s which are perceptions and thoughts on
whatever subject. The Lord says that without Him men can do nothing (Jn
15:5); that a man can receive nothing unless it is given him from heaven
(Jn 3:27); and that the Father in the heavens makes His sun to rise on
the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Mt
5:45). In the Word in its spiritual sense by "sun" here, as elsewhere, is
meant the divine good of divine love and by "rain" the divine truth of
divine wisdom. These are extended to the evil and the good, to the unjust
and the just, for if they were not, no one would possess perception and
thought. It was shown above that there is only one Life from which all
have life. But perception and thought are part of life; they are
therefore from the same fountain from which life springs. It has been
shown many times before that all the light which forms the understanding
is from the sun of the spiritual world, which is the Lord.

174. (v) _Man is led and taught in externals by the Lord to all
appearance as of himself._ This is so of man's externals, but not
inwardly. No one knows how the Lord leads and teaches man inwardly, just
as no one knows how the soul operates so that the eye sees, the ear
hears, the tongue and mouth speak, the heart circulates the blood, the
lungs breathe, the stomach digests, the liver and the pancreas
distribute, the kidneys secrete, and much else. These processes do not
come to man's perception or sensation. The same is true of what the Lord
does in the infinitely more numerous interior substances and forms of the
mind. The Lord's activity in these is not apparent to man, but many of
the effects are, as well as some of the causes producing the effects. It
is in the externals that man and the Lord are together, and as the
externals make one with the internals, cohering as they do in one series,
no disposition can be made by the Lord except in keeping with the
disposition made in the externals with man's participation.

[2] Everyone knows that man thinks, wills, speaks and acts to all
appearance as of himself, and everyone can see that without this
appearance man would have no will and understanding, thus no affection
and thought, also no reception of any good and truth from the Lord. It
follows that without this appearance there would be no rational
conception of God, no charity and no faith, consequently no reformation
and regeneration, and therefore no salvation. Plainly, this a