Faith (pt. 27)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 27)

VI. THE LORD, CHARITY, AND FAITH, MAKE ONE, LIKE LIFE, WILL, AND UNDERSTANDING IN MAN; AND IF THEY ARE DIVIDED, EACH PERISHES LIKE A PEARL REDUCED TO POWDER.

(2) Consequently the Lord with the whole essence of faith and charity, flows into every man.

This follows from the previous proposition, since the life of the Divine wisdom is the essence of faith, and the life of the Divine love is the essence of charity; therefore when the Lord is present with these, which are properly His, namely, the Divine wisdom and Divine love, He is also present with all the truths belonging to faith, and all the goods belonging to charity; for faith includes every truth that a man perceives from the Lord and thinks and speaks; and charity every good by which man is affected from the Lord, and which he consequently wills and does.

It has been said above that Divine love, which goes forth from the Lord as a sun, is perceived by the angels as heat, and the Divine wisdom therefrom, as light; and one who does not think beyond the appearance might imagine this heat to be mere heat and this light to be mere light, like the heat and light that go forth from the sun of our world. But the heat and light that go forth from the Lord as a sun, contain in their bosom all the infinities that are in the Lord - the heat all the infinities of His love, and the light all the infinities of His wisdom, thus also to infinity all the good pertaining to charity and all the truth pertaining to faith. This is because that sun is itself everywhere present in its heat and light; it is the circle most closely surrounding the Lord, emanating both from His Divine love and from His Divine wisdom; for, as frequently stated before, the Lord is in the midst of that sun.

All this now makes clear that there is nothing to restrict the capacity of man to take from the Lord (since He is omnipresent) all the good belonging to charity and all the truth belonging to faith. That these are in no way restricted is made evident by the love and wisdom that the angels of heaven possess from the Lord, in that these are ineffable, and to a natural man incomprehensible, and are also capable of being increased to eternity. That infinite things are included in the heat and light that go forth from the Lord, although they are perceived simply as heat and light, may be illustrated by various things in the natural world; as for example, the sound of a man's voice and speech is heard merely as a simple sound; and yet when the angels hear it, they perceive therein all the affections of his love, and what they are and their quality are made manifest. That these things are hidden within the sound of the voice, even man can in some measure perceive from the tone of one who is speaking to him: as whether there is contempt or sarcasm or hatred in it, as also whether there is charity, benevolence, gladness, or other affections in it. Like things are hidden in the beam of the eye, when it looks at another.

This may be illustrated also by the fragrances arising from a large garden, or from extended plains covered with flowers. The fragrant odor exhaled therefrom consists of thousands and even myriads of different odors, yet they are perceived as one. The same is true of many other things, which although extrinsically they appear uniform, yet intrinsically they are manifold. Sympathies and antipathies are no other than exhalations of affections from the mind, which attract another according to similitudes, and cause aversion according to dissimilitudes; and these, although innumerable and unperceived by any bodily sense, are nevertheless perceived by the sense of the soul as one, and in the spiritual world all conjunctions and consociations are effected in agreement with them. All this has been set forth to illustrate what has been said above about the spiritual light that goes forth from the Lord, that in it reside all things of wisdom, and therefore all things of faith; and that it is that light whereby the understanding analytically sees and perceives rational things, as the eye sees and perceives natural things symmetrically.

(True Christian Religion 365)

To be continued...

Faith (pt. 26)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 26)

VI. THE LORD, CHARITY, AND FAITH, MAKE ONE, LIKE LIFE, WILL, AND UNDERSTANDING IN MAN; AND IF THEY ARE DIVIDED, EACH PERISHES LIKE A PEARL REDUCED TO POWDER.

(1) The Lord with all of His Divine love, with all of His Divine wisdom, thus with all of His Divine Life, flows into every man.

In the Book of Creation we read:

That man was created an image of God, and that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives (Gen. 1:27; 2:7).

This describes man as being not life but only an organ of life.

For God could not create another being like Himself; if He could have done so there would be as many gods as there are men.

