Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 60

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60. Those who have not a right idea of spiritual and celestial things cannot perceive that celestial and spiritual things are arranged and conjoined into such a form and image. They think that the earthly and material things of which a man's ultimate part is composed, make the man, and that, apart from these, the man is not a man. But they should know that it is not from these that the man is a man, but from his ability to understand what is true and to will what is good. Such understanding and willing are the spiritual and celestial things that make a man. Moreover, it is acknowledged that everyone's quality is determined by the quality of his understanding and will; and it can also be known that his earthly body has been formed to serve the understanding and the will in the world, and to perform uses in conformity with them in the ultimate sphere of nature. For this reason, the body does nothing of itself, but is actuated always in complete subservience to the bidding of the understanding and will, even to the extent that whatever a man thinks, he speaks with his tongue and mouth, and whatever he wills, he does with his body and limbs, so that the understanding and the will are what act while the body of itself does nothing. Evidently, then, the things of the understanding and will are what make man, and as these act into the minutest particulars of the body, as what is internal into what is external, they must be in the same form, and on this account, man is called an internal and spiritual man. Heaven is such a man in the greatest and most perfect form.


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