The Receptacle of and the Dwelling for the Lord - The Will and the Understanding - in Man: Making man in God's Image and Likeness
Lecture by Rev. Paul Booth
Lecture by Rev. Paul Booth
It is learned in the Word that there are two worlds - the natural where man lives until his physical death and the spiritual where he lives to eternity either in Heaven or hell. The prior is seen with the eyes of the natural body. The latter is seen with the eyes of the spiritual body which is of the understanding. It is in this that one comes to acknowledge his existence and manifestation, for what is manifest or exists is from an essence and that essence is Love. Thus, there is with man from the Lord, though not evident, love and wisdom or a will and understanding.
The will and the understanding are not found in any natural substance or material; they are not of any part of the natural body or are they of this world. However, the creation of the natural world or the universe, are from God's Love and Wisdom and it is creation's end - the completion of creation, while the spiritual world is the effect from God or from what is Divine Who is the cause. Man is the reciprocal means between the world and the Lord, between earth and heaven. Being the end, the ultimates of nature, nature is dead as the fire of the natural sun of this world is dead, so, there is no life unless the Lord enlivens or vivifies it with His Life. It is thus, but, a receptacle for Life - mineral, vegetate, animal, and man. Thus, only from Divine Life is there creation of the natural world even the universe, which is, as said, creation's end. Yet, it appears that life comes from nature and 'as if' the sun of this world brings life to the earth through its heat and light, but as said, life is of and from the Lord and the natural things are but vessels of life; mankind being the crown of all nature. Life is through Divine heat and light of the Spiritual world's Sun and not from this world's sun. That Spiritual Sun is not the Lord Itself, but the Lord is 'as if' within it and, so, it is the first proceeding from the Divine Itself, which proceeding has created both the spiritual and the natural worlds.
Since life comes from Life, who is the Lord, and the creation of the world is the end or the ultimate(s) of life, then Life or the Divine is the cause, while the effect is the spiritual world as shown, and the end is the natural world. Of course, Life Itself or the Divine is the cause. It, therefore proceeds forth from its beginning, which, as said, is the Sun of the spiritual world, creating and sustaining the all things in the spiritual world and from there, creating and sustaining the natural world, bringing life 'as it were' or vivifying all creation. We have shown that the natural world in itself is dead, but the spiritual world alive, being the immediate effect from its cause, which is seen as the Divine's Love and Wisdom proceeding as heat and light from the Sun of the spiritual world.
Natural life appears to come forth from its sun, though it does not, as we said, and is dead. The person who has faith, who believes the Word, especially the Word of the Divine Human - the Third Testament - begins to see through his spiritual eyes from the understanding, which was said to be a spiritual understanding from the Lord. He, thus, understands that the spiritual world, unlike the natural, has no space, but only the appearances of space, for he 'sees' or understands that the Lord is not in space, but is apart from space and is, thus present with man in the understanding in the world, even as He is in all things of nature; the world, its qualities having been made 'as it were' from and in good or love, which is of the Divine. Let this be explained: All things in this world are fixed (they do not move, that is, come into and vanish 'as it were' from existence); for they have no life of their own and are but vessels for life. Therefore, there are spaces (distances) between objects and there are set times, such as hours, days, weeks, etc., in the natural world. While in the spiritual world things are not fixed or stable and what is in the thought appears to those there and, so, goes away 'as it were' when another thought comes and instead of states are times. Thus, there is only the appearances of space and time in the spiritual world, and thus, no times or places, either in a relation with God or in relation with hell.
Now, what flows or proceeds forth 'as it were' 'first' from God is the Sun of the spiritual world (mentioned before). From it all things in the spiritual world come into existence through God's Love and Wisdom and have created the celestial and the spiritual degrees of man's life, and so, the charity and faith of those there (the angels}, for these are good and truth coming from the Lord's love and His wisdom and end in the natural degree of life, which is call in man 'innocence' before he comes into a state of responsibility. These are understood as God's will or His love of the celestial angels and His wisdom or intelligence of the spiritual angels It is the same proceeding that is from the spiritual Sun that brings life to this world and to mankind according to the quality of good and truth accepted. It brings both good and truth, this bringing mankind on earth a spiritual/natural life as was given to Adam and Eve in Paradise. His spirit within is to which he returns when his life on earth ends. It is also known that the Word of God says that God created man in His own image and after His likeness. But how is this to be understood? How is a celestial or spiritual life proceeding from the Lord's Love and Wisdom to be within man who existed on earth and is no longer aware of his spiritual existence?
