Coming Forth Into Act

Excerpt from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me. But he that loveth Me not keepeth not My words (John 14:21, 24).

The affections of good and truth that are from that love must needs come forth in act, and when they come forth they are called uses, and are what are meant by good works.

(Apocalypse Explained 826:2)

The Essence of Love

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The essence of love is to love others outside itself, to desire to be one with them, and to make them happy from itself.

There are two things which make the Essence of God, namely, Love and Wisdom, and there are three things which make the essence of His Love, namely, to love others outside of itself, to desire to be one with them, and to make them happy from itself. The same three things also make the essence of His Wisdom ... Love and Wisdom make one in God: while Love wills these things, Wisdom gives effect to them.

• The first essential, to love others outside of itself, is recognized from the Love of God towards the whole human race; and for their sake God loves all things He has created, because they are means; for he who loves the end loves also the means. All persons and all things in the universe are outside of God because they are finite, and God is infinite. Yet the Love of God approaches and extends not only to good persons and good things, but also to evil persons and evil things; consequently not only to persons and things in heaven, but also to those in hell; thus not only to Michael* and Gabriel, but also to the devil and satan, for God is everywhere, and from eternity to eternity the same. He says also:

"He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. 5:45.

The reason, however, why evil persons and things are still evil is in the subjects and objects themselves, because they do not receive the Love of God in its own quality and interior nature, but according to their own nature, just as the thorn and nettle receive the heat of the sun and the rain of heaven.

• The second essential of the Love of God, to desire to be one with them, is perceived from His conjunction with the angelic heaven, with the Church on earth, with every individual there, and with every good and truth which enters into and constitutes man and the Church. Moreover, love viewed in itself is nothing but an endeavor towards conjunction; therefore, in order that this object of the essence of love might be attained, God created man in His own image and likeness by which conjunction might be effected. That the Divine Love is ever directed towards this union is evident from the words of the Lord,

that He desires that they may be one, He in them and they in Him, and that the Love of God may be in them, John 17:2, 22, 23, 26.

• The third essential of the Love of God, to make them happy from itself, is recognized from eternal life, or blessedness, happiness and felicity without end, which He gives those who receive His Love. For as God is Love itself so also is He Blessedness itself, since all love breathes out from itself what is delightful, and the Divine Love breathes out blessedness itself, happiness and felicity to eternity. Thus God makes angels happy from Himself, and also men after death, by conjunction with them.

(True Christian Religion 43)

* Michael, the archangel.

Can I know if it is 'Spiritual Charity'?

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Extracted from a Memorable Relations after eminent examples of charity had been given)

Charity is to act with judgment from a love of justice in every employment and office, but from a love derived from no other source than the Lord God the Savior.

Charity in its origin is spiritual, but in its flowing forth is natural; and natural charity, if it is inwardly spiritual, appears to the angels transparent like a diamond; but if not inwardly spiritual, and therefore purely natural, it appears to the angels like a pearl that resembles the eye of a cooked fish.

It is not for me to say, whether the eminent examples of charity which you have presented in order, are inspired by spiritual charity or not; but I can say what the spiritual that ought to be in them, must be, that they may be natural forms of spiritual charity. The spiritual itself of these is this -

that they be done with judgment from a love of justice; that is, that in the exercise of charity man should see clearly whether he is acting from justice, and this he sees from judgment.

For a man may do evil by deeds of beneficence; and by what appear to be evil deeds he may do good.

For example: One who gives to a needy robber the means wherewith to buy a sword, by a beneficent act is doing evil; although the robber in begging the money did not tell what he would do with it. So again, if one rescues a robber from prison and shows him the way to a forest, saying to himself, It is not my fault that he commits robbery; I have given succor [assistance] to the man.  Take as another example, one who feeds an idler, and prevents his being compelled to work, saying to him, Go into a chamber in my house, and lie in bed; why should you weary yourself? Such a one favors idleness. Or again, take one who promotes relatives and friends with dishonest inclinations to offices of honor, wherein they can plot many kinds of mischief. Who cannot see that such works of charity do not proceed from any love of justice combined with judgment?

On the other hand, a man may do good through what appear to be evil deeds.

Take as an example a judge who acquits an evil-doer because he sheds tears, pours out words of piety, and begs the judge to pardon him because he is his neighbor. But in fact a judge performs a work of charity when he decrees the man's punishment according to the law; for he thus guards against the man's doing further evil and being a pest to society, which is the neighbor in a higher degree, and he prevents also the scandal of an unjust judgment. Who does not know also, that it is good for servants to be chastised by their masters, or children by their parents, when they do wrong? The same is true of those in hell, all of whom are in the love of doing evil. They are kept shut up in prisons, and when they do evil are punished, which the Lord permits for the sake of their amendment. This is so because the Lord is justice itself, and does whatever He does from judgment itself.

