Turning Away from the Lord

Selection from Charity ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
As far as anyone does not shun evils as sins
he remains in them

Man was created in the image and in the likeness of God, and so made that he may be a recipient of the Lord's love and wisdom.

But, because he was not willing to be a recipient, but desired to be love itself and wisdom itself, and thus as God, he inverted his form, and turned his affections and thoughts from the Lord to himself, and began to love himself more than the Lord, yea, to worship himself.

And so he alienated himself from the Lord, and looked back from Him; and in this way he perverted the image and likeness of God in himself, and made it the image and likeness of hell. This is signified by his eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

By the serpent which he obeyed is signified the sensual, which is the ultimate of the natural man, and its cupidities. This sensual of man, because it is still in existence in the world and receives its objects therefrom, loves the things of the world; and if dominion is given to it, it withdraws the mind from the objects of heaven, which are the goods of love and the truths of wisdom, in themselves Divine.

It is from this origin that, as to his proprium, man is nothing but evil, and is born into it from his parents.

But means are provided by the Lord that he may not therefore perish; which means are, that he shall look to the Lord and acknowledge that every good of love and every truth of wisdom is from Him, and nothing from himself.

He thus converts his form, by turning away from himself and turning to the Lord; and so returns to the state in which he was created, and which consisted, as has been said, in his being a recipient of good and truth from the Lord, and in no wise from himself.

And because the proprium of man, by the inversion of it, has become mere evil, the other means of recovering the image of God is to shun evils as sins.

For if a man does not shun evils as sins, but only because they are injurious, he does not look to the Lord, but only to himself, and so remains in his perverted state. But when he shuns evils as sins he fights against them because they are contrary to the Lord, and against His Divine laws; and then he prays to the Lord for help and for power to resist them, which power besought is never denied.

By these two means a man is purified from the evils that are in him from birth. If therefore he does not embrace these two means he can but remain as he was born.

He cannot be purified from evils if he only looks and prays to the Lord; for then after he has prayed, he believes that he is entirely without sins, or that they are remitted, by which he understands that they are taken away. And so he still remains in them; and to remain in them is to increase them. For they are like a disease which devours and mortifies all that is around it. Nor are evils removed by only shunning them; for in this way the man looks to himself, and thereby confirms the origin of evil, which was that he turned himself back, away from the Lord, and turned to himself.

(Posth. Charity 204)

An ONLY Substance

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Divine love and the Divine wisdom, which are a one in the Lord and go forth from Him as a one, are in every created thing in a certain image. The Divine is in every created thing, because God the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, produced from Himself the sun of the spiritual world, and through that sun all things of the universe, consequently that that sun, which is from the Lord, and in which the Lord is, is not only the first substance but is also the only substance from which all things are; and since this is the only substance, it follows that it is in every created thing, but with infinite variety according to uses.

Now since Divine love and Divine wisdom are in the Lord, and since Divine fire and brightness are in that sun from Him, and spiritual heat and spiritual light are from that sun, and these two make a one, it follows that in a certain image this one is in every created thing. Because of this all things in the universe have relation to good and truth, and, in fact, to their conjunction, or what is the same, all things in the universe have relation to love and wisdom and to their conjunction, since good belongs to love and truth to wisdom; for love calls all that pertains to it good, and wisdom calls all that pertains to it truth. There is a conjunction of these in every created thing.

Many admit that there is an only substance which is the first substance and the source of all things, but what kind of a substance it is they do not know. They believe it to be so simple that nothing is simpler; that it may be compared to a point with no dimension; and that from an infinite number of such the forms of dimension came into existence. This, however, is a fallacy originating in the idea of space; for the idea of space makes the least to appear such. But the truth is that the simpler and purer any thing is, the more and the fuller it is. It is for this reason that the more deeply any object is examined, the more wonderful, perfect, and beautiful are the things seen in it; and thus that the most wonderful, perfect, and beautiful of all are in the first substance. This is true, because the first substance is from the spiritual sun, which, as has been said, is from the Lord, and in which the Lord is, therefore that sun is itself the only substance; and as this substance is not in space it is the all in all, and is in the greatest and the least things of the created universe.

Since that sun is the first and only substance, from which all things are, it follows that infinitely more things are in that substance than can appear in the substances that spring from it, which are called substantiate [or composite], and at length material. These things cannot appear in those substances, because they descend from that sun by degrees of a twofold kind — in accordance with which all perfections decrease. For this reason, as said above, the more deeply any thing is examined, the more wonderful, perfect, and beautiful are the things that are seen. This has been said to show that in a certain image the Divine is in every created thing, but becomes less and less apparent in its descent through the degrees, and still less apparent when a lower degree has become separated from a higher by the closing up of the higher, and by becoming itself choked up with earthy matters. ...

