551. And they shall long to die, and death shall flee from them, signifies that they wish to destroy the faculty to perceive good, which is of spiritual life, but in vain. This is evident from the signification of "to die," as being here to destroy the faculty to perceive good (of which presently); also from the signification of "death shall flee from them," as being that they are unable to destroy, thus that they wish in vain. Here "to die" signifies to destroy the faculty to perceive good, but above "to die" signifies to destroy the faculty to understand truth, because every man has two lives, the life of the understanding, and the life of the will; the life of the understanding is the faculty to understand truth, and the life of the will is the faculty to perceive good; thence "death" means the loss of the one or the other. In the first instance "death" signifies the loss of the faculty to understand truth, and in the second instance the deprivation of the faculty to perceive good, because in what precedes both these lives are treated of, and in the Word, where truth is treated of, good also is treated of, because of the marriage of good and truth in every particular of the Word (on which see above, n. 238, 288, 484). This makes evident that "death" here signifies the deprivation of the faculty to perceive good. This is why two expressions nearly alike are made use of, and why "to seek death" is predicated of what belongs to the understanding, and "to long for death" of what belongs to the will; and because the spiritual life proper to man consists of these faculties, so their wish to destroy spiritual life is also signified. Moreover, the faculty to perceive good, like the faculty to understand truth, is given to every man, for truth loves good and good loves truth; these, therefore, constantly wish to be conjoined, and they are conjoined like the will and the understanding, or like affection and thought. When they are conjoined then the understanding thinks truth from the affection of thinking it, and then the understanding also sees the truth and the will perceives it. To perceive truth from the affection of the will is to perceive good, for truth is changed into good when man wills it or is affected by it, that is, when he loves it; and for this reason everything that is loved is called good.