[2] Nevertheless, after hearing a sermon on the same day about faith alone and to the effect that the law does not condemn them because the Lord has fulfilled it for them, and that of themselves they cannot do any good which is not self-righteous and thus that one's works have nothing saving in them, only faith alone has, these same persons return home completely forgetting their earlier confession and rejecting it so far as they think along the lines of the sermon. But which is true, the latter or the former? Contrary to each other, both cannot be true. Which is? That there can be no forgiveness of sins, thus no salvation but only eternal damnation, apart from self-examination, the knowledge and acknowledgment, confession and breaking off of sins, that is, apart from repentance? Or that such things effect nothing towards salvation inasmuch as full satisfaction for all the sins of men has been made by the Lord through the passion of the cross for those who have faith, and that those in faith alone with trust that it is so and with confidence in the imputation of the Lord's merit, are sinless and appear before God like men with shining faces for having washed?

[3] It is plain from this that the religion common to all churches in Christendom is that one shall examine himself, see and acknowledge his sins and then desist from them, and that otherwise there is no salvation, but damnation. This, moreover, is divine truth itself, as is plain from passages in the Word in which man is bidden to do penitence, as from the following:

John said, Do . . . fruits worthy of repentance . . . this moment the axe is at the root of the tree; every tree not giving good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire (Lu 3:8, 9).

Jesus said, Unless you do repentance, you shall all . . . perish (Lu 13:3,5).

Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God; . . . do repentance, and believe the gospel (Mk 1:14, 15).

Jesus sent out the disciples who on going out were to preach that men should repent (Mk 6:12).

Jesus told the apostles that they were to preach repentance and the remission of sins to all peoples (Lu 24:27).

John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mk 1:4; Lu 3:3).

Think about this also with some degree of understanding; if you have religion, you will see that repentance of one's sins is the way to heaven, that faith apart from repentance is not faith, and that those in no faith for lack of repenting are in the way to hell.

115. Those in faith severed from charity who have confirmed themselves in it by Paul's saying to the Romans that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law (3:28) worship that saying quite like men who worship the sun. They become like those who fix their gaze steadily on the sun with the result that the blurred vision sees nothing in normal light. For they fail to see what is meant in the passage by "works of the law," namely, the rituals described by Moses in his books, called "law" in them everywhere, and not the precepts of the Decalog. Lest it be thought these are meant, Paul explains, saying at that point,

Do we not then make the law void through faith? Far from it, rather we establish the law (verse 31 of the same chapter).

Those who have confirmed themselves by that saying in faith severed from charity, looking on it as on the sun, do not see the passages in which Paul lists the laws of faith and that these are the very works of charity. What indeed is faith without its laws? Nor do they see the passages in which he lists evil works, declaring that those who do them cannot enter heaven. What blindness has been brought about by this one passage badly understood!

116. Evils in the external man cannot be removed without man's cooperation for the reason that it is by divine providence that whatever a man hears, sees, thinks, wills, speaks and does shall seem to him to be his own doing. Apart from that appearance (as was shown above, nn. 71-95 ff.) there would be no reception of divine truth on man's part, nor determination to do what is good, nor any appropriation of love and wisdom or of charity and faith, hence no conjunction with the Lord, no reformation therefore or regeneration, and thus no salvation. Without that appearance, repentance for sins would clearly be impossible and in fact faith would; without that appearance, likewise, man is not man but is devoid of rational life like the beasts. Let him who will, consult his reason whether it appears otherwise than that man thinks from himself about good and truth, spiritual as well as moral and civil; then accept the doctrine that all good and truth are from the Lord and none from man. Must he not then acknowledge as a consequence that man is to do good and think truth of himself, yet always acknowledge that these are from the Lord? And acknowledge further that man is to remove evils of himself, but still acknowledge that he does so from the Lord?

117. Many are unaware that they are in evils since they do not do them outwardly, fearing the civil law and the loss of reputation. Thus by custom and habit they practice to avoid evils as detrimental to their standing and interests. But if they do not shun evils on religious principle, because they are sins and against God, the lusts of evil with their enjoyments remain in them like impure waters stopped up or stagnant. Let them probe their thoughts and intentions and they will come on the lusts provided they know what sins are.

[2] Many such, who have confirmed themselves in faith separated from charity and who believe that the law does not condemn, pay no attention to sins. Some doubt there are sins, or if so, that they exist in God's sight, having been pardoned. Such also are natural moralists, who believe that civil and moral life with its prudence accomplishes all things and divine providence nothing. Such are those, also, who strive with great care after a reputation and a name for honesty and sincerity for the sake of standing and preferment. But those who are such and who at the same time have spurned religion become lustful spirits after death, appearing to themselves like men indeed, but to others at a distance like priapi; and they see in the dark and not at all in the light, like night-owls.

118. Proposition v, that a man ought to remove evils from the external man of himself, is substantiated then. Further explanation may be seen in Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem under three propositions: 1. No one can flee evils as sins so as to be averse to them inwardly except by combats against them (nn. 92-100); 2. A man ought to shun evils as sins and fight against them as of himself (nn. 101-107); and 3. If he shuns evils for any other reason than that they are sins, he does not shun them, but only keeps them from appearing to the world.

119. (vi) The Lord then purifies man from the lusts of evil in the internal man and from the evils themselves in the external. The Lord purifies man from the lusts of evil only when man as of himself removes the evils because He cannot do so before. For the evils are in the external man and the lusts in the internal man, and they cling together like roots and a trunk. Unless the evils are removed, therefore, no outlet offers; they block the way and shut the door, which the Lord can open only with a man's participation, as was shown just above. When the man as of himself opens the door, the Lord then roots out the lusts.

[2] A second reason why the Lord cannot do so sooner is that He acts upon man's inmost and by that on all that follows even to outmosts where man himself is. While outmosts, therefore, are kept closed by man, no purification can take place, but only that activity of the Lord in interiors which is His activity in hell, of which the man who is in lusts and at the same time in evils is a form—an activity which is solely provision lest one thing destroy another and lest good and truth be violated. It is plain from words of the Lord in the Apocalypse that He constantly urges and prompts man to open the door to Him:

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me (3:20).

120. Man knows nothing at all of the interior state of his mind or internal man, yet infinite things are there, not one of which comes to his knowledge. His internal of thought or internal man is his very spirit, and in it are things as infinite and innumerable as there are in his body, in fact, more numerous. For his spirit is man in its form, and all things in it correspond to all things of his body. Now, just as man knows nothing by any sensation about how his mind or soul operates on all things of the body as a whole or severally, so he does not know, either, how the Lord works on all things of his mind or soul, that is, of his spirit. The divine activity is unceasing; man has no part in it; still the Lord cannot purify a man from any lust of evil in his spirit or internal man as long as the man keeps the external closed. Man keeps his external closed by evils, each of which seems to him to be a single entity, although in each are infinite things. When a man removes what seems a single thing, the Lord removes infinite things in it. So much is implied in the Lord's purifying man from the lusts of evil in the internal man and from the evils themselves in the external.

121. Many believe that a person is purified from evils merely by believing what the church teaches; some, by doing good; others by knowing, speaking and teaching what is of the church; others by reading the Word and books of devotion; others by going to church, hearing sermons and especially by observing the Holy Supper; still others, by renouncing the world and devoting oneself to piety; others still by confessing oneself guilty of all sins; and so on. And yet none of these things purifies man at all unless he examines himself, sees his sins, acknowledges them, condemns himself on account of them, and repents by desisting from them, and does all this as of himself, yet with the acknowledgment in heart that he does so from the Lord.

[2] Until this is done, the things mentioned above do not avail, being either self-righteous or hypocritical. Such persons appear to the angels in heaven either like pretty courtesans smelling badly of their corruption, or like unsightly women painted to appear handsome, or like masked clowns and mimics in the theater, or like apes in men's clothes. But when evils have been removed, then all that has just been mentioned becomes the expression of love in such persons, and they appear as beautiful human beings to the sight of the angels in heaven and as partners and companions of theirs.

122. But it should be rightly known that in repenting a man ought to look to the Lord alone. He cannot be purified if he looks to God the Father alone, or to the Father for the sake of the Son, or to the Son as a man only. For there is one God and the Lord is He, for His Divine and Human is one Person, as we have shown in Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord. In order that the intending penitent may look to Him alone, the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, which confirms the remission of sins in those who repent, and does so because everyone is kept looking to the Lord alone in it.

