1771. There were also certain spirits who did not believe that the Word of the Lord concealed such things in its bosom, that is, inwardly; for in the next life spirits retain a similar unbelief to that which they had when they were in the body. Such unbelief is not dispelled except by means which the Lord provides, and by living experiences. Consequently while I was reading some of the Psalms of David their interior sight or mind was opened; these particular spirits were not raised up among the angelic spirits. As I was reading they perceived the interior things of the Word which are present in those psalms, and astonished by those things they said that they had never believed such.
[2] At that time this same part of the Word was heard by many other spirits, but these all grasped it in different ways. With some it filled the ideas comprising their thought with many lovely and delightful feelings, and so with a kind of life - with each one according to his capacity to receive it. At the same time it filled them with an effecting power that penetrated to their inmost being. With some that power was so great that it seemed to them that they were being raised up towards the interior parts of heaven, and nearer and nearer the Lord - each according to the degree of his affection for truths, and for the goods joined to the truths.
[3] Also at that same time the Word was brought to some spirits who had no conception of an internal sense of the Word, but only of an external or literal sense, to whom the letter did not seem to possess any life. From all this it was clear what the Word is like when the Lord imparts life to it, namely that it possesses such an effecting power that it penetrates to people's inmost being; also what it is like when He does not impart life to it, namely nothing but the letter possessing scarcely any life at all.
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