Where in the Mind are Theological Matters.

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
~ Memorable Relation ~

I was engaged in thought about what region of the mind in man is occupied with theological matters. At first I supposed that being spiritual and heavenly they occupy the highest region. For the human mind is divided into three regions, as a house into three stories, or the angelic abodes into three heavens.

Then an angel standing near said,

"With those who love truth because it is true, theological matters rise even into the highest region of the mind, because in that region is their heaven, and they are in the light in which angels dwell. But moral subjects theoretically examined and perceived have their place in a second region beneath these, because they communicate with things spiritual. Beneath these in a first region political subjects have their place; while scientific matters, which are manifold, and may be referred to genera and species, form a door to these higher matters.

Those with whom things spiritual, moral, political, and scientific are thus subordinated, think what they think and do what they do from justice and judgment. This is because the light of truth, which is also the light of heaven, illuminates from the highest region all things that follow, as the light of the sun, passing in turn through the ethers and through the atmospheres, illumines the eyes of men and beasts and fishes.

It is different, however, in matters of theology with those who love truth not because it is true, but only for the glory of their reputation. With them theological subjects have their seat in the lowest region along with scientific subjects; with some the former are mingled with the latter; with others the two cannot be so mingled. In the same region but still lower are political subjects, and beneath these again moral subjects, for in such persons the two higher regions are not opened on the right hand; and in consequence they have no interior reason from judgment and no affection for justice, but only a cleverness which enables them to talk on every subject as if from intelligence and to confirm whatever presents itself as if from reason; but the objects of reason which they chiefly love are falsities, because these adhere to the fallacies of the senses. This is why there are so many in the world who no more see truths of doctrine from the Word than those blind can see; and when such hear truths they hold their nostrils, lest the scent of the truths should disturb them and excite nausea; while on the other hand, they open all their senses to falsities and drink them in as whales drink in water."

(True Christian Religion 186)

Receiving Something of the Spiritual in the Natural.

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Every man may be reformed, and there is no such thing as predestination.

Sound reason declares that all men were predestined to heaven, and no one to hell; for all are born men, and in consequence the image of God is in them.

The image of God in men is the ability to understand truth and to do good. The ability to understand truth is from the Divine wisdom, and the ability to do good is from the Divine love. This ability is the image of God, which remains in every sane man, and is not eradicated. From this comes his ability to become a civil and moral man; and the civil and moral man can also become spiritual, for the civil and moral is a receptacle of the spiritual. He is called a civil man who knows the laws of the kingdom wherein he is a citizen and lives according to them; and he is called a moral man who makes these laws his morals and his virtues, and from reason lives them.

It shall now be told how a civil and moral life is a receptacle of spiritual life:

Live these laws, not only as civil and moral laws, but also as Divine laws, and you will be a spiritual man.

Scarcely a nation exists so barbarous as not to have prohibited by laws murder, adultery with the wife of another, theft, false-witness, and injury to what is another's. The civil and moral man observes these laws, that he may be, or may seem to be, a good citizen; but if he does not also regard these laws as Divine he is merely a civil and moral natural man; while if he does also regard them as Divine he becomes a civil and moral spiritual man. The difference is that the latter is both a good citizen of the earthly kingdom and a good citizen of the heavenly kingdom; while the former is a good citizen of the earthly kingdom only, and not of the heavenly kingdom. The difference is seen in the goods they do; the goods done by civil and moral natural men are not in themselves good, for the man and the world are in them; the goods done by civil and moral spiritual men are good in themselves, because the Lord and heaven are in them.

From all this it can be seen that as every man was born that he might become a civil and moral natural man, so, too, he was born that he might become a civil and moral spiritual man.

This is done simply by his acknowledging God and not doing evil because it is against God, but doing good because it is accordant with God, whereby a spirit enters into his civil and moral activities, and they live; otherwise there is no spirit in them, and therefore they are not living. And this is why the natural man, however civilly and morally he may act, is called dead; but the spiritual man is called living.

