Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5368

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5368. What he saith to you, do. That this signifies provided there is obedience, is evident from the signification of "doing what anyone says," as being to obey. By this is signified that good is adjoined to truth in the natural, provided the natural applies itself and obeys. Something must be said about the natural's applying itself and obeying. They who are in worldly things only, and yet more they who are in bodily things, and still more they who are in earthly ones, cannot apprehend what is meant by saying that the natural ought to apply itself and obey. They suppose that there is only one thing that acts in man, and therefore that there is not one thing in him to command, and another to obey; and yet it is the internal man that should command, and the external that should obey, and that does obey when the man has not the world as the end, but heaven, and not self but the neighbor, consequently when he regards bodily and worldly things as means and not as the end; and he so regards them when he loves his neighbor more than himself, and the things of heaven more than those of the world. When this is the case, the natural obeys; the natural is the same as the external man.


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