Some Things Respecting the Successive States of Those Who have Confirmed Themselves in Falsities of Doctrine from the Word, and Especially Those Who have done This in Support of Justification by Faith Alone

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(i.) After death and when they are reviving in spirit, which usually takes place on the third day after the heart has ceased to beat, they seem to themselves to be in a body so like that which they had in the world that they do not know but that they are still living in the former world, yet not in a material body, but in a body that is substantial and that appears to their senses to be material; but it is not.

(ii.) After some days, they see that they are in a world where various societies are formed, which world is called the world of spirits, and is intermediate between heaven and hell. All the societies there, and they are innumerable, are wonderfully arranged in accordance with good and evil natural affections; the societies arranged in accordance with good natural affections communicating with heaven, and those arranged in accordance with evil affections communicating with hell.

(iii.) The novitiate spirit or spiritual man is conducted and transferred into various societies, both good and evil, and is examined as to whether he is affected by what is good and true, and how, or by what is evil and false, and how.

(iv.) If be is affected by what is good and true, he is led away from evil societies, and is led into good societies, and into different ones until he comes into a society that is in correspondence with his natural affection, and there he enjoys the good that corresponds to that affection, and this until he has put off his natural affection and put on a spiritual affection, and then he is raised into heaven. This takes place with those who in the world had lived a life of charity, and thus a life of faith also, which is believing in the Lord and shunning evils as sins.

(v.) But those who have confirmed themselves in falsities by means of reasonings, especially by means of the Word, and so have lived a merely natural and thus an evil life (for evils accompany falsities and adhere to falsities), inasmuch as they are not affected by what is good and true, but by what is evil and false, are led away from good societies and into evil societies and into different ones, until they come into some society corresponding to the lusts of their love.

(vi.) But because these in the world had feigned good affections in externals, although in their internals there were only evil affections or lusts, they are kept by turns in their [good] externals. Those who in the world had presided over communities, are appointed over societies here and there in the world of spirits, either over a whole society or a part according to the extent of the offices they had filled in their former life. But as they have no love for what is true or what is just, and cannot be so far enlightened as to know what is true and just, after a few days they are deposed. I have seen such transferred from one society to another, and official authority everywhere given them, but always taken away after a short time.

(vii.) After frequent dismissals, some from weariness do not wish, and some from fear of losing their reputation do not dare, to seek office any more; and therefore they withdraw and sit in sadness and afterwards are led away into a desert, where there are huts into which they enter, and there some work is given them to do, and as they do it they receive food. If they do not do it, when they become hungry they receive no food and are thus compelled by necessity. The food there is similar to the food in our world, but is from a spiritual origin, and is given from heaven by the Lord to all according to the uses they perform. To the idle none is given because they are useless.

(viii.) After a while they become disgusted with work and leave their huts. If they had been priests they wish to build; and immediately heaps of cut stone, bricks, beams, and boards appear, also piles of reeds and rushes, of clay, lime, and bitumen. When they see these a strong desire to build is kindled in them, and they begin to construct a house, taking now a stone, and then a stick, then a reed and then some mud, and placing one upon the other without order, but to their sight in regular order. But what they build during the day falls down at night; and the next day they gather up the material from the rubbish and build again; and this goes on until they grow tired of building. This takes place from correspondence. The correspondence is that they have heaped up texts from the Word to prove what is false in faith, and their falsities do not otherwise build the church.

(ix.) Afterward from weariness they go away and sit solitary and idle; and as no food is given from heaven to the idle, as before said, they begin to grow hungry, and to think of nothing but how to get food and satisfy their hunger. While they are in this state persons come to them from whom they ask alms; but these say, "Why do you sit here idle? Come home with us, and we will give you work to do and will feed you." Then they rise up gladly and go home with them, and each one is there given his own task, and for doing it he receives food. But since none of those who have confirmed themselves in the falsities of faith are able to do works that have a good use, but are able to do only such works as have an evil use, and are unable to do these faithfully, but only fraudulently and also unwillingly, they abandon their work, caring only to visit, talk, walk about, and sleep. And as they can no longer be induced by their masters to work they are dismissed as useless.

