Heavenly Doctrines 1

0. Introduction

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine stands alongside a number of recent attempts to summarise Swedenborg’s teaching. In particular, I think of such titles as Spirituality That Makes Sense by Rev Douglas Taylor, You Can Believe! by Rev Grant Schnarr and Rev Brian Kingslake’s Swedenborg Explores the Spiritual Dimension. These are merely some of the more recent examples - the New Church has been engaged with presenting Swedenborg’s message to its contemporaries from its earliest days. However, only The New Jerusalem does so using Swedenborg’s own words and he published it for that reason.

George Trobridge lists the work alongside the likes of True Christian Religion, The Four Leading Doctrines and Brief Exposition as a systematic statement of Swedenborg’s theological teachings. This contrasts with the philosophical works or expository works, although Trobridge conceeds that all three of these endeavours exist side by side throughout Swedenborg’s writing. J. Theodore Klein suggests that The New Jerusalem was an attempt to reach new audiences along with the other works published the same year - The White Horse, Earths in the Universe, The Last Judgment and, most prominently, Heaven and Hell.

The New Jerusalem’s brevity and simple presentation makes the work an ideal recommendation for anyone who is interested in understanding Swedenborg’s philosophy following even the briefest of introductions. For example, one might have read part or all of Heaven and Hell (his most popular and well known work) and been impressed by Swedenborg’s descriptions of heaven and the afterlife, but still not have any real sense of how Swedenborg understands theology, the spiritual condition of mankind, traditional Christian doctrines or the place of religion in modern life. It is, as John Chadwick describes it, “… a clear and concise statement of the teaching of this new philosophy of religion, … an excellent introduction for those who wish to become quickly acquainted with the essentials of a difficult and complex subject”.

For those readers who want to explore the ideas presented in greater detail - whether that means following one particular train of thought or taking a more comprehensive approach - the references at the end of each chapter provide a useful springboard for further reading. These references are very largely to Arcana Caelestia which was completed in 1757, the year before The New Jerusalem was published. Obviously, a full exploration of Swedenborg’s ideas would be incomplete without examining the later works too but they provide an excellent start.

A word of caution, however. Swedenborg often gives words a particular slant or significance which is not always present in more familiar usage. Some might have a common, everyday use (e.g., “good”) or more theological overtones (“church”). Frank Rose calls these, “misleading words”. The culture in which we are raised and trends in the language of our contemporaries can only serve to exaggerate the difference between Swedenborg’s original intention and our understanding of the text. Modern revisions and new translations will bridge this divide to some extent, but every reader ought to be aware of the possibility that familiar words can be used in unfamiliar ways or with subtle shades of meaning of which we might have been previously unaware. Such unconscious misunderstanding is far harder to recognise and remedy than those difficult, foreign terms (such as “proprium”) for which translations of Swedenborg’s work are sometimes criticised. This may become clear to you from your first reading - but it may not.

So, one of the central features of this course is the glossary of terms which you will be required to compile as you read this work. It asks you to think about your own use and understanding of even those words which appear commonplace. What does Swedenborg mean by these terms? How might common usage cause the inexperienced reader to misunderstand Swedenborg’s writing. How should Swedenborg’s message be communicated to the modern audience? Of course, you should not neglect the terms which are unfamiliar to you, but these do not pose quite the same problem precisely because they will be readily identified.

This experience will be valuable to you in speaking about your personal convictions and in coming alongside those for whom Swedenborg’s writing is new and foreign, and it will give you an appreciation of the effect of culture, religion, societal expectations and a range of other issues influence the way language is read and the concepts contained here are understood. Your tutor will be keenly interested to see how you bridge that gap.

Finally, you should be aware that The New Jerusalem does not dedicate a chapter to every important concept in Swedenborg’s spiritual output. You will not find sections on correspondences; influx; degrees; conjugial love; end, cause and effect; the trinity; or the omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence of the Lord. Questions in the study materials will draw your attention to these subjects and you will find some reference to them in the Further Reading supplied at the end of each session. Any other subjects which might present themselves to you but which do not appear here should be listed in the questions emerging from each chapter. You will also notice that this course omits two chapters: those on The Church and Ecclesiastical and Civil Government.

1. The New Heaven & The New Earth

1.1 Introduction

In Revelation we read:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. The city had a great, high wall, which had twelve gates, and twelve angels on the gates, and the names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, on which were the twelve names of the apostles of the Lamb. The city lay square, its length the same as its breadth. And he measured the city with a rod, making twelve thousand furlongs; and its length and its breadth and its height were equal. And he measured its wall as a hundred and forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, which is that of an angel. Its wall was of jasper, but the city itself pure gold, like pure glass; and the foundations of the wall were of every precious stone. The twelve gates were twelve pearls; and the street of the city pure gold like transparent glass. The glory of God gave it light, and its lantern was the Lamb. The nations which have been saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring to it their glory and honour. Rev. 21: 1, 2, 12-24.

Anyone reading these words can only understand them in their literal sense. That is, that the sky and the earth will perish, and a new heaven will come into existence; the holy city Jerusalem will come down upon a new earth, and will agree in its measurements with the description. But the angels understand these words quite differently. They understand spiritually what human beings understand naturally. The real meaning is what the angels understand, and that is the internal or spiritual sense of the Word.

A new heaven and a new earth means, in the internal or spiritual sense understood by angels, a new church both in the heavens and on earth. (I shall speak about the church in both places later on.) The city of Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven means its heavenly teaching. Its length, breadth and height, which are equal means everything good and true in its teaching taken as a whole. Its wall means the truths which protect it. The measurement of the wall, which was a hundred and forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, which is that of an angel, means all the truths that protect it taken together, and what they are like. The twelve gates made of pearls mean the truths which lead into it, and the twelve angels on the gates likewise. The foundations of the wall which were of every precious stone mean the items of knowledge on which that teaching is based. The twelve tribes of Israel mean everything belonging to the church in general and in particular; likewise the twelve apostles. The gold like pure glass, of which the city and its street are made, mean the good of love which makes the teaching with its truths shine through. The nations who are saved, and the kings of the earth who will bring to it glory and honour, mean all the people in the church who possess good and truth. God and the Lamb mean the Lord as regards His Divinity and His Divine Humanity.

Such is the spiritual sense of the Word; the natural or literal sense serves as its foundation. But still the two senses, the spiritual and the natural, make one by their correspondence. There is not room here to show that all these statements contain that spiritual meaning; that is not the purpose of this book. But they can be seen demonstrated in my ARCANA CAELE5TIA.

2. Before speaking about the New Jerusalem and its teaching, I must say something about the new heaven and the new earth. In my short work THE LAST JUDGMENT AND THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON I showed what is meant by the first heaven and the first earth which had passed away. After they had passed away, that is, after the completion of the last judgment, a new heaven was created, that is, formed by the Lord. This heaven was formed from all those who, from the time of the Lord’s coming down to the present, have lived a life of faith and charity, since these alone were in heaven’s image. For the image of heaven, which determines all association and communication there, is an image of Divine truth arising from Divine good, coming forth from the Lord; and a person puts on this image in his spirit by living in accordance with Divine truth.

These facts enable us to know from whom the new heaven was made, and also its nature, as being totally of one mind. For anyone who lives a life of faith and charity loves another as himself, and he links the other to himself by love, so that the other loves him in turn. Love is a linking in the spiritual world; so when all act alike, then the association of many, or rather countless, people, in keeping with the form of heaven, brings about unanimity and they become as one. For there is nothing to separate and divide them, but everything links and unites them.

3. Since this heaven has been formed from all who were such as described, from the time of the Lord down to the present, it is clear that it is composed as much of non-Christians as of Christians. For the greater part it is composed of all the children throughout the world, who have died since the Lord’s time; for all of these have been taken in by the Lord and brought up in heaven. They have been taught by angels, and then kept so as to constitute together with the rest the new heaven. That will give some idea how large that heaven is.

4. It must further be appreciated that this new heaven is distinct from the ancient heavens, which existed before the Lord’s coming. Still the former ones fall into such a pattern with this that taken together they make up a single heaven. The reason why this new heaven is distinct from the ancient heavens is that teaching in the ancient churches was about nothing but love and charity, and at that time they knew nothing of teaching about faith separated from love. This too is why the ancient heavens make up the upper levels, but the new heaven a level beneath them. For the heavens are on different levels, one above the other.

The highest levels contain those called celestial angels, most of whom are from the Most Ancient church. Those in them are called celestial angels from celestial love, which is love directed to the Lord. The levels below them contain those called spiritual angels, most of whom are from the Ancient church. Those in them are called spiritual angels from spiritual love, which is charity directed towards the neighbour. Below them are the angels who possess the good of faith; these are those who have lived lives of faith. Living a life of faith means living in accordance with the teaching of one’s church, and living means willing and doing. Still all these heavens make one through the direct and indirect inflow from the Lord.

5. So much for the new heaven. I shall now say something about the new earth. A new earth means a new church on earth, for when a previous church ceases to exist a new one is started by the Lord. For the Lord sees to it that there is always a church on earth, since the church is the means by which the Lord is linked with the human race and heaven with the world. A church is where the Lord is known and the Divine truths are to be found which enable people to be linked to Him.

The reason why a new earth means a new church is the spiritual sense of the Word. For in that sense earth does not mean any particular part of the earth, but the people who live there and their worship of God, since this is the spiritual element which takes the place of earth. Moreover, the earth in the Word without any geographical name means the land of Canaan; and there was a church in the land of Canaan from the most ancient times. That is how it comes about that all the places in that land and the surrounding area, together with the mountains and rivers, that are mentioned in the Word, became representations and symbols of such things as are the internals of the church, what are called its spiritual elements. That is why the earth, as I have said, in the Word means the church, because the land of Canaan is meant. So here a new earth has a similar meaning. From this has arisen the custom in the church of speaking of the heavenly Canaan, when one means heaven.

6. I shall now state briefly what Jerusalem means in the Word in its spiritual sense. Jerusalem means the church as regards its teaching. This is because the land of Canaan and no other was where the Temple was, and the altar, there sacrifices were made, so there was the worship of God. For this reason too three festivals were held there every year, and every male throughout the land was ordered to attend them. It follows that Jerusalem in the spiritual sense means the church as regards worship, or, what is the same thing, as regards its teaching. For worship is laid down in what is taught and is conducted in accordance with this.

The reason it is called the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven is that, in the spiritual sense of the Word, city and town mean teaching; and the holy city means the teaching of Divine truth, for it is Divine truth which is called holy in the Word. It is called the New Jerusalem for much the same reason that the earth is called new; for, as I said just above, earth means the church, and Jerusalem that church as regards its teaching. It is said to be coming down from God out of heaven because all Divine truth, the source of teaching, comes down out of heaven from the Lord.

It is obvious that Jerusalem here does not mean a city, even though it was seen as a city, from its being said that its height was as its length and breadth, twelve thousand furlongs, and that the measurement of its wall was a hundred and forty-four cubits by the measure of a man, which is that of an angel (verses 16, 17). Also by it being described as made ready as a bride adorned for her husband (verse 2); and by the angel saying later on:

Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he showed me the holy city Jerusalem. Rev. 21: 9, 10.

It is the church which in the Word is called the Lord’s bride and wife, bride before and wife after being united with Him.

7. To be specific about the teaching which will now follow, that too comes from heaven, because it is from the spiritual sense of the Word, and that sense is the same as the teaching which exists in heaven. For there is a church in heaven just as much as on earth. There the Word is to be found, and teaching from the Word; there are church buildings there, and sermons are preached in them. There too are to be found church and secular systems of government. In short, the only difference between things in the heavens and those on earth is that everything in the heavens is in a higher state of perfection, because all the people there are spiritual, and what is spiritual is immeasurably more perfect than what is natural.

These facts can make it clear what is meant by the holy city, New Jerusalem, being seen to come down from God out of heaven. But I shall now proceed to the actual teaching intended for the new church. Since this has been revealed to me from heaven, it is called heaven’s teaching; for it is the aim of this book to convey this.

1.2 The Teachings

I showed in the short book THE LAST JUDGMENT AND THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON that a church reaches its end when there is no faith because there is no charity. Since the churches in Christendom have at the present time made themselves distinct solely by such matters as relate to faith, and yet there is no faith where there is no charity. I should like before describing the teaching itself to say a few words by way of introduction on the teaching about charity among the ancient peoples. When I speak of the churches in Christendom I mean the churches among the Reformed or Evangelical Christians. I do not include the church among the Roman Catholics, because there is no Christian church there. For a church is where the Lord is adored and the Word is read, and this is not the case among the Catholics. There they are adored themselves in place of the Lord, and the people are prevented from reading the Word; and the Pope’s utterance is placed on a level with, or rather above, the Word.

9. The teaching about charity, that is, how to live, was the chief teaching in the ancient churches. That teaching united all churches and so made one out of many. For they recognised as members of the church all those whose lives showed the good of charity and called them brothers, however much otherwise they differed in truths, what are to-day called matters of faith. One taught another about truths, and this was one of their charitable deeds. Also they did not take it amiss, if one failed to accept another’s point of view, knowing that each person accepts truth only to the extent that he is in a state of good. Since the ancient churches were of this kind their members were therefore ‘interior’ people; and for this reason they were wiser. For those who possess the good of love and charity are in heaven, so far as their internal man is concerned; and in this manner belong to a community of angels there which enjoys a like good. This has the effect of raising their minds to more inward matters, and this consequently gives them wisdom. Wisdom can come from nowhere except out of heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord. Wisdom exists in heaven, because people there are in a state of good. Wisdom is seeing the truth by the light of truth, and the light of truth is the light heaven enjoys.

But this wisdom of the ancients declined with the passage of time; for the more the human race withdrew from the good of love to the Lord and of love towards the neighbour, the love called charity, the more it also withdrew from wisdom, because it withdrew further from heaven. Thus it is that man from internal became successively more and more external. And when he became external, he also became worldly and concerned with the body. When a person is like that, he pays little heed to the matters which have to do with heaven, for he is then totally in the grip of the pleasures of earthly loves, as well as of the evils which are rendered attractive by those loves. Then what he hears about life after death, about heaven and hell, in short about spiritual matters, are as it were outside him, and not inside as they ought to be. This too is the reason why the teaching about charity, which was so highly prized by the ancients, is to-day one of the things which have been lost to view. Is there anyone to-day who knows what is the real meaning of charity, and what the real meaning of the neighbour? Yet that teaching not only teaches this, but countless things in addition, of which people to-day know less than a thousandth part. The whole of the Sacred Scripture is nothing but teaching about love and charity. The Lord too teaches this when He says:

You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it. You are to love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments the Law and the Prophets depend. Matt. 22:37-40.

The Law and the Prophets are the Word in all its details.

10. In the following pages there will be added to each doctrinal subject extracts from the Heavenly Arcana, because in them these same subjects are more fully explained.

1.3 Assignment 1

1. What is Your Key Sentence from this chapters Reading?
2. What is meant by The New Heaven?
3. What is meant by New Earth?
4. What is meant by The New Jerusalem?

He writes, “By the twelve tribes of Israel are meant all things of the Church in general and in particular; and the same is meant by the twelve Apostles.”

5. What do you think “all things of the Church” are? (see also paragraph 241)
6. What are the fundamental principles of true religion to be found in chapter 2?
7. What are the results of their corruption?

Swedenborg identifed that corruption in the Christian Church of his own era: “the papists [Catholic Church] … worship themselves instead of the Lord, and the Word is forbidden to be read by the people, and a decree of the Pope is placed equal with it, yea, above it.”

8. To what extent do you think those observations still apply to the Christian Churches of today?
9. To what extent do you think this reflects a universal human condition?
10. How do you see these principles applying to what is of the church in you?

1.4 Journal Work

“The twelve gates made of pearls mean the truths which lead into [the teaching of heaven]” (paragraph 1)

How have you been led into new, heavenly ways of understanding spirituality, the world around you and the people you encounter every day? Have you witnessed another person making a similar discovery? Has it been the same as yours or different? In what ways might you participate in the spiritual awakenings of others different from your own?

1.5 Further Reading

• Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially paragraphs 876-962.
• The Last Judgment, by Emanuel Swedenborg.
• Brief Exposition, by Emanuel Swedenborg.
• True Christian Religion, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially paragraphs 1-3, chapter 14 (paragraphs 753-791 and supplement (paragraphs 792-851).
• Hidden Millennium: The doomsday fallacy, by Steve Koke.

2. On Good and Truth

2.1 Introduction

11. All things in the universe, which are in accordance with God’s order, have reference to good and truth. Nothing exists in heaven, and nothing on earth, which does not have reference to these two. The reason is that both, good as well as truth, proceed from the Deity who is the source of all things.

12. From this it is clear that there is nothing a person needs more to know than what good is and what truth is, how one has the other in view, and how one is linked to the other. This is above all needed by a member of the church. For just as all things in heaven have reference to good and truth, so too do all things in the church, because the good and truth of heaven are also the good and truth of the church. This is why it is necessary to start with good and truth.

13. It is a law of Divine order that good and truth should be linked and not kept separate, so that they make a single unit, not two. For linked they proceed from the Divine, linked they are in heaven and therefore linked they should be in the church. In heaven the linking of good and truth is called the heavenly marriage, for all there are linked in this marriage. This is why heaven in the Word is likened to a marriage, and the Lord is called bridegroom and husband, while heaven is called bride and wife; and these same terms are used of the church. The reason why heaven and the church are so called is that those in them receive Divine good in truths.

14. All the intelligence and wisdom the angels have comes from this marriage, none of it from good separated from truth or from truth separated from good. The same is true of people in the church.

15. Since the linking of good and truth resembles a marriage it is plain that good loves truth and truth in turn loves good, and one longs to be linked with the other. Anyone in the church who lacks such love and longing has not yet achieved a heavenly marriage. So the church is not yet present in him, for it is the linking of good and truth which makes the church.

16. There are many kinds of good. Generally speaking, there is spiritual good and there is natural good, and the two are linked in true moral good. What applies to kinds of good also applies to kinds of truth, because truths belong to good and are forms taken by good.

17. The relation of good and truth is matched by their opposites, evil and falsity. This means that just as all things in the universe which are in accordance with Divine order have reference to good and truth, so all things which are contrary to Divine order have reference to evil and falsity. Again, just as good loves to be linked with truth and truth with good, so evil loves to be linked with falsity and falsity with evil. Also, just as all intelligence and wisdom is born of the linking of good and truth, so all madness and stupidity is born of the linking of evil and falsity. This linking is called the hellish marriage.

18. It is plain from the fact that evil and falsity are the opposites of good and truth that truth cannot be linked with evil nor good with the falsity which comes from evil. If truth is attached to evil, it is no longer truth but falsity, since it has been falsified. And if good is attached to the falsity which comes from evil, it is no longer good but evil, since it has been adulterated. However, the falsity which does not come from evil can be linked with good.

19. No one who by conviction and manner of life has chosen evil and the falsity which comes of it can know what good and truth are, because he believes that his own evil is good and thus that his own falsity is truth. However, everyone who by conviction and manner of life has chosen good and the truth which comes of it can know what evil and falsity are. The reason is that all good, and the truth which comes of it, is in its essence heavenly, and that which is not in its essence heavenly is still of heavenly origin. But all evil and the falsity which comes of it is in its essence hellish, and what is not in its essence hellish still comes from that origin. Everything heavenly is bathed in light and everything hellish is sunk in darkness.

2.2 The Heavenly Arcana

Each and all things in the universe have relation to good and truth, or to evil and falsity, those things which are in Divine order, and take place according to Divine order, to good and truth, and those which are in opposition thereto, to evil and falsity, nos. 2452, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122. Thus with man they have relation to the understanding and will, because the man’s understanding is the recipient of truth, or of falsity; and his will the recipient of good, or of evil, nos. 10122. Few at the present day know what truth is in its genuine essence because it is so little known what good is, when yet all truth is from good, and all good is through truths, nos. 2507, 3603, 4136, 9186, 9995.

There are four kinds of men: 1. They who are in falsities from evil; and in falsities not from evil. 2. They who are in truths apart from good. 3. They who are in truths, and through them regard, and aspire to, good. 4. They who are in truths from good. But of each of these, specially.

21. Concerning those who are in falsities from evil, and those who are in falsities not from evil; thus, concerning falsities from evil, and falsities not from evil. There are innumerable kinds of falsity, as many, indeed, as there are evils; and the origins of evils and the falsities from them are many, nos. 1188, 1212, 4729, 4822, 7574. There is the falsity from evil, that is, the falsity of evil; and there is the evil from falsity, that is, the evil of the false, and again a falsity from it, thus derivatively, nos. 1679, 2243. From one falsity, especially if it is in the place of a principle, falsities flow in a continuous series, nos. 1510, 1511, 4717, 4721. There is a falsity from the lusts of the love of self and of the world; and there is a falsity from the fallacies of the senses, nos. 1295, 4729. There are falsities of religion, and there are falsities of ignorance, nos. 4729, 8318, 9258. There is a falsity in which is good, and a falsity which there is no good, nos. 2863, 9304, 10109, 10302. There is what has been falsified, nos. 7318, 7319, 10648. Every evil has a falsity with it, nos. 7577, 8094. The falsity from the lusts of the love of self is the falsity itself of evil; and from it are the worst kinds of falsities, no. 4729.

Evil is heavy, and of its own accord lapses into hell; but not so falsity, unless it is from evil, nos. 8279, 8298. Good is turned into evil, and truth into falsity, when it lapses from heaven into hell, because it then passes as it were into a gross and impure atmosphere, no. 3607. Falsities from evil appear as mists, and as foul waters above the hells, nos. 8137, 8138, 8146. They who are in the hells speak falsities from evil, nos. 1695, 7351, 7352, 7357, 7392, 7689. They who are in evil cannot but think what is false, when they think from themselves, no. 7437. Additional statements about the evil of falsity, nos. 2408, 4818, 7272, 8265, 8279; and about the falsity of evil, nos. 6359, 7272, 9304, 10302.

Every falsity may be confirmed, and when confirmed appears as a truth, nos. 5033, 6865, 8521, 8780. Wherefore before a thing is confirmed, it ought first to be examined whether it is true, nos. 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521. Care ought to be taken lest falsities of religion be confirmed; because there arises thence a persuasion of the false, which remains with man after death, nos. 845, 8780. How pernicious the persuasion of the false is, nos. 794, 806, 5096, 7686.

Good cannot flow into truths so long as a man is in evil, no. 2434. Goods and truths are removed from a man in the same proportion in which he is in evil, and in the falsities from it, no. 3402. Great care is taken by the Lord lest truth be conjoined to evil, and the falsity of evil to good, nos. 3110, 3116, 4416, 5217. Profanation arises from such a commingling, no. 6348. Truths exterminate falsities, and falsities truths, no. 5207. Truths cannot be received inwardly, so long as unbelief prevails, no. 3399.

How truth may be falsified, from examples, no. 7318. The wicked are permitted to falsify truths, reasons why, no. 7332. Truths are falsified by the wicked, by being applied, and thus drawn down, to evil, nos. 8094, 8149. Truth is said to be falsified when it is applied to evil, which is done chiefly through fallacies and appearances among outward things, nos. 7344, 8602. The wicked are allowed to assault truth, but not good, because they can falsify truth by various interpretations and applications, no. 6677. Truth falsified from evil is opposed to truth and good, no. 8062. Truth falsified from evil stinks fearfully in the other life, no. 7319. Additional statements concerning the falsification of truth, no. 7318, 7319, 10648.

