Chapter 19

himself.

155. (i) _Man is led and taught by the Lord alone._ This flows as a general consequence from all that was demonstrated in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom;_ from what was said in Part I about the Lord's divine love and wisdom; in Part II about the sun of the spiritual world and the sun of the natural world; in Part III about degrees; in Part IV about the creation of the universe; and in Part V about the creation of the human being.

156. Man is led and taught by the Lord alone in that he lives from the Lord alone; for his life's will is led, and his life's understanding is taught. But this is contrary to the appearance, for it seems to man that he lives of himself, and yet the truth is that he lives from the Lord and not from himself. Man cannot, however, be given a sense-perception of this while he is in the world (the appearance that he lives of himself is not taken away, for without it man is not man). This must be established by reasons, therefore, which are then to be confirmed from experience and finally from the Word.

157. That the human being has life from the Lord alone and not of himself is established by these considerations: 1. There is an only essence, substance and form from which all the essences, substances, and forms exist that have been created. 2. The one essence, substance and form is divine love and wisdom from which is all that is referable to love and wisdom in man. 3. It is also good itself and truth itself to which all things are referable. 4. Likewise it is life, from which is the life of all and all things of life. 5. Again the only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. 6. This only One and very Self is the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah.

[2] 1. _There is an only essence, substance and form from which all the essences, substances, and forms exist that have been created._ This was demonstrated in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn.44-46). In Part II it was shown that the sun of the angelic heaven, which is from the Lord and in which He is, is the one sole substance and form from which all that has been created exists, also that nothing can exist or come into existence except from it. In Part III it was shown that all things arise from that sun by derivations according to degrees.

[3] Who does not perceive by the reason and acknowledge that there is some one essence from which is all essence, or one being from which is all being? What can exist apart from being, and what can being be from which is all other being except being itself? Being itself is also unique and is being in itself. Since this is so (and anyone perceives and acknowledges it by reason, or if not, can do so), what else follows than that this Being, the Divine itself, Jehovah, is all in all in what is or comes to be?

[4] It is the same if we say there is an only substance from which all things are, and as there is no substance without form there is a single form from which all things are. We have shown in the treatise mentioned above that the sun of the angelic heaven is that substance and form, also shown how that essence, substance and form is varied in things created.

[5] 2. _The one essence, substance and form is divine love and wisdom from which is all that is referable to love and wisdom in man._ This also was fully demonstrated in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom._ Whatever appears to live in man is referable to will and understanding in him; any-one can perceive by the reason and acknowledge that these two constitute his life. What else is "This I will," or "This I understand," or "I love this," or "I think this"? And as man wills what he loves, and thinks what he understands, all things of the will relate to love and those of the understanding to wisdom. As no one has love or wisdom from himself but only from Him who is love itself and wisdom itself, they are from the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah. If they were not, man would be love itself and wisdom itself, thus God-from-eternity, at which the human reason itself is horrified. Can anything exist except from a prior self? Or the prior self exist except from one prior to it? And finally from a first or from underived being?

[6] 3. _It is also good itself and truth itself, to which all things are referable._ Everyone possessed of reason agrees and acknowledges that God is good itself and truth itself, likewise that all good and truth are from Him, therefore that any good and truth can come only from good itself and truth itself. All this is acknowledged by every rational person when he first hears it. When it is said, then, that everything of the will and understanding, of love and wisdom, or of affection and thought in a man who is led by the Lord relates to good and truth, it follows that all that such a man wills and understands or loves and has for his wisdom, or is affected by and thinks, is from the Lord. Hence anyone in the church knows that whatever good and truth a man has in himself is not good and truth except as it is from the Lord. Since this is true, all that such a man wills and thinks is from the Lord. It will be seen in following numbers that an evil man can will and think from no other source.

[7] 4. _The one essence, substance and form is likewise life, from which is the life of all and all things of life._ This we have shown in many places in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom._ At the first hearing the human reason also agrees and acknowledges that all man's life is that of the will and understanding, for if these are taken away he ceases to live, or what is the same, that all his life is one of love and thought, for if these are taken away he does not live. Inasmuch as all of the will and understanding or all of love and thought in man is from the Lord, all of his life, as we said above, is from Him.

[8] 5. _This only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent._ This also every Christian acknowledges from his doctrine and every gentile from his religion. In consequence, wherever he is, a man thinks that God is there and that he prays to God at hand; thinking and praying so, men cannot but think that God is everywhere, that is, omnipresent; likewise omniscient and omnipotent. Everyone praying to God, therefore, implores Him from the heart to lead him because He can lead him; thus he acknowledges the divine omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, doing so in turning his face to the Lord; thereupon the truth flows in from the Lord.

