Free State of Deliberation

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The betrothal and marriage — The initiation and conjunction of good and truth;
for the initiation and conjunction of good and truth are spiritual betrothal and spiritual marriage
In each there is required a free state of deliberation.

That this is necessary in betrothal and marriage, is well known, but that it is required in the initiation and conjunction of good and truth, is not so well known, because it is not apparent to the natural man, and because such initiation and conjunction are among the things that are accomplished without man's reflecting upon them. Nevertheless, during every moment when man is being reformed and regenerated, it comes to pass that he is in a state of freedom when truth is being conjoined with good.

Everyone may know, if he only considers, that nothing is ever man's, as his, unless it is of his will. What is only of the understanding does not become man's until it becomes of the will also - for what is of the will constitutes the being [esse] of a man's life, but what is of the understanding constitutes the coming forth [existere] of his life thence derived.

Consent from the understanding alone is not consent, but all consent is from the will.
Wherefore, unless the truth of faith which is of the understanding is received by the good of love which is of the will, it is not at all truth which is acknowledged, and thus it is not faith.

But in order that truth may be received by the good which is of the will, it is necessary that there be a free state. All that is of the will appears free - the very state of willing is liberty - for that which I will, that I choose, that I long for, because I love it and acknowledge it as good. All this shows that truth, which is of faith, never becomes man's as his until it has been received by the will, that is, until it has been initiated and conjoined with the good there; and that this cannot be effected except in a free state.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3158)

When Truth is Detained in the Memory

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Man is never born into any truth, not even into any natural truth - as that he should not steal, should not kill, should not commit adultery, and the like; still less is he born into any spiritual truth - as that there is a God, and that he has an internal which will live after death. Thus of himself man knows nothing that relates to eternal life. Man learns both these kinds of truth; otherwise he would be much worse than a brute animal, for from his hereditary nature he loves himself above all and desires to possess all things in the world. Hence unless he were restrained by civil laws and by fears for the loss of honor, of gain, of reputation, and of life, he would steal, kill, and commit adultery, without any perception of conscience. That this is the case is very evident: for a man, even when instructed, commits such crimes without conscience, nay, defends them, and by many considerations confirms himself in the commission of them so far as he is allowed; what then would he not do if he had not been instructed? The case is the same in spiritual things; for of those who are born within the church, who have the Word, and are constantly instructed, there are still very many who ascribe little or nothing to God, but everything to nature; thus who do not at heart believe that there is any God, and therefore do not believe that they shall live after death; and who accordingly have no wish to learn anything relating to eternal life.

From all this it is evident that man is born into no truth, but that he has all to learn, and this by an external way, namely, that of hearing and seeing. By this way, truth has to be insinuated, and implanted in his memory; but so long as the truth is there only, it is merely memory-knowledge; and in order that truth may pervade (permeate, impregnate, and saturate) the man it must be called forth thence, and be conveyed more toward the interiors; for his human is more internal, being in his rational; for unless man is rational, he is not man; and therefore according to the quality and the measure of a man's rational, such is the quality and the measure of the man. Man cannot possibly be rational unless he possesses good. The good whereby man surpasses the animals, is to love God, and to love the neighbor; all human good is from this. Into this good truth must be initiated and conjoined, and this in the rational. Truth is initiated into good and conjoined with it when man loves God and loves his neighbor, for then truth enters into good, inasmuch as good and truth mutually acknowledge each other, all truth being from good, and having respect to good as its end and as its soul, and thus as the source of its life.

But truth cannot without difficulty be separated from the natural man, and be thence elevated into the rational; for in the natural man there are fallacies, and cupidities of evil, and also persuasions of falsity, and so long as these are there and adjoin themselves to the truth, so long the natural man detains truth with himself, and does not suffer it to be elevated from itself into the rational. ... The reason is that the natural man puts truth in doubt, and reasons about it as to whether it is so.  But as soon as the cupidities of evil and persuasions of falsity, and the derivative fallacies, are separated by the Lord, and the man begins from good to be averse to reasonings against truth, and to be superior to doubts, then truth is in a state to depart from the natural and to be elevated into the rational, and to put on a state of good - for then truth becomes of good and has life.

