586. Dat het gedichtsel van de gedachten van het hart te allen dage alleen kwaad was, betekent dat er geen innerlijke gewaarwording van het goede en het ware meer bestond, omdat zij, als gezegd en aangetoond, de leerstellingen van het geloof hadden ondergedompeld in hun schandelijke begeerten; toen dat gebeurde, ging alle innerlijke gewaarwording verloren en in de plaats van de gewaarwording kwam afgrijselijke overreding of de hardnekkigste en dodelijkste verbeelding, welke ook de oorzaak van hun verdelging en verstikking was; deze dodelijke overreding wordt hier aangeduid door gedichtsel van de gedachten van het hart; daarentegen betekent gedichtsel van het hart, zonder het woord ‘van de gedachten’ het kwade van de eigenliefde of van de begeerte, zoals in het volgende achtste hoofdstuk, vers 21; waar Jehovah, nadat Noach brandoffers geofferd had, zei: Ik zal voortaan de aardbodem niet meer vervloeken omwille van de mens, want het gedichtsel van het hart van de mens is boos van zijn jeugd aan. Gedichtsel is wat de mens bij zichzelf verzint, en wat hij zich wijs maakt; zoals bij Habakuk:

‘Wat baat het gesneden beeld, dat zijn formeerder het gesneden heeft, het gegoten beeld, en wie leugen leert, dat de formeerder op zijn formeersel vertrouwt, om stomme afgoden te maken?’, (Habakuk 2:18);

gesneden beeld betekent valse overtuigingen uit de ontvangen en bij zichzelf uitgebroede beginselen; een formeerder is hij, die zichzelf overreedt en hem wordt het formeersel [of gedichtsel] toegeschreven.

Bij Jesaja:

‘Jullie verkeerdheid! zal dan als leem de pottenbakker geacht worden, dat het maaksel barmhartig van zijn maker: Hij heeft mij niet gemaakt, en zal het geformeerde tot zijn formeerder zeggen: Hij heeft het niet verstaan’, (Jesaja 29:16);

het geformeerde hier voor het denken uit het eigen ik en vandaar de overreding in het valse. Gedichtsel in het algemeen is wat de mens uit het hart of de wil verdicht, alsmede uit het denken en de zelfoverreding, zoals bij David:

‘Jehovah weet ons gedichtsel, indachtig, dat wij stof zijn’, (Psalm 103:14).

Bij Mozes:

‘Ik weet zijn gedichtsel, dat hij heden maakt, aleer Ik hem inbreng in het land’, (Deuteronomium 31:21).

35. Man has two faculties, one which is called the will, and the other the understanding (n. 35, 641, 3539, 3623, 5969, 10122). Those two faculties constitute the very man (n. 10076, 10109-10110, 10264, 10284). The quality of man is according to those two faculties with him (n. 7342, 8885, 9282, 10264, 10284). By them also man is distinguished from beasts, by reason that the understanding of man may be elevated by the Lord, and see Divine truths, and in like manner his will may be elevated and perceive Divine goods; and thus man may be conjoined to the Lord by those two faculties, which make him; but that the case is otherwise with beasts (n. 4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9231). And since man may thus be conjoined to the Lord, he cannot die as to his interiors, which are his spirit, but he lives forever (n. 5302). Man is not man from his form, but from good and truth, which are of his will and understanding (n. 4051, 5302).

As all things in the universe relate to good and truth, so do all things in man to the will and the understanding (n. 803, 10122). For the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the receptacle of truth (n. 3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930). It amounts to the same, whether you say truth or faith, for faith is of truth, and truth is of faith; and it amounts to the same whether you say good or love, for love is of good, and good is of love; for what a man believes, that he calls true; and what he loves, that he calls good (n. 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367). Hence it follows that the understanding is the recipient of faith, and the will the recipient of love; and that faith and love are in man, when they are in his understanding and will, for the life of man is nowhere else (n. 7179, 10122, 10367). And since the understanding of man is capable of receiving faith in the Lord, and the will of receiving love to the Lord, that by faith and love he may be conjoined to the Lord, and whoever is capable of conjunction with the Lord by faith and love, cannot die to eternity (n. 4525, 6323, 9231). Love is conjunction in the spiritual world (n. 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195-6196, 7081, 7086, 7501, 10130).

The will of man is the very esse of his life, because it is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the existere of life thence derived, because it is the receptacle of truth (n. 3619, 5002, 9282). Thus the life of the will is the principal life of man, and the life of the understanding proceeds therefrom (n. 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109-10110); comparatively as light proceeds from fire or flame (n. 6032, 6314). Whatever things enter into the understanding, and at the same time into the will, are appropriated to man, but not those which are received in the understanding alone (n. 9009, 9069, 9071, 9133, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109-10110).

Those things become of the life of man, which are received in the will, and thence in the understanding (n. 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109-10110). Every man also is loved and esteemed by others according to the good of his will and thence of his understanding; for he who wills well and understands well is loved and esteemed, and he who understands well and does not will well, is rejected and is held in low estimation (n. 8911, 10076).

Man also after death remains such as his will and the understanding are (n. 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153) and those things which are of the understanding, and not at the same time of the will, then vanish, because they are not in man's spirit (n. 9282). Or, what amounts to the same, man after death remains as his love and its faith are, or as his good and its truth are; and the things which are of the faith and not at the same time of the love, or the things which are of truth and not at the same time of good, vanish, because they are not in the man, thus not man's (n. 553, 2363, 10153). Man is capable of comprehending with the understanding what he does not do from the will, or he may understand what he does not will, because it is against his love (n. 3539).

