AC 2654 - The Human Rational Mocks

AC 2654 [3-5, 7]

The human rational . . . which has its birth
from worldly things through impressions of sense,
and afterwards from analogies of worldly things
by means of knowledges --
is ready to laugh and mock
if told that it does not live of itself,
but only appears to live so;
and that one lives the more,
that is, the more wisely and intelligently,
and the more blissfully and happily,
the less he believes that he lives of himself;
and that this is the life of angels,
especially of those who are celestial,
and inmost, or nearest to the Lord;
for they know that no one lives of himself
except Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord.

This rational would mock also
if it were told that it has nothing of its own,
and that its having anything of its own
is a fallacy or an appearance;
and still more would it mock if told
that the more it is in the fallacy
that it has anything of its own,
the less it has; and the converse.
So too would it mock if told
that whatever it thinks and does
from what is its own is evil,
although it were good;
and that it is not wise
until it believes and perceives
that all evil is from hell,
and all good from the Lord.
In this belief, and even in this perception,
are all the angels; who nevertheless have
what is their own more abundantly than all others;
but they know and perceive
that this is from the Lord,
although it altogether appears as theirs.

Again:  This rational would mock if it were said
that in heaven the greatest are they who are least,
the wisest are those who believe and perceive
themselves to be the least wise,
and the happiest are those
who desire others to be the most happy,
and themselves the least so;
that it is heaven to wish to be below all,
but hell to wish to be above all;
consequently that in the glory of heaven
there is absolutely nothing
the same as in the glory of the world.

That there were such things
in the merely human rational,
and that therefore this rational
mocked at Divine things,
the Lord saw (when He was in the world as a man) . . ..
That a person is able to look from within
into the things in himself which are below,
is known by experience
to those who are in perception,
and even to those who are in conscience;
for they see so far as to reprove their very thoughts.
Consequently the regenerate can see
what is the quality of the rational
which they had before regeneration.
With man such perception is from the Lord;
but the Lord's was from Himself.