The end of the Divine providence is that every created thing, in general and in particular, shall be such a one; and if it is not, that it shall become such. That is, that in every created thing there shall be something both from the Divine love and from the Divine wisdom; or what is the same, that in every created thing there shall be good and truth, that is, a conjunction of good and truth. Since good is of love and truth is of wisdom, in the following, the terms good and truth will be used throughout instead of love and wisdom, and the marriage of good and truth, instead of the union of love and wisdom.

It is evident that the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, which in the Lord are one, and which go forth as one from the Lord, in a certain image are in every thing created by Him. And now something shall be said specifically about that oneness or union that is called the marriage of good and truth.

That marriage is —

(1) In the Lord Himself; for Divine love and Divine wisdom, as has been said, are a one in Him.

(2) It is from the Lord; for in every thing that goes forth from Him love and wisdom are fully united, these two going forth from the Lord as a sun, the Divine love as the heat, and the Divine wisdom as the light.

(3) These are, indeed, received by the angels as two, but are made one in them by the Lord; and the same is true of men of the church.

(4) Because of this influx of love and wisdom from the Lord as a one into angels of heaven and men of the church, and because of the reception of these by angels and men, the Lord is called in the Word the "Bridegroom" and the "Husband," and heaven and the church are called the "bride" and the "wife."

(5) Therefore, so far as heaven and the church in general or an angel of heaven and a man of the church individually are in that union, that is, in the marriage of good and truth, they are an image and likeness of the Lord, because good and truth are a one in the Lord, and, in fact, are the Lord.

(6) In heaven and in the church in general, or in an angel of heaven or a man of the church, love and wisdom are a one when the will and the understanding, and thus good and truth, make a one, or what is the same, when charity and faith make a one, or what is still the same, when doctrine from the Word and a life according to it make a one.

(7) How these two make a one in man and in all things belonging to him has been shown in the work on The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, in Part Five, where the creation of man and especially the correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs are treated of (n. 358-432).

(from Divine Providence 5-8)

Impossible Without Form

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Divine love and Divine wisdom go forth from the Lord as a one.

A one is impossible apart from a form, the form itself making the one

The form makes a one the more perfectly as the things entering into the form are distinctly different and yet united.

A one is impossible apart from a form, the form itself making the one: —

Anyone who thinks intently can see clearly that a one is impossible apart from a form, and if it exists it is a form; for whatever has existence derives from form that which is called quality, and that which is called predicate, also that which is called change of state, also that which is called relativity, and the like. Consequently, that which is not in a form has no power to affect; and what has no power to affect has no reality. It is the form that gives all these things; and as all the things that are in a form, when the form is perfect, have a mutual regard for each other, as link has to link in a chain, therefore it follows that it is the form that makes the one, and thus the subject, of which quality, state, power to affect, and anything that accords with the perfection of the form, can be predicated.

Every object seen by the eyes in the world is such a one; also every object not seen by the eyes, whether in interior nature or in the spiritual world. Man is such a one, human society is such a one, the church is such a one, also the whole angelic heaven before the Lord; in a word, the created universe, not only in general but also in every particular, is such a one. But in order that each thing and all things may be forms, it is necessary that He who created all things should be Form itself, and that all things that are created in forms should be from Form itself. This, therefore, is what has been shown in the work on The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, as follows: Divine love and Divine wisdom are substance and are form (n. 40-43). Divine love and Divine wisdom are form in itself, thus the Very and the Only (n. 44-46). In the Lord Divine love and Divine wisdom are one (n. 14-22). They go forth from the Lord as a one (n. 99-102, and elsewhere).

The form makes a one the more perfectly as the things entering into the form, are distinctly different and yet united: —

Unless the understanding is raised up it can scarcely comprehend this, since the appearance is that a form can make a one only through likenesses of uniformity in the things that make up the form. On this subject I have often talked with angels, who said that this is an arcanum their wiser ones perceive clearly, and the less wise obscurely; yet it is a truth that a form is the more perfect as the things that constitute it are distinctly different, and yet have become united each in its own way. This they showed by the societies in the heavens, which taken together constitute the form of heaven; also by the angels of each society, in that the form of the society is more perfect in proportion as each angel is more distinctly his own, and therefore free, and thus loves his companions as if from himself and from his own affection. They illustrated it also by the marriage of good and truth, in that the more distinctly these are two, the more perfectly they can make a one; and the same is true of love and wisdom; while what is not distinct is mixed up, giving rise to every imperfection of form.

Furthermore, how perfectly distinct things are united and thus make a one, they showed by many things, especially by the things that are in the human body, where innumerable parts are thus distinct and yet united, distinct by their coverings and united by their ligaments, showing that it is the same with love and all things of it, and with wisdom and all things of it, which are perceived only as a one. ... This has been adduced because it is of angelic wisdom.

(from Divine Providence 4)