832. That the image of the beast may speak, signifies that consequently an agreement flowed in from heaven into the thought nearest to the speech excited and enkindled by natural love. This is evident from the speech and preaching of those who confirm the separation of faith from life by means of the Word. For all things of the Word and every particular of it communicate with the heavens, and from it there flows a holiness into the person speaking or preaching; but with such this holiness cannot flow into any spiritual affection and thought therefrom, because all who are in a faith separated from the life are not spiritual but merely natural. Therefore this holy principle flows into their natural love, which excites and enkindles the thought nearest to the speech. And this is why such can speak and preach like those who are spiritual, although they have no spiritual affection, but only natural affection, which is the affection of glory, honor, or gain; and yet this affection is excited, and even enkindled, by an influx of holiness from heaven.

[2] The sense of the letter of the Word communicates with heaven, because each and every thing therein contains a spiritual sense; and the spiritual sense is perceived in the heavens when the natural sense, which is the sense of the letter, is understood by man. That this is so has been confirmed to me from the spiritual world by much experience. I have heard some recite words from the sense of the letter of the Word and have perceived that immediately they had communication with some society of heaven; for the spiritual sense which was in the words then recited from the sense of the letter penetrated to that society. Sometimes this communication is abused by evil spirits to acquire for themselves favor from the heavens. From this it is clear what is the quality of the Word in the sense of the letter; and as it is a means of communicating with heaven, a spiritual which is holy and which agrees with the natural, flows in therefrom into the natural love of the one speaking or preaching from the Word; and this love excites the thought nearest to his speech. It is said the thought nearest to the speech, because man has interior thought and exterior thought. He has interior thought when he is alone and thinks by himself, but he has exterior thought when he is with others and is speaking with them. Everyone knows that ¹ man can think in himself differently from the thought from which he speaks before men. This exterior thought is what is meant by the thought nearest to the speech. This thought is excited and enkindled by natural love, which is the love of glory, honor, or gain, with those who are in falsities, and who confirm them from the sense of the letter of the Word. This, then, is what is signified by "the breath given to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast may speak," which signifies that in the doctrine of faith separated from life, when it is conjoined with the Word, there is something of spiritual life, and that in consequence an agreement flowed in from heaven into the thought nearest to the speech, excited and kindled by natural love.

[3] As the preceding article treated of spiritual love, which those have who are in the second heaven, and which constitutes their life, and as man does not know how love becomes spiritual, it shall be briefly told. All love becomes spiritual by means of truths from the Word in the measure in which man acknowledges them and sees them in his understanding and afterwards loves them, that is, does them from the will. Love becomes spiritual by means of truths from the Word in the measure in which man acknowledges them and sees them in the understanding, because there are two memories in man, and from these there are two kinds of thought both with the evil and the good, namely, an interior and an exterior. Every man thinks with himself from the interior memory when he is left to himself and is led by his love. This thought is the thought of his spirit. But man thinks from the exterior memory when he is speaking before the world. Everyone sees even by a little reflection that there are these two kinds of thought. The things that a man thinks with himself from the interior memory when left alone to himself, belong to his life, and come to be of his life; for it is his spirit that then thinks, or what is the same, it is the affection proper to his life that excites this thought. But the things that a man thinks from the exterior memory, when they do not make one with the thought of the interior memory, do not belong to his life and do not come to be of his life, for they belong to the body for the sake of the world; and these things also after death, when a man becomes a spirit, are cast away. From this it can be seen what the state is of those who are evil, and who fear neither God nor man, namely, that inwardly with themselves they think evils and falsities, while outwardly they think and speak truths and also do goods; but when a man puts off the body and becomes a spirit these goods and truths are scattered, but the evils and the falsities thence remain with him as a spirit. But it is otherwise with the good. Because these have feared God and have loved the neighbor, when they think from the interior memory they think from truths that are from good; in like manner as when they think from the exterior memory. With them these two kinds of thought make one. And as they are in truths from good, the internal spiritual man, which is in conjunction with angels in the heavens, and is in itself an angel of heaven, is opened with them; and as this is in the light of heaven, in which spiritual truths appear as clearly as objects in the world appear before the eye, when it sees truths it receives them and forms the understanding from them. From this such have spiritual faith, which is in its essence the acknowledgment of truth because it is seen in the understanding. Natural faith, which is to believe that a thing is so because another has said it, is to them no faith; this they call historical faith, and with some it is a persuasive faith, which is permanent only so far as it is in harmony with the love of their life. Who cannot see that nothing can enter the life of a man and constitute it except what he has first thought to be so and afterwards has willed that it should be so? From this it can be seen that if a man's love is to become spiritual he must see his truths, that is, must grasp them by the understanding.

