AC 680 - goods and truths are the genuine foods

AC 680 [2]
...it must be sufficiently evident how corporeal is man at the present day...he is disposed to take everything that is said in the Word in the most gross and material sense. The Lord Himself clearly teaches what is meant in His Word by "food" and "bread." Concerning "food" he speaks in John:

Jesus said, Labor not for the meat (or food) which perishes,
but for that meat which endures to eternal life,
which the Son of man shall give to you. (John 6:27)

And concerning "bread" He says, in the same chapter:

Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This is the Bread which comes down from heaven,
that a man may eat thereof and not die.
I am the living Bread which came down from heaven;
if any man eat of this Bread he shall live eternally. (John 6: 49-51, 58)

But at the present day there are men like those who heard these words
and said:
"This is a hard saying; who can hear it?"
and who "went back and walked no more with Him" (John 6:60,66),
to whom the Lord said:
"The words that I speak unto you you they are spirit and they are life"
(John 6:63).

AC 654 - What is faith?

AC 654
... faith is by no means the knowledge of the things that are of faith, or that are to be believed. This is only memory-knowledge; whereas faith is acknowledgment. There can however be no acknowledgment with any one unless the principal of faith is in him, which is charity, that is, love toward the neighbor and mercy. When there is charity, then there is acknowledgment, or faith.

AC 645 - "pitch it within and without with pitch" (Gen. 6:14)

AC 645
In the original text it is not indeed said that it was to be "pitched with pitch,"
but a word is used which denotes "protection,"
derived from "expiate" or "propitiate," and therefore it involves the same.
The expiation or propitiation of the Lord is protection from inundation of evil.


From Merriam-Webster:
expiate - to make amends or give satisfaction for wrong done;
make up for, put right
propitiate - to gain or regain the favor for:
to appease, pacify; intercede mediate
inundate - to cover with, or as if with a flood
(How appropriate as this story is about Noah and the ark!)

AC 624 - Gen. 6:11 "The earth was filled with violence"

AC 624
That a state not of the church is here treated of, is evident from the fact that here and in the following verses of this chapter the name "God" is used, but in preceding verses "Jehovah." When there is not a church "God" is the term used, and when there is a church "Jehovah;" as in the first chapter of Genesis, when there was not church, it is said "God;" but in the second chapter, when there was a church, it is said "Jehovah God." The name "Jehovah" is most holy, and belongs only to the church; but the name "God" is not so holy, for there was no nation that had not gods, and therefore the name God was not so holy. No one was permitted to speak the name "Jehovah" unless he had knowledge of the true faith; but any one might speak the name "God."

AC 612 - judgment & righteousness

AC 612
They will seek Me daily and desire knowledge of My ways,
as a nation that does righteousness,
and forsakes not the judgment of their God;
they will ask of Me the judgments of righteousness,
and will long for the approach of God. (Isaiah 58:2)

Here "judgment" denotes the things which are of truth,
and "righteousness" those which are of good.
"Doing judgment and righteousness" became, as it were,
an established formula for doing what is true and good.

AC 592 - the Lord turns all evil of punishment into good

AC 592
... there are those who make it their delight, even their greatest delight,
to hurt and punish others;
and those who are hurt and punished think it is from the Lord....
But still the Lord turns all the evil of punishment into good;
so that there is never anything but good from the Lord.

AC 575 - ten or tenths = remains

AC 575
The number "ten" in the Word, as also "tenths,"
signify and represent remains,
which are preserved by the Lord in the internal man,
and which are holy, because they are of the Lord alone...

AC 548 - the Lord rules

AC 548
...the Lord alone rules both heaven and the universe,
for He who rules the one must rule the other...
in the Lord's kingdom,
the laws of which are eternal truths,
all of which are based on the one great law
that people should love the Lord above all things
and their neighbor as themselves,
and even more than themselves,
if they would be as the angels....

AC 519 - to "walk with God"

AC 519
... to "walk with God" is to teach and live according to the doctrine of faith,
but to "walk with Jehovah" is to live the life of love.

AC 503 - life from use, by use, and according to use

AC 503
The life of love, and of the derivative faith,
such as the Most Ancient Church enjoyed,
is life while in the performance of use,
that is in the good and truth of use:
from use, by use, and according to use,
is life given by the Lord;
there can be no life in what is useless,
for whatever is useless is cast away.

AC 494 - a sobering truth

AC 494
The truth is that every one makes hereditary evil by his own actual sins,
and adds it to the evils that he has inherited,
and in this way it accumulates,
and remains in all the descendants,
nor is it abated except in those who are being regenerated by the Lord.
In every church this is the principal cause of degeneration....

AC 477 - faith grounded in love to the Lord makes a person man

AC 477
... in a general sense every one is called a man who has human understanding;
for man is man by virtue of understanding,
and according thereto one person is more a man than another,
although the distinction of one man from another
ought to be made according to his faith
as grounded in love to the Lord.

AC 452 - heaven consists in this

AC 452
... heaven consists in this,
that from the heart we wish better for others than for ourselves,
and desire to be of service to others in order to promote their happiness,
and this for no selfish end,
but from love.

AC 432 - "seventy and seventy-seven-fold"

AC 432
... the number "seven," wherever it occurs in the Word, signifies what is holy, or most sacred; and this holiness and sanctity is ... according to the things that are being treated of. From this comes the signification of the number "seventy," which comprises seven ages; for an age, in the Word, is ten years. When anything most holy or sacred was to be expressed, it was said "seventy-seven-fold," as when the Lord said that a man would forgive his brother not until seven times, but until seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22), by which is meant that they should forgive as many times as he sins, so that the forgiving should be without end, or should eternal, which is holy.

AC 419 - to BE such as faith teaches is celestial

AC 419
As celestial things are the holy things of love and the derivative goods,
so spiritual things are the truths and goods of faith;
for it belongs to faith to understand not only what is true, but what is good.
The knowledges of faith involve both.
But to be such as faith teaches is celestial.

