Matters of Real Belief

Selection from The Doctrine of Faith ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• The knowledges of truth and of good are not matters of real belief until the man is in charity but are the storehouse of material out of which the faith of charity can be formed.

• From his earliest childhood man has the affection of knowing, which leads him to learn many things that will be of use to him, and many that will be of no use. While he is growing into manhood he learns by application to some business such things as belong to that business, and this business then becomes his use, and he feels an affection for it. In this way commences the affection or love of use, and this brings forth the affection of the means which teach him the handling of the business which is his use. With everybody in the world there is this progression, because everybody has some business to which he advances from the use that is his end, by the means, to the actual use which is the effect. But inasmuch as this use together with the means that belong to it is for the sake of life in this world, the affection that is felt for it is natural affection only.

• But as every man not only regards uses for the sake of life in this world, but also should regard uses for the sake of his life in heaven (for into this life he will come after his life here, and will live in it to eternity), therefore from childhood everyone acquires knowledges [cognitiones] of truth and good from the Word, or from the doctrine of the church, or from preaching, which knowledges are to be learned and retained for the sake of that life; and these he stores up in his natural memory in greater or less abundance according to such affection of knowing as may be inborn with him, and has in various ways been incited to an increase.

• But all these knowledges [cognitiones], whatever may be their number and whatever their nature, are merely the storehouse of material from which the faith of charity can be formed, and this faith cannot be formed except in proportion as the man shuns evils as sins. If he shuns evils as sins, then these knowledges become those of a faith that has spiritual life within it. But if he does not shun evils as sins, then these knowledges are nothing but knowledges [cognitiones], and do not become those of a faith that has any spiritual life within it.

• This storehouse of material is in the highest degree necessary, because faith cannot be formed without it, for the knowledges [cognitiones] of truth and good enter into faith and make it, so that if there are no knowledges, faith cannot come forth into being, for an entirely void and empty faith is impossible. If the knowledges are scanty, the faith is consequently very small and meager; if they are abundant, the faith becomes proportionately rich and full.

• Be it known however that it is knowledges[cognitiones] of genuine truth and good that constitute faith, and by no means knowledges of what is false, for faith is truth, ... and as falsity is the opposite of truth, it destroys faith. Neither can charity come forth into being where there are nothing but falsities, for ... charity and faith make a one just as good and truth make a one. From all this it follows that an absence of knowledges of genuine truth and good involves an absence of faith, that a few knowledges make some faith, and that many knowledges make a faith which is clear and bright in proportion to their abundance. Such as is the quality of a man's faith from charity, such is the quality of his intelligence.

• There are many who possess no internal acknowledgment of truth, and yet have the faith of charity. These are they who have had regard to the Lord in their life, and from religion have avoided evils, but have been prevented from thinking about truths by worldly cares and by their businesses, as well as by a lack of truth on the part of their teachers. But inwardly, that is, in their spirit, they still are in the acknowledgment of truth, because they are in the affection of it, and therefore after death, when they become spirits and are instructed by angels, they acknowledge truths and receive them with joy. Very different is the case with those who have had no regard to the Lord in their life, and have not from religion avoided evils. Inwardly, that is, in their spirit, they are in no affection of truth, and consequently are in no acknowledgment of it, and therefore after death, when they become spirits and are instructed by angels, they are unwilling to acknowledge truths, and consequently do not receive them. For evil of life inwardly hates truths, whereas good of life inwardly loves them.

• Knowledges [cognitiones] of good and truth that precede faith appear to some to be things of faith (or real belief), but still are not so. Their thinking and saying that they believe is no proof that they do so, and neither are such knowledges things of faith, for they are matters of mere thought that the case is so, and not of any internal recognition that they are truths; and the faith or belief that they are truths, while it is not known that they are so, is a kind of persuasion quite remote from inward recognition. But as soon as charity is being implanted, these knowledges become things of faith, but no further than as there is charity in the faith. In the first state, before charity is felt, faith appears to them as though it were in the first place, and charity in the second; but in the second state, when charity is felt, faith betakes itself to the second place, and charity to the first. The first state is called Reformation, and the second Regeneration. In this latter state a man grows in wisdom every day, and every day good multiplies truths and causes them to bear fruit. The man is then like a tree that bears fruit, and inserts seeds in the fruit, from which come new trees, and at last a garden. He then becomes truly a man, and after death an angel, in whom charity constitutes the life, and faith the form, beautiful in accordance with the quality of the faith; but his faith is then no longer called faith, but intelligence. From all this it is evident that the whole sum and substance of faith is from charity, and nothing of it from itself; and also that charity brings forth faith, and not faith charity. The knowledges of truth that go before are like the store in a granary, which does not feed a man unless he is hungry and takes out the grain.