123. (vii) The perpetual effort of the Lord in His divine providence is to conjoin man with Himself and Himself with man, in order to be able to bestow the felicities of eternal life on him, which can be done only so far as evils with their lusts have been removed. It was shown above (nn. 27-45) that it is the unceasing effort of the Lord in His divine providence to conjoin man to Himself and Himself to man; that this conjunction is what is called reformation and regeneration; and that by it man has salvation. Who does not see that conjunction with God is life eternal and salvation? Everyone sees this who believes that men by creation are images and likenesses of God (Ge 1:26, 27) and who knows what an image and likeness of God is. [2] What man of sound reason, thinking from his rationality and wanting to think in freedom, can believe that there are three Gods equal in essence and that divine being or essence can be divided? One can conceive and comprehend a Trine in the one God, however, just as soul, body and outgoing life in angel and man are comprehensible. As this Trine in One exists only in the Lord, conjunction must be with Him. Use your power of reason together with your liberty of thought, and you will see this truth in its own light; but admit first that God is, and heaven, and eternal life.

[3] As, then, God is one, and the human being was made by creation an image and likeness of Him, and inasmuch as by infernal love and its lusts and enjoyments man has come into a love of all evils and thus destroyed the image and likeness of God in him, it follows that it is the continuous effort of the Lord's divine providence to conjoin man to Himself and Himself to man and thus make him an image of Himself. It also follows that this is to the end that the Lord may be able to bestow on him the felicities of eternal life, for such is divine love.

[4] He cannot bestow them, however, nor make man an image of Himself, unless man removes sins in the external man as of himself, because the Lord is not only divine love but also divine wisdom, and divine love does nothing except by its divine wisdom and in consonance with it. It is according to divine wisdom that man cannot be conjoined to the Lord and thus reformed, regenerated and saved unless he is allowed to act in freedom according to reason, for so man is man. Whatever is according to the Lord's divine wisdom is also of His divine providence.

124. To this let me append two arcana of angelic wisdom showing further what divine providence is like. One is that the Lord never acts on one thing by itself in man, but on all things at the same time, and the other is that He acts at once from inmosts and outmosts. He never acts on some one thing by itself but on all things together because all things in man are in such connection and from this in such form that they act not as a number but as one. We know that there is such connectedness and by it such organization in man's body. The human mind is in similar form as a result of the connection of all things, for the mind is the spiritual man and truly the man. Hence man's spirit or the mind in the body in its entire form is man. Consequently man is man after death equally as he was in the world with the sole difference that he has thrown off the clothing which made up his body in the world.

[2] As the human form, then, is such that all its parts form a community which acts as a whole, some one thing cannot be moved out of place or altered in state except with adaptation of the rest, for if it were, the form which acts as a whole would suffer. Hence it is plain that the Lord never acts on any one thing without acting on all. So He acts on the total angelic heaven since in His view it is like one man; so He acts on each angel, for each angel is heaven in least form; so He acts also on each man, most nearly on all things of man's mind and by these on all things of his body; for man's mind is his spirit and in the measure of conjunction with the Lord is an angel, and the body is obedience.

[3] It is to be well noted, however, that the Lord does act on each particular thing in man singly, singularly so, when acting on all things in man's organization; even so He does not alter the state of any part or of any one thing except suitably to the whole form. But more will be said of this in following numbers where we shall show that divine providence is general because it extends to particulars, and particular because it is general.

[4] The Lord acts from inmosts and outmosts at the same time because only in this way are all things held in connection, for the intermediate things depend one upon another from inmosts to outmosts and are assembled in outmosts (it was shown in Part III of the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom that all things from the inmost onward are present simultaneously in what is outmost ). For this reason the Lord from eternity or Jehovah came into the world and assumed and bore human nature in outmosts. He could thus be at once from firsts in lasts, and from firsts by lasts govern the whole world and so save whom He could save according to the laws of His divine providence, which are also the laws of His divine wisdom. For it is true, as Christendom knows, that no mortal could have been saved had the Lord not come into the world (see Doctrine for the New Jerusalem on Faith, n. 35). For the same reason the Lord is called "The First and the Last."

125. These angelic arcana have been premised in order that it may be comprehended how the Lord's divine providence operates to unite man to Him and Himself to man. It does not act upon a particular thing by itself in man, but on all things together and from man's inmost and outmosts simultaneously. Man's inmost is his life's love; the outmosts are in the external of thought; what is intermediate is in the internal of thought (what external and internal are like with the wicked was shown earlier); from which it is plain again that the Lord cannot act by inmosts and outmosts simultaneously except together with man, for in the outmosts man and the Lord are together. Wherefore, as the man acts in outmosts, which are in his determination, being within the range of his freedom, so the Lord acts from man's inmosts and in what follows from them to the outmosts. Man does not know at all what is in the inmosts and in what follows to the outmosts, therefore is unaware of how the Lord acts there or what He effects there. But as all these things cohere as one with the outmosts, man does not need to know more than that he should shun evils as sins and look to the Lord. Only so can his life's love, which by birth is infernal, be removed by the Lord and a heavenly life's love be implanted in its place.

126. When a heavenly life's love has been implanted by the Lord in place of an infernal life's love, affections of good and truth are implanted in place of lusts of evil and falsity; enjoyments of affections of good are implanted instead of enjoyments of lusts of evil and falsity, and goods of heavenly love in place of evils of infernal love; prudence is implanted in place of cunning, wise thinking in place of malevolent. So a man is born again and becomes a new man. What goods replace evils you may see in Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, nn. 67-73, 74-79, 80-86, 87-91; likewise that so far as man shuns and is averse to evils as sins so far he loves truths of wisdom, nn. 32-41, and has faith and is spiritual, nn. 42-52.

127. From the exhortations read aloud in all Christian churches before Holy Communion we showed that it is the common religion of all Christendom that a man should examine himself, see his sins, avow them, confess them before God, and desist from them; and that this is repentance, remission of sins and hence salvation. This is also evident from the Creed named after Athanasius and received throughout Christendom which concludes with the words:

The Lord will come to judge the living and the dead; at whose coming those who have done good will enter into life eternal, and those who have done evil, into everlasting fire.

128. Who does not know from the Word that everyone is allotted a life after death according to his deeds? Open the Word, read it, and you will see this clearly, but the while remove the thoughts from faith and justification by faith alone. The few passages following are testimony that the Lord teaches so everywhere in His Word:

Every tree which does not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire. By their fruits therefore shall you know them (Mt 7:19, 20).

Many will say to Me in that day, Lord . . . have we not prophesied in your name, . . . and in your name done many mighty things? But I shall confess to them then, I know you not, depart from Me, you who work iniquity (Mt 7:22, 23).

Everyone who hears my words and does them I shall liken to a prudent man who built a house on a rock: . . . but everyone who hears my words but does not do them shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the ground without a foundation (Mt 7:24, 26; Lu 6:46-49).

[2] The Son of man will come in the glory of His Father .. . and render then to everyone according to his deeds (Mt 16:27).

The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and given to a people bringing forth its fruits (Mt 21:43).

Jesus said, These are My mother and brothers who hear the Word of God and do it (Lu 8:21).

Then shall you begin to stand . . . and knock at the door, saying, Lord, . . . open to us, but replying He will say to them, I know not whence you are; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity (Lu 13:25-27).

Those who have done good shall go out into the resurrection of life, but those who have done evil into the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:29).

[3] We know . . . that God does not hear sinners, but if a man worships God and does His will, him He hears (Jn 9:31).

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them (13:17).

He who has My commandments and does them, he it is who loves Me, ... and I will love him, . . . and I will come to him, and make an abode with him (14:15, 21-24).

You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you... . I have chosen you . . . that you may bear fruit and that your fruit may remain (15:14, 16).

[4] The Lord said to John, Write to the angel of the Ephesian church, I know your works: . . . I have against you that you have left an earlier charity; . . . repent, and do the former works; else . . . I shall remove your candlestick from its place (Apoc 2:1, 2, 4, 5).

To the angel of the church of the Smyrneans write, I know your works (2:8, 9).

To the angel of the church in Pergamos write, . . . I know your works, repent (2:12, 13, 16).

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write, . . . I know your works and charity, . . . and your later works are more than the first (2:18, 19).

To the angel of the church in Sardis write, . . . I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead; . . . I have not found your works perfect before God; . . . repent (3:1-3).

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, I know your works (3:7, 8).

To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, I know your works; . . . repent (3:14, 15, 19).

I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on; ... their works follow them (14:13).

A book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged, ... all according to their works (20:12, 13).

Lo, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work (22:12).

These are passages in the New Testament;

[5] there are still more in the Old, from which I shall quote only this one:

Stand in the gate . . . of Jehovah, and proclaim this word there: Thus says Jehovah Zebaoth the God of Israel, Make your ways good, and your works; . . . put not your trust in lying words, saying, The temple, the temple, the temple of Jehovah is this. . . . Thieving and killing and committing adultery and swearing falsely . . . will you then come to stand before Me in this house which is called by My name and say, We are delivered? When you do those abominable things? Has not this house been made a den of robbers? Even I, lo, I have seen it, is the word of Jehovah (Je 7:2-4, 9-11).

