SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 1

BY THE REV. R. L. TAFEL, A.M., PH.D.

LONDON

Published for the New Church Educational Institute

By JAMES SPEIRS, 36 BLOOMSBURY STREET 1889

PREFACE.

THE present work contains the results of a systematic study of the theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, extending over a period of upwards of thirty five years. Part i. treats of Emanuel Swedenborg, and the place he holds in respect to the Lord's Second Coming; while Part ii. contains the first portion of a digest of the various doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg. This digest" considerably exceeds the dimensions which it was originally thought that it would assume, so that subjects which were originally intended for the present volume had to be reserved for a future volume; nevertheless, so far as the subjects treated of in the present volume are concerned, this volume is complete in itself.

In the form in which The Doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg" are presented in Part ii., they constitute a continuous whole; yet not all doctrines are treated in it alike. For in setting forth those doctrines which were treated systematically by Swedenborg himself, the author limited himself to a summary statement, with occasional references to the Writings of Swedenborg; while in the case of some other doctrines, e.g., the Doctrine of the Church, the Doctrine of the Lord's Second Coming, and the various doctrines connected with that of Regeneration, which are scattered over the whole of Swedenborg's Writings, the author considered it necessary first to collect from the Writings of Swedenborg all the passages bearing upon the subject, and then to digest them into a Systematic doctrine. In the rational presentation of this doctrine he makes numerous quotations from the Writings, in order to substantiate the doctrinal results at which he arrived.

The most important of the doctrines thus treated is The Doctrine of Enlightenment," which fills upwards of 200 pages, and constitutes fairly a treatise by itself. It gives a history of the gradual unfolding of the degrees in the human mind, under the directing influence of the Lord's "immediate" and "mediate influx." This doctrine holds the same relation to a systematic "Doctrine of Degrees" which, on the natural plane, Physiology holds to Anatomy; for it exhibits the degrees in the human mind, set in motion, as it were, during the process of regeneration.

On account of the increase in the size of the chapter on Enlightenment, the author found it impossible to include in the present volume the "Doctrine of Worship," and the "Doctrine of Marriage," which are reserved for a future volume, together with the "Doctrine of Degrees," in its application to the organization of the Spiritual World and the Human Mind in general.
The present work is specially intended for New Church ministers and candidates for the New Church ministry; although it is thought that it may be profitably studied also by all intelligent readers of the Writings of Swedenborg.

R. L. TAFEL.
London, November 12, 1889.

ABBREVIATIONS USED OF SWEDENBORG'S WRITINGS.

A.C. Arcana Coelestia.
A.E. Apocalypse Explained, posthumous.
A.R. Apocalypse Revealed.
B.E. Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church.
CANONS Canons of the New Church, posthumous.
C. L. Conjugial Love.
C.L.J. Continuation of the Last Judgment.
Cor Coronis, or Appendix to the True Christian Religion, posthumous.
D. L. Divine Love, posthumous.
D.L.W. Divine Love and Wisdom.
D.W. or Div. WISD. Divine Wisdom, posthumous.
D. OF F. Doctrine of Faith.
DOCT. OF LIFE Doctrine of Life.
D. P. - - Divine Providence.
D.SS. or SS. Doctrine of Sacred Scripture.
DOCUMENTS Documents concerning Swedenborg.
H. D. - - The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine.
H.H. Heaven and Hell.
INTERCOURSE Intercourse of the Soul and Body.
INVITATION Invitation to the New Church, posthumous.
L.J. Last Judgment.
S. D. Spiritual Diary.
T.C.R. True Christian Religion.
DE VERBO De Verbo (The Word) posthumous.

C0NTENTS.

PART I.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, THE LORD'S SERVANT AT HIS SECOND COMING.

PAGE

I. THE PLACE OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 3
II.- THE CONVENTIONAL IDEAS ABOUT EMANUEL SWEDENBORG REVIEWED 23
III. SWEDENBORG'S PREPARATORY LIFE OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY 44
IV. THE INSPIRATION OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AND THAT OF THE PROPHETS AND EVANGELISTS - 63

PART II.

DOCTRINES TAUGHT BY EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

I. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD, AND OF REDEMPTION 8
II. THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 94
III. THE DOCTRINE OF THE SOUL AND OF INFLUX 101
IV. THE DOCTRINE OF MAN'S FREEDOM OF CHOICE - 109
V. THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORIGIN OF EVIL 115
VI. THE DOCTRINE OF CHARACTER 117
VII. THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION 119
VIII. THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH 121
IX. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD'S SECOND COMING AND OF
THE CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 150
X. THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURE 179
XI. THE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION 187

a. THE DOCTRINE OF REMAINS 188

b. THE DOCTRINE OF CONSCIENCE 197

C. THE DOCTRINE OF REPENTANCE 205

d. THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY 220

e. THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH 225

f. THE DOCTRINE OF AFFIRMATION, OR AUTHORITY 231

g. THE DOCTRINE OF REFORMATION 241

h. THE DOCTRINE OF TEMPTATIONS 261

i. THE DOCTRINE OF ILLUSTRATION, OR OF SPIRITUAL

ENLIGHTENMENT 291
Syllabus of the Doctrine of Enlightenment:

Two kinds of light, spiritual and natural - 292

Divine Truth proceeding mediately and immediately from the,

Lord 294

General and Particular Influx 301

Effect of the Fall 323

Necessity of the Written Word of God - 339

The Conjunction of immediate and mediate influx resulting
in Enlightenment - - 343

Necessity of the Revelation at the Lord's Second Advent 348

Difference between natural and spiritual light - 353

Natural vision 354

[6]Genesis of natural lumen in man 356

Relation of the natural and spiritual minds 358

Two kinds of heat, spiritual and natural 366

Heat and light in man's corporeal degree 372

The sensual lumen in man 386

Light in the two higher degrees of the natural man 388

Genesis of the affection of acquiring understanding 391

Scientific and knowledges 396

The affection of truth with man 406

Genesis of the affection of understanding 409

Freedom with man - - 410

Development of the rational mind 414

Genesis of the affection of seeing what is known

and understood 435

Common sense, or common perception 443

Analysis of human thought 450

Interior and exterior memory 461

Extent of man's regeneration at the present time 463

The four media active in the regeneration of the natural man472

Conjunction of good and truth the one condition of spiritual enlightenment - - - 475

The requirements for a state of spiritual enlightenment,

Enumerated 488
k.THE DOCTRINE OF THE CELESTIAL MAN 540

The Celestial Man of the Most Ancient Church 540

The Celestial Man of the spiritual Church

at the present time 561

SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 2

PART I

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, THE LORD'S SERVANT AT HIS SECOND COMING.

SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 3

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THE PLACE OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

1. In order to define the position of any One in the Christian Church, we must first know what that Church is, and where it is?

Upon inquiring then into the whereabouts of the True Christian Church, we obtain as many different answers, as there are different sects, at the present time, in Christendom. For each of them believes that the Christian Church is among them, and among them alone. Thus the Roman Catholic will point to Rome as the central authority which governs and directs the Christian Church in all countries; and where all doctrinal points and difficulties are settled and determined for the whole Church. Others again who belong to the Reformed Church maintain that the faith and life of the Christian Church have departed from the Church in Rome, and that the torch of the true Christian Church has been rekindled, among the Reformed by the restoration of the Bible; where, as they profess, it is taught that mail is not saved by works but by faith only-by a faith in the vicarious atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet the Reformed also differ as to the whereabouts of the real Christian Church among them. Some say that the real Christian Church exists among the followers of Luther, others among those of Melanchthon, Calvin, Zwingli, Zinzendorf.

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Still others that it exists among the Armimans, and thus among the various followers of Wesley.

While by others it is maintained that the true Christian Church has utterly departed from the Churches and the outward ceremonial, both of the Roman Catholics and the Reformed, and can now be found only among the so-called Friends and the Plymouth Brethren.

2. Such is one of the phases presented to us by Christendom-the historical one. But let us step nearer, and tale, a more interior view of the Churches in Christendom; and let us trace the effect which the spirit of the age the spirit of scientific inquiry, and also the spirit of Scepticism and infidelity have exerted upon the Christian Church of the Nineteenth Century.

On the one hand the spirit of the age has had this effect upon the Churches in our midst, that it has tenuously to the teachings caused them to cling more of the Fathers of Reformation, and has thus given rise to the Low Church and the so-called Evangelical party generally; while it has induced others to barricade list the spirit of the age behind High themselves again? Church forms and an outward impressive ritual.

But, on the other hand, those who belong to the so-called Liberal or Broad party in Church matters, have opened the doors of the Christian Church widely to the spirit of scientific inquiry which tests spirit by the laws of matter, and gauges the Infinite by the finite; and, urged on by this spirit of a false rationalism which leads its devotees inevitably into scepticism and infidelity, they have, one by one, yielded up what had hitherto been retarded as the strongholds of the Christian Faith and the Christian Church. Under the pressure thus brought to bear upon them by the spirit of the age, many indeed in the Christian Church have been led to give up the Divinity of the Sacred Scripture, and have handed it over to the destructive textual criticism of modern times.

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Prompted by the spirit of modern scepticism and infidelity, and perhaps also by a natural feeling of pity and a mistaken sense of justice, many in Christendom have likewise been induced to deny the radical, absolute distinction between good and evil, between heaven and hell, by preaching and believing the restoration of all things. And, finally, the Broad Church movement has also sapped the foundation of all Christianity, the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by declaring that He is a mere man, and not our Divine Redeemer and Saviour.

Arianism was the thorn in the sides of the Christian Church in its early centuries, and under the form of Socinianism, and modern liberalism and rationalism, it has ever since been engaged in trying to lead the educated and thinking portion among Christians into the camp of Anti-Christ. The majority among those who are actuated by the modern spirit of latitudinarianism and rationalism remain in outward connexion with the Churches in which they were born; but their thoughts, aspirations and sympathies are no longer with the Church of their fathers. While others among them do not hesitate to pronounce openly the fact that they no longer believe in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, by swelling the outward number of Unitarians.

3. After this brief review of the Christian Church as it presents itself to us in the pages of history, and as it exists at the present time in our midst, we ask again the question: WHERE, under these circumstances, is the Christian Church, and what constitutes the real, true Christian Church? The real, true Christian Church is what its Divine founder intended it to be, and not what men have made out of it since His time. Should we, therefore, desire to define the actual, true position of any one in the Christian Church we must measure and gauge him by the Divine standard of the Founder of the Christian Church.

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In order thus to find out and determine e p which Emanuel Swedenborg occupies in the Christian Church, we must, for the time being, set aside the superstructure-the Christian Church as it has existed during the last seventeen or eighteen hundred years, and endeavour to penetrate to the original foundation, on which the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ planted the Christian Church.

The commission which the Apostles received from the Lord Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, as expressed in the Gospel according to Mark (xvi. 15, 16), is as follows: "And He said unto them"-unto the Apostles-"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be condemned."

The Lord thus enjoins here, upon His disciples, that they shall preach the Gospel, so that those who hear them shall believe and be baptized.

But what the Lord means here by "belief" and by being baptized" appears from the corresponding passage in the Gospel according to Luke (xxiv. 45-48), where we read: "And He said unto them, These are, the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it beloved Christ to suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day: and that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in His name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.

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Here then we learn that by the "faith" and the "belief" which were to be preached by the Apostles is meant the faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in every thing written concerning Him in the Scripture; and that by the baptism which they were to preach and to administer is meant the baptism of "repentance and of the remission of sins in Christ's name." This is the holy Christian internal, without which the outward baptism with water has no power of salvation.

That this is the sense in which the Apostles understood the commission which they received from the Lord Jesus Christ, is plain from the Acts of the Apostles, where we read of the Apostle Peter (ii., 38): "And Peter said unto them, Repent, and be ye baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And of the Apostle Paul we read (xx., 21): "Paul testified, both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."

This then was the burden of the Gospel preached by the Apostles:-Repentance and the remission of sins in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with a Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by a study of all that is written concerning Him in the Scripture enabled men in the Christian Church to repent of their evils and to be baptized in His name. Thus we read in the Acts of the Apostles concerning the Apostle Philip and the eunuch (viii., 37): "And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

We thus see that the Gospel on which the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ founded the Christian Church is the Gospel of repentance and of the remission of sins in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and the preaching of a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ on the basis of all that is written concerning Him in the Scripture.

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4. If now we inquire further into the character in which the Apostles were directed to represent the Lord Jesus Christ to their hearers, and thus to Preach faith in Him, we read in the commission which they received from the Lord Jesus Christ, as set forth in the Gospel according to Matthew (xxviii., 1820) as follows:-" And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I "-the Lord Jesus Christ-" am with you always, even to the consummation of the age," as is the marginal, true rendering of this passage, in the revised version of the Scriptures.

Here then we read that to the Lord Jesus Christ, who was to be preached by the Apostles, is "given all power in heaven and on earth"-in the visible and in the invisible universe. And "all power is now given Him in heaven and on earth," because in Him is the Trinity of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit." That this is the way in which the Apostles understood the Lord's injunction, "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit," appears from the declaration of the Apostle Paul, that "in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" and from that of the Apostle Peter, who declared (Acts x.), that in Jesus Christ, He is the Lord of all." Therefore because the Apostles believed that 11 in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" and that "Jesus Christ, He is the Lord of all" they always baptized those who came to them "into the name of Jesus Christ" (ii., 38). For baptizing "into the name of Jesus Christ," in their eyes was equivalent to baptizing into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

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That the Father is one with the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ himself declared over and over again. Thus He said in John (x., 30), "I and My Father are one." And in the xiv. chapter: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Ale. If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye' know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip 2 He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, HE doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me."

There can be no more emphatic declaration than this, that "the Father was in the Son;" that the Father thus dwelt bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ; and - that hence "in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

5. But that the Lord Jesus Christ is now present with us as the Holy Spirit; and that the Holy Spirit, consequently, is also one with the Lord Jesus Christ, is taught in these words:-"And I will pray to the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth." And then the Lord continues, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you" (John xiv., 16-18); where the Lord manifestly declares that He will come to His disciples in the character of the Holy Spirit.

Again we read in the last chapter of the Gospel according to Mark: "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

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The Lord worked with His Apostles, and He confirmed their word with signs following-in His character of "Holy Spirit;" in which character He has been present among men ever since His glorification, that is, ever since the "Son," the humanity in which He arose from the grave, became most intimately conjoined with the "Father"-with the Divine Nature from Eternity.

In this way also are to be understood the words which the Lord Spoke to His disciples when He sent them forth to establish the Christian Church, "And lo, I am with you always even to the consummation of the age"-that is, during the continuance of the Christian Church. The Lord promised here that He would be with His Church in His character of Holy Spirit.

6. From all this we see that the Christian Church was established by the preaching of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and further, by the preaching of repentance and the remission of sins in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; for this is implied in the doctrine of baptism, as this was instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore we also read that "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned;" by which is meant that he who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, that in Him is the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and that he who is baptized, that is, whose sins are remitted by a life of repentance in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, is saved; but that he who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is condemned: for no one can lead a life of repentance, and hence be freed from his sins, from himself alone, without the Divine assistance of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this assistance is obtained by a living faith in Him and His teachings in the Sacred Scripture.

7. This then is the foundation on which the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ established the Christian Church;

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and this is the standard, the Divine standard, by which alone we can determine in truth the place of any one in the Christian Church.

We ask now, What, in the presence of this Divine standard, is the place of Emanuel Swedenborg in the Christian Church?

He teaches that "God is One, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and that this one God is the Lord God, the Saviour Jesus Christ;" and that "a saving faith is to believe in Him." He teaches further, that man is not saved by faith alone, but by a life of repentance, and indeed by his "shunning his evils as sins against God."

On this subject he thus declares himself The two essentials of the New Church are these: That God is One in essence and in person, in whom is a Trinity: and that this God is the Lord: further, that charity and faith are one, like essence and its form; and that none other have charity and faith than those who live according to the precepts of the Decalogue; which means that evils are not to be done; and in proportion as any one does not do evils, by his shunning them as sins against God, in the same proportion he does the goods which are of charity, and he believes the truths which are of faith" (A.R. 537).

Again, Emanuel Swedenborg says in respect to these two universals of the New Church, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven and earth, and that we are saved by a life according to His commandments:-"All points of the doctrine of the New Jerusalem have respect to these two fundamental doctrines; for they are the [two] universals upon which every single thing [of doctrine] depends; and they are the essentials upon which every matter of form depends. These two fundamental doctrines are thus like the soul and life of everything which pertains to the doctrine of the Church. They are, indeed, two, but one cannot be separated from the other;

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for separating them would be like separating the Lord from man, and man from the Lord; in which case there would be no Church. These two [essentials] are conjoined like the two tables of the Law, of which one contains those things which pertain to the Lord, and the other those which pertain to man; wherefore they are called the covenant, and covenant means conjunction. Consider how it would be with these Tables of the Law if the first only were to remain, and the second were taken away, or if the second were to remain and the first be taken away. Would it not then be exactly as if God did not see man, and as if man did not see God? and as if each mutually withdrew from the other? These things are said, in order that it may be known, that all points of the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem have respect to love to the Lord, and to love towards the neighbor. Love to the Lord means having faith in the Lord and doing His commandments, and doing His commandments means loving the neighbor; for doing His commandments means doing acts of usefulness to the neighbour. That those love the Lord who do His commandments, the Lord himself teaches in John xiv., 21-24, where we read: 'He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.' And again, 'If a man love Me, he will keep my words. He that loveth Me not, keepeth not my sayings.' And that love to God, and love towards the neighbour are the two commandments on which hang the Law and the Prophets, is stated in Matthew xxii., 35-40. By the Law and the Prophets is understood the Word as a whole" (A.R. 903).

8. This, now, is an exposition of the whole of the doctrine of Emanuel Swedenborg; and, as is here seen, his doctrine rests exactly on the foundation which was prepared for the Christian Church by the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. They preached faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom "all power is given in heaven and on earth," and in whom is the Trinity of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

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They thus preached one Lord, even the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, according to the Apostle Paul, "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and who, according to the Apostle Peter, is "the Lord of all;" and this same God, in one Divine Person, in whom is the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit-is taught by Emanuel Swedenborg. The Apostles also preached "repentance and the remission of sins in the Lord's name;" and Swedenborg teaches that in order to be saved a man must lead a life of repentance, and shun his evils as sins against God, that is, because they are forbidden in the Divine Word.

These two, namely, a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God of heaven and earth, and a life in accordance with His commandments, run through the whole of the system of religion set forth by Emanuel Swedenborg; and as these two fundamental doctrines of Swedenborg's system of religion, are identical with the two great commandments; and as on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets, and thus the whole Divine Word; therefore also the entire system of religion of Emanuel Swedenborg rests on the Divine Word, and is confirmed by it.

The system of religion taught by Emanuel Swedenborg consequently rests on the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the doctrine of His Apostles; and, therefore, his doctrine is the doctrine of the true Christian Church, as this was instituted by the Lord and His Apostles.

This, then, is the place of Emanuel Swedenborg in the Christian Church. He rests on the foundations which were laid eighteen hundred years ago by the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles for the true Christian Church.

9. And now what is the place which Emanuel Swedenborg occupies in respect to those Churches which call themselves Christian at the present day?

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Does Christianity at the present day rest upon those two essential principles on which the Lord Jesus Christ founded the Christian Church through His disciples? And do the Churches in Christendom, in harmony therewith, teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven and earth, in whom is the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit? And do they preach salvation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, through a life of repentance?

The only system of religion which at the present day does rest unequivocally on the two essential principles on which the Lord Jesus Christ founded the Christian Church through his disciples-is the system of religion taught by Emanuel Swedenborg. All other systems of religion promulgated throughout Christendom at the present day are in a hopeless state of contradiction and antagonism to these saving doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ; and, for this reason also, they are in a hopeless state of antagonism to the fundamental doctrines of the New Church, as set forth in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

10. The character of those systems of religion which are preached at the present day throughout Christendom, Swedenborg himself describes thus: "The Trinity taught in the Nicene, and at the same time in the Athanasian creeds, is a Trinity of Gods. Thence arose the faith of the Church at the present time, which is a faith in God the Father, in God the Son, and in God the Holy Spirit. Faith in God the Father is, that He will impute the righteousness of the Saviour, His Son, and ascribe it to man; and the faith in God the Son is, that He will intercede and be our security; and the faith in the Holy Spirit is, that He will actually inscribe on man the imputed righteousness of the Son, and that He will confirm and seal it, by justifying, sanctifying and regenerating man. This is the faith which prevails at the present time;

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and this faith, by itself alone, bears witness that what is acknowledged and worshipped is a Trinity of Gods.

"From the faith (or creed) of a Church results not Only the whole of its worship, but also the whole of its system of doctrine; wherefore it may be said that such as is the creed of a Church, such also is its doctrine. That the above faith, because it is a faith in three Gods, has perverted all things of the Church, follows thence: for faith (or creed) is the principle, the source; and the matters of doctrine are the things derived therefrom; and derivatives draw their essence from their principle or source. If any one will examine the particular points of doctrine, as for instance concerning God, concerning the person of Christ, concerning charity, concerning repentance, concerning regeneration, concerning freewill, concerning election, and concerning the use of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, he will see clearly that a Trinity of Gods is contained in each; and if it does not actually appear to be present in it, it still flows from the faith of the Church as from a fountain." (T.C.R. 177).

But concerning the relation which the modern faith of Christendom occupies in respect to the faith of the New Church, which teaches the sole Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation by a life according to His commandments, Swedenborg says:-" Those who make God three, and the Lord [Jesus Christ] two; and those who separate charity from faith, and make faith, and not at the same time charity, saving, are opposed to the two essentials of the New Church [which, as we have seen, are identical with the two fundamental doctrines of Christianity, as taught by the Apostles]. And that they are in opposition thereto may be seen by every one who reflects.

I use the expressions 'those who make God three, and the Lord two;' and by these expressions I mean those who think of the three persons as of three Gods, and who separate the Lord's human from His Divine nature.

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And who does think otherwise, nay, who CAN think otherwise, if he prays from his formula of faith I that God the Father, for the sake of the Son, should send the Holy Spirit V Does he not pray to God the Father as to one God, and for the sake of the Son as concerning a second God, and concerning, the Holy Spirit as concerning a third God? It hence is made plain that although a man may make one God out of three persons in his thoughts, he still divides his idea, into three Gods, when he prays thus. This same formula of faith which teaches him to pray thus, divides also the Lord into two, because he thinks then only of the Lord's human and not of His Divine Nature; for when he prays 'for the sake of the Son,' he prays for the sake of His human nature which suffered on the cross" (A.R. 537).

Again we read:-"All the reformed Churches divide God into three persons, and make faith alone saving, except a few here and there who do not believe thus in respect to the Trinity and in respect to faith. They who divide God into three persons, and who dwell in their thoughts on these words of the Athanasian creed: 'There is one Person of the Father, another of the Son: and another of the Holy Ghost;' and again upon these words: 'The Father is God, the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God'-these, I say, cannot make one God out of Three. They can indeed say that there is one God, but they cannot think so. Again, they who think of the Lord's Divine nature from eternity, as of the second person of the Deity, and of His human nature born in time, as being like that of another human being cannot do otherwise than make two out of the Lord; not with standing it is stated in the Athanasian creed, that "as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man: so God and man is one Christ" (Ibid).

And again, "The idea that man is saved by faith alone without the works of the Law, captivates a man's carnal mind, and confirmatory reasoning then persuade.

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This idea is captivating, because when a man hears that the condemnation of the Law has been removed, and that the Lord's merit is imputed to him by faith alone in that merit, he is at liberty to indulge in the pleasures of his carnal mind and of his body, without any dread of hell. Thence is the power of the 'faith alone' doctrine, which has caused it to be received throughout the whole of Reformed Christendom." (A.R. 539).

11. The effect of the adoption throughout Christendom of the dogma of three Divine persons, and of salvation by justification of faith alone, has been that the Churches in Christendom by which we are surrounded, according to Emanuel Swedenborg's testimony, are now in a state of consummation, and hence are in their last state. On this subject he says, "That at this day is the last state of the Church may be known from these considerations; namely, that in the greater part of the Christian world are those who have transferred to themselves the Divine power of the Lord, and who desire to be worshipped as gods, and also who pray to dead persons, while scarcely anyone prays to the Lord. And that the rest of the Church make God to be three, and the Lord to be two, and place salvation not in the amendment of life, but in certain words pronounced with a devout breath; thus not in repentance, but in a trust that they are justified and sanctified, if they only fold their hands, look upwards, and pray a common formula." (A.R. 263).

And again we read: "Not one genuine truth has remained in the Christian Church, and unless a New Church be raised up in place of the Old 'no flesh can be saved.' That the Christian, Church, such as it exists at the present day, has been consummated and devastated to such a point, cannot be seen by those on earth who have confirmed themselves in its false doctrines; because a confirmation in what is false is equivalent to a denial of the truth:

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since it puts a veil, as it were, under the understanding, and thereby places a watch over it, lest anything should effect an entrance, which might disturb the ropes and poles by which its system, like a tent, is upheld, strengthened and fitted together." (T.C.R. 758).

12. As to the causes which bring about the consummation of a Church, Swedenborg says: "A church is consummated by various agencies, but chiefly by such as cause the false to appear like truth. And when the false does appear like truth, then good which is intrinsically good, and which is called spiritual good, is no longer possible. The good which is then believed to be good, is simply natural good, the product of a [merely] moral life. The causes which result in the consummation of truth, and together with it, in the consummation of good, are chiefly the two natural loves which are diametrically opposed to the two spiritual loves. These two natural loves are called the love of self, and the love of the world. When the love of self is the ruling love, then it is opposed to the love of God; and when the love of the world is the ruling love, it is opposed to the love of the neighbour. The love of self consists in wishing well to one's self only, and to another solely for the sake of one's self. The same is the case with the love of the world. And when these two loves have once established themselves they spread like mortification through the body, and consume all its parts.

"That a love of this sort has invaded the Churches appears from various parts in the Sacred Scripture, where Babylon-papacy-is treated of. This same love in the end reached such a pitch as not only to transfer to itself the Divine power of the Lord, but also as to try, by a great effort, to become possessed of all the treasures of the world. That similar loves would also burst out from many leaders of the Churches outside of Babylon-unless their power were limited and restrained-may be concluded from indications and appearances not altogether delusive.

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What else can result from such a state of things except that persons of such a description should look upon themselves as gods, and upon the world as heaven? and that they should pervert every truth of the Church? For truth itself, which in itself is true, cannot be known and acknowledged by a purely natural man; nor can that truth be communicated to him by God, because in its descent it flows into an inverted nature where it is turned into falsity.

"Besides these two loves, there are also several other causes of the consummation of truth and good, and hence of the consummation of the Church; but these are secondary, while the former are primary." (T.C.R. 754).

13. The consummation of the Christian Church was foretold by the Lord in Matth. xxiv., when He was asked by His disciples to tell them "what shall be the sign of His coming, and of the consummation of the age." He there said among other things: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. . . . And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold. . . . And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man should say unto You, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. . . . And immediately after the tribulation of those days," we read, "shall the sun be darkened, and the moon not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken."

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In these words is described the destruction of the love of the Lord and of the love of the neighbour through the loves of self and of the world. By the "sun being darkened" is figuratively described, that the love of the Lord and of His Truth would be swallowed up by the selfish love of ruling over the souls and consciences of men; and by the "moon not giving her light" is meant that charity towards the neighbour would cease in the Christian Church, and that this Church would be degraded into a mere political machine; and would give the rulers in the land an opportunity for exercising patronage and granting favours to friends. By "the stars falling from heaven," is meant that the bright constellations of truth in the Divine Word would cease to be illuminated by the spirit of the Word of God, and would be swallowed up by the deadness of the mere letter. But by "the powers of the heavens being shaken," is meant that the saving power of the Christian Church which was communicated to it from on high, so long as it preached salvation by a life of repentance and a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, would be at an end, and that it would cease to be an institution for the salvation of human souls.

14. But when the night is darkest, then the dawn of a new and hopeful day is nigh. So also, according to the doctrine of Emanuel Swedenborg, the consummation of a Church is the time when the Lord effects a new coming to mankind, and when by the revelation of a new body of Truth, He establishes a New Church among them.

Three times previously the Lord had effected such a coming to mankind. When the Church which Jehovah had established among the descendants of Adam came to an end, by their perversion of good into evil, and of truth into falsity, and when the whole Church was inundated and swallowed up by a "flood" or "deluge" of fearful falsities, Jehovah-the Lord before the Incarnation-

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appeared unto Noah, and established a new covenant between Himself and mankind, and thus a New Church.

But when the Church among the descendants of Noah was consummated by the rise of an arrant love of self among its members, whereby they claimed to themselves Divine power over their fellows, which is figuratively represented by the building of the tower of Babel-then Jehovah left that Church and appeared to Abraham, and through the ministry of Moses established a new one-the Israelitish Church among the descendants of Jacob-and to that Church He revealed the Word of the Old Testament, wherein the coming of the Messiah is foretold.

When that Church fell away from Jehovah, then Jehovah, the Lord from eternity, descended as the Word, the Logos, and put on our finite, sinful nature; and suffered Himself to be born as another human being; so that in our fallen human nature, He might meet hell, the power of darkness, and save us from its cruel bondage. This constituted a new, a personal coming of the Lord; and by His coming He established a new Church-the Christian-through the instrumentality of His disciples; and to the Christian Church he revealed the Word of the New Testament, in addition to that of the Old Testament. The members of this Church also, as we have seen, fell away in time from the Lord and His Divine Truth, and followed in the direction of their own selfish and worldly loves, until at last, the Lord's prophecy respecting this Church, in chapter xxiv of the Gospel according to Matthew, became fulfilled, and its "age," the period of its existence, became "consummated." But with the time of the consummation of the Christian Church, there was also the time of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He promised to make a new revelation of the Truth to mankind, and to establish a New Church among them.

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15. This Second Coming of the Lord, concerning which He prophesied that it would take place at the "consummation" of the Christian Church is described in Matthew (xxiv., 29, 30) thus: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days . . . shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in heaven, and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn; and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

To those among whom the Lord at His First Coming instituted the Christian Church, He came in the clouds of the letter, in the appearances of the Truth, by which the very Divine Truth was veiled before them-for they were not able then to see the Word in its glory; wherefore also we read concerning them in Matthew (xiii., 34): "All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake He not unto them." But at his Second Coming the Lord promised to come "in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory;" and by this is meant that He would then reveal the interior spiritual depths of the Divine Word, and would enable the members of the New Church-of the Church of the New Jerusalem to see "the spirit" in the letter of the Word. For the words that the Lord Jesus Christ spake "are spirit and they are life."

This New Church, according to the testimony of Emanuel Swedenborg, will be founded on the two fundamental doctrines of Christianity, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven and earth, and that we are saved by a life according to the Divine commandments. In this Church, therefore, tithe stone which the builders rejected," namely the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God of heaven and earth," will become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes" (Matth. xxi., 42).

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THE CONVENTIONAL IDEAS ABOUT EMANUEL SWEDENBORG REVIEWED.

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement." John vii., 24.

16. Righteous judgment is judged in the light of the Truth. But Truth does not abide within the range of our senses. For our senses deal with appearances; and appearances are often very deceitful and treacherous.

Man, however, has both a sense and a capacity for the Truth; but this sense and this capacity do not lie within the range of his bodily senses.

The relation between the Truth and a man's sense or capacity for the Truth, is the same as that which exists between light and the human eye. For Truth, intrinsically, is spiritual light, light on spiritual subjects, and man's faculty of understanding is his mental or spiritual eye.
And as a man's bodily eye is simply an organ receptive of the vibrations and variegations of light, which has its origin outside of man; so also his mental eye, his faculty of understanding, is an organ receptive of the light of Truth; but the origin and source of this light, too, is outside the man himself.

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Again, as the reflected light of the sun which enters the eye from the various objects of vision, is qualified by the condition of the human organ of vision; and as it depends upon the state of the human eye whether an image which is reflected -upon it through the medium of light, be truthful in form or distorted-so also the light of Truth, upon entering a human understanding, is qualified by the condition of that understanding. Hence the difference between the intelligence of a savage and that of a highly civilized European; and hence again the difference between the intellect of a Herbert Spencer and that of a believing Christian.

The same kind of spiritual light illuminates the faculty of understanding in each; but it is variously received by the mind of an agnostic and an evolutionist philosopher, from what it is by the mind of an intelligent Christian. And among believing Christians, again, the inflowing light is variously received, according as their understanding has been formed and developed by a study of the genuine doctrine of the Divine Word, or by a falsified presentation of the same.

17. And yet a man's understanding, although formed in the first place by instruction received from others, has also a capacity for seeing and recognizing the Truth or for rejecting the same when it is presented by others. For a man's mind, or his soul, does not consist of a memory only, but the spiritual or mental food which is stored up there is also acted upon by a higher faculty of the mind, and thereby digested, and in this digested condition it enters into the formation of a man's character.

A man's character lies above and behind his memory; although the contents of his memory enable him also to put on a fictitious character, if he so chooses. The power, however, which forms a man's character, and which enables him either to receive or to reject a proffered truth, is his love, his will.

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For a man's love, and not his understanding, is the real master in his soul. What a man's love wills, that his understanding thinks; and a man is not willing to see a certain thing, he will not see it, no matter how well informed and intelligent his understanding may be.

A man's will, however, is either of an affirmative or a negative quality, and this quality the will impacts to the under standing; and if a man's mind is of an affirmative quality, then he is able "to judge a righteous judgment;" and then his mind is capable of being enlightened by the inflowing light of Truth. His mind also then is transparent, as it were, and modulates and variegates the inflowing light of the Truth in beautiful and true thoughts.

But when a man's mind is imbued with a negative quality, then it is closed against the inflowing light of the Truth, and is open only for the gross, material light of nature. The appearances of the world, which are qualified by the laws of space and time, are then the only things which the mind is able to receive, and to discriminate; and the man himself is no longer able "to judge a righteous judgment;" but is capable only of "judging according to the appearance;" and what is wonderful, those who judge entirely "according to the appearances" furnished by the senses of their bodies, imagine themselves ever so much wiser than those who have preserved in their souls an affirmative quality, and therefore are able "to judge a righteous judgment."

18. Let us now define more clearly the moral ingredients of an affirmative, and a negative frame of mind.

The affirmative frame of mind is caused by a will, or love, which acknowledges that man is but a recipient of life and light, and does not possess them as his own. The man of all affirmative frame of mind, therefore, when he hears that God is the source of life and light, and thus, the source of Truth, at once believes this teaching;

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for this statement of the Truth agrees with the state, the quality of his love. Wherefore, a man of an affirmative frame of mind instinctively believes in a God capable of revealing Himself; nay, he has a yearning for His Divine Revelation, and when he sees or hears it, he at once acknowledges and believes it. For he is meek and humble at heart, and therefore has a teachable disposition; and as, inmostly in his soul, he acknowledges a God who is the source of Truth, and capable of making a revelation of Himself to men-therefore also his soul attracts the light of Truth which streams forth from God; and this light of the Truth illuminates the teaching of Revelation in his mind, and enables him to see and to understand it.

The teaching of Revelation which is enlightened by the light of Truth, in the mind of one who is of an affirmative disposition, becomes thus a criterion, a standard of the Truth, by means of which he is able to judge righteous judgment."

There is another kind of men, and especially of women, of an affirmative disposition, who are not so much of a reflecting, meditative cast of mind, but who delight in being of use to others, and who by their love of making themselves useful to others, are carried away outside of their own self. These persons have their sympathies enlisted by all who are poor and needy, and they are found in sick-rooms, but especially where there are little children; and wherever they go, they bring comfort, and solace, and happiness with them. Usually they are not wedded to any definite system of doctrine; but they hail as coworkers all who are fired by a similar, disinterested, unselfish purpose, and who are willing to devote themselves to the happiness and to the welfare of others.

It is wonderful how clear the spiritual discernment of such persons is in the vital questions of religion, and how their eyes are enlightened by the light of Truth when they study their Bibles.

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Others again there are of an affirmative disposition who do not busy themselves so much with questions of theology, or church matters, but who in the business of everyday life act from a principle of sincerity; and who for no love or money, would ever swerve in the least from the path of honesty, and strict business rectitude. These persons also have in their souls a criterion, a standard of judgment, between what is right and wrong, and thus are able to 11 judge a righteous judgment," even in matters of religion and theology. For they are gifted with a conscience of what is fair and just, and their understanding is capable of being enlightened by the light of truth.

These persons, and in fact all those who are sincere and honest, and of an unselfish, self-sacrificing disposition, are endowed as to their understanding with that precious quality, common sense in spiritual matters. And this common sense on their part is due to the fact that their understandings are capable of being enlightened by the light of Truth, and thus by the presence of Him, who is both the Light and the source of Truth.

These persons also are not confirmed against the Divinity of the Sacred Scripture. Although they may not boast of a great familiarity with its pages, they still look upon the sacred volume with the respect and affection of their childhood, when, nevertheless, for the most part it is a sealed book to them.

19. To persons who are free and open, and believing at heart-that is, who are ready to believe, provided they have not to abdicate the use of their reason, and of their freedom in spiritual matters-Emanuel Swedenborg addresses himself; for these only are able to grasp and understand the meaning of his writings. For the Truth oil spiritual subjects appears only in the light which prevails in the transcendent world of spirit, even in heaven; and this light can enter into and thus enlighten, the minds only of those who are of an affirmative disposition, and who have preserved in their souls their common sense in spiritual matters.

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These persons perhaps are staggered at first when they hear that, according to Emanuel Swedenborg's teaching, the Lord's Second Coming has already been effected; and that it took place in the last century, when the Christian Church was consummated because it had utterly fallen away from those foundations which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had laid for the Christian Church through His disciples.

They are perhaps still more startled when they are told, that according to the teaching of Emanuel Swedenborg, the Second Coming of the Lord was effected by the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Divine Word; and that this is meant by "the power and great glory," in which the Son of Man prophesied that He would appear at His Second Coming; while by the "clouds of heaven" are meant the clouds of the literal sense, by which the Divinity of the Sacred Scripture was more or less hidden from Christians during the whole continuance of the first Christian Church.

They will perhaps be still more surprised When they hear that Emanuel Swedenborg claims to have been "the Lord's servant" at His Second Coming, through whom He revealed the spiritual sense of the Scriptures to the Christian world; and whose spiritual sight the Lord mercifully opened, so that through him He might reveal to mankind the truth about the Great Hereafter: where heaven and hell are; what man must do in order to enter heaven; and what kind of life he will lead there as an angel of heaven; and on the other hand, what kind of an existence is led by those who during their life on earth have put on an infernal character, and who after their departure from this world will gravitate towards hell.

20. The revelation of the spiritual sense of the Divine Word, and the intromission into the spiritual world, through the opening of his spiritual sight, for a period of twenty-eight years-these are claims which no man made before Emanuel Swedenborg.

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The prophets and John the Revelator had glimpses into the other world, and they described their visions in their prophesies; they also saw there the "Son of Man," the Lord Jesus Christ glorified, who is "the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last"-but the prophets did not understand their visions, nor did they understand the messages which the Son of Man" delivered through them.

Emanuel Swedenborg, however, not only describes to us "the glories of heaven," and the "miseries of hell;" but, under the guidance of the Lord Himself, he gives a most minute, and at the same time a most rational and convincing description of the Organization of the heavens and the hells, and of the daily life which the angels lead in heaven, and the devils pursue in hell.

But this is not all; Emanuel Swedenborg also describes to us the intercourse, the relations which exist between the spiritual and the natural worlds, and between the soul and the body; and he exhibits to us the character of the Divine Being; what was His essence and form from eternity; and how He manifested and revealed Himself to mankind before the Incarnation. And then he explains to us the whole of the mystery of the Incarnation; in what manner the Lord Jesus Christ became our Redeemer, and by what means He finally glorified the human nature, which He had put on from a human mother, and how thereby He became One with the Father of Eternity-One like Body and Soul; and how since His glorification He has been present among men in the character of Holy Spirit.

Emanuel Swedenborg, besides, explains to us the whole of creation; the mode of the mechanism by which the spiritual and the natural universes were created by God;

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and by which they have ever since been kept in a state of preservation and of order. He shows to us, how there are two kinds of objects in the three kingdoms of nature, an orderly and a disorderly kind; and how the orderly kind is created and sustained by an influx out of heaven; and the disorderly kind by an influx out of hell. Swedenborg teaches us besides, the rationale of the miracles which are recorded in the Scriptures; and explains to us the workings of the Divine Providence; how it is ever at work, yet without interfering in the least with the noblest gifts from God to man, the Divine gifts of freedom and rationality. He explains further the sacredness of marriage, and the heinousness of adultery; that marriage-love descends from God out of heaven; but adulterous love streams forth from hell. He reconciles science and philosophy with religion; and points out to us the difference between a true and a false science, between a true and a false philosophy. He also shows to us the bearing of religion on business life, oil the fine arts and on politics. And, in fine, he draws out of the spiritual depths of the Divine Word an entire, and new system of religion and theology, which is a fulfilment of the Christianity that was preached by the Lord Jesus Christ during His life on earth, and by His disciples after the glorification of His humanity.

21. The man of an affirmative frame of mind, when light on all these subjects is promised to him by Emanuel Swedenborg-the "Lord's servant," at His Second Coming-at first stands a aghast, uncertain what to think; for hitherto it had been impressed upon him by the Church, that in matters of faith the human understanding and human reason are to be kept in subjection, and that he must believe blindly; but when he begins to understand that Emanuel Swedenborg expects him to come and see for himself; and that for the truth of his teachings he appeals throughout to the testimony of the Sacred Scripture

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when thus reassured, the man of an affirmative disposition, the man of common sense in spiritual matters, before condemning Emanuel Swedenborg, resolves to read him, and to judge, in the light of a prayerful frame of mind, what he has to say. And above all he resolves to test his teachings by the unerring light of Holy Writ; for he remembers that the "Bereans" of old were commended in the Acts of the Apostles (xvii., 11) because they tested the truth of what they heard from the Apostles Paul and Silas by a constant reference to the pages of the Sacred Scripture.

As the man of an affirmative frame of mind reads, scales begin to drop from his eyes, and he sees that the doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg are not only in full harmony with the requirements of an enlightened reason, but also present the Sacred Scripture itself in such a new and wonderful light, that while Scripture is seen to confirm the doctrines of Swedenborg in every particular, these doctrines themselves contain the clearest proof of the Divinity of Holy Writ, by showing that it is written in a style different from that of all merely human writings; that it is written in fact in the style of parables from beginning to end. But the key for the understanding of these parables is the science of correspondences, which was known in the most ancient times; but the knowledge of which, under the Divine Providence, was suffered to be lost, because this science had been abused by men in Egypt and other places for purposes of magic, pythonism, and an unlawful, because injurious, intercourse with spirits in the other life.

The man of an affirmative disposition on examining the untold spiritual wealth contained in the revelation made to us through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg is, in the end, so amazed and filled with astonishment, that he feels bound to declare that no man from himself, unaided by the Spirit of God, could possibly have written those works which Swedenborg, according to his own testimony, wrote as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He effected His Second Coming.

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22. After a most painstaking and thorough examination of the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, the man of an affirmative disposition, and of common sense in spiritual matters, feels prepared to declare his belief in the mission of Emanuel Swedenborg, as stated by himself in these words: "The Lord's Second Advent takes place through a man, before whom He manifested Himself in person, and whom He filled with His Spirit,-in order that he might teach the doctrines of the New Church through the Word from the Lord."
Concerning this mission which he received from the Lord, he says further: "Since the Lord cannot [now] manifest Himself in person, and yet foretold that He would come again, and establish a New Church which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He would do this by a man, who could not only receive the doctrines of this Church with his understanding, but also publish them by the press. I testify in truth that the Lord manifested Himself before me, His servant, that He commissioned me for this work, and afterwards opened the sight of my spirit, and so intromitted me into the spiritual world, permitting me to see the heavens and the hells, and also to converse with angels and spirits, and this now continually for many years; and likewise, that from the first day of my call to this office, I have never received anything relating to the doctrines of the New Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone, while I was reading the Word." (T.C.R. 779). Further, "To the end that the Lord might constantly be present, He revealed to me the spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense Divine Truth is in its light, and in this light He is continually present.

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For His presence in the Word is from no other source than through the spiritual sense, through the light of which He passes into the shade, in which is the literal sense." (Ibid. No. 780).

23. Persons of an affirmative frame of mind who are prepared to accept the testimony of Emanuel Swedenborg, the Lord's servant at His Second Coming, are understood in Matthew, chapter xxiv., by the "elect," concerning whom we read there that when "they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory"-He, the "Soil of Man," the Lord at His Second Coming, shall "send His angels"-the heavenly messengers of His Truth with a trumpet and great voice, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens, even to the end thereof."

By this sending forth of the angels at the Lord's Second Coming is meant, that heaven will then draw near to the minds of those among men who are of an affirmative disposition, and will fill their minds with the light of heaven, so that when they shall hear the Lord's gospel at his Second Coming they will be able to hear and receive it, and will then gather themselves together, so as to form the Lord's New Church on earth, the Church of the New Jerusalem, which is foretold in the Book of Revelation.

In this Church there will be a great variety of persons, because they will be "gathered together from the four winds," from all the quarters of Christendom; yet although they will all differ in their particular reception of the truth, and hence of the good of the New Church, they will, nevertheless, all agree as to the fundamental doctrines of this Church; namely, as to the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God of heaven and earth; and as to faith in salvation by a life in accordance with the Divine commandments.

24. Such will be the effect of the preaching of the Truth of the New Dispensation on the minds of those who have preserved in themselves an affirmative, that is, a teachable and a believing disposition;

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but it will have a different effect altogether on the minds of those who are not of an affirmative, but of a negative disposition. For the former by an affirmative reception of the general truths of the Divine Word, as these shine forth in its literal teachings, have formed in the interiors of their minds a general criterion, a standard of judgment, by which they are able to discriminate the true from the false, and the good from the evil. This standard of the Truth those lack who are of a negative disposition; and while the former, that is those who are of an affirmative disposition, by virtue of the standard, the conscience of the Truth in their minds, when they hear the substance and the claims of the New Dispensation promulgated by Emanuel Swedenborg, are able to "judge a righteous judgment" respecting the New Revelation from the Lord; the latter will judge" of it "according to the appearance," and thus will pass respecting it an "unrighteous judgment."

It is this purely negative criticism of the mission of Emanuel Swedenborg which has given rise to the "conventional ideas" about him, which prevail more or less in the world around us.

Among those who believe and circulate these "conventional ideas," there are, however, two classes; there are those who manufacture these ideas, and there are those who take them on trust from others. The latter are by far in the majority, and, therefore, we are quite willing to believe that there are many among them who in a certain sense are "searchers after truth," but who either are not able, or not willing, to examine the claims of Emanuel Swedenborg, or of anyone else, for themselves. There are, besides, many who thus far have not heard anything about Swedenborg, either one way or the other.

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Moreover, the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg are so diametrically opposed to those which are in vogue at the present day throughout Christendom, as well as to those which are current among scientists and philosophers; and, again, the morality preached by Emanuel Swedenborg is so lofty, and a profession of his doctrines entails upon his followers such a radical change in their motives, in their life at home, at business, in society and at Church, that many when they hear about Swedenborg and his doctrine, shrink back, unwilling to take up the battle of repentance and regeneration, which according to him, is the only way by which we are able to enter heaven.

The doctrines of Swedenborg, therefore, when preached as they really are, will never cause a wholesale conversion among Christians at the present age. As the world now is, the progression of the New Church will be and must be slow. And yet, again, we believe that the "elect," those who are of an affirmative disposition, who are anxious and willing to know the truth, and to do it, are scattered throughout the whole length and breadth of Christianity, and many of these perhaps by "the conventional ideas" about Swedenborg which are carefully circulated by those who manufacture them, have thus far been prevented from approaching Swedenborg, and from profiting by the untold spiritual riches which are stored up in his writings.

25. Let us now analyze the negative frame of mind of those, who are constitutionally, that is, by the very texture of their minds, opposed to the mission of Swedenborg, and who are busily engaged in manufacturing, and circulating, what we have thus far denominated "the conventional ideas about Emanuel Swedenborg."

The centre around which a man of a thoroughly negative frame of mind revolves, is himself. He is the, centre of the world in his own eyes;

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and others are in the world to do homage to him, and to do his bidding. Practically, a person of a negative frame of mind worships himself, and he expects others to worship him also. This self-worship manifests itself in different persons in a variety of ways. Thus some take a delight in the worship of their own will, their own power; while others exact a worship for the creations of their understanding, whether they be a system of philosophy or religious doctrine, or whether they be some scientific or political theory, or some creation of their artistic skill. The essence of the negative frame of mind is thus the love of one's self. This love induces a man to exalt himself at the expense of his fellow-men; for he considers himself wiser than others and his own views as of more importance than those of other people. He lacks, therefore, the qualities of humility, meekness, docility. If he acknowledges a God, it is with the lips only. Intrinsically he is a denier of God, and therefore he denies the possibility of a Divine Revelation. He thus denies and spurns all revealed knowledge on spiritual subjects; and therefore he has not, and cannot have in his soul a criterion-a standard of what is true and false in spiritual matters. As there are no vessels of revealed truth in his understanding, he cannot receive in his soul the inflowing light of truth. Nay, he is an actual denier of spiritual light, of a light that sheds its lustre on a man's mind When he withdraws from the contemplation of merely earthly and bodily things, and when on the wings of prayer he comes, as to his spirit, into the presence of Him who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," and "in whose Light alone we are able to see light." A person of a negative frame of mind who believes in the existence only of natural light, and of things which appear in the light of nature-such a person is able "to judge only according to the appearance," and is utterly unable "to judge righteous judgment."

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26. Suppose such a person raises now the eye of his understanding to the contemplation of the truth about God, and the truth about the future life. Can he see these truths? He judges of them by "the appearance" they present before the senses of his body; and as the senses cannot perceive either of these truths, he denies them both.

Suppose he directs next the sight of his understanding which is imbued with a negative spirit, upon the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught that He is One with the Father, and that be is "the Way, the Truth and the Life." Even then, in the Divine presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, he "judges by the appearance; "nay, when his arrant love of self is excited by the Lord's call to repentance, and when he hears the Lord speaking words of authority, then like the Jews of old, he says of Him, "He hath a devil and is mad" (John x, 21), and anon he charges Him with "deceiving the people."

If such is the fate of the Lord Himself at the hands of those who are animated by a negative spirit, what other treatment can His disciples and His "servant" expect? Therefore also the Lord Himself said, "The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" (John xv., 20).

Thus Emanuel Swedenborg also could expect no other treatment. And while, on the one hand, those who are of an affirmative disposition, hail him as the Lord's own "servant," through whom the Lord Himself rolled away the veil by which the Great Hereafter had been hidden from the eyes of men for thousands of years; and through whom the Lord broke the seals from the letter of the Divine Word and displayed the glory of its internal sense-those, on the other hand, who are of a negative spirit, and "judge by the appearance," and therefore are unable "to judge righteous judgment," ridicule his claims, and regardless of all facts and reasons, declare him to be mad.

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27. We thus find that some of those, who under the influence of a negative spirit created the "conventional ideas" about Swedenborg, allege that his madness began in the year 1743, when according to his own declaration his spiritual sight was opened by the Lord, and he began to have glimpses Into the, spiritual world.

Now the facts of the case are, that for seventeen years no one, except his London publisher, John Lewis, knew that Emanuel Swedenborg was the author of those remarkable thirteen quarto volumes, which between 1747 and 1760 he published in London, and which contain some of the results of his inspiration and spiritual enlightenment. During the greater part of this time he resided among his friends in Stockholm, and during the whole of these thirteen years he did not open his lips to any of those friends about his remarkable spiritual condition. Suppose now, as is maintained for instance by the editor of the "Journal of Mental Science," that Swedenborg's insanity began in the year 1743,* we have here this unprecedented case in the annals of insanity to deal with: namely, that for the space of seventeen years Swedenborg kept his alleged insanity a profound secret from everybody.

* This statement was made by Dr. Maudsley, the editor of the Journal of Mental Science," in 1869; and He has since re-asserted it in his work entitled, "Body and Mind," and more recently still in his latest work "Natural Causes and Spiritual Seeming. "The grounds generally On which the Doctor based himself in his defamation of Swedenborg are critically examined in the Editor's Preface to the second volume of Swedenborg's treatise on the "Brain," 1887.

Besides, from May, 1745, to August, 1747, Swedenborg continued to attend to the duties of his office, to those of an assessor, that is, of an associate Judge in the department of Mines at Stockholm;

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and on his retirement from office the post of a Councillor of Mines, a still higher rank, was offered to him, but he declined it.

During 1743 and 1744 he also was engaged in writing, one of the profoundest works ever written on the anatomy and physiology of the brain-a posthumous work, the second volume of which has lately appeared., It is a work which in its inductions and analyses is so wonderful, that it is far ahead of all modern textbooks on the Brain and Nervous System.

28. Again, by those of a negative frame of mind among Christians, Emanuel Swedenborg is charged with being unchristian, and with having placed himself outside the pale of the Christian Church; when yet the real state of affairs is, as we have proved in our first chapter, that it is Swedenborg who stands square on the foundations of Christianity, as they were laid 1800 years ago by the Lord Jesus Christ through His disciples. Swedenborg, in harmony with the doctrines of the Apostles, teaches a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom is the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; to whom therefore "all power is given in heaven and in earth," and in whom, according to the teaching of the apostle Paul, "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Besides this Swedenborg teaches salvation by a life of repentance, and thus by "the baptism of repentance" which was preached by the Lord's apostles; while those who charge him with being unchristian, and who wish to exclude him and his followers from the fold of the Christian church, have themselves retreated from the faith of the true and genuine Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. For instead of teaching a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and who according to the apostle Peter is "Lord of all"-they teach a faith in three Divine persons, each of whom 11 by himself is God and Lord;" and instead of salvation by the "baptism repentance" which was preached by the Lord's apostles, they preach salvation by faith alone in the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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29. Others, again, charge Swedenborg with disparaging and making light of the letter of the Word, and hence they accuse him with a want of faith in the Bible, because he declares, for sooth, that the words of Scripture have a spiritual meaning in addition to their literal meaning; that, therefore, as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself declares, "the words that I speak are spirit and they are life;" and because Swedenborg further maintains, in harmony with the teaching of the Apostle Paul, that "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. iii., 6).

Again, by some of the theologians Emanuel Swedenborg is charged with being a Sabellian, because he teaches that 11 God is One, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord God, the Saviour Jesus Christ." Sabellius, however, taught one God with three names, and thus one God who manifested Himself to men under a Trinity of names; while Emanuel Swedenborg teaches one God in whom are the three essentials of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Father being the Divine Soul, the Son the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit the Divine Life which proceeds from the Lord Jesus Christ, in and by which He is present among the angels of heaven, and among men on earth.

30. Another of the "conventional ideas" set afloat by those who "judge by the appearance," is that Swedenborg belongs to the body of the so-called modern spiritualists."

The central doctrines of the religious system of Emanuel Swedenborg, are the two fundamental doctrines of Christianity; namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven and earth, and that a saving faith on the part of man is to believe in Him, and to shun his evils as sins against Him.

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We are not aware that these two doctrines are the central doctrines of "modern spiritualism."

Swedenborg also teaches that the Sacred Scripture is the Word of God, and that those who keep the words of the Lord in the Sacred Scripture find Him there; and are able to approach Him by reading the words of Scripture in a prayerful and believing spirit. This is not the light in which the "modern spiritualists" as a body look upon the Divine Word.

Again, the whole, of the doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg are drawn out of the letter of the Divine Word, and are confirmed by it. This cannot be said with regard to the opinions held by the "modern spiritualists."

Swedenborg declares finally that "from the first day of his call to his office, he never received anything relating to the doctrines of the New Church from any spirit or angel, but from the Lord alone, while he was reading the Word." The "modern spiritualists," on the other hand, admit that all their communications are obtained from spirits-whether good or evil, they cannot tell.

Swedenborg, therefore, is far from belonging to the body of "modern spiritualists"-but he is "the Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ," at His Second Coming.

31. These then are some of the "conventional ideas" which are circulated in the world around us, on the subject of the character and the mission of Emanuel Swedenborg; but upon being analyzed they all prove to be the out births of the negative spirit which "judges according to the appearance." Some of these false and mischievous ideas arose even during Swedenborg's lifetime; but most of them began to be industriously circulated as English editions of his writings multiplied, and as the receivers of his doctrines increased in number.

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It was then that a clergyman of the Church of England, who was personally-acquainted with Emanuel Swedenborg felt called upon to publish his testimony concerning this extraordinary man, and to protest against the cruel and untrue reports which were circulated about him. He says* among other things: Reader, might it not seem a wonder if a person of so extraordinary and apostolic a character [as Emanuel Swedenborg] should better escape the imputation of madness than the prophets of old? . . . Were an Angel from heaven to come, and dwell incarnate amongst us, may we not suppose that his conversation, discoveries and conduct of life, would in many things be so contrary to the errors and prejudices, the ways and fashions of this world, that many would say with one consent he is beside himself? And where any one of our brethren, through the Divine favour, attains to any high degree of angelical illumination, may he not expect the like treatment?

* The Rev. Thomas Hartley, M.A., Rector of Winwick, North Hamptonshire, and East Malling, Kent, in the preface to the first English translation of Swedenborg's work on "Heaven and Hell."

In another place he says: "It may reasonably be supposed that I have weighed the character of our illustrious author in the scale of my best judgment, from the personal knowledge I had of him, from the best information I could procure concerning him, and from a diligent perusal of his writings; and according thereto I have found him to be the sound divine, the good man, the deep philosopher, the universal scholar, and the polite gentleman; and I further believe that he had a high degree of illumination from the Spirit of God, was commissioned by Him as an extraordinary messenger to the world, and had communication with angels and the spiritual world, beyond any since the time of the apostles."

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With this testimony of an intelligent, earnest clergy man of the Church of England, who was a contemporary of Swedenborg, and one of the few personal friends he had during the last years of his earthly life-we close our chapter on the "Conventional Ideas respecting Emanuel Swedenborg."

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III

SWEDENBORG'S PREPARATORY LIFE OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.

32. Revelation is wanted by man, in order that, while in this world, he may prepare for a life in the Hereafter. For Revelation alone can inform him about the Hereafter, and about him who is the Lord of the Hereafter.

A revelation was thus made to man by the Lord, so that whilst in this world he might constantly be reminded of the Lord and His kingdom. And this Revelation the Lord placed in the charge of the Church, so that through her ministration men might turn from the worship of self and mammon to the worship of Him who desired to draw all to Himself, so that He might make them eternally happy in His kingdom of love and in His kingdom of wisdom.

The Lord's presence with us is twofold. He is present with us in our faculties of freedom and rationality, and through His presence there He keeps these faculties in a state of integrity; and again the Lord is present with us in His Revelation.

If now, with the full use of our freedom and rationality we acknowledge the Lord in His revelation; if we believe that there He speaks to us the words of life; and if we take these lessons of life to the heart and do them-then the Lord out of his dwelling-place in the inmost recesses of our, souls draws near to us, and conjoins Himself with us, and thereby saves and redeems us out of the power of evil and falsity.

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In this wise the Lord is able to reform and regenerate us and to conjoin us, as to our souls, with the angels of heaven; and when at the close of our life in this world, our soul is separated from the body, the Lord receives us, and introduces us into His kingdom in heaven.

33. The Lord, therefore, has provided that there should always be a revelation of Himself among men; and this revelation is always adapted and accommodated to the state of reception among men. Thus a revelation made to the simple-minded inhabitants of Galilee, and to the people generally who lived at the time of the Lord's First Coming, would differ materially from a Revelation which the Lord would make in the middle of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. There would not be a difference in the matter to be communicated and revealed, for the Lord and His Divine Truth are ever the same; but there would be a great difference in the men, the recipients of revelation, and thus in the quantity and quality of revealed Truth which they would be able to receive; for 1800 years also there were no public schools, and there were no sciences to be cultivated. Men then were exceedingly simple in their tastes and requirements. They travelled little, and did not know much about the world around them; and they did not trouble themselves much about the future, and still less about the past, leading a quiet, easy-going life from day to day.

But now it is different. The schoolmaster has been abroad, and through steamships and railways the whole world is open to all. Competition also is rife, and by the daily press every nation learns about the doings of every other nation.

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The amount of general information which, thanks to the invention of the printing-press is now diffused everywhere, and the general intelligence, the result of an increased application of thought, have made of mankind at the present day an entirely different race of people from what they were 1800 years ago, when the Lord was born in this world.

This change in the mental and moral complexions of mankind the Lord would naturally take into consideration in making, to them, at this present time, a new revelation of Himself and of the Hereafter. Nevertheless, the revelation of today would not be contradictory to that made 1800 years ago; but even as mankind at the present time, in spite of the immense strides which they have made in civilization, are still lineally descended from mankind as it existed 1800 years ago; and as mankind at the present day are in a certain sense a fulfilment of mankind as it was then; so also the Lord's revelation at His Second Corning, which we verily believe He made through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg, would be but a further development and fulfilment of that revelation which he made to mankind at His First Coming.

34. There would thus exist also a certain parallel between the disciples whom the Lord chose at His First Coming and Emanuel Swedenborg, whom the Lord by a wonderful course of instruction prepared for his apostleship at His Second Coming.

On this subject Swedenborg himself says: "Once I was asked, how from a philosopher I had become a theologian. I replied, in the same way in which the Lord made disciples and apostles out of fishermen; for I also had been a spiritual fisherman from my early youth. When my questioner asked, 'What is a spiritual fisherman?' I replied, that by a fisherman in the spiritual sense of the word is meant a person who explores and teaches natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths in a rational manner."

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Swedenborg then explained to his interlocutor that truths on transcendent subjects, such as concern God, the human soul, and the future life, are discussed in the Sacred Scripture under the form of natural images; that "water" and a "river" in the letter of Scripture thus signify truths within the range of nature; "fishes" persons who swim in these natural truths, that is, who are acquainted with an abundance of such truths; while by a "fisherman" are represented those persons who explore and teach this kind of truths. And in support of this explanation, Swedenborg quotes these passages from the Word: from the prophet Isaiah (xix., 5, 8)-"Then shall the waters fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up . . . wherefore the fishers shall mourn, those that cast angles into the sea shall lament" and from the Prophet Ezekiel (xlvii., 9, 10)-"And it shall come to pass, that upon the river, the waters of which were healed, shall stand fishers from En-gedi; they shall be present with the spreading forth of they the nets; their fish according to their kinds shall be as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. And from the Prophet Jeremiah (xvi., 16)-"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall fish the sons of Israel." "Hence it is," Swedenborg adds, "that the Lord chose fishermen for His disciples, and why He told them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men' (Matt. iv., 18, 19); and why He told Peter, after he had caught a great quantity of fish, 'From henceforth thou shalt catch men' (Luke v., 10)."

35. From this interesting account we see that Swedenborg was prepared for the reception of the Lord's revelation at His Second Coming, by a thorough under standing of the truths of nature; because upon them rest the spiritual transcendent truths about the Lord and His kingdom.

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But a question still remains for us to answer, namely, "Why did the Lord require a human instrument for communicating His revelation to men at his Second Coming; and why did He not reveal Himself then in person, as He did at His First Coming?

The object for which the Lord suffered Himself to be born as a little child, at His First Coming, was not to reveal to the world the Word of the New Testament. For this purpose He employed the four Evangelists. The object of His incarnation was first to obtain access thereby to the infernal crews, by whom mankind at this time were ruled over and spiritually enslaved; to conquer and subdue them, and thereby to redeem mankind out of their cruel bondage. And His second object was, by glorifying His human nature, and conjoining it most intimately with the Infinite Divine nature, to establish His omnipotent power over humanity everywhere, over Heaven and Hell, and over the souls of men on earth.

The human nature which the Lord put on at His First Coming was thus glorified, that is, made Divine. Wherefore He is invested now with a Humanity, by which He is infinitely near to all men, in His capacity as Holy Spirit. In order, therefore, to enable Him to draw near to men at His Second Coming, and to make then a new revelation to them, it was not necessary that He should clothe Himself, anew with a material body; but all that was required, was, that He should fill with His Holy Spirit the person of a human being, and that through Him ho should make this revelation; even, as after His resurrection He made a new revelation to mankind, through the four Evangelists.

36. This then is the reason why the Lord in effecting, the Second Coming, did so through the instrumentality of a man, and did not invest Himself a second time with a finite human body.

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Since mankind, however, 1800 years ago were of a different stamp altogether from what they were in the eighteenth century, and still more from what they are now in the nineteenth century; therefore, also at His First Coming the Lord chose natural fishermen to be His apostles; while at His Second Coming He selected a spiritual fisherman; that is, a mail thoroughly versed in the science and philosophy of the men of the eighteenth century. And what is more, He not only selected this man, but also prepared him for his heavenly mission from his youth up; and indeed by a most thorough mastery of the sciences and philosophy of his age.

This is stated by Emanuel Swedenborg in so many words in a letter he wrote to a celebrated theologian,* where he says:-"The spiritual things which are being revealed [through me] at the present day require to be taught and understood naturally and rationally; for spiritual truths have a correspondence with natural truths, because in them they terminate, and upon them they rest. . . . For this reason I was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared; and, indeed from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was opened to me. Every one also is led through natural to spiritual things: for man is born natural, by education is made moral, and afterwards by regeneration from the Lord, he is made spiritual."

* See Swedenborg's letter to Prelate Oetinger in 1766, in "Documents," etc., Vol. ii., p. 257.

37. Whenever the Lord requires the special services of a human being, as He did those of Emanuel Swedenborg, he directs and governs all those circumstances which exert a controlling influence on the development of that person's character. He exercises a similar controlling influence on all, but in some persons these influences can be more easily traced than in others. In Emanuel Swedenborg it is comparatively easy to point to the workings of the Divine Providence in his life of preparation.

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The most important factor in the determination of a man's character is the hereditary genius impressed upon him by his parents, and the education he received at their hands.

The stock from which Emmanuel Swedenborg sprung is that of a sturdy, thrifty and independent race of mountaineers, the people of Dalecarlia, who are a still considered the backbone of the Swedish people; among whom the Swedish character, even at the present day, exists in its purity. His grandfather on his father's side was an independent miner, Daniel Isaacson by name, who sent his iron across the Baltic, and kept up a number of foreign connections.* He was able to give his children a good education, and one of them, Jesper Swedberg, the father of Emanuel Swedenborg, distinguished himself as one of the most learned, most energetic, and most truly pious bishops of Sweden. His own mother, Emanuel Swedenborg lost when he was eight years old, but his earnest and clever stepmother interested herself very much in the promising young lad.

* In the University Library at Lund, Sweden, the author was shown in 1870 several memoranda of Daniel Isaacson, detailing some Of his business operations abroad.

When he was nearly five years of age, his father received the appointment of Professor of Theology in the Swedish University of Upsal, and soon after he was made Dean of the Upsal Cathedral. And when Emanuel Swedenborg was fifteen years of age, his father was promoted to the bishopric of Skara. After the removal of Bishop Swedberg to Skara in 1703, his son Emanuel continued his education at Upsal, the Swedish centre of learning, until he graduated from the University in 1709. During these six years he stayed at the house of his brother-in-law, Ericus Benzelius, who was then the librarian of the University, and who carried on a most extensive correspondence with the learned in all parts of the world.

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Under the Divine Providence, Emanuel Swedenborg thus spent the whole of his youth in the very cradle of learning of Sweden, where its most learned and intelligent men congregated; and he thus enjoyed an extraordinary facility for the study of the sciences and philosophy.

38. Intrinsically in themselves neither the sciences nor philosophy prepare anyone for the reception of spiritual truths from the Lord. For intrinsically, in themselves, they are of the earth earthy. In order, therefore, that a study of the natural sciences might prepare Swedenborg for his future mission, he had to study them in a peculiar manner; that is, he had to study them in a believing frame of mind. This believing frame of mind Swedenborg preserved during the whole of his scientific career. He, therefore, never separated the Lord and His revelation from his study of the natural sciences, and he never would entertain or heed any scientific hypothesis or theory which was inimical to the faith in a personal God of the Universe. While prosecuting his study of the natural sciences, Swedenborg thus kept on reading his Bible, and he would never join the party, or school, of scientific scoffers who deny the existence of God, and declare nature to be self-existent.

This foundation of an unshaken faith in the God of Revelation was laid in his earliest years, and was fostered in him by the teachings of his pious and believing father and mother. From his earliest childhood, indeed, Swedenborg loved to dwell on the contemplation of spiritual subjects, as appears from the following, statement, which he made in his 81st year: From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual sufferings of men; and several times I revealed things at which my father and mother wondered, saying that angels must be speaking through me.

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From my sixth to my twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with the clergy about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which imparts our is love towards the neighbour; also that God gives life receive it who faith to every one, but that those on practice that love. I knew of no other faith at that time than that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, and several other things that follow thence. I knew nothing at that time of that learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the righteousness of the Son to whomsoever and at such times as He chooses, even to those who have not repented and have not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith, it would have been then, as it is now, above my comprehension" (Doc. No. 243).

39. The progress which young Swedenborg made in his secular studies, especially in the study of his mother-tongue and the ancient languages, must have been alike extraordinary. For when he was twelve years of age there was published a poem of his in the Swedish language, which he had composed in honour of a wedding in his family, and which filled three quarto pages.*

* A printed copy of this poem was recently discovered by the Royal Librarian, G. E. Klemming, in Stockholm, and he kindly sent a copy of it to the author.

The late Dr. J. F. Immanuel Tafel, Professor and Librarian in the University of Tübingen, in a MS. sketch of Swedenborg's Life, in the possession of the author.

The academical studies of Emanuel Swedenborg, which were finished in the year 1709, when he was twenty-one years of age, were summed up in a thesis which he read when he competed for the degree of doctor of philosophy. This thesis bears the title of "Select Sentences from Seneca and Syrus Mimus, furnished with notes," concerning which a competent authority says, "The preface which the author addressed to the reader gives evidence of a well-spent youth, and of independent judgment.

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But the commentary itself displays a wealth of solid knowledge, and bears witness to his thorough acquaintance with history, and the Roman and Greek classics, from which, as well as from the Sacred Scripture, he quotes a great number of apposite parallel passages. The principal feature and merit of this little work consists in the skilful selection and harmonious working up of appropriate materials, both in respect to the language and the thoughts of the authors of whom he treats; and the whole of it shows that it is the product of a serious mind directed towards the contemplation of eternal things, and resting on a pure moral foundation (Doc., No. 313, 1).

40. During the next five years we find Swedenborg abroad in England where he spent upwards of three years, and whence he travelled afterwards to Holland, France, and Swedish Pomerania. During his sojourn abroad, as he himself expressed it, he was filled with an "immoderate desire" for the acquisition of knowledge. What he chiefly cultivated was mathematics in conjunction with astronomy and mechanics. For he was never satisfied with the study of natural science per se, that is, without any ulterior purpose or use.

Swedenborg's natural science, in fact, was eminently practical; and it constantly led him to make various inventions. Thus, while in London he discovered a method for finding out the longitude at sea. His inventions, as a general thing, were neither patented, nor did they come much into use; but they served to make his science productive, and prevented him from becoming a dry man of science, or a mere theorist.

Another interesting feature in Swedenborg's scientific career is his way of alternating his scientific studies with poetical effusions.

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In fact all his publications, from the time when he left the University in 1709 to 1716, bear a poetical character. Thus, whenever he threatened to become too much absorbed in his scientific studies, and to lose out of sight the higher interests of humanity, his muse would step in and inspire him either to a patriotic ode, or to an ode sung in praise of some of his friends; or, as it did on one occasion, in praise of Sophia Brenner, the Swedish Sappho. By such means, while Swedenborg possessed himself of mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, and physics as known to the learned, his mind remained evenly balanced, and he was not carried away by the realistic tendencies of his age.

41. On his return to Sweden, in company with the celebrated engineer, Polhem, Swedenborg started, at his own expense, the first scientific journal ever published in his country, the "Doedalus Hyperboreus." This introduced him to Charles XII., King of Sweden, who soon after gave him the appointment of an assessor extraordinary in the Department of Mines; which post he held for upwards of thirty years.

The appointment to this office directed Swedenborg's thoughts prominently to the subject of mining and metallurgy; and yet his inquiring mind was at the same time active in a number of other directions. Thus, while carefully studying on the one hand the ores and smelting processes of his native country, on the other hand he investigated the nature of elementary fire, and the properties and forms of the constituent particles of common air, water and oil; of the various acids and salts; and finally, those of metals, such as lead, silver, etc. And presently his universal love of acquiring knowledge led him to make a scientific and philosophical investigation of the human body, with the view of solving the mystery of sensation.

At one and the same period of his life, that is when he was about thirty years of age, we thus find him publishing the first treatise on algebra in the Swedish language, and making preparations for a treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus.

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This he did in 1718. In the following year he handed in at the College of Mines a treatise on Metallurgy, and at the same time he submitted to the Royal Medical College a lengthy paper on the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, with a theory of sensation.

In 1721 we again find him abroad, examining the mines in Belgium and the Hartz Mountains, and publishing some of his scientific papers and treatises in Amsterdam and Leipzig; and two years later, when he was 35 years of age, he at last settled down to his duties as an assessor, that is, as an Administrator and Associate Judge in the Department of Mines at Stockholm.

42. For ten years he now refrained from further publication, and apparently devoted himself entirely to the duties of his office; yet at the same time he was consolidating and working up the immense scientific materials he had accumulated at home and abroad.

One of the problems which then engaged his fertile brain, and to the solution of which he devoted himself, was the theory of the magnet and of terrestrial magnetism. In the treatment of this problem he justly held fast to this axiomatic doctrine:-namely, that the Divine is the same, and works by the same laws in the least and in the greatest things of nature. Under the influence of this doctrine he established this magnetic series:-There is first the magnet, as we know it, which attracts and repels small pieces of iron; then there is the terrestrial magnetism which directs the mariner's needle, and which proves that our terrestrial globe is a magnet in a larger form; and, finally, there is a magnetic system on a largest scale, formed of all the solar systems in the firmament, which determines and controls the motion of our solar system in the immensity of space.

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This magnetic theory, based on the facts of science known at Swedenborg's time, constitutes the greater part of a work entitled "Principia," which Swedenborg published in 1734, at Leipzig. In this work he explains, on the basis of facts and scientific principles, the creation of the natural universe.

The fundamental principle of Swedenborg's theory of creation, of which his theory of the magnetic forces forms an important part, is this, that the centre produces the circumference, and not the circumference the centre. According to Swedenborg, therefore, the sun is the parent of the planets which revolve around it; while the theory of La Place and Herschel, which is accepted by modern science, is based on the opposite principle, namely, on this, that the circumference produces the centre.

43. Another of the principles set forth in Swedenborg's great work, the Principia, is this; that between the earth's surface and the sun there is not one unbroken atmospheric medium, according to which idea the atmosphere which we breathe is densest near the surface of the earth, and as it retreats from the earth becomes more and more rarified and attenuated, until at last in its most highly rarified form it reaches the sun.

This is the appearance. But, according to Swedenborg's scientific theory there are various breaks in the atmosphere between the earth and the sun. There is thus a break between the common air we breathe and what the astronomers define as ether; and a similar break occurs between the ether and a still higher atmosphere which reaches to the sun. This highest atmosphere constantly pours forth from the sun and it is the first vehicle which conveys to us the heat and light of the sun. From this atmosphere, denominated by Swedenborg aura, there is obtained by composition the atmosphere called ether, and indeed in this wise that a number of aura-particles give birth to one ether-particle.

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By a similar process of composition our common air is produced from the etheratmosphere. And after the common air-particles are formed in this wise from etherparticles, these respective particles are so distinct from each other that while a concussion of a volume of air-particles produces the phenomenon of sound, the activity or vibration of a volume of ether-particles causes the phenomenon of light. The two lower atmospheres, namely, the common air and ether, Swedenborg defines as terrestrial atmospheres; that is, as atmospheres encircling the planetary orbs. But the highest, or third atmosphere, the cause of gravitation, according to Swedenborg, fills up the entire space between the planets and the sun; nay, it extends from our solar system into the neighbouring solar systems, and joins them into one grand natural universe.

44. Such are the principles which underlie Swedenborg's sublime theory of the universe as this is set forth in his scientific work, entitled 11 Principia." The one principle which distinguishes his science and philosophy from all other science and philosophy is the principle of discrete degrees, or the principle of breaks between the elemental powers of nature. This principle, which is destructive of naturalism, and of all merely negative science, Swedenborg discovered in 1717, when he was twenty-nine years of age, while he was investigating the problem of sensation in the organ of hearing.

Two magnificent volumes on the metallurgy of Iron and Copper, Swedenborg added to his work on the Creation of the Universe, in order to impress his readers with the fact that in all his theories and inductions he rests on the solid facts of nature. These two volumes on metallurgy, one of which, the treatise on iron, was translated into French in 1762, constitute the last contribution which Swedenborg made to the Department of Mines in Sweden, of which he was one of its most illustrious office-bearers.

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45. At the same time when Swedenborg published in Leipzig his treatise on cosmogony and metallurgy in three stately folio volumes, he also published there a most interesting philosophical treatise, entitled "Outlines of the Infinite."

This little work covers the same ground as the philosophies of the Ancients and Moderns, and in it, on purely rational grounds, Swedenborg leads up to an Infinite cause, separate and distinct from nature and man, by which both nature and man are created, and afterwards preserved in a state of order. The axiomatic principle which he employs in this treatise, is again this, that the centre produce the circumference, and not the circumference the centre. God and the Infinite are the centre, and finite nature and finite man are the circumference; and in order to prove the immortality of man, and his discreteness from the Creator, he again applies his powerful doctrine of discrete degrees, which disclosed to him the existence of three distinct atmospheres between the earth's surface and the sun. As the sun, the parent of our planetary system is distinct from the atmospheres generated from its bosom, so the Infinite is distinct from the finite; and, as there is a distinct break between the common air and the ether, and again between the ether and the purest aura, so there is a distinct break between the body, the mind, and the soul of man; and as the aura and ether can exist without the common air to which they give birth, so a man's soul and mind, both of which constitute his spirit, are able to exist without the man's body.

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46. We are beginning to recognize now the character of Swedenborg's preparation for his heavenly mission, and how, under the Divine Providence, by an independent study of the sciences and philosophy, undertaken in a thoroughly believing and affirmative state, his rational mind was at last fully opened for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and thus for an intelligent reception from the Lord of the truths about the Hereafter, and of the truths about the Lord and His Kingdom, which are taught in the spiritual sense of the Divine Word.

In the summer of 1734 Swedenborg returned home from Leipsic, and for two more years attended to the full duties of his public office; but meanwhile, under the Divine Providence, he was filled with an ardent desire to find out the whereabouts of the soul, and to write a rational psychology. For this purpose it became necessary for him to collect all the known facts about the human body; and after exhausting for this purpose the opportunities offered to him in his own country, he arrived at the conclusion that for a number of years he would have to stay abroad, in order to have access to the various libraries, and to have an opportunity of consulting, in the universities, the great masters of anatomy and physiology.

Accordingly he resigned one half of his assessor's salary; and the next four years, from 1736 to 1740, he spent in Holland, France and Italy; and during these four years he employed his time in close study in the libraries and universities; and, finally, during the last year of his stay abroad, he published at Amsterdam his scientific work, entitled: "The Economy of the Animal Kingdom," or rather, "The Economy of the Kingdom of the Soul;" and by the "Kingdom of the Soul" Swedenborg understands the human body.

47. The investigation of the kingdom of the soul, and of the soul itself, occupied the rest of Swedenborg's preparatory life. We are unable to give here a sketch of all that he wrote on the subject of the soul and body, in this crowning epoch of his scientific career;

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for no less than twenty-four separate tracts and treatises, among his published and unpublished writings, deal with this all-engrossing subject. We can only say a few words on the method he pursued.

First of all, by applying his doctrine of discrete degrees, Swedenborg was led to distinguish in the body three separate and distinct systems of circulation; each of which governs a separate domain in the human body. There is first, the domain of the red blood, which is presided over by the heart and lungs: this corresponds to the common air we breathe. Secondly, there is the domain of the nervous system, which is presided over by the brains and spinal cord, and through which, according to Swedenborg, circulates the nervous fluid, the animal spirit; this domain of the body corresponds to the second atmosphere, called ether. And thirdly, there is the domain of the nerve-cells, so called, of which there are hundreds of thousands in the grey substance of the brains and spinal cord. Each of these nerveless, according to Swedenborg, is a diminutive brain and diminutive heart, and the parent of a host of least fibrules, of which the common nerve-fibres are composed. The domain of the nerve-cells corresponds to the third or highest atmosphere which reaches to the sun; and the countless nerve-cells in the human brain correspond to the immense number of stars in our firmament, and the fibrules which they send forth correspond to the rays of light that are given out from each star.

In this wise, according to Swedenborg, there is an exact correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm-between the world at large around man, and the little world in man's body; and on account of this correspondence the macrocosm, the world around us, can make an infinite, or rather an indefinite number of sensuous impressions on the human brain, all of which are stored up in the nervecells, which make up the grey substance of the brains and spinal cord.

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48. The doctrine of discrete degrees is one of the principles by the aid of which Swedenborg investigated the economy of the human body-the kingdom of the soul. Another principle is that by which he analyzed the functions of the various parts of the body. This is the principle of use; and this means that form should never be studied independently of function; that anatomy and physiology, therefore, should never be treated separately, but always in conjunction; because the function or I use of an organ can alone explain its form. According to this principle, the body consists of chains or series of uses; by which is meant, that every organ in the body has its antecedents, that is, organs by which it is preceded, and other organs by which it is followed; and that the only way by which we can understand the function of any organ is by studying its place in the series or chain which it forms with other organs or parts.

Another principle by which to investigate the kingdom of the soul, according to Swedenborg, is the principle of representation and influx. This principle governs the connection and intercourse between the various domains in the body. And according to this principle, every higher domain or region in the body is represented in the lower, and thus finally the whole of the soul, in the whole of the body. By virtue of this principle of representation we can read the states of a man's soul in his countenance, and so forth.

49. We thus see how Swedenborg, during the course of his scientific investigations, rose ever higher and higher, and how from the lower domains of nature and the human body he pressed into their higher domains-until at last he knocked against the very entrance-gate of heaven.

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In fact, after he had reached in his investigations the domain of the nervecells of the human brain he was nearer the world of spirit than he knew at the time for the period of his preparation was then drawing to a close; that period, during which he saw, as yet, the soul "through a glass darkly;" but presently he will see it "face to face."

But the veil is not drawn suddenly away from his eyes; it is lifted only gradually; but how it is lifted, and through what additional states of transition Swedenborg has still to pass, we shall see in our next chapter.

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IV.

THE INSPIRATION OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AND THAT OF THE PROPHETS AND EVANGELISTS.

50. The spiritual world is as near to the natural world as the soul is to the body-only men will not know and believe it. For all life belongs to the spiritual world, and is from it, and nature in itself is dead. It is as dead as the human body is dead, after the life, the soul, has escaped from it.

In olden times the spiritual world seemed much nearer to the natural world than it does now, in the present materialistic age. The aspirations of most men nowadays do not reach beyond the grave, and therefore the Hereafter is to them an utter blank, a nonentity. Such is the attitude which most of the learned occupy in respect to the Hereafter.

But "the things which are hidden from the wise and prudent the Lord has revealed unto babes;" to those who are "spiritual babes," and who have preserved in themselves the trusting and believing state of childhood. The minds of these are capable of being enlightened by a light different from that which illuminates the senses of the body; and in this light they are able to see the Divine in nature, and also in the Revelation which God has made to men.

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In this Revelation, that of the Old and New Testaments, they see that during the continuance of the Jewish Church, and during the apostolic age of the Christian Church, the Lord frequently opened the sight of persons living in this world, so that they were able to behold what took place in the spiritual world around them. Thus, for instance, we read in the Second Book of Kings, (vi.) "And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open the eyes of my servant, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw' and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." Again, in reading the prophecy of Ezekiel we repeatedly find passages to this effect: "Now it came to pass . . . that the heaven were opened, and I saw visions of God" (i., 1). Similar visions also are described in the prophecies of Daniel, Zechariah, and others. And in the New Testament the whole of what is described in the Book of Revelation was seen by John when he was in the spirit. Thus we read in chapter i. of his prophecy: "I was in the spirit in the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice of a trumpet." Besides, all the occurrences described in the four gospels, which took place after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, were witnessed by His disciples by the opening of their spiritual sight; for the Lord was then no longer clothed with a material body, and hence was no longer visible to material eyes; wherefore also we read twice in John (xx.), "Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you."

51. On the strength of the above evidence, those who are spiritual "babes" at heart reason thus: if the Lord in all those cases which are recorded in the Sacred Scripture was able to open the spiritual sight of persons living in this world, so that they could have glimpses into the spiritual world, surely the Lord has this power still; for human nature is the same now as it was 2,000 years ago, and the spiritual world is as near to the natural world as it was then.

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On scriptural grounds, therefore, the claim which Swedenborg makes, namely, that at the end of his preparatory life the Lord opened his spiritual sight, and introduced him as to his soul into the Here after cannot be impugned.

But this opening of the spiritual sight of Emanuel Swedenborg, whereby he was enabled to describe the wonders of heaven, and of the spiritual world in general, was not the only purpose for which, as we verily believe, the Lord had prepared Swedenborg from his youth up. Another purpose, and in fact the real purpose of his life, to which the opening of his spiritual sight was subservient, is expressed in these words of the Sacred Scripture: "Seal not the prophecy of this Book; for the time is at hand" (Rev. xxii., 10). By these words is meant that the prophecies, parables and outward histories of which the letter of the Word of God is composed, shall not remain a mystery for ever, but shall be unsealed, so that men may see the Divinity in the written Word in the light of their rational understandings.

Through Emanuel Swedenborg, indeed, the treasures which lie inmostly concealed in the Divine Word were not only to be brought to light, but also to be accommodated to the rational understanding of the men of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whose minds are formed and developed by a study of the facts of natural science, and of those principles of thought which underlie the various philosophies of modern times.

52. At the close of his preparatory life, about the year 1743, concerning which we treated in our third chapter, we found Swedenborg not only fully abreast with the most advanced thinkers and men of science of his age, but also far ahead of them; and although he had scaled the heights of science and philosophy, as no one had before or after him, at heart he still preserved the trusting, believing state of childhood.

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At heart he was thus still a child, but as to his rational mind he was one of the potentates of natural science. Not of that science which is the out birth of the natural senses of the body, and leads its votaries to a denial of the personal God of creation, and to the worship of nature; but Swedenborg's science, on the contrary bears a fully affirmative character, and is the creation of a man who thoroughly believes in God and His Divine Revelation, and who is anxious to lead a life in harmony with the Divine commandments.

On this account also the rational mind of Emanuel Swedenborg, during the whole duration of his natural life, was of a quality, in which it could be enlightened by the light of Truth. "In the Lord's light" he also was able "to see light."

During the last ten years of his preparatory life, as we have seen, Swedenborg was engaged upon the problem of the human soul; he searched for it by making a wonderful analysis of every function of the human body; and at last he traced it in the inmost domain, in the inmost region of the human body, in that of the nerve-cells in the grey substance of the brains.

From the nerve-cells, Emanuel Swedenborg followed the soul, beyond and above nature, and indeed into those depths where conscience is enthroned in the soul, and where man communicates with the souls of the blessed, and with the Lord of heaven. On the wings of a preternaturally enlightened rational thought, Swedenborg thus penetrated more and more deeply into the hidden recesses of the soul; and opened possibilities for analytic, natural science, of which the boldest men of science had not dreamed before him.

Yet Swedenborg, so far as the human soul was concerned, was still in the condition of one who, according to the Apostle Paul, "saw darkly through a glass."

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Spirit, and thus the soul, was then to him still an abstraction; and he sought for it in the heights of abstraction, in the hidden depths of the nerve-cell; there he hoped to reach it, and to hunt it down by an analytical course of investigation.

53. The knowledge about the soul, however, and the knowledge about the Hereafter cannot be hunted down by man. It is a free gift from the Lord; and He reveals it to those who are spiritual "babes." This lesson Swedenborg had yet to learn, before he was able, in the language of Paul, to see the soul "face to face," and thus to have his spiritual sight opened by the Lord, even as the Lord had opened the spiritual sight of the prophets of old, and of John, the Revelator.

As long as Swedenborg looked for the soul in the heights of abstract thought, he did not notice that the Lord was even then gradually preparing him for an open state of communication with the inhabitants of the Hereafter. The opening of his spiritual sight, and in fact that partial setting free of his spirit, by which he was enabled during a period of upwards of twenty-eight years to be a conscious inhabitant of two worlds-the natural and the spiritual; all this came upon Swedenborg so gradually, that at first he did not notice the changes that came over him. Thus he recollected in after times that while at the hand of the outward facts of anatomy and physiology he was making his rational inductions as to the functions of the various parts of the body, and especially when under the lead of his inductions he was pressing into the sanctuary of the human soul, a preternatural light would suddenly flash around him. This light to him was then a Divine affirmation that the result at which he had arrived in his rational inductions was true; and whenever he missed this light he knew he was on a wrong track. This was a spiritual, and not a natural light, and in order to perceive it, Swedenborg required a partial opening of the sight of his spirit.

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This he saw afterwards, but not at the time when the light appeared to him.

Later on, his attention was called to his dreams, and he perceived that in his dreams he was beginning to receive instruction in what manner he was to prosecute his studies. These admonitions and instructions came upon him in his dreams in the form of allegorical representations; and these dreams or visions were so vivid, that he wrote them down in the morning, and as he wrote, his mind was enlightened, so that he was enabled to perceive their meaning.

54. The spiritual world was now pressing upon Swedenborg from all sides, and he was approaching the time, when, under the Divine Providence, his spirit was to be partly released from the trammels of his body, and was to be enabled to breathe the atmosphere of heaven. But this was dependent in a measure upon a peculiar psychological state in which he had been, at different times, during the whole of his preparatory life; light upon which is thrown by his subsequent theological teachings. There we learn that the human soul is organized according to the same pattern as the human body. The body in fact is in the human form, because the soul is in that form; for the soul stands to the body in the relation of cause to effect, and therefore the soul impresses upon the body its own form, namely, the human. From this it follows that the soul is endowed with the same organs, members and viscera, as the body; that the soul, consequently, has both a heart and lungs; and that it respires like the body.

Man has thus an internal and an external respiration; and when he dies the external respiration of the body ceases and the internal respiration of the soul continues. The character of this internal respiration. . . however, differs according to the quality of the state of men's souls.

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There are some who while on earth by their internal respiration breathe with the angels of heaven; while there are others who breathe with the, evil spirits of hell. These latter spirits are sensual and corporeal, and hence low and gross; and their respiration makes one with the external respiration of the body. But angelic spirits are truly rational and interior; wherefore their respiration partakes of a like character, and is distinct from the respiration of the body; and this same interior respiration is developed in the soul of a person in this world, who is passing through the process of regeneration.

Upon the development of this interior, spiritual respiration in the soul of a person in this world, depends his capacity of associating with the angels of heaven, and thus of his having his spiritual sight opened by the Lord. This internal respiration was enjoyed by Emanuel Swedenborg. His own statement on this subject is as follows:

"I was first accustomed to this internal respiration in childhood, While I was saying my morning and evening prayers; and also sometimes afterwards while examining the concordant action of the heart and lungs, and especially while in the act of writing those works [on the Economy of the Human Body] which have been published. I then noticed for several years that there was a kind of tacit respiration which is scarcely perceptible. About this respiration it was afterwards granted to me both to think and to speak. In this wise I Was introduced from my childhood into such a respiration, and especially through intense speculations, during which external respiration is quiescent; for other-wise an intense speculation on the truth cannot be carried on. Afterwards also, when heaven was opened to me, so that I could speak with spirits, I was so fully introduced into this respiration, that for the space of an hour [while engaged in my work] I did not draw any breath: there was Only so much air inhaled that I was able to think.

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In this manner I was introduced by the Lord into internal respiration . . . . and by this means also it was possible for me to be present with spirits and angels" (S.D. 3464).

This then was Swedenborg's bodily preparation, for his intromission into the spiritual world, and for the opening there of the senses of his spirit.

55. But we have anticipated; for Swedenborg, at the time of which we are treating, had not yet bid good bye to his scientific and philosophical studies. At the end of his preparatory life, he thus still entertained the idea that by dint of his own exertion and application he would finally be able to press into the transcendent world of the human soul, and thereby into the Hereafter. This scientific and philosophical spiritual had to be thoroughly curbed and subdued, before he was able to act as the Lord's servant at His Second Coming; yet it is not to be understood that Swedenborg had to abdicate the use of his reason, and that henceforth he was no longer to work as of himself, but receive everything as a present from the Lord. After he was adopted by the Lord, he had to work as hard as he ever did before, and indeed Prometheus-like he had to fetch the heavenly fire from heaven to earth; for only while his mind was on a stretch, and while earnestly, as of himself, he tried to do the Lord's will, did the Spirit of God come over him, and enable him to write the Revelation which the Lord made through him at His Second Coming.

Swedenborg thus was not called upon to abdicate the use of his reason; but his reason was to be enlightened by the light of heaven, and not by the mere light of nature. And light from heaven cannot enter into the soul of anyone, except in proportion as he acknowledges from his heart the God of revelation, and as he does the commandments which he finds therein written. On this account also we read:

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"If any man will do the will of Him that sent Me, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God."

Thus far Swedenborg had acknowledge God, even the Lord of Revelation, in all that concerns Him and His Kingdom in heaven and on earth. The object of his scientific and philosophical works also had been to lead men to Him who is the Creator and Preserver of the universe; but, in a measure, he still looked upon the world, although it is the work of God and the mirror of God, as a legitimate field for the exercise of man's own analytic powers, and of his own inductive thought. He had to learn yet that the spirit of true scientific inquiry and of true philosophy comes from the Lord alone, and that there must be nothing of man's self-glory in that spirit, if man by means of it aspires to behold the True in nature. The Lord's word which He spoke to the rich man, now came to Swedenborg, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me." But by this is meant that Swedenborg was to acknowledge that from himself alone he was absolutely nothing, and that in all he thought, did, and wrote, he was to be directed by the Lord only. This was a severe lesson for him to learn; for it amounted this, that he must prostrate before the Lord into the very dust, not only the whole of his science and philosophy, but also the very spirit that had hitherto impelled him in all his scientific and philosophical inquiries.

56. The whole of the mental struggles and temptation-combats, through which Emanuel Swedenborg passed during the critical transition-period when from a philosopher he became a theologian, he noted down in a private diary, which he kept during the year 1744. ("Documents concerning Swedenborg," vol. ii., pp. 149-219). Some of the passages there afford to us a glimpse of the states through which he was then passing.

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We read there as follows:

"That much I have learned in spiritual things, that the only thing to be done is to humble one's self, and in all humility to desire nothing but the grace of Christ."

Again, The sum of all I found to be this: that the one thing needful is to cast one's self in all humility on our Lord's grace, to recognize one's own unworthiness, and to thank God in all humility for His grace."

Further, "I have for my motto: God's will be done. I am Thine and not mine. As, therefore, I have given myself from myself to the Lord, He may dispose of me after His own pleasure."

And again, I was continually in a state of combat between thoughts antagonistic to one another. I pray Thee, O Almighty God, that Thou wilt grant me the grace of being Thine, and not mine."

In another place he says, "This means that we must be like children in respect to the Lord . . . that we must not trouble ourselves for what is spiritual to such a degree that it comes to us through our own exertion . . . but that like children we must cast all our cares upon the Lord."

And again, "This was a prediction that the Lord Himself will instruct me, as soon as I shall have attained that state in which I shall know nothing, and in which all my preconceived notions will be removed from me; which is the first state for enabling one to learn, or, in other words, that I must first become a child, and that then I shall be able to be nurtured in knowledge, as is being done to me now."

Before Swedenborg could be adopted by the Lord, and employed by Him as His servant at His Second Coming, he had thus to become like a little child. He had to yield up to the Lord his whole self; and the whole of his immense natural science and philosophy.

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57. The idea that Swedenborg was to become an instrument in the Lord's hands for some great work, grew upon him, as he thus humbled before the Lord his natural science and philosophy, and as he was willing to devote it all to the service of the Lord and His revealed Truth.

We now meet, in his private diary, with passages to this effect: "I perceived that I had received a talent for the promotion of God's glory; I saw that all had conspired to this end, and that the [Holy] Spirit had been with me from my youth, for this very purpose."

And again he says, "All this represents that I must employ my remaining time in writing upon higher subjects, and not upon worldly things, which are far below; indeed, that I must write about what concerns the very centre of all, and what concerns Christ."

Swedenborg was now beginning to cast loose from the earth below, and to follow the lead of the Spirit.

Under a direction received in his dreams he began writing a work entitled: "Worship and Love of God."

On entering upon this new work he turned his back upon his former analytic studies, and more in the style of a seer and poet he described the creation of the universe, and of the first-born among men. In inspired, glowing terms, he descanted upon the sojourn of the first-born in paradise, detailing the gradual unfolding of his mind. Afterwards he treated of the creation of woman, of the wooing of the firstborn, and of their married life. All is filled with the fervid, exuberant life of first creation; yet his rhapsody goes over "round, which had been previously carefully surveyed and measured out by his rational thought. His flight is that of an eagle, but it is determined and directed by the principles and results at which he had arrived by his previous analytic studies.

58. This turning-point in Swedenborg's life took place in London, at the close of the year 1744, after he had been publishing in Holland two parts of his great work, entitled "Regnum Animale, or the Kingdom of the Soul."

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The third part he had begun to publish in London, when suddenly he brought its publication to a close, and printed instead, in the beginning of 1745, his prose-poem, entitled "The Worship and Love of God." Of this work he printed two parts, and then again he stopped; and the reasons he gives are as follows:-"In part i. of my treatise on 'The Worship and Love of God,' were discussed the origin of the earth, the paradise, the nursery of living beings, and the birth of Adam. That work, however, was written under the leadership of the understanding, or according to the thread of reason. As human intelligence, however, cannot be trusted in any respect, unless it be inspired by God, therefore it becomes necessary in the interest of truth to compare what has been laid down in the above-named work with the revelation in the Sacred Writings, and in the present case with the history of creation revealed by God to Moses, and thus to examine carefully how far they agree: for whatever does not harmonize thoroughly with revelation must be declared to be altogether false, or the insane product of our rational mind" (Adversaria i., p. 7).

Here then is the end of the natural philosopher, and the rise of the spiritual philosopher, the theologian. And from henceforth the Sacred Scripture is accepted by Emanuel Swedenborg as the source and centre of all his aspirations, and of all his thoughts.

59. At first, indeed, when he approached the Sacred Scripture, he had no other idea respecting it, than that the literal sense exhausts the whole meaning of the Divine Word, even as it does in all merely human writings. He thus thought that the first chapter of Genesis treats exclusively concerning the creation of the natural universe; and he brought his immense natural science to bear upon it, in order to confirm thereby the mechanism of creation as there set forth.

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Presently, however, the clouds begin to lift from his eyes; and the idea takes possession of him that the Word of God, from beginning to end treats of nothing else than the Kingdom of God; and he now says, But let us examine the Scriptures, especially for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of the Kingdom of God. . . . The Scriptures, indeed, treat of the Lord's Kingdom not only here and there, but everywhere: for the Lord's Kingdom [out of the human race] is the final end of the creation of all things, of heaven as well as of the earth" (Adversaria i., p. 25).

But in what way the Kingdom of God is treated in the Scriptures from beginning to end, he states in these words:-"From 'the tree of life' and 'the tree of knowledge' in the middle of the garden [as described in the second chapter of Genesis] it appears clearly to the comprehension of every man, that in the Mosaic account of creation there is everywhere a double meaning of words; namely, a spiritual as well as a natural meaning. For 'life' and 'knowledge' are spiritual and yet they are attributed here to a tree. And, indeed, for this reason, because everything that comes into being in the lowest or ultimate part of nature, has its first origin in heaven; wherefore in everything earthly there is involved something heavenly, and in everything natural something spiritual. And the cause of this is, that everything that is conceived in the Divine mind, must needs be carried out [and thus created] in the last or ultimate parts of nature, and be formed there according to the idea of heaven. There results hence a correspondence between everything [in nature, and some heavenly or spiritual form or idea]" (Adversaria i., 23).

Here then the work for which the Lord had intended Swedenborg is fully sketched out. He was to teach men that the style according to which the Divine Word is written differs from all merely human writings in this, that everywhere in the Word of the Old and New Testaments there is a double meaning, a spiritual and a natural.

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60. The natural or literal meaning in Scripture is patent to all; but the spiritual meaning can be "unsealed" by none save by the Lord alone. He alone can reveal it, and He did reveal it through Emanuel Swedenborg; and yet He could reveal it to him only in proportion as he was prepared to see and thus to receive the Divine Revelation. An additional course of preparation was thus required on Swedenborg's part, before the Lord could reveal to mankind, through him, the spiritual sense of the Divine Word.

During the first stage of Swedenborg's preparatory life, concerning which we treated in our third chapter, Swedenborg's rational mind was developed and established by a most wonderful mastery of the facts and sciences of the natural world.

The second stage of his preparation, which lasted from the middle of April, 1745, to the middle of August in 1747, included an equally wonderful mastery on his part of the facts of the spiritual world. And for this purpose it was indispensable that the Lord should introduce him into full communion with the spirits and angels in the great Hereafter.

This happened in the month of April 1745, when the Lord himself appeared to Emanuel Swedenborg, even as He had appeared to His disciples after His resurrection. He appeared to him "sitting near his bed in royal purple and in majestic light." In the account which Swedenborg gave of this occurrence to a friend, he says, "The Lord spoke to me and said that He was the Lord God, the Creator of the world, and the Redeemer, and that He had chosen me to explain to men the spiritual sense of the Scripture, and that He Himself would inform me in what I was to write on this subject. That same night also there were opened to me, so that I became thoroughly convinced of their reality, the world of spirits, heaven and hell;

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and I recognized there many acquaintances [who had passed away,] of every condition in life. From that day I gave up the study of all worldly science, and laboured in spiritual things, according as the Lord commanded me to write. Afterwards the Lord opened, daily very often, my spiritual eyes, so that, in the middle of the day, I could see into the other world, and in a state of perfect wakefulness converse with angels and spirits" Documents concerning Swedenborg, Vol. i., P. 36).

61. From this occurrence Swedenborg dates his full intromission into the spiritual world. Yet with the opening of his spiritual sight, the work of the second stage of his preparation was by no means accomplished: for the final end of his preparation was that he should be able to receive from the Lord the revelation of the spiritual sense, and communicate it to men. For this purpose he had first of all to make a special study of the letter of the Word in the original languages, and he had to study besides the meaning of the natural images which are used in the letter of the Divine Word for the purpose of representing and shadowing forth the spiritual truths which are contained in its bosom. On this subject he says himself, "When heaven was opened to me it was necessary for me first to acquire the Hebrew language, as well as the correspondences of which the whole Bible is composed, which led me to read the Word of God over many times; and as the Word of God is the source whence all theology must be derived, I was thereby enabled to receive instruction from the Lord who is the Word" ("Documents," etc., vol. ii., P. 261).

By the "acquisition of correspondences" is here meant an acquisition of the knowledge of the spiritual truths which are represented by the natural images and forms contained in the letter of the Word;

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according to which knowledge light corresponds to wisdom, fire to love, water to natural truth, wine to spiritual truth, bread to good in a general sense, oil to the good of the love to the Lord, the fruit of the vine to charity or to the good of the love to the neighbour, and the fig to natural good or to the good of faith; while a lamb corresponds to innocence, a lion to power, an eagle to intelligence in spiritual matters.

The knowledge of correspondences Swedenborg acquired in two ways; first, by carefully classifying the whole of Scripture in the form of a Concordance; and then by comparing carefully the various passages in which the significative terms of Scripture occur. A second channel by which Swedenborg acquired a knowledge of these things, was by a careful study of the surroundings of the spirits and angels in the other life; for there the affections and thoughts of which the souls of the spirits and angels consist, are represented to the life by the objects of the three kingdoms by which they are outwardly surrounded; wherefore the character of a spirit and angel in the other life may be recognized and studied in the objects by which each is there environed. These objects, like the bodies of the angels and spirits, consist of spiritual substance which is independent of the laws of matter; for these laws exist solely for the objects in the world of nature.

62. Still a knowledge of correspondences alone does not enable any one to perceive the spiritual sense in any part of Scripture. For this purpose there is further required a most thorough knowledge of those principles and doctrines which are set forth in the spiritual sense of the Divine Word. With these principles and doctrines Swedenborg was made acquainted by his intercourse with the angels in the great Hereafter, and also by immediate revelation from the Lord while he was studying the Scripture.

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On this subject he says, "In order that the true Christian Religion might be laid open before men, it was absolutely indispensable that some one should be introduced into the spiritual world, and that out of the Divine Word he should imbibe from the Lord's mouth genuine truths; for to do so from the Churches at the present day where it is impossible to see a single genuine truth out of the written Word, except one which is drenched in falsities . . . . would be like attempting to sail to the Pleiades, or like undertaking to dig out the gold which is in the centre of the earth" ("Invitation," etc., 38).

And again he says, "The internal or spiritual sense and the arcana of the state of the Church in the heavens and on the earth, which are contained in that sense cannot be revealed to any one, unless he is [first] made acquainted with that sense, and unless it be granted to him at the same time to have consort with the angels of heaven, and to speak spiritually with them" (L.J. 42).

63. We see thus that the chief reason why Swedenborg was introduced by the Lord into the spiritual world, was for the sake of the revelation of the spiritual sense of Scripture through him. And we learn besides, that the Lord could not reveal this sense through him, until his mind was thoroughly stored (1) with a knowledge of correspondences, and (2) with a knowledge of the Divine truths, and thus of the genuine doctrines which are contained in that sense-for knowledges in the mind are vessels receptive of spiritual life and light; and genuine knowledges on spiritual subjects, are vessels receptive of the spiritual light of Truth. When, therefore, Swedenborg's rational mind was fully stored with the knowledge of spiritual Truth, then he was able to receive the light of Revelation from the Lord. The Lord then through the fire of His Divine Truth illuminated and glorified the vessels of Truth in Swedenborg's mind, and enabled him to see these truths in the very light of Truth.

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All errors, all mere appearances, and all fallacies, which up till then still clung to the knowledge on spiritual subjects in Swedenborg's mind, were then eliminated from it's so that he was enabled not only to see the full truth from the Lord, but also to write it from the Lord, for the benefit of men on earth.

This was the condition of Swedenborg's mind at the close of the second stage of his preparation, in the middle of August, 1747. This condition he himself describes thus: "When I think of what I am to write, and while I am writing, I am gifted with a perfect inspiration. Formerly this would have been my own, but now I know for certain that what I write is the living Truth of God" ("Documents," etc., vol. ii., p. 404).

64. When Swedenborg had thus arrived at the condition in which he was able to serve as an instrument in the Lord's hands at His Second Coming, he sent in his resignation as an Assessor of the Department of Mines in Sweden, and during the remaining twenty six years of his life he devoted himself entirely to the service of the Lord.

The works which during that time he wrote from the Lord for the use of His New Church are of four kinds:

1. Those works which are explanatory of the spiritual sense, are his "Arcana Coelestia," which he published in eight stout quarto volumes, and his work entitled the "Apocalypse Revealed."