For the better comprehension of this, let us take examples:

• It is a spiritual truth that all good is from the Lord, and all evil from hell: this truth must in many ways be confirmed and illustrated before it can be elevated out of the natural man into the rational, nor can it ever be elevated until the man is in the love of God; for before this it is not acknowledged, consequently is not believed.
• The case is similar in regard to other truths, as in regard to the truth that the Divine Providence is in the veriest singulars; and that unless it is in these, it is not in what is universal.
• Again: in regard to the truth that man first begins to live when that perishes which in the world he believes to be the all of life; and that the life which he then receives is relatively ineffable and unlimited; and that he is altogether ignorant of this so long as he is in evil

these and similar truths can never be believed, unless the man is in good; for it is good which comprehends, because the Lord through good flows in with wisdom.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3175)

Spiritual 'Affection of Use' Flowing into What is Natural

Selection from Divine Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. (Matthew 13:31, 32)

Man has eternal life according to his affection of use.

Since affection is the man himself, and use is its effect and work, and is as a field or theater for its exercise, and since affection is not found apart from its subject, even so the affection of man's life is not found apart from use; and since affection and use make one, so man, who is affection, is known as to his quality from use, - imperfectly and slightly in the natural world, but clearly and fully in the spiritual world. For the spiritual discloses the affection and all its particulars, since in its essence the spiritual is Divine love and Divine wisdom, and in its manifestation is the heat and the light of heaven; and these disclose the affections of uses, as the heat of the sun of the world discloses objects of the earth by odors and flavors, and its light discloses them by its various colors and distinctions of shade. Every man has eternal life according to his affection of use, for the reason that affection is the man himself; consequently such as the affection is, such is the man.

But affection of use in general is of two kinds:—
• there is the spiritual affection of use
• there is the natural affection of use
In external form the two are alike, but in internal wholly unlike; for this reason they are not known the one from the other by men in the world, but are readily known by angels in heaven; for they are wholly opposite, since the spiritual affection of use gives heaven to man, while natural affection of use, without the spiritual, gives hell - for the natural affection of use looks only to honors and gains, thus to self and the world as ends - while spiritual affection of use looks to the glory of God and to uses themselves, thus to the Lord and the neighbor as ends
For there are men in the world who discharge their duties and offices with much zeal, labor, and earnestness; magistrates, overseers, and officers, performing their functions with all diligence and industry; priests, leaders, ministers, preaching with warmth as if from zeal; learned men who write books full of piety, doctrine and learning; and others of a like character; and thereby they perform eminent uses to the church, to their country, to society, and to their fellow-citizens; and yet many do these things from natural affection alone, which is for the sake of self, that they may be honored and exalted to dignities, or for the sake of the world, that they may gain wealth and become rich. In some these ends so enkindle the affection for doing uses that they sometimes perform more excellent uses than those do who are in the spiritual affection of use. I have spoken with many after death when they had become spirits, who had been in this kind of affection of use, and who then demanded heaven on the ground of merit; but as they had performed uses from merely natural affection, thus for the sake of self and the world, and not for the sake of God and the neighbor, they received answer like this in Matthew:

Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name, and by Thy name have cast out demons, and by Thy name done many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I know you not; depart from Me all ye that work iniquity (7:22, 23).

And in Luke:

Then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink before Thee, and Thou didst teach in our streets. But He shall say, I say unto you, I know you not whence ye are, depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity (13:26, 27).

Moreover, they were examined as to what they had been in the world, and their interiors were found to be full of lusts and evils therefrom pressed together, and with some these appeared fiery from the love of self, with some livid from the love of the world, with some dusky from the rejection of things spiritual; while their exteriors from uses in external form still appeared snow-white and purple. From all this it is clear that although they had done uses, yet with themselves they had given no thought to anything but reputation with a view to honors and gains, and that these belonged to their spirit, and they were in them and these were their life, also that their good actions were either purely deceptive appearances, or merely means conducive to these things as ends. Thus much about the natural affection of uses.

