Charity and Good Works (pt. 50)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 50)
v Doctrinal Series v

XVI. THERE IS SPURIOUS CHARITY, HYPOCRITICAL CHARITY, AND DEAD CHARITY

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There is no genuine, that is, living charity, except that which makes one with faith, and the two look conjointly to the Lord; for these three, the Lord, charity, and faith, are the three essentials of salvation, and when they make one, charity is charity, and faith is faith; and the Lord is in them and they are in the Lord. On the other hand,

when these three are not conjoined, charity is either spurious, or hypocritical, or dead.

In Christianity since its establishment there have been various heresies, even down to the present day, in each of which these three essentials, God, charity, and faith, have been and still are acknowledged; for apart from these three, there is no religion.

As to charity in particular, it may be joined to any heretical belief, as with that of the Socinians, the Enthusiasts, the Jews, and even to the faith of idolaters; and they may all believe it to be charity, since it appears like it in the external form. Nevertheless, the quality of charity is changed in accordance with the faith to which it is joined, as may be seen in the chapter on Faith.

(True Christian Religion 450)

To be continued . . .

Charity and Good Works (pt. 49)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 48)
v Doctrinal Series v

XV. A FRIENDSHIP OF LOVE,
CONTRACTED WITH A MAN
WITHOUT REGARD TO HIS SPIRITUAL QUALITY,
IS DETRIMENTAL AFTER DEATH

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It is wholly different with those who love the good in another, that is, who love justice, judgment, sincerity, and benevolence arising from charity, and especially with those who love faith in the Lord and love to Him.

Because these love the things within man apart from the things without, when they do not discover the same things in the person after death, they at once withdraw from the friendship and are associated by the Lord with those who are in like good.

It should be said that no one is able to explore the interiors of the mind of those with whom he associates or deals; and this is not necessary; only let him guard against a friendship of love with anyone.

External friendship for the sake of various uses does no harm.

(True Christian Religion 449)

To be continued . . .

Charity and Good Works (pt. 48)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 48)
v Doctrinal Series v

XV. A FRIENDSHIP OF LOVE,
CONTRACTED WITH A MAN
WITHOUT REGARD TO HIS SPIRITUAL QUALITY,
IS DETRIMENTAL AFTER DEATH

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Friendship of love is detrimental after death, can be seen from the state of heaven, of hell, and of man's spirit in relation to them.

As to the state of heaven, it is divided into innumerable societies according to all the varieties of affections of the love of good; while hell, on the other hand, is divided according to all the varieties of affections of the love of evil; and after death, man, who is then a spirit, is at once adjudged, according to his life in the world, to the society where his ruling love prevails - to some heavenly society, if love to God and love towards the neighbor has formed the head of his loves, and to some infernal society, if love of self and the world has formed the head of his loves.

Immediately after his entrance into the spiritual world, which is effected through the death of the material body and its rejection to the sepulchre, man for some time undergoes a preparation for the society to which he has been adjudged, which preparation is effected by the rejection of such loves as are not in accord with his chief love. Thus one is then separated from another, friend from friend, dependent from patron, also parent from children, and brother from brother; and each one of these is connected with those interiorly like himself, with whom he is to live to eternity a life in common with them and yet properly his own. Nevertheless, during the first period of the preparation they all come together, and converse in a friendly way, as in the world. But little by little they are separated, and in ways they are not sensible of.

But those who in the world have contracted with each other friendships of love cannot be separated like others in accordance with order, and adjudged to societies correspondent to their lives — for they are bound together interiorly as to the spirit, nor can they be torn apart, because they are like scions ingrafted into branches. Consequently, if one as to his interiors is in heaven, and the other as to his interiors in hell, they stick together much as a sheep tied to a wolf, or a goose to a fox, or a dove to a hawk; and he whose interiors are in hell breathes his infernalism into the other whose interiors are in heaven. For among the things well known in heaven is this, that evils may be breathed into the good, but not goods into the evil; and for this reason that everyone is in evils by birth; and in consequence, the interiors of the good, who are thus joined fast to the evil, are closed, and both are thrust down to hell, where the good spirit suffers severely, but finally, after a lapse of time, he is released, and only then begins his preparation for heaven.

It has been granted me to see spirits so bound together, especially brothers and relatives, also patrons and their dependents, and many with flatterers, the two having contrary affections and diverse inclinations. I have seen some who were like kids with leopards, who were kissing each other and swearing to maintain their former friendship; and I then perceived that the good were absorbing the delights of the evil, holding each other by the hand and entering caves where crowds of the evil appeared in their hideous forms, although to themselves, owing to the illusions of phantasy, they seemed lovely. But after a while I heard from the good cries of fear, as if they were in snares, and from the evil rejoicings, like those of enemies over spoils; besides other sad scenes; and I was told that when the good had been released they were prepared for heaven by means of reformation, but not so easily as others.

(True Christian Religion 447 - 448)

To be continued . . .

Charity and Good Works (pt. 47)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 47)
v Doctrinal Series v

XV. A FRIENDSHIP OF LOVE,
CONTRACTED WITH A MAN
WITHOUT REGARD TO HIS SPIRITUAL QUALITY,
IS DETRIMENTAL AFTER DEATH

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A friendship of love means interior friendship, which is such that not only is the man's external man loved but his internal also, and this without scrutiny into the quality of his internal or spirit, that is, into his mind's affections, as to whether these spring from love towards the neighbor and love to God, and are thus adapted to association with angels of heaven, or whether they spring from a love opposed to the neighbor and a love opposed to God, and are thus adapted to association with devils.

