6273. 'For Manasseh was the firstborn' means since good does indeed occupy the first place. This is clear from the representation of 'Manasseh' as good belonging to the will, dealt with before; and from the meaning of 'the birthright' as the prior and higher position, dealt with in 3325, so that 'the firstborn' is the one who occupies the first place. Is anyone incapable of seeing from natural light alone, provided a superior light brightens it a little, that good occupies the first place, as also do the intentions in a person's will, and that truth occupies the second, as also do the thoughts in his mind? Is anyone also incapable of seeing that the intentions in a person's will cause him to think in one particular way and no other, consequently that the good he possesses causes him to think that this or that is true; so that truth occupies the second place and good the first? Think and reflect on whether truth that composes faith can take root anywhere else than in good, or whether faith other than that which has taken root there is faith. From this you will be able to decide which is the primary or essential element for the Church, that is, for the person in whom the Church exists.

50. Of the sensual man, who is the lowest degree natural (spoken of in the doctrine above, n. 45).

The sensual is the ultimate of the life of man, adhering to and inhering in his corporeal (n. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730). He who judges and concludes concerning everything from the bodily senses, and who believes nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, saying that these are something, and rejecting all things else, is a sensual man (n. 5094, 7693). Such a man thinks in outmosts, and not interiorly in himself (n. 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693). His interiors are shut, so that he sees nothing of truth therein (n. 6564, 6844-6845). In a word, he is in gross natural light, and thus perceives nothing which is from the light of heaven (n. 6201, 6310, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844-6845). Consequently he is interiorly against the things which are of heaven and the church (n. 6201, 6316, 6844-6845, 6948-6949). The learned, who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the church, are sensual (n. 6316).

Sensual men reason sharply and shrewdly, because their thought is so near their speech as to be almost in it, and because they place all intelligence in discourse from the memory alone (n. 195-196, 5700, 10236). But they reason from the fallacies of the senses, with which the common people are captivated (n. 5084, 6948-6949, 7693).

Sensual men are more crafty and malicious than others (n. 7693, 10236). The avaricious, adulterers, the voluptuous, and the deceitful especially are sensual (n. 6310). Their interiors are foul and filthy (n. 6201). By means thereof they communicate with the hells (n. 6311). They who are in the hells are sensual in proportion to their depth (n. 4623, 6311). The sphere of infernal spirits conjoins itself with man's sensual from behind (n. 6312). They who reasoned from the sensual, and thereby against the truths of faith, were called by the ancients serpents of the tree of knowledge (n. 195-197, 6398, 6949, 10313).

The sensual of man, and the sensual man himself, is further described (n. 10236). And the extension of the sensual with man (n. 9731).

Sensual things ought to be in the last place, not in the first, and with a wise and intelligent man they are in the last place and subject to the interiors; but with an unwise man they are in the first place, and have dominion; these are they who are properly called sensual (n. 5077, 5125, 5128, 7645). If sensual things are in the last place, and are subject to the interiors, a way is opened through them to the understanding, and truths are refined by a kind of extraction (n. 5580).

The sensual things of man stand nearest to the world, and admit things that flow from the world, and as it were sift them (n. 9726). The external or natural man communicates with the world by means of those sensuals, and with heaven by means of rationals (n. 4009). Thus sensual things administer those things which are serviceable to the interiors of man (n. 5077, 5081). There are sensual things ministering to the intellectual part, and likewise to the will part (n. 5077).

Unless the thought is elevated from sensual things, man possesses but little wisdom (n. 5089). A wise man thinks above the sensual (n. 5089, 5094). Man, when his thought is elevated above sensual things, comes into a clearer light [lumen], and at length into heavenly light [lux] (n. 6183, 6313, 6315, 9407, 9730, 9922). Elevation above sensual things, and withdrawal from them, was known to the ancients (n. 6313). Man with his spirit may see the things which are in the spiritual world, if he can be withdrawn from the sensual things of the body, and elevated by the Lord into the light of heaven (n. 4622). The reason is, because the body does not feel, but the spirit in the body; and so far as the spirit perceives in the body, so far is the perception gross and obscure, consequently in darkness; but so far as not in the body, so far is the perception clear and in the light (n. 4622, 6614, 6622).

The ultimate of the understanding is the sensual scientific, and the ultimate of the will the sensual delight, concerning which see (n. 9996). What is the difference between the sensual things that are common with beasts, and those that are not common with them (n. 10236). There are sensual men who are not evil, inasmuch as their interiors are not so much closed; concerning whose state in another life (see n. 6311).