BX 8711 .A7 B3 v. A Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688- 1772 . The Swedenborg library fen \ OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK Incorporated A. D 1850, for Printing, Publishing, and Circi the Theological Works of Emanuel Swedenborg, for Charitable and Missionary purposes. lating Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2014 Iittps://archive.org/details/swedenborglibrar04swed ' SWEDENBORG LiBRARY. EDITED BY B. F. BARRETT. Divine Providence And Its Laws. FROM THE WRITINGS OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. PHILADELPHIA: E.CLAXTON & COMPANY, 030 ilAKKET Street, Entered according to Act of Congress, iu the year 1878, by CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. EDITOR'S PREFACE. MONG all the beautiful and sublime disclosures made through Sweden borg, few are more interest- than his doctrine concerning the Divine Providence. Within the whole compass of *^heological literature I know of nothing to be compared with bis treatise on this subject, either in depth of wisdom, breadth of thought, conclusiveness of reasoning, or capability of satisfying the cravings of both head and heart. The author shows, with a degree of clearness un- equalled by any other writer, that there is no such thing as blind chance ; that the universe in general, and in all its minutest particulars, is governed by infinite Love which is guided in all its operations by an infinite Wisdom ; that the great end of creation was a heaven of angels from the human race — an end which Divine Providence is perpetually seeking ; that this end is pursued not blindly nor in any arbitrary manner, but in conformity to the eternal laws of Di- iug or more important in a practical point of view, iii iv EDITOR'S PREFA CE. vine order which Providence is ever striving to make men understand and obey ; that among the many and beautiful laws of Divine Providence are included also the laws of permission, under which all physical and moral evils fall, which are permitted for the sake of a wise and beneficent end. This doctrine of the Divine Providence assures us of the Lord's infinite wisdom and mercy in all that He permits us to suffer, as well as in all that his love pro- vides. It teaches that He has supreme regard, not to our present and temporal, but to our future and eter- nal, welfare ; that if He permits us to be crucified out- wardly, it is that we may thereby be purified inwardly; and if He suffers us to be afflicted in time, it is that we may thereby be made happier through eternity. It teaches that Infinite Love never forsakes one human soul, — no, not even in that soul's darkest or guiltiest hour ; that this Love pursues every individual through all his devious wanderings, — sometimes with warning and entreaty, sometimes with rebuke and chastisement, — always yearning to save and bless; that it orders or permits each smallest circumstance of our lives, and overrules all our outward ills — all sicknesses, disap- pointments, losses and sorrows, for our highest ulti- mate good. EDITOR'S PREFACE. V Only those who have experienced the cheering and strengthening influence of this doctrine in dark hours and amid the stern trials and rough conflicts of life, can tell how replete it is with encouragement, comfort and support. Addressing itself to the intellect not less than to the heart, it leads the receiver to a joyful rec- ognition of the Divine Wisdom and Love in every event, and so holds the creature in perpetual and loving communion with its Creator. The present volume is simply an abridgment of Swedenborg's "Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence." Nothing of vital importance, however, has been omitted, and each omission h'as been indicated by a dash, thus, — . As in previous volumes, the au- thor's own language (except in the headings of the chapters) has been uniformly given ; but his method has been considerably abbreviated by the avoidance of repetitions as far as practicable, and sometimes giving, instead of quotations from Scripture, simply references to chapter and verse. It is believed that in this abbreviated form the work, besides being consid- erably less voluminous, will be found better adapted to the general reader than the unabridged work, and will give him an equally clear idea of the new doctrine concerning the Divine Providence. 1* vl EDITOR'S PREFACE. And it is the Editor's firm belief, that any thought- ful and candid person who will read, attentively, three — say, the last three — chapters of this work, will be constrained to acknowledge that the spiritual illumi- nation enjoyed by its author was of no ordinary kind. What higher wisdom, indeed, on this subject, could reasonably be expected to come down from the heaven of angels? B. F. B. Germantown, Nov. 12, 1878. PAGE I. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS THE GOVERNMENT OF DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM ... 15 Manifestations of Divine Wisdom 17 Love and Wisdom united in everything . . . .19 The good of love is not good unless united to the truth of Wisdom 21 Love united to Wisdom is man's life . . . .23 The chief effort of the Divine Providence is to keep man in good and truth 24 The union of good and truth is heaven and the church in man 28 II. THE END OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS A HEAVEN FROM THE HUMAN RACE ... 29 Heaven is union with the Lord 31 Diflerent degrees of this union 34 Man's wisdom increases as this union becomes more close 37 Happiness increases in a like ratio 40 The closer this union, the more clearly a man perceives tliat he is the Lord's, yet the more he seems to be his own 42 III. THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN ALL ITS AC- TIVITY REGARDS THE INFINITE AND ETER- NAL 45 The Infinite is not in time or space 46 What the Infinite and Eternal regards in the finite , 48 What Divine Providence especially regards . . .49 via CONTENTS. PAGE An image of the Infinite and Eternal displayed in tlie angelic heaven 53 The inmost of Divine Providence 55 IV. THERE ARE LAWS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE UNKNOWN TO MAN 58 V. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN ACT FROM FREEDOM ACCORDING TO REASON 60 The two essentially human faculties . . . .61 Whatever man does from freedom appears to him as his own 63 "Whatever he does from freedom, is appropriated to him and remains 65 Without these two faculties reformation and regeneration were impossible 68 How far man, by means of these faculties, can be regen- erated 69 How the Lord's union with man is effected . . .73 The Lord continually guards these faculties in man as sacred 77 It is of Providence, therefore, that man should act from freedom according to reason 80 VI. THE LAW ACCORDING TO WHICH THE LORD REMOVES EVILS FR031 THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL MAN 82 Every man has an internal and external of thought . 84 The external is of the same character as the internal . 86 The internal cannot be cleansed while evils remain in the external man 90 The Lord cannot remove evils in the external, without man's co-operation 92 Man ought, therefore, as of himself to remove evils from liis external man 94 It is the constant effort of Divine Providence to unite man to Himself 96 COiVTEXTS. ix PAGE VII. IT ISA LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MANS THOUGHT AND WILL IN MATTERS OF RELIGION, SHOULD NOT BE COMPELLED BY EXTERNAL MEANS 102 No one is reformed by miracles or signs . . . 103 No one is reformed by visions or conversations with the departed 106 No one is reformed by threats or punishments . . 108 No one is reformed in states that are not of rationality and liberty 113 Self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and lib- erty 119 The external man must be reformed through the internal. 122 VIII. IT IS A LAW OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN BE LED AND TAUGHT BY THE LORD THROUGH THE WORD . . . .126 Man is led and taught by the Lord through and from the angelic heaven 130 He is led of the Lord by influx and taught by enlighten- ment 133 He is taught by the Lord tlirough the Word and doctrine derived from it 138 He is led and taught by the Lord to all appearance as of himself 141 IX. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHOULD HA VE NO SENSE OF ITS OPER- ATION 143 Why man is insensible to the operation of Divine Provi- dence; and why foreknowledge is denied liim . . 144 If man clearly saw the Divine Providence, he would in- terfere witli and prevent its orderly course . . . 147 If he clearly saw it, he would either deny God, or make himself God 150 Man is permitted to see the back but not tlie face of Providence 154 X CONTENTS. PAOE X. MAN'S OWN PRUDENCE IS NOTHTNG ; BUT THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE, SINCE IT IS IN THE LEAST PARTICULARS, IS UNIVERSAL . 156 All of man's thoughts are from the affections of his life's love 157 These affections are known only to the Lord . . . 159 Providential arrangement of the affections of our race into the human form 161 Heaven and hell in this form ; and who constitute the one, and who the other 1C5 The secret workings of Providence 167 XI. DIVINE PROVIDENCE REGARDS THINGS ETERNAL, AND THINGS TEMPORAL ONLY SO FAR AS THEY HARMONIZE WITH THESE . 170 The love of dignities and riches for their own sake ; also for the sake of use 172 Eternal things relate to spiritual honors and wealth, which belong to heaven 176 Temporal and eternal things are separated by man, but united by the Lord ISl This union in man is the Lord's Providence . . . 183 XII. HOW FAR MAN IS ADMITTED INTERIORLY INTO THE TRUTH OF FAITH AND THE GOOD OF CHARITY 189 Man may be admitted into the knowledge and love of spiritual things, without being reformed . . . 189 If afterwards he recedes from and opposes them, he pro- fanes what is holy. 192 Several kinds of profanation, but this is the worst of all 198 Therefore the Lord does not admit man into truth and good further than he can be kept permanently . . 206 CONTENTS. xi PAGE XIII. LA WS OF PERMISSION ARE ALSO LA WS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE 213 Permission of Adam's and Eve's temptation and fall . 214 Permission of the murder of Abel by Cain . . . 215 ^ Permission of the worship of a golden calf in the wil- derness 216 Permission of the establishment of idolatrous worship by Solomon 217 Permission of the profanation of the temple by kings who succeeded him . . 218 Permission of the crucifixion of the Saviour . . . 219 How self- and nature-worshipers confirm themselves against Divine Providence : — 219 When they see that deception often succeeds, and injus- tice triumphs 220 When they see the wicked exalted to honors, and the worshipers of God in contempt and poverty . . 221 When they see that wars are permitted, and so many people slaughtered and plundered .... 224 When they reflect that victory is on the side of prudence, and sometimes not on that of justice .... 227 The natural man confirms himself against it, when he looks at the religious condition of various nations, as of some who worship the sun and moon, also graven images 229 When he sees how extensively the Mohammedan religion prevails 232 When he sees that the Christian religion is accepted by so few comparatively 235 When he sees that some in Christendom claim Divine power, and wish to be worshiped .... 237 When he sees that some Christians place salvation in the repetition of certain formulas, and not in doing good . 240 When he sees how many and great heresies there have been and are in Christendom ... . 243 xii CONTENTS. PAGE When he sees that Judaism still continues . . . 245 A doubt maybe inferred against Divine Providence: — From the fiict that all Christendom worships one God under three Persons ....... 247 From the fact that men have not hitherto known that there is a spiritual sense in all parts of the Word . 249 From the fact that men have not hitherto known that to sliun evils as sins is the Christian religion itself . . 252 From the fact tliat, hitherto it has not been known that men live as men after death ... . . 253 XIV. EVILS ARE PEmilTTED FOR THE SAKE OF THE END, WHICH IS SALVATION . . .256 Hereditary evil ; — which man must be led out of, when he is reformed 257 Evils cannot be removed unless they appear , . . 259 So far as evils are removed, they are forgiven . . . 264 Evil permitted on account of the end, which is salva- tion • . 270 XV. DIVINE PROVIDENCE EXISTS ALIKE WITH THE WICKED AND THE GOOD . . . .273 Divine Providence is universal in the most minute par- ticulars 273 The wicked continually lead themselves into evils, but the Lord is continually leading them out . . . 277 But they cannot be wholly led out of evil, and into good, while they believe their own intelligence is every thing, and Divine Providence nothing .... 285 The wicked in the world are internally associated with evil spirits; yet the Lord governs them as to their in- teriors 288 CONTENTS. xiii PAGE XVI. DIVINE PROVIDENCE APPROPRIATES NEI- THER EVIL NOR GOOD TO ANY ONE; BUT MAN'S OWN PRUDENCE APPROPRIATES BOTH 289 What self-derived prudence is, and prudence not self- derived 290 "What a man, bj self-derived prudence, persuades himself of, and confirms himself in . . . . . . 293 Everything in which a man becomes confirmed, remains as his own 295 Importance of believing that everything good and true is from the Lord, and everything evU and false, from heU 302 XVII. EVERY 3IAN MAY BE REFORMED, AND THERE IS NO PREDESTINATION TO HELL . 307 The end of creation is a heaven from the human race . 309 Divine Providence wills the salvation of all ; and they are saved who acknowledge God and live well . . 314 Man himself is to blame if he is not saved . . . 820 All are, therefore, predestined to heaven, and none to Jiell 325 XVIII. THE LORD CANNOT ACT CONTRARY TO THE LAWS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, FOR THIS WOULD BE ACTING CONTRARY TO HIMSELF 332 Ceaseless operation of Divine Providence to save man, from the cradle to the grave 333 This operation is carried on unremittingly, from pure mercy 336 Instantaneous salvation from immediate mercy, is not possible 339 The belief in such salvation is the fiery flying serpent in the church 346 2 AND ITS LAWS. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS THE GOVERNMENT OF DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. M&S«j|^jjE government of the Lord's Divine Love J;^ and Wisdom is what is called the Divine tg il Providence. — The Lord from eternity, who is ^^^^WP Jehovah, is in his essence Divine Love and Wisdom ; and He created the entire universe from Himself. From this it follows that the universe in all its particulars was created from the Divine Love by the Divine Wisdom. Love can do nothing without wisdom, neither can wisdom do anything without love ; for love without wisdom, or the will without the understanding, cannot think, see, feel, or say anything, and therefore cannot do anything ; and in like manner wisdom without love, or the understanding without the will ; for if love be takeu away, there is no longer any volition, nor there- 15 16 THE SWEDEXnORG LTBRAnY. fore any action. And since there is such a union in man in everything he does, how much more did it exist in God, who is absolute Love and Wisdom, when He created the universe and all things therein. That the whole universe was created from the Divine Love by the Divine "Wisdom, may be proved by every visible object in the world. Select any object of a spe- cies, examine it with some degree of wisdom, and you will be convinced. Take a tree, or seed, its fruit, flower, or leaf ; exercise your wisdom, and examine it ■with a good microscope, and you will discover won- derful things in it, while its interior parts which you do not see are still more wonderful. Observe the order in the growth of a tree from seed to seed again, and consider whether there is not in every successive stage a continual effort to propagate itself further ; for the last thing to which it tends is seed, wherein its prolific principle exists anew. If you then reflect upon it spiritually also, which you can do if you choose, will you not see wisdom mani- fested in it? Nay, more; if you will reflect upon it spiritually to a sufficient degree, you will see that this prolific principle is not from the seed, nor fi"om the sun of this world, which is pure fire, but that it exists in the seed from God the Creator, whose wisdom is infi- nite, and is in it not only when created, but also contin- ually afterwards (for preservation is perpetual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence) ; just as, if you take will from action, action ceases ; or take thought DIVINE WISDOM MANIFEST. 17 from speech, speech ceases. — Every created thing, indeed, is endowed with a power that acts not from itself, but from that which imparted it. Look also at some other object on earth, a silkworm, a bee, or other insect, and examine it first naturally, then rationally, and at last spiritually; and then, if you are capable of profound thought, you will be astonished at all your discoveries. And if you allow wisdom a voice in you, you will say in astonishment. Who does not see the Divine iu these things ? They are all the work of the Divine Wisdom. Still more will you wonder, if you consider the uses of all created things, their orderly ascent to man, and from man to their origin in the Creator. — Love does nothing except iu union with wisdom. Spiritual heat and light in pro- ceeding from the Lord as a sun make one, as Divine Love and Wisdom in the Lord are one. But as it is not known how two distinct things can act as one, I here desire to show that unity is impossible without form, but that form itself causes unity, and makes it the more perfect in proportion as the constituents of the form are distinct and different, and yet united. Unity is impossible without form, hut form itself causes unity. Whoever thinks carefully can see that unity does not exist without form, and if it does exist, that it is form ; for whatever exists derives from form that which is called quality, that which may be predicated of it, change of state, its relation to other things, and so on. And therefore that which has no form is iuca- 2* B 18 THE SWEDENBORG LIBIiARY. pable of any state, and that which is incapable of state is incapable of anything whatever. Form itself im- parts all these ; and as all things in a form are recipro- cally related as link to link in a chain if the form is perfect, it follows that form itself constitutes the unity, and thus the subject of which quality, state, condition, and so on, may be predicated according to the perfec- tion of the form. Such a unit is everything seen in the world, and also everything unseen, whether in inte- rior nature or in the spiritual world. Such a unit is man, human society, the church, the whole angelic heaven before the Lord, and iu short, the created uni- verse, not only in the whole but also in every partic- ular. That all things may be forms. He who created tliem must be Form itself; and they must have their forms from this Form. Form makes the unity more perfect in proportion as the constituents of thefonn are distinct and different, and yet united. This can hardly be comprehended unless the understanding is elevated, since the appearance is, that form can produce unity only by the similarity and equality of the constituents of the form. On this subject I have often conversed with angels, who called it an arcanum clearly understood by the wise among them, and but little comprehended by the less wise. Yet they said it was a truth, that form is more perfect iu proportion as the things that make it are distinct and different, and yet united in a particular manner. This they confirmed by the societies of heaven, which TUE DIVINE IN EVERYTHING. 19 taken together constitute its form ; and by the angels of every society, whose form is more perfect in propor- tion as each angel is more distinctly his own, and there- fore free, and loves his fellow-angels as from himself and his own afiection. They illustrated it also by the marriage of the good and true, which can the more perfectly make one in proportion as they are the more distinctly two. It is the same with love and wisdom ; the indistinct is confused, and is the origin of every imperfection of form. But how things perfectly dis- tinct are united and so make one, they also confirmed by many things ; chiefly by the human frame, wherein innumei-able things are so distinct by their coverings, and yet united by their ligaments. — The Divine is in every created thing, because God the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, produced from Himself the Sun of the spiritual world, and by means of that Sun the whole universe ; consequently that Sun which is from the Lord, and in which He is, is not merely the first but the only substance, from which all things are; and inasmuch as it is the only substance, it follows that it is in every created thing, but with infinite variety according to uses. Now because there are Divine Love and Wisdom in the Lord, and Divine fire and brightness in the sun from Him, and spiritual heat and light from that sun, and these two make one, it follows that this unity exists in a certain image in every created thing. Hence all things in the universe relate to the good and true and 20 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. tlieir union ; or what is the same, to love and wisdom and their union — for love calls all that pertains to it good, and wisdom calls all that pertains to it true. Their union exists in every created thing. — The simpler and purer anything is, the more full and complete it is. This is why the more interiorly any object is examined, the more wonderful, perfect and beautiful are the things seen in it ; and why the most wonderful, perfect and beautiful of all are in the first substance. This is because the first substance is from the spiritual Sun, which, as was said, is from the Lord, and in which He is ; and so that Sun itself is that only substance which, as it is not in space, is all in all, and in the greatest and least things in the created universe. — It is the purpose of Divine Providence, that in every created thing there shall be something from the Divine Love, together with something from the Divine Wis- dom ; or, what is the same, that in every created thing tliere shall be good and truth, or the union of the good and the true. — These three things must be premised: First: In the universe and in all parts of it, which were created by the Lord, there was a marriage of the good and the true. Second : This marriage was severed in man after creation. Third: It is the purpose of Divine Provi- dence, that what was severed shall be united, and that the marriage of the good and the true shall thus be restored. Any one may rationally see that, as there was a marriage of the good and true from creation in TA'/O.V OF THE GOOD AXD TRUE. 21 every created thing, and as it was afterwards severed, the Lord must continually endeavor to restore it ; and consequently that this restoration, and by it the union of the created universe with the Lord through man, is the purpose of the Divine Providence. The good of love is not good except so far as it is united to the truth of imdom; and the truth of ivisdom is not truth except so far as it is united to the good of love. The good and true derive this from their origin ; the good in its origin being in the Lord, and likewise the true ; because He is the absolutely good and true, and these two in Him are one. Hence the good in angels in heaven and men on earth, is not good in itself except so far as it is united to the true ; and the true is not true in itself except so far as it is united to the good. Everything good and true is known to be from the Lord. Hence, as the good makes one with the true and the true with the good, it follows that the good to be good in itself, and the true to be true in itself, must make one in the recipient ; that is, in an angel in heaven and a man on earth. It is indeed known that all things in the universe relate to the good and the true, because by the good is understood that which universally embraces and in- volves all that belongs to love, and by the true that which universally embraces and involves all that be- longs to wisdom. But it is not yet known that the good is nothing unless united to the true, nor the true anything unless united to the good. — Being is nothing 22 THE SWEDENDORG LIBRARY. without Existence, and Existence nothing without Being ; so the good without the true, and the true without the good, are nothing. Consider, in like manner, what the good is without relation to some subject. Can it be called good, not being an object either of affection or perception ? But this subject, together with the good which is oiJerative, making itself perceived and felt, relates to the true, because to what is in the understanding. Speak to any one merely of the good, without specifying whether this or that is good, and is the good anything? But by means of this or that, which is perceived as one with the good, it is something. This is united to the good only in the understanding, and the whole under- standing relates to the true. It is the same with voli- tion, which, without the knowledge, perception and thought of what a man wills, is nothing; but with these it becomes something. All volition belongs to love and relates to the good ; and all knowledge, per- ception and thought belong to the understanding and relate to the true. Obviously, therefore, mere volition is nothing ; but volition with reference to this or that is something. It is the same with all use, because use is the good. Unless determined to something with which it may be one, it is not use, and thus it is nothing. It derives from the understanding its existence as something ; and that which is united with or added to it from the un- derstanding relates to the true, and from it the ' use LOVE IS MA.fS IX MOST LIFE. 23 derives its quality. From these brief statements it is evident that the good without the true is nothing, and the true without the good is nothing. Love is the life of man ; but not love separated from wisdom, or the good separated from the true, in the cause : since love or the good when separated is nothing. Therefore the love that is man's inmost life, which is from the Lord, is love and wisdom together : even the love that is man's life so far as he is a recipient, is not a love separated in the cause but in the efiect ; for love cannot be understood apart from its quality, and its quality is wisdom. This quality or wisdom cannot exist except from its own being, which is love ; therefore they are one. It is the same with the good and the true. Now because the true is from the good, as wisdom is from love, therefore both taken together are called love or the good ; for love in its form is wisdom, and the good in its form is the true ; and from form and from no other source is all quality. It is therefore evident that the good is in no degree good except so far as it is united to its own truth ; and the true is in no degree true except so far as it is united to its own good. — The truth is, there is no good that is good in itself, unless united to its own truth ; nor any truth essentially true, unless united to its own good. Nevertheless there is a good separate from truth and a truth separate from good. These prevail in hypocrites and flatterers, in the wicked of whatever class, and in those who are in 24 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. natural and not in spiritual good. Both these classes can do good to the church, their country, society, their fellow-citizens, the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan ; and can also understand truth, from under- standing think it, and from thought speak and teach it ; but still such good and truth are not interior, that is, not real good and truth, but are exterior, that is, only apparent ; for they are only from worldly and selfish motives, and not for the sake of good itself and truth it- self, and therefore are not derived from good and truth, being only of the mouth and body, and not of the heart. They may be likened to gold and silver covering dross or rotten wood. — The chief end and effort of the Lord's Divine Provi- dence is, that man may be in the good and the true at the same time, as he is thus his own good or love, and his own truth or wisdom ; for by this man is man, since he is then the Lord's image. But because while living in the world he may be in the good and in the false at the same time, and also in the evil and in the true at the same time, nay, even in the evil and at the same time in the good, and thus, as it were, a double man, and because this division destroys that image and so destroys the man, therefore the Lord's Divine Provi- dence in all its operations seeks to prevent this division. Moreover, because it is better for man to be in the evil and at the same time in the false than to be in the good and in the evil at the same time, therefore the Lord permits it, not as if it were his will, but as being unable THE DIVIXE INABILITY. 