2. Those works which contain an account of things seen and heard in the spiritual world are entitled, "Heaven and Hell," "The Earths in the Universe," and "The Last Judgment."

3. The philosophical works of the New Dispensation are, "The Divine Love and Wisdom," "The Divine Providence," "Marriage Love," and "The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body."

4. The doctrinal works, finally, are entitled, "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," "The Doctrine of the Lord," "The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture,"

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"The Doctrine of Life," "The Doctrine of Faith," "A brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church"; and lastly, the crowning work of his heavenly mission, "The True Christian Religion, or the Universal Theology of the New Church."

These works were published by Swedenborg himself in London and Amsterdam, but he also left a number of theological works in MS., which were published, at various times, since his death; which took place in London in the year 1772, when he was 84 years of age.

65. We have now given a full sketch of the internal development of the Lord's apostle at His Second Coming, and we have exhibited the character of his inspiration; and there remains to us only to point out the difference between the inspiration which he enjoyed from the Lord, and that with which the Prophets and Evangelists were gifted.

When the Lord made His revelation through the Prophets, His spirit then filled their whole person; and when they spoke and wrote, they spoke and wrote as the Lord through His Holy Spirit dictated to them. The Lord spoke and wrote through them in the style of parables, in which Divine and heavenly things were shadowed forth under the garb of natural images; even as we read of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate, when He dwelled among men, that "He spake to the multitudes in parables, and without a parable spake He not unto them." As little as the multitudes and the Lord's disciples, without any explanation from the Lord, understood His parabolic language-just so little did the Prophets and Evangelists know and understand what they spoke and wrote from the Spirit of God. Their freedom and rationality in spiritual matters was completely set aside, and when the Prophets were under the influence of the Holy Spirit they appeared to others as if seized and moved by a Divine frenzy.

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At other times the Prophets saw a vision, dreamed a dream, and heard Jehovah the Lord speaking to them. When they saw a vision, there was an opening of the sight of their spirit, and they saw what happened in the other world, in the great Hereafter. They came into that state by angels being closely adjoined by the Lord to their spirit, their soul; so much so, indeed, that the angelic states of these messengers of the Lord were super-induced over the Prophets, as well as over John the Revelator. The spirits, the souls, of the Prophets were thus for the time being in an angelic state, and in that state they themselves saw with the eyes of the angels who were with them. These visions were impressed upon their memory; and when afterwards, while in the body, they wrote what they had seen, they wrote as the Spirit of God dictated to them; but when they actually spoke the words of Scripture then they were not in the spirit, but in the body, and then they heard from Jehovah Himself, that is, from the Lord, the words which they spoke.

These two states of the Prophets, says Emanuel Swedenborg, have to be carefully distinguished; even as the Prophets also distinguished them accurately. For whenever they wrote the Word from Jehovah they say that Jehovah spake with them, and to them; and they also used the expression Jehovah says; but when the Prophets mere in the other state, they said that they were in the spirit, or in a vision (A.R. 945).

66. The case with Swedenborg was altogether different, both when, as to his spirit, he was in the spiritual world, and when, while in the body, he wrote the Lords Revelation at His Second Coming.

His own state when he was in the spirit, he describes thus: In place of the miracles that happened in the Church before the Lords Coming, there has been at the present time [that is, at the time of the Lords Second Coming], a manifestation of the Lord Himself, an introduction into the spiritual world, and thereby an enlightenment in the interior things of the Church, through immediate light from the Lord;

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but chiefly there has been an opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Lord is in His Divine light. These revelations are not miracles; for every man as to his spirit is in the spiritual world, yet without being separated from his body in the natural world. In my case, however, there is a certain separation, but only as to the intellectual part of my mind, and not as to its voluntary part. But as to the spiritual sense, the Lord through that sense is present with all who, in faith, approach Him in the light of that sense; and through the spiritual sense He is present with them in the light of the natural [or literal] sense (S.D. App. i., p. 168, 169).

We see here, that when Swedenborg was, as to his spirit, in the spiritual world, he was there separated in a measure from his natural body. This partial separation with him was effected by the Lord through the internal respiration with which he was endowed, and which enabled him to breathe with the angels and spirits in the other life. Swedenborgs stay in the spiritual world, consequently, did not depend upon angels who for the time being took possession of his spirit, and induced upon him their own angelic state--as was the case with the Prophets when they were in the spirit; but by virtue of the independent spiritual respiration which he enjoyed, and because he was separated from his natural body, as to the whole of his intellectual part, he was able to move about freely is the great Hereafter, as the Spirit of God directed him. For whenever Swedenborg was engaged upon the work of his mission he was instructed and led by the Lord alone, and not by any spirit, nor even by any angel, except in so far as it was well-pleasing to the Lord.

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Again, when Swedenborg was in the body, and when he wrote down what he had seen and heard in the spiritual world, or also when he wrote the Revelation of the spiritual sense from the Lord, he was in a different state altogether from the Prophets and Evangelists; he differed from them in having a clear rational perception of everything that he wrote from the Lord. For during the whole duration of his mission, and thus during the whole of the time when he spoke and wrote as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, he enjoyed the full use of his rational faculty.

With the Prophets and Evangelists the Lords Revelation passed by their interior rational mind, and was directed at once into their natural memory, where it was clothed with the words of their vernacular tongue; and after the Lords Revelation had thus become clothed in their memory with the words of human language, it was directed either into their vocal organs, or into the muscles of their hand; and thus the Divine Revelation was either spoken or written by them.

With Swedenborg it was not so. With him the Divine Revelation was directed into his rational mind, where it received shape and form; and where, under the influence of the inspiration which he enjoyed from the Lord, he formulated it into a series of inspired, rational thoughts. These thoughts, in due course, flowed with him into his natural memory, into the plane of his external thought, where the Revelation from the Lord was clothed with words, and whence it finally descended into the muscles of his hand, and was written down.

Swedenborgs rational mind was thus a divinely prepared medium, through which the Lords Revelation at His Second Coming was accommodated to the rational understanding of mankind in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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PART II.

DOCTRINES

TAUGHT

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

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PART II.

DOCTRINES

TAUGHT BY EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

I.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD, AND OF REDEMPTION.

67. Before the eyes of the angels, Swedenborg declares, the Lord in His Divine Humanity, from the intensity of His Love and the intensity of His Wisdom, which in themselves are Divine fire and Divine light, appears as a glorious sun, even as the Sun of Righteousness. In this sun, in the words of the Psalmist, He is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, who rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heavens, and His circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

As far as the Infinite is removed from the finite, so far the Lord in His glorified Humanity is removed from the angels of heaven, and from the souls of men on earth. And this distance, before the eyes of the angels, appears like the distance from the Sun to our earth.

But although the Infinite--the Lord in His glorified Humanity, is thus as far removed from the angels, and from the souls of men, as the sun in the natural world is removed from our earth, the Lord, nevertheless, on the other hand, is infinitely near to every one of us.

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For we read again, in Isaiah (iv. 5, 6), And the Lord will create over every habitation of Mount Zion, and over its assemblies a cloud by day, and a smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for over all the glory shall there be a covering.

There is thus a cloud and a covering by which the glory of the Infinite--of the Lord in His glorified Humanity, is tempered, and accommodated to every habitation of Mount Zion and its assemblies, that is, to every angelic society in heaven, to every angel there, and to the soul of every member of the Lords Church on earth. In this tempered and accommodated form the Divine Essence which continually streams forth from the glorified person of the Lord Jesus Christ, is called the Holy Spirit. And in, and by, His Holy Spirit the Lord Himself is omnipresent among the angels of heaven, and among the members of His Church on earth.

The Holy Spirit--the Divine proceeding from the Lord, is portrayed and represented in this world by the immense atmospheric medium, which conveys the heat and light of the sun to the earth below, and by which the sun governs and controls the movements of the planets revolving around it. As the atmosphere serves to the solar fire in this world as a cloud and a covering, by which its heat and light are accommodated to the earth below; and as it fills up the immense space belonging to our solar system, so also the Holy Spirit which breathes out of the glorified person of the Lord Jesus Christ, tempers the ardor of the Divine life and accommodates it to the states of reception of the angels and spirits in the spiritual world, and to the souls of the men living in the natural universe. And at the same time it fills and governs the whole of the immaterial universe, the homes of the angels, as well as the abiding-places of the souls of men on earth. In and by His Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ is thus infinitely near both to the angels of heaven, and to the souls of men on earth.

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68. Of the Holy Spirit, however, we read that it was not until the Son, had returned to the Father that is, not until the human nature which the Lord assumed in time had become thoroughly united in Him with the Divine nature from eternity. But this is to be understood thus. Before the Lord assumed a Human in the world, and before He glorified the same, the Divine Essence which streams out from the Father of Eternity was accommodated to the states of the angels of heaven, but not to those of the souls of men on earth. In order to reach the souls of men it had to pass first through the angelic heaven, and to put on there a human quality. In this humanized form the Divine Essence which proceeds from the Father of Eternity is called in the Old Testament the angel of Jehovah, and also Jehovah. In the New Testament, in John i. 1, it is understood by the Word, concerning which we read that in the beginning it was with God, and that it was God.

Yet ever since the glorification of the Lords Humanity, the Divine Essence which streams forth from the Lord is able to reach not only the angels of heaven but also the souls of men on earth. For by assuming a human nature on earth, and afterwards glorifying the same, the Lord raised that same humanity from earth, through the heavens, into the very sun of the spiritual world; and there He united it most intimately with the Divine nature, the Father from Eternity, and thereby acquired for that same human nature glorified, omnipotent power in heaven and on earth. And the Divine Essence, called the Holy Spirit, ever since proceeds not from the Father, from the Infinite Divine Nature, but from the Son, the glorified Human, and by proceeding thence it is able to reach not only the angels of heaven, but also to penetrate to the souls of men on earth.

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This same Divine Essence which is able to reach immediately the souls of men, and indeed in a form accommodated to the same, is the Holy Spirit which was not until the Son returned to the Father.

69. So long as men were in a state of order, that is, so long as they were born without hereditary evil, the mediate influx of life from the spiritual sun through the angelic heaven, was sufficient to save them, by preparing them for a life in heaven. But after they had lapsed into evil, and thereby had removed themselves from the heavens, we read in John i. that the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. And we read further, that God through the Word, that is, through the Divine Essence proceeding from Himself after it had passed through the heavens, was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

70. The lapse of mankind into evil, however, was gradual. Humanity thus did not rush all at once into the most direful and lowest evils. Hence also it was possible for God, that is, for Jehovah, by His mediate presence through the heavens to stem for a time the downward current of humanity, and to restore among them His kingdom, His Church, in a modified form. Thus, after the downfall of the golden age, of the state of Eden among men, which terminated at the time of the flood, Jehovah raised up among the descendants of Noah the silver age of His Church; and after the silver age, by an increased lapse into evil, had been brought to an end, Jehovah restored among mankind the brazen age of His Church, which lasted until the era of the Incarnation. At the same time also He instituted among the descendants of Jacob, through Moses, an outward representative semblance of His kingdom in the heavens, whereby a kind of artificial connection was kept up between mankind in the natural world and the angels of heaven, and through them, with Jehovah, that is the Lord from Eternity.

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During the whole of this period mankind had gradually become more and more external, and had sunk lower and lower in the moral scale, until at last the lowest ebb was reached at the time of the incarnation. The mediate influx of God the Father of Eternity, through the heavens was then wholly insufficient to prevent humanity from rushing headlong into the most direful evils and falsities. In fact, hell had then obtained complete possession of the spirits and souls of mankind; so that the words of the prophet now applied to them, And Jehovah, the Word that was in the beginning, saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no man--for all genuine humanity was on the point of dying--and He wondered that there was no intercessor, therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and an helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with seal as a cloke.

71. When, therefore, there was no longer any genuine humanity in this world, that is, a humanity capable of receiving the influx of the Word, the Logos, and thus capable of receiving life and light out of heaven, and of sustaining thereby the battle against the powers of hell, then Jehovah interposed Himself: He bowed the heavens and came down. And then we read that the Holy Spirit came over Mary, and the power of the Highest overshadowed her. But by the Holy Spirit and the power of the Highest is here meant the Divine Essence--the Word, which was in the beginning, after it had passed through the angelic heaven, and had put on a human quality. In this humanized form the Holy Spirit and the power of the Highest overshadowed Mary;

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and that holy thing which was born of her was the Son of God, Emmanuel, that is, God with us.

It was thus that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

72. The humanity which the Lord put on from Mary, was that very same infirm humanity, in which men had become the slaves of sin; and invested with this humanity He was prepared to meet the powers of hell, and to free mankind from their cruel bondage. The tendencies and inclinations for evil which mere ingrained in the Lords humanity, in His human body, were for the purpose of bringing Him into contact with the infernal crews which had taken possession of the whole of mankind, and which also sought to gain possession of His humanity, by stimulating and exciting all those hereditary evil propensities which lay dormant therein. The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, during His life in the world, like all other human beings, was subject to temptation by the concentrated powers of hell; though different from men, He never yielded, but always conquered in temptations; wherefore also He said to the Jews, Which of you convinceth Me of sin?

The Lords life on earth was indeed one continued series of combats against hell, and of victories over it; and the power that sustained Him was the Word, the Divine Truth from within. Whenever the Lord thus conquered in any of these battles, one of the hellish crews was cast out of His humanity, and together with them that particular hereditary tendency in His human nature, into which they were able to flow, and whereby He could be tempted. But whenever any one of these evil hereditary tendencies was broken and conquered in Him, and whenever the Lords humanity was thus purged of such an evil propensity, the power of the Word, of the Divine Truth, which pressed down from within, became instead established in His body--His natural humanity;

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so that at last His very body became created into a likeness of the Word, of the Divine Truth from within. Of this description was the Lords body when, during His transfiguration, He revealed Himself in His real character, before three of His disciples. The power of the Word--the Logos, at last became so firmly established in the Lords outward humanity, that is, in His body, that as to that body He was no longer the son of Mary, but was even the Son of God; wherefore toward the latter part of his life on earth, He no longer acknowledged Mary as His mother, but called her woman.

73. Those temptation-combats which the Lord fought as to His human consciousness, and as to His very body, were sometimes so fearful and so excruciating, that the very knowledge and belief that as to His soul He was the Word, the Divine Truth, nay, that He was one with the Father of Eternity, escaped from the Lord Jesus Christ; and then it seemed to Him that He was cut off from the land of the living. Then also He prayed to the Father, to the Divine nature within, as to a person distinct from Himself; and then we read that He was comforted by the Father through an angel. The very last temptation which He suffered on the cross was of this description; wherefore also He exclaimed then, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

At another time, however, after He had conquered in one of these temptation-combats, and when He enjoyed the peace after the battle, He saw clearly that He was the incarnate Word, the Son of God who had been made flesh; and then He used language such as this: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.... I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.

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The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. And again, I and the Father are one.

74. It was not sufficient that the humanity which the Lord had assumed from Mary should be purged of all evils and falsities; nor that the power of the Word--of the Divine Truth, should be established in it; but the Word which had been made flesh, was also to be glorified by being most intimately conjoined with the Divine nature from within. This intimate state of conjunction with the Father from within, the Lord had in view when He addressed to the Father--to the Divine nature within, these words which are recorded in John xvii.: Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee ... I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I--the Word, the Logos--had with Thee before the world was.

This work of the glorification of the Lords body began when everything that He had derived from His human mother had died on the cross. This work was continued while the Lords body lay in the grave; and when during this process of glorification the Divine nature from within came into contact with the material casing of the Lords natural body, this same material casing which had rendered His body fixed and measurable, was dissolved and dispersed; even as happens to any other material form when it is exposed to the concentrated heat of the sun. The material particles, by which the organic principle of the Lords body by virtue of which He sensated, spoke and acted in the world, was invested, and whereby it became subject to the laws of space and time--these material particles, which in themselves were dead, because derived from the dead or inanimate sun of the world, became dissolved.

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But the organic principle of the body, and thus the body itself, in which the power of the Word, of the Divine Truth, had become established--this body of the Lord, different from what is the case with finite man, rose from the grave; and in this body the Lord--the Son of God born in time, became most intimately conjoined with the Father, and thus glorified. The Father is therefore now the Divine Soul, and the Son the Divine Body, through which the infinite and eternal life of the Father--His Divine essence, is able to penetrate immediately to the souls of men on earth, without requiring first to become humanized by its passage through the angelic heaven. In this Divine Body, and thus in His Divine Humanity, the Lord has acquired all power in heaven and on earth; and immediately from Himself He can now for ever keep the hells in subjection, and deliver man out of the power of evil. This the Lord does through the power of His Holy Spirit, of the Divine Essence, which proceeds from His glorified human body. By this Holy Spirit, which proceeds from Himself, He is able to regenerate all men, by leading them away from evil, and establishing in their souls the reign of His Love and Wisdom, and thereby conjoining them most intimately with Himself. In this way, finally, the Lords words are fulfilled, which He spake during His life on earth, Father, I will that they also whom Thou best given Me be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou best given Me: for Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world.

These are the principal features of the Doctrine of the Lord and of the redemption, as this is unfolded in the theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

II. THE: DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

75. From the Lord in His glorified Humanity, as He resides in the centre of the sun of the spiritual world, we now turn to a consideration of the Spiritual World itself.

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As Swedenborg, during his scientific career, by his philosophical inductions realized the existence of distinct breaks in the atmosphere between the earths surface and the sun--to which breaks we called attention in Part I., n. 43--so also when, by the opening of his spiritual sight, the spiritual universe was unveiled before his gaze, he found there a similar arrangement. He discovered there a lowest spiritual atmosphere corresponding to the common air we breathe, a second spiritual atmosphere corresponding to the ether, the home of natural light and the magnetic forces; and a third or highest spiritual atmosphere corresponding to the aura which reaches to the sun and causes gravitation; for the spiritual universe is related to the natural universe as the cause to the effect, and as the soul to the body.

76. Again, as Swedenborg by the analysis of the human body, discovered in it three distinct systems of circulation, which are equivalent to three distinct domains in the body, of which the first is presided over by the heart and lungs; the second by the brains and spinal cord; and the third by the nerve-cells in the grey substance of the brain (see Part I., n. 47), so after his spiritual sight had been opened, and he was able to see the human soul face to face, he discovered that the human soul is organized according to the same plan. The human soul thus has also an inmost domain corresponding to the highest atmosphere, the aura of heaven; an interior or middle domain corresponding to the middle atmosphere, the ether of heaven; and an external or outward domain corresponding to the lowest or common atmosphere of heaven. These various domains Swedenborg calls degrees. The inmost degree of the soul he terms celestial, its middle degree spiritual, and its lowest decree natural. This same appellation he also applies to the atmospheres of heaven;

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thus he calls the highest atmosphere of heaven celestial, its middle atmosphere spiritual, and the lowest atmosphere natural.

77. Again, as Swedenborg in his theory of the creation of the natural universe, as this is set forth in his great work entitled, Principia--starts with this axiomatic principle, that the centre produces the circumference (see Part I., nos. 42 and 45), and as he there exhibits the genesis of the various atmospheres from the natural sun, and shows how by a condensation of these atmospheres there is finally produced the matter out of which the various planetary orbs are composed--so, when by the opening of his spiritual eyes he was introduced by the Lord into the spiritual world, he witnessed there how by a condensation of those spiritual atmospheres which proceed from the Lord as a sun, there are produced thence in the spiritual world those heavenly lands on which the angels of heaven dwell.

These lands he found to be immaterial, like the bodies of the spirits and angels who dwell there. As, however, these lands are created out of spiritual atmospheres--out of those atmospheres which the angels and spirits breathe--therefore they are as real to them as the lands in this world are real to us. Yet, since there is no matter, that is, no material substance, in the other world, the outward objects by which the angels and spirits are surrounded, are not subject to the laws of space and time. In fact they have no existence independently of the spirits and angels who dwell there; for these objects are outward representations of their inward states; they thus correspond to the affections and thoughts, of which the souls of the spirits and angels are composed. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

Let it be known that the spiritual world in external appearance is quite similar to the natural world. Lands appear there, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, fields, lakes, rivers springs of water, as in the natural world;

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thus all things which belong to the mineral kingdom. Paradises also appear there, gardens, groves, woods, and in them trees and shrubs of all kinds bearing fruits and seeds also plants, flowers, growing grain and grasses; and thus all things which make up the vegetable kingdom. Animals appear there, birds and fishes of every kind; and thus all things which make up the animal kingdom. Man there is an angel and a spirit. The universe of the spiritual world is thus quite similar to the universe of the natural world, with only this difference, that the things which are there are not fixed and settled like those in the natural world, because there is not anything natural there, but all is spiritual.

All the things just mentioned appear in the spiritual world to the life, and they exist around the angel, and around angelic societies, as produced or created from them. They remain around them, and do not pass away. That they are as things produced or created from them is evident from this, that when an angel goes away or when a society passes to another place, the same things appear no longer; and when other angels come in their place the appearance of all the objects around them is changed; the paradises with their trees and fruits are changed; the flower gardens with their blooms and seeds are changed; also the fields with their growing grain and grasses; and the species of animals and birds are also changed. Such things exist as they do, and change in this manner, because they all exist according to the affections and derivative thoughts of the angels. For they are correspondences; and because those things that correspond make one with that to which they correspond, therefore they are an image representative of it (D. L.W. 381, 322).

78. There are thus in the other world three degrees in the atmospheres which proceed from the spiritual sun; and these atmospheres are derived one from the other, as in the natural world, according to Swedenborgs doctrine, the common air is derived from the ether, and the ether from the aura. A relative degree of purity, brightness, sublimity exists thus between the higher and lower atmospheres of heaven; and the beings who live in each of these atmospheres excel one another in degree, as the birds that fly in the stir excel the fish that swim in the water.

As in the spiritual world there is no dead matter, the three heavenly atmospheres do not bear down upon one ultimate earth, as the three natural atmospheres do in the natural world;

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but the law which prevails in the spiritual world is the law of freedom; and the law of freedom means that the like there gathers to the like. Thus the refined and sublime dwell there in the most refined and purest heavenly atmosphere, the celestial; while the relatively grosser and less refined abide in the two lower atmospheres of heaves, the spiritual and the animal. This applies to the objects which are generated out of these atmospheres in heaven, and it applies also to the blessed human beings who dwell there, and who are called angels. There are thus angels in heaven who dwell within the realm of the highest heavenly atmosphere, the celestial, while there are others of a comparatively lower angelic character, who dwell respectively in the second heavenly atmosphere, called spiritual; or in the lowest which is nearest the world of nature, and is called natural.

From this it follows that in heaven there natural, spiritual, and celestial angels, and that they inhabit the lands which are respectively created out of the natural, spiritual or celestial atmospheres. Each of these classes of angels, however, together with the expanses of land which they inhabit, constitutes a particular heaven--wherefore in the other world there are altogether three heaven.

79. The question now arises, what is the relation which these three heavens occupy in respect to the world which inhabit; and in what way are the angels of the three heavens related to man on earth.

There are altogether three atmospheres in heaven, and three atmospheres in the world; and thus there are three degrees in the spiritual, and three degrees in the natural world. The whole of these six degrees are in man, well as in the spiritual and natural expanses around him; for man also there is a spiritual and a natural part, or a heaven and a world, and in each of these parts, there are three degrees.

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The relation between heaven and the world, or between the spiritual and the natural world may therefore be studied with advantage in man.

The natural degrees in man are spiritual in a lower sense, and are besides invested with a dead material substance derived horn the sun of nature, through its atmospheres. Such is the case with nature in general; it is spiritual in a lower sense than heaven; nature being the outgrowth or formation of spiritual atmospheres lower than those out of which the three heavens are formed. And those spiritual forms within the domain of nature are besides invested with material substance derived through the material atmospheres from the natural sun.

80. As to man, all these degrees, both the spiritual and the natural, lie dormant in him at his birth; and first the natural, are gradually developed in him: then the spiritual. If only the natural degrees in a mans soul are opened, he is prepared thereby for a civil and-moral life in the world; but unless his spiritual degrees also opened and developed by a life of regeneration he cannot after his departure from this world become an angel, and hence an inhabitant of either of the heavens. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

There are three degrees of ascent in the natural world, and there are three degrees of ascent in the spiritual world. All animals are recipients of life; the more perfect animals are recipients of the life of three degrees of the natural world, the less perfect are recipients of the life of two degrees of that world, and the imperfect animals are recipients of one of its degrees. But man alone is the recipient of the life not only of the three degrees of the natural world, bat also of the three degrees of the spiritual world. Hence it is that man can be elevated above nature, unlike any animal; he can think analytically and rationally of civil and moral things which are within nature, and he can also think of the spiritual and celestial things which are above nature; yea, he can be elevated into wisdom so as even to see God.

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It shall also be stated briefly how man ascends, that is to say, is elevated from the last degree to the first. He is born into the last degree of the natural world; he is then elevated by sciences and knowledges into the second degree; and in proportion as he perfects his understanding by such sciences and knowledges, he is elevated into the third degree and becomes rational. The three degrees of ascent in the spiritual world are in him above the three natural degrees, but they do not appear before he puts off the earthly body. When he puts this off, the first spiritual degree is opened in him afterwards the second, and at last the third; but this, only with those who become angels of the third heaven, these are they who see God. Those become angels of the second and of the last heaven with whom the second and the last degree can be opened. Each spiritual degree is opened with man according to the reception of the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom from the Lord. Those who receive something thereof come into the first or lowest spiritual degree; those who receive more, into the second or middle spiritual degree; and those who receive much into the third or highest degree; but those who receive nothing in these degrees remain in the natural degrees, and do not derive from the spiritual degrees ought but the fact that they are able to think and then speak, and to will and thence to act, but not intelligently (D. L. W. 66, 67).

81. From this passage we learn that, according to Swedenborgs teachings, the three degrees of mans spiritual or heavenly part correspond to the three heavens, and the three degrees of his outward or natural part to the world. Such is the case with man when he is in an orderly state, and thus in the order of creation. But by the abuse of his free-will--as we shall presently see--the three degrees of his external natural part may also be perverted, and they were perverted by his lapse into evil; and from that time these three natural degrees of man correspond not only to the world of nature, but also to three degrees of hell, which in the spiritual world are below the three heavens and diametrically opposed to them. These hells are composed of the souls of those human being who during their life on earth have confirmed themselves in a life of evil; and the lands on which they live are the outbirths of their evil affections and their false thoughts.

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Such is the general doctrine of Emanuel Swedenborg concerning the spiritual world and its divisions and the relations which it occupies in respect to the world of nature and man.

III.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE SOUL AND OF INFLUX.

82. The soul of man is not self-existent but a recipient of life. Life itself is in the Lord, and flows forth from Him, and it is received by man according to the quality--the character of his soul.

All human souls are organized according to the same plan. Thus, as we have already seen, as far as mans immortal part is concerned, he is organized according to the plan of the spiritual world, while as to his body he is created into a likeness of the natural world. Essentially man is thus a spiritual being, but during his brief stay in the natural world there is added to his spirit or soul, a natural body.

All men by birth are predestined for heaven; for a heaven out of the human race, according to Swedenborg, is the end of creation. Mans soul, consequently, occupies a distinct relation in respect to heaven, and receives an influx thence; even as, so far as his body is concerned, he stands in a like relation to the world around him.

83. Heaven, according to Swedenborg, consists of angels, and angels are the blessed souls of human beings who have departed their life in the natural world. But the angels are organized into larger or smaller societies, each of which has a distinct reference to the human form. For in every angelic society there are angels who carry on functions corresponding to those in the human body; and it is by virtue of their functions or uses corresponding to those which are carried on in the human body, that these societies have reference to the human form.

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These heavenly societies are as numerous as the stars in the canopy of heaven. The three heavens, which have been treated of above in no.78, are organized of angelic societies according to a similar plan; wherefore each of the three heavens, of which one is more interior than the other, has again reference to the human form. With these heavens, which are related to one another like the head, the body, and the extremities in man, every human being in the natural world is connected as to his soul, and receives an influx therefrom. And because the heavens, as a whole and in part have all reference to the human form, and because they bear down on each human soul and flow into it, therefore the soul has impressed upon it the human form, and from the soul this form is derived to the human body.

So far, however, as the heavens are composed of angels, they are simply recipients, or finite receptacles of life, and do not possess life as their own. The life, that is to say, the universal soul of heaven, is the proceeding Divine, the Holy Spirit, which emanates from the Lord, who in His Glorified Humanity resides in the centre of the sun of heaven. Because He, the Infinite and the Eternal, is a Divine Man, therefore also the Divine Essence which proceeds from Him, and which is the Holy Spirit, is likewise in the human form; and indeed it is the Divine Human in a form accommodated to the states of reception of angels and men.

He, the Infinite and Eternal God, thus creates through the heavens all human souls, and sustains them by the Life, the Holy Spirit which constantly emanates from His Glorified Humanity. And because He is Man, Very Man, the First Man, therefore all human beings and all angels are first created, and afterwards sustained in the human form by a continual influx of life from Him.

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84. The influx of life from God into man is twofold. For He, the Infinite and Eternal God, is present in man by mediate influx through the heavens and thus through the angels of heaven; and again He is present in man by immediate influx from Himself, from His Glorified Humanity. From the heavens man derives his soul-substance; and thus by an influx out of heaven his soul is organized according to the three degrees which prevail there. There are thus three degrees in mans soul which correspond to heaven, and three degrees which correspond to the natural world; and the lowest of these natural degrees is called body. Of the three degrees within nature man becomes conscious during his life in the natural world, in proportion as he develops from a child into a youth, and finally into a man; but of the three degrees of his soul which correspond to heaven he can become conscious only after the release of his spirit from the bonds of space and time, and indeed only if these degrees have been developed in him during his life in the body.

By death, according to Swedenborg, man casts off the lowest of his three natural degrees, his body, retaining therefrom a border as it were; namely, that portion of his bodily degree on which are inscribed the contents of his natural memory. This memory is on the plane--on the level, of nature, and everything therein consists of impressions and ideas which have been derived through the medium of space and time. This memory man is not permitted to make use of when, after the death of the body, he rises as a spirit in the spiritual world. The above-named border, consisting of substances derived from the natural world, according to Swedenborg, constitutes there the cutaneous covering of the resuscitated spirit, and enables him to continue in the future life.

Through death, man thus suffers the loss of the outermost of his natural degrees;

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so that on being resuscitated in the spiritual world he rises there with the three degrees corresponding to the three heavens, and with the two natural degrees which are intermediate between his heavenly degrees and that lowest natural degree, which he has left behind in the natural world. These two natural degrees which man takes with him into the other world, correspond to the inner and outer divisions of the World of Spirits, where man is received immediately after the decease of his body; and these degrees during a mans sojourn in the natural world are infilled with the most refined material particles from the natural sun. Of those particles, however, these lowest degrees of mans spirit are divested by the death of the body, and thenceforth they are exempt from all limitations of time and space.

Those two degrees in man which correspond to the World of Spirits, together with that degree which corresponds to the natural world and which man lays aside by death, are capable of being perverted by man by an abuse of his faculties of freedom and rationality. The three degrees of mans natural part may thus be in a state of order, and they may also be in a state of disorder. When they are in a state of order they are receptive of an influx out of heaven, but when they are in a state of disorder, then they pervert the influx out of heaven, and become likewise receptive of an influx out of hell.

85. In the most ancient times, during the golden age of mans existence, those three natural degrees in man were in a state of order; wherefore man was then in a condition in which he could associate with angels, even during his existence in the natural world. But this state of things became altered by mans lapse into evil, and thus by what is usually known as the fall. The change wrought by the fall consisted in the three natural degrees of man from that period being created not only into a likeness of the world of nature and of the World of Spirits, but also into a likeness of hell;

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and thereby becoming receptive not only of an influx out of the World of Spirits and from the world of nature, but also of an influx out of hell. In fact, through mans fall into evil, the receptive forms of his three natural degrees became hereditarily inverted and perverted to such a degree, as to turn the inflowing life from heaven and the Lord into the opposite, and to imbibe freely an influx out of hell consisting of evils and falsities.

Ever since that spiritual catastrophe called the fall, the Divine Mercy has been actively engaged in providing the necessary means, by which man could be saved under those altered conditions which had been introduced into his soul by the fall. In order to bring about this desired result, two changes by the Divine Mercy were introduced into the organization of the human soul and into the law of influx. The first change which affected the law of influx was for the purpose of preventing the influx from heaven, as well as the influx from hell, from reaching immediately the hereditary vessels in mans natural part, especially during his age of minority. This object our Heavenly Father provided for by ordering it so that the influx of life from the spiritual world, instead of being permitted to flow at once into mans hereditary nature, is directed first into the contents of his memory. Memory, however, with man is on the level of the World of Spirits, which world, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, is understood by the great gulf which exists between heaven and hell. Into this world the souls of the departed enter immediately after their resuscitation in the other life. And from this world, where the good and the evil congregate after death, two good spirits and two evil spirits are appointed over the soul of every person living in the natural world. These spirits take possession of the contents of the memories of men;

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the good spirits of all the goods and truths which they find there, and the evil spirits of all the evils and falsities which they find stored up there. And with these contents of the memories of men the spirits in the World of Spirits invest themselves; and thus they put on the very nature as it were of those persons on whom they attend; and thereby the life which they themselves receive from the heavens is directed into the memory of these persons. For every spirit in the World of Spirits is connected with a society either in heaven or in hell, and receives an influx therefrom, so that through the mediation of two good spirits appointed over man, the influx out of heaven is directed into the orderly contents of his memory; while through the mediation of the evil spirits associated with man, who are connected with a society either of devils or satans in hell, the influx from hell is directed into the disorderly contents of mans memory. This accounts fop the utter helplessness of man at birth, different from what is the case with animals which are bore in the order of their creation--for mans memory by birth is an utter blank.

This influx into mans soul out of the spiritual world through particular good and evil spirits, Swedenborg denominates particular influx, in order to distinguish it from that general influx which still takes place out of heaven into all those parts of man which are below the memory, that is, into those parts which belong to the body.

86. The second change introduced by the Divine Mercy, in consequence of the fall, concerns the relation which originally existed between mans will and understanding For in addition to the distinction which exists between mans spiritual and natural part, and hence between the degrees of which each of these parts consists, there is another division in each of the degrees of the human soul, which arises from the two-fold character of the life which flows into man out of heaven.

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For the Sun of heaven, and hence the Life which proceeds immediately from the Lords glorified humanity, consists of Love and Wisdom; love being spiritual heat, end wisdom spiritual light. In fact the Essence of the Lord Himself is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom; wherefore He is the source of all good, and of all truth; for good belongs to love, and truth to wisdom.

Since mans soul is a recipient of the life which flows forth from the Lord; therefore in mans soul there is a receptacle for food, and a receptacle for truth. The former is called will, and the latter understanding. Those faculties are undeveloped at birth, and they are developed on the one hand by an influx of life from the Lord, and on the other hand by an influx from the natural world which takes place through the medium of the senses, and which is under the direction of the educators who are appointed over man during his age of minority. This development of the faculties of the will and understanding begins in the lowest degree of mans natural part (see above no. 80), and gradually extends to the higher degrees. But whether the spiritual degrees in a mans soul be likewise developed, or not, depends on the exercise of mans freedom of choice, by virtue of which he is able to decide either in favour of the kingdom of heaven and of the Lord, or in favour of the kingdom of the world and of self.

Of these two faculties of the human soul, the will is more interior, and it governs and rules the understanding; for what a man wills that he thinks. In the most ancient times, when man was still in a state of order, the teachings of the Divine Truth which were communicated to him by his educators, at once entered into his will, where they took root, and thence spread into, and enlightened the understanding. Man then saw intuitively many particulars of Divine Truth which now he has to learn end to acquire by severe study.

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Since the will and the understanding with man were then thoroughly one, he was led by his love of doing good into all the truths corresponding to any particular good without his requiring any previous instruction. The Law, as we read, was then written in his beast.

But this royal pond to the acquisition of the knowledge of truth, became closed to man by his lapse into evil; wherefore, in order that he might still enabled to lead a heavenly life, it became necessary that the Law, the Divine Word, should be communicated to him by an external channel; namely, through the senses of the body; and it became necessary also that his will should be separated from his understanding. This separation of the will from the understanding constitutes the second change which was introduced by the Divine Providence into the spiritual organization of man, after his lapse into evil; and by virtue of this separation man is now able to receive good and truth, spiritual heat and spiritual light, each separately. As to his understanding a man, therefore, is now able to rise above his will, and to look down upon it, and examine its quality. As to his understanding, a man may, in fact, rise into the very light of heaven, which illuminates his higher spiritual part, while as to his will he remains in the external natural part below. This capacity of rising into the light of heaven, and of being illuminated as to the understanding by the light of truth, constitutes mans faculty of reason at the present time; while the capacity of willing and acting, and also of thinking and speaking in accordance with the findings of his reason, constitutes mans faculty of freedom. Reason thus is an inherent faculty of mans understanding; and freedom, of his will.

As man is a twofold being, and has both a spiritual and a natural part, therefore his will and understanding are also twofold;

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that is, he has a spiritual will and a spiritual understanding, and also a natural will and a natural understanding; and the former faculties receive an influx out of heaven, and the latter out of the world, and since mans fall into evil, these latter faculties receive an influx also out of hell.

This twofold organization of mans will and understanding furnishes the psychological condition of the possibility of mans freedom of choice, or of his power of choosing between good and evil, between what is true and what is false.

IV.--THE DOCTRINE OF MANS FREEDOM OF CHOICE.

87. Mans freedom of choice, in the first place, depends upon a universal law of creation which is stated by Swedenborg thus:--

There are always two forces, by which everything is kept in connection, and in its form; namely, a force acting from without, and a force acting from within; in the middle between the two is the thing contained (A. C. 3628).

The force acting from within is called action, and that acting from without is called re-action, while the thing contained in the middle is said to be in a state of equilibrium; end this state of equilibrium is required in order that anything may exist or subsist, and also that it may produce actions or effects.

Equilibrium in spiritual matters, however, is called freedom. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

That which acts and re-acts in the natural world is called force and also effort, but ill the spiritual world it is called life and will. Life in that world is a living force, and will a living effort or conatus; and the equilibrium itself is called a state of freedom (H. H. 589).

If now we apply the above definitions of action and re-action, and also of equilibrium and freedom, to man, we learn that in man there is one force which acts, and another force which re-acts, and that the man himself who is in the middle between these two forces is in a state of equilibrium or freedom.

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The force in man which acts is derived from the Lord through heaven, and it flows into mans spiritual part or mind which is created into a likeness of heaven; while the force m man which re-acts, flows in from the world into his natural part or mind; for that mind together with the body is created into a likeness of the world, and in addition is infilled by dead natural particles from the natural sun.

The natural mind, however, with the body, re-acts against the spiritual mind, because it is the last or outermost; and because the last or outermost by the very nature of the case re-acts against that which is higher or interior. Thus Swedenborg says:--

Because the natural mind is the covering and continent of the higher degrees of the human mind, it is re-active ... for unless it re-acted, the interior or enclosed things would loosen, protrude outwards, and fall to pieces. Just as if the coetaneous covering around the human body were not in re-action, the viscera which are the interiors of the body, would push forth, and welter asunder (D. L. W. 260).

88. Thus far re-action has been treated as thoroughly independent of action, and each has been looked upon as issuing from a separate and detached source. This, however, is a mere appearance; for all re-action in the first place arises from action; even as the recoil is the effect of an original, direct motion, and the echo is the result of an original, direct sound. Thus Swedenborg says:--

What is natural considered in itself is passive, or a dead force, but what is spiritual is active, or a living force. What is passive or a dead force cannot act from itself, but it must be acted upon by what is active, or a living force (T. C. R. 607).

And again he says:--

The substances of the natural world in themselves are dead, and are acted on from without by the substances of the spiritual world, and those substances which are dead, and which are acted on from without, from their nature resist, and so from their nature re-act.

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Hence it may appear that the natural man re-acts against the spiritual man, and that there is combat. It is the same thing whether we say the natural or spiritual man, or the natural and spiritual mind (D. L. W. 260).

Another peculiarity of the active and re-active life of man is this, that during his life in the world a man does not become conscious at all of the active life that flows into him from the Lord, but only of the re-active life of his natural man, which to all intents and purposes appears to him as his own; as Swedenborg states in what follows:--

In everything created by God there is re-action. In life alone there is action, and the re-action is excited by the action of life. This re-action appears as if it belonged to the created subject, from the fact that it exists when the subject is acted upon. Thus in man it appears as if the re-action were his, because he has no other feeling than that the life is his, when yet a man is only a recipient of life (D. L. W. 68).

All life and all action are thus from the Lord, and the reception of life and re-action is mans. And life, and consequently action, enter with man in the center, and from the center they net towards the circumference. But re-action, which is based on the influence from the world into man, and also on the fact that man with the life of his natural man which he regards as his own, re-acts against the life from God in his spiritual man--this re-action operates from the circumference towards the center.

The combined result, however, of the action of mans spiritual part, and thus of his spiritual will and understanding, and of the re-action of his natural part, and that of his natural will and understanding, is a state of spiritual equilibrium, and thus of freedom in spiritual matters. This freedom in spiritual matters, which is preserved in man by the Lord at all hazards, is meant by mans freedom of choice.

By this freedom of choice, a man is at liberty to make either the love and hence the wisdom of his spiritual man, the ruling love of his life, or else the love and wisdom of his natural man.

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In the former case the good and truth of the Lord become established first in the will and understanding of his spiritual man, and thence in the will and understanding of his natural man; and in this case, in the language of Scripture, he is said to eat of the tree of life; but in the latter case the mans own good and truth, and hence his own love and wisdom become established in the will and understanding of his natural man, and then he is said to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

When a man decides in favor of his own will and of his own understanding, and thus in favor of his own good and of his own truth, then the will and understanding of his spiritual man or mind become closed, and then the natural mind or man re-acts in opposition to the spiritual mind, and thus against the good and truth from the Lord. But when a man by virtue of his freedom of choice decides in favor of the Lords good and truth, and hence in favor of the Lords life and against his own life, then his natural mind reacts in agreement with his spiritual mind, and is time puts on the likeness of the spiritual mind, which is the effect of regeneration. In this case, according to Swedenborg,

The spiritual mind acts from above or from within upon the natural mind, and removes those things which re-act, and adapts to itself those which act in like manner with itself; hence the overbearing re-action is gradually taken away (D. L. W. 263).

89. Such was the condition of mans freedom of choice, when he was first created. His choice then lay between the revelation of Divine Truth which entered into his spiritual, or rather celestial, understanding from within, and between the information which he received in his natural understanding from the world around, through his bodily senses. And his choice further lay between the love of the Lord

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the active love from the Lord, which animated the will of his higher, celestial part, and between the re-active love of his external natural part, which manifested itself to him under the character of the love of self.

So long as he decided in favor of the influences which entered into his soul from the Lord out of heaven, and against the influences from his natural self and of the world, so long it was well with him. But when he began doubting about the supreme rule of the Lord, and wanted to govern himself and others according to his own good pleasure; when therefore the re-active love of mans external natural part desired to exercise sway over the Lords kingdom among men, his final fall into evil from henceforth was only a question of time. The re-active love of mans external, natural part, when it thus began to exercise sway, is represented is the second and third chapters of Genesis, by the woman, usually called Eve. This re-active love of mans natural part in time listened to the influences of the outside world which entered into mans understanding through the gateway of the senses. The sensual faculty of man, however, which received these influences in the first place, and by which the re-active love of the natural man was beguiled, is represented in these chapters by the serpent. But by the man who finally ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is represented mans rational faculty, which through a chain of ratiocination confirmed in man the reign of the love of self, and of those impressions which entered into his understanding from the world through the medium of the senses.

90. The freedom of choice which man enjoys at the present time, is essentially of a similar character; for man has still to make a choice between the Lord and His kingdom on the one hand, and the kingdom of self and of the world on the other.

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But there is now superadded another quantity, which did not exist with man when he was first created. For then mans natural part was in a state of order, while now it is in a state of hereditary disorder; so that now it is receptive not only of an influx out of the world, but is exposed also to an influx out of hell, whereby the re-active love of mans external natural part is immeasurably strengthened and supported in its re-action upon the spiritual man.

In order to cope with this increased power for evil which now bears down upon man, as stated in our last chapter, the influx of evil and falsity out of hell is not allowed to enter in fall force into mans hereditary nature; but through the merciful dispensation of what Swedenborg calls particular influx, it is diverted from mans hereditary nature into the contents of his memory. In the memory also the Lord provides with every man from his earliest age a sufficiency of the states of good, and of the knowledges of the Truth, and thereby prepares an ample foothold for the angels of heaven, whereby, through good spirits in the world of spirits, they are able to watch tenderly over all human beings in this world, and to assist them in their contests against the evil spirits of hell. The memory of man is thus the battle-ground between good and evil spirits who struggle for the mastery in him. These spirits, the good and the bad, are in the World of Spirits which is in intermediate between heaven and hell; and the good spirits act and defend, and the evil spirits re-act and attack, while the man in the middle is in a state of equilibrium, and thus of freedom.

Swedenborg says on this subject:--

The Lord keeps man in a state of equilibrium between evils and good and between falsities and truths, through evil spirits on the one hand, and through angels on the other, so that man may be in a state of freedom. For in order that man may be saved, he must be in a state of freedom, and in freedom be led away from evil, sad led to good.

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Whatever is not done in freedom, does not remain, because it is not appropriated. This freedom results from the equilibrium in kept (A. C. 5982).

And again he says:--

In order that it may be understood how man can be kept in the middle between heaven slid hell, and thereby in a state of spiritual equilibrium, whence is his freedom of choice, this shall be explained in a few words. The spiritual world consists of heaven and hell.... Between heaven and hell there is a large interstice which to those who are there appears like an entire world. Into this interstice there exhales from hell evil in great abundance, and on the other hand good flows into it out of heaven. Concerning this interstice Abraham said to the rich man in hell, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence (Luke xvi., 26). In the middle of this interstice man is, as to his spirit, solely for this purpose that he may enjoy his freedom of choice.... All who are in this great gulf, as to their interiors, are conjoined either with the angels of heaven or the devils of hell (T. C. R. 475, 477).

And again we read:--

With every man there are two spirits from hell, and two angels out of heaven; for since man is born in sills he could not live at all unless on the one hand he should communicate with hell, and on the other with heaven; all his life is thence. When a man grows up, and begins to role himself from himself, that is, when he seems to himself to will and to act from his own judgment, and to think and draw conclusions concerning matters of faith from his own understanding--if then he betake himself towards evils, the two spirits from hell approach, and the two angels retreat to some distance; but if he betake himself towards good, then the two angels out of heaven approach, and the two spirits out of hell are removed (A. C. 5470).

V.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.

91. The doctrine of mans freedom of choice includes that of the origin of evil, for the origin of evil is in mans external natural part, and it originates in the re-active love which is there; that is, it originates in the love of the natural mind which man regards as his own, and with which, if he so chooses, he may re-act against the life which flows into him from God out of heaven.

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This natural love intrinsically is the love of self and of the world.

So long as s man with the re-active love of his natural man, with the full freedom of choice wherewith he has been gifted by his Maker, acts with God; and so long as he loves Him and His kingdom in the first place, so long he is in a state of order; and then, in time as shown above, his outward natural man is created into a full likeness of his internal, spiritual man. But when a man with his love of self and with the full use of his freedom of choice acts persistently in opposition to the Lord and His heavenly kingdom, then he gradually closes his external natural part against the action of life from within; and then the good which flows in from within, through the re-active love of self and the world, is changed into evil, and the inflowing truth into falsity.

In this wise evil and falsity were introduced into the world. They were introduced through the agency of man when, by all abuse of his faculty of freedom he changed good into evil, and when by an abuse of his faculty of reason he changed truth into falsity. Evil and the false are consequently not original independent formations, but they are simply perversions by man of the life consisting of good and truth, which flows into him from the Lord.

92. Evil and the false, so long as they are separated in the soul, in which case evil is merely an impulse, and falsity an idea--a fancy, are comparatively harmless, and are capable of being removed thence without any great struggle. But this task is rendered more difficult when the two are conjoined; that is, when evil is excused and confirmed by falsity, and when falsity becomes established in the mind by the love of the false, through perverted reasonings; and especially when this unhallowed conjunction in the interior degrees of the mind is afterwards ratified by the words and deeds of the body.

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This conjunction of evil and the false in the soul constitutes hell; even as the conjunction of good and truth in man constitutes heaven or the kingdom of God. Wherefore not only evil and the false, but also hell has been introduced by man. Hell, indeed, in the spiritual world, is formed of the departed souls of individual human beings, in whom evil is conjoined with falsity; while heaven consists of the departed souls of those in whom good is conjoined with truth. The connection of good and truth in the mind is also called the heavenly marriage, while the conjunction of evil and falsity constitutes the infernal marriage.

With all is this world who reach the age of maturity, either a heaven or a hell is beginning to be formed in their souls; for from day to day they either conjoin good and truth in their minds, or evil and falsity, and thus they establish there either the heavenly or the infernal marriage; which marriage is afterwards continued from the soul into the body. This is what is understood by the formation of character. For as to his character every man is either a heaven or a hell; and according to his character, on his entrance into the other life, he is judged, and has his place assigned to him either among the angels of heaven, or among the devils of hell.

VI.--THE DOCTRINE OF CHARACTER.

93. The doctrine of character includes that of the memory, in so far as it contributes to the formation of character.

Swedenborg distinguishes between the external and the internal memory. Everything that enters into man from without, through the senses of the body, reposes in his external memory; but everything that goes out of the man, thus his intentions, thoughts, words and deeds, are inscribed on his internal memory;

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and whatever is inscribed there remains, and becomes a part of mans character, and can be removed thence only in the world, by a course of repentance, reformation and regeneration. The character which man has formed for himself in the world follows him into the future life, and according to that character he is judged there; and that character in the Book of Revelation is called the Book of Life, which is opened when man by death enters into the spiritual world and according to the contents of his Book of Life, he is judged there.

94. The ingredients out of which a mans character is formed, are twofold. First, there is his ruling love which is the man himself, and the quality of which is determined by his freedom of choice; this ruling love with its various subordinate affections constitutes the substance, the essence of mans character: and secondly, there are the contents of the external memory, which furnish the form by which a mans character manifests itself. For in the memory, the mans ruling love, which is identical with the ends and aims which he has set before himself, looks for the means by which it may carry out its endsits objects. But the things which a mans love selects in the external memory, are the various kinds of knowledge which are stored up there. If a mans ruling love bears a heavenly character, then it selects there all those things which the man has learned by instruction from the Word, and the genuine doctrines of the Church, and these it adopts and with these it unites itself. But if the ruling love of a mans life is the love of self and the love of the world, then it avoids and discards these heavenly knowledges, and selects, instead, facts and appearances from the world which it weaves into counterfeit appearances of the truth.

Such is the character which the man forms to himself during his life on earth;

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and such also is the character which a parent transmits to his offspring. That which he transmits is the peculiar ruling love of his being with its various outgrowths; but he does not transmit any knowledge; for man has no connate knowledge or ideas.

If now the ruling love of a parent and of his ancestors in a long series, has been the love of the world and the love of self, and if that love has been established in their characters, then the hereditary states which such a parent transmits to his offspring are all evil; and this, according to Swedenborg, is the origin of Hereditary Evil. As hereditary evil, however, is the out birth of character, and as character differs in all human families, therefore also hereditary evil is different in different families.

VII.--THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION.

95. The only process by which both hereditary and actual evil can gradually be removed out of the spiritual constitution of a man; the only process, consequently, by which it is possible for him to be saved out of the power of hell, is by regeneration. Regeneration, however, is effected by the conjunction of good and truth in the mind, and thus by the establishment of the heavenly marriage in the soul, whereby man is conjoined with the Lord, and the Lord with man. And this conjunction of the Lord with man, according to Swedenborg, constitutes Salvation. For man is saved when he is in the Lord and the Lord in him, because then the Lord is able to save and protect him against evils and falsities, and to bless him by the instillation of Good and truth, of charity and faith, into his soul.

96. All at the present time are born with hereditary evil, and hence the hereditary loves of mankind are the loves of self and of the world; and these loves are conquered and subdued in a human being when, by virtue of his freedom of choice, he selects, the love of the Lord and His kingdom for his ruling love.

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But this he can only do in the light of Revealed Truth; for Revealed Truth alone is able to disclose to him the internal states of his soul. It points out to him the distinction between good and evil, between truth and falsity; and it reveals to him the existence and the character of the Deity, and of future life. This Revealed Truth enters into the mans external memory in the form of knowledge; and as soon as it enters there it forms the basis of a heavenly influence, and is taken possession of by the angels who are appointed over man by the Lord.

This is the purpose of Revelation. It is a heavenly means whereby the man, as of himself, with the re-active love of his being, is able to go and meet His Maker; and to this Divine Truth which a man, as of himself, studies and appropriates, the Lord applies himself. He applies Himself to it with good, even with the good of charity, and thereby conjoins Himself with that Truth. Wherefore the conjunction of good and truth in a mans soul is equivalent to the Lords conjunction with man; and the Lords conjunction with man is meant by the establishment of the heavenly marriage in his soul; and the establishment of the heavenly marriage is equivalent to mans Salvation to eternity.

This heavenly marriage is first established in mans internal, spiritual part, and thence it extends gradually to his external, natural part below; but only in proportion as the opposing evils and falsities are removed thence, which is done through a severe course of temptation-combats. This establishment of the heavenly marriage, first in the interior, spiritual part, and then gradually in the external, natural part below, is the result of regeneration--which is the Lords work altogether, although in this work He requires mans most active co-operation.

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Salvation, then, without regeneration is impossible; and as during regeneration the man must needs co-operate with the Lord, therefore also the apostle called upon the Philippians, to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

But mans co-operation in the work of regeneration and thus of salvation, as we have already seen, essentially consists in his study of the Divine Word, and in a prayerful application of its teachings to his everyday life. When the men does his share of the work, then the Lord is able to do His; and then He endows man with a new heart and a new spirit, and thus builds up in hint a sew, a heavenly character; and in proportion as this new, heavenly character is formed and developed in him by the Lord, with the continual active co-operation of the man himself, in the same proportion his old character, his old Adam, becomes infirm, and finally dies altogether.

This, then, is Swedenborgs doctrine of Salvation. As salvation, however, is impossible without a revelation of Divine Truth, therefore the Lord has always provided that there should be an adequate revelation of Himself among men; and He has further provided that there shall be constantly a Church among men, into whose charge He may place His Divine Revelation--His Divine Word. The Church, therefore, is another heavenly agency, of which the Lord makes use in working out the salvation of mankind.

VIII.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH.

97. Swedenborg distinguishes between the Church among a nation, and the Church in a nation, as in the following passage:--

It is one thing for the Church to be among a nation, and another thing for the Church to be in a nation. For instance, the Christian Church is among those who have the Word, and who from doctrine preach the Lord still there is nothing of the Church in them unless they are in the marriage of good and truth

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that is, unless they are in charity towards the neighbor and in faith thence--thus unless the internals of the Church be in the externals (A. C. 4809).

The Church among a nation, Swedenborg in other places calls the congregation of the Church, and this congregation of the Church is identical with the outward, or visible Church; while the Church in a nation--that is, in the individuals belonging to a nation--is identical with the inward, and hence with the invisible Church, and it is also equivalent to the heavenly marriage in their souls.

Whether an individual as to his soul is in the heavenly marriage, and thus whether he belongs to the inward Church, which is the Church proper, can be known to the Lord only; and hence we are not called upon to organize outwardly the inward Church, but only the outward Church. Nevertheless, this outward Church without the inward is simply a human institution; while this same outward Church with the inward Church abiding in it is the Lords kingdom on earth. But the inward Church, as we have seen above, resides in the hearts of the individual members of the Church, and it constitutes the heavenly marriage, the Lords kingdom in their souls.

98. The inward or invisible Church Swedenborg in other places calls the Church universal, or the Communion of saints, which is the Lords Church scattered over the whole face of the globe. This Church universal, which consists of all those who are in the acknowledgment of God and in the good of life, is the foundation of heaven; and this Church, like heaven itself, in the sight of God appears organized in the human form. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The Lords Church is neither here nor there, but it is everywhere; both within those kingdoms where the Church is, and also outside the same, wherever men lead a life according to the precepts of charity. Thence it is that the Lords Church, although scattered through the universal globe, nevertheless is one.

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For when life makes the Church, and not doctrine separate from life, then the Church is one; but when doctrine makes the Church, then there are a number of Churches (A. C. 8162).

Again he says:--

Wherever it is possible the Lord conjoins societies in this wise [that is, after the pattern of the human form]; for the very Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord introduces this order wherever it is received. Thence arises this order in heaven. This same order exists also on earth, but the societies by which it is constituted are scattered throughout the whole world; and these societies are those who are in the love to the Lord, and in charity towards the neighbor. But these scattered societies are collected by the Lord, so as to represent also one Man, like the societies in heaven. These societies are not only within the Church, but also outside the same; and taken altogether they are called the Lords Church scattered and collected from the good in the universal globe, which is also called a communion. This communion, or this Church, is the Lords kingdom on earth conjoined with the Lords kingdom in the heavens, and thus conjoined with the Lord (A. C. 7396).

99. The Church on earth, that is the invisible Church or the Church universal, like heaven, is also arranged according to the three degrees. Thus Swedenborg says:-

The Lords Church, like heaven, is distinguished into three degrees. In the last degree are those who are in externals; in the second degree those who are in internals; and in its third degree those who are in the inmost things of the Church (A. R. 744).

Those who are in the inmost things of the Church universal, which constitutes the Lords body on earth, are there in the province of the heart; while those who are in the internals of the Church are in the province of the lungs; and those who are in externals are in the provinces of the remaining viscera and members. And as the heart sets upon the lungs, and the heart with the lungs upon the remaining parts of the body, so the Lord in a similar manner acts upon, and thus governs, the Church Universal, which is scattered ever the whole globe, and imparts spiritual life to its members.

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This, Swedenborg teaches beautifully in the following passage; where, however, instead of speaking of those who are in the inmost, internal, and external things of the Church, he introduces a different terminology, and distinguishes the members of the Lords Church Universal into the members of the Lords Church Universal into those who form the internal, the external, and the outermost of the Church.

The following three kinds of men constitute the Church: those who are in the good of charity constitute the internal of the Church; but those who are in few truths and still desire to be instructed in them--those consequently who are in the affection of truth from good, constitute the external of the Church. Those, however, who are in the delights of external truth are the outermost, and constitute, as it were, the enclosure or covering, and close the Church.

The conjunction of heaven with the human race, that is the Lords conjunction with the human race through heaven, takes place through those who are in the good of charity; for the Lord is present in that good, inasmuch as He is that good because it proceeds from Him. Through that good the Lord conjoins Himself with those who are in the affection of truth; for the affection of truth is from good, and good, as said above, is from the Lord. Through these a sin the Lord is with those who are in the delights of external truth; for delights with them for the most part spring from the loves of self and of the world, and very little of these delights is derived from spiritual good.

That the Lords communication and conjunction with the human race is such, appears from this consideration, that influx with every member of the Church is circumstanced in this manner; and by a member of the Church is understood one who is in the good of charity, and thence in the truth of faith from the Lord; for charity, whence faith is derived, is the very Church with man, because both are from the Lord. The Lord [with such a man] flows into his good, which is his internal, and through that into the affection of truth, which is his external; and through this affection he flows into the delights of external truth, which are in his outermost parts.

As it is with man in particular so also it is with the Church in general; that is with those who constitute the Lords Church. The reason is because the Church Universal before the Lord is as a man; for the heaven of the Lord with which the Church acts as one is before Him as One Man.

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Since this is so, the case with the member of the Church in particular is similar, for the member of the Church in particular is a heaven, a Church, a kingdom of the Lord, in the least effigy.

The Church is further constituted like man in this respect, that there are two principles of life in it, namely, the Heart and the Lungs. It is well known that the first principle of life with man is his heart, and the second principle of his life the lungs, and that each and all things which are in man live from these two fountains of life. The Heart of the Grand Man, that is to say of Heaven and the Church, consists of those who are in love to the Lord and in charity towards the neighbor; hence, abstractedly from persons, it consists of the love of the Lord and the love of the neighbor. But the Lungs in the Grand Man, that is in heaven slid the Church, are constituted by those who are in charity towards the neighbor and thence in faith; thus, abstractedly from persons, they are constituted by charity and faith from the Lord. The remaining viscera and members in this Grand Man consist of those who are in external goods and truths; thus abstractedly from persons, they are constituted by external goods and truths, through which internal goods and truths may be introduced. Now inasmuch as the heart first flows into the lungs, and then into the viscera and members of the body, so also the Lord through the good of love flows into internal truths, and through these into external truths and goods.

From these things it may appear that there must be a Church on earth by all means, and that without a Church the human race would perish; for the case would be as with a man when he dies, at which time the lungs and heart cease to be moved. For this cause also it is provided by the Lord that there shall always be a Church on earth in which the Lord has been revealed through the Divine Truth which is from Him. This Divine Truth on our earth is the Word (A. C. 9276).

Here we learn that the Church Universal, which is scattered over the whole globe, is circumstanced exactly like the Church in the individual, and that the Church Universal is composed of all those in whom the Lords Church is established either in the first, second, or third degree, and who constitute respectively the heart, the lungs, and the remaining members and viscera of that human organism in which the Church Universal appears in the sight of God, and which human organism, according to Paul, is the body of Christ (Rom. xii. 15, etc.).

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100. In other places, however, and indeed more frequently, Swedenborg notices only two, and not three, divisions in the Church Universal, and he speaks then simply of the internal and the external Church. Thus he says:--

Internal good is among those who are called members of the internal Church, and external good with those who are members of the external Church. Members of the internal Church are those who have qualified their good through interior truths, such as are those of the internal sense of the Word; and members of the eternal Church are those who have qualified their good through exterior truths, such as are those of the literal sense of the Word. Members of the internal Church are those who do good to the neighbor from the affection of charity, but members of the external Church, but who do so from obedience. Every member while being regenerated becomes first a member of the external Church, but afterwards a member of the internal Church. Those who are of the internal Church surpass in wisdom and intelligence those who are of the external Church; hence also they are more interiorly in heaven (A. C. 7840).

Again we read:--

Before the member of the spiritual Church receives a new will from the Lord, that is regenerated, he does truth from obedience, but after he has been regenerated he does good from affection, and then truth with him becomes good, because it has become with him a matter of the will for acting from obedience is doing so from the intellectual part, but acting from affection is doing so from the will part. Hence also it is that those who do truth from obedience are members of the Lords external Church, but those who do it from affection are members of the internal Church (A. C. 8234).

And again:--

Those who are of the spiritual Church, through the truth which is of faith are introduced to the good which is of charity, but after they have been introduced then from good they are led to truths. Those who from good are led to truths are those who constitute the internal Church, and those who through truth are introduced to good constitute the external Church (A. C. 7992).

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Both the internal and the external Church here spoken of exist among those persons who are in the truths of faith, and hence among those who are in the possession of the Word. Only a portion of those belonging to the Church Universal are thus included here in these two divisions of the Church, and indeed only those who constitute the provinces of the heart and lungs, as appears from the following passage:--

The Church in the universal world before the Lord is as one Man, for it makes one with the angelic heaven which appears before the Lord as one Man. Thee heart and lungs in this Grand Man is the Church where the Word is, and where the Lord is thus known. The Church is as the heart with those who are in celestial love [that is, in the love of good], and it is like the lungs with those who are in spiritual love [that is, in the love of the truth]. Now inasmuch as all the members, viscera, and organs of the body live from the heart and lungs, and from their influx and presence thence, so also those in the whole world who constitute the Church Universal live from the Church where the Word is. For the Lord flows in from the Word with love and with light, and vivifies and enlightens all who are in any spiritual affection of the truth, wherever they may be. The light of heaven, that is the light in which those angels of heaven are who are from this world, is from the Lord through the Word. From the Word that light is propagated as from a center towards the circumferences in all directions, and consequently to those who are in the circumferences, namely, to the pagans who are outside of our Church. This propagation of light, however, takes place from the Lord in heaven, and the reason why it takes place there is, because heaven also flows into the minds of men, for their minds make one with the minds of the spirits and angels (A. E. 381).

From this passage we learn that the Church where the Word is, and where the Lord is thus known, constitutes the heart end lungs in that Grand Man, which is formed by the Church Universal; and that those in the Christian world who are in celestial and spiritual love, in whom, therefore, the internal and the external Church is organized, are mediums through whom, by the Word in their midst, spiritual life is derived to the pagan world. In another place Swedenborg defines the Church among those who constitute the heart and lungs of the Church Universal, as the Church in a special sense.

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Thus he says:--

The Church is a special sense is where the Lord is thereby known, consequently where Divine Truths have been revealed (H. D. no. 246).

101. With those who, in the Grand Man formed by the Church Universal, are either in the heart or in the lungs, who belong consequently either to the Church internal or to the Church external spoken of above, the invisible Church is organized in their souls above the sphere of their external, natural part, and thus above the sphere of their bodies. And this invisible Church with them is continued down into the very texture of their bodies, and thereby rendered visible. Thus we read:--

The Church on earth before the Lord is as One Man; it is also distinguished into societies, and each society again is a Man, and all who are within that Man are also in heaven. Every member of the Church also is an angel of heaven, for he becomes an angel after death. Besides, the Church on earth, together with the angels, not only constitutes the interior parts of that Grand Man, but also its exterior parts, which are called cartilaginous and osseous. The Church brings this about, because men on earth are frustrated with a body, in which the spiritual ultimate is clothed with a natural. This causes the conjunction of heaven with the Church and of the Church with heaven (A. E. 1222).

102. In this way, then, the visible Church has its rise. It arises in the persons of those in whom the invisible Church is established, and it is produced in them as the body in their case is produced by and from their soul. The relation between the visible and the visible Church is thus the same as between cause and effect. On this subject Swedenborg says further:--

The Lords Church everywhere is inward and outward; it is inward. From the heart, outward from the lips. Or again, the inward Church is from the will, and the outward Church from the understanding.

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When the inward makes one with the outward in man, then what is of the heart is also of the lips, or what is of the will is also of action--then in the lips is the speaking heart and in the action the acting will, without any dissension (A. C. 9375).

When the visible Church is thus created into a perfect likeness of the invisible Church, then also the visible or outward Church is said to correspond to the inward Church, and then the inward Church itself is said to be represented in the outward Church. Thus Swedenborg says:--

Every Church is inward and outward and the things which belong to the outward Church correspond to those of the inward Church (A. C. 5833).

And again:--

Every Church of the Lord is inward and outward. The inward is that which is represented, and the outward that which represents (A. C. 4292).

And further:--

All things which are of the body represent those things which belong to the higher and lower minds. The case is the same with the outward things of the Church, for these are like the body and the inward things are like the soul (A. C. 4292).

The correspondence between the inward and outward Church, however, is brought about in the persons of those who constitute the outward or visible Church on earth; for the invisible Church is in their internal or spiritual man, and the visible Church in their external or natural man; and when the external man is reduced into a state of correspondence with the internal man, then also the outward or visible Church is said to correspond to the inward or invisible Church. But this correspondence is effected altogether by regeneration, as Swedenborg teaches plainly in the following passage:--

In order that the internal or inward may be the internal of the Church it must needs be in its external. For the external or outward is in the place of a foundation, on which the inward should rest, and it should be a receptacle into which the inward may flow.

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Hence it is that the natural which is external must needs be regenerated, for unless it he regenerated the inward has no foundation nor any receptacle; and if it has no foundation and no receptacle it perishes altogether (A. C. 6299).

From this, however, it follows that for the inward or invisible Church to be thoroughly one with the outward or visible Church, and for the former Church to be in the latter, as the soul in the body, the members of the latter Church must needs be in a state of regeneration. For only then can the visible Church serve as a foundation for the invisible Church, and only then can the visible Church be a receptacle into which the invisible Church can flow as the cause into its effect. Wherefore by regeneration only is the external man created into a likeness of the internal man, and the visible Church into a likeness of the invisible Church. As the internal man, however, is always regenerated first, and afterwards the external through the internal man, so also in the establishment of a true Church on earth the inward or invisible Church is always created first, and after that the visible or outward Church. And, again, as the invisible Church is one with heaven, therefore the Church should first be established in heaven, and thence descend upon earth; and it descends thus in the persons of those who suffer themselves to be regenerated by the Lord, and through them it descends into the general visible Church on earth. That such is the principle or law governing the formation of the visible Church on earth is clearly shewn by Swedenborg in what follows:--

It should be stated that there is a Church in the heavens just as on earth, and that the two make one, like the inward and the outward among men wherefore a Church in the heavens is first provided by the Lord, and out of this Church, or through the same, a Church on earth (A. C. 486).

And again he says:--

The Church is inward and outward [that is, there is the invisible and the visible Church], and the inward Church makes one with the Church in heaven, thus with heaven the inward also should be formed before the outward, and afterwards the outward through the inward.

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That this is so is known among the clergy.

And then, in making an application of this principle to the formation of the visible Church of the New Jerusalem, he continues:--

In proportion as the new heaven, which makes one with the internal of the Church [that is, with the invisible Church] in man, increases, in the same proportion there descends thence the New Jerusalem, that is, the New Church (T. C. R. 784).

103. Such, therefore, is the relation between the visible and the invisible Church--they should be thoroughly one. The invisible Church should be as the soul, and the visible Church as the body; or, as Swedenborg expresses it, in the lips should be the speaking heart, and in the action the acting will without any dissension. Unless therefore, the invisible, or inward Church is established in the hearts of those who constitute the visible or outward Church, this latter Church is spiritually dead. For it is not under the influence of the heart and lungs of the Grand human organism formed by the Church Universal in conjunction with heaven; but it receives, instead, an influx from the perverted heart and lungs of the Grand monster of hell. That the visible Church, in order to be the Lords Church on earth, must consist of members in whose heart there is established the Church invisible the Lords kingdom, and thus the heavenly marriage between good and truth, between charity and faith, Swedenborg states over and over again. Thus he says:--

Churches are not churches on the ground of their calling themselves so, or on account of their professing the name of the Lord, but in consequence of their being in the good and in the truth of faith. It is the very good and truth of faith which constitutes the Church, yea, which are the Church;

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for the Lord is in the good and in the truth of faith, and where the Lord is there is the Church (A. C. 3379).

Again he says:--

The Church is a Church from spiritual good, and the truths thence. He who is not in spiritual good, that is in the good of charity, and not in spiritual truths, that is in the truths of faith, he is not of the Church, howsoever he may be born in the Church. For the whole of the Lords heavenly kingdom is in the good of love and of faith, and unless the Church is in a similar good it cannot be the Church, because it cannot be conjoined with heaven, for the Church is the Lords kingdom on earth. Its being called the Church is not from the circumstance that the Word is there, and that doctrinals derived from the Word are there, nor from the circumstance of the Lord being known there and the sacraments being there; but the Church is the Church on this ground, that its members lead a life according to the Word, or according to doctrine from the Word, and that doctrine constitutes their rule of life. Those who are not of this description are not of the Church, but are outside the same; and those who live in evil, and hence contrary to doctrine, are farther out of the Church than the Gentiles who know nothing at all of the Word, the Lord, and the sacraments. For those who are acquainted with the goods and truths of the Church may extinguish the Church in themselves, which the Gentiles are unable to do, because they are not acquainted with them. It is, moreover, to be borne in mind that everyone who lives in the good of charity and in the good of faith is a Church, and that he is a kingdom of the Lord; thence also he is called a temple, as well as a house of God. Out of those persons, however, who are Churches in particular, no matter how far they may be distant from one another, the Church in general is constituted (A. C. 6837 ).

104. The visible Church, therefore, derives its whole ground of existence from the invisible Church, and thus from the Church Universal, which is one with heaven; and as the invisible or Universal Church, as we have seen above, is both internal and external--internal with those who do good from affection or from the love of good, and external with those who do good from obedience or from the love of truth--it follows further that in the visible Church, which acts as one with the invisible Church, there are two classes of persons, of whom one belongs to the internal and the other to the external Church but which classes cannot be distinguished in this world.

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Those also who belong to the internal Church are interested more in the internal worship of the soul, which consists in the production of the works of charity, while those who belong to the external Church are more punctilious in the observance of the outward worship of the body, and thus in external rituals. Concerning these two classes of persons who constitute the visible Church of the Lord in His sight, Swedenborg says:--

Those at the present day who place Divine Worship in frequently Churches, in listening to sermons, in attending the Holy Supper, and who do this with devotion, not thinking beyond but simply that these things are to be observed, because they are established and ordered--these are of the external Church. But those who believe that these things are to be observed, yet that the essential of worship is the life of faith, that is, charity towards the neighbor and love to the Lord--are of the internal Church. Consequently, those are of the external Church who do good to the neighbor and worship the Lord solely from obedience of faith; but those are of the internal Church who do good to the neighbor and worship the Lord from love (A. C. 8782).

Again he says:--

In order that a Church may be, it must be internal and external for there are those who are in the internal of the Church, and there are those who are in its external. The former are few, and the latter are many. Still the external Church must also be among those with whom the internal Church is; for the internal of the Church cannot be separated from its external. And again, the internal Church must also be among those with whom the external Church is; but the internal Church among them is in obscurity. The internal of the Church consists in willing good from the heart and in being affected with good, and the external of this internal is doing that good, and, indeed, in accordance with the truth of faith which a person knows from good. The external of the Church, however, consists in performing rituals in a holy manner and in doing the works of charity according to the precepts of the Church (A. C. 6587).

105. The outward or visible Church, however, consists not only of those who are members of the Church in the sight of the Lord, but its outward organization is also joined by persons who do so from selfish or worldly motives.

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Thus there are those among the members of the outward Church who are in the love of exercising rule, or who think that their prospects in the world are advanced by their becoming members of the outward Church; or, again, there are those who have been born in the Church, and who have formed associations among its members which are pleasant or profitable to them, and which they are loath to give up. Thus the outward congregation of the Church is made up of three classes of persons; among two of them the inward invisible Church is established, but the third class consists of persons who are simply external or outward, and in whose souls there is nothing of the inward or invisible Church. Concerning these three classes of persons, of whom the visible Church is outwardly organized, Swedenborg says:--

With every one who is of the Church there should be both, namely, the outward and the inward; unless both are with him, spiritual life is not with him; for the inward is like the soul, and the outward is as the body of the soul. But those who are of the external Church see clearly in its outward things and obscurely in its inward; whilst those who are of the internal Church see clearly in inward and obscurely in outward things. Those, however, who are in outward and not at the same time in inward things, are not of the Church. In the inward as well as in the outward are all those who are in the good of life according to the doctrinals of their Church; but in outward things apart from inward are those who are in worship, and not at the same time in the good of life, according to the doctrinals of the Church (A. C. 8762).

Again Swedenborg says:--

In every Church there are (1) those who are internal men, (2) those who are corrupt internal men, and (3) those who are external men. Internal men are those who make charity the principal thing of faith; corrupt internal men those who make faith apart from charity the principal thing of faith; and external men those who think little of the internal man, but who practice works of charity and observe the rituals of the Church in a holy manner (A. C. 1062).

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106. As regards the organization of the outward or visible Church, it does not, however, consist in the first place of no aggregate of parts, that is, of individual members; but, like its prototype, the human body, it consists primarily of functions or uses, which uses are carried on by its individual members. Into these functions there is an influx from the invisible Church--the Church Universal, and thereby from heaven and the Lord. All the uses of the outward or visible Church have respect to this fundamental or final use, namely, the establishment of the inward or invisible Church in the hearts of its members. To this use all the other uses of the outward or visible Church should be subservient; and in order to enable the Church to accomplish this, its fundamental use, the Lord has committed into its hands the custody of the Divine Word; and, besides, He has fitted it out with all those means by which it may impart to its members a true understanding of the Divine Word. The Church thus is founded on the Divine Word, yet not on the letter of the Word, as this is in the possession of the visible Church, but on the understanding of the Word in the minds of its members. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The Word is the Word according to its understanding with man, that is, according as it is understood. If it is not understood the Word is indeed called the Word, but it is not with man. The Word is the Truth according to its understanding; for the Word may also not be the Truth, because it may be falsified. The Word is spirit and life according to its understanding for the letter without an understanding of the letter is dead. Now, inasmuch as according to this understanding of the Word a man has truth and life, therefore also according to the same he has faith and love and now because the Church exists through faith and love, and according thereto, it follows that the Church is a Church through the understanding of the Word, and according thereto. It is a noble Church if it is in genuine truths, an ignoble Church if it is not in genuine truths, and a destroyed Church if it is in falsified truths (D. S. S. no. 77)

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Again, in order that the members of the Church may obtain a genuine understanding of the Divine Word, doctrine is required, and doctrine revealed to the Church by the Lord Himself. The doctrine which was to be of use to the First Christian Church the Lord Jesus Christ Himself implied to the future apostles of this Church, so long they were His immediate disciples; and according to this doctrine they preached and propagated the teachings of the Word by mouth, and also by letters or epistles. But those doctrines by which an interior spiritual understanding of the Divine Word is to be obtained, the Lord revealed at His Second Coming through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg; and on the understanding of the Divine Word obtained by means of these doctrines the Church of the New Jerusalem is founded in the minds of its members.

That the Word cannot be understood without doctrine Swedenborg teaches plainly in these words:--

The Word cannot be understood without doctrine, because in its literal sense the Word consists of mere correspondences, to the end that spiritual and celestial things may be simultaneously contained in it, and that each expression of the letter may be the continent of these things, and their fulcrum. In a number of passages, therefore, in the literal sense, there are not naked, but clothed or draped truths, which are accommodated to the comprehension of the simple-minded who do not raise their thoughts above those things which they see before their eyes. Some things also appear like contradictions, when yet there are no contradictions in the Word when it is examined in its own light. In a number of passages also in the Prophets there is an aggregate of names of places and persons from which no meaning can be gathered. Since the Word in its literal sense, therefore, is of such a character, it appears plainly that it cannot be understood without doctrine (D. S. S. 51).

107. The Church, therefore, is not only the custodian of the Word, but also of those doctrines drawn from the Word by which it is to be understood, and on these doctrines the visible Church among men is founded.

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This is the uniform teaching of Emanuel Swedenborg. Thus he says;--

The Church is founded on doctrine, for doctrine teaches how we are to believe and live, and doctrine is drawn from no other source than the Word (A. R. 902).

Again he says:--

The Church is a Church from doctrine, and according to the same. Apart from doctrine the Church is no more a Church than a man is a man from his mere cutaneous covering--which hears the semblance of a man--apart from his members, viscera, and organs (Cor. 19).

Yet doctrine must not be divorced from life, and hence the visible Church must not be separated from the invisible or inward Church; or, again, the Church must not be divorced from religion, for the Church has respect to doctrine, and religion to life. This Swedenborg teaches plainly in what follows:--

The Church is one thing, and religion another. The Church is called a Church from doctrine, al religion is called religion from a life according to doctrine. Everything of doctrine is called truth; the good of doctrine also is truth, because it only teaches it. But everything of life according to those things which doctrine teaches is called good; doing the truths of doctrine is also good. Church and religion are distinguished in this manner. Still, where there is doctrine, and not life, it cannot be said either that the Church is there or that religion is there, because doctrine has respect to life as to one with itself; just as truth has respect to good, faith to charity, wisdom to understanding to the will: wherefore, where there is doctrine and not life, there the Church is not (A. R. 923).

As doctrine thus is the distinguishing feature of the visible or outward Church, and, indeed, doctrine which has respect to life, therefore it should be the first aim of those who undertake the establishment of the visible Church among men, to preserve this doctrine pure and inviolate. Wherefore the doctrine of the Church derived from the Word, in all its native purity and strength, should be laid down as the law of the Church;

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and in harmony therewith all the outward Church organizations and uses should be appointed, and the Divine Word opened, and its teachings sows broadcast among men. For on the purity of the doctrine propagated by the outwardly organized Church depends its fitness as an instrument in the hands of the Lord for the establishment of the invisible or inward Church in the hearts of its members. This Swedenborg teaches clearly in what follows:--

That the Church is according to its doctrine, and that doctrine is from the Word, is known. Yet it is not doctrine which establishes the Church, but the integrity and purity of doctrine, and consequently, the understanding of the Word. The special Church, however, which is with man as an individual, is not formed or constituted by doctrine, but by a faith and life according to doctrine. Nor is the special or individual Church formed or constituted with the member of the Church by the Word, but by a faith according tot he truths, and a life according to the goods which he derives from the Word, and applies to himself (T. C. R. 245).

108. Thus far we have 1earned in respect to the visible Church that it is a body of which the invisible Church is the soul; and, further, that the visible Church, like the body, is an organism of uses or functions, which are performed by the individual members of the visible Church. All these functions have respect to the formation of the inward or invisible Church in the hearts of the individual members of the Church. We have also seen that the visible Church is founded on doctrine, and, indeed, on the integrity and purity of doctrine; and thus that its character as a Church is according to its understanding of the Word, which is determined by doctrine.

We learn, further, that the visible Church whose character is determined by doctrine, just like the invisible Church, is both internal and external; that it is internal with the clergy, who possess an interior understanding of doctrine, and external with the laity, whose understanding of doctrine is more external.

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Or, this subject Swedenborg says:--

The Church [i.e., the visible Church] is internal and external; it is internal with the clergy, and external with the laity; or internal with those who have studied its doctrinals more interiorly and have confirmed them from the Word; and external with those who have not done so (A. R. 398).

And again:--

The laity are in the externals of the doctrine of the Church, and the clergy in its internals (A. R. 567).

As the clergy have, or at least ought to have, an interior understanding of doctrine, therefore they are the teachers in the visible Church, and through their ministration the invisible Church--the Lords kingdom, should be built up in the hearts of the members of their flocks. Swedenborg defines their duties in this respect as follows:--

Ministers should teach men the way to heaven, and should also lead them. They should teach them out of the Word, according to the doctrine of their Church, and should lead them so that they will live according to it. Ministers should teach and lend the people through truths to the good of life; but they should not force any one; because no one can be compelled to believe contrary to what in his hearth he has thought to be true. He who believes differently from the minister, and does not create disturbances, should he left in pence; but if any one creates disturbances he should be separated; for this also belongs to the order for the sake of which the ministry or priesthood exists (H. D. nos. 315, 318).

Again he says:--

Good can be insinuated into another by any one in the country, but not truth, except by those who are teaching ministers. If others do so, heresies spring up, and the Church is disturbed, and torn to pieces (A. C. 6822).

109. The first duty which a minister owes to the Church to which he ministers is to keep the doctrines on which the Church is founded pure and inviolate, or as Swedenborg expresses it, to keep them in a state of integrity and purity.

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Doctrine is preserved in a state of integrity when the minister derives the whole of what he preaches and teaches from the doctrine of his Church, which is derived from the Word; and thus, in the case of a minister of the Lords New Church, if he derives the whole of his doctrine from the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, which the Lord revealed at His Second Coming. But doctrine is kept by a minister in a state of purity if in his ministrations he opens a crusade against the sources of all spiritual impurity, that is, against the loves of self and of the world, by preaching repentance; and if thereby he leads the members of his flock through truth to the good of life. Of those ministers who teach truths, and by means of them lead others to the good of life, and thus to the Lord, Swedenborg says that they are good shepherds; while of those who teach and do not lead to the good of life, he says they are bad shepherds (H. D. 315). And again he says:--

The Church is cared for, when the member of the Church is led to good; and he who does so from charity loves the neighbor: for he desires and wills heaven and the blessed nesses of life for ever for his neighbor is exercised, if by means of the truth which belongs to the Church, the neighbor is led to good. If in the Church anything is defined as truth which leads away from Good, it should not be entertained; for it is not true (A. C. 6822).

110. Still, the preservation of the integrity and purity of doctrine does not belong to the clergy alone, but also to the laity. The laity should indeed acquire doctrine in the first place from the teachers of the Church; but after having acquired it in this way they should examine this doctrine for themselves in the light of the Word, sad of those doctrines which are drawn from the Word, in order to see whether the doctrine which they had been taught is really true. Thus Swedenborg says:--

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Every one should first acquire for himself truth from the doctrine of the Church, and afterwards from the Word of the Lord; this then will be his truth of faith (A. C. 6828).

Again he says:--

At first the doctrinals of the Church should be learned, and then an examination should be made from the Word in order to see whether they are true. For they are not true because the ministers highest in authority have declared them to be so, and their followers affirm it; for in this case the doctrinals of all Churches and religions would have to be declared true, simply on account of their native soil and birthplace; and there would thus be truths not only of the Papists and Quakers, but also of the Jews and Mohammadans, because the priests or teachers highest in authority among them have declared them to be so, and their followers affirm it. Whence it follows that the Word ought to be searched, and examination made therein whether the doctrinals of the Church are true. When this is done, from the affection of the truth, then a man is enlightened by the Lord; so that, not knowing whence, he notices what is true, and is confirmed therein according to the good in which he is (A. C. 6047).

If the laity during the prevalence of the Christian Church had done their full duty to the Church, and examined the creeds and doctrinal statements of the Church in the light of the Word of God, the integrity and purity of the doctrine which the Lord Jesus Christ delivered to His apostles would not have been entirely lost and humanity thereby brought to the brink of destruction. For doctrine, as we have seen, determines the understanding of the Word; but when the understanding of the Word, by a perversion of doctrine, has been entirely falsified, then there is no longer any salvation, because salvation at the present time comes to man exclusively through the Divine Word properly understood.

111. The essential work of the visible Church consists thus in the establishment of true doctrine in the minds of its members, and in an acquisition thereby of a true understanding of the Divine Word;

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and in proportion as the members of the Church net in accordance with their understanding of the Word, the interior degrees of their mind are opened to an influx from the Lord out of heaven, and the inward or invisible Church is established in their souls. This is equivalent to their regeneration at the hands of the Lord. In order, however, that regeneration may prosper in their souls, it is necessary that their natural part should be brought under the direct influence of heaven, even before regeneration has actually commenced in their interior, spiritual part. This is brought about by holy correspondences* being introduced into the minds of the members of the Church by the reading of the letter of the Word, and the administration of the holy sacraments; and these correspondences are received there in a holy ground when the members of the Church at the time are in a state of adoration from the heart. This implies the institution of external worship in the Church on earth, and thus the establishment of an outward, visible Church among men; on which subject Swedenborg says:--

* Concerning the nature of Correspondences see part I, no. 61.

Man is continually in worship when he is in love and charity; external worship is simply an effect. The angels are in such worship.... But man while in the world must necessarily be also in external worship; for by external worship internal things are excited; and through external worship external things are kept in a state of holiness, so that internal things can flow in. Besides, man is thus imbued with knowledges, and prepared for the reception of things celestial and he is also gifted with states of holiness, of which he himself is not aware--which states of holiness are preserved for him by the Lord for use in eternal life (A. C. 1618).

And again he says:--

Before a man becomes a Church--that is, before he is regenerated, he is in external things, and while he is being regenerated he is led by externals, nay, through external things to internal things.

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And afterwards, when he has become regenerate, all the things: which belong to the internal man are terminated in external things: and thus every Church must necessarily be inward and outward (A. C. 1083).

The external worship instituted by the visible Church, as we see here, thus serves two distinct purposes. In the first place it is instrumental in instilling states of holiness in the natural part of the members of the Church, and implanting there besides, correspondences by the reading of the Divine Word, as well as by the administration of the holy sacraments; and, in the second place, by the preaching and teaching of the doctrines of the Divine Word, which is likewise included in the exercises of external worship, the members of the Church are led through truth to the good of life, and the Lords kingdom, the invisible Church, is thereby built up in their souls.

In the institution and accomplishment of the uses of external worship the clergy act, and the laity react; that is, the uses of external worship have first to be defined and determined by the clergy from the Word and the doctrines of the Church; and then these uses are carried out by the clergy in conjunction with the laity. For, according to Swedenborg:--

Priests or ministers are governors for the administration of those things which belong to Divine Law and to worship (H. D. 319).

The remaining uses of the visible Church have all a direct or indirect bearing upon the institution and proper observance and maintenance of external worship. Those uses which are determined by the doctrine of the Church, and again those which are connected with Divine worship, both of which come under the head of ecclesiastical things, are under the government and direction of the clergy; but those which concern the financial, and thus the temporal affairs of the Church, are in the charge of the laity.

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On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The governors who are placed among men over those things which belong to heaven, that is, over ecclesiastical things, are called ministers or priests; and their office is called the priesthood (H. D. 314).

And in respect to the order of the priesthood he says:--

There should be governors by whom the congregations of men are to be kept in order; and these governors should be skilled in the law, wise and God-fearing. Among the governors again there should be order, lest any one from personal likes or ignorance should allow evils to take place which are opposed to order, and whereby order is destroyed; which is guarded against when there are governors higher and lower, among whom there is subordination (Ibid. 313).

But in respect to those uses which have the financial or temporal affairs of the Church in charge, he says:--

There are also other general uses which are uses of charity as, for instance, making contributions which are useful and requisite for the ministry of the Church. These goods become uses of charity in proportion as the Church is loved as a neighbor in a higher degree (D. L. xiii).

As the visible Church is related to the invisible Church as the body to the soul, and as a connection between the visible and the invisible Church is effected through correspondences, Swedenborg teaches that introduction into the Church is effected through the correspondences which are employed in the sacrament of Baptism. And he teaches, further, that through Baptism a person is introduced not only into the visible, but also into the invisible Church. For he says, The first use of Baptism is introduction into the Christian Church, and at the same insertion among Christians in the spiritual world; and he further teaches that those who have been baptized as infants are kept in a state of receiving faith in the Lord (T. C. R. 677).

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The whole work of regeneration is represented by Baptism, in conjunction with the Sacrament of the Holy Supper. The water of baptism prefigures the truths of faith by which a mans understanding is reformed; and it describes also the temptations through which he has to pass in conquering his evils with the aid of the truths of faith. But by the bread and wine in the Holy Communion is represented the good of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbor, by which a mans soul is regenerated by the Lord. The Holy Supper is defined by Swedenborg as another or second gate through which a person who has allowed himself to be prepared and led by the Lord is admitted and introduced into heaven, and thus into the invisible Church, or the Church Universal, which makes one with heaven.

Baptism and the Holy Supper are thus outward marks of Church-membership; wherefore, according to Swedenborg, those persons belong to the visible Church on earth who have been baptized and are communicant members.

Church-membership, however, is not effected by the reception of the sacraments alone; but, as the character of the visible Church is determined by its understanding of the Word, therefore, also, Church-membership in the visible Church is qualified further by the understanding of the Word, and hence by the reception of the doctrines of the Church on the part of its members. Whether a person beat the same time also a member of the inward or invisible Church is known to the Lord only. Wherefore in this world we may indeed he instrumental in effecting an organization of the outward or visible Church, but not of the inward or invisible Church. The organization of the invisible Church, and thus of the Universal Church, is in the Lords hands altogether. Yet although we cannot organize the inward or invisible Church in general, and thus the Church Universal, nevertheless, as members of the Lords visible Church, we may be instrumental in building up the inward or invisible Church in the hearts of the individual members of the Church.

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112. The work of building up the inward or invisible Church in the hearts of the members of the Church, is the particular work of the clergy; and on this account Swedenborg teaches that there is a special influx into the ministerial office, and that those who are introduced into this office through the gate of ordination are made the participants of this influx.

He says:--

That Divine virtue and operation which is understood by the sending of the Holy Spirit with the clergy in particular, consists in enlightenment and instruction. The operations of the Lord which are reformation, regeneration, renewal, vivification, sanctification, purification, remission of sins, and lastly salvation, flow in from the Lord with the clergy, as well as with the laity; but why with the clergy in particular there is enlightenment and instruction is because these graces belong to their office, and because ordination into the ministry conveys them (T. C. T. 145).

And again he says:--

The clergyman who is to teach the word, the doctrine of the Lord, of redemption and salvation by Him, is to be ordained by the solemn promise of the Holy Spirit, and the representation of its transfer but it is received by the clergyman according to the faith of his life. The Divine which is understood by the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Lord through the clergy to the laity by preachings according to the reception or the truth of doctrine thence; also through the sacrament of the Holy Supper, according to repentance before it (Canons, The Holy Spirit, iv., nos. 7-9).

The reason, however, why there is such an influx into the priestly office is because the priesthood is representative of the Lord in His work of saving souls. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

All priests, whoever they may be, and of what duality, by virtue of the very priestly principle or office, are representative of the Lord. Hence it is that the Word which is taught by a bad man is equally holy, and also the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, and other similar things....

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Hence also it is that no priest can ever claim to himself anything of the sanctity which belongs to the priestly office (A. C. 3670).

113. From the relation between the visible and invisible Church, as it has thus far been explained, it appears that the quality of the outward or visible Church is altogether according to the quality of the inward or invisible Church with which it is connected; but the quality of the invisible Church, with which the visible Church is connected, depends upon the personal character of those persons among whom the visible Church is organized. If the souls of these persons are in the heavenly marriage, that is, if good and truth, charity and faith, are conjoined in their souls, then their chief efforts, as members of the general visible Church, will be directed towards keeping the doctrines of the Church in a state of integrity and purity, and having all the Church organizations and Church uses established in full harmony therewith. Then, also, their final end and object will be to establish the Lords kingdom, the inward Church, in the hearts of its members, and the inward Church itself will then be one with the Lords kingdom in heaven. The angels of heaven then will dwell with the members of the Lords Church on earth, and in the Church on earth there will prevail peace and good-will towards men.

But all this becomes altered when the loves of self and of the world become rampant in the hearts of the members of the Church on earth; and when they fall away from the worship of the One Lord of Scripture, and preach salvation by faith alone without a life in obedience to the Divine commandments. In proportion as these teachings of the Church are then accepted and believed by the members of the visible Church on earth, in the same proportion their minds become closed against the light of heaven, and thus the integrity and purity of the doctrine of the.

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Church becomes lost, its understanding of the Word is perverted, and it sinks into a state of dense spiritual darkness. The inward, invisible Church, with which the visible Church on earth then becomes connected, is no longer one with heaven, but is separated from heaven, and receives influx out of hell. The heaven, indeed, with which the visible Church on earth is then connected, and with which it forms one spiritual organism, is outside heaven in the World of Spirits. It is a fictitious heaven, and intercepts from the members of the visible Church on earth all spiritual life and light from the Lord. Such a fictitious heaven is called into existence by the internal state of the members of the visible Church on earth, and by those who from that Church pass into the other world; and this heaven, after it has been called into existence and has increased in numbers, tyrannizes over the members of the visible Church on earth, and seeks to make them the servants and slaves of hell. Concerning the fictitious heavens which were brought into existence upon the downfall of the Christian Church, see below, in the following chapter.

The history of the various Churches that have existed in this world presents the following common feature. When first established by the Lord the young or new Church enjoys integrity and purity of doctrine, and hence a genuine understanding of the Divine Word, or of Divine Truth. Enlightened by Divine Truth the visible Church is soon busily engaged in establishing the inward, invisible Church in the hearts of its members, and in conjoining them thereby with the Lords Church in heaven. Charity is then the prevailing feature of the Church on earth; and the visible Church organization, together with its external worship, are regarded as mere means for the establishment of the inward Church--of the Lords kingdom among men.

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By and by self begins to assert itself in the hearts of the members of the Church; and in proportion as it does so doctrine and faith rise in importance, end charity retreats more and more into the background. The morning-state of the Church is giving way to the heat of the mid-day sun. But when the loves of self and of the world begin to exert a paramount influence over the minds of the members of the Church, the Church itself on the one hand inclines to a faith-alone state, and on the other it sinks into a dead, ritualistic worship. The Church now enters upon its even-tide, and is being separated from the Church in heaven, and beginning to be closely conjoined instead with some artificial, fictitious heavens in the World of Spirits, which are outgrowths of hell, whereby it is brought under the influence of hell. The integrity and purity of doctrine is now entirely lost, and the understanding of the Word in the visible Church is utterly falsified. Falsities and evils engulf the Church, and drown it in an ocean of midnight darkness. The consummation of the Church is now at hand. This consummation first seizes the inward--the invisible Church, and thence it spreads to the visible Church; it corrupts and destroys its understanding of the Word, and makes of its external worship a comedy, a farce.*

* Concerning the causes whereby a Church is consummated, see Part I., no. 12.

When the Church is utterly consummated as to good and truth, that is, when self-love reigns there in the place of love to the Lord, and the love of the world in place of the love to the neighbor; when evil thus has swallowed up good and falsity truth--then is the time of the Lords Coming, and then he establishes a new Church on earth.

Such, according to Swedenborg, was the fate which overtook (1) the Most Ancient or Adamic Church at the time of the flood;

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(2) the Ancient or Noahtic Church at the time of Abram; (3) the Jewish Church at the time of the birth of our Savior; and the same fate has also overtaken (4) the Christian Church, in the middle of the last century, when was the time of our Lords Second Coming. (See Part I., nos. 14 and 15, and also no. 70.)

IX.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORDS SECOND COMING AND OF THE CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

114. The Lords Coming at the end of a Church, according to Swedenborg, includes three Divine operations. The first is a Great Judgment, which is held in the World of Spirits over all those who have collected there during the continuance of that Church; the good are then separated from the evil, and out of the good is formed a new heaven, and out of the evil a new hell, and between the two is established a complete equilibrium, which ensures the exercise of freedom of will on the part of the men living on earth. The second Divine operation consists in the act of communicating a new code of Divine Revelation to men on earth; and the third is the establishment of a New Church among them by means of this new Divine Revelation.

These three Divine operations took place at the Lords Second Coming, which was foretold in the gospels, and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. A Last Judgment was then held by the Lord over the Christian Church, which had reached its state of consummation; a new revelation of Divine Truth was made by Him through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg, and by means of this new revelation of Divine Truth He established among men a New Church--the Church of the New Jerusalem.

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115. As regards the Last Judgment which overtook the First Christian Church, it must be observed that that Church, like all other Churches, is, or rather was, outward and inward visible and invisible and that its outward or visible part was in the natural world, and its inward or invisible part in the spiritual world. The Christian Church, also, like all other Churches by which it was preceded, passed through the vicissitudes of morning, noon, evening, and night. During its morning and noon states the invisible Christian Church was one with the Church in heaven, and thus with heaven; but during its evening and night states, or during its states of vastation and consummation, it gradually became separated from the angels of heaven, and at last was governed in a great measure by the evil spirits of hell. Concerning the vastation and consummation of the First Christian Church, see Part I., nos. 10 and 11.

Concerning the state of the Christian Church during its periods of vastation and consummation, and concerning the influx which it then received out of the spiritual world, and the Last Judgment by which it was overtaken, Swedenborg says further:--

From the time of the vastation of a Church to the time of its consummation, hell increases at such a rate as to cover up from underneath the whole angelic heaven, through which regenerating truths and goods descend from the Lord to men on earth. When heaven is thus covered up, no truth of thought from faith, and no good of the will from charity can pass through except through chinks, and what passes through is perverted, either on the may before it reaches man, or by the man himself while it is in his mind; but by this perversion is meant that truth is either rejected or falsified, and that good is either repressed or adulterated. In a word, the Church at its end is, as it were, obsessed by satans; those being called satans who are charmed by falsities and delighted by evils. In order, therefore, that this total damnation which then has settled over the heads of ail, and which is imminent, may be put aside, it is necessary that hell, which has emerged on high, and, as said above, has reached up to heaven, should be removed, not simply repressed, and thus dispersed and subjugated.

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The good are then separated from the evil, that is, the living from the dead. This separation, and the elevation then of the good into heaven, that is, into the land of the living, and the casting down of the wicked into hell, that is, into the land of the dead, is what is called Judgment. That such a Judgment was held over the members of the present Christian Church as far back as the year 1757 was shown in a separate work published in London in 1788 (Cor. 14).

This Last Judgment was then held over the invisible or inward Christian Church, which was one with those fictitious heavens which hell had established on the confines of heaven, in the interior World of Spirits. Concerning these fictitious heavens which are understood in Rev. xxi. 1 by the former heaven and the former earth which passed away, Swedenborg states that they were composed of evil spirits, who, as to their externals, were wolves in sheeps clothing. They professed the doctrine of faith alone, and by this doctrine captivated the simple-minded, who departed their life in the natural world, and congregated in the World of Spirits after their resurrection. These evil spirits, who profess the doctrine of faith alone, are represented in Scripture by he-goats, and the simple-minded Christians under their influence by sheep; and again the former are represented there by the tares, and the latter by the wheat, concerning which the Lord said in one of His parables that they should abide together until the time of the harvest, that is, until the time of the consummation of the Christian Church, when a Last Judgment would be held, and the he-goats would be separated from the sheep, and the tares from the wheat, and when the former would be cast into hell and the latter raised into heaven.

By this Judgment the Word of Spirits was cleared of the evil spirits from hell who had established themselves there, and the minds of men mere set free; wherefore the Lord was then able to make a new revelation of Divine Truth to men, and by its means to establish a New Church among them.

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On this subject Swedenborg says further:--

It is to be borne in mind, that when hell has increased and spread beyond the great interstice or the great gulf which is fixed between hell and heaven (Luke xvi., 26); and when it has raised up its back even into the confines of heaven where the angels are (which takes place during the Churchs vastation and consummation), no doctrine of the Church can then be brought down to men on earth from God out of heaven. The cause of this is, that men is then in the midst of satans, and satans with their falsities encompass his head, and breathe into him the delights of evil, and thence the charms of falsity, whereby all light from heaven is darkened, and every pleasurable feeling and all the charms of truth are intercepted. So long as this state continues no doctrine of good and truth of any kind can be instilled into man out of heaven because that doctrine then is falsified. But after this dense veil woven of falsities, or after this covering of the head by satan, has been removed by the Lord which is done by a Last Judgment held in the spiritual world, then man, by a freer spirit and spontaneously, is led to scatter falsities and to receive truths. Those who conform themselves. and suffer themselves to be led by the Lord, are then made acquainted with, and introduced into, a knowledge of the doctrine of the new heaven, which is the doctrine of good and truth. This doctrine descends upon earth out of heaven, like the dew of morning damn, which opens the blades of the grass, and sweetens their plant-juice; and it is like the manna which comes down early in the morning, and which to the sight appears like coriander-seed, but to the taste is like cake made of honey (Exod. xvi., 31). Again, it is like the seasonable rain which refreshes the budding grain, and causes it to sprout forth and, further it is like the sweet odor from fields, gardens, and flowery meadows, which the lungs inhale with an eager and glad breath. Yet the Lord forces no one, nor does He coerce any one against his will, as when cattle are driven with a stick; but He draws to Himself those who are willing, and afterwards He constantly leads them, to all appearance as if such willing persons did good and believed truth from themselves when yet all this is from the Lord, who operates in them the genuine good of life, and every genuine truth of faith (Cor. 20).

116. The revelation of Divine Truth which the Lord made at His Second Coming is expressed in the Gospels by the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory;

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where, by the clouds of heaven is meant the literal sense of the Divine Word as it exists among men; and by the power and glory, in which the Son of Man appears, the internal sense of the Divine Word, as it exists among the angels of heaven, which the Lord then revealed to men. By the Son of Men, however, sending forth His angels at His Second Coming, and by their gathering together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, is described the formation by the Lord of a New Church from those among men who willingly and gladly receive the Lords revelation at His Second Coming.

The same also, according to Swedenborg, is expressed by these words in the Book of Revelation and his wife hath made herself ready (xix. 7), which words, according to him, signify that

Those who will be of that Church, which is the New Jerusalem, will be connected together, inaugurated, and instructed (A. R. 813).

At first, indeed, those who receive the doctrines of the New Dispensation, and who join the outward organization of the Church of the New Jerusalem, are possessed merely of a general knowledge of these doctrines, and hence are not able to reach a high degree of spiritual good; consequently, they do not attain at once to that good which in the letter of the Divine Word is represented by the fruit of the olive-tree; nor to that which is represented by the fruit of the vine; but only to the spiritual-natural good represented by the fruit of the fig-tree; which is the first good that those are able to produce, who are being regenerated by the Lord.

On this account also we read in Matthew, immediately after the appearance of the Lord at His Second Coming is described, Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; when its branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is high (xxiv. 32).

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In the explanation of this passage, Swedenborg says that

The fig-tree is here representative of the New Church, which is about to begin, and which at first will be external (A. E. 403).

And again he says:--

It appears thence what is involved in this parable, namely, that when the New Church is being established by the Lord there will appear first of all the good of the natural degree, that is, good in external form with its affection and truths. By good in the natural degree there is not meant here the good into which a man is born, or which he derives from his parents but a man is led into this good by the Lord through the knowledges of good and truth. Wherefore before a man is in that good, namely, in spiritual good he is not a member of the Church, however it appears from connate good as if he were (A. C. 4231).

117. When the Lord at His Second Coming made a new revelation of the Divine Truth to men, and when by means of this revelation He established New Church among them, the First Christian Church was not fully vastated. It was vaststed and judged as to its inward or invisible part; but not as to its outward or visible part.

That the First Christian Church at the time of the Lords Second Coming was not yet fully vastated, is plainly stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

Before the Church is fully vastated the interior Word is revealed, that is, it is revealed according to the spiritual sense because then a New Church will he established, into which those of the former Church are invited, and for the New Church interior Divine Truth is revealed which could not be revealed before (A. E. 948).

The same also is proved from the Book of Revelation by the fact that after the Dragon had been cast down from heaven that is, from the former heaven in the interior sphere of the word of Spirits--he was not cast outright into hell, but as is stated in Revelation xii. 9, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

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But by this is meant that out of the interior sphere of the World of Spirits, called heaven, he was cast into its exterior sphere, called earth. In the interior sphere of the World of Spirits man abides as to his spirit when he is engaged in interior, abstract thought; but in the exterior World of Spirits he moves when in his ordinary, external thought. In this exterior World of Spirits, which is the sphere of our external, natural thought, the dragon is kept until the First Christian Church is vastated and judged, even so far as its outward or visible organization in the natural world is concerned. In the fact the dragon is kept there for the very reason that the outward, visible organization of the First Christian Church is not yet judged that is, because persons whose spiritual quality is represented by wheat, and also by sheep, still dwell among those represented by the tares and he-goats who constitute the greater part of the congregations of that Church.

It is from the ranks of those who represented by the wheat among the tares in the congregations of the First Christian Church, that the Church of the New Jerusalem collects its members, and increases their number as is plainly stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

The Church which is called the New Jerusalem, while coming into a state of fullness, and even while it is being provided for among a greater number, will remain among those who are in the doctrine of faith alone. But in this Church there are dragons, who separate faith from good works, not only in doctrine, but also in life; while the rest in that Church who love the life of faith which is charity are not dragons, although they are among them. For they have no other idea than that it is according to doctrine that faith produces the fruits which are good works, and that a justifying and saving faith consists in believing those things which are in the Word, and in doing them. Yet the Dragonites think differently altogether; but how they think the former do not understand, and because they do not understand their thoughts, therefore also they do not receive them....

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The pernicious reasonings of those who are understood by the dragon on the subject of the separation of faith from good works and their conjunction, prevail only among the learned leaders of the Church, and are not known because not understood by, the people; and hence it is that the New Church, which is called the New Jerusalem, is helped by the latter, and also increases from them (A. E. 764).

118. Those who are represented by the wheat among the tares, upon whom the New Church draws for its supplies of members, Swedenborg in other parts of his writings calls the simple good, and he defines their mental and spiritual condition as follows:--

Those are said to be in simple good who are in the outward things of the Church, and believe the Word as to its literal meaning in simplicity--everyone according to his comprehension--and who live also according to what they believe, and hence are in good according to the quality which it derives from truth. The inward of the Church flows in with them through good, but as they are not in interior truths the inflowing good becomes obscure; for spiritual light with them cannot how into things singular, that is, the minutest particulars, and enlighten things distinctly (A. C. 6775).

