Divine Providence (Dick and Pulsford) n. 120

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120. Man knows nothing whatever about the interior state of his mind, that is, of his internal man; and yet there are infinite things there, not one of which comes to his knowledge. For the internal of man's thought, or his internal man, is his spirit itself, and in it there are things as infinite or innumerable as there are in his body, and indeed more innumerable; for man's spirit is in its form a man, and all things belonging to it correspond to all things of man in his body. Now just as man has no knowledge from any sensation how his mind or soul operates upon all things of his body jointly and singly, so neither does he know how the Lord operates upon all things of his mind or soul, that is, upon all things of his spirit. This operation is continual, and man has no part in it; but still the Lord cannot purify man from any lust of evil in his spirit or internal man so long as man keeps his external closed. Man keeps his external closed by means of evils, each of which seems to him as but one single evil, although there are infinite things in each; and when man removes one such evil the Lord removes the infinity of things in it. This is what is meant by the Lord then purifying man from the lusts of evil in the internal man, and from the evils themselves in the external.


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