Reformed in States of Rationality and Liberty

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

NO ONE IS REFORMED IN STATES THAT DO NOT SPRING FROM RATIONALITY AND LIBERTY

Nothing is appropriated to man except what he does from freedom in accordance with reason. This is because freedom belongs to the will and reason to the understanding; and when man acts from freedom in accordance with reason he acts from the will by means of his understanding; and whatever is done in a conjunction of these two is appropriated. Since, then, it is the Lord's will that man should be reformed and regenerated, that he may have eternal life or the life of heaven, and no one can be reformed and regenerated unless good is so appropriated to his will as to be as if it were his, and truth is so appropriated to his understanding as to be as if it were his, and since nothing can be appropriated to any one except what is done from freedom of the will in accordance with the reason of the understanding, it follows that no one is reformed in states that do not spring from liberty and rationality. These states are many, but in general they may be referred to the following, namely states of fear, of misfortune, of disordered mind, of bodily disease, of ignorance, and of blindness of the understanding. Something shall be said of each state in particular.

NO ONE IS REFORMED IN A STATE OF FEAR

No one is reformed in a state of fear, because fear takes away freedom and reason, or liberty and rationality; for while love opens the interiors of the mind, fear closes them; and when they are closed man thinks but little, and only of what then presents itself to the mind or the senses. Such is the effect of all fears that take possession of the mind.

It has been shown above that man has an internal and an external of thought; fear can in no wise take possession of the internal of thought; this is always in freedom because in its life's love; but it can take possession of the external of thought, and when it does this the internal of thought is closed; and when that is closed man can no longer act from freedom in accordance with his reason, and therefore cannot be reformed.

The fear that takes possession of the external of thought and closes the internal is chiefly a fear of the loss of honor or gain. The internal of thought is not closed by a fear of civil punishments or of external ecclesiastical punishments, because such laws only prescribe penalties for those who speak and act contrary to the civil interests of the kingdom and the spiritual interests of the church, and not for those who merely think in opposition to them.

A fear of infernal punishments may take possession of the external of thought, but only for a few moments or hours or days; it is soon brought back to its freedom from the internal of thought, which belongs strictly to its spirit and its life's love, and is called the thought of the heart.

But a fear of the loss of honor and gain takes possession of the external of man's thought; and when it does this it closes the internal of thought from above against influx from heaven, and makes it impossible for man to be reformed. This is because every man's life's love from his birth is a love of self and the world; and the love of self makes one with the love of honor, and the love of the world makes one with the love of gain. When, therefore, a man has gained honor or wealth, from a fear of losing them he strengthens with himself the means that are serviceable to him for honor and gain, whether civil or ecclesiastical, both of which are means of power. One who has not yet gained honor and wealth does the like if he desires them; but he does it from a fear of the loss of reputation on their account.

It is said that that fear takes possession of the external of thought, and closes the internal from above against the influx from heaven. The internal is said to be closed when it completely makes one with the external, for it is not then in itself but in the external.

But inasmuch as the loves of self and the world are infernal loves, and are the fountain heads of all evils, it is clear what the internal of thought is in itself in those in whom these loves are the loves of the life, or in whom these loves rule, namely, that it is full of the lusts of evils of every kind. This is not known to those who from a fear of the loss of dignity and wealth are strongly persuaded respecting the religion they accept, especially if the religion involves their worship as deities, and also as having supreme power over hell. Such may seem to be in a blaze of zeal for the salvation of souls, and yet this may be from an infernal fire. As such a fear especially takes away rationality itself and liberty itself, which are heavenly in their origin, it is evidently a hindrance to man's ability to be reformed.