• We will also say how faith is formed from charity. Every man has a natural mind and a spiritual mind: a natural mind for the world, and a spiritual mind for heaven. In respect to his understanding, man is in both minds, but not in respect to his will, until he shuns and is averse to evils as sins. When he does this his spiritual mind is opened in respect to the will also; and when it has been opened there inflows from it into the natural mind spiritual heat from heaven (which heat in its essence is charity), and gives life to the knowledges of truth and good in the natural mind, and out of them it forms faith. The case here is just as it is with a tree, which does not receive any vegetative life until heat inflows from the sun, and conjoins itself with the light, as takes place in spring time. There is also a full parallelism between the quickening of man with life and the growing of a tree, in this respect, that the latter is effected by the heat of this world, and the former by the heat of heaven. It is for this reason also that man is so often likened by the Lord to a tree.

• From these few words it may be considered settled that the knowledges of truth and good are not really things of faith until the man is in charity, but that they are the storehouse of material out of which the faith of charity can be formed. With a regenerate person the knowledges of truth become truths, and so do the knowledges of good, for the knowledge of good is in the understanding, and the affection of good in the will, and what is in the understanding is called truth, and what is in the will is called good.

(Doctrine of Faith 25-33)

Reception of God's Love is in Accordance with the State of the Mind

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And He taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in His doctrine, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Mark 4:2-9)

• How the case is with man's rational in regard to multiplication and fruitfulness cannot be understood unless we know how the case is with influx, of which it may be said in a general way that in everyone there is an internal man, a rational man which is intermediate, and an external man, as before said. It is the internal man that is his inmost from which he is man, and by which he is distinguished from brute animals, which have not such an inmost; and it is as it were the door or entrance for the Lord, that is, for what is celestial and spiritual from the Lord, into man. What is going on there cannot be comprehended by the man, because it is above all his rational, from which he thinks. That rational which appears as man's own is subject to this inmost, or to this internal man, and into this rational through the internal man there inflow from the Lord the heavenly things of love and of faith, and through this rational they inflow into the memory-knowledges that are in the external man; but the things that inflow are received in accordance with the state of each person.

• Now unless the rational submits itself to the Lord's goods and truths, it either suffocates, or rejects, or perverts the things that flow in; and this is still more the case when they flow into the sensuous knowledges of the memory. This is what is meant by seed falling on a highway, or upon a rocky place, or among thorns, as the Lord teaches (Matt. 13:3-7; Mark 4:3-7; Luke 8:5-7). But when the rational submits itself and believes the Lord, that is, His Word, the rational is then like good ground or earth, into which the seed falls and bears much fruit.

(Arcana Coelestia 1940:2, 3)

When Prayer is Not Needed

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah said unto Moses, Why criest thou unto Me? speak unto the sons of Israel, that they set forward. And thou, lift up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and cleave it asunder; and the sons of Israel shall come into the midst of the sea on the dry. And I, behold I harden the heart of the Egyptians, and they shall come after them; and I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, in his chariots, and in his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I am glorified in Pharaoh, in his chariots, and in his horsemen. Exodus 15-18.

• Why criest thou unto Me? That this signifies that there was no need of intercession, is evident from the signification of "crying unto Jehovah," as being to intercede, namely, for liberation from temptation. Hence "Why criest thou unto Me?" denotes why dost thou intercede when there is no need of intercession? and therefore it follows, "speak unto the sons of Israel, that they go forward," by which is signified that they shall have aid, but that still the temptation will be continued, even until they are prepared.

• As to there being no need of intercession, the case is this. They who are in temptations are wont to slack their hands and betake themselves solely to prayers, which they then ardently pour forth, not knowing that prayers will not avail, but that they must fight against the falsities and evils which are being injected by the hells. This fight is performed by means of the truths of faith, which help because they confirm goods and truths against falsities and evils. Moreover in the combats of temptations, the man ought to fight as of himself, but yet acknowledge and believe that it is of the Lord. If man does not fight as of himself, the good and truth which flow in through heaven from the Lord are not appropriated to him; but when he fights as of himself, and still believes that it is of the Lord, then they are appropriated to him. From this he has an own [proprium] that is new, which is called the heavenly own, and which is a new will.

