Once Falsity Has Been Confirmed

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How Man's State is Changed by Confirmations and Consequent Persuasions

There is nothing that cannot be confirmed, and falsity is confirmed more readily than the truth.

What is there that cannot be confirmed, when it is confirmed by atheists:-

• that God is not the Creator of the universe, but that nature is the creator of itself
• that religion is merely a restraint, and for the simple and the common people
• that man is like a beast, and dies like one
• that adulteries are allowable, likewise clandestine thefts, frauds, and deceitful contrivances
• that cunning is intelligence and shrewdness is wisdom

Does not everyone confirm his own heresy? Are there not volumes filled with the confirmations of the two heresies that reign in the Christian world? Make up ten heresies, however abstruse, ask an ingenious man to confirm them, and he will confirm them all. If afterwards you look at them solely from the confirmations, will you not see the falsities as truths? As all falsity is visible in the natural man from its appearances and fallacies, and truth is visible in the spiritual man only, it is clear that falsity can be confirmed more readily than truth.

To make clear that every falsity and every evil can be so confirmed as to make the falsity appear like truth and the evil like good, let it be proved, for example, that light is darkness and darkness light. May it not be asked, What is light in itself? Is it anything more than a something that appears to the eye according to its state? What is light to the closed eye? Have not bats and birds of night such eyes that they see light as darkness and darkness as light? I have been told that some men see in this way; and that the infernals, although they are in darkness, still see each other. Does not man have light in his dreams in the middle of the night? Thus is not darkness light, and light darkness? But it may be answered: What of this? Light is light as truth is truth; and darkness is darkness as falsity is falsity.

Take another example: It is to be proved that a raven is white. May it not be said that its blackness is only a shade that is not its real self? Its feathers are white within, so is its body; and these are the substances of which the bird is formed. As its blackness is a shade, so the raven grows white when it gets old-such have been seen. What is black in itself but white? Pulverize black glass, and you will see that the powder is white; therefore when you call the raven black you speak from the shadow and not from the reality. But the reply may be, What of this? In this way all birds might be called white. Although all this is contrary to sound reason it has been presented to show how confirmations can be found for falsity that is directly opposite to the truth, and for evil that is wholly opposite to the good.

When falsity has been confirmed the truth is not seen, but from confirmed truth falsity is seen.

All falsity is in darkness, and all truth is in light, and in darkness, nothing is seen, and what anything is is known only by handling it; in light, it is otherwise. For this reason, in the Word falsities are called darkness, and thus those that are in falsities are said to walk in darkness and in the shadow of death. On the other hand, truths are there called light, and therefore those who are in truths are said to walk in the light and are called children of light.

There are many things to show that when falsity has been confirmed truth is not seen, and that from confirmed truth falsity is seen. For example, who could see any spiritual truth if it were not taught in the Word? Would there not be merely thick darkness that could be dispelled only by means of the light in which the Word is, and only in him who is willing to be enlightened? What heretic can see his falsities unless he admits the genuine truths of the church? He does not see them before. I have spoken with those who have confirmed themselves in faith separate from charity; and when asked whether they saw how much is said in the Word about love and charity, about works and deeds, and keeping the commandments, and that he is called blessed and wise who does them, and foolish who does them not, they said, that while reading all this they saw it only as a matter of faith, and thus they passed it by with their eyes shut, as it were.

Those that have confirmed themselves in falsities are like those who see cracks in a wall; and in the shades of evening, they see them in their fancies as a horseman or a man, but this fanciful image is dispelled by the inflowing light of day. Who can have a sense of the spiritual uncleanness of adultery except one who is in the spiritual cleanness of chastity? Who can have a sense of the cruelty of revenge except one who is in good from love of the neighbor? Who that is an adulterer, or that is eager for revenge, does not sneer at those who call the delights of such things infernal, and on the other hand, call the delights of conjugial love and of love for the neighbor heavenly? And so on.

An ability to confirm whatever one pleases is not intelligence, but only ingenuity, which may exist even in the worst of men.

