That Which is Loved is Regarded as The End

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  (Matt 6:19-21 KJV)

... the affection of spiritual truth is an internal affection, or is in the interior man; whereas the affection of truth from natural delight is in the external man.

The internal affection which is of the spiritual man is constantly conjoined with the external affection which is of the natural man, but still in such a way that the internal affection of truth is the ruling affection, and the external affection is subservient; for it is according to Divine order that the spiritual man should rule over the natural. Moreover when the spiritual man rules, the man looks upward, which is represented by having the head in heaven; but when the natural man rules, the man looks downward, which is represented by having the head in hell.

To throw more light on this subject something further shall be said. Most men by the truths which they learn, and the goods which they do, do indeed think of a consequent advantage, or of honor in their country; but if these things are regarded as the end, the natural man rules and the spiritual serves; if however they are not regarded as the end, but only as means to the end, the spiritual man rules and the natural man serves, according to what has been already said (in the previous article entitled, When Good and Truth are Regarded as 'The Means'). For when gain or honor is regarded as a means to an end, and not as the end, the gain or honor is not regarded, but the end, which is use. As for example he who desires and procures for himself riches for the sake of use, which he loves above all things, is not in this case delighted with riches for the sake of riches, but for the sake of uses. Moreover the very uses make the spiritual life with men, and riches merely serve as means. From this it can be seen what must be the quality of the natural man in order that it may be conjoined with the spiritual, namely, that it must regard gains and honors, thus riches and dignities, as means, and not as the end; for

that which is regarded by a man as the end makes his veriest life, because he loves it above all things, for that which is loved is regarded as the end.

He who does not know that the end, or what is the same, the love, makes the spiritual life of a man, consequently that a man is where his love is —in heaven if the love is heavenly — in hell if the love is infernal — cannot comprehend how the case is in regard to this. He may suppose that the delight of natural loves, which are the love of self and the love of the world, cannot agree with spiritual truth and good; for he does not know that in the course of regeneration a man must be wholly inverted, and that when he has been inverted he has his head in heaven, but that before he has been inverted he has his head in hell. He has his head in hell when he regards the delights of the love of self or of the love of the world as the end; but he has his head in heaven when these delights are as means to the end.

For the end, which is the love, is the only thing with man that is alive; the means to the end are of themselves not alive, but they receive life from the end.

Consequently the means from the ultimate end are called mediate ends; and these, insofar as they regard the ultimate end which is the principal end, are so far alive.

From this it is that when a man has been regenerated, consequently when he has as the end to love the neighbor and to love the Lord, he then has as means the loving of himself and the world. When man is of this character, then when he looks to the Lord he accounts himself as nothing, and also the world; and if he regards himself as anything, it is that he may be able to serve the Lord. But previously the contrary had been the case; for when he looked to himself, he had accounted the Lord as nothing, or if as anything, it was that thereby he might have gain and honor.

(Arcana Cœlestia 8995:2-4)

When Good and Truth are Regarded as 'The Means'

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Man has been so created that he can look upward, or above himself; and can also look downward, or below himself. To look above himself is to look to his neighbor, to his country, to the church, to heaven, especially to the Lord; but to look below himself is to look to the earth, to the world, and especially to himself.

That to look to his neighbor, to his country, and to the church, is to look above himself, is because this is to look to the Lord; for the Lord is in charity, and it is of charity to look to the neighbor, to one's country, and to the church, that is, to will well to them. But they look below themselves who turn themselves away from these, and will well only to themselves.

To look above oneself is to be uplifted by the Lord; for no one can look above himself, unless he is uplifted by Him who is above. But to look below himself is of man, because then he does not suffer himself to be uplifted.

They who are in the good of charity and of faith look above themselves, because they are uplifted by the Lord; but they who are not in the good of charity and of faith look below themselves, because they are not uplifted by the Lord.

Man looks below himself when he turns the influx of truth and good from the Lord to himself. He who turns to himself the good and truth flowing in from the Lord, sees himself and the world before him, and does not see the Lord with His good and truth, because they are behind him, and therefore come into such obscurity to him that he cares nothing for them, and at last he denies them.

By looking above self and below self, is meant to have as the end, or to love above all things. Thus by looking above self is meant to have as the end, or to love above all things, what is of the Lord and heaven; and by looking below self is meant to have as the end, or to love above all things, what is of self and the world. The interiors of man also actually turn themselves to where the love turns itself.

The man who is in the good of charity and faith loves also himself and the world, but no otherwise than as the means to an end are loved. The love of self with him looks to the love of the Lord, for he loves himself as a means to the end that he may serve the Lord; and the love of the world with him looks to the love of the neighbor, for he loves the world as a means for the sake of the end that he may be of service to the neighbor. When therefore the means is loved for the sake of the end, it is not the means that is loved, but the end.