There are falsities of religion which agree with good, and there are such as disagree, no. 9259. If falsities of religion do not disagree with good, they do not produce evil, except with those who are in evil, no. 8318. Falsities of religion are not imputed to those who are in good, but to those who are in evil, nos. 8051, 8149. Truths which are not genuine, and likewise falsities, may be associated with genuine truths with those who are in good, but not with those who are in evil, nos. 3470, 3471, 4551, 4552, 7344, 8149, 9298. Falsities and truths are associated by means of appearances from the literal sense of the Word, no. 7344. Falsities are made true by good, and become soft, because they are applied to and drawn towards good, and evil is removed, no. 8149. Falsities of religion with those who are in good, are accepted by the Lord as truths, nos. 4736, 8149. Good which has its quality from the falsity of religion, is accepted by the Lord, if there is ignorance, and in it innocence, and a good end, no. 7887. Truths with a man are appearances of truth and good, imbued with fallacies; with the man who lives in good, the Lord nevertheless adapts these to genuine truths, no. 2053. Falsities in which there is good have place with those who are outside the Church, and therefore in ignorance of the truth; and they are also with those who are within the Church, where there are falsities of doctrine, nos. 2589, 2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 3778, 4189, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256. Falsities in which there is not good are more grievous with those who are within than with those who are without the Church, no. 7688. Truths and goods are taken away from the wicked in the other life, and given to the good, according to the Lord’s words, To him that hath shall be given that he may have abundance; and from him that hath not shall be taken away that which he hath, no. 7770.

22. Concerning those who are in truths, and not in good; thus, concerning truths apart from good. Truths apart from for truths have all life from good, no. 3607. Thus they are as a body without a soul, nos. 8530, 9154. The knowledges of truth and good which are only in the memory, and not in the life, are believed by them to be truths, no. 5276. Those truths with which a man is only acquainted, and which he acknowledges from causes which proceed from the love of self and the world, are not appropriated by him, nor do they become his own, nos. 3402, 3834. But those he appropriates, which he acknowledges from causes which proceed form the love of self and the world, are not appropriated by him, nor do they become his own, nos. 3402, 3834. But those he appropriates, which he acknowledges for the sake of the very truth and good, no. 3849. Truths apart from good are not accepted by the Lord, no. 4368; neither do they save, no. 2261. They who are in truths apart from good, are not of the Church, no. 3963; neither can they be regenerated, no. 10367. The Lord flows into truths only through good, no. 10367.

The separation of truth from good, nos. 5008, 5009, 5022, 5028. The quality of truth apart from good, and its quality from good, nos. 1949, 1950, 1964, 5951; from comparisons, no. 5830. Truth apart from good is morose, nos. 1949, 1950, 1951, 1964; in the spiritual world it appears hard, nos. 6359, 7068; and pointed, no. 2799. Truth apart from good is as the light of winter, in which all things of the earth grow torpid, and nothing is produced; but truth from good is as the light of spring and summer, in which all things blossom and are produced, nos. 2231, 3146, 3412, 3413. Such a wintry light is turned into thick darkness when light flows in from heaven; and then they who are in such truths, come into blindness and stupidity, nos. 3412, 3413.

They who separate truths from good are in darkness, and in ignorance of truth, and in falsities, no. 9186. They cast themselves from falsities into evils, nos. 3325, 8094. The errors and falsities into which they plunge themselves, nos. 4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9222. The Word is closed for them, nos. 3773, 4783, 8780. They do not see and attend to all those things which the Lord spake concerning love and charity, and thus concerning good, nos. 1017, 3416. They do not know what good is, and thus what heavenly love and charity are, nos. 2417, 3603, 4136, 9995. They who are acquainted with the truths of faith, and live evilly, misapply these truths in the other life, for purposes of dominion; their quality and their lot, no. 4802.

Truth Divine condemns to hell, but Divine Good raises to heaven, no. 2258. Truth Divine frightens, not so Divine Good, no. 4180. What is meant by being judged from truth, and what by being judged from good, no. 2335.

23. Concerning those who are in truths, and through them look towards, and aspire to, good; thus, concerning truths through which comes good. What a man loves, this he wills, and what a man loves or wills, this he thinks, and confirms by various means: what a man loves or wills, is called good, and what a man thinks therefrom, and confirms by various means, is called truth, no. 4070. Hence it is, that truth becomes good when it becomes a matter of love or of will, that is, when a man loves and wills it, nos. 5526, 7835, 10367. And again, since love or the will is the very life of a man, truth with him does not live, when he is only acquainted with it and thinks it, but when he loves and wills it, and from love and the will does it, nos. 5595, 9282. From thence, and consequently from good, truths receive life, nos. 2434, 3111, 3607, 6077. Truths, therefore, have life from good, and apart form good they have no life, nos. 1589, 1947, 1997, 3579, 3180, 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729; illustrated, no. 9154. When truths may be said to have acquired life, no. 1928. Truth when conjoined with good, is appropriated by a man because it becomes a part of his life, nos. 3108, 3161. In order that truth may be conjoined to good, there must be a consent from the understanding and will; when there is consent from the will as well, then there is conjunction, nos. 3157, 3158, 3161.

When a man is being regenerated, truths enter with the delight of affection, because he loves to do them; and they are reproduced with the same affection because the two cohere, nos. 2480, 2487, 3040, 3066, 3074, 3336, 4018, 5893, 7967. The affection which belongs to love always adjoins itself to truths according to the uses of life, and this affection is reproduced with the truths, and the truths are reproduced with the affection, nos. 3336, 3824, 3849, 4205, 5892, 7967. Good only acknowledges as truth what accords with the affection which belongs to love, no. 3161. Truths are introduced by means of concordant delights and pleasantnesses, nos. 3502, 3512. Every genuine affection of the truth is from good, and according to it, nos. 4373, 8349, 8356. Thus there is an instilling and influx of good into truths, and conjunction, no. 4301; and truths thus have life, nos. 7910, 7967.

Since the affection which belongs to love always adjoins itself to truths according to the uses of life, therefore good acknowledges its own truth and truth its own good, nos. 2429, 3101, 3102, 3161, 3179, 3180, 4358, 5807, 5835, 9637. From this there is conjunction of truth and good; concerning which, nos. 3834, 4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627, 7752-7762, 8530, 9258, 10555. Truths also acknowledge each other, and are mutually consociated, no. 9079; and this comes from the influx of heaven, no. 9079.

Good is the Esse of life, and truth the Existere of life therefrom; good thus has its Existere of life in truth, and truth its Esse of life in good, nos. 3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9154. Therefore every good has its own truth, and every truth its own good; because good apart from truth has no Existere, and truth apart from good no Esse, no. 9637. Again, good has its form and its quality from truths, so that truth is the form and quality of good, nos. 3049, 4574, 6916, 9154. Truth and good, therefore, must be conjoined that they may be anything, no. 10555. Wherefore good is in a perpetual endeavour and desire to conjoin to itself truths, nos. 9206, 9495; illustrated at no. 9207; and truths conversely conjoin themselves with good, no. 9206. The conjunction is reciprocal, of good with truth, and of truth with good, nos. 5365, 8516. Good acts and truth re-acts, yet from good, nos. 3155, 4380, 4757, 5928, 10729. Truths have respect to their good, as to their beginning and end, no. 4353.

The conjunction of truth with good is like the progression of man’s life from infancy; first he imbibes truths scientifically, then rationally, and at last he makes them part of his life, nos. 3203, 3665, 3690. It is also with it as with offspring, in that it is conceived, exists in the womb, is born, grows up, becomes wise, nos. 3298, 3299, 3308, 3665, 3690. It is also with it as with seeds and the soil, no. 3671; and like water in its relation to bread, no. 4976. The first affection of truth is not genuine, but in proportion as the man is perfected it is purified, nos. 3040, 3089. Still, goods and truths, which are not genuine, serve for the introduction of genuine goods and truths, and the former are afterwards abandoned, nos. 3665, 3690, 3974, 3982, 3986, 4145.

Besides, through truths man is led to good, and not without truths, nos. 10124, 10367. Unless a man learns, that is, receives truths, good cannot flow in, so that the man cannot become spiritual, no. 3387. The conjunction of good and truth is effected according to the increase of knowledges, no. 3141. Truths are received by every one according to his capacity, no. 3385.

The truths of the natural man are scientifics, nos. 3293, 3309, 3310. Scientifics and knowledges are as vessels, nos. 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077. Truths are vessels of good, because they are recipients, nos. 1469, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269, 3318, 3365, 3387.

Good flows in with man by an internal way, that is, by way of the soul, but truths by an external way, that is, by that of hearing and sight; and they are conjoined in man’s interiors by the Lord, nos. 3030, 3098. Truths are raised out of the natural man, and implanted in good in the spiritual man; and thus truths become spiritual, nos. 3085, 3086. And afterwards, they flow in from thence into the natural man; spiritual good flowing immediately into the good of the Natural, but mediately into the truth of the Natural, nos. 3314, 3573, 4563; illustrated, nos. 3314, 3616, 3576, 3969, 3995. In a word, truths with a man are conjoined to good, so far and in such manner as he is in good, as to life, nos. 3834, 3843. Conjunction is effected differently with the celestial, from what it is with the spiritual, no. 10124. Additional statements concerning the conjunction of good and truth, and the manner in which it is effected, nos. 3090, 3203, 3308, 4096, 4097, 4345, 4353, 5365, 7623-7627; and how spiritual good is formed through truths, nos. 3470, 3570.

24. Concerning those who are in truths from good, thus concerning truths from good. What difference there is between the truth which leads to good, and the truth which proceeds from good, no. 2063. Truth essentially is not truth, except so far as it proceeds from good, nos. 4736, 10619; because truth has its Esse from good, nos. 3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9144; and its life, nos. 3111, 2434, 6077; and because truth is the form, that is, the quality of good, nos. 3049, 4574, 5951, 9154. Truth with man is altogether as good, in a like ratio and in a like degree, no. 2429. In order that truth may be truth, it must derive its essence from the good of charity and innocence, nos. 3111, 6013. The truths which are from good are spiritual truths, no. 5951.

When truth proceeds from good, it makes one with it to such a degree that both together are one good, nos. 4301, 7835, 10252, 10266. The understanding and will make one mind and one life, when the understanding proceeds from the will, because the understanding is the recipient of truth, and the will, of good; but not when a man thinks and speaks otherwise than he wills, no. 3623. Truth from good is truth in will and act, nos. 4337, 4353, 4385, 4390. When truth proceeds from good, good has its image in truth, no. 3180.

In the whole heaven and in the whole world, and in each single thing thereof, there is an image of marriage, nos. 54, 718, 747, 917, 1432, 2173, 2516, 5194. Especially between truth and good, nos. 1904, 2173, 2508. Because all things in the universe have, relation to truth and good, in order to be anything, and to their conjunction, in order that anything may be produced, nos. 2452, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555. The Ancients also instituted a marriage between truth and good, no. 1904. The law of marriage is that, according to the Lord’s words, two shall be one, nos. 10130, 10168, 10169. Love truly conjugial descends and exists also out of heaven, from the marriage of truth and a good, nos. 2728, 2729.

A man is wise so far as he is in good, and from good in truths, but not so far is he is acquainted with truths and is not in good, nos. 3182, 3190, 4884. A man who is in truths from good, is actually raised out of the light of the world into the light of heaven, and thus out of obscurity into clearness; but conversely he is in the light of the world, and in obscurity so long as he is acquainted with truths and is not in good, nos. 3190, 3192. Again, a man does not know what good is, before he is in it and [acts] from it, nos. 3325, 3330, 3336. Truths increase immensely when they proceed from good, nos. 2846, 2847, 5345. Concerning this increase, no. 5355. This increase is like the production of fruit from a tree, and multiplication from seeds, from which arise whole gardens, nos. 1873, 2846, 2847. In the same, proportion also wisdom increases, and indeed to eternity, nos. 3200, 10314, 4220, 4221, 5527, 5859, 6663. The man also who is in truths from good is enlightened in the same proportion, and is thus in enlightenment while reading the Word, nos. 9382, 10548, 10549, 10550, 10691, 10694. The good of love is as fire, and the truth from it as the light from that fire, nos. 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. Truths from good also shine in heaven, no. 5219. Truths from good, through which wisdom comes, increase according to the quality and quantity of the love of good: and conversely, falsities from evil increase according to the quality and quantity of the love of evil, no. 4099. The man who is in truths from good comes into angelic intelligence and wisdom, and these are hidden away in his interiors so long as he lives in the world, but are laid open in the other life, no. 2494. The man who is in truths from good becomes an angel after death, no. 8747.

Truths from good are circumstanced like generations, no. 9079. They are arranged in series, nos. 5339, 5343, 5530, 7408, 10303, 10308. The orderly arrangement of truths from good compared with the fibres and blood-vessels in the body; and thus with the tissues and forms, according to the uses of life, nos. 3470, 3570, 3579, 9154. Truths from good form as it were a community, and indeed from the influx of heaven, no. 3584. Those truths are in the middle which belong to the chief love; and the rest are distant therefrom, according to the degrees of their non-agreement, nos. 3993, 4551, 4552, 5530, 6028. The opposite order prevails with the wicked, nos. 4551, 4552. When truths proceed from good, they are arranged in the form of heaven, nos. 4302, 5339, 5343, 5704, 6028, 10303; and indeed according to the order in which the angelic societies are, no. 10303. All truths when proceeding from good are conjoined with one another by a certain affinity; and they are circumstanced like families derived from one father, no. 2863. Every truth also has a sphere extending into heaven, according to the quality and quantity of the good from which it is, no. 8063. The marriage of good and truth is the Church and Heaven with man, nos. 2173, 7752, 7753, 9224, 9995, 10122. The delight and happiness of those with whom there is good in truths, no. 1470.

Truths from good, when conjoined, exhibit an image of man, no. 8370. A man is nothing else than his own good, and the truth from it; or evil, and the false from it; no. 10298.

A summary: Through truths there is faith, nos. 4353, 4997, 7178, 10367. Through truths there is charity towards the neighbour, nos. 4368, 7623, 7624, 8034. Through truths there is love to the Lord, nos. 10143, 10153, 10310 10578, 10645. Through truths there is conscience, nos. 1077, 2053, 9113. Through truths there is innocence, nos. 3183, 3494, 6013. Through truths there is purification from evils, nos. 2799, 5954, 7044, 7918, 9089, 10229, 10237. Through truths is regeneration, nos. 1555, 1904, 2046, 2189, 9088, 9959, 10028. Through truths come intelligence and wisdom, nos. 3182, 3190, 3387, 10064. The beauty of angels, and also of men, as to the interiors belonging to their spirits, arises through truths, nos. 553, 3080, 4985, 5199. Through truths there is power against evils and falsities, nos. 3091, 4015, 10481. Order, such as is in heaven, is through truths, nos. 3316, 3417, 3570, 5339, 5343, 5704, 6028, 10303. The Church is through truths, nos. 1798, 1799, 3963, 4468, 4672. Through truths man has heaven, nos. 1900, 9832, 9931, 10303. Through truths a man becomes a man, nos. 3175, 3387, 8370, 10298. Still all these arise through truths from good, and not through truths apart from good; and good is from the Lord, nos. 2434, 4070, 4736, 5147. All good is from the Lord, nos. 1614, 2016, 2904, 4151, 9981.

25. All good and truth is from the Lord. The Lord is very Good and very Truth, nos. 2011, 4151, 10336, 10619. The Lord is the Divine Good of the Divine Love, as to both the Divine and Human; and from Him proceeds the Divine Truth, nos. 3704, 3712, 4180, 4577. From the Lord’s Divine Good proceeds the Divine Truth, comparatively as the light proceeds from the sun, nos. 3704, 3712, 4180, 4577. The Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord appears in the heavens as light, and presents all the light of heaven, nos. 3195, 3223, 5400, 8694, 9399, 9548, 9684. The light of heaven which is Divine Truth united with Divine Good, illuminates both the sight and the understanding of angels and spirits, nos. 2776, 3138. Heaven is in light and heat, because in truth and good; for Divine Truth is the light there, and Divine Good is the heat there, nos. 3643, 9399, 9400; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 126-140. The Divine Truth which proceeds from the Divine Good of the Lord forms and arranges the angelic Heaven, nos. 3038, 9408, 9613, 10716, 10717. Divine Good united with the Divine Truth which is in the heavens, is called Divine Truth, no. 10196.

The Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord is the only reality, nos. 6880, 7004, 8200. Through the Divine Truth all things were made and created, nos. 2803, 2894, 5272, 7678. All power also belongs to the Divine Truth, no. 8200.

From himself, man cannot do anything that is good, nor can he think anything that is true, nos. 874, 875, 876. The Rational of man from itself cannot perceive Divine Truth, nos. 2196, 2203, 2209. Truths which are not from the Lord, are from the man’s self (proprium), and they are not truths, but only appear as truths, no. 8868.

All good and truth is from the Lord, and nothing from man, nos. 1614, 2016, 2904, 4151, 9981. Goods and truths are goods and truths, only so far as they have the Lord in them, nos. 2904, 3061, 8480. Concerning the Divine Truth which proceeds immediately from the Lord, and the Divine Truth which proceeds mediately through the angels, and their influx with man, nos. 7055, 7056, 7058. The Lord flows with man into good, and through good into truths, no. 10153. Through good He flows into truths of every kind; chiefly into genuine truths, nos. 2531, 2554. The Lord does not flow into truths which have been separated from good; and there is no parallelism between the Lord and man, as to these, but as to good, nos. 1831, 1832, 3514, 3564.

Doing good and doing truth for the sake of good and truth, means loving the Lord and loving the neighbour, no. 10336. They who are in the internal of the Word, of the Church, and of Worship, love to do good and truth for the sake of good and truth; but they who are in the external of these, apart from the internal, love to do good and truth for the sake of themselves and the world, no. 10683. What is meant by doing good and truth for the sake of good and truth, illustrated by examples, no. 10683.

26. Concerning the various kinds of goods and truths. There is an infinite variety, and there is never one thing exactly like another thing, nos. 7236, 9002. In the heavens also there is an infinite variety, nos. 684, 690, 3744, 5598, 7236. The varieties in the heavens are varieties of good; and to them is due the distinction of all things there, nos. 3519, 3744, 3804, 3986, 4005, 4067, 4149, 4263, 7236, 7833, 7836, 9002. These varieties arise from truths which are manifold, through which every one has good, nos. 3470, 3519, 3804, 4149, 6917, 7236. On this ground all angelic societies in the heavens, and every angel in a society, are distinct from each other, nos. 690, 3241, 3519, 3804, 3986, 4067, 4149, 4263, 7236, 7833, 7836. Nevertheless, they all act as one through love from the Lord, on account of all regarding one end, nos. 457, 3986.

Goods and truths in general, according to degrees, are distinguished into such as are natural, spiritual, and celestial, nos. 2069, 3240. In general, there are three degrees of good, and consequently of truth, according to the three heavens, nos. 4154, 9873, 10270. There are goods and truths thence of a threefold kind in the internal man, and as many in the external man, no. 4154. There is natural good, civil good, and moral good, no. 3768. The natural good, into which some are born, is not good in the other life, unless it becomes spiritual good, nos. 2463, 2464, 2468, 3408, 3469, 3470, 3508, 3518, 7761. Concerning natural good spiritual, and natural good not spiritual, nos. 4988, 4992, 5032. There is intellectual truth, and there is scientific truth, nos. 1904, 1911, 2503.

27. Wisdom is from good through truths. How the Rational with man is conceived and born, nos. 2094, 2524, 2557, 3030, 5126. It is by an influx of the Lord through heaven into the knowledges and sciences which are with man, and an elevation thereby, nos. 1895, 1899, 1900, 1901. The elevation is according to uses, and the love of them, nos. 3074, 3085, 3086. The Rational is born through truths; wherefore according to their quality, such is the Rational, nos. 2094, 2524, 2557. The Rational is opened and formed through truths from good: and it is closed and destroyed through falsities from evil, nos. 3108, 5126. A man is not rational on account of his being able to reason on any subject, but on account of his being able to see and perceive whether a thing is true or not, no. 1944. A man is not born into any truth, because not into any good; but he has to learn and imbibe everything, no. 3175. With difficulty a man can receive genuine truths and become wise thereby, on account of the fallacies of the senses and the persuasions of the false, and on account of the reasonings and doubts arising thence, no. 3175. A man begins to be wise, when he begins to hold in aversion reasonings against truths, and to reject doubts, no. 3175. The unenlightened human Rational laughs at interior truths; from examples, no. 2654. Truths with a man are called interior when they are implanted in his life, and they are not called so from his being acquainted with them, even though they should be truths which are called interior, no. 10199.

In good there is the faculty of becoming wise, wherefore those who while in the world have lived in good after their departure from the world come into angelic wisdom, nos. 5527, 5859, 8321. In every good there are innumerable things, no. 4005. Innumerable things may be known from good, no. 3612. Concerning the multiplication of truth from good, nos. 5345, 5355, 5912. Through truths, and a life according thereto, the good of infancy becomes the good of wisdom, no. 3504.

There is the affection of truth, and the affection of good, nos. 1904, 1997. The quality of those who are in the affection of truth, and the quality of those who are in the affection of good, nos. 2422, 2429. Concerning those who are able to come into the affection of truth, and those who are not able, no. 2689. All truths are arranged in order under a general affection, no. 9094. The affection of truth and the affection of good in the natural man are as brother and sister, but in the spiritual man they are as man and wife (mulier) no. 3160.

There are no pure truths with a man, and not even with an angel, but only with the Lord, nos. 3207, 7902. Truths with man are appearances of truth, nos. 2053, 2719. The first truths with man are appearances of truth from fallacies of the senses, which nevertheless are successively put off, as he is perfected with respect to wisdom, no. 3131. Appearances of truth with a man who is in good are accepted by the Lord for truths, nos. 2053, 3207. What, and of what quality appearances of truth are, nos. 3207, 3357-3362, 3368, 3404, 3405, 3417. The sense of the letter of the Word in many places is according to appearances, no. 1838. The same truths with one man are more true, with another less so, and with still another they are false, because falsified, no. 2439. Truths are also truths according to the correspondence between the natural and the spiritual man, nos. 3128, 3138. Truths differ according to the different ideas and perceptions [entertained] concerning them, nos. 3470, 3804, 6917.

After a truth has been conjoined with good, it vanishes out of the memory, because it then becomes a matter of life, no. 3108. Truths can be conjoined with good only in a state of freedom, no. 3158. Truths are conjoined with good through temptations, nos. 3318, 4572, 7122. There is in good a constant endeavour of arranging truths in order, and of thereby restoring its state, no. 3610. Truths appear undelightful when the communication with good is intercepted, no. 8352. Only with difficulty can a man discriminate between truth and good, because only with difficulty can he distinguish between thinking and willing, no. 9995. Good, in the Word, is called the brother of truth, no. 4267. In a certain respect also good is called a lord, and truth, a servant, nos. 3409, 4267.

2.3 Assignment 2

1. In your own words define “Good”.
2. In your own words define “Truth”.
3. What is the heavenly marriage ?
4. Comment on the statements “should truth be adjoined to evil, it is no longer truth, but falsity”, and,“falsity not of evil can be conjoined with good”.
5. Given what Swedenborg writes in paragraph 19, how can we verify our grasp of real truth and good?

3. On The Will And The Intellect

3.1 Introduction

A person has two faculties which give him life: one is called the will, the other the intellect. These are quite distinct, but created to form one, and when they are one they are called the mind. The human mind therefore is composed of these two parts, and the whole of a person’s life is located there.

29. Just as all things in the universe which are in accordance with Divine order have reference to good and truth, so all things in a person have reference to the will and the intellect. For the good there is in a person belongs to his will, and the truth in him belongs to his intellect. For these two faculties, or these two aspects of a person’s life, are designed to receive and be acted upon by good and truth. The will receives and is acted upon by everything to do with good, and the intellect receives and is acted upon by everything to do with truth. This is the only place where a person can have the various kinds of good and truth. And since it is the only place a person has for good and truth, so it is the only place for love and faith, because love is the product of good and good of love, and faith is the product of truth and truth of faith.

30. Now since all things in the universe have reference to good and truth, and since all things to do with the church have reference to the good which comes from love and the truth which comes from faith; and since it is the two faculties just mentioned which make a person a person, these subjects too must be discussed in this account of the teaching. Nor would it be possible otherwise for a person to form a distinct idea of them or found his thought upon them.

31. The will and the intellect also make up a person’s spirit, for that is where his wisdom and intelligence reside, and so, generally speaking, his life. The role of the body is merely to obey them.

