The Project Gutenberg EBook of Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence, by
Emanuel Swedenborg
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Title: Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence
Author: Emanuel Swedenborg
Translator: William Wunsch
Release Date: June 5, 2006 [EBook #18507]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANGELIC WISDOM ***
Produced by William J. Rotella
Angelic Wisdom about DIVINE PROVIDENCE
by
Emanuel Swedenborg
Translation By
WILLIAM FREDERIC WUNSCH
_Standard Edition_
SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION
INCORPORATED
NEW YORK
ESTABLISHED IN 1850
Originally published in Latin at Amsterdam 1764
First English translation published in U.S.A. 1851
51st Printing, 1975
(5th Printing Wunsch Translation).
ISBN 0-87785-059-3 (Student)
0-87785-060-7 (Trade)
_Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 74-30441_
Manufactured in the United States of America
CONTENTS[1]
Translator's Preface
I. What Divine Providence Is
II. The Goal of Divine Providence
III. The Outlook of Divine Providence
IV. Providence has its Laws
V. Its Regard for Human Freedom and Reason
VI. Even in the Struggle against Evil
VII. The Law of Noncompulsion
VIII. The Law of Overt Guidance
IX. The Law of Hidden Operation
X. Divine Providence and Human Prudence
XI. Binding Time and Eternity
XII. The Law Guarding against Profanation
XIII. Laws of Tolerance in the Laws of Providence
XIV. Why Evil is Permitted
XV. Providence Attends the Evil and the Good
XVI. Providence and Prudence in the Appropriation of Good and Evil to Man
XVII. The Salvation of All the Design of Providence
XVIII. The Steadfast Observance of its Laws by Providence
Index of Scripture Passages
Subject Index
[1]Swedenborg gave neither numbers nor brief captions to the chapters of
the book. Nor did he prefix a recital of all the propositions and
subsidiary propositions to come in the book; this was the work of the
Latin editor. For this the above, giving the reader a succinct idea of
the book's contents, is substituted. _Tr._
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
THE Book
The reader will find in this book a firm assurance of God's care of
mankind as a whole and of each human being. The assurance is rested in
God's infinite love and wisdom, the love pure mercy, the wisdom giving
love its ways and means. It is further grounded in an interpretation of
the universe as a spiritual-natural world, an interpretation fully set
forth in the earlier book, _Divine Love and Wisdom_, on which the present
work draws heavily. As there is a world of the spirit, no view of
providence can be adequate which does not take that world into account.
For in that world must be channels for the outreach of God's care to the
human spirit. There also any eternal goal--such as a heaven from the human
race--must exist. A view of providence limited to the horizons of the
passing existence can hardly resemble the care which the eternal God
takes of men and women who, besides possessing perishable bodies, are
themselves creatures of the spirit and immortal. The full title of the
book, _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence_, implies that its author,
in an other-world experience, had at hand the knowledge which men and
women in heaven have of God's care. Who should know the divine guidance
if not the men and women in heaven who have obviously enjoyed it? "The
laws of divine providence, hitherto hidden with angels in their wisdom,
are to be revealed now" (n. 70).
As it is presented in this book, providence seeks to engage man in its
purposes, and to enlist all his faculties, his freedom and reason, his
will and understanding, his prudence and enterprise. It acts first of all
on his volitions and thinking, to align them with itself. That it falls
directly on history, its events and our circumstances, is a superficial
view. It is man's inner life which first feels the omnipresent divine
influence and must do so. If we cannot be lifted to our best selves and
if our aims and outlook cannot be modified for the better, how shall the
world be bettered which we affect to handle? Paramount in God's presence
with all men, if only in their possibilities, is His providential care.
This care, to which man's inner life is open, is alert every moment, not
occasional. It is gentle and not tyrannical, constantly respecting man's
freedom and reason, otherwise losing him as a human being. It has set
this and other laws for itself which it pursues undeviatingly. The larger
part of the book is an exposition of these laws in the conviction that by
them the nature of providence is best seen. Is it not to be expected in a
universe which has its laws, and in which impersonal forces are governed
by laws, that the Creator of all should pursue laws in His concern with
the lives of conscious beings? To fit a world of laws must not the divine
care have its laws, too? Adjustment of thought about divine providence to
scientific thought is not the overriding necessity, for scientific
thought must keep adjusting to laws which it discerns in the physical
world. In consonance, religious thought seeks to learn the lawful order
in the guidance of the human spirit.
Do not each and all things in tree or shrub proceed constantly and
wonderfully from purpose to purpose according to the laws of their order
of things? Why should not the supreme purpose, a heaven from the human
race, proceed in similar fashion? Can there be anything in its progress
which does not proceed with all constancy according to the laws of divine
providence? (n 332)
Respecting the laws of providence, it is to be noted that there are more
laws than those, five in number, which are stated at the heads of as many
chapters in the book. Further laws are embodied in other chapters. At
n. 249(2) we are told that further laws were presented in nn. 191-213,
214-220, and 221-233. In fact, at n. 243. there is a reference to laws
which follow in even later chapters. In nn. 191-213 the law, partly
stated in the heading over the chapter, comes to full sight particularly
at n. 210(2), namely, that providence, in engaging human response, shall
align human prudence with itself, so that providence becomes one's
prudence (n. 311e). In nn. 214-220 the law is that providence employ the
temporal goals of distinction and wealth towards its eternal goals, and
perpetuate standing and wealth in a higher form, for a man will then have
sought them not for themselves and handled them for the use they can be.
To keep a person from premature spiritual experience, nn. 221-233, is
obviously a law of providence, guarding against relapse and consequent
profanation of what had become sacred to him.
The paradox of divine foreknowledge and human freedom, regularly
discussed in studies of providence, receives an explanation which becomes
more and more enlightening in the course of the book. The paradox,
probably nowhere else discussed, of man's thinking and willing to all
appearance all by himself, and of the fact that volition and thought come
to him from beyond him, receives a similar, cumulative answer. The
tension between the divine will and human self-will is a subject that
pervades the book; to that subject the profoundest insights into the
hidden activity of providence and into human nature are brought. On the
question, "Is providence only general or also detailed?" the emphatic
answer is that it cannot be general unless it takes note of the least
things. On miracle and on chance conclusions unusual in religious thought
meet the reader. The inequalities, injustices and tragedies in life which
raise doubts of the divine care are faced in a long chapter after the
concept of providence has been spread before the reader. What would be
the point in considering them before what providence is has been
considered? Against what manner of providence are the arguments valid? A
chapter such as this, on doubts of providence and on the mentality which
cherishes them, becomes a monograph on the subject, as the chapter on
premature spiritual experience, with the risk of relapse and profanation,
becomes a monograph on kinds of profanation.
Coming by revelation and by a lengthy other-world experience on
Swedenborg's part (in which he learned of the incorrectness of some of
his own beliefs, nn. 279(2), 290) the book, like others of his,
nevertheless has for an outstanding feature a steady address to the
reason. The profoundest truths of the spiritual life, among them the
nature of God and the laws and ways of providence, are not beyond grasp
by the reason. Sound reason Swedenborg credits with lofty insights.
_Divine Providence_ is a book to be studied, and not merely read, and
studied slowly. By its own way of proceeding, it extends an invitation to
read, not straight through, but something like a chapter at a time. In a
new chapter Swedenborg will recall for the reader what was said in the
preceding chapter, as though the reader had mean-while laid the book
down. The revelator proceeds at a measured pace, carries along the whole
body of his thought, and places each new point in this larger context,
where it receives its precise significance and its full force. It is an
accumulation of thought and not a repetition of statements merely that
one meets. "What has been written earlier cannot be as closely connected
with what is written later as it will be if the same things are recalled
and placed with both in view" (n. 193 (1)).
THE TRANSLATION
This volume has been translated afresh from the Latin; it is not a
revision of any earlier edition. Greater readableness has been striven
for. In the past, it is generally recognized, Latin sentence structure
and word order were clung to unnecessarily. "The defects in previous
translations of Swedenborg have arisen mainly from too close an adherence
to cognate words and to the Latin order of words and phrases." So wrote
the Rev. John C. Ager in 1899 in his translator's note in the Library
Edition of _Divine Providence_. Why, indeed, should English not be
allowed its own sentence structure and word order? In addition, in this
translation, long sentences, readily followed in an inflected language
like Latin, have been broken up into short ones. English also uses fewer
particles of logical relation than are at home in Latin. There is more
paragraphing, aiding the eye, which both British and American translators
have been doing for some years. Latin has neither a definite article nor
an indefinite article, and a translator into English must decide when to
use either or neither. The definite article, the present translator
thinks, has been overused, perhaps in a dogmatic tendency to be as
precise as can be. When, for instance, one is admitted into "truths of
faith" he is certainly not admitted into "the truths of faith," as though
he could comprehend them all. The very title of the book changes the
impression which it makes as the definite article is inserted or omitted
in it. "The divine providence" seems to single out a theological concept;
"divine providence" seems more likely to lead the thought to God's actual
care.
Swedenborg has his carefully chosen terms, of course, like "proprium,"
which are best kept, although in the present translation that term is
sometimes rendered by an explanatory word and one which, in the
particular context, is an equivalent. The verb "appropriate" presents a
difficulty, but has been kept, partly because of the noun "proprium." One
could translate rather wordily "make"--something good or evil--"one's own."
The English word now means "take exclusive possession of," which one can
hardly do of good or evil. Assimilation is the thought and the act, and
with that in mind the verb "appropriate" and the noun "appropriation" can
be retained. The unusual locution "affection of truth" or "of good,"
which Mr. Ager abandoned, translating "for truth" and "for good," has
been returned to. Much is implied in that phrase which is not to be found
in the other wording, namely, that we are affected by truth and by good,
and that there is an influx of these into the human spirit. Similarly
meaningful is another unusual way of speaking in English, of a person's
being "in" faith or "in" charity, where we say that he has faith or
exercises charity. The thought is that faith and charity, truth and
goodness beckon to us, to be welcomed and entered into.
Latin sometimes has a number of words for an idea or an entity, and the
English has not, but when English has the richer vocabulary, why not
avail oneself of the variety possible? The Latin word "finis," for
example, used in so many connections, can be rendered by one word in one
connection and by another in another connection. The "goal" or the
"object" of providence is plainer than the "end" of providence. The
"close" of life is common speech. "Meritorious" has been kept in our
translations, for in a restricted field of traditional theology it does
mean that virtue, for example, _earns_ a reward. To most readers the word
will be misleading, for they will understand it in its usual meaning,
that some act is well-deserving. The former is Swedenborg's meaning,
which is that an act is done to earn merit, or is considered to have
earned merit. We translate variously according to context to make that
meaning clear (nn. 321(11), 326(8), 90).
As it is what Swedenborg has written that is to be translated, the
Scripture passages which he quotes are translated without an effort to
follow the Authorized Version, which he did not know. This is also done
when he refers to the book which stands last in our Bibles; the name he
knew it by, the Apocalypse, is retained.
THE SUBJECT INDEX
The rewording in this translation would have necessitated revision of the
index long used in editions of _Divine Providence_, which goes back to an
index in French done by M. Le Boys des Guays. The opportunity was seized
to compile a subject instead of a word index. It is based on an analysis
of the contents of the book, and can serve as a reading guide. It does
not usually quote the text, but sends the reader to it. Definitions of a
number of terms are embodied in it.
The appearance that man thinks, wills, speaks and acts all of his own
doing is the subject of much of the book, and this the index shows. The
"life's love" deserves to be a separate entry, for little of a
psychological nature in the book becomes more prominent than the love
which forms in the way one actually lives, and which embodies one's
actual belief and thought. Single words which have been scattered entries
in the index long used--usually Scripture words of which the
correspondential meaning is given--are assembled alphabetically under the
entry "Correspondences."
A signal feature of Swedenborg's thought is the unities he perceives. Of
love and wisdom he says that they can only be perceived as one (4(5)). So
good and truth do not exist apart, nor charity and faith, nor affection
and thought. These and other pairs of terms are therefore entered in the
index; after references on the two together, references follow on each
term alone.
The index, it is hoped, will do more than introduce the reader to
statements made in the book, but will carry him into its stream of
thought.
WM. F. WUNSCH
Angelic Wisdom about DIVINE PROVIDENCE
DIVINE PROVIDENCE
I. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS GOVERNMENT BY THE LORD'S DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM
1. To understand what divine providence is--namely, government by the
Lord's divine love and wisdom--one needs to know what was said and shown
earlier about divine love and wisdom in the treatise about them: "In the
Lord divine love is of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom of divine love"
(nn. 34-39); "Divine love and wisdom cannot but be in, and be manifested
in, all else, created by them" (nn. 47-51); "All things in the universe
were created by them" (nn. 52, 53, 151-156); "All are recipients of that
love and wisdom" (nn. 55-60); "The Lord appears before the angels as a
sun, the heat proceeding from it being love, and the light wisdom" (nn.
83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301); "Divine love and wisdom, proceeding from
the Lord, make one" (nn. 99-102); "The Lord from eternity, who is
Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from Himself, and not
from nothing" (nn. 282-284, 290-295). This is to be found in the treatise
entitled _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom._
2. Putting with these propositions the description of creation in that
treatise, one may indeed see that what is called divine providence is
government by the Lord's divine love and wisdom. In that treatise,
however, creation was the subject, and not the preservation of the state
of things after creation--yet this is the Lord's government. We now treat
of this, therefore, and in the present chapter, of the preservation of
the union of divine love and wisdom or of divine good and truth in what
was created, which will be done in the following order:
i. The universe, with each and all things in it, was created from divine
love by divine wisdom.
ii Divine love and wisdom proceed as one from the Lord.
iii. This one is in some image in every created thing.
iv. It is of the divine providence that every created thing, as a whole
and in part, should be such a one, and if it is not, should become such a
one.
v. Good of love is good only so far as it is united to truth of wisdom,
and truth of wisdom truth only so far as it is united to good of love.
vi. Good of love not united to truth of wisdom is not good in itself but
seeming good, and truth of wisdom not united to good of love is not truth
in itself but seeming truth.
vii. The Lord does not suffer anything to be divided; therefore it must
be either in good and at the same time in truth, or in evil and at the
same time in falsity.
viii. That which is in good and at the same time in truth is something;
that which is in evil and at the same time in falsity is not anything.
ix. The Lord's divine providence causes evil and the attendant falsity to
serve for equilibrium, contrast, and purification, and so for the
conjunction of good and truth in others.
3. (i) _The universe, with each and all things in it, was created from
divine love by divine wisdom._ In the work _Divine Love and Wisdom_ we
showed that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, is in essence divine
love and wisdom, and that He created the universe and all things in it
from Himself. It follows that the universe, with each and all things in
it, was created from divine love by means of divine wisdom. We also
showed in that treatise that love can do nothing without wisdom, and
wisdom nothing without love. For love apart from wisdom, or the will
apart from understanding, cannot think anything, indeed cannot see, feel
or say anything, so cannot do anything. Likewise, wisdom apart from love,
or understanding apart from will, cannot think, see, feel, or speak,
therefore cannot do, anything. For if love is removed from wisdom or
understanding, there is no willing and thus no doing. If this is true of
man, for him to do anything, it was much more true of God--who is love
itself and wisdom itself--when He created and made the world and all that
it contains.
[2] That the universe, with each and all things in it, was created from
divine love by divine wisdom may also be established from objects to be
seen in the world. Take a particular object, examine it with some wisdom,
and you will be convinced. Take the seed, fruit, flower or leaf of a
tree, muster your wisdom, examine the object with a strong microscope,
and you will see marvels. Even more wonderful are the more interior
things which you do not see. Note the unfolding order in the growth of a
tree from seed to new seed; reflect on the continuous effort in all
stages after self-propagation--the end to which it moves is seed in which
its reproductive power arises anew. If then you will think spiritually,
as you can if you will, will you not see wisdom in all this? Furthermore,
if you can think spiritually enough, you will see that this energy does
not come from the seed, nor from the sun of the world, which is only
fire, but is in the seed from God the Creator whose wisdom is infinite,
and is from Him not only at the moment of creation but ever after, too.
For maintenance is perpetual creation, as continuance is perpetual coming
to be. Else it is quite as work ceases when you withdraw will from
action, or as utterance fails when you remove thought from speech, or as
motion ceases when you remove impetus; in a word, as an effect perishes
when you remove the cause.
[3] Every created thing is endowed with energy, indeed, but this does
nothing of itself but from Him who implanted it. Examine any other
earthly object, like a silkworm, bee or other small creature. View it
first naturally, then rationally, and at length spiritually, and if you
can think deeply, you will be astounded at all you see. Let wisdom speak
in you, and you will exclaim in astonishment, "Who does not see the
divine in such things? They are all of divine wisdom." Still more will
you exclaim, if you note the uses of all created things, how they mount
in regular order even to the human being, and from man to the Creator
whence they are, and that the connection, and if you will acknowledge it,
the preservation also of them all, depend on the conjunction of the
Creator with man. That divine love created all things, but nothing apart
from the divine wisdom, will be seen in what follows.
4. (ii) _Divine love and wisdom proceed as one from the Lord._ This, too,
is plain from what was shown in the work _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
especially in the propositions: "Esse and existere are distinguishably
one in the Lord" (nn. 14-17); "Infinite things are distinguishably one in
Him" (nn. 17-22); "Divine love is of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom of
divine love" (nn. 34-39); "Love not married to wisdom cannot effect
anything" (nn. 401-403); "Love does nothing except in union with wisdom"
(nn. 409, 410); "Spiritual heat and light, proceeding from the Lord as a
sun, make one as divine love and wisdom make one in Him" (nn. 99-102).
The truth of the present proposition is plain from these propositions,
demonstrated in that treatise. But as it is not known how two distinct
things can act as one, I wish now to show that there is no "one" apart
from form, and that the form itself makes it a unit; then, that a form
makes a "one" the more perfectly as the elements entering into it are
distinctly different and yet united.
[2] _There is no "one" apart from form, and the form itself makes it a
unit._ Everyone who brings his mind to bear on the matter can see clearly
that there is no "one" apart from form, and if a thing exists at all, it
is a form. For what exists at all derives from form what is known as its
character and its predicates, its changes of state, also its relevance,
and so on. A thing without form has no way of affecting us, and what has
no power of affecting, has no reality. It is form which enables to all
this. And as all things have a form, then if the form is perfect, all
things in it regard each other mutually, as link does link in a chain. It
follows that it is form which makes a thing a unit and thus an entity of
which character, state, affection or anything else can be predicated;
each is predicated of it according to the perfection of the form.
[3] Such a unit is every object which meets the eye in the world. Such,
too, is everything not seen with the eye, whether in interior nature or
in the spiritual world. The human being is such a unit, human society is,
likewise the church, and in the Lord's view the whole angelic heaven,
too; in short, all creation in general and in every particular. For each
and all things to be forms, He who created all things must be form
itself, and all things made must be from that form. This, therefore, was
also demonstrated in the work _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ as that "Divine
love and wisdom are substance and form" (nn. 40-43); "Divine love and
wisdom are form itself, thus the one Self and the single independent
existence" (nn. 44-46); "Divine love and wisdom are one in the Lord" (nn.
14-17, 18-22), "and proceed as one from Him" (nn. 99-102, and elsewhere).
[4] _A form makes a one the more perfectly as the elements entering into
it are distinctly different and yet united._ This hardly falls into a
comprehension not elevated, for the appearance is that a form cannot make
a one except as its elements are quite alike. I have spoken with angels
often on the subject. They said that this is a secret perceived clearly
by their wiser men, obscurely by the less wise. They said it is the truth
that a form is the more perfect as its constituents are distinctly
different and yet severally united. They established the fact from the
societies which in the aggregate constitute the form of heaven, and from
the angels of a society, for as these are different and free and love
their associates from themselves and from their own affection, the form
of the society is more perfect. They also illustrated the fact from the
marriage of good and truth, in that the more distinguishably two these
are, the more perfectly do they make a one; similarly, of love and
wisdom. The indistinguishable is confusion, they said, whence comes
imperfection of form.
[5] In various ways they went on to establish the manner in which
perfectly distinct things are united and thus make a one, especially by
what is in the human body, in which are innumerable things quite distinct
and yet united, held distinct by coverings and united by ligaments. It is
so with love, they said, and all its things, and wisdom and all its
things, for love and wisdom are not perceived except as one. See further
on the subject in _Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 14-22) and in the work
_Heaven and Hell_ (nn. 56 and 489). This has been adduced as part of
angelic wisdom.
5. (iii) _This "one" is in some image in every created thing._ It can be
seen from what was demonstrated throughout the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ and especially at nn. 47-51, 55-60, 282-284, 290-295, 313-318,
319-326, 349-357, that divine love and wisdom which are one in the Lord
and proceed as one from Him, are in some image in each created thing. It
was shown that the divine is in every created thing because God the
Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, produced the sun of the spiritual
world from Himself, and all things of the universe through that sun. That
sun, which is from Him and in which He is, is therefore not only the
first but the sole substance from which are all things. As this is the
one substance, it is in everything made, but with endless variety in
accord with uses.
[2] In the Lord, then, are divine love and wisdom, and in the sun from
Him divine fire and radiance, and from the sun spiritual heat and light;
and in each instance the two make one. It follows that this oneness is in
every created thing. All things in the world are referable, therefore, to
good and truth, in fact to the conjunction of them. Or, what is the same,
they are referable to love and wisdom and to the union of these; for good
is of love and truth of wisdom, love calling all its own, "good," and
wisdom calling all its own, "truth." It will be seen in what follows that
there is a conjunction of these in each created thing.
6. Many avow that there is a single substance which is also the first,
from which are all things, but what that substance is, is not known. The
belief is that it is so simple nothing is more so, and that it can be
likened to a point without dimensions, and that dimensional forms arose
out of an infinite number of such points. But this is a fallacy,
springing from an idea of space. To such an idea there seems to be such a
least thing. The truth is that the simpler and purer a thing is, the more
replete it is and the more complete. This is why the more interiorly a
thing is examined, the more wonderful, perfect, and well formed are the
things seen in it, and in the first substance the most wonderful, perfect
and fully formed of all. For the first substance is from the spiritual
sun, which, as we said, is from the Lord and in which He is. That sun is
therefore the sole substance and, not being in space, is all in all, and
is in the greatest and least things of the created universe.
[2] As that sun is the first and sole substance from which all things
are, it follows that in it are infinitely more things than can possibly
appear in substances arising from it, called substantial and lastly
material. This infinity cannot appear in derivative substances because
these descend from that sun by degrees of two kinds in accord with which
perfections decline. For that reason, as we said above, the more
interiorly a thing is regarded, the more wonderful, perfect and well
formed are the things seen. This has been said to establish the fact that
the divine is in some image in every created thing, but is less and less
manifest with the descent over degrees, and still less when a lower
degree, parted from the higher by being closed, is also choked with
earthy matter. These concepts cannot but seem obscure unless one has read
and understood what was shown in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_
about the spiritual sun (nn. 83-172), about degrees (nn. 173-281) and
about the creation of the world (nn. 282-357).
7. (iv) _It is of the divine providence that every created thing as a
whole and in part should be such a one or should become such a one,_ or
that there be in it something of the divine love and wisdom, or what is
the same, that there be good and truth in it, or a union of them.
(Inasmuch as good is of love and truth is of wisdom, as was said above
(n. 5), in what follows we shall at times say good and truth instead of
love and wisdom, and marriage of good and truth instead of union of love
and wisdom.)
8. It is evident from the preceding proposition that divine love and
wisdom, which are one in the Lord and proceed as one from Him, are in
some image in everything created by Him. Something shall be said now
specifically of the "one" or the union called the marriage of good and
truth. 1. This marriage is in the Lord Himself--for, as we said, divine
love and wisdom in Him are one. 2. This marriage is from Him, for in all
that proceeds from Him love and wisdom are fully united. The two proceed
from Him as a sun, divine love as heat, and divine wisdom as light. 3.
These are received as two, indeed, by angels, likewise by men of the
church, but are made one in them by the Lord. 4. In view of this influx
of love and wisdom as one from the Lord with angels of heaven and men of
the church, and in view of their reception of it, the Lord is spoken of
in the Word as bridegroom and husband, and heaven and the church are
called bride and wife. 5. An image and a likeness of the Lord are
therefore to be found in heaven and in the church in general, and in an
angel of heaven and a man of the church in particular, so far as they are
in that union or in the marriage of good and truth. For good and truth in
the Lord are one, indeed are the Lord. 6. Love and wisdom in heaven and
in the church as a whole, and in an angel of heaven and a man of the
church, are one when will and understanding, thus when good and truth,
make one; or what is still the same, when doctrine from the Word and life
according to doctrine make one. 7. How the two make one in man and in all
that pertains to him was shown, moreover, in Part V of the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom,_ where the creation of man, and especially the
correspondence of will and understanding with heart and lungs, were
treated of (nn. 358-432).
9. How good and truth, however, make one in what is below or outside man,
in both the animal and the vegetable kingdom, shall be told from time to
time in what follows. Three points are premised. _First,_ in the universe
and in each and all things of it as created by the Lord, there was a
marriage of good and truth. _Second,_ after creation this marriage was
severed in man. _Third,_ it is the work of divine providence to unite
what was severed, and so to restore the marriage of good and truth. As
all three points were established by many things in the work _Divine Love
and Wisdom,_ there is no need to substantiate them further. Anyone can
see from reason, moreover, that if there was a marriage of good and truth
in each created thing and later it was severed, the Lord must be working
constantly to restore it, and that the restoration of it, and hence the
conjunction of the created world with the Lord through man, are of divine
providence.
10. (v) _Good of love is good only so far as it is united to truth of
wisdom, and truth of wisdom is truth only so far as it is united to good
of love._ Good and truth have this from their origin, the one and the
other originating in the Lord, who is good itself and truth itself and in
whom the two are one. Hence in angels in heaven and men on earth, good is
not good basically except so far as it is joined to truth, and truth is
not truth basically except so far as it is joined to good. Granted that
all good and truth are from the Lord, then inasmuch as good makes one
with truth and truth with good in Him, good to be good in itself and
truth to be truth in itself must make one in the recipient, that is, the
angel in heaven or the man on earth.
11. It is indeed known that all things in the world are referable to good
and truth. For by good is meant what universally embraces and involves
all things of love; and by truth what universally embraces and involves
all things of wisdom. Still it is not known that good is nothing except
when it is joined to truth, and truth nothing unless it is joined to
good. Good apart from truth and truth apart from good still seem to be
something; yet they are not. For love (to which all that is called good
pertains) is the _esse_ of a thing, and wisdom (to which all things
called truths pertain) is a thing's _existere_ from that _esse_ (as was
shown in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ nn. 14-16). Therefore, as
_esse_ is nothing apart from _existere,_ or _existere_ apart from _esse,_
good is nothing apart from truth or truth from good. What, again, is good
which has no relation to anything? Can it be called good if it is without
affection and perception?
[2] That which is associated with good, permitting it to affect and to be
perceived and felt, is referable to truth, since it has relation to what
is in the understanding. Tell someone, not that a given thing is good,
but simply say "good"--is good anything? It becomes something from what is
perceived along with it. This is united with good only in the
understanding, and all understanding has relation to truth. It is the
same with willing. Apart from knowing, perceiving and thinking what one
wills, to will is nothing actual; together with them it becomes
something. All volition is of love and is referable to good; and all
knowing, perceiving and thinking is of the understanding, and is
referable to truth. It is clear, then, that to will is nothing actual,
but to will this or that means something.
[3] So also with a use, inasmuch as a use is a good. Unless a use is
addressed to something which makes one with it, it is not a use, and thus
not anything. A use derives its something from the understanding, and
what is thence conjoined or adjoined to it, has relation to truth. So a
use gets its character.
[4] From these few things it is plain that good is nothing apart from
truth, nor truth anything apart from good. But if good together with
truth and truth together with good are something, evil with falsity and
falsity with evil are not, for the latter are opposite to the former and
the opposition destroys--that is, destroys the something. But of this in
what follows.
12. Marriage of good and truth may, however, be found either in a cause
or from the cause in an effect. In a cause the marriage of good and truth
is one of will and understanding, or of love and wisdom. Such a marriage
is in all that a man wills and thinks and in all his ensuing
determinations and purposes. This marriage enters into and in fact
produces the effect. But in producing the effect, good and truth seem
distinct, for then the simultaneous turns successive. When, for example,
a man wills and thinks about food, clothing, shelter, business or
employment, or about his relationship to others, first he wills and
thinks or comes to his conclusions and intentions all at the same time;
but when these are determined to effects, truth follows on good, though
in will and thought they continue to make one. In the effects the uses
pertain to love or good, and the ways of performing the uses pertain to
understanding or truth. Anyone can confirm these general truths by
particular instances provided he perceives what is referable respectively
to good of love and to truth of wisdom, and also how differently it is
referable in cause and in effect.
13. We have said often that love constitutes man's life. This does not
mean, however, love separate from wisdom or good from truth in the cause,
for love separate or good separate is not an actuality. The love which
makes man's inmost life--the life he has from the Lord--is therefore love
and wisdom together; neither is the love which makes his life as a
recipient being separate in the cause, but only in the effect. For love
cannot be understood except from its quality, which is wisdom; and the
quality or wisdom can exist only from its own _esse,_ which is love;
thence it is that they are one; it is the same with good and truth. Since
truth is from good as wisdom is from love, it is the two taken together
that are called good or love. For love has wisdom for its form, and good
for its form truth, and form is the source, and the one source, of
quality. It is plain from all this that good is good only so far as it
has become one with its truth, and truth truth only so far as it has
become one with its good.
14. (vi) _Good of love not united to truth of wisdom is not good in
itself but seeming good; and truth of wisdom not conjoined with good of
love is not truth in itself but seeming truth._ The fact is that no good,
in itself good, can exist unless joined with its truth, and no truth, in
itself truth, can exist unless it has become joined with its good. And
yet good separate from truth is possible, and truth separate from good.
They are found in hypocrites and flatterers, in evil persons of every
sort, and in such as are in natural but not spiritual good. These can all
do well by church, country, society, fellow-citizens, the needy, the
poor, and widows and orphans. They can also comprehend truths, from
understanding think them, and from thought speak and teach them. But the
goods and truths are not interiorly such, that is, basically goods and
truths, but only outwardly and seemingly such. For such good and truth
look to self and the world, not to good itself and truth itself; they are
not from good and truth; they are of the mouth and body only, therefore,
and not of the heart.
[2] They may be likened to gold or silver which is spread on dross,
rotten wood or mire. When uttered the truths may be likened to a breath
exhaled and gone, or to a delusive light which dies away, though they
appear outwardly like genuine truths. They are seeming truths in those
who utter them; to those hearing and assenting, and unaware of this, they
may be altogether different. For everyone is affected by what is external
according to his internal. A truth, by whomsoever uttered, enters
another's hearing and is taken up by his mind in keeping with the state
or character of his mind.
Of those in natural good by inheritance, but in no spiritual good, nearly
the same is true as of those described above. The internal of every good
or truth is spiritual. The spiritual dispels falsities and evils, but the
natural left to itself favors them. To favor evil and falsity does not
accord with doing good.
15. Good can be separated from truth, and truth from good, and then still
appear as good or truth, for the reason that the human being has a
capacity to act which is called liberty, and a capacity of understanding
called rationality. By abuse of these powers a man can appear in
externals other than he is in internals; an evil man can do good and
speak truth, and a devil feign himself an angel of light. But on this see
the following propositions in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom:_ "The
origin of evil is in the abuse of faculties proper to man, called liberty
and rationality" (nn. 246-270); "These two faculties are to be found with
the evil as well as with the good" (n. 425); "Love not married to wisdom,
and good not married to truth, can effect nothing" (n. 401); "Love does
nothing except in conjunction with wisdom or understanding, and it brings
wisdom or the understanding reciprocally into conjunction with itself"
(nn. 410-412); "From power given it by love, wisdom or understanding can
be elevated and can perceive and receive the things of light from heaven"
(n. 413); "Love can be raised similarly to receive the things of heat
from heaven if it loves its mate, wisdom, in that degree" (nn. 414, 415);
"Else love pulls wisdom or the understanding down from its elevation to
act at one with itself" (nn. 416-418); "If the two are elevated, love is
purified in the understanding" (nn. 419-421); "Purified by wisdom in the
understanding, love becomes spiritual and celestial, but defiled in the
understanding it become sensuous and corporeal" (nn. 422-424); "What is
true of love and wisdom and their union is true of charity and faith and
their conjunction" (nn. 427-430). What charity in heaven is, see n. 431.
16. (vii) _The Lord does not suffer anything to be divided; it must be
either in good and at the same time in truth, or in evil and at the same
time in falsity._ The Lord's divine providence has for its goal, and to
this end it labors, that man shall be in good and at the same time in
truth. For then he is his own good and love and his own truth and wisdom;
thereby the human being is human, for he is then an image of the Lord.
But while he lives in the world he can be in good and at the same time in
falsity, likewise in evil and at the same time in truth, indeed in evil
and at the same time in good, and thus be double. As the cleavage
destroys the Lord's image in him and thus the man, the Lord's divine
providence takes care in every least act that this division shall not be.
And as it is better for man to be in evil and at the same time in falsity
than to be in good and at the same time in evil, the Lord permits it, not
as one willing it, but as one unable to resist because of the end sought,
which is salvation.
[2] A man can be simultaneously in evil and in truth and the Lord be
unable to prevent it in view of the end, which is salvation, for the
reason that man's understanding can be raised into the light of wisdom
and see truths, or acknowledge them when he hears them, while his love
remains below. Thus a man can be in heaven as to understanding, while as
to his love he is in hell. This is not denied him, because the two
faculties of liberty and rationality, by virtue of which he is a human
being and distinguished from beasts and by which alone he can be
regenerated and thus saved, cannot be taken away. By means of them, he
can act according to wisdom and at the same time according to an unwise
love. From wisdom above he can view the love below and also the thoughts,
intentions and affections, therefore the evils and falsities as well as
the goods and truths of his life and doctrine, without a knowledge and
recognition of which he cannot be reformed. We spoke of the two faculties
before and shall say more in what follows. What has been said explains
how man can be simultaneously in good and truth, or in evil and falsity,
or in mixtures of them.
17. In this world a man can hardly come into one or the other conjunction
or union, that is, of good and truth or of evil and falsity, for during
his life in the world he is kept in a state of reformation or
regeneration. After death, however, every man comes into the one union or
the other, because he can then no longer be reformed or regenerated. He
remains such as his life was in the world, that is, such as his reigning
love was. If therefore his was a life of an evil love, all the truth
acquired by him in the world from teacher, pulpit or Word is taken away.
On the removal of it, he absorbs the falsity agreeing with his evil as a
sponge does water. On the other hand, if his was the life of a good love,
all the falsity is removed which he may have picked up in the world by
hearing or from reading but did not confirm in himself, and in its place
truth congruous with his good is given him. This is meant by the Lord's
words:
Take . . . the talent from him, and give it to him that has ten talents.
For to everyone who has, shall be given until he abounds but from him
who has not, even what he has shall be taken away (Mt 25:28, 29; 13:12;
Mk 4:25; Lu 8:18; 19:24-26).
18. After death everyone must be either in good and at the same time in
truth or in evil and at the same time in falsity, for the reason that
good and evil cannot be united, nor can good and the falsity of evil, nor
evil and the truth of good. For these are opposites, and opposites
contend until one destroys the other. Those who are at the same time in
evil and in good are meant in the Apocalypse in these words of the Lord
to the church of the Laodiceans:
I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; would that you were
cold or hot; but because you are lukewarm, I will spue you out of my
mouth (3:15, 16):
also in these words of the Lord:
No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or cleave to the one and not heed the other (Mt 6:24).
19. ( viii) _That which is in good and at the same time in truth is
something; that which is in evil and at the same time in falsity is not
anything._ See above (n. 11) that what is in good and at the same time in
truth is something. It follows that what is at once evil and false is not
anything. By not being anything is meant that it is without power and
without spiritual life. Those at once in evil and in falsity (all of whom
are in hell) have power indeed among themselves, for an evil man can do
evil and does so in a thousand ways. Yet he can do evil to the evil only
by reason of their evil; he cannot harm the good at all; if, as sometimes
happens, he does, it is by conjunction with their evil.
[2] In this way temptations arise; they are infestations by evil spirits
who are with a man; so combats ensue by which the good are freed from
their evils. Since the wicked have no power, all hell in the Lord's sight
is not only nothing, but nothing at all in point of power, as I have seen
proved by much experience. But it is remarkable that the evil all deem
themselves powerful, and the good all think themselves powerless. This is
because the evil ascribe everything to their own power or shrewdness and
malice, and nothing to the Lord; whereas the good ascribe nothing to
their own prudence, but all to the Lord who is almighty. Evil and falsity
together are not anything for the further reason that they have no
spiritual life. The life of the infernals is therefore called death, not
life. Since life holds everything, death has nothing.
20. Men in evil and at the same time in truths may be likened to eagles
flying aloft which, deprived of their wings, fall. For after death, on
becoming spirits, men do the like who have understood and spoken and
taught truths and yet have not looked to God in their lives. By means of
things of the understanding they raise themselves aloft and even enter
heaven at times and feign themselves angels of light. But when they are
deprived of truths and are cast out, they fall down to hell. Eagles also
signify rapacious men with intellectual acumen, and wings signify
spiritual truths. Such, we said, are those who have not looked to God in
their lives. To look to God in life means simply to think that a given
evil is a sin against God, and for that reason not to commit it.
21. (ix) _The Lord's divine providence causes evil and its falsity to
serve for equilibrium, contrast, and purification, and so for the
conjunction of good and truth in others._ It is obvious from the
preceding that the Lord's divine providence continually operates in order
that truth may be united in man with good and good with truth, because
that union is the church and heaven. For that union is in the Lord and in
all that proceeds from Him. From that union, heaven and the church are
called a marriage, and the kingdom of God is likened in the Word to a
marriage. Again, the Sabbath signified that union and was the holiest
observance in the worship of the Israelitish Church. From that union also
there is a marriage of good and truth in the Word and in each and all
things of it (on this see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred
Scripture,_ nn. 80-90). The marriage of good and truth is from the
marriage of the Lord with the church, and this in turn from the marriage
of love and wisdom in Him, for good is of love, and truth of wisdom. It
is plain, then, that it is the constant aim of divine providence to unite
good to truth and truth to good in a man, for so he is united to the
Lord.
22. But many have severed and do sever this marriage, especially by
separating faith from charity (for faith is of truth and truth is of
faith, and charity is of good and good is of charity), and in so doing
they conjoin evil and falsity in themselves and thus come into and
continue in the opposite to good and truth. The Lord therefore provides
that they shall nevertheless serve for uniting good and truth in others,
through equilibrium, contrast and purification.
23. Conjunction of good and truth in others is provided by the Lord
through _equilibrium_ between heaven and hell. From hell evil and at the
same time falsity constantly exhale, and from heaven good and at the same
time truth. In equilibrium between them, and so in freedom to think,
will, speak and act in which he can be reformed, every man is kept while
he lives in the world. On the spiritual equilibrium from which the human
being has freedom, see the work _Heaven and Hell,_ nn. 589-596, 597-603.
24. Conjunction of good and truth is provided by the Lord through
_contrast._ For the nature of good is not known except by contrast with
what is less good and by its contrariety to evil. All perceptiveness and
sensitivity arise so; their quality is thence. All pleasantness is
perceived and felt over against the less pleasant and the unpleasant; all
the beautiful by reference to the less beautiful and the unbeautiful;
similarly all good of love by reference to lesser good and to evil; all
truth of wisdom by a sense of lesser truth and of falsity. Everything
inevitably varies from greatest to least, and with the same variation in
its opposite and with equilibrium between them, there is contrast degree
by degree, and the perception and sensation of a thing increase or
diminish. But be it known that an opposite may either lower or exalt
perceptions and sensitivities. It lowers them when it mingles in and
exalts them when it does not mingle in, for which reason the Lord
separates good and evil with man that they shall not mingle, as
exquisitely as He does heaven and hell.
25. Conjunction of good and truth in others is provided by the Lord
through _purification_ in two ways; one through temptations, and the
other through fermentations. _Spiritual temptations_ are nothing else
than combats against the evils and falsities exhaled from hell and
affecting man. By these combats a man is purified from evils and
falsities, and good and truth are united in him. _Spiritual
fermentations_ take place in many ways, and in heaven as well as on
earth; but in the world it is not known what they are or how they come
about. For evils and their falsities, let into societies, act as ferments
do in meal or in must, separating the heterogeneous and conjoining the
homogeneous until there is clarity and purity. Such fermentations are
meant in the Lord's words:
The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three
measures of meal until the whole was leavened (Mt 13:33; Lu 12:21).
26. The Lord provides these uses through the united evil and falsity of
those in hell. The Lord's kingdom, which extends over hell as well as
over heaven, is a kingdom of uses. It is the Lord's providence that there
shall be no creature and no thing whereby a use is not performed.
II. THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE HAS FOR ITS OBJECT A HEAVEN FROM THE
HUMAN RACE
27. Heaven does not consist of angels created such to begin with, nor
does hell come from any devil created an angel of light and cast down
from heaven. Both heaven and hell are from mankind, heaven consisting of
those in the love of good and consequent understanding of truth, and hell
of those in the love of evil and consequent understanding of falsity.
This has been made known and sure to me by long-continued intercourse
with angels and spirits. See what was said on the subject in the work
_Heaven and Hell_ (nn. 311-316); also in the little work _The Last
Judgment_ (nn. 14-27), and in _Continuation about the Last Judgment and
the Spiritual World_ (throughout).
[2] As heaven is from mankind and is an abiding with the Lord to
eternity, it must have been the Lord's purpose in creation; being the
purpose in creation, it is the purpose of His providence. The Lord
created the world not for His own sake but for the sake of those with
whom He would be in heaven. Spiritual love by nature desires to give its
own to another, and so far as it can do so is in its _esse,_ peace, and
blessedness. Spiritual love derives this from the Lord's divine love
which is such infinitely. It follows that the divine love and hence
divine providence has for its object a heaven consisting of human beings
who have become or are becoming angels, on whom the Lord can bestow all
the blessings and felicities of love and wisdom and do so from Himself in
men. It must be in this way, for the Lord's image and likeness are in men
from creation, the image in them wisdom and the likeness love.
Furthermore, the Lord in them is love united to wisdom and wisdom united
to love or (what is the same) is good united to truth and truth united to
good (this union was treated of in the preceding chapter).
[3] What heaven is in general or with a number, and in particular or with
an individual, is not known. Nor is it known what heaven is in the
spiritual world and what it is in the natural world. Yet this knowledge
is important, for heaven is the purpose of providence. I therefore desire
to set the subject in some light in this order:
i. Heaven is conjunction with the Lord.
ii. By creation the human being is such that he can be conjoined more and
more closely to the Lord.
iii. The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the wiser one becomes.
iv. The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the happier one
becomes.
v. The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the more distinctly does
he seem to himself to be his own, and the more plainly does he recognize
that he is the Lord's.
28. (i) _Heaven is conjunction with the Lord._ Heaven is heaven, not from
the angels but from the Lord. For the love and wisdom in which angels are
and which make heaven are not theirs, but the Lord's, indeed are the Lord
in them. And as love and wisdom are the Lord's, and are the Lord in
heaven, and make the life of angels, it is plain that their life is the
Lord's, indeed is the Lord. The angels themselves avow that they live
from the Lord. Hence it is evident that heaven is conjunction with the
Lord. But conjunction with Him is various and one man's heaven is not
another's; therefore heaven is also according to the conjunction with the
Lord. In the following proposition it will be seen that conjunction is
more and more close or more and more remote.
[2] Here let something be said about how the conjunction takes place and
what the nature of it is. It is a conjunction of the Lord with the angels
and of the angels with Him, therefore is reciprocal. The Lord flows into
the life's love of the angels, and they receive Him in wisdom, thus in
turn conjoining themselves with Him. It must be said, however, that it
seems to the angels that they conjoin themselves to the Lord by wisdom;
actually the Lord conjoins them to Himself by their wisdom, for the
wisdom is also from the Lord. It is the same thing if we say that the
Lord conjoins Himself to the angels by good and they in turn conjoin
themselves to the Lord by truth, for all good is of love, and truth, of
wisdom.
[3] This reciprocal conjunction is an arcanum, however, which few can
understand unless it is explained. I want therefore to unfold it so far
as it can be done by things within one's grasp. We showed in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 404, 405) how love unites itself with
wisdom, namely, through affection for knowing from which comes an
affection for truth, through affection for understanding from which comes
perception of truth, and through affection for seeing what is known and
understood, from which comes thought. Into all these affections the Lord
flows, for they are all derivatives of one's life's love, and the angels
receive the influx in perception of truth and in thought, for in these
the influx becomes apparent to them, but not in the affections.
[4] As the perceptions and thoughts appear to the angels to be their own,
although they arise from affections which are from the Lord, the
appearance is that the angels reciprocally conjoin themselves to the
Lord, when nevertheless the Lord conjoins them to Himself. The affection
itself produces the perceptions and thoughts, for the affection, which is
of love, is their soul. Apart from affection no one can perceive or think
anything, and every one perceives and thinks according to his affection.
It is evident that the reciprocal conjunction of the angels with the Lord
is not from them, but as it were from them. Such, too, is the conjunction
of the Lord with the church and of the church with Him, a union called
celestial and spiritual marriage.
29. All conjunction in the spiritual world is effected by intent regard.
When anyone there thinks of another with a desire to speak with him, the
other is at once present, and the two come face to face. Likewise, when
one thinks of another from an affection of love; by this affection,
however, there is conjunction, but by the other only presence. This is
peculiar to the spiritual world; for there all are spiritual beings. It
is otherwise in the natural world where all are physical beings. In the
natural world something similar takes place in the affections and
thoughts of the spirit; but as there is space here, while in the
spiritual world space is appearance only, what takes place here in one's
spirit occurs outwardly there.
[2] We have said so much to make known how conjunction of the Lord with
angels and their seemingly reciprocal conjunction with Him is effected.
All angels turn the face to the Lord; He regards them in the forehead,
and they regard Him with the eyes. The reason is that the forehead
corresponds to love and its affections, and the eyes correspond to wisdom
and its perceptions. Still the angels do not of themselves turn the face
to the Lord, but He faces them toward Himself, doing so by influx into
their life's love, by this entering the perceptions and thoughts, and so
turning the angels to Him.
[3] There is such a circuit from love to thoughts and under love's
impulse from thoughts to love in all the mind's activity. It may be
called the circling of life. On these subjects see some things also in
the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom:_ as that "Angels constantly turn
the face to the Lord as a sun" (nn. 129-134); "All the interiors of both
the mind and the bodies of the angels are likewise turned to the Lord as
a sun" (nn. 135-139); "Every spirit, whatever his character, turns
himself likewise to his ruling love" (nn. 140-145); "Love conjoins itself
to wisdom and causes wisdom to be conjoined reciprocally with it" (nn.
410-412); "Angels are in the Lord and He in them; and as the angels are
only recipients, the Lord alone is heaven" (nn. 113-118).
30. The Lord's heaven in the natural world is called the church; an angel
of this heaven is a man of the church who is conjoined to the Lord; on
departure from this world he also becomes an angel of the spiritual
heaven. What was said of the angelic heaven is evidently to be
understood, then, of the human heaven also which is called the church.
The reciprocal conjunction with the Lord which makes heaven in the human
being is revealed by the Lord in these words in John:
Abide in Me, and I in you; ... he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing (15:4, 5, 7).
31. It is plain from this that the Lord is heaven not only in general
with all in heaven, but in particular with each one there. For each angel
is a heaven in least form; of as many heavens as there are angels, does
heaven in general consist. In substantiation see _Heaven and Hell_ (nn.
51-58). Since this is so, let no one cherish the mistaken idea, which
first visits the thought of so many, that the Lord dwells in heaven among
the angels or is among them like a king in his kingdom. To the sight He
is above them in the sun there; He is in them in their life of love and
wisdom.
32. (ii) _By creation the human being is such that he can be conjoined
more and more closely to the Lord._ This becomes evident from what was
shown about degrees in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ Part III,
especially in the propositions: "By creation there are three discrete
degrees or degrees of height in the human being" (nn. 230-235); "These
three degrees are in man from birth, and as they are opened, the man is
in the Lord, and the Lord in him" (nn. 236-241); "All perfection
increases and mounts with and according to the degrees" (nn. 199-204).
Evidently, then, man is such by creation that he can be conjoined with
the Lord more and more closely according to these degrees.
[2] But one must know well what degrees are and that there are two kinds
--discrete degrees or degrees of height, and continuous degrees or degrees
of breadth; also how they differ. It must be known, too, that every human
being has by creation and hence from birth three discrete degrees or
degrees of height, and that he comes at birth into the first degree,
called natural, and can grow in this degree continuously until he becomes
rational. He comes into the second degree, called spiritual, if he lives
according to spiritual laws of order, which are divine truths. He can
also come into the third degree, called celestial, if he lives according
to the celestial laws of order, which are divine goods.
[3] These degrees are opened in a person by the Lord according to his
life and actually opened in the world, but not perceptibly and sensibly
until after his departure from the world. As they are opened and later
perfected a man is conjoined to the Lord more and more closely. This
conjunction can grow to eternity in nearness to God and does so with the
angels. And yet no angel can attain or touch the first degree of the
Lord's love and wisdom, for the Lord is infinite and an angel is finite,
and between infinite and finite no ratio obtains. Man's state and the
state of his elevation and nearness to the Lord cannot be understood
without a knowledge of these degrees; they have been specifically treated
of, therefore, in the treatise Divine _Love and Wisdom,_ nn. 173-281,
which see.
33. We shall say briefly how man can be more and more closely conjoined
to the Lord, and then how the conjunction seems closer and closer. _How
man is more and more closely conjoined to the Lord:_ this is effected not
by knowledge alone, nor by intelligence alone, nor even by wisdom alone,
but by a life conjoined to them. A man's life is his love, and love is
manifold. In general there are love of good and love of evil. Love of
evil is love of committing adultery, taking revenge, defrauding,
blaspheming, depriving others of their possessions. In thinking and doing
such things the love of evil finds its pleasure and joy. Of this love
there are as many derivatives, which are affections, as there are evils
in which it can find expression. And there are as many perceptions and
thoughts of this love as there are falsities favoring and confirming such
evils. The falsities make one with the evils as understanding makes one
with will; they are mutually inseparable; the one is of the other.
[2] Inasmuch as the Lord flows into one's life's love and by its
affections into the perceptions and thoughts, and not the other way
about, as we said above, it follows that the Lord can conjoin Himself
more closely to a man only as the love of evil is removed along with its
affections, which are lusts. These lusts reside in the natural man. What
a man does from the natural man he feels that he does of himself. For his
part, therefore, a man should remove the evils of that love; so far as he
does, the Lord comes nearer and conjoins Himself to him. Anyone can see
from reason that lusts with their pleasures block and close the door to
the Lord and cannot be cast out by the Lord as long as the man himself
keeps the door shut and presses and pushes from outside to keep it from
being opened. It is plain from the Lord's words in the Apocalypse that a
man must himself open the door:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me (3:20).
[3] Plainly, then, so far as one shuns evils as diabolical and as
obstacles to the Lord's entrance, he is more and more closely conjoined
to the Lord, and he the most closely who abhors them as so many dusky and
fiery devils. For evil and the devil are one and the same, and the
falsity of evil and satan are one and the same. As the Lord's influx is
into the love of good and into its affections and by these into the
perceptions and thoughts, which have it from the good in which a man is
that they are truths, so the influx of the devil, that is of hell, is
into the love of evil and its affections, which are lusts, and by these
into the perceptions and thoughts, which have it from the evil in which
the man is that they are falsities.
[4] _How the conjunction seems closer and closer._ The more the evils in
the natural man are removed by shunning and turning away from them, the
more closely a man is conjoined to the Lord. Love and wisdom, which are
the Lord Himself, are not in space, as affection which is of love, and
thought which is of wisdom, have nothing in common with space. In the
measure of the conjunction by love and wisdom, therefore, the Lord seems
nearer; and, contrariwise, in the measure of the rejection of love and
wisdom, more distant. There is no space in the spiritual world; distance
and presence there are appearances according to similarity or
dissimilarity of the affections. For, as we said, affections which are of
love, and thoughts which are of wisdom, in themselves spiritual, are not
in space (on this see what was shown in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom,_ nn. 7-10, 69-72, and elsewhere).
[5] The Lord's conjunction with a man in whom evils have been put away is
meant by the Lord's words:
The pure in heart shall see God (Mt 5:8);
and by the words:
He who has my commandments and does them . . . with him will I make an
abode (Jn 14:21, 23).
"To have the commandments" is to know and "to do them" is to love, for it
is also said: "he who does my commandments, he it is that loves Me."
34. (iii) _The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the wiser one
becomes._ As there are three degrees of life in man by creation and so
from birth (see just above, n. 32), there are specifically three degrees
of wisdom in him. These degrees it is that are opened in man according to
conjunction, that is, according to love, for love is conjunction itself.
Love's ascent by degrees, however, is only obscurely perceived by man;
but wisdom's ascent is clearly perceived by those who know and see what
wisdom is. The degrees of wisdom are perceived because love by its
affections enters the perceptions and thoughts, and these present
themselves to the internal mental sight, which corresponds to the
external bodily sight. Thus wisdom appears, but not the affection of love
which produces it. It is the same with all a man's deeds; he is aware how
the body does them, but not how the soul does them. So he perceives how
he meditates, perceives and thinks, but not how the soul of these mental
activities, which is an affection of good and truth, produces them.
[2] There are three degrees of wisdom: natural, spiritual, and celestial.
Man is in the natural degree of wisdom during his life in the world. This
degree can be perfected in him to its height, but even so cannot pass
into the spiritual degree, for the latter is not continuous with it, but
conjoined to it by correspondences. After death man is in the spiritual
degree of wisdom. This degree also is such that it can be perfected to
its height, and yet cannot pass into the celestial degree of wisdom,
because neither is this continuous with the spiritual but conjoined to it
by correspondences. Plainly, then, wisdom can be raised threefold, and in
each degree can be perfected but only to its peak.
[3] One who understands the elevation and perfecting of these degrees can
see to an extent why angelic wisdom is said to be ineffable. So
ineffable, indeed, is it, that a thousand ideas in the thought of angels
in their wisdom can present only a single idea in the thought of men in
their wisdom, the other nine hundred and ninety-nine ideas being
unutterable, because they are supernatural. Many a time have I been given
to know this by living experience. But, as was said, no one can enter
into the ineffable wisdom of the angels except by and according to
conjunction with the Lord, for He alone opens spiritual and celestial
degrees, and only in those who are wise from Him. Those are wise from the
Lord who cast the devil, that is, evil, out of themselves.
35. But let no one believe that he has wisdom because he knows many
things, perceives them in some light, and is able to talk intelligently
about them, unless his wisdom is conjoined to love. For it is love that
through its affections produces wisdom. Not conjoined to love, wisdom is
like a meteor vanishing in the air and like a falling star. Wisdom united
to love is like the abiding light of the sun and like a fixed star. A man
has the love of wisdom when he is averse to the diabolical crew, that is,
to the lusts of evil and falsity.
36. Wisdom that comes to perception is perception of truth from being
affected by it, especially perception of spiritual truth. For there is
civil, moral, and spiritual truth. Those who have some perception of
spiritual truth from affection by it also have perceptions of moral and
civil truth, for the affection of spiritual truth is the soul of those
perceptions. I have spoken with angels at times about wisdom who said
that wisdom is conjunction with the Lord because He is wisdom itself, and
that the man who rejects hell comes into this conjunction and comes into
it so far as he rejects hell. They said that they picture wisdom to
themselves as a magnificent and highly ornate palace into which one
mounts by twelve steps. No one arrives at even the first step, they said,
except from the Lord by conjunction with Him; and according to the
measure of conjunction one ascends; also as one ascends, one perceives
that no man is wise from himself but from the Lord. Furthermore, they
said that the things in which one is wise are to those in which one is
not wise like a few drops of water to a large lake. By the twelve steps
into the palace of wisdom are meant goods united to truths and truths
united to goods.
37. (iv) _The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the happier one
becomes._ The like can be said of degrees of happiness as was said (nn.
32 and 34) of degrees of life and of wisdom according to conjunction with
the Lord. Happiness, that is, blessedness and joy, also are heightened as
the higher degrees of the mind, called spiritual and celestial, are
opened with man. After his life in the world these degrees grow to
eternity.
38. No one who is in the pleasures of the lusts of evil can know anything
of the joys of the affections of good in which the angelic heaven is.
These pleasures and joys are opposites in internals and hence inwardly in
externals, though superficially they may differ little. Every love has
its enjoyments; the love of evil with those in lusts also has, such as
the love of committing adultery, of taking revenge, of defrauding, of
stealing, of acting cruelly, indeed, in the worst men, of blaspheming the
holy things of the church and of inveighing against God. The fountainhead
of those enjoyments is the love of ruling from self-love. They come of
lusts which obsess the interiors of the mind, from these flow into the
body, and excite uncleannesses there which titillate the fibers. The
physical pleasure springs from the pleasure which the mind takes in
lusts.
[2] After death everyone comes to know in the spiritual world what the
uncleannesses are which titillate the body's fibers in such persons and
comes to know the nature of them. In general they are things cadaverous,
excrementitious, filthy, malodorous, and urinous; for their hells teem
with such uncleannesses. These are correspondences, as may be seen in the
treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 422-424). After one has entered
hell, however, these filthy delights are turned into wretchedness. This
has been told in order that it may be understood what heaven's felicity
is and its nature, of which we are now to speak; for a thing is known
from its opposite.
39. It is impossible to describe in words the blessedness, satisfaction,
joy and pleasure, in short, the felicity of heaven, so sensibly perceived
there. What is perceived solely by feeling, cannot be described, for it
does not fall into ideas of thought nor, therefore, into words. For the
understanding sees only and sees what is of wisdom or truth, but not what
is of love or good. Those felicities are therefore inexpressible, but
still they ascend in like degree with wisdom. They are infinitely
various, and each is ineffable. I have heard this, also perceived it.
[2] These felicities enter when a man, of himself and yet from the Lord,
casts out the lusts of the love of evil and falsity. For these felicities
are the happinesses of the affections of good and truth, the opposites of
the lusts of the love of evil and falsity. Those happinesses begin from
the Lord, thus from the inmost, diffuse themselves thence into things
lower even to lowermost things, and thus fill the angel, making him a
body of delight. Such happinesses are to be found in infinite variety in
every affection of good and truth, and eminently in the affection of
wisdom.
40. There is no comparing the joys of the lusts of evil and the joys of
the affections of good. Inwardly in the former is the devil, in the
latter the Lord. If comparisons are to be ventured, the pleasures of the
lusts of evil can only be compared to the lewd pleasures of frogs in
stagnant ponds or to those of snakes in filth, while the pleasures of the
affections of good must be likened to the delights which the mind takes
in gardens and flower beds. For things like those which affect frogs and
snakes affect those in the hells who are in lusts of evil; and things
like those which affect the mind in gardens and flower beds affect those
in the heavens who are in affections of good. For, as was said above,
corresponding uncleannesses affect the evil, and corresponding
cleannesses the good.
41. Plainly, then, the more closely one is conjoined with the Lord the
happier one is. This happiness rarely shows itself in the world, however;
for man is then in a natural state, and the natural does not communicate
with the spiritual by continuity, but by correspondence. The
communication is felt only in a certain repose and peace of mind,
especially after struggles against evil. But when a person puts off the
natural state and enters the spiritual state, as he does on leaving the
world, the happiness described above gradually manifests itself.
42. (v) _The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the more
distinctly does he seem to himself to be his own, and the more plainly
does he recognize that he is the Lord's._ The appearance is that the more
closely one is conjoined to the Lord the less one is one's own. This
appearance prevails with all the evil. It also prevails with those who
from religion believe that they are not under the yoke of the law and
that no one can of himself do good. All these inevitably think that to be
free only to do good and not to think and will evil is not to be one's
own. Inasmuch as a man who is conjoined to the Lord does not will and
cannot think or will evil, they conclude from the look that this is not
to be one's own. Yet that is the opposite of the truth.
43. There is infernal freedom, and there is heavenly freedom. Thinking
and willing evil and also speaking and doing it so far as civil and moral
laws do not prevent, is from infernal freedom. But thinking and willing
good and speaking and doing it so far as opportunity offers, is from
heavenly freedom. A man perceives as his own what he thinks, wills,
speaks and does in freedom. The freedom anyone has always comes from his
love. The man in an evil love cannot but deem infernal freedom to be real
freedom, and a man in love of the good perceives that heavenly freedom is
real freedom; consequently each regards the opposite of his freedom as
bondage. No one can deny that one or the other must be freedom, for two
kinds of freedom opposed to each other cannot both be freedom.
Furthermore it cannot be denied that to be led by good is freedom and to
be led by evil is bondage. For to be led by good is to be led by the
Lord, but to be led by evil is to be led by the devil.
[2] Inasmuch as all he does in freedom appears to a man to be his own,
coming as it does from what he loves, and to act from one's love, as was
said, is to act freely, it follows that conjunction with the Lord causes
a man to seem free and also his own, and the more closely he is conjoined
to the Lord, to seem so much freer and so much more his own. He seems the
more distinctly his own because it is the nature of the divine love to
want its own to be another's, that is, to be the angel's or the man's.
All spiritual love is such, preeminently the Lord's. The Lord, moreover,
never coerces anyone. For nothing to which one is coerced seems one's
own, and what seems not one's own cannot be done from one's love or be
appropriated to one as one's own. Man is always led in freedom by the
Lord, therefore, and reformed and regenerated in freedom. On this much
more will be said in what follows; also see some things above, n. 4.
44. The reason why the more distinctly a man seems to be his own the more
plainly he sees that he is the Lord's, is that the more closely he is
conjoined to the Lord the wiser he becomes (as was shown, nn. 34-36), and
wisdom teaches and recognizes this. The angels of the third heaven, as
the wisest angels, perceive this and call it freedom itself; but to be
led by themselves they call bondage. They give as the reason for this
that the Lord does not flow immediately into the perceptions and thoughts
of wisdom, but into the affections of the love of good and by these into
the former, and this influx they perceive in the affection by which they
have wisdom. Hence, they say, all that they think from wisdom seems to be
from themselves, thus seemingly their own, and this gives reciprocal
conjunction.
45. As the Lord's divine providence has for its object a heaven from
mankind, it has for its object the conjunction of the human race with Him
(see nn. 28-31). It also has for its object that man should be more and
more closely conjoined to Him (nn. 32, 33); for thus man possesses a more
interior heaven. Further, it has for its object that by the conjunction
man should become wiser (nn. 34-36) and happier (nn. 37-41), for he has
heaven by and according to wisdom, and happiness by wisdom, too. Finally,
providence has for its object that man shall seem more distinctly his
own, yet recognize the more clearly that he is the Lord's (nn. 42-44).
All these are of the Lord's divine providence, for all are heaven and
heaven is its object.
III. IN ALL THAT IT DOES THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE LOOKS TO WHAT IS
INFINITE AND ETERNAL
46. Christendom knows that God is infinite and eternal. The doctrine of
the Trinity which is named for Athanasius says that God the Father is
infinite, eternal and omnipotent, so also God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, and that nevertheless there are not three who are infinite,
eternal and omnipotent, but One. As God is infinite and eternal, only
what is infinite and eternal can be predicated of Him. What infinite and
eternal are, finite man cannot comprehend and yet can comprehend. He
cannot comprehend them because the finite is incapable of what is
infinite; he can comprehend them because there are abstract ideas by
which one can see _that_ things are, though not _what_ they are. Of the
infinite such ideas are possible as that God or the Divine, being
infinite, is _esse_ itself, is essence and substance itself, wisdom and
love themselves or good and truth themselves, thus is the one Self,
indeed is veritable Man; there is such an idea, too, in speaking of the
infinite as "all," as that infinite wisdom is _omniscience_ and infinite
power _omnipotence._
[2] Still these ideas turn obscure to thought and may meet denial for not
being comprehended, unless what one's thought gets from nature is removed
from the idea, especially what it gets from the two properties of nature,
space and time. For these are bound to restrict the ideas and to make
abstract ideas seem to be nothing. But if such things can be removed in a
man, as they are in an angel, what is infinite can be comprehended by the
means just mentioned. Then also it will be grasped that the human being
is something because he was created by infinite God who is all; also that
he is a finite substance, having been created by infinite God who is
substance itself; further that man is wisdom inasmuch as he was created
by infinite God who is wisdom itself; and so on. For were infinite God
not all, and were He not substance and wisdom themselves, man would not
be anything actual, thus would either be nothing or exist only in idea,
as those visionaries think who are called idealists.
[3] It is plain from what was shown in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ that the divine essence is love and wisdom (nn. 28-39); that
divine love and wisdom are substance itself and form itself, the one Self
and the sole underived being (nn. 40-46); and that God created the
universe and its contents from Himself, and not from nothing (nn. 282-284
). It follows that every creature and above all the human being and the
love and wisdom in him, are real, and do not exist only in idea. For were
God not infinite, the finite would not be; were the infinite not all, no
particular thing would be; and had not God created all things from
Himself, nothing whatever would be. In a word, we are because God is.
47. We are considering divine providence and at this point how it regards
what is infinite and eternal in all that it does. This can be clearly
told only in some order. Let this be the order:
i. The infinite and eternal in itself is the same as the Divine.
ii. What is infinite and eternal in itself cannot but look to what is
infinite and eternal from itself in finite things.
iii. Divine providence looks to the infinite and eternal from itself in
all that it does, especially in saving mankind.
iv. An image of the infinite and eternal offers in an angelic heaven
formed from a redeemed mankind.
v. The heart of divine providence is to look to what is infinite and
eternal by fashioning an angelic heaven, for it to be like one human
being before the Lord, an image of Him.
48. (i) _The infinite and eternal in itself is the same as the Divine._
This is plain from what was shown in many places in the work _Divine Love
and Wisdom._ The concept comes from the angelic idea. By the infinite,
angels understand nothing else than the divine _esse_ and by the eternal
the divine _existere._ But men can see and cannot see that what is
infinite and eternal in itself is the Divine. Those can see this who do
not think of the infinite from space and of the eternal from time; those
cannot see it who think of infinite and eternal in terms of space and
time. Those, therefore, can see it who think at some elevation, that is,
inwardly in the rational mind; those cannot who think in a lower, that is,
more external way.
[2] Those by whom it can be seen reflect that a spatial infinite is an
impossibility, so likewise a temporal eternity or an eternity from which
the world has been. The infinite has no first or final limit or
boundaries. They also reflect that there cannot be another infinite from
it, for "from it" implies a boundary or beginning, or a prior source.
They therefore think that it is meaningless to speak of an infinite and
eternal from itself, for that is like talking of an _esse_ from itself,
which is a contradiction. An infinite from itself could only be an
infinite from an infinite, and _esse_ from itself only _esse_ from
_esse._ Such an infinite or _esse_ would either be the same with the
infinite or be finite. From these and like considerations, inwardly seen
in the rational mind, it is plain that there is what is infinite in
itself and eternal in itself, and that they are the Divine whence are all
things.
49. I know that many will say to themselves, "How can anybody grasp
anything inwardly and rationally apart from space and time, and think
that it not only exists, but is also the all and the self from which are
all things?" But think deeply whether love or any affection of love, or
wisdom or any perception of wisdom, yes, whether thought is in space and
time, and you will grasp the fact that they are not. The Divine,
therefore, being love itself and wisdom itself, cannot be conceived of in
space and time; neither, then, can the infinite. To see this more clearly
ponder whether thought is in time and space. Suppose thought is sustained
for ten or twelve hours; may not the length of time seem like one or two
hours? May it not seem like one or two days? The seeming duration is
according to the state of affection from which the thought springs. If
the affection is a joyous one, in which time is not noticed, thought over
ten or twelve hours seems as though it were one or two hours. The
contrary is true if the affection is a sorrowful one, in which one
watches the passage of time. It is evident from this that time is only an
appearance according to the state of affection from which the thought
springs. The same is true of one's thought of the distance on a walk or a
journey.
50. Since angels and spirits are affections of love and thoughts thence
they are not in space or time, either, but only in an appearance of them.
Space and time appear to them in keeping with the states of their
affections and their thoughts thence. When one of them, therefore, thinks
with affection of another, intently desiring to see or speak with him,
the other is at once present.
[2] Hence, too, present with every man are spirits who are in an
affection like his--evil spirits with a man in an affection of similar
evil, and good spirits with the man in an affection of similar good. They
are as fully present as though he was one of their society. Space and
time have nothing to do with their presence, for affection and thought
therefrom are not in space and time, and spirits and angels are
affections and thoughts therefrom.
[3] I have been given to know this by living experience over many years.
For I have spoken with many on their death, some in different kingdoms of
Europe, and some in different kingdoms of Asia and Africa, and all were
near me. If space and time existed for them, a journey and time to make
it would have intervened.
[4] Indeed, every man knows this by some instinct in him or in his mind,
as has been verified to me by the fact that nobody has thought of
distances when I have reported that I had spoken with some person who
died in Asia, Africa or Europe, for example with Calvin, Luther, or
Melancthon, or with some king, governor or priest in a far region. The
thought occurred to no one, "How could he speak with those who had lived
there, and how could they come and be present with him, when lands and
seas lay between?" So it was plain to me that in thinking of those in the
spiritual world a man does not think of space and time. For those there,
however, there is an appearance of time and space; see the work _Heaven
and Hell,_ nn. 162-169, 191-199.
51. From these considerations it may now be plain that the infinite and
eternal, thus the Lord, are to be thought of apart from space and time
and can be so thought of; plain, likewise, that they are so thought of by
those who think interiorly and rationally; and plain that the infinite
and eternal are identical with the Divine. So think angels and spirits.
