Arcana Coelestia #634
634. It is extremely difficult however to state intelligibly what the understanding of truth and the will for good are, properly speaking. The reason is that everything man thinks he ascribes to the understanding because he calls it so, and everything he desires he ascribes to the will because he calls it so. And it is even more difficult to state what they are in an intelligible way because the majority nowadays are also unaware that what belongs to the understanding is distinct and separate from what belongs to the will; for when they think something they say that they will it, and when they will something they say that they think it. Their speaking in this way is thus one reason for the difficulty. And a further reason why it is difficult to grasp the matter is that such people are engrossed solely in bodily interests, that is, their life consists in things of a more external nature.
[2] For these same reasons people are also unaware of the fact that with everybody there exists something interior, something more interior still, and indeed something inmost, and that the bodily and sensory part of a person is the most external. Desires and things of the memory are interior, affections and rational concepts more interior still, while the will for good and the understanding of truth are the inmost. Nothing could possibly be more distinct and separate than these are from one another, yet a bodily-minded man sees no difference at all, and so confuses them all with one another. This is the reason why he believes that when his physical body dies, everything else will die as well, when in reality only at that point does he start to live, and to do so indeed through his own interior things which are arranged in consecutive order. Unless man's interior things were distinct and separate in this way and arranged consecutively, men could not possibly be spirits, angelic spirits, or angels in the next life, all of whom differ in this way from one another according to things that are interior. Consequently the three heavens are very distinct and separate from one another. From all these considerations it now becomes clear to some extent what the understanding of truth and the will for good are, properly speaking, and that they are attributable only to the celestial man, or angels of the third heaven.
Genesis 5
1
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
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Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
3
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
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And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
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And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:
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And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
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And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:
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And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.
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And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:
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And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.
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And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:
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And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
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And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:
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And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
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And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
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And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
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And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
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And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:
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And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
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And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
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And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
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And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
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And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
32
And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
