The WORD Appearing According to Man’s Quality

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah appeared to him in that night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father; fear not, for I am with thee, and I will bless thee, and will multiply thy seed, for the sake of Abraham My servant. And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah, and pitched his tent there, and there the servants of Isaac digged out a well. Genesis 26:24, 25

And Jehovah appeared to him in that night, and said. That this signifies the Lord's perception concerning that obscurity, is evident from the signification of "Jehovah appearing and saying," when predicated of the Lord, as being to perceive from the Divine; for Jehovah was in Him; thus so long as the human was not yet glorified, the appearing of Jehovah was Divine perception, or perception from the Divine; and therefore by "Jehovah appearing to him and saying" this is signified; and from the signification of "night," as being a state of shade or obscurity. By this obscurity is signified the literal sense of the Word, for relatively to the internal sense this is as shade to light.

And he divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left of Damascus. Genesis 14:15

He divided himself against them by night. That this signifies the shade in which the apparent goods and truths were, is evident from the signification of "night," as being a state of shade. There is said to be a state of shade when it is not known whether the good and truth are apparent or are genuine. When anyone is in apparent good and truth, he supposes them to be genuine good and truth; the evil and falsity that are in apparent good and truth are what cause the shade, and make them appear genuine. They who are in ignorance can know no otherwise than that the good which they do is their own, and that the truth which they think is their own, and it is the same with those who attribute to themselves the goods they do, and place merit in them, not knowing that in this case they are not good, although they appear so; and that the Own and self-merit which they place in them are the evils and falsities which obscure and darken. So in many other cases.

The kind and the measure of the evil and falsity which lie concealed in them, cannot possibly be so well seen in the life of the body as in the other life, where they are presented to view as in clear light. But the case is different if this is done from ignorance that is not confirmed, for in this case those evils and falsities are easily dispersed. But if men confirm themselves in the belief that they can do good and resist evil by their own powers, and that they thus merit salvation, in this case this idea remains attached, and causes the good to be evil, and the truth to be falsity. But still it is according to order for a man to do good as of himself; and therefore he ought not to slacken his hand, with the thought, "If I can do nothing of good from myself, I ought to wait for immediate influx," and thus remain in a passive state, for this would be contrary to order; but he must do good as of himself; yet, when he reflects upon the good which he does or has done, let him think, acknowledge, and believe that the Lord has done the work in him.

If he slackens his effort, thinking as has been said, he is then not a subject into which the Lord can operate. The Lord cannot flow into anyone who deprives himself of everything into which power can be infused. It is as if one were not willing to learn anything without a revelation to himself; or as if one would teach nothing unless the words were put into him; or as if one would attempt nothing unless he were put into action as one without will. But if these things were done, he would be still more indignant at being like an inanimate thing; when yet that which is animated by the Lord in a man is that which appears as if it were from himself. It is thus an eternal truth that a man does not live from himself, but that if he did not appear to live from himself he could not live at all. (Arcana Coelestia 1712)

A few words shall be said in order that it may be further known how the case is with the literal sense of the Word. Relatively to the literal sense, the internal sense is like the interior or celestial and spiritual things of a man relatively to his exterior or natural and bodily things, his interiors being in the light of heaven, and his exteriors in the light of the world. What the difference is between the light of heaven and the light of the world, consequently between what is of the light of heaven and what is of the light of the world, namely, that it is like the difference between the light of day and the shade of night.

Man, being in this shade, and not being willing to know that in truth from the Lord there is light, cannot believe otherwise than that his shade is light, and also on the other hand that the light is shade; for he is like a bird of night, which as it flies in the shade of night thinks that it is in the light but when in the light of day, that it is in the shade. For with such a person the internal eye (that is, the understanding), by which man sees interiorly, has been formed no differently than this, because he has not formed it differently; for he opens it when he looks downward, that is, to worldly and bodily things, and shuts it when he should look upward, that is, to spiritual and heavenly things. With such persons the case is the same in respect to the Word — that which appears in its literal sense they believe to be of light; but that which appears in the internal sense they believe to be of shade (for the Word appears to everyone in accordance with his quality); the fact being that relatively to its literal sense, the internal sense of the Word is as the light of heaven to the light of the world; that is, as the light of day to the light of night.

