When they speak in public or in gatherings they use their outer levels, but their inner levels when at home or in talking to one another. You can, if you like, make an experiment. Take such a person, as for instance one of the order called Jesuits, and make him speak in a meeting or preach in church about God, the holy things of the church, and heaven and hell; you will hear him excel anyone else in his rational zeal. He may even reduce you to groans and tears on the subject of salvation. But take him into your home, praise him above other orders, call him the father of wisdom and make him your friend, until he opens his heart to you; then you will hear what his views are on God, the holy things of the church and heaven and hell. He will admit that these are fantasies and deceptions, invented to enslave souls, so that they can catch and shackle both great and small, rich and poor, and keep them under the yoke of their control. Let this suffice as an illustration of what is meant by saying that natural men, even down to bodily ones, possess the same human rationality as others, but they can only use it while at the outer level, but misuse it at their inner level. The consequence of this is that no one is to be judged by the wisdom that comes from his mouth, but by this together with the wisdom that is shown in his life.

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