There are some who are very skilful in confirming, who have no knowledge of any truth and yet are able to confirm both truth and falsity; and some of them ask, What is truth? Is there any? Is not that true that I make true? And yet such are believed in the world to be intelligent; although they are but wall plasterers. Only those who perceive truth to be truth are intelligent, and they confirm truth by verities continually perceived. There is little discernible difference between these two classes, because there is little discernible difference between the light of confirmation and the light of the perception of truth; and those who are in the light of confirmation seem to be also in the light of the perception of truth, and yet the difference between them is like that between illusive light (light in the night) and genuine light (light of the day); and illusive light is such that in the spiritual world it is turned into darkness when genuine light flows in. Such illusive light prevails with many in hell, and when these are brought into genuine light they see nothing at all. From all this it is clear that the ability to confirm whatever one pleases is mere ingenuity, and may exist even in the worst of men.

There is confirmation that is intellectual and not at the same time volitional; but all volitional confirmation is also intellectual.

This may be illustrated by examples. Those who confirm the doctrine of faith separate from charity and yet live a life of charity, or in general those who confirm falsity of doctrine and yet do not live according to it, are those that are in intellectual confirmation and not at the same time in volitional, while those that confirm falsity of doctrine and live according to it are those that are in both volitional and intellectual confirmation. The reason of this is that the understanding does not flow into the will, but the will flows into the understanding. This also shows what falsity of evil is, and what falsity not of evil is. Falsity not of evil can be conjoined with good, but falsity of evil cannot, for the reason that falsity not of evil is falsity in the understanding and not in the will; while falsity of evil is falsity in the understanding from evil in the will.

The confirmation of evil that is volitional and also intellectual causes man to believe that his own prudence is everything and the Divine providence nothing; but this is not true of intellectual confirmation alone.

There are many who by worldly appearances confirm in themselves, their own prudence and yet do not deny the Divine providence; with such there exists only intellectual confirmation. While with those who at the same time deny the Divine providence there exists also volitional confirmation; but this, together with persuasion, exists chiefly with those who are worshipers of nature and also worshipers of self.

Everything confirmed by the will and also by the understanding remains to eternity, but not what has been confirmed by the understanding only.

For that which pertains to the understanding alone (intellectual) is not within the man but is outside of him; it is merely in the thought; and nothing enters into man and is appropriated to him except what is accepted by the will (volitional), for it then comes to be of his life's love. That this remains to eternity.

Everything confirmed by the will and also by the understanding REMAINS TO ETERNITY, because everyone is his own love, and his love belongs to his will

Because every man is his own good or his own evil, for everything that is called good, and likewise evil, belongs to the love. As man is his own love, he is also a form of his love and may be called the organ of his life's love.

The affections of the love and consequent thoughts of man are changes and variations of the state and form of the organic substances of his mind. What these changes and variations are and their nature shall now be explained.

Some idea of them may be gathered from the heart and lungs, where there are alternate expansions and compressions or dilations and contractions, which in the heart are called systole and diastole and in the lungs respirations. These are a reciprocal distension and retraction or reciprocal stretching apart and closing together of their lobes. Such are the changes and variations of the state of the heart and lungs. There are like changes in the other viscera of the body, and changes more similar in their parts, by which the blood and the animal juice are received and carried onward.

Like things are to be found in the organic forms of the mind, which are the subjects of man's affections and thoughts; with the difference that their expansions and compressions, or reciprocations, are relatively in such higher perfection as cannot be expressed in the words of natural language, but only in those of spiritual language, and these can be defined in no other way than that they are vortex-like circlings inward and outward, after the manner of perpetual and incurving spirals wonderfully bundled together into forms receptive of life.

The nature of these purely organic substances and forms in the evil and in the good shall now be stated.

In the good these spiral forms are turned forward, but in the evil backward; and the spiral forms turning forward are turned towards the Lord and receive influx from Him, while those turning backward are turned towards hell and receive influx therefrom. It is to be known that so far as they are turned backward they are open behind and closed in front; and on the other hand, so far as they are turned forward they are opened in front and closed behind.

From all this it is evident what kind of a form or organ an evil man is, and what kind of a form or organ a good man is, namely, that they are turned in contrary directions; and as the turning when once fixed cannot be reversed it is clear that such as man is when he dies such he REMAINS TO ETERNITY.

It is the love of man's will that makes the turning, that is, that converts and inverts, for, as has been said above, every man is his own love. It is from this that every man after death goes the way of his own love - he that is in a good love to heaven, and he that is in an evil love to hell, and he finds rest only in that society where his reigning love is; and what is wonderful, everyone knows the way; it is like following a scent with the nose.

