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.

7113. 'To make bricks' means for fabrications and falsities which are to be introduced. This is clear from the meaning of 'making bricks' as fabricating falsities, dealt with in 1296, 6669. The historical account in the sense of the letter says that the children of Israel were to make the bricks, thus it was as if they were to fabricate falsities; but the meaning in the internal sense is that those in hell who are steeped in falsities would introduce them. Since, as stated already, those falsities seem to belong to those who receive them, the sense of the letter speaks in accordance with that appearance; but its real meaning is explained by means of the internal sense. There are very many things like this in the sense of the letter, see 5094, 6400, 6948.