32. There is nothing more important to know than how the will and the intellect make up a single mind. They do this just as good and truth make one; for there is a marriage between the will and the intellect like that between good and truth. The nature of that marriage can be fully established from the facts about good and truth adduced above. To be precise, just as good is the real cause of a thing’s existence and truth is its consequent expression, so a person’s will is the cause of his life and his intellect is its consequent expression. For the good which resides in the will develops and makes itself manifest in the intellect.

33. Those in a state of good and truth have a will and an intellect. But those in a state of evil and falsity have no will and intellect, but desire in place of will and knowledge in place of intellect. For a truly human will serves to receive good, and a truly human intellect serves to receive truth. The term ‘will’ therefore cannot be used in connexion with evil, nor the term ‘intellect’ in connexion with falsity, since these are opposites, and opposites are mutually destructive. Thus it is that a person in a state of evil and falsity arising from it cannot be called rational, wise and intelligent. Moreover the evil have the interiors, which are part of the mind, closed; and this is where the will and the intellect chiefly reside. It is thought that the evil too have a will and an intellect, because they talk of willing and understanding. But willing for them is merely desiring, and understanding for them is merely knowing.

3.2 The Heavenly Arcana

SPIRITUAL truths cannot be grasped, unless the following UNIVERSALS be known: I. Everything in the universe, in order to be anything, has relation to good and truth, and their conjunction; and, consequently, to love and faith, and their conjunction. II. With man there is will and understanding and the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding the receptacle of truth, and everything with him has relation to these two things and their conjunction, even as everything relates to good and truth and their conjunction. III. There is an internal and in external man, and they are distinct from each other like heaven and the world, and yet they ought to make one, that man may be truly man. IV. There is a light of heaven in which the internal man is, and a light of the world in which the external man is; and the light of heaven is the very Divine Truth, from which comes all intelligence. V. There is a correspondence between the things which are in the internal man and those which are in the external man; and thus they appear on either side under a different form, so that, they cannot be discerned except by the science of correspondences. Unless these and many other things are known, only incongruous ideas can be received and formed concerning spiritual and celestial things; wherefore, apart from the above universals, the scientifics and knowledges belonging to the external man, can be only of small assistance to the rational man for all increase of his understanding. From this it appears how necessary scientifics are. Much has been said in the Heavenly Arcana concerning these universals.

35. A man has two faculties, of which one is called the will, and the other the understanding, nos. 35, 641, 3539, 3623, 10122. Those two faculties constitute the man himself, nos. 10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284. A man is such as are those two faculties with him, nos. 7342, 8885, 9282, 10264, 10284. Through them also the man is distinguished from the beasts, because his understanding may be elevated by the Lord so as to see Divine truths; and in like manner his will, so as to perceive Divine goods; the man thus differently from the animals, may be conjoined with the Lord through those two faculties which constitute him, nos. 4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9231. And inasmuch as the man may thus be conjoined with the Lord, he cannot die as to his interiors, which belong to his spirit, but he lives for ever, no. 5302. Man is not man from his form, but from the good and truth which belong to his will and understanding, nos. 4051, 5302,

As everything in the universe has relation to good and truth, so with man everything has relation to the will and the understanding, nos. 803, 10122. For the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding of truth, nos. 3332, 3623, 5232, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930. It is the same, whether you say truth or faith; for faith belongs to truth, and truth to faith; it also amounts to the same whether you say good or love; for love belongs to good, and good to love; and what a man believes, that he calls true, and what he loves, that he calls good, nos. 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367. From this it follows, that the understanding is the recipient of faith, and the will the recipient of love; and that faith and love are in man, when they are in his understanding and in his will, for man’s life is nowhere else, nos. 7178, 10122, 10367. Since a man’s understanding is capable of receiving faith in the Lord, and his will of receiving love to the Lord, therefore, by faith and love he may be conjoined with the Lord, and whoever can be conjoined with the Lord by faith and love, cannot die to eternity, nos. 4525, 6323, 9231. Love in the spiritual world means conjunction, nos. 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195, 6196, 7081-7086, 7501, 10130.

Man’s will is the very Esse of his life, because it is the receptacle of good, and his understanding is the Existere of life therefrom, because it is the receptacle of truth, nos. 3619, 5002, 9282. The life of the will, consequently, is the chief life of man, and the life of the understanding proceeds therefrom, nos. 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110; comparatively as light proceeds from a fire or flame, nos. 6032, 6314. The things which enter into the understanding and at the same time into the will, are appropriated by man, but not those which are received only in the understanding, nos. 9009, 9069, 9071, 9129, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110. Those things become matters of man’s life, which are received by the will, and from it by the understanding, nos. 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110. Every man also is loved and esteemed by others according to the good of his will, and of his understanding therefrom; for he who is well-willing, and who understands correctly, is loved and esteemed, and he who understands correctly and is not well-willing, is cast off and despised, nos. 8911, 10076. A man after death also remains such as is his will and his understanding from it, nos. 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153; the things belonging to the understanding, and not at the same time to the will, vanish then, because they are not in the man’s spirit, no. 9282; or, what is the same, a man after death remains such as is his love, and the faith from it, or such as is his good and the truth from it; and the things which belong to faith and not at the same time to love, or the things which are of truth and not at the same time of good, vanish, because they are not in the man, and, therefore, not of the man, nos. 553, 2363, 10153. A man is capable of comprehending with the understanding what he does not practise from the will, that is, he is able to understand what he does not will, because it is in opposition to his love, no. 3539.

The will and the understanding constitute one mind, nos. 35, 3623, 5835, 10122. These two faculties of life ought to act as one, in order that man may be man, nos. 3623, 5835, 5969, 9300. How perverted is the state with those whose understanding and will do not act as one, no. 9075. Such a state prevails with hypocrites, deceivers, flatterers, and dissemblers, nos. 2426, 3573, 4327, 4799, 8250. The will and the understanding are brought again into one in the other life, and it is not allowed there to have a divided mind, no. 8250.

Every doctrinal of the Church brings with itself ideas, through which its quality is perceived, no. 3310. According to these is its comprehension; and without such an intellectual idea with a man, he would merely have an idea of a word, and none of a thing, no. 3825. The ideas of the understanding extend far around into the societies of spirits and angels, nos. 6599, 6600-6605, 6609, 6613. The ideas of man’s understanding are opened in the other life, and are exhibited visibly to the life, as to their quality, nos. 1869, 3310, 5510. Of what quality the ideas of some appear, nos. 6201, 8885.

All will of good, and all understanding of truth is from the Lord; but not so the understanding of truth separated from the will of good, nos. 1831, 3514, 5483, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153. It is the understanding which is enlightened by the Lord, nos. 6222, 6608, 10659. To those who are enlightened the Lord grants to see and to understand truth, nos. 9382, 10659. The enlightenment of the understanding is various, according to the states of a man’s life, nos. 5221, 7012, 7233. The understanding is enlightened in proportion as a man receives the truth with the will, that is, as he wills to act according to it, no. 3619. Those have their understanding enlightened who read the Word from the love of truth, and from the love of the uses of life, but not those who read it from the love of reputation, honour, gain, nos. 9382, 10548, 10549, 10551. Enlightenment is an actual elevation of the mind into the light of heaven, no. 10330; from experience, nos. 1526, 6608. Enlightenment for the understanding is light from heaven, as light from the world is for the sight, nos. 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128. The light of heaven is Divine Truth, from which comes all wisdom and intelligence, nos. 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. It is the man’s understanding which is enlightened by that light, nos. 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569.

The understanding is of such a quality as are the truths from good, of which it is formed, no. 10064. Understanding is what is from the truths which are from good, but not what is from the falsities which are from evil, no. 10675. Understanding is to see truths, the causes of things, their connections, and consequences in a series, from the things which belong to experience and science no. 6125. Seeing and perceiving whether a thing is true, before confirming it, is understanding, but not, being able to confirm anything whatever, nos. 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780. The light of confirmation, without any previous perception of the truth, is natural light, which exists also with those who are not wise, no. 8780. Seeing and perceiving whether a thing is true before confirming it, has place only with those who are affected with truth for the sake of truth, consequently with those who are in spiritual light, no. 8780. All doctrinal tenets, even those that are false, may be confirmed to such a degree as to appear as true, nos. 2385, 2490, [4741], 5033, 6865, 7950.

How the Rational with a man is conceived and born, nos. 2094, 2524, 2557, 3030, 5126. It exists from the influx of the light of heaven from the Lord through the internal man into the knowledges and sciences, which are in the external man, and an elevation by this means, nos. 1890, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902. The Rational is born through truths, and not through falsities; according to the quality of the truths, therefore, such is the Rational, nos. 2094, 2524, 2557. Through truths from good, the Rational is opened and formed, and it is closed and destroyed through falsities from evil, nos. 3108, 5126. A man who is in falsities from evil is not rational; a man, consequently, is not rational on account of his being able to reason upon any subject, no. 1944.

It is difficult for a man to distinguish between the under the understanding and the will, because it is difficult for him to distinguish between thinking and willing, no. 9995.

Many additional particulars concerning the will and the understanding may be known and inferred from what has been adduced above concerning Good and Truth, if only instead of Good you will perceive the will, and instead of Truth the understanding; for the will belongs to good, and the understanding to truth.

3.3 Assignment 3

1. According to Swedenborg, are we rational beings?
2. Swedenborg personifies the two poles of “those who are in good and truth” and “those who are in evil and falsity”, that is he describes them as characteristics of certain groups of people. What are the benefits and pitfalls of using this method of description?
3. Paragraph 34 lists the five “universals” which enable someone to understand spiritual truths. What do you think of this list?

3.4 Journal Work

“…the body is only an obedience” (paragraph 31) -

Explore this idea by reminding yourself of this fact every day as your prepare this session, and reflect upon the thoughts and affections which emerge as you go about your study, work and leisure activities.

Complete a short journal or log of whatever arises for you in this task.

3.5 Further reading

1. Divine Love and Wisdom, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially Part 1 (paragraphs 1-83) and Part 5 (paragraphs 358-432).
2. Divine Providence, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially paragraphs 1-26.
3. Conjugial Love, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially Chapters V & VI (paragraphs 83-115 &116-137).
4. True Christian Religion, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially paragraphs 36-48.

4. The Internal and External Man

4.1 Introduction

36. Human beings have been so created as to be at once both in the spiritual world and the natural world. The spiritual world is where angels live, the natural world is where human beings live. Because human beings are created so as to be in both worlds, they have been given an internal and an external, the internal to enable them to be in the spiritual world, and an external to enable them to be in the natural world. A person’s internal is what is called the internal man, the external what is called the external man.

37. Each individual has an internal and an external but there is a difference between the case of the good and that of the evil. The good have their internal in heaven and its light, and their external in the world and its light. For them this light is lit up by the light of heaven, so that for them the internal and the external act as one, like the efficient cause and the effect, or like prior and posterior. For the evil, however, their internal is in the world and its light, and their external too is in the same light. Consequently they see nothing by heaven’s light, but only by the world’s light, which they call the illumination of Nature. That is why anything to do with heaven seems to them to be in thick darkness, and anything to do with the world in light. It is obvious from this that the good have an internal and an external man, but the evil have no internal man, but only an external one.

38. The internal man is what is called the spiritual man, because he is in heaven’s light, which is spiritual light; and the external man is what is called the natural man, because he is in the world’s light, which is natural light. A person whose internal is in heaven’s light and whose external is in the world’s light is a spiritual man in both respects; but one whose internal is not in heaven’s light, but only in the world’s light shared with the external, is a natural man in both respects. A spiritual man is called in the Word living, and a natural man is called dead.

39. A person whose internal is in heaven’s light, and whose external is in the world’s light, thinks in both a spiritual and a natural fashion. But his spiritual thought then flows into his natural thought and is perceived there. However, a person whose internal together with his external is in the world’s light thinks not in a spiritual but a material fashion; for his thought is based upon things present in Nature in the world, and these are all material. Thinking in a spiritual fashion is thinking about things as they really are, seeing truths by the light of truth, and perceiving what is good by the love for good; also seeing what things are like and perceiving affection for them in an abstract or immaterial fashion. But thinking in a material fashion is thinking, seeing and perceiving things together with matter, and in material form, so in a fashion which compared to the other is gross and obscure.

40. An inwardly spiritual person is, seen as he really is, an angel of heaven; and he is also, even while he lives in his body, in company with angels though he is unaware of it; and after being released from his body he comes to join the angels. However, a person who is inwardly only natural is, seen as he really is, a spirit and not an angel; and he is also, while he lives in his body, in company with spirits, but with those spirits who are in hell; and after being released from his body, he comes to join them.

41. The interiors of those who are spiritual people are in fact raised towards heaven, since that is their chief aim. However, the interiors of the mind of those who are only natural are in fact turned to the world since that is their chief aim. Each individual has the interiors of his mind turned to that which he loves above all; and the exteriors of the outward mind are turned in the same direction as the interiors.

42. Anyone with only a general idea of the internal and external man believes that it is the internal man who thinks and wills, and the external who speaks and acts, since thinking and willing are inward matters and speaking and acting as a result are outward matters. But it should be known that when a person thinks intelligently and wills wisely, then his thinking and willing come from a spiritual internal. When, however, he does not think intelligently and will wisely, his thinking and willing come from a natural internal. Consequently, when a person has good thoughts about the Lord and matters concerning the Lord, and when he has good thoughts about the neighbour and matters concerning him, and has good intentions towards them, his thinking and willing are then from a spiritual internal because his thinking and willing are then from faith in truth and love for good, so they come from heaven. When, however, a person has evil thoughts and intentions concerning them, then his thinking and willing come from a natural internal, because they arise from faith in falsity and love for evil, that is, from hell. In short, the more a person is in a state of love to the Lord and of love towards the neighbour, the more he has a spiritual internal, and this is the source of his thinking and willing, and also of his speech and actions. However, the more he is in a state of self-love and love for the world, the more he has a natural internal, and this is the source of his thinking and willing, and also of his speech and actions.

43. It is a rule of the Lord’s providence and order that the more a person’s thinking and willing comes from heaven, the more the spiritual internal man is opened up and developed. This opening leads into heaven, even as far as the Lord, and the development is in accordance with heaven’s principles. But in the opposite case, the more a person’s thinking and willing comes, not from heaven, but from the world, the more his spiritual internal man is closed off and the external is opened up. This opening leads to the world, and the development is in the direction of worldly matters.

44. Those whose internal spiritual man is opened up heaven- wards to the Lord enjoy the light of heaven and illumination from the Lord, so that they are intelligent and wise. These people see truth because it is true, and perceive good because it is good. But those who have the spiritual internal man closed off are unaware that an internal man exists, not to mention what the internal man is. Nor do they believe in the existence of the Deity, nor of life after death, nor therefore matters to do with heaven and the church. Because they rely solely on the world’s light and the illumination it gives, they believe in Nature as a deity, and they see falsity as truth and perceive evil as good.

45. One whose internal is so external that he believes in nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands is termed the dupe of the senses. He is the lowest type of natural man, a prey to fallacies concerning everything to do with the church’s faith.

46. The internal and external, about which I have written, are the internal and external of a person’s spirit. His body is merely an extra external, within which the internal and external of the spirit come into existence. For the body does nothing of itself, but is directed by the spirit which resides in it. It should be known that a person’s spirit after being released from the body is just as much able to think and will, speak and act. Thinking and willing are its internal, speaking and acting are its external.

4.2 The Heavenly Arcana

The Internal and the External with man. It is known in the Christian world, that man has an Internal and an External, that is, an internal and an external man; but little is known of the quality of either, nos. 1889, 1940. The internal man is spiritual, and the external is natural, nos. 978, 1015, 4459, 6309, 9701-9709. How the internal man which is spiritual, is formed according to the image of heaven; and the external man which is natural, according to the image of the world; wherefore, man was called by the Ancients a microcosm, nos. 3628, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472. The spiritual and natural worlds, therefore, are conjoined in man, nos. 6057, 10472. Man, consequently, is of such a quality, that he is able to look upwards towards heaven, and downwards towards the world, nos. 7601, 7604, 7607. When he looks upwards, he is in the light of heaven and sees from it; but when he looks downwards, he is in the light of the world and sees from it, nos. 3167, 10134. With man there is a descent from the spiritual world into the natural, nos. 3702, 4042.

The internal man which is spiritual, and the external man which is natural, are altogether distinct, nos. 1999, 2018, 3691, 4459. The distinction is as between cause and effect, and between what comes first (prior) and afterwards (posterior), and there is no continuity, nos. 3691, 5145, 5146, 5711, 6275, 6284, 6299, 6326, 6465, 8603, 10076, 10099, 10181. The distinction, consequently, is as between heaven and the world, or between the Spiritual and the Natural, nos. 4524, 5128, 5639. The interiors and exteriors of man are not continuous, but distinct according to degrees, and each degree is bounded, nos. 3691, 4145, 5114, 6326, 6465, 8603, 10099. Whoever does not perceive the distinctions, according to degrees, of man’s interiors and exteriors, and who does not understand the quality of these degrees, cannot comprehend man’s Internal and External, nos. 5146, 6465, 10099, 10181. The things which are in a higher degree are more perfect than those which are in a lower, no. 3405. There are in man three degrees according to the three heavens, no. 4154. The exteriors with man are more remote from the Divine, and therefore are respectively obscure; they are also general, no. 6451; comparatively they are also without order, nos. 996, 3855. The interiors are more perfect, because nearer to the Divine, nos. 5146, 5147. In the Internal there are thousands and thousands of things, which in the External appear as one general thing, no. 5707. Therefore thought and perception are the clearer as they are more interior, no. 5920. From this, it follows that a man ought to be in internal things, nos. 1175, 4464.

With the man who is in love and charity, the interiors of the mind are actually elevated by the Lord, otherwise they would look downwards, nos. 6952, 6954, 10330. Influx and enlightenment out of heaven with man consist in an actual elevation of the interiors by the Lord, nos. 7816, 10330. Man is elevated when he rises towards spiritual things, no. 9922. In proportion as a man is elevated from external towards interior things, he comes into light, and thus into intelligence; and this is meant by his being withdrawn from sensual things, as it was called by the ancients, nos. 6183, 6313. Elevation from the External towards interior things, is as from fog into light, no. 4598.

Influx from the Lord is through the internal into the external man, nos. 1940, 5119. Interior things can flow into exterior, but not conversely; wherefore, there is a spiritual, and not a physical, influx, that is, an influx from the spiritual man into the natural, and not from the natural into the spiritual, nos. 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322, 9110. From the Internal, in which is peace, the Lord governs the External, in which is unrest, no. 5396.

The Internal can see all things in the External, but not conversely, nos. 1914, 1953, 5427, 5428, 5477. When man lives in the world, he thinks from the Internal in the External, wherefore, his spiritual thought flows into natural thought, and in it presents itself naturally, no. 3679. When a man thinks correctly, his thought is from the Internal or Spiritual in the External or Natural, nos. 9704, 9705, 9707. The external man thinks and wills according to its conjunction with the internal man, nos. 9702, 9703. There are interior and exterior thought; the quality of both, nos. 2515, 2552, 5127, 5141, 5168, 6007. During a man’s life in the world, the thought and affection which are in the Internal are not perceived by him, but only those which are from it in the External, nos. 10236, 10240. In the other life, however, external things are removed, and the man is then let into his internals, no. 8870. The quality of his internals then becomes manifest, nos. 1806, 1807.

The Internal produces the External, nos. 994, 995. The Internal then clothes itself with such things as enable it to produce an effect in the External, nos. 6275, 6284, 6299; through which it is then enabled to live in the External, nos. 1175, 6275. The Lord conjoins the internal or spiritual man to the external or natural man, when He regenerates the latter, nos. 1577, 1594, 1904, 1999. The external or natural man is then brought into order through the internal or spiritual man, and is subordinated, no. 9708.

The External must be subordinated and subjected to the Internal, nos. 5077, 5125, 5128, 5786, 5947, 10272. The External was so created, as to serve the Internal, no. 5947. The Internal must be the lord, and the External the minister and, in a certain respect, the servant, no. 10471.

The External ought to be in correspondence with the Internal, that there may be conjunction, nos. 5427, 5428, 5477. What the quality of the External is when it corresponds with the Internal, and what when it does not correspond, nos. 3493, 5422, 5423, 5427, 5428, 5477, 5511. In the external man there are such things as correspond and agree with the internal, and there are such things as do not correspond and agree, nos. 1563, 1568.

The External takes its quality from the Internal, nos. 9912, 9921, 9922. How great the beauty of the external man is, when it is conjoined with the internal man, no. 1590; and how great its deformity when it is not conjoined, no. 1598. Love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour conjoin the external man with the internal, no. 1594. Unless the internal man is conjoined with the external man there is no fructification, no. 3987.

Interior things successively flow into exterior things, even into the Outermost or Last, and in it they exist and subsist together, nos. 634, 6239, 9216. They not only flow in successively, but in the Ultimate they also form the Simultaneous; in what order, nos. 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099. All interior things are held together in connection by the First through the Last, no. 9828. From this also there is strength and power in last or ultimate things, no. 9836. Wherefore replies and revelations took place from the last or ultimate things, nos. 9905, 10548. Hence also the Ultimate or Last is more holy than the interior things, no. 9824. In the Word, therefore, by the First and the Last are signified each and all things, and thus the whole, nos. 10044, 10329, 10335.

The internal man has been opened with him who is in Divine order, but closed with him who is not in Divine order, no. 8513. There is no conjunction of heaven with the external man apart from the internal, no. 9380. Evils and the falsities of evil close the internal man, and cause man to be only in external things, nos. 1587, 10492; especially evils from the love of self, no. 1594. If the Divine is denied, the interiors are closed even to the Sensual which is the last or ultimate, no. 6564. With the intelligent and learned of the world, who confirm themselves from the sciences against the things belonging to Heaven and the Church, the Internal is closed more than with such as are simple-minded, no. 10492.

Since the internal man is in the light of heaven, and the external in the light of the world, therefore those who are in an External without an Internal, that is, those with whom the Internal has been closed, do not care for the internal things which belong to Heaven and the Church, nos. 4464, 4946. In the other life they cannot at all endure internal things, nos. 10694, 10701 10707. They do not believe anything, nos. 10396, 10400, 10411, 10429. They love themselves and the world above all things, nos. 10407, 10412, 10420. Their interior things, that is, those which belong to thought and affection, are vile, filthy, and profane, however they may appear in externals, nos. 1182, 7046, 9705, 9707. The ideas of their thought are material, and not at all spiritual, no. 10582. Further, how those are with whom the Internal which has respect to heaven has been closed, nos. 4459, 9709, 10284, 10286, 10429, 10472, 10492, 10602, 10683.

So far as the Internal, which is spiritual, is opened, so far truths and goods are multiplied; and so far as the Internal, which is spiritual, is closed, so far truths and goods disappear, no. 4099. The Church is in the internal, spiritual man, because this is in heaven; and not in the external without it, no. 10698. the external Church, consequently, is nothing with a man, apart from the internal Church, no. 1795. External worship apart from internal worship is not worship, nos. 1094, 1175. Concerning those who are in the Internal of the Church, of worship, and of the Word; concerning those who are in an External in which is all Internal; and concerning those who are in an External apart from any Internal, no. 10683. The External apart from the Internal is hard, no. 10602.

The merely natural man is in hell, unless he becomes spiritual through regeneration, no. 10156. All those who are in an External apart from an Internal, that is, with whom the spiritual Internal has been closed, are in hell, nos. 9128, 10483, 10489.

The interiors of a man are actually turned in accordance with his loves, no. 10702. In each and all things there ought to be an Internal and all External, in order that they may subsist, no. 9473.

Above and high, in the Word, signifies what is internal, nos. 1735, 2148, 4210, 4599. In the Word, consequently, what is high signifies what is interior, and what is low, what is exterior, no. 3084.

