DP 232, 233 - The Lord Provides a Separate Will and Intellect for Our Protection From Our Love of Self

DP 232

(4) Therefore the Lord admits a person
no more interiorly into truths of wisdom
and at the same time goods of love
than the extent to which
the person can be maintained in them
to the end of his life.
We must proceed to demonstrate this clearly
for two reasons:
one, because it is important for human salvation,
and second, because on a concept of this law
depends a concept of laws of permission,
which we take up in the next chapter.

DP 233 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13]

FIRST, that the interior constituents in a person
cannot contain evil and good at the same time,
and thus neither the falsity of evil
and the truth of good at the same time:
By a person's interior constituents
we mean the inner core of his thought . . ..

A rational person can see without explanation
that evil with its falsity cannot exist
in a person's interior constituents
at the same time as good with its truth.
For evil is opposed to good,
and good is opposed to evil,
and two opposites cannot exist together.
Inherent also in every evil is a hatred of good,
and inherent in every good
is a love of protecting itself against evil
and of removing it from itself.
It follows from this
that one cannot exist together with the other;
and if they were to exist together,
first a conflict and battle would arise
and then destruction ensue.

SECOND, that the Lord cannot introduce
good and the truth of good
into a person's interior constituents
except to the extent that evil and the falsity of evil
have been removed there:
This is the inevitable consequence
of the preceding considerations.
For as evil and good cannot exist together,
good cannot be introduced
before evil has been removed.

We say into a person's interior constituents,
and we mean by this the inner core of his thought.
It is these constituents we are discussing,
which must have in them either the Lord or the devil.
The Lord is present there
after the person's reformation,
and the devil is present there before that.
To the extent
that a person allows himself to be reformed,
therefore, to the same extent the devil is cast out.
But to the extent
that he does not allow himself to be reformed,
to the same extent the devil remains.

. . . For the Lord is inwardly present in all good,
and the devil inwardly in all evil.

THIRD, that if good with its truth
were to be introduced sooner
or to a greater extent
than evil with its falsity has been removed,
the person would turn away from the good
and go back to his evil:
That is because the evil would be stronger,
and that which is stronger wins out,
if not right away, still later on.

it is the utmost delight of a person's life
to love himself and the world above all else.
This delight cannot be removed in a moment,
but only gradually.
Yet the greater the measure of this delight
remaining in a person,
the more evil prevails in him.
And this evil cannot be removed
except as self-love becomes
a love of useful endeavors,
or as a love of ruling exists not for its own sake
but for the sake of such endeavors.

FOURTH, that when a person is governed by evil,
many truths may be introduced into his intellect,
and these be stored in his memory,
and yet not be profaned:
That is because the intellect
does not flow into the will,
but rather the will into the intellect.
And because the intellect does not flow into the will,
many truths may be received by the intellect,
and these be stored in the memory,
and yet not be commingled with evil in the will,
so that sacred things are not profaned.

FIFTH, but that the Lord
through His Divine providence
provides as much as possible
that the will accept nothing from there
sooner or to a greater extent than a person
as though of himself
removes evil in his outer self:
For whatever comes from the will
enters into a person and is adopted by him
so as to become part of his life.
And at the core of that life,
which a person has from the will,
evil and good cannot exist together,
for then he would perish.

SIXTH, that if it were to do so sooner
or to a greater extent,
the will would then adulterate the good,
and the intellect falsify the truth,
by mixing them with evils and the resulting falsities:

Love of self, which is at the head of all evils,
excels all other loves in its talent
for adulterating goods and falsifying truths,
and it accomplishes this by abusing the rationality
that every person, both evil and good,
has from the Lord.
Indeed, through its justifications
it can make evil appear altogether as good,
and falsity as truth.

Love of self excels in its talent for affirming what it will,
because its outward facade consists of
a certain radiance of light
variegated into an assortment of colors.
This radiance is that love's glory in being wise,
and so also in excelling and ruling.

SEVENTH, that the Lord therefore admits a person
no more interiorly into truths of wisdom
and into goods of love
than the extent to which the person
can be maintained in them to the end of his life:
The Lord brings this about
to keep a person from falling into the most serious
kind of profanation of the sacred . . ..

 

DP 229, 230,231 - Profanation of the Sacred

DP 229

In its most general sense profanation
means all impiety.
Thus by profaners are meant all impious persons,
people who at heart deny God,
the holiness of the Word,
and consequently
the spiritual concerns of the church -
concerns which are fundamentally sacred -
and who also speak of these impiously.

DP 230

Profanation of the sacred is meant
in the second commandment of the Decalogue
by the declaration,
"You shall not profane the name of your God."
And that His name is not to be profaned
is meant in the Lord's Prayer by the phrase,
"Hallowed be Your name."

It is apparent from this
that in the Word God is symbolically meant
by the name of God,
with every Divine attribute
residing in Him and emanating from Him.
Moreover, because the Word
is the Divinity emanating,
it is the name of God.
And because all Divine matters
that are called the spiritual concerns of the church
come from the Word,
they too are the name of God.

DP 231

THE FIRST KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people who make jokes
from or about the Word,
or from or about the Divine things of the church.

THE SECOND KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who understand and acknowledge Divine truths
and yet live contrary to them.

THE THIRD KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who employ the literal sense of the Word
to defend evil loves and false premises. 
The reason is that a defense of falsity
is a denial of truth,
and a defense of evil is a rejection of good,
and the Word at its core
is nothing but Divine truth and Divine good.
In the lowest sense, the sense of the letter,
these do not appear in genuine truths,
except where it teaches about the Lord
and the true path of salvation,
but they appear in truths clothed,
called appearances of truth.
As a consequence that sense can be misused
to defend heresies of many kinds.

But one who defends evil loves
does violence to Divine goods.
One who defends false premises
does violence to Divine truths.
This latter violence is called a falsification of truth,
the former an adulteration of good.
Both are meant in the Word by mentions of blood.
For a spiritual holiness,
which is also the Spirit of truth
emanating from the Lord,
lies within each element of the Word's literal sense.
This holiness is injured
when the Word is falsified or adulterated.
Plainly this is profanation.

THE FOURTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people who utter pious
and reverent sentiments with the mouth,
and moreover feign in tone and gesture
the affections of a love for them,
and yet at heart do not believe or love them.