From this it can be seen that they who are in worldly glory, that is, in eminence and opulence above others, can look above themselves to the Lord equally as can those who are not in eminence and opulence; for they look above themselves when they regard eminence and opulence as means, and not as the end.

To look above self is proper to man, but to look below self is proper to beasts. From this it follows that insofar as a man looks below himself or downward, so far he is a beast, and also so far is an image of hell; and that insofar as he looks above himself or upward, so far he is a man, and also so far is an image of the Lord.

(Arcana Cœlestia 7814 - 7821)

The Lord Rules Both the Good and the Evil

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Word is a medium uniting man with the Lord; and unless there were such a uniting medium, heaven could not inflow with man; for without a medium there would be no unition, but heaven would remove itself away from man; and if this were removed, no one could any longer be led to good, not even to corporeal and worldly good; but all bonds whatever, even those which are external, would be broken. For the Lord rules the man who is in good by means of internal bonds, which are of conscience; but one who is in evil by external bonds alone; and if these should be broken, every such man would become insane; even as is the man who is without fear of the law, without fear for his life, and without fear of the loss of honor and gain, and thus of reputation — for these are the external bonds — and so the human race would perish. From all this it may be seen why the Word exists, and what the character of the Word is.

(Arcana Cœlestia 4217:3)

Reading the Word with Enlightenment

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is an invariable truth that no one can understand the Word without doctrine; for he may be led away into any errors to which he may be inclined from some love, or to which he may be drawn from some principle, whereby his mind becomes unsettled and uncertain, and at length as it were destitute of truth. But he who reads the Word from doctrine sees all things that confirm it, and many things that are hidden from the eyes of others, and does not permit himself to be drawn away into strange things; and thus his mind becomes so settled as to see with certainty.

The Word may be drawn away to confirm heresies unless it is read from doctrine, for the reason that the sense of its letter consists of mere correspondences, and these are in great part appearances of truth, and in part genuine truths, and unless there be doctrine for a lamp these cannot be seen and cannot be distinguished from each other.

But doctrine can be acquired from no other source than from the Word, and it can be acquired only by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord.

Those are in enlightenment who love truths because they are truths and make them to be of their life.

Moreover, all things of doctrine must be confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word, because the Divine truth is in its fullness and in its power in that sense, and through it man is in conjunction with the Lord and in consociation with the angels.

In brief, he who loves truth because it is truth can inquire of the Lord, as it were, in doubtful matters of faith, and can receive answers from Him, but nowhere except in the Word, for the reason that the Lord is the Word.

(Apocalypse Explained 1089)

Cherubim — A Guard and Protection

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Divine truth is what is called holy, but only when it is in its ultimate, and its ultimate is the Word in the sense of the letter; therefore the Divine truth there [in the letter] is holy, and may be called a sanctuary, and for the reason that that sense contains and encloses all the holy things of heaven and the church. The appearance is that the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are more holy than the Divine truths in the sense of the letter of the Word, which are natural; but the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are comparatively like the lungs and heart in man, which form the chest only when they are encompassed by ribs, and enclosed in the pleura and diaphragm; for without these integuments they could not perform their vital functions, and even unless connected with them by bonds. The spiritual things of the Word are like the breathing of the lungs, its celestial things are like the systole and diastole of the heart, and its natural things are like the pleura, the diaphragm, and the ribs, with the moving fibers attached, by which the motions are made reciprocal.

Again, the spiritual and celestial things of the Word are comparatively like the holy things of the tabernacle, which were the table upon which was the show bread, the golden altar upon which was the incense, the perfumes and the censer, also the lampstand with the lamps, and still further within the cherubim, the mercy seat and the ark. All these were the holy things of the Jewish and Israelitish church; nevertheless they could not be called holy and the sanctuary until they had been covered by curtains and veils, for without those coverings they would have stood under the naked sky, exposed to showers and storms, to the birds of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth, and also to robbers that would violate, plunder, and scatter them. So would it be with the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, unless they were enclosed in natural truths, like the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word.

Natural truths, which are the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, are not the very truths of heaven, but are appearances of them; and appearances of truth encompass, enclose, and contain the truths of heaven, which are genuine truths, and cause them to be in connection and order and to act together, like the cardiac and pulmonary organs with their coverings and ribs, as has been said above; and when these truths are held in connection and in order they are holy, and not till then. This the sense of the letter of our Word does by means of the appearances of truth of which its ultimate consists; and this is why that sense is the holy Divine Itself and the sanctuary.

But he is greatly mistaken who separates appearances of truth from genuine truths and calls these appearances holy by themselves and from themselves, and not the sense of the letter holy by genuine truths and from them and together with them. He separates these who sees only the sense of the letter and does not explore its meaning, as those do who do not read the Word from doctrine.

