AC 1889 - Abram, Hagar, Ishmael

AC 1889

When the rational is spoken of, or the rational man,
some idea can be formed of it;
but when it is said
that the rational is the intermediate
between the internal and the external,
few if any comprehend it.
Yet as the subject here treated of in the internal sense
is the Lord's Rational Man,
and how it was conceived and born
by the influx of the internal man into the external,
and as it is these very matters
that are involved in the historical facts
stated concerning Abram, Hagar, and Ishmael,
therefore in order to prevent what we have to say
in the following explanation from being utterly unintelligible,
be it known that in every man
there is an internal man,
a rational man which is intermediate,
and an external man,
and that these are most distinct from one another.