48. The Natural and the Spiritual. How wrong it is for the world at the present day, to attribute so much to nature, and so little to the Divine, no. 3483. Why this is, no. 5116. When, nevertheless, each and all things in nature not only have existed, but also continually subsist from the Divine, and indeed through the spiritual world, nos. 775, 8211. Divine, celestial, and spiritual things terminate in nature nos. 4240, 4939. Nature is the ultimate plane, in which they reside, nos. 4240, 5651, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216. Celestial, spiritual, and natural things follow and succeed each other in order; thus Divine things with them, because they are from the Divine, nos. 880, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068. Celestial things are the head, spiritual things the body, and natural things the feet, nos. 4938, 4939. In the same order in which they follow or succeed [each other], they also flow in, nos. 4938, 4939. The good of the inmost or third heaven is called celestial, the good of the middle or second heaven is called spiritual, and the good of the ultimate or first heaven is called spiritual-natural; from this it may be known, what the Celestial, the Spiritual, and the Natural are, nos. 4279, 4286, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068; also in the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 20-28, and 29-40.

All things of the natural world are from the Divine through the spiritual world, no. 5013. In everything natural, there is consequently something spiritual; even as in the effect there is the efficient cause, nos. 3562, 5711; or as in the motion there is the effort, no. 5173; and as in the External there is the Internal, nos. 3562, 5326, 5711. And since the cause is the very essential in the effect, and in like manner the effort in the motion, and the Internal in the External; it follows from it, that the Spiritual is the very essential in the Natural, and consequently the Divine, from which [it is], nos. 2987-3002, 9701-9709. Spiritual things are exhibited in what is natural, and the things exhibited are representatives and correspondences, nos. 1632, 2987-3002. Hence it is that the whole of nature is a theatre representative of the spiritual world, that is, of heaven, nos. 2758, 2999, 3000, 4939, 8848, 9280. All things in nature are arranged in order and in a series according to ends, no. 4101. This is due to the spiritual world, that is, to heaven, because ends which are uses, reign in it, nos. 454, 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038. Man has been created so, that the Divine things which descend into nature, according to order, are perceived with him, no. 3702.

With every man who is in Divine order, there is an Internal and an External; his Internal is called the Spiritual, or the spiritual man, and his External is called the Natural, or the natural man, nos. 978, 1015, 4459, 6309, 9701-9709. The spiritual man is in the light of heaven, and the natural man in the light of the world, no. 5965. The natural man from himself can discern nothing afar off except from the Spiritual, no. 5286. The Natural is a kind of face in which interior things behold themselves; and it is thus that man thinks, no. 5165. The spiritual man thinks in the natural, and thus naturally, so far as a thing reaches his sensual perception, nos. 3679, 5165, 6284, 6299. The Natural is the plane in which the Spiritual terminates, nos. 5651, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216. The Spiritual beholds nothing, unless the Natural corresponds, nos. 3493, 3620, 3623. The spiritual or internal man can see what is being transacted in the natural or external man; but not conversely, because the Spiritual flows into the Natural, and not the Natural into the Spiritual, nos. 3219, 4667, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322, 9110. From his own light which is called the lumen of nature, the natural man knows nothing concerning God, nor concerning heaven, nor concerning a life after death; neither does he believe, if he hears respecting such things, unless spiritual light which is light from heaven, flows into that natural lumen, no. 8944.

The natural man of itself, because from birth, is opposed to the spiritual man, nos. 3913, 3928. Wherefore, so long as they are in opposition, the man feels it irksome to think of spiritual and celestial things, but pleasant to think of natural and bodily things, no. 4096. The things belonging to heaven, and also the bare mention of anything spiritual, sicken him; from experience, nos. 5006, 9109. Merely natural men look upon spiritual good and truth as [things of] service, nos. 5013, 5025. When nevertheless the natural man ought to be subordinated to the spiritual man, and to serve the latter, nos. 3019, 5168. The spiritual man is said to serve the natural, when the latter from the Intellectual acquires confirming proofs concerning such things as he covets, particularly from the Word, nos. 3019, 5013, 5025, 5168. How merely natural men appear in the other life, and what their state and lot there, nos. 4630, 4633, 4940-4952, 5032, 5571.

The truths which are in the natural man are called scientifics and knowledges, no. 3293. The natural man, regarded in himself, has a material imagination, and affections like those which belong to the beasts, no. 3020. But the genuine faculty of thought and imagination comes from the internal or spiritual man, when the natural man sees, acts, and lives from it, nos. 3493, 5422, 5423, 5427, 5428, 5477, 5511.

The things which are in the natural man, compared with those which are in the spiritual man, are respectively general, nos. 3513, 5707; and thus they are respectively obscure, no. 6686.

There are with man an interior and in exterior Natural, nos. 3293, 3294, 3793, 5118, 5126, 5497, 5649. There is also an intermediate between those two, nos. 4570, 9216. The excretions of the spiritual man take place into the natural man, and are discharged through it, no. 9572.

Those who do good merely from a natural disposition, and not from religion, are not received in heaven, nos. 8002, 8772.

49. The Light of heaven, in which, the spiritual man is. There is a great light it in the heavens, nos. 1117, 1521, 1533, 1619-1632. Light in the heavens exceeds, by many degrees, noon-day light on earth, nos. 1117, 1521, 4527, 5400, 8644. This light was often seen by me, nos. 1522, 4527, 7174. The angels of the inmost or third heaven have a light, like that from the sun; but the angels of the second heaven like the light from the moon, nos. 1529, 1530. In the inmost heaven the light is flamy; but in the second heaven, shining white, no. 9570.

All light in the heavens is from the Lord as a sun there, nos. 1053, 1521, 3195, 3341, 3636, 3643, 4415, 9548, 9684, 10809. The Lord is the sun of the angelic heaven, and that sun is His Divine Love, nos. 1521, 1529, 1530, 1531, 1837, 4321, 4696, 7078, 7083, 7173. The Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord appears in the heavens as light, and causes all the light of heaven; and therefore that light is spiritual light, nos. 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. This is why the Lord in the Word is called Light, no. 3195. Because that light is Divine Truth, therefore in that light there is Divine Wisdom and Intelligence, nos. 3195, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 9548, 9684. How light from the Lord flows into the heavens; illustrated by the halos of light around the sun, no. 9407. The Lord is a sun for the heavens, and from Him all the light there comes as may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 116-125; and the light from that Sun is Divine Truth, and the heat from that Sun the Divine Good of the Divine Love, nos. 126-140.

The light of heaven illuminates both the sight and the understanding of angels and spirits, nos. 2776, 3138. The light there is according to their understanding and wisdom, nos. 1524, 3339. Proofs from the Word, nos. 1329, 1530. There are as many differences of light in the heavens as there are angelic societies, no. 4414. Since there are perpetual varieties in the heavens as to good and truth, so also there are as to wisdom and intelligence, nos. 684, 690, 3241, 3744, 3745, 5598, 7236, 7833, 7836. Heaven being in light and heat signifies that it is in wisdom and love, nos. 3643, 9399, 9400.

The light of heaven illuminates the understanding of man, nos. 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569. When a man is elevated above the Sensual, he comes into a milder lumen, and at length into heavenly light, nos. 6313, 6315, 9407. There is an elevation into the light of heaven when a man is raised into intelligence, no. 3190. How great the light which was perceived by me, when I was withdrawn from worldly ideas, nos. 1526, 6608. The sight of the internal man is in the light of heaven; and this is why man is able to think analytically and rationally, no. 1532. The light of heaven from the Lord is always present with man; but it flows in only so far as he is in truths from good, nos. 4060, 4214. That light is according to the truth from good, no. 3094. Truths shine in the spiritual world, no. 5219. Spiritual heat and spiritual light constitute the true life of man, no. 6032.

The light of the world is for the external man, and the light of heaven for the internal, nos. 3223, 3224, 3337. The light of heaven flows into natural lumen, and the natural man is wise so far, as it receives that light, nos. 4302, 4408. There is a correspondence between those two lights, no. 3225. From the light of the world with man, which is called his natural lumen, the things which are in the light of heaven cannot be seen; but, conversely, no. 9577. Hence it is, that those who are only in the light of the world, which is called natural lumen, do not perceive those things which belong to the light of heaven, no. 3108. To those who are in falsities from evil the light of heaven is thick darkness, nos. 1783, 3337, 3413, 4060, 6907, 8197. The light of the world causes a reddish glimmer (rutilat) with the evil; and so far as it so gleams, so far the things which belong to the light of heaven are darkness to them, no. 6907. The light of the world does not appear to the angels, nos. 1521, 1783, 1880.

All light in the heavens is from the Lord, and all shade is from the ignorance and the Self (proprium) of angels and spirits; from that source are the modifications and variegations of light and shade, which are the colours there, no. 3341. Concerning the variegations of light through the Urim and Thummin, no. 3862.

The light of those who are in faith separate from charity is snowy, and like wintry light, nos. 3412, 3413. When light flows in from heaven, the above light is turned into mere darkness, no. 3412. Concerning the light of those who are in a persuasive faith, and in a life of evil, no. 4416. Of what quality the light appears with those who are in intelligence from Self (proprium), and of what quality it appears with those who are in intelligence from the Lord, no. 4419.

There is light (lumen) in the hells, but it is fatuous, no. 1528, 3340, 4241, 4418, 4531. The lumen which is there, is as the lumen from a coal-fire, nos. 1528, 4418, 4531. Those who are in the hells in their own lumen appear to themselves as men, but in the light of heaven they appear as devils and monsters, nos. 4532, 4533,4674, 5057, 5058, 6605, 6626. Everything appears in the light of heaven in its true quality, no. 4674. The hells are said to be in gross darkness and in darkness, because they are in falsities from evil, nos. 3340, 4418, 4531. Darkness signifies falsities, and gross darkness the falsity of evil, nos. 1839, 1860, 7688, 7711.

50. The Sensual Man, who is natural in the lowest degree (see concerning him in the Doctrine above, no. 45). The Sensual is the ultimate of man’s life, and adheres to, and is inherent in, his Corporeal, nos. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730. He is called a sensual man, who judges of everything and draws conclusions concerning it, from the bodily senses, and who believes nothing but what he can see with the eyes and touch with the hands, saying that these things are something, and rejecting the rest, nos. 5094, 7693. Such a man thinks in the outermost [parts], and not interiorly in himself, nos. 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693. His interiors have been closed, so that he sees nothing of the truth in them, nos. 6564, 6844, 6845. In a word, he is in a gross natural lumen, and therefore perceives nothing which comes from the light of heaven, nos. 6201, 6310, 6564, 6844, 6845, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624. Wherefore, interiorly he is against the things which belong to Heaven and the Church, nos. 6201, 6316, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949. The learned who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the Church, are sensual, no. 6316.

Sensual men reason sharply and shrewdly, because their thought is so near to speech as to be almost in it, and because, they place all intelligence in speaking from the memory alone, nos. 195, 196, 5700, 10236. But they reason from fallacies of the senses, by which the common people are captivated, nos. 5084, 6948, 6949, 7693.

Sensual men are more crafty and malicious than others, nos. 7693, 10236. Misers, adulterers, voluptuaries, and the deceitful, are chiefly sensual, no. 6310. Their interiors are foul and filthy, no. 6201. Through them they communicate with the hells no. 6311. Those who are in the hells are sensual, and the more sensual the more deeply they are in them, nos. 4623, 6311. The sphere of the infernal spirits conjoins itself With the Sensual of man from behind, no. 6312. They who reasoned from the Sensual, and therefore in opposition to the truths of faith, were called by the ancients “serpents of the tree of knowledge,” nos. 195, 196, 197, 6398, 6949, 10313.

Further particulars concerning man’s Sensual, and the sensual man, no. 10236; and concerning the extension of the Sensual with man, no. 9731.

The things of the senses ought to be in the last, and not in the first, place; with a wise and intelligent man they are in the last place, and are subjected to interior things; but with an unwise man they are in the first place, and exercise dominion; it is the latter who are properly called sensual, nos. 5077, 5125, 5128, 7645. If the things of the senses are in the last place, and are subjected to interior things, a way is opened through them to the understanding, and truths are eliminated from them by a kind of extraction, no. 5580.

Those things which belong to a man’s senses are situated nearest to the world, and admit those things which come from the world, and as it were sift them, no. 9726. Through the things of the senses the external or natural man communicates with the world, and through rational things with heaven, no. 4009. The things of the senses thus furnish such things as are of use to the interiors of man, nos. 5077, 5081. There are things of the senses which minister to the intellectual part; and those which minister to the voluntary part, no. 50717.

Unless thought is raised above the things of the senses, a man possesses but little wisdom, no. 5089. A wise man thinks above the Sensual, nos. 5089, 5094. When a man’s thought is raised above the things of the senses, he comes into a clearer lumen, and at length into heavenly light, nos. 6183, 6313, 6315, 9407, 9730, 9922. An elevation above the things of the senses, and a withdrawal from them, was known to the ancients, no. 6313. If a man can be withdrawn from the sensual things which are from the body, and if he can be raised by the Lord into the light of heaven, he can see with his spirit the things which are in the spiritual world, no. 4622; the reason is, that it is not the body that sensates, but the spirit of man in the body; and that so far as it sensates in the body, the sensation is gross and obscure, and consequently is in darkness; but that so far as it does not sensate in the body, so far the sensation is clear and in light, nos. 4622, 6614, 6622.

The ultimate of the understanding is the sensual Scientific, and the ultimate of the will sensual delight, concerning which see no. 9996. What difference there is between the things of the senses which a man has in common with the animals, and those which he has not in common with them, no. 10236. There are sensual men who are not evil, because their interiors have not been in this wise closed; concerning their state in the other life, no. 6311.

51. The Sciences and Knowledges through which the internal spiritual Man is opened. Those things are called scientifics which are in the external or natural man and in its memory, but not those which are in the internal or spiritual man, nos. 3019, 3020, 3293, 3309, 4967, 9918, 9922. Because scientifics belong to the external or natural man, they are respectively things of service, because the external or natural man was made to serve the internal or spiritual man, just as the world was made to serve heaven, nos. 5077, 5125, 5128, 5786, 5947, 10272, 10471. The external man is respectively a world, because the laws of the Divine order which are in the world, are inscribed upon it, and the internal man is respectively a heaven, because the laws of the Divine order which is in heaven, are inscribed upon it, nos. 4523, 5424, 5368, 6013, 6057, 9278, 9279, 9283, 9706, 10156, 10472; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 51 to 58.

There are scientifics which concern natural things; there are such as relate to the civil state and life, and again there are such as relate to the moral state and life, and such as relate to the spiritual state and life, nos. 5774, 5934. But for distinction those which relate to the spiritual state and life, and which are chiefly doctrinals, are called knowledges, no. 9945.

A man ought to become imbued with sciences and knowledges, because through them he learns how to think; afterwards how to understand what is true and good, and at length how to be wise; that is how to live according to what is true and good, nos. 129, 1450, 1451, 1453, 1548, 1802. Scientifics and knowledges are the first things, on which a man’s civil, moral, and spiritual life are built and founded; but they ought to be learned for the sake of the use of life as an end, nos. 1489, 3310. Knowledges open the way to the internal man, and afterwards conjoin the internal with the external man according to uses, nos. 1563, 1616. The Rational is born through sciences and knowledges, nos. 1895, 1900, 3086. Still, not through the sciences and knowledges themselves, but through the affection of uses from them, and according to such affection, no. 1895. The internal man is opened and successively perfected through sciences and knowledges, if the man has for an end some good use; particularly the use which has respect to eternal life, no. 3086. In this case, the spiritual things from the celestial and spiritual man, go to meet the scientifics and knowledges which are in the natural man, and adopt those that agree, no. 1495. The uses of a heavenly life are then extracted, eliminated, and elevated by the Lord, through the internal man, from the scientifics and knowledges which are in the natural man, nos. 1895, 1896, 1900-1902, 5871, 5874, 5901. And the scientifics which do not agree, and which are inimical, are rejected to the sides and exterminated, nos. 5871, 5886, 5889. The sight of the internal man calls forth from the scientifics and knowledges of the external man, only such as belong to its love, no. 9394. Scientifics and knowledges are arranged in bundles, and conjoined according to the loves by which they have been introduced, no. 5881. The things belonging to the love are then in the middle and in clearness, under the sight of the internal man, but those which do not belong to the love are at the sides and in obscurity, nos. 6068, 6084. Scientifics and knowledges with a man are successively implanted in his loves, and dwell in them, no. 6325. A man would be born into every science, and into intelligence from it, if he were born into the love of the Lord, and into love towards the neighbour but since he is born into the love of self and the world, he is therefore born into [a state of] entire ignorance, nos. 6323, 6325. Knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom are the sons of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, nos. 1226, 2049, 2116.

Since scientifics and knowledges belong to the external or natural man, they are in the light of the world; but the truths, which have become matters of love and faith, and have thus obtained life, are in the light of heaven, no. 5212. Still, the truths which have thus obtained life, are comprehended by a man by means of natural ideas, no. 5510. Spiritual influx takes place through the internal man into the scientifics and knowledges which are in the external man, nos. 1904, 8005. Scientifics and knowledges are receptacles, and as it were vessels, of the truth and good belonging to the internal man, nos. 1469, 1496, 3068, 5489, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077, 7770, 9922. Vessels in the Word, therefore, signify, in the spiritual sense, scientifics and knowledges, nos. 3068, 3069, 3079, 9394, 9544, 9723, 9724. Scientifics are a kind of mirrors, in which the truths and goods of the internal man appear, and are perceived, as in an image, no. 5201; they are together in them, as in their ultimate, nos. 5373, 5874, 5886, 5901, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077. Because scientifics are in the light of the world, they are confused and obscure when compared with the things which are in the light of heaven; consequently, so also are the things which are in the external man, when compared with those which are in the internal man, no. 2831. Therefore, what is intertwined or confused, signifies in the Word the Scientific, no. 2831; likewise by the obscurity of a cloud, nos. 8443, 10551.

The starting-point ought to be made from truths of doctrine which are from the Word, and they ought first to be acknowledged; it is permitted afterwards to consult scientifics in order to confirm these truths, which are corroborated in this manner, no. 6047. Those who are in an affirmative principle in respect to the truths of faith, are therefore permitted to confirm these truths intellectually by means of scientifics, but not those who are in a negative principle; for the affirmation which precedes inclines all things in favour of its own side, while the negation which precedes inclines them to its side, nos. 2568, 2588, 3913, 4760, 6047. There is an affirmative principle of doubt, and a negative principle of doubt; the former is with some who are good, and the latter with the evil, no. 2568. Entering into scientifics from the truths of faith, is agreeable to order; but, conversely, entering into the truths of faith from scientifics, is contrary to order, no. 10236. For influx is spiritual, and not physical, that is, natural; and, therefore, it takes place from the truths of faith because they are spiritual, into scientifics because they are natural, nos. 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5779, 6322, 9109, 9110.

Whoever is in a principle of negative doubt, which in itself is negative, and who says that he will not believe until he is persuaded through scientifics, will never believe, nos. 2094, 2832. Those who do so, become insane as to the things which belong to the Church and Heaven, nos. 128-130. They lapse into falsities of evils, no. 232, 233, 6047. And in the other life, when thinking about spiritual things, they are like drunken persons, no. 1072. A further description of their quality, no. 196. Instances to illustrate that spiritual things cannot be comprehended, if you enter into them in an inverted order, nos. 233, 2094, 2196, 2203, 2209. Many of the learned are more insane in spiritual things, than the simple-minded, because they are in a negative principle, and are furnished in abundance with scientifics by which they confirm the negative [state], no. 4760. An instance of an educated person, who was unable to understand anything concerning the spiritual life, no. 8629. Those who reason from scientifics in opposition to the truths of faith, reason sharply, because [they do so] from the fallacies of the senses, which are captivating and persuasive; for they can be shaken off only with difficulty, no. 5700. Those who do not understand anything of truth, and they also who are in evil, are able to reason concerning the truths and goods of faith, and yet they are not able to be in any enlightenment, no. 4214. The mere confirmation of a dogma is not the part of an intelligent man, because a falsity can be confirmed as easily as a truth, nos. 1017, 2482, 2490, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780. Those who reason concerning the truths of the Church, whether a thing be so or not, are totally in the dark with respect to truths, and are not yet in spiritual light, nos. 215, 1385, 3033, 3428.

There are scientifics which admit Divine truths, and others that do not, no. 5213. Useless scientifics ought to be destroyed, nos. 1489, 1492, 1499, 1500. Those scientifics are useless which regard as their end, and confirm, the loves of self and the world, and which withdraw [the mind] from love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour; because such scientifics shut up the internal man, so that the man is afterwards unable to receive anything from heaven, nos. 1563, 1600. Scientifics are means for becoming wise, and means for becoming insane; and through them the internal man may either be opened or shut; and thus the Rational may either be cultivated or destroyed, nos. 4156, 8628, 9922.

After death the sciences are of no account, but only what a man through the sciences has imbibed into his understanding and life, no. 2480. Still all scientifics remain after death, but they are quiescent, nos. 2476-2479, 2481-2486.

The same scientifics which are false with the wicked because they are applied to evils, are true with the good because they are applied to goods, no. 6917. Scientific truths are not truths with the evil, however they may appear like truths while they pronounce them for interiorly there is evil in them, and from it they are falsified; science with the evil does not even deserve to be called science, because it is without life, no. 10331.

Being wise is one thing, understanding another, being acquainted with a thing is a further, and doing is another still; nevertheless with those who lead a spiritual life, they follow in order and correspond, and in the doing or the works they are together simultaneously, no. 10331. It is also one thing to know, another to acknowledge, and still another to have faith, no. 896.

An instance of the quality of the desire of knowing with spirits, no. 1973. The angels have an immeasurable desire of knowing and of becoming wise, because knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, are spiritual food, nos. 3114, 4459, 4792, 4976, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582; 5588, 5655, 6277, 8562, 9003.

The chief science with the ancients was the science of correspondences, but this science at the present day has perished, nos. 3021, 3419, 4280, 4844, 4964, 4966, 6004, 7729, 10252. The science of correspondences existed among the eastern nations, and in Egypt, no. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407. Their hieroglyphics were derived from that source, nos. 6692, 7097. Through the science of correspondences the ancients introduced themselves into the knowledges of spiritual things, nos. 4749, 4844, 4966. The Word was written by mere correspondences, and its internal or spiritual sense is from that source; and without the science of correspondences it is impossible to know that this sense exists, or yet what the quality of the Word is, nos. 3131, 3472-3485, 8615, 10687. How much the science of correspondences excels the other sciences, no. 4280.

52. The Natural Memory, which is that of the External Man; and the Spiritual Memory, which is that of the Internal Man. Man has two memories, an exterior and an interior, that is, a natural and a spiritual memory, nos. 2469-2494. The man does not know that he has an interior memory, nos. 2470, 2471. How much the interior memory excels the exterior memory, no. 2473. The things which are in the exterior memory are in natural light, but the things which are in the interior memory, are in spiritual light, no. 5212. It is by virtue of the interior memory that a man is able to think and speak intellectually and rationally, no. 9394. Each and all things which a man has thought, spoken, and done, and which he has heard and seen, are inscribed on his interior memory, nos. 2474, 7398. That memory is a man’s book of life, nos. 2474, 9386, 9841, 10505. In the interior memory are [the truths] that have become the subjects of faith, and the goods that have become the subjects of love, nos. 5212, 8067. The things which have become habitual, and have become matters of life, are in the interior memory, nos. 9394, 9723, 9841. Scientifics and knowledges belong to the exterior memory, nos. 5212, 9922; they are very much in the shade and confused, when compared with those things which belong to the interior memory, no. 2831. Man in the world speaks languages from the exterior memory, nos. 2472, 2476. Spirits and angels speak from the interior memory, and in consequence thereof have a universal language, which is of such a character that all from whatever earth they may be, can converse together, nos. 2472, 2476, 2490, 2493; concerning this language, see the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 234-245; and concerning the wonderful things of the interior memory which remain with man after death, see no. 463, Ibid.

