quality. The separation of profane and holy ideas, when thus conjoined, cannot be effected, except by means of such infernal torment, that if a man were aware of it, he would as cautiously avoid falling in to profanation as into hell itself.
302. The Jews were so prone to profanation that the mysteries of faith were never revealed to them, so that it was never explicitly declared to them either that they should live after death, or that the Lord would come into the world to save them. Nay, they were, and still are, kept in such ignorance and blindness, that they neither have known nor now know of the existence of the internal man, or indeed of any thing internal; for had they known these, or did they now know, so as to acknowledge them, such is their nature that they would profane them, and thus preclude themselves form all hope of salvation in another life. This is what is meant by the Lord in John: "He hath blinded their eyes, and closed their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and convert themselves, and I should heal them," (xii. 40.) And by the Lord speaking to them in parables without explaining to them their meaning, lest, as He himself says, "Seeing they should see, and hearing they should hear, and understand," (Matt. xiii. 13.) On the same account, likewise, all the mysteries of faith were hidden from them, and concealed under the representatives of their Church, and such was the style of the prophetic writings, for the same reason. It is, however, one thing to know, and another to acknowledge. He who knows, and does not acknowledge, is as if he knew not; but it is he who acknowledges and afterwards blasphemes and profanes, who is meant by the Lord.
303. Man acquires to himself a life according to the persuasions which he embraces, or in other words, by what he acknowledges and believes. That of which he is not persuaded, or which he does not acknowledge and believe, can in no degree affect his mind; and therefore it is impossible to profane what is holy without a previous persuasion and acknowledgement that it is so, and at length its denial. Those who may know but do not acknowledge, are as if they knew not, or like persons acquainted with matters of no consequence. Such were the Jews about the time of the Lord's advent, and therefore they are said in the Word to be vastated or wasted, that is, to have no longer any faith. Under these circumstances, it does a people no injury to have the interior contents of the Word unfolded to them, for they are as persons seeing, and yet not seeing; hearing, and yet not hearing; and whose hearts are hardened; of whom the Lord says in Isaiah, "Go and tell this people, Hear in hearing, but understand not, and see in seeing, but know not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their