The will and the understanding constitute one mind (n. 35, 3623, 5835, 10122). Those two faculties of life ought to act as one, that man may be man (n. 3623, 5835, 5969, 9300). How perverted a state they are in, whose understanding and will do not act as one (n. 9075). Such is the state of hypocrites, the deceitful, flatterers, and simulators (n. 2426, 3573, 4799, 8250). The will and the understanding are reduced to one in another life, and there it is not allowable to have a divided mind (n. 8250).

Every doctrinal of the church has its own ideas by which its quality is perceived (n. 3310). The understanding of the doctrinal is according to those ideas, and without an intellectual idea, man would only have an idea of words, and none of things (n. 3825). The ideas of the understanding extend themselves widely into the societies of spirits and angels round about (n. 6599, 6600-6605, 6609, 6613). The ideas of man's understanding are opened in another life, and appear to the life as to their quality (n. 1869, 3310, 5510). Of what quality the ideas of some appear (n. 6200, 8885).

All the will of good and the understanding of truth is from the Lord, but not so the understanding of truth separate from the will of good (n. 1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153). It is the understanding which is enlightened by the Lord (n. 6222, 6608, 10659). The Lord grants to those who are enlightened, to see and understand truth (n. 9382, 10659). The enlightening of the understanding is various, according to the states of man's life (n. 5221, 7012, 7233). The understanding is enlightened as far as man receives truth in the will, that is, as far as he wills to act according thereto (n. 3619). They have their understanding enlightened who read the Word from the love of truth and from the love of the uses of life; but not they who read it from the love of fame, honor, and gain (n. 9382, 10548-10549, 10551). Enlightenment is an actual elevation of the mind into the light of heaven (n. 10330); from experience (n. 1526, 6608).

Light from heaven is the enlightenment of the understanding, as light from the world is to the sight (n. 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128). The light of heaven is the Divine truth, from which is all wisdom and intelligence (n. 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684). It is the understanding of man which is enlightened by that light (n. 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569).

The understanding is such as are the truths from good, of which it is formed (n. 10064). The understanding is that which is formed by truths from good, but not what is formed by falsities from evil (n. 10675). The understanding consists in seeing truths, the causes of things, their connections, and consequences in regular order, from those things which are of experience and science (n. 6125). The understanding consists in seeing and perceiving whether a thing be true, before it is confirmed, but not in being able to confirm everything (n. 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521,8780).

The light of confirmation without a previous perception of truth, is natural light, and may be possessed even by those who are not wise (n. 8780). To see and perceive whether a thing be true before it is confirmed, is only given with those who are affected with truth for the sake of truth, consequently who are in spiritual light (n. 8780). Every dogma even what is false, may be confirmed, even so as to appear true (n. 2243, 2385, 4677, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7950).

How the rational is conceived and born with man (n. 2094, 2524, 2557, 3030, 5126). It is from the influx of the light of heaven from the Lord through the internal man into the knowledges and sciences, which are in the external, and an elevation thence (n. 1895, 1899, 1902). The rational is born by truths, and not by falsities; consequently according to the quality of the truths, such is the rational (n. 2094, 2524, 2557). The rational is opened and formed by truths from good, and it is shut and destroyed by falsities from evil (n. 3108, 5126). A man is not rational who is in falsities from evil; and consequently a man is not rational from being able to reason upon every subject (n. 1944).

Man scarcely knows how to distinguish between the understanding and the will, because he scarcely knows how to distinguish between thinking and willing (n. 9995).

Many more things concerning the will and the understanding may be known and concluded from what has been just adduced concerning good and truth, provided the will be perceived instead of good, and the understanding instead of truth, for the will is of good, and the understanding is of truth.

2094. The previous chapter and the present chapter up to this point have dealt with the conception and birth of the Rational within the Lord; and how this was made Divine is also dealt with in what follows. But some may possibly suppose that knowing these details does not contribute very much to faith, provided one knows that the Lord's Human Essence was made Divine and that the Lord is God as regards both Essences. The position however is this: People who in simplicity believe it to be so do not need to know how it became so, for the only reason for their knowing how it became so is so that they may believe that it is so.

[2] There are many at the present day who do not believe anything unless they know it to be so from reason, as is made quite clear from the fact that few believe in the Lord, although they make lip confession of belief for the reason that the doctrine of faith so teaches. Nevertheless they tell themselves and one another that if they knew it could be so they would believe. The reason they do not believe and yet say this is that the Lord was born as any other is born and to outward appearance was like any other. These people cannot possibly receive any faith unless they first of all grasp in some measure how it can be so. This is why these matters have been explained. Those who believe the Word in simplicity do not need to know all these details because they have already arrived at the end which those who have just been described cannot reach except by becoming acquainted with such details.

[3] What is more, these are the details which are contained in the internal sense, and the internal sense is the Word of the Lord in heaven. Those who are in heaven perceive it in this fashion. When someone is in touch with the truth, that is, with the internal sense, he is able to make one as to thought with those in heaven, even though his ideas are by comparison very general and very obscure. The celestial ones there, who possess faith itself, see that those things are so from good, whereas the spiritual ones see the same from truth. The spiritual ones are also confirmed, and in that way perfected, by such things as are contained in the internal sense, that confirmation being achieved however by means of thousands of interior reasons which cannot flow into man's pattern of thought so as to be perceived there.