Heavenly Doctrine (Tafel) n. 125

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125. Outward holiness is like such piety; but it is not holy with a man, unless his Internal is holy; for the quality of a man's External is according to the quality of his Internal, because the former proceeds from the latter, as an action proceeds from its spirit: outward holiness, therefore, apart from inward holiness, is natural, and not spiritual. For this reason it is that such holiness exists among the wicked just as much as among the good; and that those who place in it the whole of worship, are, for the most part, empty, that is, destitute of the knowledges of good and truth; when yet goods and truths are the very holy things which ought to be known, believed, and loved, because they are from the Divine, and because the Divine is thus within them. Inward holiness, therefore, consists in loving good and truth, because they are good and true, and in loving what is just and sincere, because it is just and sincere. So far as a man loves these in such a manner, so far he himself and his worship are spiritual; because so far he wills to know and to do them: but so far as he does not love them in such a manner, he as well as his worship are natural; and so far he does not will to know and to do them. External worship apart from internal worship may be compared to the life of respiration apart from the life of the heart; but external worship which flows from internal worship may be compared to the life of respiration which is conjoined with the life of the heart.


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