53. The Fallacies of the Senses, in which merely Natural and Sensual Men are (concerning whom see above in the Doctrine, no. 45). Merely natural and sensual men think and reason from the fallacies of the senses, nos. 5084, 5700, 6948, 6949, 7693. What the nature of fallacies of the senses is, nos. 5084, 5094, 6400, 6948; to which shall be added what follows: There are fallacies of the senses in things natural, civil, moral, and spiritual, and there are many in each of them; but I wish to enumerate here some of the fallacies in spiritual things. Whoever thinks from the fallacies of the senses cannot understand: 1. That a man after death can appear as a man; and that he is able to enjoy his senses as before; thus that angels enjoy them. Such persons think: 2. That the soul is only a something vital, purely ethereal, of which no idea can be formed. 3. That it is the body alone that feels, sees, and hears. 4. That man is like an animal, with this difference only, that he can speak from thought. 5. That nature is all, and that it is the first from which all things are. 6. That man is introduced into thought and learns how to think by an influx of interior nature and its order. 7. That the Spiritual does not exist, and if it does, that it is a purer Natural. 8. That man cannot enjoy any happiness, if divested of the delights of the love of glory, honour, or gain. 9. That conscience is only a disease of the mind, originating from infirmity of the body, and from non-successes. 10. That the Divine Love of the Lord is the love of glory. 11. That there is no Providence, but that all things flow from self-prudence and self-intelligence. 12. That honours and riches are real blessings, which are bestowed by God; not to mention many other similar things. Fallacies of the senses in spiritual matters are of this character. From this it may appear, that heavenly things cannot be comprehended by those who are merely natural and sensual; those are merely natural and sensual, whose internal spiritual man is closed, and whose natural man only is open.

4.3 Assignment 4

1. In simple terms, how would you describe the working of the mind of a person?
2. How do the Lord, the spiritual world and the natural world relate to and interact with what you have described above, and what effect do they have?
3. How might good for the body and good for the mind be in conflict?
4. What about good for the soul?
5. Under what circumstances might they be in agreement?
6. There are two terms translated as “mind” in paragraph 41 (“mens” and “animus”). What is the difference between them?

4.4 Journal Work

“… in so far as a man is in love to the Lord, and in love towards the neighbour, he is in a spiritual internal, and he thinks and wills from it, and from it he also speaks and acts; …” (paragraph 42) . What does Swedenborg mean by this? What are the “benefits” to a person of such a state of being? (see subsequent paragraphs).

Identify and make brief notes about an occasion when you have felt your internal has been closed (see paragraph 44).

4.5 Further Reading

1. Divine Love and Wisdom, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially Part 3 (paragraphs 173-281).
2. Essays on Spiritual Psychology, by Carolyn Blackmer.
3. Degrees, by H G Drummond.

5. Love in General

5.1 Introduction

54. A person’s life is really the same as his love; and what his love is like determines what his life is like, in fact his whole personality. But what makes a person is his dominant or ruling love. That love has a number of subordinate loves with it, which derive from it. These appear to be different but are each a part of the dominant love and make up a single kingdom with it. The dominant love is as it were their king and chief; it controls them and by their instrumentality, using them as mediate ends, aims at and pursues its end which is the mainspring and ultimate of all, and this both directly and indirectly. What belongs to the dominant love is loved above all.

55. What a person loves above all is constantly present in his thoughts and also in his will, and it makes up his life in the truest sense. For example, anyone who loves wealth above all, whether money or possessions, continually ponders in his mind how to get these; he feels the keenest pleasure when he acquires them, the keenest grief when he loses them. His heart is in them. Anyone who loves himself above all, remembers himself in everything, thinks about himself, talks about himself and acts for his own advantage; for his life is a selfish life.

56. Everyone has as his end in view what he loves above all. This is what he aims at in every detail of his life. His will contains something like a hidden current in a river, which drags and carries him away even when he is doing something else, for it is what motivates him. This is the kind of thing one person looks for and sees in another, and, depending on what he sees, he either leads him or acts jointly with him.

57. A person’s character is determined by the dominant factor in his life, and this is what distinguishes him from other people. This factor makes his heaven, if he is good, his hell if evil. It is his real will, his self and his nature, for it is the real essence of his life. It cannot be changed after death, for it really is the person.

58. Everyone’s pleasure, bliss and happiness come from his dominant love and are characterised by it. One calls pleasant what one loves, for that is what one feels. One may, however, call pleasant what one thinks about and does not love, but it is not the pleasure of one’s life. It is what pleases his love which is anyone’s good, and what displeases it which is his evil.

59. There are two loves from which all kinds of good and truth arise, as it were from their proper sources. There are also two loves from which all kinds of evil and falsity arise. The two loves which are the source of all kinds of good and truth are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour; and the two loves which are the source of all kinds of evil and falsity are self-love and love of the world. These two latter loves are the complete opposite of the former two.

60. The two loves which are the source of all kinds of good and truth, which, as just said, are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, are what make heaven in a person. These therefore are the ruling loves in heaven. And because they make a person’s heaven, they also make the church for him. The two loves which are the source of all kinds of evil and falsity, which are, as just said, self-love and love of the world, make hell in a person. These therefore are the ruling loves in hell.

61. The two loves which are the source of all kinds of good and truth, which, as has been said, are the loves of heaven, open up and develop the internal spiritual man, because that is where they reside. But the two loves which are the source of all kinds of evil and falsity when dominant close off and destroy the internal spiritual man. These make a person the more natural and influenced by the senses in proportion to the strength and nature of their dominance.

5.2 The Heavenly Arcana

62. Love is the Esse of man’s life, no. 5002. Man, spirit, and angel, are altogether such as their love is, nos. 6872, 10177, 10284. What a man loves he has for an end, no. 3796. What a man loves and has for an end, reigns with him universally, that is, in each and all things, nos. 3796, 5130, 5949. Love is spiritual heat, and the very vital [element] of man, nos. 1589, 2146, 3338, 4906, 7081-7086, 9954, 10740. All the interior things with a man, which belong to his understanding and will, are arranged into a form according to his ruling love, nos. 2023, 3189, 6690. Love is spiritual conjunction, nos. 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195, 6196, 7081-7086, 7501, 10130. Hence all in the spiritual world are consociated according to their loves, Ibid. Affection is the continuity of love, no. 3938. All delight, pleasure, satisfaction, happiness, and all joy of heart, belong to love and their quality is according to the quality of the love, nos. 994, 995, 2204. There are as many genera and species of delights and pleasures as there are affections belonging to love, nos. 994, 995, 2204. The delight of the love is lower, the more external it is, no. 996. The life of a man after death is of the same quality as his love, no. 2363.

63. Further particulars concerning Love and its essence and quality may be known from what has been said and shewn above concerning Good and Truth; also from what has been said and shewn above concerning Will and Understanding; and also from what has been said and shewn concerning the Internal and External Man; for all things which belong to love are referable either to goods or to evils; in like manner all the things which belong to the will: and as the two Loves of heaven open and form the internal spiritual man, and the two Loves of hell close and destroy it, therefore applications may be made and conclusions drawn therefrom respecting the quality of Love in general and particular.

64. Love has also been treated of in the work on Heaven and Hell, where it has been shewn, that the Lord’s Divine in the heavens is love to Him and love towards the neighbour, nos. 13-19. That all who are in the hells are in the evils, and in the falsities therefrom which originate in the loves of self and of the world, nos. 551-565. That the delights of every love are changed in the other life into corresponding objects, nos. 485-490. That spiritual heat in its essence is love, nos. 133-140.

5.3 Assignment 5

1. What is love depicted as being in this chapter?
2. Describe its effect upon our lives.
3. Why do you think Swedenborg deals with “love of self” and “the love of the world” before “love to the Lord” and “love towards the neighbour” ?
4. Why isn’t there a chapter on “love to the Lord” in this book at all?

6. Self Love

6.1 Introduction

65. Self-love is wishing well to oneself alone and not to others except on one’s own account, not even to the church, one’s country, any human community or fellow citizen. It also includes doing good to them solely for the sake of one’s own reputation, honours and glory. If such a person does not see these ends in the good he does for others, he says in his heart ‘What does it matter? Why am I doing this? What’s in it for me?’ and so he stops doing it. This shows plainly that a person in a state of self-love does not love the church, his country, his community or his fellow citizen, nor any good, but himself alone.

66. A person is in a state of self-love when in his thoughts and actions he pays no regard to his neighbour, and so not to the general public, much less the Lord, but only to himself and his own people. As a result, this is when all his actions are for the sake of himself and his people, and if he does anything for the general public and his neighbour, this is only for the sake of appearances.

67. I say, for the sake of himself and his people, because one who loves himself also loves the people who belong to him, in particular his children and grandchildren, and in general all who act in concert with him, and whom he calls his own. Loving these two groups of people is also loving oneself, for one looks upon them as if part of one, and oneself as part of them. Among those called his own are also included all who praise, honour and pay respect to him.

68. A person is in a state of self-love, if he despises his neighbour as compared with himself, if he treats him as an enemy, unless he shows him favour, stands in awe of him and pays him respect. He is even more in a state of self-love, if as a result he hates and persecutes his neighbour; even more so, if as a result he is fired with a desire for vengeance on him and longs for his ruin. Such people end up by loving to inflict violence.

69. A comparison with heavenly love can show what self-love is like. Heavenly love is loving to perform services for their own sake, or to do good actions for their own sake; and these are those one does for the church, one’s country, a human community and one’s fellow citizen. But someone who loves doing those things for his own sake loves them only as servants who do his bidding. It follows that a person who is in a state of self-love wants the church, his country, human communities and his fellow citizens to be his servants, instead of his being theirs. He sets himself above them and looks down on them.

70. Furthermore, in so far as anyone is in a state of heavenly love, which is loving to be of service and to do good actions, and experiencing heartfelt pleasure when he does them, to that extent he is guided by the Lord, because that is the love the Lord has and which comes from Him. But in so far as anyone is in a state of self-love, to that extent he is guided by himself, and in so far as he is guided by himself, to that extent he is guided by the self. A person’s self is nothing but evil, for it is the evil he inherits, loving oneself more than God, and the world more than heaven.

71. Self-love has also this quality, that in so far as the brakes are taken off, that is, external restraints are removed (which are fear for the law and the penalties it can inflict, for loss of reputation, honours, gain, office and life), so far does it rush, not only to want to rule over the whole globe, but even over heaven and the Deity Himself. It has no limit or end set to it. This lies hidden in everyone in a state of self-love, although it is not to be seen in the world’s eyes, for there he is held in check by the brakes and restraints just mentioned. Anyone of this sort, when confronted with an impossibility, waits until it becomes possible to go on.

The result of these two facts is that a person in such a state of love is unaware of this mad, limitless desire lurking in him. Yet anyone can see the truth of this by looking at autocrats and kings, who, lacking these brakes, restraints and impossibilities, rush to conquer provinces and kingdoms as far as their success takes them, and aspire to limitless power and glory. This is even more the case with those who extend their rule to heaven and arrogate to themselves all the Lord’s Divine power, constantly desiring to go further.

72. There are two kinds of rule: one is the rule of love towards the neighbour, the other is the rule of self-love. These two kinds of rule are in essence diametrically opposed. One who rules from love towards the neighbour wishes the good of all, and loves nothing better than performing services, or being of service to others. Being of service to others is doing them good as the result of goodwill and performing services for them. This is what he loves, this is the pleasure of his heart. Such a person is pleased the higher the offices to which he is advanced, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the services which he is then able to perform in greater numbers and at a higher level. Ruling in heaven is like this.

But someone who rules from self-love wishes good to no one but himself and his own. Any services he performs are for the sake of his own honours and glory, which are the only services he recognises. If he is anyone’s servant, it is so that he may be served, honoured, and exercise rule himself. He canvasses for advancement not for the sake of good actions he can perform, but to achieve eminence and a glorious position, and so to give pleasure to his heart.

73. This love of ruling remains with everyone after his life in the world. But those who have exercised rule out of love towards the neighbour have rule entrusted to them also in the heavens. But then it is not they who rule, but the services and good actions they love to do; and when services and good actions rule, the Lord rules. Those, however, who have ruled in the world out of self-love are after their life in the world in hell, and lowly slaves there.

74. These remarks now make it possible to recognise who the people are who are in a state of self-love. It makes no difference what they are like to outward appearance, whether they are proud or submissive. For the qualities meant are in the inward man, and most people keep their inward man concealed, while the outward man is trained to put on a pretence of loving the general public and the neighbour, so as to seem the opposite of what he is. This too is for his own sake. For they know that loving the public and the neighbour makes a deep impression on everybody, and that is what makes them liked and esteemed so much. This impression is due to the inflow from heaven into that love.

75. The evils exhibited by those in a state of self-love are, generally speaking, contempt for others, envy, unfriendliness to those who do not favour them, resulting in hostility, various kinds of hatred, vindictiveness, tricks, deceit, lack of pity, and cruelty. Where such evils exist, there is also contempt for the Deity and for the things of God, the truths and kinds of good the church teaches. If they do pay respect to them, it is only with the lips and not the heart. Since such evils arise from this source, so too do the like falsities, for evils are the source of falsities.

76. The love of the world, however, is wanting to direct to oneself by any device other people’s wealth, setting one’s heart on being rich, and allowing the world to withdraw one and lead one away from spiritual love, that is, love towards the neighbour, and so away from heaven.

Those in a state of love of the world are those who desire to direct to themselves other people’s goods by various devices, especially by trickery and deceit, paying no heed to the good of the neighbour. Those who are in that state covet others’ goods, and so far as they are not afraid of laws and losing their reputation for the sake of gain, they take them away from them, or rather loot them.

77. But the love of the world is not as fully opposed to heavenly love as is self-love, seeing that it does not have such great evils concealed in it. This is a love of many kinds. It is the love of wealth, as the means of advancement to honours. It is the love of honours and rank with the aim of procuring wealth. It is the love of wealth for various purposes which give delight in the world. It is the love of wealth merely for the sake of wealth - that is the love of misers; and so on.

The end which wealth has in view is called its purpose. It is the end in view or purpose which gives a love its quality. For a love is such as is its end in view; other things serve it as means.

78. In short, self-love and the love of the world are the very opposites of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. Therefore self-love and love of the world are infernal loves, and they are dominant in hell; they also make a person’s private hell. Love to the Lord, however, and love towards the neighbour are heavenly loves, and are dominant in heaven; they also make a person’s private heaven.

79. What has been stated allows it to be seen that all evils are contained in and come from those two loves. For the evils which were listed above (75) are generic. The remainder, which were not listed, because they are specific, are derived and flow from them. From this it can be established that a person has by birth evils of every kind, because he has by birth those two loves.

80. For a person to know his evils, he must know their sources; and unless he knows his evils, he cannot know the kinds of good he has, so he cannot know what sort of person he is. That is why those two sources of evils have been discussed here.

6.2 The Heavenly Arcana

81. The Loves of Self and of the World. As love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, that is, charity, constitute heaven, so where the love of self and the love of the world reign, they constitute hell; for which reason they are opposites, nos. 2041, 3610, 4225, 4776, 6210, 7366, 7369, 7489, 7490, 8232, 8678, 10455, 10741-10743, 10745. All evils proceed from the loves of self and of the world, nos. 1307, 1308, 1321, 1594, 1691, 3413, 7255, 7376, 7488, 7489, 8318, 9335, 9348, 10038, 10742. From the love of self and of the world proceed contempt of others, enmity, hatred, revenge cruelty, deceit, and thus all evil and all wickedness, nos. 6667, 7372-7374, 9348, 10038, 10742. These loves rush on in proportion as the reins are given them, and the love of self aspires even to the throne of God, nos. 7375, 8678. The love of self and the love of the world are destructive of human society and of heavenly order, nos. 2045, 2057. On account of those loves, mankind have formed governments, and subjected themselves to the powers thereof, in order to be safe, nos. 7364, 10160, 10814. Where these loves reign, the good of love and the good of faith are either rejected, suffocated, or perverted, nos. 2041, 7491, 7492, 7643, 8487, 10455, 10743. In these loves there is no life, but spiritual death, nos. 7494, 10731, 10741. The quality of these loves described, nos. 1505, 2219, 2363, 2364, 2444, 4221, 4227, 4948, 4949, 5721, 7366-7377, 8678. Every lust and concupiscence belongs to the love of self and of the world, nos. 1668, 8910.

The loves of self and the world may serve for means, but not at all for an end, nos. 7377, 7819, 7820. When a man is being reformed, these loves are inverted, so as to serve as a means, and not as an end; and so that they are as the soles of the feet, and not as the head, nos. 8995, 9210. With those who are in the loves of self and the world, there is no Internal, but only an External without any Internal; because the Internal is closed in the direction of heaven, but the External is opened in the direction of the world, nos. 10396, 10400, 10409, 10411, 10422, 10429. Those who are in the loves of self and the world do not know what charity, what conscience, and what the life of heaven are, no. 7490. So far as a man is in the love of self and of the world, so far he does not receive the good and the truth of faith which continually flow in with man from the Lord, no. 7491.

Those who are in the loves of self and the world have external, but no internal bonds; wherefore, on their removal they rush into every kind of wickedness, nos. 10744-10746. In the spiritual world all turn in accordance with their loves; those who are in love to the Lord, and in love towards the neighbour, turn to the Lord; but those who are in the love of self and the love of the world turn away from the Lord, nos. 10130, 10189, 10420, 10742. The quality of the worship in which there is the love of self, nos. 1304, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322. The Lord governs the world through the wicked, by leading them by their own loves, which have relation to the love of self and to the love of the world, nos. 6481, 6495. The evil as well as the good are able to discharge the duties of offices, and to accomplish uses and goods, because they look upon posts of honour and gain as rewards, for the sake of which they act in like manner in outward form, nos. 6481, 6495.

All who are in the hells are in evils and the falsities therefrom, which originate in the loves of self and the world (see the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 551-565).

82. Man’s Self (proprium) (concerning which see the Doctrine at no. 70), that it is the Love of Self and the World. A man’s Self (proprium) is nothing but dense evil, nos. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731. The Self (proprium) of a man is his voluntary [or will] part, no. 4328. A man’s Self (proprium) consists in his loving himself more than God, and the world more than heaven, and in holding the neighbour of no account, in comparison with himself; thus it consists in the love of self and the world, nos. 694, 731, 4317, 5660. Not only all evil, but also all falsity, spring from a man’s Self (proprium); and this falsity the falsity of evil, nos. 1047, 10283, 10284, 10286. A man’s Self (proprium) is hell with him, nos. 694, 8480. Whoever therefore is led by Self (proprium) cannot be saved, no. 10731. The good which a man does from Self (proprium) is not good, but in itself is evil, because it is done for the sake of self and of the world, no. 8480.

The man’s Self (proprium) must be separated, in order that the Lord may be present, no. 1023, 1044. And it is actually separated when the man is being reformed, nos. 9334-9336, 9452, 9454, 9938. This is done by the Lord alone, no. 9445. By regeneration a man receives a heavenly Self (proprium), nos. 1937, 1947, 2881, 2883, 2891. This appears to him as Self (proprium); yet it is not his, but the Lord’s with him, no. 8497. Those who are in this Self (proprium) are in freedom itself, because freedom consists in being led by the Lord and by His Self (proprium), nos. 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 4096, 9586, 9587, 9589-9591. All freedom is from self (proprium), and its quality is according thereto, no. 2880. The quality of the heavenly self (proprium), nos. 164, 5660, 8480. How the heavenly self (proprium) is implanted, nos. 1712, 1937, 1947.

83. The Hereditary Nature of Man (treated of above at nos. 70-79) that it is the Love of Self and the World. Men, however many there are, are all born into evils of every kind; so much so, indeed, that their Self (proprium) is nothing but evil, nos. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731. On this account man has to be born again, that is, regenerated, in order that he may receive new life from the Lord, no. 3701.

Hereditary evils are derived, increased, and accumulated from parents and ancestors in a long series backwards, and they are not [handed down] from the first man on account of his having eaten of the tree of knowledge, nos. 313, 494, 2910, 3469, 3701, 4317, 8550. Wherefore the hereditary evils, at the present day, are more malignant than formerly, no. 2122. Children who die as children, and are brought up in heaven, are from their hereditary nature, nothing but evils, nos. 2307, 2308, 4563. For this reason they are of diverse dispositions and inclinations, no. 2300. Every man’s interior evils are from the father, and the exterior from the mother, no. 4317.

A man from himself superadds to his hereditary evils, new evils which are called actual evils, no. 8551. No one suffers punishment in the other life for hereditary evils, but for actual evils, which return [there], nos. 966, 2308. The more malignant hells are kept separate, lest they should operate on the hereditary evils with men and spirits, nos. 1667, 8806.

Hereditary evils are those that belong to the love of self and the, world, which consist in a man’s loving himself more than God, and the world more than heaven, and in making the neighbour of no account, nos. 694, 4317, 5660. And because these evils are opposed to the goods of heaven and to Divine order, therefore, a man must needs be born into mere ignorance, nos. 1050, 1902, 1992, 3175. Natural good is connate with some; nevertheless it is not good, because it easily inclines to all evils and falsities; and this good is not accepted in heaven unless it become spiritual good, nos. 2463, 2464, 2468, 3304, 3408, 3469, 3710, 3508, 3518, 7761.

6.3 Assignment 6

1. Define “love of self” and “love of the world”.
2. Love of self and love of the world are “the two loves from which all evils and falsities proceed…” Are they wholly bad?
3. What is “man’s hereditary evil”?
4. Why does Swedenborg write “the love of the world is not opposed to heavenly love in the same degree as the love of self.”?
5. Give examples which illustrate this principle.

7. Charity

7.1 Introduction

84. I shall start by defining the neighbour, for it is he who is to be loved and towards whom charity is to be exercised. Without knowing what the neighbour means charity may be exercised in like measure without distinction, equally towards the evil as the good. Charity thus becomes no charity. For the evil harm the neighbour by the benefits they confer, but the good do good by them.

85. It is generally believed to-day that everyone is equally the neighbour, and good is to be done to anyone who needs help. But Christian prudence demands that a person’s life should be carefully checked and charity exercised accordingly. A person who belongs internally to the church does so in a discriminating way, and so intelligently. But a person who belongs externally to the church does so without discrimination, because he is not so well able to tell things apart.

86. The distinctions in the neighbour, which anyone who belongs to the church certainly ought to know, depend upon the good present in each individual. Because all good proceeds from the Lord, it is the Lord who is in the highest sense and in the fullest degree the neighbour, the source of good. It follows from this that anyone is the neighbour to the extent that he has the Lord with him. And because everyone receives the Lord, that is, good from Him, differently, therefore no two people are the neighbour in the same way. For all in the heavens, and all on earth who are good, differ in their goodness. There are never two whose goodness is exactly identical; it has to differ for each sort of goodness to continue in existence. But all these variations, and so all the distinctions in the neighbour, which depend upon the receiving of the Lord, that is, the receiving of good from Him, cannot be known by any person, not even by an angel, except generally, that is to say, by genus and species. Nor does the Lord demand more from one who belongs to the church than to live in accordance with what he knows.

87. Since the good in each individual is different, it follows that the quality of that good determines on what level and how anyone is the neighbour. This fact is obvious from the Lord’s parable about the man who fell into the hands of robbers, and a priest, as well as a Levite, went past him as he lay half-dead. But the Samaritan, after binding up his wounds and pouring oil and wine into them, lifted him on to his own animal and took him to an inn, and gave orders that he should be looked after. This man is called the neighbour, because he exercised the good of charity (Luke 10:29-37). This shows that the neighbour means those in a state of good. The oil and wine, which the Samaritan poured into his wounds, also stand for good and the truth from it.

88. From what has been said it is now plain that in a universal sense the neighbour is good, because a person is the neighbour in accordance with the nature of the good he has from the Lord. Because the neighbour is good, so also he is love, for all good is concerned with love. So each person is the neighbour in accordance with the nature of the love he has from the Lord.