[9] 6. This only One and very Self is the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah. In Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord it was shown that God is one in essence and in person and that He is the Lord, and that the Divine itself, called Jehovah Father, is the Lord-from-eternity; that the Divine Human is the Son conceived by His Divine from eternity and born in the world; and that the proceeding Divine is the Holy Spirit. He is called "very Self" and "only One" because, as was said, the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah is life itself, being love itself and wisdom itself or good itself and truth itself, from which are all things. That the Lord created all things from Himself and not from nothing may be seen in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ nn. 282-284, 349-357. So the truth that the human being is led and taught by the Lord alone is established by reasons.

158. This same truth is established in angels not only by reasons but also by living perceptions, especially with angels of the third heaven. They perceive the influx of divine love and wisdom from the Lord. Perceiving it and in their wisdom aware that love and wisdom are life, they declare that they live from the Lord and not of themselves, and not only say so but love and will it so. Yet they are in the full appearance that they live of themselves, yes, more strongly in the appearance than other angels. For as was shown above (nn. 42-45) the more nearly one is united with the Lord, the more distinctly does he seem to himself to be his own, and the more plainly is he aware that he is the Lord's. For many years now it has been granted me to be in a similar simultaneous perception and appearance, and I am fully convinced that I will and think nothing from myself but that it only appears to be from myself; it has also been granted to love and will it so. The same truth may be established by much else from the spiritual world, but these two references must suffice now.

159. It is plain from the following passages in the Word that life is the Lord's alone.

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, shall live (Jn 11:25).

I am the way and the truth and the life (Jn 14:6).

The Word was God . . . and in Him was life; and the life was the light of men (Jn 1:1, 4).

"The Word" in this passage is the Lord.

As the Father has life in Himself, so has he given the Son to have life in Himself (Jn 5:26).

From the following it is clear that man is led and taught by the Lord alone:

Without Me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5).

A man cannot receive anything unless it is given him from heaven (Jn 3:27).

A man cannot make one hair white or black (Mt 5:36).

By "hair" in the Word the least of all is signified.

160. It will be shown in what follows in an article of its own that the life of the wicked has the same source; now this will merely be illustrated by a comparison. Heat and light flow in from the sun of the world alike to trees bearing bad fruit and to trees bearing good fruit, and they are alike quickened and grow. The forms into which the heat flows make the difference, not the heat in itself. It is the same with light, which is turned into various colors according to the forms into which it flows. The colors are beautiful and gay or ugly and sombre, and yet it is the same light. It is so with the influx of spiritual heat which in itself is love, and with spiritual light which in itself is wisdom, from the sun of the spiritual world. The forms into which they flow cause diversity, but not in itself that heat which is love or that light which is wisdom. The forms into which these flow are human minds. It is clear from these considerations that man is led and taught by the Lord alone.

161. What the life of animals is, however, was shown above (nn. 74, 96), namely that it is a life of merely natural affection with its attendant knowledge, and a mediated life corresponding to the life of human beings in the spiritual world.

162. (ii) _Man is led and taught by the Lord alone through the angelic heaven and from it._ We say "through" the angelic heaven and from it, but that He does so "through" the angelic heaven is the apparent fact, while "from it" is the reality. The Lord seems to lead and teach through the angelic heaven because He appears above that heaven as a sun, but the reality is that He does so from heaven because He is in heaven as the soul is in man. For the Lord is omnipresent and not in space, as was shown above. Therefore distance is an appearance according to conjunction with Him, and the conjunction is according to the reception of love and wisdom from Him. Since no one can be conjoined to the Lord as He exists in Himself He appears to angels at a distance as a sun; nevertheless He is in the angelic heaven as the soul is in man. He is similarly in every society of heaven and in every angel, for man's soul is not only the soul of man as a whole but also of every part of him.

[2] It is according to the appearance that the Lord governs all heaven and through it the world from the sun which is from Him and in which He is (about the sun see Part II of the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_), and everyone is allowed to speak according to the appearance, cannot, in fact, do otherwise. Everyone who is not in wisdom itself is also allowed to think that the Lord rules each and all things from His sun and rules the world through the angelic heaven. Angels of the lower heavens think from the appearance, but those of the higher heavens speak indeed in keeping with the appearance but think from the reality, namely, that the Lord rules the universe from the angelic heaven, that is, from Himself.

