What the Spiritual Man is and What the Natural

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(1) What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man.

Man is not man from face and body, but from understanding and will; therefore by the natural man and the spiritual man is meant that man's understanding and will are either natural or spiritual.

The natural man in respect to his understanding and will is like the natural world, and may be called a world or microcosm; and the spiritual man in respect to his understanding and will is like the spiritual world, and may be called a spiritual world or heaven. From which it is evident that as the natural man is in a kind of image a natural world, so he loves those things which are of the natural world; and that as the spiritual man is in a kind of image a spiritual world, so he loves those things which are of that world, or of heaven. The spiritual man indeed loves the natural world also but not otherwise than as a master loves his servant through whom he performs uses. Moreover, according to uses the natural man becomes like the spiritual, which is the case when the natural man feels from the spiritual the delight of use — such a natural man may be called spiritual-natural.

The spiritual man loves spiritual truths; he not only loves to know and understand them, but also wills them; while the natural man loves to speak of those truths and also do them. Doing truths is performing uses. This subordination is from the conjunction of the spiritual world and the natural world; for whatever appears and is done in the natural world derives its cause from the spiritual world.

From all this it can be seen that the spiritual man is altogether distinct from the natural, and that there is no other communication between them than such as there is between cause and effect.

(2) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is opened.

This is obvious from what has been said above; to which it may be added, that a natural man is a complete man when the spiritual degree is opened in him, for he is then consociated with angels in heaven and at the same time with men in the world, and in regard to both, lives under the Lord's guidance. For the spiritual man imbibes commands from the Lord through the Word, and executes them through the natural man.

The natural man who has the spiritual degree opened does not know that he thinks and acts from his spiritual man, for it seems as if he did this from himself, when yet he does not do it from himself but from the Lord. Nor does the natural man whose spiritual degree has been opened know that by means of his spiritual man he is in heaven, when yet his spiritual man is in the midst of angels of heaven, and sometimes is even visible to them; but because he draws himself back to his natural man, after a brief stay there he disappears. Nor does the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened know that his spiritual mind is being filled by the Lord with thousands of arcana of wisdom, and with thousands of delights of love, and that he is to come into these after death, when he becomes an angel. The natural man does not know these things because communication between the natural man and the spiritual man is effected by correspondences; and communication by correspondences is perceived in the understanding only by the fact that truths are seen in light, and is perceived in the will only by the fact that uses are performed from affection.

(3) The character of the natural man in whom
the spiritual degree is not opened, and yet not closed.

The spiritual degree is not opened, and yet not closed, in the case of those who have led somewhat of a life of charity and yet have known little of genuine truth. The reason is, that this degree is opened by conjunction of love and wisdom, or of heat with light; love alone or spiritual heat alone not opening it, nor wisdom alone or spiritual light alone, but both in conjunction. Consequently, when genuine truths, out of which wisdom or light arises, are unknown, love is inadequate to open that degree; it only keeps it in the possibility of being opened; this is what is meant by its not being closed.  Something like this is seen in the vegetable kingdom, in that heat alone does not cause seeds and trees to vegetate, but heat in conjunction with light effects this.

It is to be known that all truths are of spiritual light and all goods are of spiritual heat, and that good opens the spiritual degree by means of truths; for good, by means of truths, effects use, and uses are goods of love, which derive their essence from a conjunction of good and truth.

The lot, after death, of those in whom the spiritual degree is not opened and yet not closed, is that since they are still natural and not spiritual, they are in the lowest parts of heaven, where they sometimes suffer hard times; or they are in the outskirts in some higher heaven, where they are as it were in the light of evening; for in heaven and in every society there the light decreases from the middle to the outskirts, and those who above others are in Divine truths are in the middle, while those who are in few truths are in the outskirts. Those are in few truths who from religion know only that there is a God, and that the Lord suffered for them, and that charity and faith are essentials of the church, not troubling themselves to know what faith is or what charity is; when yet faith in its essence is truth, and truth is manifold, and charity is all the work of his calling which man does from the Lord; he does this from the Lord when he flees from evils as sins.

