DF 49 - two evil religious principles

DF 49

There are two evil religious principles

into which every church in course of time degenerates,

one that adulterates its goods,

and the other that falsifies its truths.

That which adulterates the goods of the church

springs from the love of rule,

and that which falsifies the truths of the church

springs from the conceit of self-intelligence.

The religious principle that springs from the love of rule

is meant in the Word by "Babylon,"

and that which springs from the conceit of self-intelligence

is meant in the Word by "Philistia."

The Lord's Great Love

Because of the Lord's great love

we are not consumed,

for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself,

"The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for Him."

The Lord is good to those

whose hope is in Him,

to the one who seeks Him;

it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

(Lamentations 3:22-26)

DF 36 - to believe

DF 36

To believe in Him

is to have confidence that He will save,

and as no one can have this confidence

except one who lives aright,

therefore this also is meant by believing in Him.

The Lord Almighty Is His Name

"He made the earth

by His power;

He founded the world

by His wisdom

and stretched out the heavens

by His understanding.

When He thunders,

the waters in the heavens roar;

He makes clouds rise

from the ends of the earth.

He sends lightning with the rain

and brings out the wind

from His storehouses.

"Every man is senseless and without knowledge;

every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.

His images are a fraud;

they have not breath in them.

They are worthless, the objects of mockery;

when their judgment comes,

they will perish.

He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,

for He is the Maker of all things,

including the tribe of His inheritance -

the Lord Almighty is His name.

(Jeremiah 51:15-19)

DF 25, 26, 27 - storehouses of faith

DF 25, 26, 27

From his earliest childhood

a person has the affection of knowing,

which leads him to learn many things

that will be of use to him,

and many that will be of no use.

. . . every person not only regards uses

for the sake of life in this world,

but also should regard uses

for the sake of his life in heaven

(for into this life he will come after his life here,

and will live in it to eternity) . . .

But all these knowledges,

whatever may be their number

and whatever their nature,

are merely the storehouse of material

from which the faith of charity can be formed,

and this faith cannot be formed

except in proportion as the person shuns evils as sins.

If he shuns evils as sins,

then these knowledges become those of a faith

that has spiritual life within it.

But if he does not shun evils as sins,

then these knowledges are nothing but knowledges,

and do not become those of a faith

that has any spiritual life within it.

Israel & Judah Will Go In Tears

"In those days, at that time," declares the Lord,

"The people of Israel and the people of Judah together

will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.

They will ask the way to Zion

and turn their faces toward it.

They will come and bind themselves to the Lord

in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten."

(Jeremiah 50:4-5)

DF 23 - faith and charity

DF 23

In proportion as any one

shuns evils as sins,

and looks to the Lord,

in the same proportion he is in charity,

and therefore

in the same proportion he is in faith.

Queen of Heaven

"Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty,

the God of Israel, says:

I am determined to bring disaster on you

and to destroy all Judah.

. . . None of the remnant of Judah

who have gone to live in Egypt

will escape or survive

to return to the land of Judah,

to which they long to return and live;

none will return except a few fugitives."

Then all the men who knew

that their wives were burning incense to other gods,

along with all the women who were present -

a large assembly -

and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt

said to Jeremiah,

"we will not listen to the message

you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord!

We will certainly do everything we said we would:

We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven

and pour out drink offering to her

just as we and our fathers,

our kings and our officials did

in the towns of Judah

and in the streets of Jerusalem.

At that time we had plenty of food

and were well off and suffered no harm.

But ever since we stopped burning incense

to the Queen of Heaven

and pouring out drink offerings to her,

we have had nothing

and have been perishing by the sword and famine."

The women added,

"When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven

and poured out drink offerings to her,

did not our husbands know

that we were making cakes like her image

and pouring out drink offerings to her?"

Then Jeremiah said to all the people,

both men and women, who were answering him,

"Did not the Lord remember and think about

the incense burned in the towns of Judah

and the streets of Jerusalem 

by you and your fathers,your kings and your officials

and the people of the land? 

