Cultivating The Rational

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The genuine rational consists of truths and not of falsities; whatever consists of falsities is not rational.

There are three kinds of truths, civil, moral, and spiritual. —

• Civil truths relate to matters of judgment and of government in kingdoms, and in general to what is just and equitable in them.
• Moral truths pertain to the matters of everyone's life which have regard to companionships and social relations, in general to what is honest and right, and in particular to virtues of every kind.
• Spiritual truths relate to matters of heaven and of the Church, and in general to the good of love and the truth of faith.

In every man there are three degrees of life. —

The rational is opened to the first degree by civil truths, to the second degree by moral truths, and to the third degree by spiritual truths. But it ought to be known that the rational that consists of these truths is not formed and opened by man's knowing them, but by his living according to them; and by living according to them is meant loving them from spiritual affection; and to love truths from spiritual affection is:

• to love what is just and equitable because it is just and equitable
• what is honest and right because it is honest and right
• what is good and true because it is good and true

while living according to them and loving them from the bodily affection is to love them for the sake of self and for the sake of one's reputation, honour or gain. Consequently, so far as man loves these truths from a bodily affection he fails to become rational, for he loves, not them, but himself; and the truths are made to serve him as servants serve their lord; and when truths become servants they do not enter the man and open any degree of his life, not even the first, but merely rest in the memory as knowledges under a material form, and there conjoin themselves with the love of self, which is a bodily love.

From these things it can be confirmed how man becomes rational, namely, that he becomes rational to the third degree by a spiritual love of the good and truth which pertain to heaven and the Church, to the second degree by a love of what is honest and right, and to the first degree by a love of what is just and equitable. These two latter loves also become spiritual from a spiritual love of good and truth, because that love flows into them and conjoins itself to them and forms in them, as it were, its own semblance.

(from Heaven and Hell 468)

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)