193. I will come on thee as a thief, signifies the unexpected time of death, when all the knowledges procured from the Word that have not acquired spiritual life will be taken away. This is evident from the signification of "coming as a thief," when said of those who are not wakeful, that is, who are not acquiring for themselves spiritual life, as being that all the knowledges acquired from the Word that have not acquired spiritual life will be taken away from them. These words signify also the unexpected time of death, because death comes unexpectedly, and after death man remains to eternity in the state of that life which he acquired for himself in the world; for this reason man must be wakeful. As it is known to few that all the knowledges gained from the Word that have not acquired spiritual life are taken away, it is necessary to explain how this is done. All things that are in man's spirit remain with him to eternity; but the things that are not in man's spirit, after death, when he becomes a spirit, are dissipated. Those things remain in the spirit of man that he has thought from himself, that is, the things that he has thought from his own love when he was alone, for his spirit then thinks from itself and not from the things in the memory of his body that do not make one with his love. There are two states of man, one when he thinks from his spirit, and the other when he thinks from the memory of his body; when these two states do not make one, man can think in one way by himself, and can think and speak in another way with others.

[2] Take a preacher, for instance, who loves himself and the world above all things, and cares nothing for the Divine, even so that he denies it in heart, and therefore schemes evils of every kind, in consort with the crafty and malignant of the world; and yet when he is speaking with others, especially when he is preaching, he may be able to speak as from zeal for the Divine, and for Divine truths, and even at such times may be able to think in like manner; but this state is a state of his thought from the memory of the body, and is evidently separated from the state of his thought from the spirit, since when left to himself he thinks contrary to these things. This is the state that remains with man after death, but the other state does not remain, because it belongs to his body and not to his spirit; consequently when he becomes a spirit, which takes place when he dies, all knowledges that he acquired for himself from the Word that do not agree with the life of his spirit's love, he casts away from him. But it is otherwise with those who, when left to themselves alone, think justly about the Divine, about the Word and the truths of the church therefrom, and who love truths even to the life, that is, so that they wish to live according to them.

The thoughts of these in their spirit make one with their thoughts from the memory of the body, thus they make one with the knowledges of truth and good which they have from the Word; and so far as these make one, these knowledges receive spiritual life, for they are elevated by the Lord from the external or natural man into the internal or spiritual man, and constitute the life, that is, the understanding and will, of the spiritual man. Truths, in the spiritual man, are living truths, because they are Divine, and from these man has life there. That this is so it has been granted me to know from much experience; if I were to adduce it all it would fill many pages. (Something may be seen in the work onHeaven and Hell 491-498, 499-511; and above, n. 114.)

[3] From this it can now be seen what is meant in the spiritual sense by "I will come on thee as a thief," namely, that after death all knowledges procured from the Word that have not acquired spiritual life will be taken away. The same is meant by the following in Revelation:

Behold I come as a thief; blessed is he that is wakeful, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked (Revelation 16:15);

it is said "as a thief" because evils and falsities therefrom in the natural man take away and cast out the knowledges of truth and good that are there from the Word; for the things that are not loved are cast out. With man there is either the love of evil and of falsity therefrom, or the love of good and of truth therefrom. These two loves are opposite to one another; consequently he who is in one of them cannot be in the other, for "no one can serve two masters," without loving the one and hating the other (Matthew 6:24).

[4] Because evils and falsities therefrom penetrate from within, and break through as it were the wall that is between the state of man's thought from the spirit and the state of his thought from the body, and cast out the knowledges of truth and good that have their abode with man in his outward part, therefore such evils and falsities are what are meant by "thieves," also in the following passages.

In Matthew:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, but in heaven, where thieves do not dig through nor steal (Matthew 6:19-20).

"Treasures" are the knowledges of truth and good; "laying them up in heaven" is in the spiritual man, for the spiritual man is in heaven. (That "treasures" are the knowledges of truth and good, see Arcana Coelestia 1694, 4508, 10227; and that the internal spiritual man is in heaven, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 36-50.)

[5] In the same:

Be wakeful, therefore, for ye know not at what hour your Lord will come. But know this, that if the master of the house knew in what hour the thief would come he would be wakeful, and would not suffer him to dig through his house (Matthew 24:42-43).