It is of the Lord's Divine providence that every nation has some religion; and the primary thing in every religion is to acknowledge that there is a God, otherwise it is not called a religion; and every nation that lives according to its religion, that is, that refrains from doing evil because it is contrary to its god, receives something of the spiritual in its natural. When one hears some Gentile say that he is unwilling to do this or that evil because it is contrary to his god, does he not say to himself, Is not this man saved? it seems as if it could not be otherwise. Sound reason declares this to him. On the other hand, when he hears a Christian say, I make no account of this or that evil; why is it said to be contrary to God? does he not say to himself, Is this man saved? it seems impossible. Sound reason declares this also.

If such an one says, I was born a Christian, I have been baptized, I have known about the Lord, I have read the Word, I have attended the sacrament of the Supper-does this amount to anything if he does not regard murders, or the revenge that breathes them, adulteries, secret thefts, false testimony or lies, and various kinds of violence, as sins? Does such a man think about God or any eternal life? Does he believe that there is any God or any eternal life? Does not sound reason declare that such a person cannot be saved? All this has been said respecting a Christian, because a Gentile thinks about God from religion in his life more than a Christian does.

(Divine Providence 322)

Both Will and Understanding in Agreement

Selection from Doctrine of Life ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

If a man has much knowledge and much wisdom, and does not shun evils as sins, he is nevertheless not wise.  The reason for this is: that he is wise from himself, and not from the Lord.  For example: if he knows the doctrine of his Church and all that relates to it, perfectly; if he knows how to confirm it all by the Word and by reasonings; if he knows the doctrines of all the Churches throughout the ages, and also the decrees of all the Councils; indeed, if he knows truths, and also sees and understands them; if, for instance, he knows what faith is, and charity, piety, repentance and the remission of sins, regeneration, baptism and the Holy Supper, the Lord, redemption and salvation, still he is not wise if he does not shun evils as sins.  For his knowledge is without life, because it is of his understanding only, and not at the same time of his will; and because it is of this nature it perishes in course of time, for the reason:

A man who is not spiritual can yet think and consequently speak rationally like a spiritual man, because man's understanding can be elevated into the light of heaven, which is truth, and can see by that light; but man's will cannot be similarly elevated into the heat of heaven, which is love, and act from that heat.  Hence it is that truth and love do not make one in a man unless he is spiritual.  Hence also it is that man can speak; and this also forms a distinction between man and beast.  It is through this capability of the understanding to be elevated into heaven, (but not yet of the will), that man can be reformed and become spiritual; but he is first reformed and becomes spiritual when the will also is elevated.  From this faculty belonging to the understanding over that of the will, a man can think, and thence speak, rationally like one who is spiritual, whatever his quality may be, even though he should be principled in evil.  Nevertheless he is not rational, because the understanding does not lead the will, but the will the understanding, the latter only teaching and showing the way. . . 

As long, therefore, as the will is not in heaven along with the understanding, the man is not spiritual, and consequently not rational.  For when he is left to his own will, or his own love, he rejects the rational ideas of his understanding concerning God, heaven and eternal life, and in their place he adopts such ideas as agree with the love of his will, and these he calls rational.  But further consideration of these matters will be seen in the treatises on Angelic Wisdom. (From Doctrine of Life 15)

Moreover, after death the man himself rejects this knowledge, for it does not agree with the love of his will.

(From Doctrine of Life 27)

What It Is To Live As A Christian

It is Not Difficult in The Heavenly Doctrine, as it was on Babylon Destroyed

Two things are requisite:

(1) to believe in the Lord, that is, to believe that all good and truth is from Him;
(2) to live an honest life, consequently, to shun outward evils, which also are contrary to the civil laws.