NO ONE IS REFORMED IN A STATE OF MISFORTUNE

No one is reformed in a state of misfortune, if he thinks of God and implores His aid only in that state, because that is a compelled state; consequently as soon as he comes into a free state he goes back to his former state, in which he had thought little or nothing about God. It is otherwise with those who in their former free state had feared God. By "fearing God" is meant fearing to offend Him, "offending God" meaning to sin. This fear is not a matter of fear but of love, for when one loves another does he not fear to do him wrong? And does he not fear this the more, the more he loves? Without such a fear love is insipid and superficial, a mere matter of the thought and not at all of the will. By "states of misfortune" are meant states of despair from danger, as in battles, duels, shipwrecks, falls, fires, threatened or unexpected loss of wealth or of office and thus of honors, and other like things To think of God only when in such dangers is not from God but from self. For the mind is then as it were imprisoned in the body; thus not at liberty, and therefore not in rationality; and apart from these no reformation is possible.

NO ONE IS REFORMED IN UNHEALTHY MENTAL STATES

No one is reformed in unhealthy mental states, because these take away rationality, and consequently the freedom to act in accordance with reason. For the mind may be sick and unsound; and while a sound mind is rational a sick mind is not. Such unhealthy mental states are melancholy, a spurious or false conscience, hallucinations of various kinds, grief of mind from misfortunes, and anxieties and mental suffering from a vitiated condition of the body. These are sometimes regarded as temptations, but they are not. For genuine temptations have as their objects things spiritual, and in these the mind is wise; but these states have as their objects natural things, and in these the mind is unhealthy.

NO ONE IS REFORMED IN A STATE OF BODILY DISEASE

No one is reformed in a state of bodily disease, because the reason is not then in a free state; for the state of the mind depends upon the state of the body. When the body is sick the mind is also sick, because of its separation from the world if for no other reason. For when the mind is removed from the world it may think about God, but not from God, for it does not possess freedom of reason. Man has freedom of reason by his being midway between heaven and the world, and by his ability to think from heaven or from the world, also from heaven about the world, or from the world about heaven. So when a man is sick, and is thinking about death and the state of his soul after death, he is not in the world; but in spirit he is withdrawn; and in this state alone no one can be reformed; but if before he fell sick he had been reformed this can then be strengthened.

It is the same with those who give up the world and all business there, and give themselves solely to thoughts about God, heaven, and salvation; but of this more elsewhere. As a consequence, if these persons had not been reformed before their sickness, if they die they afterwards become such as they were before the sickness. It is therefore vain to think that any can repent or receive any faith during sickness, for in such repentance there is nothing of action, and in such faith nothing of charity; thus both belong wholly to the lips and not at all to the heart.

NO ONE IS REFORMED IN A STATE OF IGNORANCE

No one is reformed in a state of ignorance, because all reformation is effected by means of truths and a life according to them; consequently those who are ignorant of truths cannot be reformed; but if they desire truths from an affection for truths, after death in the spiritual world they are reformed.

NO ONE IS REFORMED IN A STATE OF IN A STATE OF BLINDNESS OF THE UNDERSTANDING

Neither can any one be reformed in a state of blindness of the understanding. These, too, are ignorant of truths, and consequently of life; for the understanding must teach truths, and the will must do them; and when the will does what the understanding teaches its life comes into harmony with the truths. But when the understanding is blinded the will also is closed up; and from a freedom that is in accord with its reason it does only the evil that has been confirmed in the understanding, which is falsity. The understanding is blinded not only by ignorance but also by a religion that teaches a blind faith, also by false doctrine. For as truths open the understanding so falsities close it; they close it above but open it below; and an understanding that is opened only below cannot see truths, but can merely confirm whatever it wills, especially falsity. The understanding is also blinded by the lusts of evil. As long as the will is in these it moves the understanding to confirm them; and so far as the lusts of evil are confirmed the will cannot be in affections for good and to see truths from them, and thus be reformed.