THE FIFTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who attribute Divine powers to themselves. 
Babylon and Chaldea are mentioned
in many places in the Word,
and by Babylon there is meant a profanation of good,
and by Chaldea a profanation of truth,
both of which are found in people
who attribute Divine powers to themselves.

THE SIXTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people who acknowledge the Word
and yet deny the Lord's Divinity.

THE SEVENTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who first acknowledge Divine truths
and live according to them,
and afterward turn away and deny them.

 

DP 226, 228 - Profanation

DP 226

. . . when a person first acknowledges
Divine matters and believes in them
and afterward turns away from them
and denies them,
he then mixes sacred things with profane ones,
and when these are mixed together,
they cannot be separated
without destroying the whole.

DP 228 [2]

It does not matter
that people accept and acknowledge these things
in early and later childhood.
Every Christian does that.
It does not matter because in that case
they do not accept and acknowledge matters
of faith and charity with any rationality and freedom,
that is to say, in the intellect from the will,
but do so simply by memorization
and from trust in the teacher;
and if they live according to them,
it is out of blind obedience.
But when a person comes into the use
of his rationality and freedom,
which comes about gradually
as he grows into adolescence and youth,
if he then acknowledges truths
and lives according to them
and later denies them,
he commingles sacred things with profane ones,
and from being human
becomes such a monster as described above.

On the other hand,
if a person is caught up in evil from the time
he becomes capable of rationality and freedom,
that is, of being his own master,
throughout his youth,
and later acknowledges truths of faith
and lives according to them,
provided he then remains governed by them
to the end of his life,
he does not commingle them.
For the Lord then separates
the evils of his former life
from the goods of his later life.
This is the case with all who repent.

 

DP 221, 222 - Internal Truths of Wisdom and Goods of Love

DP 221

The means by which a person is led by the Lord
are what we call laws of Divine providence,
and among them is this one,
that a person is not admitted more interiorly
into truths of wisdom and goods of love
than the extent to which
he can be maintained in them to the end of his life.

DP 222 [1, 2]

. . . a person has rationality and freedom.
By his rationality
he can be elevated into a wisdom almost angelic,
and by his freedom
he can be elevated into a love
not unlike angelic love.
But still the character of his love
determines the character of his wisdom.
If his love is celestial or spiritual,
his wisdom becomes also celestial or spiritual.
But if, on the other hand,
his love is diabolical and hellish,
his wisdom is also diabolical and hellish.

. . . a person may be admitted
into wisdom regarding spiritual matters
and also into a love for them
and yet not be reformed,
but in such a case he is admitted
only into a natural love for them
and not into a spiritual love for them.
That is because a person
can admit himself into a natural love,
but only the Lord can admit him into a spiritual love,
and people who are admitted into the latter
are reformed,
while those who are admitted only into the former
are not reformed.
For the last are mostly hypocrites . . ..

DP 220 - 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 the 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 . . ..

 

DP 219 - Reasoning About Divine Matters

DP 219 [3]

Your conversation shall be "Yes, yes," "No, no."
Anything more than this springs from evil.
(Matthew 5:37)

Such is the conversation of all in the third heaven.
For they never reason about Divine matters
as to whether something is so or not so,
but they see in themselves from the Lord
whether it is so or not.
Consequently, reasoning about Divine matters
as to whether they are so or not
is occasioned by the reasoner's
not seeing them from the Lord
but endeavoring to see them from self,
and what a person sees from self is evil.

Still, however, the Lord wills
not only that a person think and speak
about Divine matters,
but also that he reason about them
in order to see that something is so or not so.
And this thinking, speaking and reasoning,
provided it has as its end to see the truth,
may be said to be from the Lord in the person,
though it is from the person
until he sees the truth and acknowledges it.
In the meantime it is only owing to the Lord
that he can think, speak and reason;
for he has this ability from the two faculties
called freedom and rationality -
faculties that a person has from the Lord alone.

 

D{ 216 - Blessings or Curses; DP 217 - Useful Services

DP 216 [2]

. . . unless the natural person
is enlightened by his spiritual self, that is,
unless he is at the same time spiritual,
he does not see
that honors and riches may be blessings,
and that they may also be curses,
and that when they are blessings they are from God,
and when they are curses, from the devil.
People know that honors and riches
may also be from the devil,
for it is on that account that he is called
the prince of the world.

DP 217 [3]

The reason evil people as well as good ones
are raised to positions of honor
and advanced to circumstances of wealth
is that evil people perform useful services
just as well as the good.
But evil people do so for the sake of the honors
and material gains accruing to their person,
while good people do so
for the sake of the honors and gains
accruing to the work itself.

DP 215 - Refrain from Evil as a Sin

DP 215 [13]

. . . a person does not know
whether he is led by the devil or by the Lord.
One who is led by the devil
performs useful services
for the sake of himself and the world,
whereas one who is led by the Lord
performs useful services
for the sake of the Lord and heaven.
And all those perform useful services
from the Lord
who refrain from evils as being sins,
whereas all those perform useful services
from the devil
who do not refrain from evils as sins.
For evil is the devil,
and useful service or good is the Lord.

By this and nothing else is the difference recognized.
In outward form the two appear alike,
but in their inward form they are totally unalike.

. . . One is like gold containing within it slag,
while the other is like gold containing pure gold.

DP 215 - Ruling from Love of Self and What It Looks Like

DP 215 [7-8]

As regards a love of advancements and honors
for their own sake,
which is the same as a love of self -
properly speaking,
as a love of ruling from a love of self -
it is a love of one's native self,
and a person's native self is completely evil.
That is why we hear it said
that a person is born into every evil,
and that his heredity is nothing but evil.
A person's heredity is his native self,
by which he is impelled,
and into which he comes by his love of self,
and especially by a love of ruling from a love of self.
For a person who is impelled by that love
regards only himself,
and so immerses his thoughts and affections
in his native self.

It is owing to this
that a love of self has present within it
a love of doing evil.
That is because
the person does not love the neighbor,
but himself only.
And one who loves himself only
views others as apart from him,
either as inferior or of no account,
regarding them with contempt
in comparison with himself,
and considering it of no moment to do evil to them.

