ed of it. Is there a church whose
doctrine is not based on the precepts of the Decalog? The precepts of the
Decalog are precepts of life. What man of the church, in whom there is
anything of the church, does not, on hearing it, acknowledge that he who
lives rightly is saved and he who lives wickedly is condemned? In the
Athanasian Creed, which is also the doctrine received in the whole
Christian world, it is therefore said:

The Lord will come to judge the quick and the dead; and then those who
have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil
into everlasting fire.

[9] It is clear, then, that the doctrines of all churches, when viewed
interiorly, teach life, and teaching life they teach that salvation is
according to the life. Man's life is not breathed into him in a moment
but is formed gradually, and it is reformed as the man shuns evils as
sins, consequently as he learns what sin is, recognizes and acknowledges
it, does not will it but desists from it, and also learns the helps that
come with a knowledge of God. By all these means man's life is formed and
reformed, and they cannot be given on the instant. For hereditary evil,
in itself infernal, has to be removed, and good, in itself heavenly,
implanted in its place. Because of his hereditary evil man may be
compared to an owl as to the understanding and to a serpent as to the
will, but when he has been reformed, he may be compared to a dove as to
the understanding and to a sheep as to the will. Instantaneous
reformation and hence salvation would be like changing an owl at once
into a dove or a serpent at once into a sheep. Who that knows anything
about man's life does not see the impossibility of this? Salvation is
impossible unless the owl and serpent nature is removed and the nature of
the dove and sheep implanted instead.

[10] Moreover, it is common knowledge that every intelligent person can
become more intelligent than he is, and every wise man wiser than he is,
and that intelligence and wisdom in man may increase and do so in some
men from infancy to the close of life, and that man is thus continually
perfected. Why should not spiritual intelligence and wisdom increase as
well? These rise by two degrees above natural intelligence and wisdom,
and as they ascend become angelic intelligence and wisdom, which are
ineffable. These in turn increase to eternity with the angels. Who cannot
understand, if he will, that what is being perfect