MASTER NEGATIVE NO. 91-80427 MICROFILMED 19Q2 COLUMBIA LNiVERSlTY I IBR ARIES/NIEW YORK ?? as part of the Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded bv the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATExVENT The copyright law of the United States -- Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: SWEDENBORG, EMANUEL TITLE: GOD, PROVIDENCE, CREATION:... PLACE: NEW YORK DA TE : 1896 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT Master Negative # BTBLTOGRAt'iiiC ,\ 1 1 CROFOKM 1 A RGET -DrieinaLMaierial as Filmed - Exisli:ie Diblioeraohic Record 938.94 SW3473 Swedenborg, AnBnuel, 1688-1772 ♦ God^ providers: e^ creation; extracted from the Apocalypse explaiiiedp New York^ Ainerican Swedeiiborg print iiag and publishing society, 1896. iv, 249 p. Restrictions on Use: I. Title* I ; TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO:_7ji_X FILM SIZE:__35^ ^y ^ IMAGE PLACFMFNT: TA (^JS IB IIB DATE FILMED: __^__ INITI ALS^R^. nLMEDlA: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS, INC WOQDDRIDGE. CT r Association for information and Image IManagement llOOWayne Avenue. Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 1 2 3 iiii T iiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iji mliiiiliiiiliiiil 8 iiiliiiiliiiiliii 9 10 11 iiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiili 12 13 iliiiiliiiiliiii 14 uL 15 mm ill TTT TTT Inches 1.0 I.I 1.25 1.4 ■ yo 12.8 2.5 1m II 3.2 2.2 1^ |3^ l£ 2.0 l& 1.8 1.6 MfiNUFflCTURED TO PIIM STRNDflRDS BY APPLIED IMAGE, INC. •^J^^ ^ ColttinWa (Bttitersiitp THE LIBRARIES From the library of Hewry S. and Juliana Haskell 1948 • %f ^^^ .jjfi [L T?^' ■^:&J'^ •■-,^ Hi'. i*^)^^. 1.4 .«, God Providence Creation BY EMAXUEL SWEDEN BORG Extrancdfrom the Apocalypse Explained NEW YORK AMERICAN SWEDENHORG PRINTING AND PUBLISHING Society 20 cooper union I 896 h 9ss. 9¥ 3u^ JV 73 ThlB little volume contains the supplementary doctrinal Ptate- ments In the Apocalypse Explained that are interspersed through the expositions of the spiritual sense of the eighteenth and nine- teenth chapters of the Apocalypse. The similar statements con- tained in the exposition of the three preceding chapters are pub- lished in another volume, with the title. The Spiritual Life and the Word of God. J. C. Ager. From the Library of Bbmkt S. and Juliana Haskeli 1948 in CCs CONTENTS I, 11. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. P^XT FIRST God and Man The Atha\asi.\.v Symbolic Faith (3-6) The importa.vck op RUiHT THoroHT ABOUT GOD a m ?HoS; ^Z^^^^':^^ -- --E a7-^,. '"LoR"<^.r ""^ ^'"-^^ ^^"^ -« "-- - -« ?HE oo"M:x'r46S^ '^"'^'^ ""^'"^ ^"'^'^^ ^^-^^^ The Lord the oxly M.a.v (.'5.S-5.')) THE mv.^JTi/'' ""^'"''^ ■'"'•' ^'^''^^ Life (56-68). iHt On INK Hi'MAN Life (.W-^). All THINGS from that Life (63-66) THAT Life Eternal, Infinite, and Omnipotent (67-74). PART SECOND The Divine Providence I. The Laws of Divine Providence (77-81). (82^7^"^ ^"^^ ^^^''''^ ^""^^ ^"^ ^'^^^= Providence III. The Third Law of Divine Providence (88-102). IV COMENTS. IV. TiiK ForRTH Law of Divine PROvinKxcE (1(B-108). V. Thk FiKTii Law of Divixk Pkovidkxck (llW-ll.i). VL The Sixth Law of Divixk Pkovidkxck (114-117). VIL The Seventh Law of Divine Pkovidknck (llH-123). VIIL The Ekihth Law of Divixk Pkovidkxck (124-1»J). 1\. The Ninth Law of Divixk Pkovidknce (140-159). X. The Tkxth Law of Divine Providence (160-169). XL Eminence axu Wealth through Uses (170-irij. P.-i/ir THIRD Animal and \'egetable Life L A SPIRITfAL AXD A NaTCRAL IN ALL THINGS (177 178). II. Animal Life (17'.»-1*<4). III. Thk Ax IMA l Soil (IM5-1S9i. IV. The Difference between Men and Beasts (190-193). V. The Plant Soil dm-lW). VL Natckk the Realm of Effects (197-199). VII. Xatire in itself Dead (2«m>-2iC). VIIL The animal Form and the Plant Form (203,204). IX, The thkke Fokcks (2(k'>, 2itt;). X. How THKSK Forces act (2l»7-21()). XL The Orhmn of Animai„s and Plants (211-213). XIL Use the Origin t2l4-2l0;. PART FOURTH The Divine Omnipresence and Omnisrience I. Need op a rational I'nder.-^tandinc, of them (219-222). II. .NaTIRAL and SHIRITIAL Sl'ACES AND TIMES (22:i-2:W). III. Right Thoi-ght aboit Space and Time (22".»-2:5i). IV. Heaven and thk <'hirch ix thk Himax Form kZ^-'£S\), V. The Lords i'resexce in .Max (2:iV2:{7>. VI. The Lord's pre.^exce in Evil Men (23S-241). VII. How THE Lord is prksext in ail thi\(;s t2J'-2l7> VI 1 1. Natcrk <»f thk Lords EXCE 1248,249). OMNIPKESKXCE AXD U.MNISCI. PART FIRST God and Man God and Man. I. The Athanasian Symbolic Faith. *' IVhosofv^r will be saved, before all thing's it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith ; IVhich faith except every one shall keep it whole and en- tire, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. The Catholic faith is this : " That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the *sub- stance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit ; But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is one and the same, the glory equal, and the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreate, the Son is uncreate, and the Holy Spirit is uncreate. The Father is infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit infinite. ♦ essence. 4 GOD AND MAN. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal ; Also there are not three infinites nor three uncreates, but one uncreate and one infinite. So likeuise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty ; And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Al- mighty. As the Father is God so the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God ; And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord ; And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to ac- knowledge every person by Himself to be God and Lord, So *are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods or three Lords. The Father was made of none, neither created nor be- gotten : The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers ; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another ; none is , greater or less than another ; But the whole three persons are co-eternal and co-equal. ♦ others, we cannot from the Christian faith make mention of three Gods or of three Lords. THE ATHANASIAN SYMBOLIC FAITH. 5 So that in all things, as aforesaid, the * Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be wor- shipped. He, therefore, that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity. "Furthermore, it is necessary for salvation Mhat he believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the true faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. God of the Xsubstance of the Father, begotten before the world, and man of the hubstance of the mother^ born in the world : Perfect God and perfect Man, consisting of a reasonable soul and a human body : Equal to the Father as touching the Divine, and Winferior to the Father as touching the Human. Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two but one Christ : one not by conversion \ofthe Di- vine essence into the Human, but by a taking of the Human essence **into the Divine : One altogether, not by confusion of^Ussence but ttby unity of person. * ot tiers, three Persons in oneGodhead.andoneGodin three Persons is to be worshipped. t others, that he constantly believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is true Man. X or essence ; others, nature. S others, nature II others, lesser than. % of the Godhead into the flesh. ** into God. tt substance. \X others, because they are one Person. D GOD AND MAN. For as the reasonable soul and body is one man, so God and Man is one Christ, Who sidffered for our salvation, descended into hell, and rose again on the third day from the dead ; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father God Almighty ; From whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies : [And shall give account for their own works :] And they that have done good shall go into life everlast- ing, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. "This is the Catholic faith, which except a man be- lieve [faithfully], he cannot be saved." " Glory be to God the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever; World without end. Amen." f.^.^"., n. 1091.) RIGHT THOUGHT ABOUT GOD. II. The Importance of Right Thought about God. This is the doctrine respe(5ling God that is ac- cepted in the whole Christian world, because it is from a council. But before that doctrine is sifted, a certain arcanum respecting the state of man's faith and love in this world, and afterwards in the other world into which he comes after death shall be disclosed ; for until this has been disclosed man can have no other idea than that every one, whatever his faith may have been, can by Divine mercy be admitted into heaven and saved, which is the source of the erroneous belief of the Baby- lonish race, that heaven is bestowed upon man at the good pleasure of the pope, and by the favor of his vicars. The arcanum is this, that all the thoughts of man pour themselves forth into the spiritual world in every direcflion, much the same as rays of light pour forth from a flame. As the spiritual world consists of heaven and hell, and as heaven as well as hell consists of innumerable societies, the thoughts of man must needs pour forth into societies; spiritual thoughts, which relate to the Lord, to love and faith in Him, and to the truths and goods of heaven and the church, into heav- 8 GOD AND MAN. enly societies ; but merely natural thoughts, which relate to self and the world and the love of these, and not at the same time to God, into infernal societies. That there is such an extending and determin- ing of all man's thoughts has not been known heretofore, because it has not been known what heaven is and what hell is, thus that they are made up of societies, consequently that there is an ex- tension of man's thoughts into another world than this natural world, into which the sight of his eyes extends ; when, in fadl, it is the spiritual world into which thought extends, and the natural world into which sight extends, because the thought of the mind is spiritual while the sight of the eye is natural. That all thoughts of man extend into the societies of the spiritual world, and that with- out such extension no thought is possible, has been made so evident to me by an experience of many years that I can with all faith affirm it to be true. In a word, man is in the spiritual world with his head as he is in the natural world with his body, head meaning here his mind, which consists of understanding, thought, will, and love, and body here meaning his senses, which are seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch. And as a man is in the spiritual world in respecfl to his head, that is, in resped to his mind, so he is either in heaven or in hell ; and where the mind is there the whole man with the head and body is when he becomes a spirit. Moreover, man is RIGHT THOUGHT ABOUT GOD. wholly such as his conjuncftion is with the socie- ties of the spiritual world, such an angel as his conjundion is with the societies of heaven, and such a devil as his conjuncl;ion is with the socie- ties of hell. {A.E., n. 1092.) From what has been said it is clear that the thoughts of man are extensions into societies either heavenly or infernal, and that if there were no extensions there would be no thoughts. For man's thought is like the sight of his eyes; if sight had no extension out of itself, either there would be no sight or there would be blindness. But it is man's love that determines his thoughts into societies, good love determining them into heav- enly societies, and evil love into infernal societies ; for the entire heaven is arranged into societies generally, particularly, and most particularly, ac- cording to all the varieties of aftedlions belonging to the love ; while on the other hand, hell is ar- ranged into societies according to lusts of the love of evil, which are opposites of the affections of the love of good. Man's love is comparatively like fire, and his thoughts are like rays of light therefrom ; while the love is good the thoughts, which are like rays, are truths, when the love is evil, the thoughts, which are like rays, are falsities. Thoughts from a good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven ; while thoughts from an evil love, which are falsi- ties, tend towards hell ; thus they conjoin them- selves with homogeneous societies, that is, with societies of like love, and adapt themselves to lO GOD AND MAN. them, and ingraft themselves into them, and this so entirely that the man is wholly one with them. Through love to the Lord man is an image of the Lord. The Lord is Divine love ; and in heaven before the angels He appears like a sun. From that sun light and heat go forth ; the light is Divine truth, and the heat is Divine good. From these two is the whole heaven, and from them are all the societies of heaven. The Lord's love in a man who is an image of Him is like the fire from that sun, from which fire also light and heat go forth ; the light is the truth of faith and the heat is the good of love ; both of these are from the Lord, and both are implanted in the societies with which the man's love adls as one. That man from creation is an image and likeness of God is evident from Genesis (i. 26); and he is an image and likeness of the Lord by means of love, because by means of love he is in the Lord and the Lord is in him (John xiv. 20, 21). In a word, not the least thought can exist unless it finds reception in some society, not in the indi- viduals or angels of the society, but in the affec- tion of love from which and in which that society is ; and for this reason the angels do not perceive the influx at all, and such influx in no way dis- turbs the society. From all this the truth is clear that while man is living in the world he is in conjuncflion with heaven and also in consociation with angels, al- though both men and angels are unconscious of it. They are unconscious of it because man's RIGHT THOUGHT ABOUT GOD. II thought is natural and an angel's thought is spir- itual, and these make one only by correspond- ence. Because man is inaugurated into societies either of heaven or hell by means of his thoughts, so when he comes into the spiritual world, as he does immediately after death, his character is know^n merely by the extensions of his thoughts into societies ; and thus every one is explored ; and he is reformed by the admissions of his thoughts into the societies of heaven, and is con- demned by the immersions of his thoughts in the societies of helL {A.E., q. 1093.} 12 GOD AND MAN. III. Heaven Opened to Man by his Thought RESPECTING GuD. Since man is not at his birth in any society either heavenly or infernal, being without thought, and yet is born for eternal life, it follows that in the course of time he either opens heaven or opens hell to himself, and enters into societies, and becomes an inhabitant either of heaven or of hell even while he is in the world. Man becomes an inhabitant of the spiritual world because that is his real dwelling place, and as it is called, his native land, for there he is to live to eternity after having lived for a few years in the natural world. From this it may be concluded how necessary it is for a man to know what it is in him that opens heaven and leads him into its societies, and what it is that opens hell and leads him into its socie- ties. This will be told in the following chapters. Here let it be said that a man lets himself more and more into the societies of heaven gradually in accordance with the additions to his wisdom, and into more and more interior societies grad- ually in accordance with the additions to his love of good ; also that so far as heaven is opened to him hell is closed. But it is man who opens hell HOW HEAVEN IS OPENED TO MAN. 15 to himself, while it is the Lord who opens heaven to man. [A.E., n. 1094.) The first and chief thought that opens heaven to man is his thought about God, and for the reason that God is the all of heaven, even to the extent that whether we speak of heaven or of God it is the same thing. The things Divine that make the angels of whom heaven consists to be angels are when taken together God. And this is why thought about God is the first and chief of all the thoughts that open heaven to man, for it is the head and sum of all truths and loves celes- tial and spiritual. But there is thought from light and there is thought from love. Thought from light alone is knowledge that there is a God, which appears like acknowledgment but is not. By thought from light man has presence in heaven, but not con- junction with heaven, for the light of thought alone does not conjoin, but places man in the presence of the Lord and the angels. For such light is like winter light, in which man sees with the same clearness as in summer light, and yet that light does not join itself to the earth, nor to any tree, shrub, flower, or blade of grass. More- over, every man has implanted in him an ability to think about God, and also to understand in the light of heaven the things relating to God ; but thought alone from that light, which is intellectual thought, merely makes a man to be present with the Lord and with angels, as has been said. When a man is in mere intellectual thought 14 GOD AND MAN. HOW HEAVEN IS OPENED TO MAN. 15 about God and about things relating to God, he appears to angels at a distance like an image of ivory or marble that can walk and utter sounds, but in whose face and in whose voice there is as yet no life. Also to the angels he appears com- paratively like a tree in winter time, with naked branches without leaves, and yet of which some hope is cherished that it will be covered with leaves and afterwards with fruit, when to the light heat is joined, as in the spring time. As thought about God is what chiefly opens heaven, so thought against God is what chiefly closes heaven. lA.E., n. 1096./ Thought about one God opens heaven to man, since there is but one God, while on the other hand thought about more than one God closes heaven, since the idea of more than one God de- stroys the idea of one God. Thought about the true God opens heaven, since heaven and every- thing belonging to it is from the true God, while on the other hand thought about a false God closes heaven, since no other than the true God is recognized in heaven. Thought about God the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Enlightener opens heaven, for this is the trinity of the one and true God. Again, thought about God infinite, eternal, un- create, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient opens heaven, for these are attributes of the es- sence of the one and true God, while on the other hand thought about a living man as a God, of a dead man as a God, or of an idol as a God closes < heaven, because they are not omniscient, omni- present, omnipotent, uncreate, eternal, and in- finite, nor was creation or redemption wrought by them, nor is there enlightenment by them. Thought about God as a Man, in whom is the Divine trinity, that is, the trinity called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, alone opens heaven ; while on the other hand thought about God as not a Man, which idea takes the form of a little cloud or of nature in her least parts, closes heaven, for God is a Man, as the whole angelic heaven in its complex is a Man, and every angel and every spirit is in consequence a man. For this reason thought about the Lord as being the God q/ the universe is what alone opens heaven, for the Lord says. The Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son [John iii. 35\ The Father hath given the Son power over all flesh ( John xvii. 2 . "AM things have been delivered to Me by the Father " {Matt. xi. 27!. "All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth " {Matt, xxviii. 18). All this makes clear that man without such an idea of God as exists in heaven cannot be saved. The idea of God in heaven is the Lord, for the angels of heaven are in the Lord and the Lord is in them ; consequently to think of any other God than the Lord is to them impossible (see John xiv. 20, 21). Allow me to add that the idea of God as a Man has been implanted from heaven in every nation throughout the whole i6 GOD AM) MAN. world, but what I lament, it has been destroyed in Christendom. The causes of this will be told further on. {A.E., n 1097 ' r- a ^a The thought alone that there is a God and that the Lord is the God of heaven opens heaven and shows man present there, and yet so slightly as to be almost unseen, appearing afar off as in the shade. But in proportion as his thought of God becomes more full, true, and corred, he is seen in the light. Thought becomes more full by knowledges of truth from the Word that pertain to faith and of good that pertain to love ; for all things from the Word are Divine, and Divine things taken together are God. A man who thinks merely that there is a God and who gives no thought to what God is. is like one who thinks that the Word exists and that it is holy, and yet knows nothing of its contents ; or like one who thinks that the law exists, but knows nothing of what is in the law. But the thought of what God is is great enough to fill heaven, and to constitute the entire wisdom of the angels, which is ineffa- ble, for in itself it is infinite because God is in- finite. The thought that there is a ^^^^ derived from what He is, is what is meant in the Word by ♦• the name of God." {A.E., n. 1098.) THOUGHT FROM LIGHT AND FROM LOVE. IJ IV. THOUGHT FROM LIGHT AND THOUGHT FROM LOVE. It has been said that man has thought from light and has thought from love, and that thought from light makes man's presence in heaven, while thought from love makes man's conjundlion with heaven, and for the reason that love is spiritual conjundlion. Therefore, when man's thought from light becomes his thought from love he is admit- ted into heaven as to a marriage, and so far as love is the primary agent in thought from light or leads that thought, man enters heaven as a bride enters the bride-chamber, and is wedded. For the Lord is called in the Word a " bridegroom " and a " hus- band," and heaven and the church are called a "bride" and a "wife." "To be wedded" means to be conjoined to heaven in some society of it ; and one is so far conjoined to heaven as he has acquired in the world intelligence and wisdom from the Lord through the Word, thus so far as he has learned by means of Divine truths to think that there is a God, and that the Lord is that God. And yet one who thinks from few truths, thus from little intelligence, although he is conjoined with heaven when he thinks from love, is con- joined in its remoter parts only. I I8 GOD AND MAN. By love love to the Lord is meant, and loving the Lord does not mean loving Him in respe(fl to person, for by such a love only man is not con- joined to heaven, but by a love for Divine good and Divine truth, which are the Lord in heaven and in the church ; and these two are not loved by knowing them, thinking about them, under- standing them, and talking about them, but by willing and doing them for the reason that they are commanded by the Lord, and thus because they are uses. Nothing is full until it has been done ; and the end for the sake of which [the thing is done] is the love ; consequently the love of knowing a thing, of thinking about it, and of un- derstanding it springs from a love of willing and doing it. Tell me why you wish to know and understand any thing except for the sake of an end which you love. The end that is loved is the thing done. If you say. For the sake of faith, faith alone, or faith merely of the thought separ- ated from a(flual faith which is the thing done, has no existence. You are greatly deceived if you think that you believe in God when you are not doing the things pertaining to God ; for the Lord teaches in John : "He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that lov'eth Me," and I will make My abode with him. "But he that loveth Me not keepeth not My words " (xir. 21, 23, 24). In a word, loving and doing are one ; therefore where loving is mentioned in the Word doing is meant, and where doing is mentioned loving also is meant; for what I love, that I do. [A.E., n. loqg.) THOUGHT FROM LIGHT AND FROM LOVE. I9 About God and about Divine things, w^ich are called in heaven celestial and spiritual, and in the world ecclesiastical and theological, there is thought from light ; there is also thought not from light about them. Those have thought not from light who know about these things but do not under- stand them. Such are all those at the present day who wish the understanding to be kept under obedi- ence to faith, holding even that a thing must be believed and not understood, and claiming that a rational faith is not a true faith. But these are such as are not interiorly in a genuine affetflion for truth, and consequently are in no enlighten- ment ; and many of them are in the pride of self- intelligence, and in a love of ruling over the souls of men by means of the holy things of the church, not knowing that truth wishes to be in the light, since the light of heaven is Divine truth, and that a truly human understanding is moved by that light and sees from it, and that when the under- standing does not see from that light it is the memory that has faith and not the man ; and such faith is blind, because it is without thought from the light of truth ; for the understanding is the man, and the memory is merely introdudlory. If what is not understood must be believed a man might be taught like a parrot to speak and to remember, even that there is a holiness in the bones of the dead and in sepulchres, that dead bodies perform miracles, that man will be tormented in purgatory if he does not consecrate his wealth to idols or to monasteries, that men are gods because heaven 20 GOD AND MAN. and hell are in their power, with other like things which man must believe from a blind faith and from a closed understanding, and thus with the light of both extinguished. But be it known that all the truths of the Word,, which are the truths of heaven and of the church, can be seen by the understanding, in heaven spir- itually, in the world rationally ; for a truly human understanding is the sight itself of these truths, for it is separated from what is material, and when separated it sees truths as clearly as the eye sees objeds ; it sees truths as it loves them, for as it loves them it is enlightened. The angels have wisdom in consequence of seeing truths ; when, therefore, it is said to any angel that this or that must be believed although it is not under- stood, the angel answers, Do you think that I am insane, or that you are a god whom I am to be- lieve even when I do not see? It may be some falsity from helL {A.£., n. iioo.) THOUGHT ABOUT THE TRINITY. 21 V. Thought about the Trinity. Now as to the dodrine of the Trinity that was written by Athanasius, and established by a coun- cil at Nice. This dodrine is such that when it is read it leaves a clear idea that there are three persons, and thus that there are three unanimous Gods, but an obscure idea that God is one ; and yet, as has been said above, the idea of thought of one God is what chiefly opens heaven to man, and on the other hand the idea of three Gods closes heaven. Whether this Athanasian dodrine, when it has been read, leaves a clear idea that there are three persons, and thus three unanimous Gods, and whether this unanimous Trinity gives rise to the thought that there is one God, let every one consider from his own thought about it. For it is said in the Athanasian Faith in plain words, "There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. .... The Father is uncreate infinite eternal Almighty God, .... Lordr Likewise is the Son, and likewise the Holy Spirit, Also, " The Father was made and created of none ; The Son was born of the Father ; i 22 GOD AND MAN. /Ind the Holy Spirit proceedeth from both. Thus there is one Father one Son and one Holy Spirit. And in this Trinity the whole three persons are co-eternal and co-equal." From all this no one can think otherwise than that there are three Gods ; neither could Athan- asius or the Nicene Council think otherwise; as is evident from these words inserted in the doc- trine, " Like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by Himself to be God and Lord, Yet we cannot from Christian faith make mention of three Gods or three Lords." This cannot be understood otherwise than that it is allowable to acknowledge three Gods and Lords, but not to make mention of them, or that it is allow- able to think that there are three Gods and Lords, but not to say it. A. E , n noa.i That the dodrine of the Trinity that is called the Athanasian Faith leaves when it has been read an obscure idea that God is one, and so obscure as not to remove the idea of three Gods, can be seen from this, that the dodrine makes one God out of three through a unity of essence, saying, " This is the Christian faith : . ^ • . • That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity tn Unity, J. .J- jL Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the essence." And afterwards. THOUGHT ABOUT THE TRINITY., 23 "So that in all things . . . the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped." This was said to remove the idea of three Gods, but it enters the understanding in no other way than that there are three persons, although they all have one Divine essence, that is, by Divine es- sence God is here meant ; and yet essence, like divinity, majesty, and glory, which are also men- tioned, is something predicated, and God as a per- son is the subjedl ; consequently to say that the essence is God would be like saying that some- thing predicated is the subje.AMaaa.^iDat£yi^^ 30 GOD AND MAN. were indignant that they had passed over their own doarine so carelessly and blindly ; and some of them abandoned their mystic union of the Ui- vine of the Father with the Lord's Human. That the Divine is in the Lord's Human as the soul is in the body the Word teaches and testi- fies in Matthew and in Luke. In Matthew : When Marv had been betrothed to Joseph, "hefore ?hev cime together, she was found with child of , the Hol^ Spirit" And an angel said to Joseph m a drea^. '^Fear not to take Marv thy bnde for ?hat which isconceived in her .s of the Holy Spint AndTseph "knew her not till she had brought forth ■herlrst-bom son, and he called h.s name Jesus" (i. »8. 20, 25). And in Luke : . . The aneel said to Mary. " Behold thou shaU conceive in thf womb, and bring forth a son. and shalt call his namTTesus Alary said to the angel How shSl this thing be, seeine I know not a »"an ? The aneel answered and said unto her.The Holy Spirit shfll come upon thee, and the power ot the High- est shaU overshadow thee, therefore that Holy Thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (i. 3». 32. 34. 35)- All this makes clear that the Divine was in the Lord from conception, and that the Divine was His life from the Father, which life is the soul. This will suffice for the time. More will be said on this subjea in what follows, where it will be shown that even the things in the Athanasian doarine that produce an obscure idea of the Lord are in harmony with the truth when the Trinity that is, the Father, Son. and Holy Spirit, is thought and believed to be in the Lord as in one person. THE DIVINE AND THE HUMAN IN THE LORD. 31 Without this thought and belief it may be said and in aa It is said, that Christians, differentia from all other peoples and nations in the whole globe that have rationality, worship three Gods • ought to surpass all others in the clearness of the doarme and belief that God is one both in es. sence and in person, ^a.k, n. 1,04 ) 32 GOD AND MAN. VII. How FAR THE ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE OF THE Trinity is true. It has been shown that the doarine of faith that has its name from Athanasius leaves a clear idea, when one reads it. that there are three per- sons, and thus that there are three unanimous Gods, and an obscure idea that God is one, so obscure that the idea of three Gods is not re- moved. And again, this doctrine leaves a clear idea that the Lord has a Divine and a Human, that is, that the Lord is God and Man, but an obscure idea that the Divine and the Human of the Lord are one person, and that His Divme is in His Human as the soul is in the body. It has been also said thai all things in that doc- trine from beginning to end, both such as are clear and such as are obscure, nevertheless agree and coincide with the truth, if only instead of say- ing that God is one in essence and three in per- son, it is believed, as the truth really is, that God is one both in essence and in person. There is a trinity in God and there is also a unity. That there is a trinity is evident from the passages in the Word where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned ; and that there is a ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 33 unity, from the passages in the Word where it is said that God is one. The unity in which there is a trinity, or the one God in whom there is a trine, does not exist in the Divine that is called the Father, nor in the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit, but in the Lord alone. In the Lord alone there is a trine, namely, the Divine which is called the Father, the Divine Human which is called the Son, and the Divine going forth which is the Holy Spirit ; and this trine is one because it is of one person, and may be called a triune. In what follows the agreement with this of all things of the Athanasian dodrine will be seen. First respeding the trinity; Secondly, respeding the unity of person in the Lord ; Thirdly, that from Divine providence it has come to pass that the dodlnne was so written that while it disagrees with the truth it nevertheless agrees with it Afterwards it will be established in general, that the trine is in the Lord ; and next in particular, that the Divine that is called the Father is the Lord, that the Divine that is called the Son is the Lord, and that the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit IS the Lord. (A£-., n. t,o6 ) In regard to the agreement of all things of the Athanasian dodrine with this truth, that God is one both in essence and person, in whom is a tnne to establish this agreement and make it clear I will proceed in the following order. The Athan- asian do(5lrine first teaches thus : " The Catholic faith is this mt GOD AND MAN. 7%a/ we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity: Neither confounding the persons nor dividing tne essence y When in place of three persons one person in whom is the trine is understood, this is in itself a truth, and in a clear idea is thus seen : The Christian faith is this : We worship one God in whom is a trine, and a trine in one God : and the God in whom is the trine is one person, and the trine in God is one essence ; thus there is one God in a trinity, and a trinity in the unity ; And neither are the persons confounded nor is the essence divided. That the persons are not confounded and the es- sence is not divided will appear more clearly from what follows. The Athanasian doine that is called the Father, such is the Divine that is called the Son, and such is the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit. And further, " The Father is un create, the Son is uncreate, and the Holy Spirit is uncreate • The Father is infinite, the Son is infinite, and the nolv Spirit is infinite ; The Fatlur eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal : ^ ^Jidyet they are not three eternals, but one eternal • Also there are not three infinites, but one infinite ' neither are there three uncreates, but one un- create. As the Father is Almighty the Son is Almighty and the Holy Spirit Almighty ; And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Al- mighty. ' ' When in place of three persons one person in whom is a trine is understood, this also in itself IS a truth, and in a clear idea is thus seen: 36 GOD AND MAN. As the Divine in the Lord that is called the Father is uncreate infinite. Almighty, So the Divine Human that is called the Son is uncreate, infinite. Almighty, And the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit is uncreate, infinite, and Al- mighty ; But these three are one ; Because the Lord is one God, both in essence atid in person, in whom is a trine. Again, in the Athanasian doclrine this follows: *'As the Father is God so the Son is God arid the Holy Spirit is God ; And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. So likeivise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord ; And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord." Here again, when in place of three persons one person in whom is a trine is understood, this in a clear idea is thus seen : The Lord from His Divine that is called the Father, from His Divine Human that is called the Son, and from His Divine going forth that is called the Holy Spirit, is one God and one Lord ; Since the three Divines called by the names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are in the Lord, One in essence and in person. ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 37 Still again : "For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by Himself to be God and Lord, So are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods or three Lords." (Elsewhere thus : ''Like as ive are bound by Christian truth to ackno-ju- ledge aery person to be God or Lord, So ive cannot in Christian faith make mention of three Gods or three Lords" This can be understood in no other way than that by Christian truth we cannot help acknowledging and thinking three Gods and three Lords, yet it is not permitted by the Christian faith and religion to speak of or mention three Gods or three Lords. And this is what is done, for most people think of three Gods who are of one mind, and conse- quently call them a unanimous trinity, and yet they are bound to say one God. But with the idea that there are not three persons but one per- son, in place of these words, which ought to be expunged from the Athansian dodrine, this might be said : ** When we acknowledge a trine in the Lord, Then it is from truth, and thus from the Christian faith and religion, that we acknowledge both with the lips and the heart. One God and one Lord." For if it were permissible to acknowledge and think of three it would be permissible also to be- 38 GOD AND MAN. lieve in three, for believing or belief belongs to the thought and acknowledgment and to the speech therefrom, and not to the speech sepa- rately. Afterwards this follows : *' The Father was made of none, neither created nor begotten ; The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor cre- ated, but begotten ; The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers ; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits." This is wholly in agreement with the truth if by the Father the Divine of the Lord that is called the Father is meant, and if by the Son His Divine Human is meant, and if by the Holy Spirit His Divine going forth is meant ; for from the Divine that is called the Father the Divine Human that is called the Son was begotten, and from both the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit goes forth. But the Divine Human begotten of the Father will be spoken of particularly hereafter. All this makes clear that the Athanasian doctrine agrees with the truth that God is one both in essence and in person, if only in place of three persons one person, in whom is a trine that is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is understood. In the following chapter a like agreement will be es- tablished respecting the unity of person in the Lord. {A.E., n. 1107.; ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMAN. 39 VIII. How FAR THE ATHANASIAN DoCTRINE OF THE Divine Human is true. Now as to the agreement of the Athanasian doarine with this truth, that the Lord's Human is Divine from the Divine that was in Him from con- ception. That the Lord's Human is Divine does not seem to be in the Athanasian dodrine, and vet it IS. as is evident from these words in the dodkine : " ^'"' ^.S'''^ ^''"' ^^''"^' ^^' '^^'^ of God^ is God and Jvlan / . . . , Who although He be God and Man, yet He is not two but one Christ ; .... One altogether ....by untty of person " fothers. be- /r.,- ^, ^t ,, ^'^"^^ they are one Person). For as the reasonable soul and body is one man. so God and Man is one Christ." Now as the soul and body are one man, and thus one person, and such as the soul is such is the body It follows that as His soul from the Father was Divine, His body also, which is His Human, is p.vine He took, indeed, a body or a human form from the mother, but this He put off in the world and put on a Human from the Father, and this.is the Divine Human. It is said in the doc- trine. ^O GOD AND MAN. ^^EiUial to the Father as toitchm^!: the Divine, ami inferior to the Father as touchin^^ the Hu- man.' This, too, agrees with the truth when the human from the mother is meant, as it is here. Again, in the dodrine it is said, •• God and Man is one Christ ; ... one not by conver- sion of the Divine essence into the Human, but by the taking of the Human essence into the Divine. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, fut by unity of person." This, too, agrees with the truth, since the soul does not change itself into body, nor so mingle itself with body as to become body, but it takes a body to itself. Thus soul and body, although the two are distina, are still one man, and in respecl to the Lord, one Christ, that is. one Man who is God. More will be said on the Lord's Divine Human in what follows. (^.£",11.1108.) It was from Divine providence that each and every thing of the Athanasian dodrine respeaing the trinity and respeaing the Lord is a truth and is harmonious, when in place of three persons one person in whom is a trinity is understood, and it is believed that the Lord is that person. For at that time, if a trinity of persons had not been accepted they would have become either Arians or Socinians, and consequently the Lord would have been ac- knowledged as a mere man and not as God ; and by this the Christian church would have been de- stroyed, and heaven would have been closed to the ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMAN. 41 man of the church ; for no one is conjoined with heaven, and after death admitted into heaven, un- less in the idea of his thought he sees God as a Man, and at the same time believes God to be one both in essence and in person, for it is by this that the heathen are saved ; also unless he acknowledges the Lord, His Divine and His Human, for by this a man of the Christian church is saved, provided he lives at the same time as a Christian. It was by Divine permission that the doclrine respecting God and the Lord, which is the chief of all do(flrines, was so conceived by Athanasius ; for it was foreseen by the Lord that in no other way would the Roman Catholics have acknowledged the Divine of the Lord, and for the same reason even to this day they separate His Divine from His Human. Neither would the Reformed have seen the Divine in the Human of the Lord, for those who are in faith separated from charity do not see this. Nevertheless both of them acknovvl- edge the Divine of the Lord in a trinity of per- sons. And yet this dodrine that is called the Athanasian Faith was by the Lord's Divine provi- dence so written that all things in it are truths, provided that in place of three persons one person in whom is a trine is recognized, and it is believed that the Lord is that person. Moreover, it was from providence that they are called persons, for a person is a man, and a Divine person is God who is a Man. This has been revealed at this day for the sake of a new church, which is called the Holy Jerusalem. [A.E.,n.i\o()., 42 GOD AND MAN. IX. The Trinity in the Lord Jesus Christ. That there is in the Lord a trine, the Divine itself that is called the Father, the Divine Human that is called the Son, and the Divine going forth that is called the Holy Spirit, can be seen from the Word, from the Divine essence, and from heaven. From the IVord .—VJ here the Lord Himself teaches that the Father and He are one, and that the Holy Spirit goes forth from Him and from the Father ; also where the Lord teaches that the Father is in Him and He in the Father, and that the Spirit of Truth, which is the Holy Spirit, does not speak from Himself but from the Lord; and again, from passages in the Old Word where the Lord is called " Jehovah," " Son of God," and " the Holy One of Israel." From the Divine Essence .—That one Divine by itself is not possible, but there must be a trine. This trine is being [esse) coming forth lexistere) and going forth [procedere)^ for being must necessarily come forth, and when it has come forth it must so go forth as to have effed. And this trine is one THE TRINITY IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 43 in essence and one in person, and is God. This may be illustrated by a comparison. An angel of heaven is trinal and thus one ; the esse of an angel IS what is called his soul, his existere is what is called his body, and procedere from both is what is called the sphere of his life, without which an angel has neither existence nor being. By this trine an angel is an image of God, and is called a "son of God," and also an "heir," and even a "god;" nevertheless, an angel is not life from himself, but is a recipient of life ; God alone is life from Himself. From Heaven .-—The Divine trine, which is one m essence and in person, is such in heaven. The Divine called the Father, and the Divine Human called the Son, appear in heaven before the angels as a sun, and the Divine that goes forth therefrom appears as light united to heat ; thr light is Divine truth, and the heat is Divine good. Thus the Divine called the Father is the Divine esse, the Divine Human called the Son is the Divine ex^ istere from that esse, and the Divine called the Holy Spirit is the Divine procedere from the Di- vine existere and from the Divine esse. This trine is the Lord in heaven ; His Divine love is what appears there as a sun. [a.E., n. im.) It has been said that one Divine by itself is not possible, but that there must be a trine, and that this trine is one God in essence and in person. It may now be asked, What trine God had before the Lord took on the Human and made it Divine 44 GOD AND MAN. in the world? God was then likewise ^ Man and u rr nivine a Divine Human, and a DiMne go- for?h tha'tls a Divine .■..<•. a Divine ex.sUre ing forth, thai is, a ^^ q^j and a Divine /W^«. fo-^ "■I'^'R^tV Divine Outmosts are meant by nesn an even these were made Divine by the Lord wneti He was in the world. This was what was added \ ,hi« is the Divine Human that God now has. This too may be illustrated by this comparison. ^^:Van.errs a man. '--in^a -> ^^ "^^/^ bodv, and having a going forth and jet not make him a complete >"^"^ f^. Xorld has- have flesh and bones as a man in the world has That the Lord made His Human Divine even to iu outmosts, which are called ; ««Vn theTIaw He made clear to the disciples, who, when they saw Him believed that they saw a spirit, saying. ye behold .Mc havinj;' ,/-»*' "'» 39 ■ From this it follows that God now is more a man fn T ^n aneel is. Comparison has been made wi* angetand with man ; yet it must be under- stood that God has life in Himself, while an ange does not have life in himself, f- ^e . a recipien of life. That the Lord in respect ^"/".'"Himse f vine and to the Divine Human is life in Himself He teaches in John : THE TRINITY IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 45 "As the Father hath Hfe ,n Himself so gave He to the Son to have hfe in Himself" (v. 26] Here by " Father" the Lord means the Divine in Himself ; for He says elsewhere that the Father is in Him, and that the Father and He are one. (A.£., n. 1112}. 46 GOD AND MAN. X. The God-Man. Some in the Christian world have formed to themselves an idea of God resembling their idea of ^e universe, others like the idea of nature in her inmosts, others like the idea of a cloud in some eTherekl space, others like the idea of a ray oHight and others no idea at all and a few only think o God as a Man ; and yet God is a Man. There are several reasons why Christians have formed such Meas of God. The first is that they beireve from their dodrine in three Divine persons d ana from each other; - the Father as the in- visible God, and in the Lord, but not that He is God in respea to His Human. The second rea- ?on is that'they believe God to be ^Pf. an^ they conceive of a spirit as a wind or as a r o r ether, and yet every spirit is a -an. The third reason is that Christians, in consequence of their faith alone without life, have become worldly and from love of self have become <^"^P«^;^^'^^f ^/^^^ worldly and corporeal man sees ^^f ;"^> .^^^^°^^ space, thus as the whole inmost in the unnerse or in nature, consequently as extended. But God n.ust not be regarded from space, for j" ^^^ ^P/J' ; ual world there is no space ; space in that world is THE GOD-MAN. 47 only an appearance derived from something like it. In this way does every sensual man see God because he has little thought above his speech • and the thought that pertains to speech says to' itself "What the eye sees and the hand touches that I know to be," and everything else it sets aside as mere words. These are the reasons why there is no idea of God as a Man in the Christian world. That there is no such idea, and even that there is a repugnance to It, will be seen if you will examine yourself and even think of the Divine Human; and vet the Lord's Human is Divine. But these ideas of God are not so much the ideas of the simple as of the intelligent, for many of the intelligent are blinded by the pride of self intelligence, and are in conse- quence infatuated by what they know, according to the Lord's words in Matthew (xi. 25 ; xiii. 13-15). But let it be known that all who see God as a Man see Him from the Lord, and all others see Him from self ; and those who see from self do not see. [A.E.^ n. 1114., But I will relate what cannot but seem wonder- ful. In the thought of his spirit every man sees God as a Man, even he who in the thought of his body sees Him like a cloud, a mist, air, or ether, and even he who has denied that God is a Man! A man is in the thought of his spirit when he thinks abstraaiy, and in the thought of his body when he does not think abstractly. That every man in the thought of his spirit sees God as a Man has been made evident to me by men after death, 48 GOD AND MAN. who are then in the ideas of the spirit ; for after death men become spirits, and then it is impos- sible for them to think of God otherwise than as a Man. . , , , An experiment was made whether they could think otherwise, and for this purpose they were let down into the state in which they had been in the world, and then they thought about God. The thought of some was that of the universe, others that of nature in her inmosts, others that of a cloud in the midst of ether, others that of a ray of light, and others thought in other ways : but the moment they came out of that state into a state of the spirit thev thought of God as a Man. At this they were surprised, and declared that it was something im- planted in every spirit. But evil spirits who have denied God in the world deny Him also after death, and yet in place of God they worship some spirit who gains ascendency over the rest by means of diabolical arts. , ^ . 1,1 It has been said that to think of God as a Man has been implanted in every spirit. That this comes through an influx of the Lord ^nto the in- teriors of their thoughts is evident from the fa^ that in all the heavens angels acknowledge the Lord alone. They acknowledge His Divine which is called the Father, they behold His Divine Hu- man, and thev are in the Divine that goes forth, for the whole angelic heaven is the Lord s Divme that goes forth. An angel is not an angel from what is his own, but from the Divine that he re- ceives from the Lord. From this they are in the THE GOD-MAN. 49 are and fron, wh on, he." ^k Add ."'r '"^^ the whole antreijr k« ^^^ ^^ ^^is that Lord V^'^/"^^^^^ heaven m its complex before the Have direaion 'C:tcZ%:r:o'"^: fz'^i angels of the th'^-ee hea ens hL of r i" ""'"'• ^" and are unable .o think o"er^"se' ufiT " 'l""' to think otherwise thr "^^^'^f ' " they wished would JlrZ%l':T' Th°f .r "• ^"1 '"^^ ^very spirit and to every man wh^ ^ "• '""^ '^ coTat^trn^:^-''-"-^^^^^^ human form more thlv, tu '^^'^'^ ^^d under a Abraham^ that he s-lt°L\ "?" '° '"°'"'' ^ ^"^ three angels and rhTt ^ ""^ '" ""^ "'d^' "f Jehovah'a^ o appeared a^^m 7' H '"° "' ''"'"'■ eon, to Joshua to n , ^" *° "^K^"'' <° Gid- and as ",1,75 '° Dan.el as "the Ancient of days- Son of man t"the"^",' ' "'j-- '^ '""n as " the also to o?her proohetr T^°' '"''" lampstands ;" prophets. That it was the Lord who — "-'"' ^ " ' ! • ■' ■" ■j ii iik ' ji i ji'wte ir rt i w i M B jWrW ' IIB f^ 50 GOD AND MAN. was seen by these He Himself teaches where He says, That Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and that he saw and was glad ( 7t'/tn viii. 56 : Also that He was betore Abraham was (verse 58) ; And that He was betore the world was .7ohrt xvii. 5, 24^. It was not the Father but the Son that was seen, because the Divine fsse, which is the Father, can- not be seen except by means of the Divine extstere, which is the Divine Human. That the Divine esst, which is called the Father, was not seen, the Lord teaches in john : ••The Father who hath sent Me, He hath borne wit- ness of Me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form " (v. 37). In the same, " Not that anv one hath seen the Father save He that is with " the Father. " He hath seen Uic Father (vi. 46). And in the same, "No one hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, who is m the bosom of the Father, He hath brought Him forth to view" (i. 18]. From this it is clear that the Divine rsse, which is the Father, was not seen by the ancients, nor could it be seen ; nevertheless it was seen by means of the Divine existen\ which is the Son. Since an esse is in its existere as a soul is in its body, so he who sees the Divine existere or the Son sees also the Divine esse or Father, as the Lord shows in these words : ••Philip said, Lord, show us the Father Tesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you THE GOD-MAN. 51 hafh ?/;„ te" h?.?^ se"e7?he''Fatr'"P^ ^^ ^^^ thou. Show us the' Fa?h%7rMVf/« xTv' t^) ''^^^^ These words show that the Lord is the Divine ex. istere m which is the Divine ...., thus the God-Man who was seen by the ancients. From what has been cited u follows also that the Word is o be saying that God has a face, that He has eyes and ears and that He has hands and feet. (^.^.^. ^f^.J Plan ted in "" '^' '^^^ "' ^^^ ^^ ^ ^^^ ^^ '^-^' hive wor.h"''7"'i'^"' many peoples and nations Deared r.h''^''^ ^"^' ^^^ either were men or ap. peared to them as men ; as Greece, Italy, and cer- tain kingdoms under their rule worshipped Saturn Jupiter, Neptune. Pluto. Apollo, Mercury. Juno' anrasr-H ^"^'7'""^ ^"^ ^^^ b°>^ and''o hers,' and ascribed to them the government of the uni: per on. h'^ distributed divinity among so many a Man ' TT ^r"^ '"^"^^^°" ^^^y ^-^ God as a Man and therefore viewed all the attributes properties, and qualities of God as persons, fnd in and knoT/'" "^"^^' "^^^'^-' inclinations" and knowledges as persons. It was also from IboTcV'" ^'^ ^"'^^'""^^ ^^ ^^^ count trund about Canaan, as well as those of the regions within ir M rr ^ ^"^^•"^' ^^^^-°^h' Beelzebub Ch" hTdtra:^-r^^^'-^-^---ofwho; Again, it is from intuition that in Christian heathenism at this day there are those who worsMo -.nts as gods, bending the knee before the7r Wols^ 5a GOD AND MAN. THE LORD THE ONLY MAN, embracing them, baring the heacj before them in the ways where they are set up, and worshipping at their graves ; and even doing the same to the pope, whose shoes and even his footsteps they press with their lips, and would salute him as a god if religion allowed it. These and other pradices are from an intuition, that is, a desire to worship a visible god and not an airy something which is nothing but a vapor to them. But the idea of God as a Man that flows in from heaven is so perverted with many that either a man of the world or an idol is worshipped in place of God, comparatively as the bright light of the sun is turned into colors not beautiful, and its summer heat into foul stenches, according to the objedls upon which they fall. But it is for reasons stated above that the idea of God becomes an idea of a little cloud or of a mist, or of the in- most of nature, ideas that exist among Christians but rarely among other nations who enjoy any light of reason, as the Africans and some others. {A.E., n. 1118.) 53 XI. The Lord the only Man. Ma Jif 'nf.n'^ ^' -^ -^'"" ^"^ '^^' ^he Lord is that human for,^^ 'I '"" '^'"^' ^'^ ^"^er in the numan lorm or have reference tn ti,« 1, form ; the whole heaven is ,n ,h- h ^"""'" SP J henLh-Ve ^hl^n/rTni ittfh—Z vea ed ,0 me that all things both least and grelt" thit fo r, "'. ""T^'^'^'y f™" "^^ Lord fre in that form, for that which goes forth from God is Because they are recipients of the Divine that beautv°whf7. "■^'-°^'^' '"^ '"^" °f -"derf^ beauty, wh le the sp.rits in the hells, because thev Lord ar'^H "'•;"' °"''"^ '"=" 8°-^ f°«h f"o- th^ do ntTJr '• '"'* '" '"^ "8*" °f heaven the^ do not appear as men but as monsters. And on 54 GOD ANI) MAN. this account it is known in the spiritual world from each one's human form how much he de- rives from the Lord. From all this it can be seen that the Lord is the only Man, and that every one is a man according to his reception of Divine good and Divine truth from the Lord. In a word, he who sees God as a Man sees God, because he sees the Lord. And the Lord says, "He that seeth the Son and believeth in Him hath eternal hfe " [John vi. 40;. *'To see the Son" is to see Him in spirit, for this is said also to those who did not see him in the world. 'A.E., n. H19. It has been said that the Lord is the only Man, and that all are men according to their re- ception of Divine good and Divine truth from Him. The Lord is the only Man because He is life itself ; while all others are recipients of life because they are men from Him. The difference between the Man who is life and the man who is a recipient of life is like the difference between the uncreate and the created, or between the in- finite and the finite, a difference that admits of no ratio, for there is no possible ratio between the infinite and the finite, thus there is none between God as a Man and any other as a man, whether angel or spirit or a man in the world. That the Lord is life He Himself teaches in John : *'Thf Word was with God. and the Word was God ;. . . in Him was hte, and thr hfe waa the Hght ot men. And the Word became flesh" i. 1, 4, 14). fl >i i i' ii ii# t<»i" THE LORD THE ONLY MAN. 55 In the same. "As the Father hath life in H.rr,. i« Son to have lite in Si'iSJselP'Tv '.I' ^^'" "" ^° *^^ In the same, "^' ^.^^V^^, -"' Me. and , also .i,e In the same, "I am the Resurre<5tion and'the Life" ix\ 2O In the same, ' "I am the Way. the Truth, and the Life " (xiv 6) ^^'^^^tr:^'^ Word He and "The Tree of ut ' al o ''. th. l' ^'^'^ "' ^^'^ '" *' the God that li veth •' ^^'^"^ "^^^ '" ^"^ As He is life, and every man is a recipient of life from H,m. He also teaches that He Xs jf and makes alive, as in John : ^ ^'^^ "As the Father... makes aliv^ *\.^ o alive" v. 21}. aiive,...the Son also makes In the same. In the same, ^^^ •' Hecause I live ye shall live also" (xiv. ,9). Also in many passages, that He ^ives life m those who believe in Him. And for thTsreaso^ God IS called "a fountain of life" (PsaL vv 9). and elsewhere, " Creator," " Maker - Fn !: also " Potter " and wp " thJ 1 ^^^^'^' Former," His hands " A?r a- / ""^^^^ ^"^ ^^^ "^^'^ of nis nands. As God is life, it follows that in Hio, we hve, „>ovc. and have our being. ,!,t n .." 7 ilfeiait: 56 GOD AND MAN. XII. MAN CREATED TO RECEIVE THE DIVINE LiFE. Life regarded in itself, which is God, cannot create another that shall be the only life ; for the life that is God is uncreate, continuous, and in- separable ; and from this it is that God is one. But the life that is God can create forms out of substances that are not life, in which it can dwelU and give to them the appearance of living, buch forms are men ; and since they are receptacles of life they could not when first created be any thing else than images and likenesses of God ; images from the reception of truth and likenesses from the reception of good; for life and its recipient are fitted to each other as the adive and the pas- sive but do not mingle. For this reason human forms, which are recipients of life. Hve. not from themselves, but from God who alone is life ; con- sequently. as is well known, every good of love and every truth of faith is from God. and nothing of these is from man ; for if man had the least portion of life as his own he would be able to will and do good from himself, and to understand and believe truth from himself, and thus to claim merit ; and yet if he so believes, the form re- cipient of life closes itself above and becomes MAN CREATED T(J RECEIVE THE DIVINE LIFE. 57 perverted, and intelligence perishes. Good and its love and truth and its faith are the life that is God, for God is good itself and truth itself; and therefore in these God dwells in man. From all this it follows, that man of himself is nothing, and is something only so far as he receives from the Lord, and at the same time ac- knowledges that it is not his own but is the Lord's ; then the Lord gives him to be something, yet not from himself but from the Lord. ia.£. n. 1121.) ' The appearance to man is that he lives from himself, but this is a fallacy; if it were not a fallacy man would be able to love God from him- self, and be wise from himself. The appearance is that life is in man, because it flows in from the Lord into his inmosts, which are far removed from the sight of his thought, and thus from per- ception ; also for the reason that the principal cause which is life and the instrumental cause which is recipient of life ad together as one cause, and this is felt in the instrumental cause which is the recipient, that is, in man, as if it were in him. It is exadtly the same as our feeling that the light, which is the cause of sight, is in the eye, and that sound, which is the cause of hearing, is in the ear, and that the volatile particles in the air that cause smell are in the nose, that the soluble parti- cles of food that cause taste are on the tongue ; when the truth is that the eyes, the ears, the nose, and the tongue, are recipient organized sub- stances, that is, instrumental causes, while light, j8 GOD AND MAN. sound, the volatile particles in the air, and the soluble particles on the tongue, are the principal causes, and these ad together as one cause ; that which ads is called the principal, and that which suffers itself to be ac'led upon is called the instru- mental. He who examines the subjea more deeply can see that man, in resped to each and every thing pertaining to him, is an organ of life, and that what produces sensation and perception flows in from without, and that the life itself is what causes man to feel and to perceive as if from himself. Another reason why life appears to be in man is that the Divine love is such that it desires its own to be man's, and yet it teaches that it is not man's. And the Lord wills that man should think and will and in consequence speak and ad as if from himself, and yet should acknowledge that this is not done from himself. Otherwise man could not be reformed. [A.£.,n. 1122.J THE DIVINE HUMAN LIFE. 59 XIII. The Divine Hu.man Life. When it is said and thought that life itself is God, or that God is life itself, and with this there IS no Idea of what life is, then beyond these ex- pressions there is no understanding of what God s. In the thought of man there are two ways of thmkmg. one abstrad, which is spiritual, and one not abs racl. which ,s natural. The abstrac-^ or spiritual thought about the life which is God is that It IS love itself and that it is wisdom itself and that love is of wisdom and that wisdom is of love. But the thought that is not abstrad or is natural about the life which is God is that His love IS like fire and His wisdom like light, and that together they are like a sunbeam. This nat- ural thought is acquired from correspondence for fire corresponds to love and light corresponds to wisdom, and therefore in the Word "fire" sie nifies love and "light" signifies wisdom. And when there is preaching from the Word there is also a prayer that heavenly fire (which means the Divine ove) may warm all hearts, and that heavenlv light (which means the Divine wisdom) may enlighten all minds. The Divine love, which in the Divine wisdom dom ,s the life itself which is God, is not in its ■ M ^ iw i Sf J^rj^^ lfc rfffiffl^ '^*^ 60 GOD AND MAN. essence thinkable, for it is infinite and thus tran- scends comprehension, but in its appearance it is thinkable. Before the eyes of angels the Lord appears as a sun, and from that sun heat goes forth and light goes forth. The sun is Divine love, the heat is Divine love going forth, which is called Divine good, and the light is Divine wisdom going forth, which is called Divine truth. And yet the life that is God must not be thought of as a fire or heat or light, unless there goes with it the thought at the same time of love and of wisdom, that is, that the Divine love is like fire, and the Divine wisdom is like light, and the Divine love and the Divine wisdom together are like a sun- beam. For God is a complete Man, in face like a Man and in body like a Man. with no difference in respedl to form but only in respecl to essence; His essence is that He is love itself and wisdom itself, thus life itself. {A.E., n. 1124- No idea of the life that is God can be had unless an idea of the degrees by which life descends from its inmosts to its outmosts is gained. There is an inmost degree of life and there is an outmost de- gree of life and there are intermediate degrees of life ; the distindion between these is like the dif- ference between things prior and things posterior, for a posterior degree springs from a prior one, and so on. Again, the difference is like the difference between things less and more general, for what is of a prior degree is less general, and what is of a posterior one is more general. Such degrees of life are in every man from creation ; and they are THE DIVINE HUMAN LIFE. gj is being opened, in somf .he m.ddle anH °"""°'' bemg opened become after death angels of ,h. or^: i^id^:;:--:! Te^;- irttsT'^ whom the degree nevt tn ,hl . *°^^ '" opened becom^l after death an^el" oTthe " "''"' heaven. These degrees are 0^"^ degr et o^fTan-i I.fe but they are degrees of his wisdom a„d"ove because they are opened according to th" Tecet^don of w,sdom and love, thus of liff from the Lord There , ,„,h degrees of life also in a 1 'ht of' gans and viscera and membprs r.t ,u u 1 by influx they a^ as o:^;^^!:^^ d'eg^e':'^'} h"' in the brams. The skin«; fh*> ^ ^ferees oi nte bones, make their Outmost' degr""'^"' ^""^ "^= are?u:"d:gr:e": in':f;rf '■".'"^" "^""^ '"-« .he Lord. b^Tl^t^e Lo^rd he's:af:hfi°;:tr" man they are recipients of Ufe But ^' I k" th^ 1 ''^^^^^' ^"a on contmuous deirrees «;^^ the work on //eazm and Hell n ,, ,, ?« f ' l 20Q 21 r n- ixrK^,-^ ♦u ^^' ^■*' 30. 39. 2oS A L ; ^}^' ^'^ ^^^y ^^^ "lore fully described A knowledge of these should be drawn il 1 work for use in what follows ) .eI '^"' "•/ 1--1 /J., n. 1125.) 62 GOD AND MAN. Because God is life, it follows that He is un- created He is uncreated because life can create but cannot be created, for to be created is to have existence from another, and if life had existence from another there would be another bemg even as to life, and that life would be life m itself. If this First were not life in itself it would be either from another or from itself ; and you cannot say life from itself because from itself involves com- ing forth, and that coming forth would be from no- thing, and from nothing nothing can come forth. This First, which has being in itself and from which all things have been created, is (iod who is called Jehovah because He is Being in Himselt. This, especially if it is illustrated by things created, reason can see. Now as there can be no Being unless it comes forth, so being and coming forth {esseetexistere in God are One; for when there is being there is coming forth, and when there is com- ing forth there is being. This, therefore, is the life itself which is God and which is Man. [A.E., n. 1126.) ALL THINGS FROM THAT LIFE. 63 XIV. All Things from that Life. i. r^T ^^l -^^^f ^' ^'^ ^'°"^ ^he life itself which IS God and is Man. can be made clear by Teflf sp"ea ^^o h' "^^^^' "^^"' ^" ^^^^ ^^ - -- n e- -dtrs. tnd t":::y vr ^ " ^^^ '-'^- • «»iu lu respect to his inmosts • anrl o man „.ho in the world has been merjy c^rporlal and consequently stupid in respea to his life a^ tenal body as a man in the spiritual world andt Ten I'r " "^P"''^ '° '''^ '""^ i" the wodd has pears as a man, perfed in the measure nfu- ^' ception of life from the Lord .