• Moreover they who are in temptations, and not in some other active life than that of prayers, do not know that if the temptations were intermitted before they had been fully carried through, they would not be prepared for heaven, and thus could not be saved. For this reason, moreover, the prayers of those who are in temptations are but little heard; for the Lord wills the end, which is the salvation of the man, which end He knows, but not the man;

the Lord does not heed prayers that are contrary to the end, which is salvation.

He who conquers in temptations is also confirmed in the truth stated above; whereas he who does not conquer entertains a doubt with respect to the Divine aid and power, because he is not heard; and then sometimes, because he slacks his hand, he partly yields. From all this it can be seen what is meant by there being no need of intercession, namely, that prayer is not to be relied upon. For in prayer from the Divine it is always thought and believed that the Lord alone knows whether it is profitable or not; and therefore the suppliant submits the hearing to the Lord, and immediately after prays that the will of the Lord, and not his own, may be done, according to the Lord's words in His own most grievous temptation at Gethsemane (Matt. 26:39, 42, 44).

(Arcana Coelestia 8179)

Two Opposing Spheres

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• Evil continually breathes forth and ascends out of hell, and good continually breathes forth and descends out of heaven, because everyone is encompassed by a spiritual sphere; and that sphere flows forth and pours out from the life of the affections and the thoughts therefrom. And as such a sphere flows forth from every individual, it flows forth also from every heavenly society and from every infernal society, consequently from all together, that is, from the entire heaven and from the entire hell.

Good flows forth from heaven because all there are in good; and evil flows forth from hell because all there are in evil.

• The good that is from heaven is all from the Lord; for the angels in the heavens are all withheld from their [own] proprium, and are kept in the Lord's [own] proprium, which is Good Itself. But the spirits in the hells are all in their proprium, and everyone's proprium is nothing but evil; and because it is nothing but evil it is hell.

• From these things it can be confirmed that the equilibrium in which angels in the heavens and spirits in the hells are kept is not like the equilibrium in the world of spirits.

• The equilibrium of angels in the heavens exists in the degree in which they have wished to be in good, or in the degree in which they have lived in good in the world, and thus also in the degree in which they have held evil in aversion.

• But the equilibrium of spirits in hell exists in the degree in which they have wished to be in evil, or have lived in evil in the world, and thus in heart and spirit have been opposed to good.

(Heaven and Hell 591)

The Created Universe - An Image Representative of God-Man

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• All things in the universe were created from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom of God-Man.

• So full of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom is the universe in greatest and least, and in first and last things, that it may be said to be Divine Love and Divine Wisdom in an image. That this is so is clearly evident from the correspondence of all things of the universe with all things of man. There is such correspondence of each and every thing that takes form in the created universe with each and every thing of man, that man may be said to be a sort of universe.

There is a correspondence of —

• his affections, and thence of his thoughts, with all things of the animal kingdom
• of his will, and thence of his understanding, with all things of the vegetable kingdom
• of his outmost life with all things of the mineral kingdom.

That there is such a correspondence is not apparent to any one in the natural world, but it is apparent to every one who gives heed to it in the spiritual world. In that world [the spiritual world], there are all things that take form in the natural world in its three kingdoms, and they are correspondences of affections and thoughts, that is, of affections from the will and of thoughts from the understanding, also of the outmost things of the life, of those who are in that world, around whom all these things are visible, presenting an appearance like that of the created universe, with the difference that it is in lesser form.

• From this it is very evident to angels, that the created universe is an image representative of God-Man, and that it is His Love and Wisdom which are presented, in an image, in the universe. Not that the created universe is God-Man, but that it is from Him; for nothing whatever in the created universe is substance and form in itself, or life in itself, or love and wisdom in itself, yea, neither is man a man in himself, but all is from God, who is MAN, Wisdom and Love, also Form and Substance, in itself. That which has Being-in-itself is uncreate and infinite; but whatever is from Very Being, since it contains in it nothing of Being-in-itself, is created and finite, and this exhibits an image of Him from whom it has being and has form.

• Of things created and finite Esse [Being] and Existere [Taking Form] can be predicated, likewise substance and form, also life, and even love and wisdom; but these are all created and finite. This can be said of things created and finite, not because they possess anything Divine, but because they are in the Divine, and the Divine is in them. For everything that has been created is, in itself, inanimate and dead, but all things are animated and made alive by this, that the Divine is in them, and that they are in the Divine.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 52, 53)

[emphasis by editor]

Everyone's Life Remains After Death To Eternity

Excerpt from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• Every one's own life remains with him after death, is known in the Church from the Word, as from these passages there:

• The Son of man shall come ... and shall render then to every one according to his deeds (Matthew xvi. 27);

• I saw the books opened, and all were judged according to their works (Revelation xx. 12, 13).

