669. Come up hither.- That this signifies separation and thence protection is evident from the signification of ascending into heaven, when spoken of the witnesses, by whom the goods of love and the truths of doctrine are signified, as denoting to be separated from those who do not possess the goods of love and the truths of doctrine, thus to be separated from the evil. And since the cause of separation is, lest those things, namely, the good of love and the truth of doctrine, should be injured by the evil, therefore come up hither also signifies protection. For if those things were communicated to the evil, they would receive them exteriorly, but interiorly they would do injury to them, by denial and derision; it therefore would result in the evil being conjoined with the simple well-disposed who cannot perceive that the interiors of such are evil. These simple well-disposed form the ultimate heaven; unless therefore they were separated, injury might be done to those who are in that heaven by conjunction with the externals of the evil. But more may be seen upon this subject in the work on the Last Judgment (n. 70). This is what is involved in the command to the two witnesses to ascend into heaven, and by this their protection is signified.