The end is the all of the cause, and the effect the all of the end by means of the cause; the end is charity or good, the cause is faith or truth, and effects are good works or uses; from which it is plain that from charity no more can be carried into works than the measure in which charity is conjoined with the truths which are called truths of faith. By means of these truths charity enters into works and qualifies them.

(4) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is entirely closed.

The spiritual degree is closed in those who are in evils as to life, and still more in those who from evils are in falsities. It is the same as with the fibril of a nerve, which contracts at the slightest touch of any thing heterogeneous; so every motive fiber of a muscle, yea, the muscle itself, and even the whole body shrinks from the touch of whatever is hard or cold. So also the substances or forms of the spiritual degree in man shrink from evils and their falsities, because these are heterogeneous. For the spiritual degree, being in the form of heaven, admits nothing but goods, and truths that are from good; these are homogeneous to it; but evils, and falsities that are from evil, are heterogeneous to it. This degree is contracted, and by contraction closed, especially in those who in the world are in love of ruling from love of self, because this love is opposed to love to the Lord.

It is also closed, but not so much, in those who from love of the world are in the insane greed of possessing the goods of others. These loves shut the spiritual degree, because they are the origins of evils. The contraction or closing of this degree is like the twisting back of a spiral in the opposite direction; for which reason, that degree after it is closed, turns back the light of heaven; consequently there is thick darkness there instead of heavenly light, and truth which is in the light of heaven, becomes nauseous. In such persons, not only does the spiritual degree itself become closed, but also the higher region of the natural degree which is called the rational, until at last the lowest region of the natural degree, which is called the sensual, alone stands open; this being nearest to the world and to the outward senses of the body, from which such a man afterwards thinks, speaks, and reasons. The natural man who has become sensual through evils and their falsities, in the spiritual world in the light of heaven does not appear as a man but as a monster, even with nose drawn back (the nose is drawn in because the nose corresponds to the perception of truth); moreover, he cannot bear a ray of heavenly light. Such have in their caverns no other light than what resembles the light from live coals or from burning charcoal. From all this it is evident who and of what character are those in whom the spiritual degree is closed.

(5) The nature of the difference between the life of a natural man and the life of a beast.

The difference is that man has three degrees of mind, that is, three degrees of understanding and will, which degrees can be opened successively; and as these are transparent, man can be raised as to his understanding into the light of heaven and see truths, not only civil and moral, but also spiritual, and from many truths seen can form conclusions about truths in their order, and thus perfect the understanding to eternity.

But beasts do not have the two higher degrees, but only the natural degrees, and these apart from the higher degrees have no capacity to think on any subject, civil, moral, or spiritual. And since the natural degrees of beasts are incapable of being opened, and thereby raised into higher light, they are unable to think in successive order, but only in simultaneous order, which is not thinking, but acting from a knowledge corresponding to their love. And because they are unable to think analytically, and to view a lower thought from any higher thought, they are unable to speak, but are able only to utter sounds in accordance with the knowledge pertaining to their love. Yet the sensual man, who is in the lowest sense natural, differs from the beast only in this, that he can fill his memory with knowledges, and think and speak therefrom; this power he gets from a capacity proper to every man, of being able to understand truth if he chooses; it is this capacity that makes the difference. Nevertheless many, by abuse of this capacity, have made themselves lower than beasts.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 251-255)

The Dissension of the Internal and the External Man

Selection from The New Evangelic & Apostolic Word ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The understanding of the Word, or what is the same, the understanding of the truth, is destroyed when there is no good with man, that is, when there is no love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor — for good with man, or what is the same, love with him, is the fire of his life, and truth with him, or the faith of truth, is the light therefrom.  Consequently, such as the good is, or such as the love is in man, such is truth, or such the faith of truth in him.

From this it can be seen that when evil or an evil love is with man, there can be no truth or faith of truth with him — for the light that goes forth from such fire is the light that those have who are in hell, which is a fatuous light like the light from burning coals, which light, when light from heaven flows in, is turned into mere thick darkness. Such also is the light that with the evil, when they reason against the things of the church, is called natural light [lumen].