^H ^'' '■^■ the third degree of life h^ ' 1 ^ ""^^ '" ^^^'^ who in respefl to hi f ^^\^^^^ opened, thus in respeei to his life m the world has been a 64 GOD AND MAN. celestial man, when after death he becomes an angel appears as a man in all perfedion. ^The man is the life itself that is m him. whether it be sensual or natural or rational or spiritual, or celestial, for so the f g^^^^ f J^^^ are called. Man in whom these degrees exist i^ only a recipient. As it is in the least types so it is in the greatest. The whole angelic heaven in every complex is a man. Each heaven by itself, the first, the second, and the third, is a man. Each society in the heavens, greater or less, is a man. Even the church on the earth in genera is a man ; likewise ail asemblages that are called churches are by themselves men. It is said M. church, but it is meant all in whom the church is in the complex ; thus does the church on the earth appear to the angels of heaven. It so appears be- cause the life that is from the Lord is a man. Life from the Lord is love and wisdom ; conse- quently such as the reception of love and wis- dom from the Lord is such is the man. This shows in the first place that all things have been created from the life that is God and that is Man. ''^"^Tharall things are from the life itself which is God, and which is wisdom and love, can also be made clear bv reference to things created when they are viewed from order. For it is from order that the angelic heavens, consisting of thousands and thousands of societies, acl as one through love to the Lord and through love towards the neighbor, and that they are kept in order through ALL THINGS FROM THAT LIFE. 65 Divine truths which are the laws of order Also 1 1 s from order that the hells beneath the he^l! ho^slnds or '^'^ ^'^^ ''"^^ thousands and means of T H ^''^"^^^'^^' ^''^ ^ept in order by means of judgments and punishments so that they are unable to do the least harm To the heavens, although they are hatreds and insanit es the hefls T "'''' ^'^^ '^^"^^" ^h^ heavens and the hells there is an equilibrium, in which is man T^y" r' '• ^"^ ^" "^^^h he is led to helveTrf led by the Lord, and to hell if led by himself fof hVdoe:f^o::if ^^t ^'^ "^^" -^'^ ^^ "h--: he does from freedom according to reason. from the creation of the world have poured fnto he spiritual world and are unceasingly pouring n like streams and each individual has a difTeren" disposition and love thev ronlH k,. '''"^^^"t have been associated' tl.^'t 'j Z ~ tJs We hadf ""■' "^"^ '''" "-• -d -! s I„H .h ^ ^■^" ""''°'" ''=«'f and love itself and thus order aself. Thus much about heaven ' In the world the Divine order appears in the sun moon, stars, and planets. The sun in a "pear! ^efonT rtht^iirthtr- '-' ""-^ ^''''^= autumn, and .^^^'^^^t 1^ -^ \Z2^, which are morn.ng, noon, evening and night • and ■t vvfies all things of the earth according t;,^he heat, and accordmg to reception it opens, ar- ranges, and prepares bodies and matters, which 66 GOD AND MAN. are in the earth and upon the earth, to receive in- flux from the spiritual world. Thus in the spring time, by the union of heat and light at that season the birds of heaven and the animals of earth return into the love of prolification, and into a knowledge of all things pertaining to that love ; and the things of the vegetable kingdom return into the efforts and adivitics of producing leaves, flowers and fruits, and seeds in them for perpetuating their kind to eternity, and for multi- plying it to infinity. It is also from order that the earth produces vegetables, and that vegetables nourish animals, and that both are useful to man for food, for rai- ment, and for pleasure ; and as man is the one in whom is God. so all things thus return to God from whom they are. All this makes clear that created things follow in such order that one is for the sake of another, and that they are perpetual ends which are uses, and that the ends which are uses are constantly so direded as to return to God from whom they are. All this now shows that all things have been created from life itself, which is wisdom itself, and also shows that the created universe is full of God. {A.E.,n. 1129) THAT LIFE KTF.RXAL, INFINITE, OMNIPOTENT. 67 XV. That Life Eternal, Infinite, and Omnipotent. As God is uncreate He is also eternal ; for the life itself which is God is life in itself, not from itself, nor from nothing ; thus it is without origin ; and what is without origin is from eternity and is eternal. But the conception of any thing with- out origin is impossible to the natural man ; so, too, is the conception of God from eternity ; ' but it is possible to the spiritual man. The thought of the natural man cannot be separated and ab- stra^ed from the idea of time ; this idea clings to him from nature, in which he is. Nor can his thought be separated and abstra^ed from the idea of origin, since origin means to him a beginning in time. The appearance in the sun's progres- sion has impressed this idea on the natural man. But the thought of the spiritual man is abstraded from the idea of time, because it is raised above nature, and in place of that idea there is the idea of state of life, and in place of duration of time is an idea of the state of thought from affedion, which constitutes life. For in the angelic heaven the sun does not rise or set or make years and days, as the sun in the world does ; and for this reason the angels of heaven, because they are in 68 GOD AND MAN. spiritual ideas, think apart from time; conse- quently their idea of God from eternity does not take anything from origin, that is, from a begin- ning, but from state that it is eternal, and that every thing therefore that is God and that gees forth from God is eternal, in other words, is Divine in itself. That this is so I have been per- mitted to perceive by an elevation above natural thought into spiritual thought. From all this it is clear that God, who is un- create, is also eternal, also that it is impossible to think that nature is from eternity, or that it is from itself in time ; but it is possible to think that God is from eternity, and that both nature and time are from God. A.E., n. 1130 As God is eternal He is also infinite, and as there is a natural idea and a spiritual idea of the eternal, so there is of the infinite. The natural idea of the eternal is from time, but the spiritual idea of it is not from time. And the natural idea of the infinite is from space, but the spiritual idea of it is not from space. For as life is not nature, so the two properties of nature, which are time and space, are not properties of life, for they were created with nature by the life which is God. The natural idea of the infinite God, which is from space, is that He fills the universe from end to end ; but from this idea of the infinite there springs the thought that the inmost of nature is God, and thus that He is something extended, and yet every thing extended belongs to matter. As, therefore, the natural idea has nothing in THAT LIFE ETERNAL. LVFINITE, OMNIPOTENT. 69 common With the idea of life, of wisdom and of ove. which IS God. so the infinite must be vTewed from the spiritual idea, in which there is nothTng h noT- ^"^"^^^^"^ -' ^Pace, because there is in Idea h"^n •"'?'"• ^^^"^^'"^ '^ ^he spiritual Idea the Divine love is infinite and the Divine The DWi : '"'r^' ^"' ^^"^^ ^^^ Divine love and ^e Divine wisdom are the life which is God the that God " f •" "'"^^ ' ''^^ "^-h ^t follows mat Ood IS infinite. from^thf ^ -^i"'"' "'?''°"' '" '■""""« <^^" be seen heiven aT'^k""" °' '"' ""^^'^ °' '"e third fh?v n "I"^ ^''"' ="' ^"'"s i" wisdom. wZn'^T"' •"'"' "" ^"'"Parison is possible be: tween ,he.r wisdom and the Lords Divine wis- fhe inr?"" "° '^"■"P^rison is possible between thl, .h r ^1'' ""^ '^""^- Moreover, tliey say that he first degree of wisdom, is to see and ac- kno^Wedge that this is so. The same is true of the Dwme love. Furthermore, angels like men are recipient forms of life, thus they are recipients iLZ ,""" '"^'^ ''°'" '"« Lord ; and these orms are from substances that are without life He^H '"'^'" ''■^'"^^'^^s d^ad, and between what is de^ad and what is living no comparison is possi- But how that finite receives the infinite can be world T.^"'u "■*^'" ^"•^ "^^ °' '"^ ="" °f the world. The light itself and the heat itself from materinr.T ""' "'^'""^'' ^"'^ ^^ *ey affea Tnd th. h . rT'- ""^ "S"" "^y '"odifyingthem. and the heat by changing their states. The Lord s 70 GOD AND MAN. Divine wisdom is likewise light, and the Lord's Divine love is heat, but they are spiritual heat and light, because they go forth from the Lord as a sun, which is Divine love united to Divine wis- dom, while the light and heat from the sun of the world are natural, because that sun is fire and not love. .I.E.. n. 11 31. Since God is infinite He is also omnipotent, for omnipotence is infinite power. God's omni- potence shines forth from the universe, which is the visible heaven and the habitable globe ; these, with all things that are in the visible heavens and on the habitable globe, are the great works of an omnipotent Creator. The creation of these and their maintenance testify that they are from Divine omnipotence, while their order and mutual regard to ends from first to last testify that they are from Divine wisdom. God's omnipotence shines forth also from the heaven that is above or within our visible heaven, and from the globe there that is inhabited by angels, as ours is by men. There are wonderful testimonies there to the Divine omnipotence ; and as these have been seen by me and revealed to me, I am permitted to speak of them. There all men are that have died from the first creation of the world ; and these after death continue to be men in form, but are spirits in essence. Spirits are affe<5lions that are from love, and thus also thoughts. The spirits of heaven are affedions of the love of good, and the spirits of hell affe(flions of the love of evil. Good affecflions, which are THAT LIFE ETERNAL, INFINITE. OMNIPOTENT. 71 angels, dwell on a globe that is called heaven and evil affedions, which are spirits of hell dwell at a great depth beneath them. The globe is one, but is divided into expanses as it were, one below another. There are six expanses ; in the highest the angels of the third heaven dwell, and beneath them the angels of the second heaven and beneath these the angels of the first heaven' below these dwell the spirits of the first hell be- neath these the spirits of the second hell, and beneath these the spirits of the third hell. All things are arranged in such order that the evil affccflions which are spirits of hell, are held in bonds bv the good affedions, which are angels of heaven ;' the spirits of the lowest hell by the angels of the highest heaven, the spirits of the middle hell by the angels of the middle heaven, and the spirits of the first hell by the angels of the first heTv";;^ By such opposition the affections are held in equilibrium as in the scales of a balance viH.^H"'\^'''''^"' ^"^ ^""" ^'^ innumerable, di- ided into assemblies and societies according to the genera and species of all affections ; and the e affectH.ns in their order and connection are in accord with the nearer and more remote affinities of the societies. This is true both of the heavens and of the hells. This order and this connection of affections are known to the Lord alone, and the arrangement of the different affections as many as there have been men from the first c;ea w'dom "h" ^\^--^^-' - - -rk of infi'n te" wisdom, and at the same time of infinite power. 72 GOD AND MA.V. That the Divine power is infinite, or that it is omnipotence, is there clearly evident from the fact that neither the angels of heaven nor the devils of hell have any power whatever from them- selves. If they had any at all heaven would fall to pieces, hell would become a chaos, and with these every man would perish. A.JC , n. 1133 God has all power, and men and angels have none at all, because God alone is life, and men and angels are only recipients of life, and life is that which adls, and the recipient of life that which is adled upon. Every one can see that a recipient of life cannot act at all from itself, and that its acflion must be from the life that is God. Nevertheless, it can acl as if from itself, for this can be granted to it ; that it has been granted to it has been said above. If man does not live from himself it follows that he does not think and will from himself, neither does he speak and acl from himself, but from God who alone is life. That this is so does not seem to be true, for man has no other feeling than that these things are in himself, and thus are done by himself ; and yet when he speaks from faith he confesses that every thing good and true is from God, and that every thing evil and false is from the devil, although every thing that a man thinks, wills, speaks or a(5ls, has refer- ence to what is good and true or to what is evil and false. For this reason when a man does good he says within himself, or his teacher says to him, that he was led by God, and when he does THAT LIFE ETERNAL, INFLMTE, OMNIPOTENT. 73 evil that he was led by the devil. Also every man who preaches prays that his thought his discourse, and his tongue, may be led by the spirit of God. and sometimes he adds after preach- ing that he has spoken from the spirit ; and some even have a perception of this in themselves iuZZu^ ^an myself testify before the world that all things of my thought and will have en- tered by influx, the goods and truths through from hell. It has been granted me for a long time to perceive this. ^ Angels of the higher heavens have a clear sensation that this is so ; and the wisest of them do not wish to think and will even as if from themselves. On the other hand, infernal genii and spirits utterly deny this, and are angry when old that It IS so. Yet to many the truth has wTrH "II '''^'^'"' ^y ^^^^"^ P^°°^' but after- ward, they were indignant. Since, however, this seems to many to be a contradidion it is im- portant that it should be seen from some idea of the understanding how this takes place, that it may be acknowledged that it does take pbce rhe essence of the matter is as follows From the Lord's Divine love, which appears in the angelic heaven as a sun, light goes J^rth anS heat goes forth. This light is the life of His D.vme wisdom, and this heat is the life of His Divine love. This spiritual heat which is love and this spiritual light which is wisdom flow into subjects that are recipient of life, as natural hel^ ^^iMiimtm 74 GOD AND MAN. and natural light from the sun of the world flow into subjects net recipient of life. And although light simply modifies the substances into which it flows, and heat simply changes their state, yet it follows that if these were living subjects, they would feel these changes in themselves, and would suppose them to be from themselves ; and yet they recede with the sun and return with the sun. It is because the life of the Lord's Divine wis- dom is light that the Lord in many passages of the Word is called light, and it is said in John ; "The Word was with God, and the; Word was God. . . In Him was hfe, and the life was the Ughtot men" (i. 1-4). From all this it is now clear that God has in- finite power because He is the all in all. But how an evil person can think, will, speak and do evil when God alone is life, will be told in what follows. {A.E., n. 1134.) ' TiMlllllllUftln'l " '^ PART SECOND The Divine Providence — — "1 lum ti mn The Divine Providence. I. The Laws of Divine Providence. As the Divine omnipotence is snrh th.. IS not able to think and xviVl a ? ^^ ""^^ man is not saved Rnr u^ u ^ <-^ery less it I v'u" ""'"'^' "''"'' ^='""« knowun. less ,t ,s enlighiened. And as man is ignorant is fh" ^°".^^''"-">- '-- conciusfonsre - pccung the Divme providence from what han Tnd th"., r^"' ^' "■^'•^•' '- f""= into fa, aZ' and thus ,nto errors, from which it is difBcuk or aneto'r;;\.i-rtt:'SKinrpt:.T"- opera.es in every particular thinyTer'tll^Sn'r" 78 IlIK DIVINE PROVIDENCK. man. even in the most minute particulars, f( r his eternal salvation ; for the salvation o man was the end of the creation of heaven and of earth This end was that out of the human race a heaven S be formed, in which God could dwe 1 as m H f own very home, consequently the salvation of man is the all in all of the Divme prov.d- ence. But the Divine provi «'-e no o,v. u^^"'^ ^"'^ P^i-t^cption man knows ■s as if i T' :" ""' "'^ '^ '" l^™- 'hus tha"1 s as .f ,t were h,s own, has need of no other proof than e.xper,ence itself. Who has any other S wh/"T''K"", "'^" "^•'" •>■= ""-nks from h,m ",! ne tt Ills that he speaks and acts from himself when he speaks and acts ? Rut it is from a law of D^te F.rov,dence that man should know no olrwisT stnce without such a feeling and such a percep, on he cannot receive anything to himself, appropr Lte M f 84 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. anything to himself, or bring forth anything from himself ; thus he would be neither a recipient of life from the Lord nor an agent of life from the Lord, but would be like an automaton, or like an upright image, without understanding or will, with the hands hanging down, awaiting influx that could not be given. For if life were not received and not appropriated as if by man it would not be retained, but would flow through, and in conse- quence man from being alive would become like one dead, and from being a rational soul would become not rational, thus either a brute or a stock ; for he would have no delight of life, that is, the de- light that every one has from receiving as if by himself, from appropriating and from bringing forth as if by himself, since delight and life act as one, and when you take away all the delight of life you grow cold and die. If it were not according to a law of Divine pro- vidence that man should feel and perceive as if life and every thing pertaining to it were in him, and should be left to acknowledge simply that good and truth are not from him but are from the Lord, nothing could be imputed to man, neither good nor truth, and thus neither love nor faith ; and if nothing could be imputed the Lord would not have com- manded in the Word that man must do good and shun evil, and if he did good heaven would be his inheritance, and if he did evil hell would be his portion ; nor even would there be any heaven or hell, for without that perception man would not be a man, thus would not be a dwelling place of the THE FIRST AND SECOND LAW.S. 8S Lord. For the Lord wills to be loved by man as If by h,m; thus it is that the Lord dwells with man m what ,s His own, and this he has given him in order that He may be loved reciprocally; fo^ the Divme love consists in this, that it wishes what IS Its own to be man's, and this could not be unless man felt and perceived what is from the Lord to be as if It were his own. If it were not according to a Divine law that man cannot from sense and perception know other- wise than that life is in him. no end for the sake of which man could act would be possible ; this is possible to man because the end from which he acts T.T i'° "^^ '" ''"^- '^^' ^"^ '^^^ -hich he acts IS his love, which is his life, and the end for the sake of which he acts is the delight of his love or hfe and the effect in which the end presents tself ,s use. The end for the sake of which he acts, which IS the delight of his life's love is felt and perceived in man. because the end from which he acts enables him to feel and perceive it ; and that end IS, as has been said, the love which is life. But to the man who acknowledges that all things o his life are rom the Lord, the Lord gives (so far as the man acknowledges this and performs uses) the delight and blessedness of His love Thus when man by acknowledgment and by faith from ove, as If from himself, ascribes to the Lord all things of his life, the Lord in turn ascribes to man the good of His life, which carries with it every happiness and every blessedness, and also enables him to feel and perceive interiorly and exquisitely 86 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. this good to be in himself as if it were his own, and the more exquisitely in proportion as man from the heart wills that which he acknowledges by faith. The perception is then reciprocal, for the perception that He is in man and man is in Him is grateful to the Lord, and the perception that he is in the Lord and the Lord in him is gratifying to man. Such is the union of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord by means of love. .1 /•:., n 113S ) Man has a feeling and perception that life is in him, because the life of the Lord is in him as the light and heat of the sun are in a subjecfk. This light and heat belong not to the subject but to the sun in the subject, for they withdraw with the sun ; but when they are in the subject they in appear- ance wholly belong to it ; from light the subject has color as if it were in it, and from heat it has vegetative life as if it were in it. Rut this is much more true of the light and heat from the sun of the spiritual world, which is the Lord, whose light is the light of life and whose heat is the heat of life, for the sun from which these go forth is the Lord's Divine love, while man is the recipient subject. This light and heat never withdraw from the recipient, which is man, and when they are in man they are in appearance wholly his own. From the light he has the ability to understand, and from the heat the ability to will. From this that the light and heat, although they are not his own, are seemingly wholly in the recipient, and from this that they never withdraw, THE FIRST AND SECOND LAWS. 87 also from this that they affect his inmosts, which are remote from the sight of his understanding and from the feeling of his will, there must needs be the appearance that thev are innate, that is they seem to be in him, and thus what they effect seems to be from him. From this it is that man does not know otherwise than that he thinks from himself and that he wills from himself ; and yet he does not in the least do this from himself, for It IS impossible for this light and heat to be so united to the recipient as to be his own, precisely as It IS impossible for the light of the sun to be united to an earthly subject and become material as the subject is. The same is true of heat. But the light of life and the heat of life move and fill their recipient in the exact measure of the quality of his acknowledgment that they are not his but are the Lord's ; and the quality of acknowledg- ment is in exact accord with the quality of love m doing the commandments, which are uses, (.-i.z:., n. 1139.J 88 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. III. The Third Law of Divine Providence. The third law of Divine providence is, That to think and speak truth and to will and do good from frccdotn according to reason is not from man but from the Lord ; and that to think and speak falsity and to will and do evil from freedom is not from man but from hell, and yet in such a way that while the evil and falsity are from hell, the freedom itself regarded in itself, and the ability itself to think, will, speak, and do, regarded in itself, are from the Lord. That every good that is good in itself and every truth that is truth in itself is from the Lord and not from man, can be comprehended by the understanding from this, that the light that goes forth from the Lord as a sun is the Divine truth of His Divine wisdom, and that the heat that goes forth from the Lord as a sun is the Divine good of His Divine love ; and as man is a recipi- ent of these it follows, that every good which is from love and every truth which is from wisdom is from the Lord and not from man. But that every evil and every falsity is from hell and not THE third law. 89 from man has not been made a matter of faith as the facl that good and truth are not from man has because heretofore this has not been perceived' But that evil and falsity are from man is an ao^ pearance, and if believed is a fallacv. cannot be comprehended until it is known what hell is and how hell with evil and falsitv can flow in on the one side as the Lord with good and truth flows in on the other. Therefore it shall be told in the first place of whom hell consists, what hell is whence it is, and how it flows in and acls a-ainst good, and thus how man who is in the midst is aaed upon on either side as a mere recipient 'A.J:.., n. 1 141/ ^ ' Hell consists of spirits who when thev were men in the world denied God, acknowledged na- ture, lived contrary to Divine order, loved evils and falsities, although for appearance sake this was not done openly ; consequentlv they were either insane in respect to truths, 'or despised truths, or denied them in heart if not with the lips. Of all such from the creation of the world hell consists. These are all called either devils or satans ; those in whom love of self has predom- inated are called devils, and those in whom love of the world has predominated are called satans. Ihe hell containing devils is meant in the Word by the "Devil." and the hell containing satans is meant by "Satan." Moreover, the Lord has so jomed the devils together that thev are as one, and also the satans ; and this is whv the hells are called the Devil and Satan in the' singular 90 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. Hell does not consist of spirits immediately cre- ated such, neither does heaven consist of angels immediately created such ; but hell consists of men born in the world, who were made devils or satans by themselves, and in like manner heaven con- sists of men born in the world, who were there made angels by the Lord. All men in respect to the interiors which belonj? to their minds are spirits, clothed in the world with a material body which is under the direction of the thought of the spirit and under the control of its affection ; for the mind which is spirit acts, and the body which is matter is acted upon ; and every spirit, when the material body has been cast off, is a man in a form like that which he had as a man in the world. All this makes clear of whom hell con- sists. A.E., n 1142 The hell where those are who are called devils is love of self ; and the hell where those are who are called satans is love of the world. The devil- ish hell is love of self because that love is the op- posite of celestial love which is love to the Lord ; and the satanic hell is love of the world because that love is the opposite of spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor. Now as the two loves of hell are opposites of the two loves of heaven, hell and the heavens are in opposition to each other ; for all who are in the heavens look to the Lord and to the neighbor, but all who are in the hells look to self and the world. All who are in the heavens love the Lord and the neighbor, and all who are in the hells love self THE THIRD LAW. 91 and the world, and consequently hate the Lord and the neighbor. All who are in the heavens think what is true and will what is good, because they think and will from the Lord ; but all who are in the hells think what is false and will what is evil, because they think and will from self From this it is that all who are in the hells ap- pear turned backward, with the face turned away from the Lord ; they also appear turned upside down, with the feet upwards and the head down- wards. They so appear in accordance with their loves, which are contrary to the love of heaven. As hell is love of self it is also a fire, for all love corresponds to fire, and in the spiritual world is so presented as to appear like a fire at a distance although it is not a fire but love ; and thus the hells appear within to be on fire, and without like outbursts of fire in smoke from furnaces or from conflagrations; and sometimes the devils them- selves appear like fires of coals. Their heat from that fire is like a boiling up from impurities, which IS lust ; and their light from that fire is only an appearance of light from fantasies and from con- firmations of evils by falsities, which in fac^ is not light, for when the light of heaven flows in it be- comes to them thick darkness, and when the heat of heaven flows in it becomes to them cold ; never- theless they see from their light, and live from their heat; but their vision is like that of owls birds of night, and bats, whose eyes are blinded in the light of heaven, and they are only half alive. The living principle in them is from an ability to 92 THE DIVINE PROVIDEN'CE. think, to will, to speak, to do, and in consequence to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, and to feel ; and this living principle is merely a power derived from adlion upon them from without of the life which is God, according to order, and continually impel- ling them towards order. It is from that power that they live to eternity. Their dead principle is from the evils and falsities that spring from their loves. Consequently their life viewed from their loves is not life but death ; and this is why in the Word hell is called "death," and its inhabitants are called " the dead." 'A.E., n. 1143. It has been said that love of self and love of the world are hell, but the source of these loves shall now be explained. Man was created to love self and the world, to love the neighbor and heaven, and to love the Lord. For this reason when a man is born he first loves himself and the world, and afterwards, so far as he becomes wise, he loves the neighbor and heaven, and as he becomes still wiser he loves the Lord. Such a man is in the Di- vine order, and is a(5lually led by the Lord, although apparently by himself. But so far as he fails to become wise he stops in the first degree, which is to love himself and the world ; and if he loves the neighbor, heaven, and the Lord, it is for the sake of self before the world. But if he remains wholly unwise he loves himself alone, and the world and also the neighbor for the sake of self ; while heaven and the Lord he either despises or denies or hates in heart, if not in words. These are the origins of the love of self and of the love of the world, and THE THIRD LAW. 93 as these loves are hpll i. :, ■ ■ is. '■ " '= evident whence hell When a man has become a hell ho '■ >•■ uprooted tree or hLv . , ? ' ""^ '^ ''''e a" healthy ; or he is like . T ""-^"^^ ^™" '^ ""- will take root o LI f^ ^" '" '^^'^^ "° «eed nothing h^h'; tiL' h:r r^cks:; T' TT ^'.ngs. When a man becomes . hel Mh" ' '""' h.^'her parts of his mind Tre Cosed nn '"T u' outer and loner are opened AnH u f^ ""^ self determines all things of the ,h l"' '°'' °^ to itself and in,merses"hem in the h'lf '"'' '''" and twists back the outer part, of'h^""^' "' '"^'^"^ as has been said, are open and ' "" ' "'"'^''• these incline and bend and ar. h^ " eonsequence that is, towards hell """""^ downwards, But since man has <;fjll o« ^um* Will, to speak and ^o d: "Lrtht' a^Ii'.: *'"'' "^ case taken awav from him iJ ! ^ '^ '" "° a n,an, so havin, bromrinvrr^nJ Tol ""^ receiving anv o-ooH ^, 'vtriea and no longer only evif and' fX'yZZVTJ'^'" '''''^"' '"' of liRht by confirmLorof evt' fZ'f'f •' """ of falsity from evil, in order that h. ■' ^""^ others. This he be ieves to hi """^ """''^ when vet if io "e"eves to be a rationa li^ht things that are IppearlT/ ^^ ''"^"°" °' ^'''''' things that ar,n,. **y were not, and -eenanan.c.l.mana:d'n:vlLrr;r.::; Q. THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. In the world there are angcl-men and devil- men • heaven is constituted of angel-men, and hell of de'vil.men. With an angel-man all the degrees of his life are open to the Lord ; but with a deyil- man only the lowest degree is open, and the nigher degrees are closed. An angel-man is led oy the Lord both from within and from without ; but a devil-man is led by himself from within, and by the Lord from without. An angel-man is led by the Lord according to order, from within from order, and from without to order; but a devil-man is led by the Lord to order from without, but by himself against order from within. An angel-man is continually led away from evil by the Lord, and led to good ; a devil-man also is continually led away from evil by the Lord, but from a more to a less grievous evil, for he cannot be led to good An angel-man is continually led away from hell by the Lord, and is led into heaven more and more interiorly ; a devil-man is also continually led away from hell, but from a more grievous to a milder hell, for he cannot be led into heaven Because an angel-man is led by the Lord he is led by civil law, by moral law. and by spiritual law, for the sake of the Divine in them; a devil- man is led by the same laws, but for the sake of his own suu,u in them. An angel-man loves from the Lord the goods of the church, which are the goods of heaven, because they are goods, also its truths because they are truths ; but he loves from self the goods of the body and of the world be- cause they are for use and because they are for 'HE THIRD LAW. 95 pleasure, likewise the truth. *u , sciences; but althouSh Ives alTthef"^ '° '"^ oi .he ^::Lz::iziz'i':z::^^ '"^ ^^^-^^ use and because thev are for.? ^^^ "^ for truths that belong to the Jr ^'l'^' '''^^"'=<= 'he ■oves a„ these in Ip eLrcrSnT^^.f ,';°"^'', "^ ing.ood fro. gootfnd w :: HTsTJ^ '' " '"■ but a devil-man is in freedom .„!. u '"" ^'''' ■ his heart when he is doln J" ""^ '^^''R'" "f when he is doing evi a"^ """^^ ''°'" ^^"- ^"'' 'nan in external! appear aUkeT;'"^" ^"'^ '^ <^^^"- are wholly unlike • ther.f u"' '" ""<=rnals they are laid alide by dU^'^H ""'" ^'"^™''' '"ings The one is taken up i^,' 7 "'" manifestly unlike, taken down into VeU '" ° '•^^^^". and the other is That man is merelv f'rZ,.'"'' ' truth from the Wd .L T"?,'^"' »' good and hell, must be iMus^'ated bv c """^ '"'"'>■ f™'" by the laws of order and Infl'"'"^"^ confirmed bshed by experience I, m^ ^"'' ""^"^ «'ab- 'owing comparisons Th '""='^^"^d by the fol- are recipienfa'd "^-rcipfent'o"?"" °' '"' ""^y ■bemselves ; the se^so^y' of ,1 ^vt.Vh '"^^'f '™'" sees objects out of itself as if • " "'^ ^y^' them. when, in fact, the avs o Ik"'"'" ''°'' "^^ wings of ether their form,TH ?