The Life's Love in Man

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

[Concupiscences — The derivations of infernal love are the affections of evil and falsity; proverly, concupiscences.]

The external of man's thought is in itself of the same character as its internal.

That man from head to foot is of the same character as his life's love.

In the first place, therefore, something must here be said about the life's love in man; for this must precede any consideration of the affections associated with perceptions which constitute man's internal, and of the enjoyments of affections associated with thoughts which constitute his external.

Loves are manifold; but two of them, heavenly love and infernal love, are like lords and kings. Heavenly love is love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; and infernal love is love of self and of the world. These two kinds of love are opposite to each other as hell and heaven are; for those who are in the love of self and the world have no good will for any but themselves; while those who are in love to the Lord and in love towards the neighbor have good will for all. These two loves are the life's loves of man, but with much variety. Heavenly love is the life's love of those whom the Lord leads, and infernal love is the life's love of those whom the devil leads.

But the life's love of no one can exist without derivations, which are called affections.

The derivations of infernal love are affections for evil and falsity, which, strictly speaking, are lusts; and the derivations of heavenly love are affections for good and truth, which, strictly speaking, are dilections (love; preference; choice). Of infernal love there are as many affections, or strictly speaking, lusts, as there are evils; and of heavenly love there are as many affections, or strictly speaking, dilections, as there are goods.

Love dwells in its affections like a lord in his realm, or like a king in his kingdom. The dominion or sovereignty of these loves is over the things of the mind, that is, the things of man's will and understanding, and thence of the body. The life's love, by means of its affections and perceptions therefrom, and its enjoyments and thoughts therefrom, rules the entire man,-the internal of his mind by means of affections and perceptions therefrom, and the external by means of the enjoyments of the affections and thoughts therefrom.

The form of this rule can in some measure be seen by comparisons.

Heavenly love with its affections for good and truth and perceptions therefrom, together with its enjoyments from these affections and thoughts therefrom, may be likened to a tree distinguished for its branches, leaves, and fruits. The life's love is the tree; the branches with the leaves are affections for good and truth with their perceptions; and the fruits are the enjoyments of affections with their thoughts. But infernal love with its affections for evil and falsity, which are lusts, together with the enjoyment of these lusts and thoughts therefrom, may be likened to a spider with its surrounding web. The love itself is the spider, the lusts of evil and falsity with their interior subtleties are the net-like threads nearest the spider's seat; and the enjoyments of these lusts with their deceitful devices are the remoter threads, where the flies are caught on the wing, and are ensnared and eaten.

The conjunction of all things of the will and understanding, that is, of the mind of man with his life's love, is made evident by these comparisons, and yet not made rationally evident.

The conjunction is made rationally evident in this way.

There are every where three things together that make one; these are called end, cause, and effect; here the life's love is the end, the affections with their perceptions are the cause, and the enjoyment of the affections with their thoughts are the effect; for just as the end through the cause enters into the effect, so does the love through its affections come to its enjoyments, and through its perceptions to its thoughts. The effects themselves are in the mind's enjoyments and their thoughts, whenever these enjoyments belong to the will and the thoughts to the understanding therefrom, that is, whenever the agreement is complete. Then the effects belong to the spirit, and if they do not come into bodily act, still they are as if in act when there is agreement. Furthermore, they are then together in the body, and dwell there with the life's love of the man, and aspire to action, which takes place when nothing hinders. Such are lusts of evil and the evils themselves in those who in their spirit make evils allowable.

Now as the end conjoins itself with the cause, and through the cause with the effect, so does the life's love conjoin itself with the internal of thought, and through this with its external. This makes clear that the external of man's thought is in itself of the same character as its internal; for the end imparts itself wholly to the cause, and through the cause to the effect; for there is nothing essential in the effect except what is in the cause, and through the cause in the end. And as the end is thus the very essential which enters into the cause and the effect, so cause and effect are called mediate and outmost ends.

This vicar of their life's love.

Sometimes the external of man's thought does not appear to be in itself of the same character as the internal; but this is because the life's love with its surrounding internals places a vicar below itself, which is called the love of means, and enjoins upon it to take heed and watch that nothing from its lusts appear. This vicar, therefore, from the cunning of its chief, which is the life's love, talks and acts in accord with the civil requirements of the country, the moral requirements of reason, and the spiritual requirements of the church. Some do this so craftily and ingeniously that no one sees that they are not such as their speech and act indicate; and at last, from the habit of concealment, they scarcely know otherwise themselves.

All hypocrites are such.