From all this it can be seen clearly, why, as just said, spiritual charity is done with judgment from a love of justice, and yet from a love derived from no other source than the Lord God the Savior. This is because all good of charity is from the Lord; for He says,

He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).

Also that He has all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18);

and all love of justice with judgment is from no other source than the God of heaven, who is justice itself, and the source of all man's judgment (Jer. 23:5; 33:15).

Genuine charity is to believe in the Lord and to act justly and rightly in every employment and office. Therefore he who from the Lord loves justice and practises it with judgment, is charity in its image and likeness.

(True Christian Religion 459:13-17)

The Universal Law of Correspondences

From Concerning The Divine Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

All things of the body, both internal and external, are correspondences.

What correspondence is has not hitherto been known in the world, for the reason that it has not been known what the spiritual is, and that there is a correspondence between what is natural and what is spiritual. When anything from the spiritual as the origin and cause becomes visible and perceptible before the senses, there is a correspondence between them. There is such a correspondence between spiritual and natural things with man

Spiritual things are all things pertaining to his love and wisdom, consequently to his will and understanding.

Natural things are all things pertaining to his body.

Because these have existed and perpetually exist, that is, subsist from spiritual things, they are correspondences; and therefore the two act as one, like end, cause, and effect. Thus the face acts as one with the affections of the mind, the speech with the thought, and the actions of all the members with the will; and the same is true of other things.

It is a universal law of correspondences that the spiritual fits itself to use, which is its end, and actuates and modifies the use by means of heat and light, and clothes it by provided means, until there results a form subservient to the end; and in this form the spiritual acts as the end, use as cause, and natural as effect; although in the spiritual world the substantial takes the place of the natural.

All things that are in such forms.

(Divine Wisdom II:3)

Reading the Word

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

That the Word is the medium of conjunction, because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord. The Word is the medium of the Lord's conjunction with man, and of man's with the Lord, for the reason that in its essence it is Divine truth united with Divine good, and Divine good united with Divine truth.

this unition is in each and all things of the Word, in its celestial and its spiritual sense

From which it follows that the Word is the perfect marriage of good and truth; and because it is from the Lord, and what is from Him also is Himself, it results that -

when a man reads the Word, and takes truths therefrom, the Lord adjoins good.

For man does not see the goods that affect, because he reads it from the understanding, and the understanding takes from it nothing but its own things, which are truths. That good is adjoined to these by the Lord the understanding feels, from the delight that flows in when it is enlightened. But this does not take place interiorly with others than -

those who read it to the end that they may become wise; and the end of becoming wise is with those who wish to learn more of genuine truths there; and by means of them to form the church within themselves.

But they who read it only for the glory of erudition, and they who read it from an opinion that the mere reading or hearing of it inspires faith and conduces to salvation, do not receive any good from the Lord; because the end of these is to save themselves by the mere words, wherein is nothing of truth; and the end of those is to become eminent for learning, with which end there is no spiritual good conjoined, but only the natural delight that comes of worldly glory. Because the Word is the medium of conjunction it is called the covenant - Old and New - a covenant signifies conjunction.

(Conjugial Love 128)

What is from Order and According to Order

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Religion with man consists in a life according to the Divine commandments, which are contained in a summary in the Decalogue. He that does not live according to these can have no religion, since he does not fear God, still less does he love God; nor does he fear man, still less does he love him.

Can one who steals, commits adultery, kills, bears false witness, fear God or man? Nevertheless everyone is able to live according to these commandments; and he who is wise does so live as a civil man, as a moral man, and as a natural man.

And yet he who does not live according to them as a spiritual man cannot he saved; since to live according to them as a spiritual man means to so live for the sake of the Divine that is in them, while to live according to them as a civil man means for the sake of justice and to escape punishments in the world; and to live according to them as a moral man means for the sake of honesty, and to escape the loss of reputation and honor; while to live according to them as a natural man means for the sake of what is human, and to escape the repute of having an unsound mind.

All laws, civil, moral, and natural, prescribe that one must not steal, must not commit adultery, must not kill, must not bear false witness; and yet a man is not saved by shunning these evils from these laws alone, unless he also shuns them from spiritual law, thus unless he shuns them as sins.

For with such a man there is religion, and a belief that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death; with such a man there is a civil life, a moral life, and a natural life; a civil life because there is justice, a moral life because there is honesty, and a natural life because there is manhood. But he who does not live according to these commandments as a spiritual man is neither a civil man, nor a moral man, nor a natural man; for he is destitute of justice, of honesty, and even of manhood, since the Divine is not in these.

For there can be nothing good in and from itself, but only from God; so there can be nothing just, nothing truly honest or truly human in itself and from itself, but only from God, and only when the Divine is in it.

Consider whether anyone that has hell in him, or who is a devil, can do what is just from justice or for the sake of justice; in like manner what is honest, or what is truly human.

The truly human is what is from order and according to order, and what is from sound reason; and God is order, and sound reason is from God.