The influence which the presence of the simple good in their congregations has on the learned doctors of the Church is remarkable; for it keeps them, as it were, on their good behavior, and prevents them from flooding the Church with their dragonistic reasonings. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

Those who are in simple good acknowledge that the Lords Human is Divine, and that in order to be saved a man must do the works of charity. This is known to those who are in faith alone; wherefore they do not insist strongly [upon this doctrine] in the presence of all and scarcely at all in the presence of those who are in simple good; and especially because they do not dare to any anything against common-sense whereby they would jeopardize their dignity and gain. For if they should deny that the Lords Human is Divine, and that in order to be saved a man must do the works of charity, those in simple good would declare them to be stupid; for they know what love and what the works of love are, but not what faith separate from works is.

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Reasonings in favor of faith and against works, and reasonings about the distinction between the Lords Humanity and His Divinity they would call sophisms, which they do not understand. Wherefore, in order that they may be accepted, and because that is accepted which flows from those chief doctrines, the learned Doctors willingly grant them; for if these doctrines should be extinguished there would be no hope for them of emolument and advancement in office (A. C. 4754).

The presence of the simple good among the Dragonites is a source of power for them also in other respects; for through the simple good who are associated with them, the Dragonites in the World of Spirits and also in the natural world are connected with heaven, and thus power in spiritual matters, and hence over the minds of men, is conveyed to them out of heaven, which power they pervert into the opposite; on which account we read further in Revelation xii. 12: Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

So long as the outward or visible Christian Church, on account of the presence among them of the simple good, is not yet fully vastated, and thus judged, the dragon also has it in his power to persecute the infant New Church on earth; wherefore we read further in verse 13: And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth he persecuted the woman--the New Church--who had brought forth the man-child--the doctrine of the New Church.

This state continues until the dragon is cast into hell, which does not take place until Rev. xx. 10, where we read: And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever. On this subject Swedenborg himself says:--

So long as the dragon with his crew dwells in the World of Spirits, whither he was cast down from heaven, so long no Divine Truth united to Divine Good can pass from the Lord to men on earth without its being annihilated and perverted.

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This is understood in the Revelation by this:--And the dragon was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.... Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath. And he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-child (xii, 9, 12, 13). But after the dragon was cast into hell (xx., 10), John saw the new heaven and the new earth, and he saw the holy New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven (xxi., 1, 2) (B. E. 94). See also T. C. R. 182.

119. In the same proportion however, as the New Church on earth will be advancing in wisdom and intelligence, and hence in strength and power, in the same proportion, also the simple good and the dragonites will begin to be separated in the congregations of the outward visible Christian Church; the former then will be garnered into the folds of the New Church, while the latter are overtaken by the fate of the dragon, described in Rev. xx. 10.

This further stage in the development of the New Church, and in the vastation of the outward organization of the First Christian Church, is described in the sequel of Matthew xxiv. 39-41, where we read: So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall two men be in the field; the one is taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill one is taken, and one is left. In the spiritual explanation of this passage Swedenborg says:--

Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left, signifies those within the Church who are in good, and those within the Church who are evil; that those who are in good shall be saved, and those who are in evil shall be condemned. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left, signifies that those within the Church who are in truth, that, is in the affection of truth from good, shall be saved, and that those within the Church who are in truth, but in the affection of truth from evil, shall be condemned. By the these words, therefore, there is described the quality of the state within the Church as to truth and good when that Church [that is, the First Christian Church] will be rejected and the New Church adopted (A. C. 4334).

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The cause of this very gradual judgment over the visible part of the Christian Church, and hence also of the gradual separation thereby of those who are in good, from those who are in evil, compared with the swift judgment, which, according to Swedenborgs testimony, overtook its invisible part in the World of Spirits, in 1757--is, that the Church on earth is the foundation and basis of the Church in heaven, and thus of heaven itself; wherefore, the Lord does not allow any violent disruptions, or any headlong fundamental changes to take place in the outward, visible Church on earth, before an adequate provision is made elsewhere for the proper carrying on of its Church functions.

The establishment of the visible Christian Church on earth, therefore, will continue, for the present, and the Word will be read in it as heretofore, until a firm foundation for the Church in heaven shall be provided in the outward, visible Church organization of the New Jerusalem; and until this New Church will be fully prepared to superintend and carry on all those functions which belong to the Lords Church on earth. Then also the gradual process which has been alluded to above will constantly go on; for then two men shall be in the field; the one is taken and the other left, and two women shall be grinding at the will; one is taken and one is left.

Meanwhile, therefore, until that process shall be fully accomplished, by which one is taken, and the other left, some of the work which devolves on the Lords Church on earth is still carried on by the outward Church organizations of the First Christian Church, although its inward, invisible part has been judged in the other life, more than a hundred years ago. And in order that it may do so, the wheat and the tares, the simple good and the dragonites, those that profess the doctrine of faith alone in doctrine and in life, are still mixed up in the congregations of the Old Church.

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For this same purpose also the dragon at the Great Judgment in 1757 was cast not into hell, but out into the earth--into the outer sphere of the World of Spirits, where it still acts the part of a heaven--of an invisible Church, to the visible Christian Church on earth, and whereby it enables that Church to perform still some of the functions which belong to a natural basis and foundation of the Church in heaven, and thus of heaven itself. This appears plainly from the following teaching of Swedenborg:--

Some said that they thought the Last Judgment would take place in the world, and not in the other life; but this is contradicted by the Word (Matt. xxiv.), where the Last Judgment is treated of. [It was also observed] that this is not possible, because the human race is the foundation from which heaven is, and there also is the Word which serves for a basis; and the foundations must not be destroyed (S. D. 5239).

For the same reason also, that is, in order to preserve the foundation of heaven among men, the visible Jewish Church is still permitted to continue as an organization among men. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

Because the tribe of Judah, more than the other tribes, was of this character [that they could be kept in a holy external], and at this day, as formerly, keep holy those rites which can be observed oat of Jerusalem, and also have a sacred veneration for their fathers, and an especial reverence for the Word of the Old Testament; and because it was foreseen that the Christians would almost reject it, and would likewise defile its internals with things profane, therefore that nation has been hitherto preserved, according to the Lords words in Matt (xxiv. 32): Verily, I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away until all these things shall have happened (A. C. 3479).

Again he says:--

If the Christians, as they were acquainted with internal things, had also lived as internal men, it would have been otherwise. If this had been so, that nation, like other nations, before many ages would have been cut off (Ibid).

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120. When Judgment at last shall overtake also the outward or visible organization of the First Christian Church, that is, when it shall be fully vastated as to good and truth, not only in the other life, but also in this world, its state, as described by Swedenborg, will be as follows:--

Scarcely any one knows how it is with the rejection of the Old and the adoption of the New Church. He who knows nothing about a mans interiors and their state, and hence about mans state after death, cannot conceive otherwise than that those who are of the Old Church, with whom good and truth are vastated, that is, by whom they are no longer acknowledged at heart, will perish either by a flood like the antediluvians, or will be expelled from their country like the Jews, or will some other way. But when the Church is vastated, when it is no longer in say good of faith, it chiefly perishes as to the states of its interiors, thus as to its states in the other life. Heaven then withdraws from the members of that Church, and consequently the Lord, and He betakes himself to others, who are adopted in the place of the former. For without a Church somewhere in earth no communication of heaven with man is possible, inasmuch as the Church is like the heart and lungs of the Grand Man on earth. Those who are then of the Old Church, and hence removed from heaven, are in a certain inundation as to their interiors, and, indeed, they are immersed or inundated over their heads. This inundation the man himself, while on earth, does not perceive. This inundation appears manifestly in the other life; and, indeed, under the form of some misty cloud by which such individuals are encompassed, and whereby they are separated from heaven. The state of those who are in this misty cloud is of such a character that it is absolutely impossible for them to see what the truth of faith is, and still less what the good of faith is. For the light of heaven, in which is intelligence and wisdom, cannot penetrate through such a cloud. Such is the state of the vastated Church (A. C. 4423).

Of the above character, consequently, will be the state of those who will belong to the outward or visible organization of the First Christian Church after it has likewise been overtaken by a last Judgment, that is, after it has been abandoned by those who are in simple good, and when those only remain in it who are represented in the Book of Revelation by the dragon.

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This final state of the First Christian Church after it is vastated and judged, not only as to its inward or invisible part, but also as to its outward or visible part, is expressed in Matthew xxiv. 51 in these words: He shall sever him, and he shall appoint his portion among the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. According to Swedenborg

And he shall sever him, signifies separation and removal from goods and truths. For those who are in the knowledges of good and truth--as is the case with those who are within the Church, and who, nevertheless, are in a life of evilare said to be severed, ore removed, from these knowledges. For the knowledges of good and truth are separated from them in the other life, and they are kept in evils,. and hence also in falsities. The cause of this is lest through the knowledges of good and evil they may communicate with heaven, and through evils and falsities thence with hell, and thus remain suspended between the two; and, further lest they may profane goods and truths, which is done by mixing them up with evils and falsities. And he shall appoint his portion with the hypocrites signifies that his lot--his portion, is among those who outwardly appear to be in truth as to doctrine and in good as to life, but inwardly such persons believe nothing of truth, and do not will anything of good , such persons are hypocrites. When they are divested of their externals, which is the with all in the other world, the quality of their interior character appears, namely, that they are destitute of faith and charity, although they claim to be in faith and charity in order to impose upon others for the sake of acquiring places of honor and also gain and reputation. Of this character are nearly all in the vastated Church, for they possess externals but no internals (A. C. 4424).

Such will be the condition of the outward visible organization of the First Christian Church after it has been fully vastated, that is, after it has been overtaken by the same Last Judgment by which the inward, invisible part of the Christian Church was judged in 1757. But meanwhile, on account of the simple good who are still among the dragonites, the congregations of that Church are still connected with the Church Universal, and hence with heaven; and, therefore, these congregations are somewhat in the same condition in which were the former heaven and the former earth before the Last Judgment in 1757;

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that is, before their complete vastation, when, by virtue of the simple good who were then connected with the former heaven, that heaven was still able to convey some spiritual life to the remnant, that is, to the upright in the midst of the First Christian Church.

So far as the New Church at the present time is concerned, this Church--in conjunction with the new Christian heaven which the Lord established in 1767 from among the good of the First Christian Church--constitutes the heart and lungs of the Church Universal at the present time; while the simple good in the congregations of the First Christian Church at the present time, together with the well-disposed and upright among the pagan nations, constitute the remaining organs and viscera of the Grand Man of the Lords Church on earth, and hence of the Church Universal.

Through the simple good in the congregations of the Old Church spiritual life from the Church Universal is thus directed at the present time into many of these congregations, so that they are still able to perform some uses in the Lords Kingdom, although these uses are comparatively low and external. Yet the spiritual usefulness of these congregations naturally lessens from year to year; indeed, in the same proportion in which the New Church increases in wisdom and intelligence, and in favor in the sight of God; and thus in proportion as it becomes a power on earth, and attracts the simple good from the Old Church into its folds.

121. If we now turn to the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg with the view of discovering there the Divine plan according to which the Lord is establishing a, New Church in the place of the consummated Christian Church, we find that by the city New Jerusalem, is represented in the first place the compact system of the doctrine of the spiritual sense which the Lord reveals at His Second Coming;

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that the New Jerusalem, the Church of the future, thus descends from the Lord out of heaven, first as a doctrinal system revealed by the Lord to Emanuel Swedenborg in his rational mind, and then committed by him to paper and published. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

We read that John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. By the Holy City, New Jerusalem, is understood the doctrine of the New Church, and thus Church as to doctrine; and by the New Jerusalem coming down from Cod out of the new heaven is meant that the true doctrine of the Church is from no other source. The doctrine comes down because the Church is a Church from doctrine, and according to the same. Apart from doctrine the Church is no more a Church than a man is a man from his mere cutaneous covering, which, apart from his members, viscera, and organs, bears the semblance of a man (Cor. 19).

The next step in the establishment of the Church of the New Jerusalem is the reception of its doctrines in the minds of men; and on this subject we read that

Those who conform themselves and suffer themselves to be led by the Lord are made acquainted with, and introduced into, a knowledge of the doctrine of the New Heaven, which is the doctrine of good and truth (Cor. 19).

The good of life to which those are led who possess a general knowledge of the doctrines of the New Church, as we have seen above, is the good represented by the fruit of the fig-tree. This is the first good in which those are who are regenerated by the Lord. This good is still in the external, natural degree of their souls, and enables them to become members of the external New Church. By this also they are connected with, and thus are able to receive influx from, the first or lowest degree of the New Christian Heaven; concerning which see below, on p. 167.

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122. A further step on the part of those who receive the revelation contained in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg is, that the knowledges of good and truth which they have imbibed by a study of these writings are worked up by them into rational doctrines, which are based in their minds on the letter of the Divine Word, and confirmed thereby, and that these doctrines with them become principles of life. Eden of the New Church who pass through this additional stage in their spiritual advancement are enabled thereby to become members of the internal New Church, which makes one with the higher degrees of the New Christian Heaven which the Lord established at His Second Coming. Concerning this New Christian Heaven Swedenborg says:--

In this heaven are all who from the first institution of the Christian Church have worshiped the Lord, and lived according to His commandments in the Word; and hence who from the Lord through the Word have been in charity, and at the same time in faith; and who consequently, were not in a dead, but in a living faith. In this heaven likewise are all children of Christians, because they have been educated by the angels in the two essentials of the Church, which are an acknowledgment of the Lord the God of heaven and earth; and in a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue (A. R. 876).

Those members of the New Church who belong to the internal New Church are in the heart and lungs of that Grand human organism which is formed of the angels of the New Christian Heaven, in conjunction with the members of the Church Universal on earth; while those who belong to the external New Church have places appointed in some one of the remaining organs, members, and viscera of that same Grand Man, which is the body of Christ.

Concerning the New Christian Heaven which is formed of the souls of those who have lived since the Lords advent, we read further that, like the heavens formed of those Churches which existed before the Lords Coming, this heaven is likewise distinguished by itself into three heavens, an inmost or third, a middle or second, and a lowest or first heaven (A. R. 876).

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Those who belong to the external New Church, and whose good is represented by the fruit of the fig-tree, are associated with, and under the influence of angels of the first New Christian Heaven; while those who belong to the internal New Church are spiritually associated with angels who belong either to the second or third New Christian Heavens. Those who possess an interior rational understanding of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, and who live in accordance with the truth in their mind, as to their spirits are one with the angels of the middle or second New Christian heaven, and the good of life in which they are is represented by the fruit of the vine. Those, on the other hand, who are primarily in the love of good, and who from good are in the truths of the doctrines of the internal sense, as to their spirits, are one with the angels of the inmost or third New Christian Heaven, and the good of life in which they are is represented by the fruit of the olive-tree. These latter also are in the heart of the Grand Man formed by the Church Universal on earth, and the former are in the lungs.

123. In proportion as those persons increase in the outward New Church on earth, who as to their spirits belong to the internal New Church, in the same proportion the general New Church on earth is able to keep the doctrines of the internal sense in a state of integrity and purity; in the same proportion also it is able to speed on the individual members of the Church in the work of their regeneration, and thus is instrumental in building up the inward, invisible New Church in their souls; and, lastly, in the same proportion the outward, visible New Church on earth will be in a state of correspondence with the inward, invisible New Church, which is one with the New Christian Heaven.

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Then, also, the Church of the New Jerusalem on earth will be in a state of heavenly order, for then the following words of Emanuel Swedenborg will be fulfilled in its case, where we read:--

The Church is inward and outward; and the inward Church makes one with the Church in heaven, thus with heaven inward also should be formed before the outward, and afterwards the outward through the inward. That this is so is known among the clergy. In the proportion as the New heaven which makes one with the internal of the Church [that is, with the invisible Church] in man, increases, in the same proportion there descends thence the New Jerusalem, that is, the New Church. Wherefore this cannot be brought about in a moment, but it is brought about in proportion as the falsities of the former Church are removed; for the new cannot enter where falsities have been previously ingenerated, unless these are rooted out; which must take place with the clergy, and thus with the laity (T. C. R. 784).

As regards the constituent members of the outward New Church, as we have seen above, they are to a considerable extent drawn from the consummated Christian Church around us; that is, in proportion as the falsities of the former Church are removed from their minds. But this work, as we have further learned, is rendered possible only since the Last Judgment, which was held in 1757; for since that time men on earth are led by a freer spirit and are impelled spontaneously to scatter falsities to receive truths.

Nevertheless read also, that so long as the dragon still dwells in the world of spirits, and is not cast into hell, the progress of the New Church on earth will be naturally slow. On this subject Swedenborg says further:--

The New Church cannot be established, before those who are understood by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, are cast out from the world of spirits; because there is danger if it should be established before.

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By the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, are understood those who are in faith separate from charity; and these cling constantly and pertinaciously to their faith, that God the Father is to be approached in prayer, and not the Lord immediately; and also that the Lord is not the God of heaven and earth as to His humanity. Wherefore, if the doctrine of the New Jerusalem should be received by others than such as are in charity and in its faith--who are also represented by John--before the dragon is cast out, this doctrine would be rejected not only by them, but also through them by the rest; and where it is not rejected it would be falsified and even profaned. That such is the case, appears from what follows in the Book of Revelation; namely, that they killed the two witnesses of the Lord (chap. xi.); that the dragon stood before the woman ready to be delivered, in order to devour her child, and after he had fought with Michael that he persecuted the woman (chap. xii.); that the two beasts, one of which rose from the sea, and the other from the earth, made common cause with the dragon (chap. xiii.); further, that they assembled their forces for war, in a place called Armageddon (chap. xvi.); and, finally, that they called to war the nations, Gog and Magog (chap. xx., 8, 9); but that the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, were finally cast into a pool of fire and brimstone (chap. xx., 10)--after which the Church which is to be the wife of the Lamb,
came down from heaven (chaps. xxi., xxii.) (A. R. 473).

Here we learn the importance of the members of the New Church at the present day being in a state of charity by their believing in the Lord as the only God of heaven end earth, and by their shunning their evils as sins before God--for there is no other means by which we are able to get into a state of charity. We see also how important it is that the ministers of the New Church should constantly preach REPENTANCE, because otherwise the doctrines of the New Church are not safe in the minds of New Churchmen. If this preaching of repentance should be distasteful to some, and if they should in consequence turn away from the folds of the New Church, it is better that they should do so than that the doctrine of the New Church should be perverted and falsified, nay, and even profaned in their minds.

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124. The growth of the outward New Church on earth, however, depends also on the growth of the New Christian Heaven, which is one with the inward or invisible New Church in the hearts of New Churchmen. In this connection Swedenborg says:--

The New Church is at first among few, and successively increases among many, because the falsities of the former Church require to be removed first. For goods cannot be received before, since those truths which are received and implanted before falsities are removed, do not remain; besides, they are also cast out by the dragon spirits. The case with the Christian Church was the same; for this Church in the course of time from a few increased into many. Another cause is, that the New Heaven which is to make one with the Church on earth, has first to be formed. Wherefore we read that John saw a new heaven, and the Holy Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven (Rev. xxi., 1, 2). The New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, will most assuredly have an existence, because it is foretold in the Revelation, xxi., xxii.; and most assuredly also the falsities of the former Church will first have to be removed, because they are treated of in the Revelation until chap. xx. (A. R. 547).

In another place, in discussing the causes why the New Church at first is only among a few, Swedenborg says:--

There are several causes why the New Church, which is called the New Jerusalem, will commence at first among a few, why it will extend afterwards to a greater number, and at last will be in a state of fullness. The first cause is, that its doctrine which is the doctrine of love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor, can be acknowledged, and hence received, only by those who are interiorly affected by truths, and who are able to see these truths; but those only are able to see [these truths] who have cultivated their intellectual faculty and have not destroyed it in themselves by the loves of self and of the world. The second cause is, that the doctrine of the New Church can be acknowledged and received only by those who have not confirmed themselves by doctrine, and at the same time by life, in faith alone. Confirmation by doctrine only does not prove any obstacle but confirmation by life does; for those who are confirmed by life do not know what love to the Lord is, nor what charity towards the neighbor is; nor are they willing to know. The third cause is that the New Church increases on earth, in proportion to its increase in the world of spirits;

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for spirits from that world are with persons in this world, and these spirits are from among those who while living on earth were in the faith of a certain Church; and none other from among these spirits receive the doctrine [of the New Church] except those who have been in the spiritual affection of truth. These spirits only are conjoined with heaven, where that doctrine prevails, and they conjoin heaven to man. The number of these in the world of spirits increases now daily; wherefore, according to their increase, that Church on earth will increase, which is called the New Jerusalem. Such also were the causes why the Christian Church, after the Lords departure from the world, increased so slowly in the continent of Europe, and why it reached a state of fullness only after a century had passed (B. E. 732).

From these passages we learn that the New Church in the beginning will meet with many hindrances, and that, therefore, its growth will necessarily be slow. Nevertheless there are some doctrines on the acceptance of which the real growth of the New Church depends, which doctrines, therefore, should be brought prominently before the members of the Church and also before inquirers. One of these doctrines, as we have already seen, is the doctrine of Repentance, and another is the doctrine of the Lords Second Coming. For the Second Coming of the Lord is foretold throughout the whole of the New Testament, even as the Lords First Coming is prophesied in the Old Testament from beginning to end. But the reason why the Lords Second Coming is thus constantly adverted to in the New Testament is that the First Christian Church may be kept thereby in a constant state of expectancy of the Lords Second Coming, and that its members may thus receive and acknowledge Him at His Coming, and together with the nations outside of Christendom may join the New Church and become Christians of the New Jerusalem.

This follows as a necessary consequence from the teaching of Emanuel Swedenborg:--

The question may be asked why the Lords Advent is so frequently foretold in the prophets.

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The causes of this are several, some of which have respect to the Israelitish and Jewish people, and some of the Christian people after them. The first cause, so far as the Jews are concerned is, that by naming the Lord and remembering Him, they should be kept in the interior worship of Jehovah, because without the Lord, there is no entrance for Jehovah with any one, nor any approach for any person to Jehovah. The same was the case then as now; namely, that no man has ever seen God, the Father, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John i., 18, 37); and again, No one comes to the Father except by Me (John xiv. 6). The second cause, in respect to the Jewish people was, that they representative types of their Church all of which had reference to our Lord, and to the Church which was to be instituted by Him after His Advent, might serve them in their worship as so many indications and symbols, so that, in consequence thereof, at His Coming, they would acknowledge Him, and suffer themselves to be introduced into the inward things of the worship of the Lord; and that together with the nations which were around them, they would become Christians.... For the sake of these causes, the Lords Advent had been so often predicted in the Old Prophetical Word; and for the same causes the Lord is preached in the New Evangelical and Apostolical Word, AND HIS SECOND COMING PREDICTED (Cor. 59).

125. The New Church, then, at the Lords Second Coming is to be established among Christians, and among the nations outside Christendom; just as at His First Coming the Christian Church to be established among the Jews and among the nations around them; and the chief doctrine to be promulgated by the New Church is the doctrine of the Lords Second Coming. For when Christians and also Gentiles receive this doctrine, they are prepared to receive all the other interior doctrines of the Divine Word; and upon becoming New Churchmen they will feel it incumbent on themselves, first of all, to preserve the integrity and parity of the doctrines of the Divine Word, on which, as we have seen above in no.107, the Lords Church on earth is founded.

Not many among the Christians at Swedenborgs time, according to his testimony, were prepared to receive the doctrines of the New Dispensation.

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Thus he says:--

In the Church of the present day there are only a few who are in the good of life, and are called the elect. These may now be instructed, and among them a New Church is about to he established. Where such persons are, the Lord only knows. There will be a few within the Church; in former times the new Churches were established among the Gentiles (A. C. 3898).

At the present time, no doubt, the number of those in the congregations of the Old Church who are prepared for the reception of the doctrines of the New Church has increased very much. For we read again:--

Since the good were separated from the evil, and the evil mere cast into hell [after the Last Judgment held in 1757], all the good have come into a better state of receiving truth and good from the Lord, than they had been in before.... The Lords kingdom, indeed, existed also before the Last Judgment; for the Lord always rules heaven and earth; but the state of the Lords kingdom, since the Last Judgment, has become different from what it was before; for the reception of the Divine Good and Truth has since become more universal, more interior, easier, and more distinct (A. E. 1217).

On this account, we read further that, since the Last Judgment, men

Are led, with a freer spirit and spontaneously, to scatter falsities and to receive truths (Cor. 20).

Since the Last Judgment, therefore, men on earth, so far as their spirits are concerned, have been set free, and the result of this has been a vast increase in political, social, and intellectual freedom during the last century. At the same time also the power of the Old Church as a political, social, and religious institution has been steadily diminishing; and by the power of the press, and freer political institutions, old abuses and superannuated states are fast passing away around us.

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In this direction, it seems, those provisions for a quicker grow of the New Church are made, concerning which we read:--

While the New Church is still among a few ... provision is made whereby that Church will come among a greater number (A. R. 561, 562).

126. That the New Church is to be not only an inward or invisible, but also an outward or visible Church, Swedenborg teaches very plainly. Thus he says:--

The Church is not possible with man, unless its internal be spiritual, and its external natural. A purely spiritual Church is not possible, neither is a purely natural Church possible (Cor. 19).

This he declares in connection with the Church which the Lord establishes at His Second Coming.

From this, however, it follows that all that Swedenborg has declared in respect to the functions and institutions of the outward visible Church in general, and of its relations to the inward Church--which has been collected in the preceding chapter on The Doctrine of the Church--applies in an especial sense to the Church of the New Jerusalem. Thus the outward or visible New Church, like its prototype, the human body, consists primarily not of parts, that is, of individual members, but uses or functions performed by its members. And the fundamental use of the outward, visible Church, to which all its other uses are subservient, is the establishment of the inward or invisible New Church in the hearts of its members by means of regeneration. For this purpose the Lord has committed to the charge of the outward New Church the Divine Word and the Writings of the New Church; and on the doctrines contained in the Divine Word and taught in the Writings of the New Church the outward or visible New Church is founded. And yet it is not founded on these doctrines, but on their integrity and purity (T. C. R. 245);

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wherefore the first duty incumbent on the outward or visible New Church is the preservation of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem in a state of integrity and purity. But this can only be done if the members of the New Church regard these doctrines as the Law of their Church, in harmony with which the whole of its outward Church-organization and all its Church-uses are to be appointed, and the Divine Word to be opened and its teachings proclaimed. An unqualified allegiance of the members of the New Church to the doctrines of their Church, which have been revealed by the Lord out of heaven, is, therefore, an indispensable condition of Church-membership in that outward or visible New Church, which is created into a likeness of the inward or invisible New Church.

Again, the outward or visible New Church is internal and external; it is internal with the clergy and external with the laity; or

Internal with those who have studied the doctrinals of the Church more interiorly from the Word; and external with those who have not done so (A. R. 398).

The duty of the Ministers of the New Church is

To teach the people the may to heaven and also to lead them. They are to teach them out of the Word according to the doctrines of the Church, and they are to lead the people so that they will live according to these doctrines (H. D. 315).

These doctrines the ministers should keep pure and inviolate, and they should be regarded by them as the Law, in accordance wherewith they are to perform all their uses and functions in the Church. These uses and functions concern chiefly the external worship of the outward New Church, by which the members of the Church are instructed in Divine Truth, and have states of holiness and humility implanted in their souls; and they include also the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and of the Holy Supper.

127. Again, as the visible Church, as we have seen in the previous chapter, is related to the invisible Church as the effect to its cause;

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as the inward Church, consequently, imprints its character on the outward Church--therefore the difference between the outward Church of the New Jerusalem and the outward organizations of the First Christian Church is as great as the difference between the New Heaven, which is one with the internal of the New Church, and the former heaven, over which a Last Judgment was held, and which has determined the character of the outward Church-organizations of the First Christian Church.

Wherefore the Church of the New Jerusalem must needs have as outward Church-organization of its own, and under no condition call it abide is the outward body of the First Christian Church. In this connection Swedenborg quotes Matth. ix. 17, Mark ii. 22, Luke v. 37, 38, where we read No man putteth new wine into old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved. See T. C. R. 784.

As regards the intrinsic difference which exists between the Church of the New Jerusalem and the First Christian Church, this difference is caused in the first place by the understanding of the Divine Word which prevails in either Church, for, according to Swedenborg, the quality of a Church is according to its understanding of the Word. But from this follows that, through the new understanding of the Word which results from the revelation of the doctrines of the internal sense, the outward members of the Church of the New Jerusalem are removed in toto from those who profess the doctrines of the Old Church, and who are members of that Church. They are separated from them on two countsfirst, because the Old Church, the First Christian Church, has utterly lost the integrity and purity of those doctrines in which the Lord Jesus Christ instructed His disciples, and upon which they founded and established that Church;

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and, secondly, because the doctrines on which the First Christian Church is founded are the general doctrines of the literal sense of the Divine Word, while the doctrines on which the Church of the New Jerusalem is founded are the particular doctrines of the spiritual sense. There is, therefore, the difference of a discrete degree between the First Christian Church and the Church of the New Jerusalem; and this difference cannot be bridged over by any compromise whatever. This difference would continue should it even be possible for the Christian Church to return into the pristine age of its purity, which it enjoyed at the time of the apostles. This however, is an absolute impossibility, for Swedenborg says, Not one genuine truth has remained in the Christian Church, which is the spiritual meaning of these words of the Lord: Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down (Matth. xxiv. 2). And again he says:--

If any one will examine the particular points of doctrine [in the Christian Church], as for instance concerning God, concerning the person of Christ, concerning charity, concerning repentance, concerning regeneration, concerning free will, concerning election, and concerning the use of the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, he will see clearly that a trinity of Gods is contained in each; and if it does not actually appear to be present in it, it still flows from the faith or creed of the Church as from a. fountain (T. C. R. 177).

If, therefore, the doctrinal system of a Church on which it is founded, and by which its understanding of the Divine Word is determined, is totally perverted from beginning to end, and if there is no soundness in it at all, it is impossible to remodel that system of doctrine in such a way as to remove from it every vestige of what is falsified and perverted. For the same reason it is impossible to save and restore the Church which is founded and established on this system of doctrine.

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Hence the necessity of the revelation of an entirely new system of doctrine out of the Divine Word, which, while embodying all the original Truth of the Old Church, is at the same time so amplified and supported by new particulars of doctrine drawn from the internal sense of the Divine Word, that, on the one hand, it is entirely accommodated and adapted to the new wants of humanity; and that, on the other, those doctrines can no more be upset and destroyed by those agencies which have caused the consummation of the First Christian Church.

128. That Swedenborg never expected the Now Church to be established in the outward organizations of the Old Church, follows plainly from the following passage:--

The faith and the imputation of the New Church cannot on any consideration be together with the faith and imputation of the former Church; for if they are together, there results hence such a collision and such a conflict that everything of the Church perishes with man (T. C. R. 647).

Hence the great danger of mixing the Old and the New, and thus of putting sew wine into old bottles (Matt. ix. 17).

The difference between the Christianity of the Old Church, which is based on the understanding of the letter, and the Christianity of the New Church, which is based on the understanding of the spiritual sense, Swedenborg himself defines thus:--

True Christianity has thus far existed only by name, and with some there has been a certain outline of Christianity. For hitherto they have not approached and worshiped the Savior immediately, as the only God in whom is the Divine Trinity; but they have approached and worshiped Him only mediately [as our medium of salvation]. This, however, is not a coming to Him, and an offering of Divine worship to Him, but it is only a veneration of Him, on account of His being the cause for the sake of which man has salvation. And this is not the essential, but the mediate cause which lies below and outside the former.

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Real Christianity arises now for the first time; and therefore a New Church which is understood by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation is now being instituted by the lord. In this New Church and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are acknowledged to be One, because in one person, and to this New Church it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Divine Word (T. C. R. 700).

This New Church also

Will be the crown of all Churches that have hitherto existed from the beginning of the world, and will last for ever (T. C. R. 788).

As the Sacred Scripture in the light of the interior Divine truths which have been revealed for the New Church, appears altogether differently from what has been the case hitherto, therefore also Swedenborgs Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture is totally different from that which has hitherto prevailed on this subject in Christendom.

X.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURE.

129. According to the teaching of Emanuel Swedenborg, the Sacred Scripture, the Divine Word, differs from the writings of men in this important particular, that in addition to the sense of the letter which is patent to men, there is contained in it an internal or spiritual sense which is accommodated to the understanding of the angels of heaven, and which was revealed to men by the Lord, at His Second Coming, through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg.

This spiritual sense the Lord had in view when He said, It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words I speak unto you are spirit, and they are life (John vi. 63).

The character of this internal sense is pointed out in Part I., no. 69; and an extended explanation of the spiritual sense of chap. i. of Genesis is contained below in Section XI.; entitled: The Doctrine of Regeneration.

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But the doctrines themselves of the internal sense as set forth throughout the whole of Swedenborgs theological writings, are summarized in the whole of Part II. of the present work.

As every expression of the literal sense of Scripture thus contains a spiritual meaning, it follows that the style in which the Divine Word is written is parabolic. And as a mans spirit, by the principle of correspondence, is present is every part of the body, and revealed in every one of its functions, so also the spirit of the Divine Word, that is, its spiritual sense, is present in every expression of the sense of the letter, and by the principle of correspondence, may be perceived in every one of the natural images, of which the letter of the Word consists. The letter of the Word is thus composed of correspondences, and these correspondences are outward natural images by which inward, spiritual powers and essences are ex pressed and revealed to men. The character of some of these correspondences is explained above in no. 61. These correspondences serve as a bodily clothing for the heavenly and divine truths within; or in other words, the literal sense of the Word, as it exists on earth, contains in its bosom the Word of God--the Divine Truth, as it exists among the angels of heaven. Thence is the holiness and divinity of the letter of the Sacred Scripture; and thence also is its power of conjoining the minds of men on earth with the angels of heaven. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

A conjunction of heaven with man is effected by means of the Word of God, because it is written by mere correspondences; and hence it is of such a nature as to conjoin heaven with man. For heaven is in the internal sense of the Word, and to the internal corresponds the external sense. When, therefore, the Word is read by man, the angels who are with man, perceive it in the spiritual sense which is the internal sense; and hence holiness flows in from the angels, which causes conjunction. For this reason the Word was given (A. C. 10,687).

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130. An abstract of Swedenborgs entire doctrine of the Divine Word is contained is what follows:--

The Word is the very Divine Truth which imparts wisdom to the angels, and enlightenment to men. Since the Divine Truth proceeds from the Lord and since what proceeds is Himself outside of Himself--even as light and heat proceed from the sun, and are the sun, that is, are of the sun outside of itself and since the Word is Divine Truth, therefore also the Word is the Lord, as it is called in John i. 1--3, 14. Again, as the Divine Truth which is the Word, on being sent forth by the Lord into the world, passed through the three heavens, therefore, it was accommodated to each heaven, and lastly to men in the world. Hence it is that is the Word there are four senses, one outside of the other from the highest heaven to the world below; or again, one inside the other from the world to the highest heaven. These four senses are called (1) celestial, (2) spiritual, (3) celestial and spiritual-natural, and (4) the merely natural. This last sense is for the world, the one immediately above it for the ultimate heaven, the spiritual sense for the second heaven, and the celestial sense for the third heaven. These four senses differ vary much from each other so much so indeed, that if one sense be placed alongside the other they are not recognized [as various senses of the one Word]; but still they form a one, when one succeeds the other. For one sense of the Word follows the other even as the effect follows the cause, or what is subsequent (or posterior) follows that which precedes (or is prior). As the effect thus represents the cause, and corresponds to the cause, so a posterior or subsequent sense represents and corresponds to a prior or preceding sense. Thence it is that all four senses make a one through correspondence.

From the above positions follow these: The ultimate sense of the Word, which is its literal sense and the fourth in order contains within itself the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens. These three senses are evolved, and presented in the heavens, when a man on earth reads the Word in a holy manner. Therefore it is the literal sense by which and through which communication is effected with the heavens and again by which and through which man is conjoined with the heavens. The literal sense of the Word is the foundation of the Divine Truth in the heavens; and without such a foundation Divine Truth would be like a house without a foundation, and the wisdom of the angels, without this foundation, would be like a house in the air. The power of Divine Truth lies in the literal sense.

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It is the literal sense, through which man is enlightened by the Lord, and through which he receives responses, when he desires enlightenment. It is the literal sense whereby everything belonging to doctrine should be confirmed on earth. The Divine Truth is in its fullness in the literal sense; it is in its sanctity in the literal sense (A. E. 1066).

131. Swedenborg, in the passage above quoted, (A. C. 10,687) speaks in a general way of the spiritual sense which is contained in the literal sense of the Divine Word; but in this spiritual sense, as we have now seen, there are three degrees, one for each heaven. The whole of the spiritual sense treats of nothing else except the Lord and His Kingdom. In the spiritual-natural sense, according to Swedenborg, there is discussed the Lords Kingdom--His Church, as it exists among the nation which is specially treated of at the time in the literal sense. The second spiritual sense, or the spiritual sense proper, treats of the Lords Kingdom as it is built up in the hearts of the individual members of the Church by regeneration. And the highest and most interior sense of Scripture, its celestial sense, treats from beginning to end of the Lords glorification; that is, of the glorification of the human nature which the Lord assumed on earth; and of the Lords glorification mans regeneration is a finite image.

As regards the manner in which the Word was communicated to men on earth by the Lord, through the prophets--this was described in Part I., in nos. 65, and 66.

132. The letter of the Word of God, as we verily believe, is unsealed, and its interior senses are revealed, in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg; for, as he himself states:--

In order that the Lord might be constantly present, He revealed to me the spiritual sense of His Word, in which the Divine Truth is in its light; and in this light He is constantly present.

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For the Lords presence in the Word is from no other source than through the spiritual sense; through the light of that sense He passes into the shade in which is the literal sense (T. C. R. 780).

Swedenborg, indeed, did not give the spiritual sense of every passage of Scripture but in his writings there is contained all that is required for an unfolding of every passage of the Divine Word: namely, the science of correspondences and the true doctrine of the Divine Word. If any loves the Lord by keeping His commandments, and if he possesses a knowledge of correspondences, and is acquainted with true doctrine, then the Lord reveals to him the spiritual sense of the Word. The conditions under which the Lord does so, are stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

No one can see the spiritual sense except from the doctrine of genuine truth. From this doctrine the spiritual sense may be seen, when there is some knowledge of correspondences. But he who is in the doctrine of what is false, cannot see anything of the spiritual sense. He draws and bends the correspondences which he knows towards the falsities of his doctrine; wherefore he can falsify the Word still more. The truly spiritual sense of the Word is thus from the Lord alone; and this is the reason why no one in the natural or spiritual world is allowed to investigate the spiritua1 sense of the Word from the sense of the letter, unless he be thoroughly in the doctrine of Divine Truth. But even then he must be in enlightenment from the Lord; because the spiritual sense is the very Divine Truth in its light, and is understood by the glory, while the sense of the letter of the Word is understood by the cloud (De Verbo, no. 25).

133. From the letter of the Divine Word all the true doctrine of the Church is to be drawn. The Lord Himself, at His Second Coming, thus drew the doctrine of the spiritual sense oat of the letter of the Divine Word, for the use of the Church of the New Jerusalem. He did so through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg, whom

He filled with His spirit to teach the doctrines of the New Church through the Word, from Himself.

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And Swedenborg himself attests in truth, that

From the first day of his vocation, he did not receive anything pertaining to the doctrines of the New Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone, while he was reading the Word (T. C. R. 779).

The doctrine of the New Church was thus drawn by the Lord Himself, at His Second Coming, out of the letter of the Divine Word, and, indeed, for the use of the New Church at large. Is this form the doctrine of the New Church, is the veritable Holy City, New Jerusalem, which descended from the Lord out of heaven. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

We read that John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. xxi., 2). By the Holy City, New Jerusalem, is understood the doctrine of the New Church, thus the Church as to doctrine; and by Jerusalem coming down from God out of the new heaven, is meant that the true doctrine of the Church is from no other source. The doctrine comes down, because the Church is a Church from doctrine, and according to the same; apart from doctrine, the Church is no more a Church than a man is a man from his mere cutaneous covering which bears the semblance of a man--apart from his members, viscera and organs; and again, than a house is a house apart from dwelling and sleeping-rooms, dining-rooms, and furniture for use in the house--thus from the mere walls and the ceiled roof. The case is similar with the Church apart from doctrine (Cor. 18).

134. Doctrine, however, and the Church by means of doctrine, is to be established in the minds of the individual members of the Church; and for this purpose the doctrine of the Church, is the present case the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, has to be drawn afresh out of the letter of the Word and to be confirmed thereby. This the Church does through the instrumentality of its leading ministers. Through them, when they are in the doctrine of genuine truth, and when they have some knowledge of correspondences, and when, at the same time, they are in a state of enlightenment from the Lord, the doctrine of the spiritual sense may be drawn out of the literal sense of the Divine Word, end confirmed thereby.

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That this is necessary, in order that the doctrine of the New Church, which is the doctrine of the spiritual sense, may be established in the hearts and minds of the members of the New Church, follows plainly from the following positions laid down by Swedenborg:--

All the power of the Divine Truth is contained in the literal sense of the Word; in the spiritual sense, apart from the literal sense, there is no power; but there is in the literal sense in which is the spiritual sense (De Verbo, posthumous, no. 20).

And again:--

The Lord is present with man in the literal sense of the Word, and nowhere else; there He enlightens and instructs him in the truths of the Church; and the Lord does not operate anything except in a state of fullness, and the Word is in its fullness in the sense of the letter (D. S. S. 53).

Hence the necessity that the doctrines of the Now Church should be preached out of the letter of the Word; because then only they carry conviction, and because then only the members are prepared by enlightenment from the Lord to acknowledge in fullness the Divinity of the doctrine which He has revealed at His Second Coming. This is what is meant, in the spiritual sense, by the man-child feeding, or ruling, all nations with a rod of iron (Rev. xii. 5); as explained by Swedenborg is what follows:--

And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, signifies that he shall do so through truths out of the literal sense of the Word, and at the same time through rational arguments derived from the light of nature.... For by a rod or staff in the Word is signified power, and by iron is signified natural truth, consequently, the natural sense of the Word, and at the same time the natural light (lumen) of man. In these two things consists the power of truth. That the Divine Truth in the natural sense of the Word, which is its literal sense, is in its power, (D. S. S. 205-221); the reason is, that the literal sense, is the basis, continent and firmament of its spiritual sense (Ibid. 27-36),

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and, that all power is in things ultimate which are called natural (D. L. W. 205-221), and consequently, in the natural sense of the letter of the Word, and in the natural light (lumen) of man. These things therefore are the rod of iron, by which he shall rude the nations that is, by which he shall conquer the evils which are from hell (A. R. 148).

On this account Swedenborg says further:--

The order in which the interior things of Divine Truth, from which the angels derive their wisdom, settle down, is the simultaneous order [according to which the highest things settle down in the lowest, and according to which inmost things are in outermost]. From this order it is that the literal sense [of the Word] is a continent or container.

On this account ail things belonging to the doctrine of the Church ought to be confirmed through the literal sense of the Word; and that part of doctrine which has not been confirmed from the letter of the word has no power (De Verbo posthumous, no. 20).

And again he says:--

Every doctrine of the Church must be extracted from the literal sense of the Word and be confirmed by it, and not by the pure spiritual sense; for by this latter sense alone, no conjunction is effected with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; but through the literal sense there is: for the Lords Divine influx through the Word is from first things through ultimate or last things (De Verbo, posthumous, no. 5).

And finally he says:--

Doctrine should not only be drawn out of the literal sense of the Word, but also be confirmed thereby; for unless it is confirmed thereby, the truth of doctrine has the appearance as if only mans intelligence, and not the Lords Divine Wisdom were contained therein (D. S. S. 54).

In conformity with this doctrine, which amounts to a positive instruction, in setting forth the Doctrine of Regeneration with its associate doctrines, we shall in the following Section draw this doctrine out of the literal sense, and confirm it thereby. This doctrine, however, is summarily treated of in the spiritual sense of the first and second chapters of Genesis;

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wherefore, these two chapters will constitute the basis on which the Doctrine of Regeneration will be expounded, and by which it will be confirmed.

XI.--THE DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION.

135. Regeneration is a new creation of man by the Lord, when from a son of perdition he is created into a son of God, according to these words of the Lord: To as many as received Him He gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name: who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John i. 13, 14).

Two new creations are effected by the Lord in man during his regeneration, one of which is Genesis i. is called heaven and the other earth. By heaven is understood the Lords new creation in the mans interior, spiritual part, and by earth His new creation in the mans external, natural part. The earth at first-- that is, before regeneration--is a void and an emptiness; it is void of good, and empty of truth; and darkness prevails on the faces of the abyss--that is, on the faces of the hereditary and actual evil which is there.

And the Spirit of God moved over the faces of the waters. Hereby is described preparatory stage of mans regeneration, when the Spirit of God,the Divine Mercy of the Lord, hovers or broods over the heavenly states in a mans soil, which have been implanted in him during his early infancy and childhood; and which have afterwards been increased by states of worship and prayer, and by instruction in the holy truths of the Divine Word. These early, saving states in a mans soul are understood by the faces of the waters, over which the Spirit of God,-- the Divine Mercy, watches tenderly and affectionately, so that not one of them shall be lost, until the time when a mans regeneration is about to begin, which is at the end of youth, and at the beginning of a mans entrance into his age of maturity.

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a. Doctrine of Remains.

136. Those early, saving states of a mans childhood and youth, which in Genesis i. 2 are understood by the faces of the waters, in other parts of the Divine Word are styled the remnant, and also the residue. As in Isaiah (i. 9): Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Swedenborg himself uses the Latin term reliquiaec, which by his translators generally is rendered remains. And this doctrine of remains is one of his most important as well as one of his most distinctive doctrines.

The states which Swedenborg defines as remains are implanted in every human soul as all antidote to hereditary and actual evil. Of these states the angels who are appointed over man by the Lord take possession, and through the angels the powers of the heavens rest upon these states, or upon these remains; and by these remains they ward off the attacks of the evil spirits who seek to inflame in man his past transgressions and evils, and thereby to lead him into new evils.

The remains, indeed, are the rudiment of the new will which the Lord creates in man by regeneration. For unless there were instilled into man during the earliest period of his existence, some kind of a will for good, his intellectual faculty could never be developed by the insemination of truths, nor would it possible for a new will to be established in his understanding by regeneration. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

It would be impossible for any man ever to live, and still less to live as a man, unless he had himself some element of [spiritual] life;

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that is, unless he possessed something of innocence, charity and mercy, or something derived thence which bears a likeness and similarity thereto. This something of innocence, charity and mercy man receives from the Lord during childhood and youth, as may appear from the state of children, and also of youths. What a man thus receives, is preserved in him; and the things preserved are called in the Word, the remnant or residue. This remnant or these remains are the Lords alone in man; and the things thus preserved enable a man to live as a man, until he reaches adult age. That the states of innocence, charity and mercy which a man has enjoyed in childhood, and during his age of youth, cause him to be a man, appears from this consideration, that man, different from animals, is not born into any exercise of life, but acquires each and all things by learning; further, that those things which he learns, by repeated action or exercise become habitual or natural; that a man cannot even walk unless he learns to walk, nor speak, and so forth; and that all these things by practice become as it were natural with him. Thus also it is with the states of innocence, charity and mercy with which he has likewise been imbued from infancy. Unless these states were with a man, he would be lower than an animal. These states, however, a man does not acquire by learning, but he receives them as a gift from the Lord; and these states are preserved by the Lord with man. These states also, together with the truths of faith are called remains, and they are the Lords only. In proportion as a man in adult age puts off, or blots out, these states, in the same proportion he becomes [spiritually] dead. When a man is being regenerated, these states are the beginnings of regeneration, and he is then led into them; for the Lord works through remains (A. C. 1050).

137. These saving states which are the Lords in man, the Lord implants in the human soul even before birth. For, according to Swedenborg

The Lord conjoins Himself to man, in the mothers womb, from his first conception and forms him.

And he says further

Man, while in the womb is in a state of innocence: hence, his first state after birth is a, state of innocence. The Lord also dwells with man only in his innocence; and therefore He has his habitation with him especially while he is, as it were, innocence.

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Man then is also in a state of pence. He is then both in a state of innocence and in a state of peace, because Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are innocence itself and peace itself (Div. Wisd. iii., 1).

Swedenborg also says that

Angels from the inmost heaven are present with infants while they are in the womb; and through them the Lord has care, that the infants while there are nourished and perfected (A. C. 6062).

138. As regards the further function of remains in man, Swedenborg says:--

By remains from the Lord a man is able to be a man, to know what is good and true, to reflect on everything, and hence to think and reason (A. C. 560).

And again--

The fewer remains there are with any particular man the less can things rational and scientific with him be enlightened. For the life of good and truth flows in from the Lord through remains. Unless there were remains with a man, he would not be a man, but would be much viler than a beast. The fewer remains there are, the less he is a man; and the more remains there are, the more he is a man. The remains are like some heavenly constellation; the smaller it is, the less light thence, and the larger it is, the more light thence (A. C. 830).

These remains of good and truth are the material out of which the new man, the product of regeneration is formed, and they are carefully preserved in man by the Lord for this purpose. But regeneration cannot begin until there is a fullness of remains and until man enters upon his age of reason. Meanwhile, he continues under the influence of these remains and acts from impulse, and not yet from principle. During his age of minority, also, a mans action and speech are influenced and determined by others, especially by his parents and teachers for the conscience of his educators is then a mans standard of what is right and wrong; and in proportion as he is in a state of obedience to his educators, he is in a state of order.

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139. As a man advances in years, the remains of good and truth from which he has hitherto been acting, are gradually withdrawn towards the interiors of his natural mind and indeed just in the proportion in which his actions and speech are beginning to how from his own hereditary disposition, and thus from the loves of self and the world, which are the organic loves of his natural part. These loves a man cannot conquer so long as remains form the basis of his actions and speech. For in order to curb his hereditary loves of self and the world, a man needs a stronger spiritual power than is inherent in remains because remains are simply state of the memory, which have not yet acquired the power of rational principles, that is, the power of conscience. Moreover, the arrangement of remains in the minds of youths is due in a great measure to the influence of their educators. These states, therefore, are not yet essentially their own, because they have not yet appropriated them by an application of their own independent freedom and reason. The result of all this, however, is, that in proportion as a person approaches the age of manhood, the remains of good and truth are gradually withdrawn out of the sphere of his natural consciousness, and are deposited safely in the interiors of his natural mind.

Concerning this withdrawal of remains into the interiors of the natural mind, Swedenborg says:--

The arcanum contained herein is as follows: From his first infancy to boyhood a man is introduced by the Lord into heaven, and indeed among the celestial angels, through whom he is kept in a state of innocence, that such is the state of children until the beginning of boyhood is well-known. When boyhood or youth begins, then the man gradually puts off the state of innocence; but still he is kept in a state of charity through the affection of mutual charity towards his companions, which state with many persons continues even to adolescent age; then he comes among spiritual angels. As he then begins to think for himself, and to act accordingly, he can no longer be kept in charity as heretofore;

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for he calls forth hereditary evils, by which he suffers himself to be led. When this state arrives, the goods of charity and of innocence, which he had previously received, are exterminated, and indeed in the same measure in which the man thinks evil and confirms them by act; and yet these goods are not exterminated, but they are withdrawn by the Lord towards the interiors, and are there stored up (A. C. 5343).

And again he says:--

Man at his birth has not the least thing of good from himself, but is totally and entirely defiled by hereditary evil, and all good has to enter into him by influx; as, for instance, the good which causes him to love his parents, nurses, and little companions; which good is derived from innocence. These are the things which flow in from the Lord through the heaven of innocence and peace, which is the inmost heaven; and thus man, while a child, becomes imbued with these things. Afterwards, however, as he advances in age this childlike good, together with the childlike state of innocence and peace recedes; and in proportion as man is being introduced into the world, he is also introduced into its pleasures and into cupidities, thus into evils; and in the same proportion the heavenly things, that is, the goods of the age of childhood, begin to disappear. Yet they remain, and through them those states which the man afterwards puts on end acquires for himself are tempered. Without those states of childhood it would be impossible for him to be a man. For the states of his lusts, that is the states of evil, without being tempered by the states of the affection of good, would be more savage or fiercer than those of any other animal. These states of good are what are called remains, whereby man is gifted by the Lord, and which are implanted in his disposition, without his knowing anything about it.

In the age which follows, man is also gifted by the Lord with new remains, but these states are not so much states of good as of truth. For while a man is becoming an adult, he is imbued with truths, which are in a like manner stored up in his interior man. Through these remains, namely, those of truth, which are born in man by an influx of spiritual things from the Lord, he possesses the ability of thinking, and also of understanding what the good and truth of civil and moral life are; and he derives thence likewise the ability of receiving spiritual truth, that is, the truth of faith--yet of this he is capable only by virtue of the remains of good which he has received in childhood (A. C. 1806).

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140. So long as there is free scope allowed in man for the action of remains; that is, so long as a man allows himself to be governed by them, it is well with him; then also the Lord in time, through these remains, regenerates his soul. But whenever a man is in a state of evil, or when he confirms himself in falsities, and speaks and sets in accordance therewith, then the Lord does not permit the remains to come forth and manifest themselves; because then they would be like sheep which are torn up and devoured by wolves; they are allowed to come forth only in cases of illness, and when a man is in a state of distress or anxiety. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

A life of evil, as well as false principles in which a man has confirmed himself, either extinguishes, suffocates or perverts the goods and truths which constantly flow in from the Lord. Lest, therefore, goods should be commingled with evils, and truths with falsities--for should they be commingled, man would perish eternally--the Lord separates them; and the goods and truths which the man has received He stores up in his interior man; whence He never allows them to come forth so long as the man is in evil and falsity; but only when he is in a kind of holy state, or in some kind of anxiety, or when he is suffering from illness, and the like (A. C. 2284).

So long, however, as a man does not confirm himself in a negative state, and so long as he still allows the remains of childhood and youth to exercise some influence over his thoughts and actions in adult life, so long in the end he will be saved; but when he acquires such a character that it is impossible for these remains to exert any influence at all upon him, then it is all over with him. Those states which are destructive of remains, or by which they are as it were hermetically sealed up in the interiors, are especially deceit and profanation, as appears from what follows:--

When a man is of such a character that he immerses the truths of faith in his own wild lusts, then he profanes truths and deprives himself of remains which, although they continue in man, cannot be brought forth;

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for the instant they are brought forth, they are profaned by the things already profane. For profanations of the Word cause a certain callosity which is in the way, and which absorbs the goods and truths of remains. Wherefore, let every one beware lest he profanes the Lords Word; for, although he who is in false principles, does not believe that the things therein are truths, still they are eternal truths, ill which there is life (A. C. 571).

Again he says:--

There are two things which not only bar the way [by which a mans lower, natural part communicates with his higher, rational part], but which also deprive the man of the faculty of ever becoming rational--these are deceit and profanation. Deceit is a kind of subtle poison which attacks the interior; and profanation commingles falsities with truths and evils with goods. From these two causes mans rational part perishes altogether. With every person goods and truths are stored up from infancy, which goods and truths in the Word are called remains. These remains are infested by deceit, and commingled by profanation (A. C. 5128).

Such is the important Doctrine of Remains, as taught in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

141. The result of the withdrawal of the good of remains from a mans natural consciousness is an abandonment, as it mere, of the man by his guardian-angels; and when good is withdrawn from him the delights of evil rush in upon him, and carry him away in spite of himself. This is understood in the parable of the Prodigal Son, by the younger son wasting his substance with riotous living. The consequence of a course of evil on the mind is dense spiritual darkness; that is, darkness on all things connected with the Lord and the life after death. This darkness, the result of evil, is described in the first chapter of Genesis by darkness prevailing on the faces of the abyss. A person who is in this state refuses to he led any longer by the Lord and His Divine Word, and he listens to the voice of self and of the world. There is a difference, however, in this respect between those who are willing to be reformed and regenerated by the Lord, and those who are not.

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The former are interiorly distressed and distracted, and they would fain return to the Lord, provided they can do so in freedom, and no longer under the authority of others. These persons in the end follow the example of the Prodigal Son, and cast themselves on the mercy of their Father in heaven, and cry, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son. While in this state of spiritual contrition, their soul is made receptive of the spiritual light which flows into the souls of all persons out of heaven, and under the guidance of this light they examine the truths which they had learned during childhood and youth on the authority of others; and while prayerfully looking up to the Lord, the Lord brightens up their minds so that in full freedom they are able to recognize the truth of the leading doctrines of Scripture, and of the Church.

This enlightenment takes place on the first day of creation, that is, of regeneration, when the Lord said, Let there be light: and there was light. This new stage in the spiritual development of man, when he spiritually breaks loose from his parents and teachers, and examines and adopts the truths of revelation in the light of his own reason, and with the exercise of his own freedom of will, Swedenborg describes thus:--

From childhood to youth, and sometimes to first adolescence, man imbibes goods and truths by instruction from parents and teachers; for he then seizes these goods and truths, and believes them in simplicity; the state of innocence promotes instruction, and fixes these things in the memory, yet it lodges them in the first threshold, because child-like and youthful innocence is not internal innocence which affects a mans rational part; but it is external innocence which affects only the exterior natural part. In proportion, however, as a man advances in age, and as he begins to think no longer from his parents and teachers, but from himself, he then takes up again, and ruminates as it were, those things which he hid previously learned and believed from his parents and teachers;

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and their he either confirms them, or entertains doubts respecting them or denies them. If he confirms them, it is a sign that he is in good; but if he denies them, it is a sign that he is ill evil. If, however, he entertains doubts respecting them, it is a sign that as he grows older he will occupy either an affirmative or a negative position.

Those things which a man as a child, from his earliest age seizes or believes, and which afterwards he either confirms or denies, or concerning which he entertains doubts, are chiefly the following:--that there is a God that He is One that He has created all things; that He rewards those who do good, and punishes those who act wickedly that there is a life after death, and that the wicked go to hell, and the good to heaven and hence that there is a hell and a heaven; that life after death is eternal further, that we should pray daily, and indeed with humility; that the day of the sabbath should be kept holy; that parents should be honored; that man should not commit adultery; that he should not commit murder that he should not steal, and so forth. These things a man hay learned and imbibed from childhood, but when he begins to think from himself and to lead himself, if then he confirms these things with himself, and superadds other things which are still more interior and lives according to them, then it is well with him. If, however, he begins to make light of them, and at last to deny them, however he may outwardly live according to them on account of the civil laws and on account of society, then he is evil. This evil, like a thief, occupies in man the place where good had been previously, and with many persons this evil takes the goods and truths which had been there before, and applies them for the confirmation of evils and falsities. As far as possible, the Lord then removes the goods and truths of childhood from this territory, and withdraws them towards the interiors, and stores them up for use in the interior natural part. The goods and truth stored up in the interior natural part are signified by remains; but if evil steals the goods and truths which are there, and applies them for the confirmation of evils and falsities, especially if it does so from deceit; thee evil consumes these remains, for then it commingles evils with goods, and falsities with truths to such a point that they cannot be separated; and then it is all over with man (A. C. 5135).

In this passage are stated the general truths of Christianity, which are taught in the literal sense of the Sacred Scripture, and in which truths all persons are more or less instructed during childhood and youth.

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All these truths are brought up for the consideration of a Christian when he reaches adult age. Those among Christians, however, who assume an affirmative position in respect to these truths, and who resolve to follow the Lord and to take up the battles of their regeneration, and thus of their salvation--these the Lord, at the present time, leads to the waters of life which gush forth from the New Jerusalem. The Lord, indeed, maketh them to lie down in green pastures, and leadeth them to the waters of rest--to the truth of the New Revelation which He made to mankind at His Second. Coming. And after the members of the Church have taken deep draughts from the fountain of life, the Lord says, Let there be an expanse--a firmament, in the midst of the waters, end let it divide between the waters to the waters. By the expanse is here meant the internal man together with conscience which, with the member of the Church, is beginning to be formed during the second day--the second stage of his regeneration. But by the waters above and below the expanse are meant knowledges on spiritual and knowledges on natural subjects, between which, in the minds of the members of the Church, there is then a sharp division made; for they then begin to recognize the reality of revealed truth, and to acknowledge that on spiritual subjects it is impossible to gain any information from the natural world through the medium of the senses of the body.

b. The Doctrine of Conscience.

142. The formation of conscience, according to Swedenborg, is synchronous with the formation of the internal man; and the formation of the internal man is absolutely necessary in order that a person may be regenerated. For the formation of the internal man is identical with the systematic organization of what is ordinarily understood by a mans higher, better nature, his better self.

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Unless this be thoroughly organized and placed under the full influence of the Lord out of heaven, it will be impossible for a man to resist the impulses of his lower, baser nature, and to have removed from his external man the falsities which originate in the fallacies of the senses.

When a mans interior, better nature is once thoroughly organized, it receives the life of good and truth from within; and the Lord establishes there a new understanding and a new will, by which the old understanding and the old will in the natural man are coerced, and finally conquered and subdued. But when a mans higher, better nature fails to be developed and organized within him, then the life of good and truth flows through the upper regions of his spirit, as through a sieve, and enters immediately into the evils and falsities of the external man below, where it is perverted into the opposite. On this subject we read:--

Things interior in man are distinguished into degrees, and in each degree they are terminated, and through termination separated from the lower degree; thus from the innermost to the outermost.... When all these degrees well terminated, that is, when through terminations they are made distinct from the other, then each degree is a plane on, which the good which flows in from the Lord rests, and where it is received. A part from these terminations, or planes, good is not received, but flows through, as through a sieve or a perforated basket, even down into the sensual part; because it has not received any direction on the way, it is turned there into what is filthy, which to those who are in it appears as good; that is, it is turned into the delighted the love of self and of the world, and consequently the delight of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adultery, avarice, or into sheer voluptuousness and luxuriousness. Such is case when the things of the will with a man are without any termination somewhere in the middle, or when his interiors are perforated (A. C. 5146).

143. Swedenborg says further:--

There are in man two planes on which celestial and spiritual things, that is goods and truths, are founded; one plane is interior, the other exterior.

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These planes themselves are nothing else than conscience; apart from these planes, that is, apart from conscience, nothing celestial and spiritual, that is, nothing good and true from the Lord can become fixed but it flows through, like water through a sieve wherefore those who are without such a plane, that is, without any conscience, do not know what conscience is; nay, they do not believe that there is anything celestial and spiritual at all. The interior plane, or the interior conscience, is where good and truth in a genuine sense are for the good and truth flowing in from the Lord are acting there. But the exterior plane is the exterior conscience and in this conscience there is what is just and fair in a proper sense; for what is just and fair on the moral and civil plane acts there, and also flows in. There is besides an outermost plane which likewise appears like conscience; namely doing what is just and fair for the sake of self and the world, that is, for the sake of ones own honor or reputation, and for the sake of worldly wealth and possession, also for fear of the law. These are the three planes which govern man; that is, through which the Lord governs man. Through the interior plane, that is, through the conscience of spiritual good and truth, the Lord governs those who are regenerate through the exterior plane, that is, through the conscience of what is just and fair, and thus through the conscience of moral and civil good and truth, the Lord governs those who are not regenerate, but who may become regenerate, and who are also regenerated if not in the life of the body still in the other life. But through the outermost plane which appears like conscience, and yet is not conscience, the Lord rules all the rest, even the wicked; for without such a rule they would rush headlong into all kinds of wickedness and madness and they actually do so, when released from the bonds of this plane. Those who do not suffer themselves to be governed or ruled by these bonds, are either mad, or are punished according to the laws. With the regenerate these three planes act as one; for one flows into the other, and the interior disposes the exterior (A. C. 4167).

From this it would appear that as there are two degrees of conscience, an exterior and an interior, the exterior is organized first and the interior afterwards. The exterior conscience, also is understood by the expanse in the midst of the waters, which is created on the second day; and the interior conscience, by the great luminaries of charity end faith, which are established in the mind on the fourth day.

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Exterior conscience maybe formed in the interiors of all men; for all by education are instructed in what is just and fair on the moral and civil planes. This conscience also is on the level of the literal sense of Scripture, and thus on the level of the ten commandments, taken in their natural meaning. Anyone who obeys the dictates of what is just and fair, and keeps the commandments in their natural meaning, has exterior conscience established in his interior natural man; and in proportion as in the light of this conscience he repents of the evils contained in his outward, natural man, there is by and by brought about a harmony and a relation of correspondence between the principles of what is just and fair in his conscience, and the words and deeds of his outward, natural man. For he shuns evils, and does good from the principle of what is just and fair.

144. Such is the spiritual condition of those who are instructed in the principles of what is just and fair on the moral and civil planes; and who are, or perhaps are not, instructed in the truths of the natural sense of the Divine Word. But the case is different with those who are instructed besides in the spiritual doctrines of the Divine Word; with whom therefore, not only the exterior, but also the interior conscience may be organized. With these persons also the development of conscience, which is equivalent to the regeneration of their internal man, passes through two stages. For they are similarly constituted with the rest of their brethren in Christendom in this respect, that their natural man, by birth, is steeped in hereditary evil, which has been reinforced by actual evil during childhood and youth; and, further, in this respect, that by the merciful dispensation of the Divine Providence, their intellectual part is separated from their will-part (see above, no. 86); so that after their understanding has been instructed in the truths of the Divine Word, they are able to rise through their understanding above the perversions of their unregenerate natural will.

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But from this it follows that with the members of the Church at the present time regeneration must commence in the understanding; that, therefore, during regeneration, a new understanding--a, new intellectual part, has to be formed in their minds. In this new understanding the Lord is present with faith, and this faith He enlightens with charity, yet so that at first faith predominates. Through this faith He coerces in man the evils and falsities of his outward, natural man. This action of the Lord in man through faith is understood by the voice of conscience. Wherefore, the first conscience, just as the first faith in man, bears chiefly an intellectual character.

145. The genesis of faith, and thus of conscience, in mans new intellectual part is as follows:--After the member of the Church by the application of his own freedom and rationality, has declared in favor of the truth of revelation, by the exercise of his rational thought and under the direction of the new light that has dawned upon him, certain principles of what is right and wrong, and of what is true and false, are extracted from the knowledge on spiritual subjects which he has accumulated in his memory. These principles of what is right and wrong, of what is true and false, under the watchful care of the Lord rise from his natural memory into a higher sphere of the natural man called its rational degree, and there they enter into the formation of conscience, and at the same time of faith, in mans new intellectual part; and in proportion as a man under the influence of conscience shuns his evils as sins against God, in the same proportion a new will, which is identical with charity, is beginning to be formed by the Lord in the mans new intellectual part. This new intellectual part, however, together with the faith which is established therein, is at first very much tinged by the mans own nature, that is, by states of self;

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for it is formed under the influence of mans freedom of mill, end thus under the influence of the old ill, whereby falsities are introduced into it. Besides, conscience, and hence faith, differ very much among the members of the Church, because the quantity and quality of the knowledges stored up in their memories differ so much; for from these knowledges are drawn the rational principles--the truths of faith, which enter into the composition of the new intellectual part, and hence of the conscience, and also of the faith, which are established therein.

Owing to these influences, a mans rational mind, where the new understanding is formed, is at first encompassed as by a cloud. Concerning this cloud Swedenborg says:--

The cloud in a mans interiors is the false in which he is, which is identical with the presence of self in the intellectual part.... With those who are being regenerated, the Lord operates upon their cloud with charity, whence there is caused light which flashes through the cloud, and renders it brighter.... The greater the number of truths of faith which are present in a mans intellectual part, the thinner the cloud; but the fewer the truths of faith are, the denser the cloud (A. C. 1043).

Concerning conscience, and thus concerning faith, which are formed with man in his new intellectual part, and concerning their relation to mans old will-part, Swedenborg says further:--

Every regenerate man of the spiritual Church as to his intellectual part is the Lords, but as to his voluntary part he is his own. These two parts in the spiritual man are opposites; but although the voluntary part is opposite, or contradictory, it nevertheless cannot help being present; all the obscurity or darkness of the intellectual part, or all the density of the cloud which is there, being thence. This obscurity flows in continually from the voluntary part; and in proportion as it flows in, in the same proportion the cloud in the intellectual part increases in density; but in the proportion in which the obscurity or darkness is removed, in the same proportion the cloud is rarefied (A. C. 1044).

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The quality by which the old will causes itself to be felt in the new understanding is the pride of self-intelligence, or the conceit of ones own intelligence. This is the greatest antagonist to the building up of a true conscience, and hence of a true faith, in man. But in proportion as a man keeps his conscience free from the influences of self, and humbles himself before the Lord, acknowledging Him in the truth of the Divine Word--in the same proportion the Lord is able to create a new will in his new intellectual part. On this subject we read:--

With those who are in the spiritual kingdom, truth is implanted in the external or natural man; and there it becomes first a matter of knowledge, and in the proportion in which a man is affected by it and lives according to it, it is summoned up into his intellectual part and becomes faith, and at the same time charity towards the neighbor. This charity constitutes his new will part, and faith his new intellectual part--and both together form conscience (a. C. 10,124).

146. Nevertheless, as we have seen above, conscience, when first formed in mans interior natural part, is still tainted by states of self and consequent falsities; for self under the form of self-intelligence enters into its composition. Of this character is the conscience which with the member of the Church is formed on the second day of creation; and under the influence of this conscience he carries on the practical work of repentance on the third day. In proportion as a man by a course of earnest repentance overcomes the evils of self-love and the love of the world, which have accumulated in his natural man, and so far as he humbles himself before the Lord, in the same proportion the truths of faith are raised by the Lord into a still higher, interior part of his being, which corresponds to the second or spiritual heaven. There faith, pure faith, which is no longer tainted by states of self, is established in his intellectual part, and charity in his will-part. This takes place on the fourth day of creation when the two great luminaries, charity and faith, are created in the plane of mans interior conscience.

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Under the influence of interior conscience, which is thus established in mans soul, his outward, natural man during the fifth and sixth days of creation is regenerated into an image and likeness of God. Such is the growth of conscience and thus of faith in man.

147. The action of conscience, so far as man becomes sensible of it, according to Swedenborg, is as follows:--

True conscience is formed by the Lord out of the truths of faith; and after a man has been gifted with conscience, he is afraid to act contrary to the truths of faith, because this would be acting contrary to conscience. Such a conscience those are able to receive who are in the truths of faith... Those who are being regenerated receive conscience when they receive faith; but the fundamental of conscience is charity (A. C. 1919).

And again he says:--

Those who have conscience think and act according to it; thought being scarcely anything else than an unfolding of those things which belong to conscience; and hence a partition of these things into ideas, and afterwards into words whence it is that those who have conscience are kept by the Lord, so as to think well of the neighbor; and they are restrained from thinking ill of him. Wherefore, conscience can exist only with those who think rightly of the truths of faith (A. C. 1919).

In conscience the Lord and His angels dwell with man, and thence He directs the course of mans regeneration. The sphere of action, however, of conscience lies chiefly in the direction of the natural man, and the efforts of conscience have the regeneration of the natural man in view. Still, the kingdom of God, which has its beginning in man in the plane of conscience, increases not only in a downward, but also in an upward direction. For in proportion as it gains a strong foothold in the external man--in the earth below, it acquires strength also in the internal man, and from the spiritual degree which corresponds to the second heaven it strives to ascend towards the celestial degree which corresponds to the third or highest heaven.

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c. The Doctrine of Repentance.

148. The establishment of conscience in man is equivalent to the beginning of the work of reformation in his soul; and reformation is impossible without repentance. For before a man can be reformed by the good and truth which proceed from the Lord, our Heavenly Father, the opposing evils and falsities require to be removed out of his external, natural man.

The real work of Repentance, according to Swedenborg, begins on the third day of creation. For on that day the waters under the heaven--under the internal man, are gathered into one place, and the dry land appears; that is, the new natural man, the product of reformation, makes its appearance. The third state of mans regeneration, says Swedenborg, is repentance; while in this state man speaks piously and devoutly, and produces goods which appear like the works of charity, but which, nevertheless, are inanimate, because the man thinks that they are wrought from himself. These works are called the tender herb, afterwards the herb producing seed, and finally the tree bearing fruit (A. C. 10).

The essential work of repentance, however, consists in a mans shunning the evils of the loves of self and of the world, on the general principle that a man cannot serve two masters; that he cannot be in good and evil at the same time; wherefore, in order that he may be in the good of charity it is absolutely necessary that he should first remove the opposing evils by a course of sincere repentance. This position is clearly set forth by Swedenborg in what follows:--

Who does not know, or who may not know that by evils the Lords entrance to min is obstructed?

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For evil is hell, and wherefore, in proportion as a man is in the one, he cannot be in the other; because the one acts against the other, and the Lord is heaven; and hell and heaven are opposites destroys it. So long as a man is in the world, he is in the middle between hell and heaven; hell is below, and heaven above; and the man then is kept in a state of freedom of turning either to heaven or to hell. If he turns to hell, he turns away from heaven; but if he turns to heaven, he turns away from hell. Or what amounts to the same thing: so long as a man is in the world, he stands in the middle between the Lord and the devil, and he is kept in a state of freedom of turning either to the one or to the other. If he turns to the devil, he turns away from the Lord; but if he turns to the Lord, he turns away from the devil. Or what amounts still to the same thing: so long as a man is in the world, he is in the middle between evil and good, and he is kept in a state of freedom of turning either to the one or to the other; if he turns to evil, he turns away from good but if he turns to good, he turns away from evil. It is here stated that man is kept in a state of freedom of turning in the one or in the other direction. A man is in this state of freedom not from himself, but from the Lord; wherefore, it was said, that he is kept in that state. Concerning this equilibrium between heaven and hell, and concerning mans being kept in this equilibrium, and in the state of freedom resulting thence, see the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 589-596, and nos. 597-603. [See also the chapter on the Doctrine of Mans Freedom of Choice, in the present work, nos. 87-89.] In this state of freedom every one is kept, and is never deprived of it. Hence it appears manifestly, that in so far as a man shuns evils, in so far he is with the Lord, and in the Lord; and in so far as he is in the Lord, he does good not from self, but from the Lord. Thence results this general law: that in proportion as any one shuns evils, in the same proportion he does good. But there are two requisites: First, that a man must shun his evils because they are sins, that is, because they are infernal and diabolical; and, consequently, against the Lord, and against the Divine laws. Secondly, that a man most shun evils as sins, as from himself; yet knowing and believing that he shuns them from the Lord. From these two points follow these three consequences: 1. That if a man wills and does goods, before he shuns evils as sins, these goods are not good; 2. That if a man thinks and speaks pious things, and does not shun evils as sins, these pious things are not pious; 3. That if a man is acquainted with, and wise in many things, but does not shun evils as was, be is not wise (Doctrine of Life, 18-23).

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From all of these considerations follows another of Swedenborgs propositions, namely, that repentance is the first thing of the Church with man, because the Church is not with a man until his sins are removed; and because his evils are removed, and thus remitted, in proportion as he practices repentance (T. C. R. 510 and 511).

Concerning this remission of sins by a course of repentance, Swedenborg says further:--

Sins are remitted by repentance of life.... But sins adhere to a man, howsoever he may think that they are remitted; nor are they removed from him, except by a life according to the precepts of faith. In proportion as a man lives according to these precepts, in the same proportion his sins are removed; and in so far as they are removed, they are remitted. For a man is determined by the Lord from evil, and kept in good. And a man can be detained from evil in the other life, just in proportion as, during the life of the body, he had resisted evil and lie can be kept then in good just so far as during the life of the body he had done good from affection (A. C. 8393).

149. Another principle on which Swedenborg lays greet stress in the work of repentance, is that of freedom; for repentance, in order to have any lasting effect in man, must be undertaken while the man enjoys a full state of freedom. Thus he says:--

Repentance which is done in a state of freedom avails, but that which is practiced while n man is in a state of compulsion does not avail. States of compulsion are states of illness, states of dejection of the mind on account of misfortunes, the state of approaching death, as well as any state of fear which deprives a man of the use of reason. A person who is evil, and in a state of compulsion, promises repentance, and also does good; but when he comes into a state freedom, he returns into the former life of evil. With a good man, on the other hand, such states are states of temptation, in which he conquers (H. D. 168, and A. C. 8392).

In order that repentance may prove effective, a man, consequently, must resist and overcome evils, not by any outward pressure, but by the kingdom of God pressing down upon him from within.

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But the kingdom of God, at the outset of regeneration, is with man in his internal man, in the new intellectual part which is created there on the second day of creation; and thus it is identical with conscience. Wherefore, that freedom which Swedenborg claims for man during repentance, dwells primarily in his conscience; and indeed in the new will which the Lord creates on the plane of conscience with every man who is undergoing the process of regeneration, The freedom of the new will, therefore, during repentance, combats with the freedom of the old will; end in the freedom of the new will the Lord is present with man, and sustains him; while in the freedom of the old will the evil spirits of hell are with man, inciting him to rebellion against the promptings of conscience. Concerning the freedom of the new will, in which the Lord is present with man, Swedenborg says:--

There is an interior principle of freedom, out of which man is desirous of subjugating evil; and this principle of freedom is in exact proportion to the strength and force of the evil by which a man is assaulted--otherwise he would never engage in any combat. This principle of freedom is from the Lord, who instills it into a mans conscience, and who thereby causes the man to conquer evil as from himself. Through this freedom a man receives a [new] principle of self in which the Lord can operate good. Without such a principle of self, acquired in this manner, that is, one with which a man is gifted through freedom, no one can be reformed because no one can receive a new will, which is conscience. The freedom with which a man is thus gifted is the very plane into which there is an influx of good and truth from the Lord.... But those who spurn and reject good and truth, and who are not willing to believe anything opposed to their lusts and reasonings, these cannot receive this principle of self which abides in conscience, and hence not this new will (A. C. 1937).

150. As regards the action of conscience during repentance, it begins in the new principle of self and thus of freedom, and hence in the new will which abides in conscience.

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But as the will manifests itself in the understanding, and operates through the understanding, so also the new will, or the new self in man operates through the truths of faith which have entered into the composition of conscience. From these truths of faith, all of which are drawn from the Divine Word, and which during repentance have a more or less direct bearing on the law of the Decalogue--man forms a kind of interior thought; and in the light of this interior thought he examines his exterior thought, which is formed of the contents of the natural memory under the influence of the loves of self and of the world. Wherefore it is mans interior thought, formed from the truths of faith and enlightened by faith, that is, by the Lord through faith, whereby a man is able to recognize the character of sin, and thus is enabled to examine, recognize and acknowledge those sins, to which he himself is prone. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

In order that a man may examine himself his intellect was given to him, and it was separated from the will, so that he might know, understand, and acknowledge what good and what evil are; and, further, that he might see the quality of his will, what it loves and desires. For this purpose, also, his intellect was furnished with a higher and a lower, or an interior and an exterior thought; so that from his higher or interior thought he might know what his will is doing in his lower and exterior thought. This the man sees as he beholds his face in a mirror. If a man sees all this, and if he knows what sin is, by imploring the Lords help he is able not to mill sin he can shun it, and afterwards act against it; if not freely, he can at least coerce sin by a struggle, and finally hold it In aversion and abominate it, and then only, for the first time, will he perceive and feel that evil is evil, and good good, but not before. This is what is meant by examining ones self, seeing ones evils, acknowledging and confessing them, and afterwards desisting from them (D. P. 278).

151. In order, however, that a mans interior thought may point out to him the sins to which his natural man is prone, it has to be enlightened by the truths of faith, and especially by the spiritual lessons contained in the law of the Decalogue.

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For, as Swedenborg says:--

In order that a man may know which things are sins, the Decalogue was the first thing of the Word; and on this account the Decalogue is an epitome of all things of the Word. On this account also it is called the ten words, and by the ten words are understood all truths in the aggregate. For this reason similar precepts exist in the world among all nations that have any religion. But a person who knows that the laws of the Decalogue are Divine laws, that whoever, therefore, acts in opposition to these commandments sins against God--that person is able to receive the Divine influx; and at the same time also he is able to receive the will or effort of desisting from such things, and of practicing repentance. The Lord then does all this; but at the same time He imparts to man the power of doing it from himself, otherwise he would not act. The Lord operates then from inmost things, even as far as the outermost; and He removes lusts which are the roots of evil. From himself a man is not able to do this. From himself he can operate only in outermost things, when yet outermost things are caused by inmost things. Unless, therefore, these things are removed by a men, of himself, they remain (Doctr. of Charity, Appendix i. 6.)

152. If now we look to Swedenborg for further positive directions as to the manner in which repentance is to be carried on, he says:--

A person who desires to be saved should confess his sins and perform repentance. Confessing ones sins means knowing evils, seeing them in ones self, acknowledging them, declaring ones self guilty and condemning ones self on their account. When this is done before God it is a confession of sins. Doing repentance, on the other hand, means that after a person has thus confessed his sins, and from an humble heart has prayed that they may be remitted, he ought to desist from sins, and lead a new life according to the precepts of faith.

He says further:--

A person who acknowledges only in a universal way that he is a sinner, had who acknowledges himself guilty of all evils, but does not examine himself, and thus see his evils--that person makes a confession, but not a confession of repentance, and as he does not acquaint himself with his evils, he lives afterwards as he did before (H. D. 159-162).

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If we ask further why it is necessary for a man to make a formal confession of his sins, Swedenborg says:--

Every man as to his spirit is in some society [in the other world]. He is in a heavenly society if he is in the affection of good, but in an infernal society if he is in the lust of evil. Of this a man is not aware so long as he is in the world; nevertheless, as to his spirit he is in some society, for unless it were so he could not live; by this means also he is governed by the Lord. If a person is in an infernal society he cannot be led out thence by the Lord, except in accordance with the laws of the Divine Providence. Among which laws is this: that he should recognize that he is there [namely, in hell]; that he should desire to come out thence, and that he should endeavor to do this from himself. This a man is able to do while he is in the world, but he cannot do it after death. For then he remains to eternity in that society into which he has inserted himself while in the world. This is the reason why a man should examine himself, should see and acknowledge his sins, and practice repentance; and why he should persevere therein to the end of his life (D. P. 278)

153. If now we call for additional information as to the mode in which repentance should be carried on, Swedenborg says further:--

He who leads a life of charity and faith, performs repentance daily; he reflects upon the evils which are with himself; he acknowledges them, bewares of them, and prays to the Lord for help. For of himself a man constantly lapses, but by the Lord he is constantly raised up, and led to good. He lapses when in his thoughts he dwells upon doing evil; and he is raised by the Lord when he resists evil, and does not do it. This state is with all who are in good (H. D. 163 and A. C. 8391).

Again we read:--

A man who examines himself for the purpose of practicing repentance, should explore his thoughts and the intentions of his will; end there he should examine what he would do, if he were at liberty; that is, if he were not afraid of the laws and the loss of reputation, honor and gain. A mans evils are in his thoughts and intentions. Those evils which he does with the body are all thence. Those persons who do not explore the evils of their thoughts and their will, cannot practice repentance; for afterwards they think and act just as before; and again willing evils is doing them. This is meant by self-examination (H. D. 164).

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Concerning this examination of the intentions, Swedenborg says further:--

True repentance consists in examining not only the acts of ones life, but also the intentions of ones will. A man examines the intentions of his will when he explores his thoughts; for his intentions manifest themselves therein. As for example, when he thinks, wills and adulteries, thefts, false witnesses, and the lusts leading to these transgressions; further, blasphemies against God, the Word, the Church, and so forth. If a person directs his mind thither, and explores whether he would do these things, supposing the fear of the law and of reputation were not in the way and if after this exploration he determines not to will them, because they are sins--he practices a genuine and interior repentance; and his repentance is still more genuine, if, while under the influence of the delights of these evils, and at liberty to do them, he then resists and abstains. He who does this repeatedly, on a return of tire delights of evil, perceives them as by undelightful, and at last condemns them to hell. He who, by such a course of repentance, removes the evils of his will, may be likened to a person who pulls out from a field in time the tares sown by the devil, so that the seeds implanted by the Lord God, our Savior, find an open soil there, and are able to grow for the harvest. Compare Matt. xiii. 25-33 (T. C. R. 532).

The reason, however, why intentions are to be explored is stated by Swedenborg thus:--

The reason why intentions should be explored. is, because in the will resides the love; for the love is the receptacle. Every love breathes its delights into the perceptions and thoughts of the understanding; for these do not do anything from themselves, but from the will. They, consequently, favor the will, and they assent to, and confirm all things which belong to their love. Wherefore, the will is the very house in which a man lives, and the understanding is the court through which the will passes out and in. On this account it is, that intentions should be explored (T. C. R. 833).

This examination of intentions, however, for some persons is exceedingly difficult; wherefore Swedenborg for their sakes recommends another form of repentance. He says:--

Since actual repentance--which consists in examining, recognizing and acknowledging ones sins, praying to the Lord and beginning a new life--for many reasons is exceedingly difficult in Reformed Christendom;

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another easier kind of repentance shall be mentioned, which consists in this, that when a person revolves evil in the mind, and intends it he says to himself: I think this, and I intend this, but because it is evil I will not do it. By this course the temptation injected by hell, is repelled and its further entrance prevented (T. C. R. 535).

Such is Swedenborgs Doctrine of Repentance.

154. If now we consider the influence which a persistent course of repentance has on the internal, and thence on the external man, we find that its first effect is a curbing of the hereditary love of self, and a suppression of its delights. But by a suppression of these delights the perceptions and thoughts of the higher rational mind where conscience, and together with conscience, faith is established, are constantly growing clearer and brighter. For, as we have seen above in no. 145, the presence of these delights in the new, intellectual part of man, is productive there of a cloud of errors and falsities; and this cloud becomes more and more attenuated, in proportion as a mans intellectual part is relieved more and more of the presence in it of mans old self, that is, of his self-intelligence.

The man himself thus, during the progress of repentance, becomes more and more willing to be led by the teachings of the Divine Word, and no longer by the findings of his own prudence; and to the same extent the works which he produces, and the worship which he offers to the Lord, become more and more pleasing to the Lord; to the same extent also his works become more valuable and more profitable for the spread of the Lords kingdom on earth. At first indeed these works are represented by the tender herb, but afterwards by the herb yielding seed, and finally by the tree bearing fruit.

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As the delights of a mans old will becomes thus curbed and restrained, and as their influence on the higher, interior plane of the mind where conscience is established is lessened, the mans new self, his new will is beginning to exercise a controlling influence in him. Nay, the entire ruling power in man is now beginning to be transferred from his external to his internal man; and in the internal man itself a new degree--a new region of the soul, which Swedenborg calls the spiritual degree--is opened. This degree is above the interior degree of the natural man, called the rational, where conscience is first established in him. Concerning this transfer of power from the natural to the spiritual man, Swedenborg says:--

After the intentions of the will have been explored and removed, the man is raised out of the natural will where actual and hereditary evils reside, into the spiritual will. Through this spiritual will the Lord reforms and regenerates the natural will, and by means of the latter, tire sensual and voluntary things of the body; thus the whole man (T. C. R. 633).

For this purpose, however, the spiritual degree in man, which corresponds to the second or spiritual heaves, has to be established in all its power. This spiritual degree is identical with the plane of the interior conscience, concerning which we read, in no. 143, that good and truth flowing in from the Lord are acting there. Faith in this higher degree is thoroughly one with charity. It is divested there of the predominant intellectual character, by which it was marked during the first three days--the first three stages of regeneration. Intellectual faith is now gradually succeeded by faith at heart, which is the faith of love, that is, saving faith (A. C. 30).

155. When a man is animated by faith at heart, then good, and no longer truth, is the prevailing feature of his character. And yet good, that is, charity, does not act independently of faith, but it acts through faith, and hence through the truths of faith. But truth with a man is now derived from good, and faith from charity;

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and therefore truth in his mind is now enlightened by the very light of truth. For all enlightenment in the truth is conveyed to man through the good of charity; because in charity the Lord is present; and wherever the Lord is, there is life and light.

When truth in a man is one with good, and faith with charity; when good thus becomes the primary source of a mans actions, and no longer truth, then there is a turning point in a mans regenerate life: for then the first period of mans regeneration, when he looks from truth to good, and from the natural to the spiritual man ceases, and the second period of regeneration, or the work proper to regeneration begins. Man then looks from the faith of charity, which is established in his spiritual man, down upon the natural man, and the faith and charity of the spiritual man are now to be established in the natural man below.

It is to be observed, however, that this turning, this inversion, in a mans regenerate life, begins in the very inmost part of his being; and that the man himself becomes fully conscious of the change wrought in his interior being, only in proportion as the faith of his internal man, which flows from charity and is one with charity, manifests itself in the outward, natural man below; and this it is able to do only in proportion as the natural man becomes regenerate.

Although, therefore, this inversion actually begins on the fourth day of creation, and thus, when charity and faith, and hence faith flowing from charity, are established in the internal man--in the plane of interior conscience, still the fact of these luminaries being established there, becomes revealed to man only during the fifth and sixth days of creation, when he begins to speak from faith--from truth spiritually seen and understood, and when he acts from charity--from the pure disinterested love of the neighbor, without any respect to recompense in any shape whatsoever.

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When a member of the Church has arrived at the turning point in his regenerate life, he is in the condition of him of whom the Lord says, he that is mashed, needeth not save to wash his feet, and he is clean every whit. By this is meant, that he who is regenerated as to his internal man, needs only to have his natural man, his feet, regenerated, and then his regeneration will be accomplished.

He is also in the position of the young man who had observed the laws of the decalogue from his youth up, and who now asks the Lord what he must do in order to inherit eternal life when the Lord tells him, Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and take up the cross and follow Me. But by this is meant that all the states of his old self must be removed from his thoughts on spiritual subjects, and from his good works; for which purpose it is absolutely necessary that his natural man shall be regenerated.

156. A synopsis of all that is implied in the regeneration of the natural man is contained in the following statement:--

In order that a man may become spiritual it is necessary that his natural part shall not have any power at all from itself. For in proportion as the natural man wields power from itself, in the game proportion the spiritual in man has no power.... Regeneration means nothing else than that the natural is to be subjugated, so that the spiritual shall have rule. But the natural is subjugated when it is reduced into a state of correspondence; and after it is reduced into a state of correspondence, it no longer re-acts, but acts as it is commanded; and it obeys the least beckoning of the spiritual part; and, indeed, it acts in precisely the same way in which the actions of the body follow the least beckoning of the will, and as speech together with the face is according to the influx of thought. Hence it is evident that in order that a man may become spiritual, the natural, so far as willing is concerned, must become as nothing at all.

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It should be observed, however, that the old natural must become as nothing, because it has been formed of evils and falsities; and that when it has become as nothing, man is gifted with a new natural which is called spiritual-natural. It is called spiritual on this ground, because the spiritual degree or cause acts through this new natural as the cause acts through the effect--it being well-known that the cause is everything of the effect. Thence it is that the new natural, so far as its operations of thinking, willing and carrying into effect are concerned, is nothing else than a representative of the spiritual part or degree. When such is the case then man is the recipient of good from the Lord, and is gifted with truths. And as he is gifted with truths, he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom; and as he is perfected in wisdom and intelligence, he is rendered blessed and happy to all eternity (A. C. 5651).

157. In order, however, that we may know the precise work which is accomplished during the regeneration of the natural man on the fifth and sixth days, the condition in which the natural man is left by the previous work of repentance has first to be more minutely described.

The kingdom of the Lord, says Swedenborg, has its beginning with man in the life which belongs to works; and then a man is in the beginning of regeneration; but when the Lords kingdom is [actually] with a man, then it terminates in works, and then the man is regenerate. For the internal man is then in a corresponding manner in the external man; and works are of the external man, and charity and faith thence are of the internal man; wherefore a mans works are then charity (A. C. 3034). But from this it follows, that from the very first, when a man reaches the age of maturity, he is in works, that is, he performs good and useful works: for an evil, and thus an unregenerate man, from selfish and worldly motives may perform good works, which outwardly appear as good as those of a good man. Before regeneration, that is, so long as a man acts under the influence of the loves of self and of the world, he also transgresses the ten commandments.

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After a man has entered upon his regeneration, and leads a life of repentance, he strives, on the one hand, to cease from doing evil--that is, he is anxious to keep the laws of the decalogue; and, on the other hand, he is likewise anxious to do good works in harmony with the teachings of the Divine Word. Concerning these works Swedenborg says:--

While a man is in the state of repentance which constitutes the third state of regeneration, he speaks piously and devoutly, and produces good works which appear like the works of charity; but which are, nevertheless, inanimate, because the man thinks that they are wrought from himself. (A. C. 10).

During his life of repentance, the member of the Church, therefore, not only shuns the evil works which are forbidden in the decalogue, but he also performs the opposite, good works. In, these good works, however, there is contained the idea of merit and recompense, and these works are besides wrought in the light of mans first conscience, and thus in the light of an intellectual faith, in which there is contained a good deal of mans self-intelligence. On this account Swedenborg says, that these works are represented by inanimate objects, such as the tender herb; afterwards the herb yielding seed, and finally the tree bearing fruit.

While a man is doing the work of repentance, and shunning his evils as sins before God, he is thus already in the exercise of good works, and these works also are wrought in conformity with the truths of faith, which are established in his mind. Yet as these works are produced under the direction of truth, and not yet under the influence of good, that is, under the influence of the delight of good, these same works are done from obedience, and also from fear. In the doing of these works, therefore, a certain resistance and unwillingness have to be overcome. This unwillingness is caused by the natural man being still more or less under the influence of the old will--the old Adam, and thus under the influence of the hereditary loves of self and of the world.

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The particular, quality, however, with which these loves imbue the works produced by the natural man, consists of self-merit and recompense. These loves also impart a bias to the truths, under the direction of which the man produces his good works. This selfish, and hence this deteriorating duality, in the works produced by man during his period of repentance, can be removed only by an entire regeneration of the natural man.

This applies to works brought under the direction of the exterior truths taught in the literal sense of the Divine Word; as well as to those works which the member of the Church produces under the influence of the interior truths of the spiritual sense. Either truths, during the period of repentance, are more or less warped and tinged by a mans self-intelligence; and the works wrought under their direction are tainted Besides by self-merit and the idea, of recompense.

During the period of repentance, therefore, the ends from which a mans speech and his actions flow, are partly selfish and worldly; and these selfish and worldly ends are removed from his works during the regeneration of his natural man. After this work is finished, the man no longer acts from truth in the first place, but from good through truth, or from charity through faith.

This is the Lords doing in man; and this work He accomplishes through the luminaries which He establishes in mans conscience on the fourth day of creation. By charity, which is the greater luminary, and by the faith flowing from charity, which is the lesser luminary, the Lord regenerates the whole of a mans natural man, and thereby reduces everything there into a state of harmony with the spiritual man. As the natural man is thus, regenerated through the agency of the charity and faith of the spiritual man, the character of these two heavenly luminaries will have to be explained now more fully.

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d. The Doctrine of Charity.

158. Charity, according to Swedenborg, is the affection of good which is caused in man when good from the Lord flows in with him (A. C. 3765).

Charity, however, does not exist in man independently of faith; thus we read again:--

The good belonging to charity enters with man through the soul, but the truth belonging to faith enters through hearing. The former flows in from the Lord immediately; the latter mediately through the Word. The conjunction of the goon of charity with the truth of faith is effected in mans intentions. There the very good flowing in from the Lord adopts truth, appropriates it to itself, and thereby causes good with man to be good, and truth to be truth; or again, it causes charity to be charity, and faith to be faith. Apart from this conjunction charity is not charity but only natural goodness; nor is faith faith, but it is only a knowledge of such things as belong to faith; and in some cases it is a persuasion that a thing is so, for the sake of acquiring gain and honor (A. C. 7756, 7757).

Again we read:--

Truth when conjoined with good is no longer called truth, but good. So also faith when it is conjoined with charity is no longer called faith, but charity. The cause is, that a man then wills and does truth, and what he wills and does is called good (A. C. 7758).

As the good of charity has thus no existence independently of the truth of faith; therefore, Swedenborg further teaches:--

Charity contains within itself willing the truth and through willing the truth it contains within itself the understanding of the truth: for whoever is in charity has this understanding. But before a man attains to charity, he must first be in the understanding of the truth, afterwards in the willing of it;

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and finally he must be affected by the truth; and being affected by the truth, means charity (A. C. 3879).

The steps, therefore, by which a member of the Church comes into charity, according to Swedenborg, are as follow:--

Charity in its first origin is the affection of good, and because good loves truth, the affection of good produces the affection of truth; through this affection it produces the acknowledgment of truth, which is faith; through these steps in their series the affection of truth has its existence, and becomes charity. This then is the progression of charity in its origin, which is the affection of good: through faith which is the acknowledgment of the truth, it progresses towards its end, which is charity; the end is the act. It hence appears, how love, which is the affection of good, produces faith, which is the same with the acknowledgment of the truth, and through this it produces charity, which is the same as the act of love through faith.

But to state it more clearly: Good is nothing else than use; wherefore charity in its first origin is the affection of use; and because use loves the means, the affection of use produces the affection of the means, whence results their knowledge. Through these steps in their series the affection of uses has its existence, and becomes charity (D. of F., nos. 13, 14).

The essence of charity, however, Swedenborg describes as follows:--

Charity consists in willing and doing good to another, without any view to self, but from the delight of affection (A. C. 4538).

And again:--

The affection of charity towards the neighbor, is the affection of good and truth, and the acknowledgement of self that it is evil and false--yea, the very neighbor is good and truth; and when any one is affected by good and truth, he has charity (A. C. 4956).

But concerning those who act from charity, we read:--

With those who do good from an internal affection, there is charity in every single thing which they think slid speak, and which they will and do. It may be said that such a man and an angel are charity (H. D. 104).

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As regards the outward manifestation, and hence the life of charity, we read:--

The life of charity consists in willing well, and in doing well to the neighbor; in acting in every work, and likewise every function, from a principle of what is just and right, and of what is good and true. In a word, the life of charity consists in the doing of uses (A. C. 8257).

159. Charity, according to Swedenborg, is thus synonymous with the love of the neighbor, and consequently, is as manifold as the neighbor who is to be loved. Yet no one can be endowed with charity, and hence with the genuine love of the neighbor, except in proportion as he repents of his evil works, and thus in proportion as he strives to obey the commandments of the decalogue. Charity, however, does not love the person of the neighbor in the first place, but the good and the true, and hence the heavenly character of the neighbor. In such a character it delights, and to such a character it desires to offer its kind offices, and thereby to help it on in its angelic career. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

It is one thing to love the neighbor from the good or the use which is in him towards ourselves and another thing to love the neighbor from the good or use which is in ourselves towards him. An evil man also can love the neighbor from the good or the use which is in the neighbor towards himself: but only a good man can love the neighbor from the good or the use which is in himself towards the neighbor: for the latter loves good from good, that is, from the affection of use he loves use. The distinction between these two is described by the Lord in Matt. v. 32, 33, et seq. Many say, I love him because he loves me, and does good to me; but loving him on that account only, is not loving him interiorly unless the person himself who loves is in good, and from that good loves the good of the other. This person is in charity, but the former in friendship and friendship is not charity. He who loves the neighbor from charity, conjoins himself with his good, and not with his person, except so far and so long as he is in good, such a man is spiritual, and loves the neighbor spiritually.

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But he who loves another only from friendship, conjoins himself with the person, and at the same time with the evil of another. Such a one after death cannot be separated without difficulty from the person who is in evil; while the former can be separated. Charity does all this through faith; because faith is truth, and a, man who through truth is in charity, examines and sees what should be loved; he also, in loving and in doing good, looks to the quality of a use (D. of F., no. 21).

Charity, thus, is identical with the angelic love of the neighbor, in which there is no idea of recompense or reward; for charity finds its reward in the very doing of good.

Charity, as we have seen above, is never alone, but is always conjoined with the truth of faith; and it increases in the heart in proportion to the increase of the truth of faith in the mind. Charity, however, is the very reverse of pedantic; it looks at the truths of faith not from without but from within and thus it perceives the very purpose for which a truth is given; and this purpose it serves. Charity, therefore, does not slavishly cling to the letter of a truth or a law, but always examines the letter in the light of the spirit.

Charity cannot help manifesting itself by good works; but it is not identical with good works. It is, however, identical with mercy, and is always present in deeds of mercy.

Charity, in the bestowal of its goods or in the exercise of its uses, is unbounded. Its uses, indeed, begin at home, and from home they extend to the town in which a person lives, end thence to the country in general, and finally to the whole of humanity. And, on the other hand, the neighbor in a higher sense to whom charity loves to perform uses is the Church in its various aspects, in which it includes the Church in the individual, the Church in a smaller or larger society, and finally the Church universal, which consists of the Good who are scattered throughout the whole earth.

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On this subject Swedenborg says:--

As charity is the love to the neighbor, it shall also be said what the neighbor is. The neighbor in a natural sense, is man in a composite, and in an individual capacity. Man in a composite capacity is the Church, the country and society; and man in an individual capacity is a fellow citizen, who in the Word is called a brother, and a companion. But good is the neighbor in the spiritual sense, and because use is the equivalent of good, use is the neighbor in the spiritual sense. Everyone will acknowledge that use is our spiritual neighbor; for who loves any one solely as to his person? He loves him for that which is in him--for that which causes him to be of such and such a character; hence he loves him for his quality; because this is the man. That quality, however, which is loved, is the use [of the person], which is called good; wherefore, this good is the neighbor. As the Word in its bosom is spiritual, therefore loving good means loving the neighbor in the spiritual sense (D. of F., no. 20).

In loving the Church--the Lords kingdom on earth, and in performing uses to it, charity gives evidence of its descent from the love of the Lord. For by loving the neighbor in the highest sense, charity, at the same time, expresses its love to the Lord. This is shown by Swedenborg in the following passage:--

Love to the Lord, is properly love; and love towards the neighbor is properly charity. Love to the Lord is not possible with man, except in charity. In charity the Lord conjoins Himself with man. Since faith in its essence is charity, it follows that no one can have faith in the Lord unless he is in charity. Conjunction takes place from charity through faith; and through faith there is conjunction of man with the Lord; for conjunction is reciprocal (D. of F., no. 22).

In conclusion, Swedenborg gives the following compendious definition of Charity:--

I. Every one becomes the participant of Christian charity for this purpose, that he may perform faithfully the duties of his function; for thus, if he shuns evils as sins, he daily does good works, and he is himself his own use in the body general; in this wise the general [weal] is cared for, as well as every one in particular.

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II. The remaining things which are not properly works of charity, either signs, benefactions, (Doctr. of Life, no. 114).

By signs of charity Swedenborg understands acts of piety and external worship in public and in private (D. of Ch., viii.); by benefactions, giving to the poor and assisting public institutions (T. C. R. 425, etc.); but by debts of charity he means all that a man owes to the State and the Church, and also all home-duties (T. C. R. 429, etc.)

e. The Doctrine of Faith.

160. The definition of faith, according to Swedenborg, is as follows:--

Faith is an interior affection which consists in this, that a person desires to know from the heart what is true and what is good; and indeed not for the sake of doctrine as an end, but for the sake of life. This affection conjoins itself with the affection of charity when a person desires to act according to the truth; in this wise truth itself conjoins itself with charity (A. C. 8034).

In another place he says:--

Faith is the affection of truth from willing truth because it is true (H. D. 112).

And again:--

Faith does not become faith with man unless it becomes spiritual; and it becomes spiritual when it becomes a matter of love; and it becomes a matter of love when a man loves to live truth and good; that is, when he loves to live according to those things which are commanded in the Word (H. D. 111).

Faith, therefore, becomes faith only when it becomes conjoined in man with charity. On this subject Swedenborg says further:--

Charity conjoins itself with faith in a man when he wills what he knows and perceives. Willing is a matter of charity; but knowing and perceiving a matter of faith. Faith enters into man and becomes his, when he wills and loves what he knows and perceives; meanwhile it is outside of man (H. D. 110).

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161. Concerning the genesis of faith in man, Swedenborg says in a general way:--

Faith is formed by a mans approaching the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and applying them to life. (T. C. R. 347).

These points he afterwards considers separately, in this wise:--

(1). That a saving faith is obtained by approaching the Lord appears from these words of the Lord in John, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life (vi. 47).

(2). But that faith is formed by a mans learning truths from the Word, he shows by these considerations; namely

Because faith in its essence is truth, and because all things which enter into faith are truths; therefore, faith is nothing else than a complex of truths which shine in a mans mind. For truths teach not only that we ought to believe; but also in whom, and what we should believe. But truths should be taken from the Word; because all truths which are conducive to salvation are in the Word. And there is efficacy in these truths, because they mere given by the Lord, and thus are inscribed on the universal heaven. When a man, therefore, learns truths from the Word, he comes thereby into communion and association with the angels (Ibid).

(3). That faith is further formed by a mans living according to truths, Swedenborg shows by this, that

Spiritual life is a life according to truths; and truths do not actually live until they are in deeds or works. Truths which are abstracted from deeds are matters of thought only, which, unless they become also matters of life, are simply in the threshold with man, end are not interiorly in him; for the will is the man himself, and thought is the man only so far, and in such a manner as it has adjoined itself to the will (Ibid).

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In another place Swedenborg describes the formation of faith from charity, as follows:--

It shall also be stated how faith is formed from charity: Every man has a natural mind, and a spiritual mind the natural mind is for the world, the spiritual mind for heaven. As to his understanding man is in both, but not as to his will, until he shuns evils as sins, and holds them in aversion. As soon as he does this his spiritual mind is also opened for the will; and when it is opened, then spiritual heat flows out of heaven into the natural mind, which beet in its essence is charity: and this heat causes the knowledges of truth and which are there to be alive, and out of these it forms faith.

From these few remarks it may be seen that the knowledges of truth and good do not belong to faith, before a man is in charity; but that they are a store-house, out of which faith may be formed. The knowledges of truth with a regenerate person are truths; likewise the knowledges of good; for the knowledge of good is in the understanding, but the affection of good in the will and that which is in the understanding is called truth, but that which is in the will is called good (D. F. 32, 33).

162. Both faith and charity a man has to acquire by his own energy. He acquires faith by procuring truths from the Divine Word; and he acquires charity by living according to the precepts of the decalogue; and he acquires the life of faith and charity, by approaching the Lord who is life itself. (See T. C. R. 356-358.) Still a man from himself can acquire only natural faith, and natural charity; yet both become spiritual in proportion as the man approaches the Lord. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

A man, from himself, can procure only a natural faith; which is a persuasion that a thing is so, because a man of authority has said so. From himself also he can acquire only natural charity which consists in doing works with the view of obtaining favor for the sake of some kind of recompense. Mans self is prevalent in both of these, and not yet life from the Lord. And yet man, by both, prepares himself for becoming a receptacle of the Lord; and in proportion as he thus prepares himself, the Lord enters and causes his natural faith to become spiritual faith, and his natural charity to become spiritual charity, and hence living.

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These effects are produced when a man approaches the Lord as the God of heaven and earth.... It thence follows, as a conclusion, that when a man prepares himself naturally for the reception of the Lord, the Lord causes all things with that man to become interiorly spiritual, and thus living (T. C. R. 359).

From this passage it follows, that although the good of charity enters into man from within, and the truth of faith from without; still, the spiritual affection of charity--the great luminary, is not established in a mans interior plane of conscience, unless he has first acquired natural charity by his own exertions. This natural charity, together with natural faith, the Lord raises out of the natural part of the member of the Church into his spiritual part, and there imbues them with a spiritual and saving quality--when the man approaches the Lord as the only God of heaven and earth, and prostrates his whole self before Him.

