The Pure In Heart Shall See God

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How A Man Can Be More Nearly Conjoined With The Lord
How The Conjunction Appears More And More Near

How man is more and more nearly conjoined with the Lord:-
This is effected not by knowledge alone, nor by intelligence alone, nor even by wisdom alone, but by a life conjoined with these.

Man's life is his love, and love is manifold. In general, there is a love of evil and a love of good. The love of evil is a love of committing adultery, taking revenge, defrauding, blaspheming, depriving others of their goods. In thinking about these things and in doing them the love of evil has a sense of pleasure and delight. The derivatives of this love, which are its affections, are as many as are the evils into which it has determined itself; and the perceptions and thoughts of this love are as many as are the falsities that favor these evils and confirm them. These falsities make one with the evils, as the understanding makes one with the will; they are not separated from each other, for one is of the other.

Since, then, the Lord flows into the life's love of every one, and through its affections into the perceptions and thoughts, and not the reverse, as has been said above, it follows that the Lord can conjoin Himself more nearly only so far as the love of evil with its affections, which are lusts, has been set aside. And as these have their seat in the natural man, and as whatever a man does from the natural man is felt as if done from himself, so man ought as if from himself to put away the evils of that love; and so far as this is done by man, the Lord draws nearer and conjoins Himself with him. Any one can see from reason that lusts with their enjoyments block the way and close the doors before the Lord, and that these can not be cast out by the Lord so long as man himself holds the doors closed, and by pressing and pushing from without prevents their being opened. That man himself ought to open them is clear from the Lord's words in the Apocalypse:-

Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me (3: 20).

From this it is evident that so far as one shuns evils as diabolical and as obstacles to the Lord's entrance, he is more and more nearly conjoined with the Lord, and he the most nearly who abominates them as so many dusky and fiery devils; since evil and the devil are one, and the falsity of evil and Satan are one. For as the Lord's influx is into the love of good and into its affections, and through these affections into the perceptions and thoughts (and these are all truths by derivation from the good in which the man is), so the influx of the devil, that is, of hell, is into the love of evil and into its affections, which are lusts, and through these into the perceptions and thoughts (and these are all falsities by derivation from the evil in which the man is).

How that conjunction appears more and more near:-
The more fully evils in the natural man are put aside by shunning them and turning away from them, the more nearly is man conjoined with the Lord.

And as love and wisdom, which are the Lord Himself, are not in space (since affection, which belongs to love, and thought, which belongs to wisdom, have nothing in common with space), so the Lord appears to be nearer in the measure of the conjunction by love and wisdom; and on the other hand, more remote in the measure of the rejection of love and wisdom. In the spiritual world there is no space, but there distance and presence are appearances in accordance with similarities and dissimilarities of affections; for the reason, as has been said before, that affections, which belong to love, and thoughts, which belong to wisdom, and which in themselves are spiritual, are not in space.

The Lord's conjunction with a man in whom evils have been put away, is meant by these words of the Lord:-

The pure in heart shall see God (Matt. 5. 8);

and by these:-

He that hath My commandments and doeth them, I will make My abode with him (John 14: 21, 23).

"To have the commandments" is to know, and "to do them" is to love; for it is also there said: "He that doeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me."

(Divine Providence 33)

The Two Faculties of the Mind

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Thought Is Not Imputed To Anyone, But Will Only

Every educated man knows that the mind has two faculties or parts, the will and the understanding; but few know how to distinguish them aright, to examine their properties separately, and again unite them. Those who are unable to do this can form for themselves only the most obscure idea respecting the mind. Therefore. unless the properties of each are first separately described, this statement that thought is not imputed to anyone, but will only, cannot be understood. In brief, the properties of the two are as follows:

