Man's Book of Life

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah. (Exodus 24:4) That this signifies an impressing thereafter on the life, is evident from the signification of "writing," as being to impress on the life....From this it is evident that by Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah, are signified truths Divine impressed on the life by the Lord.

Truths are said to be impressed on the life, when they become of the will and from this of the act. So long as they stay merely in the memory, and so long as they are looked at only intellectually, they have not been impressed on the life; but as soon as they are received in the will, they become of the life, because the very being of man's life is to will, and from this to act; and before this they have not been appropriated to the man.

That "to write" denotes to impress on the life, is because the purpose of writings is remembrance to all posterity. So is it with the things impressed on a man's life.

Man has as it were two books, in which have been written all his thoughts and acts. These books are his two memories, the exterior and the interior. The things written on his interior memory remain to all eternity, and are never blotted out, and are chiefly those which have become of the will, that is, of the love; for the things of the love are of the will. It is this memory which is meant by every man's book of life.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 9386)

--
All things whatever that a man hears and sees, and by which he is affected, are, unknown to the man, insinuated as to ideas and ends into his interior memory; and they remain in it, so that not anything perishes; although the same things are obliterated in the exterior memory. Such therefore is the interior memory that there are inscribed on it all the single, nay, the most singular things that the man has ever thought, spoken, and done; nay, even those which have appeared to him as but a shade, with the minutest particulars, from his earliest infancy to the last of old age. The memory of all these things the man has with him when he comes into the other life, and he is successively brought into full recollection of them. This is his Book of Life, which is opened in the other life, and according to which he is judged. He then can scarcely believe this, but yet it is most true. All the ends, which to him have been in obscurity, and all the things he has thought; together with everything that from these he has spoken and done, down to the smallest point, are in that Book, that is, in the interior memory, and whenever the Lord grants, are made manifest before the angels as in clear day. This has several times been shown me, and has been attested by so much experience that not the least doubt remains.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 2474)

Freedom to Speak and Publish

Selections from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Thought is like the inflowing stream, and speech therefrom is like the basin. In a word, influx adapts itself to efflux, and in like manner the understanding from above adapts itself to its measure of freedom to speak and publish its thoughts.

[Free nations], as regards the spiritual things of the church called theological, are like eagles which rise to whatever height they please; while nations that are not free are like swans in a river.

Again, free nations are like the larger deer with lofty horns, that roam the fields, groves, and forests at perfect liberty; while nations that are not free are like the deer kept in parks to please a prince.

And still again, free peoples are like the winged horse which the ancients called Pegasus, that flew not only over the seas, but over the so called Parnassian hills, and also over the hills of the Muses beneath them; while a people not freed are like noble horses handsomely caparisoned in kings' stables. There are like differences in their judgments regarding the mysterious matters of theology.

---

such as the state of man's mind is in the natural world, such it is in the spiritual world; for man's mind is his spirit, or the posthumous man that lives after his departure from the material body.

(from True Christian Religion 814-816)

From Things External 'Seeing Things Internal'

Passage from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Sight of the Interior Man
which from
Things External Sees Things Internal

Things internal are led forth, when with the eyes of the body a man contemplates the starry heaven, and thence thinks of the Lord's kingdom. Whenever a man sees anything with his eyes, and sees the things that he looks upon as if he saw them not, but from them sees or thinks of the things which are of the church or of heaven, then his interior sight, or that of his spirit or soul, is "led forth abroad." The eye itself is properly nothing but the sight of his spirit led forth abroad, and this especially to the end that he may see internal things from external; that is, that he may, from the objects in the world, reflect continually upon those which are in the other life; for this is the life for the sake of which he lives in the world. Such was the sight in the Most Ancient Church; such is the sight of the angels who are with man; and such was the Lord's sight.

• A Representation of the Lord's Kingdom in a Mental View of the Universe

"Heaven" in the Word, in the internal sense, does not signify the heavens which appear to the eyes; but the Lord's kingdom, universally and particularly. When a man who is looking at internal things from external sees the heavens, he does not think at all of the starry heaven, but of the angelic heaven; and when he sees the sun, he does not think of the sun, but of the Lord, as being the Sun of heaven. So too when he sees the moon, and the stars also; and when he sees the immensity of the heavens, he does not think of their immensity, but of the immeasurable and infinite power of the Lord. It is the same when he sees all other things, for there is nothing that is not representative.

In like manner as regards the things on the earth; as when he beholds the dawning of the day he does not think of the dawn, but of the arising of all things from the Lord, and of progression into the day of wisdom. So when he sees gardens, groves, and flower-beds, his eye remains not fixed on any tree, its blossom, leaf, and fruit; but on the heavenly things which these represent; nor on any flower, and its beauty and pleasantness; but on what they represent in the other life. For there is nothing beautiful and delightful in the skies or on the earth, which is not in some way representative of the Lord's kingdom....

The reason why all things in the sky and on earth are representative, is that they have come forth and do continually come forth, that is, subsist, from the influx of the Lord through heaven. It is with these things as it is with the human body, which comes forth and subsists by means of the soul; on which account all things in the body both in general and in particular are representative of the soul. The soul is in the use and the end; but the body is in the performance of them. All effects, whatever they may be, are in like manner representatives of the uses which are the causes; and the uses are representative of the ends which belong to the first principles.

They who are in Divine ideas never come to a stand in the objects of the external sight; but from them and in them constantly see internal things. The veriest internal things themselves are those which are of the Lord's kingdom, thus those which are in the veriest end itself. It is the same with the Word of the Lord; he who is in Divine things never regards the Lord's Word from the letter; but regards the letter and the literal sense as being representative and significative of the celestial and spiritual things of the church and of the Lord's kingdom. To him the literal sense is merely an instrumental means for thinking of these....

(Arcana Cœlestia 1806, 1807)

The Divine Lies Hidden in the Word

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Word is wonderful in this respect — it is Divine as to every jot, for every word corresponds to some spiritual thing which may be said to be stored up within it, because the spiritual of the Word is made manifest with the angels, when the Word is read by man.

The case herein is this: Each and all things in the natural world have a correspondence with those which are in the spiritual world, and this down to every word. And the Word has been so written that its words in their series involve series of spiritual things, which do not appear to a man unless he is acquainted with correspondences. In this way what is Divine lies hidden in the Word. From this the Word is spiritual, as also it is called.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 10633)

What is Meant by the Coming of the Lord

Selection from Emanuel Swedenborg's The Athanasian Creed

Where the Lord, in the presence of His disciples, speaks about the consummation of the age, which is the last period of the Church, towards the end of the predictions regarding its successive states with respect to love and faith, He says this:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.   Matthew 24:29-31

Those who understand these words in accordance with the sense of the letter have no other belief than that at the final period which is called the Last Judgment, all those events will occur as described in that sense. Therefore, they believe not only that the sun and moon will be darkened and the stars will fall from heaven, that the sign of the Lord will appear in the sky and that He Himself will be seen in the clouds as well as angels with trumpets, but also, as is foretold elsewhere, that the whole visible earth will be destroyed, after which a new heaven with a new earth will come into being. Such is the opinion of most men within the Church at the present day.