89. A proof that love determines who is the neighbour, and each person is the neighbour as the quality of his love dictates, is to be seen in the case of those in a state of self-love. They acknowledge as the neighbour those who love them best, that is, to the extent that they are their own. They embrace them, kiss them, do good to them and call them brothers; or rather, because they are evil, they call them above others the neighbour. They regard the rest as the neighbour in proportion to their love for themselves, so in accordance with the nature and depth of their love. Such people’s idea of the neighbour springs from themselves, because it is love which causes and determines it.

Those, however, who do not love themselves above others, the condition of all who belong to the Lord’s kingdom, will form their idea of the neighbour from Him whom they ought to love above all, that is, from the Lord; and they will regard each person as neighbour in accordance with the nature of the love they have for Him and receive from Him. From this it is clear from what a person who belongs to the church should form his idea of the neighbour, and that each is the neighbour in accordance with the good he has from the Lord, or goodness itself.

90. This too the Lord teaches in Matthew; for He said to those in a state of good that they had given Him food, they had given Him drink, given Him hospitality, clothed Him, visited Him and come to Him in prison; and then that so far as they had done these things to the least of His brothers, they had done it to Him (Matt. 25:34-40). Those six good deeds understood in the spiritual sense comprise all the different kinds of neighbour. It is also plain from this that when good is loved, the Lord is loved; for it is the Lord who is the source of good, who is in a state of good and who is goodness itself.

91. But the neighbour is not only a person in the singular, but also people in the plural. The term includes smaller and greater communities, one’s country, the church, the Lord’s kingdom and above all the Lord Himself. All these are the neighbour to whom good is to be done out of love. There are too the ascending degrees of the neighbour. A community consisting of many people is the neighbour in a higher degree than a single person. One’s country is in an even higher degree, the church in one higher still. In an even higher degree is the Lord’s kingdom; and the Lord is in the highest degree. These ascending degrees are like the rungs of a ladder, at the top of which the Lord stands.

92. A community is more the neighbour than a single person, because it is composed of many people. Charity should be exercised towards it in the same way as towards an individual, that is, in accordance with the good to be found in it. It should therefore be exercised differently towards a community of upright people and towards a community of people who are not upright. A community is loved by caring for its good out of a love for good.

93. One’s country is more the neighbour than a community, because it is a kind of parent. It is there a person is born; one’s country feeds one and protects one from harm. Good should be done to one’s country out of love in accordance with its needs. These are principally concerned with its food supplies and the secular and spiritual life of its inhabitants. Anyone who loves his country, and does it good out of goodwill, in the other life loves the Lord’s kingdom, for there the Lord’s kingdom is his country. Anyone who loves the Lord’s kingdom loves the Lord, because the Lord is the all-in-all of His kingdom.

94. The church is more the neighbour than one’s country, because anyone who cares for the church cares for the souls and everlasting life of the people of his country. So anyone who cares for the church out of love loves the neighbour in a higher degree, since heaven and happiness of life for ever is what he seeks and wants for others.

95. The Lord’s kingdom is the neighbour in a still higher degree, for the Lord’s kingdom consists of all who are in a state of good, both those on earth and those in the heavens. Thus the Lord’s kingdom is goodness in all its aspects together. When this is loved, so are the individuals who are in a state of good.

96. These are the degrees of the neighbour, and with those who are in a state of love towards the neighbour their love rises to higher levels by these degrees. But these degrees are degrees of successive order, and in this what is prior or higher is to be preferred to what is posterior or lower. And because the Lord is the neighbour in the highest degree, and He is to be regarded in each degree as the end in view, so He is to be loved above all people and all things. From this it can now be established how love to the Lord links itself with love towards the neighbour.

97. It is commonly said that each person is his own neighbour, that is, each person should take care of himself first. But teaching about charity shows how this should be understood. Everyone ought to see to it that he has the necessities of life, for instance, food, clothing, somewhere to live and many more things which the civilised life he leads demands. This too not only for himself, but also for his own, and not only for the present time but also for the future. For unless anyone provides himself with the necessities of life, he cannot be in a position to exercise charity, being himself in want of everything.

98. In what way each person ought to be his own neighbour can be established from the following comparison. Everyone ought to provide his body with food and clothing. This must come first, but with the intention of having a healthy mind in a healthy body. Everyone ought also to provide his mind with food, such things as have to do with intelligence and wisdom, in order that they may be in a condition to be of service to one’s fellow citizens, society at large, one’s country and the church, and so to the Lord. Anyone doing this provides well for himself to eternity. It is plain from this that the end in view must take priority, for everything has regard to that.

This is also like the situation of someone building a house. One must first lay the foundation, but the foundation must be for the house, and the house for living in. Anyone who thinks being his own neighbour comes first is like a man who regards the foundation as the end in view, not the house and living in it. Yet living in it is the first and last end in view, and the house with its foundation is only a means to that end.

99. The end in view proclaims how each person should be his own neighbour and look after himself first. If his end is to grow richer than others merely for the sake of riches, or for the sake of pleasure, or of eminence and similar reasons, his end is evil, and he does not love the neighbour but himself. But if his end is to acquire wealth so that he may be in a position to look after his fellow citizens, society at large, his country and the church; or likewise so that he may acquire high office to the same end - then he loves his neighbour. The end which motivates his actions makes the man, for his end is his love; everyone has as his first and last end what he loves above all.

So much for the neighbour, but now I must discuss love towards him, or charity.

100. Many people believe that love towards the neighbour consists in giving to the poor, bringing help to the needy, and doing good to everyone. But charity consists in acting prudently, and with the intention that good may come of it. If anyone gives help to a poor or needy wrongdoer, he does harm to the neighbour through him. For the help he gives strengthens him in evil and supplies him with the resources to do harm to others. The opposite is the case if he gives help to the good.

101. But charity extends much further than to the poor and needy. For charity consists in doing what is right in every task, and one’s duty in every office one holds. If a judge sees justice done for justice’s sake, he exercises charity; if he punishes the guilty and acquits the innocent, he exercises charity, for he thus takes thought for his fellow citizens and his country. A priest who teaches the truth and guides people towards good, for the sake of truth and good, exercises charity. But if he does such things for his own or the world’s sake, he does not exercise charity, because it is not the neighbour he loves, but himself.

102. It is the same with other occupations, whether public office or not. So for instance, the attitude of children towards their parents, and of parents towards their children; of servants towards their masters, and of masters towards their servants; of subjects towards their king, and of a king towards his subjects. Any of them who do their duty because it is their duty, and justice because it is justice, are exercising charity.

103. The reason why all these things are a part of love towards the neighbour or charity is that, as was said before, each individual is the neighbour, but in a different way. A smaller or larger community is more of a neighbour, one’s country even more so. Even more so is the Lord’s kingdom; and the Lord is the neighbour above all. In a universal sense the good proceeding from the Lord is the neighbour, and as a result so are honesty and justice. Anyone therefore who does any kind of good for good’s sake, and acts honestly and justly for the sake of honesty and justice, loves the neighbour and exercises charity. For his actions are motivated by a love for good, honesty and justice, and so by a love for those in whom good, honesty and justice are to be found.

104. So charity is an internal affection causing a person to wish to do good, and this without recompense; it is his pleasure in life to do this. Those who are moved by an internal affection to do good, have charity in each single thought and utterance, in each single wish and action. When good is his neighbour, a person or an angel can be said to be charity as regards his interiors. That is how far charity extends.

105. Those who have self-love and love of the world as their end in view cannot possibly be in a state of charity. They do not even know what charity is; and they totally fail to grasp that willing and doing good to the neighbour without seeking reward makes heaven in a person, and this is an affection that brings happiness as great as that of the angels in heaven, which is past description. For they think that if they are robbed of the joy they get from the glory of possessing honours and wealth, there is no further joy possible. Yet this is when heavenly joy first begins, and this is infinitely greater.

7.2 The Heavenly Arcana

106. Heaven is distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, and the other the spiritual: the love prevailing in the celestial kingdom is love to the Lord, which is called celestial love; and the love prevailing in the spiritual kingdom is love towards the neighbour, that is charity, which is called spiritual love, nos. 3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9835, 9961. That heaven is distinguished into those two kingdoms, see the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 20-28; and that the Lord’s Divine in the heavens is love to Him and charity towards the neighbour, see Ibid. nos. 13-19.

What good and what truth are cannot be known, unless it is known what love to the Lord and what love towards the neighbour are, because all good belongs to love, and all truth to good, nos. 7255, 7366. Knowing truths, willing truths, and being affected with truths for the truths’ sake, that is, because they are truths, is charity, nos. 3876, 3877. Charity consists in the internal affection of doing the truth, and not in an external affection apart from the former, nos. 2430, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8033. Charity thus consists in the performance of uses for the sake of uses, nos. 7038, 8253. Charity is the spiritual life of man, no. 7081. The whole Word is the Doctrine of Love and Charity, nos. 6632, 7262. It is not known at the present day what charity is, nos. 2417, 3398, 4776, 6632. Nevertheless, from the light of his own reason a man may know that love and charity constitute man, nos. 3957, 6273; also that good and truth accord together, and that the one belongs to the other, so also love and faith, no. 7627.

In the highest sense the Lord is the neighbour, because He is to be loved above all things; wherefore all that which is from Him, and in which He is, and thus good and truth, is the neighbour, nos. 2425, 3419, 6706, 6819, 6823, 8124. The distinction in the neighbour is according to the quality of good, thus according to the Lord’s presence, nos. 6707-6710. Every man and every society, - further, one’s country and the Church, and, in a universal sense, the Lord’s kingdom, are the neighbour, and doing good to them from the love of good, according to the quality of their state, means loving the neighbour; thus their good, is the neighbour, who is to be cared for, nos. 6818-6824, 8123. Civil good, which consists in justice, and moral good, which consists in the good of life in society, and is called sincerity, are also the neighbour, nos. 2915, 4730, 8120-8122. Loving the neighbour does not mean loving his person, but loving that in him by virtue of which he is a neighbour, consequently good and truth, nos. 5028, 10336. They who love the person, and not that in a man from which he is a neighbour, love evil just as well as good, no. 3820. And they do good to the evil as well as to the good; when yet doing good to the evil is doing evil to the good, and this is not loving the neighbour, nos. 3820, 6703, 8120. A judge who punishes the evil that they may be amended, and that the good may not be contaminated by them, loves the neighbour, nos. 3820, 8120, 8121.

Loving the neighbour means doing what is good, just, and right, in every work and every public office, nos. 8120- 8122. Wherefore charity towards the neighbour extends to each and every thing which a man thinks, wills, and does, no. 8124. Doing what is good and true means loving the neighbour, nos. 10310, 10336. They who do this, love the Lord, who is the neighbour in the highest sense, no. 9210. A life of charity means a life according to the Lord’s Commandments; and living according to Divine truths means loving the Lord, nos. 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645.

Genuine charity does not look to merit, nos. 2027, 2273, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393; because it proceeds from an internal affection, and consequently from the delight of the life of doing good, nos. 2373, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393. They who separate faith from charity, in the other life attribute merit to faith, and to the good works which they have done in an outward form, no. 2373. They who are in evils from the love of self or of the world, do not know what is meant by doing good apart from the idea of reward; consequently what is meant by a charity that does not look to reward, no. 8037.

The doctrine of the Ancient Church was the doctrine of life, which is the doctrine of charity, nos. 2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628. From it they had intelligence and wisdom, nos. 2417, 6629, 7259-7262. Intelligence and wisdom in the other life increase immensely with those who in the world have lived a life of charity, nos. 1941, 5859. The Lord flows in with Divine Truth into charity, because into the very life of man, no. 2063. The man with whom charity and faith are conjoined is like a garden; but he with whom they are not conjoined, is like a desert, no. 7626. In the proportion in which a man recedes from charity, he recedes from wisdom; and they who are not in charity are in ignorance concerning Divine truths, however wise they may think themselves, nos. 2417, 2435. The angelic life consists in the performance of the goods of charity, which are uses, no. 454. The spiritual angels, who are those who are in the good of charity, are forms of charity, nos. 553, 3804, 4735.

All spiritual truths have respect to charity as to their beginning, and end, no. 4353. The doctrinals of the Church are void of effect, unless they regard charity as their end, nos. 2049, 2116.

The Lord’s presence with men and angels is according to the state of their love and charity, no. 904. Charity is the image of God, no. 1013. The love of the Lord, consequently the Lord, is interiorly in charity, although the man is not aware of it, nos. 2227, 5066, 5067. Those who lead a life of charity are accepted as citizens both in this world and in heaven, no 1121. The good of charity ought not to be violated, no. 2359.

They who are not in charity cannot acknowledge and worship the Lord except from hypocrisy, nos. 2132, 4424, 9833. The forms of hatred and of charity cannot exist together, no. 1860.

107. To the above shall be added some information concerning the doctrine of love to the Lord, and concerning the doctrine of charity, as held by the ancients, among whom was the Church; so that it may be known what formerly constituted the quality of that doctrine, which no longer exists at the present day. This information is also drawn from the Heavenly Arcana, nos. 7257-7263.

The good which belongs to love to the Lord, is called celestial good; and the good which belongs to love towards the neighbour, that is, to charity, is called spiritual good. The angels who are in the inmost or third heaven, are in the good of love to the Lord, and therefore are called celestial angels; but the angels who are in the middle or second heaven, are in the good of love towards the neighbour, and therefore they are called spiritual angels.

The doctrine of celestial good, which is that of love to the Lord, is most extensive, and at the same time most full of hidden things, for it is the doctrine of the angels of the inmost or third heaven, which is of such a character, that should it be communicated from their mouths, scarcely the thousandth part of it would be understood: the things also which it contains are ineffable. This doctrine is contained in the inmost sense of the Word; but the doctrine of spiritual love, in the internal sense.

The doctrine of spiritual good, which is that of love towards the neighbour, is also extensive and full of hidden things, but much less so than the doctrine of celestial good, which is that of love to the Lord. That the doctrine of love towards the neighbour, that is, of charity, is extensive, may appear from this consideration, that it extends to each and all things which a man thinks and wills, and, therefore to all which he speaks and acts; further, that charity with one person is not as it is with another person; and also that one person is not a neighbour in the same way as another person.

As the doctrine of charity was so extensive, therefore the ancients among whom that doctrine constituted the very doctrine of the Church, distinguished charity towards the neighbour into several classes, which they again subdivided; and they gave names to each class, and taught how charity was to be practised towards those who were in one class, and towards those who were in another; and thus they reduced the doctrine of charity and the exercises of charity into order, that they might be presented distinctly to the understanding.

The names which they gave to those towards whom they were to exercise charity were various: some they called blind, some lame, some maimed, some poor, and again some miserable and afflicted, while some they called fatherless, and some widows. In general, however, they called them hungry, to whom they were to give to eat, thirsty, to whom they were to give to drink, strangers, whom they were to take in, naked, whom they were to clothe, sick, whom they were to visit, and bound in prison, to whom they were to come. Who those were whom they understood under each of these categories is explained in the Heavenly Arcana; e.g., whom they understood by the blind, nos. 2383, 6990; the lame, no. 4302; by the poor, nos. 2129, 4459, 4958, 9209 , 9253, 10227; by the miserable, no. 2129; by the afflicted, nos. 6663, 6851, 9196; by the fatherless, nos. 4844, 9198-9200; by the widows, nos. 4844, 9198, 9200; by the hungry, nos. 4958, 10227; by the thirsty, nos. 4958, 8568; by the stranger, nos. 4444, 7908, 8007, 8013, 9196, 9200; by the naked, nos. 1073, 5433, 9960; by the sick, nos. 4958, 6221, 8364, 9031; by the bound in prison, nos. 5037, 5038, 5086, 5096. That the whole Doctrine of Charity is comprised under the duties towards the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the bound in prison, who are spoken of by the Lord in Matt. xxv. 34-36 et seq., see nos. 4954-4959.

To the ancients belonging to the Church these names were given from heaven, and by those so named they understood those who spiritually were of such a quality. They were not only taught by their doctrine of charity who these were, but what the quality of charity was towards each: on this ground it is, that the same names occur in the Word, and that they signify those who are such in the spiritual sense. The Word intrinsically in itself, as is taught also by the Lord, is nothing but the doctrine of love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour; Matt. (xxii. 35-38), “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” The Law and the Prophets mean the whole Word, nos. 2606, 3382, 6752, 7463.

The same names occur in the Word, for this reason, that the Word, which in itself is spiritual, in its ultimate might be natural; and that they who were in external worship might exercise charity towards those who were so called; and that they who were in internal worship might practise it towards those who were understood thereby spiritually; thus, that the simple-minded might understand and do the Word in simplicity, and the wise, in wisdom; also, that the simple-minded, by the external things of charity, might be introduced into its internal things.

7.3 Assignment 7

1. Define “the neighbour”.
2. Define and describe “love toward the neighbour”, also called “charity”.
3. What does Swedenborg say about love to the Lord?

7.4 Journal Work

Reflect on your thoughts and reactions next time you are approached for a donation or appeal for financial support for some charity? How do you typically approach such situations? What principles do you keep in mind in these circumstances?

7.5 Further Reading

1. Doctrine of Life, by Emanuel Swedenborg.
2. Charity, by Emanuel Swedenborg.
3. True Christian Religion, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially chapter 7 (paragraphs 392-462).
4. Uses: A way of personal and spiritual growth by Wilson van Dusen.

8. Faith

8.1 Introduction

108. No one can know what in its essence faith is without knowing what charity is, since where there is no charity there is no faith; charity makes one with faith like good with truth. What a person loves or holds dear, that is for him good; and what he believes, that is for him truth. From this it is plain that the union of charity and faith is like the union of good and truth; and the nature of this union may be established from what has already been said about good and truth.

109. The union of charity and faith is also like that between a person’s will and his intellect. For those are the twin faculties for the reception of good and truth, good by the will, truth by the intellect. So those two faculties also receive charity and faith, since good relates to charity and truth to faith. Everyone is aware that charity and faith reside with a person and in him; and this being so, they cannot be elsewhere than in his will and his intellect, for the whole of a person’s life is located there and comes from there.

People also have a memory. But this is only a forecourt, where the things that are going to enter his intellect and will foregather. From this it is clear that the union of charity and faith is like that between the will and the intellect, and the nature of this union can be established from what has already been said about the will and the intellect.

110. Charity combines with faith for a person, when he wills what he knows and perceives; willing relates to charity, knowing and perceiving to faith. Faith enters into a person and becomes his, when he wills and loves what he knows and perceives; until this happens, it is outside him.

111. Faith does not become faith for a person, unless it becomes spiritual faith; and it does not become spiritual, unless it becomes related to love. This happens when a person loves to express truth and good in his life, that is, to live in accordance with the commandments given in the Word.

112. Faith is an affection for truth resulting from willing truth because it is true; and willing truth because it is true is the essence of a person’s spirituality. For then it is withdrawn from the natural, which is willing truth, not for its own sake, but for the sake of one’s own glory, reputation or gain. Truth withdrawn from such things is spiritual truth, because it comes from the Deity. What proceeds from the Deity is spiritual, and this is linked to people by love; for love is spiritual linking.

113. A person can know, think and understand a great deal, but when he is left alone to ponder, he casts away the things which are not in harmony with his love. For that reason he also casts them away when his bodily life is over, when he is in his spirit. For only what has entered his love remains in his spirit. The rest are after death regarded as alien, and because they do not harmonise with his love they are cast out of doors. The expression ‘in a person’s spirit’ is used because a person lives on as a spirit after death.

114. Some idea of good, which relates to charity, and truth, which relates to faith, can be formed from the sun’s light and heat. When the light radiated by the sun is combined with heat, as happens in springtime and summer, then everything on our earth buds and flowers. But when there is no heat in the light, as in wintertime, then everything on earth grows sluggish and dies off. Spiritual light actually is the truth of faith, and spiritual heat is love. This will enable one to form an idea of what a member of the church is like, when he has faith combined with charity; he is like a garden or park; or again, what he is like when his faith is not combined with charity; he is then like a desert or a countryside covered in snow.

115. The confidence or assurance which faith is said to confer, and which is called the really saving faith, is not a spiritual confidence or trust, but a natural one, so long as it comes from faith alone. Spiritual confidence or trust gets its essence and life from the good of love, but not from the truth of a faith separated from charity. The confidence that comes from separated faith is dead. For this reason true confidence is impossible for those who live an evil life. No more is truth the source of the confidence that a person is saved by the merit the Lord possesses with the Father, whatever a person’s life has been. All those in a state of spiritual faith are confident of being saved by the Lord, for they believe that the Lord came into the world to give everlasting life to those who believe and live in accordance with the commandments He taught. They believe that He regenerates them and fits them for heaven; and He does this by Himself without any help from the person, entirely out of His mercy.

116. Believing what the Word teaches, or the teachings of the church, without living in accordance with them, may look like faith; and there are also some who think that they are saved by it. But no one is saved by that alone, for it is a faith which comes from false belief. I shall now describe this sort of faith.

117. Faith from false belief is when the Word is believed and loved, and so is the teaching of the church, not for the sake of truth, and living in accordance with it, but when the ends in view are gain, honours and a reputation for learning. For this reason those who have that faith look not to the Lord and to heaven, but to themselves and the world. Those in the world with lofty ambitions and great desires are more the victims of the false belief that truth is what the church teaches, than those without lofty ambitions and great desires. This is because for them the teaching of the church is only a means to their own ends; and the more the ends are desired, the more the means are loved and believed in. But the fact of the matter is this: the more they are fired by self-love and love of the world, and are impelled by that fire to speak, preach and act, the more they are subject to that false belief; and then they know no better than that this is so. When, however, they are not fired by those loves, then they believe less, and many do not believe at all. From this it is plain that faith from false belief is a faith of the lips and not of the heart; and so it is no faith at all.

118. Those whose faith is from false belief have no inward light to tell them whether what they teach is true or false. Indeed, they do not care either, so long as the people believe them. For they have no affection for truth for truth’s sake. For this reason they withdraw from faith if they are deprived of honours and gain, so long as they do not risk their reputation. For faith from false belief is not inside the person, but stands outside, being only in the memory, from which it is recalled when he is teaching. That faith therefore together with what it sees as truths evaporates after death. For then only as much of faith as is inside the person remains, so much, that is, as is rooted in good, and has thus become part of his life.

119. It is those whose faith is from false belief who are meant by these in Matthew:

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and cast out devils in your name, and done many mighty deeds in your name? But then I shall admit to them, I do not know you, workers of iniquity. Matt. 7:22, 23.

Also in Luke:

Then you will begin to say, We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all workers of iniquity. Luke 13:26, 27.

These are also they who are meant by the five foolish virgins in Matthew, who had no oil in their lamps:

Finally, those virgins came saying, Lord, Lord, open up for us. But he will say in reply, Truly I tell you, I do not know you. Matt. 25:11, 12.

Oil in lamps stands for the good of love in faith.

8.2 The Heavenly Arcana

120. Those who do not know that all things in the universe have relation to truth and good, and to their mutual conjunction, so that anything may be produced, do not know that all things of the Church have relation to faith and love, and to their mutual conjunction, so that the Church may be with a man, nos. 7752-7762, 9186, 9224. All things in the universe which are according to Divine order have relation to good and truth, and to their mutual conjunction, nos. 2452, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555. Truths belong to faith and goods to love, nos. 4352, 4997, 7178, 10367. This is the reason why Good and Truth have been treated of in the present Doctrine; wherefore from the things adduced, conclusions may be drawn respecting Faith and Love; and by putting love in the place of good, and faith in the place of truth, and then making the application, it may be known what their quality is when they are conjoined, and what it is when they are not conjoined.

Those who do not know that each and all things with a man have relation to the understanding and will, and to their mutual conjunction, so that a man may be a man, do not know clearly that all things of the Church have relation to faith and love, and to their mutual conjunction, so that the Church may be in a man, nos. 2231, 7752-7754, 9224, 9995, 10122. Man has two faculties, of which one is called the understanding and the other the will, nos. 641, 803, 3623, 3539. The understanding is designed for the reception of truths, and consequently for the things belonging to faith and the will for the reception of goods, and consequently for the things belonging to love, nos. 9300, 9930, 10064. This is the reason why the Will and Understanding have also been treated of in the present Doctrine; for from the things adduced there, conclusions may be drawn respecting faith and love; and, by considering love as being in the will, and faith in the understanding, it may be known what their quality is when they are conjoined, and what it is when they are not conjoined.

