Charity and Good Works (pt. 11)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 11)
v Doctrinal Series v

II. THESE THREE LOVES, WHEN RIGHTLY SUBORDINATED, PERFECT MAN,
BUT WHEN NOT RIGHTLY SUBORDINATED,
THEY PERVERT AND INVERT HIM.

Something shall first be said of the subordination of these three universal loves, which are the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self, and then of the influx and insertion of one into the other, and finally of man's state according to that subordination. These three loves are related to each other like the three regions of the body, the highest of which is the head; the intermediate, the chest and abdomen, while the knees and feet and soles of the feet form the third. When the love of heaven constitutes the head, love of the world the chest and abdomen, and love of self the feet and their soles, man is in a perfect state in accordance with his creation, because the two lower loves then minister to the highest, as the body and all its parts minister to the head. So when the love of heaven constitutes the head, it flows into the love of the world, which is chiefly a love of wealth, and by means of wealth it performs uses; and through this latter love it flows mediately into the love of self, which is chiefly the love of dignities, and by means of these dignities it performs uses. Thus do these three loves, by the influx of one into the other, breathe forth uses.

Who does not comprehend, that when a man desires to perform uses from spiritual love, which is from the Lord and is what is meant by the love of heaven, his natural man performs them by means of his wealth and his other goods (the sensual man cooperating in its function), and that it is to his honor to produce them?

Who does not also comprehend that all the works that a man does with his body are done according to the state of his mind in the head; and if the mind is in the love of uses, the body by means of its members accomplishes them?

And this is so, because the will and the understanding in their principles are in the head, and in their derivatives in the body, as the will is in deeds, and the thought in speech, and comparatively as the prolific principle of the seed is in the whole tree and in every part of it, and through these produces fruit, which is its use. Or it is like fire and light within a crystalline vase which thereby becomes warm and shows the light through it.

And again, the spiritual sight of the mind together with the natural sight of the body, in one in whom these three loves are truly and rightly subordinated, because of the light that flows in through heaven from the Lord, may be likened to an African apple, which is transparent to the very center, where there is the repository of the seeds. Something like this is meant by these words of the Lord,

The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be single (that is, sound), the whole body is full of light (Matt. 6:22; Luke 11:34).

No man of sound reason can condemn wealth, for it is in the general body like the blood in a man; nor can he condemn the honors attached to office, for they are the hands of the king and the pillars of society, provided the natural and sensual love of them is subordinated to spiritual love. Moreover, there are administrative offices in heaven and honors attached to them; but those who administer them love nothing better than to perform uses, because they are spiritual.

But when love of the world or of wealth forms the head, that is, when it is the ruling love, man puts on a wholly different state; for then the love of heaven is exiled from the head and betakes itself to the body.

The man who is in this state prefers the world to heaven; he worships God indeed, but from merely natural love which places merit in all worship; he also does good to the neighbor, but for the sake of recompense.

To such, heavenly things are like clothing, clad in which they appear before the eyes of men to be walking in brightness, but before the eyes of angels they appear indistinct, for when love of the world possesses the internal man, and the love of heaven the external, the former makes all things belonging to the church obscure and hides them as under a veil.

But this love is of great variety, worse in the degree that it verges toward avarice, in which the love of heaven grows black; so too if it verges toward pride and eminence over others from love of self. It is different if it verges towards prodigality, and is less hurtful if it has in view as an end the splendors of the world, as palaces, ornaments, magnificent clothing, servants, horses and carriages pompously arrayed, and other like things.

The character of every love is determined by the end which it regards and intends.

This love may be compared to blackish glass, which smothers the light and variegates it only in dark and evanescent hues. It is also like mists and clouds which take away the rays of the sun. It is also like new, unfermented wine, which tastes sweet but disturbs the stomach.

Such a man when viewed from heaven looks like a hunchback, walking with his head down looking at the ground, and when he raises his head towards heaven he strains the muscles, and quickly drops it down again. The ancients in the church called such men Mammons, and the Greeks called them Plutos.

(True Christian Religion 403 - 404)

To be continued ...

Charity and Good Works (pt. 10)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 10)
v Doctrinal Series v

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

(6) The merely natural and sensual man.

As there are few that know who are meant by sensual men, and what their nature is, and yet it is important to know it, therefore they shall be described:
1. He is called a sensual man who judges of all things by the bodily senses, and who believes in nothing except what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, calling this something real, and rejecting everything else; consequently, the sensual man is the lowest natural man.

2. The interiors of his mind, which see from the light of heaven, are closed, so that he there sees nothing of the truth that pertains to heaven and the church, since he thinks in outermosts, and not interiorly from any spiritual light.

3. Because he is in gross natural light he is inwardly opposed to the things of heaven and the church, although outwardly he may advocate them with a zeal proportionate to the dominion he may thereby secure.

4. Sensual men reason keenly and ingeniously, because their thought is so near to speech as to be almost in it, and, as it were, on the lips, and because they place all intelligence in speech from memory only.

5. Some of them can confirm whatever they wish, and can confirm falsities dexterously; and after confirming them they believe them to be truths; but their reasoning and confirming are from the fallacies of the senses, which captivate and persuade the common people.

6. Sensual men are more shrewd and crafty than others.

7. The interiors of their minds are loathsome and foul, because through them they communicate with the hells.

8. Those who are in the hells are sensual, and the deeper they are the more sensual. The sphere of infernal itself with the sensual things of man from behind.

9. Sensual men do not see any genuine truth in light, but reason and dispute about everything, as to whether it is so or not; and these disputes when heard at a distance from them are like the gnashings of teeth, which viewed in themselves are the collision of falsities with each other, and also of falsity and truth. This therefore makes plain what is meant in the Word by the "gnashing of teeth," because reasoning from the fallacies of the senses corresponds to the teeth.

