DP 78, 79 - acting in freedom

DP 78

Whatever a person does in freedom

in accordance with his thought (reason)

becomes attached to him as his

and remains.

That is because a person's character and his freedom

are bound up together.

A person's character has to do with his life,

and what a person makes a part of his life,

this he does in freedom.

So, too, a person's character has to do with his love,

for love is everyone's life,

and what a person is moved to do by his life's love,

this he does in freedom.

We say that what a person does in freedom

he does in accordance with his thought,

and that is because what is part of someone's life or love,

this he also thinks about and justifies in thought,

and when he has justified it,

he then does it in freedom in accordance with his thought.

For whatever a person does

he does from the will by means of the intellect,

and freedom is connected with the will,

and thought with the intellect.

A person can also act in freedom contrary to his reason,

or in accordance with his reason without being in freedom.

But what he does then

does not attach itself to the person,

being the product only of his mouth and body

and not of his spirit or heart.

DP 79 [2]

So, for example, if a person in his childhood and youth

attached to himself some evil by doing it

out of a delight of his love -

if for instance, he defrauded, blasphemed, took revenge,

or behaved licentiously -

then because he did these things

in freedom in accordance with his thought,

he also attached them to him.

But if he afterward repents,

refrains from them,

and views them as sins to be shunned,

and so in freedom in accordance with his reason

desists from them,

then he has attached to him the goods

of which those evils were the opposite.

These goods then form the center,

and they move the evils toward the peripheries,

moving them further and further

according to the person's aversion to

and rejection of them.

But still they cannot be so cast out

as to be said to be eradicated.

Nevertheless, by their being moved aside

they can appear as though eradicated.

This is achieved

by the person's being withheld from evils by the Lord

and kept engaged in goods.

Such is the case with all hereditary evil

and likewise with all a person's actual evil.

Hallelujah!

The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures

fell down and worshiped God,

who was seated on the throne.

And they cried:

"Amen, Hallelujah!"

Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

"Praise our God, all you His servants,

you who fear Him, both small and great!"

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude,

like a roar of rushing waters

and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

"Hallelujah!

For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

and His bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

(Revelation 19:4-8)

DP 77 - doing what is right

DP 77 [1, 3]

Who cannot employ his faculty called rationality

to understand that this or that good is useful to society,

and that this or that evil is harmful to society?

That, for example,

justice, honesty, and chastity in marriage

are useful to society,

and that injustice, dishonesty,

and licentiousness with the wives of others
are harmful to society?

Consequently that these evils are in themselves injurious,

and that those goods are in themselves beneficial?

Who, therefore, cannot make these matters

matters of his reason, provided he is willing to?

He has the rationality,

and he has the freedom.

To the extent that he therefore refrains

from these evils in him,

his rationality and freedom are also

unveiled, emerge, take control,

and give him the perception and ability;

and to the extent that he does this,

to the same extent

he regards those goods

as a friend does his friends.

Now because, for the sake of reception and conjunction,

the Lord wills that whatever a person does

freely in accordance with his reason

appear to him as his own doing,

and this accords with reason itself,

it follows that a person can

by virtue of his reason

will something because it means his eternal happiness,

and by imploring the Lord's Divine power,

do it.

Seven Angels with Seven Plagues

I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign:

seven angels with the seven last plagues -

last, because with them God's wrath is completed.

And I saw

what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and,

standing beside the sea,

those who had been victorious over the beast

and his image and over the number of his name.

They held harps given them by God

and sang the song of Moses the servant of God

and the song of the Lamb:

"Great and marvelous are Your deeds,

Lord God Almighty.

Just and true are Your ways,

King of the ages.

Who will not fear You, O Lord,

and bring glory to Your name?

For You alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship before You,

for Your righteous acts have been revealed."

(Revelation 15:1-4)

DP 70, 71 - there are laws of Divine Providence

DP 70

For most people in the world

attribute everything to themselves

and to their own prudence,

and what they cannot attribute to these

they call fortuitous and accidental,

not knowing that human prudence is of no consequence,

and that the words "fortuitous" and "accidental"

are idle terms.

It Is a Law of Divine Providence

That a Person Act in Freedom

in Accordance with His Reason

DP 71

People know that a person has the freedom

to think and will as he pleases,

but not the freedom to say whatever he thinks,

nor the freedom to do whatever he wishes.