But the spiritual affection of use is both internal and external, and it is external or natural to the same extent that it is spiritual; for what is spiritual flows into what is natural, and arranges it in correspondence, thus into an image of itself. But as there is in the world at the present day no knowledge of what the spiritual affection of use is, and what distinguishes it from the natural affection, since in outward appearance they are alike, it shall be told how spiritual affection is acquired.

It is not acquired by faith alone, which is faith separated from charity, for such faith is merely a thought-faith, with nothing actual in it; and as it is separated from charity it is also separated from affection, which is the man himself; and for this reason it is dissipated after death like something aerial.

But spiritual affection is acquired by shunning evils because they are sins; which is done by means of combat against them. The evils that man must shun are all set forth written in the Decalogue.

So far as man fights against them because they are sins, he becomes a spiritual affection, and thus he performs uses from spiritual life.

By means of combat against evils, those things that possess one's interiors are dispersed; and these, as has been said above, with some appear fiery, with some dusky, and with some livid. In this way one's spiritual mind is opened, through which the Lord enters into his natural mind and arranges it for performing spiritual uses which appear like natural uses.

To these and to no others is it granted by the Lord to love Him above all things and the neighbor as oneself.

If a man by means of combat against evils as sins has acquired anything spiritual in the world, be it ever so small, he is saved, and afterwards his uses grow like a grain of mustard seed into a tree (according to the Lord's words, Matt. 13:31, 32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18, 19).

(Divine Love XVII)

Those performing 'uses' from self

Selection from Divine Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Those who love themselves above all things, and the world as themselves, are not men, nor are they in the Lord.

Those who love themselves and the world are able to perform good uses, and do perform them; but the affections of use with them are not good, because such affections are from self and have regard to self, and are not from the Lord, and do not have regard to the neighbor. They say, indeed, and persuade that these affections have regard to the neighbor in the broad and in the restricted sense; that is, have regard to the church, their country, society, and their fellow-citizens. Some of them even dare to say that they have regard to God, because they are from His commandments in the Word; and also that they are from God, because they are goods, and every good is from God; when yet the uses they perform have regard to self, because they are from self, and have regard to the neighbor only that they may return to self. These are known, and are distinguished from those who perform uses from the Lord, having regard to the neighbor in the broad and in the restricted sense, in that such look to self and the world in everything, and love reputation on account of various ends that are uses in behalf of self. Such persons are moved to perform uses so far as in them they see self and what is their own; moreover, their enjoyments are all bodily enjoyments, and these are what they seek from the world.

What kind of men they are may be shown by this comparison:—
They themselves are the head; the world is the body; church, country, and fellow-citizens are the soles of the feet; and God is the shoe. But with those that do uses from the love of uses, the Lord is the head; church, country, and citizens (which are the neighbor) are the body down to the knees; and the world is the feet, from the knees to the soles; and they themselves are the soles beautifully shod. Thus it is plain that they who perform uses from self, that is, from the love of self, are wholly inverted, and that there is nothing of man in them.

There are two origins of all loves and affections:—
•  one from the sun of heaven, which is pure love
•  the other from the sun of the world, which is pure fire.
They whose love is from the sun of heaven are spiritual and alive, and are raised by the Lord out of their selfhood (proprium); while they whose love is from the sun of the world are natural and dead, and they are plunged by themselves into their selfhood (proprium). From this it is that they see nature alone in all the objects of sight; and if they acknowledge God, it is with the mouth and not with the heart. These are they that in the Word are meant by worshipers of the sun, moon, and all the host of the heavens. In the spiritual world they appear indeed as men, but in the light of heaven as monsters; and to themselves their life appears as life, but to the angels as death. Among these are many who in the world were accounted as learned; and, what I have often wondered at, they believe themselves wise because they ascribe all things to nature and to prudence, even regarding all others as simple.

(from Divine Love XIV)

To Love is to Do

Selection from Divine Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

So far as man is in the love of use, so far is he in the Lord, so far he loves the Lord and loves the neighbor, and so far he is a man.

From the love of uses we are taught what is meant by loving the Lord and loving the neighbor, also what is meant by being in the Lord and being a man.