But those who so believe do not know the arcana which lie concealed in every particular of the Word. For, in every particular of the Word there is an internal sense in which are discerned, not the natural and worldly matters such as are in the sense of the letter, but spiritual and heavenly things. Moreover, this is true not only of the meaning of groups of words but it is also true of every single word. For the Word has been written by means of pure correspondences to the end that the internal sense may be in every particular....

It is in accordance with that sense that the words of the Lord, quoted above, concerning His coming in the clouds of heaven, are to be understood. In that passage, by the "sun" which is to be darkened is signified the Lord as to love, by the "moon" the Lord as to faith, by the "stars" cognitions of good and truth or of love and faith, by the "sign" of the Son of man in heaven the manifestation of Divine Truth, by the "tribes of the earth which shall mourn", all things relating to truth and good or to faith and love, by "the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with power and glory", His presence in the Word and revelation; by "clouds" is signified the sense of the letter of the Word, and by "glory" the internal sense of the Word, by "angels with a trumpet and great voice" is signified heaven whence comes Divine Truth.

Thence it is evident that by those words of the Lord is meant that in the end of the Church when there is no longer any love and consequently no faith, the Lord will open the Word in its internal sense and reveal arcana of heaven....

The man of the Church at this day knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell or about his life after death, although they are all set forth and described in the Word. Indeed, many people born within the Church even deny them, saying in their hearts, "Who has come from that world and told us?" Lest, therefore, such a negative attitude, which prevails especially with those who have much worldly wisdom, should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple in faith, it has been granted to me to associate with angels and to talk with them as man with man, also to see the things in the heavens as well as in the hells, and this for thirteen years (1747-1758). Now, therefore, from what I have seen and heard I am permitted to describe these things, in the hope that thus, ignorance may be enlightened and unbelief dispelled. Such immediate revelation is now made because that is what is meant by the Coming of the Lord.

(Heaven and Hell 1)

That that [revelation] is the Coming of the Lord, and that it is in consequence of this that the arcana concerning heaven and hell, concerning man's life after death, concerning the Word, concerning the Last Judgment, have been opened by the Lord - this is the doctrine of the church. All these things have been written out in the Latin language, and they have been sent to all the archbishops and bishops of this kingdom [Great Britain], and to some of the nobility; and still not a word has been heard - a sign that they do not interiorly care for the things of heaven and of the church, and that it is now the very end of the church, and indeed that the church is not; for the church is where the Lord is worshiped, and the Word is read with enlightenment, and there are yearly examinations from the assembly.

(from Emanuel Swedenborg's The Athanasian Creed 2)

Two Kinds of Affections

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In general, there are affections of truth from two sources, namely, from a natural and from a spiritual source. Those who are in the affection of truth from a natural source look first to self and the world, and thence are natural; but those who are in the affection of truth from a spiritual source look first to the Lord and to heaven, and thence are spiritual.

Man's affection or love looks either downwards or upwards; those who look to self and the world look downwards, but those who look to the Lord and to heaven look upwards.

A man's interiors, which are of his mind, actually look in the same direction as his love or affection does — for love determines them; and such as is the determination of man's interiors, which are of his mind, such after death does the man remain to eternity.

Looking downwards or upwards is looking from love through the understanding, thus through the things that form and make the understanding, which are the knowledges of truth and good.
...
... no one can be introduced into the church and formed for heaven, except by knowledges from the Word. Without these man does not know the way to heaven, and without these the Lord cannot dwell with him.

It can be seen that without the knowledges of truth and good from the Word no one can know anything of the Lord, of the angelic heaven, or of charity and faith; and that which a man does not know he cannot think, thus cannot will, and accordingly cannot believe and love.

It is evident, therefore, that by means of knowledges man learns the way to heaven.

It can also be seen that without the knowledges of truth and good from the Word the Lord cannot be present with man and lead him — for when man knows nothing of the Lord, of heaven, of charity and faith — his spiritual mind, which is the higher mind, and is intended to see by the light of heaven, is empty, and has nothing from the Divine in it. But the Lord cannot be with man except in His own with man, that is, in the things that are from Him. For this reason it was said that unless a man is in the knowledges of truth and good from the Word and in the life thereof, the Lord cannot dwell with him. From this, taken together, it follows that the natural man can by no means become spiritual without the knowledges of good and truth from the Word.

...those who are in the spiritual affection of truth are also in the life of charity, for from that they have spiritual affection. The spiritual comes to man from no other source than from charity. Those who are in spiritual affection are interested in the Word, and desire nothing more earnestly than to understand it. But as there are innumerable things therein that they do not understand, because the Word in its bosom is spiritual and the spiritual includes infinite arcana, therefore, so long as man lives in the world and then sees from the natural man, he can be but little in the knowledges of truth and good, and in generals only, in which, however, innumerable things may be implanted when he comes into the spiritual world or heaven.

A man who is in the affection of truth from a spiritual origin knows many more things than he knew before; for the general knowledges that he has are like vessels that can be filled with many things, and they are also actually filled when he comes into heaven. That this is so can be seen merely from this, that all the angels in heaven are from the human race, and yet they possess wisdom such as could be described only by what is unutterable and incomprehensible, as is well known.... This fullness of intelligence and wisdom is what is meant by the words of the Lord in Luke:

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall be given into your bosom (Luke 6:38)

and in Matthew:

Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly (Matt. 13:12; 25:29)

and in Luke:

The lord said to the servant who from the pound given him gained ten pounds, Because thou hast been faithful in a very little, thou shalt have authority over ten cities (Luke 19:16, 17).

(from Apocalypse Explained 112)

The Affection of Truth from the Delight of 'Natural' Affection

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

By natural delight is meant the delight that flows forth from the love of self and the love of the world.

They who are in the affection of truth from this, are they who learn the doctrinal things of the church, which are called the truths of faith, either for the sake of gain, or for the sake of honors, and not for the sake of life. ...

everything which has its origin from the love of self, or from love of the world, is not free, but servile

How the case is with the affections of truth that originate from these loves, is described in the internal sense in what now follows.

Bear in mind that the genuine affection of truth is willing and longs to know the veriest truths of faith for the sake of good use as the end, and for the sake of life; but the affection of truth that is not genuine desires and longs for truths for the sake of self, thus for seeking honors, and for hunting gains. They who are in the affection of truth from this origin do not care whether the truths they know are genuine, provided they are such as they can pass off as truths; and therefore they stick in the mere confirmation of the doctrinal things of the church in which they were born, whether these be true or not true. They are also in darkness in respect to truths themselves; for worldly ends which are gains, and bodily ends which are honors, completely blindfold them.

But they who are in the genuine affection of truth, that is, who long to know truths for the sake of good use, and for the sake of life, also abide in the doctrinal things of the church until they arrive at the age when they begin to think for themselves; then they search the Scriptures and supplicate the Lord for enlightenment, and when they are enlightened they rejoice from the heart. For they know that if they had been born where there is another doctrine of the church, nay, the greatest heresy, without searching the Scriptures from the genuine affection of truth, they would have remained in that doctrine....

From this it is plain who and of what quality they are who are in the genuine affection of truth, and who and of what quality they are who are in an affection of truth that is not genuine.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 8993:2-4)

The Face of Truth Turned into the Face of Good

Selection from Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is to be known that no man has any spiritual good from the Lord, except through truths from the Word; for the truths of the Word are in the light of heaven, and its goods are in the heat of that light; wherefore, unless the understanding is in the light of heaven through the Word, the will cannot come into the heat of heaven.