As a result,
one who is impelled by a love of ruling
from a love of self
thinks nothing of cheating his neighbor,
of committing adultery with his wife,
of slandering him,
of plotting vengeance against him
to the point of murder,
of behaving savagely to him,
and other like things.
A person derives this characteristic from the fact
that the devil himself is nothing other
than a love of ruling from a love of self,
with which he is allied and by which he is led.
And one who is led by the devil,
which is to say, by hell,
is led into all those evils;
and he is led continually
by the delights of those evils.

So it is that people in hell all wish to do evil to all,
whereas those in heaven wish to do good to all. 

 

DP 210 - If One Wishes to be Led By Divine Providence (The Parable of the Talents); DP 211 - The Serpent's Curse or Why the Divine Providence Acts in Secret

DP 210 [2]   

If you wish to be led by Divine providence,
therefore, use prudence as a servant or assistant
who faithfully manages the goods of his lord.
This prudence is the mina (talent) given
to each of the servants to do business with,
of which they were to render an account
(in the Parable of the Talents):

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey,
who called his servants
and entrusted his property to them.
To one he gave five talents of money,
to another two talents,
and to another one talent,
each according to his ability.
Then he went on his journey.
The man who had received the five talents
went at once
and put his money to work
and gained five more.
So also the one with the two talents
gained two more.
But the man who had received the one talent
went off, dug a hole in the ground
and hid his master's money.

"After a long time
the master of those servants returned
and settled accounts with them.
The man who had received the five talents
brought the other five.
'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents.
See, I have gained five more.'

"His master replied,
'Well done, good and faithful servant!
You have been faithful with a few things;
I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master's happiness!'

"The man with the two talents also came,
'Master," he said,
'you entrusted me with two talents;
see, I have gained two more.'

"His master replied,
'Well done, good and faithful servant!
You have been faithful with a few things;
I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master's happiness!'

"Then the man who had received the one talent came.
'Master," he said, "I knew that you are a hard man,
harvesting where you have not sown
and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
So I was afraid and went out
and hid your talent in the ground.
See, here is what belongs to you.'

"His master replied,

'You wicked, lazy servant
So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown
and gather where I have not scattered seed?
Well then, you should have
put my money on deposit with the bankers,
so that when I returned
I would have received it back with interest.

"'Take the talent from him
and give it to the one who has the ten talents.
For everyone who has will be given more,
and he will have an abundance.
Whoever does not have,
even what he has will be take from him.
And throw that worthless servant outside,
Into the darkness,,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"
(Matthew 25:14-30)

This prudence appears to a person to be his own,
and he believes it to be his own
as long as he keeps shut up in him
the most implacable foe
of God and Divine providence,
namely, love of self.
This love dwells
in the interior qualities of every person from birth.
If you do not recognize it
(for it does not wish to be recognized),
it dwells secure, and it guards the door
to keep the person from opening it
and thus the Lord from casting it out.

A person opens that door
by refraining from evils as sins as though of himself,
with the acknowledgment
that he does so from the Lord.

It is this prudence
with which Divine providence acts in concert.

DP 211

The reason Divine providence acts so secretly
that scarcely anyone knows of its existence
is to prevent mankind from perishing.
For a person's native character, which is his will,
never acts in accord with Divine providence.
A person's native character harbors
an innate hostility to that providence.
It is, in fact, that serpent
which seduced the first parents,
concerning which we are told,

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
and it shall trample your head . . ..
(Genesis 3:15)

The serpent is evil of every kind.
Its head is love of self.
The woman's seed is the Lord.
The enmity put between the two
is the enmity between the love
in a person's native character and the Lord,
thus also between a person's own prudence
and the Lord's Divine providence.
For a person's own prudence
is continually raising its head,
and Divine providence is continually pressing it down.

If a person were to be conscious of this,
he would be angered and enraged at God
and would perish.
But as long as he is not conscious of it,
he may become angry and enraged
at people, or at himself, and at fortune, too,
without perishing.

For this reason the Lord by His Divine providence
continually leads a person in freedom,
and freedom appears to a person
no otherwise than as his own.

Moreover, to lead someone
opposed to oneself in freedom
is like raising a heavy and resistant weight
from the ground by jackscrews,
whose power causes
the heaviness and resistance not to be felt.
It is also like someone's being in the hands
of an enemy who intends to kill him,
of which he is at the time unaware,
and having a friend lead him away
by secret passages
and afterward disclose the enemy's intent.

 

DP 206 - The Devil; DP 207 -The Divine Operation

DP 206

A person's own prudence
springs from his native character,
which is his nature and is called his hereditary soul.
This native character is a love of self
and a resulting love of the world,
or a love of the world and a resulting love of self.

It is the nature of a love of self
to regard itself alone,
and to view others as either inferior or of no account.
If it regards some people as having some value,
it does so only as long
as it is honored and cultivated by them.
Inmostly in that love -
like the endeavor in a seed
to produce fruit and reproduce itself -
lies hidden the wish to become great,
and if possible king,
and if possible then God.

That is the character of a devil,
because a devil is the love of self personified.
He is by nature disposed to adore himself
and to show no one any favor
but one who adores him, too.
He hates any other devil of a like character,
because he wishes himself alone to be adored.

Since no love can exist without its partner,
and the partner of the love or will in a person
is called the intellect,
therefore when a love of self
inspires its love into its partner the intellect,
it becomes there conceit,
which is a pride in its own intelligence.
This is the origin of a person's own prudence.

DP 207

The origin and nature of Divine providence:
Divine providence is the Divine operation in a person
who has set aside love of self.
For a love of self is, as we said, the devil,
and its lusts and their delights
are the evils of its kingdom, which is hell.
When this love has been set aside,
the Lord enters
with the affections of a love for the neighbor,
and He opens the window overhead
and then the windows to the sides,
and enables the person to see that there is a heaven,
a life after death, and eternal happiness.
And by the spiritual light flowing in,
and at the same time spiritual love,
He causes the person to acknowledge
that by His Divine providence
God governs all things.

 

DP 201 , 202, 203 - (4) By His Divine providence the Lord composes the affections of the whole human race into a single form, which is a human one.

DP 201 [1, 3]

Those who ascribe everything to nature
also ascribe everything to human prudence.
For people who ascribe everything to nature,
at heart deny God,
and people
who ascribe everything to human prudence,
at heart deny Divine providence.
One is inseparable from the other.

What is in God called providence
is in man called prudence.

