DP 60 - Paths in the Spiritual World

DP 60

Among the things people need to know about
is also the angelic heaven
for everyone who has any religion
thinks about it and wishes to go there.
Yet heaven is granted only to those
who know the way to it
and walk in that way.
This way can be known to some extent, too,
from knowing the character
of those who constitute heaven,
and from knowing that no one
becomes an angel or comes into heaven
except one who brings
an angelic character with him from the world.
Present in an angelic character, moreover,
is a knowledge of the way from walking in it,
and a walking in the way through a knowledge of it.

The spiritual world also has in it actual paths
which lead to every society of heaven
and to every society of hell;
and everyone sees his own path
as though of himself.
He sees it
because there are paths there for every love,
and love reveals the path
and leads a person to his fellows.
No one sees any other paths
than those of his own love.

It is apparent from this
that angels are simply
embodiments of heavenly loves,
for otherwise they would not have seen
the paths leading to heaven.

 

DP 52, 53 - The Divine Infinite, and the Created Finite; DP 55, 58, 59 - What the Divine Providence Regards

DP 52

One must know, however,
that the Divine in itself
exists in the Lord,
while the Divine from itself
is the Divinity present
from the Lord
in created things.

DP 53

. . . it is never possible for someone finite
to regard the infinite,
but that it is possible for the infinite being
to regard something infinite from itself
in finite beings.

DP 55

In everything that it does,
Divine providence regards
something infinite and eternal from itself,
especially in saving humankind.

DP 58

Since to regenerate a person
is to unite goodness and truth
or love and wisdom in him,
as they are united
in the Divinity emanating from the Lord,
therefore Divine providence
regards this especially in saving humankind.
An image of the infinite and eternal
is present in a person
only in a marriage of goodness and truth.

DP 59

People do not yet know
that 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.
Moreover, because that is the nature of the Divine,
it follows that each and every thing that it does
has eternity in it.

DP 48, 49, 50 - The Divine From Which All Things Spring

DP 48

. . . there is an infinite in itself and an eternal in itself,
and that both the one and the other
are the Divine from which springs all else.

DP 49

I know that many will say to themselves,
"How can anyone comprehend interiorly
in his rational faculty
something independent of space
and independent of time,
and see not only that it exists,
but also that it is omni- or all-,
and that it is the absolute
from which all else springs?"

But think more interiorly and consider
whether love or any of its affections,
or wisdom or any of its perceptions -
indeed whether thought -
exists in space or in time,
and you will discover that they do not.
Since, then, the Divine is
love itself and wisdom itself,
it follows that the Divine cannot be conceived of
as existing in space or in time,
and so not the infinite either.

DP 50

Since angels and spirits
are forms of affections belonging to love
and of the thoughts arising from those affections,
therefore they do not exist in space and time either,
but only in an appearance of them.
The appearance of space and time to them
accords with the states of their affections
and consequent thoughts.
Consequently, when someone
thinks with affection about another,
with the resolve
that he wishes to see him or speak with him,
the other becomes instantly present.

So it is that every person
has present with him spirits
who are impelled by an affection like his own -
evil spirits with one
who is impelled by a like affection for evil,
and good spirits with one
who is impelled by a like affection for good.
Moreover, they are as present with him
as anyone included in his social circle.
Space and time
have nothing to do with their presence,
because affection and its resulting thought
do not exist in space and time,
and spirits and angels are forms
of affections and of the thoughts arising from them.

 

DP 43 - Hellish Freedom or Heavenly Freedom

DP 43

Hellish freedom is one thing,
and heavenly freedom another.
It is an exercise of hellish freedom
to think and will evil,
and so far as civil and moral laws do not hinder,
to speak and do it.
It is an exercise of heavenly freedom,
on the other hand, to think and will good,
and so far as opportunity is given,
to speak and do it.

Whatever a person thinks, wills, speaks
and does in freedom,
he perceives as attributable to him,
for to everyone all freedom accords with his love.
Consequently people caught up in a love of evil
perceive no otherwise
than that hellish freedom is real freedom,
whereas people impelled by a love of good
perceive that heavenly freedom is real freedom,
so that each regards the opposite as enslavement.

. . . to be led by good is to be led by the Lord,
whereas to be led by evil is to be led by the devil. 

Now because everything
that a person does in freedom
appears to him to be attributable to him -
for it accords with his love,
and to act from one's love is,
as we said above, to act in freedom -
it follows that conjunction with the Lord
causes a person to appear to himself free
and so to be his own person,
and the closer the conjunction with the Lord,
the freer, and so the more his own person.

 

DP 40 - Frogs and Snakes or Flower Gardens?

DP 40

The delights of lusts for evil
and the delights of affections for good
cannot be compared,
because the delights of lusts for evil
inwardly have the devil in them,
whereas the delights of affections for good
inwardly have the Lord in them.
If comparisons are to be made,
the delights of lusts for evil
can be compared only to
the lecherous pleasures of frogs in swamps
or to those of snakes in rotting refuse,
while the delights of affections for good
may be compared to delights of the heart
in botanical gardens and flower gardens.
That is because the kinds of things
that affect frogs and snakes
affect also those people in the hells
who are caught up in lusts for evil,
while the kinds of things that affect people's hearts
in botanical gardens and flower gardens
affect also those people in the heavens
who are impelled by affections for good.
For, as we said above,
unclean corresponding forms affect the evil,
while clean corresponding forms affect the good.

 

DP 34 - Three Degrees of Wisdom; DP 36 - The Angels and the Palace of Wisdom

DP 34 [2]

There are . . . three degrees of wisdom -
natural, spiritual and celestial.
A person is in the enjoyment
of the natural degree of wisdom
as long as he lives in the world.
This degree can be perfected in him then
to its highest point;
and yet he cannot enter the spiritual degree,
because the spiritual degree
is not continuous with the natural degree
by a continuous connection,
but is conjoined with it by correspondences.

After death a person is in the enjoyment
of the spiritual degree of wisdom,
and this degree, too, is such
that it can be perfected to its highest point;
but still he cannot enter
the celestial degree of wisdom,
because the celestial degree
is not continuous with the spiritual degree
by a continuous connection,
but is conjoined with it by correspondences.

It can be seen from this
that wisdom can be elevated in a threefold way,
and that in each degree
it can be perfected in a single way
to its highest point.

DP 36

The wisdom which comes to a person's perception
is a perception of truth from an affection for it,
especially a perception of spiritual truth.
For there is civil truth, moral truth, and spiritual truth.
People who have a perception of spiritual truth
from an affection for it
also have a perception of moral and civil truth,
for an affection for spiritual truth
is the soul of these perceptions.

I have sometimes spoken with angels about wisdom,
and the angels have said
that wisdom is conjunction with the Lord,
because the Lord is wisdom itself,
and that one who casts out hell from himself
comes into that conjunction,
and comes into it
to the extent that he casts hell out.

