Doing the Work of Repentance

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY.

He who wishes to be saved must confess his sins and do repentance.

To confess sins is to become thoroughly acquainted with evils, to see them in oneself, to acknowledge them, to regard oneself as guilty, and to condemn oneself on account of them. When this is done before God, it is to confess sins.

To do repentance is after one has thus confessed his sins and from a humble heart has made supplication for their forgiveness, to desist from them and to lead a new life according to the commands of faith.

He who merely acknowledges that he is a sinner like all others, and who regards himself as guilty of all evils, and does not examine himself - that is, see his sins - does indeed make confession, but not the confession of repentance, for he lives afterward as he had done before.

He who leads a life of faith does repentance daily; for he reflects upon the evils that are in him, acknowledges them, guards himself against them, and supplicates the Lord for aid. For from himself man is continually falling, but is continually being raised up by the Lord. He falls from himself when he thinks what is evil with desire; and he is raised up by the Lord when he resists evil, and consequently does not do it. Such is the state with all who are in good; but they who are in evil are continually falling, and also are continually being uplifted by the Lord; but this to prevent them from falling into the most grievous hell of all, whither from themselves they incline with all their might: thus in truth uplifting them into a milder hell.

The repentance that is done in a state of freedom avails; but that which is done in a state of compulsion avails not. A state of compulsion is a state of sickness, a state of dejection of mind from misfortune, a state of imminent death; in a word, every state of fear which takes away the use of sound reason. When an evil man who in a state of compulsion promises repentance and also does what is good, comes into a state of freedom, he returns into his former life of evil. The case is otherwise with a good man, such states being to him states of temptation in which he conquers.

Repentance of the mouth and not of the life is not repentance. Sins are not forgiven through repentance of the mouth, but through repentance of the life. Sins are continually being forgiven man by the Lord, for He is mercy itself; but sins adhere to the man, however much he may suppose that they have been forgiven, nor are they removed from him except through a life according to the commands of faith. So far as he lives according to these commands, so far his sins are removed; and so far as they are removed, so far they have been forgiven. For by the Lord man is withheld from evil, and is held in good; and he is so far able to be withheld from evil in the other life, as in the life of the body he has resisted evil; and he is so far able to be held in good then, as in the life of the body he has done what is good from affection. This shows what the forgiveness of sins is, and whence it is. He who believes that sins are forgiven in any other way, is much mistaken.

After a man has examined himself, and has acknowledged his sins, and has done repentance, he must remain constant in good up to the end of life. If however he afterward falls back into his former life of evil, and embraces it, he commits profanation, for he then conjoins evil with good, and consequently his latter state becomes worse than his former one, according to the Lord's words:

When the unclean spirit goeth out of a man he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, but findeth none; then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, and findeth it empty, and swept, and garnished for him, then goeth he, and joineth to himself seven other spirits worse than himself, and having entered in they dwell there; and the last things of the man become worse than the first (Matt. 12:43-45).

(Arcana Coelestia 8387 - 8394)

Action and Reaction in Understanding the Word

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is granted by the Lord to every man to perceive [to perceive from the Lord of what quality the Word], but yet no one does perceive it unless he wishes as of himself to perceive it. This ability to reciprocate, man must have in order to receive the faculty to perceive the Word; unless a man wishes and does this as of himself no such faculty can be appropriated to him; since, in order that appropriation may be effected, there must be an active and a reactive; the active is from the Lord, so is the reactive, but the latter appears to be from man; for the Lord Himself gives this reactive, and thence it is from the Lord and not from man; but as man does not know otherwise than that he lives from himself, and consequently that he thinks and wills from himself, so he must needs do this as if it were from what is proper to his own life; and when he so acts, it is then first implanted in him, and conjoined and appropriated to him.

He who believes that Divine verities (truths) and goodnesses flow into man apart from such an ability to react or reciprocate, is much deceived, for this would be to let the hands hang down, and to wait for immediate influx; as those think who wholly separate faith from charity, and who say that the goods of charity, which are the goods of life, flow in without any cooperation of man's will, when yet the Lord teaches that He continually stands at the door and knocks, and that man must open the door, and that He enters in to him who opens (Rev. 3:20).

In brief, action and reaction constitute all conjunction, and in action and mere passiveness there is no conjunction; for when the agent or active flows into the mere patient or passive, it passes through and is dissipated, for the passive yields and retires; but when the agent or active flows into a passive that is also a reactive, then they join together and the two remain conjoined. Thus it is with the influx of Divine good and Divine truth into man's will or love; for this reason when the Divine flows into the understanding alone it passes through and is dissipated, but when it flows into the will, where what is man's own (proprium) resides, it remains conjoined.

(Apocalypse Explained 616)

A Sensual Man

From Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The sensual is the outmost of man's life adhering to and inhering in his bodily part.  He is called a sensual man who judges all things and draws all his conclusions from the bodily senses, and believes nothing except what he sees with his eyes and touches with his hands.  Such a man thinks in externals, and not interiorly in himself.  His interiors are so closed up that he sees nothing of spiritual truth in them.  In a word, he is in gross natural light and thus perceives nothing that is from the light of heaven.  Interiorly he is antagonistic to the things of heaven and the church.  The learned who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the church come to be such.  Sensual men are more cunning and malicious than others.  They reason keenly and cunningly, but from the bodily memory, in which they place all intelligence.  But they reason from the fallacies of the senses.