When one, for example, is in the lust of adultery, his will, which is in the enjoyment of his love, moves his understanding to confirm it, saying, "What is adultery? Is there anything wicked in it? Is there not a like thing between husband and wife? Cannot offspring be born from adultery as well as from marriage? Cannot a woman admit more than one without harm? What has the spiritual to do with this?" So thinks the understanding that is then the will's harlot, and that has become so stupid from debauchery with the will as to be unable to see that conjugial love is the spiritual heavenly love itself, an image of love of the Lord and of the church, and derived from that love, and thus is in itself holy, is chastity itself, purity, and innocence; also that it makes men to be loves in form, since consorts can love each other mutually from inmosts, and thus form themselves into loves; while adultery destroys this form, and with it the image of the Lord, and, what is horrible, the adulterer mingles his life with the husband's life in his wife, since a man's life is in his seed.

Because this is profane hell is called adultery, and heaven on the other hand is called marriage. Moreover, the love of adultery communicates with the lowest hell, while love truly conjugial communicates with the inmost heaven; and the organs of generation in either sex correspond to societies of the inmost heaven. All this has been presented to make known how blinded the understanding is when the will is in the lust of evil; and that no man can be reformed in a state of blindness of the understanding.

(from Divine Providence 138 - 144)

Compelled Worship and Worship Not Compelled

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

NO ONE IS REFORMED BY THREATS AND PUNISHMENTS

No one is reformed by threats and punishments, because they compel.

IT IS OF THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE
MAN SHOULD ACT FROM FREEDOM
IN ACCORDANCE WITH REASON

It is admitted that the external cannot compel the internal, but that the internal can compel the external; also that the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external that it turns itself away.

It is also admitted that external enjoyments allure the internal to consent and love; and it may be known that a compelled internal and a free internal are possible. But although all these things are admitted they nevertheless need illustration; for many things when they are heard, being true, are at once perceived to be so, and are therefore assented to; but unless they are also corroborated by reasons they may be disproved by arguments from fallacies, and at last denied. Therefore the things just stated as admitted must be taken up and rationally confirmed.

First: The external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can compel the external. Who can be compelled to believe and to love? One can no more be compelled to believe than to think that a thing is so when he thinks that it is not so; and one can no more be compelled to love than to will what he does not will; for belief belongs to thought, and love belongs to the will. But the internal may be compelled by the external not to speak ill of the laws of the kingdom, the moralities of life, and the sanctities of the church; thus far the internal may be compelled by threats and punishments; and it is so compelled and ought to be. This internal, however, is not the strictly human internal, but is an internal that man has in common with beasts; and beasts can be compelled. The human internal has its seat above this animal internal. It is this human internal that is here meant, and that cannot be compelled.

Secondly: The internal is so averse to compulsion by the external that it turns itself away. This is because the internal wishes to be in freedom, and loves freedom, for freedom belongs to man's love or life, as has been shown above; consequently when freedom feels itself to be compelled it withdraws as it were within itself and turns itself away, and looks upon compulsion as its enemy; for the love that constitutes man's life is irritated, and causes the man to think that in this respect he is not his own, and therefore does not live for himself. Man's internal is such from the law of the Lord's Divine providence that man should act from freedom in accordance with reason.

From this it is clear that to compel men to Divine worship by threats and punishments is pernicious.

But there are some who suffer themselves to be compelled in respect to religion, and some who do not. Of those who suffer themselves to be so compelled there are many within the papal jurisdiction; but this takes place with those in whose worship there is nothing internal, but all is external. Of those who do not suffer themselves to be compelled there are many of the English nation; and as a consequence of this there is in their worship an internal, and what there is in the external is from their internal. In regard to their religion their interiors appear in spiritual light like bright clouds; while the interiors of the former, in respect to religion, appear in the light of heaven like dark clouds. These appearances are presented to sight in the spiritual world, and will be seen by any one who wishes to see them when he comes into that world after death. Furthermore, compelled worship shuts in evils, which evils then lie hidden like fire in wood under ashes, which is continually kindling and spreading till it breaks out in flames; while worship not compelled, but spontaneous, does not shut evils in, and in consequence they are like fires that blaze up quickly and are gone. All this makes clear that the internal is so averse to compulsion that it turns itself away. The internal can compel the external, because the internal is like a master, and the external like a servant.

