564. XI. HE WHO HAS NEVER PRACTICED REPENTANCE, OR WHO HAS NOT LOOKED INTO AND EXAMINED HIMSELF, AT LENGTH DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IS CONDEMNATORY EVIL AND WHAT IS SAVING GOOD.

As few persons in the Reformed Christian world practice repentance, attention is drawn to this fact, that he who has not looked into and examined himself at length does not know what is condemnatory evil and what is saving good; for he has no religion to lead him to that knowledge. The evil which a man does not see, recognize and acknowledge, remains with him, and becomes more and more deeply rooted, until at length it closes up the interiors of his mind so that he becomes first natural, then sensual and at last corporeal. In all these states he is not aware of any condemnatory evil or saving good, and he becomes like a tree planted on a hard rock, which spreads its roots among the crevices, and at length withers away from lack of moisture.

[2] Every properly educated man is rational and moral; but there are two ways to rationality, one leading from the world and the other from heaven. He who becomes rational and moral from the world, and not also from heaven, is only rational and moral in outward speech and behavior, but inwardly he is a beast, in fact a wild beast, because he acts in unison with those who are in hell, where all are of this character. On the other hand, he who is rational and moral from both the world and heaven, is truly rational and moral, because he is so in spirit, speech and behavior. For the spiritual, which actuates the natural, the sensual and the corporeal, is within his speech and actions as their soul. Such a man also acts in unison with those who are in heaven. There is, then, a spiritually rational and moral man, and also a merely naturally rational and moral man. In the world these are indistinguishable, especially if the latter has acquired by practice the habit of hypocrisy; but by the angels in heaven they are distinguished as clearly as doves from owls, and as sheep from tigers.

[3] The merely natural man can see what is evil and what is good in others, and can also reprove others; but as he has not looked into and examined himself, he does not see any evil in himself; and if any is pointed out to him by some one else, he covers it over by plausible reasoning, as a serpent hides its head in the dust; or he plunges deeply into it as a hornet buries itself in mire. He acts thus from the delight of evil, which envelops him as a thick mist hangs over a marsh, absorbing and suffocating the rays of light. This is the delight of hell, which emanating thence, flows into every man, into the soles of his feet, the back, and the back part of the head. If it is allowed to enter the fore part of the head and the breast, the man then becomes a slave to hell; for the cerebrum of man is the seat of the understanding and of wisdom, but the cerebellum is the seat of the will and its love. It is for this reason that there are two brains. This infernal delight is amended, reformed and inverted only by means of what is spiritually rational and moral.

360. It was stated above that faith in its beginning with man is natural, and that it becomes spiritual as he approaches the Lord; and the same was said of charity; but as no one has hitherto known the difference between natural and spiritual faith and charity, this important matter will now be disclosed. There are two worlds, the natural and the spiritual, in each of which there is a sun, and from each sun there proceed heat and light. The heat and light from the Sun of the spiritual world have life within them, and their life is from the Lord, who is in the midst of that Sun; while the heat and light from the sun of the natural world have no life in them, but they are as instrumental causes in relation to principal causes in receiving and transmitting to men the heat and light of the spiritual Sun. Accordingly it should be known that the heat and light from the Sun of the spiritual world are the origin from which all spiritual things are derived. They themselves are spiritual, for spirit and life are within them. On the other hand, the heat and light from the sun of the natural world are the origin from which all natural things are derived; and, these regarded in themselves, are devoid of spirit and life.

[2] Now, since faith is of light, and charity of heat, it is evident that so far as a man is in the light and heat proceeding from the Sun of the spiritual world, he is in spiritual faith and charity; but that, so far as he is in the light and heat proceeding from the sun of the natural world, he is in natural faith and charity. From this it is evident that as spiritual light and heat are inwardly within natural light and heat, as in their receptacle and repository, so spiritual faith and charity are inwardly within natural faith and charity. This influx of spiritual faith and charity takes place in the degree that man progresses from the natural to the spiritual world; and this he does as he believes on the Lord, who, as He Himself teaches, is Light itself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

[3] This being so, it is evident that, when a man is in spiritual faith, he is also in natural faith; for, as was stated, spiritual faith is within natural faith. Moreover, since faith is of light, it follows that by the influx of spiritual light, the natural of man becomes, as it were, translucent, and according to the nature of the union of faith and charity, it acquires a beautiful coloring; for charity glows red from the flame of spiritual fire, and faith gleams white from the splendor of the light issuing from it. The contrary happens if the spiritual is not within the natural, but the natural is inwardly within the spiritual. This takes place with men who reject faith and charity; with them the internal of their mind, in which they are when left to their own thoughts, is infernal; and they also think from hell, although they do not know this. However, the external of their mind, from which they converse with their associates in the world, is apparently spiritual, but still it is filled with the unclean things of hell. They are therefore in hell, for they are in an inverted state compared with the former, or spiritually minded.