No Effect Without a Cause, No Cause Without an End

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

What the internal man is, and what the external, is at this day known to few, if any. It is generally supposed that they are one and the same, and this chiefly because men believe that they do good, and think truth from what is their own, for it is the nature of man's Own to believe this; whereas the internal man is as distinct from the external as heaven is from earth. Both the learned and the unlearned, when reflecting on the subject, have no other conception respecting the internal man than its being thought, because it is within; and of the external man that it is the body, with its life of sense and pleasure, because this is without. 

Thought, however, which is thus ascribed to the internal man, does not belong thereto; for in the internal man there are nothing but goods and truths which are the Lord's, and in the interior man conscience has been implanted by the Lord; and yet the evil, and even the worst of men, have thought, and so have those who are devoid of conscience, which shows that man's thought does not belong to the internal, but to the external man. That the body, with its life of sense and pleasure, is not the external man, is evident from the fact that spirits equally possess an external man, although they have no such body as they had during their life in this world. 

What the internal man is, and what the external, no one can possibly know unless he knows that there is in every man a celestial and a spiritual that correspond to the angelic heaven, a rational that corresponds to the heaven of angelic spirits, and an interior sensuous that corresponds to the heaven of spirits. For there are three heavens, and as many in man, which are most perfectly distinct from each other; and hence it is that after death the man who has conscience is first in the heaven of spirits, afterwards is elevated by the Lord into the heaven of angelic spirits, and lastly into the angelic heaven, which could not possibly take place unless there were in him as many heavens, with which and with the state of which he has the capacity of corresponding. 

From this I have learned what constitutes the internal, and what the external man. The internal man is formed of what is celestial and spiritual; the interior or intermediate man, of what is rational; and the external man of what is sensuous, not belonging to the body, but derived from bodily things; and this is the case not only with man, but also with spirits. To speak in the language of the learned, these three, the internal, the interior, and the external man, are like end, cause, and effect; and it is well known that there can be no effect without a cause, and no cause without an end.

Effect, cause, and end, are as distinct from each other as are what is exterior, what is interior, and what is inmost. Strictly speaking, the sensuous man - or he whose thought is grounded in sensuous things - is the external man, and the spiritual and celestial man is the internal man, and the rational man is intermediate between the two, being that by which the communication of the internal and the external man is effected. 

I am aware that few will apprehend these statements, because men live in external things, and think from them. Hence it is that some regard themselves as being like the brutes, and believe that on the death of the body they will die altogether, although they then first begin to live. 

After death, those who are good, at first live a sensuous life in the world or heaven of spirits, afterwards an interior sensuous life in the heaven of angelic spirits, and lastly an inmost sensuous life in the angelic heaven, this angelic life being the life of the internal man, and concerning which scarcely anything can be said that is comprehensible by man. The regenerate may know that there is such a life by reflecting on the nature of the good and the true, and of spiritual warfare, for it is the life of the Lord in man, since the Lord - through the internal man - works the good of charity and the truth of faith in his external man. What is thence perceived in his thought and affection is a certain general which contains innumerable things that come from the internal man, and which the man cannot possibly perceive until he enters the angelic heaven.

The things here said about the internal man, being above the apprehension of very many, are not necessary to salvation. It is sufficient to know that there is an internal and an external man, and to acknowledge and believe that all good and truth are from the Lord.

(Arcana Coelestia 978)

Living Aright from the Things We Know

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Bring forth abundantly in the earth, and be ye multiplied therein. (Genesis 9:7) That this signifies increase of good and truth in the external man, which is the earth; and that "to bring forth abundantly" is predicated of goods, and "to be multiplied" of truths.

Nothing is multiplied with the regenerate man in his external man, that is, nothing of good and truth receives increase, except as the effect of charity. Charity is like heat in the time of spring or summer, which causes grass and plants and trees to grow. Without charity, or spiritual heat, nothing grows, and for this reason it is here said in the first place, "Bring forth abundantly in the earth" which is predicated of the goods that are of charity, by means of which there is multiplication of good and truth. Anyone may understand how this is; for nothing is increased and multiplied in man unless there be some affection -

for it is the delight of the affection that causes it not only to take root, but also to increase, and everything depends upon the influence of the affection.

What a man loves he freely learns, retains, and cherishes - thus all things that favor any affection.

Those which do not favor, the man cares nothing for, regards as nothing, and even rejects.

But such as the affection is, such is the multiplication.

With the regenerate man the affection is that of good and truth from the charity that is given by the Lord. Whatever therefore favors that affection of charity he learns, retains, and cherishes, and thus confirms himself in goods and truths. This is signified by, "Bring forth abundantly in the earth and be ye multiplied therein."

To show that the multiplication is such as is the affection, take for example a man who accepts the principle that faith alone saves even if he does no work of charity, that is, even if he has no charity, and who thus separates faith from charity - not only on account of this principle received from childhood, but also because he supposes that if one should call the works of charity, or charity itself, an essential part of faith, and should on this account live aright, he could not but place merit in works, though this is a false supposition. Thus he rejects charity and makes the works of charity of no account, abiding only in the idea of faith, which is no faith without its essential, namely, charity. In confirming this principle in himself, he does it not at all from the affection of good, but from the affection of pleasure, that he may live in the indulgence of his cupidities. And anyone belonging to this class of people who confirms faith alone by many things, does so not from any affection of truth, but for his own glory, that he may seem greater, more learned, and more exalted than others, and may thus take a high place among those in wealth and honor; thus he does it from the delight of the affection, and this delight causes the multiplication of the confirmatory things; for, as has been said, such as the affection is, such is the multiplication.

In general, when the principle is false, nothing but falsities can follow from it; for all things conform themselves to the first principle.

Indeed those who confirm themselves in such principles about faith alone, and are in no charity, care nothing for, and are as if they did not see, all that the Lord said so many times about love and charity.

(To confirm this from the Letter of the Word see: Matt. 3:8-9; 5:7, 43-48; 6:12, 15; 7:1-20; 9:13; 12:33; 13:8, 23; 18:21-23 and to the end; 19:19; 21:34, 40-41, 43; 22:34-39; 24:12-13; 25:34 40, 41, 45; Mark 4:18-20; 11:13-14, 20; 12:28-35; Luke 3:8-9; 6:27-39, 43-49; 7:47; 8:8, 14-15; 10:25-28; 12:58-59; 13:6-10; John 3:19, 21; 5:42; 13:34-35; 14:14-15, 20-21, 23; 15:1-19; 21:15-17).

(from Arcana Coelestia 1016, 1017)

Doing From Love What Wisdom Teaches

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In man love and wisdom appear as two separate things, yet in themselves they are one distinctly, because with man wisdom is such as the love is, and love is such as the wisdom is.

• The wisdom that does not make one with its love appears to be wisdom, but it is not

• The love that does not make one with its wisdom appears to be the love of wisdom, but it is not 

— for the one must derive its essence and its life reciprocally from the other. 

With man love and wisdom appear as two separate things, because with him the capacity for understanding may be elevated into the light of heaven, but not the capacity for loving, except so far as he acts according to his understanding. Any apparent wisdom, therefore, which does not make one with the love of wisdom, sinks back into the love which does make one with it - this may be a love of unwisdom, yea, of insanity. Thus a man may know from wisdom that he ought to do this or that, and yet he does not do it, because he does not love it. 

But so far as a man does from love what wisdom teaches, he is an image of God.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 39)