The "cherubim" mean in the Word a guard and protection that the holy things of heaven be not violated, and that the Lord be approached only through love; consequently these signify the sense of the letter of the Word, because that is what guards and protects. It guards and protects in this manner that man can think and speak according to the appearances of truth so long as he is well-disposed, simple, and as it were an infant; but he must take heed not to so confirm appearances as to destroy the genuine truths in the heavens.

(Apocalypse Explained 1088:2-5)
(emphasis by editor)

The Chief Reason For The Lord's Coming Into The World

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

All interior things — the spiritual and celestial things that are in the Words of the three heavens — are together in the ultimate sense of the Word, which is called the sense of the letter,

(for in its inmosts there are the things that are in the Word with the angels of the third heaven, and in its middle parts the things that are in the Words of the angels of the lower heavens, and these are encompassed by such things as exist in the nature of our world and are included in these)

so the sense of the letter of our Word is from all these.

From this it can be seen that the Divine truth is in its fullness in the sense of the letter of our Word.

That is said to be full which contains in itself all things prior, even from the first, or all things higher even from the highest; the ultimate is what includes these.

The fullness of the Word is like a general vessel of marble, in which are countless lesser vessels of crystal, and in these still more numerous vessels of precious stones, in and about which are the most delightful things of heaven which are for those who perform noble uses from the Word. That the Word is such is not evident to man while he is in the world; but it is evident to him when he becomes an angel. Because the Word is such in ultimates it follows that—

it is not the Word until it is in that ultimate, that is, until it is in the sense of the letter.

The Word not in that ultimate would be like a temple in the air and not on the earth, or like a man having flesh but without bones.

As the Divine truth is in its fullness and also in its power in its ultimate, for when it is in that it is in all things at once, therefore—

the Lord never works except from first things through ultimates, and thus in fullness.

For He reforms and regenerates man only through truths in ultimates, which are natural. And this is why a man after his departure out of the world remains to eternity such as he has been in the world. For the same reason heaven and hell are from the human race, and angels are not created immediately; for in the world a man is in his fullness, consequently he can there be conceived and born, and afterwards be imbued with knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and become an angel. To create angels in any other way is not given.

Because the Lord works all things from things first through ultimates, and is in His power and in His fullness in ultimates, therefore it pleased the Lord to take upon Him the Human and to become the Divine truth, that is, the Word, and thus from Himself to reduce to order all things of heaven and all things of hell, that is, to execute a Last Judgment. This the Lord could accomplish from the Divine in Himself, which was in things first, through His Human which was in ultimates—

and not, as before, from His presence or abode in the men of the church; for these had wholly forsaken the truths and goods of the Word, in which the Lord had previously had His dwelling-place with men.

This was the chief reason for the Lord's coming into the world, also for making His Human Divine; for by this He put Himself into the power of holding all things of heaven and all things of hell in order to eternity.

This is meant by:

Sitting at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).

"The right hand of God" means the Divine omnipotence, and "to sit at the right hand of God" means to be in that omnipotence through the Human. That the Lord ascended into heaven with His Human glorified even to the ultimates He testifies in Luke:

Jesus said to the disciples See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself, handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye behold Me have (Luke 24:39).

This the Lord said just after His resurrection. "Flesh and bones" are the ultimates of the human body, on which its strength depends.

(Apocalypse Explained 1087:2-4)

Evils of Life Rule When Spiritual Life Is Extinct

Excerpt for Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Where there is no spiritual life there life is merely natural, and natural life apart from the spiritual is full of lusts from the love of self and the world, thus is infernal....

Moreover, in respect to the evil life ... such may be the life as well with those who lead a good moral life, if they have no spiritual life; for such do good and speak truth and practice sincerity and justice but only because of reputation, honor, gain, and the laws, thus for the sake of appearance, that they may emulate those who are spiritual, while inwardly they have no will of good and no thought of truth, and laugh at sincerity and justice, unless for the causes mentioned above; consequently they are infernal within. This is also clearly manifest when such persons become spirits, which takes place immediately after death; then the external bonds mentioned above are taken away from them, and they then rush without restraint into evils of every kind. But it is otherwise with those who have led a good moral life from a spiritual origin.

This has been said to make known what is meant by an evil life, namely, that it is not the external life that pertains to the body and has reference to the world where men are, which is called the natural world, but is the internal life that pertains to the spirit and has reference to the world where angels are, which is called the spiritual world. For in respect to his body, its gestures and speech, man is in the natural world, but in respect to his spirit, that is, in respect to thought and affection, man is in the spiritual world; in fact, as the bodily sight has extension into the natural world and sweeps about there, so the sight of the spirit, which is thought from affection, has extension into the spiritual world and sweeps about there. That this is so is known to few; and it is therefore supposed that thinking evil and willing evil is of no consequence if only one does not do evil and speak evil; and yet every thought and volition affects the spirit of man and makes up his life after death.

(Apocalypse Explained 388:2)