(Divine Providence 318-319)

Consequences of Being Infatuated By One's Own Intelligence

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The character of those who are in their own prudence and of those who are in prudence not their own, and who are thus in the Divine providence, is described in the Word by "Adam and his wife Eve," in "the garden of Eden," where there were two trees, one of life and the other of the knowledge of good and evil, and by their eating of the latter tree.

• By "Adam and his wife Eve," in the internal or spiritual sense, the Most Ancient Church of the Lord on this earth, which was more noble and heavenly than the succeeding churches, is meant and depicted. The signification of the other things is as follows:-

• "The garden of Eden" signifies the wisdom of the men of that church
• "The tree of life" the Lord in respect to the Divine providence
• "The tree of knowledge" man in respect to his own prudence
• The "serpent" signifies the sensual of man and what is his own (proprium), which in itself is the love of self and the pride of self-intelligence, thus the devil and satan
• "Eating from the tree of knowledge" signifies the appropriation of good and truth, as being from man and consequently man's, and not from the Lord and consequently the Lord's.

As good and truth are the Divine things themselves with man (for by good everything of love is meant and by truth everything of wisdom), so when man claims these to himself as his he cannot but believe that he is as God; therefore the serpent said:-

In the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:5).

Thus do those do in hell who are in the love of self and in the conceit of their own intelligence therefrom.

• The condemnation of the serpent signifies the condemnation of one's own love and one's own intelligence
• The condemnation of Eve signifies the condemnation of the volitional (proprium)
• Adam's condemnation signifies the condemnation of the intellectual (proprium)
• "The thorn and the thistle" that the earth would bring forth to him signify pure falsity and evil
• The expulsion from the garden signifies the deprivation of wisdom
• "The guarding of the way to the tree of life" the Lord's care lest the holy things of the Word and the church be violated
• "The fig leaves with which they covered their nakedness" signify moral truths by which the things of their love and pride were veiled
• "The coats of skin" in which they were afterwards clothed signify the appearances of truth, which were all that they had.

Such is the spiritual meaning of these things. But let him who wishes remain in the sense of the letter; only let him know that in heaven this is the meaning.

The character of those who are infatuated by their own intelligence can be seen from their fancies in matters of interior judgment; for example, respecting influx, thought, and life.

Respecting influx — their thought is inverted, as that the sight of the eye flows into the internal sight of the mind, which is the understanding; and the hearing of the ear flows into the internal hearing, which also is the understanding; and they fail to perceive that the understanding from the will flows into the eye and the ear, and not only makes those senses but also uses them as its instruments in the natural world. But as this is not in accordance with the appearance they fail to perceive what is meant when it is simply said that the natural does not flow into the spiritual but that the spiritual flows into the natural, still thinking, "What is the spiritual but a purer natural?" also, "Is it not evident that when the eye sees any thing beautiful, or the ear hears any thing harmonious, the mind, which is the understanding and the will, is delighted?" And they are not aware that the eye does not see from itself, nor the tongue taste from itself, nor the nose smell from itself, nor the skin feel from itself; but that it is man's mind or spirit that there perceives things by the sense, and is affected by the sense in accordance with its nature; and still these things are not felt by man's mind or spirit from itself, but from the Lord; and to think otherwise is to think from appearances, and if these are confirmed, from fallacies.

Respecting thought — they say that it is something modified in the air, varied according to its objects and enlarged according to culture, thus that the ideas of the thoughts are images like meteors appearing in the air, while the memory is the tablet on which they have been impressed; and they are not aware that thoughts are as much in substances purely organic as the sight and the hearing are in theirs. Only let them examine the brain and they will see that it is full of such substances; injure them and you become delirious, destroy them and you will die. But what thought is and what memory is can be seen above.

Respecting Life — they know nothing else than that it is a certain activity of nature that makes itself felt in various ways, as a living body moves itself organically. If it is asserted that if this be so nature is alive, they deny it, and say that nature imparts life. If it is asked, Then is not life dissipated when the body dies? they answer that life remains in that body of air that is called the soul. If it is asked, What is God then? is He not Life itself? they are silent, and are unwilling to declare what they think. If it is asked, Would you admit that Divine love and Divine wisdom are life itself? they answer, "What are love and wisdom?" For in their fallacies they fail to see what these are or what God is. These things are adduced to make clear how man is infatuated by his own prudence, for the reason that he draws all conclusions from appearances and consequent fallacies.

