646. And to smite the earth with every plague, signifies that the church with such is destroyed by the lusts of evil. This is evident from the signification of "earth," as being the church (of which often above); also from the signification of "plague," as being such things as destroy the spiritual life and thus the church, which in brief have reference to the lusts of the love of self and the world, thus to the lusts of evil (see also above, n. 584); therefore "to turn waters into blood" signifies that goods are turned into evils, and thence truths into falsities with those who wish to hurt and do harm to the "two witnesses," that is, to the goods and truths of heaven and the church which are what acknowledge and confess the Lord. [2] That this is done anyone can see and conclude from this, that every good of love and truth of faith is from the Lord, and that those who do not acknowledge and confess the Lord are unable to receive any good of love or truth of faith; for by non-acknowledgment and denial they shut heaven to themselves, that is, they reject all the influx of good and truth from heaven, or through heaven from the Lord; consequently they are in what is their own [suum proprium], which regarded in itself is nothing but evil and falsity therefrom; and for this reason, because they think and will from what is their own [proprium], that is, from self, they are unable to think or to will anything that does not flow forth from the love of self and the love of the world, and from the lusts of those loves, thus are unable to think or will anything whatever that is from love to the Lord or from love towards the neighbor; and those who will and think from the loves of self and of the world and their lusts only are unable to will anything but evils or think anything but falsities. That this is so can be seen and concluded by anyone who knows that all good and truth is from the Lord, and all evil and falsity is from what is man's own [proprium]. [3] It is to be known that, so far as man acknowledges the Lord and lives according to His commandments, he is elevated above what is his own [proprium]; which elevation is out of the light of the world into the light of heaven. So long as man lives in the world he does not know that he is raised up above what is his own [proprium], because he does not feel it, and yet there is an elevation or as it were a drawing of man's interior understanding and interior will towards the Lord, and thus a turning of man's face in respect to his spirit towards the Lord. After death this is made clear to the good man, for then there is a constant turning of his face to the Lord, and as it were a drawing towards Him as to a common center (of this turning see in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 17, 123, 142-145, 253, 272, 552, 561). [4] But since it is according to Divine order that where there is a drawing there must be an impelling force, for without this there can be no drawing, so it is according to Divine order that there be with man an impelling force; and although this is from the Lord, yet it appears as if it were from man, and the appearance causes it to be as if it were man's. This impelling force as if from man, corresponding to the drawing that is from the Lord, is acknowledgment, thus reception from acknowledgment and confession of the Lord and from a life according to His commandments. There must be this on man's part and from his life's freedom, and yet man must acknowledge that even this is from the Lord, although from the obscurity of perception in which man is he has no other feeling than that it is as if from himself. These things are said to make known that a man who denies the Lord cannot be in anything but evils and in falsities therefrom, because he cannot be drawn away from what is his own [proprium], that is, be elevated above it; neither can he be influenced by any drawing from the Lord, and consequent turning of the interiors of his mind towards the Lord.