Thinking from What is Eternal

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... the Divine providence in its whole progress with man looks to his eternal state. It can look to nothing else because the Divine is Infinite and Eternal, and the Infinite and Eternal, that is, the Divine, is not in time, and therefore all future things are present to it; and the Divine being such, it follows that there is what is eternal in each and every thing that it does.

But those who think from time and space scarcely perceive this, not only because they love temporal things, but also because they think from what is present in the world and not from what is present in heaven, for that is to them as far away as the end of the earth.

But when those who are in the Divine think from what is present, they think also from what is eternal because they think from the Lord, saying within themselves, What is that which is not eternal? Is not the temporal relatively nothing, and does it not become nothing when it is ended? It is not so with what is eternal; that alone Is; for its being (esse) has no end.

To think thus when thinking from what is present is to think at the same time from what is eternal; and when a man so thinks, and at the same time so lives, the Divine going forth in him, that is, the Divine providence, looks in its entire progress to the state of his eternal life in heaven, and leads towards it. That in every man, both in the evil and in the good, the Divine looks to what is eternal....

(Divine Providence 59)

The 'Infinite' Nexus

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Divine can look only to the Divine; and it can look to this nowhere but in things created by Itself. That this is true is evident from this, that one can look to another only from what is his own in himself. He that loves another looks to him from his own love in himself; and he that is wise looks to another from his own wisdom in himself. He may see that the other loves him or does not love him, and is wise or not wise, but this he sees from the love and wisdom in himself; and therefore he conjoins himself with the other so far as the other loves him as he loves the other, or so far as the other is wise as he is wise; for thus they make one.

It is the same with the Divine in itself, for the Divine in itself is not able to look to itself from another, that is, from a man or a spirit or an angel; for there is nothing in them of the Divine in itself from which [all things are], and to look to the Divine from another in whom there is nothing of the Divine would be to look to the Divine from what is not Divine, which is not possible. For this reason the conjunction of the Lord with a man or a spirit or an angel is such that every thing that has relation to the Divine is not from them, but from the Lord. For it is known that all the good and all the truth that any one has is from the Lord and not from himself, and that no one can even mention the Lord, or His names, "Jesus," and "Christ," except from Him.

From this, then, it follows, that the Infinite and Eternal, which is the same as the Divine, looks to all things in the finite infinitely, and conjoins Itself with them in accordance with the degree of reception of wisdom and love in them. In a word, the Lord can have an abode in man or angel and dwell with them, only in His own, and not in what is their own (proprium), for that is evil; and if it were good it would still be finite, which in itself and from itself cannot contain the Infinite. All this makes clear that it is impossible for a finite being to look to the Infinite; but it is possible for the Infinite to look to what is infinite from Himself, in finite beings.

There is an appearance that the Infinite cannot be conjoined with the finite, because there is no possible ratio between them, and because the finite cannot contain what is infinite; nevertheless, such a conjunction is possible, both because the Infinite created all things from Himself (as is shown in the work on The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, n. 282-284), and because the Infinite in things finite can look only to what is infinite from Himself, and with finite beings this infinite from Himself can appear as if it were in them, whereby a ratio between the finite and the infinite is provided, not from the finite, but from the infinite in the finite; and by this also the finite being becomes capable of containing what is infinite, not the finite being in himself, but as if in himself from what is infinite from itself in him. ...

(Divine Providence 53-54)

Man is an Organ Receiving Life

From a passage in Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... you believe that all the things which a man wills and thinks, and thence does and speaks, are in him, and consequently from him; when yet nothing of them is in him except the state of receiving what flows in.

Man is not life in himself, but is an organ receiving life.

The Lord alone is life in Himself, as He also says in John:
As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:26).
Besides other places (as John 11:25; 14:6, 19).

There are two things which make life, love and wisdom; or what is the same, the good of love and the truth of wisdom. These flow in from God, and are received by man, and are felt in the man as in him; and because they are felt by him as in him, they also proceed as from him. It is given by the Lord, that they should be thus felt by the man, in order that what flows in may affect him, and so be received and remain. But because all evil also flows in, not from God, but from hell, and this is received with enjoyment, because man was born such an organ, therefore no more of good is received from God, than there is of evil removed by the man as of himself; which is done by repentance, and at the same time by faith in the Lord.

That love and wisdom, charity and faith, or speaking more generally, the good of love and charity and the truth of wisdom and faith, flow in; and that the things which flow in appear in the man as in himself, and thence as from him, may be manifestly seen from the sight, the hearing, the smell, the taste, and the touch. All the things which are felt in the organs of those senses flow in from without, and are felt in them: in like manner in the organs of the internal senses, with the difference only that into the latter spiritual things flow in, which do not appear; but into the former natural things, which do appear. In a word, man is an organ recipient of life from God; consequently he is a recipient of good so far as he desists from evil. The Lord gives to every man to be able to desist from evil, because He gives him to will and understand as of himself: and whatever the man does from the will, as his own according to the understanding, as his own, or, what is the same, whatever he does from freedom which is of the will according to reason which is of the understanding, this remains. By this the Lord brings man into a state of conjunction with Himself, and in this reforms, regenerates, and saves him.

The life which flows in is the life proceeding from the Lord, which is also called the Spirit of God, and in the Word the Holy Spirit; of which it is also said, that it enlightens and vivifies; yea, that it operates in man: but this life is varied and modified according to the organization induced upon the man by his love and attitude to it. You may also know that all the good of love and charity and all the truth of wisdom and faith flow in, and are not in the man, from the fact that he who thinks such a thing is in man from creation, cannot think otherwise, than that God infused Himself into a man, and thus that men would in part be Gods; and yet they who think this from faith become devils, and stink like carcasses.

Besides, what is human action but the action of the mind? for that which the mind wills and thinks, it acts through its organ the body: and therefore when the mind is led by the Lord, the action is also led; and the mind and the action from it are led by the Lord, when it believes in Him. Unless it were so, say, if you can, why the Lord has commanded in the Word, in a thousand and a thousand places, that a man must love his neighbor, must work out the good of charity, and bear fruit like a tree, and do His precepts, and all this that he may be saved; also why He has said that man will be judged according to his deeds or works, he who has done goods to heaven and life, and he who has done evils to hell and death. How could the Lord speak such things, if all that proceeds from man were meritorious, and thence evil? You may know, therefore, that if the mind is charity, the action is also charity; but if the mind is faith alone, which is also faith separated from spiritual charity, the action is also that faith; and this faith is meritorious, because its charity is natural, and not spiritual. It is otherwise with the faith of charity, because charity does not wish to merit, and thence neither does its faith.

(Apocalypse Revealed 875:10-14)