1122. And shall not see mourning.- That this signifies that they will never suffer desolation and will not perish, is evident from the signification of not to see mourning, when said of a widow, by whom is meant [without] defence, which means to be desolated and to perish; mourning refers here to dominion, which will not have an end. Such things also the Babylonians say in their hearts, inasmuch as they have fortified themselves by every art, not only in this that they have ingratiated themselves and do continually ingratiate themselves - especially with the chiefs of the earth - by the delights of earthly and worldly loves, and by that means, catch souls, and thus conjoin themselves to these interiorly; but also by terrifying men with the horrors of purgatory if they do not in blind faith believe, and by the judgment of the inquisition, if they speak against their dominion. They moreover make use of the confessions which they extort to pry into secret matters; and also, by the multiplication of monasteries they grow into armies, placing their guards on all sides, both at the walls and the gates. Such defences however they have on earth, but they have none in the spiritual world, where that refuge which existed before the Last Judgment, is no longer afforded to any one; for when they come there after death they are immediately separated, and those who have exercised dominion from the love of self are cast into hell; the rest are sent away into societies. Thus is Babylon at this day desolated, and ruined.
[2] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed, and concerning the Lord-It appears to man as if he lived from himself, but this is a fallacy; for if it were not a fallacy, man would have been able to love God from himself, and to be wise from himself. The reason why it appears as if life were in man, is, that it flows in from the Lord into his inmost things that are removed from the sight of his thought, and thus from perception; and that the principal cause which is life, and the instrumental cause which is a recipient of life, act together as one cause, this being felt in the instrumental cause, which is the recipient, thus in man as in himself. The case in this respect is precisely similar to the sensation that light is in the eye and gives birth to sight; that sound is in the ear and gives birth to hearing; that the volatile particles in the air are in the nostrils and give birth to smell; and that the particles of food turning over upon the tongue, give birth to taste, when yet the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and tongue are recipient organized substances, thus instrumental causes, while light, sound, the volatile particles in the air, and the particles rolling upon the tongue, are the principal causes; and these causes-the instrumental and the principal-act together as one cause. That is called principal which acts, and that is called instrumental which suffers itself to be acted upon. He who examines the subject more deeply, is enabled to see that man, in regard to everything pertaining to him, is an organ of life, and that that which causes sensation and perception enters from the outside, and that it is life itself which causes a man to feel and to perceive as if from himself. Another reason why it appears as if life were in man, is, that the Divine Love is such, that it desires to communicate to man that which is its own, but still it teaches that it is not man's. The Lord also desires that man should think and will, and thence should speak and act, as if from himself, but that still he should acknowledge that it is not from himself, otherwise he cannot be reformed. Upon this subject see above (n. 971, 973).
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