AC 408 - when the Lord came

AC 408
....when there is no faith, faith can no longer be profaned, because men no longer believe what is declared unto them; and those who do not acknowledge and believe, but only know, cannot profane.... It was for this reason that the Lord did not come into the world until the Jewish Church acknowledged and believed nothing.

AC 391 - what goes around...

AC 391
... for whatever anyone desires for another returns upon himself.

AC 362 - the doctrine of faith called "Cain"

AC 362
... such is the nature of man's thought that while intent on some one thing he sets it before any other, especially when his imagination claims it as a discovery of his own, and when the love of self and the world puff him up. Everything then seems to agree with and confirm it, until at last he will swear that it is so, even if it is false.

AC 325 & 326 - Cain & Abel

AC 325
The Most Ancient Church had faith in the Lord through love;
but there arose some who separated faith from love.
The doctrine of faith separated from love was called "Cain;"
and charity, which is love toward the neighbor, was called "Abel".

AC 326
The worship of each is described, that of faith separated from love,
by the "offering of Cain;"
and that of charity,
by the "offering of Abel"....
That worship from charity was acceptable,
but not worship from separated faith.

AC 305 - "cast out of the garden of Eden"

AC 305
Therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden to Eden,
to till the ground from which he was taken." Gen. 3:23

To be "cast out of the garden of Eden,"
is to be deprived of all intelligence and wisdom;
and to "till the ground from which he was taken,"
is to become corporeal, as he was previous to regeneration.

... for a "garden" signifies intelligence, or the understanding of truth;
and "Eden," being significative of love, signifies wisdom, or the will of good.

AC 301 - profanation

AC 301
When men have become inverted orders of life, and are unwilling to live, or to become wise, except from themselves and from their proprium, they reason about everything they hear respecting faith, as to whether it is so, or not; and as they do this from themselves and from their own things of sense and of memory-knowledge, it must needs lead to denial, and consequently to blasphemy and profanation, so that at length they do not scruple to mix up profane things with holy. When a man becomes like this, he is so condemned in the other life that there remains for him no hope of salvation. For things mixed up by profanation remain so mixed up, so that whenever any idea of something holy presents itself, an idea of something profane that is conjoined with it is also there, the consequence of which is that the person cannot be any society except one of the damed. ... The separation of profane and holy ideas when thus conjoined cannot be effected except by means of such infernal torment that if a man were aware of it, he would as carefully avoid profanation as he would avoid hell itself.

AC 300 - "Jehovah God"

AC 300
... as the angels do not possess the least power of themselves,
as indeed they acknowledge,
but solely from the Lord,
and as there is but one God,
therefore by "Jehovah God" in the Word
is meant the Lord alone.

AC 276 - to "eat bread in the sweat of the face"

AC 276
That to "eat bread in the sweat of the face"
signifies to be averse to what is celestial
is evident from the signification of "bread."
By "bread" is meant everything spiritual and celestial,
which is the food of the angels....

AC 259 - remains are stored up by the Lord

AC 259
A serpent can injure only the lowest natural things,
... not the interior natural things in a person, still less his spiritual things,
and least of all his celestial things,
which the Lord preserves and stores up in man without his knowledge.
What are thus stored up by the Lord are called in the Word, "remains".

AC 223 - "face of the Lord"

AC 223
As the "face of the Lord" is mercy, peace, and every good,
it is evident that He regards all from mercy,
and never averts His countenance from any;
but that it is man, when in evil, who turns away his face....

AC 205, 206 - "...you shall be as God, knowing good & evil."

AC 205 & 206
... for such is the nature of the love of self that it is unwilling to submit to the Lord's leading, and prefers to be self-guided, and being self-guided to consult the things of sense and of memory-knowledge as to what is to be believed.

Who have a stronger belief that their eyes are open, and that as God they know what is good and evil, than those who love themselves, and at the same time excel in worldly learning? And yet, who are more blind?

AC 167 - the arcana (or secrets) in each verse of the Word

AC 167
But if anyone knew how many arcana each particular verse contains, he would be astounded. Each one contains so many arcana that they cannot possibly be numbered off. Yet this is barely evident at all from the letter. In short, the words of the letter, just as they are, are represented vividly in the world of spirits in wonderful array. For the world of spirits is a representative world, and whatever is represented vividly is perceived by angelic spirits in the second heaven even as to the minor details within those representatives. And the things perceived by angelic spirits in this way angels in the third heaven perceive abundantly and fully in inexpressible angelic ideas. In accordance with the Lord's Good Pleasure, they perceive them in complete and boundless variety. Such is the Word of the Lord.

AC 126, 127, 129 - the tree of the knowledge of good & evil

AC 126
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it;
for in the day that you eat thereof, dying you shall die. (Gen. 2:17)

These words...signify that it is allowable to become acquainted with what is true and good by means of every perception derived from the Lord, but not from self and the world; that is, we are not to inquire into the mysteries of faith by means of the things of sense and of the memory, for in this case the celestial of faith is destroyed.

AC 127
A desire to investigate the mysteries of faith by means of the things of sense and of the memory, was not only the cause of the fall of the posterity of the Most Ancient Church...but it is also the cause of the fall of every church, for hence come not only falsities, but also evils of life.

AC 129
He who assumes as a principle that nothing is to be believed until it is seen and understood, can never believe, because spiritual things cannot be seen with the eyes, or conceived by the imagination. But the true order is for man to be wise from the Lord, that is, from His Word, and then all things follow, and he is enlightened even in matters of reason and of memory-knowledge. For it is not by any means forbidden to learn the sciences, since they are useful to his life and delightful; nor is he who is in faith prohibited from thinking and speaking as do the learned of the world; but it must be from this principle - to believe the Word of the Lord, and, so far as possible, confirm spiritual and celestial truths by natural truths, in terms familiar to the learned world. Thus his starting-point must be the Lord, and not himself; for the former is life, but the latter is death.

