AC 6023 - Memory-Knowledges Can Be Filled With Truth or Falsity

AC 6023

Truths are initiated and brought in
when memory-knowledges are ruled by truths;
and they are ruled by truths
when truth is acknowledged
because the Lord has so said in the Word,
and the memory-knowledges which affirm it are accepted,
but those which oppose it are removed.
Thus truth becomes lord
over those memory-knowledges which are affirmative of it,
while those not affirmative are rejected.
When this is the case,
then the person in thinking from memory-knowledges
is not led into falsities,
as is the case where truths are not within.
For memory-knowledges are not true from themselves,
but from the truths within them,
and such as are the truths in them,
such a general truth is the memory-knowledge.
For a memory-knowledge is merely a vessel,
which is capable of receiving both truths and falsities,
and this with endless variety.

As for example the memory-knowledge of the church
that every person is the neighbor.
Into this memory-knowledge may be initiated
and brought truths in endless abundance;
as that every person is indeed the neighbor,
but each one with a difference;
that he is most the neighbor who is in good,
and this also with a difference
according to the quality of the good;
that the origin of the neighbor is from the Lord Himself,
so that the nearer any are to Him,
that is, the more they are in good,
the more they are the neighbor;
and the more remote they are from Him, the less;
and also that a society is more the neighbor
than an individual person,
and a kingdom in general more than a society,
but our own country more than other kingdoms;
that the church is still more
the neighbor than our country,
and the Lord's kingdom still more;
and also that the neighbor is loved
when anyone discharges his office aright
for the good of others,
or of his country,
or of the church; and so on.
This shows how many truths can be brought into
this one memory-knowledge of the church,
for they are so many
that it is difficult to distribute them into genera,
and to assign to each genus some specific truths,
in order that it may be distinguished and recognized.
This was a study in the ancient churches.

That the same memory-knowledge
can be filled with falsities in endless abundance,
may also be seen by inverting the above truths,
and saying that everyone is neighbor to himself,
and that in every instance
the origin of the neighbor is from self;
and that therefore a person's nearest neighbor
is he who most favors him,
and makes one with him,
and thereby presents himself in him
as an image of himself;
indeed, that neither is his country the neighbor,
except insofar as concerns his own advantage;
and so on without end.
Yet the memory-knowledge remains the same:
that every person is the neighbor.
But by one this is filled with truths,
by another with falsities.
The case is similar with all other memory-knowledges.