AC 5128 - Within Life

AC 5128 [4-5]

The principal sign whether a person
is merely sensuous or is rational,
is from his life;
not such as appears in his speech and his works,
but such as it is within these;
for the life of the speech is from the thought,
and the life of the works is from the will,
and that of both is from the intention or end.
Such therefore as is the intention or end
within the speech and the works,
such is the life;
for speech without interior life is mere sound,
and works without interior life are mere movements.
This is the life which is meant when it is said
that "the life remains after death."
If a person is rational,
he speaks from thinking well,
and acts from willing well,
that is, he speaks from faith and acts from charity;
but if a person is not rational,
he may then indeed begin to act, and also to speak,
as a rational man;
but still there is nothing of life from the rational in him;
for a life of evil closes up
every way or communication with the rational,
and causes the person to be
merely natural and sensuous.

There are two things
which not only close up the way of communication,
but even deprive a person of the capacity
of ever becoming rational -- deceit and profanation.
Deceit is like a subtle poison which infects the interiors,
and profanation mixes
falsities with truths and evils with goods:
through these two the rational wholly perishes.