In thought withdrawn from space and time, divine omnipresence is
comprehended, and divine omnipotence, also the Divine from eternity, but
these are not at all grasped by thought to which an idea of space and
time adheres. Plain it is, then, that one can conceive of God from
eternity, but never of nature from eternity. So one can think of the
creation of the world by God, but never of its creation from nature, for
space and time are proper to nature, but the Divine is apart from them.
That the Divine is apart from space and time may be seen in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 7-10, 69-72, 73-76, and other places).
52. (ii) _What is infinite and eternal in itself cannot but look to what
is infinite and eternal from itself in finite things._ By what is
infinite and eternal in itself the Divine itself is meant, as was shown
in the preceding section. By finite things are meant all things created
by the Lord, especially men, spirits, and angels. By looking to the
infinite and eternal from itself is meant to look to the Divine, that is
to Himself, in these, as a person beholds his image in a mirror. This was
shown in several places in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
particularly where it was demonstrated that in the created universe there
is an image of the human being and that this is an image of the infinite
and eternal (nn. 317, 318), that is, of God the Creator, namely, the Lord
from eternity. But be it known that the Divine-in-itself is in the Lord;
whereas the divine-from-itself is the divine from the Lord in things
created.
53. But for better comprehension let this be illustrated. The Divine can
look only to the divine, and can do so only in what has been created by
it. This is evident from the fact that no one can regard another except
from what is his own in himself. One who loves another regards him from
his own love; a wise man regards another from his own wisdom. He can note
whether the other loves him or not, is wise or not; but this he does from
the love and wisdom in himself. Therefore he unites himself with the
other so far as the other loves him as he loves the other, or so far as
the other is wise as he is wise; for thus they make one.
[2] It is the same with the Divine-in-itself. For the Divine cannot look
to itself from another, that is, from man, spirit, or angel. For there is
nothing in them of the Divine-in-itself from which are all things, and to
look to the Divine from another in whom there is nothing of the Divine
would be to look to the Divine from what is not divine, which is an
impossibility. Hence the Lord is so conjoined to man, spirit, or angel
that all which is referable to the Divine is not from them but from the
Lord. For it is known that all good and truth which anyone has are not
from him but from the Lord; indeed that no one can name the Lord or speak
His names Jesus and Christ except from Him.
[3] Consequently the infinite and eternal, which is the same as the
Divine, looks to all things in finite beings infinitely and conjoins
itself with them in the degree in which they receive love and wisdom. In
a word, the Lord can have His abode and dwell with man and angel only in
His own, and not in what is solely theirs, for this is evil; if it is
good, it is still finite, which in and of itself is incapable of the
infinite. Plainly, the finite cannot possibly look to what is infinite,
but the infinite can look to the infinite-from-itself in finite beings.
54. It seems as if the infinite could not be conjoined to the finite
because no ratio is possible between them and because the finite cannot
compass the infinite. Conjunction is possible, nevertheless, both because
the Infinite created all things from Himself (as was shown in the work
_Divine Love and Wisdom,_ nn. 282-284), and because the Infinite cannot
but look in things finite to what is infinite from Him, and this
infinite-from-Him in finite beings can appear as if it were in them.
Thereby a ratio is possible between finite and infinite, not from the
finite, indeed, but from the infinite in the finite. Thereby, too, the
finite is capable of the infinite, not the finite being in himself, but
as if in himself from the infinite-from-itself in him. But of this more
in what follows.
55. (iii) _Divine providence looks to the infinite and eternal from
itself in all that it does, especially in saving mankind._ The infinite
and eternal in itself is the Divine itself, or the Lord in Himself; the
infinite and eternal _from_ itself is the proceeding Divine or the Lord
in others created by Him, thus in men and angels. This Divine is
identical with divine providence, for by the divine from Himself the Lord
provides that all things shall be held together in the order in which and
into which they were created. This the Divine in the act of proceeding
accomplishes and consequently all this is divine providence.
56. That divine providence in all that it does looks to what is infinite
and eternal from itself is evident from the fact that every created thing
proceeds from a first, which is the infinite and eternal, to things last,
and from things last to the first whence it is (as was shown in the work
_Divine Love and Wisdom,_ in the part in which the creation of the world
is treated of). But the first whence anything is, is inmostly in all the
progression, and therefore the proceeding Divine or divine providence in
all that it does has in view some image of the infinite and eternal. It
does so in all things, in some obviously so that it is perceptible, in
others not. It makes that image evident to perception in the variety, and
in the fructification and multiplication, of all things.
[2] _An image of the infinite and eternal is apparent in the variety of
all things,_ in that no one thing is the same as another nor can be to
eternity. The eye beholds this in the variety of human faces ever since
creation; in the variety of minds, of which faces are types; and in the
variety of affections, perceptions and thoughts, for of these the mind
consists. In all heaven, therefore, no two angels or spirits are the
same, nor can be to eternity. The same is true of every object to be seen
in either the natural or the spiritual world. Plainly, the variety is
infinite and eternal.
[3] _An image of the infinite and eternal is manifest in the
fructification and multiplication of all things,_ in the vegetable
kingdom in the capacity implanted in seeds, and in the animal kingdom in
reproduction, especially in the family of fishes. Were the seeds to bear
fruit and the animals to multiply in the measure of ability, they would
fill all the world, even the universe, in a generation. Obviously there
is latent in that ability an endeavor after self-propagation to infinity.
And as fructification and multiplication have not failed from the
beginning of creation and never will, plainly there is in that ability an
endeavor after self-propagation to eternity also.
57. The like is true of human beings as to their affections, which are of
love, and their perceptions, which are of wisdom. The variety of either
is infinite and eternal; so, too, is their fructification and
multiplication, which is spiritual. No person enjoys an affection and
perception so like another's as to be identical with it, nor ever will.
Affections, moreover, may be fructified and perceptions multiplied
without end. Knowledge, it is well known, is inexhaustible. This capacity
of fructification and multiplication without end or to infinity and
eternity exists in natural things with men, in spiritual with the
spiritual angels, and in celestial with the celestial angels. Affections,
perceptions and knowledges have this endless capacity not only in
general, but in every least particular. They have it because they exist
from the infinite and eternal in itself through what is infinite and
eternal from itself. But as the finite has in it nothing of the Divine,
nothing of the kind, not the least, is in the human being as his own. Man
or angel is finite and only a receptacle, by itself dead. Whatever is
living in him is from the proceeding Divine, joined to him by contact,
and appearing in him as if it were his. The truth of this will be seen in
what follows.
58. Divine providence regards what is infinite and eternal from itself
especially in saving mankind because its object is a heaven from mankind
(as was shown, nn. 27-45), and therefore it is man's reformation and
regeneration or salvation to which it especially looks, since heaven
consists of the saved or regenerate. To regenerate man, moreover, is to
unite good and truth or love and wisdom in him, as they are united in the
Lord's proceeding Divine; to this especially, therefore, providence looks
in saving the race. The image of the infinite and eternal is not to be
found elsewhere in man than in the marriage of good and truth. This
marriage the proceeding Divine effects. Men filled by the proceeding
Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit, have prophesied, as we know from
the Word; men enlightened by it see divine truths in heaven's light;
above all, angels sensibly perceive the presence, influx and conjunction,
though they are aware that the conjunction is no more than can be termed
adjunction.
59. It has not been known that divine providence in all its procedure
with man looks to his eternal state. It can look to nothing else because
the Divine is infinite and eternal, and the infinite and eternal or the
Divine is not in time; therefore all future things are present to it. It
follows that there is eternity in all that the Divine does. But those who
think from time and space perceive this with difficulty, not only because
they love temporal things, but also because they think from what is on
hand in the world and not from what is at hand in heaven; this is as
remote to them as the ends of the earth. Those, however, who are in the
Divine, inasmuch as they think from the Lord, think from what is eternal
as well as from what is at present, asking themselves, "What is that
which is not eternal? Is not the temporal relatively nothing and does it
not become nothing when it is past?" The eternal is not so; it alone
_is;_ its _esse_ has no end. To think thus is to think both from the
present and the eternal, and when a man not only thinks so but lives so,
the proceeding Divine with him or divine providence looks in all its
procedure to the state of his eternal life in heaven and guides to it. In
what follows it will be seen that the Divine looks to the eternal in
everybody, in an evil as well as in a good person.
60. (iv) _An image of the infinite and eternal offers in an angelic
heaven._ Among things we need to know about is the angelic heaven.
Everyone who has any religion thinks about heaven and wishes to go there.
Yet heaven is granted only to those who know the way to it and walk in
that way. We can know the way to an extent by knowing the character of
those who constitute heaven and by knowing that no one becomes an angel
or comes into heaven unless he brings with him from the world what is
angelic. In what is angelic there is a knowledge of the way from walking
in it, and a walking in the way through a knowledge of it. In the
spiritual world, moreover, there are actually ways leading to every
society of heaven or of hell. Each sees his own way as if for himself. He
does so because a way is there for every love; the love discloses the way
and takes a man to his fellows. No one sees other ways than the way of
his love. Plain it is from this that angels are nothing but heavenly
loves; otherwise they would not have seen the ways tending to heaven.
This will be plainer still when heaven is described.
61. Every man's spirit is affection and thought therefrom. And as all
affection is of love, and thought is of the understanding, every spirit
is his own love and his own understanding therefrom. When a man is
thinking solely from his own spirit, therefore, as he does in private
meditation at home, he thinks from the affection belonging to his love.
It is clear, then, that when a man becomes a spirit, as he does after
death, he is the affection of his own love and has no other thought than
that of his affection. If his love has been one of evil, he is an evil
affection, which is a lust; if his love has been one of good, he is a
good affection. Everyone has a good affection so far as he has shunned
evils as sins, and an evil affection so far as he has not shunned evils
as sins. As all spirits and angels, then, are affections, the whole
angelic heaven is nothing but the love of all the affections of good and
the attendant wisdom of all the perceptions of truth. Since all good and
truth are from the Lord and He is love itself, the angelic heaven is an
image of Him. Furthermore, as divine love and wisdom are human in form,
it also follows that the angelic heaven must be in that form. Of this we
shall say more in the following section.
62. The angelic heaven is an image of the infinite and eternal, then,
because it is an image of the Lord, who is infinite and eternal. The
image of His infinity and eternity is manifest in heaven's being
constituted of myriads and myriads of angels, and in its consisting of as
many societies as there are general affections of heavenly love;
manifest, again, in every angel's being distinctly his own affection;
manifest further in that the form of heaven--a unit in the divine sight
just as man is a unit--is assembled from so many affections, general and
particular; also manifest in that this form is perfected to eternity with
the increase in numbers, the greater the number of those entering into
the form of the divine love which is the form of forms, the more perfect
the resulting unity. It is plain from all this that the angelic heaven
presents an image of the infinite and eternal.
63. From the knowledge of heaven to be had from this brief description it
is evident that it is an affection of the love of good that makes heaven
in a man. But who knows this today? Who knows even what an affection of
the love of good is, or that these affections are innumerable, in fact,
infinite? For, as was said, each angel is his own particular affection;
and the form of heaven is the form of all the affections of the divine
love there. Only one Being can combine all affections into this form--only
He who is love and wisdom itself and who is at once infinite and eternal.
For throughout that form is what is infinite and eternal; the infinite is
in its unity and the eternal in its perpetuity; were they removed the
form would instantly collapse. Who else can combine affections into a
form? Who else can bring about this unity? The unity can be accomplished
only in an idea of the total, and the total realized only in thought for
each single part. Myriads on myriads compose that form; annually myriads
enter it and will do so to eternity. All infants enter it and all adults
who are affections of the love of good. Again from all this the image of
the infinite and eternal in the angelic heaven is to be seen.
64. (v) _The heart of divine providence is to look to what is infinite
and eternal by fashioning an angelic heaven for it to be like one human
being before the Lord, an image of Him._ See in the work _Heaven and
Hell_ (nn. 59-86) that heaven as a whole is like one man in the Lord's
sight; that each society of heaven also is; that as a result each angel
is a human being in perfect form; and that this is because God the
Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, is Man; also (nn. 87-102) that as
a result there is a correspondence of all things of heaven with all
things in the human being. The entire heaven as one man has not been seen
by me, for only the Lord can so behold it; but that an entire society,
whether large or small, can appear as one man, I have seen. I was then
told that the largest society of all, which is heaven in its entirety, so
appears, but to the Lord alone; and that this causes every angel to be in
full form a human being.
65. As all heaven is like one man in the Lord's view, it is divided into
as many general societies as there are organs, viscera and members in
man, and each general society into as many less general or particular
societies as there are larger divisions in each of the viscera and
organs. This makes evident what heaven is. Because the Lord is very Man
and heaven is His image, to be in heaven is called "being in the Lord."
See in the work _Divine Love and Wisdom_ that the Lord is very Man
(nn. 11-13, 285-289).
66. From all this the arcanum, well called angelic, can in a measure be
seen, that each affection of good and at the same time of truth is human
in form. For whatever proceeds from the Lord gets from His divine love
that it is an affection of good and from His divine wisdom that it is an
affection of truth. An affection of truth proceeding from the Lord
appears in angel and man as perception and consequent thought of truth.
For we are aware of perception and thought, but little aware of the
affection whence they are, although all come as one from the Lord.
67. Man, then, is by creation a heaven in least form and hence an image
of the Lord; heaven consists of as many affections as there are angels;
and each affection in its form is man. It must then be the constant
striving of divine providence that a man may become a heaven in form and
an image of the Lord, and as this is effected by means of an affection of
the good and true, that he may become such an affection. This is
therefore the unceasing effort of divine providence. But its inmost aim
is that a man may be here or there in heaven or in the divine heavenly
man, for so he is in the Lord. But this is accomplished with those whom
the Lord can lead to heaven. As He foresees who can be led He also
provides continually that a man may become amenable; for thus everyone
who suffers himself to be led to heaven is prepared for his own place
there.
68. We have said that heaven is divided into as many societies as there
are organs, viscera and members in man; and in these no part can be in
any place but its own. As angels are the parts in the divine heavenly
man, and none become angels who were not men in the world, the man who
suffers himself to be led to heaven is continually prepared by the Lord
for his own place there. This is done by the affection of good and truth
which corresponds with that place. To this place every angel-man is also
assigned on his departure from the world. This is the inmost of divine
providence touching heaven.
69. On the other hand, a man who does not permit himself to be led to
heaven and allotted a place there is prepared for his own place in hell.
Of himself a man tends constantly to the depths of hell but is
continually withheld by the Lord. He who cannot be withheld is prepared
for a given place in hell, to which he is assigned on departure from the
world. This place is opposite one in heaven; for hell is the opposite of
heaven. So, as the angel-man according to his affection of good and truth
is allotted his place in heaven, the devil-man according to his affection
of evil and falsity is allotted his in hell. The two opposites, set
exactly over against each other, are kept in connection. This is the
inmost of divine providence touching hell.
IV. THERE ARE LAWS OF PROVIDENCE THAT ARE UNKNOWN TO MEN
70. Men know there is divine providence, but not what its nature is. This
is not known because its laws are arcana, hitherto hidden in the wisdom
of angels. These laws are to be revealed now in order that what belongs
to the Lord may be ascribed to Him, and nothing ascribed to man that is
not man's. For very many in the world attribute everything to themselves
and their prudence, and what they cannot so attribute they call
fortuitous and accidental, not knowing that human prudence is nothing and
that "fortuitous" and "accidental" are idle words.
[2] We say that the laws of divine providence are arcana "hidden until
now in the wisdom of the angels." They have been hidden because the
understanding has been closed in Christendom in religion's name on divine
things, and has been rendered so dull and averse in these matters that
man has not been able because he has not been willing, or has not been
willing because he has not been able, to understand anything about
providence beyond the mere fact that it exists, or to do more than argue
whether it exists or not, also whether it is only general or also
detailed. Closed up on divine things in the name of religion,
understanding could advance no further.
[3] But it is acknowledged in the church that man cannot of himself do
good which is in itself good or of himself think truth which is in itself
truth. This acknowledgment is at one with divine providence; these are
interdependent beliefs. Lest therefore one be affirmed and the other
denied and both fail, what divine providence is must by all means be
revealed. It cannot be revealed unless the laws by which the Lord
oversees and governs the volitions and thoughts of the human being are
disclosed. The laws enable one to know the nature of providence, and only
one who knows its nature can acknowledge providence, for then he beholds
it. The laws of divine providence, hitherto hidden with angels in their
wisdom, are therefore to be revealed now.
V. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL ACT FROM FREEDOM
ACCORDING TO REASON
71. As is known, man is free to think and will as he wishes, but not to
speak whatever he thinks or to do whatever he wills. The freedom meant
here, therefore, is spiritual freedom and natural freedom only as they
make one; for thinking and willing are spiritual, and speaking and acting
are natural. The two are readily distinguishable in man, for he can think
what he does not utter and will what he does not do; plainly, spiritual
and natural are discriminated in him. He can pass from the former to the
latter therefore only on a decision to do so--a decision which can be
likened to a door that must first be unfastened and opened. This door, it
is true, stands open, as it were, in those who think and will from reason
in accord with the civil laws of the land and the moral laws of society,
for they speak what they think and do what they will to do. But in those
who think and will contrary to those laws, the door stands shut, as it
were. One who watches his volitions and subsequent deeds knows that such
a decision intervenes, sometimes more than once in a single utterance or
action. This we have premised for it to be understood that by acting from
freedom according to reason is meant to think and will freely _and_
thence to speak and do freely what is according to reason.
72. Since few know, however, that the law above can be a law of divine
providence, principally because a man is also free then to think evil and
falsity (still divine providence is continually leading him to think and
will what is good and true), for clearer perception we must proceed step
by step and shall do so in this order:
i. The human being has reason and freedom or rationality and liberty, and
has these two faculties from the Lord.
ii. Whatever a man does in freedom, whether with reason or not, provided
it is according to his reason, seems to him to be his.
iii. Whatever a man does in freedom according to his thought, is
appropriated to him as his and remains.
iv. A man is reformed and regenerated by the Lord by means of the two
faculties and cannot be reformed and regenerated without them.
v. A man can be reformed and regenerated by means of the two faculties so
far as he can be led by them to acknowledge that all truth and good which
he thinks and does are from the Lord and not from himself.
vi. The conjunction of the Lord with man, and man's reciprocal
conjunction with the Lord, is effected by means of these two faculties.
vii. In all the procedure of His divine providence the Lord safeguards
the two faculties in man unimpaired and as sacred.
viii. It is therefore of the divine providence that man shall act in
freedom according to reason.
73. (i) _The human being has reason and freedom or rationality and
liberty, and has these two faculties from the Lord._ Man has a faculty of
understanding, which is rationality, and a faculty of thinking, willing,
speaking and doing what he understands, which is liberty; and he has
these two faculties from the Lord (see the work _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
nn. 264-270, 425, and above, nn. 43, 44). But many doubts may arise about
either of the two faculties when thought is given to them; therefore I
want to say something at this point just about man's freedom to act
according to reason.
[2] First, it should be known that all freedom is of love, so much so
that love and freedom are one. As love is man's life, freedom is of his
life, too. For man's every enjoyment is from some love of his and has no
other source, and to act from the enjoyment of one's love is to act in
freedom. Enjoyment leads a man as the current bears an object along on a
stream. But loves are many, some harmonious, others not; therefore
freedoms are many. In general there are three: natural, rational, and
spiritual freedom.
[3] _Natural freedom_ is man's by heredity. In it he loves only himself
and the world: his first life is nothing else. From these two loves,
moreover, all evils arise and thus attach to love. Hence to think and
will evil is man's natural freedom, and when he has also confirmed evils
in himself by reasonings, he does them in freedom according to his
reason. Doing them is from his faculty called liberty, and confirming
them from his faculty called rationality.
[4] For example, it is from the love into which he is born that he
desires to commit adultery, to defraud, to blaspheme, to take revenge.
Confirming these evils in himself and by this making them allowable, he
then, from his love's enjoyment in them, thinks and wills them freely and
as if according to reason, and so far as civil laws do not hinder, speaks
and does them. It is of the Lord's divine providence that man is allowed
to do so, for freedom or liberty is his. This natural freedom is man's by
nature because by heredity, and those are in this freedom who have
confirmed it in themselves by reasonings from enjoyment in self-love and
love of the world.
[5] _Rational freedom_ is from the love of good repute for the sake of
standing or gain. The delight of this love is to seem outwardly a moral
person. Loving this reputation, the man does not defraud, commit
adultery, take revenge, or blaspheme; and making this his reasoned
course, he also does in freedom according to reason what is sincere,
just, chaste, and friendly; indeed from reason can advocate such conduct.
But if his rational is only natural and not spiritual, his freedom is
only external and not internal. He does not love these goods inwardly at
all, but only outwardly for reputation's sake, as we said. The good deeds
he does are therefore not in themselves good. He can also say that they
should be done for the sake of the general welfare, but he speaks out of
no love for that welfare, but from love of his own standing or gain. His
freedom therefore derives nothing from love of the public good, nor does
his reason, which complies with his love. This rational freedom,
therefore, is inwardly natural freedom. The Lord's divine providence
leaves everyone this freedom too.
[6] _Spiritual freedom_ is from love of eternal life. Into this love and
its enjoyment only he comes who regards evils as sins and therefore does
not will them, and who also looks to the Lord. Once a man does this he is
in this freedom. One can refuse to will and do evils for the reason that
they are sins, only from an interior or higher freedom, belonging to his
interior or higher love. This freedom does not seem at first to be
freedom, yet it is. Later it does seem freedom, and the man acts in real
freedom according to true reason, thinking, willing, speaking and doing
the good and the true. This freedom grows as natural freedom decreases
and serves it; and it unites with rational freedom and purifies it.
[7] Anyone can come into this freedom if he is willing to think that
there is a life eternal, and that the joy and bliss of life in time and
for a time is like a passing shadow to the joy and bliss of life in
eternity and for eternity. A man can think so if he will, for he has
rationality and liberty, and the Lord, from whom he has the two
faculties, constantly enables him to do so.
74. (ii) _Whatever a man does in freedom, whether with reason or not,
provided it is according to his reason, seems to him to be his._ Nothing
makes so clear what rationality and liberty are, which are proper to the
human being, as to compare man and beast. Beasts do not have any
rationality or faculty of understanding, or any liberty or faculty of
willing freely. They do not have understanding or will, therefore, but
instead of understanding they have knowledge and instead of will
affection, both of these natural. Not having the two faculties, animals
do not have thought, but instead an internal sight which makes one with
their external sight by correspondence.
[2] Every affection has its mate, its consort, so to speak. An affection
of natural love has knowledge, one of spiritual love has intelligence,
and one of celestial love, wisdom. Without its mate or consort an
affection is nothing, but is like esse apart from existere or substance
without form, of which nothing can be predicated. Hence there is in every
created thing something referable to the marriage of good and truth, as
we have shown several times. In beasts it is a marriage of affection and
knowledge; the affection is one of natural good, and the knowledge is
knowledge of natural truth.
[3] Affection and knowledge in beasts act altogether as one. Their
affection cannot be raised above their knowledge, nor the knowledge above
the affection; if they are raised, they are raised together. Nor have
animals a spiritual mind into which, or into the heat and light of which,
they can be raised. Thus they have no faculty of understanding or
rationality, or faculty of freely willing or liberty, and nothing more
than natural affection with its knowledge. Their natural affection is
that of finding food and shelter, of propagating, of avoiding and
guarding against injury, together with the knowledge needed for this. As
this is their kind of existence, they cannot think, "I will this but not
that," or "I know this but not that," still less, "I understand this" or
"I love that." They are borne along by affection and its knowledge
without rationality and liberty. It is not from the natural world that
they are borne along so, but from the spiritual world. Nothing can exist
in the natural world that does not have its connection with the spiritual
world: thence is every cause that accomplishes an effect. On this see
also some things below (n. 96).
75. It is otherwise with man, who has affections not only of natural
love, but also of spiritual and celestial loves. For man's mind is of
three degrees, as was shown in Part III of the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom._ Man can be raised therefore from natural knowledge into
spiritual intelligence and on into celestial wisdom. From the two,
intelligence and wisdom, he can look to the Lord, be conjoined with Him,
and thereby live to eternity. This elevation as to affection would not be
possible did he not from rationality have the power to raise the
understanding, and from liberty the power to will this.
[2] By means of the two faculties man can think in himself about what he
perceives outside him through the senses, and can also think on high
about what he thinks below. Anyone can say, "I have thought and I think
so and so," "I have willed and I will so and so," "I understand that this
is a fact," "I love this for what it is," and so on. Obviously, man
thinks above his thought, and sees it, as it were, below him. This comes
to him from rationality and liberty; from rationality he can think on
high, and from liberty he can will so to think. Unless he had liberty to
think so, he would not have the will, nor the thought from it.
[3] Those, therefore, who will to understand only what is of the world
and nature and not what moral and spiritual good and truth are, cannot be
raised from knowledge into intelligence, still less into wisdom, for they
have stifled those faculties. They render themselves no longer men except
that they can understand if they wish, and can also will, by virtue of
the implanted rationality and liberty; from the two capacities it is that
one can think and from thought speak. In other respects, they are not men
but beasts, and some, in their abuse of those faculties, are worse than
beasts.
76. From an unclouded rationality anyone can see or grasp that without
the appearance that it is his own a man cannot be in any affection to
know or to understand. Every joy and pleasure, thus everything of the
will, is from an affection of some love. Who can wish to know or to
understand anything except that an affection of his takes pleasure in it?
Who can feel this pleasure unless what he is affected by seems to be his?
Were it not his, but another's altogether, that is, if another from his
affection should infuse something into his mind when he himself felt no
affection for knowing or grasping it, would he receive it? Indeed, could
he receive it? Would he not be like one called a dullard or a clod?
[2] It should be manifest then that although everything that a man
perceives, thinks, knows and, according to perception, wills and does,
flows into him, nevertheless it is of the Lord's divine providence that
it seems to be the man's. Otherwise, as we said, a man would not receive
anything and so could be given no intelligence or wisdom. It is known
that all good and truth are the Lord's and not man's, and yet appear to
be man's. As good and truth so appear, so do all things of the church and
of heaven, and all things of love and wisdom, and all things of charity
and faith; yet none of them is man's. No one can receive them from the
Lord unless it seems to him that he perceives them for himself. Plainly,
the truth of the matter is that whatever a man does in freedom, whether
with reason or not, provided only that it accords with his reason, seems
to him to be his.
77. Who cannot from his faculty called rationality understand that a
given good is serviceable to society, and a given evil harmful to
society? That, for example, justice, sincerity, the chastity of marriage
are serviceable to it, and injustice, insincerity, and misconduct with
the wives of others, harmful? Consequently that these evils are in
themselves injuries, and those goods in themselves benefits? Who then
cannot make this a matter of his reason if only he will? He has
rationality and he has liberty; the two faculties are bared, show, take
charge and enable him to perceive and do in the measure that he avoids
those evils because they are evils. So far as a man does this he looks on
those goods as a friend looks on friends.
[2] By his faculty called rationality a man can conclude from this what
goods are useful to society in the spiritual world and what evils are
hurtful there, if instead of evils he sees sins and instead of goods
works of charity. This he can also make a matter of his reason if he
will, since he has liberty and rationality. His rationality and liberty
emerge, become manifest, take charge and give him perception and power so
far as he shuns evils as sins. So far as he does this he regards the
goods of charity as neighbor regards neighbor in mutual love.
[3] For the sake of reception and union the Lord wills that whatever a
man does freely according to reason shall seem to him to be his; this
agrees with reason itself. It follows that a man can from his reason will
something on the ground that it means his eternal happiness and can
perform it by the Lord's divine power, implored by him.
78. (iii) _Whatever a man does in freedom according to his thought is
appropriated to him as his and remains._ The reason is that a man's own
and his freedom make one. His proprium is of his life, and what he does
from his life he does in freedom. His proprium is also of his love, for
love is one's life, and what he does from his life's love he does in
freedom. We speak of his acting in freedom "according to his thought"
because what is of his life or love he also thinks and confirms by
thought, and what is so confirmed he does in freedom then according to
thought. What a man does, he does from the will by the understanding;
freedom is of the will and thought is of the understanding.
[2] A man can also act freely contrary to reason, likewise not freely in
accord with reason: then nothing is appropriated to him--what he does is
only of the mouth and body, not of the spirit or heart; only what is of
the spirit and heart, when it is also of the mouth and body, is
appropriated. The truth of this can be illustrated by many things, but
this is not the place.
[3] By being appropriated to man is meant entering his life and becoming
part of it, consequently becoming his own. It will be seen in what
follows that there is nothing, however, which is man's very own; it only
seems to him as if it were. Only this now: all the good a man does in
freedom according to reason is appropriated to him as if it were his
because it seems to be his in that he thinks, wills, speaks and does it.
Good is not man's, however, but the Lord's with man (above, n. 76). How
evil is appropriated to man will appear in a section of its own.
79. We said that what a man does in freedom in accord with his thought
also remains. For nothing that a man has appropriated to himself can be
eradicated; it has been made part of his love and at the same time of his
reason, or of his will and at the same time of his understanding, and so
of his life. It can be put aside indeed, but not cast out; put aside, it
is borne from center to periphery, where it stays; this is what we mean
by its remaining.
[2] If, for example, in boyhood or youth, a man appropriated an evil to
himself by doing it with enjoyment from love of it--a fraud, blasphemy,
revenge, or fornication--having done it freely with the assent of thought,
he made it his; but if later he repents, shuns it and considers it a sin
to be averse from, and so desists from it freely according to reason,
then the opposite good is appropriated to him. Good then takes the center
and removes evil to the periphery, farther according to his aversion and
abhorrence for it. Still the evil cannot be so thrust out that one can
say it is extirpated; it may indeed in that removal seem extirpated. What
occurs is that the man is withheld from the evil by the Lord and held in
good. This can happen with all inherited evil and all a man's actual
evil.
[3] I have seen this verified by the experience of some in heaven who
thought they were without evil, being held in good as they were by the
Lord. Lest they should believe that the good in which they were was their
own, they were let down from heaven and let into their evils until they
acknowledged that of themselves they were in evil, and in good only from
the Lord. Upon this acknowledgment they were returned to heaven.
[4] Be it known, therefore, that goods are appropriated to man only in
that they are constantly with him from the Lord, and that as a man
acknowledges this the Lord grants that good shall seem to be the man's,
that is, that it shall seem to him that he loves the neighbor or has
charity, believes or has faith, does good and understands truth, thus is
wise, of himself. From this an enlightened person may see the nature and
the strength of the appearance in which the Lord wills man to be. The
Lord wills it for salvation's sake, for without that appearance no one
can be saved. Also see what was shown above on the subject (nn. 42-45).
80. Nothing that a person only thinks, not even what he thinks to will,
is appropriated to him unless he also wills it so that he does it when
opportunity offers. For when a man then does it, he does it from the will
by the understanding or from affection of the will by thought of the
understanding. If it is something thought only, it cannot be
appropriated, for the understanding does not conjoin itself to the will,
or the thought of the understanding to the affection of the will, but the
latter with the former, as we have shown many times in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom,_ Part V. This is meant by the Lord's words,
Not that which enters the mouth renders a man unclean, but that which
goes forth from the heart by the mouth renders a man unclean ( Mt 15:11,
17, 18, 19).
In the spiritual sense thought is meant by "mouth," for thought is spoken
by it; affection which is of love is meant by "heart"; if the man thinks
and speaks from this he makes himself unclean. In Luke 6:45 also by
"heart" an affection of love or of the will is meant, and by "mouth" the
thought of the understanding.
81. Evils which a man believes are allowable, though he does not do them,
are also appropriated to him, for the licitness in thought is from the
will, as there is assent. When a man deems an evil allowable he loosens
the internal bond on it and is kept from doing it only by external bonds,
which are fears. As his spirit favors the evil, he commits it when
external bonds are removed as allowable, and meanwhile is committing it
in spirit. But on this see _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem,_ nn.
108-113.
82. (iv) _A man is reformed and regenerated by the Lord by means of the
two faculties and cannot be reformed or regenerated without them._ The
Lord teaches that,
Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3,5,7).
Few know what it is to be born anew or regenerated. For most do not know
what love and charity are, therefore what faith is, either. One who does
not know what love and charity are cannot know what faith is because
charity and faith make one as good and truth do, and as affection which
is of the will, and thought which is of the understanding, do. On this
union see the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ nn. 427-431; also
_Doctrine for the New Jerusalem,_ nn. 13-24; and above, nn. 3-20.
83. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he has been born anew for
the reason that by heredity from his parents he is born into evils of
every kind, with the capacity of becoming spiritual through removal of
the evils; unless he becomes spiritual, then, he cannot enter heaven. To
become spiritual from being natural is to be born again or regenerated.
Three things need to be considered if one is to know how man is
regenerated: the nature of his first state, which is one of damnation;
the nature of his second state, which is one of reformation; and the
nature of his third state, which is one of regeneration.
[2] Man's first state, which is one of damnation, is every one's state by
heredity from his parents. For man is born thereby into self-love and
love of the world, and from these as fountains into evils of every kind.
By the enjoyments of those loves he is led, and they keep him from
knowing that he is in evil, for the enjoyment of any love is felt to be
good. Unless he is regenerated, therefore, a man knows no otherwise than
that to love himself and the world above all things is good itself, and
to rule over others and possess their riches is the supreme good. So
comes all evil. For only oneself is regarded with love. If another is
regarded with love it is as devil loves devil or thief thief when they
are in league.
[3] Those who confirm these loves with themselves and the evils flowing
from them, from enjoyment in them, remain natural and become
sensuous-corporeal, and in their own thinking, which is that of their
spirit, are insane. And yet, as long as they are in the world they can
speak and act rationally and wisely, for they are human beings and so
have rationality and liberty, though they still do this from self-love
and love of the world. After death and on becoming spirits, they can
enjoy nothing that they did not enjoy in the world. Their enjoyment is
that of an infernal love and is turned into the unpleasant, sorrowful
and dreadful, meant in the Word by torment and hell-fire. Plain it is,
then, that man's first state is one of damnation and that they are in it
who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated.
[4] Man's second state--of reformation--is his state when he begins to
think of heaven for the joy there, thus of God from whom he has heaven's
joy. But at first the thought comes from the enjoyment of self-love; to
him heaven's joy is that enjoyment. While the enjoyments of that love and
of the evils flowing from it rule, moreover, he cannot but think that to
gain heaven is to pour out prayers, hear sermons, observe the Supper,
give to the poor, help the needy, make offerings to churches, contribute
to hospitals, and the like. In this state a man is persuaded that merely
to think about what religion teaches, whether this is called faith or
called faith and charity, is to be saved. He is so minded because he
gives no thought to the evils in the enjoyments of which he is. While
those enjoyments remain, the evils do. The enjoyments of the evils are
from the lust for them which continually inspires them and, when no fear
restrains, brings them to pass.
[5] While evils remain in the lusts of love for them and so in one's
enjoyments, there is no faith, piety, charity or worship except in
externals, which seem real in the world's sight, but are not. They may be
likened to waters flowing from an impure fountain, which one cannot
drink. While a man is such that he thinks about heaven and God from
religion but gives no thought to evils as sins, he is still in the first
state. He comes into the second state, which is one of reformation, when
he begins to think that there is such a thing as sin and still more when
he thinks that a given evil is a sin, explores it somewhat in himself,
and does not will it.
[6] Man's third state, which is one of regeneration, sets in and
continues from the former. It begins when a man desists from evils as
sins, progresses as he shuns them, and is perfected as he battles against
them. Then as he conquers from the Lord he is regenerated. The order of
his life is changed; from natural he becomes spiritual; the natural
separated from the spiritual is in disorder and the spiritual is in
order. The regenerated man acts from charity and makes what is of his
faith a part of his charity. But he becomes spiritual only in the measure
in which he is in truths. Everyone is regenerated by means of truths and
of a life in accord with them; by truths he knows life and by his life he
does the truths. So he unites good and truth, which is the spiritual
marriage in which heaven is.
85.* Man is reformed and regenerated by means of the two faculties called
rationality and liberty, and cannot be reformed or regenerated without
them, because it is by means of rationality that he can understand and
know what is evil and what is good, and hence what is false and true, and
by means of liberty that he can will what he understands and knows. But
while the enjoyment of an evil love rules him he cannot will good and
truth freely or make them a matter of his reason, and therefore cannot
appropriate them to him. For, as was shown above, what a man does in
freedom from reason is appropriated to him as his, and unless it is so
appropriated, he is not reformed and regenerated. He acts from the
enjoyment of a love of good and truth for the first time when the
enjoyment of love for the evil and false has been removed. Two opposite
kinds of enjoyments of love at one and the same time are impossible. To
act from the enjoyment of love is to act freely and is also to act
according to reason, inasmuch as the reason favors the love.
* This number must be kept though there is no number 84; long established
references to Swedenborg's books make it necessary to keep the numbering
in the Latin original.
86. Because an evil man as well as a good man has rationality and
liberty, the evil man as well as the good can understand truth and do
good. The evil man cannot do this in freedom according to reason, while a
good man can; for the evil man is in the enjoyment of a love of evil, the
good man in the enjoyment of a love of good. The truth which an evil man
understands and the good he does are therefore not appropriated to him,
as they are to the good man, and aside from appropriation there is no
reformation or regeneration. With the evil man evils with their falsities
occupy the center, as it were, and goods with their truths the
circumference, but goods with their truths the center with the good man
and evils with their falsities the periphery. In each case what is at the
center is diffused to the circumference, as heat is from a fiery center
and cold from an icy one. Thus with the wicked the good at the
circumference is defiled by evils at the center, and with the good evils
at the circumference grow mild from the good at the center. For this
reason evils do not condemn a regenerating man, nor do goods save the
unregenerate.
87. (v) _A man can be reformed and regenerated by means of the two
faculties so far as he can be led by them to acknowledge that all truth
and good which he thinks and does are from the Lord and not from
himself._ What reformation and regeneration are has been told just above,
likewise that man is reformed and regenerated by means of the two
faculties of rationality and liberty. Because it is done by those
faculties, something more is to be said of them. From rationality a man
can understand and from liberty he can will, doing each as of himself.
Yet he does not have the ability to will good in freedom and to do it in
accord with reason unless he is regenerated. An evil man can will only
evil in freedom and do it according to his thinking, which by
confirmations he has made to be his reasoning. For evil can be confirmed
as well as good, but is confirmed by fallacies and appearances which then
become falsities; evil so confirmed seems to accord with reason.
88. Anyone thinking from interior understanding can see that the power to
will and the power to understand are not from man, but from Him who has
power itself, that is, power in its essence. Only think whence power is.
Is it not from Him who has it in its full might, that is, who possesses
it in and from Himself? Power in itself, therefore, is divine. All power
must have a supply on which to draw and direction from an interior or
higher self. Of itself the eye cannot see, nor the ear hear, nor the
mouth speak, nor the hand do; there must be supply and direction from the
mind. Nor can the mind of itself think or will this or that unless
something more interior or higher determines the mind to it. The same is
true of the power to understand and the power to will. These are possible
only from Him who has in Himself the power of willing and understanding.
[2] It is plain, then, that the two faculties called rationality and
liberty are from the Lord and not from man. Man can therefore will or
understand something only as if of himself, and not of himself. Anyone
can confirm the truth of this for himself who knows and believes that the
will to good and the understanding of truth are wholly from the Lord, and
not from man. The Word teaches that man can take nothing of himself and
do nothing of himself (Jn 3:27; 15:5).
89. As all willing is from love and all understanding is from wisdom, the
ability to will is from divine love, and the ability to understand is
from divine wisdom; thus both are from the Lord who is divine love itself
and divine wisdom itself. Hence to act in freedom according to reason has
no other source. Everyone acts in freedom because, like love, freedom
cannot be separated from willing. But there is interior and exterior
willing, and a man can act upon the exterior without acting at the same
time on the interior willing; so hypocrite and flatterer act. Exterior
willing, however, is still from freedom, being from a love of appearing
other than one is, or from love of an evil which the person intends in
the love of his inner will. An evil man, however, as has been said,
cannot in freedom according to reason do anything but evil; he cannot do
good in freedom according to reason; he can do good, to be sure, but not
in the inner freedom which is his own, from which the outer freedom has
its character of not being good.
90. A person can be reformed and regenerated, we have said, in the
measure in which he is led by the two faculties to acknowledge that all
good and truth which he thinks and does are from the Lord and not from
himself. A man can make this acknowledgment only by means of the two
faculties, because they are from the Lord and are the Lord's in him, as
is plain from what has been said. Man can make this acknowledgment,
therefore, only from the Lord and not from himself; he can make it as if
of himself; this the Lord gives everyone to do. He may believe that it is
of himself, but when wiser acknowledge that it is not of himself.
Otherwise the truth he thinks and the good he does are not in themselves
truth and good, for the man and not the Lord is in them. Good in which
the man is and which is done by him for salvation's sake is
self-righteous, but not that in which the Lord is.
91. Few can grasp with understanding that acknowledgment of the Lord, and
acknowledgment that all good and truth are from Him, cause one to be
reformed and regenerated. For a person may think, "What does the
acknowledgment effect when the Lord is omnipotent and wills the salvation
of all? This He wills and can accomplish if only He is moved to mercy."
One is not thinking then from the Lord, nor from the interior sight of
the understanding, that is, from enlightenment. Let me say briefly what
the acknowledgment accomplishes.
[2] In the spiritual world where space is appearance only, wisdom brings
about presence and love union, or the contrary happens. One can
acknowledge the Lord from wisdom, and one can acknowledge Him from love.
The acknowledgment of Him from wisdom (viewed in itself this is only
knowledge) is made by doctrine; acknowledgment from love is made in a
life according to doctrine. This effects union, the other, presence.
Those, therefore, who reject instruction about the Lord remove themselves
from Him, and as they also refuse life they part from Him. Those who do
not reject instruction, but do refuse life, are present but still
separated--like friends who converse but do not love each other, or like
two one of whom speaks as a friend with the other, although as his enemy
he hates him.
[3] The truth of this is commonly recognized in the idea that one who
teaches and lives well is saved but not one who teaches well but lives
wickedly, and in the idea that one who does not acknowledge God cannot be
saved. This makes plain what kind of religion it is only to think about
the Lord from faith, so called, and not to do something from charity.
Therefore the Lord says,
Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? Everyone who
comes to Me and hears my words and does them .. . is like a house-builder
who has placed the foundation on a rock, but the man who hears and does
not do, is like a man building a house on the ground without a foundation
(Lu 6:46-49).
92. (vi) _The conjunction of the Lord with man and man's reciprocal
conjunction with the Lord is effected by these two faculties._
Conjunction with the Lord and regeneration are one and the same thing,
for a man is regenerated in the measure that he is conjoined with the
Lord. All that we have said above about regeneration can be said
therefore of the conjunction, and all we said about conjunction can be
said about regeneration. The Lord Himself teaches in John that there is a
conjunction of the Lord with man and a reciprocal conjunction of man with
the Lord.
Abide in Me, and I in you. . . . He that abides in Me and I in him,
brings forth much fruit (15:4, 5).
In that day you will know that you are in Me and I in you (14:20).
[2] From reason alone anyone can see that there is no conjunction of
minds unless it is reciprocal, and that what is reciprocal conjoins. If
one loves another without being loved in return, then as he approaches,
the other withdraws; but if he is loved in return, as he approaches, the
other does also, and there is conjunction. Love also wills to be loved;
this is implanted in it; and so far as it is loved in return it is in
itself and in its delight. Thence it is plain that if the Lord loves man
and is not in turn loved by man, the Lord advances but man withdraws;
thus the Lord would be constantly willing to meet with man and enter him,
but man would be turning back and departing. So it is with those in hell,
but with those in heaven there is mutual conjunction.
[3] Since the Lord wills conjunction with man for salvation's sake, He
also provides something reciprocal with man. This consists in the fact
that the good a man wills and does in freedom and the truth he thinks and
speaks from the will according to reason seem to be from himself, and
that the good in his will and the truth in his understanding seem to be
his--indeed they seem to the man to be from himself and to be as
completely his as though they really were; there is no difference; does
anyone perceive otherwise by any sense? See above (nn. 74-77) on the
appearance as of self, and (nn. 78-81) on appropriation as of oneself.
The only difference is the acknowledgment which a man ought to make, that
he does good and thinks truth not of himself but from the Lord, and hence
that the good he does and the truth he thinks are not his. So to think
from some love of the will because it is the truth makes conjunction; for
then a man looks to the Lord and the Lord looks on the man.
93. I have been granted both to hear and see in the spiritual world what
the difference is between those who believe that all good is from the
Lord and those who believe that good is from themselves. Those who
believe that good is from the Lord turn their faces to Him and receive
the enjoyment and blessedness of good. Those who think that good is from
themselves look to themselves and think they have merit. Looking to
themselves, they perceive only the enjoyment of their own good which is
the enjoyment not of good but of evil, for man's own is evil, and
enjoyment of evil perceived as good is hell. Those who have done good but
believed it was of themselves, and who after death do not receive the
truth that all good is from the Lord, mingle with infernal spirits and
finally join them. Those who receive that truth, however, are reformed,
though no others receive it than those who have looked to God in their
life. To look to God in one's life is nothing else than to shun evils as
sins.
94. The Lord's conjunction with man and man's reciprocal conjunction with
the Lord is effected by loving the neighbor as one's self and the Lord
above all. To love the neighbor as one's self consists simply in not
acting insincerely or unjustly with him, not hating him or avenging one's
self on him, not cursing and defaming him, not committing adultery with
his wife, and not doing other like things to him. Who cannot see that
those who do such things do not love the neighbor as themselves? Those,
however, who do not do such things because they are evils to the neighbor
and at the same time sins against the Lord, deal sincerely, justly,
amicably and faithfully by the neighbor; as the Lord does likewise,
reciprocal conjunction takes place. And when conjunction is reciprocal,
whatever a man does to the neighbor he does from the Lord, and what he
does from the Lord is good. The neighbor to him then is not the person,
but the good in the person. To love the Lord above all is to do no evil
to the Word, for the Lord is in the Word, or to the holy things of the
church, for He is in these, too, and to do no evil to the soul of
another, for everyone's soul is in the Lord's hand. Those who shun these
evils as monstrous sins against the Lord love Him above all else. None
can do this except those who love the neighbor as themselves, for the two
loves are conjoined.
95. In view of the fact that there is a conjunction of the Lord with man
and of man with the Lord, there are two tables of the Law, one for the
Lord and the other for man. So far as man as of himself keeps the laws of
his table, the Lord enables him to observe the laws of the Lord's table.
A man, however, who does not keep the laws of his table, which are all
referable to love for the neighbor, cannot do the laws of the Lord's
table, which are all referable to love for the Lord. How can a murderer,
thief, adulterer, or false witness love God? Does reason not insist that
to be any of these and to love God is a contradiction? Is not the devil
such? Must he not hate God? But a man can love God when he abhors murder,
adultery, theft and false witness, for then he turns his face away from
the devil to the Lord; turning his face to the Lord he is given love and
wisdom--these enter him by the face, and not by the back of the neck. As
conjunction is accomplished only so, the two tables are called a
covenant, and a covenant exists between two.
96. (vii) _In all the procedure of His divine providence the Lord
safeguards the two faculties in man unimpaired and as sacred._ The
reasons are that without those two faculties man would not have
understanding and will and thus would not be human; likewise that without
them he could not be conjoined to the Lord and so be reformed and
regenerated; and because without them he would not have immortality and
eternal life. The truth of this can be seen from what has been said about
the two faculties, liberty and rationality, but not clearly seen unless
the reasons just given are brought forward as conclusions. They are,
therefore to be clarified.
[2] _Without those two faculties man would not have understanding and
will and thus would not be human._ Man has will only in that he can will
freely as of himself, and to will freely as of oneself is from the
faculty called liberty, steadily imparted by the Lord. Man has
understanding only in that he can understand as of himself whether a
thing is of reason or not, and so to understand is from the other
faculty, called rationality, steadily imparted to him by the Lord. These
faculties unite in man as will and understanding do, for because a man
can will, he can also understand; willing is impossible without
understanding; understanding is its partner and mate apart from which it
cannot exist. With the faculty called liberty there is therefore given
the faculty called rationality. If, too, you take willing away from
understanding, you understand nothing.
[3] In the measure that you will, you can understand provided the helps,
called knowledges, are present or available, for these are like tools to
a workman. We say, in the measure you will you can understand, meaning,
so far as you love to understand, for will and love act as one. This
seems like a paradox, but it appears so to those who do not love or hence
will to understand. They say they cannot understand, but in the following
section we shall tell who cannot understand, and who can hardly
understand.
[4] It is plain without confirmation that unless man had will from the
faculty called liberty, and understanding from the faculty called
rationality, he would not be human. Beasts do not have these faculties.
Beasts seem to be able to will and to understand, but cannot do so. They
are led and moved to do what they do solely by a natural affection, in
itself desire, which has knowledge for its mate. Something civil and
moral there is in their knowledge, but it does not transcend the
knowledge, for they have nothing spiritual enabling them to perceive or
to think analytically of what is moral. They can indeed be taught to do
something, but this is natural only, is assimilated to their knowledge
and at the same time to their affection, and reproduced through sight or
hearing, but never becomes with them anything of thought, still less of
reason. On this see some things above, n. 74.
[5] _Without those two faculties man could not be con-joined to the Lord
or reformed and regenerated._ This has been shown above. The Lord resides
with men, whether evil or good, in these two faculties and conjoins
Himself by them to every man. Hence an evil man as well as a good man can
understand and has the will of good and the understanding of truth
potentially--that he does not possess them actually is owing to abuse of
those faculties. The Lord resides in those faculties in everyone by the
influx of His will, namely, to be received by man and to have an abode
with him, and to give him the felicities of eternal life; all this is of
the Lord's will, being of His divine love. It is this will of the Lord
which causes what a man thinks, speaks, wills and does, to seem to be his
own.
[6] That the influx of the Lord's will effects this can be confirmed by
much in the spiritual world. Sometimes the Lord fills an angel with His
divine so that the angel does not know but that he is the Lord. Thus
inspired were the angels who appeared to Abraham, Hagar, and Gideon, and
who therefore spoke of themselves as Jehovah; of whom the Word tells. So
also one spirit may be filled by another so that he does not know but
that he is the other; I have seen this often. In heaven it is general
knowledge that the Lord operates all things by willing, and that what He
wills takes place.
From all this it is plain that it is by those two faculties that the Lord
conjoins Himself to man and causes the man to be reciprocally conjoined.
We told above and shall say more below about how man is reciprocally
conjoined by the two faculties and how, consequently, he is reformed and
regenerated by means of them.
[7] _Without those two faculties man would not have immortality or
eternal life._ This follows from what has been said: that by the two
faculties there is conjunction with the Lord and also reformation and
regeneration. By conjunction man has immortality, and through reformation
and regeneration he has eternal life. As every man, evil as well as good,
is conjoined to the Lord by the two faculties every man has immortality.
Eternal life, or the life of heaven, however, only that man has with whom
there is reciprocal conjunction from inmosts to outmosts.
The reasons may now be clear why the Lord, in all the procedure of His
divine providence, safeguards the two faculties in man unimpaired and as
sacred.
97. ( viii) _It is therefore [a law] of divine providence that man shall
act in freedom from reason._ To act in freedom according to reason, to
act from liberty and rationality, and to act from will and understanding,
are the same. But it is one thing to act in freedom according to reason,
or from liberty and rationality, and another thing to act from freedom
itself according to reason itself or from liberty and rationality
themselves. The man who does evil from love of evil and confirms it in
himself acts indeed from freedom according to reason, but his freedom is
not in itself freedom or very freedom, but an infernal freedom which in
itself is bondage, and his reason is not in itself reason, but is either
spurious or false or plausible through confirmations. Still, either is of
divine providence. For if freedom to will evil and do it as of the reason
through confirmation of it were taken from the natural man, liberty and
rationality and at the same time will and understanding would perish, and
he could not be withdrawn any longer from evils, be reformed or united
with the Lord, and live to eternity. The Lord therefore guards man's
freedom as a man does the apple of his eye. Through that freedom the Lord
steadily withdraws man from evils and so far as He can do this implants
goods, thus gradually putting heavenly freedom in place of infernal
freedom.
98. We said above that every man has the faculty of volition called
liberty and the faculty of understanding called rationality. Those
faculties, moreover, it should be known, are as it were inherent in man,
for humanness itself is in them. But as was just said, it is one thing to
act from freedom in accord with reason, and another thing to act from
freedom itself and according to reason itself. Only those do the latter
who have suffered themselves to be regenerated by the Lord; others act in
freedom according to thought which they make seem like reason. Unless he
was born foolish or supremely stupid, every person can attain to reason
itself and by it to liberty itself. Many reasons why all do not do so
will be disclosed in what follows. Here we shall only tell to whom
freedom itself or liberty itself, and at the same time reason itself or
rationality itself cannot be given and to whom they can hardly be given.
[2] True liberty and rationality cannot be given to those foolish from
birth or to those who become foolish later, while they remain so. Nor can
they be given to those born stupid and dull or to any made so by the
torpor of idleness, or by a disease which perverts or entirely closes the
interiors of the mind, or by love of a bestial life.
[3] Genuine liberty and rationality cannot be given to those in
Christendom who utterly deny the Divine of the Lord and the holiness of
the Word, and have kept that denial confirmed to life's close. For this
is meant by the sin against the Holy Spirit which is not forgiven in this
world or in the world to come (Mt 12:31, 32).
[4] Liberty itself and rationality itself cannot be given to those who
ascribe all things to nature and nothing to the Divine, and have made
this a conviction by reasonings from visible things; for these are
atheists.
[5] True liberty and rationality can hardly be given to those who have
confirmed themselves much in falsities of religion; for a confirmer of
falsity is a denier of truth. But they can be given to those, in whatever
religion, who have not so confirmed themselves. On this see what is
adduced in _Doctrine for the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture,_
nn. 91-97.
[6] Infants and children cannot attain to essential liberty and
rationality before they grow up. For the interiors of the mind of man are
opened gradually, and meanwhile are like seeds in unripe fruit, without
ground in which to sprout.
99. We have said that true liberty and rationality cannot be given to
those who have denied the Divine of the Lord and the holiness of the
Word; to those who have confirmed themselves in favor of nature and
against the Divine; and hardly to those who have strongly confirmed
themselves in falsities of religion; still none of these have destroyed
the faculties themselves. I have heard atheists, who had become devils
and satans, understand arcana of wisdom quite as well as angels, but only
while they heard them from others; on returning into their own thought,
they did not understand them, for the reason that they did not will to do
so. They were shown that they could also will this, did not the love and
enjoyment of evil turn them away. This they understood, too, when they
heard it. Indeed they asserted that they could but did not will to be
able to do so, for then they could not will what they did will, namely,
evil from enjoyment in the lust of it. I have often heard such
astonishing things in the spiritual world. I am fully persuaded therefore
that every man has liberty and rationality, and that every man can attain
true liberty and rationality if he shuns evils as sins. But the adult who
has not come into true liberty and rationality in the world can never do
so after death, for the state of his life remains to eternity what it was
in the world.
VI. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL REMOVE EVILS AS SINS
IN THE EXTERNAL MAN OF HIMSELF, AND ONLY SO CAN THE LORD REMOVE THE EVILS
IN THE INTERNAL MAN AND AT THE SAME TIME IN THE EXTERNAL
100. Anyone can see from reason alone that the Lord who is good itself
and truth itself cannot enter man unless the evils and falsities in him
are removed. For evil is opposed to good, and falsity to truth, and two
opposites cannot mingle, but as one approaches the other, combat arises
which lasts until one gives way to the other; what gives way departs and
the other takes its place. Heaven and hell, or the Lord and the devil,
are in such opposition. Can anyone reasonably think that the Lord can
enter where the devil reigns, or heaven be where hell is? By the
rationality with which every sane person is endowed, who cannot see that
for the Lord to enter, the devil must be cast out, or for heaven to
enter, hell must be removed?
[2] This opposition is meant by Abraham's words from heaven to the rich
man in hell:
Between us and you a great gulf is fixed, so that those who would cross
from us to you cannot, nor those over there cross to us (Lu 16:26).
Evil is itself hell, and good is itself heaven, or what is the same, evil
is itself the devil, and good itself the Lord. A person in whom evil
reigns is a hell in least form, and one in whom good reigns is a heaven
in least form. How, then, can heaven enter hell when a gulf is fixed
between them so great that there is no crossing from one to the other? It
follows that hell must by all means be removed for the Lord to enter with
heaven.
101. But many, especially those who have confirmed themselves in faith
severed from charity, do not know that they are in hell when they are in
evils. In fact, they do not know what evils are, giving them no thought.
They say that they are not under the yoke of the law and so the law does
not condemn them; likewise, that as they cannot contribute to their
salvation, they cannot remove any evil of themselves and furthermore
cannot do any good of themselves. It is these who neglect to give some
thought to evil and therefore keep on in evil. They are meant by the Lord
under "goats" in Matthew 25:32, 33; 41-46, as may be seen in _Doctrine of
the New Jerusalem on Faith,_ nn. 61-68; to them it is said in verse 41,
"Depart from Me, you accursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the
devil and his angels."
[2] Persons who give no thought to the evils in them, and who do not
examine themselves and then desist from the evils, cannot but be ignorant
what evil is, and cannot but love it then from delighting in it. For one
who is ignorant of it loves it, and one who fails to give it thought,
goes on in it, blind to it. Thought sees good and evil as the eye sees
beauty and ugliness. One who thinks and wills evil is in evil, and so is
a person who thinks that it does not come to God's sight, or if it does
is forgiven by Him; he supposes then that he is without evil. If such
persons refrain from doing evil, they do so not because it is a sin
against God, but for fear of the law and for their reputation's sake. In
spirit they still do evil, for it is man's spirit that thinks and wills.
As a result, what a man thinks in his spirit in the world, he commits
when he becomes a spirit on his departure from the world.
[3] In the spiritual world, into which everyone comes after death, the
question is not asked what your belief has been or your doctrine, but
what your life has been. Was it such or such? For, as is known, such as
one's life is, such is one's belief, yes, one's doctrine. For life
fashions a doctrine and a belief for itself.
102. From all this it is plain that it is a law of divine providence that
evils be removed by man, for without the removal of them the Lord cannot
be conjoined to man and from Himself lead man to heaven. But it is not
known that man ought to remove evils in the external man as of himself
and that unless he does so the Lord cannot remove the evils in his
internal man. This is to be presented, therefore, to the reason in light
of its own in this order:
i. Every man has an external and an internal of thought.
ii. His external of thought is in itself such as his internal is.
iii. The internal cannot be purified from the lusts of evil as long as
the evils in the external man have not been removed, for these impede.
iv. Only with the man's participation can evils in the external man be
removed by the Lord.
v. Therefore a man ought to remove evils from the external man as of
himself.
vi. The Lord then purifies him from the lusts of evil in the internal man
and from the evils themselves in the external.
vii. The continuous effort of the Lord in His divine providence is to
unite man to Himself and Himself to man, in order to be able to bestow
the felicities of eternal life on him, which can be done only so far as
evils, along with their lusts, are removed.
103. (i) _Every man has an external and an internal of thought._ By
external and internal of thought the same is meant here as by external
and internal man, and by this nothing else is meant than external and
internal of will and understanding, for will and understanding constitute
man, and as they both manifest themselves in thoughts, we speak of
external and internal of thought. And as it is man's spirit and not his
body which wills and understands and consequently thinks, external and
internal are external and internal of his spirit. The body's activity in
speech or deed is only an effect from the external and internal of man's
spirit, for the body is so much obedience.
104. As he grows older, every person has an external and an internal of
thought, or an external and an internal of will and understanding or of
his spirit, identical with external and internal man. This is evident to
anyone who observes another's thoughts and intentions as they are
revealed in speech or deed, or who observes his own when he is in company
and when he is by himself. For from the external thought one can talk
amicably with another and yet in internal thought be hostile. From
external thought and from its affection, too, a man can talk about love
for the neighbor and for God when in his internal thought he cares
nothing for the neighbor and does not fear God. From external thought
together with its affection he can talk about the justice of civil laws,
the virtues of the moral life, and matters of doctrine and the spiritual
life, and yet in private and from his internal thought and its affection
speak against the civil laws, the moral virtues, and matters of doctrine
and spiritual life. So those do who are in lusts of evil but want to
appear to the world not to be in them.
[2] Many also, as they listen to others, think to themselves, "Do those
speaking think inwardly in themselves as they think in utterance? Are
they to be believed or not? What do they intend?" Flatterers and
hypocrites notoriously possess a twofold thought. They can be
self-restrained and guard against the interior thought's being disclosed,
and some can hide it more and more deeply and bar the door against its
appearing. That a man possesses external and internal thought is also
plain in that from his interior thought he can behold the exterior
thought, can reflect on it, too, and judge whether or not it is evil. The
human mind is such because of the two faculties, called liberty and
rationality, which one has from the Lord. Unless he possessed internal
and external of thought from these faculties, a man could not perceive
and see an evil in himself and be reformed. In fact, he could not speak
but only make sounds like a beast.
105. The internal of thought comes out of the life's love, its affections
and the perceptions from them. The external of thought is from what is in
the memory, serving the life's love for confirmation and as means to its
end. From childhood to early manhood a person is in the external of
thought from an affection for knowledge, which is then his internal; from
the life's love born in one from parents something of lust and hence of
disposition issues, too. Later, however, his life's love is as he lives,
and its affections and the perceptions from them make the internal of his
thought. From his life's love comes a love of means; the enjoyments of
these means and the information drawn thereby from the memory make his
external of thought.
106. (ii) _Man's external of thought is in itself such as his internal
is._ We showed earlier that from head to foot a man is what his life's
love is. Something must be said about his life's love, for until this is
done nothing can be said about the affections which together with
perceptions make the internal of man, or about the enjoyments of the
affections together with thoughts which make his external. Loves are
many, but two--heavenly love and infernal love--are like lords or kings.
Heavenly love is love to the Lord and the neighbor; infernal love is love
of self and the world. These are opposite to each other as heaven and
hell are. For a man in love of self and the world wishes well only to
himself; a man in love to the Lord and the neighbor wishes well to all.
These two are the loves of man's life, though with much variety. Heavenly
love is the life's love of those whom the Lord leads, and infernal love
the life's love of those whom the devil leads.
[2] No one's life's love can be without derivatives, called affections.
The derivatives of infernal love are affections of evil and falsity
--lusts, properly speaking; and those of heavenly love are affections of
good and truth--loves, strictly. Affections, or strictly lusts, of
infernal love are as numerous as evils are, and affections, or properly
loves, of heavenly love are as many as there are goods. Love dwells in
its affections like a lord in his domain and a king in his realm; its
domain or realm is over the things of the mind, that is, of the will and
understanding and thence of the body. By its affections and the
perceptions from them and by its enjoyments and the thoughts therefrom,
the life's love of man rules him completely, the internal of the mind by
the affections and perceptions from them, and the external by the
enjoyments of the affections and of the thoughts from them.
107. The manner of this rule may be seen to some extent from comparisons.
Heavenly love with its affections of good and truth and the perceptions
from them, together with the enjoyments of such affections and the
thoughts from these, may be compared to a tree, notable for its branches,
leaves and fruit. The life's love is the tree; the branches with their
leaves are the affections of good and truth with their perceptions; and
the fruits are the enjoyments of the affections with their thoughts.
Infernal love, however, with its affections or lusts of evil and falsity,
together with the enjoyments of the lusts and the thinking from those
enjoyments, may be compared to a spider and the web spun about it. The
love itself is the spider; the lusts of evil and falsity together with
their subtle cunning are the net of threads nearest the spider's post;
and the enjoyments of the lusts together with their crafty schemes are
the more remote threads where flies are snared on the wing, enveloped
and eaten.
108. These comparisons may help one to see the connection of all things
of the will and understanding or of man's mind with his life's love, and
yet not to see it rationally. Rationally it may be seen in this way.
Everywhere there are three which make one, called end, cause and effect.
Here the life's love is end; the affections with their perceptions are
cause; and the enjoyments of the affections and consequent thoughts are
effect. For as an end passes into effect through a cause, love passes by
its affections to its enjoyments and by its perceptions to its thoughts.
The effects are in the enjoyments of the mind and the thoughts thence
when the enjoyments are from the will and the thoughts from the attendant
understanding, that is, when all fully agree. The effects are then part
of man's spirit and although they do not come into bodily act are still a
deed there when there is this agreement. At the same time they are in the
body, dwelling there with man's life's love and longing for the deed,
which occurs when nothing hinders. The same is true of lusts of evil and
evil deeds with those who make evils allowable in spirit.
[2] As an end unites itself with a cause and by the cause with an effect,
the life's love unites itself with the internal of thought and by this
with its external. It is plain then that man's external of thought is in
itself what his internal is, for an end imparts all of itself to the
cause and through the cause to the effect. Nothing essential is present
in an effect which is not in the cause and through the cause in the end,
and as the end is what essentially enters cause and effect, these are
called "mediate end" and "final end" respectively.
109. Sometimes the external of thought seems to be different in itself
from the internal. This is because the life's love with its internals
about it sets a vicar under it called the love of means, and directs it
to watch and guard against anything of its lusts appearing. This vicar,
with the cunning of its chief, the life's love, therefore speaks and acts
in accordance with the laws of a kingdom, the ethical demands of reason,
and the spiritual requirements of the church, so cunningly, too, and
cleverly that no one sees that persons are other than they say and act,
and finally the persons themselves, so disguised, scarcely know
otherwise. Such are all hypocrites. Such are priests, also, who at heart
care nothing for the neighbor and do not fear God, yet preach about love
of the neighbor and of God. Such are judges who judge by gifts and
friendships while affecting zeal for justice and speaking with reason
about judgment. Such are traders who at heart are insincere and
fraudulent while dealing honestly for the sake of profit. Such are
adulterers when, from the rationality every man possesses, they talk
about the chastity of marriage; and so on.
[2] The same persons, when they strip the love of means, the vicar of
their life's love, of the purple and linen which they have thrown around
it and put its house dress on it, then think exactly the contrary, and
exchanging thought with their best friends who are in a similar life's
love, they speak so. It may be believed that when they have spoken so
justly, honestly and piously from the love of means, the character of the
internal of thought was not in the external of their thought; yet it was;
hypocrisy is in them, and love of self and the world is in them, the
cunning of which aims to capture a reputation for the sake of standing or
gain through just the outward appearance. This, the nature of the
internal, is in the external of their thought when they speak and act so.
110. With those in a heavenly love, however, internal and external of
thought or internal and external man make one when they speak, and they
are aware of no difference. Their life's love, with its affections of
good and the perceptions of truth from these, is like a soul in what they
think and then say and do. If they are priests, they preach out of love
to the neighbor and to the Lord; if judges, they judge from justice
itself; if tradesmen, they deal with honesty; if they are husbands, they
love the partner with true chastity; and so on. Their life's love also
has a love of the means for vicar, which it teaches and leads to act with
prudence and clothes with garments of a zeal for both truths of doctrine
and goods of life.
111. ( iii) _The internal cannot be purified from the lusts of evil as
long as evils in the external man are not removed, for these impede._
This follows from what has been said above, that the external of man's
thought is in itself what the internal of his thought is and that they
cohere as what is not only in the other but also from the other; one
cannot be removed, therefore, unless the other is at the same time. This
is true of any external which is from an internal, and of anything
subsequent from what is prior, and of every effect from a cause.
[2] As lusts together with slynesses make the internal of thought with
evil persons, and the enjoyments of the lusts together with scheming make
the external of thought in them, and the two are joined into one, it
follows that the internal cannot be purified from the lusts as long as
the evils in the external man are not removed. It should be known that
man's internal will is in the lusts; his internal understanding in the
slynesses; his external will in the enjoyments of the lusts; and his
external understanding in the sly scheming. Anyone can see that lusts and
their enjoyments make one, that slynesses and scheming also do, and that
the four are one series and as it were make a single bundle. From this
again it is evident that the internal, consisting of lusts, cannot be
cast out except on the removal of the external, consisting of evils.
Lusts produce evils by their enjoyments, and when evils are deemed
allowable, as they are when will and understanding agree on it, the
enjoyments and the evils make one. It is well known that assent is deed;
this is also what the Lord said:
If anyone looks on the woman of another to lust after her, he has already
committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).*
The same is true of all other evils.
* The Greek is simply "on a woman" and does not have the word here
rendered "of another." Though Swedenborg quotes the verse several times
in his works he seems not to have checked as he usually did beyond the
rendering of the Schmidius Latin Bible which he used.
112. From this it may now be evident that for a person to be purified
from the lusts of evil, evils must by all means be removed from the
external man, for the lusts have no way out before. If no outlet exists,
they remain within and breathe out enjoyments and so incite man to
consent, thus to deed. Lusts enter the body by the external of thought;
when there is consent, therefore, in the external of thought they are
instantly in the body; the enjoyment felt is bodily. See in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 362-370) that the body, thus the whole man,
is what the mind is. This can be illustrated by comparisons, and by
examples.
[2] By _comparisons:_ lusts with their enjoyments can be compared to a
fire which blazes the more, the more it is nursed; the freer its way the
more widely it spreads until in a city it consumes houses and in a woods
the trees. In the Word, moreover, lusts are compared to fire, and the
evils from them to a conflagration. The lusts of evil with their
enjoyments also appear as fires in the spiritual world; hellfire is
nothing else. Lusts may also be compared to floods and inundations as
dikes or dams give way. They may also be likened to gangrene and
abscesses which bring death to the body as they run their course or are
not healed.
[3] By _examples:_ it is obvious that when evils are not removed in the
external man, the lusts with their enjoyments grow and flourish. The more
he steals the more a thief lusts to steal until he cannot stop; so with a
defrauder, the more he defrauds; it is the same with hatred and
vengeance, luxury and intemperance, whoredom and blasphemy. It is
notorious that the love of ruling from the love of self increases when
left unbridled; so also the love of possessing things from love of the
world; they seem to have no limit or end. Plain it is then that so far as
evils are not removed in the external man, lusts for them intensify; also
that in the degree that evils are given free rein, the lusts increase.
