Turning To One's Own Love

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• Before the evil are cast down into hell they are devastated of truths and goods, and when these have been taken away they are of themselves carried into hell.
• The Lord does not devastate them, but they devastate themselves.
• Every evil has in it what is false; therefore those who are in evil are also in falsity, although some do not know it. Those who are in evil must needs think what is false when they think from themselves. All who are in hell speak falsities from evil.

All who are in the hells are in evils and in falsities therefrom, and no one there is in evils and at the same time in truths.

For the most part, evil men in the world have some knowledge of spiritual truths, which are the truths of the Church, having been taught them from childhood and later through preaching and the reading of the Word; and afterwards, they have talked about them. Some have even led others to believe that they are Christians at heart because of their knowing how to speak with pretended affection from truths, also how to act honestly as if from spiritual faith. But those among them whose interior thoughts have been hostile to these truths, and who have refrained from doing the evils that were in harmony with their thoughts, only because of the civil laws, or with a view to reputation, honors, and gain, are all of them evil in heart, and are in truths and goods not in respect of their spirit but only in respect of their body.

Consequently, when their externals are taken away from them in the other life, and the internals that their spirit had are revealed, they are wholly in evils and falsities, and not at all in truths and goods.

It is clear that truths and goods resided only in their memory merely as things known, and that they brought them forth therefrom when talking, pretending to the goods seemingly from spiritual love and faith.

When such are let into their internals and thus into their evils they are no longer able to speak what is true, but only what is false, since they speak from evils; for to speak true things from evils is then impossible, since the spirit is nothing but his own evil, and from evil that which is false goes forth.

Every evil spirit is reduced to this state before he is cast into hell. This is called being vastated in respect of truths and goods. Vastation is simply being let into one's internals, that is, into what is the spirit's proprium, or into the spirit itself.

When a man after death is such, he is no longer a man-spirit, as he was in his first state, but is truly a spirit; for he is truly a spirit who has a face and body corresponding to his internals which pertain to his mind (animus), that is, has an external form that is a type or effigy of his internals. A spirit is such after he has passed through the first and second states; consequently, when he is looked upon, his character is at once known, not only from his face but also from his body, and even more so from his speech and movements; and as he is then in himself he can be nowhere else than where his like are.

For in the spiritual world, there is a complete sharing of affections and the thoughts therefrom, and in consequence, a spirit is conveyed to his like as if of himself, since it is done from his own affection and its delight. In fact, he turns himself in that direction; for thus he inhales his own life or draws his breath freely, which he cannot do when he turns another way. It ought to be known that this sharing with others in the spiritual world is effected in accordance with the turning of the face, and that each one has constantly before his face those who are in a love like his own, and this in every turning of the body.

In consequence of this, all infernal spirits turn themselves backwards from the Lord towards the dense blackness and the darkness that are there in place of the sun and moon of this world, while all the angels of heaven turn themselves to the Lord as the Sun of heaven and as the Moon of heaven. From these things now it can be established that all who are in the hells are in evils and in falsities therefrom; also that they are turned to their own loves.

(from Heaven and Hell 551 - 552)

The Faith of The New Heaven and The New Church

Selection from Brief Exposition ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah, and proclaim there this word: Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Render good your ways and your words; trust ye not upon the words of a lie, saying, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah is here [that is, the church]. Will ye steal, kill, commit adultery, and swear falsely, and after that come and stand before Me in this house, whereon My name is called, and say, we are delivered, whilst ye do all these abominations? Is not this house become a den of robbers? Even I behold, I have seen, saith Jehovah.  Jeremiah (7:2-4, 9-11)

THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH IN ITS UNIVERSAL FORM, is this:

That the Lord from eternity who is Jehovah, came into the world that He might subdue the hells, and glorify His Human; and that without this no mortal could have been saved; and that they are saved who believe in Him.

It is said in the universal form, because this is the universal of faith, and the universal of faith is what must enter into each and all things.

It is a universal of faith, that God is one in essence and Person, in whom is the Trinity, and that the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ is He.

