The Word Should Be Searched with Devout Prayer to the Lord for Enlightenment (AC 5432)

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How greatly they are deluded who remain in the sense of the letter alone, and do not search out the internal sense from other passages in the Word in which it is explained, is very evident from the many heresies, every one of which proves its dogmas from the literal sense of the Word; especially is this manifest from that great heresy which the insane and infernal love of self and the world has drawn from the Lord's words to Peter:

I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in the heavens, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in the heavens (Matt. 16:15-19).

They who press the sense of the letter think that these things were said of Peter, and that power so great was given him; although they are fully aware that Peter was a very simple man, and that he by no means exercised such power; and that to exercise it is contrary to the Divine. Nevertheless, as owing to the insane and infernal love of self and the world they desire to arrogate to themselves the highest power on earth and in heaven, and to make themselves gods, they explain this according to the letter, and vehemently defend it; whereas the internal sense of these words is, that Faith itself in the Lord, which exists solely with those who are in love to the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor, has that power; and yet not faith, but the Lord from whom faith is. By "Peter" there is meant that faith, as everywhere else in the Word.

Upon this is the Church built, and against it the gates of hell do not prevail.

This faith has the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and it shuts heaven lest evils and falsities should enter in, and opens heaven for goods and truths. This is the internal sense of these words.

The twelve apostles, like the twelve tribes of Israel, represented nothing else than all the things of such faith. Peter represented faith itself, James charity, and John the goods of charity; in like manner as did Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the firstborn sons of Jacob, in the representative Jewish and Israelitish Church, which is plain from a thousand passages in the Word. And as Peter represented faith, the words in question were said to him. From this it is manifest into what darkness those cast themselves, and others with them, who explain all things according to the letter; as those who so explain these words to Peter, by which they derogate from the Lord and arrogate to themselves the power of saving the human race.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2759b)

The Inexhaustibleness of Changes of States from the Infinite and Eternal

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The state of a man's life is its quality. And as there are two faculties in every one, which make life, called understanding and will -

a man's state of life is its quality as to understanding and will.

It is plain, then, that by changes in the state of life are meant changes of quality in what is of the understanding and of the will.
...
One's state of life continually changes from infancy to the very close of life and afterwards to eternity. The states of one's life in general are called infancy, boyhood, adolescence, manhood, and old age. Every one who continues to live in the world passes in turn from one state to the next, so from the first to the last. The transitions are not apparent until an interval of time has elapsed, but reason sees that there is development from moment to moment and so continually. For in this respect the human being is like a tree, which grows and develops in every least fraction of time from the moment the seed is cast into the earth. This unintermitted progress also involves change of state — for what ensues contributes something to what precedes — perfecting the state.

Changes, moreover, which take place in man's internals also have a more perfect continuity than those which take place in his externals. For man's internals (by which are meant the things of his mind or spirit) are a degree higher, elevated above the externals; and in what is of the higher degree a thousand things take place in the same instant in which only one takes place in externals. The changes which occur in internals, are changes of state in the will as to affections, and changes of state in the understanding as to thoughts....

Changes of state in these two lives or faculties continue with man from infancy to the close of life and afterward to eternity, for the reason that there is no end to knowledge, still less to intelligence, and least of all to wisdom. In the inexhaustibleness of these there is infinity and eternity from the Infinite and Eternal, from whom all things are. Hence that ancient piece of philosophy that everything is divisible to infinity, to which is to be added that it may be multiplied similarly. The angels declare that they are perfected in wisdom by the Lord to eternity, which is also to infinity, eternity being an infinity of time.

(Conjugial Love 184, 185)

Receiving the Celestial Seeds of Charity

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

When a man is being reformed, which is effected by combats and temptations, such evil spirits are associated with him as excite nothing but his things of knowledge and reason [scientifica ejus et rationalia]; and spirits that excite cupidities are kept entirely away from him. For there are two kinds of evil spirits, those who act upon man's reasonings, and those who act upon his cupidities. The evil spirits who excite a man's reasonings bring forth all his falsities, and endeavor to persuade him that they are true, and even turn truths into falsities. A man must fight against these when he is in temptation; but it is really the Lord who fights, through the angels who are adjoined to the man. As soon as the falsities are separated, and as it were dispersed, by these combats, the man is prepared to receive the truths of faith.

For so long as falsities prevail, a man never can receive the truths of faith, because the principles of falsity stand in the way.

When he has thus been prepared to receive the truths of faith, then for the first time can celestial seeds be implanted in him, which are the seeds of charity. The seeds of charity can never be implanted in ground where falsities reign, but only where truths reign. Thus is it with the reformation or regeneration of the spiritual man....

This agrees with what is at this day known in the churches: that faith comes by hearing. But faith is by no means the knowledge [cognitio] of the things that are of faith, or that are to be believed. This is only memory-knowledge [scientia]; whereas faith is acknowledgment.

There can however be no acknowledgment with anyone unless the principal of faith is in him, which is charity, that is, love toward the neighbor and mercy.

When there is charity, then there is acknowledgment, or faith. He who apprehends otherwise is as far away from a knowledge of faith as earth is from heaven. When charity is present, which is the goodness of faith, then acknowledgment is present, which is the truth of faith. When therefore a man is being regenerated according to the things of knowledge, of reason, and of understanding, it is to the end that the ground may be prepared-that is, his mind-for receiving charity; from which, or from the life of which, he thereafter thinks and acts. Then he is reformed or regenerated, and not before.

(Arcana Cœlestia 653, 654)