• To love the Lord means to do uses from Him and for His sake.
• To love the neighbor means to do uses to the church, to one's country, to human society, and to the fellow-citizen.
• To be in the Lord means to be a use.
• To be a man means to perform uses to the neighbor from the Lord for the Lord's sake.

To love the Lord means to do uses from Him and for His sake, for the reason that all the good uses that man does are from the Lord; good uses are goods, and it is well known that these are from the Lord. Loving these is doing them, for what a man loves he does. No one can love the Lord in any other way; for uses, which are goods, are from the Lord, and consequently are Divine; yea they are the Lord Himself with man. These are the things that the Lord can love. The Lord cannot be conjoined by love to any man, and consequently cannot enable man to love Him, except through His own Divine things; for man from himself cannot love the Lord. The Lord Himself must draw him and conjoin him to Himself,  and therefore loving the Lord as a Person, and not loving uses, is loving the Lord from oneself, which is not loving. He that performs uses or goods from the Lord performs them also for the Lord's sake. These things may be illustrated by the celestial love in which the angels of the third heaven are. These angels are in love to the Lord more than the angels in the other heavens are; and they have no idea that loving the Lord is anything else than doing goods which are uses, and they say that uses are the Lord with them. By uses they understand the uses and good works of ministry, administration, and employment, as well with priests and magistrates as with merchants and workmen; the good works that are not connected with their occupation they do not call uses; they call them alms, benefactions, and gratuities.

Loving the neighbor means performing uses to the church, one's country, society, and the fellow-citizen, because these are the neighbor in the broad and in the limited sense; neither can these be loved otherwise than by the uses that belong to each one's office. A priest loves the church, the country, society, the citizen, and thus the neighbor, if he teaches and leads his hearers from zeal for their salvation. Magistrates and officers love the church, the country, society, the citizen, and thus the neighbor, if they discharge their respective functions from zeal for the common good; judges, if from zeal for justice; merchants, if from zeal for sincerity; workmen, if from rectitude; servants, if from faithfulness; and so forth. When with all these there is faithfulness, rectitude, sincerity, justice, and zeal, there is the love of use from the Lord; and from Him they have love to the neighbor in the broad and in the limited sense; for who that in heart is faithful, upright, sincere and just, does not love the church, the country, and his fellow-citizen?

From what has now been said it is plain that loving the Lord is performing uses from Him, and loving the neighbor is performing uses to him, and the object on account of whom uses are performed is the neighbor, use, and the Lord; and that love thus returns to Him from whom it is. For every love as source through love for its object returns to love as source, which return constitutes its reciprocal. And love continually goes forth and returns through deeds, which are uses, since to love is to do. For love, unless it becomes deed, ceases to be love, since deed is the effect of love's end, and is that in which it exists.

So far as man is in the love of use so far is he in the Lord; because so far is he in the Church, and so far in heaven; and the church and heaven from the Lord are as one man; the forms of which (called higher or lower organic forms, also interior and exterior) are made up of all who love uses by doing them; and the uses themselves are what compose that Man, because it is a spiritual Man, that does not consist of persons, but of the uses with them. Yet all those are there who receive from the Lord the love of uses; and these are they who do them for the neighbor's sake, for use's sake, and for the Lord's sake; and since this Man is the Divine that proceeds from the Lord, and the Divine proceeding is the Lord in the church and in heaven, it follows that they all are in the Lord.

These are a Man, because every use that in any way promotes the general good or serves the public, is a man, beautiful and perfect according to the quality of the use, and at the same time the quality of its affection. The reason of this is, that in each single part of the human body there is, from its use, an idea of the whole; for the part looks to the whole as its source, and the whole sees the part in itself, as its agent. It is from this idea of the whole in each part that each use therein is a man, in small as well as in greater parts; there are organic forms in the part as well as in the whole; in fact, the parts of parts, which are interior, are men more than the composite parts, because all perfection increases toward the interiors. For all organic forms in man are composed of interior forms, and these of forms still more interior, even to inmosts, by means of which communication is given with every affection and thought of man's mind. For man's mind, in all its particulars, extends into all things of his body; its range is into all things of the body; for it is the very form of life. Unless the mind had such a field, there would be neither mind nor man. From this it is that the choice and decision of man's will are determined instantly, and produce and determine actions, just as if thought and will were themselves in the things of the body, and not above them. That every least thing in man, from its use, is a man, does not fall into the natural idea as it does into the spiritual; in the spiritual idea man is not a person, but a use; for the spiritual idea is apart from an idea of person, as it is apart from an idea of matter, space, and time; therefore when one sees another in heaven, he sees him indeed as a man, but he thinks of him as a use. An angel also appears in face according to the use in which he is, and affection for the use makes the life of the face. From all this it can be seen that every good use is in form a man.

