ast.

251. (1) What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man. Man is not
man from face and body, but from understanding and will; therefore by
the natural man and the spiritual man is meant that man's understanding
and will are either natural or spiritual. The natural man in respect to
his understanding and will is like the natural world, and may be called
a world or microcosm; and the spiritual man in respect to his
understanding and will is like the spiritual world, and may be called
a spiritual world or heaven. From which it is evident that as the natural
man is in a kind of image a natural world, so he loves those things which
are of the natural world; and that as the spiritual man is in a kind of
image a spiritual world, so he loves those things which are of that world,
or of heaven. The spiritual man indeed loves the natural world also but
not otherwise than as a master loves his servant through whom he performs
uses. Moreover, according to uses the natural man becomes like the
spiritual, which is the case when the natural man feels from the spiritual
the delight of use; such a natural man may be called spiritual-natural.
The spiritual man loves spiritual truths; he not only loves to know and
understand them, but also wills them; while the natural man loves to
speak of those truths and also do them. Doing truths is performing uses.
This subordination is from the conjunction of the spiritual world and the
natural world; for whatever appears and is done in the natural world
derives its cause from the spiritual world. From all this it can be seen
that the spiritual man is altogether distinct from the natural, and that
there is no other communication between them than such as there is between
cause and effect.

252. (2) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree
is opened. This is obvious from what has been said above; to which it
may be added, that a natural man is a complete man when the spiritual
degree is opened in him, for he is then consociated with angels in
heaven and at the same time with men in the world, and in regard to
both, lives under the Lord's guidance. For the spiritual man imbibes
commands from the Lord through the Word, and executes them through the
natural man. The natural man who has the spiritual degree opened does
not know that he thinks and acts from his spiritual man, for it seems
as if he did this from himself, when yet he does not do it from himself
but from the Lo