Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Things of Charity —
The Internal and the External Man
But be it known that it is not only the Internal Man that thinks and wills, but also the External; yet in one way when they are conjoined, and in another when they are separated.
When a man thinks intelligently and wills wisely, he thinks and wills from the Internal Man; but when he does not think intelligently and will wisely, he does not think and will from the Internal Man. Consequently, when a man thinks well about the Lord and about what belongs to the Lord, and when he thinks well about the neighbor and what belongs to the neighbor, and when he also wills well to these, he then thinks and wills from the Internal Man. But when a man thinks evilly in regard to these, and bears them ill will, he then does not think and will from the Internal Man. To think well is from the faith of truth, and to will well is from the love of good; but to think evilly is from the faith of what is false, and to will evilly is from the love of what is evil.
In a word, insofar as a man is in love to the Lord and in love toward the neighbor, so far he is in the Internal Man, and thinks and wills and also speaks and acts from it; but insofar as a man is in the love of self and in the love of the world, so far he is in the External Man, and insofar as he dares, he also speaks and acts from it.
The reason is that man has been created according to the image of heaven and the image of the world; the Internal Man according to the image of heaven, and the External Man according to the image of the world. Wherefore to think and will from the Internal Man is to think and will from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord; but to think and will from the External Man is to think and will from the world, that is, through the world from self.
It has been so provided and ordained by the Lord that insofar as a man thinks and wills from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, so far his Internal Man is opened: the opening is unto heaven, even unto the Lord Himself. Therefore, on the other hand, insofar as a man thinks and wills from the world, that is, through the world from self, so far the Internal Man is closed, and the External Man is opened: the opening is unto the world and unto self.
In order that the External Man may be reduced into order, it must be made subordinate to the Internal Man, and it is made subordinate when it obeys. So far as this is effected, so far the External Man also is wise. This is meant by the old man with its evil affections needing to die in order that the man may become a new creature.
Those with whom the Internal Man has been closed, do not know that there is an Internal Man, neither do they believe that there is a heaven and an eternal life. And wonderful to say they nevertheless suppose that they think more wisely than others; for they love themselves and what belongs to them, and these they worship.
It is otherwise in the case of those with whom the Internal Man has been opened toward heaven unto the Lord, for these are in the light of heaven, thus in illumination from the Lord; whereas the former are not in the light of heaven, but in the light of the world, and thus in illumination from self. Those who are illumined from self, and not from the Lord, see falsity as truth and evil as good.
(Arcana Coelestia 9701-9709)
(series to be continued)