of heart. Their celebration was heard at intervals as of sweet singing, for spirits and angels have among themselves a sonorous voice, and are heard by each other as well as a man is heard by a man; but human singing is not to be compared with it in its sweetness and harmony, which is celestial. From the variety of the sound I perceived that there were many choirs. I was instructed by the angels with me, that they belonged to the province of the lungs and to their functions, for it is given them to sing, because this is the office of the lungs. This also was given me to know by experience. They were permitted to regulate my respiration, which they did so gently and sweetly, and also interiorly, that I was scarce sensible of any respiration of my own. I was further instructed that they who are appointed to involuntary respiration and they who are appointed to voluntary respiration, are distinct; and it was told me that they who are appointed to involuntary respiration are present with man during sleep; for as soon as he sleeps, the voluntariness of his respiration ceases, and he receives involuntary respiration.

3894. [I.] It was said above (n. 3892), that the respirations of angels and spirits are altogether according to their states of love and thence of faith. Hence one society does not respire in the same manner as another; and the wicked, who are in the love of self and of the world, and thereby in what is false, cannot abide in company with the good, but when they come near them, seem to themselves unable to breathe, and as it were to be suffocated; in consequence whereof they fall down like persons half dead, or like stones, even into hell, where they again receive their respiration, which they have in common with those who are there. From this it may be evident that they who are in evil and falsity, cannot be in the Greatest Man, or in heaven; for when their respiration begins to cease on drawing near thereto, then all their perception and thought also cease, and likewise all their effort to do

evil and to persuade what is false; and with effort all their action and vital motion perishes, wherefore they can do no otherwise than cast themselves down headlong thence.

3894. [II.] Because this is so, and because well-disposed spirits on their entrance into the other life are first remitted into the life which they had in the world (see n. 2119), thus also into the loves and pleasures of that life, therefore they cannot yet, before they are prepared, be in fellowship with angels, even as to respiration. For this reason, when they are being prepared, they are first inaugurated into angelic life by concordant respirations, and then they come at the same time into interior perceptions and into heavenly freedom. This is effected in a society of many, or in choirs, in which one respires in like manner as another, and also perceives in like manner, and in like manner acts from freedom. How this is effected was also exhibited to the life.

3895. The persuasion of what is evil and false, and also the persuasion of truth when man is in the life of evil, is of such a nature in the other life that it as it were suffocates others, and even well-disposed spirits before they are inaugurated into angelic respiration. They, therefore, who are in such persuasion, are removed by the Lord and detained in hell, where one cannot hurt another; for there the persuasion of one is nearly like that of another, and hence their respirations accord. Some spirits who were in such persuasion came to me with intent to suffocate me, and even caused somewhat of suffocation, but I was delivered by the Lord. An infant was then sent by the Lord, at whose presence they were so tortured that they could scarcely breathe, in which state they were kept even to sup2 plications, and thus were thrust down into hell. The persuasion of truth when man is in the life of evil, is such that he persuades himself that truth is truth, not for the sake of good as an end, but for the sake of evil as an end — that is, that he may gain honors, reputation, and wealth thereby.

The very worst of all may be in such persuasion, and also in apparent zeal, to such a degree as to condemn to hell all who are not in truth, however they may be in good. (Concerning this persuasion see n. 2689, 3865). Such persons when they first come into the other life, believe themselves angels, but they cannot come near any angelic society; they are as it were suffocated on their approach, by their own persuasion. These are they of whom the Lord says in Matthew: Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? But then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity (vii. 22, 23).

3896. The subject of the Greatest Man, and of Correspondence, will be continued at the end of the following chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTIETH.

3897. In accordance with our plan we have now to explain, as preface to this chapter, what the Lord taught respecting the final judgment, or the last times of the church, in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. Before the preceding chapter of Genesis, was explained what is contained in this chapter of Matthew from the nineteenth to the twenty-second verse. Now follows what is contained in verses 23-28. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or There, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, to seduce, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the wilderness, go not out: Behold, He is in the inner chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east and is seen even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there also will the eagles be gathered together.

3898. What these words involve no one can know, except from the internal sense as that false Christs shall arise who shall give signs and wonders; and that if men should say that Christ is in the wilderness, they should not go out; and that if they should say that he is in the inner chambers, they should not believe it; and that the coming. of the Son of Man shall be as the lightning which cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; and also that wheresoever the carcase is, there also will the eagles be gathered together. These things, like those that precede and that follow in this chapter, seem not to stand in any series as to the sense of the letter; but yet in the

internal sense they are in a most beautiful series, which is then first apparent when it is understood what is signified by false Christs, what by signs and wonders, what by the wilderness and by inner chambers, also what by the coming of the Son of Man, and lastly what by the carcase and the eagles. That the Lord spoke in this manner, was in 2 order that the people might not understand the Word, lest they should profane it; for when the church is vastated, as it then was with the Jews, if they had understood, they would have profaned it; wherefore for the same reason the Lord also spoke by parables, as He Himself teaches in Matthew (xiii. 13-15: Mark iv. 11, 12: Luke viii. 10). For the Word cannot be profaned by those who do not know its mysteries, but by those who do (see n. 301-303, 593, 1008, 1010, 1059, 1327, 1328, 2051, 3398, 3402), and more by those who appear to themselves learned than by those who seem to themselves unlearned. But the interiors 3 of the Word are now opened because the church is at this day so far vastated, that is, without faith and love, that though men know and understand, still they do not acknowledge, and much less believe (see n. 3398, 3399) — except a few who are in the life of good, and are called the elect, who can now be instructed, and with whom a new church is to be instituted. But where they are, the Lord alone knows; there will be few within the church; it has been among gentiles that previous new churches have been instituted (see n. 2986).

3899. In what precedes in this chapter of Matthew the successive vastation of the church has been treated ofthat they should first begin no longer to know what good and truth were, but should dispute about them, next that they should despise them, thirdly that they should not acknowledge them, and fourthly that they should profane them (see n. 3754). The subject now is the state of the church as to its quality at that time in regard to doctrine in general, and with those in particular who are in holy ex