The Delights of the Soul are Imperceptible Beatitudes

Extracts from Conjugial Love and Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are three things which flow from the Lord into our souls as one. These three as one, or this trine, are love, wisdom, and use.

Love and wisdom exist only ideally, being solely in the affection and thought of the mind; but in use they exist really, being together in the act and deed of the body; and where they exist really, there they also subsist.

And because love and wisdom exist and subsist in use, it is use that affects us; and use is to perform faithfully, sincerely, and diligently the work of one's function. The love of use and the consequent devotion to use holds the mind together lest it melt away and, wandering about, absorb all the cupidities which flow in from the body and the world through the senses with their allurements, whereby the truths of religion and the truths of morality with their goods are scattered to all the winds. But devotion of the mind to use, retains these truths, and binding them together, disposes the mind into a form capable of receiving wisdom from them; and then at the sides it banishes the mockeries and stage plays of both falsities and vanities.

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As first created, man was imbued with wisdom and the love thereof, not for himself but that from himself he might communicate it to others. Hence, it is inscribed on the wisdom of the wise, that-

none is wise and none lives for himself alone unless at the same time for others.

From this comes society; otherwise society would not exist. To live for others is to perform uses. Uses are the bonds of society, which are as many as there are good uses; and uses are infinite in number. There are spiritual uses, which pertain to love to God and to love towards the neighbor; there are moral and civil uses, which pertain to love of the society and state in which a man resides, and of his companions and fellow citizens among whom he lives; there are natural uses, which pertain to love of the world and of its necessities; and there are uses of the body, which pertain to the love of its preservation for the sake of the higher uses.

All these uses are inscribed on man and follow in order one after the other; and when they exist together, the one is within the other. Those who are in the first uses, which are spiritual, are also in the uses which follow; and such men are wise. But those who are not in the first and yet are in the second and from these in the following, are not wise in the same way but only appear to be so from their outer morality and affability. Those who are not in the first and second, but are in the third and fourth, are anything but wise, for they are satans, loving only the world and themselves from the world; and those who are only in the fourth are the least wise of all; for they are devils, living for themselves alone, and if for others, it is only for the sake of themselves.

Every love, moreover, has its own delight, it being by delight that love lives; and the delight of the love of uses is a heavenly delight which enters into the delights that follow in order, exalting them according to the order of their succession, and making them eternal.

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With regard to use: those who are in charity, that is, in love to the neighbor (from which is the delight in pleasures that is alive), pay no regard to the enjoyment of pleasures except on account of the use.

For there is no charity apart from works of charity; it is in its practice or use that charity consists.

He who loves the neighbor as himself perceives no delight in charity except in its exercise, or in use; and therefore a life of charity is a life of uses.

Such is the life of the whole heaven; for the kingdom of the Lord, because it is a kingdom of mutual love, is a kingdom of uses.

Every pleasure therefore which is from charity, has its delight from use. The more noble the use, the greater the delight. Consequently the angels have happiness from the Lord according to the essence and quality of their use.

(from Conjugial Love 16;18 / Arcana Cœlestia 997)

Man's Part in the Removal of Evil

Passages from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Evils in the external man can be put away only by man's instrumentality, because it is of the Lord's Divine providence that whatever man hears, sees, thinks, wills, speaks, and does, seems to him to be wholly his own. Without this appearance there could be in man no reception of Divine truth, no determination towards doing good, no appropriation of love and wisdom or of charity and faith, and therefore no conjunction with the Lord, consequently no reformation and regeneration and thus salvation. Without this appearance repentance from sins, and even faith, are evidently impossible. It is also evident that without this appearance a man would not be a man, but would be devoid of natural life like a beast. Let any one who will consult his reason and see, when a man thinks about good and truth, spiritual, moral, or civil, whether there is any other appearance than that he thinks from himself; let him then accept this doctrinal, that everything good and true is from the Lord and nothing from man; and will he not acknowledge this consequence,

that man must do good and think truth as if of himself, and yet must acknowledge that he does it from the Lord; and furthermore, that man must put away evils as if of himself and yet must acknowledge that he does it from the Lord?

Many are not aware that they are in evils, inasmuch as they do not do them outwardly because they fear the civil laws and the loss of reputation, and thus from custom and habit fall into the way of shunning evils as detrimental to their honor and profit. But when evils are not shunned from a religious principle, on the ground that they are sins and antagonistic to God, the lusts of evil with their enjoyments still remain, like impure waters confined and stagnant. Let such examine their thoughts and intentions, and they will find these lusts, provided they know what sins are.

This is the state of many who have confirmed themselves in faith separate from charity, who, believing that the law does not condemn them, do not even think about sins; and some question whether there are any sins in them, or if there are, whether they are sins before God, since they have been pardoned. In a like state also are natural moralists, who believe that civil and moral life with its prudence accomplishes everything and Divine providence nothing. Such also are those who strive with great eagerness after a reputation and name for honesty and sincerity for the sake of honor or gain. But those who are of this character, and who have also despised religion, become after death spirits of lusts, appearing to themselves as if they were men, but to others at a distance like treacherous forms (priapi*); and like birds of night they see in the dark and not in the light.

(Divine Providence 116 - 117)

* a god, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, personifying the male procreative power; an image of this god, often used as a scarecrow in ancient gardens.

Those Led By Their Own Loves

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Those who are led by themselves and by their own loves do not believe in the Lord, for to believe in the Lord is from Him, and not from self. From this it is also that such persons make of no account the union of His Human with the Divine Itself, and also of regeneration by the Lord; and thus also make of no account the truths of the church; for they say to themselves, "Of what value are such things?" Or, "What does it matter whether we know them? or even think them, and desire them? Are we not still alive, like other people? What difference is there?" The reason why they so think is that they think from the life of the world, and not from the life of heaven. The life of heaven is a thing unknown to them, and no one can think from what is unknown; and therefore such people cannot be saved, because they have not heaven in them, and therefore they cannot be in heaven, for their interiors are not in agreement with it. For unless these have been disposed by the Lord according to the image of heaven, there is no conjunction with heaven.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 10731)