163. As regards the progression of faith in man, Swedenborg says that faith is first of the memory, which faith he calls historical, and also scientific; afterwards, it becomes faith in the understanding, which he calls intellectual; and, lastly, it becomes faith at heart, which faith he calls the faith of love, and this faith is saving. See A. C. 30.

This faith of love begins in a mans interiors on the fourth day of creation; and is called the lesser luminary; it is also said to rule at night, because, like the moon, faith has no inherent light of its own; for as the moon receives all its light from the sun, so faith receives all its light from charity. As a general thing light, and thus day, prevails with man in his spiritual part; and night in his natural part. For the light of nature when stimulated in man by the loves of self and of the world, extinguishes the spiritual light of his soul; but all spiritual light in the natural man is derived from the faith flowing from love or charity; wherefore, faith, the lesser light, is said to rule by night.

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164. The process by which the natural man is to be reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man, takes place first in the intellectual part of the natural man, and then in its will-part. And as by this means the natural man from having been spiritually dead, is made spiritually alive; therefore, the condition of the natural man, and of the works which it then produces, is represented by the living creatures which are brought forth on the fifth and sixth days. The vivification of mans natural understanding is represented by the fishes which the waters cause to creep forth, as well as by the birds which fly above the faces of the earth, on the fifth day; while by the living soul on the land, that is, the domestic animals and the animals of the field, are represented the spiritual affections, by which the will of man is vivified on the sixth day. This vivification of the natural understanding and the natural will is equivalent to the regeneration of the outward or natural man; and this vivification, and hence the regeneration of the natural man is brought about by the agency of the two great luminaries of charity and of faith flowing from charity, which are established in the internal man, on the fourth day.

In order, however, that charity, and faith flowing from charity may be received by the outward, natural man, it has to be prepared for their reception. For ends flowing from the loves of self and of the world still domineer there; and ideas, the outbirths of mans self-intelligence, are contesting the authority of the truths revealed by the Lord out of heaven. Wherefore, neither the pure good of charity, nor the light of true faith flowing from charity are as yet received in the natural man. But the result of all this is that on the fourth day there is indeed heavenly light in the internal, spiritual man, and thus in the plane of interior conscience; but a mist of darkness and obscurity still prevails on many important points of revelation in the external, natural man below;

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and this obscurity continues until a receptive state is brought about there.

For this purpose media, that is, mediatory states have to be provided, by which the natural man is prepared for the reception of spiritual life and light from the internal man. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

When a man is being regenerated, then the internal man is to be conjoined with the external man; consequently, the goods and truths which are of the internal man are to be conjoined with the goods and truths which are of the external man; for a man is a man from goods and truths. These two kinds of goods and truths cannot be conjoined without the help of media. Media are such things as derive something from the one part, and something from the other part. Such media of conjunction are necessary because the natural man from itself does not agree at all with the spiritual man yen, it disagrees to such a point as to be altogether contradictory to it. For a natural man looks to himself and to the world; but a spiritual man does not look to himself and the world, except so far as it is profitable for the promotion of uses in the spiritual world, he thus looks to their serviceableness, and he loves this quality from a principle of use and for the sake of the end. A natural man seems to himself to have life, when he reaches posts of dignity, and arrives at supereminence over others, but a spiritual man appears to himself to have life in humility, and in being the least. We does not despise dignities, provided by them, as means, he can be of use to the neighbor to society in general, and to the Church; and he does not reflect upon the posts of honor to which he is raised, for his own sake, but for the sake of the uses which are his ends. A natural man is in a state of bliss when he surpasses others in wealth, and possesses the riches of the world: but a spiritual man is in his state of blessedness when he is in the possession of the knowledges of truth end good, which constitute wealth in his eyes; and still more when he is in the exercise of good according to truths, and yet he does not despise wealth, because through wealth he is able to act, and to be in the world. From these few things it is rendered evident that the state of the natural man and the state of the spiritual man are contradictory to each other by their ends, but that they are still able to be conjoined; which takes place when those things which are of the external man are subordinate and subservient to the ends of the internal man.

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In order, therefore, that a man may become spiritual, it is necessary that those things which are of the external man should be reduced into a state of obedience; that, consequently, the ends of self and the world should be put off, and ends for the neighbor and the Lords kingdom put on; and it is impossible for the former ends to be put off, and for the latter ends to be put on, except through media (A. C. 3913).

There are several media by which the external man is conjoined with the internal man, and thus by which the external man is reduced into a state of correspondence and harmony with the internal man. The first of these media is the principle of affirmation; the second, temptation; the third, the good of faith; and the fourth, the delights of the affections of good and truth.

These media and the influence which they exert on the regeneration of the natural man we shall now discuss seriatim.

f. The Doctrine of Affirmation, or Authority.

165. The principle involved in the Doctrine of Affirmation, which is identical with that of Authority is this, that the member of the Church affirms the truth of all that has been revealed by the Lord; and that he accepts the Truth of revelation as the standard and criterion of that truth, by which he intends to be directed in all his speculations on spiritual or religious subjects.

The principle of affirmation or authority does not imply that a man should abdicate the use of his reason in spiritual matters; but it acknowledges that the Infinite, and hence everything Divine, is utterly beyond the reach of mans finite reason; that therefore, from himself, unaided by revelation, it is impossible for man to have any ideas on Divine subjects. This same principle also affirms that there is an absolute break between what is spiritual and natural;

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that, therefore, by no stretch of the imagination, and by no artifice whatever is it possible for a man to bridge over this break, and thus by ideas drawn from space and time, and hence unaided by revelation, to obtain any information concerning that which is purely spiritual; that this, in fact, is as impossible as for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

The opposite principle, which consists in a belief that by means of ideas drawn from space and time a man is able to compass spiritual and Divine things, lies as the bottom of the claim, that human reason is the arbiter of truth on spiritual and Divine things, end that it is the judge of revealed truth.

During the first period of regeneration, the human national, the outbirth of mans self-intelligence, has a share in the formation of mans first conscience, and also in the performance of the works of repentance. And this quality, that is, the additions from the human Rational, have to be eliminated from conscience, and also from all the thoughts of a man on spiritual and Divine subjects, if he desires to progress from the first period of regeneration into the second. So long, indeed, as the member of the Church places his finite reason above the truths of revelation, in the language of Scripture, he is amid the vessels in the house. But when he accepts the principle of affirmation and authority; that is, the principle that revealed Truth is far beyond the reach of the human national which is formed by ideas drawn from space and time--in the same proportion he is able to get on the house-top, or on the roof of the house, and thus from a state of truth into a state of spiritual good.

He also who sets the human national above the Truth revealed by the Lord, is like the apostle Thomas, who said, Except I shall see in the hands of the Lord the print of the nails, and put my fingers into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe;

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while concerning him who accepts the principle of affirmation and submits his own rational thought to the teaching of revelation, the Lord says, Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

166. This principle of affirmation Swedenborg defines thus:--

The affirmative principle of truth and good is the first thing of all, when faith and charity commence with a man (A. C. 3923)--that is, when they are being established in his outward, natural man, and thus are brought within his sphere of consciousness.

And again he says:--

The first medium affirms, that is, is affirmative of, internal truth; namely, that it is so. When truth becomes affirmative, then a man is in the beginning of regeneration. Good from the internal operates, and causes affirmation. This good cannot flow into a negative state, nor into one which is doubtful, before it becomes affirmative. Afterwards, this good manifests itself by affection; namely, by this, that a man is affected by the truth, or begins to be delighted with it; first, by knowing it, and afterwards by doing it. As for instance: unless the truth that the Lord is the salvation of the human race becomes affirmative with a man, none of all those things which he has learned concerning the Lord from the Word or in the Church, and which are in his natural memory among scientifics, can be conjoined with his internal man that is, with those things there which become with him matters of faith; thus affection also cannot flow in, and not even into the generals this subject, which are conducive to mans salvation. But when this truth becomes affirmative, then innumerable things become present, and are filled with the good which flows in. For good constantly flows in from the Lord, but where there is not any affirmative ground, there it is not received. Wherefore, an affirmative principle or state is the first medium, and, as it were, the first dwelling-place of good which flows in from the Lord. The case is similar with all the remaining things which are called matters of faith (A. C. 3913).

The principle of affirmation, as we see here, is caused by the descent of good into the natural man, and through this good the Lord operates upon the natural man.

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Wherefore, affirmation is caused by the Lords presence with man. According to Swedenborg, it is caused in this wise:--

It is merely a universal principle of affirmation whereby a man is imbued by the Lord: namely, that the Word is the Word, that the Lord is the Lord, that Providence is in the minutest singulars. If a person is in this state, although he should only dimly know that this is so, innumerable affirming considerations are insinuated by the Lord (S. D. 4533).

But the effect which an affirmative state has on the mind, Swedenborg describes thus:--

They who are in an affirmative state, that is, with whom an affirmative principle reigns universally, reject scruples from fallacies which are opposed to truth; and if there be any things which they do not comprehend, they reject them to the sides, saying, that they do not yet understand them, and still remain in the truth of faith (A. C. 6479).

And again he describes the character of the affirmative state thus:--

The affirmative principle consists in our thinking and believing within ourselves that those things which belong to doctrine from the Word are true, because the Lord has said so (A. C. 2568).

167. This is the position which the Church should occupy in respect to the things belonging to doctrine from the Word. The Church, therefore, should take up an affirmative position in respect to the things taught by doctrine drawn from the Word or else the Lord cannot be present in the Church and speed on its growth.

Doctrine from the Word, consequently, and thus the Lord from whom all true doctrine comes, should be the governing principle with a member, and especially a minister, of the Church, and not matters of philosophy and natural science. For true order, according to Swedenborg, is as follows:--

Order consists in this that what is celestial shall flow into what is spiritual, what is spiritual into what is rational; and what is rational into what is scientific. When this order prevails, then the spiritual is adapted by the celestial; the rational by the spiritual;

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and the scientific by the rational. The scientific then becomes in general an ultimate vessel; or what amounts to the same, things scientific, specifically and particularly become ultimate or last vessels, which correspond to rational things, these to spiritual, and spiritual to celestial things (A. C. 1476).

This same principle Swedenborg enunciates, where he discusses the watchword of the New Church, Nunc Licet! Now it is permitted to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith (T. C. R. 508). We read there:--

In the New Church it is allowed to enter and penetrate with the understanding into all its mysteries, and also to confirm them through the word. The cause of this is, that its doctrinals are continuous truths disclosed by the Lord through the Word and confirmations of these truths through rational arguments have this effect, that the understanding is more and more opened above, and is thus elevated into the light in which are the angels of heaven; and this light in its essence is the truth and the acknowledgment of the Lord as the God of heaven and earth shines in this light in its glory. This is understood the inscription:Nunc licet! ... For it is a canon the New Church that falsities close the understanding, and truths open the same.

Doctrine, therefore, and, consequently, the doctrines of the New Church, which are continuous truths disclosed by the Lord through the Word, should come first, and rational deductions afterwards.

168. This principle, however, does not mean that the members of the Church should believe blindly the dogmatic teachings of the rulers of the Church; but it affirms that the members of the Church shall believe God, and hence the truths disclosed by the Lord through the Word, and that in the light of these truths they shall judge of things rational and scientific, as well as of the teachings of the rulers of the Church. This principle Swedenborg declares strenuously in the following passage:--

Those who are in the spiritual affection of the truth are in an internal acknowledgment of the truth.

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And as the angels are in that affection, they totally reject the dogma that the understanding is under the obedience of faith. For they say what is a belief without seeing whether a thing be true? And if any one says that we ought still to believe, they answer: Do you consider yourself God whom I ought to believe, or do you think me so insane as to believe an assertion in which I do not see any truth? Cause me to see the truth. Then that dogmatizer retreats (D. F. 4).

As little as the New Church is opposed to a rational consideration of its doctrines by the members of the Church, just so little is it opposed to a cultivation of the natural sciences by its members. But what the New Church exacts is this, that the truths disclosed by the Lord through the Word should come first, and facts drawn from the world of space and time last; or what amounts to the same thing, that Divine Wisdom in the estimation of the members of the Church should come first, and human science last.

On the relation between science and revelation Swedenborg expresses himself thus:--

Learning the sciences is not denied to any one, because they are useful for life, and interesting; neither is it denied to any one who is in faith, to think and speak as the learned do in the world yet he must do so from this principle, that the Word of God should be believed, and that spiritual and celestial truths should be confirmed as far as possible by natural truths, in terms familiar to the learned world. Wherefore, a mans principle should be from the Lord, and not from himself. The former is life, but the latter death (A. C. 129).

The principle of affirmation protects faith in man, and preserves his belief in the Divinity of the Sacred Scripture; while those who consult science in regard to the doctrine of Divine Truth, at last land in atheism, infidelity, and naturalism, as is clearly shown by Swedenborg in what follows:--

Exploring the mysteries of faith by things scientific is as impossible as for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, and as for a rib to govern the purest fibrils of the chest and the heart. So gross, and still grosser, is what is sensuous and scientific in respect to whet is spiritual and celestial.

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When any one wishes to investigate only the hidden things of nature, which are innumerable, he scarcely discovers one, and during his investigations, as is well known, he lapses into falsities. How much more so if he wishes to investigate the hidden things of spiritual and celestial life, were ten thousands of things stand for one thing in the invisible part of nature. Those, therefore, who consult things sensuous and scientific in matters that are to be believed, not only rush into doubts, but even into denial; that is, into dense darkness and when they rush into darkness, they also rush into all lusts. For when they believe the false, they also do the false; and when they do not believe in the existence of what is spiritual and celestial, they believe only in the existence of what is bodily and worldly; and thus they love whatever belongs to self and the world; and hence from falsity they love lusts and evils (A. C. 233).

169. The principle of affirmation exists with every person during childhood and youth. Thus Swedenborg says:--

During youth, when man is first imbued with goods and truths, every one is kept by the Lord in an affirmative principle, that what is said by parents and teachers is true (A. C. 2689).

This principle of affirmation changes, as a man approaches adult age; for he enters then upon the use of his own rational faculty, and queries whether what he has been taught by his parents and teachers is true. A principle of doubt is thus beginning to be introduced into the early affirmative state of youth; and this doubt becomes intensified, in proportion as the man puts his trust in his own rational thought, and places the findings of his own reason above Divine Revelation--in proportion, therefore, as he desires to rule himself, and is unwilling to be led and directed by the Lord alone in the teachings of the Divine Word. The affirmative and negative states are thus essentially states of the affections, and hence of a mans love; and in proportion as he loves the Lord and His kingdom in the first place, and self and the world in the second, in the same proportion his affirmative principle becomes strong; but so long as the loves of self and the world exert a controlling influence over him, so long he is in a negative state, and impugns the Divinity, and hence the infallibility, of the Lords teachings in the Divine Word, and in those doctrines which are drawn from the Divine Word.

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This desire of ruling himself, follows a man even when he enters upon the life of regeneration; and, indeed, it attends him during the whole of the first three stages of regeneration, which are represented by the first three days of creation. During this period the member of the Church accepts intellectually or theoretically the doctrine that all good and truth come from the Lord, and that from man comes only what is evil and false; but practically, that is, in the life of his will and in the life of his thoughts, he accents only so much of the Divine Truth, as he can see to be true in the light of his limited rational powers. The struggle during the remaining stages of regeneration; that is, during those which are represented by the fourth, fifth and sixth days of creation, consists in a plenary submission of a mans own will and understanding, to the Infinite Love and Wisdom of the Lord. This the Lord himself has taught, where He says, No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matth., vi., 24). Swedenborg says:--

The man who is being regenerated by repeated desolations and trials is at last brought into such a state, that he no longer desires to be his own, but the Lords; and after he has become the Lords he comes into such a frame of mind that when he is left to himself, he grieves and is seized with anxiety.... In order that the Lord may make anyone blessed and happy, He requires a total submission; that is, He requires that a man shall not he partly his own, and partly the Lords. For then there would be two masters, whom he cannot serve at the same time (Matth. vi., 24). In respect to this total submission, see also, Matth. x. 37; John, xii, 26, 26; Matth. viii., 21, 24, etc., (A. C. 6139).

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This total submission to the Lord on a mans part, is involved in the regeneration of the natural man; and the first medium, by which this is brought about, is the principle of affirmation, that everything that comes from the Lord is good and true, and everything that comes from man is evil and false. The corollary of this is, that a man shall put his first and only trust in that which the Lord teaches in the doctrines of the Divine Word, and that these Divine teachings are to be confirmed and ratified by the application of a mans own rational powers.

170. The principle of affirmation, however, does not limit itself to a merely intellectual affirmation that the Word of God is Divine Truth, and that the doctrine drawn thence is the criterion of the Truth for the Lords Church on earth, and hence for the members of the Church--but it also affirms that Divine Truth shall not only be believed without any mental reservation whatsoever, but also that it shall be applied by the natural man in all the words he speaks and all the deeds he performs. That this is what Swedenborg understands by affirmation appears plainly from what follows:--

The second degree of affirmation or acknowledgment is from affection; for affection must be in acknowledgment, that is, in affirmation.... Apart from affection truths do not live; but, however, a person may know them, he does not love the neighbor, but himself instead (A. C. 3916).

And again he says:--

The good of life and the holiness of faith are the first general things of the Church, that have to be affirmed or acknowledged before a man can be regenerated that is, become a Church. Unless these points are affirmed and acknowledged the remaining things which are of faith and life cannot be received at all hence also they cannot be affirmed and still less acknowledged. For if any one affirms in himself faith only, and not the holy element of faith, that is, charity--for charity is the holy element of faith--and if he does not affirm this through the good of life, that is, through the works of charity, he cannot taste any longer the essence of faith, because he rejects it (A. C. 3923).

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These principles then, that is, the good of life and the holiness of faith, are the forces which during the regeneration of the natural man press down into it from the spiritual men. But a reception is prepared for these forces in the natural man below by the principle of affirmation; that is, by a mans acknowledging the good of life and the truth of faith as those spiritual forces, by which the natural man is to be entirely regenerated. For by affirming and acknowledging them in this manner, the member of the Church identifies himself with these forces, and resolves that their bidding shall be carried out in the natural man; that is, in every day life. This, however, means that the man shall be willing to enter into a mortal strife with those powers that have hitherto exercised sway in his natural man. These powers in him have been subdued outwardly by the work of repentance, that is, they are kept within bounds, and are no longer allowed to transgress the ten commandments, and thus to do evil. Wherefore, the member of the Church, after passing the period of active repentance of his evil works, performs outwardly good works, and professes the doctrines of the Church, and hence the truths of faith; yet, in the production of these works and in the profession of these truths, mans hereditary loves of self and of the world are still more or less active; wherefore, the man still acts under the influence of the evil spirits of hell. When, therefore, the member of the Church affirms and acknowledges that the goods of life from which he acts, and the truths of faith from which he speaks, shall henceforth flow solely from the principle of charity and faith from the Lord, then the evil spirits assail these principles which are affirmed and acknowledged by the man. This then is the origin of that spiritual warfare called temptation, which constitutes the second medium, whereby the external man of the member of the Church is conjoined with the internal man;

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and whereby the external man is created into the image and likeness of the internal man.

As the member of the Church, however has been experiencing states of temptation during the whole preceding course of his regeneration; and as he does not enter into temptations for the first time, at the turning-point of his regenerate life, that is, when he is preparing to act from good, and no longer from truth--it becomes necessary for us to define more particularly the first period of regeneration, during which a man acts from truth, and which Swedenborg understands by the term of reformation; and to compare it carefully with the second period of regeneration, or with regeneration proper, when a man acts from a principle of good. Then also we shell be able to understand precisely the character of those temptations, into which a man enters, when he adopts the principle of affirmation, that is, when he acknowledges the authority of the interior truth of the Divine Word.

g. The Doctrine of Reformation.

171. Swedenborg says:--

There are two states into which a man must enter, and which he has to pass through, when from natural he becomes spiritual. The first state is called reformation, the second regeneration. In the first state man looks from his natural to a spiritual condition. and desires this in the second state he becomes spiritual-natural. The first state is formed by means of truths which are to become truths of faith from these he looks to charity. The second state is formed by means of the goods of charity, and from these he enters into the truths of faith. Or what amounts to the same thing, the first state is a state of thought from the understanding but the second state is a state of love from the will. When this second state begins and progresses, a change is brought about in the mind; for a turn, an inversion then takes place, because the love of the will then flows into the understanding, and operates upon it, and leads it to think in harmony and in agreement with it.

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Wherefore in proportion as the good of love then takes the first part, and the truth of faith the second, in the same proportion the man is spiritual, and a, new creature, and then he acts from charity and speaks from faith; and then he feels the good of charity, and perceives the truth of faith, and then he is in the Lord and in peace, and thus is regenerate (T. C. R. 571).

The course of Regeneration taken in its widest sense, in which it includes both reformation and regeneration proper, embraces thus two distinct states or processes. At the beginning of the first state a man is natural, and is at the bottom, as it were, of a hill or mountain. In order to become spiritual, he has to reach the mountain-top, where charity and faith dwell; and the means for reaching it are the knowledges of good and truth which are taught in the Divine Word. So long as a man is simply acquainted with these knowledges he remains natural, and at the bottom of the mountain; but in proportion as he applies these truths to the life, and shuns the evils of the loves of self and of the world, he ascends the mountain; and as he perseveres in his work of repentance, charity and faith are gradually established in his internal man, which is regenerated by this means. When the internal man is regenerated, then the mountain-top is reached; and now the natural man requires to be regenerated through the spiritual--that is, the internal man. This is done during the down-hill journey. During the down-hill journey the truths of faith of the natural man, with the member of the Church, gradually become goods of faith; and in proportion as they become so, a mans state is inverted, and from the love of truth he passes into the love of good; and when he is in the love of good, he is in the delight of doing good from the Lord, and no longer from himself. The considerations of self and of the world are now completely banished from his works. His works are from all wrought in harmony with the teachings of the Divine Word. The truths of faith with him have become goods of life; and he has thereby been created into an image and likeness of God.

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Thus is effected the regeneration of the man of the spiritual Church, who is now ready to become celestial.

172. Let us in the light of this summary of regeneration specify the particular work which is wrought on each of the six days of creation. Before man enters upon the work of regeneration, he is natural, and at the bottom of the mountain. He is acquainted with many truths about heaven and God from instruction by the Church; but he does not think of evils in the light of their being sine. By habit and training he performs good works on the moral and civil plane; but those works are essentially selfish and worldly.

(1). At the opening of the first day, he becomes conscious of the distinction between Good and evil; he recognizes that there is a life after death; and he acknowledges in his thoughts that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven and earth.

(2). On the second day he is inspired with a desire to become fully acquainted with the truths of Divine Revelation; and in proportion as his store of knowledge on spiritual subjects increases, he begins to cast longing eyes towards the top of the mountain, and from natural he desires to become spiritual. A division now takes place in his mind between his knowledge on natural and spiritual subjects; and out of the abundance of his spiritual knowledge, he matures principles of thought, and principles of action. He girds his loins, and prepares to ascend the mountain. Conscience is now beginning to be organized in him.

(3). On the third day, the member of the Church becomes convinced that in order to become spiritual and to reach the mountain-top, he must shun the evils which are forbidden in the decalogue. He recognizes now the existence of sin, and perceives that such and such a thing is sin.

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He examines himself in the light which are forbidden of the decalogue and resolves not to do certain evils, because they are forbidden by the Lord in the Divine Word. He prays to the Lord, and reads and studies the Divine Word and the doctrines of the Church. At the same time he takes an interest in the work of the Church; he talks piously and devoutly, and is more attentive to the duties of his calling. He is now laboriously wending his way up the mountain.

(4). As the member of the Church progresses in the work of repentance, and not only watches his words and deeds, but also the intentions from which they spring; and as he studiously compares the tenor of his life with the truths of the Divine Word, but, especially also, se he becomes more intelligent in the reception of these truths, and distinctly recognizes wherein consists his duty in his life in the world, light on spiritual subjects increases and becomes more intensified in his mind. He is now in the love of truth for its own sake, and his only desire is that the Lords will as it is done in heaven--in the internal man, shall also be done on earth--in the external man. He has now reached the mountain-top; and the luminaries of charity and faith are kindled in his soul.

(5). Self and the world, which thus far have been restrained and rendered quiescent in the natural man by a course of repentance, have now to be expelled from it; that is, from the centre of the natural man, they have to be relegated to its sides. For this purpose charity and faith have to descend from the internal into the external man; and this they are able to do by flowing into, and taking up their abode in, those things of the natural man which thoroughly agree with the goods and truths of the internal man. Such receptive things in the natural man are all those knowledges of good and truth, end hence all those scientifics which have previously been stored up there from the Divine Word, end from the doctrines which are derived thence.

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These scientifics, or these matters of knowledge, have now to be freed from, and to be purified of every admixture of mans own national, and of all states of self and of the world. For this purpose the greater part of these knowledges or scientifics, in proportion as the member of the Church approaches the mountain-top, are first of all removed out of the sphere of his natural consciousness so that there is an actual state of famine in his interiors, in respect to the knowledges of good and truth. The member of the Church, while in this state, sometimes seems to have lost the light of perception, even as regards the most general common-place subjects taught by the Church, and in the Writings of the Church; and yet the Lord is even then making preparation in his soul for the regeneration of his natural man, and for the restoration to him of these scientifics in a heavenly order. Pharaohs dream of the seven fat and the seven lean kine, and also of the seven full and the seven parched ears of corn, is now being fulfilled in respect to this man, which process includes also the manner in which the corn stored up in the granaries of Egypt by Joseph, is doled out to the Egyptians during the seven years of famine. This restoration to the member of the Church of the knowledges of good and truth in the order of heaven, and thus in true spiritual order, takes place on the fifth day of creation; and this knowledge or these scientifics become now a foothold in the natural man for the faith of the internal man; and it is in this wise, that the faith flowing from charity of the internal man, is brought within the range of vision of the natural man. This restoration to the member of the Church of the knowledges of good and truth, which is equivalent to their being enlightened in the mind by spiritual light, and to spiritual life being imparted to them, is represented by the creation of the living creatures which creep forth from the waters on the fifth day, and of the birds which multiply then on earth.

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But the common result of the work of regeneration which is wrought on the fifth day is, that the truths of faith, and thus all the interior doctrines of the Divine Word taught by the Church, become living realities to the members of the Church, and that they are ever present in their minds, directing them in all their words and deeds.

(6). All the truths from the Divine Word and the doctrines of the Church, which on the fifth-day have become matters of faith with the members of the Church, are now to become goods of faith with them; that is, they have to be applied by them to their outward life, and for this purpose all the goods of remains which have been withdrawn from the natural man are gradually restored to it. Yet both the fixing of faith in the scientifics, and the ultimation of charity in the works of the natural man, and the restoration to the natural man both of the truths and goods of remains, are the result of a long continued internal strife between the spiritual and the natural men; and thus between the angels of Heaven, who reside with the members of the Church in the charity and faith of their internal man, and the evil spirits of Hell who have taken possession of everything in their natural man which belongs to the loves of self and of the world. All those persons with whom the angels of Heaven prove victorious; with whom faith therefore is established in the knowledges and scientifics of their natural man, and with whom charity is becoming the motive power of all their good works, enter upon the sixth day of their regeneration; and with them the earth of their external man brings forth the living creature after its kind, the beast and the moving thing, and the living beast of the earth, after its kind.

173. If now we analyze closely the whole work of regeneration as it is laid down here, it is easy to see that this work embraces essentially three distinct operations:

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first, the establishment of Divine Truth in the internal man, and afterwards through the internal in the external man; secondly, the shunning of the evils forbidden in the decalogue, and thus repenting of the evils which flow from the loves of self and of the world; and thirdly, the establishment of charity in the external man, and the doing of the works of charity in the light of faith. The first of these operations is called reformation; the second repentance; and the third regeneration proper.

In reality, Repentance, Reformation and Regeneration may be defined as three distinct processes which are originally commenced and carried on in three different heights or altitudes of the mind, but all of which have for their final object the regeneration of the natural man. While the natural man is being regenerated it is first under the influence of repentance, then of reformation, and finally of regeneration; wherefore Swedenborg says:--

Reformation and regeneration follow repentance, and are promoted thereby (T. C. R 571).

The operations of Repentance are carried on exclusively in the natural man, and their object is to conquer the evils which are there, and to render them quiescent.

Reformation begins with the formation of a new intellectual principle in the rational mind which is above or beyond the natural mind. The preparation for reformation is made in the natural mind by the collection there of the knowledges of Good and truth; but reformation actually begins when principles of what is just and fair, and of what is good and true are extracted from the knowledges stored up in the natural memory, and when these principles are raised thence into the higher rational or intellectual mind;

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where they are gradually infused with the life of charity, and through charity are illuminated by the light of heaven, and thereby are turned into principles of faith flowing from charity. When such is the case, and when the evils of the natural man are rendered quiescent by s life of repentance, the faith which flows from charity descends from the internal into the external man, were it is received first by the knowledges of good and truth and the scientifics which are stored up there. These knowledges and scientifics by the infusion of the light of faith are turned into truths of faith; and when these truths of faith are applied to the life they become goods of faith, and when such is the case reformation is at an end, and regeneration begins.

Regeneration is properly a state of the will, even as reformation is chiefly a state of the understanding. Regeneration begins with the formation of a new will in the new understanding, that is, in the new Intellectual which is the product of reformation; and thus regeneration is essentially a more interior process than reformation. At first the new will, the product of regeneration is small, like a grain of mustard-seed; and the new Intellectual of the new understanding predominates over it. But gradually the new will which is identical with charity increases and enters into a conjugial relation with the now Intellectual in the internal man. Then the new will through the new understanding, that is, charity through faith is prepared to descend into the natural or external man, and to regenerate it. Thus the natural man is first being cared for by repentance, whereby the evils contained in it are rendered quiescent; afterwards it is under the influence of reformation, and the knowledges of good and truth which are stored up in it, are illuminated by the light of faith, and turned into truths of faith. And when these truths are applied to the life; again when the affection of truth in the natural man is succeeded by the affection of good;

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or when the truths of faith are productive there of the goods of faith, then the natural man is brought under the influence of regeneration proper; and then the man is made a new creature, and speaks and acts from a new love and under the influence of the light of heaven.

174. Reformation is thus essentially a state of the understanding, and regeneration a state of the will, as is plainly stated by Swedenborg in these passages:--

The first state is called reformation, the second regeneration... The first state is formed by means of truths which are to become truths of faith from these the man looks to charity. The second state is former by means of the goods of charity, and from these he enters into the truths of faith. Or what amounts to the same thing, the first state is a state of thought from the understanding, but the second state is a state of love from the will (T. C. R. 571).

And again he says:--

So long as any one sees and acknowledges in his mind that evil is evil and good good, and so long as he thinks that good should be elected, so long his state is called reformation; but when he wills to shun evil and to do good, then the state of regeneration begins (T. C. R. 587).

And again:--

He is reformed who is in the affection of truth for the sake of truth; for this affection conjoins itself with the will; and if it progresses, it conjoins the will to the understanding, and then begins regeneration (T. C. R. 589).

A man is able to be instructed in the truth while his natural man, as to its will-part, is still immersed in evils; for by the merciful Providence of the Lord his will, at the present time, is separated from his understanding. On this account, according to Swedenborg

Many truths can be received by the understanding and stored up in the memory, without being mixed up with the evil of the will, and thereby being profaned (D. P. 233).

Nevertheless a man cannot be reformed simply by having truths stored up in his memory, and a new understanding cannot be built up in his interior rational mind, unless he is milling to repent of his evils and to lead a new life;

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for the purpose of the new understanding is the formation of a new will, and unless a man is willing that the old will, and hence the evils springing from it, be subjugated and removed, neither the new understanding, nor the new within the new understanding, can be formed. On this subject we read:--

A man is reformed by his understanding, which is done through the knowledges of good and truth, and a rational intuition thereby. If a man inspects rationally these truths and lives according to them, the love of the will is elevated at the same time (C. L. 495)--that is, if he shuns his evils as sins before God.

As repentance, therefore, is indispensable to reformation, Swedenborg also uses the term reformation in a larger sense, in which it includes repentance. Thus he says:--

The first thing of reformation is living according to the precepts of the decalogue, where those evils are enumerated which should not be done (A. R. 618).

And again he says:--

The internal man is to be reformed, and the external man through the internal. The internal man is reformed not simply by knowing, understanding, and being wise, consequently, not merely by thinking; but by willing that which science, intelligence, and wisdom teach (D. P. 151).

And he says further:--

A man is in the first degree of reformation when he knows, understands and perceives that there is a heaven and a hell, and that all evil is from hell and all good from heaven, and if then he does not will evil, because it is from hell, but wills good, because it is from heaven--he is then in the threshold of hell, in the direction towards heaven. When a man progresses further, and wills to desist from evils, he is in the second degree of reformation, and then he is outside hell, but not yet in heaven; this he sees above himself. Such an internal must be, in order that a man may be reformed.

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[This internal is formed during the first and second days of creation.] But unless both the external as well as the internal be reformed, the man is not reformed through the internal, when the external desists from the evils which the internal does not will, because they are hellish and still more when the external man shuns evils on that account, and combats against them (Ibid.)

This reformation of the external man by the shunning of evils is equivalent to repentance, which begins on the third day, and is continued through the fourth day. Still the reformation of the external man is only finished on the fifth day, when the light of faith flows into the knowledges of good and truth and into the scientifics which are contained in the external man, and when it illuminates them by the light of heaven, When the reformation of the external man through the truths of faith is accomplished then regeneration through the goods of faith begins, and is accomplished when the truths of faith in the natural man are all thoroughly married to the goods of charity.

175. As regards the reformation of man through the truths of faith, there are several degrees or steps noticed in it by Swedenborg. Thus a man in the beginning thinks that he reforms himself; but gradually, as he progresses in his reformation, he acknowledges, and at last perceives that he is reformed not by himself, but by the Lord. On this subject we read:--

The first state of all who are being reformed and become spiritual, is that they do not believe that, they are reformed by the Lord, but by themselves that is, that the whole of the will of good, and of the thought of truth is from themselves, and not from the Lord.... When they are told that all good and all truth are from the Lord they do not reject this indeed, but they do not acknowledge it at heart; because they do not feel, nor perceive interiorly that anything flows into them from any other source than from themselves. Because all who are reformed are at first in this state, they are left by the Lord in this condition of self;

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yet, while they themselves are not conscious of it, they are led [by the Lord] through their very state of self (A. C. 2946, 2678).

Again we read:--

Those who are reformed are at first drawn into various errors. For they are incited by the Lord to think much about eternal life hence much about the truths of faith; but because they think from self, they cannot do otherwise than err in various directions, both in regard to doctrine and to life. For they accept for truth what was inculcated in them from childhood, or what was impressed on them by others, or what they have thought from themselves. Besides, unconsciously they are led away by many affections.... What then enters into them, although for the most part erroneous, still is such as to promote growth; and afterwards when they are reformed, these things are separated (A. C. 2679).

Concerning the further degrees or steps of reformation, we read:--

When those who are reformed progress further in the knowledges of truth, that is, in those of faith, they arrive at their second state, in which they indeed admit that they are reformed by the Lord, but still desire to be reformed by themselves the third state is when they believe that they are reformed by the Lord.... The reason why in proportion to their advance in the knowledges of truth, that is, of faith, they acknowledge that they are indeed reformed by the Lord, but still desire to be reformed by themselves, is that their cloud of ignorance is gradually being dispersed, that confirmations of the truth are corroborated with them in the course of time, and that good with them is perfected in proportion as they become imbued with the knowledges of truth. The very good in which truth is implanted causes those who are reformed not only to acknowledge, but even to believe that reformation is from the Lord. This is the third state, which is succeeded by a fourth state, in which they enjoy the perception that reformation is from the Lord. Few only arrive at this state during their life in the body; for this is the angelic state. Still, those who have become regenerated, come into this state in the other life (A. C. 2960).

The first and second states of reformation during which a man desires to reform himself, prevail during the first, second and third days of creation; during which the person who is being reformed acts from truth, and not yet from good.

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On the fourth day, charity is conjoined with faith in the internal man; and in proportion as the good of charity permeates faith, and presses from the internal into the external man, the person who is being reformed not only acknowledges, but even believes, and thus sees in the light of faith that reformation is from the Lord alone. This belief is confirmed in man during the fifth and sixth days of creation, during which truth in the external man is being implanted in good. Into a state of perception of this truth the member of the Church comes when there is an inversion of state in him, and when he no longer looks from truth to good, but from good to truth. This state, which is a state of regeneration, begins on the sixth day, and is perfected on the seventh day, on the day of rest.

We see from this that during the first, second and third days of creation, mans self still claims to itself a large share of the work of reformation; but that from the fourth day this claim grows less and less; until at the close of the fifth day the man ascribes the whole of reformation to the Lord alone, and is willing and anxious to be the Lords only, and to act from Him, and no longer from himself.

176. During the last stage of reformation, and thus during the fifth day, the natural man is actually being reformed, and beginning to act from the internal, spiritual man without any respect at all to self and the world. This change Swedenborg compares to the twisting back of a spiral into an opposite direction from that in which it had hitherto been; and this change is brought about by the full opening of the spiritual mind, which takes place on the fourth day, when the luminaries of charity and faith are being established there. The reformation of the natural mind or man, however, is not wrought in this wise, that the evils and falsities which are there are turned into goods and truths--which is an impossibility;

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but the spiritual mind flows into those things of the natural mind or man, which harmonize with its own goods and truths; which things are the truths and goods of remains, that stored up in the natural memory, but that to a great extent have been withdrawn into the interiors of the natural mind. When these remains are being restored to the natural mind, or man, then the evils and falsities of the natural man, or mind, are crowded out into its circumference. On this subject we read:--

When the spiritual mind [or man] is opened, the state of the natural mind [or man] is altogether different. In this case the natural mind is disposed for submission to the spiritual mind, and is subordinated. For the spiritual mind acts from above from within upon the natural mind, and removes thence those things which reset, and adapts to itself those things which act in like manner with itself; hence the overbearing reaction of the natural mind is gradually taken away.... So long as the natural mind acts from the delights of its love and the pleasures of its thought, which in themselves are evils and falsities the reaction of the natural mind removes those things which are of the spiritual mind, and blocks the doors to prevent them from entering, and manages that action shall come to pass from such things as agree with its reaction. Thus an action and reaction of the natural mind are brought about which are opposite to the action and reaction of the spiritual mind hence a closure of the spiritual mind takes place like the twisting back of a spiral. But if the spiritual mind is opened, then the action and reaction of the natural mind is inverted: for the spiritual mind acts from above or from within, and at the same time from below or from without, through those things [the remains of good and truth] which are disposed for submission to it in the natural mind, and it twists back the spiral in which the action and reaction of the natural mind lie. This mind by birth is in opposition to those things which belong to the spiritual mind, which opposition, as is well known, it derives by heredity from parents. Such is the change of state which is called reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before reformation may be compared to a spiral twisting or circumflexing downwards; but after reformation it may be compared to a spiral twisting or circumflexing upwards;

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wherefore a man before reformation looks downwards to hell, but after reformation he looks upwards to heaven (D. L. W. 263).

From this passage it appears that the reformation of the natural mind or man involves spiritual life and death; for it amounts to a retorsion, or twisting back of a spiral into an opposite direction from that which it had hitherto followed. This cannot be done without severe spiritual conflicts or temptations; wherefore temptation is defined by Swedenborg as a second medium whereby the natural man is reduced into a state of harmony and correspondence with the spiritual man; and thus whereby the natural man is regenerated. As the whole subject, however, of the regeneration of the natural man, at the present day, is shrouded in darkness, it is necessary that before proceeding to the Doctrine of Temptation, we should have a precise knowledge of what in the doctrines of the New Church is understood by the regeneration of the natural man.

177. The subject of the regeneration of the natural man is placed in a clear light by the following extracts from Swedenborgs writings:--

It is according to order that the natural man should be regenerated through truths, that is, through the knowledges of good and truth; for apart from these the natural man cannot be enlightened by the rational, or internal man; hence it cannot be regenerated. Knowledges are vessels receptive of the good and truth which flow in from the rational man. The vessels are enlightened in proportion to the quality and quantity of what they receive. The vessels which receive goods and truths from the rational or internal man, are the very truths of the natural man, which are nothing else than scientifics, knowledges and doctrinals (A. C. 3608).

Again we read:--

The rational or internal man is regenerated first of all for the seeds are there; and the natural man is regenerated afterwards, that it may serve for soil.... Understanding good and truth and willing them is thus the part of the rational or internal man--the perceptions of good and truth being like seeds;

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but being acquainted with and doing good and truth is the part of the natural man. The very scientifics and works are like soil; and when a man is affected by the scientifics which confirm good and truth, and still more when he perceives a delight in doing them, then these seeds are as it were in their own soil, and grow (A. C. 3671).

When the natural man is being regenerated the goods and truths of the internal man are thus instilled into, and as it were gathered up in the scientifics, knowledges and doctrinals of the natural man, and in this wise they descend out of the spiritual into the natural sphere, and manifest themselves there. We thus read further:--

When a man is being regenerated as to his natural man goods and truths teach and all of them, are gathered up introduced into scientifics. Those goods and truths which are not in the scientifics there, are not in the natural man or mind for the natural mind as to that feature of it which is subjected to the intellectual part, consists solely of scientifics. The scientifics which are of the natural man, are the ultimate things of order; prior things must be in ultimate, in order that they may exist and appear m that sphere (A. C. 5373).

And again:--

It is according to Divine order, that interior things shall betake themselves into exterior things, or what is the same thing, prior things into subsequent things, and all prior things at length into ultimate things, and that they shall be there together. Such is the case in universal nature. Unless this be done, man cannot be fully regenerated; for by such an introduction of truths into scientifics, interior and exterior things which would otherwise disagree, agree and become one; and should they disagree, man would not be in good, because not in the principle of sincerity. Besides, scientifics are almost in the same light in which is a mans sensuous faculty of sight and this light is of such a character, that unless it be enlightened inwardly by the light which is from truths, it leads into falsities, chiefly from the fallacies of the senses, and also into evils from falsities (A. C. 6004).

Finally we read:--

Truths are then initiated and brought into scientifics, when scientifics are governed by truths;

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and they are governed by truths when the truth is acknowledged because the Lord has said so in the Word; and when afterwards affirming or confirming scientifics are accepted, and those removed which are contradictory. Truth thus reigns in its affirmative scientifics, those being rejected which do not affirm. When this is so, and a man thinks then from scientifics, he is not led away into falsities, as is the case when there are no truths in scientifics. For scientifics are not true per se, they are true from the truths which are in them; and according to the quality of the truths therein, a scientific is a general truth. For a scientific is a vessel which may receive truths as well as falsities. By some it is filled with truths, by others with falsities (A. C. 6003).

178. From this passage it becomes evident that the truth of the internal man becomes established in the scientifics of the external man when the truth is acknowledged because the Lord has said so in the Word; and when such is the case then that same truth in the external man is ready to become the good of truth, that is, truth in will and in act and when truth in the natural man has become the good of truth, the natural man is prepared to be conjoined with the spiritual man, and then the man himself acts from good, and no longer from truth in the first place. Concerning the manner in which truth in the natural man becomes the good of truth, Swedenborg says:--

Truth with man must first become truth in will and in act, that is, it must become the good of truth, before the conjunction of the rational with the natural degree, or of the internal with the external man, can exist. Truth becomes the good of truth thus: Every Divine truth has respect to those two commandments; namely, to loving the Lord above all things, and the neighbor as ones self. These are the commandments or precepts from which, and for the sake of which truths are; and to these precepts truths have reference more proximately or more remotely. When truths, therefore, are put into act, they are successively insinuated into their principle and end; namely, into charity towards the neighbor, and love towards the Lord and by this means truth becomes the good which is called the good of truth. When such is the case, then the truth in the natural man can be conjoined with the internal man;

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and this conjunction becomes successively more interior, the more the truths implanted in that good are interior. The act precedes, a mans willing follows for what a man does from the understanding, he at last does from the will, and finally he puts it on by habit; and then that truth, or that good of truth is insinuated into the rational, that is, into the internal man and after it has been insinuated there, a man no longer does good from truth, but from good; for then he begins to perceive something blessed, something of heaven in it. This good a man retains after death, and by this good he is raised by the Lord into heaven (A. C. 4353).

179. When truth is thus beginning to be turned into good, and to be inscribed on the internal man, that inversion begins which has been alluded to before. This inversion, therefore, has place as soon as the truth of faith in the natural man is beginning to be changed there into the good of faith; and this inversion is accomplished when the natural man is fully conjoined with the spiritual man, or the external with the internal man.

It is during this period, when the truth of faith in the natural man is being turned into the good of faith--which takes place on the sixth day of creation--that the member of the Church undergoes his severest temptation combats; wherefore, the good of faith, that is, the good of truth in the natural man is the direct result of spiritual temptation. It is thus that the good of faith which produces works, becomes the third medium by which the external man is conjoined with the internal man, and by which it is reduced into a state of harmony with it (see A. C. 3934)--affirmation being the first medium, and temptation the second medium (see above p. 231). Nevertheless, an additional medium still is required before the external man can be conjoined in fullness with the internal man; this last medium implies that the good of faith, that is, works wrought from the good of faith, shall become so habitual with the member of the Church, and so much as it were of a second nature with him, that acting from the good of faith becomes a source of delight to him;

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wherefore, the fourth medium, whereby the external man is conjoined with the internal, is the delight of the affections of good and truth (A. C. 3952).

Here then it is made plain, not only at what particular period in a mans regeneration that change of state or that inversion takes place, when he no longer acts from truth, but from good; but also what is meant by this inversion, and what is implied in it. It begins when good presses down from the internal into the external man and causes there the principle of affirmation. Under the form of affirmation, good, that is, the Lord operating through good, superintends the initiation of the truth of faith into the scientifics of the natural man; and after this initiation is accomplished, good from within acts upon the truths of faith in the natural man, and causes the man to will and do these truths so that from truth he proceeds to the good of truth; but the character of the good of truth is, that in this good, truth is within end good without (see A. C. 3564).

After the good of truth or of faith has become habitual with the member of the Church, then, we learn, this same good of truth is insinuated into and inscribed on the internal man; and in proportion as such is the case, the inversion of state, spoken of above, is brought about; for good from the internal man then acts upon Good in the external man and through the truth of faith there, with which this latter good is conjoined, it produces the works of charity. Good in the natural man is then circumstanced so that good from the internal or rational man is within, and truth without (see A. C. 3664). When such is the case then the member of the Church has reached the angelic state, and when he has done so, the change, understood by inversion, is accomplished.

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180. Until the dominion of spiritual good is actually established in the natural man, and hence during the whole of that period when the inversion of state is being brought about in the member of the Church, he is the subject of spiritual temptation. We thus read:--

With those who are being regenerated an inversion takes place; namely they are led through truth to good, and afterwards from good they are led to truth. When this inversion takes place; that is, when the former state is being changed, and becomes the reverse from what it had been, men are sent into temptation, whereby those things which are of self are weakened and debilitated, and good is instilled, and with good a new will-principle, and therewith a new freedom, and thus a new proprium, or a new self (A. C. 5773).

And again we read:--

When a man undergoes spiritual temptations, good takes the prior place. The good which flows in from the interior, has man truths along with it, which are stored up in the interior [natural] man. These truths cannot make their appearance, until good takes the first place. As soon as such is the case the natural man is enlightened through truth, and then it appears which things therein are concordant, and which are not. Thence arises the fear and straitness, by which spiritual temptation is preceded. This temptation acts upon the conscience which is of the internal man; wherefore also, when a man enters into this temptation, he does not know whence are this fear and straitness (A. C. 4249).

The necessity of spiritual temptation for bringing about a state of harmony and correspondence between the external and internal man, as well as the precise period when this kind of temptation actually begins, is further stated in the following passage:--

Temptation is the means by which the internal man is conjoined with the external manfor there is a discussion between them; but through temptations the two are reduced into a state of agreement and correspondence. The external man is of such a character that from itself it has a craving only for bodily and worldly things; these are the delights of its life; but when the internal man is opened towards heaven, and desires the things which are of heaven, as is the case with those who can be regenerated, then heavenly things are its delights.

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Between these two delights there is a combat when man is in temptations.... When a man does not perceive in himself anything of an affection for what is just and true in his function, nor for what is good and true in society and life, he may know that he is in a delight, similar to that in which the infernals are for in his delight there are no other loves than those of self and of the world; and when these loves cause the delight, there is no charity and no faith therein. After this delight has become prevalent, it cannot be blunted and dissipated through any other means than the affirmation and acknowledgment of the holiness of faith and the good of life, which is the first medium [of conjunction of the internal and external man], and afterwards through temptation, which is the second medium. For those who do not affirm and acknowledge the good and truth belonging to faith and charity, cannot enter into any temptation-combat; because there is nothing interiorly in them which resists the evil and falsity which are the object of delight of the natural man (A. C. 3928).

After we have thus seen the precise place which spiritual temptation occupies in the regeneration of the natural man, we are prepared to enter into the subject of Temptations generally.

h. The Doctrine of Temptations.

181. Temptation is the one indispensable process of life by which a mans regeneration, and thus his salvation is accomplished. A conscience organized of charity and faith is the Divine power in man which superintends and governs his regeneration; and the goods of charity and the truths of faith in the natural man are the means which it uses for this purpose; but temptations are the battles of regeneration. As little as a territory held by hostile forces can be rescued out of their power without a struggle, just so little can a mans outward, natural man be rescued and delivered out of the power of the evils and falsities inherent therein without a severe contest, and a protracted warfare. Swedenborg says on this subject:--

No one is regenerated without temptation; and many temptations have to be undergone in succession. For the object of regeneration is, that the life of the old Adam, or man, shall die, and that a new life which is heavenly shall be instilled in its place.

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Hence it may appear that there must be a combat at all hazards; for the life of the old Adam resists, and refuses to be put down; and the life of the new man cannot enter except the life of the old Adam be quenched. Hence it appears that there must be a combat, and indeed a heated one, on either side, because life is at stake (A. C. 8403).

And again he says:--

Any one who thinks from enlightened reason can see and perceive that it is impossible for a man to be regenerated without combat, that is, without spiritual temptation. Further, that no one is regenerated by one temptation, but by man. For there are many kinds of evils which make up the delight of the former life; that is, which constitute the old life. These many evils cannot be coerced all at once, for they inhere most pertinaciously, because they have been implanted by parents many centuries back; and hence are ingrained in man, and confirmed in him by actual evils from childhood. All these evils are diametrically opposed to the heavenly good which is to be instilled, and which is to constitute the new life (Ibid).

182. Not everything, however, that is called a temptation is really a temptation. The subject of temptation, in fact, is very little known and understood at the present time. Thus Swedenborg says:--

Temptations have hitherto not been known, and scarcely any one has known what they are, what their quality is, and what good they produce, because the Church hitherto has not been in truths.... Hence it is that no one from that century when the faith of three Gods was introduced by the Nicene Council, has been admitted into spiritual temptations; for had he been, he would have succumbed have cast himself more deeply into hell (T. C. R. 597).

For upwards of 1500 years, therefore, according to Swedenborgs testimony, the real character of spiritual temptations--of the battles of mans regeneration--has remained unknown; wherefore it is of the first importance that at the very outset we should give a clear definition of what spiritual temptations really are. Swedenborg says:--

Temptations are nothing else than struggles of the internal with the external man, or of the spiritual with the natural man; for both wish to rule, and when the question turns on dominion, combat ensues....

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When a man is in temptations his internal or spiritual man is ruled by the Lord through angels, and his external man by evil spirits. When a man is such in faith and by life that he can be regenerated, he conquers in temptations but when he is such that he cannot be regenerated, he succumbs (A. C. 3927).

183. Temptations, as we see here, are struggles between the internal and the external man, and through them the external man is regenerated into a likeness of the internal man. Yet before the internal man can struggle with the external man, the internal man itself has to be reformed, developed and organized. A power antagonistic to that which rules in man before regeneration, has thus to be established in him before he can even think of those spiritual temptations by which his natural man is to be regenerated. This power in man--his internal man, which is antagonistic to those loves which reign in him before regeneration, cannot be established in him without opposition from those evil spirits, who have taken up their abode in his outward, natural man, and by whom he himself is ruled, before he enters upon a course of regeneration. Those spiritual conflicts between angels and evil spirits, of which temptations essentially consist, commence, therefore, already when the Christian enters upon the first day of his regeneration, and declares in favor of the Lord and His kingdom, and against the kingdom of self and the world. This resolution when a Christian determines to follow the Lord in the teachings of the Sacred Scripture, is equivalent to his CONVERSION; by which the mans entrance upon the work of regeneration is signalized. Mans contest against the powers of evil and falsity, becomes more intense, as he enters upon the second day of creation, when a distinction is made by him between those things which are the Lords, and those which belong to self. Concerning this state Swedenborg says

It rarely exists at the present day without temptation, misfortune, sadness, whereby those things which are of the body and of the world, and hence those which belong to a mans self are made quiescent, and as it were die.

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By such means the things of the external man are separated from those of the internal man. In the internal man are the remains which have been stored up by the Lord for this time, and for this purpose (A. C. 8).

On the third day man enters upon the active work of REPENTANCE, and begins to shun the evils which are forbidden in the Decalogue; and in the proportion in which he does so, he also begins to do the works of charity; yet, as Swedenborg says

These works are as yet inanimate, because the man thinks that he does them from himself (A. C. 9).

He also does them from a state of temptation and spiritual anxiety, and not yet from faith and charity (A. C. l0)--for the root of evil, the love of self, is still rankling in him, and influencing him in the performance of his good works, and in his utterances concerning the faith and doctrine of the Church. Wherefore, a man is suffering temptations also during the third and even the fourth days of his regeneration.

As a general thing, the further a man progresses in the work of reformation, the more interior do those spiritual contests become, which he is called upon to undergo. Nevertheless, the temptations which he suffers on the third and fourth days of creation still arise from his desire to shun those evils which are forbidden in the natural sense of the law of the Decalogue; while those temptations which he undergoes on the fifth and sixth days of creation, are the inmost of all temptations; for he is then called upon to make war against all states of self-exaltation, self-glory, and self-rule, which lie inmostly concealed in the truths which he thinks and speaks, and in the works of charity which he performs to his neighbor.

In order to perceive these states of self which lie concealed in the truths which he speaks, and in the goods which he does, the Christian needs the spiritual enlightenment of the luminaries of charity and of a faith flowing from charity, which are established in his internal man.

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Wherefore the temptations which the Christian has to undergo on the fifth and sixth days of creation, and thus during REFORMATION and REGENERATION proper, are severer than any he has experienced before; nay, in comparison with these last temptations, his former temptations--those which are incident upon his conversion and upon his repentance, almost vanish in the shade. The first of these interior temptations is caused by the principle of affirmation or authority; which implies that the member of the Church regards that only as true which comes from the Lord, and which He has spoken in His Divine Word; while everything that comes from man alone is intrinsically false. This principle is at first asserted by the member of the Church in a general way; but by and by he has to maintain it in respect to every truth which the Lord has revealed to men not only in the natural, but also in the spiritual sense of the Divine Word.

The member of the Church, therefore, continues to be exposed to these interior, spiritual temptations, until the authority of the Lord is established in every knowledge, and in every scientific of the Divine Truth stored up in, and received by, his natural men, and until these truths enlightened by the faith which flows from charity, form the basis of every one of the utterances and actions of the natural man. But by such means the truths of faith of the natural man are turned into goods of faith, and the natural man himself is regenerated.

That process by which the light of faith is established in the scientifics of the natural man is the final work of REFORMATION; while the work of turning the truths of faith, thus obtained, into goods of faith, is the work of REGENERATION proper. The reformation of the natural understanding obtained by this means is the cause of the most severe temptation-combats;

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while the regeneration of the natural will is productive of severer temptations still.

Here then we have presented to us the succession of the four general stages of regeneration:--(l) conversion, which embraces the work done on the first and second days of creation; (2) repentance, which includes the work done on the third and fourth days; (3) reformation, which takes place on the fifth day; and (4) regeneration proper, which describes the work done on the sixth day. Each of these four stages of regeneration in general has its special temptations.

184. Among temptations there are generally classed nowadays states of affliction and misfortune, which are essentially natural, but which do not necessarily contribute anything to spiritual life. Concerning these so-called temptations Swedenborg says:--

Natural temptations are occasioned when a man suffers as to his body, as to his posts of dignity as to his possessions; in a word, when he suffers as to his natural life, as is the case in illness, misfortunes, persecutions, in undeserved punishments, and the like. The anxieties which exist then, are understood by natural temptations. These temptations, however, contribute nothing whatever to spiritual life nor can they be called temptations, but pains and griefs; for they exist from a wounding of the natural life which belongs to the love of self and of the world. Criminals sometimes experience these pains and pangs; and their grief and distress are the greater, the more they love themselves and the world, and thus have life thence (A. C. 8164).

Nevertheless, these natural temptations, under the Divine Providence are made to serve a certain purpose at the present time, and under certain conditions they take the place of spiritual temptations. On this subject we read:--

Spiritual temptations are little known at the present time, nor are they permitted as formerly, because man is not in the truth of faith--for he would succumb.

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Instead of spiritual temptations there are other things, such as misfortunes, sorrows and anxieties from natural and bodily causes, as diseases of the body and distempers, which serve to subdue and break in some degree the life of pleasures and lusts, and to determine and raise the thoughts to interior and pious things; for spiritual temptations exist only with those who have received from the Lord the conscience of what is good and true. Conscience itself, with these persons, is the plane upon which these temptations operate (A. C. 762).

Of the above character are the temptations which the Christian suffers during his period of CONVERSION, when conscience is being formed with him, in his internal man. For concerning this state Swedenborg says that

It rarely exists at the present time without temptations, misfortune, sadness whereby the things which belong to the body and the world, and hence those things which belong to a mans self, become quiescent, and as it were die (A. C. 8.)

184. Concerning those temptations which the Christian undergoes during his period of REPENTANCE, when he shuns the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, Swedenborg says:--

First of all every man fights from those goods and truths which he has received by knowledges; and from these knowledges, and by means of them, he judges of evils and falsities. Every man also, when he first combats, believes that those goods and truth from which he fights, are his own that is, he ascribes them to himself, and at the same time he attributes to himself the power wherewith he resists.... Inasmuch as a man, before he is regenerated, cannot think otherwise than that he resists by his own power and forces, he is permitted to believe so; and in this wise he is led into combats, that is, into temptations.... Those goods and truths, however, from which he fights against evils and falsities, are not goods and truths, although they appear as such; for his own self is in them, and he places self-merit in victory and glories, as though he himself overcame evil and falsity; when yet it the Lord alone who fights and conquers. That such is the case, only those are able to know who are regenerated through temptations (A. C. 1661.)

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On account of this presence of self in the knowledges of good and truth from which the member of the Church fights during his period of Repentance, these temptations are comparatively external and light, compared with those which he suffers in a more advanced state of his regeneration, when the very principle of self from which he now fights, is put into doubt, and he is called upon to humble his whole self before the Lord, and to net from the Lord, and no longer from self. Temptations during the stage of Repentance consist mostly in the evil spirits who are with a man recalling into his mind his past evil deeds and false thoughts; which temptations Swedenborg denominates intellectual, because they are fought from the contents of the memory, which is a faculty of the understanding. The member of the Church enters into these temptations whenever he examines his life in the light of the ten commandments, and of the teachings of the Divine Word in general. Swedenborg describes these temptations in the following words:--

Those who undergo this kind of temptations, have no other idea than that there is then inherently in themselves something which suffers in this manner; when yet evil spirits excite then, and indeed from a mans memory, whatever falsities and evils the man has thought and committed from his childhood. This the evil spirits are able to do, so skillfully and maliciously that it cannot be described, yet the angels who are with man then take possession of his goods and truths, and defend the man thereby. This battle is felt and perceived by the man, and causes pangs of conscience and torments (A. C. 751).

Again we read:--

When a man is tempted as to things intellectual, evil spirits merely excite those evil deeds which the man has committed, and they accuse and condemn him; they also call up his good deeds, but pervert them in a thousand ways. At the same time also they stir up the things which he has thought. This temptation, however, is light, and is perceived only by a recollection of such things, and a certain anxiety therefrom (Ibid.)

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185. Concerning those spiritual temptations which the Christian experiences during the periods of his REFORMATION and REGENERATION proper, we read in a general way:--

Temptation is said to be spiritual, when interiorly in the man are assaulted the truths of faith which he believes at heart, and according to which he loves to live; and especially when the good of love is assaulted, in which he places spiritual life. These assaults take place by various means: by an injection into the thoughts and also into the will of stumbling blocks against truths and goods; further, by a coming up, and a constant calling back of the evils which a man has done, and of the falsities which he has thought-thus by a flooding of such things; and at the same time by a closing up of the interiors of the mind, and thus of the communication with heaven, whereby the man is prevented thinking from his faith, and willing from his love. These things are done by the evil spirits who are with the man, and when they do happen they take place under the form of a kind of interior anxieties and pangs of conscience, because such things affect and torture a mans spiritual life; the man not thinking at the time that it is from evil spirits, but that it is from himself in his interiors.... These temptations are most grievous when conjoined with pains inflicted on the body, and still more when these pains continue long and increase in severity, and when the Divine Mercy is implored, and there is no delivery. Hence comes despair which is the end (H. D. 96).

Again we read:--

No temptation can ever exist unless a man is in the love of truth; that is, in the love or affection of the truth : for he who does not love his truth, that is, who is not affected by it, cares nothing for it; but he who loves it is in anxiety, lest it should suffer any harm. Nothing constitutes a mans intellectual life but what he believes to be true; and nothing constitutes his voluntary life, but what he has impressed upon himself its good. When, therefore, that which a man believes to be true, is assaulted, the life of his understanding is assaulted, when that which he has impressed upon himself as good is assaulted, the life of his will is assaulted; and when a man is thus assaulted, his life is at stake. The struggle is at first as to truth; that is, concerning truth; because a man chiefly loves this; for that which is the object of any ones love, the evil spirits assault.

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But after a man loves good in preference to truth, as is the case when his state [as to regeneration] is inverted, then he is tempted as to good (A. C. 4274).

Further:--

When a man comes into spiritual temptations, he is among those spirits who are in falsities. These spirits bind his thoughts, and keep them as it were fettered and in prison, and they continually pour in scandals against the truths of faith, and call up a mans evils of life. But the Lord constantly protects man by flowing in from the interiors, and thus keeps him in the constancy of resisting. Such are spiritual temptations (A. E. 138).

186. On comparing these two kinds of temptations, namely, the preparatory temptations of conversion and repentance, and the spiritual temptations of reformation and regeneration, it appears that in the first class of temptations the contents and states of the memory, that is, evils willed and done, and falsities thought and spoken are excited and combated by the opposite states of Good and truth which are likewise stored up in the memory; while in spiritual temptations the very framework of the mind, namely, the will and the understanding themselves are assaulted; for the truths of faith and the goods of love of which they consist, are then tempted. The former temptations thus are comparatively exterior, and the latter interior. We also see in the above passages that the former class of temptations continue after a man has entered upon spiritual temptations; for while stumbling-blocks against truths and goods are injected into the mind, the evils also which a man has done and the falsities which he has thought, are likewise called back.

From whet we learn here concerning spiritual temptations, it thus follows that a man suffers spiritual temptations when, for instance, his faith in the Divinity of the letter of the Old and New Testaments is assailed; or when doubts are raised in his mind against the Divinity of the revelation which the Lord made at His Second Coming.

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In fact, every resistance which a member of the Church experiences against any clear teaching of the Divine Word is a spiritual temptation wherein evil spirits from hell assail some principle of faith in his mind. Again, whenever any one is not satisfied with the Divine Revelation as he finds it, but finds fault with it on account of some apparent contradictions in the letter when therefore the holy, believing state in which he should approach the letter of the Word is infested and violated, he is in spiritual temptation. When the church at large, instead of affirming as true everything that proceeds from the Lord, feels inclined to disregard the Lords statutes and commandments which he has given for the government of His Church on earth, and when the members of the Church are tempted to substitute their own order in the place of Divine order, then the Church at large is in spiritual temptation. Any murmuring against the dispensations of the Divine Providence, is a spiritual temptation. Whenever any minister of the Church, or any other member of the Church promulgates a doctrine which is contradictory to the doctrines revealed by the Lord out of heaven, it is a spiritual temptation for the Lords Church in which she conquers by appealing to, and holding fast the true doctrines of the Church on the subject. And, especially, is the Church in spiritual temptation, when a member of the Church feels inclined to rule over the consciences of his brethren in the Church and to impose upon them the yoke of his man-made doctrine, which he confirms from the letter of the Word, and by misinterpreting the doctrine of the Church.

187. As regards the specific temptations of REFORMATION they are intellectual in their character, and through them the power of faith is established in the scientifics of the external man, that is, in those knowledges of good and truth which the member of the Church has stored up in his memory from the Word and the doctrines of the Church.

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Concerning these temptations which take place on the fifth day of creation, Swedenborg says:--

When a man is being reformed, which takes place through combats and temptations, only such evil spirits are associated with him as excite his scientific and rational things; and those spirits who excite lusts are then kept away from him altogether. For there are two kinds of spirits, such as act upon a mans reasonings, and such as stimulate his lusts. Those evil spirits who excite a, mans reasonings take up his falsities, and try to persuade him that falsities are truths, nay, they also turn truths into falsities. With those spirits a man has to struggle, when he is in temptations; but the Lord fights by means of the angels the who are with the man. After these falsities have been separated, and as it were dispersed, through combats, the man is prepared to receive the truths of faith. So long as falsities prevail a man cannot receive at all the truths of faith; for the principles of for the reception of the truths of faith, then for the principles of the false are in the way. When a man has thus been prepared for the reception of the truths of faith, then for the first time celestial seeds which are the seeds of charity can be inseminated in him. These seeds cannot be inseminated at all in a soil where falsities reign, but where truths prevail. Thus it is with the reformation or regeneration of the spiritual man (A. C. 653).

188. After the temptations of Reformation come those of REGENERATION proper, which are fought on the sixth day, and which are temptations of the will. Concerning these temptations we read:--

When a man is tempted as to the things of his will, then there is not so much a calling into remembrance of the things which he has done and thought; but there are evil genii--for such beings cannot be called evil spirits--who inflame in man the lusts and filthy loves with which he is imbued, and they thus fight through the very lusts of the man. This they do, so maliciously and clandestinely, that no one would think that the temptation comes from them; for in a moment they pour themselves into the life of a mans lusts, and in an instant almost they turn and bend the affection of good and truth into the affection of evil and falsity; so that the man cannot think otherwise at ail, than that the temptation happens from himself, and occurs of its own accord. This is a most grievous temptation, and is perceived as an internal pain, and an excruciating fire (A. C. 75l).

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Nevertheless, temptations as to voluntary things, which are assaults made upon the will, are never apart from intellectual temptations, but the two always go together; thus we read:--

Temptation as to voluntary things, that is, as to lusts, can never be separated from temptations as to the things of the intellect. If they should he separated, there would not be any temptation, but an inundation such as exists with those who live in the burnings of their lusts, in which, like the infernals, they perceive the delights of their life (A. C. 757).

Of the temptations caused by evil genii, who assault the affections of the will, man therefore becomes conscious in his understanding; but the assaults themselves which are made by evil spirits on a mans affections, he meets by the truths of faith which established in his natural man; for we read further:--

The combat called spiritual temptation is not between goods and evils, but between the truths of good and the falsities of evil; for good cannot fight from itself, but it fights through the understanding (T. C. R. 596).

189. On inquiring more particularly into the mode by which spiritual temptations are carried on, we receive the following information:--

Two forces, or two powers, ace in those who are in a state of temptation. One acts from the falsities which are injected into the external man from hell; the other acts from the truths which are instilled by the Lord into the internal man. These two forces act mutually against each other. The falsities injected by hell derive their power from the loves of self and of the world which are in man; but the truths which are instilled by the Lord derive their force and power from the love of the neighbor, and the love of the Lord. When the man conquers, the internal force and power continually prevails, because it is Divine. This power also does not permit that the force and power from falsities should be increased beyond the point at which it can be repelled. When these two forces act, the internal force which is from the Lord constantly, as it were, pulls the man back, and prevents falsities from dragging him down so that he succumbs--for it is a general thing that when two forces act in opposition to each other, one force drags or through truths draws, and the other pulls backs.

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The forces in the spiritual world are the affections which are of the loves; the instruments or means, through which they act, are truths, and in an opposite sense, falsities (A. C. 8168).

Intrinsically, temptations are assaults directed by evil spirits against a mans conscience, and thus against his faith, but chiefly against his love. We thus read:--

All temptation is directed against the love in which a man is end such as is the degree of a mans love, such is the degree in which he is tempted. Unless temptation is directed against the love, it is no temptation. A destruction of a mans love is equivalent to a destruction of his life; for love is life (A. C. 1690).

And again we read:--

Such as the loves are, such are the temptations. He who is in temptation is in doubt concerning the end. The end is the love against which the evil spirits and genii fight; and the end is thus put into doubt. The more a man is in a state of love the more the end is put into doubt. Unless the end which is love were put into doubt, yea, into despair, there would not be any temptation.... The evil spirits never fight against any other things than those which a man loves; and the more ardent a mens love is, the more vehemently do they fight. Evil genii fight against the things which belong to the affection of good, and evil spirits against those things which belong to the affection of truth. As soon as they notice the least thing which a man loves, or as soon as they perceive, as it were, by their scent anything that is delightful and dear to a, man, they immediately attack it, end endeavor to destroy it, and therewith the whole man; because his life consists in his loves. Nothing, therefore, is more delightful to them, than destroying a man; nor would they ever leave off, even to eternity, unless they were thrust away by the Lord. Those who are malignant and crafty, insinuate themselves into the very loves by blandishments; and thus they lead man into these loves, and after they have introduced him they try to destroy the loves, and thus the man; and indeed by a thousand modes, which are incomprehensible. Nor do they combat by reasoning against goods and truths; such combats do not amount to much for even were such reasonings conquered a thousand times, they still would persist in them, because reasonings against goods and truths cannot help being present.

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But evil spirits pervert goods and truths, and kindle a certain fire of lust and persuasion, so that the man scarcely knows otherwise than that he himself is in such lust and persuasion these lusts also they fire at the same time with delight, which they snatch from a delight which the man has derived from other sources, and they thus infect and infest him in such a crafty manner, and, indeed, so strenuously, carrying him from one thing to another, that unless the Lord lent His help, the man never would know otherwise, than that he himself is of such a character. At the same time also they operate against the affections of truth, which constitute conscience; for as soon as they perceive anything of conscience, whatever it may be, they immediately form to themselves an affection of the falsities end weaknesses which are with a man, and by means thereof, darken the light of truth, and thus pervert it; or else they cause anxieties and torments. Moreover, they pertinaciously keep the thought directed upon one thing, and thus fill it with phantasies, and at the same time clandestinely insinuate lusts into the phantasies. Besides innumerable other stratagems which can never be described so as to be understood. A few of these things only, and, indeed, only the most general, can reach a mans consciousness (ad conscientiam), which they delight above all other things to destroy (A. C. 1820).

We further read:--

Evil spirits who are present with man and induce temptations, inspire strongly a negative principle, but good spirits and angels from the Lord disperse this principle of doubt by every possible method, and continually keep man in a state of hope, and at last confirm with him the affirmative principle. Hence it is that the man who is in temptation, is kept suspended between a negative and an affirmative principles (A. C. 2338).

190. As regards the special methods, by which the good and evil spirits operate in man during temptations, we read further:--

In temptation the loves of reputation, honor and gain, through which truths have been introduced, are excited by the infernal crew; for this crew desires to live in these things, and then there are excited by the angels the affections of truth and good which have been implanted from infancy in a, state of innocence, and which afterwards were hidden away interiorly, and preserved for use. Hence there is a combat between the evil spirits and the angels, which is felt in man as temptation (A. C. 5280).

Again we read:--

In temptations the hells fight against man, and the Lord for man. To every falsity which the bells inject, there is a reply from the Divine.

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The falsities which are from hell, are injected into, and they flow into, the external or natural man; but the reply from the Divine flows into the internal or spiritual man. That which flows in from the Divine, does not strike so much a mans perception, as do the things that are injected from hell; nor does it move the singulars of thought, but its generals; and yet in such a way that it scarcely comes to a mans perception otherwise, than as a hope, and solace thence, in which, however, there are contained innumerable things which the man does not know; and which are of such a, character as to suit his affection or love, and especially his affection or love of truth and good, from which is his conscience (A. C. 8159).

As regards the further proceedings of the angels who are attendant on man during temptation; and the effect which is exerted on man if he conquers in temptation, we read further:--

Those who suffer themselves to be regenerated, are constantly borne upwards, and thus are constantly introduced into more interior heavenly societies. An extension of their sphere into these societies is granted by the Lord to those who are regenerated, especially through temptations in which evils and falsities are resisted. For the Lord combats then against evils and falsities through the angels; and thus the man is introduced into the societies of these angels, which are more interior; and when he is once introduced, he remains there. Thence also he receives a more extended and higher faculty of perception (A. C. 6611).

191. Thus far we have spoken of temptations as being essentially combats between the angels and the evil spirits attendant upon man; nevertheless, the real agents are the Lord Himself on the one hand, and man on the other. Through the angels and evil spirits, a man is kept in a state of spiritual equilibrium, and thus in the ability of choosing between good and evil, and between truth and falsity. This ability, however, the man enjoys by virtue of his faculties of freedom and rationality in which the Lord is present with him, and by which He imparts to him the power of resisting evil, and of conquering in temptations.

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For although the angels, who are with man, have possession of his goods and truths, and the evil spirits of the evils and falsities which are with him, and although these two are constantly at war with each other; nevertheless, the outcome of their spiritual encounters is simply keeping man in a state of equilibrium, while it remains with the man himself to decide whether the angels or the evil spirits shall have dominion over him. In the power of making this choice he is sustained by the immediate presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who watches over him, and strengthens and supports him in the midst of temptations. Thus we read:--

The Lord permits the infernals in the other life to lead the good into temptation, and, consequently, to infuse into them evils and falsities. They also do this with their whole effort; for when they do so, they are in their life and in the delight of their life. But with those who are in temptation the Lord Himself is present both immediately, and also mediately through angels, and He resists by refuting the falsities of the infernal spirits, and dispersing their evil, whence there results renewal, hope and victory. By this means, with those who are in the truths of good, the truths of faith and the goods of charity are more interiorly implanted, and more strongly confirmed. This is the means whereby spiritual life is bestowed upon man (A. C. 6574).

And again:--

It is the Lord alone who struggles and conquers in the case of those persons who are in temptation-combats. From his own power a man can effect nothing whatever against evil, that is, infernal spirits; for they are so connected with the hells, that if one hell were conquered, another would rush in at once, and so on to eternity. They are like the sea which presses upon every part of a dam or dike, and if the dam should be perforated by the smallest crevice, the sea would never cease breaking through and inundating, until nothing is left. Thus it would be, unless the Lord alone sustained temptation-combats with man (A. C. 1692.)

We learn further:--

In the battles, that is, in the temptations of men, the Lord accomplishes a particular redemption, even as while in the world He accomplished a plenary [that is, a universal] redemption. While in the world. the Lord, through battles and temptations, glorified His Human, that is, He made it Divine;

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He does the same now in a particular manner with man--when he is in temptations. The Lord fights for him in temptations, and conquers the infernal spirits by whom he is infested; and after the temptation He glorifies man, that is, He makes him spiritual. After His universal redemption, the Lord reduced all things in heaven and in hell into order; the same He does with man after temptation; for he reduces into order with him all things belonging to heaven and the world. After redemption, Lord instituted a New Church; so also He restores with man those things which belong to the Church, and He causes him to be a Church in particular. After redemption, the Lord bestowed pence upon those who believe in Him; for He said, My peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you (John xiv. 27); so also the Lord, in like manner, after temptation, conveys peace to man, that is, joy of the heart and solace (T. C. R. 599.).

192. The Lords presence, however, with man in temptation, is not only a general or universal presence; but it is oven a most particular presence; for when man is to be led into temptation, the Lord not only arranges all the spiritual forces in him into order, so that he is able to undergo temptation; but else during the whole of the temptation the Lord Himself is with the man strengthening and supporting him, and raising him when he is about to fall; and besides, He never allows any man to be tempted beyond his power of endurance. Thus the Lord Himself directs the whole of a mans spiritual warfare, and when the man himself does his share of the work, the Lord conquers his spiritual enemies, and secures the victory for him.

As regards the mans special preparation for entering into temptation, we read:--

When persons are about to undergo temptations, interior things, that is, goods and truths, are arranged by the Lord into such a condition that through an immediate influx from Himself, nod mediate influx through heaven, the falsities and evils which are from hell, call be resisted, and the man himself who is in temptation, can be protected. At such a time also the man is in close proximity to hell (A. C. 8131).

But as to the Lords presence with man during temptation, He is present with him in his conscience, and through his conscience in the truth which he has imbibed from the Divine Word.

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We thus read:--

With all who are in temptations truth flows in from the Lord. This truth governs and rules the thoughts; it raises the men as often as they fall into doubts, and even into states of despair. This governing truth is a truth of such kind and quality as they had previously learned from the Word or from doctrine, and had confirmed m themselves; other truths also are recalled at that time, but they do not govern the interiors of men. Sometimes this governing truth is not presented conspicuously before the understanding, but remains hidden in obscurity, and nevertheless rules. For the Lords Divine flows in and thus keeps the interiors of the mind in that truth; and when this truth appeals in light, the person in temptation receives consolation and aid. It is not that truth itself, whereby the Lord rules and governs those who are in temptations, but the affection of that truth; for the Lord flows only into those things which belong to affection. The truth which has been implanted and inrooted by affection is inherent in man, and is recalled through the affection; and when that truth is recalled, it presents the affection which is conjoined with it. This affection is the reciprocal affection of man (A. C. 5044).

Through His presence with man in temptation, the Lord therefore keeps him in a state of hopefulness and confidence; for, as we read:--

The Lord keeps man in a state of hope and trust, which are the forces of the contest from the interior, by virtue of which the man offers resistance (A. C. 6007).

That the Lord does not permit man to be tempted beyond his power of endurance, is stated in what follows:--

Every man has a limited power of endurance, wherefore when a temptation has reached the outermost bounds of the mans power, he is unable to bear any more, and falls. Still, when he is about to fall, the Lord raises him, and rescues him out of despair. He is then led mostly into a state of hope, and thereby into the clearness of solace, and also into a state of happiness (A. C. 8166).

193. As regards mans co-operation with the Lord, so that spiritual temptations may be brought to a successful issue, he is required first of all, with a full application of his freedom and rationality, to embrace the Lords side of the contest, by acknowledging Him as the source of all the strength and power which he needs in order to resist evils and falsities.

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We thus read:--

Those in temptations should have faith that salvation is from the Lord alone, and nothing from themselves, because this is the principal thing of faith in temptations. He who when tempted believes that he is able to resist from his own forces, succumbs, because he is in falsity, and thence attributes merit to himself, and thus claims to be saved from himself, whereby he excludes influx from the Divine. But he who believes that the Lord alone resists in temptations, conquers; for he is in the truth, and attributes merit to the Lord, and perceives that he is saved the Lord alone. He who is in the faith of charity maintains that the whole of salvation is received from the Lord alone, and nothing from man (A. C. 8172).

Nevertheless, in order that those who are in temptations may secure the Lords help, they ought to struggle in temptations as from themselves, although acknowledging at the same time that all their strength and power whereby they are enabled to resist in temptations, comes from the Lord only. This is taught in the following passage:--

In temptation-combats a man should struggle as of himself, while acknowledging and believing that his ability of doing so is from the Lord. When a man does not struggle as from himself, the good and truth which flow in from the Lord through heaven, are not appropriated to him. But when he struggles as from himself, although he believes that his ability of doing so is from the Lord, these things are appropriated to him. Thence he derives a new self, a proprium which is called a heavenly self, and which is a new will (A. C. 8179).

Again we read:--

In temptations a man ought to struggle against evils and falsities as from himself, but he ought still to believe that his ability is from the Lord. If he does not believe it during the very temptation, because he is then in obscurity, he ought still to believe it after temptation. If a man after temptation does not believe that the Lord alone has fought for him, and conquered for him, he has undergone a merely external temptation, which does not penetrate very deeply, nor inroot anything of faith and charity (A. C. 8969).

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All struggles in temptations are carried on by means of truths from the Word; wherefore a man must struggle in temptations by truths, as from himself; he thus must learn truths, and think of them, as from himself; and he must apply them at the proper time, as of himself, in resisting evils and falsities in himself and in others; and yet, at the same time, he must ascribe all these truths to the Lord, and acknowledge that all power in temptations is from Him alone. We thus read:--

Temptation-combats are fought by the truths of faith which are from the Word. From these truths a man should fight against evils and falsities. If he fights from any other truths than these, he does not conquer, because the lord is in no other truths (A. C. 8962).

194. When a man in temptations struggles as of himself, he identifies himself with the voice of conscience in his internal man, and by his internal man he coerces or compels his external man; wherefore, his internal man is then necessarily in a state of freedom. Nay, in temptations, when a, man by his internal man coerces his external man, he is in greater freedom than at any other time, although it does not appear so. On this subject we read:--

When a man in temptation forces himself to act in opposition to the evil and falsity, which are poured into him and supplied by the evil spirits, there is more of freedom with him than ever exists in a state outside of temptation, although the man is not able to see it then. There exists then with him an interior principle of freedom, from which he is willing to subjugate evil; and this freedom is so strong that it equals in strength and power the evil which makes the assault; otherwise man would never undertake the struggle. This principle of freedom is from the Lord who instils it into the mans conscience, and thereby causes him to overcome evil as from his own self. Through this principle of freedom man receives a self, a proprium, into which the Lord can instill good. Without such a self, or proprium, acquired, that is, bestowed upon man, by a principle of freedom, no man can ever be reformed;

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because without it he cannot receive a new will which is conscience. The principle of freedom thus bestowed upon man is the very plane into which the influx of good and truth from the Lord, takes place. Hence it us, that those who do not resist in temptations from this will-principle or this principle of freedom, succumb (A. C. 1937).

195. After having treated of the general character of spiritual temptations and their causes, and also of the methods, by which the member of the Church is called upon to meet them, we shall discuss the immediate, proximate occasions whereby a man is plunged into temptation. All these arise from a disturbance of the spiritual equilibrium in man, either through the action of the Lord and the angels of heaven, or through that of the evil spirits of hell. Thus we read:--

The Lord is present with man in conscience, which is the new will and the new understanding with man from the Lord and the Lords presence is so much the nearer the more the man is in the affection of good and truth but if the Lords presence is nearer than is suitable to a mans affection of good and truth, he comes into temptation; because the evils and falsities which are with a man, and which are tempered by goods and truths, cannot sustain a closer presence (A. C. 4209).

And again we read:--

Evils, or evil spirits with man, after they have been subjugated [by repentance] and serve, begin to rise up and to cause infestations, in proportion as a man who desires to be in goods and truths, confirms in himself my evils and falsities that is, in proportion as lusts and falsities insinuate themselves into a man s goods and truths for the life of the evil spirits is in these lusts and falsities, but the life of the angels in goods and truths. Hence there arises an infestation and a battle. This takes place with all who have conscience. With these there arises thence a dull pain, but with those who are in perception an acute pain; and the more interior the perception is, the more acute is the pain (A. C. 1668).

Again, whenever spiritual life presses down from the internal into the external man, it causes temptation; for spiritual life is opposed to the delight of a merely natural life, and removes it;

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as appears from what follows:--

When the good of charity which constitutes spiritual life, is about to be instilled, the delight of pleasures which has [hitherto] constituted natural life, is removed. When this delight is being removed man comes into temptation; for he thinks that if he is deprived of the delight of pleasures, he is deprived of all life; because his natural life; because his natural life has hitherto consisted in this delight, or in this good as he calls it. Nevertheless, the man who is being regenerated, is not deprived of the delight of the pleasures of the body and the lower natural mind. He enjoys this delight in full after regeneration, and even more fully than before; but in an inverse ratio. For before regeneration the good of pleasures constituted the whole of mans life but afterwards the delight of pleasures serves in the place of a medium and ultimate plane, in which spiritual good terminates with its happiness and blessedness. When therefore the order is about to be inverted, the former delight of pleasures expires and becomes none, and a new delight from a new origin is instilled (A. C. 8413).

As a general thing a man comes into spiritual temptation, whenever his spiritual mind or man is opened, and when life flows thence into the natural man below. We thus read:--

When the spiritual mind, which is properly the internal man is opened, then temptations exist. The reason is that heaven, that is, the Lord through heaven, flows into the natural mind through the spiritual mind.... And when heaven flows in, it removes the things which resist, which are evils and falsities thence, and which reside in the natural mind or man. These evils and falsities cannot be removed except through a living acknowledgment of them by the man, and through a grief of the soul on account of them. Thence it is that a man in temptations has anguish from the evils and falsities which rise up in his thoughts; and in proportion as a man then acknowledges his sins, considers himself guilty, and prays for deliverance, temptations are of use to him. It follows hence that a man has a spiritual temptation, when his internal which is called the spiritual mind is opened; and thus while he is being regenerated (A. E. 897).

And again we read:--

So long as a man is in the lusts of evil and their delights, he is merely in the natural mind, and his spiritual mind is closed.

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But as soon as after exploration he acknowledges evils as sins against God because they are against the Divine laws, and as soon as on this account he desires to desist therefrom, the Lord opens his spiritual mind, and through the affections of good enters into the natural mind; and He enters there into the rational degree, and from that degree disposes into order those things which lower down in the natural mind are opposed to order. It is this process which appears to man as a combat, and with those who have indulged much in the delights of evil it appears as temptation; for the lower natural mind then suffers pain, when the order of its thoughts is inverted (D. P. 146).

The pain which a man experiences in temptations is felt by the lusts and evil affections, which are then conquered and forced to retire; as is stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

When a man is being purified of the loves of self and of the world, as is the case when he is being regenerated, are is in grief and in pain. It is the lusts which are being removed, which grieve and cause pain (A. C. 4496).

196. As a general thing, man when in temptation is in a state of commotion and turbulence. For evil spirits are then arrayed inimically against good spirits and angels; and each party is trying its utmost to prevail upon the man to declare in its favor. This disturbed state lasts throughout the whole of the temptation. But after the temptation is passed and the victory won, the fruits of the victory are collected; good and truth then occupy advanced positions in the natural man, and are more firmly rooted in it. On this subject we read:--

While man is in temptation, he is in the midst of the commotion created by the evil spirits but after they are driven away there arises a calm, which is the new beginning when all things are arranged into order (A. C. 842).

Again we read:--

After temptation an orderly arrangement takes place; because goods and truths are implanted in man through temptations; but they are only arranged afterwards.

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For the state of temptation is turbulent, and the state after temptation tranquil. Arrangement takes place in tranquility. For this reason also, after temptation, there succeeds pleasantness from enlightenment by the truth, and delight from the affection of good (A. C. 8370).

By temptations, however, goods and truths are not only arranged into order in the natural man and inrooted there, but the internal man also is enriched thereby. Thus we read:--

The goods of love and the truths of faith are not appropriated by man during temptation, but after temptation. For so long as temptations continue evils and falsities of evil are excited on the one hand, and goods and the truths of good with man on the other hand; whence there arises a turbulent state. In this state it mans internal is opened with him. After temptation, however, he comes into a serener state, and in that state goods and the truths of good are introduced by the Lord into the internal, which is then opened (A. C. 10,686).

As regards a mans state while he is in temptation, it may be described in general as being spiritually dark, and void of delight; further, that his faith then is weak, and that he doubts the presence, nay the very existence of God. This at one time renders him indifferent and callous, but at another time it causes him to feel spiritual hunger and thirst. On this subject we read:--

While man is in temptations, he is obsessed on all sides by falsities and evils which impede the influx of light from the Divine, that is, the influx of truth and good. A man is then, as it were, in darkness. Darkness, in the other world, is nothing else than an obsession by falsities; for these falsities abstract light, end therefore they deprive him who is in temptation of the perception of consolation from truths (A. C. 6829).

And again:--

He who is in temptation, is in vastation and desolation; for the false and evil which are with him emerge and obscure, and almost carry off the influx of good and truth from the Lord. The truth also which flows in does not seem to have such power as to disperse falsities and evils; for evil spirits are then present who inflict pain, and induce despair about salvation (A. C. 6828).

197. Temptation generally becomes intensified, as it progresses, until at last it terminates in a kind of despair.

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This kind of despair marks the end of a temptation. Of this character was the Lords temptation, as He hung upon the cross and cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me. We thus read:--

Temptations are continuous despairs concerning salvation, which at first are at first are light, but successively become grievous: until at last there is almost a negative doubt concerning the presence of the Divine and its help. Spiritual life is generally led to this extremity in temptation; for thus natural life is extinguished. In the midst of despair, the inmost is then held by the Lord in the battle against falsity; wherefore, this despair also is speedily dissipated through consolations which are then insinuated by the Lord for after every spiritual temptation there is comfort, and, as it were, a renovation of life (A. C. 8567).

And again:--

Despair is the last state of desolation and temptation. Through despair man acknowledges effectively and sensibly that there is nothing true and good from self, and that from self man is damned; but that men are delivered from damnation by the Lord, and that salvation flows in through truth and good. Despair also is for this reason, that the blissfulness of life which is from the Lord may be felt; for those who come out of this state are like persons condemned to death who are freed from prison. Through desolations and temptations also, states contradictory to heavenly life are perceived; the sensation and exception of the blissfulness and happiness of heavenly life is granted thereby; for this sensation and perception of blissfulness and happiness arises from no other source than the relation of things contradictory. In order, therefore, that full views may be obtained, desolations and temptations are carried on to their very summits, that is, to despair (A. C. 6144.)

198. After despair comes comfort and consolation, and, indeed, renewal and recreation; for by temptations evils and falsities, are dislodged, and their hold upon man is weakened, and when such is the case good and truth are established in their place and conjoined by the Lord; and the conjunction of good and truth, which is equivalent to the heavenly kingdom, brings solace and joy. For angels then approach the member of the Church, and the evil spirits of hell take their departure.

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Such is the case with temptations, both individually and collectively; for as after each individual temptation the member of the Church arrives at a state of rest, so also is the case after temptations collectively. The member of the Church then reaches that state of rest and peace which is signified by the seventh day, the day of rest. On this subject we read:--

After every spiritual temptation comes enlightenment and affection, thus pleasantness and delight-pleasantness from enlightenment through truth, and delight from the affection of good. Consolation thus follows after temptation and the reason of this is, that through temptations truths and goods are implanted and conjoined. Man thence, as to his spirit, is introduced more interiorly into heaven, and to those heavenly societies with which he had previously been. When a temptation is ended, the communication with heaven, which had formerly been partially closed, is opened; thence arises the pleasantness and delight; for the angels with whom a communication is opened, flow in through truth and through good (A. C. 8367.)

And again:--

When a man emerges from temptation, light with its spiritual heat, that is, truth with its good, appears; thence he has gladness after anxiety. This is the morning which succeeds the night in the other life. The cause why good then is perceived, and truth appears, is that after temptation truth and good penetrate towards the interiors and become inrooted. For when a man is in temptation, he hungers as it were for good, and thirsts for truth: wherefore, when he emerges thence, he feasts on good as a hungry person regales himself with food, and he imbibes truth as a thirsty person procures for himself drink. Besides, when the Law from the Divine manifests itself, evils and falsities are removed: and when they are removed, an opportunity is given to truth and good to penetrate more interiorly. This is the reason why after temptation there appears from the Lord the good of love with its light (A. C. 6829).

And finally we read:--

When the evils and falsities of a man are removed, then temptations are finished; and when they are finished joy flows in from the Lord through heaven, and fills the mans natural mind.

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This is meant by consolation. All who undergo spiritual temptations receive these joys. I speak from experience. Man becomes the participant of these joys after temptations, because he is then introduced into heaven; for through temptations a man is conjoined with heaven, and admitted into it. Hence he has a similar joy to that of the angels (A. E. 897).

199. These joys, however, are not on account of the victory gained, but because good and truth have been conjoined in the natural man. All heavenly joys result from such a conjunction; as is stated is what follows:--

The conjunction of good and truth in the natural man is effected through temptations. Conjunction itself causes solace, because conjunction is the end of temptations; for every one after reaching the end, receives solace, according to the hard things which he suffered while passing through the intermediate states. It is to be observed in general that all conjunction of good with truth is effected through temptations; and indeed for this reason, because evils and falsities resist, and, as it were, rebel, and by every possible means seek to prevent the conjunction of good with truth, and of truth with good. This combat exists between the spirits who are associated with man; namely, between those spirits who are in evils and falsities, and those who are in goods and truths. This combat is perceived by man as a temptation in himself. Whenever the spirits who are in evils and falsities are conquered by the spirits who are in goods and truths, and when the former are compelled to withdraw then the latter receive joy from the Lord through heaven. This joy also is perceived by the man in himself, as solace. But the joy and the solace are not on account of the victory, but because of the conjunction of good and truth; for all conjunction of good and truth has in itself joy; since it is the heavenly marriage, in which is the Divine (A. C. 4672).

200. The member of the Church, after temptation is in heaves, as to his internal man, although as to his external man he is still in the world; as is shown in what follows:--

After the temptation is finished, the man as to his internal man is in heaven, and through his external man is in the world; wherefore the conjunction of heaven with the world is effected in man through temptations, and then the Lord with things which he suffered while passing that man, according to order, rules his world out of heaven (T. C. R. 598).

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Then also the Lord glorifies that man, and renders him spiritual (Ibid. 599); and then we read concerning that man, that the Lord created him into His image according to His likeness.

The essential condition, however, which the member of the Church reaches, after his temptations are ended, is this, that he no longer desires to be his own, but the Lords; nay, he then feels actually distressed by the thought of acting from himself, and not from the Lord. This appears clearly from what follows:--

By repeated desolations and tribulations, a man who is being regenerated, at last is reduced to such a condition that he no longer desires to be his own, but the Lords; and after he has become the Lords he arrives at such a state that when he is left to himself he grieves, and is seized with pain; and when he is taken out of this state, he returns into his former state of bliss and beatitude. All angels are in such a state (A. C. 6138).

201. Such then is the blessed fate of all those who conquer in temptations, but the case is quite different with those who succumb; for these are confirmed thereby in evils, and they come into the persuasion of what is false; as appears from what follows:--

None can be tempted, except those who are in the good of faith, that is, in the good of charity. Should any be tempted who are not in that charity they would succumb; and those who do so, come into the confirmation of evil, and into the persuasion of the false for with these persons the evil spirits with whom they are associated, conquer (A. C. 4274).

And again:--

Succumbing in temptations means being confirmed in falsities and evils, and against the truths and goods of faith. But succumbing in a state of infestations* means being confirmed in evils and falsities, yet not manifestly against the truths and goods of faith.

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In succumbing in temptations there is contained a blasphemy of truth and good, and sometimes profanation. The most grievous and most potent damnation is that of profanation (A. C. 8169).

* Concerning infestations we read, that they are not temptations, and that they are brought about by injections of what in false against truths; which falsities are dispelled by an influx out of heaven (A. C. 7474).

202. A summary of the salutary effects wrought upon man by temptations, Swedenborg gives in what follows:--

Temptations are instrumental in confirming the truths of faith, and also in implanting them, and likewise in instilling them into the will, so that they become the goods of charity. For a man fights from the truths of faith against evils and falsities; and because his mind is then in truths when he conquers in temptations, he confirms himself in these truths and implants them, and at the same time treats as enemies those evils and falsities which have made the assaults, and rejects them from himself. Through temptations also the lusts which are of the loves of self and of the world are coerced, and the man himself is humbled, and thus rendered fit to receive the life of heaven from the Lord; which life is the new life such as prevails with the regenerate man. Inasmuch as through temptations the truths of faith are confirmed and the goods of charity implanted, and the lusts of evil also are curbed, it follows that by temptation dominion is acquired for the spiritual or internal man over the natural or external man; consequently, for the good which is of charity and the truth which is of faith over the evil which is of the love of self and of the world. When such is the case man receives enlightenment, and a perception of what is true and of what is good, and of what is evil and false; and thence he has intelligence and wisdom, which afterwards increase from day to day (A. C. 8966, 8967).

Here then we have a summary of mans spiritual condition when he conquers in temptation; and we see that as a general thing the power of good and truth is established in him, and the power of evil and falsity broken. We learn also that the internal man which receives life from heaven, obtains dominion thereby over the external man, and hence over the loves of self and of the world which are there. By temptations, therefore, the external man is reduced into a state of harmony and correspondence with the internal man, and conjoined with it, so that what the internal man wills and thinks, the external man does and speaks

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but this is equivalent to the regeneration of the external or natural man.

The most palpable effect, however, which a victory in spiritual temptations exerts on the state of the member of the Church is, that there is thereby imparted to him by the Lord a state of illustration, or of spiritual enlightenment. Heretofore he saw in natural light only; even the truths of the Word and the doctrines of the Church appeared to him only in natural, and not in spiritual light. He saw them from others, and not in the light of faith from himself. But now the truth of faith flowing from charity has taken up its abode permanently in the scientifics and knowledges of his natural man, and the light which beams from the Lord into his internal man now flows uninterruptedly, and without interference, into his natural man below, and illuminates all that is there with the light of truth; wherefore the member of the Church now sees light where heretofore there was darkness; and this light is vernal, warm light, wherefore it speeds him on, and enables him to do the works of charity and faith among men.

i. The Doctrine of Illustration, or of Spiritual Enlightenment.

203. The doctrine of spiritual enlightenment or illustration is the most comprehensive of all the doctrines connected with the subject of regeneration. For man enjoys a kind of enlightenment before regeneration wherefore a satisfactory treatment of that enlightenment with which men is gifted by regeneration, and which dawns upon him when lie emerges from spiritual temptation, naturally compels us to treat of mans general enlightenment before regeneration as well. Besides, the subject of spiritual enlightenment includes that of reason or rationality; wherefore in treating of spiritual enlightenment we shall also have to analyze reason, and to determine the general conditions of rationality.

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Enlightenment in spiritual matters, again, implies a correct knowledge of enlightenment in natural matters, and therefore it demands a thorough understanding of the subject of natural vision, and of its relation to spiritual or mental vision. Again, as enlightenment is progressive, a rational presentation of its doctrine makes it incumbent upon us to define the states of enlightenment which man enjoys at the various stages of his existence, from his life in the cradle to the most advanced state of his existence as an angel in heaven; this, however, includes a thorough knowledge of the laws of mans mental development. As that light, however, by which mental enlightenment is caused, does not originate in man, but is communicated to him by the source of all light, therefore the doctrine of enlightenment includes also that of Influx, which in itself is a most comprehensive, and indeed an all-embracing subject. Let us, therefore, approach this subject cautiously, and yet firmly, because all the elements of this doctrine are contained in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

204. The fundamental, spiritual fact which underlies the subject of spiritual enlightenment in all its ramifications, is this, that there is a light which illuminates the human understanding, different altogether from the light which emanates from the natural sun. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

There is a spiritual light, and there is a natural light. Both as to outward appearance, are similar, but as to their inward character they are dissimilar; for natural light is from the spiritual light is from sun of the natural world, and therefore in itself is dead; but spiritual light is from the sun of the spiritual world, and hence in itself is living. This latter light, and not natural light, enlightens the human understanding (D. P. 166).

Again he says:--

That the light which enlightens the mind is a real light, and that this light is altogether distinct from that light which is called natural, was granted to me to perceive, and also to see many times.

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I was raised into that light interiorly by degrees, and in proportion as I was raised the understanding was enlightened; so that at length I perceived things which I did not perceive before, and finally such things as I could not perceive at all in natural light. Since the understanding has light, therefore, when the understanding perceives, it is said, just as it is said of the eye, that it sees and is in light; and when it does not perceive, that it is in obscurity and shade, and so forth (H. H. 130).

205. Spiritual light in its essence is Divine Truth, and thus Divine Wisdom, and therefore all the arcana of wisdom are contained in this light, and on entering into the human understanding it imparts to the same all its intellectual capacities, and hence the faculty of reason; for reason or rationality is nothing else than the faculty, on the part of man, of receiving spiritual light. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is the light which illuminates mans mind, and causes the internal sight which is of the understanding (A. C. 9399).

And again:--

It is well to be borne in mind, and considered, that the whole understanding of man, and the thought thence, are due to a light which flows in. For even as the sight of the eye, through the light of the world which is poured around it, sees objects outside of itself; so also the understanding sees through the light of heaven. The interior understanding sees through the light of heaven, and the exterior understanding through the influx of the light of heaven into the light of the world. Mans intellectual [mind] is wholly thence, for this mind is the internal visual [organ]; that is, the intellect is the interior sight which sees from the light of heaven. In this light, which proceeds from the Lord, there is wisdom and intelligence; for this light is from the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord; wherefore, from this light there is thought, perception, reflection, observation, prudence, rational analysis, the faculty of judging, discerning and electing. All these things are from this light because they belong to internal sight. Whatever, therefore, a man hears passes into this light, in order to be perceived (S. D. 4627).

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In respect to the origin of reason, Swedenborg says:--

Rationality itself is from spiritual light, and not at all from natural light (D. P. 167).

And again:--

The faculty of receiving spiritual light is what is meant by rationality. From this faculty man has not only the power of thinking, but also of speaking from thought (D. L. W. 247).

He says further:--

The faculty of rationality man has from creation. This faculty consists in understanding things interiorly, and in drawing conclusions concerning what is just and fair, and concerning what is good and true (D. L. W. 413).

206. As natural light is related to natural heat, and in fact is inseparable from it, so also is the case with spiritual light which imparts to man the faculty of reason. This latter light also, which in its essence is Divine Truth, is never alone, but is always attended by spiritual heat, which in its essence is Divine Good. These two, namely, Divine Good and Divine Truth, or spiritual heat and spiritual light, as they flow forth from the glorified person of the Lord Jesus Christ, constitute the life of man--the life of his will and the life of his understanding. Concerning the manner in which these two proceed from the Lord, and thus concerning Influx generally, we read:--

The Lord as a Sun is Divine Love, and Divine Love is the very Divine Good itself hence although the Divine which proceeds from the Lord which is His Divine in the heavens is Divine Good united to Divine Truth, yet for the sake of distinction, is called Divine Truth (H. H. 140).

Again we read:--

The Divine Truth which proceeds from the Divine Good of the Lord must be conceived as ... a sphere emanating from the sun, which by degrees, in proportion as it becomes removed from the sun, decreases in ardor and splendor, and at last becomes so tempered as to be accommodated to the reception of the angels. Within this sphere, but at a great distance from the sun, on account of its ardor and splendor, is the heaven of angels.

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This sphere extends also beyond heaven, even into hell itself; but with those by whom it is not received adequately it is turned into the opposite. It hence appears that by the Divine Sphere, which includes and contains heaven, there is meant the Divine Truth conjoined with Divine Good, which encircles heaven, and all who are there. The heat which proceeds there from the Lord as a Sun, is the Divine Good of His Divine Love accommodated to the reception of the angels who are in heaven; and the light which proceeds from the Lord as a sun, is the Divine Truth of His Divine Good. Both together however, are celled the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord (A. C. 9498).

207. Concerning the mode by which the Divine Truth proceeding immediately from the Lord is accommodated to the states of reception of angels and men, Swedenborg says further:--

As the Divine Truth which proceeds immediately from the Lord is from the very Infinite Divine, therefore it cannot be received by any living substance which is finite, thus not by any angel; wherefore the Lord created successive [substances] by which, as by mediations, the Divine Truth proceeding immediately might be communicated. But the first successive [medium or substance] derived from it is still too full of the Divine to be received by any living substance which is finite, and thus by an angel; wherefore the Lord created another successive [medium], by which the Divine Truth which proceeds immediately might be received as to some portion. This successive [medium] is the Divine Truth which is in heaven. The first two [media] are above the heavens, and are like radiant belts from a flaming [substance] encompassing the sun which is the Lord. Such is the successive order even to the heaven which is nearest to the Lord, which is the third heaven, where are those who are innocent and wise. Thence these successions are continued even to the last heaven, and from the last heaven to mans sensual and corporeal part, which receives influx in the last place. It hence appears that there are continuous successions from the first, i.e., from the Lord, even to the last things which are with manyea, to the last things which are in nature. The last things which are with man, as well as in nature, are comparatively inert, and hence cold, and they are comparatively general, and hence obscure. It appears also that through these successions there is a continuous nexus of all things with the First. According to these successions influx takes place; for the Divine Truth which proceeds immediately from Divine Good flows in successively;

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and on the way, or around each new successive [medium], it becomes general, and thus grosser and more obscure; and it becomes slower, and consequently colder and more inert. It hence appears what is the Divine order of successive [mediations], and of modes of influx.

It must be borne in mind, however, that the Divine Truth which flows into the third heaven which is nearest the Lord, flows in even into the last things of order without any successive formation, and there governs and provides each and all things immediately from the First. It is thus that the successive [formations] are kept in their order and nexus (A. C. 7270).

208. From this passage we learn that Divine Truth flows forth from the Lords Divine Humanity in two ways, that is, both mediately and immediately. The Divine Truth flowing forth from the Lord mediately furnishes the substance out of which the spiritual and natural universes are formed. In this Divine Truth there are successive degrees which reach from the very sun of heaven to the lowest degrees in man, as well as in nature. Into each of these degrees, however, the Lord also flows immediately, and thus through the Truth which flows forth immediately from His glorified Humanity. By this latter Truth all those degrees which are formed from the Truth that proceeds mediately from Himself, are kept in a state of order and in connection.

In man are all those degrees which exist between the Lord Himself and the lowest degree in nature, which degree in man is called his sensual and corporeal, or bodily degree There are thus in man all the degrees of heaven, and all the degrees of the World of Spirits and of the world of nature; the former degrees constitute his internal man, and the latter his external men. The higher degrees in man are thus formed of substance derived from the higher degrees of that Divine Truth which proceeds mediately from the Lord; while the lower degrees in man, down to his very body, are organized of substance derived from the lower degrees of that same Divine Truth.

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The degrees of which the internal and external man in angels and men consist, are organized according to this plan, that the higher degrees perpetually flow into, and form the lower degrees, and thereby sustain and preserve them in a state of order. Those degrees in man, therefore, which correspond to heaven, and which constitute the internal man, flow into those degrees which constitute the external man, and through their influx impart life and also substance and form to the latter; while those degrees in man, on the other hand, which correspond to heaven, are governed and sustained by the degrees of the Divine Truth, which are above heaven, and which finally reach to the spiritual sun, and thus to the Lord.

The Lord, therefore, from the sun of heaven, flows immediately into the third heaven, that is, into the minds of the angels of that heaven; and through the third heaven He flows mediately into the second heaven, that is, into the minds of the angels there; and through them and their heaven He flows into the minds, i.e., into the thoughts and affections of the angels of the first heaven. But through them, and through the first heaven, He flows into the angelic and good spirits in the World of Spirits; through these, finally, and the World of Spirits generally, He flows into the minds, i.e., into the thoughts end affections of men on earth. This is what is meant by mediate influx.

