Elevating The Mind Above Sensual Things

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them (Deut. 28:13).

"To make as the head" means to make spiritual and intelligent, and thus to elevate out of the light of the world into the light of heaven; and "to make as the tail" means to make sensual and foolish, so as not to look to heaven but only to the world; therefore it is said "and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath," "to be above" meaning to be elevated by the Lord so as to look to heaven, and "to be beneath" meaning not to be elevated by the Lord, but by self, and man by self looks only to the world. For man's interiors, which belong to his thought and affection, are elevated to heaven by the Lord when man is in the good of life and thence in the truths of doctrine; but when he is in the evil of life and thence in falsities, his lower things look downward, thus only to his body and to such things as are in the world, and thus to hell. Thus man puts off his truly human nature and puts on a beastly nature, for beasts look downward and to such things only as are met with in the world and upon the earth. Elevation into the light of heaven by the Lord is an actual elevation of man's interiors to the Lord; and a depression or casting down to such things as are below and outside the eyes is an actual depression and casting down of the interiors, and when this takes place, all the thought of the spirit is immersed in the ultimate sensual.

Sensual knowledges are such knowledges as enter from the world through the five bodily senses, and thence viewed in themselves are more material, corporeal, and worldly than those that are interior. All who are in the love of self and have confirmed themselves against Divine and spiritual things are sensual men, and when they are left to themselves and think in their spirit, they think about Divine and spiritual things from sensual knowledges, and consequently they reject Divine and spiritual things as not to be believed, because they do not see them with their eyes or touch them with their hands; and they apply their knowledges - which they have made sensual and material - to the destruction of these. For example, men who are learned in this kind of knowledge, who are skilled in physics, anatomy, botany, and other branches of human learning, when they see the wonderful things in the animal and vegetable kingdoms say in their hearts that all these things are from nature, and not from the Divine, and this because they believe in nothing that they do not see with their eyes and touch with their hands; for they are unable to elevate their minds upward so as to see these things from the light of heaven, for that light is thick darkness to them; but they detain their minds in earthly things, much the same as the animals of the earth do, with which indeed they compare themselves.

In a word, with such all knowledges [scientiae] are made sensual; for such as the man himself is, such are all things of his understanding and will; if the man is spiritual all things become spiritual; if he is merely natural all things become natural and not spiritual; if the man is sensual all things become sensual, and this however learned and erudite he may seem to the world to be.

But as every man has the faculty to understand truths and perceive goods, such men are able from that faculty to talk about these things like those who are spiritual-rational, although in respect to their spirit they are sensual; for when such men speak before others, they do not speak from the spirit but from the bodily memory.

All this has been said to make known what sensual knowledges are. These are what especially persuade, or are especially persuasive, because they are the ultimates of the understanding; for into these, as into its ultimates, the understanding closes, and these captivate the common people because they are appearances drawn from such things as they see in the world with their eyes; and so long as the thought clings to these it is impossible to dispose the mind to think interiorly or above them until they are put away; for the interior things of the mind all close into ultimates and rest upon them, as a house upon its foundation; consequently these are especially persuasive, but only with those whose minds cannot be elevated above sensual things; and the mind is elevated above them with those who are in the light of heaven from the Lord, for the light of heaven dissipates them. For this reason spiritual men rarely think from things sensual, for they think from things rational and intellectual; but sensual men, who have confirmed themselves in falsities against Divine and spiritual things, when they are left to themselves think only from sensual things.

(from Apocalypse Explained 559:6,2-3)

Two Distinct Things Created to Act as One

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Man's soul, which lives after death, is his spirit, and is in complete form a man. The soul of this form is the will and understanding, and the soul of these is love and wisdom from the Lord; these two are what constitute man's life, which is from the Lord above, yet for the sake of man's reception of Him, He causes life to appear as if it were man's. But that man may not claim life for himself as his, and thus withdraw himself from this reception of the Lord, the Lord has also taught that everything of love, which is called good, and everything of wisdom, which is called truth, is from Him, and nothing of these from man, and as these two are life, that everything of life which is life is from Him.

Since the soul in its very esse is love and wisdom, and these two in man are from the Lord, there are created in man two receptacles, which are also the abodes of the Lord in man — one for love, the other for wisdom, the one for love called the will, the other for wisdom called the understanding. Now since Love and Wisdom in the Lord are one distinctly, and Divine Love is of His Divine Wisdom, and Divine Wisdom is of His Divine Love, and since these so go forth from God-Man, that is, from the Lord, therefore these two receptacles and abodes of the Lord in man - the will and understanding - are so created by the Lord as to be distinctly two, and yet make one in every operation and every sensation; for in these, (every operation and every sensation), the will and understanding cannot be separated. Nevertheless, to enable man to become a receptacle and an abode of the Lord, it is provided, as necessary to this end, that man's understanding can be raised above his proper love into some light of wisdom in the love of which the man is not, and that he can thereby see and be taught how he must live if he would come also into that higher love, and thus enjoy eternal happiness. But by the misuse of this power to elevate the understanding above his proper love, man has subverted in himself that which might have been the receptacle and abode of the Lord (that is, of love and wisdom from the Lord), by making the will an abode for the love of self and the world, and the understanding an abode for whatever confirms those loves. From this it has come that these two abodes, the will and understanding, have become abodes of infernal love, and by confirmations in favor of these loves, abodes of infernal thought, which in hell is esteemed as wisdom.

