The Project Gutenberg eBook, Spiritual Life and the Word of God, by
Emanuel Swedenborg
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Title: Spiritual Life and the Word of God
Author: Emanuel Swedenborg
Release Date: November 11, 2004 [eBook #14026]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF
GOD***
E-text prepared by William J. Rotella
SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD
by
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688-1772)
Extracted from the Apocalypse Explained
Contents
Part First--THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
I. How Spiritual Life is Acquired
II. Goods of Charity
III. Shunning Evils
IV. Cleansing the Inside
V. What Religion Consists In
Part Second--THE COMMANDMENTS
I. The First Commandment
II. The Second Commandment
III. The Third Commandment
IV. The Fourth Commandment
V. The Fifth Commandment
VI. The Sixth Commandment
VII. The Seventh Commandment
VIII. The Eighth Commandment
IX. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments
X. The Commandments in General
Part Third--PROFANATIONS OF GOOD AND TRUTH
I. Goods and Truths and Their Opposites
II. The First Kind of Profanation
III. The Second Kind of Profanation
IV. The Third Kind of Profanation
V. The Fourth and Fifth Kinds of Profanation
Part Fourth--THE DIVINE WORD
I. The Holiness of the Word
II. The Lord is the Word
III. The Lord's Words Spirit and Life
IV. Influx and Correspondence
V. The Three Senses of the Word
VI. Conjunction by the Word
VII. The Sense of the Letter
Part First--THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
I. How Spiritual Life is Acquired
Spiritual life is acquired solely by a life according to the
commandments in the Word. These commandments are given in summary in
the Decalogue, namely, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not
steal, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou
shalt not covet the goods of others. These commandments are the
commandments that are to be done, for when a man does these his works
are good and his life is spiritual, and for the reason that so far as a
man shuns evils and hates them so far he wills and loves goods.
For there are two opposite spheres that surround man, one from hell, the
other from heaven; from hell a sphere of evil and falsity therefrom,
from heaven a sphere of good and of truth therefrom; and these spheres
do [not immediately] affect the body, but they affect the minds of men,
for they are spiritual spheres, and thus are affections that belong to
the love. In the midst of these man is set; therefore so far as he
approaches the one, so far he withdraws from the other. This is why so
far as a man shuns evils and hates them, so far he wills and loves goods
and the truths therefrom; for no one can at the same time serve two
masters, for he will hate the one and will love the other. (Matt. vi.
24).
But let it be noted, that man must do these commandments from religion,
because they are commanded by the Lord; and if he does this from any
other consideration whatever, for instance, from regard merely to the
civil law or the moral law, he remains natural, and does not become
spiritual. For when a man acts from religion, he acknowledges in heart
that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death. But
when he acts from regard merely to the civil and moral law, he may act
in the same way, and yet in heart may deny that there is a God, a heaven
and a hell, and a life after death. And if he shuns evils and does
goods, it is merely in the external form, and not in the internal; thus
while he is outwardly in respect to the life of the body like a
Christian, inwardly in respect to the life of his spirit he is like a
devil. All this makes clear that a man can become spiritual, or receive
spiritual life, in no other way than by a life according to religion
from the Lord.
I have had proof that this is true from angels of the third or inmost
heaven, who are in the greatest wisdom and happiness. When asked how
they had become such angels, they said it was because during their life
in the world they had regarded filthy thoughts as abominable, and these
had been to them adulteries; and had regarded in like manner frauds and
unlawful gains, which had been to them thefts; also hatreds and
revenges, which had been to them murder; also lies and blasphemies,
which had been to them false testimonies; and so with other things.
When asked again whether they had done good works, they said they loved
chastity, in which they were because they had regarded adulteries as
abominable; that they loved sincerity and justice, in which they were
because they had regarded frauds and unlawful gains as abominable; that
they loved the neighbor because they had regarded hatreds and revenges
as abominable; that they loved truth because they had regarded lies and
blasphemies as abominable, and so on; and that they perceived that when
these evils have been put away, and they acted from chastity, sincerity,
justice, charity and truth, it was not done from themselves, but from
the Lord, and thus that all things whatsoever that they had done from
these were good works, although they had done them as if from
themselves; and that it was on this account that they had been raised up
by the Lord after death into the third heaven. Thus it was made clear
how spiritual life, which is the life of the angels of heaven, is
acquired.
It shall now be told how that life is destroyed by the faith of the
present day. The faith of this day is that it must be believed that God
the Father sent His Son, who suffered the cross for our sins, and took
away the curse of the law by fulfilling it; and that this faith apart
from good works will save everyone, even in the last hour of death. By
this faith instilled from childhood and afterward confirmed by
preachings, it has come to pass that no one shuns evils from religion,
but only from civil and moral law; thus not because they are sins but
because they are damaging.
Consider, when a man thinks that the Lord suffered for our sins, that He
took away the curse of the law, and that merely to believe these things,
or to have faith in them without good works saves, whether this is not
to regard as of little worth the commandments of the Decalogue, all the
life of religion as prescribed in the Word, and furthermore all the
truths that inculcate charity. Separate these, therefore, and take them
away from man, and is there any religion left in him? For religion does
not consist in merely thinking this or that, but in willing and doing
that which is thought; and there is no religion when willing and doing
are separated from thinking. From this it follows that the faith of
this day destroys spiritual life, which is the life of the angels of
heaven, and is the Christian life itself.
Consider further, why the ten commandments of the Decalogue were
promulgated from Mount Sinai in so miraculous a way; why they were
engraved on two tables of stone, and why these were placed in the ark,
over which was placed the mercy-seat with cherubs, and the place where
those commandments were was called the Holy of holies, within which
Aaron was permitted to enter only once a year, and this with sacrifices
and incense; and if he had entered without these, he would have fallen
dead; also why so many miracles were afterward performed by means of
that ark. Have not all throughout the whole globe a knowledge of like
commandments? Do not their civil laws prescribe the same? Who does not
know from merely natural lumen, that for the sake of order in every
kingdom, adultery, theft, murder, false witness, and other things in the
Decalogue are forbidden? Why then must those same precepts have been
promulgated by so many miracles, and regarded as so holy? Can there be
any other reason than that everyone might do them from religion, and
thus from God, and not merely from civil and moral law, and thus from
self and for the sake of the world? Such was the reason for their
promulgation from Mount Sinai and their holiness; for to do these
commandments from religion purifies the internal man, opens heaven,
admits the Lord, and makes man as to his spirit an angel of heaven. And
this is why the nations outside the church who do these commandments
from religion are all saved, but not anyone who does them merely from
civil and moral law.
Inquire now whether the faith of this day, which is, that the Lord
suffered for our sins, that he took away the curse of the law by
fulfilling it, and that man is justified and saved by this faith apart
from good works, does not cancel all these commandments. Look about and
discover how many there are at this day in the Christian world who do
not live according to this faith. I know that they will answer that
they are weak and imperfect men, born in sins, and the like. But who is
not able to think from religion? This the Lord gives to everyone; and
in him who thinks these things from religion the Lord works all things
so far as he thinks. And be it known that he who thinks of these things
from religion believes that there is a God, a heaven, a hell, and a life
after death; but he who does not think of these things from religion
does not, I affirm, believe them. (A.E., n. 902.)
II. Goods of Charity
What is meant by goods of charity or good works is at this day unknown
to most in the Christian world, because of the prevalence of the
religion of faith alone, which is a faith separated from goods of
charity. For if only faith contributes to salvation, and goods of
charity contribute nothing, the idea that these goods may be left undone
has place in the mind. But some who believe that good works should be
done do not know what is meant by good works, thinking that good works
are merely giving to the poor and doing good to the needy and to widows
and orphans, since such things are mentioned and seemingly commanded in
the Word. Some think that if good works must be done for the sake of
eternal life they must give to the poor all they possess, as was done in
the primitive church, and as the Lord commanded the rich man to sell all
that he had and give to the poor, and take up the cross and follow Him
(Matt. xix. 21). (A.E., n. 932.)
It has just been said that at this day it is scarcely known what is
meant by charity, and thus by good works, unless it be giving to the
poor, enriching the needy, doing good to widows and orphans, and
contributing to the building of churches and hospitals and lodging
houses; and yet whether such works are done by man and for the sake of
reward is not known; for if they are done by man they are not good, and
if for the sake of reward they are not meritorious; and such works do
not open heaven, and thus are not acknowledged as goods in heaven. In
heaven no works are regarded as good except such as are done by the Lord
in man, and yet the works that are done by the Lord in man appear in
outward form like those done by the man himself and cannot be
distinguished even by the man who does them. For the works done by the
Lord in man are done by man as if by himself; and unless they are done
as if by himself they do not conjoin man to the Lord, thus they do not
reform him. (A.E., n. 933.)
But for works to be done by the Lord, and not by man, two things are
necessary: first, there must be an acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine,
also that He is the God of heaven and earth even in respect to the
Human, also that every good that is good is from Him; and secondly, it
is necessary that man live according to the commandments of the
Decalogue, by abstaining from those evils that are there forbidden, that
is, from worshipping other gods, from profaning the name of God, from
thefts, from adulteries, from murders, from false witness, from coveting
the possessions and property of others. These two things are requisite
that the works done by man may be good. The reason is that every good
comes from the Lord alone, and the Lord cannot enter into man and lead
him so long as these evils are not set aside as sins; for they are
infernal, and in fact are hell with man, and unless hell is set aside
the Lord cannot enter and open heaven. This is what is meant by the
Lord's words to the rich man:
Who asked Him about eternal life, and said that he had kept the
commandments of the Decalogue from his youth; whom the Lord is said to
have loved, and to have taught that one thing was lacking to him, that
he should sell all that he had and take up the cross (Matt. xix. 16-22;
Mark x. 17-22; Luke xviii. 18-23).
"To sell all that he had" signifies that he should relinquish the things
of his religion, which were traditions, for he was a Jew, and also
should relinquish the things that were his own, which were loving self
and the world more than God, and thus leading himself; and "to follow
the Lord" signifies to acknowledge Him only and to be led by Him;
therefore the Lord also said, "Why callest thou Me good? There is none
good but God only." "To take up his cross" signifies to fight against
evils and falsities, which are from what is one's own (proprium).
(A.E., n. 934.)
III. Shunning Evils
In the previous chapter two things are said to be necessary that works
may be good, namely, that the Divine of the Lord be acknowledged, and
that the evils forbidden in the Decalogue be shunned as sins. The evils
enumerated in the Decalogue include all the evils that can ever exist;
therefore the Decalogue is called the ten commandments, because "ten"
signifies all.
The first commandment, "Thou shalt not worship other gods," includes not
loving self and the world; for he that loves self and the world above
all things worships other gods; for everyone's god is that which he
loves above all things.
The second commandment, "Thou shalt not profane the name of God,"
includes not to despise the Word and doctrine from the Word, and thus
the church, and not to reject these from the heart, for these are God's
"name."
The fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," included the shunning of
frauds and unlawful gains, for these also are thefts.
The sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," includes having
delight in adulteries and having no delight in marriages, and in
particular cherishing filthy thoughts respecting such things as pertain
to marriage, for these are adulteries.
The seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," includes not hating the
neighbor nor loving revenge; for hatred and revenge breathe murder.
The eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," includes
not to lie and blaspheme; for lies and blasphemies are false
testimonies.
The ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,"
includes not wishing to possess or to divert to oneself the goods of
others against their will.
The tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, his
man-servants," and so on, includes not wishing to rule over others and
to subject them to oneself, for the things here enumerated mean the
things that are man's own. Anyone can see that these eight commandments
relate to evils that must be shunned, and not to goods that must be
done. (A.E., n. 935.)
But many, I know, think in their heart that no one can of himself shun
these evils enumerated in the Decalogue, because man is born in sins and
has therefore no power of himself to shun them. But let such know that
anyone who thinks in his heart that there is a God, that the Lord is the
God of heaven and earth, that the Word is from Him, and is therefore
holy, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after
death, has the ability to shun these evils. But he who despises these
truths and casts them out of his mind, and still more he who denies
them, is not able. For how can one who never thinks about God think
that anything is a sin against God? And how can one who never thinks
about heaven, hell, and the life after death, shun evils as sins? Such
a man does not know what sin is.
Man is placed in the middle between heaven and hell. Out of heaven
goods unceasingly flow in, and out of hell evils unceasingly flow in;
and as man is between he has freedom to think what is good or to think
what is evil. This freedom the Lord never takes away from anyone, for
it belongs to his life, and is the means of his reformation. So far,
therefore, as man from this freedom has the thought and desire to shun
evils because they are sins, and prays to the Lord for help, so far does
the Lord take them away and give man the ability to refrain from them as
if of himself, and then to shun them.
Everyone is able from natural freedom to shun these same evils because
of their being contrary to human laws. This every citizen of a kingdom
does who fears the penalties of the civil law, or the loss of life,
reputation, honor, wealth, and thus of office, gain, and pleasures; even
an evil man does this. And the life of such a man appears exactly the
same in external form as the life of one who shuns these evils because
they are contrary to the Divine laws; but in internal form it is wholly
unlike it. The one acts from natural freedom only, which is from man;
the other acts from spiritual freedom, which is from the Lord; both
acting from freedom. When a man is able to shun these same evils from
natural freedom, why is he not able to shun them from spiritual freedom,
in which he is constantly held by the Lord, provided he thinks to will
this because there is a heaven, a hell, a life after death, punishment
and reward, and prays to the Lord for help?
Let it be noted, that every man when he is beginning the spiritual life
because he wishes to be saved, fears sins on account of the punishments
of hell, but afterward on account of the sin itself, because it is in
itself abominable, and finally on account of the truth and good that he
loves, thus for the Lord's sake. For so far as anyone loves truth and
good, thus the Lord, he so far turns away from what is contrary to
these, which is evil. All this makes clear that he that believes in the
Lord shuns evils as sins; and conversely, he that shuns evils as sins
believes; consequently to shun evils as sins is the sign of faith.
(A.E., n. 936.)
But as all the evils into which man is born derive their roots from a
love of ruling over others and from a love of possessing the goods of
others, and all the delights of man's own life flow forth from these two
loves, and all evils are from them, so the loves and delights of these
evils belong to man's own life. And since evils belong to the life of
man, it follows that man from himself can be no means refrain from them,
for this would be from his own life to refrain from his own life. An
ability to refrain from them of the Lord is therefore provided, and that
he may have this ability the freedom to think that which he wills and to
pray to the Lord for help is granted him. He has this freedom because
he is in the middle between heaven and hell, consequently between good
and evil. And being in the middle he is in equilibrium; and he who is
in equilibrium is able easily and as of his own accord to turn himself
the one way or the other; and the more so because the Lord continually
resists evils and repels them, and raises man up and draws him to
Himself. And yet there is combat, because the evils which belong to
man's life are stirred up by the evils that unceasingly rise up from
hell; and then man must fight against them, and, indeed, as if of
himself. If he does not fight as if of himself the evils are not set
aside. (A.E., n. 938.)
IV. Cleansing the Inside
It is acknowledged that man's interior must be purified before the good
that he does is good; for the Lord says,
"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the
platter, that the outside may be clean also" (Matt. xxiii. 26).
Man's interior is purified only as he refrains from evils, in accordance
with the commandments of the Decalogue. So long as man does not refrain
from these evils and does not shun and turn away from them as sins, they
constitute his interior, and are like an interposed veil or covering,
and in heaven this appears like an eclipse by which the sun is obscured
and light is intercepted; also like a fountain of pitch or of black
water, from which nothing emanates but what is impure. That which
emanates therefrom and that appears before the world as good is not
good, because it is defiled by evils from within, for it is Pharisaic
and hypocritical good. This good is good from man and is meritorious
good. It is otherwise when evils have been removed by a life according
to the commandments of the Decalogue.
Now since evils must be removed before goods can become good the Ten
Commandments were the first of the Word, being promulgated from Mount
Sinai before the Word was written by Moses and the prophets. And these
do not set forth goods that must be done, but evils that must be
shunned. For the same reason these commandments are the first things to
be taught in the churches; for they are taught to boys and girls in
order that man may begin his Christian life with them, and by no means
forget them as he grows up; although he does so. The same is meant by
these words in Isaiah:
"What is the multitude of sacrifices" to Me? Your meat offering, your
incense, "your new moons, and your appointed feasts, My soul hateth. . .
And when you multiply prayer I will not hear. . . Wash you, make you
clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to
do evil . . . . Then though your sins were as scarlet they shall be
white as snow; though they were red as purple they shall be as wool"
(i. 11-19).
"Sacrifices," "meat offerings," "incense," "new moons," and "feasts,"
also "prayer," mean all things of worship. That these are wholly evil
and even abominable unless the interior is purified from evils is meant
by "Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings, and
cease to do evil." That afterward they are all goods is meant by words
that follow. (A.E., n. 939.)
When man's interior is purified from evils by his refraining from them
and shunning them because they are sins, the internal which is above it,
and which is called the spiritual internal, is opened. This
communicates with heaven; consequently man is then admitted into heaven
and is conjoined to the Lord.
There are two internals in man, one beneath and the other above. While
man lives in the world he is in the internal which is beneath and from
which he thinks, for it is natural. This may be called for the sake of
distinction the interior. But the internal that is above is that into
which man comes after death when he enters heaven. All angels of heaven
are in this internal, for it is spiritual. This internal is opened to
the man who shuns evils as sins; but it is kept closed to the man who
does not shun evils as sins.
This internal is kept closed to the man who does not shun evils as sins,
because the interior, that is, the natural internal, until man has been
purified from sins, is hell; and so long as there is hell there heaven
cannot be opened; but as soon as hell has been set aside it is opened.
But let it be noted that in the measure in which the spiritual internal
and heaven are opened to man, the natural internal is purified from the
hell that is there. This is not done at once, but successively by
degrees. All this makes clear that man from himself is hell, and that
man is made a heaven by the Lord, consequently that he is snatched out
of hell by the Lord, and raised up into heaven to the Lord, not without
means but through means; and these means are the commandments just
mentioned, by which the Lord leads him who wishes to be led. (A.E., n.
940.)
When the spiritual internal is opened, and through it communication with
heaven and conjunction with the Lord are granted, enlightenment takes
place with man. He is enlightened especially when he reads the Word,
because the Lord is in the Word, and the Word is Divine truth, and
Divine truth is light to angels. Man is enlightened in the rational,
for this directly underlies the spiritual internal, and receives light
from heaven and transfers it into the natural when it is purified from
evils, filling it with the knowledges of truth and good, and adapting to
them the knowledges (scientiae) that are from world, for the sake of
proof and agreement. Thus man has a rational, and thus he has an
understanding. He who believes that man has a rational and an
understanding before his natural has been purified from evils is
deceived, for the understanding is seeing truths of the church from the
light of heaven; and the light of heaven does not flow into those not
purified. And as the understanding is perfected, the falsities of
religion and of ignorance and all fallacies are dispersed. (A.E., n.
941.)
When a man has been admitted by the opening of his internal into heaven,
and receives light therefrom, the same affections that angels of heaven
have, with their pleasures and delights, are communicated to him. The
first affection then granted is an affection for truth; the second is an
affection for good; and the third is an affection for bringing forth
fruits. For when a man has been admitted into heaven and into its light
and heat he is like a tree growing from its seed. His first budding
forth is from enlightenment; his blossoming before the fruit is from an
affection for truth; the putting forth of fruit that follows is from an
affection for good; the multiplication of itself again into trees is
from an affection for producing fruit. The heat of heaven, which is
love, and the light of heaven, which is the understanding of truth from
that love, bring forth in subjects of life things like those that the
heat of the world and its light bring forth in subjects not of life.
That like things are brought forth is from correspondence. But in both
cases the production is effected in springtime; and springtime in man is
when he enters heaven, which is effected when his spiritual internal is
opened; before that it is the time of winter to him. (A.E., n. 942.)
Man has affection for truth when he loves truth and turns away from
falsity. He has an affection for good when he loves good uses and turns
away from evil uses. He has an affection for bringing forth fruit when
he loves to do goods and to be serviceable. All heavenly joy is in
these affections and from them, and this joy cannot be described by
comparisons, for it is supereminent and eternal. (A.E., n. 943.)
Into this state the man comes who shuns evils because they are sins, and
looks to the Lord; and so far as he comes into this state he turns away
from and hates evils as sins, and acknowledges in heart and worships the
Lord only, and His Divine in the Human. This is a summary. (A.E., n.
944.)
When a man is in that state he is raised up from what is his own
(proprium); for a man is in what is his own (proprium) when he is only
in the natural external, but he is raised up from what is his own
(proprium) when he is in the spiritual internal. This raising up from
what is his own man perceives only by this, that he does not think
evils, and that he turns away from thinking them, and takes delight in
truths and in good uses. And yet if such a man advances further into
that state he perceives influx by a kind of thought; but he is not
withheld from thinking and willing as if from himself, for this the Lord
wills for the sake of reformation. Nevertheless, man should acknowledge
that nothing of good or of truth therefrom is from himself, but all is
from the Lord. (A.E., n. 945.)
It follows from this that when man shuns and turns away from evils as
sins and is raised up into heaven by the Lord, he is not longer in what
is his own (proprium), but in the Lord, and thus he thinks and wills
goods. Again, since man acts as he thinks and wills, for every act of
man goes forth from the thought of his will, it follows that when he
shuns and turns away from evils he does goods from the Lord and not from
self; and this is why shunning evils is doing goods. The goods that a
man does in this way are what are meant by good works; and good works in
their whole complex are what are meant by charity. Man cannot be
reformed unless he thinks, wills, and does as if from himself, since
that which is done as if by the man himself is conjoined to him and
remains with him, while that which is not done as if by the man himself,
not being received in any life of sense, flows through like ether; and
this is why the Lord wills that man should not only shun and turn away
from evils as if of himself, but should also think, will, and do as if
of himself, and yet acknowledge in heart that all these things are from
the Lord. This he must acknowledge because it is the truth. (A.E., n.
946.)
V. What Religion Consists In
Religion with man consists in a life according to the Divine
commandments, which are contained in a summary in the Decalogue. He
that does not live according to these can have no religion, since he
does not fear God, still less does he love God; nor does he fear man,
still less does he love him. Can one who steals, commits adultery,
kills, bears false witness fear God or man? Nevertheless everyone is
able to live according to these commandments; and he who is wise does so
live as a civil man, as a moral man, and as a natural man. And yet he
who does not live according to them as a spiritual man cannot be saved;
since to live according to them as a spiritual man means to live so for
the sake of the Divine that is in them, while to live according to them
as a civil man means for the sake of justice and to escape punishments
in the world; and to live according to them as a moral man means for the
sake of honesty, and to escape the loss of reputation and honor; while
to live according to them as a natural man means for the sake of what is
human, and to escape the repute of having an unsound mind.
All laws, civil, moral, and natural, prescribe that one must not steal,
must not commit adultery, must not kill, must not bear false witness;
and yet a man is saved not by shunning these evils from these laws
alone, but by shunning them also from spiritual law, thus shunning them
as sins. For with such a man there is religion, and a belief that there
is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death; with such a man
there is a civil life, a moral life, and a natural life; a civil life
because there is justice, a moral life because there is honesty, and a
natural life because there is manhood.
