True Christian Religion 11[3] Everyone can see that a man’s knowledge of God is his mirror of God, and that those who know nothing about God do not see God in a mirror with its face toward them, but in a mirror with its back toward them; and as this is covered with quicksilver, or some dark paste, it does not reflect the image but extinguishes it. Faith in God enters into man through a prior way, which is from the soul into the higher parts of the understanding; while knowledges about God enter through a posterior way, because they are drawn from the revealed Word by the understanding, through the bodily senses; and these inflowings meet midway in the understanding; and there natural faith, which is merely persuasion, becomes spiritual, which is real acknowledgment. Thus the human understanding is like a refining vessel, in which this transmutation is effected.
Apocalypse Explained 349[6] Everyone should guard against the belief that the Divine life with anyone, even with the evil and in hell, is changed; for, as was said above, the life itself is not changed or varied, but the life produces an appearance of the recipient form, through which and from which the life is transmitted; much as everyone appears in a mirror such as he is through the light, the light remaining unchanged, and simply presenting the form to the sight; and just as the same life presents itself to be perceived according to the form of the bodily organ, thus after one manner in the eye, after another manner in the hearing, and otherwise in the smell, taste, and touch. The belief that life is varied and changed is from an appearance, which is a fallacy like the fallacy from the appearance that influx is physical, when yet influx is spiritual.
Arcana Coelestia 4206 That such various things of the Lord are represented, is not because various things are in the Lord, but because His Divine is variously received by men.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key Logopraxis principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.