Love and charity cannot be formed except through truths from the Word

a man cannot be reformed except through truths therefrom. The church itself with man is formed by them; but not by those truths in the understanding alone, but by a life according to them; the truths thus enter into the will, and become goods. Thus the face of truth is turned into the face of good; for that which is of the will and thus of the love is called good, and everything which is of the will or love is also of man's life.

(from Apocalypse Revealed 832:2)

The Destructive Nature of the Love of Self and the Love of the World

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

They who are in the loves of self and of the world cannot possibly believe that they are in things so filthy and unclean as they actually are in, for there is a certain pleasure and delight that soothes, favors, and allures, and causes them to love that life, to prefer it to all other life, and thereby to suppose that there is nothing of evil in it — for whatever favors anyone's love and the life thence derived is believed to be good. Hence also the rational consents, and suggests falsities which confirm and cause such blindness that they see nothing of the nature of heavenly love; and if they were to see it they would say in their hearts that it is a wretched affair, or a thing of naught, or something of the nature of a phantasy that takes hold of the mind, as in sickness.

But that the life of the love of self and of the world, together with its pleasures and delights, is filthy and unclean, may be seen by everyone who is willing to think from the rational faculty with which he is gifted. The love of self is the source of all the evils that destroy civic society. From it as from an unclean pit spring all hatreds, all revenges, all cruelties, nay, all adulteries — for he who loves himself, despises, vituperates, or hates, all others who do not serve him, or do him honor, or favor him; and when he hates, he breathes nothing but revenges and cruelties, and this in proportion to the degree in which he loves himself, so that this love is destructive of society and of the human race. That in the other life the love of self is most filthy, and that it is diametrically opposite to the mutual love in which heaven consists....

And as the love of self is the source of hatreds, revenges, cruelties, and adulteries, it is the source of all things that are called sins, wickednesses, abominations, and profanations, and therefore when this love is in the rational part of man, and is in the cupidities and phantasies of his external man, the influx of heavenly love from the Lord is continually repelled, perverted, and contaminated. It is like foul excrement, which dissipates, nay, defiles, all sweet odor; it is like an object that turns the continually inflowing rays of light into dark and repulsive colors; and it is like a tiger, or a serpent, which repels all fondling, and kills with bite and poison those who offer it food; or like a vicious man who turns even the best intentions of others, and their very kindnesses, into what is blameworthy and malicious....

(from Arcana Cœlestia 2045)

Life Appears as Man's Own

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

the goods which are of faith and of charity cannot be given to man nor to angel so as to be their own, for men and angels are only recipients, or forms accommodated to receive life, thus good and truth, from the Lord. Life itself is from no other source, and as life is from the Lord, it cannot be appropriated otherwise than as appearing to be man's own; but they who are in the Lord plainly perceive that life flows in, consequently good and truth, for these belong to life. The reason why life appears as man's own is that the Lord from Divine love wills to give and to conjoin all His own to man, and as far as it can be effected, does conjoin it. This "own" which is given by the Lord, is called the heavenly own.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 8497)

Two Ways to Rationality

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

One who has never repented or has never looked into and searched himself, finally ceases to know what damning evil or saving good is.

As few in the Reformed Christian world practice repentance, this is here added, that he who has not looked into and searched himself, finally ceases to know what damning evil or saving good is, because he has no religion from which to know it

for the evil that a man does not see, recognize, and acknowledge — remains

and whatever remains becomes more and more enrooted, until it obstructs the interiors of the mind, whereby man becomes first natural, then sensual, and finally corporeal, and in such states he knows not any damning evil or saving good. He becomes like a tree growing on a hard rock, which spreads its roots among the crevices and finally withers away from lack of moisture.

Every man rightly educated is rational and moral; but there are two ways to rationality — one from the world and the other from heaven. He who has become rational and moral from the world only, and not from heaven, is rational and moral in word and gesture only, but is inwardly a beast, and even a wild beast, because he acts as one with those who are in hell, where all are wild beasts. But he who is rational and moral from heaven also, is truly rational and moral, because he is so at once in spirit, word, and body — the spiritual being within these two latter like a soul actuating the natural, sensual, and corporeal; it also acts as one with those who are in heaven. Therefore there can be a spiritual-rational and moral man, and also a merely natural-rational and moral man. These two are not distinguished from each other in the world, especially if the man has by practice become imbued with hypocrisy; but they are distinguished by the angels in heaven as easily as doves from owls or sheep from tigers.

The merely natural man can see good and evil in others, and also rebuke others; but not having looked into and examined himself, he does not see any evil in himself, and if any is discovered by another, he cloaks it by means of his rationality; as a serpent hides his head in the dust, and immerses himself in it, as a hornet buries himself in mud. This is done by the delight of evil, which encompasses him as a fog does a marsh, absorbing and extinguishing the rays of light. Infernal delight is no other. It is exhaled from hell, and flows into every man, into the soles of his feet, his back, and his occiput. And when it is received by the head in the forehead and by the body in the breast, man is made a slave to hell; and for the reason that the human cerebrum is devoted to the understanding and the wisdom it contains, but the cerebellum to the will and its love. This is why there are two brains. But that infernal delight can be corrected, reformed, and inverted solely by the spiritual-rational and moral.

(True Christian Religion 564)

A Brief Description of the "Merely" Natural-rational and Moral Man

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There shall now be given a brief description of the merely natural-rational and moral man, who viewed in himself is sensual, and if he goes on, becomes corporeal or fleshly; but the description shall be sketched in separate statements.

• The sensual is the outmost of the life of man's mind, adherent to and coherent with his five bodily senses.
• He is called a sensual man who judges of everything from the bodily senses, and believes nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, calling that something real, and rejecting everything else.
• The interiors of his mind, which have their vision from the light of heaven, are closed, so that he sees nothing of the truth that relates to heaven and the church.
• Such a man thinks in outermosts, and not interiorly from any spiritual light, because he is in gross natural light; therefore he is interiorly opposed to the things that pertain to heaven and the church, although outwardly he can speak in favor of them, even zealously, in proportion to his hope of gaining power and wealth by means of them.

Men of learning and erudition, who have confirmed themselves deeply in falsities, and still more those who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the Word, are more sensual than others.

• Sensual men reason acutely and skillfully, because their thought is so near to speech as to be almost in it, as it were, on the lips; also because they ascribe all intelligence to the speech that is from memory alone. Moreover, they can dexterously confirm falsities, and after confirming them they believe them to be true; but their reasoning and confirmation are from the fallacies of the senses, which captivate and persuade the common people.
• Sensual men are more cunning and malicious than others.
• The avaricious, adulterous, and crafty are especially sensual, although to the world they seem talented.
• The interiors of their minds are vile and filthy; by these they communicate with the hells; in the Word they are called dead.
• Those who are in the hells are sensual, and more so the more deeply they are in them; and the sphere of infernal spirits conjoins itself from behind with man's sensual. In the light of heaven their occiput seems hollow.
• Those who reasoned from sensual things only, were called by the ancients serpents of the tree of knowledge.