The reason why the love of self and love of the world are infernal loves, and yet man has been able to come into them and thus subvert the will and understanding within him, is as follows: the love of self and the love of the world by creation are heavenly loves; for they are loves of the natural man serviceable to spiritual loves, as a foundation is to a house. For man, from the love of self and the world, seeks the welfare of his body, desires food, clothing, and habitation, is solicitous for the welfare of his family, and to secure employment for the sake of use, and even, in the interest of obedience, to be honored according to the dignity of the affairs which he administers, and to find delight and refreshment in worldly enjoyment; yet all this for the sake of the end, which must be use. For through these things man is in a state to serve the Lord and to serve the neighbor. When, however, there is no love of serving the Lord and serving the neighbor, but only a love of serving himself by means of the world, then from being heavenly that love becomes hellish, for it causes a man to sink his mind and disposition in what is his own, and that in itself is wholly evil.

Now that man may not by the understanding be in heaven while by the will he is in hell, as is possible, and may thereby have a divided mind, after death everything of the understanding which transcends its own love is removed; whereby it comes that in everyone the will and understanding finally make one. With those in heaven the will loves good and the understanding thinks truth; but with those in hell the will loves evil and the understanding thinks falsity. The same is true of man in this world when he is thinking from his spirit, as he does when alone; yet many, so long as they are in the body, when they are not alone think otherwise. They then think otherwise because they raise their understanding above the proper love of their will, that is, of their spirit. These things have been said, to make known that the will and understanding are two distinct things, although created to act as one, and that they are made to act as one after death, if not before.

(from Divine Love and Wisdom 394-397)

When Memory-knowledges Become of the Life

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

What memory-knowledges are relatively to the truths and goods of life with man, shall be briefly told.

All things learned and stored up in the memory, and that can be called forth from it to the intellectual sight, are called memory-knowledges, and in themselves are the things that constitute the understanding of the natural or external man. Being knowledges, these memory-knowledges are of service to the sight of the internal or rational man as a kind of mirror in which to see such things as are of service to itself. For these fall under the view of the internal man just as fields full of grass, flowers, various kinds of crops, and of trees; or as gardens adorned with various useful and delightful objects, fall under the view of the external man in the material world. Yet the internal sight, which is the understanding, sees nothing else in the fields or gardens of the things of its memory than such as agree with the loves in which the man is, and also favor the principles he loves.

Wherefore they who are in the loves of self and of the world see only such things as favor these loves, and they call them truths, and by means of fallacies and appearances they also make them appear like truths; and afterward they see such things as agree with the principles they have adopted, which they love because they are from themselves. From this it is plain that the knowledges which are things of memory, are of service to those who are in the aforesaid loves as means of confirming falsities against truths, and evils against goods, and thus of destroying the truths and goods of the church. Hence it is that the learned who are of this character are more insane than the simple, and when by themselves deny the Divine, Providence, heaven, hell, the life after death, and the truths of faith. This is well seen from the learned of the European world at this day in the other life, where a vast number of them are atheists at heart; for in the other life hearts speak, and not lips. From all this it is now evident of what use knowledges are to those who think from the delights of the loves of self and of the world.

But it is very different with those who think from the delights of heavenly loves, which are love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor. As the thought of these persons is led by the Lord through heaven, they see and choose nothing else in the fields and gardens of the things of their memory than those which agree with the delights of their loves and with the doctrinal things of their church, and which they love. To them the things of the memory are like heavenly paradises, and in the Word they are also represented and signified by paradises.

Be it known further that when memory-knowledges - that is, the things of the memory - become of the man's life, they vanish from the exterior memory, just as the gestures, actions, speech, reflections, intentions, and in general the thoughts and affections of man are wont to do, when by continual use or habit they become as it were spontaneous and natural; but no other things become of man's life than those which enter into the delights of his loves and form them; thus those which enter into his will.

That memory-knowledges are vessels, and in the Word are signified by vessels of every kind, as by "basins," "cups," "waterpots," and the like, is because every memory-knowledge is a general thing that contains in it particular and singular things that agree with the general; and such generals are disposed into series, and as it were into bundles; and these bundles and series are in turn so arranged in order as to bear relation to the heavenly form; and thus everything is set in order from things the most singular to those the most general. An idea of such series can be formed from the series and bundles of muscular fibers in the human body, every bundle therein consisting of many motor fibers, and every motor fiber of blood-vessels and sinewy fibers; every muscular bundle also, which in a general term is called a muscle, is encompassed by its coat or sheath, whereby it is kept distinct from other muscles; and the same is the case with the interior little bundles or fascicles which are called motor fibers.