Neither could He create life (just as light cannot be created); but He could create man a form of life, as He created the eye a form of light; neither could or can God divide His essence, for it is one and indivisible. Since, therefore, God alone is life, it follows without question that from His life He gives life to every man, and that man without that life-giving would be in regard to his flesh nothing but a sponge, and in regard to his bones nothing but a skeleton, having no more life in him than a clock, which has its motion from a pendulum together with a weight or spring. This being so it also follows, that God inflows into every man with all of His Divine life, that is with all of His Divine love and Divine wisdom - these two constituting His Divine life - for the Divine is indivisible.

But how God inflows with the whole of His Divine life, may in some measure be perceived in somewhat the same manner as seeing that the sun of the world with its whole essence, which is heat and light, flows into every tree, every shrub and flower, every stone both common and precious; and that the sun does not distribute its heat and light, dispensing a part to this object and a part to that, but each object draws its own portion from the common influx. The same is true of the sun of heaven, from which Divine love goes forth as heat, and Divine wisdom as light. As the heat and light of the sun flow into human bodies, so do these flow into human minds and vivify them according to the nature of their forms, each form taking what is necessary for itself from the common influx. To this the following words of the Lord are applicable:

Your Father 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).

Moreover, the Lord is omnipresent; and where He is present, there He is with His whole essence, and it is impossible for Him to withhold some of it and give a part to one and a part to another, but He gives it to all, and to man the ability to take either little or much. He says, moreover, that He makes His abode with those who keep His commandments, also that the faithful are in Him and He in them. In a word, all things are full in God, and from that fulness each one takes his portion. The same is true of general things, as the atmospheres and the oceans. The atmosphere is the same in its least part as in its greatest; it does not apportion a part of itself for man's respiration, another part to the birds to fly in, another to the sails of vessels, and another to the fans of windmills; but each of these takes from the atmosphere in its own portion and applies to itself so much as is sufficient. It is the same again with a storehouse full of grain; from it the possessor daily takes his food; the storehouse does not distribute it.

(True Christian Religion )

To be continued...

Faith (pt. 25)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 25)

VI. THE LORD, CHARITY, AND FAITH, MAKE ONE, LIKE LIFE, WILL, AND UNDERSTANDING IN MAN; AND IF THEY ARE DIVIDED, EACH PERISHES LIKE A PEARL REDUCED TO POWDER.

Some things shall first be stated that have been heretofore unknown in the learned world, and consequently among the ecclesiastics, as much so as things buried in the earth, and yet they are treasures of wisdom, and unless they are dug up and given to the public, man will toil in vain to arrive at any correct knowledge of God, faith, charity, and the state of his own life, as to the manner in which he should direct it and prepare it for the state of eternal life. The things heretofore unknown are as follows:

That man is a mere organ of life; that life with everything belonging to it flows in from the God of heaven, who is the Lord; that in man there are two faculties of life, which are called the will and understanding, the will the receptacle of love, and the understanding the receptacle of wisdom; so, too, the will is the receptacle of charity, and the understanding the receptacle of faith;

that everything that man wills and everything he understands flows into him from without the goods pertaining to love and charity, and the truths pertaining to wisdom and faith, from the Lord, and the opposites of these from hell; that it is provided by the Lord that man should feel in himself as his own whatever flows in from without, and should consequently bring it forth from himself as his own, although nothing of it is his; that nevertheless such things are imputed to him as his on account of his freedom of choice in which are his willing and thinking, and on account of the knowledges of good and truth given him, which enable him to choose freely whatever conduces to his temporal and his eternal life.

The man who looks askance [with an attitude or look of suspicion or disapproval] at these truths, or with half an eye only, may draw from them many insane conclusions; but he who looks at them with a straight and direct eye may draw from them many wise conclusions. That this and not the other may be done it was necessary to put forth first decisions and tenets respecting God and the Divine Trinity, and afterward to establish others respecting Faith and Charity, Freedom of Choice, and Reformation and Regeneration, as also Imputation; and then as means, Repentance, Baptism, and the Holy Supper.