25 to prevent it consistently with the end which is salva- tion. This possibility of man's being in the evil and in the true at the same time, and this Divine inability to pre- vent it consistently with the end — salvation — are owing to man's ability to elevate his understanding to the light of wisdom, and to see truths or acknowledge them when he hears them, while his love remains below ; for he can thus be in heaven as to his understanding, but in hell as to his love ; and to be so cannot be denied him, because he cannot be deprived of these two facul- ties, rationality and liberty, whereby he is man and is distinguished from the beasts, and by which alone he can be regenerated and saved. For by these he can act according to wisdom, and also according to a love not of wisdom ; and from the wisdom above can see the love below, and thus see his thoughts, intentions and affec- tions, and whatever is evil and false or good and true in his life and doctrine, without a knowledge and acknowl- edgment of which in himself he cannot be reformed. — In this world man can hardly enter into the one or the other union, — that is, of the good and true, or of the evil and false ; for so long as he lives here he is kept in a state of reformation or regeneration. But every man enters into one or the other after death, because then he can no longer be reformed or regener- ated, remaining then such as his life — that is, his ruling love — has been in the world. If his life, there- fore, has been a life of the love of evil, he is deprived 3 26 THE S WED EX B OR G L IliRA It Y. of all the truth he has acquired in the world from teachers, preaching or the Word ; and then he imbibes, as a sponge soaks up water, the falsity agreeing with his evil and the evil agreeing with his falsity. But if it has been a life of the love of good, there is a re- moval of all that is false which he has acquired in the world by hearing or reading, and which he has not confirmed in himself, and in its place is imparted the truth agreeing with his good. This is meant by these words of the Lord : " Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents ; for unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance ; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath." Matt. XXV. 28, 29 ; xiii. 12 ; Mark iv. 25 ; Luke viii. 18. Every one after death must be either in the good and true at the same time, or in the evil and false ; because the good and the evil cannot be united, nor the good and at the same time the false of evil, nor the evil and at the same time the truth of good ; for they are oppo- sites, and opposites combat each other until one destroys the other. What is evil and at the same time false, is nothing — that is, it has no power and no spiritual life. Those who are in the evil and false at the same time, — who are all in hell, — have power among themselves, indeed ; for a wicked man can do evil and does evil in a thousand ways, but can do it only to the wicked from a principle of wickedness, and can by no means injure the good. SPIIifTUAL EAGLES. 27 except, as sometimes happens, by union with their evil. This is the source of temptations, which are infestations from the evils in men and consequent conflicts, by which the good may be freed from their evils. Since the wicked have no power, the universal hell in the Lord's sight is not only as nothing, but absolutely is nothing as to power — as I have seen proved by abundant expe- rience. But it is wonderful that all the wicked suppose them- selves powerful, and all the good suppose themselves powerless. This is because the wicked attribute nothing to the Lord, but all things to their own power, — that is, to cunning and wickedness ; while the good attribute nothing to their own prudence, but all things to the Lord who is omnipotent. Furthermore the evil and false together are nothing, because they have no spir- itual life. This is why the life of the infernals is not called life but death. Those who are in the evil and at the same time in the true, may be compared to eagles that soar aloft, but drop when deprived of their wings ; for so do men after death, when they have become spirits, if they have understood truths, uttered and taught them, and yet had no regard for God in their lives. They elevate themselves by intellectual means, and sometimes enter heaven and feign themselves angels of light ; but when deprived of truths and sent forth they sink into hell. Eagles moreover signify rapacious men, who possess intellectual sight; and wings signify spiritual truths. 28 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. It is said that they are such who have had no regard to God in their lives ; to have regard to God in one's life, means to regard this or that evil as a sin against God, and therefore not to do it. From what has been said, it is evident that the Lord's Divine Providence continually endeavors to unite the true to the good and the good to the true in man, because that union is the church and heaven. For that union is in the Lord and in all that proceeds from Him ; and it is from that union that heaven and the church are called a marriage, and therefore in the Word the kingdom of God is likened to a marriage. It is from that union also that in the worship of the Israelitish church the Sabbath was most holy ; for it signified that union. Moreover it is from that union that in the Word and in every particular of it there is a marriage of the good and the true. The marriage of the good and true is from the Lord's marriage with the church, and this again from the marriage of love and wisdom in the Lord ; for the good is of love, and the true of wisdom. Hence it may be seen that the con- stant purpose of the Divine Providence is to unite the good to the true and tlie true to the good in man ; for thus man is united to the Lord. (D. P., n. 1-21.) II. THE END OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS A HEAVEN FROM THE HVjVAN RACE. Y long-continued intercourse with angels and spirits, it has been made known and proved J to me that heaven does not consist of any \;ji«7i^ angels created such from the beginning ; and that hell is not from any devil created an angel of light and cast out of heaven ; but that both are from the human race, — heaven from those who are in the love of the good and the consequent understanding of the true, and hell from those who are in the love of evil, and the consequent understanding of the false. — Now as heaven is from the human race, and is an eternal abode with the Lord, it must have been the Lord's end in creation, and therefore the end of the Divine Providence itself. The Lord did not create the universe for the sake of Himself, but for those with whom He is to dwell in heaven ; for spiritual love is of such a nature that it wishes to impart its own to another, and so far as it can do this, it is in its esse, its peace and its beatitude. This nature it derives from the Lord's Divine Love, which is such infinitely. Hence the end of the Divine Love, and consequently of the Divine Providence, is a heaven which shall con- s'* 29 30 THE SWEDEXBORG LIBRARY. sist of men who have become and are becoming angels, to whom the Lord can impart all the happiness of love and wisdom ; and this, moreover, from Himself resident within them. Nor can it be otherwise, since his image and likeness is in them from creation, — his image in them being wisdom, and his likeness love ; and Himself in them being love united to wisdom, and wisdom to love, or what is the same, the good united to the true and the true to the good. But as it is not known what heaven is in general, and what it is in particular, and what it is in the spiritual and in the natural worlds ; and yet it is important to know this, because it is the end of the Divine Providence, I will present the subject in the fol- lowing order : — I. — Heaven is union ivith the Lord. Heaven is not heaven from the angels, but from the Lord; for the love and wisdom in which the angels are, and which constitute heaven, are not from them, but from the Lord, and are indeed the Lord in them. And since love and wisdom are the Lord's and are the Lord in the angels, and since these constitute their life, it is obvious that their life is the Lord's, nay, even is the Lord. The angels themselves confess that they live from the Lord ; and from this it is evident that heaven is union with the Lord. But as there are various degrees of union with Him, and therefore no one's heaven is the same as another's, it follows that heaven is according to union with the Lord. In the following article it will be seen that the union is moi'e and more close, or more UNION WITH THE LORD. 31 and more remote. We shall here speak briefly of the nature of this union and how it is effected. It is a union of the Lord with the angels, and of the angels with the Lord, thus a reciprocal union. The Lord flows into the life's love of the angels, and the angels receive Him in wisdom, and by it in turn unite themselves to Him. But it must be well understood that it seems to the angels as if they by wisdom united themselves to the Lord, but yet He unites them to Himself by wisdom ; for their wisdom is also from Him. It is the same, if it is said that the Lord unites Himself to the angels by the good, and that the angels in turn unite themselves to the Lord by the true ; for all the good is from love and all the true is from wisdom. But as this reciprocal union is an arcanum which few can understand without explanation, I desire to unfold it as far as possible by such illustrations as may be com- prehended. Love unites itself to wisdom by the love of knowing, from which comes the love of truth, and by the love of understanding, from which comes the perception of truth, and by the love of seeing what is known and understood, from which comes thought. The Lord flows into all these afiections, for they are derivations from the life's love of every one, and the angels receive that influx in the perception of truth and in thought ; for the influx seems to them to be into these latter, but not into the affections. Now as perceptions and thoughts seem to the angels as their own, when nevertheless they 32 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. are from the affections which are from the Lord, tliere- fore the appearance is that the angels unite themselves reciprocally to the Lord, notwithstanding that He unites them to Himself ; since affection itself produces perceptions and thoughts, for affection which is a deriv- ative of love, is the soul of them ; for without affection no one has any perception or thought, and every one's perception and thought is according to his affection. Hence it is obvious that the reciprocal union of the angels with the Lord is not from them, but only seems to be from them. Such also is the Lord's union with the church and its union with Him, which is called the celestial and spiritual marriage. When any one in the spiritual world thinks of another from a desire to speak with him, the other is present immediately, and they see one another face to face. It is the same when one thinks of another from love ; by this union is effected, but by the former only presence. This is peculiar to that world, because all there are spiritual, it being otherwise in the natural world in which all are material. In the natural world it is the same with men in the affections and thoughts of their spirits; but as there is space in the natural world, and only an appearance of space in the spiritual world, therefore whatever takes place in the thought of any one's spirit in the spiritual world, takes place actually. This is stated in order to show how the Lord's union with the angels is effected, as well as the angels' ajjpar- ently reciprocal union with Him. For all the angels THIS UNION MAKES HE A VEN. 33 turn their faces to the Lord, — yet not of themselves, but He turns thera to Himself by influx into their life's love, entering by it into their perceptions and thoughts, and so turning thera towards Himself There exists such a movement of love to thought, and by love from thought to love again, in all the operations of the human mind, and it may be called the circle of life. — The Lord's heaven in the natural world is called the church ; and an angel of this heaven is a man of the church who is united to the Lord, and who also be- comes an angel of the spiritual heaven after his de- parture from the world. Obviously, therefore, what has been said of the angelic heaven, must be understood of the human heaven, which is called the church. That reciprocal union with the Lord which makes heaven in man, was revealed by the Lord in these words : "Abide in me and I in you. . . He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for with- out me ye can do nothing." John xv. 4, 5. From this it may be seen that the Lord is heaven not only in all who are there in general, but also in every one in particular. For each angel is a heaven in miniature ; and heaven in general consists of as many heavens as there are angels. Since this is so, let no one cherish the error that enters into the first thought of many, that the Lord is in heaven among the angels, or that He is with them as a king in his kingdom. In appearance He is in their Sun above them ; but as to the life of their love and wisdom, He is within thera. C 34 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. II. — Man is so created that he may be more and more closely united to the Lord. This is evident from what is shown of degrees in the treatise on the Divine Love and Wisdom, Part III. — But the nature of degrees should be well understood, as being of two kinds (dis- crete degrees or degrees of altitude, and continuous de- grees or degrees of latitude), and the difference between them. It should also be understood, that every man by creation, and therefore from birth, has within him these three discrete degrees ; and that when he is born he enters the first degree, which is called the natural, and which he may enlarge in himself by continuity until he becomes rational ; and that he enters the second de- gree which is called the spiritual, if he lives according to the spiritual laws of order, which are Divine truths ; and that he may enter the third degree which is called the celestial, if he lives according to the celestial laws of order, which are forms of the Divine goodness. These degrees are actually opened by the Lord within man according to his life in the world, but not perceptibly or sensibly until after his departure from the world ; and as they are opened, aud at length per- fected, man is more and more closely united to the Lord. This union by approximation may grow more close to eternity, and, indeed, is so strengthened in the angels ; but still an angel cannot attain to or touch the first degree of the Lord's love and wisdom, because the Lord is infinite and angels arc fiuite, and between the infinite aud the finite there is no ratio. — HOW THIS UXIOX IS EFFECTED. 35 "We will briefly explain the mode of man's closer union with the Lord, and wherefore the union appears to be closer and closer. Man is more and more closely united to the Lord, not by knowledge, nor by intelli- gence, nor even by wisdom, alone, but by a life united to them. Man's life is his love ; and love is manifold. In general, there is the love of evil and the love of good. The love of evil is the love of adultery, revenge, fraud, blasphemy, and of depriving others of their property ; and it takes pleasure and delight in think- ing of these things, and in doing them. The deriva- tions of this love which are affections, are as numerous as the evils to which it tends ; and its perceptions and thoughts are as numerous as the falsities which favor and confirm those evils. These falsities make one with the evils, as the understanding makes one with the will. They are not separated from each othei-, because they belong to each other. Now as the Lord flows into the life's love of every one, and through its aSections into his perceptions and thoughts, and not the reverse, it follows that He can unite Himself closely to man, only in proportion as the love of evil with its afl^ections which are lusts, is re- moved. And as these lusts reside in the natural man, and man feels as if he did from himself whatever he does from the natural man, therefore man ought as of himself to remove the evils of that love ; and so far as he does this, the Lord draws nearer and unites Him- self to man. 36 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. Any one may see from reason that lusts with their delights obstruct and close the doors against the Lord, and cannot be cast out by Him, so long as man himself keeps the doors closed, and presses against them from without to prevent their being opened. That man himself ought to open them, is obvious from the Lord's words in Rev. iii. 20 : " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me." It is therefore clear, that so far as any one shuna evils as diabolical, and as obstacles to the Lord's en- trance, he is more and more closely united to the Lord ; and he the most closely, who abhors these evils as so many dark and burning devils. For evil and the devil are one, and the falsity of evil and satan are one. For as the Lord's influx is into the love of the good and into its affections, and through these into the perceptions and thoughts which all derive their exist- ence as truths from the good in which man is; so is the devil's influx, or that of hell, into the love of evil and its affections which are lusts, and through these into the perceptions and thoughts which all derive their inherent falseness from the evil in which man is. Why that union seems to be more and more close. The further the evils in the natural man are removed by his shunning them and becoming averse to them, so much tlie more closely is man united to the Lord. And as love and wisdom which are the Lord Himself, are not LOVE AND WISDOM NOT IN SPACE. 37 in space, therefore affection and thought which are derivatives of love and wisdom, have nothing in com- mon with space ; and therefore, according to the union effected by love and wisdom, the Lord seems nearer ; and on the other hand, more remote according to the rejection of love and wisdom. There is no space in the spiritual world, but distance and presence there are according to the similarities and dissimilarities of affection ; for, as before stated, affec- tions and thoughts, which are derivatives of love and wisdom, and are in themselves spiritual, are not in space. The Lord's union with the man in whom evils are removed, is meant by these words : " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ; " Matt. v. 8 ; and by these: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, . . we will come unto him and make our abode with him." John xiv. 21, 23. To have his commandments is to know them, and to keep them is to love them ; for it is also said there : " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that ioveth me." III. — The more closely man is united to the Lord the wiser he becomes. Since there are three degrees of life in man by creation, and therefore from birth, there are especially three degrees of wisdom in him. These are the degrees which are opened in man according to his union [with the Lord]. They are opened according to love, for love is union itself. But of the ascent of love 4 38 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. iu degrees, man lias only an obscure perception, while the ascent of wisdom is clearly perceived by those who know and see the nature of wisdom. — There are three degrees of wisdom, natural, spiritual, and celestial. Man is iu the natural degree while he lives in the world. This degree in him may then be exalted to its perfection, and yet he cannot enter the spiritual degree, because this does not progress into the natural by coutiuuity, but is united to it by corre- spondences. After death, he is in the spiritual degree of wisdom, which is also of such a nature that it may be exalted to its perfection ; but yet he cannot enter the celestial degree, because this degree does not progress into the spiritual by continuity, but is united to it by correspondences. From this it will appear that wisdom may be exalted in a triplicate ratio, and that in each degree it may be exalted iu a simple ratio to its perfec- tion. Any cue understanding the ascent and perfection of these degrees may in some measure apprehend why angelic wisdom is said to be ineffable ; and, moreover, it is so ineffable, that a thousand ideas involved in the thought of the angels from their wisdom, can exhibit but one idea in the thought of men from theirs, — nine hun- dred and ninety-nine ideas of the angelic thought being unable to find entrance, because they are supernatural. The truth of this has been often made known to me by living experience. But no one can attain to that inef- fable wisdom of the angels, unless by union with the Lord, and according to it. For He alone opens the WHAT TRUE WISDOM IS. 39 spiritual and celestial degrees, and only with those who are wise from Him. — But let no one suppose a man to be in possession of wisdom because he knows much, has rather a clear per- ception of it, and can talk intelligently about it, unless his knowledge is united to love. For love by its affec- tions produces wisdom ; and if this is not united to love, it is like a vanishing meteor or a falling star. But wis- dom united to love is like the constant light of the sun, or like a fixed star. — Wisdom, as perceptibly manifest, is the perception of truth from an affection for it, — especially the perception of spiritual truth ; for there is civil, moral and spiritual truth. They who are in the perception of spiritual truth from an affection for it, are also in the perception of moral and civil truth ; for the affection for spiritual truth is the soul of these. I have sometimes talked of wisdom with the angels, and they said it was union with the Lord, because He is Wisdom itself; and that he who rejected hell from himself, attained to that union, and attained to it just so far as he rejected hell. They said that they represented wisdom to themselves as a magnificent and superbly decorated palace, the ascent to which is by twelve steps ; and that no man reached the first step unless from the Lord and by union .with Him ; and that every one ascended according to that union, and, as he ascended, he perceived that no one was wise from himself, but from the Lord. They said, furthermore, that the things respecting which man was 40 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. wise, compared with those in which he had no wisdom, were like a few drops to a great lake. The twelve steps to the palace of wisdom signify the good united to the true, and the true to the good, in all their varieties. IV. — The more closely man is united to the Lord, the happier he becomes. All that has been said of the degrees of life and wisdom according to union with the Lord, may also be said of degrees of happiness. For happiness ascends as the higher degrees of the mind called the spiritual and celestial, are opened in man ; and after his life in the world these degrees enlarge to eternity. No man who takes delight in the lusts of evil, can know any thing of the delight there is in affections for the good which exist in the angelic heaven. For these delights are totally opposed to each other in internals, and are consequently interiorly opposed in externals, even when they differ but little on the mere surface. For every love has its own delights, even the love of evil in those who are given to lusts, — as the love of adultery, revenge, fraud, theft, cruelty, and even the love, prevalent with the most wicked, of blaspheming the sacred things of the church, and of contemptuous utterances against God. The love of rule from self- love is the fountain-head of these delights, which origi- nate in the lusts that possess the interiors of the mind, and from this flow into the body, there exciting the un- clean things which titillate the fibres. And thus from the mind's delight in lust arises that of the body. — HEAVENLY AND INFERNAL DELIGHTS. 