One's own prudence persuades and corroborates that every good and truth is from man and in man, because man's own prudence is his intellectual self (proprium) flowing in from the love of self which is his voluntary self (proprium); and self cannot do otherwise than make all things its own, for it cannot be raised above that. All who are led by the Lord's Divine providence are raised above the self, and they then see that all good and truth are from the Lord; they even see that what is in man from the Lord is ever the Lord's and never man's. He who believes otherwise is like one who has his master's goods under his care, and claims them for himself or appropriates them as his - he is not a steward, but a thief. And as man's self (proprium) is nothing but evil, he also immerses them in his evil, whereby they are destroyed like pearls cast into dung or into acid.

Everything that a man has adopted by persuasion and confirmation remains in him as his own. Many believe that no truth can be seen by man except when it has been confirmed; but this is a falsity. In the civil and economical affairs of a kingdom or republic, what is useful and good can be seen only by a knowledge of many statutes and ordinances there; or in judicial matters only by a knowledge of the laws; or in the things of nature, like physics, chemistry, anatomy, mechanics, and so on, only when man has been well instructed in the sciences.

But in things purely rational, moral, and spiritual, truths are seen from the light of truth itself, provided man has from a right education become somewhat rational, moral, and spiritual. This is because every man, in respect to his spirit, which is that which thinks, is in the spiritual world, and is one among those who are there; and consequently is in spiritual light, which enlightens the interiors of his understanding, and as it were dictates. For spiritual light in its essence is the Divine truth of the Lord's Divine wisdom. From this it is that man can think analytically, can form conclusions about what is just and right in judicial affairs, can see what is honorable in moral life and good in spiritual life, and many other truths, which are sunk in darkness only by confirmed falsities. These are seen by man comparatively almost as he sees another's disposition from his face, and perceives his affections from the tone of his voice, with no other knowledge than what is inherent in everyone. Why should not man see in some measure from influx the interiors of his life, which are spiritual and moral, when there is no animal that does not know from influx its own necessities, which are natural? A bird knows how to build its nest, lay its eggs, hatch its young, and distinguish its food, besides other wonderful things which are called instincts.

(Divine Providence 313-317)

Without the Spiritual Sense, Heresy is Confirmed

An Excerpt From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Word is such in the sense of its letter that it may be drawn aside to confirm any heresy whatever.

The sense of the letter consists of appearances of truth, which hold enclosed in them the genuine truths of heaven, which are called spiritual truths, and unless these truths are revealed and laid bare, that is, unless they are taught in the doctrines of the church, the appearances they present may be drawn over and perverted to favor any falsity whatever, and even to favor evil. For the genuine truths of the Word are like a man, and the appearances of truth, of which the sense of the letter consists, are like his garments, from which alone no judgment can be formed respecting who the man is or what he is. If a man were judged from his garments alone, a king might be called a servant, and a servant a king, and a good man might be called an evil man, and an evil man a good man; and so on.

Those who arrogate to themselves dominion over all things of the church and heaven can apply the sense in its letter a thousand ways to favor their dominion. And this is an easy task, because all things of the church, which are called holy, they place above the human understanding, and when this is assented to and no genuine truth is taught, infernal falsities may be called truths, and devilish evils may be called goods; and the simple may even be persuaded that the edicts of the Pope are just as holy as the commandments of the Word, and even more holy, and yet these are from heaven, while those edicts are for the most part from hell.

For every edict respecting government, faith, and worship in the church, that has for an end dominion in the world, however it may appear in the external form, and may sound as if from the Word, is from hell; while every commandment from the Word, because it has for its end the salvation of souls by the Lord, is from heaven.

(from Apocalypse Explained 1033)

The Distinction Between Uses Done By Devils and Uses Done By Angels

A Portion from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

How can one know whether he is performing uses from the love of self or from the love of uses?

Every man, good or evil, does uses and does them from some love. Suppose there were in the world a society composed entirely of devils, and a society composed entirely of angels:  I am of the opinion that the devils in their society, from the fire of self-love and the glamour of their own glory, would perform as many uses as the angels in theirs. Who then can know from which love or from which source the uses are?

Devils do uses for the sake of themselves and for the sake of fame in order to achieve honors or to amass wealth. But not for these ends do angels perform uses, but for the sake of the uses from love of them.

