Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/147

 if the latter be separated from the former, spiritual life consists merely in thought and speech, and the will recedes because it has no basis to rest upon; and yet the will is the very essential spiritual constituent of man.

That it is not so difficult to live the life which leads to heaven as some suppose, may be seen from the following considerations. Who cannot live a civil and moral life?—for every one is initiated into it from infancy, and is acquainted with it from living in the world. Every one also does lead such a life, the evil as well as the good; for who does not wish to be called sincere and just? Almost all practice sincerity and justice in externals, so that they appear to be sincere and just in heart, or to act from real sincerity and justice. The spiritual man ought to do the same, and he can do it as easily as the natural man; only there is this difference, that the spiritual man believes in a Divine, and acts sincerely and justly, not merely because civil aud moral laws require it, but also because it is agreeable to the divine laws; for the spiritual man, because he thinks about the divine laws in all that he does, communicates with the angels of heaven; and so far as he does this, he is conjoined with them, and thus his internal man is opened, which, viewed in itself, is the spiritual man.

When a man is of this character, he is adopted and led by the Lord, although he is not himself