• In the day of judgment God shall render to every man according to his works (Romans ii. 6, 2 Corinthians v. 10).

•The works according to which judgment is rendered to every one are the life, for the life does them, and they are in accord with the life. ... every one is examined there as to what his life has been and that the life which he contracted in the world remains with him to eternity. ... no one's life can be changed after death inasmuch as it has been organized in accord with his love and hence with his works, and that if it were changed, the organism would be torn apart, which could never be; likewise that an alteration in organization is possible only in the material body, and not at all in the spiritual body, after the other has been cast off.

To an evil man the evil of his life is then imputed and to a good man the good of his life.

• Imputation of evil is not accusation, incrimination, inculpation and judgment as in the world, but is a process of the evil itself. For those who are evil separate of their own free will from the good, for the two cannot be together. The delights of an evil love are averse to the delights of good love, and delights in the other world exhale from every one like odors from a plant on earth; for they are no longer absorbed and concealed by a material body, but flow forth freely from their loves into the spiritual aura. Inasmuch as evil is perceived there as in its odor, it is this which accuses, incriminates, inculpates and judges, not before a judge, but before every one who is in good. This is what is meant by imputation. Moreover an evil man chooses companions with whom he may live in his delight, and being averse to the delight of good, he betakes himself of his own accord to his like in hell.

• Imputation of good is accomplished similarly. This takes place with those who had acknowledged in the world that all good in them is from the Lord and none from themselves. After these have been prepared, they are admitted into the interior delights of good, and then a way is opened to them into heaven to the society whose enjoyments are homogeneous with theirs. This is done by the Lord.

(from Conjugial Love 524)

Degrees of Affections and of Uses

Selection from Divine Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• There are continuous degrees and there are discrete degrees. Both of these are in every form in the spiritual world and in the natural world. All are acquainted with continuous degrees; few, however, have any knowledge of discrete degrees, and those who have no knowledge of these grope as in the dark when they are investigating the causes of things....

• Continuous degrees, which all know about, are like the degrees from light to shade, from heat to cold, from rarity to density. Such gradations of light, of heat, of wisdom and of love, are in every society of heaven within itself.
      They who are in the midst of a society are in clearer light than those who are in the ultimates, the light diminishing according to distance from the center even to the ultimates.
      It is the same with wisdom; those who are in the midst or center of a society are in the light of wisdom, while those who are in the ultimates or circumferences are in the shade of wisdom and are simple.
      It is the same with love within societies. The affections of love, which make the wisdom of those in societies and the uses of the affections which make their life, continually lessen from the midst or center even to the ultimates or circumferences.

• Such are continuous degrees. But discrete degrees are wholly different. These do not advance in one plane to the sides around, but from highest to lowest; and for this reason they are called descending degrees.
      They are separated as efficient causes and effects are, which in their turn become efficient causes even to the lowest effect.
      They are also like a producing force in relation to the forces produced, which in turn become producing even to the last product.
      In a word, they are degrees of the formation of one thing from another; thus they are the degrees from first or highest to last or lowest, where formation subsists.
      Therefore things prior and posterior, also things higher and lower, are such degrees. All creation was effected through such degrees, and all production is by means of them, and likewise all composition in the nature that belongs to this world; for in analyzing anything that is composite you will see that one thing therein is from another, even to the very last, which is the general of them all.

• The three angelic heavens are distinguished from each other by such degrees and in consequence one is above another.
      The interiors of man, which belong to his mind, are distinguished from each other by such degrees;
      so, too, are light which is wisdom and heat which is love, in the heavens of angels and in the interiors of men;
      the same is true of the light itself that proceeds from the Lord as a sun, and of the heat itself that also proceeds from Him;
and for this reason the light in the third heaven is so refulgent, and the light in the second heaven is of such shining whiteness as to exceed the noonday light of the world a thousand fold.
      The same is true of the wisdom, for in the spiritual world light and wisdom are in equal degree of perfection.
      The same is true of the degrees of affections; and as this is true of the degrees of affections, it is true also of the degrees of uses, for the subjects of affections are uses.
      It is to be known further that in every form, both spiritual and natural, there are both discrete and continuous degrees. Without discrete degrees there is not that within a form that constitutes a cause or soul, and without continuous degrees there is no extension or appearance of it.

(Divine Love xi)