10. VIII.
Therefore everything which proceeds from this sun, regarded in itself, is dead.
Who does not see from the reason of his understanding, if this is a little elevated above the sensual things of the body, that love regarded in itself is alive, and that the appearance of its fire is life, and, on the contrary, that elementary fire regarded in itself is respectively dead; consequently, that the sun of the spiritual world, because it is pure love, is alive: and that the sun of the natural world, because it is pure fire, is dead; and similarly all things which proceed and exist from them? [2] There are two things which produce all the effects in the universe, Life and Nature, and they produce them according to order when life from within actuates nature. It is otherwise when nature from within brings life to act, which takes place with those who place nature, which in itself is dead, above and within life, and thence who strive solely after the pleasures of the senses and the lusts of the flesh, and care nothing for the spiritual things of the soul and the truly rational things of the mind. Such persons, on account of that inversion, are they who are called "the dead"; such are all atheistic naturalists in the world, and all satans in hell. [3] They are also called "the dead" in the Word, as in David:
They joined themselves to Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead (Ps. 106:28).
The enemy persecuteth my soul, he maketh me to sit in darkness like the dead of the world (Ps. 143:3).
To hear the groaning of the bound, and to open to the sons of death (Ps. 102:20).
And in Revelation:
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, but thou art dead; be watchful and establish the things which remain that are ready to die (3:1, 2).
[4] They are called "the dead," because spiritual death is damnation, and damnation is the lot of those who believe that life is from nature, and thus that the light of nature is the light of life, and thereby hide, suffocate, and extinguish every idea of God, of heaven, and of eternal life. Such persons are like owls, which see light in darkness and darkness in light, that is, falsities as truths and evils as goods; and because the delights of evil are the delights of their hearts, they are not unlike those birds and beasts which devour the bodies of the dead as dainties, and perceive the fetid odors from sepulchers as balsams. Such persons also do not see any other influx than physical or natural; if notwithstanding they affirm influx to be spiritual, this is not done from any idea of it but from the mouth of a teacher.
