Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 275
[3] This may be illustrated by an example. There was a
discussion among spirits why animals are born into all the
knowledge suited to their nature, but man is not; and the
reason was said to be that animals are in the order of their life,
and man is not, consequently man must needs be led into
order by means of what he learns of internal and external
things. But if man were born into the order of his life, which is
to love God above all things and his neighbor as himself, he
would be born into intelligence and wisdom, and as
knowledges are acquired would come into a belief in all truth.
Good spirits saw this at once and perceived it to be true, and
this merely from the light of truth; while the spirits who had
confirmed themselves in faith alone, and had thereby set aside
love and charity, were unable to understand it, because the
light of falsity which they had confirmed had made obscure to
them the light of truth.
353. False intelligence and wisdom is all intelligence and
wisdom that is separated from the acknowledgment of the
Divine; for all such as do not acknowledge the Divine, but
acknowledge nature in the place of the Divine, think from the
bodily-sensual, and are merely sensual, however highly they
may be esteemed in the world for their accomplishments and
learning. 229
For their learning does not ascend beyond such
thing is true before it is confirmed who are affected by truth for the sake of
truth and for the sake of life (n. 8521). The light of confirmation is not
spiritual light but natural light, and is even sensual light which the wicked
may have (n. 8780). All things, even falsities, may be so confirmed as to
appear like truths (n. 2477, 2480, 5033, 6865, 8521).
229. The sensual is the outmost of man’s life, clinging to and inhering
in his bodily part (n. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730). He is called a
sensual man who forms all his judgments and conclusions from the bodily
senses, and who believes nothing except what he sees with his eyes and
touches with his hands (n. 5094, 7693).
Such a man thinks in things outermost and not interiorly in himself (n.
5089, 5094, 6564, 7693). His interiors are so closed up that he sees nothing
of Divine truth (n. 6564, 6844, 6845). In a word, he is in gross natural light