AE 764 - Enlightenment from the Lord or from Self

 AE 764 [2]

It is commonly believed,
and they themselves who defend
justification by faith alone believe,
that they think and reason spiritually
because they think and reason keenly and craftily.

But let it be known
that only he who is in enlightenment from the Lord,
and from that in the spiritual affection of truth,
thinks and reasons spiritually,
for these are in the light of truth,
and the light of truth is the light of heaven
from which the angels have intelligence and wisdom;
that light is what is called spiritual light,
and consequently
those who are in that light are spiritual.

But those who are in falsities,
however keenly they may think and reason,
are not spiritual, but natural, indeed, sensual,
for their thoughts and reasonings therefrom
are for the most part from the fallacies of the senses,
which some adorn with eloquence
and embellish with the flowers of rhetoric,
and confirm by appearances from nature alone,
while others add knowledges
and adapt them to their reasonings,
and these they proclaim from the fire of self-love
and the pride of self-intelligence therefrom
that sounds like the affection of truth.
In such things their craftiness consists,
and to such as cannot or dare not
enter with any understanding into the things
that pertain to the church and the Word
this seems to be wisdom.
Sensual people have the ability to think, speak,
and act craftily,
because all evil has its seat in a person's sensual,
and in it cunning is as predominant
as intelligence is in the spiritual person.