161. These descendants of the Most Ancient Church were not evil; they were still good people. And since they desired to live in the external man or proprium, the Lord did allow it; but He mercifully instilled something celestial-spiritual. How the internal and external act as one, or how they appear to be one, cannot be known unless it is known how one flows into the other. To gain some idea of this, take, for example, an action. Unless charity, or love and faith, lies within it, and the Lord within these, the action is not an action that can be called a work of charity or the fruit of faith.