This means that if man knew the hour of his death he would get himself ready, not from a love of what is true and good, but from a fear of hell; and whatever a man does from fear does not remain with him, but what he does from love remains; therefore he should be getting ready all the time (See The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 143, 168).

[6] In Obadiah:

If thieves come to thee, if robbers by night, how wilt thou be cut off! Will they not steal till they have enough? (Obadiah 1:5).

Here also falsities and evils are called "thieves," and are said to "steal;" falsities are "thieves," and evils are "robbers by night;" it is said "by night," because "night" signifies a state of no love and faith.

[7] In Joel:

They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall come up into the houses, they shall enter in through the windows like a thief (Joel 2:9).

The vastation of the church through falsities from evil is here treated of; "city" and "wall" signify the things of doctrine; "houses" and "windows" things pertaining to the mind that receives; "houses" that part of the mind that is called the will, where good is, and "windows" that part of the mind that is called the understanding, where truth is.

(That "city" in the Word is doctrine, see Arcana Coelestia 402, 2449, 2712, 2943, 3216, 4492, 4493; that "wall" is the truth of doctrine defending, n. 6419; that "house" is that part of the mind which is called the will, where good is, n. 2231, 2233, 2559, 3128, 5023, 6690, 7353, 7910, 7929, 9150; and "windows" that part of the mind which is called the understanding where truth is, n. 655, 658, 3391.) From this it is clear what is signified by "running upon the wall," "coming up into the houses," and "entering in through the windows like a thief."

[8] In Hosea:

I healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the evils of Samaria, for they made a lie, and the thief cometh in, and the troop spreadeth itself without (Hosea 7:1).

The "iniquity of Ephraim" signifies the falsities of the understanding; and the "evils of Samaria" the evils of the will; "to make a lie" is thinking and willing falsity from evil; "the thief" is falsity taking away and dissipating truth; and "the troop spreading itself" is evil casting out good. (That "Ephraim" is the intellectual of such things as are of the church, see Arcana Coelestia 3969, 5354, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267, 6296; that "a lie" is falsity from evil, n. 8908, 9248; that "a troop" is good casting out evil, and in a contrary sense, evil casting out good, n. 3934, 3935, 6404, 6405.)

[9] These things are adduced that it may be known what "a thief" in the Word signifies, namely, falsity vastating, that is, taking away and destroying truth. It was shown above, that after death all knowledges of truth and good from the Word that have not acquired spiritual life are taken away; consequently they are taken away from those who have not been made spiritual by knowledges from the Word. The same is signified by many other things in the historical parts of the Word; but this no one can see unless he knows the spiritual sense of the Word. This was signified by the sons of Israel's borrowing from the Egyptians gold, and silver, and garments, and thus taking them away as it were by theft, which is thus described in Moses:

It was commanded that they should borrow of the Egyptians vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment. And Jehovah gave the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that they lent to them; and thus they plundered the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35-36).

The "Egyptians" represented those who are merely natural and yet possess many knowledges. By "the sons of Israel" are meant those who are spiritual; "vessels of gold and of silver," and also "raiment," signify the knowledges of truth and good, which the spiritual apply to good, but which the natural apply to evil and thus destroy. That nations were given up to the curse, and at the same time all things with them were either burnt with fire or plundered, to which there is frequent reference in the book of Joshua, and in the books of Samuel and of the Kings, has a like signification; for the nations of the land of Canaan represented those who are in evils and falsities, and the sons of Israel those who are in truths and goods.

[10] That the knowledges of truth and good from the Word will be taken away from those who have not acquired spiritual life for themselves, is also meant in the Lord's parables respecting the talents and pounds given to the servants that they might trade and make gain, and respecting the servant who traded not and gained nothing, of whom it is written in the parables:

Unto him who hid his talent in the earth his lord said, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have put my silver to the bankers, in order that at my coming I might have received mine own with interest. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath the ten talents. For unto everyone that hath shall be given, that he may have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into outer darkness (Matthew 25:14-30).