The angels said
that they represent wisdom to themselves
as a magnificent and very ornate palace,
into which one ascends by twelve steps.
No one, they said, arrives at the first step
except as a result of the Lord
by conjunction with Him;
that everyone ascends
in the measure of the conjunction;
and that as he ascends,
he perceives that no one is wise of himself,
but from the Lord.
Moreover, they said
that those things which he is wise about,
in comparison to those things
which he is not wise about,
are as a few drops of water to a great lake.

The twelve steps to the palace of wisdom
symbolize goods conjoined with truths
and truths conjoined with goods.

 

DP 32 - From Birth; DP 33 - We Have to Remove Evils First

DP 32 [2-3]   

. . . from creation and so from birth
every person has in him
three discrete degrees or degrees of height;
that a person comes into the first degree,
called the natural degree, when he is born;
that this degree can grow in him
through a continuous progression
until he becomes rational;
that he comes into the second degree,
called the spiritual degree,
if he lives according to spiritual laws of order,
which are Divine truths;
and that he can also come into the third degree,
called the celestial degree,
if he lives according to celestial laws of order,
which are Divine goods.

These degrees are opened actually in a person
by the Lord according to his life in the world,
but not perceptibly or sensibly
until after his departure from the world;
and as they are opened and then perfected,
the person is commensurately conjoined
more and more closely with the Lord.

This conjunction can grow in its closeness to eternity,
and also does so grow to eternity in angels.
But still, no angel can arrive
at the first degree of the Lord's love and wisdom
or attain to it,
because the Lord is infinite and an angel finite,
and between the infinite and the finite
there is no proportional relation.

DP 33 [2]

Now because the Lord flows
. . . into everyone's life's love and through
its affections into his perceptions and thoughts,
and not the reverse,
it follows that the Lord
can conjoin Himself more closely
only as a love of evil has been removed,
together with its affections,
which are lusts.
And because these lusts reside in the natural self,
and a person feels as though
whatever he does from his natural self
he does of himself,
therefore a person ought to remove
the evils of that love as though of himself;
and to the extent then that he does remove them,
the Lord draws nearer
and conjoins Himself with him.

 

DP 28, 29 - Heaven Is Conjunction With the Lord

DP 28

Heaven is conjunction with the Lord.
Heaven is not heaven owing to the angels,
but owing to the Lord,
for the love and wisdom which angels possess
and which make heaven heaven
come not from them but from the Lord.
Indeed love and wisdom are the Lord in them.

DP 29

All conjunction in the spiritual world
is brought about by contemplation.
When someone there thinks about another
with a desire to speak with him,
the other becomes immediately present,
and one sees the other in person.
The like occurs when someone thinks about another
out of an affection of love for him,
but this latter affection brings about their conjunction,
while the former brings about
only the other's presence.

This phenomenon is peculiar to the spiritual world.
The reason is that all there are spiritual beings.
It is different in the natural world,
in which all are material beings.
The like does occur
with people in the natural world
in the affections and thoughts of their spirit;
but because in the natural world
there are intervals of space,
while in the spiritual world
intervals of space are only appearances,
therefore that which takes place
in the thought of everyone's spirit,
in the spiritual world takes place actually.

We have said this much to make it known
how conjunction of the Lord with angels
is brought about,
and the apparently reciprocal conjunction
of angels with the Lord.
For angels all turn their faces to the Lord,
and the Lord gazes upon their foreheads,
while the angels behold the Lord with their eyes.
The reason is that the forehead corresponds to
love and its affections,
while the eyes correspond to
wisdom and its perceptions.

But still, angels do not of themselves
turn their faces to the Lord,
but the Lord turns them to Him.
And He turns them by flowing into their life's love,
and through that
entering into their perceptions and thoughts,
so as to turn the angels to Him.

Such a cycle of love,
from love to thoughts and from thoughts to love,
exists in all processes of the human mind -
a cycle which may be called the cycle of life.

 

DP 27 - Heaven Is From the Human Race

DP 27 [1, 2]

. . . heaven did not originate in angels
who were created angels at the beginning,
and that hell did not originate in a devil
who was created an angel of light
and was cast down from heaven.
Rather, both heaven and hell are from the human race.
Heaven is made up of people
who are involved in a love for what is good
and a consequent discernment of what is true,
and hell of people who are involved in a love
for what is evil and a discernment of what is false.

Since heaven comes from the human race, then,
and since heaven is living with the Lord forever,
it follows that this was the Lord's goal for creation.
Further, since this was the goal of creation,
it is the goal of the Lord's divine providence.

The Lord did not create the universe for His own sake
but for the sake of people
He would be with in heaven.
By its very nature,
spiritual love wants to share what it has with others,
and to the extent that it can do so,
it is totally present, experiencing its peace and bliss.
Spiritual love gets this quality
from the Lord's divine love,
which is like this in infinite measure.

 

 

DP 21 - The Union of Good & Truth in a Person; DP 26 - A Kingdom of Useful Services

DP 21

. . . the Lord's Divine providence
continually works to unite truth to good
and good to truth in a person,
because that union constitutes
both the church and heaven.
For that union exists in the Lord,
and it exists in everything
that emanates from the Lord.

DP 26

. . . the Lord's kingdom -
which extends not only over heaven,
but also over hell -
is a kingdom of useful endeavors.
And it is the Lord's providence
that there not be any person nor any thing in it
by whom or by which
some useful end is not accomplished.



 

DP 20 - What Is It to Look to God?

DP 20   

To look to God in one's life
means simply to think
that this or that evil
is a sin against God,
and for that reason
not to do it.
  

 

DP 16 - The Lord's End Goal Is Our Salvation By Means of Reformation

DP 16

The Lord's Divine providence primarily has as its end
and operates to the end
that a person be impelled by good
and at the same time by truth,
for the person is then an embodiment of his own
proper good and own proper love,
and also of his own proper truth
and own proper wisdom.
For this is what makes a person human,
since he is then an image of the Lord.

. . . A person may be impelled by evil
and at the same time by truth,
and the Lord is powerless to prevent this
owing to the end, which is salvation,
because 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 acknowledgement of which
in himself he cannot be reformed.

DP 10 - The Union of Good and Truth

DP 10

The goodness of love is good
only to the extent that it is united with
the truth of wisdom;
and the truth of wisdom is true
only to the extent that it is united with
the goodness of love.
Goodness and truth
derive this characteristic from their origin.
Goodness originates in the Lord,
and so, too, truth,
because the Lord is goodness itself and truth itself,
and these two in Him are united.
Consequently any goodness
in angels in heaven and in people on earth
is not good in itself
except to the extent that it is united with truth,
and any truth is not true in itself
except to the extent that it is united with good.