Such friendship is contracted in many instances from various causes and for various purposes.

It is distinct from external friendship, which relates only to the person and exists for the sake of various bodily and sensual delights, and for the sake of mutual interaction in various ways. This kind of friendship may be formed with anyone, even with the clown who jokes at the table of a nobleman. This is called friendship simply; but the former is called the friendship of love, because friendship is natural conjunction, while love is spiritual conjunction.

(True Christian Religion 446)

To be continued . . .

Charity and Good Works (pt. 46)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 46)
v Doctrinal Series v

XV. A FRIENDSHIP OF LOVE, CONTRACTED WITH A MAN WITHOUT REGARD TO HIS SPIRITUAL QUALITY, IS DETRIMENTAL AFTER DEATH

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Viewing moral life in its essence, it can be seen that it is a life that is in accordance both with human laws and with Divine laws; therefore he who lives in accordance with these two laws as one law is a truly moral man, and his life is charity. Anyone, if he will, can understand from external moral life the nature of charity. Only transfer external moral life, such as prevails in civil communities, over into the internal man, so that in its will and thought there may be a likeness and conformity to the acts in the external, and you will see charity in its true image.

(True Christian Religion 445)

To be continued . . .

Charity and Good Works (pt. 45)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 45)
v Doctrinal Series v

XIV. WHEN MORAL LIFE IS AT THE SAME TIME SPIRITUAL, IT IS CHARITY

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Moral life, when it is also spiritual, is a life of charity, because the practices of a moral life and of charity are the same; for charity is willing rightly towards the neighbor, and consequently acting rightly towards him; and this is also moral life. The spiritual law is this law of the Lord:

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets (Matt. 7:12).

This same law is the universal law of moral life. But to recount all the works of charity, and to compare them with the works of moral life, would fill many pages; let the six commandments of the second table of the Decalogue serve for illustration. It is evident to everyone that these are precepts of moral life. That they include everything relating to love to the neighbor... That charity is the fulfilling of all these precepts, is evident from the following in Paul:

Love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Charity worketh no ill to his neighbor; charity is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. 13:8-10).

He who thinks from the external man only, cannot but wonder that the seven commandments of the second table were promulgated by Jehovah on Mount Sinai with so great a miracle; when yet these same precepts, in all the kingdoms of the world, consequently also in Egypt whence the children of Israel had lately come, were the precepts of the law of civil justice, for without them no kingdom can continue to exist. But they were promulgated by Jehovah, and were, moreover, written by His finger on tables of stone, in order that they might be not only the precepts of civil society, and therefore of natural-moral life, but also the precepts of heavenly society, and therefore of spiritual-moral life; so that acting contrary to them would be not only acting in opposition to men, but also to God.

(True Christian Religion 444)

To be continued . . .

Charity and Good Works (pt. 44)

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Charity and Good Works (pt. 44)
v Doctrinal Series v

XIV. WHEN MORAL LIFE IS AT THE SAME TIME SPIRITUAL, IT IS CHARITY

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Every man is taught by his parents and teachers to live morally, that is, to act the part of a good citizen, to discharge the duties of an honorable life (which relate to the various virtues that are the essentials of an honorable life), and to bring them forth through the formalities of an honorable life, which are called proprieties; and as he advances in years he is taught to add to these what is rational, and thereby to perfect what is moral in his life. For in children, even to early youth, moral life is natural, and becomes afterwards more and more rational. Anyone who reflects well upon it can see that a moral life is the same as a life of charity, and that this is to act rightly towards the neighbor, and to so regulate the life as to preserve it from contamination by evils... And yet, in the first period of life, a moral life is a life of charity in outermosts, that is, it is merely the outer and foremost part of it, not the inner part.

For there are four periods of life through which man passes from infancy to old age; the first is when he acts from others according to instructions; the second, when he acts from himself, under the guidance of the understanding; the third, when the will acts upon the understanding, and the understanding regulates the will; and the fourth, when he acts from confirmed principle and deliberate purpose. But these periods of life are the periods of the life of a man's spirit, not in like manner of his body; for the body can act morally and speak rationally while its spirit is willing and thinking opposite things. That this is the nature of the natural man is obvious in the case of pretenders, flatterers, liars, and hypocrites. These evidently enjoy a double mind, that is, their minds are divided into two discordant minds. It is otherwise with those who will rightly and think rationally, and consequently act rightly and talk rationally. These are meant in the Word by the "simple in spirit;" they are called simple, because they are not double-minded.

From all this it can be seen what is meant specifically by the external man; also that, from the morality of the external man, no one can form any conclusion as to the morality of the internal, since this may be turned in an opposite direction, and may hide itself as a tortoise hides its head within its shell, or as a serpent hides its head in its coil. For such a so-called moral man is like a robber in a city and in a forest, acting the part of a moral person in the city, but of a plunderer in the forest.

It is wholly otherwise with those who are moral inwardly or in the spirit, which they become through regeneration by the Lord. These are meant by the spiritually-moral.

(True Christian Religion 443)

To be continued . . .