But he who does not live according to these commandments as a spiritual
man is neither a civil man, nor a moral man, nor a natural man; for he
is destitute of justice, of honesty, and even of manhood, since the
Divine is not in these. For there can be nothing good in and from
itself, but only from God; so there can be nothing just, nothing truly
honest or truly human in itself and from itself, but only from God, and
only when the Divine is in it. Consider whether anyone who has hell in
him, or who is a devil, can do what is just from justice or for the sake
of justice; in like manner what is honest, or what is truly human. The
truly human is what is from order and according to order, and what is
from sound reason; and God is order, and sound reason is from God. In a
word, he who does not shun evils as sins is not a man. Everyone who
makes these commandments to belong to his religion becomes a citizen and
an inhabitant of heaven; but he who does not make them to belong to his
religion, although in externals he may live according to them from
natural, moral, and civil law, becomes a citizen and an inhabitant of
the world, but not of heaven.
Most nations possess a knowledge of these commandments, and make them
the commandments of their religion, and live according to them because
God so wills and has commanded; and through this they have communication
with heaven and conjunction with God, consequently they are saved. But
most in the Christian world at this day do not make them the
commandments of their religion, but only of their civil and moral life;
and they do this that they may not appear in external form to act
fraudulently and make unlawful gains, commit adulteries, manifestly
pursue others from deadly hatred and revenge, and bear false witness,
and do not refrain from these things because they are sins and against
God, but because they have fears for their life, their reputation, their
office, their business, their possessions, their honor and gain, and
their pleasure; consequently if they were not restrained by these bonds
they would do these things. Because, therefore, such form for
themselves no communication with heaven or conjunction with the Lord,
but only with the world and with self, they cannot be saved.
Consider is respect to yourself, when these external bonds have been
taken away, as is done with every man after death, if there are no
internal bonds, which are from fear and love of God, thus from religion,
to restrain and hold you back, whether you would not rush like a devil
into thefts, adulteries, murders, false witnesses, and lusts of every
kind, from a love of these and a delight in them. That this is the case
I have both seen and heard. (A.E., n. 948.)
So far as evils are set aside as sins so far goods flow in, and so far
does man afterward do goods, not from self, but from the Lord.
As, first, so far as one does not worship other gods, and thus does not
love self and the world above all things, so far acknowledgment of God
flows in from the Lord, and then he worships God, not from self but from
the Lord.
Secondly, so far as one does not profane the name of God, that is, so
far as he shuns the lusts arising from the loves of self and of the
world, so far he loves the holy things of the Word and of the church;
for these are the name of God, and are profaned by the lusts arising
from the loves of self and of the world.
Thirdly, so far as one shuns thefts, and thus shuns frauds and unlawful
gains, so far sincerity and justice enter, and he loves what is sincere
and just from sincerity and justice, and thus does what is sincere and
just not from self but from the Lord.
Fourthly, so far as one shuns adulteries and thus shuns unchaste and
filthy thoughts, so far marriage love enters, which is the inmost love
of heaven, and in which chastity itself has its seat.
Fifthly, so far as one shuns murders, and thus shuns deadly hatreds and
revenges that breathe murder, so far the Lord enters with mercy and
love.
Sixthly, so far as one shuns false testimonies, and thus shuns lies and
blasphemies, so far truth from the Lord enters.
Seventhly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the house of others,
and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts for possessing the goods of
others, so far charity toward the neighbor enters from the Lord.
Eighthly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the wives of others,
their servants, etc., and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts of
ruling over others (for the things enumerated in this commandment are
what belong to man), so far love to the Lord enters.
These eight commandments include the evils that must be shunned, but the
two others, namely, the third and fourth, include certain things that
must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that
parents must be honored. But how these two commandments should be
understood, not by men of the Jewish church but by men of the Christian
church, will be told elsewhere. (A.E., n. 949).
Part Second--THE COMMANDMENTS
I. The First Commandment
"Thou shalt not make to thee other gods" includes not loving self and
the world above all things; for that which one loves above all things is
his god. There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love
to God, also love of the world and love of heaven. He who loves himself
loves his own (proprium); and as a man's own (proprium) is nothing but
evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil
hates good, and thus hates God. He who loves himself above all things
sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own
(proprium), and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when
one is sunk in the body and in his own (proprium) he is in corporeal
ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body, and thus in
thick darkness in respect to higher things; while he who is raised up by
the Lord is in light. He who is not in the light of heaven but in thick
darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies God and acknowledges as
god either nature or some man, or some idol, and even aspires to be
himself worshipped as a god. From this it follows that he who loves
self above all things worships other gods.
The same is true, but in a less degree, of one who loves the world; for
there cannot be so great a love of the world as of one's own (proprium);
therefore the world is loved because of one's own and for the sake of
one's own, because it is serviceable to it. Love of self means
especially the love of ruling over others from a mere delight in ruling
and for the sake of eminence, and not from a delight in uses and for the
sake of public good; while love of the world means especially a love of
possessing goods in the world from a mere delight in possession and for
the sake of riches, and not from a delight in uses from these and for
the sake of the consequent good. These loves are both of them without
limit, and rush on, so far as scope is given, to infinity. (A.E., n.
950.)
It is not believed in the world that the love of ruling from a mere
delight in ruling, and the love of possessing goods from a mere delight
in possession, and not from delight in uses, conceal in themselves all
evils, and also a contempt for and rejection of all things pertaining to
heaven and the church; and for the reason that man is stirred up by the
love of self and love of the world to right doing in respect to the
church, to the country, to society, and to the neighbor, by making good
deeds honorable and looking for reward. Therefore this love is called
by many the fire of life, and the incitement to great things.
But it is to be noted that so far as these two loves give uses the first
place and self the second they are good, while so far as they give self
the first place and uses the second they are evil, since man then does
all things for the sake of self and consequently from self, and thus in
every least thing he does there is self and what is his own (proprium),
which regarded in itself is nothing but evil. But to give uses the first
place and self the second is to do good for the sake of the church, the
country, society, and the neighbor; and the goods that man does to these
for the sake of these are not from man but from the Lord. The
difference between these two is like the difference between heaven and
hell. Man does not know that there is such a difference, because from
birth and thus from nature he is in these loves, and because the delight
of these loves continually flatters and pleases him.
But let him consider that a love of ruling from delight in ruling, and
not from a delight in uses, is wholly devilish; and such a man may be
called an atheist; for so far as he is in that love he does not in his
heart believe in the existence of God, and to the same extent he derides
in his heart all things of the church, and he even hates and pursues
with hatred all who acknowledge God, and especially those who
acknowledge the Lord. The very delight of the life of such is to do
evil and to commit wicked and infamous deeds of every kind. In a word,
they are very devils.
This a man does not know so long as he lives in the world: but he will
know that it is so when he comes into the spiritual world, as he does
immediately after death. Hell is full of such, where instead of having
dominion they are in servitude.
Moreover, when they are looked at in the light of heaven they appear
inverted, with the head downward and the feet upward, since they gave
rule the first place and uses the second; and that which is in the first
place is the head, and that which is in the second is the feet; and that
which is the head is loved, but that which is the feet is despised.
(A.E., n. 951.)
He who supposes that he acknowledges and believes that there is a God
before he abstains from the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, especially
from the love of ruling from a delight in ruling, and from the love of
possessing the goods of the world from a delight in possession, and not
from delight in uses, is mistaken. Let a man confirm himself as fully
as he can, from the Word, from preachings, from books, and from the
light of reason, that there is a God, and thus be persuaded that he
believes, yet he does not believe unless the evils that spring from love
of self and of the world have been removed. The reason is that evils
and their delights block up the way, and shut out and repel goods and
their delights from heaven, and prevent their establishment. And until
heaven is established there is only a faith of the lips, which in itself
is no faith, and there is no faith of the heart, which is real faith. A
faith of the lips is faith in externals, a faith of the heart is faith
in internals; and if the internals are crowded with evils of every kind,
when the externals are taken away (as they are with every man after
death), man rejects from them even the faith that there is a God.
(A.E., n. 952.)
So far as a man resists his own two loves, which are the love of ruling
from the mere delight in rule and the love of possessing the goods of
the world from the mere delight in possession, thus so far as he shuns
as sins the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, so far there flows in
through heaven from the Lord, that there is a God, who is the Creator
and Preserver of the universe, and even that God is one. This then
flows in for the reason that when evils have been removed heaven is
opened, and when heaven is opened man no longer thinks from self but
from the Lord through heaven; and that there is a God and that God is
one is the universal principle in heaven which comprises all things.
That from influx alone man knows and as it were sees that God is one, is
evident from the common confession of all nations, and from a repugnance
to think that there are many gods.
Man's interior thought, which is the thought of his spirit, is either
from hell or from heaven; it is from hell before evils have been
removed, but from heaven when they have been removed. When this thought
is from hell man sees no otherwise than that nature is god, and that the
inmost of nature is what is called the Divine. When such a man after
death becomes a spirit he calls anyone a god who is especially powerful;
and also himself strives for power that he may be called a god. All the
evil have such madness lurking inwardly in their spirit. But when a man
thinks from heaven, as he does when evils have been removed, he sees
from the light in heaven that there is a God and that He is one. Seeing
from light out of heaven is what is meant by influx. (A.E., n. 954.)
When a man shuns and turns away from evils because they are sins he not
only sees from the light of heaven that there is a God and the God is
one, but also that God is a Man. For he wishes to see his God, and he
is incapable of seeing Him otherwise than as a Man. Thus did the
ancients before Abraham and after him see God; thus do the nations in
lands outside the church see God from an interior perception, especially
those who are interiorly wise although not from knowledges; thus do all
little children and youths and simple well-disposed adults see God; and
thus do the inhabitants of all earths see God; for they declare that
what is invisible, since it does not come into the thought, does not
come into faith. The reason of this is that the man who shuns and turns
away from evils as sins thinks from heaven; and the whole heaven, and
everyone there, has no other idea of God than that He is a Man; nor can
he have any other idea, since the whole heaven is a man in the largest
form, and the Divine that goes forth from the Lord is what makes heaven;
consequently to think otherwise of God than according to that Divine
form, which is the human form, is impossible to angles, since angelic
thoughts pervade heaven.
(That the whole heaven in the complex answers to a single man may be
seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 51-86; and that the angels think
according to the form of heaven, n. 200-212.)
This idea of God flows in from heaven into all in the world, and has its
seat in their spirit; but it seems to be rooted out in those in the
church who are in intelligence from what is their own (proprium), indeed
so rooted out as to be no longer a possible idea; and this for the
reason that they think of God from space. But when these become spirits
they think otherwise, as has been made evident to me by much experience.
For in the spiritual world an indeterminate idea of God is no idea of
Him; consequently the idea there is determined to someone who has his
seat either on high or elsewhere, and who gives answers.
From a general influx which is from the spiritual world men have
received ideas of God as a Man variously according to the state of
perception; and for this reason the triune God is with us called
Persons; and in paintings in churches God the Father is represented as a
man, the Ancient of Days. It is also from a general influx that men,
both living and dead, who are called saints, are adored as gods by the
common people in Christian Gentilism, and their sculptured images are
esteemed. The same is true of many nations elsewhere, of the ancient
peoples in Greece, in Rome, and in Asia, who had many gods, all of whom
were regarded by them as men. This has been said to make known that
there is an intuition, namely, in man's spirit, to see God as a man.
That is called an intuition which is from general influx. (A.E., n.
955.)
As man from a general influx out of heaven sees in his spirit that God
is a Man, it follows that those who are of the church where the Word is,
if they shun and turn away from evils as sins, see, from the light of
heaven in which they then are, the Divine in the Lord's Human, and the
trine in Him, and Himself to be the God of heaven and earth. But those
who by intelligence from what is their own (proprium) have destroyed in
themselves the idea of God as a Man are unable to see this; neither do
they see from the trinity that is in their thought that God is one; they
call Him one with the lips only. But those who have not been purified
from evils, and therefore are not in the light of heaven, do not in
their spirit see the Lord to be the God of heaven and earth; but in
place of the Lord some other being is acknowledged; by some of these
someone whom they believe to be God the Father; by others someone whom
they call God because he is especially powerful; by others some devil
whom they fear because he can bring evil upon them; by others Nature, as
in the world; and by others no God at all. It is said in their spirit,
because they are such after death when they become spirits; therefore
what lay concealed in their spirit in the world then becomes manifest.
But all who are in heaven acknowledge the Lord only, since the whole
heaven is from the Divine that goes forth from Him, and answers to Him
as a Man; and for this reason no one can enter heaven unless he is in
the Lord, for he enters into the Lord when he enters into heaven. If
others enter they lose their mind and fall backward. (A.E., n. 956.)
The idea of God is the chief of all ideas; for such as this idea is such
is man's communication with heaven and his conjunction with the Lord,
and such is his enlightenment, his affection for truth and good, his
perception, intelligence, and wisdom; for these are not from man but
from the Lord according to conjunction with Him. The idea of God is the
idea of the Lord and His Divine, for no other is God of heaven and God
of earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew:
"Authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth" (xxviii. 18).
But the idea of the Lord is more or less full and more or less clear; it
is full in the inmost heaven, less full in the middle, and still less
full in the outmost heaven; therefore those who are in the inmost heaven
are in wisdom, those who are in the middle in intelligence, and those
who are in the outmost in knowledge. The idea is clear in the angels
who are at the center of the societies of heaven; and less clear in
those who are round about, according to the degrees of distance from the
center.
All in the heavens have places allotted them according to the fullness
and clearness of their idea of the Lord, and they are in correspondent
wisdom and in correspondent felicity. All those who have no idea of the
Lord as Divine, like the Socinians and Arians, are under the heavens,
and are unhappy. Those who have a twofold idea, namely, of an invisible
God and of a visible God in a human form, also have their place under
the heavens, and are not received until they acknowledge one God, and
Him visible. Some in the place of a visible God see as it were
something aerial, and this because God is called a spirit. If this idea
is not changed in them into the idea of a Man, thus of the Lord, they
are not accepted. But those who have an idea of God as the inmost of
nature are rejected, because they cannot help falling into the idea of
nature as being God. All nations that have believed in one God, and have
had an idea of Him as a Man, are received by the Lord. From all this it
can be seen who those are that worship God Himself and who those are
that worship other gods, thus who live according to the first
commandment of the Decalogue and who do not. (A.E., n. 957.)
II. The Second Commandment
The second commandment is, "Thou shalt not profane the name of God."
In the first place, what is meant by "the name of God" shall be told,
and afterward what is meant by "profaning" it. "The name of God" means
every quality by which God is worshipped. For God is in His own
quality, and is His own quality. His essence is Divine love, and His
quality is Divine truth therefrom united with Divine good; thus with us
on earth it is the Word; consequently it is said in John:
"The Word was with God, and the Word was God" (i. 1).
So, too, it is the doctrine of genuine truth and good from the Word; for
worship is according to that.
Now as His quality is manifold, for it comprises all things that are
from Him, so He has many names; and each name involves and expresses His
quality in general and in particular. He is called "Jehovah," "Jehovah
of Hosts," "Lord," "Lord Jehovah," "God," "Messiah (or Christ),"
"Jesus," "Saviour," "Redeemer," "Creator," "Former," "Maker," "King,"
and "the Holy One of Israel," "the Rock" and "the Stone of Israel,"
"Shiloh," "Almighty," "David," "Prophet," "Son of God," and "Son of
Man," and so on. All these names are names of the one God, who is the
Lord; and yet where they occur in the Word they signify some universal
Divine attribute or quality distinct from other Divine attributes or
qualities. So, too, where He is called "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,"
three are not meant, but one God; that is, there are not three Divines,
but one; and this trine which is one is the Lord.
Since each name signifies some distinct attribute or quality, "to
profane the name of God" does not mean to profane His name itself but
His quality. "Name" signifies quality for the reason that in heaven
everyone is named according to his quality; and the quality of God or
the Lord is everything that is from Him by which He is worshipped. For
this reason, since no Divine quality of the Lord is acknowledged in hell
the Lord cannot be named there; and in the spiritual world His names
cannot be uttered by anyone except so far as His Divine is acknowledged;
for there all speak from the heart, thus from love and consequent
acknowledgment. (A.E., n. 959.)
Since "the name of God" means that which is from God and which is God,
and this is called Divine truth, and with us the Word, this must not be
profaned, because it is in itself Divine and most holy; and it is
profaned when its holiness is denied, which is done when it is despised,
rejected, and treated contemptuously. When this is done heaven is
closed and man is left to hell. For as the Word is the only medium of
conjunction of heaven with the church, so when the Word is cast out of
the heart that conjunction is dissolved; and because man is then left to
hell he no longer acknowledges any truth of the church.
There are two things by which heaven is closed to the men of the church.
One is a denial of the Lord's Divine, and the other is a denial of the
holiness of the Word; and for this reason, that the Lord's Divine is the
all of heaven; and Divine truth, which is the Word in the spiritual
sense, is what makes heaven; which makes clear that he who denies the
one or the other denies that which is the all of heaven and from which
heaven is and exists, and thus deprives himself of communication and
consequent conjunction with heaven. To profane the Word is the same as
"blaspheming the Holy Spirit," which is not forgiven to anyone,
consequently it is said in this commandment that he who profanes the
name of God shall not be left unpunished. (A.E., n. 960.)
As Divine truth or the Word is meant by "the name of God," and the
profanation of it means a denial of its holiness, and thus contempt,
rejection, and blasphemy, it follows that the name of God is interiorly
profaned by a life contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue. For
there can be a profanation that is inner and not outer, and there can be
a profanation that is inner and at the same time outer, and there can be
also a kind of profanation that is outer and not at the same time inner.
Inner profanation is wrought by the life, outer by the speech. Inner
profanation, which is wrought by the life, becomes outer also, or of the
speech, after death. For then everyone thinks and wills, and so far as
it can be permitted, speaks and acts, according to his life; thus not as
he did in the world. In the world man is wont [accustomed], for the
world's sake and to gain reputation, to speak and act otherwise than as
he thinks and wills from his life. This is why it has been said that
there can be a profanation that is inner and not at the same time outer.
That there can be also a kind of profanation that is outer and not at
the same time inner is possible from the style of the Word, which is not
at all the style of the world, and for this reason it may be to some
extent despised from an ignorance of its interior sanctity. (A.E., n.
962.)
He who abstains from profaning the name of God, that is, the holiness of
the Word, by contempt, rejection, or any blasphemy, has religion; and
such as his abstinence is such is his religion. For no one has religion
except from revelation, and with us revelation is the Word. Abstinence
from profaning the holiness of the Word must be from the heart, and not
merely from the mouth. Those who abstain from the heart live from
religion; but those who abstain merely from the mouth do not live from
religion, for they abstain either for the sake of self or for the sake
of the world, in that the Word can be made to serve them as a means of
acquiring honor and gain; or they abstain from some fear. But of these
many are hypocrites who have no religion. (A.E., n. 963.)
III. The Third Commandment
The third commandment is, to keep the Sabbath holy.
The third and fourth commandments of the Decalogue contain things that
must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that
parents must be honored. The other commandments contain things that are
not to be done, namely, that other gods must not be worshipped; that the
name of God must not be profaned; that one must not steal, must not
commit adultery, must not bear false witness, must not covet the goods
of others. These two commandments are commandments to be done because
the sanctification of the rest of the commandments depends upon these,
for the "Sabbath" signifies the union in the Lord of the Divine itself
and the Divine Human, also His conjunction with heaven and the church,
and thus the marriage of good and truth in the man who is being
regenerated. This being the signification of the Sabbath, it was the
chief representative of all things of worship in the Israelitish Church,
as is evident in Jeremiah (xvii. 20-27), and elsewhere. It was the
chief representative of all things of worship, because the first thing
in all things of worship is the acknowledgment of the Divine in the
Lord's Human, for without that acknowledgment man can believe and do
only from self, and to believe from self is to believe falsities, and to
do from self is to do evils, as is also evident from the Lord's words in
John:
To those asking, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?"
Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom God
hath sent" (vi. 28, 29).
And in the same,
"He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for
apart from Me ye can do nothing" (xv. 5).
That the Sabbath represented that union and the holy acknowledgment of
it, has been fully shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that the
"Sabbath" signified in the highest sense the union of the Divine itself
and the Divine Human in the Lord, in the internal sense the conjunction
of the Lord's Human with heaven and with the church, in general the
conjunction of good and truth, thus the heavenly marriage (n. 8495,
10356, 10730). Therefore the rest on the Sabbath day signified the
state of that union, because the Lord then has rest; also through that
union there is peace and salvation in the heavens and on the earth. In
a relative sense it signified the conjunction of man with the Lord,
because man then has peace and salvation (n. 8494, 8510, 10360, 10367,
10370, 10374, 10668, 10730). The six days preceding the Sabbath
signified the labors and combats that precede union and conjunction (n.
8510, 8888, 9431, 10360, 10667). The man who is being regenerated is in
two states, the first when he is in truths and by means of truths is
being led to good and into good, the other when he is in good. When man
is in the first state he is in combats or temptations; but when he is in
the second state he is in the tranquillity of peace. The former state
is signified by the six days of labor that precede the Sabbath; and the
latter state is signified by the rest on the Sabbath day (n. 9274, 9431,
10360). The Lord also was in two states: the first when He was Divine
truth and from it fought against the hells and subjugated them, the
other when He was made Divine good by union with the very Divine in
Himself. The former state was signified in the highest sense by the six
days of labor, and the latter by the Sabbath (n. 10360). Because such
things were represented by the Sabbath, it was the chief representative
of worship, and the holiest of all (n. 10357, 10372). "To do work on
the Sabbath day" signified to be led not by the Lord but by self, thus
to be disjoined (n. 7893, 8495, 10360, 10362, 10365). The Sabbath day
is not now representative, but is a day of instruction (n. 10360 at the
end). (A.E., n. 965.)
IV. The Fourth Commandment
The fourth commandment of the Decalogue is that parents must be honored.
This commandment was given because honor to parents represented and thus
signified love to the Lord and love toward the church, for "father" in
the heavenly sense, that is, the Heavenly Father, is the Lord; and
"mother" in the heavenly sense, that is, the heavenly mother, is the
church; "honor" signifies good of love; and "length of days," which such
will have, signifies the happiness of eternal life. So is this
commandment understood in heaven, where no father but the Lord is known,
and no mother but the kingdom of the Lord, which is also the church.
For the Lord gives life from Himself, and through the church He gives
nourishment. That in the heavenly sense no father in the world can be
meant, and indeed, when man is in a heavenly idea, can be mentioned, the
Lord teaches in Matthew:
"Call no man your father on earth; for one is your Father who is in the
heavens" (xxiii. 9).