Nevertheless all the muscles, and the motor fibers contained in them, in the whole body, have been so set in order as to concur in every action according to the pleasure of the will, and this in a manner incomprehensible. So it is with the knowledges of the memory, which also are in like manner excited by the delight of the man's love, which is of his will, yet by means of his intellectual part. That which has been made of the man's life - which is that which has been made of his will or love - excites them; for the interior man has them constantly in view, and is delighted with them insofar as they agree with his loves; and those things which enter fully into the loves, and become spontaneous, and as it were natural, vanish out of the external memory; but remain inscribed on the internal memory, from which they are never erased. In this manner memory-knowledges become of the life.

From this it is also evident that memory-knowledges are as it were the vessels of the interior life of man, and that this is the reason why memory-knowledges are signified by vessels of various kinds, and here by "basins." Similar things are signified by "vessels" and "basins" in Isaiah:

I will fasten him as a nail in a trusty place, that he may be for a throne of glory to the house of his father, upon whom they may hang all the glory of his father's house, of sons and grandsons, every vessel of small capacity, from the vessels of basins even to all the vessels of psalteries (Isa. 22:23, 24).

The subject here treated of in the internal and representative sense is the Divine Human of the Lord, and that through Him and from Him are all truths and goods from first to last; memory-truths from a celestial stock are meant by "vessels of basins," and memory-truths from a spiritual stock by "vessels of psalteries."

And in Zechariah:

In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness to Jehovah; and the pots in the house of Jehovah shall be like the basins before the altar (Zech. 14:20);

"the bells of the horses" denote memory-truths from an enlightened understanding; and "the basins before the altar" denote memory-goods. Similar things are signified by "the basins of the altar" in Exodus 27:3; 38:3.

(from Arcana Coelestia 9394)

The Opening of the Word

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well’s mouth.  And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well’s mouth in his place.  (Genesis 29:2–3)

That this signifies that the Word was closed, is evident without explication. The Word is said to be closed when it is understood solely as to the sense of the letter, and when all that is in this sense is taken for doctrine. And it is still more closed when those things are acknowledged as doctrinal things which favor the cupidities of the love of self and of the world; for these especially roll a great stone upon the mouth of the well, that is, close up the Word; and then mankind do not know, neither do they desire to know, that there is any interior sense in the Word, when yet they may see this from many passages where the sense of the letter is unfolded as to the interior sense; and also from the doctrinal things received in the church, to which by various explications they refer all the sense of the letter of the Word.

What is meant by the Word being closed may be seen especially from the Jews, who explain each and all things according to the letter, and thence believe that they are chosen in preference to all nations on the face of the earth, and that the Messiah will come to bring them into the land of Canaan and exalt them above all nations and peoples of the earth; for they are immersed in earthly corporeal loves, which are such that they altogether close up the Word as to interior things. Therefore also they do not yet know whether there is any heavenly kingdom, whether they shall live after death, what the internal man is, nor even that there is anything spiritual; still less do they know that the Messiah has come to save souls. That the Word is closed with them, may be sufficiently evident also from the fact that although they live among Christians, they do not receive the least of their doctrinal things-according to the following words in Isaiah:

Say to this people, Hearing, hear ye, and do not understand; and seeing, see ye, and do not perceive. Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes. And I said, Lord, how long? And He said, Until the cities be waste without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the ground be wasted to a solitude (Isa. 6:9-11; Matt. 13:14-15; John 12:40-41).

For insofar as a man is immersed in loves of self and of the world, and in the cupidities of these loves, so far the Word is closed to him; for these loves have self as their end, which end kindles a natural lumen, but extinguishes heavenly light, so that men sharply see the things of self and the world, but not at all those of the Lord and His kingdom; and when this is the case, they may indeed read the Word, but it is with the end of acquiring honors and riches, or for the sake of appearance, or from the love and consequent habit of it, or from piety, and yet not from a purpose of amending the life. To such persons the Word is in various ways closed; to some so much that by no means are they willing to know anything but what their doctrinal things dictate, whatever these may be.

