Freedom of Choice in Spiritual Things

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

I was once in that interior spiritual sight in which the angels of the superior heaven are, but I was then in the world of spirits. And I saw two spirits not far away, standing apart from each other; and I perceived that one of them loved good and truth, and was thereby in conjunction with heaven, while the other loved evil and falsity, and was thereby in conjunction with hell. I approached and called them; and from their tones and their replies, I gathered that one could perceive truths as well as the other, could acknowledge them when perceived, could thus think from the understanding, and direct his intellectual faculties as he pleased, and his voluntary faculties as he wished; consequently that they were in like freedom of choice in rational matters. I observed, moreover, that from that freedom there appeared in their minds a lucidity extending from their first sight, which was that of perception, to their last, which was that of the eye.

But when the one who loved evil and falsity was left to his own thought, I noticed that a kind of smoke arose from hell, and extinguished that lucidity which was above the memory, so that there was a thick darkness in him there like that of midnight; and also that the smoke ignited and burned like a flame, which illuminated the region of his mind below the memory, and this caused him to think enormous falsities arising from the evils of the love of self. But when the other, who loved good and truth, was left to himself, I saw, as it were, a gentle flame flowing down from heaven, which illuminated the region of his mind above the memory, and also the region below it even to the eye; also that the light from that flame shone brighter and brighter, in proportion as from the love of good he had a perception and thought of the truth.

From seeing this, it was made clear to me that every man, good and evil alike, has spiritual freedom of choice, but that hell sometimes extinguishes it in the wicked, while heaven exalts and enkindles it in the good.

Afterward I talked with both of them, first with the one who loved evil and falsity, and when, after a few words about his lot, I mentioned freedom of choice, he fired up, and said, "What madness it is to believe that man has freedom of choice in spiritual things! What man can acquire faith of himself, or do good of himself? Does not the priesthood of today teach from the Word that no man can receive anything unless it be given him from heaven? And the Lord Christ said to His disciples, 'Apart from Me ye can do nothing.' To which I will add, that no man can move hand or foot to do any good, or move his tongue to speak any truth from good. Therefore the church by her wise men has concluded that man can no more will, understand or think anything spiritual, or even adapt himself to willing, understanding, or thinking truth, than a statue, a stock or a stone; and therefore it is God who according to His good pleasure inspires faith, to whom alone belongs most free and unlimited power; and this faith, without any labor or power of ours, under the operation of the Holy Spirit, produces all that the unlearned ascribe to man."

I then talked with the other, who loved good and truth; and when, after a few remarks about his lot, I mentioned freedom of choice, he said, "What madness it is to deny man's freedom of choice in spiritual things! Who is not able to will and do good, and think and speak what is true of himself from the Word, thus from the Lord who is the Word? For He has said, 'Make the fruit good,' and 'Believe in the right,' and 'Love one another,' and 'Love God,' and also, 'Whosoever heareth My precepts and doeth them, loveth Me, and I will love him;' besides thousands of like sayings throughout the Word. What then is the Word good for, if man has no power to will and think, and from that to do and say what is there commanded? Without that power in man, what would religion in the church be but like a wrecked vessel lying at the bottom of the sea, with the captain standing on the very top of the mast and crying out, 'I can do nothing;' while he sees the crew in the small boats with sails spread and sailing away? Was there not given to Adam the freedom to eat of the tree of life, and also of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? And because from his freedom he ate of this latter tree, smoke from the serpent, that is, from hell, entered his mind, on account of which he was cast out of Paradise and cursed. And still he did not lose his freedom of choice, for we read that the way to the tree of life was guarded by a cherub, and unless this had been done, he might still have wished to eat of it."

At these remarks the other, who loved evil and falsity, said, "What I have heard, I pass by; what I before advance I still adhere to. But who does not know that God alone is alive and thus active, while man is of himself dead and therefore merely passive? How can a being who is in himself dead and merely passive take to himself anything living and active?"

To this I replied, "Man is an organ of life, and God alone is life; and God pours His life into the organ and into every least part of it; as the sun pours its heat into a tree and every least part of it. It is also God's gift that man should feel that life in himself as if it were his own, and it is God's will that he should so feel it, in order that man as if of himself may live in accordance with the laws of order, which are as numerous as the precepts of the Word, and thus may dispose himself for the reception of God's love. Nevertheless, God perpetually holds with His finger the perpendicular above the scales, and moderates man's freedom of choice, but never violates it by compulsion.