That they would falsify and thereby extinguish truths is meant also by the Lord's words in Matthew:

Jesus said to the disciples, The brother shall deliver up the brother, the father the son; children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death (Matt. 10:21).

And in Luke:

Ye shall be delivered up by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death (Luke 21:16).

"Parents," "brethren," "children," ["kinsfolk,"] and "friends," do not mean here parents, brethren, children, kinsfolk, friends, nor do "disciples" mean disciples, but the goods and truths of the church, also evils and falsities; it is also meant that evils would extinguish goods and falsities truths.

(from Apocalypse Explained 366)

He who does not know that by "brethren," "companions," "neighbors," and many other names of relationship are signified the goods and truths of the church and of heaven, and their opposites, which are evils and falsities, cannot know what is involved in many other passages in the Word where these names occur, as in the following:

Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I am not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be those of his own household. Whosoever loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whosoever loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whosoever doth not take up his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me (Matt. 10:34-38);

spiritual combats are here treated of, which are temptations to be undergone by those who are to be regenerated, thus the contentions arising in man between the evils and falsities which are with him from hell, and the goods and truths which are with him from the Lord. Because these combats are here described, it is said, "whosoever doth not take up his cross, and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me;" by the "cross" being meant the state of man when in temptations. He who does not know that such things are signified by "man" and "father," by "daughter" and "mother," by "daughter-in-law" and "mother- in-law," must believe that the Lord came into the world in order to take away peace in homes and families, and introduce dissension; and yet He came to give peace and to take away dissensions, according to His own words in John 14:27: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid and elsewhere.

That the dissension of the internal and the external man is described in this passage, is evident from the signification in the internal sense of "man" and "father," of "daughter" and "mother," and of "daughter-in-law" and "mother-in-law," in which sense - "man" [homo] denotes the good which is from the Lord; "father" denotes the evil which is from man's own; "daughter" denotes the affection of good and truth; "mother" denotes the affection of evil and falsity; "daughter-in-law" denotes the truth of the church adjoined to its good; and "mother-in-law" denotes falsity adjoined to its evil. And because the combat between goods and evils, and between falsities and truths, with man is described, it is also said that "a man's foes shall be those of his own household," for by "those of his own household" is signified the things that appertain to man, thus which are his own; and "foes" in a spiritual sense denote the evils and falsities which assault goods and truths. That such things are signified by "man," "father," "daughter," "mother," "daughter-in-law," and "mother-in-law," has been shown throughout in these explications.

In like manner is it with these words:

The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall give them to death (Matt. 10:21).

If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own soul also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26, 27, 33).

Who does not see that these words are to be understood otherwise than according to the letter, at least from the fact of its being said without restriction that father, mother, wife, children, brethren, sisters, are to be hated, in order that it may be possible for a person to be a disciple of the Lord? And yet it is according to the Lord's commandments that no one is to be hated, not even an enemy. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matt. 5:43, 44).

It is evident that things belonging to man, which are evils and falsities in their order, are meant by these names, for it is also said that he must hate his own soul, and that he must renounce all that he hath, that is, the things that belong to him. A state of temptation, that is, of spiritual combat, is also here described, for it is said, "whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple." To be a disciple of the Lord is to be led by Him and not by self, thus by the goods and truths which are from the Lord, and not by the evils and falsities which are from man.

In like manner is the Word to be understood elsewhere, where these names are mentioned, as in these passages:

They do not attend unto My words; and as for My law, they reject it. Therefore thus said Jehovah, Behold I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people; so that the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them, the neighbor and his companion, and they shall perish (Jer. 6:19, 21).

I will scatter them, a man with his brother, even the fathers and the sons together; I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them (Jer. 13:14).

Jehovah hath multiplied those who stumble; yea, they fell a man upon his companion (Jer. 46:16).

I will commingle Egypt with Egypt; and they shall fight a man against his brother, and a man against his companion (Isa. 19:2).