For example: should anyone say that the power of opening and shutting heaven was not given to Peter, but to the faith of love, which faith is signifiedby Peter's keys, inasmuch as the love of self and of the world opposes this, they will by no means acknowledge it. And should anyone say that saints ought not to be worshiped, but the Lord alone, neither do they receive this. Or if anyone should say that by the bread and wine in the Holy Supper is meant the Lord's love toward the universal human race, and the reciprocal love of man to the Lord, this they do not believe. Or should anyone assert that faith is of no avail unless it is the good of faith, that is, charity, this they explain inversely; and so with everything else. They who are of this character cannot see one whit of the truth that is in the Word, nor are they willing to see it, but abide obstinately in their own dogma; and are not even willing to hear that there is an internal sense wherein is the sanctity and glory of the Word, and even when they are told that it is so, from their aversion thereto they loathe the bare mention of it. Thus has the Word been closed, when yet it is of such a nature as to lie open even into heaven, and through heaven to the Lord, and it is closed solely in relation to man, insofar as he is in the evils of the love of self and of the world in respect to his ends of life, and in the consequent principles of falsity. From this it is evident what is signified by a great stone being upon the well's mouth.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3769)

As regards the Word being opened to the churches, and being afterwards closed, the case is this: in the beginning of the setting up of any church, the Word is at first closed to the men of it, and is afterwards opened, the Lord so providing; and thus they learn that all doctrine is founded on the two commandments-that the Lord is to be loved above all things, and the neighbor as themselves.

The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.  (Mark 12:29-31)

When these two commandments are regarded as the end, the Word is opened; for all the Law and the Prophets, that is, the whole Word, so depend on these commandments that all things are derived from them and therefore all have reference to them. And whereas the men of the church are then in the principles of truth and good, they are enlightened in everything they see in the Word; for the Lord is then present with them by means of angels, and teaches them (although they are unaware of this), and also leads them into the life of truth and good.

This may be seen also from the case of all churches, in that they were such in their infancy, and worshiped the Lord from love, and loved the neighbor from the heart. But in process of time churches withdraw from these two commandments, and turn aside from the good of love and charity to the so—called things of faith, thus from life to doctrine; and insofar as they do this, so far the Word is closed. This is what is signified in the internal sense by the words:

Behold a well in the field, and behold there three-droves of the flock lying by it; for out of that well they watered the droves; and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And all the droves were gathered together thither; and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock, and they put the stone in its place again upon the well's mouth.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3773)

When Charity Rules

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

"If thou doest well, is there not an uplifting? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door; and to thee is his desire, and thou rulest over him. (Genesis 4:7)

Charity is desirous to be with thee, but cannot because thou desirest to rule over it

The doctrine of faith called "Cain" is here described, which in consequence of separating faith from love — separated it also from charity, the offspring of love. Wherever there is any church, there arise heresies, because while men are intent on some particular article of faith they make that the main thing; for such is the nature of man's thought, that while intent on some one thing he sets it before any other, especially when his imagination claims it as a discovery of his own, and when the love of self and of the world puff him up. Everything then seems to agree with and confirm it, until at last he will swear that it is so, even if it is false. Just in this way, those called "Cain" made faith more essential than love, and as they consequently lived without love — both the love of self and the phantasy thence derived conspired to confirm them in it.

The nature of the doctrine of faith that was called "Cain" is seen from the description of it in this verse, from which it appears that charity was capable of being joined to faith, but so that charity and not faith should have the dominion. On this account it is first said, "If thou doest well art thou not uplifted?" signifying, If thou art well disposed, charity may be present; for to "do well" signifies, in the internal sense, to be well disposed, since doing what is good comes from willing what is good. In ancient times action and will made a one; from the action they saw the will, dissimulation being then unknown. That an "uplifting" signifies that charity is present, that to "lift up the face" is to have charity, and that for the "face to fall" is the contrary.

Secondly, it is said, "If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door" which signifies, If thou art not well disposed, there is no charity present, but evil. Everybody can see that "sin lying at the door" is evil ready and desirous to enter; for when there is no charity, there are unmercifulness and hatred, consequently all evil. Sin in general is called the "devil" who, that is, his crew of infernals, is ever at hand when man is destitute of charity; and the only means of driving away the devil and his crew from the door of the mind, is love to the Lord and toward the neighbor.

In the third place it is said, "Unto thee is his desire, and thou rulest over him" by which is signified that charity is desirous to abide with faith, but cannot do so because faith wishes to rule over it, which is contrary to order. So long as faith seeks to have the dominion, it is not faith, and only becomes faith when charity rules; for charity is the principal of faith, as was shown above.

Charity maybe compared to flame, which is the essential of heat and light, for heat and light are from it; and faith in a state of separation may be compared to light that is without the heat of flame, when indeed there is light, but it is the light of winter in which everything becomes torpid and dies.

(from Arcana Coelestia 361-365)

Sane or Insane Existence

Selection from Divine Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Divine Wisdom, In The Heavens Before The Sight Of Angels, Is Seen As Light

In the Lord there is Love and there is Wisdom: Love in Him is Being (Esse), and Wisdom in Him is Existing (Existere); nevertheless, these in Him are not two, but one — for the Wisdom is of the Love, and the Love is of the Wisdom, and by reason of this union, which is reciprocal, there results a One. This One is the Divine Love that in the heavens becomes visible to angels as a Sun. The reciprocal union of the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Love is meant by these words of the Lord:

Believest thou not, Philip, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me (John 14:10, 11).

