Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
From creation man has an ability to be more and more nearly conjoined with the Lord. This can be seen from what has been set forth respecting degrees in the third part of the work on The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, and especially from the following:There are three discrete degrees or degrees of height in man from creation. These three degrees are in every man from birth; and as they are opened, man is in the Lord and the Lord in man. All perfections increase and ascend along with degrees, and according to them. From all this it is clear that from creation man has an ability to be more and more nearly conjoined with the Lord through degrees.But it is necessary to know fully what degrees are, and that there are two kinds, discrete degrees, that is, degrees of height; and continuous degrees, that is, degrees of breadth, also how they differ; and to know that every man by his creation and consequently by birth has three discrete degrees or degrees of height; also that man comes into the first degree, which is called the natural, when he is born, and may develop this degree in himself continuously until he becomes rational; also that he comes into the second degree, which is called the spiritual degree, if he lives according to the spiritual laws of order, which are Divine truths; and finally that he can come into the third degree, which is called the celestial, if he lives according to celestial laws of order, which are Divine goods.
These degrees the Lord opens in man according to his life, actually in this world, but not perceptibly and sensibly till after he leaves this world; and as they are opened and afterwards perfected man is more and more nearly conjoined with the Lord. This conjunction by continued approach may go on increasing to eternity, and with the angels it does increase to eternity. And yet no angel is able to attain to or to touch upon the first degree of the Lord's love and wisdom, because the Lord is infinite and an angel is finite, and there can be no relation between what is infinite and what is finite. As no one is able without a knowledge of these degrees to understand the state of man, and the state of his elevation and approach to the Lord, they have been treated of in detail in the work on The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom (n. 173-281), which may be referred to.
It will now be told briefly how a man can be more nearly conjoined with the Lord, and then how the conjunction appears more and more near. How man is more and more nearly conjoined with the Lord:
This is effected not by knowledge alone, nor by intelligence alone, nor even by wisdom alone, but by a life conjoined with these.Man's life is his love, and love is manifold. In general, there is a love of evil and a love of good. The love of evil is a love of committing adultery, taking revenge, defrauding, blaspheming, depriving others of their goods. In thinking about these things and in doing them the love of evil has a sense of pleasure and delight. The derivatives of this love, which are its affections, are as many as are the evils into which it has determined itself; and the perceptions and thoughts of this love are as many as are the falsities that favor these evils and confirm them. These falsities make one with the evils, as the understanding makes one with the will; they are not separated from each other, for one is of the other.
Since, then, the Lord flows into the life's love of every one, and through its affections into the perceptions and thoughts, and not the reverse, as has been said above, it follows that the Lord can conjoin Himself more nearly only so far as the love of evil with its affections, which are lusts, has been set aside. And as these have their seat in the natural man, and as whatever a man does from the natural man is felt as if done from himself, so man ought as if from himself to put away the evils of that love; and so far as this is done by man the Lord draws nearer and conjoins Himself with him. Anyone can see from reason that lusts with their enjoyments block the way and close the doors before the Lord, and that these can not be cast out by the Lord so long as man himself holds the doors closed, and by pressing and pushing from without prevents their being opened. That man himself ought to open them is clear from the Lord's words in the Apocalypse:-
Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me (3:20).From this it is evident that so far as one shuns evils as diabolical and as obstacles to the Lord's entrance, he is more and more nearly conjoined with the Lord, and he the most nearly who abominates them as so many dusky and fiery devils; since evil and the devil are one, and the falsity of evil and Satan are one. For as the Lord's influx is into the love of good and into its affections, and through these affections into the perceptions and thoughts (and these are all truths by derivation from the good in which the man is), so the influx of the devil, that is, of hell, is into the love of evil and into its affections, which are lusts, and through these into the perceptions and thoughts (and these are all falsities by derivation from the evil in which the man is).
How that conjunction appears more and more near:
The more fully evils in the natural man are put aside by shunning them and turning away from them, the more nearly is man conjoined with the Lord. And as love and wisdom, which are the Lord Himself, are not in space (since affection, which belongs to love, and thought, which belongs to wisdom, have nothing in common with space), so the Lord appears to be nearer in the measure of the conjunction by love and wisdom; and on the other hand, more remote in the measure of the rejection of love and wisdom. In the spiritual world there is no space, but there distance and presence are appearances in accordance with similarities and dissimilarities of affections; for the reason, as has been said before, that affections, which belong to love, and thoughts, which belong to wisdom, and which in themselves are spiritual, are not in space.On this subject see what has been set forth in the work on The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, (n. 7-10, 69-72, and elsewhere).
