646. And to smite the earth with every plague.- That this signifies that the church with them perishes through the concupiscences of evil, is evident from the signification of the earth, as denoting the church, concerning which we have frequently spoken above; and from the signification of plague, as denoting such things as destroy spiritual life, consequently the church, which chiefly have reference to the desires of the love of self and of the world, thus to the lusts of evil. Concerning this see also above (n. 584). Therefore by turning the waters into blood is signified that, with those who wish to hurt and to inflict injury upon the two witnesses - which are the goods and truths of heaven and the church, which acknowledge and confess the Lord - goods are turned into evils and thence truths into falsities.
[2] That this is the case any one may see and conclude from this fact, that all the good of love and truth of faith is from the Lord, and that those who do not acknowledge and confess the Lord cannot receive any good of love and truth of faith; for by non-acknowledgment and denial they close heaven against themselves, that is, reject all influx of good and truth from heaven, or through heaven from the Lord. Hence they remain in their proprium, which considered in itself is nothing but evil and thence falsity; therefore, because they think and will from their proprium or from themselves, they cannot either think or will anything that does not flow from the love of self, from the love of the world, and from the lusts of those loves, nor anything whatever from love to the Lord, and from love towards the neighbour. And those who will and think from the loves of self and of the world and their lusts alone, cannot do otherwise than will evils and think falsities. That this is the case may be seen and concluded by every one that knows that all good and truth is from the Lord, and all evil and falsity from man's proprium.
[3] It must be understood that, so far as man acknowledges the Lord and lives according to His precepts, so far he is elevated above his proprium; this elevation is out of the light of the world into the light of heaven. Man does not know that he is raised above his proprium while he lives in the world, because he does not sensibly perceive this, but still there is an elevation, or attraction as it were, of the interior understanding and interior will of man to the Lord, and thence there is a turning of man's face as to his spirit unto Him. This, however, is made clear to the good man after death, for then the turning of the face to the Lord is perpetual, and there is as it were an attraction to Him as to a common centre. Concerning this turning see what is said in the work concerning Heaven and Hell (n. 17, 123, 142-145, 253, 272, 552, 561).
[4] But because it is according to Divine order, that where attraction exists impulsion must exist - for there is no attraction without impulsion it is therefore according to Divine order that impulsion also exists with man, which, although it is in him from the Lord, still it appears as though it were from him, and the appearance causes it to seem to belong to him. This impulsion as if from man, corresponding to the attraction from the Lord, is acknowledgment, thus reception grounded in the acknowledgment and confession of the Lord, and in a life according to His precepts. This must take place on man's part, and from the liberty of his life; but yet man must acknowledge that this also is from the Lord, although, from the obscurity of perception in which he is, he perceives it to be no otherwise than from himself. These things are said in order that it may be known that the man who denies the Lord cannot be otherwise than in evils and falsities, because he cannot be drawn away from his proprium, that is, be elevated above it; nor can he be in any attraction from the Lord, and thence in the turning of the interiors of his mind unto the Lord.
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