Charity and Good Works (pt. 35)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 35)
v Doctrinal Series v

XI. THE DIVERSIONS OF CHARITY ARE DINNERS, SUPPERS, AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS

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It is known that dinners and suppers are everywhere customary, and are given for various purposes, and that with most they are given for the sake of friendship, relationship, enjoyment, gain, and remuneration; also that they are employed for corrupting men and drawing them over to certain parties; and that among the great they are given for the sake of honor, and in kings' palaces for splendor. But dinners and suppers of charity are given only among those who are in mutual love from similarity of faith.

With the Christians of the primitive church dinners and suppers had no other object; they were called Feasts, and were given both in order that they might heartily enjoy themselves, and at the same time be drawn together.

In the first state of the establishment of the church suppers signified consociation and conjunction, because evening, when they took place, signified that state. But in the second state, when the church had been established, there were dinners, for morning and day signified that state. At table they conversed on various subjects, both domestic and civil, but especially on such as pertained to the church. And because they were feasts of charity, whatever subject they talked about, charity with its delights and joys was in their speech.

The spiritual sphere that prevailed at those feasts was a sphere of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, which cheered the mind of everyone, softened the tone of every voice, and from the heart communicated festivity to all the senses. For there emanates from every man a spiritual sphere, which is a sphere of his love's affection and its thought therefrom, and this interiorly affects his associates, especially at feasts. This sphere emanates both through the face and through the respiration. It is because dinners and suppers, or feasts, signified such association of minds that they are so frequently mentioned in the Word, and nothing else is there meant by them in the spiritual sense; and the same is meant in the highest sense by the paschal supper among the children of Israel, also by their banquet at other festivities, and by their eating together of the sacrifices near the tabernacle. Conjunction itself was then represented by the breaking and distribution of bread, and by drinking from the same cup and handing it to another.

(True Christian Religion 433)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 34)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 34)
v Doctrinal Series v

X. THERE ARE DUTIES OF CHARITY, SOME PUBLIC, SOME DOMESTIC, AND SOME PRIVATE

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The private duties of charity are also numerous, such as the payment of wages to workmen, the payment of interest, the fulfillment of contracts, the guarding of securities, and so on, some of which are duties enforced by statute law, some by common law, and some by moral law. These duties also are discharged by those who are in charity from one state of mind, and by those who are not in charity from another state of mind.

Those who are in charity perform them justly and faithfully; for it is a precept of charity that everyone should act justly and faithfully toward all with whom he has any business or dealing (on which above, n. 422-425). But those who are not in charity discharge these same duties very differently.

(True Christian Religion 432)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 33)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 33)
v Doctrinal Series v

X. THERE ARE DUTIES OF CHARITY, SOME PUBLIC, SOME DOMESTIC, AND SOME PRIVATE

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The domestic duties of charity are those of the husband toward the wife, and of the wife toward the husband, of fathers and mothers toward their children, and of children towards their fathers and mothers, also the duties of masters and mistresses towards servants, male and female, and of the latter towards the former. These duties, because they are the duties of education and management at home, are so numerous that if recounted they would fill a volume. To the discharge of these duties everyone is moved by a love different from that which moves him to discharge the duties of his employment; husbands and wives are moved to their duties towards each other by marriage love and according to it; parents towards their children by the love implanted in everyone, called parental love; and children towards their parents by and according to another love which is closely connected with obedience from a sense of duty. But the duties of masters and mistresses towards their servants, male and female, have their source in the love of governing, and this love is according to the state of each one's mind.

But marriage love and the love of children, with the duties of these loves and the practice of these duties, do not produce love to the neighbor as the practice of the duties in one's employment does; for the love called parental love exists equally with the bad and the good, and is sometimes stronger with the bad; moreover, it exists in beasts and birds, in which no charity can be formed. It is known that it exists with bears, tigers, and serpents, as much as with sheep and goats, and with owls as much as with doves.

As to the duties of parents to children in particular, they are inwardly different with those who are in charity and those who are not, although externally they appear alike. With those who are in charity, that love is conjoined with love towards the neighbor and love to God; for by such children are loved according to their morals, virtues, good will, and qualifications for serving the public. But with those who are not in charity, there is no conjunction of charity with the love called parental love; consequently, many such parents love even wicked, immoral, and crafty children more than the good, moral, and discreet; thus they love those who are useless to the public, more than those who are useful.

(True Christian Religion 431)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 32)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 32)
v Doctrinal Series v

X. THERE ARE DUTIES OF CHARITY, SOME PUBLIC, SOME DOMESTIC, AND SOME PRIVATE

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The public duties of charity are especially the payment of tribute and taxes, which ought not to be confounded with official duties.

