This is so because
when angels speak with man they turn themselves to him and conjoin
themselves with him; and this conjunction of angel with man causes
the two to be in like thought; and as man's thought coheres to his
memory, and this is the source of his speech, the two have the same
language. Moreover, when an angel or a spirit comes to a man, and by
turning to him is conjoined to him, he so enters into the entire
memory of the man that he is scarcely conscious that he does not
himself know whatever the man knows, including his languages. [2] I
have talked with angels about this, and have said that perhaps they
thought that they were addressing me in my mother tongue, since it is
so perceived; and yet it was I and not they that spoke; and that this
is evident from the fact that angels cannot utter a single word of
human language (see n. 237); furthermore, human language is natural
and they are spiritual, and spiritual beings cannot give expression
to any thing in a natural way. To this they replied that they are
aware that their conjunction with the man with whom they are speaking
is with his spiritual thought; but because his spiritual thought
flows into his natural thought, and his natural thought coheres to
his memory, the language of the man and all his knowledge appear to
them to be their own; and that this is so for this reason, that while
it is the Lord's pleasure that there should be such a conjunction
with and sort of insertion of man into heaven, yet the state of man
is now such that there can no longer be such conjunction with angels,
but only with spirits who are not in heaven.
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