The reason why joy from the affection for truth and from the affection for good is what is signified by rejoicing and exulting, is, that all joy is from affection, for man desires joy only from those things which affect him, or which he loves. There are two universal origins of all spiritual joys, one is from the affection for or love of truth, the other is from the affection for or love of good. Joy from the affection for good belongs properly to the will, and its deeds and joy from the affection for truth properly belongs to the understanding and its speech. Since in the preceding verse the subject treated of is concerning those who are in truths, and those who are in goods, and also concerning the glorification of the Lord by them, therefore the joy of them all, and the glorification therefrom, is clear from these words, "Let us rejoice and exult, and give glory to Him."

[2] Continuation [concerning Omnipresence and Omnipotence]. - 1. There are in the natural world spaces and times, but in the spiritual world they are appearances.

The reason of this is, that all things that appear in the spiritual world exist immediately from the sun of heaven, which is the Divine Love of the Lord; whereas all things that appear in the natural world exist from the same source, but by means of the sun of this world, which is pure fire. Pure love, from which all things exist immediately from the Lord, is immaterial; but pure fire, through which all things exist mediately in the natural world, is material. It is for this reason that all things which exist in the spiritual world are, from their origin, spiritual; and that all things which exist in the natural world, are, from their secondary origin, material. Material things are also in themselves fixed, stated, and measurable. They are fixed, because, however the states of men change, they continue permanent, as lands, mountains, and seas. They are stated, because they constantly recur in their turns, as times, generations, and germinations. They are measurable, because every thing can be estimated; as spaces, by miles and furlongs, and these by means of paces and yards; times again, by means of days, weeks, months, and years. But in the spiritual world all things are as it were fixed, stated, and measurable, but still they are not so in reality; for they exist and continue according to the states of the angels, so that they make one with these very states; they therefore vary also, as these states vary. This however occurs chiefly in the world of spirits, into which every man first comes after death; it is not the case in heaven or in hell. The reason that it occurs there is, that every man there undergoes changes of state, and is prepared for heaven or for hell.

[3] Spirits do not however reflect upon these changes and variations, because they are spiritual, and consequently have spiritual ideas, with which all the collective and several objects perceived by their senses make one; because also they are separated from nature, but still see in the world of spirits objects altogether similar to those which they saw in the natural world, as lands, mountains and valleys, waters, gardens, and forests, plants, palaces, and houses, garments also with which they are clothed, and food by which they are nourished, and besides these, animals, and also themselves as men. They see all these objects in a clearer light than they saw similar things in the world, and they perceive them also by a more exquisite sense of touch. Hence it is that man after death is not at all aware that he has put off his material covering, and passed from the world of his body into that of his spirit. I have heard many men say that they were not dead, and that they could not conceive how any portion of their body could have been cast into the grave; and for the reason, that all the objects in the spiritual world are similar [to those in the natural.] They were not aware that the things which are seen and felt there are not material, but substantial from a spiritual origin, and that they are notwithstanding still real, because they exist from the same origin as all the things in the natural world. The only difference is that an additional covering, an over-garment, so to speak, from the sun of the world, has been given to the things which exist in the natural world, and from this they have become material, fixed, stated, and measurable. I can positively affirm that the things which exist in the spiritual are even more real than those in the natural world; for that which in nature is added to the spiritual is dead, and does not produce reality, but diminishes it. That there is this diminution is plainly evident from the state of the angels of heaven compared with that of men on earth, and from all the things existing in heaven compared with all those existing in the world.