It can only be understood in the idea of will and the understanding, for these are the Lord's with man both in his spiritual and natural entities or states. The will and the understanding are the receptacles and dwelling of the Lord in the spiritual and natural entities of man. Thus, it is that the Lord's Divine Love resides in the will and His Divine Wisdom in the understanding. Herein is man's essence or his being and life's existence or Love's manifestation thereof.
Unless the Lord is within an angel or a man in the inmost - in the Lord's receptacle and dwelling place called the will and the understanding - then neither man nor angel can be into the image or likeness of the Lord and, in fact, he is not a man or an angel at all since man is a man only from the Lord. This, then, is what is meant by God is in man and that his life (man's life) is from the inmost, which is often called the soul. The Word of the New Testament teaches that God is within man, "In that day you shall know that you are in Me and I in you" (John 14: 20). Therefore, it is spiritually understood that God is Life in us and without that Life there is death. Which happens when God is turned away from as is seen in Genesis in Adam or man falling from Paradise.
It has been said that man has in him these two - a receptacle and an abode or dwelling - for the Lord from the Lord; thus they are the Lord's with man, created by the Lord, whose quality is of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. It has also been said that because of these in man that he has life. Let us now see how they are in man. First, these two - the will and the understanding - are distinct from one another as love is from wisdom. Man knows this, for he says of a wise man that 'he means well, but he does not understand aright' and of another he may say that he understands 'what is right, but what he wills is wrong', while of another that he may will and understand what is right and still of another that he does not will or understand what is right. What is revealed here is that a man knows good and truth by intuition and by thought. The problem is that his thinking has nothing to do with how he knows the difference between the will and the understanding. To further show this about one's thoughts, about his thinking - that is, not knowing there is difference between the will and the understanding - let us examine why. It is because a man confuses the two - what he sees with his natural sight and what his thoughts are, so, because his thoughts shares with the sight of the body, he does not distinguish between the will and understanding. So, even though a man's thoughts may come from the other world from good spirits or angels, (though they often come from evil spirits as well) what he sees while living in his body or naturally, he thinks are his own and, thus, he claims those thoughts from the other world as also his and these then come together with his sensual and so, his inherent nature become evil and has falsities not truths, for his inherent nature is love to his 'self' not to the Lord.
However, what is known intuitively by man leads him to develop a conscience, for who does not know who does what is just from equity and what is right from rectitude has conscience? The same can be said about the one who acknowledges those who live a good life enters a heavenly society or who lives wickedly is condemned. From this we see that intuition comes by influx from the Lord from Heaven into a person's thoughts, but thoughts which are spiritual also are from angels and spirits, even from bad spirits and the sight of one's natural understanding, especially when united with his sensual nature, cannot see so clearly the truths that are from intuition, so, cannot develop a conscience, which is a guide to his way in this world; the man today having no conjunction with God and Heaven as there was before man's fall. It is not one's 'self' that is to guide one's way, for man has fallen and his self or 'proprium' no longer is vivified, but has been distorted and so, eventually becomes destroyed. Such people fall into imagination of 'self' superior wisdom and in time come to destroy their intuition and become dead as the Word says that those who turn from the Lord God become.
Now, it is also taught in the writings of Swedenborg, the Third Testament, that the body is but a covering and a clothing 'as it were' for the spirit and that the spirit lives or has its life from the inmost where the receptacles or vessels of the will and understanding are and 'as it were' is a dwelling for the Lord Himself, who has created them in man. Ask where in a person is the soul in which the Lord is inmost? Think of the truth that God made man into His image and likeness. Think of the Lord's Love and Wisdom inflowing into these vessels - the will and the understanding - with Goodness and Truth into man. Those Divine qualities are the Divine's Essence and Form and, so, is the Divine Spirit. God is Spirit. The word 'Spirit' comes from breath or life, so it is said, "Jehovah breathed in the breath of life and man became a living soul". The soul is the life of the spirit of man and thus, also the life of the body since the spirit is within the body as life within man.