When the Lord could not longer endure

your wicked actions and the detestable things you did,

your land became an object of cursing

and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.

Because you have burned incense

and have sinned against the Lord

and have not obeyed Him

or followed His law or His decrees or His stipulations,

this disaster has come upon you, as you know see.

(Jeremiah 44:11, 15-23)

DF 11, 12 - Who has faith?

DF 11

As the internal acknowledgment of truth is faith,

and as faith and truth are a one,

it follows that an external acknowledgment

without an internal one

is not faith.

DF 12

If anyone should think within himself,

or say to some one else,

"Who is able to have

the internal acknowledgment of truth which is faith?

not I;"

let me tell him how he may have it:

Shun evils as sins,

and come to the Lord,

and you will have as much of it as you desire.

DF - Doctrine of Faith

Jeremiah Freed

The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord

after Nebuzaradan

commander of the imperial guard

had released him at Ramah.

He had found Jeremiah bound in chains

among all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah

who were being carried into exile to Babylon.

When the commander of the guard

found Jeremiah,

"The Lord your God

decreed this disaster for this place.

And now the Lord has brought it about;

He has done just as He said He would.

All this happened because you people sinned

against the Lord and did not obey Him.

But today I am free you

from the chains on your wrists.

Come with me to Babylon, if you like,

and I will look after you;

but if you do not want to, then don't come.

Look, the whole country lies before you;

go wherever you please."

However, before Jeremiah turned to go,

Nebuzaradan added,

"Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam,

the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon

has appointed of the towns of Judah,

and live with among the people,

or go anywhere else you please."

Then the commander gave him provisions

and a present and let him go.

So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah

son of Ahikam at Mizpah

and stayed with him among the people

who were left behind in the land.

(Jeremiah 40:1-6)

DLife 108-110 - shunning evils because they are sins

If Any One Shuns Evils for Any Other Reason

Than Because They Are Sins,

He Does Not Shun Them,

But Merely Prevents Them

From Appearing Before the World

D Life 108-110

There are moral people who keep the commandments

of the second table of the Decalogue,

not committing fraud, blasphemy, revenge, or adultery;

and such of them as confirm themselves

in the belief that such things are evils

because they are injurious to the public well-being,

and are therefore contrary

to the laws of humane conduct,

also practice charity, sincerity, justice, chastity.

But if they do these goods

and shun those evils

merely because they are evils,

and not at the same time because they are sins,

they are still merely natural men,

and with the merely natural

the root of evil remains imbedded

and is not dislodged;

for which reason the goods they do are not goods,

because they are from themselves.

Before mankind, a natural moral person

may appear exactly like a spiritual moral man,

but not before the angels.

Before the angels in heaven,

if he is in goods he appears like an image of wood,

if in truths like an image of marble, lifeless,

and very different from a spiritual moral man.

For a natural moral man is an outwardly moral man,

and a spiritual moral man is an inwardly moral man,

and what is outward

without what is inward

is lifeless.

It does indeed live,

but not the life that is called life.

The lusts of evil,

which form the interiors of a person from his birth,

are not removed except by the Lord alone.

For the Lord flows in

from the spiritual into the natural,

but a person from himself

flows from the natural into the spiritual.

Now this, influx is contrary to order,

and does not operate upon lusts to their removal,

but shuts them in more and more closely

as it establishes itself.

Further, since hereditary evil, thus shut in,

remains concealed, therefore after death,

when a person becomes a spirit,

it bursts the covering in which it had been hidden,

and breaks forth

as a corrupt discharge from an ulcer

that had only been superficially healed.

'freedom'

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:

"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:

I made a covenant with your forefathers

when I brought them out of Egypt,

out of the land of slavery.

I said, 'Every seventh year

each of you must free any fellow Hebrew

who has sold himself to you.

After he has served you six years,

you must let him go free.'

Your fathers, however, did not listen to Me

or pay attention to Me.