41 The understanding merely sees, and sees what be- longs to wisdom or the true, not what belongs to love or the good. Heavenly felicities are therefore inde- scribable ; but yet they ascend step by step with wisdom. Their varieties are infinite, and every one ineffable. This I have heard, and have had a perception of it. But the felicities enter as man removes the lusts arising from the love of evil and falsity, as if of himself, but in reality from the Lord ; for these felicities are the feli- cities of affections for the good and true, which are op- posed to the lusts arising from the love of the evil and false. The felicity of affections for the good and true begins in the Lord, thus in the inmost, and from this diffuses itself throughout inferior things even to ulti- mates, and so fills the angel, making him like an em- bodiment of mere delight. Such felicities with infinite variety, reside in every affection for the good and true, most of all in affection for wisdom. The delights of the lusts of evil can only be com- pared to the lasciviousuess of frogs in ponds, and of ser- pents in slimy places ; while the delights of affections for the good may be compared to mental delights in gardens and flowers. For things similar to those which are pleasing to frogs and serpents, are also pleasing to those in the hells which are in the lusts of evil ; and things similar to those which are pleasing to the mind in gai-deus and flowers, are also pleasing to those in the heavens who are in affections for the good. It may appear from this, that the more closely any •I* 42 THE SWEDENDORG LIBRARY. one is united to the Lord, the happier he becomes. But this happiness is rarely manifest in the world, be- cause man is then in the natural state ; and the natural does not communicate with the spiritual by continuity, but by corresjiondences ; and this communication is not felt except by a certain quiet and peace of mind, which is enjoyed especially after conflict with evil. But when man puts off the natural and enters the spiritual state, which he does after his departure from the world, then the happiness above described gradually manifests itself. V. — The more closely man is united to the Lord, the more distinctly he seems to himself to he his own, and the more clearly he recognizes that he is the Lord's. The ap- pearance is, that the more closely any one is united to the Lord, the less he is his own. This appearance pre- vails with all who are wicked, and also with those who from religion believe that they are not subject to the law, and that no one can do good of himself. Neither these nor those can possibly see but that to be denied the indulgence of thought and will in evil, and to be allowed their exercise in the good only, is not to be one's own. And because they who are united to the Lord have neither the desire nor the ability to indulge their thought and will in evil, from the appearance in themselves, the others infer that this is not to be one's own. Yet the exact contrary is the truth. There is an infernal freedom, and a heavenly free- dom. Evil thoughts and desires, and, within the limits HEAVENLY AND INFERNAL FREEDOM. 43 of civil and moral laws, the utterance and exercise of them, are from infernal freedom. But good thoughts and desires, and, so far as opportunity offers, their utter- ance and exercise, are from heavenly freedom. What- ever man thinks, desires, says and does from freedom, he perceives as his own ; for every one's freedom is wholly from his love. Therefore they who are in the love of evil, do not perceive but that infernal freedom is real freedom ; while they who are in the love of good perceive that heavenly freedom is real freedom, conse- quently that the opposite is slavery. Yet no one can deny but that only one of these is freedom ; for there cannot be two kinds of freedom essentially opposed, and each essentially freedom. Nor can it be denied, moreover, that to be led by good is freedom, and to be led by evil is slavery ; for to be led by good is to be led by the Lord, and to be led by evil is to be led by the devil. Now because all that a man does from fi-eedom seems to be his own, because it is his love's, it follows that union with the Lord causes man to seem to himself free, and therefore his own ; and the closer his union with the Lord, the more free he seems, and therefore the more his own. He seems to himself to be more dis- tinctly his own, because it is the nature of divine love to wish its own to be another's, that is, to belong to man and angel. This is the character of all spiritual love, but in the highest degree of divine love. Furthermore, the Lord never compels any one, because any thing to 44 THE SWEDENDORO LIBRARY. which a man is forced does not seem to be his own ; and what does not seem to be his own cannot become his love's, and cannot be appropriated by him as liis own. Therefore man is led by the Lord in freedom perpetually, and is also reformed and regenerated in freedom. That man, the more distinctly he seems to himself to be his own, recognizes the more clearly that he is the Lord's, is because the more closely he is united to the Lord, the wiser he becomes, and wisdom teaches this, and also recognizes it. The angels of the third heaven, who are the wisest of angels, have a perception of tliis condition, and call it real freedom ; while to be led by themselves they call slavery. (D. P., n. 27-44.) m. THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN ALL ITS ACTIVITY REGARDS THE INFINITE AND ETERNAL. S the subject of this work is Divine Provi- dence, and here, that in all its activity it re- gards the infinite and eternal, and as this cannot be set forth distinctly unless in some order, the order shall be as follows : — I. — The infinite in itself and the eternal in itself is the same as the Divine. That the infinite in itself and eternal in itself is the Divine, is according to the an- gelic conception of it ; for by the infinite the angels understand no other than the Divine Being (esse), and by the eternal the Divine Existence (existere). This truth may also be seen by men, and it may not. It may be seen by those who do not think of the infinite from space, nor of the eternal from time ; but not by those who think of the infinite and etex-nal from space and time ; that is, it may be seen by those who think more profoundly from the interior of the rational faculty, and not by those who think more superficially, that is, externally. Those by whom it may be seen, reflect that infinity of space is not possible, nor infinity of time, therefore, as the eternity from which all things were, because the infinite is without beginning and 45 46 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. without end, or without limits. — From reasons which may be seen from the more interior rational faculty, it is plain that there is an infinite in itself and an eternal in itself, and that together they are the Divine, which is the origin of all things. I know that many will say within themselves. How can a man interiorly in his rationality comprehend the ex- istence of a something without space and time? and not only that such a thing exists, but that it is the All, and is the Absolute, from which all things are derived? But think interiorly, whether love or any of its affec- tions, or wisdom or any of its perceptions, or even thought, exists in space and time, and you will find that it does not. And since the Divine is Love itself and Wisdom itself, it follows that it cannot be con- ceived of as existing in space and time ; nor, therefore, can the Infinite. To obtain a clearer perception of this, make it a question whether thought exists in space and time. Suppose tliought to continue for ten or twelve hours : may not this length of time seem but an hour or two? and may it not also seem to be one or two days? Its apparent duration is according to the state of affection from which the thought comes. If the affection is one of gladness, in which time is unnoticed, thought continued for ten or twelve hours seems scarcely to occupy one or two. The reverse is the case if the affection is one of sorrow, in wliich time is noticed. From this it is plain that time is only an appearance according to the state of aflection from which thought OUR SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATES. 47 comes. It is the same with distance in space, either in walking or journeying. As angels and spirits are love's affections and thoughts therefrom, therefore they are not in space and time, but only in the appearance of them. There is to them an appearance of space and time according to the states of the affections and thoughts therefrom.' Therefore when one angel thinks of another from affection, with the intention and desire of seeing or speaking with him, the latter appears actually present. For this reason there are present with every man, spirits Avhose affec- tions are similar to his own — evil spirits with him who has a similar affection for evil, and good spirits with him who has a similar affection for good ; and they are as positively present as if the man were included in [their] society. Space and time contribute nothing towards effecting their presence, because affection and its thought are not in space and time, and spirits and angels are affections and thoughts therefrom. The truth of this I have learned from the living experience of many years ; and also from the fact, that I have conversed with many after their death,— with those of the various kingdoms of Europe, Asia and Africa, and they were all near me. But if to them there had been space and time, a journey and the time of journey- ing would have been between us. — From these statements it will now be obvious that a conception of the infinite and eternal, therefore of the Lord, must be formed apart from space and time ; and 48 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. that a conception of them is possible, and is acquired by those who think from the interior of the rational faculty, and that then the infinite and eternal are the same as the Divine. So do angels and spirits think. By thought abstracted from time and space the Divine Omnipresence and Omnipotence are comprehended, also the Divine from eternity ; but not at all by thought which involves the idea of space and time. From this it is plain that a conception of God [as existing] from eternity is possible, but by no means of nature ; con- sequently a conception of the creation of the universe by God is possible, but by no means of creation from nature; for space and time are properties of nature, but not of the Divine. II. — The Infinite and Eternal in itself cannot hut regard what is infinite from itself in the finite. By the infinite and eternal iu itself is meant the Divine itself, as shown in the preceding proposition; by the finite is meant everything created from the infinite, especially men, spirits and angels ; and by regarding the infinite and eternal from itself is meant to regard the Diviue — that is, to regard Itself in others, as a man views his image in a glass. — He who loves another, regards him from his own love in himself ; and a wise man regards another from his own wisdom in himself. The one may, indeed, see either that the other loves him or loves him not, is wise or not wise ; but he sees this from the love and the wis- dom in himself: therefore he unites himself to the CHIEF REGARD OF rROVIDENCE. 49 other, so far as the other loves him as he loves the other, or so far as the other is wise as he is wise ; for so they make one. It is the same with the Divine in it- self. For the Divine in itself cannot regard itself from another, as from a man, a spirit, or an angel; for in these there is nothing of the originative Divine in itself; and to regard the Divine from another, in whom there is none of the Divine, would be to regard the Divine from the non-Divine, which is impossible. Therefore it is that the Lord is so united to man, spirit and angel, that everything [in them] which relates to the Divine, is not from them, but from the Lord. — From this it now follows, that the infinite and eter- nal, which is the same as the Divine, regards all things infinitely in the finite, and unites itself to them according to the degree of the reception of love and wisdom in them. In a word, the Lord cannot have a dwelling-place in man and angel, nor abide with them, unless in what is His own. — III. — The Divine Providence in all its activity regards the infinite and eternal from itself, especially in the salvation of the human race. The infinite and eternal from itself is the proceeding Divine, or the Lord present in others created from Himself — that is, in men and angels; and this Divine is the same as the Divine Providence. For the Lord, through the Divine proceeding from Himself, provides for the preservation of all things in the order in which and for which they were created. That the Divine Providence in all its activity regards 5 D 50 THE SWEDENBORG LIBliARY. the infinite and eternal from itself, may appear from this, that everything created from the First [Substance], which is infinite and eternal, proceeds to ultimates, and from ultimates back to its origin in the First. And since the First originative substance resides inmostly in all progression, it follows that the proceeding Divine or the Divine Providence in all its activity regards some image of the infinite and eternal. This it does in all things, but in some obviously to perception, and in some not. It presents that image to the evidence of perception in the variety of all things, and in their fructification and multiplication. An image of the in- finite and eternal appears in the variety of all things from tliis, that no one thing exists or can ever exist which is the same as another. This appears to the eye in the faces of men from the first creation ; then again in their dispositions, of which their faces are the types ; and again from their aSections, perceptions and thoughts, for these form their dispositions. For this reason there is not, and never can be, in the universal heaven, two angels or two spirits who are just alike. It is the same with every visible object in both worlds, the natural and the spiritual. This may serve to show tliat variety is infinite and eternal. An image of the infinite and eternal in the Jructificaiion and multiplication of all tilings, is evident from the power inherent in the seeds of the vegetable kingdom, and from prolification in the animal kingdom, especially in the family of fishes ; for if they should fructify and multiply accord- MAN A mi: HE RECEPTACLE. 51 ing to their ability, they would in time fill the world, nay, the universe. — It is the same with men in their affections which are derivatives of love, and in their perceptions which are derivatives of wisdom. Of both the latter and the for- mer the variety is infinite ; so is their fructification and multiplication, which are spiritual. No man enjoys an affection and perception so like those of another as to be the same, nor is this possible to eternity. Moreover, affections may fructify aud perceptions multiply without end. This capacity for infinite and eternal fructifica- tion and multiplication, exists with man in things nat- ural, with spiritual angels in things spiritual, and with celestial angels in things celestial. Such is the nature not only of afiections, perceptions, and knowledge in general, but also of every particular thing in them, even the most minute. But as the finite possesses nothing of that which is in itself Divine, therefore there is not any such thing, not even the least, in man or angel as his own ; for man and angel are finite, mere receptacles, in themselves dead. Their living principle is from the proceeding Divine united to them by contiguity, and appearing to them as their own. The truth of this will be seen in what follows. The Divine Providence regards the infinite and eter- nal from itself especially in the salvation of mankind, because its end is a heaven from the human race. Hence it follows, that the reformation and regeneration of man, therefore his salvation, is that which the Divine 52 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. Providence especially regards ; for heaven consists of tlie saved or regenerated. Since to regenerate man is to unite in him the good and true, or love and wisdom, as they are united in the Divine which proceeds from the Lord, therefore the Divine Providence especially regards this in the salvation of the human race. An image of the infinite and eternal does not exist in man except in the marriage of the good and true. That the proceeding Divine effects this in the human race is known from those who, being filled with the Divine Proceeding called the Holy Spirit, have prophesied, of whom in the Word ; also from those who, being illu- mined, see Divine truths in the light of heaven ; espe- cially from the angels, who have a sensible perception of the Divine presence, influx and union. It has not been known as yet that the Divine Provi- dence in every step of its progress with man regards his eternal state; for it cannot do otherwise, because the Divine is infinite and eternal, and the Infinite and Eternal, or the Divine, is not in time, and therefore to it all things future are present. And such being the nature of the Divine, it follows that in everything it does, one and all, there is the eternal. They who think from time and space can hardly conceive of this. — But they who are in the Divine, because they think from the Lord, think from the eternal even in the present. — And when man so thinks, and at the same time so lives, then the proceeding Divine in him, or the Divine Providence in every step of its progress, regards the AN IMAGE OP THE INFINITE. 53 state of his eterual life in heaven, and leads towards it. IV. — An image of the infinite and eternal is displayed in the angelic heaven. Among the neces- sary objects of knowledge is also the angelic hea- ven ; for every one possessing any religion thinks of it, and desires to go there. But heaven is not given to any but those who know the way to it, and walk in it. This way may be known somewhat from a knowl- edge of the character of those who constitute heaven ; and from the fact that no one becomes an angel, or goes to heaven, but he who carries an angelic nature with hira from the world, inherent in which nature is a knowledge of the way from walking in it, and a walking in it by the knowledge of it. In the spii'itual world, moreover, there are actually roads which lead to every society in heaven, and to every society in hell ; and each sees his own way as of himself. This is because there is a road there for every particular love ; and the love opens it, and leads every one to his com- panions. No one sees the roads of any loves but his own ; from which it is plain that the angels are no other than heavenly loves ; otherwise they would not see the roads leading to heaven. When a man thinks only from his spirit, as he does when in private meditation at home, he thinks from the affection proper to his love. From which it Avill be seen, that when he becomes a spirit, as he does after death, he is his own love's affection, and no other 5 * 54 THE SWEDENBORG LIDRAIIY. thought tlian what belongs to his affection. He is an evil affection, which is lust, if his love had been the love of evil ; and a good affection, if his love had been the love of good. And every one's affection is good in proportion as he had shunned evils as sins, and evil iu proportion as he had not. Now as spirits and angels are affections, it is plain that the whole angelic heaven is no other than the love which comprises all affections for the good, and the consequent wisdom which com- prises all perceptions of the true. And as all of the good and true is from the Lord, and the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, it follows that the angelic heaven is his image. And as the divine love and wisdom iu their own form are man, it also follows that the angelic heaven cannot possibly have any other form. The angelic heaven is an image of the infinite and eternal, because it is an image of the Lord, and He is infinite and eternal. An image of the infinite and eternal in Him appears in the fact, that there are myriads of myriads of angels who constitute heaven, and that they are formed into societies as numerous as the general affections in heavenly love, and that every angel in each society is distinctly his own affection ; also that from so many affections, general and particu- lar, arises the Form of heaven, which is as one before the Lord, precisely as a man is. Moreover, this form is eternally perfecting according to plurality ; for the more there are that enter the form of the Divine Love, HEAVEN IN THE LORU-S VIEW. 55 which is the Form of forms, the more perfect the union becomes. From a kuowledge of heaven as here briefly de- scribed, it is plain that affection, derived from the love of the good, constitutes heaveu in man. But who at the present day knows this? or wlio knows even what an affection derived from the love of the good is ? or that such affections are innumerable, nay, infinite? For as before stated, every angel is distinctly his own affec- tion ; and the form of heaven is the form of all the affections of divine love there. To unite all affections in this form can be done only by Him who is at once Love itself aud "Wisdom itself, and both infinite and eternal. — There are myriads of myriads who compose that form, and myriads enter it yearly, aud for ever will. All infants enter it, and as many adults as are affections derived from the love of the good. In this again may be seen an image of the infinite aud eternal in the angelic heaven. V. — To regard the infinite and eternal in the format ion of the angelic heaven, in order to make it before the Lord like one man, which is his image, is the inmost of the Divine Providence. Since in the Lord's view the uni- versal heaven is like one man, therefore heaveu is divided into as many general societies as there are organs, viscera and members in man ; and every general society, into as many less general or particular societies as there are larger divisions in each of the viscera and organs. This shows plainly the natui-e of heaveu. Now 56 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. because the Lord is Absolute Man, and heaven is his image, therefore being in heaven, is called being in the Lord. — As man is by creation a heaven in miniature, and therefore an image of the Lord ; and as heaven consists of as many affections as there are angels, each affection being in its form a man ; it follows that the continual pur- pose of the Divine Providence is, that man shall become a heaven in form, and therefore an image of the Lord ; and as this takes place through affection for the good and true, that he shall become that affection. This is therefore the continual purpose of the Divine Provi- dence ; but its inmost purpose is, that man shall be here or there in heaven, or in the divinely-celestial man, for he is thus in the Lord. But this takes place with those whom the Lord can lead to heaven. And as this is foreseen by the Lord, He also continually provides for the man's becoming of such a character; for so is every one who suffers himself to be led to heaven, prepared for his own place there. Heaven, as stated above, is divided into societies as many as the organs, viscera and members in man, and of these not one part can occupy any place but its own. As the angels are thus the parts of the divinely-celestial man, and none become angels but those who had been men in the world, it follows that the man who suffers himself to be led to heaven is continually prepared by the Lord for his place, which is done by means of a correspondent affection for the good and true. To this THE AXGELTC AND IXFnilNAL MAN. 57 place also every angelic man is assigned after his de- parture from the world. This is the inmost of the Divine Providence respecting heaven. But the man who does not suffer himself to be led and assigned to heaven, is prepared for his place in hell. For man of himself continually tends to the lowest depths of hell, but is by the Lord continually withheld. — Wherefore as an angelic man obtains his place in heaven according to affection for the good and true, so does an infernal man obtain his place in hell according to affection for the evil and false. This is the inmost of the Divine Providence respecting hell. (D. P., n. 47-69). IV. THERE ARE LAWS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE UN- KNOWN TO MAN. HE fact of a Divine Providence is known ; but its nature is unknown. The nature of tlie Divine Providence is unknown, because its laws are mysterious, hitherto hidden in the wisdom of the angels, but now to be revealed, in order that what is the Lord's may be ascribed to Him, and what is not njan's may not be ascribed to him. For in the world the majority attribute all things to them- selves and their own prudence ; and what they cannot attribute to themselves, they call fortuitous and acci- dental — not knowing that human prudence is nothing, and that "fortuitous" and "accidental" are unmean- ing words. Tlie laws of the Divine Providence are said to be mysterious, hitherto hidden in the wisdom of the angels ; because the understanding in the Christian world is closed to Divine subjects by re- ligion, and h:is therefore become so obtuse and resistant in such matters, that man cannot because he will not, or will not because he cannot, understand anything of the Divine Providence beyond its mere existence, even reasoning as to whether it exists or not, and as to whether it is only universal, or also particular. The 58 LA WS OF DIVtNE PROVIDENCE. 59 uii(lerfitaii(ling being closed to Divine subjects by re- ligion could adviince no further. — What the DivHie Providence is, therefore, must needs be revealed. Yet this cannot be done unless the laws are disclosed by which the Lord provides for and governs man's vol- untary and intellectual life. For these laws make known the nature of Providence ; and he who knows its nature, — and no one else, — can acknowledge it, for he then sees it. For this reason the laws of the Divine Providence, hitherto hidden in the wisdom of the angels, are now disclosed. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PRO VIDENCE THAT 31 AN ACT FROM FREEDOM ACCORDING TO REASON. HAT man has entire freedom of thought and will, but not the freedom to say what he thinks, nor to do what he will, is known. Therefore the freedom here meant is spiritual freedom, not natural, except when the two make one. For thought and volition are spiritual, while speech and action are natural ; they are, moreover, clearly distin- guished in man ; for man may think what he does not express, and have the will to do what he does not. — By acting from freedom according to reason, is meant freedom of thought and will, and consequent freedom to say and do what is in accordance with reason. But as few know that this can possibly be a law of Divine Providence, — especially as man thus has the freedom of thinking wickedly and falsely, while never- theless the Divine Providence continually leads him to the exercise of thought and will in the good and true, — therefore to make it understood, the subject must be approached step by step. — I. — Man possesses reason and freedom, or rationality and Kberfy, and these two facidties are in him from the Lord. — First it must be known that all freedom belongs CO NATURAL FREEDOM. 