A tree cannot receive anything that the heat of the sun brings to it through its roots, unless it grows warm and is heated in every least fiber; nor can the elements rise up through its roots, unless every least fiber gives out heat from that which it has received, and thus contributes to the passage of those elements. Man does likewise from the heat of life that he receives from God; but unlike a tree, man feels the heat as his own, and yet it is not his own; and while so far as he believes that it is his and not God's, he receives the light of life, he does not receive the heat of love from God, but the heat of love from hell; and this being gross obstructs and closes the purer branchlets of the organism, as impure blood clogs the capillary vessels of the body. Thus man from being spiritual makes himself merely natural.

Man's freedom of choice is from this, that any life in himself is felt as his own, and that God leaves him so to feel in order that a conjunction may be effected between them, which is not possible unless it is reciprocal; and it becomes reciprocal when man acts from freedom altogether as if of himself. If God had not left this to man, he would not be man, neither would he have eternal life; for reciprocal conjunction with God is the cause that man is man, and not a beast, and also that he lives after death to eternity. This is the effect of freedom of choice in spiritual things."

After hearing this, the evil spirit removed to a distance, and then I saw upon a certain tree a flying serpent, such as is called a fiery serpent, which held out to somebody fruit from the tree. I then drew near in spirit to the place, and instead of the serpent a monstrous man was seen there, his face so covered with beard that only his nose was visible; and instead of the tree there was a burning stump, near which stood the man whose mind the smoke had formerly entered, and who had afterwards rejected the idea of freedom of choice in spiritual things. And just then a similar smoke came out of the stump, and enveloped them both; and as they were thus taken out of my sight, I went away. But the other spirit, who loved good and truth, and held that man has freedom of choice in spiritual things, accompanied me home.

(True Christian Religion 504)

Divine Providence Continually Leads to Good

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Things of Charity —

Divine Providence of the Lord

The government of the Lord in the heavens and on earth is called Providence.

And as all the good which is of love, and all the truth which is of faith, are from Him, and absolutely nothing from man, it is evident from this that the Divine Providence of the Lord is in each and all things that conduce to the salvation of the human race. This the Lord thus teaches in John:

I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me: without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:4, 5).

Moreover the Divine Providence of the Lord is over the veriest singulars of man's life; for there is one only fountain of life, which is the Lord, from whom we live and act and have our being.

Those who think about the Divine Providence from worldly things, conclude from these that it is only universal, and that the singulars appertain to man. But these persons are not acquainted with the arcana of heaven, for they form their conclusions solely from the loves of self and of the world and their pleasures; and therefore when they see the evil exalted to honors, and gaining wealth rather than the good; and also that the evil succeed in accordance with their skill, they say in their hearts that it would not be so if the Divine Providence were in each and all things. But these persons do not consider that the Divine Providence does not look to that which is fleeting and transitory, and which comes to an end together with the life of man in the world; but that it looks to that which remains to eternity, thus which has no end. That which has no end is; but that which has an end, relatively is not.

Everyone who duly reflects is able to know that eminence and wealth in the world are not real Divine blessings, although from the pleasure in them men so call them; for they pass away, and likewise seduce many, and turn them away from heaven; but that life in heaven and happiness there are the real blessings which are from the Divine. This the Lord also teaches in Luke:

Make for yourselves treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where thief draweth not near, nor moth destroyeth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12:33, 34).

The reason why the evil succeed in accordance with their skill, is that it is according to order that everyone should do what he does from reason and also from freedom; and therefore unless it were left to a man to act in freedom according to his reason, and thus also unless the consequent arts succeeded, the man could not possibly be disposed to receive eternal life, because this is instilled when the man is in freedom, and his reason is enlightened. For no one can be compelled to good, because nothing compulsory cleaves to the man, for it is not his. That becomes the man's own which is done from freedom, for that which is from the will is done from freedom, and the will is the man himself; and therefore unless a man is kept in the freedom to do evil also, good from the Lord cannot be provided for him.

To leave man in his freedom to do evil also, is called permission.

To be led to happiness in the world by means of his skill, appears to the man as if it were done from his own sagacity. Nevertheless the Divine Providence continually accompanies by permitting and by constantly withdrawing from evil. But to be led to happiness in heaven is known and perceived not to be of man's own sagacity, because it is from the Lord, and is effected from his Divine providence by disposing and continually leading to good.

