THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 16-17)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE

for the

NEW JERUSALEM

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Emanuel Swedenborg

— Doctrinal Series —

(pt. 16-17)

NO ONE CAN FROM HIMSELF DO WHAT IS GOOD THAT IS REALLY GOOD.

In the following pages [articles], those who do what is good from themselves will be called natural men, because with them the moral and the civic is in its essence natural; and those who do what is good from the Lord will be called spiritual men, because with them the moral and the civic is in its essence spiritual.

That no one can from himself do any good that is really good, is taught by the Lord in John:

• A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven (John 3:27).
• He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).

"He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit," means that all good is from the Lord; "fruit" means what is good. "Without Me ye can do nothing," means that no man can from himself do anything.

Those who believe in the Lord, and from Him do what is good, are called -

• Sons of light (John 12:36; Luke 16:8);
• Sons of the bridechamber (Mark 2:19);
• Sons of the resurrection (Luke 20:36);
• Sons of God (Luke 20:36; John 1:12);
• Born of God (John 1:13);
• It is said that they shall see God (Matt. 5:8);
• That the Lord will make His abode with them (John 14:23);
• That they have the faith of God (Mark 11:22);
• That their works are done from God (John 3:21).

These things are all summed up in the following words:

• As many as received Him, to them gave He power [potestas] to be sons of God, to them that believe in His name; who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).

To "believe in the name of the Son of God," is to believe the Word and to live according to it; "the will of the flesh," is what is proper to man's will, which in itself is evil; "the will of man," is what is proper to his understanding, which in itself is falsity from evil; those "born of" these, are those who will and act, and also think and speak, from what is proper to themselves; those "born of God," are those who do all this from the Lord. In short: that which is from man is not good; but that which is good is from the Lord.

(LIFE 16-17)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 15)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE

for the

NEW JERUSALEM

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Emanuel Swedenborg

— Doctrinal Series —

(pt. 15)

NO ONE CAN FROM HIMSELF DO WHAT IS GOOD THAT IS REALLY GOOD.

. . . a man who is not spiritual can yet think rationally and speak from that thought, like a spiritual man, is because man's understanding can be uplifted into the light of heaven, which is truth, and can see from it; but his will cannot be in the same way uplifted into the heat of heaven, which is love, so as to act from that heat.

 — It is for this reason that truth and love do not make a one in a man unless he is spiritual. —

And it is for this reason also that man can speak; and it is this which makes the difference between a man and a beast. It is by means of this capacity of the understanding to be uplifted into heaven when as yet the will is not so uplifted, that it is possible for a man to be reformed and to become spiritual; but he does not begin to be reformed and become spiritual until his will also is uplifted. It is from this superior endowment of the understanding over the will, that a man, of whatever character he may be, even if evil, is able to think and therefore to speak rationally, as if he were spiritual. That still in spite of this he is not rational, is because the understanding does not lead the will, but the will leads the understanding. The understanding merely teaches and shows the way, as has been said in the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture (n. 115*).

And so long as the will is not in heaven together with the understanding, the man is not spiritual, and consequently is not rational; for when he is left to his will or love, he throws off the rational things of his understanding respecting God, heaven, and eternal life, and adopts in their stead such things as are in agreement with his will's love, and these he calls rational. But these matters shall be elucidated in the treatises on Angelic Wisdom.

(LIFE 15)

—

* But as there are those who maintain, and have confirmed themselves in the opinion, that without a Word it is possible for a man to know of the existence of God, and of heaven and hell, and of all the other things taught by the Word, and as they thereby weaken the authority and holiness of the Word, if not with the lips, yet in the heart, therefore it is not practicable to deal with them from the Word, but only from rational light, for they do not believe in the Word, but in themselves.

Investigate the matter from rational light, and you will find that in man there are two faculties of life called the understanding and the will, and that the understanding is subject to the will, but not the will to the understanding, for the understanding merely teaches and shows the way. Make further investigation, and you will find that man's will is what is his own [proprium], and that this, regarded in itself, is nothing but evil, and that from this springs what is false in the understanding.

