Reverential Fear and Fear Not Sacred

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Speaking generally, "fear" is of two kinds — fear in what is not sacred, and fear in what is sacred.

Fear in what is not sacred is the fear in which are the wicked, but fear in what is sacred is the fear in which are the good. This latter fear (to wit that in which are the good) is called reverential or sacred fear and is the result of our wonder at and longing for what is Divine, and also of our love. Love that is devoid of reverential or sacred fear is as it were devoid of savor, or is like food unseasoned with salt, and consequently insipid; but love that is attended with fear is like food that is seasoned, but yet does not taste of salt. The fear of love is a fear of injuring the Lord in any way, or of injuring the neighbor in any way, thus of injuring what is good and true in any way, and consequently of injuring the sacred things of love and faith and the consequent worship. But this fear is various, and is not the same with one person as with another. Speaking generally, the greater the amount of the love of good and truth, the greater the fear of injuring them; and yet in the same proportion this fear does not appear to be fear; whereas the less the amount of the love of good and truth, the less the fear on their account, and the less this fear appears to be love, but appears to be fear; hence with such the fear of hell. And where there is nothing of the love of good and truth, there is nothing of reverential or sacred fear; but only fear of the loss of honor, of gain, of reputation for the sake of these, and also of penalties and death; which fear is external, and chiefly affects the body and the natural man and its thoughts; whereas the former fear, that is, reverential or sacred fear, chiefly affects the spirit, that is, the internal man, and its conscience.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3718)

Faith From Charity

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There is spiritual faith, and there is faith merely natural. Spiritual faith is wholly from charity, and in its essence is charity. Charity, or love towards the neighbor, is to love truth, sincerity, and what is just, and to do them from willing them.

For the neighbor in the spiritual sense is not every man, but it is that which is with man; if this be truth, sincerity, and what is just, and the man is loved on account of these, then the neighbor is loved.

That this is what charity means, in the spiritual sense, anyone may know if he will but reflect.

Everyone loves another, not for the sake of his person, but for the sake of what is with him; this is the ground of all friendship, all favor, and all honor.

From this it follows, that to love men for the sake of what is true, sincere, and just in them is spiritual love; for what is true, sincere, and just are spiritual things, because they are out of heaven from the Lord. For no man thinks, wills, and does any good thing that is good in itself, but it is all from the Lord; and what is true, sincere, and just are good things that are good in themselves when they are from the Lord. These things, then, are the neighbor in the spiritual sense; from which it is clear what is meant in that sense by loving the neighbor, or by charity. From that is spiritual faith; for whatever is loved is called truth when it is thought. Everyone can see that this is so if he will reflect upon it, for everyone confirms that which he loves by many things in the thought, and all things by which he confirms himself he calls truths; no one has truth from any other source. From this it follows, that the truths a man has are such as is the love with him; consequently, if the love with him is spiritual, the truths will also be spiritual, since the truths act as one with his love. All truths, because they are believed, are called in one complex, faith. From this it is clear that spiritual faith in its essence is charity. So far concerning spiritual faith.

But faith merely natural is not a faith of the church, although it is called faith, but is merely knowing [scientia]. It is not a faith of the church, because it does not proceed from love to the neighbor, or charity, which is the spiritual itself from which faith comes, but proceeds from some natural love that has reference either to love of self or to love of the world, and whatever proceeds from these loves is natural.

Love forms the spirit of man; for man in respect to his spirit is wholly as his love is; from that he thinks, from that he wills, and from that acts; therefore he makes no other truth to be of his faith than that which is of his love

and truth that is of the love of self or the world is merely natural, because it comes from man and from the world, and not from the Lord and from heaven; for such a man loves truth, not from a love of truth but from a love of honor, of gain and of fame, which he serves; and as his truth is such, his faith also is such. This faith, therefore, is not a faith of the truth of the church, or faith in a spiritual sense, but only in a natural sense which is a mere knowing [scientia]. And again because nothing of this is in man's spirit but only in his memory, together with other things of this world, therefore also after death it is dissipated. For only that which is of man's love remains with him after death, for (as has been said) it is love that forms man's spirit, and man in respect to his spirit is wholly such as his love is.

