All Things of the Word Treat of the Lord

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Genesis 26:4, 5. And I will cause thy seed to be multiplied as the stars of the heavens, and I will give unto thy seed all these lands; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham hearkened to My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.

And kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws. That this signifies by means of continuous revelations from Himself - that is to say, as by means of temptations, so also by means of these revelations the Lord united the Divine Essence to the Human - is evident from the fact that these words, "keeping His charge, commandments, statutes, and laws," involve all things of the Word, namely, "charge," all things of the Word in general; "commandments," the internal things; "statutes," the external things; and "laws," all things specifically. Inasmuch as this is predicated of the Lord, who from eternity was the Word, and from whom all these things are, in the internal sense it cannot be signified that He observed these things, but that He revealed them to Himself when He was in a state of unition of the Human with the Divine.

These things do indeed appear at first view rather remote from the sense of the letter, and even from the proximate internal sense; but still when the words are read by man, this is their sense in heaven; ... in its ascent toward heaven the sense of the letter is put off; and instead of it another heavenly sense comes into view, so different that it cannot be known to be from the same source. For they who are in heaven are in the idea that in the internal sense all things of the Word treat of the Lord; and also that all things of the Word are from the Lord; likewise that when He was in the world the Lord thought from the Divine and thus from Himself, and acquired for Himself all intelligence and wisdom through continuous revelations from the Divine; and therefore from the above words they perceive nothing else.

For "keeping the charge, commandments, statutes, and laws" is not predicable of the Lord, because He Himself was the Word, consequently He Himself was the charge, He Himself was the commandment, He Himself the statute, and He Himself the law; for all these things have respect to Him as the First from whom they are derived, and as the Last to whom they tend.

Therefore in the supreme sense by the above words nothing else can be signified than the unition of the Lord's Divine with the Human, through continuous revelations from Himself. (That differently from other men the Lord thought from the Divine, thus from Himself, and that He acquired for Himself intelligence and wisdom by means of continuous revelations from the Divine.

Which Rules and Which Serves

Selection from New Jerusalem Heavenly Doctrine ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Everyone has an internal man and an external man; the internal is what is called the spiritual man, and the external is what is called the natural man, and each is to be regenerated, that the man may be regenerated. With the man who is not regenerated, the external or natural man rules, and the internal serves; but with the man who is regenerated, the internal or spiritual man rules, and the external serves. Whence it is manifest that the order of life is inverted with man from his birth, namely, that serves which ought to rule, and that rules which ought to serve. In order that man may be saved, this order must be inverted; and this inversion can by no means exist, but by regeneration from the Lord.

What it is for the internal man to rule and the external to serve, and vice versa, may be illustrated by this: If a man places all his good in pleasure, in gain, and in pride, and has delight in hatred and revenge, and inwardly in himself seeks for reasons which confirm them, then the external man rules and the internal serves. But when a man perceives good and delight in thinking and willing well, sincerely, and justly, and in outwardly speaking and doing in like manner, then the internal man rules and the external serves.

(NJHD 179 -180)

Prayers are Such as is the Character of the Man in Respect to His Life

From the Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Worship does not consist in prayers and in external devotion, but in a life of charity; prayers are only its externals, for they proceed from the man through his mouth, consequently men's prayers are such as they themselves are in respect to life. It matters not that a man bears himself humbly, that he kneels and sighs when he prays; for these are externals, and unless externals proceed from internals they are only gestures and sounds without life.

In each thing that a man utters there is affection, and every man, spirit, and angel is his own affection, for their affection is their life; it is the affection itself that speaks, and not the man without it; therefore such as the affection is such is the praying.

Spiritual affection is what is called charity towards the neighbor; to be in that affection is true worship; praying is what proceeds. From this it can be seen that the essential of worship is the life of charity, and that its instrumental is gesture and praying; or that the primary of worship is a life of charity, and its secondary is praying. From this it is clear that those who place all Divine worship in oral piety, and not in practical piety, err greatly.

How To Be Gifted With Peace and Trust Solely In The Lord

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

If a man would believe as the case really is, namely, that all that is good and true is from the Lord, and all that is evil and false is from hell, he then could not become guilty of any fault, nor could evil be imputed to him; but because he believes that it is from himself, he appropriates evil to himself, for this is the effect of his faith; and in this way evil adheres and cannot be separated from him; nay, such is man that he would be indignant if anyone should say that he thinks and wills from others, and not from himself.