Those who are spiritual pay these with one disposition of heart, and those who are merely natural with another.

The spiritual pay them from good will, because they are collected for the preservation of their country, and for its protection and the protection of the church, also for the administration of government by officials and governors, to whom salaries and stipends must be paid from the public treasury. Those, therefore, to whom their country and also the church are the neighbor, pay their taxes willingly and cheerfully, and regard it as iniquitous to deceive or defraud.

But those to whom their country and the church are not the neighbor pay them unwillingly and with resistance; and at every opportunity defraud and withhold; for to such their own household and their own flesh are the neighbor.

(True Christian Religion 430)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 31)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 31)
v Doctrinal Series v

X. THERE ARE DUTIES OF CHARITY, SOME PUBLIC, SOME DOMESTIC, AND SOME PRIVATE

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The benefactions of charity and the duties of charity are distinct, like the things done from choice and the things done from compulsion.

But by the duties of charity official duties in a kingdom or state are not meant, as the duties of a minister to minister, of a judge to judge, and so on, but the duties of everyone whatever his employment may be. Thus these duties are from a different origin, and flow forth from a different will, and are therefore done from charity by those who have charity, and on the other hand from no charity by those who have no charity.

(True Christian Religion 429)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 30)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 30)
v Doctrinal Series v

IX. THE BENEFACTIONS OF CHARITY ARE
GIVING TO THE POOR AND RELIEVING THE NEEDY
BUT WITH PRUDENCE

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At this day these benefactions are believed to be those proper acts of charity that are meant in the Word by good works, because charity is often described in the Word as giving to the poor, helping the needy, and caring for widows and orphans. But hitherto it has not been known that the Word in its letter makes mention only of the outer things of worship, even the outermost things, and that these signify spiritual things, which are internal (as may be seen above, in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture, n. 193-209). From all this it is plain, that by the poor, the needy, the widows and orphans there mentioned, such persons are not meant, but those who are spiritually such. That the "poor" mean those who are without knowledges of truth and good, may be seen in the Apocalypse Revealed (n. 209) and that "widows" mean those who are without truths and yet desire them (n. 764); and so on.

Those who are by nature compassionate, and do not make their natural compassion spiritual by putting it in practice in accordance with genuine charity, believe that charity consists in giving to every poor person, and relieving everyone who is in want, without first inquiring whether the poor or needy person is good or bad; for they say that this is not necessary, since God regards only the aid and alms. But after death these are clearly distinguished and set apart from those who have done the beneficent works of charity from prudence; for those who have done them from that blind idea of charity, then do good to bad and good alike, and with the aid of what is done for them the wicked do evil and thereby injure the good. Such benefactors are partly to blame for the injury done to the good. For doing good to an evil-doer is like giving bread to a devil, which he turns into poison; for in the hands of the devil all bread is poison, or if it is not, he turns it into poison by using good deeds as allurements to evil. It is also like handing to an enemy a sword with which he may kill someone; or like giving the shepherd's staff to a wolfish man to guide the sheep to pasture, who, after he has obtained it, drives them away from the pasture to a desert, and there slaughters them; or like giving public authority to a robber, who studies and watches for plunder only, according to the richness and abundance of which he dispenses the laws and executes judgments.

(True Christian Religion 427 - 428)

Charity and Good Works (pt. 29)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 29)
v Doctrinal Series v

IX. THE BENEFACTIONS OF CHARITY ARE
GIVING TO THE POOR AND RELIEVING THE NEEDY
BUT WITH PRUDENCE

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It is known that some who perform these benefactions which present to the world an image of charity, entertain the opinion and belief that they have practiced works of charity, and look upon them as many in popedom regard indulgences, as means whereby they are purified from sins, and that they are worthy, as if regenerated, to have heaven bestowed upon them, and yet they do not regard adultery, hatred, revenge, fraud, and in general the lusts of the flesh, in which they indulge at pleasure, as sins.

But in that case what are these good works but painted pictures of angels in company with devils, or boxes made of lapis lazuli containing hydras?

It is wholly otherwise when these benefactions are done by those who shun the evils above mentioned as hateful to charity.

Nevertheless, these benefactions are advantageous in many ways, especially giving to the poor and to beggars; for thereby boys and girls, servants and maids, and in general all simple-minded persons, are initiated into charity, for these are its externals whereby such are trained in the practice of charity, for these are its rudiments, and are then like unripe fruit.

But with those who are afterwards perfected in right knowledges respecting charity and faith, these acts become like ripe fruit, and then they look upon those former works, which were done in simplicity of heart, merely as what they owed to others.

(True Christian Religion 426)

To be continued ...