547. And to them it was given that they should not kill them. - That this signifies that they should not be deprived of the faculty of understanding truth and of perceiving good, is clear from the signification of men, as denoting the understanding of truth and the perception of good (see above, n. 546); and from the signification of killing them, as denoting to destroy as to spiritual life, concerning which see above (n. 315); but in the present case, to deprive of the faculty of understanding truth and perceiving good. This is here signified by killing men, because every man is born into the faculty of understanding truth and perceiving good; for this faculty is the very spiritual power by which every man is differentiated from beasts. This faculty man never destroys, for if he were to destroy it, he would be no longer a man but a beast. It appears indeed as though the sensual man, who is in the falsities of evil, has destroyed it, because he neither understands truth nor perceives good when reading the Word or when hearing it from others, but still he has not destroyed the faculty itself of understanding and perceiving, but only the understanding of truth and the perception of good, so long as he is in the falsities in which he has confirmed himself from evil; for then he is averse from hearing truth, which he appears, as it were, not to be able to understand; but if the persuasion of the falsity which thus hinders be removed, he then, as a spiritual-rational man, understands and perceives that truth is truth, and that good is good.
[2] That this is the case, I have been permitted to learn by much experience. For there were many of the infernal crew, who had confirmed themselves in falsities against truths, and in evils against goods, who thence became of such a character, that they did not desire to hear anything, of truth, much less to understand it, and of these therefore others formed an opinion that they could not understand truth. But the same spirits, when the persuasion of the falsity was removed from them, came into the power and faculty of understanding truth, equally as those who were in the understanding of truth and in the perception of good; but presently, having relapsed into their former state, they seemed again as though they could not understand truth, indeed they were exceedingly indignant at having understood, saying then, that nevertheless it was not truth. For affection which is of the will is the cause of all the understanding that pertains to man, the very life of the understanding being therefrom. Consider whether anyone can think without affection, and whether the affection be not the very life of the thought, consequently the life of the understanding. By affection is meant the affection which is of love, or love in its continuity. From these things it is evident that man can indeed destroy the understanding of truth and the perception of good, which is effected by the falsities of evil, but that still he does not, on that account, destroy the faculty of understanding truth and of perceiving good, since, if he destroyed that, he would no longer be a man, the human itself consisting in this faculty. It is by virtue of this faculty, that man lives after death, and then appears as a man; for the Divine is conjoined with that faculty. Hence it is, that although man, as to his twin lives, which are the life of his understanding and the life of his will, is averse to the Divine, yet by virtue of his ability to understand truth and to perceive good, he has conjunction with the Divine, and thence lives to eternity. From these things, then, it is clear, that by its being given to the locusts not to kill men, is signified, that still they should not be deprived of the faculty of understanding truth and of perceiving good.
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