. The manger in the stable, in which the purses lay, signified spiritual instruction for the understanding; this is the signification of a manger, and the same is signified by the manger in which the Lord lay when an infant, because a horse, which eats therefrom, signifies the understanding of the Word. [4] The modest virgins, who were seen in the adjoining apartment, signified affections of truth, and the chaste wife, the conjunction of good and truth. The infants signified the innocence of wisdom in the Word. They were angels from the third heaven, who all appear like infants. The harlot with the dead horse signified the falsification of the Word by many at this day, by which all the understanding of truth perishes; a harlot signifies falsification, and a dead horse no understanding of truth. [5] It has been granted me to speak with many after death, who believed they should shine like stars in heaven, because, as they said, they had held the Word as holy, had read it frequently, and collected many things from it by which they had confirmed the dogmas of their faith, and were therefore celebrated as men of learning in the world, for which reason they thought they would be Michaels or Raphaels. But many of them were explored, as to the love from which they had studied the Word, and it was found, that some had studied it from self-love, that they might appear great in the world, and be reverenced as primates of the church; but others from the love of the world, that they might gain wealth. When they were examined as to what they knew from the Word, it was found, that they knew nothing of genuine truth therefrom, but only such as is called truth falsified, which in itself is falsity, and this, in the spiritual world, is a stench to the nostrils of the angels. And it was said to them that this was the case with them, because they themselves and the world were their ends, or what is the same, their loves, and not the Lord and heaven; and when themselves and the world are ends, then, when they read the Word, their mind cleaves to self and the world, and therefore they think constantly from their own proprium, which is in thick darkness as to all things of heaven. In this state man cannot be withdrawn from his own light, and so elevated into the light of heaven, nor thence receive any influx from the Lord through heaven. [6] I also saw them admitted into heaven, and when they were found to be without truths, they were stripped of their garments and appeared in nakedness. And they who had falsified truths, were, by reason of their stench, expelled, but still their pride remained with them, and the belief in their own merit. It was otherwise with those who had studied the Word from the affection of knowing truth because it is truth, and because it subserves the uses of spiritual life, not only to a man's self, but also to his neighbor. These I saw taken up into heaven, and thus into the light, in which the Divine truth is there, and at the same time they were then exalted into angelic wisdom and its felicity, which is life eternal.