Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5222

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5222. His spirit was troubled. That this signifies disturbance, is evident from the signification of "being troubled in spirit," as being to be disturbed. By "spirit" here, as occasionally elsewhere in the Word, is meant interior affection and thought, which also are the spirit of man. The ancients called these the spirit; but by the spirit they meant specifically the interior man that would live after the death of the body; while at this day "the spirit," used in this sense, means mere thought, and this without any subject other than the body in which it may be. This is because it is no longer believed that the interior man is the man himself, but that the interior man who is commonly called the soul or spirit is mere thought without a subject adapted thereto; and that consequently, being thought without a subject, it will be dissipated after the death of the body like something ethereal or flamy. This is what at the present day is understood by spirit," as when it is said "troubled in spirit," "sad in spirit," "glad in spirit," or "rejoice in spirit;" when yet it is the interior man himself that is called the spirit, and that is troubled, is sad, is glad, and rejoices, and that is a man in a form wholly human (though invisible to bodily sight) in which thought resides.


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