In the internal sense there are singulars, myriads of which together make one particular that is presented in the literal sense; or what is the same, in the internal sense there are particulars, myriads of which together make in the literal sense one general; and it is this general that is seen by man, but not the particulars which are in it and which constitute it. Nevertheless the order of the particulars in the general is apparent to man, but in accordance with his quality; and this order is the holiness that affects him.

(Arcana Coelestia 3438)

The Draperies of God

Selection from The Heavenly Doctrines ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The entire Holy Scripture, and all the doctrines therefrom of the churches in the Christian world, teach that there is a God and that He is one.

The entire Holy Scripture teaches that there is a God, because in its inmosts (the Holy Scripture) it is nothing but God, that is, it is nothing but the Divine that goes forth from God; for it was dictated by God; and from God nothing can go forth except what is God and is called Divine. This the Holy Scripture is in its inmosts.

But in its derivatives, which are below and from these inmosts, the Holy Scripture is adapted to the perception of angels and men. The Divine is likewise in these derivatives, but in another form, in which it is called the celestial, spiritual, and natural Divine. These are simply the draperies of God; for God Himself, such as He is in the inmosts of the Word, cannot be seen by any creature. For He said to Moses, when Moses prayed that he might see the glory of Jehovah, that no one can see God and live. This is equally true of the inmosts of the Word, where God is in His very Being and Essence.

Nevertheless, the Divine, which forms the inmost and is draped by things adapted to the perceptions of angels and men, beams forth like light through crystalline forms, although variously in accordance with the state of mind that man has formed for himself; either from God or from himself. Before everyone who has formed the state of his mind from God the Holy Scripture stands like a mirror wherein he sees God; but everyone in his own way. This mirror is made up of those truths that man learns from the Word, and that he appropriates by living in accordance with them. From all this it is evident, in the first place, that the Holy Scripture is the fullness of God.

That the Holy Scripture teaches not only that there is a God, but also that God is one, can be seen from the truths which, as before stated, compose that mirror, in that they form a coherent whole and make it impossible for man to think of God except as one. In consequence of this, every person whose reason is imbued with any sanctity from the Word knows, as if from himself, that God is one, and feels it to be a sort of insanity to say that there are more. The angels are unable to open their lips to utter the word "gods," for the heavenly aura in which they live resists it. That God is one the Holy Scripture teaches, not only thus universally, as has been said, but also in many particular passages, as in the following:

Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah (Deut. 6:4; also Mark 12:29).

Surely God is in thee, and beside Me there is no god (Isa. 45:14)

Am not I Jehovah? and there is no god besides me? (Isa. 45:21).

I am Jehovah thy God and thou shalt acknowledge no god beside Me (Hosea 13:4).

Thus saith Jehovah, the king of Israel, I am the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no god (Isa. 44:6).

In that day Jehovah shall be king over all the earth; in that day Jehovah shall be one and His name one (Zech. 14:9).

(True Christian Religion 6)

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And behold the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud

That this signifies the presence of the Lord in truth accommodated to the perception, is evident from the signification of "the glory of Jehovah," as being the presence and the advent of the Lord; and from the signification of "the cloud," as being the literal sense of the Word, thus truth accommodated to the perception, for the Word in the letter is such truth. But "the glory which is in the cloud" denotes Divine truth which is not so accommodated to the perception, because it is above the fallacies and appearances of the senses, thus it also denotes the internal sense of the Word.

That "glory" denotes the internal sense of the Word, is because in this sense the Lord's church and kingdom are treated of, and in the supreme sense the Lord Himself, in which sense also is the veriest Divine truth.

Truth Divine is not of one degree, but of many.

Truth Divine in the first degree, and also in the second, is that which proceeds immediately from the Lord; this is above the angelic understanding. But truth Divine in the third degree is such as is in the inmost or third heaven; this is such that it cannot in the least be apprehended by man. Truth Divine in the fourth degree is such as is in the middle or second heaven; neither is this intelligible to man. But truth Divine in the fifth degree is such as is in the ultimate or first heaven; this can be perceived in some small measure by man provided he is enlightened; but still it is such that a great part of it cannot be expressed by human words; and when it falls into the ideas, it produces the faculty of perceiving and also of believing that the case is so.

