worshiper of nature confirms
himself in favor of nature, while the confessor and worshiper of God,
from the same circumstances, confirms himself in favor of the Divine:
for the spiritual man sees spiritual things therein, and the natural man
natural; thus every one according to his quality. In regard to myself,
such circumstances have been to me testimonies of an influx of what is
spiritual into what is natural, or of an influx of the spiritual world
into the natural world; thus of an influx from the divine wisdom of the
Lord. Consider also, whether you can think analytically of any form of
government, any civil law, any moral virtue, or any spiritual truth,
unless the Divine flows in from his wisdom through the spiritual world:
for my own part, I never did, and still feel it to be impossible; for I
have perceptibly and sensibly observed such influx now (1768) for
twenty-five years continually: I therefore speak this from experience.

420. "Can nature, let me ask, regard use as an end, and dispose uses
into orders and forms? This is in the power of none but a wise being;
and none but God, who is infinitely wise, can so order and form the
universe. Who else can foresee and provide for mankind all the things
necessary for their food and clothing, producing them from the fruits of
the earth and from animals? It is surely a wonderful consideration among
many others, that those common insects, called silk-worms, should supply
with splendid clothing all ranks of persons, from kings and queens even
to the lowest servants; and that those common insects the bees, should
supply wax to enlighten both our temples and palaces. These, with
several other similar considerations, are standing proofs, that the Lord
by an operation from himself through the spiritual world, effects
whatever is done in nature.

421. "It may be expedient here to add, that I have seen in the spiritual
world those who had confirmed themselves in favor of nature by what is
visible in this world, so as to become atheists, and that their
understanding in spiritual light appeared open beneath but closed above,
because with their thinking faculty they had looked downwards to the
earth and not upwards to heaven. The super-sensual principle, which is
the lowest principle of the understanding, appeared as a veil, in some
cases sparkling from infernal fire, in some black as soot, and in some
pale and livid as a corpse. Let every one therefore beware of
confirmation i