Consequently by freedom here

we mean spiritual freedom and not natural freedom,

except when the two are in accord.

For thinking and willing are spiritual,

while speaking and acting are natural.

DP 72

. . . a person . . . has the freedom

to think evil and falsity,

even though Divine providence

continually leads a person

to think and will good and truth . . .

The Seventh Trumpet

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet,

and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

"The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,

and He will reign for ever and ever."

And the twenty-four elders,

who were seated on their thrones before God,

fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

the One Who is and Who was,

because You have taken Your great power

and begun to reign.

The nations were angry;

and Your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead,

and for rewarding Your servants the prophets

and Your saints and those who reverence Your name,

both small and great -

and for destroying those who destroy the earth."

Then God's temple in heaven was opened,

and within His temple was seen the ark of His covenant.

And there came flashes of lightning,

rumblings, peals of thunder,

and earthquake and a great hailstorm.

(Revelation 11:15-19)

DP 68 - the Lord foresees and provides

DP 68

. . . a person who allows himself 

to be lead to heaven

is continually being prepared by the Lord

for his own place there,

which is accomplished through 

that affection for goodness and truth

that corresponds to it.

Every angelic person

is also assigned to this place

after his departure from the world.

Those in White Robes

Then one of the elders asked me,

"These in white robes - who are they,

and where did they come from?"

I answered, "Sir, you know."

And he said,

"These are they who have come out of the great tribulation;

they have washed their robes

and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore,

"They are before the throne of God

and serve Him day and night in His temple;

and He who sits on the throne

will spread his tent over them.

Never again will they hunger;

never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat upon them,

nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb at the center of the throne

will be their shepherd;

He will lead them to springs of living water.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

(Revelation 7:13-17)

DP 50 - two kinds of spirits

DP 50 [2]

So it is that every person has present with him

spirits who are in like affection with himself,

evil spirits with one

who is in the affection of similar evil,

and good spirits with one

who is in the affection of similar good.

Moreover, they are as present with him

as anyone included in his social circle.

Space and time have nothing to do with their presence,

because affection and its resulting thought

do not exist in space and time,

and spirits and angels are forms of affections

and of the thoughts arising from them.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega"

Grace and peace to you from Him Who is,

and Who was,

and Who is to come,

and from the seven spirits before His throne,

and from Jesus Christ,

Who is the faithful witness,

the firstborn from the dead,

and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To Him Who loves us

and has freed us from our sins by His blood,

and has made us to be a kingdom

and priests to serve His God and Father -

to Him be glory and power for ever and ever!

Amen.

Look, He is coming with the clouds,

and every eye will see Him,

even those who pierced Him;

and all the peoples of the earth will mourn

because of Him.

So shall it be!  Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega,"

says the Lord God,

"Who is,

and Who was,

and Who is to come,

the Almighty."

(Revelation 1:4-8)

DP 43 - freedom

DP 43

Hellish freedom is one thing,

and heavenly freedom another.

It is an exercise of hellish freedom to think and will evil,

and so far as civil and moral laws do not hinder,

to speak and do it.

It is an exercise of heavenly freedom,

on the other hand,

to think and will good,

and so far as opportunity is given,

to speak and do it.

. . . because Divine love is such

that it wills what it has to be another's,

thus to be a person's or angel's.

That is the nature of all spiritual love,

especially of Divine love.

And besides,

the Lord never compels anyone . . ..

Therefore a person is continually led

by the Lord in freedom,

and is also reformed and regenerated in freedom.

The Last Verse of the Gospels

Jesus did many other things as well.

If every one of them were written down,

I suppose that even the whole world

would not have room

for the books that would be written.

(John 21:25)

DP 33 - conjunction with the Lord

DP 33 [3,5]

. . . to the extent anyone abstains from evils

as diabolical and as obstacles to the Lord's entrance,

the more and more closely

he is conjoined with the Lord . . ..

The Lord's conjunction with a person

in whom evils have been removed

is meant by these words of the Lord:

. . . the pure in heart . .  shall see God.

(Matthew 5:8)

Also by these words:

He who has My commandments

and does them . . .