DP 202 [1, 2, 3]

The Lord's Divine providence,
owing to its presence in the least particulars,
is universal in this,
that He created the universe
in order that He might produce in it
an infinite and eternal creation from Him;
and the Lord produces this creation
by His forming out of human beings
a heaven which in His sight
is like a single person
who is the image and likeness of Him.

. . . The infinity and eternity that the Lord regards
in forming His heaven out of people
is its increase to infinity and to eternity,
and thus His constant abode
in the end in His creation.

This creating is infinite and eternal,
which the Lord has provided
by the creation of the universe,
and He is constantly present in that creation
by His Divine providence.

. . . no one can be reformed of himself
through his own prudence,
but only by the Lord through His Divine Providence.

The Lord accomplishes this in accordance
with the laws of His Divine providence.
And it is in accordance with these laws also
that it appear to a person
that it is he who guides himself.
But the Lord foresees how he is guiding himself
and continually makes adjustments.

DP 203

. . .the human race throughout the whole world
is under the Lord's care,
that the Lord guides everyone
in the least particulars
from infancy to the end of his life,
and that the Lord foresees his place
and at the same time provides it.

DP 199, 200 - The Affections of a Person's Life's Love Are Known to the Lord Alone

DP 199 [3]

The soul which directs the interior elements -
does it not also direct
the actions springing from them?
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.
This latter love is a heavenly love,
and the other a hellish love.

DP 200

. . . when he knows from the Word
that a person cannot of himself obtain anything
unless it has been given to him from heaven,
and when he knows from reason
that this appearance has been granted him
in order that he may live as a human being,
see what is good and what is evil,
choose one or the other,
and adopt as his own what he chooses,
so as to be capable
of being reciprocally conjoined with the Lord,
of being reformed, regenerated, and saved,
and of living to eternity.

DP 193, 195 - Heart and Mind, Affections and Satisfactions

DP 193 [2-3]

. . . there are in every person two beginnings of life,
one natural and one spiritual,
the natural beginning of life
being the beating of the heart,
and the spiritual beginning
being the will of the mind;
and that each attaches to itself a partner
with which to dwell
and with which to carry on its vital functions,
the heart joining to itself the lungs,
and the will joining to itself the intellect.

Now because the soul of the will is love,
and the soul of the intellect is wisdom -
both of them from the Lord -
it follows that love is every person's life,
and such a life
as has been conjoined with wisdom.

DP 195 [2-3]

Good, to everyone,
is what his affection finds delight in,
and truth what his thought
consequently finds satisfaction in.
For everyone calls good
that which, owing to his will's love,
he feels as delightful,
and he calls truth that which,
owing to the wisdom of his intellect,
he perceives therefore as giving satisfaction.
Both of these flow from the life's love
like water from a spring
or like blood from the heart.
Both taken together are like a tide or atmosphere
which envelops the whole human mind.

These two - delight and satisfaction -
in the mind are spiritual,
but in the body natural.
On both levels they form a person's life.

 

DP 191 - Human Prudence / Divine Providence

DP 191

One's Own Prudence Is Not Real
and Only Appears to Be,
and Also Ought to So Appear;
but Divine Providence,
Owing to its Presence in the Least Particulars,
Is Universal

The idea that one's own prudence is not real
is altogether contrary to the appearance
and so contrary to many people's belief.
And because that is the case,
no one who, owing to the appearance,
holds the belief
that human prudence accomplishes all things,
can be convinced otherwise
except by the arguments of a deeper investigation,
which must be drawn from causes.
The appearance is an effect,
and causes disclose the reason for it.

Contrary to the appearance
is the teaching of the church
that love and faith spring not from man but from God,
likewise wisdom and intelligence,
and so, too, prudence -
in general all goodness and truth.
When these tenets are accepted,
accepted also must be the idea
that one's own prudence is not real,
but only appears to be.
Prudence is simply the product
of intelligence and wisdom,
and these two are produced
simply by the intellect and its ensuing thought
about truth and goodness.

This - what we have just stated -
is accepted and believed by people
who acknowledge Divine providence,
but not by those
who acknowledge only human prudence.

Now either what the church teaches must be true,
that all wisdom and prudence spring from God,
or what the world teaches,
that all wisdom and prudence spring from man.

Can these views be reconciled in any other way
than to say
that what the church teaches is the truth
and that what the world teaches is the appearance?
For the church affirms
its teaching in the light of the Word,
while the world affirms its in the light of human nature,
and the Word originates from God,
while human nature originates from man.

Since prudence springs from God and not from man,
therefore when the Christian person
is engaged in prayer,
he prays that God may guide
his thoughts, intentions and deeds,
and also adds as the reason
that he cannot do so of himself.
Moreover, when he sees someone doing good,
he says that God led him to do it,
and many other like things.

 

DP 187, 189 - Seeing Divine Providence

DP 187

(4) It is granted a person
to see Divine providence from behind
and not from in front,
and in a spiritual state
and not in the person's natural state.
To see Divine providence from behind
and not from in front
is to see it afterward and not beforehand.
And to see it
from the perspective of a spiritual state
and not from that of a natural state
is to see it from the perspective of heaven
and not from the perspective of the world.

DP 189

A person who has become spiritual
by his acknowledgement of God
and wise by his renunciation of his native character,
sees Divine providence in the whole world
and in each and every constituent of it.
If he contemplates natural phenomena he sees it.
If he contemplates civil affairs he sees it.
If he contemplates spiritual matters he sees it.
And this in both
the concurrent and sequential occurrences of things.
In ends, in causes, in effects, in useful endeavors,
in forms, in things great and small, he sees it.
Especially does he see it in the salvation of people -
as in the fact that Jehovah provided the Word,
that by it He taught them about God,
heaven and hell, and eternal life,
and that He came into the world
to redeem and save mankind.

These things and more,
and the Divine providence in them,
the person sees from spiritual light in natural light.

The merely natural person, however,
sees none of these things.
He is like one who sees a magnificent temple
and hears a preacher enlightened in Divine matters,
and says at home that he saw only a stone building
and heard only someone talking.
Or he is like a nearsighted person
who goes into a garden filled with fruits of every kind,
and afterward goes home
and reports that he saw only a wood and trees.

 

DP 180, 182, 183 - Why We Cannot Clearly See Divine Providence

DP 180

(2) If a person were to clearly see Divine providence,
he would inject himself
into the order and course of its progression,
and upset and destroy it.

