152. Since man has an internal and an external, and both must be reformed in order that the man may be reformed, and since no one can be reformed unless he examines himself sees and acknowledges his evils, and afterwards desists from them, it follows that not only the external but also the internal must be examined. If the external alone is examined, a man sees only what he has actually done, as that he has not committed murder, adultery, theft, and has not borne false witness; and so on. Thus he examines the evils of his body, and not the evils of his spirit; and yet the evils of the spirit must be examined in order that anyone may be reformed. For after death man lives a spirit, and all the evils that are in the spirit remain; and the spirit is examined only by man attending to his thoughts, especially to his intentions, for these are thoughts from the will. In the will evils are in their origin and in their root, that is, in their lusts and in their delights; and unless these are seen and acknowledged the man is still in evils, although in externals he has not committed them. That to think from intention is to will and to do is clear from the Lord's words:
Whosoever looketh on the wife of another (A.V. a woman) to lust after her committeth (A.V. hath committed) adultery with her already in his heart. Matt. v. 28.
Such is the examination of the internal man, from which the essential examination of the external man is effected.