612. THAT HEAVEN DOES NOT LOOK AT WORDS AND NAMES, BUT THINGS From what has been already said about spirits, it is evident that corporeal things are first to be put off and thus given to death and this with sufferings of various kinds, and afterwards the natural things inhering in the spiritual, for such a nature cannot enter heaven until at length there remains in the spirit or the "animus", [only] what is spiritual and celestial. Since, therefore, things corporeal and natural which in themselves are dead must be put off before the soul can enter into heaven, it can be most manifestly evident that heaven can never hear nor understand the corporeal and natural things in words, but [only] those that are spiritual, celestial and Divine, thus those which are remote, more remote, and most remote from the literal sense. Similarly, when a man thinks more sublimely than others, he cares nothing for the words but for the meaning of the words, and for a meaning still more sublime from the senses next succeeding. So that it is absurd to think that heaven hears and understands the Word according to the letter, or that it understands the names of men, women, cities and the like, since heaven is in the sense of the things hidden therein. The sense of the letter does not extend beyond the air or the sound of the ear, consequently not beyond the body. Why, then, do you believe that the Lord God our Savior should attend to those things that are merely corporeal and merely natural, since He Himself is heaven, and causes heaven to hear? 1748, Jan. 31.