Having discovered these facts you will see that from himself a man does not desire to understand anything but that which comes from the own of his will, and also that it is not possible for him to do so unless there is some other source from which he may know it.

From the own of his will a man does not desire to understand anything except that which relates to himself and to the world; everything above this is to him in thick darkness. 

So that when he sees the sun, the moon, the stars, and chances to think about their origin, how is it possible for him to think otherwise than that they exist of themselves? Can he raise his thoughts higher than do many of the learned in the world who acknowledge only nature, in spite of the fact that from the Word they know of the creation of all things by God? What then would these same have thought if they had known nothing from the Word?

Do you believe that the wise men of old, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and others, who wrote about God and the immortality of the soul, got this from themselves [proprio]? Not so, but from others who had it by tradition from those who first knew it from the [Ancient] Word. Neither do the writers on natural theology get any such matters from themselves. They merely confirm by rational arguments what they have already become acquainted with from the church in which is the Word; and there may be some among them who confirm without believing it.

(Doctrine of the Holy Scripture (n. 115)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 14)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE

for the

NEW JERUSALEM

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Emanuel Swedenborg

— Doctrinal Series —

(pt. 14)

NO ONE CAN FROM HIMSELF DO WHAT IS GOOD THAT IS REALLY GOOD.

From what has been said in the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture (n. 27-28*, 38**), it may be seen that what is highest, what is intermediate, and what is last, make a one, like end, cause, and effect; and that because they make a one, the end itself is called the first end, the cause the intermediate end, and the effect the last end. From this it must be evident that in the case of a man who possesses spiritual good, what is moral in him is intermediate spiritual, and what is civic is ultimate spiritual. And for this reason it has been said that a man who possesses spiritual good is also a moral man and a civic man; and that a man who does not possess spiritual good is neither a moral man nor a civic man, although he may appear to be so both to himself and to others.

(LIFE 14)

—

* THE SENSE OF THE LETTER OF THE WORD IS THE BASIS, THE CONTAINANT, AND THE SUPPORT OF ITS SPIRITUAL AND CELESTIAL SENSES

In every Divine work there is a first, a middle, and a last (or ultimate); and the first passes through the middle to the last (or ultimate), and so comes into manifest being and subsists. Hence the last or ultimate is the basis. But the first is in the middle, and through the middle in the ultimate; so that the ultimate is the container. And as the ultimate is the container and the basis, it is also the support.

The learned reader will comprehend that these three may be called end, cause, and effect; also esse, fieri, and existere; and that the end is the esse, the cause the fieri, and the effect the existere; consequently, that in every complete thing there is a trine, which is called first, middle, and ultimate; also end, cause, and effect; and also esse, fieri, and existere. When these things are comprehended, it is also comprehended that every Divine work is complete and perfect in its ultimate; and likewise that the whole is in the ultimate, which is a trine, because the prior things are together, or simultaneously, in it.

** There are in heaven and in this world a successive order and a simultaneous order. In successive order one thing succeeds and follows another from highest to lowest; but in simultaneous order one thing is next to another from inmost to outmost. Successive order is like a column with successive parts from the top to the bottom; but simultaneous order is like a connected structure with successive circumferences from center to surface.

It shall now be told how successive order becomes simultaneous order in the ultimate. It is in this way:  The highest things of successive order become the inmost ones of simultaneous order, and the lowest things of successive order become the outermost ones of simultaneous order. Comparatively speaking it is as if the column of successive parts were to sink down and become a connected body in a plane.

Thus is the simultaneous formed from the successive, and this in all things both in general and in particular of the natural world, and also of the spiritual world; for everywhere there is a first, a middle, and an ultimate, and the first aims at and goes through the middle to its ultimate.

Apply this to the Word. The celestial, the spiritual, and the natural proceed from the Lord in successive order, and in the ultimate are in simultaneous order; and it is in this way that the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word are simultaneous in its natural sense. When this is comprehended, it may be seen how the natural sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter, is the basis, containant, and support of its spiritual and celestial senses; and how in the sense of the letter of the Word Divine good and Divine truth are in their fullness, in their holiness, and in their power.

