DP 326 [9, 11-13] - the Ark when the Philistines took it to the temple of Dagon in Ashton

DP326 [9]
Acknowledging God
and not doing evil because it is contrary to God
are the two ingredients which make a religion a religion.
If one of these is lacking, it cannot be called a religion,
inasmuch as to acknowledge God and do evil is a contradiction,
and so is it to do good and not acknowledge God.
For one is impossible without the other.

The Lord has provided that some religion exist almost everywhere,
and that each have in it these two elements.
Moreover, the Lord has also provided
that there be a place in heaven for everyone who acknowledges God
and does not do evil because it is contrary to God.
For heaven in its totality resembles a single person,
whose life or soul is the Lord.
That heavenly person
has in it all the constituents found in a natural person,
with the kind of difference
that exists between heavenly things and natural ones.

[11] That these two elements are the primary ones in any religion
can be seen from the fact
that it is these two that the Decalogue teaches,
and the Decalogue was the beginning of the Word,
proclaimed by Jehovah from Mount Sinai in His own voice
(Exodus 20:1, 19. Deuteronomy 5:4, 22).
and written on two tablets of stone with the finger of God.
(Exodus 31:18. Deuteronomy 9:10).
Moreover, having been placed in the Ark,
it was then called Jehovah (Numbers 10:35, 36),
and it sanctified the holy of holies in the Tabernacle,
and the inner sanctuary in the Temple in Jerusalem;
and everything there was sacred, owing to it alone.

We know from the Word
that the Ark containing the two tablets on which the Decalogue was written
was captured by the Philistines
and placed in the temple of Dagon in Ashdod;
that Dagon fell to the ground before it,
and later his head was found lying on the threshold of the temple
with the palms of his hands torn from his body;
that the people of Ashdod and Ekron
were stricken with hemorrhoids because of the Ark,
affecting many thousands,
and that their land was ravaged by mice;
moreover, that on the advice of the leading men of their nation,
the Philistines made five hemorrhoids and five mice of gold,
and a new cart, on which they placed the Ark,
with the hemorrhoids and mice of gold beside it,
and sent it back by means of two cows,
which lowed along the way before the cart,
to the children of Israel, who sacrificed the cows and the cart
(1 Samuel 5, 6).

[12] We shall now say what all these things meant symbolically.

The Philistines
symbolized people caught up in faith separated from charity.

Dagon
represented that religious persuasion.

The hemorrhoids with which they were stricken
symbolized natural loves,
which, when separated from spiritual love,
are unclean.
And the mice
symbolized the devastation of the church by falsifications of truth.

The new cart on which they sent back the Ark
symbolized a new doctrine, though a natural one,
for a conveyance in the Word symbolizes doctrine founded on spiritual truths.

The cows
symbolized good natural affections.

The hemorrhoids of gold
symbolized natural loves purified and made good.

The mice of gold
symbolized the devastation of the church removed by good,
for gold in the Word symbolizes good.

The lowing of the cows along the way
symbolized the difficult conversion of lusts for evil in the natural self
into good affections.

The offering of the cows together with the cart as a burnt offering
symbolized the Lord's being thus propitiated.
[propitiate - make peace with]

[13] These are the things spiritually meant by those narrative details.
Connect them into a single sense and form an application.

That the Philistines
represented people caught up in faith separated from charity . . ..
And that the Ark was the holiest object of the church
because of the Decalogue contained in it . . ..

DP 326 [8] - live rightly

DP 326 [8]
. . . goodness of life, or living rightly,
means refraining from evils
because they are contrary to religion,
thus contrary to God . . ..
To it we will add only this,
that if you do good works in abundance
if, for example,
you build churches, adorn them and fill them with offerings,
contribute money to hospitals and shelters,
give alms daily, aid widows and orphans,
diligently observe the sanctities of worship,
indeed think, speak and preach these from the heart
and yet do not refrain from evils as sins against God,
then all those good works are not good.
They are either hypocritical or merit-seeking,
for evil is still inwardly present in them,
inasmuch as everyone's life is present in each and every thing that he does.
Good works, on the other hand,
become good only by the removal of evil from them.

It is apparent from this
that to refrain from evils because they are contrary to religion,
thus contrary to God,
is to live rightly.

DP 321[8] - Divine providence does not assign evil or good to anyone

DP 321[8]
. . . Divine providence does not assign evil to anyone,
nor good to anyone,
but that it is a person's own prudence
that assigns the one or the other to him. . ..
The end in Divine providence is goodness.
It therefore intends this in its every operation.
Consequently it does not assign good to anyone,
for in that case it would be made deserving of merit.
Nor does it assign evil to anyone,
for in that case it would make him guilty of evil.
Nevertheless a person does both owing to his inherent nature . . ..
The inherent nature of his will is a love of self,
and the inherent nature of his intellect is a conceit in his own intelligence,
and it is of the latter that his own prudence is born.

DP 313 - the Garden of Eden

DP 313
The character of people caught up in their own prudence
and the character of those governed by prudence not their own
and consequently by Divine providence
is described in the Word
by Adam and his wife Eve in the Garden of Eden,
in which there were two trees
one the tree of life
and the other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
and by their eating of the latter tree. (Genesis 2:1-3:24.)
By Adam and his wife Eve in the Word's internal or spiritual sense
are meant and described the Lord's Most Ancient Church on this earth,
a church more noble and more heavenly than those that followed . . ..
The rest of the particulars symbolize the following:

[2] The Garden of Eden
symbolizes the wisdom of the people of that church.
The tree of life,
the Lord in respect to His Divine providence,
and the tree of knowledge,
mankind in respect to his own prudence.
The serpent,
the sensual nature and inherent character of mankind,
which in itself is self-love and a conceit in its own intelligence,
thus the devil and satan.
Eating of the tree of knowledge,
the arrogation to self of goodness and truth
as being not from the Lord and thus not the Lord's,
but the product of mankind and thus the property of mankind.
And because goodness and truth
are the fundamental Divine qualities in a person,
as goodness means everything connected with love,
and truth, everything connected with wisdom,
therefore if a person claims them for himself as his own,
he cannot but believe that he is like God.
Therefore the serpent said,

In the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil.
(Genesis 3:5)

That, too, is what those do in hell who are caught up in self-love
and a consequent conceit in their own intelligence.

[3] The curse on the serpent
symbolizes the damnation of mankind's own love
and mankind's own intelligence.
The curse on Eve,
the damnation of his volitional nature,
and the curse on Adam,
the damnation of his intellectual nature.
The thorn and thistle which the earth would cause to sprout up for him
symbolize sheer falsity and evil.
Being expelled from the garden
symbolizes the loss of wisdom.
Guarding the way to the tree of life,
the Lord's protection to keep the sanctities of the Word
and the church from being violated.
The fig leaves with which Adam and Eve covered their nakedness
symbolize the moral truths
with which those people veiled the inclinations of their love and conceit.
And the tunics of skin with which they were afterward clothed
symbolize appearances of truth,
which were the only ones they had.

This is the spiritual meaning of these things.
But let anyone who wishes remain in the literal sense.
Only let him know that the foregoing is the meaning in heaven.

DP 307 - our wandering spirit

DP 307 [2]
. . . in respect to his spirit
a person is in the spiritual world and in some society there
in a society of hell if he is evil,
and in a society of heaven if he is good.
For a person's mind,
being in itself spiritual,
can only be among spiritual beings,
into whose company he also comes after death.

The person is not present there as a spirit enrolled in the society, however,
for a person is continually in a state to be reformed.
Consequently, in accordance with his life and the changes in it,
he is conveyed by the Lord,
if he is evil,
from one society of hell to another.
And if he allows himself to be reformed,
he is led out of hell and raised into heaven,
and there, too, conveyed from one society to another, and this until his death.
After that he no longer travels from society to society there,
because he is then no longer in a state to be reformed,
but remains in the state he had in accordance with his life.
It is when a person dies, then, that he is enrolled in his place.

DP 298 [6] - someone who trusts in Divine providence is turned away from evil

DP 298 [6]
As regards intelligence,
it appears to be one's own and inherently so,
both in the case of a good person and in the case of an evil one,
and a good person is bound to act in accord with his intelligence
as though it were his own
just as much as an evil person.
But someone who trusts in Divine providence is turned away from evil,
while someone who does not trust in it is not turned away.
Moreover, the person who trusts in it
is someone who acknowledges evil to be a sin
and wishes to be turned away from it,
while someone who does not have that acknowledgment and wish
does not trust in it.

DP 292 - sun and rain

DP 292
The fact that everything a person thinks and wills
and so speaks and does flows in from a single fount of life,
and yet that the single fount of life, namely the Lord,
is not the cause of a person's thinking evil and falsity,
may be illustrated by the following circumstance in the natural world:

From the sun in that world emanate heat and light,
and these two flow into all vessels and objects visible to the eye
not only into good vessels and beautiful objects,
but also into evil vessels and ugly objects
and produce various effects in them. . .