Man cannot distinguish between these uses, but the Lord does. Everyone who believes in the Lord and shuns evils as sins does uses from the Lord; but everyone who does not believe in the Lord and does not shun evils as sins, performs uses from himself and for the sake of himself. This is the distinction between uses done by devils and uses done by angels.

(from Conjugial Love 266)

Who is the God of Heaven?

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

THE LORD IS THE GOD OF HEAVEN

The first essential is to know who the God of heaven is, since everything else depends upon that.

Throughout the whole of heaven no other than the Lord alone is acknowledged as the God of heaven. There they declare as He Himself taught,

That He is one with the Father; that the Father is in Him and He in the Father, that he who sees Him sees the Father, and that everything that is holy goes forth from Him.  John 10:30, 38; 14:10, 11; 16:13-15.

I have quite often talked with angels on this matter and they have constantly declared that in heaven they are unable to distinguish the Divine into three because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and that it is one in the Lord. They even said that people who come from this world from the Church having an idea of three Divine beings cannot be admitted into heaven because their thought wanders from one to another, and it is not allowable there to think of three and say one. This is because everyone in heaven speaks from the thought, for there they have a cogitative speech or thought speaking. Consequently, those who in this world have distinguished the Divine into three and have adopted a separate idea of each, and have not made that idea one in the Lord and centred it there, cannot be received. For in heaven, they have a communication of the thoughts of all, so that if anyone came there, thinking of three and saying one, he would immediately be discovered and rejected. It ought to be known, however, that all those who have not separated truth from good, or faith from love, receive, when instructed in the other life, the heavenly idea of the Lord, that He is the God of the universe. It is indeed otherwise with those who have separated faith from life, that is, who have not lived in accordance with the precepts of a true faith.

Those, within the Church, who have denied the Lord and have acknowledged only the Father, and have confirmed themselves in that faith, are outside heaven; and because no influx from heaven where the Lord alone is worshipped, reaches them, they are gradually deprived of the faculty of thinking what is true about anything at all. And at length they become as though they were dumb, or else they talk stupidly and wander about with their arms dangling and swinging as if lacking strength in their joints. In the same way, those who have denied the Divinity of the Lord and, like the Socinians,* have acknowledged only His Human are outside heaven. They are brought forward a little towards the right, and let down into the deep and are thus completely separated from the rest of those from the Christian world.

Moreover, those who profess belief in an invisible Divine which they call the soul of the universe [Ens universi], from which all things came into existence, but who reject a faith regarding the Lord, are found to have no belief in any God, since to them this invisible Divine is like nature in its first principles which faith and love cannot reach because it cannot be thought about. Such are relegated among those called naturalistic.

Things happen in a different manner with those born outside the Church and called Gentiles.

All little children, of whom a third part of heaven is formed, are initiated into the acknowledgment and faith that the Lord is their Father, and afterwards that He is the Lord of all, therefore God of heaven and earth. Little children that grow up in the heavens and, by means of cognitions, are perfected even to angelic intelligence and wisdom. Those who are from the Church cannot doubt that the Lord is the God of heaven, for He Himself taught, that

all things of the Father are His. Matt. 11:27; John 16:15; 17:2.

and that

All power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth. Matt. 28:18.

He says "in heaven and in earth" because He who rules heaven rules the earth also, for the one depends upon the other. To rule heaven and earth means to receive from Him every good pertaining to love and every truth pertaining to faith, thus all intelligence and wisdom and so all happiness, in short, eternal life. This also the Lord taught when He said,

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. John 3:36.

Again:

I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. John 11:25, 26.

And again,

I am the way, the truth and the life. John 14:6.

There were certain spirits who, while they lived in the world, acknowledged the Father, without having any other idea of the Lord than as of another man, and who therefore did not believe that He was the God of heaven. For this reason they were permitted to wander about and enquire wherever they wished whether there were any other heaven than the Lord's heaven. They searched for several days but nowhere found any. These spirits were amongst such as placed the happiness of heaven in glory and in domination, and because they could not get possession of what they desired and were told that heaven does not consist of such things, they were indignant and wished to have a heaven where they could lord it over others and be eminent in a glory like that in the world.