In these passages also similar things are meant by "fathers," "sons," "brothers," and "companions."

(from Arcana Coelestia 10490)

Shunning Evil

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE
for the
NEW JERUSALEM
FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Emanuel Swedenborg

If any one shuns evils for any other reason than because they are sins, he does not shun them, but merely prevents them from appearing before the world.

There are moral men who keep the commandments of the second table of the Decalogue, not committing fraud, blasphemy, revenge, or adultery;— such of them as confirm themselves in the belief that such things are evils because they are injurious to the public weal, and are therefore contrary to the laws of humane conduct, — practice charity, sincerity, justice, chastity.

But if they do these goods and shun those evils merely because they are evils, and not at the same time because they are sins, they are still merely natural men, and with the merely natural the root of evil remains imbedded and is not dislodged; for which reason the goods they do are not goods, because they are from themselves.

Before men, a natural moral man may appear exactly like a spiritual moral man, but not before the angels. Before the angels in heaven, if he is in goods he appears like an image of wood, if in truths like an image of marble - LIFELESS, and very different from a spiritual moral man. For a natural moral man is an outwardly moral man, and a spiritual moral man is an inwardly moral man, and what is outward without what is inward is lifeless. It does indeed live, but not the life that is called life.

The concupiscences of evil that constitute the interiors of man from his birth can be removed by the Lord alone. For the Lord inflows from what is spiritual into what is natural, but man, of himself, from what is natural into what is spiritual — this influx is contrary to order, and does not operate into the concupiscences and remove them, but shuts them in closer and closer in proportion as it confirms itself. And as the hereditary evil thus lurks there, shut in, after death when the man becomes a spirit it bursts the cover that had hidden it here, and breaks out like the discharge from an ulcer that has been healed only outwardly.

There are various and many causes that make a man moral in the outward form, but unless he is moral in the inward form also, he is nevertheless not moral. For example: if a man abstains from adulteries and whoredom from the fear of the civil law and its penalties; from the fear of losing his good name and esteem; from the fear of the consequent diseases; from the fear of his wife's tongue in his home, and the consequent inquietude of his life; from the fear of the husband's vengeance, or that of some relative; from poverty, or avarice; from disability caused either by disease, abuse, age, or impotence; nay, if he abstains from such things on account of any natural or moral law, and not at the same time on account of the spiritual law, he nevertheless is inwardly an adulterer and whoremonger, for nonetheless does he believe that such things are not sins.

As toward God, therefore, he in his spirit makes them not unlawful, and so in spirit he commits them, although not in the body in the sight of the world; and therefore after death, when he becomes a spirit, he speaks openly in favor of them. From all this it is evident that an ungodly man is able to shun evils as injurious, but only a Christian can shun them as sins.

It is the same with thefts and frauds of every kind, with murders and revengeful acts of every kind, and with false witness and lies of every kind. No one can of himself be cleansed and made pure from such things, for within every concupiscence there are infinite things which the man sees only as one simple thing, whereas the Lord sees the smallest details of the whole series. In a word, a man cannot regenerate himself, that is, form in himself a new heart and a new spirit, but the Lord alone can do this, who Himself is the Reformer and the Regenerator. Therefore if a man wills to make himself new by his own sagacity and intelligence, it is merely like painting an ugly face, or smearing a skin detergent over a part that is infected with inward corruption.

Therefore the Lord says in Matthew:

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and the platter, that the outside may be clean also (Matt. 23:26).

And in Isaiah:

Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your works from before Mine eyes, cease to do evil; and then though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they have been red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isa. 1:16, 18).

(LIFE 108 - 113)

Peculiar To Man, But Not With Beasts

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Whatever a man does from freedom, whether it be of reason or not, provided it is in accordance with his reason, appears to him to be his.

What rationality and liberty, which are peculiar to man, are, can be most clearly understood by a comparison of man with beasts.