(I) will make (My) abode with him.

(John 21, 23)

To have the Lord's commands is to know Him,

and to do His commands is to love Him,

for we are told in the same passage as well:

He who (does) My commandments . . .,

it is he who loves Me.

(John 14:21)

Jesus Prays

"I have told you these things,

so that in Me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart!

I have overcome the world."

After Jesus said this,

He looked toward heaven and prayed:

"Father, the time has come.

Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.

For You granted Him authority over all people

that He might give eternal life to all those 

You have given Him.

Now this is eternal life:

that they may know You, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

I have brought You glory on earth

by completing the work You gave Me to do.

And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence

with the glory I had with You

before the world began.

(John 16:33; 17:1-5)

DP 28, 30 - heaven is conjunction with the Lord

DP 28

Heaven is conjunction with the Lord.

Heaven is not heaven owing to the angels,

but owing to the Lord,

for the love and wisdom which angels possess

and which make heaven heaven

come not from them

but from the Lord.

Indeed love and wisdom are the Lord in them.

DP 30

The Lord's heaven in the natural world 

is called the church,

and an angel of that heaven

is a person of the church

who has been conjoined with the Lord.

After his departure from the world

such a person

also becomes an angel of the spiritual heaven.

. . . the reciprocal conjunction with the Lord

which constitutes heaven in a person

was revealed by the Lord in these words in John:

Abide in Me, and I in you . . ..

He who abides in Me,

and I in him,

bears much fruit;

for without Me you can do nothing . . ..

(John 15:4,5,7)

Believe

Jesus said to her,

"I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in Me will live,

even though he dies;

and whoever lives and believes in Me

will never die.

(John 11:25-26)

DP 20 - to look to God

DP 20

To look to God in one's life

means simply

to think that this or that evil

is a sin against God,

and for that reason

not to do it.

Our Shepherd

My sheep listen to My voice;

I know them,

and they follow Me.

I give them eternal life,

and they shall never perish;

no one can snatch them out of My hand.

(John 10:27-28)

DP 13 - Can love be divorced from wisdom?

DP 13

We have several times said

that love constitutes a person's life,

but we do not mean love divorced from wisdom

or good divorced from truth . . .,

because love by itself or good by itself

is not something real.

The love which constitutes the inmost life

that a person has from the Lord

is therefore love and wisdom together.

. . . goodness is good

only to the extent that it is united with its truth,

and that truth is true

only to the extent that it is united with its goodness.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast

Not until halfway through the Feast

did Jesus go up to the temple courts

and begin to teach.

The Jews were amazed and asked,

"How did this Man get such learning

without having studied?"

Jesus answered,

"My teaching is not My own.

It comes from Him who sent Me.

If anyone chooses to do God's will,

He will find out whether My teaching

comes from God or whether I speak on My own.

He who speaks on his own

does so to gain honor for himself,

but he who works

for the honor of the One who sent him

is a man of truth;

there is nothing false about him.

Has not Moses given you the law?

Yet no one of you keeps the law.

Why are you trying to kill me?"

(John 7:14-19)

DP 6 - look closely

DP 6 [2]

. . . the more interiorly something is viewed,

the more marvelous, perfect and beautiful

are the elements seen.

We have said this much to establish the fact

that some image of the Divine exists in every created thing,

but that this becomes less and less apparent

with its descent through degrees,

and still less when a lower degree by its closure

becomes separated from a higher degree

and is clogged with earthy matters.

"Follow Me."

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.

Finding Philip, He said to him, "Follow Me."

Philip, like Andrew and Peter,

was from the town of Bethsaida.

Philip found Nathanael and told him,

"We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law,

and about whom the prophets also wrote -

Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

"Nazareth!  Can anything good come from there?"

Nathanael asked.

"Come and see," said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching,

He said of him,

"Here is a true Israelite,

in whom there is nothing false."

"How do You know me?" Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered,

"I saw you while you were still under the fig tree

before Philip called you."

Then Nathanael declared,

"Rabbi, You are the Son of God:

You are the King of Israel."

Jesus said, "You believe

because I told you I saw you under the fig tree.

You shall see greater things than that."

He then added,

"I tell you the truth,

you shall see heaven open,

and the angels of God ascending and descending

on the Son of Man."