It is an eternal truth that the Lord rules heaven and earth, and also that no one besides the Lord lives of himself, consequently that everything of life flows in - the good of life from the Lord, and the evil of life from hell. This is the faith of the heavens.  When a man is in this faith (and he can be in it when he is in good), then evil cannot be fastened and appropriated to him, because he knows that it is not from himself, but from hell.  When a man is in this state, he can then be gifted with peace, for then he will trust solely in the Lord.  Neither can peace be given to any others than those who are in this faith from charity; for others continually cast themselves into anxieties and cupidities, whence come disquietudes.  Spirits who desire to direct themselves, suppose that this would be to lose their own will, thus their freedom, consequently all delight, thus all life and its sweetness. This they say and suppose, because they do not know how the case really is; for the man who is led by the Lord is in freedom itself, and thus in delight and bliss itself; goods and truths are appropriated to him; there is given him an affection and desire for doing what is good, and then nothing is more delightful to him than to perform uses. There is given him a perception of good, and also a sensation of it; and there is given him intelligence and wisdom; and all these as his own; for he is then a recipient of the Lord's life. It is known in the learned world that the principal cause and the instrumental cause act together as a one: man - being a form recipient of the Lord's life, is an instrumental cause, and the life from the Lord is the principal cause. This life is felt in the instrumental cause as of it, when yet it is not of it.

The Degrees of Life in Man

Man consists of mere forms for receiving life, and that one form is more interior than another, but that one has come into existence and subsists from another; also that when the lower or exterior form is dissolved, the higher or interior form still lives. It was further said that all operations of the mind are variations of the form, which variations in the purer substances are in such perfection that they cannot be described; and that the ideas of thought are nothing else; and that these variations take place according to the changes of the state of the affections. How very perfect are the variations in the purer forms may be concluded from the lungs, which fold themselves variously and vary their forms according to every expression of speech, and to every note of a tune, and to every motion of the body, and also to each state of thought and affection; and what then must be the case with interior things, which, in comparison with so large an organ, are in the greatest perfection.

(Arcana Coelestia 6324-6326)

[emphasis by reviser]

No Truth is Holy Unless It Comes from Good

A Portion of a Passage from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

No truth is holy unless it comes from good. A man may utter many truths from the Word, and thus from memory, but if it is not love or charity that brings them forth, nothing holy can be predicated of them. But if he has love and charity, then he acknowledges and believes, and this from the heart. And it is the same with faith, of which so many say that it alone saves: if there is no love or charity from which the faith comes, there is no faith.

Love and charity are what make faith holy.

The Lord is in love and charity, but not in faith that is separated from charity. In faith separated is the man himself, in whom there is nothing but uncleanness. For when faith is separated from love, his own praise, or his own advantage, is the moving cause that is in his heart, and from which he speaks. This everyone may know from his own experience. Whoever tells anyone that he loves him, that he prefers him to others, that he acknowledges him as the best of men, and the like, and yet in heart thinks otherwise, does this only with his mouth, and in heart denies, and sometimes makes sport of him. And it is the same with faith.

(Arcana Coelestia 724)

The Holy Scripture - The One Only Source of the Holiness of the Word

Selections from The Doctrine of the Lord ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

[The] universal Holy Scripture has been written solely about the Lord.... The Holy Scripture - is the one only source of the holiness of the Word, and is what is meant by the words:  The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).

Briefly stated, the subjects concerning the Lord that are treated of in all the Prophets of the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Malachi, both in general and in particular, are these:

i. The Lord came into the world in the fullness of times, which was when He was no longer known by the Jews, and when, consequently, there was nothing of the church left; and unless He had then come into the world and revealed Himself, mankind would have perished in eternal death. As He Himself says in John: "Except ye believe that I am, ye shall die in your sins" (8:24).

ii. The Lord came into the world to execute a Last Judgment, and thereby to subdue the existing dominance of the hells; which was effected by means of combats (that is, temptations) admitted into his maternal human, and the attendant continual victories; for unless the hells had been subjugated no man could have been saved.

iii. The Lord came into the world in order to glorify His Human, that is, unite it to the Divine which was in Him from conception.

iv. The Lord came into the world in order to set up a new church which should acknowledge Him as the Redeemer and Savior, and be redeemed and saved through love to Him and faith in Him.

v. He at the same time reduced heaven into order, so that it made a one with the church.

vi. The passion of the cross was the last combat or temptation, by means of which He completely conquered the hells and fully glorified His Human.

(Doctrine of the Lord 3, 7)

When There is No Charity in Worship

Selections from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

From faith separated from charity no other worship can come forth; for the internal man is charity, never faith without charity; so that he who is destitute of charity can have no other worship than external worship without internal.  And because such worship comes forth from faith separated from charity ...  he observed errors and perversions ... for they who are of this character see nothing else in a man; whereas - very differently - those who are in the faith of charity observe what is good, and if they see anything evil and false, they excuse it, and if they can, try to amend it in him....

Where there is no charity, there is the love of self, and therefore hatred against all who do not favor self. Consequently such persons see in the neighbor only what is evil, and if they see anything good, they either perceive it as nothing, or put a bad interpretation upon it.  It is just the other way with those who are in charity.

By this difference these two kinds of men are distinguished from one another, especially when they come into the other life; for then with those who are in no charity, the feeling of hatred shines forth from every single thing; they desire to examine everyone, and even to judge him; nor do they desire anything more than to find out what is evil, constantly cherishing the disposition to condemn, punish, and torment. But they who are in charity scarcely see the evil of another, but observe all his goods and truths, and put a good interpretation on what is evil and false. Such are all the angels, which they have from the Lord, who bends all evil into good.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1078, 1079)