(Doctrine of the Holy Scripture (n. 27-28, 38)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 13)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE

for the

NEW JERUSALEM

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Emanuel Swedenborg

— Doctrinal Series —

(pt. 13)

NO ONE CAN FROM HIMSELF DO WHAT IS GOOD THAT IS REALLY GOOD.

A man who possesses spiritual good is also a moral man and a civic man; but a man who does not possess spiritual good may appear to be a moral man and a civic man, yet is not so.

The reason why a man who possesses spiritual good is also a moral man and a civic man, is that spiritual good has the essence of good within it, and moral and civic good have this essence from spiritual good.

 — The essence of good can be from no other source than Him who is good itself. —

Think the matter over from every point of view, and try to find out from what it is that good is good, and you will see that it is so from its inmost being [esse], and that that is good which has within it the esse of good; consequently that that is good which is from good itself, thus from God; and therefore that good which is not from God, but from man, is not good

(LIFE 13)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 11-12)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE

for the

NEW JERUSALEM

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Emanuel Swedenborg

— Doctrinal Series —

(pt. 11-12)

NO ONE CAN FROM HIMSELF DO WHAT IS GOOD THAT IS REALLY GOOD.

From science a man knows whether gold is good in substance, is alloyed and falsified, or is merely overlaid; but he does not know from science whether the good he does is good in itself. This only does he know: that good from God is good, and that good from man is not good. Therefore, as it concerns his salvation for him to know whether the good he does is from God, or is not from God, this must be revealed. But before this is done something shall be said about goods.

There are civic good, moral good, and spiritual good.
• Civic good is that which a man does from the civic law: by means of and according to this good is the man a citizen in the natural world.
• Moral good is that which a man does from the law of reason: by means of and according to this good is he a man.
• Spiritual good is that which a man does from spiritual law: by means of and according to this good is he a citizen in the spiritual world.
These goods succeed one another in the following order: spiritual good is the highest, moral good is intermediate, and civic good is last. . . .

(LIFE 11-12)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 10)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE

for the

NEW JERUSALEM

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Emanuel Swedenborg

— Doctrinal Series —

(pt. 10)

NO ONE CAN FROM HIMSELF DO WHAT IS GOOD THAT IS REALLY GOOD.

. . . Goods from God, and goods from self, may be compared to gold. Gold that is gold from the inmost, called pure gold, is good gold. Gold alloyed with silver is also gold, but is good according to the amount of the alloy. Less good still is gold that is alloyed with copper.

But a gold made by art, and resembling gold only from its color, is not good at all, for there is no substance of gold in it. There is also what is gilded, such as gilded silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and also gilded wood and gilded stone, which on the surface may appear like gold; but not being such, they are valued either according to the workmanship, the value of the gilded material, or that of the gold which can be scraped off.

In goodness these differ from real gold as a garment differs from a man. Moreover rotten wood, dross, or even ordure, may be overlaid with gold; and such is the gold to which pharisaic good may be likened.

(LIFE 10)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 9)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE

for the

NEW JERUSALEM

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Emanuel Swedenborg

— Doctrinal Series —

(pt. 9)

NO ONE CAN FROM HIMSELF DO WHAT IS GOOD THAT IS REALLY GOOD.

. . . That hitherto scarcely anyone knows whether the good done by him is from self or from God, is because the church has sundered faith from charity, and good is of charity. A man gives to the poor; relieves the needy; endows places of worship and hospitals; has regard for the church, his country, and his fellow citizen; is diligent in his attendance at a place of worship, where he listens and prays devoutly; reads the Word and books of piety; and thinks about salvation; and yet is not aware whether he is doing these things from himself, or from God. He may be doing the very same things from God, or he may be doing them from self. If he does them from God they are good, if from self they are not good. In fact there are goods of this kind done from self which are eminently evil, such as hypocritical goods, the purpose of which is deception and fraud.

(LIFE 9)