People know
that all good and all truth come from the Lord.
So, then, because good exists in union with truth,
and truth with good,
it follows that for good to be good in itself,
and for truth to be true in itself,
they must be united in their recipient,
namely, in an angel in heaven or in a person on earth.

DP 7, 9 The Goal of Divine Providence

DP 7

. . . it is a goal of Divine providence
that every created thing have in it something
emanating from Divine love
and at the same time from Divine wisdom,
or to say the same thing,
that every created thing have in it
goodness and truth,
or a union of goodness and truth.

Since goodness is connected with love,
and truth with wisdom . . .
therefore we shall often hereafter say
good and truth instead of love and wisdom,
and the marriage of good and truth
instead of the union of love and wisdom.

DP 9

But how these two are united
in forms lower than or apart from mankind,
both in forms found in the animal kingdom
and in forms found in the plant kingdom -
this we will speak of here and there
in subsequent discussions,
to which must be premised
the following three points:

First, that in the universe
and in each and all of its constituents
that the Lord created,
there was a marriage of good and truth.

Second, that following creation
this marriage was sundered in mankind.

Third, that it is a goal of Divine providence
that what has been separated become united,
and thus that a marriage of good and truth
be restored.

. . . everyone can see in accord with reason that,
given that a marriage of good and truth
existed from creation in every created thing,
and given that this marriage was afterward sundered,
the Lord continually works to restore it,
consequently that its restoration
and by it a conjunction of the created universe
with the Lord through mankind
is a goal of Divine providence.

DP 5, 6 - The First Substance

 DP 5 [1]

Divine love and wisdom,
which in the Lord are united,
and which emanate from Him as one,
are present in some image of them
in every created thing . . .
the Divine exists in every created thing,
because God the Creator -
who is the Lord from eternity -
produced from Himself
the sun of the spiritual world,
and by means of that sun
all the constituents of the universe.
Consequently that sun
which originates from the Lord
and in which the Lord is,
is not only the first substance,
but also the one and only substance
from which springs everything else.
Moreover, because it is the one and only substance,
it follows that it exists in all created things,
but with infinite variety
in accordance with the uses they serve.

DP 6 [1]

Many people acknowledge
that there is a single substance which is also the first,
from which all else originates.
But they do not know the nature of that substance.
They believe it to be so simple
that there is nothing simpler,
that it can be likened to a point having no dimension,
and that from an infinite number of such points
have sprung forms having dimension.
This is, however, a misconception,
arising from a spatial concept.
For from the perspective of this concept
there appears to be such a least entity.
But yet the truth is
that the simpler and purer a thing is,
the greater and more replete it is.
That is the reason
that the more interiorly any object is viewed,
the more marvelous, perfect and beautiful
are the elements seen in it.
And consequently that in the first substance
are the most marvelous, perfect and beautiful of all.

This is the case because the first substance
arises from the spiritual sun,
which, as we said, originates from the Lord
and within which is the Lord.
Thus that sun is itself the one and only substance,
and because it does not exist in space,
it is the all in all things,
and exists in the greatest and least elements
of the created universe.

DP = Divine Providence

Divine Providence is the Government of
the Lord's Divine Love and Wisdom

DP 3 [1]

(1)  The universe
with each and all of its constituents
was created out of Divine love
by means of Divine wisdom. 

In our treatise titled "Divine Love and Wisdom",
we demonstrated that the Lord from eternity,
who is Jehovah, is, as to His essence,
Divine love and Divine wisdom.
We demonstrated, too,
that He created the universe
and everything in it
out of Himself.

In the aforesaid treatise we demonstrated as well
that love cannot do anything apart from wisdom,
nor wisdom anything apart from love.
For love apart from wisdom,
or the will apart from the intellect,
is incapable of any thought,
indeed is incapable of any sight or sensation,
or of any speech.
Consequently love cannot do anything
apart from wisdom,
or the will anything apart from the intellect.
By the same token,
wisdom apart from love,
or the intellect apart from the will,
is incapable of any thought,
is incapable of any sight or sensation,
or indeed of any speech.
Consequently wisdom cannot do anything
apart from love,
or the intellect anything apart from the will.
For if love is eliminated from these processes,
there is no longer any willing,
thus no longer any action.

This being so in the case of a person
whenever he does something,
still more was it so in the case of God -
who is love itself and wisdom itself -
when He created and fashioned the universe
and everything in it.

 

DLW 427 - The Conjunction of Charity With Faith, and the Will With the Intellect

DLW 427

These loves are differentiated by the fact that
celestial love is a love of good,
while spiritual love is a love of truth;
for people who are motivated by celestial love
perform useful services from a love of good,
whereas those who are motivated by spiritual love
perform useful services from a love of truth.
Celestial love's marriage is with wisdom,
while spiritual love's marriage is with intelligence;
for it is the mark of wisdom
to do good in accord with good,
and the mark of intelligence
to do good in accord with truth.
Consequently celestial love does what is good,
and spiritual love does what is true.

 

DLW 426 - Spiritual and Celestial Love and Useful Services

DLW 426

These loves are spiritual and celestial for the reason
that to love useful services
and to perform them from a love of them
is divorced from
a person's love of his own self-interest.
For one who loves useful services spiritually
regards not himself
but others apart from himself,
being affected by a concern for their welfare.

Opposed to these loves
are loves of self and the world,
for loves of self and the world
have regard for useful services
not for the sake of others
but for the sake of self;
and people who do this invert Divine order,
putting themselves in place of the Lord,
and the world in place of heaven.
Consequently they look away
from the Lord and heaven,
and to look away from them
is to look in the direction of hell.

Still, a person is not as sensible and cognizant
of a love of performing useful services
for the sake of those useful services
as he is of a love of performing useful services
for the sake of himself.
Therefore he also does not know,
when performing useful services,
whether he is doing them
for the sake of the useful services
or for the sake of self.
Let him know, however,
that he performs useful services
for the sake of the useful services
to the extent that he refrains from evils.
For to the extent that he refrains from these,
to the same extent he performs useful services,
not from himself,
but from the Lord.
Evil and good, indeed, are opposites,
and consequently to the extent
that someone is not engaged in evil,
to the same extent he is engaged in good.
No one can be engaged in evil and in good
at the same time,
because no one
can simultaneously serve two masters.

We have said this much to make it known
that even though a person
does not sensibly perceive whether
the useful services he performs
are for the sake of the useful services
or whether they are for the sake of himself,
or in other words,
whether the useful services are spiritual
or whether they are merely natural,
still he can know it
from considering whether he thinks
evils are sins or not.
If he thinks they are sins,
and on that account does not do them,
then the useful services he performs are spiritual.
And when the same person refrains from sins
from an aversion to them,
he also begins to perceive sensibly in himself then
a love of useful services
for the sake of the useful services,
and this because of the spiritual delight
he finds in them.

