d, and thus have rejected it; and those who in
spirit regard nothing as sin, after death when they become spirits, since
they are in bonds to hell, rush into wickednesses which are in accord
with the lusts to which they have given rein.

351. Those who believe in a Divine operation in all the details of nature,
are able by very many things they see in nature to confirm themselves in
favor of the Divine, as fully as others confirm themselves in favor of
nature, yea, more fully. For those who confirm themselves in favor of
the Divine give attention to the wonders which are displayed in the
production both of plants and animals. In the production of plants, how
out of a little seed cast into the ground there goes forth a root, and
by means of the root a stem, and branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits
in succession, even to new seeds; just as if the seed knew the order of
succession, or the process by which it is to renew itself. Can any
reasonable person think that the sun, which is mere fire, has this
knowledge, or that it is able to empower its heat and light to effect
these results, or is able to fashion these wonderful things in plants,
and to contemplate use? Any man of elevated reason who sees and weighs
these things, cannot think otherwise than that they come from Him who has
infinite reason, that is, from God. Those who acknowledge the Divine also
see and think this, but those who do not acknowledge the Divine do not see
or think this because they do not wish to; thus they sink their rational
into the sensual, which draws all its ideas from the lumen which is proper
to the bodily senses and which confirms their illusions, saying, Do you
not see the sun effecting these things by its heat and light? What is a
thing that you do not see? Is it anything?

Those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine give attention to the
wonders which are displayed in the production of animals; to mention here
only, in reference to eggs, how the chick in its seed or beginning lies
hidden therein, with everything requisite till it is hatched, also with
everything pertaining to its subsequent development, until it becomes a
bird or winged thing of the same form as its parent. And if one observes
the living form, it is such as to fill any one with astonishment who
thinks deeply, seeing that in the minutest as in the largest living
creatures, even in the invisible, as in the visible, there are the organs
of sense, namely, sight, hear