(from Divine Love XIII)

Are my actions a life of 'Christian Charity' or merely 'Moral Theology?'

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The first of the firstfruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God. (Exodus 23:19)

That this signifies that all truths of good and goods of truth are holy, because they are from the Lord alone, is evident from the signification of "the firstfruits of the ground," as being that the goods and truths of the church are to be ascribed to the Lord alone. It is said "the first of the firstfruits," because this ascription must be the foremost thing; for goods and truths have their life from the Lord, and they have life from the Lord when they are ascribed to Him. And from the signification of "bringing into the house of God," as being to ascribe to the Lord, that they may be holy. ("the house of God" denotes the Lord; and everything holy is from the Lord.) From all of which it is evident that by "the first of the first fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God" is signified that all truths of good and goods of truth are holy, because they are from the Lord alone.

They are called "truths of good" and "goods of truth," because with the man who is being regenerated, and still more so with him when he has been regenerated, truths are of good, and goods are of truth — for truths make the life of the understanding, and good makes the life of the will. Moreover, with the regenerate man the understanding and the will make one mind, and communicate reciprocally, the truths which are of the understanding with the good which is of the will, and the good which is of the will with the truths which are of the understanding. They flow into each other scarcely otherwise than as the blood flows from the heart into the lungs, and thence back again into the heart; and then from the left ventricle of the heart into the arteries, and from these through the veins back again into the heart. Such an idea may be formed about the reciprocal action of good and truth in man from his understanding into his will, and from his will into his understanding. That an idea about the reciprocal action of the truth of faith and the good of charity in the understanding and the will, may be obtained in especial from the lungs and the heart, is because the lungs correspond to the truths which are of faith, and the heart to the good which is of love. Hence also it is that by the "heart" in the Word is signified the life of the will, and by the "soul" the life of faith.

That from these an idea can be formed about the truths which are of the understanding and the good which is of the will, is because all things that belong to faith and love carry with them an idea from such things as the man knows, for without an idea from what he knows and feels in himself a man cannot think; and a man thinks rightly even about the things of faith and love, when he thinks of them from correspondences, for correspondences are natural truths, in which as in mirrors, spiritual truths are represented. Wherefore, so far as the ideas of thought concerning things spiritual are formed independently of correspondences, so far they are formed either from the fallacies of the senses, or from what is inconsistent with such things. The kind of ideas a man has about what belongs to faith and love, is very manifest in the other life, for there ideas are clearly perceived.

The statement that the truths of faith bear relation to man's understanding, and the good of charity to his will, may seem not consistent to those who say and confirm themselves in the idea that the things of faith are simply to be believed, because the natural man and his understanding do not apprehend anything of this kind, and because faith is not from man, but from the Lord. Nevertheless the same persons acknowledge and believe that a man is enlightened in truths and enkindled with good when he reads the Word, and that when he is enlightened he perceives what is true and what is not true; and they also call those men enlightened who excel others in discovering truths from the Word; which shows that those who are enlightened see and perceive within themselves whether a thing is true, or is not true. That which is then inwardly enlightened is their understanding, and that which is then inwardly enkindled is their will. But if it is genuine truth of faith in which they are enlightened, and if it is genuine good of charity with which they are enkindled, then it is the understanding of the internal man that is enlightened; and the will of the internal man that is enkindled. The case is very different with those who have not the genuine truth of faith, and the genuine good of charity.

They who are in truth and good not genuine, and even they who are in falsities and evils, can indeed confirm the truths of the church, but they cannot see and perceive from within whether they are truths. Hence it is that most persons remain in the doctrinal things of the church in which they were born, and merely confirm these; and they would have confirmed themselves in the greatest heresies, such as Socinianism and Judaism, if they had been born of such parents.