Recently you repented

and did what is right in My sight:

Each of you proclaimed

freedom to his countrymen.

You even made a covenant before Me

in the house that bears My Name.

But now you have turned around

and profaned My name;

each of you has taken back

the male and female slaves

you had set free to go where they wished.

You have forced them

to become your slaves again.

"Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

You have not obeyed Me;

you have not proclaimed freedom

for your fellow countrymen.

So I now proclaim 'freedom' for you,

declares the Lord - 'freedom'

to fall by the sword, plague and famine.

I will make you abhorrent

to all the kingdoms of the earth."

(Jeremiah 34:12-18)

DLife 102, 104 - as of self

DLife 102

The Lord loves a person and wills to dwell with him,

yet He cannot love him and dwell with him

unless He is received and loved in return.

From this alone comes conjunction.

For this reason the Lord

has given a person freedom and reason,

freedom to think and will as of himself,

and reason in accordance with which he may do so.

To love and to be conjoined

with one in whom there is nothing reciprocal

is not possible,

nor is it possible to enter in and abide with one

in whom there is no reception.

As there are in a person,

from the Lord,

reception and reciprocation, the Lord says:
   

He that abides in Me,

and I in him,

the same brings forth much fruit.

(John 15:5)

He that has My commandments,

and does them,

he it is that loves Me and I will love him,

and will make My abode with him.

(John 14:21, 23)

DLife 104

. . . a person must act of himself

but from the Lord's power,

which he must petition for.

For this is to act as from himself.

"The Time Is Coming"

"The time is coming," declares the Lord,

"when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant

I made with their forefathers

when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke My covenant,

though I was a Husband to them,"

declares the Lord.

"This is the covenant I will make

with the house of Israel after that time,"

declares the Lord.

"I will put My law in their minds

and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be My people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,

or a man his brother, saying,

'Know the Lord,'

because they will all know Me,

from the least of them to the greatest,"

declares the Lord.

"For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more."

(Jeremiah 31:31-34)

DLife 87, 88-89 - false witness

In Proportion as Any One Shuns as Sin

False Witness of Every Kind,

In the Same Proportion He Loves the Truth.

DLife 87, 88-89

To "bear false witness," in the natural sense,

means not only to play the false witness,

but also to lie, and to defame.

In the spiritual sense, to "bear false witness"

means to declare some false thing to be true

or some evil thing good,

and to persuade others that it is so; and the converse.

And in the highest sense,

to "bear false witness" means

to blaspheme the Lord and the Word. 

As lying and the truth are two opposite things,

it follows that

in proportion as anyone shuns lying as sin,

in the same proportion he loves the truth.

In proportion as anyone loves the truth,

in the same proportion he desires to know it,

and in the same proportion

is affected at heart when he finds it.

No one else comes into wisdom.

And in proportion

as anyone loves to do the truth,

in the same proportion

he is sensible of the pleasantness

of the light in which the truth is.

The False Prophet Hananiah

Shortly after the prophet Hananiah

had broken the yoke off the neck

of the prophet Jeremiah,

the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:

"Go and tell Hananiah,

'This is what the Lord says:

You have broken a wooden yoke,

but in its place you will get a yoke of iron.

This is what the Lord Almighty,

the God of Israel, says:

I will put an iron yoke

on the necks of all these nations

to make them serve

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,

and they will serve him.

I will even give him control over the wild animals.'"

Then the prophet Jeremiah said

to Hananiah the prophet,

"Listen, Hananiah!  The Lord has not sent you,

yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies.

Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

'I am about to remove you

from the face of the earth.

This very year you are going to die,

because you have preached

rebellion against the Lord.'"

In the seventh month of that same year,

Hananiah the prophet died.

(Jeremiah 28:12-17)

DLife 80, 83, 86 - thefts

In Proportion As Any One Shuns

Thefts of Every Kind As Sins,

In the Same Proportion He Loves Sincerity.

DLife 80

To "steal," in the natural sense,

means not only to commit theft and robbery,

but also to defraud,

and under some pretext take from another his goods.

