33、人们之所以不知道这将是他们死后的状态，原因有很多。其中一个原因是，他们无法被光照，因为他们几乎不信灵魂不朽。这一点从许多人，包括学者那里明显看出来，他们以为自己就像动物，优越之处仅在于能说话。尽管他们嘴上说相信死后的生命，心里却否认之。像这样的思维使他们变得如此感官化，以致他们无法相信人死后仍是一个人，因为他们没有亲眼看见他。他们甚至声称，灵魂怎么可能会是这样一个人呢？而那些相信自己死后会继续活着的人则截然不同，他们内心相信自己会进入天堂，与天使同享快乐，看到天上的乐园，并身穿白衣站在主面前等等。这是他们的内在思维；但当他们基于学者的理论来思想灵魂时，他们的外在思维可能会偏离。
33. There are many reasons for our not knowing that this is the state we will be in after death. One of them is that we have been unable to be enlightened because we have had so little belief in the immortality of the soul. This is clear from the many people, including scholars, who believe that we are the same as animals, our only advantage over them being that we are capable of speech. So even though such people’s words affirm life after death, at heart they deny it. This type of thinking has made them so oriented to their physical senses that they cannot believe we continue to be human after death; after all, they do not see [the souls of the dead] with their eyes. So they say, “How can a soul be human?”
It is different for people who believe they are going to go on living after death. Inwardly, they believe that they are going to arrive in heaven, enjoy themselves in the company of angels, see heavenly paradises, stand before the Lord in white garments [Revelation 3:4–5], and so on. No matter how their outer thinking may stray from this when they think about the soul on the basis of scholarly theories, these remain their inner thoughts.
33. There are many reasons why people have not known that this will be their state after death. One is that they could not be enlightened, because they had too little faith in the immortality of the soul. This is evident from the many, including the learned, who think they are like animals, being only superior to them in having the power of speech. Although they profess with their tongues to believe in life after death, they deny it in their hearts. Thinking like this has made them so dependent on their senses that they cannot believe that a person is still a person after death, because they cannot see him with their eyes. They even say: 'How can a soul be like that?'
Those who believe they will continue to live after death are quite different. They think to themselves that they will go to heaven, enjoy its delights in company with angels, see the heavenly paradises and stand before the Lord dressed in white, and much more. This is what they think inwardly; but their outward thinking may diverge from this, when they allow the theories of the learned about the soul to influence their thinking.
33. There are many causes why man has not known of this state of his after death; one of which is, that he could not be enlightened, so little faith had he in the immortality of the soul; as may appear from many even of the learned, who believe that they are like beasts, only more perfect than they, in being able to speak; and therefore in their heart they deny the life after death, although they profess it with the mouth. From this thought of theirs they have become so sensual, that they could not believe that a man is a man after death, because they do not see him with their eyes, for they say, how can a soul be such a man? It is otherwise with those who believe they will live after death; these think interiorly in themselves, that they will come into heaven, enjoy delights with the angels, see heavenly paradises, and stand before the Lord in white garments, besides other things. This is their interior thought; their exterior thought may wander from it, when they think of the soul from the hypothesis of the learned.
33. Quod homo hunc suum statum post mortem non sciverit, sunt plures causae; inter illas etiam est, quod non potuerit illustrari, tam parum fidei apud illum fuit de immortalitate animae; ut constare potest ex multis, etiam eruditis, qui se credunt bestiis similes, et modo perfectiores illis quod possint loqui; et ideo corde suo negant vitam post mortem, tametsi illam ore fatentur: ex qua illorum cogitatione ita sensuales facti sunt, ut non potuerint credere quod homo sit homo post mortem, quia illum oculis suis non vident; dicunt enim, Quomodo potest anima talis esse? Aliter qui se victuros post mortem credunt; illi interius in se cogitant, quod in caelum venturi sint, deliciis fruituri cum angelis, paradisos caelestes visuri, et in vestibus albis staturi coram Domino, et plura. Haec interior est illorum cogitatio; exterior potest divagari ab illa, quando cogitant de anima ex hypothesi eruditorum.