209. So long as man was in a state of order, that is, so long as he lived figuratively in the garden of Eden, this mediate influx from the Lord through the highest, that is, the celestial heaven sufficed to prepare men on earth for a life in heaven; but when men lapsed into evil, and when in the course of time the whole of their external man became steeped in hereditary evil, this mediate influx of the Lord through heaven was, in the end, no longer sufficient to prepare men for a heavenly existence.

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The Lord during that period was immediately present with the angels of the highest heaven, and by a transflux through their heaven, and thus in the representative form of an angel, He was able to be present below that heaven, and to reveal Himself to the sons of Israel as Jehovah. In this character, however, He was not able to be present among men in the fullness of the Divine Omnipotence; for He was not yet present among them immediately from Himself, but only mediately through the angels of the highest heaven, and thus only through the Divine Truth that proceeds mediately from Himself.

By the assumption of the human nature the Lord put on all the degrees of the mediate Divine Truth, called the Word (John i. 1 et. seq.), down to the very lowest, namely, the sensual and corporeal degree with which He was invested through the instrumentality of His human mother. These degrees He glorified; that is, He made them Divine, by uniting them in His own person with the Divine nature of the Father from within, which resides in the very sun of heaven. But by the glorification of all the degrees of His human nature--of those which correspond to heaven and which composed the internal degrees of His Humanity, and of those which correspond to the World of Spirits and the natural world which made up the external degrees of His Humanity, and His body--He raised all these degrees of His Humanity into the Sun of heaven, and imbued them there with the very Divine nature of the Father. He thereby acquired for the Divine Truth, which ever since proceeds from His glorified Humanity, the power of penetrating immediately from Himself into all those degrees in man which He glorified in His own person. Wherefore, since the glorification of His Humanity, the Lord is able to be present with the fullness of His Divine Omnipotence, not only in the third, but also in the second

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the spiritual heaven, because not only mediately through the angels of the third heaven, but also immediately from the Divine Spiritual degree of His glorified Humanity. In like manner among the angels of the first heaven he is able to be present not only mediately through the angels of the higher heavens, but also immediately from the Divine Spiritual-Natural degree of His glorified Humanity. Among the spirits in the World of Spirits, also, since the glorification of His Humanity, he is able to be present not only mediately through the angels of heaven, but also immediately by virtue of the Divine Natural degree of His glorified Humanity; while, finally, with man in the natural world He is able to be immediately present through the Divine Sensual degree of His glorified Humanity, as well as mediately through the spirits of the World of Spirits, and likewise through
the angels of heaven.

Such is the Lords presence in heaven, in the World of Spirits, and among humanity at large, since the glorification of His Humanity. But the Lord in a similar manner is present in man himself; for man as to his immortal spirit is organized according to the pattern of heaven and of the World of Spirits, and as to his body he is organized according to the pattern of the natural world. In man, therefore, are the celestial, spiritual and spiritual-natura1 degrees which correspond to the three heavens, as well as the natural and the interior sensual degree which he has in common with the spirits in the World of Spirits, to which is added the external sensual or corporeal degree which belongs to nature, and is peculiar to man. Into each of these degrees ill man the Lord flows mediately through heaven and the World of Spirits, and also immediately
through the Divine Truth which proceeds from His glorified Humanity. This is plainly taught by Swedenborg in the following passages:--

Before the assumption of the Humanity, the Divine influx from the Lord into the natural degree was mediate through the angelic heavens, but after the assumption it became immediate from Himself....

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This is the reason why the sun of the angelic heaven which is the first proceeding of His Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, after the assumption of the Humanity shone out with more eminent beam and splendor than before the assumption. This, moreover, is meant by the words in Isaiah: In that day the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days (xxx. 26). The mediate enlightenment of men through the angelic heaven, which existed before the coming of the Lord, may be compared to the light of the moon which is the mediate light of the sun; and since this light after the Lords advent was made immediate, therefore it is said in Isaiah, that the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun (D. L. W . 233).

We read further:--

Before His Advent into the world, the Lord was indeed present among the members of the Church, but mediately through angels by whom He was represented: but after His Advent He became present among the members of the Church immediately; for in the world He had put on also the Divine Natural.... By virtue of this Divine Natural He enlightens now not only the internal, spiritual man, but also the external, natural man. Unless these two are enlightened at the same time man is comparatively in the shade; but when both are enlightened, then he is in daylight (T. C. R. 109).

210. It is impossible to understand rationally the subject of spiritual enlightenment, without a most thorough insight into the Lords mediate, and His immediate influx, and the mode in which these two influxes become conjoined in man. We shall discuss first more minutely the subject of mediate influx.

It was shown above (no. 83) that heaven, which consists of angels, is composed of larger and smaller societies, each of which, as a society, performs a function analogous to some function in the human system. Heaven thus is organized of parts, that is, of societies, all of which perform functions which correspond to those which are carried on in the human body; and from this it follows, that the whole of heaven, in the sight of the Lord, appears as a grand human organism--as a Grand Man.

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The head of this Grand Man is constituted by the third--the celestial heaven; its body by the second--the spiritual heaven; and its feet by the lowest--the spiritual-natural heaven. This Grand man of heaven, as was explained in no. 83, bears down upon each human soul, and flows into it, and thereby impresses upon it the human form; and from the soul the influx of the Grand Man of heaven is conveyed to the human body. This Grand Man of heaven, again, as was shown in nos. 98 and 99, rests upon the Church Universal among mankind, as the soul rests upon the body; wherefore, through the Grand Man of heaven, the Lord also governs the Church at large among men, and through the Church, humanity as a whole. This influx of the Lord, through the Grand Man of heaven, is His mediate influx; while the Lords influx immediately from the sun of the spiritual world, constitutes His immediate influx.

The Lords mediate influx through the Grand Man of heaven, again, is either general or particular; that is, it reaches man either in the form of a general sphere from each of the larger and smaller divisions and provinces of the Grand Man; or else it reaches him from some particular society of heaven, with which he is connected by virtue of his particular thoughts and affections. This particular influx out of heaven is conveyed to man through the mediation of particular angels or spirits, who are appointed over him by the Lord.

211. A general influx from each of the three general divisions of heaven, that is, from the third, second and first heavens, and also from the World of Spirits, takes place into the corresponding general divisions of the human mind, and by this influx these general divisions or degrees in man are formed and sustained. This general influx from the Grand Man of heaven is received indiscriminately by all men, and also by the lower kingdoms of nature.

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On this subject we read:--

It is a general rule that nothing can exist and subsist from itself or out of itself but from another, and thus through another. Also that nothing can be held together in its form, except from another, that is, through another. This appears from each and all things in nature. Thus it is well known that the body is held together in its form from without through the action of the atmospheres; and unless it were at the same time held together from within by some active or living force it would collapse in a moment. Everything that is unconnected with a thing prior to itself, and through things prior with a First, perishes at once.

The Grand Man, that is, influx from it, is that prior that through which man as a whole, and as to each of his individual parts, is connected with a First, and thus with the Lord (A. C. 3627).

Again, we read:--

It might be known that the organs of the body correspond altogether to their atmospheres and to their modes of action. Thus the eye corresponds to the ether, the ear to the air, the tongue to those things which float in the mater and affect, the nose to those things which are afloat in the atmosphere; thus each of them are formed in agreement with the modification of their universal, and these universals again are in accordance with the structure of their own organs.

Man, in like manner, could never subsist unless in respect to his various forms of life he corresponded as a part to the Grand Man. Unless this universal Man, that is, unless this universal Body with its organs existed, the particulars under it would never be able to subsist, or to have any consistency whatever. This Body, that is, this [Grand] Man, as is the case with universals, is only a sort of organic form, which has its life from the Lord, and thus is governed by the Lord as a man; apart from this the life of man, spirit, or angel cannot be conceived at all. Every particular lives from its general for the part belongs to the general; and every singular lives from its universal, for it is a part of the universal (S. D. 1830, 1831).

And again:--

Thence then [that is, from the Grand Man] is the existence of the bodies of men, and of their operations, and thence is subsistence, which is perpetual existence.

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Thence also is the existence and subsistence of the bodies of all animals, even of the least animalculae. Thence is the existence and subsistence of all plants with their varieties, each of which, in its own way, in a type, has reference to the bodies of the living subjects. All things, therefore, exist and subsist on account of the correspondence of spiritual and celestial with bodily and material things, and on account of their representation in them. Thence also is the agreement of the organs in the body with spiritual and celestial things; for the organs correspond to their active forces--to the uses of their life; otherwise no effects would be produced (S. D. 1714).

As to the influx of the general divisions of the Grand Man into the general divisions or degrees in man, Swedenborg says:--

The World of Spirits, as well as the first, second and third heavens each by itself, constitutes man, with his members and organs; yet each acts distinctly by itself: namely, the World of Spirits acts from the exterior, the first heaven from the interior, the second heaven from a more inward interior, and the third heaven from the inmost (S. D. 1619).

Concerning the particular action of the World of Spirits and of the first heaven, he says further:--

The first heaven constitutes the interior man and governs all the organical parts of the body, from the principles of the brain throughout their whole extension, and therefore through out the whole body, which is their extension. It governs these from the interior, so that the first heaven forms man from its interiors, that is, from causes; and so that the rational things of heaven flow into the organic parts, as rational things generally do, which flow into the interior organic parts, that is, into the interior organic substances.

The World of Spirits flows into these parts in like manner, but from a lower plane, that is, from the exterior. Its operations are indeed directed into the organic parts of the body, but into their exteriors (S. D). 1617, 1618).

212. Mediate influx passes into man through correspondences. Influx, therefore, takes place into heaven, because heaven corresponds to the Lord, that is, to the Lords Divine Human. Man, however, corresponds to heaven--that is, to the Grand Man of heaven--and through heaven he corresponds to the Lord: wherefore by virtue of correspondence the Lord is able, through heaven, to flow into man by mediate influx, and to form and sustain him.

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On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The universal heaven is so formed as to correspond to the Lord, that is, to His Divine Human; and man is so formed that as to each and all things, he corresponds to heaven, and through heaven with the Lord (A. C. 3624).

Again we read:--

Correspondence exists between the Natural and the Spiritual. Whenever anything from the Spiritual, as from its origin and cause, becomes visible and perceptible before the senses, then there exists a relation of correspondence between these two. Such a correspondence exists between spiritual and natural things in man. All those things are spiritual which belong to a mans love and wisdom; consequently, those things which belong to his will and understanding; and those things are natural which belong to his body. As these latter things have had their existence from the former, and as they perpetually exist, and thus subsist from them, they are correspondences; and for this reason they net as one, like end, cause and effect Thus the face acts as one with the emotions of the lower mind (animus), speech with thought, and the actions of all the members with the will, and so forth (D. W. iii.).

213. Mediate influx, through the Grand Man of heaven, flowed into man in this wise, and formed and sustained him, and initiated him into the life of heaven--so long as he was in a state of order. For the Lords life, that is, Divine Good and Divine Truth, was then received by heaven, and through heaven it flowed into the corresponding forms of mans mind, and revealed itself to him as spiritual heat, that is, as love, and as spiritual light, that is, as wisdom. Will and understanding with man were then united, wherefore Divine Good and Divine Truth were then able to flow into mans mind conjointly, and not separately as they do nowadays. Good from the Lord then flowed into mans will, and from the will it flowed into his understanding, and assumed there the form of Truth; and in this way man was then introduced into a knowledge of Divine Truth. The Law was then written on mans heart, and he became acquainted with it in proportion as he practiced the inflowing good;

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for in the same proportion in which he practiced good, and thereby appropriated it to himself, he became enlightened by the Lord through heaven with the truth corresponding to this good.

All this became altered by mans lapse into evil; for by the Fall the correspondence between mans outer, natural plan and heaven became destroyed; so that instead of receiving and appropriating to himself the inflowing good and truth, the fallen man in his will turned good into evil; and this evil on flowing into the understanding expressed itself there by falsity, so that instead of the Truth, man perceived falsity. Since the Fall, therefore, the Law is no longer written on mens hearts.

The very receptive forms of the outward, natural man became altered by the Fall; for instead of turning upwards, in order to receive, through the internal, spiritual man, the inflowing life of Divine Good and Truth, all these recipient forms turned themselves downwards towards the world, and towards the mans bodily self, and thereby perverted and inverted the inflowing life of the Lord.

This same perversion and inversion, in time, seized also the lower parts of the Grand Man of heaven; for heaven is formed of the blessed souls of the departed; but when, in consequence of the Fall, there poured into the Great Hereafter chiefly depraved human souls, then that part of the Grand Man which corresponds to the lower, spiritual degree of the internal man, as well as that part which corresponds to the outward, natural man, became likewise perverted into the opposite. But the result of this was, that the Divine Life, which was destined to reach man by the Lords mediate influx, became altered into evil and falsity, even before it reached the minds of men on earth.

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Wherefore, in order to restore to the fallen man the possibility of being reformed and regenerated, and thus saved, it became first of all necessary that the Grand Man, the source whence man receives his life on earth, should be purged and freed of all the wicked souls that had pressed into it, and had taken possession of it; and that thus the relation of correspondence between the Lord and heaven, that is, between the Lord and the Grand Man of heaven, should be restored. On this subject we read:--

In respect to man, the universal heaven of the Lord is the Grand Man; but in the highest sense, the Lord alone is the Grand Man; for heaven is from Him or out of Him, and all things that correspond to Him. Because through a life of evil, and the persuasions thence of what is false, mankind had become entirely perverted and because the lower parts of man began then to exercise rule over the higher parts, that is, natural things over spiritual things, so that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, could no longer flow in through the Grand Man, namely, through heaven, and reduce these things into order--there arose hence the necessity of the Lords Advent into the world, and of His putting on by this means a Human, and making it Divine, and of His restoring thereby order; so that the universal heaven would refer to Him as the Only Man, and would correspond to Him, after all those who were hence in falsity had been rejected under the feet, and therefore outside the Grand Man. Thence it is that those who are in the heavens are said to be in the Lord, yea, in His Body; for the Lord is the all of heaven, in whom each and all who are there have allotted to them provinces and functions (A. C. 3637).

214. By the restoration into order of the Grand Man of heaven, and hence by re-establishing the relation of correspondence between the Grand Man and the Lord, the original power of the Lords mediate influx into mankind was restored, so far as the Grand Man itself is concerned but this influx by itself was not sufficient to reduce the perverted, natural part of the fallen man into a state of correspondence with heaven, and thus with the Lord. Other factors were required for this purpose as well. For man is the recipient not only of the Lords mediate influx out of heaven; but on account of the hereditary constitution of his natural man, he is exposed as well as to an influx of evil and falsity out of hell, and by this influx mens hereditary loves of self and of the world are excited and stimulated;

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and against these two loves when they have once become dominant, the Lords mediate influx out of heaven, in the form of a General Influx from the Grand Man, does not avail. It is here where the Lords immediate influx from His glorified Humanity comes in. For this influx takes place into man independently of the condition of his natural man; that is, it brings its saving influences to bear upon man whether his natural man is in a state of correspondence with heaven, and thus receptive of the Lords mediate influx out of heaven, or whether it is not in such a state of correspondence. The Lords immediate influx from His glorified Humanity is in fact a second indispensable means for reducing the perverted, natural man of humanity into a state of correspondence with the Grand Man of heaven, and hence with the Lord; the restoration of the Lords mediate influx into man through the Grand Man of heaven being the first means or factor in this work. The Lords immediate influx into man, however, as we have seen above, is the direct result of the glorification of the Lords Humanity; for since the Lord made His Human nature Divine, an immediate influx from each of the glorified degrees of His Humanity takes place into each of the corresponding degrees of the finite humanity of men; and through this influx the Lord causes and preserves in them the precious faculties of FREEDOM and RATIONALITY. The preservation of mans freedom and rationality is thus the second Divine means by which the outward, natural man, by reformation and regeneration, is to be reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man, and thus with the Grand Man of heaven and the Lord. Our next object will be to investigate the operation of the Lords immediate influx upon man, and to study the way in which it is productive of the faculties of freedom and rationality in him.

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The Lords immediate influx enters into man in the form of spiritual heat, which in its essence is Divine Good, and in the form of spiritual light which in its essence is Divine Truth. On this subject we read:--

It is to be observed that in man there are two things which constitute his life, namely, SPIRITUAL LIGHT and SPIRITUAL HEAT. Spiritual light causes the life of his understanding, and spiritual heat the life of his will. Spiritual light from its first origin is the Divine Truth flowing from the Divine Good of the Lord, and thus [in man] it is the truth of faith flowing from the good of charity; and spiritual heat from its first origin is the Divine Good of the Divine Love of the Lord, and thus the good of celestial love which is directed towards the Lord, and hence the good of spiritual love which is directed towards the neighbor. These two, as stated above, constitute the whole life of man.

In respect to spiritual light, its presence in mans understanding exactly that of natural light in his outward sight; for, in order that the eye may see, it is necessary that there should be light which illuminates; and then the eye sees in light all things which are without, in its surroundings. In like manner, in order that the intellectual mind which is the internal eye of man, may see, it is necessary that the light of heaven, which is from the Lord, should be present and illuminate; and when the internal eye is illuminated this light, it likewise sees in light all things which are without, in its surroundings. In like manner, in order that the intellectual mind which is the internal eye of man, may see, it is necessary that the light of heaven, which is from the Lord, should be present and illuminate; and when the internal eye is illuminated by this light, it likewise sees the objects which are outside of itself in its surroundings. The objects which it sees are spiritual, namely, matters of knowledge (scientifics) and truths but when the above light does not illuminate the intellectual mind, that is mans internal eye, then like the outward eye, namely, like that of the body, it is in darkness and sees nothing; that is, in the scientifics it sees nothing of truth, and in the truths it sees nothing of good. The light which illuminates the intellectual mind, is real light, and it is such a light as exceeds a thousand times the brilliancy of noonday light in the world. This I testify, because I have seen it. From that light all the angels who are in the heavens see all things which are outside of themselves, in their surroundings, and from that light also they see and perceive the truths belonging to faith, and their quality.

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But as regards spiritual heat, its presence in mans will is exactly like that of natural heat in the body, in this respect that it imparts life. Spiritual heat, however, m its first origin which is from the Lord, is nothing else than the Divine Love towards the whole human race, and hence the reciprocal love of man towards the Lord, as well as towards the neighbor. This spiritual heat also is a real heat, which at the same time blesses the bodies of the angels with heat, and their interiors with love (A. C. 6033).

215. The presence of spiritual heat and light in the souls of men is equivalent to the Lords presence in them; and by His presence with them in spiritual heat, He imparts to them the power of freedom, and by His presence with them, in spiritual light, He endows them with the faculty of reason. As little, however, as the natural heat and light, by which a mans body is kept alive, belong to the man, or are derived from the man himself, but require to be constantly renewed by a fresh influx of heat and light from the natural sun; so also freedom and rationality, which result from the presence in mans soul of spiritual heat, that is, of Divine Good, and of spiritual light, that is, of Divine Truth, are not inherent in man, and hence do not belong to him; but they are the Lords in man, and are constantly renewed in him by a perpetual influx into him of Good and Truth, immediately from the Lord Himself. On this subject we read:--

There are two faculties with man from the Lord, whereby the man is distinguished from the animals. One faculty consists in his being able to understand what is true, and what is good; this faculty is called rationality and it is a faculty of his understanding. The other faculty consists in a man being able to do what is true and good; this faculty is called freedom, and is a faculty of his will. For by virtue of his rationality of man is able to think whatever he pleases; he can think in favor of God, and in opposition to Him, and he can think in favor of his neighbor and against him. He also is able to will and to do what he thinks and when he sees evil and is afraid of punishment, by virtue of his freedom he is able to desist from doing it.

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On account of these two faculties man is a man, and is distinguished from the animals.

These two faculties man has from the Lord, and they are continually with him from the Lord; nor are they ever taken away from him for should they be taken away, mans human nature would perish. In these two faculties the Lord is present with every man, the good, as well as the evil; they are the Lords mansion in the human race; and thence it is that every man, the Good as well as the evil, lives to eternity (D. L. W. 240).

Freedom and rationality are thus the Lords mansions in the human race in these faculties the Lord dwells with man, and through these faculties He enters into men with the Divine Good of the Divine Love, and the Divine Truth of the Divine Wisdom, that is, with spiritual heat and spiritual light.

216. It is important that we should have a clear knowledge of this entrance gate of the Lord with man; where He dwells with all, with the good and with the evil, and whence He imparts to all the faculty of freedom and rationality. On this subject we read:--

With every angel and also with every man there is an inmost or highest degree, that is, a certain inmost or highest part, in which the Lords Divinei. e., the Divine Truthfirst or proximately flows in, and from which He arranges and disposes the remaining interior parts [which belong to the spiritual and natural man, L. J. 28] and which succeed with man according to the degrees of order. This internal or highest part may be called the entrance gate of the Lord to an angel and a man, and it is His veriest dwelling-place with them. Through this inmost or highest part man is a man, and is distinguished from brute animals; for they have it not. Hence it is that man, differently from animals, as to all his interiors which belong to his higher and lower minds, can be raised by the Lord to Himself; that man is able to believe in the Lord, to be affected with love towards Him, and thus to see Him; and that he is able to receive intelligence and wisdom, and to speak from reason. Hence also it is that man lives to eternity. But that which is arranged and provided by the Lord in this [human] internal, does not flow manifestly into the perception of any
angel, because it is above his thought and exceeds his wisdom (H. H. 39).

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This inmost dwelling-place of the Lord with man, Swedenborg calls by pre-eminence the soul. The mind and the body are below; and the mind itself he subdivides into the higher mind (mens), and the lower mind (animus), which is nearest the body.

217. In this inmost dwelling-place of the Lord in man, celled the soul, spiritual heat and spiritual light, that is, Divine Good and Divine Truth, or Love and Wisdom, are one; and, in the most ancient times, so long as man was still in a state of order, the life of good and truth, in its united form, passed from the soul into the mind, and thence into the body. In the higher and lower minds, that is, in those parts of man which correspond to the Grand Man of heaven, the recipient forms of will and understanding were then most harmoniously united, and therefore received the inflowing life of good and truth in a united form. The result of this was that mans mind at birth was then not a complete blank, but he was born a human being, with rational and spiritual instincts; which instincts mere developed by the General Influx out of heaven, in a manner analogous to that in which animals through their instincts are developed at the present time. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

General influx takes place into those subjects of the natural world, which are in a state of order... Animals of every kind are in the order of their nature, and therefore they are under general influx. That they are in the order of their nature appears from this fact, that they are born into everything belonging to them, and have no need to be introduced into them by means of instruction (A. C. 6860).

And again he says:--

If man were not imbued with hereditary evil his rational part would be born immediately from a marriage of the celestial things of the internal man with its spiritual things

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that is, from the marriage of good and truth there--and through the rational part there would be born the scientific part, so that man would have the whole of his rational and scientific principle with him, as soon as he would enter into the world; for this would be according to the order of influx. This may be concluded from the fact that all animals of whatever kind are born into the whole of their scientific principle--that is, into the whole of the knowledge of what is necessary and useful to them for food, production, habitation and propagation for their nature is in accordance with order. How much more would this be the case with man, if order with him were not destroyed (A. C. 1902).

Again we read:--

In the good of love, which flows in with man from the Lord through the angels, there is contained all truth, and this truth would manifest itself of its own accord, if man lived in the love to the Lord, and in the love towards the neighbor. That this is so appears not only from the things which exist in heaven, but also from those things which exist in lower nature.... The brute animals are not acted upon otherwise than through loves and their affections into which they have been created, and afterwards born. Every animal is borne whither its affection and its love draw it and such being the case, they are also in all the scientifics whichever belong to their love. [Here the various scientifics or matters of knowledge are enumerated into which animals are born]. All these scientifics are contained in their loves, and they abide therein from their first origin. Into these scientifics they are born, because they are in the order of their nature, into which order they have been born; and such being the case they are acted upon by the general influx out of the spiritual world. If man were in the order into which he was created; namely, if he were in the love towards the neighbor, and in the love towards the Lord--for these are the loves proper to man--he more than all animals would be born not only into scientifics, but also into all spiritual truths and all celestial goods; and thus into all wisdom and intelligence. For he can think of God, and be conjoined with Him through love, and thus be elevated to the Divine and the Eternal, which animals cannot be. Man in such a case would be ruled by general influx from the Lord through the spiritual world; but because men is not born into order, but contrary to his order, therefore he is bent into dense ignorance. Such being the case, it was provided that he should subsequently be re-born, and thus come into a state of intelligence and wisdom proportioned to the amount of good and of truth which he receives from a principle of freedom through Truth (A. C. 6323).

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218. So long as men were in a state of order, will and understanding with them were perfectly one; or rather, the will with them ruled over their understanding. Wherefore, freedom with them also dominated over reason; for the understanding with them thought what the will willed. Good then was not separated from truth, as it is now, but it was identical with it; wherefore, through good, men were then led into truth. Indeed, their wisdom, that is, their understanding of the truth was altogether according to their love of good. Hence also they did not have the faculty of reason, such as we have nowadays; but instead of reason they had the perception of truth from good. On this account also the Most Ancient people, who were of a celestial and not of a spiritual character, never reasoned about truth, but their language was Yea, yea! Nay, nay!

This state of things was completely altered by Fall; for by this catastrophe men lost the power of perceiving truth from good. If, therefore, the will and understanding had remained conjoined with them, the inflowing life of good from the Lord, would invariably have been changed by them into evil, and this evil by flowing from the will into the understanding would have given rise there to nothing but falsities; for influx, that is, the inflowing life, is ever qualified by the recipient forms into which it flows. Under such conditions, however, it would have been utterly impossible for man to enjoy the faculty of reason; for the inflowing light of the Divine Truth which is the cause of reason, upon descending from the higher into the lower mind, would have been changed there at once into the densest darkness of falsity. Just as impossible it would have been for the fallen man to have enjoyed the faculty of freedom.

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For as soon as the Divine Good of the Lord which imparts to man the faculty of freedom, would have passed from the Lords dwelling-place in mans soul, through his internal into his external man, it would have entered there, with the fallen man, into his hereditary evil which constitutes the recipient forms of his natural will; and there it would have been changed outright into the most violent evils of self-love, which are destructive of all true freedom. The fallen man, therefore, by the very hereditary condition of his natural man, would have become an abject slave of evil, and thus of hell; in fact ht would have partaken altogether of the nature of the antediluvians who perished by the flood, and of whom we read that their wickedness was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually (Gen. Vi. 5).

That the General Influx from the Grand Man, which presupposes a state of correspondence between mans spirit and the Grand Man, was no longer sufficient to impart to the fallen man the faculties of freedom and rationality, and to rescue him from a state of evil, is further stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

Order with man is destroyed, and therefore he alone is not born into any science. What causes him to be born thus is hereditary evil from his father and mother. On that ground it is that all his faculties are in an opposite direction in respect to truths and goods; and it is impossible to reduce these faculties into corresponding forms by an immediate influx of celestial and spiritual things from the Lord. This has to be brought about by a different mode, or a different way, altogether (A. C. 1902).

Again he says:--

It is altogether impossible for man to live from general influx as the animals do which are void of reason; and it is impossible from this cause that all his life is contrary to order. Should he, while in such a state, be subject to general influx alone, he could not possibly be acted upon from the heavens, but only from the hells; and if he is not acted upon from the heavens, he has no interior life, consequently no life of thought and will such as belongs to man;

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nay, not even such a life as belongs to brute animalsfor man is born without the use of reason, into which he can be initiated only by an influx out of the heavens (A. C. 5993).

And again:--

Men are not in a state of order, nor in any law of order, therefore they are subject to particular influx, that is, there are angels and spirits with them, through whom influx takes place. Unless these angels and spirits were with man, he would rush into every iniquity, and would plunge headlong into the deepest hell. Through these spirits and through angels, man is under the auspices and the direction of the Lord. The order into which man is born would be to love his neighbor as himself; nay, more than himselfthis is what angels do. But man loves himself and the world alone, and he hates the neighbor, except so far as he is favored by him. Because the life of man is diametrically opposed to heavenly order, therefore he is governed by the Lord through spirits and angels (A. C. 5850).

219. The general features of particular influx, in which form the mediate influx from the Grand Man of heaven now takes place into the higher and lower minds of man, have been discussed above in no. 85. We showed there that by the appointment of particular good and evil spirits over man the influx of life from the spiritual world instead of being permitted to flow at once into mans hereditary nature is directed first into the contents of the memory; and we saw further that through the mediation of the good spirits appointed over man, the influx out of heaven is directed into the orderly contents of his memory; while through the mediation of the evil spirits associated with man, who are connected with a society either of devils or satans in hell, the influx of hell is directed into the disorderly contents of mans memory. As this particular influx, however, enters largely into the subject of Spiritual Enlightenment, it will be useful to quote here in extenso the teaching of Swedenborg on this subject.

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We thus read:--

(1). There are innumerable societies in the other life, which are arranged and disposed by the Lord according to every kind of good and truth; and the societies which are in the opposite are arranged Lend disposed by Him according to every kind of evil and falsity--even to such a degree that no genus of good and truth, nor any species Under this genus, nor any specific difference of this same good and truth, is possible without each having its own angelic society; that is, without there being some angelic society corresponding to it. And, on the other hand, no genus of evil and falsity, nor any species under this genus, nor again any specific difference of such evil and falsity, are possible, without there being some diabolical society corresponding to each.

In the society of such beings, every man is as to his interiors, that is, as to his thoughts and affections, although he is not aware of it. All that a man thinks and wills is from this source; yea so much so, that if the societies of spirits and angels in which he is, were withdrawn from him, he would instantaneously fall down stone dead. Such is a mans state, although he thinks that he has everything from himself, and that there is no hell and no heaven, or that hell is far removed from him, and also heaven.

Such as the good is with a man, such is the society of angels with him and such as the evil is with a man, such is the society of evil spirits with him. Man himself summons societies to himself, that is, he himself places himself into a society of such beings; for like is associated with like. As for instance, a miser summons to himself societies of similar beings, who are in a like lust. A person who loves himself more than others, and despises others, summons to himself similar beings who delight in revenges; and so it is with the rest. These beings communicate with hell. The man is in their midst, and is altogether ruled by them, even so much so that he is not under his own authority but under theirs although from the delight in which he is, and thence from the freedom in which he is, he believes that he rules himself.

Another person, however, who is not avaricious, or who does not love himself more than others, and who does not despise others, and who does not feel any delight in revenges, is in the society of similar angels, and through them is led by the Lord, and indeed he is led in freedom to that good and that truth, to which he suffers himself to be led and m so far as he suffers himself to be led to a more interior and a more perfect good, he is taken to more interior and more perfect angelic societies.

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His changes of state are nothing else than changes of societies (A. C. 4067).

(2). With every man there are at least two evil spirits and two angels. Through the evil spirits man has communication with hell, and through the angels with heaven. Without such a communication on either side man could not live a minute. Evil spirits from hell are with men, because from himself he is continually in evil; for he is in the delight of the loves of self and of the world. In proportion as a man is in evil, that is, in the above delight, angels from heaven cannot be present (A. C. 697, 5848).

(3.) The spirits who are drawn to a man enter into the whole of his memory, and into all the sciences of the memory which he possesses. All the things that a man possesses they put on even to such a degree that they do not know otherwise than that these things are theirs. This prerogative spirits have above man. Thence it is that al the things which the man thinks they think; and all the things which the man wills they will; and also conversely, that all things which those spirits think the man thinks, and all the things which those spirits will the man wills; for they act as one through conjunction (A. C. 5853).

(4.) The spirits who are with man--those who are connected with heaven, as well as those who are connected with hell--never how into man from their own memory and the thought thence; for, should they flow in from their own thought, the man would not know otherwise than that the things which are theirs are his own. Still through these spirits there flows in with man out of heaven the affection belonging to the love of good and truth, and out of hell the affection belonging to the love of evil and falsity. In proportion, therefore, as the mans affection harmonizes with that which flows in, in the same proportion it is received by him in his thought; for a mans interior thought is altogether in accordance with his affection, that is, with his love. So far, however, as it does not harmonize it is not received. Hence it is made plain that since
only the affection of good and the affection of evil are conveyed into man through spirits, and not thought, election still remains in the hands of man, because freedom remains with him; and that thus, by his thought, he is able to receive good and to reject evil, for knows from the Word what is good and what is evil. That which he receives by the thought from affection is also appropriated to him; but that which he does not receive by the thought from affection is not appropriated to him. Hence may appear what is the quality of the influx of good from heaven, and of the influx of evil from hell with man (H. H. 290).

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(5.) The spirits who are with a man do not know that they are with him (the angels know it from the Lord), for they are with him (the angels know it from the Lord), for they are adjoined only to a mans soul or spirit, but not to his body. For those things which from the thought are determined into speech, and by the will into actions in the body, flow into act in the ordinary way by general influx, according to correspondences with the Grand Man. The spirits, therefore, who are with man, have nothing to do with these things--that is, with a mans speech and his actions--wherefore they do not speak through a mans tongue, for this would be obsession; nor do they see through his eyes the things which are in the world, nor do they hear through his ears the things which are there (A. C. 5862).

(6.) As regards the influx of angels with man, it is not after the manner in which a man thinks, but it takes place according to correspondences. For the angels think spiritually, but the man perceives what they think naturally. Thus spiritual things fall into their own correspondences, and thus into their own representatives with a man.... Such objects as a man sees with his eyes do not appear before the spirits, nor do they apprehend the words as the man but according as the man thinks (A. C. 6319).

(7.) The influx of the angels is chiefly into a mans conscience; the plane upon which they operate is there; this plane is in a mans interiors. Conscience is twofold, interior and exterior. Interior conscience is that of spiritual good and truth; exterior conscience is that of what is just and fair. This latter conscience with many at the present day; interior conscience with a few.... Conscience is the plane into which the angels flow; and they flow into the affections of what is good and true, and of what is just and fair there; and thus they keep the man bound, although he is still in freedom (A. C. 6207).

(8.) It is provided by the Lord that the spirits should flow into what a man thinks, and into the things of his will; but that the angels should flow into ends, and through ends into those things which follow from ends. Through good spirits [in the world of spirits] the angels also flow into those things which with a man are goods of life and truths of faith; and through these things they lead him as much as possible away from evils and falsities. This influx is tacit and imperceptible to man; but it still operates in secret, and is chiefly efficacious in turning away evil ends, and in insinuating good ends. But so far as the angels are not able to do so, they withdrew, and flow in more remotely and more absently, and then the evil spirits draw near; for the angels cannot be present in evil ends, that is, in the loves of self and of the world.

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They are present, however, from a distance (A. C. 5884).

(9.) Hell, through its spirits, constantly injects evil and falsity, and these pervert and put out truths and goods; but the Lord, through the angels, constantly averts, removes, mitigates, and moderates them.... Yet in order that the angels may avert the influx from hell, there must be with a man truths of faith joined to goods of life, into which they may flow; these should serve them for a plane on which they may operate. When a man has no such things, then he is carried off by hell; and then he is ruled by the Lord through the angels as to external things, which are called external bonds.... By these he is governed when there are no internal bonds belonging to conscience (A. C. 6213).

(10.) Evil spirits and genii are not allowed to operate upon those things which are from a mans hereditary nature, but upon those which he has acquired to himself actual use. Before a man, therefore, has acquired to himself a sphere of lusts and falsities, the evil spirits serve, that is, they do not attempt to do anything, or to do him any harm. But as soon as a man acquires such a sphere, they rush in upon him and endeavor to rule over him, for then they are in their own sphere, and they find with the man something that delights them, namely, their own life. Where the carcass is there the eagles gather (A. C. 1667).

Evil spirits are not able to approach infants, because there is nothing as yet in their memory which they might put on, wherefore good spirits and angels are with them (A. C. 5857).

From these passages we learn that particular influx was mainly introduced by the Lord for this purpose that the man may be kept in the freedom of choice, and thus that with the full use of his freedom and rationality he may turn away from evil and falsity, and embrace instead the life of good and truth from the Lord. This Swedenborg states plainly in these words:--

With every man there are two spirits from hell and two angels from heaven. They establish communication on either side and cause the man to be in a state of freedom (A. C. 5976).

And again he says:--

Through evil spirits on the one hand and angels on the other, the Lord places man in an equilibrium between evils and goods, and between falsities and truths, so that he may be in a state of freedom.

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For in order that a man may be saved; he must be in freedom, and in freedom he must be led away from hell and directed towards good. What is not done in freedom does not remain, because it is nut appropriated. This freedom results from the equilibrium in which he is kept (A. C. 5982).

220. Through particular influx, we further read, man is brought under the auspices and direction of the Lord. For all his interior states are put on and manifested, on the one hand, by good spirits, and, on the other hand, by evil spirits; and through the former the men is placed in the midst of a society of heaven, and through that society is connected with the Grand Man of heaven, whose soul is the Lord Himself; while through the evil spirits he is connected with a particular society of hell, which corresponds to the unregenerate part of his natural man; and through these same evil spirits the influence out of hell is directed into the man in such a way that it can be at once counteracted by the Lord through the angels of heaven. By this means, however, all the hidden thoughts and affections of a man in this world are brought to light in the other world, and he himself is placed under the auspices and the direction of the Lord--that is, so far as he allows himself to be directed by the Lord. For, as Swedenborg says again:--

It is an irrefragable Divine law that man must be in freedom; and that good and truth, that is, charity and faith, are to be implanted in him in a state of freedom, and not at all in a state of compulsion; for what is received in a state of compulsion does not remain but is dispersed. Compelling a man means not insinuating into his volition; because he is expected to act from anothers volition: when he returns therefore, into his own volition, that is, into his own freedom, this (that is, what he received from anothers volition) is extirpated wherefore the Lord governs a man through his freedom, and he keeps him as much as possible away from the freedom of thinking and willing evil, for unless a man were thus kept back by the Lord, he would constantly cast himself into the deepest hell (A C. 5854).

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Again Swedenborg continues:--

A mans state is altogether according to the societies of spirits and angels in whose midst he is--his will then partakes of a similar character and also his thought. But the changes of state with man differ vastly when he himself summons these societies to himself, that is, when he adjoins them to himself, than when they are adjoined to him by the Lord. When he himself adjoins them to himself, he is in evil; but when the Lord adjoins them to him, he is in good. When he is in good, then there flows in with him through the above-named societies such a good as is conducive to the reformation of his life (A. C. 4073).

Whether a man, therefore, determines his own spiritual associations, or whether he allows the Lord to provide them for himself; the very fact of his being connected through attendant spirits either directly or indirectly with some society in heaven, or with some society in hell, puts him under the auspices and the direction of the Divine Providence, which includes the operations of mediate and immediate influx.

221. All those changes which a man undergoes in the course of his regeneration are equivalent to changes in his attendant spirits, and thereby to changes in those societies to which his attendant spirits belong. When a man thus, in the course of his regeneration, passes from a lower into a higher state of good, he is led by the Lord through a number of intermediate states. All these intermediate states, in the other life, are represented by spirits and angels who are connected with special societies of spirits and angels, and which the man successively joins, and then again leaves. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

In so far as a man suffers himself to be led to a more interior and a more perfect good, he is introduced into more interior and more perfect societies. His changes of state are nothing else than changes of societies.

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It hence may appear how it is with a mans regeneration, and the intermediate delights and goods through which and by means of which a men is led away by the Lord from the state of the old Adam to the state of the new man; namely, that it is done through angelic societies, and by changing from one society to another. Mediatory goods and delights are nothing else than such societies as are applied the Lord to man, so that through these societies he introduced to spiritual and celestial truths and goods. After he has been introduced into them, the former societies are separated, and more interior and more perfect societies are adjoined to the man (A. C. 4067).

In order that the Lord may employ in this manner the societies of the Grand Man, during the regeneration of the members of the Lords Church, the Grand Man itself, and hence heaven in all its parts must be connected by the closest kind of correspondence with the Lords Divine Humanity; and the Lords immediate influx, must govern and control the Grand Man not only in a general, that is, in a universal way, but also in a most singular and individual manner. Wherefore, mediate and immediate influx in the operations of the Divine Providence which have for their end the regeneration of the individual members of the Church, are one and inseparable.

This Swedenborg teaches plainly in what follows:--

That wherever there is mediate influx, there also is immediate influx, and indeed in the ultimate of order just as much as in the first of order--this I was told out of heaven, and I had a lively perception of it. I was further told, that what takes place through mediate influx, namely through heaven and the angels, is respectively very little; and also, that the Lord through immediate influx at the same time leads to heaven, and through this influx keeps each and all things in their connection and order (A. C. 7004).

Again we read:--

Through angels and angelic societies the Lord acts upon and governs men mediately; yet it is not the angels who govern, but the Lord through them. In connection with this subject it has to be further observed that some things, indeed, come from the angels themselves who are with the man; yet all the good and truth which become matters of faith and charity that is, which become a part of the new life with man, come from the Lord alone, even through angels from Himself;

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likewise every orderly arrangement and disposition which is constant, and which has the same purpose in view. Those things which come from the angels themselves are such as accommodate themselves to the affection of man, and as in themselves are not goods; and yet they serve the purpose of introducing the goods and truths which are from the Lord (A. C. 8728).

222. From the fact, however, that man since the Fall is under the government of particular, and no longer under general influx, it does not follow that general influx has thereby been abolished. General influx continues, as heretofore, but it is subjected to the same limitations as particular influx. Thus, as appears from passage (5) quoted above in connection with particular influx, this same particular influx terminates in the contents of the memory, and does not extend to a mans speech end actions; it is therefore limited to a mans mind, and does not govern the influx from the mind into the body. Thought and will, as is stated there, flow into speech and into the actions of the body in an orderly way, by general influx, according to correspondences with the Grand Man. From this, however, it follows that the correspondences between the body and the Grand Man of heaven still exist, and are not abrogated by the Fall, and that, therefore, the influx from the Grand Man is still able to cause the body of man to exist and subsist, and to continue in a state of order. This general influx from the Grand Man in fact constitutes the health-bringing power which is active in the body, and which is usually attributed to nature, and this influx is not interfered with by the particular influx which takes place into the contents of mens memory, and into the affections and thoughts of his spirit.

The general influx from the Grand Man of heaven, therefore, still exists; as well as an opposite general influx out of hell.

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By these two general influxes man is environed as to his spirit; yet these influxes are governed and controlled by the Lords immediate influx, which imparts to man the faculties freedom and rationality, and which provides that nothing shall enter into a mans will and understanding except through these faculties, which are the Lords mansions in his soul.

Concerning these two general influxes out of the spiritual world which operate upon man, and by which he is environed, Swedenborg says:--

For a number of years I noticed around me a general sphere of influxes. It consisted, on the one hand, of a perpetual effort of doing evil out of hell; and on the other of a perpetual effort of doing good from the Lord. Through these efforts, which were mutually antagonistic to each other, I was constantly kept in equilibrium. Such efforts, and the equilibrium resulting thence, are with every one; and hence all have the freedom of turning whither they please. The equilibrium, however, varies according to the good or evil with a man. It appears hence that the Lord flows in universally, and when universally, also singularly (A. C. 6477).

Again he says in respect to the General Influx which enters into mankind at large from the Lord, as well as from hell:--

(1.) The Divine which proceeds from the Lord is called a Sphere, because it emanates from Him. This Sphere encompasses Him, fills both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, and operates the effects of those ends which the Lord predestined at the Creation, and for which ever since He provides (C. L. 386).

(2.) From the Lord proceed Love and Wisdom, or what is the same thins. Good and Truth. These two proceed constantly from the Lord in a marriage, because they are Himself, and from Him are all things, and those things which proceed from Him fill the Universe; for apart from Him nothing would subsist that exists. There are several spheres that proceed from the Lord, as, for instance, the sphere of the preservation of the created universe, the sphere of protecting good and truth against evil and falsity, the sphere of reformation and regeneration, the sphere of innocence and peace, the sphere of mercy and grace, besides several more; but the universal of all spheres is the conjugial sphere, because this is also the sphere of propagation, and thus in a supereminent degree the sphere of preserving the created universe through successive generations (C. L. 222).

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(3). Nothing exists in the universe which has not its opposite; and from this it follows that since there is a sphere of conjugial love, there must also bean opposite sphere, which is called the sphere of scortatory love. For these two spheres are opposed to one another as the love of adultery is opposed to the love of marriage.... The sphere of scortatory love ascends from hell, and the sphere of conjugial love descends from heaven. These two spheres meet in either world, but do not become conjoined. In the spiritual world these spheres meet in the world of spirits which is intermediate between heaven and hell; but in the natural world they meet in the rational plane with man, which is also intermediate between heaven and hell; for from above there flows into it the marriage of good and truth, and from below there flows into it the marriage of evil and falsity; the latter flows in through the world, but the former through heaven. Thence it is that the human Rational can turn in either direction, and receive influx. If the man turns towards good he receives the former influx from above, and then his Rational is formed more and more for the reception of heaven; but if he turns towards evil, then he receives the latter influx from below, and then his Rational is formed more and more for the reception of hell. These two spheres never conjoin themselves, because they are opposites; and an opposite does not act upon an opposite in any other way than as one enemy; one of whom assaults the other with fury from a deadly hatred, while the other is not in any hatred, but is influenced only by a zeal of protecting himself. It appears hence, that these two spheres only encounter one another, but do not become conjoined. The neutral zone which they form in the middle, consists on the one hand of evil not belonging to falsity, and of falsity not belonging to evil; and on the other hand it consists of good not belonging to truth, and of truth not belonging to good. These two are able to touch each other, but still they cannot be conjoined.

(4). Between these two spheres there is an equilibrium; a man is in this equilibrium. The equilibrium which exists between them is a spiritual equilibrium, because it exists between good and evil; and from this equilibrium results mans freedom of choice. In and through this freedom a man thinks and wills, and thence speaks and sets as of himself. His Rational thus is at full liberty to declare whether it is willing to receive good or evil....

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If it turns towards evil, then the man turns the back of his head and of his body towards the Lord; but if it turns towards good, then he turns his face and breast towards the Lord. If a man turns towards the Lord, his rationality and freedom are directed by the Lord; but if he turns his back upon the Lord, his rationality and freedom are directed by hell.

(5). A man was created so that whatever he does shall be done by him from freedom according to reason, and altogether as of himself. Apart from these two faculties he would not be a man, but an animal; for he would not receive anything of what flows in towards him from heaven, and appropriate it to himself as his own; wherefore nothing of eternal life could then be inscribed on him, for this must be inscribed upon man as his own, in order that it may be his own. But freedom does not exist, if there is only a freedom in one direction, and not a freedom in the other direction as well--just as there is no balancing unless the beam of a pair of scales from its equilibrium extends in either direction; and thus unless a man is in the freedom from reason of approaching even towards evil, and consequently of moving from the left towards the right, and from the right towards the left; and hence unless he mere in the freedom of approaching towards the infernal sphere which is the sphere of adultery, as well as towards the heavenly sphere which is that of marriage (C. L. 434-438).

223. In respect to the General Influx into man of the sphere of heaven and the sphere of the world, it must be observed here, that these two spheres enter indiscriminately into all men. Thus all in this world are affected alike by the general condition of the world of spirits, which receives on the one hand the sphere out of heaven, and on the other the sphere out of hell; for all men living in this world, as to their spirits are in the world of spirits. Both these general spheres, however, which enter into the world of spirits, and which environ there the minds of the men living in this world, are under the absolute control of the Lords immediate influx from His glorified Humanity. By immediate influx the Lord controls and coerces the general sphere out of hell in such a way, that the faculties of freedom and rationality of the men living in this world are not thereby interfered with, and still less swamped or inundated.

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This the Lord effects in a universal, and at the same time in a most singular or individual way; that is, He effects it on the one hand by His universal presence in each of the general divisions and provinces of the spiritual world, and also by His immediate presence in the human internal (see above, p. 310) of every individual angel and spirit in the other world, and of every individual human being in this world. By this immediate presence with every person in this world, the Lord provides that the general sphere out of hell shall not flow into, and stir up promiscuously a mans hereditary nature, and thus tempt a man more than he can bear; for as We have seen above in the Section on Temptations, the Lord does not allow a man to be tempted, beyond what he is able to endure and the limits of a mans endurance are well-known to the Lord; for it must not be supposed that by the introduction of particular influx, through which the influx of life from the spiritual world is directed into a mans memory, the hereditary disposition of a man has been totally superseded, and that it has been placed thereby beyond the reach of the general sphere out of hell. A mans hereditary genius cannot be superseded; those qualities by which families, clans, nations and races are distinguished from one another, are handed down from generation to generation, and together with hereditary evil they make up a mans hereditary constitution, which it is impossible to supersede. The hereditary dualities of a man, therefore, both those that are good and evil, will manifest themselves. The hereditary good qualities of a man are consequently affected by the general sphere out of heaven, and the hereditary evil qualities by the general sphere out of hell, and a mans hereditary disposition is thus stirred into activity by this means. By virtue of his hereditary disposition a man in fact is predestined for some particular province or society in the Grand Man of heaven; that is, he is born with an aptitude for performing a certain distinct function in the Grand Man.

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By birth he is predestined to perform this function in heaven; but by the exercise of his free will he may pervert this function into the opposite, and thus he may elect to perform this function not in the Grand Man of heaven, but in the Grand Monster of hell. This same hereditary disposition of man, as stated above, is affected by the general sphere out of heaven, and by that which emanates from hell; but it is chiefly affected by the latter on account of the presence in it of hereditary evil. Yet this same influx, as likewise stated above, is governed and coerced by the Lords immediate influx, which is productive in man of his faculties of freedom and rationality, and which prevents these faculties from being inundated or swamped in man by an indiscriminate influx of evil and falsity out of hell.

Moreover, this general influx out of hell into a mans hereditary disposition is limited sow to a mans will, and it is not allowed to pass into his understanding, except so far as the man himself consents to this by the exercise of his faculties of freedom and reason.

This separation of the understanding from the will with the fallen man, or as Swedenborg calls him, the spiritual man, in contradistinction from the celestial man, is the fundamental condition of a mans faculty of reason; that is, so far as the man himself is concerned.

224. The fact of the understanding of the spiritual man being separated from his will enters also largely into his exercise of that freedom of choice in which lie is kept by the Lords immediate influx. For the freedom of choice implies the exercise on the part of man, not only of his faculty of freedom, but also of his faculty of reason, whereby he is enabled to take a rational view of contradictory and antagonistic positions.

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This, Swedenborg teaches plainly in the following passages where he shows that the freedom of choice which resides with man in his soul, on its descent from the soul into the mind, becomes divided, and gives rise there to a mans faculties of freedom and rationality. The very freedom of choice in spiritual things resides in all its perfection in a mans soul, and thence, as from a water-vein into its spring, it flows into a mans mind into its two parts, which are the will and the understanding, and through them it flows into the sensations of the body and into speech and action. For there are three degrees of life with man: the Soul, the Mind, and the sensual Body (T. C. R. 498).

The freedom of choice therefore, flows both into the will and into the understanding, and in the former it gives rise to the faculty of freedom, and in the latter to the faculty of reason, or rationality. That the influx of life into man tales place in this wise, Swedenborg teaches further in what follows:

Heat and light, that is, love and wisdom, which are productive in man of the faculties of freedom and rationality, flow from the Lord conjointly into the soul of man [that is, into the human internal], and through the same they flow into the mind, into its affections and thoughts, and from these they flow into the sensations, speeches, and actions of the body.... The Mind is subordinate to the Soul, and the Body to the Mind and the Mind has two lives; one, the life of the will, and the other, the life of the understanding. The life of a mans will is the good of love, the derivations of which are called affections; and the life of the understanding is the truth of wisdom, the derivations of which are called thoughts; through both of these the Mind lives. The life of the Body, however, are sensations, speeches and actions; that they come from the soul through the mind, follows from the order in which they are. The good of love and the truth of wisdom flow from God into mans Soul conjointly, i.e., united in one, but in their progression they are divided by man, and are united again by those who suffer themselves to be led by the Lord (Intercourse, etc., vi.).

Nothing enters into the mind, that is, into the will and the understanding, except through the faculties of freedom and rationality, and thus in the first place through the freedom of choice, in which the Lord is present with all in the world.

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This, Swedenborg declares in what follows:--

A man derives his mill from no other source than from his ability of willing freely, as of himself; and willing freely as of himself, flows from that faculty constantly imparted to him by the Lord, which is called Freedom or Liberty. And again, a man derives his understanding from no other source than from the ability of understanding of himself, whether a thing is a thing of reason or not; and understanding whether a thing is a thing of reason or not, is derived from that other faculty continually given to man by the Lord, which is exiled nationality. Unless a man from that faculty which is called Liberty, had a will, and from that faculty which is called Rationality, had an understanding, he would not be a man (D. P. 99).

225. The exercise of the faculty of reason, however, requires not only that the understanding of the spiritual man shall be separated from his will, but also that the man with his understanding shall be able to rise from a lower plane or degree of his mind into a higher; and that from this higher altitude he shall be able to survey the quality of his outward life, as well as that of his will which is the parent of his outward life, so that the faculty of reason may instruct the faculty of freedom what to do, and how to do it. In order to understand fully this additional factor which is necessary in order to provide for the spiritual, that is, for the fallen man, the faculty of reason, the general divisions in man, namely, Soul, Mind and Body have to be further detailed. On this subject we read:--

The mind of man which consists of will and understanding, from creation, and hence from birth, is of three degrees, so that man has a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial mind; and by virtue of this he can be elevated into angelic wisdom, and enjoy it while living in this world (D. L. W. 239).

And again we read:--

Since the human mind is of three degrees, and thus is natural, spiritual and celestial, man has not only an affection of natural love, but also an affection of spiritual love, end an affection of celestial love;

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wherefore, from natural science he can be raised into spiritual intelligence, and thence into celestial wisdom; and from these two, namely, from intelligence and wisdom, he can look to the Lord, and be conjoined with Him.... This elevation, however, as to affection would not be possible, unless man by virtue of rationality had the faculty of raising the understanding, and by virtue of liberty the faculty of willing that the understanding shall be raised. Through these two faculties a man can think within himself concerning those things which he perceives outside of himself by the senses of the body; and he can also think in his higher part concerning those things which he thinks in his lower part. For everyone can say This I have thought and this I think; and also This I have willed, and this I will; and further, I understand that this is so; I love this because it is so, and so forth. It is evident from these facts, that a man does think above his very thought, end sees his thought as it were, below himself. A man is able to do this from rationality. and from freedom: from rationality he is able to think in his higher parts, and from freedom he has the ability of thinking so from affection; for unless he had the freedom or liberty of so thinking, he would not have any will, nor would he have any thought thence. Wherefore, those who are not willing to understand anything else, but what belongs to the world and its nature, and who are not willing to know what moral and spiritual good and truth are, cannot be raised from science into intelligence and still less into wisdom; for they have blocked up these faculties in themselves; where fore they are human beings no further than that from the rationality and freedom implanted in them, they are able to understand if they will. From these two faculties a man derives the ability of thinking and of speaking from thought; in respect to all the rest, such persons are not human beings, but animals; and on account of their abuse of these faculties, they are even worse than animals (D. P. 75).

226. The human mind thus consists of three degrees: the celestial, spiritual and natural degrees; and each of these degrees has its particular love or affection, and also its particular intellectual duality, by which each degree is distinguished from the other. Thus science or knowledge prevails in the natural degree; intelligence in the spiritual degree; and wisdom in the celestial degree. By virtue, however, of his faculties of freedom and rationality, as we have seen, man is able to be raised from a lower into a higher degree, both in respect to his understanding and in respect to his will.

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Moreover, he call be raised either as to his understanding alone, or as to his understanding conjointly with his will. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The understanding in man can be raised into light, that is, into the wisdom in which are the angels of heaven, according to the cultivation of his reason; and his will, in like manner, can be raised into the heat of heaven, that is, into live, according to the acts of a mans life; yet the love of the will is not elevated, except so far as the man wills those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches, and so far as he does them.... Wisdom and love, which are the light and heat of heaven proceed from the Lord unitedly, and they flow unitedly into the souls of angels and men, but they are not received thus unitedly in their minds. The light which forms the understanding is received there first, and by degrees the love which forms the will. This is done providentially, because every man has to be created anew, that is, reformed: and this is done through the understanding. For from childhood he has to imbibe the knowledges of good and truth, by which he is to be taught how to live correctly, that is, how to will and do rightly. Thus the will is formed through the faculty of elevating his understanding almost into the light in which are the angels of heaven; so that he might see what he ought to will, and hence what he ought to do, in order to live prosperously in the world as to time, and in order that after death he might live in a state of blessedness to eternity. A man becomes prosperous and blessed when he acquires to himself wisdom, and keeps his will in a state of obedience; but he becomes wretched and unhappy if he keeps his understanding in a state of obedience under his will. The cause is, that the will from birth inclines towards evils, even the most egregious; unless, therefore, man could be restrained by the intellect, he would rush into wickedness, yea, on account of his inherent savage nature he would ravage and kill, for purposes of self, all who do not favor and obey himself. Besides, unless the understanding could be educated separately, and the will through the understanding, man would not be a man, but a beast, for without such a separation, and without the ability of the understanding rising above the will, man would not be able to think, nor to speak from thought; but he would only be able to sound forth his affection; nor would he be able to act from reason, but from instinct;

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and still less would he be able to know those things which concern God, and through these things know God, and thus be able to be conjoined to Him, know God, and thus be able to conjoined to Him, and live to eternity. For a man thinks and wills as of himself, and doing this as of Himself constitutes the principle of reciprocity in conjunction; for without such a principle of reciprocity conjunction is impossible; even as there is no conjunction of an active with a passive object without reaction. God alone acts, and man suffers himself to be acted upon, and he reacts in all appearance as of himself, when yet interiorly he reacts from God (Intercourse, etc., xii.).

Here then we see that on account of the separation of the will from the understanding, through the faculty of reason the understanding is capable of being raised above the will, oven into the light of heaven. The means by which this is brought about Swedenborg explains thus:--

The nature of the influx of [spiritual] light with man into the three degrees of life which belong to the mind shall now be shown. The forms which are the receptacles of heat and light, that is, of love and wisdom with man, and which are in threefold order, that is, of three degrees, are transparent by birth, and transmit spiritual light as a crystal glass transmits natural light. Hence it is: that a man, in respect to wisdom can be elevated to the third degree. Nevertheless, these forms are not opened until spiritual heat conjoins itself to spiritual light, that is, love to wisdom; by this conjunction these transparent forms are opened according to degrees.... This spiritual heat is procured in no other way than by a man shunning his evils as sins, and at the same time looking to the Lord.... For when a man shuns evils from the Lord, the love of evil and the heat thereof is removed, and the love of good and its heat is introduced in its stead, by which a higher degree is opened; for the Lord flows in from above, and opens that degree, and He then conjoins love, that is, spiritual heat, to wisdom or spiritual light, by virtue of which conjunction the man begins to flourish spiritually, as a tree in the time of spring.

By the influx of spiritual light into all the three degrees of the mind, man is distinguished from the beasts, and excelling the beasts, is able to think analytically, to see not only natural but also spiritual truths, and when he sees them he is able to acknowledge them, and thus to be reformed and regenerated. The faculty of receiving spiritual light is what is understood by the rationality, which every man has from the Lord, and which is not taken away from him, for were it taken away, he could not be reformed.

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From this faculty of rationality it is, that man. unlike the beasts, is able not only to think, but also to speak from thought; and afterwards from his other faculty, which is freedom, he is able to do those things which he thinks from his understanding (D. L. W. 248-247).

227. In summing up the results at which we have thus far arrived, in their bearing on spiritual enlightenment, we arrive at the following conclusions:

(1). So long as men was in a state of order, he was under the mediate influx of the Lord which flowed into him is a general way through the Grand Man of heaven. Man then was without hereditary evil, and therefore he was then in a state of correspondence with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord, and thus he was receptive of the life of good and truth from the Lord in its fullness. The Law, that is, the Divine Truth, was then written in his heart. He received then spiritual light--the Divine Truth conjointly with spiritual heat, that is, with Divine Good; or rather he received spiritual light--Divine truth through spiritual heat, i.e., Divine Good. Man then was born into all spiritual truths and into all celestial goods, and thus into all wisdom and intelligence--and hence he was in the enjoyment of the highest spiritual enlightenment, that is, he was in the perception of truth from good, almost from his very birth.

(2). The spiritual, that is, the fallen man, is not born into the order into which man was created, for by birth he is imbued with hereditary evil. From this it follows that the spiritual man by birth, is not in a state of correspondence with heaven, and thus with the Lord; and hence that he cannot be introduced into a life of good and truth by a general influx from the Grand Man of heaven. The great object of the Lord in His dispensations in regard to the spiritual man is, and always has been, to bring about again in him a state of correspondence with heaven, and thus with Himself so that he might receive again from Him the blessings of eternal life.

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This can only be effected by the reformation of his understanding, and the regeneration of his will. The requirements for the possibility of the reformation and regeneration of the spiritual man consists (a) in a complete change of the influx of life from the Lord; (b) in a thorough alteration in the plan of mans spiritual constitution.

(A). For the sake of the salvation of the spiritual man, it became necessary that the Lord Himself should assume the fallen humanity of the spiritual man, and should glorify the same in His own Divine person, so that the Lord might be present with him not only mediately through heaven, but also immediately from His own Divine Humanity; for otherwise it was not possible for the Lord to keep hell at bay, and to prevent it from rushing headlong into the perverted, hereditary nature of the spiritual man. This immediate influx from the Lord, however, did not take the place of His mediate influx; but it was added to it, and therefore increased its power.

The Lords mediate influx into man had been altered already at the time of the Fall; for after the downfall of the Most Ancient--that is of the Celestial Church, and thus after the utter lapse of the man who was born into a state of order, the Lord placed the fallen--that is, the spiritual man under a particular influx out of the Grand Man of heaven, by appointing over him special angels and good spirits, through whom he would become conjoined with a special society of angels in heaven; and by permitting also evil spirits harmonizing with the hereditary nature of the man to take up their abode in the man, through whom he would become connected with a special congregation of devils in hell. Through the instrumentality of these special angels and spirits, the influx out of heaven and also out of hell was and is still directed into the memory of the spiritual man, and prevented from passing outright into his hereditary nature.

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Since the Glorification of the Lords Humanity, however, the particular influx out of heaven into the individual souls of men on earth, has been fortified through the immediate influx from His glorified Humanity; and by virtue of the glorification of the Lords Humanity, the general influx out of heaven into mankind at large has also been put into the immediate charge of the Lord Himself; and the general influx out of hell is both coerced and regulated by Him.

By thus governing and directing immediately the particular and general influxes into man out of heaven, and by coercing and regulating the particular and general influxes into men out of hell, the Lord keeps man in a state of equilibrium and thus in the freedom of choice; and this He effects by the immediate influx from His glorified Humanity. Through this means the Lord provides for the spiritual man the faculties of freedom and rationality, and thereby keeps him in the freedom of choice.

(b). For the sake of making it possible for the spiritual man to enjoy the faculty of reason, the Lord also, in consequence of the Fall, by a miraculous process separated in the survivors of the Most Ancient people (represented by Noah) the will from the understanding. By being thus separated from the will, the understanding of the spiritual man was restored to a state of integrity, and was thereby rendered fit to receive spiritual light, that is, the light of Divine Truth. This capacity of the human understanding of receiving spiritual light gives occasion to the faculty of reason, rationality; and this faculty includes the capacity of the spiritual man of rising as to his understanding above his depraved will, and examining its quality in spiritual light--that is, in the light of the Divine Truth.

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On account of this separation of the will of the spiritual man from his understanding, spiritual heat and spiritual light--that is, the good of love and the truth of wisdom, which flow from God conjointly into his soul, become divided on entering into his mind; wherefore, the spiritual man, in the beginning of life, receives spiritual heat and spiritual light, each separately. The reception of spiritual light enables him to enjoy the faculty of reason; and by virtue of his reason the spiritual man is able to compass intellectually the Truth on spiritual things, which the Lord has revealed out of heaven; yet he is not able to see this truth in the very light of truth, and thus in a state of spiritual enlightenment, until he also practices and loves this truth, and thereby loves the Lord who is the Truth, and from whom all Truth is. For spiritual heat and spiritual light are united again with those who love the Lord, and who suffer themselves to he led by the Lord; for such only are in true spiritual enlightenment.

These are the results which we have obtained in respect to spiritual enlightenment, in the preceding pages. Our next object will be to examine the share which the faculty of reason has in the work of reducing the spiritual--that is, the fallen man into a state of correspondence with heaven, and thus with the Lord.

228. The light of reason, its we have seen above (no. 205), imparts to man the power of thought, perception, reflection, observation, prudence, rational analysis, and thus the faculty of judging, discerning, and electing. These things are inherent in spiritual light; and this light illuminates and enlightens the things that enter the human understanding, which is the organ of mans internal vision, and which is completely adapted to receive spiritual light. Hence, we further read that whatever a man hears, passes into this light in order to be perceived.

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There exists in fact, a similar relation between spiritual light and mans understanding, as there exists between natural light and the eye--mans bodily organ of vision; they are mutually adapted and created for each other; and as the eye sees when natural light strikes it, so, also, mans spiritual eye--that is, his understanding, sees spiritually when spiritual light--that is, the light of Divine Truth, beams down upon it.

As the light of Truth, however, with the spiritual or fallen man is separated from spiritual heat, i.e., from the life of good, and hence in the beginning is only form and not substance; therefore, through this light man does not receive any information whatever containing good and truth, and thus concerning God who is the source of good, and concerning His kingdom; although, by means of this light, man is enabled to reason concerning such information after it has entered into his mind in the form of knowledge, and to draw conclusions concerning it. From this it follows further that by means of the light of reason, and thus from the depth of its own light, the spiritual man is not able to be reformed and regenerated, and that the correspondence between him and the Grand Man of heaven, and hence with the Lord, cannot be restored by this means alone.

In order that this correspondence may be restored in the spiritual man, it is absolutely necessary that Divine Truth shall enter into his mind not only in the form in which it proceeds immediately from the Lord, that is, in the form in which it imparts to him the light of reason, but also in the tangible form of knowledges from the Divine World, and thus by the admission into his mind of objects which are capable of being enlightened by the light of Divine Truth.

That the immediate influx of Divine Truth imparts only light to the human mind, and not knowledges, is plainly stated by Swedenborg in the following passage:--

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By virtue of the immediate influx of truth from the Lord, man has not the faculty of observing the Truth; but this influx conveys the t whereby there is imparted to man the faculty of understanding. The case with this light is, as with the light of the sight of the eye. In order that de eye may see objects, there must be light; whence there is a general illumination. The eye sees and discriminates objects in this light; and it becomes and it becomes affected by the beauty and the enjoyment which result from an agreement of these objects with order. The case is the same with the sight of the internal eye which is the understanding. In order that this internal eye may see, there must also be light, from which there results a general illumination, which appear such objects as are matters of intelligence and wisdom. This light is from the Divine Truth that proceeds immediately from the Lord. The objects appear beautiful and delightful in this light according to their agreement with the good in which every one is (A. C. 8707).

This passage shows the importance of inseminating knowledges, and indeed knowledges drawn from the written Word of God, in the natural mind of the fallen man, as the only means whereby it is possible to reduce it into a state of correspondence with the spiritual mind or man, and hence with the Grand Man of heaven. This is plainly stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

The external man cannot be reduced into correspondence and harmony with the internal man except through knowledges. The external man is corporeal and sensual, and does not receive anything celestial and spiritual, unless knowledges are implanted in it, as in soil. In them celestial things are able to have their recipient vessels; yet knowledges must be from the Word. Knowledges from the Word are such as to be open even to the Lord. For the very Word is from the Lord through heaven, and in each and all things of the same is the Lords life, although it does not appear so in its outward form (A. C. 1461).

229. As to the written Word of God, it is the very Divine Truth which proceeds mediately from the Lord; that is, which has passed through the heavens, and thereby put on a nature accommodated to the states of reception of angels, and men on earth;

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and on this account knowledges derived from the written Word of God are the one means through which in time the correspondence between man and heaven, and through heaven with the Lord, may be restored. For the written Word of God is the Very Divine Truth in an ultimate form, in which it was communicated to man through the Holy Spirit. On this subject we read:--

The Divine Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine cannot be heard by any one, not even by any angel; for in order to become audible the Divine must first become human; and it becomes human by passing through the heavens. But after it has passed through the heavens, it is presented in a human form, and becomes speech, which speech is enunciated through spirits and when spirits are in such a condition they are called the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is said to proceed from the Divine, because the holiness which is with such a spirit, that is, the Holy Truth which such a spirit speaks, is from the Lord. It hence may appear, that the truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine cannot be presented to any one as speech or in the form of expressions, except through the Holy Spirit (A. C. 6982).

That the Divine Truth which is expressed in the letter of the Divine Word, is the very Divine Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine, in a form accommodated to the reception of man; that thus it is identical with the Word--the Divine Truth which in the beginning was with God; and through which were made all things that were made; and which Divine Truth became flesh in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, is plainly stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

By the Word, in John i., 1, 3, 14, is meant the Divine Truth, because the [written] Word, which is in the Church, is the Very Divine Truth; for it was dictated by Jehovah Himself; and that which is dictated by Jehovah Himself, is purely Divine Truth, and it cannot be anything else. But because this Divine Truth passed through the heavens even to the world, therefore it became accommodated to the angels in heaven and also to men on earth.

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Hence it is that there is in the Word a spiritual sense, in which Divine Truth is in its light, and a natural sense in which the Divine Truth is in the shade. On this account the Divine Truth in this same Word is what is meant in John [i. 1, 3, 14]. The same also appears from this circumstance that the Lord came into the world in order to fulfil all things of the Word; wherefore we so often read that such and such a thing was done, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled (T. C. R. 85).

As the Divine Truth which is contained in the written Word of God is, however, the same Divine Truth which is represented by the Word, in John i., 1-3, et. seq., it follows that in this Divine Truth there is also the Divine Good; yea, this is so much the case that, according to Swedenborgs teaching, everywhere in the Divine World there is a marriage of Divine Good with Divine Truth. From this, however, it follows that the Divine Word is intended to be received not only in the understanding, but also in the will of the fallen spiritual man; and that thus it is able to reduce not only his understanding, but also his will into a state of correspondence with heaven, and thus with the Lord. This the Divine Word is able to accomplish, when its teachings are not only received in the mind in the form of knowledges, but when these knowledges are also practiced. Then also the Divine Word is able to reunite the will and the understanding of the spiritual man, which were originally separated. In proportion as these two faculties become thus reunited, the spiritual man enters into a state of enlightenment, in which he sees the truths of the Divine Word in the same light in which they are seen by the angels of heaven; then also the Lords mediate influx is beginning to be conjoined in his mind with His immediate influx, so that the Divine Truth which proceeds mediately from the Lord, is enlightened in his mind by the Very Divine Truth which proceeds immediately from His Divine Humanity.

230. The written Word of God is its ultimate form, that is, in the sense of the letter, in which it first enters into the mind of the fallen man, consists of correspondences;

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and these correspondences, as we have sees above (p. 180), are a means by which the influx of the angels of heaven is directed into the minds of the members of the Church on earth. By the correspondences in the written Word of God, received in the mind of the spiritual or fallen man in the form of knowledges, his mind is brought under the mediate influx of the Lord through the Grand Man of heaven; and by mediate influx there are conveyed into it all those heavenly ingredients, which are of use in renovating, and thus in regenerating him; for what flows in mediately, is thoroughly accommodated to the state of reception of the man, so that he can embrace it with the full use of his freedom and rationality, and thus make it his own. Yet while the man is thus spiritually cared for by the reception, in his mind, of the Divine Truth which proceeds mediately from the Lord, even by the Divine Truth contained in the pages of the Divine Word, he is constantly under the influence of the Lords immediate influx as well; but of this latter influx he does not become conscious so long as he is not in the heavenly marriage; that is, so long as good and truth, will and understanding are not thoroughly conjoined in his mind. This is clearly set forth by Swedenborg in what follows:--

The Lords influx with every one is also immediate; for apart from immediate influx, mediate influx effects nothing. Immediate influx is received according to the order in which a man or an angel is; it is thus received according to the Divine Truth which is from the Divine; for this is order. Very order with man is. that he shall live in the good which is from the Lord, which means that he shall live from the Lord. This influx is continual, and is adjoined to each and all things of a mans will. By the same they are directed as much as possible towards order; for the mans own will continually leads him astray.

The case herein is as with the voluntary and involuntary things in man. His voluntary things continually lead away from order;

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but the involuntary things constantly lead back to order. Thence it is, that the motion of the heart which is involuntary, is altogether exempt from the mans will; likewise the action of the cerebellum; and, that the motion of the heart and of the cerebellum govern the voluntary things, lest they should transgress their limits, and extinguish the life of the body before the proper time. On this account it is that principles acting from both, namely from the involuntary as well as from the voluntary [centres], proceed in conjunction throughout the whole body. These things are here introduced in order that the idea of the immediate and mediate influx from the Lord of the celestial things of love and the spiritual things of faith may be illustrated in some way (A. C. 9683).

Again Swedenborg says:--

What flows in immediately arranges; but what flows in mediately is arranged (A. C. 5150).

231. From what we have thus far seen it appears that man becomes conscious only of what enters into his mind by mediate influx, wherefore, mediate influx takes place chiefly into the understanding; there also the knowledges derived from the written Word of God are first implanted; while immediate influx, of which a man remains unconscious, takes place primarily into his will. Nevertheless, as stated above, the man may also become conscious of the immediate influx of the Lord into his soul, and hence of the Lords presence with him; yet only in the proportion in which the will and the understanding become reunited in him, and hence in which the Lords immediate influx which takes place chiefly into the will, becomes conjoined in him to His mediate influx which takes place into the mans understanding; in the same proportion also he comes into a state of spiritual enlightenment. In fact the condition of spiritual enlightenment, with a member of the Church consists in the conjunction of mediate and immediate influx in his spirit. So long as a man governs himself, and thus during the first state of his regeneration when from truth he is being led to Good, he is governed by immediate influx;

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but in proportion as he acknowledges the Lords government, and is willing to be directed only by the Lord; and thus in proportion as he enters into the second state of regeneration, in which he is led from good into truth, he is governed by the Lord by mediate, as well as by immediate. influx. On this subject we read:--

The man who is being regenerated, and is becoming a church, has two states; in the first state he acts from truth, in the second state from good. In either state man is led by the Lord but in the first state by immediate influx, and in the second state by immediate, as well as by mediate influx (A. C. 8685).

Again we read:--

In the first state of man while he is being regenerated, the influx of Divine Truth is immediate; but in the second state after he has been regenerated, influx is both immediate and mediate. While influx is immediate, the Lord indeed flows in with good and truth, yet good is not perceived then, but truth; wherefore, man is then led by means of truth, and not so much by means of good. But when influx is at the same time mediate, then good is perceived, for mediate influx takes place into mans external sensual; hence it is that man is then led by the Lord through good (A. C. 8701).

232. The conjunction of mediate and immediate influx which takes place in the second state of mans regeneration is equivalent to the conjunction of the will and the understanding, and hence of good and truth; and this conjunction is effected in good, that is, when the man no longer acts from the affection of truth, but from the affection of good; as is clearly stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

The conjunction of the Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine with the Truth that proceeds mediately can only exist in good, for good is the very soil. Truths are seeds which grow nowhere as in their own soil, except in good; for good is the very soul of truth--wherefore truth in order to be truth, must exist from good, and from good it lives.

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The Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine, is called Truth, but in itself it is Good, because it proceeds from Divine Good; but it is Good wherewith all Divine Truth is united. It is called Truth, because in heaven it appears as light; yet it is a light, like vernal light, which is united with the heat which vivifies all things of the earth. It hence also may appear, that the conjunction of the Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine, with the Truth which proceeds mediately, cannot exist except in good; consequently, only when a man is affected by the truth for the sake of the truth, and especially for the sake of good, thus, for the sake of life; for then a man is in good.

How this conjunction is circumstanced, may also be known from this consideration: the Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine, enters into a mans will--this is its way; but the Truth which proceeds mediately from the Divine, enters into a mans understanding; wherefore a conjunction cannot be brought about unless the will and the understanding act as one that is, unless the will wills good, and the understanding confirms it by the truth. When conjunction, therefore, exists, then the Lord appears as present; His presence also is perceived; but when there is no conjunction, then the Lord is as it were absent; yet His absence is not perceived, unless it is known from some perception what His presence is (A. C. 7056).

Again we read:--

With every man there is immediate, as well as mediate, influx; but conjunction of the two exists only with those who have perception of truth from good; for those with whom the immediate Divine influx is conjoined with the mediate, suffer themselves to be led by the Lord; but those with whom these two influxes are not conjoined, lead themselves, and love this (A. C. 7055).

233. The conjunction of immediate with mediate influx, which is equivalent to the conjunction of good and truth, of will and understanding, and hence to the heavenly marriage in mans soul, is thus the great goal which is to be attained by a mans regeneration.

This conjunction also is equivalent to the reciprocal conjunction of the Lord with man, and of man with the Lord.

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For the spiritual man approaches the Lord with the Divine Truth which he receives from the Lord by mediate influx, while the Lord Himself meets the man with immediate influx. The Lord is present with man immediately in his soul, in the human internal, which is above the highest heaven (see above, p. 310). From thence He is constantly endeavoring to become conjoined with man in the lower degrees of his mind which correspond to the three heavens, to the World of Spirits, and to the world of nature; yet, the Lord is able to do this only in proportion as the man, as of himself, prepares a place of reception for him in His mind. This the man is able to do by virtue of the freedom and rationality which the Lord preserves inviolate in his soul, and which enable him to receive, to understand, and to do the Divine Truth which is contained in the written Word of God. When the man with the full use of his freedom and rationality embraces the truth contained in the written Word of God, wherein the Lord is mediately present among men--whenever therefore he receives this Truth as of himself in his will and understanding; that is, whenever he believes and does it, and hence shuns his evils as sins before God--the Lord draws near to him from the inmost dwelling-place on his soul; and in the exact proportion in which the man shuns his evils as sins before God, He conjoins Himself to the man, and the man conjoins himself to the Lord; and in the same proportion the Lords immediate influx in that mans soul becomes conjoined to His mediate influx. In this case, conjunction is effected first in the spiritual mind of man, and afterwards in his natural mind; and after this conjunction has been effected also in the natural mind, then the member of the Church is in a state of spiritual enlightenment.

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But when the Lords mediate influx is conjoined with His immediate influx not only in the spiritual, but also in the celestial mind, then the man enters into a state of perception from the Lord, such as is enjoyed by the angels of the Lords celestial kingdom. On this subject we read:--

Those who think and teach in accordance with the doctrine of their Church which has been confirmed with them, and who do not know whether these things are true from any other consideration than because they are drawn from the doctrine of the Church, and have been propounded by learned and enlightened men--with these there may be the Truth proceeding mediately from the Divine; yet it is not conjoined with the Truth that proceeds immediately from the Divine. For if it were conjoined, they would be in the affection of the truth for the sake of the truth, and especially for the sake of life; and hence also they would be gifted with the perception whether the doctrinals of their Church are true before confirming themselves in them; and they would also see in each single thing whether the things confirming agree with the truth. Let the prophets through whom the Word was written serve as an instance: they wrote as the spirit from the Divine dictated, for the very words which they wrote were enunciated in their ears. With them was the Truth which proceeds mediately from the Divine, that is, through heaven; but there was not on that account with them the Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine, for they had no perception of what each single thing signified in the internal sense--because, as was said above, when the two are conjoined, then there is perception. This conjunction exists rarely with man, but it exists with all who are in heaven, and especially with those who are in the inmost or third heaven; nor does it exist with man before he is regenerated so far that he can be elevated above the Sensual, even 89 far 89 his Rational, and continue thus in the light in which the angels are (A. C. 7055).

234. All spiritual enlightenment is thus caused by the influx of Divine Good through the will into Divine Truth in the understanding, and thus into the Truth which is established there from the Divine Word--for the Divine Truth which flows in immediately from the Lord, in its essence is Divine Good. But whether this conjunction be effected in the spiritual, rational, or natural minds depends upon the quality of the truths of which the understanding is composed, and hence upon the duality of the good to which the member of the Church is led through his truths.

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Thus we read:--

Divine Good is united with Divine Truth, as if were, by a marriage. Nevertheless, although the Divine Good is united in this way only to the Divine Truth, it still flows also into lower truths and conjoins itself with them, yet not as by a marriage. For it flows into rational truths, which are mere appearances of the truths, and conjoins itself with them; yea, it flows even into scientific and sensual truths, which are scarcely anything else than fallacies, and conjoins itself with them--unless it did so no man could ever be saved. The cause of the Lords Advent into the world also was that the Divine Good might be conjoined with the former and the latter truths; for apart from the Lords Human made Divine, there never would be any conjunction, but through Him there is conjunction (A. C. 2554).

Again we read:--

The Divine is in comprehensible because beyond every understanding, even the angelic. Still, this same Divine, which in itself is incomprehensible, can flow into mans national through the Lords Divine Human, and when it flows into his national it is received there according to the truths which are there; hence variously and differently with one man from what it is with another. In proportion, therefore, as the truths which are with a man are more genuine, in the same proportion the inflowing Divine is received more perfectly, and in the same proportion mans intellectual part is enlightened.

In the Lords Word are very truths; but in its literal sense are truths which are accommodated to the understanding of those who are in external worship; while in its internal sense are truths which are accommodated to those who are internal men; namely, to those who in respect to doctrine and to life are angelic. The national of these is enlightened to such a degree that their enlightenment is compared to the splendor of the stars and of the sun (Dan. xii., 3; Matth. xiii. 23). Hence it follows how important it is that interior truths should be known and received. Such truths may be known but never received, except by those who are in love or in faith to the Lord (A. C. 2531).

235. This shows the necessity and importance of the Revelation which the Lord made to men at His Second Coming.

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By the revelation of the Divine Truth in the letter of the Divine Word, in which it is expressed in the language of correspondences; and by the introduction of these correspondences into the understanding of the spiritual man in the form of knowledges, through the ministration of the senses of sight and hearing, the Lords mediate influx through the Grand Man of heaven, is able to be directed into the outermost region of mans mind. Yet the object of the written Word of God is not, that the correspondences of which its letter consists shall be received simply in the lowest natural part of man; but its object is that the whole spiritual man from his highest to his lowest part, shall by means of knowledges derived from the written Word, be reduced into a state of correspondence with heaven, and thus with the Lord; so that through the Word the spiritual man shall become again the participant of the highest, celestial wisdom, and hence be able to lead an angelic life in the very highest heaven. A mere reception in the mind of the correspondences of which the literal sense of the Divine Word consists, cannot accomplish this; nor does an observance of the Lords commandments in their merely literal meaning prepare a man for a life in the highest heavens; and hence it does not enable him to reach the very highest spiritual goal, which it is possible for the spiritual man to reach.

The understanding of the merely literal sense of the Word, as we have seen above in A. C. 7055 (see p. 347), enables a man to enjoy the Truth which proceeds mediately from the Divine; but the reception of the merely literal sense, even when conjoined with an obedience to the commandments in their literal sense does not convey to man a perception of that Divine Truth which is contained in the interior depths of the Divine Word; neither does it enable him to discover, and hence shun the interior evils to which he is prone.

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Nay, by an understanding of the merely literal sense of the Divine Word, it is impossible for the Lord to develop and organize in man those interior degrees of the mind, which correspond to the three heavens. For the Word in the literal meaning corresponds to the natural world; and as the body of man in the natural world is a footstool for his soul, even so the correspondences of which the literal sense of the Divine Word consists on being received in the natural memory of a man, become there a footstool for the intelligence and wisdom of the angels of heaven to rest upon; but the literal sense of the Divine Word itself, so far as the angels themselves are concerned, is non-existent for them; they have left it behind them in the natural world, when they cast off their natural bodies. They are now in the enjoyment of the Divine Truth--the Divine Word--in a form accommodated to their angelic condition; that is, the Divine Truth is no longer presented before them in the form of correspondences, but they are able to see the Divine Truth which proceeds mediately from the Divine, before it becomes expressed in the form of correspondences. They thus perceive the spiritual and celestial senses of the Divine Word, and their angelic souls are blessed with Divine Good from the Lord in proportion to their reception of the Divine Truth contained in these higher senses of the Divine Word.

These interior senses of the Divine Word, and the doctrines contained therein, the Lord revealed to mankind at His Second Coming; and through knowledges derived from the Revelation of these interior degrees of the Divine Word, the higher spiritual degrees in the mind of the fallen man, that is, of the man born with hereditary evil, are capable of being developed, formed and regenerated; and through the higher degrees of the mind, the lower degrees which belong to their external or natural man.

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236. That the doctrines of the spiritual and celestial senses of the Divine Word, which the Lord, at His Second Coming, revealed through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg, just like the literal sense of the Divine Word, which the Lord revealed through the instrumentality of the prophets and evangelists--are likewise an immediate revelation of the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, appears from the following passages:--

By the Lords words contained in Matt. xxiv., 29-31, is meant that at the end of the Church when there is no longer any love and ally faith, the Lord will open the Word as to its internal sense, and reveal the arcana of heaven.... It was granted to me to be with the angels, and to converse with them as a man with a man, and also to see those things which are in heaven, as well as in hell, and, indeed, now for thirteen years; and thus to describe those things from things heard.... That there is at the present day such an immediate Revelation, is because this is understood by the Lords Advent (H. H. 1).

Again we read:--

It has pleased the Lord now to reveal many arcana of heaven, especially the internal, that is, the spiritual sense of the Word, which has hitherto been entirely unknown: and with this sense the Lord has taught the genuine truths of doctrine. This Revelation is understood by the Lords Advent, in Matth. xxiv., 3, 30, 37 (A. E. 641).

And again:--

The Lords Second Advent takes place through a man, before whom He manifested Himself in person, man whom He filled with His Spirit, in order that ho might teach the doctrines of the New Church through the Word from the Lord.... I testify in truth that the Lord manifested Himself before me, His servant, and commissioned me for this work; ... and, likewise, that from the first day of my call to this office I have never received anything relating to the doctrines of the New Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone while I was reading the Word. The Lord revealed to me the spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense Divine Truth is in its light, and in this light de is continually present (T. C. R. 778, 779).

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The Revelation of the Lord at His Second Coming does not, however, by any means supersede or abolish the Revelation which He made to men in the Word of the Old and New Testaments. The doctrines of the spiritual sense are drawn out of the literal sense of the Divine Word by an unswathing, as it were, of the correspondences of which it consists; yet these doctrines still rest upon the letter of the Word, even as the heavens rest upon the natural world, and as a mans soul rests upon his body; and since all power is in ultimate or last things, so also the doctrines of the spiritual sense, and the spiritual sense itself, derive all their power from the correspondences of the letter. Through the revelation, however, of the spiritual sense, the interior degrees of the human mind, which correspond to the heavens, can now be formed and organized; and, therefore, the possibility is now acquired for the spiritual man of abiding, as to his spirit, with the very angels of heaven, and of becoming like one of them, and hence of being illuminated by the very same heavenly light which is also enjoyed by them.

237. From what we have thus far seen it appears that the Lords mediate and immediate influxes, together with the Revelation of the literal and spiritual senses of the written Word of God, are the Divine agencies through which the fallen spiritual man is capable of being reduced into a state of correspondence with the Grand Man of Heaven, and thus with the Lord. But in order to enable the spiritual man, that is, the man born with hereditary evil, and thus contrary to the Divine Order, to benefit from these Divine agencies, and to become regenerated by their means, the Lord has separated his perverted, hereditary will from his understanding, and in addition has placed him under particular influx out of the Grand Man of Heaven.

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The combined result of these Divine dispensations, in the case of the spiritual man, is the Lords constant presence with him in the inmost region of his soul, the uniform preservation in him of the faculties of freedom and rationality, and hence of the freedom of choice; and, on the Lords part, a constant providing of all those means of grace by which it is possible for the spiritual man to be regenerated by the Lord.

Our next point will be to inquire into an additional condition of the spiritual man, which results from his being born in the natural world with a material body, whereby he is placed under the influence of the heat and light of the natural sun, and receives sensuous impressions from a world subject to the laws of time and space.

The first result of this is that as to his body man is subject to an influx of natural light and heat; while as to his spirit he is in the recipient of the heat and light of the spiritual world, and thus of the Divine Truth which proceeds mediately and immediately from the Lords glorified Humanity. While living in this world man is thus the recipient of two kinds of light, and also of two kinds of heat. Concerning the two kinds of light Swedenborg says:--

There are two kinds of light from which man is illuminated: the light of the world and the light of heaven. The light of the world is from the sun; the light of heaven from the Lord.

The light of the world is for the natural, that is, the external man; and, therefore, for the things that are in it. Although the things which are in the natural man do not appear to belong to its light, they nevertheless do. For the natural man can apprehend nothing except by means of such things a sexist and appear in the solar world; unless, therefore, a thing has derived something of a form from the light and shade which are there. All ideas of time, and all ideas of space, which are of such great consequence with the natural man that it is impossible for him to think apart from them, are likewise of the light of the world.

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The light of heaven, however is for the spiritual, that is, the internal man. The interior mind of man, in which his intellectual ideas are, which are called immaterial, is in this light. Man does not know this, although his intellect he calls sight, and although he attributes light to it. The reason is that so long as he is amid worldly and bodily things, he has a perception only of such things as belong to the light of the world. but not of such things as belong to the light of heaven. The light of heaven is from the Lord alone--the whole heaven is in this light. This light, that is, the light of heaven, is immensely more perfect than the light of the world. The things which in the light of the world cause one ray, in the light of heaven cause a thousand. In the light of heaven there is intelligence and wisdom. It is this latter light that flows into the light of the world, which is in the external, that is, in the natural man, and causes it to perceive the object of things sensuously. Unless this light flowed in, man would be unable to take cognizance of any thing; for those things which belong to the light of the world have life within from this source (A. C. 3223).

238. As regards the process by which light from the natural sun is able to penetrate into the natural mind or man, this process is simply that of natural vision. This process, its set forth in Swedenborgs philosophical and theological writings is briefly as follows:--Images of objects illuminated by the light of the natural sun, by the vibrations of the ether, are reflected upon the eye, the natural organ of vision, and are transmitted thence through the optic nerve to the beginnings of this nerve in the cortical substance of the brain; where they are conveyed to those pure, organic substances which constitute the memory of the natural man. In the memory these impressions are met by the light of heaven, which beams into the natural man from within; and when sensuous impressions are illuminated there by this light, mans interior organ of vision, that is, his understanding, is able to take cognizance of them, and by this means to see the natural objects from which these impressions have originally been derived. The whole process of natural vision as summed up by Swedenborg in his treatise:

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De Sensu Communi etc. (Part iv. of Regnum Animale, edit. Dr. Immanuel Tafel), is as follows:--

Vision is caused by the transmission of light through the cornea, across the aqueous humor the lens, and the vitreous body into the retina, and from the retina through the optic nerve into the cerebrum (p. 123).

Again he says in his theological writings:--

The eye is modified by a subtler atmosphere than the ear; wherefore sight penetrates into the internal sensory which is in the cerebrum, by a shorter and more interior way than does the speech which is perceived by the ear (A. C. 4407).

And again:--

The objects of the world, all of which derive something from the light of the sun, enter through the eye, and are stored up in the memory manifestly under some visual appearance the things which are reproduced thence interiorly; whence there arises the imagination of man, the ideas of which by the philosophers are called material. When these objects appear still more interiorly, they cause thought; and, indeed, again under some visual appearance, but under one which is purer. These ideas are called immaterial, and also intellectual.

That there is an interior light in which is life, consequently intelligence and wisdom, which in light illuminates the interior sight, and goes to meet those things which have entered through external sight, is a thing most palpable. This interior sight also operates according to the arrangement of the objects which have entered from the light of the world (A. C. 4408).

239. The light of the world in the natural man is thus caused by the light of heaven striking the things, which by the process of natural vision are impressed upon the memory of the natural man; wherefore, the memory, in a certain sense, is the meeting-place of the light of heaven and the light of the world; thus we read:--

The human understanding has two lights; one out of heaven, the other out of the world: The light out of heaven which is spiritual, flows into the human mind above the memory; but the light out of the world, which is natural, below the memory (B. E. 55).

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Still it is not the light of the natural sun itself which enters into the memory, but the objects which ape illuminated by that light; and when the light of heaven strikes these objects, as they are thus illuminated by the light of the sun, it enlightens them, and thereby enables the sight of the understanding to take cognizance of them. But when spiritual light touches these gross objects from the natural world it becomes grosser and more general itself, and is thereby turned into natural lumen; as appears from the following statement:--

The natural [mind] of man sees things in the light of the world, which light is called natural lumen. Man acquires this light for himself by means of the objects which enter through sight and hearing; and thus by means of the objects which are from the world. Thus the man sees these things interiorly in himself, almost as the eye sees them (A. C. 9103).

240. Here, however, the reacting quality of the natural mind, which was treated of above (nos. 87 and 89), must be taken into account. It was shown there, from the doctrines of the New Church, that the natural mind, that is, the external man, together with the body, react against the internal man; on the principle that the last or outermost, by the very nature of the case, reacts against that which is higher or interior. But from this it follows that the objects in the memory from the natural world, by means of which is acquired the light, called natural lumen, react in like manner against the objects belonging to spiritual light; and that the natural lumen itself which is generated in the natural mind by means of these objects, according to the same principle, reacts against the light of heaven.

Nay, as we read further (p. 254, that the state of the natural mind, before reformation, may be compared to a spiral twisting or circumflexing downwards towards the world, and even towards hell, it would follow from this that the things of natural light also, on entering the natural mind, i.e., its memory, are in like manner arranged according to a spiral twisting downwards;

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so that the natural lumen generated by means of these objects, would acquire also a contradictory, and thus a negative quality in respect to spiritual light and the objects belonging to spiritual light. That the natural mind of the fallen man, by birth bears such a contradictory character, appears from the following description of the initiament; that is, of the primitive form of man as it exists in the womb after conception. This initiament was exhibited before Swedenborg in the other life in the form of a diminutive brain. In the course of its description he says:--

There was shown to me in the light of heaven which beamed upon it, that the texture of this diminutive brain interiorly, as to direction and fluxion, was in the order and form of heaven; and that its outward texture was in opposition, contrary to that order and form.... The two internal degrees [the celestial and spiritual] which were in the order and form of heaven, mere the receptacles of love and wisdom from the Lord; and the exterior [the natural] degree, which was in opposition and contrary to the order and form of heaven, was the receptacle of infernal love and insanity; because man by hereditary defilement is born into evils of every kind, which evils reside in the outermost parts. This defilement is not removed, unless the higher degrees are opened, which, as was said, are the receptacles of love and wisdom from the Lord (D. L. W. 432).

From the last statement made here, it follows that natural and spiritual light are not contradictory per se. They become contradictory only when the objects of natural light enter the natural mind, the texture of which is in opposition, and contrary to the order and form of heaven. But, when the hereditary defilement of the natural man is removed by the of higher degrees, then its contradictory quality also is removed; and then a state of correspondence is brought about not only between the things which the natural mind has received from the natural world, and those which belong to the internal, spiritual mind;

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but also between the natural light engendered in the natural mind, and the light in heaven. This is plainly stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

There exists a correspondence between the light of heaven and the light of the world that is, between the things which are in the former light, and those which are in the latter light, when the external or natural man makes one with the internal or spiritual man; that is, when the former serves the latter. The things which exist m the light of the world are then representative of such things as are in the light of heaven (A. C. 3223).

241. The light of heaven, as we have seen above, enters the internal or spiritual man, and the light of the world the external or natural man. The light of heaven, as we have further seen, flows from the internal into the external man, and strikes the things that have entered there through the senses of sight and hearing, producing thereby in the external man natural light, or natural lumen.

A threefold relation, however, may be occupied by the natural man in respect to the spiritual man; according as the former is (1) in an advanced state of regeneration; (2) in a state preparatory to regeneration; and (3) in a state hostile to regeneration. In the first state the spiritual mind or degree is opened; in the second state it is neither opened nor closed; and in the third state it is closed. The quality of natural light, however, varies according as the spiritual mind is either opened or closed; or, as it is neither opened nor closed.

The spiritual mind or degree is opened when good and truth, love and wisdom, will and understanding, are conjoined in man; then, also, his natural and spiritual man, and likewise natural and spiritual light in him, are in a state of correspondence. There prevails then in man that state of spiritual enlightenment which is enjoyed by those who, in the course of their regeneration, have arrived at the sixth day, the sixth stage of their regeneration.

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The condition of their natural man, according to Swedenborg, is as follows:--

If the spiritual mind is opened, the action and reaction of the natural mind is inverted; for the spiritual mind acts from above or from within, and through those things which in the natural mind have been arranged into a state of obedience; it acts at the same time from below or from without, and it twists back the spiral in which the action and reaction of the natural mind lie. For this latter mind is by birth in opposition to those things which belong to the spiritual mind, which opposition, as is well known, it derives by heredity from parents. Of such a character is the change of state which is called reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before reformation may be compared to a spiral twisting or circumflexing downwards; but after reformation it may be compared to a spiral twisting or circumflexing upwards wherefore a man before reformation looks downwards to hell, but after reformation he looks upwards to heaven (D. L. W. 263).

When the natural mind, after reformation, looks upwards towards heaven, then there exists in it
that correspondence between the light of heaven, and the light of the world, which causes the things which exist in this latter light to be representative of such things as are in the light of heaven (see above, no. 240). This state, as it then exists, is further described by Swedenborg thus:--

The light of heaven, in which is intelligence and wisdom, flows into those things which are in the light of the world with man, and causes the things which are of the light of heaven, to be represented in those which belong to the light of the world, and thus causes them to correspond (A. C. 4408).

Then also the member of the Church is in a state of enlightenment as regards the truths of the Divine Word, for then there apply to him the following words of Swedenborg:--

The light of heaven, in which the spiritual sense is, flows into the natural light in which the literal sense of the Word is. and illuminates mans Intellectual, which is called the Rational;

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causing it to see and acknowledge Divine truths, where they stand forth and where they are concealed (T. C. R. 215).

242. Natural light presents itself in its second aspect when the spiritual mind is neither opened nor closed. Such is the case with man during his state of minority. His rational mind then is not yet organized; and scientifics and knowledges from various sources are then being stored up in his natural memory, under the influence of his parents and teachers. The above condition of the spiritual mind, as Swedenborg further informs us, exists also with those who are in a state of spiritual heat, that is, of love, but not in a state of spiritual light, that is, of wisdom; who, therefore, on account of their ignorance of genuine truths, are not in truths from good--the only means through which the spiritual mind can be opened. For good through truths opens the spiritual mind, because good through truths operates use; and by use are meant the goods of love which derive their essence from the conjunction of good and truth (D. L. W. 253).

In the case of those with whom the spiritual mind is not opened nor yet closed, spiritual light, together with its heat, flows around the objects in the natural memory from without, and not from within. Interiorly, therefore, and so far its the man himself becomes conscious of it, the things stored up in the natural memory through the medium of the senses of sight and hearing, are illuminated by natural light; while exteriorly they are enlightened by the light of heaven, whence he derives the capacity of recognizing good as being good, and truth as being truth--not in his own light however, but is that of others. On this subject we read:--

That is said to be spiritual which is in the light of heaven; for whatever is in this light has within itself the affection of good and the perception of truth. These things are in that light, because that light is from the Lord;

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wherefore those who are in spiritual good and truth are in the Internal of the Church; for with the head they are in heaven. [With these, also, the spiritual mind is fully open].

That, however, is said to be natural which is in the light of the world; and whatever is in that light has the affection of good and the perception of truth NOT within itself, but outside of itself. For the light of heaven flows ill, and illuminates all around; thus from the outside, and not from within; and it imparts the knowledge that good is good, and truth is truth, because some one has declared it to be so, but not because there is a perception that it is so. Wherefore, those who are in natural good are in the External of the Church; for they are not in heaven with their head, but their head is illuminated thence from without (A. C. 8068).

243. Whether the spiritual mind is fully opened, as is the case with those who are in an advanced state of regeneration, or whether it is in that condition when it is neither opened nor yet closed, which condition we have just discussed--in either of these cases spiritual light becomes more or less obscured on entering into the natural mind. For so long as a man lives in the natural world, the objects of spiritual sight, namely, truths on spiritual and Divine subjects, are seen by him only rationally or naturally, but not spiritually. For even when, as to his understanding, he raises himself into the spiritual or celestial degree, his natural degree or mind rises with him and accompanies him, so that the light of the higher degrees is invariably received by the natural degree, and thereby made more general, and hence more obscure. Thus Swedenborg says:--

From this it is evident that so long as a man lives in the world, and is thereby in the natural degree, he cannot be elevated into very wisdom, such as it is with the angels, but only into higher light reaching to the angels, and. into receiving enlightenment from their light, which flows in from within, and illuminates (D. L. W. 256).

From the fact, however, that man, while in the natural world, can receive spiritual and celestial light only in his natural mind, and thus naturally, it follows that spiritual light is necessarily more or less obscured when it enters into the natural mind, and hence into the natural memory.

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We thus read:--

When the light which comes from the Lord through heaven ... strikes in man the images or ideas which in his natural or external [man] are from the light of the world, the former light is much obscured (A. C. 4742).

244. Nevertheless, it is possible for the objects of spiritual light, and thus for truths on spiritual subjects to appear in natural light, yet only in proportion as natural light and the objects of natural light are in agreement with spiritual light, and are under its influence; as appears plainly from what follows:--

Those who are in natural light are not in any intelligence and wisdom, except so far as heavenly light flows into that light and arranges it, so that the things which are of heaven appear as in a mirror, or in some representative image, in those things which belong to natural light. For natural light, apart from the light of heaven, does not present to the sight anything belonging to spiritual truth (A. C. 4302).

In order that spiritual truths may appear in natural light, it is quite necessary, therefore, that the natural mind should be in some sort of harmony or correspondence with the spiritual mind, or, at all events, that it should not be in a state of opposition to spiritual light. But, as regards the further agreement of the things of natural light with those belonging to spiritual light, it is a matter of absolute necessity that, during mans existence in the natural world, the truths on spiritual subjects should be presented to him in the garb of ideas drawn from the objects of natural light. For, as we have already seen above (no. 237), the natural man cannot apprehend anything, except through such things as exist and appear in the solar world--unless, therefore, a thing has derived something of a form from the light and shade which are there. This applies also to all information concerning the Lord and the Great Hereafter;

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and hence to all knowledges derived from the literal and spiritual senses of the Divine Word. Nay, for this reason the Word of God--the Sacred Scripture--in its ultimate literal sense is composed altogether of images drawn from the world of nature, each of which corresponds to, and represents some spiritual and Divine truth. That all knowledge, even knowledge on spiritual subjects, has to enter the mind by means of ideas drawn from objects which appear in the light of nature, is corroborated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

Natural light is from the light of the world, and spiritual light from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord. All the truths of faith which a man imbibes from childhood are grasped by means of such objects and the ideas thence, as are derived from the sun of the world therefore, all things generally and individually are seized naturally. For, so long as a man lives in the world, all the ideas of his thought are founded upon such things as are in the world if these ideas, therefore, should be withdrawn from him, his thought would totally perish (A. C. 5477).

Again he says:--

To the ideas which are cherished by man concerning Divine arcana, there always cleaves some idea from worldly things, or from things analogous to worldly things, by virtue of which they are retained in the memory, and through which they are reproduced in the thought; for apart from an idea drawn from worldly things, a man can never think. If, therefore, truths should be proposed nakedly from their Divine origin, they would never be received, but would exceed the whole of a mans power of apprehension, and hence his faith (A. C. 2820).

245. The third quality or aspect of natural light is caused when the spiritual mind is altogether closed. Such, as we have seen, is the case with those who are in a state hostile to regeneration. Concerning persons of this description we read:--

The spiritual degree is closed with those who are in evils as to life, and still more with those who are in falsities arising from evils. The case is like that of the fibril of a nerve which contracts at the slightest touch of anything heterogeneous; and like that of the motor fibres of a muscle, and of the muscle itself, and indeed of the whole body, which shrinks from the touch of whatever is hard or cold.

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So the substances or forms of the spiritual degree with man shrink from evils and their falsities, because they are heterogeneous. For the spiritual degree being in the form of heaven, admits nothing but goods, and the truths which are from good. These are homogeneous with it; but evils, and the falsities which are from evil, are heterogeneous from it. This degree is contracted, and by contraction closed, especially with those who, in the world, from the love of self are in the love of ruling; for this love is opposite to love of the Lord. It is also closed, yet not so much, with those who, from the love of the world, are in the mad cupidity of possessing the goods of others. The reason why these loves shut the spiritual degree, is that they are the origins of evils.

The contraction or closing up of this degree is like the twisting back of a spiral against its former fluxion; which is the reason that after that degree is closed it repels the light of heaven; wherefore, instead of the light of heaven, dense darkness prevails there, consequently, truth which is in the light of heaven becomes nauseous (D. L. W. 254).

When the spiritual mind has been closed, the reaction of the natural mind, concerning which we treated above, becomes altogether antagonistic and opposed to the action of the spiritual mind; wherefore we read further:--

When the natural mind nets from the delights of its love, and from the pleasures of its thought, which in themselves are evils and falsities, then the reaction of the natural mind removes those things which are of the spiritual mind, and blocks the doors to prevent them from entering, and manages that action shall come to pass from such things as agree with its reaction. Thus an action and a reaction of the natural mind are brought about which are opposite to the action and reaction of the spiritual mind; hence a closure of the spiritual mind takes place like the twisting back of a spiral (D. L. W. 263).

246. It must not be supposed, however, that this closure of the spiritual mind, is equivalent to a cutting off of all communication between the internal, spiritual, and the external, natural man. The communication continues, but only in a kind of general way, so that spiritual light, but no longer spiritual heat, is transmitted from the spiritual into the natural man.

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On this subject we read:--

When the spiritual mind is not opened, as is the case with those who do not apply to their life the knowledges of good and truth in the Word, there is still formed with such persons a mind interiorly in their natural part. This mind, however, consists of mere falsities and evils; and indeed for this reason, that the spiritual mind has not been opened, through which the light of heaven is conveyed into the natural man by a direct way; wherefore this light is transmitted only through chinks round about, whereby the man derives the faculty of thinking, reasoning and also the faculty of understanding truths; but not the faculty of loving them, that is, of doing them from affection. The affection of loving truths because they are true, is imparted solely by the [direct] influx of the light of truth through the spiritual mind, for the light of heaven which flows in through the spiritual mind is conjoined with the heat of heaven which is love; even as is comparatively the case with the light of the world in spring-time. But the light of heaven which flows into the natural part through chinks, is light separated from the heat of heaven which is love; even as is comparatively the case with the light of the world in winter-time (A. E. 408).

On this subject we read further:--

The Lord constantly flows in with good and truth through the internal man; good imparts life and the heat thereof which is love, but truth affords enlightenment and the light thereof which is faith. This influx, however, in the case of the wicked, on proceeding further namely, into the exteriors, is resisted and rejected, or again it is perverted or suffocated; and then according to such rejection, perversion or suffocation, the interiors are closed, a passage remaining open only here and there, as through chinks round about. The faculty of thinking and willing thus remains with man, but only the faculty of thinking and willing in opposition to truth and good (A. C. 6564).

The quality of the light transmitted in this way from the spiritual to the natural mind is of such a description that when the objects illuminated by it are struck by genuine spiritual light, which is animated by spiritual heat, the former light vanishes; as appears from the following passage, where the light of truth within the heavens and outside the same is compared:--

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Since Divine Truth is the light in the heavens, therefore all truths, wherever they are, whether in an angel, or outside of him; and again, whether within or outside the heavens, shine. Outside the heavens, however, truths do not shine, as they do like snow without heat; because they do not derive essence from good, as they do within the heavens. Wherefore, this same light also when the light of heaven strikes it, disappears; and when there is any evil contained in it, it is turned into darkness (H. H. 132).