(x.) When they have been dismissed their eyes are opened and they see a road leading to a certain cavern. When they come to it a door is opened and they enter and ask if there is food there; and when told that there is they beg permission to remain there, and they are told that they may, and are introduced and the door is closed behind them. The overseer of the cavern then comes and says to them, "You can go out no more; you see your companions; they all labor, and according to their labor food is given them from heaven; I tell you this, that you may know." Their companions also say to them, "Our overseer knows for what work each one is fitted, and assigns such work to each one daily. The days you do this work, food is given you, and if you do not do it, neither food nor clothing is given. If anyone does harm to another, he is thrown into a corner of the cavern upon a bed made of accursed dust, where he is sorely tortured, and this until the overseer sees in him some sign of repentance, and then he is released and is ordered to do his work."

He is also told that everyone, after his task is done, is permitted to walk about, to talk, and afterward to sleep. And he is conducted further into the cavern where there are harlots, and each one is allowed to select one of these, and to call her his woman; but promiscuous harlotry is forbidden with penalties. Of such caverns, which are nothing but eternal workhouses, hell consists. I was permitted to enter into and see some of them, in order that I might make the facts known. All who were there seemed degraded; not one of them knew who he had been or what his employment had been in the world. But the angel who was with me said to me, "This man was in the world a servant, this a soldier, this a general; this was a priest; this a man of rank, and this a man of wealth, and yet not one of them knows but that they had been, then as now, slaves and boon companions. This is because they had been inwardly alike, although outwardly unlike, and all in the spiritual world are affiliated according to their interiors."

In regard to the hells in general, they consist solely of such caverns and work-houses; but those where satans are differ from those where devils are. Those are called satans who had been in falsities and consequently in evils; and they are called devils who had been in evils and consequently in falsities. Satans in the light of heaven appear livid like corpses, and some black like mummies; but devils in the light of heaven appear dusky and fiery, and some black like soot; while in features and bodily form they are all monstrous. But in their own light, which is like the light of burning charcoal, they do not look like monsters but like men. This is granted to render them capable of association.

(True Christian Religion 281)

When the Literal Sense and Spiritual Sense of the Word Appear Opposed

Selections from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... The reason why they see no such thing, that is, no interior sense, is that the two appear opposite, namely, what is in the internal sense, and what is in the literal sense. But their appearing to be opposite does not prove that they are so, for they wholly correspond; and the reason they appear opposite is that they who see the Word so are in what is opposite.

It is the same in the case of a man who is in opposition within himself, that is, whose external or natural man is in entire disagreement with his internal or spiritual man. Such a man sees that which is of the internal or spiritual man as opposed to himself, when yet in respect to the external or natural man, he himself is in that which is opposed; and if he were not in this, so that his external or natural man yielded obedience to the internal or spiritual man, the two would wholly correspond.

For example:

the man who is in what is opposed believes that in order for him to receive eternal life riches are to be renounced, as well as all the pleasures of the body and of the world, thus the delights of life; such things being supposed to be opposed to spiritual life, whereas in themselves they are not so, but correspond, because they are means to an end, namely, that the internal or spiritual man may enjoy them so as to be able to perform the goods of charity, and also may live content in a healthful body.

The ends alone are what cause the internal man and the external either to be opposed or to correspond.

They are opposed when the riches, pleasures, and delights here spoken of become the ends, for in this case the spiritual and celestial things which are of the internal man are despised and derided, nay, are rejected; but they correspond when such things are not made ends, but means to higher ends, namely, to those things which belong to the life after death, thus to the heavenly kingdom and the Lord Himself. In this case bodily and worldly things appear to the man as scarcely anything in comparison; and when he thinks about them, he values them only as means to ends.

From this it is evident that the things which appear opposed are not opposed in themselves; but they appear so because men are in what is opposed. They who are not in what is opposed, act, speak, and acquire riches, and also enjoy pleasures, similarly as do those who are in what is opposed, insomuch that in the outward appearance they can scarcely be distinguished from each other. The reason is that their ends alone are what distinguish them; or what is the same, their loves; for loves are ends. But although in the outward form, or as to the body, they appear alike, yet in the inward form, or as to the spirit, they are utterly unlike. The spirit of one who is in correspondence — that is, with whom the external man corresponds to the internal — is fair and beautiful, such as is heavenly love in form; but the spirit of one who is in what is opposed — that is, with whom the external man is opposed to the internal — however great may be the outward resemblance to the other, is black and ugly, such as is the love of self and of the world, that is, such as is contempt of others and hatred in form.

The case is the same with a host of things in the Word; that is to say, the things in the literal sense appear opposed to those in the internal sense; when yet they are by no means opposed, but wholly correspond.

For example:

it is frequently said in the Word that Jehovah or the Lord is angry, is wroth, destroys, and casts into hell; when yet He is never angry, and still less does He cast anyone into hell. The former is of the sense of the letter, but the latter is of the internal sense; and these appear opposed, but this is because the man is in what is opposed.

In the same way the Lord appears as a sun to the angels who are in heaven, and thence as vernal warmth, and as light at dawn; but to the infernals He appears as something quite opaque, and thence as wintry cold, and as midnight darkness. Consequently to the angels He appears in love and charity, but to the infernals in hatred and enmity; thus to the latter according to the sense of the letter — that He is angry, is wroth, destroys, and casts into hell; but to the former according to the internal sense — that He is never angry and wroth, and still less destroys and casts into hell; so that when things are being treated of in the Word that are contrary to the Divine, it is inevitable that they should be presented in accordance with the appearance. Moreover it is the Divine which the wicked change into what is diabolical that works in this way; and therefore insofar as they approach the Divine, so far they cast themselves into infernal torments.

The case is the same with the Lord's words in the prayer: "Lead us not into temptation." The sense according to the letter is that He leads into temptation; but the internal sense is that He leads no one into temptation, as is well known:

It was granted me to have a perception of angelic ideas about these words in the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Temptation and evil were rejected by the nearest good spirits, by a certain idea perceptible within me, and this even until what is purely angelic, namely, Good,, remained, without any idea of temptation and evil; the literal sense thus perishing altogether. In the first rejection innumerable ideas were being formed respecting this Good-how good may come from man's affliction while the affliction still is from the man and his evil, in which there is punishment, and this with a kind of indignation joined with it that it should be thought that temptation and its evil come from any other source, and that anyone should have any thought of evil in thinking of the Lord. These ideas were purified in the degree of their ascent. The ascents were represented by rejections (spoken of also n. 1393), which were made with a rapidity and in a manner that were inexpressible, until they passed into the shade of my thought. They were then in heaven, where there are only ineffable angelic ideas concerning the Lord's good. (Arcana Cœlestia 1875).

The same is true of all other things that belong to the literal sense of the Word.

(Arcana Cœlestia 3425)

Having the Power to Receive and Reciprocate

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In externals man is led and taught by the Lord in all appearance as if by himself.

This takes place in man's externals, but not in internals.

How the Lord leads and teaches man in his internals no one knows, as no one knows how the soul operates to cause the eye to see, the ear to hear, the tongue and mouth to speak, the heart to move the blood, the lungs to breathe, the stomach to digest, the liver and pancreas to assort, the kidneys to secrete, and countless other things. These things do not come to man's perception and sensation. The same is true of what is done by the Lord in the interior substances and forms of the mind, which are infinitely more numerous — the Lord's operations in these are not manifest to man. But the effects, which are numerous, are manifest, as well as some of the causes producing the effects. These are the externals wherein man and the Lord are together. And because externals make one with internals (for they cohere in one series), the Lord can arrange things in internals only in accordance with the disposition that is effected by means of man in the externals.

Every one knows that man thinks, wills, speaks, and acts to all appearance as if from himself; and every one can see that without this appearance man would have no will or understanding, thus no affection or thought, also no reception of any good and truth from the Lord. This being so, it follows that without this appearance there would be no knowledge of God, no charity or faith, and consequently no reformation or regeneration, and therefore no salvation. From all this it is clear that this appearance is given to man by the Lord for the sake of all these uses, and chiefly that man may have the ability to receive and to reciprocate, whereby the Lord may be conjoined with him and he with the Lord, and that through this conjunction man may live forever. This is the appearance here meant.

(Divine Providence 174)

What is Heaven? — What is Hell?

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.  (Mark 12:29-31) KJV

The veriest truth of the church is that love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor are the primary things.

Cupidities extinguish this truth; for those who are in a life of cupidities cannot be in a life of love and charity, for the two are exact opposites. A life of cupidities consists in loving self only, and not the neighbor except from self, or for the sake of self. Hence those who are in this life extinguish charity in themselves; and those who extinguish charity, extinguish also love to the Lord; for there is no other means of loving the Lord than charity, because the Lord is in charity. The affection of charity is heavenly affection itself, which is from the Lord alone.

From this it may be seen that the cupidities of evil extinguish the veriest truth of the church, on the extinction of which a means is devised which is called saving, namely, faith; and when this is separated from charity, truths themselves are defiled, for then it is no longer known what charity is, nor even what the neighbor is, and consequently neither what the internal of man is, nor even what heaven is. For the internal of man, and heaven in man, is charity - that is, willing well to another, to society, to one's country, to the church, to the Lord's kingdom, and thus to the Lord Himself. From this we may conclude what is the quality of the truths of the church when those things which are essential are not known, and when the things contrary to them, or cupidities, reign.

When a life of cupidities speaks concerning these truths, are not they defiled to such a degree that they can no longer be recognized?

That no one can be saved unless he has lived in the good of charity, and so has become imbued with its affections, which are to will well to others, and from willing well to do well to them; and that no one can receive the truths of faith — that is, become imbued with them and appropriate them to himself — but he who is in a life of charity has been made manifest to me from those who are in heaven, with whom I have been permitted to converse. There all are forms of charity, with beauty and goodness according to the quality of their charity — their delight, satisfaction, and happiness are from their being able to do good to others from good will.

The man who has not lived in charity cannot possibly know that heaven and its joy consist in willing well and in doing well from willing well, because his heaven is willing well to himself, and from this willing well doing well to others, when yet this is hell.

For heaven is distinguished from hell in this, that heaven, as above said, is doing good from good will, and hell is doing evil from ill will. They who are in love toward the neighbor do good from good will; but they who are in the love of self do evil from ill will. The reason of this is that they love no one but themselves, and others only so far as they see themselves in them, and them in themselves; they also regard these with hatred, which manifests itself as soon as they recede and are no longer theirs. This is like robbers, who so long as they are banded together love one another, but still at heart desire to kill one another, if plunder may thus be obtained.

From these things it may be seen-

What heaven is, that it is love toward the neighbor; and What hell is, that it is the love of self.

They who are in love toward the neighbor are capable of receiving all the truths of faith, and of being imbued with them and making them their own; for in love toward the neighbor there is the all of faith, because heaven and the Lord are in it.

They on the other hand who are in the love of self can in no wise receive the truths of faith, because hell is in this love; nor can they receive the truths of faith in any other way than for the sake of self-honor and gain; thus they cannot possibly become imbued with them and make them their own. But the things which they become imbued with and make their own are denials of truth, for at heart they do not believe even that there is a hell and a heaven, nor that there is a life after death, and therefore they believe nothing that is said about hell and heaven, or about a life after death, thus nothing at all that is said from the Word and from doctrine about faith and charity. When they are in worship they appear to themselves to believe, but this because it has been implanted in them from early childhood to put on this state at such a time; but as soon as they are out of worship they are also out of this state; and then thinking in themselves, they believe nothing at all, and also according to the life of their loves devise things to favor them, which they call truths, and which they confirm from the literal sense of the Word, when yet they are falsities. Such are all who in life and doctrine are in faith separate.

Be it known, moreover, that all things are in the loves — for the loves are what make the life; consequently, the Lord's life flows solely into the loves.

Such therefore as are the loves, such are the lives, because such are the receptions of life. Love toward the neighbor receives the life of heaven, and the love of self receives the life of hell; thus in love toward the neighbor there is the all of heaven, and in the love of self the all of hell. That all things are in the loves may be illustrated from many things in nature.

Animals, both those that walk on the earth and those that fly in the air or swim in the water, are all impelled according to their loves, and into their loves flows whatever is conducive to their life, that is, to their sustenance, habitation, and procreation. Hence animals of every kind know their food, their abodes, and what concerns their conjugial, such as mating, building nests, laying eggs, and bringing up their young.

The bees also know how to build cells, to suck honey from flowers, to fill with it the honeycombs, and to make provision for themselves against winter, and even to conduct a certain form of government under a queen; besides other marvels. All these things are effected by influx into their loves; the effects of life being varied only by the forms of their affections.

All these things are in their loves; what then would there not be in heavenly love, if man were in this? Would there not be the all of wisdom and intelligence, which is in heaven?

From this also it is that they who have lived in charity, and no others, are received into heaven; and that from charity they have the capacity of receiving and being imbued with all truths, that is, with all things of faith. But the contrary happens to those who are in faith separate, that is, in some truths and not in charity. Their loves receive such things as are in agreement with them, that is to say, the loves of self and of the world receive those things which are contrary to truths, such as are in the hells.

(Arcana Cœlestia 4776)

What Influx Is, and What Its Effects

Excerpts from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.  >But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.  Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me.   Isa 49:13-16

The ultimate state is such as is the successive order from which it is formed and exists, is a canon which in the learned world should be acknowledged, because of its truth; for thus it is discovered what influx is, and what its effects.

By influx is meant all that precedes and composes what follows, and through the things following in order, the ultimate — as all that precedes with man and constitutes his wisdom  — or all that precedes with a politician and constitutes his prudence — or all that precedes with a theologian and constitutes his learning — in like manner all that proceeds from infancy and makes the man — so also what proceeds from the seed and the shrub and makes the tree, and afterwards from the blossom and makes the fruit. ... This is meant by influx.

That all things which precede in minds form series, and that the series bind themselves together, one beside the other and one after another, and that these together compose the ultimate.... For by this it is discovered what the influx effects, and what is the quality of the ultimate, wherein the series just spoken of successively formed coexist. ...

A different state, from a different order, is formed with the spiritual from that with the natural, because the spiritual proceed in right order, and the natural in a wrong order; for the spiritual look to the Lord, and the Lord provides and leads the order; but the natural look to themselves and thence proceed in inverted order. ...

...there is successive order and simultaneous order; the latter is from the former and according to it. This is adduced as a cause confirmative of the preceding. That there is what is successive, and that there is what is simultaneous, is known; but that simultaneous order is from the successive and according to it is not known.

And yet how things successive insert themselves into the simultaneous, and the kind of order they form there, is extremely difficult to present to the perception, since there is not yet with the learned any idea that will serve for the elucidation of it; and as a first notion of this arcanum cannot be given in few words ... it may serve sufficiently for illustration to quote what is briefly said respecting these two orders, the successive and the simultaneous, and of the influx of the former into the latter, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scriptures, where are these words:

"There is, in heaven and in the world, successive order and simultaneous order. In successive order one thing follows after another, from the highest even to the lowest; in simultaneous order, however, one thing is beside the other, from the inmost to the outermost. 

Successive order is as a column with steps from the highest to the lowest; simultaneous order is as a work cohering from the center to the circumference.

Successive order becomes simultaneous in the ultimate, in this manner: The highest things of successive order become the inmost of simultaneous order; and the lowest things of successive order become the outermost of simultaneous order. It is comparatively as if a column of steps by subsiding becomes a cohering body in a plane. Thus what is simultaneous is formed from things successive, and this is so in all things and in every thing of the spiritual world, and in all and every thing of the natural world." 

[See n. 38, 65, in that work; and very much more on the subject in Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, n. 205-229.]

... He who knows the influx of successive into simultaneous order can comprehend how the angels can see in a man's hand all the thoughts and intentions of his mind ... The reason is that the hands are the ultimates of man, into which the deliberations and conclusions of his mind are determined, and there make what is simultaneous. And therefore it is said in the Word that it is "written upon the hands." (Is. 49:16; Rev. 13:16; 20:4)

(Conjugial Love 313,314)

The Good of Faith is Not Possible Without Works

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The good of faith produces works, because the good of faith is not possible without works, just as thinking good and willing good are not possible without doing good. The one is the internal, and the other the corresponding external. Furthermore, in regard to works, unless they correspond to the good of faith they are neither works of charity nor works of faith; for they do not come from their internal, but are dead works, in which there is neither good nor truth; but when they correspond, they are then works either of charity or of faith.

Works of charity are those which flow from charity as from their soul; but works of faith are those which flow from faith.

Works of charity exist with the regenerate man; and works of faith with him who has not yet been regenerated, but is being regenerated; the case being the same as it is with the affections of good and of truth; for the regenerate man does good from the affection of it, thus from willing good; but the man who is to be regenerated does good from the affection of truth, thus from knowing good. The nature of the difference has already been repeatedly shown. From this it is manifest what works are.

Moreover, in regard to works the good of faith is comparatively as are man's will and the derivative thought to his face, which is well known to be an image of his mind, that is, of his will and the derivative thought. If the will and thought are not presented in the face as in their image, what is seen there is not the will and thought, but hypocrisy or deceit; because the man presents a face different from that which he wills and thinks. The case is the same with every act of the body in respect to the interiors which are of the thought and will. Man's internal lives in his external by act or by acting. If the act or acting is not according to his internal, it is a proof either that it is not his internal that is producing the act, but an impulse recurring from custom and habit; or else that it is something feigned, as in hypocrisy and deceit. From this it is again manifest what works are; and from this it follows that he who makes profession of faith, and still more he who makes profession of the good of faith, and denies works, and still more if he rejects them, is devoid of faith, and yet more of charity.

Such being the nature of the works of charity and faith, and as man is never in charity and faith unless he is in works, for this reason "works" are so frequently mentioned in the Word; as may appear from the following passages:
• Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of man, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his works (Jer. 32:19).
• Be ye converted everyone from his evil way, and make your works good (Jer. 35:15).
• I will render to them according to their work, and according to the work of their hands (Jer. 25:14).

In Hosea:
• I will visit upon him his ways, and render to him his works (Hos. 4:9).

In Micah:
• The land shall be a desolation because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their works (Micah 7:13).

In Zechariah:
• Thus said Jehovah Zebaoth: Be ye converted from your evil ways, and from your evil works. As Jehovah Zebaoth thought to do unto us according to our ways, and according to our works, so hath He done to us (Zech. 1:4, 6).

In John:
• Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works follow with them (Rev. 14:13).

In the same:
• I saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things that were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and hell gave up the dead that were in them; and they were judged everyone according to their works (Rev. 20:12-13).
• Behold I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every man according to his works (Rev. 22:12).

In John the Evangelist:
• This is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved; but he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they have been wrought in God (John 3:19-21).
• The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil (John 7:7).
• Jesus said to the Jews, If ye were Abraham's sons ye would do the works of Abraham. Ye do the works of your father (John 8:39, 41).
• If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them (John 13:17).

In Matthew:
• Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. Whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5:16, 19).
• Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in the heavens. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name, and by Thy name have cast out demons, and in Thy name done many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from Me ye that work iniquity (Matt. 7:21-23).

In Luke:
• The master of the house shall answer and say to them, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink in thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets; but he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are, depart from me all ye workers of iniquity (Luke 13:25-27).

In Matthew:
• Everyone that heareth My words, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man; but everyone that heareth My words, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man (Matt. 7:24, 26).
• The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then shall He render to every man according to his works (Matt. 16:27).

From these passages it is evident that works are what save man, and what condemn man; that is to say, that good works save, and evil works condemn; for in his works is man's will. He who wills good, does good; but he who does not do good, however he may say that he wills good, still does not will it when he does not do it. This is as if he should say, I will it, but I do not will it. And because the will itself is in works, and charity is of the will, and faith is of charity, it is manifest what of the will, or what of charity and faith, there is in a man, when he does not do good works; and especially when he does the contrary, or evil works.

Moreover be it known that the Lord's kingdom commences in a man from the life which is of works, for he is then in the beginning of regeneration; but when the Lord's kingdom is in a man, it terminates in works, and then the man is regenerate. For his internal man is then within his external man in correspondence therewith; and his works are of his external man, while charity and the derivative faith are of his internal man; and therefore in this case his works are charity. As the life of the internal man thus comes forth in the works of the external man, therefore the Lord in speaking of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:32-46), recounts nothing but works, and says that those who have done good works shall enter into life eternal, and those who have done evil works into damnation. From what has been said it is also evident what is signified by that which we read of John-that he lay at the breast and on the bosom of Jesus, and that Jesus loved him more than the rest (John 13:23, 25; 21:20); for by John were represented good works.

(Arcana Cœlestia 3934)

The Word Even in its Letter is Divine

From Arcana Cœelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... in the supreme sense — all things in the Word in both general and particular have relation to the Lord; and the Lord is doctrine itself, that is, the Word, not only as to the supreme sense therein, but also as to the internal sense, and even as to the literal sense, for this sense is representative and significative of the internal sense, and the internal sense is representative and significative of the supreme sense; and that which in the Word is representative and significative is in its essence that which is represented and signified, thus it is the Divine of the Lord; for a representative is nothing but an image of him who is represented; and is in an image the Lord Himself presented to view. This may be seen from man's speech, and also from his gesture, these being merely images of the things which come forth within the man, in his thought and will; so that the speech and gesture are the thought and will in form; for if you take away from them the thought and will, that which is left is a mere inanimate affair, thus nothing human. This shows how the case is with the Word, even in the letter, namely, that it is Divine.

(Arcana Cœlestia 3393)