But in the spiritual sense to "steal"

means to deprive another of his truths of faith

and his goods of charity.

And in the highest sense to "steal"

means to take away from the Lord

that which is His,

and attribute it to one's self,

and thus to claim righteousness and merit for one's self.

These are the "thefts of every kind."

And they also make a one,

as do adulteries of every kind,

and murders of every kind,

of which we have already treated.

The reason why they make a one

is that they are one within another.

DLife 83

Sincerity is to be understood as including

integrity, justice, fidelity, and rectitude (uprightness).

A person cannot be principled in these virtues

of himself,

so as to love them

from them and for the sake of them.

But he who shuns fraud, cunning and deceit as sins,

is thus principled in these virtues

not of himself but from the Lord.

DLife 86 [4]

So long as a person does not shun evils as sins,

the lusts of evils close up

the interiors of the natural mind

on the part of the will.

They are as a thick veil there,

and as a dark cloud beneath the spiritual mind,

preventing it from being opened.

But as soon as a person shuns evils as sins,

then the Lord flows in from heaven,

removes the veil,

disperses the cloud and opens the spiritual mind,

and thus introduces the person into heaven.

Jeremiah Threatened With Death

But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people

everything the Lord had commanded him to say,

the priests, the prophets and all the people

seized him and said, "You must die!

Why do you prophesy in the Lord's name

that this house will be like Shiloh

and this city will be desolate and deserted?"

And all the people crowded around Jeremiah

in the house of the Lord.

(Jeremiah 26:8-9)

Adultery

So Far as Any One Shuns All Kinds of Adultery as Sins,

So Far He Loves Chastity

D Life 74
In the sixth commandment of the Decalogue,

by committing adultery in the natural sense

is meant not only to commit whoredom,

but also to commit obscene acts,

to speak lascivious words, and to think filthy thoughts.

But in the spiritual sense,

by committing adultery is meant to adulterate

the goods of the Word and to falsify its truths;

while in the supreme sense,

by committing adultery is meant

to deny the Lord's Divinity and to profane the Word.

These are all the kinds of adultery.

D Life 75

So far as any one shuns adultery,

so far he loves marriage, or, what is the same,

so far as any one shuns the lasciviousness of adultery,

so far he loves the chastity of marriage.

This is because the lasciviousness of adultery

and the chastity of marriage are two opposites;

and therefore so far as a person is not in the one,

so far he is in the other.

Judgement & Prophesy

"Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,

his upper rooms by injustice,

making his countrymen work for nothing,

not paying them for their labor.

He says, 'I will build myself a great palace

with spacious upper rooms.'

So he makes large windows in it,

panels it with cedar and decorates it with red.

"Does it make you a king

to have more and more cedar?

Did not your father have food and drink?

He did what was right and just,

so all went well with him.

He defended the cause of the poor and needy,

and so all went well.

Is that not what it means to know Me?"

declares the Lord.

"But your eyes and your heart

are set only on dishonest gain,

on shedding innocent blood

and on oppression and extortion."

(Jeremiah 22:13-17)

"The days are coming," declares the Lord,

"when I will raise up to David

a righteous Branch,

a King who will reign wisely

and do what is just and right in the land.

In His days Judah will be saved

and Israel will live in safety.

This is the name by which he will be called:

The Lord Our Righteousness."

(Jeremiah 23:5-6)

DLife 67, 70, 72 - murder

In Proportion As Anyone

Shuns Murders of Every Kind As Sins,

In the Same Proportion

He Has Love Toward the Neighbor.

DLife 67

"Murders of every kind" include enmity,

hatred, and revenge of every kind,

which breathe murder,

for murder lies hidden in them,

like fire in wood underneath the ashes.

Infernal fire is nothing else,

and this is the origin of the expressions

to "kindle with hatred,"

and to "burn with revenge."

All these are "murders" in the natural sense.

But in the spiritual sense

"murders" mean all methods of killing

and destroying the souls of men,

which methods are varied and many.