61 to love, insomuch that freedom and love are one. And as love is man's life, freedom belongs to his life also. For all of man's delight is from his love ; there is no delight from any other source. And to act from the delight of love is to act from freedom ; for delight leads every man as a river bears along anything in its course. Now as loves are numerous, — some harmonious, and some discordant, — it follows that there are as many kinds of freedom also ; but in general there are three, natural, rational and spiritual. Natural freedom is hereditary in every man. From it he loves nothing but himself and the world ; his first life is nothing else. And as all evils derive their existence from these two loves, and consequently also become objects of love, it follows that man's natural freedom is the exercise of thought and will in evils ; and that when he has confirmed them in himself by reasonings, he does evil from freedom according to his own reason. So to act is from his faculty which is called liberty ; and to confirm evil is from his faculty which is called rationality. For example : it is from the love into which a man is born, that he desires to commit adultery, to defraud, to blaspheme, to be re- vengeful. And when he confirms these evils in himself, and so makes them allowable, then, from the delight of his love for them, freely, as if according to reason, he practices them in thought and will ; and so far as civil laws do not prevent, he speaks and acts accord- ingly. It is from the Lord's Divine Providence that 6 62 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. man should be allowed so to act, because he possesses freedom or liberty. Rational freedom is from the love of reputation, for the sake of honor or wealth. The delight of this love is to appear externally like a moral man ; and because the man loves to be so reputed, he does not defraud, commit adultery, nor take revenge, nor blaspheme ; and as he rationally adopts this course from freedom ac- cording to his reason, he also acts sincerely, justly, cliastely, amicably ; nay, more, he can from reason speak well in favor of such action. But if his ration- ality is only natural, and not at the same time spiritual, that freedom is only external freedom, not internal ; for he is none the less interiorly devoid of love for that goodness, but loves it exteriorly only, for the sake of reputation. Wherefore the good he does is not good in itself. He may even say that it ought to be done for the public welfare ; but he says so, not from love of the public welfare, but for the sake of his own honor or profit. His freedom, therefore, derives nothing from love of the public welfare, nor his reason, since this assents to his love. This rational freedom is, therefore, interiorly natural freedom. This freedom also is left to every man by the Lord's Divine Providence. Spiritual freedom is from the love of eternal life. Into this love and its delight none enter, except those who regard evils as sins, and therefore in will oppose them, and at the same time look to the Lord. So soon as man does this, he is in that freedom ; for no one can SPIRITUAL FREEDOJf. 63 in will oppose evils because they are sins, and therefore not do evil, unless from an interior or higher freedom, which is from his interior or higher love. This freedom does not at firet seem to be freedom. Yet it is freedom, and afterwards seems such ; and then man acts from this freedom and according to true reason, by practising the good and true in thought, will, speech and action. This freedom increases as natural freedom decreases and becomes subservient ; and it unites with rational free- dom and purifies it. Any one may enter into this free- dom, if he will but think that life is eternal, and that the temporary delight and happiness of life in time is but like a fleeting shadow, comjmred with the eternal delight and happiness of life to eternity. Man may think this if he will, because he has rationality and liberty, and because the Lord, from whom these two faculties are derived, continually gives him the power. II. — Whatever a man does from, freedom, whether it is of reason or not, provided it is according to his reason, appears to him as his own. The nature of the rationality and liberty which are peculiar to man, cannot be better understood than by a comparison of man with animals. There is within every created thing, a something capa- ble of relation to the marriage of the good and true. In animals there is a marriage of affection and knowl- edge, — affection in them belonging to natural goodness, and knowledge to natural truth. Now as affection and knowledge in them act perfectly as one, and their affec- tion cannot be elevated above their knowledge, nor their 64 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRAKY. knowledge above their affection (and they are elevated both together, if at all) ; and as they have no spiritual mind, into which, or into the light and heat of which they may be elevated; therefore they do not possess the faculty of understanding, or rationality, nor the faculty of free volition, or liberty, but merely natural affection with its knowledge. The natural affection they possess is an affection for providing themselves food, shelter and offspring, for escaping and avoiding injury, with all the knowledge requisite therefor. They are borne along by their affection [acting] through its knowledge without rationality and liberty. Tlieir being so borne along is not from the natural but from the spiritual world. For there does not exist any thing in the natural world unconnected with the spirit- ual world. Every cause producing an effect is from that source. — Although all perception and consequent thought and knowledge, and all volition and action according to perception, flow into man, it is yet of the Lord's Di- vine Providence that they should seem to be man's own ; for otherwise, as has been stated, man would not receive, thus could not be gifted with any intelligence and wisdom. It is known that all that is good and true is not man's, but the Lord's, and that yet it appears to man to be his ; and as all that is good and true so ap- pears, so does all that belongs to the church and to heaven, conseqifcntly all that belongs to love and wis- dom, also to charity and faith ; nevertheless, nothing MAN'S SPIRITUAL APl'ItOPRIATlONS. 65 belonging to them is man's. No one can receive thera from the Lord, unless he seems to himself to have a perception of them i'rora himself. From this will be evident the truth of the statement, that whatever man does from freedom, whether it is of reason or not, pro- vided it is in accordance with his reason, seems to him to be his own. III. — Whatever man does from freedom according to his own thought^ is appropriated to him as his own, and remains. Man acts from freedom according to thought, for the reason that whatever belongs to his life or love, is also the subject of his thought, and is confirmed by his thought ; and when confirmed, he does it from freedom according to thought. For whatever man does he does from the will through the understanding ; and freedom belongs to the will, and thought to the understanding. Man can also from freedom act contrary to reason ; again, he can act not from freedom according to reason. But such actions are not appropriated to man ; they belong only to his lips and body, and not to his spirit or heart; but whatever belongs to his spirit and heart, when it becomes of the lips and body also, is appropri- ated to him. By being appropriated to man is meant to enter into and become part of his life, consequently part of his selfhood. — What a man does from freedom according to his thought is also said to remain, for nothing that man has appropriated can be eradicated ; because it becomes a part of both his love and reason, or of both his will 6* E 66 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. and understanding, and consequently part of his life. It may be removed, indeed, but cannot be wholly ejected ; and when it is removed, it is as if transferred from the centre to the circumference, and there it stays. This is meant by its remaining. For example : if a man has in boyhood or youth appropriated to himself certain evils by practising them from his love's delight, as fraud, blasphemy, revenge, fornication ; then as he had practised them from freedom according to thought, he has also appro- priated them. But if he afterwards repents, shuns those evils, and , regards them as sins which ought to be held in aversion, and thus from freedom according to reason abstains from them, he then appropriates to himself the good which is opposed to those evils. This good then becomes central, and removes the evils towards the circumference, further and further according as the man dislikes and turns away from them. But yet they cannot be so utterly ejected as to be called extirpated, although by this removal tlioy may seem to be so. This is because tlie man is with- held from evil by the Lord, and kept in good ; this takes place with all hereditary evil, and in like manner with all of man's actual evil. This I have even seen proved by the experience of some in heaven, who, be- cause they were kept in good by the Lord, thought themselves free from evil. But lest they should believe that the good in which they were was their own, they were lowered from heaven, and let into their evils, ^yIIAr ackxowledgmext effects. 67 until tliey acknowledged that they were in evil from themselves, and in good from the Lord. After this acknowledgment tiiey were restored to heaven. Let it be understood, therefore, that this good is not appropri- ated to man, except as being always the Lord's in him ; and that so far as man acknowledges this, the Lord gives to him the appearance that the good is his own ; that is. He makes it appear to man as though he loved his neighbor or possessed charity from himself; believed or possessed faith from himself; did good and under- stood truth, thus were wise, from himself. From which an enlightened person may see the nature and strength of the appearance in which the Lord wishes man to be ; and this He wishes for the sake of man's salvation ; for without this appearance no one could be saved. Nothing is appropriated to man of which he merely thinks, nor even what he thinks is his will, unless it is also his will so far that he does it if opportunity offers. This is because when man so does it, he does it from the will through the understanding, or from the will's affection through the thought of the understanding; while so long as it is a subject of thought only, it can- not be appropriated, because the understanding docs not unite with the will. — The evil wiiich a man thinks allowable is also appro- priated to him, even though he commits it not ; fur what is allowable in thought is so from the will, because they harmonize. Therefore when man believes any evil allowable, he releases it from internal restraint, 68 THE SWEDENBOnO LIBRARY. and is witliheld from the commission of it by external restraints only, which are fears. And because his spirit favors that evil, therefore he commits it from his allow- ance of it, whenever external restraints are removed. Meanwhile he commits it in spirit continually. IV. — Man by means of these two faculties is reformed arid regenerated by the Lord, and without them cannot be reformed and regenerated. — No one can enter the king- dom of God except he be born again, because man, by the hereditary nature he derives from his parents, is born into all kinds of evils, with the capacity for be- coming spiritual by the removal of these evils ; and unless he becomes spiritual he cannot enter into heaven. — Man is reformed and regenerated by means of the two faculties called rationality and liberty, and cannot be reformed and regenerated without them, because by rationality, he can understand, and know what is evil and what is good, and therefore what is false and what is true ; ajud by liberty he may in will favor what he understands and knows. But so long as the delight of the love of evil predominates, his will cannot freely favor what is good and true, and he cannot rationally adopt it ; therefore he cannot appropriate it. For, as shown above, man appropriates as his own whatever he does from freedom according to reason, and without such appropriation [of the good and true] he is not reformed and regenerated. He first acts from the de- light of the good and true, when the delight of the WffAT IS CENTRAL GOVERNS. 69 evil and false is removed ; for two kinds of delight from love, opposed each to the other, cannot exist sim- ultaneously. To act from love's delight is to act from freedom ; and as reason favors love, it is also to act according to reason. As all meu, evil and good alike, possess rationality and liberty, a bad man and a good one can equally understand truth and do good ; but a bad man cannot do so from freedom according to reason, while a good man can ; because a bad man is in the delight of the love of evil, while a good man is in the delight of the love of the good. Therefore the truth which a bad man understands, and the good he does, are not appro- priated to him ; but to a good man they are ; and with- out the appropriation of those as man's own, there is no reformation and regeneration. For in the wicked the evil and false are at the centre, and the good and true at the circumference ; while in the good, the good and true are at the centre, and the evil and false at the circumference : and in both cases, that which is central flows out to the very circumference, as heat ft-om a central fire, or cold from a central gelidity. Thus in the wicked the good at the circumference is corrupted by the evil at the centre ; aud in the good the evil at the circumference is moderated by the good at the centre. V. — Man may he reformed and regenerated by means of these two faculties, so fur as he can by them be led to acknowledge that everything good and true in his thought 70 THE SWEDENTiORG LIBRARY. and action, is from the Lord, and not from himself. — From rationality man has tlic power of understanding, and from liberty the power of volition, each power apparently his own ; but the power of will to freely fivvor the good, and therefore according to reason to do it, none but a regenerate man can possess. A wicked man has power of will to freely favor evil only, and, according to thought which by coufirmatiou his reason adopts, to do it. For evil may be confirmed equally as well as good, but by fallacies and appearances, which when confirmed become falsities ; and when evil is con- firmed, it seems to be accordant with reason. — To all power there must be a [source of] supply to be imparted, and thus a determination from a source interior or superior to itself. The eye cannot see from itself, nor the ear hear from itself, nor the mouth speak, uor the hand act, each from itself ; they must obtain a supply of power and consequent determination from the mind. Nor can the mind exercise thought or volition from itself, in anything, without the existence of some- thing interior or superior, which so determines the mind. It is the same with the power of understanding and vo- lition : they are impossible from any other than Him who has in Himself the power of volition and under- standing. From which it is plain that the two faculties called rationality and liberty are from the Lord, and not from man. And since they are from the Lord, it follows that man has of himself no volition and no understanding; they only seem to be from himself. THE LORD'S GREAT GIFT. 71 Any one may convince himself of the truth of this, who knows and believes that the will of every good and the understanding of every truth, are from the Lord, and not from man. That man can receive nothing of himself, and do nothing of himself, the Word teaches in John iii. 27 ; xv. 5. Now as all volition is from love, and all understand- 'ing from wisdom, it follows that the power of volition is from the divine love, and that of understanding from the divine wisdom ; both, therefore, from the Lord, who is divine love itself and divine wisdom itself. It fol- lows, that to act from freedom according to reason has no other origin. Every one acts according to reason, because freedom, like love, is inseparable from volition. But in man there exists interior volition, and exterior volition, and he can act according to the former, and not at the same time according to the latter; so do hypocrites act, and flatterers. It is said that man may be reformed and regenerated so fur as he can, by means of these two faculties, be led to acknowledge that everything good and true in his thought and actions is from the Lord and not from himself He cannot be led to this acknowledgment except by means of these two faculties, because these are from the Lord, and are the Lord's in man. It therefore follows that man cannot of himself, make the acknowledgment but from the Lord. But still he may do it as if of himself ; this power the Lord gives to every one. It may be that the man believes be does it 72 THE SWEDENBORG LrBRMtY. of himself, yet when he is wise he will acknowledge that he does not. Otherwise the truth in his thought and the good he does are not true and good in them- selves ; for the man, and not the Lord, is in them. But that an acknowledgment of the Lord, and an acknowledgment that everything good and true is from Him, effects man's reformation and regeneration, is what few can intelligently see ; for it may be asked, What ef- ficacy is there in that acknowledgment, since the Lord is omnipotent, and desires the salvation of all, and is therefore able and willing [to save all], if He is but moved to mercy ? But such thought is not from the Lord, nor is it from any interior intellectual sight — that is, from any enlightenment. Therefore the effect of acknowledgment shall be briefly stated. In the spiritual world, where space is only an appear- ance, wisdom effects presence, and love effects union ; and vice versd. There is an acknowledgment of the Lord from wisdom, and an acknowledgment of Him from love. An acknowledgment of the Lord from wis- dom, which acknowledgment viewed in itself is mere recognition, exists from doctrine ; while an acknowl- edgment of Him from love exists from a life according to doctrine; this effects union, but that, presence. It is for this reason that they who reject the doctrine of the Lord remove themselves from Him : and as they also reject life, they separate themselves from Him; while they who do not reject doctrine but life, are present but still separated. — The truth of this is also known from THE LORD'S UNION WITH MAN. 73 the common belief, that he who both teaches and lives well is saved, while he who teaches truly and lives badly is not ; and furthermore, that he Avho does not acknowledge God, cannot be saved. This will show what kind of religion it is, to think of God from faith, as it is called, and not to do anything from charity. Wherefore the Lord says : " Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, . . is like a man that built a house, . . and laid the foundation on a rock. . . But he that heareth and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth." Luke vi. 46-49. VI. — The Lord's union with man, and the reciprocal union of man with the Lord, is effected by means of these tivo faculties. Union with the Lord and regeneration are one ; for so far as any one is united to the Lord he is regenerated. That there is a union of the Lord with man, and a reciprocal union of man with the Lord, the Lord himself teaches in John : "Abide in me, and I in you. . . He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit," xv. 4, 5. " At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you," xvi. 20. Any one may see from reason alone that there is no union of feeling unless it is reciprocal, and that reciprocation unites. If any one loves another and is not loved in return, then as he advances the other withdraws ; but if he is loved in return, then as he ad- vances the other advances, and union is eflected. More- 7 74 THE SWEDEN BORG LIBRARY. over, love desires to be loved ; this is implanted in it ; and so for as it is loved in return, it is in itself and iu its own delight. It is therefore evident that if the Lord loved man only, and were not loved by man in return, the Lord would advance, and man withdraw ; thus the Lord would continually desire to draw near to man and enter into him, and man would turn back and go away. This is the case with those in hell ; while with those in heaven there is mutual union. Since the Lord desires union with man for the sake of his salvation, He also provides for the existence of reciprocality in man. Man's reciprocality is this, that the good which his will favors and which he does from freedom, and the truth of which he thinks and speaks from that volition according to reason, seem to be from himself ; and that this good iu his will and this truth in liis understanding seem to be his own ; nay, more, they seem to man to be from himself and his own, pre- cisely as though they wei-e his own. Yet he ought to acknowledge that he does not do good nor think truth from himself, but from the Lord; and that therefore the good in his actions and the truth in his thoughts are not his own. So to think, with any degree of love from the will, because it is the truth, effects union. The nature of the difference between those who be- lieve that all good is from the Lord, and those who believe that it is from themselves, I have been per- mitted both to hear and see in the spiritual world. They who believe that good is from the Lord, turn their LOVE OF THE NETdHnOR. 75 faces to Him and receive the delight and bliss of good- ness ; while they who believe that it is from themselves, regard themselves, and think within themselves that they have merited it. And because they regard them- selves, they can have no perception of any delight but that of their own goodness, which is not the delight of good but of evil. For man's selfhood is evil, and the delight of evil perceived as good is hell. They who have done good believing it to be from themselves, if they do not after death receive the truth that all good is from the Lord, mingle with infernal genii, and at length make one with them ; while they who do receive this truth are reformed. But none receive it except those who have regarded God in their lives. To regard God in their lives, is simply to shun evils as sins. The Lord's union with man and the reciprocal union of man with the Lord is effected by man's loving his neighbor as himself, and the Lord above all things. To love his neighbor as himself is simply not to act to- wards him with insincerity or injustice, not to hold him in hati-ed or to burn with revenge against him, not to revile or defame him, not to commit adultery with his wife, and not to do other similar things against him.- Who cannot see that they who do these things, do not love the neighbor as themselves? While they who do them not, because they are evils against the neighbor, and at the same time sins against the Lord, act sin- cerely, justly, amicably and faithfully with the neigh- bor ; and as the Lord does likewise, a reciprocal union 76 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. is effected. And when there exists a reciprocal union, wliatever man does towards his neighbor, he does from the Lord ; and whatever he does from the Lord is good. Then the neighbor is not to him a person, but the good iu the person. To love the Lord above all things is simply to do no evil to the Word, because the Lord ia ill the Word ;-nor to the sacred things of the Church, because the Lord is in them ; nor to the soul of any one, because every one's soul is in the Lord's hand. They who shun these evils as enormous sins, love the Lord above all things; but they only can do this, who love the neighbor as themselves ; for [these loves] are united. ■ As there is a union of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord, there are therefore two tables of the law ; one for the Lord and the other for man. So far as man keeps the laws of his table as if of himself, the Lord enables him to keep the laws of His table. But the man who does not keep the laws of his table, all of which refer to love of the neighbor, cannot keep the laws of the Lord's table, all of which refer to love of the Lord. How can a murderer, thief, adulterer and false witness, love the Lord? Is it not the dictate of reason, that to be of such a character and to love the Lord are contradictory ? Is not this the nature of the devil? Can he do otherwise than hate God? But when man turns from murder, adultery, theft and false witness as infernal, he can do otherwise ; for he then turns his face from the devil to the Lord ; and when he turns his face to the Lord, love and wisdom are given THE TWO HUMAN FACULTIES. 77 to liim. As union with tlie Lord is effected thus and not otherwise, therefore these two tables are called a covenant, and a covenant exists between two. VII. — 27ie Lord guards these hvo faculties in man, un- hurt and as saered, in every step of his Divine Provi- dence. — This is because without these faculties, man would not possess will and understanding, and thus would not be man. These faculties unite in him like the will and understanding in this respect: that, be- cause man has the power of volition, he also has the power of understanding, for volition without under- standing does not exist ; understanding is its consort or counterpart, without which it cannot exist. Wherefore, along with the faculty called liberty is given that called rationality. Moreover, if you take volition from understanding, you will understand nothing. — You can understand in proportion to your will, — that is, so far as you love to understand ; for the will and love act as one. This may seem absurd ; but it seems so to those who do not love to understand, and therefore do not de- sire it ; and because they do not desire, they say they are unable. But who cannot understand, and who can understand only with difficulty, will be explained in the next proposition. — Man without these two faculties could not have been united to the Lord, and so could not have been reformed and regenerated. For the Lord is resident with men, both evil and good, in these two faculties ; and through them unites Himself to every man. Therefore both a 7* 78 THE SWEDEXnORG LIP.RART. wicked and a good man can understand, and therefore they possess in potency the will to favor the good, and the understanding of the true. That they do not pos- sess them actually, is from the abuse of these faculties. That the Lord is resident with every man in these two faculties is from the influx of his will, which is a desire to be received by man, to have his abode in him, and to give him the felicity of eternal life. This is of the Lord's will, because it is of his Divine Love. It is this will of the Lord which causes the appearance in man that his thoughts, words, volitions and actions are his own. That the influx of the Lord's will causes this [appearance], may be abundantly proven from the s])i ritual world; for sometimes the Lord fills an angel with his Divine, so that the angel knows not but that he is the Lord. So were the angels filled who were seen by Abraham, Hagar, and Gideon, and who there- fore called themselves Jehovah ; of whom in the Word. One spirit may also be so filled with another as not to know but that he is the other. This I have seen very often. It is known in heaven, moreover, that the Lord produces all things by volition, and that what He wills is done. From this it is plain, that it is by these two faculties that the Lord unites Himself to man, and by them that He causes man to be reciprocally united to Him.— That man without these two faculties would not pos- sess immortality and eternal life, follows from the state- ments just made, viz.: that through them he is united THESE FACULTIES SACREDLY GUAHDED. 