[2] As regards the Word, when I read to him something from the prophetical parts he was extremely delighted, above all with the fact that individual names and individual expressions meant things that were interior. He was utterly amazed that the learned nowadays take no delight in studying matters such as this. I perceived clearly that the interior parts of his thought or mind had been opened, and at the same time that those of certain Christians who were present had been closed, for with these Christians there reigned ill-will towards him and lack of belief that the Word was of such a nature. Indeed when I continued reading the Word he said that he could not remain because he perceived something more sacred than he could endure, being stirred inwardly by so much feeling. The Christians on the other hand said quite openly that they were able to remain; and the reason why they were able to do so was that their interiors had been closed and sacred things did not stir any such feelings within them.

[3] At length I spoke to him about the Lord, that He was born a man but conceived from God, that He cast off the human and put on the Divine, and that it is He who rules over all. To these points he replied that he knew many things about the Lord, and in his own way recognized that if the human race was to be saved it could not have been done in any other way. During this time certain bad Christians were introducing various objections, but to these he paid no attention, saying that it was not surprising that they did so, for during their lifetime they had absorbed obnoxious ideas regarding these matters and that unlike the ignorant they could not admit things of a confirmatory nature until these ideas had been dispersed. This person had been a gentile.

Notes