nature springs, in common with a government that vies with and resembles the government of heaven?  From these things and others very similar to them in the brute creation, the confessor and worshiper of nature confirms himself in favor of nature, while the confessor and worshiper of God confirms himself from the same things in favor of the Divine; for the spiritual man sees in them spiritual things and the natural man natural things, thus each according to his character.  As for myself, such things have been proofs to me of an influx of the spiritual into the natural, that is, of the spiritual world into the natural world, thus of an influx from the Lord’s Divine Wisdom.  Consider, moreover, whether you can think analytically concerning any form of government, or any civil law, or moral virtue, or spiritual truth, unless the Divine out of His wisdom flows in through the spiritual world ?  For myself, I could not and cannot.  For having now observed that influx perceptibly and sensibly for about nineteen years continually, I speak as an eye-witness.

356.  Can anything natural regard use as an end and dispose uses into series and forms?  No one can do this unless he be wise; and no one but God, whose wisdom is infinite, can so give order and form to the universe.  Who else or what else is able to foresee and provide all things needful for the food and clothing of man, — food from the fruits of earth and from animals, and clothing from the same?  How marvelous that so insignificant a creature as the silk-worm should clothe in silk and splendidly adorn both women and men, from queens and kings to maidservants and menservants, and that insignificant insects like the bees should supply wax for the candles by which temples and palaces are made brilliant.  These and many other things are manifest proofs that the Lord from Himself by means of the spiritual world, brings about everything that comes into existence in nature.

357.  To this must be added that those who have confirmed themselves in favor of nature, from the visible things of the world, until they have become atheists, have been seen by me in the spiritual world; and in the spiritual light their understanding appeared open below, but closed above, because in thought they had looked downward toward the earth, and not upward toward heaven.  Above their sensual, which is the bottom of the understanding, appeared something like a veil; which in some flashed with hellish fire, in some was black like soot, and in some livid like a corpse.  Therefore let every one beware of confirmations in favor of nature; let him confirm himself in favor of the Divine; there is no lack of material.

358.  Part fifth.

Two receptacles and abodes for himself, called will and understanding, have been created and formed by the lord in man; the will for his Divine love, and the understanding for his Divine wisdom.