(Heaven and Hell 2-6)

* an adherent of a 16th and 17th century theological movement professing belief in God and adherence to the Christian Scriptures but denying the divinity of Christ and consequently denying the Trinity

Moral Life — Two-fold Origin

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

What Moral Life Is ~ What Spiritual Life Is
What Moral Life From Spiritual Life Is ~ What Moral Life Apart From Spiritual Life

Moral life is acting well, sincerely, and justly with one's companions in all the affairs and occupations of life; in a word, it is the life that is apparent before men, because it is the life lived with them. But this life has a two-fold origin — it is either from the love of self and the world, or it is from love to God and love towards the neighbor.

Moral life from the love of self and the world is not in itself moral life, although it seems to be moral; for the man acting thus acts well, sincerely, and justly for the sake of self and the world only, and what is good, sincere, and just serves him as means to an end, which is, either that he may be raised above others and rule over them, or that he may gain wealth; and of these things he thinks in his spirit, or when he is by himself secretly; but these things that he thinks he does not dare to avow openly, because they would destroy the good opinion others have of him, and thus destroy the means by which he wishes to attain his ends. From this it can be seen that there lies within the moral life of such a man nothing else than to acquire all things in preference to others, thus that he wishes to have all others to serve him, or to gain possession of their goods; from which it is evident that his moral life is not in itself a moral life; for if he should gain what he aims at, or what he has as an end, he would subject others to himself as slaves, and would deprive them of their goods. And as all means savor of the end, and in their essence are of the same quality as their ends, for which reason they are also called intermediate ends, therefore such a life, regarded in itself, is merely craftiness and fraud. And this also becomes clearly evident in the case of those with whom these external bonds are released, as takes place, when engaged in lawsuits against their fellows, when they desire nothing so much as to subvert justice, and secure the good will of the judge or the favor of the king, and this secretly, that they may deprive others of their goods; and when they obtain this, they rejoice in spirit and in heart. This is still more evident in the case of kings who place honor in wars and victories, that they find the highest joy of their hearts in subjugating provinces and kingdoms, and where resistance is made, in depriving the vanquished of all their goods, and even of life. Such also is the delight of many who engage at such times in military service. This becomes still more evident with all of this character when they become spirits, which is immediately after the death of the body. As they then think and act from their spirit, they rush into every wickedness according to their love, however morally they may have lived in appearance while in the world.

But spiritual life is wholly different because it has a different origin; for it is from love to God and love towards the neighbor. Consequently, the moral life also of those who are spiritual is different, and is a truly moral life; for these, when they think in their spirit, which takes place when they are thinking secretly by themselves, do not think from self and the world, but from the Lord and heaven; for the interiors of their minds, that is, of their thought and will, are actually elevated by the Lord into heaven, and are there conjoined to Him; thus the Lord flows into their thoughts, intentions, and ends, and governs them and withdraws them from their proprium [what is their own], which is solely from the love of self and of the world. The moral life of such persons is, in appearance, like the moral life of those described above, and yet their moral life is spiritual, because it is from a spiritual origin. Their moral life is simply an effect of spiritual life, which is the efficient cause, thus the origin. For they act well, sincerely, and justly with their fellows from fear of God and from love of the neighbor; in these loves the Lord keeps their mind and disposition [mentem et animum]; consequently when they become spirits, which takes place when the body dies, they think and act intelligently and wisely, and are elevated into heaven. Of these it may be said, that with them every good of love and every truth of faith flows in out of heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord. But this is not true of those described above; for their good [the good of heaven] is not the good of heaven, nor is their truth the truth of heaven; but what they call good is the delight of the lust of the flesh, and it is falsity therefrom that they call truth; these flow into them from self and from the world. From this it can also be known what moral life from spiritual life is, and what moral life apart from spiritual life is; namely, that moral life from spiritual life is truly moral life, which may be called spiritual since it has its cause and origin in the spiritual; but that moral life apart from spiritual life, not moral life, and may be called infernal, for so far as the love of self and of the world reign in it, so far it is fraudulent and hypocritical.

From what has now been said, the quality of external sanctity may also be inferred (by which is meant worship in churches, prayers, and gestures then), with such as are in the love of self and of the world, and yet live an apparently moral life, namely, that nothing of these is elevated to heaven and is heard there, but that they flow out from some thought of the external or natural man, and thus from their mouth into the world. For the interior thoughts of such, which are of their very spirits, are full of craftiness and fraud against the neighbor; and yet it is through interiors that there is elevation into heaven. Moreover, their worship in churches, and prayers, and gestures at such times, are either the result of habit from infancy, and are thence become familiar, or they are from a principle that such external things contribute everything to salvation, or they are a consequence of there being no business for them at home and abroad on holy days, or of a fear of being regarded as irreligious by their companions.