79 to the Lord, and is also reformed aud regenerated. By this union man has immortality, and by reformation and^ regeneration, eternal life. And because through these faculties exists a union of the Lord with every man, the evil and the good alike, therefore every man has immortality. But life eternal, — that is, the life of heaven, — belongs to the man in whom there is a recip- rocal union from inmosts to ultimates. From these statements may appear the reasons why the Lord guards these faculties in man, unhurt aud as sacred, in every step of his Divine Providence. VIII. — It u therefore of the Divine Providence that man should act from freedom according to reason. It is one thing to act from freedom according to reason, and another to act from freedom itself according to reason itself; since the man who does evil from the love of evil, and confirms it in himself, really acts from fi'ee- dom according to reason ; but still his freedom is not ia itself free, or freedom itself, but is infernal freedom which in itself is servitude ; and his reason is not reason in itself, but is spurious or false, or seems to be reason by confirmations. Yet each is of the Divine Provi- dence ; for if freedom of volition in evil, and the power to make evil appear reasonable by confirmations, Avere taken from man, his liberty and rationality would perish, and at the same time his will and understanding, and he could not be withdrawn from evils and reformed ; thus he could not be united to the Lord aud live for ever. Wherefore the Lord guards freedom in man, 80 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. as man guards the apple of his eye. But yet through freedom He continually withdraws man from evil ; and so far as he can be withdrawn in freedom, the Lord through freedom implants good. Thus in the place of infernal freedom He gradually introduces heavenly freedom. — The faculties of liberty and rationality are apparently innate in man ; for his very humanity resides in them. But none act from true freedom according to true rea- son, except those who suffer themselves to be regener- ated by the Lord ; all others act from freedom accord- ing to thought, to which they give the semblance of reason. Yet every man, unless born foolish or exces- sively stupid, may attain to the possession of true reason, and by it of true freedom. That all do not attain to them, arises from many causes, which shall be disclosed hereafter. Here we shall only state who they are, with whom true freedom or liberty itself, and at the same time true reason or rationality itself, are pos- sible, and to whom they are hardly possible. True liberty and rationality are impossible with those born foolish, or with those made foolish after birth so long as they remain so. They are impossible with those born stupid and gross, and with those made so by the torpor of idleness, or by sickness which perverts or wholly closes the interiors of the mind, or by the love of an animal life. They are impossible with those in the Christian world who totally deny the Lord's Di- vinity, and the holiness of the Word, and maintain this now TO BECOME FREE AND EATIOXAL. 81 denial confirmed in themselves until the end of life; for this is what is meant by the sin against tlie Holy- Spirit, which is not forgiven, either in this world, or iii the world to come. Matt. xii. 31, 32. They are im- possible with those who attribute all things to nature and nothing to the Divine, and by reasoning from things visible make this their faith ; for they are atheists. They are hardly possible witli those who have confirmed tlieinselvcs deeply in errors of religion; since he who confirms the false denies the true ; while they are possible with those who have not confirmed themselves, whatever may be tlieir religion. Infants and children cannot attain to true liberty and ration- ality before they come of age, since with man the inte- riors of the mind are opened gradually. Meanwhile these faculties are like seeds in unripe fruit, which can- not sprout in the soil. From what I have heard iu the spiritual world, I have become fully convinced that every man possesses liberty and rationalily ; and that every one can attain to true liberty and rationality if he shuns evils as sins. But the mature man who does not attain to them in the world, can never do so after death ; for then his state of life remains for ever such as it had been in the world. (D. P., n. 70-99.) F VI. THE LAW ACCORDING TO WHICH THE LORD RE- MOVES EVILS FROM THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL MAN. NY one may see from reason alone, that the Lord, who is the absolutely Good and True, canuot enter into man unless the evil and false in him are removed ; for evil is the opposite of the good, and falsity is the opposite of the true. And two opposites can never intermingle; but when one approaches the other there is a conflict, which lasts until one yields the place to the other ; and that which yields departs, and the other takes its place. Heaven and hell, or the Lord and the devil, are in such opposition. Can any one rationally think that the Lord can enter where the devil reigns? or that heaven can be where hell is? Who cannot, from the rationality given to every man of sound mind, see that for the Lord to enter, the devil must be ejected, or for heaven to enter, hell must be removed. Evil itself is hell, as good itself is heaven ; or what is the same thing, evil itself is the devil, and good itself is the Lord ; and the man in whom evil rules is a hell in miniature, while he in whom good rules is a heaven in miniature. This being the 82 WHO ARE IN EVIL. 83 case, how can heaven enter hell, since between them so great a gulf is fixed, that to cross fi-om one to the other is impossible? From this it follows that hell must by all means be removed from man, in order that the Lord may be able to enter with heaven. But many, especially those who have confirmed them- selves in faith separate from charity, do not know that they are in hell when in evil ; nor do they even know what evil is ; for the reason that they do not give it any thought. — For they who do not reflect upon the evils in themselves (that is, do not examine themselves), and afterwards refrain from them, cannot but be igno- rant of what evil is, and then love it from its delight. For he who is ignorant of the nature of evil, loves it ; and he who pays no attention to it, is continually in it ; like a blind man he does not see it. For thought sees the good and evil, as the eye sees the beautiful and the ugly. He is in evil, whose thought and will are in it, as also he who believes that God does not regard evil, and he who believes that it is forgiven if regarded ; for so they think themselves free from evil. If they abstain from doing evil, it is not because evil is sin against God, but from fear of the law or public opinion. But still they do evil in spirit; for thought and will belong to the spirit ; wherefore what man meditates in his spirit in the world, after his departure from the world, when he becomes a spirit, that he does. In the spiritual world to which every man goes after death, it is not 84 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. the character of your faith into which inquiry is made, nor of your doctrine, but of your life, whether it had been of this chai'acter or of that ; for it is known that such as a man's life is, such is his faith, nay, more, such is his doctrine. For life forms its doctrine and faith for itself From these statements it will appear that it is a law of the Divine Providence that evils should be removed by man ; for without their removal the Lord cannot be united to man, and cannot from Himself lead him to heaven. But as it is unknown that man ought as of himself to remove evils in the external man, and that unless he does this as of himself the Lord cannot re- move the evils in his internal man, therefore the subject shall be presented to reason in its own light. — I. — Evepj man has an external and internal of thought. — That every man of mature age has an external and an internal of thought, and therefore an external [and internal] of will and understanding ; or that his spirit has an external and an internal, which are the same with the external and internal man, is plain to any one who observes the thoughts and intentions of another as exhibited in his conversation or actions ; and his owu also, when he is in company, and when alone. For one man may talk with another in a friendly manner from external thought, and yet be at enmity with him in his internal thought. A man may, from external thought and its affection together, talk about love to the neigh- bor, and love to God ; when yet, in his internal thought INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL THOUGHT. 85 he may care nothing for the neighbor and have no fear of God. He may also, from external thought and its affection together, talk about the justice of civil laws, the virtues of moral life, and matters of doctrine and spiritual life ; and yet, when alone by himself, from in- ternal thought and its affection, he may speak against civil laws, moral virtues, and matters of doctrine and spiritual life. Those do so who are in the lusts of evil, and yet wish to appear before the world as though they were not. — That flatterers and hypocrites have a double thought, is known ; for they can be reserved and careful not to disclose their interior thought ; and some conceal it deeper and deeper, and, as it were, block up the doors lest it should appear. The internal of thought is from the life's love and its affections and their perceptions ; the external of thought is from the contents of the memory, which serve the life's love for confirmations, and as means to ends. Man from infancy to early manhood is in the external of thought originating in the love of knowing, which then forms its internal ; there also attaches to him something of lust and its inclination derived from his connate and hereditary life's love. But afterwardg, according as he lives, his life's love changes ; its affec- tions and their perceptions form the internal of his thought ; and from [this] life's love arises the love of means [subservient to it], the delight of which, and the knowledge thereby called forth from the memory, con- stitute the external of his thought. 86 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. II. — The external of man's thought is in itself of the same character as the internal. That man is like his life's love from head to foot has been shown before. Here, therefore, something shall be said of his life's love. Loves are manifold ; but two of them are like lords and kings — celestial love and infernal love. Celestial love is love to the Lord and the neighbor; and infernal love is the love of self and the world. The latter and the former ai-e opposed to each other as heaven is to hell. For they who are in the love of self and the world have no good-will for any but themselves ; but they who are in love to the Lord and the neighbor, have good-will for all. These two loves are the loves of man's life, but with much variety. Celestial love is the life's love of those whom the Lord leads ; and in- fernal love is the life's love of those whom the devil leads. But no one's life's love can exist without derivations, which are called affections ; the derivations of infernal love are affections for the evil and false — properly, lusts ; and the derivations of celestial love are affec- tions for the good and true — properly, attachments. There are as many affections (properly lusts) of infernal love as there are evils ; and as many affections (properly attachments) of celestial love as there are different kinds of good. Love dwells in its affections like a lord in his province, or a king in his kingdom, — its province and kingdom being over the things of the mind, that is, of man's will and understanding, and through these over END, CA USE AND EFFECT. 87 the body. Man's life's love, by its affections and their perceptions, and by its delights and their thoughts, rule the whole man — the internal of his mind by affections and their perceptions, and the external by the delights of affections and their thoughts. The union of all the constituents of the will and un- derstanding, or of man's mind, with his life's love, may be seen rationally thus : There are everywhere three things together, which constitute one. These are called end, cause and effect. The life's love is here the end ; the affections with their perceptions are the cause ; and the delights of the affections with their thoughts are the effect. For as the end through the cause enters into the effect, so also does love through its affections enter into its delights, and through its perceptions into its thoughts. The effects themselves are in the mind's delights and their thoughts, whenever the delights be- long to the will, and the thoughts to its understanding ; thus whenever their harmony is perfect. The effects then belong to the spirit ; and if they do not come forth into bodily action, still they exist as if in action when there is harmony. Moreover, they then exist simultaneously in the body, and dwell there with its life's love, and aspire to action, which takes place when nothing hinders. Such are the lusts of evil, and the evils themselves, in those who in spirit regard evils as allowable. Now as the end unites with the cause, and through the cause with the effect, so does the life's love with 88 THE SWEDENBORQ LIBRARY. internal thought, and through this with its external. It is plain, therefore, that man's external thought is of the same character as his internal thought, inasmuch as the end imparts itself wholly to the cause, and through the cause to the efiect ; for there is in the effect nothing essential, except what is in the cause, and through the cause in the end. — It sometimes seems as if the external of man's thought were not in itself the same as the internal ; but this is because the life's love, with its surrounding internals, establishes below it a substitute, which is called the love of means, and enjoins upon it to be careful and watch that nothing of its lusts shall appear. Therefore this substitute, from the cunning of its chief, who is the life's love, talks and acts according to the civil interests of the kingdom, according to the moral interests of reason, and according to the spiritual in- terests of the church ; and some do this so astutely and ingeniously that no one sees but that they are what their conversation and actions indicate ; and finally by con- cealment they hardly know otherwise themselves. Such is the character of all hypocrites, and of priests who at heart care nothing for the neighbor and do not fear God, and yet preach al)out the love of the neighbor and of God; of judges also who judge according to bribes and friendship, while they pretend to be zealous for justice, and from reason talk of judgment ; and of merchants who are insincere and fraudulent at heart, while they act sincerely for the sake of gain ; and of SINCEBITY AND HYPOCRISY. 89 adulterers, when, from the rationality belonging to all men, they talk of" the chastity of marriage ; and so on. But if these same men strip the love of means — the substitute of their life's love — of its garments of purple and fine linen with which they have invested it, and clothe it in its domestic garb, then they think, and sometimes fro^ their thought, they talk with their dearest friends whose life's love is similar, in a precisely op- posite manner. It may be imagined that when they talked so justly, sincerely and piously, from the love of means, the character of their internal thought was not within their external thought. Yet it was. Hy- pocrisy is in them ; the love of self and the world is in them, the cunning of which is to secure a reputation, for the sake of honor or wealth, even in outward ap- pearance. This character of their internal thought is in the external wheu they so speak and act. But with those who are in celestial love, internal and external thought, or the internal and external man make one when they speak ; nor do they know of any distinction between them. Their life's love, with its affections for the good and their perceptions of truth, fs like the soul of their thoughts, and their conversation and action therefrom. If they are priests, they preach from love to the neighbor and to the Lord ; if judges, they judge from justice; if merchants, they act from true sincerity ; if married, they love their wives from chastity itself ; and so on. Their life's love has also a love of means as a substitute, which it teaches and leads 8* 90 THE SWEDENDORO LIBRARY. to act prudently, and clothes with the garment of zeal for truth of doctrine, together with good of life. III. — The internal cannot be 'purified Jrom the lusts of evil so long as the evils in the external man are not re- moved, because these obstruct. This follows from the ])receding statements, that man's external thought is in itself of the same character as his internal thought. — Now as lusts together with subtleties constitute the in- ternal thought of the wicked, and the delights of lust together with their machinations constitute their exter- nal thought, and as the latter and the former are united as one, it follows that the internal cannot be purified of lusts, so long as the evils in the external man are not removed. It is man's internal will which is in lusts, and his internal understanding which is full of subtle- ties ; while it is the external will which is in the de- lights of lust, and the external understanding which is filled with machinations originating in subtlety. Any one can see that lust and its delights make one, and that subtlety and machination make one ; also that the four are connected in one series, and together form, as it were, one bundle. Lusts by their delights produce evils ; but when evils are deemed allowable, which takes place by the consent of both will and understanding, then the delights and evils are one. That consent is the deed, is known ; this also is what the Lord says in Matt. V. 28. From these statements it is now evident that, in order for man to be purified from the lusts of evil, evils must HOW EVILS ACQUIRE STRENG TH. 9 1 by all means be removed from the external man ; for before this is done, no outlet is given to lusts ; and if no outlet is given them, they remain within and exhale their delights, and so urge man to consent, that is to their commission. — It is plain that if the evils in the external man are not removed, lusts with their delights grow stronger and more abundant. The more a thief steals the more he longs to steal, until he cannot re- frain. So with a dishonest man, as he practises fraud ; with hatred and revenge ; with luxury, intemperance, fornication and blasphemy, it is the same. That the love of rule originating in self-love grows* stronger as the rein is given to it, is known ; likewise the love of possession originating in love of the world. It seems as if they had neither limit nor end. From which it is plain, that the lusts of evil abound so far as the evils in the external man are not removed ; and again, that lust grows stronger in the degree that the rein is given to evils. So far as m^in confirms himself in the belief that evils are allowable, he enlarges the court of the ruling love, which is his life's love. Lusts constitute its court ; for they are like its ministers and attendants, through whom it governs the exteriors which constitute its kingdom. But as the king is, such are his ministers and attendants, and such is the kingdom. If the king is a devil, his ministers and attendants are follies, and the people of his kingdom are all the forms of the false, which his ministers whom the people call wise although 92 TUE SWEDENIiOIlG LIBRARY. they are fools, cause to appear true by reasonings from fallacies and by illusions, and to be acknowledged as true. Can such a state in man be changed except by the removal of the evils in the external man, and thus of the lusts also wliich adhere to the evils? Otherwise there is no outlet for lusts, for they are shut in like a besieged city or a closed ulcer. IV. — Evils in the external man cannot be removed by the Lord, except through man's instrumentality. In all Christian churches this doctrine is received : That man, before he approaches the holy communion, is to examine himself, see and acknowledge his sins, and do the work of repentance by abstaining from them and renouncing them, because they are from the devil ; otherwise his sins are not forgiven, and he is damned. The English, although adhering to the doctrine of faith alone, yet in their exhortation at the holy communion, openly teach [the duty of] examination, acknowledgment, confession of sins, repentance, and renewal of life ; and those who fail to do this, they threaten with the declaration that the devil will enter into them as he did into Judas, and will fill them with all iniquity, and destroy both body and soul. The Germans, Swedes, and Danes, who also adhere to the doctrine of faith alone, in their exhorta- tion at the holy communion make similar statements ; threatening, moreover, that otherwise they will be sub- ject to the torments of hell and to eternal damnation, for mingling the lioly and the profane. It is plain from this, that it is the common religion of now EVILS ARE REMOVED. 93 all the cburclies ia the Christian world, that man should examine himself ; should see and acknowledge his sins, and afterwards abstain from them ; and that otherwise there is no salvation, but damnation. Moreover, this is the divine truth itself, as is evident from passages in the Word where man is commanded to repent, as in the following: "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of re- peiitance. . . And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees ; every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Luke iii. 8, 9 ; " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Luke xiii. 3, 5 ; " Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, . . Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Mark i. 14, 15 ; also Mark i. 4 ; vi. 12 ; Luke iii. 3 ; xxiv. 47. — Evils in the external man cannot be removed unless through the man's instrumentality, because it is of the Lord's Divine Providence that whatever man hears and sees, whatever there is in his thought, will, speech and actions, seems to him to be wholly his own. Without this appearance there would be in man no reception of the divine truth, no determination towards doing good, no appropriation of love and wisdom, or of charity and faith, and therefore no union with the Lord ; conse- quently no reformation and regeneration, and thereby salvation. That without this appearance repentance for sin is impossible, and even faith, is evident ; as also that man without this appearance would not be man, but devoid of rational life like an animal. — 94 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. There are many who do not know that they are in evils, because they do not externally commit them ; for they fear the civil laws, and the loss of reputation, and so from custom acquire the habit of shunning evils as injurious to their honor or wealth. But if they do not shun evils from religious principle, because they are sins and are contrary to God, the lusts of evil with their delights remain in them, like impure waters dammed up or stagnated. Let them examine their thoughts and intentions, and they will find the evils [there], provided they know what sin is. This is the state of many who have confirmed them- selves in faith separate from charity; who, because they believe the law does not condemn them, pay no atten- tion to sin ; and some doubt its existence, or believe that if it does exist, it is not sin in God's sight, because it has been pardoned. This is also the character of natural moralists, who believe that moral and civil life with its prudence accomplishes everything, and the Di- vine Providence nothing ; also of those who studiously seek after a reputation and name for honesty and sincer- ity for the sake of honor or wealth. But they who are of this character, and have also despised religion, after death become spirits of lust, who seem to themselves like true men, but at a distance seem to others like priajii. They see in the dark, and are blind in the light, like owls. The Lord purifies man from the lusts of evil when man as of himself removes evils, [in the external man] MAX'S INTERIORS, UNKNOWN. 95 because He cannot do so before ; for the evils in the ex- ternal man, and the lusts of evil in the internal, are connected like root and trunk. Therefore unless evils are removed there is no opening ; for they obstruct and close the door, which the Lord cannot open unless by means of man, as shown just above. Thus when man as of himself opens the door, the Lord together with him extirpates lusts. — That the Lord continually urges man to open the door to Him, is plain from his words in Rev. iii. 20 : " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me." Man knows nothing at all of the state of his interior mind or of his internal man ; nevertheless there are in it infinite things, not one of which comes to his knowl- edge. For the internal of man's thought, or the inter- nal man, is the spirit itself, and the contents of it are as innumerable as those of the body ; indeed still more in- numerable, for man's spirit is in its own form a man, and corresponds to man in his body in all particulars. Now as man knows nothing, by any sensation, of how his mind or soul operates conjointly [with], and partic- ularly upon, all parts of the body, neither does he know how the Lord operates upon all parts of the mind or soul, that is, upon all the faculties of his spirit. The operation is continual ; man has no part in it ; yet the Lord cannot purify man from any lust of evil resident in his spirit or internal man, so long as man keeps the external closed. — 96 THE SWEDENBORG LIIiltARY. Many suppose that a mere belief in what the church teaclies, purifies man from evils ; some, that doing good purifies; some, that knowing, talking about and teach- ing the things that belong to the church does so ; some, that reading the Word and pious books purifies ; others, that frequenting churches, listening to preaching, and especially partaking of the Holy Supper, purify ; some, that renouncing the world and studying piety; and others, that to confess themselves guilty of all sins, purifies them ; and so on. Yet all of these do not purify man in the least, unless he examines himself, sees his sins, acknowledges them, condemns himself for them, and repents by abstaining from them ; and all this as of himself, yet with the heart's acknowledgment that he does it from the Lord. Before this is done, the actions above mentioned are of uo service ; for they are either meritorious or hypocritical. — But it must be well understood, that a man about to repent ought to look to the Lord alone. If he looks only to God the Father, he cannot be purified ; nor if he looks to the Father for sake of the Son ; nor if to the Son as a mere man. For there is one God, and the Lord is He, — His Divinity and Humanity being one Person, as shown in the New Church Doctrine of the Lord. — V. — It is the constant effort of the Lord's Divine Prov- idence to unite man to Himself, and Himself to man, so that He may be able to give man the happiness of eternal life, which is possible only so far as evils with their lusts U.\WX Wiril GOD IS SALVATIOy. 