• Sensual things ought to occupy the last place, not the first; and in a wise and intelligent man they do occupy the last place, and are subordinate to things interior; but in a foolish man they occupy the first place, and are predominant.
• When things sensual occupy the last place, a way is opened by means of them to the understanding, and truths are perfected by the method of extraction.
• Such sensual things stand most near to the world, and admit what flows to them from the world, and, as it were, sift it.
• By means of sensual things man communicates with the world, and by means of rational things with heaven.
• Sensual things supply what is of service to the interiors of the mind.
• There are sensual things that supply what is serviceable both to the intellectual and to the voluntary part.

Unless thought is raised above sensual things man has but little wisdom. When man's thought is raised above sensual things, he comes into a clearer light, and at length into heavenly light, and then he has a perception of such things as flow down from heaven.


The outmost of the understanding is the natural knowing faculty, and the outmost of the will is sensual delight.

(True Christian Religion 565)

The "Merely" Natural-rational and Moral Man

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

As to his natural man, man is like a beast; he acquires the image of a beast by means of life. Consequently in the spiritual world there appear about such a man beasts of all kinds, which are correspondences. For man's natural, viewed in itself, is purely animal; but because there is a spiritual superadded, he can become a man; and if he does not become a man from the capacity to become so, he can counterfeit one, although he is then only a talking beast; for he talks from the natural-rational, but thinks from spiritual insanity, and he acts from natural morality, but loves from a spiritual satyriasis. His actions, seen by a spiritually rational man, are but little different from the dance of one bitten by a tarantula, or that called St. Vitus' dance, or the dance of St. Guy.

Who does not know that a hypocrite can talk about God, a robber about honesty, an adulterer about chastity, and so on. But unless man had the ability to shut and open the door between his thoughts and his words, and between his intentions and his actions, and unless prudence or cunning were the doorkeeper, he would rush into crimes and cruelties more fiercely than any wild beast. But in every man after death that door is opened; and then what he has been is apparent; but he is kept under restraint by punishments and confinements in hell. Therefore, kind reader, look into yourself, and find out one or another evil that is in you, and from religion dismiss it. If you dismiss evils from any other purpose or end, you do so only that they may not appear before the world.

(True Christian Religion 566)

"The Righteous," "Righteousness," "To Be Made Righteous"

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Mention is often made in the Word of "the righteous," of "righteousness," and of "to be made righteous;" but what is specifically signified by these expressions is not yet known.

The reason why it is not known is that hitherto it has been unknown that every expression in the Word signifies such things as belong to the internal church and to heaven, thus to the internal man (for the internal of the church, and heaven, are in the internal man), and also that these interior things in the Word differ from the exterior things which are of the letter, as spiritual things differ from natural, or as heavenly things differ from earthly — the difference of which is so great that to the natural man there scarcely appears any likeness — although there is full agreement. As this has been unknown, it could not be known what is signified in the Word, in its spiritual and celestial senses, by "the righteous," by "righteousness," and by "to be made righteous."

It is believed by the heads of the church that he is righteous, and has been made righteous, who is acquainted with the truths of faith from the doctrine of the church and from the Word, and consequently is in the trust and confidence that he is saved through the Lord's righteousness, and that the Lord has acquired righteousness by fulfilling all things of the Law, and that He acquired merit because He endured the cross, and thereby made atonement for and redeemed man. Through this faith alone a man is believed to be made righteous; and it is believed further that such are they who are called in the Word "the righteous."

Yet it is not these who are called "righteous" in the Word; but those who from the Lord are in the good of charity toward the neighbor; for the Lord alone is righteous, because He alone is righteousness. Therefore a man is righteous, and has been made righteous, insofar as he receives good from the Lord, that is, insofar, and according to the way, in which he has in him what belongs to the Lord. The Lord was made righteousness through His having by His own power made His Human Divine. This Divine, with the man who receives it, is the Lord's righteousness with him, and is the very good of charity toward the neighbor; for the Lord is in the good of love, and through it in the truth of faith, because the Lord is Divine love itself.

The good of charity toward the neighbor is exterior good, which is signified by "the righteous;" and the good of love to the Lord is interior good, which is signified by "the innocent"... That the good of love toward the neighbor from the Lord is "the righteous" in the proper sense, can be seen from the passages in the Word where mention is made of "the righteous," of "righteousness," and of "to be made righteous;" as in Matthew:

Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, When saw we Thee a hungered, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? When saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? But the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, Insomuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me. And the righteous shall go into eternal life (Matt. 25:37-40, 46)

those are here called "the righteous" who have performed the goods of charity toward the neighbor, which are here recounted. And that the goods of charity are the Lord with them is said openly: "insomuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." These are also called "the sheep," for by "sheep" are signified those who from the Lord are in the good of charity; whereas by "the goats" which are on the left hand, and are condemned, are signified those who are in faith separate from charity. The same are signified by "the righteous" in another passage in Matthew:

The angels shall go forth, and shall sever the evil from the midst of the righteous (Matt. 13:49)

and in Luke:

Thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the righteous (Luke 14:14).

From this it is evident what is signified by,

The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in heaven (Matt. 13:43)

namely, that they are in the good of love from the Lord; for the Lord is the sun in the other life, and that which is from the Lord as the sun there is the good of love. Hence the Lord is called "the Sun of Righteousness" (Mal. 4:2). In Daniel:

The intelligent shall shine as the brightness of the expanse, and they that make many righteous as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. 12:3)

"the intelligent" denote those who are in the truth and good of faith; and "they that make many righteous" denote those who lead to the good of charity through the truth and the good of faith; "to shine forth as the stars" denotes to be in the intelligence of truth and the wisdom of good, consequently in eternal happiness; for the "stars" denote the knowledges of truth and good, from which are intelligence and wisdom.

"The righteous" is thus described in David:

Jehovah upholdeth the righteous; the righteous showeth mercy, and giveth. Every day the righteous showeth mercy, and lendeth. The righteous shall possess the land. The mouth of the righteous meditateth wisdom, and his tongue speaketh judgment; the law of his God is in his heart (Ps. 37:17, 21, 26, 29-31)

these things are goods of charity, which belong to "the righteous." The church knows that these goods of charity are from the Lord, insomuch that they are the Lord's in the man. "The righteous" is also described in Ezekiel 18:5-9, 21; 33:15-20.

From all this it can be seen what is signified by "the righteous," and by "righteousness," in the following passages of Matthew:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matt. 5:6).

He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward (Matt. 10:41).

Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, but have not seen them (Matt. 13:17).

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous; upon you shall come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel (Matt. 23:29, 35)"the prophets" denote those who teach the truths and goods of faith, and in the abstract sense, the doctrines of faith; and "the righteous" denote those who live a life of charity, and in the abstract sense the good of charity. (That Abel, who is called "righteous," represented the good of charity.)

(from Arcana Cœlestia 9263:1-7)

Truths Divine Impressed on the Life by the Lord

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Truths are said to be impressed on the life, when they become of the will and from this of the act. So long as they stay merely in the memory, and so long as they are looked at only intellectually, they have not been impressed on the life; but as soon as they are received in the will, they become of the life, because the very being of man's life is to will, and from this to act; and before this they have not been appropriated to the man.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 9386)

The Progression of Truth

Selection from Emanuel Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary

The progression of truth, or faith, from science, to understanding; after that, from understanding to will, and from will to act: from conversation with angels.

