Charity and Good Works (pt. 47)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 47)
v Doctrinal Series v

XV. A FRIENDSHIP OF LOVE,
CONTRACTED WITH A MAN
WITHOUT REGARD TO HIS SPIRITUAL QUALITY,
IS DETRIMENTAL AFTER DEATH

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A friendship of love means interior friendship, which is such that not only is the man's external man loved but his internal also, and this without scrutiny into the quality of his internal or spirit, that is, into his mind's affections, as to whether these spring from love towards the neighbor and love to God, and are thus adapted to association with angels of heaven, or whether they spring from a love opposed to the neighbor and a love opposed to God, and are thus adapted to association with devils.

Such friendship is contracted in many instances from various causes and for various purposes.

It is distinct from external friendship, which relates only to the person and exists for the sake of various bodily and sensual delights, and for the sake of mutual interaction in various ways. This kind of friendship may be formed with anyone, even with the clown who jokes at the table of a nobleman. This is called friendship simply; but the former is called the friendship of love, because friendship is natural conjunction, while love is spiritual conjunction.

(True Christian Religion 446)

To be continued . . .