*" ""^^^ '"•'^ and these forms Xe ^r L! edT °th '"° "" "''' --d by an 'nternal''sight'rt'?s'c:„?;r „t fe&aiima»aifite*m».iM>«w 96 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. THE THIRD LAW. derstanding, and are distinguished and recognized according to their quality. It is the same with the sensory of hearing. This perceives sounds, whether words or musical tones, from the place from which thev come as if it were there ; when in fact, the sounds flow in from without and are perceived by the understanding within the ear. It is the same with the sensorv of smell ; this, too, perceives from within what flows in from without, sometimes from a great distance. Also the sensory of taste is ex- cited by the foods that come in contact with the tongue from without. The sensory of touch does not feel unless it is touched. These five bodily sen- sories by virtue of an influx from within are sensi- ble of what flows in from without ; the influx from within is from the spiritual world, and the influx from without is from the natural world. With all this the laws inscribed on the nature of all things are in harmony, which laws are :— (i.) That nothing has existence or subsistence from itself, or is aded upon or moved by itself, but only by something else. From this it follows that every thing has existence and subsistence and is adled upon and moved by a First that is from no other, but is in itself the liv^ ing force, which is life, (ii.) That nothing can be acled upon or moved unless it is intermediate between two forces, one of which ac'ls and the other reads, that is, unless one acts on the one side and the other on the other, and un- 97 less one acls from within and the other from without. (iii.) And since these two forces when at re^t produce an eqznlihrium, it follows that nolnngcan be put in adion or moved unless tt ts in equilibrium, and when put tn aclion tt u out of the equiUb- riwn; also that every thing lut in ad ion or moved seeks to return to an equilibrium. Ov.) That all adivities are changes of stale and variations of form, and that the latter are from the fanner. changes of state the afifections of love • bv forr^ exp^dencl' 'th'^ ''^"' '^"^ ^'^ ^^^^^"^-"^ of experience. The angels of the higher heavens have a clear feeling and perception that their goods and truths are from the Lord, and that they hive nothing at all of good and truth from themselves And when they are let down into the state ofthet Tri VT ^ '' "''''' ^"^ ^^^" ^Jo"e. they have a clear feehng and perception that the ev^l and f^m'hen.'"^^"^ ^° '''" '''' ^^-^--) ^^ey have Some angels of the lowest heaven who did not comprehend that evil and falsity are from he ] werrtrems?; ''' '^"7^^ '" ^^^ ^^^^ ^^at they were themselves in evils from birth and from adual .:■<■■ aifc* gS THE DIVINE TROVIDENCE. life, were led through infernal societies from one to another, and in each one while they were in it they thought just as the devils there thought, and differently in the several societies, thinking in op- position to goods and truths. They were told to think from themselves, and thus otherwise, but they said that they were wholly unable to do so. In this way they were made to comprehend that evils and falsities flow in from hell. It is the same with many who believe and insist that they have life in themselves. Also i[ sometimes occurs that angels are separated from the societies with which they are connected, and when thus separated they are unable to think, will speak, or ad, but lie like new born infants ; but as soon as they are restored to their societies they revive. For every one, man, spirit, or angel, is connected as to his affections and thoughts therefrom with societies, and acts as one with them ; and for this reason it is known what each one is from the society in which he is. All this makes clear that the quality of each one's life flows in from without. With regard to myself I can testify that for fifteen years I have clearly perceived that I have thought nothing and willed nothing of myself ; also that every evil and falsity has flowed in from in- fernal societies, and that every good and truth has flowed in from the Lord. Some spirits reflecting upon this declared that I had no life. It was per- mitted me to reply, 1 am more alive than you are, since I feel the influx of good and truth from the Lord and see and perceive the enlightenment. I THE THIRD LAW 99 also perceive from the Lord that evils and falsities are from hell, and not only that this is so, but also from what spirits they come ; and it has been granted me to speak with these, to rebuke them and to reject them with the. evils and falsities, and thus I was delivered from them. Furthermore it was granted me to say that now I know that I live and beiore I did not know it. From all this I have been fully convinced trtat every evil and falsity is from hell, and every good and truth, together with the perception of them, is from the Lord • and moreover, that I have freedom and thus perceo- tion as if from myself. ^ /^^^^in, that every evil and falsity is from hell It has been granted me to see with my own eyes. Over the he Is there is an appearance of fires and smoke; evils are fires and falsities are smoke. Ihese are continually pouring forth and rising up and the spirits that dwell in the midst between heaven and hell are affected by them according to he,r love. It shall be told briefly how evil and falsity have power to flow forth from hell when there exists only one acting force, which is the life that is God ; this also has been revealed. There was uttered vvith a loud voice out of heaven a truth from the Word, which flowed down to hell and through it to Its bottom ; and it was perceived that this truth m us flowing down was successively and by de grees turned into falsity, and at length into such falsity as is wholly opposite to the truth • then it was in the lowest hell. It was so changed' because every thing is received according to state and form • lOO THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. SO truth flowing into inverted forms, such as are in hell, became successively inverted and changed into the falsity opposite to the truth. From this it is clear what hell is from top to bottom, also that there is but one acting force, which is the life that is the Lord. A.E., n. 1147 That man nevertheless is a subject of guilt fol- lows from what has been said above, and also from what has been before established respecting the life that is God and that is in man from God ; it fol- lows also from the above mentioned laws, which are truths. Evil is imputed to man because it has been granted him. and is continually granted him, to fc^l and to perceive as if life were in him ; and as he is in that state he also has the freedom and ability to act as if from himself ; and that power regarded in itself, and that freedom regarded in it- self, are not taken away from man, because he is born a man who is to live for ever. It is from that ability and that freedom that he is able to receive both good and evil as if of himself. And as man is held at the middle point between heaven and hell, the Lord gives him to know that good is from Him and that evil is from the devil, also to know by truths in the church what is good and what is evil. When man knows this, and it is granted him by the Lord to think, will, speak and do this as if from himself, and this continually by influx, then if he does not receive he becomes guilty. But man is chiefly misled by his not knowing that his freedom and his ability to act as if from himself are from an influx of life from the Lord THE THIRD LAW. j^j has such an in.ost; yeuhl -nTu^oTu?; l.lTe Lord. mo the recipient forms that are beneltMhat mmost where and in which forms the understand mg and w,Il have their seat, is varied accodS o the reception of good and truth ; and in fact s m h,s mmost, and is therefore universally ac He n the lower parts, the life from which man has freedom and the ability to think, will sneak Ind .rT .s unceasingly in man from the LordTbut man-s understandmg and will therefrom, thlt i fro ' that hfe, are changed and varied accordin^rr^ h^ll'^'^^"!" '" "'* "''<^'' "^""'een heaven and hell and the delight of the love of evil and of falsty therefrom flows into him from hell whil he dehght of the love of good and of truth there from flows into him from the Lord, and he s u„ sTom'i' '^'u '" '. ''"''"^ ^"^ perception tha li^e' s f om himself, and thereby is also held unceasingly m the freedom to choose the one or the other and m the ability to receive the one or he o the ' So far heretore, as he chooses and receives ev[i and falsuy. so far from that middle state he t rooTandZtr^f ^ ';"• '"' ^° '^' - "-"oL si^^asimtb 102 THE DIVINE rROVIDENCE. Man is from creation in a state to know that evil is from hell and that good is from the Lord, and to perceive these in himself as if they were from himself, and when he so perceives them to cast the evil down to hell and to receive the good, with the acknowledgment that it is from the Lord. When he does these two things he does not appro- priate evil to himself, and does not claim merit for the good. Kut I know that there are many who do not comprehend this, and who have no desire to com- prehend it, but let them pray, "That the Lord may be with them continually, that He may lift up and turn His face to them, that He may teach, enlighten, and lead them, since of themselves they can do nothing that is good, and that He may grant to them to live ; that the devil may not lead them astray and instil evils into their hearts, knowing that if they are not led by the Lord the devil will lead them and breathe into them evils of every kind, as hatred, revenge, cunning, and deceit, as a serpent instils poison ; for the devil is present stir- ring up and continually accusing, and vvheresoever he meets with a heart turned away from God he enters in, dwells there, and draws the soul down to hell. O Lord, deliver us." These words coincide with what has been said above, for hell is the devil. Moreover, this is an acknowledgment that man is led cither by the Lord or by hell, thus that he is between the two. A.E., n. 1148.) THE FOURTH LAW. 103 The Fourth La IV. w OF DiviN'E Providence. The fourth law of Divine providence i. t; / M^ undcrstandiuir and -n// . "^'^^"^e is, T/uU V *L , *"'''i ana ^oill must 7tot be ^mtj^.'//-^ this, I will to speak this, and I will to do tM Moreover from tu^ / j / ^^ 'nis. an abnltv tor- ^ "'^ "*'"' '"^" "^^^ -i!l gives this atl ° t"'"'' ""'^ '° "^"^ = '°' '^e Since freedom L ''' ''"'^"='^ « »'^«« f^-edom. dom in m'n '• """ "°"""*^ constitutes free- and for ,T c ""' "'^ '°^= '^at is of his will • and for this reason that love is man's life • Inr man is such as his lr,„» • ' '""^ eoes forth frn^.K ■ ' • <^""s«q"ently whatever Cli e Th f '°" °' ^'" '^"' *^°« f°"h from to man's I) "'^^^ ,^'<=-^ 'hat freedom belongs H tiy that It makes one with what is his own "'"'"•""" ^""1 »-«h his nature and disposition 104 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. THE FOURTH LAW. Now because it is the Lord's will that every thing that comes to man from Himself should be appro- priated to man as if it were his own, since other- wise there would be in man no ability to recipro- cate, by which conjunction is effected, so it is a law of Divine providence that man's understanding and will should not be compelled in the least by another. For who is not able to think and will evil or good, against the laws or with the laws, against the king or with the king, and even against God or with God ? Yet man is not allowed to speak and do every thing that he thinks and wills. There are fears that compel the externals, but there are no fears that compel the internals ; and for the reason that the externals must be reformed by means of the in- ternals, and not the internals by means of the ex- ternals ; for what is internal flows into what is external, and not the reverse. Moreover, internals belong to man's spirit, and externals to his body, and as it is the spirit of man that must be reformed the spirit is not compelled. Nevertheless, there are fears that compel man's internals or his spirit, but they are only such fears as flow in from the spiritual world, and which re- late on the one hand to the punishments of hell, and on the other to the loss of favor with God. But fear on account of the punishments of hell is an external fear of the thought and will, while the fear of the loss of favor with God is an internal fear of the thought and will, and is the holy fear that adds and conjoins itself to the love, with which 105 I at length it makes one essence. It is like the fear of mjuring one whom we love that springs from the love, [a.e., n. 1150 There is an infernal freedom and there is a heavenly freedom. Infernal freedom is that into which man is born from his parents, and heavenly freedom is that into which man is reformed by the Lord. From infernal freedom man has a will of evil, a love of evil, and a life of evil ; while from heavenly freedom he has a will of good, a love of good, and a life of good ; for as has been said be- fore, a man's will, love, and life, make one with his freedom. These two kinds of freedom are opposites of each other, but the opposition is not evident except so far as man is in one and not in the other. But a man cannot come out of infernal freedom into heavenly freedom unless he compels himself To compel oneself is to resist evil and to f^ght against It as if from oneself, but nevertheless to pray to the Lord for help. Thus a man fights from the freedom that is inwardly in him from the Lord ^^n'^'I.Jl"^, freedom that is outwardlv in him from hell. While he is in the fight it seems to him that It IS not freedom from which he fights, but a kind of compulsion, because it is against that freedom into which he was born ; and yet it is freedom since otherwise he would not fight as if of himself' But this inward freedom from which he fights which seems like compulsion, is afterwards felt as freedom, for it becomes like what is involuntary spontaneous, and as it were innate-comparatively io6 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. THE FOURTH LAW. 107 like one's compelling his hand to write, to work, to play a musical instrument, or to contend in games, for after a while the hands and arms do these things as if of themselves or spontaneously — for man is then in good because he is then removed from evil and is led by the Lord. When a man has compelled himself to acl in opposition to infernal freedom he sees and per- ceives that infernal freedom is servitude and that heavenly freedom is freedom itself, because it is from the Lord. The essence of the matter is this, that so far as a man compels himself by resisting evils so far the infernal societies with which he acls as one are removed from him, and he is introduced by the Lord into heavenly societies, with which he ads as one. On the other hand, if a man does not compel himself to resist evils he remains in them. That this is so I have learned through much experience in the spiritual world, and further, that evil does not withdraw in consequence of any compulsion that comes from punishments, or after- wards from fear of punishments. (.I.E., n. 1151.) It has been said above that it is a law of Divine providence that man himself should compel him- self ; but this means that he should compel himself from evil, and does not mean that he should com- pel himself to good ; for it is possible for man to compel himself from evil, but not to compel him- self to good that in itself is good. For when a man compels himself to good and has not compelled himself from evil he does good from himself and not from the Lord, for he compels himself to it for or.ht I? ? '• "' '°' ""^ "'^'' °f 'he world, or for the sake of recompense, or from fear ; and sLch good .s not m itself good, l.ecause the m;n himself or the world or recompense is in it as its end and no the good itself, thus neither the Lord and U ■s love and not fear that makes good to be good for example, to compel oneself to do good to ones netghbor. to give to the poor, to endow churches, to do what is righteous, thus to compel oneself to chanty and truth before compelling one be Ike a palliative treatment by which the disease or ulcer ,s healed externally; or like an adulterer compelhng h.mself to ad chastely, or a proud .^an o acl humbly, or a dishonest man to act honestly in external conduct. ' But when a man compels himself from evils he punfies h.s mlernal, and when that is purified he self tol • '7 ^'''f ■" "'»''°"' --Pe'ling him- self to do It : for so far as a man compels himself from eviI so far he comes into heavenly freedom "'n i"df ^'"''.°'" ''"'"y '"ing'good thai >su , self good, and to such good man does not compel himself. The appearance is that compel. Lod nf 'T "" '"" ^"-PelHng oneself to good necessarily go together, but they do not I know from the evidence of experience of manv who have compelled themselves ,o do goods bu^ rasfouTdr:'!^' r^ "''^" ^"^"^ "-^ ^^^^^ was found that evils from within clung to the goods and in consequence their goods wer! like id^oh »; -mages made of clay or dung ; and it was said tha[ gmmg ^sM io8 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. such persons believe that God may be pained over by praise and gifts, even from an impure heart. Nevertheless, before the world a man may compel himself to goods without compelling himself from evil, since in the world he is compensated for so doing ; for in the world the external is mainly re- garded and the internal is rarely regarded ; but before God it is not so. {A.£.f n. usa.i THE FIFTH LAW. log V. THE FIFTH Law of Divine Providence. The fifth law of Divine providence ,•<; t; , froms.n.e an, p.^rc.ption nran L J/./w ^ ^^ ^^U how srood and trufh /}^^ • u- '^^^^ ^n mm- he see how Divine 4.^.. v '' ' ^^^ ^^« freedom accordin^orasotJfJ ""'' ^^ ^^^"^ is sufRcienl fJr J Z T '/ A^^ himself. // This is wh.r- d^^rine of the ehurch, John? ^'^ '' "^^^"^ ^y ^he Lord's words in •t Cometh or whither ieoeth ''""^^^' "'^t vv-hence •^- born of the spirit "-K ' '^ ^^^"""^ °"^ ^^^^ Also by these words in Mark : "^'up •r.^;?rea";,f.'n'd"t/''^ f "^^" ^'-* -«teth seed a^d day; P^^t;!;^';^^^ and riseth n.^^ and dav; but he so h"*".-^''^.' ^'^"^ "^^fh n.^^ht up when he know.h it rfnTT^V"'' ^"^ H^roweth •uit ..{ hersel" Zs .[.r 'i^'" '^.P earth leareth !-nSth the iuM corn n he e^r ^''n^'^l *^^ .^^'^' ^' »s brought Jorth ho ,Vnf7«^k '/, "'^ ^''^*^" *'>« *'uit the hardest.; at han!l'"!!\6%9r "'"''' ^''""'" no THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. away his freedom, and thus his ability to think as if of himself, and with it every delight of life ; thus man would be like an automaton, having no ability to reciprocate, which is the means of conjunction ; also he would be a slave and not a free man. Di- vine providence moves so secretly that scarcely a trace of it is seen, although it acts upon tl\e most minute things of man's thought and will, which have regard to his eternal state, chiefly for the reason that the Lord wills unceasingly to impress His love on man, and through it His wisdom, and thus create him into His image. Consequently the operation of the Lord is into man's love and from that into his understanding, and not the reverse. Love with its affections, which are manifold and innumerable, is perceived by man only by a most general feeling, anil thus so slightly that there is scarcely any thing of it ; and yet that man may be reformed and saved he must be led from one affec- tion of loves into another according to their con- nection from order, a thing that no man and even no angel can at all comprehend. If a man should learn any thing of these arcana he could not be withheld from leading himself ; and in this he would be continually led from heaven into hell, while the Lord's leading is continually from hell towards heaven. For from himself man constantly acts against order, while the Lord acts constantly according to order ; for man, from the nature derived from his parents, is in the love of self and the love of the world, and consequently perceives from a feeling of delight every thing be- THE FIFTH LAW. longmg to those loves n«; crr^^A loves as ends mus be ' mo '/"^^^^^eless, those by the Lord in"n nite ways 7h ' "' ^''^ ^^ ^^"^ fore the angels of the t^d'ht'/^rk^thr ''' of a labvrinth. «vcu, uKe the ways ^<^^v'^t^'^n:t:::!::\ti'"^\-o^ ^nd no sense or Perception ^^"^^"0^,^°^ '.'"^ ^^^^ inslead, and would destrov T-,"^" '"'" harm sufficient forr.J,o{ZZ^Z °„dT '' " Of truths to know wh-if Jc , ' ^^ '"^^"s and to ac.„ow,:;;el^: Lo^'^^Xj^^.Z ''"' ■n every least thing. Thus so f .^ l , "'^ truths, and Icnows by means of ,h u^^ ^"°^^ and what is evil andZlT u " "'*"" '^ »?°°<1 hin.self, so far L T o f, "\''=" '■'' ^"'^ as if from Wisdom "con ti :,'-ro'::','ro ^'ir '™"' '°^'^ "«° ■o love, and making him be'^"" ,'" '^ '''"^'"" are one in Himself Th ^' ''"^"^^ '^ey Lord leads mnn m.v K "'^•''' ''>' "'"'^h the through whkh "hTh o^ '°'"P"''^ '° "'^ ^'«^e'- culates also ,0 h! f k '" '"^" <^°"^=« and cir- and wiiht: he V s erfo? the"'h"y°"''"«= ^-''- the brain, through whTohtLe,^',"''''''^"^ '" and gives life. *"""^' spirit flows in and^.^J'thrZh'".:'!'" '" '""^ '"'"^^ "o- his life goes on ifo^K.\ "r"' """^'"^ ^ and yet to do and does " '. fh "' ''''^' "^ "^^^s Lord leads man L fl '"^^^ ^^ ^'"^h the explicable, br.h?s/:.X,XSr T' '"" "'-ugh the societies of\ei;:'„^''L";n;r:-'; 112 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. and also those by which he leads him through the societies of heaven and inwardly into them. This, therefore, is what is meant by " the wind bloweth where it listeth, and ihou knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth " {John iii. 8), also by •' the seed springeth up and groweth up, the man knoweth not how" {Mark iv. 27). Moreover, of what consequence is it for a man to know how seed grows, provided he knows how to plough and harrow the ground, to sow the seed, and when he reaps his harvest to bless God? A.E., n. 1153) The operation of Divine providence and man's ignorance of it may be illustrated by two compar- isons. It is like a gardener collecting the seeds of shrubs, fruit trees, and flowers of all kinds, and providing himself with spades, rakes, and other tools for working the ground, and then fertil- izing his garden, digging it, dividing it into beds, putting in the seeds, and smoothing the surface. All these things man must do as if of himself. But it is the Lord who causes the seeds to take root, to spring forth out of the earth, to shoot forth into leaves and then into blossoms, and finally to yield new seeds for the benefit of the gardener. Again, it is like a man about to build a house, who provides himself with the necessary materials, as timber, rafters, stone, mortar, and other things. But afterwards the Lord builds the house from foundation to roof exaclly adapted to the man, though the man does not know it. From this it follows, that unless a man provides the necessary things for a garden or a house, he will have no THE FIFTH LAW. "3 garden with the benefit of its fruits, and no house with the privilege of living in it. So it is with reformation. The things that man must provide himself with are knowledges of truth from the Word, from the dodrine of the church rom the world, and by his own efforts; and the Lord does everything else while man is ignorant ot It. But It IS to be noted, that all things neces- sary to planting a garden or building a house which, as has been said, are knowledges of truth and good, are nothing but the materials, and have no life in them until man does them or lives accord ing to them as if of himself. When that is done the Lord enters and vivifies and builds, that is re- forms. Such a garden or such a house is mkn's understanding, for therein is his wisdom, which de- rives from love all that it is. {a E. n 1154) 114 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. THE SIXTH LAW. II5 VI. The Sixth Law of Divine Providence. The sixth law of Divine providence is, That man is reformed not by external means but by inkr- nal means. By external means miracles and visions, also fears and punishments, are meant. By internal means truths and goods from the Word atid from the dodrine of the church, and looking to the Lord, are meant ; for these means enter by an internal way, and cast out the evils and falsities that have their seat within ; but external means enter by an external way, and do not cast out evils and falsities, but shut them in. Nevertheless, man may be further reformed by external means ivhen he has previously been re- formed by internal means. This follows from the above mentioned laws, namely, that man is reformed by means of free- dom, and not without freedom, also that to com- pel oneself is from freedom, but to be compelled is not, and man is compelled by miracles and visions, and also by fears and punishments ; but miracles and visions compel the external of his spirit, which consists in thinking and willing; and fears and punishments compel the external of his body, which consists in speaking and doing. This may be compelled, because man nevertheless thinks and wills freely : but the external of his spirit which consists in thinking and willing, mus^not be compelled, for thus his internal freedom per- ishes and without this man cannot be reformed If man could have been reformed by miracles and visions, all in the whole world would have been reformed. It is therefore a holy law of Di! vine providence that internal freedom should in no way be violated ; for by that freedom the Lord enters mto man, even into the hell where he is and by It leads him while in hell, and if he is wi -' ing to follow, leads him out of hell and leads him into heaven, and nearer and nearer to Himself in heaven In this and in no other way is man led " l^ver ^"'^ '"^'^"^' ^^^^^^ -^-^^d in itself IS slavery because it is from hell, and is led into heavenly freedom, which is freedom itself, becom- ing by degrees more free, and at length most free, because it is from the Lord who vWlls tha man should not be in the least compelled. This IS the wav of man s reformation, but this way is closed by miracles and visions. The freedom of man's spirit is proteded from all violation to the end also that his evils, both hereditary and acluai, may be removed ; ank this can be done only when man compels himself, as has been said above. These evils are removed by shLh"" ^ "'''?"' ^^ '^^ ^ff"^^"" f«^ truth in. spired m man from which he has intelligence and by means ol affedion of good through which he has love. So far as a man is in these afflc m '.mm Ii6 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. tions, SO far he compels himself lo resist evils and falsities. And this way of reformation is closed by mira- cles and visions, for they persuade and compel belief, and thus send the thoughts bound as it were to prison ; and when freedom has thus been taken away there can be no ability from withm to remove evils, for nothintj of evil can be removed except from within. Thus evils remain shut in, and from their infernal freedom, which they love, they continually ad against those truths and goods that miracles and visions have forced upon the mind, and at length scatter them, making mir- acles to be regarded as interior operations of nature, and visions as illusions of the imagination, and truths and goods as fallacies and mockeries ; for such is the action of the evils that are shut in upon the externals that shut them in. And yet superficial thought may lead a man to believe that miracles and visions, although they persuade, do not take away freedom of thinking; but with those not reformed they do take it away, while with the reformed they do not take it away, for with such they do not shut evils in, but with those not reformed they do. {A.E., n. ii55-> , All who wish for miracles and visions are like The sons ot Israel, who. whrn they had seen so many nrod eies in Fevpt. at tin- RJd Sea and on muunt gmaS within a month turned away rom the worslup ot Jehovah and worshipped a golden calt [Exod. xxxii.). They are also like THE SIXTH LAW. 117 The rich man in hell who said to Abraham that his brethren would re,>ent if one from the dead were sent to them ; to whom Abraham replied. " Tiiev have Moses and the prophets, let them hear thera; '^\\U^ Ik ""* "otJMoses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded it one rose trom the dead" (Luke x\x. 2<)-2i). ^^<*^, And they are like Thomas, who said that he xvould not believe unless he saw; to whom the Lord said. Blessed are those who believe and do not see {yo/in xx. 25, 29). Those who believe and do not see are those who do not desire signs, but truths from the Word, that is, Moses and the prophets, and who believe them. Such are internal men and become spirit- ual ; but the former are external and remain sens- ual ; and when such see miracles, and believe only because of the miracles, they are not unlike in their belief a charming woman who has a fatal inward disease of which she soon dies, or they are like an apple with a fair peel but rotten at the core, or like filberts in which a worm lies concealed. More- over, it is known that no one can be compelled to love or to believe, and that love and faith must be inwardly rooted in man. Consequently it is not possible for any one to be led to love God and to believe in Him by means of miracles and visions, because these compel. For when one does not be- lieve from the miracles in the Word, how can he believe from miracles that are not in the Word? {A.E., n. 1156.) ii8 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. VII. The Seventh Law of Divine Providence. The seventh law of Divine providence is, That man is let into the truths of faith and into the goods of love by the Lord only so far as he can be kept in them until the end of life; for it is better that he should continue to be evil than that he should be good and afterwauis evil, for he thus becomes profane. This also is the reason that evil is permitted. To every man of sound reason the Lord can give affedion for truth and faith therefrom and affeclion for good and love therefrom by with- holding him from evil loves, which belong to his own iproprium) \ for SO far as man is withheld from these he is in the understanding of truth and m the will of good. I have seen the very devils brought back to such a state ; and while they were in it they talked about truths from understanding and faith, and did good from will and love. They were brought into this state because they had denied that they were unable to understand truths and do good. So as soon as the Lord had ceased to withhold them from their own loves, and they had returned into the lusts of their loves, in place of faith in truth they had faith in falsity, and in THE seventh law. IIQ place of love of good they had love of evil. This has often been witnessed, and in the presence of many. From this it is clear that every one is capable of being reformed, and that being re- formed is nothing else than being removed from evil loves. How man is removed from those loves has been told above. The Lord does not thus withhold man from evils for the reason that those who come mto an affedion for truth and a consequent faith, and into an affeclion for good and a conse- quent love, and do not continue in these affeclions to the end of life, but fall back into the loves from which they had abstained, profane holy things There are many kinds of profanation, but this kind IS the most grievous of all, for the lot of such after death is terrible. They are not in hell but beneath hell ; and there they neither think nor wil,but merely see and ad. They see things Umt are not, and do not see the things that are. They aa as if they were doing everything, and yet they do nothing. They are nothing but de- liriums of fantasy. And as they neither think nor will, they are no longer men, for the human IS thinking and willing. Consequently they are not spoken of in the masculine or feminine but in the neuter gender. When seen in any heav- enly light they appear like skeletons covered over with a black skin. Such is the condition of those that have been reformed and do not remain so. ^^ hy their lot is so horrible shall be told. By their reformation a communication is established I20 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. between them and heaven, whereby goods and truths flow in ; and by these the interiors of their minds are opened, and evils are removed to the sides. If they continue in this state till death they are happy, but if they do not they come to be unhappy, for the evils that have been removed then flow back and mingle with the truths and goods; thus hell is so mixed with heaven in them that the two cannot be separated ; for if any thing has once been impressed on the mind of man by love it can never be rooted out ; smce, therefore, after death the goods cannot be separated from the evils nor the truths from the falsities, the mind is whoUv overthrown, and such spirits no longer have anv thought or will, but what remains is like a shell when the kernel is removed, or like the skin with the skeleton when the flesh is gone, for this is all that is left of the man. Let it be known, therefore, that the danger is not m pass- ing from evil to good, but the danger is in passmg from good to evil. 'A.E . n n^s. But such is not the lot of those who are per- manently evil. All who are permanently evil are in hell according to the loves of their life ; and there they think and speak from thought, although thev speak falsities, and they will and from will do,'although they do evils. Moreover, to one an- other they appear like men, although in the light of heaven they have monstrous forms. From this it can be seen why it is according to a law of order relating to reformation, which is called a law of Divine providence, that man is let into the truths THE SEVENTH LAW. jjl Of faith and goods of love only so far as he can be withheld from evils and held in goods even to the end of life, and that it is better for a man to be permanently evil than that he be good and afterwards evil, for thus he becomes profane It is for this reason that the Lord, who provides all things and foresees all things, hides the opera- tions of His providence,even to the extent that man scarcely knows whether there be any providence whatever, and man is permitted to attribute what he does to prudence, and what happens to him to luck, and even to ascribe many things to nature rather than that he should, through conspicuous and clear indications of Divine providence and presence, plunge unseasonably into sanditics in which he will not continue. Hw?nf h'"^ ^^'''- r""''" "^^ ^^'"^^ bv Other u VJ' P"'"''^'^^"^^' "^"^^^y- by these, that man should have freedom, and that he should do whatever he does according to reason, thus wholly as if of himself, for it is better for a man to as- cribe the workings of the Divine providence to prudence and luck than to acknowledge them and still live as a devil. From this it is clear that the laws of permission, which are many, proceed Irom the laws of providence. !yi.E.,n. 1159 ) The kind of profanation described above is meant by these words in Matthew : " ^""^Z"! \^^ ""^'^'7" spirit p:oeth out of a man he walk not. Ihen he saith, I will return to ♦he h.,n«;l» whence I went turth. When he comHh he fiXth It empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goeth fi 122 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. awav, and takcth t«i himself seven other spirits* worse than himself, and entering in thev dwell there ; and the latter thinj^s of that man becumc worse than the tirst" (xii. 43-45 • This describes the conversion of a man by the departure of the unclean spirit from him ; and his return to evils and the consequent profanation is described by the unclean spirit's returning with seven spirits worse than himself. Likewise by these w^ords in John : Jesus said to the man who was healed at the pool ot Bfthesda, " Bcht)ld thou art made whole, sm iu> more, U-st a w..rsi' thinv; hctall thee" (v. 14,. Also by these words in the same, " He hath blinded their evf.