 

DLW 425 - Freedom and Rationality

DLW 425 [2-3]

. . . the exercise of freedom to do evils
is slavery,
and the exercise of rationality to think falsities
is irrational.

Still, it should rightly be known
that these two faculties of freedom and rationality
are not a person's own,
but are the Lord's in a person;
that they cannot be assigned to a person as his own,
nor given to a person as his own,
but are continually the Lord's in him;
and yet that a person never has them taken away.
The reason they are not taken away
is that a person cannot be saved without them,
for without them he cannot be regenerated . . ..
It is because of this
that the church teaches a person
that he cannot think truth of himself,
nor do good of himself.

Yet because a person has no other perception
than that he thinks truth of himself
and does good of himself,
it is clearly apparent that he ought to believe
that he thinks truth as though of himself
and does good as though of himself.
For if he does not believe this,
then either he is not thinking truth
and not doing good,
and so is without religion,
or he is thinking truth and doing good on his own,
in which case he attributes to himself
that which is Divine.

 

DLW 422, 423 - As Though a Garden of Eden

DLW 422 [1, 2]

A person is born natural,
but as his intellect is elevated
into the light of heaven,
and his love is elevated together with it
into the warmth of heaven,
he becomes spiritual and celestial.
He then becomes as though a garden of Eden,
in the enjoyment of a springlike light
and at the same time a springlike warmth.

The intellect does not become spiritual and celestial,
but the love does,
and when the love does,
it makes the intellect, its partner,
spiritual and celestial also.

Love becomes spiritual and celestial
by a life in accordance with the truths of wisdom
that the intellect teaches and shows it.
Love learns these through its intellect,
and not on its own.
The fact is that love cannot elevate itself
unless it knows truths,
and it can know these only through an intellect
that has been elevated and enlightened.
In the measure that it then comes to love truths
by putting them into practice,
in the same measure the love, too, is elevated.
For it is one thing to understand
and another to will,
or one thing to speak
and another to do.

. . . to the extent
that a person lives in accordance with wisdom,
to the same extent he loves it;
and he lives in accordance with wisdom
to the extent that he purifies himself of pollutions,
which are sins.
To the extent, then, that he does this,
to the same extent he loves wisdom.

DLW 423

. . . everyone has a respiration there (in heaven)
that accords with his marriage of love and wisdom.
Consequently,
as angels are known by that marriage,
so they are known also by their respiration.

It is because of this
that when anyone comes into heaven
who does not possess that marriage,
he suffers chest pain and struggles for breath
like people in the agony of death.
Therefore people in such a case
also cast themselves down headlong from there,
and do not rest until they are with people
who possess a similar respiration,
for these then possess by correspondence
a like affection and consequent thought.

 

DLW 421 - As Long As Love Is Not Elevated

DLW 421

. . . since if love is not elevated,
it remains impure . . ..
And as long as it remains impure,
it loves things that are impure,
such as the practices of vengeance, hatred,
deceit, blasphemy, and adultery.
For these are then its affections,
which we call lusts,
and it rejects things having to do with charity,
justice, honesty, truthfulness, and chastity.

As for the statement that love
is defiled in and by the intellect,
it is defiled in the intellect
when love is affected by those impure practices,
and it is defiled by the intellect
when love causes matters of wisdom
to become its servants,
and still more when it perverts,
falsifies and adulterates them.

 

DLW 419 - Love or the Will Is Purified in the Intellect If They Are Elevated Together

DLW 419 [1-2]

A person from birth
loves only himself and the world,
for nothing else appears before his eyes,
and therefore
he considers nothing else in his heart;
and this love is carnally natural,
and can be called materialistic.
Moreover, this love has also become impure
owing to the separation
of heavenly love from it in parents.

This love cannot be separated from its impurity
unless the person has the ability to elevate
his intellect into the light of heaven
and to see how he should live
in order that his love may be elevated together
with his intellect into wisdom.
Through the intellect love,
which is to say, the person,
sees what evils there are
that defile and pollute the love,
and sees, too, that if he refrains from those evils
and turns away from them as sins,
he loves such things
as are opposed to those evils,
all of which are heavenly.
He also sees as well the means
which enable him to refrain from those evils
and turn away from them as sins.
Love, which is to say, the person,
sees this through use of his ability
to elevate his intellect into the light of heaven
and gain from it wisdom.
Then in the measure
that love puts heaven in first place
and the world second,
and in the measure that it at the same time
puts the Lord in first place and self second,
in the same measure
the love is purged of its pollutions and purified.
That is to say,
in the same measure it is elevated
into the warmth of heaven
and united with the light of heaven
in which the intellect is.
A marriage is then formed,
the marriage we call the marriage
of goodness and truth, or of love and wisdom.

 

DLW 416, 418 - Natural Love, Spiritual Love, Thought and Actions

DLW 416

A person who is prompted by a natural love
and at the same time a spiritual love
is a rational person.
However, one who is prompted by
a natural love only,
although he is able to think rationally
just as well as a spiritual person,
still is not a rational person.

. . . So for example,
when the intellect from being elevated
is in a state of wisdom,
love then sees what justice is,
what honesty is, 
what chastity is,
indeed what genuine love is.
A natural love is capable of seeing this
as a result of its ability
to understand and view matters
in the light of heaven.
Indeed, it can speak, preach and describe them
as moral and at the same time spiritual virtues.
However, when the intellect
is not in an elevated state, then,
if the love is merely natural,
it does not see those virtues,
but sees, instead of justice, injustice;
instead of honesty, deceit and deception;
instead of chastity, lasciviousness; and so on.
If it then thinks about the matters it spoke of
when its intellect was in an elevated state,
it may laugh at them
and think of them only as means
that serve it for captivating minds.

DLW 418

The common opinion
is that wisdom makes the person.
Consequently when people hear
someone speaking or teaching wisely,
they believe that it reflects his character.
Indeed, that is how
the person thinks of himself at the time,
because when he speaks and teaches
in the presence of others,
he thinks on the basis of his memory,
and if he is merely natural,
in accord with the outer layer of his love,
which is an affection for
honor, glory and material gain.
However, when the same person is alone,
he thinks in accord with
the interior love of his spirit,
and he thinks then not wisely
but sometimes insanely.

It can be seen from this
that no one should be judged
by the wisdom of his speech,
but by his life, that is,
not by the wisdom of his speech
apart from his life,
but by the wisdom of his speech
in conjunction with his life.
By life we mean love.
Love is a person's life . . ..

