Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
174 SWEDENBORG’S TRAVELS AND DIARIES. [Doc. 209.
certain way from timidity, hypocrisy, and many other causes,.
as may also be traced out by an exploration of the thoughts ;
so that on this account man is so much the more unable to
free himself from sin, and there is not a single thought which,
is not very much alloyed with uncleanness and impurity [compare
no. 178]. It is therefore best that man should every hour and
every moment acknowledge that he is deserving of the punish
ment of hell ; but that God’s grace and mercy which are in
Jesus Christ overlook it [see Note 165, ii]. I have, indeed,
observed that our whole will into which we are born, and
which is ruled by the body and introduces thought, is opposed
to the Spirit which does this ;* wherefore there is a continual
strife, and we can by no manner of means unite ourselves
with the Spirit, which by grace is with us ; and hence it is
that we are dead to everything good, but to everything evil
we are inclined from ourselves. For this reason we must
at all times acknowledge ourselves guilty of innumerable sins ;
because our Lord God knows all, and we only very little about
them ; we know only so much as enters into our thoughts, and
only when it also enters into the actions do we become con
vinced of it. (It is also to be noticed- §)
65. April 12X13. I perceived that it is as I had also
thought by the Spirit on the previous day, and as had been
represented to me by some sort of luminous spiritual writing,**
viz. that the will has most to say in the understanding;†† for
on inhaling the breath the thoughts press in from the body,
and on exhaling it they are as it were driven out or rectified ;
so that the very thoughts have their alternate play like the
respiration of the lungs. The inhalation of the breath belongs
to the will, and its exhalation to nature, and at each respiration
the thoughts also undergo their changes, so that when wicked
thoughts entered the mind, I had only to hold in the breath,
whereupon they ceased. From this the reason may be seen
* That is, which conveys to us God’s grace and mercy; see Note 165, vii.
See Note 165, vii. See Note 166, i.
§ These words are crossed out in the original.
** See Note 161, i, B, and G. See Note 166, ii.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