That "Father" signifies the Lord in relation to Divine good may be seen
in the Apocalypse Explained (n. 32, 200, 254, 297). That "mother"
signifies the Lord's kingdom, the church, and Divine truth, may be seen
in the Arcana Coelestia (n. 289, 2691, 2717, 3703, 5581, 8897); that
"length of days" signifies the happiness of eternal life (n. 8898); and
the "honor" signifies good of love (n. 8897), and Apocalypse Explained
(n. 228, 345). All this makes clear that the third and fourth
commandments involve arcana relating to the Lord, namely, acknowledgment
and confession of His Divine, and worship of Him from good of love.
(A.E., n. 966.)
V. The Fifth Commandment
The fifth commandment is, "Thou shalt not steal." By "thefts" both open
thefts and those not open are meant, such as unlawful usury and gains,
which are effected by fraud and craft under various pretenses to make
them appear lawful, or so done clandestinely as not to appear at all.
Such gains are commonly made by higher and lower managers of the goods
of others, by merchants, also by judges who sell judgments and thus make
justice purchasable. These and many other things are thefts that must
be abstained from and shunned, and finally renounced as sins against
God, because they are against the Divine laws that are in the Word and
against this law, which is one among the fundamental laws of all
religions in the whole globe. For these ten commandments are
universals, given to the end that in living from these a man may live
from religion, since by a life from religion man is conjoined with
heaven, while a life according to these from obedience to civil and
moral law conjoins man with the world and not with heaven, and to be
conjoined with the world and not with heaven is to conjoined with hell.
(A.E., n. 967.)
Man is so created as to be an image of heaven and an image of the world,
for he is a microcosm. He is born of his parents an image of the world,
and he is born again to be an image of heaven. To be born again is to
be regenerated; and man is regenerated by the Lord by means of truths
from the Word and a life according to them. Man is an image of the
world in respect to his natural mind, and he is an image of heaven in
respect to his spiritual mind. The natural mind, which is the world, is
beneath; and the spiritual mind, which is heaven, is above. The natural
mind is full of all kinds of evil, such as thefts, adulteries, murders,
false witnesses, covetousnesses, and even blasphemies and profanations
respecting God. These evils and many others have their seat in that
mind, for the loves of them are there, and thus the delights of
thinking, willing, and doing them.
These things are inborn in that mind from parents, for man is born and
grows up into the things that are in that mind, and is restrained only
by the bonds of civil law and by the bonds of moral life from doing
them, and from thus manifesting the tendencies of his depraved will.
Who cannot see that the Lord cannot flow in out of heaven into man and
teach him and lead him until these evils have been removed? For they
obstruct, repel, pervert, and suffocate the truths and goods of heaven,
which present themselves from above, press down, and strive to flow in.
For evils are infernal and goods are heavenly, and everything infernal
burns with hatred against everything heavenly.
This makes clear that before the Lord can flow in with heaven out of
heaven and form man to the image of heaven, those evils that lie heaped
up in the natural mind must needs be removed. Moreover, as the removal
of evils must come first before man can be taught and led by the Lord,
the reason is evident why in eight commandments of the Decalogue the
evil works that must not be done are recounted, but not the good works
that must be done. Good does not exist together with evil, nor does it
exist until evils have been removed; for until then there is no way
possible from heaven into man. Man is like a dark sea, the waters of
which must be removed on either side before the Lord in a cloud and in
fire can give a passage to the sons of Israel. The "dark sea" signifies
hell, "Pharaoh with the Egyptians" the natural man, and "the sons of
Israel" the spiritual man. (A.E., n. 969.)
Communication with heaven is not possible until the evils and the
falsities therefrom with which the natural mind is stopped up have been
removed; for these are like black clouds between the sun and the eye, or
like a wall between the light of heaven and the lumen of a candle in a
chamber. For so long as a man is in the lumen of the natural man only he
is like one shut up in a chamber where he sees by a candle. But as soon
as the natural man has been purified from evils and falsities therefrom
he is as if he saw through windows in the wall the things of heaven from
the light of heaven. For as soon as evils have been removed, the higher
mind, which is called the spiritual mind, is opened, and this, viewed in
itself, is a type or image of heaven. Through this mind the Lord flows
in and enables man to see from the light of heaven, and through this He
also reforms and at length regenerates the natural man, and implants in
it truths in the place of falsities and goods in the place of evils.
This the Lord does through spiritual love, which is a love for truth and
good. Man is then placed in the midst between two loves, between the
love of evil and the love of good; and when the love of evil recedes the
love of good takes its place. The love of evil recedes solely through a
life according to the commandments of the Decalogue, that is, through
refraining from evils there enumerated because they are sins, and
finally shunning them as infernal.
In a word, so long as man does not refrain from evils because they are
sins the spiritual mind is shut; but as soon as he refrains from evils
because they are sins the spiritual mind is opened, and with that mind
heaven also. And when heaven is opened man comes into another light in
respect to all things of the church, heaven, and eternal life; although
so long as man lives in this world the difference between this and the
former light is scarcely noticeable, and for the reason that in the
world man thinks naturally even about spiritual things, and until he
passes from the natural into the spiritual world spiritual things are
enclosed in natural ideas; but in the spiritual world spiritual things
are disclosed, perceived, and made evident. (A.E., n. 970.)
So far as man refrains from evils and shuns and turns away from them as
sins, good flows in from the Lord. The good that flows in is an
affection for knowing and understanding truths, and an affection for
willing and doing goods. But man cannot refrain from evils by shunning
and turning away from them of himself, for he himself is in evils from
his birth, and thus from nature; and evils cannot of themselves shun
evils, for this would be like a man's shunning his own nature, which is
impossible; consequently it must be the Lord, who is Divine good and
Divine truth, who causes man to shun them.
Nevertheless, man ought to shun evils as if of himself, for what a man
does as if of himself becomes his and is appropriated to him as his own;
while what he does not as if of himself in no wise becomes his or is
appropriated to him. What comes from the Lord to man must be received by
man; and it cannot be received unless he is conscious of it that is, as
if of himself. This reciprocation is a necessity to reformation.
This is why the ten commandments were given, and why it is commanded in
them that man shall not worship other gods, shall not profane the name
of God, shall not steal, shall not commit adultery, shall not kill,
shall not covet the house, wife, or servants of another, thus that man
shall refrain from doing these things by thinking, when the love of evil
allures and incites, that they must not be done because they are sins
against God, and in themselves are infernal. So far, therefore, as a
man shuns these evils so far the love of truth and good enters from the
Lord; and this love causes man to shun these evils, and at length to
turn away from them as sins. And as the love of truth and good puts
these evils to flight it follows that man shuns them not from himself
but from the Lord, since the love of truth and good is from the Lord.
If a man shuns evils merely from a fear of hell they are withdrawn; but
goods do not take their place; for as soon as the fear departs the evils
return.
To man alone is it granted to think as if of himself about good and
evil, that is, that good must be loved and done because it is Divine and
remains to eternity, and that evil must be hated and not done because it
is devilish and remains to eternity. To think thus is not granted to
any beast. A beast can do good and shun evil, yet not of itself, but
either from instinct or habit or fear, and never from the thought that
such a thing is a good or an evil, thus not of itself. Consequently,
one who would have it believed that man shuns evils or does goods not as
if of himself but from an imperceptible influx, or from the imputation
of the Lord's merit, would also have it believed that man lives like a
beast, without thought of, or perception of, or affection for, truth and
good.
That this is so has been made clear to me from manifold experience in
the spiritual world. Every man after death is there prepared either for
heaven or for hell. From the man who is prepared for heaven evils are
removed, and from the man who is prepared for hell goods are removed;
and all such removals are effected as if by them. Likewise those who do
evils are driven by punishments to reject them as if of themselves; but
if they do not reject them as if of themselves the punishments are of no
avail. By this it was made clear that those who hang down their hands,
waiting for influx or for the imputation of the Lord's merit, continue
in the state of their evil and hang down their hands forever.
To shun evils as sins is to shun the infernal societies that are in
them, and man cannot shun these unless he repels them and turns away
from them; and a man cannot turn away from them with repulsion unless he
loves good and from that love does not will evil. For a man must either
will evil or will good; and so far as he wills good he does not will
evil; and it is granted him to will good when he makes the commandments
of the Decalogue to be of his religion, and lives according to them.
Since man must refrain from evils as sins as if of himself, these ten
commandments were inscribed by the Lord on two tables, and these were
called a covenant; and this covenant was entered into in the same way as
it is usual to enter into covenants between two, that is, one proposes
and the other accepts, and the one who accepts consents. If he does not
consent the covenant is not established. To consent to this covenant is
to think, will, and do as if of oneself. Man's thinking to shun evil
and to do good as if of himself is done not by man, but by the Lord.
This is done by the Lord for the sake of reciprocation and consequent
conjunction; for the Lord's Divine love is such that it wills that what
is its own shall be man's, and as these things cannot be man's, because
they are Divine, it makes them to be as if they were man's. In this way
reciprocal conjunction is effected, that is, that man is in the Lord and
the Lord in man, according to the words of the Lord Himself in John
(xiv. 20); for this would not be possible if there were not in the
conjunction something belonging as it were to man. What man does as if
of himself he does as if of his will, of his affection, of his freedom,
consequently of his life. Unless these were present on man's part as if
they were his there could be no receptivity, because nothing reactive,
thus no covenant and no conjunction; in fact, no ground whatever for the
imputation that man had done evil or good or had believed truth or
falsity, thus that there is from merit a hell for anyone because of evil
works, or from grace a heaven for anyone because of good works. (A.E.,
n. 971.)
He who refrains from thefts, understood in a broad sense, and even shuns
them from any other cause than religion and for the sake of eternal
life, is not cleansed of them; for only by such refraining is heaven
opened. For it is through heaven that the Lord removes evils in man, as
through heaven He removes the hells. For example, there are higher and
lower managers of property, merchants, judges, officers of every kind,
and workmen, who refrain from thefts, that is, from unlawful modes of
gain and usury, and who shun these, but only to secure reputation and
thus honor and gain, and because of civil and moral laws, in a word,
from some natural love or natural fear, thus from merely external
constraints, and not from religion; but the interiors of such are full
of thefts and robberies, and these burst forth when external constraints
are removed from them, as takes place with everyone after death. Their
sincerity and rectitude is nothing but a mask, a disguise, and a deceit.
(A.E., n. 972.)
So far then as the various kinds and species of theft are removed, and
the more they are removed, the kinds and species of goods to which they
by opposition correspond enter and occupy their place; and these have
reference in general to what is sincere, right and just. For when a man
shuns and turns away from unlawful gains through fraud and craft he so
far wills what is sincere, right, and just, and at length begins to love
what is sincere because it is sincere, what is right because it is
right, and what is just because it is just. He begins to love these
things because they are from the Lord, and the love of the Lord is in
them. For to love the Lord is not to love the person, but to love the
things that go forth from the Lord, for these are the Lord in man; thus
it is to love sincerity itself, right itself, and justice itself. And
as these are the Lord, so far as a man loves these, and thus acts from
them, so far he acts from the Lord and so far the Lord removes
insincerity and injustice in respect to the very intentions and
volitions in which they have their roots, and always with less
resistance and struggle, and therefore with less effort than in the
first attempts. Thus it is that man thinks from conscience and acts
from integrity,--not the man of himself but as if of himself; for he
then acknowledges from faith and also from perception that it seems as
if he thought and did these things from himself, and yet he does them
not from himself but from the Lord. (A.E., n. 973.)
When a man begins to shun and turn away from evils because they are sins
all things that he does are good, and may be called good works; with a
difference according to the excellence of the use. For what a man does
before he shuns and turns away from evils as sins are works done by the
man himself; and as the man's own (proprium), which is nothing but evil,
is in these, and they are done for the sake of the world, so they are
evil works. But the works that a man does after he shuns and turns away
from evils as sins are works from the Lord, and because the Lord is in
these and heaven with Him they are good works.
The difference between works done by man and works done by the Lord in
man is not apparent to man's vision, but is clearly evident to the
vision of angels. Works done by man are like sepulchers outwardly
whitened, which within are full of dead men's bones. They are like
platters and cups outwardly clean, but containing unclean things of
every kind. They are like fruits inwardly rotten, but with the outer
skin still shining; or like nuts and almonds eaten by worms within,
while the shell remains untouched; or like a foul harlot with a fair
face. Such are the good works done by man himself, since however good
they appear on the outside, within they are full of impurities of every
kind; for their interiors are infernal, while their exteriors appear
heavenly.
But as soon as man shuns and turns away from evils as sins his works
are good not only outwardly but inwardly also; and the more interior
they are the more they are good, for the more interior they are the
nearer they are to the Lord. Then they are like fruits that have a
fine-flavored pulp, in the center of which are depositories with many
seeds, from which new trees, even to whole gardens, may be produced;
but everything and all things in his natural man are like eggs from
which swarms of flying creatures may be produced, and gradually fill a
great part of heaven. In a word, when man shuns and turns away from
evils as sins the works that he does are living works, while those that
he did before were dead works; for what is from the Lord is living but
what is from man is dead. (A.E., n. 974.)
It has been said that so far as a man shuns and turns away from evils as
sins he does goods, and that the goods that he does are such good works
as are described in the Word, for the reason that they are done in the
Lord; also that these works are good so far as man turns away from the
evils opposed to them, because so far they are done by the Lord and not
by man. Nevertheless, works are more or less good according to the
excellence of the use; for works must be uses. The best are those that
are done for the sake of uses to the church. Next in point of goodness
come those that are done as uses to one's country; and so on, the uses
determining the goodness of the works.
The goodness of works increases in man according to the fullness of
truths from affection for which they are done; since the man who turns
away from evils as sins wishes to know truths because truths teach uses
and the quality of their good. This is why good loves truth and truth
loves good, and they wish to be conjoined. So far, therefore, as such a
man learns truths from an affection for them so far he does goods more
wisely and more fully, more wisely because he knows how to distinguish
uses and to do them with judgment and justice, and more fully because
all truths are present in the performance of uses, and form the
spiritual sphere that the affection for them produces. (A.E., n. 975.)
Take judges for an example: All who make justice venal [purchasable] by
loving the office of judging for the sake of gain from judgments, and
not for the sake of uses to their country, are thieves, and their
judgments are thefts. It is the same if judgments are given according to
friendship or favor, for friendships and favors are also profits and
gains. When these are the end and judgments are the means, all things
that are done are evil, and are what are meant in the Word by "evil
works" and "not doing judgment and justice, perverting the right of the
poor, of the needy, of the fatherless, of the widow, and of the
innocent." And when such do justice, and yet regard profit as the end
while they do a good work, to them it is not good; for justice, which is
Divine, is to them a means, and such gain is the end; and that which is
made the end is everything, while that which is made the means is
nothing except so far as it is serviceable to the end. Consequently,
after death such judges continued to love what is unjust as well as what
is just, and are condemned to hell as thieves. I say this from what I
have seen. These are such as do not abstain from evils because they are
sins, but only because they fear punishments of the civil law and the
loss of reputation, honor, and office, and thus of gain.
It is otherwise with judges who abstain from evils as sins and shun them
because they are contrary to the Divine laws, and thus contrary to God.
Such make justice their end, and they venerate, cherish, and love it as
Divine. In justice they see God, as it were, because everything just,
like everything good and true, is from God. They always join justice
with equity and equity with justice, knowing that justice must be of
equity in order to be justice, and that equity must be of justice in
order to be equity, the same as truth is of good and good is of truth.
As such make justice their end, their giving judgments is doing good
works; yet these works, which are judgments, are to them more or less
good as there is in their judgments more or less of regard for
friendship, favor, or gain; also as there is more or less in them of a
love of what is just for the sake of the public good, which is that
justice may prevail among their fellow citizens, and that those who live
according to the laws may have security. Such judges have eternal life
in a degree that accords with their works; for they are judged as they
themselves have judged. (A.E., n. 976.)
Take as an example managers of the goods of others, higher or lower. If
these secretly by arts or under some pretext by fraud deprive their
kings, their country, or their masters of their goods, they have no
religion and thus no conscience, for they hold the Divine law respecting
theft in contempt and make it of no account. And although they frequent
churches, devoutly listen to preachings, observe the sacrament of the
Supper, pray morning and evening, and talk piously from the Word, yet
nothing from heaven flows in and is present in their worship, piety, or
discourse, since their interiors are full of theft, plundering, robbery,
and injustice; and so long as these are within, the way into them from
heaven is closed; consequently all the works they do are evil works.
But the managers of property who shun unlawful gains and fraudulent
profits because they are contrary to the Divine law respecting theft,
have religion, and thus also conscience; and all the works they do are
good, for they act from sincerity for the sake of sincerity, and from
justice for the sake of justice, and furthermore are content with their
own, and are cheerful in mind and glad in heart whenever it happens that
they have refrained from fraud; and after death they are welcomed by the
angels and received by them as brothers, and are presented with good
things even to abundance. But the opposite is true of evil managers;
these after death are cast out of societies, and afterward seek wages
and finally are sent into the caverns of robbers to labor there. (A.E.,
n. 977.)
Take merchants as an example: All their works are evil works so long as
they do not regard as sins, and thus shun as sins, unlawful gains and
wrongful usury, also fraud and craft; for such works cannot be done from
the Lord, but must be done from man himself. And the more expert they
are in skillfully and artfully contriving devices from within for
overreaching their companions the more evil are their works. And the
more expert they are in bringing such devices into effect under the
pretense of sincerity, justice, and piety, the more evil still are their
works. The more delight a merchant feels in such things the more do his
works have their origin in hell.
But if he acts sincerely and justly in order to acquire reputation, and
wealth through reputation, even so as to seem to act from a love of
sincerity and justice, and yet does not act sincerely and justly from
affection for the Divine law or from obedience to it, he is still
inwardly insincere and unjust, and his works are thefts, for through a
pretense of sincerity and justice he seeks to steal.
That this is so becomes evident after death, when man acts from his
inner will and love, and not from the outer; for then he thinks about
and devises nothing but sharp practices and robberies, and withdraws
himself from those who are sincere, and betakes himself either to
forests or deserts, where he devotes himself to stratagems. In a word,
all such become robbers.
But it is otherwise with merchants who shun as sins thefts of every
kind, especially the more interior and hidden, which are effected by
craft and deceit. All the works of such are good, because they are from
the Lord; for the influx from heaven, that is, through heaven from the
Lord, for accomplishing such works is not intercepted by the evils just
mentioned. To such riches do no harm, because to them riches are means
for uses. Their tradings are the uses by which they serve their country
and their fellow citizens; and through their riches they are in a
condition to perform those uses to which affection for good leads them.
(A.E., n. 978.)
From what has been said above, what is meant in the Word by good works
can now be seen, namely, that they are all works done by man when evils
have been set aside as sins. For the works done after this are done by
man only as if by him; for they are done by the Lord; and all works done
by the Lord are good, and are called goods of life, goods of charity,
and good works; as for instance, all judgments of a judge who has
justice as his end, all who venerates and loves it as Divine, and who
detests as infamous decisions made for the sake of rewards or
friendship, or from favor. Thus he consults the good of his country by
causing justice and judgment to reign therein as in heaven; and thus he
consults the peace of every innocent citizen and protects him from the
violence of evildoers. All these are good works. So all services of
managers and dealings of merchants are good works when they shun
unlawful gains as sins against the Divine laws. When a man shuns evils
as sins he daily learns what a good work is, and an affection for doing
good grows in him, and an affection for knowing truths for the sake of
good; for so far as he knows truths he can perform works more fully and
more wisely, and thus his works become more truly good. Refrain,
therefore, from asking in thyself, "What are the good works that I must
do, or what good must I do to receive eternal life?" Only refrain from
evils as sins and look to the Lord, and the Lord will teach and lead
you. (A.E., n. 979.)
VI. The Sixth Commandment
Thus far five commandments of the Decalogue have been explained. Now
follows the explanation of the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit
adultery."
Who at this day can believe that the delight of adultery is hell in man,
and that the delight of marriage is heaven in him, consequently so far
as he is in the one delight he is not in the other, since so far as man
is in hell he is not in heaven? Who at this day can believe that the
love of adultery is the fundamental love of all hellish and devilish
loves, and that the chaste love of marriage is the fundamental love of
all heavenly and Divine loves; consequently so far as a man is in the
love of adultery he is in every evil love, if not in act yet in
endeavor; and on the other hand, so far as he is in the chaste love of
marriage he is in every good love, if not in act yet in endeavor? Who
at this day can believe that he who is in the love of adultery believes
nothing of the Word, thus nothing of the church, and even in his heart
denies God; and on the other hand, that he who is in the chaste love of
marriage is in charity and in faith, and in love to God; also that the
chastity of marriage makes one with religion, and the lasciviousness of
adultery makes one with naturalism?
All this is at this day unknown because the church is at its end, and is
devastated in respect to truth and in respect to good; and when the
church is such, the man of the church, by influx from hell, comes into
the persuasion that adulteries are not detestable things and
abominations, and thus comes into the belief that marriages and
adulteries do not differ in their essence, but only as a matter of
order, and yet the difference between them is like the difference
between heaven and hell. That such is the difference between them will
be seen in what follows. This, then, is why in the Word in its
spiritual sense heaven and the church are meant by nuptials and
marriages, and hell and rejection of all things of the church are meant
in the Word in its spiritual sense by adulteries and whoredoms. (A.E.,
n. 981.)
Since adultery is hell in man and marriage is heaven in him, it follows
that so far as a man loves adultery he removes himself from heaven;
consequently adulteries close heaven and open hell, and this they do so
far as they are believed to be allowable and are perceived to be more
delightful than marriages. The man, therefore, who confirms himself in
adulteries and commits them from the favor and consent of his will, and
turns away from marriage, closes heaven to himself, until finally he
ceases to believe anything of the church or of the Word, and becomes a
wholly sensual man, and after death an infernal spirit; for, as has been
said above, adultery is hell, and thus an adulterer is a form of hell.
And since adultery is hell it follows that unless a man abstains from
adulteries and shuns them and turns away from them as infernal he shuts
up heaven to himself, and does not receive the least influx therefrom.
Afterward he reasons that marriages and adulteries are alike, but that
marriages must be maintained in kingdoms for the sake of order and the
training of offspring; also that adulteries are not criminal, since
children are equally born from them; and they are not harmful to women,
since they can endure them, and by them the procreation of the human
race is promoted. He does not know that these and other like reasonings
in favor of adulteries ascend from the Stygian [extremely dark] waters
of hell, and that the lustful and bestial nature of man which inheres in
him from birth attracts them and sucks them in with delight, as a swine
does excrement. That such reasonings, which at this day possess the
minds of most men in the Christian world, are diabolical, will be seen.
(A.E., n. 982.)
That marriage is heaven and that adultery is hell cannot be better seen
than from considering their origin. The origin of true marriage love is
the Lord's love for the church; and this is why the Lord is called in
the Word a "Bridegroom" and a "Husband," and the church a "bride" and a
"wife." It is from this marriage that the church is a church in general
and in particular. The church in particular is a man in whom the church
is. From this it is clear that the Lord's conjunction with a man of the
church is the very origin of true marriage love; and how that
conjunction can be the origin shall be told.
