846. For it is the number of a man, signifies its quality, as if it were from the understanding of truths such as men of the church must have. This is evident from the signification of "number," as being the quality of faith (see above, n. 841); also from the signification of "man," as being the understanding of truth that men of the church have in matters of faith (see above, n. 280, 546, 547), here as if it were from the understanding; for faith separated from the life is a faith in falsity, thus without truth and an understanding of it; therefore it is similar here in regard to the signification of "man" as in regard to the signification of "wisdom" above (n. 844), which means, as if it were wisdom although it is insanity. [2] Moreover, those who are in faith separated from charity shut out the understanding, demanding obedience to a faith not understood, and that the faith understood is man's own faith, and thus is natural and not spiritual. But what the quality of intellectual faith is shall be told. The Word in its spiritual sense treats in many passages of the understanding of the Divine truth in the Word; and where it describes the desolation of the church it treats also of the destruction of the understanding of its Divine truths from the Word; and from a collection of passages on that subject, carefully investigated in respect to their interior meaning, it is clear that so far as the understanding of truth perishes in the church, so far the church perishes. Moreover, the understanding of the Word is signified in many passages by "Egypt," "Assyria," "Israel," and also "Ephraim;" "Egypt" signifying the natural understanding of it, "Assyria" the rational understanding; "Israel" the spiritual understanding, and "Ephraim" the understanding itself of the Word in the church. But in order that man may see and perceive from enlightenment the genuine truths of the Word, these three degrees of understanding, the natural, the rational, and the spiritual, must be together; for the natural understanding, which is the lowest, cannot be enlightened by its own lumen, but must be enlightened by the light of the rational man, which is intermediate, and this by spiritual light; for the spiritual understanding is in the light of heaven and sees by it, and the rational is intermediate between the spiritual and the natural, and receives spiritual light and transmits it to the natural and enlightens it. This shows that the natural understanding without light through the rational from the spiritual is no understanding, for it is without light from heaven; and the truths of the church, which are also truths of heaven, can by no means be seen except in the light of heaven; the reason is that Divine truth proceeding from the Lord as a sun is the light of heaven, and the Lord enlightens man by His own light only, which is spiritual light. [3] From this it is clear that the Lord wishes man both to know the truths of His church and also to understand them; not, however, from natural light separated from spiritual light; for natural light separated from spiritual light, in the things of heaven or in spiritual matters, is not light but thick darkness. For man, from natural light separated from spiritual light, views the things of the church from self and not from the Lord, and consequently he can see them only from appearances and fallacies; and to see them from these is to see falsities for truths, and evils for goods. The fire that propagates and enkindles that light is the love of self and the consequent pride of self-intelligence. Man who thinks from that fire and that light so far as he excels in genius and thence in the ability to confirm whatever he pleases, so far he is able to so confirm falsities and evils as to make them appear to be truths and goods, and can even set forth falsities and evils in a resplendent natural light, which is, nevertheless, a delusive light that has been thus exalted by art. But to apprehend church matters by this light is not to understand them, but rather to not understand them, since by that light alone man sees truths as falsities, and falsities as truths. This is especially so when any accepted dogma is assumed to be the truth itself, with no previous investigation whether it be true or not; or if investigated is investigated only through what has been established by reasonings from the natural man, and by confirmations from the Word not understood. When a man views all the dogmas of his religion in this way he can assume as a principle whatever he pleases, and can so impart to it the light of confirmation as to make it to appear to be a truth from heaven, although it is a falsity from hell. [4] From this it can be concluded that the understanding of the truths of the church means the understanding of them that is enlightened by the light of heaven, thus by the Lord. The man who is in that enlightenment is able to see the truths of the church rationally in this world, and spiritually after death. But to enter into church matters, which are interiorly spiritual and celestial, from natural lumen separated from spiritual light, which is the light of heaven from the Lord, is to proceed by an inverse order, since what is natural cannot enter into what is spiritual, but what is spiritual can enter into what is natural. For there can be with man no natural influx (called also physical influx) into the thoughts and intentions of his spirit; but there can be spiritual influx, that is, of the thoughts and intentions of the spirit into the body and into its actions and sensations.