97 are removed. — "Who does not see that union with God is life eternal and salvation ? All see it, who believe that men are by creation images and likenesses of God (Gen. i. 26, 27), and who know what an image and likeness of God is. Who that is possessed of sound reason, when he thinks from his own rationality, and is willing to think from his own liberty, can believe that there are three Gods equal in essence, and that the Divine Being or the Divine Essence cau be divided '? The existence of a Trine in one God is conceivable and comprehen- sible, as in angel and man the existence of soul, body, and the outgoing of life from them. And as this trine in one exists only in the Lord, it follows that there must be union with Him. Exercise your rationality, together with your liberty of thinking, and you will see this truth in its own light. But first admit the existence of God, the existence of heaven and the fact of eternal life. Now as God is one, while man by creation is made an image and likeness of Him ; and as by infernal love and its lusts and their delights man has acquired the love of all evils, and has thereby destroyed in him- self the image and likeness of God, it follows that it is the continual effort of the Lord's Divine Providence to unite man to Himself and Himself to man, and thus to make man his image. That the object of this is to en- able the Lord to give to man the happiness of eternal life also follows, for such is the nature of divine love. But He cannot give man this happiness, nor make him 9 G 98 THE SWEDESBORG LIBRAHY. an image of Himself, unless man as of himself removes sins in the external man, because the Lord is not only divine love, but also divine wisdom ; and the divine love does nothing, unless from its own divine wisdom and according to it. — Tlie Lord acts from inmosts and from idtimates simid- iancously, because thus only are the whole and the parts held in connection ; for intermediates have a successive dependence from inmosts even to ultimates, and in ulti- mates they [all] exist simultaneously. In the ultimates there is a simultaneous existence of all things from the very first. It is for this reason also that the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, came into the world, and there assumed and clotlied Himself with a Humanity in ulti- mates, in order that He might be from primaries, and at the same time in ultimates; and so from primaries through ultimates govern the entire world, and thus save the man whom, according to the laws of his Di- vine Providence (which again are the laws of his Di- vine Wisdom) He can save. Thus no mortal could have been saved, unless the Lord had come into the world. Therefore it is tiiat He is called the First and tlie Last. These angelic arcana are premised to make it com- prehensible how the Lord's Diviue Providence operates to unite man to Himself and Himself to man. This takes place in no particular part of man separately, unless in all parts of him simultaneously ; and it is efl'ectcd from man's inmosts and ultimates simulta- THE LORD ACTS FROM IXilOSTS. 99 neously. Man's inmost is his life's love, and the ulti- mates are the contents of his external thought ; inter- mediates are what belong to his internal thought ; the character of them in a wicked man has been previously shown. From these remarks it is again plain that the Lord cannot act from inmosts and ultiniates simulta- neously, unless together with man ; for man is with the Lord in ultimates. Therefore as man acts in ultimates, which are at his disposal because subject to his liberty, so does the Lord act from inmosts, and upon what suc- ceeds them even to ultimates. The things contained in man's inmosts, and in what succeeds them down to ultimates, are wholly unknown to man ; and therefore man is wholly ignorant of how the Lord there operates, and what He does ; but as those things are connected with ultimates, as one with them, therefore it is un- necessary for man to know anything more than that lie should shun evils as sins, and look to the Lord. Thus, and in no other way, can his life's love which is from birth infernal, be removed by the Lord, and a heavenly life's love be implanted in its place. When a heavenly life's love has been implanted in man by the Lord in place of an infernal life's love, then in the place of lusts for the evil and false, are im- planted affections for the good and true ; and in the place of the delights of lusts for the evil and the false, are implanted the delights of affections for the good ; and in place of the evils of infernal love, are implanttd the good of heavenly love. Then instead of cunning is 100 THE SWEDENDORG LIBRARY. implanted prudence, and instead of wicked tlionghta are implanted wise thoughts. Thus is man born again, and becomes a new creature. Who does not know from the Word that a man's lot in the life after death is according to his deeds? Open the Word, read it, and you will see this clearly ; but then remove your thoughts from faith, and justification by it alone. That the Lord teaches this everywhere in his Word, take these few examples as testimony : " Every tree that bringeih not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Matt. vii. 19, 20. "Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not proph- esied in thy name? . . and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye that work in- iquity." Matt. vii. 22, 23. " Therefore whosoever hear- eth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock : . . and evei y one that lieareth these sayings of mine and doclh l/icm not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand." Matt. vii. 24, 26 ; Luke vi. 4G-49. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, . . and then he shall reward every man according to his works." "And [Jesus] said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the Word of God, and do it." Luke viii. 21. — " He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that lovcth me, . . and I will love him;. . . TIV/O REALLY LOVE THE LORD. 101 and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John xiv. 21, 23. (See also 15, 24.) " Ye are my friends, if ye do what- soever I command you." — Also John v. 29 ; ix. 31 ; xiii. 17 ; xv. 14, 16 ; Luke xiii. 25-27 ; Rev. ii. 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19 ; iii. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 14, 15, 19 ; xiv. 13 ; XX. 12, 13 ; xxii. 12; Jer. vii. 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11. (D. P., n. 100-128.) 9* VIL IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN'S THOUGHT AND WILL IN MATTERS OF RELIGION, SHOULD NOT BE COMPELLED BY EXTERNAL MEANS VERY one knows that no man's thought can be compelled to act against his will, nor his will against his thought : nor can he be forced to believe what he does not believe, and by no means to believe anything against his will ; nor to love what he does not love, and by no means to love against his will. — He may be compelled to say that he thinks thus and so, and that his will favors this or that; that he believes in it and loves it ; yet if it is not or does not become a matter of his affection, and consequently of his reason, he does not think so ; his will does not favor it ; he does not believe and love it. He may even be compelled to speak in favor of religion, and to act ac- cordingly ; but he cannot be compelled to think in favor of it, with any faith in it, nor to favor it in will with any love for it. Moreover, in kingdoms, where justice and judgment are guarded, any one may be compelled to say nothing against religion, and to do nothing against it ; yet no one can be compelled in thought and will to favor it For in every one's liberty is the power 102 MIHACLES DO XOT REI-Oinf. 103 of thought and volition in favor of hell, as well as in I'avor of heaven. But reason teaches the character of each state, and the lot which awaits it; and from reason the will has its choice to take either. From this it will be seen that the external cannot compel the internal. Nevertheless this is sometimes done ; but that it is de- structive will be demonstrated as follows: — I. — Xo one is reformed bij miracles and si(/ns, because they are compulsory. — It cannot be denied but that mir- acles induce faith, and powerfully persuade that what he who performs the mii-acles says and teaches, is true. And at first this state so occupies a man's external thought, as, in a manner, to bind and fascinate it. . But he is thereby deprived of his two faculties called ration- ality and liberty, which give him the power to act from freedom according to reason ; and then the Lord cannot flow in through his internal into his external thought, only so far as to leave him to confirm by his rationality that which by a miracle has been made a matter of his faith. The nature of man's thought is such, that from his internal thought he sees a subject in his external thought as iu a kind of mirror; for a man can see liis own thought, which would not be possible unless from a more interior thought. And when he sees the subject as in a mirror, he can also turn it this way or that, and shape it until it appears to him beautiful. And if the subject is truth, it may be compared to a beautiful and living virgin or youth. But if a man cannot turn the subject this way or that, and shape it, but only believe 104 THE SWEDENnonCi LIBRARY. iu it under the persuasion of a miracle, theu, if it is truth, it may be compared to a virgin or youth carved in wood or stone in which there is no life ; it may also be compared to an object which is constantly before the eye — itself alone visible, and hiding all that is at either side or behind it. — Such blindness is induced upon the human mind by miracles. It is the same with everything confirmed, which is not first looked into with some rationality. From this it may be seen that faith induced by mir- acles is not faith, but persuasion ; for there is nothing rational in it, still less anything spiritual ; it is only an external without an internal. It is the same with everything which man does from that persuasive faith whether he acknowledges God, worsliips Him at home or in churches, or does good. When only miracles lead liira to the acknowledgment of God, to worship and piety, he acts from the natural man, not from the spir- itual. For a miracle induces faith by an external, not by an internal way — thus from the world, and not fi-om heaven ; and the Lord enters into man by the in- ternal way only, which is by the Word and doctrine and preaching from it. And because miracles close this way, at this day there are no miracles. That such is the nature of miracles is very evident from the miracles wrought before the Jewish people. They, although they had seen so many miracles in the land of Egypt, and afterwards at the Red Sea, and others in the desert, and especially at Mount Sinai THE GOOD THINK FROM THE LORD. 105 \\ lieu the law was promulgated, nevertheless within one month, wliile Moses tarried upon that mountain, they made themselves a golden calf, and acknowledged it as the Lord who led them forth from the land of Egypt. (Ex. xxxii. 4, 5, 6.) Then again, from the miracles afterwards wrought in the land of Canaan ; and never- theless they as often departed from the worship com- manded them. It is equally evident from the miracles which the Lord wrought before them when He was in the world ; and yet they crucified Him. Miracles were j^erformed among them because the Jews were altogether external men, and were introduced into the land of Ca- naan in order merely to represent a church and its in- ternals by the externals of worship (and a bad man may represent anything just as well as a good one); for externals are rituals, all of which among them signified things spiritual and celestial. — But the effect of miracles upon the evil and upon the good is different. The good do not desire miracles, but they believe in those recorded in the Word ; and if they hear something about miracles, they regard it only as an argument of no great weight, which confirms their faith ; for they think from the Word, that is from the Lord, and not from miracles. It is otherwise with the wicked. They may actually be driven and forced to belief by miracles, and even to worship and piety, but only for a little while; for their evils are thereby shut in, the lusts of which and their delights act con- tinually upon their external worship and piety ; and in 106 THE SWEDENIiOHG LIBRARY. order to get out of their confinement and break away, they think about the miracle, and finally call it a trick or artifice, or a work of nature, and so return to their evils. And he who after worship returns to his evils, profanes the good and true iu w^orship ; and the lot after death of those who i)rofane, is the worst of all. These are they who are meant by the Lord's words in Matt. xii. 43-45, whose last state becomes worse than the first. Moreover, if miracles were to take place among those who do not believe from the miracles iu the Word, they would take place continually, and before the eyes of all such persons. From this it may be seen why miracles do not take place at the present day. II. — No one is reformed by visions and conversations with the departed, because they are compulsory. Visions are of two kinds, divine and diabolical. Divine visions are produced by representatives in heaven ; diabolical visions by the magic of hell. There are also fantastic visions which are illusions of abstracted minds. Divine visions, which are produced by the representatives iu heaven, are such as took place with the prophets, who when iu vision were not in the body, but in spirit. For visions cannot appear to any man iu the waking states of the body. Therefore when they did appear to the prophets, they are said to have been then iu spirit as is evident from the following passages: Ezek. i. 10; viii. 3 ; xi. 1, 24 ; xl. to xlviii., xliii. 5 ; Zech. i. 8 ; v. 18 ; ii. 1 ; iv. 1 ; v. 1-6 ; vi. 1 ; Dan. vii. 1, 2, 7, 13; viii. 2; ix. 21 ; Rev. i. 12-16 ; v., vi., viii., ix., xii., xvii., xviii., CONVEnSATIONS WITH THE DEPARTED. 107 six., xxi., xxii. — That John saw the things he describes iu spiritual vision, is stated. Rev. i. 10 ; iv. 2 ; v. 1 ; vi. 1 ; xxi. 1, 2. Such were the visions which appeared to the propliets from heaven before their spiritual not their bodily sight. Such visions do not take place at the present day, for if they did they would not be understood ; because they are formed by means of representatives, the particulars of which signify the internal things of the church and the mysteries of heaven. Moreover, it was foretold by Daniel (ix. 24), that they would cease after the Lord's advent. But diabolical tTsIons have sometimes ap- peared, induced by enthusiastic and visionary spirits, who, from the delirium that possessed them, called them- selves the Holy Spirit. From this it is plain that no one can be reformed by any other visions than those in the AYord. There are also fantastic visions, but these are mere illusions of abstracted minds. That neither is any cue reformed by conversations with the departed, may be seen from the Lord's words concerning the rich man in hell, and Lazarus in Abra- ham's bosom ; Luke xvi. 27-31. Conversation with the dead would produce the same effect as miracles ; that is, a man would be persuaded and compelled to worship for a little while ; but as this deprives him of rationality, and at the same time shuts in his evils, this spell or in- ternal bond is loosed, and the imprisoned evils break out with blasphemy and profanation. But this takes place only when spirits fasten upon man some religious 108 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. dogma, which is never done by any good spirit, still less by an angel of heaven. Yet there does take place conversation with spirits, though rarely with the angels of heaven ; and it has existed with many for centuries. But when it takes place, they speak with man in his mother tongue, and only a few words. But they who speak by the Lord's permission never say anything which takes away man's reason ; nor do they teach. The Lord alone teaches man, but mediately by enlightenment through the Word. The truth of this I have been taught by per- sonal experience. I have conversed with angels and spirits now for several years ; nor has any spirit dared, nor any angel desired, to say anything to me, still less to instruct me, about anything in the Word, or about anything doctrinal drawn from the Word ; but the Lord alone has taught me, who has been revealed to me, and has since appeared constantly before my eyes, and does yet, as a Sun, in which He is (just as He appears to the angels), and has enlightened me. HL — No one is reformed bif threats and puniahments, because they are eompulsory. It is known that the ex- ternal cannot force the internal ; but the internal can force the external ; also that the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external, as to turn itself away from it. It is also known that external delights allure the internal to consent and love ; it may also be known that there exists a forced internal and a free. But all these facts, though known, need illustration. — LOVE CANSOT BE COMPELLED. 109 1st. The external cannot force the internal, but the in- ternal can force the external. Who can be compelled to believe and love ? One can no more be compelled to be- lieve than he can to think a thing is so, when he does not think so ; and he can no more be compelled to love, than his will can be forced contrary to his will ; for faith is a matter of thonght, and love of will. But the internal may be compelled by the external not to speak ill of the laws of the kingdom, the moralities of life, and the sanctities of the church. Thus far the internal may be compelled by threats and punishments; and moreover is, and ought to be. But this is not the truly human internal ; it is that which man has in common with animals, which may also be compelled. The hu- man internal resides above this animal internal. It is the human internal which is here meant, and which cannot be compelled. 2d. The internal is so averse to compulsion by the ex- ternal as to turn itself away from it. This is because the internal desires to be in freedom, and loves freedom ; for freedom is of man's love or life. Therefore when freedom feels itself under compulsion, it withdraws as it were within itself, and turns itself away, and looks upon compulsion as its enemy. For love which con- stitutes man's life, feels exasperated and causes the man to think that he is not his own, and consequently does not live his own life. That such is the nature of man's internal, arises from the law of the Divine Providence, that man should act from freedom according to reason. 10 110 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. From tliis it is plain that it is injurious to force men to Divine worship by threats and punishments. But there are some who allow themselves to be forced into religion, and some who do not. Among those who do, are many of the papal nations ; but this takes place Avith those in whose worship there is nothing internal, but all is external. Among those who will not endure compulsion, are many of the English nation ; from which comes the existence of an internal in their wor- ship, and what is external in it is from the internal. Their interiors with reference to religion, appear in spiritual light like bright clouds; while those of the former appear in the light of heaven like dark clouds. Both facts are to be seen in the spiritual world; and any one who wishes will see them when he goes to that world after death. Moreover, forced worship shuts in evils, which then lie hidden like fire in wood under ashes, which continually works and spreads until it breaks out in flames ; while worship not forced, but spontaneous, does not shut in evils, which are therefore like fires that burn out instantly and then cease. 3d. External delights allure the internal to consent, and also to love. Delights are of two kinds — of the understanding and of the will ; those of the under- standing are delights of wisdom, and those of the will are delights of love ; for wisdom belongs to the under- standing, and love to the will. Now as the delights of the body and its senses, which are external delights, act as one with internal delights which belong to the uu- A FREE AND A FORCED INTERNAL. Ill dcrstaudiug and will, it follows that as the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external as to turn it- ^^elf away from it, so does it look favorably upon delight in the external, even so far as to turn itself to it; tlius arises consent on the part of the understanding, and love on the part of the will. All infants in the spir- itual world are introduced by the Lord into wisdom, and thereby into heavenly love, by means of things delightful and pleasing; first by things beautiful in their homes, and by what is pleasing in gardens ; then by representatives of things spiritual, which affect tlie interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by tlie truths of wisdom, and so by the good of love — tlius continually by delights in their order; first by tlie delights of love in the understanding and its wis- dom ; then by the delights of love in the will, which love becomes their life's love, to which everytliing else tiiat has entered by delight is kept in subordination. This takes place because the whole of the understand- ing and will must be formed by the external before it is formed by the internal ; for it is formed first by means of what enters through the bodily senses, espe- cially through sight and hearing; and when the first understanding and will are formed, then internal thongiit regards them as the external of its thought, and either unites with them or separates from them ; unites with them if they are delightful to it, and separates from them if they are not. — 4th. There exists a forced udernul and a free. A for<;ed 112 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. internal exists with those who are in external worship only, and in no internal worship ; for their internal is to think and desire that to which their external is forced. These are they who worship men, living and dead, and consequently worship idols, and build their faith upon miracles. This class has no internal but what is like their external. But with those who are in internal worship there also exists a forced internal, either from fear or from love ; an internal forced by fear exists in those who are afraid of hell-fire and its torment, but this internal is not the internal of thought, of which we have before treated, but the external, which is here called the internal because it belongs to thought. The internal of thought, before treated of, cannot be forced by fear at all, but may by love and by fear of the loss of love. The fear of God in the true sense is no other. Compulsion by love and by fears for its loss, is self- compulsion, which is not contrary to liberty and ration- ality, as will be seen hereafter. From this will appear the nature of forced worship, and of worship not forced. Forced worship is corporeal, lifeless, gloomy and sad ; corporeal, because it belongs to the body and not to the mind ; lifeless, because there is no life within it ; gloomy, because the understanding is not in it; and sad, because the joy of heaven is not in it. But unforced worship when it is genuine, is spiritual, living, bright and happy; spiritual, because the spirit within it is from the Lord ; living, because there is life within it from the Lord ; bright, because STATES THAT HINDER EEFORMATION. 113 there is wisdom in it from the Lord ; and happy, be- cause there is heaven in it from the Lord. IV. — No one is reformed in states that are not of rationality and liberty. — As no man can be reformed and regenerated unless the good is appropriated to his will so as to seem his own, and the true to his under- standing so as to seem his own also ; and as nothing can be appropriated to any one, except what his under- standing adopts from freedom of will according to reason, it follows that no one is reformed in states that are not of rationality and liberty. The states that are not of liberty and rationality are many, but in general they may be referred to the following : states of fear, of misfortune, of disordered feelings, of bodily disease, of ignorance, and of intellectual blindness. But some- thing shall be said of each state in particular. No one is reformed in states of fear, because fear takes away freedom and reason, or liberty and ration- alit)'-. For love opens the mind's interiors, but fear closes them ; and when they are closed man thinks but little, and only of what tiien presents itself to his feel- ings or senses. All fears which take possession of the mind have this effect. Man has an internal and an ex-' ternal of thought. Fear can never take possession of the internal of thought; this is always in freedom, be- cause in its life's love. But fear can take possession of the external of thought, and when it does, the internal is closed ; and then man can no longer act from freedom according to his reason, thus cannot be reformed. The 10* H 114 THE SWEDEiXnoUG LIURARY. fear which takes possession of the external of thought and closes the internal, is especially the fear of the loss of honor or wealth ; but the fear of civil punishments and of external ecclesiastical punishments does not close the internal of thought, because these laws only declare penalties against those who speak and act con- trary to the civil interests of the kingdom and the spir- itual interests of the church, not against those who think in opposition to them. The fear of infernal punishment does indeed take possession of the external of thought, but only for a few moments, hours, or days ; and the ex- ternal of thought is soon restored to the freedom it de- rives from the internal of thought, which is proper to its life's love, and is called the heart's thought. But fear of the loss of honor and wealth seizes the external of man's thought ; and when it does so, it closes the internal of thought from above against influx from heaven, and renders man's reformation impossible. This is because every man's life's love is by birth the love of self and the world ; and the love of self makes one with the love of honor, while the love of the world makes one with the love of wealth. Therefore when man has acquired honor or wealth, for fear of losing them he strengthens in himself the means subservient to them, which are either civil or ecclesiastical, and in both cases means of power. — But as the loves of self and the world arc infernal loves, and are the fouutaia- lieads of all evils, the character of internal thought in itself, with those in whom these are the life's loves or FEAR AXD MISFORTUNE HINDER. 