But in order that the present article on faith (which is, that the Lord, charity, and faith make one, like life, will, and understanding in man, and that if they are divided each perishes like a pearl reduced to powder) may be seen as truth and acknowledged, it is expedient to consider it in the following order:

(1) The Lord with all of His Divine love, with all of His Divine wisdom, thus with all of His Divine life, flows into every man.

(2) Consequently with the whole essence of faith and charity.

(3) These are received by man according to his form. 

(4) But the man who divides the Lord, charity, and faith, is not a form that receives but a form that destroys them.

(True Christian Religion 362 - 363)

To be continued...

The Cause of Faith Becoming a Dead Affair

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A church is said to be corrupted when it acknowledges the Word and has a certain worship like that of a true church, but yet separates faith from charity, thus from its essential and from its life, whereby faith becomes a kind of dead affair; the result of which necessarily is that the church is corrupted.

What the men of the church then become, is evident from the consideration that they can have no conscience; for conscience that is really conscience cannot possibly exist except from charity.

Charity is what makes conscience, that is, the Lord through charity.

What else is conscience than not to do evil to anyone in anyway; that is, to do well to all in every way? Thus conscience belongs to charity, and never to faith separated from charity. If such persons have any conscience, it is a false conscience; and because they are without conscience, they rush into all wickedness, so far as outward bonds are relaxed. They do not even know what charity is, except that it is a word significant of something. And as they are without charity, they do not know what faith is. When questioned, they can only answer that it is a kind of thinking; some, that it is confidence; others, that it is the knowledges of faith; a few, that it is life according to these knowledges, and scarcely any that it is a life of charity or of mutual love.

And if this is said to them, and opportunity is given them for reflection, they answer only that all love begins from self, and that he is worse than a heathen who does not take care of himself and his own family. They therefore study nothing but themselves and the world.

(Arcana Coelestia 1076)

Faith (pt. 24)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 24)

V. FAITH WITHOUT CHARITY IS NOT FAITH,
AND CHARITY WITHOUT FAITH IS NOT CHARITY,
AND NEITHER HAS LIFE EXCEPT FROM THE LORD.

When it is thus known that the spiritual is inwardly in the natural in those who are in faith in the Lord, and at the same time in charity toward the neighbor, and consequently the natural in them is transparent, it follows that to the same extent man is wise in spiritual things, and therefrom in natural things; for when he thinks about or hears or reads anything, he sees interiorly within himself whether it is the truth or not. This he perceives from the Lord, from whom spiritual light and heat flow into the higher sphere of his understanding.

So far as faith and charity in man become spiritual, he is withdrawn from his own, and ceases to look to himself or to reward or remuneration, and looks solely to the delight in perceiving the truths of faith and doing the good works of love; and so far as this spirituality increases, that delight becomes blessedness. From this is man's salvation, which is called eternal life. This state of man may be compared with the most beautiful and charming things in the world, and in the Word is compared with them, as for instance, with fruitful trees and the gardens in which they are, with flowery fields, with precious stones, with delicacies, with nuptials and their festivities and rejoicings.

But when the reverse is the case, that is to say, when the natural is inwardly in the spiritual, and consequently the man in his internals is a devil, but in his externals is like an angel, he may be compared to a dead man in a coffin of costly and gilded wood; he may also be compared to a skeleton adorned with clothing like a man, and drawn about in a magnificent carriage; or to a corpse in a sepulchre built like the temple of Diana; and his internal may be pictured even as a nest of serpents in a cavern, and his external as butterflies whose wings are tinted with all kinds of colors, but which nevertheless stick foul eggs to the leaves of useful trees, and so destroy the fruit. Or the internal of such may be compared to a hawk, and their external to a dove, and their faith and charity to a hawk pursuing a fleeing dove, which at length he wearies and then darts upon and devours.

(True Christian Religion 361)

To be continued...

Faith (pt. 23)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 23)

V. FAITH WITHOUT CHARITY IS NOT FAITH,
AND CHARITY WITHOUT FAITH IS NOT CHARITY,
AND NEITHER HAS LIFE EXCEPT FROM THE LORD.