They flow likewise into good seeds and also into weeds.
So, too, into bushes that serve a good purpose or are healthful,
and also into bushes that serve an evil purpose or are toxic.
And yet it is the same heat and the same light,
in which no cause of any evil is to be found.
Rather the cause lies in the recipient vessels and objects.

[2] The warmth that hatches eggs containing
a screech owl, eagle owl, or asp
operates the same as when it hatches eggs containing a dove,
ornamental bird, or swan. . .

The warmth flowing into marshy, feculent, rotten or decayed recipients
operates the same as when it flows into wine-making,
fragrant, growing and living ones.
Who does not see that the cause lies not in the warmth
but in the receiving vessel?

The same light, too, . . . shines brightly on white objects and radiates,
and grows dim on those nearly black and becomes dusky.

[3] It is the same in the spiritual world.
Heat and light exist there, too, from its sun, which is the Lord,
and they flow from that sun into their vessels and objects.
The vessels and objects there are angels and spirits . . ..
For the Lord says that

"He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and the unjust"
(Matthew 5:45).

By the sun in the highest spiritual sense is meant Divine love,
and by rain Divine wisdom.

DP 282 - 283 - the Lord heals

DP 282 - 283
The Lord could heal the intellect in everyone
and so cause him to entertain in thought not evils but goods,
and this by various fears, by miracles,
by conversations with the deceased,
and by visions and dreams.
But to heal the intellect only is to heal the person only outwardly.
For the intellect with its thought is the outer constituent of a person's life,
while the will with its affection is the inner constituent of his life.
Consequently a healing of the intellect alone
would be a kind of palliative cure,
which would allow the inner malignity,
being shut in and prevented from emerging,
to consume first the neighboring areas and afterward the outlying ones,
until the whole was necrotic and dying.
It is the underlying will that must be healed,
not by an influx of the intellect into it,
because that is impossible,
but by being instructed and exhorted by the intellect.

A person is permitted to entertain evils in thought
even to the point of intending them
in order that they may be displaced, as we said,
by civil, moral and spiritual precepts,
and this is the case when he thinks
that something is contrary to justice and equity,
contrary to honor and decorum,
and contrary to goodness and truth,
thus contrary to peace, happiness and blessedness of life.
Through these three classes of precepts
the Lord heals the will's love in a person
at first, indeed by fears, and afterward by loves.

But still, evils are not separated and cast out of a person,
but are only displaced and banished to the sides;
and when that is where they are,
and good at the center,
then the evils do not appear.
For whatever is at the center is directly in view
and is seen and perceived.

DP 280 - repentance and forgiveness

DP 280
Another error of the age
is to suppose that when sins have been forgiven
they are also put away.
People caught up in that error are those
who believe that sins are forgiven them by the Holy Supper,
even if they have not put them away from themselves by repentance.

. . . repentance precedes forgiveness,
and apart from repentance
there is no forgiveness.
Therefore the Lord commanded His disciples
to preach repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 24:47)

. . . and repentance and forgiveness of sins
will be preached in his name to all nations . . .

And John preached a baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins (Luke 3:3)

He went into all the country around the Jordon,
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The Lord forgives all people their sins.
He does not accuse or impute.
But He still cannot take those sins away
except in accordance with the laws of His Divine providence.
For when Peter asked Him
how often he should forgive a brother sinning against him,
whether he should do so up to seven times,
the Lord said that he should forgive not only seven times,
but up to seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21, 22).

That being the case,
what will the Lord not do,
who is mercy itself?

DP 278 - Evils cannot be removed unless they appear.

DP 278
Evils cannot be removed unless they appear.
We do not mean
that a person has to commit evils in order for them to appear,
but that he must examine himself, not only his deeds, but also his thoughts,
and what he would do if he did not fear the laws and disgrace
especially what evils he makes in his spirit allowable
and does not regard as sins,
for these he continues to do.

To enable a person to examine himself,
he has been given an intellect,
and this separate from his will,
in order that he may know, understand and acknowledge
what is good and what is evil,
and may also see the character of his will,
or what he loves and what he desires.
For a person to see this,
his intellect has been endowed with a higher and lower thought,
or an inner and outer thought,
that from the higher or inner thought he may see
what his will is doing in the lower or outer thought.
He sees this as someone sees his face in a mirror,
and when he does,
and knows what sin is,
he can, if he implores the Lord's aid,
stop willing it, refrain from it, and subsequently behave contrary to it.
If he cannot do this readily,
still he can overcome it through struggle,
and at last become averse to it and abhor it.
Moreover, for the first time then he perceives and also feels
that evil is evil
and good good,
and not before.

DP 262, 264 - the protection of the Lord's Divine providence

DP 262
In the spiritual world,
where everyone is constrained to speak as he thinks,
no one can even utter the name Jesus
unless he lived as a Christian in the world.
This, too, is of the Lord's Divine providence,
to keep His name from being profaned.

DP 264
. . . the spiritual meaning of the Word was not revealed before,
because if it had been,
the church would have profaned it,
and profaned thereby the very sanctity of the Word.

DP 259 - three essential components of the church

DP 259 [3]
There are three essential components of the church:

• acknowledgment of the Lord's Divinity;
• acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word;
• and living the life called charity.

Everyone has faith according as he lives a life of charity;
from the Word he has a concept of what that life must be;
and from the Lord he gains reformation and salvation.

DP 251 - war

DP 251
It is not owing to Divine providence that wars exist,
because they are accompanied by murders, lootings,
acts of violence and savagery, and many other heinous evils
which are diametrically contrary to Christian charity.
But still, they cannot but be permitted,
because since the time of the most ancient people . . .
people's life's love has become such that it wishes to rule over others,
and in the end over all others,
and to possess the world's riches,
and in the end all riches.
These two loves cannot be kept bound,
since it is according to Divine providence
that everyone be permitted
to act in freedom in accordance with his reason . . .
and because without permissions
a person cannot be led by the Lord away from evil
and so be reformed and saved.
For if evils were not permitted to break out,
a person would not see them,
and therefore would not acknowledge them,
and so could not be brought to resist them.

It is on this account that evils cannot by any providence be prevented.
For in that case they would remain shut in,
and would, like the diseases called cancer and gangrene,
spread and eat away every human spark of life.

For from birth a person is like a miniature hell,
and between it and heaven there is perpetual dissension.
No one can be withdrawn from his hell by the Lord
unless the person sees that he is in it and wishes to be led out of it;
and this cannot come about without permissions,
the reasons for which are found in the laws of Divine providence.

A natural person . . . has complete freedom
to think affirmatively of Divine providence
or in opposition to it,
indeed affirmatively of God
or in opposition to Him.
Only let him know that not a whit of any strategy or plan
originates from him.
Everything flows in either from heaven or from hell --
from hell by permission,
from heaven by providence.

DP 252
Spirits of hell attack,
and the angels of heaven defend themselves.

DP 234 - Laws of Permission are also Laws of Divine Providence

DP 234
There are no laws of permission per se
or apart from
the laws of Divine providence.
Rather they are the same laws.
When we say, therefore, that God permits,
we do not mean that He wills,
but that for the sake of the goal,
which is salvation,
He cannot prevent.

. . . at every step of its progress,
when it sees a person stray from the goal,
it guides, bends, and directs the person
in accordance with its laws,
withdrawing him from evil,
leading him to good.

DP 223 [7] - the principal means of reformation

DP 223 [7]
It is, moreover, incumbent on everyone
to learn truths from the Word
or from preaching and teaching,
to commit them to memory,
and to think about them.
For the intellect must tell the will - that is, the person - what to do,
using truths in the memory
which come from there into the thought.
This is therefore the principal means of reformation.

DP 231 - the Word

DP 231
. . . the Word
in each and every one of its particulars
is Divine and sacred.
For every single word there
conceals within it
something Divine,
and through it
has communication with heaven.

DP 220 [11] - more on useful ends

DP 220 [11]
By useful ends
we mean not only life's necessities,
which relate to food, clothing,
and shelter for oneself and one's dependents,
but we mean also the good of the country,
the good of society, and good of one's fellow citizen.

Such a good is the conduct of business,
when the conduct of business is the overriding love,
and money an intermediate, subservient love --
provided the businessman refrains from and shuns
fraudulent practices and evil schemes as being sins.
The case is otherwise
when money is the final love
and the conduct of business the intermediate, subservient love.
For this is avarice, which is the root of evils:

Then he said to them,
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;
a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
And he told them this parable:
"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.
He thought to himself,
'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
Then he said, 'This is what I'll do.
I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones,
and there I will store all my grain and goods.
And I'll say to myself,
'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.
Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'
But God said to him,
'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself
but is not rich toward God."
(Luke 12:15-21)

DP 215 - useful ends

DP 215 [11]
By useful ends we mean goods,
and so by performing useful services
we mean doing good deeds;
and by performing useful services or doing good deeds
we mean serving other and ministering to them.

