Both Will and Understanding in Agreement

Selection from Doctrine of Life ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

If a man has much knowledge and much wisdom, and does not shun evils as sins, he is nevertheless not wise.  The reason for this is: that he is wise from himself, and not from the Lord.  For example: if he knows the doctrine of his Church and all that relates to it, perfectly; if he knows how to confirm it all by the Word and by reasonings; if he knows the doctrines of all the Churches throughout the ages, and also the decrees of all the Councils; indeed, if he knows truths, and also sees and understands them; if, for instance, he knows what faith is, and charity, piety, repentance and the remission of sins, regeneration, baptism and the Holy Supper, the Lord, redemption and salvation, still he is not wise if he does not shun evils as sins.  For his knowledge is without life, because it is of his understanding only, and not at the same time of his will; and because it is of this nature it perishes in course of time, for the reason:

A man who is not spiritual can yet think and consequently speak rationally like a spiritual man, because man's understanding can be elevated into the light of heaven, which is truth, and can see by that light; but man's will cannot be similarly elevated into the heat of heaven, which is love, and act from that heat.  Hence it is that truth and love do not make one in a man unless he is spiritual.  Hence also it is that man can speak; and this also forms a distinction between man and beast.  It is through this capability of the understanding to be elevated into heaven, (but not yet of the will), that man can be reformed and become spiritual; but he is first reformed and becomes spiritual when the will also is elevated.  From this faculty belonging to the understanding over that of the will, a man can think, and thence speak, rationally like one who is spiritual, whatever his quality may be, even though he should be principled in evil.  Nevertheless he is not rational, because the understanding does not lead the will, but the will the understanding, the latter only teaching and showing the way. . . 

As long, therefore, as the will is not in heaven along with the understanding, the man is not spiritual, and consequently not rational.  For when he is left to his own will, or his own love, he rejects the rational ideas of his understanding concerning God, heaven and eternal life, and in their place he adopts such ideas as agree with the love of his will, and these he calls rational.  But further consideration of these matters will be seen in the treatises on Angelic Wisdom. (From Doctrine of Life 15)

Moreover, after death the man himself rejects this knowledge, for it does not agree with the love of his will.

(From Doctrine of Life 27)

What It Is To Live As A Christian

It is Not Difficult in The Heavenly Doctrine, as it was on Babylon Destroyed

Two things are requisite:

(1) to believe in the Lord, that is, to believe that all good and truth is from Him;
(2) to live an honest life, consequently, to shun outward evils, which also are contrary to the civil laws.

A Christian lives as anyone else in external form: he may grow rich, but not by craft and trickery; he may eat and drink well, but not place his very life in those things, and find his delight in superfluities and also in drunkenness, that is, live for appetite; he may be well, and even, according to his condition, handsomely, housed; he may associate with others, like other men, amuse himself in their society; discuss the affairs of the world and the various things in domestic matters: in a word, without any difference in externals, to such an extent that no difference is apparent. Neither is it necessary that he should appear devout, so as [to go about] as it were with a sorrowful countenance, and with shaking head, and with sighing; but that he be cheerful and merry; nor [need he] give his goods to the poor, except so far as the affection of the neighbor prompts him. He ought to be a moral man, and a good one; but, with him, the moral man, because he reflects that all good and truth is from the Lord, is a spiritual man.

Not so, however, with those who do not believe in the Divine, but [regard] self and the world in all things, or with whom moral life is for the sake of self and the world: their moral life is natural, and not in the least spiritual.

With the truly Christian man whose faith and life is of such a quality, the internal is altogether different. It is turned towards heaven. The Lord leads his will, or love, and gives him the affection of good, that is, the faculty of being affected, or made glad, by reason of good; he also leads his understanding, so that he may be affected with truth, and so that, immediately he hears it, he is also gladdened, and it is implanted in his life; and, so far as he learns the truth, so far it abides in him, and, by its means, he is led by the Lord.

For he who does not know what good and truth are, cannot be led by the Lord. A man is led through that which he knows.

The Lord inflows into those things which he knows, and so leads his affections and thoughts. This is understood by being affected by truth for the sake of truth, and by good for the sake of good, and loving truth and good for the sake of life. It is not that he reflects therefrom that he will now implant it in his life: this would be from proprium; but the Lord leads him, through those things which he learns, from affection or love.

The reason he is in freedom, is, because he is led to good in such a way as to be affected by truth and good, and thus as to be led in it by the Lord; and, then, he is led away from thinking and willing evil. Also, not to will evil, but good, is freedom; and this freedom is from the Lord. These are averse from, and they shun, evils; wherefore, to think and to do them, is, with them, compulsion. But, with the evil, doing and thinking evils is freedom, and thinking and willing good is compulsion; and to be of such a character, is to be a slave.