(Heaven and Hell 267 notes)

When Good Becomes Good

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Spiritual food is in general all good, but specifically it is the good which is acquired by means of truth, that is, truth in the will and in act, for this good becomes good from the willing and doing, and is called the good of truth.

Unless truth thus becomes good, it does not benefit the man in the other life; for when he comes into the other life it is dissipated, because it does not agree with his will, thus not with the delight of his love.

He who has learned truths of faith in the world, not for the sake of willing and doing them and thus turning them into goods, but only that he may know and teach them for the sake of honor and gain, even although he may in the world be considered most learned, yet in the other life he is deprived of the truths and is left to his own will, that is, his life. And he then remains as he had been in his life; and wonderful to say he is then averse to all the truths of faith: and denies them to himself, howsoever he had before confirmed them.

To turn truths to goods by willing and doing them, that is, by life, is what is meant by appropriating the good of truth...

(Arcana Coelestia 5820)

The Working of the Angels into the Truths of Faith with Man

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There must be truths in the natural mind in order that good may work, and the truths must be introduced by means of the affection which is of genuine love. All things whatever that are in man's memory have been introduced by means of some love, and remain there conjoined with it. So also it is with the truths of faith - if these truths have been introduced by means of the love of truth, they remain conjoined with this love. When they have been conjoined, then the case is as follows.

If the affection is reproduced, the truths which are conjoined with it come forth at the same time; and if the truths are reproduced, the affection itself with which they have been conjoined comes forth at the same time. Wherefore during man's regeneration (which is effected in adult age, because previously he does not think from himself about the truths of faith) he is ruled by means of angels from the Lord, by being kept in the truths which he has impressed upon himself to be truths, and by means of these truths in the affection with which they have been conjoined; and as this affection, namely, of truth, is from good, he is thus led by degrees to good.

That this is so is evident to me from much experience, for I have noticed that when evil spirits have injected evils and falsities, then angels from the Lord kept me in the truths which had been implanted, and thus withheld me from evils and falsities.

From this also it was plain that the truths of faith, which have been inrooted by means of the affection of truth, are the plane into which angels work. Wherefore they who have not this plane cannot be led by angels, but suffer themselves to be led by hell, for the working of the angels cannot then be fixed anywhere, but flows through. But this plane cannot be acquired unless the truths of faith have been put into act, and thus implanted in the will, and through the will in the life.

It is also worthy of mention that the working of the angels into the truths of faith with man seldom takes place manifestly, that is, so as to excite thought about this truth; but there is produced a general idea of such things as are in agreement with this truth, together with affection. For this working is effected by means of an imperceptible influx, which when presented to the sight appears like an inflowing light, which light consists of innumerable truths in good, which encompass some single thing in the man, and keep him while in truth also in the love of this truth. Thus the angels elevate the mind of the man from falsities, and protect him from evils.

(Arcana Coelestia 5893)

One's 'LOVE' is the Whole Man

From Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Every man's ruling affection or love remains with him after death, nor is it rooted out to eternity, since a man's spirit is wholly what his love is, and what is unknown, the body of every spirit and angel is the outward form of his love, exactly corresponding to his inward form, which is the form of his disposition and mind; consequently the quality of his spirit is known from his face, movements, and speech. While a man is living in the world the quality of the spirit would be known if he had not learned to counterfeit in his face, movements, and speech what is not his own. All this shows that man remains to eternity such as his ruling affection or love is.

(Heaven and Hell 363a)

Where the Word Is and Where the Word is Not

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Church [is] where the Word is, because the Lord's Church is in the whole world, but in a special sense where the Word is, and where the Lord is known through the Word.
...
The Lord, and thus the angels of heaven, are present with the men of this earth by means of the Word; for the Word is written by pure correspondences: from this it comes that the Lord and the angels of heaven are present also with those who are around or outside the church, who are called Gentiles [nations].
...
For the Church in the whole world is before the Lord as One Man, for it makes a one with the angelic heaven. ...

In this Man, the Church where the Word is and where the Lord is known thereby is like the heart and the lungs; with those who are in celestial love, the Church is like the heart, and with those who are in spiritual love like the lungs; consequently, as all the members, viscera, and organs of the body live from the heart and from the lungs, and from their influx and consequent presence, so all in the whole earth, who constitute the Church universal, live from the Church where the Word is; for the Lord flows in therefrom with love and with light, and vivifies and enlightens all who are in any spiritual affection for truth, wherever they are.

The light of heaven, or the light in which are the angels of heaven who are from this earth, is from the Lord by means of the Word; from this as from a center light is diffused into the circumferences in every direction, thus to those who are there, who, as was said, are the Gentiles that are outside of our church. But this diffusion of light is effected in heaven by the Lord, and what is done in heaven flows also into the minds of men, for the minds of men make one with the minds of spirits and angels. It is for this reason that those are especially treated of in [Revelation] this prophetical book who are of the Church where the Word is; then those also are treated of who are of the Church where the Word is not, although not proximately, for the arrangement of those who are in the circumferences follows according to the order in which those are who are in the center.

(Apocalypse Explained 351)