In respect to everything spiritual, and thus in respect to what concerns revealed Truth, natural light with a man whose spiritual mind is closed, is sheer darkness. Thus we read:--

From natural light separate from spiritual light it is impossible to understand the truths of the Church. For natural light separate from spiritual light, in respect to the things of heaven, that is, in respect to spiritual things, is not light but darkness; for from natural light separated a man regards the things of the Church from himself, and not from the Lord; wherefore, he cannot do otherwise than see them from appearances and fallacies; and seeing these things from appearances and fallacies means seeing falsities instead of truths, and evils instead of goods (A. E. 846).

247. Natural light is thus essentially of a different quality, according as the spiritual mind is either opened or closed, or as it is neither opened nor closed. The closure or opening of the spiritual mind, however, is the result of a mans love which is spiritual heat; wherefore the quality of the light by which the natural man is illuminated depends in the end upon the quality of the spiritual heat which prevails there. We thus read:--

The light of heaven for those who are in the light of the world is like darkness; and the light of the world for those who are in the light of heaven is like darkness. This arises chiefly from the kind of heat which belongs to the light.

They who are in the loves of self and of the world, and thus in the heat alone of the light of the world, are affected only by evils and falsities, and it is these which extinguish the truths that belong to the light of heaven.

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They, on the other hand, who are in the love of the Lord, and in the love towards the neighbor--those, consequently, who are in the spiritual heat belonging to the light of heaven--are affected by the goods and truths, which extinguish falsities (A. C. 3224).

Again we read:--

Natural light, separated from spiritual light, is not light, but darkness. The fire which propagates and also kindles this light, is the love of self, and hence the pride of self-intelligence. In proportion as a man who thinks from that fire and that light, is gifted with ingenuity, and hence with the faculty of confirming all things that he pleases, in the same proportion he is able to confirm even falsities and evils, until they appear like truths and goods; nay, he can present falsities and evils m a resplendent natural light, which however is a fatuous light, exalted by artifices. Comprehending the things of the Church from that light, does not mean understanding them. for from that light alone a man sees truths as falsities, and falsities as truths (A. E. 846).

On the other hand again we read:--

The light of truth with man is altogether according to the state of his love; in proportion as the love is kindled, the truth shines. For the good of love is the very vital fire, and the truth of faith is the very intellectual light which is intelligence and wisdom; the two progress at a like pace (A. C. 10,201).

There are thus two kinds of heat, just as there are two kinds of light; namely, spiritual and natural; and there is a mutual correspondence between heat and light which causes spiritual heat to crave for spiritual light, and hence for the objects that appear in that light; while natural heat craves for natural light, that is, for the light of the world, and for the objects which appear in that light. Concerning the origin of these two kinds of heat Swedenborg says:--

Besides the two kinds of light, there are also two kinds of heat, which likewise arise from a twofold fountain.

The heat of heaven is from that sun which is the Lord; and the heat of the world is from that sun which is the luminary visible before our eyes. The heat of heaven manifests itself before the internal man by spiritual loves and affections; but the heat of the world exhibits itself before the external man by natural loves and affections.

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The former heat constitutes the life of the internal man but the latter heat the life of the external man. For apart from love and affection a man cannot live at all. Between these two kinds of heat also there are correspondences.

These heats become loves and affections by virtue of the influx of the Lords life and hence they do not appear to man as if they mere heats, and yet they are. For unless man were possessed of heat, both as to his internal and as to his external man, he would fall down stone dead in a moment. This becomes plain to every one from this consideration, that in proportion as a man becomes kindled by love, in the same proportion he grows warm; and in proportion as the love recedes, in the same proportion he grows torpid. From this heat is that the will of man lives; but from the light that the understanding lives (A. C. 3338).

248. The spiritual mind of man is thus opened by love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor; but it is closed by the opposite loves of self and of the world. By the former loves man is connected with heaven, and receives as influx of good and truth, and hence of the heat and light of heaven; but by the latter loves he is connected with hell, and receives an influx thence of evil and falsity, and thus an influx of the heat and light of hell, which originate in the heat and light of the world.

The closure of the spiritual mind, as we have seen above, is brought about by the reaction of the natural mind, which acts from the heat which arises from the natural sun and which heat, by an influx of the Lords life, is turned in the natural mind into natural love and affection. when the closure of the spiritual mind has thus been brought about by the reaction of the love of the natural mind, then, as Swedenborg further observes, this closure does not remain limited to the spiritual mind, but extends also to the higher parts of the natural mind; thus he says:--

With these persons [that is, with those with whom the spiritual mind has been closed], not only the spiritual degree itself is closed, but also the higher region of the natural degree, which is called the rational;

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and this goes on until at length the lowest region of the natural degree only, called the sensual, remains open; for this is nearest to the world and to the external senses of the body, from which the man afterwards thinks, speaks, and reasons (D. L. W. 264).

Concerning this process, by which the interiors of the wicked are closed up, Swedenborg says further:--

This process by which the interior parts in the case of the wicked are closed up, is continued more and more in the direction of the outward parts, according to the life of evil and the persuasion of what is false; until it even reaches the sensual part, from which thought then proceeds. Pleasures and appetites then carry away everything. In such a state are those who are in the hells; for from the wicked who arrive in the other life, is removed every respect for what is honorable and good for the sake of gain, places of honor and reputation. They are then in the sensual degree (A. C. 6864).

The process by which everything that has respect to what is honorable and good is removed from wicked in the other life is called vastation; and after this process of vastation has been consummated, their state, as described by Swedenborg, is as follows:--

The interiors with man are terminated in his ultimates, that is, in his outermost parts, and there those things which with him are successive, become simultaneous. When in ultimates there is nothing but falsity and evil, the truths and goods which from the interiors flow into the ultimates, are introduced there into evils and falsities, and turned into such things; wherefore, nothing but falsity and evil appears then in the whole natural [man].

Thence also it is that after infernal spirits have been vastated, they are in the outermost things of the natural [man]. Their lumen then which is called intellectual lumen, is not unlike the lumen of this world, which in the other world, in the presence of the light of heaven, becomes mere darkness.

Since the outermost region of the natural [man], which is called the Sensual, is filled with fallacies and falsities thence, and likewise with pleasures and evils thence; and since the hells are in this lumen, therefore when man is being regenerated, he is gifted by the Lord with the faculty of being elevated above the Sensual, towards the interiors (A. C. 7645).

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The quality of the natural lumen, that is, of the natural light which prevails in hell, is further described by Swedenborg thus:--

Those spirits who are only in the things belonging to the light of the world, and hence in falsities from evil, in the other life, have indeed light out of heaven but such a light as is fatuous, and as is given out by a coal-fire, or a lighted torch. But this light is put out at once at the approach of the light of heaven, and darkness is caused. They who are in this light are in phantasies; and they who are in phantasies believe these to be true; and in their eyes nothing else is true. Their phantasies also are connected with filthy and obscene objects, with which they are very much delighted; they, consequently think like mad and insane persons. In respect to falsities, they do not first reason about them whether they are really so; but they at once affirm them. But in the case of goods and truths they do reason about them by a course of argumentation which terminates in the negative. For the truths and goods which are from the light of heaven constantly how into their interior mind which, with them, is closed up, wherefore light flows in around and outside the same and this light becomes of such a quality that it is modified [i.e., caused to vibrate] only by falsities which appear to them as truths (A. C. 3224).

249. Of such a quality is the light which, through attendant spirits, is conveyed to the man who is under the government of the natural loves of self and of the world, and in whom, by the action of these loves, his spiritual mind has either permanently or temporarily been closed. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The regenerate man who is called spiritual, sees these matters differently from the merely natural man. Scientifics with the former are enlightened by the light of heaven but with the latter they are not. With him they are illuminated by a light which flows in through spirits who are in falsity and evil. This latter light, indeed, is derived from the light of heaven; but with these spirits it has become opaque, like the light of evening or night. For such spirits, and hence such men, like owls, sec clearly at night, and obscurely in day-time; that is, falsities they see clearly, and truths obscurely; and hence they see clearly the things belonging to the world, but obscurely, if at all, those which belong to heaven (A. C. 4967).

A different kind of light, that is, one which enlightens the objects in the natural memory from without, is purveyed by this associate spirits to those whose spiritual mind is neither opened nor yet closed.

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This light, as we have seen, enables them to see that good is good and truth true, because some one has declared them to be so; but still they are not able from any inward perception to see that a thing is so.

The good and evil spirits attendant on all persons in this world, as we have seen above invest themselves with the contents of their memories; and by doing so they expose the contents of the memories of men to that particular light which prevails in the society in heaven, in the world of spirits, or in hell, to which these spirits adjoin themselves belong. These spirits adjoin themselves to men by the sphere which emanates from the life of their loves, and by which a person is known in the other life at a distance (see A. C. 6206). Wherefore, it is the love by which a person in this world is animated which attracts the light by which his thoughts and the contents of his memory are enlightened; for it is the love which diffuses itself from a mans spiritual organization that attracts the spirits in the other life who are the medium of spiritual light to him.

Even in the case of those whose spiritual mind is fully opened, and who is to their spirits are associated with the very angels of heaven the particular light which enlightens the Truth in their mind and which directs them in their thoughts, is still conveyed into them from the Lord through their attendant guardian angels, as appears from the following passage:--

The enlightenment which is attributed to the Holy Spirit, is, indeed, from the Lord, but it is nevertheless brought about through the mediation of spirits and angels.... It takes place through their mediation, because the man who is in enlightenment is then placed in the midst of such angels and spirits as receive from the Lord alone more enlightenment than (D. L. W. 150).

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250. The duality of light in the natural mind, however, is not only determined by the love which prevails there, and which causes the spiritual mind to be either opened or closed, or neither closed nor yet opened; but the natural mind, i.e., the external man, consists also of three distinctly marked degrees, of which the highest is called the rational or spiritual-natural degree, the middle the natural degree proper, or the interior natural degree, and the lowest the sensual degree. This last degree is nearest to the body, which is identical with the corporeal or external sensual degree.

In each of these four degrees there prevails a distinct species of lumen or light, and hence also a distinct species of heat or love; for wherever there is heat there also is light; and the light is formed and created by the heat. The various degrees of heat, however, become perceptible only through those of light; even as love reveals its character to the understanding only through wisdom, or through works which proceed from love through wisdom.

The heat and the light which reign in the bodily or corporeal degree, i.e., in the body itself, emanate from the natural sun. They penetrate through the whole of the bodily degree, as far as the external or corporeal memory, where the sensations of the body are stored. There the heat and light of the natural sun are met by the heat and light of the spiritual sun, which enter immediately from the Lord into the soul--into the human internal; and which from thence pass successively into the various degrees of the spiritual and natural minds, that is, of the internal or external man, until they finally reach the bodily or corporeal degree, where they are received by the heat and light which enter the body from the natural sun. The meeting-place of the two kinds of heat and light, as we have sees above (no. 239), is the corporeal or external memory.

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The heat and the light of the spiritual sun, so long as they continue in the soul--in the human internalare united; but on passing from the soul through the celestial into the spiritual degree of the internal man, they are divided; and they continue thence their detached course into the bodily or corporeal degree of man. Both, on entering into the bodily--the ultimate, degree of man, lose their character of spiritual causes, and assume the form of natural effects; that is, they present themselves there in the outward form of correspondences. Thus spiritual heat, that is, love manifests itself there in the form of vital heat; and spiritual light in the form of intelligence beams from the human eye, to which it imparts its varied expressions. Such is the form in which the heat and light of the spiritual sun manifest themselves in the bodily or corporeal degree of man.

The heat and the light of the natural sun, on the other hand, as we have already seen, penetrate into the interiors of the bodily degree even as far as the external or corporeal memory. The light of the natural sun is carried thither by the objects of sensation; it is held fast there by these objects, sad by the influx of spiritual light is changed into sensual lumen; that is, into the lumen or light which prevails in the lowest degree of the natural mind.

Is a similar manner, as we have seen above (no. 247), the heat of the sun of nature, passes through the interiors of the bodily degree, even as far as the lowest degree of the natural mind, called the sensual degree, where it is met by the heat of heaven. The heat of heaven, however, by flowing into the heat of the natural sun imparts life to it, and thereby changes it into natural loves and affections; so that the heat of the world exhibits itself before the external man by natural loves and affections. But the heat of the natural sun, according to Swedenborg, becomes love and affection by virtue of the influx of the Lords life;

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wherefore, natural love and affection do not appear to man, as if they were heat, and yet they are.

Such is the effect which the influx of the heat and light of heaven, has on the heat and light of the world in the sensual degree; but in the bodily or corporeal degree itself spiritual heat by correspondence becomes vital heat; while spiritual light by correspondence through the sight of the understanding is caused to be present, as light, in the very sight of the bodily eye.

251. That there is such an unbroken influx of the light of heaven, first into mans intellectual part where it causes the phenomena of interior sight, and from thence through the sensual part into the bodily organ of vision, appears plainly from the following passages:--

By virtue of the free determination or the freedom of choice [possessed by the good and the bad] an element of lucidity spreads In the mind of either of these from the first sight [i.e., from that of the understanding] which belongs to the ultimate sight which is that of the eye (T. C. R. 504).

And again, as regards the sight of mans sensual part, which receives the impressions from the outward organ of vision, and which, in conjunction with the eye, perceives the objects of the natural world, Swedenborg says:--

Mans sensual part which belongs to the external man, sees from the light of the world, which is derived from the natural sun, and all that it sees is worldly, bodily and earthly. There are in man derivations from the intellectual part which is in the light of heaven, down to the sensual part which is in the light of the world; and unless these derivations existed, the sensual part or degree could not have any life like unto human life. Mans sensual part has not life on the ground that it sees in the light of the world--for the light of the world has no life in itself--but on the ground that it sees in the light of heaven; for this light has life in itself. When this latter light strikes in man those things which are in the light of the world, it vivifies them, and causes man to see things intellectually, and thus as a man (A. C. 5114).

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The range of the light of the world in man is thus from the outward eye of the body as far as the organical forms of the outward, corporeal memory, which is in the sensual degree of the natural mind. Spiritual light vivifies there the dead light of the natural sun, and converts it into natural lumen; and at the same time the interior sight of the understanding, through the sight of the sensual degree, flows into the eye, where its presence causes that flashing which may be noticed in it. On this subject Swedenborg says:--

The sight of mans thought which is called understanding corresponds to the sight of his eyes; wherefore, also the quality of the thought from the understanding becomes apparent from the light and flame of the eyes (A. E. 1080).

252. The heat of heaves, in like manner, flows into the heat of the world, vivifying the same, and thereby changing it into natural love and affection; while, on the other hand, through correspondence, in the form of vital heat, it flows into every least particle of the human body, imparting life to it, and at the same time entering there into a reciprocal conjunction with heat from the natural sun. Concerning the genesis of vital heat, Swedenborg makes the following remarks:--

The good of love constitutes the very life in man; for living heat which is love, is the very vital bent; and unless this heat is in man, he is a sort of dead form. Even when no heavenly, but to infernal love is with a man, the inmost of his life is still from celestial love; for this love flows in continually from the Lord, and causes in him vital heat in principle. In its progression, however this heavenly love is perverted, giving rise to infernal love, from which results an unclean heat (A. C. 6135).

Vital heat, as Swedenborg further informs us, arises from the delights of the affections, and the charms of perceptions and thoughts (D. P. 195). These delights and charms, by correspondence, are productive of vital heat in the body;

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and this heat increases according to the intensity of the loves by which these delights and charms are caused.

The points of contact where the heat of heaven in man meets the heat of nature are the heart, and all the fibres of the body, as appears from the following passages:--

Spiritual heat, which in its essence is love, through correspondence, flows Into the heart and into its blood, and communicates to it heat, at the same time vivifying it (D. L. W. 379).

And again:--

There is a reciprocal conjunction in the world between all things that are closely connected. Such a conjunction exists ... between vital heat and the heat of all the fibres in animated beings [which bent is from the natural sun] (T. C. R. 99).

As regards the extent to which the heat of the world penetrates in man, it extends just as far as the light of the world; that is, it reaches from the surface of the body into the plane of the corporeal memory which is in the sensual degree; or as Swedenborg calls it in the following passage, as far as the interior sensual degree, the outward organs of sensation being understood here by the external sensual degree. We read:--

Vital heat does not derive its origin at all from the heat which is from the sun of the world; but it originates in spiritual heat which is love, and proceeds from the Lord.... In proportion, therefore, as a man is moved by love, in the same proportion he is in vital heat. The body, on the hand other, is in the heat of the world, as is the case also with the interior sensual degree; but vital heat flows into that heat, and vivifies it (A. C. 6314).

253. Light is throws by the above upon the border (limbus) derived from the purest substances of nature, which, according to Swedenborg, man takes with him into the other life from the natural world, and which forms there the cutaneous covering of his spiritual body. On this subject we read:--

The natural mind consists of spiritual, and at the same time of natural substances.

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Thought takes place from its spiritual, but not from its natural substances.... The latter substances retreat when a man dies, but not the spiritual substances. The natural substances which retreat by death form a cutaneous covering of the spiritual body, in which spirits or angels are. Their spiritual bodies subsist through such a covering taken from the natural world; for the natural is the last containant. Hence it is that no spirit or angel exists who was not born a man (D. L. W., 257).

And again:--

A spirit or angel from having been bent first as a man in the world, derives the property of being able to subsist. For lie takes with him from the inmost things of nature a medium between what is spiritual and what is natural, by which he is finited, and from which he derives subsistence and permanence. Through this medium he acquires an element of relation in respect to those things which are within nature, and which likewise corresponds to them; for a conjunction exists, and wherever there is a conjunction, there also must be a medium (D. W., viii).

This medium is that portion of the bodily or corporeal degree which furnishes the organic substances of the corporeal memory; and which, as we have seen above, is the recipient on the one hand of the heat and light of the natural world, and on the other of those of the other world. There, in fact, the heat and light of the natural sun, which are the purest and inmost substances of nature, by an influx of life from the Lord are turned into natural loves and affections, and also into natural lumen. That the corporeal memory is the ultimate plane which man takes with him into the other life, appears from the following passage:--

Those who die as adults take along with them a plane which they have acquired from the terrestrial and material world. this plane is their memory and its natural-corporeal affection, which remains fixed, and is then quiescent; but which, nevertheless, after death, serves their thought as an ultimate plane: for thought flows into it. Hence it is that according to the quality of this plane, and according to the correspondence with it of the rational part and the things contained in it, is the quality of the man after death (H. H., 345).

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With adults this ultimate border is developed; but not so with those who die as infants; as Swedenborg states in the sequel to this passage,

This explains the following apparently singular passage where Swedenborg states that above
border or cutaneous covering with those who enter into heaven, is below, and the spiritual above; but that with those who go into hell, the border is above, and the spiritual below. For with the latter, as we have seen above (no. 248), the whole of their spiritual organization, above the sensual degree, is closed up, so that the heat and light of heaven with them pass into the contents of their corporeal memory, and put on its quality. The inflowing heat of heaven with them is thus turned into natural heat and its corresponding loves; and the light of heaven into natural light, that is, into that natural lumen which prevails in hell, and the quality of which has been described above (no. 248; A. C. 3224). The passage itself from Swedenborg is as follows:--

Every man after death lays aside the Natural which he derived from his mother, and retains the Spiritual which he derived from his father, together with some kind of a border, from the purest things of nature, which is around it. But with those who enter heaven this border is below, and the spiritual above; but with those who enter hell, the border is above, and the spiritual below. Hence it is that an angel-man speaks from heaven, and therefore good and truth; but that a man-devil speaks from hell when he speaks from the heart, and seemingly from heaven when he speaks with his lips (T. C. R. 103).

254. The body with its organs of sense is thus within the sphere of the real heat and light of the sun of nature; while spiritual heat and light are present in it by correspondences, in the same way as the spiritual cause by correspondence is present in its natural effect.

The whole of this bodily region man leaves behind in the natural world by death, with the exception of the border spoken of in the preceding paragraph.

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This border consists of the organic forms of the corporeal memory, concerning which Swedenborg makes the following statement:--

I have been informed that the exterior memory regarded in itself is nothing else than a certain organic [texture] formed of the objects of the senses, especially of those of sight and hearing, in substances which are the beginnings or principles of the fibres; and that according to the impressions made by these senses, variations of form are caused, which are reproduced; and further, that these forms are varied and changed according to the changes of state of the affections and persuasions.

Further, that the interior memory is a like organic [texture], but purer and more perfect, which is formed from the objects of interior sight; which objects, according to an incomprehensible order, are arranged into certain series (A. C. 2487).

Both the exterior and the interior memory are in the external, natural man. The interior memory occupies its highest degree, called the rational or spiritual-natural degree (see above no. 250); while the exterior memory extends over the two remaining degrees of the natural man called the natural proper, and the sensual. It is the outward, i.e., the sensual degree of the exterior memory, which constitutes the border that man takes with him into the other life; and which is quiescent there.

255. The two lower degrees of the natural man, namely, the natural proper, and the sensual degree, are classed together by Swedenborg also in other connections; as, for instance, in the following passage, where he defines the three general divisions in man thus: the Corporeal, the Natural, and the Rational. By the Corporeal he means there the body; by the Natural, the natural degree proper, and also the sensual degree--and thus the same divisions of the natural man which are also included in the exterior memory.

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But by the Rational he understands the inmost degree of the external man which is the plane of the interior memory, and by which the external man communicates immediately with the internal, spiritual man. We read:--

With man in general there are three [parts] the Corporeal, the Natural, and the Rational. The Corporeal is outermost, the Natural intermediate, and the Rational interior. In proportion as any one of these parts prevails in man above the others, he is said to be either corporeal, natural or rational. These three [parts] of man communicate in a wonderful manner; namely, the corporeal with the natural, and the natural with the rational. When a man is first born he is merely corporeal, but there is the faculty in him of being perfected; afterwards he becomes natural, and finally rational. Hence it may appear that there is a communication between these parts. The Corporeal communicates with the Natural by sensations or sensuous impressions (sensualia); and indeed, distinctly by the things belonging to the understanding, and those which belong to the will; for both must be perfected with man that he may become, and be, a man. The sensuous impressions of sight and hearing especially are what perfect the intellectual faculty, and those of the remaining three senses have respect chiefly to the will. The Corporeal of man through these sensuous impressions communicates with the Natural, which, as said above, is intermediate. For the things which enter by means of sensations are stored up in the Natural, as in a certain receptacle. This receptacle is the memory. The delight, the pleasure, and the desire therein belong to the will, and are called natural goods, but the scientifics therein belong to the understanding, and are called natural truths.

Mans Natural, through the things here spoken of communicates with the rational which, as said above, is the interior part. The things which are elevated thence towards the Rational are likewise stored up there in a certain receptacle. This receptacle is the interior memory. The blessed and happy feelings therein belong to the will, and are of the good of the Rational; but the interior intuitions and perceptions belong to the understanding, and the things belonging thereto are called rational truths.

These are the three parts which constitute man; between these three there exist communications. Through external sensations mans Corporeal communicates with his Natural; and through interior sensations mans Natural communicates with his Rational. Those things, therefore, which in a mans Natural are derived, from the external sensations which are proper to the body, are what are called exterior and external goods and truths;

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but the things derived from the internal sensations which belong to a mans spirit, and which communicate with the Rational, are what are called interior and external goods and truths; but the things derived from the internal sensations which belong to a mans spirit, and which communicate with the Rational, are what are called interior goods and truths. The things between them, and which partake of both, are called intermediate goods and truths (A. C. 4038).

256. From this passage it is made evident that in the external man, of which alone a man becomes conscious in this life, there are three most distinct parts; namely, the Corporeal, or the body; the Natural; and the Rational; and it appears further, that in the Rational there are interior goods and truths; and in the Natural there are on the one hand intermediate goods and truths, and, on the other, exterior goods and truths; so that the Natural by itself is again bipartite. The same applies to the memory; for there is the interior memory which belongs to the Rational; and again there is the exterior memory which belongs to the Natural; but if the Natural by itself is bipartite, the same applies also to the memory; wherefore in the exterior memory, just as in the Natural, there are two degrees, of which the one, as we have seen above (no. 250), is the natural degree proper, and the other the sensual degree.

The constituents of the External man, as we have further seen, are both volitional and intellectual; for the contents of both the interior and the exterior memory are goods and truths of which the former have reference to the will, and the latter to the understanding; and this distinction extends as far as the corporeal part where two of the senses, sight and hearing, according to Swedenborg, minister to mans intellectual part, and the three remaining senses to his will-part. Nevertheless, man, as he is now constituted, becomes conscious chiefly of the intellectual ingredients of the memory. These Swedenborg arranges distinctly into three classes, for which he uses the following appellations:--

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(1) sensations or sensuous impressions (sensualia), sensuous scientifics, and sensuous truths; (2) scientifics, natural scientifics and scientific truths; (3) doctrinal or rational truths, or truths simply. The relations between these three degrees in the memory, which are identical with those of the external or natural man in general, are exhibited clearly in the following passage:--

Sensuous impressions (sensualia) are one thing, scientifics another, and truths still another thing. They succeed each other mutually; for scientifics exist from sensuous impressions, and truths from scientifics. For the things which enter through the senses are stored up in the memory; and from them the man concludes the scientific, or from them he perceives the scientific which he is learning. From scientifics afterwards he concludes truths, that is, from them he perceives the truth which he is learning.

In this wise also every man progresses from boyhood (pueritia), as he is growing up. So long as he is a mere lad (puer) he thinks and grasps things from sensuous impressions. As he advances in age he thinks and grasps things from scientifics; and afterwards from truths. This is the road to judgment which increases in man by age.

Hence it may appear that sensuous impressions, scientifics, and truths are distinct things; yea, that they also remain so distinct, that a man sometimes is in sensations or sensuous impressions, as is the cave when he thinks of nothing except what strikes the senses (sensualia); that at another time he is in scientifics, which occurs when he raises himself above the impressions of the senses, and thinks more interiorly; and that at still another time he is in the truths which are concluded from scientifics, as is the case when he thinks more interiorly still (A. C. 5774).

257. Sensuous impressions and scientifics are in the exterior memory, and rational truths in the interior memory. In the exterior memory, however, prevails the light of the world; while in the interior memory prevails the light of heaven. For the interior memory is in the rational part, and the rational part is nearest to the internal man, which is bathed in the light of heaven.

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This latter light streams from the internal man into the rational part, and enlightens there the interior memory. On this subject we read:--

The lowest truths, that is, the truths of the exterior Natural, are called scientifics, because they are in the natural, i.e., the external memory of man; and because they participate for the most part of the light of the world.... Those things, however, which belong to the interior memory, are not called scientifics, but truths, so far as they participate of the light of heaven (A. C. 5212).

Again we read:--

Those things which belong to the natural mind [or part], for the most part are in the light of the world, which light is called natural lumen; but the things in the rational mind [or part] are in the light of heaven, which light is spiritual light (A. C. 7130).

Now, since man, as we have seen above, in proportion as he advances in age, progresses from sensations, or sensuous impressions, to scientifics, and from scientifics to truths, it follows that at the same rate in which he advances from scientifics to truths, that is, in which from scientifics he concludes truths, he sees things in spiritual, and no longer in natural light. This follows plainly from what Swedenborg states in what follows:--

When truth is raised out of the natural into the rational part, it is taken out of the sphere of the light of the world, into the sphere of heavenly light; and thus, as it were, out of the darkness of night into the clearness of day. The things of the light of the world, indeed, in which are all natural things, are respectively in night, compared with those things which belong to the light of heaven. The things in this latter light are spiritual, and these things are respectively in daylight (A. C. 3190).

258. Again, there is a difference between the natural light which enlightens the natural scientifics, in the natural degree proper, and that light which enlightens the sensuous scientifics, that is, the sensuous impressions in the exterior natural degree which is called the sensual degree. For sensuous impressions, scientifics sad truths are related like generals, particulars and singulars, as is shown by Swedenborg in what follows:--

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The more exterior a thing is, the more general also it is; and the more interior, the less general--so that interior things are respectively called particulars and singulars. The case with generals is so, that they are called generals, because they consist of particulars; and, consequently, because they contain in themselves particulars. Generals apart from particulars, are not generals; but they are called so from particulars....

Thus it is with man and his faculties, which are general in proportion as they are exterior; for they consist of interior faculties, and these again of inmost faculties in their order. The body itself, and the things belonging to the body, such as are called external sensations and actions, are most general respectively. The natural mind, and the things belonging to that mind, are less general, because they are interior; they are called particulars. But the rational mind, and the things belonging to that mind are more interior still, sand are respectively singulars. This appears to the life when a man is divested of his body, and becomes a spirit; for then it becomes manifest to him, that his bodily or corporeal thing were nothing else than the most general things of those which belonged to his spirit; and, further, that corporeal things existed and subsisted from those which belonged to his spirit that the things belonging to the spirit, therefore, are respectively particulars. And when this same spirit becomes an angel, and is elevated into heaven, then those things which he saw and felt before in general, and thus in obscurity, he now sees and feels in clearness; for he then perceives innumerable things, which he had seen and felt before as a one.

This also becomes manifest to the man himself, during his life in the world. The things which he sees and feels in childhood are most general; but those things which he sees and feels while a youth and a young man are the particulars of these generals while the he sees and feels in adult age are the singulars of the particulars. For in proportion as a man advances in age he instills particulars into the generals of childhood, and afterwards singulars into these particulars; for he progresses successively towards interior things, and fills generals with particulars, and particulars with singulars (A. C. 4348).

259. From this passage it follows that what is exterior is related to what is interior, as generals are related to particulars.

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Such, therefore, is the relation which exists between sensuous impressions and scientifics, and again between scientifics and rational truths and such, consequently, is also the relation which exists between the light which prevails in the sensual degree, and that which prevails in the natural degree proper. The former light, therefore, is grosser and more general than the latter light.

This, however, is not the only difference which exists between the light of the sensual degree, and that which prevails in the natural degree proper. Another difference arises from the fact that light in the mind is not alone; but that it is qualified by the heat--the love, which prevails in each of the degrees of the mind. Thus a different kind of light prevails is mans sensual degree during infancy and childhood so long as the good of innocence and charity are still a prevailing feature there; compared with the state of the sensual degree after a man has reached his age of maturity, and has entered upon the use of his own freedom and rationality, when the goods and truths of childhood and early youth, are withdrawn from the outward parts of his external man towards the interior; as appears from what follows:--

As a man, in his adolescent age, begins to think for himself, and to act accordingly he cell no longer be kept in charity, as heretofore for he calls forth hereditary evils, by which he suffers himself to be led. When this state arrives the goods of charity and of innocence, which he had previously received, are exterminated, and indeed in the same proportion as the man thinks evils and confirms them by act; and yet these goods ace not exterminated, but they are withdrawn by the Lord towards the interiors, and are there stored up (A. C. 5343).

260. The change caused in the sensual degree by the withdrawal of the good of remains (see above no. 191 et. seq.), entails a change in the spirits who are associated with man in his sensual degree;

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for the good spirits and angels who are attendant upon children and youths, while the sensual degreethe first degree of their external man--is being opened and developed in them, retire from this degree in the exact proportion in which the goods and truths of remains are withdrawn from it; and their place is taken by evil spirits of hell, who take up their abode in the evils and falsities which then accumulate in the sensual degree. A change in associate spirits, however, entails a change in spiritual light; for spirits are the medium through whom light is communicated to man from the spiritual world in a form accommodated to the state of a mans mind, so far as it is formed either of goods and truths, or of evils and falsities (see above no. 249). The degree of light in either case remains the same; that is, the light communicated to infants, children and youths through their associate spirits and angels is still sensuous lumen, but of such a quality as prevails in heaven; while, after the withdrawal of the goods and truths of remains from the sensual degree, it becomes the recipient of that sensual lumen which prevails in hell, and which from hell emanates into the lower sphere of the world of spirits. Such a lumen is communicated to mans sensual degree before his regeneration, and also during the earlier stages of regeneration. The quality of this sensual lumen, according to Swedenborg, is as follows:--

Each division of mans interiors has a distinct light (lumen) and a distinct heat. The sensual degree has a comparatively gross light (S. D. 4627).

When a man is in this light, his thought is almost in the same light in which his external sight is; and he is then nearly in the body. The men who are in this light, are to be called sensual; for they do not think beyond the sensations of the body. What is beyond, they do not perceive, nor believe. They believe only what they see and touch. In this lumen are those who have not cultivated at all their interior [faculties], living in neglect and contempt of all things which are rational and spiritual. In this light are especially misers and adulterers;

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further, those who have lived in mere pleasures, and in slothful ease. Hence such persons think filthy things, and concerning the holy things of the Church even scandalous things. The hells are in this light. In this light are also some who are not so bad; that is, who were not avaricious, adulterers and voluptuaries, but who have become such because they did not cultivate their rational faculty (A. C. 6310, 6311).

The case in general is that sensual lumen, or light appears to the ignorant as spiritual light. In this light it is not known whether a statement is made simply from the memory, or from the understanding moreover sensual light is more resplendent than interior light), because it exists in the world. Those, especially, who are in evil are in the sensual light, and they are more cunning than others wherefore by the Ancients they were called serpents, because they call reason more adroitly than the rest (S. D. 6708).

Whoever is in this gross light, namely, in the sensual, is also in the pleasures of the beds and of the senses, because they, are the first things of life, and he is also in such scientifics, as serve to promote these things. When a person thinks of the truths of faith, of heaven, and of Divine things from this lumen, he considers them of no account, and rejects them, as being things that may indeed be talked about, but that have no reality, because he cannot see, and touch them. He believes only his senses. Such sensual men are at present in great number in the world.... The sensual lumen is of this character, because all who are in the world of spirits from hell are in such a lumen; and whenever any one is in this lumen, he is in consort, in the world of spirits, with the infernal crew (S. D. 4627).

Those who are in the sensual lumen, most rarely, if ever, are able to be in good and truth; that is, are able to have good and truth for an end; consequently, they cannot have for an end the country, nor justice, but only themselves, their own gain and their own honor.... I was let into this lumen; and as often as I came into it, evil and falsity, scandals against God and heaven, and against good and truth filthy and nasty things, and especially lascivious things flow in. The reason is, that spirits who are of such a character, are in this light, and how in (S. D. 4629).

When a man, therefore, is being regenerated, the truths of faith and the goods of charity are insinuated by the Lord into those things which belong to sensual light and heat. These things, together with still more interior things, are then contained in the above.

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For spiritual light is then in the sensual lumen, and leads it, as the soul the body (S. D. 4627).

261. Concerning the light that prevails in the degree immediately above the sensual degree, called the natural or interior-natural degree, Swedenborg says:--

When a man is raised above this sensual lumen, as is the case when he is drawn, or led away a little from the impressions received from the senses, he comes into a more interior light which does not belong to the sensual, but to the interior-natural degree. When a man is in this light, he is in a better state, and he is then in a condition in which he can observe sensuous impressions, that is, their quality and their causes (S. D.4627).

When a man is raised towards the interiors, he comes out of the gross sensual lumen, into a milder light; and he is then led away at the same time, from the influx of scandalous and filthy things, and is taken nearer to those things which belong to what is just and fair; because nearer to the angels who are with him, and thus nearer to the light of heaven. This elevation was known to the Ancients, and even to the Gentiles, wherefore their sophi said, that when the lower mind (animus) is led away from the things pertaining to the senses, it comes into a more inward light, and at the same time into a tranquil state and into a certain heavenly blessedness.

A man can be raised more interiorly still, and the more interiorly he rises, the clearer the light into which he comes; and at last he comes into the light of heaven; which light is nothing else than wisdom and intelligence from the Lord (A. C. 6313).

So long as a man lives in this world, it is not possible for him to be permanently raised above the light or lumen, which prevails in the sensual degree. Whenever in his thoughts and affections he approaches the things of this world, and when his attention is absorbed by them, he cannot help coming into, and abiding temporarily in, sensual lumen; yet, his essential dwelling-place, as to his thoughts and affections, is above the sensual degree; and whenever a man who is undergoing regeneration is beginning to be infested by the states which are inherent in the sensual degree, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, he is raised into a higher lumen or light;

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as Swedenborg states in what follows:--

The man who in this life, through the good of faith, has been elevated above the things belonging to the senses, is alternately in the sensual lumen, and in a higher lumen. When absorbed by worldly cares, or when in it company where external things rule, or again, when in the enjoyment of pleasures, he is in the sensual state. In this state he is averse to, and avoids speaking and thinking about God and the things belonging to faith; and should he talk and think about them, he would not consider them of any consequence, unless at the very instant he is raised by the Lord towards the interiors. When such a man is not absorbed by worldly things, but is in an interior lumen, he thinks from what is just and fair; and if he is in a still higher lumen, he thinks from spiritual truth and good. He who is in the good of life is raised from one lumen into another; and as soon as he begins to think evilly he is instantaneously raised into an interior light; for the angels are near him (A. C. 6315).

262. A more inward light still into which a man may be raised, is that of the rational degree, which is the highest degree of the external man. This degree receives light immediately out of heaven. Since this degree is at the same time the highest degree of the natural, that is, the external man, this degree is also called by Swedenborg the spiritual-natural degree, as in the following passage:--

If a man is able to think more interiorly still, he comes into a still more inward light; namely, into that of the spiritual-natural degree. This light exists partly from the light of heaven in natural light (S. D. 4627).

Of these three kinds of light, namely, the sensual lumen, the interior-natural light, and the light of the rational or spiritual-natural degree, a man may become conscious during his life in the natural world; but although there are more interior kinds of light still, by which the degrees of the internal or spiritual man are illuminated, so long as a man carries about with him his gross, material body, he is unable to become conscious of any higher, spiritual elevation, and thus of the opening of any higher, spiritual degree within him than the rational degree.

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The rational mind or degree, however, by continuity may be raised to the level of the spiritual degree or mind, and even as far as the celestial degree and thus may be enlightened thence; yet the enlightenment is received then by the rational degree, and it strikes the man simply as an additional development of the rational mind. On this subject we read:--

Every man is born into the faculty of understanding truths even to the inmost degree, in which are the angels of the third heaven. For the human understanding as it rises by continuity upwards around the two higher degrees, receives the light of wisdom of these degrees. Hence it is that a man becomes rational according to this elevation. If he is elevated to the third degree, he becomes rational from the third degree, if he is elevated to the second degree, he becomes rational from the second degree; and if he is not elevated, he remains rational in the first degree. It is said that he becomes rational from the above degrees, because the natural degree [of which the rational mind forms the highest part] is the general receptacle of their light. The rational [mind] of man, to appearance, is thus as it were of three degrees; rational from the celestial, rational from the spiritual, and rational from the natural degree (D. L. W. 258).

Again we read:--

A man whose understanding of the truths of the Church is enlightened by the light of heaven, and thus by the Lord, can see the truths of the Church rationally in the world, spiritually after death (A. E. 846).

And again:--

All truths of the Word which are truths of heaven and of the Church can be seen with the understanding, in heaven spiritually, in the world rationally (A. E. 1102).

263. We have now become acquainted with the capacities of the human mind and the plan according to which that mind is organized, together with the various kinds of spiritual and natural heat and light, of which it is the recipient;

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and we have further learned in what way the human mind is cared for by the Lord by immediate and mediate influx. Our next step will be to study the laws of development of the human mind, and to inquire in what way it is raised from natural into spiritual light, and thus into a state of enlightenment from the Lord.

All development in the direction of spiritual enlightenment, which marks an advanced state of regeneration, is caused by good--even as enlightenment itself is conveyed to man through the medium of spiritual good. The Lord, through His immediate influx, constantly instills good into man, from his very first formation. In this good which is the good of remains, that is, the good of infancy and childhood, the Lord is present with him, and through that good He governs and superintends his spiritual growth; and if the man himself is willing, and co-operates with the Lord, He reforms and regenerates him, and thereby conjoins him to Himself. Concerning this first insemination of good into man, we read:--

Infants and children are first of all in good; for they are in a state of innocence, and in a state of love towards their parents and nurses, as well as in a state of mutual charity towards their companions, so that with every man good is the first-born. The good into which a man has been initiated remains; for whatever a man has been imbued with from childhood puts on life, and because it remains becomes the good of life. For if a man were deprived of the good which he has brought with him from childhood, he would not be a man, but would be more ferocious than ally wild beast of the forest (A. C. 3494).

264. On account of the depraved condition of man the will and the understanding are totally separated in him at birth; which is also the reason why man, different from the animals, is then utterly void of all knowledge.

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The Lords object, however, with the spiritual, that is, the fallen man, from his very birth is to bring about a conjunction between the will and the understanding, and thus to generate in him by regeneration the heavenly marriage, which is equivalent to the conjunction of good and truth, of will and understanding, in his soul. This conjunction is brought altogether by good; wherefore also, through the medium of good, and thus through the medium of the affection to which the inflowing good gives rise, the Lord begins to weave in man a conjunction between the will and the understanding. The first conjunction, according to Swedenborg, is effected through the affection of knowing which culminates in the affection of the truth. This affection flows from the will into the understanding, and is the result of the first presence of the will in the understanding; or rather it is caused by good from the will flowing into the understanding. On this subject we read:--

Good flows in continually from the Lord through the internal into the external man; and during the first age of man it appears in the external man under the appearance of the affection of truth (A. C. 3159).

And again:--

In the beginning, before a man is being regenerated ... good which flows in continually is productive of the affection or truth; for the affection of truth is from no other source then from the continual effort of Divine Good of flowing in (A. C. 4247).

The first form, however, in which the affection of the truth manifests itself, is the affection of knowing, or of acquiring knowledge, concerning which Swedenborg says:--

There are several affections of the exterior man, each of which is devoted to its own use but the chiefest of these affections is the affection of knowledges and of the sciences when it has for its end, that a man shall become truly rational; for then it has for its end what is good and true (A. C. 1909).

The affection of knowing gives birth to that feeling of curiosity which characterizes man during the early ages of childhood and youth, and which induces him to imbibe eagerly every kind of information or knowledge.

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That the affection of knowing is the first bond of conjunction between the will and understanding, Swedenborg declares in what follows:--

The first conjunction is brought about thought the affection of knowing, from which comes the affection of the truth. This first state of conjunction exists after birth, and it continues from the state of ignorance even to the state of intelligence, and from this latter state to the state of wisdom. The first state is one of mere ignorance, because then there is no thought from the understanding but only an obscure affection on the part of the love, or the will. In the second state which belongs to mans childhood and early youth (pueritia), there is with him, as is well-known, the affection of knowing. Through this affection the child learns to speak and read, and afterwards he gradually imbibes the things belonging to the understanding. That the love which belongs to the understanding operates this, cannot be doubted for a moment; for unless the love or the will acted thus, the above would not be brought about. Everyone who examines experience from a principle of reason acknowledges that the affection of knowing is with every man after birth, and that through this affection he learns those things by which his understanding is formed, and through which it increases and is perfected. That the affection of the truth arises from the affection of knowing, is evident; for after a men by virtue of the affection of knowing has become intelligent, he is no longer impelled so much by his affection to acquire knowledge, as to reason and to draw conclusions concerning those things which belong to his love, whether they have reference to household affairs, or to civil and moral things. When this same affection is raised to spiritual things, it becomes the affection of spiritual truth. That the first or initial form of the affection of the truth was the affection of knowing, may be seen from this circumstance, that the affection of the truth is a heightened affection of knowing; for being affected with truths means being anxious to know them from affection, and after finding them drinking them in from the delight of affection (D. L. W. 404).

265. The affection of knowing, which culminates in the affection of truth, thus attracts knowledge and information, and the delight of this affection fixes it in the memory, and causes it to be reproduced.

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We thus read:--

The scientifics [the matters of knowledge] which enter the memory are always introduced by some affection; those things which are not introduced by any affection, do not remain fixed, but are passed by. The reason is that there is life in the affection, but not in scientifics, except through an affection. It appears hence that scientifics have always conjoined to them things belonging to affection, or what amounts to the same thing, such things as belong to some love, and consequently some good. For all that belongs to love is called good, whether it is good, or is thought to be good. Scientifics, therefore, form with these goods some kind of marriage. Hence it is that when good is excited, the scientific with which it has been conjoined, is likewise excited at once; and conversely, when the scientific is recalled the good conjoined with it also comes forth (A. C. 5489).

As the love, and thus the affection is the man himself, it follows that scientifics and knowledges have a different affection, and thus a different good, adjoined to them with regenerate and non-regenerate persons. We thus read further:--

With the non-regenerate who have rejected the good of charity, the scientifics which are truths of the Church, have adjoined to them such things as belong to the love of self and of the world--thus evils, which on account of the delight that is in them are called goods, and which through sinister interpretations are also made to appear as goods. These scientifics, to all appearance come forth glibly when these loves reign universally, and according to the degree in which they reign. But with the regenerate scientifics which are of the Church have adjoined to them such things as belong to the love towards the neighbor, and love to God--thus genuine goods, These goods are stored up by the Lord in the truths of the Church with all those who are being regenerated. When, therefore, the Lord with them instills a zeal for good, those truths come forth in their own order, and when He instills a zeal for truth, that good is present, and enkindles the man (A. C. 5489).

266. Good, in the form of the affection of knowledge, thus receives and seizes the scientifics and knowledges, which enter into the memory through the gateways of the senses;

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and yet these objects do not enter into the memory of their own accord, but they are summoned into it by an actual call of the soul; as appears from what follows:--

Man is not born into any science, and still less into any intelligence and wisdom; but only into the faculty of receiving them, and of investing himself therewith. This u done by a twofold way, namely, by an internal, and an external way. By the internal way flows in the Divine, and by the external way the worldly element. These two meet interiorly in the man, and in proportion as he suffers himself to be enlightened by the Divine, in the same proportion he comes into wisdom. The things that flow in by external way, come in through the senses of the body; and yet they do not flow in of their own accord, but they are summoned from [the world] by the internal man, so as to serve as it plane for the celestial and spiritual things which flow in from the Divine by the internal way (A. C. 5081).

Again we read:--

It appears as if the things which are in the world flowed in through the senses towards the interiors; but this is a fallacy of the senses. For there is an influx from interior into exterior things, and by this influx there is apperception [the power of noticing things] (A. C. 5119).

And again:--

All instruction is simply an opening of the way, and as the way is opened, or what amounts to the same thing, as the vessels are opened, rational things flow in, in due order, from celestial-spiritual things; these latter things flow into rational things, and into the celestial-spiritual things flow celestial things. These celestial things [by which is meant good] are constantly present, and they prepare, and thus form for themselves vessels, which are being opened (A. C. 1495).

267. The good which flows into man from the Lord, and which descends out of the internal into the external man, thus causes in man first the affection of knowing, and afterwards the affection of the truth; and these two affections summon into the man scientifics and knowledges, through the medium of the senses. Good, in the form of the delight of the above affections, also fixes these scientifics and knowledges in the memory, and causes them to be reproduced thence.

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Yet Good from the Lord does even more; for it classifies and arranges mans knowledge, as it enters into the memory. We thus read:--

Divine Good flows into the natural man..... By this influx Divine Good enlightens and vivifies all things which are there, and arranges them into order for all light, life, and order in the natural man are due to an influx from the Divine (A. C. 3086).

Again:--

It is known that man is not born into any science, nor into anything rational but only into the faculty of receiving these things; also that he learns and imbibes all things by degrees, and chiefly by the sensations of sight and hearing; and, further, that in proportion as he learns and imbibes, he becomes rational. It is evident that this is effected by the way of the body, that is, by an external way, because by hearing and seeing. But what man does not know, because he does not reflect upon it, is that something is continually flowing in from the interior which receives the things that thus enter and are instilled, and which arranges them order. That which flows in, which receives and arranges is celestial Divine Good which is from the Lord; hence is the life of these things, hence their order and hence are the affinities and relationships among them (A. C. 2557).

And again:--

Good which flows in from the Lord through heaven arranges all things, and so far as the man suffers it, disposes them according to the image of heaven. Thence it is that a mans thought flows in accordance with the heavenly form. The heavenly form is that into which the heavenly societies are arranged; and the heavenly societies are arranged according to that form which is induced by the good and truth which proceed from the Lord (A. C. 5288).

268. The things that are being stored up in the memory through the affection of knowing, as we have already seen, are called by Swedenborg scientifics, and knowledges. The former, that is, the scientifics, are derived partly from the world and by a study of the natural sciences, and partly by a study of the literal sense of the Divine Word, and of the correspondences that are contained in it.

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Knowledges, however, are imbibed by a study of the truths of doctrine, and thus of those truths which are contained in the spiritual sense of the Divine Word. So long, however, as these knowledges or these matters of doctrine are simply in the memory, and are not loved by the man for the sake of life, they are merely scientifics, and are impressed upon the memory by the affection of knowing; that is, they are acquired simply from a feeling of curiosity.

The first scientifics that are impressed upon the memory are called by Swedenborg sensuous scientifics, and together with the affection, or rather with the delights of the affection which flows in from within, they form the first degree of the natural mind called the sensual. Concerning these sensuous scientifics Swedenborg says:--

Sensuous scientifics are scientifics of the outward things belonging to the world, and hence they are the mast general of all. They are those things which enter immediately through the external senses, and are perceived by the very sense. All in infancy or childhood are in these things, and they serve as planes for the knowledges of spiritual things; for spiritual things are founded on natural things and are represented in them (A. C. 4360).

Those sensuous scientifics which serve as planes for the knowledges of spiritual things, are such as contain within them what is Divine, and as are called knowledges of external or corporeal truth. Such knowledges are contained in the literal sense of the Divine Word. We read concerning them as follows:--

With respect to the knowledges of external or corporeal truth which contain within themselves what is Divine, and hence are capable of admitting within themselves genuine goods, which knowledges are with children who are subsequently regenerated--they are such as belong to the historical parts of the Word; for instance those that are related there concerning the Paradise, concerning the first man who was there, concerning the tree of life which was in its midst, and the tree of knowledge on which was the serpent who deceived. These are knowledges of the kind that contain within themselves what is Divine, and that admit within themselves spiritual and celestial truths, because represent and signify them.

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Such knowledges also are all the rest in the historical parts of the Word, as for instance those that are recorded there concerning the tabernacle and the temple, and their construction; also, concerning the garments of Aaron and his sons, likewise concerning the feast of tabernacles, concerning that of the first fruits of the harvest, and that of unleavened bread, and similar other things. When these and such like things are known and thought by a child, the angels who are with him think of the Divine things which are represented and signified thereby; and since the angels are affected by these things, the affection of the angels is communicated, and constitutes the delightful and pleasurable feeling which the child derives therefrom, and it prepares his mind for the reception of genuine truths and goods (A. C. 3665).

269. Not only the above knowledges of external or corporeal truth, but also all other impressions received from the world through the senses of hearing and sight, and hence all sensuous scientifics--according to what was stated above in no. 267--are arranged and disposed in the childs memory into heavenly order by the inflowing Divine Good which causes in the child the affection of knowing. But especially is this heavenly arrangement promoted by the state of innocence in which the children are. Os this subject we read:--

From childhood even to youth the man is merely sensual through the senses of the body he receives only earthly, corporeal and worldly things; his ideas and thoughts also are then from these things. The communication with the interior man is not yet opened; except so far, that the man is able to comprehend and retain the above things. The innocence in which he is, is then merely external, and not internal; for true innocence dwells in wisdom. Through innocence, i.e., external innocence, the Lord reduces into order those things that enter through the senses. Apart from the influx of innocence from the Lord in that first age, no fundamental [plane] could exist, on which an Intellectual or Rational which is mans might be erected (A. C. 5126).

And again:--

From childhood even to youth, and sometimes to first adolescence, a man imbibes goods and truths by instruction from his parents and teachers.

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He seizes them, and believes them in simplicity. The state of innocence promotes instruction, and fits these things into the memory; set it lodges them only in its first threshold. For childlike and youthful innocence is not internal innocence which affects the Rational, but it is external innocence which affects only the external Natural (A. C. 5135).

As regards the quality of the affection of acquiring knowledge which prevails with man during childhood and youth, we read concerning it:--

When a boy is first instructed, he is affected by a desire of knowing for no particular purpose evident to himself but his desire arises from a certain pleasure, and a connate delight, or from a delight derived from some other source, afterwards, as he is growing up, he is affected with a desire of knowing for some definite purpose--for instance, that he may excel others, that is, those who are competing with him. By and by he desires to acquire knowledge for the sake of some end in the world. But when he is about to be regenerated, his delight springs from the delight and pleasantness of the truth, and while he is being regenerated, which takes place in adult age, his desire of knowing springs from the love of the truth, and afterwards, from the love of good. The ends or purposes that have preceded, together with their delights, are gradually separated; and they are succeeded by an interior good from the Lord, which manifests itself in the affection. It appears hence, that the former delights which in their outward form appeared as goods, served as means (A. C. 3818).

270. As a youth advances in age the communication between the sensual and the interior natural degree of the external man begins to be opened and to be organized; and at the same time a higher faculty of the mind--the imagination, is brought into play. This faculty which is also called the interior sensual, sees in a higher light than the exterior sensual degree which is opened in man during infancy and childhood. Concerning this higher light, see above, no. 261. But concerning that interior degree of the natural man which is then opened, and in which the faculty of imagination is active, we read:--

All the things which are in the natural mind are scientifics and knowledges of every description;

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in a word, each and all things which belong to the external and corporeal memory. To the natural mind also belongs everything imaginative which is the interior sensual with man, and which is especially active with youths and in the age of first adolescence. To that mind belong also all affections which man has in common with brute animals (A. C. 3020).

Concerning the imagination, which is the intellectual activity of the natural mind, we read further:--

The objects of the world, all of which derive something from the light of the sun, enter through the eye, and are deposited in the memory; and, indeed, under a kind of visual appearance. For the things that are produced thence, are seen interiorly; from whence there arises mans imagination, the ideas of which the philosophers call material (A. C. 4408).

And again:--

Mans imagination is nothing else than the forms and appearances of those things which are seized by the sight of the body, varied in a wonderful manner, and so to say modified (A. C. 3337).

271. By the activity of the imagination scientifics proper and knowledges are developed and extracted out of the sensual scientifics of the sensual mind below. For as we have seen above (in A. C. 5774, p. 382), The things which enter through the senses are deposited in the memory; and from them the man concludes the scientific, or from them he perceives the scientific, which he is learning. The sensual scientifics, as we have seen, are in the threshold of the external or corporeal memory, while the scientifics proper and the knowledges are placed more interiorly. On this subject we read:--

In the Natural there are scientifics of various kinds. There are [1] scientifics about earthly, bodily and worldly things, which are the lowest; for they are immediately from the external senses, that is, from those of the body. There are [2] scientifics about the civil state--concerning its government, statutes and laws, which are a little more interior. There are [3] scientifics concerning those things which belong to the moral life, which are more interior still. But [4] those scientifics which belong to spiritual life, are the most interior of all. They are the truths of the Church;

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and so long as they are with a man only from doctrine they are nothing else than scientifics; but when they are from the good of love, they pass beyond the scientifics; for they are in spiritual light, from which they regard the scientifics in their order below themselves. Through such degrees of scientifics man ascends to intelligence; for scientifics, through those degrees, open the mind, so that light out of the spiritual world can flow in (A. C. 5934).

To the scientifics about earthly, bodily, and worldly things belong the facts of the natural sciences, of history, and those included in the study of languages, etc. All these scientifics are extracted from, and based upon, sensuous scientifics. Concerning the scientifics of civil and moral life, we read:--

Civil truths have reference to those things which belong to judgment, and to the government in kingdoms. In general they refer to what is just and fair in these things. Moral truths have reference to those things which belong to the life of everyone in society and in friendly intercourse with others; in general they refer to what is sincere and straight-forward; and specifically they refer to virtues of every kind (H. H. 468).

And again we read:--

Those who in respect to civil life live according to what is just and fair, and in respect to moral life, according to what is honorable and decorous, are such that the Lord is able to be the mind, be with them. For the Lords presence with man is in good, and therefore in what is just and fair, and in what is honorable and decorous. What is honorable is the complex of all moral virtues what is decorous [that is, what is courteous and polite] is only its form (A. C. 2915).

272. With respect to the truths of the Church so far as they are scientifics, that is, so far as they are in the natural or corporeal memory, it must be observed that there are two kinds of the scientifics of the Church. There are scientifics of the Church which are essentially scientifics, and which are never raised out of the natural or external memory, but remain there; and there are other scientifics of the Church which are such by virtue of their entering into the natural memory through the ministration of the senses of hearing and of sight;

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but which are not intended to remain there, but to become principles of thought and life. These latter scientifics are generally called by Swedenborg knowledges of good and truth.

Scientifics of the Church of the former kind, that is, such as are essentially scientifics are all the things of the literal sense of the Word which are vessels of interior truths; as appears from what follows:--

Scientifics of the Church, at the present day, are all those things which belong to the literal sense of the Word. Unless truths from the internal sense are instilled into these scientifics, the mind may be carried off into any heresy (A. C. 6071).

Again, we read:--

The scientific truth of the Church is nothing else than the Word in the sense of the letter and also every representative and significative of the Church which was among the posterity of Jacob. These things in the external form are called scientific truths; but in the internal form they are called spiritual truths (A. C. 6832).

273. A distinction is made between scientifics and knowledges, when a comparison is drawn between them alone; nevertheless, in a larger sense, when truths in the natural man, i.e., natural truths, are placed in opposition to spiritual truths, scientifics and knowledges are sometimes classed together under the more general head of scientifics, its in the following passage:--

Scientifics into which the things belonging to faith and charity can become fitted are very many, as for instance all the scientific of the Church. Such scientifics are all true scientifics concerning correspondences, representatives, significatives, influx, order, intelligence and wisdom, affections; yea, all truths of an interior and of an exterior nature, both visible and invisible; because these truths correspond to spiritual truths (A. C. 5213).

Scientifics and knowledges are thus classed under one head, in their character as truths in the natural mind;

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and they are then comprised under the general term scientifics. Nevertheless, in the letter of the Word scientifics and knowledges are kept most distinct; so much so, indeed, that the former are represented there by Egypt, and the latter by Philistia. On account of their inherent distinction also the knowledges of good and truth are defined as interior scientifics, because in the memory they occupy a more interior position. We thus read:--

By knowledges of good and truth are meant interior scientifics, such as are those of the Church concerning faith and love (A. C. 9945).

As a general thing, however, it must be borne in mind, that all truths of faith, and all truths of the Church, and hence all knowledges of good and truth are nothing but scientifics, so long as they are only in the natural memory, and are animated there only by the affection of knowing. Thus we read:--

By scientifics which are of the Church, are meant all knowledges of good and truth, before they are conjoined with the interior man; that is, through the interior man with heaven; thus, through heaven with the Lord. The doctrinals of the Church and its rituals, as well as the knowledges which teach what spiritual things represented thereby, and in what way, and other similar things, are nothing but scientifics, before a man sees from the Word whether they are true, and hence has appropriated them (A. C. 5402).

Again:--

The truths of faith in which there is not charity are nothing but scientifics; for they are in the memory in the same way in which other things are there; but when the truths of faith are from charity, that is, when charity is in them, then they are distinguished very perceptibly from scientifics, and then at times they raise themselves above scientifics, and look upon them as underneath (A. C. 6077).

And again:--

The truths of the Church which are the most interior of all scientifics, so long as they are with man only from doctrine, are nothing else than scientifics;

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but when they are from the good of love, they pass beyond the scientifics; for then they are in spiritual light, from which they regard the scientifics, below themselves, in their order (A. C. 6934).

274. With respect to the light in which the scientifics appear in the natural memory--they are exhibited there at first in natural light; for not only do they enter into the memory through the senses of the body, and thus by means of natural light; but natural light also prevails generally in the natural memory, as appears from what follows:--

The lowest truths, that is, those of the exterior Natural, are called scientifics, because they are in the natural, i. e., the external memory of man, and because they participate for the most part of the light of the world and hence are able to be set forth and represented before others in the form of words, that is, by ideas formed into words through such things as belong to the world and its light (A. C. 8212).

The fact that natural light prevails in the external memory is due, however, in a great measure to the mixed character of the affection by which the scientifics are received in the memory before a man enters upon his course of regeneration. For the affection which reigns in a man causes him to be either in an affirmative, or in a negative state. An affirmative state is produced in him by an affection springing from the love of the Lord and of the neighbor, and a negative state by all affection which has its origin in the loves of self and of the world. But an affirmative state makes a man receptive of spiritual light, and thus enables him to see and believe spiritual truths, while a negative state closes his mind against the reception of spiritual light, and causes him to see things in natural light. Thus in childhood, that is, so long as a man is in a state of innocence, he is in an affirmative state in respect to the truth, or rather in respect to what he is being taught by his parents or teachers;

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while he comes more or less into a state of doubt or denial as he approaches the age of manhood, and gets under the influence of his hereditary loves of self and of the world.

275. Concerning the condition of a mans Natural during childhood and youth, and generally before regeneration, we read as follows:--

The marriage of good and truth is not in the Natural with a man at his birth; because man alone is not born into Divine order. The good of innocence and charity which flows in from the Lord in early childhood, is indeed with him, but not any truth is with him to which that good can be wedded. As the man progresses in age, the good which has been instilled into him by the Lord in infancy, is withdrawn towards the interiors, and is kept there by the Lord, that through it the states of life which he puts on afterwards, may be tempered; for apart from the good of his childhood and early youth. the man would be worse and more ferocious than any wild beast. When that good of infancy is drawn inwards, evil succeeds in its place in the Natural, and becomes wedded there to falsity, so that a conjunction, and as it were a marriage of evil and falsity is then effected in the man. In order, therefore, that he may be saved, he must be regenerated, and evil has to be removed, and good to be instilled by the Lord; and according to the good which he receives, truth is instilled into him, so that there results thence an alliance, and as it were a marriage of good and truth.... But since all conjunction of truth with good is effected by affection, therefore, the affection of truth has to be wedded to good (A. C. 3793).

The condition of a mans Natural at first is as follows:

From earliest infancy and childhood, the Natural receives its quality from those things which flow in through the external senses. By them and from them the man acquires to himself an Intellectual; but since he is then in the delights of the loves of self and of the world, and hence in lusts, both from his hereditary and his actual nature; therefore, the Intellectual which he then acquires, is filled with things of this character, and the things which favor his delights he then regards as Natural is inverted, that is, contrary to heavenly order. When the Natural is in such a state, the light of heaven indeed flows in through the Rational, for from this influx man has the power of thinking, reasoning, speaking, and acting courteously and in goods and truths. Wherefore, the order of these things in the Natural is inverted, that is, contrary to heavenly order. When the Natural is in such a state, the light of heaven indeed flows in through the Rational, for from this influx man has the power of thinking, reasoning, speaking, and acting courteously and in a civil manner; but still the things which belong to this light, and which lead the man to eternal happiness are not in the Natural.

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For the delights which rule in it resist these things; since the delights of the loves of self and of the world in themselves are altogether opposed to the delights of the love of the neighbor, and hence of the love of the Lord. The Natural, indeed, may become acquainted [in the form of scientifics] with the things belonging to light,, i.e. to heaven, but it can become affected with them only so far as they are of use to a man in reaching places of honor, and in obtaining gain; thus only so far as they favor the delights of the loves of self and of the world. When, therefore, the light of heaven flows into the natural through the Rational, this light cannot help being either reflected, or suffocated, or perverted. Hence then it is that the Natural must first be regenerated, before it can be conjoined to the Rational. For when the natural has been regenerated, then those things that flow in from the Lord through heaven, and hence through the Rational into the Natural, are received, because they agree; since the natural is nothing else than a receptacle of good and truth from the Rational, that is, through the Rational from the Lord. (A. C. 4612).

276. A mans Natural, that is, his external or natural man as it is before regeneration, differs thus very much from its quality after the man has entered upon the course of his regeneration; for in the former case the affection which reigns universally throughout the Natural is derived from the loves of self and of the world, and thus is productive of a negative state; while in the latter case the ruling affection in the Natural is derived from the love of the Lord and the love of the neighbor, and hence hears an affirmative character. From this, however, it follows, that the affection of the truth before regeneration is altogether different from the affection of the truth which is with man after he has entered upon his regeneration. Both affections are caused by an influx of Divine Good through the internal into the external man. But even as is the case with good in general, which, when it flows from the Lord into man is turned by the latter into evil, in proportion as he turns sway from the Lord to his own self (see T. C. R. 490), and thus in proportion as Good from the Lord flows with him into the love of self

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so also the affection of truth which is caused in a man by an influx of Divine Good, becomes altered in a like manner by the delight of the love of self in the natural man. But from this it follows that there is both a genuine and a spurious affection of the truth; concerning which we read as follows:--

The genuine affection of truth consists in willing and desiring to know the veriest, truths of faith for the sake of a good use as an end, and for the sake of life. But the affection of truth which is not genuine consists in willing and desiring to know truths for the sake of self, and thus for the sake of reaching places of honor, and of acquiring gain. Those who are in the affection of truth from the latter origin do not care whether the truths which they know are genuine or not, provided they can pass them off as truths. Wherefore, such persons limit themselves to a confirmation of the doctrinals of the Church in which they were born, whether these doctrinals are true or not. As to real truths they are in darkness; for worldly ends which are gains, and bodily ends which are posts of honor, blind them altogether. Those, on the other hand, who are in the genuine affection of the truth, that is, wile desire to know truths For the sake of a good use and for the sake of life, remain likewise in the doctrinals of the Church until they reach an age when they begin to think from themselves but then they examine the Scripture, and pray to the Lord for enlightenment, and when they are enlightened they rejoice from the heart; for they know that if they had been bent where another doctrine of the Church prevails, yea, where the greatest heresy reigns, they would have remained in that doctrine or in that heresy, unless they examined the Scripture from a genuine affection of the truth (A. C. 8093).

277. The affection of truth, just like the affection of acquiring knowledge, is therefore at first of a mixed character; still, although impure, this affection is nevertheless utilized by the Lord in causing n man to accumulate knowledge, and afterwards in inducing him to reflect on this knowledge, and to draw conclusions from it. We thus read:--

With a person who is to be regenerated the case is so that his first affection of the truth is quite impure;

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for there is contained in it the affection of a use, that is, of an end for the sake of self, for the sake of the world, for the sake of glory in heaven, and for other like things that have respect to self; but there is not contained in it an affection for the sake of the common weal, the Lords kingdom, and least of all for the sake of the Lord. Nevertheless, this same affection of the truth is successively purified by the Lord, until at last falsities and evils are separated cast as it were into the circumference. These same falsities and evils, however, had served as means (A. C. 3090)

Again we read:--

In the first state of the spiritual men, the delights of the loves of self and of the world which he regards as goods, apply themselves to his truth, and constitute for the most part the affection of truth with him. For he then thinks that truths may be of use to him either for reaching posts of honor, or gain, or reputation in the world, or again that they may acquire for him merit in the other life. All these things, notwithstanding their not being good, but evil, excite and also kindle in him that affection of the truth. Nevertheless, the Lord permits that during this first period he shall be borne away by such things, because otherwise he cannot be regenerated; intelligence and wisdom come in time. Meanwhile, through such things, because otherwise such things, he is introduced into good, that is, into charity; and when he is in charity he perceives what good is, and he acts from good, and from that good he judges, and draws conclusions concerning truths; and those things which do not agree he call falsities and rejects them He thus rules over truths, as a master over his servants (A. C. 3330).

Again:--

Every affection of truth in the natural man exists through an influx of the affection of good from the Rational, that is, through the Rational from the Divine. The affection of truth which through this influx exists in the natural man, in the beginning is not the affection of genuine truth. For genuine truth comes by degrees, and is substituted successively in the place of the former things which were not true in themselves, but were simply means leading to genuine truth (A. C. 3040)

And finally:--

It does not matter if in the beginning, when the man is being formed, the affection of truth is also for the sake of self and of the world; but this quality has to be put off, as good increases through truths. Then also the man is constantly being purged of such things, as the bowels are purged of useless things (A. C. 10266)

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278. After a mans mind through the [affection of truth, so far as his memory is concerned has been stored with scientifics and knowledges, upon his reaching adult age, the good which is constantly flowing into him from the Lord, is productive in him of another affection--the affection of understanding, which causes in him the perception of the truth. This affection, according to Swedenborg, is the second means by which a conjunction is effected between the will and the understanding.

Hitherto the man, under the influence of the affection of truth, had been storing up scientifics and knowledges of every description; yet he had been acquiring them under the influence of others, and therefore had seen them in their light, and not in his own light. Under the influence of the affection of understanding by which he is animated at his entrance into manhood, and which is derived from his lifes love, he begins to see matters and things in his own light, that is, in the light of his own reason. On this subject we read:--

That the second conjunction of the will with the understanding is effected through the affection of understanding, from which [conjunction] comes the perception of the truth, must be evident to every one, who is willing to examine this from rational intuition. Upon taking a rational view of this subject, it appears that the affection of the truth and the perception of the truth are two faculties which with some persons are coincident, and with others not. They are coincident with those who wish to perceive the truths with the understanding; and they do not coincide with those who are only willing to become acquainted with the truth. It appears also that every one is in the perception of the truth just so far as he is in the affection of understanding. For if you take away the affection of understanding the truth, there will be no perception of the truth; but wherever the affection of understanding the truth is present, there also will be a perception of the truth according to the degree of the affection for it. For no one whose reason is should is ever destitute of the perception of the truth so long as he has the affection of understanding the truth. Every one possesses the faculty of understanding the truth which is called rationality (D. L. W. 404).

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279. It will be observed here that there is a difference between the affection of understanding the truth and the faculty of understanding the truth, called rationality. By the affection of understanding, the knowledges and scientifics of the natural memory are taken up singly and collectively, and submitted to the faculty of reason; that is, they are exposed to the light of heaven, and that light enables a man to perceive the truth in the very light of truth, and thus to pass a rational judgment concerning these same scientifics and knowledges. A man is enabled to do this, because by virtue of his rationality he is able to raise his understanding into the very light of heaven, and by virtue of his freedom he is able to will that the understanding shall be raised (see above, nos. 225 and 226). From this, however, it follows that the affection of understanding depends in the end upon the character of a mans freedom; wherefore it will be necessary for us to examine mans freedom more is detail. We read on this subject:--

All freedom belongs to love, so much so, indeed, that love, so much, indeed, that love and freedom are one.... All delight enjoyed by a man flows from his love; there is no delight from any other source; and acting from the delight of a love means acting from freedom.... There are: as many kinds of freedom as there are kinds of love; but in general there are three kinds: natural, rational, and spiritual freedom. Every man by inheritance has natural freedom. From this freedom he loves nothing except himself and the world. His first life is nothing else; and since all evils derive their existence from these two loves, and evils thereby are made the subjects of love, it follows that a mans natural freedom consists in thinking and willing evils; and it follows further that after he has confirmed these evils in himself through reasonings, he does them from freedom according to his reason. He does these evils by virtue of his faculty called Liberty or Freedom; and he confirms them from that other faculty which is called Rationality.

Rational freedom arises from the love of reputation for the sake of honor and gain.

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The delight of this love consists in a person appearing in the outward form like a moral man; and because he loves this reputation he does not commit adultery, he does not avenge himself, and he does not revile others. And since he makes these things the subjects of his reason, he also from freedom according to his reason does what is sincere, just, chaste, and neighborly; nay, from reason he can talk correctly in favor of these things. If, however, his rational principle is only natural, and not at the same time spiritual, that freedom is only an outward, and not an inward freedom; and, therefore, notwithstanding all this, he does not love the above goods interiorly, but only exteriorly, namely, for the sake of reputation: wherefore the good actions which he does are not intrinsically good ... and therefore the above rational freedom inwardly is natural freedom.

Spiritual freedom flows from the love of eternal life. Only those come into this love and its delights who think that evils are sins, and who on this ground do not will them, and who at the same time look to the Lord.... No one can do these things except from a more interior, that is, a higher love. This freedom, in the beginning, does not appear as freedom, and yet it is freedom; but it appears as such by and by; and then a person in thinking, speaking and doing good and truth, acts from very freedom and very reason. Spiritual freedom increases in proportion as natural freedom decreases and becomes subservient; it also conjoins itself with rational freedom and purifies it (D. P. 73).

280. The affection of understanding the truth, by which knowledges and scientifics are raised into the light of heaven, varies according as a man in the rational examination of his knowledges and scientifics is influenced either by rational or spiritual freedom. In the former case, his affection of understanding the truth flows from the love of acquiring posts of honor, glory, and gain, and thus from the love of use for the sake of ones own self; but in the latter case it flows from the love of use for the sake of the neighbor. When a man is influenced by rational freedom, that is, by the freedom which is inherent in the love of use for the sake of self, the understanding only is elevated, and then the knowledges which he examines in the light of heaven continue with him in the memory in the form of scientifics.

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But when a man in the examination of the truth is influenced by spiritual freedom, that is, by the freedom which is inherent, in the love of use for the sake of the neighbor, then not only his understanding, but also his love or his will is elevated; and the result of this is that his spiritual mind or man is opened, and that the truth which he perceives to be true is implanted in the good of charity in his spiritual mind, that is, in the spiritual degree of the rational man, and that conscience is established there by this means.

That the faculty of reason, that is, the faculty of examining knowledges from the Word in the light of heaven, is possessed also by those who are actuated by a natural love, appears from what follows:--

There is a natural love and there is a spiritual love. The man who is in a natural and at the same time in a spiritual love, is a rational man; but he who is only in a natural love indeed think in a rational manner altogether like a spiritual man, but still he is not a rational man. He raises his understanding even to the light of heaven, and thus to wisdom, but still the things which belong to wisdom, that is, to the light of heaven, do not belong to his love. His love, indeed, brings this about, but it does it from the affection of honor glory and gain. When, therefore, his love perceives that it does not receive anything of that sort by such an elevation of the understanding; as is the case when the man thinks with himself from his own natural love, then it does not love the things which belong to the light of heaven, that is, to wisdom; wherefore it drags down the understanding from its height, so that it may act as one with itself. For instance, when the understanding by virtue of elevation is in wisdom, the love sees what justice, what sincerity, what chastity, yea what genuine love is; for the natural love see this by means of its faculty of understanding and contemplating things in the light of heaven; yea, the natural love can speak, preach, and describe these things as moral, and at the same time as spiritual virtues. When the understanding however, is not in a state of elevation, then the love, if it is purely natural, does not see those virtues, but hi the place of justice it sees injustice. in the place of sincerity deception, and in the place of chastity lasciviousness.

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If, then, a man thinks of those things of which he had spoken while his understanding was in a state of elevation, it is possible for him even to laugh at these things, and to think only that they are of use for captivating the lower mind (D. L. W. 416).

Unless, therefore, a person in examining truths, i. e. the knowledges of the truth, in the light of heaven, is actuated by the love of use for the sake of the neighbor, he does not become spiritual, but remains natural; wherefore, he cannot then be raised, as to his spirit, from the plane of knowledge and science into that of spiritual intelligence and wisdom, as appears from whet follows:--

Those who are not willing to understand anything but what belongs to the world and its nature, and who are not willing to know what moral and spiritual good and truth are, cannot be raised from science into intelligence, and still less into wisdom; for they have blocked up in themselves the faculties of freedom and rationality; wherefore they are human beings no further than that from the rationality and freedom implanted in them they are able to understand if they will (D. P. 75).

281. From the above we see that in order for any one to become truly rational, it is essential that while his understanding, under the influence of the affection of understanding the truth is raised into the light of heaven, his love or his will shall be raised at the same time. But this is done by the spiritual love of that is, by the love of use not for the sake of self but for the sake of the neighbor, as is clearly taught in what follows:

The love or the will can be raised in like manner as the understanding, if it loves the things which belong to the light of heaven, or to wisdom. But the love of the will cannot be raised by anything that belongs to honor, glory, or gain as an end it is raised by the love of use not for the sake of self, but for the sake of the neighbor; and indeed, because this love comes from the Lord alone out of heaven. The Lord, however, imparts this love when a man shuns evils as sins; wherefore by this means the love, that is, the will can also be elevated, but without this means it cannot be raised. The love or the will, however, is raised into the heat of heaven, and the understanding into the light of heaven;

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and if both are raised, a marriage is effected there between the two, which is called the heavenly marriage, because it is the marriage of love and wisdom (D. L. W. 413).

The affection of the truth and the affection of understanding the truth are properly affections of the understanding, and through them the understanding is first developed, and afterwards reformed; yet it is reformed only if both these affections have use for their end, and if the very knowledges and scientifics also, with which they are conjoined, are permeated by the love of use. Then also under the influence of these affections, the rational degree in mans mind is developed; as appears from what follows:--

The Rational can never be conceived and born, that is, formed, apart from scientifics and knowledges, but scientifics and knowledges must have use for their end; and when use is their end, life also is their end, for all life is of uses, because of ends. Unless they are learned for the sake of the life of uses, they are of no consequence, because of no use. From scientifics, and knowledges alone, without any life of use, a Rational arises which is like a wild ass, morose, pugnacious, having a hot dry life from a certain love of truth defiled with self-love. But when scienitifics and knowledges have use for an end, they receive life from uses; still the quality of the life is according to the quality of the uses.

They who learn knowledges that they may be perfected in the faith of love--for a true and real faith consists in love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor--are in the use of all uses, and receive spiritual and celestial life from the Lord; and when they are in that life they are in the faculty of perceiving all things which are in the Lords kingdom. In that life are all angels, and because they are in that life they are in intelligence and wisdom itself (A. C. 1964).

From this passage it follows that those only who are in spiritual freedom, and from that freedom in the spiritual love of uses, are able to have the rational mind, that is, the spiritual degree of that mind developed in them. From the same passage it also follows, that two Rationals may be formed in man; one under the influence of the love of use for the sake of the neighbor; and another Rational which is generated under the influence of a love which has no respect to use, but looks to self and the world.

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The former national is beginning to be born in man when he enters upon the course of his regeneration; while the latter exists with him before he is regenerated, and so long as he is under the influence of the natural loves of self and of the world. Concerning these two Rationals we read:--

With every man who is being regenerated there are two Rationals; one before, and the other after regeneration. The first Rational, which exists with man before regeneration, is acquired through the experiences of the senses, through reflections on those things which happen in civil and in moral life, through the sciences, and reasonings from them and by them; further, through knowledges of spiritual things from the doctrine of faith, or from the Word. These things, however, at that time, pass only a very little beyond the ideas of the corporeal memory, which are respectively quite material. Whatever a man then thinks is from such things; or, again, things similar to the above are presented by the way of comparison and analogy, in order that they may strike the interior, that is, the intellectual sight. Of such a nature is the first Rational, that is, the Rational which exists before regeneration.

The Rational after regeneration is formed by the Lord through the affections of spiritual truth and spiritual good. These affections are in a wonderful manner implanted by the Lord in the truths of the first Rational, and those things in it that are congruous and favorable are vivified in this manner; but the rest, as things of no use, are separated from it; so that at last the spiritual goods and truths are gathered together, as it were, into bundles, the incongruous things which cannot be vivified having been rejected towards the circumference; and this is done successively in proportion as the spiritual goods and truths, together with the life of their affections, increase. Thence appears the quality of the second Rational.

How the case herein may be illustrated by a comparison with the fruit of trees. The first Rational in the beginning is like unripe fruit, which ripens by degrees, until at last it deposits seeds in itself; which the fruit has reached that stage and begins to separate itself from the tree, its state is full. The second Rational, however with which a man is gifted by the Lord when he is being regenerated, is like that same fruit in a good soil;

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there those things which are around the seeds rot away while the seeds themselves push themselves forward from their interior recesses, and put forth the root, and afterwards the shoot above the ground, which grows into a new tree, and unfolds itself, so as to produce at last new fruits, and then it multiplies itself into gardens and paradises, according to the affections of good and truth which the man receives (see Matth. xiii. 31, 22; John xii. 24).

But since examples are more convincing, let the self or proprium which belongs to a man before regeneration, and the self or proprium which belongs to him after regeneration, serve as an example. By virtue of his first Rational which is acquired by the man through the means specified above, he thinks that from himself, and thus from his proprium, he thinks what is true, and does what is good. The first Rational cannot understand otherwise, even if it is informed that all the good of love, and all the truth of faith is from the Lord. But when the man is being regenerated, which takes place in adult age, by virtue of the second Rational with which he is gifted by the Lord, he begins to think, that good and truth are not from his own self, or from proprium, but from the Lord, yet that he must nevertheless do good and think truth as from himself. The more then he is confirmed in this, the more he is led into the light of truth concerning those things, until at last he believes that all good and all truth are from the Lord. The self or proprium of the first national is then successively removed, and the man is gifted by the Lord with a new proprium, which becomes a part of the new Rational.

Let another example be adduced: The first Rational in the beginning knows no other love than the love of self and the world, and although it hears that heavenly love is altogether different, it does not comprehend it. But when, in the sequel, the first Rational does any good, the only delight which it derives from doing it consists in this, that it seems to itself to delight which it acquire favor thereby in the eyes of another or that the doer of that good in consequence of it is called a Christian, or that he obtains thereby the joy of eternal life. But the second Rational with which man is gifted by the Lord through regeneration begins to feel some delight in the very good and truth; and it begins to be affected with that delight, not for the sake of anything of self, but for the sake of good and truth. When a man is influenced by this delight, he rejects merit, until at last he detests it as something enormous. This delight increases with him by degrees, and becomes happiness, and in the other life blessedness; nay, it becomes his very heaven (A. C. 2657).

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282. The second national, which is here spoken of, is identical with the spiritual degree of the rational mind (see above, D. L. W. 258, in no. 262), and also with the spiritual mind or man which has been discussed above (nos. 241 to 247): but of the first Rational we read in the above passage that the things which it acquires by reflection on things moral and civil, etc., pass only a very little beyond the ideas of the corporeal memory; wherefore, the first Rational is not identical with the natural degree of the rational mind (see above, no. 262). Besides, the first Rational, so far as the knowledges of the Divine Truth are concerned, which are in it, is gradually absorbed by the second Rational; just as unripe fruit gradually passes over into ripe
fruit; those parts of the first national which are heterogeneous being cast off to the circumference. As a general thing it may be stated that the spiritual degree of the Rational or the spiritual mind or man is formed out of knowledges; and the natural degree of the Rational, which is also called the Rational proper, or the rational man, but which is not identical with the first national, out of scientifics; as appears from the following passage:--

The truths of the natural man are scientific truths which are under the intuition of the rational man; and likewise knowledges of the truth which are under the intuition of the spiritual man. Knowledges of the truth are those which the natural man knows from the Word; and scientific truths are those which the natural man sees from the Rational; through these latter truths also the natural man is wont to confirm the truths of the Church (A. E. 406).

On this same subject we read further:--

Uses for perfecting the Rational [the natural degree of the Rational], are all those things which are called sciences and pursuits, and which deal with natural things, with things of domestic economy, and with civil and moral things; and which are acquired either from parents and teachers, or from books, or by intercourse with others, or by ones own reflection on such things. These things perfect the Rational so far as they are uses of a higher degree; and they remain so far as they are applied to the life (D. L. W. 338).

Uses for receiving from the Lord a Spiritual are all things which belong to Religion and to Worship from religion; hence they are those things which teach the acknowledgment and knowledge of God, and the knowledge and acknowledgment of good and truth, and thus life eternal. These things, just like the [sciences and other] pursuits, are likewise imbibed from parents and teachers, from preaching, and books, and especially by applications to the life made in accordance with these teachings.

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In Christendom these things are imbibed by doctrines and teachings from the Word, and by the Word from the Lord (D. L. W. 333).

282. The Spiritual which is received from the Lord through knowledges from the Word when they have use for their end, is of a twofold character; according as the knowledges from the Word, by means of which the Spiritual is received from the Lord, that is, formed, are derived either from the external or literal sense of the Word, or from its spiritual sense. In the latter case there is derived from these knowledges, on the plane of the spiritual degree of the rational mind, the interior conscience of what is good and true; and in the former case there is derived from them, on the plane of the natural degree of the rational mind, the exterior conscience of what is just and fair. Concerning these two degrees of conscience, see above (no. 143, p. 199).

Those with whom conscience is formed in the spiritual degree of their rational mind, are also said to be in the Internal of the Church, as well as in spiritual good; while those with whom conscience is formed in the natural degree of their rational mind are said to be in the External of the Church, as well as in natural good. Concerning both of these we read:--

Whether you say natural good, or the External of the spiritual good, or the Internal of the Church it is the same;

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for natural good constitutes the External of the Church, and spiritual good the Internal of the Church. That is said to be spiritual which is in the light of heaven; for what is in that light has WITHIN itself the affection of good and the perception of truth. These things are in that light because that light is from the Lord. Wherefore, those who are in spiritual good and truth are in the Internal of the Church; for with the head they are within heaven. But that is called natural which is in the light of the world; and what is in that light has the affection of good and the perception of truth not WITHIN but OUTSIDE of itself. For the light of heaven flows in, and illuminates all around, thus from the outside, and not from within; and it imparts the knowledge that good is good, and truth true, because it is so said, and not because it is perceived to be so. Wherefore, those who are in natural good are in the External of the Church, for they are not with the head in heaven, but their head is illuminated from without out of heaven (A. 5965).

283. From the above it follows, that the development of the national with man may be threefold; for there is first, the Rational before regeneration, secondly, the Rational during the process of regeneration, and thirdly, the Rational after it has been regenerated. The Rational before regeneration is the first Rational mentioned above. It is formed under the influence of rational freedom (see above, no. 279) which intrinsically is nothing else but that natural freedom which is inherent in the natural loves of self and of the world. The first Rational has no perception in spiritual things, but only in natural things; and from the perception which it enjoys is natural things it judges of the spiritual truths which concern the Lord and His kingdom. Of these latter truths also it takes a merely intellectual view, and regards them as subjects of speculation, and not of practice. The second Rational--the product of regeneration, is twofold, according as it is established either in the spiritual, or in the natural degree of the rational mind. With those who are instructed in the particular doctrines of the spiritual sense, the second national, under the influence of spiritual freedom is formed first in the natural, and afterwards in the spiritual degree of the national;

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while with those who are instructed only in the general doctrines of the literal sense, it is formed in the natural degree of the national.

So long as a man is rational from the natural degree, he is in natural good, i.e., in the good of obedience, and he belongs to the external Church. He enjoys thee a general perception out of heaven, which enables him to see the truth when stated by another. He perceives the truth then from WITHOUT, not from WITHIN; and the truth which he perceives from others, he is able to confirm by rational considerations. He is essentially in the affection of the truth; but not yet in the affection of understanding the truth in the light of his own reason, from which comes the perception of the truth. A man is rational from the natural degree during the first period of regeneration, and especially while leading a life of repentance. In proportion as the affection of truth with man becomes purified of evils and falsities, by a life of repentance, he becomes gradually animated by the affection of understanding the truth immediately from the Lord, and not first from others; and in the same proportion there becomes opened within him his spiritual mind, and he becomes rational from the spiritual degree. The spiritual degree of that mans Rational is bathed in spiritual light, and under the influence of the knowledges of the spiritual sense of the Divine Word which are now illuminated by this light, he is able to do spiritual good, and to become a member of the internal Church.

284. It has been stated above that a man comes into the second national, and thus is able to be rational from the spiritual degree, by virtue of spiritual freedom; but that he is in his first national, that is, in a Rational of a purely natural quality, by virtue of natural freedom.

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As a man from birth is in natural freedom, and in proportion as he advances towards the age of manhood is in rational freedom, which intrinsically is purely natural (see above, no. 279), it follows that if he desires to be regenerated at the hands of the Lord, and if from the first Rational he would advance into the second Rational, he must employ his freedom of choice which is preserved in him by the Lord; and by virtue of his freedom of choice he must declare either in favor of spiritual, or of natural freedom--in favor of the love of the Lord and the love of the neighbor, or in favor of the loves of self and of the world. This choice and also the battles to which a man becomes exposed after he has made his choice, take place in the rational plane of his mind. On this subject we read:--

The sphere of heaven and the sphere of hell meet with man in the natural world in the rational plane; ... for from above there flows into that plane the marriage of good and truth, and from below the marriage of evil and falsity; the latter flows in through the world, the former through heaven. Thence it is that the human Rational can turn in either direction, and receive influx from either side. If it turns towards good, it receives this influx out of heaven, and then the mans rational mind is formed more and more for the reception of heaven; but if it turns towards evil, it receives this influx from below and the mans Rational is formed more and more for the reception of hell (C. L. 438).

And again we read:--

The Rational, which is called the rational man, is most distinct from the Natural, even to such a degree that the one may disagree from the other i.e., the Rational, which is called the rational man, from the Natural, which is the natural man that the rational man may even see and perceive the evil which is in the Natural; and if it is a genuine Rational, to correct the same. Before these two parts are conjoined, the man cannot be a whole man, nor can he be in the tranquillity of peace; for the one fights with the other. The angels who are with the man rule his Rational, but the evil spirits who are with him his Natural; hence there is a conflict. If the Rational then conquers, the Natural is subdued, and the man is gifted with conscience;

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but if the Natural conquers, the man cannot receive anything of conscience. If the Rational conquers, the mans Natural becomes of such a quality as to be like the Rational also; but if the Natural conquers, the Rational becomes of such a quality as if it were also natural. Again, if the Rational conquers, the angels draw nearer to the man, and instill into him charity, which is the Celestial that comes from the Lord through the angels; and then the evil spirits withdraw to a distance. But if the Natural conquers, the angels remove to a greater distance, i.e., more towards the interiors; the evil spirits, however, approach nearer towards the Rational, and constantly assault it; but the lower parts of that mind they fill with hatreds, revenges, cunning, and the like. If the Rational conquers, the man comes into the tranquillity of peace, and in the other life into the peace of heaven; but if the Natural conquers, then, during life, the man appears to be in tranquillity, but in the other life he comes into unrest and torture of hell.... A man, therefore, can be made blessed and happy only when the Natural is being conformed to the national, and both are conjoined. This, however, is effected only through charity, and charity is alone from the Lord (A. C. 2183).

The common effect, however, of the victory of the rational man over the natural is, that the spiritual mind or degree, that is, the internal man, is opened towards heaves, and the influx of the Lord through heaven is able to descend out of the internal into the external man, and regenerate it into its likeness.

If the Natural conquers, we read that the spiritual degree of the Rational together with the natural degree of the Rational are closed, and that a kind of perverted rational mind is formed interiorly in the Natural from which the man thee acts; which, however, consists of mere falsities and evils (see above, p. 365, A. C. 406).

285. From this it follows, that the equilibrium in which a man is kept during his life in the world, resides in his rational mind or part, where he is called upon to exercise his freedom of choice which consists of the faculties of freedom sad reason combined. But in this freedom of choice he is kept by the Lord.

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In this same freedom of choice, however, freedom is the primary, and reason the secondary agent. Freedom alone, independently of reason, does not constitute a mans freedom of choice; nevertheless, freedom is a more interior attribute of that same freedom of choice, than reason.

According to the doctrine taught by Swedenborg (see above p. 330, D. P. 96), nothing enters into a mans will except through the faculty of freedom, and nothing enters his understanding except through the faculty of reason. But from this it follows, that everything that has entered into a mans will is connected in it with the faculty of freedom, and therefore reacts upon that faculty; and in like manner it follows thence that everything that has entered into a mans understanding, is connected in it with the faculty of reason, and communicates to that faculty the quality of the understanding. Wherefore, a mans freedom and rationality do not by any means remain unaffected by the quality of the mans mind. They seem unaffected at first, before the man has a will and an understanding of his own, that is, so long as the man still acts from the states impressed on him during childhood and youth; but as soon as he begins to exercise in fullness that freedom and that reason with which the Lord is present in his soul, and as soon as by virtue of these two faculties, he begins to declare either in favor of good, or in favor of evil, these same faculties partake manifestly either of an affirmative, or of a negative quality, as appears from the following declaration of Swedenborg:--

If a man turns towards the Lord, his freedom and rationality are directed by the Lord; but if he turns his back upon the Lord, his freedom and. rationality are directed by hell (C. L. 437).

286. In the rational plane with man there is both a will and an understanding; yet the equilibrium between good and evil, and between truth and falsity is in the intellectual part, and not in the will-part.

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For a mans will, that is, his ruling love, must either be good or evil it cannot be good and evil at the same time; and therefore it cannot receive at the same time an influx out of heaven, and an influx out of hell; and hence it cannot be in spiritual and in natural freedom at the same time. With the understanding it is different, as appears from what follows:--

The mans understanding, but not his very will is the recipient of good, as well as of evil; of truth as well as of falsity. The will [after a man has reached adult age] must will is the man himself, and his lifes love is in it. Good and evil, however, are separated in the understanding, like what is internal and external. Hence it is possible for a man to be interiorly in evil and exteriorly in good. Nevertheless, when the man is being reformed, good and evil are let together, end there arises then a conflict and battle, which when it is severe, is called a temptation; but when it is not severe, the case is as when wine or strong drink are fermenting. If good then conquers, evil with its falsity is removed to the sides, comparatively as when the dregs are precipitated to the bottom of a vessel; good then becomes like generous wine and clear spirituous drink after fermentation; but when evil conquers good with its truth is removed to the side, and becomes turbid and foul, like unfermented wine and unfermented strong drink (D. P. 284).

If good, therefore, conquers, the man by virtue of the freedom of choice which he exercises in his understanding, determines that his ruling will shall be good, but if evil conquers he decrees that his will shall be evil. According to the ruling quality of a mans love which is determined in this manner, will be in time the quality of his understanding, and hence the quality of his reason. In the former case also, as we have seen, the mans freedom and rationality are directed by the Lord, and in the latter case by hell. From the above passage, when read in connection with H. H. 290 (see above, p. 317), it is made very evident, that since the equilibrium with a man resides in his understanding, the battles of his reformation are also fought in that faculty.

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They are fought in it by the good and evil spirits who take possession of the contents of the mans memory. But while the good and evil spirits struggle in the understanding for the mastery, the man himself has still possession of his will, and by the exercise of his freedom of will, in which he is kept by an immediate influx from the Lord, as well as by his faculty of reason which is imparted to him at the same time, and which enables him to examine the two sides of a controversy, the man himself decides whether the good or the evil spirits shall gain the upper hand in him. Of the Lords immediate influx, however, so far as it takes place into his will, the man does not become conscious; but he does become conscious of what enters into his understanding, and thus of the contests which are being fought in it between the good and evil spirits. Concerning the Lords immediate presence with a man in his will whereby He imparts to him the faculty of freedom, Swedenborg says:--

It is the mans freedom, through which, in which, and by which the Lord is present in him, and whereby he urges the reception of Himself; and yet He never puts aside, or abrogates a mans freedom; because whatever is not done by a man from a principle of freedom in spiritual matters does not remain; wherefore it can be said that it is in a mans freedom that the Lord dwells with him in his soul (T. C. R. 408.)

287. As the choice with the member of the Church is made in the understanding, therefore the understanding is first reformed, and in the understanding there is gradually formed anew will. The new will, indeed, is at work in the understanding from the very first; for it gives rise in it first to the affection of knowing, afterwards to the affection of the truth, and finally to the affection of understanding the truth. And again, through Good in the new will the Lord arranges into order all the scientifics and knowledges in the mind of the man who is about to be regenerated.

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By this means the faculties of the will and of the understanding which originally are separated, are gradually re-united; yet so that for a long time, even throughout the whole of the first period of regeneration, the understanding preponderates over the will. The new will thus expends itself at first in intellectual acquisitions and in intellectual operations, until at last when the man passes from the first into the second state of regeneration, the new will asserts its primogeniture, and becomes the ruling faculty in man. The progression of the new will, from the beginning until at last it brings forth in man the good of charity, is as follows:--

While man is an infant he receives good from the Lord; this good is the good of innocence such as children have. This good forms the initiament of the new will with man, and it grows in the succeeding ago according to the life of innocence with companions, and according to the life of uprightness and obedience towards parents and teachers; get more with those who suffer themselves to be regenerated afterwards. This is foreseen by the Lord, and He makes provision according to the state of the life that follows. For in all that belongs to the present the Lord foresees evil and provides good, and indeed from the first manifestation of life to eternity. Afterwards when the man advances in age and begins to think from himself, in the proportion in which he is then carried off by the delights of the loves of self and of the world, in the same proportion that new Voluntary, that is, the initiament of the new will is closed; and in the proportion in which the man is not carried off then by those delights, the new will is opened, and also perfected. But how it is perfected, namely, through the implantation of truth, shall now be told. That new Voluntary which is from the good of innocence is the dwelling-place through which the Lord enters with a man, and stimulates the man to will good, and from willing good to do good. This influx from the Lord is operative in a man so far as he desists from evils. From this influx he has the faculty of knowing, of taking notice of, of reflecting upon, and of understanding, moral and civil truths and goods, according to the delight of use. Afterwards through the above good the Lord flows into the truths of the doctrine of the Church which are with the man, and He summons from the memory those truths which are subservient to the use of life and these truths He implants in good and [thereby] perfects it.

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Thence it is that good with a man is altogether according to the use of life. If the use of life is in favor of the neighbor, i. e., in favor of the good of ones fellow-citizens, of the country, of the Church, of heaven, and of the Lord, then that good is the good of charity; but if the use of life is solely for self and the world, the initiament of the new will is closed, and underneath it there is formed a Voluntary out of the evils of the loves of self and of the world, and an Intellectual is formed thence out of falsities. This Voluntary is closed above and open below; that is, it is closed towards heaven, and opened towards the world. In this way truths are implanted in good, and good is formed through them (A. C. 9296).

288. As regards the gradual development of the understanding, and its preparation for conjunction with the will, this takes place as follows:-

A mans Natural sees things in the light of the world, which light is called natural lumen. The man acquires for himself that lumen through the objects which enter through the sight and through hearing; thus by means of objects which come from the world. The man thus sees those objects interiorly in himself, almost in the same way as the eye sees them. Those objects which enter through the above senses, first strike him as something pleasurable and delightful. Afterwards the infant man distinguishes between delights, and by doing so he learns how to discriminate, and indeed more and more exquisitely by degrees. When light out of heaven flows into these things the man begins to see them in a spiritual manner, and he first distinguishes between useful and useless objects, and thereby begins to discern what is true; for what is useful to him is true in his eyes, and what is useless is not true for him. This discernment increases according to the influx of the light of heaven until at last the man not only makes a distinction between truths, but also between the truths in his truths; and indeed with a greater degree of lucidity the more the communication between the internal and external man is opened. This is the source of mans perception; nevertheless, this is not yet spiritual perception for this latter perception does not exist from natural, but from spiritual truths. Spiritual truths are those which are called truths of faith. Spiritual perception exists from these truths on this ground, that the light of heaven is the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord, and this Truth shines before the eyes of the angels as 1ight it also shines in their understanding and imparts to them intelligence and wisdom;

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yet with a variety according to the reception of that truth in good. In order, therefore, that spiritual perception may exist, the knowledges of spiritual things must be with a man in his Natural; but the knowledges of spiritual things must be from Revelation. When the light of heaven flows into these knowledges, it flows into its own; for, as already said, this light is the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord. From that source man has intelligence and wisdom in those things which belong to eternal life and these things increase according to the reception of that light, that is, according to the reception of the truths of faith in good; but good is charity (A. C. 9103).

289. In these two passages it is shown very plainly how the new Voluntary is first formed in man, and how in the spiritual degree of the rational man it is afterwards conjoined with the new Intellectual. The process by which this is done is briefly as follows: Truths of faith are summoned from the natural memory into the spiritual degree of the rational man, and are implanted in it in the good of the new will, that is, in the good of charity. The summoning of these truths is effected by the affections of the new will, and indeed in the exact proportion in which these affections are fired with the desire of doing good, that is, of accomplishing uses. Concerning this summoning of truths of faith from the natural memory into the spiritual degree of the rational mind, we read:--

Man is not born rational, but he is born into the potency of becoming rational. This takes piece through scientifics, that is, through knowledges of various kinds and species. Those scientifics that are received first are means for acquiring those that immediately follow; and hence they are means for acquiring in due order the last, which are knowledges concerning the spiritual things of the Lords kingdom, and which are called doctrinals. These doctrinals are partly learned from the doctrine of faith, partly immediately from the word, and partly by ones own study, from either of these sources. So long as these doctrines are simply in the memory, they are merely scientific truths, which are not appropriated to the man as his own until begins to love them for the sake of life, and still more when he applies them to the life. When such is the case, truths are raised from the natural memory into the [spiritual degree of the] national, and are conjoined there to good, and after they have been conjoined they are no longer matters of science, but of life;

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for the man then no longer learns from truths how he ought to live, but he lives from them. Truths thus are appropriated to him, and become matters of the will. In this wise he enters into the heavenly marriage; for the heavenly marriage is the conjunction of good and truth in the [spiritual degree of the] Rational. This the Lord does in the man (A. C. 3161).

Truth at first preponderates in the national; for this degree of the mind is formed, and increases by the implantation of truth from without in the good of charity which is there from within. Truth preponderates thus during the whole duration of the first state of regeneration, and hence while the man from truth looks to good; but this relation is inverted as the man approaches the second state of regeneration, when from good he begins to look to truth and from charity to faith. The condition of the Rational during the first state of regeneration is described in what follows:--

The primary thing of the Rational with man is truth consequently the affection of truth. In order that a man may be reformed, and thus regenerated, which is effected through the knowledges and scientifics belonging to truthwhich are continually being implanted in good, i.e., in charity, so as to receive the life of charity--the affection of truth prevails with the man in his Rational. For the case with the life of charity which is the very heavenly life, is thus that with those who are being reformed and regenerated, that life is continually being born, it grows up and receives increase--yet through truths; wherefore, the more of truth there is implanted, the more the life of charity is perfected. Hence charity with a man is according to the quality and quantity of truth (A. C. 2189).

Such is the condition of the national during the first state of re6eneration called reformation; but to the second state apply the following words:--

In truth there is no life, but in good. Truth is merely a recipient of life, that is, of good. Truth is like an integument and clothing of good. When good, therefore, constitutes the Rational [that is, in the second state of regeneration], truth disappears;

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and then truth becomes as it were good. Good then shines through truth, as it does with the angels (Ibid).

200. As regards the method by which truth is raised from the Natural into the Rational, we read further:--

There is n continual Divine influx through the internal into the external man; that is, an influx of celestial and spiritual things through the rational into the natural man; or what is the same thing into the natural things belonging to the external man; and through this influx truths are continually called forth from the natural man. They are elevated and implanted in the good which is in the Rational (A. C. 3085).

Further:--

A man is not born into any truth, but has to learn all, and indeed by an external may; namely by sight and hearing. By this way truth has to be instilled into, and implanted in, the memory. So long, however, as truth is only there, it is mere science. In order that truth may permeate the man, it has to be called forth thence, and to be borne away more towards the interiors. For the really human nature of man is more interior; namely, in his Rational. Unless, indeed, a man becomes [spiritually] rational, he is not a man. In proportion, therefore, to the quality and quantity of a mans Rational, in the same proportion, and to the same extent, he is a man.

A man can never be [spiritually] rational, unless he is good. The good which a man has above the animals consists in loving God, and loving the neighbor. All [truly] human good is thence. Into this good truth is to be initiated, and with this good it is to be conjoined, and indeed in the [spiritual degree of the] Rational Truth is initiated into good and conjoined with it when a man loves God, and when he loves the neighbor; for then truth steps inwards and draws near to good; for good and truth mutually acknowledge each other. All truth, indeed, is from good, and truth looks to good as to its end, and as to its soul, in order that it may derive life from it. It is, however, difficult for truth to be separated from the natural man, and to be elevated from it into the rational man; for in the rational man there are fallacies, lusts of evil, persuasions of the false; and so long as these things re there, and adjoin themselves to the truth, the natural man keeps back the truth, and does not allow it to be raised into the Rational. For the natural man involves the truth with doubts, and reasons concerning it whether it be so.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 432

But as soon as the lusts of evil, and the persuasions of the false, and the fallacies thence are separated by the Lord; and as soon as a man by virtue of good begins to feel an aversion for reasonings against the truth, and to smile at doubts, so soon truth is in a condition to withdraw from the Natural, and to be elevated into the Rational, and to put on a state of good; for truth then becomes a matter of good, and receives life (A. C. 3175).

291. It is to be observed here that the affection of truth; that is, truth conjoined with some affection by which it is kept in the memory, is raised from the Natural into the Rational, and not truth alone; for there is no life in truth alone (see A. C. 3066). We thus read further:--

The affection of truth is separated from the natural man when it is no longer a matter of science, but of life for when, by habit, it has become a matter of life it permeates the man, like an inborn genius of disposition. Then truth thus permeates the man, it flows out into act spontaneously, as it were, and indeed without his thinking concerning it from any scientific. Nay, when it becomes a matter of life it can govern and rule scientifics, and take up from them innumerable things which confirm. The case is thus with every truth which in the early age of man has been a matter of science, but which in his advancing age has been made a matter of life. The case herein is as with children when they learn to walk, to talk, to think, and when they learn to see from the understanding, and to draw conclusions from judgment. For when these things, by habit, have become matters of the will, and are thus spontaneous and involuntary, they disappear from among the scientifics, since they flow forth spontaneously. So also it is with the things which belong to the knowledges of spiritual good and truth among the men who are regenerated or re-born by the Lord. At first such persons differ scarcely from children; spiritual truths with them are at first scientifics; for when doctrinals are being learned and committed to the memory they are nothing else; but they are successively called forth from the memory by the Lord and committed to life, that is, to good; for good means life. When such is the case, there is an inversion, as it were; for then the man begins to act from good, that is, from life, and not as before, from science. A person, therefore, who is being born anew is like a child in this respect: but the things which he puts on belong to spiritual life; yet in this wise that he does not act from a doctrinal or a truth, but from charity or good.

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When such is the case he is first in a state of blessedness, and of wisdom (A. C. 3203).

On this subject we read further:--

When a truth is elevated out of the Natural into the [spiritual degree of the] Rational, it is taken out of the sphere of worldly light into the sphere of heavenly light; thus, as it were, out of the darkness of night into clear daylight. For the things belonging to the light of the world in which are all natural things, are respectively as in night; but the things belonging to the light of heaven in which are spiritual things, are respectively in daylight. When therefore a truth is raised out of the Natural towards the Rational, the man is raised at the same time into intelligence and into wisdom. All intelligence and wisdom with man is from thence (A. C. 3100).

292. On taking a retrospect of the manner in which the spiritual degree of the rational mind, that is, the spiritual mind proper is organized, we find that by the application of a mans spiritual freedom which acts in conjunction with the spiritual love of uses, and the affection of understanding the truth, the truths from the Word are elevated from the natural memory into the spiritual degree of the rational mind, where they are inseminated into the good of charity. Truths are thus raised out of natural into spiritual light, and become instrumental thereby is conjoining the understanding with the will on the plane of that interior degree of the national.

This raising of truths out of the natural into the rational man, we learn is by no means an easy task; since the fallacies, lusts of evils, and persuasions of the false which are in the natural man, adjoin themselves to the truth which is there, and prevent the truth from being raised into the Rational. These disorderly ingredients, therefore, have first to be separated from truths by the Lord, before they are in a condition to withdraw from the Natural, and to be elevated into the Rational. This, however, requires on the man s part an active state of repentance, and also a humbling of the first Rational, and thus a bowing of the mans pride of intellect and of his self-prudence before the Divine Truth revealed by the Lord, concerning which we read:--

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Unless the Rational [i.e. the first Rational] submits itself to the goods and truths of the Lord, the celestial things of love and faith which flow in from the Lord through the internal man, are either suffocated, rejected, or perverted, and still more if they flow into the sensual scientific of the memory. Such is the meaning of the seed falling either on the way, on stony ground, or among thorns (Mat. xiii, 3-7 etc.) But when the Rational submits itself, and believes the Lord, that is, the Word, then the Rational becomes like good soil, into which the see falls, and bears much fruit (A. C. 1940).