^ and hardened their heart, lest thev should see' with their eves ami undet - stand with their heart, and should tiirn and I should heal them" (xii. 40;. " Lest they should turn and be healed " signifies lest they should become profane. Thus would it have been with the jews ^Matt. xii. 45) ; and this is why they were forbidden to eat fat and blood {Lev. iii. 17; vii. 23, 25), for this signified their pro- fanation of what is holy in consequence of their being such. Moreover, the Lord by his Divine providence guards with the greatest care against this kind of profanation ; and to this end He sep- arates the holy things in man from those that are not holy, and stores up the holy things in the in- teriors of his mind, and raises them up to Him- self ; while the things not holy He stores up in the exteriors, and turns them to the world. Thus holy THE SEVENTH LAW. 123 things can be separated from the unholy, and thus mfxedTc .h"" K- ^'"^ "'^" ^'^''^'^ -d -ils are mixed together this cannot be done. That those who continue m faith and love even unto death will have the crown of life the Lord teaches in the Apocalypse {n,io,2(,), A.E.,n...6o) I'. I 124 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. VIII. The Eighth Law of Divine Providence. The eighth law of Divine providence is, That the Lord is unceasingly withdrawing man from evils so far as ?tian is willing from freedom to be withdrawn; that so far as man can be withdra^vn from evils the Lord leads him to good and thus to heaven ; but so far as man cannot be withdrawn from evils the Lord cannot lead him to good and thus to heaven ; for so far as man has been withdrawn from evils so far he does good from the Lord, and that good is good in itself ; but so far as he has not been withdraum from evils, so far he does good from himself, and that good has evil within it. By the speech of his lips and the adlions of his body man is in the natural world ; but by the thoughts of his understanding and the affeclions of his will he is in the spiritual world. By the spiritual world heaven and hell are meant, both di- vided into innumerable societies, according to all the varieties of affedions and consequent thoughts in a most complete order. In the midst of these societies is man, so tied to them as not to have the least ability to think or will except in connection with them, and so connected that if he were to be THE EIGHTH LAW. ^^ "iiereby he is a mllTT ^ ""'>' '" ^is inmost, i'e lives' to «ern"v m?"h ' '"^'' ^"'^ -''^-by' regard to his li " lie is L" T- "°' ''"°" "'^ ■" ship. This he docs nn. 1 '"-^^P^^able fellow. discourse with sp?ris For":"'; '"'^"^^ ""^ "^^ "° knoun nothins about th., ?"^ ^ """^ ^''^ "'^" should remain hidden „rever ? '' , '"' '"' ""^ This much must be "a d bl^;: th?' ^'^'" ?^^^'^''- Provjdence can be understood ^^ °' ^'^''"^ Man is from birth in ,h. a f ' " "'=•) ties, and extends hteiin.o'the °' '■"''■^"='' =°"^- extends the evil affedi '",''!"' P'^'^'^'sely as he affec-lions of the wm a 17 ■.'"' ""'• ^M evil 'he ivorld ■ and f^r if "'" '°""^ "^ '^^^ and all things or,he m nH T"" "'=" 'hose loves turn that is. towards hen whicr^r^'^ ''"'' """'^^ds, of themselves thus t Jrn '\''^"^^'h and outside I-ord and ..I'^iZZZl "''" '^"^^ ^-"^ ">« humT/S, I'ntl ^ThL" t,f . *■> oi the things of the snir.f . ^^ interiors of all either downtr:r:;w:r\°h?^'"^ '"™^'' downwards when m-in T^ u- •^' '^^ '"'"''ed things; andthevare/urnin ' '"'"'"'^ ^"^"^ a" the Lord above" ,r.hi™ tSL^'T "? '°^^^ "ig. Man from him^.if . ^" '"^^"^' turn- while the Lord™ om H^m. ,7' "'="' downwards. 126 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. does not know ; and yet he ought to know it in order that he may understand how he is led out of hell and led into heaven by the Lord. {A.E.. n. 1163.) That a man may be led out of hell and led into heaven by the Lord, he must himself resist hell, that is, evils, as if from himself. If he does not resist as if from himself, he remains in hell and hell in him, nor is he separated from it to eternity. This follows from the laws of Divine providence that are stated above and that have been explained. Moreover, experience will teach that this is true. Evils are removed from man either by punishments, or by temptations, and consequent turning away, or by affe(5lions for truth and good. In those not re- formed evils are removed by punishments ; in those about to be reformed they are removed by tempta- tions and consequent turning away ; and in the re- generate by affevflions for truth and good. The experience is this : — When an unreformed or evil person endures punishments, as takes place in hell, he is kept in the punishments until it is per- ceived that of himself he does not will the evils; not until then is he set free. Thus is he compelled of himself to put away evils. If he is not punished even to that intention and will he continues in his evil. Yet even then the evil is not rooted out, be- cause he has not compelled himself. The evil re- mains within, and returns when the fear ceases. In those about to be reformed evils are re- moved by temptations, which are not punishments but combats. Such persons are not compelled to resist evils, but they compel themselves and pray THE EIGHTH LAW. 127 /rom evils! not ulTlty ilT^'ZZT "'"'" from an aversion to evil and „, 1 ^^ -'"' ''" sion to evil is their rl Ut'ce BuTwith fh'"" generate there are no t^mJ',- "" ""^ ^^- affections for truth andToodrat"^^''"?' ^" away from them • for th ^^^ ^^^^^ far from hen. „h.^h is'r tLr; :nyirT'' conjoined to the Lord ' "^"^ ^^« sam^thtn^rrbV:' r,T' '""" ^^"= - "-e infernal societies ThTTu ^"^ '"""^"^ f^"™ arate and rer^ove lom f ^V"" P""^"-'" ==?- from evils, and the powet™a„:r '"'".' "'^' '' societies, that is, to goods Inv ^ u '° ^^^'''"^y but such a chan« r?„ ^ "' "^ ""^y «'ish ; hours, after whTcrthTeX'r^:™""^ 'h^ ' H quently seen this done fn^ ^^"^ '•^^- continued evil as before' ^n ,1"'" u^^' '"^ "» world there is not an Tnst^n '" '^ "''°'' ^P'^'^al been removed from ev", ^"^ °"='= ''aving combat or resistance Is if fr\°-'^^ '''' "'^" "^ one doin. this e.^pt^;/ ^T^^ - -;n^. The^:ah?ra,r r iLT?rr r '= r"^"^- the spiritual world is known //. I ""'^ '""> inability to resist Ivils alif f™ *"[ """"^ " .htU^a-of^,;;! V-^ "- -- -isthatmani^t:riet3j--- 128 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. himself, but only from the Lord ; for it is the Lord who resists evils in man and gives man a feeling and perception that he is doing it from himself. Therefore those in the world who have acknowledged the Lord, and have acknowledged that all good and truth are from Him, and that nothing is from man, and thus that power over evils is from the Lord, and not from themselves, such resist evils as if from themselves. Rut those who have not acknowledged all this in the world are unable to resist evils as if from themselves, for such are in evils and in the delight of evils from love ; and to resist the delight of love is the same as resisting themselves, their own nature, and their own life. An experiment was made whether such were able to resist evils when the punishments of hell were described to them, and even when those punishments were seen and were felt ; but it was in vain; for they hardened their minds, saying, Let this be so, and let it come, but so long as I am here let me be in the pleasures and joys of my heart. The present I know; what is to come I give no thought to ; not more evil will come to me than to many others. Such when their time is fulfilled are cast into hell ; and there they are compelled by punishments to refrain from doing evil ; but punishments do not take away the will, intention, and consequent thought of evil, they merely take away the expression of it. All this makes clear that the power to resist evils is not from man, but is from the Lord in those who ac- THE EIGHTH LAW. ^ cause :o -Lt'tll^LT ^t^oro/v''^- omnipotenrp DiSriV.^ ^ • . *vorK or IJivme "pvjiciice, iJivme omnisc enr** o^^ r»- • vidence. ""science, and Divme pro- the hells Fo ever V e^-^ -""'' "."" '^'" '° ^^^'« ble other JLIUT^ -s jcned with innumera- helIswith:a"hXr.t- as*e"^-,r?" '""^ ""^ the hells, and as the' hel s ml °"' '° ''° and no one but the Lord L Thf ' °"' '° ''° ""^• so united. ^'''^ '° ■■"'=' 'he hells Lord i:e\°:t:s ;^:r "'""'''''■""■ "— '"« -n ™a.v he inwardlf:^ ra":ii:L.?cu7ed°"'' '"" about it ForhtL "o angel knows anything For heaven m the whole complex'is the I30 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. Lord, because it is His Divine goin^ forth ; con- sequently when He is working through heaven He is working from Himself. It is said medi- ately because the Divine operation flows through the heavens, and yet it takes nothing from the own of any angel there, but only from what is its own in them. The appearance is the same as when a man does any acl ; to produce it he moves innumerable motive fibres scattered through his whole body, but of this acflion no single fibre knows anything. Such are angels in the Divine body, which is called heaven. ia.E., n. 1166.) The law of Divine providence, that so far as a man can be withdrawn from evils he does good from the Lord that is good in itself, but so far as he cannot be withdrawn from evils, he does good from himself, and such good has evil in it, may be illustrated by the commandments of the deca- logue. Take for example, the commandment not to steal. Those who resist as if from themselves the desire to steal, and thus the greed for gaining wealth dishonestly and unjustly, saying in their hearts that this must not be done because it is contrary to a Divine law, thus contrary to God, and is in itself infernal, thus in itself evil, such after some brief combats are withdrawn from that evil, and are led by the Lord into the good that is called integrity, and into the good that is called justice ; and then they begin to think about these goods, and to look upon them from them, to look Upon integrity from integrity, and upon justice THE Eighth law. j^^ goods, an'd do then, f i:' ota'd „'o?7 '"^'^ ""^ P".sio„. Such goods are Zl'^Tor^Zl o^Kf;t„?he'^;e?d7oVr^'"-'- ""'^ honestly and unjusuC^^^tr-annhent- cannot ad honestly from honesty oTLtvL just.ce, thus not from the Lord h,,f !I. / '^ " from thf " /°°'' '"' "'■' '" "• ^'"« i« quah y is S.;.%::rVori^ feTtLtstr"v" -- become good in i.seif u^tVthe IT^ Z^lTrt moved. It is thesame with all th-,,.K ^^ "^^n re- ments of the decalogue /i „ ' °'^ """"""''- ^o rar as man is removed from evilc h^ • moved fro. hell, for evils and he" a fone "and so far as he ,s removed from these he emers in^^ goods and is conjoined with heaven (T I and heaven are one M,n ,1 "'^"' ^°'^ goods becomes an angel of heaven. ' ^^ yi\s freedom, which before had hi-^n -, t ^ to think and will evil becomes a fr.? '^^^°'" and will good, which in i seTf s es :±^^ T'''' Until a man is in this freed n r^ h! ^^^edom. What freedom is. ^"^T:t: L^T: TJuZ JjlBMCMsmaf-i 132 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. felt the freedom of good to be slavery, but now from the freedom of good he feels the freedom of evil to be slavery, as it is in itself. The good that man had before done, since it was from the freedom of evil, could not be good in itself, for it had in it love of self or of the world. Good can have no other origin than love ; therefore such as the love is such is the good , yet even when the love is evil its delight is felt as good, although it is evil. But after this change the good that man does is good in itself, because it is from the Lord who is good itself, as has been said above. The mind of man, before it was conjoined to heaven was turned backwards, because it had not been led out of hell. When it is in a state of reformation, it looks from truth to good, thus from left to right, which is contrary to order. But when the mind has been conjoined to heaven it is turned forwards and lifted up to the Lord, and looks from right to left, that is, from good to truth, which is according to order. Thus a turning is brought about. It is the same with the understanding and will, sincr the understanding is a recipient of truth, and the will a recipient of good. Before man has been led out of hell the understanding and will do not adl as one; for man then sees and acknow- ledges from the understanding many things that he does not will, because he does not love them. But when man has been conjoined to heaven the understanding and will acl as one, for the under- THE EIGHTH LAW. J33 for"wh?n th'". "''""^l' ^'^ "'"'^ understanding, love he thinks. A^uV^hV^^J:;; ts^jl^^^^^^ truth and good ; and then everything that hV t n ihese capacities are entirely distin/v r I' °'her ; but they were created ,n ^ "'^'^ when they make one they Ife calTeH °"' -'f but in man they are at first^drj^e^'i^VarerS from thf t ligh" Yet ml ■■ ''^'°"''' '"'^ <^°"^'"des iight'"orh ::; t -•'"-"^in, sees fror-the receptacle orth'ali^l" 71'^ '"' '"""''^ -"<» H cie 01 that hght, and thus the subjea and 134 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. receptacle of truth and of wisdom therefrom. And since the will loves from the heat of heaven, it is evidently the subjecfl and receptacle of that heat, and thus the subjedi and receptacle of good, that is, of love. From all this it can be clearly seen that these two capacities of man's life are distincSt, as light and heat are, also as truth and good are, and as wisdom and love are. That these two capacities are at first divided in man, is plainly perceptible from the facfl that man is capable of understanding truth, and good from truth, and of accepting it as good, even though he does not will it and from willing do it; for he un- derstands what is true and thus what is good when he hears and reads about it, and understands so fully as to be able afterwards to teach it by preach- ing and writing. But when alone and thinking from his spirit he can apprehend that he docs not will the truth, and even that he wills to adt contrary to it, and does ac5^ contrary to it when not restrained by fears. Such are those who are able to speak in- telligently, and yet live otherwise. This is " seeing one law in the spirit and another in the flesh," *' spirit*' meaning the understanding, and "flesh" the will. This division between the understanding and the will is perceived especially by those who wish to be reformed, and but little by others. This division is possible because the under- standing in man has not been destroyed, but the will has been destroyed. For the understanding is comparatively like the light of the world by which man is able to see with equal clearness in THE EIGHTH LAW. ^ Which may L absett / o^ \L tht °o' T ^°'"^ ■n the light. It is il«^n, 1 ^ ' '^ present present in the 1!.^^ ^ "'"'" "^^°" ^"d this, that^o hrnrex'm tf ^i .^" "^^ '^"^"^ '^ ^ie. standing as nofh '^ "'" '^""■"''^ ""e un- destroys the' leZl.- "'T t^" "'^^""« «' "eat derstandin? if des "ov°rK°^ k"' """• ^he un- are in evilf of llf ' T I ""^ "'" '" "'"^^ "h" - When the;U' tra^a"a^:r rtZa:s T' do "tTa as*"'^ "^'""^''^ '™'" hu'Zeiuuhe"; he rut ^th^r" ;: r ■"= ? "■"■ °">-'- ^he^ his wills own Iol=.r?' """^ """^ ^«= ^=ide "nderstand7nVrs ra'is^H "^'" l"" '^ ''' ^'''^' 'he Thissha;^reXl"Ve.Sc':^h =sTj:fh''r;^eir:: '4-{-^ - ijz: hardly have iz^Lz 7^ ''::,:i r^f -""1 sequence led fn h»i; ^ ^ ' ^ ^^^ ^" ^on- fr.r« K . ^' "°^ '" ^^vor of truths as h^ It has J;^! ""^'' ''"^ "°' '" 'hat love man's own" 7 "T'" ^'■'^T'- "^ '" =<=^ '"'- "hat Is not his ^wn'trthi^'l '""h •'"""^'^ ''°'" "''=« '^ heaven \Vhat i, ^^^ ^^ '^" '" "'^ "fht of VVhat ,s man s own has its seat within. 136 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. and what is not his own has its seat without ; and the latter veils and conceals the former, and the former does not appear until this veil is taken away, as takes place with all after death. I have noticed also that many were amazed at what they saw and heard ; but these were such as judge of the state of a man's soul from his conversation and writings, and not also from his acts which are from his own will. All this makes clear that these two capacities of life in man are at first divided. Something shall now be said about their union. They are united in those who are reformed, which is efifecled by combat against the evils of the will. When these evils have been cast aside the will of good acls as one with the understanding of truth. From this it follows that such as the will is such is the understanding, or, what is the same, such as the love is such is the wisdom. The wisdom is such as the love is because the love belonging to the will is the esse of man's life, and the wisdom belonging to the understanding is the existere of life therefrom ; therefore the love, which belongs to the will, forms itself in the understanding, and the form it there takes on is what is called wisdom ; for as love and wisdom have one essence it is clear that wisdom is the form of love, or love in form. When these capacities have thus been united by reformation the will's love increases daily, and it increases by spiritual nourishment in the under- standing; for it has there its affection for truth and good, which is like an appetite that hungers and desires. From all this it is clear that it is the THE EIGHTH LAW. 137 will that must be reformed, and as it is reformed the understanding sees, that is, grows wise ; for as has been said, the will has been destroyed but the understanding has not. The will and the understanding also make one in those who are not reformed, that is. in the evil If not m the world yet after death; for after death man is not permitted to think from his understand- ing except in accordance with the love of his will. To this every one is finally brought; and when he is brought to this condition the evil love of the will has its own form in the understanding, and as this form IS from the falsities of evil it is insanity, (W./:., n. 1170.) ^ Let the following be added to what has been said. (I) Before reformation the light of the un- derstanding ,s like the light of the moon, clear ac- cording to the knowledges of truth and good • but after reformation it is like the light of the sun, clear according to the application of the knowledges of truth and good to the uses of life. (2.) The understanding has not been destroyed to the end that man's ability to know truths/and from truths to see the evils of his will, might be preserved and seeing them he might resist them as if from himself, and thus be reformed. (3.) And yet man is reformed not by his under- standing, but by means of the recognition of truths by the understanding and its seeing evils by them • for the operation of the Lord's Divine providence IS into the love of man's will, and from that into the understanding, and not the reverse. I3S THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. (4.) The love of the will gives intelligence ac- cording to its quality. Natural love from spiritual love gives intelligence in civil and moral matters ; but spiritual love in natural love gives intelligence in spiritual matters ; while merely natural love and the conceit that comes from it gives no intelligence in spiritual matters, but gives an ability to confirm whatever it pleases, and after confirmation so infat- uates the understanding that it sees falsity as truth, and evil as good. Nevertheless, this love does not take away the ability to understand truths in their light ; when it is present it takes it away, but not when it is absent. (5.) When the will has been reformed, and the wisdom belonging to the understanding has come to be of the love belonging to the will, that is, when wisdom comes to be a love of truth and good in its form, man is like a garden in springtime, when heat is united to light and gives a soul to the ger- minations. Spiritual germinations are such pro- dudlions of wisdom from love ; and in every such produdlion there is a soul from that love, while its clothing is from wisdom ; thus the will is like a father and the understanding like a mother. (6.) Such is man's life, not only the life of his mind but also the life of his body, since the life of the mind a(fts as one with the life of the body by correspondences. For the life of the will or love corresponds to the life of the heart, and the life of the understanding or wisdom corresponds to the life of the lungs ; and these are the two fount- ains of the life of the body. Man does not know THE EIGHTH LAW. 13^ Who. ,he itirt^:vit:7,t:r,L'orMs"'''' I40 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. IX. The Ninth I. aw of Divine Providence. The ninth law of the Divine providence is, That the Lord does not teach man truths either from Himself or through the angels immediately : but He teaches mediately by means of the Word, preaching, readin^^. conversation, and communication with others, and thus bv thought ivithin oneself about these things. Man is thus enlightened in the measure of his affedlion for truth from use. Otherwise man could not aCl as if from himself. This follows as a consequence from the laws of the Divine providence before explained, namely, that man must be in freedom and do what he does from reason ; that he must think as if from him- self from his understanding, and must do good as if from himself from his will ; also that he must not be compelled to believe anything or do any- thing by miracles or by visions. These laws are unchangeable, because they are laws of the Divine wisdom and also of the Divine love ; and yet they would be disturbed if man should be taught im- mediately, either by influx or by speech. Moreover, the Lord flows into the interiors of the ninth law. 141 man's mind and through these into its exteriors also .mo the affedion of his will and through that' :::;': 't"^^ ^' ''^ understanding, but not the InH rhr" ^ ^'' •"''' '^^ '"'""^'■^ ^^ "^^"'s mind and through these mto its exteriors is to take root and from the root bring forth ; for the root is in the mt 3 ,„d the bringing forth in the exteriors ; and to flow mto the affection of the will and through that into the thought of the understand- ing ,s first to inspire a soul, and through that to form all other things ; for the affedion of the liH IS like a soul whereby the thoughts of the under- standmg are formed. Furthermore, this is influx from what is internal into what IS external, and such influx is possible Abou^ what flows into the interiors of his mind or about what flows into the affedion of his will' man knows nothing ; but he would know about that' wh.ch flowed into the exteriors of his mind, or nto the thought of his understanding, and thi; would be to brmg forth something without a root, or to form somethmg without a soul. Evervone can see that this would be contrary to Divine order consequently that it would be to destroy and not to bu.ld up. By all this the truth of this law of Div ne providence is made clear, ^a.e., n. ..,, ) can h!!'l '^' ^^'^ ^^^^ ^" ^"^ "^^" '« thus led can be known from no other source than the spirit- ual world, where man is in resped to his spirit, that IS. m respecf^ to his affedions and the thoughts therefrom for these constitute man's spirit; and the spirit from its affedion, and not the body "s THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 142 «.l,.t thinks The affeaions of man. from which Ire Ms thoughts, have extension into socet.es m are nis mo ^ jj^ ^to more or t X' het a -,;; to Je an.ount and .uaHty if ,h. aSn. Man in respecl to h.s sp,r,t .s of the a"<:<:"°". ^ j^em he is attached ritVe'rtvtreTe'dTd cords, which determine the spice where he can walk. As he passes fron, one affeaion into another, so he pusses from one society into another, and the society he .s m, and Fncrt;e%i^iiv^:dir:ho:.":= rhlrn^Ve" si: drcu.feren«s .^^^^^^^^^ rcrnt-^ro^":---^^^ '"'Mrntquires this sphere, which is the sphere of his affea'ons and thoughts there rom.wh.l he is in the world, from hell if he ,s ev-l. from he.wen if he is good. Of this man is ignorant, because he does not know that such things exist. Through these societies man, that is, man s mind, although bound walks free; but he is led by the Lord, and he takes no step into which and from which the Lord does not '"^ ; and yet the Lord grants continually that man shall have no other thought than that he does good of himself in perfea freedom; and he is permitted to be convinced of this because it is according 1° * law of Divine providence that man shall go whither- soever his affeaion wills. If his affeclion is ev, he is conveyed through infernal societies ; and if THE NINTH LAW. he does no, look .0 the Lord he is brought into these societies more interiorly and deeph And yet the Lord leads him as if by the hand oer muting and withholding as far as man's wiuTng Lord i°" '," T""'"- ''"' '< '"^" '°oks ,0 thf Lord he IS led forth from these societies gradu-illv according to the order and connection Tn which kno'-rrut'th^f T"", ""'■ ^°""-'-" - °- bv ron, . °"^ °"'y' ^"'^ 'hus he is brought heavenTd "T ""' °' ■"=" "P"^'^'^^ '-vards neaven and into heaven. it h?.i' '^^.'t°"^ <1°« without the mans knowing It, because if man knew it he would disturb thf en^u"" or°' "' "'""r ""' '^'"'"^ "imself. I i enough for man to learn truths from the Word from'^r:" ?' '^"^ '° "^""^ ""-' ^-o'^ -. -J noTde?th ;\ ^°°'i' '"""'"^"^ ^"'l f-'s"i<^s are, m order that he may be moved by truths and goods and not be moved by falsities and evils. Befwe he' of'e^Us'a'nlrr' """^ "" '"'^^ ""^ ^ "^"^ -'J and perc^Vth^r • "" "^ '^ "" ^"'^ '° ^^ '"- to ais:. J^tr^h^a-n^g^oiTd t:^?rr ::c^ knowledges the Lord's Divine providence iTeverv f:ZZ':;/"V' '' '°"'' "^ P-m-sio„accord hg no. It! ,°!J '°' ^'''' ^"<^ '^'="y ^hen man doef not acknowledge such a providence. So, too mi„ becomes capable of receiving intelligenceTor responding to affection; and thl he receives so fa" j^^ THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. as from truths he fights against evils as if of him- self This must be revealed, because it is not known that Divine providence is continual, and enters into the most minute things of man's life, and because it is not known how this can be. {.I.E., n. 1174 ) All this having been premised it shall now be told what affection is. and afterwards why man is led by the Lord by means of affections and not by means of thoughts, and lastly that man can be saved in no other way. IV/uit affcdion z>.— The same is meant by affec- tion as by love. But love is like a fountain and affections are like the streams therefrom, thus affec tions are continuations of love. Love as a fountam is in the will of man ; affections, which are streams from it, flow by continuity into the understandmg. and there by means of light from truths bring forth thoughts, just as the influences of heat m a garden bring forth germinations by means of rays of light. Moreover, love in its origin is the heat of heaven, and truths in their origin are the rays of light of heaven, and thoughts are germmations from their marriage. ^ From such a marriage are all the societies of heaven, which are innumerable, and in their essence these are affections ; for they are from the heat that is love and from the wisdom that is light from the Lord as a sun. Therefore these societies, as heat in them is united to light, and light is united to heat, are affedions for good and truth. From this are the thoughts of all in these societies. This makes clear that the societies of heaven are not THE NINTH LAW. 145 thoughts but affections, consequently to be led by means of these societies is to be led by means of affections, that is, to be led by means of affections is to be led by means of societies ; and for this reason in what now follows the term affections will be used in place of societies. It shall now be told why man is led by the Lord by means of affections and not by means of thoughts. When man is led by the Lord by means of affec- tions he can be led according to all the laws of His Divine providence, but not if he should be led by means of thoughts. Affections do not become evident to man, but thoughts do ; also affections bring forth thoughts, but thoughts do not bring forth affections ; there is an appearance that they do, but it is a fallacy. And when affedions brmg forth thoughts they bring forth all things of man. because these constitute his life. Moreover, this is known in the world. If you hold man by his affedion you hold him bound, and lead him wherever you please, and a single reason is then stronger than a thousand. But if you do not hold man by his affection reasons are of no avail, for his afifedion, when not in harmony with them, either perverts them or rejedls them or extinguishes them. It would be the same if the Lord should lead man by means of thoughts im- mediately, and not by means of affedions. Again, when a man is led by the Lord by means of affections, it seems to him as if he thought freely as if of himself, and spoke freely and acted freely as if of himself. And this is why 146 THE DIVINE I'ROVIDENCE. the Lord does not teach man immediately, but mediately by means of the Word, and by means of doctrines and preachings from the Word, and by means of conversations and intercourse with others ; for from these things man thinks freely as if of him- self. In no other way can man be .vatvd?.— This follows both from what has been said about the laws of the Divine providence and also from this, that thoughts do not bring forth affections in man. For if man knew all things of the Word, and all things of doctrine, even to the arcana of wisdom that the angels possess, and thought and spoke about them, so long as his affections were lusts of evil he could not be brought out of hell by the Lord. Evidently then, if man were to be taught from heaven by an influx into his thoughts it would be like casting seed upon the way, or into water, or into snow, or into fire. {A.E.. n. 1175 Because the Divine providence ads upon the afifeclions that belong to man's love and thus to his will, leading him in and from his affection into another that is near and related to it by means of his freedom, and so imperceptibly that man has no knowledge of how it acts, and in fact hardly knows that there is a Divine providence, — for this reason many deny providence, and confirm themselves against it. This is done in consequence of the var- ious things that happen and arise, as that the arts and schemes of thevvicked are successful, that im- piety prevails, that there is a hell, that the under- standing IS blinded to spiritual things, and that THE NINTH LAW. 147 this gives rise to so many heresies, each one of which, starting from a single head, flows out into assemblies and nations and becomes permanent like popery, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Melancthon* ism, Moravianism. Arianism, Socinianism, Quaker- ism. Pietism, and even Judaism, and with these naturalism and atheism ; and outside of Europe extending through many kingdoms. Mahometan- ism, and also paganism, in which are various kinds of worship, and in some cases no worship at all All who do not think on these subjects from Divine truth say in their heart that there is no Divine proYidence ; and those who are perplexed about It assert that there is a Divine providence but that It IS only universal. When either of these hear that there is a Divine providence in every least particular of man's life they either give no heed to It or do give heed to it ; those who give no heed to It, casting the truth behind them and turning away, and those who do give heed to it turning away like the others, and yet thev turn back their faces, merely to see whether there is anvthing in It ; and when they see they say to themselves. This is mere affirmation. Some of these latter do con- fess the truth with the lips, but not with the heart. Since, then, it is important that the blindness arising from Ignorance, or the thick darkness arising from absence of light, should be dissipated, it is per- mitted to see, (1.) That the Lord teaches no one immediately, but mediately through those things in 148 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. man that are from the hearing and sight. (ii) And yet the Lord provides that man may be reformed and savtd by those things that he adopts as his religion. (iii.) And for every nation the Lord provides a universal means of salvation. (A.E., n. 1176., (i.) That the Lord teaches no one immediately, but mediately through those things in man that are from the hearing and sight.— This follows from what has been said above ; to which it must be added that immediate revelation cannot be granted to man except that which has been given in the Word such as it is in the prophecies and gospels and histories ; which is such that every one may be taught accord- ing to the affections of his love and the consequent thoughts of his understanding, those who are not in good of life receiving very little, but those who are in good of life receiving much, for these are taught through enlightenment by the Lord. The enlightenment is as follows -.—Light con- joined with heat flows in through heaven from the Lord. This heat, which is Divine love, affeds the will from which man has afifeaion for good ; and this light, which is Divine wisdom, affecls the un- derstanding from which man has a conception of truth. From these two fountains, which are the will and understanding, all things of man's love and all things of his knowledge are affe^ed ; but only those things that pertain to the subject are called up and presented to view. In this way is THE NINTH LAW. 149 enlightenment effected by the T nr.