God's Spirit proceeding forth is God - the Lord - proceeding forth into His creation, and man is creation's crowning glory as it were. It is Love flowing into the Celestial of man, and Wisdom into the Spiritual of man and is the Use of these into the Natural of man where conscience needs to become developed and guides him, for, now, his celestial and spiritual have been separated from his natural when he fell from the celestial state when he lived in God's Love and Wisdom in Paradise and from where he had perception and immediate conjunction with the Lord and was taught directly by the Lord. Now, let us examine this in its Divine Order. It begins with the Divine Himself. The inmost and the celestial of Heaven or God with man are seen first, which was said is the Lord's Proceeding Love. This is the Essence of God with man; it is His presence. Yet, essence must have existence and form to be anything; thus the celestial's clothing or covering is the spiritual of Heaven. Then, comes what is called the natural Heaven and is its use, which is the celestial/spiritual. Thus, then, there is the spiritual world's form or existence. Then, from God's Proceeding Divine qualities the celestial and spiritual proceeds or continues to its end, which is called the ultimate(s) or end, thus forming the natural world. In man, in the Lord's dwelling and receptacle - the will and the understanding - is man's celestial and spiritual life form, which the Lord created in His image and likeness. Naturally, we cannot see our spirit, for, we in our present state see with the eyes of our natural body, and thus only what is of this world's substance; it is only the ultimate(s) of creation in which our spirit lives until it is removed which is at our natural physical death and we enter the spiritual world.
Now, let us continue our examination into the natural order of God's creation. We see it is the brain that is first formed after conception. Then, out from the brain is developed its derivates and its form results, and so every part of man. And, we see that all these parts work in unison with and from the brain.
However, they do not work or the body move and act of its own, but from the spirit within - the celestial in accordance to love or will and the spiritual according to the wisdom or understanding - and thus, from the Lord, who is Life Itself. Take one's thinking: man perceives that he thinks from within himself within his head. He draws in with his eyes and feels that the investigation is in his brain. For the brain acts upon the body and the senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste, together with touch and speech come forth from the head where the brain resides, the face being in the front of the head. These parts of the face all are connected directly with the brain and it appears from them that sensation and life becomes active.
In this we see the affections of one's love and the thoughts of wisdom portrayed in the face and eyes. However, it is the affection and wisdom, from the Divine Love and Wisdom that reaches out and forms the beginning of its purpose, which is to be of use. In this, one learns that the body is for the spirit's use. Herein is love and wisdom in man in the will and understanding and these become manifested in use, making man in the Lord's image and after His likeness. The body, made from the ultimate(s) of creation become 'as if' alive. Such as life is in its beginnings it is in the whole and every part of man, and, thus, not just in the brain. Therefore, love is the beginning, the cause, and wisdom according to that love make the man and, when its order is that of the Divine's Order, the man becomes made into an image and likeness of the Lord. It is otherwise if it is not according to that Divine Order as when man fell from grace as the Word teaches that man refused to follow such Order and he wanted to know good and truth from his 'self' and not from the Lord. Thus, that order in man changed and a knowledge of God must now come to him through his natural understanding and a man's understanding is now ruled by his own will, not God's will. However, since God created man's spiritual and celestial before his natural, and these are now hidden or 'cut-off' from him; a man cannot see with the eyes of his body the deformity of his spirit when he follows his love of self and of the World and instead has a love of 'self', not of the Lord nor love towards the neighbor.
Thus, today we cannot see in man's natural body any change in his natural image, but that change can be seen in his mind and in what he does, that he has no goodness and is not in any truthfulness, except he be taught and led by the Lord, who has presented Himself through the Word and has come into this world putting on the natural body of man. How, then, can it be said man is made in God's image and likeness, since a man's ruling love is of 'self' or is what is one's own (the Word calls this a man's proprium). It is so, because of the respect to the man's mind, which is of one's ruling love and because, as shown, love is of spiritual substance and is not of any natural substance.
Let it suffice, here, only, that mankind fell from his state in Heavenly love as can be seen in Genesis in the story of the Most Ancient Church or of Adam. Therefore, man fell from love to the Lord to a love of self and, thus into an infernal state or into death and hell. (That is why the Lord came - to save man.) This fall was a gradual declining away from the celestial state. The further away from love to God he turned, death and hell entered. Since, we cannot see with the eyes of our natural body the spiritual, must less the celestial of our being, we cannot see the deformity (already pointed out) of a man's spirit when he does not love the Lord as commanded. Yet, in God creating man, He created him in His image and after His likeness, which is in good and truth, the very qualities of Love and Wisdom that are within man, though now cut-off or hidden to him as had already been shown. So, it is that in every man's birth he begins in that same order that was first established and, so, he is in innocence and ignorance. It is only when the man chooses, as of himself, to follow the way of self-love which he inherits such tendencies from his forefathers, that his spirit attaches itself with the evils of self-love and is drawn into hell, and not into Heaven where there are only goods and truths unless he comes into regeneration. This is not seen with our earthy eyes or even with one's own understanding, which is merely the knowledge that follows our will, which is called lusts. It is the man's own will or his lusts that reigns over him.