113. A person does not see the lusts of his evil; he sees their
enjoyments, to be sure, but still he reflects little on them, for they
divert thought and drive off reflection. Unless he learned from elsewhere
that they are evils he would call them goods and give them expression
freely according to his thought's reasoning; doing so, he appropriates
them to himself. So far as he confirms them as allowable he enlarges the
court of his ruling love, which is his life's love. Lusts constitute its
court, being its ministers and retinue, as it were, by which it governs
the exteriors of its realm. But such as is the king, such are the
ministers and retinue, and such is the kingdom. If the king is diabolic,
his ministers and the retinue are insanities, and the people of his realm
are falsities of every kind. The ministers (who are called wise although
they are insane) cause these falsities to appear as truths by reasonings
from fallacies and by fantasies and cause them to be acknowledged as
truths. Can such a state in a man be changed except by the evils being
removed in the external man? Then the lusts which cling to the evils are
also removed. Otherwise no outlet offers for the lusts; they are shut in
like a besieged city or like an indurated ulcer.
114. (iv) _Only with man's participation can evils in the external man be
removed by the Lord._ In all Christian churches it is an accepted point
of doctrine that before coming to the Holy Communion a person should
examine himself, see and confess his sins, and do penitence, desisting
from his sins and rejecting them because they are from the devil; and
that otherwise the sins are not forgiven him and he is damned. The
English, despite the fact that they are in the doctrine of faith alone,
nevertheless in the exhortation to the Holy Communion openly teach
self-examination, acknowledgment, confession of sins, penitence and
renewal of life, and warn those who do not do these things with the words
that otherwise the devil will enter into them as he did into Judas, fill
them with all iniquity, and destroy both body and soul. Germans, Swedes
and Danes, who are also in the doctrine of faith alone, teach the same in
the exhortation to the Holy Communion, also warning that otherwise the
communicants will make themselves liable to infernal punishments and
eternal damnation for mixing sacred and profane together. These words are
read out by the priest in a deep voice to all who are about to observe
the Holy Supper, and are listened to by them in full acknowledgment that
they are true.
[2] Nevertheless, after hearing a sermon on the same day about faith
alone and to the effect that the law does not condemn them because the
Lord has fulfilled it for them, and that of themselves they cannot do any
good which is not self-righteous and thus that one's works have nothing
saving in them, only faith alone has, these same persons return home
completely forgetting their earlier confession and rejecting it so far as
they think along the lines of the sermon. But which is true, the latter
or the former? Contrary to each other, both cannot be true. Which is?
That there can be no forgiveness of sins, thus no salvation but only
eternal damnation, apart from self-examination, the knowledge and
acknowledgment, confession and breaking off of sins, that is, apart from
repentance? Or that such things effect nothing towards salvation inasmuch
as full satisfaction for all the sins of men has been made by the Lord
through the passion of the cross for those who have faith, and that those
in faith alone with trust that it is so and with confidence in the
imputation of the Lord's merit, are sinless and appear before God like
men with shining faces for having washed?
[3] It is plain from this that the religion common to all churches in
Christendom is that one shall examine himself, see and acknowledge his
sins and then desist from them, and that otherwise there is no salvation,
but damnation. This, moreover, is divine truth itself, as is plain from
passages in the Word in which man is bidden to do penitence, as from the
following:
John said, Do . . . fruits worthy of repentance . . . this moment the axe
is at the root of the tree; every tree not giving good fruit will be cut
down and cast into the fire (Lu 3:8, 9).
Jesus said, Unless you do repentance, you shall all . . . perish
(Lu 13:3,5).
Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God; . . . do repentance, and
believe the gospel (Mk 1:14, 15).
Jesus sent out the disciples who on going out were to preach that men
should repent (Mk 6:12).
Jesus told the apostles that they were to preach repentance and the
remission of sins to all peoples (Lu 24:27).
John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mk
1:4; Lu 3:3).
Think about this also with some degree of understanding; if you have
religion, you will see that repentance of one's sins is the way to
heaven, that faith apart from repentance is not faith, and that those in
no faith for lack of repenting are in the way to hell.
115. Those in faith severed from charity who have confirmed themselves in
it by Paul's saying to the Romans that a man is justified by faith
without the works of the law (3:28) worship that saying quite like men
who worship the sun. They become like those who fix their gaze steadily
on the sun with the result that the blurred vision sees nothing in normal
light. For they fail to see what is meant in the passage by "works of the
law," namely, the rituals described by Moses in his books, called "law"
in them everywhere, and not the precepts of the Decalog. Lest it be
thought these are meant, Paul explains, saying at that point,
Do we not then make the law void through faith? Far from it, rather we
establish the law (verse 31 of the same chapter).
Those who have confirmed themselves by that saying in faith severed from
charity, looking on it as on the sun, do not see the passages in which
Paul lists the laws of faith and that these are the very works of
charity. What indeed is faith without its laws? Nor do they see the
passages in which he lists evil works, declaring that those who do them
cannot enter heaven. What blindness has been brought about by this one
passage badly understood!
116. Evils in the external man cannot be removed without man's
cooperation for the reason that it is by divine providence that whatever
a man hears, sees, thinks, wills, speaks and does shall seem to him to be
his own doing. Apart from that appearance (as was shown above, nn. 71-95
ff.) there would be no reception of divine truth on man's part, nor
determination to do what is good, nor any appropriation of love and
wisdom or of charity and faith, hence no conjunction with the Lord, no
reformation therefore or regeneration, and thus no salvation. Without
that appearance, repentance for sins would clearly be impossible and in
fact faith would; without that appearance, likewise, man is not man but
is devoid of rational life like the beasts. Let him who will, consult his
reason whether it appears otherwise than that man thinks from himself
about good and truth, spiritual as well as moral and civil; then accept
the doctrine that all good and truth are from the Lord and none from man.
Must he not then acknowledge as a consequence that man is to do good and
think truth of himself, yet always acknowledge that these are from the
Lord? And acknowledge further that man is to remove evils of himself, but
still acknowledge that he does so from the Lord?
117. Many are unaware that they are in evils since they do not do them
outwardly, fearing the civil law and the loss of reputation. Thus by
custom and habit they practice to avoid evils as detrimental to their
standing and interests. But if they do not shun evils on religious
principle, because they are sins and against God, the lusts of evil with
their enjoyments remain in them like impure waters stopped up or
stagnant. Let them probe their thoughts and intentions and they will come
on the lusts provided they know what sins are.
[2] Many such, who have confirmed themselves in faith separated from
charity and who believe that the law does not condemn, pay no attention
to sins. Some doubt there are sins, or if so, that they exist in God's
sight, having been pardoned. Such also are natural moralists, who believe
that civil and moral life with its prudence accomplishes all things and
divine providence nothing. Such are those, also, who strive with great
care after a reputation and a name for honesty and sincerity for the sake
of standing and preferment. But those who are such and who at the same
time have spurned religion become lustful spirits after death, appearing
to themselves like men indeed, but to others at a distance like _priapi;_
and they see in the dark and not at all in the light, like night-owls.
118. Proposition v, that _a man ought to remove evils from the external
man of himself,_ is substantiated then. Further explanation may be seen
in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ under three propositions: 1.
No one can flee evils as sins so as to be averse to them inwardly except
by combats against them (nn. 92-100); 2. A man ought to shun evils as
sins and fight against them as of himself (nn. 101-107); and 3. If he
shuns evils for any other reason than that they are sins, he does not
shun them, but only keeps them from appearing to the world.
119. (vi) _The Lord then purifies man from the lusts of evil in the
internal man and from the evils themselves in the external._ The Lord
purifies man from the lusts of evil only when man as of himself removes
the evils because He cannot do so before. For the evils are in the
external man and the lusts in the internal man, and they cling together
like roots and a trunk. Unless the evils are removed, therefore, no
outlet offers; they block the way and shut the door, which the Lord can
open only with a man's participation, as was shown just above. When the
man as of himself opens the door, the Lord then roots out the lusts.
[2] A second reason why the Lord cannot do so sooner is that He acts upon
man's inmost and by that on all that follows even to outmosts where man
himself is. While outmosts, therefore, are kept closed by man, no
purification can take place, but only that activity of the Lord in
interiors which is His activity in hell, of which the man who is in lusts
and at the same time in evils is a form--an activity which is solely
provision lest one thing destroy another and lest good and truth be
violated. It is plain from words of the Lord in the Apocalypse that He
constantly urges and prompts man to open the door to Him:
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me
(3:20).
120. Man knows nothing at all of the interior state of his mind or
internal man, yet infinite things are there, not one of which comes to
his knowledge. His internal of thought or internal man is his very
spirit, and in it are things as infinite and innumerable as there are in
his body, in fact, more numerous. For his spirit is man in its form, and
all things in it correspond to all things of his body. Now, just as man
knows nothing by any sensation about how his mind or soul operates on all
things of the body as a whole or severally, so he does not know, either,
how the Lord works on all things of his mind or soul, that is, of his
spirit. The divine activity is unceasing; man has no part in it; still
the Lord cannot purify a man from any lust of evil in his spirit or
internal man as long as the man keeps the external closed. Man keeps his
external closed by evils, each of which seems to him to be a single
entity, although in each are infinite things. When a man removes what
seems a single thing, the Lord removes infinite things in it. So much is
implied in the Lord's purifying man from the lusts of evil in the
internal man and from the evils themselves in the external.
121. Many believe that a person is purified from evils merely by
believing what the church teaches; some, by doing good; others by
knowing, speaking and teaching what is of the church; others by reading
the Word and books of devotion; others by going to church, hearing
sermons and especially by observing the Holy Supper; still others, by
renouncing the world and devoting oneself to piety; others still by
confessing oneself guilty of all sins; and so on. And yet none of these
things purifies man at all unless he examines himself, sees his sins,
acknowledges them, condemns himself on account of them, and repents by
desisting from them, and does all this as of himself, yet with the
acknowledgment in heart that he does so from the Lord.
[2] Until this is done, the things mentioned above do not avail, being
either self-righteous or hypocritical. Such persons appear to the angels
in heaven either like pretty courtesans smelling badly of their
corruption, or like unsightly women painted to appear handsome, or like
masked clowns and mimics in the theater, or like apes in men's clothes.
But when evils have been removed, then all that has just been mentioned
becomes the expression of love in such persons, and they appear as
beautiful human beings to the sight of the angels in heaven and as
partners and companions of theirs.
122. But it should be rightly known that in repenting a man ought to look
to the Lord alone. He cannot be purified if he looks to God the Father
alone, or to the Father for the sake of the Son, or to the Son as a man
only. For there is one God and the Lord is He, for His Divine and Human
is one Person, as we have shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about
the Lord._ In order that the intending penitent may look to Him alone,
the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, which confirms the remission of sins
in those who repent, and does so because everyone is kept looking to the
Lord alone in it.
123. (vii) _The perpetual effort of the Lord in His divine providence is
to conjoin man with Himself and Himself with man, in order to be able to
bestow the felicities of eternal life on him, which can be done only so
far as evils with their lusts have been removed._ It was shown above
(nn. 27-45) that it is the unceasing effort of the Lord in His divine
providence to conjoin man to Himself and Himself to man; that this
conjunction is what is called reformation and regeneration; and that by
it man has salvation. Who does not see that conjunction with God is life
eternal and salvation? Everyone sees this who believes that men by
creation are images and likenesses of God (Ge 1:26, 27) and
who knows what an image and likeness of God is. [2] What man of sound
reason, thinking from his rationality and wanting to think in freedom,
can believe that there are three Gods equal in essence and that divine
being or essence can be divided? One can conceive and comprehend a Trine
in the one God, however, just as soul, body and outgoing life in angel
and man are comprehensible. As this Trine in One exists only in the Lord,
conjunction must be with Him. Use your power of reason together with your
liberty of thought, and you will see this truth in its own light; but
admit first that God is, and heaven, and eternal life.
[3] As, then, God is one, and the human being was made by creation an
image and likeness of Him, and inasmuch as by infernal love and its lusts
and enjoyments man has come into a love of all evils and thus destroyed
the image and likeness of God in him, it follows that it is the
continuous effort of the Lord's divine providence to conjoin man to
Himself and Himself to man and thus make him an image of Himself. It also
follows that this is to the end that the Lord may be able to bestow on
him the felicities of eternal life, for such is divine love.
[4] He cannot bestow them, however, nor make man an image of Himself,
unless man removes sins in the external man as of himself, because the
Lord is not only divine love but also divine wisdom, and divine love does
nothing except by its divine wisdom and in consonance with it. It is
according to divine wisdom that man cannot be conjoined to the Lord and
thus reformed, regenerated and saved unless he is allowed to act in
freedom according to reason, for so man is man. Whatever is according to
the Lord's divine wisdom is also of His divine providence.
124. To this let me append two arcana of angelic wisdom showing further
what divine providence is like. One is that the Lord never acts on one
thing by itself in man, but on all things at the same time, and the
other is that He acts at once from inmosts and outmosts. He never acts
on some one thing by itself but on all things together because all
things in man are in such connection and from this in such form that
they act not as a number but as one. We know that there is such
connectedness and by it such organization in man's body. The human mind
is in similar form as a result of the connection of all things, for the
mind is the spiritual man and truly the man. Hence man's spirit or the
mind in the body in its entire form is man. Consequently man is man
after death equally as he was in the world with the sole difference that
he has thrown off the clothing which made up his body in the world.
[2] As the human form, then, is such that all its parts form a community
which acts as a whole, some one thing cannot be moved out of place or
altered in state except with adaptation of the rest, for if it were, the
form which acts as a whole would suffer. Hence it is plain that the Lord
never acts on any one thing without acting on all. So He acts on the
total angelic heaven since in His view it is like one man; so He acts on
each angel, for each angel is heaven in least form; so He acts also on
each man, most nearly on all things of man's mind and by these on all
things of his body; for man's mind is his spirit and in the measure of
conjunction with the Lord is an angel, and the body is obedience.
[3] It is to be well noted, however, that the Lord does act on each
particular thing in man singly, singularly so, when acting on all things
in man's organization; even so He does not alter the state of any part or
of any one thing except suitably to the whole form. But more will be said
of this in following numbers where we shall show that divine providence
is general because it extends to particulars, and particular because it
is general.
[4] The Lord acts from inmosts and outmosts at the same time because only
in this way are all things held in connection, for the intermediate
things depend one upon another from inmosts to outmosts and are assembled
in outmosts (it was shown in Part III of the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ that all things from the inmost onward are present simultaneously
in what is outmost ). For this reason the Lord from eternity or Jehovah
came into the world and assumed and bore human nature in outmosts. He
could thus be at once from firsts in lasts, and from firsts by lasts
govern the whole world and so save whom He could save according to the
laws of His divine providence, which are also the laws of His divine
wisdom. For it is true, as Christendom knows, that no mortal could have
been saved had the Lord not come into the world (see _Doctrine for the
New Jerusalem on Faith,_ n. 35). For the same reason the Lord is called
"The First and the Last."
125. These angelic arcana have been premised in order that it may be
comprehended how the Lord's divine providence operates to unite man to
Him and Himself to man. It does not act upon a particular thing by itself
in man, but on all things together and from man's inmost and outmosts
simultaneously. Man's inmost is his life's love; the outmosts are in the
external of thought; what is intermediate is in the internal of thought
(what external and internal are like with the wicked was shown earlier);
from which it is plain again that the Lord cannot act by inmosts and
outmosts simultaneously except together with man, for in the outmosts man
and the Lord are together. Wherefore, as the man acts in outmosts, which
are in his determination, being within the range of his freedom, so the
Lord acts from man's inmosts and in what follows from them to the
outmosts. Man does not know at all what is in the inmosts and in what
follows to the outmosts, therefore is unaware of how the Lord acts there
or what He effects there. But as all these things cohere as one with the
outmosts, man does not need to know more than that he should shun evils
as sins and look to the Lord. Only so can his life's love, which by birth
is infernal, be removed by the Lord and a heavenly life's love be
implanted in its place.
126. When a heavenly life's love has been implanted by the Lord in place
of an infernal life's love, affections of good and truth are implanted in
place of lusts of evil and falsity; enjoyments of affections of good are
implanted instead of enjoyments of lusts of evil and falsity, and goods
of heavenly love in place of evils of infernal love; prudence is
implanted in place of cunning, wise thinking in place of malevolent. So a
man is born again and becomes a new man. What goods replace evils you may
see in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem,_ nn. 67-73, 74-79, 80-86,
87-91; likewise that so far as man shuns and is averse to evils as sins
so far he loves truths of wisdom, nn. 32-41, and has faith and is
spiritual, nn. 42-52.
127. From the exhortations read aloud in all Christian churches before
Holy Communion we showed that it is the common religion of all
Christendom that a man should examine himself, see his sins, avow them,
confess them before God, and desist from them; and that this is
repentance, remission of sins and hence salvation. This is also evident
from the Creed named after Athanasius and received throughout Christendom
which concludes with the words:
The Lord will come to judge the living and the dead; at whose coming
those who have done good will enter into life eternal, and those who have
done evil, into everlasting fire.
128. Who does not know from the Word that everyone is allotted a life
after death according to his deeds? Open the Word, read it, and you will
see this clearly, but the while remove the thoughts from faith and
justification by faith alone. The few passages following are testimony
that the Lord teaches so everywhere in His Word:
Every tree which does not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast
into the fire. By their fruits therefore shall you know them (Mt 7:19,
20).
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord . . . have we not prophesied in
your name, . . . and in your name done many mighty things? But I shall
confess to them then, I know you not, depart from Me, you who work
iniquity (Mt 7:22, 23).
Everyone who hears my words and does them I shall liken to a prudent man
who built a house on a rock: . . . but everyone who hears my words but
does not do them shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house on
the ground without a foundation (Mt 7:24, 26; Lu 6:46-49).
[2] The Son of man will come in the glory of His Father .. . and render
then to everyone according to his deeds (Mt 16:27).
The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and given to a people
bringing forth its fruits (Mt 21:43).
Jesus said, These are My mother and brothers who hear the Word of God and
do it (Lu 8:21).
Then shall you begin to stand . . . and knock at the door, saying, Lord,
. . . open to us, but replying He will say to them, I know not whence you
are; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity (Lu 13:25-27).
Those who have done good shall go out into the resurrection of life, but
those who have done evil into the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:29).
[3] We know . . . that God does not hear sinners, but if a man worships
God and does His will, him He hears (Jn 9:31).
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them (13:17).
He who has My commandments and does them, he it is who loves Me, ... and
I will love him, . . . and I will come to him, and make an abode with him
(14:15, 21-24).
You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you... . I have chosen
you . . . that you may bear fruit and that your fruit may remain (15:14,
16).
[4] The Lord said to John, Write to the angel of the Ephesian church, I
know your works: . . . I have against you that you have left an earlier
charity; . . . repent, and do the former works; else . . . I shall remove
your candlestick from its place (Apoc 2:1, 2, 4, 5).
To the angel of the church of the Smyrneans write, I know your works
(2:8, 9).
To the angel of the church in Pergamos write, . . . I know your works,
repent (2:12, 13, 16).
To the angel of the church in Thyatira write, . . . I know your works and
charity, . . . and your later works are more than the first (2:18, 19).
To the angel of the church in Sardis write, . . . I know your works, that
you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead; . . . I have not
found your works perfect before God; . . . repent (3:1-3).
To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, I know your works (3:7,
8).
To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, I know your works;
. . . repent (3:14, 15, 19).
I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord from now on; ... their works follow them (14:13).
A book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged,
... all according to their works (20:12, 13).
Lo, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone
according to his work (22:12).
These are passages in the New Testament;
[5] there are still more in the Old, from which I shall quote only this
one:
Stand in the gate . . . of Jehovah, and proclaim this word there: Thus
says Jehovah Zebaoth the God of Israel, Make your ways good, and your
works; . . . put not your trust in lying words, saying, The temple, the
temple, the temple of Jehovah is this. . . . Thieving and killing and
committing adultery and swearing falsely . . . will you then come to
stand before Me in this house which is called by My name and say, We are
delivered? When you do those abominable things? Has not this house been
made a den of robbers? Even I, lo, I have seen it, is the word of Jehovah
(Je 7:2-4, 9-11).
VII. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL NOT BE COMPELLED BY
EXTERNAL MEANS TO THINK AND WILL, THUS TO BELIEVE AND LOVE WHAT PERTAINS
TO RELIGION, BUT BRING HIMSELF AND AT TIMES COMPEL HIMSELF TO DO SO
129. This law of divine providence follows from the preceding two,
namely: man is to act in freedom according to reason (nn. 71-99); and is
to do this of himself and yet from the Lord, thus as of himself (nn.
100-128). Inasmuch as being compelled is not to act in freedom according
to reason and also not to act of oneself, but to act from what is not
freedom and from someone else, this law of divine providence follows in
due order on the first two. Everyone knows that no one can be forced to
think what he is unwilling to think or to will what he decides not to
will, thus to believe what he does not believe, least of all what he
wills not to believe, or to love what he does not love and still less
what he wills not to love. For the spirit or mind of man enjoys complete
freedom in thinking, willing, believing and loving. It does so by influx
which is not coercive from the spiritual world (for the human spirit or
mind is in that world); and not by influx from the natural world,
received only when the two agree.
[2] A man can be driven to say that he thinks and wills, believes and
loves what is religious, but if this is not a matter of his affection and
reasoning or does not become so, he does not think, will, believe or love
it. A man may also be compelled to speak in favor of religion and to act
according to it, but he cannot be compelled to think in its favor from
any faith or to will in its favor out of love for it. In countries in
which justice and judgment are guarded, one is indeed compelled not to
speak or act against religion, but still no one can be compelled to think
and will in its favor. For everyone has freedom to think and to will
along with, and in favor of, hell or along with, and in favor of, heaven.
Reason, however, teaches what either course is like and what lot awaits
it, and by reason the will has the choice and decision.
[3] Plainly, then, what is external cannot coerce what is internal;
nevertheless it happens sometimes, but that it works harm will be shown
in this order:
i. No one is reformed by miracles and signs, for they coerce.
ii. No one is reformed by visions and communication with the dead, for
they coerce.
iii. No one is reformed by threats and penalties, as these coerce.
iv. No one is reformed in states of no rationality or no freedom.
v. Self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and freedom.
vi. The external man is to be reformed through the internal, and not the
other way about.
130. (i) _No one is reformed by miracles and signs, for they coerce._ We
have shown above that man has an internal and an external of thought, and
that the Lord acts into the external by the internal in man and so
teaches and leads him; also that it is of the Lord's divine providence
that man is to act in freedom according to reason. Either action would
perish in man if miracles were done and he were driven by them to
believe. That this is so can be seen rationally in this way: undeniably
miracles induce belief and powerfully persuade a person that what the
miracle-doer says and teaches is true, and at first this engages man's
external of thought, virtually holding it spellbound. But one is deprived
by this of the two faculties called rationality and liberty, thus cannot
act in freedom according to reason, nor can the Lord then inflow into the
external of man's thought through the internal save only to leave man to
confirm from his rationality what has been made a matter of his belief by
the miracle.
[2] The state of man's thought is such that from the internal of thought
he can see a piece in the external of his thought as in a mirror--for as
was said above, one can behold one's own thought, which is possible only
from more interior thought. Beholding the item as in a mirror he can turn
it this way and that and shape it to look attractive to him. If there is
truth in it, it may be likened to an attractive and animated maiden or
youth. But if a man cannot turn it this way and that and shape it, but
only believe it persuaded of it by a miracle, then if there is truth in
it, it may be likened to a maiden or youth carved in stone or wood, in
which is nothing alive. It may also be compared to an object which is
constantly in view and looked at alone, keeps one from seeing what is to
either side and behind it. It can also be compared to a continual sound
in the ear, which does away with perceiving the harmony of many sounds.
Such are the blindness and deafness induced on the mind by miracles. It
is the same with anything confirmed but not regarded from rationality
before it is confirmed.
131. Plain it is from this that a faith induced by miracles is not faith,
but persuasion. For it has nothing rational in it, still less anything
spiritual, as it is only external without an internal. This is true of
everything a man does from such persuasive faith, whether he is
acknowledging God, worshiping Him at home or in church, or doing good
deeds. When only a miracle leads a person to acknowledgment of God and to
adoration and piety, he acts from the natural and not the spiritual man.
For a miracle infuses belief by an external and not an internal way, thus
from the world and not from heaven. The Lord enters man by an internal
way, by the Word and by doctrine and preaching from it. As miracles close
this way, no miracles are done today.
132. That miracles are of this nature can be clearly established from
those performed in the presence of the people of Judah and Israel.
Although they beheld many miracles in the land of Egypt and later at the
Red Sea and others in the Wilderness and particularly on Mt. Sinai when
the Law was promulgated, nevertheless, in a month's time while Moses
tarried on that mountain, they made themselves a golden calf and hailed
it as Jehovah who had led them out of the land of Egypt (Ex 32:4-6).
Again, it is plain from the miracles done later in the land of Canaan;
nevertheless the people fell away time and again from the prescribed
worship. It is equally plain from the miracles which the Lord did before
their eyes when He was in the world; yet they crucified Him.
[2] Miracles were done among the Jews and Israelites because they were
altogether external men and had been brought into the land of Canaan
merely to represent a church and its eternal verities by the
externalities of worship--something a bad man as well as a good man can
do. For the externals are rituals which with that people signified
spiritual and celestial things. Indeed Aaron, although he made the golden
calf and ordered worship of it (Ex 32:2-5, 35 ), could still represent
the Lord and His work of salvation. As the people could not be brought by
the internal things of worship to represent them, they were brought to do
so by miracles--in fact, were driven and forced to it.
[3] They could not be led by internals of worship because they did not
acknowledge the Lord although the entire Word which they had treats of
Him alone. One who does not acknowledge the Lord cannot receive anything
internal in worship. But miracles ceased after the Lord had manifested
Himself and was received and acknowledged as eternal God in the churches.
133. The effect of miracles on the good and on the evil differs, however.
The good do not desire miracles, but believe those in the Word. If they
hear of some miracle, they regard it only as a slight indication
confirming their faith; for they draw their thought from the Word and
thus from the Lord, and not from a miracle. It is different with the
evil. They can be driven and compelled, of course, to belief, to worship,
too, and to piety, but only for a little while. For their evils are
enclosed, and the lusts of those evils and the enjoyments of the lusts
continually press against the outward worship and piety; and in order
that the evils may come out of their confinement and burst forth, the
wicked ponder the miracle, finally call it ridiculous and a ruse or a
natural phenomenon, and so return to their evils. One who returns to his
evils after having worshiped profanes the truths and goods of worship,
and the lot of profaners after death is the worst of all fates. They are
meant by the Lord's words in Matthew (12:43-45) about those whose last
state is worse than the first. Besides, if miracles were to be done for
those who have no faith from the miracles in the Word, they would have to
be done constantly and before their eyes. It may be plain from all this
why miracles are not done at this day.
134. (ii) No one is reformed by visions or by communication with the
dead, for they coerce. Visions are of two kinds, divine and diabolic.
Divine visions are effected by representations in heaven; diabolic by
magic in hell. There are also phantasmal visions, which are illusions of
an estranged mind. Divine visions, produced as we said by representative
things in heaven, are such as the prophets had who at the time were not
in the body but in the spirit, for visions cannot appear to anyone in
bodily wakefulness. When these came to the prophets, therefore, it is
remarked that they were "in the spirit," as is plain from the following:
Ezekiel said, The Spirit picked me up and carried me to Chaldea to the
captivity in a vision of God, in the spirit of God; so the vision rose
over me which I saw (11:1, 24).
Again that the Spirit bore him between earth and heaven and brought him
to Jerusalem in visions of God (8:3, 4).
He was likewise in visions of God or in the spirit when he saw four
beasts which were cherubim (1 and 10).
So, too, when he saw a new temple and a new earth, and an angel measuring
them (40-48 ).
That he was in "visions of God" then, he says at 40:2, 26, and that he
was "in the spirit" at 43:5.
[2] Zechariah was in a similar state when he saw
a horseman among myrtle trees (1:8 ff)
four horns (1:18) and a man with a measuring line in his hand (2:1-3 ff )
a candlestick and two olive trees (4:1 ff)
a flying roll and an ephah (5:1, 6)
four chariots coming out between two mountains, and horses (8:1 ff).
In a like state was Daniel when he saw
four beasts coming up from the sea (7:1 ff )
a combat between a ram and a he-goat (8:1 ff).
That he saw these things "in the vision of his spirit" is stated at 7:1,
2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7, 8, and that the angel Gabriel was seen by him in
a "vision" at 9:21.
[3] John was also in the vision of the spirit when he beheld what he has
described in the Apocalypse, as when he saw
seven candlesticks and the Son of man in the midst of them (1:12-16)
a throne in heaven, and One sitting on the throne, and around it four
beasts, which were cherubim (4)
the book of life taken by the Lamb (5)
horses coming out from the book (6)
seven angels with trumpets (8)
the pit of the abyss opened, and locusts coming out a dragon, and its
battle with Michael (12)
two beasts, rising, one from the sea and the other from the land (13)
a woman seated on a scarlet beast (17)
Babylon destroyed (18)
a white horse, and One seated on it (19)
a new heaven and a new earth, and the holy Jerusalem descending from
heaven (21)
the river of the water of life (22).
That he saw these "in the vision of the spirit" is said 1:10; 4:2; 5:1;
6:1; 21:1, 2.
[4] Such were the visions which appeared from heaven to the sight of the
spirit of these men, but not to their bodily sight. Such visions do not
occur at this day because if they did, they would not be understood
inasmuch as they are produced by representations the details of which
signify internal things of the church and arcana of heaven. Daniel also
foretold (9:24) that they would cease when the Lord came into the world.
Diabolic visions, however, have occurred at times, incited by fanatical
and visionary spirits who in their delirium called themselves the Holy
Spirit. But those spirits have now been gathered together by the Lord and
cast into a hell separate from the hells of others. There are also
phantasmal visions which are merely the illusions of an estranged mind.
All this makes clear that no one can be reformed by any visions other
than those in the Word.
134 r. The fact that no one is reformed by communication with the dead is
plain from the Lord's words about the rich man in hell and Lazarus in
Abraham's bosom.
For the rich man said, I ask you, father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my
father's house, for I have five brothers, to testify to them lest they
also come into this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have
Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. But he said, No, father
Abraham, but if some one will go to them from the dead, they will repent.
He replied, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not be
persuaded either if one should arise from the dead (Lu 16:27-31).
Communication with the dead would have the same result as miracles (of
which just above), namely, that a man would be influenced and driven into
worship for a short time. But as this deprives a man of rationality and
at the same time shuts his evils in, as was said above, the captivation
or the inward bond is undone, and the imprisoned evils break out, with
blasphemy and profanation; this last occurs, however, only when spirits
introduce something dogmatic from religion, which is never done by a good
spirit, still less by an angel of heaven.
135. Nevertheless, speech with spirits--rarely with angels of heaven--is
possible and has been granted to many for ages. When it is granted,
spirits speak with a man in his native tongue and briefly. And those who
speak with the Lord's permission never say anything that takes away the
freedom of the reason, nor do they instruct, for the Lord alone teaches
man, doing so by means of the Word to the man's enlightenment (of this in
numbers to come). I have been given to know this in my own experience. I
have spoken with spirits and angels for many years now. No spirit has
dared and no angel has wished to tell me, still less to instruct me,
about things in the Word or about any of its doctrine. The Lord alone has
taught me, who revealed Himself to me and afterwards continued to appear
to me as He does now, as the Sun in which He is, as He appears to the
angels, and He has enlightened me.
136. (iii) _No one is reformed by threats or penalties, as these coerce._
It is known that the external cannot compel the internal, but the
internal can compel the external; also that the internal refuses to be
coerced by the external and turns away. It is likewise known that
external enjoyments entice the assent and love of the internal; and it
may also be known that there is a forced internal and a free internal.
But all this, though known, needs to be lighted up, for much on being
heard is perceived at once to be so, because it is truth and hence is
affirmed, but if it is not confirmed by reasons, it can be weakened by
arguments from fallacies and finally denied. What we have said is known,
is therefore to be taken up afresh and established rationally.
[2] First: _The external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can
compel the external._ Who can be forced to believe or love? One can no
more be compelled to believe than he can be compelled to think that
something is so when he thinks it is not so, or to love than to will
something that he does not will; belief attaches to thought, and love to
the will. The internal can be compelled, however, by what is external not
to speak improperly against the laws of a kingdom, the morals of life or
the sanctities of the church. The internal can be compelled to this by
threats and penalties and is compelled and should be. But this is not the
specifically human internal, but one which the human being shares with
beasts; they can also be compelled. The human internal resides above this
animal internal. Here the human internal which cannot be coerced is
meant.
[3] Second: _The internal refuses to be coerced by the external and turns
away._ The reason is that the internal wills to be in freedom and loves
freedom. For, as was shown, freedom attaches to man's love and life. When
the internal feels it is being subjected to compulsion, therefore, it
withdraws as it were into itself, averts itself, and regards the
compulsion as its enemy. For the love which makes man's life is irritated
and causes him to think that he is then not himself and has no life of
his own. The internal of the human being is of this nature by the law of
the Lord's divine providence that he shall act from freedom in accord
with reason.
[4] Plainly, then, it does harm to compel men to divine worship by
threats and penalties. Some permit themselves to be forced to religion,
some do not. Many who do are adherents of Catholicism; but this is the
case with those in whom there is nothing internal in worship, but all is
external. Among those who do not allow themselves to be coerced are many
of the English nation, and as a result there is what is internal in their
worship and what is external is from the internal. Their interiors in
respect to religion appear in the light of the spiritual world like
bright clouds, but those of the former like dark clouds. The one and the
other appearance is to be seen in that world, and one who wishes may see
it when he enters that world on death. Furthermore, enforced worship
shuts one's evils in, which are hidden then like fire in wood under ashes
which keeps stirring and spreading until it bursts into flame. But
worship, not enforced but spontaneous, does not shut evils in; these are
therefore like a fire that flares up and goes out. Thence it is plain
that the internal refuses to be forced by the external and turns away.
The internal can compel the external because it is like a master and the
external like a servant.
[5] Third: _External enjoyments entice assent and love from the
internal._ Enjoyments are of two kinds, of the understanding or of the
will. Enjoyments of the understanding are also enjoyments of wisdom, and
those of the will also enjoyments of love; for wisdom belongs to the
understanding and love to the will. Enjoyments of the body or of the
senses, which are external pleasures, act as one with the internal
enjoyments, which are enjoyments of the understanding and the will.
Therefore, just as the internal is so averse to compulsion by the
external as to turn away, it looks so kindly on enjoyment in the external
that it turns to it. Assent follows on the part of the understanding, and
love on the part of the will.
[6] In the spiritual world all children are introduced by the Lord into
angelic wisdom and through this into heavenly love by delightful and
charming means, first by pretty things in the home and the charms of a
garden; then by representations of spiritual things affecting the
interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by truths of wisdom
and goods of love. Thus they are steadily led by enjoyments in due order,
first by the enjoyments of a love of the understanding and of its wisdom,
and then by the enjoyments of the love of the will which is their life's
love, to which all else that has entered through enjoyment is kept
subordinate.
[7] This is done because the will and understanding must all be formed by
what is external before they are formed by what is internal, for they are
formed first by what enters by the physical senses, chiefly the sight and
the hearing; then when a first will and understanding have been formed,
the internal of thought regards them as the externals of its thinking,
and either joins itself to them or separates itself from them, as they
are or are not enjoyable to it.
[8] It should be well understood, however, that the internal of the
understanding does not unite itself to the internal of the will, but it
is the latter that unites itself to the former and causes reciprocal
union. This is done by the internal of the will, not at all by the
internal of the understanding. Hence it is that man cannot be reformed by
faith alone, but by the love of the will which makes a faith for itself.
[9] Fourth: _There is a forced internal and a free one._ A forced
internal is found in those who are in external worship only and in none
that is internal. Their internal consists of thinking and willing what
the external is coerced to. Such are persons who worship living or dead
men or idols, or who rest their faith on miracles. No internal is
possible with them which is not at the same time external. And yet a
forced internal is possible with persons in internal worship; it may be
forced by fear or compelled by love. That forced by fear is found in
those who worship for fear of the torment and fire of hell. This internal
is not the internal of thought of which we have treated, however, but an
external of thought called internal here because it partakes of thought.
The internal of thought of which we have treated cannot be forced by any
fear; it can be compelled by love and by fear of failing to love. In the
true sense fear of God is nothing else. To be compelled by love and by
the fear of failing in it is self-compulsion, and self-compulsion, it
will be seen in what follows, is not contrary to freedom and rationality.
137. It is plain then what forced worship and unforced worship are like.
Forced worship is corporeal, inanimate, obscure and sad--corporeal because
it is of the body and not of the mind; inanimate because it has no life
in it; obscure for lack of understanding in it; and sad because it does
not have the joy of heaven in it. But worship not forced and real is
spiritual, living, seeing and joyful--spiritual, because spirit from the
Lord is in it; living, because life from Him is in it; seeing because
wisdom from Him is in it; and joyful because heaven from Him is in it.
138. (iv) _No one is reformed in states of no liberty or rationality._ We
showed above that only what a man does in freedom according to reason is
made his. This is because freedom belongs to the will and reason to the
understanding; acting in freedom in accord with reason a man acts from
the will by the understanding and what is done in the union of the two is
appropriated. Now, since the Lord wills that a man be reformed and
regenerated in order that eternal life or the life of heaven may be his,
and none can be reformed or regenerated unless good is appropriated to
his will and truth to his understanding as if they were his, and only
that can be appropriated which is done in freedom of the will and in
accord with the reason of the understanding, no one is reformed in states
of no freedom or rationality. There are many such states, but they may be
summarized as states of fear, misfortune, mental illness, physical
disease, ignorance, and intellectual blindness. Something will be said of
each.
139. No one is reformed in a _state of fear_ because fear takes away
freedom and reason or liberty and rationality. Love opens the mind's
interiors but fear closes them, and when they are closed man thinks
little and only what comes to the lower mind or to the senses. All fears
that assail the lower mind have this effect.
[2] We showed above that man has an internal and an external of thought.
Fear can never invade the internal of thought; this is always in freedom,
being in a man's life-love. But it can invade the external of thought.
When it does, the internal of thought is closed and thereupon man can no
longer act in freedom in accord with his reason, nor be reformed.
[3] The fear which invades the external of thought and closes the
internal is chiefly fear of losing standing or profit. Fear of civil
penalties or of outward ecclesiastical penalties does not close the
internal, for the laws respecting them pronounce penalties only on those
who speak and act contrary to the civil requirements of the kingdom and
the spiritual of the church, but not on those who think contrary to them.
[4] Fear of infernal punishment invades the external of thought, to be
sure, but only for some moments, hours or days; it is soon restored to
its freedom by the internal of thought, which is man's spirit and
life-love and is called thought of the heart.
[5] Fear of losing one's standing or wealth, however, does invade man's
external of thought, and when it does, closes the internal of thought
above to influx from heaven and makes it impossible for man to be
reformed. This is because everyone's life-love from birth is love of self
and the world, and self-love is at one with the love of position, and
love of the world with the love of wealth. When a man has position or
wealth, therefore, for fear of losing them he strengthens the means at
hand--whether civil or churchly and in either case means to power--which
serve him for position and wealth. The man who does not yet have standing
or wealth but aspires to them, does the same, but for fear he will lose
the reputation they give.
[6] It was said that this fear seizes on the external of thought and
closes the internal above to heaven's inflowing. The internal is said to
be closed when it makes one completely with the external, as it is then
not in itself but in the external.
[7] But as the loves of self and the world are infernal loves and the
fountain-heads of all evils, it is plain what the internal of thought in
itself is like with men in whom those loves reign and are their life's
loves, namely, that it is full of lusts of evils of every kind.
[8] This men do not know who fear loss of place and opulence and are
strongly persuaded of their special religion, most particularly if this
promises that they may be worshiped as holy and also as governors of
hell; they can blaze, as it were, with zeal for the salvation of souls
and yet this is from infernal fire. As this fear especially takes away
rationality itself and liberty itself, which have a heavenly origin,
plainly it makes against the possibility that a man may be reformed.
140. No one is reformed in a _state of misfortune_ if he thinks about God
and implores help only then, for it is a coerced state; wherefore, on
coming into a free state he returns to his former state when he thought
little if at all about God. It is different with those who feared God in
a state of freedom previously. For by "fearing God" is meant fearing to
offend Him, and by "offending Him" to sin, and this comes not from fear
but from love. Does not one who loves another fear to hurt him? And the
more he loves him, the more he fears hurting him? Lacking this fear, love
is insipid and superficial, of the mind only and not of the will. By
states of misfortune states of despair in danger are meant, in battles,
for example, duels, shipwreck, falls, fires, threatening or unexpected
loss of property, also of office or standing, and similar mishaps. To
think about God only then is not to think from God but from self. For
then the mind is as it were imprisoned in the body, so is not in freedom
nor possessed then of rationality, and without these reformation is
impossible.
141. No one is reformed in _a state of mental illness_ because such
illness takes away rationality and thus the liberty of acting in accord
with reason. The whole mind is sick and not sane; the sane mind is
rational, but not a sick one. Such disorders are melancholy, a spurious
or a false conscience, fantasies of different kinds, mental grief over
misfortune, anxiety and anguish of the mind over a bodily defect.
Sometimes these are regarded as temptations, but they are not. Genuine
temptations have spiritual objects in view and in them the mind is wise,
but these states are concerned with natural objects and in them the mind
is disordered.
142. No one is reformed in _a state of bodily sickness_ because his
reason is not then in a state of freedom; the state of the mind depends
on that of the body. When the body is sick, the mind is also, if for no
other reason because it is withdrawn from the world. Withdrawn from the
world it thinks indeed about God but not from Him, for it is not
possessed of freedom of the reason. Man has this freedom in being midway
between heaven and the world, thus can think from heaven and from the
world, likewise from heaven about the world and from the world about
heaven. So when he is ill and thinks about death and the state of his
soul after death, he is not in the world but is withdrawn in spirit. In
this state by itself no one can be reformed, but he can be strengthened
in it if he was reforming before he fell ill.
[2] It is similar with those who renounce the world and all occupation in
it and give themselves only to thoughts about God, heaven and salvation;
on this further elsewhere. If those of whom we were speaking have not
been reformed before their illness, then if they die they become such as
they were before their illness. It is vain, therefore, to suppose that
one can repent or receive some faith in illness; for no deed accompanies
the repentance, and there is no charity in the faith; each is oral only
and not at all from the heart.
143. No one is reformed in _a state of ignorance,_ for all reformation is
by truths and a life according to them. Therefore those who do not know
truths cannot be reformed, but if they long for them with affection for
them, after they die they undergo reformation in the spiritual world.
144. Nor can one be reformed in _a state of blindness of the
understanding._ These also have no knowledge of truths or consequently of
life, for the understanding must teach truths and the will must do them;
when the will does what the understanding teaches, a man has life in
accord with truths. When the understanding is blind, however, the will
also is indifferent and acts in freedom according to one's reason only to
do the evil confirmed in the understanding, and the confirmation is
falsity. Besides ignorance, a religion which teaches a blind faith also
blinds the understanding; so does a false doctrine. For just as truths
open the understanding, falsities close it. They close it above and open
it below, and opened only below, the understanding cannot see truths but
only confirm what a man wills, falsity especially. The understanding is
also blinded by lusts of evil. As long as the will is in these, it moves
the understanding to confirm them, and so far as they are confirmed, the
will cannot be in affections of good, from these see truths, and so be
reformed.
[2] Take, for instance, one who is in the lust of adultery: his will,
which is in the enjoyment of his love, moves his understanding to confirm
it, saying, "What is adultery? Is there any evil in it? Does not the like
occur between husband and wife? Cannot offspring be born of it, too?
Cannot a woman receive more than one without harm? How does anything
spiritual enter into this?" So thinks the understanding which is then the
courtesan of the will. So stupid is it made by debauchery with the will
that it is unable to see that marital love is spiritual and heavenly love
itself, a reflection of the love between the Lord and the church from
which it is derived; is in itself sacred and chastity itself, purity and
innocence; causes men to be forms of love, since partners can love each
other from inmosts and so form themselves into loves; nor can it see that
adultery destroys this form and with it the Lord's image; and what is
abhorrent, that the adulterer mingles his life with that of the husband
in the wife, for a man's life is in the seed.
[3] Because this is profane, hell is called adultery, and heaven on the
other hand is called marriage. Furthermore, the love of adultery
communicates with the lowest hell, but true marital love with the inmost
heaven; the reproductive organs of both sexes also correspond to
societies of the inmost heaven. These things are adduced so that it may
be known how blinded the understanding is when the will is in the lust of
evil, and that no one can be reformed in a state of blindness of the
understanding.
145. (v) _Self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and liberty._ We
have shown that man has an internal and an external of thought; that they
are distinguishable as prior and subsequent or higher and lower; and that
being so distinct they can act separately and also jointly. They act
separately when a man speaks and acts from the external of his thought
otherwise than he thinks and wills inwardly; they act jointly when he
speaks and acts as he thinks and wills. The latter is common with the
sincere, the former with the insincere.
[2] Inasmuch as the internal and the external of the mind are so
distinct, the internal can even fight with the external and by combat
drive it to compliance. Conflict arises when the man deems evils to be
sins and resolves to desist from them. When he desists, a door is opened
and the lusts of evil which have occupied the internal of thought are
cast out by the Lord and affections of good are implanted in their place.
This occurs in the internal of thought. But the enjoyments of evil lust
which occupy the external of thought cannot be cast out at the same time;
conflict arises therefore between the internal and the external of
thought. The internal wants to cast out those enjoyments because they are
enjoyments of evil and do not agree with the affections of good in which
the internal now is, and wants to introduce in their place enjoyments of
good which do agree. These are what are called goods of charity. From the
disagreement comes the conflict which, if it grows severe, is called
temptation.
[3] Now as man is man by virtue of the internal of his thought, for this
is his very spirit, obviously he compels himself when he compels the
external of his thought to comply or to receive the enjoyments of his
affections or the goods of charity. Plainly this is not contrary to
rationality and liberty but in accord with them; rationality starts the
combat and liberty follows it up; liberty itself resides with rationality
in the internal man and from that in the external.
[4] Accordingly, when the internal conquers, which it does when it has
reduced the external to compliance and obedience, man is given liberty
itself and rationality itself by the Lord, for he is delivered by the
Lord then from infernal freedom which in itself is enslavement, is
brought into heavenly freedom which is freedom in itself, and is given
association with angels. The Lord Himself teaches ( John 8:31-36) that
those who are in sins are enslaved and that He delivers those who receive
truth from Him through the Word.
146. Let an example serve for illustration. A man who has taken pleasure
in defrauding and deceiving sees and inwardly acknowledges it to be sin
and resolves to desist from it; with this a battle begins of his internal
with the external. The internal man is in an affection for honesty, but
the external still in the enjoyment of defrauding. This enjoyment,
utterly opposed to enjoyment in honesty, does not give way unless forced
to do so and can be forced to do so only by combat with it. When the
fight is won, the external man comes into the enjoyment of a love of
honesty, which is charity. Then the pleasure of defrauding gradually
turns unpleasant to him. It is the same with all other sins, with
adultery and whoredom, revenge and hatred, blasphemy and lying. The most
difficult battle of all is with the love of ruling from self-love. A
person who subdues this love, easily subdues all other evil loves, for
this is their summit.
147. Let it be told briefly how the Lord casts out lusts of evil
occupying the internal man from birth and in their place bestows
affections of good when a man on his part removes the evils as sins. It
was shown earlier that man possesses a natural, a spiritual and a
celestial mind, that he is only in the natural mind as long as he is in
lusts of evil and their enjoyments, and that during this time the
spiritual mind is closed. But as soon as a man on self-examination
confesses evils to be sins against God because they are contrary to
divine laws and accordingly resolves to desist from them, the Lord opens
the spiritual mind, enters the natural by affections of truth and good,
enters the reason, and by the reason puts into order what is disordered
below in the natural. It is this that strikes the man as a battle, and
strikes those who have indulged much in enjoyments of evil as temptation,
for when the order of its thinking is inverted the lower mind suffers
pain.
Inasmuch as the battle is against what is in the man himself and what he
feels to be his, and no one can fight against himself except from a more
interior self and from freedom in it, it follows that the internal man
fights against the external and does so from freedom, and compels the
external to obey. This, then, is compelling oneself, and, clearly, it is
not contrary to liberty and rationality, but in accord with them.
148. Everyone desires to be free, moreover, and to be rid of the unfree
or servitude. The boy under a master wishes to be his own master and thus
free; so every man-servant under his master or maid under her mistress.
Every girl wishes to leave the paternal home and marry, to do freely in a
home of her own; and every boy who desires to work, enter business, or
hold some position wishes to be released from his subordination to others
and to be at his own disposal. All of these who serve willingly in order
to be free compel themselves, and in doing so act from freedom according
to reason but from an inner freedom, by which outward freedom is regarded
as servant. We add this to confirm the fact that self-compulsion is not
contrary to rationality and liberty.
149. One reason why man does not wish in like manner to come out of
spiritual servitude into spiritual freedom is that he does not know what
either is; he does not have the truths to teach this, and without them
spiritual servitude is believed to be freedom and spiritual freedom to be
servitude. A second reason is that the religion of Christendom has closed
the understanding, and "faith alone" has sealed it shut. Each has built
an iron wall around itself in the dogma that theological matters
transcend and cannot be approached by the reason, but are for the blind
and not the seeing. So truths that would teach what spiritual liberty is
have been hidden. A third reason is that few examine themselves and see
their sins, and one who does not see and quit them is in the freedom that
sins have, which is infernal freedom, in itself enslavement. To view
heavenly freedom, which is genuine freedom, from that freedom is like
trying to see daylight in pitch darkness or sunshine from under a black
cloud. So it happens that it is not known what heavenly freedom is, or
that the difference between it and infernal freedom is like the
difference between what is living and what is dead.
150. (vi) The external man is to be reformed by the internal, and not the
other way about. By internal and external man the same is meant as by
external and internal of thought, of which frequently before. The
external must be reformed by the internal because the internal flows into
the external and not the reverse. The learned world knows that what is
spiritual flows into what is natural and not the reverse, for reason
dictates it; the church knows that the internal man must first be
cleansed and made new and the external by it then, because the Lord
teaches it. He does so in the words:
Woe to you . . . hypocrites, for you make the outside of the cup and
platter clean, but the inside is full of extortion and excess. Blind
Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter that the
outside may also be made clean (Mt 23:25, 26).
We have shown in a number of places in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ that reason dictates this. For what the Lord teaches He grants
man to see rationally. This a man does in two ways: in one, he sees in
himself that something is so upon hearing it; in the other, he grasps it
by reasons for it. Seeing in oneself takes place in the internal man, and
understanding through reasoning in the external man. Who does not
perceive it within himself when he hears that the internal man is to be
purified first and the external by it? But one who does not receive the
general idea of this by influx from heaven may go astray when he consults
the external of this thought; from it alone no one sees but that outward
works of charity and piety are saving apart from the internal. It is so
in other things, as that sight and hearing flow into thought, and smell
and taste into perception, that is, that the external flows into the
internal, when the contrary is true. The appearance that what is seen and
heard flows into the thought is a fallacy, for the understanding does the
seeing in the eye and the hearing in the ear, and not the other way
about. So it is in all else.
151. But something should be said here on how the internal man is
reformed and by it the external. The internal man is not reformed solely
by knowing, understanding and being wise, consequently not by thinking
only; but by willing what these teach. When a person knows, understands
and has the wisdom to see that heaven and hell exist and that all evil is
from hell and all good from heaven, and if he then does not will evil
because it is from hell but good because it is from heaven, he has taken
the first step in reformation and is on the threshold from hell to
heaven. When he advances farther and resolves to desist from evils, he is
at the second step in reformation and is out of hell but not yet in
heaven; this he beholds above him. There must be this internal for man to
be reformed, but he is not reformed unless the external is reformed as
well as the internal. The external is reformed by the internal when the
external desists from the evils which the internal sets its will against
because they are infernal, and still further reformed when the external
shuns and fights against the evils. Thus the internal provides the will,
the external the deed. For unless a man does the deed he wills, inwardly
he does not will it, and finally he wills not to do it.
[2] One can see from these few considerations how the external man is
reformed by the internal. This is also meant by the Lord's words to
Peter:
Jesus said, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Peter said to
Him, not my feet only but my hands and head. Jesus said to him, he who
has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed, and is
entirely clean (Jn 13:8-10).
By "washing" spiritual washing is meant, which is purification from
evils; by "washing head and hands" purifying the internal man is meant,
and by "washing the feet" purifying the external. That when the internal
man has been purified, the external must be, is meant by this: "He who
has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed." That all
purification from evils is the Lord's doing, is meant by this, "If I do
not wash you, you have no part with Me." We have shown in many places in
_Arcana Caelestia_ that with the Jews washing represented purification
from evils, that this is signified by "washing" in the Word, and that
purification of the natural or external man is signified by the "washing
of feet."
152. Since man has an internal and an external and each must be reformed
for the man to be reformed, and since no one can be reformed unless he
examines himself, sees and admits his evils, and then quits them, not
only the external is to be examined, but the internal as well. If a man
examines only the external he sees only what he has committed to deed,
and that he has not murdered or committed adultery or stolen or borne
false witness, and so on. He examines bodily evils and not those in his
spirit; yet evils of the spirit are to be examined if one is to be
capable of reformation. Man lives as a spirit after death and all the
evils in his spirit persist. The spirit is examined only when a man
attends to his thoughts, above all to his intentions, for these are
thoughts from the will. There the evils exist at their source and roots,
that is, in their lusts and enjoyments. Unless they are seen and
acknowledged, a man is still in evils though he may not have committed
them outwardly. That to think with intention is to will and do, is plain
from the Lord's words:
If any one has looked on another's woman to lust after her, he has
already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).*
* See footnote at n. 111.
Such self-examination is of the internal man, and from it the external
man is truly examined.
153. I have often marveled that although all Christendom knows that evils
must be shunned as sins and otherwise are not forgiven, and that if they
are not forgiven there is no salvation, yet scarcely one person among
thousands understands this. Inquiry was made about this in the spiritual
world, and it was found to be so. Anyone in Christendom knows it from the
exhortations, read out to those who attend the Holy Supper, in which it
is publicly stated; and yet when asked whether they know it, they reply
that they do not know it and have not known it. The reason is that they
have paid no attention to it, and most say they have thought only about
faith and salvation by faith alone. I have also marveled that "faith
alone" has closed their eyes so that those who have confirmed themselves
in it do not see anything in the Word when they read it about love,
charity and works. It is as though they spread "faith" all over the Word,
as red lead is spread over writing so that nothing underneath shows; if
anything does show, it is absorbed by faith and declared to be faith.
VIII. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL BE LED AND TAUGHT
BY THE LORD OUT OF HEAVEN BY MEANS OF THE WORD AND DOCTRINE AND PREACHING
FROM IT, AND THIS TO ALL APPEARANCE AS OF HIMSELF
154. The appearance is that man is led and taught by himself; in reality
he is led and taught by the Lord alone. Those who confirm the appearance
in themselves and not the reality at the same time are unable to remove
evils from themselves as sins, but those who confirm the appearance and
at the same time the reality can do so; for evils are removed as sins
apparently by the man, but really by the Lord. The latter can be
reformed, but the former cannot.
[2] All who confirm the appearance in themselves and not the reality
also, are idolaters inwardly, for they are worshipers of self and the
world. If they have no religion they become worshipers of nature and thus
atheists; if they have some religion they become worshipers of men and of
images. Such are meant now in the first commandment of the Decalog under
those who worship other gods. Those, however, who confirm in themselves
the appearance and also the reality become worshipers of the Lord, for He
raises them out of what is their own, in which the appearance is,
conducts them into the light in which the reality is and which is the
reality, and gives them to perceive inwardly that they are not led and
taught by themselves but by Him.
[3] The rational capacity of the two may seem much the same to many, but
it differs. In those who are at once in the appearance and the reality,
it is a spiritual reasoning ability, but in those in the appearance but
not at the same time in the reality it is a natural reasoning ability;
this can be likened to a garden in winter light, and the spiritual
reasoning capacity to a garden in springtime light. But If these things
more in what follows, in this order:
i. Man is led and taught by the Lord alone.
ii. He is led and taught by the Lord alone through and from the angelic
heaven.
iii. He is led by the Lord through influx and taught through
enlightenment.
iv. Man is taught by the Lord through the Word and doctrine and preaching
from it, thus immediately by Him alone.
v. Man is led and taught in externals by the Lord to all appearance as of
himself.
155. (i) _Man is led and taught by the Lord alone._ This flows as a
general consequence from all that was demonstrated in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom;_ from what was said in Part I about the Lord's
divine love and wisdom; in Part II about the sun of the spiritual world
and the sun of the natural world; in Part III about degrees; in Part IV
about the creation of the universe; and in Part V about the creation of
the human being.
156. Man is led and taught by the Lord alone in that he lives from the
Lord alone; for his life's will is led, and his life's understanding is
taught. But this is contrary to the appearance, for it seems to man that
he lives of himself, and yet the truth is that he lives from the Lord and
not from himself. Man cannot, however, be given a sense-perception of
this while he is in the world (the appearance that he lives of himself is
not taken away, for without it man is not man). This must be established
by reasons, therefore, which are then to be confirmed from experience and
finally from the Word.
157. That the human being has life from the Lord alone and not of himself
is established by these considerations: 1. There is an only essence,
substance and form from which all the essences, substances, and forms
exist that have been created. 2. The one essence, substance and form is
divine love and wisdom from which is all that is referable to love and
wisdom in man. 3. It is also good itself and truth itself to which all
things are referable. 4. Likewise it is life, from which is the life of
all and all things of life. 5. Again the only One and very Self is
omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. 6. This only One and very Self is
the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah.
[2] 1. _There is an only essence, substance and form from which all the
essences, substances, and forms exist that have been created._ This was
demonstrated in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn.44-46). In Part
II it was shown that the sun of the angelic heaven, which is from the
Lord and in which He is, is the one sole substance and form from which
all that has been created exists, also that nothing can exist or come
into existence except from it. In Part III it was shown that all things
arise from that sun by derivations according to degrees.
[3] Who does not perceive by the reason and acknowledge that there is
some one essence from which is all essence, or one being from which is
all being? What can exist apart from being, and what can being be from
which is all other being except being itself? Being itself is also unique
and is being in itself. Since this is so (and anyone perceives and
acknowledges it by reason, or if not, can do so), what else follows than
that this Being, the Divine itself, Jehovah, is all in all in what is or
comes to be?
[4] It is the same if we say there is an only substance from which all
things are, and as there is no substance without form there is a single
form from which all things are. We have shown in the treatise mentioned
above that the sun of the angelic heaven is that substance and form, also
shown how that essence, substance and form is varied in things created.
[5] 2. _The one essence, substance and form is divine love and wisdom
from which is all that is referable to love and wisdom in man._ This also
was fully demonstrated in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom._ Whatever
appears to live in man is referable to will and understanding in him;
any-one can perceive by the reason and acknowledge that these two
constitute his life. What else is "This I will," or "This I understand,"
or "I love this," or "I think this"? And as man wills what he loves, and
thinks what he understands, all things of the will relate to love and
those of the understanding to wisdom. As no one has love or wisdom from
himself but only from Him who is love itself and wisdom itself, they are
from the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah. If they were not, man would be
love itself and wisdom itself, thus God-from-eternity, at which the human
reason itself is horrified. Can anything exist except from a prior self?
Or the prior self exist except from one prior to it? And finally from a
first or from underived being?
[6] 3. _It is also good itself and truth itself, to which all things are
referable._ Everyone possessed of reason agrees and acknowledges that God
is good itself and truth itself, likewise that all good and truth are
from Him, therefore that any good and truth can come only from good
itself and truth itself. All this is acknowledged by every rational
person when he first hears it. When it is said, then, that everything of
the will and understanding, of love and wisdom, or of affection and
thought in a man who is led by the Lord relates to good and truth, it
follows that all that such a man wills and understands or loves and has
for his wisdom, or is affected by and thinks, is from the Lord. Hence
anyone in the church knows that whatever good and truth a man has in
himself is not good and truth except as it is from the Lord. Since this
is true, all that such a man wills and thinks is from the Lord. It will
be seen in following numbers that an evil man can will and think from no
other source.
[7] 4. _The one essence, substance and form is likewise life, from which
is the life of all and all things of life._ This we have shown in many
places in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom._ At the first hearing the
human reason also agrees and acknowledges that all man's life is that of
the will and understanding, for if these are taken away he ceases to
live, or what is the same, that all his life is one of love and thought,
for if these are taken away he does not live. Inasmuch as all of the will
and understanding or all of love and thought in man is from the Lord, all
of his life, as we said above, is from Him.
[8] 5. _This only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and
omnipotent._ This also every Christian acknowledges from his doctrine and
every gentile from his religion. In consequence, wherever he is, a man
thinks that God is there and that he prays to God at hand; thinking and
praying so, men cannot but think that God is everywhere, that is,
omnipresent; likewise omniscient and omnipotent. Everyone praying to God,
therefore, implores Him from the heart to lead him because He can lead
him; thus he acknowledges the divine omnipresence, omniscience and
omnipotence, doing so in turning his face to the Lord; thereupon the
truth flows in from the Lord.
[9] 6. This only One and very Self is the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah.
In Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord it was shown that God is
one in essence and in person and that He is the Lord, and that the Divine
itself, called Jehovah Father, is the Lord-from-eternity; that the Divine
Human is the Son conceived by His Divine from eternity and born in the
world; and that the proceeding Divine is the Holy Spirit. He is called
"very Self" and "only One" because, as was said, the Lord-from-eternity
or Jehovah is life itself, being love itself and wisdom itself or good
itself and truth itself, from which are all things. That the Lord created
all things from Himself and not from nothing may be seen in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ nn. 282-284, 349-357. So the truth that the
human being is led and taught by the Lord alone is established by
reasons.
158. This same truth is established in angels not only by reasons but
also by living perceptions, especially with angels of the third heaven.
They perceive the influx of divine love and wisdom from the Lord.
Perceiving it and in their wisdom aware that love and wisdom are life,
they declare that they live from the Lord and not of themselves, and not
only say so but love and will it so. Yet they are in the full appearance
that they live of themselves, yes, more strongly in the appearance than
other angels. For as was shown above (nn. 42-45) the more nearly one is
united with the Lord, the more distinctly does he seem to himself to be
his own, and the more plainly is he aware that he is the Lord's. For many
years now it has been granted me to be in a similar simultaneous
perception and appearance, and I am fully convinced that I will and think
nothing from myself but that it only appears to be from myself; it has
also been granted to love and will it so. The same truth may be
established by much else from the spiritual world, but these two
references must suffice now.
159. It is plain from the following passages in the Word that life is the
Lord's alone.
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die,
shall live (Jn 11:25).
I am the way and the truth and the life (Jn 14:6).
The Word was God . . . and in Him was life; and the life was the light of
men (Jn 1:1, 4).
"The Word" in this passage is the Lord.
As the Father has life in Himself, so has he given the Son to have life
in Himself (Jn 5:26).
From the following it is clear that man is led and taught by the Lord
alone:
Without Me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5).
A man cannot receive anything unless it is given him from heaven (Jn
3:27).
A man cannot make one hair white or black (Mt 5:36).
By "hair" in the Word the least of all is signified.
160. It will be shown in what follows in an article of its own that the
life of the wicked has the same source; now this will merely be
illustrated by a comparison. Heat and light flow in from the sun of the
world alike to trees bearing bad fruit and to trees bearing good fruit,
and they are alike quickened and grow. The forms into which the heat
flows make the difference, not the heat in itself. It is the same with
light, which is turned into various colors according to the forms into
which it flows. The colors are beautiful and gay or ugly and sombre, and
yet it is the same light. It is so with the influx of spiritual heat
which in itself is love, and with spiritual light which in itself is
wisdom, from the sun of the spiritual world. The forms into which they
flow cause diversity, but not in itself that heat which is love or that
light which is wisdom. The forms into which these flow are human minds.
It is clear from these considerations that man is led and taught by the
Lord alone.
161. What the life of animals is, however, was shown above (nn. 74, 96),
namely that it is a life of merely natural affection with its attendant
knowledge, and a mediated life corresponding to the life of human beings
in the spiritual world.
162. (ii) _Man is led and taught by the Lord alone through the angelic
heaven and from it._ We say "through" the angelic heaven and from it, but
that He does so "through" the angelic heaven is the apparent fact, while
"from it" is the reality. The Lord seems to lead and teach through the
angelic heaven because He appears above that heaven as a sun, but the
reality is that He does so from heaven because He is in heaven as the
soul is in man. For the Lord is omnipresent and not in space, as was
shown above. Therefore distance is an appearance according to conjunction
with Him, and the conjunction is according to the reception of love and
wisdom from Him. Since no one can be conjoined to the Lord as He exists
in Himself He appears to angels at a distance as a sun; nevertheless He
is in the angelic heaven as the soul is in man. He is similarly in every
society of heaven and in every angel, for man's soul is not only the soul
of man as a whole but also of every part of him.
[2] It is according to the appearance that the Lord governs all heaven
and through it the world from the sun which is from Him and in which He
is (about the sun see Part II of the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_),
and everyone is allowed to speak according to the appearance, cannot, in
fact, do otherwise. Everyone who is not in wisdom itself is also allowed
to think that the Lord rules each and all things from His sun and rules
the world through the angelic heaven. Angels of the lower heavens think
from the appearance, but those of the higher heavens speak indeed in
keeping with the appearance but think from the reality, namely, that the
Lord rules the universe from the angelic heaven, that is, from Himself.
[3] One can illustrate by the sun of the world that simple and wise speak
alike but do not think alike. All speak from the appearance that the sun
rises and sets. Despite speaking so the wise think it stands still, which
is again the reality, as the other is the appearance. The same thing can
be illustrated from appearances in the spiritual world, for space and
distance appear there but are dissimilarities of affections and of
resulting thoughts. The same is true of the Lord's appearing in His sun.
163. We shall say briefly how the Lord leads and teaches everyone from
the angelic heaven. In the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ and above in
the present treatise, also in the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published in
London in the year 1758, it has been made known from things seen and
heard that the angelic heaven appears before the Lord as one man, and
each society of heaven likewise, and it is from this that each angel or
spirit is a human being in complete form. It was also shown in the
treatises mentioned that heaven is not heaven from anything belonging to
the angels but from their reception of divine love and wisdom from the
Lord. Hence it may be evident that the Lord rules the whole angelic
heaven as one man, and since heaven is itself man, it is the very image
and likeness of the Lord and the Lord rules it as the soul rules its
body. Since all mankind is ruled by the Lord, it is ruled by the Lord not
through heaven, but from heaven, consequently by Him, for He is heaven,
as we have said.
164. This is an arcanum of angelic wisdom, however, and therefore cannot
be comprehended by man unless his spiritual mind has been opened; for
such a man, who is united with the Lord, is an angel. From what has
preceded he can comprehend the following:
1. Men as well as angels are in the Lord and the Lord in them according
to their conjunction with Him, or, what is the same, according to their
reception of love and wisdom from Him.
2. Each of them has a place allotted to him in the Lord, thus in heaven,
according to the nature of the conjunction or the reception of Him.
3. Each in his place has a state of his own distinct from that of others
and draws his portion from what is had in common according to his
situation, function and need, quite as each part does in the human body.
4. Everyone is brought into his place by the Lord according to his life.
5. Every human being is introduced from infancy into this divine man
whose soul and life is the Lord, and within it and not outside of it is
led and taught from His divine love according to His divine wisdom; but
as a man is not deprived of freedom, he can be led and taught only in the
measure of his receptiveness as of himself.
6. Those who are receptive are conducted to their places through an
infinite maze by winding paths, much as the chyle is carried through the
mesentery and the lacteal vessels there to its cistern, and from this
into the blood by the thoracic duct, and so to its place.
7. Those who are not receptive are parted from those within the divine
man, as excrement and urine are removed from man.
These are arcana of angelic wisdom which man can comprehend to some
extent; there are many more which he cannot.
165. (iii) _Man is led by the Lord through influx and taught through
enlightenment._ Man is led through influx by the Lord because "being
led" and "flowing in" are spoken of love and the will; and he is
taught by the Lord through enlightenment because "being taught" and
"enlightened" are spoken of wisdom and the understanding. It is known
that every person is led by himself from his own love and according to
it by others, and not by his understanding. He is led by his
understanding and according to it only as his love or his will prompts
the understanding, and then it can be said that his understanding is
led also. Even then the understanding is not led, but the will which
prompts it.
The term "influx" is used because it is commonly said that the soul flows
into the body; influx is spiritual and not physical, as we showed above,
and man's soul or life is his love or will. For another reason, influx is
comparatively like the flow of the blood into the heart and from the
heart into the lungs. We showed in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom
that the heart corresponds to the will and the lungs correspond to the
understanding, and that the conjunction of the will with the
understanding is like the flowing of the blood from the heart to the
lungs.
166. Man is taught, however, through enlightenment; being taught and
being enlightened are said of the understanding. For the understanding or
man's internal sight is enlightened by spiritual light quite as the eye
or man's external sight is by natural light. The two are also taught
similarly; the internal sight, however, which is that of the
understanding, by spiritual objects, and the external sight or the sight
of the eye by natural objects. There is spiritual light and natural
light, one like the other in outward appearance, but dissimilar in
internal appearance. For natural light comes from the sun of the natural
world and so is in itself dead, but spiritual light, which is from the
sun of the spiritual world, is in itself living. This light, not
nature's, enlightens the human intellect. Natural and rational light
comes from it and not from nature's light, and is here called natural and
rational because it is spiritual-natural.