(Swedenborg' s Diary 5793-5797)

Entering Heaven With A Right Understanding

Selection from Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
~ A Memorable Relation ~

All who are prepared for heaven, which is effected in the world of spirits, which is in the midst between heaven and hell, after a certain time, desire heaven with a certain longing, and presently their eyes are opened, and they see a way which leads to some society in heaven. They enter this way and ascend, and in the ascent there is a gate, and a keeper there. The keeper opens the gate, and thus they go in. Then an examiner meets them, who tells them from the governor, that they may enter in still further, and inquire whether there are any houses which they can recognize as their own, for there is a new house for every novitiate angel; and if they find any, they give notice of it and remain there. But if they do not find any, they come back and say they have not seen any. And then they are examined by a certain wise one there, to discover whether the light that is in them agrees with the light of that society, and especially whether the heat does; for the light of heaven in its essence is Divine truth, and the heat of heaven in its essence is Divine good, both proceeding from the Lord as the sun there. If any other light and any other heat than the light and heat of that society is in them, they are not received; that is, if any other truth and any other good is in them. Therefore, they depart thence and go in the ways which are opened among the societies in heaven, and this till they find a society which agrees in every respect with their affections, and here they take up their abode to eternity. For they are here among their like, as among relations and friends whom, because they are in a similar affection, they love from the heart and there they are in the enjoyment of their life, and in a fullness of bosom delight derived from peace of soul; for there is in the heat and light of heaven an ineffable delight, which is communicated. Such is the case with those who become angels.

But they who are in evils and falsities may, by leave given to them, ascend into heaven; but when they enter, they begin to draw their breath or to respire with difficulty, and presently their sight is obscured, their understanding is darkened, and thought ceases, and death seems present before their eyes, and thus they stand like a stock. And then they begin to have a beating at the heart, and a straitness over the breast, the mind is seized with anguish, and they become more and more tormented, and in that state writhe themselves about like a serpent laid before the fire; therefore, they roll themselves away, and cast themselves headlong down a precipice which then appears to them; nor do they rest till they are in hell among their like, where they can respire, and their heart can vibrate freely. Afterwards they hate heaven, and reject truth, and in heart blaspheme the Lord, believing that their tortures and torments in heaven proceeded from him.

From these few things it may be seen what their lot is who make no account of truths, which yet make the light in which the angels of heaven dwell, and who make no account of goods, which yet make the heat in which the angels of heaven are.

From these things it may appear how much they are in error, who believe that everyone may enjoy heavenly beatitude by mere admission into heaven. For the faith at this day is, that heaven is received from mercy alone; and that reception into heaven is like being admitted, in this world, into a house where there is a marriage, and then at the same time into the joy and gladness. But let them know, that there is a communication of affections in the spiritual world, man being then a spirit, and the life of a spirit is affection, from which, and according to which, is thought; and that homogeneous affection conjoins and heterogeneous affection disjoins, and that heterogeneity would torment a devil in heaven, and an angel in hell. For which reason they are separated exactly according to the diversities, varieties, and differences of the affections which are of love.

It was granted me to see upwards of three hundred of the clergy of the Reformed world, all men of learning, who knew how to confirm the doctrine of faith alone even to justification, and some of them still further. And because there prevailed a belief among them also, that heaven consists only in admission by favor, leave was given them to ascend to a society in heaven, though not one of the higher ones. And as they ascended together, they appeared at a distance like calves. And when they entered into heaven they were received with civility by the angels, but when they discoursed with them, they were seized with trembling, afterwards with horror, and lastly with the agonies as it were of death, and then they cast themselves down headlong, and in their descent they appeared like dead horses. The reason of their appearing like calves as they ascended, was, because from correspondence the natural affection of seeing and knowing appears gamboling like a calf; and the reason why they appeared like dead horses as they fell, was, because from correspondence the understanding of truth from the Word appears like a horse, and the non-understanding of truth in the Word, like a dead horse.

There were boys below, who saw them falling, to whom in their descent they seemed like dead horses. And then they turned away their faces, and said to their master, who was with them, "What is this portent*? We beheld men and now instead of them there are dead horses, the sight of which we could not bear, and we therefore turned away our faces. Master, let us not stay in this place, but let us go away:" and they departed. The master then instructed them in the way what "a dead horse" is, saying, "'A horse' signifies the understanding of the Word; all the horses which you saw, signified that; for when a man goes meditating from the Word, then his meditation, at a distance, appears as a horse, noble and lively, as he meditates spiritually on the Word, and, on the contrary, poor and dead, as he meditates materially."
* a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen.

