Peculiar To Man, But Not With Beasts

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Whatever a man does from freedom, whether it be of reason or not, provided it is in accordance with his reason, appears to him to be his.

What rationality and liberty, which are peculiar to man, are, can be most clearly understood by a comparison of man with beasts.

For beasts have no rationality or ability to understand, and no liberty or ability to will freely; consequently they have no understanding or will, but in place of understanding they have knowledge, and in place of will they have affection, both of which are natural. And as they do not possess these two faculties, they have no thought, but in place of thought they have an internal sight which makes one by correspondence with their external sight.

Every affection has its mate which is like a spouse; affection from natural love has knowledge, affection from spiritual love understanding, and affection from celestial love wisdom. For an affection without its mate as a spouse is not any thing; it is as being (esse) without coming forth (existere), or as substance without form, of which nothing can be predicated. Therefore, in every thing created there is something that is referable to the marriage of good and truth, as has been shown above in many places. In beasts there is a marriage of affection and knowledge, the affection in them pertaining to natural good, and knowledge to natural truth.

Since, then, affection and knowledge in beasts act completely as one, and their affection cannot be raised above their knowledge nor their knowledge above their affection, but whenever raised are both raised together, and since they have no spiritual mind, into which, or into the light and heat of which, they can be raised, therefore they have no capacity to understand, that is, rationality, and no capacity to will freely, that is, liberty; they have merely natural affection with its knowledge. The natural affection that they possess is an affection for providing themselves food, shelter, and offspring, and for escaping or avoiding injury, with all requisite knowledge of these things. Such being the state of their life, they have no ability to think, This I wish or do not wish; this I know or do not know; or still less, this I understand, and this I love; but from their affection by means of their knowledge they are borne along without rationality or liberty. They are so borne along, not from the natural world, but from the spiritual. For there is nothing in the natural world unconnected with the spiritual world. From that world is every cause that produces an effect.

With man it is otherwise. He has not only affection from natural love, but also affection from spiritual love, and affection from celestial love. For the human mind is of three degrees. ... Consequently a man can be raised up from natural knowledge into spiritual intelligence and from that into celestial wisdom; and from these two, intelligence and wisdom, he can look to the Lord, and thus be conjoined with Him, whereby he lives forever. But this exaltation in respect to affection would not be possible unless man had from rationality an ability to raise the understanding, and from liberty an ability to will this.

By means of these two faculties man has the ability to reflect within himself upon those things that he perceives outside of himself by means of the bodily senses. He also has the ability to think above about what he is thinking below. For one can say: This I have thought and this I now think; also: This I have willed and this I now will; or again: This I understand to be true, this I love because it is such; and so on. From this it is clear that man thinks also above thought, seeing it as if beneath him. This ability man has from rationality and from liberty — from rationality this capacity for higher thought — from liberty the capacity to will, from affection to so think. For without the liberty so to think he would not have the will, and consequently not the thought.

For this reason those that have no wish to understand any thing except what pertains to the world and its nature, and no wish to understand what moral and spiritual good and truth are, cannot be raised from knowledge into intelligence, still less into wisdom; for they have closed up these capacities, and therefore make themselves to be men no further than having an ability to understand, if they will, and an ability to so will, from the rationality and liberty implanted in them. From these two faculties man is able to think, and to speak from thought; in all other things men are not men but beasts; and some, from the abuse of these faculties are worse than beasts.

From an unobscured rationality any one can see or comprehend that it is only from an appearance that it is his that man can be in any affection for knowing, or in any affection for understanding. For every enjoyment and pleasure, and therefore every thing of the will, is from affection, which belongs to love. Who can wish to know any thing or to understand any thing, unless he has some pleasure from affection? And who can possess this pleasure of affection unless that which moves the affection appears to be his? If nothing were his, but everything another's, in other words, if any one from his own affections should pour something into the mind of another who had no affection for knowing and understanding as if from himself, would the other receive it, or even possess the ability to receive it? Would he not be like what is called a dullard and a stock?

From this it is clearly evident that although every thing that man perceives, and thinks and knows therefrom, and wills and does in accordance with the perception, flows into him, nevertheless it is made by the Lord's Divine providence to appear to be man's; for otherwise, as has been said, the man could receive nothing, and therefore he could be endowed with no understanding or wisdom. It is acknowledged that every thing good and true is the Lord's and not man's, and yet that it appears to man to be his; and because every thing good and true so appears, all things of the church and of heaven, consequently all things of love and wisdom, and of charity and faith, so appear, and yet nothing of these is man's. Unless it appeared to man that he perceived these things as if from himself, he could not receive them from the Lord. From all this the truth of the matter can be seen, namely, that whatever one does from freedom, whether it be of reason or not, provided it is in accordance with his reason, appears to him to be his.