The Lord's conjunction with a man of the church is a conjunction of good
and truth; good is from the Lord, and truth is a man, and from this is
the conjunction that is called the heavenly marriage, and from that
marriage true marriage love exists between the married pair that are in
such conjunction with the Lord.
From this it is now evident that true marriage love is from the Lord
alone, and exists in those who are in the conjunction of good and truth
from the Lord. As this conjunction is reciprocal it is said by the Lord
that
They are in Him, and He in them (John xiv. 20).
This conjunction or this marriage was thus established from creation.
The man was created to be an understanding of truth, and the woman to be
an affection for good; and thus the man to be a truth, and the woman to
be a good. When understanding of truth which is in the man makes one
with the affection for good which is in the woman, there is a
conjunction of the two minds into one. This conjunction is the
spiritual marriage from which marriage love descends. For when two minds
are so conjoined as to be one mind there is love between them; and when
this love, which is the love of spiritual marriage, descends into the
body it becomes the love of natural marriage. That this is so anyone
can clearly perceive if he will. A married pair who interiorly or in
respect to their minds love each other mutually and reciprocally also
love each other mutually and reciprocally in respect to their bodies.
It is well known that all love descends into the body from an affection
of the mind, and that apart from such an origin no love exists.
Since then the origin of marriage love is the marriage of good and
truth, which marriage in its essence is heaven, it is clear that the
origin of the love of adultery is a marriage of evil and falsity, which
in its essence is hell. Heaven is a marriage because all who are in the
heavens are in a marriage of good and truth; and hell is adultery
because all who are in the hells are in a marriage of evil and falsity.
From this it follows that marriage and adultery are as opposite as
heaven and hell are. (A.E., n. 983.)
Man was so created as to be spiritual and celestial love, and thus an
image and likeness of God. Spiritual love, which is a love for truth,
is an image of God; and celestial love, which is a love for good, is a
likeness of God. All angels in the third heaven are likenesses of God;
and all angels in the second heaven are images of God. Man can become
the love which is an image or likeness of God only by a marriage of good
and truth; for good and truth inmostly love one another, and ardently
long to be united that they may be one; and for the reason that Divine
good and Divine truth go forth from the Lord united, therefore they must
be united in an angel of heaven and in a man of the church.
This union is by no means possible except by a marriage of two minds
into one, since, as has been said before, man was created to be an
understanding of truth, and thus a truth, and woman was created to be an
affection for good, and thus a good; therefore in them a conjunction of
good and truth is possible. For marriage love which descends from that
conjunction is the veriest medium by which man (homo) becomes the love
that is an image or likeness of God. For the married pair who are in
conjugal love from the Lord love one another mutually and reciprocally
from the heart, thus from inmosts; and therefore although apparently two
they are actually one, two in respect to their bodies, but one in
respect to life.
This may be compared to the eyes, which are two as organs but one in
respect to the sight; also to the ears, which are two as organs but one
in respect to hearing; so, too, the arms and the feet are two as members
but one in respect to use, the arms one in respect to action, and the
feet one in respect to walking. So with the other pairs with man. All
these have reference to good and truth, the organ or member on the right
to good, and that on the left to truth. It is the same with a husband
and wife between whom there is a true marriage love; they are two in
respect to their bodies but one in respect to life; consequently in
heaven the married pair are not called two angels but one. All this
makes clear that through marriage man becomes a form of love, and thus a
form of heaven, which is an image and likeness of God.
Man is born into a love of evil and falsity, which love is the love of
adultery; and this love cannot be turned about and changed into
spiritual love, which is an image of God, and still less into celestial
love, which is a likeness of God, except by a marriage of good and truth
from the Lord, and not fully except by a marriage of two minds and two
bodies. From this it is clear why marriages are heavenly and adulteries
infernal; for marriage is an image of heaven, and true marriage love is
an image of the Lord, while adultery is an image of hell, and love of
adultery is an image of the devil. Moreover, marriage love appears in
the spiritual world in form like an angel, and love of adultery in form
like a devil. Reader, treasure this up within you, and after death,
when you are living as a spirit-man, inquire whether this is true, and
you will see. (A.E., n. 984.)
How profane and thus how much to be detested adulteries are can be seen
from the holiness of marriages. All things in the human body, from the
head to the sole of the feet, both interior and exterior, correspond to
the heavens, and in consequence man is a heaven in its least form, and
also angels and spirits are in form perfectly human, for they are forms
of heaven. All the members devoted to generation in both sexes,
especially the womb, correspond to societies of the third or inmost
heaven, and for the reason that true marriage love is derived from the
Lord's love for the church, and from the love of good and truth which is
the love of the angels of the third heaven; therefore marriage love,
which descends therefrom as the love of that heaven, is innocence, which
is the very being (esse) of every good in the heavens. And for this
reason embryos in the womb are in a state of peace, and when they have
been born as infants are in a state of innocence; so, too, is the mother
in relation to them.
As this is the correspondence of the genital organs in the two sexes, it
is evident that by creation they are holy, and therefore they are
devoted solely to chaste and pure marriage love, and are not to be
profaned by the unchaste and impure love of adultery, by which man
converts the heaven in himself into hell; for as the love of marriage
corresponds to the love of the highest heaven, which is love to the Lord
from the Lord, so the love of adultery corresponds to the love of the
lowest hell.
The love of marriage is so holy and heavenly because it has its
beginning in the inmosts of man from the Lord Himself, and it descends
according to order to the outmosts of the body, and thus fills the whole
man with heavenly love and brings him into a form of the Divine love,
which is the form of heaven, and is an image of the Lord. But the love
of adultery has its beginning in the outmosts of man from an impure
lascivious fire there, and thus, contrary to order, penetrates toward
the interiors, always into the things that are man's own, which are
nothing but evil, and brings these into a form of hell, which is an
image of the devil. Therefore a man who loves adultery and turns away
from marriage is in form a devil.
As the organs of generation in the two sexes correspond to the societies
of the third heaven, and the love of a married pair corresponds to the
love of good and truth, so those organs and that love correspond to the
Word. The reason is that the Word is Divine truth united to Divine good
going forth from the Lord; and this is why the Lord is called "the
Word," also why in every particular of the Word there is a marriage of
good and truth, or a heavenly marriage. That there is such a
correspondence is a mystery not yet known in the world, but it has been
made evident and proved to me by much experience.
From this also it is clear how holy and heavenly marriages are in
themselves, and how profane and diabolical adulteries are. And for this
reason adulterers make no account of Divine truths and thus of the Word,
and if they were to speak from the heart they would even blaspheme the
holy things that are in the Word. This they do when they have become
spirits after death, for every spirit is compelled to speak from the
heart, that his interior thoughts may be revealed. (A.E., n. 985.)
As all the delights that man has in the natural world are turned into
correspondent delights in the spiritual world, so are the delights of
the love of marriage and the delights of the love of adultery. The love
of marriage is represented in the spiritual world as a virgin, whose
beauty is such as to inspire the beholder with the charms of life; while
the love of adultery is represented in the spiritual world by an old
woman, whose deformity is such as to inspire in the beholder a coldness
and death to every charm of life. Therefore in the heavens the angels
are beautiful according to the quality of marriage love in them, and in
the hells the spirits are deformed according to the quality of the love
of adultery in them. In a word, the angels of heaven have life in their
faces, in the movements of the body, and in their speech, in the measure
of their marriage love, while the spirits of hell have death in their
faces in the measure of their love of adultery.
In the spiritual world the delights of marriage love are represented to
the sense by odors from fruits and flowers of various kinds, while the
delights of the love of adultery are there represented to the sense by
the stenches from excrements and putridities of various kinds.
Moreover, the delights of the love of adultery are actually turned into
such things, since all things pertaining to adultery are spiritual
filth. Therefore from the brothels in the hells stenches pour forth
that excite vomiting. (A.E., n. 986.)
How holy in themselves, that is, from creation, marriages are can be
seen from the fact that they are the nurseries of the human race; and as
the angelic heaven is from the human race they are also the nurseries of
heaven; consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the
heavens are filled with inhabitants; and as the end of the entire
creation is the human race, and thus heaven, where the Divine itself may
dwell as in its own and as it were in itself, and as the procreation of
mankind according to Divine order is accomplished through marriages, it
is clear how holy marriages are in themselves, that is, from creation,
and thus how holy they should be esteemed. It is true that the earth
might be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well
as by marriages, but not heaven; and for the reason that hell is from
adulteries but heaven from marriages.
Hell is from adulteries because adultery is from the marriage of evil
and falsity, from which hell in the whole complex is called adultery;
while heaven is from marriages because marriage is from the marriage of
good and truth, from which heaven in its whole complex is called a
marriage. That is called adultery where its love, which is called a love
of adultery, reigns, whether it be within wedlock or apart from it, and
that is called marriage where its love, which is called marriage love,
reigns.
When procreations of the human race are effected by marriages in which
the holy love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is on
earth as it is in the heavens, and the Lord's kingdom on earth
corresponds to the Lord's kingdom in the heavens. For the heavens
consist of societies arranged according to all the varieties of
celestial and spiritual affections, from which arrangement the form of
heaven springs, and this pre-eminently surpasses all other forms in the
universe. There would be a like form on the earth if the procreations
there were effected by marriages in which a true marriage love reigned;
for then, however many families might descend in succession from one
head of a family, there would spring forth as many images of the
societies of heaven in a like variety.
Families would then be like fruit-bearing trees of various kinds,
forming as many different gardens, each containing its own kind of
fruit, and these gardens taken together would present the form of a
heavenly paradise. This is said in the way of comparison, because
"trees" signify men of the church, "gardens" intelligence, "fruits"
goods of life, and "paradise" heaven. I have been told from heaven that
with the most ancient people, from whom the first church on this globe
was established, which was called by ancient writers the golden age,
there was such a correspondence between families on the earth and
societies in the heavens, because love to the Lord, mutual love,
innocence, peace, wisdom, and chastity in marriages then prevailed; and
it was also told me from heaven that they were then inwardly horrified
at adulteries, as at the abominable things in hell. (A.E., n. 987.)
That heaven is from marriages and hell from adulteries has been shown
above. What this means shall now be told. The hereditary evils into
which man is born are not from Adam's having eaten of the tree of
knowledge, but from the adulteration of good and the falsification of
truth by parents, thus from the marriage of evil and falsity, from which
a love of adultery springs. The ruling love of parents by means of a
germ from it passes over into the offspring and is transcribed upon it
and becomes its nature. If the love of the parents is a love of adultery
it is also a love of evil for falsity and of falsity for evil. From
this source man has all evil, and from evil he has hell. All this makes
clear that it is from adulteries that man has hell, until he is reformed
by the Lord by means of truths and a life according to them. And no one
can be reformed unless he shuns adulteries as infernal and loves
marriages as heavenly. In this and in no other way is hereditary evil
broken and rendered milder in the offspring.
It is to be noted, however, that while from adulterous parents man is
born a hell, he is not born for hell but for heaven. For the Lord
provides that no one shall be condemned to hell on account of hereditary
evils, but only on account of the evils that the man has actually made
his own by his life, as can be seen from the lot of infants after death,
all of whom are adopted by the Lord, educated under His auspices in
heaven, and saved. This makes clear that every man, although from the
evils with which he is born he is a hell, is born not for hell but for
heaven.
It is the same with every man born from adultery if he does not himself
become an adulterer. Becoming an adulterer means living in the marriage
of evil and falsity by thinking evils and falsities from a delight in
them and by doing them from a love for them. Every man who does this
becomes an adulterer. Moreover, it is from Divine justice that no one
suffers punishments on account of the evils of his parents, but only on
account of his own; therefore the Lord provides that hereditary evils
shall not return after death, but only one's own evils, and it is only
for those that return that a man is then punished. (A.E., n. 989.)
It has been said that the difference between a love of marriage and a
love of adultery is like that between heaven and hell. There is a like
difference between the delights of these loves; for delights derive
their all from the loves from which they spring. The delights of the
love of adultery derive what they are from the delights of doing evil
uses, thus of evil-doing; and the delights of the love of marriage from
the delights of doing good uses, thus of well-doing. Therefore such as
the delight of the evil is in doing evil such is the delight of their
love of adultery; because a love of adultery descends therefrom. That
it descends from that scarcely anyone can believe; and yet such is its
origin. From this it is evident that the delight of adultery ascends
from the lowest hell. But the delight of the love of marriage, since it
is from the love of the conjunction of good and truth and from the love
of doing good, is a heavenly delight; and it comes down from the inmost
or third heaven, where love to the Lord from the Lord reigns.
From this it can be seen that the difference between these two delights
is like that between heaven and hell. And yet, for a wonder, it is
believed that the delight of marriage and the delight of adultery are
similar; nevertheless the difference between them is such as has now
been described. But the difference can be discerned and felt only by one
who is in the delight of marriage love. One who is in that delight
plainly feels that in the delight of marriage there is nothing impure or
unchaste, thus nothing lascivious; and that in the delight of adultery
there is nothing but what is impure, unchaste, and lascivious. He feels
that unchastity comes up from beneath, and that chastity comes down from
above. But one who is in the delight of adultery is incapable of
feeling this, because he feels what is infernal as his heavenly.
From all this it follows that the love of marriage, even in its outmost
act, is purity itself and chastity itself; and that the love of adultery
in its acts is impurity itself and unchastity itself. Since the
delights of these two loves are alike in outward appearance, although
inwardly they are wholly unlike, because opposites, the Lord provides
that the delights of adultery shall not ascend into heaven and that the
delight of marriage shall not descend into hell; and yet that there
shall be some correspondence of heaven with prolification in adulteries,
though none with the delight itself in them. (A.E., n. 990.)
It has been said that marriage love, which is natural, descends from the
love of good and truth, which is spiritual; this spiritual therefore is
in the natural love of marriage as a cause is in its effect. So from
the marriage of good and truth there comes forth a love of bearing
fruit, that is, good through truth and truth from the good; and from
that love a love of producing offspring descends, and in that love there
is every delight and pleasure.
On the contrary, love of adultery, which is natural, springs from a love
of evil and falsity, which is spiritual; consequently this spiritual is
in the natural love of adultery as a cause is in its effect. So from
the marriage of evil and falsity by love there comes forth a love of
bearing fruit, namely, evil through falsity and falsity from evil; and
from that love a love of producing offspring in adulteries descends, and
in that love there is every delight and pleasure.
There is every delight and pleasure in the love of producing offspring,
because all that is delightful, pleasurable, blessed, and happy, in the
whole heaven and in the whole world, has been from creation brought
together into the effort and thus into the act of bringing forth uses;
and these joys increase in an ascending degree to eternity, according to
the goodness and excellence of the uses. This make evident why the
pleasure of producing offspring, which surpasses every other pleasure,
is so great. It surpasses every other because its use, which is the
procreation of the human race, and thus of heaven, surpasses all other
uses.
From this, too, comes the pleasure and delight of adultery; but as
prolification by adulteries corresponds to the bringing forth of evil
through falsity and of falsity from evil, that pleasure or delight
decreases and becomes vile by degrees until it is changed at last into
aversion and disgust. Because, as has been said above, the delight of
the love of marriage is a heavenly delight, so the delight of adultery
is an infernal delight, so the delight of adultery is from a certain
impure fire, which as long as it lasts, counterfeits the delight of the
love of good, but in itself it is the delight of the love of evil, which
is in its essence the delight of hatred against good and truth. And
because this is its origin there is not love between an adulterer and an
adulteress except such as the love of hatred is, which is such that they
can be in conjunction in externals but not in internals. For in the
externals there is something fiery, but in the internals there is
coldness; therefore after a short time the fire is extinguished and
coldness succeeds, either with impotence or a turning away as from
something filthy.
It has been granted me to see that love in its essence, and it was such
that within it was deadly hatred, while without it appeared like a fire
from burning dung and putrid and stinking matters. And as that fire
with its delight burnt out, so by degrees the life of mutual discourse
and intercourse expired, and hatred came forth, manifested first as
contempt, afterward as aversion, then as rejection, and finally as abuse
and contention. And what was wonderful, although they hated each other
they could from time to time come together and for the time feel the
delight of hatred as the delight of love; but this came from a hankering
of the flesh.
What the delight of hatred and thus of doing evil is with those who are
in hell can neither be described nor believed. To do evil is the joy of
their heart, and this they call their heaven. Their delight in doing
evil derives its all from hatred and vengeance against good and truth;
when, therefore, they are moved by a deadly and devilish hatred they
rage against heaven, especially against those who are from heaven and
who worship the Lord; for they violently burn to slaughter them, and
because they cannot destroy their bodies they desire to destroy their
souls. It is, therefore, the delight of hatred which, becoming a fire
in the extremes and being injected into the lusting flesh, becomes for
the moment the delight of adultery,--the soul in which the hatred lies
concealed then withdrawing itself. It is for this reason that hell is
called adultery, and also that adulterers are desperately unmerciful,
savage, and cruel. This, then, is the infernal marriage. (A.E., n.
991.)
It has been said that the love of adultery is a fire enkindled from
impurities that soon burns out and is turned into cold, and into an
aversion corresponding to hatred. But the reverse is true of the love of
marriage. This is a fire enkindled from a love of good and truth and
from a delight in well-doing, thus from love to the Lord and from love
toward the neighbor. This fire, which from its origin is heavenly, is
full of innumerable delights, as many, in fact, as are the delights and
blessednesses of heaven. It has been told me that the charms and
pleasantnesses of that love, which are manifested from time to time, are
so many and such that they cannot be numbered or described. Moreover,
they are multiplied with continued increase to eternity. These delights
have their origin in the fact that the married pair wish to be united
into one in respect to their minds, and into such a union heaven
breathes from the marriage of good and truth from the Lord in heaven.
(A.E., n. 992.)
That true marriage love contains in itself ineffable delights that can
neither be numbered nor described can be seen from the fact that this is
the fundamental love of all celestial and spiritual loves, since through
that love man becomes love; for from it each of the married pair loves
the other as good loves truth and truth loves good, thus
representatively as the Lord loves heaven and the church. Such a love
can come forth only through a marriage in which the man is truth and the
wife is good. When a man through marriage has become such a love he is
also in love to the Lord and in love toward the neighbor, and thus in a
love for all good and in a love for all truth. For from man as a love
loves of every kind must proceed; therefore marriage love is the
fundamental love of all the loves of heaven. And as it is the
fundamental love of all the loves of heaven it is also the foundation of
all the delights and joys of heaven, since every delight and joy is of
love. From this it follows that heavenly joys, in their order and in
their degrees, have their origins and their causes in marriage love.
From the felicities of marriages a conclusion may be drawn respecting
the infelicities of adulteries, namely, that the love of adultery is the
fundamental love of all infernal loves, which are in themselves not
loves, but hatreds, consequently from the love of adultery hatreds of
every kind gush forth, both against God and against the neighbor, and in
general against every good and truth of heaven and the church; therefore
to it all infelicities belong, for, as has been said before, from
adulteries man becomes a form of hell, and from the love of adulteries
he becomes an image of the devil. That from the marriages in which
there is true marriage love all delights and felicities increase even
till they become the delights and felicities of the inmost heaven, and
that all that is undelightful and unhappy in the marriages in which love
of adultery reigns increases in direfulness even to the lowest hell, can
be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 386). (A.E., n. 993.)
True marriage love is from the Lord alone. It is from the Lord alone
because it descends from the Lord's love for heaven and the church, and
thus from the love of good and truth; for good is from the Lord, and
truth is in heaven and the church; and from this it follows that true
marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord. And from this
it is that no one can be in true marriage love and in its
pleasantnesses, delights, blessings, and joys, unless he acknowledges
the Lord alone, that is, that the trinity is in Him. One who approaches
the Father as a person by Himself, or the Holy Spirit as a person by
Himself, and not these as in the Lord, can have no marriage love.
The genuine conjugal principle is given especially in the third heaven,
because the angels there are in love to the Lord and acknowledge Him
alone as God, and do His commandments. To them doing the commandments
is loving the Lord. To them the Lord's commandments are the truths in
which they receive Him. There is conjunction of the Lord with them, and
of them with the Lord; for they are in the Lord because they are in
good, and the Lord is in them because they are in truths. This is the
heavenly marriage, from which true marriage love descends. (A.E., n.
995.)
As true marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the
Lord it is also innocence. Innocence is loving the Lord as one's Father
by doing His commandments and wishing to be led by Him and not by
oneself, thus like a little child. As that love is innocence, it is the
very being (esse) of all good; and therefore man has so much of heaven
in himself, or he is so much in heaven, as he is in marriage love,
because he is so far in innocence. It is because true marriage love is
innocence that the playfulness between a married pair is like the play
of little children; and this is so in the measure in which they love
each other, as is evident in the case of all in the first days after the
nuptials, when their love emulates true marriage love. The innocence of
marriage love is meant in the Word by the "nakedness" at which Adam and
his wife blushed not; and for the reason that there is nothing of
lasciviousness, and thus nothing of shame, between a married pair, any
more than between little children when they are naked together. (A.E.,
n. 996.)
Since marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the
Lord, and thus is innocence, marriage love is also peace, such as angels
in the heavens have. For as innocence is the very being (esse) of all
good, so peace is the very being (esse) of all delight from good,
consequently is the very being (esse) of all joy between the married
pair. As, then, all joy is of love, and marriage love is the
fundamental love of all the loves of heaven, so peace itself has its
seat chiefly in marriage love. Peace is bliss of heart and soul arising
from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, as well as
from conjunction of good and truth, when all conflict and combat of evil
and falsity with good and truth has ceased. And as marriage love
descends from such conjunction so all the delight of that love descends
and derives its essence from heavenly peace. Moreover, this peace
shines forth in the heavens as heavenly bliss from the faces of a
married pair who are in that love, and who mutually regard each other
from that love. But such heavenly bliss, which inmostly affects the
delights of loves, and is called peace, can be granted only to those who
can be joined together inmostly, that is, as to their very hearts.
(A.E., n. 997.)
Man has such and so much of intelligence and wisdom as he has of
marriage love. The reason is that marriage love descends from the love
of good and truth as an effect does from its cause, or as the natural
from its spiritual; and from the marriage of good and truth the angels
of the three heavens have all their intelligence and wisdom; for
intelligence and wisdom are nothing else than the reception of light and
heat from the Lord as a sun, that is, the reception of Divine truth
joined to Divine good, and of Divine good joined to Divine truth; thus
it is a marriage of good and truth from the Lord.
That it is such has been made clearly evident by angels in the heavens.
When these are separated from their consorts they are indeed in
intelligence, but not in wisdom; but when they are with their consorts
they are also in wisdom; and what seemed wonderful, as they turn the
face to their consort they are to the same extent in a state of wisdom;
for the conjunction of truth and good is effected in the spiritual world
by looking; and the wife there is good and the husband truth; therefore
as truth turns itself to good so truth becomes living. By intelligence
and wisdom ingenuity in reasoning about truths and goods is not meant,
but a capacity to see and understand truths and goods, and this capacity
man has from the Lord. (A.E., n. 998.)
