nce, and extinguishes
it in him, and vivifies it in herself, and thus changes it into
conjugial love, and fills it with unbounded pleasantnesses. This is
provided by the Lord, lest the conceit of his own intelligence should so
far infatuate the man, as to lead him to believe that he has
understanding and wisdom from himself and not from the Lord, and thereby
make him willing to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
and thence to believe himself like unto God, and also a god, as the
serpent, which was the love of his own intelligence, said and persuaded
him: wherefore the man (_homo_) after eating was cast out of paradise,
and the way to the tree of life was guarded by a cherub. Paradise,
spiritually understood, denotes intelligence; to eat of the tree of
life, in a spiritual sense, is to be intelligent and wise from the Lord;
and to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in a spiritual
sense, is to be intelligent and wise from self.

354. The angels having finished this conversation departed; and there
came two priests, together with a man who in the world had been an
ambassador of a kingdom, and to them I related what I had heard from the
angels. On hearing this they began to dispute with each other about
intelligence and wisdom, and the prudence thence derived, whether they
are from God or from man. The dispute grew warm. All three in heart
believed that they are from man because they are in man, and that the
perception and sensation of its being so confirm it; but the priests,
who on this occasion were influenced by theological zeal, said that
there is nothing of intelligence and wisdom, and thus nothing of
prudence from man; and when the ambassador retorted, that in such case
there is nothing of thought from man, they assented to it. But as it was
perceived in heaven, that all the three were in a similar belief, it was
said to the ambassador, "Put on the garments of a priest, and believe
that you are one, and then speak." He did so; and instantly he declared
aloud that nothing of intelligence and wisdom, and consequently nothing
of prudence, can possibly exist but from God; and he proved it with his
usual eloquence full of rational arguments. It is a peculiar
circumstance in the spiritual world, that a spirit thinks himself to be
such as is denoted by the garment he wears; because in that world the
understanding clothes every one. Afterwards, a voice from heaven said to
the two priests, "Put