I spoke with angels about the progression of truth to good, thus of faith to charity [to the effect] that angels experience joy when man, as infant and boy, learns and imbibes truths from affection, thus when truths become of knowledge; and that they experience still greater joy when they becomes of the understanding: at such time the joy is experienced by the angels in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. There is still greater joy, when truth, from the understanding, becomes of the will: the joy then is to the angels in the Lord's celestial kingdom. And when, from will, it becomes of act, then is there joy with the angels of the three heavens. How much joy, and how great delights, dwell in that progression, cannot be described, because it is ineffable; for thus man enters more and more into heaven, and becomes a heaven in the least form. This I perceived, while I spoke with the angels, from the progression of the delights of conjugial love [the marriage of truth and good], even to the very ultimate effect, from which man is procreated. Such is the progression of conjunction with heaven, that is, with the Lord, and such is the new creation of man, and the formation of heaven, or of the angel, in him; for heaven is the form of Divine Truth thus progressing. Hence man becomes a love; and in no other way is the marriage of truth and good established in him.

(Spiritual Diary 6011)

The Thief Does Not Come Except to Steal and to Kill and to Destroy

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

'Theft' means an alienation caused by evil that happens in the place which such evil takes possession of; for it expels everything good and true and fills up that place with evils and falsities.

'Theft' also means its laying claim to what belongs to others; for it takes to itself everything good and true in that place and makes such its own as well as attaching it to evils and falsities.

But to enable anyone to know what is meant by 'theft' in the spiritual sense, a statement must be made about what happens to evils and falsities when they enter in and take possession of a place, and also when they lay claim to everything good and true there.

From infancy to childhood, and sometimes on into early youth, a person is absorbing forms of goodness and truth received from parents and teachers, for during those years he learns about those forms of goodness and truth and believes them with simplicity - his state of innocence enabling this to happen. It inserts those forms of goodness and truth into his memory; yet it lodges them only on the edge of it since the innocence of infancy and childhood is not an internal innocence which has an influence on the rational, only an external one which has an influence solely on the exterior natural.

When however the person grows older, when he starts to think for himself and not, as previously, simply in the way his parents or teachers do, he brings back to mind and so to speak chews over what he has learned and believed before, and then he either endorses it, has doubts about it, or refuses to accept it. If he endorses it, this is an indication that he is governed by good, but if he refuses to accept it, that is an indication that he is governed by evil. If however he has doubts about what he has learned and believed before, it is an indication that he will move subsequently either into an affirmative attitude of mind or else into a negative one.

The truths that a person learns and believes in his earliest years when he is a young child but which later on he either endorses, has doubts about, or refuses to accept, are in particular these:

There is God, and He is one

He created everything

He rewards those who do what is good and punishes those who do things that are bad

There is life after death, when the bad go to hell and the good go to heaven, and so there is a hell and a heaven

The life after death lasts for ever

People ought to pray every day and to do so in a humble way

They ought to keep the Sabbath day holy

Honour parents

Not commit adultery

Not kill

Not steal

and many other truths like these.

Such truths are learned and absorbed by a person from earliest childhood; but if, when he starts to think for himself and to lead his own life, he endorses them, adding to them further truths of a more interior kind, and leads a life in conformity with them, all is well with him.

But if he starts to disobey them, refusing at length to accept them, then even though outwardly he leads a life in conformity with them, because the law and society expect him to do so, he is governed by evil.

This evil is what is meant by 'theft', to the extent that thief-like it usurps the position held previously by good.  With many people it is thief-like to the extent that it takes away the forms of goodness and truth previously there and uses them to lend support to evils and falsities. So far as is possible with these people the Lord removes the forms of goodness and truth absorbed in early childhood from where these are to a more internal position, where - within the interior natural - He stores them away for future use. These forms of goodness and truth that are stored away within the interior natural are meant in the Word by 'the remnant'.  But if evil steals the forms of goodness and truth there and uses them to lend support to evils and falsities, especially if it does so by the use of deceit, it destroys those remnants; for in this case it mingles evil with good, and falsity with truth, to such an extent that one cannot be separated from the other; and then a person is done for.

The fact that 'theft' means the kinds of things mentioned above may be seen from the mere use of that word to refer to what constitutes a person's spiritual life:-

For the only riches in that life are cognitions of good and truth, and the only possessions and inheritances are the different forms of happiness in life which are gained from forms of good and from truths deriving from these.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 5135

The Cupidity of Gain and the Avaricious

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44)

[T]he cupidity of gain and avarice has within it the desire not only to possess the whole world, but also to plunder and even to kill everyone for the sake of gain; indeed one impelled by such cupidity would commit murder for but little were not the laws a hindrance. Moreover, such a man in his possession of gold and silver regards himself as the greatest in power, however in external appearance he may seem otherwise, which shows that there is in avarice not only the love of the world, but also the love of self, and indeed the filthiest love of self. For elevation of mind, or pride, in those who are sordidly avaricious, is not so conspicuous outwardly, because it is sometimes unconcerned about wealth for the sake of display; nor is it that kind of the love of self which is usually conjoined with pleasures; for such have little concern about the body, and its food and clothing. But it is a love entirely earthly, having no other end than money, in the possession of which it believes itself, not actually but potentially, above all others. It is evident from this that in avarice there is the lowest and vilest love of self, for which reason in the other life the avaricious appear to themselves to be among swine, and they above all others are against all good whatever. Consequently they are in such thick darkness that they are utterly unable to see what is good and what is true; they do not at all apprehend that there is any internal belonging to man which lives after death, and at heart they laugh at those who say so.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 4751)

The Evil of the Love of Self Defined

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The evil of the love of self is not, as is generally thought, that external elation which is called pride; but it is hatred against the neighbor, and thence a burning desire for revenge, and delight in cruelty. These are the interiors of the love of self. Its exteriors are contempt for others in comparison with self, and an aversion to those who are in spiritual good, and this sometimes with manifest elation or pride, and sometimes without it; for one who holds the neighbor in such hatred, interiorly loves no one but himself and those whom he regards as making one with himself; thus he loves them in himself, and himself in them, for the sole end of self.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 4750:5)

Concerning the State of Perception of the Most Ancient Church

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

[T]hey had perception of all things that belong to faith, almost as have the angels with whom they had communication; for the reason that their interior man, or spirit, by means also of the internal respiration, was joined to heaven; and that love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor are attended with this; for man is thus conjoined with angels through their veriest life, which consists in such love.

They said that they had the law written upon them, because they were in love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor; and such being the case, whatever the laws prescribe was in agreement with their perception, and whatever the laws forbid was contrary to it. Nor did they doubt that all laws, human as well as Divine, are founded in love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor, and regard these as their fundamental.

Wherefore, as they had this fundamental in them, from the Lord, they could not but know all things that were from it. They believe too that those who live in the world at this day, who love the Lord and the neighbor, have also the law written upon them, and are acceptable citizens everywhere on earth, as the same are in the other life.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 1121)

Spiritual Love or Charity Defined

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Charity, itself, viewed in itself, is the affection of truth and good, and where that affection is, there is a life according to truths and goods — for there is no affection without a life according to the truths and goods for which there is affection. If such affection is thought to be possible and to be present, it is a natural not a spiritual affection. These two kinds of affection differ in this:—

natural affection has self and the world for an end; thus the truths and goods by which it is affected are loved for the sake of reputation, that honors and wealth may be acquired, and then a life according to the doctrinals that have been learned is put on merely from self for the sake of appearance, which is thus a feigned life and inwardly hypocritical

spiritual affection has the Lord, heaven, and eternal life for an end, and has regard to these in truths and goods; thus it loves truths and goods spiritually.

