It is well known in the church that the natural man and the spiritual man are opposites, so that one does not want what the other does, but in fact they fight each other. But since this has not yet been made clear, I must discuss what is the distinction between the natural and the spiritual man, and what arouses the natural man against the spiritual. It is the natural man which each individual puts on when he grows up; this is effected by the acquisition of various types of knowledge, and by the development of reason in the intellect. But it is the spiritual man which he puts on by the love of performing services, a love also called charity. A person is therefore spiritual to the extent that he has this love; and to the extent that he does not have it, he is natural, however brilliant a mind and however wise a judgment he has.

This man, whom we call natural, when separated from the spiritual, lets himself go and exerts himself to indulge his lusts, however much he lifts himself into the light of reason. This becomes obvious merely by considering how devoid of charity his character is; and anyone devoid of this wallows in all the lewdnesses of scortatory love. So when he is told that this lustful love is the opposite of chaste conjugial love, and he is begged to consult the feeble light of his own reason, he does not do so except in conjunction with the pleasure of evil implanted in the natural man from birth. This leads him to conclude that his reason cannot see any objection to the sweet enticements of the bodily senses. Once he has convinced himself of this, his reason is incapable of appreciating all the delightful qualities which are the attributes of conjugial love. Rather, as I said above, he fights against them and wins, and like a conqueror follows up his slaughter by destroying the camp conjugial love has in him, lock, stock and barrel. It is his scortatory love that makes the natural man act in this way. This statement is made to ensure knowledge of the origin of the opposition between those two loves. For, as has been proved by much written above, conjugial love regarded in itself is a spiritual love, and scortatory love regarded in itself is a natural love.