The boys then asked, "What is it to meditate on the Word spiritually and materially?" And the master replied, "I will illustrate it by examples. Who, when he reads the Word, does not think of God, his neighbor, and heaven?

Everyone who thinks of God only from Person, and not from Essence, thinks materially; also he who thinks of the neighbor only from form, and not from quality, thinks materially; and he who thinks of heaven only from place, and not from the love and wisdom which heaven is, he also thinks materially."

But the boys said, "We have thought of God from Person, of the neighbor from form, that he is a man, and of heaven from place; did we therefore, when we were reading the Word, appear to anyone as dead horses?"

The master said, "No, you are yet boys, and could not think otherwise; but I have perceived in you an affection of knowing and understanding, which, because it is spiritual, shows that you have also thought spiritually. But I will return to what I said at first, that he who thinks materially, when he reads the Word or is meditating from it, appears at a distance like a dead horse; but he who reads it spiritually, like a living horse; and that he thinks materially concerning God and the Trinity, who thinks of God only from Person, and not from essence. For there are many attributes of the Divine essence, such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy, grace, eternity, and others; and there are attributes proceeding from the Divine essence, which are creation and preservation, salvation and redemption, enlightenment and instruction. Everyone who thinks of God only from person, makes three Gods, saying that one God is the Creator and Preserver, another the Saviour and Redeemer, and the third the Enlightener and Instructor. But everyone who thinks of God from essence, makes one God, saying, God created and preserves us, redeems and saves us, enlightens and instructs us. "This is the reason why they who think of the Trinity in God from Person, and thus materially, cannot, from the ideas of their thought, which are material, do otherwise than out of one God make three; but yet, contrary to their thought, they are held to saying, that in each there is a communion of all the attributes, and this solely because they have also thought of God obscurely from essence.

Therefore, my pupils, think of God from His essence, and from that of His Person, and not from His Person, and from this of His essence, for to think of His essence from Person, is to think materially of His essence also; but to think of His Person from essence, is to think spiritually even of His Person.

The ancient Gentiles, because as they thought materially of God, and also of the attributes of God, not only imagined three gods, but many even to the number of a hundred.

Know then that the material does not flow into the spiritual, but the spiritual into the material.

It is similar with the thought of the neighbor from form, and not from his quality, and with the thought of heaven from place, and not from the love and wisdom which heaven is. It is similar with each and everything in the Word. Therefore, he who cherishes a material idea of God, and likewise of the neighbor and of heaven, cannot understand anything there. The Word is to him a dead letter, and he himself, when he reads it or meditates on it, appears at a distance as a dead horse.

"They whom you saw falling from heaven, and who appeared in your sight like dead horses, were such as had closed the rational sight in themselves and others by this peculiar dogma, that the understanding is to be kept in subjection to their faith; not considering that the understanding, when closed by religion, is as blind as a mole, and there is mere thick darkness in it, and such thick darkness as rejects from itself all spiritual light, opposes its influx from the Lord and from heaven, and sets up a barrier against it in the sensual corporeal part, far below the rational in matters of faith, that is, places it near the nose, and fixes it in its cartilage, on which account they cannot afterwards so much as scent spiritual things; whence some have become such that when they sensate the odor from spiritual things they fall into a swoon; by odor I mean perception. These are they who make God three. They say indeed from essence that God is one; but yet when they pray from their faith, which is that "God the Father would have mercy for the sake of the Son and send the Holy Spirit," they evidently make three Gods. They cannot do otherwise, for they pray to one to have mercy for the sake of another, and send a third."

And then their master taught them concerning the Lord, that He is the one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity.

(Apocalypse Revealed 611)

What Faith Is

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are many who say that man is saved by faith, or, in their words, if he only has faith; but for the most part they are those who do not know what faith is. Some suppose that it is mere thought; some that it is an acknowledgment of something to be believed; some that it is the whole doctrine of faith, which is to be believed; and others otherwise. Thus in the bare knowledge of what faith is they wander in error; consequently in the knowledge of what that is by which man is saved.

Faith, however, is not mere thought, nor is it an acknowledgment of something to be believed, nor a knowledge of all things which belong to the doctrine of faith. By these no one can be saved; for they can take root no deeper than in the thought, and thought saves no one, but the life which the man has procured for himself in the world by means of the knowledges of faith. This life remains; whereas all thought which does not accord with the life perishes, even so as to become none at all.

The heavenly consociations are according to lives, and by no means according to thoughts which are not of the life. Thoughts which are not of the life are counterfeit, and such are altogether rejected.

In general, life is twofold, being on the one hand infernal, on the other heavenly.