That this is the case a man cannot apprehend from the light of nature, for from this light he does not know the laws of Divine order.

Be it known that there is providence and there is foresight. Good is that which is provided by the Lord, but evil is that which is foreseen by the Lord. The one must be with the other, for that which comes from man is nothing but evil; but that which comes from the Lord is nothing but good.

(Arcana Coelestia 10773-10781)

Two Suns — One Spiritual, One Natural

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
TO UNDERSTAND AND THENCE TO PERCEIVE AND ALSO TO HAVE FAITH

NATURAL LIGHT is from the sun of the world, and SPIRITUAL LIGHT is from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord. All the truths of faith that man learns from infancy are apprehended by means of such objects and derivative ideas as are from the light of the world, thus all and each are apprehended naturally; for all the ideas of man's thought, so long as he lives in the world, are founded upon such things as are in the world; and therefore if these were taken away from him, his thought would utterly perish. The man who has not been regenerated is wholly ignorant that there is SPIRITUAL LIGHT, or even that there is in heaven a light that has nothing in common with the light of the world, still less does he know that it is this light that enlightens the ideas and objects which are from the light of the world, and enables man to think, infer, and reflect. That SPIRITUAL LIGHT can do this is because this light is the wisdom itself that proceeds from the Lord, and this is presented as light before the sight of the angels in heaven. From this light appear all and each of the things that are below, or that are in man from NATURAL LIGHT; but not the converse, unless the man has been regenerated, in which case the things of heaven, that is, of good and truth, by enlightenment from SPIRITUAL LIGHT appear in the NATURAL as in a representative mirror.

From this it is evident that the Lord, who is light itself, sees all things and each that are in the thought and will of man, nay, that are in universal nature, and that nothing whatever is hidden from Him.

(from Arcana Coelestia 5477)

In regard to "seeing" as denoting to understand and thence to perceive and also to have faith, be it known that there are two things with man which make his life, namely, SPIRITUAL LIGHT and SPIRITUAL HEAT.

SPIRITUAL LIGHT makes the life of his understanding, and SPIRITUAL HEAT the life of his will. SPIRITUAL LIGHT is from its first origin - Divine truth from the Divine good of the Lord, and hence is the truth of faith from the good of charity. And SPIRITUAL HEAT is from its first origin - the Divine good of the Divine love of the Lord, and hence is the good of celestial love, which is love to the Lord, and the good of spiritual love, which is love toward the neighbor. These two, as before said, constitute the whole life of man.

As regards SPIRITUAL LIGHT, it is with this in the understanding of man as it is with NATURAL LIGHT in his external sight; namely, in order that the eye may see, it is necessary that there be light to illumine, and then the eye sees in the light all things which are round about outside of it. So the intellectual mind, (which is man's internal eye), in order that this eye may see, it is necessary for the light of heaven, which is from the Lord, to illumine it; and when this eye is illumined by this light, it then sees the things which are round about outside of itself; but the objects which it sees are spiritual, namely, memory-knowledges and truths. But when this light does not illumine, the intellectual mind or internal eye of man, like the external or bodily eye, is in darkness and sees nothing, that is, from memory-knowledges nothing of truth, and from truths nothing of good.

The light which illumines the intellectual mind is in very truth LIGHT, and such light that it a thousand times surpasses the midday light of the world, which I bear witness to because I have seen it.

By this light all the angels in the heavens see the things which are round about outside of themselves, and also by the same light they see and perceive the truths which are of faith, and their quality. Hence then it is that by "seeing" is signified in the spiritual sense not only the understanding, but also whatever is of the understanding, as thought, reflection, observation, prudence, and many such things; likewise not only faith, but also whatever is of faith, as truth, doctrine from the Word, and the like.

But as regards SPIRITUAL HEAT, it is with this in the will of man as it is with NATURAL HEAT in the body, in that it vivifies. But in its first origin, which origin is from the Lord, SPIRITUAL HEAT is nothing else than the Divine love toward the universal human race, and from this the reciprocal love of man to Him and also toward the neighbor.

And this SPIRITUAL HEAT is in very truth HEAT, which gladdens the bodies of the angels with heat, and at the same time their interiors with love.

Hence it is that by "heat," "flame," and "fire" in the Word are signified in the genuine sense those things which are of love, as the affections of good and of truth, and also good itself.

(from Arcana Coelestia 6032)