115 the ruliug loves, is obvious, viz. : that it is full of the lusts of all kinds of evil. They are ignorant of this, who for fear of the loss of dignity and opulence are strongly persuaded of their religious principle, espe- cially of that which inculcates a worship of thera as deities, and at the same time as the gods of hell. These are capable of a burning zeal, apparently for the salva- tion of souls ; and yet it is from infernal fire. As this fear especially takes away rationality itself and liberty itself, which are in their origin heavenly, it manifestly prevents the possibility of man's regeneration. No one is reformed in states of misfortune, if he thinks of God only then, and implores his aid, because this is a forced state; therefore when the man enters a state of freedom, he returns to his former state in which he had thought little if anything about God. It is other- wise with those who in the previous state of freedom feared God. By the fear of God is meant the fear of offending Him, and to offend Him is to sin ; and this is not a state of fear, but of love. Does not any one who loves another fear to do him wrong ? and fear it more, the more he loves? Without this fear, love is tasteless and superficial — a mere matter of thought without will. By states of misfortune are meant states of desperation from danger, as in battles, duels, ship- wrecks, falls, fires; sudden and unexpected loss of wealth, of office and its honors ; and other things of the same kind. To think of God under such circum- stances only, is not from God but from self For the 116 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. mind is then, as it were, imprisoned in the body ; thus not in a state of liberty or rationality, without which there is no reformation. No one is reformed in states of disordered feeling, be- cause they take away rationality, and consequently freedom of action according to reason. For the mind is sick aud unsound : and a sound mind is rational, but a sick mind is not. Such disordered conditions are melancholy, a false and spurious conscience, various hallucinations, depi-ession of spirits from misfortune, anxiety and mental suffering arising from a vitiated physical condition. This latter state is sometimes mis- taken for temptation, but it is not ; because genuine temptation has spiritual objects in view, and in it the mind is wise ; while that state has natural objects in view, and in it the mind is unsound. No one is reformed in states of bodily disease, because reason is not then in a state of freedom ; for the state of the mind depends on that of tlie body. When the body is sick, the mind is sick also — if not otherwise, yet by removal from the world ; for the mind removed from the world, though it thinks of God, does not think from God, because it does not possess freedom of reason. Man possesses freedom of reason from the fact that he is midway between heaven and the world, and may think from both, or of the world from heaven, or of heaven from the world. Therefore when man is in a state of sickness, and thinks of death and of his soul's state after death, he is not then in the world ; he is abstracted in IGNORANCE HINDERS 117 spirit, and in this state only no man can be reformed ; but liis state may be confirmed if he was reformed be- fore his sickness. It is the same with those who give up the world and all its affairs, and give themselves solely to the contemplation of God, heaven and salva- tion. Therefore these persons, if not reformed before their sickness, afterwards, if they die, become such as they were before. It is, therefore, a mistake to suppose that any man can repent or receive any degree of faith in sickness ; for there is nothing done in that repent- ance, and there is no charity in that faith ; thus both belong wholly to the lips, and not at all to the heart. No one is reformed in a state of ignorance, because all reformation is effected by truths and a life accord- ing to them ; consequently they who are ignorant of truths cannot be reformed ; but if they desire to un- derstand truth from an aftection for it, they are reformed after death in the spiritual world. Nor can any one be reformed in a state of intellectual blindness. Men in this state are also ignorant of truths, and consequently of life ; for the understanding is to teach truth, and the will is to act accordingly; and when the will does what the understanding teaches, then its life becomes accordant with truth. But when the understanding is blind, the will is also closed up, and acts from freedom according to its reason only in prac- tising the evil confirmed in the understanding, which evil is also the fiilse. In addition to ignorance, a religion which inculcates a blind faith also darkens the under- 118 THE SWEDENBOIiG LIBRARY. standing. So also does false doctrine ; for as truth opens the understanding, so does falsity close it ; it closes the higher region, but opens the lower ; and the under standing open below only, cannot see truth, but can only confirm whatever it wishes, especially falsity. The lusts of evil also darken the understanding; so long as the will is in evil, it employs the understanding to con- firm it ; and so far as the lusts of evil are confirmed, the will cannot be in affection for the good, and from this see truth, and so be reformed. For example : who- ever is in the lust of adultery, his will, which is in the delight of its love, employs the understanding to con- firm it, saying. What is adultery? Is there any harm in it? Is not intercourse between man and wife the same? What has spirituality in common with mar- riage? So argues the understanding, which is then the will's prostitute, and has become so stupefied by debauchery with the will, that it cannot see that con- jugial love is spiritually-celestial love itself, which is an image of the love of the Lord and the church (from which, moreover, it is derived), and thus that it is essentially sacred, is chastity itself, purity and inno- cence; and that it makes men loves in form. — Adultery destroys tliis form, and with it the image of the Lord. And as adultery is profane, therefore hell is called adultery, and heaven on the other hand is called mar- riage. Moreover, the love of adultery communicates with the lowest hell, while love truly coujugial com- municates with the highest heaven. — SELF-COMPULSrON NECESSARY. 119 Y. — Self-eompnUion is not contrary to rationalify and liberty. Man's thought has an internal and an external, which are distinct as prior and posterior, or as higher and lower. These act separately when man's words and actions from the external of thought are at vari- ance with his interior thought and will ; and they act unitedly when man says what he thinks and does what he wishes. This is generally the case with the sincere, but that with the insincere. Now since the mind's in- ternal and external are thus distinct, the internal may fight with the external, and by conflict force it to har- monize. Conflict arises when man regards evils as sins, and wishes to abstain from them ; for when he abstains the door is opened, and then the lusts of evil, which possessed the internal thought, are expelled by the Lord, and affections for the good are implanted in their place. This takes place iu the internal of thought. But as the delights of the lusts of evil, which occupy the external of thought, cannot be sim- ultaneously expelled, therefore conflict arises between the internal and the external of thought ; the former desiring to expel those delights, and to introduce in their place the delights of good. The good's delight ' is what is called the good of charity. From this con- trariety arises conflict, which if severe is called tempta- tion. Now as man is man from the internal of his thought (for this is man's very spirit), it is evident that he compels himself when he forces the external of his thought into harmony, or compels it to receive the 120 THE SWEDEWnORO LIBRARY. delights of its affections, whicli are the good of charity. That this is not contrary to liberty and rationality, but in accordance with thera, is plain ; for rationality raises the conflict, and liberty carries it on. Moreover, liberty itself, together with rationality, resides in the in- ternal man, and from this in the external. Wiien, there- fore, the internal conquers, as it does when it reduces the external to harmony and obedience, then man is gifted by the Lord with liberty itself and rationality itself; for man is then withdrawn by the Lord from infernal freedom, which is essentially bondage, and is introduced into heavenly freedom, which is real freedom, and is associated with angels. (John viii. 31-36.) This may be illustrated by the example of a man ■who has taken delight in fraud and secret theft, and afterwards sees and internally acknowledges that they are sins, and therefore wishes to abstain from them. When he does so, a conflict arises between his internal and external man. The internal man has an affection for sincerity, but the external man still takes delight in fraud; whicli (leli<;iit, bccau.se it is totally opposed to a delight in sincerity, does not yield unless compelled, nor can it be compelled to do so unless by conflict. And then, when the internal man conquers, the exter- nal finds delight in the love of sincerity, which is charity : afterwards his delight in fraud gradually becomes distasteful. It is the same with other sins, as with adultery, fornication, revenge, hatred, blas- phemy and lying. But the most difficult conflict of SPIRITUAL CONFLICT. 121 all is with the love of rule originating in self-love. He who subdues this, easily subdues all other evil loves, because this is their chief. So soon as man upon examination acknowledges evils as sins against God, because contrary to divine laws, and therefore wishes to desist from them, the Lord opens his spiritual mind, and enters into the nat- ural through affections for the true and good, and enters into the rational faculty, and from that disposes in order what is contrary to order in the natural mind below. This is what appears to man as conflict, and in those who have largely indulged in the delights of evil, as temptation : for the man's nature suffers when the order of his thoughts is inverted. Now as the conflict is with what is in the man himself and with what he feels as his own, and as no one can contend with him- self unless from an interior self and from freedom there, it follows that the internal man is then in conflict with the external, and this from freedom, and that he forces the external to obedience ; and this is self-compulsion. That it is not contrary to liberty and rationality, but in accordance with them, is evident. ^Moreover, every man desires to be free, and to release himself from restraint or bondage. — All who serve voluntarily for the sake of liberty force themselves to do so ; and when they force themselves they act from freedom according to reason — but from interior free- dom, from which exterior freedom is regarded as a servant. 11 122 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. Man is not equally desirous of passing from spiritual bondage to spiritual liberty : First, because he does not know what either spiritual bondage or spiritual freedom is. He is not in possession of the truths which teach this ; and without truths spiritual bondage is believed to be freedom, and spiritual freedom, bondage. Sec- ondly, because the religion of the Christian world has closed up the understanding, and faith alone has sealed it ; for every church has built about itself like a wall of iron this dogma, that theology transcends the under- standing, and is therefore not to be approached by reason at all, and is for the blind, not for those who see. By this means the truths which would teach the nature of spiritual liberty are hidden from sight. Thirdly, because few examine themselves, and see their sins; and he who does not see his sins and desist from them, is in the freedom of sin, which is infernal freedom, in itself bondage; and from this to see heavenly freedom, which is freedom itself, is like seeing the day in dark- ness, or like seeing from beneath a black cloud that which is from the sun above it. For these reasons the nature of heavenly freedom is not known ; nor the fact of a distinction between it and infernal freedom like that between the living and the dead. VI. — The external man must be reformed THROUGH THE INTERNAL, AND NOT THE REVERSE. The reformation of the external by the internal means the influx of the internal into the external, and not the reverse. That there is an influx I'rom the spiritual into STAGES OF REFORMATION. 123 the natural, and not the reverse, is known in tlie learned world ; and that the internal man must first be purified and renewed, and thus the external, is known in the church. This is known because the Lord so teaches and reason so dictates. The Lord teaches it in these words : " Woe unto you, . . hypocrites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also." U-Ait. xxiii. 25, 26.— But how the internal man is reformed, and through it the external, shall be briefly explained. The internal man is not reformed by knowledge, intelligence and wisdom alone, consequently not by thought alone ; but by the agreement of his will with what his knowledge, intelligence and wisdom teach. When man has the knowledge, intelligence and wisdom to see that there is a heaven and a hell, and that all evil is from hell and all good from heaven, if his will is then opposed to evil because it is from hell, and inclines to good because it is from heaven, he is then in the first stage of reforma- tion, and has taken the first step from hell towards heaven. When he advances further, and wishes to cease to do evil, he is in the second stage of reforma- tion, and is then outside of hell, but not yet in heaven, which he sees above him. This internal state is neces- sary to his reformation ; but unless the external and the internal both are reformed, the man is not reformed. 124 THE SWEDENBORG LTBItARY. Tlie external is reformed by the internal when it ceases to do the evil which the internal o])poses in will because it is infernal, and still more when it therefore shuns and fights against it. Thus the internal is volition, and the external action : for if a man's will is not embodied in action, there is within it an unwillingness, and finally the desire ceases altogether. From these few state- ments it may be seen how the external man is reformed through the internal. — Since man possesses an internal and an external, and both must be reformed in order that the man may be reformed ; and as no man can be reformed unless he examines himself, sees and acknowledges his evils, and afterwards abstains from them, it follows that not only the external must be examined, but also the internal. If the external only is examined, he sees only what he has actually done, as that he has not committed murder, adultery or theft, nor borne false witness, and so on. He thus examines his bodily evils, but not those of his spirit ; and yet the latter must be examined in order that any one may be reformed. For after death man lives as a spirit, and all the evils which are in his spirit remain ; and the spirit cannot be examined un- less by man's observing his own thoughts, .especially his intentions; for these are the will's thoughts. Here exist evils in their origin and root — that is, in their lusts and delights ; and unless these are seen and ac- knowledged, man is still in evils, although he has not externally practised them. That thouglit from inten- BLINDING EFFECT OF FAITH ALOXE. 125 tion is will and action, is plain from the Lord's words : " Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matt. V. 28. Such is the examination of the internal man, by which the external man is essentially exam- ined. I have often wondered that, although the whole Christian world knows that evils ought to be shunned a;5 sins, and that otherwise they are not forgiven, and if not there is no salvation ; yet hardly one in a thou- sand is aware of this. Inquiry was made in the spir- itual world, and this was found to be the case. — I have also wondered that the doctrine of faith alone so closed tlie eyes, that when they who adhere to it read the Word, they see nothing that is there said of love, charity and works. It is as if they had painted the word " faith " over the whole Word, just as one might cover writing with red paint, so that nothing which is beneath it can appear ; and if anything does appear, it is absorbed by faith, and they say it is faith. 11* VIII. IT IS A LAW OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN BE LED AND TAUGHT BY THE LORD THROUGH THE WORD. — Man is led and taught by the Lord alone. To say that man is led aud taught by the Lord alone, is to say that he lives from the Lord alone; for his life's will is led, and his life's understanding is taught. But this is contrary to the appearance ; for to himself man seems to live from himself, while the truth is that he lives from the Lord and not from himself. He cannot- receive, while in the world, a sensible perception of the fact that he lives from the Lord alone, since the appearance of his living from himself is not taken away from him, for without thi.s he would not be man. That man lives from the Lord alone, and not from himself, is established by the following arguments: — 1st. There is one only essence, one only substance, and one only form, the origin of all created essences, substances and j'orins. Who cannot rationally apprehend and ac- knowledge that there is one only essence the source of all essence, or one only Being (esse) the source of all being? Can anything possess existence without being? and what is the being which is the source of all being, 12o ABSOL UTE BEING. 127 unless absolute Being? And absolute Being is also the only Being, and is Being in itself. What, then, fol- lows but that this Being which is the absolutely Divine, which is Jehovah, is the all-in-all of everything that has being and existence. It is the same to say that there is an only substance, the source of all things ; and inasmuch as a substance without form is nothing, it follows, also, that there is an only form, the source of all things. The Sun of the angelic heaven is that only substance and form. 2d. That one only essence, substance and form is the Divine Love and Wisdom, the origin of all things which relate to love and wisdom in man. Whatever has the appearance of life in man relates to his will and un- derstanding. — And since his will is according to what he loves, and his thouglit according to what he under- stands, it follows that all things of the will relate to love, and all things of the understanding to wisdom ; and since these two faculties can exist in no man from himself, but only from Him Avho is love itself and wis- dom itself, it follows that they are from the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah. If this were not their origin, man would be love itself and wisdom itself, therefore God from eternity, at which human reason itself shudders. Can anything exist, unless from something prior to itself? Can this again exist, unless from something prior to itself also? and thus finally, unless from the First, which is iu Itself. 3d. It is also the absohdchj Good and True to which 128 THE SWEDENIiORG LIBItARY. all things relate. Everyone possessed of reason accepts and acknowledges tlie truth, that God is the absolutely Good and True, and that everything good and true is from Him ; and, tlierefore, that everything good and true can have no other origin than the absolutely Good and True. This is acknowledged by every rational man the moment he hears it. Again, when it is stated that the whole of the will and understanding, or of love and wisdom, or of affection and thought, in the man who is led by the Lord, relates to the good and true, it fol- lows that all the activity of man's will and understand- ing, or of his love and wisdom, or of his affection and thought, is from the Lord. Therefore it is that every man in the chui-ch knows that everything good and true coming from man is not really good and true, but only that which comes from the Lord. Since this is the truth, it follows that all there is in the will and thought of such a man is from the Lord. 4th. It is the Life from which comes the life of all things, and all the things of life. All of man's life belongs to his love and thought, for if deprived of these he ceases to live. Now as all will and under- standing, or all love and thought, in man are from the Lord, it follows that all life is from Him. 5th. This Only and Absolute is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. For this reason every one wherever he may be thinks God present with him, and prays to Him as present ; and since every one so thinks and prays, it follows that they are unable to think of God except as THE D 1 1 INE Til IM T Y. 129 being everywhere, that is, omnipresent, and in like manner that He is omniscient and omnipotent. There- fore every one praying in his heart to God, implores his guidance because He is able to guide. Thus every one then acknowledges the divine omnipresence, omnisci- ence and omnipotence; which he does because he then turns his face to the Lord, and then that truth is influ- ent from Him. 6th. This Only and Absolute is the Lord from ctamitij, or Jehovah. It is shown in the New Church Doctrine of the Lord, that God is One in essence and in person, and that this God is the Lord ; that the Divinity itself, which is called Jehovah the Father, is the Lord from eternity ; that the Divine Humanity is the Son con- ceived from his Divinity from eternity, and born in the world ; and that the proceeding Divinity is the Holy Spirit.— That the Lord alone has life, is plain from these pas- sages in the Word : " I am the i-esurrection and the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." John xi. 25. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John xiv. 6. " The Word was God. . . In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John i. 4. " The Word " there means the Lord. " For as the Father liath life in himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself." John v. 26. That mau is led and taught by the Lord alone is shown in the fol- lowing : " Without me ye can do nothing." John xv. 5. " A man can receive nothing, except it be given him I 130 THE SWEDEXDOEG LIBltAIlY. from heaven." John iii. 27. "Thou canst not make one hair white or black." Matt. v. 36. A hair in the Word signifies the least of all things. The life of the wicked also is from the same origin. From the sun of the world flow heat and light ; and they are shed alike upon trees which bear good and upon those which bear bad fruit, and alike they are quickened and grow. The forms into which the heat flows, not the heat itself, cause this diversity. It is the same with light, which appears in various colors ac- cording to the forms into which it flows. Some colors are beautiful and pleasing, while some are ugly and disagreeable ; yet the light is the same. It is the same with the influx of spiritual heat which is essentially love, and of spiritual light which is essentially wisdom, from the Sun of the spiritual world. The forms into which they flow produce diversity, but not the heat and light which are essentially love and wisdom. The forms into which they flow are human minds. From these statements it is now evident that man is led and taught by the Lord alone. II. — Man is led and taught by ilic Lord alone through and from the angelic heaven. His being led through the angelic heaven is the appearance, and his being led from that heaven is the truth. It appears to be through the angelic heaven, because the Lord appears above that heaven as a Sun ; and in reality it is from it, be- cause the Lord is within that heaven like the soul in a man. For the Lord is omnipresent and not in space, THE SPIRITUAL SUN. 131 as before explained ; therefore distance is an appear- ance according to union with Him ; and this union is according to the reception of love and wisdom from Him. And as no one can be united to the Lord, as He actually is in Himself, therefore to the angels He appears at a distance like a Sun. Yet He is present in the whole angelic heaven like the soul in man ; in like manner in every heavenly society and in every angel therein. For man's soul is not only the soul of the whole man, but also the soul of every part of him. But because it is the appearance that the Lord governs all heaven, and through it the world, from the Sun which is from Him and in which He is ; and as every man is at liberty to speak according to the appearance, nor can he do otherwise ; therefore every one who is not in actual wisdom, is also at liberty to think that the Lord rules everything and all things from his own Sun, and also that He rules the world through tlie angelic heaven. The angels of the lower heavens do think according to this appearance, while those of the higher heavens speak according to it, but think from the reality, which is, that the Lord governs the uni- verse from the angelic heaven, that is, from Himself. That the simple and wise speak alike, but do not think alike, may be illustrated by the sun of the world. All speak of it according to the appearance, saying it wses and sets ; but the wise, although they speak in the same way, yet think of the sun as motionless, which is also the reality, while the former is the appearance. — 132 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. It has been made kuowu to me from things seen and heard, that the universal angelic heaven appears before the Lord as one man, and likewise every society of heaven, and that therefore every angel and spirit is iu perfect form a man ; also that heaven is not heaven fi-om the selfhood of the angels, but from their recep- tion of divine love and wisdom from the Lord. From which it may be seen that the Lord governs the uni- versal angelic heaven as one man ; and that this heaven, because it is essentially a man, is the very image and likeness of the Lord, and that He himself governs it as the soul governs its body. — But as this is an arcanum of angelic wisdom, it is incomprehensible to man, unless to one whose spiritual mind is opened ; for he by union with the Lord is an angel. Man [in ordinary states] may from previous statements comprehend the following: 1. All, both men and angels, are in the Lord, and the Lord in them, ac- cording to their union with Him, or, wliich is the same thing, according to their reception of love and wisdom from Him. 2. Each one of them is allotted a place iu the Lord, therefore in heaven, according to the degree of his union with or reception of the Lord. 3. Each in his own place has his own state distinct from that of others, and draws his portion from the common bo(]y according to his location, function, and necessities, pre- cisely as in each part of the human body. 4. Every man is initiated into his place by the Lord according to his life. 5. Every man is from infancy inserted in JXFLUX AXD ENLIGHTENMENT. 133 tliis divine body whose soul and life is the Lord, and is led and taught from his divine love according to his divine wisdom, in Him and not out of Him. But as man is not deprived of freedom, he cannot be led and taught unless according to reception as of himself. 6. They who receive are borne to their places by infinite windings like meanders, almost as the chyle is carried through the mesentery and its lacteals into its recepta- cle, and from this through the thoracic duct into the blood, and so to its destination. 