But truth Divine in the sixth degree is such as is with man, accommodated to his perception; thus it is the sense of the letter of the Word. This sense, or this truth, is represented by the cloud, and the interior truths are represented by the glory in the cloud. This is the reason why Jehovah (that is, the Lord) so often appeared to Moses and to the sons of Israel in a cloud (see Exod. 24:15, 16; 40:34, 35; 1 Kings 8:10, 11; Matt. 24:30; and other places). The appearing of the Lord is by means of Divine truth, and moreover is Divine truth. That a "cloud" denotes truth accommodated to the perception, is from the representatives in the other life, where angelic speech of the higher heavens appears to those who are beneath as light, and also as the brightness from light; whereas the speech of the angels of a lower heaven appears as a bright cloud, in form various, and in density or rarity according to the quality of the truths.

From all this it can be seen that by "the glory of Jehovah seen in the cloud" is signified the presence of the Lord in truth accommodated to the perception.

(Arcana Coelestia 8443)

The Divine Omnipotence — The Finger of God

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— A MEMORABLE RELATION —

At the present day most of those who believe in a life after death, also believe that in heaven their thoughts will be nothing but devotions, and their words nothing but prayers; and that all these, together with the expressions of the face and the actions of the body, will be nothing but glorification of God, thus their houses will be houses of worship or sacred chapels, and they themselves will all be priests of God.

But I can affirm that the holy things of the church do not occupy the minds or homes of men there any more than in the world where God is worshiped, although worship there is purer and more interior; while the various matters pertaining to civil prudence and to rational learning are to be found there in their excellence.

One day I was taken up to heaven, and was conducted to a certain society there, where the Sophi were who in ancient times excelled in learning because of their deep reflection and meditation upon such subjects as were both rational and useful, and who were now in heaven, because they had believed in God and now believed in the Lord, and loved their neighbor as themselves. Afterwards I was introduced into an assembly of these, and was there asked where I came from; and I explained to them that in body I was in the natural world, but in spirit in their world.

Hearing this, those angels were delighted, and asked, "In the world where you are in body what do they know and understand about influx?"

When I had recalled to mind what I had gathered on that subject from the discourses and writings of celebrated men, I replied, that as yet they knew nothing about any influx from the spiritual world into the natural, but only of the influx of nature into her subjects, as of the sun's heat and light into living bodies, and also into trees and shrubs, which are all thereby made to live; and, on the other hand, of the influx of cold into the same objects, whereby they are deprived of life; and furthermore, of influx of light into the eye, from which comes sight, of sound into the ear, from which comes hearing, of odor into the nostrils, from which comes smell; and so on.

As to anything beyond this, the learned of this age reason diversely about the influx of the soul into the body and of the body into the soul, and about this they are divided into three parties,

• one holding that there is an influx of the soul into the body, which they call occasional influx, because of its occurring whenever anything strikes the bodily senses;
• another, that there is an influx of the body into the soul, which they call physical influx, because the objects fall upon the bodily senses, and therefrom upon the soul;
• the third, that there is a simultaneous and instantaneous influx into the body and soul together, which they call pre-established harmony.

Nevertheless, each one thinks that the kind of influx he advocates takes place within nature.

• Some believe the soul to be a particle or drop of ether,
• some that it is a little ball or spark of light,
• others that it is some entity that hides itself in the brain.

But this or that which they think the soul to be, while they indeed call it spiritual, yet by spiritual they mean nothing more than a purer natural; for they know nothing about the spiritual world, or its influx into the natural; and therefore they remain within the sphere of nature. In this sphere they go up and down, and lift themselves up into it like eagles in the air; and those who thus abide in nature are like the inhabitants of some island in the sea who are unaware that there is any land beyond their own, or are like fishes in a stream which do not know that there is air above their waters. When therefore they hear any mention made of a world distinct from their own, where angels and spirits dwell, and are told that all influx into men is from that world, as well as the interior influx into trees, they stand amazed as if they were listening to some visionary reports of ghosts, or to the nonsense of astrologers.

In the world where I am when in the body, with the exception of the philosophers, our people do not think about or mention any influx but that of wine into cups, of food and drink into the stomach, of taste into the tongue, and also, perhaps, of the influx of the air into the lungs, and so on; and if they hear anything said about an influx of the spiritual world into the natural, they say, "Let it flow in if it will; what advantage or use is there in knowing it?" And they go away; and if they afterwards speak about what they have heard respecting that influx, they play with it as some play with pebbles between their fingers.