And in the highest sense

"murder" means to hate the Lord.

These three kinds of "murder" form a one,

and cleave together,

for he who wills the murder of a man's body in this world,

after death wills the murder of his soul,

and wills the murder of the Lord,

for he burns with anger against Him,

and desires to blot out His name.

DLife 70

The good opposite to the evil meant by "murder,"

is the good of love toward the neighbor.

DLife 72

. . . in proportion as any one shuns evil,

in the same proportion he does good . . .

and he who shuns evil as sin,

does good

not from himself

but from the Lord.

This is what the Lord says

This is what the Lord says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who depends on flesh for his strength

and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

He will be like a bush in the wastelands;

he will not see prosperity when it comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in Him.

He will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit."

"I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind,

to reward a man according to his conduct,

and according to what his deeds deserve."

(Jeremiah 17:5-8, 10)

DLife 66 - "Go, sell whatever you have"

A certain rich man came to Jesus,

and asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life:

to whom Jesus replied,

"You know the commandments:

Thou shalt not commit adultery;

thou shalt not kill;

thou shalt not steal;

thou shalt not bear false witness;

thou shalt not defraud;

honor thy father and mother."

He answering said, "All these have I kept from my youth."

Jesus looked upon him,

and loved him;

and yet He said . . .

"One thing you lack;

go, sell whatsoever you have and give to the poor;

so you shalt have treasure in the heavens;

and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."

(Mark x 17-22)

[2] It is said that Jesus loved him.

This was because he said

that he had kept the commandments from his youth.

But, because he lacked three things,

namely, that he had not removed his heart from riches,

that he had not fought against lusts,

and that he had not yet acknowledged the Lord to be God,

therefore the Lord said that he should sell all that he had,

by which is meant

that he should remove his heart from riches;

that he should bear the cross,

by which is meant that he should fight against lusts;

and that he should follow Him,

by which is meant that he should acknowledge the Lord to be God.

The Lord spoke these words, as He did all His words,

by correspondences.

For no one can shun evils as sins

unless he acknowledges the Lord and approaches Him;

and unless he fights against evils, and thereby removes lusts.

Jeremiah's Prayer

I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own;

it is not for man to direct his steps.

Correct me, Lord,

but only with justice -

not in Your anger,

lest You reduce me to nothing.

Pour out Your wrath on the nations

that do not acknowledge You,

on the peoples who do not call on Your name.

For they have devoured Jacob;

they have devoured him completely

and destroyed his homeland.

(Jeremiah 10:23-25)

D Life - the Ten Commandments - a history review

The Decalogue Teaches What Evils Are Sins

 

DLife - 53-55

What nation in the wide world is not aware

that it is evil to steal, to commit adultery,

to kill, and to bear false witness?

If men were not aware of this,

and if they did not by laws

guard against the commission of these evils,

it would be all over with them;

for without such laws the community, the commonwealth,

and the kingdom would perish.

Who can imagine that the Israelitish nation

was so much more senseless than other nations

as not to know that these were evils?

One might therefore wonder why these laws,

known as they are the world over,

were promulgated from Mount Sinai by Jehovah Himself

with so great a miracle.

But listen: they were promulgated with so great a miracle

in order that men may know that these laws

are not only civic and moral laws, but are also spiritual laws;

and that to act contrary to them

is not only to do evil to a fellow-citizen and to the community,

but is also to sin against God.

For this reason those laws,

through promulgation from Mount Sinai by Jehovah,

were made laws of religion;

for it is evident that whatever Jehovah God commands,

He commands in order that it may be of religion,

and that it is to be done for His sake,

and for the sake of the man that he may be saved.

As these laws were the first-fruits of the Word,

and therefore the first-fruits of the church

that was to be again set up by the Lord with the Israelitish nation,

and as they were in a brief summary

a complex of all those things of religion

by means of which there is conjunction of the Lord with man

and of man with the Lord,

they were so holy that nothing is more so.