VII. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL NOT BE COMPELLED BY EXTERNAL MEANS TO THINK AND WILL, THUS TO BELIEVE AND LOVE WHAT PERTAINS TO RELIGION, BUT BRING HIMSELF AND AT TIMES COMPEL HIMSELF TO DO SO

129. This law of divine providence follows from the preceding two, namely: man is to act in freedom according to reason (nn. 71-99); and is to do this of himself and yet from the Lord, thus as of himself (nn. 100-128). Inasmuch as being compelled is not to act in freedom according to reason and also not to act of oneself, but to act from what is not freedom and from someone else, this law of divine providence follows in due order on the first two. Everyone knows that no one can be forced to think what he is unwilling to think or to will what he decides not to will, thus to believe what he does not believe, least of all what he wills not to believe, or to love what he does not love and still less what he wills not to love. For the spirit or mind of man enjoys complete freedom in thinking, willing, believing and loving. It does so by influx which is not coercive from the spiritual world (for the human spirit or mind is in that world); and not by influx from the natural world, received only when the two agree.

[2] A man can be driven to say that he thinks and wills, believes and loves what is religious, but if this is not a matter of his affection and reasoning or does not become so, he does not think, will, believe or love it. A man may also be compelled to speak in favor of religion and to act according to it, but he cannot be compelled to think in its favor from any faith or to will in its favor out of love for it. In countries in which justice and judgment are guarded, one is indeed compelled not to speak or act against religion, but still no one can be compelled to think and will in its favor. For everyone has freedom to think and to will along with, and in favor of, hell or along with, and in favor of, heaven. Reason, however, teaches what either course is like and what lot awaits it, and by reason the will has the choice and decision.

[3] Plainly, then, what is external cannot coerce what is internal; nevertheless it happens sometimes, but that it works harm will be shown in this order:

i. No one is reformed by miracles and signs, for they coerce. ii. No one is reformed by visions and communication with the dead, for they coerce. iii. No one is reformed by threats and penalties, as these coerce. iv. No one is reformed in states of no rationality or no freedom. v. Self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and freedom. vi. The external man is to be reformed through the internal, and not the other way about.

130. (i) No one is reformed by miracles and signs, for they coerce. We have shown above that man has an internal and an external of thought, and that the Lord acts into the external by the internal in man and so teaches and leads him; also that it is of the Lord's divine providence that man is to act in freedom according to reason. Either action would perish in man if miracles were done and he were driven by them to believe. That this is so can be seen rationally in this way: undeniably miracles induce belief and powerfully persuade a person that what the miracle-doer says and teaches is true, and at first this engages man's external of thought, virtually holding it spellbound. But one is deprived by this of the two faculties called rationality and liberty, thus cannot act in freedom according to reason, nor can the Lord then inflow into the external of man's thought through the internal save only to leave man to confirm from his rationality what has been made a matter of his belief by the miracle.

[2] The state of man's thought is such that from the internal of thought he can see a piece in the external of his thought as in a mirror—for as was said above, one can behold one's own thought, which is possible only from more interior thought. Beholding the item as in a mirror he can turn it this way and that and shape it to look attractive to him. If there is truth in it, it may be likened to an attractive and animated maiden or youth. But if a man cannot turn it this way and that and shape it, but only believe it persuaded of it by a miracle, then if there is truth in it, it may be likened to a maiden or youth carved in stone or wood, in which is nothing alive. It may also be compared to an object which is constantly in view and looked at alone, keeps one from seeing what is to either side and behind it. It can also be compared to a continual sound in the ear, which does away with perceiving the harmony of many sounds. Such are the blindness and deafness induced on the mind by miracles. It is the same with anything confirmed but not regarded from rationality before it is confirmed.

131. Plain it is from this that a faith induced by miracles is not faith, but persuasion. For it has nothing rational in it, still less anything spiritual, as it is only external without an internal. This is true of everything a man does from such persuasive faith, whether he is acknowledging God, worshiping Him at home or in church, or doing good deeds. When only a miracle leads a person to acknowledgment of God and to adoration and piety, he acts from the natural and not the spiritual man. For a miracle infuses belief by an external and not an internal way, thus from the world and not from heaven. The Lord enters man by an internal way, by the Word and by doctrine and preaching from it. As miracles close this way, no miracles are done today.

132. That miracles are of this nature can be clearly established from those performed in the presence of the people of Judah and Israel. Although they beheld many miracles in the land of Egypt and later at the Red Sea and others in the Wilderness and particularly on Mt. Sinai when the Law was promulgated, nevertheless, in a month's time while Moses tarried on that mountain, they made themselves a golden calf and hailed it as Jehovah who had led them out of the land of Egypt (Ex 32:4-6). Again, it is plain from the miracles done later in the land of Canaan; nevertheless the people fell away time and again from the prescribed worship. It is equally plain from the miracles which the Lord did before their eyes when He was in the world; yet they crucified Him.

[2] Miracles were done among the Jews and Israelites because they were altogether external men and had been brought into the land of Canaan merely to represent a church and its eternal verities by the externalities of worship—something a bad man as well as a good man can do. For the externals are rituals which with that people signified spiritual and celestial things. Indeed Aaron, although he made the golden calf and ordered worship of it (Ex 32:2-5, 35 ), could still represent the Lord and His work of salvation. As the people could not be brought by the internal things of worship to represent them, they were brought to do so by miracles—in fact, were driven and forced to it.

[3] They could not be led by internals of worship because they did not acknowledge the Lord although the entire Word which they had treats of Him alone. One who does not acknowledge the Lord cannot receive anything internal in worship. But miracles ceased after the Lord had manifested Himself and was received and acknowledged as eternal God in the churches.

133. The effect of miracles on the good and on the evil differs, however. The good do not desire miracles, but believe those in the Word. If they hear of some miracle, they regard it only as a slight indication confirming their faith; for they draw their thought from the Word and thus from the Lord, and not from a miracle. It is different with the evil. They can be driven and compelled, of course, to belief, to worship, too, and to piety, but only for a little while. For their evils are enclosed, and the lusts of those evils and the enjoyments of the lusts continually press against the outward worship and piety; and in order that the evils may come out of their confinement and burst forth, the wicked ponder the miracle, finally call it ridiculous and a ruse or a natural phenomenon, and so return to their evils. One who returns to his evils after having worshiped profanes the truths and goods of worship, and the lot of profaners after death is the worst of all fates. They are meant by the Lord's words in Matthew (12:43-45) about those whose last state is worse than the first. Besides, if miracles were to be done for those who have no faith from the miracles in the Word, they would have to be done constantly and before their eyes. It may be plain from all this why miracles are not done at this day.

134. (ii) No one is reformed by visions or by communication with the dead, for they coerce. Visions are of two kinds, divine and diabolic. Divine visions are effected by representations in heaven; diabolic by magic in hell. There are also phantasmal visions, which are illusions of an estranged mind. Divine visions, produced as we said by representative things in heaven, are such as the prophets had who at the time were not in the body but in the spirit, for visions cannot appear to anyone in bodily wakefulness. When these came to the prophets, therefore, it is remarked that they were "in the spirit," as is plain from the following:

Ezekiel said, The Spirit picked me up and carried me to Chaldea to the captivity in a vision of God, in the spirit of God; so the vision rose over me which I saw (11:1, 24).

Again that the Spirit bore him between earth and heaven and brought him to Jerusalem in visions of God (8:3, 4).

He was likewise in visions of God or in the spirit when he saw four beasts which were cherubim (1 and 10).

So, too, when he saw a new temple and a new earth, and an angel measuring them (40-48 ).

That he was in "visions of God" then, he says at 40:2, 26, and that he was "in the spirit" at 43:5.

[2] Zechariah was in a similar state when he saw

a horseman among myrtle trees (1:8 ff)

four horns (1:18) and a man with a measuring line in his hand (2:1-3 ff )

a candlestick and two olive trees (4:1 ff)

a flying roll and an ephah (5:1, 6)

four chariots coming out between two mountains, and horses (8:1 ff).

In a like state was Daniel when he saw

four beasts coming up from the sea (7:1 ff )

a combat between a ram and a he-goat (8:1 ff).

That he saw these things "in the vision of his spirit" is stated at 7:1, 2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7, 8, and that the angel Gabriel was seen by him in a "vision" at 9:21.

[3] John was also in the vision of the spirit when he beheld what he has described in the Apocalypse, as when he saw

seven candlesticks and the Son of man in the midst of them (1:12-16)

a throne in heaven, and One sitting on the throne, and around it four beasts, which were cherubim (4)

the book of life taken by the Lamb (5)

horses coming out from the book (6)

seven angels with trumpets (8)

the pit of the abyss opened, and locusts coming out a dragon, and its battle with Michael (12)

two beasts, rising, one from the sea and the other from the land (13)

a woman seated on a scarlet beast (17)

Babylon destroyed (18)

a white horse, and One seated on it (19)

a new heaven and a new earth, and the holy Jerusalem descending from heaven (21)

the river of the water of life (22).

