Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 161

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161. This posterity of the Most Ancient Church was not evil, but was still good; and because they desired to live in the external man, or in their Own, this was permitted them by the Lord, what is spiritual celestial, however, being mercifully insinuated therein. How the internal and external act as a one, or how they appear as a one, cannot be known unless the influx of the one into the other is known. In order to conceive some idea of it, take for example an action. Unless in an action there is charity, that is, love and faith, and in these the Lord, that action cannot be called a work of charity, or the fruit of faith.


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