116. It has been granted me to see people, born in remote islands, who were rational in civil matters, and yet knew nothing about God. In the spiritual world they appear like apes and live almost like them; but being men, and consequently born with the capacity to receive spiritual life, they are instructed by angels; and they are made alive by means of cognitions concerning the Lord as a Man. What a man is of himself is very evident from those in hell, where there are also prelates and scholars, who do not wish even to hear of God, and therefore cannot utter His name. I have seen these and conversed with some of them. I have also spoken with some who burned with anger and fury when they heard anyone speaking of God. [2] Consider, therefore, what that man would be like who never heard of God, when this is the character of some who have heard of God, and who have written and preached about Him. There are many such from among the Jesuits. That they are of such a character is from the will, which is evil; and the will, as was said before, leads the understanding and deprives it of any truth it may have from the Word.
If man of himself could have known that there is a God and a life after death, why has he not discovered that a man is a man after death? Why does he imagine that his soul or spirit is like wind or ether, which neither sees with eyes, nor hears with ears, nor speaks with a mouth, until it is reunited with its own dead body and skeleton? [3] Imagine therefore, doctrine for worship derived from the light of reason alone; would it not teach that self should be worshipped, as has been done for ages, and is still done to-day by some who know from the Word that God alone is to be worshipped? No other worship can be derived from man's proprium, not even that of the sun and moon.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church