The will and the understanding are not found in any natural substance or material; they are not of any part of the natural body or are they of this world. However, the creation of the natural world or the universe, are from God's Love and Wisdom and it is creation's end - the completion of creation, while the spiritual world is the effect from God or from what is Divine Who is the cause. Man is the reciprocal means between the world and the Lord, between earth and heaven. Being the end, the ultimates of nature, nature is dead as the fire of the natural sun of this world is dead, so, there is no life unless the Lord enlivens or vivifies it with His Life. It is thus, but, a receptacle for Life - mineral, vegetate, animal, and man. Thus, only from Divine Life is there creation of the natural world even the universe, which is, as said, creation's end. Yet, it appears that life comes from nature and 'as if' the sun of this world brings life to the earth through its heat and light, but as said, life is of and from the Lord and the natural things are but vessels of life; mankind being the crown of all nature. Life is through Divine heat and light of the Spiritual world's Sun and not from this world's sun. That Spiritual Sun is not the Lord Itself, but the Lord is 'as if' within it and, so, it is the first proceeding from the Divine Itself, which proceeding has created both the spiritual and the natural worlds.
Since life comes from Life, who is the Lord, and the creation of the world is the end or the ultimate(s) of life, then Life or the Divine is the cause, while the effect is the spiritual world as shown, and the end is the natural world. Of course, Life Itself or the Divine is the cause. It, therefore proceeds forth from its beginning, which, as said, is the Sun of the spiritual world, creating and sustaining the all things in the spiritual world and from there, creating and sustaining the natural world, bringing life 'as it were' or vivifying all creation. We have shown that the natural world in itself is dead, but the spiritual world alive, being the immediate effect from its cause, which is seen as the Divine's Love and Wisdom proceeding as heat and light from the Sun of the spiritual world.
Natural life appears to come forth from its sun, though it does not, as we said, and is dead. The person who has faith, who believes the Word, especially the Word of the Divine Human - the Third Testament - begins to see through his spiritual eyes from the understanding, which was said to be a spiritual understanding from the Lord. He, thus, understands that the spiritual world, unlike the natural, has no space, but only the appearances of space, for he 'sees' or understands that the Lord is not in space, but is apart from space and is, thus present with man in the understanding in the world, even as He is in all things of nature; the world, its qualities having been made 'as it were' from and in good or love, which is of the Divine. Let this be explained: All things in this world are fixed (they do not move, that is, come into and vanish 'as it were' from existence); for they have no life of their own and are but vessels for life. Therefore, there are spaces (distances) between objects and there are set times, such as hours, days, weeks, etc., in the natural world. While in the spiritual world things are not fixed or stable and what is in the thought appears to those there and, so, goes away 'as it were' when another thought comes and instead of states are times. Thus, there is only the appearances of space and time in the spiritual world, and thus, no times or places, either in a relation with God or in relation with hell.
Now, what flows or proceeds forth 'as it were' 'first' from God is the Sun of the spiritual world (mentioned before). From it all things in the spiritual world come into existence through God's Love and Wisdom and have created the celestial and the spiritual degrees of man's life, and so, the charity and faith of those there (the angels}, for these are good and truth coming from the Lord's love and His wisdom and end in the natural degree of life, which is call in man 'innocence' before he comes into a state of responsibility. These are understood as God's will or His love of the celestial angels and His wisdom or intelligence of the spiritual angels It is the same proceeding that is from the spiritual Sun that brings life to this world and to mankind according to the quality of good and truth accepted. It brings both good and truth, this bringing mankind on earth a spiritual/natural life as was given to Adam and Eve in Paradise. His spirit within is to which he returns when his life on earth ends. It is also known that the Word of God says that God created man in His own image and after His likeness. But how is this to be understood? How is a celestial or spiritual life proceeding from the Lord's Love and Wisdom to be within man who existed on earth and is no longer aware of his spiritual existence?
It can only be understood in the idea of will and the understanding, for these are the Lord's with man both in his spiritual and natural entities or states. The will and the understanding are the receptacles and dwelling of the Lord in the spiritual and natural entities of man. Thus, it is that the Lord's Divine Love resides in the will and His Divine Wisdom in the understanding. Herein is man's essence or his being and life's existence or Love's manifestation thereof.