And in another place:

He came who had received the one pound, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I kept laid up in a napkin. The lord said, Wherefore gavest not thou my money into the bank, that coming I might have regained mine own with interest. And He said, Take from him the pound, and give to him that hath ten pounds. I say unto you, To everyone that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not, even than which he hath shall be taken away from him (Luke 19:13-26).

Here "talents," "pounds," and "money," signify the knowledges of truth and good from the Word; "to trade," "to make gain," "to put it to the bankers," or "in the bank," signifies to acquire for oneself thereby spiritual life and intelligence; "hiding these in the earth" or "in a napkin" signifies in the memory of the natural man only; of such it is therefore said that from them should be taken away that which they have, according to what has been explained in the beginning of this article.

[11] This takes place with all in the other life who have acquired for themselves knowledges from the Word, and have not committed them to the life, but only to the memory. He who has knowledges from the Word in the memory only, even if they were thousands, if he has not committed them to the life, remains natural as before. Committing knowledges from the Word to the life is thinking from them, when one, left to himself, thinks from his spirit, and also willing them and doing them; for this is loving truths because they are truths; and those who do this are those who become spiritual by means of knowledges from the Word.

35. We have two abilities, one called will and the other called understanding: 35, 641, 3539, 3623, 10122. It is these two abilities that make us truly human: 10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284. Our nature depends on the nature of these two abilities of ours: 7342, 8885, 9282, 10264, 10284. These two abilities are also what distinguishes us from animals, because our understanding can be lifted up by the Lord and see divine truths, and our will, too, can be lifted up and perceive divine goodness. And so our partnership with the Lord is made possible by these two abilities that make us who we are-which is not the case with animals: 4525, 5302, 5114, 6323, 9231. And since we can form a partnership with the Lord in this way, we cannot die with respect to our deeper levels-the levels that constitute our spirit; rather, we live to eternity: 5302. We are human not because of our shape but because of what is good and what is true, which are matters of our will and understanding: 4051, 5302.

[2] Just as everything in the universe goes back to goodness and truth, so everything in us goes back to our will and our understanding (803, 10122), because our will is the part of us that receives goodness and our understanding is the part of us that receives truth (3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930). Whether you say "truth" or "faith" it amounts to the same thing, because faith and truth are mutually dependent; and whether you say "goodness" or "love" it amounts to the same thing, because love and goodness are mutually dependent; whatever we believe we call true, and whatever we love we call good: 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367. It therefore follows that our understanding is the part of us that can have faith and our will is the part of us that can have love, and that faith and love are in us when they are in our will and understanding because there and nowhere else is where our life is: 7178, 10122, 10367. And since our understanding can accept faith in the Lord and our will can accept love for the Lord, we are capable of being joined to the Lord by faith and love; and anyone who can be joined to the Lord by faith and love cannot die to all eternity: 4525, 6323, 9231. In the spiritual world, love is a joining together: 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195, 6196, 7081-7086, 7501, 10130.

[3] Our will is the true underlying reality of our life because it is the part of us that receives what is good, while our understanding is the consequent manifestation of our life because it is the part of us that receives what is true: 3619, 5002, 9282. So the life of our will is our primary life, and the life of our understanding emerges from it (585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110) the way light comes from fire or a flame (6032, 6314). Whatever enters our understanding and our will together becomes part of us, but what enters only our understanding does not: 9009, 9069, 9071, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110. Whatever is accepted by our will becomes part of our life: [ 3161, 9386, 9393. It follows then that we are human because of our will] ¹ and our consequent understanding: 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110. We are all loved and valued by others according to how good our will is and only secondarily how good our understanding is. We are loved and valued if both our intentions and our understanding are good; we are rejected and considered worthless if our understanding is good but our intentions are not: 8911, 10076. Even after death we retain the nature of our will and our consequent understanding: 9069, 9386, 10153. Those things that are in our understanding but not in our will then vanish because they are not in our spirit: 9282. Or to put it another way, after death we retain the nature of our love and the faith that comes from that love-the nature of our goodness and the truth that comes from that goodness-and then anything that is a matter of our faith but not of our love (or of truth in us but not of goodness) vanishes because it is not within us and therefore does not belong to us: 553, 2364, 10153. We are capable of grasping intellectually things that we would not do willingly; that is, we can understand things that run counter to our love and we have no will to do: 3539.

