AC 5949 - Keeping God Before Our Eyes

AC 5949 [2-4]

A person must by all means care for his body,
as that it may be nourished, and clothed,
and may enjoy the delights of the world;
but all these not for the sake of the body,
but for the sake of the soul,
namely, that the soul may act in a sound body
correspondently and rightly,
and may have the body as an organ
entirely compliant to it.
Thus the soul must be the end.
Yet neither must the soul be the end,
but only a mediate end,
for which the person must care,
not for its own sake,
but for the sake of the uses
which it must perform in both worlds;
and when a person has uses as the end,
he has the Lord as the end,
for the Lord makes disposition for uses,
and disposes the uses themselves.

As few know what it is to have as the end,
this also shall be told.
To have as the end is to love above all other things,
for what a person loves,
this he has as the end.
That which a person has as the end
is plainly discerned,
for it reigns universally in him;
and thus is continually present
even at those times when he seems to himself
not to be thinking at all about it,
for it is seated within and makes his interior life,
and thus secretly rules each and all things.
As for example,
with him who from the heart honors his parents,
this honor is present
in each and all things that he does in their presence
and that he thinks in their absence,
and it is also perceived from his gestures and speech.
So with him who from the heart
fears and honors God,
this fear and honor are present
in everything that he thinks, and speaks, and does,
because it is in him
even when it does not seem to be present,
as when he is engaged in business
that seems to be far from it;
for it reigns universally; thus in every detail.
That which reigns in a person
is plainly perceived in the other life,
for the sphere of his whole life
which exhales from him is derived from this.

From all this it is evident how it is to be understood
that God must be always kept before the eyes;
not that He must be constantly thought about,
but that the fear or the love of Him
must reign universally,
in which case God is kept before the eyes
in every detail.
When this is the case
the person does not think, speak, or do
what is against Him and displeasing to Him;
or if he does,
that which universally reigns,
and lies hidden within,
manifests itself and admonishes him.