 

DLW 414 - Love Can Only Be Elevated With Wisdom

DLW 414

. . . 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 413 - Rationality: The Ability to Understand Matters Interiorly

DLW 413

(13) By a power imparted to it by love or the will,
wisdom or the intellect can be elevated
so as to admit from heaven such matters
as are matters of light and perceive them.
. . . a person can perceive the secrets of wisdom
when he hears them.
This faculty of the human being
is the faculty called rationality,
which everyone has from creation.
It is the ability to understand matters interiorly
and to draw conclusions
regarding what is just and equitable
and what is good and true,
and it is this faculty that distinguishes
the human being from animals.
This, therefore, is what we mean by the statement
that the intellect can be elevated
and admit from heaven such matters
as are matters of light and perceive them.

 

DLW 410 - The Life Belonging to Love, to Good

DLW 410 [2-6]

Now because the first and most immediate
affections of love
are an affection for knowing,
an affection for understanding,
and an affection for seeing
that which it knows and understands,
it follows that love
forms for them the intellect,
and that it enters into these affections actually
when it begins to feel sensation and to act,
and when it begins to think.

That the intellect contributes nothing to this effort
follows from the parallel with the heart and lungs . . ..

It can be seen from this that love or the will
joins itself to wisdom or the intellect,
and not wisdom or the intellect to love or the will.
And it follows from this as well
that the knowledge which love acquires for itself
from an affection for knowing,
and the perception of truth which it acquires
from an affection for understanding,
and the thought that it acquires
from an affection for seeing
that which it knows and understands,
are not properties of the intellect,
but are the properties of love.

Thoughts, perceptions, and consequently knowledge
do indeed flow in from the spiritual world.
But still they are received
not by the intellect,
but by love
in accordance with its affections in the intellect.
It appears as though the intellect receives them,
and not love or the will,
but that is a fallacious appearance.

It also appears
as though the intellect joins itself to love or the will,
but that, too, is a fallacious appearance.
Love or the will joins itself to the intellect
and causes the intellect to be joined to it in return.
That the intellect is joined to it in return
is owing to the marriage of love with it.
Because of that marriage
a seemingly reciprocal conjunction is formed
by the life and consequent power of love.

The like is the case
with the marriage of good and truth,
for goodness is a property of love,
and truth a matter of the intellect.
Goodness initiates everything,
and it receives truth into its home
and unites itself with it
in the measure that it accords.
Goodness can also admit truths that do not accord,
but it does so because of its affection
for knowing, understanding and thinking,
when it has not yet
determined itself to useful applications
which are its ends and which it calls its goods.

A reciprocal conjunction,
or one of truth with good,
does not occur at all.
That truth is joined to good in return
is owing to the life belonging to good.

It is because of this
that every person, and every spirit and angel,
is regarded by the Lord
in accordance with his love or goodness,
and no one
in accordance with his intellect or truth
apart from his love or goodness.
For a person's life is his love . . .
and his life is what it is
according as he has elevated his affections by truths,
that is, according as he has perfected his affections
in accord with wisdom.
For love's affections
are elevated and perfected by truths, thus by wisdom;
and love then acts in conjunction with wisdom,
as though prompted by it,
but doing so of itself through wisdom,
as through a form its own,
which takes nothing whatever
of its quality from the intellect,
but everything from some determination of love,
called affection.

 

DLW 409 -Love and Intellect Acting Together

DLW 409   

. . .what is it to act from love apart from the intellect?
It can only be called irrational,
for it is the intellect that teaches
what ought to be done
and how it ought to be done.
Love without the intellect does not know this.
Therefore such a marriage exists
between love and the intellect
that although they are two distinct entities,
they nevertheless operate as one.

A like marriage exists between good and truth,
for goodness is a property of love,
and truth a matter of the intellect.

Such a marriage exists
in every single constituent of the universe
that has been created by the Lord.
Their usefulness has relation to good,
and the form of their usefulness to truth.

It is owing to this marriage
that every single constituent of the body
has a right and left side,
the right side having relation to good
from which springs truth,
and the left side to truth springing from good,
thus [the two together] to their conjunction.

 

DLW 408 - The Home of Love or the Will

DLW 408

(10) Love or the will
introduces wisdom or the intellect
into all the constituents of its home.
By the home of love or the will
we mean the whole person
in respect to all the constituents of his mind;
and because these correspond
to all the constituents of the body . . .
by the home we mean the whole person
also in respect to all the constituents of his body,
called members, organs and viscera.
The fact that the lungs are introduced
into all the latter constituents
in the same way that the intellect
is into all the constituents of the mind . . .
as for instance, that love or the will
prepares a home or bridal chamber
for its future spouse,
which is wisdom or the intellect,
and that love or the will
prepares all else in its human form -
or in its home -
in order to be able to operate conjointly
with wisdom or the intellect.

DLW 405, 406, 407 - The Affection of Knowing and Doing in the Light

DLW 405 [4]

Since love or the will corresponds to the heart,
and wisdom or the intellect to the lungs,
it follows that the heart's blood vessels in the lungs
correspond to affections for truth,
and that the ramifications
of the lungs' bronchial tubes
correspond to perceptions and thoughts
springing from those affections.

The fact that the first or initial form of this last love
was an affection for knowing
can be seen from considering
that an affection for truth
is an elevated affection for knowing.
For to be affected by truths
is to have in consequence of the affection
a wish to know them,
and when one discovers them,
to be moved by the delight of the affection
to take them in.

DLW 406 [1, 2]

. . . the light of the intellect
is the light by which love sees.

For an action
springing from love apart from the intellect
is like the action of a person
done in the darkness of night,
the person then not knowing what he is doing.
The action would consequently have in it
no element of intelligence or wisdom,
and such an action cannot be called a living act.
An action also takes its being from love
and its character from intelligence.

Good, furthermore, has all its power through truth.
Consequently good acts in truth
and so by means of it;
and good is a matter of love,
while truth is a matter of the intellect.

DLW 407

. . . because there is such a correspondence
between the will and the heart,
and between the intellect and the lungs,
that the way love interacts
with the intellect spiritually
is the way the heart interacts
with the lungs naturally.

 

DLW 404 -Affection for Truth, Perception of Truth, Thought

DLW 404 [4]

. . . these three elements -
an affection for truth,
a perception of truth,
and thought -
follow in succession from love,
and that they take form nowhere else
than in the intellect.
For when love enters the intellect,
which happens
when a conjunction of the two has taken place,
it then produces first an affection for truth,
then an affection for understanding what it knows,
and finally an affection for seeing
what in the thought of the body it understands -
thought being nothing other than an internal sight.

Thought, indeed, occurs first,
because it is a faculty of the natural mind.
But thought from a perception of truth
springing from an affection for truth occurs last.
This latter thought is the thought of wisdom,
while the first is a thought from memory
formed in consequence
of the sight of the natural mind.

All operations of love or the will
apart from the intellect have to do
not with affections for truth
but with affections for good.