A Christian lives as anyone else in external form: he may grow rich, but not by craft and trickery; he may eat and drink well, but not place his very life in those things, and find his delight in superfluities and also in drunkenness, that is, live for appetite; he may be well, and even, according to his condition, handsomely, housed; he may associate with others, like other men, amuse himself in their society; discuss the affairs of the world and the various things in domestic matters: in a word, without any difference in externals, to such an extent that no difference is apparent. Neither is it necessary that he should appear devout, so as [to go about] as it were with a sorrowful countenance, and with shaking head, and with sighing; but that he be cheerful and merry; nor [need he] give his goods to the poor, except so far as the affection of the neighbor prompts him. He ought to be a moral man, and a good one; but, with him, the moral man, because he reflects that all good and truth is from the Lord, is a spiritual man.

Not so, however, with those who do not believe in the Divine, but [regard] self and the world in all things, or with whom moral life is for the sake of self and the world: their moral life is natural, and not in the least spiritual.

With the truly Christian man whose faith and life is of such a quality, the internal is altogether different. It is turned towards heaven. The Lord leads his will, or love, and gives him the affection of good, that is, the faculty of being affected, or made glad, by reason of good; he also leads his understanding, so that he may be affected with truth, and so that, immediately he hears it, he is also gladdened, and it is implanted in his life; and, so far as he learns the truth, so far it abides in him, and, by its means, he is led by the Lord.

For he who does not know what good and truth are, cannot be led by the Lord. A man is led through that which he knows.

The Lord inflows into those things which he knows, and so leads his affections and thoughts. This is understood by being affected by truth for the sake of truth, and by good for the sake of good, and loving truth and good for the sake of life. It is not that he reflects therefrom that he will now implant it in his life: this would be from proprium; but the Lord leads him, through those things which he learns, from affection or love.

The reason he is in freedom, is, because he is led to good in such a way as to be affected by truth and good, and thus as to be led in it by the Lord; and, then, he is led away from thinking and willing evil. Also, not to will evil, but good, is freedom; and this freedom is from the Lord. These are averse from, and they shun, evils; wherefore, to think and to do them, is, with them, compulsion. But, with the evil, doing and thinking evils is freedom, and thinking and willing good is compulsion; and to be of such a character, is to be a slave.

(Swedenborg' s Diary 5793-5797)

Entering Heaven With A Right Understanding

Selection from Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
~ A Memorable Relation ~

All who are prepared for heaven, which is effected in the world of spirits, which is in the midst between heaven and hell, after a certain time, desire heaven with a certain longing, and presently their eyes are opened, and they see a way which leads to some society in heaven. They enter this way and ascend, and in the ascent there is a gate, and a keeper there. The keeper opens the gate, and thus they go in. Then an examiner meets them, who tells them from the governor, that they may enter in still further, and inquire whether there are any houses which they can recognize as their own, for there is a new house for every novitiate angel; and if they find any, they give notice of it and remain there. But if they do not find any, they come back and say they have not seen any. And then they are examined by a certain wise one there, to discover whether the light that is in them agrees with the light of that society, and especially whether the heat does; for the light of heaven in its essence is Divine truth, and the heat of heaven in its essence is Divine good, both proceeding from the Lord as the sun there. If any other light and any other heat than the light and heat of that society is in them, they are not received; that is, if any other truth and any other good is in them. Therefore, they depart thence and go in the ways which are opened among the societies in heaven, and this till they find a society which agrees in every respect with their affections, and here they take up their abode to eternity. For they are here among their like, as among relations and friends whom, because they are in a similar affection, they love from the heart and there they are in the enjoyment of their life, and in a fullness of bosom delight derived from peace of soul; for there is in the heat and light of heaven an ineffable delight, which is communicated. Such is the case with those who become angels.

