Which Rules and Which Serves

Selection from New Jerusalem Heavenly Doctrine ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Everyone has an internal man and an external man; the internal is what is called the spiritual man, and the external is what is called the natural man, and each is to be regenerated, that the man may be regenerated. With the man who is not regenerated, the external or natural man rules, and the internal serves; but with the man who is regenerated, the internal or spiritual man rules, and the external serves. Whence it is manifest that the order of life is inverted with man from his birth, namely, that serves which ought to rule, and that rules which ought to serve. In order that man may be saved, this order must be inverted; and this inversion can by no means exist, but by regeneration from the Lord.

What it is for the internal man to rule and the external to serve, and vice versa, may be illustrated by this: If a man places all his good in pleasure, in gain, and in pride, and has delight in hatred and revenge, and inwardly in himself seeks for reasons which confirm them, then the external man rules and the internal serves. But when a man perceives good and delight in thinking and willing well, sincerely, and justly, and in outwardly speaking and doing in like manner, then the internal man rules and the external serves.

(NJHD 179 -180)

Prayers are Such as is the Character of the Man in Respect to His Life

From the Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Worship does not consist in prayers and in external devotion, but in a life of charity; prayers are only its externals, for they proceed from the man through his mouth, consequently men's prayers are such as they themselves are in respect to life. It matters not that a man bears himself humbly, that he kneels and sighs when he prays; for these are externals, and unless externals proceed from internals they are only gestures and sounds without life.

In each thing that a man utters there is affection, and every man, spirit, and angel is his own affection, for their affection is their life; it is the affection itself that speaks, and not the man without it; therefore such as the affection is such is the praying.

Spiritual affection is what is called charity towards the neighbor; to be in that affection is true worship; praying is what proceeds. From this it can be seen that the essential of worship is the life of charity, and that its instrumental is gesture and praying; or that the primary of worship is a life of charity, and its secondary is praying. From this it is clear that those who place all Divine worship in oral piety, and not in practical piety, err greatly.

How To Be Gifted With Peace and Trust Solely In The Lord

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

If a man would believe as the case really is, namely, that all that is good and true is from the Lord, and all that is evil and false is from hell, he then could not become guilty of any fault, nor could evil be imputed to him; but because he believes that it is from himself, he appropriates evil to himself, for this is the effect of his faith; and in this way evil adheres and cannot be separated from him; nay, such is man that he would be indignant if anyone should say that he thinks and wills from others, and not from himself.

It is an eternal truth that the Lord rules heaven and earth, and also that no one besides the Lord lives of himself, consequently that everything of life flows in - the good of life from the Lord, and the evil of life from hell. This is the faith of the heavens.  When a man is in this faith (and he can be in it when he is in good), then evil cannot be fastened and appropriated to him, because he knows that it is not from himself, but from hell.  When a man is in this state, he can then be gifted with peace, for then he will trust solely in the Lord.  Neither can peace be given to any others than those who are in this faith from charity; for others continually cast themselves into anxieties and cupidities, whence come disquietudes.  Spirits who desire to direct themselves, suppose that this would be to lose their own will, thus their freedom, consequently all delight, thus all life and its sweetness. This they say and suppose, because they do not know how the case really is; for the man who is led by the Lord is in freedom itself, and thus in delight and bliss itself; goods and truths are appropriated to him; there is given him an affection and desire for doing what is good, and then nothing is more delightful to him than to perform uses. There is given him a perception of good, and also a sensation of it; and there is given him intelligence and wisdom; and all these as his own; for he is then a recipient of the Lord's life. It is known in the learned world that the principal cause and the instrumental cause act together as a one: man - being a form recipient of the Lord's life, is an instrumental cause, and the life from the Lord is the principal cause. This life is felt in the instrumental cause as of it, when yet it is not of it.

The Degrees of Life in Man

Man consists of mere forms for receiving life, and that one form is more interior than another, but that one has come into existence and subsists from another; also that when the lower or exterior form is dissolved, the higher or interior form still lives. It was further said that all operations of the mind are variations of the form, which variations in the purer substances are in such perfection that they cannot be described; and that the ideas of thought are nothing else; and that these variations take place according to the changes of the state of the affections. How very perfect are the variations in the purer forms may be concluded from the lungs, which fold themselves variously and vary their forms according to every expression of speech, and to every note of a tune, and to every motion of the body, and also to each state of thought and affection; and what then must be the case with interior things, which, in comparison with so large an organ, are in the greatest perfection.

(Arcana Coelestia 6324-6326)

[emphasis by reviser]