Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 196the life after death, of faith, and of love, and of the other thingsthat are means of salvation? If man had no knowledge of thesethings he would remain natural; and a merely natural man can havenothing in common with the angels of heaven, who are spiritual.Man has two minds, one exterior, the other interior.The exterior mind is called the natural mind, but the interior iscalled the spiritual mind. The former or natural mind is opened bymeans of the knowledges of the things that are in the world; butthe latter or spiritual mind by means of the knowledges of thethings that are in heaven, which the Word teaches, and the churchfrom the Word; by means of these man becomes spiritual when heknows them and lives according to them.[2] This is meant by the Lord’s words in John:Except a man has been born of water and of the spirit, he cannotenter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).“Water” signifies the truths of faith, and “spirit” a life according tothem (see above, n. 71; and in Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n.202–209). Most people at this day believe that they are to comeinto heaven solely by virtue of holy worship in temples and byadorations and prayers; but such of them as do not care for theknowledges of truth and good from the Word, and who fail toimbue with these the life, as well as the memory, remain natural asbefore, and do not become spiritual; for their holy worship,adorations, and prayers, do not proceed from any spiritual origin;since their spiritual mind has not been opened by the knowledgesof spiritual things and a life according to them, but is empty; andworship that proceeds from what is empty is merely natural gesture,with nothing spiritual in it. If such persons are insincere and unjustin respect to moral and civil life, their holy worship, adorations,and prayers have within them what repels heaven from them,instead of opening heaven to them as they believe; for their holyworship is like a vessel containing things putrid and filthy, whichare oozing forth, or like a splendid garment investing a bodycovered with ulcers. I have seen many thousands of such cast into