Such are the priests who at heart care nothing for the neighbor and do not fear God, and yet preach about love of the neighbor and the love of God; such are the judges who give judgment according to bribes and friendship, while they show a pretended zeal for justice, and from reason talk of judgment; such are the merchants who are insincere and fraudulent at heart, while they act sincerely for the sake of gain; and such are adulterers, when from the rationality that every man has they talk about the chastity of marriage; and so on.

But when these same persons strip this love of means — this vicar of their life's love — of the garments of purple and fine linen with which they have invested it, and clothe it in its domestic garb, they then think, and sometimes with their dearest friends whose life's love is similar, they speak from their thought in a wholly opposite way. It might be supposed, when from their love of means they have talked so justly, sincerely, and piously, that the character of the internal of their thought was not in the external of their thought, and yet it was. There is hypocrisy in such; there is a love of self and the world in them, and the cunning of that love is to secure reputation for the sake of honor or gain, in respect to outmost appearances. This character of the internal is in the external of their thought when they so speak and act.

Those who are in heavenly love.

But in those who are in heavenly love, the internal and the external of thought, or the internal and the external man, make one when they speak; nor do such know any difference between these. Their life's love, with its affections for good and the perceptions for truth belonging thereto, is like a soul in their thoughts, and in what they speak and do from them. If they are priests they preach from love towards the neighbor and from love to the Lord; if judges they judge from genuine justice; if merchants they act from genuine sincerity; if married they love their wives from genuine chastity; and so on.

The life's love of such has also its love of means as its vicar, which it teaches and leads to act from prudence, and clothes with garments of zeal both for truths of doctrine and for goods of life.

(from Divine Providence 106-110)

Christian Religion, Mohammedan, Gentile

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Because the Divine providence acts into the affections that belong to man's love and thus to his will, leading him in and from his affection into another that is near and related to it by means of his freedom, and so imperceptibly that man has no knowledge of how it acts, and in fact hardly knows that there is a Divine providence; for this reason many deny providence, and confirm themselves against it. This is done in consequence of the various things that happen and arise, as that the arts and deceits of the wicked are successful, that impiety prevails, that there is a hell, that the understanding is blinded to spiritual things, and that this gives rise to so many heresies, each one of which, starting from a single head, flows out into assemblies and nations and becomes permanent, like popery, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Melancthonism, Moravianism, Arianism, Socinianism, Quakerism, Enthusiasm, and even Judaism, and with these naturalism and atheism; and outside of Europe extending through many kingdoms, Mohammedanism, and also paganism, in which are various kinds of worship, and in some cases no worship at all.

All who do not think on these subjects from the Divine truth say in their heart that there is no Divine providence; and those who are perplexed about it assert that there is a Divine providence, but that it is only universal. When either of these hear that there is a Divine providence in every least particular of man's life, they either give no heed to it or do give heed to it; those who give no heed to it, casting the truth behind them and turning away, and those who do give heed to it turning away like the others, and yet they turn back their faces, merely to see whether there is anything in it; and when they see they say to themselves, This is mere affirmation. Some of these latter do affirm the truth with the lips, but not with the heart. Since, then, it is important that the blindness arising from ignorance, or the thick darkness arising from absence of light, should be dissipated, it is permitted to see.

The Lord teaches no one immediately, but mediately through those things in man that are from the hearing and sight.

This follows from what has been said above [last couple of articles]; to which it must be added that immediate revelation is not granted to man except that which has been given in the Word, such as it is in the prophecies and gospels and histories; which is such that everyone may be taught according to the affections of his love and the consequent thoughts of his understanding, those who are not in good of life receiving very little, but those who are in good of life receiving much, for these are taught through enlightenment by the Lord.

The enlightenment is as follows: Light conjoined with heat flows in through heaven from the Lord. This heat, which is the Divine love, affects the will, from which man has the affection of good; and this light, which is the Divine wisdom, affects the understanding, from which man has the thought of truth. From these two fountains, which are the will and understanding, all things of man's love and all things of his knowledge are affected; but only those things that pertain to the subject are called up and presented to view. In this way is enlightenment effected by the Lord by means of the Word, in which everything, from the spiritual that is in it, communicates with heaven, and the Lord flows in through heaven into that which is at the time under man's view; and the influx in everyone is continual and universal even to the minutest particulars. It is comparatively like the heat and light from the sun of the world, which operate upon each and every thing of the earth and give life according to the quality of the seed and the reception. What, then, must be the effect of the heat and light from the Divine sun, from which all things live? To be enlightened by the Lord through heaven is to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is the Divine that proceeds from the Lord as a sun, from which is heaven. From this it is clear that the Lord teaches the man of the church mediately by means of the Word according to the love of his will that comes from his life, and according to the light of his understanding that he gains by means of knowledge; and that this cannot be otherwise, because this is the Divine order of influx.