[2] There are three degrees of light in the spiritual world: celestial,
spiritual and spiritual-natural. Celestial light is a flaming, ruddy
light and is the light of those who are in the third heaven; spiritual
light is a gleaming white light and is the light of those in the middle
heaven; and spiritual-natural light is like daylight in our world. This
is the light of those who are in the lowest heaven and of those in the
world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell; with the
good in that world it is like the light of summer on earth and with the
evil like winter's light.
It should be known, however, that light in the spiritual world has
nothing in common with light in the natural world; they are as different
as what is living and what is lifeless. It is plain, then, from what has
been said that it is spiritual light and not the natural light before our
eyes that enlightens the understanding. Man does not know this, not
having known anything hitherto about spiritual light. In the work _Heaven
and Hell_ we have shown (nn. 126-140) that spiritual light has its origin
in divine wisdom and truth.
167. Having spoken about the light of heaven, we should say something
about the light of hell. This also is of three degrees. The light in the
lowest hell is like that from fiery coals; in the middle hell like that
from the flame of a hearth; and in the highest hell like that from
candles and to some like moonlight at night. All this is spiritual light
and not natural, for all natural light is dead and extinguishes the
understanding. As has been shown, those in hell possess the faculty of
understanding called rationality; rationality itself comes from spiritual
light and not from natural light. The spiritual light which they have in
rationality is turned, however, into infernal light, as the light of day
is into the dark of night.
[2] Nevertheless, all those in the spiritual world, whether in the
heavens or the hells, see in their own light as clearly as man sees in
his by day. This is because everyone's eyesight is formed to receive the
light in which it finds itself. Thus the eyesight of the angels of heaven
is formed to receive the light in which they see, and the sight of the
spirits of hell is formed to receive their light; this is comparatively
like that of birds of night and bats, which see objects at night and in
the evening as clearly as other birds see them by day, for their eyes are
formed to receive their light.
[3] The difference between the one light and the other appears very
clearly, however, to those who look from one to the other. When, for
instance, an angel of heaven looks into hell he sees only thick darkness,
and when a spirit of hell looks into heaven he sees only thick darkness
there. For heavenly wisdom is like thick darkness to those in hell; in
turn, infernal insanity is like thick darkness to those in heaven. It is
plain from all this that such as a man's understanding is, such is the
light he has, and that after death everyone comes into his own light, for
he sees in no other. In the spiritual world, moreover, where all are
spiritual even to the body, the eyes of all are formed to see by their
own light. Everyone's life-love fashions an understanding for itself and
thus a light, also, for love is like the fire of life and from this comes
the light of life.
168. As few know anything about the enlightenment in which the
understanding of a man is who is taught by the Lord, something will be
said of it. There is inner and outer enlightenment from the Lord, and
inner and outer enlightenment from oneself. Inner enlightenment from the
Lord consists in man's perceiving on first hearing something whether it
is true or not; outer enlightenment consists in thought from this. Inner
enlightenment from oneself is simply from confirmation and outer
enlightenment merely from information. We will say something of each.
[2] By inner enlightenment from the Lord a rational person perceives
about many things the moment he hears them whether they are true or not;
for example, that love is the life of faith or that faith lives by love.
By interior enlightenment a person also perceives that a man wills what
he loves and does what he wills, consequently that to love is to do;
again, that a man wills and does whatever he believes from love, and
therefore to have faith is also to do; and that the impious man cannot
have love for God or faith then in Him. By inner enlightenment a rational
man also perceives the following truths at once on hearing them: God is
one; He is omnipresent; all good is from Him; all things have relation to
good and truth; all good is from good itself and all truth from truth
itself. A man perceives these and other similar truths inwardly in
himself on hearing them and does so because he possesses a rationality
which is in heaven's enlightening light.
[3] Outer enlightenment is enlightenment of one's thought from this inner
enlightenment. One's thought is in this enlightenment so far as it
remains in the perception it has from inner enlightenment and so far as
it possesses knowledge of good and truth, for it gets from this
knowledge reasons confirming it. Thought from outer enlightenment sees a
matter on both sides; on the one, it sees reasons which confirm it, and
on the other, the appearances that weaken it; it dispels these and
assembles the reasons.
[4] Inner enlightenment from oneself, however, is quite different. By it
one regards a matter on one side only, and having confirmed it sees it in
light apparently like that just spoken of, but it is a wintry light. For
example, a judge who judges unjustly in view of gifts or gain, once he
has confirmed the judgment by law and reason sees in it nothing but
justice. Some judges see the injustice but not wanting to see it, they
keep it out of sight and blind themselves and so do not see. The same is
true of a judge who renders judgments out of friendship, or to gain
favor, or on account of relationship.
[5] Such persons act in the same way in anything they have from a man in
authority or from the mouth of a celebrity or have hatched from
self-intelligence; they are blind reasoners, for they see from the
falsities which they confirm; falsity closes the sight, just as truth
opens it. They do not see any truth in the light of truth nor justice
from a love for it but from the light of confirmation, which is an
illusory light. They appear in the spiritual world like headless faces or
like faces resembling human faces on wooden heads, and are called
reasoning animals for rationality is potential in them. Those have outer
enlightenment from themselves who think and speak solely from information
impressed on the memory; of themselves they can hardly confirm anything.
169. Such are the differences in enlightenment and consequently in
perception and thought. There is actual enlightenment by spiritual light,
but it is not manifest to one in the natural world because natural light
has nothing in common with spiritual light. This enlightenment has
sometimes been manifested to me in the spiritual world, however, visible
in those enlightened by the Lord as a luminosity around the head, aglow
with the color of the human face. With those in enlightenment from
themselves the luminosity was not around the head but around the mouth
and over the chin.
170. Besides these kinds of enlightenment there is another in which it is
revealed to one in what faith, intelligence and wisdom he is; he
perceives this in himself, such is the revelation. He is admitted into a
society where there is genuine faith and true intelligence and wisdom.
There his interior rationality is opened, from which he sees the nature
of his own faith, intelligence and wisdom, even to avowing it. I have
seen some as they returned and heard them confessing that they had no
faith although in the world they had believed they had much faith and
markedly more than others; they said the same of their intelligence and
wisdom. Some were in faith alone and in no charity, and some in
self-intelligence.
171. (iv) _Man is taught by the Lord through the Word and doctrine and
preaching from it, thus immediately by the Lord alone._ We said and
showed above that man is led and taught by the Lord alone, and from
heaven but not through heaven or any angel there. As it is by the Lord
alone, it is done immediately and not mediately. How this takes place
will be told now.
172. It was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred
Scripture_ that the Lord is the Word and that all the doctrine of the
church is to be drawn from the Word. Inasmuch as the Lord is the Word the
man who is taught from the Word is taught by the Lord alone. This is
comprehended with difficulty and will be clarified in this order:
1. The Lord is the Word because the Word is from Him and about Him.
2. Also because the Word is divine truth together with divine good.
3. To be taught from the Word is to be taught from Him, therefore.
4. That this is done mediately through preaching does not take away its
immediacy.
[2] First: _The Lord is the Word because it is from Him and about Him._
No one in the church denies that the Word is from the Lord, but that it
is about Him alone, while not denied, is not known. This was shown in
_Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord,_ nn. 1-7, 37-44, and in
_Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 62-69,
80-90, 98-100. Inasmuch as the Word is from the Lord alone and treats of
Him alone, a man is taught by the Lord when he is taught from the Word,
for it is the divine Word. Who can communicate what is divine and implant
it in the heart except the Divine Himself from whom it is and of whom it
treats? Therefore, in speaking of His union with His disciples He says
that they are to abide in Him and His words in them (Jn 15:7 ), that His
words are spirit and life (Jn 6:63), and that He makes His abode with
those who keep His words (Jn 14:20-24). To think from the Lord therefore
is to think from the Word, and as it were, through the Word. It was shown
in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture_ from
beginning to end that all things of the Word have communication with
heaven, and as the Lord is heaven, this means that all things of the Word
have communication with the Lord Himself. The angels of heaven indeed
have communication; this, too, is from the Lord.
[3] Second: _The Lord is the Word because it is divine truth together
with divine good._ The Lord teaches that He is the Word by these words in
John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God . . . and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (1:1, 14).
This passage has been understood hitherto to mean only that God teaches
men through the Word and has been explained as an hyperbole, with the
implication that the Lord is not the Word itself. This is because
expositors did not know that the Word is divine truth together with
divine good or, what is the same, divine wisdom together with divine
love. That these are the Lord Himself was shown in the treatise _Divine
Love and Wisdom,_ Part I, and that they are the Word in _Doctrine of the
New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 1-86.
[4] We will say briefly in what way the Lord is divine truth together
with divine good. Each human being is human not because of face and body
but from the good of his love and the truths of his wisdom; and because a
man is a man from these, he is also his own good and his own truth or his
own love and his own wisdom; without these he is not a human being. But
the Lord is good itself and truth itself or, what is the same, love
itself and wisdom itself; and these are the Word which in the beginning
was with God and was God and which was made flesh.
[5] Third: _To be taught from the Word, then, is to be taught by the Lord
Himself._ For it means that one is taught from good itself and truth
itself or from love itself and wisdom itself, and, as we have said, these
are the Word. But everyone is taught according to an understanding
agreeing with his love; what goes beyond this does not remain. All who
are taught by the Lord in the Word are instructed in a few truths while
in the world but in many when they become angels. For the interiors of
the Word, which are divine spiritual and divine celestial, are implanted
at the time, but are not consciously possessed until a man on his death
is in heaven where he is in angelic wisdom which, compared with human
wisdom, thus his earlier wisdom, is ineffable. That divine spiritual and
divine celestial things which constitute angelic wisdom are present in
each and all things of the Word see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about
the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 5-26.
[6] Fourth: _That this teaching is done mediately through preaching does
not take away the immediacy._ Inevitably the Word is taught mediately by
parents, teachers, preachers, books and particularly by reading. Still it
is not taught by them but by the Lord through them. Preachers, aware of
this, say that they speak not from themselves but from the spirit of God
and that all truth like all good is from God. They can speak it and bring
it to the understanding of many, but not to anyone's heart; and what is
not in the heart passes away from the understanding; by "heart" a man's
love is meant. From this it is plain that man is led and taught by the
Lord alone and immediately by Him when he is taught from the Word. This
is a supreme arcanum of angelic wisdom.
173. We have shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred
Scripture_ (nn. 104-113) that those outside the church who do not have
the Word still have light by means of it. Man has light by means of the
Word and from the light has understanding, and both the wicked and the
good have understanding. It follows that from light in its origin there
is light in its derivatives which are perceptions and thoughts on
whatever subject. The Lord says that without Him men can do nothing (Jn
15:5); that a man can receive nothing unless it is given him from heaven
(Jn 3:27); and that the Father in the heavens makes His sun to rise on
the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Mt
5:45). In the Word in its spiritual sense by "sun" here, as elsewhere, is
meant the divine good of divine love and by "rain" the divine truth of
divine wisdom. These are extended to the evil and the good, to the unjust
and the just, for if they were not, no one would possess perception and
thought. It was shown above that there is only one Life from which all
have life. But perception and thought are part of life; they are
therefore from the same fountain from which life springs. It has been
shown many times before that all the light which forms the understanding
is from the sun of the spiritual world, which is the Lord.
174. (v) _Man is led and taught in externals by the Lord to all
appearance as of himself._ This is so of man's externals, but not
inwardly. No one knows how the Lord leads and teaches man inwardly, just
as no one knows how the soul operates so that the eye sees, the ear
hears, the tongue and mouth speak, the heart circulates the blood, the
lungs breathe, the stomach digests, the liver and the pancreas
distribute, the kidneys secrete, and much else. These processes do not
come to man's perception or sensation. The same is true of what the Lord
does in the infinitely more numerous interior substances and forms of the
mind. The Lord's activity in these is not apparent to man, but many of
the effects are, as well as some of the causes producing the effects. It
is in the externals that man and the Lord are together, and as the
externals make one with the internals, cohering as they do in one series,
no disposition can be made by the Lord except in keeping with the
disposition made in the externals with man's participation.
[2] Everyone knows that man thinks, wills, speaks and acts to all
appearance as of himself, and everyone can see that without this
appearance man would have no will and understanding, thus no affection
and thought, also no reception of any good and truth from the Lord. It
follows that without this appearance there would be no rational
conception of God, no charity and no faith, consequently no reformation
and regeneration, and therefore no salvation. Plainly, this appearance is
granted to man by the Lord for the sake of all these uses and
particularly that he may have the power to receive and reciprocate so
that the Lord may be united to him and he to the Lord, and that through
this conjunction the human being may live forever. This is "appearance"
as it is meant here.
IX. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL NOT PERCEIVE OR FEEL
ANY OF THE ACTIVITY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, AND YET SHOULD KNOW AND
ACKNOWLEDGE PROVIDENCE
175. The natural man who does not believe in divine providence thinks to
himself, "What can divine providence be when the wicked are promoted to
honors and gain wealth more than the good, and many such things go better
with those who do not believe in divine providence than with the good who
believe in it? Indeed, infidels and the impious can inflict injuries,
loss, misfortune and sometimes death on the believing and pious, doing
so, too, by cunning and malice." He thinks therefore, "Do I not see in
full daylight, as it were, in actual experience that crafty schemes
prevail over fidelity and justice if only a man can make them seem
trustworthy and just by a clever artfulness? What is left except
necessities, consequences and the fortuitous in which there is no
semblance of divine providence? Does not nature have its necessities, and
are not consequences causes arising from natural or civil order, while
the fortuitous comes, does it not, from unknown causes or from none?" So
the natural man thinks to himself who attributes all things to nature and
nothing to God, for one who ascribes nothing to God ascribes nothing to
divine providence either; God and divine providence make one.
[2] But the spiritual man speaks and thinks within himself quite
otherwise. Although he does not perceive the course of divine providence
by any thought or feel it from any sight of it, he still knows and
acknowledges providence. Inasmuch as the appearances and resulting
fallacies just mentioned have blinded the understanding, and this can
receive sight only when the fallacies which have induced the blindness
and the falsities which have induced the darkness are dispelled, and
since this can be done only by truths which have the power to dispel
falsities, these truths are to be disclosed, and for distinctness let it
be in this order:
i. If man perceived or felt the activity of divine providence he would
not act in freedom according to reason, nor would anything appear to be
his own doing. It would be the same if he foreknew events.
ii. If man saw divine providence plainly, he would inject himself into
the order and tenor of its course, and pervert and destroy them.
iii. If man beheld divine providence plainly he would either deny God or
make himself god.
iv. Man can see divine providence on the back and not in the face; also
in a spiritual, not a natural state.
176. (i) _If man perceived or felt the activity of divine providence he
would not act in freedom according to reason, nor would anything appear
to be his own doing. It would be the same if he foreknew events._ In
given articles we made evident to the understanding that it is a law of
providence that man should act in freedom according to reason; also that
all which a man wills, thinks, speaks and does shall seem to be his own
doing; that without this appearance a man would have nothing of his own
nor be his own man. He would thus have no selfhood and nothing could be
imputed to him, and in that case whether he did good or evil would not
matter, and whether he believed in God or was under the persuasion of
hell would be immaterial; in a word, he would not be a human being.
[2] We have now to show that man would have no liberty to act according
to reason and there would be no appearance of self-activity if he
perceived or felt the activity of divine providence, for if he did he
would also be led by it. The Lord leads all men by His divine providence
and man only seemingly leads himself, as was shown above. If, therefore,
man had a lively perception or sense of being led, he would not be
conscious of living life and would be moved to make sounds and act much
like a graven image. If he were still conscious of living he would be led
like one bound in manacles and fetters or like a yoked animal. Who does
not see that man would have no freedom then? And without freedom he would
be without reason, for one thinks from and in freedom; whatever he does
not so think seems to him to be not from himself but from someone else.
Indeed if you consider this interiorly you will perceive that he would
not possess thought, still less reason, and hence would not be a human
being.
177. The Lord's divine providence is constantly seeking to withdraw man
from evils. If a man perceived or felt this constant activity and yet was
not led like one bound, would he not struggle against it continually and
then either quarrel with God or mingle himself in divine providence? If
he did the latter he would also make himself God; if he did the former he
would free himself from constraint and deny God. Manifestly two forces
would constantly be acting then against each other, the force of evil
from man and the force of good from the Lord. When two opposites act
against each other, one of them conquers or they both perish. In this
instance if one conquers they both perish. For the evil, which is man's,
does not let in good from the Lord in a moment, nor does good from the
Lord cast out evil from man in a moment; if either was done in a moment
no life would be left to man. These and many other harmful results would
follow if man manifestly perceived or felt the operation of divine
providence. This will be demonstrated clearly by examples in what
follows.
178. Man is not given a foreknowledge of events for the same reason,
namely, that he may be able to act in freedom according to reason. It is
well known that man wants what he loves effected, and he guides himself
to this end by reasoning. It is also known that what a man meditates in
his reason comes from his love of giving it effect through thought. If,
then, he knew the effect or the eventuality by divine prediction, his
reason would become inactive and with it his love; for love along with
reasoning ends with the effect, to begin anew. It is reason's very
enjoyment to envision with love the effect in thought, not after it is
attained but before it is, not in the present but as future. So man has
what is called hope, which rises and declines in the reason as he beholds
or awaits the event. The enjoyment is fulfilled in the event and then is
forgotten along with thought about the event. The same thing would occur
with an event that was foreknown.
[2] The human mind dwells always in the trine called end, cause and
effect. If one of these is lacking, the mind is not possessed of its
life. An affection of the will is the initiating end; the thought of the
understanding is the efficient cause; and bodily action, utterance or
external sensation is the effect from the end by means of the thought.
Anyone sees that the human mind is not possessed of its life when it is
only in an affection of the will and in naught besides, or when it is
only in an effect. The mind has no life from one of these separately,
therefore, but from the three together. The life of the mind would
diminish and depart if an event were foretold.
179. As a foreknowledge of future events takes away humanness itself,
which is action in freedom in accord with one's reason, no one is given
to know the future; but everyone is allowed to form conclusions by the
reason about the future; the reason is then fully in its own life.
Accordingly man does not know his lot after death or know any event until
he is on it. For if he knew, he would no longer think from his inner self
how he should act or live so as to meet it, but would think only from his
exterior self that he was meeting it. This state closes the interiors of
his mind where the two faculties of his life, liberty and reason,
especially reside. A desire to know the future is born with most persons
but has its origin in a love of evil. It is taken away, therefore, from
those who believe in divine providence; and trust that the Lord disposes
their lot is given them. Therefore they do not desire to know it
beforehand lest they inject themselves in some way into divine
providence. The Lord teaches this in many sayings in Luke (12:14-48).
[2] Much from the world of the spirit can confirm that this is a law of
divine providence. On entering that world after death most persons desire
to know their lot. The answer they receive is that if they have lived
well their lot is in heaven and if wickedly it is in hell. But as all,
including the wicked, fear hell they ask what they should do and believe
to get into heaven. They are answered that they are to do and believe as
they will, but know that one does not do good or believe truth in hell,
only in heaven. "As you can, seek what is good and true, thinking truth
and doing good." Everyone is thus left to act in freedom according to
reason in the spiritual world as he is in the natural world; but as one
has acted in this world he acts in that, for everyone's life remains to
him and so his lot awaits him, for this is his life's lot.
180. (ii) _If man saw divine providence plainly he would inject himself
into the order and tenor of its course and pervert and destroy them._ To
bring this distinctly to the perception of the rational man and also of
the natural man, it will be illustrated by examples in this order:
1. External things are so connected with internal things that they make
one in all that is done.
2. The human being joins the Lord only in some external things and if he
did in internal things also, he would pervert and destroy the whole order
and tenor of the course of divine providence.
As we said, these points will be illustrated by examples.
[2] First: _External things are so connected with internal things that
they make one in all that is done._ Let this be illustrated by examples
from several things in man's body. Everywhere in it are things external
and internal. The external are called skins, membranes and coverings; the
internal are forms variously composed and woven of nerve fibres and blood
vessels. The covering over these enters into them by extensions from
itself even to the inmost, so that the external or the covering unites
with the internals or the organic forms of fibres and vessels. It follows
that the internals act and are acted on as the external acts or is acted
on. For they are all constantly bound up together.
[3] Take such a common covering in the body as the pleura, for example,
which covers the chest cavity and the heart and lungs. Examine it in an
anatomical view, or if you do not know anatomy consult anatomists, and
you will learn that this general covering by various circumvolutions and
finer and finer extensions from itself enters into the inmost parts of
the lungs, even into the smallest bronchial branches and into the sacs
themselves which are the beginnings of the lungs, not to mention its
subsequent progress by the trachea into the larynx and toward the tongue.
From this it is plain that there is a constant connection of the outmost
with inmosts; the interiors from the inmosts on therefore act and are
acted upon as the external acts or is acted on. For this reason when that
outmost covering, the pleura, is congested, inflamed or ulcerated, the
lungs labor from their inmost parts; if the disease grows worse, all
action of the lungs ceases and the man dies.
[4] The same is true everywhere else in the body. For instance it is true
of the peritoneum, the general covering of all the abdominal viscera,
also of the coverings on such organs severally as the stomach, liver,
pancreas, spleen, intestines, mesentery, kidneys, and the organs of
generation in both sexes. Choose any one of these viscera, examine it
yourself or consult those skilled in the science, and you will see or
hear. Take the liver, for example; you will find there is a connection
between the peritoneum and that organ and by its covering with its inmost
parts. For the covering puts out constant extensions from itself and
insertions towards the interiors and thus continues to inmosts and as a
result the whole is bound together. The entire form acts or is acted upon
in such manner as the covering acts or is acted upon. The same is true of
the rest of the organs. For what is general and what is particular or the
universal and the singular in a form act together by a marvelous
connection.
[5] You will see below that what occurs in natural forms and their
processes, which relate to motion and actions, occurs similarly in
spiritual forms and in the changes and variations of their state, which
relate to activities of the will and the understanding. Inasmuch as man
joins the Lord in certain external activities and no one is deprived of
the liberty of acting according to reason, the Lord can act in internals
only as, together with man, He does in externals. If man does not shun
and turn away from evils as sins, therefore, the external and at the same
time the internal of his thought and will are infected and destroyed,
comparatively as the pleura is by the disease in it called pleurisy, of
which the body dies.
[6] Second: _If man were in internals at the same time he would pervert
and destroy the whole order and tenor of divine providence._ Examples
from the human body will illustrate this also. If man knew all the
workings of the two brains into the fibres, of the fibres into the
muscles and of the muscles into actions, and by this knowledge were to
have the disposition of them as he disposes his deeds, would he not
pervert and destroy all?
[7] If man knew how the stomach digests, and how the surrounding organs
take their portion, work the blood and distribute it where needed for
life, and if he had the disposing of these as he has of external
activities, such as eating and drinking, would he not pervert and destroy
all? When he cannot handle the external, seemingly a single thing,
without destroying it by luxury and intemperance, what would he do if he
had the disposal of the internals, infinite in number? Lest man enter
into them by any volition and have control of them, things internal are
therefore taken entirely away from the will except for the muscles, which
are a covering; moreover, how these act is not known, only that they do.
[8] The same can be said of other organs. To give examples: if man had
the disposing of the interiors of the eye for seeing, those of the ear
for hearing, or the tongue for tasting, those of the skin for feeling,
those of the heart for systolic action, of the lungs for breathing, of
the mesentery to distribute the chyle, or of the kidneys for secretion,
the interiors of the organs of generation for propagation, or those of
the womb for perfecting an embryo, and so on, would he not pervert and
destroy the ordered course of the divine providence in them in
innumerable ways? As we know, man is in externals, for example sees with
the eye, hears with the ear, tastes with the tongue, feels with the skin,
breathes with the lungs, impregnates a wife, and so on. Is it not enough
for him to know the externals and dispose them for health of body and
mind? When he cannot do this, what would happen if he disposed internals
also? It may be plain from this that if man saw divine providence
plainly, he would inject himself into the order and tenor of its course
and pervert and destroy them.
181. The like occurs in the spiritual things of the mind to what occurs
in the natural things of the body for the reason that all things of the
mind correspond to all things of the body. For the same reason the mind
actuates the body in externals and generally does so completely. It moves
the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the mouth and tongue to eat and drink,
also to speak, the hands to do, the feet to walk, the generative organs
to propagate. The mind not only moves the externals in these ways but the
internals, too, in their whole series, outmosts from inmosts and inmosts
from outmosts. Thus while moving the mouth to speak, it moves lungs,
larynx, glottis, tongue and lips at the same time, each separately to its
especial function, and the face suitably also.
[2] It is clear then that the same can be said of the spiritual forms of
the mind as was said of the natural forms of the body, and the same can
be said of the spiritual activities of the mind as was said of the
natural activities of the body. Consequently the Lord orders the
internals as a man does the externals, in one way if the man orders the
externals of himself and in another if he orders them under the Lord and
at the same time as of himself. The mind of man is also in its total
organization a man, for it is his spirit which appears after death
altogether as a human being as in the world; hence there are similar
things in mind and body. Thus what has been said about the conjunction of
externals with internals in the body is to be understood of the
conjunction of externals with internals in the mind, with the sole
difference that the latter is spiritual and the former is natural.
182. ( iii) _If man beheld divine providence plainly he would either deny
God or make himself god._ The merely natural man says to himself, "What
is divine providence? Is it anything else or more than an expression
which people get from a priest? Who sees anything of it? Is it not by
prudence, wisdom, cunning and malice that all things are done in the
world? Is not all else necessity or consequence? And does not much happen
by chance? Does divine providence lie concealed in this? How can it do so
in deceptions and schemes? Yet it is said that divine providence effects
all things. Then let me see it and I will believe in it. Can one believe
in it until he sees it?"
[2] So speaks the merely natural man, but the spiritual man speaks
differently. Acknowledging God he also acknowledges divine providence and
sees it, too. He cannot make it manifest, however, to anyone whose
thought is on nature only and from nature, for such a person cannot raise
his mind above nature, see anything of divine providence in its
phenomena, or come to conclusions about providence from nature's laws,
which are also laws of divine wisdom. If, therefore, he beheld divine
providence plainly, he would sink it in nature and thus not only enshroud
it in fallacies but profane it. Instead of acknowledging it he would deny
it, and one who denies divine providence in his heart denies God also.
[3] Either one thinks that God governs all things or that nature does. He
who thinks that God does thinks that they are ruled by love itself and
wisdom itself, thus by life itself; but he who thinks that nature governs
all, thinks that all things are ruled by nature's heat and light,
although these in themselves are dead, coming as they do from a dead sun.
Does not what is itself alive govern what is lifeless? Can what is dead
govern anything? If you think that what is lifeless can give life to
itself, you are mad; life must come from life.
183. It does not seem likely that if a man saw divine providence and its
activity plainly he would deny God; it would seem that he could not but
acknowledge it and thus acknowledge God. Yet the contrary is true. Divine
providence never acts in keeping with the love of man's will, but
constantly against it. For the human being by force of his hereditary
evil is ever panting for the lowest hell, but the Lord in His providence
is constantly leading him away and withdrawing him from it, first to a
milder hell, then away from hell, and finally to Himself in heaven. This
activity of divine providence is perpetual. If, then, man saw or felt
this withdrawing and leading away, he would be angered, consider God his
enemy, and deny Him on account of the evil of his selfhood. In order that
man may not know of it, therefore, he is held in freedom and thereby does
not know but that he leads himself.
[2] But let examples serve for illustration. By heredity man wants to
become great and also rich. In the measure in which these loves are not
checked he wants to become still greater and richer and finally the
greatest and richest; even so he would not rest, but would want to become
greater than God Himself and possess heaven itself. This lust is hidden
deep in hereditary evil and consequently in man's life and in the nature
of his life. Divine providence does not remove this evil in a moment; if
it were removed in a moment man would cease to live; but divine
providence removes it quietly and gradually without man's knowing of it.
It does this by letting man act according to the thinking which he deems
rational; then by various means, rational and also civil and moral, it
leads him away and withdraws him so far as he can be withdrawn in
freedom. Nor can evil be removed from anyone unless it comes out and is
seen and acknowledged; it is like a wound which heals only when opened.
[3] If, therefore, man knew and saw that the Lord in His divine
providence works in this way against his life's love, the source of his
highest enjoyment, he could not but go in the opposite direction, be
enraged, rebel, say harsh things, and finally, on account of his evil,
brush aside the activity of divine providence, denying it and so denying
God. He would do this especially if he saw success thwarted or saw
himself lowered in standing or deprived of wealth.
[4] But it is to be known that the Lord in no wise leads man away from
seeking position and acquiring wealth, but leads him away from the lust
of seeking position solely for the sake of eminence or for his own sake,
and also from acquiring wealth for its own sake or just to have it.
Leading the man away, He introduces him into the love of uses so that he
may regard eminence not for his own sake but for the sake of uses, thus
as attached to uses and only so to himself, and not as attached to him
and then to the uses; the same applies to wealth. At many places in the
Word the Lord Himself teaches that He continually humbles the proud and
exalts the humble; what He teaches in it is also of His divine
providence.
184. Any other evil in which man is by heredity is dealt with in like
manner, such as adultery, fraud, vengeance, blasphemy and other similar
evils, none of which can be removed except as freedom to think and will
them is left to man for him to remove them as if of himself. Nevertheless
he can do this only as he acknowledges divine providence and prays that it
may be done by it. Apart from this freedom and from divine providence at
the same time, the evils would be like poison shut in and not driven out,
which would spread quickly and consign all parts to death, or would be
like disease of the heart itself, from which the whole body soon dies.
185. The truth of what has been said cannot be better known than from
human lives after death in the spiritual world. Very many who had become
great or wealthy in the natural world and in their eminence or riches had
regarded themselves alone, at first speak of God and divine providence as
though they had acknowledged them at heart, but seeing divine providence
clearly then and their final lot under it, namely, for them to enter
hell, they unite with devils there and not only deny God then but also
blaspheme Him. Finally they reach such madness that they acknowledge the
more powerful among devils as their gods and desire nothing more ardently
than to become gods themselves.
186. Man would go contrary to God and also deny Him if he saw the
activities of God's divine providence plainly, for the reason that man is
in the enjoyment of self-love and this enjoyment constitutes his very
life. Therefore when man is held in the enjoyment of his life he is in
his freedom, for freedom and the enjoyment make one. If, then, he should
perceive that he is continually being led away from his enjoyment, he
would be enraged as against one who wanted to destroy his life and would
hold him to be an enemy. Lest it happen, the Lord in His divine
providence does not appear manifestly, but leads man by it as silently as
a hidden stream or favorable current does a vessel. Consequently man does
not know but that he is steadily in his own, for his freedom and his
proprium make one. Hence it is plain that freedom appropriates to him
what divine providence introduces, which would not take place if
providence were manifest. To be appropriated means to become of one's
life.
187. (iv) _Man can see divine providence on the back and not in the face;
also in a spiritual state but not in a natural._ To see divine providence
on the back but not in the face means after it acts and not before. To
see it in a spiritual state and not in a natural is to see it from heaven
and not from the world. All who receive influx from heaven and
acknowledge divine providence, especially those who have become spiritual
through reformation, on beholding events taking a wonderful course see
providence as it were from an interior acknowledgment and confess it.
These do not wish to see it in the face, that is, before it eventuates,
fearing that their volition may intrude on something of its order and
tenor.
[2] It is otherwise with those who do not admit any influx from heaven
but only from the world, especially with those who have become natural by
confirming appearances in themselves. They do not see anything of divine
providence on the back, that is, after it eventuates, but wish to behold
it in the face or before it eventuates; and as divine providence works by
means, and these are provided through man or the world, they attribute
providence, whether they look it in the face or on the back, to man or to
nature, and so confirm themselves in the denial of it. They make this
ascription of it because their understanding is closed above, that is, to
heaven, and open only below, that is, to the world; one cannot see divine
providence in a worldly outlook, only in a heavenly. I have wondered
sometimes whether they would acknowledge divine providence if their
understanding was opened above and they were to see as in the light of
day that nature in itself is dead, and human intelligence in itself
nothing, and that it is by influx that either appears to have being. I
perceived that those who have confirmed themselves in favor of nature and
of human prudence would not make the acknowledgment because the natural
light flowing in from below would immediately extinguish the spiritual
light flowing in from above.
189.* The man who has become spiritual by acknowledgment of God, and wise
by rejection of the proprium, sees divine providence in the world as a
whole and in each and all things in it. Looking at natural things, he
sees it; at civil things, he sees it; at spiritual things, he sees it;
and in things simultaneous as well as successive. He sees it in ends,
causes, effects, uses, forms, things great and small. Above all he sees
it in the salvation of men, as that Jehovah gave the Word, taught men by
it about God and about heaven and hell and eternal life, and Himself came
into the world to redeem men and save them. Man sees these and many other
things and divine providence in them from spiritual light in natural
light.
* The Latin original has no number 188.
[2] The merely natural man, however, sees none of these things. He is
like a man who sees a magnificent temple and hears a preacher enlightened
in divine things, but once home asserts that he saw only a stone building
and heard nothing but sounds made. Again, he is like a near-sighted man
who steps into a garden remarkable for fruits of every sort and who
reports on getting home that he saw only woods and trees. Moreover, when
such persons, having become spirits after death, are taken up into the
angelic heaven where all objects are in forms representative of love and
wisdom, they see none of them, not even that they exist. I have seen this
happen with a number who denied the Lord's divine providence.
190. Many constant things exist, created that inconstant things may
exist. Such constants are the ordained changes in the rising and setting
of sun, moon and stars; their obscurations by interpositions called
eclipses; the heat and light from them; the seasons of the year, called
spring, summer, autumn and winter; the times of the day, morning, noon,
evening and night; also atmospheres, waters and lands, viewed in
themselves; the vegetative force in the plant kingdom, that and the
reproductive in the animal kingdom; likewise what is constantly produced
when these forces are set in action in accord with the laws of order.
These and many more things existing from the creation are provided so
that infinitely varying things may exist, for what varies can exist only
in what is constant, fixed and certain.
[2] Examples will illustrate this. The varieties of vegetation would not
be possible unless sunrise and sunset and the resulting heat and light
were constant. Harmonies are infinitely varied, and would not exist
unless the atmospheres were constant in their laws and the ear in its
form. Varieties of vision, which are also infinite, would not exist
unless the ether in its laws and the eye in its organization were
constant; equally so, colors, unless light was constant. The same is true
of thoughts, words and actions, which are of infinite variety too; they
could not exist, either, unless the organic forms of the body were
constant. Must not a house be steady for a variety of things to be done
in it by a person? So must a temple be for the various acts of worship,
preaching, instruction and devout meditation to be possible in it. So in
much else.
[3] As for the varieties found in the constant, fixed and certain, they
go on to infinity and have no end; no one thing in the whole universe or
in any part of it is ever precisely the same as another, nor can be in
the progress of things to eternity. Who disposes these varieties which
proceed to infinity and eternity so that they have order unless it is He
who created what is constant to the end that they may exist in it? And
who can dispose the infinite varieties of life among men but He who is
life itself, that is, love itself and wisdom itself? Except by His divine
providence, which is like a continual creation, can the infinite
affections of men and their thoughts thence and thus the men themselves
be disposed so as to make one? Evil affections and the thoughts from them
to make one devil which is hell, and good affections and the thoughts
from them one Lord in heaven? We have said and shown several times before
that the whole angelic heaven is like one man in the Lord's sight, an
image and likeness of Him, and all hell over against it like one
monstrous man. This has been said because some natural men seize on
arguments for their madness in favor of nature and of one's own prudence
from even the constant and fixed which must exist for the variable to
exist in it.
X. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ONE'S OWN PRUDENCE; THERE ONLY APPEARS TO BE
AND IT SHOULD SO APPEAR; BUT DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS UNIVERSAL BY BEING IN
THE LEAST THINGS
191. That there is no such thing as one's own prudence is contrary to
appearances and therefore to the belief of many. Because it is, one who
believes, on the strength of the appearance, that human prudence does all
things, cannot be convinced except by reasons to be had from a more
profound investigation and to be gathered from causes. The appearance is
an effect, and causes disclose how it arises. By way of introduction
something will be said about the common faith on the subject. Contrary to
the appearance the church teaches that love and faith are not from man
but from God, so also wisdom and intelligence, therefore prudence also,
and in general all good and truth. When this teaching is accepted, one
must also agree that there is no such thing as one's own prudence, but
there only appears to be. Prudence comes only from intelligence and
wisdom and both of these only from the understanding and its grasp of
truth and good. All this is accepted and believed by those who
acknowledge divine providence, but not by those who only acknowledge
human prudence.
[2] Now, either what the church teaches is true, that all wisdom and
prudence are from God, or what the world teaches, that they are from man.
Can these views be reconciled in any other way than this, that what the
church teaches is the truth, and what the world teaches is the
appearance? For the church establishes its teaching from the Word, but
the world its teaching from the proprium; and the Word is God's, and the
proprium is man's. Because prudence is from God and not from man a
Christian in his devotions, prays God to lead his thoughts, purposes and
actions, and also adds that by himself he cannot. Again, seeing someone
doing good, he says the person has been led to it by God; and so about
much else. Can anyone speak so unless he inwardly believes it? To believe
it inwardly comes from heaven. But when a man deliberates and gathers
arguments in favor of human prudence he can believe the contrary, and
this is from the world. The internal faith prevails with those who
acknowledge God in their hearts; the external faith with those who do not
acknowledge Him at heart, however much they may with the lips.
192. We said that a person who believes, on the strength of the
appearance, that human prudence does all things, can be convinced only by
reasons to be had from a more profound investigation and gathered from
causes. In order, then, that the reasons gathered from causes may be
plain to the understanding, let them be put forward in due order as
follows:
i. All man's thoughts are from affections of his life's love; there are
and can he no thoughts apart from them.
ii. The affections of the life's love are known to the Lord alone.
iii. Through His divine providence the Lord leads the affections of the
life's love of man and at the same time the thoughts, too, from which
human prudence comes.
iv. By His divine providence the Lord assembles the affections of all
mankind into one form--the human form.
v. Heaven and hell, which are from mankind, are therefore in such a form.
vi. Those who have acknowledged nature alone and human prudence alone
make up hell, and those who have acknowledged God and His divine
providence make up heaven.
vii. All this can be effected only as it appears to man that he thinks
from himself and disposes by himself.
193. ( i ) _All man's thoughts are from affections of his life's love;
there are and can be no thoughts apart from them._ It has been shown
above in this treatise and also in the one entitled _Angelic Wisdom about
Divine Love and Wisdom,_ Parts I and V particularly, what the life's love
and the affections and the thoughts from them are essentially, and what
the sensations and actions arising from them in the body are. Inasmuch as
these are the causes from which human prudence issues as an effect,
something needs to be said about them here also. For what has been
written earlier elsewhere cannot be as closely connected with what is
written later as it will be if the same things are recalled and placed
with both in view.
[2] Earlier in this treatise, and in that just mentioned about _Divine
Love and Wisdom,_ it was shown that in the Lord are divine love and
wisdom; that these two are life itself; that from the two man has will
and understanding, will from the divine love and understanding from the
divine wisdom; that heart and lungs in the body correspond to these two;
that this may make plain that as the pulsation of the heart along with
the respiration of the lungs rules the whole man as to the body, so the
will together with the understanding rules him as to his mind; that thus
there are two principles of life in everyone, one natural and the other
spiritual, and that the natural principle of life is the heartbeat, and
the spiritual is the will of the mind; that each adjoins a consort to
itself with which it cohabits and performs the functions of life; and
that the heart joins the lungs to itself, and the will the understanding
to itself.
[3] Now, as the soul of the will is love, and the soul of the
understanding is wisdom, both of them from the Lord, love is the life of
everyone and is such life as it has in union with wisdom; or what is the
same, the will is the life of everyone and is such life as it has in
conjunction with the understanding. More on the subject may be seen above
in this treatise and especially in _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and
Wisdom,_ Parts I and V.
194. It was also demonstrated in the treatises mentioned that the life's
love produces subordinate loves from itself, called affections; that
these are exterior and interior; and that taken together they make one
dominion or kingdom as it were, in which the life's love is lord or king.
It was also shown that these subordinate loves or affections adjoin
consorts to themselves, each its own, the interior affections consorts
called perceptions, and the exterior consorts called knowledges, and each
cohabits with its consort and performs the functions of its life. In each
instance, it was shown, the union is like that of life's very being with
life's coming forth, which is such that the one is nothing without the
other; for what is life's being unless it is active and what is life's
activity if it is not from life's very being? The conjunction in life, it
was likewise shown, is like that of sound and harmony, of sound and
utterance, too, in general like that of the heart's pulsation and the
respiration of the lungs, a union, again, such that one without the other
is nothing and each becomes something in union with the other. Union must
either be in them or come about by them.
[2] Consider, for example, sound. One who thinks that sound is something
if there is nothing distinctive in it is much mistaken. It also
corresponds to affection in man, and as something distinctive is always
in it the affection of a person's love is known from the sound of his
voice in speaking, and his thought is known from the varied sounds which
speech is. Hence the wiser angels perceive just from the sound of his
voice a man's life's love together with some of the affections which are
its derivatives. This has been remarked that it may be known that no
affection is possible without its thought, and no thought without its
affection. More on the subject can be seen above in this treatise and in
_Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom._
195. Inasmuch as the life's love has its enjoyment, and its wisdom its
pleasure, and likewise every affection, which is essentially a lesser
love derived from the life's love like a stream from its source or a
branch from a tree or an artery from the heart, therefore every affection
has its enjoyment and the perception or thought from it its pleasure.
Consequently these enjoyments and pleasures make man's life. What is life
without joy and pleasure? It is not animated at all, but inanimate.
Reduce enjoyment and pleasure and you grow cold and torpid; take them
away and you expire and die. Vital heat comes from the enjoyments of the
affections and the pleasures of the perceptions and thoughts.
[2] As every affection has its enjoyment and the thought thence its
pleasure, it may be plain whence good and truth are and what they are
essentially. Whatever is the enjoyment of one's affection is one's good,
and one's truth is what is pleasant to the thought from that affection.
For everyone calls that good which he feels in the love of his will to be
enjoyable, and calls that truth which he then perceives in the wisdom of
his understanding to be pleasant. The enjoyable and the pleasant both
flow out from the life's love as water does from a spring or blood from
the heart; together they are like an element or the atmosphere in which
man's whole mind is.
[3] The two, enjoyment and pleasure, are spiritual in the mind and
natural in the body, and in each make man's life. From this it is plain
what it is in man that is called good, and what it is that is called
truth; likewise what it is in man that is called evil and false; whatever
destroys the enjoyment of his affection is evil to him, and what destroys
the pleasure of his thought thence is false to him. It is plain,
moreover, that evil on account of the enjoyment in it and falsity on
account of the pleasure in it may be called good and truth and believed
to be good and truth. Goods and truths are indeed changes and variations
of state in the forms of the mind, but they are perceived and have life
only through the enjoyments and pleasures they have to give. This is
noted to make known what affection and thought are in their life.
196. Inasmuch as it is not the body but man's mind that thinks and that
does so from the enjoyment of one's affection, and inasmuch as man's mind
is his spirit which lives after death, man's spirit is nothing else than
affection and thought therefrom. It is altogether plain from spirits and
angels in the spiritual world that thought cannot exist apart from
affection, for they all think from the affections of their life's love;
the enjoyments of these affections attend each as his atmosphere, and all
are united by these spheres exhaled from the affections by their
thoughts. The character of each one is known also by the sphere of his
life. It may be seen from this that all thought is from an affection and
is the form of that affection. The same applies to the relationship
between will and understanding, good and truth, and charity and faith.
197. (ii) _The affections of the life's love of man are known to the Lord
alone._ Man knows his thoughts and his intentions in them because he sees
them in himself, and as all prudence is from them, he sees this, too,
within him. Then if his life's love is self-love, he comes to take pride
in his own intelligence, ascribes prudence to himself, gathers arguments
in support of it, and thus recedes from acknowledging divine providence.
Much the same happens if love of the world is his life's love, but he
does not then recede to the same extent. It is plain from this that these
two loves ascribe all things to man and to his prudence and when
interiorly examined ascribe nothing to God and to His providence. When
persons who do this happen to hear that the reality is that there is no
such thing as human prudence, but that divine providence alone governs
all things, they laugh at this if they are outright atheists; if they
hold something of religion in remembrance and are told that all wisdom is
from God, they assent on first hearing it, but inwardly in their spirit
deny it. Such especially are priests who love themselves more than God,
and the world more than heaven, or what is the same, worship God for
position's or riches' sake, and yet have been preaching that charity and
faith, all good and truth, all wisdom, too, and in fact prudence are from
God and none of them from man.
[2] In the spiritual world I once heard two priests debating with a
certain royal ambassador about human prudence whether it is from God or
from man, and the debate was heated. The three believed alike at heart,
namely, that human prudence does all and divine providence nothing, but
the priests in their theological zeal at the moment asserted that there
was nothing of wisdom and prudence from man. When the ambassador retorted
that there was nothing of thought then, either, they said "yes, nothing
of thought." But as angels perceived that the three believed alike, they
bade the ambassador, "Put on priestly robes, believe yourself to be a
priest, and then speak." He robed himself, believed he was a priest, and
thereupon declared in a deep voice that never could there be wisdom or
prudence in man save from God. He defended this with the customary
eloquence filled with rational arguments. Then the two priests were told,
"Put off your robes, put on those of political ministers, and believe
that that is what you are." They did so, thought then from their interior
selves, and gave voice to the arguments they had entertained inwardly
before in favor of human prudence and against divine providence. Upon
this the three, believing alike, became warm friends and set out together
on the path of one's own prudence, which leads to hell.
198. It was shown above that man can have no thought except from some
affection of his life's love and that the thought is nothing other than
the form of the affection. Now, man sees his thought but cannot see his
affection, which he feels; it is therefore from sight which dwells on the
appearance, and not from affection which does not come into sight but
into feeling, that he concludes that one's own prudence does all things.
For affection shows itself only in a certain enjoyment of thought and in
pleasure ever reasoning about it. This pleasure and enjoyment make one
with the thought in those who, from self-love or love of the world,
believe in one's own prudence. The thought glides along in its enjoyment
like a ship in a river current to which the skipper does not attend,
attending only to the sails he spreads.
199. Man can indeed reflect on what his external affection finds
enjoyable when it is also an enjoyment of a bodily sense, but he still
does not reflect that that enjoyment comes from the enjoyment of his
affection in thought. For example, when a lecher sees a lewd woman his
eyes light with a lascivious fire and from this he feels a physical
pleasure; he does not, however, feel his affection's enjoyment or that of
the lust in his thought, only a strong desire more nearly physical. The
same is true of the robber in a forest at sight of travelers and of the
pirate at sea on sighting vessels, and so on. Obviously a man's
enjoyments govern his thoughts, and the thoughts are nothing apart from
them; but he thinks he has only the thoughts, when nevertheless these are
affections put into forms by his life's love so that they appear in the
light; for all affection has heat for its element and thought has light.
[2] The external affections of thought manifest themselves in bodily
sensation, and sometimes in the thought of the mind, but the internal
affections of the thought from which the external exist never make
themselves manifest to man. Of these he knows no more than a rider asleep
in a carriage does of the road or than one feels the rotation of the
earth. Now, when man knows nothing of the things beyond number that take
place in the interiors of his mind, and the few external things which
come to the sight of his thought are produced from the interiors, and the
interiors are governed by the Lord alone through His divine providence
and the few external by the Lord also together with man, how can anyone
assert that one's own prudence does all things? Were you to see just one
idea laid open, you would see astounding things, more than tongue can
tell.
[3] It is clear from the endless things in the body that there are so
many things in the mind's interiors that the number cannot be given, and
nothing of them comes to sight or sense except only a much simplified
action. Yet to the action thousands of motor or muscular fibres
contribute, and thousands of nerve fibres, thousands of blood-vessels,
thousands of cells in the lungs which must cooperate in every action,
thousands in the brains and in the spinal cord, and many more things
still in the spiritual man which is the human mind, in which all things
are forms of affections and of perceptions and thoughts from the
affections. Does not the soul, which disposes the interiors, dispose the
actions also which spring from them? Man's soul is nothing else than the
love of his will and the resulting love of his understanding; such as
this love is the whole man is, becoming so according to the disposition
he makes of his externals in which he and the Lord are together.
Therefore, if he attributes all things to himself and to nature,
self-love becomes the soul; but if he attributes all things to the Lord,
love to the Lord becomes the soul; this love is heavenly, the other
infernal.
200. Inasmuch as the enjoyments of his affections, from inmosts down
through interiors to exteriors and finally to outermost things in the
body, bear man along as wave and wind bear a ship; and inasmuch as
nothing of this is apparent to man except what takes place in the
outermost things of the mind and the body, how can he claim for himself
what is divine on the strength merely of the fact that those few
outermost things seem to be his own? Even less should he claim what is
divine for himself, knowing from the Word that a man can receive nothing
of himself unless it is given by heaven; and knowing from reason that
this appearance has been granted him in order to live as a human being,
see what is good and evil, choose between them, and appropriate his
choice to himself that he may be united reciprocally with the Lord, be
reformed, regenerated and saved, and live forever. It has been stated and
shown above that this appearance has been granted to man in order that he
may act in freedom according to reason, thus as of himself, and not drop
his hands and await influx. From all this it follows that proposition iii
to be demonstrated has been confirmed: _Through His divine providence the
Lord leads the affections of the life's love of man and at the same time
the thoughts, too, from which human prudence comes._
201. (iv) _By His divine providence the Lord assembles the affections of
all mankind into one form--the human form._ In a subsequent paragraph it
will be seen that this is the universal effort of divine providence.
Those who ascribe everything to nature deny God at heart, and those who
ascribe everything to human prudence, at heart deny divine providence;
the one cannot be separated from the other. Yet both groups for their
reputation's sake and for fear of losing it profess in words that divine
providence is universal, but say its details fall to man and in their
aggregate are grasped by human prudence.
[2] But consider: what is universal providence when the details are taken
from it? Is it anything but just an expression? For that is called
universal which consists of the total of details as what is general does
of particulars. If, then, you remove details, what is the universal
except something empty, thus like a surface with nothing underneath or an
aggregate without content? If it should be said that divine providence is
a universal government but nothing is governed but only held in
connection and items of the government are handled by others, can this be
called a universal government? No king has such a government. For if a
king gave his subjects the government of everything in his kingdom, he
would no longer be king, but would only be called king; he would have the
standing in name only and not in fact. In the case of such a king one
cannot speak of government, still less of universal government.
[3] God's providence is called man's prudence. As universal prudence
cannot be said of a king who has only kept the name so that the kingdom
may be called a kingdom and be held together, so one cannot speak of
universal providence if human beings provide everything by their own
prudence. The same is true of the terms "universal providence" and
"universal government" in reference to nature when they mean that God
created the universe but endowed nature to produce everything from
herself. What is "universal providence" then but a metaphysical term, and
nothing but a term? Many of those who attribute everything produced to
nature and everything accomplished to human prudence and yet profess
orally that God created nature, regard divine providence as an empty
expression. But the reality is that divine providence is in the least
things of nature and of human prudence also and is thereby universal.
202. The Lord's divine providence is universal by being in the least
things in that He created the universe in order that an infinite and
eternal creation might come about from Him, and it does as He forms a
heaven from mankind which in His sight is like one humanity, His image
and likeness. We showed above (nn. 27-45) that heaven formed of human
beings is such in His sight; that this was the purpose of creation; and
that the divine regards what is infinite and eternal in all that it
does (nn. 46-69). The infinite and eternal to which the Lord looks in
forming His heaven from mankind is the growth of it to infinity and
eternity and thus His dwelling constantly in the purpose of His creation.
This infinite and eternal creation the Lord provided for in creating the
universe and He pursues it steadily in His divine providence.
[2] Can anyone who knows and believes from the church's doctrine * that
God is infinite and eternal be so lacking in reason that he does not
agree on hearing it that God can then regard only what is infinite and
eternal in the great work of His creation? To what else can He look from
His infinite being? To what else in mankind of which He forms His heaven?
What else can divine providence then have for its end than the
reformation and salvation of mankind? No one can be reformed by himself
through his prudence; he is reformed by the Lord through His divine
providence. Consequently, unless the Lord leads man every least moment
the man lapses from the way of reformation and perishes.
* It is the doctrine of all churches in Christendom that God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is infinite, eternal, uncreated and
omnipotent, as may be seen in the Athanasian Creed.
[3] Every change or variation in the state of the human mind means a
change or variation in a series of things present and to come; what then
of progress to eternity? The situation is like that of an arrow shot from
a bow, which if it deviated from the target in the least on being aimed
would deviate widely at a thousand feet or more. The like would happen if
the Lord did not lead the states of the human mind every least moment.
The Lord does so according to the laws of His divine providence; it is
according to them that it seems to man he leads himself; but the Lord
foresees how he leads himself and constantly acts in adaptation. In what
follows it will be seen that laws of tolerance are also laws of divine
providence, that every man can be reformed and regenerated, and that no
other predestination is possible.
203. Since every man lives forever after death and is allotted a place
either in heaven or in hell according to his life, and heaven and hell
must each be in a form to act as a unit, as we said before, and since no
one can be allotted a place in that form other than his own, humanity in
all the world is under the Lord's guidance and everyone is led by the
Lord from infancy to the close of life in the least things, and his place
is foreseen and provided.
[2] Clearly then, the Lord's divine providence is universal by being in
the least things, and it is an infinite and eternal creation that He has
provided for Himself in creating the world. Man does not espy this
universal providence, and if he did, it would look to him like scattered
heaps and collections of material for building a house such as passersby
see, while the Lord beholds rather a magnificent palace, constantly
building and enlarging.
204. (v) _Heaven and hell are in the form described._ That heaven is in
the human form has been made known in the work _Heaven and Hell,_
published in London in 1758 (nn. 59-102), also in the treatise _Divine
Love and Wisdom,_ and here and there in the present treatise. I therefore
omit further confirmation. Hell is said to be in the human form also, but
it is in a monstrous human form, like that of the devil, by whom hell in
its entirety is meant. Hell is in the human form inasmuch as those who
are in it were born human beings too; they also possess the two human
faculties of liberty and rationality, though they have misused liberty by
willing and doing evil, and rationality by thinking and confirming evil.
205. (vi) _Those who have acknowledged nature alone and human prudence
alone make up hell, and those who have acknowledged God and His divine
providence make up heaven._ All who lead an evil life, inwardly
acknowledge nature and human prudence alone. This acknowledgment lies
hidden in all evil, however the evil may be veiled by good and truth,
which are borrowed raiment, or like wreaths of perishable flowers, put
around the evil lest it appear in its nakedness. That all who lead an
evil life, inwardly acknowledge nature and human prudence alone is not
known because of this general covering hiding it from view. The source
and cause of their acknowledgment, however, may make clear that they
acknowledge nature and one's own prudence. We shall say, therefore,
whence man's own prudence is and what it is; then whence divine
providence is and what it is; next who they are respectively, and of what
character, who acknowledge divine providence and who acknowledge man's
own prudence; and lastly show that those who acknowledge divine
providence are in heaven and that those who acknowledge man's own
prudence are in hell.
206. _Whence man's own prudence is and what it is._ It is from man's
proprium, which is his nature and is called his soul from his parent.
This proprium is self-love and the accompanying love of the world, or it
is love of the world and the accompanying self-love. Self-love by nature
regards self only and others as cheap or of no account. If it regards any
it does so as long as they honor and do it homage. Inmostly in that love,
like the endeavor in seed to fructify and propagate, there lies hidden
the desire to become great and if possible a king and then possibly a
god. A devil is such, for he is self-love itself; he adores himself and
favors no one unless he also adores him; another devil like himself he
hates, because he in turn wants alone to be adored. Since no love is
possible without its consort and the consort of love or of the will in
man is called the understanding, when self-love breathes itself into its
consort, the understanding, it becomes pride there, which is the pride of
self-intelligence, and from this comes man's own prudence.
[2] Inasmuch as self-love wants to be the one lord of the world and thus
a god, the lusts of evil which are derived from it have their life from
it, so have the perceptions of the lusts, which are schemes; likewise
the enjoyments of the lusts, which are evils, and the thoughts of the
lusts, which are falsities. All these are like slaves and ministers of
their lord, responding to his every nod, unaware that they do not act
but are acted upon; they are actuated by self-love through the pride of
self-intelligence. Hence man's own prudence because of its origin lies
concealed in every evil.
[3] The acknowledgment of nature alone is also hidden in it, for
self-love has closed the window overhead through which heaven is plain
and the side windows, too, in order not to see or hear that the Lord
alone governs all things, that nature in herself is lifeless, and that
man's proprium is infernal and consequently love of it is diabolical.
With the windows shuttered, self-love is in darkness, builds itself a
hearth fire at which it sits with its consort, and the two reason
amicably in favor of nature as against God and in favor of man's own
prudence as against divine providence.
207. _Whence and what divine providence is._ It is the divine activity in
the man who has removed self-love. For, as was said, self-love is the
devil, and lusts with their enjoyments are the evils of his kingdom,
which is hell. On the removal of self-love the Lord enters with the
affections of neighborly love, opening the overhead window and then the
side windows, thus enabling man to see that there is a heaven, a life
after death and eternal happiness. By the spiritual light and at the same
time the spiritual love which then flow in, the Lord causes him to
acknowledge that God governs all things by His divine providence.
208. _Who and of what nature those in each group are._ Those who
acknowledge God and His divine providence are like the angels of heaven,
who are averse to being led by themselves and love to be led by the Lord.
It is a sign that they are led by the Lord that they love the neighbor.
Those, however, who acknowledge nature and one's own prudence are like
the spirits of hell, who are averse to being led by the Lord and love to
be led by themselves. If they were powerful persons in a kingdom or
prelates in the church they want to dominate all things. If they were
judges, they pervert judgment and exercise power over the laws. If they
were learned, they apply scientific information to confirm nature and
man's proprium. If they were merchants they act like robbers, and if
husbandmen like thieves. All are enemies of God and scoffers at divine
providence.
209. It is amazing that when heaven is opened to such men and they are
told that they are insane, and this is made plain to their very
perception by influx and enlightenment, still they angrily shut heaven
away from them and look to the earth beneath which is hell. This is done
with such men while they are still outside hell. It makes plain how
mistaken those are who think, "If I see heaven and hear angels speaking
with me, I shall acknowledge." Their understanding makes the
acknowledgment, but if the will does not at the same time, they still do
not acknowledge. For the love of the will inspires in the understanding
what it wills (it is not the other way about); indeed, it destroys
everything in the understanding which is not from itself.
210. _All this can be effected only as it appears to man that he thinks
from himself and disposes by himself._ In what precedes we have shown
fully that unless it seemed to man that he lives of himself and thus
thinks and wills, speaks and acts of himself, he would not be man.
Consequently, unless he could in his own prudence make the disposition of
all pertaining to his function and life, he could not be led and guided
by divine providence. He would be like one with his hands hanging limp,
his mouth open, his eyes shut, holding his breath in expectation of
influx. He would divest himself of the human which he has from the
perception and sensation that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts as it
were of himself. At the same time he would divest himself of the two
faculties, liberty and rationality, distinguishing him from the beasts.
Above in this treatise and in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ it
was shown that without this appearance a man would not have the power to
receive or reciprocate nor have immortality then.
[2] If then you desire to be led by divine providence, use prudence as a
servant and minister that faithfully dispenses his master's goods. This
prudence is the talent given to the servants to trade with, of which they
were to give account (Lu 19:13-28; Mt 25:14-31). It seems to man to be
his own, and he believes it is his own as long as he holds shut up within
him the bitterest enemy God and divine providence have, the love of self.
This dwells in the interiors of every man by birth; if you do not
recognize it (and it wishes not to be recognized), it dwells securely and
guards the door lest man open the door and the Lord cast it out. The door
is opened by man through shunning evils as sins as if of himself with the
acknowledgment that he does so from the Lord. With this prudence divine
providence acts as one.
211. Divine providence operates so secretly that scarcely anyone is aware
it exists in order that man may not perish. For man's proprium, which is
his will, never acts at one with divine providence, against which it has
an inborn enmity. The proprium is the serpent which seduced the race's
parents of which it is said,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and
her Seed, and It shall bruise your head (Ge 3:15).
The serpent is evil of every sort; its head is self-love. The seed of the
woman is the Lord, and the enmity set is between the love of man's
proprium and the Lord, thus between man's own prudence and the Lord's
divine providence. For man's own prudence is constantly exalting that
head, and divine providence is constantly abasing it.
[2] If man felt this, he would be enraged and wrought-up against God and
would perish. While he does not feel it, he may be enraged and wrought-up
against others or himself or against fortune without perishing. Therefore
the Lord leads man by His divine providence in freedom always, and the
freedom seems to man to be utterly his own. To lead a man freely in
opposition to himself is like raising a heavy and resisting weight from
the ground by means of screws through the power of which weight and
resistance are not felt. And it is as though someone is unknowingly with
an enemy who means to kill him and a friend leads him away quietly and
only afterwards tells him the enemy's intention.
212. Who does not talk of fortune? Who does not acknowledge it by
speaking of it and know something of it by experience? Yet who knows what
it is? One cannot deny that it is something, for it exists and occurs,
and a thing cannot exist and occur without being caused; but the cause of
this something, fortune, is not known. Lest fortune be denied merely
because the cause is unknown, consider dice or playing cards and play
yourself or ask the players; do any deny that fortune exists? For they
play with it and it plays with them surprisingly. Who can repulse it if
it opposes him? Does it not laugh then at prudence and wisdom? When you
shake the dice or shuffle the cards, does fortune not seem to know and
direct the turns and twists of the wrists in favor of one player rather
than another for some cause? Can the cause have any other source than
divine providence in outermost things where it works along with human
prudence in a wonderful way, constant or changeful, concealing itself at
the same time?
[2] We know that pagans of old acknowledged Fortune and built a temple to
her, as Italians did at Rome. It has been granted me to learn many things
which I am not permitted to make public about this fortune, which, as was
said, is divine providence in outmosts. These made it plain to me that
fortune is not an illusion of the mind nor a sport of nature nor
something without a cause, for this has no reality, but is visible
evidence that divine providence is over the least things in human thought
and action. As divine providence occurs in these least things which are
insignificant and trifling, why should it not in the significant and
important matters of peace and war in the world and of salvation and life
in heaven?
213. I know, however, that human prudence bears the rational faculty its
way more than divine providence does its way, for the latter does not
show itself and the former does. It can be accepted more readily that
there is only one life, namely God, and that all men are recipients of
life from Him, as we have shown many times, yet this amounts to saying
that prudence is from Him, for prudence is part of life. What man,
speaking in favor of nature and of human prudence in his reasoning, is
not speaking from the natural or external man? And what man, speaking in
favor of divine providence and of God in his reasoning, is not speaking
from the spiritual or internal man? But, "Pray, write two books," I say
to the natural man, "and fill them with plausible, likely and lifelike
reasons which in your judgment are solid ones, the one book in favor of
one's own prudence, and the other in favor of nature. Then hand them to
any angel. I know he will write down on them these few words: `All this
is appearance and fallacy.'"
XI. DIVINE PROVIDENCE LOOKS TO WHAT IS ETERNAL, AND TO THE TEMPORAL ONLY
AS THIS ACCORDS WITH THE ETERNAL
214. That divine providence looks to what is eternal and to the temporal
only so far as this makes one with the eternal, will be demonstrated in
this order:
i. The temporal has to do with distinction and wealth, thus with standing
and gain, in the world.
ii. The eternal has to do with spiritual standing and abundance, of love
and wisdom, in heaven.
iii. The temporal and the eternal are separated by man, but are united by
the Lord.
iv. The uniting of temporal and eternal is the Lord's divine providence.
215. (i) _The temporal has to do with distinction and wealth, thus with
standing and gain, in the world._ Many things are temporal, but they are
all related to distinction and wealth. By the temporal is meant all that
either perishes in time or at least comes to an end with man's life in
the world. By the eternal is meant all that does not perish or come to an
end in time and thus not with life in the world. Since, as we said, all
that is temporal concerns distinction and wealth, it is important to know
the following: what, and whence, distinction and wealth are; the nature
of the love of them for themselves and the nature of the love of them for
the sake of use; that these two loves are distinct from each other, as
hell and heaven are; and that man hardly knows the difference between
them. But of these points one by one.
[2] _First: What, and whence, distinction and wealth are._ Distinction
and wealth in the most ancient times were quite different from what they
gradually became later. Distinction in those times existed only in the
relation of parents and children and was one of love, a love full of
respect and veneration, accorded the parents not because of birth from
them, but because of the instruction and wisdom received from them, which
was a second birth of the children, in itself spiritual, being of their
spirit. This was the sole distinction in most ancient days because
tribes, families, and households dwelt separately and not like today
under governments. The distinction attached to the head of the family.
Men of old called the times golden ages.
[3] But after those times the love of ruling, just out of enjoyment of
that love, crept in by stages, and as enmity and hostility did so at the
same time towards those who were unwilling to submit, tribes, families,
and households congregated of necessity in communities and set over
themselves one whom they called judge at first, then prince, and finally
king and emperor. They also began to protect themselves by towers,
earthworks and walls. The lust of ruling spread like a contagion to many
from the judge, prince, king or emperor as from the head into the body,
and as a result degrees of distinction arose and prestige according to
them, and self-love also and pride in one's own prudence.
[4] The same thing happened with the love of riches. In the most ancient
days when tribes and families lived by themselves, there was no other
love of riches than to possess the necessaries of life which they
provided for themselves from flocks and herds and from the lands, fields
and gardens which supplied their food. Suitable houses, furnished with
useful articles of every kind, and clothing were also among their
necessities of life. Parents, children and male and female servants,
making up the household, engaged in the care and labor for all these
necessities.
[5] But after the love of dominion entered and destroyed this state of
society, the love of having means beyond what was needed crept in also
and grew to the extreme of wanting to possess the wealth of all other
men. The two loves are like blood relatives, for one who wants to rule
over all things, also wants to possess all things; for then all others
become servants, and they alone masters. This is clearly evident from
those in the papist world who have exalted their dominion even into
heaven, to the Lord's throne, on which they have placed themselves, and
who at the same time seek the wealth of the whole earth and want to
enlarge their treasury endlessly.
[6] Second: _The nature of the love of distinction and wealth for their
own sake and for usefulness' sake respectively._ The love of distinction
and standing for their own sake is self-love--strictly, the love of ruling
from self-love; and the love of riches and wealth for their own sake is
love of the world--more precisely, the love of possessing the goods of
others by whatever device. But the love of distinction and riches for
usefulness' sake is love of the use, which is the same as love to the
neighbor; for that for the sake of which a man acts is the purpose from
which he acts, and is first or primary, and all else is means and
secondary.
[7] As for the love of distinction and standing, identical with self-love
and strictly with the love of ruling from self-love, it is the love of
the proprium; and man's proprium is all evil. Hence it is said that man
is born into all evil and that what he has by heredity is nothing but
evil. What he has by heredity is his proprium in which he is and into
which he comes through self-love and especially through the love of
ruling from self-love; for one who is in that love regards only himself
and thus immerses his thoughts and affections in his proprium. Hence a
love of evil-doing is present in self-love. The reason is that he does
not love the neighbor but only himself; and one who loves himself only,
sees others as outsiders or as mean or nothing worth, despises them, and
does not hesitate to do them injury.
[8] For this reason one who is in the love of ruling from the love of
self thinks nothing of defrauding his neighbor, committing adultery with
his wife, slandering him, breathing vengeance on him even to the death,
treating him cruelly, and other such deeds. This a man gets from the fact
that the devil himself, with whom he is conjoined and by whom he is led,
is nothing else than the love of ruling from self-love. One who is led by
the devil, that is, by hell, is led into all these evils and is
constantly led by enjoyments of these evils. Hence all who are in hell
want to do evil to all, but those in heaven want to do well by all. From
this opposition there results the intermediate state in which man is and
in it is in equilibrium, as it were, so that he can turn towards hell or
towards heaven. So far as he favors the evils of self-love he turns
towards hell, and so far as he removes them from him he turns towards
heaven.
[9] It has been granted me to feel the nature and also the strength of
the enjoyment of ruling from the love of self. I was let into it that I
might know. It was such as to exceed all worldly enjoyments. It was an
enjoyment of the whole mind from its inmosts to its outmosts, but felt in
the body only as pleasure and gratification, making the chest swell. It
was also granted me to perceive that there issued from this enjoyment as
from their fountainhead the enjoyments of evils of all kinds, such as
adultery, revenge, fraud, slander, and evil-doing in general. There is a
similar enjoyment in the love of possessing the wealth of others by
whatever ruse, and from this love in the lusts derived from it; yet not
the same degree of enjoyment unless this love is conjoined with
self-love. As for distinction and riches sought not for themselves but
for usefulness' sake, this is not love of them but love of uses;
distinction and wealth serve it as means. This love is heavenly. But of
it more in what follows.
[10] Third: _These two loves are distinct from each other, as heaven and
hell are._ This is plain from what has just been said, to which I will
add the following. All who are in the love of ruling from self-love,
whoever they are and whether they are great or small, are in hell in
spirit. They are also in the love of all evils. If they do not commit
them, still in their spirit they believe that they are allowable, and
when honor, standing, or fear of the law do not deter, they commit them
physically. What is more, the love of ruling from self-love hides hatred
of God deeply within itself, consequently of divine things which are of
the church and especially of the Lord. If such men acknowledge God it is
with the lips only, and if they acknowledge the divine things of the
church, it is for fear of losing standing. This love hides hatred of the
Lord deeply within it because deep in it is the desire to be God, for it
worships and adores itself alone. Hence if anyone honors it, even to
saying that it possesses divine wisdom and is the god of the world, it
loves him with all the heart.
[11] It is otherwise with the love of distinction and wealth for
usefulness' sake; this love is heavenly, for, as was said, it is the same
as love of the neighbor. By uses goods are meant, and by doing uses doing
good is meant, and by doing uses or good, serving and helping others is
meant. Although those doing so may possess distinction and wealth, they
regard these only as means for doing uses, thus for serving and helping.