[3] One can illustrate by the sun of the world that simple and wise speak alike but do not think alike. All speak from the appearance that the sun rises and sets. Despite speaking so the wise think it stands still, which is again the reality, as the other is the appearance. The same thing can be illustrated from appearances in the spiritual world, for space and distance appear there but are dissimilarities of affections and of resulting thoughts. The same is true of the Lord's appearing in His sun.

163. We shall say briefly how the Lord leads and teaches everyone from the angelic heaven. In the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ and above in the present treatise, also in the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published in London in the year 1758, it has been made known from things seen and heard that the angelic heaven appears before the Lord as one man, and each society of heaven likewise, and it is from this that each angel or spirit is a human being in complete form. It was also shown in the treatises mentioned that heaven is not heaven from anything belonging to the angels but from their reception of divine love and wisdom from the Lord. Hence it may be evident that the Lord rules the whole angelic heaven as one man, and since heaven is itself man, it is the very image and likeness of the Lord and the Lord rules it as the soul rules its body. Since all mankind is ruled by the Lord, it is ruled by the Lord not through heaven, but from heaven, consequently by Him, for He is heaven, as we have said.

164. This is an arcanum of angelic wisdom, however, and therefore cannot be comprehended by man unless his spiritual mind has been opened; for such a man, who is united with the Lord, is an angel. From what has preceded he can comprehend the following:

1. Men as well as angels are in the Lord and the Lord in them according to their conjunction with Him, or, what is the same, according to their reception of love and wisdom from Him. 2. Each of them has a place allotted to him in the Lord, thus in heaven, according to the nature of the conjunction or the reception of Him. 3. Each in his place has a state of his own distinct from that of others and draws his portion from what is had in common according to his situation, function and need, quite as each part does in the human body. 4. Everyone is brought into his place by the Lord according to his life. 5. Every human being is introduced from infancy into this divine man whose soul and life is the Lord, and within it and not outside of it is led and taught from His divine love according to His divine wisdom; but as a man is not deprived of freedom, he can be led and taught only in the measure of his receptiveness as of himself. 6. Those who are receptive are conducted to their places through an infinite maze by winding paths, much as the chyle is carried through the mesentery and the lacteal vessels there to its cistern, and from this into the blood by the thoracic duct, and so to its place. 7. Those who are not receptive are parted from those within the divine man, as excrement and urine are removed from man.

These are arcana of angelic wisdom which man can comprehend to some extent; there are many more which he cannot.

165. (iii) _Man is led by the Lord through influx and taught through enlightenment._ Man is led through influx by the Lord because "being led" and "flowing in" are spoken of love and the will; and he is taught by the Lord through enlightenment because "being taught" and "enlightened" are spoken of wisdom and the understanding. It is known that every person is led by himself from his own love and according to it by others, and not by his understanding. He is led by his understanding and according to it only as his love or his will prompts the understanding, and then it can be said that his understanding is led also. Even then the understanding is not led, but the will which prompts it.

The term "influx" is used because it is commonly said that the soul flows into the body; influx is spiritual and not physical, as we showed above, and man's soul or life is his love or will. For another reason, influx is comparatively like the flow of the blood into the heart and from the heart into the lungs. We showed in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom that the heart corresponds to the will and the lungs correspond to the understanding, and that the conjunction of the will with the understanding is like the flowing of the blood from the heart to the lungs.

166. Man is taught, however, through enlightenment; being taught and being enlightened are said of the understanding. For the understanding or man's internal sight is enlightened by spiritual light quite as the eye or man's external sight is by natural light. The two are also taught similarly; the internal sight, however, which is that of the understanding, by spiritual objects, and the external sight or the sight of the eye by natural objects. There is spiritual light and natural light, one like the other in outward appearance, but dissimilar in internal appearance. For natural light comes from the sun of the natural world and so is in itself dead, but spiritual light, which is from the sun of the spiritual world, is in itself living. This light, not nature's, enlightens the human intellect. Natural and rational light comes from it and not from nature's light, and is here called natural and rational because it is spiritual-natural.

[2] There are three degrees of light in the spiritual world: celestial, spiritual and spiritual-natural. Celestial light is a flaming, ruddy light and is the light of those who are in the third heaven; spiritual light is a gleaming white light and is the light of those in the middle heaven; and spiritual-natural light is like daylight in our world. This is the light of those who are in the lowest heaven and of those in the world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell; with the good in that world it is like the light of summer on earth and with the evil like winter's light.

