Those spheres which agree together are conjoined according to their agreement; those which do not agree are repelled according to their disagreement. Every province in the Greatest Man, to which some member or organ in the human body corresponds, has its own sphere distinct from the sphere of any other province; from this is mutual conjunction of those who belong to the same province, and separation of those who belong to some other. The spirits and angels who are from the earth Jupiter have reference in the Greatest Man to the imaginative of thought, and thus to an active state of the interior parts. But the spirits of our earth have reference to the various functions of the exterior parts of the body, into which, when they would have dominion, the imaginative of thought cannot flow; hence the oppositions between the spheres.

8631. In what clear perception the spirits of Jupiter are concerning spiritual things, was made evident to me from their manner of representing how the Lord, Whom they call their only Lord, converts depraved affections into good affections. They represented the intellectual mind as a beautiful form, and impressed upon it an activity suitable to the form, in place of affection; and they next showed how the Lord bends what is depraved therein to good, which they did in a way that no words can describe, and so dexterously that they were commended by angels. There were present then some of the learned from our earth, who had immersed their intellectual in the terms of scientific knowledge and disputed much about form, substance, the material and the immaterial, and the like, without applying such things to any use; but they could not even comprehend that representation.

8632. I have spoken with the spirits of that earth concerning the Lord, that He does evil to no one, still less punishes any one. Those spirits, being of the more simple, were not willing at first to admit this, believing that punishments are from the Lord. But when they were told

that their angels, when they are with a man of their earth, do not chastise, nor even speak harshly, but only permit the punishing spirits who are also present to do so; and when it was urged that if angels do not chastise, how much less would the Lord, Who is good itself, and Who governs the angels, they acknowledged what they had heard, and declared aloud that the Lord punishes no one, and does evil to no one, nor does He even speak harshly to any one. Concerning the angels and the punishing spirits with the inhabitants of Jupiter, more may be seen above (n. 7802 7805, 7810).

8633. As to what further concerns the life of those who are on that earth, I have been instructed by their spirits that as they have no interest in scientific knowledge, so neither have they any in works of art; also that they have no days of festive worship, but that every morning at sunrise and every evening at sunset, they have holy worship unto their one Lord in their tents, and that then they also sing psalms.

8634. The subject of the inhabitants and spirits of the earth Jupiter will be continued at the end of the following chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.

THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY.

8635. No one can be regenerated unless he knows such things as are of the new life, that is, of spiritual life; for into that life man is introduced by regeneration. The things which are of the new life, or of spiritual life, are truths which must be believed and goods which must be done; the former are of faith, the latter of charity.

8636. No one can know these things of himself, for man apprehends only those things which have been obvious to his senses; from these he has procured to himself a light, which is called natural light, by which he sees nothing else but what belongs to the world and to himself, not what belongs to heaven and to God; these he must learn from revelation.

8637. For example, that the Lord, Who was God from eternity, came into the world to save the human race; that He has all power in heaven and in earth; that the all of faith and the all of charity, thus all truth and good is from Him; that there is a heaven, and that there is a hell; that man will live for ever, in heaven if he has done well, in hell if he has done evil :

8638. These things and more are of faith, which must be known by the man who is to be regenerated; for he who knows them can think them, then will them, and lastly do them, and thus have new life.

8639. On the other hand, he who does not know that the Lord is the Saviour of the human race, cannot have faith in Him, worship Him, love Him, and thus do good for His sake. He who does not know that all good is from Him, cannot think that his own justice and his own salva

tion are from Him, still less can he will it to be so, thus he cannot live from Him. He who does not know that there is a hell, and that there is a heaven, nor that there is eternal life, cannot even think about the life of heaven, nor apply himself to receiving it; and so in other cases.

8640. From these things it may be evident what the quality of the life of a regenerate person is, that it is a life of faith; also that it cannot be given to man before he is in such a state as to be able to acknowledge the truths of faith, and so far as he acknowledges them, to will them.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1. And Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-inlaw, heard all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel His people, that Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt;

2. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,

3. And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been a sojourner in a strange land:

4. And the name of the other was Eliezer; for [he said], The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh :

5. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came and his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the mount of God:

6. And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.

7. And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed himself down, and kissed him; and they asked a man his companion as to peace; and they came into the

tent.

8. And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had

done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and Jehovah delivered them.

9. And Jethro rejoiced over all the good which Jehovah had done to Israel, in that He had delivered him out of the hand of the Egyptians.

10. And Jethro said, Blessed be Jehovah, Who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; Who hath delivered His people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

11. Now I know that Jehovah is great above all gods: for the reason that they bore themselves haughtily over them.

12. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

13. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood about Moses from the morning unto the evening.

14. And Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, and he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou alone, and all the people stand about thee from the morning unto the evening?

15. And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God:

16. When they have a word, they come unto me; and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make known to them the judgments of God, and His laws.

17. And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

18. Wearing thou wilt wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for the thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.

19. Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: be thou for the people with God, and bring thou the causes unto God: