The Lord's Life Received According to the Quality which Man has Induced on His Soul

Excerpts from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

[N]o man has life from himself, and therefore neither can he think and will from himself, for the life of man consists in thinking and willing. For there is one only life, namely, that of the Lord, which flows into all, but is variously received, and this according to the quality which a man has induced on his soul by his life in the world.

[E]veryone has life in accordance with the form of the interiors which he has acquired by willing and acting, thinking and speaking. ...

[T]he influx of life from the Lord, that it flows into all, and that this is evident from heaven, in that heaven resembles a man, and is therefore called the Grand Man of which, and of the correspondence therewith of all things in man ...

[T]he universal heaven has reference to the Lord, and that the Lord is there the center of all the looks, they who are in heaven looking upward to Him, and they who are in hell looking downward from Him. For the Lord appears to those who are in the heavens as a sun above them. ...

[T]he all of life is from the Lord from this fact also, that the soul of man can in the womb so wonderfully form a body, and its manifold members and organs in such a connection, and its interiors according to the image of heaven: this could not possibly be done unless all life were from the Lord, and unless heaven were such as has been described. (Arcana Coelestia 6468)

Hence with the evil, goods and truths are turned into evils and falsities; but with the good, goods are received as goods, and truths as truths.

This may be compared to the light which flows into objects from the sun, which is diversely modified and variegated in the objects in accordance with the form of their parts, and hence is turned into colors either sorrowful or gladsome, thus in accordance with the quality.

In like manner while a man lives in this world, he induces on the purest substances that belong to his interior a quality, according to which the Lord's life is received.

Be it known that the life from the Lord is the life of love toward the universal human race.

(Arcana Coelestia 6467, 6468)

The Pure In Heart Shall See God

From Doctrine of Life ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with Me he that walketh in the way of the upright, he shall minister unto Me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in the midst of My house; he that speaketh lies shall not stand before Mine eyes. In the dawning will I cut off all the wicked of the land, to cut off from the city all the workers of iniquity (Ps. 101:6-8).

That unless a man is interiorly sincere, just, faithful, and upright, he is insincere, unjust, unfaithful, and base, is taught by the Lord in these words:

Except your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5:10).

The "righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees" means the interior righteousness in which is the man who is in the Lord. That he is in the Lord is taught by the Lord Himself in John:

The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:22-23, 26).

From this it is evident that they are "perfect" when the Lord is in them. These are they who are called:

The pure in heart, who shall see God and, Those who are perfect as is their Father in the heavens (Matt. 5:8, 48).

(Doctrine of Life 84)

Good of Spiritual Life vs Delight of Natural Life

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

They who suffer themselves to be regenerated, act from affection according to the precepts of faith; but they who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated, but only to be reformed, do not act from affection, but from obedience. The difference is this. They who act from affection, act from the heart, and thus from freedom, and they also do truth for the sake of truth, and good for the sake of good, and thus they exercise charity for the sake of the neighbor; but they who act from obedience do not thus act from the heart, consequently not from freedom. If they seem to themselves to act from the heart and from freedom, it is for the sake of something of self-glory which causes it to be so perceived; and they do not do truth for the sake of truth, nor good for the sake of good, but for the sake of the delight arising from this glory. Thus they do not practice charity toward the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor, but in order to be seen, and in order to be recompensed. From this it is evident who and of what quality are they who are represented by the sons of Israel, and who and of what quality are they who are represented by the Hebrew menservants.