True marriage love is a source of power and protection against the
hells, as it is against the evils and falsities that ascend from the
hells, and for the reason that through marriage love man has conjunction
with the Lord, and the Lord alone has power over all the hells; also
because through marriage love man has heaven and the church;
consequently as the Lord unceasingly protects heaven and the church from
the evils and falsities that rise up from the hells, so He protects all
who are in true marriage love, because such and no others have heaven
and the church. For heaven and the church are a marriage of good and
truth, from which is marriage love, as has been said above. And this is
why through marriage love man has peace, which is inmost joy of heart
from a complete safety from the hells and a protection from infestations
of the evil and falsity therefrom. (A.E., n. 999.)
Those who are in true marriage love, when after death they become
angels, return to their early manhood and to youth, the males, however
spent with age, becoming young men, and the wives, however spent with
age, becoming maidens. Each of the married pair returns to the flower
and joy of the age when marriage love begins to exalt the life with new
delights, and to inspire playfulness for the sake of prolification. The
man who while he lived in the world had shunned adulteries as sins, and
who has been inaugurated by the Lord into marriage love, comes into this
state first outwardly and afterward more and more interiorly to
eternity.
As such continue to grow young more interiorly it follows that true
marriage love continually increases and enters into its charms and
satisfactions, which have been provided for it from the creation of the
world, and which are the charms and satisfactions of the inmost heaven,
arising from the love of the Lord for heaven and the church, and thus
from the love of good for truth and truth for good, which loves are the
source of every joy in the heavens. Man thus grows young in heaven
because he then enters into the marriage of good and truth; and in good
there is the conatus [instinct] to love truth continually, and in truth
there is the conatus [instinct] to love good continually; and then the
wife is good in form and the husband is truth in form. From that conatus
[instinct] man puts off all the austerity, sadness, and dryness of old
age, and puts on the liveliness, gladness, and freshness of youth, from
which the conatus [instinct] becomes living and a joy.
I have been told from heaven that such then have the life of love, which
cannot otherwise be described than as the life of joy itself. That the
man who lives in true marriage love in the world comes after death into
the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of good and truth springing
from the marriage of the Lord with the church, is clearly evident from
this, that from the marriages in the heavens, although the married pair
have consociations there like those on the earth, children are not
born, but instead of children goods and truths, and thus wisdom, as has
been said above. And this is why births, nativities, and generations
mean in the Word, in its spiritual sense, spiritual births, nativities,
and generations, and sons and daughters mean the truths and goods
of the church, and other like things are meant by daughters-in-law,
mothers-in-law, and fathers-in-law. This also makes clear that
marriages on the earth correspond to marriages in the heavens; and that
after death man comes into the correspondence, that is, comes from
natural bodily marriage into spiritual heavenly marriage, which is
heaven itself and the joy of heaven. (A.E., n. 1000.)
From marriage love angels have all their beauty; thus each angel has
beauty in the measure of that love. For all angels are forms of their
affections, for the reason that it is not permitted in heaven to
counterfeit with the face things that do not belong to one's affection;
consequently their faces are types of their minds. When, therefore,
they have marriage love, and love of wisdom, these loves in them give
form to their faces, and show themselves like vital fires in their eyes;
to which innocence and peace add themselves, which complete their
beauty. Such are the forms of the inmost angelic heaven; and they are
truly human forms. (A.E., n. 1001.)
From what has been thus far presented what the good is that results from
chastity in marriage can be inferred, consequently what the good works
of chastity are that a man does who shuns adulteries as sins against
God. The good works of chastity concern either the married pair
themselves, or their offspring and posterity, or the heavenly societies.
The good works of chastity that concern the married pair themselves are
spiritual and celestial loves, intelligence and wisdom, innocence and
peace, power and protection against the hells and against the evils and
the falsities therefrom, and manifold joys and felicities to eternity.
Those who live in chaste marriages, as before described, have all these.
The good works of chastity that concern the offspring and posterity are
that so many and so great evils do not become innate in families. For
the ruling love of parents is transmitted to the offspring and sometimes
to remote posterity, and becomes their hereditary nature. This is
broken and softened in parents who shun adulteries as infernal and love
marriages as heavenly. The good works of chastity that concern the
heavenly societies are that chaste marriages are the charms of heaven,
that they are its nurseries, and that they are its supports. They
supply charms to heaven by communications; they are nurseries to heaven
by producing offspring; and they are supports to heaven by their power
against the hells; for at the presence of conjugal love devilish spirits
become furious, insane, and mentally impotent, and cast themselves into
the deep. (A.E., n. 1002.)
From the goods enumerated and described that result from chaste
marriages it may be concluded what the evils are that result from
adulteries; for such evils are the opposites of such goods; that is, in
place of the spiritual and celestial loves that those have who live in
chaste marriages, there are the infernal and devilish loves that those
have who are in adulteries. So in place of the intelligence and wisdom
that those have who live chastely in marriages there are the insanities
and follies that those have who are in adulteries; in place of the
innocence and peace that those have who live in chaste marriages there
are the deceit and no peace that those have who are in adulteries; in
place of the power and protection against the hells that those have who
live chastely in marriages there are the very Asmodean demons and the
hells that those have who live in adulteries; in place of the beauty
that those have who live chastely in marriages there is the deformity
that those have who live in adulteries, which is monstrous according to
what they are. Their final lot is that from the extreme impotence to
which they are at length reduced they become emptied of all the fire and
light of life, and dwell alone in deserts as images of the slothfulness
and weariness of their own life. (A.E., n. 1003.)
True marriage love is impossible except between two, like the Lord's
love toward heaven, which is one from Him and in Him, or toward the
church, which like heaven is one from Him and in Him. All who are in
the heavens and who are in the church must be one through mutual love
from love to the Lord. An angel in heaven or a man in the church who
does not thus make one with the rest is not of heaven or of the church.
Moreover, in the whole heaven and in the whole world there are two
things to which all things have reference; these two are called good and
truth, from which, when joined into one, all things in heaven and in the
world have had existence and subsistence. When these are one, good is
in truth and truth is in good, and truth is of good and good is of
truth; thus one recognizes the other as its mutual and reciprocal, or as
an agent recognizes its reagent, each in its turn.
This universal marriage is the source of marriage love between husband
and wife. The husband has been so created as to be the understanding of
truth, and the wife so created as to be the will of good, and thus the
husband to be a truth and the wife a good, as well as that both may be
truth and good in form, which form is man, and an image of God.
Since, then, for truth to come to be of good and good to be of truth
mutually and reciprocally has its origin in creation, so it is
impossible for one truth to be united to two diverse goods, or the
reverse; neither is it possible for one understanding to be united to
two diverse wills or the reverse; neither for one person who is
spiritual to be united to two diverse churches; neither in like manner
for one man (vir) to be inmostly united to two women. Inmost union is
like that of soul and heart; the soul of the wife is the husband, and
the heart of the husband is the wife. The husband communicates and
conjoins his soul to the wife by actual love; it is in his seed; and the
wife receives it in her heart, and from this the two become one, and
then each and all things in the body of the one look to their mutual in
the body of the other. This is genuine marriage, which is possible only
between two. For it is by creation that all things of the husband, both
of his mind and of his body, have their mutual in the mind and in the
body of the wife; and thus the most particular things look mutually to
each other and will to be united. From this looking and conatus
[instinct] marriage love springs.
All things in the body, which are called members, viscera, and organs,
are nothing but natural corporeal forms corresponding to the spiritual
form of the mind; from this each and all things of the body so
correspond to each and all things of the mind that whatever the mind
wills and thinks the body at its command instantly brings forth into
act. When, therefore, two minds act as one their two bodies are
potentially so united that they are no more two but one flesh. To will
to become one flesh is marriage love; and such as the willing is, such
is that love.
It is allowed to confirm this by a wonderful thing in the heavens.
There are married pairs there in such marriage love that the two can be
one flesh, and are one whenever they wish, and they then appear as one
man. I have seen and talked with such; and they said that they have one
life, and are like the life of good in truth and the life of truth in
good, and are like the pairs in man, that is, like the two hemispheres
of the brain enclosed in one membrane, the two ventricles of the heart
within a common covering, likewise the two lobes of the lungs; these,
although they are two, yet are one in regard to life and the activities
of life, which are uses. They said that their life so conjoined is full
of heaven, and is the very life of heaven with its infinite beatitudes,
for the reason that heaven that heaven also is such from the marriage of
the Lord with it, for all the angels of heaven are in the Lord and the
Lord in them.
Furthermore, they said that it is impossible for them to think from any
intention about an additional wife or woman, because this would be
turning heaven into hell, consequently if an angel merely thinks of such
a thing he falls from heaven. They added that natural spirits do not
believe such conjunctions as theirs to be possible, for the reason that
with those who are merely natural there is no marriage from a spiritual
origin, which is of good and truth, but only a marriage from a natural
origin; therefore there is no union of minds, but only a union of bodies
from a lascivious disposition in the flesh; and this lust is from a
universal law impressed upon and thus implanted in everything animate
and inanimate from creation. The law is that everything in which there
is force wills to produce its like and to multiply its kind to infinity
and to eternity. As the posterity of Jacob, who were called the sons of
Israel, were merely natural men, and thus their marriages were not
spiritual but carnal, so they were permitted on account of the hardness
of their hearts to take more wives than one. (A.E., n. 1004.)
But it is to be noted that adulteries are more and less infernal and
abominable. The adulteries that spring from more grievous evils and
their falsities are more grievous, and those from the milder evils and
their falsities are milder; for adulteries correspond to adulterations
of good and consequent falsifications of truth; adulterations of good
are in themselves evils, and falsifications of truth are in themselves
falsities. According to correspondences with these the hells are
arranged into genera and species. (A.E., n. 1006.)
In brief, from every conjunction of evil and falsity in the spiritual
world a sphere of adultery flows forth, but only from those who are in
falsities in regard to doctrine and in evils in regard to life; not from
those who are in falsities in regard to doctrine but are in goods in
regard to life, for in such there is no conjunction of evil and falsity,
but only in the former. That sphere flows forth particularly from
priests who have taught falsely and lived wickedly; for these have
adulterated and falsified the Word. Although such were not adulterers in
the world, adultery is excited by them; but it is an adultery called
sacerdotal [priestly] adultery, which is distinguishable from other
adulteries. All this makes clear that the origin of adulteries is the
love and consequent conjunction of evil and falsity. (A.E., n. 1007.)
Adulteries are less abhorrent to Christians than to the heathen, and
even to some barbarous nations, for the reason that at present in the
Christian world there is no marriage of good and truth, but a marriage
or evil and falsity. For the religion and doctrine of faith separated
from good works is a religion and doctrine of truth separated from good;
and truth separated from good is not truth, but inwardly regarded is
falsity; and good separated from truth is not good, but inwardly
regarded is evil. Consequently in the Christian religion there is
doctrine of falsity and evil, from which origin a desire and inclination
for adultery from hell flow in; and this is why adulteries are believed
in the Christian world to be allowable, and are practiced without shame.
For, as has been said above, the conjunction of evil and falsity is
spiritual adultery, from which according to correspondence natural
adultery springs. For this reason "adulteries" and "whoredoms" signify
in the Word adulterations of good and falsifications of truth; and for
this reason Babylon is called in the Apocalypse a "harlot," and
Jerusalem is so called in the Word of the Old Testament; and the Jewish
nation was called by the Lord "an adulterous nation," and "from their
father the devil." (A.E., n. 1008.)
He that abstains from adulteries from any other motive than because they
are sins and are against God is still an adulterer; as for instance when
anyone abstains from them from fear of the civil law and its penalties,
from fear of the loss of reputation and thus of honor, from fear of
resulting diseases, from fear of upbraidings at home from his wife and
consequent intranquility of life, from fear of chastisement by the
servants of the injured husband, from poverty, or from avarice; from
infirmity arising from abuse or from age or impotence or disease; in
fact, when one abstains because of any natural or moral law, and does
not at the same time abstain because of the Divine law, he is interiorly
unchaste and an adulterer, since he none the less believes that
adulteries are not sins, and therefore declares them lawful in his
spirit, and thus commits them in spirit, although not in the body;
consequently after death when he becomes a spirit he speaks openly in
favor of them, and commits them without shame.
It has been granted me in the spiritual world to see maidens who
regarded whoredoms as wicked because they are contrary to the Divine
law, and also maidens who did not regard them as wicked and yet
abstained from them because the resulting bad name would turn away
suitors. These latter I saw encompassed with a dusky cloud in their
descent to those below, while the former I saw encompassed with a
shining light in their ascent to those above. (A.E., n. 1009.)
VII. The Seventh Commandment
In what now follows something shall be said about the seventh
commandment, which is, "Thou shalt not kill." In all the commandments
of the Decalogue, as in all things of the Word, two internal senses are
involved (besides the highest which is a third), one that is next to the
letter and is called the spiritual moral sense, another that is more
remote and is called the spiritual celestial sense.
The nearest sense of this commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," which is
the spiritual moral sense, is that one must not hate his brother or
neighbor, and thus not defame or slander him; for thus he would injure
or kill his reputation and honor, which is the source of his life among
his brethren, which is called his civil life, and afterward he would
live in society as one dead, for he would be numbered among the vile and
wicked, with whom no one would associate. When this is done from enmity,
from hatred, or from revenge, it is murder.
Morever, by many in the world this life is counted and esteemed in equal
measure with the life of the body. And before the angels in the heavens
he that destroys this life is held to be as guilty as if he had
destroyed the bodily life of his brother. For enmity, hatred, and
revenge breathe murder and will it; but they are restrained and curbed
by fear of the law, of resistance and of loss of reputation. And yet
these three are endeavors toward murder; and every endeavor is an act,
for it goes forth into act when fear is removed. This is what the Lord
teaches in Matthew:
"Ye have heard that it was said to them of old, Thou shalt not kill; and
whosoever shall kill shall be liable to the judgment. But I say unto
you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be
liable to the judgment; whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall
be liable to the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be
liable to the hell of fire." (v. 21-26)
But the more remote sense of this commandment, Thou shalt not kill,
which is called the celestial spiritual sense, is that one shall not
take away from man the faith and love of God, and thus his spiritual
life. This is murder itself, because from this life man is a man, the
life of the body serving this life as the instrumental cause serves its
principal cause. Moreover, from this spiritual murder moral murder is
derived; consequently he who is in the one is also in the other; for he
who wills to take away a man's spiritual life is in hatred against him
if he cannot take it away, for he hates the faith and love in him, and
thus the man himself. These three, namely, spiritual murder, which
pertains to faith and love, moral murder, which pertains to reputation
and honor, and natural murder, which pertains to the body, follow in a
series one from the other, like cause and effect. (A.E., n. 1012.)
As all who are in hell are in hatred against the Lord, and thus in
hatred against heaven, for they are against goods and truths, so hell is
the essential murderer or the source of essential murder. It is the
source of essential murder because man is man from the Lord through the
reception of good and truth; consequently destruction of good and truth
is destruction of the human itself, thus the killing of man.
That those who are in hell are such has not yet been known in the world,
because in those who belong to hell and therefore after death come into
hell no hatred against good and truth, or against heaven, or still less
against the Lord, is evident. For everyone while he lives in the world
is in externals; and these externals are taught and trained from infancy
to counterfeit such things as are honest and decorous, right and
equitable, and good and true. Nevertheless, hatred lies concealed in
their spirit, and this in equal degree with the evil of their life. And
as hatred is in the spirit it breaks forth when the externals are laid
aside, as is the case after death.
This infernal hatred against all who are in good is deadly hatred
because it is hatred against the Lord. This can be seen particularly in
their delight in doing evil, which is such as to exceed in degree every
other delight, for it is a fire that burns with a lust for destroying
souls. Moreover, it has been ascertained that this delight is not from
hatred against those whom they attempt to destroy, but from hatred
against the Lord Himself. And since man is a man from the Lord, and the
human which is from the Lord is good and truth, and since those who are
in hell are, from hatred against the Lord, eager to kill the human,
which is good and truth, it follows that hell is the source of murder
itself. (A.E., n. 1013.)
From what has been said above it can be seen that all who are in evils
in respect to life, and in the falsities therefrom, are murderers; for
they are enemies and haters of good and truth, since evil hates good and
falsity hates truth. The evil man does not know he is in such hatred
until he becomes a spirit; then hatred is the very delight of his life.
Consequently from hell, where all the evil are, there constantly
breathes forth a delight in doing evil from hatred; while from heaven,
where all the good are, there constantly breathes forth a delight in
doing good from love. Therefore two opposite spheres meet each other in
the middle region between heaven and hell, and engage in reciprocal
combat. While man lives in the world he is in this middle region. If
he is then in evil and in falsities therefrom he passes over to the side
of hell, and thus comes into a delight in doing evil from hatred. But
if he is in good and in truths therefrom, he passes over to the side of
heaven, and thus comes into a delight in doing good from love.
The delight in doing evil from hatred, which breathes forth from hell,
is a delight in killing. But as they cannot kill the body they wish to
kill the spirit; and to kill the spirit is to take away spiritual life,
which is the life of heaven. This makes clear that the commandment,
"Thou shalt not kill," involves also thou shalt not hate thy neighbor,
also thou shalt not hate the good of the church and its truth; for if
one hates good and truth he hates the neighbor; and to hate is to wish
to kill. This is why the devil, by whom hell in the whole complex is
meant, is called by the Lord,
"A murderer from the beginning" (John viii, 44).
Since hatred, which is a desire to kill, is the opposite of love to the
Lord and also of love toward the neighbor, and since these loves are
what make heaven in man, it is evident that hatred, being thus opposite,
is what makes hell in him. Nor is infernal fire anything else than
hatred; and in consequence the hells appear to be in a fire with a dusky
glow according to the quality and quantity of the hatred, and in a fire
with a dusky flame according to the quantity and quality of the revenge
from hatred.
Since hatred and love are direct opposites, and since hatred in
consequence constitutes hell in man, just as love constitutes heaven in
him, so the Lord teaches,
"If thou shalt offer thy gift upon the altar, and shalt there remember
that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before
the altar, and go; first be reconciled to they brother, and then coming
offer thy gift. Be well disposed toward thine adversary whiles thou art
in the way with him; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge,
and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily, I say unto thee, Thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast
paid the uttermost farthing" (Matt. v. 23-26).
To be delivered to the judge, and by the judge to the officer, and by
him to be cast into prison, depicts the state of the man who is in
hatred after death from his having been in hatred against his brother in
the world, "prison" meaning hell, and "paying the uttermost farthing"
signifying the punishment that is called the fire everlasting. (A.E.,
n. 1015.)
Since hatred is infernal fire it is clear that it must be put away
before love, which is heavenly fire, can flow in, and by light from
itself give life to man; and this infernal fire can in no wise be put
away unless man knows whence hatred is and what it is, and afterward
turns away from it and shuns it. There is in every man by inheritance a
hatred against the neighbor; for every man is born into a love of self
and of the world, and in consequence conceives hatred, and from it is
inflamed against all who do not make one with him and favor his love,
especially against those who oppose his lusts. For no one can love
himself above all things and love the Lord at the same time; neither can
anyone love the world above all things and love the neighbor at the same
time; since no one can serve two masters at the same time without
despising and hating the one while he honors and loves the other.
Hatred is especially in those who are in a love of ruling over all; with
others it is unfriendliness.
It shall be told what hatred is. Hatred has in itself a fire which is
an endeavor to kill man. That fire is manifested in anger. There is a
seeming hatred and consequent anger in the good against evil; but this
is not hatred, but an aversion to evil; neither is it anger, but a zeal
for good in which heavenly fire inwardly lies concealed. For the good
turn away from what is evil, and are seemingly angry at the neighbor, in
order that they may remove the evil; and thus they have regard to the
neighbor's good. (A.E., n. 1016.)
When a man abstains from hatred and turns away from it and shuns it as
devilish, love, charity, mercy, clemency flow in through heaven from the
Lord, and then for the first time the works that he does are works of
love and charity; while the works he had done before, however good might
be their appearance in the external form, were all works of love of self
and of the world, in which hatred lurked whenever they were not
rewarded. So long as hatred is not put away so long man is merely
natural; and the merely natural man remains in all his inherited evil,
nor can he become spiritual until hatred, with its root, which is love
of ruling over all, is put away; for the fire of heaven, which is
spiritual love, cannot flow in so long as the fire of hell, which is
hatred, stands in the way and shuts it out. (A.E., n. 1017.)
VIII. The Eighth Commandment
The eighth commandment of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not bear false
witness," shall now be explained. "To bear false witness" signifies in
the sense nearest to the letter to lie about the neighbor by accusing
him falsely. But in the internal sense it signifies to call what is just
unjust, and what is unjust just, and to confirm this by means of
falsities; while in the inmost sense it signifies to falsity the truth
and good of the Word, and on the other hand to prove a falsity of
doctrine to be true by confirming it by means of fallacies, appearances,
fabrications, knowledges falsely applied, sophistries, and the like.
The confirmations themselves and the consequent persuasions are false
witnesses, for they are false attestations.
From this it can be seen that what is here meant is not only false
witness before a judge, but even a judge himself who in perverting right
makes what is just unjust, and what is unjust just, for he as well as
the witness himself acts the part of a false witness. The same is true
of every man who makes what is straight to appear crooked, and what is
crooked to appear straight; likewise any ecclesiastical leader who
falsifies the truth of the Word and perverts its good. In a word, every
falsification of truth, spiritual, moral, and civil, which is done from
an evil heart, is false witness. (A.E., n. 1019.)
When a man abstains from false testimonies understood in a moral and
spiritual sense, and shuns and turns away from them as sins, a love of
truth and a love of justice flow in from the Lord through heaven. And
when, in consequence, the man loves truth and loves justice he loves the
Lord, for the Lord is truth itself and justice itself. And when a man
loves truth and justice it may be said that truth and justice love him,
because the Lord loves him; and as a consequence his utterances become
utterances of truth, and his works become works of justice. (A.E., n.
1020.)
IX: The Ninth and Tenth Commandments
The ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house," is
now to be treated of. There are two loves from which all lusts spring
and flow forth perpetually like streams from their fountains. These
loves are called love of the world and love of self. Lust is a love
continually desiring, for what a man loves, that he continually longs
for. But lusts belong to the love of evil, while desires and affections
belong to the love of good. Now because love of the world and love of
self are the fountains of all lusts, and all evil lusts are forbidden in
these last two commandments, it follows that the ninth commandment
forbids the lusts that flow from love of the world, and the tenth
commandment the lusts that flow from love of self. "Not to covet a
neighbor's house" means not to covet his goods, which in general are
possessions of wealth, and not to appropriate them to oneself by evil
arts. This lust belongs to love of the world. (A.E., n. 1021.)
The tenth commandment is "Thou shalt not covet (or try to get possession
of) thy neighbor's wife, his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox,
or his ass." These are lusts after what is man's own, because the wife,
man-servant, maid-servant, ox, and ass, are within his home, and the
things within a man's home mean in the spiritual internal sense the
things that are his own, that is, the wife means affection for spiritual
truth and good, "man-servant and maid-servant," affection for rational
truth and good serving the spiritual, and "ox and ass" affection for
natural good and truth. These signify in the Word such affections; but
because coveting and trying to get possession of these affections means
to wish and eagerly desire to subject a man to one's own authority or
bidding, it follows that lusting after these affections means the lusts
of the love of self, that is, of the love of ruling, for thus does one
make the things belonging to a companion to be his own.