10. Accomplished and learned men who have deeply confirmed themselves in falsities, and still more those who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the Word, are more sensual than others, although they do not appear so to the world. Heretical doctrines have been introduced chiefly by such sensual men.

11. The hypocritical, the deceitful, the voluptuous, the adulterous, and the avaricious, are for the most part sensual.

12. Those who reason from sensual things only, and against the genuine truths of the Word and consequently of the church, were called by the ancients serpents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

As sensual things mean the things presented to the bodily senses and imbibed through those senses, it follows:
13. That by means of sensual things man communicates with the world, and by means of things rational above the sensual he communicates with heaven.

14. Things sensual furnish such things from the natural world as are of service to the interiors of the mind in the spiritual world.

15. There are sensual things that minister to the understanding, and these are the various natural studies called physics; and there are sensual things that minister to the will, and these are the delights of the senses and the body.

16. Unless the thought is elevated above natural things man has but little wisdom. The wise man thinks above sensual things; and when thought is elevated above what is sensual it enters into clearer light, and finally into the light of heaven; from this man has perception of truth which is properly intelligence.

17. The elevation of the mind above sensual things, and its withdrawal therefrom, was known to the ancients.

18. When sensual things are in the last place, by means of them a way is opened for the understanding, and truths are disengaged by a kind of extraction; but when sensual things are in the first place they close the way, and man sees truths only as in a mist, or as at night.

19. In a wise man sensual things are in the last place, and are subject to more interior things; but in an unwise man they are in the first place and have dominion. Such as these are they who are properly called sensual.

20. In man there are sensual things that he has in common with beasts, and others not so. To the extent that one thinks above sensual things, he is a man; but no one can think above sensual things and see the truths of the church, unless he acknowledges God and lives according to His commandments; for it is God who elevates and enlightens.

(True Christian Religion 402)

To be continued ...

Charity and Good Works (pt. 9)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt.9)
v Doctrinal Series v

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

(5) The internal and external man.

1. Man was created so as to be at the same time in the spiritual world and in the natural world. The spiritual world is where angels are, and the natural world where men are. And as man was so created, there was given him an internal and an external - an internal whereby he is in the spiritual world, and an external whereby he is in the natural world. His internal is what is called the internal man, and his external the external man.

2. Every man has an internal and an external, but with a difference between the good and the evil. With the good the internal is in heaven and its light, and the external in the world and its light; and this light of the world in them is illumined by the light of heaven, and therefore in them the internal and external act as one, like cause and effect, or like the prior and the posterior. But with the evil the internal is in hell and its light, and this light, in comparison with the light of heaven is thick darkness, although their external may be in a light like that in which the good are; thus there is an inversion. On this account the evil, just like the good, can talk and teach about faith, charity, and God, but not from faith, charity, and God.

3. The internal man is what is called the spiritual man, because it is in the light of heaven, which is a spiritual light; while the external man is called the natural man, because it is in the light of the world, which is a natural light. The man whose internal is in the light of heaven, and his external in the light of the world, is a spiritual man in regard to both, because spiritual light from the interior illumines the natural light, and makes it as its own. But the reverse is true of the evil.

4. The internal spiritual man viewed in himself is an angel of heaven, and while living in the body is in association with angels, although he does not know it; and when released from the body he goes among angels. But with the evil the internal man is a satan, and while living in the body is in association with satans, and when released from the body goes among them.

5. With those who are spiritual men, the interiors of the mind are actually elevated towards heaven, for they look primarily to that; but with those who are merely natural, the interiors of the mind are turned away from heaven and towards the world, because they look primarily to the world.

6. Those who cherish a merely general idea of the internal and external man, believe that it is the internal man that thinks and wills, and the external that speaks and acts, because thinking and willing are internal, while speech and action are external. But let it be understood that when a man thinks and wills rightly respecting the Lord and the things pertaining to the Lord, and respecting the neighbor and what pertains to the neighbor, he thinks and wills from a spiritual internal, because from a belief in truth and a love of good; but when his thought and will respecting these things are evil, his thought and will are from an infernal internal, because from a belief in falsity and a love of evil. In a word, so far as man is in love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, he is in a spiritual internal, and from that internal thinks and wills and also speaks and acts; while so far as he is in the love of self and the world, he thinks and wills from hell, even when he speaks and acts otherwise.

7. It has been provided and arranged by the Lord, that so far as man thinks and wills from heaven, the spiritual man is opened and formed, the opening being into heaven even to the Lord, while the forming is in conformity to the things of heaven. But on the contrary so far as man thinks and wills, not from heaven but from the world, so far the internal spiritual man is closed, and the external is opened and formed, the opening being into the world, while the forming is in conformity to the things of hell.

8. Those in whom the internal spiritual man is opened into heaven to the Lord are in the light of heaven, and in enlightenment from the Lord, and thereby in intelligence and wisdom; these see truth from the light of truth and perceive good from the love of good. But those in whom the internal spiritual man is closed do not know what the internal man is, neither do they believe in the Word or in a life after death, or in the things pertaining to heaven and the church; and because they are in merely natural light, they believe nature to be from itself and not from God; they see falsity as truth, and have a perception of evil as good.

9. The internal and external here treated are the internal and external of man's spirit; his body is only an additional external within which the former exist; for the body in no way acts from itself, but acts only from the spirit that is in it. It must be understood that the spirit of man, after its release from the body, thinks and wills and speaks and acts, just as before. Thinking and willing are its internal, while speech and action then constitute its external.

(True Christian Religion 401)

To be continued ...