Also:

I and the Father are one (John 10:30).

These two things, which in the Lord are a One, do indeed proceed forth as two distinct things from Himself as a Sun — the Wisdom as light and the Love as heat. Yet it is only to outward appearance that they proceed forth as two distinct things: in themselves they are not distinct, the light being of the heat, and the heat being of the light; for just as they are one in the Sun, so they are one in the least point. That which proceeds forth from the Sun is also the Sun in the least parts of it, and consequently is the Sun universally in every point. The expressions "every point" and "least part" are used, but spatial points and spatial parts are not meant, for there is nothing of space in what is Divine, this being spiritual, not natural.

In The Word To Love Means To Perform Uses.

In the Word to love means to perform uses, because love is will, and to will is to do. ... The will viewed in itself is not love, but is a receptacle of love, and such a receptacle that it not only receives it but also takes on its states and assumes forms in accordance with those states; for everything of man's life flows in, since man is not life but a recipient of life, consequently he is a recipient of love, for love is life. This can be illustrated by the organs of man's senses. The eye is not light but a recipient of light formed to receive all varieties of light. The ear is not sound but a recipient of sound and of its modulation and articulation. The same is true of man's other external senses. And the same is true of the internal organs of sense, which are modified and moved by spiritual light and heat; and consequently the same is true of the will, which is a receptacle of spiritual heat, which in its essence is love. This receptacle is in man throughout; but in its first principles it is in the brains. These first principles or beginnings or heads are the substances that are called cortical and cineritious. From these through ray-like fibers it descends on every side into all things of the face and all things of the body, and there performs its gyrations and circlings in accordance with its form, which is the spiritual animal form that has been treated of elsewhere. And thus each and all things therein from things first to ultimates are moved, and in ultimates effects are presented. It is well known that everything is put in motion by an endeavor (conatus); and that when the endeavor ceases the motion ceases. Thus every voluntary action of man's will is a living endeavor in man, and it acts in ultimates by means of fibers and nerves, which in themselves are nothing else than perpetual endeavors continued from the beginnings in the brains even to the ultimates in the bodily parts, where endeavors become acts. These things have been presented to make known what the will is, and that it is the receptacle of love in a perpetual endeavor to act; and this endeavor is excited and determined into acts by the love that flows in and is received.

From all this it now follows that to love is to do because it is to will; for whatever a man loves that he wills; and what he wills that he does if it is possible; and if he does not do it because it is not possible, it still comes into interior act, which is not made manifest. For no endeavor or volition can exist in man unless it comes into ultimates; and when it is in ultimates it is in interior act, although this act is not perceived by anyone, not even by the man himself, because it exists in his spirit. From this it is that volition and act are a one, and that the volition is counted as the act. This does not apply to the natural world, because in that world the interior act of the will does not appear, but it applies to the spiritual world, for there it is seen. For all in the spiritual world act according to their loves; those who are in heavenly love act sanely; those who are in infernal love act insanely; and if because of any fear they do not act, their will is interiorly active, but is restrained by them from breaking forth; nor does this action cease until the volition ceases. Since, then, the will and the act are a one, and will is the endeavor of love, it follows that in the Word "to love" has no other meaning than to do; thus that "to love the Lord and to love the neighbor" means to perform uses to the neighbor from love which is from the Lord. That this is so the Lord Himself teaches in John:

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

In the same:

Abide ye in My love. If ye have kept My commandments ye shall abide in My love (15:9, 10).

And in the same:

The Lord said three times to Peter, Lovest thou Me? and three times Peter answered that he loved; and the Lord three times said to him Feed My lambs and My sheep (21:15-17).

Moreover, there are two things that cannot be separated; namely, being (esse) and existing (existere). Being is nothing unless it exists; and it becomes something by existing. So it is with loving and doing, or with willing and acting; for to love, and not do, and to will and not act, are impossible, for they do not exist; but they exist in doing and acting; consequently, when man does and acts, then love and will have being. In this and in no other way is the Lord loved and the neighbor loved.

(Divine Love 19)

The fact that Love and Wisdom, in proceeding forth from the Lord as a Sun, are to outward appearance two distinct things, the Wisdom visible as light, and the Love perceptible as heat, has this result that they are received as two distinct things by angels; some angels receive more from the heat, which is Love, and some receive more from the light, which is Wisdom. Accordingly the angels comprising the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms. Those who have received more from the heat, which is Love, than from the light, which is Wisdom, make one kingdom, and are called celestial angels; the highest heavens consist of these. Whereas those who have received more from the light, which is Wisdom, than from the heat, which is Love, make the other kingdom, and are called spiritual angels; the lower heavens consist of these. These latter are said to have received more from the light, which is Wisdom, than from the heat, which is Love, but this "more" is only an apparent "more," for they are no wiser than in proportion as the love with them makes one with their wisdom; this is the reason spiritual angels are called intelligent rather than wise. These things are concerning the light in the Lord, the light proceeding forth from Him, and the light in angels.

