4. This then is the reason why those who are in the spiritual affection of truth possess an internal acknowledgment of truth.* As the angels are in this affection, they discard the dogma that the understanding must be kept in obedience to faith, and say, "What is this? believing when you do not see whether the thing is true?" And if somebody says that still it is to be believed, they reply, "Do you consider yourself the Deity that I am bound to believe you? or do you think me mad enough to believe a statement in which I do not see the truth? Cause me to see it." Thereupon the dogmatizer betakes himself elsewhere. The wisdom of the angels consists solely in this: that they see and comprehend everything they think about.
* The spiritual affection of truth is the love of truth for its own sake, and because we have eternal life by means of its teaching. See the Apocalypse Explained (n. 115, 444:10).[TR.]