(John 1:43-51)

"If you believed Moses,

you would believe Me,

for he wrote about Me.
But since you do not believe what he wrote,

how are you going to believe what I say?"

(John 6:46-47)

DP 2 - Divine Providence

DP 2

. . . the government of the Lord's Divine love and wisdom

is what we call Divine providence.

(DP = Divine Providence)

Praying on the Mount of Olives

Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple,

and each evening He went out to spend the night

on the hill called the Mount of Olives,

and all the people came early in the morning

to hear Him at the temple.

(Luke 21:37-38)

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives,

and His disciples followed Him.

On reaching the place, He said to them,

"Pray that you will not fall into temptation."

He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them,

knelt down and prayed.

"Father, if You are willing,

take this cup from Me;

yet not My will, but Yours be done."

An angel from heaven appeared to Him

and strengthened Him.

And being in anguish,

He prayed more earnestly,

and His sweat was like drops of blood

falling to the ground.

When He rose from prayer

and went back to the disciples,

He found them asleep,

exhausted from sorrow.

"Why are you sleeping?" He asked them.

"Get up and pray

so that you will not fall into temptation."

(Luke 22:45-46)

DLW 426 - Who loves useful service?

DLW 426

Spiritual and celestial love

is love for the neighbor and love toward the Lord,

while natural and sensual love

is love of the world and love of self.

By love for the neighbor

we mean a love of useful services,

and by love toward the Lord

we mean a love of performing useful services . . ..

These loves are spiritual and celestial for the reason

that to love useful services

and to perform them from a love of them

is divorced from a person's love of his own self-interest.

For one who loves useful services spiritually

regards not himself

but others apart from himself,

being affected by a concern for their welfare.

. . . even though a person does not sensibly perceive

whether the useful services he performs

are for the sake of the useful services

or whether they are for the sake of himself,

or in other words,

whether the useful services are spiritual

or whether they are merely natural,

still he can know it

from considering whether he thinks evils are sins or not.

If he thinks they are sins,

and on that account does not do them,

then the useful services he performs are spiritual.

And when the same person

refrains from sins from an aversion to them,

he also begins to perceive sensibly in himself then

a love of useful services for the sake of the useful services,

and this because of the spiritual delight he finds in them.

Peace and Glory

When He came near the place

where the road goes down the Mount of Olives,

the whole crowd of disciples

began joyfully to praise God in loud voices

for all the miracles they had seen:

"Blessed is the King 

who comes in the Name of the Lord!"

"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

Some of the pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus,

"Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

"I tell you," He replied,

"if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

(Luke 19:37-40)

DLW 424 - a love of useful service; DLW 425 - freedom & rationality

DLW 424 [3]

. . . there exists a love of ruling from a love of useful service,

not from a love of useful service for the sake of self,

but from a love of useful service

for the sake of the common good.

A person can hardly distinguish the one from the other,

yet the difference between them

is as that between heaven and hell.

DLW 425

. . . it is a person's love

that becomes spiritual and is regenerated,

and it cannot become spiritual or be regenerated

unless it knows through its intellect

what is evil and what is good,

and consequently what is true and what is false.

When it knows this

it can choose the one or the other;

and if it chooses good,

it can through its intellect

be informed of the means by which it can arrive at good.

The means by which a person can arrive at good

have all been provided.

To know and understand these means

is the function of rationality,

and to will and do them is the function of freedom.

It is freedom also

to will to know, understand and think about them.

[3]  Still, it should rightly be known

that these two faculties of freedom and rationality

are not a person's own,

but are the Lord's in a person;

that they cannot be assigned to a person as his own,

nor given to a person as his own,

but are continually the Lord's in him;

and yet that a person never has them taken away.

The reason they are not taken away

is that a person cannot be saved without them,

for without them he cannot be regenerated . . ..

On a Sabbath 

Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,

and a woman was there

who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years.

She was bend over and could not straighten up at all.

When Jesus saw her,

He called her forward and said to her,

"Woman you are set free from your infirmity."

Then He put His hands on her,

and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath,

the synagogue ruler said to the people,

"There are six days for work.

So come and be healed on those days,

not on the Sabbath."

The Lord answered him,

"You hypocrites!

Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath

untie his ox or donkey from the stall

and lead it out to give it water?