293. From this, therefore, it follows that the opening of the spiritual mind, and the conjunction there of the will and the understanding by elevation of truths from the natural man, and their insemination into the good of charity, is in exact proportion to the shunning of evils in the natural man by a process of repentance, and to the humbling of a mans own Rational before the Lord and a belief in His Word.

By such means the national is regenerated; and by the regeneration of the national is meant the regeneration of a mans first Rational. For a man is regenerated as to his Rational, before he is regenerated as to his Natural, and the Natural is regenerated through the Rational (see A. C. 3468). So long, however, as the national is indeed regenerated but not yet the Natural, a mans spiritual sight is dim, as appears from the following passage:--

When the Rational has been regenerated, but not yet the Natural, the former appears to itself as obscured, because there no correspondence. For the Rational has its vision from the light of heaven, and the Natural has its sight from the light of the world; and unless there is a correspondence, the Rational can see nothing of what there is in the Natural. All that is there appears to the Rational as wrapped in shade; or, again, as if it were mere darkness. But when there is correspondence. Then the things which are in the Natural appear to the Rational in light;

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for then the things which belong to the light of the world are enlightened by those things which belong to the light of heaven, and they are then as If they were translucent (A. C. 3403).

294. From this it follows that it is of the greatest importance that the perception of the rational man shall be continued into the natural man, and that it shall he supported by a corresponding state of the natural man; that, therefore, the sight of the rational man which sees in the light of heaven, shall not be perverted or extinguished altogether by a contradictory state of the knowledges and scientifics is the natural man below. We thus read:--

Unless the sight of the eye has objects outside of itself which it may see, it perishes. Again, if the objects are of an altogether opposite character, they induce death--just as when the vein of some spring has no efflux for its waters, it is choked up. So also, unless the light of the rational mind is received in the natural mind, its sight perishes. For the scientifics--information in the memory--are the objects of sight of the rational mind, and if these objects ore opposed to the light, that is, to the intelligence of truth and the wisdom of good, the rational vision also perishes, because it cannot flow into any object contradictory to itself. Wherefore the rational mind, with those who are in evils and falsities, is closed up, and is kept open only by chinks, as it were, whereby the faculty of thought, of reasoning, and of speaking is preserved in them (A. C. 4618).

And again:--

If the external sight is injured, it can no longer be of any use to internal sight; for if the external eye perverts the objects, the internal sight can only see perversely through the external sight. The case is exactly the same with the internal man. If scientific truths, i.e. truths committed to the memory, are perverted or extinguished in the external man [by false reasonings or erroneous scientifics], the internal man cannot see the truth; thus it can think only perversely and falsely. Hence, in order that man may become regenerate, the natural man must be regenerated (A. C. 9061).

295. In order that the perception of the truth may be continued from the rational into the natural man; that, therefore, the truth which is perceived in the Rational, may be seen by a man in the Natural, a third affection--the affection of seeing the truth, from which is thought, is developed in the man during his course of regeneration;

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and by the ministration of this affection a conjunction of the will and understanding is brought about in the mans Natural, and the perception of the rational man becomes thereby a matter of sight in the natural man. Concerning these three affections, through which the will is conjoined with the understanding, we read in a general way:--

Love conjoins itself to wisdom [and hence, the will to the understanding] through the affection of knowing or of acquiring knowledge, from which comes the affection of the truth further, through the affection of understanding, from which comes the perception of the truth and, lastly through the affection of seeing what is known and understood, from which comes thought. The Lord flows into all these affections for they are derivations from the lifes love of everyone (D. P. 28).

Concerning the affection of seeing what is known and understood we read more particularly:--

The third conjunction [of the will with the understanding] is effected through the affection of seeing it [namely, the truth], from which conjunction comes thought. That the affection of the truth is one thing, the perception of the truth another thing, and thought still another, appears only obscurely with those who are unable to perceive distinctly the operations of the mind, but it appears clearly with those who are able to perceive them. The reason why this distinction appears only obscurely with those who do not perceive distinctly the operations of the mind is, that these three are simultaneously in the thought with those who are in the affection of the truth, and in the perception of the truth, and when they are thus simultaneously together, they cannot be distinguished. A man is in manifest thought when his spirit thinks in the body, which is especially the case when he is in company with others; but when he is in the affection of understanding, and when through that affection he conies into the perception of the truth, then he is in the thought of his spirit, which thought is meditation. This thought indeed descends into the thought of the body, but into tacit thought for the former thought is above the latter, and regards, as underneath itself, those things which belong to thought from the memory;

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for from the things which belong to the latter thought it either draws conclusions, or procures confirmations. But the affection of truth itself is not perceived otherwise than as an effort of the will arising from some pleasurable sensation, which is interiorly in the meditation, as its life, but to which only little attention is paid.

From all this it may appear that those three things, namely, the affection of the truth, the perception of the truth, and thought follow in order from love; and that they do not exist anywhere else than in the understanding. For when the love enters into the understanding, which is the case after the conjunction has been brought about, then the love first produces the affection of the truth; afterwards the affection of understanding what it knows, and at last the affection of seeing what it understands, in the thought of the body. For thought is nothing else than internal sight. Thought indeed exists at first, because it belongs to the natural mind; but thought from the perception of the truth which arises from the affection of understanding the truth, exists last. This latter thought is the thought of wisdom, but the former thought is thought from the memory through the sight of the natural mind.

All the operations of love, that is, of the will outside of the understanding have no reference to the affections of truth, but to the affections of good (D. L. W. 404).

296. Through the affection of seeing, the perception of the truth is brought down from the internal man into the consciousness of the natural man where it gives rise to thought, that is, to interior thought. This thought consists essentially of the inward perception of the truth, in a more general, outward form accommodated to the natural man; and this thought becomes reinforced by truths which it extracts out of the knowledges and scientifics in the natural man. These truths, under the influence of the affection of seeing the truths are woven into a rational system of doctrine on the plane of the natural degree of the Rational. The peculiarity of these truths is, that they are all capable of being conjoined with good; while those that are still is the natural memory below in the form of knowledges and scientifics, are not necessarily in that condition.

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Concerning this difference among truths we read:--

There are truths with which good cannot yet be conjoined, and there are truths with which it can. Truths with which good can be conjoined are truths confirmed, and also consociated with a number of other truths even with such as delight the intellectual vision. Thus these truths enter into the affection, which causes the man to will them. When such is the case, good conjoins itself with them, which causes the man to will them; for willing truths, and hence doing them, causes these truths to become good. It is further to be observed that good is not conjoined with truths, before these truths are purified from the falsities which spring from evils and before a connection is established between them and all the [other] truths that ought to belong to faith with a person who is to be regenerated. This connection and purification of truths is seen and perceived clearly and evidently by the angels from the Lord; howsoever the man neither feels nor perceives anything of the kind in himself (A. C. 3728).

297. The object of truths is evidently to become conjoined with good, and thus to become good. Yet when the internal flows into the external man with the view of regenerating it, the influx is first directed into the intellectual part of the Natural, and by means of the thought which results from the affection of seeing the truth, truths are extracted from the knowledges and scientifics in the natural memory, and woven into a rational system of doctrine. Concerning the action of thought in this respect we read:--

When a man inquires into any truth, scientifics are present, but do not appear; for thought extracts what they contain, and indeed out of many [scientifics] scattered about, and even out of such as are hidden away. Thus the man draws conclusions; and the more interiorly the thought rises, the further he withdraws from scientifics (A. C. 6874).

The things thus extracted are truths, which are also called doctrinals, and doctrinal or rational truths. These truths are concluded from scientifics and knowledges, under the influence of the perception of the truth in the spiritual degree of the Rational, or in the plane of conscience.

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Wherefore, these truths are extracted from scientifics, while the man himself is in a state of enlightenment from the Lord. Hence also these truths which are called doctrinals are defined in A. C. 3726, as truths of the spiritual man in the natural man, while scientifics are defined simply as truths of the natural man.

Doctrinals, thus, are the results of mans rational thought, while he is in the enjoyment of enlightenment from within, and they are created under the influence of the affection of seeing in the natural man the truth which has been perceived by the spiritual man; while scientifics are imbibed by the man while he is under the influence of the affection of the truth, which results from the affection of knowing, or of acquiring knowledge. Moreover, doctrinals, are extracted from knowledges and scientifics, while the man has in view a distinct purpose of use; as appears from what follows:--

Scientifics and doctrinals are distinct from each other in this respect, that doctrinals are derived from scientifics; and, further, that doctrinals have respect to use, and that they are acquired from scientifics by reflexion (A. C. 3652).

There is thus a vast distinction between doctrinals and scientifics in this respect, that the former intrinsically are creations from within, and are in a state of heavenly order; while scientifics, to all appearance, are gathered promiscuously from the world through the senses of the body. Still doctrinals rest on scientifics, and through doctrinals the latter are reduced into a state of order; and when scientifics are thus marshaled into order they are no longer called scientifics, but scientific truths; as in the following passage:--

Doctrinals are the interior truths which the natural man has. The first truths are sensuous, the second scientific, and the interior truths are doctrinal.

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Doctrinal truths are founded on scientific truths, so far as a man is unable to have and retain any idea, notion or conception of doctrinal truths, except from scientific truths. Scientific truths, however, are founded on sensuous truths; for apart from sensuous truths they cannot be apprehended by man (A. C. 3310).

Doctrinal truths are otherwise called simply truths, as in A. C. 5774 which has been quoted above at p. 382; and also in other passages.

298. Those truths which have been elevated from the natural memory into the spiritual sphere of the rational mind, and which, after having been implanted there in the good of charity, have entered into the formation of the interior conscience, are called intellectual truths. These truths are entirely beyond the reach of mans consciousness while he lives in a natural body; still the intellectual truths enlighten the doctrinal truths in the natural man below, which in this connection are called rational truths. We thus read:--

Intellectual truth is a genuine sense is truth adjoined to good. Rational truth is under it, and thus lower. This latter truth is born from sciences and knowledges, vivified by an affection corresponding to them (A. C. 1805).

Again we read:--

Scientific truth is one the one thing rational truth another thing, and intellectual truth still another thing; they succeed each other. Scientific truth is a matter of knowledge; rational truth is scientific truth conjoined by reason, and intellectual truth is conjoined with the inward perception that a thing is so (A. C. 1496).

And again:--

Intellectual truth is distinguished from rational truth, and this from scientific truth, like the Internal, the Intermediate, and the External. Intellectual truth is internal, rational truth intermediate, and scientific truth external. Those three are most distinct from each other, because one is more interior than the other. Intellectual truth, which is internal, that is, which is with a mans inmost, does not belong to man, but it is the Lords with man. From it the Lord flows into the Rational, where truth first appears as mans, and through the Rational He flows into the scientific.

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It appears from this that man can never think from intellectual truth, but from rational and scientific truth, because these truths appear as mans own (A. C. 1904).

Intellectual truth is thus the Lords with man, and it is the dwelling place of the angels in mans interiors; hence also it is the first recipient in man of the light of heaven, which is imparted to him by the presence of the angels; and, therefore Swedenborg defines intellectual truth as the very spiritual which flows into man out of heaven, as is shown in the following passage:--

Intellectual truth is the very Spiritual which flows in through heaven thus by an intellectual way, and indeed with every man. It constantly goes to meet the knowledges which are instilled through the senses, and which are implanted in the memory. Man does not know this, because intellectual truth is too pure to be perceived with a general idea. It is like a certain light that illuminates, and imparts the faculty of knowing, thinking, and understanding (A. C. 1001).

299. Intellectual truth thus resides in conscience which is in the spiritual degree of the rational mind, and hence is outside the sphere of mans consciousness; but by the affection of seeing the truth, from which comes thought, it is brought down from the internal into the external man; and, indeed, into the highest degree of the latter which is also called the natural degree of the Rational. There it is productive of doctrinal or rational truths, which under the influence of the affection of seeing the truth are extracted by thought from the knowledges and scientifics in the natural memory below.

The relation between conscience where the Lord is present with man and enlightens him, and the thought which is generated by the affection of seeing the truth, is explained in what follows:--

Thought flows from conscience; for those who have conscience think and speak according to it. Thought also is scarcely anything else than an unfolding of those things which belong to conscience; and thus it is equivalent to their partition into ideas, and afterwards into expressions.

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Hence it is that those who have conscience are kept by the Lord so as to think well of the neighbor, and they are kept hack from thinking evilly; wherefore conscience is possible only with those who love the neighbor as themselves, and who think correctly of the truths of faith (A. C. 1919).

300. The thought which is thus generated from conscience, or from intellectual truth, is interior thought, which dwells in the truths of the natural-rational degree of the external man. From that degree, which is a creation of conscience from within, and, therefore, in a state of correspondence with it, interior thought which is identical with mans interior or intellectual vision, regards the knowledges and scientifics in the natural memory below, and, through the medium of exterior thought, reduces them into a state of harmony and correspondence with itself. The perception of conscience is thus continued through interior thought into exterior thought, and by this latter thought is invested with the words which repose in the corporeal or sensual sphere of the natural memory. By the principle of correspondence these words are finally communicated to the organs of the body, by which they ape converted into oral or written speech. The appearance is as if thought was altogether of the external man, because it is there that thought takes place, yet it is not the external man that does the thinking, but the rational or internal man thinks in the natural or external man. And again, the thought of the rational in the natural man is according to the state of correspondence of the latter with the former, as is shown in the following passage:--

It is the rational or internal man which thinks, not the external or natural man; for the internal man is in the light of heaven, in which light there is intelligence and wisdom from the Lord; but the external man is in the light of the world, in which there is no intelligence and not even any light. Still it appears to man as if thought were in his External; for he thinks from those things which have entered through the senses and which belong to the world.

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So long as a man is in the body, he thinks from the Rational in the Natural; but with a difference according as the Natural corresponds to the Rational, or does not correspond. When the Natural corresponds, the man is rational and thinks spiritually; but when the Natural does not correspond, he is not rational, and cannot think spiritually (A. C. 3679).

301. The Rational, consequently, thinks in the Natural, when the Natural is in a state of order, that is, when it is reduced into a state of correspondence. The spiritual Rational then thinks in the natural Rational which is the highest degree of the external or natural man. The Rational thinks there under the influence of the affection of seeing the truth; and in the highest degree of the Natural where are doctrinals and rational truths, it produces therefrom interior thought. In the form of interior thought, and still under the influence of the affection of seeing the truth, the national then descends among the knowledges and scientifics of the natural memory, and causes there exterior thought, and through its agency clothes itself with, and thus confirms itself by, knowledges and scientifics. But by the principle of correspondence exterior thought, which contains within itself interior thought together with the perception of the truth of conscience, clothes itself with words in the lower, corporeal part of the natural memory, which words through the agency of the organs of the body, are finally expressed by oral or written speech.

Thought is circumstanced thus with the regenerate; that is, with those whose natural man is in the process of regeneration. In a general way, however, the perception of the internal man descends into the sphere of natural consciousness with all those who are NOT under the influence of their natural self or proprium. All such persons enjoy a general perception of the truth from the Lord, so that they are able to recognize the truth when they either hear it stated by another, or when they read it themselves.

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This general perception may also defined as common sense in spiritual matters. Concerning this general perception of the truth which is enjoyed by those who are in a state of good, we read:--

General perception comes from the conjunction of heaven with man. Man has general perception when he is not in proprium (Life, 3, 7).

Again:--

Man has general perception, which is identical with the influx of heaven into the interiors of his mind. By virtue of this general perception he perceives truths interiorly in himself

Further:--

In things of a purely rational, moral, and spiritual nature, truths appear from their own light, provided a man by means of a good education is made in some degree rational moral, and spiritual. The reason is that every man as to his spirit which does the thinking, is in the spiritual world, and is one with those who are there consequently, he is in the spiritual light which enlightens his interiors, and as it were dictates. For spiritual light in its essence is the Divine Truth of the Lords Divine Wisdom. Hence it is that a man is able to think analytically, to draw conclusions in matters of judgment concerning what is just and fair, and to sec what is honorable in moral life, and what is good in spiritual life and also to recognize many truths which do not fall into darkness, except from falsities that have been confirmed. A man sees these things comparatively as he sees the mind of another in his face, in which he perceives his affections from the tone of his voice, without any other science than that which is connate with every one. Why, then, should not man, in some measure, see from influx the interior things of his life which are spiritual and moral when yet there is no animal which does not see from influx the things necessary to it which are natural (D. P. 317)?

Again we read:--

Every man is so constituted that he is able to see and comprehend the truth when he hears it; but a person confirmed in falsities cannot introduce the truth into his understanding so that it remains there; because it does not find there any room;

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and if perchance, it does enter, the crowd of falsities which are congregated there casts it out as heterogeneous (T. C. R. 759).

And again:--

General perception is from influx out of heaven, and it descends into thought, even as far as sight (D. L. W. 361).

302. In addition to this general perception which enters into man out of heaven, and which enables him to perceive truths, he has also his own proper perception, which is derived from the influx of the light of the world, and which enables him to perceive the objects in the world. This latter perception is on the plane of the natural memory, which as we have seen above (no. 254, at p. 378), occupies the two lower degrees of the external man, namely, the interior and the exterior Natural, which are also called the Natural proper and the Sensual. But the natural memory, as we have likewise seen (no. 239, at p. 355), is receptive of the light of the world; wherefore, the perception which a man enjoys on the basis of his natural memory, enables him to perceive, and thus to cognize, the objects of the natural world. In the mans Natural, however, especially in his exterior Natural which is likewise called the Sensual, dwells also his own proper self; for as we have seen above (nos. 247 and 260), the mans exterior natural or sensual degree is receptive not only of the light, but also of the heat of the natural sun; and this latter heat by virtue of the influx of the Lords life is turned with man into natural love and affection, i.e., into the love of self and of the world. Hence it is that the perception which a man enjoys by virtue of the influx of light from the natural world, is specifically his own proper perception; as appears from the following passage, where the two general perceptions of which man is the recipient, are described:--

Common or general perception a man has by virtue of the influx of light out of heaven, when he hears a truth.

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His own proper perception he has by virtue of the influx of light from the world. These two perceptions, namely, the internal and the external, or the spiritual and the natural, make one with the wise--with those who look to the Lord and shun evil (T. C. R. 461).

For when a man looks up to the Lord, his internal mind is opened, and he receives the influx of light out of heaven; and when he shuns evil, the antagonistic influx of the love of self and of the world is removed from his natural man, so that the light of heaven, and hence the general perception of the truth, is able to penetrate with him into the contents of the natural memory which receives the light of nature, and this latter light it is able to reduce into harmony with itself.

303. The character of the two-fold perception which a man enjoys by virtue of the influx into him of the light of heaven and of the light of the world, is clearly shown in whet follows:--

All perception is from the interior. There is never any perception of the interior from the exterior; for perception is from the same source from which influx is. With every person there is the faculty of perceiving whether a thing is so, or whether it is not so. The faculty of forming conclusions inwardly in ones self, that is, in ones mind, causes a thing to be perceived. This faculty is never possible, unless there is an influx from the spiritual world. This gift is more excellent in some than in others. Those who do not excel so much in that gift are they who draw inferences, and hence perceive, only little interiorly in themselves, that is, in their own mind; but who say that a thing is so, because others in whom they have confidence, have said so. But those who excel more are they who do not see from others, but from themselves, that a thing is so. With every person there is a perception in worldly things; but not, at the present day, a perception in spiritual things. The cause is, that the Spiritual which flows in, and iv productive of perception, has been obscured and almost extinguished wherefore delights of the love of the world and the love of self fore also people [nowadays] do not concern themselves about spiritual things, except from a sense of duty and from habit or custom.

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If the fear arising from duty, and the delight which originates from habit or custom were removed, they would disdain, turn away from, yea, even deny these things.

He who intends to have perception in spiritual things must be in the affection of the truth from good, and must continually desire to know truths. Thence his Intellectual is illuminated, and after his Intellectual has been illuminated it is granted him to have some perception interiorly. But with him who is not in any affection of the truth, the knowledge of what he knows to be so, is derived from some doctrinal of the church, to which he attaches credence; and, indeed, because some priest, minister, or monk has said so (A. C. 5937).

General perception with him who does not look to the Lord, and does not repent of evil, is circumstanced thus: such a main is under the influence of the love generated in him from the heat of the natural sun, namely, the love of self and of the world, and hence he is receptive only of natural, and not of spiritual light, and, therefore, is able to perceive only natural, and not spiritual objects. By virtue of his reason, as we have seen above (no. 280), he is still able to raise his understanding into the light of heaven, and to perceive the truth when stated by another; but when he returns into his own people perception, in the lower, natural man below, his proper natural perception extinguishes what he had seen before with the perception of his spirit. This is clearly shown in the following passage, where Swedenborg first shows that by virtue of the general perception which all men enjoy by virtue of the influx of light and of heaven, they are able to see the truth on many spiritual subjects, and then continues:--

Man knows these things by virtue of general perception, but he does not know them from through or by virtue of writing them down from thought.... The reason is that thought then [i.e. when a person writes] communicates with the mans Sensual which is his own self or proprium. Hence it is that some are able to think well and to speak well, but not to write well--this is usual, with the feminine sex. A man thus recedes from general perception, when he submits the above truths to thought; but when he writes concerning these things from thought [i.e., from external thought], he confirms them from appearances and fallacies, and by words of sound and no import.

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Hence it is that those who have thought much and written much [on the above subjects], have weakened and obscured, nay, destroyed common or general perception with themselves; and that the simple-minded see more clearly what is good and true, than those who think that they excel them in wisdom. General perception is from influx out of heaven, and enters into thought even as far as sight; but thought separate from general perception, enters into the imagination from sight and from proprium (D. L. W. 381).

304. The difference between the simple-minded and those who are wise, consists in this that the latter, actuated by the affection of the truth, have their minds furnished with an abundance of knowledges and scientifics from the Word, and the doctrines of the Church. Further, that the affection of understanding is at work in their soul, and that their spiritual mind, i.e. the spiritual degree of their national is not only opened thereby, so that they enjoy the perception of the truth, but is also formed and organized; and that under the influence of the developed with them by the process of regeneration, the rational degree of their external man, which is the plane of interior thought. With them, finally, their interior thought, which is formed from the doctrinal and rational truths in the rational degree of their external man, is based upon the knowledges and scientifics of the natural memory below, which is in the natural degree of their external man; and by means of the exterior thought which is derived thence and which is in harmony with it, the interior thought, which in the first place emanates from conscience, clothes itself in the sensual or corporeal part of the natural memory with words; which words, at last, through the principle of correspondence are expressed by the organs of the natural body in an oral or written form.

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Such is not the case with the simple-minded. They are under the influence of the affection of spiritual truth; and under its influence their spiritual mind has been opened, so that they are able to be enlightened by spiritual light; but neither their spiritual mind, nor yet the rational degree of their natural man has actually been formed and developed. For they are indeed in the affection of spiritual truth; but they are not in the affection of understanding the truth by their own ratiocination; nor are they in the affection of seeing the truth in the natural man below, by virtue of their own thought. But they are rather in the affection of seeing the truth is the light of the rational thought of others. Of those who are wise by virtue of their own perception of, end their own thought concerning, truths, we read that the Internal of the Church is organized within them, and that they are in spiritual good, and further, that the truth in their minds is enlightened from within; but of the simple-minded we read that they are in the External of the Church, and in natural Good, and further that the truth in their minds is enlightened from without (see above, A. C. 5965, p. 360).

305. A similar condition, so far as enlightenment is concerned, prevails with those who are in the first state of their regeneration; that is, who are in a state of truth, and from truth have respect to good. They are internally in the love of the Lord and of the neighbor, and therefore their internal, spiritual mind is not only opened, but Conscience also is beginning to be formed there with them. Hence also they repent of their evils in the sight of God; nevertheless, they still desire to govern themselves, and to superintend their own course of reformation; which, as we have seen (no. 175, at page 251 et seq.), is a characteristic with man during the first three days of creation. Since man, in the beginning of regeneration, desires to do good from himself, therefore also he is not yet able then to produce genuine spiritual good.

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This kind of good can be produced by man only, after his national has been regenerated; that is, after conscience has been established is the spiritual degree of the Rational, and after the natural-rational degree has been reformed sad regenerated by its means. On this subject we read:--

Before man is regenerated, the good of the Rational does not flow immediately into the good of the Natural; but it flows in through the truth of the Rational, and thereby causes in the Natural something which is like good; but it is not genuine good, and hence also the truth is not genuine.... For the will-principle which is good is then without, and the Intellectual which is of the truth is within. The will-principle which is then without, admits many things which are useful for regeneration but it is like a sponge which sucks in both clear and dirty waters. Hence also it imbibes such things as otherwise would be rejected; nevertheless, these things serve as means, and are also for the purpose of forming ideas concerning goods and truths, and are subservient for other uses (A. C. 3563).

And further:--

When a man is affected by the truth not for the sake of the ends of life, but for the sake of other ends, namely, that he may become learned, and indeed from some affection of emulation, and from some affection of childish envy, end also from a certain affection of glory--the good and the truth of the Natural are in such an inverted order respectively; that is, the will-principle which is of good is then without, and the Intellectual which is of truth is within (A. C. 3683).

306. So long as good with man is without, and truth within, man is enabled to see the truth when propounded by others, and he is also able to confirm such truths. Yea, he actually needs then confirmations in order to see and believe these truths. Moreover, in that state he is unable to perceive genuine truth, but requires appearances of the truth in order to perceive the truth at all. But, after conscience has been fully established in the man;

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and after the Natural has been regenerated through conscience, then the man is able to see the truth in its own light, that is, in a state of enlightenment from the Lord, and independently of confirmations. On this subject we read:--

Those who have not the perception of good and truth, must needs be confirmed by scientifics. Every one forms to himself some idea concerning those things which he has learned, and even concerning the goods and truths of faith. Without any idea, nothing remains in the memory, except as some empty thing. Confirmations accede and fill the idea concerning a thing from other knowledges, and even from scientifics. The confirmation of an idea by several things causes that idea not only to inhere in the memory, and to be called forth thence by thought, but it even enables faith to be instilled into it (A. C. 2831).

And again:--

It was perceived that knowledges of faith must at first be confirmed by sensuous and natural truths for man cannot believe anything without confirmation. After these knowledges, however, have been confirmed, man is gifted by the Lord with conscience, so that he is able to believe apart from confirmations. He then rejects all reasonings; this is the angelic sphere in which evil spirits cannot be. So long, however, as a man is in the state in which these things are confirmed with him, and so long as he reasons concerning them, in order to convince others of the truth, evil spirits are able to be present. It is almost the same with him who is in principles; for he rejects all reasonings in opposition to principles, and is even indignant when anyone disputes them (S. D. 3977).

307. It is the mans thought which is the subject of enlightenment. For thought, as have seen, is his internal sight; and while the man is thinking, that is, while he is exercising his internal organ of sight, it is being illuminated by the light of truth which enters into him through mediate and immediate influx from the Lord. Thought, however, in order to become the subject of enlightenment should be inspired by a genuine, affirmative love, and to be conjoined with it; for enlightenment reaches the thought through affection and indeed through the affection of good.

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Thought from a negative love excludes enlightenment; for thought from a negative love sees in natural and not in spiritual light.

Thought from an affirmative, spiritual love, again, as we have seen, is different with the simple-minded from what it is with the wise. For a simple-minded person sees the truth by virtue of general perception, when it is presented to him by another; but he does not see it by any exercise of his own

Again, thought from an affirmative, spiritual love differs with the man when he is in the first, and in the second state of regeneration. So long as he is in the first state, and is led from truth to good, he enjoys enlightenment in general; but he sees the truth then from without and not yet from within; and, again, he sees it in the light of confirmations, but not yet in the light of faith which is the light that illuminates conscience.

Thought before regeneration is from first national (see above, no. 281), the things which, as we have seen, pass only a very little beyond the ideas of the corporeal memory, which are respectively quite material. Thought during the first state of regeneration is from conscience--yet, from the exterior conscience of what is just and fair; and, again, it is from the confirmations of a truth, seen in the light of others, and thus seen from without, and not from within. During the second state of regeneration, when a man acts from the good of charity in the first place, and when 1re perceives the truth from good, his thought is from the interior conscience of what is good and true, and the truths from which he thinks in the natural mind, are enlightened from within, through the good with which they are conjoined.

308. Before a man enters upon his regeneration his thought is from his own self, and thus from proprium;

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but after he has entered upon his regeneration, he begins to think from the Lord--at first in a general way; but in proportion to the accumulation, and the rational digestion by himself, of the spiritual truths of the Divine Word; and in the proportion in which he humbles his first national before the Lord, and desires to be led by the Lord through His Divine Truth, not only the generals, but also the particulars of his thought come from the Lord. On this subject we read:--

There are two states of thought with man. One when he is in thought concerning truths from the Lord; and another when he is in thought from himself. When he is in thought concerning truths from the Lord, his mind is raised even into the light of heaven; thence he has enlightenment and a just perception of truth. But when he is in thought concerning truths from himself, his mind lapses into the light of the world; and this light in respect to respect to those things which belong to heaven and the Church, is in dense darkness. In that darkness a man sees only such things as shine from the fire of the love of self and of the world, which in themselves are falsities opposed to truths (A. E. 817).

309. No man thinks in reality from himself, but from others. This is a general truth taught by Swedenborg, as in what follows:--

The influx into man from the spiritual world is circumstanced in a general way thus: A man cannot think, nor will anything from himself; but all enters into him by influx--good and truth from the Lord through heaven, and hence through the angels who are with the man; and evil and falsity from hell, and hence through the evil spirits who are with the man. This influx takes place into a mans thought, and into his will (A. C. 5846).

If thought thus flows into man through the angels who are with him, it follows that spiritual enlightenment which takes place into thought, must likewise be communicated to a man through the mediation of the angels who are with him. On this subject we read:--

Every man as to his thoughts and affections is in the spiritual world--consequently, as to his spirit;

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for a mans spirit it is which thinks and is affected. The man who has become spiritual through regeneration by the Lord as to his spirit is in a heavenly society.... With this man goods constantly flow in out of heaven, and are also received by him; and since goods flow into his affection, and through affection into the thought, he has enlightenment (A. E. 759)

If spiritual enlightenment, however, is conveyed to a man through the mediation of the angels of heaven, the reverse of enlightenment must flow in with him when he is in the association With evil spirits; as is shown in A. C. 4967 (at p. 370).

Thoughts are thus communicated to a man by his attendant angels and spirits; but when the man with his affections takes hold of those thoughts which are communicated to him by others, and which result in the first place from the truths stored up in his mind, to which the angels and spirits attendant upon him have access, these thoughts themselves extend far and wide from him into the spiritual world, and indeed from one society there to another; and they derive strength and stability from the life and light of those several societies--the thoughts growing stronger and clearer as they proceed in that way. On this subject we read:--

The thoughts of man are extensions into societies either of heaven or of hell; and unless they were extensions, they would not have being. A mans thought is like the sight of his eyes in this respect that unless it had extension outside of itself it would either be none, or it would be blind. It is a mans love that determines his thought into societies a good love determines it into heavenly societies, and a wicked love into infernal societies.

A mans love is comparatively like fire, and his thoughts are like rays of light. If the love is good, the thoughts which are like rays are falsities. Thoughts from a good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven, and thoughts from an evil love, which are falsities, tend towards hell; they join themselves to, and fit and inoculate themselves, as if were, into homogeneous societies; namely, into such as are in a similar love.

The light which is the truth of faith, and the heat which is the good of love--both from the Lord, flow into the societies with which the mans love acts as one....

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Not even the least thing of thought can exist unless there is some reception of it in some society--not with the individuals there, that is, with, the angels of heaven but with the affection of love, from which, and in which that society is. Hence the angels know nothing of that influx [of a mans thought], nor does that influx disturb their society in any way (A. E. 1093).

310. There is a great difference between the thought which arises from truth and thus from doctrine, and the thought which flows from love; and hence between the mans thought during the first state of his regeneration wen from truth he has respect to good, and his thought during the second state of his regeneration, when from good he has respect to truth. We thus read:--

There is thought of light and thought of love. The thought of light alone is the thought that there is a God, which thought appears like acknowledgment; yet it is not acknowledgment. The thought of light causes a mans presence in heaven, but it does not conjoin him to heaven.... But the thought of love causes a mans conjunction with heaven; because love is spiritual conjunction. When a mans thought of light, therefore, becomes the thought of his love, he is introduced into heaven, as into a marriage; and in proportion as love takes the first place in the thought of light, or as it leads that thought, in the same proportion the man enters into heaven, as a bride into the bridal chamber and becomes married. By being married is meant becoming conjoined with heaven in some one of its societies; and a man becomes conjoined with heaven in the same proportion in which he acquires to himself in the world intelligence and wisdom from the Lord through the Word; thus in the proportion in which through Divine truths he learns to think that there is a God, and that the Lord is that God (A. E. 1096, 1099).

As there is thought of light, there is also thought NOT of light, concerning which we read:--

There is thought of light concerning God and the Divine things which in heaven are called celestial and spiritual, and in the world ecclesiastica1 and theological; and there is thought NOT of light concerning these things: The thought not of light is with those who are acquainted with these things, but do not understand them....

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These persons are not from the interior in a genuine affection of truth, and hence not in any enlightenment (A. E. 1100).

311. The doctrine of thought, as unfolded in the preceding pages, in a summary, is as follows:First, a mans thought is twofold: interior and exterior; interior thought is in the rational degree of the external man, and exterior thought in the plane of the natural memory, that is, in the interior sphere of that memory where are scientifics and knowledges. Secondly, interior thought may be thought of light, or thought of love. Interior thought with man during the first state of his regeneration is thought of light, during the second state it becomes thought of love. Thirdly, the mans thought may either be thought from God, or thought from ones own self. A man thinks from God when he is regenerated by the Lord, and he thinks from his own self before he is regenerated. When he thinks from God, he thinks from the light of heaven; when he thinks from his own self, he thinks from the light of the world.

Thought is identical with a mans interior sight; wherefore by saying that a mans thought is twofold, that is, interior and exterior, we mean to say at the same time that his intellectual sight is twofold. In reality, however, a mans thought and hence his intellectual sight, which by Swedenborg is called apperception, is threefold, as appears from the following passage:--

There is actually apperception from the Sensual or the exterior Natural, apperception from the interior Natural, and apperception from the Rational. For when a man is in interior thought from affection, and withdraws the mind from sensual things and from the body, he is in rational appreciation; for then the things which are below, or which belong to the external man, are quiescent, and the man is then as it were, in his spirit. But when the man is in exterior thought, from causes which exist in the world, his apperception is from the interior Natural the national, indeed, flows in, but not with any life of the affection.

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But when a man is in pleasures, and in the delights of the love of the world, and also of the love of self, his apperception is from the Sensual; his life is then in outward things or in the body, and does not admit from the interiors anything more than will moderate eruptions into dishonorable and unbecoming acts. The more exterior an apperception, the more obscure it is; for external things are comparatively general, because innumerable internal things appear as one m the exterior (A. C. 5141).

312. Thought naturally exists long before a man comes into that thought, which results from the affection of seeing what he knows and understands. This also is plainly stated above (in D. L. W. 404, see no. 295), where we read: Thought, indeed, exists at first, because it belongs to the natural mind; but thought from the perception of the truth which arises from the affection of [understanding] the truth, exists last. This latter thought is the thought of wisdom, but the former thought is thought from the memory through the sight of the natural mind.

The same also follows from the fact that mans intellectual sight, i.e., his apperception, as we have just seen, is threefold, according as he thinks either from the Sensual, i.e., the exterior Natural, or from the interior Natural, or finally from the Rational, i.e., the natural degree of the Rational, which is also called the spiritual-natural.

The same follows again from the fact that each division of a mans interiors, as stated above (in S. D. 4627, see p. 386) has a distinct light or lumen; that there is accordingly (1) the sensual lumen (see above, no. 260), (2) the light of the interior natural degree (see no. 261), and the light of the rational or spiritual-natural degree, concerning which we read that it exists partly from the light of heaven in natural light (see no. 262).

In infancy and childhood a man thinks from the sensual degree; in advanced youth, under the influence of imagination, from the interior natural degree;

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and when he enters into the age of manhood, and suffers himself to be regenerated by the Lord, he thinks from the rational degree; thus we read:--

By the ultimate Sensual we mean the ultimate of thought and affection which is first opened with children, and which is such that they do not think anything else, nor are affected by any other objects than such as make one with the senses of the body. For children learn to think through the senses, and to be affected with objects according to those things which have pleased their senses. Wherefore the first Internal which is opened with them is that Sensual which is called mans ultimate Sensual, and afterwards the corporeal Sensual. Afterwards, however, when the child grows up and becomes a youth a more interior Sensual [i.e., the interior Natural] is opened with him, from which he thinks naturally, and is also affected naturally. At last, when he becomes a young man, a still more interiors Sensual [the natural Rational] is opened with him, from which he thinks rationally, and if he is in the good of charity and faith spiritually; and he is also affected in a rational and spiritual manner. This latter thought and affection is what is called the rational and the spiritual man (A. E. 543).

Again we read:--

With every man the interiors which belong to thought and affection are opened successively, and, indeed, through a perpetual influx from the Lord out of heaven. Through this Influx there is first formed the Sensual which adheres proximately to the body; whence man becomes natural. Afterwards there is formed the Natural, whence he becomes natural. After this there is formed the national, and with it the Spiritual, from which a man becomes rational and spiritual. But he becomes so in proportion as he thinks concerning God and concerning the Divine things which are from God; and he is formed and perfected in proportion as he is affected with these things, that is, in proportion as he wills and lives according to them. But if this is not the case, the spiritual man is opened in a merely general way, and is not formed and still less perfected. By the spiritual man being opened in a general way, a man has the faculty of thinking and speaking rationally from thought; for this is the general effect of the influx of heaven with every man (A. E. 643).

313. In order that a man may grow spiritually, and that the spiritual man in him may not only be opened, but also formed and perfected, it is absolutely necessary that he should think spiritually, end not naturally;

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that, therefore, he should think Under the influence of spiritual freedom, and not of natural freedom (see above, no. 278), and should have his mind richly stored with genuine spiritual truths from the Divine Word. Those who think from spiritual freedom think from God; for spiritual freedom is inherent in the love of the Lord and in the love of the neighbor, in which loves the Lord is present with man; while those who think from natural freedom think from their own self, and thus from hell; as appears from what follows:--

Spiritual thoughts and affections are with those who think concerning God and Divine things from God; but merely natural thoughts and affections exist with those who do not think of God and Divine things from God; but who from their own self and from the world think of themselves and the world. It is to be observed, however, that thinking from ones own self and from the world does not mean thinking from ones own self, but from hell. For he who does not think from God, thinks from hell. No one can think from both at the same time.

Those who deny God; and hence Divine things, that is, those things which belong to heaven and the Church, and who confirm themselves against them, become all more or less sensual men, according to the [character of their] confirmations. When they think of spiritual things, they think mere falsities, and are affected with evils; and if they do think of any truths, whether they be spiritual, moral or civil, it is from a mere knowledge of such things stored up in the memory. Beyond the most proximate causes which they are also able to confirm, they see nothing; and if they are affected by goods, it is merely from a delight for the sake of self or the world; thus from a lust which belongs to the love of self, or to the love of the world.

Mans sensual thought is called material thought, and his affection, which is mere lust, is called corporeal affection (A. E. 543).

No matter whether a man thinks on the rational, interior natural, or sensual sphere of his natural or external man, there is an Internal and an External in his thought.

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The Internal of his thought is from his lifes love, and the External from the contents of his memory, as appears from what follows:--

The Internal of the thought is from the lifes love and its affections, and the perceptions flowing thence. The External of the thought is from those things which are in the memory, and which serve the lifes love for confirmations, and for means towards an end from infancy to young manhood a man is in the External of thought from the affection of knowing, which then constitutes his Internal; something of lust, also, and hence of the inclinations from the lifes love from parents is present, and abets. But afterwards, a mans lifes love is determined by the character of his life; the affections of that love and the perceptions to which they give rise, cause then the Internal of his thought; and from the life s love is derived the love of means, the delights of which love together with the matters of knowledge excited from the memory cause then the External of his thought (D. P. 105).

We thus read again:--

A mans internal sight, i. e., his thought, is determined by his intention; but that intention is the will of the man (H. H. 532).

314. There is a difference between interior thought and the Internal of thought. Interior thought exists only with those who are being regenerated by the Lord, and hence have conscience; but all, even the unregenerate, have an Internal of thought. The Internal and External of thought make one with those who have a heavenly love; but with those who act from a selfish or worldly love, the Internal of thought often disagrees with its External. We thus read:--

With those who have conscience, interior thought from the Lord flows through their internal, into the interior, rational man; which may appear from this circumstance that they are able to notice the evil and the false which is in their natural man, and which combats against the good and the true in the interior [the rational] man.... But those who have no conscience cannot have any interior thought, wherefore also with them there is no combat; for their Rational acts as one with the Sensual of the body;

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and although good and truth constantly flow in with them from the Lord, still they do not notice them, because they immediately extinguish and suffocate them; hence also they do not believe any truth of faith (A. C. 1935).

Again we read:--

With those who are in a heavenly love, the Internal and the External of thought, that is, the internal and the external man, act as one when they speak; nor are they aware of any distinction between them. The love of their life with its affections of good and the perceptions of truth of these affections is like a soul in those things which they think, and thence speak and act. If they are priests they preach from the love of the neighbor, and the love of God; if judges they judge from the very principle of justice; if merchants they act from the very principle of sincerity; and if they are married they love their wife from the feeling of chastity itself, and so forth. Their lifes love also has a love of means, as a vice-gerent, which it teaches and leads so as to act from prudence; and this love it invests with the garments of zeal for the truths of doctrine and at the same time for the goods of life (D. P. 110).

315. The Internal of thought, as we have seen, with the regenerate, is their interior thought, which under the influence of conscience is formed in the rational degree of the external man. Wherefore the homestead of interior thought is the rational degree, that is, the rational degree of the natural or external man, which is identical with the natural degree of the national; from that degree there is an ascent into the celestial and spiritual degree, of the national. With the unregenerate, on the other hand, the Internal of their thought comes from an interior mind, which, as we have seen above (A. E. 406, p. 365), is formed with them in the lower parts of their external natural man, which are under the influence of the natural loves of self and of the world, and enlightened by the light of nature. This mind, with such persons, consists of mere falsities and evils--and, indeed, for this reason, that the spiritual mind is not opened with them.

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Interior thought, again, with the regenerate, springs from the internal memory which is in the rational mind, or in the rational degree of the external man; while exterior thought comes from the external memory. In that internal memory there are contained the doctrinal or rational truths which, as we have seen above (A. C. 3652, in no. 297), have respect to use, and are acquired from scientifics by reflexion; but in the external memory are scientifics and knowledges. In the internal memory, also, which is the homestead of interior thought, there are recorded all things that a man has willed and thought, acted and spoken, from his lifes love. Therefore, also, the internal or spiritual memory is a mans book of life, because the things which are there have all become matters of life, and can never more be blotted out. The internal memory likewise, by virtue of the life which is contained in everything belonging to it, flows into the external memory, and imparts life to the things which are there; yea there is no life in the things contained in the external memory, unless they are inscribed at the same time on the internal memory. All these points are clearly set forth in the following passages:--

Every man has two memories, namely, a natural memory and a spiritual memory, and he can think from either memory. He thinks from the natural [or external] memory when he speaks with men in the world; but he thinks from the spiritual [or internal] memory when he speaks from his spirit. This, however, he does rarely with another person, but only with himself; which is meant by thinking (A. E. 569).

We read again:--

The things which are inscribed on the interior memory are not called scientifics, because they are the things of a mans life; but they are called truths which are of faith, and goods which are of love (A. C. 9922).

And again:--

What is inscribed on the internal memory remains to eternity, and is never blotted out.

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This consists especially of those things that have become matters of the will, that is, matters of love; for the things of love belong to the will (A. C. 9388).

And again:--

The truths of the external or natural memory which are scientifics have no life, unless they are at the same time in the internal or spiritual memory; for the things in that memory have become matters of life; inasmuch as the internal or spiritual memory is a mans book of life (A. C. 9841).

We read further:--

Scientifics, i.e., the objects of the memory, upon becoming matters of a mans life, vanish from the external memory; such as is wont to be the case with the gestures, actions, speeches, reflexions, intentions, and in general with the thoughts and affections of man, after they through constant use or habit have become, as it mere, natural and spontaneous. But no other things become matters of a mans life, except those which enter into the delights of his love and form them; thus, which enter into his life (A. C. 9394).

From this, however, it does not follow that all things which vanish from the external memory pass from the external into the internal memory. Things may vanish either from the external or the internal memory; and they do vanish from both memories when by practice a man becomes familiar with them; as appears from what follows:--

Whatever enters into a man remains, especially if it be received with affection. It is thought that when a man no longer remembers certain things, they are altogether obliterated and rejected; but such is not the case; for these things, either in the interior or in the exterior memory, enter among those things which are made familiar by practice. These things become then, as it mere, natural, and flow forth of their own accord, without it being necessary to stir them up from the memory by a sensible recollection (A. C. 7398).

316. From what we learned above it appears that the regenerate only, that is, those who have conscience, have interior thought; for with them only there is organized the natural-rational degree of the external man, which is the plane of the internal or spiritual memory. This natural-rational degree is a new creation from within.

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It is formed out of the contents of the natural memory, under the influence of conscience, and thus of the charity and faith which are there; and, therefore, it is a product of regeneration. It is created on the fifth and sixth days of creation. As to its intellectual ingredients it is formed on the fifth day, and as to its affectional or voluntary ingredients, on the sixth day. The creation from within, however, is not limited to the natural-rational degree, and thus to the internal memory, which is the plane of interior thought; but it is also continued into the sphere of exterior thought in the external, natural memory. From the internal memory, therefore, the rational ingredients of this memory constantly descend into the natural memory below; so that in proportion as a man advances in his regeneration, the contents of his natural memory become twofold; for it contains then not only scientifics or knowledges received through the senses from without, but also rational ingredients from within. On this subject we read:--

Into the external or natural memory of man there enter, on the one hand, objects from the world through sensual things, and, on the other hand, there enter into it objects through rational things. These two kinds of objects separate in the memory. The objects that enter there through rational things place themselves more interiorly, while those that enter through sensual things, place themselves more exteriorly; wherefore the Natural becomes twofold, interior and exterior. Hence it is that a person who thinks and forms conclusions from the interior Natural, in proportion as he draws upon what hits entered there through the Rational is rational; while he who thinks and forms conclusions from the exterior Natural, in so far as he draws upon what is derived from the things of the senses, is sensual. Such a man also is called sensual, while the former is called natural-rational (A. C. 5094).

Again we read:--

The interior Natural is that which receives the ideas of truth and good from the Rational, and stores them up for use, consequently, it communicates immediately with the Rational while the exterior Natural is that which receives images, and hence the ideas of things, through sensual things from the world.

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Unless these latter ideas are enlightened by those which are in the interior Natural, they present fallacies and when a man is in them he believes nothing except what agrees with them. The same is the case if these two latter things are not confirmative, as happens when there is no correspondence. Correspondence, however, is not brought about unless a man is imbued with charity, because in the good of charity there is life from the Lord, which arranges truths into order, so that the form of charity, that is, charity in an image, is presented (A. C. 5133).

317. In order that there may be enlightenment in the natural man, and thus in the sphere of a mans natural consciousness, it is absolutely necessary that the regeneration of the external man shall be continued into the middle degree of the external man called the interior Natural; and thus that the interior thought which is generated from the contents of the internal memory in the natural-rational degree, shall be supported and received by a corresponding exterior thought which is generated from the scientifics in the external memory. In this case also the scientifics which are in the external memory from the Word are enlightened by spiritual light from within, and the man is able to corroborate spiritual by natural truths. We thus read:--

Those who are in external things apart from any internal cannot be enlightened, and hence also they cannot be confirmed in truths. But they who are in external, and at the same time in internal things, are enlightened when reading the Word; and while in a state of enlightenment they see truths which afterwards become more and more confirmed (A. C. 7012).

Again we read:--

With a man in whom the Natural corresponds to the Rational, the communication is open, so that the light of the Natural, and enlighten the same with intelligence and wisdom; and, therefore, such a man is rational, and thinks spiritually ... for a man thinks according to the influx of the light of heaven (A. C. 3679).

318. At the present time man is being regenerated as to the rational and interior natural degrees of his external man, but not as far as the exterior natural or sensual degree;

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although the contents of this latter degree have to be reduced into a state of correspondence with the higher regenerated degrees. By the Divine mercy of the Lord, however, it is provided that the man who is being regenerated is separated from the evils and falsities of the lowest sensual degree, and kept by the Lord in the goods and truths of the two higher degrees of the external man. We read on this subject:--

When a man is being regenerated, it is necessary that his Natural shall be regenerated down to the Sensual; for, unless this is regenerated, there is no reception of truth and good, because the inflowing truth is perverted there, and in that case the interiors are closed up. When, therefore, the exterior degrees have been regenerated, the whole man is regenerated (John xiii. 9). When the man is thus regenerated even as to his Natural, all things are then subordinated to the interiors; and when interior things flow in, they flow in as to their generals, and become sensible thereby to the man. When such is the case with a man he feels the affection of truth which is of faith, and the affection of good which is of charity. But the Sensual itself which is the ultimate of the Natural, can be regenerated only with difficulty, because it is altogether filled with material things derived from earthly, bodily, and worldly things. Wherefore, the man who is being regenerated, especially at the present clay is not regenerated as to the Sensual, but as to the Natural which is proximately above the Sensual. To this Natural he is elevated by the Lord when he thinks concerning the goods and truths of faith. With the faculty of being elevated above the Sensual, the man who is being regenerated by the Lord, is gifted by the Lord (A. C. 7442).

And again:--

From the Sensual which is in the outermost parts of the natural mind, and consequently from the falsities originating from evil which are there, those can he elevated who are in good and truth; and when they are elevated, they are also separated from the falsities which are there (A. C. 7443).

That the contents of the exterior natural or sensual degree, however, although that degree itself is not regenerated, have to be reduced into a state of correspondence with the interior, regenerated degrees of the external man, is plainly stated in what follows:--

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The Sensual itself is not reduced into order, but those things which through the Sensual have entered into a man a phantasy. Sensual things, that is, those things which through the organs of external sense have entered from the world are reduced into order when they are in the last place; and they are in the last place when they minister or serve interior things. With those who are regenerate, sensual things are in the last place, but with the unregenerate they are in the first place. Whether sensual things are in the first or last place can be easily recognized by a man if he pays attention.... If he does not affirm all that the Sensual subjects and craves, and if he does not try to make of none effect all that the Intellectual dictates, but if, on the contrary, he sees from the interior how the things of the senses lead a man into falsities and excite him to evils, and if he tries to coerce these things and to reduce them into a state of obedience that is, to subject them to the intellectual and to the will-part which belong to the interior man, then sensual things with him are reduced into a state of order, so as to be in the last place. When sensual things are in the last place a feeling of blessedness and beatitude flows from the interior man into the delights of sensual things, and causes these delights to exceed a thousand times the previous delights (A. C. 5125).

When the things of the senses are reduced into order they are subjected to the Rational, and then these things are illuminated by the light of heaven, and the man himself enjoys a state of spiritual enlightenment. We thus read:--

The man with whom sensual things are in a state of subjection is called rational; but he with whom they are not subjected is called sensual.... When the things of the senses are subjected to the Rational, those sensual things from whence arose the mans first imagination are enlightened by the light which comes from the Lord through heaven. Sensual things, also, are arranged then into order so as to receive light and to correspond. When sensual things are in such order they no longer prevent truths from being acknowledged and seen; the things which disagree being immediately removed, and those accepted which agree. The things that agree are then, as it were, in the centres, and those that disagree in the circumferences. The things in the centres are then, as it were, raised heavenwards, and those in the circumferences hang, as it were downwards.

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The things in the centres receive the Rational, and when presented to the sight in appear like sparkling little stars, and they shed life everywhere around, even to the circumferences, with a diminution of light according to degrees. Natural and sensual things are arranged into such order when the Rational has dominion, and sensual things are in a state of subjection. Such is the case when a man is being regenerated; and from thence he is in a condition to see and acknowledge truths in great fullness.

The reverse is the case when the Rational is subject to things sensual; for then falsities are in the middle or in the centre, and in the circumferences are truths. The things which are in the centre, are in a certain light (lumen) there, but in a fatuous light, or in such a light as arises from a coal-fire. Into that light there flows in from all sides a luminosity (lumen) from hell. That luminosity is called darkness; for as soon as any light from heaven flows into it, it is turned into darkness (A. C. 5128).

Interior things, we learn, are thus beginning to have dominion over exterior things; and exterior things are beginning to serve the interior, when the order in the state of regeneration is beginning to be inverted; that is, when the member of the Church is beginning to look from good to truth (see A. C. 5159).

319. When the external man has been regenerated as far as the interior Natural, and when sensual things have been reduced into a state of subjection to the Rational; and when in consequence of this a man can be elevated by the Lord into his regenerated interior Natural, away from the Sensual, the member of the Church has reached the end of the sixth day of creation. We then read concerning him, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth. Since the lowest degree of the external man, the exterior natural or sensual degree, is not yet regenerated with the member of the Church--although its contents are reduced into a state of harmony with the interior degrees of the external man which are conjoined with heaven, and thus with the Lord

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through the hereditary states of his sensual man he is still exposed to assaults by the evil spirits of hell. Yet the man who has reached the sixth day, always conquers; wherefore he is said to subdue the earth and to have dominion. On this subject we read:--

While the man is being regenerated, and becomes spiritual, he is constantly in a state of combat, wherefore the Church is called the Church militant.... The time of combat is the time of the Lords operation; nor does the Lord rest, before love becomes the ruling power; then the battle ceases. At the end of the sixth day the evil spirits retire and good spirits succeed, and the man is introduced into heaven (A. C. 59, 63).

At the end of the sixth day the inversion of state which was begun on the fourth day is consummated and charity thereby becomes the governing power in the regenerate member of the Church. The Lords spiritual kingdom is now established in full in his spirit, and its interiors are being further opened in the direction of the Lords celestial kingdom which is represented by the seventh day. Concerning this additional opening of the interiors of the man who has reached the sixth day of creation, we read:--

So long as the man is still being regenerated as to his Rational and also as to his Natural, the periods of the first state--which are from the truths belonging to faith to the goods belonging to charityprevail in him, and the truths of faith apparently are in the first place, and the goods of charity in the second; for the truths of faith have respect to the goods of charity as an end. These same periods continue until the man has been regenerated.

Afterwards charity which had been the end becomes the beginning; and new states commence from it. These new states progress in both directions; namely, towards the interiors in the direction of love to the Lord [celestial love], and also towards the exteriors in the direction of the truths of faith, and even still farther in the direction of natural truths, and at last in that of sensual truths. All these are successively reduced into correspondence with the goods of charity and of love in the Rational, and thus into heavenly order.

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Such progressions are perpetual with the man who is being regenerated, from infancy to the last state of his life in the world, and afterwards to eternity (A. C. 5122).

320. We are now able to take a retrospect, and to obtain a clear and definite idea of the Lords government of man, during regeneration, by His immediate and His mediate influx.

There are two states in mans regeneration. In the first state he is led from truth to good; in the second from good to truth. The first state extends through the first three days of creation. The second state begins at the fourth day, and is finished on the seventh.

During the first state of regeneration man is led by the Lords immediate influx (see A. C. 8625, 8701, at p. 344). The Lords immediate influx takes place into the inmost region of mans mind. It enters there into the mans will, and is thus equivalent to the influx of good into a mans soul. This influx of good--the result of the Lords immediate influx--passes through the internal into the external man, and manifests itself there at first by the affection of acquiring knowledge, which leads to the affection of the truth. Afterwards it causes in man the affection of understanding, which is productive of the perception of the truth. Through His immediate influx, also, the Lord superintends the implantation of remains in the soul of man.

Through the Lords immediate influx, preparation is made in the man for the reception of the Lords mediate influx through the angels of heaven. For by the affection of acquiring knowledge, and the affection of the truth, which are caused by Lords immediate influx into man, he is impelled to store his natural memory with scientifics and knowledges from the Word.

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The man acquires these knowledges by the application of his own freedom and rationality, wherefore these knowledges of the truth are at first much alloyed in his mind with appearances from nature, and with the mans own opinions, the results of his self-intelligence. Moreover, in the beginning a man sees these knowledges in the light of others, and not is his own light. Through those knowledges which are derived from the Word the member of the Church is conjoined with the angels of heaven, and receives from them the Lords mediate influx which takes place into the understanding.

The truths and knowledges in a mans mind appear either in spiritual or in natural light, according as the mans spiritual mind is either opened or closed. The spiritual mind becomes opened in a man in the proportion in which he acknowledges the Lord as the only God of heaven and earth, and bows before Him his pride of intellect--his first Rational. Light, thee enters into his mind from within, and he acknowledges the reality of the Divine revelation. This is the first day of creation. Under the influence of the heavenly light, and with the application of his freedom and rationality--the result of the Lords immediate influx into man--he next divides sharply between the knowledge which is derived from the natural world, and that which comes to man by Revelation. This he does while under the full influence of the affection of the truth; then then also he delights in the acquisition of knowledges from the Writings of the Church. He arrives now at the second day of creation. A new affection, caused by the Lords immediate influx, rises next in the man--the affection of understanding what he has learned. Under the influence of this affection he begins to see with his own eyes, and no longer with the eyes of others. He sees that the Divine Truth is true, and he confirms the Divine Truth in his mind by rational considerations; he also begins to repent actively of his evils, as sins before God.

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The third day of the creation now dawns upon him, and the exterior conscience of what is just and fair is being established in him. In proportion as the man practices repentance of the evils which spring from the loves of self and of the world, his spiritual mind is opened, and in proportion as he begins to love the truth for its own sake, the Lord summons the truths which the man acknowledges as true, into his internal, spiritual man, conjoining them in that part with the good of charity. By this means, the Lord organizes in the man, the interior conscience of what is good and true. Charity and faith now takes their rise in the mans interior, spiritual man, and he enters upon the fourth day of creation. Truth or faith at first predominates in the mans conscience; but an inversion gradually takes place there. For the man, in the hidden recesses of his conscience, declares now in favor of the good of charity, and places that good in the first, and the truth of faith in the second place. So far as his interior, spiritual man is concerned, the man leaves then the first state of regeneration, and enters upon the second state. From truth, or by means of truth he has ascended to the good of love, and the descent from good to truth begins to take place. On this subject we read:--

When the regenerate man, that is, he who is born anew, has arrived at the Celestial of love, the Lord appears to him; for he has ascended from the lowest step, as by a ladder to the highest step where the Lord is. This ascent also is signified by the ladder which appeared to Jacob placed on the earth, whose head reached into heaven, on which the angels of God ascended and descended, and above which stood Jehovah or the Lord (Gen. xxviii. 12).... The descent now takes place; for a man cannot descend unless he has first ascended. The descent means nothing else than from good to behold truth; as a man who has ascended a mountain, from that mountain gazes upon the things which are below. He can then, with one glance, take in innumerable things, as is plain to everyone.

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The case is the same with those who are in good, that is, in love to the Lord and towards the neighbor compared with those who are in truth, i.e., in faith alone (A. C. 3882).

321. A state of enlightenment has now been brought about in the interiors; but the sight of the internal, spiritual man is as yet dim, because the external man is not yet in a state of correspondence with the internal man (see above, A. C. 3493, in no. 293). This new state of correspondence is being brought about during the descent, when the man from good beholds truth. The Lord, by His immediate influx into the will of the member of the Church, excites next in him the affection of seeing in the natural man the truth which he perceives in the spiritual man; that is, in the plane of conscience. This affection is productive of thought, in accordance with the voice of conscience. Those four media are now brought into requisition which are mentioned at p. 231, namely, (1) the principle of Affirmation, (2) Temptation, (3) the Good of Faith, (4), the Delights of the Affections of Good and Truth.

The power of the hereditary loves of self and of the world which had been established from youth up in the natural man has now to be broken systematically, and the evil spirits of hell have to be dislodged from it. A strong phalanx of doctrinal truths has to be established for this purpose in the highest--the rational degree of the natural man, for conscience to rest upon, and so that conscience, by means of these truths may operate against the hereditary loves of self and of the world in the natural man. Both the mediate influx good descends from the internal into the external and is productive in the understanding of the affection of seeing, in the external man, the truth which has been perceived in the internal man.

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This affection, which is intrinsically the affection of the truth for the sake of the truth and for the sake of life, on its rise in the external man, is productive there of the principle of Affirmation, (see above, nos. 165-170), by virtue of which the man acknowledges unreservedly the authority of the Divine Truth as a principle of thought and a principle of life. Under the influence of the affection which constitutes this principle of Affirmation, doctrinal and rational truths are extracted from the knowledges in the natural memory, and these truths rest upon the scientifics and the knowledges in the latter memory. This principle of Affirmation, under the influence of which the man humbles his intellectual self or proprium before the Divine Truth, and acknowledges it as his supreme law, inaugurates in man those spiritual temptations which are described in the Doctrine of Temptations (from nos. 181 to 202). Affirmation and Temptation are the first two media by which the natural man is reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man, and conjoined with it. Thus far truth--doctrinal truth--is still the prevailing element in the natural man below; although faith is conjoined with charity in the internal conscience of the spiritual man--although, therefore, the supremacy of charity is practically acknowledged in that part. Doctrinally this acknowledgment prevails also in the natural man; nevertheless, the arrangement of good and truth in the natural man is still of the kind as described above (no. 305, at p. 448), where truth is within and good without; which good, however, is not genuine good. This arrangement has now to be inverted, and for this purpose Good has to be developed interiorly in the truth of the natural man. All the truths of faith, in fact, in the natural man, require now to be turned into the Good of Faith, which is the third medium, by which the natural man is to be reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man, and conjoined with it.

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The method by which this is brought about has been described above (at p. 257) in this way:--

Truth becomes the good of truth [or the good of faith] thus: Every Divine truth has respect to these two commandments; namely, to loving the Lord above all things, and the neighbor as ones self. These are the commandments or precepts from which, and for the sake of which, truths are; and to these precepts truths have reference more proximately, or more remotely. When truths, therefore, are put into act, they are successively insinuated into their principle and end; namely, into charity towards the neighbor and love towards the Lord; and by this means truth becomes the good which is called the good of truth. When such is the case, truth [in the natural man] can be conjoined with the internal man; and this conjunction becomes successively more interior the more the truths implanted in that good are interior (A. C. 4353).

As to the actual method by which truths in the natural man become the goods of truth or the goods of faith, we read further:--

All uses from truths are goods of truth. Those truths which are not of use are separated; some are retained and others rejected. Those which are retained are they which introduce to good either more remotely or more proximately, and thus they are of use. Those which are rejected are such as do not introduce, and as do not apply themselves. All uses in the beginning are truths of doctrine, but in progress of time they become goods; and they become goods when the man acts according to them. Action itself thus qualifies truths. For all action descends from the will, and the will itself causes that which before was truth to become good. Thence it appears that truth in will is no longer a truth of faith, but the good of faith; and that the truth of faith makes no one happy but the good of faith; for this affects that very something which is the mans life, namely, his willing; and it imparts to him that interior delight or blessedness, and in the other life that happy life, which is called heavenly joy (A. C. 4984).

Concerning this transformation of the truth of faith into the good of faith, which at last culminates in heavenly blessedness, we read further:--

The act precedes, a mans willing follows; for what a man does from the understanding he at last does from the will, and finally he puts it on by habit; and then that truth, or that good of truth, is insinuated into the rational, i.e., into the internal men; and after it has been insinuated into it, a man no longer does good from truth but from good for then he perceives something blessed, something of heaven in the doing of it (A. C. 4353).

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322. The feeling of blessedness which results when the good of truth, that is, the good of faith, has become habitual with a member of the Church, is identical with the Delights of the Affection of Good and Truth is the natural man, which constitute the fourth and last medium, by which the natural man is reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man and conjoined with it.

When the conjunction of good and truth has thus been effected in the external man, that is, in the rational and interior-natural degrees of the same, then also the life and light of the internal man flows freely into the external man, and blesses it with a state of enlightenment from within. For the immediate influx of the Lord is then conjoined with His mediate influx, not only in the plane of conscience in the internal man, but also in the natural man below. But when not only the Internal, but also the External in man is prepared to receive the influx of the Lords Divine Humanity, then the man is in a state of day-light as to his spirit; for we read:--

By virtue of the Divine Natural which the Lord put on [when in the world], He enlightens now not only the internal spiritual man, but also the external natural man. Unless these two are enlightened at the same time, the man is comparatively in the shade; but when both are enlightened then he is in daylight (T. C. R. 109).

The Lord is able to enlighten the internal, spiritual men, and at the same time the external, natural man with all those, with whom their natural man has been reduced into a state of correspondence with their internal man, and with whom those two have become conjoined. When such is the case, man is created into the image of God, not only as to his spiritual, but also as to his natural man.

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His natural man then is regenerated both as to his will and as to his understanding; and, therefore, we read (Gen. i. 27), male and female created He them; for by the male is represented here the understanding, and by the female, the will of the natural man, between whom there is established the heavenly marriage.

This conjunction of the will and the understanding, which is equivalent to the conjunction of charity and faith, we learn, is effected with the spiritual man in the rational, and in the interior natural degrees of the external man, but not in its exterior natural or sensual degree. Nevertheless, this last degree, so far as its contents are concerned, is reduced into a state of subjection to the interior, regenerated degrees of the external man, and hence to the internal, rational man. Concerning this state of the regenerate member of the Church we read in conclusion (Gen. i. 31), And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening was, and the morning was the sixth day. In explanation of this last verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read:--

When the work of regeneration has prospered so far that faith is conjoined to charity, then it is said to be very good; for then the Lord leads the man as a likeness of Himself. At the close of the sixth day the evil spirits withdraw, and the good succeed, and the man is introduced into heaven, that is, into the heavenly paradise which is treated of in the following chapter (A. C. 63).

323. When the external, natural man is conjoined with the internal, spiritual or rational man, and when there is thus effected a state of correspondence between the two, the state of the man is described by Swedenborg as follows:--

When the Natural is in a state of correspondence, the man is rational, and thinks spiritually.... For with him whose Natural corresponds to his Rational [i.e., to the internal man], the communication is open, so that the light of heaven can flow in from the Lord through the Rational into the Natural, and enlighten it with intelligence and wisdom.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 478

Hence that man is spiritual-rational, and thinks spiritually.... For a man thinks according to the influx of the light of heaven into him; wherefore, every man thinks recording to the state of correspondence of the Natural with the Rational, as to good and truth (A. C. 3679).

We read also:--

When the conjunction of the internal with the external man has place, there is day-dawn; for then the man enters into the spiritual or heavenly state. Then also light, like that of the morning-rise, appears, if he is in such a state as to perceive it.... The man feels then as if he awoke from sleep in the morning, when the rising sun first enlightens, and opens the day (A. C. 4283).

From this it follows that enlightenment is altogether the result of the regeneration of the natural man, whereby it is reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man, and conjoined with it; wherefore, enlightenment and also perception with a man are according to the conjunction of the external and the internal man with him. Swedenborg states this in so many words, in the following passages:--

When the external man is conjoined with the internal, it is illuminated by the internal man, and enjoys a Divine sight (A. C. 1584).

And again:--

In proportion as the things which belong to the external man, are conjoined with the celestial things of the internal man, perception [the result of enlightenment] increases and becomes more interior; conjunction with celestial things imparts perception. For in the celestial things which belong to love to the Lord, consists the very life of the internal man; or what amounts to the same thing, in the celestial things which belong to love, that is, in heavenly love, the Lord is present; and this presence is not perceived in the external man before conjunction has been effected. From conjunction is all perception (A. C. 1616).

The conjunction of the external with the internal man, again, is equivalent to the conjunction in man of the Lords immediate and His mediate influx. For the former influx takes place into the will, and the latter into the understanding;

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wherefore, when charity and faith, will and understanding, are conjoined in man, the Lords immediate influx, in man, is also conjoined with His mediate influx. But the result of the conjunction of these two influxes in man is a state of Enlightenment (see above nos. 233 and 234).

324. We thus see that the conjunction of good and truth or of charity and faith in the natural man, and hence the conjunction of the internal with the external man, is the crown of mans regeneration, and at the same time the immediate cause of his spiritual Enlightenment. Concerning this conjunction, which is consummated at the end of the sixth day, and which results in a mans spiritual enlightenment, we read in a general way:--

The internal man is said to be united to the external man when the Celestial spiritual of the internal man flows into the Natural of the external man, and causes these two to act as one. The Natural then becomes also celestial spiritual, but celestial and spiritual in a lower degree, or what amounts to the same thing, the external man from thence becomes also celestial and spiritual, but exteriorly celestial and spiritual. The internal and external man are altogether distinct, because the internal man is affected by celestial and spiritual things, and the external man by natural things. But although distinct, they are nevertheless united; namely when the celestial-spiritual of the internal man flows into the Natural of the external man, and rules it as its own (A. C. 1577).

The special conditions, however, which result from the conjunction of the internal and external man, and which conditions are identical with those that are required for a state of spiritual enlightenment, shall now be briefly enumerated.

When a man becomes spiritual by regeneration, and his external and internal man act as one, his interiors are open so as to receive the influx of the light of heaven, and his will and understanding are elevated towards heaven and the Lord. We thus read:--

When a man becomes spiritual, his interiors which see in the light of heaven are open, and the man looks upwards.

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This is effected by the Lord through elevation; thus the man looks to heaven and the Lord. Thither also are raised all the things belonging to his will and thought; consequently, his heart, that is, his love (A. C. 10,156).

And again:--

When a man is in the good of faith and of charity his interiors together with the things of the sense are raised upwards, by the Lord.... An elevation actually takes place from the Lord, and hence a removal from evils and falsities; the angels perceive this by their sense. It is like a nisus--a tendency towards the centre of heavy things. The centre is where the Lord is in His sun; thither the heads of the angels are elevated (A. C. 6832).

What conjoins the external with the internal man, however, is chiefly mutual love, concerning which we read:--

What disjoins the external from the internal man is chiefly self-love and what conjoins the external with the internal man is chiefly mutual love. Mutual love is not possible before self-love retreats; for they are altogether contradictory. The internal man is nothing else but mutual love.

Mutual love which alone is heavenly, consists in this, that a person not only declares, but also acknowledges and believes, that he is most unworthy; and that he is something low and defiled that the Lord constantly withdraws and detains him from hell, into which he constantly endeavors, yea desires to plunge himself.... In proportion as a man is in this acknowledgment, and believes that he is of such a quality, he recedes from the love of self, and at last abhors his own self.... He who is in mutual love acknowledges and believes that all good and truth are not a mans own, but the Lords and that loving another like ones self and still more, as is the case with the angels, loving others more than ones self is also a gift of the Lord, From this gift, and thus from its felicity, a man retreats so far as he retreats from the acknowledgment that this gift is the Lords (A. C. 1594).

Love, however, implies a state of freedom; wherefore the conjunction of the internal and external man, and hence the conjunction of good and truth is effected in a state of freedom. We thus read:--

The Lord leads everyone through his affections, and He bends him thus by a silent Providence; for He leads through freedom. Wherefore, all conjunction is effected in a state of freedom, and not under compulsion.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 481

When, therefore, a man has been led in freedom to good, truths are accepted and implanted; and he begins to be affected by them, and thus, little by little, he is introduced into heavenly freedom (A. C. 4364).

325. The whole process of conjunction, which is the basis of Enlightenment, is most clearly set before us in the following passage:--

The end of Regeneration is that the internal man becomes conjoined with the external man; thus the Spiritual, through the Rational, with the Natural. Apart from the conjunction of those two, there is no regeneration. This conjunction cannot take place before good has become conjoined with truths in the Natural. For the Natural must be the plane, and the things which are in the Natural must correspond. This is the reason why the conjunction of good with truths becomes successively more interior when the Natural is being regenerated. For the spiritual conjoins itself first with those things in the Natural which are inmost afterwards with those things which are exterior. Again, the Internal of man cannot conjoin itself with his External unless the truth in it becomes the good of truth, that is, truth in will and in act then only can they become conjoined. For the Lord flows in with man through the internal man, and indeed through the good which is in it. The good which is in it can be conjoined with good in the external man; but it cannot be conjoined immediately with the truth. Hence it appears that truth with man must first become truth in will, and truth in act, i.e., the good of truth, before the conjunction of the Rational with the Natural, i.e., of the internal with the external man can exist (A. C. 4353).

The actual conjunction, however, of the internal and external man is effected in the will for when truth with a man becomes truth in act and hence the good of truth, the truth then passes with the man from the understanding into the will, and in the will it meets the good which from the internal flows into the external man, and conjoins itself with it. This, however, is equivalent to the inversion of state in man, when good, and no longer truth, occupies the first place. On this subject we read as follows:--

Before conjunction, truth appears to be in the first place; after conjunction good is actually in the first place....

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Truth cannot be conjoined to the good which flows in through the internal man, and which is Divine by origin, before truth is truth by will and act, and thus the good of truth. For the good which flows in through the internal man, and which is Divine by origin, flows into the will, and meets there the good of truth which has been insinuated through the external man [and becomes conjoined with it] (A. C. 4337).

How the truth in the natural man becomes the good of truth or the good of faith has been shown above (no. 321). This good of truth increases in proportion as a man is in the exercise of the good of charity. This same good of truth also, which is the result of regeneration in the natural man, causes there a lower natural kind of conscience, which is called the conscience of truth. On this subject we read:--

The good of truth, as has been shown, is truth in will and in act. This truth is what is called good; and the conscience which is from that good is called the conscience of truth. This good, which is from truth, increases in the proportion in which a man exercises charity from willing well, and in proportion to the quantity and quality of his love of the neighbor (A. C. 4390).

326. In order that the good of truth or the good of faith may conjoin the external with the internal man, that same good, as we have seen above, must be productive of the delight of the affection of good and truth. On this subject we read further:--

When a man perceives in himself the delight of the affections which correspond to the felicity of eternal life, then his external man is beginning to be conjoined with the internal man. It is the delights belonging to the affections of good and truth which conjoin; for apart from the delight of the affections nothing is conjoined; because in these consists the life of man (A. C. 3939).

Concerning the conjunctive power of the affections, as it is manifested in the spiritual world, we read:--

In the spiritual world, whenever anyone thinks of another, and desires to speak with him, that other is immediately present; this is a common thing there. and never fails to operate. The reason is that in the spiritual world there is no distance, as in the natural world, but only an appearance of distance.

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But as thought, from some knowledge of another person, causes presence, so love, from some affection for that other, causes conjunction. On the ground of this affection it is that they walk together, speak amicably with each other, live in one house or in one society, meet frequently, and bestow upon one another their mutual offices.... The same is the case with all the things which are in the human mind. The things therein are innumerable; and each single therein is consociated and conjoined with other things according to affection, that is, according as one thing loves the other. This conjunction is spiritual conjunction, which is the same in general and in particular things (D. P. 326).

We read further:--

We use the term affection, but mean by it the continuity of love.... Affections are means which serve for the conjunction of good and truth. Hence it is that nothing of doctrine and nothing of science can enter into man except through affections; for in the affections there is life, but not in the truths of doctrine and of science apart from them. Without an affection, indeed, a man cannot think at all, nor can he utter a single word. If a person pays attention he will find that a word without an affection is like the word of an automaton; that, therefore, it is sound without life; and he will further see that in proportion to the quantity and the quality of the affection will be the quantity and the quality of the life in a word or an expression.... It hence may appear that affections are means for conjoining truth with good; further, that it is the affections which introduce truths and arrange truths; and that genuine affections, which are those of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, arrange truths into a heavenly order; but evil affections, which are those of the love of self and of the world, arrange them into an infernal order that is, into an order which is opposed to that of heaven (A. C. 3049).

327. Another indispensable means for causing conjunction are spiritual temptations; for by temptations evils and falsities are conquered and removed; and, therefore, goods and truths are enabled to flow into the Natural, and to become fortified and established in it. We thus read:--

All conjunction of good with truth is effected through temptations; and temptations exist when good begins to take first place....

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The very good that is to be conjoined with truth is not tempted, but truth. Truth also is not tempted by good, but it is tempted by evils and falsities, and also by the fallacies and illusions, and their affections, which adhere to truths in the Natural. For when good flows in, which takes place by an internal way, or through the internal, rational man, the ideas of the natural man which are formed from the fallacies of the senses and illusions thence, do not bear its approach, because they are discordant. Hence there arises in the natural man anxiety and temptation (A. C. 4341).

Again we read:--

The conjunction of good and truth is effected by temptations. The purpose of temptations is not only that a man may be confirmed in truths, but also that truths only be more closely conjoined with goods. In temptations a man fights for truths against falsities, and since at such a time he is in interior pain and torment, there is a cessation of the delights of the life of lusts, and of the pleasures thence, in which case goods from the Lord flow in, and evils are regarded as abominable. New thoughts arise thence which are opposed to the former thoughts; and to these the man may afterwards be bent, and thereby from evils to goods, and these goods may be conjoined with truths (A. C. 2272). See also A. C. 4572, at p. 288.

328. The process by which truths are conjoined with good is a progressive one; for exterior truths--those that are contained in the literal sense of the Word, are conjoined first, and interior truths, that is, the truths contained in the internal sense of the Word, later. Exterior truths, however, are general truths, and interior truths are particular and singular truths. We thus read:--

A man becomes spiritual by this, that truths with him are conjoined with good; that is, the things of faith with those belonging to charity, and indeed in the Natural. Exterior truths are first conjoined in it with good and afterwards interior truths. Interior truths are not conjoined with good otherwise, than through the enlightenment, which flows through the internal into the external man. From this enlightenment Divine truths appear only in a general way; comparatively as innumerable objects appear before the eye as one obscure thing without any distinction. A man is called spiritual from this circumstance that the light of heaven, in which is intelligence and wisdom flows into those things which belong to the light of heaven, to be represented in those that belong to the light of the world, and indeed so that they correspond (A. C. 4402).

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 485

Again we read:--

The case with a man when he is being regenerated, or what amounts to the same thing, when truths with him are being conjoined with good is so, that general affections with their truths are insinuated into good first afterwards, such as are less general, or respectively particular; and lastly such as are still less general, and respectively singular (A. C. 4346).

329. We have seen above (A. C. 4337, in no. 325), that the conjunction of the external with the internal man is effected in this wise, that the good which flows in through the internal man, and which is Divine by origin, flows into the will, and meets there the good of truth which has been insinuated through the external man; and that thus it becomes conjoined with it. Good which is Divine by origin, thus meets the good of truth which the member of the Church has acquired from the Divine Word by his own study, and which he has applied to his life. The Lords immediate influx which takes place into a mans will, thus becomes conjoined with His mediate influx which takes place into the mans understanding through the mediation of the Word. But from this it follows that the conjunction of the internal and external man which results from the conjunction of good and truth in the natural man, is equivalent to the conjunction of the Lord with man. For when the internal man becomes conjoined to the external, good which is Divine by origin, and thus the Lords--nay, which is the Lord with man, becomes conjoined with the Truth which the man, with the full use of his freedom and rationality, has acquired from the Divine Word, and which by an application to the life, has become changed with him into the good of truth. Concerning this conjunction of the Lord with man, which constitutes the Church--the Lords kingdom with man--we read:--

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The marriage of the Lord with the Church consists in this, that the Lord flows into angels and men with the good of love, and that the angels and men receive Him, that is, the good of love, in truths, and that thereby a marriage is effected between good and truth, which marriage constitutes the Church itself, and causes heaven with them (A. R. 380).

Concerning this conjunction of the Lord with man, which is effected by the regeneration of the natural man, we read further:--

The Lords conjunction with man is possible only in love and charity. For the Lord is Love Itself and Mercy, and He desires to save all, and He attracts all by a strong force towards heaven, and thus to Himself. Hence every man may know and conclude that no one can ever become conjoined with the Lord except through that which is the Lord Himself; that is, unless he acts as the Lord does; and, consequently, unless he operates one and the same thing with the Lord, and thus unless he re-loves the Lord, and loves the neighbor as Himself. Conjunction is effected only by this means. But when there is conjunction by this means, it follows manifestly that the Lord is present. The Lord is indeed present with every man; but His presence is nearer or more remote according to the degrees of a mans advance towards love, or to the degrees of his removal from it (A. C. 1038).

And again:--

The Lord flows in with man and is present with him in the good which he receives from the Lord. For good constitutes the man himself; everyone also is such as his good is. By good is meant love; for all that is loved is called good. Now since the whole man is such as his love is, it is plain that the Lord cannot be present with a man in a bad love, but in a good love, and thus in his good (A. C. 10153).

330. Those who are conjoined with the Lord are also conjoined with heaven, because the Divine which proceeds from the Lord constitutes heaven with the angels (A. C. 10632). On this subject we read:--

The Church is a Church from the marriage of good and truth; and when the Church is in this marriage, it makes one with heaven, which is the heavenly marriage (A. C. 4835).

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 487

The conjunction of man with the angels, and thus with heaven is, however, effected through the Divine Word. For the Divine Word is the bond which holds heaven and the Church together. But when the member of the Church is in the heavenly marriage, that is, when good and truth, the internal and the external man, are conjoined is him, he sees the Word in the light of heaven, and thus in a state of enlightenment, as appears from what follows:--

The Word has been written in this wise, that each singular thing therein, even to the minutest singulars, corresponds to those things that are in heaven. Hence the Word has Divine power, and conjoins heaven with the world; for when the Word is read on earth, the angels who are in heaven are drawn towards the element of holiness which is in the internal sense; this is brought about by the correspondences which are in each single thing (A. C. 8616).

But is order that heaven and the angels may be actually conjoined with a man by means of the Divine Word, it is absolutely necessary that the man should be in the good of truth, that is, in the Good of faith. For we read again:--

When the member of the Church who is in the good of faith reads the Word, the angels adjoin themselves to him, and are delighted with him, because the wisdom which comes through the Word then flows in with them from the Lord. Hence is the conjunction of heaven with man, which apart from the Word would not exist; for the Word is of such a quality that in its original language there is not a jot or tittle but affects the angels and conjoins them with man (A. C. 9152).

An active state of love, however, is required in order that the man himself may receive enlightenment from the Lord, while he is reading the Word; but by this is meant, that he shall no longer look from truth to Good, but from good to truth. We thus read again:--

The conjunction of the Lord and the conjunction of heaven with the member of the Church is through good; wherefore, if there is no good with him, there cannot be any enlightenment; for all enlightenment during the reading of the Word is out of heaven from the Lord, and when there is no enlightenment the truths which are in the Word are in obscurity.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 488

That the Word is not understood, when a man is not in good, may appear from this circumstance, that in each single part of the Word is the heavenly marriage, that is, the conjunction of good and truth; when, therefore, good is not present with the man who reads the Word, truth also does not appear; for truth appears from good and good through truths (A. E. 365).

The Lord is present with all in the spiritual sense of His Divine Word, but in order to its reception the interiors of the mans mind must be opened by a course of regeneration. Man, therefore, must be in a state of good; and that good must be conjoined with truth; yet the measure of a mans enlightenment in the spiritual sense is the extent of the knowledges from the Divine Word that are with the man. We thus read:--

All those who read the Word are kept by the Lord in the spiritual sense, but it is received only by those whose interiors are opened; and since the spiritual sense is received in knowledges, therefore it is received according to the state of the intellectual part with man, namely, according to the extent and the manlier in which it can be enlightened through the know ledges which are with a person. Men also, in a general way, are affected by holiness thence (A. C. 10402).

331. The end of regeneration consists in conjunction with the Lord and in conjunction with heaven, which is identical with the conjunction of the Lords immediate and mediate influx in man. Conjunction with the Lord, however, as we hare further seen, is identical with the conjunction of the internal and external man; and the internal and external man are conjoined when good is conjoined with truth in mans Natural. Conjunction, however, manifests itself with the regenerate man by a state of spiritual enlightenment. This spiritual enlightenment attends the conjunction of good and truth in man in all its various stages as a necessary consequence. The requirements for spiritual enlightenment from the Lord are thus precisely the same as those which are also required for the conjunction of good and truth.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 489

That spiritual condition, therefore, which is reached by man when good and truth are conjoined in him, describes also the condition which is required in order that a man may reach a state of full enlightenment from the Lord. This condition embraces the following states:--

(a) The conjunction of man with the Lord.

(b) The conjunction of man with the angels of heaven.

The conjunction of the Lord with men, however, is the result of the following effects which are brought about by regeneration:--

(d) A state of correspondence between the internal and external man.

This state of correspondence is caused by:-

(e) Spiritual good; which good is wrought by man when the truth which he has acquired from the Divine Word is applied by him to the life, and conjoined with the good of charity which flows from the internal into the external man. Spiritual good, however, causes in man:--

(f) The elevation of mans interiors towards heaven and to the Lord.

(g) The opening of the spiritual mind.

Man arrives at spiritual good by the conjunction of the good of truth in the natural man with the good that flows immediately from the Lord through the internal into the external man. From this, however, it follows that all the means which are productive in man of the Good of truth, are also means which contribute to a mans spiritual enlightenment. These means consist of the four media (see above, nos. 321, 322), by which the natural man is regenerated, and, therefore, reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 490

These media ape as follow:--

(h) The affection of truth for its own sake, which is productive of the principle of Affirmation, under the influence of which the man humbles before the Divine Truth in the Holy Word, everything of his own both in his will and in his understanding.

(i) Spiritual Temptation, which is the inevitable result when a man unequivocally declares in favor of that which comes from the Lord, and against that which comes from man.

(j) The Good of Faith which is identical with the good of truth, and which implies an implicit carrying out in the life of the truths which a man has acquired from the Divine Word. But the Good of Faith, or the Good of truth, increases in man by a life devoted to the uses of charity; according to the principle that influx is according to efflux.

(k) The Delight of the affections of good and truth, which is experienced by a man when he habitually carries out in his life the good of truth. For that delight is the effect of the charity which enters from the Lord into the affections of good and truth in the natural man.

When the affections of good and truth with a man are in a state of delight, then also the inversion of state is consummated in him; for then he no longer acts from a principle of truth in the first place, but from a principle of good. Wherefore, an additional condition for enlightenment in man is:--

(l) The inversion of state.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 491

From all this, however, follow these two fundamental conditions of spiritual enlightenment:--

(m) Good, end hence love, is the medium through which man receives spiritual enlightenment from the Lord.

(n) The extent and quality of enlightenment, however, is determined by the truths which are established in a mans understanding.

As all truths, however, are derived from the Divine Word, therefore:--

(o) Spiritual enlightenment consists essentially in an enlightenment of the literal sense of the Divine Word in the mind of man by its spiritual sense, which is experienced by him who is conjoined with the Lord, and who is thus in the heavenly marriage.

332. (a) The first condition of spiritual enlightenment is Conjunction with the Lord; for

Where the Lord is present there is enlightenment (A. E. 529)

The Lords presence, however, is caused by conjunction with Him; for, as we have seen above (A. C. 1038, no. 328), No one can be conjoined with the Lord except through that which is the Lord Himself; that is, unless he acts as the Lord acts and thus unless he re-loves the Lord and loves the neighbor as himself. Conjunction is effected only by this means. But when there is conjunction by this means, then it follows manifestly that the Lord is present.

We read further:--

Those who are in love to the Lord, and also in charity towards the neighbor, are in a condition to see the interior things of the Word, of the Church, and of worship. For love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor open the internal man; and when that is open, then man as to his interiors is in heaven among the angels where the Lord is (A. C. 10578).

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 492

(b) All enlightenment, however, is imparted to man by the Lord mediately through heaven, that is, through the ministration of the angels. This enlightenment is the outcome, as it were, of a mans life according to the Divine commandments, and thus according to the doctrine of faith and charity which is taught in the Divine Word. This enlightenment, therefore, corresponds to the goods and truths of which in the course of a mans regeneration his internal and external man are organized; and thus it corresponds to the contents of his internal and external memory. These contents, we learn, are put on by a mans attendant good spirits or angels (see A. C., 5853, no. 3, at p. 317), and through the medium of the spirits and angels they are exposed to the particular light of heaven which prevails in that society of heaven with which the said spirits are connected.

The light which is received by a man immediately from the Lord, enables him to rise, as it were, above the light in which he is by virtue of his enlightenment from the angels of heaven, and thus by virtue of the existing state of good and truth in his mind. It enables him, therefore, to examine and to embrace a higher good and a higher truth when they are presented to him for consideration and adoption.

The enlightenment which a man receives from the Lord through mediate influx, corresponds thus to the light which prevails in a particular section--a particular society of the Grand Man of heaven; while the light which he receives from the Lord through immediate influx, corresponds to the state of the Divine Truth as it beams down from the Lord into heaven at large, and as it is represented by the heat and light that proceed immediately from the Lord through the spiritual man.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 493

The enlightenment, however, which we are discussing now is that which results from the quality of a mans love to the Lord and the neighbor, and which is conveyed to him from the Lord mediately through the ministry of angels. Concerning this enlightenment we read more particularly:--

The intelligence of truth and the affection of good are communicated to man by the angels, that is, through angels from the Lord. This communication is what is called Influx and Enlightenment (A. C. 10,330).

Again we read:--

The enlightenment which is attributed to the Holy Spirit is indeed in the man from the Lord, but it is nevertheless brought about through the mediation of spirits and angels. The character of this mediation cannot be described as yet; only that angels and spirits cannot enlighten a man at all from themselves, for they also are enlightened by the Lord in a similar manner as the man; and because they are enlightened in a similar manner, it follows that all enlightenment is from the Lord alone. It takes place through the mediation of angels or spirits, because the man who is in enlightenment is placed then in the midst of such angels and spirits as receive from the Lord alone more enlightenment than others (D. L. W. 150).

333. A man is able to be associated with the angels of heaven and to come thereby into a state of enlightenment when he receives in his mind truths from the Divine Word, and applies them to the uses of life. On this subject we read:--

When a man applies the knowledges of truth and good from the Word to his life ... he acquires to himself spiritual life; and his moral life then flows from that life. Such a man communicates with the angels of heaven, and through communication with heaven there is opened his internal, spiritual man, whose mind is a higher mind, like that of the angels of heaven, and that mind through communication with heaven is imbued with heavenly intelligence and wisdom.

Man thus becomes spiritual through knowledges of truth and good applied of the uses of life; but why a man becomes spiritual only through those knowledges which are from the Word, and through none other shall now be said. All things which are in the Word are Divine, but they are Divine because they have in themselves a spiritual sense, and through that sense communicate with heaven and with the angels who are there.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 494

When therefore a man has knowledges from the Word and applies them to the life, then through these knowledges he communicates with heaven, and by that communication he becomes spiritual. For a man becomes spiritual through this circumstance, that he is in the same truths as the angels of heaven, or in truths corresponding to theirs. The expression corresponding is here used, because each and all things which are in the literal sense of the Word are correspondences for they correspond to the truths which are with the angels. Those knowledges, however, which are from other books in which the doctrinals of the Church are treated of, and confirmed by various things, effect a communication with heaven only by virtue of the knowledges from the Word which are in these books. These knowledges when they are understood truly, and are not applied to faith alone, but to life, effect communication (A. E. 195).

This then is the reason why the Wordthat is, the knowledges of good and truth from the Word, when they are applied to the life--are effective of a communication between the angels and men, and why a man through such communication receives spiritual enlightenment; but concerning the manner in which this communication is effected, we read:--

The thoughts of a man who holds the Word to be holy, and reads it for the sake of the uses of life, are like one who holds a cabinet that contains precious stones, pearls, and diadems arranged in order, and sends it to heaven, and it is opened in its ascent, and the precious things in it come to the angels, who are deeply delighted in beholding and examining them. This their delight is communicated to the man, and effects consociation, and also a communication of perceptions (T. C. R. 238)

334. Concerning this enlightenment of man through the Word, whereby he receives enlightenment from the Lord through heaven, we read further:--

From the obscurity that belongs to the natural man there may arise both truth and falsity. When a man suffers himself to be enlightened by the Lord through the word, his obscurity becomes imbued with light; for the internal way is opened, so that influx and communication take place from the Lord through heaven (A. C. 3708).

Again we read:-

Enlightenment is brought about by the Lord through the Word, in which everything, by virtue of the Spiritual which is in it, communicates with heaven;

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and the Lord flows in through heaven. He flows in into that which is then and there under a mans gaze.... Being enlightened by the Lord through heaven means being enlightened through the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is the Divine which proceeds from the Lord as from a sun, from which Divine is heaven. It appears hence that the Lord teaches the member of Church mediately through the Word, according to the love of his will which is his through life, and according to the light of his understanding, which is his through knowledge; and further that this is not possible otherwise, because such is the order of influx (A. E. 1157).

And again:--

So far as the good of love to the Lord and the good of love to the neighbor are not with a member of the Church, the Word is not understood. For the conjunction of the Lord, and the conjunction of heaven with the member of the Church is through good. When, therefore, there is no good with the latter, he cannot possibly be in any enlightenment; for all enlightenment during the reading of the Word is from the Lord out of heaven (A. E. 365).

335. (c) Conjunction with the Lord and conjunction with the angels through the Word, is equivalent to the conjunction in man of the Lords immediate with His mediate influx, which latter influx takes place by means of the Divine Word, through the angels of heaven. For when these two influxes are conjoined in a man, he is in a state of perception of the Truth from the Lord; as has been shown at great length above (pp.344-347). We learned there that with every man there is immediate as well as mediate influx; but that the conjunction of the two influxes exists only with those who have a perception of the truth from good. We learned, further, that the Truth which proceeds immediately from the Divine enters into a mans will; and that the Truth which proceeds mediately from the Divine enters into a mans understanding. Wherefore, the conjunction of those two influxes is equivalent to the conjunction of the will and understanding in man.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 496

When conjunction exists, then, however, as we have further learned, the Lord appears as present, and His presence is also perceived. But since the Lords presence, as we have further seen above (no. 332), causes enlightenment, therefore such also is the effect of the conjunction in man of the two influxes from the Lord.

During the first state of regeneration, when a man from truth has respect to good, the Lord leads him by his immediate influx; but that influx is not then perceived. But when there is a conjunction established in the man between the Lords immediate and His mediate influx, the Lords influx is perceived by the man; as appears from what follows:--

When a man is in the first state [of regeneration] the Lord flows in and leads him immediately; but the Lord immediate influx does not reach a mans perception, because it takes place into the inmost parts of the man. But the Lords influx which is immediate, and at the same time mediate, reaches the mans perception and conveys affection; because it takes place not only into the mans inmost, but also into his middle and outermost parts (A. C. 8690).

The Lords immediate influx, however, reaches not only the mans inmost, but also his middle and outermost parts, when he is in the heavenly marriage; because then his internal and his external man are conjoined.

The particular enlightenment, or perception which a man enjoys when the Lords immediate influx is conjoined in him with His mediate influx, is described in the following passage:--

Instruction in the single things of doctrine exists when the Divine Truth proceeding immediately from the Lords Divine, is conjoined with the Truth which proceeds mediately; for then perception is given. This conjunction exists especially with the angels who are in the third or inmost heaven, who are called celestial. They have a most exquisite perception of both Truths, and hence of the Lords presence, because they are in good more than others for they have the good of innocence. Wherefore, they are nearest to the Lord, and in a flashing, and a kind of flaming light:

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 497

for they see the Lord as a sun, the rays of whose light are such from their propinquity (A. C. 7058).

336. Thus far we have spoken of perception and enlightenment indiscriminately; yet a distinction must be drawn between them. For the term perception, as we have seen in the above passage, applies chiefly to the angels of the third heaven, while the term enlightenment belongs essentially to those who are in the second heaves. Or, again the term perception, belongs to the celestial who, in the course of their regeneration, have reached the seventh day of rest; while the term enlightenment applies to the spiritual who are regenerated as far as the sixth day of creation. We thus read:--

The angelic societies of the third or inmost heaven have knowledge from perception; that is, by influx from the Lord. The rest have also knowledge; yet not from perception, but from an enlightenment of the understanding to the angels of the second, and the lowest heaven. The distinction between the two is in this wise, that perception is a fall confirmation by virtue of influx from the Lord; but enlightenment of the understanding is spiritual sight. This enlightenment belongs to those who are in charity towards the neighbor, and thence in faith; but the former, that is perception, is with those who are in love to the Lord (A. E. 307).

Again we read:--

The Lord does not speak with the member of the Church otherwise than through the Word; for He then imparts enlightenment, so that the man sees the truth, and He also grants perception, that the man shall perceive that a thing is so. Yet this takes place according to the quality of the desire of the truth which is with a man; and the desire of the truth with him, is according to his love. Those who love the truth for the sake of the truth are in enlightenment, but those who love the truth for the sake of good are in perception (A. C. 10,290).

The character of the enlightenment which is with those who love the truth from good, that is, who love the truth for the sake of the truth, is described in what follows:--

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 498

There is a revelation which does not take place with a loud voice, but interiorly in man. This revelation is caused by an enlightenment of the internal sight, which is the understanding, when a man who is in the affection of the truth from good, reads the Word. The light of heaven, which is from the Lord in heaven, as a sun, causes this enlightenment; and by this light the understanding is enlightened scarcely otherwise than the external sight, which is of the eye, is illuminated by the light of the world. When the understanding is enlightened by this Divine light, it perceives that to be true which is true; it acknowledges it interiorly within itself, and sees it in a certain manner. Such is the revelation of those who are in the affection of the truth from good when they read the Word (A. C. 8780).

We read again:--

When good is conjoined with truth in a man, an when from thence, is, from good, he regards the truth, then all becomes clear before him, and indeed successively more and more so. For he is then no longer in a state of doubt whether a thing be so or so; but he knows that it is so, or some other way. When a man is in that state he begins to know innumerable things; for he then progresses from the good and the truth which he believes and perceives, as from a centre towards the circumference; and in proportion as he progresses, he sees the things in his surroundings, and he sees them more extensively by and by, for he continually enlarges and extends his borders. Then also he makes a beginning or a start from every point in the space within his borders and from thence, as from new centres, he describes new circumferences. From this source the light of truth from good increases immensely with him, and becomes like a continuous expanse of light: for he is then in the light of heaven which is from the Lord (A. C. 3833).

337. (d) The conjunction of the Lords immediate with His mediate influx in man, and hence the state of enlightenment from the Lord, supposes in man a state of correspondence between his internal and his external man. For, as we have seen above (A. C. 8690) the Lords immediate, and, at the same time, His mediate influx takes place then not only into the mans inmost, but also into his middle and outermost parts.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 499

We read accordingly:--

In order that a man from enlightenment may see and perceive the genuine truths of the Word, the three degrees of the understanding, namely, the natural, the rational and the spiritual degrees must be together. For the natural understanding cannot be enlightened from its own [natural] lumen, but it requires to be enlightened by the light of the rational degree which is intermediate, and this degree has to be enlightened from spiritual light; for the spiritual understanding is in the light of heaven, and sees from it. The Rational is intermediate between the Spiritual and the Natural, and receives the spiritual light which it transmits, the wherewith it enlightens the Natural. Hence it is made evident that the natural understanding apart from light through the Rational from the Spiritual, is no understanding, for it is without any light out of heaven; and the truths of the Church, which are also the truths of heaven, can only be seen in the light of heaven. But the cause of this is, that the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord as a Sun, is the light of heaven; and the Lord enlightens man alone through His light, which is spiritual light (A. E. 846).

In order, therefore, that there may be enlightenment, there must be a state of correspondence between the internal and the external man, and for this purpose the external man requires to be regenerated, and to be conjoined with the internal man. On this subject we read:--

Those who are in external things apart from any internal cannot be enlightened, and hence neither can they be confirmed in truths, but those who are in external things and at the same time in internal things are enlightened upon reading the Word, and in a state of enlightenment they see truths, in which they are afterwards more and more confirmed (A. C. 7012). See also above, A. C. 3679, in no. 322.

338. (c) A state of correspondence between the internal and the external man, and hence enlightenment in spiritual matters, is, however, brought about solely by spiritual good; which good is wrought by the man when the truth which he has acquired from the Divine Word, is applied by him to the life, and conjoined with the good of charity which flows from his internal into his external man.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 500

Concerning the genesis of spiritual good, which is the product of regeneration, we read as follows:--

Spiritual good is truth which has become good. For truth becomes good when a man lives according to it. Truth then passes into the will, and from the will into act, and thus becomes a matter of life; and when truth has become a matter of life, it is no longer called truth, but good. The will, however, which changes truth into good is the new will in the intellectual part. (A. C. 5595)

Again we read:--

Good conjoined with truth is what is understood by spiritual good (A. C. 9206).

And again:--

Spiritual good is the good of faith and the Good of charity ... and is from the Lord (A. C. 3470).

This same spiritual good conveys enlightenment to the man who is in a state of regeneration; wherefore, we read further:--

The things of the Church and of heaven are not understood and perceived except by virtue of enlightenment; for the things of the Church and of heaven do not enter into a mans understanding except by means of the light of heaven, which enlightens the understanding. This is the reason why the Word, in which the things of the Church and of heaven can be understood only by one enlightened and those only are enlightened, who are in the affection of truth from good; consequently, who are in the love of the Lord, and in charity towards the neighbor. Their good is spiritual good; and with that good, and from that good, is the light of heaven which enlightens (A. E. 11)

Again we read:--

Those who lead an angelic life, that is, a life of charity and faith, are enlightened by the Lord, and they see the holy things of the Word (A. C. 9088).

And again:--

The good which is of charity is like a flame which imparts light, and thus enlightens each and all things that a man had previously believed to be true.

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SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH p. 501

He also notices then, how falsities had intermixed themselves, and had put on an appearance, as if they were true (A. C. 4245).

Further:--

To those who are in enlightenment the Lord grants to understand what they believe, and they are enlightened when reading the Word. But those understand the Word, who acknowledge the Lord, and love to live according to His precepts; while those do not understood, who say they believe, but do not live accordingly. For the Lord flows into a mans life, and thence into his faith, but He does not flow into a faith separate from life (A. C. 10,659).

339. (f) Spiritual good, however, is able to convey spiritual enlightenment to man, because it conjoins him with the Lord and with heaven; and because it raises mans interiors towards heaven, and to the Lord.

For in order that a man as to his spirit may be associated with the angels, and that thus he may receive enlightenment from the Lord through heaven, he must be elevated as to his interiors into heaven. This, however, is the result of an application of his own freedom and rationality, by virtue of which he turns away from self and the world, and looks towards heaven and the Lord; for in proportion as he turns away from the evils and falsities which originate in the loves of self and of the world, he comes into spiritual good; wherefore, good, that is, spiritual good is the real means by which man, as to his interiors, is able to be elevated into heaven. We read on this subject:--

Influx and enlightenment take place thus: Man is such that as to his interiors which belong to thought and will, he can look downwards, and also upwards. Looking downwards means outwards into the world and towards his own self; while looking upwards means inwards towards heaven and the Lord. A man, however, looks upwards not from himself, but from the Lord. The expression upwards is used, because the man is then elevated as to his interiors (which belong to his will and understanding) by the Lord towards heaven, and thus towards the Lord.

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The interiors then are also actually raised up; and they are positively led away from the body and the world. When this is done, a mans interiors come really into heaven--into its light and heat. Hence man has influx and enlightenment.

Since the man is then among the angels, there is communicated to him by them, that is through the angels by the Lord, the intelligence of truth and the affection of good. This communication is called Influx and Enlightenment. It must be observed, however, that influx and enlightenment take place according to the faculty of reception with man, and the faculty of reception is according to the love of truth and good. Those, therefore, who are in the love of truth and good for the sake of truth and good as ends, are elevated. But those who are in the love of truth and good not for the sake of truth and good, but for the sake of themselves and the world, because they constantly look and gravitate downwards, cannot be elevated; thus, they cannot receive the Divine Influx and cannot be enlightened (A. C. 10,330).

Again we read:--

Those who suffer themselves to be elevated by the Lord into the light of heaven, are elevated at first above the scientifics which belong to the natural man, and then they see those things which are in the Natural, and which are called scientifics, from the light of heaven. These things they discriminate well, and they adopt those things which they comprehend and which are congruous, rejecting and separating those things which they do not understand and which are incongruous (A. C. 10,156).

340. (g) The actual result, however, of such an elevation of a mans interiors towards heaven and the Lord, is the opening of the internal or spiritual man, which is an indispensable condition of a mans spiritual enlightenment. For by the opening of the internal man, the light of heaven is able to penetrate into a mans mind, and to enlighten there the contents first of the interior memory, and afterwards those of the exterior memory. This opening, however, is altogether according to the good of life, and thus according to the conjunction of good and truth in the member of the Church, which results in the establishment of spiritual good in man.

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Concerning this opening of the internal or spiritual man we read:--

Spiritual good alone, which is the good of charity from the Lord, opens the spiritual mind, through which the Lord flows in and enlightens. Apart from the opening of that mind, enlightenment is not possible; consequently, neither the understanding of the truth (A. E. 923).

Again we read:--

Only those are in enlightenment who are in the two loves of heaven; namely, in love to the Lord, and in love towards the neighbor. For these loves open the interior that is, the higher mind, which is formed for the reception of the light of heaven. Through this mind the light of heaven flows in with these persons, and enlightens; and yet, during their life in the world, they do not perceive truth in that mind, but in a lower mind which belongs to the external or natural man... That interior or spiritual mind looks to the Lord; and the Lord then raises that mind, and at the same time the lower or natural mind, to Himself, and thus leads it away from the mans self or proprium; which is not possible with those who look chiefly to themselves and to the world. When the internal or spiritual man, in which is that interior or higher mind of which we have just spoken, is opened, the Lord coerces the evils and disperses the falsities which are in the external or natural man (A. E. 177).

Further information concerning the opening of the internal or spiritual man is contained in what follows:--

The spiritual man is closed from childhood, and is opened and formed only through Divine truths received by the understanding and will; and in proportion as the spiritual man is opened and formed, the evils of the natural and sensual man are removed, and goods are implanted in their stead (A. E. 643).

The interior or spiritual mind, which is heaven with man, is opened in proportion as the man acknowledges the Lords Divine; and a man acknowledges it so far as he is in the good of love and charity and in the truths of doctrine and faith. But this interior mind is not opened in proportion as a man does not acknowledge the Lords Divine, and does not live the life of love and faith; and this same mind is closed, in proportion as a man is in evils and falsities--when it is closed, the mans natural mind becomes hell with him; for in the natural mind is a mans evil and falsity (A. E. 644).

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Truths and goods can he acknowledged only by those whose interior mind is open. Light flows into this mind from the Lord; and in so far as this mind is open, truths and goods are acknowledged. This mind is open only with those who are in innocence, in love to the Lord, and in charity towards the neighbor; but it is not open with those who are in the truths of faith, unless they are at the same time in the good of life (A. C. 3224).

