Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/146

 world, and engage in its duties and employments, and that then by moral and civil life he receive spiritual life. In no other way can spiritual life be formed with man, or his spirit be prepared for heaven: for to live an internal life and not an external one at the same time, is like dwelling in a house which has no foundation, which successively either sinks into the ground, or becomes full of chinks and breaches, or totters till it falls.

If the life of man be viewed and explored by rational intuition, it will be found to be threefold; that is to say, there is a spiritual life, a moral life, and a civil life, all distinct from each other. For there are men who live a civil life, yet not a moral and spiritual one; and there are those who live a moral life, and still not a spiritual one; and there are others who live a civil life, a moral life, and a spiritual life, all at once. The latter live the life of heaven; but the former live the life of the world separate from the life of heaven.

From these considerations it is manifest in the first place, that spiritual life is not separate from natural life, or from the life of the world, but that the former is conjoined with the latter as the soul with its body; and if it were separated, that it would be like living in a house without a foundation, as was said above. For moral and civil life is the activity of spiritual life; for it is the part of spiritual life to will well, and of moral and civil life to act well; and