5070. The eternal life which is imparted to the righteous is life flowing from good. Good has life within it because it comes from the Lord, who is life itself. Included within the life which comes from the Lord there is wisdom and intelligence; for wisdom consists in receiving good from the Lord and then making it the object of one's will, while intelligence consists in receiving truth from the Lord and then believing it. And those who receive such wisdom and intelligence have life. Also, because happiness is linked to that kind of life, eternal happiness too is meant by that life. The opposite is the case with those governed by evil. They do, it is true, seem - especially to themselves - to possess life; but it is the kind of life which in the Word is called death, and is in actual fact spiritual death; for they do not have any wise apprehension of what is good or any intelligent understanding of what is true. This may be seen by anyone who considers the matter carefully, for since it is good and the truth rooted in such good that hold life within them, no life can exist in evil or in the falsity springing from it, because these are by nature the reverse of good and truth and destructive of life. Consequently the people under consideration here have no other life than the kind which the insane have.