For beasts have no rationality or ability to understand, and no liberty or ability to will freely; consequently they have no understanding or will, but in place of understanding they have knowledge, and in place of will they have affection, both of which are natural. And as they do not possess these two faculties, they have no thought, but in place of thought they have an internal sight which makes one by correspondence with their external sight.

Every affection has its mate which is like a spouse; affection from natural love has knowledge, affection from spiritual love understanding, and affection from celestial love wisdom. For an affection without its mate as a spouse is not any thing; it is as being (esse) without coming forth (existere), or as substance without form, of which nothing can be predicated. Therefore, in every thing created there is something that is referable to the marriage of good and truth, as has been shown above in many places. In beasts there is a marriage of affection and knowledge, the affection in them pertaining to natural good, and knowledge to natural truth.

Since, then, affection and knowledge in beasts act completely as one, and their affection cannot be raised above their knowledge nor their knowledge above their affection, but whenever raised are both raised together, and since they have no spiritual mind, into which, or into the light and heat of which, they can be raised, therefore they have no capacity to understand, that is, rationality, and no capacity to will freely, that is, liberty; they have merely natural affection with its knowledge. The natural affection that they possess is an affection for providing themselves food, shelter, and offspring, and for escaping or avoiding injury, with all requisite knowledge of these things. Such being the state of their life, they have no ability to think, This I wish or do not wish; this I know or do not know; or still less, this I understand, and this I love; but from their affection by means of their knowledge they are borne along without rationality or liberty. They are so borne along, not from the natural world, but from the spiritual. For there is nothing in the natural world unconnected with the spiritual world. From that world is every cause that produces an effect.

With man it is otherwise. He has not only affection from natural love, but also affection from spiritual love, and affection from celestial love. For the human mind is of three degrees. ... Consequently a man can be raised up from natural knowledge into spiritual intelligence and from that into celestial wisdom; and from these two, intelligence and wisdom, he can look to the Lord, and thus be conjoined with Him, whereby he lives forever. But this exaltation in respect to affection would not be possible unless man had from rationality an ability to raise the understanding, and from liberty an ability to will this.

By means of these two faculties man has the ability to reflect within himself upon those things that he perceives outside of himself by means of the bodily senses. He also has the ability to think above about what he is thinking below. For one can say: This I have thought and this I now think; also: This I have willed and this I now will; or again: This I understand to be true, this I love because it is such; and so on. From this it is clear that man thinks also above thought, seeing it as if beneath him. This ability man has from rationality and from liberty — from rationality this capacity for higher thought — from liberty the capacity to will, from affection to so think. For without the liberty so to think he would not have the will, and consequently not the thought.

For this reason those that have no wish to understand any thing except what pertains to the world and its nature, and no wish to understand what moral and spiritual good and truth are, cannot be raised from knowledge into intelligence, still less into wisdom; for they have closed up these capacities, and therefore make themselves to be men no further than having an ability to understand, if they will, and an ability to so will, from the rationality and liberty implanted in them. From these two faculties man is able to think, and to speak from thought; in all other things men are not men but beasts; and some, from the abuse of these faculties are worse than beasts.

From an unobscured rationality any one can see or comprehend that it is only from an appearance that it is his that man can be in any affection for knowing, or in any affection for understanding. For every enjoyment and pleasure, and therefore every thing of the will, is from affection, which belongs to love. Who can wish to know any thing or to understand any thing, unless he has some pleasure from affection? And who can possess this pleasure of affection unless that which moves the affection appears to be his? If nothing were his, but everything another's, in other words, if any one from his own affections should pour something into the mind of another who had no affection for knowing and understanding as if from himself, would the other receive it, or even possess the ability to receive it? Would he not be like what is called a dullard and a stock?

From this it is clearly evident that although every thing that man perceives, and thinks and knows therefrom, and wills and does in accordance with the perception, flows into him, nevertheless it is made by the Lord's Divine providence to appear to be man's; for otherwise, as has been said, the man could receive nothing, and therefore he could be endowed with no understanding or wisdom. It is acknowledged that every thing good and true is the Lord's and not man's, and yet that it appears to man to be his; and because every thing good and true so appears, all things of the church and of heaven, consequently all things of love and wisdom, and of charity and faith, so appear, and yet nothing of these is man's. Unless it appeared to man that he perceived these things as if from himself, he could not receive them from the Lord. From all this the truth of the matter can be seen, namely, that whatever one does from freedom, whether it be of reason or not, provided it is in accordance with his reason, appears to him to be his.