Those who do not know that a man has an Internal and an External, that is, an internal and an external man, and that all things of heaven have relation to the internal man, and all things of the world to the external man, and that their conjunction is like that of the spiritual and the natural worlds, do not know what spiritual faith and spiritual love are, nos. 4292, 5132, 8610. There is an internal and an external man, and the internal is the spiritual man, and the external the natural man, nos. 978, 1015, 4459, 6309, 9701-9709. Faith is spiritual, and consequently faith is faith so far as it is in the internal man; likewise love, nos. 1594, 3987, 8078. And so far as the truths which belong to faith are loved, so far they become spiritual, nos. 1594, 3987. This is the reason why the Internal and the External Man have been treated of; for from the things which have been adduced there, conclusions may be drawn respecting Faith and Love, what their quality is when they are spiritual, and what, when they are not spiritual; consequently how far they are of the Church, and how far they are not of the Church.

121. Faith separate from love or charity is like the light of winter, in which all things on the earth are torpid, and nothing belonging to harvest, to fruits and blossoms, is produced; but faith [conjoined] with love or charity is like the light of spring and summer, in which all things blossom and are produced, nos. 2231, 3146, 3412, 3413. The wintry light which is that of faith separated from charity is changed into thick darkness when light from heaven flows in; and those who are in that faith then come into blindness and stupidity, nos. 3412, 3413. Those who separate faith from charity, in doctrine and life, are in darkness, and consequently in ignorance of truth, and in falsities, for these are darkness, no. 9186. They cast themselves into falsities, and from them into evils, nos. 3325, 8094. The errors and falsities into which they cast themselves, 1108, 4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9224. The Word for them is closed up, nos. 3773, 4783, 8780. They do not see, and do not attend to, all those things which the Lord so often spake concerning love and charity, and concerning their fruits, that is, goods in act, concerning which, nos. 1017, 3416. Neither do they know what good is, nor consequently what heavenly love is, nor what charity is, nos. 2417, 3603, 4136, 9995.

Faith separate from charity is no faith, nos. 654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2343, 2349, 3419, 3849, 3868, 6348, 7039, 7342, 9783. Such a faith perishes in the other life, nos. 2228, 5820. When faith alone is accepted as a principle, truths are contaminated by the falsity of the principle, no. 2435. Such persons also do not suffer themselves to be persuaded, because it is against their principle, no. 2385. Doctrinals concerning faith alone destroy charity, nos. 6353, 8094. Those who separate faith from charity were represented by Cain, Ham, Reuben, by the first-born of the Egyptians, and the Philistines, nos. 3325, 7097, 7317, 8093. Those who make faith alone saving, excuse an evil life, and those who lead an evil life have no faith, because they have no charity, nos. 3865, 7766, 7778, 7790, 7950, 8094. They are inwardly in the falsities of their evil, although they are not aware of it, nos. 7790, 7950. Wherefore good cannot be conjoined to them, nos. 8981, 8983. In the other life they are opposed to good, and opposed to those who are in good, nos. 7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 8096, 8313. The simple in heart and yet wise, know what the good of life is, and thus what charity is, but not what a separated faith is, nos. 4741, 4754.

All things of the Church have relation to good and truth, and consequently to charity and faith, nos. 7752-7754. The Church is not with a man until truths are implanted in his life, and thus have become the good of charity, no. 3310. Charity constitutes the Church, and not faith separated from charity, nos. 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844. The Internal of the Church is charity, nos. 1799, 7755. Wherefore there is no Church where there is no charity, nos. 4766, 5826. The Church would be one, if all were looked upon from charity, although men might differ as to the doctrinals of faith and the rituals of worship, nos. 1285, 1316, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2385, 2982, 3267, 3451. How much good there would be in the Church if charity were regarded in the first place, and faith in the second, nos. 6269, 6272. Every Church begins from charity, but in process of time turns aside to faith, and at length to faith alone, nos. 1834, 1835, 2231, 4683, 8094. At the last time of the Church there is no faith, because there is no charity, no. 1843. The worship of the Lord consists in a life of charity, nos. 8254, 8256. The quality of worship is according to the quality of charity, no. 2190. The men of the external Church have an Internal, if they are in charity, nos. 1100, 1102, 1151, 1153. The doctrine in the Ancient Churches was the doctrine of life, which is the doctrine of charity, and not the doctrine of a separated faith, nos. 2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628, 7259-7262.

The Lord inseminates and implants truth in the good of charity when He regenerates a man, nos. 2063, 2189, 3310. Otherwise the seed, which is the truth of faith, cannot take root, no. 880. Goods and truths then increase, according to the quality and quantity of the charity received, no. 1016. The light of a regenerate person is not from faith, but from charity through faith, no. 854. When a man is being regenerated, the truths of faith enter with the delight of affection, because he loves to do them; and they are reproduced with the same affection, because the two cohere, nos. 2484, 2487, 3040, 3066, 3074, 3336, 4018, 5893.

Those who live in love to the Lord, and in charity towards the neighbour, lose nothing to eternity, because they are, conjoined to the Lord; but it is otherwise with those who are in a separated faith, nos. 7506, 7507. A man remains such as is his life of charity, not such as his separated faith is, no. 8256. All the states of delight of those who have lived in charity, return in the other life, and increase immensely, no. 823. Heavenly blessedness flows from the Lord into charity, because into the very life of a man; but not into faith without charity, no. 2363. All are regarded in heaven from charity, and no one is regarded from a separated faith, nos. 1258, 1394. All in the heavens are also associated according to their loves, no. 7085. No one is admitted into heaven by thinking good, but by willing it, nos. 2401, 3459. Unless doing good is conjoined with willing good and thinking good, there is no salvation; nor is there any conjunction of the internal man with the external, no. 3987. In the other life none receive the Lord and faith in Him, except those who are in charity, no. 2343.

Good is in a perpetual desire and effort therefrom of conjoining itself with truths, and consequently of conjoining charity with faith, nos. 9206, 9207, 9495. The good of charity acknowledges its own truth of faith, and the truth of faith, its own good of charity, nos. 2429, 3101, 3102, 3161, 3179, 3180, 4358, 5807, 5835, 9637. Hence there is a conjunction of the truth of faith and the good of charity, concerning which see nos. 3834, 4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623, 7627, 7752, 7762, 8530, 9258, 10555. Their conjunction is like a marriage, nos. 1904, 2173, 2508. The law of marriage is for two to become one according to the Word of the Lord, nos. 10130, 10168, 10169. Consequently also faith and charity, nos. 1904, 2173, 2508. Wherefore faith which is faith, as to its essence is charity, nos. 2228, 2839, 3180, 9783. As good is the Esse of a thing, and truth the Existere from it, so also charity is the Esse of the Church, and faith the Existere from it, nos. 3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9154. The truth of faith lives from the good of charity; consequently, a life according to the truths of faith is charity, nos. 1589, 1947, 2572, 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729. There can be no faith except in charity, and if faith is not in charity, there is no good in it, nos. 2261, 4368. Faith with a man is not living, when he only knows and thinks the things belonging to faith; but when he wills them and from willing does them, no. 9224.

There is no salvation by faith, but by a life according to the truths of faith, which life is charity, nos. 379, 389, 2228, 4663, 4721. Those are saved who from the doctrine of the Church think that faith alone saves, if they do what is just for the sake of justice, and what is good for the sake of good; for thus they are still in charity, nos. 2442, 3242, 3459, 3463, 7506, 7507. If a mere faith of the thought would save, all would be saved, nos. 2228, 10659. Charity constitutes heaven with a man, and not faith apart from it, nos. 3513, 3584, 3815, 9832, 10714, 10715, 10721, 10724. In heaven all are regarded from charity, and not from faith, nos. 1258, 1394, 2401, 4802. The Lord’s conjunction with a man is not by faith, but by a life according to the truths belonging to faith, nos. 9380, 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645, 10648. The Lord is the tree of life, the goods of charity are the fruits, and faith the leaves, nos. 3427, 9337. Faith is the lesser luminary, and good the greater, nos. 30-38.

The angels from the Lord’s celestial kingdom do not know what faith is, so that they do not even name it; but the angels from the Lord’s spiritual kingdom speak of faith, because they reason concerning truths, nos. 202, 203, 337, 2715, 3246, 4448, 9166, 10786. The angels in the Lord’s celestial kingdom say only, Yea, yea, or Nay, nay; but the angels of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom reason whether a thing is so or not so, when the conversation is concerning the spiritual truths which belong to faith, nos. 2715, 3246, 4448, 9166, 10786; where the Lord’s words are explained: “Let your discourse be, Yea, yea, Nay, nay; what is beyond these is from evil” (Matt. v. 37). The celestial angels are of such a quality because they apply the truths of faith immediately to the life, and do not first store them in the memory, as is done by the spiritual angels; for this reason the celestial angels are in the perception of all things belonging to faith, nos. 202, 585, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387, 1398, 1442, 1919, 5113, 5897, 6367, 7680, 7877, 8521, 8780, 9915, 9995, 10124.

The trust or confidence, which in an eminent sense is called saving faith, exists only with those who are in good as to life, consequently, with those who are in charity, no. 2982, 4352, 4683, 4689, 7762, 8240, 9239,-9245. Few know what that confidence is, nos. 3868, 4352.

What difference there is between believing those things which are from God, and believing in God, nos. 9239, 9243. It is one thing to know, another to acknowledge, and still another to have faith, nos. 896, 4319, 5664 1/2. There are things of faith which are scientific, things of faith which are rational, and things of faith which are spiritual, nos. 2504, 8078. The first thing is the acknowledgment of the Lord, no. 10083. All which flows in with a man from the Lord is good, nos. 1614, 2016, 2751, 2882, 2883, 2891, 2892, 2904, 6193, 7643, 9128.

There is a persuasive faith, which nevertheless is not faith, nos. 2343, 2682, 2689, 3427, 3865, 8148.

From various chains of reasoning it appears as though faith were prior to charity, but this is a fallacy, no. 3324. From the mere light of reason it may be known that good, and consequently charity, is in the first place, and truth and consequently faith, in the second, no. 6273. Good and thus charity, is actually in the first place, that is, is the first thing of the Church; and truth, and thus faith is in the second place, that is, is the second thing of the Church, although it appears otherwise, nos. 3324, 3325, 3330, 3336, 3494, 3539, 3548, 3556, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 3995, 4337, 4601, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930, 5351, 6256, 6269, 6272, 6273, 8042, 8080, 10110. Among the ancients also they disputed concerning the first, that is, concerning the first-born of the Church, whether it is faith or charity, nos. 367, 2435, 3324.

122. The twelve disciples of the Lord represented the Church in respect to all things of faith and charity in the aggregate, just like the twelve tribes of Israel, nos. 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397. Peter, James, and John represented faith, charity, and the goods of charity, in their order, no. 3750. Peter represented faith, see nos. 4738, 6000, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580; and John represented the goods of charity, see the Preface to the 18th and 22nd chapters of Genesis. By Peter’s thrice denying the Lord before the cock crew the third time was represented, that, at the last time of the Church, there would be no faith in the Lord, because no charity, for, in the representative sense, Peter there denoted faith, nos. 6000, 6073. The cock crowing, as well as the twilight, signify in the Word the last time of the Church, see no. 10134; and three or thrice signify what is complete to the end, nos. 2788, 4495, 5159, 9198, 10127. The same is signified by the Lord’s saying to Peter, when Peter saw John follow the Lord, “What is it to thee, Peter? follow thou Me, John; for Peter said of John, What [is] this one?” (John xxi. 21, 22); no. 10087. Because John represented the good of charity, he lay on the Lord’s breast, nos. 3934, 10081. That the good of charity constitutes the Church, is also signified by the words of the Lord addressed to John from the cross (John xix. 26, 27), “Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved, who stood by; and He said to His mother, Woman, behold thy son; and He said to that disciple, Behold thy mother; and from that hour that disciple took her to himself.” John signifies the good of charity, and a woman and a mother, the Church; and the whole passage signifies that the Church will be where the good of charity is; that a woman in the Word means the Church, see nos. 252, 253, 749, 770, 3160, 6014, 7337, 8994; likewise a mother, nos. 289, 2691, 2717, 3703, 257, 5581, 8897, 10490. All the names of persons and places in the Word signify things abstractedly from them, see nos. 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329.

8.3 Assignment 8

1. Describe true faith and contrast it with the variety of false forms of faith.
2. How does Swedenborg’s definition of faith contrast with others of which you are aware?

“Faith is the affection of truth which arises from willing the truth because it is true.” (paragraph 112). This sentence is phrased in theological terms, but it has a broader application.

3. How would you express and illustrate this idea using everyday language?

9. Piety

9.1 Introduction

123. Many people believe that a spiritual life, a life which leads to heaven, consists in piety, keeping a holy external appearance and renouncing the world. But piety without charity, and a holy external without a holy internal, and the renunciation of the world without living like this in the world do not make up a spiritual life. What do make it up are piety inspired by charity, a holy external inspired by a holy internal, and the renunciation of the world combined with living like this in the world.

124. Piety is thinking and speaking piously, giving a lot of time to prayer, also behaving humbly, going regularly to church and listening devoutly to sermons there, frequently each year attending the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and all the other religious observances prescribed by the church. A life of charity, however, is willing and doing good to the neighbour, acting in every task out of justice and equity, out of good and truth, and likewise in every public office. In short, a life of charity consists in performing services.

In such a life the worship of God takes first place, but in the former one second place. Consequently everyone who separates one from the other, living a life of piety and not a life of charity at the same time, does not worship God. He may think about God, yet not be inspired by God, but by himself, for he constantly thinks about himself and gives no thought to the neighbour. If he thinks about the neighbour, he disparages him, if he is not also such as he is. He also thinks of heaven as a reward. As a result his mind is full of the idea of merit, and also self-love, and a contempt for or neglect of performing services, and so of the neighbour, and at the same time a confident belief that he is without guilt. From this it can be established that a life of piety divorced from a life of charity is not a spiritual life, such as should be present in the worship of God. (Compare Matthew 6:7,8).

125. A holy external is like this kind of piety, and consists especially in a person regarding the whole of Divine worship as consisting in holy behaviour when he attends churches. But there is no holiness on a person’s part in this, unless his internal is holy. For a person’s external is such as his internal is, since the external proceeds from the internal like action from his spirit. So a holy external without a holy internal is natural and not spiritual. It is therefore possible for the evil to exhibit it equally with the good; and those who make it the whole of their worship are for the most part empty, devoid, that is, of any kind of knowledge of good and truth. Yet the various kinds of good and truth are the really holy things, which ought to be known, believed and loved, because they are from the Deity and have divinity in them.

Internal holiness is loving good and truth for their own sakes, and justice and honesty for their own sakes. The more a person so loves these, the more spiritual he is, and so is his worship, for he wishes the more to know them and do them. The less a person so loves them, the more natural he is, and so is his worship, and the less he wishes to know them and do them. External worship without internal can be compared with living by breathing without the heart beating, but external worship which comes from the internal can be compared with living by breathing combined with the heart beating.

126. As regards the renunciation of the world, many people believe that renouncing the world and living by the spirit rather than the flesh means rejecting worldly things, principally riches and honours, and going about continually meditating piously on God, salvation and everlasting life, spending one’s time in prayer, reading the Word and religious books, and also mortifying oneself. But these things are not renouncing the world. It is rather loving God and the neighbour; and God is loved by leading a life in accordance with His commandments, and the neighbour is loved by doing services for him. So in order to receive the life of heaven, a person has to live fully in the world, and engage in offices and business there. A life withdrawn from worldly things is a life of thought and faith divorced from a life of love and charity. Such a life destroys the will to do good and the doing of good to the neighbour; and when this is destroyed, spiritual life is like a house with no foundations, which in course of time either sinks into the ground, or opens up gaping cracks, or totters until it collapses.

127. It is clear from the Lord’s words that doing good is worshipping the Lord:

Everyone who hears my words and does them I shall liken to a prudent man, who built his house on rock; but anyone who hears my words, and does not do them, I shall liken to a foolish man, who built his house on sand; or on ground without foundations. Matt. 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49.

128. From this it is now plain that a life of piety has value and is acceptable to the Lord, to the extent that it is combined with a life of charity. For the latter takes first place, and determines the quality of the former. Again, external holiness has value and is acceptable to the Lord, to the extent that it proceeds from internal holiness, for the latter determines the quality of the former. So too the renunciation of the world has value and is acceptable to the Lord to the extent that it takes place in the world. For those renounce the world who put away self-love and love of the world, and behave justly and honestly in every office, in every business and in every task, motivated by an inward, and so heavenly, source. This source is present in his life when a person acts well, honestly and justly, because this is in accordance with the laws of God.

9.2 The Heavenly Arcana

129. A life of piety apart from a life of charity does not avail, but when combined with it, it is of use, no. 8252, et seq. Outward holiness apart from inward holiness is not holy, nos. 2190, 10177. Concerning the quality of those in the other life, who have lived in outward, and not inward, holiness, nos. 951, 952.

There is an internal and an external of the Church, no. 1098. There is internal and external worship; the quality of each, nos. 1083, 1098, 1100, 1151, 1153. It is internal things that constitute worship, no. 1175. External worship apart from internal, is no worship, nos. 1094, 7724. There is an internal in worship, if the man’s life is the life of charity, nos. 1100, 1151, 1153. A man is in true worship when he is in love and charity, that is, when he is in the good of life, nos. 1618, 7724, 10242. The quality of worship is according to good, no. 2190. Real worship is a life according to the commandments of the Church which are derived from the Word, nos. 7884, 9921, 10143, 10153, 10205, 10645.

True worship with a man is from the Lord, and not from the man himself, nos. 10203, 10299. The Lord desires worship from a man for the sake of the man’s salvation, and not for the sake of His glory, nos. 4593, 8263, 10646. It is believed that the Lord desires worship from the man for the sake of glory; but they who believe thus do not know what Divine glory is, nor that Divine Glory consists in the salvation of the human race; this glory is imparted to a man, when he attributes nothing to himself, and when he puts away Self (proprium) by humbling himself; for the Divine is then first able to flow in, nos. 4347, 4593, 5957, 7550, 8263, 10646. Humility of the heart exists with a man from the acknowledgment of Self; which means, that he is nothing but evil, and that from himself he has no ability; and from a consequent acknowledgment of the Lord, which means, that from Him there is nothing but good, and that He can do all, nos. 2327, 3994, 7478. Only into an humble heart can the Divine flow; because so far as a man is in humility, so far he is removed from Self (proprium), and thus from the love of self, nos. 3994, 4347, 5957. From this it follows, that the Lord does not desire humility for His sake, but for the sake of the man, so that he may be in a state of receiving the Divine, nos. 4347, 5957. Apart from humility worship is not worship, nos. 2327, 2423, 8873. The quality of external humility without any internal, nos. 5420, 9377. The quality of humility of the heart, which is internal humility, no. 7478. With the wicked there is no humility of the heart, no. 7640.

Those who have no charity and no faith, are in external worship without any internal, no. 1200. If the love of self and the love of the world reign interiorly with a man, his worship is external without any internal, no matter how it may appear in the external form, nos. 1182, 10307, 10308, 10309. External worship in which the love of self reigns interiorly, as is the case with those who are from Babylon, is profane, nos. 1304, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326. To imitate heavenly affections in worship, when a man is in evils from the love of self, is infernal, no. 10309.

What the quality of external worship is when it proceeds from internal worship, and when it does not, may be seen and concluded from what has been said and adduced above concerning the Internal and External Man.

Further particulars concerning those who renounce the world and those who do not renounce it; the quality of such, and their lot in the other life may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the two chapters which treat of the Rich and Poor in Heaven, nos. 357-365; and of the Life that leads to Heaven, nos. 528-535.

9.3 Assignment 9

1. What is Swedenborg’s purpose in writing the chapter called, Piety ?
2. Summarise the differences between the contrasted states of: piety vs charity,
3. Summarise the differences between the contrasted states of: outward vs inward holiness and
4. Summarise the differences between the contrasted states of: renouncing the world vs life in the world.
5. Can you describe the relationship between a person’s loves, their “faith” and the outward expression of their religious convictions?
6. How does each inform and influence the other

9.4 Journal Work

Using the summaries you made in your assignment work for the differences between the contrasted states of:

• piety vs charity,
• outward vs inward holiness and
• renouncing the world vs life in the world.

Draw out the principles expressed and apply them to your life.

What relevance do they have for you?

You may find these ideas illustrated in the lives of people you know and it is fine to refer to them, but the primary task is to apply it to yourself.

9.5 Further reading

1. True Christian Religion, by Emanuel Swedenborg, especially chapter 5 & 6 (paragraphs 282-335 & 336-391).
2. Doctrine of Faith, by Emanuel Swedenborg.

10. Conscience

10.1 Introduction

130. A person’s conscience is formed by his religious belief, depending on how he receives it inwardly in himself.

131. A member of the church has his conscience formed by the truths of faith he learns from the Word, or by teaching from the Word, depending upon how he receives them in his heart. For when someone knows the truths of faith and grasps them in his own manner, and so comes to will and do them, then he develops a conscience. Receiving them in the heart means in the will, for a person’s will is what is called the heart. That is why those who possess a conscience speak from the heart what they say, and do from the heart what they do. They also have their mind undivided, for they act in accordance with what they understand and believe to be true and good.

132. A more perfect conscience is attainable by those who are more enlightened than others in the truths of faith, and who have a clearer perception of them than others, as compared with those who are less enlightened and have only a dim perception.

133. A person’s spiritual life really consists in having a true conscience, for there his faith is combined with charity. Acting in accordance with one’s conscience is therefore for such people the same as acting in accordance with the prompting of one’s own spiritual life; and acting against one’s conscience is for them acting against their own spiritual life. Consequently they enjoy the tranquillity of peace and inner blessedness, when they act in accordance with their conscience; but they experience disturbance and pain when they act against it. This pain is what is called remorse.

134. A person can have a conscience of good and a conscience of justice. A conscience of good is that of the internal man, that of justice is that of the external man. A conscience of good is acting according to the commands of faith out of internal affection, but a conscience of justice is acting according to civil and moral laws out of external affection. Those who have a conscience of good also have a conscience of justice. But those who have only a conscience of justice have the capability of receiving a conscience of good, and they do so when they are taught.

135. Conscience in the case of those who are in a state of charity towards the neighbour is a conscience of truth, because it is formed by faith in truth. Those, however, who are in a state of love to the Lord have a conscience of good, because it is formed by a love for truth. In their case their conscience is a higher one, and it is called the perception of truth out of good. Those who have a conscience of truth belong to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom; but those who have the higher conscience called perception belong to the Lord’s celestial kingdom.

136. Some examples will illustrate the nature of conscience. If someone has in his possession someone else’s goods, without the owner’s knowledge, so that he can enjoy them without fear of legal action or losing his honours or reputation, but still gives them back to the other person, because they are not his, such a person has a conscience. For he does good for good’s sake and justice for justice’s sake. There may also be someone who could claim an office, but knows that some other candidate is more useful to his country; if he yields place to the other for his country’s good, he has a good conscience; and so on in other cases.

137. From these examples it is possible to deduce what those who have no conscience are like; they can be recognised by opposites. So those who for some gain or other make injustice look like justice, or evil look like good, or vice versa, are without conscience. They do not even know what conscience is. If they are told this, they do not believe it, and in some cases do not want to know. Such are those who do everything for themselves or for the world’s sake.

138. Those who have not received a conscience in the world cannot receive one in the other life, so they cannot be saved. The reason is that they do not have a level into which heaven can flow and through which heaven can work. Heaven means the Lord working through heaven, and so drawing them to Himself. For conscience is a level of the mind capable of receiving inflow from heaven.

