a spiritual meaning, since the Word in its bosom is
spiritual; and what is spiritual can be set before man only in
natural forms of expression, because man is in the natural world and
thinks from the things of that world. Therefore it shall now be told
what is meant by "eternal fire" and "the gnashing of teeth" into
which the spirits of evil men enter after death, or which their
spirits, then in the spiritual world, endure.

567. There are two origins of heat, one the sun of heaven which is
the Lord, and the other the sun of the world. The heat that is from
the sun of heaven, that is, the Lord, is spiritual heat; and this in
its essence is love (see above, n. 126-140); but the heat from the
sun of the world is natural heat, and this in its essence is not
love, but serves spiritual heat or love as a receptacle. Evidently
love in its essence is heat, since it is love, in accord with its
degree and quality, that gives heat to the mind, and thence to the
body; and this man experiences as well in the winter as in the
summer. The heating of the blood is from the same source. That the
natural heat that springs from the sun of the world serves spiritual
heat as a receptacle is evident from the heat of the body, which is
excited by the heat of its spirit, and is a kind of substitute for
that heat in the body. It is especially evident from the spring and
summer heat in animals of every kind which then annually renew their
loves. [2] It is not the natural heat that produces this effect, but
it disposes their bodies to receive the heat that flows into them
from the spiritual world; for the spiritual world flows into the
natural as cause into effect. Whoever believes that natural heat
produces these loves is much deceived, for influx is from the
spiritual world into the natural world, and not from the natural
world into the spiritual; and as all love belongs to the life itself
it is spiritual. [3] Again, he who believes that any thing comes
forth in the natural world without influx from the spiritual world is
deceived, for what is natural comes forth and continues to exist only
from what is spiritual. Furthermore, the subjects of the vegetable
kingdom derive their germinations from influx out of the spiritual
world. The natural heat of spring time and summer merely disposes the
seeds into their natural forms by expanding and opening them so that
influx from the spiritual world can there act as a cause. These
things are mentioned