THE INTERNAL AND THE EXTERNAL MAN (pt. 2)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
• Doctrinal Series •
THE INTERNAL AND THE EXTERNAL MAN
(pt. 2)

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Every man has an internal and an external; but they differ with the good and the evil. With the good, the internal is in heaven, and in its light, and the external is in the world, and in its light, which light with them is illumined by the light of heaven, so that the internal and the external act as one, like the efficient cause and the effect, or like what is prior and what is posterior.

But with the evil, the internal is in the world, and in its light; as is also the external; for which reason they see nothing from the light of heaven, but only from the light of the world, which they call the light of nature.

Hence it is that to them the things of heaven are in thick darkness, whilst the things of the world are in light.

From this it is manifest that the good have both an internal and an external man, but that the evil have not an internal man, but only an external.

(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 37)

• In the manuscript, the author, Emanuel Swedenborg, annexed to each section of the doctrine extracts from the Arcana Coelestia, because in the Arcana Coelestia the same things are more fully explained. Arcana Coelestia is available in print or online.