669. In Christianity the two sacraments, baptism and the Holy Supper, are actually like two royal insignia on a monarch's scepter. If we do not know what function these sacraments perform, however, they seem to us like two figures carved in ebony on someone's walking stick.

In Christianity the two sacraments can also be compared to two rubies or precious garnets on an emperor's robe. If we do not know what function they perform, however, they seem to us like a pair of cheap carnelians or pieces of cut glass on someone's overcoat.

If the functions of the two sacraments were not revealed through the spiritual meaning, guesses about them would spread, but those guesses would have no more value than the pronouncements of people who read the stars or people in ancient times who read omens in the flight of birds or in entrails.

The functions of the two sacraments can be compared to a church building that because of its extreme age has sunk into the ground; even the roof is completely covered with debris. People young and old walk or ride in carriages or ride horses over it without any idea that hidden underfoot there is a beautiful church with altars of gold, interior walls of silver, and decorations of precious stones. The only way to dig these treasures up and bring them to light is through the spiritual meaning, which is being disclosed today for the new church and its worship of the Lord.

The sacraments can be compared to two temples, one of which is built on top of the other. In the lower temple someone is preaching the good news of the Lord's new coming, and also the good news that we are regenerated and saved by the Lord. From this temple, around its altar, there is a way to go up to the higher temple. There the Holy Supper is being celebrated and there is a passageway to heaven where the Lord is welcoming us.

The sacraments can also be compared to a tabernacle. After we enter it a table appears on which the showbread has been carefully arranged. That tabernacle also contains a golden incense altar, and in the middle, a lampstand with its lamps lit, allowing all these things to come into view. Eventually, if we allow ourselves to be enlightened, the veil to the most holy place opens, where in place of the ark that held the Ten Commandments, the Word is kept. Above it there is a mercy seat, protected by angel guardians that are made of gold.

These are representations of the two sacraments and their functions.

564. Those Who Have Never Practiced Repentance or Looked at or Studied Themselves Eventually Do Not Even Know What Damnable Evil or Saving Goodness Is

Since only a few people in the Protestant Christian world practice repentance, it is important to add that those who have not looked at or studied themselves eventually do not even know what damnable evil or saving goodness is, because they lack the religious practice that would allow them to find out. The evil that we do not see, recognize, or admit to stays with us; and what stays with us becomes more and more firmly established until it blocks off the inner areas of our minds. As a result, we become first earthly, then sense-oriented, and finally bodily. In these cases we do not know of any damnable evil or any saving goodness. We become like a tree on a hard rock that spreads its roots into the crevices in the rocks and eventually dries up because it has no moisture.

[2] All people who were brought up properly are rational and moral. There are different ways of being rational, however: a worldly way and a heavenly way. People who have become rational and moral in a worldly way but not also in a heavenly way are rational and moral only in word and gesture. Inwardly they are animals, and predatory animals at that, because they are in step with the inhabitants of hell, all of whom are like that. People who have become rational and moral in a heavenly way as well, however, are truly rational and truly moral, because they have these qualities in spirit as well as in word and deed. Something spiritual lies hidden within their words and actions like the soul that activates their earthly, sense-oriented, and bodily levels. Such people are in step with the inhabitants of heaven.

Therefore there is such a thing as a rational, moral person who is spiritual, and such a thing as a rational, moral person who is only earthly. In the world you cannot tell them apart, especially if their hypocrisy is well rehearsed. Angels in heaven can tell the two apart, however, as easily as telling doves from eagle-owls or sheep from tigers.

[3] Those who are only earthly can see good and evil qualities in others and criticize them, but because they have never looked at or studied themselves, they see no evil in themselves. If someone else discovers an evil in them, they use their rational faculty to hide it, as a snake hides its head in the dust; then they plunge themselves into that evil the way a hornet dives into dung.

Their delight in evil is what has this blinding effect. It surrounds them like a fog over a swamp, absorbing and suffocating rays of light. This is the nature of hellish delight. It radiates from hell and flows into every human being, but only into the soles of our feet, our back, and the back of our head. If we receive that inflow with our forehead and our chest, however, we are slaves to hell, because the human cerebrum serves the intellect and its wisdom, whereas the cerebellum serves the will and its love. This is why we have two brains. The only thing that can amend, reform, and turn around hellish delight of the kind just mentioned is a rationality and morality that is spiritual.