7. They who do not receive are separated from those who are within the divine body as the fasces and urine are separated from man. These are arcana of angelic wisdom which man can in some measure comprehend ; but there are many more which he cannot. III. — Man is led by the Lord by influx and taught by enlightenment. He is led by the Lord by influx, be- cause to be led, and influx also, are terms used with reference to love and the will ; and man is taught by the Lord by enlightenment, because to be taught and to be enlightened are terms used properly with refer- ence to wisdom and the understanding. That every man is led by himself from his own love, and by others according to it, and not by the understanding, is known. — The term influx is used, because it is according to established usage to say that the soul flows into the body, and that influx is spiritual, and not physical : again, be- cause influx is comparatively like the inflowing of the blood into the heart, and from the heart into the lungs. — 12 134 THE SWEDENDORG LIBRARY. But man is taught by enlightenment, because instruc- tion and enlightenment are terms used with reference to the understanding ; for the understanding, which is man's internal sight, can be enlightened by spiritual light only as the eye, or man's external sight, is enlight- ened by natural light. Both are also taught in the same way ; but the internal sight (which is that of the understanding) by spiritual objects, and the external sight (which is that of the eye) by natural objects. There is a spiritual light, and a natural light, both alike in outward appearance, but internally unlike; for nat- ural light is from the sun of the natural world, and is therefore in itself dead ; but spiritual light is from the 8uu of the spiritual world, and is therefore essentially alive. The latter, and not the former, enlightens the human understanding, and is alone the origin of nat- ural and rational illumination. And spiritual-natural light is like the light of day in our world ; it belongs to those who are in the ultimate heaven, and also to those who are in the world of spirits which is intermediate between heaven and hell. But in the latter world this light with the good is like that of summer on earth, and with the evil like that of winter. It must be known, however, that liglit in the spiritual world has nothing in common with that of the natural world. They differ as the living and the dead. Evidently, therefore, it is not natural light, such as exists before our eyes, but spiritual light which enlightens the understanding. Man is ignorant of this, because he has heretofore known nothing of spiritual light. DrFFEIiE.VT KriXDS OF f.KlIir. 135 Somctliing must also be said of the light of hell, none of which is natural, but spiritual. — All in the spiritual world, alike those in heaven and in hell, see in their own light as clearly as man sees by day in his light. This is because their eyesight is adjusted in all cases to the reception of the light it has. Thus the eyesight of the angels in heaven is adjusted to the reception of the light it has, and the eyesight of the spirits in hell to the reception of the light it has ; comparatively as owls and bats see objects a,t night or in twilight as clearly as other birds see them in the day — for their eyes are formed each for the reception of its own light. But the distinction existing between these different kinds of light, is very obvious to those who look at one kind of light from another ; as when an angel of heaven looks into hell, he sees nothing there but mere darkness ; and when an infernal spirit looks into heaven, he sees noth- ing there but darkness. This is because heavenly wis- dom is like darkness to those in hell; and infernal folly is like darkness to those in heaven. From this it will be seen that a man's light is according to the character of his understanding ; and that after death every man enters his own light, because he cannot see in any other. In the spiritual world where all are spiritual even in body, the eyes of all are formed to see from their own liglit. Every one's life's love forms its own understand- ing, thus also its own light. For love is like the fire of life, from which comes the light of life. — There is au enlightenment both interior and exterior, which comes 136 THE SWEDENDORG LIBRARY. from the Lord ; and an enlightenment both interior and exterior from man also. — By interior enlightenment coming from the Lord, the rational man perceives at first hearing whether certain statements are true or not. For example this: That love is the life of faith, or that faith lives from love. From interior enlightenment one perceives that what- ever a man loves his will favors, and what his will favors he does, and consequently, that to love is to do ; and again, that whatever a man believes from love, to this also he conforms his will and conduct, and conse- quently, that to have faith is also to do ; also that an impious man cannot love God nor have faith in God. From interior enlightenment the rational man also per- ceives the moment he hears the statements, that God is One; that He is omnipresent; that all good is from Him ; that all things relate to the good and true ; and that the good is derived wholly from the absolutely Good, and tlie true from the absolutely True. Of these and other similar statements man has within him an interior perception tlie moment he hears them ; this is because he possesses rationality, and this is in the light of heaven which enlightens. Exterior enlightenment is that of thought arising from this interior enlightenment ; and thought is so enlight- ■ ened, so far as it remains in the perception which it de- rives from interior enlightenment, and so far as its thoughts are at the same time good and true ; for from these it draws the reasons by which it confirms [its MISLEADING LIGHT. 137 perceptions]. Thought derived from this exterior en- lightenment sees a subject from both points of view — from one sees the reasons which corroborate, and from the other the appearances which invalidate ; the latter it disperses, the former it collects. But interior enlightenment coming from man is quite different. By this, man sees a subject from one point of view only ; and when he has confirmed it, he sees it in a light similar in appearance to the light spoken of above ; but it is a wintry light. For example : A judge whose decisions are governed by bribes or gain, after he has confirmed his decision by law and reason, sees nothing but justice in it. Some see its injustice; but as they do not wish to see it, they mystify and blind themselves, and so do not see it. It is the same with a judge whose decisions are governed by friendship, the desire for popularity, or ties of relationship. With such men it is the same with everything they acquire from the mouth of a man in authority, or of some person of great fame, or that they have hatched from their own intelligence. They are rationally blind, for they see from the falsity they confirm ; and falsity closes the sight, while truth opens it. Such persons see no truth from the light of truth, nor any justice from the love of justice, but only from the light of confirmation, which is a delusive light. — But exterior enlightenment coming from man, exists with those who think and talk from mere knowledge impressed upon the memory. This class can of themselves hardly confirm anything. 12* 138 THE SWEDENBORG LinRAllY. Tliese are the distinct phases of enliglitenment, and of perception and thought therefi'om. There is an actual eulightenment eiFected by spiritual light ; but the enlightenment itself coming from this source is not apparent to any one in the natural world, because natural light has nothing in common with spiritual. But the enlightenment itself has sometimes appeared to me in the spiritual world. With those whose eu- lightenment proceeded from the Lord, it appeared like a luminousness about the head, glowing with the color of the human face. — Besides these kinds of enlightenment there exists also another, by which is revealed to man the character of his faith and intelligence, the revelation being of such a nature that he himself has a perception of it iu himself. He is introduced into a society where there is genuine fiiith,and true intelligence and wisdom ; and there his interior rationality is opened, from which he sees the character of his own faith, and his own intelli- gence and wisdom, to a full acknowledgment of it. — IV. — Man is tcmght by the Lord through the Word, and doctrine ami pn urhiiig from it, thus immediately by Him alone. — Tlic Lnid is the Word, and all the doctrine of the church is to be drawn from the Word. Hence it follows that the man who is taught from the Word, is taught by the Lord alone. But as this is not easily understood, it shall be illustrated iu the following order : — 1st. — The Lord is the Word, because it is from Him THE LORD IS THE WORD. 139 and treats of Him. — Since the Word is from the Lord, iiiul treats of Him alone, it follows that when man is taught from the Word, he is taught by the Lord ; for tlie Word is Divine. Who can communicate the Di- vine, and implant it in the heart, except the Divine itself, from which it is, and of which it treats? There- fore the Lord, when speaking of his union with the disciples, says that they should abide in Him, and his words in them, John xv. 7 ; that his words are spirit and life, John vi. 63 ; and that He makes his abode with those who keep his words, xiv. 20-24. Therefore to think from the Lord is to think from the Word, as if through it. The whole AVord has communication with heaven, as shown in the New Church Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture. And since the Lord is heaven, the meaning is that the whole Word has communication with the Lord Himself The angels of heaven have indeed communication, but this also is from the Lord. 2d. The Lord is the Word, because it is the Divine Truth of the Divine Good. That the Lord is the Word, He teaches in John i. 1, 14. Because this has hitherto been understood to mean only that the Lord taught man through the Word, therefore this has been explained as a hyperbolical expression, which implied that the Lord wa-s not the Word itself. This is because they did not know that the AVord means the Divine Truth of the Divine Good, or, which is the same thing, the Divine Wisdom of the Divine Love. These are the Lord Him- self. — How the Lord is the Divine Truth of the Divine 140 THE SWEDENBORO LIBRARY. Good, shall also be briefly explained. Every man is a man not from his form and features, but from the good of his love and the truth of his wisdom. And as man is man from these, every one is also his own truth and good, or his own love and wisdom. Apart from these he is not man. But the Lord is the absolutely Good and True, or, which is the same. Love itself and Wisdom itself; and these are the Word, which was in the beginning with God, and was God, and which was made flesh. 3d. Therefore to he taught from the Word, is to be taught by the Lord Himself, because it is from the absolutely Good and True, or from Love itself and Wisdom itself. But every one is taught according to his own love's understanding. What is beyond this is not permanent. All who are taught by the Lord in the Word are in- structed in a few truths in the world, but in many when they become angels ; for the interior contents of the Word, which are of a divine-spiritual and divine-celes- tial character, are implanted simultaneously [with this external instruction] ; but they are not opened in man until after his death, in heaven, where he is in angelic wisdom which, compared to human wisdom, that is, to his former wisdom, is ineffable. 4th. The fact of its being effected mediately by preaching does not prevent its being immediate. The Woi'd cannot be taught otherwise than mediately by parents, teachers, preachers, books, and especially the reading of it. Yet it is not taught by them, but by the Lord through them. DIVINE Ol'ERATIOXS IN MAX. 141 This is also known by preachers, who declare tliat they do not speak from themselves, but from the Spirit of God ; and that all truth, like all good, is from the Lord. They may indeed speak the Word, and convey it to the understanding of many, but not to the heart of any ; and whatever has no place in the heart per- ishes in the understanding. By the heart is meant man's love. From this it will be seen that man is led and taught by tiie Lord alone, and that it is done im- mediately by Him when from the Word. This is the profoundest of all the arcana of angelic wisdom. — V. — Man is led and taught by the Lord in externals to all appearance as of himself. This takes place with him externally, but not internally. No one knows how the Lord leads and teaches man internally, as no one knows how the soul operates to cause the eye to see, the ear to hear, the tongue and mouth to speak, the heart to move the blood, the lungs to respire, the stomach to digest, the liver and pancreas to distribute, the kidneys to secrete, and countless other things ; of all which man has neither perception nor sensation. It is the same with the Lord's operations, which are infinitely more numerous in the interior substances and forms of the mind. His operations upon them are not apparent to man, but the direct effects which are many, are ap- parent, and also some of their causes. These are the externals, in which man is together with the Lord ; and as externals make one with internals, because they cohere in one series, therefore there can be no disposi- 142 THE SWEDENDORG LIBRARY. tion made internally by the Lord, except in accordance with what is externally disposed through the instru- mentality of man. Every one knows that man exer- cises thought and will and speaks and acts to all ap- pearance as of himself ; and every one may see that without this appearance, he would have no will and understanding, therefore no affection and thought, and moreover, no recejition of anything good and true from the Lord. Such being the case, it follows that without that appearance there would be no knowledge of God, no charity or faith, consequently no reformation and regeneration, and thus no salvation. From which it is evident that this appearance is given to man by tlie Lord for the sake of all these uses, and especially to give him receptivity and reciprocality, by which the Lord may be united to him, and he to the Lord, and that by this union he may live for ever. IX. IT IS A LA W OF DIVIDE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHOULD II A VE NO SENSE OF ITS OPERATION. HE natural man who does not believe in a Divine Providence thinks to himself, What is Divine Providence, since the wicked are raised to honor and enriched beyond the good, and in many similar respects they who do not believe in a Divine Providence are more successful than those who do? Moreover, the faithless and impious can inflict injuries, wrongs, misfortunes and sometimes death, upon the faithful and the pious, and this through deceit and malice. And so he thinks. Do I not see by actual ob- servation as in clear daylight, that wily machinations, provided a man has the ingenuity to make them seem trustworthy and honest, prevail over fidelity and justice? "What then remains but necessity, consequences and chance, in which there is no appearance of a Divine Providence? Does not necessity belong to nature? and are not consequences the causes flowing from natural or civil order? and is not chance a result either of un- known causes or of no causes? So thinks to himself the natural man who attributes nothing to God, but everything to nature; for he who attributes nothing to God does not attribute anything to the Divine Provi- 144 THE SWEVENnORG LIBRARY. dence either; for God and the Divine Providence make one. But the spiritual man speaks or thinks differently to himself. He, although he does not in thought per- ceive, nor with his eyes see, the movements of Divine Providence, yet he knows and acknowledges it. Now as the above-mentioned appearances and their illusions have blinded the understanding, which can receive no sight unless the illusions which blinded and the falsities which darkened it, are dispelled ; and as this cannot be done unless by truths which contain the power to dispel what is false, therefore these truths must be disclosed, — and, for the sake of clearness, in the following order : — h—If man had a perception aiid sense of the operation of Divine Providence, he would not act from freedom ac- cording to reason, nor would anything seem to him to be from himself. It would be the same if he foreknexv events. — Man would have no freedom of action according to reason, and nothing would seem to him to be from him- self, if he had a perception and sense of the operation of the Divine Providence. For if he had a perception and sense of it, he would still be led by it ; for the Lord by his Divine Providence leads all, and man only seems to lead himself, as shown above. Wherefore if he were led, with a living perception and sense of the fact, he would not be conscious of life ; and then he would be moved to utterance and action almost like a piece of mechanism. If he were still conscious of life, then he would only be led like a man bound hand and foot, or like a beast before a cart. — WISDOM AND LOVE IN DENIALS. 145 Tlie operation of the Divine Providence to withdraw man from evil is constant. If any one had a percep- tion and sense of this operation, and yet were not led as one bound, would he not continually struggle against it, and then either strive with God, or mingle himself with the Divine Providence? If the latter, he would also make himself God ; if the former, he would release himself from restraint and deny God. This is very evident, that there would then be two powers continu- ally acting against each other, the power of evil from man, and the power of good from God ; and when two opposite powers act against each other, either one con- quers, or both are destroyed. But in this case, if one conquers both are destroyed ; for the evil in man does not receive good from the Lord in a moment, nor does the good from the Lord expel evil from man in a moment; if either were done instantaneously, there would be no life left in man. These and many other destructive results would ensue, if man had a manifest perception and sense of the operation of the Divine Providence. A foreknowledge of events is denied to man, for the sake of rendering him capable of acting from freedom according to reason. — For if he knew the effect or event from a Divine prediction of it, his reason would acquiesce, and with it his love; for love togetluT with reason rests in the effect, and from it begins aiu w. It is the very delight of reason from love to nee the elK ct in thought, not in the effect but before it, or not iu the 13 K 146 THE SWEDENDORG LTBHARY. present but in tlie future. Hence what is called hope in man, which increases and diminishes in the reason as he sees or anticipates the event. This delight is complete in the event, but is thereafter obliterated together with the thought of it. It would be the same with an event foreknown. Since a knowledge of future events takes away the truly human element, which is to act freely according to reason, therefore a knowledge of the future is given to no man ; but every one is at liberty to form conclusions about the future from reason. Herein is reason with all its faculties in its proper life. For this reason man does not know his lot after death, or any event before he comes upon it. For if he knew, he would no longer from his interior self study how to act or live so as to reach it, but from his exterior self only would think that he would reach it; and this state closes the inte- riors of his mind, in which the two faculties of his life, liberty and rationality, have their special abode. A desire to know the future is innate with many, but it originates in the love of evil. It is therefore taken from those who believe in a Divine Providence, and they are gifted with the confidence that the Lord appoints their lot; consequently they do not desire a foreknowledge of it, lest they should in some manner oppose the Di- vine Providence. This the Lord teaches by several parables in Luke xii. 14-48. That this is a law of the Divine Providence may be abundantly confirmed from the spiritual world. The greater number when they EXTERXALS AXD INTERXALS. 147 go there, after death, wish to know their lot ; but tliey are told that if they have lived well their lot will be iu heaven, but if they have lived wickedly, in hell. Yet as all fear hell, even the wicked, they ask what they shall do and believe so as to go to heaven. But they are told that they may act and believe as they wish, while they may be sure that in hell they do not do good nor believe truth, but in heaven. Study to know what is good and true, and think and act accordingly if you can. Thus every one is left to act from freedom according to reason in the spiritual world as in the natural. But as they have acted in this world, so do they in that ; for every man's own life awaits him, consequently his own lot, for this belongs to his life. II. — Ij man clearly saw the Divine Providence heivould oppose the order and tenor of its course, and would pervert and destroy it. To make this clearly comprehensible to the rational and natural man, it must be illustrated by examples : — 1st. Externals are so connected ivith internals, that in all their operations they make one. As an illustration of this by examples, take certain parts of the human body. In the whole body and in every part there are exter- nals and internals. The externals are called skin, membranes and sheaths ; the internals are forms vari- ously composed and interwoven of nervous fibres and blood-vessels ; the sheath which surrounds them, by out- growths from itself, enters into all the interiors to the 148 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. very inmost. Thus the external which is the sheath, is united to all the internals, which are the organic fibrous and vascular forms. Fi-om which it follows, that, as the external acts or is acted upon, so also do the internals act or are acted upon, for they are all perpetually interwoven. That the same order prevails in spiritual forms, and in their changes of state and variations which relate to the operations of the will and understanding, as in nat- ural forms and their operations which relate to motion and action, will be seen below. Now as man is together ■with the Lord in certain external operations, and no one is deprived of freedom of action according to reason, it follows that the Lord cannot act in internals otherwise than as He acts together with man in externals. There- fore, if man does not shun and turn away from evils as sins, his external thought and will become vitiated and destroyed, and their internals at tlie same time, com- paratively as the pleura by the disease called pleurisy, which causes the death of the body. 2d. If man were at the same time in internals, he would pervert and destroy the whole order and tenor of the Divine Providence. This may also be illustrated by examples drawn from the human body. If man knew all the operations of both brains in the fibres, of the fibres in the muscles, and of the muscles in action, and could dispose of them all as he disposes of his actions, would he not pervert and destroy them all ? Did he know how the stomach digests ; how the surrounding viscera CORRESPONDENCE. 149 draws each its portion ; how they elaborate the blood, and distribute it according to every requirement of lite ; and these operations were at his disposal as ex- ternals, such as eating and drinking are ; would he not pervert and destroy them all ? When he cannot govern the external which seems like a unit, without destroying it by luxury and intemperance, what would he do if the internals also, which are infinite, were at his disposal ? Therefore the internals, lest man's will should in any way enter into them and get control of them, are alto- gether exempt from his will, except the muscles which constitute their covering. Moreover, even their mode of action is unknown ; the fact only is known. It is the same in the other organs. — Man is known to be in ex- ternals ; as that he sees with the eye, beat's with the ear, tastes with the tongue, feels with the skin, breathes with the lungs, and so on. Is it not enough for him to know of these externals, and to govern them for the health of body and mind? Since he cannot do this, what would be the result if internals were at his disposal also? From all of which it will appear, that if man clearly saw the Divine Providence, he would oppose the order and tenor of its progress, and would pervert and de- stroy it. It is the same in the spiritual constituents of the mind as in the natural constituents of the body ; for the whole mind corresponds to the whole body. Therefore also the mind actuates the body in externals, and in general at its perfect will ; it actuates the eye to see, the ear to 13* 150 THE SWEDENBORG LTBRART. hear, the mouth and tongue to eat and drink, and to speak also, the hands to work, and the feet to walk. What has been said, therefore, of the natural forms of the body, must also be said of the mind's spiritual forms; and what has been said of the body's natural operations must also be said of the mind's spiritual operations. Consequently, as man disposes externals, the Lord dis- poses internals; thus in one way if man disposes exter- nals from himself, and in another way if he disposes them from the Lord, and at the same time as if from himself Man's mind is moreover in full form a man ; for it is his spirit, which after death appears as a man, precisely as in the world ; there are therefore similar things in each. Therefore what has been said of the union of externals and internals in the body, must also be un- derstood of the union of externals and internals in the mind, with the sole difference that one is spiritual and the other natural. III. — IJ man clearly saw the Divine Providence, he would either deny God, or make himself God. — It must be supposed either that God governs all things, or nature. He who thinks that God governs all things, thinks that love itself and wisdom itself, therefore life itself, does so. But he who thinks that nature governs all things, thinks it is done by natural heat and light, which are never- theless in themselves dead, because fi'om a sun that is dead. Does not the truly living govern the dead ? Can what is dead govern anything? If you think that what is dead can give life to itself, you arc insane. Life must be from Life. HEREDITARY EVIL. 151 That man, if he clearly saw the Divine Providence and its operation, would deny God, does not appear probable, because it seems that if any one clearly saw it, he could not avoid the acknowledgment of it, and tlierefore of God ; yet the contrary is the fact. The Divine Providence never acts with the will's love in man, but constantly against it ; for man from his hered- itary evil pants continually for the lowest hell ; but the Lord by his Divine Providence continually withholds and withdraws him from it, first to a" milder hell, then out of hell, and finally to Himself in heaven. This operation of the Divine Providence is perpetual. Therefore if man clearly saw or felt this withdrawal or withholding, he would be exasperated, would regard God as his enemy, and from the evil of his selfhood would deuy Him. And therefore, lest man should know this, he is kept in a state of freedom, whereby he knows not but that he leads himself. But let examples illustrate : — Man has a hereditary desire to become great, also to get rich ; and so far as such loves are unrestrained, to become greater and richer, and finally to be the greatest and the richest of all. Nor would he rest here, but would wish to be greater than God Himself, and to possess the very heavens. This lust lies deeply hidden in hereditary evil, and consequently in man's life and in the nature of his life. The Divine Providence does not take away this evil instantaneoii.