Then should not this woman,

a daughter of Abraham,

whom Satan has kept bound

for eighteen long years,

be set free on the Sabbath day

from what bound her?"

When He said this,

all His opponents were humiliated,

but the people were delighted

with all the wonderful things He was doing.

(Luke 13:10-17)

DLW 422 - when love puts truth into practice

DLW 422

The intellect does not become spiritual and celestial,

but the love does,

and when the love does,

it makes the intellect, its partner,

spiritual and celestial also.

Love becomes spiritual and celestial by a life

in accordance with the truths of wisdom

that the intellect teaches and shows it.

Love learns these through its intellect,

and not on its own.

The fact is that love cannot elevate itself

unless it knows truths,

and it can know these only through an intellect

that has been elevated and enlightened.

In the measure that it then comes to love truths

by putting them into practice,

in the same measure the love, too, is elevated.

For it is one thing to understand and another to will,

or one thing to speak and another to do.

It is consequently

when love puts into practice

the truths of light which it understands and utters

that it is then elevated.

Listen

As Jesus and His disciples were on their way,

He came to a village 

where a woman named Martha 

opened her home to Him.

She had a sister called Mary,

who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations

that had to be made.

She came to Him and asked,

"Lord, don't You care

that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?

Tell her to help me!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered,

"you are worried and upset about many things,

but only one thing is needed.

Mary has chosen what is better,

and it will not be taken away from her."

(Luke 10:38-42)

DLW 419 - if the will and intellect are elevated together

DLW 419

If they are elevated together,

love or the will is purified in the intellect. 

 

A person from birth loves only himself and the world,

for nothing else appears before his eyes,

and therefore he considers nothing else in his heart;

and this love is carnally natural,

and can be called materialistic.

Moreover, this love has also become impure

owing to the separation of heavenly love from it in parents.

[2] This love cannot be separated from its impurity

unless the person has the ability

to elevate his intellect into the light of heaven

and to see how he should live

in order that his love may be elevated together

with his intellect into wisdom.

Through the intellect 

love, which is to say, the person,

sees what evils there are that defile and pollute the love,

and sees, too,

that if he refrains from those evils

and turns away from them as sins,

he loves such things as are opposed to those evils,

all of which are heavenly.

He also sees as well

the means which enable him to refrain from those evils

and turn away from them as sins.

The Greatness of God

"O unbelieving and perverse generation,"

Jesus replied,

"How long shall I stay with you

and put up with you?

Bring your son here."

Even while the boy was coming,

the demon threw him to the ground in convulsion.

But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit,

healed the boy

and gave him back to his father.

And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.

(Luke 9:41-43)

DLW 414 - the elevation of love and intellect

DLW 414

. . . the intellect can be elevated into the light of heaven

and draw from it wisdom.

. . . love or the will can be equally elevated,

if it loves such matters

as are matters of the light of heaven,

or matters of wisdom.

However, love or the will

cannot be elevated by any measure

of honor, glory or material gain as its end,

but by a love of useful service,

not so much for its own sake,

but for the sake of the neighbor.

And because this love is bestowed

only from heaven by the Lord,

and is bestowed by the Lord

when a person refrains from evils as being sins,

therefore it is by these means

that love or the will can be elevated also,

and apart from these means it cannot be.

The will's love . . . is elevated into the warmth of heaven,

whereas the intellect is elevated into the light of heaven,

and if both are elevated,

a marriage of the two takes place there,

which we call the heavenly marriage,

because it is a marriage of heavenly love and wisdom.

That is why we say that love is elevated also

if it loves its partner wisdom in the same degree.

Love for the neighbor from the Lord

is the love proper to wisdom,

or the genuine love proper to the human intellect.

Specks

"Why do you look

at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye

and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

How can you say to to your brother,

'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,'

when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?

You hypocrite,

first take the plank out of your eye,

and then you will see clearly

to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

(Luke 6:41-42)

DLW 406 - three conjunctions: love, intellect, activity

DLW 406

Through these three conjunctions

love or the will

is in the enjoyment of its sensory life and its active life.

Love without the intellect,

or an affection of love without the thought of the intellect,

is incapable of any sensation or action in the body,

and this because love without the intellect

is as though blind,

or because affection without thought

is as though in thick darkness.

