35. Man has two inherent powers of will and understanding. When the understanding is governed by the will they then constitute one mind and so one life; for what a person in that case wills and does he also thinks and intends. But when the understanding is at variance with the will, as it is with people who claim to have faith and yet live otherwise, then a mind previously one is split in two. One half seeks to transport itself into heaven, while the other inclines towards hell. And because the will is what accomplishes everything, the whole man would rush straight into hell unless the Lord took pity on him.

3411. Verses 15-17 And all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them up and filled them up with dust. And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from being with us, for you are much mightier than we are. And Isaac went away from there, and camped in the Valley of Gerar and dwelt there.

'All the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them up' means that people who possessed knowledge of cognitions did not wish to know interior truths that came from the Divine and so effaced them. 'And filled them up with dust' means by means of earthly things. 'And Abimelech said to Isaac' means the Lord's perception regarding that doctrine. 'Go away from being with us, for you are much mightier than we are' means that they would not be able to tolerate those things because of their Divine content. 'And Isaac went away from there' means that the Lord abandoned interior matters of doctrine. 'And camped in the Valley of Gerar and dwelt there' means that He did so for lower rational concepts, that is, He abandoned interior appearances for exterior ones.