From all this it is evident that the understanding is enlightened with those who are in the affection of truth from good, but not with those who are in the affection of truth from evil. With those who are in the affection of truth from good the understanding of the internal man is enlightened, and the will of the internal man is enkindled; but with those who in the affection of truth from evil the understanding of the internal man is not enlightened, neither is the will of the internal man enkindled, for the reason that they are natural men, and therefore insist that the natural man cannot apprehend the things of faith.

That with those who are in the affection of truth from good, and who consequently are interior and spiritual men, it is the understanding which is enlightened in the truths of faith, and that it is the will which is enkindled with the good of charity, is very manifest from the same persons in the other life. There they are in the understanding of all things of faith, and in the will of all things of charity, and this they also clearly perceive. Consequently they possess intelligence and wisdom unspeakable, for after putting off the body they are in that interior understanding which was enlightened in the world, and in that interior will which was there enkindled. But at that time they were not able to perceive in what manner they were enlightened and enkindled, because they then thought in the body, and from such things as belong to the world.

From all this it is now evident that the truths of faith make the life of the understanding, and the good of charity the life of the will; consequently that the understanding must needs be present in the things of faith, and the will in those of charity; or what is the same, that it is into these two faculties that the faith and charity from the Lord flow, and that these are received according to the state of these faculties, thus that the dwelling place of the Lord in man is nowhere else.

From what has been said about the internal and the external man, an idea can be formed further, that the internal man is formed according to the image of heaven, and the external man according to the image of the world; and thate nothing from heaven; and that what they see from the world about heaven is thic those in whom the internal man has not been opened sek darkness; and that therefore they can have no spiritual idea about what belongs to faith and charity. Hence also it is that they cannot even apprehend what Christian good or charity is; insomuch that they quite think that the life of heaven consists solely in the truths which they call matters of faith; and also that the life of heaven is possible with all men whatever who have the confidence of faith, even though they have not the life of faith.

How blind such people are in respect to the life of faith, which is charity, is very evident from the fact that they pay no attention whatever to the thousands of things the Lord Himself taught about the good of life; and that when they read the Word they at once cast these things behind faith's back, and thus hide them from themselves and from others. Hence also it is that they cast out from the doctrine of the church everything that belongs to good - that is, to charity and its works - into a lower doctrine, which they call moral theology, and which they regard as natural and not spiritual; when yet after death the life of charity remains, and only so much of faith as is in agreement with this life; that is to say, there remains only so much of thought about the truths of faith as there is of the will of good according to these truths.

(from Arcana Coelestia 9300)

The Lord's 'Bearing of Iniquities or Sins'

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Bearing iniquity denotes to remove falsities and evils, or sins, with those who are in good.

it is said of the Lord that He "bore sins" for the human race, has been known in the church; but still it is not known what is meant by "bearing iniquities and sins." It is believed by some that it denotes that He took on Himself the sins of the human race, and suffered Himself to be condemned even to the death of the cross; and that because the condemnation for sins was cast on Him, mortals were thus freed from damnation; and also that the damnation was taken away by the Lord through the fulfilling of the law, because the law would have condemned everyone who did not fulfil it.

But these things are not meant by "bearing iniquity," because every man's deeds remain with him after death, and according to the quality of these he is then judged either to life or to death. Their quality is from his love and his faith, for love and faith make the life of a deed; and therefore —

They cannot be taken away by transfer to another who would bear them.

From this it is evident that something else is meant by "bearing iniquities;" but what is meant can be seen from the bearing itself of iniquities or sins by the Lord. For the Lord bears them when He fights for man against the hells, because man cannot fight against these from himself; but the Lord alone does this, and indeed continually for every man, but with a difference according to his reception of the Divine good and Divine truth.

When the Lord was in the world, He fought against all the hells, and completely subjugated them. From this He also became righteousness. Thus He redeemed from damnation those who receive the Divine good and truth from Him. Unless this had been done by the Lord, no man could have been saved - for insofar as the Lord does not remove them, the hells are constantly with man, and have dominion over him, and He removes them in proportion as the man desists from evils.He who once conquers the hells, conquers them to eternity; and in order that this might be done by the Lord — He made His Human Divine.