From this it can now be seen that the lust of the ninth commandment is a
lust of the love of the world, and that the lusts of the tenth
commandment are lusts of the love of self. For, as has been said
before, all lusts are of love, for it is love that covets; and as there
are two evil loves to which all lusts have reference, namely, love of
the world and love of self, it follows that the lust of the ninth
commandments has reference to love of the world, and the lust of this
commandment to love of self, especially to the love of ruling. (A.E.,
n. 1022.)
X. The Commandments in General
The commandments of the Decalogue are called the ten words or ten
commandments, because "ten" signifies all; consequently the ten words
mean all things of the Word, and thus all things of the church in brief.
All things of the Word and all things of the church in brief are meant,
because there are in each commandment three interior senses, each sense
for its own heaven, for there are three heavens. The first sense is the
spiritual moral sense; this is for the first or outmost heaven; the
second sense is the celestial spiritual sense, which is for the second
or middle heaven; and the third sense is the Divine celestial, which is
for the third or inmost heaven. There are thus three internal senses in
every least particular of the Word. For from the Lord, who is in things
highest, the Word has been sent down in succession through the three
heavens even to the earth, and thus has been accommodated to each
heaven; and therefore the Word is in each heaven and I may say in each
angel in its own sense, and is read by them daily; and there are
preachings from it, as on the earth.
For the Word is Divine truth itself, thus Divine wisdom, going forth
from the Lord as a sun, and appearing in the heavens as light. Divine
truth is the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit, for it not only goes
forth from the Lord but it also enlightens man and teaches him, as is
said of the Holy Spirit. As the Word in its descent from the Lord has
been adapted to the three heavens, and the three heavens are joined
together as inmosts are with outmosts through intermediates, so, too,
are the three senses of the Word; which shows that the Word is given
that by it there may be a conjunction of the heavens with each other,
and a conjunction of the heavens with the human race, for whom the sense
of the letter is given, which is merely natural and thus the basis of
the other three senses. That the ten commandments of the Decalogue are
all things of the Word in brief can be seen only from the three senses
of those commandments, which are as above stated. (A.E., n. 1024).
What these three senses in the commandments of the Decalogue are can be
seen from the following summary explanation. The first commandment,
"Thou shalt not worship other gods beside Me," involves in the spiritual
moral sense that nothing else nor anyone else is to be worshipped as
Divine; nothing else, that is, Nature, by attributing to it something
Divine of itself; nor anyone else, that is, any vicar of the Lord or any
saint. In the celestial spiritual sense it involves that one God only
is to be acknowledged, and not several according to their qualities, as
the ancients did, and as some heathens do at this day, or according to
their works, as Christians do at this day, who make out one God because
of creation, another because of redemption, and another because of
enlightenment.
This commandment in the Divine celestial sense involves that the Lord
alone is to be acknowledged and whorshipped, and a trinity in Him,
namely, the Divine itself from eternity, which is meant by the Father,
the Divine Human born in time, which is meant by the Son of God, and the
Divine that goes forth from both, which is meant by the Holy Spirit.
These are the three senses of the first commandment in their order.
From this commandment viewed in its threefold sense it is clear that it
contains and includes in brief all things that concern the essence of
the Divine.
The second commandment, "Thou shalt not profane the name of God,"
contains and includes in its three senses all things that concern the
quality of the Divine, since "the name of God" signifies His quality,
which in its first sense is the Word, doctrine from the Word, and
worship of the lips and of the life from doctrine; in its second sense
it means the Lord's kingdom on the earth and the Lord's kingdom in the
heavens; and in its third sense it means the Lord's Divine Human, for
this is the quality of the Divine itself.
In the other commandments there are likewise three internal senses for
the three heavens; but these, the Lord willing, will be considered
elsewhere. (A.E., n. 1025.)
As the Divine truth united to Divine good goes forth from the Lord as a
sun, and by this heaven and the world were made (John i. 1, 3, 10), it
follows that it is from this that all things in heaven and in the world
have reference to good and to truth and to their conjunction in bringing
forth something. These ten commandments contain all things of Divine
good and all things of Divine truth, and there is also in them a
conjunction of these. But this conjunction is hidden; for it is like
the conjunction of love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, Divine
good belonging to love to the Lord, and Divine truth to love toward the
neighbor; for when a man lives according to Divine truth, that is, loves
his neighbor, the Lord flows in with Divine good and conjoins Himself.
For this reason there were two tables on which these ten commandments
were written, and they were called a covenant, which signifies
conjunction; and afterward they were placed in the ark, not one beside
the other, but one above the other, for a testimony of the conjunction
between the Lord and man. Upon one table the commandments of love to
the Lord were written, and upon the other table the commandments of love
toward the neighbor. The commandments of love to the Lord are the first
three, and the commandments of love toward the neighbor are the last
six; and the fourth commandment, which is "Honor thy father and thy
mother," is the mediating commandment, for in it "father" means the
Father in the heavens, and "mother" means the church, which is the
neighbor. (A.E., n. 1026.)
Something shall now be said about how conjunction is effected by means
of the commandments of the Decalogue. Man does not conjoin himself to
the Lord, but the Lord alone conjoins man to Himself, and this He does
by man's knowing, understanding, willing, and doing these commandments;
and when man does them there is conjunction, but if he does not do them
he ceases to will them, and when he ceases to will them he ceases also
to understand and know them. For what does willing amount to if man
when he is able does not do? Is it not a figment of reason? From this
it follows that conjunction is effected when a man does the commandments
of the Decalogue.
But it has been said that man does not conjoin himself to the Lord, but
that the Lord alone conjoins man to Himself, and that conjunction is
effected by doing; and from this it follows that it is the Lord in man
that does these commandments. But anyone can see that a covenant cannot
be entered into and conjunction be effected by it unless there is some
return on man's part, not only in consent but also in acceptance. To
this end the Lord has imparted to man a freedom to will and act as if of
himself, and such a freedom that man does not know otherwise, when he is
thinking about truth and doing good, than that the freedom is in himself
and thus from himself. There is this return on man's part in order that
conjunction may be effected. But as this freedom is from the Lord, and
continually from Him, man must by all means acknowledge that thinking
about and understanding truth and willing and doing good are not from
himself, but are from the Lord.
Consequently when man through the last six commandments conjoins himself
to the Lord as if of himself, the Lord then conjoins Himself to man
through the first three commandments, which are that man must
acknowledge God, must believe in the Lord, and must keep His name holy.
These man does not believe, however much he may think that he does,
unless the evils forbidden in the other table, that is, in the last six
commandments, he abstains from as sins. These are the things pertaining
to the covenant on the part of the Lord and on the part of man, through
which there is reciprocal conjunction, which is that man may be in the
Lord and the Lord in man (John xiv. 20). (A.E., n. 1027.)
It is said by some that he who sins against one commandment of the
Decalogue sins also against the rest, thus that he who is guilty of one
is guilty of all. It shall be told how far this is in harmony with the
truth. When a man transgresses one commandment, assuring himself that it
is not a sin, thus offending without fear of God, because he has thus
rejected the fear of God he does not fear to transgress the rest of the
commandments, although he may not do this in act.
For example, when one does not regard as sins frauds and illicit gains,
which in themselves are thefts, neither does he regard as a sin adultery
with the wife of another, hating a man even to murder, lying about him,
coveting his house and other things belonging to him; for when he
rejects from his heart in any one commandment the fear of God he denies
that anything is a sin; consequently he is in communion with those who
in like manner transgress the other commandments. He is like an infernal
spirit who is in a hell of thieves; and although he is not an adulterer,
nor a murderer, nor a false witness, yet he is in communion with such,
and can be persuaded by them to believe that such things are not evils,
and can be led to do them. For he who becomes an infernal spirit
through the transgression of one commandment, no longer believes it to
be a sin to do anything against God or anything against the neighbor.
But the opposite is true of those who abstain from the evil forbidden in
one commandment, and who shun and afterward turn away from it as a sin
against God. Because such fear of God, they come into communion with
angels of heaven, and are led by the Lord to abstain from the evils
forbidden in the other commandments and to shun them, and finally to
turn away from them as sins; and if perchance they have sinned against
them, yet they repent and thus by degrees are withdrawn from them.
(A.E., n. 1028.)
Part Third--PROFANATIONS OF GOOD AND TRUTH
I. Goods and Truths and Their Opposites
The Divine good that goes forth from the Lord is united with His Divine
truth, as heat from the sun is with light in the time of spring. But
angels, who are recipients of the Divine good and Divine truth going
forth from the Lord, are distinguished as celestial and spiritual.
Those who receive more of the Lord's Divine good than of His Divine
truth are called celestial angels; because these constitute the kingdom
of the Lord that is called the celestial kingdom. But the angels who
receive more of the Lord's Divine truth than of his Divine good are
called spiritual angels, because of these the Lord's spiritual kingdom
consists. This makes clear that goods and truths have a twofold origin,
namely, a celestial origin and a spiritual origin. Those goods and
truths that are from a celestial origin are the goods and truths of love
to the Lord; while those goods and truths that are from a spiritual
origin are the goods and truths of love toward the neighbor. The
difference is like that between higher and lower, or between inner and
outer; thus like that between things that are in a higher or inner
degree, and those that are in a lower or outer degree; and what this
difference is can be seen from what has been said in the work on Heaven
and Hell about the three degrees of the heavens, and thus of the angels
and their intelligence and wisdom (H.H., n. 33, 34, 38, 39, 208, 209,
211, 435). (A.E., n. 1042.)
As the heavens are divided into two kingdoms, namely, into a celestial
kingdom and a spiritual kingdom, so are the hells divided into two
domains opposite to those kingdoms. The domain opposite to the celestial
kingdom is called devilish, and the domain opposite to the spiritual
kingdom is called infernal. These domains are distinguished in the Word
by the names Devil and Satan. There are two domains in the hells,
because the heavens and the hells are opposite to each other; and
opposite must fully correspond to opposite that there may be
equilibrium. For the springing forth and permanence of all things, both
in the natural world and in the spiritual world, depend upon an exact
equilibrium between two activities that are opposite; and when these act
against each other manifestly, they act by forces, but when not
manifestly they act by endeavors (canatus). By means of equilibriums
all things in both worlds are preserved; without this all things would
perish. In the spiritual world the equilibrium is between good from
heaven and evil from hell; and thus between truth from heaven and
falsity from hell. For the Lord arranges unceasingly that all kinds and
species of good and truth in the heavens shall have opposite to them in
the hells evils and falsities of kinds that correspond by opposition;
thus goods and truths from a celestial origin have for their opposites
evils and falsities that are called devilish; and in like manner goods
and truths from a spiritual origin have for their opposites evils and
falsities that are called infernal. The cause of these equilibriums is
to be found in the fact that the same Divine goods and Divine truths
that the angels in the heavens receive from the Lord, the spirits in the
hells turn into evils and falsities. All angels, spirits, and men are
kept by the Lord in equilibrium between good and evil, and thus between
truth and falsity, in order that they may be in freedom; and thus may be
led from evil to good and from falsity to truth easily and as if by
themselves, although in fact they are led by the Lord. For the same
reason they are led in freedom from good to evil, and from truth to
falsity, and this, too, as if by themselves, although the leading is
from hell. (A.E., n. 1043.)
II. The First Kind of Profanation
Profanations are of many kinds. The most grievous kind is when one
acknowledges and lives according to the truths and goods of the Word, of
the church, and of worship, and afterward denies them and lives contrary
to them, or even lives contrary to them and does not deny them. Such
profanation effects a conjunction and coherence of good with falsity,
and of truth with evil, and from this it comes to pass that man is at
the same time in heaven and in hell; consequently, when heaven wills to
have its own, and hell wills to have its own, and yet they cohere, they
are both swept away, and thus the proper human life perishes, and the
man becomes like a brute animal, continually delirious, and carried
hither and thither by fantasy like a dragon in the air, and in his
fantasy shreds and specks appear like giants and crowds, and a little
platter like the universe; and so on.
As such have no longer any human life they are not called spirits, but
something profane, nor are they called he or she, but it; and when they
are seen in the light of heaven they appear like dried skeletons. But
this kind of profanation is rare, since the Lord provides against a
man's entering into a belief in truth and a life of good unless he can
be kept in them continually even to the end of his life. (A.E., n.
1047.)
It has been said that the most grievous kind of profanation is when the
truths of the Word are acknowledged in faith and confirmed in the life,
and man afterward recedes from faith and lives wickedly, or if he does
not recede from faith he nevertheless lives wickedly. But one who is in
faith and in a life according to it from childhood to youth, and
afterward in adult age recedes from faith and from a life of faith, does
not profane, for the reason that the faith of childhood is a faith of
the memory, and is the master's faith in the child; while the faith of
adult age is a faith of the understanding, and thus a man's own faith.
This faith a man can profane if he recedes from it and lives contrary to
it, but not the former. For nothing enters the life of a man and
affects it except what comes into the understanding and from that into
the will; and a man does not think from his own understanding and act
from his own will until he arrives at adult age. Before that he has
thought merely from knowledge and acted merely from obedience; and this
does not make a part of his life, and therefore cannot be profaned.
In a word, whatever a man thinks, speaks, and does, from the
understanding with the will favoring it, this belongs to his life or
comes to be of his life; and if this is holy it is profaned by his
receding. But the profanations of this kind are more or less grievous
according to the quality of the truth and the consequent faith, and
according to the quality of the good and the consequent life, and
according to the quality of the withdrawal from these; and therefore
there are many specific differences in this profanation. (A.E., n.
1049.)
Why the state of profaners after death is so horrible shall be
disclosed. Man has two minds, a natural and a spiritual. The natural
mind is opened to him by knowledges (scientiae et cognitiones) of truth
and good, and the spiritual mind is opened by a life according to these;
and this is effected in those who know, acknowledge, and believe the
truths of the Word and live according to them. In others that mind is
not opened. When the spiritual mind has been opened, the light of
heaven, which is Divine truth, flows through it into the natural mind,
and there arranges truths in a corresponding order. Therefore when a
man passes over into a contrary state, and either in faith or life
denies the truths of the Word that he has previously acknowledged, the
things that are in the natural mind no longer correspond with those that
are in the spiritual mind; consequently heaven with its light flows in
through the spiritual mind into non-corresponding things, or into things
opposite to those that correspond in the natural man; and from this a
fantasy arises that is so direful that they seem to themselves to fly in
the air like dragons, while shreds and specks appear to them like giants
and crowds, and a little ball like the whole globe, and other like
things. The reason of this is that they have heaven in the spiritual
mind and hell in the natural mind, and when heaven, which is in the
spiritual mind, acts into hell, which is in the natural mind, such
things appear. And as this destroys all things pertaining to the
understanding, and the will with the understanding, the man comes to be
no longer a man. And this is why a profaner is no longer called a man,
nor he or she, but it, for he is a brute. (A.E., n. 1050.)
This kind of profanation exists especially in those who acknowledge the
Lord and His Divine, and the Word and its holiness; and for the reason
that the Lord alone by means of truths from the Word opens heaven to the
man who lives according to those truths; and unless heaven is opened
such profanation is not possible. And this shows why the Gentiles, who
are ignorant of the Lord and know nothing about the Word, cannot bring
upon themselves such profanation; neither can the Jews, for they deny
the Lord from their infancy, and heaven is not opened to them by means
of the Word; neither can the impious who have been such from childhood;
for, as has been said, those only profane who believe rightly and live
rightly, and afterward believe wrongly and live wrongly. Besides this
kind of profanation there are other kinds that shall be treated of.
(A.E., n. 1051.)
III. The Second Kind of Profanation
There is another kind of profanation of holy things that those come into
who have supremacy as their end, and regard the holy things of the Word,
of the church, and of worship, as means. The Divine order is that
heaven and the church, and consequently the holy things of these, be the
end, and supremacy the means for promoting that end. For when holy
things are the end and supremacy the means, the Lord is worshipped and
adored; but when supremacy is the end and holy things the means, man
instead of the Lord is worshipped and adored. For the means look to the
end as servants look to their master, and the end looks to the means as
a master looks to his servants; consequently as a master esteems and
loves his servants according to the compliance they render to his will,
so a man who has supremacy as his end esteems and loves the holy things
of the Word, of the church, and of worship, according to the compliance
they render to his end, which is supremacy. And on the other hand, as a
lord despises and dismisses servants and takes others in their place
when they are not subservient to his will, so a man who has supremacy as
his end despises and rejects the holy things of the church, and takes
other things in their place when they are not subservient to his end,
which is supremacy.
From this it is clear that in those who have supremacy as their end,
holy things are of no account except so far as they are subservient to
the end, and also that they are not holy, but are profane when they are
subservient to this end; and for the reason that the end, when it is
supremacy, is the man himself, and as this end is love of self it is the
man's own (proprium); and man's own when viewed in itself is nothing but
evil, and indeed is profane, and the end joins to itself the means that
they may be as one. In this kind of profanation are all those who are
in sacred ministries, and who are seeking by means of the holy things of
the church to gain honor and glory, and these and not use, which is the
salvation of souls, are what give them joy of heart. (A.E., n. 1053.)
Those who are in this kind of profanation cannot do otherwise than
adulterate the goods of the Word and falsify its truths, and thus
pervert the holy things of the church; for these are not in accord with
the end, which is the supremacy of man over them, for they are Divine
things that cannot be mere servants; therefore from necessity, that the
means may be in accord with the end, goods are turned into evils, truths
into falsities, and thus holy things into things profane, and this in an
increasing degree as the supremacy, which is the end, is increased.
That this is so can be clearly seen from the Babylon of the present day,
to which the holy things of the Word, of the church and of worship, are
means, and supremacy is the end. So far as they have magnified
supremacy they have minimized the holiness of the Word, and have
actually exalted above it the holiness of the Pope's decrees; they have
claimed to themselves power over heaven, and even over the Lord Himself,
and they have instituted the idolatrous worship of men, both living and
dead, and this until there is nothing left of Divine good and Divine
truth.
That the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, have
been so changed is of the Lord's Divine providence; not of His
providence that this should be done, but of His providence that when men
wish to rule and do rule by means of the holy Divine things, they should
choose falsity in place of truth and evil in place of good, for
otherwise they would defile holy things, and render them abominable
before angels; but when holy things no longer exist this cannot be done.
Take as an example what has been done with the Holy Supper instituted by
the Lord: they have separated the bread and the wine, giving the bread
to the people and drinking the wine themselves. For "bread" signifies
good of love to the Lord, and "wine" the truth of faith in Him; and good
separated from truth is not good, nor is truth separated from good
truth, for truth is truth from good, and good is good in truth. And so
in other things. (A.E., n. 1054.)
Those who are in the love of self, and from that in the love of ruling,
and who covet, acquire, and afterward exercise supremacy by means of the
holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, are those who
profane. For the delight of the love of ruling for self's sake, that
is, for the sake of eminence, and consequent homage and a kind of
worship of self, is an infernal delight. Moreover, this prevails in
hell, for in hell everyone wills to be the greatest, while in heaven
everyone wills to be the least; and to rule over holy things from an
infernal delight is to profane them.
But this second kind of profanation of the holy things of the church is
not like the former kind of the profanation of them. Those fall into
the former kind in whom a communication with heaven has been effected by
the opening of their spiritual mind; while this second kind of
profanation those fall into in whom the spiritual mind has not been
opened, or communication with heaven effected through it. For so long
as the delight of the love of ruling resides in man, that mind cannot be
opened, and communication with heaven is not possible to him.
Moreover, the lot of these profaners after death differs from the lot of
the former. The former, as has been said, are in an unceasing delirium
of fantasy; but these hate the Lord, hate heaven, hate the Word, hate
the church, and hate all its holy things; and they come into such hatred
because their dominion is taken away from them, and thus their state is
changed into its opposite. They appear like something fiery, and their
hell appears like a conflagration; for infernal fire is nothing else
than a lust for ruling from love of self. These are among the worst,
and are called devils, while the others are called satans. (A.E., n.
1055.)
The love of ruling by the holy things of the church as means wholly
shuts up the interiors of the human mind from the inmosts toward the
outmosts, according to the kind and strength of that love. But to make
clear that they are shut up, something shall first be said about the
interiors belonging to the human mind. Man has a spiritual mind, a
rational mind, a natural mind, and a sensual mind. By means of the
spiritual mind man is in heaven and is a heaven in its least form. By
means of the natural mind he is in the world and is a world in its least
form. Heaven in man communicates with the world in him by means of the
rational mind, and with the body by means of the sensual mind. The
sensual mind is the first to be opened in man after his birth; after
that the natural mind, and as he seeks to become intelligent the
rational mind, and as he seeks to become wise the spiritual mind. And
at length, as man becomes wise the spiritual mind becomes to him as the
head, and the natural mind as the body, and the rational mind serves as
a neck to join this to the head, and then the sensual mind becomes like
the sole of the foot.
In little children the Lord so arranges all these minds by means of the
inflow of innocence from heaven that they can be opened. But with those
who begin from childhood to be inflamed with the lust of ruling through
the holy things of the church as means, the spiritual mind is wholly
shut; so, too, is the rational mind, and finally the natural mind, even
to the sensual mind, or as it is said in heaven, even to the nose. And
thus men become merely sensual, and are the most stupid of all in things
spiritual and thus in things rational, and the most crafty of all in
worldly and thus in civil matters. That they are so stupid in spiritual
things they do not themselves know, because in heart they do not believe
these things, and because they believe craft to be prudence and cunning
to be wisdom. And yet all of this kind differ according to the kind and
strength of their lust for ruling and for exercising rule, also
according to the kind and strength of the persuasion that they are holy,
and according to the kind of good and truth from the Word that they
profane. (A.E., n. 1056.)
Profaners of this kind are stupid and foolish in spiritual things, but
are crafty and keen in worldly things, because they make one with the
devils in hell, and because, as has been said above, they are merely
sensual, and are therefore in what is their own (proprium), which draws
its delight of life from the unclean effluvia that exhale from waste
matters in the body, and that are emitted from dunghills; and these
cause a swelling of their breasts when their pride is active and the
titillation of these cause delight. That such is the source of their
delight is made evident by their delights after death when they are
living as spirits; for then more than the sweetest odors do they love
the rank stenches arising from the gases of the belly and from
outhouses, which to their smell are more fragrant than thyme. The
approach and touch of these close up the interiors of their mind, and
open the exteriors pertaining to the body, from which come their
quickness in worldly things and their dullness in spiritual things.
In a word, the love of ruling by means of the holy things of the church
corresponds to filth, and its delight to a stench indescribable by
words, and at which angels shudder. Such is the exhalation from their
hells when they are opened; but they are kept closed because of the
oppression and occasional swooning which they produce. (A.E., n. 1057.)