With his faculty called rationality who is not able to understand that this or that good is useful to society, and that this or that evil is harmful to it; for example, that justice, sincerity, and the chastity of marriage, are useful to society, and that injustice, insincerity, and adulterous relations with the wives of others, are harmful to it; consequently, that these evils in themselves are injuries, and that the goods in themselves are benefits? Who therefore is not able, if he will, to make these distinctions matters of reason? He has rationality, and he has liberty; and so far as he, for these reasons, shuns these evils in himself, are his rationality and liberty uncovered and made manifest, and so far do they regulate, and give perception and ability; and so far as this is done man looks to these goods as a friend looks to his friends.

From all this man is able afterwards from his faculty which is called rationality to draw conclusions about such goods as are useful to society in the spiritual world, and about the evils that are harmful there, if in place of evils he understands sins, and in place of goods works of charity. This a man is able, if he will, to make a matter of his reason also, since he has rationality and liberty. And so far as he shuns these evils as sins, are his rationality and liberty uncovered and made manifest, and so far they regulate and give perception and ability; and so far as this is done, he looks to the goods of charity as neighbor looks to neighbor, from mutual love.

Since, then, it is the Lord's will, for the sake of reception and conjunction, that whatever a man does freely in accordance with reason should appear to him to be his, and this is in accordance with reason itself, it follows that man is able from his reason to will this on the ground that it constitutes his eternal happiness; and by the Lord's Divine power, when it is invoked, he is able to do it.

(from Divine Providence 74-77)

Rationality and Liberty

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Man Should Act from Freedom in Accordance with Reason

Everyone knows that man has the freedom to think and will just as he pleases, but not the freedom to say whatever he thinks, or to do whatever he wills; therefore the freedom that is here meant is spiritual freedom, and not natural freedom, except when the two make one. For thinking and willing are spiritual, but speaking and doing are natural. Moreover, these are clearly distinguished in man; for a man is able to think what he does not speak, and to will what he does not do; which makes clear that the spiritual and the natural in man are discriminated; consequently man can pass from one to the other only through a boundary, such a boundary as may be likened to a door that must be unfastened and opened. This door stands open as it were in those who think and will from reason in accordance with the civil laws of the government and the moral laws of society; for such say what they think and do as they will; but the door stands shut as it were in those who think and will in opposition to those laws. Whoever attends to his volitions and consequent actions will notice that such a boundary intervenes, and sometimes frequently in a single conversation or a single action. This has been premised to make clear that to act from freedom in accordance with reason means to think and will freely and thus to speak and do freely what is in accordance with reason.

But as few are aware that this can be a law of Divine Providence, for the reason chiefly that this gives a man freedom also to think evil and falsity, although the Divine Providence is continually leading him to think and will what is good and true.

Man, possesses reason and freedom, or rationality and liberty, and these two faculties are in man from the Lord. ... But as many doubts may arise respecting either of these when they are made a subject of thought, at the outset I will merely advance something respecting: —

THE FREEDOM TO ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH REASON THAT IS IN MAN

First, however, it must be known that all freedom is a property of love, insomuch that love and freedom are one. And as love is the life of man, freedom also belongs to his life. For every enjoyment that man has is from his love; no enjoyment is possible from any other source; and acting from love's enjoyment is acting from freedom; for a man is led by enjoyment as a thing is borne along by the current of a river. Since, then, there are numerous loves, some harmonious and some discordant, it follows that there are likewise numerous kinds of freedom; but in general three, natural, rational, and spiritual.

Natural freedom every one has by inheritance. From it man loves nothing but self and the world; his first life is nothing else. And as from these two loves all evils spring, and thus it comes that evils belong to the love, it follows that thinking and willing evils is man's natural freedom; and when he has confirmed evils in himself by reasonings he does evils from freedom in accordance with his reason. Thus his doing evils is from his faculty that is called liberty; and his confirming them is from his faculty that is called rationality.

A man's desire, for example, to commit adultery, to defraud, to blaspheme, to take revenge, is from the love into which he is born; and when he confirms these evils in himself, and thereby makes them allowable, then, from the enjoyment of the love of them, he as it were freely in accordance with reason thinks and wills them, and, so far as civil laws do not prevent, speaks and acts accordingly. It is from the Lord's Divine providence that man is permitted to do this, because he has freedom or liberty. Man is in this kind of freedom by nature, because of inheritance; and all those are in it who by means of reasonings have confirmed it in themselves from the enjoyment of love of self and the world.