Unless the Lord is within an angel or a man in the inmost - in the Lord's receptacle and dwelling place called the will and the understanding - then neither man nor angel can be into the image or likeness of the Lord and, in fact, he is not a man or an angel at all since man is a man only from the Lord. This, then, is what is meant by God is in man and that his life (man's life) is from the inmost, which is often called the soul. The Word of the New Testament teaches that God is within man, "In that day you shall know that you are in Me and I in you" (John 14: 20). Therefore, it is spiritually understood that God is Life in us and without that Life there is death. Which happens when God is turned away from as is seen in Genesis in Adam or man falling from Paradise.
It has been said that man has in him these two - a receptacle and an abode or dwelling - for the Lord from the Lord; thus they are the Lord's with man, created by the Lord, whose quality is of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. It has also been said that because of these in man that he has life. Let us now see how they are in man. First, these two - the will and the understanding - are distinct from one another as love is from wisdom. Man knows this, for he says of a wise man that 'he means well, but he does not understand aright' and of another he may say that he understands 'what is right, but what he wills is wrong', while of another that he may will and understand what is right and still of another that he does not will or understand what is right. What is revealed here is that a man knows good and truth by intuition and by thought. The problem is that his thinking has nothing to do with how he knows the difference between the will and the understanding. To further show this about one's thoughts, about his thinking - that is, not knowing there is difference between the will and the understanding - let us examine why. It is because a man confuses the two - what he sees with his natural sight and what his thoughts are, so, because his thoughts shares with the sight of the body, he does not distinguish between the will and understanding. So, even though a man's thoughts may come from the other world from good spirits or angels, (though they often come from evil spirits as well) what he sees while living in his body or naturally, he thinks are his own and, thus, he claims those thoughts from the other world as also his and these then come together with his sensual and so, his inherent nature become evil and has falsities not truths, for his inherent nature is love to his 'self' not to the Lord.
However, what is known intuitively by man leads him to develop a conscience, for who does not know who does what is just from equity and what is right from rectitude has conscience? The same can be said about the one who acknowledges those who live a good life enters a heavenly society or who lives wickedly is condemned. From this we see that intuition comes by influx from the Lord from Heaven into a person's thoughts, but thoughts which are spiritual also are from angels and spirits, even from bad spirits and the sight of one's natural understanding, especially when united with his sensual nature, cannot see so clearly the truths that are from intuition, so, cannot develop a conscience, which is a guide to his way in this world; the man today having no conjunction with God and Heaven as there was before man's fall. It is not one's 'self' that is to guide one's way, for man has fallen and his self or 'proprium' no longer is vivified, but has been distorted and so, eventually becomes destroyed. Such people fall into imagination of 'self' superior wisdom and in time come to destroy their intuition and become dead as the Word says that those who turn from the Lord God become.
Now, it is also taught in the writings of Swedenborg, the Third Testament, that the body is but a covering and a clothing 'as it were' for the spirit and that the spirit lives or has its life from the inmost where the receptacles or vessels of the will and understanding are and 'as it were' is a dwelling for the Lord Himself, who has created them in man. Ask where in a person is the soul in which the Lord is inmost? Think of the truth that God made man into His image and likeness. Think of the Lord's Love and Wisdom inflowing into these vessels - the will and the understanding - with Goodness and Truth into man. Those Divine qualities are the Divine's Essence and Form and, so, is the Divine Spirit. God is Spirit. The word 'Spirit' comes from breath or life, so it is said, "Jehovah breathed in the breath of life and man became a living soul". The soul is the life of the spirit of man and thus, also the life of the body since the spirit is within the body as life within man.