It is a universal of faith, that no mortal could have been saved, unless the Lord had come into the world. It is a universal of faith, that He came into the world to remove hell from man, and He removed it by combats against it, and by victories over it; thus He subdued it, and reduced it to order, and under obedience to Himself.

It is a universal of faith, that He came into the world to glorify the Human which He assumed in the world, that is, to unite it with the Divine from which it was; thus, having subdued hell, He keeps it in order and under obedience to Himself to eternity. Inasmuch as both these could only be effected by means of temptations admitted into His Human, even to the last, which was the passion of the cross, therefore He endured that.

These are the universals of faith concerning the Lord.

The universal of Christian faith on man's part is, that he should believe in the Lord, for by believing in Him conjunction with Him is effected, and by conjunction salvation. To believe in Him, is to have confidence that He will save; and because none can have such confidence but he who lives well, therefore this is also meant by believing in Him.

THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH, IN ITS PARTICULAR FORM, is this:

That Jehovah God is love itself and wisdom itself, or that He is good itself and truth itself; and that as to the Divine truth itself, which is the Word, and which was God with God, He came down and assumed the Human, for the purpose of restoring to order all things which were in heaven, and all things which were in hell, and all things which were in the church; inasmuch as at that time, the power of the devil, that is, of hell, prevailed over the power of heaven, and on earth the power of evil over the power of good; and thence a total damnation stood before the door and threatened. This impending damnation Jehovah God removed by His Human, which was the Divine truth, and thus He redeemed both angels and men; and afterwards He united in His Human the Divine truth to the Divine good, and thus He returned into His Divine, in which He was from eternity, together with His glorified Human. This is signified by these words in John:

The Word was with God, and God was the Word; and the Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14).

And by this in the same:

I went forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father (John 16:28).

Hence it appears, that without the coming of the Lord into the world, no one could have been saved. The case is similar at this day; wherefore, unless the Lord come again into the world in Divine truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved.

The particulars of faith on the part of man are these:

I. That God is one, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ.
II. That saving faith is to believe in Him.
III. That evils ought to be shunned, because they are of the devil and from the devil.
IV. That goods ought to be done, because they are of God and from God.
V. And that they should be done by man as of himself, but that he must believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him.

The first two have relation to faith; the next two to charity; and the fifth respects the conjunction of charity and faith, and thereby of the Lord and man.

(Brief Exposition 116 - 117)

Providence In The Veriest Singulars

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Foresight and Providence in general ~ foresight relatively to man, providence relatively to the Lord.

The Lord foresaw from eternity what the human race would be, and what would be the quality of each member of it, and that evil would continually increase, until at last man of himself would rush headlong into hell. On this account, the Lord has not only provided means by which man may be turned from hell and led to heaven but also from providence He continually turns and leads him. The Lord also foresaw that it would be impossible for any good to be rooted in man except in his freedom, for whatever is not rooted in freedom is dissipated on the first approach of evil and temptation. This the Lord foresaw, and also that man of himself, or from his freedom, would incline toward the deepest hell.  Therefore the Lord provides that if a man should not suffer himself to be led in freedom to heaven, he may still be bent toward a milder hell, but that if he should suffer himself to be led in freedom to good, he may be led to heaven. This shows what foresight means, and what providence, and that what is foreseen is thus provided.

And from this we can see how greatly the man errs who believes that the Lord has not foreseen, and does not see, the veriest singulars appertaining to man, and that in these He does not foresee and lead; when the truth is that —

the Lord's foresight and providence are in the very minutest of these veriest singulars connected with man, in things so very minute that it is impossible by any thought to comprehend as much as one out of a hundred millions of them; for every smallest moment of man's life involves a series of consequences extending to eternity, each moment being as a new beginning to those which follow; and so with all and each of the moments of his life, both of his understanding and of his will.

And as the Lord foresaw from eternity what would be man's quality, and what it would be to eternity, it is evident that His providence is in the veriest singulars, and as before said governs and bends the man to such a quality; and this by a continual moderating of his freedom.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3854)