. . . whoever desires to become great among you
must be your attendant.
And whoever desires to be first . . .
must be your servant.
(Mathew 20:26, 27)

. . . when useful services or good deeds are the ends or loves,
then it is not the people who govern
but the Lord,
for all good is from Him.

DP 202-203 - the Lord's Providence reforms us constantly

DP 202-203
. . . no one can be reformed of himself through his own prudence,
but only by the Lord through His Divine providence.
It follows, therefore,
that unless a person is guided by the Lord every moment,
even every least moment,
he departs from the path of reformation and perishes.

But the Lord foresees how he is guiding himself
and continually makes adjustments.

. . . it is apparent that the Lord's Divine providence is universal
because it operates in the least particulars,
and that this is an infinite and eternal creating . . ..
A person sees nothing of this universal providence,
and if he were to see it,
it would appear to his eyes only as do
scattered heaps and assembled piles of materials to passers-by,
the materials out of which a house is to be built.
But to the Lord
it appears as a magnificent palace
constantly being built and enlarged.

DP 199 - the soul

DP 199 [3]
A person's soul is nothing other than his will's love
and his consequent intellect's love.
Whatever the character of this love is,
such is the character of the whole person.
Moreover, he develops this character
according to his ordering of things in his outward activities,
in which the person acts in conjunction with the Lord.
Consequently if he attributes everything to himself and to nature,
a love of self becomes his soul,
while if he attributes everything to the Lord,
a love of the Lord becomes his soul.

DP 186 - the hidden stream of Providence

DP 186
The fact is that a person would go counter to God and also deny Him
if he were to clearly see the operations of His Divine providence,
and this for the reason
that the human being is impelled by the delight of self-love.
Moreover, this delight constitutes his very life.
Consequently, when a person is kept in the delight of his life,
he experiences his freedom,
for freedom and that delight go hand in hand.
If, then, he were to perceive
that he is constantly being diverted from his delight,
he would be enraged
as against one trying to destroy his life
and would regard him as his foe.
To prevent this from happening,
the Lord does not clearly appear in His Divine providence,
but draws a person along by it
as silently as a hidden current or favorable stream does a ship.
Consequently a person does not know
but that he continually has his independence,
for freedom and independence are bound up together.
It is apparent from this
that freedom incorporates into a person
what Divine providence introduces,
which would not be the case if Divine providence were to show itself.
(To be incorporated is to become part of the life.)

TCR 2 - the faith of the New Christian Church

This number came up in an abbreviated form during the adult service in BA yesterday, and again in a talk from the recent camp at Jacob's Creek that I listened to this morning. It seems to be particularly well in tune with DP 172.

TCR 2
THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND OF THE NEW CHURCH
IN ITS UNIVERSAL FORM is as follows:

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah,
came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human;
and without this no mortal could have been saved;
and those are saved who believe in Him.

This is called the faith in its universal form,
because this is the universal principle of faith;
and the universal principle of faith must be in each thing and in all things of it.
It is a universal principle of faith that God is one in essence and in person,
in whom is a Divine trinity,
and that He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ.
It is a universal principle of faith
that no mortal could have been saved
unless the Lord had come into the world.
It is a universal principle of faith
that He came into the world to remove hell from man,
and that He did remove it by means of contests with it and victories over it,
and thereby He subdued it and reduced it to order
and made it obedient to Himself.
It is a universal principle of faith that He came into the world
to glorify His Human which He took on in the world,
that is, to unite it with the Divine from which [are all things],
and thereby He eternally holds hell in order and under obedience to Himself.
As this could be accomplished only by means of temptations
admitted into His Human, even to the last of them,
which was the passion of the cross, He endured even that.
These are the universal principles of faith relating to the Lord.

The universal principle of faith on man's part is
that he should believe in the Lord;
for by believing in Him
there is conjunction with Him and thereby salvation.
To believe in the Lord is to have confidence that He saves;
and as only those who live rightly can have this confidence,
this, too, is meant by believing in Him
And this the Lord teaches in John:

This is the Father's will,
that everyone that believes in the Son may have eternal life.
(John 6:40);

and again:
He that believes in the Son has eternal life;
but he that believes not in the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him.
(John 3:36)

DP 172 - the Lord is the Word because it is the Divine truth belonging to Divine good

DP 172 [4-5]
Every human being is human not because of his face and anatomy,
but because of the goodness of his love and the truths of his wisdom.
And as a human being is human because of these,
every person is also his own truth and own good,
or his own love and own wisdom.
Without these he is not human.
The Lord, however, is goodness itself and truth itself,
or to say the same thing, love itself and wisdom itself.
And these are the Word which was in the beginning with God,
and which was God, and which became flesh.

. . . to be taught by the Word is to be taught by the Lord Himself:
That is because it is to be taught by good itself and truth itself,
or by love itself and wisdom itself,
which are the Word, as we have said.
But everyone is taught in accordance with the comprehension of his love.
Anything beyond this does not remain.

DP 168 - the light of justification is an illusory light

DP 168 [4-5]
A judge who judges unjustly in return for gifts or for material gain,
after he has defended his decision by the laws and by arguments,
does not see anything but justice in his decision. . ..
It is the same with a judge who renders his decisions out of partiality,
or to gain favor, or to be allied with his relatives.

For people like that
it is the same with everything
that they take from the mouth of a man of authority
or from the mouth of a celebrity,
or hatch from their own intelligence.
They are rationally blind,
for their sight comes from the falsities they defend,
and falsity closes up the sight,

as truth opens it.

Such people do not see any truth by the light of truth,
nor any justice from a love of justice,
but see by the light of justification,
which is an illusory light.
In the spiritual world they appear as faces without a head,
or as human-like faces with wooden heads behind . . .

DP 159 - a hair

DP 159
A hair in the Word symbolizes the least amount of anything.

DP 145 - slavery or freedom? and DP 146 - the love of ruling

DP 145
. . . people caught up in sins are slaves,
. . . the Lord makes those free
who through the Word
receive truth from Him . . ..

DP 146
The most difficult battle of all, however,
is with the love of ruling from a love of self.
One who overcomes this love,
easily overcomes all other evil loves,
because it is their head.

DP 129 - something external cannot compel something internal

It is a law of Divine Providence
that a person not be compelled by external means to think and will,
thus to believe and love,
matters having to do with religion;
but that a person bring himself to do so and at times compel himself.

DP 129

(1) No one is reformed by miracles and signs, because they compel.

(2) No one is reformed by visions or by communications with the dead, because they compel.

(3) No one is reformed by threats and punishments, because they compel.

(4) No one is reformed in states devoid of rationality and freedom.

(5) It is not contrary to rationality and freedom to compel oneself.

(6) The outer self must be reformed by the inner self, and not the reverse.

DP 121 - purification

DP 121
Many people think
that simply believing what the church teaches
purifies a person of his evils.
Others believe that doing good is what purifies;
others, that it is knowing, speaking and teaching
such matters as have to do with the church;
others, that it is reading the Word and books of piety;
others, that it is going often to church, hearing sermons,
and especially partaking of the Holy Supper;
others, that it is renouncing the world and pursuing a life of piety;
others, that it is confessing oneself guilty of all sins; and so on.
None of these, however, purifies a person at all
unless he examines himself,
sees his sins,
acknowledges them,
condemns himself on account of them,
and repents by desisting from them.
Moreover, all of this he must do as though of himself,
and yet with an acknowledgment at heart
that he does so from the Lord.

DP 101-102 - life makes character and brings conjunction

DP 101 [3] - 102
In the spiritual world,
the world every person comes into after death,
no one asks what your faith was or what your doctrine was,
but what your life was like,
whether it was of this character or that.
The reason is
that people there know that the character of a person's life
determines the character of his faith,
indeed the character of his doctrine.
For it is the life that forms for itself its doctrine,
and that forms for itself its faith.

From what we have now said it can be seen
that it is a law of Divine providence that a person put away evils,
for without their removal
the Lord cannot be conjoined with the person
and bring him by His power into heaven.

DP 92, 94 - The conjunction of the Lord with a person . . .

DP 92
Conjunction with the Lord and regeneration are one,
for to the extent someone is conjoined with the Lord,
to the same extent he is regenerate.

. . . a person ought to acknowledge
that he does good and thinks truth not of himself
but from the Lord;
and therefore that the good that he does
and the truth that he thinks
are not his.
To think in this way,
impelled by some love of the will,
because it is the truth,
occasions conjunction.
For a person then turns his face to the Lord,
and the Lord turns His face to the person.

