Charity and Good Works (pt. 34)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 34)
v Doctrinal Series v

X. THERE ARE DUTIES OF CHARITY, SOME PUBLIC, SOME DOMESTIC, AND SOME PRIVATE

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The private duties of charity are also numerous, such as the payment of wages to workmen, the payment of interest, the fulfillment of contracts, the guarding of securities, and so on, some of which are duties enforced by statute law, some by common law, and some by moral law. These duties also are discharged by those who are in charity from one state of mind, and by those who are not in charity from another state of mind.

Those who are in charity perform them justly and faithfully; for it is a precept of charity that everyone should act justly and faithfully toward all with whom he has any business or dealing (on which above, n. 422-425). But those who are not in charity discharge these same duties very differently.

(True Christian Religion 432)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 33)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 33)
v Doctrinal Series v

X. THERE ARE DUTIES OF CHARITY, SOME PUBLIC, SOME DOMESTIC, AND SOME PRIVATE

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The domestic duties of charity are those of the husband toward the wife, and of the wife toward the husband, of fathers and mothers toward their children, and of children towards their fathers and mothers, also the duties of masters and mistresses towards servants, male and female, and of the latter towards the former. These duties, because they are the duties of education and management at home, are so numerous that if recounted they would fill a volume. To the discharge of these duties everyone is moved by a love different from that which moves him to discharge the duties of his employment; husbands and wives are moved to their duties towards each other by marriage love and according to it; parents towards their children by the love implanted in everyone, called parental love; and children towards their parents by and according to another love which is closely connected with obedience from a sense of duty. But the duties of masters and mistresses towards their servants, male and female, have their source in the love of governing, and this love is according to the state of each one's mind.

But marriage love and the love of children, with the duties of these loves and the practice of these duties, do not produce love to the neighbor as the practice of the duties in one's employment does; for the love called parental love exists equally with the bad and the good, and is sometimes stronger with the bad; moreover, it exists in beasts and birds, in which no charity can be formed. It is known that it exists with bears, tigers, and serpents, as much as with sheep and goats, and with owls as much as with doves.

As to the duties of parents to children in particular, they are inwardly different with those who are in charity and those who are not, although externally they appear alike. With those who are in charity, that love is conjoined with love towards the neighbor and love to God; for by such children are loved according to their morals, virtues, good will, and qualifications for serving the public. But with those who are not in charity, there is no conjunction of charity with the love called parental love; consequently, many such parents love even wicked, immoral, and crafty children more than the good, moral, and discreet; thus they love those who are useless to the public, more than those who are useful.

(True Christian Religion 431)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 32)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 32)
v Doctrinal Series v

X. THERE ARE DUTIES OF CHARITY, SOME PUBLIC, SOME DOMESTIC, AND SOME PRIVATE

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The public duties of charity are especially the payment of tribute and taxes, which ought not to be confounded with official duties.

Those who are spiritual pay these with one disposition of heart, and those who are merely natural with another.

The spiritual pay them from good will, because they are collected for the preservation of their country, and for its protection and the protection of the church, also for the administration of government by officials and governors, to whom salaries and stipends must be paid from the public treasury. Those, therefore, to whom their country and also the church are the neighbor, pay their taxes willingly and cheerfully, and regard it as iniquitous to deceive or defraud.

But those to whom their country and the church are not the neighbor pay them unwillingly and with resistance; and at every opportunity defraud and withhold; for to such their own household and their own flesh are the neighbor.

(True Christian Religion 430)