The Lord's conjunction with a man in whom evils have been put away, is meant by these words of the Lord:-
The pure in heart shall see God (Matt. 5:8);and by these:-
He that hath My commandments and doeth them, I will make My abode with him (John 14:21, 23)."To have the commandments" is to know, and "to do them" is to love; for it is also there said: "He that doeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me."
The more nearly a man is conjoined with the Lord the wiser he becomes. As from creation and thus from birth there are three degrees of life in man, so there are preeminently three degrees of wisdom in him. These are the degrees that are opened in man in the measure of conjunction. They are opened in the measure of love, since love is conjunction itself. Yet the ascent of love according to degrees is perceived by man only in an obscure way while the ascent of wisdom is clearly perceived in such as know and see what wisdom is. The degrees of wisdom are perceived for the reason that love enters through the affections into the perceptions and thoughts, and these present themselves to the internal sight of the mind, which corresponds to the external sight of the body. It is owing to this that wisdom is manifest, but not so much the affection of love that produces it. It is with this as with all things that are actually done by man. It is noticed how the body does them; but not how the soul does them. So also it is seen how one meditates, perceives, and thinks; but how the soul of these activities, which is an affection for good and truth, produces the meditation, perception, and thought, is not seen.
There are three degrees of wisdom, the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial. While man lives in the world he is in the natural degree of wisdom. This degree may then be perfected in him to its highest point, but it cannot enter the spiritual degree, because that degree is not continued into the natural degree by continuity, but is conjoined with it by correspondences. After death man is in the spiritual degree of wisdom; and this degree is also such that it may be perfected to the highest point, but it cannot enter the celestial degree of wisdom, for that degree is not continued into the spiritual by continuity, but it is conjoined with it by correspondences. From all this it can be seen that wisdom can be elevated in a triplicate ratio, and in each degree in a simple ratio to its highest point.
One who comprehends the elevation and perfecting of these degrees can in some measure perceive the truth of what is said of angelic wisdom, that it is ineffable, and so ineffable that a thousand ideas in the thought of angels from their wisdom can present but a single idea in the thought of men from their wisdom, the other nine hundred and ninety-nine ideas of angelic thought not being able to gain entrance, because they are supernatural. That this is so it has often been granted me to know by living experience. But, as said above, no one can come into that ineffable wisdom of the angels except through conjunction with the Lord and in the measure of that conjunction, for the Lord alone opens the spiritual degree and the celestial degree, and opens them in those only who are wise from Him; and those are wise from the Lord who cast out the devil, that is, evil, from themselves.
But let no one believe that a man has wisdom because he knows many things, and perceives them in some light, and is able to talk about them intelligently, unless this is conjoined with love; for it is love through its affections that produces wisdom; and wisdom not conjoined with love is like a meteor vanishing in the air, and like a falling star. But when wisdom is conjoined with love it is like the abiding light of the sun, and like a fixed star. A man has a love of wisdom so far as he turns away from the diabolic crowd, which are the lusts of evil and falsity.
The wisdom that comes to perception is a perception of truth from an affection for it, especially a perception of spiritual truth. For there is civil truth, moral truth, and spiritual truth. Those who have a perception of spiritual truth from an affection for it have also a perception of moral and of civil truth; for of these perceptions the affection for spiritual truth is the soul. I have sometimes talked with angels about wisdom; and they said that wisdom is conjunction with the Lord, because the Lord is wisdom itself; and that he comes into that conjunction who casts out hell from himself, and comes into it to the extent that he casts out hell. They said that they represent wisdom to themselves as a palace, magnificent and highly adorned, the ascent to which is by twelve steps; and that only from the Lord through conjunction with Him can any one reach the first step; and he ascends in the measure of the conjunction; and as he ascends, he perceives that no one is wise from himself, but only from the Lord, and that the things in which a man is wise, compared with the things in which he is not wise, are as a few drops of water to a great lake. The twelve steps to the palace of wisdom signify goods conjoined with truths and truths conjoined with goods.
(from Divine Providence 32-36)