They are meant in these words of the Lord:
Whoever would be great among you, must be your minister; and whoever
would . . . be first, must be your servant (Mt 20:26, 27).
It is these also whom the Lord entrusts with ruling in heaven. For ruling
is to them the means of doing uses or good, thus of serving; and when
uses or good deeds are their purpose and their love, they do not rule;
the Lord does, from whom is all that is good.
[12] Fourth: _Man hardly knows the difference between the two loves._ For
most men of distinction and wealth also perform uses, yet do not know
whether they do so for their own sake or for the sake of usefulness. They
know this the less because love of self and the world has more fire and
ardor for doing uses than have those who are not in love of self and the
world. The former do uses, however, for the sake of fame or gain, thus
for their own benefit; but the latter, doing so for the sake of
usefulness and what is beneficial, act not from themselves but from the
Lord.
[13] The difference between the two loves can scarcely be recognized by
man, for he is ignorant whether he is being led by the devil or by the
Lord. Led by the devil he does uses for his own sake or the world's; led
by the Lord, he does them for the sake of the Lord and of heaven. All who
shun evils as sins do uses from the Lord; all who do not shun evils as
sins do uses from the devil, for evil is the devil, and use or good is
the Lord. Only so is the difference in question recognizable. Outwardly
the two loves look the same; inwardly they are wholly unlike. One is like
gold with dross in it, the other like gold with pure gold in it. One is
like artificial fruit, looking outwardly like the fruit of a tree, but is
colored wax with dust or pitch in it; the other is like noble fruit,
flavorsome and fragrant, with seeds in it.
216. (ii) _The eternal has to do with spiritual standing and wealth, of
love and wisdom, in heaven._ As the natural man calls the enjoyments of
self-love, which are also the enjoyments of the lusts of evil, good, and
confirms that they are goods, he calls distinction and wealth divine
blessings. But when the natural man sees the wicked as well as the good
raised to distinction and prospered, and still more when he beholds the
good despised and poorly off and the wicked honored and affluent, he
thinks to himself, "Why is this? It cannot be by divine providence. For
if providence governed everything, it would lavish distinction and wealth
on the good and inflict contempt and poverty on the wicked, and thus
drive the wicked to acknowledge there is a God and divine providence."
[2] But unless he is enlightened by the spiritual man, that is, is at the
same time spiritual, the natural man does not see that distinction and
wealth can be blessings but also curses, and that when they are from God
they are blessings, and when they are from the devil they are curses. It
is well known, moreover, that the devil bestows distinction and wealth;
it is on this account that he is called the prince of the world. As it is
not known when distinction and wealth are blessings and when they are
curses, let it be told in this order: 1. Distinction and wealth are
blessings and are curses. 2. When they are blessings they are spiritual
and eternal; when they are curses they are temporal and ephemeral. 3.
Distinction and wealth which are curses, compared with those which are
blessings, are as nothing compared with everything or as that which has
no existence in itself compared with that which has.
217. The three points are now each to be clarified. 1. _Distinction and
wealth are blessings and are curses._ Common experience attests that both
the pious and the impious, or the just and the unjust, that is, the
wicked and the good, gain distinction and wealth, and yet it is
undeniable that the impious and unjust, that is, the wicked, enter hell,
and the pious and just, that is, the good, enter heaven. As this is true,
distinction and wealth or standing and means are either blessings or
curses, blessings with the good and curses with the evil. It was shown in
the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published in London in the year 1758, that
rich and poor and great and small are found in both heaven and hell (nn.
357-365). It is plain from this that distinction and wealth with those
now in heaven were blessings in the world, and with those now in hell
were curses in the world.
[2] If he will think about the matter with reason, anyone can know when
distinction and wealth are blessings or curses, namely, that they are
blessings with those who do not set their heart on them, and curses with
those who do. One sets the heart on them in loving oneself in them, and
one does not set the heart on them when he loves uses and not himself in
them. Above (n. 215) we told what the difference between the two loves,
and the nature of it, is. It is to be added that distinction and wealth
seduce some and not others. They do so when they excite the loves in
man's proprium, that is, self-love, which is the love found in hell and
is called the devil (as remarked above), and they do not seduce if they
do not excite that love.
[3] Both the wicked and the good come to distinction and are prospered in
means because the wicked as well as the good perform uses. The wicked
perform uses for the sake of their personal standing and gain; the good
do so for the sake of the standing and profit of the work which they do.
The good regard the standing and profit of their work as principal causes
of action, and personal standing and gain as instrumental causes; but the
wicked regard their personal standing and gain as the main incentives and
the standing and gain of their work as the instrumental. Yet who does not
see that a person, whatever his function or standing, is to serve the
affairs which he administers, and not they him? Who does not see that a
judge is to serve justice, a magistrate the common welfare, a king his
kingdom, and that it is not to be the other way around? According to the
laws of a kingdom, a man is invested therefore with distinction and
standing in keeping with the eminence of the work he does. Moreover, who
does not see that the difference between the two loves is like that
between what is principal and what is instrumental? One who ascribes to
himself personally the eminence of a position appears in the spiritual
world, when this inversion is pictured, as himself inverted, feet up and
head down.
[4] Second: _When distinction and wealth are blessings they are spiritual
and eternal, but when they are curses they are temporal and ephemeral._
There are distinction and wealth in heaven as there are in the world. For
governments and hence administrations and functions exist there, trade
also and hence wealth, for there are societies and communities. All
heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one called the celestial kingdom and
the other the spiritual kingdom. Each kingdom is divided into innumerable
societies, larger and smaller, all of which with all in them are arranged
according to differences of love and of wisdom thence, the societies of
the celestial kingdom according to differences of celestial love, which
is love to the Lord, and the societies of the spiritual kingdom according
to differences of spiritual love, which is love to the neighbor. Inasmuch
as there are such societies, and all who are in them were men in the
world and hence retain the loves they cherished in the world, with the
one difference that they are spiritual beings now, and that distinction
and wealth are spiritual in the spiritual kingdom and celestial in the
celestial kingdom, therefore those have greater distinction and abundance
than others who have greater love and wisdom. And to them distinction and
wealth in the world were blessings.
[5] The nature of spiritual distinction and wealth may then be plain--they
attach to one's function and not to one's person. The distinguished
person in the spiritual world indeed enjoys magnificence and glory like
those of kings on earth, yet does not regard the distinction itself as
anything but rather the uses in the administration and discharge of which
he is engaged. Each also receives the honors of his high post but
ascribes them not to himself but to the uses, and as all uses are from
the Lord, he ascribes the honors to the Lord as their source. Such are
the spiritual distinction and wealth which are eternal.
[6] It is quite otherwise with those to whom eminence and wealth were
curses in the world. Having attributed these to themselves and not to
uses, and not wanting the uses to control them but wanting to control the
uses, which they regarded as uses only as they served their own standing
and honor, they are in hell and are base slaves, despised and wretched.
Their distinction and wealth are gone, therefore are called temporal and
fleeting. The Lord teaches about both sorts in the words:
Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust
corrupt and thieves break through and steal; but lay up treasures for
yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts and where
thieves do not break through and steal; for where your treasure is . . .
your heart also is (Mt 6:19-21).
[7] Third: _The distinction and wealth which are curses, compared with
those which are blessings, are as nothing compared with everything or as
that which has no existence in itself compared with that which has._
Everything that perishes and comes to nothing is inwardly nothing in
itself. Outwardly, indeed, it is something and appears to be much and to
some everything while it lasts; but inwardly in itself it is not. It is
like a surface with nothing beneath or like an actor in kingly robes when
the play is over. But what remains to eternity is something in itself
perpetually, thus everything, and it truly is, for it does not cease to
be.
218. (iii) _The temporal and the eternal are separated by man, but are
united by the Lord._ For all that is man's is temporal, and he may
therefore be called temporal, but all things that are the Lord's are
eternal, and so the Lord is called eternal. Temporal things are such as
come to an end and perish, eternal things are such as do not. Anyone can
see that the two can be united only by the infinite wisdom of the Lord,
thus by Him and not by man. To make it known, however, that the two are
separated by man and united by the Lord, this is to be demonstrated in
the following order:
1. What temporal things are and what eternal are.
2. The human being is in himself temporal and the Lord in Himself
eternal, and only the temporal can proceed from man, and only the eternal
from the Lord.
3. Temporal things separate eternal things from themselves, while eternal
things join temporal things to themselves.
4. The Lord joins man to Himself by means of appearances.
5. He does so by correspondences also.
219. These points will be clarified and established one by one. First:
_What temporal things are and what eternal are._ The temporal are all
things that are proper to nature and from nature proper to man. Space and
time especially are proper to nature, both of them having a limit or
termination. Things thence derived and proper to man are all things of
his own will and understanding, thus of his affection and thought and
especially of his prudence; it is well known that these are finite and
limited. Eternal things, however, are all that are proper to the Lord and
from Him seemingly proper to man. What is proper to the Lord is all of it
infinite and eternal, thus timeless, endless and without limit; what is
seemingly proper to man thence is also infinite and eternal; but nothing
of this is actually proper to man, but the Lord's alone in him.
[2] Second: _The human being is in himself temporal and the Lord in
Himself eternal, and only the temporal can proceed from man, and from the
Lord only the eternal._ Man, we said, is in himself temporal and the Lord
in Himself eternal. Since only what is in a person can proceed from him,
nothing can proceed from man except what is temporal, and nothing from
the Lord except what is eternal. For the infinite cannot proceed from the
finite; that it can is a contradiction. The infinite, however, can
proceed from the finite, still not from the finite but from the infinite
by the finite. In turn, what is finite cannot proceed from the infinite;
this is also a contradiction; it can be produced from the infinite and
this is creation and not proceeding. On this subject see _Angelic Wisdom
about Divine Love and Wisdom,_ from beginning to end. If then the finite
proceeds from the Lord, as it does in many ways with man, it proceeds not
from the Lord but from man, and can be said to do so from the Lord by
man, because it so appears.
[3] This may be clarified by these words of the Lord:
Let your communication be, Yea, yea, Nay, nay, what is more than these
comes of evil (Mt 5:37).
Such is the speech of all in the third heaven. For they never reason
about divine things whether a thing is so or not, but see in themselves
from the Lord whether or not it is. To reason about divine things whether
they are so or not comes from the reasoner's not seeing them from the
Lord, but wanting to see them from himself, and what one sees from
oneself is evil. But still the Lord desires man to think and speak about
things divine, also to reason about them, in order that he may see
whether or not they are so. Such thought, speech and reasoning may be
said to be from the Lord in man provided the end is to see the truth,
although they are from the man until he sees and acknowledges the truth.
Meanwhile it is from the Lord alone that he can think, speak and reason;
for he does so from the two faculties, called liberty and rationality,
which are his from the Lord alone.
[4] Third: _Temporal things separate eternal things from themselves,
while eternal things join temporal things to themselves._ That temporal
things separate eternal things from themselves means that man, who is
temporal, does so from the temporal in himself; and that eternal things
join temporal things to themselves means that the Lord, who is eternal,
does so from what is eternal in Himself, as was said above. In what
precedes we showed that there is a conjunction of the Lord with man and a
conjunction in turn of man with the Lord, but the reciprocal conjunction
of man with the Lord is not man's doing but the Lord's; also that man's
will goes counter to the Lord's will or, what is the same, man's own
prudence goes counter to divine providence. From these circumstances it
follows that man puts the eternal things of the Lord aside by force of
the temporal things in him, but the Lord joins His eternal things to
man's temporal, that is, Himself to man and man to Him. As these points
have been treated many times in what precedes, there is no need to
confirm them further.
[5] Fourth: _The Lord joins man to Himself by means of appearances._ For
it is an appearance that of himself man loves the neighbor, does good,
and speaks truth. Unless this appeared to man to be so, he would not love
the neighbor, do good, or speak truth, and therefore would not be
conjoined with the Lord. Since love, good and truth are from the Lord,
plainly the Lord joins man to Himself by means of the appearance. This
appearance, and the Lord's conjunction with man and man's with the Lord,
have been treated above at length.
[6] Fifth: _The Lord unites man to Himself by means of correspondences._
He does this by means of the Word, the sense of the letter of which
consists wholly of correspondences. In _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
about Sacred Scripture,_ from beginning to end, it was shown that by
means of that sense there is a conjunction of the Lord with man and a
reciprocal conjunction of man with the Lord.
220. (iv) _The conjunction of the temporal and the eternal in man is the
Lord's divine providence._ As this cannot come at once to the perception
of the understanding or before being reduced to order and then unfolded
and demonstrated according to that order, let this be the order in
considering it:
1. It is by divine providence that man puts off the natural and temporal
through death and puts on the spiritual and eternal.
2. Through His divine providence the Lord joins Himself with natural
things by means of spiritual and to temporal by means of eternal in
accordance with uses.
3. The Lord joins Himself to uses by means of correspondences, and so by
means of appearances according as man confirms these.
4. This conjunction of temporal and eternal is divine providence.
All this will be placed in clearer light by explanation.
[2] First: _It is of divine providence that man puts off the natural and
temporal through death and puts on the spiritual and eternal._ Natural
and temporal things are the outermost and lowest things which man first
enters, as he does on being born, to the end that he may be introduced
then into interior and higher things; for the outmost and lowest things
are containants, and these are in the natural world. For this reason no
angel or spirit was created such at once, but all were born as men first
and then were introduced into interior and higher things. Thus they have
an outmost and lowest which in itself is fixed and stable, within and by
which the interiors can be held in connection.
[3] Man first puts on the grosser substances of nature; his body consists
of them; but he puts these off by death, retaining the purer substances
of nature nearest to the spiritual, which then are his containants.
Moreover, all interior or higher things are together in the outmost and
lowermost, as was shown earlier in passages on the subject. Every
activity of the Lord is therefore from topmost and outmost simultaneously
and so is in fullness. But as the farthest and outmost things of nature as
they are in themselves cannot receive the spiritual and eternal things
for which the human mind was formed, and yet man was born to become
spiritual and live forever, man puts them off and retains only those
interior natural things which suit and harmonize with the spiritual and
celestial and serve to contain them. This is effected by the rejection of
the temporal and natural outmosts, which is the death of the body.
[4] Second: _Through His divine providence the Lord joins Himself with
natural things by means of spiritual things and to temporal by means of
eternal in accordance with uses._ Natural and temporal things are not
only those proper to nature, but also those proper to men in the natural
world. At death man puts off both of these and puts on the spiritual and
eternal things corresponding to them. That he puts these on according to
uses has been shown in much that precedes. The natural things proper to
nature relate in general to time and space and in particular to things
visible on earth. These man leaves behind at death and instead receives
spiritual things which are similar in outward aspect or appearance but
not in their inward aspect and actual essence. This also was considered
above.
[5] Temporal things proper to men in the natural world in general are
related to distinction and wealth and in particular to human needs such
as food, clothing and habitation. These are also put off at death and
left behind; things are put on and received that are similar in outward
aspect or appearance but not in their internal aspect and essence. All
these get their inward aspect and essence from the uses made of temporal
things in the world. Uses are the goods which are called goods of
charity. It is evident, then, that the Lord through His divine providence
unites spiritual and eternal things to natural and temporal things
according to uses.
[6] Third: _The Lord joins Himself to uses by means of correspondences,
and thus by means of appearances according as man confirms these._ As
this must seem obscure to those who have not yet acquired a clear idea of
correspondence and appearance, what these are must be illustrated by
examples and explained. All the sayings of the Word are outright
correspondences of spiritual and celestial things, and being
correspondences are also appearances, that is, are all divine goods of
divine love and divine truths of divine wisdom which in themselves are
naked, but are clothed upon by the Word's literal meaning. They therefore
appear as a man would clothed, if his clothing corresponded to the state
of his love and wisdom. Obviously, then, if one confirms appearances in
himself, he mistakes the clothing for the man, whereupon appearance
becomes fallacy. It is otherwise if he seeks truths and sees them in the
appearances.
[7] Inasmuch as all uses or truths and goods of charity, which a man
renders to the neighbor may be rendered either according to the
appearance or according to the verities of the Word, he is in fallacies
if he renders them according to the appearances he has confirmed, but
renders them as he should if he does so in accord with the verities. This
may make plain what is meant when the Lord is said to join Himself to
uses through correspondences and thus through appearances according to
the confirmation of these by man.
[8] Fourth: _This conjunction of temporal and eternal is divine
providence._ This is to be illustrated by two instances in order to bring
it before the understanding in some light. The one instance is that of
eminence and standing, and the other that of riches and wealth. These are
all natural and temporal in outward form but spiritual and eternal in
inward form. Distinction with its standing is natural and temporal when a
man has regard in them only to himself personally and not to the common
welfare and to the uses. For he is bound then to think inwardly that the
community exists for his sake and not he for its sake. It is like a
king's thinking that the kingdom and all its members exist for his sake,
and not he for the sake of kingdom and people.
[9] The identical distinction, however, along with the standing it
brings, is spiritual and eternal when man considers that he exists for
the sake of the common well-being and for uses, and not these for his
sake. Doing this, he is in the truth and essence of the distinction and
of the standing it brings. But doing as described above, he is in the
correspondence and appearance; if then he confirms these, he is in
fallacies and has conjunction with the Lord only as those have who are in
falsities and evils therefrom, for fallacies are falsities with which
evils unite themselves. Such men have indeed done uses and good but from
themselves and not from the Lord, thus have put themselves in the Lord's
place.
[10] The same is true of riches and wealth; for these also are natural
and temporal, and spiritual and eternal. They are natural and temporal
with those who have regard only to them and to themselves in them and who
find all their pleasure and enjoyment in them. But they are spiritual and
eternal with those who regard good uses in them and take an interior
pleasure and enjoyment in uses. The outward pleasure and enjoyment in
such men also becomes spiritual, and the temporal becomes eternal. They
are therefore in heaven after death and in palaces there, the useful
designs of which are resplendent with gold and precious stones. They look
on these things, however, as the shining and translucent external of
inward things, namely, of uses, in which they take a pleasure and
enjoyment which are the happiness and joy of heaven. The opposite is the
lot of those who have looked on riches and wealth just for the sake of
riches and wealth and for their own sake, thus on the externalities and
on nothing inward; thus on appearance and not on the essential reality.
When they put off the externalities, as they do on dying, they come into
their internals, and as these are not spiritual, they cannot but be
infernal; they must be one or the other and cannot be spiritual and
infernal at the same time. The lot of these men then is poverty instead
of riches and wretchedness instead of wealth.
[11] By uses not only the necessities of life are meant, such as food,
raiment and habitation for oneself and one's own, but also the good of
one's country, community and fellow-citizens. Business is such a good
when it is the end-love and money is a mediate, subservient love, as it
is only when the businessman shuns and is averse to fraud and bad
practices as sin. It is otherwise when money is the end-love and business
the mediate, subservient love. For this is avarice, which is a root of
evils (on this see Lu 12:15 and the parable on it, verses 16-21).
XII. MAN IS NOT ADMITTED INWARDLY INTO TRUTHS OF FAITH AND GOODS OF
CHARITY EXCEPT AS HE CAN BE KEPT IN THEM TO THE CLOSE OF LIFE
221. It is well known in Christendom that the Lord wills the salvation of
all, and also is almighty. From this many conclude that He can save
everyone and saves those who implore His mercy, especially those who
implore it by the formula of the received faith that God the Father may
be merciful for the sake of the Son, particularly if they pray at the
same time that they may receive this faith. That it is quite otherwise,
however, will be seen in the last chapter of this treatise where it will
be explained that the Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of His divine
providence because that would be acting against His divine love and
wisdom, thus against Himself. There, too, it will be seen that such
immediate mercy is impossible, for man's salvation is effected by means,
and he can be led in accordance with these means only by Him who wills
the salvation of all and is at the same time almighty, thus by the Lord.
These means are what are called laws of divine providence. Among them is
this, that man is not admitted inwardly into truths of wisdom and goods
of love except as he can be kept in them to the close of life. To make
this plain to the reason, it is to be explained in this order:
i. Man may be admitted into wisdom about spiritual things and also
into love of them and still not be reformed.
ii. If he recedes from them afterwards and turns to what is the contrary,
he profanes holy things.
iii. There are many kinds of profanation, but this kind is the worst of
all.
iv. The Lord therefore does not admit man interiorly into truths of
wisdom and at the same time into goods of love except as man can be kept
in them to the very close of life.
222. (i) _Man may be admitted into wisdom about spiritual things and also
into love of them and still not be reformed._ This is because he
possesses rationality and liberty; by rationality he can be raised into
an almost angelic wisdom, and by liberty into love not unlike angelic
love. But such as the love is, such is the wisdom; if the love is
celestial and spiritual, the wisdom becomes so, but if the love is
diabolical and infernal, the wisdom is likewise. Outwardly, and so to
others, it may seem to be celestial and spiritual, but in inward form,
namely in its essence, it is diabolical and infernal; not as manifested,
but as it is within one. That it is of this nature men do not see, for
they are natural, see and hear naturally, and the outward form is
natural; but angels do see it, for they are spiritual, see and hear
spiritually, and the inward form is spiritual.
[2] From this it is plain that man can be admitted into wisdom about
spiritual things and also into love of them and still not be reformed; he
is admitted only into a natural love of them, not into a spiritual. This
is for the reason that man can admit himself into a natural love, but the
Lord alone can admit him into a spiritual love, and those admitted into
this are reformed, but those admitted only into the natural love are not.
For the most part the latter are hypocrites, and many are of the Order of
Jesuits who inwardly do not believe in the divine at all, but play
outwardly with divine things like actors.
223. It has been granted me by much experience in the spiritual world to
know that man possesses in himself the faculty of apprehending arcana of
wisdom like the angels themselves. For I have seen fiery devils who not
only understood arcana of wisdom when they heard them, but who spoke
them, too, out of their rationality. But the moment they returned to
their diabolical love they did not understand them, but in place of them
the contrary, which was insanity, and this they called wisdom. In fact, I
was allowed to hear them laugh at their insanity when they were in a
state of wisdom, and at wisdom when they were in an insane state. One who
has been of this character in the world, on becoming a spirit after death
is usually brought into states of wisdom and insanity by turns, for him
to distinguish the one from the other. But although such men see from the
wisdom that they are insane, when the choice is given them, as it is to
each, they betake themselves into the state of insanity, love it and feel
hatred for the state of wisdom. The reason is that their inward nature
has been diabolical and their outward seemingly divine. They are meant by
devils who affect to be angels of light, and by the man in the house of
the nuptials who was not dressed in a wedding garment and was cast into
outer darkness (Mt 22:11-13).
224. Who cannot see that it is the internal from which the external
exists and that consequently the external has its essence from the
internal? And who does not know by experience that the external can
appear out of accord with the essence it has from the internal? It does
so obviously with hypocrites, flatterers and dissemblers. That a person
can outwardly feign to be other than himself is manifest from actors and
mimics. They know how to represent kings, emperors and even angels in
tone of voice, speech, face and gesture as though they were really such,
when they are nevertheless only actors. We allude to this because man can
similarly act the deceiver in spiritual things as well as civil and
moral, and that many do is well known.
[2] When the internal in its essence is infernal, and the external in its
form appears to be spiritual and yet has its essence, as we said, from
the internal, the question arises where in the external that essence is
hidden. It does not show in gesture, voice, speech or face, yet is
interiorly hidden in all four. That it is, is plain from the same in the
spiritual world. For when man passes from the natural world to the
spiritual, as he does at death, he leaves his externals behind along with
his body and retains his internals, which he has stored up in his spirit.
If his internal was infernal, he then appears as a devil, such as he was
as to his spirit during life in the world. Who does not acknowledge that
everyone leaves external things behind with the body and enters into
internal things on becoming a spirit?
[3] To this I will add that in the spiritual world there is a
communication of affections and of thoughts from them, which results in
no one's being able to speak except as he thinks; likewise, everyone
changes facial expression and reflects his affection, and thus shows in
his face what he is. Hypocrites are allowed sometimes to speak otherwise
than they think, but the tone of the voice sounds utterly out of harmony
with their interior thoughts, and they are recognized by the discord. It
may be evident from this that the internal lies hidden in the tone of
voice, the speech, the face and gesture of the external, and that it is
not perceived by men in the world, but plainly by angels in the spiritual
world.
225. It is plain from this that while he lives in the natural world man
may be admitted into wisdom about spiritual things and into love of them
also, and that this happens or can happen with the merely natural as well
as with those who are spiritual, with this difference, however, that the
latter are reformed by these means and the former are not. It may seem,
also, that the former love wisdom, but they do so only as an adulterer
loves a noble woman, that is, as mistress, speaking caressingly to her
and giving her beautiful garments, but saying of her privately to
himself, "She is only a vile harlot whom I will make believe that I love
because she gratifies my lust; if she should not, I would cast her away."
The internal man of the unreformed lover of wisdom is this adulterer; his
external man is the woman.
226. (ii) _If man recedes from these later and turns to what is contrary,
he profanes holy things._ There are many kinds of profanation of what is
holy, of which in the following section, but this is the gravest of all.
Those who profane in this way become no longer human beings after death;
they live indeed, but are continually in wild fantasies. They seem to
themselves to soar aloft and while they remain there they sport with
fantasies which they see as realities. No longer human, they are referred
to not as "he" or "she" but "it." In fact, when they come to view in
heaven's light they look like skeletons, some like skeletons of the color
of bone, others like fiery skeletons, and still others like charred ones.
The world does not know that profaners of this kind become like this
after death, and the reason is that the cause is unknown. The real cause
is that when man first acknowledges and believes divine things and then
lapses and denies them, he mixes the holy with the profane. Once they are
mixed, they cannot be separated without destroying the whole. That these
things may be perceived more clearly, they are to be disclosed in due
order as follows: 1. Whatever a man thinks, speaks and does from the
will, whether good or evil, is appropriated to him and remains. 2. The
Lord in His divine providence constantly foresees and disposes that evil
shall be by itself and good by itself, and thus may be separated. 3. This
cannot be done, however, if man first acknowledges and lives according to
truths of faith and afterwards recedes and denies them. 4. Then he mixes
good and evil to the point that they cannot be separated. 5. Since good
and evil in anyone must be separated, and in such a person cannot be, he
is destroyed in all that is truly human.
227. These are the causes that lead to such enormity, but as they are
obscure as a result of ignorance of them, they are to be explained so
that they will be plain to the understanding. 1. _Whatever man thinks,
speaks and does from the will, whether good or evil, is appropriated to
him and remains._ This was explained above (nn. 78-81); for man has an
external or natural memory and an internal or spiritual memory. On the
latter memory are written each and all things that he thought, spoke or
did from his will in the world, so fully that nothing is lacking. This
memory is his book of life, which is opened after death and according to
which he is judged. Much more about this memory is reported from
experience in the work _Heaven and Hell_ (nn. 461-465).
[2] 2. _The Lord in His divine providence constantly foresees and
disposes that evil shall be by itself and good by itself, and thus may be
separated._ Everyone is both in evil and in good, for he is in evil from
himself and in good from the Lord; he cannot live without being in both.
If he were in himself alone and thus in evil alone, he would not possess
anything living; nor would he if he were in the Lord alone and thus in
good alone. In the latter case he would be like one suffocated and
gasping for breath or like one dying in agony; in the former case he
would be devoid of life, for evil apart from good is dead. Therefore
everyone is in both, with the difference that in the one instance he is
inwardly in the Lord and outwardly as if in himself, and in the other
inwardly in himself and outwardly as if in the Lord. The latter man is in
evil, the former in good, and yet each is in good and evil both. The
wicked man is in both because he is in the good of civil and moral life
and outwardly, in some measure, in the good of spiritual life, too,
besides being kept by the Lord in rationality and liberty, making it
possible for him to be in good. This is the good by means of which
everyone, even a wicked man, is led by the Lord. It may then be seen that
the Lord keeps evil and good apart, so that one is interior and the other
exterior, and thus provides against their being mingled.
[3] 3. _This cannot be done, however, if man first acknowledges and lives
according to truths of faith and then later recedes and denies them._
This is plain from what has just been said, that all which a man thinks,
speaks and does from the will is appropriated to him and remains; and
that the Lord in His divine providence constantly foresees and disposes
that good shall be by itself and evil by itself, and so can be separated.
They are also separated by the Lord after death. Those who are inwardly
evil and outwardly good are deprived of the good and left to their evil.
The reverse occurs with the inwardly good who outwardly like other men
have acquired wealth, sought distinction, delighted in the mundane, and
indulged some lusts. Good and evil have not been commingled by them,
however, but are separate, like internal and external; they have
resembled the evil in many ways outwardly but not inwardly. Evil is
separate from good in the evil, too, who have appeared outwardly like the
good for piety, worship, speech and deeds, although wicked inwardly. With
those, however, who have first acknowledged and lived by truths of faith
and then lived contrary to them and rejected them and particularly if
they have denied them, good and evil are no longer separate, but mixed.
Such a person has appropriated both good and evil to himself, and thus
combined and mixed them.
[4] 4. _He then mixes good and evil to a point where they cannot be
separated._ This follows from what has just been said. And if evil cannot
be separated from good and good from evil, a person can be neither in
heaven nor in hell. Everyone must be in one or the other; he cannot be in
both; for so he would be now in heaven and now in hell; and in heaven he
would act in hell's favor and in hell act in heaven's favor. He would
thus destroy the life of all around him, heavenly life among the angels
and infernal life among the devils; as a result everyone's life would
perish. For everyone must live his own life; no one lives a life foreign
to his own, still less one opposed to it. Hence, in every man after
death, when he becomes a spirit or a spiritual being, the Lord separates
good from evil and evil from good, good from evil in those who are
inwardly in evil, and evil from good in those inwardly in good. This
accords with His own words:
To every one who has, shall be given, that he may abound, and from him
who has not, shall even what he has be taken away (Mt 13:12; 25:29; Mk
4:25; Lu 8:18; 19:26).
[5] Fifth: _Since good and evil in anyone must be separated and in such a
person cannot be, he is destroyed in all that is truly human._ As was
shown earlier, everyone has what is truly human from rationality, in that
he can see and know what is true and good if he wishes, and from liberty,
enabling him to will, think, speak and do it. But this liberty has been
destroyed along with their rationality in those who have commingled good
and evil in themselves, for they cannot from good see evil, nor from evil
recognize good; the two make one in them. Hence they no longer possess
rationality in any efficacy or power, nor any liberty. For this reason
they are like the sheerest wild fantasies, as we said above, and no
longer look like men but like bones covered with skin, and therefore when
mentioned are referred to not as "he" or "she" but "it." Such is the lot
of those who have commingled sacred and profane in the manner we have
described. There are several kinds of profanation which are not of this
character, however; of them in a later section.
228. No one can profane holy things in the way described who is ignorant
of them. For one who is ignorant of them cannot acknowledge them and then
deny them. Those, therefore, who are outside Christendom and know nothing
of the Lord or of redemption and salvation at His hands do not profane
the holiness of this in not accepting it or even by speaking against it.
The Jews do not profane its sanctity, for from infancy they have no
desire to receive and acknowledge it. It would be otherwise if they
received and acknowledged it and afterwards denied it. This seldom
occurs, however; for many among them acknowledge it outwardly but deny it
inwardly and are like hypocrites. But those who first accept and
acknowledge and later lapse and deny, are the ones who profane holy
things by mingling them with profane.
[2] It is beside the point here that holy things are accepted and
acknowledged in infancy and childhood, as they are by every Christian.
For what pertains to faith and charity is not accepted and acknowledged
at that age from any rationality and liberty, that is, in the
understanding from the will, but only by the memory and from confidence
in the teacher; and if the life is in accord it is so by blind obedience.
If, however, on coming into the exercise of his rationality and freedom,
which one does gradually in growing up to youth and manhood, a man
acknowledges truths and lives by them only later to deny them, he does
mingle the holy with the profane and (as was said above) from being human
becomes a monster. On the other hand, if a man is in evil after attaining
rationality and freedom, that is, after becoming his own master, even in
his early manhood, but later acknowledges truths of faith and lives by
them and remains in them also to the close of life, he does not commingle
the holy and the profane. The Lord then severs the evils of his earlier
life from the good of his later life, as is done with all who repent. Of
this more will be said in what follows.
229. (iii) _There are many kinds of profanation of what is holy, but this
kind is the worst of all._ In the widest sense by profanation all impiety
is meant, and by profaners, therefore, all the impious who at heart deny
God, the holiness of the Word, and consequently the spiritual things of
the church which are essentially holy, and who also speak of them
impiously. We are not now treating of such profaners but of those who
profess God, uphold the holiness of the Word, and acknowledge the
spiritual things of the church (yet most persons do so with the lips
only). These commit profanation for the reason that holiness from the
Word is in them and with them, and this which is in them, part of their
understanding and will, they profane. But in the impious who deny the
Divine and divine things, there is nothing holy which they can profane;
they are profaners, of course, but still not profane as the others are.
230. The profanation of what is holy is meant in the second precept of
the Decalog, "You shall not profane the name of your God," and that it
ought not to be profaned is meant in the Lord's Prayer by "Hallowed be
Thy name." Hardly anyone in Christendom understands what is meant by
God's name. The reason for this is that in the spiritual world names are
not what they are in this world; everyone has a name in accord with the
character of his love and wisdom. As soon as he enters a society or into
fellowship with others he is named according to his character. This can
be done in spiritual language, which is such that it can give a name to
everything, for each letter in the alphabet signifies some one thing, and
the several letters combined in a word, making a person's name, involve
the whole state of the subject. This is among the wonders in the
spiritual world.
[2] From this it is plain that by "the name of God" in the Word, God with
all the divine in Him and proceeding from Him is signified. And as the
Word is the divine proceeding, it is God's name, and as all the divine
things which are called the spiritual things of the church are from the
Word, they, too, are God's name. It may be seen then what is meant in the
second commandment of the Decalog by
You shall not profane the name of God (Ex 20:7);
and in the Lord's Prayer by
Hallowed be Thy name (Mt 6:9).
The name of God and of the Lord has a like signification in many passages
in the Word of either Testament, as in Mt 7:22; 10:22; 18:5, 20; 19:29;
21:9; 24:9, 10; Jn 1:12; 2:23; 3:17, 18; 12:13, 28; 14:14-16; 16:23, 24,
26, 27; 17:6; 20:31; besides other passages, and in very many in the Old
Testament.
[3] One who knows this significance of "name" can know what is signified
by these words of the Lord:
Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a
prophet's reward; whoever receives a righteous man in the name of a
righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward . . . and whoever
will give one of these little ones to drink a cup of cold water only in
the name of a disciple . . . shall not lose a reward (Mt 10:41, 42).
One who understands by the name of a prophet, of a righteous man and of a
disciple only a prophet, a righteous man and a disciple knows only the
sense of the letter in that passage. Nor does he know what is signified
by a prophet's reward, a righteous man's reward, or by the reward given a
disciple for a cup of cold water, when yet by the name and reward of a
prophet the state and happiness of those who are in divine truths is
meant; by the name and reward of a righteous man is meant the state and
happiness of those in divine goods; by a disciple is meant the state of
those who are in a measure of the spiritual things of the church, and by
a cup of cold water is meant a measure of truth.
[4] That the nature of a state of love and wisdom or of good and truth is
meant by "name" is also made evident by these words of the Lord:
He who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep; the porter
opens to him, and the sheep hear his voice; he calls his own sheep by
name, and leads them out (Jn 10:2, 3).
To "call the sheep by name" is to teach and lead everyone who is in the
good of charity according to the state of his love and wisdom; by the
"door" the Lord is meant, as verse 9 makes plain:
I am the door; if a man enters by Me, he will be saved (Jn 10:9).
It is clear from this that for one to be saved the Lord Himself is to be
approached; one who does so is a "shepherd of the sheep" and one who does
not is a "thief"' and a "robber" (so the first verse of the chapter).
231. Profanation of what is holy is predicated of those who know truths
of faith and goods of charity from the Word and also acknowledge them in
some measure, not of those who do not know them, nor of those who
impiously reject them altogether. Therefore what now follows is said of
the former, not of the latter; by the former many kinds of profanation,
lighter and graver, are committed, but they may be summed up in the seven
following.
A first kind of profanation on their part is making jokes from the Word
or about the Word, or of and about the divine things of the church. Some
do this from a bad habit, picking names or expressions from the Word and
mingling them with unseemly and sometimes filthy speech. This cannot be
done without some contempt being added for the Word. Yet the Word in each
and all things is divine and holy; every expression in it stores in its
bosom something divine and by means of it gives communication with
heaven. This kind of profanation is lighter or more grave according to
one's acknowledgment of the sacredness of the Word and to the
unseemliness of the comment into which it is brought by those who jest
about it.
[2] A second kind of profanation by those under discussion is that while
they understand and acknowledge divine truths, they live contrary to
them. Those who only understand profane more lightly, and those who also
acknowledge profane more seriously; for the understanding only teaches
quite as a preacher does, but does not of itself unite with the will, but
acknowledgment does, for one cannot acknowledge anything without the
consent of the will. Still this union with the will varies and the
profanation is according to the measure of it in living contrary to
acknowledged truths. Thus if one acknowledges that revenge and hatred,
adultery and fornication, fraud and deceit, blasphemy and lying are sins
against God and yet commits them, he is therefore in the more grievous of
this kind of profanation. For the Lord says:
The servant who knows his lord's will and does not do it, shall be beaten
with many strokes (Lu 12:47).
And again,
If you were blind, you would not have sin, but you say, We see; therefore
your sin remains (In 9:41).
But it is one thing to acknowledge apparent truths and another to
acknowledge genuine truths. Those who acknowledge genuine truths and yet
do not live by them appear in the spiritual world to be without the light
and warmth of life in voice and speech, as though they were so much
inertness.
[3] A third kind of profanation is committed by those who apply the sense
of the letter of the Word to confirm evil loves and false principles.
This is because the confirmation of falsity is the denial of truth, and
the confirmation of evil is a rejection of good. In its bosom the Word is
nothing but divine truth and good. But this does not appear in the lowest
sense or sense of the letter in genuine truths, except where the Lord and
the very way of salvation are taught, but in clothed truths, called
appearances of truth.
That sense can therefore be seized upon to confirm heresies of many
kinds. But one who confirms evil loves does violence to divine goods, and
one who confirms false principles does violence to divine truths. The
latter violence is called falsification of truth and the former
adulteration of good; both are meant by "bloods"* in the Word. For a
spiritual holiness, which is also the spirit of truth proceeding from the
Lord, is in every particular of the sense of the letter of the Word. This
holiness is injured when the Word is falsified and adulterated. It is
plain that this is profanation.
* Plural in the Hebrew, especially of blood that has been shed. "Both" is
emphatic here, and for the significance of the plural see Arcana
Caelestia, n. 374e and Apocalypse Explained, n. 329(27).
[4] A fourth kind of profanation is committed by those who utter pious
and holy things and also counterfeit affections of a love for them in
tone and manner, and yet at heart do not believe and love them. Most of
these are hypocrites and Pharisees who are deprived after death of all
truth and good and thereupon are sent into outer darkness. Those who have
confirmed themselves by this kind of profanation against the Divine and
against the Word and thus against the spiritual things of the Word, sit
in outer darkness dumb, unable to speak, wanting to babble pious and holy
things as they did in the world, but unable to do so. For in the
spiritual world everyone is compelled to speak as he thinks. A hypocrite,
however, wants to speak otherwise than he thinks, but there is impediment
in the tongue as a result of which he can only mumble. Hypocrisies are
lighter or more grave in the measure of the confirmation against God and
of the outward rationalizing in favor of God.
[5] A fifth kind of profanation is committed by those who ascribe to
themselves what is divine. These are meant by Lucifer in Isaiah 14; and
by Lucifer Babylon is meant, as is plain from verses 4 and 24 of that
chapter, where the fate, too, of such profaners is described. The same
profaners are also meant and described in the Apocalypse (chapter 17)
under the harlot seated on the scarlet beast. Babylon and Chaldea are
mentioned at many places in the Word; by Babylon profanation of good is
meant and by Chaldea profanation of truth; the one and the other
committed by those who ascribe to themselves what is divine.
[6] A sixth kind of profanation is committed by those who acknowledge the
Word but deny the divine of the Lord. In the world they are called
Socinians and some Arians. The lot of both is that they invoke the Father
and not the Lord and keep praying the Father, some of them for the sake
of the Son, that they may be admitted to heaven, but in vain, until they
lose hope of salvation. They are then sent down to hell among deniers of
God. They are meant by those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit and who will
not be forgiven in this world or that to come (Mt 12:32). For God is one
in person and essence, in Him is the Trinity, and this God is the Lord.
Since the Lord is heaven also and thus those in heaven are in the Lord,
those who deny the divine of the Lord cannot be admitted to heaven and be
in the Lord. It was shown above that the Lord is heaven and that those in
heaven are therefore in Him.
[7] The seventh kind of profanation is committed by those who first
acknowledge and live by divine truths and then recede from them and deny
them. This is the worst kind of profanation because holy things are mixed
by them with profane to the point where they cannot be separated. Yet
they must be separated for one to be either in heaven or in hell, and as
this cannot be accomplished with them, all that is human, either of the
understanding or of the will, is rooted out, and they become, as we said,
no longer human beings. Almost the same occurs with those who acknowledge
the divine things of the Word and of the church at heart but immerse them
entirely in their proprium, which is a love of ruling over all things, of
which much has been said before. After death, when they become spirits,
they do not want to be led by the Lord but by themselves. When loose rein
is given their love, they want to rule not only over heaven but over the
Lord, too; and as they cannot do this, they deny the Lord and become
devils. It should be known that the life's love, which is one's reigning
love, remains with everyone after death and cannot be taken away.
[8] Profaners of this class are meant by the lukewarm, of whom it is
written in the Apocalypse:
I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; would that you were
cold or hot; but because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I
will spue you out of my mouth (3:14, 15, 16).
This manner of profanation is also described by the Lord in Matthew:
When the unclean spirit goes out from a man, he walks through dry places,
seeking rest but finds none. Then he says, I will return to the house
whence I came out. When he returns and finds it empty, swept and
garnished for him, he goes and gathers to him seven other spirits worse
than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of the
man is worse than the first (12:43-45).
The conversion of the man is described by the unclean spirit's going out
of him; his reverting to his former evils when things good and true have
been cast out, is described by the return of the unclean spirit with
seven worse than himself into the house garnished for him; and the
profanation of the holy by what is profane is described by the last state
of that man being worse than the first. The same is meant by this passage
in John,
Jesus said to the man healed in the pool of Bethesda: Sin no more, lest
something worse befall you (5:14).
[9] That the Lord provides that man shall not acknowledge truths inwardly
and afterwards leave them and become profane, is meant by these words:
He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not
see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them (Jn 12:40).
"Lest they should be converted, and I should heal them" signifies lest
they should acknowledge truths and then depart from them and thus become
profane. For the same reason the Lord spoke in parables, as He Himself
says (Mt 13:13). The Jews were forbidden to eat fat and blood (Lev 3:17,
7:13, 25 ); this signifies that they were not to profane holy things, for
"fat" signifies divine good and "blood" divine truth. In Matthew the Lord
teaches that once converted a man must continue in good and truth to the
close of life:
Jesus said: Whosoever perseveres to the end, shall be saved (10:20;
similarly Mk 13:13).
232. (iv) _The Lord therefore does not admit man interiorly into truths
of wisdom and at the same time into goods of love except as man can be
kept in them to the close of life._ To demonstrate this we must proceed
by steps for two reasons; one, because it concerns human salvation, and
the other, because a knowledge of the laws of permission (to be
considered in the next chapter) depends on a knowledge of this law. It
concerns human salvation, because, as has just been said, one who first
acknowledges what is divine in Word and church and subsequently departs
from them profanes what is holy most grievously. In order, then, that
this arcanum of divine providence may be revealed so that the rational
man can see it in his own light, it is to be unfolded as follows:
1. Evil and good cannot exist together in man's interior being,
consequently neither can the falsity of evil and the truth of good.
2. Good and the truth of good can be introduced into man's interior being
only so far as evil and the falsity of evil there have been removed.
3. If good with its truth were introduced there before or further than
evil with its falsity is removed, man would depart from the good and go
back to his evil.
4. When man is in evil many truths may be introduced into his
understanding and kept in memory, and yet not be profaned.
5. But the Lord in His divine providence takes the greatest care that
they are not received from the understanding by the will sooner or more
largely than man as of himself removes evil in the external man.
6. Should it welcome them sooner or in larger measure, the will would
adulterate good and the understanding would falsify truth by mingling
them with evils and falsities.
7. The Lord therefore admits man inwardly into truths of wisdom and goods
of love only so far as man can be kept in them to the close of life.
233. In order, then, that this arcanum of divine providence may be
disclosed so that the rational man will see it in his light, the points
made will be explained one by one. 1. _Evil and good cannot exist
together in man's interior being, consequently neither can the falsity of
evil and the truth of good._ By man's interiors the internal of his
thought is meant. Of this he knows nothing until he comes into the
spiritual world and its light, which happens on death. In the natural
world it can be known only by the enjoyment of his love in the external
of his thought, and from evils themselves as he examines them in himself.
For the internal of thought in man is so closely connected with the
external of thought that they cannot be separated (of this more may be
seen above). We say "good and truth of good," and "evil and falsity of
evil" because good cannot exist apart from its truth nor evil apart from
its falsity. They are bedfellows or partners, for the life of good is
from its truth and the life of truth is from its good; the same is to be
said of evil and its falsity.
[2] The rational man can see without explanation that evil with its
falsity and good with its truth cannot exist in man's interiors at the
same time. For evil is the opposite of good and good the opposite of
evil; two opposites cannot coexist. Implanted in all evil, moreover, is a
hatred for good, and implanted in all good the love of protecting itself
against evil and removing it from itself. Consequently one cannot be
where the other is. If they were together conflict and combat would start
and destruction ensue, as the Lord teaches also in these words:
Every kingdom divided against itself is desolated, and every city or
house divided against itself does not stand . . . Whoever is not with me
is against me, and whoever does not gather with me disperses (Mt 25:30);
and in another place,
No one can serve two masters at the same time: for either he will hate
the one and love the other . . . (Mt 6:24).
Two opposites are impossible in one substance or form without its being
torn apart and destroyed. If one should advance and approach the other,
they would keep apart like two enemies, one retiring to his camp or fort,
and the other posting himself outside. This happens with evil and good in
a hypocrite; he harbors both, but the evil is inside and the good outside
and so the two are separate and not mingled. It is plain then that evil
with its falsity and good with its truth cannot coexist.
[3] 2. _Good and the truth of good can be introduced into man's interiors
only so far as evil and the falsity of evil there have been removed._
This is a necessary consequence from what has preceded, for as evil and
good cannot exist together, good cannot be introduced before evil has
been removed. We say man's "interiors" and mean by these the internal of
thought; and in these, now being considered, either the Lord or the devil
must be present. The Lord is there after reformation and the devil before
reformation. So far as man suffers himself to be reformed, therefore, the
devil is cast out, but so far as he does not suffer himself to be
reformed the devil remains. Anyone can see that the Lord cannot enter as
long as the devil is there, and he is there as long as man keeps the door
closed where man acts together with the Lord. The Lord teaches in the
Apocalypse that He enters when that door is opened by man's mediation:
I stand at the door, and knock; if anyone hears my voice, and opens the
door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me (3:20).
The door is opened by man's removing evil, fleeing and turning away from
it as infernal and diabolical. Whether one says "evil" or "the devil," it
is one and the same, in turn whether one says "good" or "the Lord," for
within all good is the Lord and within all evil is the devil. From these
considerations the truth of this proposition is plain.
[4] 3. _If good with its truth were introduced before or further than evil
with its falsity is removed, man would depart from the good and go back
to his evil._ This is because evil would be the stronger, and what is
stronger conquers, eventually if not then. As long as evil is stronger,
good cannot be introduced into the inner chambers but only into the entry
hall; for evil and good, as we said, cannot exist together, and what is
in the entry hall is removed by its enemy in the chamber. Thus good is
receded from and evil is returned to, which is the worst kind of
profanation.
[5] Furthermore, it is the enjoyment of man's life to love himself and
the world above all else. This enjoyment cannot be removed in a moment,
but only gradually. In the measure in which it remains in man, evil is
stronger in him and can be removed only as self-love becomes a love of
uses, or as the love of ruling is not for its own sake but for the sake
of uses. Uses then make the head, and self-love or the love of ruling is
at first the body under the head and finally the feet, on which to walk.
Who does not see that good should be the head, and that when it is, the
Lord is there? Good and use are one. Who does not see that when evil is
the head, the devil is there? As civil and moral good and, in its
external form, spiritual good, too, are still to be received, who does
not see that these then constitute the feet and the soles of the feet,
and are trodden on?
[6] Inasmuch, then, as man's state of life is to be inverted so that what
is uppermost may be lowermost, and the inversion cannot be instantaneous,
for the chief enjoyment of his life, coming of self-love and the love of
ruling, can be diminished and turned into a love of uses only gradually,
the Lord cannot introduce good sooner or further than this evil is
removed; done earlier or further, man would recede from good and return
to his evil.
[7] 4. _When man is in evil many truths may be introduced into his
understanding and kept in memory, and still not be profaned._ This is
because the understanding does not flow into the will, but the will into
the understanding. As the understanding does not flow into the will, many
truths can be received by the understanding and held in memory and still
not be mingled with the evil in the will, and the holy thus not profaned.
Moreover, it is incumbent on everyone to learn truths from the Word or
from preaching, to lay them up in the memory and to think about them. For
by truths held in the memory and entering into the thought, the
understanding is to teach the will, that is, the man, what he should do.
This is therefore the chief means of reformation. Truths that are only in
the understanding and thence in the memory are not in man but outside
him.
[8] Man's memory may be compared to the ruminatory stomach of certain
animals in which they put their food; as long as it is there, it is not
in but outside their body; as they draw it thence and consume it, it
becomes part of their life, and their body is nourished. The food in
man's memory is not material but spiritual, namely truths, rightly
knowledges; so far as he takes them thence by thinking, which is like
ruminating, his spiritual mind is nourished. It is the will's love that
has the desire and the appetite, so to speak, and that causes them to be
taken thence and to be nourishing. If that love is evil, it desires or
has an appetite for what is unclean, but if good, for what is clean, and
sets aside, rejects and casts out what is unsuitable; this is done in
various ways.
[9] 5. _But the Lord in His divine providence takes the greatest care
that truths are not received from the understanding by the will sooner or
more largely than man as of himself removes evil in his external man._
For what is from the will enters man, is appropriated to him, and becomes
part of his life, and in that life, which is man's from the will, evil
and good cannot exist together, for so he would perish. The two may,
however, be in the understanding, where they are called falsities of evil
and truths of good, and without being mingled; else man could not behold
evil from good or know good from evil; but there they are distinguishable
and separated like the inner and outer sections of a house. When a wicked
man thinks and speaks what is good, he is thinking and speaking
externally to himself, but inwardly when he thinks and speaks what is
evil; his speech, therefore, when he speaks what is good, comes off a
wall, as it were. It can be likened to fruit fair outside but wormy and
decayed inside, or to the shell, especially, of a serpent's egg.
[10] 6. _Should the will welcome truths sooner or in larger measure, it
would adulterate good and the understanding would falsify truth by
mingling them with evils and falsities._ When the will is in evil, it
adulterates good in the understanding, and good adulterated in the
understanding is evil in the will, for it confirms that evil is good and
good is evil. So evil deals with all good, which is its opposite. Evil
also falsifies truth, for truth of good is the opposite of the falsity of
evil; this is done in the understanding by the will, and not by the
understanding alone. Adulterations of good are depicted in the Word by
adulteries and falsifications of truth by whoredoms. These adulterations
and falsifications are effected by reasonings from the natural man which
is in evil, and also by confirmations of appearances in the sense of the
letter of the Word.
[11] The love of self, the head of all evils, surpasses other loves in
the ability to adulterate goods and falsify truths, and it does this by
misuse of the rationality which every man, wicked as well as good, enjoys
from the Lord. By confirmations it can in fact make evil look exactly
like good and falsity like truth. What can it not do when it can prove by
a thousand arguments that nature created itself and then created human
beings, animals and plants of every kind, and also prove that by influx
from within itself nature causes men to live, to think analytically and
to understand wisely? Self-love excels in ability to prove whatever it
desires because a certain glamour of varicolored light overlays it. This
glamour is the vainglory of that love in being wise and thus also of
being eminent and dominant.
[12] And yet, when self-love has proved such things, it becomes so blind
that it sees man only as a beast, and that man and beast both think, and
if a beast could also speak, conceives it would be man in another form.
If it were induced by some manner of persuasion to believe that something
of the human being survives death, it then is so blind as to believe that
the beast also survives; and that the something which lives after death
is only a subtle exhalation of life, like a vapor, constantly falling
back to its corpse, or is something vital without sight, hearing or
speech, and so is blind, deaf and dumb, soaring about and cogitating.
Self-love entertains many other insanities with which nature, in itself
dead, inspires its fantasy. Such is the effect of self-love, which
regarded in itself is love of the proprium. Man's proprium, in respect of
its affections which are all natural, is not unlike the life of a beast,
and in respect of its perceptions, inasmuch as they spring from these
affections, is not unlike a bird of night. One who constantly immerses
his thoughts in his proprium, therefore, cannot be raised out of natural
light into spiritual light and see anything of God, heaven or eternal
life. Since the love of the proprium is of this nature and yet excels in
the ability to confirm whatever it pleases, it has a similar ability to
adulterate the goods of the Word and falsify its truths, even while it is
constrained by some necessity to confess them.
[13] 7. _The Lord therefore does not admit man inwardly into truths of
wisdom and goods of love except as man can be kept in them to the close
of life._ The Lord does this lest man fall into that most serious kind of
profanation of which we have treated in this chapter. In view of that
peril the Lord also tolerates evils of life and many heresies in worship,
the tolerance of which will be the subject of the following chapter.
XIII. LAWS ON PERMISSION ARE ALSO LAWS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
234. There are no laws of permission per se or apart from the laws of
divine providence; rather they are the same. Hence to say that God
permits something does not mean that He wills it, but that He cannot
avert it in view of the end, which is salvation. Whatever is done for the
sake of that end is in accord with the laws of divine providence. For
divine providence, as was said, constantly travels in a different
direction from that of man's will and against his will, always intent on
its objective. At each moment of its activity or at each step in its
progress, as it perceives man straying from that end, it directs, turns
and disposes him according to its laws, leading him away from evil and to
good. It will be seen in what follows that this cannot be done without
the tolerance of evil. Furthermore, nothing can be permitted for no
cause, and the cause can only be in some law of divine providence,
explaining why it is permitted.
235. One who does not acknowledge divine providence at all does not
acknowledge God at heart, but nature instead of God, and human prudence
instead of divine providence. This does not appear to be so because man
can think and speak in two ways. He can think and speak in one way from
his inner self and in another from his outer self. This capability is
like a hinge that lets a door swing either way, in one direction as one
enters, in the other as one leaves; or like a sail which can take a ship
one way or the other as the skipper spreads it. Those who have confirmed
themselves in favor of human prudence to the denial of divine providence
see nothing else as long as they are in this way of thinking, no matter
what they see, hear or read, nor can they, for they accept nothing from
heaven but only from themselves. As they draw their conclusions from
appearances and fallacies alone and see nothing else, they can swear that
prudence is all. If they also recognize nature only, they become enraged
at defenders of divine providence, except that they think when these are
priests they are simply pursuing their teaching and office.
236. We will enumerate now some things that are tolerated and yet are in
accord with laws of divine providence, by which, however, the merely
natural man confirms himself in favor of nature and against God and in
favor of human prudence and against divine providence. For instance he
reads in the Word that:
1. Adam, wisest of men, and his wife allowed themselves to be led astray
by the serpent, and God did not avert this in His divine providence.
2. Their first son, Cain, killed his brother Abel, and God did not speak
to him and dissuade him but only afterwards cursed him.
3. The Israelites worshiped a golden calf in the wilderness and
acknowledged it as the god that had brought them out of Egypt, yet
Jehovah saw this from Mt. Sinai near by and did not warn against it.
4. David numbered the people and as a consequence a pestilence befell
them in which so many thousands of them perished; God sent the prophet
Gad to him not before but after the deed and denounced punishment.
5. Solomon was allowed to establish idolatrous worship.
6. After him many kings were allowed to profane the temple and the sacred
things of the church.
7. And finally that nation was permitted to crucify the Lord.
One who hails nature and human prudence sees nothing but what contradicts
divine providence in these and many other passages of the Word. He can
use them as arguments in denial of providence, if not in his outward
thought nearest to speech, still in his inner thought, remote from it.
237. Every worshiper of self and nature confirms himself against divine
providence:
1. When he sees such numbers of wicked in the world and so many of their
impieties and how some glory in them, and sees the men go unpunished by
God.
2. He confirms himself the more against divine providence when he sees
plots, schemes and frauds succeed even against the devout, just and
sincere, and injustice triumph over justice in the courts and in
business.
3. He confirms himself especially on seeing the impious advanced to
honors and becoming leaders in the state or in the church, abounding,
too, in riches and living in luxury and magnificence, and on the other
hand sees worshipers of God despised and poor.
4. He also confirms himself against divine providence when he reflects
that wars are permitted and the slaughter of so many in them and the
looting of so many cities, nations and families.
5. Furthermore, he reflects that victories are on the side of prudence
and not always on the side of justice, and that it is immaterial whether
a commander is upright or not.
Besides many other things of the kind, all of which are permissions
according to laws of divine providence.
238. The same natural man confirms himself against divine providence when
he observes how religion is circumstanced in various nations.
1. Some are totally ignorant of God; some worship the sun and moon;
others idols and monstrous graven images, dead men also.
2. He notes especially that the Mohammedan religion is accepted by so
many empires and kingdoms.
3. He notes that the Christian religion is found only in a very small
part of the habitable globe, called Europe, and is divided there.
4. Also that some in Christendom arrogate divine power to themselves,
want to be worshiped as gods, and invoke the dead.
5. And there are those who place salvation in certain phrases which they
are to think and speak and not at all in good works which they are to do;
likewise there are few who live their religion.
6. Besides there are heretical ideas; these have been many and some exist
today, like those of the Quakers, Moravians and Anabaptists, besides
others.
7. Judaism also persists.
As a result, one who denies divine providence concludes that religion in
itself is nothing, but still is needed to serve as a restraint.
239. To these more arguments can be added today by which those who think
interiorly in favor of nature and of human prudence alone can still
further confirm themselves. For example:
1. All Christendom has acknowledged three Gods, not knowing that God is
one in essence and in person and that He is the Lord.
2. It has not been known before this that there is a spiritual sense in
each particular of the Word from which it derives its holiness.
3. Again, Christians have not known that to avoid evils as sins is the
Christian religion itself.
4. It has also been unknown that the human being lives as such after
death.
For men may ask themselves and one another, "Why does divine providence,
if it exists, reveal such things for the first time now?"
240. All the points listed in nn. 236-239 have been put forward in order
that it may be seen that each and all things which take place in the
world are of divine providence; consequently divine providence is in the
least of man's thoughts and actions and thereby is universal. But this
cannot be seen unless the points are taken up one by one; therefore they
will be explained briefly in the order in which they were listed,
beginning with n. 236.
241. _The wisest of human beings, Adam and his wife, allowed themselves
to be led astray by the serpent, and God in His divine providence did not
avert this._ This is because by Adam and his wife the first human beings
created in the world are not meant, but the people of the Most Ancient
Church, whose new creation or regeneration is described thus: their
creation anew or regeneration in Genesis 1 by the creation of heaven and
earth; their wisdom and intelligence by the Garden of Eden; and the end
of that church by their eating of the tree of knowledge. For the Word in
its bosom is spiritual, containing arcana of divine wisdom, and in order
to contain them has been composed throughout in correspondences and
representations. It is plain then that the men of that church, who at
first were the wisest of men but finally became the worst through pride
in their own intelligence, were led astray not by a serpent but by
self-love, meant in Genesis by "the serpent's head," which the Seed of
the woman, namely, the Lord, was to trample.
[2] Who cannot see from reason that other things are meant than those
recorded literally like history? For who can understand that the world
could be created as there described? The learned therefore labor over the
explanation of the things in the first chapter, finally confessing that
they do not understand them. So of the two trees placed in the garden or
paradise, one of life and the other of knowledge, the latter as a
stumbling-block. Again, that just by eating of this tree they
transgressed so greatly that not only they but their posterity--the whole
human race--became subject to damnation; further, how any serpent could
lead them astray; besides other things, as that the woman was created out
of a rib of her husband; that they recognized their nakedness after the
fall and covered it with fig leaves; that coats of skin were given them to
cover the body; and that cherubim with a flaming sword were stationed to
guard the way to the tree of life.
[3] All this is representative, describing the establishment, state,
alteration and finally destruction of the Most Ancient Church. The arcana
involved, contained in the spiritual sense which fills the details, may
be seen explained in _Arcana Caelestia,_ on Genesis and Exodus, published
at London. There it may also be seen that by the tree of life the Lord is
meant as to His divine providence, and by the tree of knowledge man is
meant as to his own prudence.
242. _Their first son, Cain, killed his brother Abel, and God did not
speak to him and dissuade him, but only afterwards cursed him._ As the
Most Ancient Church is meant by Adam and his wife, as we have just said,
the two essentials of a church, love and wisdom or charity and faith are
meant by their first sons, Cain and Abel. Love and charity are meant by
Abel, and wisdom and faith and in particular wisdom separate from love,
and faith separate from charity, are meant by Cain. Wisdom as well as
faith when separate is of such a nature that it not only rejects love and
charity, but also destroys them and thus kills its brother. It is well
known in Christendom that faith apart from charity does so; see _Doctrine
of the New Jerusalem about Faith._
[2] The curse on Cain portends the spiritual state into which those come
after death who separate faith from charity or wisdom from love. But lest
wisdom or faith should perish, a mark was put on Cain lest he be slain,
for love cannot exist without wisdom, nor charity without faith. As
almost the same thing is represented by this as by eating of the tree of
knowledge, it follows next after the account of Adam and his wife.
Moreover, those in faith separate from charity are in intelligence of
their own; those who are in charity and thence in faith are in
intelligence from the Lord, thus in divine providence.
243. _The Israelites worshiped a golden calf in the wilderness and
acknowledged it as the god that had brought them out of Egypt, yet
Jehovah saw this from Mt. Sinai near by and did not warn against it._
This occurred in the desert of Sinai near the mountain. It is in
accordance with all the laws of divine providence recounted so far and
with those to follow that Jehovah did not restrain the Israelites from
that atrocious worship. This evil was permitted them that they might not
all perish. For the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt to
represent the Lord's church; they could not represent it unless the
Egyptian idolatry was first rooted out of their hearts. This could not be
done unless it was left to them to act upon what was in their hearts and
then to remove it on being severely punished. What further is signified
by that worship, by the threat that they would be entirely rejected, and
by the possibility that a new nation might be raised from Moses, may be
seen in _Arcana Caelestia_ on Exodus 32, where these things are spoken
of.
244. _David numbered the people and as a consequence a pestilence befell
them in which so many thousands of them perished; God sent the prophet
Gad to him not before but after the deed and denounced punishment._ One
who confirms himself against divine providence may have various thoughts
about this also and ponder especially why David was not admonished first
and why the people were so severely punished for the king's
transgression. That he was not warned first is in accord with the laws of
divine providence already adduced, especially with the two explained at
nn. 129-153 and 154-174. The people were so severely punished for the
king's transgression and seventy thousand smitten by the pestilence not
on account of the king but on account of themselves, for we read
The anger of Jehovah kindled still more against Israel; therefore He
incited David against them saying, Go, number Israel and Judah (2 Sa
24:1).
245. _Solomon was allowed to establish idolatrous forms of worship._ For
he was to represent the Lord's kingdom or church in all varieties of
religion in the world. For the church established with the Israelitish
and Jewish nation was a representative church; all of its judgments and
statutes represented the spiritual things of a church, which are its
internals. The people represented the church, the king the Lord, David
the Lord to come into the world, Solomon the Lord after His coming. As
the Lord after the glorification of His humanity had all power over
heaven and earth (as He said, Mt 28:18), Solomon as representative of Him
appeared in glory and magnificence, was wise beyond all earthly kings,
and also built the temple. Moreover, he permitted and set up the forms of
worship of many nations, by which the various religions of the world were
represented. His wives, who numbered seven hundred and his concubines who
numbered three hundred (1 Kgs 11:13), had a similar signification, for
"wife" in the Word signifies the church and "concubine" a form of
religion. Hence it may be evident why it was granted Solomon to build the
temple, by which the Divine Humanity of the Lord (Jn 2:19, 21) is
signified and the church, too; and why he was allowed to establish
idolatrous forms of worship and to take so many wives. See _Doctrine of
the New Jerusalem about the Lord_ (nn. 43, 44) that in many places in the
Word the Lord who was to come into the world is meant by David.
246. _After Solomon many kings were allowed to profane the temple and the
sacred things of the church._ This was because the people represented the
church and the king was their head. The Israelitish and Jewish nation was
of such a nature that they could not represent the church for long, for
at heart they were idolaters; they therefore relapsed gradually from
representative worship, perverting all things of the church, even to
devastating it finally. This was represented by the profanations of the
temple by the kings and by the people's idolatries; the full devastation
of the church was represented by the destruction of the temple, the
carrying off of Israel, and the captivity of Judah in Babylon. Such was
the cause of this toleration; and what is done for some cause is done
under divine providence according to one of its laws.
247. _That nation was permitted to crucify the Lord._ This was because
the church with that nation was entirely devastated and had become such
that they not only did not know or acknowledge the Lord, but hated Him.
Still, all that they did to Him was according to laws of His divine
providence. See in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord_ (nn.
12-14) and in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Faith_ (nn. 34, 35)
that the passion of the cross was the last temptation or battle by which
the Lord fully conquered the hells and fully glorified His Humanity.
248. So far the points listed at n. 236 have been explained, involving
passages in the Word by which the naturally minded reasoner may confirm
himself against divine providence. For, as was said, whatever such a man
sees, hears or reads he can make into an argument against providence. Few
persons, however, confirm themselves against divine providence from
incidents in the Word, but many do so from things before their eyes,
listed at n. 237. These are to be explained now in like manner.
249. _Every worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against
divine providence when he sees so many impious in the world and so many
of their impieties and how some glory in them, yet sees the impious go
unpunished by God._ All impieties and all gloryings in them are
permissions, of which the causes are laws of divine providence. Each
human being can freely, indeed very freely, think what he wills, against
God as well as in favor of God. One who thinks against God is rarely
punished in the natural world, for he is always in a state to be reformed
then, but is punished in the spiritual world, which is done after death,
for then he can no longer be reformed.
[2] That laws of divine providence are the causes of tolerance is clear
from the laws set forth above, if you will recall and examine them. They
are: that man shall act in freedom according to reason (of this law
above, nn. 71-79); that he shall not be forced by external means to think
and will, thus to believe and love what is of religion, but bring himself
and sometimes compel himself to do so (nn. 129-153); that there is no
such thing as one's own prudence, but there only appears to be and it
should so appear, but divine providence is universal from being in the
least things (nn. 191-213); divine providence looks to what is eternal,
and to the temporal only as this makes one with the eternal (nn.
214-220); man is not admitted inwardly into truths of faith and goods of
charity except as he can be kept in them to the close of life (nn.
221-233).
[3] That the laws of divine providence are the causes of tolerance will
also be evident from the following, for one thing from this: evils are
tolerated because of the end, which is salvation. Again from this: that
divine providence is continual with the wicked as well as with the good.
And finally from this: the Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of His
divine providence because to do so would be to act contrary to His divine
love and wisdom, thus contrary to Himself. Brought together, these laws
can make the causes manifest why impieties are tolerated by the Lord and
are not punished while they exist in the thought only and rarely, too,
while they exist in intention, thus in the will but not in act. Yet its
own punishment follows every evil; it is as if its punishment were
inscribed on an evil, and the impious man suffers it after death.
[4] These considerations also explain the next point, listed at n. 237:
_The worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself still more against
divine providence when he sees plots, schemes and frauds succeed even
against the devout, just and sincere, and injustice triumph over justice
in the courts and in business._ All the laws of divine providence have
requirements; and as they are the causes why such things are permitted,
it is plain that for man to live as a human being and be reformed and
saved, these things can be removed from him by the Lord only through
means. The Word and, in particular, the precepts of the Decalog are the
means with those who acknowledge all kinds of murder, adultery, theft and
false witness to be sins. With those who do not acknowledge such things
as sins, they are removed by means of the civil laws and fear of their
penalties and by means also of the moral laws and fear of disrepute and
consequent loss of standing and wealth. By the latter means the Lord
leads the evil, but only away from doing such things, not from thinking
and willing them. But by the former means He leads the good, not only
away from doing them, but from thinking and willing them, too.
250. _The worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine
providence on seeing the impious advanced to honors and becoming leaders
in the state and in the church, abounding, too, in riches and living in
luxury and magnificence, and on the other hand sees worshipers of God
despised and poor._ A worshiper of self and of nature believes that
standing and riches are the greatest and the one felicity possible, thus
felicity itself. If he has some thought of God as a result of worship
begun in childhood, he calls them divine blessings, and as long as he is
not elated by them he thinks that there is a God and worships Him. But in
the worship there lurks a desire, of which he is unaware then, to be
advanced by God to still higher standing and to still greater wealth. If
he attains them, his worship tends more and more to externalities until
it slips away and at last he makes little account of God and denies Him.
The same thing occurs if he is cast down from the standing and loses the
riches on which he has set his heart. What, then, are standing and riches
to the wicked but stumbling blocks?
[2] To the good they are not, for these do not set their heart on them,
but on the uses or goods for rendering which standing and wealth serve as
means. Hence only a worshiper of self and of nature can confirm himself
against divine providence because the impious are advanced to honors and
become leaders in the state and in the church. Moreover, what is greater
or less standing, or greater or less wealth? Is this not in itself
imaginary? Is one person more blessed and happier than another for it? Is
a great man's standing, or even a king's or an emperor's, not regarded in
a year's time as a commonplace, no longer exalting his heart with joy but
quite possibly becoming worthless to him? Have those with standing a
larger measure of happiness than those with little standing or even the
least standing, like farmers and their hands? May not these enjoy more
happiness when it is well with them and they are content with their lot?
