Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 4659

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4659. It was said above (n. 4652) that man is a spirit, and that his body serves him for uses in the world; and it has been occasionally said. elsewhere that the spirit is man's internal, and the body his external. They who do not apprehend how the case is with man's spirit and with his body, may suppose from this that thus the spirit dwells within the body; and that the body as it were encompasses and invests it. Be it known however that the spirit of man is in the whole and every part of his body, and that it is its purer substance, both in its organs of motion and in those of sense, and everywhere else; and that the body is the material part that is everywhere annexed to it, adapted to the world in which it then is. This is what is meant by man's being a spirit, and by his body serving him for uses in the world; and by the spirit's being his internal, and the body his external. From this also it is evident that after death man is in an active and sensitive life, and also in the human form, in like manner as in the world, but in greater perfection.


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