Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 224Divination avails not against Jacob, nor enchantments againstIsrael (Num. 23:23).Balaam could lead that people astray by craft, because that peoplewere such in heart; with the mouth only they worshiped Jehovah,but in heart they worshiped Baal-peor, and because they were suchthis was permitted.[6] It is to be noted, moreover, that a man can be in illustrationin respect to the understanding, and yet in evil in respect to thewill; for the intellectual faculty is separated from the voluntary withall who are not regenerated, and only with those who areregenerated do they act as one; for it is the office of theunderstanding to know, to think, and to speak truths, but of thewill to will the things that are understood, and from the will, orfrom the love, to do them. The divorcement of the two is clearlymanifest with evil spirits; when these turn themselves towards goodspirits, they, too, understand truths, and also acknowledge them,almost as if they were illustrated; but as soon as they turnthemselves away from good spirits, they return to the love of theirwill and see nothing of truth, and even deny the things they haveheard (see Heaven and Hell, n. 153, 424, 455).[7] To be able to have the understanding illustrated is granted toman, for the sake of reformation; for in man’s will every evilresides, both that into which he is born and that into which heintroduces himself; and the will cannot be corrected unless manknows, and by the understanding acknowledges, truths and goods,and also falsities and evils; in no other way can he turn away fromthe latter and love the former. (More may be seen on the will andthe understanding in Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 28–35.)141a. To eat idol sacrifices and to commit whoredom, signifies thatthey may be imbued with evils and with falsities therefrom. This isevident from the signification of “eating,” as being to appropriateto themselves, and to be consociated with (see Arcana Coelestia, n.2187, 2343, 3168, 3513, 5643, 8001); so also to be imbued with;and from the signification of “idol sacrifices,” which are things