Thirdly: External enjoyments allure the internal to consent, and also to love. There are two kinds of enjoyments, enjoyments of the understanding and enjoyments of the will; those of the understanding are also enjoyments of wisdom, and those of the will are also enjoyments of love; for wisdom belongs to the understanding, and love to the will. And inasmuch as the enjoyments of the body and its senses, which are external enjoyments, act as one with the internal enjoyments which belong to the understanding and the will, it follows that while the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external as to turn itself away from it, it also looks with such favor on enjoyments in the external as even to turn itself to it; thus on the part of the understanding there is consent, and on the part of the will there is love.

In the spiritual world all children are led by the Lord into angelic wisdom, and through that into heavenly love, by means of things enjoyable and pleasing; first by means of beautiful things in their homes, and by means of pleasing things in gardens; then by means of representatives of spiritual things, which affect the interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by means of truths of wisdom, and so by means of goods of love. Thus this is done continuously by means of enjoyments in their order; first by means of the enjoyments of the love of the understanding and of its wisdom; and finally by the enjoyments of the will's love, which becomes their life's love; and to this all other things that have entered by means of enjoyments are held subordinate.

This takes place because everything of the understanding and will must be formed by means of what is external before it is formed by the means of what is internal; since everything of the understanding and will is first formed by means of what enters through the senses of the body, especially through the sight and hearing; and when the first understanding and first will have been formed, the internal of thought looks upon these as the externals of its thought, and either conjoins itself with them or separates itself from them. It conjoins itself with them if they are delightful to it, and it separates itself from them if they are not.

But it must be clearly understood that the internal of the understanding does not conjoin itself with the internal of the will, but that the internal of the will conjoins itself with the internal of the understanding, and makes the conjunction to be reciprocal; but this is done by the internal of the will, and not in the least by the internal of the understanding. This is the reason why man cannot be reformed by means of faith alone, but only by means of the will's love, which makes a faith for itself.

Fourthly: A compelled internal and a free internal are possible. A compelled internal is possible in such as are in external worship only and in no internal worship; for their internal consists in thinking and willing that to which the external is compelled. Such is the state of those who worship men living and dead, and thus worship idols, and whose faith is based on miracles. In such no internal is possible except what is at the same time external.

A compelled internal is also possible in such as are in the internal of worship. It may be an internal compelled by fear or an internal compelled by love.

Those have an internal compelled by fear who are in worship from a fear of the torment of hell and its fire. Such an internal, however, is not the internal of thought before treated of, but is the external of thought, and is here called an internal because it belongs to thought. The internal of thought before treated of cannot be compelled by any fear; but it can be compelled by love and by a fear of losing love. In its true sense the fear of God is nothing else.

To be compelled by love and a fear of losing it is to compel oneself — that compelling oneself is not contrary to liberty and rationality.

COMPELLED WORSHIP AND WORSHIP NOT COMPELLED

All this makes clear what compelled worship is and what worship not compelled is.

Compelled worship is corporeal, lifeless, darkened, and sad; corporeal because it is of the body and not of the mind, lifeless because there is no life in it, darkened because there is no understanding in it, and sad because there is no enjoyment of heaven in it. But worship not compelled, when it is genuine, is spiritual, living, clear, and joyful; spiritual because there is spirit from the Lord in it, living because there is life from the Lord in it, clear because there is wisdom from the Lord in it, and joyful because there is heaven from the Lord in it.

(from Divine Providence 136, 137)

Visions, and Conversation with the Dead

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
NO ONE IS REFORMED BY VISIONS OR BY CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD

No one is reformed by visions or by conversations with the dead, because they compel.

IT IS OF THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE
MAN SHOULD ACT FROM FREEDOM
IN ACCORDANCE WITH REASON

Visions are of two kinds, Divine and diabolical.

Divine visions are produced by means of representations in heaven

Diabolical visions by means of magic in hell

There are also fantastic visions, which are delusions of an abstracted mind.