That he saw these "in the vision of the spirit" is said 1:10; 4:2; 5:1; 6:1; 21:1, 2.

[4] Such were the visions which appeared from heaven to the sight of the spirit of these men, but not to their bodily sight. Such visions do not occur at this day because if they did, they would not be understood inasmuch as they are produced by representations the details of which signify internal things of the church and arcana of heaven. Daniel also foretold (9:24) that they would cease when the Lord came into the world.

Diabolic visions, however, have occurred at times, incited by fanatical and visionary spirits who in their delirium called themselves the Holy Spirit. But those spirits have now been gathered together by the Lord and cast into a hell separate from the hells of others. There are also phantasmal visions which are merely the illusions of an estranged mind.

All this makes clear that no one can be reformed by any visions other than those in the Word.

134 r. The fact that no one is reformed by communication with the dead is plain from the Lord's words about the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.

For the rich man said, I ask you, father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers, to testify to them lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. But he said, No, father Abraham, but if some one will go to them from the dead, they will repent. He replied, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded either if one should arise from the dead (Lu 16:27-31).

Communication with the dead would have the same result as miracles (of which just above), namely, that a man would be influenced and driven into worship for a short time. But as this deprives a man of rationality and at the same time shuts his evils in, as was said above, the captivation or the inward bond is undone, and the imprisoned evils break out, with blasphemy and profanation; this last occurs, however, only when spirits introduce something dogmatic from religion, which is never done by a good spirit, still less by an angel of heaven.

135. Nevertheless, speech with spirits—rarely with angels of heaven—is possible and has been granted to many for ages. When it is granted, spirits speak with a man in his native tongue and briefly. And those who speak with the Lord's permission never say anything that takes away the freedom of the reason, nor do they instruct, for the Lord alone teaches man, doing so by means of the Word to the man's enlightenment (of this in numbers to come). I have been given to know this in my own experience. I have spoken with spirits and angels for many years now. No spirit has dared and no angel has wished to tell me, still less to instruct me, about things in the Word or about any of its doctrine. The Lord alone has taught me, who revealed Himself to me and afterwards continued to appear to me as He does now, as the Sun in which He is, as He appears to the angels, and He has enlightened me.

136. (iii) No one is reformed by threats or penalties, as these coerce. It is known that the external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can compel the external; also that the internal refuses to be coerced by the external and turns away. It is likewise known that external enjoyments entice the assent and love of the internal; and it may also be known that there is a forced internal and a free internal. But all this, though known, needs to be lighted up, for much on being heard is perceived at once to be so, because it is truth and hence is affirmed, but if it is not confirmed by reasons, it can be weakened by arguments from fallacies and finally denied. What we have said is known, is therefore to be taken up afresh and established rationally.

[2] First: The external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can compel the external. Who can be forced to believe or love? One can no more be compelled to believe than he can be compelled to think that something is so when he thinks it is not so, or to love than to will something that he does not will; belief attaches to thought, and love to the will. The internal can be compelled, however, by what is external not to speak improperly against the laws of a kingdom, the morals of life or the sanctities of the church. The internal can be compelled to this by threats and penalties and is compelled and should be. But this is not the specifically human internal, but one which the human being shares with beasts; they can also be compelled. The human internal resides above this animal internal. Here the human internal which cannot be coerced is meant.

[3] Second: The internal refuses to be coerced by the external and turns away. The reason is that the internal wills to be in freedom and loves freedom. For, as was shown, freedom attaches to man's love and life. When the internal feels it is being subjected to compulsion, therefore, it withdraws as it were into itself, averts itself, and regards the compulsion as its enemy. For the love which makes man's life is irritated and causes him to think that he is then not himself and has no life of his own. The internal of the human being is of this nature by the law of the Lord's divine providence that he shall act from freedom in accord with reason.

[4] Plainly, then, it does harm to compel men to divine worship by threats and penalties. Some permit themselves to be forced to religion, some do not. Many who do are adherents of Catholicism; but this is the case with those in whom there is nothing internal in worship, but all is external. Among those who do not allow themselves to be coerced are many of the English nation, and as a result there is what is internal in their worship and what is external is from the internal. Their interiors in respect to religion appear in the light of the spiritual world like bright clouds, but those of the former like dark clouds. The one and the other appearance is to be seen in that world, and one who wishes may see it when he enters that world on death. Furthermore, enforced worship shuts one's evils in, which are hidden then like fire in wood under ashes which keeps stirring and spreading until it bursts into flame. But worship, not enforced but spontaneous, does not shut evils in; these are therefore like a fire that flares up and goes out. Thence it is plain that the internal refuses to be forced by the external and turns away. The internal can compel the external because it is like a master and the external like a servant.

[5] Third: External enjoyments entice assent and love from the internal. Enjoyments are of two kinds, of the understanding or of the will. Enjoyments of the understanding are also enjoyments of wisdom, and those of the will also enjoyments of love; for wisdom belongs to the understanding and love to the will. Enjoyments of the body or of the senses, which are external pleasures, act as one with the internal enjoyments, which are enjoyments of the understanding and the will. Therefore, just as the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external as to turn away, it looks so kindly on enjoyment in the external that it turns to it. Assent follows on the part of the understanding, and love on the part of the will.

[6] In the spiritual world all children are introduced by the Lord into angelic wisdom and through this into heavenly love by delightful and charming means, first by pretty things in the home and the charms of a garden; then by representations of spiritual things affecting the interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by truths of wisdom and goods of love. Thus they are steadily led by enjoyments in due order, first by the enjoyments of a love of the understanding and of its wisdom, and then by the enjoyments of the love of the will which is their life's love, to which all else that has entered through enjoyment is kept subordinate.

[7] This is done because the will and understanding must all be formed by what is external before they are formed by what is internal, for they are formed first by what enters by the physical senses, chiefly the sight and the hearing; then when a first will and understanding have been formed, the internal of thought regards them as the externals of its thinking, and either joins itself to them or separates itself from them, as they are or are not enjoyable to it.

[8] It should be well understood, however, that the internal of the understanding does not unite itself to the internal of the will, but it is the latter that unites itself to the former and causes reciprocal union. This is done by the internal of the will, not at all by the internal of the understanding. Hence it is that man cannot be reformed by faith alone, but by the love of the will which makes a faith for itself.

[9] Fourth: There is a forced internal and a free one. A forced internal is found in those who are in external worship only and in none that is internal. Their internal consists of thinking and willing what the external is coerced to. Such are persons who worship living or dead men or idols, or who rest their faith on miracles. No internal is possible with them which is not at the same time external. And yet a forced internal is possible with persons in internal worship; it may be forced by fear or compelled by love. That forced by fear is found in those who worship for fear of the torment and fire of hell. This internal is not the internal of thought of which we have treated, however, but an external of thought called internal here because it partakes of thought. The internal of thought of which we have treated cannot be forced by any fear; it can be compelled by love and by fear of failing to love. In the true sense fear of God is nothing else. To be compelled by love and by the fear of failing in it is self-compulsion, and self-compulsion, it will be seen in what follows, is not contrary to freedom and rationality.

137. It is plain then what forced worship and unforced worship are like. Forced worship is corporeal, inanimate, obscure and sad—corporeal because it is of the body and not of the mind; inanimate because it has no life in it; obscure for lack of understanding in it; and sad because it does not have the joy of heaven in it. But worship not forced and real is spiritual, living, seeing and joyful—spiritual, because spirit from the Lord is in it; living, because life from Him is in it; seeing because wisdom from Him is in it; and joyful because heaven from Him is in it.

138. (iv) No one is reformed in states of no liberty or rationality. We showed above that only what a man does in freedom according to reason is made his. This is because freedom belongs to the will and reason to the understanding; acting in freedom in accord with reason a man acts from the will by the understanding and what is done in the union of the two is appropriated. Now, since the Lord wills that a man be reformed and regenerated in order that eternal life or the life of heaven may be his, and none can be reformed or regenerated unless good is appropriated to his will and truth to his understanding as if they were his, and only that can be appropriated which is done in freedom of the will and in accord with the reason of the understanding, no one is reformed in states of no freedom or rationality. There are many such states, but they may be summarized as states of fear, misfortune, mental illness, physical disease, ignorance, and intellectual blindness. Something will be said of each.

139. No one is reformed in a state of fear because fear takes away freedom and reason or liberty and rationality. Love opens the mind's interiors but fear closes them, and when they are closed man thinks little and only what comes to the lower mind or to the senses. All fears that assail the lower mind have this effect.

[2] We showed above that man has an internal and an external of thought. Fear can never invade the internal of thought; this is always in freedom, being in a man's life-love. But it can invade the external of thought. When it does, the internal of thought is closed and thereupon man can no longer act in freedom in accord with his reason, nor be reformed.