AC 99, 104, 112 - from the Lord

AC 99
... there is in every man the life of the Lord,
which causes him to have perception.

AC 104
At this day it is unknown what Perception is.
It is a certain internal sensation,
from the Lord alone,
as to whether a thing is true and good....

AC 112
Be it know moreover
that there is no wisdom which is not from love,
thus from the Lord;
nor any intelligence except from faith,
thus also from the Lord;
and there is no good except from love,
thus from the Lord;
and no truth except from faith,
thus from the Lord.

AC 85 & 87 - the celestial man

AC 85 [2]
Such is the quality of the celestial man that he acts not according to his own desire, but according to the good pleasure of the Lord, which is his "desire." Thus he enjoys internal peace and happiness...

AC 87
Another reason why the celestial man is the "Sabbath," or "rest," is that combat ceases when he becomes celestial. The evil spirits retire, and good ones approach, as well as celestial angels; and when these are present, evil spirits cannot possibly remain, but flee far away. And since it was not the man himself who carried on the combat, but the Lord alone for the man, it is said that the Lord "rested."

AC 55 & 59 - the Lord blesses & defends

AC 55 [3]
The earth is "replenished" or filled, when there are many truths and goods;
for when the Lord blesses and speaks to a person, that is, works upon him,
there is an immense increase of good and truth...

AC 59 [2]
Unless the Lord defended man every moment,
yea, even the smallest part of every moment, he would instantly perish,
in consequence of the indescribably intense and mortal hatred
which prevails in the world of spirits against
the things relating to love and faith toward the Lord.

AC 44 - wise & foolish

AC 44
Man, like the earth, can produce nothing of good unless the knowledges of faith are first sown in him, whereby he may know what is to be believed and done. It is the office of the understanding to hear the Word, and of the will to do it. To hear the Word and not to do it, is like saying that we believe when we do not live according to our belief; in which case we separate hearing and doing, and thus have a divided mind, and become of those whom the Lord calls "foolish" in the following passage: --

Whosoever hears My words, and does them,
I will liken to a wise man who built his house upon a rock:
but every one that hears My words and does them not,
I liken to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.
(Matthew 7:24,26)

AC 29 - the person who is being regenerated

AC 29
The person who is being regenerated is at first of such a quality that he supposes the good which he does, and the truth which he speaks, to be from himself, when in reality all good and all truth are from the Lord, so that whosoever supposes them to be from himself has not as yet the life of true faith, which he may afterwards receive; for he cannot as yet believe that they are from the Lord, because he is only in a state of preparation for the reception of the life of faith.

Genesis 4:2-7

Genesis 4:2-7

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

AC 14 - "the Lord"

AC (Arcana Coelestia) 14
In the following work, by the name LORD is meant the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, and Him only; and He is called "the Lord" without the addition of other names. Throughout the universal heaven He it is who is acknowledged and adored as the Lord, because He has all sovereign power in the heavens and on earth. He also commanded His disciples so to call Him, saying, "You call Me Lord, and you say well, for I am" (John 13:13).

Canons - He is in the Father, and the Father in Him

The Canons of the New Church - The Holy Spirit, Chap. IV, 6

6. It is known that the soul adjoins to itself a body,
which may serve it for performing uses,
and afterwards it conjoins itself to the body as it serves,
and this even until the soul becomes of the body,
and the body of the soul.
This is what the Lord says,
that He is in the Father, and the Father in Him.

Canons - The Holy Spirit

The Canons of the New Church - The Holy Spirit, Chap. VII

In the degree that any one knows and acknowledges
the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord,
in the same degree he knows and acknowledges God;
and in the degree that any one does this Divine Truth,
in the same degree is he in the Lord and the Lord in him.

Canons - equilibrium

The Canons of the New Church - Redemption - Chap. V, 1-3

1. Every person is in the equilibrium which is between heaven and hell,
and thence in the freedom of looking and turning himself either to heaven or to hell.

2. Every man after death comes first into this equilibrium,
and thus into a similar state of life to that in which he was in the world.

3. They who in the world looked and turned themselves to heaven or to hell,
in like manner look and turn themselves after death.

Canons - exinanition?? glorification??

The Canons of the New Church - God the Redeemer Jesus Christ -
Chap. VI, 1-7

1. The Lord had two states; one which was called a state of exinanition, the other glorification.

2. The state of exinanition was also a state of humiliation before the Father;
and the state of glorification was a state of unition with the Father.

3. The Lord, when He was in a state of exinanition, or humiliation,
prayed to the Father as though absent or remote;
and when He was in a state of glorification, or unition,
He spoke with Himself, when with the Father;
altogether as with man there are states of the soul and body,
before and after regeneration.

4. The Lord when He was in Divine Truth separately,
was in a state of exinanition,
since that could be attacked by the hells, or by the devils there,
and be reproached by men;
wherefore the Lord, when He was in that separately,
could be tempted and suffer.

5. But on the other hand,
the Lord, when He was in Divine Good conjointly,
could not be tempted and suffer by devils in hell,
nor by men in the world,
since that could not be approached, still less invaded.

6. The Lord, when in the world, was alternately in these two states.

7. The Lord could not otherwise have become Justice and redemption.

Canons - the Holy Spirit & the Power of the Most High

The Canons of the New Church -
God the Redeemer Jesus Christ - Chap. IV, 5-8

The "Holy Spirit," which came Upon Mary, signifies the Divine Truth;
and the "Power of the Most High," which overshadowed her,
signifies the Divine Good from which that exists.

