136. III. NO ONE IS REFORMED BY THREATS AND PUNISHMENTS, BECAUSE THEY COMPEL. It is well known that the external cannot compel the internal, but that the internal can compel the external. It is also well known that the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external that it turns itself away. Further, it is known that external delights allure the internal to consent and love; and it may also be known that there can be a forced internal and a free internal. However, although all these points are known they still require to be illustrated; for there are many things which on being heard are at once perceived to be as stated because they are true and therefore receive affirmation; but if they are not at the same time confirmed by reasons they may be weakened by fallacious arguments, and at length denied. The points, therefore, which have just been stated as well known must be taken up again and rationally established. [2] First: The external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can compel the external. Who can be compelled to believe and to love? One can no more be compelled to believe than to think that a thing is so when he thinks that it is not so; and one can no more be compelled to love than to will what he does not will, for belief belongs to the thought and love to the will. There is, however, an internal which may be restrained by the external from speaking ill against the laws of the kingdom, the moralities of life and the sanctities of the Church. To this extent the internal may be compelled by threats and punishments; and it, moreover, is compelled and ought to be. This internal, however, is not the human internal that is properly so-called: it is an internal that man has in common with beasts; and beasts can be compelled. The human internal has its seat above this animal internal; and it is the human internal that is here meant, and it cannot be compelled. [3] Second: The internal is so averse to compulsion by the external that it turns itself away. This is because the internal wishes to be in freedom, and loves freedom, for freedom belongs to the love or life of man, as was shown above. Therefore, when freedom feels itself being compelled it withdraws as it were within itself and turns itself away, and regards compulsion as its enemy; for the love that constitutes the life of man is irritated and causes the man to think that in this matter he is not master of himself, and consequently that his life is not his own. Man's internal is such from the law of the Divine Providence of the Lord that man should act from freedom according to reason. [4] From this it is clear that it is harmful to compel men to Divine worship by threats and punishments. There are, however, some who suffer themselves to be forced to religion and some who do not. Many Roman Catholic people suffer themselves to be so compelled, but this takes place with those in whose worship there is nothing internal, but all is external. Many of the English nation do not suffer themselves to be compelled, and as a consequence of this there is an internal in their worship, and what there is in the external is from the internal. Their interiors with respect to religion appear in spiritual light like bright clouds; but the interiors of the foyer with respect to religion appear in the light of heaven like dark clouds. Both of these appearances are to be seen in the spiritual world, and anyone who wishes will see them when he comes into that world after death. Moreover, worship that is compelled shuts in evils, which then lie concealed like fire in wood under ashes, which continues to increase and spread till it breaks out into flames; while worship that is not compelled but spontaneous does not shut in evils, and these are then like fires that blaze up at once and are burnt out. From these things it is clear that the internal is so averse to compulsion that it turns itself away. The internal can compel the external because the internal is like a master and the external like a servant. [5] Third: External delights allure the internal to consent and also to love. Delights are of two kinds, delights of the understanding and delights of the will; those of the understanding are also the delights of wisdom, and those of the will are also the delights of love; for wisdom is of the understanding and love is of the will. Now since the delights of the body and its senses, which are external delights, act as one with the internal delights which are of the understanding and the will, it follows that as the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external as to turn itself away from it, so the internal looks with such favour on what is delightful in the external as to turn itself to it. Thus arises consent on the part of the understanding and love on the part of the will. [6] In the spiritual world all infants are led by the Lord into angelic wisdom, and by that into heavenly love by means of delights and pleasures; first, by means of beautiful things in their homes and pleasant things in gardens; then by means of representatives of spiritual things which affect the interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by means of truths of wisdom and so by goods of love. They are thus led continually by means of delights in due order; first by the delights of the love of the understanding and of its wisdom; and finally by the delights of the will's love, which becomes their life's love; and in subordination to this are held all other things that have entered their minds by means of delights. [7] This takes place because everything of the understanding and of the will must be formed by means of the external before it is formed by means of the internal. For everything of the understanding and of the will is formed first by means of what enters through the senses of the body, especially through the sight and hearing. When, however, the first understanding and the first will have been formed, the internal of thought regards them as the external things of its thought, and either conjoins itself with them or separates itself from them, conjoining itself with them if they are delightful to it and separating itself from them if they are not. [8] It should be clearly understood, however, that the internal of the understanding does not conjoin itself with the internal of the will, but that the internal of the will conjoins itself with the internal of the understanding, and causes the conjunction to be reciprocal. But this is brought about by the internal of the will, and not at all by the internal of the understanding. Hence it is that man cannot be reformed by faith alone, but by the love of the will which forms a faith for itself. [9] Fourth: There can be a forced internal and a free internal. A forced internal is possible with those whose worship is only external and in no degree internal; for their internal consists in thinking and willing that to which their external is compelled. Such are those who worship men, living and dead, and hence who worship idols, and those who are in faith based on miracles. In those there is no internal but what is at the same time external. In those, however, whose worship is internal a forced internal is possible. This may be either an internal forced by fear or an internal compelled by love. Those have an internal forced by fear who worship from fear of the torment of hell and its fire. This internal, however, is not the internal of thought before treated of, but the external of thought, and is here called an internal because it is of thought. The internal of thought before treated of cannot be forced by any fear; but it can be compelled by love and by the fear of losing love. The fear of God in the true sense is none other than this. To be compelled by love and by the fear of losing it is to compel oneself; and it will be seen later that compelling oneself is not contrary to liberty and rationality.