But they who are in evils and falsities may, by leave given to them, ascend into heaven; but when they enter, they begin to draw their breath or to respire with difficulty, and presently their sight is obscured, their understanding is darkened, and thought ceases, and death seems present before their eyes, and thus they stand like a stock. And then they begin to have a beating at the heart, and a straitness over the breast, the mind is seized with anguish, and they become more and more tormented, and in that state writhe themselves about like a serpent laid before the fire; therefore, they roll themselves away, and cast themselves headlong down a precipice which then appears to them; nor do they rest till they are in hell among their like, where they can respire, and their heart can vibrate freely. Afterwards they hate heaven, and reject truth, and in heart blaspheme the Lord, believing that their tortures and torments in heaven proceeded from him.

From these few things it may be seen what their lot is who make no account of truths, which yet make the light in which the angels of heaven dwell, and who make no account of goods, which yet make the heat in which the angels of heaven are.

From these things it may appear how much they are in error, who believe that everyone may enjoy heavenly beatitude by mere admission into heaven. For the faith at this day is, that heaven is received from mercy alone; and that reception into heaven is like being admitted, in this world, into a house where there is a marriage, and then at the same time into the joy and gladness. But let them know, that there is a communication of affections in the spiritual world, man being then a spirit, and the life of a spirit is affection, from which, and according to which, is thought; and that homogeneous affection conjoins and heterogeneous affection disjoins, and that heterogeneity would torment a devil in heaven, and an angel in hell. For which reason they are separated exactly according to the diversities, varieties, and differences of the affections which are of love.

It was granted me to see upwards of three hundred of the clergy of the Reformed world, all men of learning, who knew how to confirm the doctrine of faith alone even to justification, and some of them still further. And because there prevailed a belief among them also, that heaven consists only in admission by favor, leave was given them to ascend to a society in heaven, though not one of the higher ones. And as they ascended together, they appeared at a distance like calves. And when they entered into heaven they were received with civility by the angels, but when they discoursed with them, they were seized with trembling, afterwards with horror, and lastly with the agonies as it were of death, and then they cast themselves down headlong, and in their descent they appeared like dead horses. The reason of their appearing like calves as they ascended, was, because from correspondence the natural affection of seeing and knowing appears gamboling like a calf; and the reason why they appeared like dead horses as they fell, was, because from correspondence the understanding of truth from the Word appears like a horse, and the non-understanding of truth in the Word, like a dead horse.

There were boys below, who saw them falling, to whom in their descent they seemed like dead horses. And then they turned away their faces, and said to their master, who was with them, "What is this portent*? We beheld men and now instead of them there are dead horses, the sight of which we could not bear, and we therefore turned away our faces. Master, let us not stay in this place, but let us go away:" and they departed. The master then instructed them in the way what "a dead horse" is, saying, "'A horse' signifies the understanding of the Word; all the horses which you saw, signified that; for when a man goes meditating from the Word, then his meditation, at a distance, appears as a horse, noble and lively, as he meditates spiritually on the Word, and, on the contrary, poor and dead, as he meditates materially."
* a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen.

The boys then asked, "What is it to meditate on the Word spiritually and materially?" And the master replied, "I will illustrate it by examples. Who, when he reads the Word, does not think of God, his neighbor, and heaven?

Everyone who thinks of God only from Person, and not from Essence, thinks materially; also he who thinks of the neighbor only from form, and not from quality, thinks materially; and he who thinks of heaven only from place, and not from the love and wisdom which heaven is, he also thinks materially."

But the boys said, "We have thought of God from Person, of the neighbor from form, that he is a man, and of heaven from place; did we therefore, when we were reading the Word, appear to anyone as dead horses?"