It has been said above that-

faith in its beginning in man is natural, and that as man draws near to the Lord it becomes spiritual; so also with charity.

But no one has known, as yet, the distinction that exists between natural and spiritual faith and charity. This great arcanum must therefore be disclosed.

There are two worlds - a natural and a spiritual.  In each world there is a sun, and from each sun heat and light go forth; but the heat and light from the sun of the spiritual world have life within them; this life is from the Lord who is the midst of that sun; while the heat and light from the sun of the natural world have nothing of life in them; they simply serve the former heat and light as receptacles for the conveying of these to man, as instrumental causes always subserve their principal causes. It must be understood, therefore, that all things spiritual are from the heat and light of the sun of the spiritual world. These are spiritual because they contain in them spirit and life; while all things natural are from the heat and light of the sun of the natural world, which viewed in themselves are without spirit and life.

Since then faith is a matter of light, and charity of heat, it is plain that so far as a man is in the heat and light that go forth from the sun of the spiritual world, he is in spiritual faith and charity; while so far as he is in the light and heat that go forth from the sun of the natural world, he is in natural faith and charity.

Evidently, therefore, as spiritual light is inwardly in natural light as in its receptacle or casket, and spiritual heat in like manner within natural heat, so also is spiritual faith inwardly in natural faith, and spiritual charity inwardly in natural charity; and this is effected in the degree that man advances from the natural to the spiritual world; and this he does so far as he believes in the Lord who is light itself, the way, the truth, and the life, as He Himself teaches.

This being so, it is clear that when man is in spiritual faith, he is also in natural faith. For as just said-

spiritual faith is inwardly in natural faith

and as faith is a matter of light, it follows that by that implanting of spiritual faith man's natural becomes, as it were, transparent, and according to the nature of its conjunction with charity, beautifully colored. This is because charity is ruddy and faith shining white; charity is ruddy from the flame of spiritual fire, and faith shining white from the splendor of the light therefrom. The contrary happens when the spiritual is not inwardly in the natural, but the natural inwardly in the spiritual; which is the case with men who reject faith and charity. With such the internal of their mind, in which they are when left to their own thoughts, is infernal, and they think from hell, although they do not know it; while the external of the mind of such, from which they converse with their companions in the world, is in a manner spiritual, but it is filled full of such unclean things as are in hell; consequently they are in hell, for compared with the former class they are in an inverted state.

(True Christian Religion 360)

To be continued...

Faith (pt. 22)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
(Continued pt. 22)

V. FAITH WITHOUT CHARITY IS NOT FAITH,
AND CHARITY WITHOUT FAITH IS NOT CHARITY,
AND NEITHER HAS LIFE EXCEPT FROM THE LORD.

(4) Yet nothing of faith or of charity, or of the life of either, is from man, but from the Lord alone.
For we read,

That a man can receive nothing except it have been given him from heaven (John 3:27).

And Jesus said:

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).

But this is to be understood thus, that man of himself is unable to acquire for himself any but natural faith, which is a persuasion that a thing is so because some man of authority has said so; or any but natural charity, which is an endeavor to gain favor with a view to some recompense. In such faith and charity there is what is man's own, and as yet no life from the Lord.

Nevertheless, by means of such faith and charity man prepares himself to be a receptacle of the Lord; and so far as he prepares himself, the Lord enters, and causes his natural faith to become spiritual, likewise his charity, and thus makes both to be alive; and this is done when man goes to the Lord as the God of heaven and earth. Because man was created an image of God, he was created an abode of God; therefore the Lord says:

He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me and I will love him, and I will come unto him and make an abode with him (John 14:21, 23).

Again:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hear My voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with Me (Apoc. 3:20).

From all this comes the conclusion, that as man prepares himself naturally to receive the Lord, so the Lord enters and makes all that is within man inwardly spiritual, and thus alive. But on the other hand, so far as man does not prepare himself he removes the Lord from him and does everything from his own self; and what man himself does from himself has no real life in it.

(True Christian Religion 359)

To be continued...