10.2 The Heavenly Arcana

139. Concerning Conscience. Those who have no conscience, do not know what conscience is, nos. 7490, 9121. There are some who laugh at conscience, when they hear what it is, no, 7217. Some believe that conscience is nothing; some that it is a natural feeling of pain causing sadness, which arises either from causes in the body, or in the world; and some that it is something with people generally which arises from their religion, no. 950. Some do not know that they have a conscience, when yet they have one, no. 2380.

The good have conscience, but not the evil, nos. 831, 965, 7490. Those have conscience who are in love to God and in love towards the neighbour, no. 2380. Those chiefly have conscience, who have been regenerated by the Lord, no. 977. Those who are in truths alone, and not in a life according to them, have no conscience, nos. 1076, 1077, 1919. Those who do good from natural good, and not from religion, have no conscience, no. 6208.

Conscience with a man is from the doctrine of his Church, or from his particular religion, and it is according thereto, no. 9112. Conscience with a man is formed from those things which belong to his religion, and which he believes to be true, nos. 1077, 2053, 9113. Conscience is an internal bond, by which a man is induced to think, speak, and do good; and by which he is withheld from thinking, speaking, and doing evil; and indeed not for the sake of himself and the world, but for the sake of what is good, true, just, and upright, nos. 1919, 9120. Conscience is an internal dictate, that a man ought to act so, or not so, nos. 1919, 1935. Conscience, in its essence, is a consciousness of what is true and right, nos. 986, 8081. The new will with a spiritual regenerate man is conscience, nos. 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 4299, 4328, 4493, 9115, 9596. Spiritual life with a man is from conscience, no. 9117.

There is true conscience, spurious conscience, and false conscience, concerning which see no. 1033. The more that conscience has been formed from genuine truths, the more it is true, nos. 2053, 2063, 9114. In general, conscience is twofold, interior and exterior; interior conscience is that of spiritual good, which in its essence is truth, and exterior conscience is that of moral and civil good, which in its essence is what is sincere and just, and in general what is right, nos. 5145, 10296.

The pang of conscience is an anxiety of the mind on account of any injustice, insincerity, and evil which a man believes to be against God, and against the good of the neighbour, no. 7217. If there is a feeling of anxiety when a man thinks evil, it arises from conscience, no. 5470. The pang of conscience consists in an anguish felt on account of any evil which a man does, and also on account of the privation of good and truth, no. 7217. Inasmuch as temptation is a combat of truth and falsity in a man’s interiors, and as in temptations there is a feeling of pain and anxiety, therefore none other are admitted into spiritual temptations, except those who have conscience, no. 847.

Those who have conscience speak and act from the heart, nos. 7935, 9114. Those who have conscience do not swear in vain, no. 2842. Those who have conscience are in a state of interior blessedness when they do what is good and just according to conscience, no. 9118. Those who have conscience in this world, have conscience also in the other life, and are there among the happy, no. 965. The influx of heaven takes place with a man into conscience, nos. 6207, 6213, 9122. The Lord rules the spiritual man through conscience, which with him is an internal bond, nos. 1835, 1862. Those who have conscience have interior thought, but those who have no conscience, have only exterior thought, nos. 1919, 1935. Those who have conscience, think from the Spiritual, while those who have no conscience, think only from the Natural, no. 1820. Those who have no conscience, are only external men, no. 4459. The Lord rules those who have no conscience through external bonds, such as are all those things which belong to the love of self and of the world, and as consequently relate to the fear of the loss of reputation, honour, office, gain, or wealth, and to the fear of the law, and of the loss of life, nos. 1077, 1080, 1835. Those who have no conscience, and still suffer themselves to be ruled by those external bonds, are able to discharge in the world the duties of high offices, and to do good, just as well as those who have conscience; but the former do so in an external form from external bonds, but the latter in an internal form from internal bonds, no. 6207.

Those who have no conscience are desirous of destroying conscience with those who have it, no. 1820. Those who have no conscience in this world, have no conscience in the other life, nos. 965, 9122. Wherefore, those who are in hell do not feel any pang of conscience on account of the evils they have done in the world, nos. 965, 9122.

Who, and of what quality, and how troublesome, the morbidly conscientious are, and to what things they correspond in the spiritual world, nos. 5386, 5724.

Those who are from the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, have a conscience, which has been formed in their intellectual part, nos. 863, 865, 875, 895, 927, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113, 6367, 8521, 9115, 9915, 9995, 10124. It is otherwise with those who are in the Lord’s celestial kingdom, nos. 927, 2256, 5113, 6367, 8521, 9915, 9995, 10124.

140. Concerning Perception. Perception consists in seeing by influx from the Lord what is true and good, nos. 202, 895, 7680, 9128. Perception exists only with those who are in the good of love from the Lord to the Lord, nos. 202, 371, 1442, 5228. Perception exists in heaven with those, by whom, while they lived as men in the world, the doctrinals of the Church which are from the Word, were applied immediately to the life, and were not first committed to the memory; the interiors of their minds were thus formed for the reception of the influx of the Divine; and for this reason their understandings are in a continual state of enlightenment in heaven, nos. 104, 495, 503, 521, 536, 1616, 1791, 5145. They know innumerable things, and their wisdom is unbounded, nos. 2718, 9543. Those who are in perception, do not reason concerning the truths of faith, and should they reason their perception would perish, nos. 586, 1398, 5897. Those who believe that they know and are wise from themselves, cannot have any perception, no. 1386. The learned are unable to comprehend what this perception is; from experience, no. 1387.

Those who are in the Lord’s celestial kingdom, have perception; but those who are in the spiritual kingdom, have no perception, but conscience instead, nos. 805, 2144, 2145, 8081. Those who are in the Lord’s celestial kingdom do not think from faith, like those who are in the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, because those who are in the celestial kingdom are in the perception from the Lord of all things of faith, nos. 202, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387, 1398, 1442, 1919, 7680, 7877, 8780. Wherefore the celestial angels say concerning the truths of faith, only Yea, yea, or Nay, nay, because they perceive and see them; but the spiritual angels reason concerning the truths of faith, whether they are so, or not, nos. 2715, 3246, 4448, 9166, 10786; where the words of the Lord are explained (Matt. v. 37), “Let your communication be Yea, yea, Nay, nay: what is more than these, cometh from evil.” Because the celestial angels know the truths of faith from perception, they are not even willing to mention faith, nos. 202, 337. The distinction between the celestial and the spiritual angels, nos. 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 3235, 3240, 4788, 7068, 8521, 9277, 10295. Concerning the perception of those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church, which was a celestial Church, nos. 125, 597, 607, 784, 895, 1121, 5121.

There is interior and exterior perception, nos. 2145, 2171, 2831, 5920. In the world there is a perception of what is just and fair, but rarely a perception of spiritual truth and good, nos. 2831, 5937, 7977. The light of perception is altogether different from the light of confirmation; and is not like it, although to some it may appear as if it were, nos. 8521, 8780.

10.3 Assignment 10

1. What are the different forms of conscience described in this chapter?
2. What are the influences which affect the formation of conscience - those external and internal to a person?
3. How might I sift through all those influences to gain a “more perfect conscience” ?
4. Differentiate, in your own words, between conscience and “perception” (see paragraph 140).

11. Freedom

11.1 Introduction

141. All freedom is a matter of loving, for what a person loves, that he does freely. Consequently all freedom is a matter of the will, for what a person loves that he also wills. And because loving and willing make a person’s life, so too does freedom. From this it can be established what freedom is, namely a matter of loving and willing, and so a matter of how a person lives. That is why what a person does by free choice seems to him as if it were done of his own self.

142. Doing evil by free choice looks like freedom, but it is slavery, because that freedom comes of self-love and love of the world, and these loves are from hell. Such freedom is after death actually turned into slavery, for a person who indulged in such freedom then becomes in hell a lowly slave.

But doing good by free choice is real freedom, because it comes of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, and these loves are from heaven. This freedom also lasts after death, and then becomes true freedom; for a person who enjoys such freedom becomes in heaven as it were a son of the house. This the Lord teaches in these words:

Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the house for ever; the son remains for ever. If the son makes you free, you will be truly free. John 8:34-36.

Now because all good is from the Lord, and all evil is from hell, it follows that freedom is being led by the Lord and slavery is being led by hell.

143. A person is free to have evil and false thoughts, and also to do evil and false actions, in so far as he is not restrained by laws, because this enables him to be reformed. For the various kinds of good and truth need to be implanted in his love and his will, in order to become part of his life. This cannot take place unless he is free to have evil and false thoughts as well as good and true ones. Each individual has this freedom given him by the Lord. When he has good and true thoughts, then the less he loves evil and falsity, the more the Lord implants the others in his love and his will, and thus in his life, and so reforms him.

The seed that is sown in freedom lasts; but what is sown under compulsion does not, because compulsion is not in accordance with the person’s will, but with the will of the one who compels him. This too is why freely offered worship is pleasing to the Lord, but not worship under compulsion. For freely offered worship is inspired by love, but worship under compulsion is not.

144. The freedom to do good and the freedom to do evil are as different and as far apart, for all their similarity in external appearance, as are heaven and hell. The freedom to do good comes from heaven, and is called heavenly freedom. The freedom to do evil comes from hell, and is called hellish freedom. The more a person has of one, the less he has of the other, for no one can serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). A further indication of this is the fact that those who have hellish freedom think it is slavery and compulsion, if they are not allowed to will evil and have false thoughts to their heart’s content. But those who enjoy heavenly freedom, loathe willing evil and having false thoughts, and would suffer torments if they were compelled to do so.

145. Since acting freely seems to a person to be following the dictates of one’s own self, heavenly freedom can also be called the heavenly self; and hellish freedom can be called the hellish self. The hellish self is what one has by birth, and it is evil; but the heavenly self is what one acquires by being reformed, and it is good.

146. From this it can be established what free will is, namely, doing good by choice or of one’s own will. Those who are led by the Lord enjoy that freedom, and those led by the Lord are those who love good and truth for the sake of good and truth.

147. One can recognise what sort of freedom one has by the pleasure one feels while thinking, speaking, acting, hearing and seeing; for all pleasure depends upon love.

11.2 The Heavenly Arcana

148. All freedom belongs to the love or affection; for what a man loves, he does freely, nos. 2870, 3158, 8987, 8990, 9585, 9591. Since freedom belongs to the love, it is the life of every one, no. 2873. There is heavenly freedom and there is infernal freedom, nos. 2870, 2873, 2874, 9589, 9590. Heavenly freedom belongs to the love of good and truth, nos. 1947, 2870, 2872. And since the love of good and truth is from the Lord, freedom itself consists in being led by the Lord, nos. 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 9096, 9586-9591. Through regeneration a man is introduced by the Lord into heavenly freedom, nos. 2874, 2875, 2882, 2892. A man ought to be in freedom, in order that he may be regenerated, nos. 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3158, 4031, 8700. Otherwise the love of good and truth cannot be implanted in a man, and appropriated to him, so as to appear his own, nos. 2877, 2879, 2880, 2888, 8700. Nothing is conjoined to a man which is done under compulsion, nos. 2875, 8700. If a man could be reformed by compulsion, all would be saved, no. 2881. Compulsion is hurtful in reformation, no. 4031.

Worship from freedom is worship, but not worship from compulsion, nos. 1947, 2880, 7349, 10097. Repentance ought to be practised in a free state; what is done in a state of coercion is of no avail, no. 8392. What states of coercion are, no. 8392.

A man is permitted to act from the freedom of reason, that good may be provided for him; and on that account he is in the freedom of thinking and willing, and even of doing evil, so far as the laws do not forbid it, no. 10777. A man is kept by the Lord between heaven and hell, and thus in a state of equilibrium, that he may be in freedom for the sake of his reformation, nos. 5982, 6477, 8209, 8987. What is inseminated in freedom remains, but not what is inseminated under compulsion, nos. 9588, 10777. Wherefore freedom is never taken away from any one, nos. 2876, 2881. No one is compelled by the Lord, nos. 1937, 1948. How the Lord through freedom leads a man into good; namely, through freedom he turns the man away from evil, and inclines him to good, so gently and quietly that he does not know otherwise than that all proceeds from himself, no. 9587.

Compelling one’s self comes from freedom, but not being compelled, nos. 1937, 1947. A man ought to compel himself to resist evil, nos. 1937, 1947, 7914. He ought also to compel himself to do good as of himself, but still to acknowledge that it is from the Lord, nos. 2883, 2891, 2892, 7914. A man is in greater freedom in the temptation combats in which he conquers, because he then compels himself interiorly to resist evils, although it appears otherwise, nos. 1937, 1947, 2881. In every temptation there is freedom, but this freedom is with the man interiorly from the Lord; and therefore he struggles and desires to conquer, and not to be conquered, which he would not do unless he had freedom, nos. 1937, 1947, 2881. The Lord does this through the affection of truth and good, which is impressed on the internal man, the man himself being ignorant of it, no. 5044.

Infernal liberty consists in being led by the loves of self and of the world, and by their lusts, nos. 2870, 2873. Those who are in hell do not know any other freedom, no. 2871. Heavenly freedom is as far removed from infernal liberty as heaven is removed from hell, nos. 2873, 2874. Infernal liberty in itself is bondage, nos. 2884, 2890. Because being led by hell is bondage, nos. 9586, 9589-9591.

All freedom is like a man’s Self (proprium), and according to it, no. 2880. Through regeneration a man receives from the Lord a heavenly Self (proprium), nos. 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891. The quality of the heavenly Self (proprium), nos. 164, 5660, 8480. This Self (proprium) appears to the man as his own Self (proprium); but it is not his, but the Lord’s with him, no. 8497. Those who are in this Self (proprium), are in true freedom, because true freedom consists in being led by the Lord and by His Self (proprium), nos. 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 4096, 9586, 9587-9591.

149. That freedom arises from the equilibrium between heaven and hell, and that unless a man has freedom, he cannot be reformed, is shewn in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the chapters concerning Equilibrium itself, nos. 589-596, and concerning Freedom, no. 597 to the end: but for the sake of showing what freedom is, and that through it a man is reformed, I will quote here from the above as follows: “It has been shewn, that the equilibrium between heaven and hell is an equilibrium between the good which is out of heaven, and the evil which is out of hell; that, therefore, it is a spiritual equilibrium which, in its essence, is freedom. Spiritual equilibrium, in its essence, is freedom, because it exists between good and evil, and between truth and falsity, and because these are spiritual: wherefore freedom consists in any one being able to will good or evil, and to think truth or falsity, and to prefer the one to the other. This freedom is given by the Lord to every man, and is never taken away from him. By virtue of its origin, it indeed belongs to the Lord, and not to the man, because it is from the Lord; nevertheless, together with life, it is given to the man as his own; and indeed to this end, that he may be reformed and saved; for apart from freedom there is no reformation and no salvation.

Every one, from some rational insight is able to see, that a man is free to think either ill or well, sincerely or insincerely, justly or unjustly; and also, that he has the ability of speaking and acting well, sincerely and justly, but not of speaking and acting ill, insincerely, and unjustly, on account of the moral and civil laws, by which his External is kept in bonds. From this it is evident, that a man’s spirit, which does the thinking and willing is in freedom; but not a man’s External, which does the speaking and acting, except so far as it is in conformity with the above-mentioned laws. That a man cannot be reformed, unless he is in freedom, is on account of his being born into evils of every kind, which have to be removed, in order that he may be saved. These evils, however, cannot be removed, unless the man sees them in himself, and acknowledges them; and afterwards no longer wills them, and at length shuns them; it is then only that they are removed. This cannot be brought about unless the man is in good as well as in evil; for from good, he is able to see evils, but from evil he cannot see goods.

The spiritual goods which a man is able to think, he learns, from the age of childhood, by reading the Word and hearing sermons; and moral and civil goods he learns by his life in the world. This is the first purpose for which a man should be in freedom; the second is, that nothing is appropriated to a man, except what is done by him from an affection belonging to his love. The rest, indeed, may enter into the man, but not beyond his thought, and hence not into the will; and that which does not penetrate into a man’s will, does not become his own; for thought derives its substance from the memory, but will from the very life [of the man]. Nothing, except what proceeds from an affection belonging to the love, is ever free; for what a man wills, that is, what he loves, he does freely.

On this account a man’s freedom, and the affection which belongs to his love, that is, to his will, are a one: wherefore, a man has freedom, in order that he may be affected by truth and good, that is, that he may love them, and that they consequently may become as it were his own. In a word, whatever does not enter with a man in freedom, does not remain, because it does not become a part of his love, that is, of his will; and whatever is not a part of a man’s love, that is, of his will, does not belong to his spirit: for the Esse of a man’s spirit is love, that is, will. In order that a man, for the sake of his reformation, may be in freedom, he is conjoined, as to his spirit, with heaven and hell; for with every man there are spirits from hell, and angels from heaven. Through the spirits from hell the man is in his own evil; but through the angels from heaven he is in good from the Lord. In this wise he is in a spiritual equilibrium, that is, in freedom. That angels from heaven and spirits from hell are adjoined to every man, may be seen in the chapter on the “Conjunction of Heaven with the Human Race” (nos. 291-302).

11.3 Assignment 11

1. “Doing evil from freedom appears like freedom, when yet it is bondage, …” (paragraph 142) What is your reaction to this bold and paradoxical statement?
2. How does your experience of everyday life support or challenge it?
3. What do you find delight in?
4. Record the thoughts, conversation, actions, etc you entertain in the weeks leading up to the tutorial.
5. What does this say about you?

12. Merit

12.1 Introduction

150. Those who do good deeds to acquire merit are acting not out of love for good, but out of love for reward. Anyone who wants a reward wants to be repaid. Those who act thus look for pleasure and gain it in their reward, and not in good. They are therefore not spiritual, but natural.

151. Doing good that is really good must be out of a love for good, and so for the sake of good. Those who are in a state of love for good are unwilling to hear talk of reward, for they love doing good and get a blessed feeling from it. In the opposite case they are saddened, if it is thought that what they are doing is for any personal motive. The situation is almost the same as in the case of those who do good to their friends for friendship’s sake, to their brother for brotherhood’s sake, to their wife and children for their sakes, to their country for its sake, thus out of friendship and love. Those who have the right idea also say and persuade others that they are not doing good for their own sake, but for the others’.

152. Those who do good for reward are not doing good from the Lord, but from themselves. For they give first place to looking after themselves, because it is their own good they seek. They regard the good of the neighbour, that is, the good of their fellow citizens, society at large, their country and the church, only as a means to an end. This is why good done for reward has lurking in it the good of self-love and the love of the world, and that kind of good is of human origin, and not from the Lord. All good of human origin is not good; or rather, to the extent that self-interest and the world lurks in it, it is evil.

153. Genuine charity and genuine faith have no thought of reward, for the pleasure of charity is real good, and the pleasure of faith is real truth. As a result those who have that kind of charity and faith know what good is which seeks no reward; but those who do not have them do not.

154. The Lord Himself teaches that good is not to be done for reward, in Luke:

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For sinners do the same. Rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend to them expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. Luke 6:32-35.

The Lord also teaches that a person cannot do good of himself which is real good, in John:

A person cannot take anything unless it is given him out of heaven. John 3:27.

And in another passage:

Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. He who remains in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For you can do nothing except from me. John 15:4-8.

155. Since all good and truth is from the Lord, and none is from man, and the good which comes from man is not real good, it follows that merit belongs to no human being, but to the Lord alone. It is the Lord’s merit that by His own power He saved the human race, and also continues to save those who do good from Him. That is why anyone to whom the Lord’s merit and righteousness is attributed is called ‘righteous in the Word, and anyone to whom his own righteousness and his own merit is attributed ‘unrighteous’.

156. The real pleasure which belongs to the love of doing good without having recompense in view is the reward which lasts forever. For the Lord introduces into that kind of good heaven and everlasting happiness.

157. Thinking and believing that those who do good go to heaven, and also that one ought to do good so as to go to heaven, is not looking on reward as an end, and so regarding deeds as meritorious. For those too who do good from the Lord think and believe this. But it is those who think, believe and do this without loving good for good’s sake who look on it as a reward and regard deeds as meritorious.

12.2 The Havenly Arcana

158. Merit and justice belong to the Lord alone, nos. 9715, 9979. The merit and justice of the Lord consist in this, that He saved the human race by His own power, nos. 1813, 2025-2027, 9715, 9809, 10019. The good of the Lord’s justice and merit is the good that reigns in heaven and this good is the good of His Divine Love by virtue of which He saved mankind, nos. 9486, 9979. No man can of himself become justice, nor claim it to himself by any right, no. 1813. The quality of those in the other life who claim justice to themselves, nos. 942, 2027. He is called just in the Word, to whom the justice and merit of the Lord are ascribed; and he is called there unjust to whom self-justice and self-merit are ascribed, nos. 5069, 9263. He who has become just from the Lord once, is just from Him continually; for justice never becomes a man’s own, but is the Lord’s continually, no. 9263. Those who believe in justification [as taught] in the Church, know little of regeneration, no. 5398.

A man is wise so far as he ascribes all goods and truths to the Lord, and not to himself, no. 10227. As all good and truth which is good and true, are from the Lord, and as nothing is from man; and as good from man is not good, it follows that merit does not belong to any man, but to the Lord alone, nos. 9975, 9981, 9988. Those who enter heaven put off all merit of their own, no. 4007; and they do not think of reward on account of the good they have done, nos. 6478, 9174. Those who think from the idea of merit, so far do not acknowledge that all things are of mercy, no. 6478, 9174. Those who think from the idea of merit, think of reward and remuneration; for the desire to acquire merit, means desiring to be remunerated, nos. 5660, 6392, 9975. Such persons cannot receive heaven in themselves, nos. 1835, 8478, 9977. Heavenly happiness consists in the affection of doing good without having any regard to remuneration, nos. 6388, 6478, 9174, 9984. So far as any one in the other life does good without any regard to remuneration, so far the feeling of blessedness, in an increasing ratio, flows in from the Lord: and when remuneration is thought of, this feeling is immediately dissipated, nos. 6478, 9174.

Good ought to be done without any regard to remuneration, nos. 6392, 6478; illustrated, no. 9981. Genuine charity is without any idea of merit, nos. 2343, 2371, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393; because it flows from love, and thus from the delight of doing good, nos. 3816, 3887, 6388, 6478, 9174, 9984. By reward in the Word are meant the delight and the feeling of blessedness experienced in doing good to others without any respect to reward; and this delight, and this feeling of blessedness, are felt and perceived by those who are in genuine charity, nos. 3816, 3956, 6388.

Those who do good for the sake of reward, love themselves, and not the neighbour, nos. 8002, 9210. By hirelings in the Word, are meant in the spiritual sense those who do good for the sake of reward, no. 8002. Those who do good for the sake of remuneration, in the other life desire to be waited upon [by others], and are never contented, no. 6393. They despise the neighbour, and are angry at the Lord Himself, because they do not receive a reward, saying that they have merited one, no. 9976. Those who have separated in themselves faith from charity, in the other life, ascribe merit to faith, and also to the good works which they have done in an outward form, thus for the sake of themselves, no. 2371. Further statements concerning the quality of those in the other life who have placed merit in works, nos. 942, 1774, 1877, 2027. They are there in the lower earth, and appear to themselves to cut wood, nos. 1110, 4943, 8740; because wood, and particularly shittim wood, signifies specifically the good of merit, nos. 2784, 2812, 9472, 9486, 9715, 10178.

Those who have done good for the sake of remuneration, in the Lord’s Kingdom, are subservient [to others], nos. 6389, 6390. Those who place merit in works fall in temptations, nos. 2273, 9978. Those who are in the loves of self and of the world, do not know what it means to do good without any regard to remuneration, no. 6392.

12.3 Assignment 12

1. What key points do you take away from the chapter on Merit (paragraphs 150-157)?

A number of religious systems and other philosophies make use of the idea of reward.

2. Is there any value in doing so?
3. What might the pitfalls be?

12.4 Journal Work

Recall a time in your life when you felt that you were “deserving” or “undeserving” - how does the chapter on Merit speak to that experience, and what does it suggest about your spiritual state at that time?

12.5 Further reading

1. Divine Providence, especially paragraphs 70-190.