(from Apocalypse Explained 204:2-3))

What Regeneration is, and Why it is Effected

Selection from New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

He who does not receive spiritual life, that is, who is not begotten anew by the Lord, cannot come into heaven; which the Lord teaches in John:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except anyone be begotten again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (3:3).

Man is not born of his parents into spiritual life, but into natural life. Spiritual life consists in loving God above all things, and in loving his neighbor as himself, and this according to the precepts of faith, which the Lord has taught in the Word. But natural life consists in loving ourselves and the world more than the neighbor, yea, more than God Himself.

Every man is born of his parents into the evils of the love of self and of the world. Every evil, which by habit has acquired as it were a nature, is derived into the offspring; thus it descends successively from parents, from grandfathers, and from great-grandfathers, in a long series backwards; whence the derivation of evil at length becomes so great, that the whole of man's own life is nothing else but evil. This continual derivation of evil is not broken and altered, except by the life of faith and charity from the Lord.

Man continually inclines to, and lapses into, what he derives from heredity: hence he confirms with himself that evil, and also superadds more from himself. These evils are altogether contrary to spiritual life; they destroy it; wherefore, unless man receives new life, which is spiritual life, from the Lord, thus unless he is conceived anew, is born anew, is educated anew, that is, is created anew, he is damned; for he wills nothing else, and thence thinks nothing else, but what is of self and the world, in like manner as they do in hell.

No man can be regenerated unless he knows such things as are of the new life, that is, of spiritual life. The things which are of the new life, or which are of the spiritual life, are truths which are to be believed and goods which are to be done; the former are of faith, the latter of charity. These things no one can know from himself, for man apprehends only those things which are obvious to the senses, from which he procures to himself a light which is called natural light, from which he sees nothing else than what relates to the world and to self, but not the things which relate to heaven and to God. These he must learn from revelation. As that the Lord, who is God from eternity, came into the world to save the human race; that He has all power in heaven and in earth; that the all of faith and the all of charity, thus all truth and good, is from Him; that there is a heaven, and a hell; and that man is to live to eternity, in heaven if he has done well, in hell if he has done evil.

These and many other things belong to faith, which the man who is regenerating ought to know; for he who knows them, may think them, afterwards will them, and lastly do them, and so have new life. Whilst he who does not know that the Lord is the Savior of the human race, cannot have faith in Him, love Him, and thus do good for the sake of Him. He who does not know that all good is from Him, cannot think that his own salvation is from Him, still less can he will it to be so, thus he cannot live from Him. He who does not know that there is a hell and a heaven, nor that there is eternal life, cannot even think about the life of heaven, nor apply himself to receive it, and so in other cases.

Everyone has an internal man and an external man; the internal is what is called the spiritual man, and the external is what is called the natural man, and each is to be regenerated, that the man may be regenerated. With the man who is not regenerated, the external or natural man rules, and the internal serves; but with the man who is regenerated, the internal or spiritual man rules, and the external serves. Whence it is manifest that the order of life is inverted with man from his birth, namely, that serves which ought to rule, and that rules which ought to serve. In order that man may be saved, this order must be inverted; and this inversion can by no means exist, but by regeneration from the Lord.

What it is for the internal man to rule and the external to serve, and vice versa, may be illustrated by this: If a man places all his good in pleasure, in gain, and in pride, and has delight in hatred and revenge, and inwardly in himself seeks for reasons which confirm them, then the external man rules and the internal serves. But when a man perceives good and delight in thinking and willing well, sincerely, and justly, and in outwardly speaking and doing in like manner, then the internal man rules and the external serves.

The internal man is first regenerated by the Lord, and afterwards the external, and the latter by means of the former. For the internal man is regenerated by thinking those things which are of faith and charity, but the external by a life according to them. This is meant by the words of the Lord:

Unless anyone be begotten of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

"Water," in the spiritual sense, is the truth of faith, and "the spirit" is a life according to it.

The man who is regenerated is, as to his internal man, in heaven, and is an angel there with the angels, among whom he also comes after death; he is then able to live the life of heaven, to love the Lord, to love the neighbor, to understand truth, to relish good, and to perceive the happiness thence derived.

(New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 173-182)