1935. That 'the angel of Jehovah said' means the reply given by the Lord's Interior Man is clear from the meaning of 'the angel of Jehovah' as the Lord's interior thought, dealt with above in 1925; and because thought is meant, reply is meant as well. The Lord's interior thought sprang from the affection for intellectual truth, and that affection sprang from Divine Good itself. Such thought, as stated already, does not ever exist with anyone, nor can it do so. Even so, an interior type of thought exists in man which flows in from the Lord through his internal man into the interior rational. It exists in people who have conscience, as becomes clear from the fact that they are able to take notice of the evil and falsity that are present in their external man and that assault the good and truth in the interior man. But such thought comes far below, and is not in any way comparable to, the Lord's, which sprang from the affection for intellectual truth and was peculiarly His own. People however who do not have conscience cannot possess interior thought, and therefore they do not experience conflict, the reason being that the activity of their rational is one and the same as the activity of their physical senses. And although with them also there is a constant influx of good and truth from the Lord they nevertheless do not perceive it, for they instantly put a stop to it and smother it; and this is why they do not believe any truth of faith.