564. XI. A person who has never repented, or looked into himself and examined himself, ends up not knowing what is the evil that damns him and what the good that saves him,
Since so few people in the world of the Reformed Christians repent, it is necessary to add this point, that anyone who has not looked into or examined himself ends up not knowing what is the evil that damns him and the good that saves him. For he has no religious belief by which he can know this. The evil which a person does not see, recognise and acknowledge, lasts; and what lasts grows deeper and deeper roots until it blocks the interiors of his mind. This makes a person first natural, then sensual and finally bodily. In neither of these last two states does he recognise any damning evil or saving good. He becomes like a tree growing on hard rock, spreading its roots among the cracks in it, which ends up by withering for lack of moisture.
[2] Everyone who has been properly brought up is rational and moral. But there are two routes to rationality, one from the world, the other from heaven. A person who has followed the world's route to rationality and morality, and not that from heaven too, is only rational and moral in speech and behaviour; inwardly he is an animal, or rather, a wild beast, because he acts as one with the inhabitants of hell, where all are of this nature. However, a person who has also followed heaven's route to rationality and morality is truly rational and moral, because he is this at the same time in spirit, speech and body. Speech and body have the spiritual like a soul within them, and this activates the natural, sensual and bodily functions. He also acts as one with the inhabitants of heaven. There are therefore people who are rational and moral in a spiritual way, and also people who are rational and moral in a purely natural way. These cannot be told apart in the world, especially if a person is steeped in hypocrisy as the result of practising it. But the angels in heaven can tell them apart as plainly as doves from owls, or as sheep from tigers.
[3] A purely natural person can see evils and good qualities in others, and can also criticise others. But because he has not looked into and examined himself, he sees no evil in himself; and if any evil is uncovered by someone else, he employs his rational faculty to conceal it, like a snake hiding its head and plunging into the dust, or a hornet into dung. This is caused by the joy of evil, and this surrounds him, like mist over a marsh, absorbing and attenuating the rays of light. The joy of hell is nothing but this. From hell it exhales and flows into everyone, but into the soles of the feet, the back and the rear of the head. However, should it be received by the fore part of the head, or by the chest in the body, that person becomes a slave of hell. The reason is that the human cerebrum is assigned to the understanding and to its wisdom, the cerebellum to the will and its love. That is why the brain has two parts. But the only thing which can cure, reform and turn upside down that hellish joy is spiritual rationality and morality.
