103. I will here add this fact, hitherto unknown, concerning the soul. The soul, which is from the father, is the real man, and the body, which is from the mother, is not in itself the man but is from him; it is merely a covering for him, composed of material things belonging to the natural world, but his soul is formed of such substances as belong to the spiritual world. After death every man lays aside what is natural, derived from the mother, but retains what is spiritual, derived from the father, together with a kind of border (limbus) around it from the purest things of nature. With those who come into heaven this substance is beneath, and the spiritual is above; but with those who come into hell this substance is above, and the spiritual beneath. For this reason an angelic man speaks from heaven, thus what is good and true; but an infernal man, when he speaks from the heart, speaks from hell; while he may speak as if from heaven, but from the lips only. The latter he may do when abroad, but the former he does at home.
[2] Since a man's soul is the real man, and is spiritual in its origin, it is clear why the mind, temper, disposition, inclination and affection of the father's love dwell in the succeeding offspring, and return and display themselves from generation to generation. This is the reason why many families, even whole nations, are known by the resemblance they bear to their original progenitor; there is a common likeness which shows itself in the countenance of every one of the race: and this likeness is not changed except by the spiritual things of the Church. The common likeness of Jacob and Judah, by which their posterity are distinguished from others, still persists, because they have hitherto firmly adhered to their religion. For in the seed from which every one is conceived there is a graft, or offshoot, of the father's soul in its fullness, within a kind of covering composed of natural elements. By means of this his body is formed in the womb of the mother, which may be in the likeness either of the father or of the mother, the likeness of the father still remaining within, and continually endeavoring to bring itself forth; and if it cannot do so in the first generation, it effects it in those that follow. The likeness of the father is in its fullness in the seed because, as has been stated, the soul is spiritual in its origin, and what is spiritual has nothing in common with space; and therefore the likeness remains the same, as well in small compass as in large. When the Lord was in the world, by the acts of redemption He put off the whole of the Human which He had from the mother and put on a Human from the Father, the Divine Human; therefore in Him Man is God, and God Man.