• Infernal life is acquired from all those ends, thoughts, and works which flow from the love of self, consequently from hatred against the neighbor.
• Heavenly life, from all those ends, thoughts, and works which are of love toward the neighbor.

The latter is the life to which all things that are called faith have regard, and which is procured by all things of faith.

All this shows what faith is, namely, that it is charity, for to charity all things lead which are said to be of the doctrine of faith; in it they are all contained, and from it they are all derived. The soul, after the life of the body, is such as its love is.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2228:2, 3)

Wisdom With Love Dwelling Together With Delights

Selection from Interaction of Soul and Body ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The understanding in a man can be elevated into the light, that is, into the wisdom in which the angels of heaven are, according to the cultivation of his reason; and in like manner his will can be elevated into the heat of heaven, that is, into love, according to the deeds of his life; but the love of the will is not elevated except so far as the man wills and does those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches.

By the human mind are meant its two faculties, which are called the understanding and the will. The understanding is the receptacle of the light of heaven, which in its essence is wisdom, and the will is the receptacle of the heat of heaven, which in its essence is love, as was shown above. These two, wisdom and love, proceed from the Lord, as a sun, and flow into heaven universally and particularly, whence the angels have wisdom and love; and they also flow into this world universally and particularly, whence men have wisdom and love.

But these two [wisdom and love] united proceed from the Lord, and likewise united flow into the souls of angels and men, but they are not received united in their minds. Light which makes the understanding is first received there, and love which constitutes the will is received gradually. This also is of providence, because every man is to be created anew, that is, reformed, and this is effected through the understanding; for from infancy he must acquire the knowledges of truth and good, which will teach him to live well, that is, to will and act rightly. Thus the will is formed through the understanding.

For the sake of this end, there is given to man the faculty of elevating his understanding almost into the light in which the angels of heaven are, that he may see what he ought to will and thence to do, in order that he may be prosperous in the world for a time, and be happy after death to eternity. He becomes prosperous and happy if he procures for himself wisdom, and keeps his will under obedience to it; but unprosperous and unhappy if he subjects his understanding under obedience to his will. The reason is, because the will from birth inclines to evils, even to enormous ones; wherefore unless it were curbed by the understanding, a man would rush into heinous things, yea, from his inborn savage nature, he would depopulate and slaughter for the sake of himself all those who do not favor and indulge him.

Furthermore, unless the understanding could be separately perfected, and the will by means of it, a man would not be a man, but a beast. For without that separation, and without the ascent of the understanding above the will, he would not be able to think, and from thought to speak, but only to express his affection by sounds; neither would he be able to act from reason, but only from instinct; still less would he be able to know the things which are of God, and God by means of them, and thus to be conjoined to Him, and to live to eternity. For a man thinks and wills as from himself, and this as from himself is the reciprocal of conjunction; for there cannot be conjunction without a reciprocal, just as there cannot be conjunction of the active with the passive without reaction. God alone acts, and man suffers himself to be acted on, and he reacts in all appearance as from himself, though interiorly it is from God.

From these things rightly perceived it may be seen what is the quality of the love of a man's will if it is elevated by means of the understanding, and what is its quality if it is not elevated; consequently, what is the quality of the man. But this quality of a man if the love of his will is not elevated by means of the understanding shall be illustrated by comparisons —

• He is like an eagle which flies on high, and as soon as it sees the food below which is the object of its desire, as chickens, young swans, yea, young lambs, swoops down in a moment and devours them.
• He is also like an adulterer, who conceals a harlot in a cellar below, and by turns goes up to the highest part of the house, and talks wisely with those who dwell there about chastity, and by turns hastens away from his companions, and indulges his lasciviousness below with his harlot.
• He is also like a thief on a tower, who there pretends to keep watch, but who, as soon as he sees an object of plunder below, hastens down and seizes it. He may also be compared to marsh-flies, which fly in a column over the head of a running horse, but which fall down when the horse stops, and immerse themselves in their marsh.

Such is the man whose will or love is not elevated by means of the understanding, for he then stands still below at the foot, immersed in the unclean things of nature and the lusts of the senses.

It is altogether otherwise with those who subdue the allurements of the cupidities of the will by means of the wisdom of the understanding. With these the understanding afterwards enters into a conjugial covenant with the will, thence wisdom with love, and they dwell together above with delights.

(Interaction of Soul and Body XII:14)

Eternal Rest From Labor

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13

From A Memorable Relation
"What news from earth?"

At a distance I asked, "What is the matter?" They answered, "A messenger has arrived from the place where newcomers from the Christian world first appear, saying that he has heard from three persons there that in the world from which they had come, they in common with others there had believed that after death the blessed and happy would have rest from all kinds of labor; and because administrations, and official and manual employments are labors, there would be rest from these.