[3] The fear which invades the external of thought and closes the internal is chiefly fear of losing standing or profit. Fear of civil penalties or of outward ecclesiastical penalties does not close the internal, for the laws respecting them pronounce penalties only on those who speak and act contrary to the civil requirements of the kingdom and the spiritual of the church, but not on those who think contrary to them.

[4] Fear of infernal punishment invades the external of thought, to be sure, but only for some moments, hours or days; it is soon restored to its freedom by the internal of thought, which is man's spirit and life-love and is called thought of the heart.

[5] Fear of losing one's standing or wealth, however, does invade man's external of thought, and when it does, closes the internal of thought above to influx from heaven and makes it impossible for man to be reformed. This is because everyone's life-love from birth is love of self and the world, and self-love is at one with the love of position, and love of the world with the love of wealth. When a man has position or wealth, therefore, for fear of losing them he strengthens the means at hand—whether civil or churchly and in either case means to power—which serve him for position and wealth. The man who does not yet have standing or wealth but aspires to them, does the same, but for fear he will lose the reputation they give.

[6] It was said that this fear seizes on the external of thought and closes the internal above to heaven's inflowing. The internal is said to be closed when it makes one completely with the external, as it is then not in itself but in the external.

[7] But as the loves of self and the world are infernal loves and the fountain-heads of all evils, it is plain what the internal of thought in itself is like with men in whom those loves reign and are their life's loves, namely, that it is full of lusts of evils of every kind.

[8] This men do not know who fear loss of place and opulence and are strongly persuaded of their special religion, most particularly if this promises that they may be worshiped as holy and also as governors of hell; they can blaze, as it were, with zeal for the salvation of souls and yet this is from infernal fire. As this fear especially takes away rationality itself and liberty itself, which have a heavenly origin, plainly it makes against the possibility that a man may be reformed.

140. No one is reformed in a state of misfortune if he thinks about God and implores help only then, for it is a coerced state; wherefore, on coming into a free state he returns to his former state when he thought little if at all about God. It is different with those who feared God in a state of freedom previously. For by "fearing God" is meant fearing to offend Him, and by "offending Him" to sin, and this comes not from fear but from love. Does not one who loves another fear to hurt him? And the more he loves him, the more he fears hurting him? Lacking this fear, love is insipid and superficial, of the mind only and not of the will. By states of misfortune states of despair in danger are meant, in battles, for example, duels, shipwreck, falls, fires, threatening or unexpected loss of property, also of office or standing, and similar mishaps. To think about God only then is not to think from God but from self. For then the mind is as it were imprisoned in the body, so is not in freedom nor possessed then of rationality, and without these reformation is impossible.

141. No one is reformed in a state of mental illness because such illness takes away rationality and thus the liberty of acting in accord with reason. The whole mind is sick and not sane; the sane mind is rational, but not a sick one. Such disorders are melancholy, a spurious or a false conscience, fantasies of different kinds, mental grief over misfortune, anxiety and anguish of the mind over a bodily defect. Sometimes these are regarded as temptations, but they are not. Genuine temptations have spiritual objects in view and in them the mind is wise, but these states are concerned with natural objects and in them the mind is disordered.

142. No one is reformed in a state of bodily sickness because his reason is not then in a state of freedom; the state of the mind depends on that of the body. When the body is sick, the mind is also, if for no other reason because it is withdrawn from the world. Withdrawn from the world it thinks indeed about God but not from Him, for it is not possessed of freedom of the reason. Man has this freedom in being midway between heaven and the world, thus can think from heaven and from the world, likewise from heaven about the world and from the world about heaven. So when he is ill and thinks about death and the state of his soul after death, he is not in the world but is withdrawn in spirit. In this state by itself no one can be reformed, but he can be strengthened in it if he was reforming before he fell ill.

[2] It is similar with those who renounce the world and all occupation in it and give themselves only to thoughts about God, heaven and salvation; on this further elsewhere. If those of whom we were speaking have not been reformed before their illness, then if they die they become such as they were before their illness. It is vain, therefore, to suppose that one can repent or receive some faith in illness; for no deed accompanies the repentance, and there is no charity in the faith; each is oral only and not at all from the heart.

143. No one is reformed in a state of ignorance, for all reformation is by truths and a life according to them. Therefore those who do not know truths cannot be reformed, but if they long for them with affection for them, after they die they undergo reformation in the spiritual world.

144. Nor can one be reformed in a state of blindness of the understanding. These also have no knowledge of truths or consequently of life, for the understanding must teach truths and the will must do them; when the will does what the understanding teaches, a man has life in accord with truths. When the understanding is blind, however, the will also is indifferent and acts in freedom according to one's reason only to do the evil confirmed in the understanding, and the confirmation is falsity. Besides ignorance, a religion which teaches a blind faith also blinds the understanding; so does a false doctrine. For just as truths open the understanding, falsities close it. They close it above and open it below, and opened only below, the understanding cannot see truths but only confirm what a man wills, falsity especially. The understanding is also blinded by lusts of evil. As long as the will is in these, it moves the understanding to confirm them, and so far as they are confirmed, the will cannot be in affections of good, from these see truths, and so be reformed.

[2] Take, for instance, one who is in the lust of adultery: his will, which is in the enjoyment of his love, moves his understanding to confirm it, saying, "What is adultery? Is there any evil in it? Does not the like occur between husband and wife? Cannot offspring be born of it, too? Cannot a woman receive more than one without harm? How does anything spiritual enter into this?" So thinks the understanding which is then the courtesan of the will. So stupid is it made by debauchery with the will that it is unable to see that marital love is spiritual and heavenly love itself, a reflection of the love between the Lord and the church from which it is derived; is in itself sacred and chastity itself, purity and innocence; causes men to be forms of love, since partners can love each other from inmosts and so form themselves into loves; nor can it see that adultery destroys this form and with it the Lord's image; and what is abhorrent, that the adulterer mingles his life with that of the husband in the wife, for a man's life is in the seed.

[3] Because this is profane, hell is called adultery, and heaven on the other hand is called marriage. Furthermore, the love of adultery communicates with the lowest hell, but true marital love with the inmost heaven; the reproductive organs of both sexes also correspond to societies of the inmost heaven. These things are adduced so that it may be known how blinded the understanding is when the will is in the lust of evil, and that no one can be reformed in a state of blindness of the understanding.

145. (v) Self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and liberty. We have shown that man has an internal and an external of thought; that they are distinguishable as prior and subsequent or higher and lower; and that being so distinct they can act separately and also jointly. They act separately when a man speaks and acts from the external of his thought otherwise than he thinks and wills inwardly; they act jointly when he speaks and acts as he thinks and wills. The latter is common with the sincere, the former with the insincere.

[2] Inasmuch as the internal and the external of the mind are so distinct, the internal can even fight with the external and by combat drive it to compliance. Conflict arises when the man deems evils to be sins and resolves to desist from them. When he desists, a door is opened and the lusts of evil which have occupied the internal of thought are cast out by the Lord and affections of good are implanted in their place. This occurs in the internal of thought. But the enjoyments of evil lust which occupy the external of thought cannot be cast out at the same time; conflict arises therefore between the internal and the external of thought. The internal wants to cast out those enjoyments because they are enjoyments of evil and do not agree with the affections of good in which the internal now is, and wants to introduce in their place enjoyments of good which do agree. These are what are called goods of charity. From the disagreement comes the conflict which, if it grows severe, is called temptation.

[3] Now as man is man by virtue of the internal of his thought, for this is his very spirit, obviously he compels himself when he compels the external of his thought to comply or to receive the enjoyments of his affections or the goods of charity. Plainly this is not contrary to rationality and liberty but in accord with them; rationality starts the combat and liberty follows it up; liberty itself resides with rationality in the internal man and from that in the external.

[4] Accordingly, when the internal conquers, which it does when it has reduced the external to compliance and obedience, man is given liberty itself and rationality itself by the Lord, for he is delivered by the Lord then from infernal freedom which in itself is enslavement, is brought into heavenly freedom which is freedom in itself, and is given association with angels. The Lord Himself teaches ( John 8:31-36) that those who are in sins are enslaved and that He delivers those who receive truth from Him through the Word.

146. Let an example serve for illustration. A man who has taken pleasure in defrauding and deceiving sees and inwardly acknowledges it to be sin and resolves to desist from it; with this a battle begins of his internal with the external. The internal man is in an affection for honesty, but the external still in the enjoyment of defrauding. This enjoyment, utterly opposed to enjoyment in honesty, does not give way unless forced to do so and can be forced to do so only by combat with it. When the fight is won, the external man comes into the enjoyment of a love of honesty, which is charity. Then the pleasure of defrauding gradually turns unpleasant to him. It is the same with all other sins, with adultery and whoredom, revenge and hatred, blasphemy and lying. The most difficult battle of all is with the love of ruling from self-love. A person who subdues this love, easily subdues all other evil loves, for this is their summit.