DP 94
A conjunction of the Lord with a person
and a reciprocal one of the person with the Lord
is formed by loving the neighbor as oneself
and loving the Lord above all.

To love the neighbor as oneself
consists simply in not dealing dishonestly or unjustly with him,
not hating him or burning with vengeance against him,
not cursing or defaming him,
not committing adultery with his wife,
and not doing other like things to him.

To love the Lord above all
consists simply in not doing evil to the Word,
because the Lord is present in the Word;
in not doing evil to the sanctities of the church,
because the Lord is present in the sanctities of the church;
and in not doing evil to anyone's soul,
because everyone's soul is in the Lord's hand.

(Emphasis mine. What a loving and amazing image!)

DP 75 - It is a law of Divine providence that a person act in freedom according to his reason.

DP 75
A human being has reason and freedom, or rationality and liberty,
and these two faculties are present in a person from the Lord.

Natural freedom everyone has herditarily.

Rational freedom results from love of one's reputation
for the sake of honor or material gain.

Spiritual freedom results from a love of eternal life.
No one else comes into that love and its delight
but one who thinks that evils are sins
and for that reason does not will them,
and who at the same time looks to the Lord.
As soon as a person does this, he is in that state of freedom.
For no one can resist willing evils because they are sins
and for that reason not do them
except by the exercise of an interior or higher freedom
which results from an interior or higher love that he has.

This kind of freedom does not appear at first to be freedom,
even though it is.
But afterward it does appear to be so,
and a person then acts in real freedom in accordance with real reason,
thinking, willing, speaking and doing what is good and true.

This state of freedom grows
as the exercise of natural freedom decreases and becomes its servant,
and as it unites itself with rational freedom and purifies it.

Anyone can come into this freedom
provided he is willing to believe that life is eternal,
and that any delight and blessedness of life in time, for a time,
is but as a fleeting shadow
compared to the delight and blessedness of life in eternity, to eternity.
Moreover, a person can believe this,
if he is willing to,
because he has rationality and freedom,
and because the Lord
from whom he has these two faculties
continually gives him the ability.

DP 59 - In everything that it does, the Lord's Divine providence regards something infinite and eternal.

DP 59
. . . throughout its progress in a person,
Divine providence regards his eternal state.
For it can regard nothing else,
because the Divine is infinite and eternal,
and the infinite and eternal
or the Divine
does not exist in time.
Consequently all future events are present to it.

DP 45 - the Lord's Divine providence has as its end a heaven from the human race

DP 45
Since the Lord's Divine providence has as its end
a heaven from the human race, it follows

• that it has as its end a conjunction of the human race with Him. . ..
• that it has as its end that a person be conjoined
  more and more closely with Him . . .
  for the person then has heaven in him more interiorly.
  
• . . . that a person through that conjunction
  become wiser . . .
  and that he become happier . . .
  because a person gains heaven
  as a result of wisdom
  and in accordance with it,
  and through it
  also happiness.
  
• And finally, that Divine Providence has as its end
  that a person appear to himself
  more and more distinctly to be his own person,
  and yet recognize more clearly
  that he is the Lord's . . ..

DP 16 - our rationality and freedom are of the Lord's Divine Providence for our salvation

DP 16

Moreover, because it is better for a person
to be impelled by evil and at the same time by falsity
than to be impelled by good and at the same time by evil,
therefore the Lord permits this,
not as one who wills it,
but as one powerless to prevent it,
owing to the end, which is salvation.

. . . a person's intellect can be elevated
into the light of wisdom and see truths,
or acknowledge them when he hears them,
while his love remains below.
For a person may thus be with his intellect in heaven,
but with his love in hell;
and to be in such a state cannot be denied a person,
because he cannot have taken from him the two faculties
which make him human and distinguish him from animals,
and which are the only means by which
he can be regenerated and thus saved,
namely rationality and freedom.
For owing to these a person can act in accordance with wisdom,
and also act in accordance with a love devoid of wisdom,
and can from the wisdom above look upon the love below,
and so see his thoughts, intentions, and affections,
and thus the evils and falsities and goods and truths of his life and doctrine,
without a knowledge and acknowledgment of which in himself
he cannot be reformed.

DP 2 - The Lord's government of what is created from the Lord's Divine love and wisdom is what we call Divine providence.

Divine Providence
DP 2
. . . the government of the Lord's Divine love and wisdom
is what we call Divine providence.
But because we discussed creation there,
(in Divine Love and Wisdom)
and not the preservation of the state of things subsequent to creation,
which is what the Lord's government is,
therefore we are now going to take this up here.
In this chapter, however,
we will discuss the preservation of the union
of Divine love and Divine wisdom, or of Divine good and Divine truth,
in subjects that have been created . . ..

DLW 432 - the last number is about the very beginning of a form of heaven

DLW 432
The rudimentary form of the human being and its nature from conception.
The nature of the rudimentary or initial form of the human being in the womb after conception is something no one can know, because it cannot be seen. Moreover, it also originates from a spiritual essence, which in natural light does not fall within the scope of the eye.
Now because some people in the world are of a temperament to direct their minds even to an investigation of the elemental form of the human being or paternal seed that occasions conception, and because many of them have fallen into the error of thinking that the human being exists in its complete form from its first origin or commencement, and is afterward perfected by growing, I have had disclosed to me the nature of that commencement or first origin in its true form.
This was disclosed to me by angels who had it revealed to them by the Lord; and because they incorporated it into their wisdom, and it is the delight of their wisdom to communicate to others what they know, therefore they were given permission to present before my eyes in the light of heaven a model of the human being's initial form, the nature of which was as follows.
[2] I saw what looked like the tiny image of a brain, having the faint outline of an undefined face in front, without any appendage. The upper, convex part of this rudimentary form had a structure composed of contiguous little globular or spherical masses, and each little spherical mass was composed of ones still more minute, and each of these in like manner of ones the most minute of all. Thus it consisted of three degrees. It was in the concave part of this toward the front that I saw the undefined outline of a face.
The convex part was covered with a very thin membrane or meninx, which was transparent.
The convex part, which was the model of a cerebrum in miniature, was also divided into two, shall I say, prominences, as the cerebrum in its larger form is divided into two hemispheres. And I was told that the right prominence was a recipient vessel of love, and the left prominence a recipient vessel of wisdom, and that through marvelous interconnections they were as though consorts and domestic partners.
[3] Furthermore I was shown in the light of heaven that shone upon it that the structure of the image's little cerebellum was, in respect to its inner orientation and continuous motion, in the order and form of heaven, and that its outer structure was in conflict with it in opposition to that order and form.
[4] After I had seen and been shown the foregoing, the angels told me that the two inner degrees, which were in the order and form of heaven, were recipient vessels of love and wisdom from the Lord, and that the outer degree, which was in conflict with them in opposition to the order and form of heaven, was the recipient vessel of hellish love and insanity-the reason being that a person is born by a hereditary defect into evils of every kind, and that these evils are seated in the outermost constituents there. Moreover, they said that this defect is not removed unless the higher degrees are opened, which, as we said, are recipient vessels of love and wisdom from the Lord.
So then, because love and wisdom are the essence of what it is to be human-since love and wisdom in their essence are the Lord, and this initial form of a person is their recipient vessel-it follows that this initial form has within it a continual effort toward the human form, which it also gradually assumes.

DLW 414 - the elevation of the intellect and will

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, however, 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.

DLW 409 - good and truth look to each other

DLW 409 [2]
. . . good looks to truth for its expression,
and truth looks to good for its being.

DLW 404 - perception of truth

DLW 404 [2]
. . . everyone possesses a perception of truth
to the degree of his affection for understanding it.

DLW 386 - a person's mind is the person himself

DLW 386
A person's mind is his spirit,
and the spirit is the person,
the body being the outward instrument
by which the mind or spirit
senses and acts in the physical world.

DLW 379 - vital warmth

DLW 379
. . . love emanates from the spiritual sun
where the Lord is as warmth,
and it is also felt by the angels as warmth.
This spiritual warmth,
which in its essence is love,
is what flows by correspondence into the heart and its blood,
imparting to it its warmth
and at the same time animating it.

DLW 359 - an image of God

DLW 359
A person cannot be an image of God
according to His likeness
unless God is in him and inmostly in his life.

DLW 336 - good forms of use

DLW 336
. . . all good endeavors come from the Lord . . .
By forms of use from the Lord
we mean likewise
all matters that perfect a person's rational faculty,
which enable the person to receive a spiritual character from the Lord.

. . . love calls everything that it does useful.

DLW 335 - forms of use from the Lord

DLW 335
. . . all useful ends are infinitely one in the Lord,
and do not originate in mankind except from the Lord.
For a person cannot do good of himself
but only from the Lord.
Good is what we are calling a useful end.

