Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/64

 also be told in a few words. The genuine rational consists of truths, and not of falsities. What is formed from falsities is not the rational. Truths are of three kinds, civil, moral and spiritual. Civil truths relate to matters of civil law, and to whatever belongs to government in states; in general, to justice and equity there. Moral truths relate to such things as belong to every man's life in relation to society and his intercourse with others; in general, to sincerity and uprightness, and specifically to the virtues of every kind. But spiritual truths relate to those things which belong to heaven and the church; in general, to the good which is of love, and to the truth which is of faith.

There are three degrees of life with every man. The rational faculty is opened to the first degree by civil truths; to the second degree by moral truths; and to the third degree by spiritual truths. But it is to be observed that the rational faculty is not formed and opened by the mere knowledge of those truths, but by living according to them; and by living according to them is meant to love them from spiritual affection; and to love them from spiritual affection, is to love what is just and equitable because it is just and equitable, what is sincere and right because it is sincere and right, and what is good and true because it is good and true.

But to live according to civil, moral, and spiritual truths, and to love them from corporeal affection, is