The Divine Wisdom, appearing in the heavens as light, in its essence is not light: it clothes itself with light, so as to appear before the sight of angels. In its essence that Wisdom is Divine Truth, and the light is the outward appearance of it and the correspondent of it. With the light of wisdom it is the same as with the heat of love, spoken of above. As the light corresponds to the Wisdom, and as the Lord is the Divine Wisdom, therefore also in the Word in many places He is called "light," as in the following:

That was the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9).

Jesus said, I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).

Jesus said, Yet a little while is the Light with you: walk while ye have the Light, lest darkness take possession of you.... While ye have the Light, believe in the Light, that ye may be sons of light.... I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me should not abide in darkness (John 12:35, 36, 46).

And a number of other places.

Furthermore, the Lord's Divine Wisdom was represented by His garments at the transfiguration, in that their appearance was like light, "shining and white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them" (Mark 9:3; Matthew 17:2). "Garments" in the Word signify truths of wisdom; on this account all angels in the heavens appear clothed in accordance with the truths of their knowledge, of their intelligence, and of their wisdom.

It is evident in heaven, though not in the world, that light is the outward appearance of Wisdom and the correspondent of it, there being no light in heaven other than spiritual light, which is the light of Wisdom, illuminating all things that come into existence there from the Divine Love. The wisdom with angels enables them to understand these in their essence, and the light enables them to see them in their form. The light in each heaven, therefore, is equivalent in degree to the wisdom with angels there. In the highest heavens the light is flame-coloured, flashing as if from lustrous gold: this is because they are in wisdom. In the heavens below these the light is white, shining brightly as if from gleaming silver: this is because they are in intelligence. And in the lowest heavens the light is like the noonday light in the world: this is because they are in knowledge. The light in the higher heavens is brilliant, exactly like a star glittering and shining brightly in itself by night, and there is light continuously because the Sun there does not set. It is this same light that enlightens the Understanding of those men in the world who are in the love of being wise, but it is not seen by them because they are natural, not spiritual; it is possible to see it, for it has been seen by me, but only with the eyes of my spirit. Moreover, it has been granted me to perceive that when I was in the light of the highest heaven, I was in wisdom, when in the light of the second heaven I was in intelligence, and when in the light of the lowest heaven I was in knowledge, whereas, when I was in natural light, I was in ignorance of spiritual things.

In order that I might know in what light the learned in the world are at this day, there appeared before me two ways: one was called the Way of Wisdom, the other the Way of Folly. At the end of the Way of Wisdom stood a palace in light: at the end of the Way of Folly stood something resembling a palace, but it was in shadow. Some three hundred learned men had been assembled together and were given the choice of going which way they wished. Two hundred and sixty were seen to take the Way of Folly and only forty the Way of Wisdom. Those who took the Way of Wisdom entered the palace in light, in which were magnificent things: they were given garments of fine linen, and became angels. Those, on the other hand, who took the Way of Folly were desirous of entering what had looked like a palace when in shadow-but behold, it was an actors' stage where they donned theatrical costumes, and, wearing masks, posed as soothsayers, and became fools. I was afterwards told that at this day the foolish learned who are in natural light are, relatively to the wise learned who are in spiritual light, as many and as foolish; and that all who have a love for discerning whether a thing is true that someone else says, have spiritual light: whereas those who have a love merely for confirming what someone else has said, have natural light.

(Divine Wisdom 1)

The Lord's Divine Providence With The Evil

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The evil are continually leading themselves into evils, but the Lord is continually leading them away from evils.

What the Lord's Divine providence is with the good is more easily comprehended than what it is with the evil; but as the latter is now treated of it shall be told in the following order:

(1) In every evil there are things innumerable.
(2) An evil man from himself continually leads himself more deeply into his evils.
(3) The Divine providence with the evil is a continual permission of evil, to the end that there may be a continual withdrawal from it.
(4) The withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand ways, and even in most secret ways.

Therefore that the Divine providence with the evil may be more clearly seen and thus comprehended the points that have been stated above shall be explained in the order of their presentation.

First: In every evil there are things innumerable. In man's sight every evil appears as one simple thing, - hatred and revenge, theft and fraud, adultery and whoredom, pride and haughtiness, and other evils, so appear, - and it is not known that in every evil there are things innumerable, more than there are fibers and vessels in a man's body. For an evil man is hell in the least form; and hell consists of myriads of myriads, and every one there is in form like a man, though monstrous, in which all the fibers and vessels are inverted. The spirit is itself an evil, appearing to itself as a one; but as many as are the innumerable things in a spirit so many are the lusts of that evil; for every man is his own evil or his own good from the head to the sole of the foot. Since, then, an evil man is such, it is evident that he is one evil composed of innumerable different ones, each of which is a distinct evil; and these are called lusts of evil. From all this it follows that all these, in the order in which they are, must be restored and turned about by the Lord that man may be reformed; and that this can be done only by the Lord's Divine providence, step by step, from the earliest period of man's life to the last.

