232.
The opposite occurs with those who from the doctrine of a false religion read the Word, and still more with those who confirm that doctrine by the Word, doing this with a view to their own glory and
worldly possessions. With such the truths of the Word are as if in the dimness of night, and falsities are as if in the light of day. They read truths but see them not; and if they but see the shadow
of them, they falsify them. These are they of whom the Lord says, That they have eyes and see not, and ears but do not understand (Matt. 13:14, 15). Consequently their light in respect to spiritual
matters, which pertain to the church, is merely natural, and their mental vision like that of one who when he awakens in his bed sees phantoms, or like that of a sleepwalker, who thinks himself to
be awake when he is asleep.