Knowledges [scientifica] are like mirrors in which the truths and goods of the internal man appear as an image (n. 5201).
There they are together as in their outmost (n. 5373, 5874, 5886, 5901, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071).
[7] Influx is not physical but spiritual, that is, influx is from the internal man into the external, thus into the knowledges of the external; and not from the external into the internal, thus not from the knowledges [scientificis] of the external into truths of faith (n. 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5478, 6322, 9110).
A beginning must be made from the truths of doctrine of the church, which are from the Word, and those truths must first be acknowledged, and then it is permissible to consult knowledges [scientifica] (n. 6047).
Thus it is permissible for those who are in an affirmative state in regard to truths of faith to confirm them intellectually by means of knowledges [scientifica], but not for those who are in a negative state (n. 2568, 2588, 4760, 6047).
He that will not believe Divine truths until he is convinced by means of knowledges [scientificis] will never believe (n. 2094, 2832).
To enter from knowledge [scientificis] into the truths of
faith is contrary to order (n. 10236).
Those who do so become demented respecting the things of
heaven and the church (n. 128, 129, 130).
They fall into the falsities of evil (n. 232, 233, 6047).
In the other life when they think about spiritual matters they become as it were drunken (n. 1072).