The Universal Love in Spiritual and Natural Life

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
THE CHURCH IS THE NEIGHBOR WHO IS TO BE LOVED IN A STILL HIGHER DEGREE
AND THE LORD'S KINGDOM IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE

Since man was born for eternal life, and is introduced into it by the church, the church is to be loved as the neighbor in a higher degree, because it teaches the means which lead to eternal life and introduces man into it, leading to it by the truths of doctrine and introducing into it by goods of life. This does not mean that the priesthood should be loved in a higher degree, and the church because of the priesthood; but it means that the good and truth of the church should be loved, and the priesthood for the sake of these. The priesthood merely serves, and is to be honored so far as it serves. The church is the neighbor that is to be loved in a higher degree, thus even above one's country, for the reason also, that by his country man is initiated into civil life, but by the church into spiritual life, and by that life man is separated from a merely animal life. Moreover, civil life is a temporary life, which has an end and which is then as if it had not been; while the spiritual life is eternal, having no end; therefore of the latter may be predicated being [esse], but of the former non-being. The distinction is like that between the finite and the infinite, between which there is no ratio; for the eternal is the infinite as to time.

The Lord's kingdom is the neighbor that is to be loved in the highest degree, because the Lord's kingdom means the church throughout the world, which is called the communion of saints; also heaven is meant by it; consequently he who loves the Lord's kingdom loves all in the whole world who acknowledge the Lord and have faith in Him and charity towards the neighbor; and he loves also all in heaven. Those who love the Lord's kingdom love the Lord above all things, and are consequently in love to God more than others, because the church in the heavens and on earth is the body of the Lord, for those who are in it are in the Lord and the Lord in them. Therefore love towards the Lord's kingdom is love towards the neighbor in its fullness; for those who love the Lord's kingdom, not only love the Lord above all things, but also love the neighbor as themselves; for love to the Lord is a universal love, and consequently is in each thing and all things of spiritual life, and in each thing and all things of natural life; for that love has its seat in the highest things in man, and things highest flow into lower things and vivify them, as the will flows into all things of intention and of action therefrom, and the understanding into all things of thought and of speech therefrom. Therefore the Lord says:

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33).

That the kingdom of the heavens is the Lord's kingdom is evident from these words in Daniel:

Behold, there was coming with the clouds of heaven one like unto the Son of Man; and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages shall worship Him. His dominion is a dominion of ages, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14).

(True Christian Religion 415-416)

Being Led Spiritually or Naturally

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is a law of the divine providence that man should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven by means of the Word and by means of doctrine and preachings from the Word, and this to all appearance as if by himself.

The appearance is that man is led and taught by himself; but the truth is that he is led and taught by the Lord alone. Those who confirm in themselves the appearance and not also the truth are unable to put away from themselves evils as sins; but those who confirm in themselves both the appearance and the truth are able to do so, for in appearance it is man who puts away evils as sins, but in truth it is the Lord. This latter class can be reformed, the former cannot.

Those who confirm in themselves the appearance and not also the truth are all interior idolaters, since they are worshipers of self and the world. If they have no religion they become worshipers of nature and thus atheists; while if they have a religion they become worshipers of men and also of images. Such at the present day are meant by those described in the first commandment of the Decalogue, who worship other gods. But those who confirm in themselves both the appearance and the truth become worshipers of the Lord; for they are raised up by the Lord out of what is their own (proprium), which is in the appearance, and are brought into the light in which is truth and which is truth; and the Lord enables them to perceive interiorly that they are led and taught by Him, and not by themselves.

To many the rational of both classes seems to be the same, but it is different. The rational of those who are both in the appearance and in the truth is a spiritual rational, while the rational of those who are in the appearance apart from the truth is a natural rational. This natural rational may be likened to a garden as it is in the light of winter, while the spiritual rational may be likened to a garden as it is in the light of spring.

(from Divine Providence 154)

Receiving New Life

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
NO OTHER GOOD IS MEANT THAN CHRISTIAN GOOD

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. (Arcana Coelestia 8634-8634)

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THE MAN WHO IS BEING REGENERATED

IS FIRST LED BY THE LORD BY MEANS OF TRUTH

AND AFTERWARD BY MEANS OF GOOD

He who is being regenerated is led by means of truth to the intent that he may come to good, that is, may know it, and then will it, and finally do it. But when he is being led to good by means of truth, he first comes to the good in which the truths of faith have not yet been implanted; for truths cannot be implanted until he is in good. Before this they are indeed known, because they are in the memory, but at this time they are not in good, but are outside of good. Afterward when the man receives new life, which he first receives when he is in good, the truths of faith are implanted, and as it were enter upon a marriage with good in the internal man. This good, in which the truths of faith have not yet been implanted, but which is still so disposed that they can be received.

(from Arcana Coelestia 8754)