heaven. So when he is ill and thinks about death and the state of his
soul after death, he is not in the world but is withdrawn in spirit. In
this state by itself no one can be reformed, but he can be strengthened
in it if he was reforming before he fell ill.

[2] It is similar with those who renounce the world and all occupation in
it and give themselves only to thoughts about God, heaven and salvation;
on this further elsewhere. If those of whom we were speaking have not
been reformed before their illness, then if they die they become such as
they were before their illness. It is vain, therefore, to suppose that
one can repent or receive some faith in illness; for no deed accompanies
the repentance, and there is no charity in the faith; each is oral only
and not at all from the heart.

143. No one is reformed in _a state of ignorance,_ for all reformation is
by truths and a life according to them. Therefore those who do not know
truths cannot be reformed, but if they long for them with affection for
them, after they die they undergo reformation in the spiritual world.

144. Nor can one be reformed in _a state of blindness of the
understanding._ These also have no knowledge of truths or consequently of
life, for the understanding must teach truths and the will must do them;
when the will does what the understanding teaches, a man has life in
accord with truths. When the understanding is blind, however, the will
also is indifferent and acts in freedom according to one's reason only to
do the evil confirmed in the understanding, and the confirmation is
falsity. Besides ignorance, a religion which teaches a blind faith also
blinds the understanding; so does a false doctrine. For just as truths
open the understanding, falsities close it. They close it above and open
it below, and opened only below, the understanding cannot see truths but