Afterwards I talked with these angels about the wonderful effects that spring from the influx of the spiritual world into the natural, such as the turning of grubs into butterflies, and the wonders relating to bees and drones, and silk-worms, and also spiders; and I said that the inhabitants of the earth attribute these things to the light and heat of the sun; thus to nature; and, what I have often wondered at, they confirm themselves by means of these in favor of nature, and by these confirmations bring sleep and death upon their minds, and become atheists.

I then related some wonderful things about plants, as that they all progress in proper order from seed to new seed again, just as if the earth knew how to conform and adapt its elements to the prolific principle of the seed, and from this to bring forth the germ, to expand the germ into a stem, from this to send forth branches and clothe them with leaves, then to embellish them with flowers to form the interiors of the flowers to form the rudiments of the fruit and bring it forth, and through the fruit, in order that it may be born again, to produce seed like offspring. But because these things from being seen continually and from their yearly recurrence, have become familiar, usual, and common, men do not regard them as anything wonderful, but as mere effects of nature; and they so think solely for the reason that they do not know that there is any spiritual world, and that it operates from within and actuates each and all things that come forth and take form in the world of nature and on the natural earth, operating as the human mind operates upon the senses and motions of the body; and that the particular things in nature are like tunics, sheaths, and clothing which engirdle spiritual things, and proximately produce effects correspondent to the end designed by God the Creator.

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Additions to no. 695

[The subject treated of in the published part of this memorable relation, is influx. Swedenborg states there, in an assembly of wise men in the spiritual world, that men at the present day know nothing of an influx from the spiritual into the natural world. Afterwards he called the attention of the angels to some of the wonders that are produced by this influx, and then continues in the unpublished manuscript as follows:]

Afterwards we discussed various other subjects, and I remarked in connection with hell, that none of all the things which are in heaven, are seen in hell; but that opposite things only appear there, because the affections of the love which prevails there, which are lusts of evil, are opposed to the affections of that love in which the angels of heaven are. In hell, therefore, there appear generally deserts, and in these, birds of night, dragons, owls, bats, and in addition, wolves, tigers, leopards, rats, and mice, and all kinds of poisonous serpents and crocodiles; and where there is an appearance of grass, it is found to consist of briars, thorns, thistles, and of some poisonous plants, which breathe a deadly odor into the air; and in another direction there are heaps of stones, and stagnant pools in which are croaking frogs. All these are likewise correspondences; but, as said above, they are correspondences of the affections of an evil love, and thus lusts. But these things are not created by God; nor are they created by Him in the natural world, where similar things exist; for all things created by God are good. On the earth they were created at the same time that hell was created; and this exists from men who, BY AVERTING THEMSELVES FROM GOD became devils and satans. As these terrible things, however, wounded the ears, we turned our thoughts away from them, and directed them to those things which we had seen in heaven.

In respect to miracles I told them that all things which appear in the three kingdoms of nature are produced by an influx from the spiritual into the natural world, and, considered in themselves, are miracles, although, on account of their familiar aspect and their annual recurrence, they do not appear as such. I told them further that they should know that the miracles which are recorded in the Word likewise took place by an influx out of the prior into the posterior world, and that they were produced by an introduction of such things as are in the spiritual world into corresponding things in the natural world; for example, that the manna which every morning descended upon the camp of the children of Israel, was produced by bread from heaven being introduced into the recipient vessels of nature; that in like manner bread and fishes were thus introduced into the baskets of the apostles, which they distributed to so many thousands of men; again, that wine out of heaven was instilled into the water in the pots at the wedding where the Lord was present; further, that the fig-tree withered, because there was no longer any influx into it of spiritual nutriment, by which it was fed from the roots; and finally that such was the case with the other miracles, and that they were not produced, according to the insane notions of some of the learned in the present day, by causes summoned from all parts of nature. Miracles therefore are the effects of the Divine Omnipotence, and take place according to the influx of the spiritual into the natural world, with this difference only, that such things as actually exist in the spiritual world are actually introduced into such things in the natural world as correspond. And I finally concluded, that the cause of such things being done and being possible, is due to the Divine Omnipotence, which is meant by the finger of God, by which the Lord produced His miracles. After I had finished my explanation, the angels kissed me for what I told them, and said they would occasionally invite me to their assemblies. I thanked them, and promised to return, whenever the Lord would grant me permission to do so.

All things of nature are like sheaths around spiritual things, and like tunics around muscular fibers. This is the cause of all the wonders and miracles in nature.

(True Christian Religion 695)