5. "The Most High," in the Word, is predicated of the Divine good;
wherefore the "power of the Most High' signifies power proceeding from the Divine good.
6. Therefore these two thing, "the Holy Spirit coming upon her,"
and "the power of the Most High overshadowing her," signify both,
namely, Divine Truth and Divine Good,
- this forming the soul, and that the body, - and communication.
7. Consequently, that these two in the Lord recently born were distinct,
as are soul and body, but were afterwards united.
8. In like manner as is done in man, who is born and afterwards is regenerated.

Canons - God, Section VI - "In the beginning..."

The Canons of the New Church - God, Section VI

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and God was the Word.
All things were made by Him -
and the world was made by Him. (John 1:1,3,10)

By "God" is there meant the Divine Good of Love;
and by the Word, which also was God, the Divine Truth of Wisdom.

Canons - Order

The Canons of the New Church - God, Section VIII -
a notation at end of the section:

All things proceed according to order. God is order.

Invitation 44 & 45 - correspondences in the Word

Invitation to the New Church 44 & 45

44 - ...when a person is in the natural sense, the angels are in the spiritual sense.

45 - The correspondences by which the Word as to each and all of its parts has been written, possess such power and strength, that it may be called the power and strength of the Divine Omnipotence; for through these correspondences, the natural acts conjointly with the spiritual, and the spiritual with the natural; thus the all of heaven with the all of the world. Thence it is that the two sacraments are correspondences of spiritual and natural things; thence is there strength and power.

Invitation 2 & 5 - our regeneration & the coming of the Lord

Invitation to the New Church 2 & 5

2 - During a person's regeneration, the light of heaven is instilled into natural light, and at the same time the heat of heaven; these two constitute, as it were, the new soul, through which a person is formed by the Lord. This light and heat are instilled through the higher mind, which is called the spiritual mind. By virtue of this instilling, or insertion, a person becomes a new creature, and becomes more enlightened and more intelligent in matters of the church, and consequently in the reading of the Word. This also is the new understanding and the new will. Afterwards the person is led by the Lord through the above light and through the above heat, and from natural becomes spiritual.

5 - ... without the Lord's Advent, no person could have been regenerated, and hence saved; and this is what is meant by "the Lamb taking away the sins of the world."

Marriage 99, 104, 105 - angels loving infants

Marriage (De Conjugio)

99 - Those who love infants, and educate them in heaven...live the most sweet and happy life.

104 - The inmost heaven through which the Lord insinuates conjugial love, consists of those there who are in greater peace than others. Peace in the heavens is comparatively like spring in the world, which delights and vivifies all things; it is celestial delight itself in its essence. The angels who are there are the wisest of all, and from innocence appear to the others like infants; they love infants even more than their fathers and mothers have loved them. They also preside over those who are with young.

105 - Those who have loved infants most tenderly, as such mothers...are there in the most sweet and tranquil life, and in celestial joy more than others.

Marriage 58 - to command in marriage

Marriage (De Conjugio) 58

Concerning the love of commanding in marriages,
that it takes away all love truly conjugial,
since conjugial love is such that the one wills to think and will as the other,
and thus mutually and reciprocally, so neither one commands,
but the Lord; thence is the delight of conjugial love.

Marriage 31 - conjugial love

Marriage (De Conjugio) 31

No one can be in conjugial love unless he be spiritual
by combat against the evils and their falsities,
and unless he acknowledges the Lord and His Divine.

Charity 212 - the church & religion

Charity 212
Where there is no truths of faith, the Church does not exist;
and where there is no good of life, religion does not exist.
The Church and religion make one, like truth and good. And because truth is of faith and good is of charity, they make one as faith and charity do; and, in order that it may be still more clearly understood, they make one as do the understanding and the will. It is well known that it is possible for a man to understand well and all the while not will well, and to understand truths and thence give utterance to them, and yet not from willing them, do them. But when he wills as he understands, and does as he says, then the will and the understanding with him make one. It is similar in the case of the Church and religion. The Church is a Church from its doctrine; and religion is religion from a life in accordance with doctrine. And the doctrine ought to be composed of truths, and the life ought to be made up of goods.

Charity 208 - the 'first of charity'

Charity 208
...the "first" of charity is to look to the Lord and shun evils as sins, which is done by repentance.
...before the Lord can inflow with good, evil must be removed; for influx before that is dangerous, as the good is turned into evil and increases it. The first thing, therefore, is to remove evil, and afterwards to inflow with good, and bring it into operation by means of the man Anyone attempting to do good from the Lord, before evil has been removed by repentance, or without shunning evils as sins, is attempting what is impossible....
Who is loving a person, when he wants to kill him, or hates him? Who is loving the neighbor, when he commits whoredom with someone else's wife? Who is loving the neighbor, when he defrauds him? Who is loving the neighbor, when he slanders him? Who is loving the neighbor, when he covets what belongs to him? Those evils, therefore, must first be removed; and in the measure that they are being removed, the that extent the neighbor is being loved.

Charity 202 - the Lord brings forth good

Charity 202
The Lord can bring forth good through any man, and He can turn the evil that an evil man brings forth into good. He can rouse an evil man to do good from selfish and worldly consideration; but in that case the Lord does not inflow into the evil of the man himself, but round about it into the surrounding things in him, thus into his external, by means of which the man wants to appear like a good man. That good, therefore, is good so far as the surface goes, but intrinsically is evil. With hypocrites, it is like gilded dung, so that scarcely anyone thinks it to be other than pure gold; nevertheless, if it is brought near to a sensitive nostril, the smell of the dung in it is perceived.

Charity 172 - service

Charity 172
... for everyone,
in whatever position of responsibility he is,
is obliged to serve;
even a king ought to serve the Lord.
And in so far as anyone serves faithfully,
he is loved and led by the Lord.
And in the measure that anyone looks to the Lord
and shuns evils as sins,
he serves freely and not under compulsion.

Charity 167 - hidden things of charity

Charity 167
No one can know the hidden things of charity in himself,
because he does not see them:
but the Lord sees them.