It should be known, however, that light in the spiritual world has nothing in common with light in the natural world; they are as different as what is living and what is lifeless. It is plain, then, from what has been said that it is spiritual light and not the natural light before our eyes that enlightens the understanding. Man does not know this, not having known anything hitherto about spiritual light. In the work _Heaven and Hell_ we have shown (nn. 126-140) that spiritual light has its origin in divine wisdom and truth.

167. Having spoken about the light of heaven, we should say something about the light of hell. This also is of three degrees. The light in the lowest hell is like that from fiery coals; in the middle hell like that from the flame of a hearth; and in the highest hell like that from candles and to some like moonlight at night. All this is spiritual light and not natural, for all natural light is dead and extinguishes the understanding. As has been shown, those in hell possess the faculty of understanding called rationality; rationality itself comes from spiritual light and not from natural light. The spiritual light which they have in rationality is turned, however, into infernal light, as the light of day is into the dark of night.

[2] Nevertheless, all those in the spiritual world, whether in the heavens or the hells, see in their own light as clearly as man sees in his by day. This is because everyone's eyesight is formed to receive the light in which it finds itself. Thus the eyesight of the angels of heaven is formed to receive the light in which they see, and the sight of the spirits of hell is formed to receive their light; this is comparatively like that of birds of night and bats, which see objects at night and in the evening as clearly as other birds see them by day, for their eyes are formed to receive their light.

[3] The difference between the one light and the other appears very clearly, however, to those who look from one to the other. When, for instance, an angel of heaven looks into hell he sees only thick darkness, and when a spirit of hell looks into heaven he sees only thick darkness there. For heavenly wisdom is like thick darkness to those in hell; in turn, infernal insanity is like thick darkness to those in heaven. It is plain from all this that such as a man's understanding is, such is the light he has, and that after death everyone comes into his own light, for he sees in no other. In the spiritual world, moreover, where all are spiritual even to the body, the eyes of all are formed to see by their own light. Everyone's life-love fashions an understanding for itself and thus a light, also, for love is like the fire of life and from this comes the light of life.

168. As few know anything about the enlightenment in which the understanding of a man is who is taught by the Lord, something will be said of it. There is inner and outer enlightenment from the Lord, and inner and outer enlightenment from oneself. Inner enlightenment from the Lord consists in man's perceiving on first hearing something whether it is true or not; outer enlightenment consists in thought from this. Inner enlightenment from oneself is simply from confirmation and outer enlightenment merely from information. We will say something of each.

[2] By inner enlightenment from the Lord a rational person perceives about many things the moment he hears them whether they are true or not; for example, that love is the life of faith or that faith lives by love. By interior enlightenment a person also perceives that a man wills what he loves and does what he wills, consequently that to love is to do; again, that a man wills and does whatever he believes from love, and therefore to have faith is also to do; and that the impious man cannot have love for God or faith then in Him. By inner enlightenment a rational man also perceives the following truths at once on hearing them: God is one; He is omnipresent; all good is from Him; all things have relation to good and truth; all good is from good itself and all truth from truth itself. A man perceives these and other similar truths inwardly in himself on hearing them and does so because he possesses a rationality which is in heaven's enlightening light.

[3] Outer enlightenment is enlightenment of one's thought from this inner enlightenment. One's thought is in this enlightenment so far as it remains in the perception it has from inner enlightenment and so far as it possesses knowledge of good and truth, for it gets from this knowledge reasons confirming it. Thought from outer enlightenment sees a matter on both sides; on the one, it sees reasons which confirm it, and on the other, the appearances that weaken it; it dispels these and assembles the reasons.

[4] Inner enlightenment from oneself, however, is quite different. By it one regards a matter on one side only, and having confirmed it sees it in light apparently like that just spoken of, but it is a wintry light. For example, a judge who judges unjustly in view of gifts or gain, once he has confirmed the judgment by law and reason sees in it nothing but justice. Some judges see the injustice but not wanting to see it, they keep it out of sight and blind themselves and so do not see. The same is true of a judge who renders judgments out of friendship, or to gain favor, or on account of relationship.

[5] Such persons act in the same way in anything they have from a man in authority or from the mouth of a celebrity or have hatched from self-intelligence; they are blind reasoners, for they see from the falsities which they confirm; falsity closes the sight, just as truth opens it. They do not see any truth in the light of truth nor justice from a love for it but from the light of confirmation, which is an illusory light. They appear in the spiritual world like headless faces or like faces resembling human faces on wooden heads, and are called reasoning animals for rationality is potential in them. Those have outer enlightenment from themselves who think and speak solely from information impressed on the memory; of themselves they can hardly confirm anything.