When this affection [spiritual] is with man he loves to think and to will these truths and goods, and consequently to live according to them. To live according to truths and goods is what is meant in the Word by "doing," and the life itself is meant by "deeds" and "works" which are so often mentioned in the Word....

(from Apocalypse Explained 444a)

Truth Wishes to be In The Light

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

About God and about Divine things, which are called in heaven celestial and spiritual, and in the world ecclesiastical and theological, there is thought from light; there is also thought not from light about them. Those have thought not from light who know about these things but do not understand them. Such are all those at the present day who wish the understanding to be kept under obedience to faith, holding even that a thing must be believed and not understood, and claiming that intellectual faith is not true faith. But these are such as are not interiorly in the genuine affection of truth, and consequently are in no enlightenment — many of them are in the pride of self-intelligence, and in the love of ruling over the souls of men by means of the holy things of the church, not knowing that

truth wishes to be in the light

since the light of heaven is the Divine truth, and that a truly human understanding is moved by that light and sees from it. When the understanding does not see from that light it is the memory that has faith and not the man; and such faith is blind, because without an idea from the light of truth; for the understanding is the man, and the memory introduces.

If what is not understood must be believed a man might be taught like a parrot to speak and to remember, even that there is holiness in the bones of the dead and in sepulchers, that carcasses perform miracles, that man will be tormented in purgatory if he does not consecrate his wealth to idols or to monasteries, that men are gods because heaven and hell are in their power, with other like things which man must believe from a blind faith and from a closed understanding, and thus from the light of both extinguished. But be it known:

all the truths of the Word, which are the truths of heaven and of the church, can be seen by the understanding — in heaven spiritually, in the world rationally

for a truly human understanding is the sight itself of these truths, for it is separated from what is material, and when separated, it sees truths as clearly as the eye sees objects; it sees truths as it loves them, for as it loves them it is enlightened.

The angels have wisdom in consequence of seeing truths; when, therefore, it is said to any angel that this or that must be believed although it is not understood, the angel answers, Do you think that I am insane, or that you are God whom I am to believe if I do not see? It may be falsity from hell.

(Apocalypse Explained 1100:23)

Faith in the Understanding; Faith in the Will

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Regarded in itself, faith is a faith in the understanding and a faith in the will; to know and understand the truth which is of faith is called faith in the understanding; but to will the truth which is of faith is called faith in the will. ... That faith in the understanding, or the understanding of truth, precedes faith in the will, or the willing of truth, must be evident to everyone; for when anything is unknown to man (such as heavenly good), he must first know that it exists, and understand what it is, before he can will it.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 3863:3)

Pharisaic and Hypocritical Good

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is known that man's interior must be purified before the good that he does is good; for the Lord says:

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside may be clean also (Matt. 13:26).

Man's interior is purified only as he refrains from evils, in accordance with the commandments of the Decalogue. So long as man does not refrain from these evils and does not shun and turn away from them as sins, they constitute his interior, and are like an interposed veil or covering, and in heaven this appears like an eclipse by which the sun is obscured and light is intercepted; also like a fountain of pitch or of black water, from which nothing emanates but what is impure. That which emanates therefrom and that appears before the world as good is not good, because it is defiled by evils from within, for it is Pharisaic and hypocritical good. This good is good from man and is meritorious good. It is otherwise when evils have been removed by a life according to the commandments of the Decalogue.

Now since evils must be removed before goods can become goods, the Ten Commandments were the first of the Word, being promulgated from Mount Sinai before the Word was written by Moses and the Prophets. And these do not set forth goods that must be done, but evils that must be shunned. For the same reason these commandments are the first things to be taught in the churches; for they are taught to boys and girls in order that man may begin his Christian life with them, and by no means forget them as he grows up; although he does so. The same is meant by these words in Isaiah:

What is the multitude of sacrifices to Me? Your meal-offering, your incense, your new moons, and your appointed feasts, My soul hateth. And when you multiply prayer I will not hear. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil. Then though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow; though they be red as purple they shall be as wool (1:11-19.

"Sacrifices," "meal-offerings," "incense," "new moons," and "feasts," also "prayer," mean all things of worship. That these are wholly evil and even abominable unless the interior is purified from evils is meant by Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings, and cease to do evil. That afterwards they are all goods is meant by the words that follow.

(Apocalypse Explained 939)

Truths Which Only Regard Faith And Not Life

Selection from Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... in it [the church] there is no faith because there is no charity; and where there is no charity, there is no spiritual good, for that good exists from charity alone. It was said from heaven that there is still good with some, but that it cannot be called spiritual, but natural good, because Divine truths themselves are in obscurity, and Divine truths introduce to charity, for they teach it, and regard it as their end and aim; whence no other charity can exist than such as the truths are which form it.

The Divine truths from which the doctrines of the churches are derived, respect faith alone, on which account they are called the doctrines of faith, and do not look to life.

Truths which only regard faith and not life, cannot make man spiritual; for so long as they are out of the life they are only natural, being merely known and thought of like other things.

Hence it is that spiritual good is not given at the present day, but only natural good with some.

Moreover every church in the beginning is spiritual, for it begins from charity; but in the course of time it turns aside from charity to faith, and then from being an internal church it becomes an external one, and when it becomes external its end is, since it then places everything in knowledge, and little or nothing in life. Thus also as far as man from being internal becomes external, spiritual light is darkened within him, until he no longer sees Divine truth from truth itself, that is from the light of heaven, for Divine truth is the light of heaven, but only from natural light; which is of such a nature, that when it is alone, and not illumined by spiritual light, it sees Divine truth as it were in night, and recognizes it as truth for no other reason than that it is so called by the leader, and is received as such by the common assembly. Hence it is, that their intellectual faculty cannot be illustrated by the Lord, for as far as natural light shines in the intellectual faculty, in so far spiritual light is obscured. Natural light shines in the intellectual faculty, when worldly, corporeal, and earthly things are loved in preference to spiritual, celestial, and Divine things; so far also man is external.

(from Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed 38)

Only Those Who Have Faith Are In Heaven

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is one thing to know truths, and quite another to acknowledge them, and still another to have faith in them.

To know is the first thing of regeneration, to acknowledge is the second, to have faith is the third.

What difference there is between knowing, acknowledging, and having faith is evident from the fact that the worst men may know, and yet not acknowledge, like the Jews and those who attempt to destroy doctrinal things by specious reasoning; and that unbelievers may acknowledge, and in certain states preach, confirm, and persuade with zeal; but none can have faith who are not believers.