IV. The Third Kind of Profanation
In the third kind of profanation are those who with devout gestures and
pious utterance worship Divine things, and yet in heart and spirit deny
them; thus who venerate the holy things of the Word and of the church
and of worship outwardly or before the world, and yet at home or in
secret deride them. When those of this class are in a holy external,
and are teaching in a church or conversing with the common people, they
do not know otherwise than that what they are saying is so; but as soon
as they return into themselves their thought is reversed. Because these
are such they can counterfeit angels of light, although they are angels
of darkness.
From this it is clear that this kind of profanation is a hypocritical
kind. They are not unlike images made of filth and gilded, or like
fruits rotten within but with a beautiful skin, or like nuts eaten by
worms within but with a whole shell. From all this it is evident that
their internal is diabolical, and therefore that their holy external is
profane.
Such are some of the rulers in the Babylon of the present day, and many
of a certain society in Babylon, as those of them know who claim to
themselves dominion over the souls of men and over heaven. For to
believe as they do, that power has been given them to save and to admit
into heaven, is the very opposite of acknowledging in heart that there
is a God, and for the reason that man, in order to be saved and admitted
into heaven, must look to the Lord and pray to Him. But a man who
believes that such power has been given him looks to himself, and
believes the things that are the Lord's to be in himself; and to believe
this, and at the same time to believe that there is a God or that God is
in him, is impossible. For a man to believe that God is in him when he
thinks himself to be above the holy things of the church, and heaven to
be in his power, is like ascribing that belief to Lucifer, who burns
with the fire of ruling over all things. If such a man thinks that God
is in him he cannot think this otherwise than from himself; and thinking
from himself that God is in him is thinking not that God is in him, but
that he himself is God, as is said of Lucifer in Isaiah (xiv. 13, 14),
by whom is there meant Babylon, as is evident from the fourth and
twenty-second verses of the same chapter.
Moreover, such a man of himself, when power is given him, shows forth
what he is of himself, and this by degrees according to his elevation.
From this it is clear that such are atheists, some avowedly, some
clandestinely, and some ignorantly. And as they regard dominion as an
end, and the holy things of heaven and the church as means, they
counterfeit angels of light in face, gesture, and speech, and thus
profane holy things. (A.E., n. 1058.)
Those who are in this kind of profanation, which is hypocritical, differ
in this respect, that there are those who have less ability and those
who have more ability to conceal the interiors of their mind, that they
may not be disclosed, and to shape the exteriors, which pertain to face
and mouth, into an expression of sanctity. When such after death become
spirits they appear encompassed with a cloud, in the midst of which is
something black, like an Egyptian mummy. But as they are raised up as
it were into the light of heaven, that bright cloud changes to a
diabolical duskiness, not from any shining through it, but from a
breathing through it, and the consequent disclosing. In hell,
therefore, these are black devils. The differences in this kind of
profanation are known from the blackness, as being more or less
horrifying. (A.E., n. 1059.)
V. The Fourth and Fifth Kinds of Profanation
A fourth kind of profanation is to live a life of piety, by frequenting
churches, listening devoutly to preachings, observing the sacrament of
the Supper, and the other appointed forms of worship, reading the Word
at home, and sometimes books of devotion, and habitually praying morning
and evening, and yet making the precepts of life that are in the Word,
particularly in the Decalogue, of no account, by acting dishonestly and
unjustly in business and in judgments for the sake of gain or influenced
by friendship; committing whoredom and adultery when lust inflames and
urges; burning with hate and revenge against those who do not favor
their gain or honor; lying, and speaking evil of the good, and good of
the evil, and so on. When a man is in these evils, and has not been
purified from them by turning away from them and hating them, and still
worships God devoutly, as has been said above, then he profanes; for he
mingles his internals which are impure with externals that are pious,
and these he defiles.
For there can be nothing external that does not proceed and have
existence from internals. The actions and speech of man are his
externals, and thoughts and volitions are his internals. Man can speak
only from thought, and can act only from volition. When the life of the
thoughts and of the will is infected with craft, cunning, and violence,
it must needs be that these, as interior evils of the life, will flow
into the speech and actions pertaining to worship and piety, and defile
them as filth defiles waters.
This worship is what is meant by "Gog and Magog" (Apoc. xx. 8), and is
thus described in Isaiah:
"What is the multitude of sacrifices unto Me, meat offerings, incense,
sabbaths, new moons, appointed feasts, and prayers, when your hands are
full of bloods? Wash you, make you clean, put away the wickedness of
your doings . . . ; cease to do evil" (i. 11-19).
This kind of profanation is not hypocritical like the former, because
the man who is in it believes that he will be saved by external worship
separate from internal, and does not know that the worship by which he
can be saved is external worship from internal. (A.E., n. 1061.)
Those who give themselves up wholly to a life of piety, who walk
continually in pious meditations, who pray frequently upon their knees,
and talk about salvation, faith, and love at all times and in all
places, and yet do not shun frauds, adulteries, hatreds, blasphemies,
and the like, as sins against God, nor fight against them, such are the
kind that are more fully profaners; for by the impurities of their minds
they defile the piety of their lips, especially when they renounce the
world and lead solitary lives. Of this kind there are some who are
still more profaners; these are like those just described, but by
reasonings and by the Word falsely interpreted they defend their vices
as adulteries and lusts that belong to their nature, and thus to their
enjoyment. Such first regard themselves as free from danger, afterward
as blameless, and at length as holy; and thus under the veil of sanctity
they cast themselves into uncleannesses with which both themselves and
their garments are polluted. (A.E., n. 1062.)
To this class of profaners those especially belong who read the Word and
know about the Lord; because from the Lord through the Word are all
things holy that can be profaned; things not from that source cannot be
profaned. That is said to be profane that is the opposite of what is
holy, and that offers violence to what is holy and destroys it. From
this it follows that those who do not read the Word and do not approach
the Lord, as is the case with the Papists, still less those who know
nothing about the Lord and the Word, like the Gentiles, do not belong to
this class of profaners.
Those who belong to this class of profaners appear after death at first
with a face of human color, around which float many wandering stars; and
those of them that had been leaders sometimes appear shining about the
lips. But as they are brought into the light of heaven, the stars and
the shining of the lips vanish, and the color of the face is changed to
black, and likewise their garments. But the blackness of these
profaners tends to blue, as the blackness of the other kind of profaners
tends to red, for the reason that the latter profane the goods of the
Word and of the church, while the others profane the truths of the Word
and of the church. For red derives from the sun its signification of
good, while blue derives from the sky its signification of truth.
(A.E., n. 1063.)
The fifth kind of profanation is not like the others that have been
treated of, for it consists in jesting from the Word and about the Word.
For those who make jokes from the Word do not regard it as holy, and
those who joke about it hold it in no esteem. And yet the Word is the
very Divine truth of the Lord with men, and the Lord is present in the
Word, and heaven also; for every particular of the Word communicates
with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; therefore to jest from
the Word or about the Word is to bespatter the holy things of heaven
with the dust of the earth. (A.E., n. 1064.)
Part Fourth--THE DIVINE WORD
I. The Holiness of the Word
It was said of old that the Word is from God, Divinely inspired, and
thus holy; and yet it has not been known heretofore where in the Word
the Divine is. For the Word appears in the letter like a common writing
in a foreign style, and a style not so sublime or so lucid as appears in
the writings of the present ages. For this reason a man who worships
nature more than God, or in place of God, and thus thinks from himself
and what is his own (proprium), and not from the Lord out of heaven, can
easily fall into error respecting the Word, and into contempt for it,
saying in his heart when he reads it, What is this, or what is that? Is
this Divine? Can God who has infinite wisdom speak in this manner?
Where is its holiness, and from what source, unless from the religion
whose ministers it serves? and other like things. But that it may be
known that the Word is Divine, not only in every meaning but also in
every expression, its internal sense, which is spiritual, and which is
in its external sense, which is natural, as a soul in its body, has now
been revealed. This sense can bear witness to the Divinity and
consequent holiness of the Word; and can convince even the natural man
that the Word is Divine if he is willing to be convinced. (A.E., n.
1065.)
In brief, the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels
and enlightens men. As Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and as
what goes forth is Himself out of Himself, the same as light and heat go
forth from the sun and are the sun, that is, are of the sun out of it,
and as the Word is Divine truth, it is therefore the Lord, as it is
called in John (i. 1-3, 14). In as much as Divine truth, which is the
Word, in its descent into the world from the Lord, has passed through
the three heavens, it has become accommodated to each heaven, and lastly
to men also in the world. This is why there are in the Word four
senses, one outside of the other from the highest heaven down to the
world, or one within the other from the world up to the highest heaven.
These four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural
from the celestial and spiritual, and the merely natural. This last is
for the world, the next for the lowest heaven, the spiritual for the
second heaven, and the celestial for the third. These four senses
differ so greatly from one another that when one is exhibited beside the
other no connection can be recognized; and yet they make one when one
follows the other; for one follows from the other as an effect from a
cause, or as what is posterior from what is prior; consequently as an
effect represents its cause and corresponds to its cause, so the
posterior sense corresponds to the prior; and thus it is that all four
senses make one through correspondences.
From all this these truths follow. The outmost sense of the Word, which
is the sense of the letter, and the fourth in order, contains in itself
the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens. These three
senses are unfolded and exhibited in the heavens when a man on the earth
is reverently reading the Word. Therefore the sense of the letter of
the Word is that from which and through which there is communication
with the heavens, also from which and through which man has conjunction
with the heavens. The sense of the letter of the Word is the basis of
Divine truth in the heavens, and without such a basis Divine truth would
be like a house without a foundation; and without such a basis the
wisdom of the angels would be like a house in the air. It is the sense
of the letter of the Word in which the power of Divine truth consists.
It is the sense of the letter of the Word through which man is
enlightened by the Lord, and through which he receives answers when he
wishes to be enlightened. It is the sense of the letter of the Word by
which everything of doctrine on the earth must be established. In the
sense of the letter of the Word is Divine truth in its fullness. In the
sense of the letter of the Word Divine truth is in its holiness. (A.E.,
n. 1066.)
That the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels and
enlightens men, can be perceived or seen only by a man enlightened. For
to a worldly man, whose mind has not been raised above the sensual
sphere, the Word in the sense of the letter appears so simple that
scarcely anything could be more simple; and yet Divine truth, such as it
is in the heavens and from which angels have their wisdom, lies
concealed in it as in its sanctuary. For the Word in the letter is like
the adytum [sanctum] in the midst of a temple covered with a veil,
within which lie deposited mysteries of heavenly wisdom such as no ear
hath heard. For in the Word and in every particular of it there is a
spiritual sense, and in that sense a Divine celestial sense, which
regarded in itself is Divine truth itself, which is in the heavens and
which gives wisdom to angels and enlightenment to men.
The Divine truth that is in the heavens is light going forth from the
Lord as a Sun, which is Divine love. And as the Divine truth that goes
forth from the Lord is the light of heaven, so it is the Divine wisdom.
It is this that illuminates both the minds and the eyes of angels, and
it is this also that enlightens the minds of men, but not their eyes,
and that enables them to understand truth and also to perceive good when
man reads the Word from the Lord and not from self; for he is then a
participator with angels, and has an inward perception like the
spiritual perception of angels; and that spiritual perception which the
angel-man has flows into his natural perception which is his own while
in the world and enlightens it. Consequently the man who reads the Word
from an affection for truth has enlightenment through heaven from the
Lord. (A.E., n. 1067.)
II. The Lord is the Word
Since the Word is Divine truth, and this goes forth from the Lord's
Divine Esse (being), as light from the sun, it follows that the Lord is
the Word because He is Divine truth. The Lord is the Word, because He
is Divine truth, and this goes forth His Divine Esse (being), which is
Divine love, because the Divine love was in Him when in the world as a
soul is in its body; and as Divine truth goes forth from Divine love as
light goes forth from the sun, as has been said, so the Lord's Human in
the world was Divine truth going forth from the Divine love that was in
Him. That the Divine itself, which is called "Jehovah" and the
"Father," and which is the Divine love, was in the Lord from conception,
is evident in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In Matthew from these
words:
When Mary the mother of Jesus had been betrothed to Joseph, "before they
came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." And the
angle said to Joseph in a dream, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" . . .
This came to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the
Lord by the prophet: . . . "Behold a virgin shall be with child, and
shall bring forth a son." And Joseph "knew her not until she had
brought forth her firstborn son; and he called His name Jesus" (i.
18-25).
And in Luke from these words:
The angel said to Mary, "Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and
bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus; He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Most High." . . . Then Mary said unto the
angel, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" The angel answered
her, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most
High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the Holy Thing that shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (i. 30-35).
It was because He was conceived of Jehovah that He is so frequently
called in the Word "the Son of God," and Jehovah is called His "Father."
Jehovah in respect to His Esse (being) is Divine love, and in respect to
His Existere (outgo) He is Divine good united to Divine truth.
From this it can be seen what is meant by:
The Word that was with God and that was God, and also was the light that
enlighteneth every man (John i. 1-10), namely, that it was Divine truth
going forth from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect to His Existere
(outgo). That the Lord in respect to His Existere was Divine truth, and
that this was His Divine Human, because this came forth from His Divine
Esse as a body from its soul, these words in John clearly certify:
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory
as of the only begotten of the Father (i. 14).
"The Word" is the Divine truth, which also is "glory"; "flesh" means the
Divine Human; "the only begotten of the Father" means the springing
forth or going forth from the Divine Esse in Him. (A.E., n. 1069.)
But as the world does not know how the words in John (i. 1, 2, 14) that
the Lord is the Word, are to be understood, this shall be further
explained. It is known in the church that God is good itself and truth
itself, and thus that all the good that an angel has and that a man has
is from God, and likewise all truth. Now since the Lord is God He is
also Divine good and Divine truth; and this is what is meant by "the
Word, that was with God, and was God," and also was "the light that
enlighteneth every man," and that also "became flesh," that is, Man in
the world.
That when the Lord was in the world He was the Divine truth, which is
the Word, He Himself teaches in many passages where He calls Himself
"the Light," also where He calls Himself "the Way, the Truth, and the
Life"; and where He says that "the Spirit of truth" goes forth from Him.
"The Spirit of truth" is the Divine truth. When the Lord was
transfigured He represented the Word, "His face that shone as the sun"
represented its Divine good; and His garments, which were "bright as the
light" and "white as snow," represented its Divine truth. "Moses and
Elijah," who then talked with the Lord, also signified the Word, "Moses"
the historical Word and "Elijah" the prophetic Word. Moreover, all
things of the Lord's passion represented the kind of violence that the
Jewish nation offered to the Word. Again, the Lord from Divine truth,
which He is, is called "God," "King," and "Angel," and is meant by "the
rock in Horeb," and "the rock" where Peter is spoken of. All this makes
clear that the Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth. The Word
in the letter, which is with us, is the Divine truths in outmosts.
(A.E., n. 1070.)
As it cannot but transcend the comprehension that the Lord in relation
to His Human in the world was the Word, that is, Divine truth; according
to these words in John,
"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (i. 14), it shall be
explained, as far as possible, to the comprehension. It can be said of
every regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, since
the thought which belongs to his understanding is from truths, and the
affection which belongs to his will is from goods. Whether you say,
therefore, that a man is his own understanding and his own will, or that
a man is his own truth and his own good, it amounts to the same thing.
The body is mere obedience; for it speaks that which man thinks from the
understanding, and does that which he wills from affection. Thus these
things and the body mutually correspond and make one, like an effect and
its effecting cause; and these taken together constitute the human.
As it can be said of the regenerate man that he is his own truth and his
own good, so it can be said of the Lord as Man, that He is truth itself
or Divine truth, and good itself or Divine good. All this makes evident
the truth that the Lord in relation to His Human in the world was Divine
truth, that is the Word; and that everything that He then said was
Divine truth, which is the Word; and that since the time when he went to
the Father, that is, became one with the Father, the Divine truth going
forth from Him is the Spirit of truth, which goes out and goes forth
from Him, and at the same time from the Father in Him. (A.E., n. 1071.)
III. The Lord's Words Spirit and Life
That the Word is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts is not
evident to the man who leads himself, but is evident to the man whom the
Lord leads. For the man who leads himself sees only the external of the
Word, and forms his opinion of it from its style; but the man whom the
Lord leads forms his opinion of the external of the Word from the
holiness that is in it.
The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in
which are delicacies and charms of every kind, delicacies from the
fruits, and charms from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of
life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of
the forest, and near them rivers. The man who leads himself forms his
opinion of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference,
where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads forms
his opinion of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are.
The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks
to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the
circumference, and looks away from it to the world.
Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp,
and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ
that germinates in good soil. Again, the Word is also like a most
beautiful infant, about which, except the face, there are wrappings upon
wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are
in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on
the earth. As the Word is such it is holy and Divine from inmosts to
outermosts. (A.E., n. 1072.)
The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that goes
forth from the Lord, and is called Divine truth; and when this descended
to men in the world it passed through the heavens in their order
according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was
recorded in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels
there. Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to
men, and there it was recorded and made known in adaptation to man's
understanding and apprehension. This, therefore, is the sense of its
letter, and in this lies Divine truth such as it is in the three
heavens, stored up in distinct order.
From this it is clear that the entire wisdom of the angels in the three
heavens has been imparted by the Lord to our Word, and in its inmost
there is the wisdom of the angels of the third heaven, which is
incomprehensible and ineffable to man, because full of mysteries and
treasures of Divine verities. These lie stored up in each particular
and in all the particulars of our Word. And as Divine truth is the Lord
in the heavens, so the Lord Himself is present, and may be said to dwell
in all the particulars and each particular of His Word, as He does in
His heavens; and in the same way as He has said of the ark of the
covenant, in which were deposited only the Ten Commandments written on
the two tables, the first-fruits of the Word, for He said that He would
speak there with Moses and Aaron, that He would be present there, that
He would dwell there, and that it was His holy of holies, and His
dwelling place as in heaven. (A.E., n., 1073.)
As the Divine truth, in passing from the Lord Himself through the three
heavens down to men in the world, is recorded and becomes the Word in
each heaven, so the Word is a bond of union of the heavens with each
other, and a bond of union of the heavens with the church in the world.
For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in perfection of
glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are;
consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens
into the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord's Divine and the
holiness of the Word whenever he reads the Word; and so far as such a
man loves wisdom he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the
Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be
nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished,
and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:
"The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life" (John vi. 63).
"The water that I will give you shall become . . . a fountain of water
springing up unto eternal life" (John iv. 14). "Man doth not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God"
(Matt. iv. 4). "Work . . . for the meat that abideth unto eternal life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you" (John vi. 27).
Such is the Word. (A.E., n. 1074.)
It has been said that the Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and
that the Word is from that, and that through the Word angels and men
have wisdom. But so long as it is unknown how Divine truth goes forth
from the Lord, this may be said but it cannot be understood. Divine
truth, which is the same as Divine wisdom, goes forth from the Lord as
light and heat do from the sun. The Lord is Divine love itself, and
love appears in the heavens from correspondence as fire, and the Lord's
Divine love as a sun, glowing and resplendent like the sun of the world.
From that sun, which is high above the heavens where the angels are, and
which is Divine love, heat and light go forth; the heat therefrom is
Divine good, and the light therefrom is Divine truth. The heat is
Divine good, because all heat of life going forth from love is felt as
good, for it is spiritual heat; and the light is Divine truth because
all light going forth from love is felt as truth, for it is spiritual
light; consequently it is from that light that the understanding sees
truths, and it is from that heat that the will is sensible of goods; and
this is why in the Word love is meant by heavenly fire and wisdom by
heavenly light.
It is the same with a man and with an angel. Every angel and man is his
own love, and a sphere flowing out from his love encompasses every man
and angel. That sphere consists of the good of his love and of the
truth of his love, for love gives forth both, as fire gives forth both
heat and light; from the will of a man or angel it gives forth good, and
from his understanding it gives forth truth. This sphere, when the man
or angel is good, has an extension into the heavens in every direction
according to the character and amount of the love, and into the hells in
every direction when the man or angel is evil. But the sphere of the
love of a man or an angel has a finite extension into a few societies
only of heaven or hell, while the sphere of the Lord's love, being
Divine, has an infinite extension, and creates the heavens themselves.
(A.E., n. 1076.)
The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this respect, that in every
particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which
testifies that the Word is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord,
which is Divine good and Divine truth reciprocally united; and also
testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven
and the church, which also is reciprocal. There is a marriage of good
and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in
order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to
men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from
truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal. This
reciprocal love the Lord sets forth in John:
"He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in
him" (vi. 56).
In the same,
"In that day ye shall know, that . . . ye are in Me and I in you. He
that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; . . .
and I will love him" (xiv. 20, 21).
The reciprocality is that such are in the Lord and the Lord is in them,
also that whoever loves the Lord, the Lord also will love him. "To have
His commandments" is to be in truths, and "to do them" is to be in good.
Reciprocality is also described by the Lord in His union with the
Father, in these words,
"Philip, . . . How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not
that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? . . . Believe Me, that I
am in the Father and the Father in Me" (John xiv. 9-11).
From this reciprocal union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord the
reciprocal union of Divine good and Divine truth goes forth; and this
goes forth from the Lord's Divine love; and the same is true of the
Lord's reciprocal union with heaven and the church, and in general the
reciprocal union of good and truth in an angel of heaven and in a man of
the church. And as good is of charity and truth is of faith, and as
charity and faith make the church, it follows that the church is in a
man when there is a reciprocal union of charity and faith in him.
Again, as good is of the will and truth is of the understanding, and as
the will and understanding make man, it follows that a man is a man
according to the union of the will and all things belonging to it with
the understanding and all things belonging to it, and this reciprocally.
This union is what is called marriage, which from creation is in every
particular of heaven and in every particular of the world; and from this
is the production and the generation of all things. That in every
particular of the Word there is such a marriage that good loves truth
and truth loves good, thus mutually and in turn, is disclosed in the
spiritual sense of the Word; and it is from this marriage that good and
truth are one and not two, and are one when good is of truth and truth
is of good. (A.E., n. 1077).
The Word in the sense of the letter appears very simple, and yet there
is stored up in it the wisdom of the three heavens, for each least
particular of it contains interior and more interior senses; an interior
sense such as exists in the first heaven, a still more interior sense
such as exists in the second heaven, and an inmost sense such as exists
in the third heaven. These senses are in the sense of the letter, one
within the other, and are evolved therefrom one after the other, each
from its own heaven, when the Word is read by a man who is led by the
Lord. These interior senses differ in a degree of light and wisdom
according to the heavens, and yet they make one by influx, and thus by
correspondences. How they thus make one shall be told in what follows.
All this makes clear how the Word was inspired by the Divine, and that
it was written from an inspiration to which nothing else in the world
can in anywise be compared. The mysteries of wisdom of the three
heavens contained in it are the mystical things of which many have
spoken. (A.E., n. 1079.)
IV. Influx and Correspondence
It has been said that there is a Word in each heaven and that these
Words are in our Word in their order, and that they thus make one by
influx and consequent correspondences. Here, therefore, it shall be told
what correspondence is and what influx is; otherwise what the Word is
inwardly in its bosom, thus in respect to its life from the Lord, which
is its soul, cannot be understood.