169. Such are the differences in enlightenment and consequently in perception and thought. There is actual enlightenment by spiritual light, but it is not manifest to one in the natural world because natural light has nothing in common with spiritual light. This enlightenment has sometimes been manifested to me in the spiritual world, however, visible in those enlightened by the Lord as a luminosity around the head, aglow with the color of the human face. With those in enlightenment from themselves the luminosity was not around the head but around the mouth and over the chin.

170. Besides these kinds of enlightenment there is another in which it is revealed to one in what faith, intelligence and wisdom he is; he perceives this in himself, such is the revelation. He is admitted into a society where there is genuine faith and true intelligence and wisdom. There his interior rationality is opened, from which he sees the nature of his own faith, intelligence and wisdom, even to avowing it. I have seen some as they returned and heard them confessing that they had no faith although in the world they had believed they had much faith and markedly more than others; they said the same of their intelligence and wisdom. Some were in faith alone and in no charity, and some in self-intelligence.

171. (iv) _Man is taught by the Lord through the Word and doctrine and preaching from it, thus immediately by the Lord alone._ We said and showed above that man is led and taught by the Lord alone, and from heaven but not through heaven or any angel there. As it is by the Lord alone, it is done immediately and not mediately. How this takes place will be told now.

172. It was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture_ that the Lord is the Word and that all the doctrine of the church is to be drawn from the Word. Inasmuch as the Lord is the Word the man who is taught from the Word is taught by the Lord alone. This is comprehended with difficulty and will be clarified in this order:

1. The Lord is the Word because the Word is from Him and about Him. 2. Also because the Word is divine truth together with divine good. 3. To be taught from the Word is to be taught from Him, therefore. 4. That this is done mediately through preaching does not take away its immediacy.

[2] First: _The Lord is the Word because it is from Him and about Him._ No one in the church denies that the Word is from the Lord, but that it is about Him alone, while not denied, is not known. This was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord,_ nn. 1-7, 37-44, and in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 62-69, 80-90, 98-100. Inasmuch as the Word is from the Lord alone and treats of Him alone, a man is taught by the Lord when he is taught from the Word, for it is the divine Word. Who can communicate what is divine and implant it in the heart except the Divine Himself from whom it is and of whom it treats? Therefore, in speaking of His union with His disciples He says that they are to abide in Him and His words in them (Jn 15:7 ), that His words are spirit and life (Jn 6:63), and that He makes His abode with those who keep His words (Jn 14:20-24). To think from the Lord therefore is to think from the Word, and as it were, through the Word. It was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture_ from beginning to end that all things of the Word have communication with heaven, and as the Lord is heaven, this means that all things of the Word have communication with the Lord Himself. The angels of heaven indeed have communication; this, too, is from the Lord.

[3] Second: _The Lord is the Word because it is divine truth together with divine good._ The Lord teaches that He is the Word by these words in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (1:1, 14).

This passage has been understood hitherto to mean only that God teaches men through the Word and has been explained as an hyperbole, with the implication that the Lord is not the Word itself. This is because expositors did not know that the Word is divine truth together with divine good or, what is the same, divine wisdom together with divine love. That these are the Lord Himself was shown in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ Part I, and that they are the Word in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 1-86.

[4] We will say briefly in what way the Lord is divine truth together with divine good. Each human being is human not because of face and body but from the good of his love and the truths of his wisdom; and because a man is a man from these, he is also his own good and his own truth or his own love and his own wisdom; without these he is not a human being. But the Lord is good itself and truth itself or, what is the same, love itself and wisdom itself; and these are the Word which in the beginning was with God and was God and which was made flesh.

[5] Third: _To be taught from the Word, then, is to be taught by the Lord Himself._ For it means that one is taught from good itself and truth itself or from love itself and wisdom itself, and, as we have said, these are the Word. But everyone is taught according to an understanding agreeing with his love; what goes beyond this does not remain. All who are taught by the Lord in the Word are instructed in a few truths while in the world but in many when they become angels. For the interiors of the Word, which are divine spiritual and divine celestial, are implanted at the time, but are not consciously possessed until a man on his death is in heaven where he is in angelic wisdom which, compared with human wisdom, thus his earlier wisdom, is ineffable. That divine spiritual and divine celestial things which constitute angelic wisdom are present in each and all things of the Word see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 5-26.