^ u the Word, in which everv^hinl f/ot /h ""''"' °^ that iQ I'o \t ^ . ^ '"'"g:. irom the spir tual and iffht from fh*. r»- • °^ ^"^ ^eat things live? °'""" '"" ^■■°'" '^"'^h ail is l''^ «"|'eh"=ned by the Lord through heaven IS to be enhglitened by the Holy Spirit for , he Holy Sp,nt ,s the Divine that goes forth frori he Lord as a sun. from which is heaven. FrortWs ^ yji nis will that comes from h\c 1,/^ e" Vainrtr " '"^ "«*" °^ "'= -^ert nd!" ^ that ne gains by means of Icnowledge • and ih-if ,Cl d.vide"d int ch:rcLf ''!;•'"";; ""^■■°" "- ''-" and in pttifur:T.hTn^r ctXs "" feT' can those who are outside th/ph T ^"^^'' Who d .e the^ot ;t "ia^r mry'tr p hrve'"- ZT^^ - -t t ''- from the Word Tu^ 1 wnicn is in part Word. The religion of the Mahometans I50 THE DIVINE rROVIDENCE. was in some respects taken from the Word of both Testaments. Others have a religion derived from the ancient Word that was afterwards lost. With some it was from the Ancient Church that extended over a great part of the continent of Asia, and like our church at the present day was divided into many, all of them having that ancient Word. From these the religions of many nati«)ns were derived, although in process of time these became in many cases more or less idolatrous. Those whose worship is from that origin are taught by the Lord mediately by means of their religion, the same as Christians are by the Word ; and this is done, as has been said, by the Lord through heaven, and thus by a stirring up of their will and also of their understanding. But enlight- enment by means of those religions is not like enlightenment by means of the Word. It is like enlightenment at evening when the moon is shin- ing more or less brightly, while enlightenment by means of the Word is like enlightenment in the daytime from morning to noon, when the sun is shining more or less brightly. Thus it is that the Lord's church which, in respecl to its light, which is Divine wisdom, extends through the entire globe, is like the day from noon to evening, and even to night ; while in respect to its heat, which is Divine love, it is like the year from spring to autumn, and even to winter. .A.E.n. 1177) (ii.) And yet the Lord providi'S that vian may be reformed and saved by those thins^s that he adopts as his religion. — In the entire globj where there is any THE .NINTH LAW. 151 religion, smce there must be conjundion, there are two that constitute it. namely, God and man ; and there are two things that constitute conjun^ion namely good of love and truth of faith ; good of ove IS from the Lord immediately, truth of faith IS also from God, but mediately. Good of love s hat through which God leads man. and truth o faith IS that through which man is led. This is the same as what has been said above. Truth of a th appears to man to be his own, because it is from those hings that he acquires as ii from himself. Therefore God conjoins Himself to man through good of love, and man conjoins himself to God as If of himself through truth of faith. Because the conjunction is such the Lord com pares Himself to a bridegroom and husband, a^d the church to a bride and wife. The Lord flows m continually with complete good of love, but He cannot be conjoined to man in complete truth of faith, but only ,n that which is in man, and this vanes ; it can be given in greater fulness with those with ho " r,-'"' ^""'^ ''^ ^"^ - ^-^ ^"'"ess with those who live where there is no Word : and yet the fulness varies in both in proportion to their knowledge and their life according to t and consequently it may be greater in those who have not the VVV>rd than in those who have it. The conjuncflion of God with man and of man w th God IS taught in the two tables that were written with the finger of God. and called "tab!es of the covenant,' "of the testimony." and ''of the law. In one table is God, in the other man. All ,-2 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. nations that have any religion have these tables; ?rom the first table they know that God must be acknowledged, regarded as holy and worshipped ; from the other table they know that they must not steal either openly or secretly by crafty devices ; hat they must not commit adultery that they ^^^st not kill, either by the hand or ^y hatred t at thev must not bear false witness in a court of justice or before the world ; and also that they must not desire these things. From his table man knovvs the evils that must be shunned, and just so far as he knows them and shuns them as if from himself, God conjoins him to Himself and enables him from His table to acknowledge Him, to regard Him as holy, and to worship Him, and also enable h m not to will evils, and so far as he does not will evils to know truths in abundance. Thus these two tables are conjoined in man and God's table is placed above man s table, and they are put as one table into the ark, over wh.ch Is the mercy-seat, which is the Lord, and over the mercy.seat the two cherubim which are the \\ ord and what is from the Word, in which the Lord speaks with man as He spoke with Moses and Aaron between the cherubim. , , i ^ Since, then, there is conjundion of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord by these means, evidently every one who knows them and lives according to them, not merely on the ground of civil and moral law but also of Divine law, will be saved ; thus every one in his own religion whether Christian or Mahometan or pagan. And THE NINTH LAW. 153 What is more, a man who from religion lives these truths, even if in the world he knows nothing about the Lord, nor anything else from the Word, yet he IS in such a state in resped to his spirit that he wishes to become wise ; consequently after death he is instruded by the angels and acknowledges the Lord and receives truths according to his affec- tion and becomes an angel. Every such person is like a man who dies an infant, for he is led by the Lord and is educated by the angels. Those who from ignorance and from having been born in such a place have known nothing of worship, are after death instruded like little children, and according to their civil and moral life receive the means of salvation. I have seen such, and at first they did not appear like men ; but afterwards I saw them as men, and heard them speaking sanely from the command- ments of the decalogue. To instrucfl such is the inmost angelic joy. From all this it is now clear that the Lord provides for the possible salvation of every man. {a.k, n. 1179.) (iii.) For every nation the Lord provides a uni^ versal means of salvation.—Yxom what has been said above it is clear that in whatever religion a man may live he can be saved ; for he knows the evils and the falsities from evils that must be shunned, and having shunned them he knows the goods that must be done and the truths that must be believed. The goods he does and the truths he believes before he has shunned evils are not in themselves goods and truths, because they are from 154 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. man and not from the Lord. Before that they are not goods and truths in themselves because in the man thev then have no life. A man who knows all goods and all truths, as many as can be known, but does not shun evils, knows nothini^. His goods and truths are swallowed up or cast out by the evils, so that he becomes foolish, not in the world but afterwards ; while the man who knows few goods and few truths, but shuns evils, knows those goods and truths and learns many more and be- comes wise, if not in the world yet afterwards. Since, then, every one in every religion knows the evils and falsities from evils that mw^t be shunned, and having shunned them knows the goods that must be done and the truths that must be believed, it is clear that this is provided by the Lord as a universal means of salvation with every nation that has any religion. With Christians this means exists in all ful- ness ; it also exists, though not in fulness, with Mahometans and pagans. The remaining things, by which they are distinguished, are either ceremo- nials, which are of little consequence, or are goods that may be done or not done, or truths that may be believed or not believed and yet man be saved. What these things amount to man can see when evils are removed. A Christian sees this from the Word, a Mahometan from the Koran, and a pagan from his religion. A Christian sees from the Word that God is one, that the Lord is the Saviour of the world, that all good that is good in itself, and all truth that is true in itself, is from God, and nothing THE .NINTH LAW. 155 of It from man ; that there must be Baptism and the Holy Supper, that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after dcrth, and that he who does good comes into heaven, and he who does evil into hell. These things he be- lieves from truth and does from good when he is not m evil. Other things that are not in accord with these and with the decalogue he may pass A .Mahometan sees from the Koran that God IS one, that the Lord is the Son of God, that all good IS from God, that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after death, and that the evils forbidden in the com- mandments of the decalogue must be shunned If he does these latter things he also believes the former and is saved. A pagan sees from his religion that there is a God. that He must be regarded as holy and be worshipped, that good is from Him, that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after death, that the evils forbidden in the deca- logue must be shunned. If he does these things and believes them he is saved. And as many pagans perceive God to be a man, and as God- Man IS the Lord, so after death when they are instructed by angels thev acknowledge the Lord and afterwards receive truths from the Lord that they had not before known. Thev are not con- demned because of their not having the ordinances of Baptism and the Holy Supper ; the Holy Supper and Baptism are for those only who are in posses- ^^l^C^UBjO^^^ 156 THE DIVINE PROVIDEN'CE. THE NINTH LAW. sion of the Word, and to whom the Lord is known from the Word ; for they are symbols of that church, and are attestations and certifications that those who believe and live according to the Lord's command- ments in the Word are saved. {A.E., n. 1180.) Something shall now be said about the speech of spirits with man. Many believe that man can be taught by the Lord by means of spirits speak- ing with him ; but those who believe this and are willing to believe it do not know that it is attended with danger to their souls. So long as man is liv- ing in the world he is, in resped to his spirit, in the midst of spirits, although spirits do not know that they are with man, nor does man know that he is with spirits ; and for the reason that in respedl to the affedions of the will they are imme- diately conjoined, while in respe(5l to the thoughts of the understanding they are mediately conjoined. For man thinks naturally, but spirits think spirit- ually ; and natural and spiritual thought make one only by correspondences ; and in a oneness by correspondences neither one of the two knows anything about the other. But as soon as spirits begin to speak with man they come out of their spiritual stale into man's natural state, and they then know that they are with man and they conjoin themselves with the thoughts of his affection and speak with him from those thoughts. They can enter into no other state of man, for all con- jundion is by like affedion and thought there- from, while unlike separates. For this reason the speaking spirit must be in 157 bt't^Tor^L?^'' ";'' "^" ^^' "^^^h- they he strongly confirms ihem. This makes ct.rL? with speeT Tr,' """":"'' °P"^"°" ^°i""des lans. and other heretics. ' '''"" . All spirits that speak with man were once men in the world, and were then of like charal" This has been granted me m L^r,^ I cna raster, experience A. i if ^"°''' ^^ repeated Pietistic spiHts. JJ'Z 2t\rZ^Jf„ Which a man is who sneak.; wwk '"^.^^"S^e^ m -anifesfy perceives Tetop^^T'^^i:: l^ not know what his affeaion is' whether it be S or ev.l. or wuh what others i, is conjoined -^and i'hin'ym f """' °' self-intelligence the 'spirU Tnd th^T '^"y """"Sh' f™-" that source and the same is true when one favors certain pnncples enkindled by such a fire w h tho " The Python.sts formerly were of this charX; tta(iaijSsifedM&a^.i^ Jb.t;- ^ 158 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. also the wise men in Egypt and in Babylon, who were called wise because they talked with spirits, and because they clearly perceived the operation of spirits in themselves. But by this the worship of God was changed into the worship of de- mons, and the church perished. For this reason such intercourse was forbidden to the sons of Israel under penalty of death. ./.£"., n. 1182.^ It is otherwise with those whom the Lord leads. He leads those who love truths, and who will them from Himself. Such are enlightened when they read the Word; for the Lord is in the Word, and speaks with every one according to his apprehen- sion. When such hear the speech of spirits, as they sometimes do. they are not taught but led, and this with such precaution that the man is left to himself ; for every man, as has been said be- fore, is led by the Lord by means of affeclions ; and from these he thinks as if from himself in freedom ; if this were not so man would be incapable of reformation, nor could he be enlightened. But men are enlightened variously, each according to the quality of his affeclion and consequent intelligence. Those who are in a spiritual affec- tion for truth are raised up into the light of heaven, even so as to be able to perceive the enlighten- ment. This it has been given me to see, and from it to perceive clearly what comes from the Lord and what from angels. What has come from the Lord has been written ; what has come from the angels has not. Moreover, it has been granted me THE NINTH LAW. 159 o talk wuh angels as man with man, also to see he t\Tt^,'r::: ^'^ ^^^^-^"^ -^ ^^at ire „ presen church h' '"''"" ^'^^ ^^^ ^"^ -' ^^e X' ^trb^e^red ;- :herrd t r ^' ^r those who have been led t self in h u^T^ ^"' Word is the Divine itself of \h el , 'u'^^' '^^ also that the la.r ,', i ^""'"^ °" ^^^ ^^''^h ; i6o THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. '', THE TENTH LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. The tenth law of the Divine providence is. That when man is led astray by eminence and r.ches he has led himself to them by his own prudence for Z Di..ne providence man is led only '--f '^^ as do not Uad astray and as are serviceable to eternal life; for all things of Divine providence wUh man look to what is eternal, since the life which is God. from which man is man. ts eternal life. There are two things that especially influence the minds of men, eminence and riches ; eminence relates to the love of glory and of honors, riches to the love of money and possessions. These especially influence men's minds because they be- long to the natural man ; consequently those who are merely natural have no other idea than that er^inence and riches are real blessings that are from God, when in faa they may be curses, as may be clearly inferred from this, that they are the portion both of good men and of evil men. I have seen the eminent and the rich in the heavens and 1 have seen them in the hells ; «h"efore. as has been said, when eminence and riches do not lead astray they are from God. but when they do they are from hell. THE TENTH LAW. I6l fhJV T ?^" ^""^^ "°' distinguish between the r being from God or from hell, because the nat- ural man separated from the spiritual cannot per. ceive this distinaion; but the distindion can be seen ,n the natural man that is from the spiritual ta^uirr^'" 'f '"^^^' '^^""^^ ^^^ natural man is ^ught from mfancy to counterfeit the spiritual man : and m consequence when he performs uses to the church, to the country, to society and his fellow citizens, thus to the neighbor, he not only professes but also is able to persuade himself that he has done it for the sake of the church the country, society, and his fellow citizens ; and yet he may have done it for the sake of self and the world as ends. Man is in such blindness because he has not put away evils from himself by any combat • for so long as evils remain man can see nothing from the spiritual in his natural ; he is like one in a dream who believes himself to be awake, or like a bird of night that takes the darkness for light Such ,s the natural man when the gate of heavenly light IS closed. Heavenly light is the spiritual that enlightens the natural man. Since, then, it is of the greatest importance to know whether eminence and riches that is. the love of glory and honor, and the love of money and of possessions, are ends or are means, ends and means shall first be defined for if these are ends they are curses, but if they are not ends, but means, they are blessings. (w.^.,n. End. mediate causes, and effe(fl, are called also l62 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. the chief end, intermediate ends, and the final end. Intermediate and final ends are called ends, be- cause the chief end produces them, is everythmg in them, is their esse and is their soul. The chief end is the will's love in man, the intermediate ends are subordinate loves, and the final end is the love of the will standing forth as it were in its effigy. As the chief end is the love of the will it follows that intermediate ends, being subordinate loves, are foreseen, provided, and brought forth through the understanding, and that the final end is the use foreseen, provided, and brought forth by the love of the will through the understanding, for every thing that love brings forth is a use. This must be premised in order that what has just been said may be perceived, namely, that eminence and riches may be blessings or that they may be curses. [A.E, n. 1186.; ^ Now as the end, which is the love of man s will, provides or acquires for itself through the under- standing the means through which the final end may come forth, to which the first end advances through the means, and this is the end coming forth, which is the use, it follows that the end loves the means when they promote that use, and does not love them when they do not promote it. but then reje<5ls them, and through the understanding pro- vides or acquires for itself other means. This makes clear the quality of a man whose chief end is love of eminence, or love of glory and honor, or whose chief end is a love of wealth, or love of money or possessions, namely, that he regards all THE TENTH LAW. 163 means as servants that are serviceable to him for his hnal end, which is love coming forth, and this love is use to himself. Take, for example, a priest whose chief end is love of money or possessions, his means are the mmistenal office, the Word, dodrine. learning preaching from these, and instrudion of men of the church and their reformation and salvation by means of these. These means are valued by h.m according to the end and for the sake of the end. and yet they are not loved, although with some hey appear to be loved; for wealth is what is oved, since this is the first and the final end, and that end, as has been said, is everything in the means. Such assert, indeed, that their desire is that men of their church be taught, reformed and T7.A >"' ^' """^^'^ '^ '^" ^"^ ^^°"^ ^vhich this IS said. It IS not said from their love, but only as The same is true of a priest whose chief end s a love of eminence over others, as will be seen t n^U \T' '" ^^P^^^^^^ f^om the means. It s wholly different when instrudion, reformation, and salvation of souls is the chief end. and wealth whi e before he was a natural man. With a spir- itual priest wealth and eminence are blessings, but with a natural priest they are curses. This has been made evident by much experience in the spiritual world. Many have been seen and helrd 1 64 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. there who asserted that they had taught, had written, and had reformed men ; but when the end or love of their will was disclosed it was clear that they had done all things for the sake of self and the world, and nothing for the sake of God and the neighbor, and that they even cursed God and did evil to the neighbor. Such are meant in Matt. vii. 22, 23 ; and in Luke xiii. 26, 27. 'A.E., n. 1187). Take as another example a king, a prince, a magistrate, a governor, or an official, whose chief end is a love of rule, and whose means are all things belonging to their dominion, administration, and fundion. The uses they perform do not have the good of the kingdom, commonwealth, country, communities, and fellow-citizens, as their end, but delight in ruling, consequently self. The uses themselves are not to them uses, but minister to their pride. They perform uses for the sake of appearances and of distinction ; they do not love them, but they commend and yet make light of them, just as a master does his servants. I have seen such after death, and have been amazed. They were devils among the burning; for when the love of rule is the chief end it is the very fire of hell. I have also seen others whose chief end was not love of rule, but love of God and the neigh- bor, which is a love of uses ; these were angels to whom dominion in the heavens was granted. From all this again it is clear that eminence may be a blessing or may be a curse, and that eminence as a blessing is from the Lord, and emi- nence as a curse is from the devil. What the love THE TENTH LAW. 165 of rule is when it is the chief end, any one who is wise can see from the kingdom that is meant in the Word by " Babylon," that set its throne in the heavens above the Lord by claiming to itself all His power; consequently it invalidated the Divine means of worship, which are from the Lord through the Word, and in their place instituted demoniacal means of worship, which are adorations of living and dead men, also of sepulchres, dead bodies. and bones. That kingdom is depicled as Lucifer in Isaiah (xiv. 4-24). But only those that have exer- cised that dominion from a love of it are Lucifers» not the rest. (a.E., n 1,88.) As the love of rule and the love of riches pre- vail universally in the Christian world, and these loves at this day are so deeply rooted that it is not known that they in any wise lead astray, it is im- portant that their quality should be set forth. They lead every man astray who does not shun evils be- cause they are sins ; for he who does not thus shun evils does not fear God, and therefore remains natural. And as the love of ruling and the love of riches are the natural man's own loves, he does not see with any interior acknowledgment what those loves are in him. This he does not see un- less he is reformed, and he can be reformed only by combat against evils. It is believed that he can be reformed by faith ; but there can be no faith of God in man until he fights against evils. When man has thus been reformed light flows in from the Lord through heaven and gives him an afifec- tion for seeing and an ability to see what those i66 HIE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. loves are, and whether they rule or serve in him, thus whether they are in the first place in him and make as it were the head, or are in the second place and make as it were the feet. If they rule and are in the first place they lead astray and become curses ; but if they serve and are in the second place they do not lead astrav but become blessings. I can assert that all in whom the love of rule is in the first place are inwardly devils. This love is known from its delight, for it exceeds every other delight of the life of man. It is continually exhaled from hell, and the exhalation appears like the fire of a great furnace, kindling the hearts of men whom the Lord does not protect from it. The Lord pro- teds all who are reformed. Nevertheless, the for- mer are led by the Lord, although in hell and only by means of outward restraints, which are fears on account of the penalties of the law and the loss of reputation, honor, gain, and consequent pleasures. He leads them also by means of worldly rewards. He cannot lead them out of hell because the love of rule does not admit of internal restraints, which are fear of God and affections for good and truth, by means of which the Lord leads all who will follow Him to heaven and in heaven. '.I.E., n. Something shall now be said about man s being led by Divine providence to such things as do not lead astray, but are serviceable to eternal life, things that also have reference to eminence and wealth. It is made clear that this is so by what 1 have seen in the heavens. The heavens are divided into so- vite* THE TENTH LAW. 167 cieties, and those who are eminent and rich are to be found m every society. The eminent there are in such glory, and the rich in such abundance, that the glory and abundance of the world are almost nothing m comparison. But all the eminent there are wise, and all the rich abound in knowledge ■ thus eminence pertains to wisdom and wealth per^ tains to knowledge. ^ Such eminence and wealth can be acquired in this world both by those who are eminent and rich and by those who are not, for they are acquired here by all who love wisdom and knowled^^e To ove wisdom is to love uses that are true uses and to love knowledge (....„,/, is to love knowledges ico^.:^ion.s^oi good and truth for the sake of such uses. When uses are loved more than self and he vyorld. and knowledges of good and truth are loved for the sake of uses, uses have the first place and eminence and wealth the second place and this IS the case with all who are eminent and rich in the heavens. They look upon the eminence they have in respecl to wisdom, and the wealth thev have ,n respecl to knowledge, just as a man looks upon his garments. M.^:.n.,x9o) The eminence and wealth of the angels of heaven sha 1 also be described. In the sfc ieties of heaven there are higher and lower governors to th""^1 '^ ^'^ ^"^^^"'^ ranked According ex elsthe T "' ^T"'^^"^^' ^^^^ ^^ief. wh! Tpa lace so ^' "•7"'"'^' '"^"^ ^" '^' ^^^^^ - torld can beTo^" "; '^^' "°^^'"^ ^" '^^ ^hole world can be compared with it. Its architedure is i68 THE DIVINE PROVIDENXE. SO wonderful that I can truthfully assert that not a hundredth part of it can be described by natural language, for art itself is there in its art. Within the palace are rooms and bed-chambers, in which all the furniture and decorations are resplendent with gold and various precious stones in such forms as no artist in the world can imitate either in paint- ing or sculpture. And what is wonderful, the par- ticulars, even to the minutest particulars, are for use ; and every one who enters sees their use, per- ceiving it by a breathing forth, as it were, of the uses through their images. But no wise person who enters keeps his eyes fixed very long upon the im- ages, but his m ind attends to the uses, since these de- light his wisdom. Round about the palace are colon- nades, pleasure gardens, and smaller palaces, each in the form of its own beauty a heavenly delight. Besides these magnificent objeds there are attend- ant guards, all clad in shining garments, and many other things. The subordinate governors enjoy similar luxuries, which are magnificent and splen- did according to the degrees of their wisdom, and their wisdom is according to the degrees of their love of uses. And not only do the rulers have such things, but also the inhabitants, all of whom love uses and perform them by various employments. But few of these things can be described; those that cannot be described are innumerable, for as they are in their origin spiritual they do not fall into the ideas of the natural man, and consequently not into the expressions of his language, except into these, that when wisdom builds for itself a habita- THE TENTH LAW. 169 lion, and makes it comformable to itself, everything that lies inmostly concealed in any science or in any art flows together and accomplishes the purpose. All this has been written to make known that all things in the heavens also have reference to eminence and wealth, but that eminence there per- tains to wisdom and wealth to knowledge, and that such are the things to which man is led by the Lord through His Divine providence, {a £., n ng^ I70 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. XL Eminence and Wealth through Uses. Something shall now be said about the uses through which men and angels have wisdom. To love uses is nothing else than to love the neighbor, for use in the spiritual sense is the neighbor. This can be seen from the (a6i that every one loves another not because of his face and person but be- cause of his will and understanding ; he loves one who has a good will and a good understanding, and does not love one with a good will and a bad under- standing, or with a good understanding and a bad will. And as a man is loved or not loved for these reasons, it follows that the neighbor is that from which every one is a man, and that is his spiritual. Place ten men before you that you may choose one of them to be your associate in any duty or business ; will you not first find out about them and choose the one who comes nearest [proxime) to your use ? Therefore he is your neighbor pro.r- imus), and is loved more than the others. Or be- come acquainted with ten maidens with the pur- pose of choosing one of them for your wife ; do you not first ascertain the charadler of each one, and if she consents betroth to you the one that eminence and wealth through uses 171 Z Ir- T^' """^ '' "^^^^ >'^"^ "^'^hbor than the others. If you should say to yourself. " Every man is my neighbor, and is therefore to be loved without distindion," a devil-man and an angel, man^or a harlot and a virgin might be equally Use is the- neighbor, because every man is valued and loved not for his will and understand- ing alone but for the uses he performs or is able to perform from these. Therefore a man of use is a man according to his use ; and a man not of use is a man not a man, for of such a man it is said that he IS not useful for anything ; and although in this world he may be tolerated in a community so long as he lives from what is his own. after death when he becomes a spirit he is cast out into a desert Man. therefore, is such as his use is. But uses are manifold ; in general they are heavenly or in- ternal. Heavenly uses are those that are service- able more or less, or more nearly or remotely, to the church, to the country, to society, and to a fel- ow citizen, for the sake of these as ends ; but in- fernal uses are those that are serviceable only to the man himself and those dependent on him ; and If serviceable to the church, to the country to society, or to a fellow citizen, it is not for the sake of tTiese as ends, but for the sake of self as the end And yet every one ought from love, though not self ove to provide the necessaries and requisites of life for himself and those dependent on him When man loves uses by doing them in the first place, and loves the world and self in the second I70 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. XI. Eminence and Wealth through Uses. Something shall now be said about the uses through which men and angels have wisdom. To love uses is nothing else than to love the neighbor, for use in the spiritual sense is the neighbor. This can be seen from the fad that every one loves another not because of his face and person but be- cause of his will and understanding ; he loves one who has a good will and a good understanding, and does not love one with a good will and a bad under, standmg, or with a good understanding and a bad will. And as a man is loved or not loved for these reasons, it follows that the neighbor is that from which every one is a man, and that is his spiritual. Place ten men before you that you may choose one of them to be your associate in any duty or business ; will you not first find out about them and choose the one who comes nearest [pro rime) to your use ? Therefore he is your neighbor ^prox- imus), and is loved more than the others. Or be- come acquainted with ten maidens with the pur- pose of choosing one of them for your wife ; do you not first ascertain the charader of each one, and if she consents betroth to you the one that E.MINENCE and WEALTH THROUGH USES 171 ItV^r^ T^' °"" '' "^^^^ >'°"^ "^'^hbor than the others. If you should say to yourself, " Every man ,s my neighbor, and is therefore to be loved without distmaion." a devil-man and an angel- man^or a harlot and a virgin might be equally vol ^f \ f^^ neighbor, because everv man is valued and loved not for his will and understand- ing alone but for the uses he performs or is able to perform from these. Therefore a man of use is a man according to his use ; and a man not of use is a man not a man, for of such a man it is said that he IS not useful for anything ; and although in this world he may be tolerated in a communitv so lon^ as he lives from what is his own. after death when he becomes a spirit he is cast out into a desert Man. therefore, is such as his use is. But uses are manifold ; in general they are heavenly or in- fernal. Heavenly uses are those that are service- able more or less, or more nearly or remotely, to the church, to the country, to society, and to a fel- low citizen, for the sake of these as ends ; but in- fernal uses are those that are serviceable only to the man himself and those dependent on him ; and If serviceable to the church, to the country to society, or to a fellow citizen, it is not for the sake of these as ends, but for the sake of self as the end And yet every one ought from love, though not self ove to provide the necessaries and requisites of iile for himself and those dependent on him When man loves uses by doing them in the first place, and loves the world and self in the second 172 THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. place, the former constitutes his spiritual and the latter his natural ; and the spiritual rules, and the natural serves. This makes evident what the spir- itual is, and what the natural is. This is the mean- ing of the Lord's woeds in Matthew : "Seek ye first the kingdom of the heavens and its rieht- eousness, and all thing's shall be added unto vou " (vi. 331. ^ " The kingdom of the heavens " means the Lord and His church, and " righteousness " means spir- itual, moral, and civil good ; and every good that is done from the love of these is a use. Then "all things shall be added," because when use is in the first place, the Lord, from whom is all good, is in the first place and rules, and gives whatever contributes to eternal life and happiness ; for, as has been said, all things of the Lord's Divine pro- vidence pertaining to man look to what is eternal. The "all things that shall be added " refer to food and raiment, because food means every thing inter- nal that nourishes the soul, and raiment every thing external that like the body clothes it. Every thing internal has reference to love and wisdom, and everything external to wealth and eminence. All this makes clear what is meant by loving uses for the sake of uses, and what the uses are from which man has wisdom, from which and according to which wisdom every one has eminence and wealth in heaven, [a.e., n. 1193 ) As man was created to perform uses, and this is to love the neighbor, so all who come into heaven, however many there are, must do uses. All the EMINENCE AND WEALTH THROUGH USES. 1 73 delight and blessedness of these is according to uses and to the love of uses. Heavenly oy is from no other source. He who believes tha such joy ,s possible in idleness is much deceived No Idle person ,s tolerated even in hell. Those who are there are in workhouses and under a judge do daT^T 'T °" l'^ P"^°"^^^ ^^^^ ^hey mu^s ?ood or'^cloyh '' ^^"^ ^° "°^ ^^ ^^^'^ '^^^^ no InH I u"^ '" ^'''^"' ^^^ ^h^y stand hungry and naked ; thus are they compelled to work there fear but' 7"^ '" ''"/ '" ''" ^^^^ ^^^ ^°"- '^-^ fear, but m heaven from love ; and fear does not give joy. but love does. Nevertheless it is proper to vary occupations in difterent ways in company with others, and these serve as recreations, which are also uses. It has been granted me to see many things in heaven many thmgs m the world, and many things in the human body, and to consider at the same tfme their uses; and It has been revealed that every partic u ar thmg m them, both great and small, was ere- ated from use, in use. and for use ; and that the part m which the outermost that is for use ceases IS separated as harmful and is cast out as damned. PART THIRD Animal and Vegetable Life fc Animal and Veeetable Life. I. A Spiritual and a Natural in all 'things. Something shall now be said about the life of animals, and afterwards about the soul of vegeta- bles. The whole world, with each and every thing in it, came into existence and continues to exist from the Lord the Creator of the universe. There are two suns, the sun of the spiritual world and the sun of the natural world. The sun of the spiritual world is the Lord's Divine love, the sun of the nat- ural world is pure fire. From the sun that is Divine love every work of creation has begun, and by means of the sun that is fire it has been carried to completion. Every thing that goes forth from the sun that is Divine love is called spiritual, and every thing that goes forth from the sun that is fire is called natural. The spiritual from its origin has life in itself, but the natural from its origin has nothing of life in itself. And because from these two fountains of the universe all things that are in both worlds have come into existence and continue to exist, it follows that there is in every created thing in this world a 178 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. spiritual and a natural, a spiritual as its soul and a natural as its body, or a spiritual as its internal and a natural as its external; or a spiritual as the cause and a natural as the effedl. That these two in any particular thing cannot be separated every wise person knows, for if you separate cause from effetfl or the internal from the external, the effedl or the external goes to pieces, as when the soul is separated from the body. That there is such a conjunction in the partic- ular and even in the most particular things of nat- ure has not yet been known. It has not been known because of the existing ignorance respe- n. 1204.