In the auditorium the older or wiser sat at the sides, and the others in the center, and in front of these was a raised floor. The three new-corners with the messenger were conducted hither, through the middle of the auditorium, by the younger ones in formal attendance; and when silence had been obtained they were introduced by one of the elders, and asked, "What news from earth?"

They replied, "There is much news; but pray tell us to what subject your inquiry refers."
The elder replied, "What news from earth respecting our world and heaven?"

They answered, "When we first arrived in this world, we heard that both here and in heaven there are governments, ministerial offices, occupations, business, all kinds of studies, and wonderful works; although our belief had been that after our removal or transfer from the natural world into this spiritual world, we should enter into eternal rest from labors. But what are occupations but labors?"

To this the elder replied, "By eternal rest from labor did you understand eternal idleness, wherein you would constantly sit and lie, inhaling delights with the breast, and drinking in joys with the mouth?"

The three newcomers smiled pleasantly at this and said, "We did entertain some such opinion."

They were then asked, "What has joy, delight, and consequent happiness in common with idleness? By idleness the mind is not expanded but dissipated; that is, man is deadened by it, not vivified. Picture to yourselves a man sitting in utter idleness, his hands hanging down, his eyes cast down or withdrawn, and at the same time surrounded by an aura of delight; would not a lethargy seize upon both his head and body, the vital expansion of his face give way, and with relaxed fibers would he not nod and nod, until he fell to the ground? What keeps the whole bodily system expanded and tense, but the tension of the mind? And whence comes the mind's tension but from administrative duties and works, when they are performed from delight? I will therefore tell you this news from heaven, that there are governments here, ministerial duties, judicial tribunals, greater and less, as also mechanical and other employments."

When the three newcomers heard that there were greater and lesser judicial tribunals in heaven they said, "Why so? Are not all who are in heaven inspired and led by God, and do they not therefore know what is just and right? What need then of judges?"

The elder replied, "In this world we are taught and learn what is good and true, also what is just and equitable, the same as in the natural world, and these things we learn not immediately from God, but mediately through others; and every angel, like every man, thinks what is true and does what is good as if of himself, this being not pure but mixed, according to the state of the angel. Moreover, among angels some are simple and some wise, and the wise must judge of what is just, while the simple from their simplicity and ignorance are in doubt about it of depart from it.

But as you are yet new in this world, follow me, if you would like to do so, into our city, and we will show you everything."

And they left the auditorium, others of the elders also accompanying them; and first entered a large library, which was divided into smaller libraries, each devoted to a different branch of knowledge. The three new-comers, seeing so many books, were amazed, and said, "Are there books in this world also?" Where do the parchment, paper, pens and ink come from?"

The elders replied, "We perceive that in the former world you believed this world to be empty because it is spiritual; and this you believed because you cherished an idea of the spiritual as something abstract from the material; and what is abstract from the material seemed to you like nothing, thus like a vacuum; and yet here is an abundance of all things.

All things here are substantial, not material, and material things have their origin in the substantial.

We who are here are spiritual men, because we are substantial and not material. For this reason all things that exist in the natural world exist here in their perfection, even books and writings and many other things."

When the three newcomers heard the word substantial, they recognized the truth of the matter, both from seeing the written books and from hearing that matter originates in substance. To convince them still further, they were taken to the abodes of the writers who transcribed the writings of the wise men of the city; and they examined the writings and wondered at their neatness and elegance.

After this they were conducted to the museums, gymnasia, colleges, and places where they held their literary games, some called the games of the Heliconides, some of the Parnassides, some of the Athenaeides, and some of the Virgins of the fountain. They said that the latter were so named because virgins signify affections for knowledges, according to which affections everyone has intelligence. The so-called games were spiritual exercises and trials of skill. After this they were conducted about the city to the rulers, administrators, and their officers, and by these latter to the wonderful works which their workmen execute in a spiritual manner.

When these things had been seen, the elder again spoke to them about the eternal rest from labor, into which the blessed and happy enter after death. He said,

"Eternal rest is not idleness, for idleness produces a languid, torpid, stupid, and sleepy state of the mind, and therefrom of the whole body; and this is not life but death, still less is it the eternal life which the angels of heaven live.

Eternal rest is therefore a rest that dispels THAT state AND causes man to live; thus it is nothing else than what elevates the mind; and is some pursuit or work by which the mind is aroused, enlivened, and delighted; and this is accomplished in the measure of the use from which, and for which the mind labors.

Because of this the whole heaven is regarded by the Lord as a containant of uses, and every angel is an angel in the measure of his use. Delight in use bears him on as a favoring current does a ship, causing him to be in eternal peace and in the rest of peace.