The essence of spiritual love is to do good to others,
not for one's own sake,
but for their sake.
Infinitely more is it the essence of Divine love.
The case is the same as with the love of parents for their children,
who do good to them out of love,
not for their own sake but for the children's sake.
This is clearly seen in a mother's love for her little children.

DLW 308 - the ends in creation are useful ends

DLW 308
. . . nothing can come into being from God the Creator
and so be created by Him .
except what is useful,
and that to be useful,
it must exist for the sake of others.

DLW 297 - useful endeavor is love produced through wisdom

DLW 297
. . . love has as its end
and intends
some useful endeavor,
and that it produces the useful endeavor through wisdom;
for love cannot produce any useful endeavor of itself,
but only by means of wisdom.
Indeed, what is love unless there is something that is loved?
This something is useful endeavor.
And because useful endeavor is that which is loved,
and it is produced through wisdom,
it follows that useful endeavor is the containing medium of love and wisdom.

It can be seen from this that . . .
the Divine element of love,
the Divine element of wisdom,
and the Divine element of useful endeavor -
are in the Lord,
and that in essence
they are the Lord.

DLW 282 - The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from Himself and not from nothing.

DLW 282
The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah,
created the universe and everything in it from Himself and not from nothing.
People throughout the world know,
and every wise person from an interior perception acknowledges,
that there is one God who is the Creator of the universe.
People also know from the Word
that God, the Creator of the universe, is called Jehovah,
so named from the verb to be, because He alone just is.

Jehovah is called the Lord from eternity
because it was Jehovah who assumed a humanity
in order to save people from hell.
Moreover at that time He commanded His disciples to call Him Lord.
Consequently in the New Testament Jehovah is called the Lord,
as can be seen from considering the following statement.

[In the Old Testament:]
You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul...
(Deuteronomy 6:5)

And in the New Testament:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul...
(Matthew 22:37)

DLW 271 - seeing good and evil

DLW 271 [2]
No one can see good when he is caught up in evil,
but a person prompted by good can see evil.
Evil lies below as though in a cave.
Good sits above as though on a mountain.

DLW 258 - raising the rational and the love

DLW 258 [2]
If a person does not become rational
to the highest level of which he is capable,
it is because the love which resides in his will
cannot be elevated in the same way as the wisdom
which resides in his intellect.
The love which resides in his will
can be elevated only by his refraining from evils as being sins,
and afterward by his doing goods of charity, or useful services,
which the person then does from the Lord.
Consequently, if the love residing in his will is not elevated at the same time,
then no matter how far the wisdom residing in his intellect may ascend,
still it sinks back down again to his love.

DLW 240 - two faculties - rationality & freedom; DLW 242, 246 - looking to the Lord

DLW 240
A person has in him two faculties from the Lord
which distinguish him from animals.
One of these faculties
is his ability to understand what is true and what is good.
This faculty is called rationality, and it is a faculty of his intellect.
The other faculty
is his ability to do what is true and good.
This faculty is called freedom, and it is a faculty of his will.

DLW 242, 246
Spiritual light flows in through the three degrees in a person,
but not spiritual warmth
except to the extent
that the person refrains from evils as being sins
and looks to the Lord.

For as long as a person is caught up in evils,
he is also caught up in a love for them,
being driven by a lust for them,
and a love of evil and its lust
are prompted by a love opposed to spiritual love and affection.
This love or lust cannot be removed
except by refraining from evils as being sins;
and because a person cannot refrain from them on his own
but from the Lord,
he must therefore look to the Lord.

DLW 218, 220, 230 - motion, action of hands, useful endeavor itself

DLW 218
. . . because motion is the final degree of endeavor,
it is through motion that endeavor exerts its power.

DLW 220
. . . the angels who are present with a person . . .
know merely from any action done through the hands
what a person is like in regard to his intellect and will,
and so in regard to his charity and faith,
thus in regard to the inner life which is the life of his mind,
and in regard to the outward life which results from that in the body.

DLW 230
. . . because the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself,
therefore He is also useful endeavor itself.
For love has as its end a useful result,
which it produces through wisdom.

DLW 213-4, 216 - affection, thought, and the action of useful endeavor

DLW 213-4, 216
As regards love and wisdom,
love is the end,
wisdom the cause or means,
and useful endeavor the effect,
and useful endeavor embraces, contains,
and is the foundation of love and wisdom.
Moreover, useful endeavor so embraces and so contains them
that all the qualities of the love
and all the qualities of the wisdom
are actually present in it . . ..

. . . every affection has some relation to love,
every thought some relation to wisdom,
and every action some relation to useful endeavor.

Charity, faith and good work exist in a succession of like degrees;
for charity is a matter of affection,
faith a matter of thought,
and good work a matter of action.

Will, understanding and practice similarly exist in a succession of like degrees;
for will is a matter of love and so of affection,
understanding a matter of wisdom and so of faith,
and practice a matter of useful endeavor and so of work.

As all the qualities of wisdom and love are present in useful endeavor,
therefore, so all the qualities of thought and affection are present in action,
all the qualities of faith and charity in good work, and so on.

. . . unless the will and intellect,
or affection and thought,
or charity and faith,
enter into and clothe themselves in works or deeds when possible,
they are altogether like puffs of air which pass away,
or like mirages which fade and vanish;
furthermore, that they remain for the first time in a person
and become matters of his life
when the person puts them into practice and does them.
That is because the final element embraces, contains,
and is the foundation of the prior ones.

DLW 202, 203 - to think

DLW 202
To think in accord with ends
is the mark of wisdom;
in accord with causes,
the mark of intelligence;
and in accord with effects,
the mark of knowledge.

Since the interior regions in a person,
which are those of his will and intellect,
are like the heavens in their degrees -
because a person is,
in respect to the interior elements which are those of his mind,
a heaven in miniature form -
therefore the perfections of these are also like those of the heavens.
These perfections, however,
are not apparent to any person as long as he lives in the world,
for he is then in the lowest degree;
and from the lowest degree one cannot discern the higher degrees.
But after death they are discerned,
for the person then comes into the degree
which corresponds to his love and wisdom.
For he then becomes an angel,
thinking and saying things inexpressible to his natural self.
Indeed, he then experiences an elevation of all his mental faculties
not in a simple progression, but in a threefold progression.

DLW 198 - the Divine is the substance of creation

DLW 198
. . . the Divine is substance in itself
or the one and only substance,
so it is the substance from which each and all things have been created,
thus that God is the all in all things of the universe. . .:

• That Divine love and wisdom are substance and form.
• That Divine love and wisdom are substance and form in themselves,
• thus the one and only absolute.
• That everything in the universe has been created
  by Divine love and wisdom.
• That the created universe is consequently an image of Him.
• That the Lord alone is heaven, in which angels dwell.

DLW 179 - angels

DLW 179
. . . it is an angel's love and wisdom that cause him to be seen as a person.

DLW 171, 1722 - receiving and then producing an effect

DLW 171, 172
For the Lord the Creator
continually raises up from the earth
forms of useful endeavor and activity in succession,
culminating in the human being,
who in respect to his body is from the same origin.
The human being is then raised up
by his reception of love and wisdom from the Lord.
Moreover, in order that he may receive love and wisdom,
all the means have been provided.
He has also been formed
such that he is capable of receiving them if only he is willing.

. . . there is nothing so inert and lifeless
that it has in it no capability of producing an effect.
Even sand emits an exhalation
such that it assists in producing something further,
thus in producing an effect.

DLW 142 - loving the Lord and a love of ruling

DLW 142
Since these two loves -
love toward the Lord
and a love of ruling stemming from a love of self -
are altogether opposed to each other,
and because people who are prompted by love toward the Lord
all turn to the Lord as the sun,
it can be seen that people
who are prompted by a love of ruling stemming from a love of self
all turn their back to the Lord.
They turn thus in opposite directions
for the reason that people who are prompted by love toward the Lord
love nothing more than to be led by the Lord,
and they want the Lord alone to rule,
whereas people who are prompted by a love of ruling
stemming from a love of self
love nothing more than to lead themselves,
and they want only themselves to rule.
We say a love of ruling stemming from a love of self,
because a love of ruling is possible
that stems from a love of performing useful services,
a love which,
because it goes hand in hand with love for the neighbor,
is a spiritual love.
But this love cannot be called a love of ruling,
but a love of performing useful services.

DLW 129, 134 - looking to the Lord

DLW 129
Angels turn their faces continually to the Lord as the sun,
and thus have the south to their right,
the north to their left,
and the west to their rear.
Everything we say here about angels
and their turning to the Lord as the sun
must be interpreted as applying to people, too, in respect to their spirit.
For in respect to his mind a person is a spirit,
and if he lives in a state of love and wisdom, he is an angel.
Consequently after death,
when he puts off his outer coverings which he took from the natural world,
he also becomes a spirit or angel.
Furthermore,
because angels continually turn their faces to the sun in the east,
thus to the Lord,
people also say of a person
who is in a state of love and wisdom from the Lord
that he sees God, that he looks to God, that he has God before his eyes,
meaning that in his life he is like an angel.
People say things like this in the world
both because they actually occur in heaven
and because they actually occur in a person's spirit.
Who does not see God before him when he prays,
in whatever direction his face is turned?