Rational freedom is from the love of reputation with a view to honor or gain. The enjoyment of this love lies in appearing externally as a moral man; and because man loves such a reputation, he does not defraud, commit adultery, take revenge, or blaspheme; and because he makes this a matter of reason, he acts from freedom in accordance with his reason in sincere, just, chaste, and friendly ways; and furthermore, from this reason he can advocate such conduct. But if his rational is merely natural and not also spiritual, such freedom is merely external freedom, not internal freedom; for he does not love these goods in the least inwardly, but only outwardly for the sake of his reputation, as has been said, and for this reason the good deeds that he does are not in themselves good. He may even assert that these things ought to be done for the public welfare; but this he says not from any love for the public welfare, but from a love for his own honor or gain. His freedom, therefore, derives nothing from a love for the public welfare, neither does his reason, since this assents to his love. Consequently, this rational freedom is a more internal natural freedom. This freedom, too, by the Lord's Divine providence remains with everyone.

Spiritual freedom is from a love for eternal life. Into that love and its enjoyment no one comes except he that thinks evils to be sins and in consequence does not will them, and at the same time looks to the Lord. As soon as one does this he is in that freedom. For one's ability not to will evils because they are sins, and not to do them for that reason, comes from the more internal or higher freedom which is from his more internal or higher love. At first such a freedom does not seem to be freedom, and yet it is; and afterwards it so appears, and then man acts from freedom itself, in accordance with reason itself, in thinking, willing, speaking, and doing what is good and true. This freedom increases as natural freedom decreases and becomes subservient; and it conjoins itself with rational freedom and purifies it.

Any one may come into this freedom if he is but willing to think that life is eternal, and that the temporary enjoyment and bliss of life in time are but as a fleeting shadow, compared with the never ending enjoyment and bliss of a life in eternity; and this a man can think if he wishes, because he has rationality and liberty, and because the Lord, from whom these two faculties are derived, continually gives the ability.

(from Divine Providence 71-73)

Thinking from Divine Ideas

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
A Representation of the Lord's Kingdom in a Mental View of the Universe

And He led him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them; and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. (Genesis 15:5)

"Heaven" in the Word, in the internal sense, does not signify the heavens which appear to the eyes; but the Lord's kingdom, universally and particularly. When a man who is looking at internal things from external sees the heavens, he does not think at all of the starry heaven, but of the angelic heaven; and when he sees the sun, he does not think of the sun, but of the Lord, as being the Sun of heaven. So too when he sees the moon, and the stars also; and when he sees the immensity of the heavens, he does not think of their immensity, but of the immeasurable and infinite power of the Lord. It is the same when he sees all other things, for there is nothing that is not representative.

In like manner as regards the things on the earth; as when he beholds the dawning of the day he does not think of the dawn, but of the arising of all things from the Lord, and of progression into the day of wisdom. So when he sees gardens, groves, and flower-beds, his eye remains not fixed on any tree, its blossom, leaf, and fruit; but on the heavenly things which these represent; nor on any flower, and its beauty and pleasantness; but on what they represent in the other life. For there is nothing beautiful and delightful in the skies or on the earth, which is not in some way representative of the Lord's kingdom:

I have spoken with angels concerning representatives, to the effect that there is nothing in the vegetable kingdom on the earth that does not in some way represent the Lord's kingdom. They said that all the beautiful and graceful things in the vegetable kingdom derive their origin from the Lord through heaven; and that when the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord inflow into nature, such things have actual existence; and that this is the source of the vegetative soul or life. Hence come representatives. And as this is not known in the world, it was called a heavenly secret. (AC 1632)

This is the "looking toward heaven" which signifies a representation of the Lord's kingdom in a mental view of the universe.

The reason why all things in the sky and on earth are representative, is that they have come forth and do continually come forth, that is, subsist, from the influx of the Lord through heaven. It is with these things as it is with the human body, which comes forth and subsists by means of the soul; on which account all things in the body both in general and in particular are representative of the soul. The soul is in the use and the end; but the body is in the performance of them. All effects, whatever they may be, are in like manner representatives of the uses which are the causes; and the uses are representative of the ends which belong to the first principles.

They who are in Divine ideas never come to a stand in the objects of the external sight; but from them and in them constantly see internal things. The veriest internal things themselves are those which are of the Lord's kingdom, thus those which are in the veriest end itself. It is the same with the Word of the Lord; he who is in Divine things never regards the Lord's Word from the letter; but regards the letter and the literal sense as being representative and significative of the celestial and spiritual things of the church and of the Lord's kingdom. To him the literal sense is merely an instrumental means for thinking of these. Such was the Lord's sight.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1807)