147. Let it be told briefly how the Lord casts out lusts of evil occupying the internal man from birth and in their place bestows affections of good when a man on his part removes the evils as sins. It was shown earlier that man possesses a natural, a spiritual and a celestial mind, that he is only in the natural mind as long as he is in lusts of evil and their enjoyments, and that during this time the spiritual mind is closed. But as soon as a man on self-examination confesses evils to be sins against God because they are contrary to divine laws and accordingly resolves to desist from them, the Lord opens the spiritual mind, enters the natural by affections of truth and good, enters the reason, and by the reason puts into order what is disordered below in the natural. It is this that strikes the man as a battle, and strikes those who have indulged much in enjoyments of evil as temptation, for when the order of its thinking is inverted the lower mind suffers pain.

Inasmuch as the battle is against what is in the man himself and what he feels to be his, and no one can fight against himself except from a more interior self and from freedom in it, it follows that the internal man fights against the external and does so from freedom, and compels the external to obey. This, then, is compelling oneself, and, clearly, it is not contrary to liberty and rationality, but in accord with them.

148. Everyone desires to be free, moreover, and to be rid of the unfree or servitude. The boy under a master wishes to be his own master and thus free; so every man-servant under his master or maid under her mistress. Every girl wishes to leave the paternal home and marry, to do freely in a home of her own; and every boy who desires to work, enter business, or hold some position wishes to be released from his subordination to others and to be at his own disposal. All of these who serve willingly in order to be free compel themselves, and in doing so act from freedom according to reason but from an inner freedom, by which outward freedom is regarded as servant. We add this to confirm the fact that self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and liberty.

149. One reason why man does not wish in like manner to come out of spiritual servitude into spiritual freedom is that he does not know what either is; he does not have the truths to teach this, and without them spiritual servitude is believed to be freedom and spiritual freedom to be servitude. A second reason is that the religion of Christendom has closed the understanding, and "faith alone" has sealed it shut. Each has built an iron wall around itself in the dogma that theological matters transcend and cannot be approached by the reason, but are for the blind and not the seeing. So truths that would teach what spiritual liberty is have been hidden. A third reason is that few examine themselves and see their sins, and one who does not see and quit them is in the freedom that sins have, which is infernal freedom, in itself enslavement. To view heavenly freedom, which is genuine freedom, from that freedom is like trying to see daylight in pitch darkness or sunshine from under a black cloud. So it happens that it is not known what heavenly freedom is, or that the difference between it and infernal freedom is like the difference between what is living and what is dead.

150. (vi) The external man is to be reformed by the internal, and not the other way about. By internal and external man the same is meant as by external and internal of thought, of which frequently before. The external must be reformed by the internal because the internal flows into the external and not the reverse. The learned world knows that what is spiritual flows into what is natural and not the reverse, for reason dictates it; the church knows that the internal man must first be cleansed and made new and the external by it then, because the Lord teaches it. He does so in the words:

Woe to you . . . hypocrites, for you make the outside of the cup and platter clean, but the inside is full of extortion and excess. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter that the outside may also be made clean (Mt 23:25, 26).

We have shown in a number of places in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom that reason dictates this. For what the Lord teaches He grants man to see rationally. This a man does in two ways: in one, he sees in himself that something is so upon hearing it; in the other, he grasps it by reasons for it. Seeing in oneself takes place in the internal man, and understanding through reasoning in the external man. Who does not perceive it within himself when he hears that the internal man is to be purified first and the external by it? But one who does not receive the general idea of this by influx from heaven may go astray when he consults the external of this thought; from it alone no one sees but that outward works of charity and piety are saving apart from the internal. It is so in other things, as that sight and hearing flow into thought, and smell and taste into perception, that is, that the external flows into the internal, when the contrary is true. The appearance that what is seen and heard flows into the thought is a fallacy, for the understanding does the seeing in the eye and the hearing in the ear, and not the other way about. So it is in all else.

151. But something should be said here on how the internal man is reformed and by it the external. The internal man is not reformed solely by knowing, understanding and being wise, consequently not by thinking only; but by willing what these teach. When a person knows, understands and has the wisdom to see that heaven and hell exist and that all evil is from hell and all good from heaven, and if he then does not will evil because it is from hell but good because it is from heaven, he has taken the first step in reformation and is on the threshold from hell to heaven. When he advances farther and resolves to desist from evils, he is at the second step in reformation and is out of hell but not yet in heaven; this he beholds above him. There must be this internal for man to be reformed, but he is not reformed unless the external is reformed as well as the internal. The external is reformed by the internal when the external desists from the evils which the internal sets its will against because they are infernal, and still further reformed when the external shuns and fights against the evils. Thus the internal provides the will, the external the deed. For unless a man does the deed he wills, inwardly he does not will it, and finally he wills not to do it.

[2] One can see from these few considerations how the external man is reformed by the internal. This is also meant by the Lord's words to Peter:

Jesus said, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Peter said to Him, not my feet only but my hands and head. Jesus said to him, he who has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed, and is entirely clean (Jn 13:8-10).

By "washing" spiritual washing is meant, which is purification from evils; by "washing head and hands" purifying the internal man is meant, and by "washing the feet" purifying the external. That when the internal man has been purified, the external must be, is meant by this: "He who has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed." That all purification from evils is the Lord's doing, is meant by this, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." We have shown in many places in Arcana Caelestia that with the Jews washing represented purification from evils, that this is signified by "washing" in the Word, and that purification of the natural or external man is signified by the "washing of feet."

152. Since man has an internal and an external and each must be reformed for the man to be reformed, and since no one can be reformed unless he examines himself, sees and admits his evils, and then quits them, not only the external is to be examined, but the internal as well. If a man examines only the external he sees only what he has committed to deed, and that he has not murdered or committed adultery or stolen or borne false witness, and so on. He examines bodily evils and not those in his spirit; yet evils of the spirit are to be examined if one is to be capable of reformation. Man lives as a spirit after death and all the evils in his spirit persist. The spirit is examined only when a man attends to his thoughts, above all to his intentions, for these are thoughts from the will. There the evils exist at their source and roots, that is, in their lusts and enjoyments. Unless they are seen and acknowledged, a man is still in evils though he may not have committed them outwardly. That to think with intention is to will and do, is plain from the Lord's words:

If any one has looked on another's woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).*

* See footnote at n. 111.

Such self-examination is of the internal man, and from it the external man is truly examined.

153. I have often marveled that although all Christendom knows that evils must be shunned as sins and otherwise are not forgiven, and that if they are not forgiven there is no salvation, yet scarcely one person among thousands understands this. Inquiry was made about this in the spiritual world, and it was found to be so. Anyone in Christendom knows it from the exhortations, read out to those who attend the Holy Supper, in which it is publicly stated; and yet when asked whether they know it, they reply that they do not know it and have not known it. The reason is that they have paid no attention to it, and most say they have thought only about faith and salvation by faith alone. I have also marveled that "faith alone" has closed their eyes so that those who have confirmed themselves in it do not see anything in the Word when they read it about love, charity and works. It is as though they spread "faith" all over the Word, as red lead is spread over writing so that nothing underneath shows; if anything does show, it is absorbed by faith and declared to be faith.

VIII. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL BE LED AND TAUGHT BY THE LORD OUT OF HEAVEN BY MEANS OF THE WORD AND DOCTRINE AND PREACHING FROM IT, AND THIS TO ALL APPEARANCE AS OF HIMSELF

154. The appearance is that man is led and taught by himself; in reality he is led and taught by the Lord alone. Those who confirm the appearance in themselves and not the reality at the same time are unable to remove evils from themselves as sins, but those who confirm the appearance and at the same time the reality can do so; for evils are removed as sins apparently by the man, but really by the Lord. The latter can be reformed, but the former cannot.

[2] All who confirm the appearance in themselves and not the reality also, are idolaters inwardly, for they are worshipers of self and the world. If they have no religion they become worshipers of nature and thus atheists; if they have some religion they become worshipers of men and of images. Such are meant now in the first commandment of the Decalog under those who worship other gods. Those, however, who confirm in themselves the appearance and also the reality become worshipers of the Lord, for He raises them out of what is their own, in which the appearance is, conducts them into the light in which the reality is and which is the reality, and gives them to perceive inwardly that they are not led and taught by themselves but by Him.