Every lust of evil in hell, when it is represented, appears like some noxious animal, as a dragon, or a basilisk, or a viper, or a horned owl, or a screech-owl, and so on; the lusts of evil in an evil man have a like appearance when he is looked at by angels. All these forms of lusts must be changed, one by one; the man himself who appears in respect to his spirit as a monster man or as a devil, must be so changed as to be like a beautiful angel; and every evil lust must be so changed as to appear like a lamb or a sheep, or like a pigeon or turtle-dove, which is the way in which the good affections of the angels appear in heaven when they are represented; and to change a dragon into a lamb, a basilisk into a sheep, or an owl into a pigeon, can only be done gradually by eradicating evil from its seed and implanting good seed in place of it. This can only be done comparatively as in the grafting of trees, the roots and some of the trunk of which remain, and yet the ingrafted branch turns the sap drawn up through the old root into a sap that makes good fruit. The branch to be engrafted can be taken from no other source than the Lord, who is the Tree of Life. This is in accordance with the Lord's words —

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.  (John 15: 1-7).

Secondly: An evil man from himself continually leads himself more deeply into his evils. The expression, from himself, is used because all evil is from man, for man turns good that is from the Lord into evil. The essential cause of the evil man's leading himself more deeply into evil is that as he wills and does evil, he advances more and more interiorly, and also more and more deeply, into infernal societies, and in consequence the delight of evil grows; and this so occupies his thoughts that at length nothing is sweeter to his sense. And he who has advanced more interiorly and deeply into infernal societies becomes as if he were bound with cords; although so long as he lives in the world he does not feel the cords, they are as if made of soft wool or smooth threads of silk, which he loves because they titillate. But after death these cords from being soft become hard, and instead of titillating they become galling.

That the delight of evil is augmented is known from thefts, robberies, depredations, revenge, tyranny, money-getting, and other evils. Who does not feel the exaltation of delight in these things in the measure of his success and unrestrained indulgence? It is known that a thief feels such delight in thefts that he is unable to refrain, and what is wonderful, that he has more love for one coin that is stolen than for ten received as a gift. The same would be true of adultery, if it had not been provided that this evil decreases in potency in the measure of the abuse; although with many a delight in thinking and talking about it remains, and if nothing more there is still the lust of touch.

But it is not known that this increase of delight comes of man's advancing into infernal societies more and more interiorly and more and more deeply, as from will and at the same time from thought he commits the evils. So long as the evils are in thought alone, and not in the will, man is not in an infernal society with the evil, but he enters it as soon as the evils are also in the will. If he then also thinks that the evil is contrary to the precepts of the Decalogue, and considers these precepts as Divine, he commits the evil of set purpose, and thereby plunges to a depth from which he can be led out only by actual repentance.

It must be understood that in respect to his spirit, every man is in the spiritual world, in some society there - an evil man in an infernal society, and a good man in a heavenly society, and sometimes when in deep meditation he also appears there; also that as the sound of the voice with the spoken words spreads itself all about in the air of the natural world, so affection with thought spreads itself into societies in the spiritual world; and this is a correspondence, for affection corresponds to sound and thought to speech.

Thirdly: The Divine providence with the evil is a continual permission of evil, to the end that there may be a continual withdrawal from it. The Divine providence with evil men is a continual permission, because nothing but evil can go forth from their life; for man whether he be in good or in evil, cannot be in both at the same time, nor alternately unless he is lukewarm; and it is not the Lord but man that introduces evil of life into the will and through the will into the thought. This is what is called permission.

Since, then, all things that an evil man wills and thinks are of permission, it may be asked what the Divine providence therein is which is said to be in the least particulars in every man, whether evil or good. But it consists in this, that it continually permits for the sake of the end, and permits such things as pertain to the end and nothing else; and the evils that go forth from permission, it continually surveys, separates, and purifies, sending away things discordant and discharging them by unknown ways. These processes take place especially in man's interior will, and from this in his interior thought. The Divine providence is also unceasing in keeping watch that what must be sent away and discharged be not received again by the will, since all things that are received by the will are appropriated to man, while whatever is received by the thought and not by the will is separated and banished. Such is the Lord's continual providence with the evil, which is, as has been said, a continual permission, to the end that there may be an unceasing withdrawal.

Of all this man knows scarcely anything, because he has no perception of it. The primary reason that he has no perception of it is that these evils are the evils pertaining to the lusts of his life's love; and these evils are not felt as evils but as delights to which no one gives attention. Who attends to the delights of his love? His thought floats on in them like a boat borne by the current of a river, and there is a perception as it were of a fragrant atmosphere which is inhaled with a full breath. Only in his external thought can he feel something of them, and even there he gives no attention to them unless he knows well that they are evils. But of this more in what follows.