DLW 134
One does not find anything natural
that does not have its cause from something spiritual.

DLW 84, 90[2], 92 - the light and warmth of the spiritual world reside in our minds

DLW 84, 90[2], 92
Everything spiritual has some relation to good and truth,
and as such it can spring from no other origin than Divine love and wisdom,
for all good is connected with love,
and all truth with wisdom.

Every person in the interiors of his mind is a spirit.
When a person dies,
he departs altogether from the world of nature,
leaving all of its properties behind,
and enters into a world which has not a speck of nature in it.

. . . every person in the interiors of his mind is in that world,
in the midst of spirits and angels there,
and he thinks because of its light,
and loves because of its warmth.

DLW 78, 80 - The Divine in the greatest and least of things is the same.

DLW 78, 80
It appears as though the Divine were not the same
in one individual as in another . . ..
But this is, owing to the appearance, a fallacy.
The person may be of a different character,
but the Divine is not of a different character in him.
The person is a recipient,
and a recipient or receiving vessel is variable.

The Divine is also the same
in the greatest and least of all created things that are without life;
for it is present in every good of the use they serve.
They are, however, without life,
because they are not forms of life but forms of useful endeavors;
and the form varies in accordance with the goodness of the use.

DLW 57 - Everything in the created universe is a recipient of the Divine love and wisdom of the human God.

DLW 57
. . . angels are not angels of themselves,
but are angels in consequence of their conjunction with the human God;
and that conjunction depends on their reception of
Divine good and Divine truth,
which are God,
and which appear to emanate from Him,
even though they are in Him.
Moreover, their reception depends on their application of the laws of order
- which Divine truths are - to themselves,
because of their freedom to think and will in accordance with reason,
faculties that they have from the Lord as though they were theirs.

The same is the case with people on earth.

DLW 25, 39 - a gift

DLW 25
. . . the very ability to think rationally
regarded in itself is not a person's own,
but is God's gift to him.

DLW 39
. . . to the extent that a person does do from love what wisdom teaches,
to the same extent he is an image of God.

DLW 11 - heaven

Divine Love and Wisdom

DLW 11
. . . it is the Divine existing in angels which forms heaven.

DF 69 - charity is the soul of faith

DF 69
Faith separated from charity is no faith,
because charity is the life, the soul and the essence of faith;
and where there is no faith because there is no charity,
there is no Church.

DF 49 - two evil religious concepts

DF 49
There are two evil religious concepts
into which every church in course of time degenerates,
one that adulterates its goods,
and the other that falsifies its truths.
The one which adulterates the goods of the church
springs from the love of rule;
and the one which falsifies the truths of the church
springs from the conceit of self-intelligence.

DF 35-37 - two universals of the Christian faith

DF 35-37
It is a universal of Faith

• that God is One in Person and in essence.
• . . . that no mortal could have been saved
  unless the Lord had come into the world.
• . . . that He came into the world in order to remove hell from man,
  and He removed it by combats against it and victories over it;
  thus He subdued it,
  and reduced it into order
  and under obedience to Himself.
• . . . that He came into the world in order to glorify the Human
  which He took upon Him in the world,
  that is, in order to unite it to the all-originating Divine;
  thus hell was disposed into order by Him,
  and He holds it under subjection to eternity.
• And inasmuch as neither of these mighty works
  could have been accomplished except by means of temptations
  even to the uttermost of them,
  which was the passion of the cross,
  He therefore underwent this uttermost temptation.

These are the universals of the Christian Faith concerning the Lord.

The universal of the Christian Faith on the part of man

• is that he believe in the Lord,
  for through believing in Him
  there is effected conjunction with Him,
  by which comes salvation.
• To believe in Him is to have confidence that He will save,
  and as no one can have this confidence except one who lives aright,
  therefore this also is meant by believing in Him.

These two universals of the Christian Faith
have already been treated of specifically;
the first, which regards the Lord, in Doctrine of the Lord;
and second, which regards man, in Doctrine of Life.

DF 26, 27, 30, 33 - the storehouse

KNOWLEDGES OF TRUTH AND OF GOOD
ARE NOT MATTERS OF REAL BELIEF
UNTIL A PERSON IS IN CHARITY,
BUT ARE THE STOREHOUSE OF MATERIAL
OUT OF WHICH THE FAITH OF CHARITY CAN BE FORMED.

DF 26-27, 30, 33
As every person regards uses not only for the sake of life in this world,
but also should regard uses for the sake of his life in heaven
(for into this life he will come after his life here, and will live in it to eternity)
therefore from childhood
every one acquires knowledges of truth and good from the Word . . ..

If he shuns evils as sins,
then these knowledges become those of a faith that has spiritual life within it.
But if he does not shun evils as sins,
then these knowledges are nothing but knowledges,
and so not become those of a faith that has any spiritual life within it.

In the first state, before charity is felt,
faith appears to them as though it were in the first place,
and charity in the second;
but in the second state,
when charity is felt,
faith betakes itself to the second place,
and charity to the first.
The first state is called reformation,
and the second regeneration.
In this latter state
a person grows in wisdom every day,
and every day good multiplies truths and causes them to bear fruit.

From these few words
it may be considered settled
that the knowledges of truth and good are not really things of faith
until the person is in charity,
but that they are the storehouse of material
out of which the faith of charity can be formed.
With a regenerate person
the knowledges of truth become truths,
and so do the knowledges of good,
for the knowledge of good in in the understanding,
and the affection of good in the will,
and what is in the understanding is called truth,
and what is in the will is called good.

DF 14, 15 - Good is nothing but Use.

DF 14, 15
Good is nothing but Use,
so that in its very origin
charity is the affection of use;
and as use loves the means,
the affection of use produces the affection of the means,
and from this the knowledge of them,
and through this progression
the affection of use comes forth into manifest being,
and becomes charity.

Affection, which belongs to the will,
brings forth nothing from itself except by means of thought,
which is of the understanding (the converse also being true),
for in order that anything may come forth into manifest being
the two must act in conjunction.
For consider:
If you take away from thought all affection belonging to some love,
can you exercise thought?
Or if from the affection you take away all thought,
are you then able to be affected by anything?
Or, what is much the same,
if you take away affection from thought, can you speak anything?
Or if you take away thought or understanding from affection,
can you do anything?
It is the same with charity and faith.

DF - 3-4, 6, 12 - Faith is an internal acknowledgment of truth.

Doctrine of Faith for the New Jerusalem

DF 3-4, 6, 12
The reason spiritual things can be comprehended is
that in respect to the understanding
a person may be uplifted into the light of heaven,
in which light
none but spiritual things appear,
and these are the truths of faith.
For the light of heaven is spiritual light.
This then is the reason
why those who are in the spiritual affection of truth
possess an internal acknowledgment of truth.

. . . faith and truth are a one.
For this reason the ancients
(who from their affection for truths thought more about them
than the men of our time)
instead of saying Faith, were accustomed to say Truth.
For the same reason also truth and faith
are one word in the Hebrew language, namely Amuna or Amen.

If any one should think within himself, or say to some one else,
"Who is able to have the internal acknowledgment of truth which is faith? not I;"
let me tell him how he may have it:
Shun evils as sins,
and come to the Lord,
and you will have as much of it as you desire.

DLIFE 108 - shunning evils

IF ANY ONE SHUNS EVILS
FOR ANY OTHER REASON
THAN BECAUSE THEY ARE SINS,
HE DOES NOT SHUN THEM,
BUT MERELY PREVENTS THEM
FROM APPEARING BEFORE THE WORLD.

DLIFE 108
There are moral people
who keep the commandments of the second table of the Decalogue,
not committing fraud, blasphemy, revenge, or adultery;
and such of them as confirm themselves in the belief
that such things are evils because they are injurious to the public weal,
and are therefore contrary to the laws of humane conduct,
practice charity, sincerity, justice, chastity.
But if they do these goods and shun those evils merely because they are evils,
and not at the same time because they are sins,
they are still merely natural people,
and with the merely natural the root of evil
remains imbedded and is not dislodged;
for which reason the goods they do are not goods,
because they are from themselves.

DLIFE 102 & 106 - A person ought to shun evils as sins and fight against them as of himself.

A PERSON OUGHT TO SHUN EVILS AS SINS
AND FIGHT AGAINST THEM AS OF HIMSELF.