With his faculty called rationality who is not able to understand that this or that good is useful to society, and that this or that evil is harmful to it; for example, that justice, sincerity, and the chastity of marriage, are useful to society, and that injustice, insincerity, and adulterous relations with the wives of others, are harmful to it; consequently, that these evils in themselves are injuries, and that the goods in themselves are benefits? Who therefore is not able, if he will, to make these distinctions matters of reason? He has rationality, and he has liberty; and so far as he, for these reasons, shuns these evils in himself, are his rationality and liberty uncovered and made manifest, and so far do they regulate, and give perception and ability; and so far as this is done man looks to these goods as a friend looks to his friends.

From all this man is able afterwards from his faculty which is called rationality to draw conclusions about such goods as are useful to society in the spiritual world, and about the evils that are harmful there, if in place of evils he understands sins, and in place of goods works of charity. This a man is able, if he will, to make a matter of his reason also, since he has rationality and liberty. And so far as he shuns these evils as sins, are his rationality and liberty uncovered and made manifest, and so far they regulate and give perception and ability; and so far as this is done, he looks to the goods of charity as neighbor looks to neighbor, from mutual love.

Since, then, it is the Lord's will, for the sake of reception and conjunction, that whatever a man does freely in accordance with reason should appear to him to be his, and this is in accordance with reason itself, it follows that man is able from his reason to will this on the ground that it constitutes his eternal happiness; and by the Lord's Divine power, when it is invoked, he is able to do it.

(from Divine Providence 74-77)

Rationality and Liberty

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Man Should Act from Freedom in Accordance with Reason

Everyone knows that man has the freedom to think and will just as he pleases, but not the freedom to say whatever he thinks, or to do whatever he wills; therefore the freedom that is here meant is spiritual freedom, and not natural freedom, except when the two make one. For thinking and willing are spiritual, but speaking and doing are natural. Moreover, these are clearly distinguished in man; for a man is able to think what he does not speak, and to will what he does not do; which makes clear that the spiritual and the natural in man are discriminated; consequently man can pass from one to the other only through a boundary, such a boundary as may be likened to a door that must be unfastened and opened. This door stands open as it were in those who think and will from reason in accordance with the civil laws of the government and the moral laws of society; for such say what they think and do as they will; but the door stands shut as it were in those who think and will in opposition to those laws. Whoever attends to his volitions and consequent actions will notice that such a boundary intervenes, and sometimes frequently in a single conversation or a single action. This has been premised to make clear that to act from freedom in accordance with reason means to think and will freely and thus to speak and do freely what is in accordance with reason.

But as few are aware that this can be a law of Divine Providence, for the reason chiefly that this gives a man freedom also to think evil and falsity, although the Divine Providence is continually leading him to think and will what is good and true.

Man, possesses reason and freedom, or rationality and liberty, and these two faculties are in man from the Lord. ... But as many doubts may arise respecting either of these when they are made a subject of thought, at the outset I will merely advance something respecting: —

THE FREEDOM TO ACT IN ACCORDANCE WITH REASON THAT IS IN MAN

First, however, it must be known that all freedom is a property of love, insomuch that love and freedom are one. And as love is the life of man, freedom also belongs to his life. For every enjoyment that man has is from his love; no enjoyment is possible from any other source; and acting from love's enjoyment is acting from freedom; for a man is led by enjoyment as a thing is borne along by the current of a river. Since, then, there are numerous loves, some harmonious and some discordant, it follows that there are likewise numerous kinds of freedom; but in general three, natural, rational, and spiritual.