} NATURE THE REALM OF EFFECTS. 197 VI. Nature the Realm of Effects. Nothing in nature comes forth and continues to exist except from the spintual and by means of it. The reason of this is that nothing can come forth except from another, and so finally from Him who has bemg and existence in Himself, who is God ; wherefore God is called Esse and Existere, Jah from Esse and Jehovah from Esse and Existere m Himself. Nothing in nature comes forth except from the spiritual, because nothing is possible with- out a soul. All that is called soul which is essence, for that which has in itself no essence has no exis- tence, for it is a non-entity, since there is no esse from which it comes forth. Thus it is with nature. Its essence from which it comes forth is the spirit- ual, because this has in itself the Divine Esse, and also the Divine adive, creative, and formktive force, as will be seen in what follows. Moreover, this essence may be called soul. For every thing spiritual is living, and what is living when it ads into what is not living, as for instance into the natural, causes it either as it were to be living, or to draw somewhat of appearance from what is living. This latter is true of plants, the former of animals. igS ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. Nothing in nature comes forth except from the spiritual, because no ef!ed is possible without a cause. Whatever comes forth in eflfea is from a cause ; what is not from a cause is separated. Thus it is with nature. Its particular and most partic- ular parts are effeds from a cause which is prior, interior, and superior to the effed, and which is immediately from God. For there is a spiritual world ; and that world is prior, interior, and su- perior to the natural world, consequently every thing in the spiritual world is a cause, and every thing in the natural world is an effed. Even in the natural world one thing comes forth from another in a progression, but this is done through causes from the spiritual world, for where the cause of the effecfl is there also is the cause of the eflfeding effed ; for every effecfl becomes an effect- ing cause in order even to the outmost, where the effedlive force has permanent existence ; but this is effed^ed continually from the spiritual, in which alone is that force. This, therefore, is what is meant by nothing in nature coming forth except from the spiritual, and dy means of it. In nature there are two mediate causes by means of which every effed, that is, every pro- duction and formation there, is accomplished. These mediate causes are light and heat. Light modifies substances and the heat moves them, each from the presence of the sun in them. The pres- ence of the sun that is manifested as light causes an acftivity of the forces or substances of every atom according to the form that it has from crea- NATURE THE REALM OF EFFECTS. 199 tion. This is modification. The presence of the sun that is perceived as heat spreads apart the atoms, and produces the ading and eflfeding force according to their form, by moving the conatus that they have from creation. This conatus, which be- comes by means of heat the ading force even in the minutest forms of nature, is from the spiritual actmg in them and into them. [a.E., n. ,206 ) 200 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. VII. Nature in Itself dead. Nature in itself is dead, being created in order that the spiritual may be clothed by it with forms that may serve for use, and thus may be terminated. Nature and life are two distin<5l things. Na- ture has its beginning in the sun of this world, and life has its beginning in the sun of heaven. The sun of the world is pure fire, and the sun of heaven is pure love. That which goes forth from the sun that is pure fire is called nature ; and that which goes forth from the sun that is pure love is called life. That which goes forth from pure fire is dead, but that which goes forth from pure love is living. This shows that nature in itself is dead. That nature is serviceable in clothing the spiritual is manifest from the fact that the souls of beasts, which are spiritual affections are clothed with materials that exist in the world. That their bodies, as well as the bodies of men, are material, is well known. The spiritual is capable of being clothed by the material, because all things that have existence in the world of natur6, atmospheric, aqueous, or earthy, in respect to every atom thereof, are effects nature in itself dead. 20 1 produced by the spiritual as a cause, and the effects act as one with the cause and wholly in agreement with it, according to this axiom, that nothing comes forth in effect that is not in the cause. But there is this difference, that the cause is a living force because it is spiritual, while the effect is a dead force because it is natural. This is the rea- son why such things exist in the natural world as wholly agree with those in the spiritual world, and why the two can be closely conjoined. And these are the reasons for saying that nature was created in order that by it the spiritual might be clothed with forms that might serve for use. That nature was created in order that the spirit- ual might be terminated in it follows from what has been said, that the things in the spiritual world are causes, and those in the natural world are effects. Effects are terminations. Where there is a first there must always be a last, and as every- thing intermediate from the first comes forth to- gether in the last, the work of creation is perfected in things last (or outmost). For this end the sun of the world was created, and nature by means of the sun, and finally the terraqueous globe, in order that there might be outmost materials into which every thing spiritual might close, and in which cre- ation might have permanent existence ; also in order that the work of creation might continually persist and endure, which is effected through the generations of men and animals and the germina- tions of plants ; also in order that all things might thus return to their First source, which is effected 202 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE, through man. That intermediates come forth to- gether in outmosts is evident from the axiom that there is nothing in the eflfect that is not in the cause, thus from a continuity of causes and effects from the First even to the outmost. {a.£„ n. 1207.) THE ANIMAL FORM AND PLANT FORM. 203 VIII. The Animal Form and ihk Plant Form. T/i^re are two general forms, the spiritual and the natural; the spiritual is such as belongs to ani- mals, and the natural is such as belongs to plants. This is why all things of nature, except the sun, moon, and the atmospheres, constitute three kmgdoms, the animal, the vegetable, and the min- eral ; and the mineral kingdom is simply a store- house, in which are contained and from which are taken the things of which the forms of the two other kingdoms, the animal and the vegetable are composed. ' The forms of the animal kingdom, which are called m a smgle word animals, are all in accord with the flow of spiritual substances and forces • and from the conatus that is in these forms this flow tends to the human form, and to each and all thmgs of it from head to heel ; thus it tends in general to produce organs of sense and organs of motion, also organs of nutrition and organs of prohfication. For this reason the entire heaven is m such a form, and all angels and spirits are in such a form, and men on the earth are in such a form, and all beasts, birds, and fishes, for all these have like organs. This animal form derives its conatus to such ferlWifttlliaimnf 204 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. things from the First from whom all things are, who is God, because He is the Man. This cona- tus and consequent determination of all spiritual forces can be given and come forth from no other source, for it is given in things greatest and in things least, in first things and in last things, in the spiritual world and therefrom in the natural world ; but with a difference of perfection accord- ing to degrees. But the other form, which is a natural form, and which is the form of all plants, has its origin in the conatus and consequent fiow of natural forces, which are atmospheres, and are called ethers ; and in these this conatus is present from that determination of spiritual forces which is in the animal form, and from the continual operation of spiritual forces into natural forces, which are ethers, and through these into materials of the earth, of which plants are composed. That its origin is such is clear from what has been said above that a certain semblance of the animal form is evident in them. That all things of nature strive after that form, and that the ethers have impressed upon them and so implanted in them from a spiritual an effort to produce that form, is evident from many things ; as from all vegetation on the surface of the whole earth, also from the vegetation of minerals into such forms in mines, where openings exist, also from the vegetation of cretaceous substances into corals in the depths of the sea, and even from the forms of snowtiakes that emulate plant forms. {A.E., n. 1208.) THE THREE FORCES. 205 IX. The Three Forces. /« everything sphitual there are three forces, an ^^^^;^ force, a creative force, and a formative force. The aaive force, because it is spiritual, goes forth from the fountain of all forces, which is the sun of heaven, and that is the Lord's Divine love and love IS the active itself, from which the living force which is life goes forth. The creative force is the force that produces causes and eflfeas from beginning to end, and reaches from the First through intermediates to the last. The First is the sun of heaven itself, which IS the Lord ; intermediates are things spir- itual, afterwards things natural, also things terres- trial, from which finally are producflions. And as in the creation of the universe that force proceded from the First to the last, so afterwards it proceeds in like manner in order that productions may be continual ; otherwise they would fail. For the First continually regards the last as an end ; and unless the First looked to the last continually from Itself through intermediates according to the or- der of creation, all things would perish ; there- fore productions, which are especially animals 206 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. and plants, are continuations of creation. It does not matter that the continuations are effected by seeds, it is still the same creative force that pro- duces. Moreover, it is according to the observa- tion of some that certain [new] seeds are yet being produced. The formative force is the outmost force [acting] by things outmost, for it is the force that produces animals and plants from the outmost materials of nature, which are collected on our globe. The forces that are in nature from its origin, which is the sun of the world, are not living forces but dead forces. These do not differ from the forces of heat in man and animal, which keep the body in such a state that the will by means of affection, and the understanding by means of thought, which are spiritual, can flow in and do their work in it. They do not differ from the forces of light in the eye, which simply cause the mind, which is spirit- ual, to see by means of its organ, the eye. Nothing is seen by the light of the world, but the mind sees by the light of heaven. The same is true of plants. He that believes that the heat and light of the sun of the world do anything more than to so open and dispose the things proper to nature that they may receive influx from the spir- itual world is very much deceived. [A.E., n. 1209.) HOW THESE FORCES ACT. 207 X How These Forces act. From the spiritual, by means of these forces tif "''• '"f ''"'"^^'^' '''' ^^-- -- - /--' « and those tn the world, have their existence. buch thmgs exist also in heaven, because these forces are in the spiritual in its things great! est and thmgs east, in its things first and last^hus m the spiritual both in heaven and in the world worfj For'.h" ''' 'T'"^' "^ ^"^'^ ^^^ ^^ ^^e A u . ^^^'^ ^'^ ^^^"^^^ «^ spiritual things and each degree is distin^ from the other, and the former or higher degree is more perfe^ han the heat m the heavens, and from the wisdom of the angels from these^ Light in the highest or third heaven is from a flame so brilliant as to exceed a thousand times the midday light of the world- in the middle or second heaven the light is less bright, and yet exceeds a hundred times the noon- day light of the world ; in the lowest or first heaven the hght IS hke the noonday light of our worid Also there are degrees of heat, which m heaven is love, and according to those degrees the angels have wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. Every 208 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. thing spiritual belongs to the light and heat that are from the Lord as a sun, and wisdom and intel- ligence are from these. There are also as many degrees of things spir- itual below the heavens, that is, in nature, which are lower degrees of things spiritual, as can be seen from man's natural mind, and from its ration- ality and sensuality ; rational men are in its first degree, sensual men are in its last, and others are in the middle ; and all thought and affedion of the natural mind is spiritual. These three forces, namely, the a<5live force, the creative force, and the formative force, are in the spiritual in every degree of it, but with a dif- ference of perfedlion. But since there is nothing without its outmost, in which it terminates and has permanent existence, so the spiritual has its outmost, which is on our globe, in its lands and waters ; and from this outmost the spiritual brings forth plants of all kinds, from the tree to the blade of grass, and in these the spiritual abides, mani- festing itself only in a certain likeness to animals that has been spoken of above. {A.E., n. 1210.) In the heavens, as on the earth, there are plants of all genera and species; and in the heavens there are also plants that are not on the earth, for there are composite forms of the differ- ent genera and species with infinite variation. This they derive from their origin, of which below. The genera and species of the plants differ in the heavens as the genera and species of animals do, of which above. HOW THESE FORCES ACT. 209 Accordmg to the degrees of light and heat there pleasure-gardens, groves, fields, and plains are seen ; and in these groups of trees and flowers and open lawns. In the inmost or third heaven especially there are orchards whose fruits drop oils ; beds of flowers from which fragrant odors are spread abroad, and the seeds of which are sweet to the taste from the fragrance and the oil ; and there are lawns diffusing like odors. In the' mid- dle or second heaven there are orchards whose fruits drop wine ; and flower-beds and also lawns from which exhale pleasant odors, with seeds ot delicate flavor. In the lowest or first heaven there are the same things as in the inmost and in the middle heaven, with a difference of delights and charms according to degrees. Moreover, in the inmost heaven there are fruits and seeds of pure gold, in the middle heaven of silver, and in the lowest heaven of copper ; there are also flowers of precious stones and of crystals. All these spring from the lands there. There, as with us, there are lands ; but nothing springs up from seed sown, but only from seed created ; and creation there is instantaneous, sometimes endur- ing for a long time and sometimes only for a moment ; for things have existence there by means of the forces of light and heat from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, and apart from the forces that serve as substitutes and aids from the light and heat from the sun of the worid. This is why the matters in the lands of our globe are fixed, and the germinations are permanent ; while 2IO ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. the matters of substances in the lands that are in the heavens are not fixed, and consequently the germinations from them are not permanent. There all things are spiritual with a natural appearance ; but in the lands that are subjedl to the sun of our world it is not so. These things have been mentioned to show that in everything spiritual, both in heaven and in the world, and both in the firsts and in the outmosts, there are these three forces, namely, the adiive force, the creative force, and the formative force ; and that these forces proceed continually to their outmosts. in which they close and have permanent existence ; and for this reason there are lands also in the heavens, for the lands there are these forces in outmosts. There is this differ- ence, that the lands there are spiritual from their origin, but here they are natural ; and the pro- ducflions from our lands are effe(fled from the spiritual by means of nature, but in those lands without nature. [.A.E., n. 1211.; THE ORIGIN OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 211 XI. The Origin of Ani.mals and Plants. T//<'se two classes, animals and plants^ have the same origin, and thus the same soul, the difference Seing only in the forms into which the influx flows. It has been shown above that the origin of animals, which also is their soul, is spiritual affec- tion, such as man has in his natural. That plants have the same origin is evident especially from plants in the heavens, in their appearing according to the afTe(flions of angels, and representing those afifedions, even so that the angels see their affec- tions in them as in their types, and learn what they are ; also that they are changed as the affedions change; but this occurs outside of the societies. The only difference is that affe(5lions appear formed into animals by the spiritual in its intermediate parts, while they appear formed into plants in its outmost parts, which are the lands there. For the spiritual, which is their source, is living in its inter- mediates, but is not living in its outmosts. In outmosts the spiritual retains no more of life than is sufficient to produce a resemblance of being alive. It is nearly the same as in the human body, the outmosts of which, that are produced by the spiritual, are cartilages, benes, teeth, and 212 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. nails, and in these what is living, which is from the soul, terminates. That the plant soul has the same origin as the soul of the beasts of the earth and of the birds of heaven and of the[ fishes of the sea does not appear to be true at first sight, for the reason that the one is a living thing and the other is not, nevertheless it becomes plainly evident from the animals and the plants seen in the heavens, and also from those seen in the hells. In the heavens beautiful ani- mals and like plants are seen ; but in the hells nox- ious animals and like plants ; and angels and spirits are known from the way the animals appear, and equally from the way the plants appear. The agreement with the affecflions of the angels and spirits is so complete that an animal can be changed into a corresponding plant, and a plant into a cor- responding animal. The angels of heaven know what element of affection is represented in the one and in the other ; and I have heard, and even perceived, that it is the same. Moreover, it has been granted me to discern clearly the correspondence both of animals and of plants with the societies of heaven and with the societies of hell, thus with their affec- tions, for in the spiritual world societies and af- fections make one. This is why in so many places in the Word gardens, groves, forests, trees, and plants of various kinds, are mentioned, and why they have there a spiritual signification according to their origins, all of which have reference to affections. THE ORIGIN OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 213 The difiference, therefore, between the plants world IS that m the spiritual world both their seeds and their germinations come forth in an instant according to the affections of the angels and spirits there; but in the natural world the origin is implanted in the seeds, from which they spring each year. Moreover, there are two things proper to nature, time and consequent succession, and space and consequent extension, but these do not exist m the spiritual world as properties of it. but m their place are appearances of the states of life of those there; and this is why from the lands there, which are from a spiritual origin, plants spnng up mstantly and disappear instantly. But his occurs only when the angels go away ; as ong as they remain the plants continue. This is the difference between plants in the spiritual world and plants in the natural world, iae n 1212) 214 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. XII. Use the Origin. That origin is use. — This is because aflfecflions have reference to uses ; use is the subje(5t of all affe(5lion, for man cannot be aflfedled except for the sake of something, and that something is use. Since, then, all affed^ion supposes use. and the plant soul, from its spiritual origin, is an affection, as has been said, it, too, is a use. For this reason every plant contains a use, a spiritual use in the spiritual world, and both a spiritual and a natural use in the natural world. The spiritual use is for the various states of the mind, and the natural use is for the various states of the body. It is well known that minds are refreshed, recreated, and stimulated, or on the other hand that drowsiness, sadness, or fainting is induced, by the odors and and flavors of different kinds of plants ; also that the body is healed by the various solutions, purga- tions, and remedies made from plants, and on the other hand, is destroyed by the poisons extracted from them. In the heavens the external spiritual use de- rived from them is the refreshment of minds, and the internal is the representation of Divine things USE the origin. 215 in them, and thereby also the elevation of the mind For the wiser angels see in them the quality of their affections in a series. These, with what lies hidden m them, are manifested in the varieties of flowers in their order, also in the variegations of color and odor. For every outmost affection which ,s called natural, although it is spiritual, derives its quality from an interior affeaion, which pertains to intelligence and wisdom, and these derive their quality from use and the love of it In a word, from the soil in the heavens nothing but use blooms forth, for use is the plant soul Because use is the plant soul, in those places in the spiritual world that are called deserts, where those are who in the world had rejected works of charity, which are essential uses, no grass or herb of any kind is seen, but mere gravel and sand livery good in act that is from the Lord through love to Him and love towards the neighbor is meant by the uses that alone blossom forth in the heavens. Every plant there represents a form of use ; and whatever is seen in it, from its first to its last and from its last to its first, that is, from seed to flower and from flower to seed, exhibits the pro- gression or extension from end to end of an affec tion and of its use. Those that are skilled in the sciences of botany, chemistry, medicine, and phar- macy, come after death into a knowledge of spir- itual uses from the plants in the spiritual world and cultivate that knowledge and find the great- est delight in it. I have talked with such and have heard from them wonderful things. [^ e. ^ ,214) 2l6 ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. From all that has thus far been presented re- specting the life that is from the Lord and the ex- istence of all things in the universe from it, every one who is wise in heart can see that nature pro- duces nothing from itself, but merely in the process of production serves the spiritual that goes forth from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, as an in- strumental cause serves its principal cause, or as a dead force serves its living force. This makes clear how mistaken those arc who ascribe the genera- tions of animals and the productions of plants to na- ture. This is the same as ascribing magnificent and splendid works to the tool and not to the workman, or like worshipping a sculptured image and not God, From this spring the fallacies, which are innum- erable, in all reasonings about spiritual, moral, and civil matters ; for a fallacy is an inversion of order ; it is the judgment of the eye, not of the mind ; it is a conclusion from the appearance of a thing, not from its essence. Consequently to reason from fal- lacies respedling the world and the existence of things in it is like proving by reasonings that dark- ness is light, that what is dead is alive, and that the body flows into the soul, and not the reverse. And yet it is an eternal truth that influx is spiritual, and not physical, that is, influx is from the soul, which is spiritual, into the body, which is material, or from the spiritual world into the natural world ; also that as the Divine from itself and through that which goes forth from itself created all things, so it sus- tains all things ; also that sustentation is perpet- ual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence. {A.£., n. 1215.) PAST FOURTH The Divine Omnipresence and Omniscience The Divine Omnipresence and Omniscience. I. Need of a Rational Understanding of Them. Infinity and Eternity, also Providence and Om- nipotence as belonging to the Lord, have been treated of; now the Omnipresence and Omni- science that belong to Him shall be treated of. In every religion it is acknowledged that God IS omnipresent and omniscient ; therefore prayer IS offered to God that He will hear and that He will see and will have mercy ; which would not be done unless His omnipresence and omniscience were believed in. This belief is from an influx out of heaven into those that have any religion, for it wh?^K"°'- "'^"'^ ^"'"^ ^"^'''°" ^^^"^ ^^"gion itself whether it is granted or how it is granted. But at U^is day. especially in the Christian world, natural men have become very numerous, and such see no hmg of God ; and unless they see they do not believe, or if they profess to believe it is either done from conventionality or from blind know- ledge, or from hypocrisy ; and yet they have the abihty to see. In order, therefore, that the things 220 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. relating to God may be seen, it is permitted to treat of them from light and from consequent rational sight. For every man, even a merely natural and sensual man, is endowed with an understanding that can be raised up into the light of heaven, and can see spiritual things, and even Divine things, and can comprehend them, but only while he is hearing them or reading about them ; and after- wards he can talk about them from the memory, but cannot think about them within himself from him- self. The reason of this is that when he is listen- ing or reading the understanding is separated from its own affe(5lion, and when so separated it is in the light of heaven ; but when he is thinking within himself from himself the understanding is joined to the affecflion of his will, and that affedtion fills the understanding and occupies it, and hinders it from going out of itself. Nevertheless, the fa(5l is that the understanding can be separated from the affecflion of the will, and thus can be raised up into the light of heaven in such natural men as have any affedlion for truth and as have not confirmed them- selves in falsities ; but scarcely in those that have no affedlion for truth from having rejecfled all Divine things or from having confirmed themselves in falsities. In such, between spiritual light and natural light there is a sort of darkening veil, although with many this is transparent. Since, then, any man, even a corporeal sensual man, when he reaches adult age is endowed with such an ability to understand that he can compre- RATIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. 221 hend the things that relate to God when he is isten.ng or reading, and afterwards can retain them m h s memory, and thus talk, teach, and wri^ about them, n is important that this treatisl on he Divme attributes should be continued as it was the^ Divin 'o' '''"' ^'^ ^^^^"^ Omnipresence Tnd he Divine Omniscience shall be considered, lest I I'^u'u^^' "^^"^^-^1 n^an. from a lack of willinJess which hecalls a lack of ability) to understand^n" thing Divine or spiritual, should bring these into doubt, and even denial, m.^.. „. ,,,, . ^ How the Lord can be present with all who are m heaven and throughout the whole earth and can know all things, even the most particular h.ngs conneaed with them, both present and future, can be comprehended only by means of the following truths : .^ ^ v^i lac (I.) /« M^' »a/ura/ world there are spaces and times, but tn the spiritual world these are appearances. (2.) spaces and times must be removed from the Ideas before the Lord's omnipresence -with all and with each individual, and His omniscience of things present and things future connected with them, can be comprehended. (3.) All angels of heaven and all men of the earth who constitute the chmrh are as ''flf fnan, and the Lord is the life of that man. "^ -' (4.) Consequently as there is life in the particu- larand most particular things of man and U knows the entire state of these 222 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. SO the Lord is in the particular and most particular things of angels of heaven and of men of the church. (5.) The Lord, by the intelledual capacity that each man has, or by its opposite, is also present with those who are out of heaven and out of the church, that is, those who are in hell or who are to come inta hell, and knows their whole state. (6.) From the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord thus perceived it can be under- stood how the Lord is the All and is in all things of heaven and the church, and that we are in the Lord and He is in us. (7.) The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe ; for it was so created by Him that He is in things first and in things last, in the centre and at the same time in the circumfer- ences, and that the things in which He is are uses. (8.) As the Lord has Divine love and Divine wisdom, so from these He has Divine omnipresence and Divine omniscience ; but omnipresence is chiefly from the Divine love, and omniscience chiefly from the Divine wisdom, {A.E., n, 1217.) NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL SPACES AND TIMES. 