DLIFE 102 & 106
The Lord loves a person and wills to dwell with him,
yet He cannot love him and dwell with him
unless He is received and loved in return.
From this alone comes conjunction.
For this reason the Lord has given a person freedom and reason,
freedom to think and will as of himself,
and reason in accordance with which he may do so.
To love and to be conjoined with one
in whom there is nothing reciprocal is not possible,
nor is it possible to enter in and abide with one in whom there is no reception.

As in a person there are reception and reciprocality,
the church teaches that a person must examine himself,
confess his sins before God,
desist from them,
and lead a new life.

DLIFE 94-97 - No one can shun evils as sins, so as to hold them inwardly in aversion, except by combats against them.

NO ONE CAN SHUN EVILS AS SINS,
SO AS TO HOLD THEM INWARDLY IN AVERSION,
EXCEPT BY COMBATS AGAINST THEM.

DLIFE 96-97
The person who fights against evils cannot but fight as of himself;
for he who does not fight as of himself does not fight . . ..
But still it should be clearly understood
that the Lord alone fights against evils in a person,
and that it only appears to the person as if he fought from himself;
and that the Lord wills that it should so appear to a person,
since without this appearance
there could be no combat and consequently no reformation.

This combat is not grievous,
except for those who have relaxed all restraints upon their lusts,
and who have deliberately indulged them;
and also for those who have confirmed themselves in rejecting
the holy things of the Word and the Church.
For others, however, it is not grievous;
let them resist evils in intention only once a week,
or twice in a month,
and they will perceive a change.

DLIFE 89 - false witness

IN PROPORTION
AS ANY ONE SHUNS FALSE WITNESS OF EVERY KIND AS SIN,
IN THE SAME PROPORTION
HE LOVES THE TRUTH.

DLIFE 89
In proportion as anyone loves the truth,
in the same proportion he desires to know it,
and in the same proportion is affected at heart when he finds it.
No one else comes into wisdom.
And in proportion as anyone loves to do the truth,
in the same proportion
he is sensible of the pleasantness of the light in which the truth is.
It is the same with all the other things spoken of above;
with sincerity and justice
in the case of one who shuns thefts of every kind;
with chastity and purity
in the case of one who shuns adulteries of every kind;
and with love and charity
in the case of one who shuns murders of every kind; and so forth.

DLIFE 80-8 - theft

IN PROPORTION
AS ANY ONE SHUNS THEFTS OF EVERY KIND AS SINS,
IN THE SAME PROPORTION
HE LOVES SINCERITY.

DLIFE 80-81
To "steal," in the natural sense,
means not only to commit theft and robbery,
but also to defraud,
and under some pretext take from another his goods.
But in the spiritual sense to "steal"
means to deprive another of his truths of faith and his goods of charity.
And in the highest sense to "steal"
means to take away from the Lord that which is His,
and attribute it to one's self,
and thus to claim righteousness and merit for one's self.
These are the "thefts of every kind."
And they also make a one,
as do adulteries of every kind, and murders of every kind . . ..
The reason why they make a one is that they are one within another.

The evil of theft enters more deeply into a person than any other evil,
because it is conjoined with cunning and deceit;
and cunning and deceit insinuate themselves
even into the spiritual mind of a person
in which is his thought with understanding.

DLIFE 74, 76 - adulteries of every kind

IN PROPORTION
AS ANY ONE SHUNS ADULTERIES OF EVERY KIND AS SINS,
IN THE SAME PROPORTION
HE LOVES CHASTITY.

DLIFE 74
To "commit adultery," . . .means, in the natural sense,
not only to commit whoredom,
but also to do obscene things,
to speak lascivious things,
and to think about filthy things.
But in the spiritual sense to "commit adultery" means
to adulterate the goods of the Word,
and to falsify its truths.
In the highest sense to "commit adultery" means
to deny the divinity of the Lord,
and to profane the Word.
These are the "adulteries of every kind."
The natural person is able to know from rational light
that to "commit adultery" includes in its meaning
the doing of things obscene,
the speaking of things lascivious,
and the thinking of things that are filthy;
but he does not know that to commit adultery
means also to adulterate the goods of the Word
and to falsify its truths,
and still less that it means
to deny the divinity of the Lord
and to profane the Word.
Consequently neither does he know
that adultery is so great an evil
that it may be called diabolism itself,
for he who is in natural adultery
is also in spiritual adultery, and the converse.

DLIFE 76
. . . the lasciviousness of adultery and the chastity of marriage
stand toward each other exactly as do hell and heaven,
and that the lasciviousness of adultery makes hell in a person,
and the chastity of marriage makes heaven.

DLIFE 67 - murder

IN PROPORTION
AS ANYONE SHUNS MURDERS OF EVERY KIND AS SINS,
IN THE SAME PROPORTION
HE HAS LOVE TOWARD THE NEIGHBOR.

DLIFE 67
"Murders of every kind"
include enmity, hatred, and revenge of every kind, which breathe murder,
for murder lies hidden in them, like fire in wood underneath the ashes.
Infernal fire is nothing else,
and this is the origin of the expressions to "kindle with hatred,"
and to "burn with revenge."
All these are "murders" in the natural sense.
But in the spiritual sense "murders"
mean all methods of killing and destroying the souls of men,
which methods are varied and many.
And in the highest sense "murder" means to hate the Lord.
These three kinds of "murder" form a one, and cleave together,
for he who wills the murder of a person's body in this world,
after death wills the murder of his soul,
and wills the murder of the Lord,
for he burns with anger against Him,
and desires to blot out His name.

DLIFE - shunning evils as sins

DLIFE 66
. . . no one is able to shun evils as sins
unless he acknowledges the Lord
and goes to Him,
and unless he fights
against evils
and so removes his lusts.

DLIFE 56 & 57 - Lord's presence in His Ten Words, which are the commandments of the decalogue

DLIFE 56 & 57
So great a power and so great a holiness existed in that Law
for the further reason that it was a complex of all things of religion
for it consisted of two tables
of which the one contains all things that are on the part of God,
and the other in a complex all things that are on the part of man.
The commandments of this Law are therefore called the "Ten Words,"
and are so called because "ten" signifies all.

As by means of this Law there is a conjunction
of the Lord with man
and of man with the Lord,
it is called the "Covenant," and the "Testimony,"
the "Covenant" because it conjoins,
and the "Testimony" because it bears witness,
for a "covenant" signifies conjunction,
and a "testimony" the attestation of it.
For this reason there were two tables,
one for the Lord and the other for man.
The conjunction is effected by the Lord,
but only when the man does the things that have been written in his table.
For the Lord is constantly present and working,
and wills to enter in,
but man must open to the Lord in the freedom which he has from Him;
for the Lord says:

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock;
if any man hear My voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him,
and will sup with him, and he with Me.
(Revelation 3:20)

DLIFE 42, 48 - So far as any one shuns evils as sins, so far he has faith, and is spiritual.

SO FAR AS ANY ONE SHUNS EVILS AS SINS,
SO FAR HE HAS FAITH, AND IS SPIRITUAL

DLIFE 42, 48
Faith and life are distinct from each other,
like thinking and doing;
and as thinking has relation to the understanding
and doing to the will,
it follows that faith and life are distinct from each other,
like the understanding and the will.

For whatever any one wills from love,
that he wills to do,
wills to think,
wills to understand
and wills to speak;
or what is the same thing,
what any one loves from the will,
this he loves to do,
loves to think,
loves to understand
and loves to speak.
Moreover, when a person shuns evil as sin,
he is then in the Lord . . .
and the Lord works all things.

DLIFE 32 & 37 - So far as any one shuns evils as sins, so far he loves truths.

SO FAR AS ANY ONE SHUNS EVILS AS SINS,
SO FAR HE LOVES TRUTHS

DLIFE 32, 37
There are two universals that proceed from the Lord,
Divine Good and Divine Truth:
Divine Good is of His Divine Love,
and Divine Truth is of His Divine Wisdom.
These two in the Lord are one,
and consequently proceed from Him as one;
but they are not received as one
by angels in the heavens and by people on earth.

. . . the angels of all the heavens
are so far in wisdom and intelligence
as the good with them
unites with truth.
The good which does not unite with truth
is to them not good;
and on the other hand,
the truth which does not unite with good
is to them not truth.
From this it is evident
that good conjoined with truth
constitutes love and wisdom
with angel and people;
and since an angel is an angel
from the love and wisdom with him,
and similarly a person is a person,
it is evident that good conjoined with truth
makes an angel to be an angel of heaven,
and a person to be a person of the Church.

DLIFE 8, 20-21 - In proportion as a person shuns evils as sins, in the same proportion he does goods, not from himself but from the Lord.

DLIFE 20-21
It is plainly evident from all this that in proportion as a person shuns evils,
in the same proportion is he with the Lord and in the Lord;
and that in proportion as he is in the Lord,
in the same proportion he does goods,
not from self but from Him.
From this results the general law:
IN PROPORTION AS ANY ONE SHUNS EVILS,
IN THE SAME PROPORTION HE DOES GOODS.