Natural freedom every one has by inheritance. From it man loves nothing but self and the world; his first life is nothing else. And as from these two loves all evils spring, and thus it comes that evils belong to the love, it follows that thinking and willing evils is man's natural freedom; and when he has confirmed evils in himself by reasonings he does evils from freedom in accordance with his reason. Thus his doing evils is from his faculty that is called liberty; and his confirming them is from his faculty that is called rationality.

A man's desire, for example, to commit adultery, to defraud, to blaspheme, to take revenge, is from the love into which he is born; and when he confirms these evils in himself, and thereby makes them allowable, then, from the enjoyment of the love of them, he as it were freely in accordance with reason thinks and wills them, and, so far as civil laws do not prevent, speaks and acts accordingly. It is from the Lord's Divine providence that man is permitted to do this, because he has freedom or liberty. Man is in this kind of freedom by nature, because of inheritance; and all those are in it who by means of reasonings have confirmed it in themselves from the enjoyment of love of self and the world.

Rational freedom is from the love of reputation with a view to honor or gain. The enjoyment of this love lies in appearing externally as a moral man; and because man loves such a reputation, he does not defraud, commit adultery, take revenge, or blaspheme; and because he makes this a matter of reason, he acts from freedom in accordance with his reason in sincere, just, chaste, and friendly ways; and furthermore, from this reason he can advocate such conduct. But if his rational is merely natural and not also spiritual, such freedom is merely external freedom, not internal freedom; for he does not love these goods in the least inwardly, but only outwardly for the sake of his reputation, as has been said, and for this reason the good deeds that he does are not in themselves good. He may even assert that these things ought to be done for the public welfare; but this he says not from any love for the public welfare, but from a love for his own honor or gain. His freedom, therefore, derives nothing from a love for the public welfare, neither does his reason, since this assents to his love. Consequently, this rational freedom is a more internal natural freedom. This freedom, too, by the Lord's Divine providence remains with everyone.

Spiritual freedom is from a love for eternal life. Into that love and its enjoyment no one comes except he that thinks evils to be sins and in consequence does not will them, and at the same time looks to the Lord. As soon as one does this he is in that freedom. For one's ability not to will evils because they are sins, and not to do them for that reason, comes from the more internal or higher freedom which is from his more internal or higher love. At first such a freedom does not seem to be freedom, and yet it is; and afterwards it so appears, and then man acts from freedom itself, in accordance with reason itself, in thinking, willing, speaking, and doing what is good and true. This freedom increases as natural freedom decreases and becomes subservient; and it conjoins itself with rational freedom and purifies it.

Any one may come into this freedom if he is but willing to think that life is eternal, and that the temporary enjoyment and bliss of life in time are but as a fleeting shadow, compared with the never ending enjoyment and bliss of a life in eternity; and this a man can think if he wishes, because he has rationality and liberty, and because the Lord, from whom these two faculties are derived, continually gives the ability.

(from Divine Providence 71-73)

Thinking from Divine Ideas

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
A Representation of the Lord's Kingdom in a Mental View of the Universe

And He led him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them; and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. (Genesis 15:5)

"Heaven" in the Word, in the internal sense, does not signify the heavens which appear to the eyes; but the Lord's kingdom, universally and particularly. When a man who is looking at internal things from external sees the heavens, he does not think at all of the starry heaven, but of the angelic heaven; and when he sees the sun, he does not think of the sun, but of the Lord, as being the Sun of heaven. So too when he sees the moon, and the stars also; and when he sees the immensity of the heavens, he does not think of their immensity, but of the immeasurable and infinite power of the Lord. It is the same when he sees all other things, for there is nothing that is not representative.