[4] Will and understanding together make one mind: 35, 3623, 5835, 10122. These two life abilities need to act as one if we are to be truly human: 3623, 5835, 5969, 9300. How distorted our state is when our understanding and our will are not acting as one: 9075. This is the kind of state we find among hypocrites, con artists, flatterers, and imposters: 3527, 3573, 4799, 8250. In the other life our will and our understanding are brought back into unison, and we are not allowed to have a divided mind there: 8250.

[5] Every religious teaching [that we have in our minds] is dependent on concepts [we have gained before]; it is possible [for others in the spiritual world] to perceive how we hold that teaching from seeing the nature of the concepts [that go with it in our minds]: 5510. These concepts of ours determine how we understand a given teaching; without some concept that makes it understandable, the teaching is held in our minds in the form of words alone without substance: 3825. The thoughts in the mind reach out widely all around to communities of spirits and angels: 6599, 6600-6605, 6609, 6613. In the other life the concepts of our understanding are laid open so that their nature is vividly clear: 1869, 3310, 5510. What some people's concepts look like: 6201, 8885.

[6] Every act of will to do what is good and every consequent understanding of what is true comes from the Lord, but this is not the case for an understanding of what is true divorced from any act of will to do what is good: 1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153. Our understanding is what is enlightened by the Lord: 6222, 6608, 10659. When we are receptive to enlightenment the Lord makes us able to see and understand what is true: 9382, 10659. The enlightenment of our understanding varies depending on the state of our life: 5221, 7012, 7233. Our understanding is enlightened to the extent that our will accepts truth-that is, to the extent that we will ourselves to act in accord with it: 3619. Our understanding is enlightened if we read the Word out of a love of truth and a love for living a useful life, but not if we read out of a love for our own reputation, status, or profit: 9382, 10548, 10549, 10550. Enlightenment is effectively a raising of the mind into heaven's light (10330); see also 1526, 6608, which include evidence from personal experience. Light from heaven gives enlightenment to our understanding just the way light from this world does to our eyesight: 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128. The light of heaven is divine truth, which is the source of all intelligence and wisdom: 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. It is our understanding that is enlightened by this light: 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569.

[7] The nature of our understanding depends on the nature of the love-based truths from which it is formed: 10064. Understanding results from truths that arise from living a good life, not from falsities that arise from living an evil life: 10675. Understanding is seeing, on the basis of our experience and information, things that are true, the causes of events, their connections, and how they follow from each other: 6125. The faculty of understanding is seeing and perceiving that something is true before we convince ourselves of it; it is not the ability to prove anything we choose: 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780. When the light that comes from corroboration strikes someone with no preexisting ability to perceive truth, it becomes an earthly light, available even to people who are not wise: 8780. Seeing and perceiving whether something is true before considering it proven is possible for us only when we love truth for its own sake-that is, when we are in spiritual light: 8521. Any dogma, even a false one, can be supported in such a way that it seems to be true: 2385, 2477, 5033, 6865, 7950.

[8] How rationality is conceived and born in us: 2093, 2524, 2557, 3030, 5126. It comes from an inflow of heaven's light from the Lord through our inner self into the spiritual and worldly knowledge in our outer self, lifting us up as a result: 1895, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902. Our rationality is born by means of truths and not by means of falsities, so the nature of the truths determines the nature of our rationality: 2093, 2524, 2557. Our rationality is opened and given form by truths that arise from living a good life; it is closed and destroyed by falsities that arise from living an evil life: 3108, 5126. If we are full of false thoughts from evil intent we are not rational; our being able to argue that this or that is true does not mean we are rational: 1944.

[9] It is hard for us to know the difference between our understanding and our will because it is hard for us to know the difference between thinking and willing: 9995.

[10] You can learn more and draw more conclusions about will and understanding from what was cited just above on goodness and truth [§§11-27]: just take goodness to refer to will and truth to refer to understanding, since goodness resides in the will and truth resides in the understanding.

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