DP 182

(3) If a person were to clearly see Divine providence,
either he would deny God
or he would make himself God.

DP 183

The idea that if a person were to clearly see
Divine providence and its operation,
he would deny God, appears as unlikely,
because it seems
that if anyone were to clearly see it
he could not help but acknowledge it
and so acknowledge God.
And yet the contrary is the case.

Divine providence never acts in harmony
with the will's love in a person,
but continually in opposition to it.
For in consequence of his hereditary evil
a person forever goes panting
toward the lowest hell, 
whereas the Lord by His providence
is constantly diverting him
and drawing him back from there,
first to a milder hell, then out of hell,
and finally to Himself in heaven.

This operation of Divine providence is unceasing.
Consequently if a person were to clearly see
or feel this withdrawal or diverting,
it would anger him,
and he would regard God as an enemy,
and from the evil of his native character deny Him.
Therefore, lest a person become conscious of this,
he is kept in a state of freedom,
so that he does not know other
than that he is guiding himself.

 

DP 175, 177, 179 - Why?

It Is a Law of Divine Providence
That a Person Not Perceive or Sense
Anything of the Operation of Divine Providence,
but Still Know about And Acknowledge it

DP 175

The natural person
who does not believe in Divine providence
thinks to himself,
"What is Divine providence when evil people
are raised to higher positions of honor
and acquire more wealth than good people,
and when those
who do not believe in Divine providence
meet with many more like successes
than those who do believe?
Indeed, when faithless and impious people
are able to inflict injuries, losses and misfortunes,
and sometimes death on faithful and pious people,
and this by cunning and malicious arts?"

And so he thinks,
"Do I not see from actual experience,
as though in the clear light of day,
that crafty schemes prevail
over faithfulness and justice,
if only one has the clever skill to be able to
make them appear trustworthy and just?
What are any other happenings but inevitabilities,
consequences, and chance events,
in which we see no evidence of Divine providence?
Are not inevitabilities due to nature?
Are not consequences due to a cause,
flowing from it in accordance with
natural or civil order?
And are not chance events
due either to causes unknown,
or to no causes at all?"

Such are the thoughts entertained
by the natural person who ascribes nothing to God
but everything to nature.
For one who attributes nothing to God
attributes nothing to Divine providence either,
as God and Divine providence
are inseparably connected.

DP 177

The operation of the Lord's Divine providence
is constant in withdrawing a person from evils.
If someone were to perceive or sense
this constant operation
and yet not be led as one bound,
would he not continually resist it,
and in that case either contend with God
or intervene in Divine providence?

. . . the evil that a person has
does not accept good from the Lord in a moment,
nor does good from the Lord
cast out the evil from a person in a moment.
If the one or the other were to happen in a moment,
no life would be left to the person.

DP 179 [1, 2]

A desire to know the future is innate in most people,
but it is a desire
that takes its origin from a love of evil.
Consequently it is taken away from people
who put their trust in Divine providence,
and they have imparted to them a confidence
that the Lord is directing their lot,
so that they do not wish to know it beforehand
lest in some way they inject themselves
into Divine providence.

. . . "Find out what is good and what is true,"
they are told,
"and do the one and think the other if you can."

 

DP 171 - The Lord Teaches Through the Word

DP 171

(4) The Lord teaches a person through the Word
and through doctrine and preaching from the Word,
and thus directly from Himself alone.

DP 172 [2, 4]

Now, because the Word is from the Lord alone
and about the Lord alone,
it follows that when a person is taught by the Word,
he is taught by the Lord.
For the Word is Divine.
Who can communicate something Divine
and implant it in people's hearts
but the Divine itself from whom it comes
and of whom it treats?
Therefore when speaking
of His conjunction with His disciples,
the Lord says that they should abide in Him,
and His words in them (John 15:7);
that His words are spirit and life (John 6:63);
and that He has His abode
in those who keep His words (John 14:20-24).
Consequently to think from the Lord
is to think from the Word,
as though through the Word.

. . . the Lord is
the Divine truth accompanying Divine good.
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.

 

DP 165, 166, 167, 168 (portions) - Enlightenment and Light

DP 165

(3) The Lord leads a person by influx
and teaches him by enlightenment.
The Lord leads a person by influx
because to be led and also to flow in
are expressions applied to love and the will;
and He teaches a person by enlightenment
because to be taught and to be enlightened
are properly expressions
applied to wisdom and the intellect.

DP 166 [1, 3]

For the intellect,
which is a person's internal sight,
is enlightened by spiritual light
in the same way that the eye
or a person's external sight
is by natural light.
Both sights are also similarly taught,
but the internal sight, which is that of the intellect,
by spiritual objects,
and the external sight, which is that of the eye,
by natural objects.

It should be known, however,
that no light in the spiritual world
has anything in common
with the light of the natural world.
The two differ
as something alive and something lifeless.

DP 167 [2]

. . . all those who are in the spiritual world,
both those in the heavens and those in the hells,
see as clearly in their light
as people do by day in theirs.
The reason is that everyone's eyesight
is formed to receive the light that surrounds it.
Thus the eyesight of angels in heaven
is formed to receive the light that surrounds it,
and the eyesight of spirits in hell
to receive the light that surrounds it.
The case is comparatively like that with owls and bats,
which see objects at night and in the evening
as clearly as other birds see them by day.
For their eyes have been formed to receive their light.

DP 168 [4-5]

Consider for example the following:
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.
Some do see the injustice;
but because they do not wish to see it,
they blur it and blind themselves to it,
so that they do not see it.

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;
and they are called rational cattle,
because they have the potential of rationality.

An exterior enlightenment by man, however,
exists in people who think and speak
solely in accordance
with knowledge impressed on their memory.
Of themselves
they are scarcely able to verify anything.

 

DP 162, 163, 165 - The Lord Governs and Leads

DP 162

(2) A person is led and taught by the Lord alone
through the angelic heaven and from it.

DP 163

. . . the Lord governs the entire angelic heaven
as though it were a single person;
that that heaven, being in itself human,
is the very image and very likeness of the Lord;
and that the Lord Himself governs that heaven
as the soul governs its body.

So, because the entire human race
is governed by the Lord,
it can be seen that it is governed by the Lord
not through heaven,
but from heaven,
consequently from Himself,
because He is heaven, as we have said.