The master said, "No, you are yet boys, and could not think otherwise; but I have perceived in you an affection of knowing and understanding, which, because it is spiritual, shows that you have also thought spiritually. But I will return to what I said at first, that he who thinks materially, when he reads the Word or is meditating from it, appears at a distance like a dead horse; but he who reads it spiritually, like a living horse; and that he thinks materially concerning God and the Trinity, who thinks of God only from Person, and not from essence. For there are many attributes of the Divine essence, such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy, grace, eternity, and others; and there are attributes proceeding from the Divine essence, which are creation and preservation, salvation and redemption, enlightenment and instruction. Everyone who thinks of God only from person, makes three Gods, saying that one God is the Creator and Preserver, another the Saviour and Redeemer, and the third the Enlightener and Instructor. But everyone who thinks of God from essence, makes one God, saying, God created and preserves us, redeems and saves us, enlightens and instructs us. "This is the reason why they who think of the Trinity in God from Person, and thus materially, cannot, from the ideas of their thought, which are material, do otherwise than out of one God make three; but yet, contrary to their thought, they are held to saying, that in each there is a communion of all the attributes, and this solely because they have also thought of God obscurely from essence.

Therefore, my pupils, think of God from His essence, and from that of His Person, and not from His Person, and from this of His essence, for to think of His essence from Person, is to think materially of His essence also; but to think of His Person from essence, is to think spiritually even of His Person.

The ancient Gentiles, because as they thought materially of God, and also of the attributes of God, not only imagined three gods, but many even to the number of a hundred.

Know then that the material does not flow into the spiritual, but the spiritual into the material.

It is similar with the thought of the neighbor from form, and not from his quality, and with the thought of heaven from place, and not from the love and wisdom which heaven is. It is similar with each and everything in the Word. Therefore, he who cherishes a material idea of God, and likewise of the neighbor and of heaven, cannot understand anything there. The Word is to him a dead letter, and he himself, when he reads it or meditates on it, appears at a distance as a dead horse.

"They whom you saw falling from heaven, and who appeared in your sight like dead horses, were such as had closed the rational sight in themselves and others by this peculiar dogma, that the understanding is to be kept in subjection to their faith; not considering that the understanding, when closed by religion, is as blind as a mole, and there is mere thick darkness in it, and such thick darkness as rejects from itself all spiritual light, opposes its influx from the Lord and from heaven, and sets up a barrier against it in the sensual corporeal part, far below the rational in matters of faith, that is, places it near the nose, and fixes it in its cartilage, on which account they cannot afterwards so much as scent spiritual things; whence some have become such that when they sensate the odor from spiritual things they fall into a swoon; by odor I mean perception. These are they who make God three. They say indeed from essence that God is one; but yet when they pray from their faith, which is that "God the Father would have mercy for the sake of the Son and send the Holy Spirit," they evidently make three Gods. They cannot do otherwise, for they pray to one to have mercy for the sake of another, and send a third."

And then their master taught them concerning the Lord, that He is the one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity.

(Apocalypse Revealed 611)

What Faith Is

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are many who say that man is saved by faith, or, in their words, if he only has faith; but for the most part they are those who do not know what faith is. Some suppose that it is mere thought; some that it is an acknowledgment of something to be believed; some that it is the whole doctrine of faith, which is to be believed; and others otherwise. Thus in the bare knowledge of what faith is they wander in error; consequently in the knowledge of what that is by which man is saved.

Faith, however, is not mere thought, nor is it an acknowledgment of something to be believed, nor a knowledge of all things which belong to the doctrine of faith. By these no one can be saved; for they can take root no deeper than in the thought, and thought saves no one, but the life which the man has procured for himself in the world by means of the knowledges of faith. This life remains; whereas all thought which does not accord with the life perishes, even so as to become none at all.

The heavenly consociations are according to lives, and by no means according to thoughts which are not of the life. Thoughts which are not of the life are counterfeit, and such are altogether rejected.

In general, life is twofold, being on the one hand infernal, on the other heavenly.

• Infernal life is acquired from all those ends, thoughts, and works which flow from the love of self, consequently from hatred against the neighbor.
• Heavenly life, from all those ends, thoughts, and works which are of love toward the neighbor.

The latter is the life to which all things that are called faith have regard, and which is procured by all things of faith.