In like manner as regards the things on the earth; as when he beholds the dawning of the day he does not think of the dawn, but of the arising of all things from the Lord, and of progression into the day of wisdom. So when he sees gardens, groves, and flower-beds, his eye remains not fixed on any tree, its blossom, leaf, and fruit; but on the heavenly things which these represent; nor on any flower, and its beauty and pleasantness; but on what they represent in the other life. For there is nothing beautiful and delightful in the skies or on the earth, which is not in some way representative of the Lord's kingdom:

I have spoken with angels concerning representatives, to the effect that there is nothing in the vegetable kingdom on the earth that does not in some way represent the Lord's kingdom. They said that all the beautiful and graceful things in the vegetable kingdom derive their origin from the Lord through heaven; and that when the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord inflow into nature, such things have actual existence; and that this is the source of the vegetative soul or life. Hence come representatives. And as this is not known in the world, it was called a heavenly secret. (AC 1632)

This is the "looking toward heaven" which signifies a representation of the Lord's kingdom in a mental view of the universe.

The reason why all things in the sky and on earth are representative, is that they have come forth and do continually come forth, that is, subsist, from the influx of the Lord through heaven. It is with these things as it is with the human body, which comes forth and subsists by means of the soul; on which account all things in the body both in general and in particular are representative of the soul. The soul is in the use and the end; but the body is in the performance of them. All effects, whatever they may be, are in like manner representatives of the uses which are the causes; and the uses are representative of the ends which belong to the first principles.

They who are in Divine ideas never come to a stand in the objects of the external sight; but from them and in them constantly see internal things. The veriest internal things themselves are those which are of the Lord's kingdom, thus those which are in the veriest end itself. It is the same with the Word of the Lord; he who is in Divine things never regards the Lord's Word from the letter; but regards the letter and the literal sense as being representative and significative of the celestial and spiritual things of the church and of the Lord's kingdom. To him the literal sense is merely an instrumental means for thinking of these. Such was the Lord's sight.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1807)

Passing from One World into the Other

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It has been proved to me by manifold experience that when man passes from the natural world into the spiritual, as he does when he dies, he carries with him all his things, that is, those things that belong to him as a man, except his earthly body. For when man enters the spiritual world or the life after death, he is in a body as he was in the world, with no apparent difference, since he neither sees nor feels any difference. But his body is spiritual, and thus separated or purified from all that is earthly; and when what is spiritual touches and sees what is spiritual, it is just the same as when what is natural touches and sees what is natural. So when a man has become a spirit, he does not know otherwise than that he is in his own body in which he had been in the world and thus does not know that he has died.

Moreover, the spirit man rejoices in every sense, both external and internal, that he enjoyed in the world; he sees as before, he hears and speaks as before, smells and tastes, and when touched, he feels the touch as before; he also strives, desires, longs for, thinks, reflects, is affected, loves, wills, as before; and one who is delighted with studies, reads and writes as before. In a word, when a man passes from one life into the other, or from one world into the other, it is like passing from one place into another, carrying with him all things that he possesses in himself as a man; so that it cannot be said that after death, which is only the death of the earthly body, the man will have lost anything of his own.

Furthermore, he carries with him his natural memory, retaining everything whatever that he has heard, seen, read, learned, or thought in the world from earliest infancy even to the end of life; although the natural objects that are in the memory, since they cannot be reproduced in the spiritual world, are at rest, just as they are with a man when he is not thinking from them. Nevertheless, they are reproduced when it pleases the Lord. . . . A sensual man finds it impossible to believe that such is the state of man after death, because he cannot comprehend it; for a sensual man must needs think naturally even about spiritual things; therefore, anything that does not appeal to his senses, that is, that he does not see with his bodily eyes and touch with his hands as is said of Thomas, he denies that it is.

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. (John 20:18-29)

And yet there is a great distinction between man's life in the spiritual world and his life in the natural world, in regard both to his external senses and their affections and his internal senses and their affections. Those who are in heaven have more exquisite senses, that is, a keener sight and hearing, and also think more wisely than when they were in the world; for they see from the light of heaven, which surpasses by many degrees the light of the world; and they hear by means of a spiritual atmosphere, which likewise surpasses by many degrees the earthly atmosphere. The difference in respect of the external senses is like the difference between a clear [sky] and a dark cloud in the world, or between noonday light and evening shade. For the light of heaven, since it is Divine Truth, enables the eyes of angels to perceive and distinguish the most minute things.

(from Heaven and Hell 461, 2)