That they were most holy

is evident from the fact that Jehovah Himself (that is, the Lord)

came down upon Mount Sinai in fire, and with angels,

and promulgated them from it by a living voice,

and that the people had prepared themselves for three days

to see and to hear;

that the mountain was fenced

about lest anyone should go near it and should die;

that neither were the priests nor the elders to draw near,

but Moses only;

that those laws were written by the finger of God

on two tables of stone;

that when Moses brought the tables

down from the mountain the second time,

his face shone;

that the tables were afterwards laid away in the ark,

and the ark in the inmost of the tabernacle,

and upon it was placed the mercy-seat,

and upon this cherubs of gold;

that this was the most holy thing of their church,

being called the holy of holies;

that outside the veil that hung before it

there were placed things that represented holy things

of heaven and the church, namely,

the lampstand with its seven golden lamps,

the golden altar of incense,

and the table overlaid with gold on which were the loaves of faces,

and surrounded with curtains of fine linen,

bright-crimson, and scarlet.

The holiness of this whole tabernacle had no other source

than the Law that was in the ark.

[2] On account of this holiness of the tabernacle

from the Law in the ark,

the whole people of Israel, by command,

encamped around it in the order of their tribes,

and marched in order after it,

and there was then a cloud over it by day, and a fire by night.

On account of the holiness of that Law,

and the presence of the Lord in it,

the Lord spoke with Moses above the mercy-seat

between the cherubs, and the ark was called "Jehovah there."

Aaron also was not allowed to enter within the veil

except with sacrifices and incense.

Because that Law was the very holiness of the church,

the ark was brought by David into Zion;

and later it was kept in the midst of the temple at Jerusalem,

and constituted its shrine.

[3] On account of the Lord's presence

in that Law and around it,

miracles were wrought by the ark in which was that Law:

the waters of Jordan were cleft asunder,

and so long as the ark was resting in the midst of it,

the people passed over on dry ground;

when the ark was carried round the walls of Jericho they fell;

Dagon the god of the Philistines fell down before it,

and afterwards lay on the threshold of the temple without his head;

and on its account the Bethshemites were smitten

to the number of many thousands

not to mention other miracles.

These were all performed solely

by the Lord's presence in His Ten Words,

which are the commandments of the decalogue.

Do You Not See What They Are Doing?

"Do you not see what they are doing

in the towns of Judah

and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children gather wood,

the fathers light the fire,

and the women knead the dough

and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven.

They pour out drink offerings to other gods

to provoke Me to anger.

But am I the one they are provoking?

declares the Lord.

Are they not rather harming themselves,

to their own shame?

. . . when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt

and spoke to them,

I did not just give them commands

about burnt offerings and sacrifice,

but I gave them this command:

Obey Me, and I will be your God

and you will be My people.

Walk in all the ways I command you,

that it may go well with you.

But they did not listen or pay attention;

instead, they followed

the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts.

They went backward and not forward."

(Jeremiah 7:17-20,22-24)

DLife 42, 45, 48 - in proportion as one shuns evils as sins (3)

In Proportion as Any One Shuns Evils as Sins,

in the Same Proportion He Has Faith,

and Is Spiritual

D Life 42

Faith and life are distinct from each other

in the same way as are thinking and doing;

and as thinking is of the understanding

and doing is of the will,

it follows that faith and life

are distinct from each other in the same way

as are the understanding and the will.

. . . in so far as a person shuns evils as sins,

just so far has he faith,

because just so far is he in good . . ..

To "believe in the Lord"

is not only to think that He is,

but also to do His words . . ..

This Is What the Lord Says

"If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,"

declares the Lord.

"If you put your destestable idols out of My sight

and no longer go astray,

and if in a truthful, just and righteous way

you swear, 'As surely as the Lord lives,'

then the nations will be blessed by Him

and in Him they will glory."

(Jeremiah 4:1-2)

This is what the Lord says:

'Stand at the crossroads and look;

ask for the ancient paths,

ask where the good way is,

and walk in it,

and you will find rest for your souls."