And this is why the Christian religion has been divided into churches, and into heresies in general and in particular within the churches. Neither can those who are outside the Christian world, and who do not have the Word, be taught in any other way, for they are taught through the religious principle that they have instead of the Word, which is in part from the Word. The religious principle with the Mohammedans was in some respects taken from the Word of both Testaments. Others have a religious principle derived from the ancient Word that was afterwards lost. With some it was from the Ancient Church that extended over a great part of the continent of Asia, which, like our church at the present day, was divided into many, all of them having that ancient Word. From these the religious principles of many nations were derived, although in process of time these became in many cases more or less idolatrous.

Those whose worship is from that origin are taught by the Lord mediately by means of their religious principle the same as Christians are by the Word; and this is done, as has been said, by the Lord through heaven, and thus by a stirring up of their will and also of their understanding. But enlightenment by means of those religious principles is not like enlightenment by means of the Word. It is like enlightenment at evening when the moon is shining more or less brightly, while enlightenment by means of the Word is like enlightenment in the daytime from morning to noon, when the sun is shining more or less brightly. Thus it is that the Lord's church which, as to its light, which is Divine wisdom, extends through the entire globe, is like the day from noon to evening, and even to night; while as to its heat, which is Divine love, it is like the year from spring to autumn, and even to winter.

Yet the Lord provides that man may be reformed and saved by those things that he adopts as his religion.

In the entire globe where there is any religion, since there must be conjunction, there are two that constitute it, namely, God and man; and there are two things that constitute conjunction, namely, the good of love and the truth of faith; the good of love is from the Lord immediately, the truth of faith is also from God, but mediately. The good of love is that through which God leads man, and the truth of faith is that through which man is led. This is the same as what has been said above. The truth of faith appears to man to be his own, because it is from those things that he acquires as if from himself. Therefore God conjoins Himself to man through the good of love, and man conjoins himself to God as if of himself through the truth of faith. Because the conjunction is such the Lord compares Himself to a bridegroom and husband, and the church to a bride and wife. The Lord flows in continually with an abundance of the good of love, but He cannot be conjoined to man in the fullness of the truth of faith, but only in that which is with man, and this varies; it can be given in greater fullness with those who are where the Word is, and in less fullness with those who are where there is no Word; and yet the fullness varies in both in proportion to their knowledge and their life according to it, and consequently it may be greater with those who have not the Word than with those who have it.

The conjunction of God with man and of man with God is taught in the two tables that were written with the finger of God, and called "the tables of the covenant," "of the testimony," and "of the law." In one table is God, in the other man. All nations that have any religion have these tables; from the first table they know that God must be acknowledged, regarded as holy, and worshiped; from the other table they know that they must not steal, either openly or secretly by crafty devices; that they must not commit adultery; that they must not kill either by the hand or by hatred; that they must not bear false witness in a court of justice or before the world; and also that they must not will these things. From his table man knows the evils that must be shunned, and just so far as he knows them and shuns them as if from himself, God conjoins the man to Himself and enables him from His table to acknowledge Him, to regard Him as holy, and to worship Him, and also enables him not to will evils, and so far as he does not will evils to know truths in abundance. Thus these two tables are conjoined with man, and God's table is placed above man's table, and they are put as one table into the ark, over which is the mercy-seat, which is the Lord, and over the mercy-seat the two cherubim which are the Word and what is from the Word, in which the Lord speaks with man as he spoke with Moses and Aaron between the cherubim.

Since, then, there is conjunction of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord by these means, evidently everyone who knows them and lives according to them, not merely from the civil and moral law, but also from the Divine law, will be saved; thus everyone in his own religion, whether Christian or Mohammedan or Gentile. And what is more, a man who from religion lives these truths, even if in the world he knows nothing about the Lord, nor anything else from the Word, yet he is in such a state as to his spirit that he wishes to become wise; consequently after death he is instructed by the angels and acknowledges the Lord and receives truths according to his affection and becomes an angel. Every such person is like a man who dies an infant, for he is led by the Lord and is educated by the angels. Those who from ignorance and from having been born in such a place have known nothing of worship, are after death instructed like little children, and according to their civil and moral life receive the means of salvation. I have seen such, and at first they did not appear like men; but afterwards I saw them as men, and heard them speaking sanely from the commandments of the Decalogue. To instruct such is the inmost angelic joy. From all this it is now clear that the Lord provides that every man can be saved.

For every nation the Lord provides a universal means of salvation.

