DLW 419 - if the will and intellect are elevated together

DLW 419

If they are elevated together,

love or the will is purified in the intellect. 

 

A person from birth loves only himself and the world,

for nothing else appears before his eyes,

and therefore he considers nothing else in his heart;

and this love is carnally natural,

and can be called materialistic.

Moreover, this love has also become impure

owing to the separation of heavenly love from it in parents.

[2] This love cannot be separated from its impurity

unless the person has the ability

to elevate his intellect into the light of heaven

and to see how he should live

in order that his love may be elevated together

with his intellect into wisdom.

Through the intellect 

love, which is to say, the person,

sees what evils there are that defile and pollute the love,

and sees, too,

that if he refrains from those evils

and turns away from them as sins,

he loves such things as are opposed to those evils,

all of which are heavenly.

He also sees as well

the means which enable him to refrain from those evils

and turn away from them as sins.