Seriatim Remarks on the Doctrine of Charity (Pt. 18)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Things of Charity —

Everyone has an internal man and an external man; the internal man is what is called the spiritual man, and the external man is what is called the natural man. Both must be regenerated for the man to be regenerated.

With the man who has not been regenerated the external or natural man commands, and the internal or spiritual man serves; but with the man who has been regenerated the internal or spiritual man commands, and the external or natural serves. This inversion cannot possibly exist except through regeneration by the Lord.

So long as the external man has not been regenerated, he makes all good consist in pleasure, in gain, in pride, and burns with hatred and revenge against those who set themselves in opposition; and then the internal man not only consents, but also supplies reasons which confirm and promote; thus the internal man serves and the external commands.

But when the external man has been regenerated, the internal man makes all good consist in thinking well of the neighbor and willing well to him, and the external man makes all good consist in speaking well of him and acting well toward him; and at last each has as its end to love the neighbor and to love the Lord, and not as before to love self and to love the world. In this case the external or natural man serves, and the internal or spiritual man commands.

The internal man is first regenerated by the Lord, and afterward the external man, and the latter by means of the former. The internal man is regenerated by thinking those things which are of faith, and willing them; but the external man by a life according to them. The life of faith is charity.

The man who has been regenerated is in heaven as to his internal man, and is an angel there with angels, among whom also he comes after death. He can then live the life of heaven, love the Lord, love the neighbor, understand truth, relish good, and perceive blessedness therefrom. These things are the happiness of eternal life.

(Arcana Coelestia 8742-8747)
(series to be continued)

Seriatim Remarks on the Doctrine of Charity (Pt. 17)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Things of Charity —

No one can be regenerated unless he knows such things as are of the new life, that is, of spiritual life; for man is introduced into this life by means of regeneration. The things which are of the new life, or of spiritual life, are truths which must be believed, and goods which must be done; the former are of faith, the latter of charity.

No one can know these things from himself, for man apprehends only those things which have been obvious to his senses; from these he has procured for himself a light which is called natural light, by virtue of which he sees nothing else than what belongs to the world and to himself, and not what belongs to heaven and to God; these he must learn from revelation.

For example, that the Lord, who was God from eternity, came into the world to save the human race; that He has all power in heaven and in earth; that everything of faith and everything of charity, thus everything of truth and good is from Him; that there is a heaven, and that there is a hell; that man will live to eternity, in heaven if he has done well, in hell if he has done evil.

These things and more are of faith, which must be known by the man who is to be regenerated; for he who knows them can think them, then will them, and lastly do them, and thus have new life.

On the other hand, he who does not know that the Lord is the Savior of the human race, cannot have faith in Him, worship Him, love Him, and thus do good for His sake. He who does not know that all good is from Him, cannot think that his own righteousness and his own salvation are 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 that there is a heaven, nor that there is eternal life, cannot even think about the life of heaven, nor apply himself to receiving it; and so in all other things.

From all this it can be seen what the quality of the life of a regenerate person is, that it is a life of faith; and also that it cannot be given to a man until he is in such a state as to be able to acknowledge the truths of faith, and insofar as he acknowledges them, to will them.

(Arcana Coelestia 8635-8640)
(series to be continued)

Seriatim Remarks on the Doctrine of Charity (Pt. 16)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Things of Charity —

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

Verily, verily, I say to thee, Except a man be begotten anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

Man is not born of his parents into spiritual life, but into natural life. Spiritual life is to love God above all things, and to love the neighbor as oneself, and this according to the commandments of faith which the Lord has taught in the Word. But natural life is to love self and the world above the neighbor, yea above 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 contracted a kind of nature, is derived into the offspring, thus successively from parents, from grandparents, and from great-grandparents, in a long series backward. From this the derivation of evil has at last become so great, that all of man's own life is nothing else than evil. This continuous derived nature is not broken and changed, except by the Lord through a life of faith and charity.

Man continually inclines and lapses into what he derives hereditarily. By so doing he confirms this evil in himself, and also adds to it more evils from himself.

These evils are utterly contrary to spiritual life. They destroy it. Therefore unless in respect to his spiritual life a man is conceived anew, born anew, and reared anew, that is, created anew by the Lord, he is damned, for he wills nothing else, and consequently thinks nothing else, than what is of hell.

When a man is of this character, the order of life in him is inverted. That which ought to rule serves, and that which ought to serve rules. For his salvation to be possible this order in the man must be wholly inverted. This is effected by the Lord through regeneration.

(Arcana Coelestia 8548-8553)
(series to be continued)