Charity 102 - Life is God & inflows into a person

Charity 102
... because Life is God,
the Divine cannot be appropriated to a person, who is finite and created,
but it can inflow into, and be adjoined to, a receptacle;
just as the eye is not light in itself, but can receive light,
and as the ear is not hearing in itself, but is the receptacle for it.

Charity 52 & 54 - genuine charity

Charity 52 & 54
He who loves a neighbor from genuine charity finds out what sort of person he is, and does good to him with discrimination, in accordance with the quality of his good.

Genuine charity itself is prudent and wise. The other charity is spurious, because it is of the will or of good only, and not at the same time of the understanding, or of truth.

Charity 2 - looking to the Lord

Charity 2
In so far as anyone does not look to the Lord
and shun evils because they are sins, he remains in them.

All evils are innately delightful, because man is born into the love of self, and that love delights in all the things that are of his proprium, that is, the things that he wills and thinks. Unless these inbred delights are subdued, everyone remains in them until death; and they are not subdued unless they are regarded as sweet poisons that kill, or as flowers beautiful in appearance but inwardly toxic, that is, unless the delights of the evils are regarded as being fatal, and this until they become undelightful.

AE - AC Holy Spirit - the union of Body & Soul

AE - The Athanasian Creed - The Holy Spirit

Through temptations man becomes spiritual and is conjoined to heaven. But the Lord through temptations conjoined His Human to the Divine itself which was in Him, and so He became God as to the Human.

He was united to His Divine by successive steps...and He was united through temptations and victories. Full unition was accomplished by the passion of the cross.

There is one God; and this is acknowledged in all the world.
The soul induces likeness in the body, and the body is but the external form of its own soul.
The Divine itself, and the Divine love, was His soul; it could not be otherwise than the Body should be like it.

AE - AC 201 - the Lord & the hells

AE - Athanasian Creed 201
That the Lord is God who alone is to be worshiped, is manifest from this, --that the hells are filled with the most bitter hatred against the Lord; not so against the Father, who also some hells call the Creator of the universe, from the habit of speaking that was formed in the world, and this without hatred; but all the hells are against the Lord; they are not willing, neither are they able, to name Him, and to all of them it is most delightful to torment those who adore the Lord, and this enjoyment of theirs is extreme.

AE - AC 121 - the Divine

AE - The Athanasian Creed 121

The Divine cannot be in any other body than its own;
thus it must be Divine.

AE - AC 92 - His Coming

AE - The Athanasian Creed 92

If the Lord had not now executed the Last Judgment (and this is His Coming),
No one in the church could have been saved any longer;
for all are in falsities, and all the Word has been falsified....
It is because of this that the Lord has now revealed the spiritual sense
as truth of doctrine;
as was done also in His Coming when He assumed the Human.

For those who want more of an explanation,
this is explained more fully in no. 112, which is in Comments.

AE - AC 46 - the Divine body and soul

AE - The Athanasian Creed - 46

The soul of the Lord was the Divine itself...
consequently, it is plain that His soul was His own Divine itself.
And whereas the body is not the man without the soul,
(indeed, whatever belongs to the body, even to its least particle,
lives from the soul,)
consequently such as the soul is, such is the body;
and the body is formed to the likeness of the soul....
And so they (Christians) make three parts in the Lord,
when yet there are two, the Divine and the Human;
and these two are one only Person;
and as soul and body make one man,
so the Divine and the Human is one Christ....

AE - AC 7 - the Divine Human was Divine order

AE - Athanasian Creed 7
...the Divine clothed itself with the Human,
according to Divine order,
from firsts to lasts:
and therefore in the Divine Human was Divine order:
consequently, that thus it fills all things,
or is omnipresent everywhere.

AE - The Angelic Idea - the Divine proceeding

AE - The Angelic Idea

The Divine proceeding that is nearest to the Lord appears before the angels as a sun; this appears to their sight fiery and flaming; this is so because the Divine proceeding is the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, and these so appear at a distance. (The angels add that the Divine proceeding is what the ancients represented by golden or shining and pure circles about the head of God, which modern painters still retain from the ancient idea.)

AE - DW XII (1) - what is spiritual

AE - Divine Wisdom XII (1)
What is spiritual can derive its essence from no other source
than the Divine love and the Divine wisdom,
for to love and to be wise is spiritual....

AE - DW XI - W&F 1 - a candle

AE - Divine Wisdom XI - Wisdom & Faith 1

...charity must give being to faith,
and faith must so teach;
moreover, charity must enlighten and faith must see;
consequently, if charity and faith are separated,
man has neither the one nor the other;
as when you take away a candle
you take away the light also, and there is thick darkness.

AE - DW - Love & Charity, Wisdom & Faith

AE - Divine Wisdom XI

LOVE AND CHARITY
1. The love of uses is charity.
2. The Lord is the source (a quo), and the neighbor is the object (ad quem).
3. Love to the Lord exists in charity, because in use.
4. Use is to perform one's office, and to do one's work
rightly, faithfully, sincerely, and justly.
5. There are general uses which are also uses of charity.
6. Uses become uses of charity only with one who fights against evils,
which are from hell;
7. Since these are contrary to love to the Lord,
and contrary to charity towards the neighbor.
8. Uses that have one's own good for their first and last end
are not uses of charity.

WISDOM AND FAITH
1. Faith is nothing else than truth.
2. Truth becomes truth when it is perceived and loved,
and it is called faith when it is known and thought.
3. The truths of faith look on one hand to the Lord,
on the other to the neighbor.
4. In brief, how the Lord is to be approached
that conjunction may be effected,
and how afterwards the Lord performs uses through man.
5. Both of these are taught by truths, spiritual, moral, and civil.
6. Faith is to know and think them; charity is to will and do them.
7. Therefore when the Divine love of the Lord exists with man in charity,
which to to will and do truths,
the Divine wisdom of the Lord exists with man in faith,
which is to know and think truths.
8. The conjunction of charity and faith is reciprocal.