An action also takes its being from love

and its character from intelligence.

Good, furthermore, has all its power through truth.

Consequently good acts in truth and so by means of it;

and good is a matter of love,

while truth is a matter of the intellect.

What the Shepherds and Demons Knew

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven,

the shepherds said to one another,

"Let us go to Bethlehem

and see this thing that has happened,

which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph,

and the Baby, who was lying in the manger.

When they had seen Him,

they spread the word concerning

what had been told them about this Child,

and all who heard it

were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

(Luke 2:15-18)

When the sun was setting,

the people brought to Jesus

all who had various kinds of sickness,

and laying His hands on each one,

He healed them.

Moreover, demons came out of many people,

shouting, "You are the Son of God!"

But He rebuked them

and would not allow them to speak,

because they knew He was the Christ.

(Luke 4:40-41)

DLW 404 - everyone possesses

DLW 404 [2]

. . . everyone possesses a perception of truth

to the degree of his affection for understanding it.

For take away any affection for understanding truth,

and no perception of truth will exist.

Zechariah's Song

"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

because He has come and has redeemed His people.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David

(as He said through His holy prophets of long ago),

salvation from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us -

to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember His holy covenant,

the oath He swore to our father Abraham:

to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,

and to enable us to serve Him

without fear

in holiness and righteousness before Him

all our days.

And you, my child,

will be called a prophet of the Most High;

for you will go on before the Lord

to prepare the way for Him,

to give His people the knowledge of salvation

through the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God,

by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

to shine on those living in darkness

and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the path of peace."

(Luke 1:68-79)

DLW 396 - the downfall of the love of self and the world

DLW 396

As for the love of self and love of the world 

being hellish loves,

and why people could come into them

and so destroy in themselves the will and intellect,

the reason is that the love of self and love of the world

are from creation heavenly loves,

being loves of the natural self serving spiritual loves,

as foundations serve for the building of houses.

For it is owing to his love of self and the world

that a person is concerned for his physical well-being

and that he endeavors to be properly nourished,

clothed and housed, to take care of his household,

to seek employments in order to be useful,

indeed to be held in honor

in accordance with the status of the business

that he administers for the sake of being obeyed,

and also to be entertained and recreated

by delights of the world -

yet all of these for the sake of an end,

which ought to be useful service.

For through these endeavors

he is in a state to serve the Lord

and to serve the neighbor.

However, when he has no love

of serving the Lord and serving the neighbor,

and only a love of serving himself for the sake of the world,

then that love

from being heavenly becomes hellish;

for it causes the person to immerse his mind and his heart

in his own native self,

which in itself is completely evil.

A Young Man

A young man,

wearing nothing but a linen garment,

was following Jesus.

When they seized him,

he fled naked,

leaving his garment behind.

(Mark 14:51-52)

DLW 384 - two of each

DLW 384

Since all the mind's constituents

are connected with the will and intellect,

and all the body's constituents with the heart and lungs,

therefore in the head

the brain is divided into two structures,

and these are as distinct from each other

as the will and intellect from each other.

The cerebellum serves primarily the will,

and the cerebrum primarily the intellect.

In the body, the heart and lungs are likewise separated

from the rest of the organs there.

They are separated by the diaphragm

and enveloped in their own covering, called the pleura,

and they form that part of the body called the chest.

In the remaining constituents of the body, called its members,

organs and viscera, these two elements are conjoined.

Consequently the parts exist in pairs,

such as the arms and hands, loins and feet, eyes and nostrils,

and, inside the body, the kidneys, ureters, and testes.

Even organs that do not exist in pairs

are divided into a right and left side-including

the cerebrum itself into two hemispheres,

the heart itself into two ventricles,

and the lungs themselves into two lobes.

Moreover, the right side of these

relates to the goodness of truth,

and the left side to the truth of good.

Or to say the same thing,

the right side relates to the goodness of love

from which arises the truth of wisdom,

and the left side to the truth of wisdom

arising from the goodness of love.

Consequently, because the conjunction

of goodness and truth is a reciprocal one,

and by that conjunction they become as though one,

therefore these pairs in the human being, too,

operate together and conjointly

in their functions, movements, and perceptions.