4122. 'And pursued him' means a continuing intense desire to be joined. This is clear from the meaning here of 'pursuing' as a continuing intense desire to be joined. The subject at this point in the internal sense is the separation of intermediate good from genuine good after intermediate good had served its use. A full description of the process of separation is what the internal sense contains here. Yet the process is such that not even the existence of it is perceptible to man, but to angels it is seen quite clearly, including its countless variations. Thus they see and perceive in one who is being regenerated and with whom they are present as servants all the changes of state he undergoes. And in accordance with those changes, and by means of them, the Lord enables those angels to lead him towards good, insofar as he allows himself to be led. It is because that process serves so great a use in heaven that it is dealt with so extensively here. It also shows the nature of the internal sense - that it is the angelic Word.