All this shows what faith is, namely, that it is charity, for to charity all things lead which are said to be of the doctrine of faith; in it they are all contained, and from it they are all derived. The soul, after the life of the body, is such as its love is.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2228:2, 3)

Wisdom With Love Dwelling Together With Delights

Selection from Interaction of Soul and Body ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The understanding in a man can be elevated into the light, that is, into the wisdom in which the angels of heaven are, according to the cultivation of his reason; and in like manner his will can be elevated into the heat of heaven, that is, into love, according to the deeds of his life; but the love of the will is not elevated except so far as the man wills and does those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches.

By the human mind are meant its two faculties, which are called the understanding and the will. The understanding is the receptacle of the light of heaven, which in its essence is wisdom, and the will is the receptacle of the heat of heaven, which in its essence is love, as was shown above. These two, wisdom and love, proceed from the Lord, as a sun, and flow into heaven universally and particularly, whence the angels have wisdom and love; and they also flow into this world universally and particularly, whence men have wisdom and love.

But these two [wisdom and love] united proceed from the Lord, and likewise united flow into the souls of angels and men, but they are not received united in their minds. Light which makes the understanding is first received there, and love which constitutes the will is received gradually. This also is of providence, because every man is to be created anew, that is, reformed, and this is effected through the understanding; for from infancy he must acquire the knowledges of truth and good, which will teach him to live well, that is, to will and act rightly. Thus the will is formed through the understanding.

For the sake of this end, there is given to man the faculty of elevating his understanding almost into the light in which the angels of heaven are, that he may see what he ought to will and thence to do, in order that he may be prosperous in the world for a time, and be happy after death to eternity. He becomes prosperous and happy if he procures for himself wisdom, and keeps his will under obedience to it; but unprosperous and unhappy if he subjects his understanding under obedience to his will. The reason is, because the will from birth inclines to evils, even to enormous ones; wherefore unless it were curbed by the understanding, a man would rush into heinous things, yea, from his inborn savage nature, he would depopulate and slaughter for the sake of himself all those who do not favor and indulge him.

Furthermore, unless the understanding could be separately perfected, and the will by means of it, a man would not be a man, but a beast. For without that separation, and without the ascent of the understanding above the will, he would not be able to think, and from thought to speak, but only to express his affection by sounds; neither would he be able to act from reason, but only from instinct; still less would he be able to know the things which are of God, and God by means of them, and thus to be conjoined to Him, and to live to eternity. For a man thinks and wills as from himself, and this as from himself is the reciprocal of conjunction; for there cannot be conjunction without a reciprocal, just as there cannot be conjunction of the active with the passive without reaction. God alone acts, and man suffers himself to be acted on, and he reacts in all appearance as from himself, though interiorly it is from God.

From these things rightly perceived it may be seen what is the quality of the love of a man's will if it is elevated by means of the understanding, and what is its quality if it is not elevated; consequently, what is the quality of the man. But this quality of a man if the love of his will is not elevated by means of the understanding shall be illustrated by comparisons —

• He is like an eagle which flies on high, and as soon as it sees the food below which is the object of its desire, as chickens, young swans, yea, young lambs, swoops down in a moment and devours them.
• He is also like an adulterer, who conceals a harlot in a cellar below, and by turns goes up to the highest part of the house, and talks wisely with those who dwell there about chastity, and by turns hastens away from his companions, and indulges his lasciviousness below with his harlot.
• He is also like a thief on a tower, who there pretends to keep watch, but who, as soon as he sees an object of plunder below, hastens down and seizes it. He may also be compared to marsh-flies, which fly in a column over the head of a running horse, but which fall down when the horse stops, and immerse themselves in their marsh.

Such is the man whose will or love is not elevated by means of the understanding, for he then stands still below at the foot, immersed in the unclean things of nature and the lusts of the senses.

It is altogether otherwise with those who subdue the allurements of the cupidities of the will by means of the wisdom of the understanding. With these the understanding afterwards enters into a conjugial covenant with the will, thence wisdom with love, and they dwell together above with delights.

(Interaction of Soul and Body XII:14)