He, who alone fights for man against the hells (or what is the same thing, against evils and falsities, for these are from the hells) is said "to bear sins," for He alone supports this burden. That by "bearing sins" is also signified the removal of evils and falsities from those who are in good, is because this is the consequence; for insofar as the hells are removed from man, so far evils and falsities are removed, because as before said both of these are from the hells. Evils and falsities are "sins" and "iniquities." 

The main work of salvation is to redeem and deliver man from the hells, and thus to remove evils and falsities. It is said to remove evils and falsities, because deliverance from sins (that is, the forgiveness of them) is nothing else than their removal; for they remain with the man; but insofar as the good of love and the truth of faith are implanted, so far the evil and falsity are removed.

The case herein is like that with heaven and hell. Heaven does not abolish hell; but removes from itself those who are there. For it is the good and truth from the Lord which make heaven; and these are what effect this removal.

The case is similar with man, who of himself is a hell; but when he is being regenerated, he becomes a heaven, and insofar as he becomes a heaven, so far hell is removed.

It is a common opinion that evils, that is, sins, are not removed in this way; but are absolutely separated. But such persons are not aware that from himself the whole man is nothing but evil, and that insofar as he is kept in good by the Lord, the evils which belong to him appear as if they were rooted out — for when a man is kept in good, he is withheld from evil. Nevertheless no one can be withheld from evil and kept in good unless he is in the good of faith and of charity from the Lord; that is, only insofar as he suffers himself to be regenerated by the Lord. For as before said, heaven is implanted in man by regeneration, and thereby the hell which is with him is removed.

From all this it can be seen again that "bearing iniquities," when said of the Lord, denotes to continually fight for man against the hells, thus continually to remove them — for there is a perpetual removing, not only while man is in the world, but also in the other life to eternity. It is impossible for any man to remove evils in this way; for from himself man cannot remove the least of evil, still less the hells, and least of all to eternity.

• The evils with man are not absolutely separated but are removed insofar as he is in this good from the Lord

• While He was in the world, the Lord conquered the hells by means of the combats of temptations, and thereby disposed all things into order — He did this from Divine love, in order to save the human race and thus He also made His Human Divine

• In temptations, which are spiritual combats against the evils which are from hell, the Lord fights for man

How the Lord while in the world bore the iniquities of the human race, that is, fought with the hells and subjugated them, and thus acquired for Himself the Divine power of removing these things with all who are in good, and thus became merit and righteousness, is described in Isaiah 59:16-20; 63:1-9. 

When these things are understood, it can be known what is signified by all that is said in the fifty-third chapter of the same prophet [Isaiah] concerning the Lord, in which from beginning to end the state of His temptations is treated of; thus the state in which He was while He fought with the hells, for temptations are nothing else than combats with these.  This state is thus described:

He bore our sicknesses, and carried our griefs; He was pierced for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; Jehovah made to fall on Him the iniquity of us all; and thus He gave the wicked to their sepulcher; the will of Jehovah shall prosper by His hand; He shall see from the labor of His soul and be sated; and by His wisdom shall justify many, because He hath borne their iniquities, and thus hath carried the sin of many (Isa. 53:4-5).

He is also called there "the Arm of Jehovah," by which is signified Divine power.

That by "bearing sicknesses," "sorrows," and "iniquities," and by "being pierced and bruised by them," is signified a state of temptations, is evident; for in such a state there are griefs of soul, distresses, and despairs, which in this way cause anguish. Such things are induced by the hells, for in temptations they assault the very love of him against whom they fight; the love of everyone being the inmost of his life. The Lord's love was the love of saving the human race, which love was the Esse of His life, for this love was the Divine in Him.

In Isaiah also, where the subject treated of is the combats of the Lord, this is described in these words:

He said, Surely they are My people, therefore He became their Savior. In all their distress He was distressed; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He took them up, and carried them all the days of eternity (Isa. 63:8, 9).

