Charity and Good Works (pt. 6)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 6)
v Doctrinal Series v

I. THERE ARE THREE UNIVERSAL LOVES:
THE LOVE OF HEAVEN, THE LOVE OF THE WORLD, AND THE LOVE OF SELF.

(2) Good and truth.

1. All things in the universe that are in Divine order have relation to good and truth; for nothing can exist in heaven or in the world that does not have relation to these two. This is because both of these, good as well as truth, go forth from God from whom are all things.

2. From this it is clear that it is necessary for man to know what good is and what truth is, how the one has regard to the other and how the one is conjoined with the other; and this is especially necessary for the man of the church, since all things of the church have relation to good and truth, just as all things of heaven do, because the good and truth of heaven are also the good and truth of the church.

3. It is according to Divine order for good and truth to be conjoined and not separated, thus that they be one and not two; for they are conjoined when they go forth from God and are conjoined in heaven, and therefore must be conjoined in the church. The conjunction of good and truth is called in heaven the heavenly marriage, for all who are there are in that marriage. For this reason in the Word heaven is likened to a marriage, and the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband, and heaven, and likewise the church, the bride and wife. Heaven and the church are so called because those who are there receive the Divine good in truths.

4. All the intelligence and wisdom that the angels have is from that marriage, and nothing thereof is from good separated from truth, or from truth separated from good. It is the same with the men of the church.

5. Since the conjunction of good and truth is like a marriage, it is evident that good loves truth, and that truth in turn loves good, and that each desires to be conjoined with the other. The man of the church who has no such love and no such desire is not in the heavenly marriage; therefore the church is not yet in him, since the conjunction of good and truth is what constitutes the church.

6. Goods are manifold. In general there is spiritual good and there is natural good, and also the two conjoined in genuine moral good. As with goods so with truths, since truths are of good and are forms of good.

7. As with good and truth, so is it in an opposite way with evil and falsity; that is, as all things in the universe that are in accordance with Divine order have relation to good and truth, so do all things contrary to Divine order have relation to evil and falsity. Again, as good loves to be conjoined with truth, and truth with good, so does evil love to be conjoined with falsity and falsity with evil. And further, as all intelligence and wisdom is born from the conjunction of good and truth, so is all irrationality and folly born from the conjunction of evil and falsity. The conjunction of evil and falsity viewed interiorly is not marriage but adultery.

8. From the fact that evil and falsity are the opposites of good and truth, it is clear that truth cannot be conjoined with evil, nor good with the falsity of evil. If truth is joined to evil it comes to be no longer truth, but falsity, because it is falsified; and if good is joined to the falsity of evil it comes to be no longer good, but evil, because it is adulterated. But falsity that is not the falsity of evil may be joined to good.

9. No one who is in evil and therefrom in falsity by confirmation and life, can know what good and truth are, for he believes his own evil to be good, and therefore his own falsity to be truth; but everyone who is in good, and therefrom in truth by confirmation and life, can know what evil and falsity are. This is because all good and its truth are in their essence heavenly, while all evil and its falsity are in their essence infernal, and everything heavenly is in light, but everything infernal in darkness.

(True Christian Religion 398)

To be continued ...

Charity and Good Works (pt. 5)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 5)
v Doctrinal Series v

I. THERE ARE THREE UNIVERSAL LOVES:
THE LOVE OF HEAVEN, THE LOVE OF THE WORLD, AND THE LOVE OF SELF.

(1) The will and understanding.

1. Man has two faculties which constitute his life; one called the will and the other the understanding. These are distinct from each other, but so created as to be one, and when they are one they are called the mind; consequently these are the human mind, and in them the whole of man's life resides in its principles, and therefrom in the body.

2. As all things in the universe which are according to order, have relation to good and truth, so all things in man have relation to the will and understanding; since good in man pertains to the will, and truth to the understanding; for these two faculties or these two lives of man are their receptacles and subjects - the will being the receptacle and subject of all things of good, and the understanding the receptacle and subject of all things of truth. Here and nowhere else are the goods and truths in man, and as goods and truths in man are nowhere else, so love and faith are nowhere else, since love belongs to good and good to love, while faith belongs to truth and truth to faith.

3. Again, the will and understanding constitute man's spirit, for in these his wisdom and intelligence reside, also his love and charity, and in general his life. The body is mere obedience.

4. Nothing is more important than to know how the will and understanding make one mind. They make one mind as good and truth make one; for there is a marriage between the will and the understanding the same as between good and truth. The nature of that marriage will be made clear in what is now to be set forth respecting good and truth, namely, that as good is the very being [esse] of a thing, and truth its manifestation [existere] there from, so is the will in man the very being of his life, while the understanding is its manifestation therefrom; for good, which belongs to the will, takes form in the understanding, and there presents itself to view.

(True Christian Religion 397)

To be continued ...

Charity and Good Works (pt. 4)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 4)
v Doctrinal Series v

I. THERE ARE THREE UNIVERSAL LOVES:
THE LOVE OF HEAVEN, THE LOVE OF THE WORLD, AND THE LOVE OF SELF.

That these three loves reside in every man from creation and therefore from birth, and that when rightly subordinated they perfect him, and when not, they pervert him.... It may serve for the present merely to state, that-

these three loves are rightly subordinated when the love of heaven forms the head, the love of the world the breast and abdomen, and the love of self the feet and their soles.

... the human mind is divided into three regions.

From the highest region man looks to God, from the second or middle region to the world, and from the third or lowest to himself.

The mind being such it can be raised and can raise itself upward, because to God and to heaven; it can be extended and can extend itself to the sides in all directions, because into the world and its nature; and it can be let downward and let itself downward, because to earth and to hell. In these respects the bodily vision emulates the mind's vision; it also can look upward, round about, and downward.

The human mind is like a house of three stories which communicate by stairs-

in the highest of which angels from heaven dwell, in the middle men in the world, and in the lowest one, genii.

The man in whom these three loves are rightly subordinated can ascend and descend in this house at his pleasure; and when he ascends to the highest story, he is in company with angels as an angel; and when he descends from that to the middle story he is in company with men as an angel man; and when from this he descends still further, he is in company with genii as a man of the world, instructing, reproving, and subduing them.

In the man in whom these three loves are rightly subordinated, they are also coordinated thus:

The highest love, which is the love of heaven, is inwardly in the second, which is the love of the world, and through this in the third or lowest, which is the love of self; and the love that is within directs at its will that which is without.

So when the love of heaven is inwardly in the love of the world, and through this in the love of self, man from the God of heaven, performs uses in each.

In their operation these three loves are like will, understanding, and action-

the will flows into the understanding, and there provides itself with the means whereby it produces action.

But on these points more will be seen ... that these three loves, when rightly subordinated, perfect man, but when not rightly subordinated, pervert and invert him.

In order that what follows ... may be so presented in the light of reason as to be clearly seen, it is necessary to premise something respecting the will and understanding, good and truth, love in general, the love of the world and love of self in particular, the external and internal man, and the merely natural and sensual man. These things must be made clear, that the rational sight of man, in his perception of what follows further on, may not be as it were in a dense fog, and in that state be like one wandering through the streets of a city until he knows not the way home. For what is theology separated from the understanding, or with the understanding not enlightened when the Word is read, but like a lamp in the hand giving no light, such as were those of the five foolish virgins who had no oil?

(True Christian Religion 395 - 396)

To be continued ...