AE - DW X - What is the Divine Wisdom?

AE - Divine Wisdom X [2]
The Divine wisdom is what is called the Divine providence,
and what is called also Divine order,
and Divine truths are called the laws of the Divine providence,
which have been treated of as above;
they are also called the laws of Divine order.
These laws on the one side have regard to the Lord,
and on the other to man,
and on both sides to conjunction.
The Divine love has for its object to lead and to bring man to itself;
and the Divine wisdom has for its object to teach man the way in which he must go that he may come into conjunction with the Lord. This way the Lord teaches in the Word, and particularly in the Decalogue; and on this account the two tables of the Decalogue were written by the finger of the Lord Himself, one of which has regard to the Lord and the other to man, and both to conjunction.

AE - DW - the spirit of a man

AE - Divine Wisdom - VII 92) [4]
The spirit of a man is not a substance that is separate from his viscera, organs, and members, but it cleaves to them in close conjunction; for the spiritual goes along with every fiber of these from outermosts to innermosts; and thus with every fiber and filament of the heart and lungs; consequently, when the bond between man's body and spirit is loosed, the spirit is in a form like that in which the man was before; there is only a separation of spiritual substance from material. For this reason the spirit has a heart and lungs the same as the man in the world, and also speech; and there can be no sense or motions or speech without heart and lungs. Spirits also have atmospheres, but spiritual. How greatly, then, are those deceived who assign to the soul a special seat somewhere in the brain or in the heart, for the soul of man, which is to live after death, is his spirit.

AE - DW III [3] - the co-operation between love & wisdom

AE - Divine Wisdom III [3]

... love in a state of peace and tranquility co-operates with wisdom,
and wisdom with love, and produces and forms...

AE - DW II - an image & likeness of the Lord

AE - Divine Wisdom - II
As there are two things in the Lord,
love and wisdom,
and these two proceed from Him,
and as man was created to be a likeness and an image of the Lord,
a likeness trough love,
and an image through wisdom,
so two receptacles were created with man,
one for love and the other for wisdom;
the receptacle of live is what is called the will,
and the receptacle of wisdom is what is called the understanding.

AE - DL XVII - acquiring the spiritual affection of use

AE - Divine Love - XVII
Every person has eternal life according to his affection of use, for the reason that affection is the person himself; consequently, such as the affection is, such is the person.

[5] The spiritual affection of use is both internal and external, and it is external or natural to the same extent that it is spiritual; for what is spiritual flows into what is natural, and arranges it in correspondence, thus into an image of itself.

Spiritual affection is acquired by shunning evils because they are sins; which is done by means of combat against them. The evils that a person must shun are all set forth written in the Decalogue. So far as person fights against them because they are sins, he becomes a spiritual affection, and thus he performs uses from spiritual life....

In this way one's spiritual mind is opened, through which the Lord enters into his natural mind and arranges it for performing spiritual uses which appear like natural uses. To these and no others is it granted by the Lord to love Him above all things and the neighbor as oneself.

If a person, by means of combat against evils as sins, has acquired anything spiritual in the world, be it ever so small, he is saved, and afterwards his uses grow like a grain of mustard seed into a tree.

AE - DL XIII - love to the Lord & the neighbor

AE Divine Love XIII

To love the Lord means to do uses from Him and for His sake.
To love the neighbor means to do uses to the church, to one's country, to human society, and to the fellow-citizen.
To be in the Lord means to be a use.
And to be a man means to perform uses to the neighbor from the Lord for the Lord's sake.

AE - DL XI - There are degrees of affections and uses.

AE - Divine Love XI

There are continuous degrees and discrete degrees. Both of these are in every form in the spiritual world and in the natural world. All are acquainted with continuous degrees; few however, have any knowledge of discrete degrees....
Continuous degrees, which all know about, are like the degrees from light to shade, from heat to cold, from rarity to density....
[2] But discrete degrees are wholly different. These do not advance in one plane to the sides around, but from highest to lowest; and for this reason they are called descending degrees.

AE - DL VIII - creation & use

AE - DL VIII

...from creation nothing is found on the earth that is not for use.

AE - DL IV - form of love

AE - The Divine Love IV

...form of love is a form of use;
for the subjects of love are uses,
because love wills to do goods,
and goods are nothing else than uses;
and since the Divine love infinitely transcends,
its form is a form of use in its whole complex.

AE 1226 - a life of use

AE 1226 [6]
A life from a love of uses is a life of love
of the public good and of love to the neighbor,
and also a life of love to the Lord,
for the Lord performs uses to man through man,
consequently a life of the love of uses is the spiritual Divine life,
and everyone who loves a good use and does it from a love for it,
is loved by the Lord,
and is received with joy by the angels of heaven.

AE 1223 - "For the fine linen is ... "

AE 1223
For the fine linen is the just deeds of the saints,
signifies that by means of truths from the Word
those who believe in the Lord have goods of life.

This is evident from the signification of "fine linen",
as being truths from the Word;
also from the signification of "saints",
as being those who are in truths from good from the Lord.

AE 1215 - fallacy is seeing appearance and not essence

AE 1215 [4]
...for a fallacy is an inversion of order;
it is the judgment of the eye,
not of the mind;
it is a conclusion from the appearance of a thing,
not from its essence.

...it is an eternal truth that influx is spiritual and not physical,
that is, influx is from the soul, which is spiritual,
into the body, which is natural,
or from the spiritual world into the natural world;
also that as the Divine from itself
and through that which proceeds from itself
created all things,
so it sustains all things...