[3] The rational capacity of the two may seem much the same to many, but it differs. In those who are at once in the appearance and the reality, it is a spiritual reasoning ability, but in those in the appearance but not at the same time in the reality it is a natural reasoning ability; this can be likened to a garden in winter light, and the spiritual reasoning capacity to a garden in springtime light. But If these things more in what follows, in this order:

i. Man is led and taught by the Lord alone. ii. He is led and taught by the Lord alone through and from the angelic heaven. iii. He is led by the Lord through influx and taught through enlightenment. iv. Man is taught by the Lord through the Word and doctrine and preaching from it, thus immediately by Him alone. v. Man is led and taught in externals by the Lord to all appearance as of himself.

155. (i) Man is led and taught by the Lord alone. This flows as a general consequence from all that was demonstrated in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom; from what was said in Part I about the Lord's divine love and wisdom; in Part II about the sun of the spiritual world and the sun of the natural world; in Part III about degrees; in Part IV about the creation of the universe; and in Part V about the creation of the human being.

156. Man is led and taught by the Lord alone in that he lives from the Lord alone; for his life's will is led, and his life's understanding is taught. But this is contrary to the appearance, for it seems to man that he lives of himself, and yet the truth is that he lives from the Lord and not from himself. Man cannot, however, be given a sense-perception of this while he is in the world (the appearance that he lives of himself is not taken away, for without it man is not man). This must be established by reasons, therefore, which are then to be confirmed from experience and finally from the Word.

157. That the human being has life from the Lord alone and not of himself is established by these considerations: 1. There is an only essence, substance and form from which all the essences, substances, and forms exist that have been created. 2. The one essence, substance and form is divine love and wisdom from which is all that is referable to love and wisdom in man. 3. It is also good itself and truth itself to which all things are referable. 4. Likewise it is life, from which is the life of all and all things of life. 5. Again the only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. 6. This only One and very Self is the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah.

[2] 1. There is an only essence, substance and form from which all the essences, substances, and forms exist that have been created. This was demonstrated in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom (nn.44-46). In Part II it was shown that the sun of the angelic heaven, which is from the Lord and in which He is, is the one sole substance and form from which all that has been created exists, also that nothing can exist or come into existence except from it. In Part III it was shown that all things arise from that sun by derivations according to degrees.

[3] Who does not perceive by the reason and acknowledge that there is some one essence from which is all essence, or one being from which is all being? What can exist apart from being, and what can being be from which is all other being except being itself? Being itself is also unique and is being in itself. Since this is so (and anyone perceives and acknowledges it by reason, or if not, can do so), what else follows than that this Being, the Divine itself, Jehovah, is all in all in what is or comes to be?

[4] It is the same if we say there is an only substance from which all things are, and as there is no substance without form there is a single form from which all things are. We have shown in the treatise mentioned above that the sun of the angelic heaven is that substance and form, also shown how that essence, substance and form is varied in things created.

[5] 2. The one essence, substance and form is divine love and wisdom from which is all that is referable to love and wisdom in man. This also was fully demonstrated in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom. Whatever appears to live in man is referable to will and understanding in him; any-one can perceive by the reason and acknowledge that these two constitute his life. What else is "This I will," or "This I understand," or "I love this," or "I think this"? And as man wills what he loves, and thinks what he understands, all things of the will relate to love and those of the understanding to wisdom. As no one has love or wisdom from himself but only from Him who is love itself and wisdom itself, they are from the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah. If they were not, man would be love itself and wisdom itself, thus God-from-eternity, at which the human reason itself is horrified. Can anything exist except from a prior self? Or the prior self exist except from one prior to it? And finally from a first or from underived being?

[6] 3. It is also good itself and truth itself, to which all things are referable. Everyone possessed of reason agrees and acknowledges that God is good itself and truth itself, likewise that all good and truth are from Him, therefore that any good and truth can come only from good itself and truth itself. All this is acknowledged by every rational person when he first hears it. When it is said, then, that everything of the will and understanding, of love and wisdom, or of affection and thought in a man who is led by the Lord relates to good and truth, it follows that all that such a man wills and understands or loves and has for his wisdom, or is affected by and thinks, is from the Lord. Hence anyone in the church knows that whatever good and truth a man has in himself is not good and truth except as it is from the Lord. Since this is true, all that such a man wills and thinks is from the Lord. It will be seen in following numbers that an evil man can will and think from no other source.

[7] 4. The one essence, substance and form is likewise life, from which is the life of all and all things of life. This we have shown in many places in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom. At the first hearing the human reason also agrees and acknowledges that all man's life is that of the will and understanding, for if these are taken away he ceases to live, or what is the same, that all his life is one of love and thought, for if these are taken away he does not live. Inasmuch as all of the will and understanding or all of love and thought in man is from the Lord, all of his life, as we said above, is from Him.

[8] 5. This only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. This also every Christian acknowledges from his doctrine and every gentile from his religion. In consequence, wherever he is, a man thinks that God is there and that he prays to God at hand; thinking and praying so, men cannot but think that God is everywhere, that is, omnipresent; likewise omniscient and omnipotent. Everyone praying to God, therefore, implores Him from the heart to lead him because He can lead him; thus he acknowledges the divine omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, doing so in turning his face to the Lord; thereupon the truth flows in from the Lord.

[9] 6. This only One and very Self is the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah. In Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord it was shown that God is one in essence and in person and that He is the Lord, and that the Divine itself, called Jehovah Father, is the Lord-from-eternity; that the Divine Human is the Son conceived by His Divine from eternity and born in the world; and that the proceeding Divine is the Holy Spirit. He is called "very Self" and "only One" because, as was said, the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah is life itself, being love itself and wisdom itself or good itself and truth itself, from which are all things. That the Lord created all things from Himself and not from nothing may be seen in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom nn. 282-284, 349-357. So the truth that the human being is led and taught by the Lord alone is established by reasons.

158. This same truth is established in angels not only by reasons but also by living perceptions, especially with angels of the third heaven. They perceive the influx of divine love and wisdom from the Lord. Perceiving it and in their wisdom aware that love and wisdom are life, they declare that they live from the Lord and not of themselves, and not only say so but love and will it so. Yet they are in the full appearance that they live of themselves, yes, more strongly in the appearance than other angels. For as was shown above (nn. 42-45) the more nearly one is united with the Lord, the more distinctly does he seem to himself to be his own, and the more plainly is he aware that he is the Lord's. For many years now it has been granted me to be in a similar simultaneous perception and appearance, and I am fully convinced that I will and think nothing from myself but that it only appears to be from myself; it has also been granted to love and will it so. The same truth may be established by much else from the spiritual world, but these two references must suffice now.

159. It is plain from the following passages in the Word that life is the Lord's alone.

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, shall live (Jn 11:25).

I am the way and the truth and the life (Jn 14:6).

The Word was God . . . and in Him was life; and the life was the light of men (Jn 1:1, 4).

"The Word" in this passage is the Lord.

As the Father has life in Himself, so has he given the Son to have life in Himself (Jn 5:26).

From the following it is clear that man is led and taught by the Lord alone:

Without Me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5).

A man cannot receive anything unless it is given him from heaven (Jn 3:27).

A man cannot make one hair white or black (Mt 5:36).

By "hair" in the Word the least of all is signified.

160. It will be shown in what follows in an article of its own that the life of the wicked has the same source; now this will merely be illustrated by a comparison. Heat and light flow in from the sun of the world alike to trees bearing bad fruit and to trees bearing good fruit, and they are alike quickened and grow. The forms into which the heat flows make the difference, not the heat in itself. It is the same with light, which is turned into various colors according to the forms into which it flows. The colors are beautiful and gay or ugly and sombre, and yet it is the same light. It is so with the influx of spiritual heat which in itself is love, and with spiritual light which in itself is wisdom, from the sun of the spiritual world. The forms into which they flow cause diversity, but not in itself that heat which is love or that light which is wisdom. The forms into which these flow are human minds. It is clear from these considerations that man is led and taught by the Lord alone.

161. What the life of animals is, however, was shown above (nn. 74, 96), namely that it is a life of merely natural affection with its attendant knowledge, and a mediated life corresponding to the life of human beings in the spiritual world.

162. (ii) Man is led and taught by the Lord alone through the angelic heaven and from it. We say "through" the angelic heaven and from it, but that He does so "through" the angelic heaven is the apparent fact, while "from it" is the reality. The Lord seems to lead and teach through the angelic heaven because He appears above that heaven as a sun, but the reality is that He does so from heaven because He is in heaven as the soul is in man. For the Lord is omnipresent and not in space, as was shown above. Therefore distance is an appearance according to conjunction with Him, and the conjunction is according to the reception of love and wisdom from Him. Since no one can be conjoined to the Lord as He exists in Himself He appears to angels at a distance as a sun; nevertheless He is in the angelic heaven as the soul is in man. He is similarly in every society of heaven and in every angel, for man's soul is not only the soul of man as a whole but also of every part of him.

