nor he or she, but it, for he is a brute. (A.E., n. 1050.)

This kind of profanation exists especially in those who acknowledge the
Lord and His Divine, and the Word and its holiness; and for the reason
that the Lord alone by means of truths from the Word opens heaven to the
man who lives according to those truths; and unless heaven is opened
such profanation is not possible. And this shows why the Gentiles, who
are ignorant of the Lord and know nothing about the Word, cannot bring
upon themselves such profanation; neither can the Jews, for they deny
the Lord from their infancy, and heaven is not opened to them by means
of the Word; neither can the impious who have been such from childhood;
for, as has been said, those only profane who believe rightly and live
rightly, and afterward believe wrongly and live wrongly. Besides this
kind of profanation there are other kinds that shall be treated of.
(A.E., n. 1051.)

III. The Second Kind of Profanation

There is another kind of profanation of holy things that those come into
who have supremacy as their end, and regard the holy things of the Word,
of the church, and of worship, as means. The Divine order is that
heaven and the church, and consequently the holy things of these, be the
end, and supremacy the means for promoting that end. For when holy
things are the end and supremacy the means, the Lord is worshipped and
adored; but when supremacy is the end and holy things the means, man
instead of the Lord is worshipped and adored. For the means look to the
end as servants look to their master, and the end looks to the means as
a master looks to his servants; consequently as a master esteems and
loves his servants according to the compliance they render to his will,
so a man who has supremacy as his end esteems and loves the holy things