AE 1210 - "To praise God"

AE 1210
"To praise God" signifies confession and worship,
because the Lord has no wish to be praised and glorified
from any love of Himself,
but only from His love for man,
for man must needs praise and glorify the Lord,
that is, give praise and glory to Him,
when he acknowledges in heart that there is nothing of good in himself,
and that he can do nothing of himself,
and on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord,
and that the Lord can do all things.
When man is in this acknowledgment,
he puts aside what is his own,
which belongs to the love of self,
and opens all things of his mind,
and thus gives room for the Divine to flow in with good and with power.
This is why it is necessary for man to be in humiliation before the Lord,
and why humiliation can be from no other source
than self-acknowledgment and acknowledgment of the Lord,
according to which reception is effected.

AE 1206 - "falling down before God"

AE 1206
... by creation there are gestures corresponding to every affection, and a man falls into them spontaneously when he comes into the affection, provided he has not learned to counterfeit affections that are foreign to him; while one who has learned so to do takes on gestures from himself by which he depicts affections of the heart, although they do not belong at all to his heart. Such can fall down before God, but it is a purely counterfeit act. This has been said to make known that "falling down before God" means to act from inmost affection, which is called humiliation of heart; this precedes worship, which is an act of the lips.

AE 1199 - For true and just are His judgments

AE 1199
For true and just are his judgments,
signifies that the laws of the Divine providence,
and all the works of the Lord,
are of the Divine wisdom and the Divine love.

AE 1198 - Salvation, glory, honor, power

AE 1198
Salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God
signifies eternal life is from the Lord
through the Divine truth and the Divine good from His Divine omnipotence.
This is evident from the signification of salvation, as being eternal life;
also from the signification of "glory and honor,"
as being the Lord's Divine truth and Divine good;
also from the signification of "power,"
as being, in reference to the Lord, omnipotence;
and as the Lord is called in the Word "Jehovah" and "Lord"
from the Divine good,
and "God" from the Divine truth,
and Divine good and truth are signified by "glory and honor,"
so it is said, "the Lord our God".
In the sense of the letter, "salvation, glory, honor, and power," are mentioned separately, but in the spiritual sense they are joined into one meaning, which is, that eternal life is from the Lord through the Divine truth and the Divine good from the Divine omnipotence. The same is true of many other passages of the Word. Sometimes mere names of countries and cities are enumerated, that appear disconnected in the sense of the letter, but in the spiritual sense they combine into one continuous sense.

AE 1194 - being useful

AE 1194 [2]
Man was created to perform uses, and this is to love the neighbor, so all who come into heaven, however many there are, must do uses. All the delight and blessedness of these is according to uses and the love of uses. Heavenly joy is from no other source. He who believe that such joy is possible in idleness is much deceived.

AE 1190 & AE 1193 - uses

AE 1190 [2]
To love wisdom is to love uses that are true uses,
and to love knowledge is to love the cognitions of good and truth
for the sake of such uses.
When uses are loved more than self and the world,
and the cognitions of good and truth are loved for the sake of uses,
uses have the first place and eminence and wealth the second place....

AE 1193 [2]
To love uses is nothing else than to love the neighbor,
for use in the spiritual sense is the neighbor.
This can be seen from the fact that everyone loves another
not because of his face and body,
but from his will and understanding....
And as a person is loved or not loved for these reasons,
it follows that the neighbor is that from which every one is a person,
and that is his spiritual.


cognitions - thoughts or beliefs

AE 1184 - going astray

AE 1185 [2]
...by the Divine providence man is led only to such things as do not lead astray and as are serviceable to eternal life; for all things of the Divine providence with man look to what is eternal, since the life which is God, from which man is man, is eternal.... I have seen the eminent and the rich in the heavens and I have seen them in the hells; therefore, as has been said, when eminence and riches to not lead astray, they are from God, but when they do, they are from hell.

AE 1175 - the Lord leads a person by their affections

AE 1175 [4]
Why a person is led by the Lord by means of affections and not by means of thoughts shall now be told. When a person is led by the Lord by means of affections, he can be led according to all the laws of His Divine providence, but not if he should be led by means of thoughts. Affections do not become evident to man, but thoughts do; also affections produce thoughts, but thoughts do not produce affections; there is an appearance that they do, but it is a fallacy. And when affections produce thoughts, they produce all things of a person, because these constitute his life. Moreover, this is known in the world. If you hold a person in his affection, you hold him bound, and lead him wherever you please, and a single reason is then stronger than a thousand. But if you do not hold a person in his affection, reasons are of no avail, for his affection, when not in harmony with them (reasons), and either perverts them or rejects them or extinguishes them. It would be similar if the Lord should lead a person by means of thoughts immediately, and not by means of affections. Again, when a person is led by the Lord by means of affections, it seems to the person as if he thought freely as if of himself, and spoke freely and acted freely as if of himself. And this is why the Lord does not teach a person immediately, but mediately by means of the Word, and by means of conversations and intercourse with others; for from these things man thinks free as if of himself.

AE 1174 - as of self

AE 1174 [2]
... it is according to a law of the Divine providence that man shall go whithersoever his affection wills....
And yet the Lord leads him as if by the hand, permitting and withholding as far as man is willing to follow in freedom....

[3]
This the Lord does without the man's knowing it, because if man knew it he would disturb the continuity of that process by leading himself. It is enough for man to learn truths from the Word, and by means of truths to know what good is, and from truths and goods what evils and falsities are, in order that he may be affected by truths and goods, and not be affected by falsities and evils.

AE 1166 - Divine omnipotence, Divine omniscience, Divine providence

AE 1166 [2]
The Lord alone resists the evils with man by Himself and not through any angels of heaven, because to resist evils with man is a work o f Divine omnipotence, Divine omniscience, and Divine providence.

It is a work of Divine omnipotence, because to resist one evil is to resit many, and even to resist the hells. For every evil is joined with innumerable other evils, and they cling together like the hells with each other; for as evils make one so do the hells, and as the hells make one so do evils, and no one but the Lord is able to resit the hells so united.