What is more unquiet at heart, more often provoked, or more violently
enraged than self-love? It happens as often as it is not honored to suit
the haughtiness of its heart or as something does not succeed at its beck
and wish. What, then, is standing except an idea, unless it attaches to
the office or the use? Can the idea exist in any other thought than
thought about self and the world, and does it not really mean that the
world is all and eternity nothing?
[3] Something shall be said now why divine providence permits the impious
at heart to be promoted to standing and to acquire wealth. The impious or
the evil can render services as well as the pious or good, indeed with
more fire, for they regard themselves in the use and their standing as
the use. As self-love mounts, therefore, the lust of doing service for
one's glory is fired. There is no such fire with the devout or good
unless it is kindled incidentally to their standing. Therefore the Lord
governs the impious at heart who have standing by their desire for a name
and arouses them to perform uses to the community or their country, their
society or city, and their fellow citizen or neighbor. With such persons
this is the Lord's government which is called divine providence, for the
Lord's kingdom is one of uses, and where only a few perform uses for
uses' sake providence brings it about that worshipers of self are raised
to higher offices, in which each is incited by his love to do good.
[4] Suppose an infernal kingdom in the world (though there is none) where
self-love alone rules, which is itself the devil, would not everyone
perform uses with the zeal of self-love and for the enhancement of his
glory more than in another kingdom? The public good is borne on the lips
of them all, but their own benefit in the heart. And as each relies on
what rules him in order to become greater, and aspires to be greatest,
how can he see that God exists? A smoke like that of a conflagration
envelops him through which no spiritual truth can pass with its light. I
have seen that smoke around the hells of such men. Light a lamp and
inquire how many in present-day kingdoms aspire to eminence who are not
loves of self and the world. Will you find fifty in a thousand who are
loves of God, among whom, moreover, only a few aspire to eminence? Since
so few are loves of God and so many are loves of self and the world and
since the latter perform more uses by their ardor, how can one confirm
himself against divine providence because the evil surpass the good in
eminence and opulence?
[5] This is borne out also by these words of the Lord:
The lord praised the unjust steward because he had acted prudently; for
the sons of this age are more prudent in their generation than the sons
of light in their generation. So I say to you, Make friends for
yourselves of the unjust mammon that when you fail they may receive you
into eternal habitations (Lu 16:8, 9).
The meaning in the sense of the letter is plain. But in the spiritual
sense by the "mammon of injustice" are meant knowledges of good and truth
which the evil possess and employ solely to acquire standing and wealth
for themselves. It is of these knowledges that the good or the children
of light are to make friends for themselves and it is these knowledges
that will conduct them into eternal homes. The Lord also teaches that
many are loves of self and the world, and few are loves of God, in these
words:
Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leads to destruction, and
many there be who enter it, but narrow and strait is the way which leads
to life, and there are few who find it (Mt 7:13, 14).
It may be seen above (n. 217) that eminence and riches are either curses
or blessings, and with whom they are the one or the other.
251. _The worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine
providence when he reflects that wars are permitted and the slaughter in
them of so many men and the plundering of their wealth._ It is not by
divine providence that wars occur, for they entail murder, plunder,
violence, cruelty, and other terrible evils which are diametrically
opposed to Christian charity. Yet they cannot but be permitted because
the life's love of mankind, since the time of the most ancient people,
meant by Adam and his wife (n. 241), has become such that it wants to
rule over others and finally over all, and also to possess the wealth of
the world and finally all wealth. These two loves cannot be kept in
fetters, for it is according to divine providence that everyone is
allowed to act in freedom in accordance with reason, as may be seen above
(nn. 71-97); and apart from permissions man cannot be led from evil by
the Lord and consequently cannot be reformed and saved. For unless evils
were allowed to break out, man would not see them, therefore would not
acknowledge them, and thus could not be induced to resist them. Evils
cannot be repressed, therefore, by any act of providence; if they were,
they would remain shut in, and like a disease such as cancer and
gangrene, would spread and consume everything vital in man.
[2] For from birth man is like a little hell between which and heaven
there is perpetual discord. No one can be withdrawn from his hell by the
Lord unless he sees he is in it and desires to be led out of it. This
cannot be done apart from tolerations the causes of which are laws of
divine providence. As a result, minor and major wars occur, the minor
between owners of estates and their neighbors, and the major between
sovereigns of kingdoms and their neighbors. Except for size the only
difference is that the minor conflicts are held within limits by a
country's laws and the major by the law of nations; each may wish to
transgress its laws, but the minor cannot, and while the major can, still
the possibility has limits.
[3] Hidden in the stores of divine wisdom are several causes why the
major wars of kings and rulers, involving murder, looting, violence and
cruelty as they do, are not prevented by the Lord, either at their
beginning or during their course, only finally when the power of one or
the other has been so reduced that he is in danger of annihilation. Some
of the causes have been revealed to me and among them is this: all wars,
although they are civil in character, represent in heaven states of the
church and are correspondences. The wars described in the Word were all
of this character; so are all wars at this day. Those in the Word are the
wars which the children of Israel waged with various nations, Amorites,
Moabites, Philistines, Syrians, Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians.
Moreover, it was when the children of Israel, who represented the church,
departed from their precepts and statutes and fell into evils represented
by other peoples (for each nation with which the children of Israel waged
war represented a particular evil), that they were punished by that
nation. For instance, when they profaned the sanctities of the church by
foul idolatries they were punished by the Assyrians and Chaldeans because
Assyria and Chaldea signify the profanation of what is holy. What was
signified by the wars with the Philistines may be seen in _Doctrine of
the New Jerusalem about Faith_ (nn. 50-54).
[4] Wars at the present day, wherever they may occur, represent similar
things. For all things which occur in the natural world correspond to
spiritual things in the spiritual world, and all spiritual things are
related to the church. It is not known in the world which kingdoms in
Christendom represent the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Syrians, the
Philistines, the Chaldeans and the Assyrians or others, with whom the
children of Israel waged war; yet there are nations that do so. Moreover,
the condition of the church on earth and what the evils are into which it
falls and for which it is punished by wars, cannot be seen at all in the
natural world, for only externals are manifest here and these do not
constitute the church. This is seen, however, in the spiritual world
where internal conditions appear and in these the church itself consists.
There all are united according to their various states. Conflicts between
them correspond to wars, which on both sides are governed by the Lord
correspondentially in accordance with His divine providence.
[5] The spiritual man acknowledges that wars on earth are ruled by the
Lord's divine providence. The natural man does not, except that at a
celebration of a victory he may thank God on his knees for having given
the victory, and except for a few words on going into battle. But when he
returns into himself he ascribes the victory either to the prudence of
the general or to some counsel or incident in the midst of the fighting
which escaped notice and yet decided the victory.
[6] It may be seen above (n. 212) that divine providence, which is called
fortune, is in the least things, even in trivial ones, and if you
acknowledge divine providence in these you will certainly do so in the
issues of war. Success and happy conduct of war, moreover, are in common
parlance called the fortune of war, and this is divine providence, to be
found especially in a general's judgments and plans, although he may at
the time and also afterwards ascribe all to his own prudence. This he may
do if he will, for he has full freedom to think in favor of divine
providence or against it, indeed in favor of God or against Him; but let
him know that no judgment or plan is from himself; it comes either from
heaven or from hell, from hell by permission, from heaven by providence.
252. _A worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine
providence when he thinks, as he sees it, that victories are on the side
of prudence and not always on the side of justice, and that it is
immaterial whether a commander is upright or not._ Victories seem to be
on the side of prudence and not always on the side of justice, because
man judges by the appearance and favors one side more than the other and
can by reasoning confirm what he favors. Nor does he know that the
justice of a cause is spiritual in heaven and natural in the world, as
was said just above, and that the two are united in a connection of
things past and of things to come, known only to the Lord.
[2] It is immaterial whether the commander is an upright man or not
because, as was established above (n. 250), the evil as well as the good
perform uses, and by their zeal more ardently than the good. This is so
especially in war because the evil man is more crafty and cunning in
devising schemes than a good man, and in his love of glory takes pleasure
in killing and plundering those whom he knows and declares to be the
enemy. The good man has prudence and zeal for defense and rarely for
attacking. This is much the same as it is with spirits of hell and angels
of heaven; the spirits of hell attack and the angels of heaven defend
themselves. Hence comes this conclusion that it is allowable for one to
defend his country and his fellow-citizens against invading enemies even
by iniquitous commanders, but not allowable to make oneself an enemy
without cause. To have the seeking of glory for cause is in itself
diabolical, for it comes of self-love.
253. The points made above (n. 237) by which the merely natural man
confirms himself against divine providence have now been explained. The
points which follow (n. 238) about the varieties of religion in many
nations, which also serve the merely natural man for arguments against
divine providence, are to be clarified next. For the merely natural man
says in his heart, How can so many discordant religions exist instead of
one world-wide and true religion when (as was shown above, nn. 27-45)
divine providence has a heaven from mankind for its purpose? But pray,
listen: all human beings who are born, however numerous and of whatever
religion, can be saved if only they acknowledge God and live according to
the precepts of the Decalog, which forbid committing murder, adultery,
theft, and false witness because to do such things is contrary to
religion and therefore contrary to God. Such persons fear God and love
the neighbor. They fear God inasmuch as they think that to do such things
is to act against God, and they love the neighbor because to murder,
commit adultery, steal, bear false witness and covet the neighbor's house
or wife is to act against one's neighbor. Heeding God in their lives and
doing no evil to the neighbor, they are led by the Lord, and those whom
He leads are also taught about God and the neighbor in accordance with
their religion, for those who live in this way love to be taught, but
those living otherwise have no such desire. Loving to be taught, they are
also instructed by angels after death when they become spirits, and
willingly receive such truths as the Word contains. Something about them
may be seen in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_
(nn. 91-97 and 104-113).
254. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
when he observes the religious conditions in various nations and notes
that some people are totally ignorant of God, some worship the sun and
moon, and some worship idols and graven images._ Those who argue from
these facts against divine providence are ignorant of the arcana of
heaven; these arcana are innumerable and man is acquainted with hardly
any of them. Among them is this: man is not taught from heaven directly
but mediately (this may be seen treated above, nn. 154-174). Because he
is taught mediately, and the Gospel could not through the medium of
missionaries reach all who dwell in the world, but religion could be
spread in various ways to inhabitants of the remote corners of the earth,
this has been effected by divine providence. For a knowledge of religion
does not come to a man from himself, but through another who has either
learned it from the Word or by tradition from others who have learned it,
for instance that God is, heaven and hell exist, there is a life after
death, and God must be worshiped for man to be blessed.
[2] See in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_ (nn.
101-103) that religion spread throughout the world from the Ancient Word
and afterwards from the Israelitish Word, and (nn. 114-118) that unless
there had been a Word no one could have known about God, heaven and hell,
life after death, and still less about the Lord. Once a religion is
established in a nation the Lord leads that nation according to the
precepts and tenets of its own religion, and He has provided that there
should be precepts in every religion like those in the Decalog, that God
should be worshiped, His name not be profaned, a holy day be observed,
that parents be honored, murder, adultery and theft not be committed, and
false witness not be spoken. A nation that regards these precepts as
divine and lives according to them in religion's name is saved, as was
just said (n. 253). Most nations remote from Christendom regard these
laws not as civil but as divine, and hold them sacred. See in _Doctrine
of the New Jerusalem [about Life] from the Precepts of the Decalog,_ from
beginning to end, that a man is saved by a life according to these
precepts.
[3] Also among the arcana of heaven is this: in the Lord's sight the
angelic heaven is like one man whose soul and life is the Lord. In each
particular of his form this divine man is man, not only as to the
external members and organs but as to the more numerous internal members
and organs, also as to the skins, membranes, cartilages and bones; but in
that man all these, both external and internal, are not material but
spiritual. Further, the Lord has provided that those who cannot be
reached by the Gospel but only by some form of religion shall also have a
place in this divine man, that is, in heaven, by constituting the parts
called skins, membranes, cartilages and bones, and like others should be
in heavenly joy. For it does not matter whether their joy is that of the
angels of the highest heaven or of the lowest heaven, for everyone
entering heaven comes into the highest joy of his own heart; joy higher
still he does not endure; he would suffocate in it.
[4] A peasant and a king may serve for comparison. A peasant may reach
the height of joy when he steps out in a new suit of homespun wool or
seats himself at a table with pork, a piece of beef, cheese, beer and
fiery wine on it. He would feel constricted at heart if he was clothed
like a king in purple, silk, gold and silver, or if a table was set for
him on which were delicacies and costly viands of many kinds with noble
wine. It is plain from this that the last as well as the first find
heavenly happiness, each in his measure, those outside Christendom also,
therefore, provided they shun evils as sins against God because these are
contrary to religion.
[5] Few are entirely ignorant of God. If they have lived a moral life
they are instructed after death by angels and receive what is spiritual
in their moral life (see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred
Scripture,_ n. 116). The same is true of those who worship sun and moon,
believing that God is there. They know no better, therefore it is not
imputed to them as a sin, for the Lord says,
If you were blind (that is, if you did not know), you would have no sin
(Jn 9:41).
But there are many who worship idols and graven images even in the
Christian world. This, to be sure, is idolatrous, yet not with all. There
are those for whom graven images serve as a means of exciting thought
about God, for by an influx from heaven one who acknowledges God desires
to see Him, and these, unable to raise the mind above the sensuous as
those do who are inwardly spiritual, rouse it by means of statue or
image. Those who do so and do not worship the image itself as God are
saved if they also live by the precepts of the Decalog from religious
principle.
[6] It is plain, then, that as the Lord desires the salvation of all, He
has also provided that everyone who lives well may have a place in
heaven. See in the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published at London, 1758 (nn.
59-102 ), in _Arcana Caelestia_ (nn. 5552-5569) and above (nn. 201-204)
that heaven in the Lord's sight is like one man; that heaven accordingly
corresponds to each and all things in man; and that there are also those
who represent skin, membranes, cartilages and bones.
255. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
when he sees the Mohammedan religion accepted by so many empires and
kingdoms._ The fact that this form of religion is accepted by more
kingdoms than Christianity is may be a stumbling-block to those who give
thought to divine providence and at the same time believe that no one can
be saved unless he has been born a Christian, thus where the Word is, by
which the Lord is known. That form of religion is no stumbling-block,
however, to those who believe that all things are of divine providence.
These ask in what the providence consists and find it is in this, that
Mohammedanism, acknowledges the Lord as Son of God, the wisest of men and
a very great prophet who came into the world to teach men; most
Mohammedans consider Him to be greater than Mohammed.
[2] That form of religion was called forth in the divine providence to
destroy the idolatries of many nations. To make this fully known we will
pursue some order; first, something on the origin of idolatries.
Previously to that form of religion the worship of idols was general in
the world. This was because the churches before the Lord's advent were
all representative churches. The Israelitish church was of this
character. In it the tabernacle, Aaron's garments, the sacrifices, all
things of the temple in Jerusalem, the statutes also, were
representative. Moreover, the ancients had a knowledge of
correspondences, which is the knowledge of representations--it was the
chief knowledge of their wise men. This knowledge was cultivated
especially in Egypt and was the origin of Egyptian hieroglyphics. By that
knowledge the ancients knew what animals of every kind signified and what
trees of every kind signified, as they did what mountains, hills, rivers
and fountains signified, as well as sun, moon and stars. As all their
worship was representative, consisting of sheer correspondences, they
worshiped on mountains and hills and in groves and gardens, regarded
fountains as sacred, and in adoration of God faced the rising sun.
Furthermore, they made graven images of horses, oxen, calves and lambs,
and of birds, fish and serpents, and placed them in their houses and
elsewhere, arranged according to the spiritual things of the church to
which they corresponded or which they represented. They placed similar
objects in their temples, too, to put them in mind of the holy things
they signified.
[3] Later, when the knowledge of correspondences had been lost, their
posterity began to worship the graven images themselves, as holy in
themselves, not knowing that their forefathers had seen no holiness in
them, but only that they represented holy things by correspondences and
thus signified them. So arose the idolatries which filled the whole
world, Africa and Europe as well as Asia with its adjacent islands. In
order that all these idolatries might be uprooted, of the Lord's divine
providence it was brought about that a new religion, adapted to the
genius of Orientals, should start up, in which there would be something
from each Testament of the Word, and which would teach that the Lord had
come into the world and was a very great prophet, wisest of all, and Son
of God. This was done through Mohammed, from whom the religion is called
the Mohammedan religion.
[4] Of the Lord's divine providence this religion was raised up and, as
we said, adapted to the genius of Orientals, in order that it might
destroy the idolatries of so many peoples and give them some knowledge of
the Lord before they passed into the spiritual world. This religion would
not have been accepted by so many kingdoms or had the power to uproot
idolatries, had it not suited and met the ideas and thinking of them all.
It did not acknowledge the Lord as God of heaven and earth, for the
Orientals acknowledged God the Creator of the universe, but could not
comprehend that He came into the world and assumed human nature, quite as
Christians do not comprehend this, who therefore separate His divine from
His humanity in their thinking and place His divine near the Father in
heaven and His humanity they know not where.
[5] Hence it may be seen that the Mohammedan religion arose under the
Lord's divine providence and that all adherents of it who acknowledge the
Lord as Son of God and live according to the precepts of the Decalog,
which they also have, shunning evils as sins, come into a heaven called
the Mohammedan heaven. This heaven, like others, is divided into three,
the highest, middle and lowest. Those who acknowledge the Lord to be one
with the Father and thus the one God are in the highest heaven; in the
next heaven are those who renounce a plurality of wives and live with
one; and in the lowest are those who are being initiated. More about this
religion may be seen in _Continuation about the Last Judgment and the
Spiritual World_ (nn. 68-72), where the Mohammedans and Mohammed are
treated of.
256. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
when he sees that the Christian religion exists only in a small part of
the habitable world, called Europe, and there is divided._ The Christian
religion exists only in the small part of the habitable world called
Europe because it was not adapted to the genius of Orientals as was a
mixed one like the Mohammedan religion, as was just shown; and an
unadapted religion is not received. For example, a religion which ordains
that it is unlawful to take more than one wife is not received but
rejected by those who for ages have been polygamists. This is true of
other ordinances of the Christian religion.
[2] Nor is it material whether a smaller or a larger part of the world
has received this religion, as long as there are people with whom the
Word is. For those who are outside the church and do not possess the Word
still have light from it, as was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
about Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 104-113. It is a marvel that where the Word
is reverently read and the Lord is worshiped from it, He is present with
heaven. The reason is that He is the Word and the Word is divine truth
which makes heaven. The Lord therefore says:
Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of
them (Mt 18:20).
Europeans can bring this about with the Word in many parts of the
habitable globe, for they trade the world over and read or teach the Word
everywhere. This seems like fiction and yet is true.
[3] The Christian religion is divided because it is from the Word and the
Word is written in sheer correspondences and these in large part are
appearances of truth in which, nevertheless, genuine truths lie
concealed. As a church's doctrine is to be drawn from the sense of the
letter of the Word which is of this character, disputes, controversies
and dissensions were bound to arise over the understanding of the Word,
but not over the Word itself or the Divine itself of the Lord. For it is
acknowledged everywhere that the Word is holy and that the Lord possesses
the divine, and these two are essentials of the church. Those, therefore,
who deny the Divine of the Lord and are called Socinians have been
excommunicated from the church, and those who deny the holiness of the
Word are not regarded as Christians.
[4] To this let me add a remarkable item about the Word from which one
may conclude that inwardly the Word is divine truth itself and inmostly
the Lord. When a spirit opens the Word and touches his face or dress with
it, just from the contact his face or garment shines as brightly as the
moon or a star, in the sight of all, too, whom he meets. It is evidence
that there is nothing holier in the world than the Word.
That the Word is written throughout in correspondences may be seen in
_Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 5-26; that
the church's doctrine is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the
Word and confirmed thereby, nn. 50-61; that heresies can be wrested from
the sense of the letter of the Word, but that it is harmful to confirm
them, nn. 91-97; that the church is from the Word and is such as is its
understanding of the Word, nn. 76-79.
257. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
because in many kingdoms where the Christian religion is accepted there
are those who arrogate divine power to themselves, want to be worshiped
as gods, and also invoke dead men._ To be sure, they say that they have
not arrogated divine power to themselves and do not wish to be worshiped
as gods. Yet they say that they can open and close heaven, remit and
retain sins, and so save and condemn men, and this is what is divine
itself. Divine providence has no other purpose than reformation and hence
salvation; this is its unceasing activity with everyone. And salvation
can be effected only by acknowledgment of the divine of the Lord and by
confidence that He brings salvation as man lives according to His
commandments.
[2] Who cannot see that the usurpation of divine power is the Babylon
described in the Apocalypse and the Babel spoken of here and there in the
Prophets? It is also Lucifer in Isaiah 14, as is plain from verses 4 and
22 of that chapter, where are the words:
You shall speak this parable about the king of Babel (verse 4);
(Then), I will cut off the name and remnant of Babel (verse 22);
it is plain from this that this Babel is Lucifer, of whom it is said:
How you have fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! ... For
you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the
congregation, at the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds; I will be like the Most High (Isa 14:12-14).
It is well known that the same persons invoke the dead and pray to them
for help. We make the assertion because such invocation was established
by a papal bull, confirming the decree of the Council of Trent, in which
it is openly said that the dead are to be invoked. Yet who does not know
that only God is to be invoked, and not any dead person?
[3] It shall be told now why the Lord has permitted such things. Can one
deny that He has done so for the sake of the end in view, namely
salvation? For men know that there is no salvation without the Lord.
Therefore it was necessary that the Lord should be preached from the Word
and that the Christian Church should be established by this means. This
could be done, however, only by leaders who would act with zeal and no
others offered than those who burned with zeal out of self-love. At first
this fire aroused them to preach the Lord and teach the Word. From this
their first state Lucifer is called "the son of the morning" (14:12).
But as they saw that they could dominate by means of the sanctities of
the Word and the church, the self-love by which they were first aroused
to preach the Lord broke out from within and finally exalted itself to
such a height that they transferred all the Lord's divine power to
themselves, leaving Him none.
[4] This could not be prevented by the Lord's divine providence, for if
it had been they would have declared that the Lord is not God and that
the Word is not sacred and would have made themselves Socinians and
Arians, so would have destroyed the whole church. But, whatever its
rulers are, the church continues among the people submissive to them. For
all in this religion who approach the Lord and shun evils as sins are
saved; therefore many heavenly societies are formed from them in the
spiritual world. It has also been provided that there should be a nation
among them that has not bowed to the yoke of such domination and that
regards the Word as holy; this noble nation is the French nation.
[5] But what was done? When self-love exalted its dominion even to the
Lord's throne, removing Him and setting itself on it, that love, which is
Lucifer, could not but have profaned all things of the Word and the
church. Lest this should happen, the Lord in His divine providence took
care that they should recede from worship of Him, invoke the dead, pray
to graven images of the dead, kiss their bones and kneel at their tombs,
should ban the reading of the Word, appoint holy worship in masses not
understood by the common people, and sell salvation for money. For if
they had not done this, they would have profaned the sanctities of the
Word and the church. For, as was shown in the preceding section, only
those profane holy things who know them.
[6] Lest, too, they should profane the most Holy Supper it is of the
Lord's divine providence that they divide it, giving the bread to the
people and drinking the wine themselves. For the wine of the Supper
signifies holy truth and the bread holy good; but divided the wine
signifies truth profaned and the bread good adulterated. It is also of
the Lord's divine providence that they should render the Holy Supper
corporeal and material and give it the prime place in religion. Anyone
who gives these particulars his attention and reflects on them in some
enlightenment of his mind can see the amazing action of divine providence
for the protection of the sanctities of the church and for the salvation
of all who can be saved and are ready to be snatched from the fire, so to
speak, from which they must be snatched.
258. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
because some among those who profess the Christian religion place
salvation in certain phrases which they are to think and speak and not at
all in good works which they are to do._ We showed in _Doctrine of the
New Jerusalem about Faith_ that these are such as make faith alone saving
and not the life of charity, thus such as separate faith from charity. It
was also shown that these are meant in the Word by "Philistines,"
"dragon" and "goats."
[2] That such doctrine has been permitted is also of divine providence
lest the divine of the Lord and the sanctity of the Word should be
profaned. The divine of the Lord is not profaned when salvation is placed
in these words: That God the Father may have mercy for the sake of the
Son, who suffered the Cross and made satisfaction for us. For men do not
then address the divine of the Lord but have in mind His human nature,
which they do not acknowledge to be divine. Nor do they profane the Word,
for they do not attend to the passages in which love, charity, deeds and
works are mentioned. All this, they say, is involved in the faith
expressed in the saying quoted. Those who confirm this tell themselves,
"The law does not condemn me, neither then does evil, and good does not
save because good done by me is not good." They are therefore like those
who do not know any truth from the Word and consequently cannot profane
it. Only those confirm the faith expressed in that saying who from
self-love are in the pride of their own intelligence. Nor are these
Christians at heart; they only desire to be looked on as such.
[3] It shall now be shown that the Lord's divine providence is
nevertheless acting constantly to save those with whom faith separated
from charity has become an article of religion. Although this faith has
become an article of their religion, by the Lord's divine providence each
knows that it is not faith that saves, but a life of charity with which
faith makes one. For all churches in which that religion is accepted also
teach that there is no salvation unless man examines himself, sees and
acknowledges his sins, repents, desists from them, and begins a new life.
This is read out with much zeal in the presence of all who come to the
Holy Supper. In addition they are told that unless they do so, they
mingle the holy with the profane and cast themselves into eternal
condemnation. Indeed, in England they are told that unless they do so the
devil will enter them as he did Judas and destroy them soul and body. It
is plain, then, that everyone in the churches in which faith alone is
accepted is nevertheless taught that evils are to be shunned as sins.
[4] Furthermore, everyone who is born a Christian is aware that evils are
to be shunned as sins because the Decalog is put into the hands of every
boy and girl and is taught by parents and teachers. The citizens of a
kingdom and especially the common people are examined by the priest on
the Decalog alone, which is recited from memory, for what they know of
the Christian religion, and are also admonished to do what is commanded
in it. At such times they are not told by the priest that they are not
under the yoke of that law, or that they cannot do what is commanded
because they cannot do anything good of themselves. Again, the Athanasian
Creed has been accepted throughout the Christian world and what is said
at its close is also acknowledged, namely, that the Lord will come to
judge the living and the dead, and then those who have done good will
enter everlasting life and those who have done evil will enter
everlasting fire.
[5] In Sweden, where the religion of faith alone has been received, it is
also plainly taught that faith is impossible apart from charity or good
works. This is pointed out in an Appendix on things to be remembered,
inserted in all copies of the Psalms, and called "Impediments or
Stumbling Blocks of the Impenitent" (Obotferdigas Foerhinder), where are
these words,
Those who are rich in good works thereby show that they are rich in
faith, because when faith is saving it acts through charity. For
justifying faith is never found alone and separate from good works, quite
as no good tree is without fruit, nor the sun without light and heat, nor
water without moisture.
[6] These items have been adduced to make known that although a religious
formula about faith alone has been accepted, nevertheless goods of
charity, which are good works, are taught everywhere and that this is by
the Lord's divine providence, lest the common people be led astray by the
formula. I have heard Luther, with whom I have spoken at times in the
spiritual world, execrate faith alone and heard him say that when he
established it he was warned by an angel of the Lord not to do it; but
that he thought to himself that if he did not reject works, separation
from Catholicism would not be accomplished. Therefore, contrary to the
warning, he established that faith.
259. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
in that there have been so many heresies in Christendom and still are,
such as Quakerism, Moravianism, Anabaptism, and more._ For he may think
to himself, If divine providence is universal in the least things and has
the salvation of all for its object, it would have seen to it that one
true religion should exist on the globe, not one divided and, still less,
one torn by heresies. But use reason and think more deeply if you can.
Can man be saved without being reformed first? For he is born into love
of self and the world, and as these loves do not have any love of God and
the neighbor in them except for the sake of self, he is also born into
evils of every kind. Is there love or mercy in those loves? Does the man
make anything of defrauding or defaming or hating another even to death,
or of committing adultery with his wife, or of being cruel to him out of
revenge, the while having the desire in mind to get the upper hand of all
and to possess the goods of all others, thus regarding others in
comparison with himself as insignificant and of little worth? To be
saved, must he not first be led away from these evils and thus be
reformed? As has been shown above in many places, this can be
accomplished only in accordance with many laws of divine providence. For
the most part these laws are unknown and yet they come of divine wisdom
and at the same time of divine love, and the Lord cannot act contrary to
them, for to do so would result in destroying man, not in saving him.
[2] Look over the laws which have been set forth, bring them together,
and you will see. According to those laws there is no direct influx from
heaven but one mediated by the Word, doctrine and preaching; and since
the Word, to be divine, had to be composed wholly in correspondences,
inevitably there are dissensions and heresies. The tolerance of them is
also in accord with the laws of divine providence. Furthermore, when the
church itself has taken for essentials what pertains only to the
understanding, that is, to doctrine, and not what pertains to the will,
that is, to life, and what pertains to life is not made the essentials of
a church, then man is in complete darkness for understanding and wanders
like one blind, striking against things constantly and falling into pits.
For the will must see in the understanding and not the understanding in
the will, or what is the same, the life and its love must lead the
understanding to think, speak and act, and not the reverse. Were the
reverse true, the understanding might out of an evil and even diabolical
love seize on what comes by the senses and demand that the will do it.
What has been said may show whence dissensions and heresies come.
[3] Yet it has been provided that everyone, in whatever heresy he may be
intellectually, may still be reformed and saved if he shuns evils as sins
and does not confirm heretical falsities in himself. For by shunning
evils as sins the will is reformed and through it the understanding is,
which emerges for the first time then out of obscurity into light. There
are three essentials of the church: acknowledgment of the divine of the
Lord, acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word, and the life which is
called charity. Everyone's faith is according to the life which is
charity; from the Word he has a rational perception of what life should
be; and from the Lord he has reformation and salvation. Had these three
been regarded as the church's essentials, intellectual differences would
not have divided it but only varied it as light varies colors in
beautiful objects and as various insignia of royalty give beauty to a
king's crown.
260. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
in that Judaism still continues._ That is, after all these centuries the
Jews have not been converted although they live among Christians and do
not, in keeping with prophecies in the Word, confess the Lord and
acknowledge Him to be the Messiah, who, as they think, was to lead them
back to the land of Canaan; but they steadfastly persist in denying Him
and yet it is well with them. Those who take this view, however, and thus
call divine providence in question, do not know that by Jews in the Word
all who are of the church and acknowledge the Lord are meant, and by the
land of Canaan, into which it is said that they are to be led, the Lord's
church is meant.
[2] But the Jews persist in denying the Lord because they are such that,
if they received and acknowledged the divine of the Lord and the holy
things of His church, they would profane them. Therefore the Lord said of
them:
He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not
see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them (Jn 12:40; Mt 13:14; Mk 4:12; Lu 8:10; Isa 6:9,
10).
It is said, "lest they should be converted, and I should heal them"
because if they had been converted and healed they would have committed
profanation, and according to the law of divine providence treated above
(nn. 221-233) no one is admitted interiorly into truths of faith and
goods of charity by the Lord except so far as he can be kept in them to
the close of life; were he admitted, he would profane what is holy.
[3] This nation has been preserved and dispersed over much of the earth
for the sake of the Word in its original language, which they hold more
sacred than Christians do. The Lord's divine is in every particular of
the Word, for it is divine truth joined with divine good coming from the
Lord. By it the Lord is united with the church, and heaven is present, as
was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_ (nn.
62-69). The Lord and heaven are present wherever the Word is read as
sacred. This is the end which divine providence has pursued in the
preservation and in the dispersal of the Jews over much of the world. On
the nature of their lot after death see _Continuation about the Last
Judgment and the Spiritual World_ (nn. 79-82).
261. These then are the objections listed above at n. 238 by which the
natural man confirms himself against divine providence, or may do so.
Still other objections, listed at n. 239, may serve the natural man for
arguments against divine providence; they may occur to the minds of
others, too, and excite doubts. They are the following.
262. _Doubt may be raised against divine providence in that the whole of
Christendom worships one God under three persons, that is, three Gods,
and has not known hitherto that God is one in person and in essence, in
whom is the Trinity, and that this God is the Lord._ One who reasons
about divine providence may ask, Are not three persons three Gods if each
person by himself is God? Who can think of it otherwise? In fact, who
does? Athanasius himself could not; therefore it is said in the Creed
which bears his name:
Although in Christian verity we ought to acknowledge each Person as God
and Lord, yet by Christian faith it is not allowable to affirm or to name
three Gods or three Lords.
This can only mean that we ought to acknowledge three Gods and Lords, but
it is not allowable to affirm or name three Gods and three Lords.
[2] Who can possibly have a perception of one God unless He is one in
person? If it is said that such a concept is possible if one thinks of
the three as having one essence, does one, indeed can one, have any other
idea than that they are thus of one mind and agree, and yet are three
Gods? Thinking more deeply, one asks oneself, How can the divine essence,
which is infinite, be divided? Further, how can divine essence from
eternity beget another and produce still another who proceeds from them
both? It may be said that it is to be believed and not thought about; but
who does not think about what he is told must be believed? How else can
there be any acknowledgment which in its essence is faith? Was it not
because of the concept of God as three persons that Socinianism and
Arianism arose, which prevail in the hearts of more persons than you
suppose? Belief in one God and that this God is the Lord makes the
church, for in Him is the divine trinity. The truth of this may be seen
in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord,_ from beginning to end.
[3] But what is thought of the Lord today? Is it not thought that He is
God and Man, God from Jehovah the Father of whom He was conceived and Man
from the Virgin Mary from whom He was born? Who thinks that God and Man
in Him, or His Divine and His Human, are one person, and are one as soul
and body are? Does anyone know this? Ask the learned in the church and
they will say that they have not known it. Yet it is part of the doctrine
of the church received throughout Christendom, as follows:
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; and although He is
God and Man yet there are not two, but there is one Christ. He is one
because the divine took to itself the human; indeed He is altogether one,
for He is one Person, since as soul and body make one man, so God and Man
is one Christ.
This comes from the Faith or Creed of Athanasius. The learned have not
known it because on reading this they have thought of the Lord not as God
but only as Man.
[4] When they are asked if they know from whom the Lord was conceived,
whether from God the Father or from His own Divine, they reply that He
was conceived from God the Father, for this is according to Scripture.
Are the Father and He not one then, like soul and body? Who can think
that He was conceived from two Divines, and if from His own that this was
His Father? If you ask them further what their idea of the Lord's Divine
and of His Human is, they will say that His Divine is from the essence of
the Father and His Human from the essence of His mother, and that His
Divine is with the Father. Then, when they are asked where His Human is,
they have no answer, for they separate His Divine and His Human in their
thinking and make His Divine equal to the Divine of the Father and His
Human like the human of another man, unaware that in doing this they
separate soul and body; nor do they see the flaw in this, that then a
rational man would have been born from a mother alone.
[5] As a result of the fixed idea that the Lord's humanity was like that
of another man, it has come about that a Christian can with difficulty be
led to think of a Divine Human, even when it is said that the Lord's soul
or life from conception was and is Jehovah Himself. Now sum up the
reasons and consider whether there is any other God of the universe than
the Lord alone, in whom is the Divine itself, Source of all, called the
Father; the Divine Human, called the Son; and the proceeding Divine,
called the Holy Spirit; and thus that God is one in person and essence,
and that this God is the Lord.
[6] You may persist and remark that the Lord Himself spoke of three in
Matthew:
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (28:19).
But it is plain from the preceding verse and the one following that the
Lord said this in order to make it known that the Divine Trinity was in
Him, now glorified. For in the preceding verse He said that all power in
heaven and on earth was given Him, and in the following verse that He
would be with men to the end of the age, speaking of Himself alone and
not of three.
[7] Now, why did divine providence permit Christians to worship the one
God under three persons, that is, worship three Gods, and not know until
now that God is one in essence and person, in whom is the Trinity and
that this God is the Lord? Man and not the Lord was the cause. The Lord
had taught it plainly in His Word, as is clear from all the passages
cited in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord,_ and has also
taught it in the doctrine of all the churches, in which it is said that
His Divine and His Human are not two but one Person united like soul and
body.
[8] The first reason why men divided the Divine and the Human and made
the Divine equal to the Divine of Jehovah the Father and the Human equal
to the human of another man, was that the church after its rise fell away
into Babylonianism. This took to itself the Lord's divine power, and in
order that it should be called human and not divine power made the Lord's
human like that of another man. When later the church was reformed and
faith alone was received as the one means of salvation--faith that God the
Father has mercy for the sake of the Son--the Lord's Human could be viewed
in no other way. For no one can approach the Lord and acknowledge Him at
heart as God of heaven and earth unless he lives by His precepts. In the
spiritual world, where everyone is bound to speak as he thinks, no one
can so much as mention the name Jesus if he has not lived as a Christian
in the world; this is by divine providence lest His name be profaned.
263. To make what has just been said clearer I will add what was set
forth in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord_ (towards the end,
nn. 60, 61), which is as follows:
"That God and Man in the Lord, according to the Creed, are not two but
one Person, altogether one as soul and body are, appears clearly in many
sayings of the Lord, as that the Father and He are one; that all things
of the Father are His and all His the Father's; that He is in the Father
and the Father in Him; that all things are given into His hand; that He
has all power; that He is God of heaven and earth; that one who believes
on Him has eternal life; and that the wrath of God abides on one who does
not believe on Him; and further, that both the Divine and the Human were
taken up into heaven; and that as to both He sits at the right hand of
God, that is, is almighty; besides the numerous passages in the Word
about His Divine Human which were quoted abundantly above. They all
testify that God is one both in person and in essence, and in Him is the
Trinity, and that this God is the Lord.
[2] "These things about the Lord are published now for the first time
because it is foretold in the Apocalypse, chapters 21 and 22, that at the
end of the former church a new church is to be established in which this
will be the chief doctrine. This church is meant in those chapters by the
New Jerusalem into which only one who acknowledges the Lord alone as God
of heaven and earth can enter; this church is therefore called `the
Lamb's wife'. I can also report that all heaven acknowledges the Lord
alone and that one who does not is not admitted to heaven, for heaven is
heaven from the Lord. This very acknowledgment made in love and faith
causes men to be in the Lord and Lord in them, as He teaches in John:
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in
you (14:20);
again in the same:
Abide in me, and I in you; ... I am the vine, and you are branches; he
who abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can
do nothing; unless a man abides in me, he is cast out (15:4-6, also
17:22, 23).
[3] "This has not been seen from the Word before, because if it had been,
it would not have been received. For the last judgment had not been
accomplished yet, and prior to it the power of hell prevailed over the
power of heaven. Man is in the midst between heaven and hell; had this
been seen before, therefore, the devil, that is, hell, would have plucked
it from men's hearts and furthermore would have profaned it. The
predominance of hell was completely broken by the last judgment which has
been accomplished now; since that judgment, thus today, every man who
wishes enlightenment and wisdom is able to have it."
264. _A doubt may be raised against divine providence in that it has been
unknown hitherto that in each particular of the Word there is a spiritual
meaning from which it has its holiness._ One may raise this doubt about
divine providence, asking, "why has this been revealed for the first time
now, and why has it been revealed through any one at all and not through
a church leader?" But it is at the Lord's good pleasure whether it should
be a leader or a leader's servant; He knows the one and the other.
However, that sense of the Word has not been disclosed before because
1. If it had been, the church would have profaned it and thereby profaned
the holiness itself of the Word. 2. Neither were the genuine truths, in
which the spiritual sense of the Word resides, revealed by the Lord until
the last judgment was accomplished, and a new church, meant by the Holy
Jerusalem, was about to be established by the Lord. These reasons will be
examined separately.
[2] 1. _The spiritual sense of the Word was not disclosed earlier because
if it had been, the church would have profaned it and thereby would have
profaned the holiness itself of the Word._ Not long after it was
established, the church was turned into Babylon, and later into
Philistia. Babylon acknowledges the Word, to be sure, and yet esteems it
lightly, asserting that the Holy Spirit inspires its own highest judgment
just as much as it did the prophets. They acknowledge the Word for the
vicarship founded on the Lord's words to Peter, but esteem it lightly
because it does not accord with their teaching. It is therefore taken
from the people also and hidden in monasteries where few read it. If,
therefore, the spiritual sense of the Word had been revealed, in which
the Lord is present together with all angelic wisdom, the Word would have
been profaned not only, as it is now, in its lowermost expression in the
sense of the letter, but in its inmosts, too.
[3] Philistia, by which faith separated from charity is meant, would have
profaned the spiritual sense of the Word also, because, as we have shown
before, it puts salvation in certain formulas which are to be thought and
spoken, and not in good works which are to be done. It thus makes saving
what is not saving and also removes the understanding from what is to be
believed. What would they do with the light in which the spiritual sense
of the Word is? Would that not be turned into darkness? When the natural
sense is, why not the spiritual sense? Does any one of them who has
confirmed himself in faith separate from charity and in justification by
this faith alone, want to know what good of life is, what love to the
Lord and towards the neighbor is, what charity is and what the goods of
charity are, what good works are and what it is to do them, or in fact
what faith is essentially and what genuine truth is, constituting it?
They compose volumes, establish in them only what they call faith, and
declare that all the things just mentioned are present in that faith. It
is clear from this that if the spiritual sense of the Word had been
revealed earlier, it would come to pass according to the Lord's words in
Matthew:
If your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then
the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness ( 6:23).
In the spiritual sense of the Word by "eye" the understanding is meant.
[4] 2. _Neither were the genuine truths in which the spiritual sense of
the Word resides, revealed by the Lord until after the last judgment was
accomplished, and a new church, meant by the Holy Jerusalem, was about to
be established by the Lord._ The Lord foretold in the Apocalypse that
after the last judgment was effected genuine truths were to be revealed,
a new church was to be established, and the spiritual sense of the Word
would be disclosed. In the small work, _The Last Judgment,_ and later in
the _Continuation_ of that work, it was shown that the last judgment has
been accomplished and that this is meant by the heaven and earth which
would pass away (Apoc 21:1). That genuine truths are then to be revealed
is foretold in these words in the Apocalypse:
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new
(11:5; also 19:17, 18; 21:18-21; 22:1, 2).
At 19:11-16 it was predicted that the spiritual sense of the Word was to
be revealed; it is meant by "the white horse" on which He who sat was
called the Word of God and was Lord of lords and King of kings (on this
see the little work _The White Horse)._ That by the Holy Jerusalem a new
church is meant which was to be established then by the Lord may be seen
in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord_ (nn. 62-65).
[5] It is clear, then, that the spiritual sense of the Word was to be
revealed for a new church which should acknowledge and worship the Lord
alone, hold His Word sacred, love divine truths and reject faith
separated from charity. More about this sense of the Word may be seen in
_Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_ (nn. 5-26 and
following numbers); what the spiritual sense of the Word is (nn. 5-26);
that a spiritual sense exists in all of the Word in general and in detail
(nn. 9-17); that by virtue of the spiritual sense the Word is divinely
inspired and holy in every expression (nn. 18, 19); that until now the
spiritual sense has been unknown, and why it was not revealed before (nn.
20-25); and that henceforth that sense will be open only to one who is
in genuine truths from the Lord (n. 26).
[6] It may be evident from these propositions that it is by the Lord's
divine providence that the spiritual sense has lain concealed from the
world until the present day and been kept meanwhile in heaven with the
angels, who draw their wisdom from it. This sense was known and treasured
among ancient peoples who lived before Moses, but when their descendants
converted the correspondences, of which their Word and hence their
religion solely consisted, into various idolatries, and the Egyptians
converted them into magic, by the Lord's divine providence this sense was
closed up, first with the Israelites and then with Christians for the
reasons given above, and is now opened for the first time for the Lord's
new church.
265. _Doubt may arise against divine providence in that it has been
unknown hitherto that to shun evils as sins is the Christian religion
itself._ That this is the Christian religion itself was shown in
_Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem,_ from beginning to end; and as
faith separated from charity is the one obstacle to its being received,
that also was treated of. We say that it has not been known that to shun
evils as sins is the Christian religion itself, for it is unknown to
nearly everyone; yet everyone does know it, as may be seen above
(n. 258). Nearly all are ignorant of it because faith separate has
obliterated knowledge of it. For this faith declares that it alone saves
and not any good work, that is, any good of charity; also that men are no
longer under the yoke of the law, but are free. Those who have frequently
heard such teaching no longer give thought to any evil of life or any
good of life. Everyone, moreover, is inclined by nature to embrace such
teaching, and once he has done so he no longer thinks about the state of
his life. This is why it is not known that shunning evils as sins is the
Christian religion itself.
[2] That this is unknown was disclosed to me in the spiritual world. I
have asked more than a thousand newcomers from the world whether they
knew that to shun evils as sins is religion itself. They said that they
did not and that it was a new idea which they had not heard before, but
had heard that they cannot of themselves do good and that they are not
under the yoke of the law. When I inquired whether they knew that a man
must examine himself, see his sins, repent and begin a new life and that
otherwise sins are not remitted, and if sins are not remitted, men are
not saved; and when I reminded them that this was read out in a deep
voice to them each time they observed the Holy Supper, they replied that
they paid no attention to that but only to this, that they have remission
of sins by the sacrament of the Supper and that faith effects the rest
without their knowing it.
[3] I asked again, Why have you taught your children the Decalog? Was it
not that they might know what evils are sins to be shunned? Was it only
that they might know and believe, but do nothing? Why is it said that
this is new? To this they could only reply that they know and yet do not
know, and that they never think of the sixth* commandment when they
commit adultery, or about the seventh when they steal or defraud
secretly, and so on, and still less that such acts are contrary to divine
law, thus contrary to God.
* Swedenborg follows the numbering of the Commandments customary with
Lutherans, as with Roman Catholics.
[4] When I recalled to them many things from the teachings of the
churches and from the Word confirming the fact that to avoid and be
averse to evils as sins is the Christian religion's very self and that
one who does so has faith, they fell silent. They were convinced of it,
however, when they saw that all were examined as to their life and judged
according to their deeds, and no one was judged according to faith apart
from life, for everyone has faith according to his life.
[5] Christendom in large part has not known this because by a law of
divine providence everyone is left to act in freedom according to reason
(on this, above, nn. 71-91 and nn. 101-128); and by another law no one is
taught directly from heaven but by means of the Word and by doctrine and
preaching from it; there are besides all the laws on permission which are
also laws of divine providence. On these see above, n. 258.
274.* _A doubt may be raised against divine providence in that it has not
been known before that a man lives as a human being after death and that
this has not been disclosed before._ It has been unknown because with
those who do not shun evils as sins the belief lies hidden that man does
not live after death. It is of no moment therefore to them whether one
says that man lives after death or will rise again on the day of the last
judgment. If belief in resurrection happens to visit one, he tells
himself, "I shall fare no worse than others; if I go to hell I shall have
the company of many and also if I pass to heaven." Yet all in whom there
is any religion have an implanted recognition that they will live as
human beings after death. Only those infatuated with their own
intelligence think that they survive as souls but not as human beings.
* So numbered in the Latin original.
It may be seen from the following that anyone in whom is any religion has
an implanted recognition that he lives after death as a human being:
1. Who thinks otherwise when he is dying?
2. What eulogizer, mourning the dead, does not exalt them to heaven and
place them among the angels conversing with them and sharing their joy?
Some men are deified.
3. Who among the common people does not believe that when he dies, if he
has lived well he will enter a heavenly paradise, be arrayed in white,
and enjoy eternal life?
4. What priest does not speak so to the dying? And when he speaks so he
believes it, provided he does not think of the last judgment at the time.
5. Who does not believe that his little ones are in heaven and that after
death he will see his wife, whom he has loved? Who thinks that they are
spectres, still less souls or minds hovering in the universe?
6. Who contradicts when something is said about the lot or state of those
who have passed from time into eternal life? I have told many what the
state or lot of various persons is and have never heard anyone protest
that their lot is not yet determined but will be at the time of the
judgment.
7. When one sees angels in paintings or statuary does he not recognize
them as such? Who thinks then that they are bodiless spirits or airy
entities or clouds, as do some of the erudite?
8. Papists believe that their saints are human beings in heaven and
others elsewhere are; so do Mohammedans of their dead; more than others
Africans do, and many other peoples do. Why then do not Reformed
Christians believe it, who know it from the Word?
9. Moreover, as a result of the recognition implanted in everyone, some
men aspire to the immortality of renown. The recognition is given that
turn in them and makes heroes and brave men of them in war.
10. Inquiry was made in the spiritual world whether this knowledge is
implanted in all men; it was found that it is in a spiritual idea
attached to their internal thought, not in a natural idea attached to
their external thought.
It is plain from all this that doubt should not be thrown on the Lord's
divine providence on the supposition that only now has it been disclosed
that the human being continues such after death. It is only the sensuous
in man that wants to see and touch what is to be credited. One who does
not raise his thinking above it is in the dark of night about the state
of his own life.
XIV. EVILS ARE TOLERATED IN VIEW OF THE END, WHICH IS SALVATION
275. If man were born into the love for which he was created, he would
not be in evil, in fact would not know what evil is. For one who has not
been in evil and is not in it, cannot know what it is; told that this or
that is evil, he would not believe it. This is the state of innocence in
which Adam and his wife Eve were; that state was signified by the
nakedness of which they were not ashamed; the knowledge of evil
subsequent to the fall is meant by eating of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. The love for which the human being was created is love to
the neighbor, to wish him as well as one does oneself and even better. He
is in the enjoyment of this love when he serves his neighbor quite as
parents do their children. This is truly human love, for in it is what is
spiritual, distinguishing it from the natural love of brute animals. Were
man born into this love, he would not be born into the darkness of
ignorance as everyone is now, but into some light of the knowledge and
hence of the intelligence soon to be his. To be sure, he would creep on
all fours at first but come erect on his feet by an implanted striving.
However much he might resemble a quadruped, he would not face down to the
ground but forward to heaven and come erect so that he could look up.
276. When love of the neighbor was turned into self-love, however, and
this love increased, human love was turned into animal love, and man,
from being man, became a beast, with the difference that he could think
about what he sensed physically, could rationally discriminate among
things, be taught, and become a civil and moral person and finally a
spiritual being. For, as was said, man possesses what is spiritual and is
distinguished by it from the brute animal. By it he can know what civil
evil and good are, also what moral evil and good are, and if he so wills,
what spiritual evil and good are also. When love for the neighbor was
turned into self-love, however, man could no longer be born into the
light of knowledge and intelligence but was born into the darkness of
ignorance, being born on the lowest level of life, called
corporeal-sensuous. From this he could be led into the interiors of the
natural mind by instruction, the spiritual always attending on this. Why
one is born on the lowest level of life known as corporeal-sensuous,
therefore into the darkness of ignorance, will be seen in what follows.
[2] Anyone can see that love of the neighbor and self-love are opposites.
Neighborly love wishes well to all from itself, but self-love wishes
everyone to wish it well; neighborly love wants to serve everyone, but
self-love wants all to serve it; love of the neighbor regards everyone as
brother and friend, while love of self regards everyone as its servant,
and if one does not serve it, as its enemy; in short, it regards only
itself and others scarcely as human beings, esteeming them at heart less
than one's horses and dogs. Thinking so meanly of others, it thinks
nothing of doing evil to them; hence come hatred and vengeance, adultery
and whoredom, theft and fraud, lying and defamation, violence and
cruelty, and similar evils. Such are the evils in which man is by birth.
That they are tolerated in view of the end, which is salvation, is to be
shown in this order:
i. Everyone is in evil and must be led away from it to be reformed.
ii. Evils cannot be removed unless they appear.
iii. So far as they are removed they are remitted.
iv. The toleration of evil is therefore for the sake of the end in view,
namely, salvation.
277. (i) _Everyone is in evil and must be led away from it to be
reformed._ The church knows that there is hereditary evil in man and that
as a result he is in the lust of many evils. Thence it is that he cannot
do good of himself, for evil does only such good as has evil in it; the
evil inwardly in it is that one does good for one's own sake and thus
only for the sake of appearances. It is known that hereditary evil comes
from one's parents. It is said to come from Adam and his wife, but this
is an error; for everyone is born into hereditary evil from his parent,
and the parent from his parent, and so on; thus it is transmitted from
one to another, is augmented and becomes an accumulation, and is passed
to one's progeny. There is therefore nothing sound in man but all is
evil. Who feels that it is evil to love himself above others? Who, then,
knows that this is an evil, though it is the head of evils?
[2] Inheritance from parents, grandparents and great-grandparents is
plain from much which is known in the world, from the fact, for instance,
that households, families and even nations are distinguishable by the
face; the face is also a type of the mind which in turn accords with the
affections of one's love. Sometimes, too, the features of a grandfather
recur in a grandson or a great-grandson. From the face alone I know
whether a person is a Jew or not; likewise of what stock certain persons
are; others no doubt know also. If the affections which spring from love
are thus derived from parents and transmitted by them, evils are, for
these spring from affections. But it shall be told how the resemblance
comes about.
[3] Everyone's soul comes from his father and is only clothed with the
body by one's mother. That the soul is from the father follows not only
from what has been said above, but from many other indications, too; also
from this, that the child of a black man or Moor by a white or European
woman is black, and vice versa; and especially in that the soul is in the
seed, for impregnation is by the seed, and the seed is what is clothed
with a body by the mother. The seed is the primal form of the love in
which the father is--the form of his ruling love with its nearest
derivatives or the inmost affections of that love.
[4] These affections are enveloped in everyone with the honesties of
moral life and with the goodnesses partly of civil and partly of
spiritual life, which are the external of life even with the evil. An
infant is born into this external life and is therefore lovable, but
coming to boyhood and adolescence he passes from that external to the
inner life and at length to his father's ruling love. If this has been
evil and not been moderated and bent by various means by his teachers, it
becomes his ruling love as it was his father's. Still the evil is not
eradicated, but put aside; of this in what follows. Plainly, then,
everyone is in evil.
277 r. It is plain without explanation that man must be led away from
evil in order to be reformed. For one who is in evil in the world is in
evil after he has left the world. Not removed in the world, evil cannot
be removed afterwards. Where a tree falls, it lies. So, too, when a man
dies his life remains such as it has been. Everyone is judged according
to his deeds, not that these are recounted, but he returns to them and
acts as before. Death is a continuation of life with the difference that
man cannot then be reformed. For reformation is effected in full, that
is, in what is inmost and outmost, and what is outmost is reformed
suitably to what is inmost only while man is in the world. It cannot be
reformed afterwards because as it is carried along by the man after death
it falls quiescent and conforms to his inner life, that is, they act as
one.
278. (ii) _Evils cannot be removed unless they appear._ This does not
mean that man must do evils in order for them to appear, but that he must
examine himself, his thoughts as well as his deeds, and see what he would
do if he did not fear the laws and disrepute--see especially what evils he
deems allowable in his spirit and does not regard as sins, for these he
still does. To enable him to examine himself, man has been given
understanding, and an understanding separate from his will, in order that
he may know, comprehend and acknowledge what is good and what is evil,
likewise see the character of his will or what it loves and desires. To
see this his understanding has been given higher and lower or interior
and exterior thought, so as to see from the higher or interior what his
will prompts in the lower or exterior thinking: he sees this quite as he
does his face in a mirror. When he does and knows what is sin, he is
able, on imploring the Lord's help, not to will it but to shun it, then
to act contrary to it, if not freely, then by overcoming it through
fighting it, and finally to become averse to it and abominate it. Then
first does he perceive and also sense that evil is evil and good is good.
This, now, is self-examination--to see one's evils, acknowledge them,
confess them and thereupon desist from them.
[2] But as few know that this is the Christian religion itself, and these
alone have charity and faith and are led by the Lord and do good from
Him, something will be said of those who fail to examine themselves but
still think that they possess religion. They are 1. Those who confess
themselves guilty of all sins but do not search out any one sin in
themselves. 2. Those who neglect the search on religious principle.
3. Those who in absorption with the mundane give no thought to sins and
hence do not know them. 4. Those who favor them and therefore cannot know
them. 5. With all these, sins do not appear and therefore cannot be
removed. 6. Finally, the reason, so far unknown, will be made plain why
evils cannot be removed apart from their being searched out, appearing,
being acknowledged, confessed and resisted.
278 r. But these points will be considered one by one, for they are
fundamentals of the Christian religion on man's part.
First, _of those who confess themselves guilty of all sins, but do not
search out any one sin in themselves._ They say, "I am a sinner. I was
born in sin. From head to foot there is nothing sound in me. I am nothing
but evil. Good God, be gracious to me, pardon, cleanse and save me. Make
me to walk in purity and in a right path"; and more of the kind. And yet
the man does not examine himself and hence does not know any evil, and no
one can shun what he is ignorant of, still less fight against it. After
his confessions he also thinks that he is clean and washed, when
nevertheless he is unclean and unwashed from the head to the sole of the
foot. For the confession of all sins is the lulling of them all to sleep
and finally blindness to them. It is like a generality devoid of anything
specific, which amounts to nothing.
[2] Second: _Those who omit the search in consequence of their religion._
They are especially those who separate charity from faith. They say to
themselves, "Why should I search out evil or good? Why evil, when it does
not condemn me? Why good, when it does not save me? Faith alone, thought
and uttered with trust and confidence, justifies and purifies from all
sin, and when once I am justified, I am whole in the sight of God. I am
indeed in evil, but God wipes it away the moment it is committed and it
no longer appears"; and much else. But who does not see, if he opens his
eyes, that these are empty words, without reality because nothing of good
is in them? Who cannot think and speak so, with trust and confidence,
too, even when he is thinking of hell and eternal condemnation? Does he
want to know anything further about either truth or good? Of truth he
says, "What is truth except that which confirms this faith?" and of good,
"What is good except what is in me from this faith? And that it may be in
me I will not do it as from myself, for that would be self-righteous and
what is self-righteous is not good." So he neglects all until he does not
know what evil is; what then is he to search out and see in himself? Is
it not his state then that a pent-up fire of lusts of evil consumes the
interiors of his mind and lays them waste even to the entrance? He is on
guard only at the door to keep the fire from appearing. After death the
door is opened and the fire appears for all to see.
[3] Third: _Those absorbed with the mundane give no thought to sins,
hence do not know of any._ These love the world above all things and
welcome no truth that would lead them away from any falsity in their
religion. They tell themselves, "What is this to me? It is not to my way
of thinking." So they reject truth on hearing it and if they listen to it
smother it. They do much the same on hearing sermons; they retain some
sayings but not any of the substance. Dealing in this way with truths
they do not know what good is, for truth and good act as one; and from
good which is not linked with truth one does not recognize evil except as
one calls it good also, which is done by rationalizing from falsities. It
is these who are meant by the seed which fell among thorns, of whom the
Lord said:
Other seeds fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up and choked them
... These are they who hear the Word, but the cares of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the Word so that it become unfruitful (Mt
13:7, 22; Mk 4:7, 18, 19; Lu 8:7, 14).
[4] Fourth: _Those who favor sins and therefore cannot know them._ These
acknowledge God and worship Him with the usual ceremonials and assure
themselves that a given evil, which is a sin, is not a sin. For they
color it with fallacies and appearances and thus hide its enormity. Then
they indulge it and make it their friend and familiar. We say that those
who acknowledge God do this, for others do not regard an evil as a sin,
for one sins against God. But let examples illustrate this. A man makes
an evil not to be a sin when in coveting wealth he makes some kinds of
fraud allowable by reasoning which he devises. So does the man who
confirms himself in plundering those who are not his enemies in a war.
[5] Fifth: _Sins do not appear in these men, therefore cannot be
removed._ All evil which does not come to sight nurses itself; it is like
fire in wood under ashes or like matter in an unopened wound; for all
evil which is repressed increases and does not stop until it destroys
all. Lest evil be repressed, therefore, everyone is allowed to think in
favor of God or against God and in favor of the sanctities of the church
or against them, without being punished for it in the world. Of this the
Lord says in Isaiah:
From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness; wound,
and scar, and fresh bruise; they have not been pressed out, nor bound up,
nor softened with oil.... Wash you, make you clean, remove the evil of
your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good. . . .
Then if your sins have been as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; if
they have been red like crimson, they shall be like wool. . . . But if
you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword (Isa 1:6, 16,
17, 18, 20).
To be devoured by the sword signifies to perish by falsity of evil.
[6] Sixth: _The cause, hidden so far, why evils cannot be removed apart
from their being searched out, appearing, being acknowledged, confessed
and resisted._ In preceding pages we have mentioned the fact that all
heaven is arranged in societies according to affections of good, and all
hell in societies according to the lusts of evil opposite to the
affections of good. Each person as to his spirit is in some society, in a
heavenly one if in an affection of good, but in an infernal one if in
some lust of evil. While living in the world man does not know this and
yet as to his spirit he is in some society; otherwise he cannot live; and
by it he is governed by the Lord. If he is in an infernal society, he
cannot be led out of it by the Lord except according to the laws of
divine providence, among which is this also, that a man shall see that he
is there, want to leave, and make the effort himself to do so. One can do
this while in the world but not after death, for then he remains forever
in the society in which he put himself in the world. It is for this
reason that man is to examine himself, see and avow his sins, do
repentance, and thereupon persevere to the close of life. I might
substantiate this to full belief by much experience, but this is not the
place to document the experience.
279. (iii) _So far as evils are removed they are remitted._ It is an
error of the age to believe
1. That evils are separated and in fact cast out from man when they are
remitted; and
2. That the state of man's life can be changed in a moment, even to its
opposite, so that from wicked he becomes good, and consequently can be
led from hell and be transported straightway to heaven, and this by the
Lord's sheer mercy.
3. But those who believe and suppose so, do not know at all what evil and
good are and nothing at all about the state of man's life.
4. Moreover, they are wholly unaware that affections, which are of the
will, are nothing other than changes and variations of the state of the
purely organic substances of the mind; and that thoughts, which are of
the understanding, also are; and that memory is the permanent state of
these changes.
When one knows these things, one can see clearly that an evil can be
removed only by successive stages, and that the remission of an evil is
not complete removal of it. But all this has been said in summary form
and unless the items are demonstrated may be assented to and yet not
comprehended. What is not comprehended is as indistinct as a wheel spun
around by the hand. The points made above are therefore to be
demonstrated one by one in the order in which they were set forth.
[2] First: _It is an error of the age to believe that evils are separated
and in fact cast out when they are remitted._ It has been granted me to
learn from heaven that no evil into which man is born and which he has
made actual in him is separated from him, but is removed so as not to
appear. Earlier I shared the belief of most persons in the world that
when evils are remitted they are cast out and are washed and wiped away
as dirt is from the face by water. It is not like this with evils or
sins. They all remain. When they are remitted on repentance, they are
thrust from the center to the sides. What is in the center, being
directly under view, appears as in the light of day, and what is to one
side is in shadow and at times in the darkness of night. Inasmuch as
evils are not separated but only removed, that is, thrust to one side,
and as man can go from The center to the periphery, he can return, as it
may happen, to his evils, which he supposed had been cast out. For the
human being is such that he can go from one affection to another and
sometimes to the opposite, and thus from one center into another; the
affection in which he is at the time makes the center, for he is then in
the enjoyment and light of it.
[3] Some who are raised after death into heaven by the Lord, for they
have lived well, have carried with them, however, the belief that they
are clean and rid of sins, therefore are not in a state of guilt. In
accord with their belief they are clothed at first in white garments, for
white garments signify a state purified from evils. But after a time they
begin to think, as they did in the world, that they are washed, as it
were, from all evil, and to glory that they are no longer sinners like
other men. This can hardly be kept from being an elation of mind and a
contempt of others in comparison with oneself. In order, therefore, that
they may be delivered from their imaginary belief, they are sent down
from heaven and let back into the evils which they pursued in the world;
they are also shown that they are in hereditary evils of which they had
not known. When they have been led in this way to realize that their
evils have not been separated from them but only put aside, thus that in
themselves they are impure, indeed nothing but evil, and that they are
withheld from evils and held in goods by the Lord, and that this only
seems to be their doing, they are raised again into heaven by the Lord.
[4] Second: _It is an error of the age to believe that the state of man's
life can be changed in a moment, so that from wicked he can become good,
and consequently can be led from hell and transported at once to heaven,
and this by the Lord's direct mercy._ Those who separate charity and
faith and place salvation in faith alone, commit this error. For they
suppose that merely to think and speak formulas of that faith, if it is
done with trust and confidence, justifies and saves one. Many think it is
done instantly, too, and if not previously, can be done in the last hour
of one's life. These are bound to believe that the state of man's life
can be changed in a moment and that he can be saved by direct mercy. But
in the last chapter of this treatise it will be seen that the Lord's
mercy is mediated, that man cannot become good in a moment from being
wicked, and can be led from hell and transported to heaven only by the
continual activity of divine providence from infancy to the very close of
life. Here it need only be said that all the laws of divine providence
have the salvation and reformation of the human being for their object,
in other words, the inversion of his state, which by nativity is
infernal, into the opposite, which is heavenly. This can only be done
progressively as man recedes from evil and its enjoyment and comes into
good and its enjoyment.
[5] Third: _Those who believe in an instantaneous change do not know at
all what evil and good are._ For they do not know that evil is the
enjoyment of the lust of acting and thinking contrary to divine order,
and good is the enjoyment of the affection for acting and thinking in
accord with divine order. They do not know, either, that myriads of lusts
enter into and compose each individual evil and myriads of affections
enter into and compose each individual good, and that these myriads are
in such order and connection in man's interiors that it is impossible to
change one without changing all at the same time. Those who are ignorant
of this may believe or suppose that evil, which seems to them to be a
single entity, can be easily removed, and that good, which also seems to
be a single entity, can be introduced in its place. Not knowing what evil
and good are, they cannot but suppose that there is such a thing as
instantaneous salvation and such a thing as direct mercy. That these are
not possible will be seen in the last chapter of this treatise.
[6] Fourth: _Those who believe in instantaneous salvation and unmediated
mercy do not know that affections, which are of the will, are nothing
other than changes of state in the purely organic substances of the mind;
that thoughts, which are of the understanding, are nothing other than
changes and variations in the form of those substances; and that memory
is the persisting state of the changes and variations._ Everyone
acknowledges, on its being said, that affections and thoughts exist only
in substances and their forms, which are the subjects; existing in the
brain which is full of substances and forms, they are called purely
organic forms. No one who thinks rationally can help laughing at the
fancies of some that affections and thoughts do not have substantive
bases, but are exhalations given shape by heat and light, like images
apparently in the air or ether. For thought can no more exist apart from
a substantial form than sight can apart from its form, the eye, or
hearing apart from its form, the ear, or taste apart from its form, the
tongue. If you examine the brain, you will see innumerable substances and
fibres, also, and see, too, that everything in it is organized. What more
is needed than this ocular proof?
[7] But one may ask, What are affection and thought then? A conclusion
can be reached from each and all things in the body. In it are many
viscera, each fixed in its place, and all performing their several
functions by changes and variations of state and form. It is well known
that they are engaged in their own activities--the stomach, the
intestines, the kidneys, the liver, the pancreas, the spleen, the heart
and the lungs, each in its particular activity. All the activities are
maintained from within, and to be actuated from within means that it is
by changes and variations of state and form. It may be plain then that
the activities of the purely organic substances of the mind are similar,
the one difference being that those of the organic substances of the body
are natural, but of the mind are spiritual; plainly, also, the two make
one by correspondences.
[8] The nature of the changes and variations of state and form in the
organic substances of the mind, which are affections and thoughts, cannot
be shown to the eye. It may, however, be seen as in a mirror by the
changes of state in the lungs on speaking and singing. There is
correspondence, moreover; for the sound of the voice in speaking and
singing, and the articulations of the sound which are the words of speech
and the modulations of song, are produced by means of the lungs; sound
corresponds to affection, and speech to thought. Sound and speech are
produced also from affection and thought. This is done by changes and
variations in the state and form of the organic substances of the lungs,
and from the lungs through the trachea or windpipe in the larynx and
glottis, and then in the tongue, and finally in the lips. The first
changes and variations in the state and form of the sound occur in the
lungs, the second in trachea and larynx, the third in the glottis by the
different openings of its orifice, the fourth in the tongue by its
various positions against palate and teeth, and the fifth in the lips by
the various modifications of form in them. It may be evident, then, that
these consecutive changes and variations in the state of organic forms
produce the sounds and their articulations which are speech and song.
Inasmuch, then, as sound and speech are produced from no other source
than the affections and thoughts of the mind (for they exist from them
and are never apart from them), clearly the affections of the will are
changes and variations in the state of the purely organic substances of
the mind, and the thoughts of the understanding are changes and
variations in the form of those substances, quite like those in the
substances of the lungs.
[9] Since affections and thoughts are simply changes of state in the
forms of the mind, memory is nothing other than the permanent state of
those changes. For all changes and variations of state in organic
substances are such that once they are habitual they become permanent. So
the lungs are habituated to produce certain sounds in the trachea, to
vary them in the glottis, articulate them by the tongue, and modify them
by the mouth; once these organic activities have become habitual, they
are settled in the organs and can be reproduced. These changes and
variations are infinitely more perfect in the organs of the mind than in
those of the body, as is evident from what was said in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 199-204), where we showed that all
perfections increase and ascend by and according to degrees. More on this
will be seen below (n. 319).
280. _It is also an error of the age to suppose that when sins are
remitted they are taken away._ This is the error of those who believe
that their sins are pardoned by the sacrament of the Holy Supper although
they have not removed them from themselves by repentance. Those also
commit this error who believe that they are saved by faith alone; those
also who believe that they are saved by papal dispensations. All these
believe in unmediated mercy and instant salvation. But when the statement
is reversed it becomes truth, that is, when sins are removed they are
also remitted. For repentance precedes pardon, and aside from repentance
there is no pardon. Therefore the Lord bade His disciples:
That they should preach repentance for the remission of sins (Lu 24:27,
47),
and John preached
The baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Lu 3:3).