This is what is meant by eternal rest from labor. That an angel is alive in the measure of the application of his mind to use is very manifest from this, that everyone has conjugial love with its vigor, potency, and delights, according to his application to the genuine use in which he is engaged."

When the three newcomers had been convinced that eternal rest is not idleness, but the delight arising from some useful work, some virgins came and presented them with needlework and embroidery made with their own hands; and as the newcomers were departing, the virgins sang an ode in which they expressed in angelic melody the affection for useful labor and its charms.

(from True Christian Religion 694)

When Distinction is Made Between Charity and Faith

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Doctrine concerning good is the doctrine of charity, and doctrine concerning truth is the doctrine of faith.

In general, there is only one doctrine, namely, the doctrine of charity, for all things of faith look to charity. Between charity and faith there is no other difference than that between willing what is good and thinking what is good (for he who wills what is good also thinks what is good), thus than that between the will and the understanding. They who reflect, know that the will is one thing and the understanding another. This is also known in the learned world, and it plainly appears with those who will evil and yet from thought speak well; from all which it is evident to everyone that the will is one thing, and the understanding another; and thus that the human mind is distinguished into two parts, which do not make a one. Yet man was so created that these two parts should constitute one mind; nor should there be any other distinction (to speak by comparison) than such as there is between a flame and the light from it (love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor being like the flame, and all perception and thought being like the light from it); thus love and charity should be the all of the perception and thought, that is should be in each and all things of them. Perception or thought concerning the quality of love and charity is that which is called faith.

But as the human race began to will what is evil, to hate the neighbor, and to exercise revenges and cruelties, insomuch that that part of the mind which is called the will was altogether destroyed, men began to make a distinction between charity and faith, and to refer to faith all the doctrinal matters that were of their religion, and call them by the single term faith; and at length they went so far as to say that they could be saved by faith alone — by which they meant their doctrinal things — provided they merely believed these, no matter how they might live. Thus was charity separated from faith, which is then nothing else whatever (to speak by comparison) than a kind of light without flame, such as is custom to be the light of the sun in time of winter, which is cold and icy, insomuch that the vegetation of the earth grows torpid and dies; whereas faith from charity is like the light in the time of spring and summer, by which all things germinate and bloom.

This may also be known from the fact that love and charity are celestial flame, and that faith is the spiritual light therefrom. In this manner also do they present themselves to perception and sight in the other life; for there the Lord's celestial manifests itself before the angels by a flaming radiance like that of the sun, and the Lord's spiritual by the light from this radiance, by which also angels and spirits are affected as to their interiors, in accordance with the life of love and charity that appertains to them. This is the source in the other life of joys and happinesses with all their varieties. And all this shows how the case is with the statement that faith alone saves.

(Arcana Coelestia 2231)

Putting Formal Things Before Essential Ones

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Internal worship, which is from love and charity, is worship itself. External worship without this internal worship is no worship.

To make internal worship external is to make external worship essential, rather than internal, which is the reverse of the former, being as if it was said that internal worship without external is no worship, while the truth is that external worship without internal is no worship. Such is the religion of those who separate faith from charity, in that they set the things which are of faith before those which are of charity, or the things which are of the knowledges of faith before those which are of the life, thus formal things before essential ones.

All external worship is a formality of internal worship, for internal worship is the very essential; and to make worship consist of that which is formal, without that which is essential, is to make internal worship external. As for example, to hold that if one should live where there is no church, no preaching, no sacraments, no priesthood, he could not be saved, or could have no worship; when yet he can worship the Lord from what is internal. But it does not follow from this that there ought not to be external worship.

To make the matter yet more clear, take as a further example the setting up as the essential itself of worship the frequenting of churches, going to the sacraments, hearing sermons, praying, observing feasts, and many other things which are external and ceremonial, while, talking about faith, men persuade themselves that these are sufficient — all of which are formal things of worship. It is quite true that those who make worship from love and charity the essential, act in the same way, that is, they frequent churches, go to the sacraments, hear sermons, pray, observe feasts, and the like, and this very earnestly and diligently; but they do not make the essential of worship consist in these things. In the external worship of these men there is what is holy and living, because there is internal worship in it; but in the external worship of those referred to before there is not what is holy and not what is living. For the very essential itself is what sanctifies and vivifies the formal or ceremonial; but faith separated from charity cannot sanctify and vivify worship, because the essence and life are absent.

(Arcana Coelestia 1175)

A Corrupted Church

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A church is said to be corrupted when it acknowledges the Word and has a certain worship like that of a true church, but yet separates faith from charity, thus from its essential and from its life, whereby faith becomes a kind of dead affair; the result of which necessarily is that the church is corrupted. What the men of the church then become, is evident from the consideration that they can have no conscience; for conscience that is really conscience cannot possibly exist except from charity.