 

DLW 400 - The Human Form

DLW 400

(2) Love or the will
continually strives toward the human form
and toward all the elements
that make up the human form.

. . . Its endeavor and effort is toward the human form
for the reason that God is human,
and Divine love and wisdom constitute His life,
from which comes everything connected with life.

DLW 399 - What Is the Core of Life?

DLW 399

(1) Love or the will is a person's very life.
This follows from the correspondence
of the heart with the will . . .
for as the heart functions in the body,
so the will does in the mind.
Moreover, as all the constituents of the body
depend for their existence and motion on the heart,
so all the constituents of the mind
depend for their existence and life on the will.
We say on the will, but we mean on love,
because the will is the recipient vessel of love,
and love is life itself,
and love which is life itself
comes from the Lord alone.

It can be known from the heart
and its extension throughout the body
by means of the arteries and veins
that love or the will is a person's life,
because things that correspond to each other
function similarly,
with the difference
that one is natural and the other spiritual.

 

DLW 394, 398 - The Soul

DLW 394 [2]

. . . the human soul which lives after death
is a person's spirit;
that this spirit is in complete form human;
that its soul is the will and intellect,
and that the soul of these
is love and wisdom from the Lord;
that these two are what constitute a person's life,
which comes from the Lord alone;
and that for Him to be received by the person,
the Lord causes the life to appear
as though it were the person's.
Nevertheless, to keep people
from attributing life to themselves as theirs
and so turning away from a reception of Him,
the Lord also taught
that every element of love that is called good,
and every element of wisdom that is called truth,
comes from Him,
and nothing of them from any person,
and that because these two are life,
every element of life that is life comes from Him.

DLW 398

. . . love and wisdom,
and consequently the will and intellect,
are what are termed the soul . . .
can be known from the correspondence
of the heart with the will,
and of the lungs with the intellect . . ..

 

DLW 390, 391-392 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs; (7) Conjunction and Correspondence in Life and Death

DLW 390

(7) The conjunction of a person's spirit with the body
is due to the correspondence
of his will and intellect with his heart and lungs,
and their disjunction
to the absence of that correspondence.

Since a person's spirit possesses
a pulse and respiration just as the body does,
it follows therefore
that there is a like correspondence
of the pulse and respiration of a person's spirit
with the pulse and respiration of his body,
for the mind, as we said, is his spirit.
Consequently, when the correspondence
of these two motions ceases,
a separation takes place, which is death.

In short, the life of a person's body depends on
the correspondence of its pulse and respiration
with the pulse and respiration of his spirit,
and when that correspondence ceases,
the life of the body ceases,
and his spirit departs
and continues its life in the spiritual world,
a life which is so like his life in the natural world
that he does not know he has died.

DLW 391-392

It is apparent from this also
that the conjunction of the spirit and body in a person
is due to the correspondence
of their two cardiac motions and pulmonary motions.

The reason these two motions,
the cardiac and the pulmonary,
occur and continue is that the entire angelic heaven,
both in general and in particular,
possesses these two motions of life.
The entire angelic heaven possesses them
because the Lord infuses them from the sun
where He is and which emanates from Him.
For that sun engenders these two motions
from the Lord.
Moreover, because all the constituents
of heaven and the world
descend in succession from the Lord
through that sun in such a nexus and form,
like the links of a chain
from the first to the lasts of them,
and because the life of love and wisdom
originates from Him,
and all the forces of the universe spring from life,
it is apparent that the origin of these motions
lies nowhere else.

It follows that the varying of these motions
occurs in accordance with
the reception of love and wisdom.

 

DLW 386, 388 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (6) Mind, Body, Spirit

DLW 386

(6) 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 388

. . . it can also be seen
that a person's mind is the person himself.
For the first framework of the human form,
or the human form itself,
with each and every one of its constituents,
comes from its first elements
continued from the brain through the nerves . . ..

This is the form
into which a person comes after death,
who is then called a spirit or angel,
and who is in every measure of perfection
a human being, only a spiritual one.
The material form
which is added and superimposed in the world
is not the human form per se,
but is its product,
being added and superimposed to enable
the person to perform useful services
in the natural world,
and also to take with him
from the purer substances of the world
some fixed containing vessel
for his spiritual constituents
and so continue and perpetuate his life.

. . . a person's mind possesses,
not only in general but also in every particular,
a constant effort toward the human form,
because God is human.

 

DLW 385 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (5) Correspondences Reveal Secrets

DLW 385

(5) Through that correspondence
one can discover many secrets
relating to the will and intellect,
and so also to love and wisdom.
People in the world scarcely know
what the will is and what love is,
since a person cannot of himself love
and from loving will in the manner
that he can seemingly of himself
understand and think -
just as he cannot of himself
compel the heart to pump in the manner
that he can of himself compel the lungs to breathe.

Now because people in the world scarcely know
what the love and will are,
and yet know what the heart and lungs are -
for the latter two are visible to the eyes
and can be examined,
and by anatomists
also have been examined and described,
whereas the will and intellect
are not visible to the eyes and cannot be examined -
therefore when it is known that they correspond
and by correspondence operate in union,
many secrets can be discovered
relating to the will and intellect
which could not otherwise be discovered.

DLW 382, 383, 384 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (4) The Intellect Corresponds to the Lungs

DLW 382 [end of 1-2,3]

Everyone may also observe in himself
that the intellect corresponds to the lungs
by considering both his thought and his speech.

As regards thought,
it is impossible for anyone to think
without his pulmonary respiration's
concurring and according.
Consequently when someone thinks quietly,
he breathes quietly.
If he thinks deeply, he breathes deeply.

As regards speech,
not the least utterance of a word
flows from the mouth
without the ancillary aid of the lungs.
For sound which is articulated into words
issues wholly from the lungs

DLW 383 [3-4]

Because breath passes through the nostrils,
therefore the nose symbolizes perception . . ..

It is owing to this, too,
that the word for spirit and wind
in Hebrew and in some other languages
is the same.
For the word "spirit"
is derived from a word meaning "to breathe."
Consequently when a person dies
he is also said to breathe his last
and yield up the spirit.

It is owing to this as well
that people believe
the spirit to be a gust of wind or some airy entity,
like a puff of breath exhaled from the lungs,
and the soul likewise.

It can be seen from this
that to love God
with all one's heart and all one's soul
means to do so
with all one's love and all one's intellect,
and that giving a new heart and a new spirit
means giving a new will and a new intellect.

DLW 384

Since all the mind's constituents
are connected with the will and intellect,
and all the body's constituents
with the heart and lungs,
therefore in the head
the brain is divided into two structures,
and these are as distinct from each other
as the will and intellect from each other.
The cerebellum serves primarily the will,
and the cerebrum primarily the intellect.