From what has been said above it is clear that in whatever religion a man may live he can be saved; for he knows the evils and the falsities from evils that must be shunned, and having shunned them he knows the goods that must be done and the truths that must be believed. The goods he does and the truths he believes before he has shunned evils are not in themselves goods and truths, because they are from man and not from the Lord. Before that they are not goods and truths in themselves because in the man they then have no life. A man who knows all goods and all truths, as many as can be known, but does not shun evils, knows nothing. His goods and truths are swallowed up or cast out by the evils, so that he becomes foolish, not in the world but afterwards; while the man who knows few goods and few truths, but shuns evils, knows those goods and truths and learns many more and becomes wise, if not in the world yet afterwards. Since, then, everyone in every religion knows the evils and falsities from evils that must be shunned, and having shunned them knows the goods that must be done and the truths that must be believed, it is clear that this is provided by the Lord as the universal means of salvation with every nation that has any religion.

With Christians this means exists in all fullness; it also exists, though not in fullness, with Mohammedans and Gentiles. The remaining things, by which they are distinguished, are either ceremonials which are of little consequence, or are goods that may be done or not done, or truths that may be believed or not believed, and yet man be saved. What these things amount to man can see when evils are removed. A Christian sees this from the Word, a Mohammedan from the Koran, and a Gentile from his religious principle. A Christian sees from the Word that God is one, that the Lord is the Savior of the world, that all good that is good in itself, and all truth that is true in itself, is from God, and nothing of it from man; that there must be Baptism and the Holy Supper, that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after death, and that he who does good comes into heaven, and he who does evil into hell. These things he believes from truth and does from good when he is not in evil. Other things that are not in accord with these and with the Decalogue he may pass by. A Mohammedan sees from the Koran that God is one, that the Lord is the Son of God, and that all good is from God, that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after death, and that the evils forbidden in the commandments of the Decalogue must be shunned. If he does these latter things he also believes the former and is saved. A Gentile sees from his religious principle that there is a God, that He must be regarded as holy and be worshiped, that good is from Him, that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after death, that the evils forbidden in the Decalogue must be shunned. If he does these things and believes them he is saved. And as many Gentiles perceive God to be Man, and as God-Man is the Lord, so after death when they are instructed by angels they acknowledge the Lord, and afterwards receive truths from the Lord that they had not before known. They are not condemned because of their not having the ordinances of Baptism and the Holy Supper; the Holy Supper and Baptism are for those only who are in possession of the Word, and to whom the Lord is known from the Word; for they are symbols of that church, and are attestations and certifications that those who believe and live according to the Lord's commandments in the Word are saved.

(Apocalypse Explained 1176; 1177; 1179; 1180)

What is Perpetual ... What is Eternal

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A new state — what is complete; the last and the first together, or the end and the beginning together.

In the internal sense all periods of time signify states, as hour, day, week, month, year, age; and also the lesser divisions of time, as noon, evening, night, and morning, which are times of the day; and as summer, autumn, winter, and spring, which are times of the year; and also the several periods of life, as infancy and childhood, youth, adult age, and old age; all of which times, with others, signify states.

That times signify states is because times do not exist in the other life. The progression of the life of spirits and angels indeed appears as in time; but they have no thought from times, as men in the world have; their thought is from states of the life, and this without notion of times. The reason of this is that the progressions of their life are not distinguished into different ages, for there they do not grow old, and there are no days or years, because their sun, which is the Lord, is always rising and never sets. Hence no notion of time enters their thoughts, but only a notion of state and its progressions - notions being taken from the things that are and exist before the senses.

These things must needs seem paradoxical, but only for the reason that man in every idea of his thought has somewhat adjoined from time and space. From this source are his memory and recollection, and also his lower thought, the ideas of which are called material. But that memory out of which comes such ideas is quiescent in the other life. They who are in that life are in interior memory, and in the ideas of its thought; and thought from this latter memory has not times and spaces adjoined to it, but states and their progressions instead. Hence also it is that they correspond, and in consequence of such correspondence times in the Word signify states. (That man has an exterior memory which is proper to him in the body, and also an interior memory which is proper to his spirit, Arcana Coelestia 2469-2494.)

That by "about three months after" is signified a new state, is because by "months," into which also times in the world are distinguished, is signified state, and by "three" is signified the last and the first together, or the end and the beginning together, as said above. Because in the spiritual world there is a continual progression of states from one into another, and consequently in the last or end of every state there is a first or beginning, hence what is continuous, therefore by the words "about three months after" is signified a new state. It is similar also in the church, which is the spiritual world or the Lord's kingdom on earth, the last of the church with one nation being always the first of the church with another. As the last is thus continued into the first, it is several times said of the Lord that He is the Last and the First as in Isaiah 41:4:

Who hath wrought and done it , calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD , the first, and with the last; I am he.

Again,

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6)

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:6)

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Revelation 22:13)

and thereby in the relative sense is signified what is perpetual, and in the supreme sense what is eternal.

(from Arcana Coelestia 4901)