The Very Being of a Thing

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The very being of a thing is good,
and all good is of love, which is spiritual conjunction or unition.

Hence in the supreme sense the Lord is called being or Jehovah, because from Him is all the good which is of love or of spiritual conjunction. As heaven makes a one through love from Him and the reciprocal love to Him through reception, and through mutual love, it is therefore called a marriage, through which it is. It would be similar with the church, if love and charity were the being of it.

Therefore where there is no conjunction or union, there is no being; for unless there is something to bring to a one or to unite, there must be dissolution and extinction.

Thus in a civil society, where everyone is for himself and no one for another except for the sake of himself, unless there were laws to unite, and fears of the loss of gain, honor, fame, and life, the society would be utterly dissipated; so that the being of such a society is also conjunction or unition, but only in externals, while in respect to internals there is no being in it. For this reason also such persons in the other life are kept in hell, and are in like manner held together there by external bonds, especially by fears; but whenever these bonds are relaxed, one rushes to compass the destruction of another, and desires nothing more than to put him out of existence. It is otherwise in heaven, where there is internal conjunction through love to the Lord and the derivative mutual love. When external bonds are relaxed there, they are more closely conjoined together; and because they are thus brought nearer to the Divine being which is from the Lord, they are more interiorly in affection and thence in freedom, consequently in blessedness, happiness, and joy.

(Arcana Coelestia 5002)

Their Works Follow With Them

From Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• In the day of judgment God will render to every man according to his works (Rom. 2:6).
• We must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may give account of the things which he hath done by the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10).
• The Son of man will come in the glory of His Father, and then shall He render to everyone according to his works (Matt. 16:27).
• They that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, but they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29).
• They were judged according to those things which were written in the books, all according to their works (Rev. 20:12-13).
• Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his works (Rev. 22:12).
• I will give to everyone of you according to his works (Rev. 2:23).
• I know thy works (Rev. 2:1-2, 4, 9, 13, 19, 26; 3:1-3, 7-8, 14-15, 19).
• I will recompense them according to their work, and according to the deed of their hands (Jer. 25:14).
• Jehovah doeth with us according to our ways and according to our works (Zech. 1:6; and in many other places).

...
By "the works which follow with them" are signified all things which remain with man after death. It is known, that the externals, which appear before men, derive their essence, soul, and life from the internals, which do not appear before men, but which appear before the Lord and the angels; the latter and the former, or the externals and the internals taken together, are works; good works, if the internals are in love and faith, and the externals act and speak from them; but evil works, if the internals are not in love and faith, and the externals act and speak from them. If the externals act and speak as if from love and faith, those works are either hypocritical or meritorious. Ten persons may do works which are similar in externals, but still they are dissimilar, because the internals from which the externals proceed are dissimilar.

Who does not see that there is an internal and an external, and that these two make one? For who does not see that the understanding and will are the internal of man, and speech and action his external? For who can speak and act without the understanding and the will? And since everyone sees this, he may also see that works are external and internal at the same time; and because the external derives its essence, soul, and life from its internal, as was said above, it follows that the external is such as is its internal; consequently, that "the works which follow with them" are according as they have loved and believed, and thence have done and spoken. ... good works are charity and faith, ... the internal of man or the internal man does not consist in understanding without willing, but in willing and thence understanding, consequently that it does not consist in believing without loving, but in loving and thence believing; and that the doing these things is the external of man, or the external man,.... From these things it is evident, that by "the works that follow with them" is signified according as they have loved and believed, and thence have done and spoken.

(Apocalypse Revealed 641)

The Lord Visible to Man

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

No man in the whole world has seen Jehovah, the Father of the Lord; but the Lord alone saw Him, as He Himself has said in John:

No one hath seen God at any time the Only-Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth (John 1:18).

Again:

Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape (John 5:37).

And again:

Not that anyone hath seen the Father save He that is with the Father; He hath seen the Father (John 6:46).

The Infinite Itself, which is above all the heavens, and is over the inmost things that appertain to man, cannot be made manifest, except through the Divine Human which appertains to the Lord alone. No communication of the Infinite with those who are finite is possible from any other source, and this is also the reason that when Jehovah appeared to the men of the Most Ancient Church, and afterwards to the Ancient Church that was after the flood, and then again to Abraham and the prophets, He was manifested to them as a man. That this was the Lord, He teaches openly in John:

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad; verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:56, 58).

Also in the Prophets, as in Daniel, by whom He was seen as the Son of man (Dan. 7:13).

From these passages it may be seen that the Infinite Esse, which is Jehovah, could not possibly be manifested to man except through the Human Essence, thus except through the Lord; and therefore that it has been manifested to no one save the Lord alone. That He might also be present and be conjoined with man, after man had completely removed himself from the Divine, and had immersed himself in foul cupidities, and thereby in mere bodily and earthly things, He assumed in actuality the Human Essence itself by birth, that so He might still adjoin the Infinite Divine to man now so far removed; otherwise men would have perished to eternity with the death of the damned.

(Arcana Coelestia 1990)