Such as is a Man's Love, Such is His Life

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah said, Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip, and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. Genesis 11:6

Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip.

...The people is said to be "one," and their "lip one," when all have as their end the common good of society, the common good of the church, and the kingdom of the Lord; for when this is the case the Lord is in the end, and all are a one from Him.

But the Lord cannot possibly be present with a man whose end is his own good; the Own [proprium] itself of man estranges the Lord, because thereby the man twists and turns the common good of society, and that of the church itself, and even the kingdom of the Lord, to himself, insomuch that it is as if it existed for him. He thus takes away from the Lord what is His, and puts himself in His place. When this condition reigns in a man, there is the like of it in every single thought he has, and even in the least particulars of his thoughts; for such is the case with whatever is regnant in any man.

This does not appear so manifestly in the life of the body as it does in the other life - for there whatever is regnant in anyone manifests itself by a certain sphere which is perceived by all around him, and which is of this character because it exhales from every single thing in him.

The sphere of him who has regard to himself in everything, appropriates to itself, and, as is said there, absorbs everything that is favorable to itself, and therefore it absorbs all the delight of the surrounding spirits, and destroys all their freedom, so that such a person has to be banished from society.

But when the people is one, and the lip one, that is, when the common good of all is regarded, one person never appropriates to himself another's delight, or destroys another's freedom, but insofar as he can he promotes and increases it. This is the reason why the heavenly societies are as a one, and this solely through mutual love from the Lord; and the case is the same in the church.

And this is what they begin to do.

That this signifies that now they began to become different, is evident from the connection. To begin to do, here signifies their thought or intention, and consequently their end, as also is evident from the words that next follow, and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. That in the internal sense their end is signified, is because nothing else than the end in a man is regarded by the Lord. Whatever may be his thoughts and deeds - which vary in ways innumerable - provided the end is made good, they are all good; whereas if the end is evil, they are all evil.

It is the end that reigns in everything a man thinks and does.

The angels with a man, being the Lord's angels, rule nothing in the man but his ends; for when they rule these, they rule also his thoughts and actions, seeing that all these are of the end.

The end with a man is his very life.

All things that he thinks and does have life from the end, for, as was said, they are of the end; and therefore such as is the end, such is the man's life.

The end is nothing else than the love; for a man cannot have anything as an end except that which he loves. He who thinks one thing and does another, still has as the end that which he loves;

in the dissimulation itself, or in the deceit, there is the end

which is the love of self or the love of the world, and the derivative delight of his life. From these considerations anyone may conclude that such as is a man's love, such is his life. These therefore are the things signified by "beginning to do."

(Arcana Cœlestia 1316 - 1317)

When 'Self" is the Moving Cause

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

No truth is holy unless it comes from good. A man may utter many truths from the Word, and thus from memory, but if it is not love or charity that brings them forth, nothing holy can be predicated of them. But if he has love and charity, then he acknowledges and believes, and this from the heart. And it is the same with faith, of which so many say that it alone saves: if there is no love or charity from which the faith comes, there is no faith.

Love and charity are what make faith holy.

The Lord is in love and charity, but not in faith that is separated from charity. In faith separated is the man himself, in whom there is nothing but uncleanness. For when faith is separated from love, his own praise, or his own advantage, is the moving cause that is in his heart, and from which he speaks. This everyone may know from his own experience. Whoever tells anyone that he loves him, that he prefers him to others, that he acknowledges him as the best of men, and the like, and yet in heart thinks otherwise, does this only with his mouth, and in heart denies, and sometimes makes sport of him. And it is the same with faith. ...

They who in the life of the body have preached the Lord and faith with so much eloquence, together with feigned devoutness, as to astonish their hearers, and have not done it from the heart, in the other life are among those who bear the greatest hatred toward the Lord, and who persecute the faithful.

(Arcana Cœlestia 724)

Truths Full of Goods

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It may be supposed that a man cannot but be saved if truths are full of goods. But be it known that there are very few truths with man, and that if there are any, they have no life unless there are goods in them; and that if there are goods in them, he is saved, but from Mercy.

The truths with man are very few; and the goods which are in them have their quality in accordance with the truths, and the man's life.

Regarded in themselves, truths do not give life. It is goods that give life. Truths are only recipients of life, that is, of good. And therefore no one can ever say that he can be saved by truths (or as the common expression is, by faith alone), unless there is good in the truths which are of faith, and this good that must be in the truths must be the good of charity; hence faith itself, in the internal sense, is nothing else than charity.

As regards people's saying that the acknowledgment of truth is the faith that saves, be it known that with those who live in things contrary to charity, there cannot possibly be any acknowledgment but only persuasion, to which there has been adjoined the life of the love of self or of the world; thus in the acknowledgment they refer to there is not the life of faith, which is that of charity. The worst men of all - from the love of self or the world, that is, for the sake of being eminent above others in what is called intelligence and wisdom, and thus of winning honors, reputation, and gains - can learn the truths of faith, and confirm them by many things; but still with them these truths are dead.

The life of truth, and thus of faith, is solely from the Lord, who is life itself. The Lord's life is mercy, which is that of love toward the universal human race.

In the Lord's life those can in no wise have part who although they profess the truths of faith despise others in comparison with themselves, and who - when their life of the love of self and of the world is touched - hold the neighbor in hatred, and take delight in his loss of wealth, of honor, of reputation, and of life.

But the case with the truths of faith is that by means of them man is regenerated, for they are the veriest vessels recipient of good. Such therefore as are the truths, and such as are the goods in the truths, and such as is their conjunction and the consequent capability of being perfected in the other life, such is the state of blessedness and happiness after death.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 2261)