But worship with those who live a moral life from a spiritual origin is altogether different, for it is truly a worship of God, for their prayers are elevated to heaven and are heard, for the Lord leads their prayers through heaven to Himself.
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As few know what it is to live a moral life from a spiritual origin, and what it is to apply the knowledges of truth and good from the Word to the uses of their life, it shall be told.

Man lives a moral life from a spiritual origin when he lives it from religion; that is, when he thinks, when anything evil, insincere, or unjust presents itself: that this must not be done because it is contrary to the Divine laws. When one abstains from doing such things in deference to Divine laws he acquires for himself spiritual life, and his moral life is then from the spiritual; for by such thoughts and faith, man communicates with the angels of heaven, and by communication with heaven, his internal spiritual man is opened, the mind of which is a higher mind, such as the angels of heaven have, and he is thereby imbued with heavenly intelligence and wisdom. From this it can be seen that to live a moral life from a spiritual origin is to live from religion, and within the church, to live from the Word; for those who live a moral life from religion and from the Word are elevated above their natural man, thus above what is their own [proprium], and are led by the Lord through heaven; consequently they have faith, the fear of God, and conscience, and also the spiritual affection of truth, which is the affection of the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, for to such men these are Divine laws, according to which they live. Many of the heathen live such a moral life, for they think that evil must not be done because it is contrary to their religion; this is why so many of them are saved.

But on the other hand, to live a moral life not from religion, but only from the fear of the law in the world, and of the loss of fame, honor, and gain, is to live a moral life not from a spiritual but from a natural origin; therefore to such there is no communication with heaven. And as they think insincerely and unjustly regarding the neighbor, although they speak and act otherwise, their internal spiritual man is closed, and the internal natural man only is opened; and when this is open they are in the light of the world, but not in the light of heaven. For this reason such persons have in them little regard for Divine and heavenly things, and some deny them, believing nature and the world to be everything. ...

It was said above, that man becomes spiritual by means of the knowledges of truth and good from the Word applied to the uses of life. Why men become spiritual by means of knowledges from the Word, and not by means of other knowledges, shall now be told.

All things that are in the Word are Divine, and they are Divine for the reason that they have in them a spiritual sense, and by that sense communicate with heaven and with the angels there. When, therefore, man has knowledges from the Word and applies them to life, then through these he has communication with heaven and by that communication becomes spiritual; for man becomes spiritual by his being in like or in corresponding truths with the angels of heaven. It is said in "corresponding" truths, because each and all things in the sense of the letter of the Word are correspondences, for they correspond to the truths that angels have. But the knowledges derived from other books, which set forth and by various means establish the doctrines of the church, do not effect communication with heaven except by the knowledges from the Word they contain; such knowledges do give communication if they are rightly understood and are applied to life, and not to faith alone. Everyone can see that this is so from this, that the Word in itself is Divine, and what is Divine in itself can become Divine with man by his applying it to life. "Becoming Divine with man" means that the Lord can have His abode with man (John 14:23), thus dwelling with him in what is His own. The Lord dwells in His own when He dwells in those things with man that are from the Word, for the Lord is the Word (John 1:1, 2, 14); and the words that He spoke, that is, that are in the Word: Are spirit and life (John 6:63, 68; 12:50).

(from Apocalypse Explained 182; 195)

Christians In Heart, Not In Profession Only

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

No one is admitted into the Lord's kingdom unless he is in the good of faith, for the good of faith is of the life, and the life of faith remains, but not the doctrine of faith, except insofar as it makes one with the life; nevertheless they who are in the truth of faith (that is, who profess faith and call it essential, because they have so learned) and yet are in the good of life (that is, who are Christians in heart and not in profession only), are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. For anyone may easily be persuaded that faith is the essential when he has been so taught by his instructors and has imbibed this opinion in his childhood, and because they who are reputed most learned and the heads of the church say so, some of whom are afraid to speak of the good of life because their life condemns them; moreover the things that belong to faith flow in perceptibly, but not so those which belong to charity.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3242)