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.

6915. 'And so it will be when you go, that you will not go empty-handed' means a life no more destitute so far as the contents of the natural mind are concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'going' as leading a life, dealt with in 3335, 4882, 5493, 5605, 6904; and from the meaning of 'you will not go empty-handed' as a life no more destitute, 'empty' meaning where there is no truth, see 4744, thus where there is spiritual destitution. The fact that it is destitution so far as the contents of the natural mind are concerned is evident from what has gone before, where it describes how those who belonged to the spiritual Church, represented by 'the children of Israel', were molested by those in possession of false factual knowledge, meant by 'the Egyptians.' It was therefore molestation so far as the contents of the natural mind are concerned, since what is contained in the natural mind is called factual knowledge. Factual knowledge is also what above all molests those who are spiritual, for their thinking takes place within factual knowledge and little at all on a level above it, see 6865.