(Jeremiah 6:16)

D Life 32, 37-38, 41 - In proportion as one shuns evils as sins (2)

In Proportion As Any One Shuns Evils As Sins,
in the Same Proportion He Loves Truths.

D Life 32, 37-38, 41

There are two universals that proceed from the Lord:

Divine good, and Divine truth.

Divine good is of His Divine love,

and Divine truth is of His Divine wisdom.

In the Lord these two are a one,

and therefore they proceed from Him as a one,

but they are not received as a one by angels in the heavens,

or by people on earth.

. . .  good conjoined with truth

constitutes love and wisdom in both angel and people . . ..

Since good is not good, as was said above,

unless it is united with truth,

it follows that good does not exist before it is so united.

Nevertheless it continually wills to exist;

and therefore, in order that it may exist,

it desires truths and procures them for itself;

and from them it derives its nourishment and its form.

This is the reason that,

so far as any one is principled in good,

so far he loves truths;

and similarly,

he so far loves truths 

as he shuns evils as sins,

for so far he is principled in good.

So far as any one is principled in good,

and from good loves truths,

so far he loves the Lord,

for the Lord is Good itself and Truth itself.

The Lord is therefore with a person in good and in truth;

and if truth is loved from good

then the Lord is loved, and not otherwise.

This the Lord teaches in John:

He that has My precepts,

and keeps them, 

he it is that loves Me . . .
But he that loves Me not

keeps not My words.

(John 14: 21, 24)

The precepts, words and commandments of the Lord are truths.

From what has been said it may now be evident,

that he who shuns evils as sins

loves truths and desires them;

and that the more he shuns evils,

the more he loves and desires truths,

because he is the more principled in good.

He thus comes into the heavenly marriage,

or the marriage of good and truth,

in which heaven is,

and in which the Church shall be.

"Return, faithless people"

"Return, faithless people," declares the Lord,

"For I am your Husband.

I will choose you -

one from a town and two from a clan -

and bring you to Zion.

Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart,

who will lead you with knowledge and understanding."

(Jeremiah 3:14-15)

DLife 18-19, 20, 21-22, 23, 24 - in proportion as one shuns evils as sins (1)

In Proportion as a Man Shuns Evils as Sins,

in the Same Proportion He Does Goods,

Not From Himself But From the Lord.

DLife 18-19, 20, 22-23, 24

Who does not or may not know

that evils stand in the way of the Lord's entrance to a person?

For evil is hell,

and the Lord is heaven,

and hell and heaven are opposites.

In proportion therefore as a person is in the one,

in the same proportion he cannot be in the other.

For the one acts against the other and destroys it.

So long as a person is in this world,

he is midway between hell and heaven:

hell is below him, and heaven is above him,

and he is kept in freedom

to turn himself to either the one or the other . . .

It is not from himself that every person has this freedom,

but he has it from the Lord,

and this is why he is said to be kept in it.

It is plainly evident from all this

that in proportion as a person shuns evils,

in the same proportion is he with the Lord and in the Lord;

and that in proportion as he is in the Lord,

in the same proportion he does goods,

not from self but from Him.

From this results the general law:

IN PROPORTION AS ANY ONE SHUNS EVILS,

IN THE SAME PROPORTION HE DOES GOODS.

Two things however are requisite:

first, the person must shun evils because they are sins,

that is, because they are infernal and diabolical,

and therefore contrary to the Lord and the Divine laws,

and secondly, he must do this as of himself,

while knowing and believing that it is of the Lord.

From what has been said three things follow:
*  i.  If a person wills and does goods
before he shuns evils as sins,
the goods are not good.
*  ii.  If a person thinks and speaks pious things
while not shunning evils as sins,
the pious things are not pious.
*  iii.  If a person knows and is wise in many things,
and does not shun evils as sins,
he is nevertheless not wise.
 

. . . because he does (these things) from himself

and not from the Lord,

and therefore self is in them and not the Lord . . .