282、主能医治每个人的理解力，使他思想良善，不思想邪恶。祂能通过各种恐惧、神迹、与死人交谈、异象和梦如此行。然而，只医治理解力仅仅是从外在医治人；因为理解力及其思维是人生命的外在，而意愿及其情感是他生命的内在。因此，只医治理解力就像治标，或说保守医治；而深层的恶性由此被封闭在里面，完全被阻止出去；它将首先摧毁近处的部位，然后摧毁远处的部位，直到整体都死亡。必须得到医治的，是意愿本身；但这种医治不是通过理解力流入意愿实现的，因为那是不可能的；而是通过理解力的教导和告诫实现的。如果唯独理解力得到医治，那么人就会变得像沐浴在香料和玫瑰花中的死尸。这些香料很快就会从死尸吸取如此恶臭的气味，以至于臭不可闻。如果意愿的邪恶之爱被封闭在里面，理解力中的天堂真理就会是这种情况。
282. The Lord could heal the intellect in everyone and so cause him to entertain in thought not evils but goods, and this by various fears, by miracles, by conversations with the deceased, and by visions and dreams. But to heal the intellect only is to heal the person only outwardly. For the intellect with its thought is the outer constituent of a person's life, while the will with its affection is the inner constituent of his life. Consequently a healing of the intellect alone would be a kind of palliative cure, which would allow the inner malignity, being shut in and prevented from emerging, to consume first the neighboring areas and afterward the outlying ones, until the whole was necrotic and dying. It is the underlying will that must be healed, not by an influx of the intellect into it, because that is impossible, but by being instructed and exhorted by the intellect.
If the intellect alone were to be healed, the person would be like an embalmed corpse, or a corpse covered with fragrant spices and roses, which would shortly take on such a foul odor from the body that no one could bear to have them near his nostrils. So it would be with heavenly truths in the intellect if an evil love of the will were to be sealed up.
282. The Lord could heal everyone's discernment and make us incapable of thinking evil, capable only of thinking good. He could do this by various fears, by miracles, by messages from the dead, and by visions and dreams. However, healing only our discernment is healing us only superficially. Our discernment and its thought processes are the outside of our life, while our volition and its desire is the inside of our life. This means that healing only our discernment would be curing nothing but the symptoms. The deeper malignance, closed in and with no way out, would first devour what was nearest to it and then what was farther away until finally everything was dying. It is our volition itself that needs to be healed, not by our discernment flowing into it but by being taught and encouraged by our discernment.
If our discernment alone were healed we would be like an embalmed body or a corpse bathed in fragrant perfumes and roses. Before long the perfumes would draw forth from the body such a stench that none of us could put our nose anywhere near it. That is what it would be like for heavenly truths in our discernment if the evil love of our volition were repressed.
282. It would have been possible for the Lord to heal the understanding in every man, and so cause him to think not evil but good, and this by means of fears of various kinds, by miracles, by conversations with the dead, and by visions and dreams. But to heal the understanding alone is to heal man outwardly only; for the understanding with its thought is the external of man's life, while the will with its affection is the internal of his life. Therefore, the healing of the understanding alone would be like palliative healing, by which the interior malignity, shut in and prevented from coming out, would destroy first the near and then the remote parts till the whole would become mortified. It is the will itself that must be healed, not by means of an influx into it of the understanding, for that is not possible, but by means of instruction and exhortation by the understanding. If the understanding alone were healed man would become like a dead body embalmed, or covered over with fragrant spices and roses, which would soon draw from the body such a foul odour that they could not be brought near anyone's nostrils. So would it be with heavenly truths in the understanding if the evil love of the will were denied outlet.
282. It would have been possible for the Lord to heal the understanding in every man, and thus cause him to think what is good and not what is evil, and this by fears of various kinds, by miracles, by conversations with the dead, and by visions and dreams. But to heal the understanding alone is to heal man only from without; for the understanding with its thought is the external of man's life, while the will with its affection is the internal of his life; consequently the healing of the understanding alone would be like palliative healing, whereby the interior malignity, shut in and wholly prevented from going out, would destroy first the near and then the remote parts, even till the whole would become dead. It is the will itself that must be healed, not by means of an influx into it of the understanding, for that is not possible, but by means of instruction, and exhortation by the understanding. If the understanding alone were healed man would become like a dead body embalmed or encased in fragrant aromatics and roses, which would soon draw from the corpse so foul a stench that they could not be brought near to any one's nostrils. So would it be with heavenly truths in the understanding if the will's evil love were shut in.
282. Potuisset Dominus sanare intellectum apud omnem hominem, et sic facere ut non mala sed bona cogitet, hoc per varios timores, per miracula, per loquelas cum defunctis, perque visiones et somnia; sed modo sanare intellectum, est solum extrinsecus sanare hominem; intellectus enim cum ejus cogitatione est externum vitae hominis, ac voluntas cum ejus affectione est internum vitae ejus, quare sanatio solius intellectus foret sicut sanatio palliativa, 1per quam malignitas interior inclusa et inhibita exire, consumeret primum vicina et postea remota, usque dum omne morticinum esset; ipsa voluntas est, quae sananda est, non per influxum intellectus in illam, quia ille non datur, sed per instructionem et hortationem ab intellectu. Si intellectus 2solum sanaretur, fieret homo sicut cadaver conditum, seu aromatibus fragrantibus et rosis circumvelatum, quae brevi a cadavere traherent putorem, ut non alicujus naribus possent admoveri; ita fieret cum veris coelestibus in intellectu, si malus voluntatis amor obstrueretur.
Footnotes:
1 Prima editio: palliativa,
2 Prima editio: intellestus