Everyone knows that the heathen as well as Christians live
a moral life, and many of them a better life than Christians. Moral
life may be lived either out of regard to the Divine or out of regard
to men in the world; and a moral life that is lived out of regard to
the Divine is a spiritual life. In outward form the two appear alike,
but in inward form they are wholly different; the one saves man, the
other does not. For he who lives a moral life out of regard to the
Divine is led by the Divine; while he who leads a moral life out of
regard to men in the world is led by himself. [2] But this may be
illustrated by an example. He that refrains from doing evil to his
neighbor because it is antagonistic to religion, that is,
antagonistic to the Divine, refrains from doing evil from a spiritual
motive; but he that refrains from doing evil to another merely from
fear of the law, or the loss of reputation, of honor, or gain, that
is, from regard to self and the world, refrains from doing evil from
a natural motive, and is led by himself. The life of the latter is
natural, that of the former is spiritual. A man whose moral life is
spiritual has heaven within him; but he whose moral life is merely
natural does not have heaven within him; and for the reason that
heaven flows in from above and opens man's interiors, and through his
interiors flows into his exteriors; while the world flows in from
beneath and opens the exteriors but not the interiors.
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