341. When the spiritual mind is opened, the light of heaven flows into the natural mind and enlightens it; as appears from the following passage:--

The spiritual mind is opened and educated in proportion as a man with his life receives the knowledges of truth which he has from the Word. Wherefore that mind is no opened with those by whom that knowledge is not applied to the life. When the spiritual mind is opened, the light of heaven through that mind flows into the natural mind and enlightens it; whereby that mind becomes spiritual-natural. For the spiritual mind then sees in the natural mind almost, as when a man sees his face in a mirror, and acknowledges those things that agree with himself.... Since the mind makes the manfor the mind is the understanding and the willtherefore it is the same thing whether we say mind or man; thus, whether we say the spiritual mind and the natural mind, or the spiritual man and the natural man (A. E. 406).

Concerning the extent of this light in the natural mind or man, Swedenborg relates from his personal experience as follows:--

I saw two spirits not far from me, but distant from each other, and I noticed that one of them loved good and truth, and through his love was conjoined with heaven other loved evil and falsity, and through his love was conjoined with hell. I approached and called them together, and from their sounds and replies gathered that the one just as well as the other was able to perceive truths, and after perceiving them to acknowledge them; that thus he was able to think from the understanding and also to determine things intellectual just as he pleased, and the things of the will just as he listed consequently, that both enjoyed a like freedom of choice, so far as rational things were concerned. I noticed, moreover, that by virtue of that freedom in their minds there appeared an element of lucidity [which extended] from the first [or interior] sight belonging to perception to the last [or lowest] sight belonging to the eye.

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But when the one who loved evil and falsity, upon being left to himself, was thinking, I noticed that there ascended from hell something like smoke, which quenched the element of lucidity that was above the memory; whence there arose a kind of midnight darkness; and further, that that smoke upon being kindled burnt like a flame, which illuminated that part of the mind which was below the memory, from which he produced by thought enormous falsities which flowed from his self-love.

But with the other who loved good and truth, I noticed that when he was left to himself a kind of flame descended out of heaven which illuminated the region of his mind above the memory, and also the region below the memory, as far as the eye; and further, that the luster of the light which proceeded from that flame increased more and more, as he perceived and thought truth from the love of good (T. C. R. 504).

342. It must be borne in mind, however, that the light of heaven which flows into man through the spiritual or internal man when it is opened, is not merely spiritual light, but spiritual light animated by spiritual heat, as appears plainly from the following statement:--

The light of heaven which enters through the spiritual mind is conjoined with the heat of heaven, which is love; such as is comparatively the case with the light of the world in spring time (A. E. 406).

When a person, therefore, is enlightened by the opening of his spiritual mind, spiritual light and heat enter into his mind conjointly, the former affecting his understanding, and the latter his will; as appears from what follows:--

With those who are in the affection of truth from good, the Intellectual of the internal man is enlightened, and the Voluntary of the internal man is kindled (A. C. 9300).

With those, however, who are is a state of enlightenment, spiritual heat and light do not enter each independently; but light enters through heat. Wherefore, their will, that is, their love is affected first, and afterwards through the love their understanding; as appears from what follows:--

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The light of truth with a man is altogether according to the state of his love; in proportion as the love is kindled the truth shines; for the good of love is the very vital fire, and the truth of faith the very intellectual light which is intelligence and wisdom; they must proceed at a like pace (A. C. 10201).

The light of heaven, therefore, enters into the spiritual mind or man through the voluntary or will-part, and from the will-part it passes into the intellectual. On this ground also it is that with the regenerate man enlightenment flows in through good, that is, through spiritual good; and that through good also it passes from the spiritual into the natural man; and that in the natural man enlightenment is according to the delight of natural good, that is, according to the delight of spiritual good in the natural man. On this subject we read further:--

Perception from the Intellectual does not belong to the Intellectual, but to the inflowing Voluntary; for the Intellectual is nothing else than the Voluntary in form. Such is the character of the Intellectual when it is conjoined to the Voluntary; but before it has been thus conjoined, the Intellectual seems to be by itself, and the Voluntary by itself. Nevertheless, the case is only, as when the External separates itself from the Internal; for when the Intellectual revolves or thinks anything interiorly, it is the end from the Voluntary that constitutes its life, and that rules the process of thought in it (A. C. 3619).

Again:--

The Divine Influx out of heaven takes place into a mans will, and through the will into his understanding. The influx into the will takes place into the occiput, because into the cerebellum, and from thence it passes towards the interiors--into the cerebrum, where the understanding is, and after it has passed into the understanding by that way, it also comes into the sight; for a man sees from the understanding. Whether you say influx into the will or influx into the love it amounts to the same thing; for the will is the receptacle of love; and whether you say understanding or faith, it again amounts to the same thing, for the understanding is the receptacle of faith. That which through the will enters into the understanding, or through love into faith, comes into enlightenment;

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for what a man wills or loves, he perceives clearly. It is different when it conies by the way of the understanding alone (A. E. 61).

343. (h) In order that spiritual good may be established in man, and that thereby he may become conjoined with the Lord, and come into a state of spiritual enlightenment, those states in man which are in opposition to spiritual good, and hence to the Lord and His kingdom, must first be removed out of the natural man. For this purpose, however, it is first of all necessary that the affection of the truth shall be purified in the man, and that he shall come from the Lord into the affection of truth for the sake of truth, and especially for the sake of life. These affections a man receives from the Lord, in proportion as he accepts for a ruling principle that everything that comes from man is evil and false, and that that only is good and true which comes from the Lord. This, however, is the principle of Affirmation concerning which Swedenborg says, that it consists in our thinking and believing within ourselves that those things which belong to doctrine from the Word are true, because the Lord has said so (see above, p. 234). This same principle consists further in this that the Divine Truth revealed by the Lord shall not only be
believed without any mental reservation whatsoever, but also that it shall be applied by the natural man in all the words he speaks, and all the deeds which he performs (see above p. 239).

The result of the principle of Affirmation when it becomes the ruling principle in man is this, that the member of the Church under its influence comes into the affection of the truth for its own sake, and also into the affection of the truth for the sake of life.

The Principle of Affirmation thus becomes one of the most important means by which a state of enlightenment is spiritual matters is conveyed to man by the Lord.

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The establishment of the principle of Affirmation in man, however, and hence his enlightenment in spiritual matters depends altogether upon a consistent application on the part of the man of his freedom of choice and thus upon the assertion, on his part, of his spiritual freedom, by virtue of which he turns himself to the Lord and His kingdom, and turns away from self and the world. We thus read:--

Two states are with man in respect to those things which pertain to the Church, to worship and to the Word. Some turn towards the Lord, thus towards heaven; and others towards self and the world. Those who turn towards the Lord, that is, towards heaven, receive influx thence, and are in enlightenment; and thus they are inwardly in the perception of the truth. This influx takes place from the Lord through the Internal into the External. But those who turn towards their own self and the world, cannot receive any influx from the Lord, that is, out of heaven; thus they cannot be in any enlightenment, nor in any perception of the truth. For the world flows in from the aspect of self, and either extinguishes altogether, or repels, or perverts whatever comes from heaven (A. C. 10,702).

Hence it is that only the regenerate or spiritual who love the Lord above all things, and their neighbor as themselves, can be in a state of enlightenment from the Lord, and therefore see and recognize Divine Truth; while the unregenerate, and hence those who are merely natural and sensual, are void of all spiritual enlightenment, and can see and understand only what enters into their minds from the world of nature through their bodily senses. This is plainly stated by Swedenborg in what follows:--

Every man as to his thoughts and affections is in the spiritual worldconsequently, as to his spirit; for a mans spirit it is which thinks and is affected. A man who through regeneration by the Lord has become spiritual, as to his spirit, is in a heavenly society; but the natural man who has not been regenerated, as to his spirit is in an infernal society. With the latter evils out of hell continually flow in, and are also received with delight; but with the formerthe spiritualgoods flow in continually out of heaven, and are also received;

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and since goods flow into his affection, and through his affection into the thought, he is in enlightenment (A. E. 759).

344. With him who has become spiritual, we learn here, goods flow in continually out of heaven, and are also received; and since goods flow into his affection, and through his affection into the thought, he is in enlightenment. And we read further, Good from the Internal operates and causes Affirmation; which good afterwards manifests itself by affection; namely, so that a man is affected by the truth, or begins to be delighted with it; first by knowing it, and afterwards by doing it (see above, p. 233). Such is the origin of the affection of the truth for its own sake, and for the sake of life.

The genuine affection of the truth, as we have seen above (A. C. 8993, in no. 276) consists in a mans willing or desiring to know the veriest truths of faith for the sake of a good use as an end, and for the sake of life. This affection, with a person who is being regenerated, gradually takes the place of that first affection of the truth which prevailed with him during the early part of his life, and which had for its object purposes of self and of the world, or glory in heaven, and other like things. Still the affection of the truth for the sake of a good use, and for the sake of life as an end, must not be mistaken for the affection of good. Concerning the difference between the affection of good and the affection of the truth we read as follows:--

There are two affections, namely, the affection of good, and the affection of truth. The affection of good consists in doing good from the love of good, and the affection of truth consists in doing good from the love of the truth. At first sight these two affections seem identical, yet they are distinct from each other both as regards essence and origin. The affection of good, or of doing good from the love of good, is properly an affection of the will; but the affection of the truth, or of doing good from the love of truth, is properly an affection of the understanding.

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The affection of good is from celestial love, and the affection of truth from spiritual love. The affection of good can be predicated only of the celestial man, and the affection of truth only of the spiritual man (A. C. 1997).

The affection of the truth, however, is originally not only impure, but also not genuine, being determined at first by purposes flowing from the loves of self and of the world. This quality attends the affection of truth more or less during the whole of the first state of regeneration, and it is only during the second state of regeneration when the affection of the truth becomes regenerated, that these selfish and worldly ingredients are gradually removed from it. Hence the enlightenment in spiritual matters, during the first stage of regeneration, is only a partial enlightenment by which a man is enabled to confirm the truth as it has been stated by others (see above, nos. 305, 306); while the enlightenment in full exists with a man only during the second state of his regeneration, after the affection of the truth in him has become fully regenerated; we thus read:--

The first affection of the truth exists with a man while he is being regenerated; but the subsequent affection, which is a new affection, exists after he has been regenerated. In the first state the man is affected with the truth in order that he may become intelligent but in the subsequent state that he may become wise or what amounts to the same thing, in the first state the man is affected with the truth for the sake of doctrine, but in the subsequent state for the sake of life. So long as a man is affected by the truth for the sake of doctrine he has regard to good from truth but when he is affected with it for the sake of life, he has respect to truth from good; wherefore, the second state is an inversion of the first. On this account, while the man is being regenerated, the first state is rejected, and the second state, which is new, is received. The first state in respect to the subsequent, new state, also is impure; for so long as a man is affected by the truth for the sake of doctrine that he may become intelligent, he is also affected by reputation and glory. This affection then cannot help being present, and it is also permitted for purposes of introduction, because the man is of such a character; but when a man is affected with the truth for the sake of life; then also he rejects glory and reputation as ends, and embraces the good of life, that is, charity towards the neighbor (A. C. 6247).

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From this it is made very plain that the affection of the truth is effective of a full state of enlightenment only in the second, and not in the first state of regeneration; and consequently, only when it has the good of life for its object. On this subject we read further:--

Enlightenment with everyone is according to his affection of the truth; and his affection of the truth is according to his good of life. Hence also those who are in the affection of the truth not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of gain, are not at all enlightened while reading the Word, but are simply confirmed in doctrinals of whatever quality they may be (A. C. 7012).

Again we read:--

Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, and it is with those who love truths because they are true, and who make them uses of life.... Enlightenment in the Word is none other.... Enlightenment in the word is with them, because they are in the Lord, and the Lord is in them. For the Lord is Truth itself; ... and the Lord is then loved, when men live according to His Divine truths; thus when uses are done from His truths (John xiv. 20-23). Such are they who are in enlightenment when reading the Word, and with them the Word shines, and is translucent.... It is thence that a man, from in interior perception, acknowledges the Truth; and afterwards sees it in his thought, and indeed as often as he is in the affection of the truth for the sake of the truth. For from this affection comes perception, from perception thought, and thus it becomes that acknowledgment which is called faith (T. C. R. 231).

The affection or love of the truth for its own sake, and without any respect to purposes of self and of the world, is the result of the influx of the light of heaven. That affection also affects the new will, through which enlightenment is conveyed to man. We thus read:--

The affection of loving truths because they are true, is imparted solely through the influx of the light of heaven through the spiritual mind.

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For through the spiritual mind [when it is opened] the light of heaven is conjoined with the heat of heaven which is love; such as comparatively the case with the light of the world in spring-time (A. E. 406).

And again:--

Those persons who are in the love of the truth for the sake of the truth, and not for the sake of self and the world, enlightened in the Word when they read it; for they communicate with heaven, and therefore with the Lord. Hence also they who are enlightened by the Lord are led to see the truths of the Word even as they are in heaven; for the Lord flows into their understanding through heaven; it being the mans interior understanding which is enlightened. The Lord flows in then at the same time with faith, by the co-operation of the new will, the character of which is affected by the truth for the sake of the truth (A. C. 9424).

345. (i) The second means by which contradictory states are removed from the natural or external man, and by which it is prepared for conjunction with the spiritual, that is, the internal man, is Spiritual Temptation. The first result of Temptation in man--that is, of those temptations in which has conquered, is that the evils forbidden in the decalogue, are subdued and removed is him by a course of repentance. But in proportion as evils are removed from the natural man, good which constantly flows in from the internal man is able to be received in the natural man, and through good, enlightenment; wherefore, repentance, and thus the conquest of evils and falsities, is a practical means by which the member of the Church is able to come into a state of enlightenment from the Lord; and, on the other hand, again, a state of enlightenment enables a man to see what is good and true, and what is evil and false; wherefore, by the shunning of the new evils lie then discovers, he is able to be enlightened still more. In conquering the evils in the natural man, however, as we have already seen, the internal man makes use forces, that is, of the goods and truths which are in the external man, especially of the truths which are there. On this subject we read:--

Since all evils and falsities reside in the natural man, therefore they must be chastised and dispersed by such things as are likewise there; namely, by truths in the natural man.... With those who are spiritual, the Lord flows in, through the spiritual or internal man, into the natural or external man, and illuminates the latter. From this enlightenment a man sees what is true and good, and what is evil and false; and when the man sees these things, the Lord breaks up and disperses the evils and falsities which are in the natural man, through truths and goods which are likewise in the natural man, and which make one with the goods and truths in the spiritual or internal man (A. E. 176).

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And again:--

Man is enlightened in the Rational for this is subject immediately to the internal Spiritual, and receives the light from heaven which it transmits to the Natural, when it is purified and an understanding, before his Natural is purified of evils.... He who believes that a man has a Rational and an understanding, before his Natural is purified of evils is mistaken. For the understanding consists in seeing the truths of the Church from the light of heaven; and the light of heaven flows in only with those [with whom evils have been removed] (A. E. 941).

During the state of temptation, a man is not in enlightenment, but rather in a state the very reverse of enlightenment; for the evil spirits of hell are then present with the man, and seek to engulf him in their evils and falsities. The enlightenment comes after the battle; that is, after the opposing evils and falsities have been removed from the natural man; when, therefore, the love of the spiritual or internal man is able to descend freely into the natural man, and to come there into a state of delight. In this connection we read:--

When the evils and falsities of a man are removed, then temptations are ended; and when they are ended joy flows in from the Lord through heaven and fills the mans natural mind (A. E. 807).

And again:--

When a man emerges from temptation, light with its spiritual heat, that is, truth with its good appears;

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thence he has gladness after anxiety. This is the morning which succeeds the night in the other life (A. C. 6829).

Again:--

After every spiritual temptation comes enlightenment and affection, thus pleasantness and delight-pleasantness from enlightenment through truth, and delight from the affection of good (A. C. 8367).

346. (j) The influx from the internal into the external man with its enlightening influence, as we have seen, takes place into a man, when under the full influence of his freedom of choice he declares in favor of everything that comes from the Lord and heaven, and against that which comes from the mans own self and from the world. This, however, includes on the one hand, a shunning of all the evils and falsities, which are opposed to spiritual good, and hence to a conjunction by means of that good, with the Lord and heaven; and, on the other, it means a doing or a carrying out of the goods of charity, in every-day life. For in order that spiritual life and light may be received from the Lord, that life must be able to flow out freely in corresponding words and deeds, according to the universal law that influx is according to efflux. This law, however, is resisted so long as the loves of self and of the world have sway in the natural man; but the result of such a resistance is, that the internal man is gradually closed up, and that the reception of spiritual heat and light in the natural man, and hence enlightenment ceases; as appears from what follows:--

It is a universal law, that influx accommodates itself to efflux; and that if the efflux is obstructed, the influx is impeded as well. Through the internal man there is an influx of good and truth from the Lord and through the external man there ought to be an efflux, namely into life, by the exercise of charity. So long as there is an efflux, there is a continual influx out of heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord. But if there is no efflux, an there is instead in the external or natural man a resistance, namely, evil and falsity, by which the inflowing good is torn and extinguished, it follows from the universal law stated above, that the influx accommodates itself to the efflux, consequently, that the influx of good is drawn backwards, and that the Internal through which the influx has place, is closed up.

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But by this closure there is caused a stupidity in spiritual matters, even to such a point that a person in that condition knows nothing of eternal life, and is not willing to know anything about it; and that at last good is altogether torn up (A. C. 5828).

This shows how necessary it is for the members of the Church, in order that they may continue in a state of spiritual enlightenment, not only to shun evils and falsities, but also to engage in the practical performance of the uses of charity; for of such persons we read:--

Those who are not in the love of self, and who strive after intelligence for the sake of the uses of life, are raised by the Lord above their proprium or self into the light of heaven, and, without becoming conscious of it, are enlightened (A. E. 356).

Truth alone, consequently, does not furnish enlightenment, but when truths are studied and acquired for the sake of uses, that is, for the sake of the good of life, then the truths are conjoined with the good which is productive of uses, and are enlightened by it. Thus we read further:--

He is very much mistaken who thinks that any one is in enlightenment if he does not love to know the truth for the sake of the truth, and for the sake of the good of life; thus, if he does not love Divine Truth for the sake of life because living according to the Divine truths from the Word means loving the Lord; but from the Lord when he is loved, there is all enlightenment (A. C. 10,861).

And again we read:--

Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, and it is with those who love truths because they are true, and who make them uses of life.... They are in the Lord, and the Lord in them. For the Lord is Truth itself, and He is loved, when men live according to His Divine truths; thus when uses are done from them (T. C. R. 231).

Again we read:--

Enlightenment is imparted to none other than those who desire to know truths, not for the sake of reputation and glory, but for the sake of life and use.

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This enlightenment is received by the Intellectual with man; for it is the Intellectual that is enlightened (A. C. 6222).

And again:--

The Revelation which is given in the Word is of such a character, that every one call be taught according to the affection of his love, and hence according to the thoughts of his understanding. Those who are not in the good of life can be taught very little; those who are in that good can be taught much. They are taught by the Lord through enlightenment (A. E. 1177).

When good uses, that is, when the good of life is thus done under the enlightening influence of the Divine Truth, then the truth in the mind is conjoined with good and becomes good; and when the truth in the natural man is conjoined with good, then the natural or external man becomes reciprocally conjoined with the internal or spiritual man; and by this conjunction comes under the direct influence of the life and light of heaven. Wherefore the goof of faith which is identical with the good of truth, and which implies an implicit carrying out in the life of the truths which a man has acquired from the Divine Word is the third medium for the regeneration of the natural man, and hence for its enlightenment. The good of faith, however, that is, the good of truth increases in a man in proportion as his life is devoted to the uses of charity; according to the principle that influx is according to efflux.

347. (k) When a man is in the habitual performance of the Good of charity in accordance with the truths of faith, then the affection from which he acts, gradually comes with him into a state of delight; and in accordance with this state of delight is the enlightenment of the man. The affection of truth is the first affection which with man comes into a state of delight, and in proportion as such is the case the affection of Good descends from the internal into the external man;

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and when this latter affection also comes into a state of delight, then the enlightenment of the Natural reaches its state of fullness; for then the natural man is reduced into a state of correspondence with the spiritual man, and the life of the internal or spiritual man is freely received in the external man. On this subject we read:--

Man has enlightenment by influx into his spiritual delight; from this he has perception according to the truths of faith, of which his understanding is composed (A. E. 825).

And again:--

Natural good and its delight imparts intelligence and enlightens.... It is to be borne in mind, however, that natural good is not good, unless it is also spiritual good; for all good through the spiritual man or mind, flows into the natural man or mind and so far as the natural man (or mind) receives the good of the spiritual man (or mind), so far it receives good. Both must be, in order that good may be; since natural good separate from spiritual good in itself is evil, although it is still perceived by man as good (A. E. 619).

From this, however, it follows that the power of enlightenment dwells solely in spiritual Good which from the internal flows into the external man, and which there, during the practical performance of the uses of life, and thus of the good of life, comes into a state of delight.

348. (1) When the regeneration of the natural man has proceeded so far that he acts from the delight of the affection of good; then it is a sign that the inversion of state, by which good becomes the ruling power in man has been consummated in him, and that he has reached the end of the sixth day of creation. A fullness of enlightenment is the result of this advanced state of regeneration, as appears from what follows:--

In general it is to be observed that a man is not regenerate [i.e., as to his natural man] until he acts from the affection of good;

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for then he wills Good, and it is delightful and blessed him to do so (A. C. 8701).

And again:--

When good flows in--which is the ease when order is being inverted, and good takes the first place--the Natural is enlightened, and then it appears what in the Natural is genuine truth and good, and what is not (A. C 4250).

But as regards the effect of good upon truths, after the inversion has taken place, it is as follows:--

When good is in the first place, and has dominion, it constantly produces truths. It multiplies them around itself, and also around each truth, and causes each truth to be like a little star, in the midst of which there is [an element of] lucidity. Moreover, good not only multiplies truths around itself; but it also produces truths from truths successively, by derivations (A. C. 5922).

349. (m) On taking a review of the whole subject of Enlightenment, we reach this result, that Good and hence Love, is the medium through which a man receives spiritual enlightenment from the Lord. This proposition is stated in so many words, in the following passages:--

All enlightenment is with man from the Lord, and it takes place through the good which is with man. Enlightenment also is according to the quality of good.... Those who are in good can see the truth from good, and can know as in clear daylight, whether a thing is so or not (A. C. 4214).

The character of the enlightenment which a man obtains through the medium of good, is explained thus:--

The good which is of charity is like a flame which affords light, and thus enlightens each and all things which the man had previously believed to be true. He also notices how falsities had intermingled themselves, and put on the appearance as though they were true (A. C. 4245).

Good, however, is the medium through which enlightenment takes place, because all enlightenment comes from the Lord, and the Lord communicates with man only through good;

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as is stated in what follows:--

The Lord never flows immediately into truths with any man, but mediately through his good. For good belongs to the will, and the will is the man himself. From the will the understanding is produced and formed; for the understanding was adjoined to the will, that what tie will loves the understanding may see, and also bring forth into light. If the will, therefore, is not in good, but in evil, the influx of truth from the Lord into the understanding is of no benefit; for it is dispersed, because it is not loved; nay, it is perverted, and the truth is falsified. From this it appears why the Lord does not flow immediately into a mans understanding, except so far as his will is in good (A. E. 730).

Again, good is the medium through which there is enlightenment, because the light of heaven flows into man through good. We thus read:--

Light from heaven enters through good, thus through the will; wherefore, if any one is in good there is light with him in the very principle of the truth, so that he is able to see it clearly. For heaven itself enters into man through the way of good or of love, thus through the will (S. D. 5708).

And again we read:--

Man is so far in the light of heaven, as he is in intelligence; and he is so far in intelligence, as he is in the truths of faith and he is so far in the truths of faith as he is in the good o love; consequently, a man is so far in the light of heaven as he is in the good of love (A. C. 5421).

350. Good is further effective of enlightenment, because it conjoins the man with the Lord, and with heaven; and hence good also is the medium, through which the Word is understood. We thus read:--

When the goods of the love of the Lord, and of the love of the neighbor are not with the member of the Church, the Word is not understood. For the conjunction of the Lord and of heaven with the member of the Church is through good. Wherefore, unless there is good with a man, there cannot be any enlightenment with him; for all enlightenment, during the reading of the Word, is from the Lord out of heaven; and when there is no enlightenment; the truths which are in the Word are in obscurity (A. E. 365).

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Good also causes enlightenment, because the man who is in good is elevated into the Divine light which proceeds from the Lord. Concerning this enlightenment through Good we read further:--

When a man is in good, and from good in truths he is elevated into the Divine light which is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord; and according to the quantity and quality of good into more interior light. From this he has a general enlightenment, in which he sees from the Lord innumerable truths, which he perceives from good. He is led then by the Lord to notice and appropriate those truths which are suitable to himself, and indeed as to the most minute in order, even as they are conducive to his eternal life. (A. C. 9407).

Good, however, not only elevates a man into the light of heaven, but it also opens the interiors of his mind for the perception of that light. We thus read further:--

Those only are in enlightenment who are in the two loves of heaven, namely, in the love of the Lord, and the love of the neighbor. For these loves open the interior i.e., the higher mind which is formed for the reception of the light of heaven. Through this mind the light of heaven flows in with these persons, and causes enlightenment; still, while they live in the world, they do not perceive truths in that higher mind, but in a lower mind which belongs to the external or natural man.... When the internal or spiritual man, in which is that interior or higher mind of which we have just spoken, is opened, the Lord coerces the evils and disperses the falsities which are in the external or natural man (A. E. 177).

Good, in fine, causes enlightenment in man because a mans faculty of reception is according to his state of good, as appears from what follows:--

Influx and enlightenment take place according to the faculty of reception with man; and the faculty of reception is according to the love of truth and good. Those, therefore, who are in the love of truth and good as ends, are elevated as to their interiors. But those who are in the love of truth and good ... for the sake of themselves and the world, because they constantly look and gravitate downwards, cannot be elevated thus they cannot receive the Divine influx, and cannot be enlightened (A. C. 10,330).

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351. (n) We have seen thus far that the light of heaven, and hence enlightenment, is conveyed to man through the medium of good, and thus through the affections of the will. Nevertheless, the light of heaven is only received by good in the will, in order that it may be transmitted from the will to the understanding, and thus from good to the truths of which the understanding is composed. How this is done appears very clearly from what follows:--

All enlightenment is from good; for the good of love is comparatively as the flame of the sun, from which are heat and light. But truth is like the object through which the flame shines; hence there is enlightenment by light; but according to the quality of the light from the object [that is, from the truth], such is the enlightenment. Good is received only by truth; but such as the truth is, such is the reception, and such is the enlightenment. Whenever, therefore, there is enlightenment through truth the appearance is as if the enlightenment from truth belonged to the truth, when yet it belongs to good, which shines in this manner through truth (A. C. 3004).

Again we read:--

Where there are no truths, there is obscurity; for the light of heaven flows only into truths. The light of heaven, indeed, is the Divine Truth from the Lord; from this it is that truths with angels and spirits, and also with men, are subsidiary lights. But their light they have from the Divine Truth through the good which is in the truths. For unless truths are from good, that is, unless they have in themselves good, they cannot receive any light from the Divine. They receive it through good; for good is like fire or flame, and truths are like lights thence. Truths do also shine in the other life apart from good, but they shine from a wintry light which becomes darkness at the approach of the light of heaven (A. C. 8219).

352. From the above then it follows that the enlightenment which the member of the Church receives by virtue of good, as to its quality is determined by the truths of which his understanding is composed. We thus read:--

The man who is led by the Lord is taught by Him from day to day what he should do and speak, and also what he should preach and write; for when evils are removed, he is continually under the Lords auspices, and enjoys enlightenment.

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But he is led and taught by the Lord not immediately by any perceptible inspiration, but by an influx into his spiritual delight, from which he has perception according to the truths of which his understanding is composed (A. E. 825).

The Lord, therefore, does not enlighten a man immediately, but mediately through the knowledges of the truth that are with him. We thus read further:--

The Lord does not flow in immediately with a man, and teach him; but He flows into his knowledges, thus mediately (A. C. 4136).

And again:--

The Lord teaches every one through the Word, and He teaches him from the knowledges that are with him, and does not immediately pour into him new knowledges (T. C. R. 208).

The method, however, by which the Lord thus enlightens man, is clearly set forth in the following passage:--

The Lord teaches no one immediately, but mediately through the things which are with the man from hearing and sight. Immediate revelation is not given, except that which has been given in the Word and which is written in the style used in the Prophets and Evangelists, or in the historical parts. revelation contained therein is of such a character that every love, and hence according to the thoughts of his understanding. Those who are not in good as to life can be taught only very little, but those who are in good can be taught much. They are taught by the Lord through enlightenment.

Enlightenment takes place as follows: Light conjoined to heat flows in through heaven from the Lord. This heat which is Divine Love, affects the will--whence the man has the affection of good; and this light which is Divine Wisdom, affects the understanding--whence the man has the thought of truth. From these two fountains, namely, from the mill and the understanding, are affected all the things of a mans love, and all the things of his knowledge; but only those things are excited which belong to the topic under consideration, and these are caused to be present.

In this wise enlightenment takes place from the Lord through the Word; wherein everything, by virtue of the Spiritual which is within it, communicates with heaven. The Lord flows in through heaven; and He flows into that which is then under the gaze of the man;

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which influx with every one is continual and universal even from the minutest singulars.... Being enlightened by the Lord through heaven, means being enlightened through the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is the Divine which proceeds from the Lord as a sun; from which sun is heaven.

From this it is manifest that the Lord teaches the member of the Church mediately through the Word, according to the love of his will which is his through life, and according to the light of his understanding which is his through knowledge or science; and, further, that this cannot be otherwise, because such is the Divine order of influx (A. E. 1177).

353. From the above it follows that the extent to which a member of the Church is capable of being enlightened by the Lord is commensurate with the extent of his knowledge. We hence read further:--

The man whose internal is opened, is in the internal sense of the Word, although he is not aware of it. Thence he has enlightenment when reading the Word, but this enlightenment is according to the light in which he is able to be by means of the knowledges which are with him. (A. C. 10,000).

Again we read:--

Spiritual perception [consequent upon enlightenment] exists from spiritual truths which are called truths of faith; and, indeed, on this ground, that the light of heaven is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord; which Truth shines before the eyes of the angels like light, and which also shines in their understanding, and imparts to them intelligence and wisdom; yet with a variety according as this light is received in good. In order, therefore, that spiritual perception may exist, there must be spiritual knowledges with a man in his Natural; and these spiritual knowledges must be from Revelation. When the light of heaven flows into these knowledges, it flows into its own; for, as said above, this light is the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord (A. C. 9103).

And again:--

The influx of the light of heaven, from the Lord through the internal man, accommodates itself to the analogous end corresponding knowledges of the Truth in the Natural; and it is according to the obedience yielded to them (Ibid).

Enlightenment with the member of the Church is thus according to the state of the natural man in respect to the knowledges of the Truth;

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wherefore we read again:--

Apart from the knowledges of good and truth the Natural cannot be enlightened by the national, that is, through the Rational; for knowledges are the recipient vessels of the good and truth which flow in from the Rational. According to the quality and quantity of what is received by the vessels is quantity and quality of their enlightenment. The vessels which receive good and truth from the national are the very truths of the Natural, which are nothing else than scientifics, knowledges and doctrinals (A. C. 3508).

Hence also it is that no one can be enlightened in, and therefore perceive, what he does not know and believe; wherefore, we read:--

The interiors, therefore, and the internals are formed and adapted for the reception of the goods of love and the truths of faith, and thus for the perception of good and truth, by instruction. For no one can perceive what he does not know and believe; wherefore, he can be gifted with the faculty of perceiving the existence and quality of the good of love and the truth of faith only by knowledges (A. C. 1802).

354. In order, however, that scientifics and knowledges may receive the 1ight of heaven, and thus may be enlightened, it is necessary that they shall be learned for the sake of use; because in this case they are opened, and are ready to receive the influx from within. We thus read:--

In proportion as scientifics are learned for the sake of use, as, for instance, for the sake of human society, for the sake of the Lords Church on earth, for the sake of the Lords Church in heaven, and still more for the sake of the Lord, they are opened (A. C. 1472).

And again:--

When scientifics and knowledges have use for end, they receive life from uses but life of such a quality as the use is. Those who learn knowledges in order to be perfected in the faith of love--for true and genuine faith is love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor--are in the use of all uses, and receive spiritual and celestial life from the Lord; and so long as they are in this life they are in the faculty of perceiving all things which belong to the Lords kingdom (A. C. 1964).

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When scientifics and knowledges have thus use for end, they are illuminated by the light of heaven; and are made spiritual and then spiritual things are in the Natural. We thus read:--

The interiors of the scientifics are the things that are spiritual in the Natural; and spiritual things are in the Natural when the scientifics which are therein are enlightened by the light of heaven; and they are then enlightened by the light of heaven, when the man has faith in the doctrinals which are from the Word; and a man has then faith, when he is in the good of charity. For then truths, and thereby scientifics are enlightened by the good of charity, as by a flame. Scientifics have their spiritual light from thence (A. C. 5637).

Scientifics which in themselves are natural, are thus made spiritual with a man who is in the good of charity; for with him they are enlightened by the light of heaven. On this subject we read further:--

Every scientific with a man is natural, because it is in his natural maneven the scientific concerning spiritual and celestial things; because the man sees them in the Natural, and from the Natural; and what he does not see from the Natural, he does not comprehend. nut the regenerate man who is called spiritual, sees things differently from the merely natural man. The scientifics with him are enlightened by the light of heaven [received through the medium of the angels]; while, with the latter they are not. With him they are enlightened by a light which flows in through spirits who are in falsity and evil; which light is indeed from the light of heaven, but with them it has become opaque, like the light of evening or night. For such spirits, and hence such men, like owls, see clearly at light, and obscurely in day-time; that is, they see clearly falsities, and obscurely truths; and hence they see clearly the things which belong to the world, and obscurely, if stall, those things which belong to heaven (A. C. 4967).

355. The quality produced in the understanding by spiritual enlightenment is faith; for by the reception of the light of heaven in the Intellectual, in the plane of conscience, faith is established also in the internal man.

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But by the conjunction of the internal with the external man, the light of heaven, by the process called Enlightenment, is established in the knowledges and scientifics, which are transformed thereby into truths of faith. In a certain sense Faith and Enlightenment are synonymous; for faith consists of truths seen in spiritual light; while enlightenment is caused by the reception of the light of heaven in the truths which the man derives by the study of the Divine Word. Concerning the relation between faith and enlightenment, we read as follows:--

When charity, which is the very spiritual affection, conjoins itself with knowledges, there results faith. In so far as a man is then in that affection, he sees with his thought those things which belong to his faith and which are called truths, and he acknowledges them, because they are from his very spirit, thus from his very spiritual life. This also is what is called enlightenment. Hence it is that no one be enlightened from the Word, unless he is in the spiritual affection of the truth (A. E. 242).

As regards the further development of faith, we read:--

Faith which in respect to its essence is charity is constantly being perfected by such things as are confirmative; for many truths are constantly being perceived from spiritual light, and all these truths conjoin themselves with the good of charity and perfect it. From this a man acquires intelligence and wisdom, which at length becomes angelic (Ibid).

Enlightenment, consequently is the result of a conjunction of charity and faith; for these two have a mutual affinity for each other and unless they are joined together charity fails to be charity, and faith faith; for charity is the life of faith, and the two are thus related like soul and body. We read further on this subject:--

Charity which is the spiritual affection, cannot exist with any one unless he is acquainted with truths, explores himself in accordance with them, receives them, and leads a new life in harmony therewith.

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But from this it follows that charity is the life of faith, and that there is life in faith in proportion to the charity that is in it; and further, that in proportion to the charity which is in faith a man is led by the Lord (A. E. 242).

Faith, thus, has a twofold origin, an internal and an external. Its internal origin is charity, and its external origin the knowledge of the truth from the Divine Word. Unless faith in man has this twofold origin it is not real, and hence not saving; nor is faith, in this ease, synonymous with enlightenment. We thus read:--

A merely natural faith is a faith insinuated through an external, and not an internal way such as is the sensual faith which arises when a thing is believed to be so because the eye has seen, and the hand touched it. This is the faith concerning which the Lord said to Thomas, Because thou hast seen, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they who do not see, and yet believe (John xx., 20). Further, such a faith is the faith of miracles which has an existence when a thing is believed to be so, solely on the strength of miracles; and, further, it is the faith of authority which has place when a thing is believed to be so, because another in whom a person has faith, says so.

But spiritual faith is that faith which is insinuated through an internal, and at the same time an external way. The insinuation through the internal way causes a thing to be believed; and what is insinuated through the external way causes this thing to be confirmed. The spiritual of faith is the affection of charity, and flowing from this the affection of the truth for the sake of a good use and for the sake of life. These cause faith to be spiritual. The insinuation of faith by an internal way, is effected by the reading of the Word, coupled with enlightenment from the Lord which is granted according to the quality of the affection, that is, according to the end by which a man is influenced in acquiring a knowledge of the truth (A. C. 8078).

356. (o) All enlightenment is effected through the truths of the Divine Word. As there is no enlightenment, unless a man is in spiritual knowledges (see above, A. C. 9103, in no. 353), so also there is no enlightenment independently of the Divine Word, because all spiritual knowledges are derived from the Divine Word.

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The enlightenment which results from regeneration is, consequently, an enlightenment in the truths of the Divine Word. Yet it must be well borne in mind that enlightenment is the Divine Word is altogether dependent upon the extent of the knowledge which a person has derived by a study of the Word. Good, indeed, is the medium through which enlightenment takes place; wherefore, unless a person is in spiritual good, he cannot be enlightened; but the extent of the enlightenment is determined by the extent of knowledges. For a person cannot perceive, and hence see in spiritual light, what he has not previously known and believed (A. C. 1802).

Enlightenment in the truths of the Divine Word, means enlightenment in, and by means of, its spiritual sense. For during enlightenment the light of heaven, through the spiritual sense, flows into the knowledges from the Divine Word which are in the mind and especially into those knowledges which are stored up there from the letter of the Word. On this subject we read:--

With those who are in enlightenment from the Lord, while they are reading the Word, light out of heaven flow sin through the internal sense (A. C. 10,648).

Again:--

The internal sense, in a certain way, is open to every one who is in an External from the Internal, i.e., whose internal man has been opened; even though he should not know what the internal sense is. For heaven which is in the internal sense of the Word, flows in with the man, while he is reading the Word; it enlightens him, and gives him perception, and thus teaches him. Yea, if you are willing to believe it, a mans internal man, of its own accord is in the internal sense; for it is a heaven in a least effigy, and hence, when it is opened, it is with the angels in heaven; wherefore it is also in like perception with them.... It hence appears, that a man whose Internal is opened, is in the internal sense of the Word, although he is not aware of it. From this he has enlightenment when reading the Word, but according to the light which he is able to have by means of the knowledges that are with him (A. C. 10,400).

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And again:--

All who read the Word, are kept by the Lord in the spiritual sense; yet, this sense is not received by any others except by those with whom the interiors are opened; and since it is received in knowledges, therefore it is received according to the extent and the charity in which their Intellectual can be enlightened through the knowledges which are with them (A. C. 10,402).

Again we read:--

Divine Truth in the literal sense is in natural light, and Divine Truth in the spiritual sense is in spiritual light; when spiritual light, therefore, flows into natural light with the man who is reading the Word, he is enlightened, and sees the truths which are in it; for the objects of spiritual light are truths. The Word in the literal sense, also, is of such a character that the more a man is enlightened by an influx of the light of heaven, the more does he see truths from their connection, and hence from their form; and the more he sees them, the more interiorly is his national opened; for the Rational is the receptacle of the light of heaven (A. R. 911).

357. It is those men who, by virtue of the opening of their internal man, are in the spiritual sense, and from this in a state of enlightenment from the Lord, who are able to form doctrine from the literal sense of the Word, for the use of the Church. We read concerning them in a general way:--

The genuine sense of the Word is not grasped by any others than those who are enlightened. But those only are enlightened who are in love and faith to the Lord. Their interiors are elevated by the Lord even into the light of heaven (H. D. 10,323).

The Word in the letter can be understood only by means of doctrine from the Word made by one who is enlightened. For its literal sense is accommodated to the apprehension of even simple minded men; wherefore, doctrine from the Word must be with them for a lamp (H. D. 10,324).

We read further:--

Doctrine must be collected from the Word, and when it is collected the man must be in enlightenment from the Lord;

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and he is in enlightenment when he is in the love of the truth for the sake of the truth, and not for the sake of self and the world. Such persons are enlightened in the Word when reading it; and they see the truth, and make for themselves doctrine. The reason of this being so is, that these persons communicate with heaven, and thus with the Lord and hence they who are enlightened by the Lord are led to see the truths of the Word such as they are in heaven. For the Lord flows into their understanding through heaven, because it is the interior understanding of the man which is enlightened. The Lord also, at the same time, flows in then with faith, by the co-operation of the new will as a means, the part of which new will it is to
become affected by the truth for the sake of the truth. In this wise the doctrine of truth and good is given by the Lord to man (A. C. 9424).

358. Doctrine is necessary because the Word in its literal sense as stated above, is accommodated apprehension of the simple-minded. While, therefore, in some parts of the letter the internal sense of the Word, which is true doctrine shines forth, in other parts the truth, by appearances, is accommodated to the state of reception of the simple-minded. The apparent contradictions which necessarily arise under such circumstances, are explained and reconciled by the doctrine of the Church, which is made by those who are in a state of enlightenment from the Lord. On this subject we read:--

The truths which are drawn from the literal sense of the Word are called scientific truths. The general truths from that source are received by the generality of men, and hence are current in ordinary conversation. There are many truths of that kind, and they have great power. But the literal sense of the Word is for the simple-minded, for those who are being initiated into the interior truths of faith, and for those w do not comprehend interior things; for that sense is according to the appearance before the sensual man, and thus according to the appearance before the sensual man, and thus according to his comprehension. Hence it is that in a number of places in that sense there occur incongruous things and such as are contradictory.... These things, because they are drawn from the literal sense of the Word are called scientific truths, which differ much from the truths of faith that belong to the doctrine of the Church.

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The latter truths arise from the former by explanation; for when they are explained, the member of the Church learns that these things are so expressed in the Word for the sake of comprehension, and according to the appearance. Hence also it is that the doctrines of the Church in very many cases recede from the literal sense of the Word. It is to be observed that the true doctrine of the Church is what is called here the internal sense; for in the internal sense are truths of the kind that the angels have in heaven (A. C. 9028).

From this may be seen the importance of true doctrine from the Word, which is to be formed by those who are in a state of enlightenment from the Lord. We read further concerning them:--

Truths from the Word are to be fitted together into doctrine, so as to be subservient for use. This should be done by those wile are in enlightenment from the Lord. But in a state of enlightenment, while reading the Word, are they who are in the affection of the truth for the sake of the truth, and for the sake of the good of life; and not they who are in this affection for the sake of self-glory, reputation and brain (A. C. 10,105).

And again we read:--

Every one is enlightened and instructed from the Word according to his affection of the truth, and the intensity of his desire for the truth; and also according to his faculty of reception. Those who are in enlightenment, as to their internal man, are in heaven; for it is the light of heaven that enlightens a man in the truths and goods of faith. Those who are illuminated in this manner understand the Word according to its interiors. Wherefore, they form doctrine for themselves out of the Word, to which they apply the literal sense (A. C. 9382).

359. It is thought sometimes that a member of the Church, by virtue of the good of life in which he is, or by virtue of an advanced state of regeneration, is able to see the spiritual sense of the Word in the sense of the letter, independently of the condition of his mind in respect to a knowledge of doctrine. But this is a fallacy; for it is a fundamental condition of enlightenment that spiritual good is the medium through which the light of heaven is admitted into the man in whom the external and the internal man are conjoined;

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but that the extent of this illumination is determined altogether by the state of spiritual knowledges in the mind. That by these knowledges, however, is not meant simply a knowledge of correspondences, but also a knowledge of doctrine, that is, a knowledge of the truths taught by the spiritual sense, appears from what follows:--

Hereafter the spiritual sense of the Word will not be given to any one, except to one who is in genuine truths from the Lord. The cause is that no one can see the spiritual sense except from the Lord alone, and unless he is in Divine truths from the Lord. For the spiritual sense of the Word treats of the Lord alone and His kingdom; and that sense it is in which are His angels in heaven; for it is His Divine Truth there. This Divine Truth may be violated by a man, if he possesses a knowledge of correspondences, and by means of that knowledge is desirous to explore the spiritual sense of the Word from his own power; for by some correspondences known to himself he may pervert that sense, and bend it so as to confirm even what is false. But this would be doing violence to the Divine Truth, and hence also to heaven, which is its dwelling-place. If any one, therefore, wishes to open that sense from himself and not from the Lord, heaven is closed; and when heaven is closed a man either sees nothing of the truth, or he is spiritually demented. The cause of this is also that the Lord through the Word teaches every one, and He teaches him from the knowledges that are with him, and does not immediately pour in new ones; unless, therefore, a man is in Divine truths, or if he is only in a few truths and it the same time, in falsities, he may from these falsities falsify truths as is also done by every heretic, so far as the very literal sense of the Word is concerned. Lest, therefore, anyone should enter into the spiritual sense, and pervert the genuine truth which belongs to that sense, guards are placed by the Lord, which in the Word are called cherubim (T. C. R. 208).

We read again:--

It may be thought that the doctrine of genuine truth can be acquired through the spiritual sense of the Word, which is given by means of the science of correspondences. Doctrine, however, is not acquired through the spiritual sense, but it is simply illustrated and corroborated by its means for no one comes into the spiritual sense through correspondences, unless he is previously in genuine truths from doctrine.

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Unless a man is previously in genuine truths, through some correspondences known to him, he call falsify the Word, by connecting and explaining these correspondences so that they shall confirm what is inherent in the mind from a preconceived principle. Besides, the spiritual sense is not given to any one except by the Lord alone, and it is guarded by Him, as heaven is guarded; for heaven is in that sense (S. S. 56).

And again:--

No one can see the spiritual sense except from the doctrine of genuine truth. From that doctrine the spiritual sense may be seen, when there is some knowledge of correspondences. But he who is in the doctrine of what ms false cannot see anything of the spiritual sense. He draws and bends the correspondences with which he is acquainted towards the falsities of his doctrine; wherefore, he is able to falsify the Word still more. The spiritual sense of the Word, therefore, is from the Lord. This is the reason why no one either in the natural, or in the spiritual world is allowed to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word from its literal sense, unless he is thoroughly in the doctrine of Divine Truth, and in enlightenment from the doctrine of Lord. Wherefore, the spiritual sense may be seen from the doctrine of the Divine Truth confirmed from the literal sense of the Word; but doctrine can never be seen first from the spiritual sense. He thinks falsely who says to himself: I know many correspondences; now I may know the doctrine of Divine Truth, the spiritual sense will teach it to me. This cannot be done. But, as said above, let him say to himself: I know the doctrine of Divine Truth, now I may see the spiritual sense, provided I know correspondences. Yet even then he must be in enlightenment from the Lord; because the spiritual sense is the very Divine Truth in its light, and it is understood by the glory, while the literal sense of the Word is understood by the cloud (De Verbo, posthumous, no. 21).

A knowledge of correspondences, however, is not the only means by which we may arrive at a knowledge of the spiritual sense. This sense appears also by a study of the context, and a comparison of a number of passages from Scripture; as appears from what follows:--

The internal sense is not that sense only which is hidden away in the external sense, but also that sense which results from a proper comparison of various passages of the literal sense; and this sense is noticed by those who are enlightened by the Lord as to their Intellectual.

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For the enlightened Intellectual distinguishes between apparent and real truths, and especially between falsities and truths, although it does not judge of the very truths in themselves. The Intellectual, however cannot be enlightened unless it is believed that the love to the Lord and the charity towards the neighbor are the chief and the essential things of the Church. He who proceeds from an acknowledgment of these things, and provided he is in them himself, sees innumerable truths nay, many arcana are uncovered to him, and indeed from an interior acknowledgment, according to the degree of his enlightenment from the Lord (A. C. 7233).

360. Those who are taught by the Lord by means of the Word, are enlightened as to the literal sense in their minds; for this sense is illuminated with them by the light of the spiritual sense. We thus read:--

When those who are in Divine truths, and in the faith that the Word interiorly in its bosom is the Holy Divine and still more when those who are in the faith that the Word is such by virtue of its spiritual and celestial senses, read the Word while in a state of enlightenment from the Lord, they see Divine truths in natural light. For the light of heaven in which is the spiritual sense of the Word, flows into the natural light in which is the literal sense of the letter of the Word, and illuminates the mans Intellectual, which is called the national, and cause the man to see and acknowledge Divine truths where they stand forth, and where they are hidden. With some these things flow in with the light of heaven; sometimes even, while they do not know it (T. C. R. 215).

The enlightenment of the Divine Word in man takes place through the influx of his interior, spiritual thought into his exterior, natural thought which is from the knowledges and scientifics in the external, natural memory; concerning this influx see above (no. 300). On this subject we read further:--

Those who are in enlightenment while reading the Word, see it from within; for their Internal is opened; and when the Internal is opened, it is in the light of heaven. This light flows in and enlightens, although the man is not aware of it. He is not aware of it, because this light flows into the knowledges in the mans memory, which knowledges are in natural light. And since the man, from these knowledges, thinks as from himself, he is unable to notice the influx;

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nevertheless, from various indications he may know that he has been under the influence of enlightenment.

The influx, however, through which enlightenment takes place is as follows: When the Word is being read the angels perceive it, as well as the men; but the angels perceive it spiritually, and the men naturally. The man whose Internal is aware of it so long as he lives in the world, because his spiritual thought flows into natural thought in the external man, and presents itself there to the sight. Nevertheless, it is that Interior thought which enlightens, and through which the influx from the Lord takes place. The ideas of interior thought are spiritual, and on flowing down are turned into natural ideas, which appear then under another form, and under another appearance (A. C. 10,661).

361. The Word is the chief means of mans salvation, because through the Word is effected mans union with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord. But the Word has bees entrusted by the Lord to the Church, that through its teaching, the Church may become instrumental in establishing the Lords kingdom in the souls of men, and that by its means it may lead men to the Lord, and cause them to be regenerated at His hands. But since the Word cannot be understood without doctrine, and since doctrine from the Word can be prepared only by one who is in a state of enlightenment from the Lord, therefore also the Lord has provided that the ministers of the Church shall be in enlightenment from Him by virtue of their ordination into the ministerial office. This source of enlightenment is in addition to that which is enjoyed by those of the clergy, as well as by those of the laity, who suffer themselves to be regenerated by the Lord. Concerning this twofold enlightenment we read:--

That Divine virtue and operation which is meant by the sending forth of the Holy Spirit, with the clergy in particular consists in enlightenment and instruction. The operations of the Lord enumerated above, namely, reformation, regeneration, renovation, vivification, remission of sins, and lastly, salvation, flow in from the Lord with the clergy, as well as with the laity, and are received by those wile are in the Lord and the Lord in them (John vi., 56; xiv 20; xv. 4, 5).

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But the reason why with the clergy in particular there are enlightenment and instruction, is this, that they belong to their office, and that the ordination into the ministry conveys them.... That with the clergy there are two other spiritual operations besides may be seen below in no. 155 (T. C. R. 146).

It was shown above (no. 146) that the Divine virtue which is meant by the operation of the Holy Spirit consists with the clergy in particular in Enlightenment and Instruction but two intermediate [virtues] are added to these, namely, Perception and Disposition. Wherefore, there are four things which follow with the clergy in order; Enlightenment, Perception, Disposition and Instruction. Enlightenment is from the Lord; Perception is with man, according to the state of his mind as formed through doctrinals if these doctrinals are true, the perception becomes clear from the light which enlightens; but if these doctrinals are false, the perception becomes obscure, and yet by dint of confirmation it may appear as if it were clear but this is due to a fatuous light, which before the merely natural sight appears like brightness. Disposition, however, arises from the affection of the love of the will; the delight of which love disposes and arranges. If this delight is that of an evil love and of the falsity from it, it excites a zeal which outwardly appears harsh, rough furious and fiery, and inwardly consists of anger, rage and unmercifulness but if this delight is that of good and of the truth from it, the zeal which it causes is outwardly gentle and smooth, thundering and flashing, yet inwardly it consists of charity, grace and mercy. Instruction, however follows, as an effect from the above causes. Thus the enlightenment which is from the Lord is turned into various kinds of light and heat with every one according to the state of his mind (T. C. R. 155).

362. There is thus with the clergy an enlightenment which is inherent in the use of the ministerial office, and which is conveyed to them by ordination. This enlightenment, however, is not independent of those conditions under which the members of the Church ordinarily enjoy from the Lord enlightenment in spiritual matters. For as enlightenment is received by the members of the Church generally through the medium of the good of charity, and thus through the spiritual love of use, so also enlightenment comes to the ministers of the Church while they are engaged in the performance of the use, that is, of the good of their office which concerns the salvation of souls.

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For according to a ministers love of the use of his office, is his affection of the truth, and his understanding of the truth, and his skill in presenting the truth to others. For we read:--

The good of the priesthood consists in caring for the salvation of souls, in teaching the way to heaven, and in leading those who are taught. In proportion as a minister is in that good, in the same proportion he acquires, from the love and the desire of that good, the truths which he may teach, and through which he may lead (Doctr. of Life, 30).

But is T. C. R. 166 we read, that the delight of the affection of a ministers love disposes and arranges--namely, the truths in his mind, so that he is able to teach, and to lead those who are taught.

363. Another general condition of enlightenment, as we have seen, is this: that the extent of enlightenment, with a member of the Church, is determined by the knowledges in the mind. For, as we have seen, enlightenment with a man is according to the light in which he is able to be by means of the knowledges which are with him (A. C. 4136). And, again, the Lord teaches man from the knowledges that are with him, and does not immediately pour into him sew knowledges (T. C. R. 208).

This fundamental condition of enlightenment applies emphatically to that enlightenment which the ministers receive from the Lord by virtue of their ordination into the ministerial office. For the perception of a minister which results from the enlightening influx of the Holy Spirit into the ministerial office, as we have seen, is according to the state of his mind as formed by doctrinals; and, again, the enlightenment which is from the Lord is turned, with the ministers, into various kinds of light and heat;

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with every one according to the state of his mind. This same doctrine is further expressed in the following passage:--

The clergyman who is to teach the Word, the doctrine of the Lord, of redemption and salvation by Him, is to be ordained by the solemn promise of the Holy Spirit, and the representation of its transfer; but it is received by the clergyman according to the faith of his life (Canons, Holy Spirit, iv. 7-9).

As no new knowledges are poured into a minister by his ordination; but only those knowledges are enlightened in his mind which he has acquired by previous study; therefore, also, it is necessary that ministers should receive a special training for their office; and that by their training not only the generals, but also the particulars and singulars of the doctrine of the Divine Word, should be firmly implanted in their minds. For the difference between the clergy and the laity does not consist simply is the fact that the former are ordained, and the latter not, but that the former are in the interiors, and thus in the particulars and singulars of doctrine, and the latter not; as is plainly stated in what follows:--

The Church [that is, the outward, visible Church] is internal and external. It is internal with the clergy, and external with the laity; that is, it is internal with those who have studied interiorly the doctrinals of the Church, and confirmed them from the Word; and it is external with those who have not done so (A. R. 393).

But that the ministers should be trained in the particulars and singulars of doctrine, follows from the fact that internal things are particulars and singulars, and external things generals, as appears from what follows:--

The more exterior a thing is, the more general also it is; and the more interior, the less general--so that interior things are respectively called particulars and singulars (A. C. 4345).

364. Enlightenment, again, as we have seen, is brought about through association with the angels of heaven.

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When, therefore, a member of the Church, by virtue of his regeneration, is associated with the angels of heaven, then through his associate angels the light of heaven is directed into the truths and knowledges which hare entered into the formation of his understanding. We thus saw above (D. L. W. 150, in no. 334), that enlightenment takes place through the mediation of angels and spirits, because the man who is in enlightenment is placed then in the midst of such angels and spirits as receive from the Lord alone mole enlightenment than others. From this, however, it follows that the enlightenment of ministers also takes place through a similar channel; that, therefore, by virtue of their ordination they are placed in the midst of such angels and spirits as receive from the Lord alone more enlightenment than others.

This consociation with angels and spirits is effected through the rite of the imposition of hands, which is introduced into the ceremony of ordination; and which is the correspondential sign of the transfer of the Holy Spirit; as appears from what follows:--

Communications of the mind are effected through the touch of the hands, because the hands are a mans ultimates, and because the first things of man are at the same time in his last things or in his ultimates; for by this means all the intermediate things belonging both to the body and the mind are kept in unbroken connection. Hence it is that the Lord touched infants(Matt. xvii., 6; Mark x., 13, 16) and that He also healed the sick by the touch and that those also were healed who touched Him. Hence also it is that ordinations into the priesthood are effected at the present day by the imposition of the hands (C. L. 396).

Through the rite of ordination, therefore, ministers as to their minds are associated with such spirits and angels, as are more than others in the good of the ministerial office--that is, in the love of saving souls, and as, at the same time, receive from the Lord alone more enlightenment than others.

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This enlightenment the ministers of the gospel enjoy, while they are engaged in the performance of the duties of their office; but when they act in their private capacity, and in their capacity as members of the state, then they act from the enlightenment which is theirs, by virtue of their own regenerate life.

From this, however, it follows that the ministers of the Church have a twofold character; their official and their private character belongs to the Lord, because the ministerial office is representative of the Lord in the work of saving souls; but their private character is their own. In ordinations, the representative character of the priesthood, supersedes altogether the private character of the minister. In this representative character the Lord is present with the ordaining ministers of the Church when they introduce candidates into the ministerial office through the gate of ordination; and through the representative character of the ordaining minister, the Lord conveys the Holy Spirit to the person ordained. Concerning this communication of the Holy Spirit we read:--

The Holy [influence] which is understood by the Holy Spirit, is not communicated by one man to another, but it is communicated by the Lord through one man to another man (Canons, Holy Spirit, iv. 5).

And again:--

The Divine which is understood by the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Lord through the clergy to the laity, through preachings, according to the doctrine of the truth received therefrom. Also, through the sacrament of the Holy Supper, according to repentance before it (Ibid. 8, 9).

As the doctrine of the Church through the special influx of the Holy Spirit into the minds of the ministers by virtue of their ordination, is enlightened in their minds even beyond the light in which they are able to be by virtue of the good which is theirs by regeneration; as they are thus specially protected by the Lord against evils and falsities, while they are in the exercise of the duties of their office, we read concerning them in conclusion:--

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This closes the important subject of enlightenment, as set forth by Swedenborg in the doctrines of the New Church. This enlightenment is the crowning state of regeneration; and, therefore, with the doctrine of enlightenment, the doctrine of regeneration also is brought to a close; that is, the doctrine of the regeneration of the spiritual or fallen man. The spiritual man, however, may continue the course of his regeneration until he reaches the seventh day--the seventh state of the regenerate life, which is called the celestial state. But as the regeneration of the celestial man, in the letter of the Divine Word, has a special chapter devoted to it-chapter ii. of Genesisso also, in our present work, we shall devote a special article to the Doctrine of the Celestial Man.

k. The Doctrine of the Celestial Man.

365. The man who by birth is in a state of order, is called celestial. A man, however, is said to be in a state of order, when his will and understanding are perfectly united, and when the life of love and wisdom from the Lord flows immediately into his will-faculty, and from his will passes into his understanding, where it gives rise to the perception of the truth. Such was the quality of the man who belonged to the Most Ancient Church, called Adam, and wile figuratively dwelled is the garden of Eden. Of him we read:--

Man from the beginning was so created, that the will and understanding in him should make a one; so that he should not think anything but what he willed, nor will anything but what he thought.

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Such is the state with those who are celestial, and it was so in the celestial Church, called Man, or Adam (A. C. 2930).

Again:--

With the celestial, good itself is implanted in their will-part, and from thence light with them passed into their intellectual part (A. C. 2715).

And again:--

When a mans will-part is of such a character that it is able to receive the rays of the celestial flame, his Intellectual is enlightened; and from love he knows and perceives all things which are truths of faith (A. C. 1043).

We read further:--

The men of the celestial Church are such that they perceive all the truths and goods of heaven from the Lord through influx into their interiors whence they see truths and goods interiorly in themselves as though they were inborn; and they have no need to learn them by a posterior way, and to enrich the memory therewith. Thus neither do they reason about truths, whether a thing be so or not so. For he who sees truths within himself, does not reason; because reasoning implies a doubt whether a thing is so. This also is the reason why the celestial never mention faith; for faith implies something the unknown, which nevertheless must be believed, although not seen (A. E. 730).

366. The internal, and external man with the celestial man are thoroughly conjoined, so that the external man corresponds to the internal. But the result of this correspondence is, that with him light from the internal man passes at once into the sensual and corporeal degree of the external man, where it is received by the impressions which enter through the bodily senses; these sensuous impressions, however, by the reception of the light from within, become, as it were, the mirrors and reflections of the truths which are perceived by the enlightened understanding of the internal man. The external man, with the celestial man, is therefore in a state of correspondence with the internal man, down to the very sensual degree, which yields all unquestioned obedience to the goods and truths willed and perceived by the internal man.

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We thus read further:--

The order of life with the celestial man is, that the Lord through love and the faith of lore flows into his intellectual, rational and scientific things; and since there is no combat, he perceives that a thing is so.... Such order, that is, such a man is called a garden in Eden eastwards.... The state of that man is then, that he is with the angels in heaven, and is, as it were, one with them. For man was so created that, while living on earth, he is at the same time in heaven. All his thoughts, and the ideas of his thoughts, yea, his very words and actions, in which is contained what is celestial and spiritual are open, and they continue open even to the Lord. For in every one is the Lords life, which enables him to have perception (A. C. 99).

And again:--

In the Most Ancient celestial man the sensual things of the body were such as to obey, and to be subservient to the internal man. Beyond this they did not care for these things (A. C. 243).

That the mirroring, in the sensuous impressions of the external man, of the heavenly truths perceived by the internal man, constitutes the basis of the perception of heavenly truths in the world of nature, appears from what follows:--

A man sees interior things in the sensual things which belong to the exterior Natural, almost in the same may in which he sees affections in the face, and still more interior affections in the eyes. Apart from such an interior face, or apart from such a plane, a man could not at all think in the body of such things as are beyond the impressions of the senses; for he sees them there, as a man sees the affections and thoughts of another in his face, when he does not pay any attention to the face itself; and also as he hears another talking when he does not pay any attention to his words, but to the meaning of his speech--the very speech of the words being the plane, wherein that meaning is contained (A. C. 5166).

In order, however, that the sensual degree of the external man may thus mirror heavenly truths, the whole of the external man must he in a state of correspondence with the internal man, and to be most intimately conjoined with it; as is the case with the celestial man.

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We thus read:--

The rational mind, that is, the interior will and the interior understanding with man, ought to represent itself in his natural mind, as this latter main represents itself in the face and its expressioneven to such a degree, that as the face is the expression of the natural mind, so the natural mind ought to be the expression of the rational mind. When there is a state of conjunction, as in the case of those who have been regenerated, then whatever a man wills and thinks interiorly in the Rational, renders itself visible in his natural mind, which in its turn manifests itself in the face. Of this character is the face of the angels; and of this character was the face of the Most Ancient people, who were celestial men. For they were not afraid to let others know their ends and intentions; because they only intended good. He who suffers himself to be led by the Lord, never intends and thinks anything (A. C. 3573).

367. With the spiritual man, that is, with the man born with hereditary evil, who has been regenerated as far as the sixth day of creation, the external man, as we have seen above (no. 318, at p. 464 et seq.) is reduced into a state of correspondence, so far as its two higher degrees, namely, the rational and the interior natural, are concerned; but the lowest, i. e., the sensual degree, is not regenerated with him although it is reduced into a state of obedience, and hence of compliance. With the celestial man, however, the sensual degree is in a state of order, and hence of correspondence as well; and inasmuch as he perceives that a thing is so; by which is meant that he enjoys the perception of the celestial man. But the perception of the celestial man, as we have also seen, comes into existence when the sight of his internal man is introduced into the sight of his external manthat is, into the sight of those things which, through the senses of the body, are conveyed into the mans interior sensory; and, further, when the truths which are perceived by the internal man are mirrored or reflected in the objects which are received by the external man from the natural world.

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Concerning this bringing down, or this leading forth, of the sight of the internal man so that it sees internal in external things, which takes place with the celestial man, we read as follows:--

The case with the sight of the interior or inward man when from external he sees internal things, is as follows. Internal things are led forth, when anyone with the eyes of his body beholds the starry heaven, and from it thinks of the Lords Kingdom. Whenever a man sees anything with his eyes, and as it were, does not see the things which he sees, but from them sees, or thinks of, those things which belong to the Church or to heaven, then his interior sight, that is, the sight of his spirit or of his soul, is led forth without. The eye itself in reality is nothing else than the sight of the spirit led forth without; and indeed chiefly for this end that a man from things external may see internal things; that is, that from the objects in this world he may constantly reflect on those things which are in the other world; for it is for the sake of that world that he lives in this. The sight of the Most Ancient Church was of this description; such also is the sight of the angels who are with the man; and such was the Lords sight (A. C. 1806).

Again we read:--

A man beholds internal from external things, when he views the sky, and does not think at all of the starry heaven, but of the angelic heaven and when on beholding the sun, he does not think of the sun but of the Lord who is the Sun of heaven and likewise, when he contemplates the moon and the stars. Yea, when such a man beholds the immensity of heaven, he does not think of its immensity, but of the immense and infinite power of the Lord; so with the rest--for there is nothing but what is representative. In like manner he regards the things on earth: when he beholds the rise of the day, he does not think of the sun-rise, but of the rise of all things from the Lord, and of the progression into the full day of wisdom. Again, when he sees gardens, orchards, and flower-beds, his eye does not dwell on any tree, or its blossoms, foliage, and fruit, but upon the heavenly things which they represent; nor upon any flower its beauty and charm, but upon those things which are represented by flowers in the other life; for there is nothing beautiful and delightful, either in the sky or on the earth, which is not representative of the kingdom of the Lord (A. C. 1807).

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368. Men at the present time, and even those who have made a thorough study of the doctrines of the New Church and of the subject of correspondences have to make a considerable effort with their minds, in order to realize, when in the midst of the things of this world the spiritual signification of only a few of those things which strike their bodily senses. For even should they be progressing in their regeneration, and should they, by the Divine Mercy, have reached the fourth, fifth, or even the sixth day of creation, there are scarcely any at the present time with whom also the sensual degree of their external man has been regenerated. And yet only in the case of these can the sight of their internal man, and determine the same. The rest are too much engrossed by the outward appearance of things, and the affairs of this world, so that it becomes irksome and difficult for them to raise their eyes at all to heaven, so long as the things of this world claim their attention. On this subject we read:--

It may be known to every one that the general idea governs all particulars, and hence all the objects of the senses, both those that are seen, and those that are heard and indeed to such a degree that these objects are not cared for, except so far as they flow into the general idea entertained by a person. When thus any one is glad in his mind, everything that he sees and hears, appears to him as though it were joyful and smiling; while to him who is of a sad mind, everything that he hears and sees, appears sad and painful. Thus it is in all other cases. For the general affection and causes each single thing to be seen and heard in the general affection; the rest does not appear and it is even as though it were absent, or of no account. Thus it was with the member of the Most Ancient Church; whatever he saw with his eyes was to him heavenly; and hence each and all things with him were, as it were, living (A. C. 920).

We read further:--

The Most Ancient Church which was celestial, looked upon all the earthly and worldly, and also upon all the bodily things, whichever became with them objects of the senses, as merely dead things.

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But, because each and all things in the world present some idea of the Lords kingdom, and thus of things celestial and spiritual, therefore, when the members of that Church saw, or apprehended by any of their senses, such worldly things, they did not think from them, but by them, as means. Dead things, with them, thus became living (A. C. 1400).

And again:--

To the Most Ancient people who were celestial men, whatever they apprehended with any of their senses, was a means for thinking concerning those things which are the Lords, and thus concerning the lord and His kingdom. The delight which they derived from worldly and earthly things was from that source. Yea, even when they beheld the lowest and ultimate things of nature, these things appeared before their eyes as though alive. For the life, from which these things [originally] descended, was in their internal sight and perception; and the things which were presented before their eyes were like images of that life; and these images, though inanimate still became animate for them, in this manner (A. C. 3702).

369. Further particulars concerning the character of the perception which was enjoyed by the Most Ancient people, and, therefore, which is enjoyed by the celestial man, are contained in what follows:--

Because the members of the Most Ancient Church were angelic, internal men, they indeed become sensible of the external things belonging to the body and the world; but they did not care for them. In each single object of the senses they perceived something Divine and heavenly; as for example: When they saw a high mountain, they did not lay hold of the idea of a mountain, but of height; and from height they perceived heaven and the Lord. On this account it was that the Lord was said to dwell in the Highest, and was also called the Most High and the Most Exalted; and that worship was afterwards celebrated on high mountains. Again, when they perceived the morning, they did not perceive the morning the day itself, but what is celestial, which is like the morning, and the day-dawn in the mind. On this account the Lord was called Morning, and also Day-spring. With a tree, its fruit and leaves, the case was the same; for the trees themselves they did not care at all; but in them they saw, as it were, a representation of man: in the fruits they perceived love and wisdom, and in the leaves faith.

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Hence also the member of the Church was not only likened to a tree, and to a paradise, and the things with him, to fruits and leaves but he was also called so. The case is so with those who are in the angelic idea (A. C. 920).

And again:--

The Most Ancient people in each and all things, as in hills, open fields, gardens, groves and forests in tilled grounds and in fields covered with grain, in trees of every kind, in animals of every kind, and in the luminaries of heaven. saw something representative and significative of the Lords kingdom but they never dwelled with their eyes, and still less with their minds, on these objects, which were with them means for thinking of the celestial and spiritual things of the Lords kingdom; and even to such a degree that there was nothing in universal nature but served them in such a capacity (A. C. 2722).

But in order to place the perceptive power of the celestial man, as compared with that of the man at the present time into a still clearer light, let the letter of the Divine Word serve as an instance, as in the following passage:--

If a man of the Most Ancient Church had read the historical or prophetic Word, without any previous instruction, and without any explanation, he would have seen its spiritual meaning, and even to such a degree, that the celestial and spiritual things of the internal sense would have come up at once, and scarcely anything of the literal sense: the internal sense would thus have been with him in clearness, and the literal sense in obscurity. It would have been like one who hears another speaking and lays to heart only his meaning and does not attend to the words of the speaker (A. C. 4403).

370. From the fact that the men of the celestial Church perceive all the truths and goods of heaven from the Lord through influx into their interiors (A. E. 739), it does not follow, however, that they receive no truth whatever through any other channel. On the contrary, the men of the Most Ancient Church received instruction in the things pertaining to the Lords kingdom and to the Lord Himself, by association with the angels of heaven, and also through dreams and visions immediately from the Lord.

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With regard to their association with the angels of heaven, we learn, first of all, that they were able to hold such intercourse, because they were in the love of the Lord and of the neighbor, and because, secondly, they enjoyed internal respiration. On this subject we read:--

In the Most Ancient Church they had communication with the angels, because their interior, that is, their spiritual man, by means of internal respiration, was conjoined with heaven; and because the love to the Lord and the love towards the neighbor have with them such a communication; for thus a man is conjoined with the angels through their veriest life, which consists in such a love (A. C. 1121).

Again:--

In the Most Ancient Church they had internal respiration, and only tacit external respiration (A. C. 607).

And further:--

Their respiration was varied according to the state of their love and faith in the Lord; and since they had communication with heaven, it could not be otherwise; for they respired with the angels with whom they had intercourse. The angels have a respiration to which the internal respiration in man corresponds, and it is varied with them in a similar manner (A. C. 1119).

Hence also we further read:--

The men of the Most Ancient Church perceived the state of love and faith through the states of respiration (A. C. 97).

By becoming conjoined with the angels through the life of the love of the Lord and of the neighbor, and through respiration with them, the members of the Most Ancient Church were lifted almost entirely out of their bodies, and in their minds were able to accompany the angels during periodical visits which they were able to make to heaven. We thus read:--

The angels were then [in those Ancient times] able to speak with men, and to take the minds of the men (which were almost separated from their bodily parts) with them into heaven, and to lead them about there;

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and to show them the magnificent and blessed things of heaven, and also to communicate to them their felicities and delights (A. C. 8118).

In a state similar to that of the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church, were the prophets when they saw the wonderful things of the spiritual world as appears from what follows:--

An angel was sent by the Lord to John [the Revelator] in order that the latter might he kept in the state of the spirit, and that the angel might show to him in that state the things which he saw. For whatever things John saw, he did not see with the eyes of his body, but with those of his spirit; ... and into such a state, except through angels who are closely adjoined to the man, and who superinduce their own spiritual state on the interiors of the mans mind. By such means, indeed, a man is raised into the light of heaven, and in the light he sees the things which are in heaven, and not those which are in the world. In a state similar to this Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, and other prophets, were at times (A. R. 945). See also above 9p. 82, no. 66) where the character of Swedenborgs spiritual sight is described.

371. To this circumstance, namely, that the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church, while in this world, were able to hold converse with the angels of heaven, was also due in part their faculty of seeing spiritual in natural things. For by their intercourse with the angels they were accustomed to view the objects in the natural world from the angelic point of view. We thus read:--

The men of the Most Ancient Church were of such a character that they conversed with the angels of heaven; and they were able to do so through correspondences. Hence the quality of their wisdom became such, that whenever they saw anything on earth they thought of it not only naturally, but also spiritually, and thus also in conjunction with the angels of heaven (T. C. R. 202).

Again we read:--

Because the members of the Most Ancient Church were celestial men and had intercourse with the angels, all the things which they saw or apprehended with any sense were to them representative and significative of the celestial and spiritual things which were in the Lords kingdom:

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so that they indeed saw the worldly or earthly things, and apprehended them with some sense, but from them and through them they thought of celestial and spiritual things. Thus, and not otherwise, they were able to converse with the angels. For when the things which with the angels are celestial and spiritual come to man, they fall into those things which are with the man
(A. C. 2896).

It is plain from this that the angels were able to communicate with the men of the Most Ancient Church by correspondences; and that the knowledge of correspondences on the part of the members of that Church enabled them to commune with the angels.

Another channel through which the members of the Most Ancient Church received information about heavenly and Divine things, was through dreams and visions from the Lord. On this subject we read:--

The men of the Most Ancient Church had the knowledges of true faith through revelations; for they conversed with the Lord and with the angels; and they received instruction through visions and dreams which to them were most delightful and paradisaical (A. C. 128).

And again:--

The men of the Most Ancient Church had most delightful dreams, and besides they had visions. It was also insinuated into them what they signified (A. C. 1122).

372. As regards the instruction which the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church received by their intercourse with the angels, and by dreams and visions from the Lord, this information passed with them at once into their love, that is, into their will; and it was not received first in the memory, and thus by the understanding, as is the case with the spiritual men, that is, with those who are not born into a state of order. On this subject we read:--

In each kingdom, in the celestial as well as in the spiritual, good is implanted through truth....

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But with those who are in the celestial kingdom truth does not become a matter of knowledge, nor of faith, nor of conscience; but the reception takes place in the good of love, and so far as they live according to the truth, it becomes perception which increases and is perfected with them according to their love. This takes place from day to day, without their knowing anything about it, almost as is the case with children. The reason of their not knowing anything about it is, that truth with them does not remain in the memory as a matter of knowledge, nor does it remain as a matter of the understanding in the thought, but it passes at once into the will-part, and becomes a matter of life. Wherefore they do not see the truth, but perceive it [inwardly], and the amount and quality of their perception is in exact proportion to their good love, from the Lord towards the Lord. Hence there is a great difference among the celestials (A. C. 10,124).

As truth is the form of good, and faith the form of love, therefore faith is a quantity which is originally included in the love, and may be developed out of it. If, therefore, a man is in a state of love, that is, if he is in the love to the Lord, and in the love towards the neighbor; and if his will-faculty is conjoined with his intellectual faculty, as is the case with the celestial man, then faith, that is, the truths of faith, are able to be developed out of that mans love, by influx from the Lord. But in order that this may be done, the understanding has first to be prepared, by the insemination, through outward channels, of the general truths of faith. On this subject we read:--

If man were without hereditary evil, he would be born into Divine order itself; namely into the love to the Lord, and the love towards the neighbor; everything of faith, in this case, would be implanted in that love.... The sons of the Most Ancient Church were almost born thus; namely, into the affections of good and into the affections of the truth; wherefore, in the very affections with them there was everything belonging to good and to truth which the doctrine of faith teaches. Nevertheless, in the course of time by instruction, experience, inspiration and revelation it was given them to become acquainted with all the things of faith, to which they immediately assented interiorly, so as to have a perception of those things which agreed with their affection (Diar. Minus, nos. 4635, 4636).

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The method by which the members of the Most Ancient Church acquired Divine Truth by instruction from without, was as follows:--

The Most Ancient Church had an immediate revelation through consort with spirits and angels, and also through visions and dreams from the Lord, Through such means it was given them to know in a general manner what is good and true; and after they had acquired a general knowledge of these things, these general principles were confirmed by innumerable things, as it were, through perceptions. These innumerable things were the particulars and singulars of the generals to which they referred. Thus general principles, as it were, were confirmed daily. Whatever did not agree with these generals, they perceived not to be so; and whatever agreed, they perceived to be so. Such also is the state of the celestial angels. The general principles, as it were, of the Most Ancient Church were heavenly nod eternal truths; as for instance, that the Lord reigns the universe; that all good and truth is from the Lord; that all life is from the Lord; that mans self is nothing but evil and that in itself it is dead; besides other similar things. The perception of the innumerable things through which these things were confirmed, and which harmonized with them, they had from the Lord. Love with them was the principal thing of faith; through love it was given them to perceive from the Lord whatever was of faith. Thus faith with them was love (A. C. 597).

And again:--

The man of the Most Ancient Church had indeed revelations, through which he was to be initiated from childhood into the perception of goods and truths; but because these revelations were inseminated in his will-part, he perceived innumerable things without fresh instruction. He perceived them so that from one general he learned from the Lord particulars and singulars which, at the present day, have to be learned, and thus known by men; and yet they scarcely know the thousandth part of them (A. C. 895).

373. Truth with the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church was thus developed out of the good of the love of the Lord, when that good with them flowed from the will into the understanding, and assumed shape and form there; for truth is essentially the form of good.

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Primarily, the celestial man is in the affection of Good, and not in the affection of the truth; therefore, also, he regards the knowledge of the truth as a mere means for arriving at a state of usefulness, and hence as a means by which he is able to do good and to become good. Hence, also, the knowledge of the truth which is communicated to the celestial man by an immediate influx from the Lord is altogether according to the intensity of his love of use. Wherefore, the celestial man enjoys perception from the Lord in the exact proportion to his love of usefulness. On this subject we read:--

The celestial are in the affection of good, the spiritual in the affection of the truth (A. C. 2078).

And again:--

The perceptive faculty of the Most Ancient Church consisted not only in their perceiving what good and truth are but also in the felicity and in the delight of doing good. Apart from the felicity and the delight of doing good, the perceptive faculty is not living; for it lives therefrom. The life of love, and of the faith flowing from it, such as was that of the Most Ancient Church, is life while in use; that is, it is in the good and in the truth of use. Life is given by the Lord from use, through use, and according to use.... Herein the members of that Church were likenesses of the Lord, wherefore, also, in the matters of perception they became images. The perceptive faculty consists in knowing what good and truth are, and hence in knowing what belongs to faith. He who is in a state of love is not delighted by knowing, but by doing, good and truth, that is, by being of use (A. C. 603).

374. The truths which the members of the Most Ancient Church learned from their various sources of information, and which were confirmed in their minds by perception from the Lord, constituted with them their Word, that is, the Divine Law. We thus read:--

In the Most Ancient time, when the Church was celestial, they had no Word; for the men of that Church had the Word written in their hearts. Thus the Lord taught them immediately through heaven what good is, and from good what truth is; and He granted them to have perception from love and charity, and to know both good and truth from revelation.

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The Lord was for them their veriest Word (A. C. 3422).

And again:--

The Word in the Most Ancient Church, before the flood, was not a written Word, but it was revealed to everyone who was of the Church. For they were celestial men, and thus were in the perception of good and truth, and like the angels, with whom they also had communication. Thus the Word was written in their hearts (A. C. 2896).

Again we read:--

In the Most Ancient Church they had the Law inscribed upon themselves, because they were in the love towards the Lord and in the love towards their neighbor. For whatever was then dictated to them by laws, was in accordance with their perception, and what the law forbade them was in opposition to their perception. Neither did they entertain any doubt but that all human laws, just like the Divine laws, were then founded on the love towards the Lord and the love towards the neighbor, and that these laws have respect to those loves as to their fundamental. And since they had this fundamental in themselves from the Lord, therefore also they were in a condition to know all the things which flow therefrom (A. C. 1121).

375. From the fact, however, that the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church were born without hereditary evil, it does not follow that they were void of self or of proprium; and therefore did not need to be regenerated by the Lord. The celestial man of those times did require regeneration; for he had both an internal and an external man, and the internal man received an influx out of heaven, and the external man an influx from the world; by creation, also, the man then, even as he is now, was endowed with freedom and rationality, so that he might choose between these two kind of influxes. When the Most Ancient man decided in favor of the influx out of heaven, he then became regenerated, and in the correspondential language of Scripture he was said to eat of the tree of lives; but when the allows himself to be borne away by the influx from the natural world, he was said to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

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From this it follows that so long as in full freedom he ate of the tree of lives, he enjoyed the perception of good and truth from the Lord in its fullness; but in the proportion in which he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in the same proportion he would lose his perceptive power, and his perception of the truth would therefore deteriorate, as appears from the following statement of Swedenborg:--

I have been informed by the Most Ancient people that the more they were in scientifics derived from those thing which constitute the objects of hearing and sight, in the same degree their perceptions were inferior; but the more they were raised from those scientifics to the heavenly things of charity and love, the more. interior their perceptions became, because they were nearer to the Lord (A. C. 2145).

As the men of the Most Ancient times had not only an internal, but also an external man, and as they enjoyed the faculties of freedom and rationality, therefore also they received the influences of the world and of the body, just as the men at the present time. But differently from the men at the present time, they were not allowed to cultivate the sciences of the natural world independently of the sciences, that is, of the knowledges of the spiritual world; and they were absolutely forbidden to approach the things of heaven by those of the natural world. We thus read:--

It is to be observed that the men of the Most Ancient Church were never forbidden to acquire the knowledges of good and truth out of heaven; for through these knowledges their intelligence and wisdom was perfected; nor were they forbidden to acquire for themselves the knowledges of good and truth from the world; for in this wise their natural man became imbued with science: but they were forbidden to regard knowledge a posteriori--by the posterior way; because it was granted to them to see all the things which appeared before their eyes, a priori--by the prior way. Seeing the world and the things which are in it, and deriving knowledges therefrom by a prior way, means regarding them from the light of heaven, and recognizing their quality by such means.

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Therefore, also, through knowledges from the world they were able to confirm heavenly things, and thus to corroborate their wisdom. But they were forbidden to regard the knowledges from the world by the posterior may, which is done when conclusions are drawn from these things--thus in an inverted order--concerning heavenly things. This latter order is called by the learned the order of physical influx, or of natural influx, which does not under any condition take place into heavenly things. The men of the Most Ancient Church came into this latter order when they began to love worldly things more than heavenly things, and to become elated and boastful on the strength of their wisdom. On this ground it was that their posterity became sensual; and it was then that their sensual part, which is meant by the serpent, seduced them. The Sensual, however, is not willing to progress in any other, than the posterior way. This then is whit is signified by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, of which tree they were forbidden to eat.

Their being permitted to acquire knowledges from the world, and to regard them by the prior way, is signified by Jehovah God causing to sprout forth from the ground every tree pleasant to the sight, and good for eating; for by trees are signified knowledges and perceptions; by what is pleasant or desirable to the sight, is meant being desirable for the understanding; and by that which is good for food is signified what is profitable for the nutrition of the mind. The knowledges of good and evil from the Lord from which came wisdom, and the knowledges of good and evil from the world from which came science or knowledge, were represented by the tree of lives, and the tree of the knowledge or the science of good and evil which was in the midst of the garden. That they were permitted to appropriate to themselves knowledges from every source, from heaven as well as from the world, provided they did not proceed in the inverted order, that is, provided they did not draw inferences from worldly in respect to heavenly things, and did not think from worldly concerning heavenly things, is signified by Jehovah commanding that they should eat of every tree of the garden, but not of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That in this latter case heavenly wisdom and the Church would perish with them is signified by this, that in the day the man should eat thereof, dying he would die; by eating in the spiritual sense is meant appropriation. That they were seduced by the Sensual represented by the serpent, is on this ground that the sensual part of man reaches immediately into the world, and, therefore, becomes sensible of every pleasurable sensation and of every delight from the world, and is productive of fallacies therefrom and ignores and also rejects heavenly things (A. E. 739).

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376. We see, therefore, that the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church were just as much in need of regeneration, as the men at the present time. For only when the reign of the internal man, and thus the reign of the Lord through the internal man, was thoroughly established in their external man, were they safe against infestations from the influences of their sensual part, in which resided their own self, i.e., their proprium. It is true that that part was not perverted then by hereditary evil; that, therefore, by heredity they were inclined to do the Lords will, and thus to love the neighbor. By birth, in fact, they were in a state of mutual love, but the presence of self, that is, of proprium in their case manifested itself by this, that by birth they were inclined to love the neighbor from their own self, and not from the Lord, and thus to love the neighbor from a natural, and not from a spiritual, that is a celestial love. They needed, therefore, revelation to teach them that they ought to love the neighbor from the Lord, and not from their own self; and that they ought to love him out of love to the Lord, and not out of that mutual love into which they were born. By regeneration, therefore, the men of the Most Ancient Church, as far as their natural man was concerned, were to come out of a state of mutual love into a state of love to the Lord. This was brought about by their learning the Divine Truth which came to them by immediate revelation, and by their applying it at once to the life. For this is the way in which the celestial man appropriates the Divine Truth--he hears it, loves it, and does it (as may be seen above, A. C. 10,124, in no. 372). That the celestial man by birth is in mutual love, and that by regeneration he passes from the good of mutual love into the good of the love to the Lord, is stated in what follows:--

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When the celestial men were being reformed and regenerated they were introduced into the love to the Lord through charity towards the neighbor [i.e., through natural love] (A. C. 3122).

And again we read:--

The man of the celestial Church was regenerated as to his voluntary part, by putting on from infancy the good of charity [i. e., mutual love]; and after he had acquired its perception, he was led into the perception of the love to the Lord. By virtue of that love all the truths of faith appeared to him in the intellectual part, as in a mirror. With him the understanding and the will made altogether one mind; for they perceived in the understanding what was in their will. Herein consisted the integrity of the first man, by whom is signified the celestial Church (A. C. 5113).

The celestial man, and hence the man of the Most Ancient Church, was regenerated first through the knowledges of good, as appears from what follows:--

The Natural becomes new, or receives a corresponding life from the Rational; that is, it is regenerated only through doctrinals or the knowledges of good and truth the celestial man is regenerated first through the knowledges of good, but the spiritual man [that is, the man born with hereditary evil] first through the knowledges of the truth (A. C. 3802).

By this passage, so far as the celestial man is concerned, is meant that the celestial man, from infancy, through the knowledges of good, put on the good of charity or of mutual love. The perception of the good of mutual love, however, and afterwards the perception of the good of the love to the Lord, the celestial man acquired by an influx from the Lord, through his will into his understanding, and indeed in the following manner:--

The Lord flowed in with the members of the Most Ancient Church by an internal way, and taught them what good is. The varieties and differences of good with them were in the place of truths, and from them they knew what each and all things in the world represented in the Lords kingdom (A. C. 4489).

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377. There is a difference between the good of mutual love and the good of charity towards the neighbor, which difference is explained in A. C. 3741, as follows:--

There are three kinds of goods, which follow in order: (1) the good of faith; (2) the good of charity towards the neighbor; (3) the good of the love to the Lord. The good of faith constitutes the ultimate or first heaven; the good of charity towards the neighbor, the middle or second heaven, and the good of the love to the Lord constitutes the inmost or third heaven. In order that this may be still better understood, it may be added that the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, namely, the celestial and the spiritual kingdoms, and each in kingdom there is an Internal and an External. In the Internal of the celestial kingdom are those who are in the love to the Lord and in its External those who are in good of mutual love. But in the Internal of the spiritual kingdom are they who are in the good of charity towards the neighbor; and in its External, they who are in the good of faith.

Concerning the difference which exists between the good of mutual love, and the good of charity towards the neighbor, we read further:--

The External of the celestial kingdom is the good of mutual love, and the Internal of the spiritual kingdom the good of charity towards the neighbor. But the good of mutual love is more interior then the good of charity towards the neighbor; for the former is from the Rational, and the latter from the Natural. Still, although the good of mutual love, which is the good of the External of the celestial kingdom, is interior, and the good of the External of the celestial kingdom, is interior and the good of charity towards the neighbor exterior, the Lord, nevertheless, conjoins those two kinds of good through a medium, and thereby conjoins the two kingdoms (A. C. 6435).

Although, therefore, there is such a merited distinction between the good of mutual love, and the good of charity towards the neighbor, nevertheless, this distinction was observed by Swedenborg only in the latter part of the Arcana Coelestia, beginning at no. 6435; as appears from what follows:--

In order that a distinction may be made between the external good of the celestial Church, and the internal good of the spiritual Church, the former good in the following pages will be called the good of mutual love, and the latter the good of charity towards the neighbor.

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This distinction has not been observed in the preceding pages (A. C. 6435).

When, therefore, Swedenborg, in A. C. 3122 and 5113, which were quoted above, declares that when the celestial men were being reformed and regenerated they were introduced into the love of the Lord through charity towards the neighbor; by charity towards the neighbor he means there Mutual Love.

378. The celestial men, therefore--on account of their natural man not being tainted with hereditary evil--on being reformed and regenerated, were introduced at once into the good of mutual love, and thus into a good more interior than the good of charity towards the neighbor, which prevails in the second or middle heaven, and which is the interior good of the spiritual kingdom. Mutual love and the love of the Lord, again, are loves which with the celestial man prevail is his internal man, while his external man is in the delight of mutual love, as appears from what follows:--

It is, moreover, to be observed that both kingdom spiritual and the celestial, in the heavens, are tripartite. They have an inmost, a middle, and an external. The inmost of the celestial kingdom is the good of the love to the Lord; its middle the good of mutual love, which is the good proceeding thence and its external is the delight proceeding from that good. The two former are in the internal man with those who are in the Lords celestial kingdom; but the third is in the external man of the same (A. C. 9993).

From this it follows that the children in the Most Ancient Church who began their life in the external man were in the delight of mutual love, which prevails in the external man; and that from that delight they acquired the knowledges of good, by which they were to be introduced into the good of mutual love, and its perception. On this subject we read:--

The celestial man is regenerated first through the knowledges of good, and the spiritual man [that is, the man tainted with hereditary evil] through the knowledges of the truth.

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Doctrinals, or the knowledges of good and truth cannot be communicated to the natural man, and hence they cannot be conjoined and appropriated to it, except through delights and pleasantnesses accommodated thereto; for they are insinuated by an external or sensuous way (A. C. 3808).

With regard to the state of the celestial man, after he had been regenerated, it is described in the Sacred Scripture by Adams abode in the garden of Eden. The intelligence which he received from the Lord is signified by the garden itself which Jehovah planted eastwards in Eden; his state of perception, by the trees which Jehovah caused to sprout forth; and his wisdom by the river which went out of Eden to water the garden, and which was parted and came into four heads. By the four rivers were represented four aspects of the mind of the celestial man; (1) the intelligence of the faith which flows from love, (2) the knowledge of all the things which belong to good and truth, (3) reason and (4) science. But the freedom of choice which the celestial man enjoyed was represented by the tree of lives in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

379. Such then was the state of the celestial man in the Most Ancient Church--of the celestial man born without hereditary evil. We shall discuss next the celestial state of the man of the spiritual Church who in his regeneration reaches the seventh day of creation. The celestial state is represented by the Sabbath, or the seventh day of creation. In the celestial state the man of the spiritual Church no longer acts from truth in the first place, but from good; for the inversion of state has been accomplished in him, and from the good of love he is able now to perceive the truth of faith. In order that this state may be reached by the spiritual man, the regeneration of his external man has to progress downwards as far as the exterior natural or sensual degree;

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and his internal man has to be opened in the direction of the love of the Lord; as is stated in what follows:--

After charity, which had been the end, [by the inversion of state] has become the beginning, new states commence from it. These new states progress in both directions namely, towards the interiors in the direction of the love to the Lord and also towards the exteriors in the direction of natural truths, and at last in that of sensual truths. All these are successively reduced into correspondence with the goods of charity and of love [i.e., of mutual love] in the Rational [i.e., in the internal man], and thus into heavenly order (A. C. 5122).

The regeneration of the exterior natural, or sensual degree, is accomplished by the bringing down of the good of remains from the interior into the sensual truths belonging to the exterior natural or sensual degree, so that the perceptions of the internal man can mirror themselves in these sensual truths, which are derived from the letter of the Divine Word.

With respect to the additional opening of the internal man with the member of the spiritual Church, it is opened as far as the celestial-spiritual degree in which prevails the good of mutual love, which is the External of the celestial kingdom. The man of the spiritual Church, however is not able to reach the good of the love of the Lord i.e., the Internal of the celestial kingdom; for this can be reached only by the celestial man who is born without hereditary evil. The good of love to the Lord, and thus the celestial degree is represented in the letter of the Word by Judah; but the good of mutual love, and hence the celestial-spiritual degree, by Joseph; while the good of charity towards the neighbor which constitutes the Internal of the spiritual kingdom is represented by Israel; and the good of faith which constitutes the External of the spiritual kingdom, by Jacob. The medium, however, which conjoins the External of the celestial kingdom with the Internal of the spiritual kingdom, and which is called the Spiritual of the Celestial is represented in the letter of the Word by Benjamin.

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The good of mutual love, which is the External of the celestial kingdom, is the highest good that be reached by a member of the spiritual Church; as appears from what follows:--.

That the spiritual Church progresses as far as celestial mutual love is signified by the words even to the desire of the everlasting hills (Gen. xlix. 26) [in Jacobs blessing of Joseph].... Mutual love is that 1ove into which the spiritual Church ought to try to come (A. C. 6435).

380. The succession of degrees in the human mind from the longest degree of the external man to the highest degree of the internal man, is clearly exhibited in the following passage:--

The interiors in man which do not die succeed in the following manner: There is the Sensual, the Natural, the Spiritual-natural--these are of the external man. Afterwards comes the Celestial of the Spiritual, the Celestial, and the Inmost which has no name, because it receives immediately the good and truth which proceed from the Lord--these are of the internal man. The intermediate between the external and the internal man, is called the Spiritual-celestial (S. D. 4627).

But the succession of names by which these degrees are represented in the letter of the Divine Word, is given in the following passage:--

Between the third and the second heavens there is an intermediate heaven, through which there is conjunction. The internal third heaven [the Internal of the celestial kingdom] is represented by Judah; the external third heaven [the External of the celestial kingdom] by Joseph; the intermediate heaven by Benjamin. The internal second heaven [the Internal of the spiritual kingdom] is represented by Israel; the external second heaven [the External of the spiritual-kingdom] by Jacob. In the ultimate or first heaven are simple-minded spirits, to whom the exteriors of man, as, for instance, the cuticles, correspond (S. D. 4640).

381. In order that the spiritual man who by regeneration has arrived at the good of chary towards the neighbor from spiritual may become celestial, and thus that, in the process of his regeneration, from the sixth day of creation he may reach the seventh day, he has to pass through the Intermediate or Medium, called the Spiritual of the Celestial, which is represented by Benjamin.

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On this subject we read:--

This Intermediate derives something from the Internal of the Natural [i.e., of the external man] represented by Israel, and from the External of the Rational [i.e., of the internal man], represented by Joseph. For that which is intermediate must derive something from either, otherwise it cannot serve as an intermediate. In order that any one from spiritual may become celestial, he must necessarily progress through this intermediate; for apart from this intermediate it is impossible to ascend into any higher parts (A. C. 4585).

The spiritual good represented by Israel is obtained by loving and doing the truth which is taught in the written Word of God. After the inversion of state has been accomplished, and the man out of the first state of regeneration has passed into the second state, this same spiritual good yearns for the perceptions of the truth from the Lord from within; and for this purpose it generates from itself a new truth which tends heavenwards. This new truth which is able to receive the perception of the truth belonging to the good of mutual love, and to transmit the same to the external man below, is represented by Benjamin. This new truth is generated from the Celestial-spiritual represented by Joseph, as a father, and from the Natural represented by Israel, as a mother (A. C. 5986). Concerning the character of this new truth which is thus born from the good represented by Israel, after the member of the spiritual Church has passed through the inversion of state, we read as follows:--

After a man through truth has arrived at good, he is Israel; and the truth which then flows from good, that is, the truth which the man then receives from the Lord, is the new truth represented by Benjamin. Good in the Natural fructifies itself through this truth, and it produces innumerable truths in which there is good. In this wise the Natural is regenerated, and then through fructifications, it becomes first like a tree with good fruits, and afterwards like a garden (A. C. 5804).

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Again we read:--

This new truth alone causes a man to be a Church; for in this truth, or rather in these truths, there is life from good; that is, the man who is in the truths of faith from good, is a Church; but not that man who is in the truths of faith, and not yet in the good of charity (A. C. 5806).

We read further:--

This truth is not born before a mans has been regenerated. Then, through this truth conjoined with good, he receives a new element of life (A. C. 6812).

382. Concerning the relation of this new truth to the internal good--the good of mutual loverepresented by Joseph, we read as follows:-

The Truth which causes a man to be a Church, is that truth which flows from good. For when a man is in good, then from that good he sees truths, and perceives them, and thus believes that they are truths; but such is not at all the case while the man is not in good. Good is like a little flame, which gives light and illuminates, and causes a man to see, perceive, and believe the truth. For the affection of the truth from good determines the internal sight in that direction and withdraws it from the worldly and bodily things which induce darkness. Of this character is the truth represented by Benjamin.... This truth, however, must by all means be subjected to the internal good, represented by Joseph; for through internal good the Lord flows in, and imparts life to the truths which are below; and hence also to that truth which is derived from the spiritual good out of the Natural which is represented by Israel.... For unless this truth were subjected to internal good, so that by virtue of this submission it may receive within itself the influx of good, there would be no reception of the mercy which constantly flows in from the Lord through internal good, and thus there would be no medium. But unless there is a reception of Mercy, there also would be no conjunction (A. C. 5816)

Concerning the internal good represented by Joseph, into the enjoyment of which the member of the spiritual Church enters on the seventh day, we read further:--

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Joseph represents internal good, and hence the internal Celestial; for by the Celestial is meant the good that proceeds from the lord (A. C. 5809).

Of this good we further read, that it imparts the faculty of perception to the truths in the Natural (A. C. 5877). And again we read:--

From the internal Celestial [represented by Joseph] there is a continual influx of good into the spiritual good [represented by Israel] and into the truths of the Church in the Natural; whence comes their life (A. C. 6106).

383. By this influx of the Celestial of the Spiritual represented by Joseph, into the external or natural man, after evils and falsities have been removed from it, there is generated in the natural man a new Voluntary and a new Intellectual which are represented by Josephs sons Mannasseh and Ephraim. This generation of anew Voluntary and a new Intellectual is the natural man by influx from within is the crown of the regeneration of the spiritual man, and through them the state of rest of the seventh day is firmly established in the natural man. Concerning this generation of a new Voluntary and a new Intellectual in the natural man, we read as follows:--

When, after the removal of evils, the man receives the influx of the very Celestial from the Lord, he then gets a new will and a new Intellectual. By virtue of the new will or Voluntary he feels a delight in doing good to the neighbor from no end of self; and by virtue of the new Intellectual he perceives a delight in learning what is good and true for their own sakes, and for the sake of life. Since this new Intellectual and this new Voluntary exist through an influx from the Lord, therefore, he who has been regenerated, acknowledges and believes that the good and truth by which he is affected are not from his own self but from the Lord and, further, that whatever is from self or proprium, is only evil (A. C. 6354).

Such then is the state of the spiritual man, after he, by regeneration even to the seventh day of creation, has become celestial-spiritual.

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He is then, from the Lord, in that state of perception which is inherent in the good of mutual love; but he is not in the perception which belongs to the good of the love to the Lord. Still, we read of those who are celestial-spiritual, that many of them are preachers in the highest heavens (De Verbo, 3).

384. There are some at the present day who by birth are in a relatively celestial state, while others are born with a thoroughly spiritual disposition. The former would, with comparative ease, reach the seventh state of their regeneration, while the others would only with difficulty be able to step out of the state represented by the sixth day. We read concerning them as follows:--

Children are of various dispositions. There are some who are of that disposition or genius which characterizes the spiritual angels, while others are of that genius which marks the celestial angels. Children of a celestial genius appear in heaven at the right side, and those of a spiritual genius at the left side (H. H. 333).

And again:--

Those children who are of a celestial genius are well distinguished from those who are of a spiritual genius. The former think, speak, and act with softness, so that hardly anything else appears, except something flowing from love to the Lord and to other children, but the latter do not think, speak and act so softly, but something like a shaking of wings manifests itself in every thing with them. It also appears from their indignation, and so forth (H. H. 339).

Those of a relatively celestial genius, on reaching adult age, are represented, in the letter of the Word, by the Church in Pergamos (Rev. ii., 12, 17). Concerning those belonging to that Church who will be of the New Church, which is signified by the New Jerusalem, we read:--

They will be in wisdom, and will appropriate, the good of celestial love in works.... The truths of faith will be added to their works;

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and they will be in the hidden wisdom which belongs to those of the third heaven. For, since they, while in the world, were in good works, and at the same time in the truths of doctrine, they excel in wisdom the other angels; yet, in hidden wisdom, because it is inscribed on their life, and not so much on their memory. For they are of such a character that they do not talk about the truths of doctrine, but do them and they do them because they know, and also see those truths when set forth by others. The good of love is appropriated by those who adjoin the truths of doctrine to good works, and the Lord also conjoins Himself with them, and thus imparts wisdom to them in their goods, which is meant by I will give them to eat of the hidden manna (A. R. 120).

Again, we read concerning them:--

They [the regenerated members of the Church in Pergamos] see truths from good alone, and are meant by those who have the law written on their hearts; concerning whom we read in Jeremiah (xxxi. 14), I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart I will write it. They shall teach no more every man his brother saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me. Of such a character are all who are in the third heaven. They do not converse concerning truth from any memory, but they see truths clearly when they hear others conversing about them, and especially do they see them when reading the Word. The reason is, that they are in the very marriage of good and truth. Such is the character of those who in the world have approached the Lord alone, and who have done good works, because they are according to the truths of the Word (A. R. 121).

And again:--

Truths united with good, do not belong with them [the celestial men of the Church in Pergamos] to the memory, but are inscribed upon their life, and that which is inscribed only on the life, and not on the memory, does not appear to anyonenot even to themselves, except by this, that when they listen or read, they perceive whether a thing is true, and what is the Truth. For the interiors of their mind are open to the Lord; and because the Lord is in them, and He sees all things, therefore, He causes them to see, as of themselves; but still they know from their wisdom that they do not see truths from their own self, but from the Lord. But from all this it appears that they will be angels of the third heaven, if they read the Word, if they derive from it truths of doctrine, and approach the Lord (A. R. 123).

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In this sketch of the spiritual condition of those who are understood by the Church in Pergamos, Swedenborg gives us a description of the celestial state of those who, at the present day, suffer themselves to be regenerated by the Lord as far as the seventh state; and he enables us to institute a comparison between their state, and that of the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church who were treated of in the first part of the present chapter.

The chief difference between these two is, that the latter, that is, the members of the Most Ancient Church, after they had reached the highestthe crowning-stateof their regeneration, were truly celestial men; while those of the spiritual Church who are represented by the Church in Pergamos, after reach the seventh state of their regeneration, are celestial-spiritualthat is, they are in a celestial state, yet without giving up their essentially spiritual character. Love, and thus good, is the prevailing element with both; but with the celestial proper, the good of the love to the Lord, by flowing from the will into the understanding, produces therein out of its own bosom the truth of faith. Truth, therefore, increases with them in proportion to their increase in good, that is, in love; or as it has been stated above, in proportion to the intensity of their love of use. With the celestial, consequently, the limit of their perceptive power is determined by the intensity of their love of use; while with the celestial-spiritual it is determined by the truth from the written Word which has penetrated with them into the interior recesses of their mind; and, indeed, in the form of that new truth which is represented by Benjamin, and which is conjoined with the good of mutual love represented by Joseph. With the celestial-spiritual, therefore, the basis of their perception are the correspondences contained in the written Word of God; while the celestial have the Word of God written in their hearts, and the basis of perception with them are all things which through the senses of the body have entered into their natural man.

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The Word of God is also written into the heart with those who are celestial-spiritual; yet the Word of God with them is even the written Word of God which through the senses of the body has entered into their minds, and the teachings of which, by an application to the life, have been committed to their hearts. Of them we read, that they see truths clearly when they hear others conversing about them and that they especially see them when reading the Word. The celestial, however, see the truth while they are in the exercise of the celestial love of use; for it is then that the good of love passes from the will into the understanding, and generates truth there. The celestial, in fine, enjoy the perception which belongs to the good of the love to the Lord; while the celestial-spiritual enjoy that which is inherent in the good of mutual love.

385. From the whole of the Doctrine of the Celestial Man, as exhibited in the present chapter, it appears further that, according to Swedenborg, the perception of the celestial man can be enjoyed only by those who have reached the seventh stage of their regeneration. In the future, it is to be hoped, that there will be many among the members of the New Church, who will be in a state of perception from the Lord, by virtue of their having reached the seventh day of creation. Swedenborg, however, does not give us much hope that at the present day already there are any who, by virtue of their having attained to the celestial state, enjoy perception from the Lord. He says:--

Those who are being regenerated do not all reach the sixth state; but some, and indeed the greater part, arrive only at the first state; some attain simply to the second state; some to the third, fourth or fifth state, but rarely any to the sixth state; and scarcely any at all to the seventh state (A. C. 3).

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Even those who by birth are in a relatively celestial state, and who after reaching adult age will spiritually belong to the Church in Pergamos, are not at all sure that in the end they will arrive at the seventh state of their regeneration; although compared with those who are of a purely spiritual character, they will pass more rapidly from one state of regeneration into the next. Those among them who do not reach the seventh state, on departing their life in this world, will be received in the celestial-natural division of the first heaven; concerning which heaven we read:--

The Divine which flows in from the Lord, and is received in the ultimate or first heaven, is called the Divine Natural. Yet because the Natural of that heaven is not like the Natural of the world, but has in it a Spiritual and a Celestial, therefore this last heaven is called spiritual-natural and celestial-natural; and the angels who are in it are called spiritual natural and celestial-natural... Those are called celestial natural who receive an influx out of the third or inmost heaven, which is the celestial heaven. The spiritual-natural and celestial-natural angels are distinct from each other; but still they constitute one heaven, because they are in one degree (H. H. 31).

Our exposition of Swedenborgs Doctrine of Regeneration is now at an end. We had intended to include in it the Doctrine of Worship and the Doctrine of Marriage, because these two subjects enter most intimately into the work of regeneration. But we reserve a discussion of these two doctrines for a future volume on the Doctrines taught by Swedenborg.

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