[2] It is according to the appearance that the Lord governs all heaven and through it the world from the sun which is from Him and in which He is (about the sun see Part II of the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom), and everyone is allowed to speak according to the appearance, cannot, in fact, do otherwise. Everyone who is not in wisdom itself is also allowed to think that the Lord rules each and all things from His sun and rules the world through the angelic heaven. Angels of the lower heavens think from the appearance, but those of the higher heavens speak indeed in keeping with the appearance but think from the reality, namely, that the Lord rules the universe from the angelic heaven, that is, from Himself.

[3] One can illustrate by the sun of the world that simple and wise speak alike but do not think alike. All speak from the appearance that the sun rises and sets. Despite speaking so the wise think it stands still, which is again the reality, as the other is the appearance. The same thing can be illustrated from appearances in the spiritual world, for space and distance appear there but are dissimilarities of affections and of resulting thoughts. The same is true of the Lord's appearing in His sun.

163. We shall say briefly how the Lord leads and teaches everyone from the angelic heaven. In the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom and above in the present treatise, also in the work Heaven and Hell, published in London in the year 1758, it has been made known from things seen and heard that the angelic heaven appears before the Lord as one man, and each society of heaven likewise, and it is from this that each angel or spirit is a human being in complete form. It was also shown in the treatises mentioned that heaven is not heaven from anything belonging to the angels but from their reception of divine love and wisdom from the Lord. Hence it may be evident that the Lord rules the whole angelic heaven as one man, and since heaven is itself man, it is the very image and likeness of the Lord and the Lord rules it as the soul rules its body. Since all mankind is ruled by the Lord, it is ruled by the Lord not through heaven, but from heaven, consequently by Him, for He is heaven, as we have said.

164. This is an arcanum of angelic wisdom, however, and therefore cannot be comprehended by man unless his spiritual mind has been opened; for such a man, who is united with the Lord, is an angel. From what has preceded he can comprehend the following:

1. Men as well as angels are in the Lord and the Lord in them according to their conjunction with Him, or, what is the same, according to their reception of love and wisdom from Him. 2. Each of them has a place allotted to him in the Lord, thus in heaven, according to the nature of the conjunction or the reception of Him. 3. Each in his place has a state of his own distinct from that of others and draws his portion from what is had in common according to his situation, function and need, quite as each part does in the human body. 4. Everyone is brought into his place by the Lord according to his life. 5. Every human being is introduced from infancy into this divine man whose soul and life is the Lord, and within it and not outside of it is led and taught from His divine love according to His divine wisdom; but as a man is not deprived of freedom, he can be led and taught only in the measure of his receptiveness as of himself. 6. Those who are receptive are conducted to their places through an infinite maze by winding paths, much as the chyle is carried through the mesentery and the lacteal vessels there to its cistern, and from this into the blood by the thoracic duct, and so to its place. 7. Those who are not receptive are parted from those within the divine man, as excrement and urine are removed from man.

These are arcana of angelic wisdom which man can comprehend to some extent; there are many more which he cannot.

165. (iii) Man is led by the Lord through influx and taught through enlightenment. Man is led through influx by the Lord because "being led" and "flowing in" are spoken of love and the will; and he is taught by the Lord through enlightenment because "being taught" and "enlightened" are spoken of wisdom and the understanding. It is known that every person is led by himself from his own love and according to it by others, and not by his understanding. He is led by his understanding and according to it only as his love or his will prompts the understanding, and then it can be said that his understanding is led also. Even then the understanding is not led, but the will which prompts it.

The term "influx" is used because it is commonly said that the soul flows into the body; influx is spiritual and not physical, as we showed above, and man's soul or life is his love or will. For another reason, influx is comparatively like the flow of the blood into the heart and from the heart into the lungs. We showed in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom that the heart corresponds to the will and the lungs correspond to the understanding, and that the conjunction of the will with the understanding is like the flowing of the blood from the heart to the lungs.

166. Man is taught, however, through enlightenment; being taught and being enlightened are said of the understanding. For the understanding or man's internal sight is enlightened by spiritual light quite as the eye or man's external sight is by natural light. The two are also taught similarly; the internal sight, however, which is that of the understanding, by spiritual objects, and the external sight or the sight of the eye by natural objects. There is spiritual light and natural light, one like the other in outward appearance, but dissimilar in internal appearance. For natural light comes from the sun of the natural world and so is in itself dead, but spiritual light, which is from the sun of the spiritual world, is in itself living. This light, not nature's, enlightens the human intellect. Natural and rational light comes from it and not from nature's light, and is here called natural and rational because it is spiritual-natural.

[2] There are three degrees of light in the spiritual world: celestial, spiritual and spiritual-natural. Celestial light is a flaming, ruddy light and is the light of those who are in the third heaven; spiritual light is a gleaming white light and is the light of those in the middle heaven; and spiritual-natural light is like daylight in our world. This is the light of those who are in the lowest heaven and of those in the world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell; with the good in that world it is like the light of summer on earth and with the evil like winter's light.

It should be known, however, that light in the spiritual world has nothing in common with light in the natural world; they are as different as what is living and what is lifeless. It is plain, then, from what has been said that it is spiritual light and not the natural light before our eyes that enlightens the understanding. Man does not know this, not having known anything hitherto about spiritual light. In the work Heaven and Hell we have shown (nn. 126-140) that spiritual light has its origin in divine wisdom and truth.

167. Having spoken about the light of heaven, we should say something about the light of hell. This also is of three degrees. The light in the lowest hell is like that from fiery coals; in the middle hell like that from the flame of a hearth; and in the highest hell like that from candles and to some like moonlight at night. All this is spiritual light and not natural, for all natural light is dead and extinguishes the understanding. As has been shown, those in hell possess the faculty of understanding called rationality; rationality itself comes from spiritual light and not from natural light. The spiritual light which they have in rationality is turned, however, into infernal light, as the light of day is into the dark of night.

[2] Nevertheless, all those in the spiritual world, whether in the heavens or the hells, see in their own light as clearly as man sees in his by day. This is because everyone's eyesight is formed to receive the light in which it finds itself. Thus the eyesight of the angels of heaven is formed to receive the light in which they see, and the sight of the spirits of hell is formed to receive their light; this is comparatively like that of birds of night and bats, which see objects at night and in the evening as clearly as other birds see them by day, for their eyes are formed to receive their light.

[3] The difference between the one light and the other appears very clearly, however, to those who look from one to the other. When, for instance, an angel of heaven looks into hell he sees only thick darkness, and when a spirit of hell looks into heaven he sees only thick darkness there. For heavenly wisdom is like thick darkness to those in hell; in turn, infernal insanity is like thick darkness to those in heaven. It is plain from all this that such as a man's understanding is, such is the light he has, and that after death everyone comes into his own light, for he sees in no other. In the spiritual world, moreover, where all are spiritual even to the body, the eyes of all are formed to see by their own light. Everyone's life-love fashions an understanding for itself and thus a light, also, for love is like the fire of life and from this comes the light of life.

168. As few know anything about the enlightenment in which the understanding of a man is who is taught by the Lord, something will be said of it. There is inner and outer enlightenment from the Lord, and inner and outer enlightenment from oneself. Inner enlightenment from the Lord consists in man's perceiving on first hearing something whether it is true or not; outer enlightenment consists in thought from this. Inner enlightenment from oneself is simply from confirmation and outer enlightenment merely from information. We will say something of each.

[2] By inner enlightenment from the Lord a rational person perceives about many things the moment he hears them whether they are true or not; for example, that love is the life of faith or that faith lives by love. By interior enlightenment a person also perceives that a man wills what he loves and does what he wills, consequently that to love is to do; again, that a man wills and does whatever he believes from love, and therefore to have faith is also to do; and that the impious man cannot have love for God or faith then in Him. By inner enlightenment a rational man also perceives the following truths at once on hearing them: God is one; He is omnipresent; all good is from Him; all things have relation to good and truth; all good is from good itself and all truth from truth itself. A man perceives these and other similar truths inwardly in himself on hearing them and does so because he possesses a rationality which is in heaven's enlightening light.

[3] Outer enlightenment is enlightenment of one's thought from this inner enlightenment. One's thought is in this enlightenment so far as it remains in the perception it has from inner enlightenment and so far as it possesses knowledge of good and truth, for it gets from this knowledge reasons confirming it. Thought from outer enlightenment sees a matter on both sides; on the one, it sees reasons which confirm it, and on the other, the appearances that weaken it; it dispels these and assembles the reasons.

[4] Inner enlightenment from oneself, however, is quite different. By it one regards a matter on one side only, and having confirmed it sees it in light apparently like that just spoken of, but it is a wintry light. For example, a judge who judges unjustly in view of gifts or gain, once he has confirmed the judgment by law and reason sees in it nothing but justice. Some judges see the injustice but not wanting to see it, they keep it out of sight and blind themselves and so do not see. The same is true of a judge who renders judgments out of friendship, or to gain favor, or on account of relationship.