It is a work of Divine omniscience, because the Lord alone knows what man is and what his evils are, and what their connection is with other evils, thus in what order they must be removed that man may be inwardly or radically cured.

It is a work of Divine providence, that nothing may be done contrary to the laws of order, and that what is done may promote man's eternal good; for Divine omnipotence, Divine omniscience, and Divine providence have respect in every least particular to what is eternal.

[3]
All this makes clear that no angel is able to resist the evils with man, but the Lord only. The Lord carries on this work in man both immediately from Himself, and mediately through heaven, and yet in such a way that no angel knows anything about it.

AE 1160 - the profanation of what is holy

AE 1160 [3]
Moreover, the Lord by His Divine providence guards with the greatest care against this kind of profanation; and lest this exist, He separates the holy things with man from those that are not holy, and stores up the holy things in the interiors of his mind, and raises them up to Himself; while the things not holy He stores up in the exteriors, and turns them to the world. Thus holy things can be separated from the unholy, and thus man can be saved. But this cannot be done when goods and evils are mixed together.

AE 1159 - a law of order relating to reformation which is a law of providence

AE 1159 [5]
... man is not let into the truths of faith and the goods of love except so far as he can be withheld from evils and held in goods even to the end of life, and that it is better for a man to be permanently evil than that he be good and afterwards evil, for thus he becomes profane. It is for this reason that the Lord, who provides all things and foresees all things, hides the operations of His providence....

AE 1153 - the operation of the Divine Providence

AE 1153 [6]
Man does not perceive the operation of the Divine providence within himself, because that would take away his freedom, and thus his ability to think as if of himself, and with it every delight of life; thus man would be like an automaton, in which there is no reciprocal, and consequently no conjunction; also he would be a slave and not free. The Divine providence moves so secretly that scarcely a trace of it is seen, although it acts upon the most minute things of man's thought and will, which regard his eternal state....

[7]
If a man should learn anything of these arcana, he could not be withheld from leading himself; and in this he would be continually led from heaven into hell, while the Lord's leading is continually from hell towards heaven. For from himself man constantly acts against order, while the Lord acts constantly according to order; for man, from the nature derived from his parents, is in the love of self and the love of the world, and consequently perceives from a feeling of delight everything belonging to those loves as good; nevertheless, those loves as ends must be removed; and this is done by the Lord in infinite ways, that appear like a labyrinth even before the angels of the third heaven.

[8]
All this makes clear that man would find no help at all in knowing anything about this from sense or perception, but it would do him harm instead, and would destroy him forever. It is sufficient for man to know truths, and by means of truths to know what is good and what is evil, and to acknowledge the Lord and His Divine auspices in every least thing. Then so far as he knows truths, and by means of them what is good and evil, and does what is good as if from himself, so far the Lord leads him from love into wisdom, conjoining love to wisdom and wisdom to love, and making them to be one, because they are one in Himself.

AE 1145 - "wood" and "stone"

AE 1145 [2]
"Wood" signifies good, because it is from a tree from which are fruits; also because wood can be burned and be useful in keeping the body warm, and in building houses and marking various articles of convenience and use; also because an oil, which signifies the good of love, may be expressed from wood; it also contains in it that which gives heat.

"Stone" on the hand signifies here (Rev. 18:12) the truth of the natural man, because it is cold and cannot be burned.

AE 1144 - love of the neighbor, love of uses

AE 1144
Love towards the neighbor in the spiritual sense is the love of uses;
and when uses are for the sake of self,
it is not a love of uses but a love of self.

AE 1139 - the union of the Lord with a person

AE 1139 [2]
... the light of life and the heat of life move and fill their recipient in the exact measure of the quality of his acknowledgment that they are not his but are the Lord's, and the quality of acknowledgment is in exact accord with the quality of love in doing the commandments, which are uses.

AE 1129 - the universe

AE 1129 [5]
... the created universe is full of God.

AE 1127 - life from the Lord

AE 1127
Life from the Lord is love and wisdom;
consequently,
such as the reception of love and wisdom from the Lord is
such is the person.

AE 1115 - spirit & body

AE 1115 [4]
A man is in the idea of his spirit when he thinks abstractly,
and in the idea of his body when he does not think abstractly.

AE 1112 - civil truth is truth from law, civil equity is the good

AE 1112
"The just" is truth from good because civil justice is nothing else than civil truth, which is of the law, and civil equity is the good that is also of the law, since as the law wills justice so it wills equity; for as all truth must be from good so all justice must be from equity; and as all truth must be of good so all justice must be of equity, and conversely. The two cannot be separated, for if they are separated equity is no longer equity, nor is so-called justice justice; as good and truth cannot be separated, of if they are separated, good is not good, nor is truth truth.

AE 1104 - the Lord as Man who is God

AE 1104 [3]
In a word, those who separate the Divine from His Human, and do not think that the Divine is in His Human as the soul is in the body, and that the two are one Person, may fall into strange ideas about the Lord, even into an idea like that of a man separated from his soul. Take heed, therefore, not to think of the Lord as a man like yourself, but think of the Lord as Man who is God.

AE 1100 - the truths of the Word can be understood

AE 1100 [24]
If what is not understood must be believed,
a man might be taught like a parrot to speak and to remember....
But be it known that all the truths of the Word,
which are the truths of heaven and of the church,
can be seen by the understanding,
in heaven spiritually,
in the world rationally;
for a truly human understanding is the sight itself of these truths,
for it is separated from what is material
and when separated
it sees truths as clearly as the eye sees objects;
it sees truths as it loves them,
for as it loves them it is enlightened.
The angels have wisdom in consequence of seeing truths....

AE 1096 - thought of God

AE 1096 [4]
As thought about God is what primarily opens heaven,
so thought against God is what primarily closes heaven.