CL 153 [R] - Knowing and Acknowledging God

CL 153 [repeated]

. . . people of the . . . golden age know and acknowledged
that they were recipient forms of life from God,
and wisdom was therefore engraved
on their souls and hearts.
And consequently,
from the light of truth they saw truth,
and through truths perceived good
from the delight of love for good.

. . . in subsequent ages,
the human race fell away from acknowledging
that all truth of wisdom
and consequent goodness of love in them
continually flowed in from God;
and as they fell away from this acknowledgment,
they ceased to be dwelling places of God.
Moreover, speech with God
and association with angels also then ceased.
For the orientation of the inner faculties of their minds,
which had been directed upward by God to God,
became more and more bent
in slanting direction outward to the world,
so that it was directed by God to God through the world;
and finally it turned upside down in the opposite direction,
which is downward to self.
And because God cannot be regarded by a person
who is inwardly upside down and thus turned away,
people separated themselves from God . . ..