Charity is what makes conscience, that is, the Lord through charity.

What else is conscience than not to do evil to anyone in anyway; that is, to do well to all in every way? Thus conscience belongs to charity, and never to faith separated from charity. If such persons have any conscience, it is a false conscience; and because they are without conscience, they rush into all wickedness, so far as outward bonds are relaxed. They do not even know what charity is, except that it is a word significant of something. And as they are without charity, they do not know what faith is. When questioned, they can only answer that it is a kind of thinking; some, that it is confidence; others, that it is the knowledges of faith; a few, that it is life according to these knowledges, and scarcely any that it is a life of charity or of mutual love. And if this is said to them, and opportunity is given them for reflection, they answer only that all love begins from self, and that he is worse than a heathen who does not take care of himself and his own family. They therefore study nothing but themselves and the world. Hence it comes to pass that they live in their Own [self-hood].

(Arcana Coelestia 1076)

The Cause of the Fall of Every Church

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A desire to investigate the mysteries of faith by means of the things of sense and of the memory, was not only the cause of the fall of the posterity of the Most Ancient Church, ... but it is also the cause of the fall of every church; for hence come not only falsities, but also evils of life.

The worldly and corporeal man says in his heart, If I am not instructed concerning the faith, and everything relating to it, by means of the things of sense, so that I may see, or by means of those of the memory [scientifica], so that I may understand, I will not believe; and he confirms himself in this by the consideration that natural things cannot be contrary to spiritual.

Thus he is desirous of being instructed from things of sense in what is celestial and Divine, which is as impossible as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle; for the more he desires to grow wise by such means, the more he blinds himself, till at length he believes nothing, not even that there is anything spiritual, or that there is eternal life.

This comes from the principle which he assumes. And this is to "eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" of which the more anyone eats, the more dead he becomes.

But he who would be wise from the Lord, and not from the world, says in his heart that the Lord must be believed, that is, the things which the Lord has spoken in the Word, because they are truths; and according to this principle he regulates his thoughts. He confirms himself by things of reason, of knowledge, of the senses, and of nature [per rationalia, scientifica, sensualia et naturalia], and those which are not confirmatory he casts aside.

Everyone may know that man is governed by the principles he assumes, be they ever so false, and that all his knowledge and reasoning favor his principles; for innumerable considerations tending to support them present themselves to his mind, and thus he is confirmed in what is false. He therefore who assumes as a principle that nothing is to be believed until it is seen and understood, can never believe, because spiritual and celestial things cannot be seen with the eyes, or conceived by the imagination.

But the true order is for man to be wise from the Lord, that is, from His Word, and then all things follow, and he is enlightened even in matters of reason and of memory-knowledge [in rationalibus et scientificis]. For it is by no means forbidden to learn the sciences, since they are useful to his life and delightful; nor is he who is in faith prohibited from thinking and speaking as do the learned of the world; but it must be from this principle — to believe the Word of the Lord, and, so far as possible, confirm spiritual and celestial truths by natural truths, in terms familiar to the learned world. Thus his starting-point must be the Lord, and not himself; for the former is life, but the latter is death.

He who desires to be wise from the world, has for his "garden" the things of sense and of memory-knowledge [sensualia et scientifica]; the love of self and the love of the world are his "Eden"; his "east" is the west, or himself; his "river Euphrates" is all his memory-knowledge [scientificum], which is condemned; his "second river" where is "Assyria" is infatuated reasoning productive of falsities; his "third river" where is "Ethiopia" is the principles of evil and falsity thence derived, which are the knowledges of his faith; his "fourth river" is the wisdom thence derived, which in the Word is called "magic." And therefore "Egypt" - which signifies memory-knowledge [scientia] - after the knowledge became magical, signifies such a man, because, as may be seen from the Word, he desires to be wise from self. Of such it is written in Ezekiel:

Thus hath said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great whale that lieth in the midst of his rivers, who hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. And the land of Egypt shall be for a solitude, and a waste, and they shall know that I am Jehovah, because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it (Ezek. 29:3, 9)

Such men are also called "trees of Eden in hell" in the same Prophet, where also Pharaoh, or the Egyptian, is treated of in these words:

When I shall have made him descend into hell with them that descend into the pit; to whom art thou thus made like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be made to descend with the trees of Eden into the lower earth, in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his crew (Ezek. 31:16, 18),

where the "trees of Eden" denote knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones] from the Word, which they thus profane by reasonings.