Two things however are requisite:
first, the person must shun evils because they are sins,
that is, because they are infernal and diabolical,
and therefore contrary to the Lord and the Divine laws,
and secondly, he must do this as of himself,
while knowing and believing that it is of the Lord.

DLIFE 10, 14 - From himself no one can do good that is really good.

From himself no one can do good that is really good.

DLIFE 10, 14
Goods from God,
and goods from self,
may be compared to gold.
Gold that is gold from the inmost,
called pure gold, is good gold.
Gold alloyed with silver is also gold,
but is good according to the amount of the alloy.
Less good still is gold that is alloyed with copper.
But a gold made by art, and resembling gold only from its color,
is not good at all, for there is no substance of gold in it.
There is also what is gilded,
such as gilded silver, copper, iron, tin, lead,
and also gilded wood and gilded stone,
which on the surface may appear like gold;
but not being such,
they are valued either according to the workmanship,
the value of the gilded material,
or that of the gold which can be scraped off.
In goodness these differ from real gold
as a garment differs from a man.
Moreover rotten wood, dross, or even ordure, may be overlaid with gold;
and such is the gold to which pharisaic good may be likened.

. . . a person who possesses spiritual good
is also a moral person and a civic person;
and that a person who does not possess spiritual good
is neither a moral person nor a civic person,
although he may appear to be so both to himself and to others.

DLIFE 1, 8 - All religion is of life, and the life of religion is to do what is good.

The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem

DLIFE 1
All religion is of life, and the life of religion is to do what is good.

The life of a person is his love,
and that which he loves
he not only likes to be doing,
but also likes to be thinking.

. . . doing what is good
acts as a one
with thinking what is good,
for if in a person these two things do not act as a one,
they are not of his life.

DLIFE 8
The reason why all religion is of the life,
is that after death everyone is his own life,
for the life stays the same as it had been in this world,
and undergoes no change.
For an evil life cannot be converted into a good one,
nor a good life into an evil one,
because they are opposites,
and conversion into what is opposite is extinction.

SS 104 & 105 [2] - a few serve as the heart and lungs

SS 104
There can be no conjunction with heaven
unless somewhere on earth there is a church where the Word is,
and where by it
the Lord is known;
for the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and apart from Him there is no salvation.
It is sufficient
that there be a church where the Word is,
even if it consists of comparatively few,
for even in that case
the Lord is present by its means in the whole world,
for by its means heaven is conjoined with the human race.

SS 105 [2]
As all the other members and viscera subsist and live
from these two fountains of life of the human body (the heart & lungs),
so also do all those in the whole earth
who have some sort of religion,
worship one God,
and live aright . . ..
For the Word in the church,
although existing with comparatively few,
is life to all the rest,
from the Lord through heaven,
just as there is life
for the members and viscera of the whole body
from the heart and lungs . . ..

SS 102 - an ancient Word

SS 102
. . . there was among the ancients
a Word
written entirely by correspondences,
but that it had been lost,
and they said that it is still preserved,
and is in use in that heaven where those ancient people dwell
who had possessed it in this world. . . .
The inhabitants of all these kingdoms were in representative worship,
and consequently in the knowledge of correspondences.
The wisdom of that time was derived from this knowledge,
and by its means they had an interior perception,
and a communication with the heavens.
Those who had an interior acquaintance
with the correspondences of that Word
were called wise and intelligent, and later, diviners and magi.
But as that Word was full of correspondences
which only in a remote way signified celestial and spiritual things,
and consequently began to be falsified by many,
of the Lord's Divine Providence it disappeared in course of time,
and at length was utterly lost,
and another Word,
written by correspondences less remote than the other,
was given by means of prophets among the sons of Israel.
Yet many names of places in the land of Canaan
and in the surrounding countries
were retained in this Word
with significations like those they had in the Ancient Word.
It was for this reason that Abram was commanded to go into that land,
and that his descendants, from Jacob, were brought into it.

SS 96a - the Word is like a garden

SS 96a
The Word is like a garden,
a heavenly paradise,
that contains delicacies and delights of every kind,
delicacies in its fruits and delights in its flowers;
and in the midst of the garden
trees of life with fountains of living water near them,
while forest trees surround it.
The person
who from doctrine
is in Divine truths
is at its center where the trees of life are,
and is in the actual enjoyment of its delicacies and delights;
whereas the person
who is in truths not from doctrine,
but from the sense of the letter only,
is at the outskirts,
and sees nothing but the forest vegetation.
And one who is in the doctrine of a false religion,
and who has confirmed himself in its falsity,
is not even in the forest,
but is out beyond it
in a sandy plain where there is not even grass.

SS 83 - the marriage of good and truth in a person

SS 83
With every person there are two faculties of life,
called the understanding and the will.
The understanding is the receptacle of truth and the derivative wisdom,
and the will is the receptacle of good and the derivative love.
For a person to be a person of the church
these two must make a one,
and this they do
when the person forms his understanding from genuine truths,
which to all appearance is done as by himself;
and when his will is infilled with the good of love,
which is done by the Lord.
From this the person has a life of truth and a life of good,
a life of truth in the understanding from the will,
and a life of good in the will through the understanding.
This is the marriage of truth and good in a person,
and also the marriage of the Lord and the church in him.

SS 72-73 - the Word in heaven - and SS 77 - understanding the Word

SS 72-73
In every larger society of heaven,
a copy of the Word,
written by angels inspired by the Lord,
is kept in its sanctuary,
lest being elsewhere it should be altered in some point.
In respect to the fact that the simple understand it in simplicity
and the wise in wisdom,
our Word is indeed like that in heaven,
but this is effected in a different way.

The angels acknowledge that all their wisdom comes through the Word,
for they are in light in proportion to their understanding of the Word.
The light of heaven is Divine wisdom,
which to their eyes is light.
In the sanctuary where the copy of the Word is kept,
there is a flaming and bright light
that surpasses every degree of light in heaven that is outside of it.
The cause is . . . that the Lord is in the Word.

SS 77
The Word is spirit and life according to the understanding of it,
for its letter if not understood is dead.
And as a person has truth and life according to his understanding of the Word,
so has he faith and love according thereto,
for truth is of faith,
and love is of life.
Now as the church exists by means of faith and love, and according to them,
it follows that the church is the church
through the understanding of the Word and according to these.

SS 71 is in today's blog comments.

SS 62 - the conjunction - through the Word - of the angels with a person

SS 67
We may now illustrate by an example
how from the natural sense in which is the Word with men,
the spiritual angels draw forth their own sense,
and the celestial angels theirs.
Take as an example five commandments of the Decalogue:

Honor thy father and thy mother.
By "father and mother" a man understands
his father and mother on earth,
and all who stand in their place,
and by to "honor" he understands to hold in honor and obey them.
But a spiritual angel understands
the Lord by "father,"
and the church by "mother,"
and by to "honor" he understands to love.
And a celestial angel understands
the Lord's Divine love by "father,"
and His Divine wisdom by "mother,"
and by to "honor" to do what is good from him.

Thou shalt not steal.
By to "steal" a man understands
to steal, defraud,
or under any pretext take from his neighbor his goods.
A spiritual angel understands
to deprive others of their truths of faith and goods of charity
by means of falsities and evils.
And a celestial angel
understands to attribute to himself what is the Lord's,
and to claim for himself His righteousness and merit.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.
By "committing adultery" a man understands
to commit adultery and fornication,
to do obscene things, speak lascivious words,
and harbor filthy thoughts.
A spiritual angel understands
to adulterate the goods of the Word, and falsify its truths.
And a celestial angel understands
to deny the Lord's Divinity and to profane the Word.

Thou shalt not kill.
By "killing," a man understands
also bearing hatred,
and desiring revenge even to the death.
A spiritual angel understands
to act as a devil and destroy men's souls.
And a celestial angel understands
to bear hatred against the Lord,
and against what is His.

Thou shalt not bear false witness.
By "bearing false witness" a man understands
also to lie and defame.
A spiritual angel understands
to say and persuade that what is false is true
and what is evil good, and the reverse.
And a celestial angel understands
to blaspheme the Lord and the Word.

From these examples it may be seen
how the spiritual and celestial of the Word are evolved and drawn out
from the natural sense in which they are.
Wonderful to say,
the angels draw out their senses without knowing
what the man is thinking about,
and yet the thoughts of the angels and of the men
make a one by means of correspondences, like end, cause, and effect.
Moreover ends actually are in the celestial kingdom,
causes in the spiritual kingdom,
and effects in the natural kingdom.
This conjunction by means of correspondences is such from creation.
This then is the source of man's association with angels
by means of the Word.