8. VI. Those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow conjointly from God into the soul of man; and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts; and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body.

The spiritual influx hitherto treated of by inspired men is that from the soul into the body, but no one has treated of influx into the soul, and through this into the body; although it is known that all the good of love and all the truth of faith flow from God into man, and nothing of them from man; and those things which flow from God flow first into his soul, and through his soul into the rational mind, and through this into those things which constitute the body. If any one investigates spiritual influx in any other manner, he is like one who stops up the course of a fountain and still seeks there perennial streams; or like one who deduces the origin of a tree from the root and not from the seed; or like one who examines derivations apart from their source.

[2] For the soul is not life in itself, but is a recipient of life from God, who is life in Himself; and all influx is of life, thus from God. This is meant by the statement: “Jehovah God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives, and man was made a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). To breathe into the nostrils the breath of lives signifies to implant the perception of good and truth. The Lord also says of Himself, “As the Father hath life in Himself so hath He also given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26): life in Himself is God; and the life of the soul is life flowing in from God.

[3] Now inasmuch as all influx is of life, and life operates by means of its receptacles, and the inmost or first of the receptacles in man is his soul, therefore in order that influx may be rightly apprehended it is necessary to begin from God, and not from an intermediate station. Were we to begin from an intermediate station, our doctrine of influx would be like a chariot without wheels, or like a ship without sails. This being the case, therefore, in the preceding articles we have treated of the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God (5); and of the influx thence of love and wisdom, thus of life (6, 7).

[4] That life flows from God into man through the soul, and through this into his mind, that is, into its affections and thoughts, and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body, is because these are the things pertaining to life in successive order. For the mind is subordinate to the soul, and the body is subordinate to the mind. The mind, also, has two lives, the one of the will and the other of the understanding. The life of its will is the good of love, the derivations of which are called affections; and the life of the understanding there is the truth of wisdom, the derivations of which are called thoughts: by means of the latter and the former the mind lives. The life of the body, on the other hand, are the senses, speech, and actions: that these are derived from the soul through the mind follows from the order in which they stand, and from this they manifest themselves to a wise man without examination.

[5] The human soul, being a superior spiritual substance, receives influx directly from God; but the human mind, being an inferior spiritual substance, receives influx from God indirectly through the spiritual world; and the body, being composed of the substances of nature which are called matter, receives influx from God indirectly through the natural world.

That the good of love and the truth of wisdom flow from God into the soul of a man conjointly, that is, united into one, but that they are divided by the man in their progress, and are conjoined only with those who suffer themselves to be led by God, will be seen in the following articles.

2598. When I read in Judges 17, 18 about Micah, how the Danites stole his graven image, teraphim, and Levite, a spirit from the gentiles was present who during his lifetime had worshipped a graven image. As he listened attentively to what happened to Micah and how he grieved for his graven image which the Danites had taken away, he too was overtaken and filled with grief, so much so that he scarcely knew as a result of interior grief what to think. I perceived his grief, and at the same time innocence in every one of his affections. Christian spirits as well were present and looking on and they were amazed that the worshipper of a graven image could be filled by so strong a feeling of compassion and innocence. Afterwards good spirits spoke to him, saying that a graven image ought not to be worshipped and that this he was able to understand because he was a human being. They told him that instead his thoughts ought to go beyond the graven image to God the Creator and Governor of the whole of heaven and the whole of earth, and that this God is the Lord. While they were saying these things I was given to perceive the feeling or emotion within him with which he worshipped, and which was communicated to me. It was far more holy than feelings and emotions present in Christians. From this it became clear that gentiles, as accords with the Lord's words in Luke 13:29-30, enter heaven more easily than Christians do today who are not stirred by the same feelings and emotions. For in that state he was able to absorb all things of faith and to receive them with interior affection, since there existed in him that compassion which is the expression of love, and his lack of knowledge had innocence within it; and when these are present all things of faith are received so to speak spontaneously, and with joy. He was after this received among angels.