Those who have faith — know, acknowledge, and believe — they have charity, and they have conscience. Therefore faith can never be predicated of anyone, that is, it cannot be said that he has faith, unless these things are true of him. This then it is to be regenerate. Merely to know what is of faith is of a man's memory, without the concurrence of his reason. To acknowledge what is of faith is a rational consent induced by certain causes and for the sake of certain ends. But to have faith is of conscience, that is, of the Lord working through conscience. This is abundantly evident from those who are in the other life. Those who only know are many of them in hell. Those who acknowledge are also many of them there, because their acknowledgment in the life of the body has been in certain states only, and when in the other life they perceive that what they had preached, taught, and persuaded others is true, they wonder greatly and acknowledge it only when it is recalled to their memory as what they had preached. But those who have had faith are all in heaven.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 896)

The Inexpressible Power of the Word

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Hardly anyone at this day knows that there is any power in truths; for truth is supposed to be nothing more than a statement uttered by someone in authority, which ought for that reason to be obeyed; thus truth is supposed to be like a mere breath from the mouth or sound in the ear; and yet truth and good are the principles of all things in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural; also they are the means by which the universe was created, and through which the universe is preserved, and the means as well by which man was created; therefore these two are the all in all things. That the universe was created by Divine truth, is clearly declared in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and God was the Word; by It were all things made that were made and by It the world was made (John 1:1, 3, 10).

And in David:

By the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made (Ps. 33:6).

In both of these passages "The Word" means the Divine truth. As the universe was created by this truth, so also was the universe preserved by it; for as subsistence is perpetual existence, so preservation is perpetual creation.

It was by means of Divine truth that man was made, because all things in man have relation to understanding and will, the understanding being the receptacle of Divine truth, and the will of Divine good; therefore, the human mind — which consists of those two principles — is nothing but a form of Divine good and Divine truth spiritually and naturally organized. The human brain is that form. And as the whole of man depends upon his mind, so all things of his body are appendages, which are moved by these two principles, and life from them.

From all this it can now be seen why God came into the world as the Word, and became Man, namely, that the work of redemption might be accomplished; for God then, by means of His Human, which was Divine truth, put on all power, overthrew the hells (which had grown up even as far as to the heavens where the angels were), and subjugated them, and reduced them to obedience to Himself, and this was done not by a spoken word but by the Divine Word which is Divine truth. Afterward He opened a great gulf between the hells and the heavens, which no one from hell can cross; if anyone attempts it, at the first step he is tortured like a serpent laid on a sheet of hot iron, or on an ant hill. For at the first approach of the odor of Divine truth the devils and satans instantly cast themselves into the abyss and throw themselves into caves and stop them up so closely that not a crevice is visible. This is because the will of such is in evils, and the understanding in falsities, that is, in what is opposite to the Divine good and the Divine truth. And because the whole of man, as just said, consists of these two principles of life, they are thus from head to foot, completely and grievously overpowered in consequence of their sensation of the opposite.

From all this it can be seen that the power of Divine truth is inexpressible. And as the Word which the Christian church possesses is the containant of Divine truth in three degrees, that Word is evidently what is meant in John (1:1, 3, 10). That its power is inexpressible I could prove by many evidences of experience in the spiritual world.... The following will serve to keep these truths in remembrance:

• That a church that is in Divine truths from the Lord has power over the hells

• The Lord's words to Peter refer to such a church:
  Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).

This the Lord said after Peter had confessed,

That He was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16).
"Rock" here means such truth, for everywhere in the Word "rock" means the Lord in respect to Divine truth.

(True Christian Religion 224)

Of These The Human Mind Consists

Selection from New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

THE WILL AND THE UNDERSTANDING

Man has two faculties which make his life; one is called the Will, and the other the Understanding. These faculties are distinct from each other, but are so created that they may be one; and when they are one they are called the Mind. Of these, then, the human mind consists; and the whole life of man is there.

As all things in the universe, which are according to Divine order, have relation to good and truth, so all things with man have relation to the will and the understanding; for good with man is of his will, and truth with him is of his understanding; for these two faculties, or these two lives of man, are their receptacles and subjects. The will is the receptacle and subject of all things of good, and the understanding the receptacle and subject of all things of truth. Goods and truths with man are nowhere else; and because goods and truths with man are nowhere else, so neither are love and faith elsewhere; for love is of good, and good is of love; and faith is of truth, and truth is of faith.

Since, then, all things in the universe have relation to good and truth, and all things of the church to the good of love and the truth of faith; and since man is man from those two faculties, therefore they also are treated of in this doctrine; otherwise man could have no distinct idea of them, on which to found his thought.

The will and the understanding also constitute the spirit of man; for his wisdom and intelligence, and his life in general, reside in them; the body is only obedience.

Nothing is more important to know than how the will and the understanding make one mind. They make one mind as good and truth make one; for there is a similar marriage between the will and the understanding as there is between good and truth. What is the quality of that marriage may fully appear from what has been quoted above, concerning good and truth, namely, as good is the very esse of a thing, and truth the existere of a thing thence derived, so the will with man is the very esse of his life, and the understanding the existere of life thence; for good, which is of the will, forms and renders itself visible in the understanding.

They who are in good and truth have will and understanding, but they who are in evil and in falsity have not will and understanding; but instead of will they have cupidity, and instead of understanding they have science. For the truly human will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the receptacle of truth; for which reason will cannot be predicated of evil, nor can understanding be predicated of falsity, because they are opposites, and opposites destroy each other. Hence it is, that the man who is in evil and thence in falsity, cannot be called rational, wise, and intelligent.

With the evil, also, the interiors of the mind, in which the will and the understanding principally reside, are closed. It is believed that the evil also have will and understanding, because they say that they will, and that they understand; but their willing is only cupidity, and their understanding is only knowing.

(New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 28-34)

Spiritual Sight

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Spiritual sight abstracted from such things as are of the world is nothing else than a perception of truth, or of the things of faith; and therefore in the internal sense nothing else is signified by "seeing." For the internal sense comes forth when the things of the world are removed, because the internal sense relates to such things as are of heaven. The light of heaven, by which is sight there, is Divine truth from the Lord, which appears before the eyes of the angels as light, a thousand times brighter than the midday light in the world; and as this light has life in it, therefore at the same time that it illumines the eyesight of the angels, it illumines also the sight of their understanding, and causes a perception of truth in accordance with the amount and quality of the good in which they are.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 5400)

Rewarded According to Their Doings

Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

(Isaiah 3:9-11)

The Greatest in Heaven

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In heaven, he is greatest who is least, because he who would be the least has the greatest happiness, and consequently is the greatest, for what is it to be the greatest except to be the most happy? it is this that the powerful seek by power, and the rich by riches.

Heaven does not consist in desiring to be the least in order to be the greatest, for in that case the person is really aspiring and wishing to be the greatest; but that heaven consists in this, that from the heart we wish better for others than for ourselves, and desire to be of service to others in order to promote their happiness, and this for no selfish end, but from love.

(Arcana Cœlestia 452)

Perception in Spiritual Things

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There is with every man a capacity of perceiving whether a thing is so or is not so. The capacity of drawing a conclusion within himself, or in his own mind, causes a thing to be perceived. This capacity is utterly impossible unless there is influx from the spiritual world. In this gift one man excels another. They who excel less are they who within themselves or in their own mind conclude and thus perceive but little; but say that a thing is so because others in whom they have faith have said so. But they who excel more are they who see, not from others, but from themselves, that the thing is so; for in very deed, the perception which exists with every man is one in worldly things, but not at the present day with anyone in spiritual things. The reason is that the spiritual which flows in and causes perception has been obscured and almost extinguished by the delights of the love of the world and of self; and therefore neither do they care for spiritual things, except insofar as is of duty and of custom; and if fear from duty, and delight from custom, were taken away, they would spurn, feel aversion for, and even deny them.

