Swedenborg's Works (Volume 11) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 2 cast out. The conjunction of truths with knowledges has been the subject thus far, of which conjunction it is further to be known that the conjunction of the internal or spiritual man with the external or natural cannot in any wise be effected, unless truths are implanted in knowledges. For, knowledges with the enjoyments of the natural affections constitute the external or natural man; wherefore unless conjunction be effected with knowledges, it cannot be effected at all. And yet in order that man may be regenerated, his internal and external must be conjoined, for unless they are conjoined, all good flowing in from the Lord through the internal man into the external or natural is either perverted, or suffocated, or rejected, and then the internal is also closed. The manner in which this conjunction is effected, is what has been described in this chapter, which manner is by means of the insertion of truths into knowledges. INFLUX AND THE INTERCOURSE OF THE SOUL WITH THE BODY. 6o53. Nothing at all can be known or even thought about influx and the intercourse of the soul with the body, unless it be known what the soul is, and also something concerning its nature. If the soul be an unknown something, nothing can be said about its influx and intercourse. For how can the communication of two parts be a subject of thought, when it is altogether unknown what is the nature of one of them ? That ignorance prevails as to the whole nature of the soul, especially in the learned world, may be evident from this, that some believe it to be something ethereal, others something flamy or fiery, others a purely thinking entity, others a general vital force, and others a natural activity. And what is a still further proof of the prevailing ignorance concerning the nature of thesoul is, that ...