139. No one is reformed in a _state of fear_ because fear takes away
freedom and reason or liberty and rationality. Love opens the mind's
interiors but fear closes them, and when they are closed man thinks
little and only what comes to the lower mind or to the senses. All fears
that assail the lower mind have this effect.

[2] We showed above that man has an internal and an external of thought.
Fear can never invade the internal of thought; this is always in freedom,
being in a man's life-love. But it can invade the external of thought.
When it does, the internal of thought is closed and thereupon man can no
longer act in freedom in accord with his reason, nor be reformed.

[3] The fear which invades the external of thought and closes the
internal is chiefly fear of losing standing or profit. Fear of civil
penalties or of outward ecclesiastical penalties does not close the
internal, for the laws respecting them pronounce penalties only on those
who speak and act contrary to the civil requirements of the kingdom and
the spiritual of the church, but not on those who think contrary to them.

[4] Fear of infernal punishment invades the external of thought, to be
sure, but only for some moments, hours or days; it is soon restored to
its freedom by the internal of thought, which is man's spirit and
life-love and is called thought of the heart.

[5] Fear of losing one's standing or wealth, however, does invade man's
external of thought, and when it does, closes the internal of thought
above to influx from heaven and makes it impossible for man to be
reformed. This is because everyone's life-love from birth is love of self
and the world, and self-love is at one with the love of position, and
love of the world with the love of wealth. When a man has position or