DP 165 [5]

Every person from early childhood
is introduced into that Divine Man
whose soul and life is the Lord,
and he is led and taught in Him,
and not apart from Him,
by the Lord's Divine love
in accordance with His Divine wisdom.
Nevertheless, because a person's freedom
is never taken away,
he can be led and taught
only to the extent of his reception
as though of himself.

 

DP 154, 156, 157, 158 , 159 - Be Led and Taught by the Lord Alone

It Is a Law of Divine Providence
That a Person Be Led and Taught by the Lord
from Heaven Through the Word
and Through Doctrine and Preaching from the Word,
and this to All Appearance as Though of Himself

DP 156

A person is led and taught by the Lord alone
because he lives from the Lord alone,
it being his life's will that is led,
and his life's intellect that is taught.
But this is contrary to the appearance,
for it appears to a person that he lives of himself;
and yet the reality is
that he lives from the Lord and not from himself.

Now because as long as he lives in the world
a person cannot be given a conscious perception
that he lives from the Lord alone -
since the appearance that he lives of himself
is not taken from him,
for without it a person would not be human -
therefore we have to establish it
by rational considerations,
which must then be confirmed
by empirical (factual) observation,
and finally by the Word.

DP 157 [8]

. . . everyone who prays to God from his heart
beseeches Him to lead him,
because He has the power to.
Thus at those times
everyone acknowledges the Divine
omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence.
He does so
because he then turns his face to the Lord,
and the truth of it then flows in from the Lord.

DP 158

. . . the more closely anyone
is conjoined with the Lord,
the more distinctly does he appear to himself
to be his own person,
and the more clearly does he recognize
that he is the Lord's.

DP 159

That life is the Lord's alone is apparent
from these passages in the Word:

"I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in Me,
though he die, shall live."
(John 11:25)

"I am the way, the truth, and the life."
(John 14:6)

. . . the Word was God.
In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men.
(John 1:1, 4)

The Word there is the Lord.

". . . as the Father has life in Himself,
so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself?"
(John 5:26)

That a person is led and taught by the Lord alone
is apparent from these passages:

". . . without Me you can do nothing."
(John 15:5)

"A man can receive nothing
unless it has been given to him from heaven."
(John 3:27)

DP 150, 152 - Self-examination Is Needed for Reformation

DP 150

6. Our outer self has to be reformed
by means of our inner self,
and not the reverse.

DP 152

Since a person has an inner self and an outer self,
and both must be reformed
for the person to be reformed,
and since no one can be reformed
unless he examines himself,
sees and acknowledges his evils,
and afterward desists from them,
it follows that he needs to examine
not only his outer self but also his inner self.
If a person examines only his outer self,
he sees no more than what he has actually done -
as for example, that he has not murdered,
has not committed adultery, has not stolen,
and has not borne false witness, and so on.
Thus he examines his physical evils,
but not the evils of his spirit;
and yet for anyone to be reformed
he needs to examine the evils of his spirit,
for a person lives as a spirit after death,
and all the evils that are in him remain.
He examines his spirit, moreover,
only by paying attention to his thoughts,
especially to his intentions,
for intentions are thoughts springing from the will.
Evils have their origin there and their root,
which is to say,
they exist there in their lusts and in their delights,
and unless these are seen and acknowledged,
the person is still governed by evils,
however much
he has not committed them in outward acts.

DP 145, 147 - Self-compulsion

DP 145   

5. Self-compulsion is not inconsistent
with rationality and freedom.

DP 147

Let me briefly mention how the Lord expels
the compulsions to evil
that besiege our inner self right from our birth,
and how He provides desires
for what is good in their place
when we use our apparent autonomy
to put away evils as sins.

. . . we have an earthly mind,
a spiritual mind,
and a heavenly mind,
and that we are wholly locked into our earthly mind
as long as we are caught up in our compulsions
to evil and their pleasures.
During all this our spiritual mind is closed.
However, as soon as we look into ourselves
and realize that our evils are sins against God
because they are against divine laws,
and therefore try to refrain from them,
the Lord opens our spiritual mind
and comes into our earthly mind
by way of its desires for what is true and good.
He comes also into our rational processes
and from there rearranges the things
in our lower, earthly mind that have been in disorder.
This is what feels to us like a battle,
or like a temptation
if we have indulged in these evil pleasures
a great deal.
There is actually a psychological pain
when the pattern of our thoughts is being inverted.

This is a battle against things
that are actually within us,
things that we feel are part of us;
and we cannot fight against ourselves
except from a deeper self,
and only because of a freedom there.
It then follows that the inner self
is fighting against the outer self at such times,
is doing so in freedom,
and is forcing the outer self to obey.
This is self-compulsion;
and we can see that it is not inconsistent
with our freedom and rationality,
but quite in accord with them.

 

DP 138-144 (portions) - No One Is Reformed In States Devoid of Rationality and Freedom

DP 138
(4) No one is reformed in states devoid
of rationality and freedom.

Now because the Lord wills
a person's reformation and regeneration
in order that the person may attain
eternal life or the life of heaven,
and because no one
can be reformed and regenerated
unless good attaches itself to his will
so as to be seemingly his,
and truth to his intellect
so as to be seemingly his as well,
and because it is impossible
that anything become attached to anyone
other than what he does
in the freedom of his will
in accordance with the reason of his intellect,
it follows that no one is reformed
in states devoid of freedom and rationality.

States devoid of freedom and rationality
are of many kinds,
but they may be assigned in general
to the following:

DP 139 - States of Fear:

No one is reformed in a state of fear
because fear takes away freedom and reason
or liberty and rationality.
For love opens the interiors of the mind,
but fear closes them,
and when they have been closed,
the person thinks but little,
and only about what then presents itself
to his consciousness or senses.
All fears that invade the mind have this effect.

DP 140 - States of Misfortune:

No one is reformed in a state of misfortune
if it is only then that he thinks about God
and implores His aid,
because it is a coerced condition.

By states of misfortune we mean
states of despair in times of peril,
as in battles, duels, shipwrecks, falls, fires,
impending or unforeseen loss of wealth,
or of office and therefore honor,
and other, like situations.
To think of God only at these times
originates not from God but from self.

DP 141 - States of Mental Illness:

No one is reformed in a state of mental illness
because mental illness takes away rationality
and so the freedom of acting
in accordance with reason.
For the mind is ill and unsound,
and it is a sound mind that is rational,
not an ill one.

