1385. Er zijn geesten, die tot de streek van de huid, vooral van de schubachtige huid behoren, die over alles willen redeneren en geenszins gewaarworden, wat goed en waar is, en die het zelfs hoe meer zij redeneren, des te minder gewaarworden, doordat zij in het redeneren de wijsheid stellen, en ook zo als wijs gezien te worden. Hun werd gezegd, dat de wijsheid van de engelen bestaat in het innerlijk gewaarworden of iets goed en waar is, zonder geredeneer; maar zij begrijpen niet, dat zo’n innerlijke gewaarwording kan bestaan Het zijn diegenen, die in het leven van het lichaam het goede en het ware verward hebben door wetenschappelijke en filosofische dingen, en zich vandaar voor geleerder hielden dan anderen en die van te voren niet enig beginsel van het ware uit het Woord hadden opgenomen; en zij hebben daarom minder gezonde rede.

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).

5259. 'And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph' means thought expressed by the natural but belonging to the celestial of the spiritual. This is clear from what has been stated above in 5151. Where the same words occur, except that there it says that Pharaoh said to Joseph, here that he spoke to him; for 'said' means perception, whereas 'spoke' means thought, 2271, 2287, 2619. The reason 'Pharaoh spoke to Joseph' means thought which is expressed by the natural but belongs to the celestial of the spiritual, and not the other way round, is that when thought is going on in what is exterior, the source of such thought does not lie there but in what is interior. Or what amounts to the same, when thought is going on in what is lower, nothing else than what is higher is the source of it. Even so, while the thought belonging to what is interior or higher is going on in what is exterior or lower, it does seem as though the exterior or lower is itself the source of the thought going on in it. But that is an illusion. It is like a person who sees some object in a mirror but does not know that the mirror is there. He supposes that the object exists where it appears to do so, but in reality it does not exist there.

[2] Now because the celestial of the spiritual is interior or higher, and the natural is exterior or lower, 'Pharaoh spoke to Joseph' therefore means in the internal sense thought expressed by the natural but belonging to the celestial of the spiritual. In short, nothing in a lower position possesses anything self-derived whatsoever. Any ability it possesses comes from what is higher, which being so it plainly follows that the Highest one of all, that is, the Divine, is the source of everything. Consequently the source of a person's thought proceeding from his understanding and of his activity proceeding from his will is the Highest one or the Divine. If however a person thinks false ideas and acts in evil ways, this is due to the form he has stamped on his own character; but if he thinks right ideas and acts in ways that are good, it is due to the form he has received from the Lord. For it is well known that one and the same power and force produces differing movements which are determined by the ways in which the intermediate and outermost parts are structured, so that in the human being life from the Divine produces differing thoughts and actions, determined by the forms existing there.