[4] But if you say that spiritual truths cannot be seen, and that the understanding cannot be so far opened so long as man is in the world, let it be known that he who loves truth from truth, that is, because it is truth, can see spiritual truths; and those which he does not see in the world he sees afterwards in heaven. For it is the love itself of truth that receives the light of heaven, which enlightens the understanding. Moreover, everyone can receive in thought and can understand truths more than he himself knows, unless his own love induces obscurity and causes darkness. This has often been proved to me in the spiritual world. For evil spirits have understood spiritual truths when they have been uttered by anyone just as well as good spirits, and even almost like angels; but as soon as they turned their ear away and let themselves back into the state of their own love they understood nothing at all. From this it is clear that every man has the ability to understand truths, and even to see them; but that nothing except a love of truth for the sake of truths causes a man to understand them, in the world rationally, but after death spiritually.

[5] But love with man, and his life from it, do not become spiritual by merely knowing and understanding truths unless he also wills and does them. For, as has just been said, an evil man, whose love is infernal, can know and understand truths just as well as a good man whose love is heavenly; therefore the evil believe that because of their knowledges and their understanding of verities they will not only come into heaven but will also be among the intelligent there, of whom it is said that "they shall shine as the stars," and yet, if they do not also love, that is, will to do the truths that they know and understand, they come after death among those who are in hell, from whom all truths are taken away. For after death everyone comes to be his own love; and in the world everyone comes to be his own love by willing and doing according to his understanding and knowledge; for in these a man's love has its seat, and in the love the truths of the understanding have their seat; from which it is clear whence man has life, since it is the love that makes his life.

[6] There are three degrees of life with man, the third degree in which are the angels of the third heaven; the second degree in which are the angels of the second heaven; and the first degree in which are the angels of the first or ultimate heaven. There is also a lowest degree, which is corporeal and material, which man has while he lives in the world. These degrees are opened with man according to the reception of Divine truth in his life; and Divine truth is received in the life by willing and doing truth according to the knowledge and understanding of it. And as the love and the life of man make one, it follows that there are as many degrees of love as there are of life. The love in which the angels of the third heaven are is called celestial love; the love in which the angels of the second heaven are is called spiritual love; and the love in which the angels of the first heaven are is called spiritual-natural love, also celestial-natural. As their love is, such is their wisdom and intelligence. Those who are in the third degree of love and of wisdom thence live in an atmosphere as it were purely ethereal; those who are in the second degree of love and thence of intelligence live in an atmosphere as it were purely aerial; and those who are in the first degree of love and thence of knowledge live in an atmosphere as it were purely aqueous. And as the purity of their life is in a similar degree as their love, it is evident that those who are in the third heaven and in the love and life of that heaven cannot be approached by those who are in the second and first; for to ascend from the second heaven into the third would be like a bird's flying above its own atmosphere into the ether; and to ascend from the first heaven into the second would be like elevating a fish into the air, in which it would suffocate and suffer direful things. This has been said to make known that spiritual love is the love of truth in act; and that the love of truth in act is in accordance with the sight of truth in the understanding; and that the faith of that love is nothing else than the acknowledgment of truth from that sight and understanding. This, therefore, is spiritual faith.

Footnotes: