Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 422

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422. "Some indeed are to be pardoned for having ascribed certain visible things to nature, in that they have not known anything about the sun of the spiritual world where the Lord is, and about influx therefrom; nor anything about that world itself and the state thereof, no, nor anything about its presence with men. Thus they could not have thought otherwise than that the spiritual was a purer natural, and that angels were either in the ether or in the stars; and of the devil, that either he was man's evil or, if he actually existed, that he was in the air or in the deep; and that after death the souls of men are either in the inmost part of the earth or in some Ubi or Pu, until the day of judgment; and other like notions which fantasy has induced from ignorance of the spiritual world and of its sun. This is the reason why they are to be pardoned who have believed that nature Produces her visible things from something implanted from creation. But those are not to be pardoned who by confirmations in favor of nature have made themselves atheists; for they could have confirmed themselves in favor of the Divine. Ignorance does indeed excuse, but it does not take away the falsity that has been confirmed, for this coheres with evil, and evil with hell." * Pu and Ubi are respectively the Greek and Latin words meaning "Somewhere". They were formerly used as theological terms to designate the abode of souls while waiting for reunion with their bodies. Such souls were also said to be "in limbo" (in the border land).


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