He who would have perception in spiritual things must be in the affection of truth from good, and must continually long to know truths. Thereby his intellectual is enlightened, and when the intellectual has been enlightened, then it is given him to perceive something inwardly within himself. But he who is not in the affection of truth, knows that which he knows to be so, from the teaching of the church to which he joins his faith, and because a priest, presbyter, or monk has said so. From all this it is evident what perception is, and that it exists in worldly things, but not in spiritual things; as is further evident from the fact that everyone remains in the doctrine in which he was born, even they who were born Jews, and also they who are outside the church, although they live within it. Moreover they who are in any heresy, if told the veriest truths, and if these were also confirmed, they would nevertheless perceive not one whit of their truth: they would appear to them as falsities.

(Arcana Cœlestia ~5937)

Enlightenment from the Lord

Selection from Doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Genuine truth, which is to be the source of doctrine, is manifest in the sense of the letter of the Word only to those who are enlightened by the Lord.

Enlightenment comes from the Lord alone and is granted to those who love truths because they are truths, and who apply them to the uses of life; with others, there is no enlightenment in the Word.

Enlightenment comes from the Lord alone, because the Lord is in all things of the Word.

Enlightenment is granted to those who love truths because they are truths, and who apply them to the uses of life because they are in the Lord, and the Lord in them. For the Lord is His own Divine Truth; and when this is loved because it is Divine Truth — and this is loved when it is applied to use — then the Lord is present in it with man. These things the Lord also teaches in John:

At that day ye shall know ... that ye are in me, and I in you.
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he is it that loveth me ... and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him ... And I will come to him and make my abode with him.  John 14:20, 21, 23

And in Matthew:

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.  Matt. 5:8

These are they who are enlightened when they read the Word, and with whom the Word is lucid and transparent.

(Doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures 57)

By Virtue of Influx from the Internal, Perception in the External

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The natural subsists and lives by virtue of influx from the internal, that is, through the internal from the Lord. For without influx thence the natural has no life, because it [the natural] is in the nature of this world, and from this derives all that it has.  The nature of this world is utterly devoid of life; and therefore in order that the natural with man may live, there must be influx from the Lord, not only immediate from Him, but also mediate through the spiritual world, consequently into man's internal, for this is in the spiritual world.  Then from this there must be influx into the natural, in order that this may live. The natural of man is formed to receive life therefrom. ... By virtue of influx from the internal there comes forth perception in the external or natural ... for influx and perception correspond to each other.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 6063)

The Truth of Faith is Subordinated to the Good of Charity

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... truth and good cannot but be obscure, and perchance of such a nature as not to be acknowledged; especially with those who put the truths of faith in the first place, and the good of charity in the second; and who consequently think much about doctrinal things, but not about the goods of charity; and think of eternal salvation as being from the former [truths of faith], but not from the latter [goods of charity]. They who think in this manner can in no wise know, still less perceive, that the truth of faith is subordinated to the good of charity.

The things which man thinks, and from which he thinks, affect him.

If he should think from the goods of charity, he would then plainly see that the truths of faith are in the second place and he would then also see the truths themselves as in light; for the good of charity is like a flame that gives light, and thus enlightens each and all things which the man had before supposed to be true; and he would also perceive how falsities had intermingled themselves, and had put on the appearance of being truths.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 4245)

Seven Things Which Might Be Known

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The things which they might have known of themselves had they chosen to use their reason, are the following:

• First, that when man is divested of his body, he comes into the full exercise of a much more enlightened understanding than when living in the body, for the reason that while he is in the body, corporeal and worldly things occupy his thoughts, which induce obscurity; but when he is divested of the body, such things do not interfere, and it is with him as with those who are in interior thought by abstraction of the mind from the things of the outward senses. From this they might know that the state after death is much more clear-sighted and enlightened than the state before death; and that when a man dies, he passes comparatively from shade into light, because he passes from the things of the world to those of heaven, and from the things of the body to those of the spirit. But wonderful to say, although they are able to understand all this, they nevertheless think the contrary, namely, that the state of life in the body is relatively clear, and that the state of life after being divested of the body is relatively obscure.

• The Second thing that they may know if they will use their reason, is that the life which man has procured for himself in the world follows him; that is, he is in such a life after death. For they may know that without dying altogether no one can put off the life which he has acquired from infancy; and that this life cannot be changed into another in a moment, still less into an opposite one. For example: he who has acquired a life of deceit, and has found in this the delight of his life, cannot put off the life of deceit, but is still in that life after death. He who is in the love of self, and thereby in hatred and revenge against those who do not serve him, and those who are in other such evils, remains in them after the life of the body; for these are the things which they love, and which constitute the delights of their life, and consequently their veriest life; and therefore such things cannot be taken away from them without at the same time extinguishing all their life. And so in other cases.

• The Third thing which a man may know of himself, is that when he passes into the other life he leaves many things behind which have no place there, such as cares for food, for clothing, for a place of abode, and also for gaining money and wealth, as well as for being exalted to dignities, all of which are so much thought of by man in the life of the body; but in the other life are succeeded by others that are not of this earthly kingdom.

• Therefore the Fourth thing a man can know is that he who in the world has thought solely of such worldly things, so that he has been wholly possessed by them, and has acquired delight of life in them alone, is not fitted to be among those whose delight is to think about heavenly things, that is, about the things of heaven.

• From this follows also a Fifth thing; namely, that when the externals of the body and the world are taken away, the man is then such as he has been inwardly; that is, he so thinks and so wills. If his thoughts have inwardly been deceits, machinations, aspiration for dignities, for gains, and for fame thereby; if they have been hatreds and revenges and the like, it can be seen that he will still think such things, thus the things that belong to hell, however much he might for the sake of the before-mentioned ends have concealed his thoughts from men, and thus appeared outwardly to be worthy, while leading others to believe that he had not such things at heart. That all such externals, or simulations of worth, are also taken away in the other life, may likewise be known from the fact that outward things are put off together with the body, and are no longer of any use. From this everyone may conclude for himself what kind of a man he will then appear to the angels.

• The Sixth thing that may be known is that heaven, or the Lord through heaven, is continually working and inflowing with good and truth; and that if there is not then in men-in their interior man which lives after the death of the body-some recipient of good and truth, as a ground or plane, the good and truth that flow in cannot be received; and for this reason man while living in the body ought to be solicitous to procure such a plane within himself; but this cannot be procured except by thinking what is good toward the neighbor, and by willing what is good to him, and therefore doing what is good to him, and thus by acquiring the delight of life in such things. This plane is acquired by means of charity toward the neighbor, that is, by means of mutual love; and is what is called conscience. Into this plane the good and truth from the Lord can inflow, and be received therein; but not where there is no charity, and consequently no conscience; for there the inflowing good and truth pass through, and are turned into evil and falsity.

• The Seventh thing that a man can know of himself, is that love to God and love toward the neighbor are what make man to be man, distinct from brute animals; and that they constitute heavenly life, or heaven; while their opposites constitute infernal life, or hell.

But the reason why a man does not know these things is that he does not desire to know them, because he lives the opposite life, and also because he does not believe in the life after death; and likewise because he has taken up with principles of faith, but none of charity; and consequently believes in accordance with the doctrinal teachings of many, that if there is a life after death, he can be saved by faith, no matter how he has lived, even if his faith is received in his dying hour.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 3957)