In the body, the heart and lungs are likewise
separated from the rest of the organs there.
They are separated by the diaphragm
and enveloped in their own covering,
called the pleura,
and they form that part of the body called the chest.

In the remaining constituents of the body,
called its members, organs and viscera,
these two elements are conjoined.
Consequently the parts exist in pairs,
such as the arms and hands,
loins and feet, eyes and nostrils,
and, inside the body,
the kidneys, ureters, and testes.
Even organs that do not exist in pairs
are divided into a right and left side -
including the cerebrum itself into two hemispheres,
the heart itself into two ventricles,
and the lungs themselves into two lobes.
Moreover, the right side of these relates to
the goodness of truth,
and the left side to the truth of good.

 

DLW 379, 380 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (3) The Will Corresponds to the Heart

DLW 379 [1, 2]

. . . one who knows that there is a correspondence
of love and its affections
with the heart and its derivatives
may also know
that love is the origin of the vital warmth.
For 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.

Because love is a person's life,
therefore the heart
is the first and last vessel of that life.
Moreover, because love is a person's life,
and the soul maintains its life in the body
by means of the blood,
therefore blood in the Word is called the soul.

DLW 380

The fact that the blood is red
is owing also to the correspondence
of the heart and blood with love and its affections.
For the spiritual world has in it colors of every kind.
The colors red and white are the fundamental ones,
and the rest take their variations from them
and from their opposites,
which are a dark fiery color and black.
The color red there corresponds to love,
and the color white corresponds to wisdom.

The color red corresponds to love
for the reason that it takes its origin from
the fire of the sun in the spiritual world;
and the color white corresponds to wisdom
for the reason that it takes its origin from
the light of the sun there.
Because, then,
there is a correspondence of love with the heart,
therefore the blood cannot but be red
and attest its origin.

It is in consequence of this
that in the heavens
where love toward the Lord reigns,
the light is a flaming one,
and the angels there are clad in purple garments;
and in the heavens where wisdom reigns,
the light is bright white,
and the angels there
are clad in garments of white linen.

 

DLW 374 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (2) A Correspondence

DLW 374 [1,3]

(2) There is a correspondence
of the will and intellect
with the heart and lungs,
and consequently a correspondence
of all the mind's constituents
with all the body's constituents.

The two planes are distinct.
I can think and not speak,
and I can will and not act.
We also know that the body does not think or will,
but that thought descends into speech,
and will into action.

[3]  people have become so externally oriented
that they have been unwilling
to acknowledge anything but the natural realm.
This has been their love's delight,
and so the delight of their intellect.
Consequently to elevate their thought
above the natural realm
to something spiritual apart from anything natural
has been unappealing to them.
Owing to their natural love and its delight, therefore,
they have been unable to think of a spiritual entity
as being anything other than a purer natural one,
and of correspondence as being
anything other than something flowing in
by a continuous means.
Indeed, the merely natural person cannot think
of anything apart from the natural realm.
Anything apart from that to him does not exist.

DLW 371-372 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (1); DLW 373 - Nothingness

DLW 371

There is a correspondence
of the will with the heart,
and of the intellect with the lungs.
We propose to demonstrate this
according to the following outline:

(1) All the constituents of the mind
are connected with the will and intellect,
and all the constituents of the body
with the heart and lungs.

(2) There is a correspondence
of the will and intellect with the heart and lungs,
and consequently a correspondence
of all the mind's constituents
with all the body's constituents.

(3) The will corresponds to the heart.

(4) The intellect corresponds to the lungs.

(5) Through that correspondence
one can discover many secrets
relating to the will and intellect,
and so also to love and wisdom.

(6) 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 372

(1) All the constituents of the mind
are connected with the will and intellect,
and all the constituents of the body
with the heart and lungs.

By the mind
we mean nothing else than the will and intellect,
which comprise in their entirety
all that a person feels and all that a person thinks,
thus all elements that pertain
to a person's affection and thought.
The things that a person feels are properties of his will,
and those that he thinks are properties of his intellect.

People know
that all the components of a person's thought
are properties of his intellect,
since a person thinks with the intellect.
But it is not so well known
that all the components of a person's affection
are properties of his will.
It is not so well known
for the reason that when a person thinks,
he does not pay attention to his affection,
but only to what he is thinking.
Similarly, when he hears someone speaking,
he does not pay attention to the intonation
but to the utterance itself.
And yet the affection in thinking
is like the intonation in speech,
which is why from the intonation of a speaker
one discerns his affection,
and from the utterance his thought.

Affection is a property of the will
because every affection is a property of love,
and the recipient vessel of love is the will,
as we showed above.

A person who does not know
that affection is a property of the will
confuses affection with thought;
for he says that it is one with thought.
But in fact they are not one,
but operate as one.

DLW 373

Please do not think of these things
as existing in a vacuum.
A vacuum is nothingness,
and in nothing nothing happens,
and from nothing nothing springs. 

 

 

DLW 363, 368 - Love and Wisdom Form Our Character

DLW 363

(1) Love and wisdom,
and consequently the will and intellect,
constitute a person's very life.
Scarcely anyone knows what life is.
When anyone thinks about it,
it seems as though it were something vaporous,
of which no idea is possible.
It seems so because people do not know
that God alone is life,
and that His life is Divine love and wisdom.
Consequently it is apparent
that nothing else is the life in a person,
and that it is the life in him
in the degree that he receives it.

DLW 368

(5) The character of the love determines
the character of the wisdom,
and so the character of the person.
The reason is
that the character of the love and wisdom
determines the character of the will and intellect.
For the will is the recipient vessel of love,
and the intellect the recipient vessel of wisdom . . .
and these two form the person and his character.

Love is multifarious -
so multifarious that its varieties are limitless -
as can be seen
from the human race on earth and in the heavens.
One finds not one person or one angel
so like another
that there is no distinction between them.
It is love that distinguishes them,
for everyone is the embodiment of his love.

People suppose that it is wisdom
that distinguishes them,
but wisdom is the product of love,
wisdom being its form.
For love is the essence of life,
and wisdom the expression of life
springing from that essence.

 

Part Five: DLW 358-359 - The Human Vessels Where the Lord Lives

DLW 358

The Lord created and formed in mankind
two recipient vessels and abodes for Himself,
called will and intellect,
the will for His Divine love,
and the intellect for His Divine wisdom.

We read that man was created in the image of God,
according to His likeness (Genesis 1:26).
By the image of God there
is meant His Divine wisdom,
and by the likeness of God His Divine love.
For wisdom is nothing else than the image of love,
since love presents itself
to be seen and recognized in wisdom;
and because it is seen and recognized in wisdom,
wisdom is an image of it.
Love is moreover the essence of life,
and wisdom the expression of life springing from it.

DLW 259

A likeness and image of God
is clearly apparent in angels,
for love shines from within in their faces,
and wisdom in their beauty,
beauty being the outward expression of their love. 

