When Truth is Detained in the Memory

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Man is never born into any truth, not even into any natural truth - as that he should not steal, should not kill, should not commit adultery, and the like; still less is he born into any spiritual truth - as that there is a God, and that he has an internal which will live after death. Thus of himself man knows nothing that relates to eternal life. Man learns both these kinds of truth; otherwise he would be much worse than a brute animal, for from his hereditary nature he loves himself above all and desires to possess all things in the world. Hence unless he were restrained by civil laws and by fears for the loss of honor, of gain, of reputation, and of life, he would steal, kill, and commit adultery, without any perception of conscience. That this is the case is very evident: for a man, even when instructed, commits such crimes without conscience, nay, defends them, and by many considerations confirms himself in the commission of them so far as he is allowed; what then would he not do if he had not been instructed? The case is the same in spiritual things; for of those who are born within the church, who have the Word, and are constantly instructed, there are still very many who ascribe little or nothing to God, but everything to nature; thus who do not at heart believe that there is any God, and therefore do not believe that they shall live after death; and who accordingly have no wish to learn anything relating to eternal life.

From all this it is evident that man is born into no truth, but that he has all to learn, and this by an external way, namely, that of hearing and seeing. By this way, truth has to be insinuated, and implanted in his memory; but so long as the truth is there only, it is merely memory-knowledge; and in order that truth may pervade (permeate, impregnate, and saturate) the man it must be called forth thence, and be conveyed more toward the interiors; for his human is more internal, being in his rational; for unless man is rational, he is not man; and therefore according to the quality and the measure of a man's rational, such is the quality and the measure of the man. Man cannot possibly be rational unless he possesses good. The good whereby man surpasses the animals, is to love God, and to love the neighbor; all human good is from this. Into this good truth must be initiated and conjoined, and this in the rational. Truth is initiated into good and conjoined with it when man loves God and loves his neighbor, for then truth enters into good, inasmuch as good and truth mutually acknowledge each other, all truth being from good, and having respect to good as its end and as its soul, and thus as the source of its life.

But truth cannot without difficulty be separated from the natural man, and be thence elevated into the rational; for in the natural man there are fallacies, and cupidities of evil, and also persuasions of falsity, and so long as these are there and adjoin themselves to the truth, so long the natural man detains truth with himself, and does not suffer it to be elevated from itself into the rational. ... The reason is that the natural man puts truth in doubt, and reasons about it as to whether it is so.  But as soon as the cupidities of evil and persuasions of falsity, and the derivative fallacies, are separated by the Lord, and the man begins from good to be averse to reasonings against truth, and to be superior to doubts, then truth is in a state to depart from the natural and to be elevated into the rational, and to put on a state of good - for then truth becomes of good and has life.

For the better comprehension of this, let us take examples:

• It is a spiritual truth that all good is from the Lord, and all evil from hell: this truth must in many ways be confirmed and illustrated before it can be elevated out of the natural man into the rational, nor can it ever be elevated until the man is in the love of God; for before this it is not acknowledged, consequently is not believed.
• The case is similar in regard to other truths, as in regard to the truth that the Divine Providence is in the veriest singulars; and that unless it is in these, it is not in what is universal.
• Again: in regard to the truth that man first begins to live when that perishes which in the world he believes to be the all of life; and that the life which he then receives is relatively ineffable and unlimited; and that he is altogether ignorant of this so long as he is in evil

these and similar truths can never be believed, unless the man is in good; for it is good which comprehends, because the Lord through good flows in with wisdom.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3175)

Spiritual 'Affection of Use' Flowing into What is Natural

Selection from Divine Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. (Matthew 13:31, 32)

Man has eternal life according to his affection of use.

Since affection is the man himself, and use is its effect and work, and is as a field or theater for its exercise, and since affection is not found apart from its subject, even so the affection of man's life is not found apart from use; and since affection and use make one, so man, who is affection, is known as to his quality from use, - imperfectly and slightly in the natural world, but clearly and fully in the spiritual world. For the spiritual discloses the affection and all its particulars, since in its essence the spiritual is Divine love and Divine wisdom, and in its manifestation is the heat and the light of heaven; and these disclose the affections of uses, as the heat of the sun of the world discloses objects of the earth by odors and flavors, and its light discloses them by its various colors and distinctions of shade. Every man has eternal life according to his affection of use, for the reason that affection is the man himself; consequently such as the affection is, such is the man.

But affection of use in general is of two kinds:—
• there is the spiritual affection of use
• there is the natural affection of use
In external form the two are alike, but in internal wholly unlike; for this reason they are not known the one from the other by men in the world, but are readily known by angels in heaven; for they are wholly opposite, since the spiritual affection of use gives heaven to man, while natural affection of use, without the spiritual, gives hell - for the natural affection of use looks only to honors and gains, thus to self and the world as ends - while spiritual affection of use looks to the glory of God and to uses themselves, thus to the Lord and the neighbor as ends
For there are men in the world who discharge their duties and offices with much zeal, labor, and earnestness; magistrates, overseers, and officers, performing their functions with all diligence and industry; priests, leaders, ministers, preaching with warmth as if from zeal; learned men who write books full of piety, doctrine and learning; and others of a like character; and thereby they perform eminent uses to the church, to their country, to society, and to their fellow-citizens; and yet many do these things from natural affection alone, which is for the sake of self, that they may be honored and exalted to dignities, or for the sake of the world, that they may gain wealth and become rich. In some these ends so enkindle the affection for doing uses that they sometimes perform more excellent uses than those do who are in the spiritual affection of use. I have spoken with many after death when they had become spirits, who had been in this kind of affection of use, and who then demanded heaven on the ground of merit; but as they had performed uses from merely natural affection, thus for the sake of self and the world, and not for the sake of God and the neighbor, they received answer like this in Matthew:

Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name, and by Thy name have cast out demons, and by Thy name done many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I know you not; depart from Me all ye that work iniquity (7:22, 23).