Such illnesses are ones of melancholy,
of spurious and false conscience,
of various types of delusion,
of grief of heart arising from misfortunes,
of distress and mental anguish
owing to some physical disorder -
conditions which are sometimes
regarded as temptations, but are not.
For genuine temptations
have spiritual matters as their subjects,
and in those the mind is wise.
But these illnesses have natural matters
as their subjects,
and in them the mind is irrational.

DP 142 - States of Physical Illness:

No one is reformed in a state of physical illness
because his reason is not then in a state of freedom,
since the state of the mind
depends on that of the body.
. . . A person may, however,
be confirmed in his reformation,
if he was reformed before he fell ill.

DP 143 - States of Ignorance:

No one is reformed in a state of ignorance
because all reformation
is effected by means of truths
and by a life in accordance with them.
Therefore people who do not know any truths
cannot be reformed.
However, if they desire truths
from an affection for them,
they are reformed after death in the spiritual world.

DP 144 - States of Intellectual Blindness:

No one can be reformed
in a state of intellectual blindness, either.
Such people, too, do not know any truths,
and so neither do they lead
a life in accordance with them.
For the intellect has to teach truths,
and the will do them,
and when the will does what the intellect teaches,
it then acquires for itself
a life in accordance with truths.
However, when the intellect has been blinded,
the will also is obstructed,
and it does nothing in freedom
in accordance with its reason
except the evil it has justified in the intellect,
which is falsity.
The intellect is blinded not only by ignorance
but also by a religion that teaches a blind faith.
So, too, by the teaching of falsity.
For as truths open the intellect, so falsities close it.

 

DP 136 - Compulsion; DP 137 - Coerced Worship vs. Worship Not Coerced

DP 136 [portions of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8-9]

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

FIRST, that the external self
cannot compel the internal self,
but that the internal can compel the external:
Who can be forced to believe or to love?
No one can be forced to believe this or that
any more than he can be forced to think
that something is so when he does not think it is;
and no one can be forced to love this or that
any more than he can be forced to will something
that he does not will.
Belief, too, is a matter of the thought,
and love a matter of the will.

SECOND, that the internal self
so refuses to be compelled by the external
that it turns away:
The reason is that the internal self
wishes to be in freedom and loves freedom,
for freedom is bound up with a person's love or life . . ..
Consequently, when that freedom
feels itself to be compelled,
it withdraws into itself, so to speak, and turns away,
and regards the compulsion as its enemy.

A person's internal self is of such a character
owing to the law of the Lord's Divine providence
that a person act in freedom
in accordance with his reason.

THIRD, that external delights entice
the internal self to a state of consent and also of love:
Delights are of two kinds:
delights of the intellect and delights of the will.
Delights of the intellect are also delights of wisdom,
and delights of the will are also delights of love,
for wisdom is connected with the intellect,
and love with the will.

It should be rightly known, however,
that the internal level of the intellect does not
conjoin itself with the internal level of the will,
but that the internal level of the will
conjoins itself with the internal level of the intellect,
and causes the conjunction to be reciprocal.
But this is accomplished by
the internal level of the will,
and not at all by the internal level of the intellect.

It is because of this that a person can be reformed,
not by faith only,
but by a love of the will which forms for itself its faith.

FOURTH, that it is possible for one to have
a coerced internal self and a free internal self:
A coerced internal self is found in people
who engage in external worship only
and not in any internal worship;
for their internal self consists in thinking and willing
that to which their external self is compelled.
They are people who are caught up in
the worship of people, living and dead,
and so in the worship of idols,
and in a faith based on miracles.
In their case the only internal self they have
is one that is at the same time external.

However, in people who possess an internal worship
a coerced internal self is possible -
one produced by fear, and one produced by love.
A coerced internal produced by fear
is found in people who engage in worship
because they fear the torment of hell and its fire.
But this internal is not the internal level of thought
we discussed before, but an external level of thought,
which we here call internal because it is one of thought.

DP 137

From this the nature of coerced worship can be seen
and the nature of worship not coerced.
Coerced worship is physical worship,
lifeless, hazy, and mournful.
It is physical because it is a worship of the body
and not of the mind;
lifeless because it has no life in it;
hazy because it is without understanding;
and mournful because it lacks any delight of heaven in it.

On the other hand,
worship not coerced, when genuine,
is spiritual worship, alive, lucid, and joyful.
It is spiritual because it has in it a spirit from the Lord;
alive because it has in it life from the Lord;
lucid because it has in it wisdom from the Lord;
and joyful because it has in it heaven from the Lord.

 

DP 134, 135 - Visions

DP 134 [1, 4]

(2) No one is reformed by visions
or by communications with the dead,
because they compel.
Visions are of two kinds: Divine and diabolic.
Divine visions are produced by
representative appearances in heaven,
while diabolic visions
are produced by magical arts in hell.
There are in addition hallucinatory visions,
which are the delusions of a distraught mind.

Divine visions - those produced, as we said,
by representative appearances in heaven -
are the kind the prophets had,
who, when having them,
were not conscious in the body but in the spirit.
For visions cannot appear to any person
in his body's conscious state.
Consequently when the prophets saw visions,
they also said that they were then in the spirit . . ..

On the other hand,
diabolic visions do sometimes occur,
induced by fanatic and visionary spirits,
who, owing to the madness that grips them,
call themselves the Holy Spirit.
But these spirits
have now been gathered by the Lord
and cast down into a hell
set apart from the hells of others.

It is apparent from this
that no one can be reformed by any visions
other than those in the Word.

DP 135

Still, communication with spirits is possible,
though rarely with angels of heaven,
and it has been granted to many for centuries.
But when it is granted,
the spirits speak with the person
in his native language, and only a few words.
Those who speak with the Lord's permission,
however, never say anything
that takes away the freedom of a person's reason,
nor do they instruct him.
For the Lord alone teaches a person,
but indirectly through the Word
when the person is in a state of enlightenment . ...