Divine visions, which are produced (as has been said) by means of representations in heaven, are such as the prophets had, who were not in the body but in the spirit when they were in these visions; for visions can not appear to any one in the waking states of the body, When, therefore, they appear to the prophets they are said to have been "in the spirit," as is evident from the passages that follow.

Ezekiel says:-

Moreover, the spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision of God, in the spirit of God, into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up over me (10: 1, 24).

Again —

that the spirit lifted him up between the earth and the heaven, and brought him in the visions of God to Jerusalem (8: 3, seq.).

In like manner —

he was in the vision of God or in the spirit when he saw the four living creatures which were cherubim (1 and 10).

As also —

when he saw the new temple and the new earth, and the angel measuring them (40 - 48).

That he was then in the visions of God he says (40: 2, 26); and in the spirit (43: 5).

In a like state was Zechariah —

When he saw a man riding among the myrtle trees (Zech. 1: 8, seq.)

When he saw four horns (1: 18)

and a man in whose hand was a measuring line (2: 1-3, seq.)

When he saw a lampstand and two olive trees (4: 1, seq.)

When he saw the flying roll and the ephah (5: 1, 6)

When he saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains, and horses (6: 1, seq.).

In a like state was Daniel —

When he saw four beasts coming up from the sea (Dan. 7: 1, seq.)

When he saw the combat between a ram and a he-goat (8: 1, seq.).

That he saw these things in the vision of his spirit is stated (7: 1, 2, 7, 13; 8: 2; 10: 1, 7, 8)

that the angel Gabriel was seen by him in vision (9: 21).

John, also, was in the vision of the spirit when he saw what he described in the Apocalypse: —

As when he saw seven lampstands, and in their midst the Son of man (1: 12-16)

When he saw a throne in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne, and four animals which were cherubim round about it (4)

When he saw the book of life taken by the Lamb (5)

When he saw horses going out from the book (6)

When he saw seven angels with trumpets (8)

When he saw the pit of the abyss opened, and locusts going out of it (9)

When he saw the dragon, and its combat with Michael (12)

When he saw two beasts, one rising up out of the sea and the other out of the earth (13)

When he saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast (17)

And Babylon destroyed (18)

When he saw a white horse and Him who sat upon it (19)

And when he saw the new heaven and the new earth; and the Holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven (21)

And when he saw the river of the water of life (22)

That he saw these things in the vision of the spirit is said (1: 10; 4: 2; 5: 1; 6: 1; 21: 1, 2)

Such were the visions that appeared to them from heaven, not before the sight of the body but before the sight of the spirit. Such visions do not take place at the present day; if they did, they would not be understood, because they are produced by means of representations, each one of which is significative of the internal things of the church and the arcana of heaven.

Moreover, it was foretold by Daniel (9:24) that they would cease when the Lord came into the world.

But diabolical visions have sometimes appeared, induced by enthusiastic and visionary spirits, who from the delirium that possessed them called themselves the Holy Spirit. But these spirits have now been gathered up by the Lord and cast into a hell separate from the hells of others.

All this makes clear that by no other visions than those in the Word can one be reformed.

There are also fantastic visions: but these are mere delusions of an abstracted mind.

NO ONE IS REFORMED BY CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD

That no one is reformed by conversations with the dead is evident from the Lord's words respecting the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.

for the rich man said: —

I pray thee, father Abraham, that thou wouldst send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torment. Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. But he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one come to them from the dead they will repent. He answered him, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead (Luke 16: 27-31).

Conversation with the dead would have the same effect as miracles, namely, man would be persuaded and forced into a state of worship for a short time. But as man is thus deprived of rationality, and at the same time evils are shut in, this spell or internal bond is loosed, and the evils that have been shut in break out, with blasphemy and profanation. But this takes place only when some dogma of religion has been imposed upon the mind by spirits, which is never done by any good spirit, still less by any angel of heaven.

(from Divine Providence 134)