1. Love itself and the things pertaining to it reside in the will, and knowledge, intelligence and wisdom in the understanding; and these the will inspires with its love, and secures their favor and agreement; and the result is, that such as the love is, and the consequent intelligence, such is the man.
2. From this it also follows that all good as well as all evil belongs to the will; for whatever proceeds from the love is called good, even if it be evil, this being the result of delight, which constitutes the life of the love, the will, through its delight entering the understanding and producing consent.
3. Consequently the will is the being or essence of man's life, while the understanding is the outgo or existence therefrom. And as an essence is nothing except it is in some form, so the will is nothing unless it is in the understanding; wherefore the will takes form in the understanding, and thus comes to light.
4. Love in the will is the end, and in the understanding seeks and finds the causes whereby it advances into effect. And because the end is the purpose, and this is what the man intends, purpose also belongs to the will and through the intention enters the understanding and impels it to consider and evolve the means, and to conclude upon such things as tend to effects.
5. Everything that is man's very own is in the will, and is evil from the first birth, but it becomes good by means of the second birth. The first birth is from parents, but the second from the Lord.

From these few statements it can be seen that the property of the will and the property of the understanding are different; and that from creation these are conjoined like being and existence; consequently that man is man primarily from the will, and secondarily from the understanding. This is why thought is not imputed to man, but will, and consequently good and evil, because these, as before said, reside in the will and from that in the thought of the understanding.

(True Christian Religion 658)

According to the Angel's Use

Selection from Divine Lovea ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Each use draws its life from the general use and from that the necessary, useful and enjoyable things of life flow in according to the quality of the use and the quality of its affection.

This is an arcanum that has not yet been disclosed.

Something of it, indeed, appears in the world, but not in such clearness that it can be seen to be so, for in the world every man receives from the general use the necessary, useful and enjoyable things of life according to the excellence and extent of his service.  Some are remunerated from the general use, some are enriched from it. The general use is like a lake from which remunerations and riches flow. These are determined and produced by uses and pursuits which pertain to the affection — nevertheless what the uses themselves are in themselves cannot be concluded from these results — for in the world the evil as well as the good, those who perform no uses, and those who perform evil uses as well as those who perform good uses, are sometimes remunerated and grow rich. In the spiritual world it is otherwise. Uses are there laid bare, and their origin is revealed, and their place in the spiritual Man which is the Lord in the heavens. There everyone is rewarded according to the nobleness of his use, and at the same time according to his affection for use. There no idler is tolerated, no lazy vagabond, no indolent boaster claiming credit for the zeal and vigor of others; but everyone must be active, skillful, attentive and diligent in his office and business, and must put honor and reward not in the first place, but in the second or third.

So far as this is the case, the necessary, useful, and enjoyable things of life flow in with them. These flow in from the general use, because they are not gotten together for oneself, as in this world; but they exist in a moment, and are bestowed by the Lord gratuitously. And because in the spiritual world there is communication and extension of all thoughts and affections, and in heaven communication and extension of the affections of use according to their quality, and because all who are in the heavens are affected by uses and delight in them, on this account the necessary, useful, and enjoyable things of life flow abundantly out from the general use into the use of the man, and into the man who does the use, as a usufruct*.

The necessary things of life that are bestowed by the Lord gratuitously and that exist in a moment, are food, clothing and habitation, and these correspond throughout to the use in which the angel is. Things useful are those that are tributary to these three, and are delightful to him who receives them, as well as a variety of embellishments for the table, dress, and home, which are beautiful according to the angel's use, and of a splendor commensurate to his affection. Things enjoyable are those connected with wife, friends, and associates, all of whom love him and are loved by him. Such mutual and reciprocal love springs from every affection for use.

There are such things in heaven because there are such things in man, for heaven corresponds to all things of man.  The man who is in the affection of use from use or for the sake of use is a heaven in the least form. There can be in man no member, or any part in a member, that does not draw from the general use what is necessary, useful, and enjoyable, here the general use provides for every part according to its use; whatever is needed for its work by any part is conveyed to it from neighboring parts, and to these from parts that are near them, and thus from the whole; and the part in like manner shares its own with the rest according to their need. And so it is in the Divine spiritual Man, which is heaven, for so it is in the Lord.

From all this it is clear that every use is representative of all the uses in the whole body, and thus in every use there is the idea of the whole, and thereby an image of man. From this it is that an angel of heaven is a man according to use; and if it is permissible here to speak spiritually, it is from this that a use is a man-angel.

*usufruct - the right to enjoy the use and advantages of another's property short of the destruction or waste of its substance.

(from Divine Love XII)