(Arcana Coelestia 127-130)

The Essence of Charity

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Then shall the king say to them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and ye gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye gathered Me; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me (Matt. 25:34-36).

What these words involve in the internal sense will appear from what follows. Be it known in the first place that the works here enumerated are the very works of charity in their order. This no one can see who is not acquainted with the internal sense of the Word, that is, who does not know what is meant by giving the hungry to eat, giving the thirsty to drink, gathering the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, and coming unto those who are in prison.

He who thinks of these acts from the sense of the letter only, infers that they mean good works in the external form, and that there is nothing secret in them beyond this; and yet there is something secret in each of them, which is Divine, because from the Lord.

But the secret is not at this day understood, because at this day there are no doctrinals of charity; forever since men have separated charity from faith, these doctrinals have perished, and in place of them the doctrinals of faith have been invented and received, which do not at all teach what charity is and what the neighbor.

The doctrinals existing among the ancients taught all the genera and all the species of charity, and also who the neighbor is toward whom charity is to be exercised, and how one is the neighbor in a different degree and in a different respect from another, and consequently how the exercise of charity varies in its application toward different persons. They also grouped the neighbor together into classes, and assigned them names, calling some the poor, needy, miserable, afflicted; some the blind, lame, halt, and also fatherless and widows; and others the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, bound, and so on; thus knowing what duty they owed toward one and toward another. But as before said these doctrinals perished, and with them the understanding of the Word, insomuch that no one at this day knows otherwise than that by the "poor," the "widows," and the "fatherless," in the Word, none other are meant than they who are so called; in like manner here by the "hungry," the "thirsty," the "strangers," the "naked," the "sick," and those who are "in prison;" when yet by these charity is described such as it is in its essence, and the exercise of it such as it must be in its life.

The essence of charity toward the neighbor is the affection of good and truth, and the acknowledgment of self as being evil and false; yea, the neighbor is good and truth itself, and to be affected by these is to have charity.

The opposite to the neighbor is evil and falsity, which are held in aversion by one who has charity.

He therefore who has charity toward the neighbor is affected by good and truth, because they are from the Lord, and holds in aversion what is evil and what is false because these are from self; and when he does this, he is in humiliation from self-acknowledgment, and when he is in humiliation, he is in a state of reception of good and truth from the Lord.

These are the characteristics of charity which in the internal sense are involved in these words of the Lord: "I was hungry, and ye gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye gathered Me; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me." That these words involve such things, no one can know except from the internal sense. The ancients, who had the doctrinals of charity, knew these things; but at this day they appear so remote that everyone will wonder at its being said that these things are within.

Moreover, the angels who are with man perceive these words no otherwise, for by the "hungry" they perceive those who from affection desire good; by the "thirsty," those who from affection desire truth; by a "stranger," those who are willing to be instructed; by the "naked," those who acknowledge that there is nothing of good and of truth in themselves; by the "sick," those who acknowledge that in themselves there is nothing but evil; and by the "bound," or those who are "in prison," those who acknowledge that in themselves there is nothing but falsity. If these things are reduced into one meaning, they signify what has been stated just above.

From all this it is evident that there were Divine things within everything the Lord said, although to those who are in merely worldly things, and especially to those who are in bodily things, His words appear to be such as any man might say. Nay, they who are in bodily things will say of these and all other words of the Lord, that they have not so much grace, and therefore not so much weight, as the discourse and preaching of those of the present age who speak with eloquence and learning; when yet their discourse and preaching are like the husk and chaff in comparison with the kernel and grain.
***
The reason why the Lord says these things of Himself is that He is in those who are such, and therefore He also says:

Verily I say unto you, Insofar as ye have done it to one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it to Me (Matt. 25:40).

(Arcana Coelestia 4954-4959)

Doing Good to Others for No Selfish End

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In heaven no one is commanded or ordered; but thought is communicated, and the other acts willingly in accordance therewith. Communication of thought together with a desire which wills that something be done, is influx, and on the part of the recipient is perception, and therefore by "commanding" is signified also perception.

Moreover in heaven they not only think, but also talk together, but about things of wisdom; yet in their conversation there is nothing of command from one to another, for no one desires to be master and thereby to look upon another as a servant; but everyone desires to minister to and serve the others. From this it is plain what form of government there is in the heavens, which is described by the Lord in Matthew:

It shall not be so among you; but whosoever would become great among you should be your minister, and whosoever would be first should be your servant (Matt. 20:26, 27);

and again:

He that is greatest among you shall be your minister. Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted (Matt. 23:11, 12).

He does this who loves his neighbor from the heart, or who feels delight and blessedness in doing good to others for no selfish end; that is, who has charity toward the neighbor.

(from Arcana Coelestia 5732)