The Nature of Influx - Good or Evil

From the work Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Divine influx is unceasing, and in the good is received in good, but not in the evil; for in them it is either rejected or suffocated or perverted; and in consequence they have an evil life which in a spiritual sense is death.

The spirits who are with man, both those conjoined with heaven and those conjoined with hell, never flow into man from their own memory and its thought, for if they should flow in from their own thought, whatever belonged to them would seem to man to be his. ... Nevertheless there flows into man through them out of heaven an affection belonging to the love of good and truth, and out of hell an affection belonging to the love of evil and falsity. Therefore as far as man's affection agrees with the affection that flows in, so far that affection is received by him in his thought, since man's interior thought is wholly in accord with his affection or love; but so far as man's affection does not agree with that affection it is not received.

Evidently, then, since thought is not introduced into man through spirits, but only an affection for good and an affection for evil, man has choice, because he has freedom; and is thus able by his thought to receive good and reject evil, since he knows from the Word what is good and what is evil. Moreover, whatever he receives by thought from affection is appropriated to him; but whatever he does not receive by thought from affection is not appropriated to him. All this makes evident the nature of the influx of good out of heaven with man, and the nature of the influx of evil out of hell.

(Heaven and Hell 297 - 298)

Perception and Reception - Intelligence and Wisdom

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... all intelligence and wisdom are from Divine truths according to the perception of them and their reception in the life.

To see truths, and to see what they are, is of perception; and to live according to them is of reception; and according to perception and reception there is intelligence and wisdom.

Intelligence and wisdom which are not from Divine truths, but from worldly things only, are not intelligence and wisdom but merely knowledge [scientia] and thence a faculty to reason; for intelligence is seeing inwardly in oneself whether a thing be true or not; but they who are wise from worldly things only do not see truths inwardly in themselves, but from others; and to see from others is merely to know [scire]; and such things come no farther under the mind's vision than that they may be confirmed. In such a state are most persons at this day within the church who make faith alone, separate from life, to be saving; consequently truths do not enter into their spirit, but merely into the memory of the natural man; and yet the light of heaven, which is Divine truth, can enter by no other way with man than by the way of his spirit, which is also the way of his soul; and man's spirit is such as his life is, but not such as his memory apart from his life is; and the light of heaven enters into man's spirit when he is in the good of love and of charity from the Lord, and when he is in that good he is also in faith.

(Apocalypse Explained 198)

God Blessed - The Presence and Grace of the Lord

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

That "God blessed" signifies the presence and grace of the Lord, is evident from the signification of "to bless."

"To bless" in the Word, in the external sense signifies to enrich with every earthly and corporeal good, according to the explanation of the Word given by those who abide in the external sense - as the ancient and modern Jews, and also Christians, especially at the present day - wherefore they have made the Divine blessing to consist in riches, in an abundance of all things, and in self-glory.

But in the internal sense, "to bless" is to enrich with all spiritual and celestial good, which blessing is and never can be given except by the Lord, and on this account it signifies His presence and grace, which necessarily bring with them such spiritual and celestial good. It is said presence, because the Lord is present solely in charity, .... The Lord is indeed present with every man, but in proportion as a man is distant from charity, in the same proportion the presence of the Lord is - so to speak - more absent, that is, the Lord is more remote.

The reason why grace is mentioned, and not mercy, is for the reason - which as I conjecture, has been hitherto unknown - that celestial men do not speak of grace, but of mercy, while spiritual men do not speak of mercy, but of grace. This mode of speaking is grounded in the circumstance that those who are celestial acknowledge the human race to be nothing but filthiness, and as being in itself excrementitious and infernal; wherefore they implore the mercy of the Lord, for mercy is predicated of such a condition. Those, however, who are spiritual, although they know the human race to be of such a nature, yet they do not acknowledge it, because they remain in their Own, which they love, and therefore they speak with difficulty of mercy, but easily of grace. This difference in language results from the difference in the humiliation. In proportion as anyone loves himself, and thinks that he can do good of himself, and thus merit salvation, the less capable is he of imploring the Lord's mercy. The reason why some can implore grace is that it has become a customary form of speaking, in which there is but little of the Lord and much of self, as anyone may discover in himself while he names the grace of the Lord.

(Arcana Coelestia 981)