AE 825 - The Pride of Self-Intelligence and True Good Works

 AE 825 [2, 3]

The pride of self-intelligence
is with all who confirm falsities
even to the destruction of the Divine truth,
in which the angels of heaven are;
for those are in that pride who regard self only,
that is, their reputation,
in their writings and preachings.
For such are in the love of self,
and everyone who is in the love of self
when he writes and preaches is in pride;
and pride derives all things from a person's own [proprium],
consequently it is called the pride of self-intelligence.
The love of self has its seat in the will,
and the pride of self-intelligence in the thought therefrom;
consequently when they think anything from self
they can think nothing but what is false,
for one's own [proprium] which is of the will
and therefore of the love,
is what rules, and this, viewed in itself, is nothing but evil.
It is otherwise with those who are in the love of uses,
and thence in the love of truth for the sake of truth.

Good works are all things
that a person does, writes, preaches, and even speaks,
not from self but from the Lord;
and he acts, writes, preaches, and speaks from the Lord
when he is living according to the laws of his religion.
The laws of our religion
are that one God is to be worshiped;
that adulteries, thefts, murders, false witness,
must be shunned;
thus also frauds, unlawful gains, hatreds, revenge, lies,
blasphemies, and many other things
that are mentioned not alone in the Decalogue
but everywhere else in the Word,
and are called sins against God and also abominations.
When a person shuns these
because they are opposed to the Word,
and so opposed to God,
and because they are from hell,
then a person lives according to the laws of his religion,
and so far as he lives according to his religion
is he led by the Lord;
and so far as he is led by the Lord are his works good;
for he is then led to do goods and to speak truths
for the sake of goods and for the sake of truths,
and not for the sake of self and the world;
uses are his enjoyments, and truths his delights.
Moreover, he is daily taught by the Lord
what he must do and what he must say,
also what he must preach or what he must write;
for when evils are removed
he is continually under the Lord's guidance
and in enlightenment.
Yet he is not led and taught immediately by any dictate,
or 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 consists.
When he acts from this influx,
he appears to be acting as if from himself,
and yet he acknowledges in heart that it is from the Lord.
All angels are in such a state;
and all infants in heaven
are being led by that way to heaven.