That while He was in the world the Lord endured such temptations, is only briefly described in the Gospels, but at great length in the prophets, and especially in the Psalms of David.

In the Gospels it is only said that He was led into the wilderness, and was afterward tempted by the devil, and that He was there forty days, and was with the beasts (Mark 1:12, 13; Matt. 4:1). But that from His earliest childhood even to the end of His life in the world He was in temptations, that is, in combats with the hells, He did not reveal, in accordance with these words in Isaiah:

He was oppressed, and was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, He opened not His mouth (Isa. 53:7).

His last temptation was in Gethsemane (Matt. 26; Mark 14), and then came the passion of the cross; that He thereby fully subjugated the hells, He Himself teaches in John:

Father, rescue Me from this hour. But for this sake came I into this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice out of heaven, saying, I have glorified it and will glorify it. Then said Jesus, Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out (John 12:27, 28, 31).

"The prince of the world" is the devil, thus all hell; "to glorify" denotes to make the human Divine. The reason why mention is made only of the temptation after forty days in the wilderness, is that "forty days" signify and involve temptations to the full, thus the temptations of many years (n. 8098, 9437); "the wilderness" signifies hell, and "the beasts with which He fought there" signify the diabolical crew.

The removal of sins with those who are in good, that is, those who have practiced repentance, was represented in the Jewish Church by the he-goat called "Asasel," upon the head of which Aaron was to lay his hands, and to confess the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in respect to all their sins, and was then to send it into the wilderness, and that in this way the he-goat should bear upon him all their iniquities into a land of separation (Lev. 16:21, 22). By Aaron is here represented the Lord; by "the he-goat" is signified faith; by "the wilderness," and "the land of separation," hell; and by "bearing thither the iniquities of the sons of Israel" is signified to remove them, and cast them into hell. No one can know that such things were represented, except from the internal sense; for everyone can see that the iniquities of a whole congregation could not be borne into the wilderness by any he-goat; for what had the he-goat in common with iniquities? But as at that time all representatives signified such things as belong to the Lord, to heaven and to the church, so also did these.

The internal sense therefore teaches what these things involve, namely, that it is the truth of faith by means of which man is regenerated, consequently by means of which sins are removed; and because the faith of truth is from the Lord, it is the Lord Himself who effects this. Aaron represents the Lord; a "he-goat of the goats" denotes the truth of faith; "the wilderness" denotes hell, is because the camp in which were the sons of Israel signified heaven; therefore the wilderness is called a "land of separation," or of "cutting off." Thus by "bearing iniquities into that land," that is into the wilderness, is signified to cast evils and falsities into hell, from which they are; and they are cast thither when they are removed so as not to appear, which is effected when a man is withheld from them by being kept in good by the Lord, according to what was said above.

The like that was signified by the casting out of sins into the wilderness is signified by "casting them forth into the depths of the sea," as in Micah:

He will have compassion upon us; He will suppress our iniquities; and He will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).

"The depth of the sea" also denotes hell.

From all this it is now evident that by "Aaron bearing the iniquities of the holy things," is signified the removal of sins by the Lord from those who are in good; and that their removal is continually being effected by the Lord; and that this is meant by "bearing iniquities." So also in another passage in Moses:

Jehovah said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons with thee shall hear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. The sons of Israel shall no more come nigh the Tent of meeting, to bear sin, by dying. But the Levite shall do the work of the Tent, and they shall bear their iniquity (Num. 18:1, 22, 23).

The like is meant by "bearing," in Isaiah:

Attend unto Me O house of Israel that have been carried from the womb. Even to old age I am the same, and even to hoar hairs will I carry; I have made, and I will carry; yea, I will bear, and will rescue (Isa. 46:3, 4).

That "bearing iniquity" denotes to expiate, thus to remove sins, is evident in Moses:

Moses was indignant with Eleazar and with Ithamar because the he-goat of the sacrifice of sin had been burnt, saying, Wherefore did ye not eat it in the place of holiness, seeing that Jehovah hath given it you to bear the iniquities of the congregation, to expiate them before Jehovah (Lev. 10:16, 17)?

(from Arcana Coelestia 9937)