223 II. Natural and Spiriti al Spaces and Times, In the natural world there are spaces and times but tn the spiritual world these are appearances. The reason is that all things that appear in the spiritual world are immediately from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord's Divine love ; and all thmgs that appear in the natural world are from the same, but by means of the sun of the world which is pure fire. Pure love, from which all things in the spiritual world come forth imme> diately, is immaterial ; but pure fire, through which all things in the material world come forth me- diately, is material. This is why ail things that come forth in the spiritual world are by virtue of their origin spiritual, and all things that come forth in the natural world are by virtue of their second- ary origin material ; and material things in them- selves are fixed, permanent, and measureable. They are fixed because they endure, however the states of men may be changed, like the lands, mountains, and seas. They tux^ permanent, because they recur regularly in turn, like the seasons, generations, and germinations. And they are measureable, because all things can be defined, as 224 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. Spaces by miles and furlongs, and these by feet and spans, and as times by days, weeks, months, and years. But in the spiritual world all things are as if they were fixed, as if they were permanent, and as if they were measureable, and yet in them- selves they are not so. For they come forth and continue according to the states of the angels, so that they make one with those states ; and con- sequently they change in whatever way those states change. But this is chiefly true in the world of spirits, into which every man first comes after death, and is not so in heaven or in hell. This occurs in the world of spirits, because every man there undergoes changes of state, and is thus pre- pared for heaven or for hell. But spirits do not reflecfl upon these changes and variations, because they are spiritual and are thus in spiritual thought, and with this each and all things that they perceive by sense make one ; also because they are separated from nature, and yet they see in the spiritual world things exadly like those they saw in the world, as lands, mount- ains, valleys, waters, gardens, forests, plants, pal- aces, houses, garments with which they are clothed, food by which they are nourished, animals, and themselves as men. All these things they see in a clearer light than that by which they saw like things in the world, and they feel them by a more exquisite touch than they had in the world. For these reasons man after death is wholly ignorant that he has put off his material part, and NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL SPACES AND TIMES. 225 that he has emigrated from the world of his body into the world of his spirit. I have heard many declaring that they were not dead, and that they could not understand how any thing of their body could have been put away into a grave ; and for the reason that all things in that world are like those in this world; and they do not know that the things they there see and feel are not material, but are substantial from a spiritual origin, and yet are real things, since they have the same origin that all things in this world have, with this difference only that something additional like an outer gar- ment has been added from the sun of the world to those things that are in the natural world by virtue of which they have become material, fixed, per- manent, and measureable. And yet I can assert that those things that are m the spiritual world are more real than those in the natural world, for the dead part that is added m nature to the spiritual does not constitute reality but diminishes it. This is evident from the state of the angels of heaven compared with the state of men on the earth, and from all things that are m heaven compared with all things in the world {A.E., n. 1218.) As there are like things in heaven and in our world, in the heavens there are spaces and times, but the spaces there, like the lands themselves and the thmgs upon them, are appearances, for they appear according to the states of the angels, and extensions of spaces and distances appear accord- ing to the similarities and dissimilarities of states. 226 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. By States are meant states of love and wisdom, or of affeaions and of thoughts therefrom, which are manifold and various. According to these the angelic societies in the heavens are apart from each other, also the heavens are apart from the hells, and the societies of the hells from each other. It has been granted me to see how likeness of state conjoins, and lessens the extension of space or distance, and how unlikeness of state separates, and produces extension of space or distance. Those there who appear to be a mile apart can in- stantly be present with each other when the love of one for the other is stirred up, and on the other hand those who are talking together can instantly become a mile apart when any thing of hatred is aroused. That spaces in the spiritual world are mere appearances has also been made evident to me by this, that many from distant lands, as from various kingdoms of Europe, from Africa, and from India, also the inhabitants of different planets and of widely separated earths, have been present with me. And yet spaces in the heavens appear ex- tended in the same way as the spaces of our earth. But as the spaces there have only a spiritual origin, and not at the same time a natural origin, and thus appear according to the states of the angels, so the angels can have no idea of spaces, but they have instead an idea of their states ; for the changeable- ness of the spaces gives rise to the idea that they are from a spiritual origin, thus from a likeness or unlikeness of affedions and of thoughts therefrom. NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL SPACES AND TIMES. 227 It is the same in regard to times, for as spaces are so are times, since progressions through spaces are also progressions through times. Times also are appearances of states because the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, does not there make days and years by its revolutions and progressions, as the sun of the world seems to do ; consequently in the heavens there is perpetual light and a perpetual spring, and therefore times there are not fixed, per- manent, and measureable. And as times also vary according to the states of affedion and of thought therefrom, for they are short or diminished by things delightful to the affedions, and are long or lengthened by things undelightful to the affections, so the angels cannot have from appearance an idea of time, but they have instead an idea of states from its origin. All this makes clear that the angels in heaven have no idea of space and time, but they have a spiritual idea about these, which is an idea of state. But this idea of state with the consequent idea of an appearance of space and time comes solely in and from the outmosts of creation there ; the outmosts of creation there are the lands upon which angels dwell. It is there that spaces and times appear, and not in the spiritual things themselves by which the outmosts were created ; nor do they appear in the affedions themselves of angels, except when the thought from them extends to outmosts. But it is otherwise in the natural world where spaces and times are fixed, permanent, and measureable, and therefore enter 228 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. into the thoughts of men and limit them, and dis- tinguish them from the spiritual thoughts of angels. This is the chief reason why man cannot easily comprehend the Divine omnipresence and omni- science, for even when he wishes to comprehend them he is liable to fall into the error that God is the inmost of nature, and is for that reason om- nipresent and omniscient. {A.£., n. 1219.) RIGHT THOUGHT ABOUT SPACE AND TIME. 229 III. Right Thought about Space and Time. S/>acfs and times must be removed from the ideas before the Lord' s omnipresence with all and with each individual, and His omniscience of things present and future, can be comprehended. But inasmuch as spaces and times cannot easily be removed from the ideas of the thoughts of the natural man, it is better for a simple man not to think of the Divine omnipresence and omniscience from any reasoning of the understanding ; it is enough for him to believe in them simply from his religion, and if he thinks from reason, let him say to himself that they exist because they pertain to God, and God is everywhere and infinite, also because they are taught in the Word ; and if he thinks of them from nature and from its spaces and times, let him say to himself that they are mir- aculously brought about. But inasmuch as the church is at present almost overwhelmed by naturalism, and this can be shaken off only by means of rational considerations, which enable man to see what is true, it will be w^ell by means of such to draw forth these Divine attributes out of the darkness that nature induces into the 230 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. light ; and this can be done because, as has been said, the understanding with which man is endowed is capable of being raised up into the interior light of heaven if only man desires from love to know truths. All naturalism arises from thinking about Di- vine things in accord with what is proper to nature, that is, matter, space, and time. The mind that clings to these, and is unwilling to believe anything that it does not understand, cannot do otherwise than make blind its understanding, and from the dense darkness in which it is immersed deny that there is any Divine providence, and thus deny the Divine omnipotence, omnipresence, and omnisci- ence, although these are just what religion teaches both within nature and above nature. And yet these cannot be comprehended by the understand- ing unless spaces and times are separated from the ideas of its thought ; for these are in some way present in every idea of thought, and unless they are separated man can not think otherwise than that nature is everything, that it is from itself, and con- sequently that the inmost of nature is what is called God, and that all beyond it is mere conjecflure. And such, I know, will wonder how any thing can possibly exist where there is no time or space ; how the Divine itself can exist apart from time and space, how there can be spiritual beings that are not in them, but are only in appearances of them ; and yet Divine spiritual things are the very essence of all things that have had existence or that have existence, and natural things apart from these RIGHT THOUGHT ABOUT SPACE AND TIME. 23 1 are like bodies without souls, which become car- cases. Every man who adopts naturalism by thinking solely from nature continues such after death, and calls all things that he sees in the spiritual world natural, because they resemble natural things. Such, however, are enlightened and taught by angels that these things are not natural, but are appearances of natural things ; and they are so far convinced as to affirm that it is so. But they soon fall back and worship nature as they did in the world, and at length separate themselves from the angels and fall into hell, and cannot be rescued from it to eternity. The reason is that their soul is not spiritual, but natural like the soul of beasts, although with an ability to think and speak be- cause they were born men. And because the hells at this day more than ever before are full of such, it is important that such dense darkness arising from nature, which at present fills and closes up the thresholds of men's understanding, should be re- moved by means of rational light derived from spiritual, [.-le., n. laao.) 232 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCP:. IV. Heaven and the Church in the Human Form. All angels of heaven and all men on the earth who constitute the church are as one man, and the Lord is the life of that man. This you will see confirmed in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the following articles : The whole heaven in the complex has relation to one man (n. 59-67) ; Each society in the heavens has relation to one man (n. 68-72) ; Consequently each angel is in a complete human form (n. 73-77); Heaven as a whole and in part has relation to man, and this is from the Lord's Divine Human (n. 78-86) ; There is a correspondence of all things of heaven with all things of man (n. 87-102) ; The same may be said of the Lord's church on the earth (n. 57). That heaven is like a single man I have been taught by experience and am taught by reason. Experience : It has been granted me to behold a society consisting of thousands of angels as one man of a medium stature, and societies consisting of fewer angels in like form. This is seen, how- ever, not by the angels in that society, but by angels outside of that society at a distance, and at heaven and the church in human form. 233 the time when a society is to be cleared of those who are foreign to it. When this is done all who constitute the life of that society are within that man, while those who do not are outside of him ; and these are removed, but the former remain. It is the same with the whole heaven in the presence of the Lord. For this reason and no other every angel and spirit is a man, in a form like that which a man on earth has. I have not seen but I have heard that the church on earth also before the Lord is like a single man ; and that it is also divided into so- cieties, and that each society is a man ; further- more, that all who are within that man are within heaven, while those who are outside of him are in hell ; and the reason has been stated, namely, that every man of the church is also an angel of heaven, for he becomes an angel after death. Moreover, not only does the church on earth together with the angels constitute the interiors of that man, the church constitutes also the exteriors, which are called the cartilaginous and bony parts ; this the church constitutes, because men of the earth are provided with a body in which the outmost spirit- ual is clothed with the natural. This is what constitutes the conjuncflion of heaven with the church and of the church with heaven. From reason : Heaven and the church are a man, in the greatest, the lesser, and the least sum or complex, for the sole reason that God is a man, and consequently the Divine that goes forth, which is the Divine from Him, is the same 234 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. in every least and greatest respecfl, which is man. For it has been said above that the Divine is not in space and extension, but causes spaces and ex- tensions to be manifest in the outmosts of His creation, in the heavens apparently, in the world a<5lually. Nevertheless, spaces and extensions are not spaces and extensions before God, for He is in His Divine everywhere. This is clearly manifest from this, that the whole angelic heaven with the church is as one man before God ; and so is a society consisting of thousands of angels although their habitations appear extended through much space. The same is evident also from this, that the whole heaven, also an entire society in heaven, can appear, at the good pleasure of the Lord, as a man, great or small, as a giant or as an infant. But it is not the angels that so appear, but the Divine in them ; for the angels are only recipients of the Divine from the Lord, and it is the Divine in them that constitutes what is angelic in them, and thus heaven. As angels are only recipients, and the Divine in them constitutes the angelic and heaven, it is clear that the Lord is the life of that man, that is, of heaven and the church. {A.E.. n. 1222.) THE lord's PRESENCE IN MAN. 235 I The Lord's Presence in Man. Consequently as there is life in the particular and most particular things of man, and it knows the entire state of these, so the Lord is in the particular and most particular things of angels of heaven and of men of the church. Life is in the particular and most particular things of man, because the various and diverse things in him, called members, organs, and viscera, so make one that he knows no otherwise than that he is a simple and not a composite being. That life is in the most particular things of man is evident from the fadl, that from his life he sees, hears, smells, and tastes, which could not be unless the organs of those senses lived from the life of his soul ; also from the fadt that the whole surface of the body possesses the sense of touch, and it is the life that produces that sense, and not the skin apart from the life. This is evident also from the fa<5l that all the muscles under the skin are under the control of the life of man's will and understanding, and are moved at their pleasure, thus not only the hands and feet and the entire body, but also the tongue, the lips, the face, and the 236 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. entire head. None of these could be moved by the body alone, but they are moved by life from the will and understanding, together with the life in these members. The same is true of all the viscera in the body, each of which performs its own office, and acts submissively according to the laws of order inscribed on it. But it is the life that does this by its motion from the heart and lungs in every part, and by sensation from the cerebel- lum in every part, while man is unconscious of its action. Life is in the particular and most particular things of man, because the animal form, which has been treated of above, is the real form of life ; for life from its first fountain, which is the sun of heaven or the Lord, is unceasingly in the effort to form a likeness and image of itself, that is, a man, and out of man an angel. Therefore from the out- mosts that it has created it joins to itself things proper to the existence of man in whom life can live. From this it is clear that life is in the particular and most particular things of man, and that any part or least particle from which life is absent be- comes dead and is set aside. Since, then, men and angels are not lives, but only recipients of life from the Lord, and since the whole heaven with the church is before the Lord as one man, it is clear that the Lord is the life of that man, that is, of heaven and the church, and also that He is omnipotent and omniscient in the particular and most particular things of the angels of heaven and men of the church. And as the THE lord's PRESENCE IN MAN. 237 whole heaven with the church is, before the Lord, as one man, great or small according to His will| as a giant or as an infant, it is clear that the life or the spiritual that goes forth from the Lord is not in space or extended with the angels and with men of the church ; consequently that spaces and times must be separated from their ideas, in order that the Lord's omnipresence and omniscience with all and with each individual may be comprehended (A.£., n. 1223.} 238 ONCNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. VI. The Lord's Presence in Evil Men. The Lord by the intelleclual capacity that each man has, or its opposite, is a/so present with those who are out of heaven and the church, with those who are in hell or who are to come into hell, and knows their whole state. Every man has three degrees of life, a lowest in common with beasts, and two higher that are not in common with beasts. By these two higher degrees man is a man ; these with the evil are closed, but with the good are open. And yet, in regard to the light of heaven, which is the wisdom that goes forth from the Lord as a sun, these two degrees are not closed in evil men, but are closed in regard to the heat, which is the love, that also goes forth therefrom. From this it is that every man, even an evil man, has a capacity to under- stand, but not a capacity to will from heavenly love, for the will is a receptacle of heat, that is, of love, and the understanding is a receptacle of light, that is, of wisdom, from that sun. The reason why all men are not intelligent and wise is that some have by their lives closed up in themselves the receptacle of that love, and the lord's presence in evil men. 239 when that is closed they have no wish to under- stand anything except what they love, for that only do they wish and love to think about and thus un- derstand. And as every man, even an evil man, has an ability to understand, and that ability is from an influx of light from the sun which is the Lord, it is clear that the Lord is also present with those who are out of heaven and the church, who are either in hell or are to come into hell. It is from the same ability that man is able to think and reason about various things, which beasts cannot do. It is from the same ability that man lives forever. Another proof of the Lord's omnipresence in hell is that the entire hell, like the entire heaven, is before the Lord as one man, but as a devil-man or a monster-man ; and in this all things are in opposi- tion to those that are in the Divine angel-man, consequently from this latter every thing that is in the former can be known, that is, from heaven every thing that is in hell ; for evil is known from good, and falsity from truth, thus the entire quality of the one from the quality of the other. There are three heavens, and there are three hells ; and as the heavens are divided into societies so are the hells ; and each society of hell corre- sponds by opposition to a society of heaven. The correspondence is like that between good af- fecflions and evil aflfeaions, for all societies are affedions. So in the same way that each society of heaven, as has been said, is in the Lord's sight as one angel-man in the likeness of its affedion. 240 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. each society of hell is in the Lord's sight as one devil-man in the likeness of its evil aflfeaion. This, too, it has been granted me to see. They appear like men, but monstrous. I have seen three kinds of them, the fiery, the black, and the pallid, but all of them with deformed faces, a husky voice, ex- ternal speech, and like movements. They all have a lascivious love, and not one of them a chaste love. The delights of their will are evils, and the delights of their thoughts are falsities. {a.£., n. 1224.) From the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord thus perceived it can be understood how the Lord is the All and is in all things of heaven and the church, and that we are in the Lord, and He is in us. All things of heaven and the church mean Divine truth and Divine good ; the former is from the light of the sun of heaven, which is wisdom, and the latter is from the heat of the sun of heaven, which is love ; and in the same way that the angels are recipients of these are they a heaven in gen- eral and heavens individually, and in the same way that men are recipients of them are they a church in general and churches individually. There can be nothing in any angel that makes heaven in him, nor anything in any man that makes the church in him, except the Divine that goes forth from the Lord ; for it is well known that every truth of faith and every good of love is from the Lord, and nothing of these from man. All this makes clear that the Lord is the All and is in all things of heaven and the church. THE lord's PRESENCE IN EVIL MEN. 24I That we are in the Lord and He is in us. He Himself teaches in yohn • - •— Jesus said, "He that eateth Mv flesh and drinketh Mv blood abideth in Mc- and 1 in Him" (vi. 56). And in the same, "In that day ye shall know that. . . . ye are m Me and I in you (xiv. 20, 21} ; And elsewhere, "That in Him we Wve and move and have our beinc-** [Acts xvii. 28;. ** All angels of heaven and all men of the church are in the Lord and the Lord is in them when they are in that heavenly man spoken of above. Angels and men are then in the Lord because they are recipients of life from Him, and thus are in His Divine, and the Lord is in them because He is the life in recipients. All this makes clear that all who are in natural thought respecting the Lord can have no other than an intuitive understanding of His Divine om- nipresence, although it is an actual omnipresence, like the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, which is the Divine going forth. (AK,n. 1225.) 242 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE, VII. How THE Lord is Present in All Things. The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe ; for the universe was so created by Him that He is in things first and in things last, in the centre and in the circumferences, and that the things in which He is are uses. This can be seen to be Xmt from the creation of the universe, from the life of man, and frovi the essence of uses. The creation of the universe can be in no way so well understood as from images of it in the heavens. There creation is unceasing and immediate, for in the spiritual world lands come forth instantly, and upon them pleasure gardens, and in these trees full of fruits, also shrubs, flowers, and plants of every kind. When these are contemplated by one who is wise, they are found to be correspondences of the uses in which the angels are, to whom they are given as rewards. The angels, moreover, in ac- cord with their uses have houses given them, full of useful and beautiful things ; also garments in ac- cord with their uses, and food that is esculent and palatable in accord with their uses, and delightful HOW THE LORD IS PRESENT IN ALL THINGS. 243 conversations, which also are uses because they are recreations. All these things are given them grat- uitously, and yet on account of the uses they per- form. In a word, the whole heaven is so full of uses that it may be called the very kingdom of uses. Those, on the other hand, who perform no uses are sent into the hells, where they are compelled by a judge to perform tasks ; and if they refuse no food is given them and no clothing, nor any bed but the ground, and they are scoffed at by their companions as slaves are by their masters. The judge even permits them to be sold into slavery, and if they entice others from their tasks they are severely punished. All this is done until they yield. But those who cannot be made to yield are cast out into deserts, where a morsel of bread is given them daily, and water to drink, and they dwell by themselves in huts or in caves ; and be- cause they perform no uses the land about them is so barren that a grassy sod is rarely seen upon it. In such deserts and hells I have seen many of noble descent, who in the world gave themselves up to idleness, or sought offices, the duties of which they discharged not for the sake of use but for honor and gain, which were the only uses regarded. The uses performed in the heavens and the tasks done in the hells are in part like those done in the world, although for the most part they are spiritual uses, that cannot be described by any natural language, and (what has often surprised me) do not fall into the ideas of natural thought. 244 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. But this is generally the case with what is spiritual In the unceasing and immediate creation of all* thmgs in the heavens there can be seen as in an image the creation of the universe with its globes and that there is nothing created in these except for use, and m general, one kingdom of nature for another, the mineral kingdom for the vegetable, this for the animal, and both for men, that they may serve the Lord by performing uses to the neighbor. From the life of /«a«.— When this is regarded from the creation of all things in it no part will be found that is not for use, not a fibre or minute vessel m the brains, in the organs of sense, in the muscles, or in any of the viscera of the thorax and the abdomen, or anywhere else, that is not for the sake of use in general and in particular, thus for the sake of the whole and of each thing conneded with It, and not for its own sake. The greater forms, which are called members, sensories muscles, and viscera, which are made up and organized from fibres and vessels, are all formed from use, in use, and for use, so that they may be simply called uses, of which the whole man is composed and formed. It is therefore clearly evident that they have no other origin and no other end than use. That every man likewise was created and born for use is cleariy evident from the use of all things m him, and from his state after death, when, if he performs no use, he is accounted so worthless that he IS cast into infernal prisons or into desert places. HOW THE LORD IS PRESENT IN ALL THINGS. 245 That man is born to be a use is clear also from his life ; for a man whose life is from a love of uses is wholly different from one whose life is from a love of idleness. By a life of idleness is meant a life made up of social intercourse, feastings, and entertainments. A life from a love of use is a life of love of the public good and of love to the neighbor, and also a life of love to the Lord, for the Lord performs uses to man through man, conse- quently a life of love of use is a Divine spiritual life, and every one who loves a good use and does it from a love for it is loved by the Lord, and is received with joy by the angels in heaven. But a life of love of idleness is a life of love of self and the world, and thus a merely natural life ; and such a life does not hold the thoughts together, but pours them out upon every vain thing, and there- by turns man away from the delights of wisdom and immerses him in the delights of the mere body and of the world to which evils cling ; therefore after death he is let down into the infernal society to which he has attached himself in the world, and is there compelled to work by force of hunger and lack of food. By uses in the heavens and on the earths are meant the services, fun(flions, and pursuits of life, employments, various domestic tasks, occupations, consequently all things that are opposite to idleness and indolence. From the essence of uses. — The essence of uses is the public good. With the angels the public good in the most general sense means the good of 246 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. the entire heaven, in a less general sense the good of the society, and in a particular sense the good of the fellow citizen. But with men the essence of uses in the most general sense is both the spiritual and the civil good of the whole human race, in a less general sense the good of the country, in a particular sense the good of a community, and in an individual sense the good of the fellow citizen ; and as these goods constitute the essence of uses, love is their life, since all good is of love and the life is in the love. In this love is everyone who takes delight in the use he is in because of its usefulness, whether he is a king, a magistrate, a priest, a minister, a general, a merchant, or a workman. Everyone who takes delight in the use of his funcflion because of its usefulness loves his country and fellow citizens ; but he who does not take delight in it because of its usefulness, but does it solely for the sake of self, or solely for the sake of honor and wealth, does not in his heart love his country and fellow citizens, but only himself and the world. This is because no one can be kept by the Lord in love to the neighbor unless he is in some love for the pub- lic good ; and no one can be in that love unless he is in a love of use for the sake of use, or in a love of use from use, thus from the Lord. Since, then, each thing and all things in the world were created in the beginning for use, and in man also all things were formed for use, and the Lord from creation regarded the whole human race as one man, in which each individual is like- HOV^r THE LORD IS PRESENT IN ALL THINGS. 247 wise for use, or is a use, and since the Lord Him- self, as has been said above, is the life of that man, it is clear that the universe was so created that the Lord is in things first and in things last, also in the centre and in the circumferences, that is, in the midst of all, and that the things in which He is are uses. And from all this the Lord's omnipres- ence and omniscience can be understood. {A.£., n. X226.) 248 OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE. VIII. Nature of the Lord's Omnipresence and Omniscience. As the Lord has Divine love and Divine wisdom^ so from these He has Divine omnipresence and Divine omniscience, but omnipresence is chiefly from Divine love, and omniscience is chiefly from Divine wisdom. Love and wisdom in the Lord are not two but one, and this one is the Divine love, which appears before the angels of heaven as a sun. But when love and wisdom go forth from the Lord as a sun they appear as two distinct things, love appearing as heat, and wisdom as light. These from their origin from the sun act wholly as one ; but with angels of heaven and with men of the church they are separated, some receiving more of love which is heat than of wisdom which is light, and these are called celestial angels and men ; while others receive more of wisdom which is light than of love which is heat, and these are called spiritual angels and men. An illustration of this can be found in the sun of the world. In that sun fire and the origin of light are wholly one, and this one is the fiery ele- ment in that sun. From this the heat and light go forth together, but they appear as two distinct WHAT THEY ARE. 249 things, although from their origin they act as one. That one appears on the earth in the spring and summer seasons, yet they are two distinct things according to the turning of the earth towards the sun, and thus according as the reception is direct or oblique. This correspondence may serve as an illustration. It is the same in respect to omnipresence and omniscience. In the Lord these are one ; and yet they go forth from Him as two distinct attributes ; for omnipresence has relation to love, and omnisci- ence to wisdom, or what is the same, omnipresence has relation to good, and omniscience to truth, since all good is of love and all truth is of wisdom. The Lord's omnipresence has relation to love and to good because the Lord is present with man in the good of his love ; and omniscience has relation to wisdom and to truth because from man's good of love the Lord is omnipresent in the truths of his understanding, and this omnipresence is called om- niscience. As this is true individually of one man so it is true in general of all. [a.e., n. 1228.) I ■-■ A"*". iH53.y4 CO m 00 Sr3473 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 0025986929 MAk 1 2 1954 ^. 'A? 'I 'Tap i. m ' '!:?^t^^ ■»x^ V ■ ' ' » » ^» l>rf- > 1*' $cM * ■^ f ^"^ 1. f >j4j %»• - 1 ._ •t.