God's Spirit proceeding forth is God - the Lord - proceeding forth into His creation, and man is creation's crowning glory as it were. It is Love flowing into the Celestial of man, and Wisdom into the Spiritual of man and is the Use of these into the Natural of man where conscience needs to become developed and guides him, for, now, his celestial and spiritual have been separated from his natural when he fell from the celestial state when he lived in God's Love and Wisdom in Paradise and from where he had perception and immediate conjunction with the Lord and was taught directly by the Lord. Now, let us examine this in its Divine Order. It begins with the Divine Himself. The inmost and the celestial of Heaven or God with man are seen first, which was said is the Lord's Proceeding Love. This is the Essence of God with man; it is His presence. Yet, essence must have existence and form to be anything; thus the celestial's clothing or covering is the spiritual of Heaven. Then, comes what is called the natural Heaven and is its use, which is the celestial/spiritual. Thus, then, there is the spiritual world's form or existence. Then, from God's Proceeding Divine qualities the celestial and spiritual proceeds or continues to its end, which is called the ultimate(s) or end, thus forming the natural world. In man, in the Lord's dwelling and receptacle - the will and the understanding - is man's celestial and spiritual life form, which the Lord created in His image and likeness. Naturally, we cannot see our spirit, for, we in our present state see with the eyes of our natural body, and thus only what is of this world's substance; it is only the ultimate(s) of creation in which our spirit lives until it is removed which is at our natural physical death and we enter the spiritual world.
Now, let us continue our examination into the natural order of God's creation. We see it is the brain that is first formed after conception. Then, out from the brain is developed its derivates and its form results, and so every part of man. And, we see that all these parts work in unison with and from the brain.
However, they do not work or the body move and act of its own, but from the spirit within - the celestial in accordance to love or will and the spiritual according to the wisdom or understanding - and thus, from the Lord, who is Life Itself. Take one's thinking: man perceives that he thinks from within himself within his head. He draws in with his eyes and feels that the investigation is in his brain. For the brain acts upon the body and the senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste, together with touch and speech come forth from the head where the brain resides, the face being in the front of the head. These parts of the face all are connected directly with the brain and it appears from them that sensation and life becomes active.
In this we see the affections of one's love and the thoughts of wisdom portrayed in the face and eyes. However, it is the affection and wisdom, from the Divine Love and Wisdom that reaches out and forms the beginning of its purpose, which is to be of use. In this, one learns that the body is for the spirit's use. Herein is love and wisdom in man in the will and understanding and these become manifested in use, making man in the Lord's image and after His likeness. The body, made from the ultimate(s) of creation become 'as if' alive. Such as life is in its beginnings it is in the whole and every part of man, and, thus, not just in the brain. Therefore, love is the beginning, the cause, and wisdom according to that love make the man and, when its order is that of the Divine's Order, the man becomes made into an image and likeness of the Lord. It is otherwise if it is not according to that Divine Order as when man fell from grace as the Word teaches that man refused to follow such Order and he wanted to know good and truth from his 'self' and not from the Lord. Thus, that order in man changed and a knowledge of God must now come to him through his natural understanding and a man's understanding is now ruled by his own will, not God's will. However, since God created man's spiritual and celestial before his natural, and these are now hidden or 'cut-off' from him; a man cannot see with the eyes of his body the deformity of his spirit when he follows his love of self and of the World and instead has a love of 'self', not of the Lord nor love towards the neighbor.
Thus, today we cannot see in man's natural body any change in his natural image, but that change can be seen in his mind and in what he does, that he has no goodness and is not in any truthfulness, except he be taught and led by the Lord, who has presented Himself through the Word and has come into this world putting on the natural body of man. How, then, can it be said man is made in God's image and likeness, since a man's ruling love is of 'self' or is what is one's own (the Word calls this a man's proprium). It is so, because of the respect to the man's mind, which is of one's ruling love and because, as shown, love is of spiritual substance and is not of any natural substance.
Let it suffice, here, only, that mankind fell from his state in Heavenly love as can be seen in Genesis in the story of the Most Ancient Church or of Adam. Therefore, man fell from love to the Lord to a love of self and, thus into an infernal state or into death and hell. (That is why the Lord came - to save man.) This fall was a gradual declining away from the celestial state. The further away from love to God he turned, death and hell entered. Since, we cannot see with the eyes of our natural body the spiritual, must less the celestial of our being, we cannot see the deformity (already pointed out) of a man's spirit when he does not love the Lord as commanded. Yet, in God creating man, He created him in His image and after His likeness, which is in good and truth, the very qualities of Love and Wisdom that are within man, though now cut-off or hidden to him as had already been shown. So, it is that in every man's birth he begins in that same order that was first established and, so, he is in innocence and ignorance. It is only when the man chooses, as of himself, to follow the way of self-love which he inherits such tendencies from his forefathers, that his spirit attaches itself with the evils of self-love and is drawn into hell, and not into Heaven where there are only goods and truths unless he comes into regeneration. This is not seen with our earthy eyes or even with one's own understanding, which is merely the knowledge that follows our will, which is called lusts. It is the man's own will or his lusts that reigns over him.
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