In a word, he who does not shun evils as sins is not a man. Everyone who makes these commandments the principles of his religion becomes a citizen and an inhabitant of heaven; but he who does not make them the principles of his religion, although in externals he may live according to them from natural, moral, and civil law, becomes a citizen and an inhabitant of the world, but not of heaven.

Most nations know these commandments, and make them the principles of their religion, and live according to them because God so wills and has commanded. Through this they have communication with heaven and conjunction with God, consequently they also are saved.

But most in the Christian world at this day do not make them the principles of their religion, but only of their civil and moral life; and they do this that they may not appear in external form to act fraudulently and make unlawful gains, commit adulteries, manifestly pursue others from deadly hatred and revenge, and bear false witness, and do not refrain from these things because they are sins and against God, but because they have fears for their life, their reputation, their office, their business, their possessions, their honor and gain, and their pleasure; consequently if they were not restrained by these bonds they would do these things.

Because, therefore, such form for themselves no communication with heaven or conjunction with the Lord, but only with the world and with self, they cannot be saved. Consider in respect to yourself, when these external bonds have been taken away, as is done with every man after death, if there are no internal bonds, which are from fear and love of God, thus from religion, to restrain and hold you back, whether you would not rush, like a devil, into thefts, adulteries, murders, false witnesses, and lusts of every kind, from a love of these thus from a delight in them. That this is the case I have both seen and heard.

(Apocalypse Explained 948:4,5)

Everything is Possible which is Conformity with Order

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The word that thou doest is not good. Wearing thou wilt wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee, because the word is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to do it, thou alone. Now hear my voice, I will counsel thee, and God shall be with thee.  Exodus 18:17

That this signifies that it is not possible because not in conformity with order, is evident from the signification of "a heavy word," as being that it is not possible. That "a heavy word" here denotes that it is not possible, is evident from what precedes, namely, that wearing he would wear away, and the people that were with him, by which is signified that the truth which has been implanted would perish; and also from what follows, namely, Thou art not able to do it, thou alone; and afterward, If thou do this word, thou shalt be able to stand; by which is meant impossibility unless a change is made.

That it is not possible because not in conformity with order, is because in the other life everything is possible that is in conformity with order.

The Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord is what makes order, and is order itself.

Consequently as everything that is according to Divine truth is according to order, it is possible; and as everything that is contrary to Divine truth is contrary to order, it is impossible.

That this is the case may appear more evident from examples:

It is according to order that they who have lived well shall be saved, and that they who have lived ill shall be condemned. Hence it is impossible that they who have lived well should be sent into hell, and that they who have lived ill should be raised into heaven. Consequently it is impossible that they who are in hell can of the Lord's pure mercy be brought out therefrom into heaven and be saved; for it is the reception of the Lord's mercy while they lived in the world through which everyone is saved. They who receive it then are in the other life in the Lord's mercy, for they are then in the capacity of receiving it there. To give it to others, and in general to everyone at pleasure, provided they have faith, and thus believe that they are cleansed from sins, is impossible, because it is contrary to order, that is, contrary to the Divine which is order.

It is according to order that faith and charity be implanted in freedom and not under compulsion, and that the faith and charity which have been implanted in freedom, endure; but not if they have been implanted under compulsion. The reason is that what is done in freedom is insinuated into the affection, and thus into the will of man, and is therefore appropriated; but not what is done under compulsion. Consequently it is impossible for man to be saved unless, seeing that he has been born in evil, he is allowed to do evil, and to desist from evil. When in this freedom he desists from evil of himself, the affection of truth and good is insinuated by the Lord, whereby he has freedom to receive the things which are of faith and charity, for freedom belongs to the affection. From this it is plain that it is impossible to compel man to salvation. If this could be done, all men in the world would be saved.

It is according to order for all in the other life to be associated together according to the life which they have acquired to themselves in the world; the evil with the evil, and the good with the good. Consequently it is not possible for the evil and the good to be together; neither is it possible for those to be in good who are evil, because good and evil are opposites, and the one destroys the other. For this reason also it is plain that it is not possible for those to be saved who are in hell; thus that it is not possible for salvation to be from mercy alone however a man has lived. They who are in hell and are there tormented, impute the torments there to the Divine, saying that the Divine can take away their torment if He will, because He is omnipotent; but that He will not, and that therefore He is the cause of their torment; for he who can and will not, they say, is the cause. But to take away such torments is impossible, because it is contrary to order; for if they were taken away, the evil would rise up against the good, and would subjugate the angels themselves, and destroy heaven. But the Divine wills nothing but good, namely, the happiness of the good, and for the sake of this, the bridling, and at the same time, the amendment, of the wicked. This being the end — the end of the Divine love and of mercy itself — it is not possible that torments should be taken away from him who is in hell.

From these examples it can be seen that everything is impossible which is contrary to order, howsoever it may appear as possible to those who do not know the arcana of heaven.

(Arcana Cœlestia 8700)