The Lord remits the sins of all; He does not accuse and impute; but He
can take sins away only in accordance with laws of His divine providence.
For when Peter asked how often he was to forgive a brother sinning
against him, whether seven times, the Lord said to him:
That he should forgive not only seven times, but seventy times seven (Mt
18:21, 22).
What then will the Lord not do, who is mercy itself?
281. (iv) _Thus the permission of evil is for the sake of the end,
namely, salvation._ It is well known that man has full liberty to think
and will but not to say and do whatever he thinks and wills. He may think
as an atheist, deny God and blaspheme the sanctities of Word and church.
He may even want to destroy them utterly by word and deed, but this is
prevented by civil, moral and ecclesiastical laws. He therefore cherishes
this impiety and wickedness inwardly by thinking, willing and even
intending to do it, but not doing it actually. The man who is not an
atheist also has full liberty to think many evil things, things
fraudulent, lascivious, revengeful and otherwise insane; he also does
them at times. Who can believe that unless man had full liberty, he not
only could not be saved but would even perish utterly?
[2] Now let us have the reason for this. Everyone from birth is in evils
of many kinds. They are in his will, and what is in the will is loved.
For what a man wills inwardly he loves, what he loves he wills, and the
will's love flows into the understanding where it makes its pleasure felt
and thereupon enters the thoughts and intentions. If, therefore, he were
not allowed to think in accord with the love in his will, which is
hereditarily implanted in him, that love would remain shut in and never
be seen by him. A love of evil which does not become apparent is like an
enemy in ambush, like matter in an ulcer, like poison in the blood, or
corruption in the breast, which cause death when they are kept shut in.
But when a person is permitted to think the evils of his life's love,
even to intend doing them, they are cured by spiritual means as diseases
are by natural means.
[3] It will be told now what man would be like if he were not permitted
to think in accord with the enjoyment of his life's love. No longer would
he be man, for he would lose his two faculties called liberty and
rationality in which humanness itself consists. The enjoyment of those
evils would occupy the interiors of his mind to such an extent that it
would burst open the door. He could then only speak and commit the evils;
his unsoundness would be manifest not only to himself but to the world;
and at length he would not know how to cover his shame. In order that he
may not come into this state, he is permitted to think and to will the
evils of his inherited nature but not to say and commit them. Meanwhile
he is learning civil, moral and spiritual things. These enter his
thoughts and remove the unsoundness and he is healed by the Lord by means
of them, only to the extent, however, of knowing how to guard the door
unless he also acknowledges God and implores His aid for power to resist
the unsoundness. Then, so far as he resists it, he does not let it into
his intentions and eventually not even into his thoughts.
[4] Since man is free to think as he pleases to the end that his life's
love may emerge from its hiding-place into the light of his
understanding, and since he would not otherwise know anything of his own
evil and consequently would not know how to shun it, it is also true that
it would increase in him so much that recovery would become impossible in
him and hardly be possible in his children, were he to have children, for
a parent's evil is transmitted to his offspring. The Lord, however,
provides that this may not occur.
282. The Lord could heal the understanding in every man and thus cause
him to think not evil but good, and this by means of fears of different
kinds, miracles, conversations with the dead, or visions and dreams. But
to heal the understanding alone is to heal man only outwardly, for
understanding with its thought is the external of man's life while the
will with its affection is the internal. The healing of the understanding
alone would therefore be like palliative healing in which the interior
malignity, closed in and kept from issuing, would destroy first the near
and then the remote parts till all would become mortified. The will
itself must be healed, not by the influx of the understanding into it,
for that is impossible, but by means of instruction and exhortation from
the understanding. Were the understanding alone healed, man would become
like a dead body embalmed or covered by fragrant spices and roses which
would soon get such a foul odor from the body that they could not be
brought near anyone's nostrils. So heavenly truths in the understanding
would be affected if the evil love of the will were shut in.
283. Man is permitted, as was said, to think evils even to intending them
in order that they may be removed by means of what is civil, moral and
spiritual. This is done when he considers that they are contrary to what
is just and equitable, to what is honest and decorous and to what is good
and true, contrary therefore to the peace, joy and blessedness of life.
By these three means the Lord heals the love of man's will, in fear at
first, it is true, but with love later. Still the evils are not separated
from the man and cast out, but only removed in him and put to the side.
When they are and good has the center, evils do not appear, for whatever
has the central place is squarely under view and is seen and perceived.
It should be known, however, that even when good occupies the center man
is not for that reason in good unless the evils at the side tend downward
or outward. If they look upward or inward they have not been removed, but
are still trying to return to the center. They tend downward and outward
when man shuns his evils as sins and still more when he holds them in
aversion, for then he condemns them, consigns them to hell, and makes
them face that way.
284. Man's understanding is the recipient of both good and evil and of
both truth and falsity, but not his will. His will must be either in evil
or in good; it cannot be in both, for it is the man himself and in it is
his life's love. But good and evil are separate in the understanding like
what is internal and what is external. Thus man may be inwardly in evil
and outwardly in good. Still, when he is being reformed, the two meet,
and conflict and combat ensue. This is called temptation when it is
severe, but when it is not severe a fermentation like that of wine or
strong drink occurs. If good conquers, evil with its falsity is carried
to the side, as lees, to use an analogy, fall to the bottom of a vessel.
The good is like wine that becomes generous on fermentation and like
strong drink which becomes clear. But if evil conquers, good with its
truth is borne to the side and becomes turbid and noisome like
unfermented wine or unfermented strong drink. Comparison is made with
ferment because in the Word, as at Hosea 7:4, Luke 12:1 and elsewhere,
"ferment" signifies falsity of evil.
XV. DIVINE PROVIDENCE ATTENDS THE EVIL AND THE GOOD ALIKE
285. In every person, good or bad, there are two faculties one of which
makes the understanding and the other the will. The faculty making the
understanding is the ability to understand and think, therefore is called
rationality. The faculty making the will is the ability to do this
freely, that is, to think and consequently to speak and act also,
provided that it is not contrary to reason or rationality; for to act
freely is to act as often as one wills and according as one wills. The
two faculties are constant and are present from first to last in each and
all things which a man thinks and does. He has them not from himself, but
from the Lord. It follows that the Lord's presence in these faculties is
also in the least things, indeed the very least, of man's understanding
and thought, of his will and affection too, and thence of his speech and
action. If you remove these faculties from even the very least thing, you
will not be able to think or utter it as a human being.
[2] It has already been shown abundantly that the human being is a human
being by virtue of the two faculties, enabled by them to think and speak,
and to perceive goods and understand truths, not only such as are civil
and moral but also such as are spiritual, and made capable, too, of being
reformed and regenerated; in a word, made capable of being conjoined to
the Lord and thereby of living forever. It was also shown that not only
good men but evil also possess the two faculties. These faculties are in
man from the Lord and are not appropriated to him as his, for what is
divine cannot be appropriated but only adjoined to him and thus appear to
be his, and this which is divine with the human being is in the least
things pertaining to him. It follows that the Lord governs the least
things in an evil man as well as in a good man. This government of His is
what is called divine providence.
286. Inasmuch as it is a law of divine providence that man shall act from
freedom according to reason, that is, from the two faculties, liberty and
rationality; and a law of divine providence that what he does shall
appear to be from himself and thus his own; and also a law that evils
must be permitted in order that man may be led out of them, it follows
that man can abuse these faculties and in freedom according to reason
confirm whatever he pleases. He can make reasonable whatever he will,
whether it is reasonable in itself or not. Some therefore ask, "What is
truth? Can I not make true whatever I will?" Does not the world do so?
Anybody can do it by reasoning. Take an utter falsity and bid a clever
man confirm it, and he will. Tell him, for instance, to show that man is
a beast, or that the soul is like a small spider in its web and governs
the body as that does by threads, or tell him that religion is nothing
but a restraining bond, and he will prove any one of these propositions
until it appears to be truth. What is more easily done? For he does not
know what appearance is or what falsity is which in blind faith is taken
for truth.
[2] Hence it is that a man cannot see this truth, namely, that divine
providence is in the very least things of the understanding and the will,
or what is the same, in the very least things of the thoughts and
affections of every person, wicked or good. He is perplexed especially
because it seems then that evils are also from the Lord, but it will be
seen in what follows that nevertheless there is not a particle of evil
from the Lord but that evil is from man in that he confirms in him the
appearance that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts of himself. In order
that these things may be seen clearly, they will be demonstrated in this
order:
i. Divine providence is universal in the least things with the evil as
well as the good, and yet is not in one's evils.
ii. The evil are continually leading themselves into evils, but the Lord
is continually leading them away from evils.
iii. The evil cannot be fully withdrawn from evil and led in good by the
Lord so long as they believe their own intelligence to be everything and
divine providence nothing.
iv. The Lord rules hell through opposites; and rules the evil who are in
the world, in hell as to their interiors, but not as to their exteriors.
287. (i) _Divine providence is universal in the least things with the
evil as well as the good, and yet is not in one's evils._ It was shown
above that divine providence is in the least things of man's thoughts and
affections. This means that man can think and will nothing from himself,
but that everything he thinks and wills and consequently says and does,
is from influx. If it is good, it is from influx out of heaven, and if
evil, from influx out of hell; or what is the same, the good is from
influx from the Lord and the evil from man's proprium. I know that it is
difficult to grasp this, because what flows in from heaven or from the
Lord is distinguished from what flows in from hell or from man's
proprium, and yet divine providence is said to be in the least of man's
thoughts and affections, even so far that he can think and will nothing
from himself. It appears like a contradiction to say that he can also
think and will from hell and from his proprium. Yet it is not, and this
will be seen in what follows, after some things have been premised which
will clarify the matter.
288. All the angels of heaven confess that no one can think from himself
but does so from the Lord, while all the spirits of hell say that no one
can think from any other than himself. These spirits have been shown many
times that no one of them thinks or can think from himself, but that
thought flows in; it was in vain, however; they would not accept the
idea. But experience will teach, first, that everything of thought and
affection even with spirits of hell flows in from heaven, but that the
inflowing good is turned into evil there and truth into falsity, thus
everything into its opposite. This was shown in this way: a truth from
the Word was sent down from heaven, was received by those uppermost in
hell, and by them sent to lower hells, and on to the lowest. On the way
it was turned by stages into falsity and finally into falsity the direct
opposite of the truth. Those with whom it was so changed thought the
falsity of themselves seemingly and knew no otherwise; still it was
truth, flowing down from heaven on the way to the lowest hell, which was
thus falsified and perverted. I have heard of this several times. The
same thing occurs with good; as it flows down from heaven, it is changed
step by step into the evil opposite to it. Hence it was plain that truth
and good, proceeding from the Lord and received by those who are in
falsity and evil, are completely altered and so transformed that their
first form is lost. The like happens in every evil person, for as to his
spirit he is in hell.
289. I have often been shown that no one in hell thinks from himself but
through others around him, and these do not, but through others still.
Thoughts and affections make their way from one society to another, but
no one is aware that they do not originate with himself. Some who
believed that they thought and willed of themselves were dispatched to
another society and held there, and communication was cut off with the
societies around to which their thoughts usually extended. Then they were
told to think differently from the spirits of this society, and compel
themselves to think to the contrary; they confessed that they could not.
[2] This was done with a number and with Leibnitz, too, who was also
convinced that no one thinks from himself, but from others, nor do these
think from themselves, but all think by an influx from heaven, and heaven
by an influx from the Lord. Some, pondering this, said that it was
amazing, and that hardly anyone can be led to credit it, for it is
utterly contrary to the appearance, but that they still could not deny
it, for it was fully demonstrated. Nevertheless, astonished as they were,
they said that they are not in fault then in thinking evil; also that it
seems then as if evil is from the Lord; and, again, that they do not
understand how the one Lord can cause all to think so diversely. The
three points will be explained in what follows.
290. To the experiences cited this is also to be added. When it was
granted me by the Lord to speak with spirits and angels, the foregoing
arcanum was at once disclosed to me. For I was told from heaven that like
others I believed that I thought and willed from myself, when in fact
nothing was from myself, but if it was good, it was from the Lord, and if
evil from hell. That this was so, was shown me to the life by various
thoughts and affections which were induced on me, and gradually I was
given to perceive and feel it. Therefore, as soon as an evil afterwards
entered my will or a falsity into my thought, I investigated the source
of it. I inquired from whom it came. This was disclosed to me, and I was
also allowed to speak with those spirits, refute them, and compel them to
withdraw, thus to take back their evil and falsity and keep it to
themselves, and no longer infuse anything of the kind into my thought.
This has occurred a thousand times. I have remained in this state for
many years, and still do. Yet I seem to myself to think and will from
myself like others, with no difference, for of the Lord's providence it
should so appear to everyone, as was shown above in the section on it.
Newly arriving spirits wonder at this state of mine, seeing as they do
only that I do not think and will from myself, and am therefore like some
empty thing. But I disclosed the arcanum to them, and added that I also
think more interiorly, and perceive whether what flows into my exterior
thought is from heaven or from hell, reject the latter and welcome the
former, yet seem to myself, like them, to be thinking and willing from
myself.
291. It is not unknown in the world that all good is from heaven and all
evil from hell; it is known to everyone in the church. Who that has been
inaugurated into the church's priesthood does not teach that all good is
from God, and that man can receive nothing of himself except it be given
him from heaven? And also that the devil infuses evils into the thoughts
and leads astray and incites one to commit evils? Therefore a priest who
believes that he preaches out of a holy zeal, prays that the Holy Spirit
may teach him, and guide his thoughts and utterances. Some say that they
have sensibly perceived being acted upon, and when a sermon is praised,
reply piously that they have spoken not from themselves but from God.
Therefore when they see someone speak and act well, they remark he was
led to do so by God; on the other hand, seeing someone speak and act
wickedly, they remark he was led to do so by the devil. That there is
talk of the kind in the church is known, but who believes that it is so?
292. Everything that a man thinks and wills, and consequently speaks and
does, flows in from the one Fountain of life, and yet that one Fountain
of life, namely, the Lord, is not the cause of man's thinking what is
evil and false. This may be clarified by these facts in the world of
nature. Heat and light proceed from the sun of the world. They flow into
all visible subjects and objects, not only into subjects that are good
and objects that are beautiful, but also into subjects that are evil and
objects that are ugly, producing varying effects in them. They flow not
only into trees that bear good fruit but into trees that bear bad fruit,
and into the fruits themselves, quickening their growth. They flow into
good seed and into weeds, into shrubs which have a good use and are
wholesome, and into shrubs that have an evil use and are poisonous. Yet
it is the same heat and the same light; there is no cause of evil in
them; the cause is in the recipient subjects and objects.
[2] The same warmth that hatches eggs in which a screech-owl, a horned
owl, and a viper lie acts as it does when it hatches those in which a
dove, a bird of paradise and a swan lie. Put eggs of both sorts under the
hen and they will be hatched by her warmth, which in itself is innocent
of harm. What has the heat in common then with what is evil and noxious?
The heat flowing into a marsh or a dung-hill or into decaying or dead
matter acts in the same way as it does when it flows into things
flavorsome and fragrant, lush and living. Who does not see that the cause
is not in the heat but in the recipient subject? The same light gives
pleasing colors in one object and displeasing colors in another; indeed,
it grows brighter in white objects and becomes dazzling, and dims in
those verging on black and becomes dusky.
[3] There is what is similar in the spiritual world. There are heat and
light in it from its sun, which is the Lord, and they flow from the sun
into their subjects and objects. Now the subjects and objects are angels
and spirits, in particular their volitional and mental life, and the heat
is divine love going forth, and the light is divine wisdom going forth.
The light and heat are not the cause of the different reception of them
by one and another. For the Lord says,
He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
just and the unjust (Mt 5:45).
In the highest spiritual sense by the "sun" the divine love is meant, and
by the "rain" the divine wisdom.
293. Let me add to this the view of the angels on will and understanding
in man. This is that there cannot be a grain of will or of prudence in
man that is his own. They say that if there were, neither heaven nor hell
would continue in existence, and all mankind would perish. The reason
they give is that myriads of human beings, as many as have been born
since the creation of the world, constitute heaven and hell, of which the
one is under the other in such an order that each is a unit, heaven one
comely humanity, and hell one monstrous humanity. If the individual had a
grain of will and intelligence of his very own, that unity could not
exist, but would be torn apart. Upon this that divine form would perish,
which can arise and remain only as the Lord is all in all and men are
nothing besides. A further reason, they say, is that to think and will
actually from one's own being is the divine itself, and to think and will
from God, is the truly human. The very divine cannot be appropriated to
anyone, for then man would be God. Bear the above in mind, and if you
wish you will have confirmation of it by angels when on death you come
into the spiritual world.
294. It was stated above (n. 289) that when some were convinced that no
one thinks from himself but from others, nor the others from themselves,
but all by influx through heaven from the Lord, they remarked in their
astonishment that then they are not in fault when they do evil, also that
then it seems evil comes from the Lord, nor do they comprehend how the
Lord can cause them all to think so differently. Since these three
notions cannot but flow into the thoughts of those who regard effects
only from effects and not from causes, they need to be taken up and
explained by what causes them.
[2] First: _They are not in fault then in doing evil._ For if all that a
person thinks flows into him from others, the fault seems to be theirs
from whom it comes. Yet the fault is the recipient's, for he receives
what inflows as his own and neither knows nor wants to know otherwise.
For everyone wants to be his own, to be led by himself, and above all to
think and will from himself; this is freedom itself, which appears as the
proprium in which every person is. If he knew, therefore, that what he
thinks and wills flows in from another, it would seem to him that he was
bound and captive and no longer master of himself. All enjoyment in his
life would thus perish, and finally his very humanness would perish.
[3] I have often seen this evidenced. It was granted some spirits to
perceive and sense that they were being led by others. Thereupon they
were so enraged that they were reduced almost to mental impotence. They
said that they would rather be kept bound in hell than not to be allowed
to think as they willed and to will as they thought. This they called
being bound in their very life, which was harder and more intolerable
than to be bound bodily. Not being allowed to speak and act as they
thought and willed, they did not call being bound. For the enjoyment of
civil and moral life, which consists in speaking and acting, itself
restrains and at the same time mitigates that.
[4] Inasmuch as man does not want to know that he is led to think by
others, but wants to think from himself and believes that he does so, it
follows that he himself is in fault, nor can he throw off the blame so
long as he loves to think what he thinks. If he does not love it, he
breaks his connection with those from whom his thought flows. This occurs
when he knows the thought is evil, therefore determines to avoid it and
desist from it. He is then also taken by the Lord from the society in
that evil and transferred to a society free of it. If, however, he
recognizes the evil and does not shun it, fault is imputed to him, and he
is responsible for the evil. Therefore, whatever a man believes that he
does from himself is said to be done from the man, and not from the Lord.
[5] Second: _It then seems as if evil is from the Lord._ This may be
thought to be the conclusion from what was shown above (n. 288), namely,
that good flowing in from the Lord is turned into evil and truth into
falsity in hell. But who cannot see that evil and falsity do not come of
good and truth, therefore not from the Lord, but from the recipient
subject or object which is in evil and falsity and which perverts and
inverts what flows into it, as was amply shown above (n. 292). The source
of evil and falsity in man has been pointed out frequently in the
preceding pages. Moreover, an experiment was made in the spiritual world
with those who believed that the Lord could remove evils in the wicked
and introduce good instead, thus move the whole of hell into heaven and
save all. That this is impossible, however, will be seen towards the end
of this treatise, where instantaneous salvation and unmediated mercy are
to be treated of.
[6] Third: _They do not comprehend how the one Lord can cause all to
think so diversely._ The Lord's divine love is infinite, likewise His
divine wisdom. An infinity of love and wisdom proceeds from Him, flows in
with all in heaven, thence with all in hell, and from heaven and hell
with all in the world. Thinking and willing therefore cannot lack in
anyone, for what is infinite is limitless. The infinite things that issue
from the Lord flow in not only universally but also in least things. For
the divine is universal by being in least things, and the divine in least
things constitutes what is called universal, as was shown above, and the
divine in something least is still infinite. Hence it may be evident that
the one Lord causes each person to think and will according to the
person's nature and does so in accordance with laws of His providence. It
was shown above (nn. 46-69) and also in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ (nn. 17-22), that everything in the Lord, or proceeding from Him,
is infinite.
295. (ii) _The evil are continually leading themselves into evils, but
the Lord is continually leading them away from evils._ The nature of
divine providence with the good is more readily comprehended than its
nature with the evil. As the latter is now under consideration, it will
be set forth in this order:
1. In every evil there are innumerable things.
2. An evil man of himself continually leads himself more and more deeply
into his evils.
3. Divine providence with the evil is a continual tolerance of evil, to
the end that there may be a continual withdrawal from it.
4. Withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand most secret
ways.
296. In order, then, that divine providence with the evil may be seen
clearly and therefore understood, the propositions just stated are to be
explained in the order in which they were presented.
First: _In every evil there are innumerable things._ To man's sight an
evil appears to be a single thing. Hatred does, and revenge, theft and
fraud, adultery and whoredom, pride and presumption, and the rest. It is
unknown that in every evil there are innumerable things, exceeding in
number the fibres and vessels in the human body. For an evil man is a
hell in least form, and hell consists of myriads and myriads of spirits,
each of whom is in form like a man, but a monstrous one, in whom all the
fibres and vessels are inverted. A spirit himself is an evil which
appears to him as one thing, but in it are innumerable things, as
numerous as the lusts of that evil. For everyone, from head to foot, is
his own evil or his own good. Since an evil man is such, plainly he is
one evil composed of countless different evils, all severally evils, and
called lusts of evil. It follows that all these, one after another, must
be cured and changed by the Lord for man to be reformed, and that it can
be done only by the Lord's divine providence, step by step from man's
first years to his last.
[2] Every lust of evil, when it is visually presented, appears in hell
like some noxious creature, a serpent, a cockatrice, a viper, a horned
owl, a screech-owl, or some other; so do the lusts of evil in an evil man
appear when he is viewed by angels. All these forms of lust must be
changed one by one. The man himself, who appears as to his spirit like a
monstrous man or devil, must be changed to appear like a comely angel,
and each lust of evil changed to appear like a lamb or sheep or pigeon or
turtle dove, as affections of good in angels appear in heaven when they
are visually represented. Changing a serpent into a lamb, or a cockatrice
into a sheep, or an owl into a dove, can be done only gradually, by
uprooting evil together with its seed and implanting good seed in its
place. This can only be done, however, comparatively as is done in the
grafting of trees, of which the roots with some of the trunk remain, but
the engrafted branch turns the sap drawn through the old root into sap
that produces good fruit. The branch to be engrafted in this instance is
to be had only from the Lord, who is the tree of life; this is also in
keeping with the Lord's words in John 15:1-7.
[3] Second: _An evil man from himself continually leads himself more
deeply into his evils._ He does so "from himself" because all evil is
from man, for, as was said, he turns good, which is from the Lord, into
evil. He leads himself more and more deeply into evil for the reason,
essentially, that as he wills and commits evil, he enters more and more
interiorly and also more and more deeply into infernal societies. Hence
the enjoyment of evil increases, too, and occupies his thoughts until he
feels nothing more agreeable. One who has entered more interiorly and
deeply into infernal societies becomes like one bound by chains. So long
as he lives in the world, however, he does not feel his chains; they seem
to be made of soft wool or smooth silken threads. He loves them, for they
titillate; but after death, from being soft, those chains become hard,
and from being pleasant become galling.
[4] That the enjoyment of evil grows is known from thefts, robberies,
plunderings, revenge, tyranny, lucre, and other evils. Who does not feel
a heightening of enjoyment in them as he succeeds in them and practices
them uninhibited? A thief, we know, feels such enjoyment in thefts that
he cannot desist from them, and, a wonder, he loves one stolen coin more
than ten that are given him. It would be similar with adultery, had it
not been provided that the power to commit this evil decreases with the
abuse, but with many there still remains the enjoyment of thinking and
talking about it, and if nothing more, there is still the lust of touch.
[5] It is not known, however, that this heightening of enjoyment comes
from a man's entering into infernal societies more and more interiorly
and deeply as he perpetrates evils from the will as well as from thought.
If the evils are only in the thoughts, and not in the will, he is not yet
in an infernal society having that evil; he enters it when the evils are
also in the will. Then, if he also thinks the evil is contrary to the
precepts of the Decalog and regards these precepts as divine, he commits
the evil of set purpose and by so doing plunges to a depth from which he
can be brought out only by active repentance. It is to be understood that
everyone as to his spirit is in the spiritual world, in one of its
societies, an evil man in an infernal society and a good man in a
heavenly society; sometimes, when in deep meditation one also appears
there. Moreover, as sound and, along with it, speech spread on the air in
the natural world, affection and thought with it spread among societies
in the spiritual world; there is correspondence, too, affection
corresponding to sound and thought to speech.
[7] Third: _Divine providence with the evil is a continual tolerance of
evil, to the end that there may be a continual withdrawal from it._
Divine providence with evil men is continual permission because only evil
can issue from their life. For whether he is in good or in evil, man
cannot be in both at once, nor by turns in one and the other unless he is
lukewarm. Evil of life is not introduced into the will and through this
into the thought by the Lord but by man, and this is named permission.
[8] Inasmuch as everything which an evil man wills and thinks is by
permission, the question arises, what in this case divine providence is,
which is said to be in the least things with every person, evil or good.
It consists in this, that it exercises tolerance continually for the sake
of its objective, and permits what helps to the end and nothing more. It
constantly observes the evils that issue by permission, separates and
purifies them, and rejects what is unsuitable and discharges it by
unknown ways. This is done principally in man's interior will and through
it in his interior thought. Divine providence also sees to it constantly
that what must be rejected and discharged is not received again by the
will, since all that is received by the will is appropriated to the man;
what is received by the thought, but not by the will, is set aside and
banished. Such is the constant divine providence with the evil; as was
said, it is a continual tolerance of evil to the end that there may be
continual withdrawal from it.
[9] Of these activities man knows scarcely anything, for he does not
perceive them. The chief reason why he does not, is that the evils come
from the lusts of his life's love, and are not felt to be evils but
enjoyments, to which one does not give thought. Who gives thought to the
enjoyments of his love? His thought floats along in them like a skiff
carried along by the current of a stream; and he perceives a fragrant air
which he inhales with a deep breath. Only in one's external thought does
one have a sense of the enjoyments, but even in it he pays no attention
to them unless he knows well that they are evil. More will be said on
this in what follows.
[10] Fourth: _Withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand
most secret ways._ Only some of these have been disclosed to me, and only
the most general ones. For instance, the enjoyments of lusts, of which
man knows nothing, are let by clusters and bundles into the interior
thoughts of his spirit and thence into his exterior thoughts, where they
appear in a feeling of pleasure, delight or longing, and mingle with his
natural and sensuous enjoyments. There the means to separation and
purification and the ways of withdrawal and unburdening are to be found.
The means are chiefly the enjoyments of meditation, thought and
reflection on ends that are uses. Such ends are as numerous as the
particulars and details of one's business or occupation. Just as numerous
are the enjoyments of reflection on such an end as that one shall appear
to be a civil and moral and also a spiritual person, no matter what
interposes which is unenjoyable. These enjoyments, being those of one's
love in the external man, are the means to the separation, purification,
expulsion and withdrawal of the enjoyments of the lusts in the internal
man.
[11] Take, for example, an unjust judge who regards gain or friendship as
the end or use of his office. Inwardly he is constantly in those ends,
but outwardly must act as one learned in the law and just. He is
constantly in the enjoyment of meditation, thought, reflection and intent
to bend and turn a decision and adapt and adjust it so that it may still
seem to be in conformity with the laws and resemble justice. He does not
know that his inward enjoyment consists in craftiness, defrauding,
deceit, clandestine theft, and many other evils, and that this enjoyment,
made up of so many enjoyments of the lusts of evil, governs each and all
things of his external thought, in which he enjoys appearing just and
sincere. Into the external enjoyment the internal enjoyment is let down,
the two are mingled as food is in the stomach, and thereupon the internal
enjoyments are separated, purified, and withdrawn. Still this is true
only of the more grievous enjoyments of the lusts of evil.
[12] For in an evil man the only separation, purification and withdrawal
possible is of the more grievous evils from the less grievous.
In a good man, however, separation, purification and withdrawal is
possible not only of the more grievous evils but also of the less
grievous. This is effected by the enjoyments of the affections of what is
good and true, and of what is just and sincere, affections into which one
comes so far as he regards evils as sins and therefore avoids and is
averse to them, and still more as he fights against them. It is by these
means that the Lord purifies all who are saved. He purifies them by
external means also, such as fame and standing and sometimes wealth, but
put into these means by the Lord are the enjoyments of affections of good
and truth, by which they are directed and fitted to become enjoyments of
love for the neighbor.
[13] If one saw the enjoyments of the lusts of evil assembled in some
form, or perceived them distinctly by some sense, he would see and
perceive that they are too numerous for definition. For hell in its
entirety is nothing but the form of all the lusts of evil, and no one
lust in it is quite similar to or the same as another, nor can be to
eternity. Of these countless lusts man knows scarcely anything, and even
less how they are connected with one another. Yet the Lord in His divine
providence continually allows them to come forth, for them to be drawn
away, and this is done in perfect order and sequence. For the evil man is
a hell in miniature, and the good man a heaven in miniature.
[14] The withdrawal from evils, which the Lord effects in a thousand
highly secret ways, may best be seen and concluded about from the secret
activities of the soul in the body. Man knows that he examines the food
he is about to eat, perceives what it is by its odor, hungers for it,
tastes it, chews it, and by the tongue rolls it down into the esophagus
and so into the stomach. But then there are the hidden activities of the
soul of which he knows nothing, for he has no sensation of them. The
stomach rolls about the food it receives, opens and breaks it up by
solvents, that is, digests it, and offers fit portions to the little
mouths opening in it and to veins which imbibe it. Some it sends to the
blood, some to the lymphatic vessels, some to the lacteal vessels of the
mesentery, and some down to the intestines. Then the chyle, conveyed
through the thoracic duct from its cistern in the mesentery, is carried
to the vena cava, and so to the heart. From the heart it is carried into
the lungs, from them through the left ventricle of the heart into the
aorta, and from this by its branches to viscera throughout the body and
also to the kidneys. In each organ separation and purification of the
blood are effected and removal of the heterogeneous, not to mention how
the heart sends its blood up to the brain after purification in the
lungs, which is done by the arteries called carotids, and how the brain
returns the blood, now vivified, to the vena cava just above where the
thoracic duct brings in the chyle, and so back again to the heart.
[15] These and countless other activities are secret operations of the
soul in the body. Man has no sense of them, and unless he is acquainted
with the science of anatomy, knows nothing of them. Yet similar
activities take place in the interiors of the human mind. Nothing can
take place in the body except from the mind, for man's mind is his
spirit, and his spirit is equally man; the sole difference being that
what is done in the body is done naturally, while what is done in the
mind is done spiritually; there is all similarity. Plainly, then, divine
providence operates with every man in a thousand hidden ways, and its
incessant care is to cleanse him, since its purpose is to save him.
Plainly, too, nothing more is incumbent on man than to remove evils in
the outward man; the Lord sees to the rest, when He is implored.
297. (iii) _The evil cannot be fully withdrawn from evil and led in good
by the Lord so long as they believe their own intelligence to be
everything and divine providence nothing._ It would seem that man could
withdraw himself from evil provided he thought that this or that was
contrary to the common good, or to what is useful, or to national or
international law, and this an evil as well as a good man can do if by
birth or through practice he is such that he can think clearly within
himself, analysing and reasoning. But even then he is not capable of
withdrawing himself from evil. The faculty of understanding and of
perceiving, even abstractly, has indeed been given everyone by the Lord,
to the evil as well as to the good, as has been shown above in many
places, and yet man cannot deliver himself from evil by means of this
faculty. For evil comes of the will, and the understanding influences the
will only with light, enlightening and instructing. If the heat of the
will, that is, man's love, is hot with the lust of evil, it is cold
towards the affection of good, therefore does not receive the light but
either repels or extinguishes it, or by some fabricated falsity turns it
into evil. The light is then like winter light, which is as clear as the
light in summer and remains as clear even when it flows into frozen
trees. But this can be seen better in the following order:
1. When the will is in evil, one's own intelligence sees only falsity,
and neither desires to see, nor can see, anything else.
2. If then one's own intelligence is confronted with truth, it either
turns away from it or falsifies it.
3. Divine providence continually causes man to see truth, and also gives
him affection for perceiving and receiving it.
4. Through this means man is withdrawn from evil, not by himself, but by
the Lord.
298. For these things to be made apparent to the rational man, whether he
is evil or good, thus whether he is in the light of winter or in the
light of summer (for colors appear the same in them), they are to be
explained in due order.
First: _When the will is in evil, one's own intelligence sees only
falsity, and neither desires nor is able to see anything else._ This has
often been demonstrated in the spiritual world. Everyone, on becoming a
spirit, which takes place after death when he puts off the material body
and puts on the spiritual, is introduced by turns into the two states of
his life, the external and the internal. In the external state he speaks
and acts rationally, quite as a rational and wise man does in the world;
he can also instruct others in much that pertains to moral and civil
life, and if he has been a preacher he can also give instruction in the
spiritual life. But when he is brought from this external state into his
internal state, and the external is put to sleep and the internal awakes,
the scene changes if he is evil. From being rational he becomes sensuous,
and from being wise he becomes insane. For he thinks then from the evil
of his will and its enjoyments, thus from his own intelligence, and sees
only falsity and does nothing but evil, believing that evil is wisdom and
that cunning is prudence. From his own intelligence he believes himself
to be a deity and with all his mind sucks up nefarious ways.
[2] I have often seen instances of such insanity. I have also seen
spirits introduced into these alternating states two or three times
within an hour, and it was granted them to see and also acknowledge their
insanities. Nevertheless they were unwilling to remain in a rational and
moral state, but voluntarily returned to their internal sensuous and
insane state. They loved this more than the other because the enjoyment
of their life's love was in it. Who can believe that an evil man is such
beneath his outward appearance and that he undergoes such a
transformation when he enters on his internal state? This one experience
makes plain the nature of one's own intelligence when one thinks and acts
from the evil of one's will. It is otherwise with the good. When they are
admitted from their external state into their internal state, they become
still wiser and still more moral.
[3] Second: _If then one's own intelligence is confronted with truth, it
either turns away from it or falsifies it._ The human being has a
volitional and an intellectual proprium. The volitional proprium is evil,
and the intellectual proprium is falsity derived from evil; the latter is
meant by "the will of man" and the former by "the will of the flesh" in
John 1:13. The volitional proprium is in essence self-love, and the
intellectual proprium is the pride coming of that love. The two are like
married partners, and their union is called the marriage of evil and
falsity. Into this union each evil spirit is admitted before he enters
hell; he then does not know what good is; he calls his evil good, because
that is what he feels to be enjoyable. He also turns away from truth then
and has no desire to see it, because he sees the falsity which accords
with his evil as the eye beholds what is beautiful, and hears it as the
ear hears what is harmonious.
[4] Third: _Divine providence continually causes man to see truth and
also gives him affection for perceiving and receiving it._ For divine
providence acts from within and flows thence into the exteriors, that is,
flows from what is spiritual into what is in the natural man, by the
light of heaven enlightening his understanding and by the heat of heaven
quickening his will. The light of heaven in essence is divine wisdom, and
the heat of heaven in essence is divine love. From divine wisdom nothing
can flow but truth, and from divine love nothing but good. With good the
Lord bestows an affection in the understanding for seeing and also
perceiving and receiving truth. Man thus becomes man not only in external
aspect but in internal aspect, too. Everyone desires to appear a rational
and spiritual man, and knows he so desires in order that others may
believe him to be truly man. If then he is rational and spiritual in
external form only, and not at the same time in his internal form, is he
man? Is he different from a player on the stage or from an ape with an
almost human face? May one not know from this that only he is a human
being who is inwardly what he desires others to think he is? One who
acknowledges the one fact must admit the other. Man's own intelligence
can induce the human form only on externals, but divine providence
induces it on internals and thence on externals. When it has been so
induced, a man does not only appear to be a man; he is one.
[5] Fourth: _Through this means man is withdrawn from evil, not by
himself, but by the Lord._ When divine providence gives man to see truth
and to be affected by it, he can be withdrawn from evil for the reason
that truth points the way and dictates; doing what truth dictates, the
will unites with truth and within itself turns it into good, for it
becomes something one loves, and what is loved is good. All reformation
is effected through truth, not without it, for without truth the will
continues in its evil, and should it consult the understanding, is not
instructed, rather the evil is confirmed by falsities.
[6] With regard to intelligence, this seems to the good man as well as to
an evil man to be his and proper to him. Like an evil man, he is also
bound to act from intelligence as if it were his own. But one who
believes in divine providence is withdrawn from evil, and one who does
not believe in it is not withdrawn; he believes who acknowledges that
evil is sin and desires to be withdrawn from it, and he does not believe
who does not so acknowledge and desire. The difference between the two
kinds of intelligence is like that between what is believed to exist in
itself and what is believed not to exist in itself but to appear as if it
did. It is also like the difference between an external without an
internal similar to it and an external with a similar internal. Thus it
is like the difference between impersonations of kings, princes or
generals by mimes and actors through word and bearing, and actual kings,
princes or generals. The latter are such in fact as well as outwardly,
but the former only outwardly, and when the exterior is laid off, are
known only as comedians, actors or players.
299. (iv) _The Lord governs hell by means of opposites, and those in the
world who are evil He governs in hell as to their interiors but not as to
their exteriors._ One who does not know the character of heaven and hell
cannot know at all that of man's mind; his mind is his spirit which
survives death. For the mind or spirit of man is altogether in form what
heaven or hell is. The only difference is that one is vast and the other
very small, or one is archetype and the other a copy. As to his mind or
spirit, accordingly, the human being is either heaven or hell in least
form, heaven if he is led by the Lord, and hell if he is led by his
proprium. Inasmuch as it has been granted me to know what heaven and hell
are, and it is important to know what the human being is in respect to
his mind or spirit, I will describe both heaven and hell briefly.
300. All who are in heaven are nothing other than affections of good and
thoughts thence of truth, and all who are in hell are nothing other than
lusts of evil and imaginations thence of falsity. These are so arranged
respectively that the lusts of evil and the imaginings of falsity in hell
are precisely opposite to the affections of good and the thoughts of
truth in heaven. Therefore hell is under heaven and diametrically
opposite, that is, the two are like two men lying in opposite directions,
or standing, invertedly, like men at the antipodes, only the soles of
their feet meeting and their heels hitting. At times hell also appears to
be so situated or inverted relatively to heaven, for the reason that
those in hell make lusts of evil the head and affections of good the
feet, while those in heaven make affections of good the head and lusts of
evil the soles of the feet; hence the mutual opposition. When it is said
that in heaven there are affections of good and thoughts of truth from
them, and in hell lusts of evil and imaginations of falsity from them,
the meaning is that there are spirits and angels who are such. For
everyone is his affection or his lust, an angel of heaven his affection
and a spirit of hell his lust.
301. The angels of heaven are affections of good and thoughts thence of
truth because they are recipients of divine love and wisdom from the
Lord; for all affections of good are from the divine love and all
thoughts of truth are from the divine wisdom. But the spirits of hell are
lusts of evil and the imaginations thence of falsity because they are in
self-love and their own intelligence, and all lusts of evil come of
self-love and imaginations of falsity from one's own intelligence.
302. The ordering of affections in heaven and of lusts in hell is
marvelous, and is known to the Lord alone. They are each distinguished
into genera and species, and are so conjoined as to make a unit. As they
are distinguished into genera and species, they are distinguished into
larger and smaller societies, and as they are so conjoined as to make a
unit, they are conjoined as all things in man are. Hence in its form
heaven is like a comely man, whose soul is divine love and wisdom, thus
the Lord, and hell in its form is like a monstrous man, his soul
self-love and self-intelligence, thus the devil. No devil is sole lord
there; self-love is so called.
303. But that the nature of heaven and of hell respectively may be better
known, instead of affections of good let enjoyments of good be
understood, and enjoyments of evil instead of lusts of evil, for no
affections or lusts are without their enjoyments, and enjoyments make
one's life. These enjoyments are distinguished and conjoined as we said
affections of good and lusts of evil are. The enjoyment of his affection
fills and surrounds each angel, the enjoyment common to a society of
heaven fills and surrounds each society, and the enjoyment of all the
angels together or the most widely shared enjoyment fills and envelops
heaven as a whole. Similarly, the pleasure of his lust fills and envelops
each spirit of hell, a common enjoyment every society in hell, and the
enjoyment of all or the most widely shared enjoyment fills and envelops
all hell. Since, as was said, the affections of heaven and the lusts of
hell are diametrically opposite to each other, plainly a heavenly joy is
so unenjoyable to hell that it is unbearable, and in turn an infernal joy
is so unenjoyable to heaven that it is unbearable, too. Hence the
antipathy, aversion and separateness.
304. As these enjoyments constitute the life of each individual and of
all in general, they are not sensed by those in them, but the opposite
enjoyments are sensed when brought near, especially if they are turned
into odors; for every enjoyment corresponds to an odor and in the
spiritual world may be converted into it. Then the general enjoyment in
heaven is sensed as the odor of a garden, varied according to the
fragrance of flowers and fruits; the general enjoyment in hell is sensed
as the odor of stagnant water, into which filth of various sorts has been
thrown, the odor varied according to the stench of the things decaying
and reeking in it. While I have been given to know how the enjoyment of a
particular affection of good is sensed in heaven, and the enjoyment of
some lust of evil in hell, it would take too long to relate it here.
305. I have heard many newcomers from the world complain that they had
not known that their destiny would be according to the affections of
their love. To these, they said, they had given no thought in the world,
much less to the enjoyments of the affections, for they loved what they
found enjoyable. They had believed that each person's lot would be
according to his thoughts from his intelligence, especially according to
thoughts of piety and of faith. But they were answered, that they could
have known, if they wished, that evil of life is unacceptable to heaven
and displeasing to God, but acceptable to hell and pleasing to the devil,
and the other way about, that good of life is acceptable to heaven and
pleasing to God, but unacceptable to hell and displeasing to the devil;
consequently that evil in itself is malodorous and good is fragrant. As
they might have known this if they wished, why did they not shun evils as
infernal and diabolical, but indulge in them merely because they were
enjoyable? Aware now that the enjoyments of evil smell so foully, they
might also know that those full of them cannot enter heaven. Upon this
reply they betook themselves to those who were in similar enjoyments, for
only there could they breathe.
306. From the idea of heaven and hell just given, it may be evident what
the nature of man's mind is. For, as was said, man's mind or spirit is
either a heaven or a hell in least form, that is, his interiors are
nothing other than affections and thoughts thence, distinguished into
genera and species, like the larger and smaller societies of heaven or
hell, and so connected as to act as a unit. The Lord governs them as He
does heaven or hell. That the human being is either heaven or hell in
least form may be seen in the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published at London
in 1758.
307. Now to the subject proposed, that the Lord governs hell by means of
opposites, and those in the world who are evil He governs in hell as to
their interiors but not as to their exteriors. On the first point, that
_the Lord governs hell through opposites,_ it was shown above (nn. 288,
289) that the angels of heaven are not in love and wisdom, or in the
affection of good and thence in thought of truth from themselves, but
from the Lord, likewise that good and truth flow from heaven into hell
where good is turned into evil and truth into falsity because the
interiors of the minds of those in heaven and in hell respectively are
turned in opposite directions. Inasmuch then as all things in hell are
the opposite of all things in heaven, the Lord governs hell by means of
opposites.
[2] The second point, that _the Lord governs in hell those in the world
who are evil._ This is for the reason that the human being as to his
spirit is in the spiritual world and in some society there, in an
infernal society if he is evil, in a heavenly one if he is good. For his
mind, which in itself is spiritual, cannot be anywhere but among
spiritual beings, of whom he becomes one after death. This has also been
stated and demonstrated above. A man is not there, however, in the same
way as a spirit is who has been assigned to the society, for man is
constantly in a state to be reformed, and therefore, if he is evil, is
transferred by the Lord from one infernal society to another according to
his life and the changes in it. But if he permits himself to be reformed,
he is led out of hell and elevated to heaven, and there, too, he is
carried from one society to another until his death, after which this
does not take place as he is then no longer in a state to be reformed,
but remains in the state which is his from his life. When a person dies,
therefore, he is assigned his place.
[3] Thirdly, _the Lord governs the evil who are in the world in this way
as to their interiors, but in another way as to their exteriors._ The
Lord governs the interiors of man's mind in the manner just stated, but
governs the exteriors in the world of spirits, which is between heaven
and hell. The reason is that commonly man is different in externals from
what he is in internals. He can feign outwardly to be an angel of light
and yet inwardly be a spirit of darkness. His external is therefore
governed in one way, and his internal in another; as long as he is in the
world, his external is governed in the world of spirits, and his internal
in either heaven or hell. On death one also enters the world of spirits
first, therefore, and comes into his external, which he puts off there;
having put it off, he is conducted to the place assigned as his. What the
world of spirits is and its nature may be seen in the work _Heaven and
Hell,_ published at London in 1758, nn. 421-535.
XVI. DIVINE PROVIDENCE APPROPRIATES NEITHER EVIL NOR GOOD TO ANYONE, BUT
ONE'S OWN PRUDENCE APPROPRIATES BOTH
308. Almost everyone believes that man thinks and wills, hence speaks and
acts, from himself. Who of himself can believe otherwise? For the
appearance that he does is so strong that it differs not at all from
actually thinking, willing, speaking and acting from oneself, which is
impossible. In _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom_ it was shown
that there is only one life and that men are recipients of life; also
that the human will is the receptacle of love, and the human
understanding the receptacle of wisdom; love and wisdom are the one life.
It was also demonstrated that by creation and steadily therefore by
divine providence this life appears in the human being quite as though it
sprang from him and hence was his own, but that this is the appearance so
that man can be a receptacle. It was also shown above (nn. 288-294) that
no one thinks from himself but from others, nor the others from
themselves, but all from the Lord, an evil person as well as a good
person. We showed further that this is well known in Christendom,
especially to those who not only say but also believe that all good and
truth, all wisdom and thus all faith and charity are from the Lord, also
that all evil and falsity are from the devil or hell.
[2] One can only conclude from all this that everything which a man
thinks and wills flows into him. And since all speech flows from thought
as an effect from its cause, and all action flows similarly from the
will, it follows that everything which one speaks and does also flows in,
albeit derivatively or indirectly. It is undeniable that all which one
sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels flows in; why not then what he
thinks and wills? Can there be any difference other than this, that
entities in the natural world flow into the organs of the external senses
or of the body, while entities in the spiritual world flow into the
organic substances of the internal senses or of the mind? Hence as the
organs of the external senses or of the body are receptacles of natural
objects, so the organic substances of the internal senses or of the mind
are receptacles of spiritual objects. As this is man's situation, what
then is his proprium? It cannot consist in his being such or such a
receptacle, for then it would only be the man's manner of reception, not
the life's proprium. No one understands by proprium anything else than
that he lives of himself and consequently thinks and wills of himself;
but that there is no such proprium and indeed cannot be with anyone
follows from what was said above.
309. But let me relate what I have heard from some in the spiritual
world. They were of those who believe that one's own prudence is
everything and divine providence nothing. I remarked that man has no
proprium unless you want to call it his proprium that he is such or such
a subject or organ or form. This is not the proprium that is meant,
however, for it is only descriptive of the nature of man. No man, I said,
has any proprium as the word is commonly understood. At this those who
ascribed everything to their own prudence and who may be called the very
picture of proprietorship, flared up so that flames seemed to come from
their nostrils as they said, "You speak paradox and insanity! Would man
not be an empty nothing then? Or an idea or fancy? Or a graven image or
statue?"
[2] To this I could only reply that it is paradox and insanity to believe
that man has life of himself, and that wisdom and prudence, likewise the
good of charity and the truth of faith, do not flow in from God but are
in man. To attribute them to oneself every wise person calls insane and
also paradoxical. Those who attribute them to themselves are like tenants
of another's house and property who persuade themselves by living there
that it is their own; or like stewards and administrators who consider
all that their master owns to be theirs; or like servants in business to
whom their master gave talents and pounds to trade with, but who rendered
no account to him but kept all as theirs and thus behaved like robbers.
[3] It may be said of such that they are insane, indeed are nothing and
empty, likewise are idealists, since they do not have in them from the
Lord good which is the esse itself of life, thus do not have truth,
either. They are also called "dead" therefore and "nothing and empty"
(Isa 40:17, 23), and elsewhere "makers of images," "graven images" and
"statues." More about them in what follows, to be done in this order:
i. What one's own prudence is, and what prudence not one's own is.
ii. By his own prudence man persuades himself and confirms in himself
that all good and truth are from him and in him; similarly all evil and
falsity.
iii. All that a man is persuaded of and confirms remains with him as his
own.
iv. If man believed, as is the truth, that all good and truth are from
the Lord, and all evil and falsity from hell, he would not appropriate
good to himself and consider it merited, nor appropriate evil to himself
and make himself responsible for it.
310. (i) _What one's own prudence is, and what prudence not one's own
is._ Those are in prudence of their own who confirm appearances in
themselves and make them truths, especially the appearance that one's own
prudence is all and divine providence nothing--unless it is something
universal, which it cannot be without singulars to constitute it, as was
shown above. They are also in fallacies, for every appearance confirmed
as truth becomes a fallacy, and so far as they confirm themselves by
fallacies they become naturalists and to that extent believe nothing that
they cannot perceive by one of the bodily senses, particularly that of
sight, for this especially acts as one with thought. They finally become
sensuous. If they confirm themselves in favor of nature instead of God,
they close the interiors of their mind, interpose a veil as it were, and
then do their thinking below it and not at all above it. Such
sense-ridden men were called serpents of the tree of knowledge by the
ancients. It is also said of them in the spiritual world that as they
confirm themselves they at length close the interiors of their mind "to
the nose," for the nose signifies perception of truth, of which they have
none. What their nature is will be told now.
[2] They are more cunning and crafty than others and are ingenious
reasoners. They call cunning and craftiness intelligence and wisdom, nor
do they know otherwise. They look on those who are not like themselves as
simple and stupid, especially those who worship God and acknowledge
divine providence. In respect of the interior principles of their minds,
of which they know little, they are like those called Machiavellians, who
make murder, adultery, theft and false witness, viewed in themselves, of
no account; if they reason against them it is only out of prudence not to
appear to be of that nature.
[3] Of man's life in the world they think it is like that of a beast, and
of his life after death that it is like a vital vapor which, rising from
the body or the grave, sinks back again and dies. From this madness comes
the notion that spirits and angels are airy entities, and with those who
have been enjoined to believe in everlasting life that the souls of men
also are. They therefore do not see, hear or speak, but are blind, deaf
and dumb, and only cogitate in their particle of air. The sense-ridden
ask, "How can the soul be anything else? The external senses died with
the body, did they not? They cannot be resumed before the soul is
reunited with the body." Inasmuch as they could comprehend the state of
the soul after death only sensuously and not spiritually, they have fixed
upon the state described; otherwise their belief in everlasting life
would have perished. Above all, they confirm self-love in themselves,
calling it the fire of life and the incentive to various uses in the
kingdom. Being of this nature, they are their own idols, and their
thoughts, being fallacies and from fallacies, are images of falsity.
Indulging in the enjoyments of lusts, they are satans and devils; those
who confirm lusts of evil in themselves are satans, and those who live
them are called devils.
[4] It has also been granted me to know the nature of the most crafty
sensuous men. Their hell is deep down at the back, and they want to be
inconspicuous. Therefore they appear to hover about there like spectres,
which are their fantasies, and they are called _genii._ Some were sent
out from that hell once for me to learn what they are like. They
immediately addressed themselves to my neck below the occiput and thus
entered my affections, not wanting to enter my thoughts, which they
adroitly avoided. They altered my affections one by one with a mind to
bend them imperceptibly into their opposites, which are lusts of evil;
and as they did not touch my thought at all they would have bent and
inverted my affections without my knowledge, had not the Lord prevented
it.
[5] Such do they become who do not believe that there can be any divine
providence, and who search only for cupidities and cravings in others and
thus lead them along until they dominate them. They do this so secretly
and artfully that one does not know it, and they remain the same on
death; therefore they are cast down into that hell as soon as they enter
the spiritual world. Seen in heaven's light they appear to be without a
nose, and it is remarkable that although they are so crafty they are more
sense-ridden than others.
[6] The ancients called a sensuous man a serpent, and such a man is more
cunning and crafty and a more ingenious reasoner than others; therefore
it is said,
The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field (Ge 3:1), and the
Lord said:
Be prudent as serpents and simple as doves (Mt 10:16).
The dragon, too, called "that old serpent" and the "devil" and "satin,"
is described as
Having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns (Apoc
12:3, 9).
Craftiness is signified by the seven heads; the power to persuade by
fallacies is meant by the ten horns; and holy things of the Word and the
church which have been profaned are signified by the seven crowns.
311. From the description of one's own prudence and of those who are in
it, the nature of prudence not one's own and of those who are in it may
be seen. Those have prudence not their own who do not confirm in
themselves that intelligence and wisdom are from man. They ask, "How can
anyone be wise of himself or do good of himself?" When they speak so,
they see in themselves that it is so, for they think interiorly. They
also believe that others think similarly, especially the learned, for
they are unaware that any-one can think only exteriorly.
[2] They are not in fallacies by any confirmation of appearances. They
know and perceive, therefore, that murder, adultery, theft and false
witness are sins and accordingly shun them on that account. They also
know that wickedness is not wisdom and cunning is not intelligence. When
they hear ingenious reasoning from fallacies they wonder and smile to
themselves. This is because with them there is no veil between interiors
and exteriors, or between the spiritual and the natural things of the
mind, as there is with the sensuous. They therefore receive influx from
heaven by which they see these things.
[3] They speak more simply and sincerely than others and place wisdom in
life and not in talk. Relatively they are like lambs and sheep while
those who are in their own prudence are like wolves and foxes. Or they
are like those living in a house who see the sky through the windows
while those who are in prudence of their own are like persons living in
the basement of a house who can look out through the windows only on what
is down on the ground. Again they are like persons standing on a mountain
who see those who are in prudence of their own as wanderers in valleys
and forests.
[4] Hence it may be plain that prudence not one's own is prudence from
the Lord, in externals appearing similar to prudence of one's own, but
totally unlike it in internals. In internals prudence not one's own
appears in the spiritual world as man, while prudence which is one's own
appears like a statue, which seems living only because those who are in
such prudence still possess rationality and freedom or the capacity to
understand and to will, hence to speak and act, and by means of these
faculties can make it appear that they also are men. They are such
statues because evils and falsities have no life; only goods and truths
do. By their rationality they know this, for if they did not they would
not feign goods and truths; hence in their simulation of them they
possess a vital humanness.
[5] Who does not know that a man is what he is inwardly? Consequently
that he is a man who is inwardly what he wishes to appear to be
outwardly, while he is a copy who is a man outwardly only and not
inwardly. Think, as you speak, in favor of God and religion, of
righteousness and sincerity, and you will be a man, and divine providence
will be your prudence; you will perceive in others that one's own
prudence is insanity.
312. (ii) _By his own prudence man persuades himself and confirms in
himself that all good and truth are from him and in him; similarly all
evil and falsity._ Rest the argument on the parallel between natural good
and truth and spiritual good and truth. Ask what truth and good are to
the sight of the eye. Is not what is called beautiful truth to it, and
what is called enjoyable good to it? For enjoyment is felt in beholding
what is beautiful. What are truth and good to the hearing? Is not what is
called harmonious truth to it, and what is called pleasing good to it?
For pleasure is felt in hearing harmonies. It is the same with the other
senses. What natural good and truth are is plain, then. Consider now what
spiritual good and truth are. Is spiritual truth anything other than
beauty and harmony in spiritual matters and objects? And is spiritual
good anything other than the enjoyment and pleasure of perceiving the
beauty and harmony?
[2] Let us see now whether anything different is to be said of the one
from what is said of the other, that is, of the spiritual from what is
said of the natural. Of the natural we say that what is beautiful and
enjoyable to the eye flows in from objects, and what is harmonious and
pleasing to the ear flows in from musical instruments. Is something
different to be said in relation to the organic substances of the mind?
Of these it is said that the enjoyable and pleasing are in them, while it
is said of eye and ear that they flow in. If you inquire why it is said
that they flow in, the one answer possible is that distance appears
between the objects and the organs. But when one asks why it is said that
in the other case they are indwelling, the one possible answer is that no
distance appears between the two. Consequently, it is the appearance of
distance that results in believing one thing about what one thinks and
perceives, and another thing about what one sees and hears. But this
becomes baseless when one reflects that the spiritual is not in space as
the natural is. Think of sun or moon, or of Rome or Constantinople: do
you not think of them apart from distance (provided the thought is not
joined to the experience gained by sight or hearing)? Why then persuade
yourself that because there is no appearance of distance in thought, that
good and truth, as also evil and falsity, are indwelling, and do not flow
in?
[3] Let me add to this an experience which is common in the spiritual
world. One spirit can infuse his thoughts and affections into another,
and the other not know that it is not his own thinking and affection.
This is called in that world thinking from and in another. I have
witnessed it a thousand times and also done it a hundred times; and it
seemed to occur at a considerable distance. As soon as the spirits
learned that another was introducing the thoughts and affections, they
were indignant and turned away, recognizing then, however, that to the
internal thought or sight no distance is apparent unless it is disclosed,
as it may be, to the external sight or the eye; as a result it is
believed that there is influx.
[4] I will add to this experience an everyday experience of mine. Evil
spirits have often put into my thoughts evils and falsities which seemed
to me to be in me and to originate from me, or seemed to be my own
thought. Knowing them to be evils and falsities, I searched out the
spirits who had introduced them, and they were detected and driven off.
They were at a great distance from me.
It may be manifest from these things that all evil with its falsity flows
in from hell and all good with its truth flows in from the Lord, and that
both appear to be in man.
313. The nature of men who are in prudence of their own, and the nature
of those in prudence not their own and hence in the divine providence, is
depicted in the Word by Adam and his wife Eve in the Garden of Eden where
were two trees, one of life and the other of the knowledge of good and
evil, and by their eating of the latter tree. It may be seen above (n.
241) that in the internal or spiritual sense of the Word by Adam and Eve,
his wife, the Most Ancient Church of the Lord on this earth is meant and
described, which was more noble and heavenly than subsequent churches.
[2] Following is what is signified by other particulars. The wisdom of
the men of that church is signified by the Garden of Eden; the Lord in
respect to divine providence is signified by the tree of life, and man in
respect to his own prudence is meant by the tree of knowledge; his
sensuous life and his proprium, which in itself is self-love and pride in
one's own intelligence, and thus is the devil and satan, is signified by
the serpent; and the appropriation of good and truth with the thought
that they are not from the Lord and are not the Lord's, but are from man
and are his, is signified by eating of the tree of knowledge. Inasmuch as
good and truth are what is divine with man (for everything of love is
meant by good, and everything of wisdom by truth), if man claims them as
his, he cannot but believe that he is as God. Therefore the serpent said:
In the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as
God, knowing good and evil (Ge 3:5).
So do those in hell believe, who are in self-love and thence in the pride
of their own intelligence.
[3] Condemnation of self-love and self-intelligence is meant by the
condemnation of the serpent; the condemnation of the volitional proprium
is meant by the condemnation of Eve and the condemnation of the
intellectual proprium by the condemnation of Adam; sheer falsity and evil
are signified by the thorn and thistle which the earth would produce for
Adam; the loss of wisdom is signified by the expulsion from the Garden;
the Lord's care lest holy things of the Word and the church be violated
is meant by guarding the way to the tree of life; moral truths, veiling
men's self-love and conceit, are signified by the fig leaves with which
Adam and Eve covered their nakedness; and appearances of truth, in which
alone they were, are signified by the coats of skin with which they were
later clothed. Such is the spiritual understanding of these particulars.
Let him who wishes remain in the sense of the letter, only let him know
that it is so understood in heaven.
314. The nature of those who are infatuated with their own intelligence
can be seen from their fancies in matters of interior judgment, as, for
example, about influx, thought and life. Their thinking about influx is
inverted. They think that the sight of the eye flows into the internal
sight of the mind or into the understanding, and that the hearing of the
ear flows into the internal hearing, which also is the understanding.
They do not perceive that the understanding from the will flows into the
eye and the ear, and not only constitutes those senses but also employs
them as its instruments in the natural world. As this is not according to
the appearance, they do not perceive even if it is only said that the
natural does not flow into the spiritual, but the spiritual into the
natural. They still think, "What is the spiritual except a finer
natural?" And again, "When the eye beholds something beautiful or the ear
hears something melodious, of course the mind, which is understanding and
will, is delighted." They do not know that the eye does not see of
itself, nor the tongue taste, nor the nose smell, nor the skin feel of
itself, but that it is the man's mind or spirit which has the perceptions
in the sensation and which is affected according to its nature by the
sensation. Indeed, the mind or spirit does not sense things of itself,
but does so from the Lord; to think otherwise is to think from
appearances, and if these are confirmed, from fallacies.
[2] Regarding thought, they say that it is something modified in the air,
varied according to topic, and widened by cultivation; thus that the
ideas in thoughts are images appearing, meteor-like, in the air; and that
the memory is a tablet on which they are imprinted. They do not know that
thought goes on in purely organic substances just as much as sight and
hearing do. Only let them examine the brain, and they will see that it is
full of such substances; injure them and you will become delirious;
destroy them and you will die. But what thought and memory are see above
at n. 279 end.
[3] Regarding life, they know it only as an activity of nature, which
makes itself felt in different ways, as a live body bestirs itself
organically. If it is remarked that nature is alive then, they deny this,
and say it enables to life. If one asks, "Is life not dissipated then on
the death of the body?" they reply that life remains in a particle of air
called the soul. Asked "What then is God? Is He not life itself?" they
keep silence and do not want to utter what they think. Asked, "Would you
grant that divine love and wisdom are life itself?" they answer, "What
are love and wisdom?" For in their fallacies they do not see what these
are or what God is.
These things have been adduced that it may be seen how man is infatuated
by prudence of his own because he draws all conclusions then from
appearances and thus from fallacies.
316.* By one's own prudence one is persuaded and confirmed that all good
and truth are from man and in man, because a man's own prudence is his
intellectual proprium, flowing in from self-love, which is his volitional
proprium; proprium inevitably makes everything its own; it cannot be
raised above doing so. All who are led by the Lord's divine providence
are raised above the proprium and then see that all good and truth are
from the Lord, indeed see that what in the human being is from the Lord
is always the Lord's and never man's. He who believes otherwise is like
one who has his master's goods in his care and claims them himself or
appropriates them--he is no steward, but a thief. As man's proprium is
nothing but evil, he also immerses the goods in his evil, by which they
are destroyed like pearls thrown into dung or into acid.
* So numbered in the Latin original.
317. ( iii) _All that a man is persuaded of and confirms remains with him
as his own._ Many believe that no truth can be seen by man without
confirmations of it, but this is false. In civic and economic matters in
a kingdom or republic what is useful and good can be seen only with some
knowledge of its numerous statutes and ordinances; in judicial matters
only with knowledge of the law; and in natural subjects, like physics,
chemistry, anatomy, mechanics and others, only on acquaintance with those
sciences. But in purely rational, moral and spiritual matters, truths
appear in light of their own, if man has become somewhat rational, moral
and spiritual through a suitable education. This is because everyone as
to his spirit, which is what thinks, is in the spiritual world and is one
among those there, consequently is in spiritual light, which enlightens
the interiors of his understanding and, as it were, dictates. For
spiritual light in essence is the divine truth of the Lord's divine
wisdom. Thence it is that man can think analytically, form conclusions
about what is just and right in matters of judgment, see what is
honorable in moral life and good in spiritual life, and see many truths,
which are darkened only by the confirmation of falsities. Man sees them
almost as readily as he sees another's disposition from his face or
perceives his affections from the sound of his voice, with no further
knowledge than is implanted in one. Why should not man in some measure
see from influx the interiors of his life, which are spiritual and moral,
when there is no animal that does not know by influx all things necessary
to it, which are natural? A bird knows how to build its nest, lay its
eggs, hatch its young and recognize its food, besides other wonders which
are named instinct.
318. How this state is changed, however, by confirmations and consequent
persuasions will be told now in this order:
1. There is nothing that cannot be confirmed, and falsity is confirmed
more readily than truth.
2. Truth does not appear when falsity has been confirmed, but falsity is
apparent from confirmed truth.
3. The ability to confirm whatever one pleases is not intelligence but
only ingenuity, to be found in the worst of men.
4. Confirmation may be mental and not at the same time volitional, but
all volitional confirmation is also mental.
5. Confirmation of evil both volitional and intellectual causes man to
believe that one's own prudence is everything and divine providence
nothing, but not confirmation solely intellectual.
6. Everything confirmed by the will and at the same time by the
understanding, remains to eternity, but not what has been confirmed only
by the understanding.
[2] Touching the first, that _there is nothing that cannot be confirmed,
and that falsity is confirmed more readily than truth._ What, indeed,
cannot be confirmed when atheists confirm that God is not the Creator of
the universe but that nature is her own creator; that religion is only a
restraint and is for simple and common folks; that man is like the beast
and dies like one; that adultery and secret theft, fraud and deceitful
schemes are allowable, and that cunning is intelligence and wickedness is
wisdom. Everyone confirms his heresy. Volumes are filled with
confirmations of the two heresies prevalent in Christendom. Assemble ten
heresies, however abstruse, ask an ingenious man to confirm them, and he
will confirm them all. If you regard them then solely from the
confirmations of them, will you not be seeing falsities as truth? Since
all that is false lights up in the natural man from its appearances and
fallacies, but truth lights up only in the spiritual man, plainly falsity
can be confirmed more readily than truth.
[3] For it to be known that everything false and everything evil can be
confirmed even to the point that what is false seems true and what is
evil seems to be good, take for example the confirmation that light is
darkness and darkness is light. A man may ask: "What is light `in
itself'? Is not light only something which appears in the eye according
to the eye's condition? What is light when the eye is closed? Do not bats
and owls have eyes to see light as darkness and darkness as light? I have
heard it said that some persons see in like manner, and that infernal
spirits, despite being in darkness, see one another. Does one not have
light in his dreams in the middle of the night? Is darkness not light,
therefore, and light darkness?" It can be replied, "What of that? Light
is light as truth is truth, and darkness is darkness as falsity is
falsity."
[4] Take a further example: confirmation that the crow is white. May its
blackness not be said to be only a shading which is not the real fact?
Its feathers are white inside, its body, too; and these are the stuff of
which the bird is made. As its blackness is a shading, the crow turns
white as it grows old--some such have been seen. What is black in itself
but white? Pulverize black glass and you will see that the powder is
white. When you call the crow black, therefore, you are speaking of the
shadow and not of the reality. The reply can be, "What of it? All birds
should be called white then."
Contrary as they are to sound reason, these arguments have been recited
to show that it is possible to confirm falsity that is directly opposite
to truth and evil that is directly opposite to good.
[5] Second: _Truth does not appear when falsity has been confirmed, but
falsity is apparent from truth confirmed._ All falsity is in darkness and
all truth in light. In darkness nothing is seen, nor indeed is it known
what anything is except by contact with it, but it is different in the
light. In the Word falsities are therefore called darkness, and those who
are in falsities are said to walk in darkness and in the shadow of death.
In turn, truths are called light in it, and those who are in truths are
said to walk in the light and to be the children of light.
[6] There is much to show that when falsity has been confirmed, truth
does not appear, but when truth has been confirmed, falsity is apparent.
For instance, who would see a spiritual truth unless the Word taught it?
Would there not be darkness that could be dispelled only by the light in
which the Word is, and only with one who wishes to be enlightened? What
heretic can see his falsities unless he welcomes the genuine truth of the
church? Until then he does not see them. I have talked with those who
confirmed themselves in faith apart from charity and who were asked
whether they saw the frequent mention in the Word of love and charity,
works and deeds, and keeping the Commandments, and the declaration that
the man who keeps the Commandments is blessed and wise, but the man who
does not is foolish. They said that on reading these things they saw them
only as matters of faith, and passed them by with their eyes closed, so
to speak.
[7] Those who have confirmed themselves in falsities are like men who see
streaks on a wall, and at twilight fancy that they see the figure of a
horseman or just of a man, a visionary image which is dissipated when the
daylight floods in. Who can sense the spiritual uncleanness of adultery
except one who is in the cleanliness of chastity? Who can feel the
cruelty of vengeance except one who is in good from love to the neighbor?
What adulterer or what avenger does not sneer at those who call enjoyment
in such acts as theirs infernal but the enjoyments of marital love and
neighborly love heavenly? And so on.
[8] Third: _The ability to confirm whatever one pleases is not
intelligence but only ingenuity, to be found in the worst of men._ Some
show the greatest dexterity in confirmation, who know no truth and yet
can confirm both truth and falsity. Some of them remark, "What is truth?
Is there such a thing? Is not that true which I make true?" In the world
they are believed to be intelligent, and yet they are only daubing a
wall.* Only those are intelligent who perceive truth to be truth and who
confirm it by verities constantly perceived. Little difference may be
seen between the latter and the former because one cannot distinguish
between the light of confirmation and the light of the perception of
truth. Those in the light of confirmation seem also to be in the light of
the perception of truth. Yet the difference is like that between illusory
light and genuine. In the spiritual world illusory light is such that it
turns into darkness when genuine light flows in. There is such illusory
light with many in hell; on being brought out into genuine light they see
nothing at all. It is evident, then, that to be able to confirm whatever
one pleases is only ingenuity, which the worst of men may have.
* Cf. Ezekiel 13:10, 11 and _Arcana Caelestia_ n. 739(2), Apocalypse
Explained nn. 237(5) and 644(25). Tr.