But what correspondence is and what influx is shall be illustrated by
examples. The changes of the face that are called expressions
correspond to the affections of the mind; consequently the face changes
in respect to its expressions just as the affections of the mind change
in respect to their states. These changes in the face are
correspondences, as consequently the face itself is; and the action of
the mind into it, that the correspondences may be exhibited, is called
influx. The sight of man's thought, which is called the understanding,
corresponds to the sight of his eyes; and consequently the quality of
the thought from the understanding is made evident by the light and
flame of the eyes. The sight of the eye is a correspondence, as
consequently the eye itself is; the action of the understanding into the
eye, by which the correspondence is exhibited, is influx. Active
thought, which belongs to the understanding, corresponding to speech,
which belongs to the mouth. The speech is a correspondence, likewise
the mouth and everything belonging to it, and the action of thought into
speech and into the organs of speech is influx. The perception of the
mind corresponds to the smell of the nostrils. The smell and the
nostrils are correspondences, and the action is influx. For this reason
a man who has interior perception is said to have a keen nose, and
perceiving a thing is called scenting it out. Hearkening, which means
obedience, corresponds to the hearing of the ears; consequently both the
hearing and the ears are correspondences, and the action of obedience
into the hearing, that a man may raise his ears and attend, is influx;
therefore hearkening and hearing are both significative, hearkening and
giving ear to anyone meaning to obey, and hearkening and hearing anyone
meaning to hear with the ears. The action of the body corresponds to
the will, the action of the heart corresponds to the life of the love,
the action of the lungs, which is called respiration, corresponds to the
life of the faith, and the whole body in respect to all its members,
viscera, and organs, corresponds to the soul in respect to all the
functions and powers of its life.
From these few examples it can be seen what correspondence is and what
influx is; and that when the spiritual, which belongs to the life of
man's understanding and will, flows into the acts which belong to his
body, it exhibits itself in a natural effigy, and there is
correspondence; also that thus the spiritual and the natural act as one
by correspondences, like interior and exterior, or like prior and
posterior, or like the effecting cause and the effect, or like the
principal cause which belongs to man's thought and will, and the
instrumental cause which belongs to his speech and action. There is
such a correspondence of natural things and spiritual not only in each
and every thing of man, but also in each every thing of the world; and
the correspondences are produced by an influx of the spiritual world and
all things of it into the natural world and all things of it. From all
this it can be seen in some measure how our Word, as to the sense of the
letter, which is natural, makes one by influx and correspondences with
the Words in the heavens, the senses of which are spiritual. (A.E., n.
1080.)
What the Word is in respect to influx and correspondences can now be
shown. It is said in John:
"He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should
see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should turn
themselves and I should heal them" (xii. 40).
The "eyes" that are blinded signify the understanding of truth and
belief in it; the "heart" that is hardened signifies the will and love
of good; and "to be healed" signifies to be reformed. They were not
permitted "to turn themselves and be healed" lest they should commit
profanation; for a wicked man who is healed and who returns to his evil
and falsity commits profanation; and so it would have been with the
Jewish nation. In Matthew:
"Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear"
(xiii. 16).
Here, too, the "eyes" signify the understanding of truth and belief in
it; so "to see" signifies to understand and believe, and the "ears"
signify obedience, thus a life according to the truths of faith, and "to
hear" signifies to obey and live. For one is blessed not because he
sees and hears, but because he understands, believes, obeys, and lives.
In the same,
"The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be sound the whole body is
light, if the eye be evil the whole body is darkened. If, therefore,
the light . . . be darkness, how great is the darkness" (vi. 22, 23).
Here, again, the "eye" signifies the understanding of truth and belief
in it, which is called a lamp from the light of truth that man has from
understanding and belief. And because a man becomes wise from
understanding and believing in truth, it is said "if the eye be sound
the whole body is light." The "body" means the man, and "to be light"
means to be wise. But it is the reverse with the "evil eye," that is,
understanding and believing in falsity. "Darkness" means falsities, "if
the light be darkness" signifies if the truth be false or falsified, and
because truth falsified is worse than any other falsity, it is said, "If
the light be darkness, how great is the darkness."
These few examples make clear what correspondence is and what influx is,
namely, that the eye is a correspondence of the understanding and faith,
the heart a correspondence of the will and love, the ears a
correspondence of obedience, the lamp and light correspondences of
truth, and darkness a correspondence of falsity, and so on; and as the
one is spiritual and the other is natural, and the spiritual acts into
the natural and forms it to a likeness of itself that it may appear
before the eyes or before the world, so that action is influx. Such is
the Word in each and every particular. (A.E., n. 1081.)
The spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the
natural, in order that the end may become a cause, and the cause become
an effect, and thus the end through the cause may present itself in the
effect as visible and sensible. This trine, namely, end, cause, and
effect, exists from creation in every heaven. The end is good of love,
the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. The producing
force is love, and the product therefrom is of love from good by means
of truth. The final products, which are in our world, are various, as
numerous as the objects are in its three kingdoms of nature, animal,
vegetable, and mineral. All products are correspondences. As this
trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists in each heaven, there must
be in each heaven products that are correspondences, and that are like
in form and aspect the objects in the three kingdoms of our earth; from
which it is clear that each heaven is like our earth in outward
appearance, differing only in excellence and beauty according to
degrees. Now in order that the Word may be full, that is, may consist
of effects in which are a cause and an end, or may consist of uses in
which truth is the cause and good is the end and love is the producing
force, it must needs consist of correspondences; and from this it
follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world,
differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. What this
difference is shall be told elsewhere. (A.E., n. 1082.)
V. The Three Senses in the Word
As there is a trine, one within another, in every last particular of the
Word, and this trine is like that of effect, cause, and end, it follows
that there are three senses in the Word, one within another, namely, a
natural, a spiritual, and a celestial; a natural for the world, a
spiritual for the heavens of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and a
celestial for the heavens of His celestial kingdom. (That the entire
heavens are divided into two kingdoms, the spiritual and the celestial,
may be seen in Heaven and Hell, n. 20-28.) Now as there is one sense
within another, a first which is the sense of the letter for the natural
world, a second which is the internal sense for the spiritual kingdom,
and a third which is the inmost for the celestial kingdom, it follows
that a natural man draws from it his sense, a spiritual angel his sense,
and a celestial angel his sense, thus everyone what is analogous to and
in agreement with his own essence and nature. This takes place whenever
a man who is led by the Lord is reading the Word.
But let this be illustrated by examples. When this commandment of the
Decalogue is read, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother," a man
in the world understands by "father and mother" a father and mother on
the earth, and also all who are or may be in the place of father or
mother; and by "honoring" he understands to hold such in honor. But an
angel of the spiritual kingdom understands by "father" the Divine good,
and by "mother" the Divine truth, and by "honoring" loving; while an
angel of the celestial kingdom understands by "father" the Lord, and by
"mother" heaven and the church, and by "honoring" doing.
When the fifth commandment of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal," is
read, by "stealing" a man understands stealing, defrauding, and taking
away under any pretense his neighbor's goods. But an angel of the
spiritual kingdom by "stealing" understands depriving another of his
truths and goods by means of falsities and evils, while an angel of the
celestial kingdom by "not to steal" understands not to attribute to
himself the things that are the Lord's, as the good of love and the
truth of faith; for thereby good becomes not good, and truth not truth,
because they are from men.
When the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," is read, a
man by "committing adultery" understands committing adultery and
whoredom, also thinking filthy thoughts, speaking lasciviously, and
doing obscene things. But an angel of the spiritual kingdom by
"committing adultery" understands falsifying the truths of the Word and
adulterating its goods; while an angel of the celestial kingdom by
"committing adultery" understands blaspheming against the Lord, heaven,
and the church.
When the seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," is read, by
"killing" a man understands hating and desiring revenge, even to murder.
But an angel of the spiritual kingdom by "killing" understands the
killing of a man's soul by stumbling blocks to the life and by
reasonings, whereby a man is led into spiritual death, while an angel of
the celestial kingdom by "killing" understands seducing a man into
believing that there is no God and no heaven and no hell, for thus man's
eternal life is destroyed.
When the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," is
read, a man by "false witness" understands lying and defamation. But an
angel of the spiritual kingdom by "false witness" understands asserting,
proving, and persuading that falsity is truth and evil is good, or on
the other hand that truth is falsity and good is evil, while an angel of
the celestial kingdom by "false witness" understands every falsity
against the Lord, and against heaven in favor of hell.
All this makes clear how a man draws and calls forth from the Word in
the letter a natural sense, a spiritual angel a spiritual sense, and a
celestial angel a celestial sense, much as the wood of a tree draws its
sap, the leaf its sap, and the fruit its sap, from the same soil. And
what is wonderful, this is done instantly, without the angel's knowing
what the man thinks, or the man what the angel thinks, and yet their
thoughts are one by correspondences, as end, cause, and effect are one.
Moreover, ends are actually in the celestial kingdom, causes in the
spiritual kingdom, causes in the spiritual kingdom, and effects in the
natural world. (A.E., n. 1083.)
VI. Conjunction by the Word
Since it is from creation that end, cause, and effect shall together
make one, so it is from creation that the heavens shall make one with
the church on the earth, but by means of the Word, when it is read by
man from a love of truth and good. For the Word was given by the Lord
to this end, that there might be a perpetual conjunction of the angels
of heaven with men on the earth, and a perpetual communication according
to conjunction. Without this medium there would be no conjunction or
communication with heaven on this earth. The conjunction and
communication are instantaneous, and for the reason that all things of
the Word in the sense of the letter are as effects, in which the cause
and the end exist together, and the effects, which are in the Word, are
called uses, their cause truths, and their ends goods; and the Divine
love, which is the Lord, unites these three together in the man who is
in an affection for uses from the Word.
How a man draws and calls forth from the Word in the letter the natural
sense, a spiritual angel the spiritual sense, and a celestial angel the
celestial sense, and this instantly, from which there is a communication
and a conjunction, shall be illustrated by comparisons; first by
something in the animal kingdom, afterward by something in the vegetable
kingdom, and finally by something in the mineral kingdom.
From the Animal Kingdom:--From the food, when it has been changed into
chyle, the vessels draw and call forth their blood, the fibers of the
nerves their fluid, and the substances that are the origins of fibers
their spirit, which is called the animal spirit; and this is done
through the vital heat, which in its essence is love. The vessels, the
fibers, and the substances which are their origins, are distinct from
each other, and yet they act as one throughout the body, and they act
together and on the instant.
From the Vegetable Kingdom:--The tree, with its trunk and branches,
leaves and fruits, stands upon its root, and from the soil where its
root is draws and calls forth its sap, a coarser sap for the trunk and
branches, a purer for the leaves, and a still purer and also nobler for
the fruits and for the seeds in them; and this is done by means of heat
from the sun. Here the branches, leaves, and fruit are distinct, and
yet they extract together and instantly and from the same soil foods of
such different purity and nobleness.
From the Mineral Kingdom:--In the bosom of the earth in certain places
there are minerals impregnated with gold, silver, copper, and iron.
From vapors stored up in the earth the gold attracts its element, silver
its element, copper and iron theirs, distinctly, together, and on the
instant, and this by means of some power of unknown heat.
As it is allowable to illustrate spiritual things by means of
comparisons drawn from natural things, these will serve to illustrate
how interior things, which are spiritual and celestial, and by which a
man of the church has communication and conjunction with the heavens,
can be drawn and called forth and extracted and eliminated from the Word
in its outmosts, that is, the sense of the letter. Comparisons can be
made with these, because all things in the three kingdoms of nature,
animal, vegetable, and mineral, correspond to the spiritual things that
are in the three heavens, as the food of the body with which a
comparison has been made, corresponds to the food of the soul, which is
knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom; a tree, with which also a
comparison has been made, corresponds to man, the tree to man himself,
the wood to his good, the leaves to his truths, and the fruits to his
uses; so, too, gold, silver, copper, and iron, correspond to goods and
truths, gold to celestial good, silver to spiritual truth, copper to
natural good, and iron to natural truth. Moreover, these things have
these significations in the Word. And what is wonderful, the purer are
contained in the grosser and are drawn from them, as the animal spirit
and the nerve fluid are contained in blood from which the original
substances and nerve fibers draw and extract their distinct portions.
So, again, fruits and leaves draw theirs from the gross fluid that is
brought up from the soil by the wood and its bark, and so on. Thus
comparatively, as has been said, the purer senses of the Word are drawn
and called forth from the sense of the letter. (A.E., n. 1084.)
VII. The Sense of the Letter
As there are three senses in the Word, a natural, a spiritual, and a
celestial, and as its natural sense, which is the sense of the letter,
is a containment of the two senses, the spiritual and celestial, it
follows that the sense of the letter of the Word is the basis of those
senses. And as the angels of the three heavens receive their wisdom
from the Lord through the Word that they have, and as their Words make
one with our Word by correspondences, it also follows that the sense of
the letter of our Word is the basis, support, and foundation of the
wisdom of the angels of heaven. For the heavens rest upon the human
race as a house rests upon its foundation; so the wisdom of the angels
of heaven rests in like manner upon the knowledge, intelligence, and
wisdom of men from the sense of the letter of the Word; for, as has been
said above, communication and conjunction with the heavens are effected
through the sense of the letter of the Word. For this reason, as a
result of the Lord's Divine providence, there has been no mutilation of
the sense of the letter of the Word from its first revelation, not even
in a word or letter in the original text; for each word, and in some
measure each letter, is a support.
From all this it is clear what a profanation it is to falsify the truths
and adulterate the goods of the Word, and how infernal it is to deny or
to weaken its holiness. As soon as that is done, for that man of the
church heaven is closed. The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which
cannot be forgiven, is the blasphemy of the Word by those who deny its
holiness. Since the Word is the basis of the heavens, and since the
Word was wholly falsified and adulterated by the Jewish nation by
traditions and adaptation of the sense of the letter to favor their evil
loves, lest the heavens should be endangered and the wisdom of the
angels there should become foolishness it pleased the Lord to come down
from heaven and to put on the Human and to become the Word (as is
evident from John i. 14), and thus to restore the state of heaven.
(A.E., n. 1085.)
There is a successive order and there is a simultaneous order. In
successive order things pure and perfect appear above, and those less
pure and perfect appear below. The three heavens are in successive
order, one above another; and in the higher heavens all things are pure
and perfect, while in the lower they are less pure and perfect.
Simultaneous order exists in lower things, and fully in the lowest; for
higher things let themselves down and place themselves in the order that
is called simultaneous, in which the pure and perfect things, which were
the higher, are in the middle or center, and the less pure and perfect,
which were the lower, are in the circumferences. Therefore all things
that have come forth in successive order are together in outmosts in
their order.
As all higher things place themselves in what is lowest in simultaneous
order, it follows that in the outmosts of the Word, which constitute the
sense of its letter, are all things of Divine truth and of Divine good,
even from their firsts. And as all things of Divine truth and Divine
good are together in their outmost, which is the sense of the letter of
the Word, there evidently is the power of Divine truth, yea, the
omnipotence of the Lord in saving man. For when the Lord operates He
operates not from first things through mediates into outmosts, but from
first things through outmosts and thus into mediates. This is why the
Lord is called in the Word the First and the Last; and this is why the
Lord assumed the Human, which in the world was Divine truth or the Word,
and glorified it even to outmosts, which are the bones and flesh, in
order that He might operate from first things through outmosts, and not
as before from man, but from Himself.
This power in outmosts was represented by the hair with the Nazirites,
as with Samson, for the hair with the Nazirites, as with Samson, for the
hair corresponds to the outmosts of Divine truth. And for this reason,
to produce baldness was regarded in ancient times as disgraceful.
The boys who called Elisha "bald head" were torn in pieces by bears,
because Elisha and Elijah represented the Word; and the Word without the
sense of the letter, which is like a head without hair, is destitute of
all power, and thus is no longer the Word. "Bears" signify those that
have strength from the outmost of truth.
The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power to open
heaven, whereby communication and conjunction are effected, and also the
power to fight against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. A
man who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter of the Word
can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew and their devices in
which they place their power, which are innumerable, and this in a
moment, merely by careful thought and an effort of the will. In brief,
in the spiritual world nothing can resist genuine truths confirmed by
the sense of the letter of the Word (A.E., n. 1086.)
Now since all interior things, that is, the spiritual and celestial
things that are in the Words of the three heavens, are together in the
outmost sense of the Word, which is called the sense of the letter (for
in its inmosts there are the things that are in the Word that the angels
of the third heaven have, and in its middle parts the things that are in
the Words belonging to the angels of the lower heavens, and these are
encompassed by such things as exist in the nature of our world and are
included in these), so the sense of the letter of our Word is from all
these. From this it can be seen that Divine truth is in its fullness in
the sense of the letter of our Word. That is said to be full which
contains in itself all things prior, even from the first, or all things
higher even from the highest; the last is what includes these. The
fullness of the Word is like a general vessel of marble, in which are
countless lesser vessels of crystal, and in these still more numerous
vessels of precious stones, in and about which are the most delightful
things of heaven which are for those who perform noble uses according to
the Word.
That the Word is such is not evident to man while he is in the world;
but it is evident to him when he becomes an angel. Because the Word is
such in outmosts it follows that it is not the Word until it is in that
outmost, that is, until it is in the sense of the letter. The Word not
in that outmost would be like a temple in the air and not on the earth,
or like a man having flesh but without bones.
As Divine truth is in its fullness and also in its power in its outmost,
for when it is in that it is in all things at once, so the Lord never
works except from first things through outmosts, and thus in fullness.
For He reforms and regenerates man only through truths in outmosts,
which are natural. And this is why a man remains after his departure
out of the world to eternity such as he has been in the world. For the
same reason heaven and hell are from the human race, and angels are not
created immediately such; for in the world a man is in his fullness,
consequently he can there be conceived and born, and afterward be imbued
with knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and become an angel. To create
angels in any other way is impossible.
Because the Lord works all things from things first through outmosts,
and is in His power and in His fullness in outmosts, so it pleased the
Lord to take upon Him the Human and to become Divine truth, that is, the
Word, and thus from Himself to reduce to order all things of heaven and
all things of hell, that is, to execute a last judgment. This the Lord
could accomplish from the Divine in Himself, which was in things first,
through His Human which was in outmosts, and not, as before, from His
presence or abode in the men of the church; for these had wholly
forsaken the truths and goods of the Word, in which the Lord had
previously had His dwelling-place with men. This was the chief reason
for the Lord's coming into the world, also for making His Human Divine;
for He thus put Himself into possession of a power to hold all things of
heaven and all things of hell in order for ever. This is meant by
"Sitting at the right hand of God" (Mark xvi. 19).
"The right hand of God" means Divine omnipotence, and "to sit at the
right hand of God" means to be in that omnipotence through the Human.
That the Lord ascended into heaven with His Human glorified even to
outmosts He testifies in Luke:
Jesus said to the disciples, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I
Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye
behold Me having" (xxiv. 39).
This the Lord said just after His resurrection. "Flesh and bones" are
the outmosts of the human body, on which its strength depends. (A.E.,
n. 1087.)
Divine truth is what is called holy, but only when it is in its outmost,
and its outmost is the Word in the sense of the letter; therefore the
Divine truth there is holy, and may be called a holy place, and for the
reason that that sense contains and encloses all the holy things of
heaven and the church. The appearance is that Divine truths in the
heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are more holy than
the Divine truths in the sense of the letter of the Word, which are
natural; but the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called
spiritual and celestial, are comparatively like the lungs and heart in
man, which form the chest only when they are encompassed by ribs, and
enclosed in the pleura and diaphragm; for without these integuments, and
even unless connected with them by bonds, they could not perform their
vital functions. The spiritual things of the Word are like the
breathing of the lungs, its celestial things are like the systole and
diastole of the heart, and its natural things are like the pleura, the
diaphragm, and the ribs, with the moving fibers attached, by which the
motions are made reciprocal.
Again, the spiritual and celestial things of the Word are comparatively
like the holy things of the tabernacle, which consisted of the table
upon which was the shew bread, the golden altar upon which was the
incense, the perfumes and the censor, also the lampstand with the lamps,
and still further within, the cherubim, the mercy seat, and the ark. All
these were the holy things of the Jewish and Israelitish church;
nevertheless they could not be called holy and a sanctuary until they
had been covered by curtains and veils, for without those coverings they
would have stood under the naked sky, exposed to showers and storms, to
the birds of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth, and also to
robbers that would violate, plunder, and scatter them. So would it be
with the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and
celestial, unless they were enclosed in natural truths, like the truths
of the sense of the letter of the Word.
Natural truths, which are the truths of the sense of the letter of the
Word, are not the very truths of heaven, but are appearances of them;
and appearances of truth encompass, enclose and contain the truths of
heaven, which are genuine truths, and cause them to be in connection and
order and to act together, like the cardiac and pulmonary organs with
their coverings and ribs, as has been said above; and when these truths
are held in connection and in order they are holy, and not till then.
This the sense of the letter of our Word does by means of the
appearances of truth of which its outmost consists; and this is why that
sense is the holy Divine itself and a sanctuary.
But he is greatly mistaken who separates appearances of truth from
genuine truths and calls these appearances holy by themselves and of
themselves, and not the sense of the letter holy by these and from
these, and together with these. He separates these who sees only the
sense of the letter and does not explore its meaning, as those do who do
not read the Word from doctrine. The "cherubim" mean in the Word guard
and protection that the holy things of heaven be not violated, and that
the Lord be approached only through love; consequently these signify the
sense of the letter of the Word, because that is what guards and
protects. It guards and protects in this manner that man can think and
speak according to appearances of truth so long as he is well-disposed,
simple, and as it were a child; but he must take heed not to so confirm
appearances as to destroy the genuine truths in the heavens. (A.E., n.
1088.)
It is an invariable truth that no one can understand the Word without
doctrine; for he may be led away into any errors to which he may be
inclined from some love, or to which he may be drawn from some
principle, whereby his mind becomes unsettled and uncertain, and at
length as it were destitute of truth. But he who reads the Word from
doctrine sees all things that confirm it, and many things that are
hidden from the eyes of others, and does not permit himself to be drawn
away into strange things; and thus his mind becomes so settled as to see
with certainty.
Again, unless the Word is read from doctrine it may be drawn away to
confirm heresies, for the reason that the sense of its letter consists
of mere correspondences, and these are in great part appearances of
truth, and in part genuine truths, and unless there be doctrine for a
lamp these cannot be seen and cannot be distinguished from each other.
And yet only from the Word can doctrine be acquired, and it can be
acquired only by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord. Those
are in enlightenment who love truths because they are truths and make
them to be of their life. Moreover, all things of doctrine must be
confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word, because Divine truth
is in its fullness and in its power in that sense, and through it man is
in conjunction with the Lord and in consociation with the angels. In
brief, he who loves truth because it is truth can inquire of the Lord,
as it were, in doubtful matters of faith, and can receive answers from
Him, but nowhere except in the Word for the reason that the Lord is the
Word. (A.E., n. 1089.)
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