 

 

DLW 350 - Attributing Creation to Nature and Not to the Lord

DLW 350

Some people must indeed be pardoned
for having attributed
certain visible phenomena to nature,
for the following twofold reason:
first, that they have not known anything
about the sun of heaven where the Lord is,
and the influx from it,
nor anything about the spiritual world and its state,
nor, indeed, of its presence with mankind.
And therefore they could not help but think
that anything spiritual
was a purer form of something natural;
thinking thus that angels existed
either in the stratosphere or in the stars;
and in regard to the devil,
either that it was the evil in mankind,
or if the devil actually existed,
that he existed either in the air
or in the depths of the earth;
also that people's souls after death
existed either at the center of the earth
or in some limbo or other until the Day of Judgment;
and other like things
which their fancy persuaded them of,
owing to their ignorance
of the spiritual world and its sun.

The second reason they must be pardoned
is that they could not have known
how the Divine produces
all the phenomena that appear on the earth,
where one finds both good things and bad,
fearing to confirm the notion in themselves
lest they ascribe the bad things as well to God,
or lest they form a material concept of God,
making God and nature one
and so confusing the two.

For these two reasons they must be pardoned
who have believed that nature
produces the phenomena they see
by a power implanted from creation.

However, those who
by confirmations on the side of nature
have made themselves atheists,
cannot be pardoned,
because they could have
confirmed themselves
on the side of the Divine.
Ignorance, indeed, excuses,
but it does not take away falsity
that has been confirmed;
for such falsity is bound together with evil,
thus with hell.

 

DLW 336, 343, 344, 348 - Evil Forms of Use

DLW 336

Evil forms of use were not created by the Lord,
but arose together with hell.
We call all good endeavors
having actual expression forms of use,
and we also call all evil endeavors
having actual expression forms of use;
but the latter we call evil forms of use,
and the first, good forms of use.

Now because
all good endeavors come from the Lord,
and all evil endeavors from hell,
it follows that the Lord created
only good forms of use,
and that evil forms of use arose from hell.

By the forms of use
that we are considering specifically
in the present discussion
we mean all forms that appear on the earth,
such as animals of every kind
and plants of every kind.
All of these that are useful to mankind
come from the Lord,
and those which are harmful to mankind
come from hell.

By forms of use from the Lord
we mean likewise all matters
that perfect a person's rational faculty,
and which enable the person to receive
a spiritual character from the Lord.
Conversely, by evil forms of use
we mean all matters that destroy the rational faculty,
and which render a person
incapable of becoming spiritual.

We call things that are harmful to mankind
forms of use
because they are of use to evil people in doing evil,
and for the reason also
that they are helpful for absorbing malignancies,
and so also as remedies.

We use the term "use" in both senses,
like the term "love,"
as referring to a good love or an evil love;
and love calls everything that it does useful.

DLW 343

. . . the hells are not apart from people
but surround them,
being indeed in people who are evil,
so that they are in contact with the earth.
For in respect to his affections and lusts
and consequent thoughts,
and springing from these his actions,
which are good or evil forms of use,
a person is either in the midst of angels of heaven
or in the midst of spirits of hell.

DLW 344

That if a person becomes merely natural,
he loves only things
connected with his person and the world;
and that to the extent he loves these,
to the same extent he is averse
to celestial and spiritual things,
and does not look to God,
and to that extent becomes evil.

DLW 348

. . . even evil forms of use
come from the spiritual sun,
but that they are good forms of use
turned into evil ones in hell.

It is apparent, therefore,
that the Lord did not and does not
create anything but good forms of use,
while hell produces evil ones.

 

DWL 335 - Not For His Sake, But For Ours

DLW 335

Even though we call these forms of use,
because they have relation
through mankind to the Lord,
still it cannot be said
that they are forms of use originating from
mankind for the sake of the Lord.
Rather they are forms of use originating from
the Lord for the sake of mankind,
because 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.

Because the Lord is to be
adored, worshiped and glorified,
people believe that He loves adoration,
worship and glory for His own sake.
But in fact He loves these for mankind's sake,
since a person comes thereby into a state
such that the Divine can flow in and be perceived,
because the person thereby
sets aside his native character
which inhibits the influx and reception.
For his native character,
which is love of self,
hardens the heart and closes it up.
He sets this character aside by acknowledging
that of himself he does nothing but evil,
and from the Lord only good,
thus occasioning
a softening and humbling of the heart
from which springs adoration and worship.

It follows from this
that the uses the Lord performs
for Himself through mankind
exist to the end that He may
do good to people out of love,
and because this is His love,
their reception of it is His love's delight.

Let no one suppose, therefore,
that the Lord dwells in those
who merely adore Him,
but that He dwells in those
who do His commandments,
thus who do things of use.
It is in such people that He has His abode,
and not the first.

 

DLW 333-334 - Gifts of Use From the Lord

DLW 333

Forms of use
for receiving a spiritual character from the Lord
are all matters having to do with religion
and so with worship,
thus which teach
an acknowledgment and knowledge of God,
and a knowledge and acknowledgment
of goodness and truth, and consequently eternal life.
These are similarly learned like other disciplines
from parents, teachers, sermons and books,
and especially through efforts
to pursue a life in accordance with them.
In the Christian world they are learned
through doctrines and sermons drawn from the Word,
and through the Word from the Lord.

These forms of use
can be described in their range and scope
in the same terms as forms of use to the body,
as for example, in terms of nourishment, clothing,
lodging, recreation and enjoyment, protection,
and the preservation of condition,
provided one applies them to the soul -
its nourishment to goods of love,
its clothing to truths of wisdom,
its lodging to heaven,
its recreation and enjoyment
to felicity of life and heavenly joy,
its protection to evils assailing,
and the preservation of its condition to eternal life.

All of these boons are bestowed by the Lord
according to a person's acknowledgment
that the same boons which are matters of the body
are also all from the Lord,
and that a person is only as a servant or steward
set over the goods of his Lord.

DLW 334

These gifts have been given to mankind
to use and enjoy,
and they are free gifts,
as is clearly apparent
from the state of angels in heaven,
who likewise have a body, rational faculty,
and spiritual character,
as people do on earth.
They are nourished without cost,
for they are daily given their food.
They are clothed without cost,
because they are given their clothing.
They have their lodging without cost,
because they are given their houses.
Nor do they worry about any of these things.
Moreover, to the extent
that they are spiritually rational,
they experience enjoyment, protection,
and the preservation of their condition.

The difference is
that angels see that these are gifts from the Lord,
because things there
are created in accordance with
the state of their love and wisdom . . .,
while people do not see this,
because things here recur yearly
and exist not in accordance with
the state of people's love and wisdom,
but according to the care they expend on them.