[6] Fourth: _That this teaching is done mediately through preaching does not take away the immediacy._ Inevitably the Word is taught mediately by parents, teachers, preachers, books and particularly by reading. Still it is not taught by them but by the Lord through them. Preachers, aware of this, say that they speak not from themselves but from the spirit of God and that all truth like all good is from God. They can speak it and bring it to the understanding of many, but not to anyone's heart; and what is not in the heart passes away from the understanding; by "heart" a man's love is meant. From this it is plain that man is led and taught by the Lord alone and immediately by Him when he is taught from the Word. This is a supreme arcanum of angelic wisdom.

173. We have shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture_ (nn. 104-113) that those outside the church who do not have the Word still have light by means of it. Man has light by means of the Word and from the light has understanding, and both the wicked and the good have understanding. It follows that from light in its origin there is light in its derivatives which are perceptions and thoughts on whatever subject. The Lord says that without Him men can do nothing (Jn 15:5); that a man can receive nothing unless it is given him from heaven (Jn 3:27); and that the Father in the heavens makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Mt 5:45). In the Word in its spiritual sense by "sun" here, as elsewhere, is meant the divine good of divine love and by "rain" the divine truth of divine wisdom. These are extended to the evil and the good, to the unjust and the just, for if they were not, no one would possess perception and thought. It was shown above that there is only one Life from which all have life. But perception and thought are part of life; they are therefore from the same fountain from which life springs. It has been shown many times before that all the light which forms the understanding is from the sun of the spiritual world, which is the Lord.

174. (v) _Man is led and taught in externals by the Lord to all appearance as of himself._ This is so of man's externals, but not inwardly. No one knows how the Lord leads and teaches man inwardly, just as no one knows how the soul operates so that the eye sees, the ear hears, the tongue and mouth speak, the heart circulates the blood, the lungs breathe, the stomach digests, the liver and the pancreas distribute, the kidneys secrete, and much else. These processes do not come to man's perception or sensation. The same is true of what the Lord does in the infinitely more numerous interior substances and forms of the mind. The Lord's activity in these is not apparent to man, but many of the effects are, as well as some of the causes producing the effects. It is in the externals that man and the Lord are together, and as the externals make one with the internals, cohering as they do in one series, no disposition can be made by the Lord except in keeping with the disposition made in the externals with man's participation.

[2] Everyone knows that man thinks, wills, speaks and acts to all appearance as of himself, and everyone can see that without this appearance man would have no will and understanding, thus no affection and thought, also no reception of any good and truth from the Lord. It follows that without this appearance there would be no rational conception of God, no charity and no faith, consequently no reformation and regeneration, and therefore no salvation. Plainly, this appearance is granted to man by the Lord for the sake of all these uses and particularly that he may have the power to receive and reciprocate so that the Lord may be united to him and he to the Lord, and that through this conjunction the human being may live forever. This is "appearance" as it is meant here.

IX. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL NOT PERCEIVE OR FEEL ANY OF THE ACTIVITY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, AND YET SHOULD KNOW AND ACKNOWLEDGE PROVIDENCE

175. The natural man who does not believe in divine providence thinks to himself, "What can divine providence be when the wicked are promoted to honors and gain wealth more than the good, and many such things go better with those who do not believe in divine providence than with the good who believe in it? Indeed, infidels and the impious can inflict injuries, loss, misfortune and sometimes death on the believing and pious, doing so, too, by cunning and malice." He thinks therefore, "Do I not see in full daylight, as it were, in actual experience that crafty schemes prevail over fidelity and justice if only a man can make them seem trustworthy and just by a clever artfulness? What is left except necessities, consequences and the fortuitous in which there is no semblance of divine providence? Does not nature have its necessities, and are not consequences causes arising from natural or civil order, while the fortuitous comes, does it not, from unknown causes or from none?" So the natural man thinks to himself who attributes all things to nature and nothing to God, for one who ascribes nothing to God ascribes nothing to divine providence either; God and divine providence make one.

[2] But the spiritual man speaks and thinks within himself quite otherwise. Although he does not perceive the course of divine providence by any thought or feel it from any sight of it, he still knows and acknowledges providence. Inasmuch as the appearances and resulting fallacies just mentioned have blinded the understanding, and this can receive sight only when the fallacies which have induced the blindness and the falsities which have induced the darkness are dispelled, and since this can be done only by truths which have the power to dispel falsities, these truths are to be disclosed, and for distinctness let it be in this order: