The Angels of God Ascending and Descending

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Communication of Truth which is on the Lowest Place with Truth which is in the Highest

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Gen 28:12

This order, which is that of the regeneration of man, and which is described in the internal sense of this and the following verses, is altogether unknown in the church, the nature of it may be further illustrated.

It is known that man is born into the nature of his parents, and of his grandfathers, and also of those who have been his ancestors for ages; thus he is born into the hereditary evil of them all successively accumulated, insomuch that as regards what is from himself he is nothing but evil. The result of this is that -

as to both understanding and will man has been utterly destroyed; and of himself wills nothing of good, and consequently understands nothing of truth; and therefore that which he calls good and believes to be good, is evil; and that which he calls truth and believes to be truth, is falsity.

For example: loving himself above others; desiring better for himself than for others; coveting what belongs to another; taking thought for himself alone, and not for others except for the sake of himself. As of himself man is desirous of these things he therefore calls them goods, and also truths; and what is more, if anyone injures or endeavors to injure him in respect to these goods and truths as he calls them, he hates him, and also burns with revenge toward him, desires and even seeks his ruin, and feels delight in it, and this in proportion as he actually confirms himself in such things, that is, in proportion as he more frequently brings them into actual exercise.

When such a person comes into the other life he has the same desires; the very nature which he has contracted in the world by actual life remains, and the delight just referred to is plainly perceived. For this reason such a man cannot be in any heavenly society, in which everyone desires better for others than for himself, but has to be in some infernal society where the delight is similar to his own.

This nature is that which must be rooted out while the man lives in the world, which cannot possibly be done except by the Lord through regeneration; that is, by his receiving a totally new will and derivative new understanding; or in other words by being made new in respect to both these faculties.

But in order that this may be effected, the man must first of all be reborn as a little child, and must learn what is evil and false, and also what is good and true; for without knowledge he cannot be imbued with any good; for from himself he acknowledges nothing to be good but what is evil, and nothing to be true but what is false.

To this end such knowledges are insinuated into him as are not altogether contrary to those which he had before; as that all love begins from self; that self is to be taken care of first and then others; that good is to be done to such as appear poor and distressed outwardly, no matter what may be their inward character; in like manner that good is to be done to widows and orphans simply because they are so called; and lastly, to enemies in general, whoever they may be; and that thereby a man may merit heaven.

These and other such knowledges are those of the infancy of his new life, and are of such a nature that while they derive somewhat from his former life or the nature of his former life, they also derive somewhat from his new life into which he is thereby being introduced; and hence they are such as to admit into them whatever things are conducive to the formation of a new will and a new understanding.

These are the lowest goods and truths, from which those who are being regenerated commence, and because these admit into themselves truths that are more interior or nearer to Divine truths, by their means there may also be rooted out the falsities which the man had before believed to be truths.

But they who are being regenerated do not learn such truths simply as memory-knowledges, but as life, for they do these truths; but that they do them is from the beginning of the new will which the Lord insinuates entirely without their knowledge; and insofar as they receive of this new will, so far they receive of these knowledges, and bring them into act, and believe them; but insofar as they do not receive of the new will, so far they are indeed capable of learning such things, but not of bringing them into act, because they care merely for memory-knowledge, and not for life.

This is the state of infancy and childhood in respect to the new life which is about to succeed in place of the former life; but the state of the adolescence and youth of this life is that regard is no longer had to any person as he appears in the external form but to his quality in respect to good; first in civil life, next in moral life, and lastly in spiritual life;

good is that which the man then begins to hold and love in the prior place, and from good to love the person;

and at last, when he is still further perfected,

he takes care to do good to those who are in good, and this in accordance with the quality of the good in them, and at last he feels delight in doing good to them, because he feels delight in good, and pleasantness in the things that confirm it.

These confirmatory things he acknowledges as truths; and they also are the truths of his new understanding, which flow from the goods which are of his new will.

In the degree that he feels delight in this good, and pleasantness in these truths, he has a feeling of what is undelightful in the evils of his former life, and of what is unpleasing in its falsities; and the result is that a separation takes place of the things which are of the former will and the former understanding from the things that are of the new will and the new understanding;

and this not in accordance with the affection of knowing such things, but in accordance with the affection of doing them.

Consequently the man then sees that the truths of his infancy were relatively inverted, and that the same had been by little and little brought back into a different order, namely, to be inversely subordinate, so that those which at first were in the prior place are now in the posterior place; thus that by those truths which were the truths of his infancy and childhood, the angels of God had ascended as by a ladder from earth to heaven; but afterwards, by the truths of his adult age, the angels of God descended as by a ladder from heaven to earth.

(Arcana Cœlestia 3701)

Man's Life is Love

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

With every one his own love remains after death.

Man knows that there is love, but does not know what love is. He knows that there is love from common speech, in that it is said, this one loves me; the king loves his subjects and the subjects love their king; the husband loves his wife; the mother, her children, and vice versa; also that this or that man loves his country, his fellow-citizens, his neighbor. It is likewise said of things apart from person, that one loves this, or that. But although love is so universal in speech, yet scarcely any one knows what love is. Because he can form no idea of thought about it when he reflects upon it, and so cannot set it in the light of the understanding (for the reason that it is not a thing of light, but of heat), a man either says that it is nothing, or that it is merely a something flowing in from sight, hearing, and conversation, and thus affecting. It is entirely unknown to him that -

it is his very life, not only the common life of his whole body, and the common life of all his thoughts, but even the life of all the single things of them.

A wise man can perceive it from considerations like this: If you take away the affection of love can you think anything? Can you do anything? In the degree that affection, which is of love, grows cold, do not thought, speech, and action grow cold? And as that grows warm do not these grow warm?

Love then is the heat of man's life, or his vital heat.

The heat of the blood, and its redness also is from no other source. The fire of the angelic sun, which is pure love, effects this.

That every one has his own love, or a love distinct from another's love, that is, that the love of one man is not the same as that of another, is evident from the infinite variety of faces. Faces are the types of loves. For it is known that countenances change and vary according to the affections of love. Desires also, which are of love, and its joys and sorrows, shine forth from the face. It is clear from this that a man is his own love, yea, is the form of his love. But it should be known that -

the form of his love is the interior man, which is the same as his spirit that lives after death; and not also his outward man in the world, because this has learned from infancy to conceal the desires of his love, yea, to pretend to and put forward other desires than his own.

Because love is man's life, as has been stated just above, and thence is the man himself, therefore his own love remains with every man after death. A man is also his own thought, and so his own intelligence and wisdom; but these form one with his love. For a man thinks from his love and according to it, yea, if he is in freedom he speaks and acts from and according to it. Whence it may be seen that love is the esse or essence of a man's life, and that thought is the existere or existence of his life therefrom. Speech and action therefore, [which flow forth from thought], do not flow really from the thought, but from the love by the thought. It has been given me to know from much experience that man after death is not his own thought, but is his own affection and the thought therefrom, or that he is his own love and intelligence thence; and that after death man puts off everything that does not accord with his love; yea, that he successively puts on the face, tone of voice, speech, gesture, and manner of his life's love. Hence it is that the universal heaven is disposed in order according to all the varieties of the affections of the love of good; and the universal hell according to all the affections of the love of evil.

(Conjugial Love 34-36)

What Should Be Understood by the Lord's 'Bearing of Iniquities or Sins'

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is well known in the Church that the Lord is said to have 'borne sins' on behalf of the human race, yet there is no knowledge of what to understand by 'bearing iniquities and sins.'  Some think it means that He took the sins of the human race onto Himself and allowed Himself to be condemned even to death on a cross, and that since, because of this, the condemnation for sins was cast onto Him, people in the world have been made free from condemnation.  It is also thought that condemnation was taken away by the Lord through His fulfilling the law, for the law would have condemned everyone who did not fulfill it.

But no such ideas should be understood by 'bearing iniquity', for every individual person's deeds await him after death, when he is judged according to the essential nature of those deeds either to life or to death.  The essential nature of them depends on his love and faith, for love and faith constitute the life of a deed.

No one's deeds therefore can be taken away by transference onto another who will bear them.

From these considerations it is evident that something other than those ideas should be understood by 'bearing iniquities'; but what should be understood may be recognized from the actual bearing of iniquities or sins by the Lord.

The Lord bears them when He fights on behalf of a person against the hells; for no one is able by himself to fight against them.

Rather the Lord alone does so, indeed constantly for every individual person, yet differently with each one according to their reception of Divine Good and Divine Truth.

When He was in the world the Lord fought against all the hells and completely subdued them, as a result of which also He became Righteousness. By doing that He has rescued from damnation those who receive Divine Good and Truth from Him.

If the Lord had not done so no person could have been saved, for the hells are unceasingly present with a person, exercising control over him to the extent that the Lord does not shift them away. And He shifts them away to the extent that the person refrains from evils.

He who is victorious once over the hells is victorious forever over them; and to achieve this the Lord made Divine His Human.

The One therefore who alone fights for a person against the hells - or what amounts to the same thing, against evils and falsities, since they arise from the hells - is said to 'bear sins'; for He bears that burden, alone.

The reason why 'bearing sins' also means moving evils and falsities away from those who are governed by good is that this is the consequence.  For the more remote the hells are from a person, the more remote evils and falsities are, since falsities and evils come, as has been stated, from the hells - evils and falsities being sins and iniquities....
...

The work of salvation consists primarily in rescuing and delivering a person from hell, and so in shifting evils and falsities away. The expression 'a shifting of evils and falsities away' is used because deliverance from sins or forgiveness of them is nothing other than a shifting away of them; for they still remain with the person.

But to the extent that the good of love and the truth of faith are implanted, evil and falsity are shifted away.

The situation in this is like that with heaven and hell.

Heaven does not annihilate hell or those who are there, but moves it away from itself; for the good and truth received from the Lord are what compose heaven, and they are what move hell back.

The situation is similar with a person.

In himself a person is an embodiment of hell, but when he is being regenerated he becomes an embodiment of heaven; and to the extent that he becomes an embodiment of heaven, hell is moved away from him.

It is commonly supposed that evils, that is, sins, are not shifted away in that manner, but that they are completely separated from a person.  But those who think this do not know that in himself the whole of a person is nothing but evil, and that to the extent that the person is maintained by the Lord in good, the evils that are his appear as though they have been obliterated. For when a person is maintained in good he is withheld from evil. Yet nobody can be withheld from evil and maintained in good except one in whom the good of faith and charity received from the Lord is present, that is, one who allows himself to be regenerated by the Lord.

For through regeneration heaven is implanted with a person, and through this the hell residing with him is moved away, as stated above.

From all this it may again be recognized that 'bearing iniquities', when the Lord is the subject, means fighting constantly for a person against the hells, thus constantly moving them away, for that removal of them goes on unceasingly not only while a person is in the world but also forever in the next life. No mere human being is able to move evils away in that manner, for by himself no one is able to move even the smallest amount of evil away, less still to move the hells, and least of all to do so forever. .... ....

From all this, once it is understood, people may then know what all those things mean that are stated regarding the Lord in [Isaiah] Chapter 53 — a chapter dealing from beginning to end with the state of temptations He underwent, thus with the state He was passing through when He was engaged in conflict with the hells. For temptations are nothing other than conflicts with them. This state is described in [verses 4-6, 9-12, of] that chapter in the following way,

He bore our griefs* and carried our sorrows.
He was pierced because of our transgressions
and bruised because of our iniquities.
Jehovah has laid on** Him the iniquity of us all.
So He consigned the wicked to [their] grave.
The will of Jehovah will prosper by means of His hand.
Out of the distress*** of His soul He will see and be
satisfied, and through His wisdom He will justify many,
because He has carried their iniquities.
So He has borne the sin of many.

The Lord is also called there [in Isa. 53:1] the arm of Jehovah, by which Divine Power is meant.  'Carrying griefs, sorrows, and iniquities', and 'being pierced and bruised because of them' self-evidently means the state of temptations; for at that time there are experiences involving distress of mind, anguish, and despair, which cause the pain described in those verses. The hells bring such feelings about; for in temptations they assault the actual love of the one against whom they fight.

Everyone's love is the inmost core of his life.

The Lord's love was that of saving the human race; and this love was the Essential Being (Esse) of His life, since the Divine within Him was that love. This too is so described in Isaiah, where the Lord's conflicts are the subject, in the following words,

He said, Surely they are My people. Therefore He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He suffered affliction; because of His love and His compassion He redeemed them, and took them and carried them all the days of eternity. Isa. 63:8, 9.

The description of the Lord's suffering of such temptations when He was in the world is brief in the Gospels, but in the Prophets, and especially in the Psalms of David, it is extensive. The Gospels merely state that He was led into the wilderness, where He was then tempted by the devil, and that He was there forty days, and was with the beasts, Mark 1:12, 13; Matt. 4:1. But the fact that He had been undergoing temptations from earliest childhood through to the end of His life in the world, that is, had been engaged in conflicts with the hells, was not revealed by Him, as accords with the following words in Isaiah,

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He is led like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is dumb, He did not open His mouth. Isa. 53:7.

His final temptation was in Gethsemane, Matt. 26; Mark 14, followed by the passion of the Cross. Through this temptation He completely subdued the hells, as He Himself teaches in John,

Father, rescue Me from this hour. But on account of this I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. [Then] a voice came from heaven, [saying,] I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Then Jesus said, Now is the judgement of this world, now will the prince of this world be cast outdoors. John 12:27, 28, 31.

'The prince of [this] world' is the devil, thus all hell. 'Glorifying' means making Divine the Human. The reason why only the temptation after the forty days in the wilderness is mentioned is that 'forty days' means and implies temptations to completeness, thus over a number of years.... 'The wilderness' means hell, 'the beasts' He fought with there being the devil's crew.

The removal of sins with those who are governed by good or who have repented was represented in the Jewish Church by the he-goat called Azazel.  Aaron was to lay his hands on its head and to confess the iniquities of the children of Israel and all transgressions in respect of all their sins, after which he was to send it into the wilderness; thus the he-goat was to bear on itself all their iniquities into a land of separation, Lev. 16:21, 22.  'Aaron' here represents the Lord, 'the he-goat' means faith, 'the wilderness' and 'a land of separation' hell, and 'bearing the iniquities of the children of Israel to that place' removing and casting them into hell.

Nobody can know that such things were represented except from the internal sense.

For anyone can see that the iniquities of the entire assembly could not have been carried off into the wilderness by any he-goat; for what did a he-goat have in common with iniquities?  But since everything representative at that time was a sign of such things as belong to the Lord, heaven, and the Church, so were these things that were done with the he-goat.

The internal sense therefore teaches what those things imply, namely that the truth of faith is the means by which a person is regenerated, consequently by which sins are removed.

And since faith or belief in what is true is derived from the Lord, the Lord Himself is the One who accomplishes that removal of them.... Aaron represents the Lord; and 'a he-goat of the she-goats' is the truth of faith.  The reason why 'the wilderness' is hell, is that the camp where the children of Israel were meant heaven,; and for the same reason also the wilderness is called 'a land of separation' or a land that is cut off.  'Bearing iniquities into that land' or into the wilderness accordingly means casting evils and falsities into hell from where they come; and they are cast into that place when they become so remote that they cannot be seen, which is what happens when a person is withheld from them because he is maintained in good by the Lord, as accords with what has been stated above.

The same thing as is meant by casting out sins into the wilderness is also meant by casting them into the depths of the sea, as in Micah,

He will be merciful to us, He will sink our iniquities, and He will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19.

'Depth of the sea' too means hell.

From all this it is now evident that the words saying that Aaron was to bear the iniquity of the holy things means 'a removal or shifting away of sins' from those who are governed by good derived from the Lord, and that this removal of them is done constantly by the Lord.  This is what 'bearing iniquities' means, as also in another place in Moses,

Jehovah said to Aaron, You and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary. Also you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. The children of Israel shall no longer come near the tent of meeting, or else they will bear sin and die.**** But Levites shall perform the work of the tent, and these shall bear their iniquity. Num. 18:1, 22, 23.

'Bearing' or 'carrying' is used with a similar meaning in Isaiah,

Hearken to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been carried from the womb. Even to [your] old age I am the Same, and even to grey hair I will carry [you]; I have made, and I will carry, and I will bear, and I will deliver. Isa. 46:3, 4.

'Bearing iniquity' means making expiation, thus removing sins, in Moses,

Moses was annoyed with Eleazar and Ithamar, because the he-goat of the sin-sacrifice had been burnt, saying, Why have you not eaten it in a holy place, since Jehovah has given it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make expiation for them before Jehovah? Lev. 10:16, 17.

...
* lit. sicknesses
** lit. has caused to run to
*** lit. labour
**** lit. no longer come near the tent of meeting to bear sin, dying

(Arcana Cœlestia 9937)

The Word Should Be Searched with Devout Prayer to the Lord for Enlightenment (AC 5432)

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How greatly they are deluded who remain in the sense of the letter alone, and do not search out the internal sense from other passages in the Word in which it is explained, is very evident from the many heresies, every one of which proves its dogmas from the literal sense of the Word; especially is this manifest from that great heresy which the insane and infernal love of self and the world has drawn from the Lord's words to Peter:

I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in the heavens, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in the heavens (Matt. 16:15-19).

They who press the sense of the letter think that these things were said of Peter, and that power so great was given him; although they are fully aware that Peter was a very simple man, and that he by no means exercised such power; and that to exercise it is contrary to the Divine. Nevertheless, as owing to the insane and infernal love of self and the world they desire to arrogate to themselves the highest power on earth and in heaven, and to make themselves gods, they explain this according to the letter, and vehemently defend it; whereas the internal sense of these words is, that Faith itself in the Lord, which exists solely with those who are in love to the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor, has that power; and yet not faith, but the Lord from whom faith is. By "Peter" there is meant that faith, as everywhere else in the Word.

Upon this is the Church built, and against it the gates of hell do not prevail.

This faith has the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and it shuts heaven lest evils and falsities should enter in, and opens heaven for goods and truths. This is the internal sense of these words.

The twelve apostles, like the twelve tribes of Israel, represented nothing else than all the things of such faith. Peter represented faith itself, James charity, and John the goods of charity; in like manner as did Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the firstborn sons of Jacob, in the representative Jewish and Israelitish Church, which is plain from a thousand passages in the Word. And as Peter represented faith, the words in question were said to him. From this it is manifest into what darkness those cast themselves, and others with them, who explain all things according to the letter; as those who so explain these words to Peter, by which they derogate from the Lord and arrogate to themselves the power of saving the human race.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2759b)

The Inexhaustibleness of Changes of States from the Infinite and Eternal

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The state of a man's life is its quality. And as there are two faculties in every one, which make life, called understanding and will -

a man's state of life is its quality as to understanding and will.

It is plain, then, that by changes in the state of life are meant changes of quality in what is of the understanding and of the will.
...
One's state of life continually changes from infancy to the very close of life and afterwards to eternity. The states of one's life in general are called infancy, boyhood, adolescence, manhood, and old age. Every one who continues to live in the world passes in turn from one state to the next, so from the first to the last. The transitions are not apparent until an interval of time has elapsed, but reason sees that there is development from moment to moment and so continually. For in this respect the human being is like a tree, which grows and develops in every least fraction of time from the moment the seed is cast into the earth. This unintermitted progress also involves change of state — for what ensues contributes something to what precedes — perfecting the state.

Changes, moreover, which take place in man's internals also have a more perfect continuity than those which take place in his externals. For man's internals (by which are meant the things of his mind or spirit) are a degree higher, elevated above the externals; and in what is of the higher degree a thousand things take place in the same instant in which only one takes place in externals. The changes which occur in internals, are changes of state in the will as to affections, and changes of state in the understanding as to thoughts....

Changes of state in these two lives or faculties continue with man from infancy to the close of life and afterward to eternity, for the reason that there is no end to knowledge, still less to intelligence, and least of all to wisdom. In the inexhaustibleness of these there is infinity and eternity from the Infinite and Eternal, from whom all things are. Hence that ancient piece of philosophy that everything is divisible to infinity, to which is to be added that it may be multiplied similarly. The angels declare that they are perfected in wisdom by the Lord to eternity, which is also to infinity, eternity being an infinity of time.

(Conjugial Love 184, 185)

Receiving the Celestial Seeds of Charity

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

When a man is being reformed, which is effected by combats and temptations, such evil spirits are associated with him as excite nothing but his things of knowledge and reason [scientifica ejus et rationalia]; and spirits that excite cupidities are kept entirely away from him. For there are two kinds of evil spirits, those who act upon man's reasonings, and those who act upon his cupidities. The evil spirits who excite a man's reasonings bring forth all his falsities, and endeavor to persuade him that they are true, and even turn truths into falsities. A man must fight against these when he is in temptation; but it is really the Lord who fights, through the angels who are adjoined to the man. As soon as the falsities are separated, and as it were dispersed, by these combats, the man is prepared to receive the truths of faith.

For so long as falsities prevail, a man never can receive the truths of faith, because the principles of falsity stand in the way.

When he has thus been prepared to receive the truths of faith, then for the first time can celestial seeds be implanted in him, which are the seeds of charity. The seeds of charity can never be implanted in ground where falsities reign, but only where truths reign. Thus is it with the reformation or regeneration of the spiritual man....

This agrees with what is at this day known in the churches: that faith comes by hearing. But faith is by no means the knowledge [cognitio] of the things that are of faith, or that are to be believed. This is only memory-knowledge [scientia]; whereas faith is acknowledgment.

There can however be no acknowledgment with anyone unless the principal of faith is in him, which is charity, that is, love toward the neighbor and mercy.

When there is charity, then there is acknowledgment, or faith. He who apprehends otherwise is as far away from a knowledge of faith as earth is from heaven. When charity is present, which is the goodness of faith, then acknowledgment is present, which is the truth of faith. When therefore a man is being regenerated according to the things of knowledge, of reason, and of understanding, it is to the end that the ground may be prepared-that is, his mind-for receiving charity; from which, or from the life of which, he thereafter thinks and acts. Then he is reformed or regenerated, and not before.

(Arcana Cœlestia 653, 654)

Continually Being Perfected

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There is no definite period of time within which man's regeneration is completed, so that he can say, "I am now perfect;" for there are illimitable states of evil and falsity with every man, not only simple states but also states in many ways compounded, which must be so far shaken off as no longer to appear.... In some states the man may be said to be more perfect, but in very many others not so. Those who have been regenerated in the life of the body and have lived in faith in the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor, are continually being perfected in the other life.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 894)