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16 lived in such ignorance and blindness concerning the state of their life after death; and especially that the men of the church should be in such ignorance and blindness,—who yet, above all others in the whole world, might be in the enjoyment of light on these subjects.

They then first discovered the cause of that blindness and ignorance; which is, that external things, which are those that relate to the world and the body, have occupied and filled their minds to such a degree as to render them incapable of being elevated into the light of heaven, and of having any regard for the things of the church beyond its doctrinals. For when corporeal and worldly things are loved as they are at the present day, there flows from them into the mind mere darkness as soon as men go a step beyond.

A great many of the learned from the Christian world are astonished when they see themselves after their decease, possessed of a body, clad in garments and dwelling in houses as in the world; and when they call to mind what they had thought concerning the life after death, concerning the soul, concerning spirits, and concerning heaven and hell, they are filled with shame, and confess that they had thought foolishly, and that the simple in faith thought much more wisely than they. (H. H., n. 312, 313.)