495. XV. ADULTERIES GROUNDED IN PURPOSE OF THE WILL, AND ADULTERIES
GROUNDED IN CONFIRMATION OF THE UNDERSTANDING, RENDER MEN NATURAL,
SENSUAL, AND CORPOREAL. A man (_homo_) is a man, and is distinguished
from the beasts, by this circumstance, that his mind is distinguished
into three regions, as many as the heavens are distinguished into: and
that he is capable of being elevated out of the lowest region into the
next above it, and also from this into the highest, and thus of becoming
an angel of one heaven, and even of the third: for this end, there has
been given to man a faculty of elevating the understanding thitherto;
but if the love of his will is not elevated at the same time, he does
not become spiritual, but remains natural: nevertheless he retains the
faculty of elevating the understanding. The reason why he retains this
faculty is, that he may be reformed; for he is reformed by the
understanding: and this is effected by the knowledges of good and truth,
and by a rational intuition grounded therein, if he views those
knowledges rationally, and lives according to them, then the love of the
will is elevated at the same time, and in that degree the human
principle is perfected, and the man becomes more and more a man.
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