Fourthly: The withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand ways, and even in most secret ways. Only some of these have been disclosed to me, and none but the most general, which are these:

The delights of lusts of which man has no knowledge are emitted in companies or in bundles into the interior thoughts that belong to man's spirit, and therefrom into his exterior thoughts, in which they appear under a kind of feeling of satisfaction or pleasure or longing; and there they are mingled with his natural and sensual delights. There, too, are the means of separation and purification, and also the ways of withdrawal and discharge. The means are chiefly the delights of meditation, of thought, and of reflection for the sake of certain ends which are uses, the ends, which are uses, are as many as are the particulars and least particulars of one's business and office. Or again, they are as many as the delights of reflection, to the end that he may appear like a civil and moral man and also like a spiritual man; besides the undelightful things that insert themselves. These delights, because they belong to one's love in the external man, are the means of separation, purification, excretion, and withdrawal of the delights of the lusts of evil belonging to the internal man.

Take, for example, an unjust judge who regards gains or friendship as ends or as uses of his office; inwardly he is continually in these things, but outwardly he aims to act like a skilled lawyer and a just man. He is constantly in the delight of meditation, thought, reflection, and purpose, that he may so bend, turn, adapt, and adjust the right that there may still appear to be a conformity with the laws and a semblance of justice, not knowing that his internal delight consists of cunning, frauds, deceits, clandestine thefts, and many other things, and that this delight, made up of so many delights of the lusts of evil, rules in all things and each thing of his external thought, wherein are the delights of appearing to be just and sincere. The internal delights are let down into these external delights, and they are mixed together like various kinds of food in the stomach; and there they are separated, purified, and conducted away; nevertheless, this is done only with the more grievous delights of the lusts of evil.

For with an evil man no separation, purification, and withdrawal is possible except of the more grievous evils from the less grievous; while with a good man there can be not only a separation, purification, and withdrawal of the more grievous evils, but also of the less grievous, and this is done by means of the delights of affections for what is good and true and for what is just and sincere, into which he comes so far as he regards evils as sins and in consequence shuns them and turns away from them, and still more if he fights against them. Such are the means by which the Lord purifies all who are saved. These, He also purifies by external means, which have respect to fame and honor, and sometimes to wealth; nevertheless there are implanted in these by the Lord the delights of affections for good and truth, by which they are so regulated and fitted as to become delights of love of the neighbor.

If one could see the delights of the lusts of evil together in some form, or if he could clearly perceive them by any sense, he would see and perceive them to be too numerous to be defined; for all hell is nothing but a form of all the lusts of evil, and there no lust of evil is exactly like another or the same as another, neither can there be to eternity. And of these numberless lusts man knows scarcely anything, still less how they are connected. Nevertheless, the Lord through His Divine providence continually permits them to come forth, to the end that they may be taken away, which is done in every order and series. An evil man is a hell in the least form, as a good man is a heaven in the least form.

That this withdrawal from evils is effected by the Lord in a thousand ways, even the most secret ways, one can best see and be convinced of by comparison with the secret operations of the soul in the body. Those that man has knowledge of are the following: The food that he is about to eat he looks at, perceives the odor of, hungers for, tastes, chews with his teeth, rolls to the oesophagus with his tongue, and thus into the stomach. But the soul's secret workings, of which man knows nothing because he has no sensation of them, are these: That the stomach rolls about the food received, opens and separates it by means of solvents, that is, digests it, and offers fitting portions of it to the little mouths there opening and to the veins that drink them in, sends some to the blood, some to the lymphatic vessels, some to the lacteal vessels of the mesentery, and some it sends away down the intestines; and finally the chyle, conveyed through the thoracic duct from its receptacle in the mesentery, is carried into the vena cava, and so into the heart, and from the heart into the lungs, from them through the left ventricle of the heart into the aorta, and from this by its branches into the viscera of the whole body and also to the kidneys; and in every one of these organs a separation of the blood, a purification and a withdrawal of heterogeneous substances is effected; not to speak of how the heart presents its blood, when defecated in the lungs, to the brain, which is done through the arteries called carotids, and how the brain returns the blood vivified to the vena cava (just above where the thoracic duct brings in the chyle), and so back again to the heart.

These and innumerable others are the secret operations of the soul in the body. These operations are not felt by man, and he who is not versed in the science of anatomy knows nothing about them. And yet similar things take place in the interiors of man's mind; for nothing can take place in the body except from the mind; for man's mind is his spirit, and his spirit is equally a man, with the difference only that whatever is done in the body is done naturally, and whatever is done in the mind is done spiritually; the similitude is complete.

From all this it is evident that the Divine providence works in every man in a thousand ways, even to the most secret, and that its unceasing end is to purify him, because its end is to save him; and that nothing is incumbent on man except to remove evils in the external man. All the rest the Lord provides if He is appealed to.

(from Divine Providence 295-296)