[9] Fourth: _Confirmation may be mental and not at the same time
volitional, but all volitional confirmation is also mental._ Let an
example serve to illustrate this. Those who confirm faith separate from
charity and yet live the life of charity, and in general those who
confirm a falsity of doctrine and yet do not live according to it, are in
intellectual confirmation but not at the same time volitional. On the
other hand, those who confirm falsity of doctrine and live according to
it are in volitional and at the same time in intellectual confirmation.
For the understanding does not flow into the will, but the will into the
understanding. Hence it is plain what falsity of evil is, and what
falsity not of evil is. Falsity which is not of evil can be conjoined
with good, but falsity of evil cannot be. For falsity which is not of
evil is falsity in the understanding but not in the will, while falsity
of evil is falsity in the understanding which comes of evil in the will.
[10] Fifth: _Confirmation of evil, both volitional and intellectual, but
not confirmation only intellectual, causes man to believe that his own
prudence is everything and divine providence nothing._ Many confirm their
own prudence in themselves on the strength of appearances in the world,
and yet do not deny divine providence; theirs is only intellectual
confirmation. But in others, who deny divine providence at the same time,
there is volitional confirmation; this, together with persuasion, is
found chiefly in worshipers of nature and also in worshipers of self.
[11] Sixth: _Everything confirmed by the will and at the same time by the
understanding remains to eternity, but not what is confirmed only by the
understanding._ For what pertains to the understanding alone is not
within man but outside him; it is only in the thought. Nothing enters man
and is appropriated to him except what is received by the will; then it
comes to be of his life's love. This, it will be shown in the next
number, remains to eternity.
319. Everything confirmed by both the will and the understanding remains
to eternity because everyone is his own love, and love attaches to the
will; also because everyone is his own good or his own evil, for that is
called good or evil which belongs to the love. Since man is his own love
he is also the form of his love, and may be called the organ of his
life's love. It was stated above (n. 279) that the affections of man's
love and his resulting thoughts are changes and variations of the state
and form of the organic substances of his mind. What these changes and
variations are and their nature will be explained now. Some idea of them
may be obtained from the alternating expansions and compressions or
dilations and contractions in the heart and lungs, called in the heart
systole and diastole, and in the lungs respirations. These are reciprocal
extensions and retractions or expansions and contractions of their lobes.
Such are the changes and variations in the state of the heart and lungs.
Such changes and variations occur in the other viscera of the body and in
their parts, too, by which the blood and the animal juices are received
and transmitted.
[2] Similar changes and variations take place in the organic forms of the
mind, which, as we showed above, are the substances underlying man's
affections and thoughts. There is a difference. Their expansions and
compressions or reciprocal activities in comparison have so much greater
perfection that they cannot be described in words of natural language,
but only in words of spiritual language, which can sound only as saying
that the changes and variations are vortical gyrations in and out, after
the manner of perpetually winding spirals wonderfully massed into forms
receptive of life.
[3] Now to tell the nature of these purely organic substances and forms
in the evil and in the good respectively: in the good the spiral forms
travel forward, in the evil backward; the forward-traveling are turned to
the Lord and receive influx from Him; the retrogressive are turned
towards hell and receive influx from hell. It should be known that in the
measure in which they turn backward these forms are open behind and
closed in front; and on the other hand in the measure in which they turn
forward, they are open in front and closed behind.
[4] This can make plain what kind of form or organ an evil man is and
what kind of form or organ a good man is, and that they are turned in
opposite directions. As the turning once established cannot be twisted
back it is plain that man remains to eternity such as he is at death.
The love of man's will is what effects this turning, or is what either
converts or inverts, for, as was said above, each person is his own love.
Hence, on death, everyone goes the way of his love, the man in a good
love to heaven, and the man in an evil love to hell, nor does he rest
except in that society where his ruling love is. Marvelous it is that
each knows the way; it is as though he scents it.
320. (iv) _If man believed, as is the truth, that all good and truth are
from the Lord and all evil and falsity from hell, he would not
appropriate good to himself and consider it merited, nor evil and make
himself responsible for it._ This is contrary to the belief of those who
have confirmed in themselves the appearance that wisdom and prudence come
from man and do not flow in according to the state of the organization of
the mind, treated of above (n. 319). It must therefore be demonstrated,
and to be done clearly, it will be done in this order:
1. One who confirms in himself the appearance that wisdom and prudence
are from man and thus in him as his, must take the view that otherwise he
would not be a man, but either a beast or a statue; yet the contrary is
true.
2. To believe and think, as is the truth, that all good and truth are
from the Lord and all evil and falsity from hell, seems impossible, yet
is truly human and hence angelic.
3. So to believe and think is impossible to those who do not acknowledge
the divine of the Lord and that evils are sins, but possible for those
who make these two acknowledgments.
4. Those who make the two acknowledgments alone reflect on the evils in
themselves, and so far as they flee them and are averse to them, they
send them back to hell from which they come.
5. So divine providence appropriates neither evil nor good to anyone, but
one's own prudence appropriates both.
321. These propositions will be explained in the order proposed. First:
_One who confirms in himself the appearance that wisdom and prudence are
from man and thus in him as his, must take the view that otherwise he
would not be a man, but either a beast or a statue; yet the contrary is
true._ It comes from a law of divine providence that man is to think as
it were from himself and act prudently as of himself, but still
acknowledge that he does so from the Lord. It follows that one who thinks
and acts prudently as of himself and acknowledges at the same time that
he does so from the Lord, is a man, but that person is not who confirms
in himself the idea that all he thinks and does is from himself. Neither
is he a man who, knowing that wisdom and prudence are from God, keeps
awaiting influx. This man becomes like a statue, the other like a beast.
One who waits for influx is obviously like a statue; he is sure to stand
or sit motionless, his hands dropped, his eyes closed or, if open,
unblinking, and neither thinking nor breathing. What life has he then?
[2] Plainly, too, one who believes that everything he thinks and does is
from himself is not unlike a beast. For he thinks only from the natural
mind which man has in common with beasts, and not from the spiritual,
rational mind which is the truly human mind; for this mind acknowledges
that God alone thinks from Himself and that man does so from God.
Therefore one who thinks only from the natural mind knows no difference
between man and animal except that man speaks and a beast makes sounds,
and he believes they die alike.
[3] Something further is to be said about those who await influx. They
receive none, except for a few who desire it with the whole heart. These
at times receive some response through a living perception in thought or
by tacit utterance but rarely by an explicit one, and this then is that
they should think and act as they determine and are able, and that one
who acts wisely is wise and one who acts foolishly is foolish. They are
never instructed what to believe or do, in order that human rationality
and liberty may not perish, that is, in order that everyone shall act in
freedom according to reason in all appearance as of himself. Those who
are told by influx what they are to believe or do are not being
instructed by the Lord, nor by any angel of heaven, but by some spirit,
an Enthusiast, Quaker or Moravian, and are being misled. All influx from
the Lord is effected by enlightenment of the understanding and by an
affection of truth, and passes by the latter into the former.
[4] Second: _To believe and think, as is the truth, that all good and
truth are from the Lord and all evil and falsity from hell, seems
impossible, yet is truly human and hence angelic._ To believe and think
that all good and truth are from God seems possible, if no more is said,
for it falls in with a theological belief contrary to which it is not
allowable to think. But to believe and think also that all evil and
falsity are from hell seems impossible, for in that belief man would not
think at all. But man still thinks as from himself though it is from
hell, for the Lord grants to everyone that his thought, wherever it is
from, shall appear to be his own in him. Else man would not live as a
human being, nor could he be led out of hell and brought into heaven,
that is, be reformed, as we have shown many times.
[5] Therefore the Lord also grants man to know and consequently to think
that when he is in evil he is in hell, and that if he thinks evil he
thinks from hell. He likewise grants him to think of the means by which
he can escape from hell and not think from hell, but enter heaven and in
heaven think from the Lord, and He grants man the freedom to choose. From
all this it may be seen that man can think evil and falsity as if from
himself and also think that this or that is evil or false; consequently
that it is only an appearance that he does so of himself, an appearance
without which he would not be man. To think from truth is what is human
itself and consequently angelic itself; it is a truth that man does not
think from himself, but is granted by the Lord to think from himself to
all appearance.
[6] Third: _So to believe and think is impossible to those who do not
acknowledge the divine of the Lord and that evils are sins, but possible
to those who make the two acknowledgments._ It is impossible to those who
do not acknowledge the divine of the Lord, for the Lord alone gives man
to think and will; and those who do not acknowledge the divine of the
Lord, being separated from Him believe that they think for themselves. It
is impossible also to those who do not acknowledge evils to be sins, for
they think then from hell, and in hell everyone supposes that he thinks
from himself. That it is possible, however, to those who make the two
acknowledgments can be seen from what was set forth fully above (nn.
288-294).
[7] Fourth: _Only those who live in the two acknowledgments reflect on
the evils in themselves, and so far as they shun and are averse to them,
they send them back to hell from which they come._ All know or can know
that evil is from hell and good is from heaven. Who then cannot know that
so far as man shuns and is averse to evil he shuns and is averse to hell?
He can know then, too, that so far as he shuns and is averse to evil, he
wills and loves what is good, and consequently is so far released from
hell by the Lord and led to heaven. Every rational person may see these
things provided he knows that heaven and hell exist, where good and evil
have their respective origins. If, now, he reflects on the evils in him,
which is the same thing as examining himself, and shuns them, he
disengages himself from hell, puts it behind him, and brings himself into
heaven, where he beholds the Lord before him. Man does this, we say, but
he does it as of himself and from the Lord now. When a man acknowledges
this truth out of a good heart and in a devout faith, it lies inwardly
hidden in all that he thinks and does afterwards as of himself. It is
like the prolific force in a seed which remains in it even until new seed
is produced, and like the pleasure in one's appetite for food the
wholesomeness of which one has learned; in a word, like heart and soul in
all he thinks and does.
[8] Fifth: _So divine providence appropriates neither evil nor good to
anyone, but one's own prudence appropriates both._ This follows from all
that has been said. Good is the objective of divine providence; it
purposes good in all its activity, therefore. Accordingly, it does not
appropriate good to anyone, for then this would become self-righteous;
nor does it appropriate evil to anyone, for so it would make him
responsible for evil. But man does both by his proprium, for this is
nothing but evil. The proprium of the will is self-love and that of the
understanding is the pride of self-intelligence, and of these comes man's
own prudence.
XVII. EVERY MAN CAN BE REFORMED, AND THERE IS NO PREDESTINATION [as
commonly understood*]
* See n. 330 - Tr.
322. Sound reason dictates that all are predestined to heaven and none to
hell, for all are born human beings and consequently God's image is in
them. God's image in them consists in their ability to understand truth
and to do good. The ability to understand truth comes from the divine
wisdom, and the ability to do good from the divine love. This ability,
which is God's image, remains in any sane person and is not eradicated.
Hence it is that he can become a civil and moral man, and one who is
civil and moral can also become spiritual, for the civil and moral is a
receptacle of what is spiritual. He is called a civil man who knows and
lives according to the laws of the kingdom of which he is a citizen; he
is called a moral man who makes those laws his ethics and his virtues and
from reason lives by them.
[2] Let me say how civil and moral life is the receptacle of spiritual
life. Live these laws not only as civil and moral laws but also as divine
laws, and you will be a spiritual man. There is hardly a nation so
barbarous that it has not by law prohibited murder, adultery, theft,
false witness and damage to what is another's. The civil and moral man
keeps these laws that he may be, or seem to be, a good citizen. If he
does not consider them divine laws also he is only a civil and moral
natural man, but if he considers them divine also, he becomes a civil and
moral spiritual man. The difference is that the latter is a good citizen
both of an earthly kingdom and of a heavenly, while the former is a good
citizen only of the earthly kingdom and not of the heavenly. They are
distinguishable by the good they do. The good done by civil and moral
natural men is not in itself good, for man and the world are in it; the
good done by civil and moral spiritual men is in itself good, because the
Lord and heaven are in it.
[3] From all this it may be seen that every person, because he is born
able to become a civil and moral natural being, is also born able to
become a civil and moral spiritual man. He has only to acknowledge God
and not commit evils because they are against God, but do good because
good is siding with God. Then spirit enters into his civil and moral
actions and they live; otherwise there is no spirit in them and hence
they are not living. Therefore the natural man, however much he acts like
a civil and moral being, is spoken of as dead, but the spiritual man is
spoken of as living.
[4] Of the Lord's divine providence every nation has some religion, and
primary in every religion is the acknowledgment that God is, else it is
not called a religion. Every nation that lives its religion, that is,
does not do evil because this is contrary to its God, receives something
spiritual in its natural life. Who, on hearing a Gentile say he will not
do this or that evil because it is contrary to his God, does not say to
himself, "Is this person not saved? It seems, it cannot be otherwise."
Sound reason tells him this. On the other hand, hearing a Christian say,
"I make no account of this or that evil. What does it mean to say that it
is contrary to God?" one says to himself, "This man is not saved, is he?
It would seem, he cannot be." Sound reason dictates this also.
[5] Should someone say, "I was born a Christian, have been baptized, have
known the Lord, read the Word, observed the Sacrament of the Supper,"
what does this amount to when he does not count as sins murder, or the
revenge breathing it, adultery, stealing, false witness, or lying, and
different sorts of violence? Does such a person think of God or of
eternal life? Does he think they exist? Does sound reason not dictate
that such a man cannot be saved? This has been said of a Christian, for a
Gentile in his life gives more thought to God from religion than a
Christian does. But more is to be said on these points in what follows in
this order:
i. The goal of creation is a heaven from mankind.
ii. Of divine providence, therefore, every man can be saved, and those
are saved who acknowledge God and live rightly.
iii. Man himself is in fault if he is not saved.
iv. Thus all are predestined to heaven, and no one to hell.
323. (i) _The goal of creation is a heaven from mankind._ It has been
shown above and in the work, _Heaven and Hell_ (London, 1758), that
heaven consists solely of those who have been born as human beings. Since
heaven consists of no others, it follows that the purpose of creation is
a heaven from mankind. This has been shown above (nn. 27-45), it is true,
but will be seen more clearly still with explanation of the following:
1. Everyone is created to live forever.
2. Everyone is created to live forever in a blessed state.
3. Thus every person has been created to enter heaven.
4. The divine love cannot but will this, and the divine wisdom cannot but
provide it.
324. One can see from these points that divine providence is none other
than predestination to heaven and cannot be altered into anything else.
We must now demonstrate, therefore, in the order proposed, that the goal
of creation is a heaven from the human race. First: _Everyone has been
created to live to eternity._ In the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
Parts III and V, it was shown that there are three degrees of life in
man, called natural, spiritual and celestial, that they are actually in
everyone, and that in animals there is only one degree of life, which is
like the lowest degree in man, called the natural. The result is that by
the elevation of his life to the Lord man is in such a state above that
of animals that he can comprehend what is of divine wisdom, and will what
is of divine love, in other words, receive what is divine; and he who can
receive what is divine, so as to see and perceive it within him, cannot
but be united with the Lord and by the union live to eternity.
[2] What would the Lord do with all the created universe if He had not
also created images and likenesses of Himself to whom He could
communicate His divine? What would He exist for, otherwise, except to
make this and not that or bring something into existence but not
something else, and this merely to be able to contemplate from afar only
incidents and constant changes as on a stage? What would there be divine
in these unless they were for the purpose of serving subjects who would
receive the divine more intimately and see and sense it? The divine is of
an inexhaustible glory and would not keep it to itself, nor could. For
love wants to communicate its own to another, indeed to impart all it can
of itself. Must not divine love do this, then, being infinite? Can it
impart and then take away? Would that not be to give what will perish,
what in itself is nothing, coming to nothing when it perishes? What
really _is_ is not in it. But divine love imparts what really _is_ or
what does not cease to be, and this is eternal.
[3] In order that a man may live forever, what is mortal with him is
taken away. This mortal of his is his material body, which is taken away
by its death. His immortal, which is his mind, is thus laid bare and he
becomes a spirit in human form; his mind is this spirit. Ancient sages
and wise men perceived that man's mind cannot die. They asked how the
mind could die when it is capable of wisdom. Few today know the interior
idea they had in this. It was the idea, slipping into their general
perception from heaven, that God is wisdom itself, of which man partakes,
and God is immortal or eternal.
[4] Since it has been granted me to speak with angels, I will say
something from experience. I have spoken with those who lived many ages
ago, with some who lived before the Flood and some who lived after it,
with some who lived at the time of the Lord and with one of His apostles,
and with many who lived in the centuries since. They all seemed like men
of middle age and said that they do not know what death can be unless it
is condemnation. Further, all who have lived well, on coming into heaven,
come into the state of early manhood in the world and continue in it to
eternity, even those who had been old and decrepit in the world. Women,
too, although they had become shrunken and old, return into the bloom and
beauty of their youth.
[5] That man lives after death to eternity is manifest from the Word,
where life in heaven is called eternal life, as in Mt 19:29, 25:46; Mk
10:17; Lu 10:25, 18:30; Jn 3:15, 16, 36, 5:24, 25, 39, 6:27, 40, 68,
12:50; also called simply life (Mt 18:8, 9; Jn 5:40, 20:31). The Lord
also told His disciples,
Because I live, you will live also (Jn 14:19),
and concerning resurrection said that
God is God of the living and not God of the dead, and that they cannot
die any more (Lu 20:38, 36).
[6] Second: _Everyone is created to live forever in a blessed state._
This naturally follows. He who wills that man shall live forever also
wills that he shall live in a blessed state. What would eternal life be
without this? All love desires the good of another. The love of parents
desires the good of their children, the love of the bridegroom and the
husband desires the good of the bride and the wife, and love in
friendship desires the good of one's friends. What then must divine love
desire! What is good but enjoyment, and divine good but eternal
blessedness? All good is so named for its enjoyableness or blessedness.
True, anything one is given or possesses is also called good, but again,
unless it is enjoyable, it is a barren good, not in itself good. Clearly,
then, eternal life is also eternal blessedness. This state of man is the
aim of creation; that only those who come into heaven are in that state
is not the Lord's fault but man's. That man is in fault will be seen in
what follows.
[7] Third: _Thus every person has been created to come into heaven._ This
is the goal of creation, but not all enter heaven because they become
imbued with the enjoyments of hell, the opposite of heavenly blessedness.
Those who are not in the blessedness of heaven cannot enter heaven, for
they cannot endure doing so. No one who comes into the spiritual world is
refused ascent into heaven, but when one ascends who is in the enjoyment
of hell his heart pounds, his breathing labors, his life ebbs, he is in
anguish and torment and writhes like a snake placed near a fire. This
happens because opposites act against each other.
[8] Nevertheless, having been born human beings, consequently with the
faculties of thought and volition and hence of speech and action, they
cannot die, but they can live only with those in a similar enjoyment of
life and are sent to them, those in enjoyments of evil to their like, as
those in enjoyments of good are to their like. Indeed, everyone is
granted the enjoyment of his evil provided that he does not molest those
who are in the enjoyment of good. Still, as evil is bound to molest good,
for inherently it hates good, those who are in evil are removed lest they
inflict injury and are cast down to their own places in hell, where their
enjoyment is turned into joylessness.
[9] But this does not alter the fact that by creation and hence by birth
man is such that he can enter heaven. For everyone who dies in infancy
enters heaven, is brought up there and instructed as one is in the world,
and by the affection of good and truth is imbued with wisdom and becomes
an angel. So could the man become who is brought up and instructed in the
world; the same is in him as in an infant. On infants in the spiritual
world see the work _Heaven and Hell,_ London, 1758 (nn. 329-345).
[10] This does not take place, however, with many in the world because
they love the first level of their life, called natural, and do not
purpose to withdraw from it and become spiritual. The natural degree of
life, in itself regarded, loves only self and the world, for it keeps
close to the bodily senses, which are to the fore, also, in the world.
But the spiritual degree of life regarded in itself loves the Lord and
heaven, and self and the world, too, but God and heaven as higher,
paramount and controlling, and self and the world as lower, instrumental
and subservient.
[11] Fourth: _Divine love cannot but will this, and divine wisdom cannot
but provide it._ It was fully shown in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ that the divine essence is divine love and wisdom, and it was
also demonstrated there (nn. 358-370) that in every human embryo the Lord
forms two receptacles, one of the divine love and the other of the divine
wisdom, the former for man's future will and the latter for his future
understanding, and that in this way the Lord has endowed each human being
with the faculty of willing good and the faculty of understanding truth.
[12] Inasmuch as man is endowed from birth with these two faculties by
the Lord, and the Lord then is in them as in what is His own with man, it
is manifest that His divine love cannot but will that man should come
into heaven and His divine wisdom cannot but provide for this. But since
it is of the Lord's divine love that man should feel heavenly blessedness
in himself as his own, and this cannot be unless man is kept in the
appearance that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts of himself, the Lord
can therefore lead man only according to the laws of His divine
providence.
325. (ii) _Of divine providence, therefore, every man can be saved, and
those are saved who acknowledge God and live rightly._ It is plain from
what has been demonstrated above that every human being can be saved.
Some persons suppose that the Lord's church is to be found only in
Christendom, because only there is the Lord known and the Word possessed.
Still many believe that the Lord's church is general, that is, extends
and is scattered throughout the world, existing thus with those who do
not know the Lord or possess the Word. They say that those men are not in
fault and are without means to overcome their ignorance. They believe
that it is contrary to God's love and mercy that any should be born for
hell who are equally human beings.
[2] Inasmuch as many Christians, if not all, have faith that the church
is common to many--it is in fact called a communion--there must be some
very widely shared things of the church that enter all religions and that
constitute this communion. These most widely shared factors are
acknowledgment of God and good of life, as will be seen in this order:
1. Acknowledgment of God effects a conjunction of God and man; denial of
God causes disjunction.
2. Each one acknowledges God and is conjoined with Him in accord with the
goodness of his life.
3. Goodness of life, or living rightly, is shunning evils because they
are contrary to religion, thus to God.
4. These are factors common to all religions, and by them anyone can be
saved.
326. To clarify and demonstrate these propositions one by one. First:
_Acknowledgment of God brings conjunction of God and man; denial of God
results in disjunction._ Some may think that those who do not acknowledge
God can be saved equally with those who do, if they lead a moral life.
They ask, "What does acknowledgment accomplish? Is it not merely a
thought? Can I not 'acknowledge God when I learn for certain that God
there is? I have heard of Him but not seen Him. Let me see Him and I will
believe." Such is the language of many who deny God when they have an
opportunity to argue with one who acknowledges God. But that an
acknowledgment of God conjoins and denial disjoins will be clarified by
some things made known to me in the spiritual world. In that world when
anyone thinks of another and desires to speak with him, the other is at
once present. The explanation is that there is no distance in the
spiritual world such as there is in the natural, but only an appearance
of distance.
[2] A second phenomenon: as thought from some acquaintance with another
causes his presence, love from affection for another causes conjunction
with him. So spirits move about, converse as friends, dwell together in
one house or in one community, meet often, and render one another
services. The opposite happens, also; one who does not love another and
still more one who hates another does not see or encounter him; the
distance between them is according to the degree in which love is wanting
or hatred is present. Indeed, one who is present and recalls his hatred,
vanishes.
[3] From these few particulars it may be evident whence presence and
conjunction come in the spiritual world. Presence comes with the
recollection of another with a desire to see him, and conjunction comes
of an affection which springs from love. This is true also of all things
in the human mind. There are countless things in the mind, and its least
parts are associated and conjoined in accord with affections or as one
thing attracts another.
[4] This is spiritual conjunction and it is the same in things large and
things small. It has its origin in the conjunction of the Lord with the
spiritual world and the natural world in general and in detail. It is
manifest from this that in the measure in which one knows the Lord and
thinks of Him from knowledge of Him, in that measure the Lord is present,
and in the measure in which one acknowledges Him from an affection of
love, in that measure the Lord is united with him. On the other hand, in
the measure of one's ignorance of the Lord, in that measure He is absent;
and so far as one denies Him, so far is He separated from one.
[5] The result of conjunction is that the Lord turns man's face towards
Himself and thereupon leads him; the disjunction results in hell's
turning man's face to it and it leads him. Therefore all the angels of
heaven turn their faces towards the Lord as the Sun, and all the spirits
of hell avert their faces from the Lord. It is plain from this what the
acknowledgment of God and the denial of God each accomplish. Those who
deny God in the world deny Him after death also; they have become
organized as described above (n. 319); the organization induced in the
world remains to eternity.
[6] Second: _Everyone acknowledges God and is conjoined with Him
according to the goodness of his life._ All who know something of
religion can know God; from information or from the memory they can also
speak about God, and some may also think about Him from the
understanding. But this only brings about presence if a man does not live
rightly, for despite it all he can turn away from God and towards hell,
and this takes place if he lives wickedly. Only those who live rightly
can acknowledge God with the heart, and these the Lord turns away from
hell and towards Himself according to the goodness of their life. For
these alone love God; for in doing what comes from Him they love what is
divine. The precepts of His law are divine things from Him. They are God
because He is His own proceeding divine. As this is to love God, the Lord
says:
He who keeps my commandments is he who loves me . . . But he who does not
keep my commandments does not love me (Jn 14: 21, 24).
[7] Here is the reason why there are two tables of the Decalog, one
having reference to God and the other to man. God works unceasingly that
man may receive what is in His table, but if man does not do what he is
bidden in his own table he does not receive with acknowledgment of heart
what is in God's table, and if he does not receive this he is not
conjoined. The two tables were joined, therefore, to be one and are
called the tables of the covenant; covenant means conjunction. One
acknowledges God and is conjoined to Him in accord with the goodness of
his life because this good is like the good in the Lord and consequently
comes from the Lord. So when man is in the good of life there is
conjunction. The contrary takes place with evil of life; it rejects the
Lord.
[8] Third: _Goodness of life, or living rightly, is shunning evils
because they are contrary to religion, thus to God._ That this is good of
life or living rightly is fully shown in _Doctrine of Life for the New
Jerusalem,_ from beginning to end. To this I will only add that if you do
good aplenty, build churches for instance, adorn them and fill them with
offerings, spend money lavishly on hospitals and hostels, give alms
daily, aid widows and orphans, diligently observe the sanctities of
worship, indeed think and speak and preach about them as from the heart,
and yet do not shun evils as sins against God, all those good deeds are
not goodness. They are either hypocritical or done for merit, for evil is
still deep in them. Everyone's life pervades all that he does. Goods
become good only by the removal of evil from them. Plainly, then,
shunning evils because they are contrary to religion and thus to God is
living rightly.
[9] Fourth: _These are factors common to all religions, and anyone can be
saved by them._ To acknowledge God, and to refrain from evil because it
is contrary to God, are the two acts that make religion to be religion.
If one is lacking, it cannot be called religion, for to acknowledge God
and to do evil is a contradiction; so it is, too, to do good and yet not
acknowledge God; one is impossible apart from the other. The Lord has
provided that there should be some religion almost everywhere and that
these two elements should be in it, and has also provided that everyone
who acknowledges God and refrains from doing evil because it is against
God shall have a place in heaven. For heaven as a whole is like one man
whose life or soul is the Lord. In that heavenly man are all things to be
found in a natural man with the difference which obtains between the
heavenly and the natural.
[10] It is a matter of common knowledge that in the human being there are
not only forms organized of blood vessels and nerve fibres, but also
skins, membranes, tendons, cartilages, bones, nails and teeth. These have
a smaller measure of life than those organized forms, which they serve as
ligaments, coverings or supports. For all these entities to be in the
heavenly humanity, which is heaven, it cannot be made up of human beings
all of one religion, but of men of many religions. Therefore all who make
these two universals of the church part of their lives have a place in
this heavenly man, that is, heaven, and enjoy happiness each in his
measure. More on the subject may be seen above (n. 254).
[11] That these two are primary in all religion is evident from the fact
that they are the two which the Decalog teaches. The Decalog was the
first of the Word, promulgated by Jehovah from Mount Sinai by a living
voice, and also inscribed on two tables of stone by the finger of God.
Then, placed in the ark, the Decalog was called Jehovah, and it made the
holy of holies in the tabernacle and the shrine in the temple of
Jerusalem; all things in each were holy only on account of it. Much more
about the Decalog in the ark is to be had from the Word, which is cited
in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ (nn. 53-61). To that I will
add this. From the Word we know that the ark with the two tables in it on
which the Decalog was written was captured by the Philistines and placed
in the temple of Dagon in Ashdod; that Dagon fell to the ground before
it, and afterward his head, together with the palms of the hands, torn
from his body, lay on the temple threshold; that the people of Ashdod and
Ekron to the number of many thousands were smitten with hemorrhoids and
their land was ravaged by mice; that on the advice of the chiefs of their
nation, the Philistines made five golden hemorrhoids, five golden mice
and a new cart, and on this placed the ark with the golden hemorrhoids
and mice beside it; with two cows that lowed before the cart along the
way, they sent the ark back to the children of Israel and by them cows
and cart were offered in sacrifice (1 Sa 5 and 6).
[12] To state now what all this signified: the Philistines signified
those who are in faith separated from charity; Dagon signified that
religiosity; the hemorrhoids by which they were smitten signified natural
loves which when severed from spiritual love are unclean, and the mice
signified the devastation of the church by falsification of truth. The
new cart on which the Philistines sent back the ark signified a new but
still natural doctrine (chariot in the Word signifies doctrine from
spiritual truths), and the cows signified good natural affections.
Hemorrhoids of gold signified natural loves purified and made good, and
the golden mice signified an end to the devastation of the church by
means of good, for in the Word gold signifies good. The lowing of the
kine on the way signified the difficult conversion of the lusts of evil
of the natural man into good affections. That cows and cart were offered
up as a burnt offering signified that so the Lord was propitiated.
[13] This is how what is told historically is understood spiritually.
Gather all into a single conception and make the application. That those
who are in faith severed from charity are represented by the Philistines,
see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Faith_ (nn. 49-54), and that the
ark was the most holy thing of the church because of the Decalog enclosed
in it, see _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ (nn. 53-61).
327. (iii) _Man himself is in fault if he is not saved._ As soon as he
hears it any rational man acknowledges the truth that evil cannot issue
from good nor good from evil, for they are opposites; consequently only
good comes of good and only evil of evil. When this truth is acknowledged
this also is: that good can be turned into evil not by a good but by an
evil recipient; for any form changes into its own nature what flows into
it (see above, n. 292). Inasmuch as the Lord is good in its very essence
or good itself, plainly evil cannot issue from Him or be produced by Him,
but good can be turned into evil by a recipient subject whose form is a
form of evil. Such a subject is man as to his proprium. This constantly
receives good from the Lord and constantly turns it into the nature of
its own form, which is one of evil. It follows that man is in fault if he
is not saved. Evil is indeed from hell but as man receives it from hell
as his and appropriates it to himself, it is the same whether one says
that evil is from man or from hell. But whence there is an appropriation
of evil until finally religion perishes will be told in this order:
1. Every religion declines and comes to an end in the course of time.
2. It does so through the inversion of God's image in man.
3. This takes place through a continual increase of hereditary evil over
the generations.
4. Nevertheless the Lord provides that everyone may be saved.
5. It is also provided that a new church shall succeed in place of the
former devastated church.
328. These points are to be demonstrated in the order given. First:
_Every religion declines and comes to an end in the course of time._
There have been several churches on this earth, one after another, for
wherever mankind is, a church is. For, as was shown above, heaven, which
is the goal of creation, is from mankind, and no one can enter heaven
unless he is in the two universal marks of the church which, as was shown
just above (n. 326), are the acknowledgment of God and living aright. It
follows that there have been churches on this earth from the most ancient
times to the present. These churches are described in the Word, but not
historically except the Israelitish and Jewish church. There were
churches before it which are only described in the Word under the names
of nations and persons and in a few items about them.
[2] The first, the Most Ancient Church, is described under the names of
Adam and his wife Eve. The next church, to be called the Ancient Church,
is described by Noah, his three sons and their posterity. This church was
widespread and extended over many of the kingdoms of Asia: the land of
Canaan on both sides of the Jordan, Syria, Assyria and Chaldea,
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Arabia, Tyre and Sidon. These had the Ancient Word
_(Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 101-103).
That this church existed in those kingdoms is evident from various things
recorded about them in the prophetical parts of the Word. This church was
markedly altered by Eber, from whom arose the Hebrew church, in which
worship by sacrifices was first instituted. From the Hebrew church the
Israelitish and Jewish church was born and solemnly established for the
sake of the Word which was composed in it.
[3] These four churches are meant by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in
a dream, the head of which was of pure gold, the breast and arms of
silver, the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs and feet of iron and
clay (Da 2:32, 33). Nor is anything else meant by the golden, silver,
copper and iron ages mentioned by ancient writers. Needless to say, the
Christian church succeeded the Jewish. It can be seen from the Word that
all these churches declined in the course of time, eventually coming to
an end, called their consummation.
[4] The consummation of the Most Ancient Church, brought about by the
eating of the tree of knowledge, meaning by the pride of one's own
intelligence, is depicted by the Flood. The consummation of the Ancient
Church is depicted in the various devastations of nations mentioned in
the historical as well as the prophetical Word and especially by the
expulsion of the nations from the land of Canaan by the children of
Israel. The consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish church is
understood by the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem and by the
carrying away of the people of Israel into permanent captivity and of the
Jewish nation to Babylon, and finally by the second destruction of the
temple and of Jerusalem at the same time, and by the dispersion of that
nation. This consummation is foretold in many places in the Prophets and
in Daniel 9:24-27. The gradual devastation of the Christian church even
to its end is pictured by the Lord in Matthew (24), Mark (13) and Luke
(21), but the end itself in the Apocalypse. Hence it may be manifest that
in the course of time a church declines and comes to an end; so does a
religion.
[5] Second: _Every religion declines and comes to an end through the
inversion of God's image in man._ It is known that the human being was
created in the image and after the likeness of God (Ge 1:26), but let us
say what the image and the likeness of God are. God alone is love and
wisdom; man was created to be a receptacle of both love and wisdom, his
will to be a receptacle of divine love and his understanding a receptacle
of the divine wisdom. These two receptacles, it was shown above, are in
man from creation, constitute him, and are formed in everyone in the
womb. Man's being an image of God thus means that he is a recipient of
the divine wisdom, and his being a likeness of God means that he is a
recipient of the divine love. Therefore the receptacle called the
understanding is an image of God, and the receptacle called the will is a
likeness of God. Since, then, man was created and formed to be a
receptacle, it follows that he was created and formed that his will might
receive love from God and his understanding wisdom from God. He receives
these when he acknowledges God and lives according to His precepts,
receiving them in lesser or larger measure as by religion he has some
knowledge of God and of His precepts, consequently according to his
knowledge of truths. For truths teach what God is and how He is to be
acknowledged, also what His precepts are and how man is to live according
to them.
[6] The image and likeness of God have not been destroyed in man, but
seem to have been; they remain inherent in his two faculties called
liberty and rationality, of which we have treated above at many places.
They seem to have been destroyed when man made the receptacle of divine
love, namely, his will, a receptacle of self-love, and the receptacle of
divine wisdom, namely, his understanding, a receptacle of his own
intelligence. Doing this, he inverted the image and likeness of God and
turned these receptacles away from God and towards himself. Consequently
they have become closed above and open below, or closed in front and open
behind, though by creation they were open in front and closed behind.
When they have been opened and closed contrariwise, the receptacle of
love, the will, receives influx from hell or from one's proprium; so does
the receptacle of wisdom, the understanding. Hence worship of men arose
in the churches instead of the worship of God, and worship by doctrines
of falsity instead of worship by doctrines of truth, the latter arising
from man's own intelligence, and the former from love of self. Thence it
is evident that religion falls away in the course of time and is ended by
the inversion of God's image in man.
[7] Third: _This takes place as a result of a continual increase of
hereditary evil over the generations._ It was said and explained above
that hereditary evil does not come from Adam and his wife Eve by their
having eaten of the tree of knowledge, but is derived and transmitted
successively from parents to offspring. Thus it grows by continual
increase from generation to generation. When evil increases so among
many, it spreads to many more, for in all evil there is a lust to lead
astray, in some burning with anger against goodness--hence a contagion of
evil. When the contagion reaches leaders, rulers and the prominent in the
church, religion has become perverted, and the means of restoring it to
health, namely truths, become corrupted by falsifications. As a result
there is a gradual devastation of good and desolation of truth in the
church on to its end.
[8] Fourth: _Nevertheless the Lord provides that everyone may be saved._
He provides that there shall be religion everywhere and in it the two
essentials for salvation, acknowledgment of God and ceasing from evil
because it is contrary to God. Other things, which pertain to the
understanding and hence to the thinking, called matters of faith, are
provided everyone in accord with his life, for they are accessory to life
and if they have been given precedence, do not become living until they
are subsidiary. It is also provided that those who have lived rightly and
acknowledged God are instructed by angels after death. Then those who
were in the two essentials of religion while in the world accept such
truths of the church as are in the Word, and acknowledge the Lord as God
of heaven and of the church. This last they receive more readily than do
Christians who have brought with them from the world an idea of the
Lord's human nature parted from His divine. It is also provided by the
Lord that all are saved who die as infants, no matter where they have
been born.
[9] Furthermore, every person is given the opportunity after death of
amending his life if possible. All are instructed and led by the Lord by
means of angels. Knowing now that they live after death and that heaven
and hell exist, they at first receive truths. But those who did not
acknowledge God and shun evils as sins when in the world soon show a
distaste for truths and draw back, and those who acknowledged truths with
the lips but not with the heart are like the foolish virgins who had
lamps but no oil and begged oil of others, also went off and bought some,
but still were not admitted to the wedding. "Lamps" signify truths of
faith and "oil" signifies the good of charity. It may be evident then
that divine providence sees to it that everyone can be saved and that man
is himself in fault if he is not saved.
[10] Fifth: _It is also provided that a new church shall succeed in place
of a former devastated church._ It has been so from the most ancient days
that on the devastation of a church a new one followed. The Ancient
Church succeeded the Most Ancient; the Israelitish or Jewish Church
followed the Ancient; after this came the Christian Church. And this, it
is foretold in the Apocalypse, will be followed by a new church,
signified in that book by the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. The
reason why a new church is provided by the Lord to follow in place of a
former devastated church may be seen in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
about Sacred Scripture_ (nn. 104-113).
329. (iv) _Thus all are predestined to heaven, and no one to hell._ In
the work _Heaven and Hell_ (London, 1758) we showed at nn. 545-550 that
the Lord casts no one into hell; the spirit himself does this. So it
happens with every evil and impious person after death and also while he
is in the world, with the difference that while he is in the world he can
be reformed and can embrace and avail himself of the means of salvation,
but not after departure from the world. The means of salvation are summed
up in these two: that evils are to be shunned because they are contrary
to the divine laws in the Decalog and that it be acknowledged that God
exists. Everyone can do both if he does not love evils. For the Lord is
constantly flowing into his will with power for shunning evils and into
his understanding with power to think that God there is. But no one can
do the one without doing the other; the two are joined together like the
two tables of the Decalog, one relating to God and the other to man. In
accordance with what is in His table the Lord enlightens and empowers
everyone, but man receives power and enlightenment so far as he does what
he is bidden in his table. Until then the two tables appear to be laid
face to face and to be sealed, but as man acts on the biddings in his
table they are unsealed and opened out.
[2] Today is not the Decalog like a small, closed book or document,
opened only in the hands of children and the young? Tell someone farther
along in years, "Do not do this because it is contrary to the Decalog"
and who gives heed? He may give heed if you say, "Do not do this because
it is contrary to divine laws," and yet the precepts of the Decalog are
the divine laws themselves. Experiment was made with a number in the
spiritual world, who at mention of the Decalog or Catechism rejected it
with contempt. This is because in the second table, which is man's, the
Decalog teaches that evils are to be shunned, and one who does not do so,
whether from impiety or from the religious tenet that deeds effect
nothing, only faith does, hears mention of the Decalog or Catechism with
disdain, as though it was a child's book he heard mentioned, no longer
of use to adults.
[3] These things have been said in order that it may be known that a
knowledge of the means by which one can be saved is not lacking to
anyone, nor power if he wants to be saved. It follows that all are
predestined to heaven and no one to hell. Since, however, a belief in a
predestination not to salvation but to damnation has prevailed with some,
and this belief is damaging and cannot be broken up unless one's reason
sees the insanity and cruelty in it, it is to be dealt with in this
order:
1. Predestination except to heaven is contrary to divine love and its
infiniteness.
2. Predestination other than to heaven is contrary to divine wisdom and
its infiniteness.
3. That only those born in the church are saved is an insane heresy.
4. That any of mankind are condemned by predestination is a cruel heresy.
330. That it may be apparent how damaging the belief is in predestination
as this is commonly understood, these four arguments are to be taken up
and confirmed. First: _Predestination except to heaven is contrary to
divine love and its infiniteness._ In the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ we demonstrated that Jehovah or the Lord is divine love, is
infinite, and is the esse of all life; also that the human being was
created in God's image after God's likeness. As everyone is formed in the
womb by the Lord into that image and after that likeness, as was also
shown, the Lord is the heavenly Father of all human beings and they are
His spiritual children. So Jehovah or the Lord is called in the Word, and
so human beings are. Therefore He says:
Do not call your father on earth your father, for One is your Father, who
is in the heavens (Mt 23:9).
This means that He alone is the Father with reference to the life in us,
and the earthly father is father of the covering on life, which is the
body. In heaven, therefore, no one but the Lord is called Father. And
from many passages in the Word it is clear that those who do not pervert
that life are said to be His sons and to be born from Him.
[2] Plainly, then, the divine love is in every man, an evil man as well
as a good man, and the Lord who is divine love cannot act otherwise than
a father on earth does with his children, infinitely more lovingly
because divine love is infinite. Furthermore, He cannot withdraw from
anyone because everyone's life is from Him. He appears to withdraw from
those who are evil, but it is they who withdraw, while He still in love
leads them. Thus the Lord says:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it
shall be opened to you . . . What man of you, if his son shall ask bread,
will give him a stone? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good
things to your children, how much more shall your Father, who is in
heaven, give good things to those who ask Him (Mt 7:7-11),
and in another place,
He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
just and unjust (Mt 5:45).
It is also known in the church that the Lord desires the salvation of all
and the death of no one. It may be seen from all this that predestination
except to heaven is contrary to divine love.
[3] Second: _Predestination other than to heaven is contrary to divine
wisdom, which is infinite._ By its divine wisdom divine love provides the
means by which every man can be saved. To say that there is any
predestination except to heaven is therefore to say that divine love
cannot provide means to salvation, when yet the means exist for all, as
was shown above, and these are of divine providence which is boundless.
The reason that there are those who are not saved is that divine love
desires man to feel the felicity and blessedness of heaven for himself,
else it would not be heaven to him, and this can be effected only as it
seems to man that he thinks and wills of himself. For without this
appearance nothing would be appropriated to him nor would he be a human
being. To this end divine providence exists, which acts by divine wisdom
out of divine love.
[4] But this does not do away with the truth that all are predestined to
heaven and no one to hell. Were the means to salvation lacking, it would;
but, as was demonstrated above, the means to salvation have been provided
for everyone, and heaven is such that all of whatever religion who live
rightly have a place in it. Man is like the earth which produces fruits
of every kind, a power the earth has as the earth. That it also produces
evil fruits does not do away with its capability of producing good
fruits; it would if it could only produce evil fruits. Or, again, man is
like an object which variegates the rays of light in it. If the object
gives only unpleasing colors, the light is not the cause, for its rays
can be variegated to produce pleasing colors.
[5] Third: _That only those who have been born in the church are saved is
an insane heresy._ Those born outside the church are human beings equally
with those born within it; they have the same heavenly origin, and like
them they are living and immortal souls. They also have some religion by
virtue of which they acknowledge God's existence and that they should
live aright. One who acknowledges God and lives aright becomes spiritual
in his measure and is saved, as we showed above. It may be protested that
they have not been baptized, but baptism does not save any who are not
washed spiritually, that is, regenerated, of which baptism is a sign and
reminder.
[6] It is also objected that the Lord is not known to them and that there
is no salvation without Him. But salvation does not come to a person
because the Lord is known to him, but because he lives according to the
Lord's precepts. Moreover, the Lord is known to everyone who acknowledges
God, for He is God of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches (Mt 28:18
and elsewhere). Furthermore, those outside the church have a clearer idea
about God as Man than Christians have, and those who have a concept of
God as Man and live rightly are accepted by the Lord. They also
acknowledge God as one in person and essence, differently from
Christians. They also give thought to God in their lives, for they regard
evils as sins against God, and those who do this regard God in their
lives. Christians have precepts of religion from the Word, but few draw
precepts of life from it.
[7] Roman Catholics do not read the Word, and the Reformed who are in
faith apart from charity do not attend to those utterances in it which
concern life, only to those which concern faith, and yet the Word as a
whole is nothing else than a doctrine of life. Christianity obtains only
in Europe; Mohammedanism and Gentilism are found in Asia, the Indies,
Africa and America, and the people in these parts of the globe are ten
times more numerous than those in the Christian part, and in this part
few put religion in life. What then is more mad than to believe that only
these latter are saved and the former condemned, and that a man has
heaven on the strength of his birth and not on the strength of his life?
So the Lord says:
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and recline with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of
the kingdom shall be cast out (Mt 8:11, 12).
[8] Fourth: _That any of mankind are condemned by predestination is a
cruel heresy._ For it is cruel to believe that the Lord, who is love
itself and mercy itself, suffers so vast a throng of persons to be born
for hell or so many myriads of myriads to be born condemned and doomed,
that is, to be born devils and satans, and that He does not provide out
of His divine wisdom that those who live aright and acknowledge God
should not be cast into everlasting fire and torment. The Lord is still
the Creator and the Savior of all men and wills the death of no one. It
is cruel therefore to believe and think that a vast multitude of nations
and peoples under His auspices and care should be handed over as prey to
the devil by predestination.
XVIII. THE LORD CANNOT ACT CONTRARY TO THE LAWS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
BECAUSE TO DO SO WOULD BE TO ACT CONTRARY TO HIS DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM,
THUS CONTRARY TO HIMSELF
331. It was shown in _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom_ that
the Lord is divine love and wisdom, and that these are being itself and
life itself from which everything is and lives. It was also shown that
they proceed from Him, so that the proceeding divine is the Lord Himself.
Paramount in what proceeds is divine providence, for this is constantly
in the end for which the universe was created. The operation and progress
of the end through means is what is called divine providence.
[2] Inasmuch as the proceeding divine is the Lord Himself and paramount
in it is divine providence, to act contrary to the laws of His divine
providence is to act contrary to Himself. One can also say that the Lord
is providence just as one says that God is order, for divine providence
is the divine order with reference primarily to the salvation of men. As
order does not exist without laws, for they constitute it, and each law
derives from order that it, too, is order, it follows that God, who is
order, is also the law of His order. Similarly it is to be said of divine
providence that as the Lord is providence Himself, He is also the law of
His providence. Hence it is clear that the Lord cannot act contrary to
the laws of His divine providence because to do so would be to act
contrary to Himself.
[3] Furthermore, there is no activity except on a subject and on the
subject by means; action is impossible except on a subject and on it by
means. Man is the subject of divine providence; divine truths by which he
has wisdom, and divine goods by which he has love, are the means; and by
these means divine providence pursues its purpose, which is the salvation
of man. For he who wills the purpose, wills the means. Therefore when he
who wills the purpose pursues it, he does so through means. But these
things will become plainer on being examined in this order:
i. The activity of divine providence to save man begins at his birth and
continues to the close of his life and afterwards to eternity.
ii. The activity of divine providence is maintained steadily out of pure
mercy through means.
iii. Instantaneous salvation by direct mercy is impossible.
iv. Instantaneous salvation by direct mercy is the flying fiery serpent
in the church.
332. (i) _The activity of divine providence to save man begins at his
birth and continues to the close of his life and afterwards to eternity._
It was shown above that a heaven from mankind is the very purpose of the
creation of the universe; that this purpose in its operation and progress
is the divine providence for the salvation of man; and that all which is
external to man and available to him for use is a secondary end in
creation--in brief, all that is to be found in the three kingdoms, animal,
vegetable and mineral. When all this constantly proceeds according to
laws of divine order fixed at the first of creation, how can the primary
end, which is the salvation of the human race, fail to proceed constantly
according to laws of its order, which are the laws of divine providence?
[2] Observe just a fruit tree. It springs up first as a slender shoot
from a tiny seed, grows gradually into a stalk, spreads branches which
become covered with leaves, and then puts forth flowers and bears fruit,
in which it deposits fresh seed to provide for its perpetuation. This is
also true of every shrub and of every herb of the field. Do not each and
all things in tree or shrub proceed constantly and wonderfully from
purpose to purpose according to the laws of their order of things? Why
should not the supreme end, a heaven from the human race, proceed in
similar fashion? Can there be anything in its progress which does not
proceed with all constancy according to the laws of divine providence?
[3] As there is a correspondence of man's life with the growth of a tree,
let us draw the parallel or make the comparison. His infancy is
relatively like the tender shoot of the tree sprouting from seed out of
the ground; his childhood and youth are like the shoot grown to a stalk
with its small branches; the natural truths with which everyone is imbued
at first are like the leaves with which the branches are covered
("leaves" signify precisely this in the Word); man's first steps in the
marriage of good and truth or the spiritual marriage are like the
blossoms which the tree puts forth in the springtime; spiritual truths
are the petals in these blossoms; the earliest signs of the spiritual
marriage are like the start of fruit; spiritual goods, which are goods of
charity, are like the fruit (they are also signified in the Word by
"fruits"); the procreations of wisdom from love are like the seed and by
them the human being becomes like a garden or paradise. Man is also
described in the Word by a tree, and his wisdom from love by a garden;
nothing else is meant by the Garden of Eden.
[4] True, man is a corrupt tree from the seed, but still a grafting or
budding with shoots taken from the Tree of Life is possible, by which the
sap drawn from the old root is turned into sap producing good fruit. The
comparison was drawn for it to be known that when the progression of
divine providence is so constant in the growth and rebirth of trees, it
surely must be constant in the reformation and rebirth of human beings,
who are of much more value than trees; so the Lord's words:
Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, yet not one of them is
forgotten by God? But even the hairs of your head are all numbered; fear
not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Which of you
moreover can by taking thought add a cubit to his stature? .. . if then
you are unable to do what is least, why do you take thought for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow . . . If then God so clothed the
grass, which is in the field today and is cast into an oven tomorrow, how
much more will he clothe you, 0 men of little faith? (Lu 12: 6, 7,
25-28).
333. The activity of divine providence for man's salvation is said to
begin with his birth and continue to the close of his life. For this to
be understood, it should be known that the Lord sees what a man's nature
is and foresees what he wills to be and thus what he will be. For him to
be man and thus immortal, his freedom of will cannot be taken away. The
Lord therefore foresees his state after death and provides for it from
the man's birth to the close of his life. With the evil He makes the
provision by permitting and withdrawing from evils, in the case of the
good by leading to good. Divine providence is thus continually acting for
man's salvation, but more cannot be saved than are willing to be saved,
and those are willing who acknowledge God and are led by Him. Those are
not willing who do not acknowledge God and who lead themselves. The
latter give no thought to eternal life and to salvation, the former do.
The Lord sees the unwillingness but still He leads such men, and does so
in accordance with the laws of His divine providence, contrary to which
he cannot act, for to act contrary to them would be to act contrary to
His divine love and wisdom, and this is to act contrary to Himself.
[2] Inasmuch as the Lord foresees the states of all after death, and also
foresees the places in hell of those who do not desire to be saved and
the places in heaven of those who do desire to be saved, it follows that
He provides their places for the evil by the permitting and withdrawing
of which we spoke, and their places for the good by leading them. Unless
this was done steadily from birth to the close of life neither heaven nor
hell would remain standing, for apart from this foresight and providence
neither would be anything but confusion. It may be seen above (nn. 202,
203) that everyone has his place provided for him by the Lord through
this foresight.
[3] A comparison may throw light on this. If a javelin thrower or a
marksman should aim at a target, from which a line was drawn straight
back for a mile and should err in aim by only a finger's breadth, the
missile or the bullet at the end of the mile would have deviated very far
from the line. So would it be if the Lord did not, at every moment and
even the least fraction of a moment, look to what is eternal in
foreseeing and making provision for one's place after death. But this the
Lord does: the entire future is present to Him, and the entire present is
to Him eternal. That divine providence looks in all it does to what is
infinite and eternal, may be seen above, nn. 46-49, 214 ff.
334. As was said also, the activity of divine providence continues to
eternity, for every angel is being perfected in wisdom to eternity, each,
however, according to the degree of affection of good and truth in which
he was when he left this world. It is this degree that is perfected to
eternity; what is beyond that is outside the angel and not in him, and
what is external to him cannot be perfected in him. This perfecting is
meant by the
"Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over" which
will be given into the bosom of those who forgive and give to others (Lu
6:37, 38),
that is, those who are in the good of charity.
335. (ii) _The activity of divine providence is maintained steadily out
of pure mercy through means._ Divine providence has means and methods.
Its means are the things by which man becomes man and is perfected in
will and understanding; its methods are the ways this is accomplished.
The means by which man becomes man and is perfected in understanding are
collectively called truths. In the thought they become ideas, are called
objects of the memory, and in themselves are forms of knowledge from
which information comes. All these means, viewed in themselves, are
spiritual, but as they exist in what is natural, they seem by reason of
their covering or clothing to be natural and some of them seem to be
material. They are infinite in number and variety, and more or less
simple or composite, and also more or less imperfect or perfect. There
are means for forming and perfecting natural civil life; likewise for
forming and perfecting rational moral life; as there are for forming and
perfecting heavenly spiritual life.
[2] These means advance, one kind after another, from infancy to the last
of man's life, and thereafter to eternity. As they come along and mount,
the earlier ones become means to the later, entering into all that is
forming as mediate causes. From these every effect or conclusion is
efficacious and therefore becomes a cause. In turn what is later becomes
means; and as this goes on to eternity, there is nothing farthest on or
final to make an end. For as what is eternal is without end, so a wisdom
that increases to eternity is without end. If there were an end to wisdom
for a wise man, the enjoyment of his wisdom would perish, which consists
in the perpetual multiplication and fructification of wisdom. His life's
enjoyment would also perish; in its place an enjoyment of glory would
succeed, in which by itself there is no heavenly life. The wise man then
becomes no longer like a youth but like an old man, and at length like a
decrepit one.
[3] Although a wise man's wisdom increases forever in heaven, angelic
wisdom cannot approximate the divine wisdom so much as to touch it. It is
relatively like what is said of a straight line drawn about a hyperbola,
always approaching but never touching it, and like what is said about
squaring a circle. Hence it may be plain what is meant by the means by
which divine providence acts in order that man may be man and be
perfected in understanding, and that these means are called by the common
term truths. There are an equal number of means by which man is formed
and perfected as to his will. These are called collectively goods. By
them man comes to have love, by the others wisdom. The conjunction of
love and wisdom makes the man, for what he is is in keeping with the
nature of this conjunction. This conjunction is what is called the
marriage of good and truth.
336. The methods by which divine providence acts on and through the means
to form and perfect the human being are also infinite in number and
variety. They are as numerous as the activities of divine wisdom from
divine love to save man, and therefore as numerous as the activities of
divine providence in accordance with its laws, treated of above. That
these methods are most secret was illustrated above by the activities of
the soul in the body, of which man knows so little it is scarcely
anything--how, for instance, eye, ear, nose, tongue and skin sense things;
how the stomach digests; how the mesentery elaborates the chyle and the
liver the blood; how the pancreas and the spleen purify the blood, the
kidneys separate it from impure humors, the heart collects and
distributes it, and the lungs purify it and pass it on; how the brain
refines the blood and vivifies it anew; besides innumerable other things
which are all secret, and of which one can scarcely know. Clearly, the
hidden activities of divine providence can be entered into even less; it
is enough to know its laws.
337. Divine providence acts in all things out of pure mercy. For the
divine essence is itself pure love; this love acts through divine wisdom
and its activity is what is called divine providence. This pure love is
pure mercy because 1. It is active with all men the world over, who are
such that they can do nothing of themselves. 2. It is active with the
evil and unjust and the good and just alike. 3. It leads the former in
hell and rescues them from it. 4. It strives with them there perpetually
and fights for them against the devil, that is, against the evils of
hell. 5. To this end pure love came into the world and endured
temptations even to the last of them, which was the passion of the Cross.
6. It acts continually with the unclean to make them clean and with the
unsound to make them sound in mind. Thus it labors incessantly out of
pure mercy.
338. (iii) _Instantaneous salvation by direct mercy is impossible._ We
have just shown that the activity of divine providence to save man begins
at his birth and continues to the close of his life and afterwards to
eternity; also that this activity is continually pursued out of pure
mercy through means. It follows that there is neither instantaneous
salvation nor unmediated mercy. But as many, not thinking from the
understanding about things of the church or of religion, believe that
they are saved by immediate mercy and hence that salvation is
instantaneous, and yet this is contrary to the truth and in addition is a
pernicious belief, it is important that it be considered in due order:
1. Belief in instantaneous salvation by direct mercy has been assumed
from man's natural state.
2. This belief comes from ignorance of the spiritual state, which is
completely different from the natural state.
3. The doctrines of all churches in Christendom, viewed interiorly, are
opposed to instantaneous salvation by direct mercy, but external men of
the church nevertheless maintain the belief.
[2] First: _Belief in instantaneous salvation by direct mercy has been
assumed from man's natural state._ From his state the natural man does
not know otherwise than that heavenly joy is like worldly joy and that it
flows in and is received in the same way; that, for example, it is like a
poor man's becoming rich and from a sad state of poverty coming into a
happy one of plenty, or like a lowly person's being raised to honors and
passing thus from contempt to renown; or like one's going from a house of
mourning to happy nuptials. As these states can be changed in a day and
as there is a like idea of man's state after death, it is plain whence it
comes that instantaneous salvation by direct mercy is believed in.
[3] In the world, moreover, many can join in one group or in one civic
community and enjoy the same things, yet all differ in mind; this is true
of the natural state. The reason is that the external of one person can
be accommodated to that of another, no matter how unlike their internals
are. From this natural situation it is also concluded that salvation is
merely admission among angels in heaven, and that admission is by direct
mercy. It is also believed, therefore, that heaven can be given to the
evil as well as to the good, and that their association then is similar
to that in the world, with the difference that it is filled with joy.
[4] Second: _This belief comes from ignorance of the spiritual state,
which is altogether different from the natural state._ The spiritual
state, which is man's state after death, has been treated of in many
places above. It has been shown that everyone is his own love, that no
one can live with others than those who are in a like love, and that if
he comes among others he cannot breathe his own life. For this reason
everyone comes after death into a society of his own people, that is, who
are in a like love, and recognizes them as relatives and friends, and
what is remarkable, on meeting and seeing them it is as if he had known
them from infancy. Spiritual relationship and friendship bring this
about. What is more, in a society no one can dwell in any other house
than his own. Everyone in a society has his own home, which he finds
prepared for him as soon as he enters the society. He may be in close
company with others outside his home, but he cannot dwell elsewhere.
Again, in somebody else's apartment one can sit only in his own place;
seated elsewhere he becomes frustrated and mute. And it is remarkable
that on entering he knows his own place. This is as true in temples he
enters and in any companies in which people gather.
[5] It is plain from this that the spiritual state is altogether
different from the natural state, and is such that no one can be anywhere
but where his ruling love is to be found. For there the enjoyment of
one's life is, and everyone desires to be in the enjoyment of his life. A
man's spirit cannot be anywhere else because that enjoyment constitutes
his life, his very breathing, in fact, and his heartbeat. It is different
in the natural world; there man's external is taught from infancy to
simulate in look, speech and bearing other enjoyments than those of his
internal man. Accordingly, no conclusion can be formed about man's state
after death from his state in the natural world. For after death
everyone's state is spiritual and is such that he cannot be anywhere
except in the enjoyment of his love, an enjoyment that he has acquired in
the natural world by his life.
[6] Hence it is quite plain that no one who is in the enjoyment of hell
can be admitted into the enjoyment of heaven, commonly called heavenly
happiness, or what is the same, no one who is in the enjoyment of evil
can be admitted into the enjoyment of good. This can be concluded still
more plainly from the fact that after death no one is denied going up to
heaven; he is shown the way, has the opportunity given him, and is
admitted, but as soon as he enters heaven and inhales its enjoyment, he
begins to feel constricted in his chest and racked at heart, and falls
into a swoon, in which he writhes as a snake does brought near a fire.
Then with his face turned away from heaven and towards hell, he flees
headlong and does not stop until he is in a society of his own love.
Hence it may be plain that no one reaches heaven by direct mercy.
Consequently, just to be admitted is not enough, as many in the world
suppose. Nor is there any instantaneous salvation, for this presupposes
unmediated mercy.
[7] When some who had believed in the world in instantaneous salvation by
direct mercy became spirits, they wanted their infernal enjoyment or
enjoyment of evil changed by both divine omnipotence and divine mercy
into heavenly enjoyment or enjoyment in the good. As they ardently
desired this, permission was given for it to be done by angels, who
proceeded to remove their infernal enjoyment. But as this was the
enjoyment of their life's love and consequently their life, they
thereupon lay as if dead, devoid of all feeling and movement; nor could
any life be breathed into them except their own, because all things of
mind and body which had been turned backward could not be reversed. They
were therefore revived by letting in the enjoyment of their life's love.
They said afterwards that in that state they had experienced something
dreadful and horrible, which they did not care to divulge. There is a
saying in heaven, therefore, that it is easier to change an owl into a
turtle-dove or a serpent into a lamb than an infernal spirit into an
angel of heaven.
[8] Third: _The doctrines of all churches in Christendom, viewed
interiorly, are opposed to instantaneous salvation by direct mercy, but
still some external men of the church maintain the idea._ Viewed
interiorly, the doctrines of all the churches teach life. Is there a
church whose doctrine does not teach that man ought to examine himself,
see and acknowledge his sins, confess them, repent and then live a new
life? Who is admitted to Holy Communion without this admonition and
precept? Inquire and you will be assured of it. Is there a church whose
doctrine is not based on the precepts of the Decalog? The precepts of the
Decalog are precepts of life. What man of the church, in whom there is
anything of the church, does not, on hearing it, acknowledge that he who
lives rightly is saved and he who lives wickedly is condemned? In the
Athanasian Creed, which is also the doctrine received in the whole
Christian world, it is therefore said:
The Lord will come to judge the quick and the dead; and then those who
have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil
into everlasting fire.
[9] It is clear, then, that the doctrines of all churches, when viewed
interiorly, teach life, and teaching life they teach that salvation is
according to the life. Man's life is not breathed into him in a moment
but is formed gradually, and it is reformed as the man shuns evils as
sins, consequently as he learns what sin is, recognizes and acknowledges
it, does not will it but desists from it, and also learns the helps that
come with a knowledge of God. By all these means man's life is formed and
reformed, and they cannot be given on the instant. For hereditary evil,
in itself infernal, has to be removed, and good, in itself heavenly,
implanted in its place. Because of his hereditary evil man may be
compared to an owl as to the understanding and to a serpent as to the
will, but when he has been reformed, he may be compared to a dove as to
the understanding and to a sheep as to the will. Instantaneous
reformation and hence salvation would be like changing an owl at once
into a dove or a serpent at once into a sheep. Who that knows anything
about man's life does not see the impossibility of this? Salvation is
impossible unless the owl and serpent nature is removed and the nature of
the dove and sheep implanted instead.
[10] Moreover, it is common knowledge that every intelligent person can
become more intelligent than he is, and every wise man wiser than he is,
and that intelligence and wisdom in man may increase and do so in some
men from infancy to the close of life, and that man is thus continually
perfected. Why should not spiritual intelligence and wisdom increase as
well? These rise by two degrees above natural intelligence and wisdom,
and as they ascend become angelic intelligence and wisdom, which are
ineffable. These in turn increase to eternity with the angels. Who cannot
understand, if he will, that what is being perfected to eternity cannot
possibly be made perfect in an instant?
339. Thence it is evident now that all who give thought to salvation for
their life's sake do not think of an instantaneous salvation by immediate
mercy. Their thought is about the means to salvation, on and by which the
Lord acts in accord with the laws of His divine providence, and thus by
which man is led by the Lord out of pure mercy. Those, however, who do
not think of salvation for their life's sake presume an instantaneousness
in salvation and an immediacy in mercy, as do those who, separating faith
from charity (charity is life), presume that faith can be instantaneous,
at the final hour of death, if not earlier. Those do this, too, who
believe remission of sins without any repentance to be absolution from
sins and thus salvation, when attending the Holy Supper. So again those
do who trust to indulgences of monks, their prayers for the dead, and the
dispensations they grant by the authority which they claim over the souls
of men.
340. (iv) _Instantaneous salvation by unmediated mercy is the flying
fiery serpent in the church._ By a flying fiery serpent evil aglow with
infernal fire is meant, as it is by the flying fiery serpent in Isaiah:
Rejoice not, all Philistia, that the rod which smote you is broken, for
out of the serpent's root shall come forth a basilisk, whose fruit is a
flying fiery serpent (14:29).
Evil of the kind is flying about in the church when belief is put in
instantaneous salvation by immediate mercy, for this 1. abolishes
religion; 2. induces security; and 3. charges condemnation to the Lord.
[2] First: _It abolishes religion._ Two things are the essentials and at
the same time the universals of religion, namely, acknowledgment of God,
and repentance. Neither has meaning for those who believe that they are
saved out of mercy alone no matter how they live. What need then to do
more than cry, "Have mercy on me, O God"? In all else pertaining to
religion they are in darkness, even loving the darkness. In regard to the
first essential of the church, which is an acknowledgment of God, they
only think, "What is God? Who has seen Him?" If told that God is, and is
one, they say that He is one; if told there are three, they also say
there are three, but the three must be called one. Such is their
acknowledgment of God.
[3] Touching the church's second essential, namely, repentance, they give
this no thought, nor thought to any sin, and finally do not know that
there is such a thing as sin. Then they hear and drink in with pleasure
that the law does not condemn them because a Christian is not under its
yoke. If only you say, "Have mercy on me, 0 God, for the sake of the
Son," you will be saved. This is repentance in their life. If, however,
you take away repentance, or what is the same thing, separate life from
religion, what is left except the words, "Have mercy on me"? They are
therefore sure to maintain that salvation is instantaneous, accomplished
by these words, even if uttered at the hour of death, if not before. What
does the Word become to them then but an obscure and cryptic utterance
issuing from a tripod in a cave, or like an incomprehensible response
from the oracle of an idol? In a word, if you remove repentance, that is,
sever life from religion, what is human nature then but evil aglow with
infernal fire or a flying fiery serpent in the church? For without
repentance man is in evil, and evil is hell.
[4] Second: _By the belief in instantaneous salvation out of pure mercy
alone security of life is induced._ Security of life arises either from
the belief of the impious man that there is no life after death, or from
the belief of one who separates life from salvation. Although the latter
may believe in eternal life, he still thinks, "whether I live rightly or
wickedly, I can be saved, for salvation is by outright mercy, and God's
mercy is universal, for He does not desire the death of anyone." If it
occurs to him that mercy should be implored in the words of the
traditional faith, he can think that this can be done, if not earlier,
just before death. Everyone who feels this security, makes light of
adultery, fraud, injustice, acts of violence, blasphemy and revenge, and
gives a free rein to body and spirit for committing all these evils; nor
does he know what spiritual evil, or the lust of evil, is. Should he hear
something about it from the Word, it is like something falling on ebony
and rebounding, or falling into a ditch and being swallowed up.
[5] Third: _By this belief condemnation is charged to the Lord._ If the
Lord can save anybody out of pure mercy, who is not going to conclude
that if man is not saved, it is not he but the Lord who is in fault? If
it is asserted that faith is the medium of salvation, what man cannot
have this faith? For it is only a thought, and this can be imparted,
along with confidence, in any state of the spirit withdrawn from the
mundane. Man may also declare "I cannot acquire this faith of myself."
Hence if it is not vouchsafed him and he is condemned, what else can he
think except that the Lord is in fault who could have given him the faith
but would not? Would this not amount to calling the Lord unmerciful?
Moreover, in the fervor of his belief he may ask, "How can God see so
many condemned in hell when He can save them all in an instant from pure
mercy?" And more such things, which can only be called an atrocious
indictment of the Divine. From the above it may be evident that belief in
instantaneous salvation out of sheer mercy is the flying fiery serpent in
the church.
[6] Excuse the addition of what follows to fill the remainder of the
sheet.
Certain spirits were permitted to ascend from hell who said to me, "You
have written much from the Lord; write something from us, too." I asked,
"What shall I write?" They said, "Write that every spirit, good or evil,
has his own enjoyment; a good spirit is in the enjoyment of his good, and
an evil spirit in the enjoyment of his evil." I then asked, "What is your
enjoyment?" They answered that it was the enjoyment of committing
adultery, stealing, defrauding and lying. Again I inquired, "What is the
nature of those enjoyments?" They replied, "By others they are perceived
as offensive odors from excrement and as the putrid smell from dead
bodies and as the reeking stench from stagnant urine." I then said, "Do
you find them enjoyable?" "Most enjoyable," they said. I remarked, "Then
you are like unclean beasts which live in such filth." They replied to
this, "If we are, we are; but such things are delightful to our
nostrils."
[7] I asked, "What more shall I write from you?" They said, "Write this.
Everyone is allowed to be in his own enjoyment, even the most unclean, as
it is called, provided he does not infest good spirits and angels, but as
we could not but infest them, we were driven off and cast into hell,
where we suffer fearful things." I asked, "Why did you infest the good?"
They replied that they could not help it; a fury seems to seize them when
they see an angel and feel the divine sphere around him. Then I said, "So
you are also like savage beasts!" On hearing this, a fury came over them
which appeared like the fire of hate, and lest they inflict some injury,
they were drawn back into hell. On enjoyments sensed as odors or as
stenches in the spiritual world, see above (nn. 303-305, 324).
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence, by
Emanuel Swedenborg
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