And in Luke:

Then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink before Thee, and Thou didst teach in our streets. But He shall say, I say unto you, I know you not whence ye are, depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity (13:26, 27).

Moreover, they were examined as to what they had been in the world, and their interiors were found to be full of lusts and evils therefrom pressed together, and with some these appeared fiery from the love of self, with some livid from the love of the world, with some dusky from the rejection of things spiritual; while their exteriors from uses in external form still appeared snow-white and purple. From all this it is clear that although they had done uses, yet with themselves they had given no thought to anything but reputation with a view to honors and gains, and that these belonged to their spirit, and they were in them and these were their life, also that their good actions were either purely deceptive appearances, or merely means conducive to these things as ends. Thus much about the natural affection of uses.

But the spiritual affection of use is both internal and external, and it is external or natural to the same extent that it is spiritual; for what is spiritual flows into what is natural, and arranges it in correspondence, thus into an image of itself. But as there is in the world at the present day no knowledge of what the spiritual affection of use is, and what distinguishes it from the natural affection, since in outward appearance they are alike, it shall be told how spiritual affection is acquired.

It is not acquired by faith alone, which is faith separated from charity, for such faith is merely a thought-faith, with nothing actual in it; and as it is separated from charity it is also separated from affection, which is the man himself; and for this reason it is dissipated after death like something aerial.

But spiritual affection is acquired by shunning evils because they are sins; which is done by means of combat against them. The evils that man must shun are all set forth written in the Decalogue.

So far as man fights against them because they are sins, he becomes a spiritual affection, and thus he performs uses from spiritual life.

By means of combat against evils, those things that possess one's interiors are dispersed; and these, as has been said above, with some appear fiery, with some dusky, and with some livid. In this way one's spiritual mind is opened, through which the Lord enters into his natural mind and arranges it for performing spiritual uses which appear like natural uses.

To these and to no others is it granted by the Lord to love Him above all things and the neighbor as oneself.

If a man by means of combat against evils as sins has acquired anything spiritual in the world, be it ever so small, he is saved, and afterwards his uses grow like a grain of mustard seed into a tree (according to the Lord's words, Matt. 13:31, 32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18, 19).

(Divine Love XVII)

Those performing 'uses' from self

Selection from Divine Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Those who love themselves above all things, and the world as themselves, are not men, nor are they in the Lord.

Those who love themselves and the world are able to perform good uses, and do perform them; but the affections of use with them are not good, because such affections are from self and have regard to self, and are not from the Lord, and do not have regard to the neighbor. They say, indeed, and persuade that these affections have regard to the neighbor in the broad and in the restricted sense; that is, have regard to the church, their country, society, and their fellow-citizens. Some of them even dare to say that they have regard to God, because they are from His commandments in the Word; and also that they are from God, because they are goods, and every good is from God; when yet the uses they perform have regard to self, because they are from self, and have regard to the neighbor only that they may return to self. These are known, and are distinguished from those who perform uses from the Lord, having regard to the neighbor in the broad and in the restricted sense, in that such look to self and the world in everything, and love reputation on account of various ends that are uses in behalf of self. Such persons are moved to perform uses so far as in them they see self and what is their own; moreover, their enjoyments are all bodily enjoyments, and these are what they seek from the world.

What kind of men they are may be shown by this comparison:—
They themselves are the head; the world is the body; church, country, and fellow-citizens are the soles of the feet; and God is the shoe. But with those that do uses from the love of uses, the Lord is the head; church, country, and citizens (which are the neighbor) are the body down to the knees; and the world is the feet, from the knees to the soles; and they themselves are the soles beautifully shod. Thus it is plain that they who perform uses from self, that is, from the love of self, are wholly inverted, and that there is nothing of man in them.

There are two origins of all loves and affections:—
•  one from the sun of heaven, which is pure love
•  the other from the sun of the world, which is pure fire.
They whose love is from the sun of heaven are spiritual and alive, and are raised by the Lord out of their selfhood (proprium); while they whose love is from the sun of the world are natural and dead, and they are plunged by themselves into their selfhood (proprium). From this it is that they see nature alone in all the objects of sight; and if they acknowledge God, it is with the mouth and not with the heart. These are they that in the Word are meant by worshipers of the sun, moon, and all the host of the heavens. In the spiritual world they appear indeed as men, but in the light of heaven as monsters; and to themselves their life appears as life, but to the angels as death. Among these are many who in the world were accounted as learned; and, what I have often wondered at, they believe themselves wise because they ascribe all things to nature and to prudence, even regarding all others as simple.

(from Divine Love XIV)