142. No one is reformed in _a state of bodily sickness_ because his
reason is not then in a state of freedom; the state of the mind depends
on that of the body. When the body is sick, the mind is also, if for no
other reason because it is withdrawn from the world. Withdrawn from the
world it thinks indeed about God but not from Him, for it is not
possessed of freedom of the reason. Man has this freedom in being midway
between heaven and the world, thus can think from heaven and from the
world, likewise from heaven about the world and from the world about
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soul after death, he is not in the world but is withdrawn in spirit.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.