AE 557 - The Love of Self Powers Persuasion

 AE 557

And they had breastplates as iron breastplates,
(Revelation 9:9)
means the persuasions
with which they gird themselves for combats,
against which the truths of the rational-spiritual man
prevail not.
This is evident from the meaning of
"breastplates" (or coats of mail),
as being defenses against evils and falsities in combats,
but here defenses of evils and falsities
against goods and truths,
because this treats of those who are in the falsities of evil
in opposition to truths.
Here "breastplates" mean persuasions,
because sensual men who are in the falsities of evil,
who are here described,
do not fight against truths from reason,
for they do not see truths, but falsities only,
and are therefore in the persuasion
that falsities are truths,
consequently they fight solely
from the persuasion of falsity,
and with them this persuasion is such
that the truths brought forth by the spiritual-rational man
are of no avail,
for they are repelled as a sword is
from a breastplate or coat of mail.
So "breastplates as iron breastplates"
mean persuasions against which truths are of no avail.
The persuasiveness with such
is so infatuating and suffocating
that the spiritual-rational is of no avail against it.
Moreover, breastplates or coats of mail,
cover that part of the body called the breast or thorax,
and this signifies the spiritual affection of truth;
also all affection is contained in the sound
which comes forth from the breast with the speech.
But those who are here meant by "locusts,"
who are such sensual men as are in falsities,
have no other affection than that of the love of self,
and because that affection is full of self-confidence
and full of the persuasion that their falsity is truth,
and because that affection is in the sound
which comes forth from the breast with the speech,
so the locusts appeared
in "breastplates which were as iron breastplates."
Moreover, "iron" means truth in ultimates,
and likewise falsity there,
and at the same time what is hard;
and the persuasiveness that they have
causes the falsity to be so hard
that the truths opposed to it rebound,
as if they were of no account or avail.
Because the persuasion of sensual men
who are in falsities from self-confidence is such,
and with spirits is so powerful
that it suffocates and extinguishes
the rational of other spirits
with whom they converse in the world of spirits,
it is severely prohibited,
and those who make use of it
are sent among spirits where they are distressed
even to swooning
by other spirits by means of still stronger persuasions,
and this until they desist.