 

 

DP 130-132 - Miracles

DP 130

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

The reality of this can be rationally seen as follows.
No one can deny that miracles induce belief
and strongly persuade
that what ever the miracle-worker
says and teaches is true,
and that at the outset this so occupies
the external level of a person's thought
as to virtually bind and enthrall it.
But this deprives a person
of his two faculties called rationality and freedom,
thus of his ability to act in freedom
in accordance with his reason,
and the Lord cannot then flow in
through the internal level of his thought
into the external one,
except to leave to the person the ability
to confirm with his rationality
that which has become a matter of his faith
as a result of the miracle.

DP 132 [1-2, 3]

That such is the nature of miracles
can clearly be seen from the miracles done
before the people of Judah and Israel.
Even though they saw
so many miracles in the land of Egypt,
and afterward at the sea of Suph,
and others in the desert,
and especially on Mount Sinai
when the Law was proclaimed,
still, after a month's time,
when Moses tarried on that mountain,
they made themselves a golden calf
and accepted it as the Jehovah
who had led them out of the land of Egypt.

The same can be seen as well
from the miracles done after that
in the land of Canaan,
and the fact that the people nevertheless
so often lapsed from their prescribed worship.
And it can be seen, too,
from the miracles that the Lord performed
before them when He was in the world,
and the fact that they nevertheless crucified Him.

. . . after the Lord manifested Himself
and was received and acknowledged
in the churches as the eternal God,
miracles ceased.

 

DP 129 - The Third Law of Divine Providence

DP 129

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

This law of Divine providence follows
from the two preceding ones, namely,
-- that a person act in freedom
in accordance with his reason,
-- and that he do this of himself,
even though doing so from the Lord,
thus doing so as if of himself.
So, because to be compelled
is not to act in freedom
in accordance with one's reason,
and is not to act of oneself,
but is to act without freedom
and in subjection to another,
therefore this law of Divine providence
follows in turn from the first two.

DLW 123, 124 - The Lord's Divine Wisdom & His Providence

DP 123 [3-4]

. . . it is the continual endeavor
of the Lord's Divine providence
to conjoin a person with Himself
and Himself with the person,
and so make him to be an image of Himself.
It follows as well that the object of this
is to enable the Lord to impart to the person
the felicities of eternal life,
for such is the nature of Divine love.

However, the Lord cannot impart these felicities,
nor make the person an image of Himself,
unless the person puts away sins
as though of himself in his external self,
because the Lord is not only Divine love
but also Divine wisdom,
and Divine love acts only out of its Divine wisdom
and in accordance with it.
It is in accordance with the Lord's Divine wisdom
that a person cannot be conjoined with Him
and so be reformed, regenerated and saved
unless the person is permitted to act
in freedom in accordance with his reason,
for it is this that makes a person human;
and whatever accords with the Lord's Divine wisdom
is also a provision of His Divine providence.

DP 124 [4]

. . . the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah,
came into the world
and there put on or assumed
a humanity in things last,
in order to make it possible for Him to be present
in first elements and at the same time in last ones,
and thus to govern the entire world
from first elements through last elements
so as to save people,
whom He is able to save
in accordance with the laws of His Divine providence,
which are also laws of His Divine wisdom.

This is also something
that is known in the Christian world -
that no mortal could have been saved
if the Lord had not come into the world . . ..

That is why the Lord is called the First and the Last.

 

DP 121 , 122 - Repentance

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.

. . . But when people's evils have been put away,
then the aforementioned undertakings
become ones of their love,
and they appear to angels in heaven
as handsome human beings,
and as the angels' partners and comrades.

DP 122

It should be rightly known, however,
that a person ready to repent
ought to look to the Lord alone.
If he looks only to God the Father,
he cannot be purified.
Nor if he looks to the Father for the sake of the Son.
Nor if he looks to the Son as simply a man.
For there is one God,
and that God is the Lord,
inasmuch as His Divinity and Humanity
constitute one person . . ..

In order that everyone ready to repent
might look to the Lord alone,
the Lord instituted the Holy Supper,
which confirms the remission of sins
in people who repent.
It confirms this,
because in that Supper or Communion
everyone is kept looking to the Lord alone.

 

DP 111 - The Outer Depends on the Inner; DP 116 - Why the Appearance of Self Power

DP 111

. . . a person's external level of thought
in itself
is of the same character as his internal level of thought,
and that the two go hand in hand
like something that is not only inwardly within the other,
but also from the other.
Consequently one cannot be set aside
except together with the other.
So it is with every external entity
that springs from an internal one,
with every subsequent element
that springs from a prior one,
and with every effect that springs from a cause.

DP 116  

As for the statement
that evils in the external self
can be put away
only through the agency of the person,
the reason is that,
of the Lord's Divine providence,
whatever a person hears, sees, thinks,
wills, speaks, or does,
appears to him altogether as attributable to him.
Without that appearance
the person would be incapable
of any reception of Divine truth,
of any determination to do good,
of any incorporation of love and wisdom
or charity and faith,
and of any conjunction, therefore, with the Lord,
consequently of any reformation and regeneration,
and thus salvation . . ..
It is evident that without that appearance
repentance from sins would not be possible,
nor indeed faith,
and that without that appearance
a person would not be human,
but would be devoid of any rational life . . ..
 

DP 106 - External & Internal Thought; DP 108 - End, Cause, Effect

DP 106

A person's external level of thought in itself
is of the same character as his internal one.

There are many kinds of loves,
but two of them are like lords or kings,
namely, heavenly love and hellish love.
Heavenly love is love toward the Lord
and love for the neighbor,
while hellish love is love of self
and love of the world.
These two kinds of loves
are as opposed to each other as heaven and hell;
for one who is impelled by
a love of self and the world
does not wish anyone well but himself,
whereas one who is impelled
by love toward the Lord and love for the neighbor
wishes all well.

DP 108

We find everywhere
three concurrent elements in union,
called end, cause and effect.
One's life's love in this case is the end,
its affections with their accompanying perceptions
are the cause,
and the delights of its affections
with their accompanying thoughts are the effect.
For just as the end
comes through the cause into the effect,
so also does love
come through its affections to its delights,
and through its perceptions to its thoughts.

DP 59 - His Presence is Always

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.

Still, people who think in terms of time and space
perceive this with difficulty,
not only because they love temporal things,
but also because they think from the viewpoint
of one present in the world,
and not from the viewpoint
of one present in heaven.
Heaven to them is as far away
as the end of the earth.

On the other hand,
people who are in the Divine,
because they think from the Lord,
think also in terms of eternity
when they think from the viewpoint of the present,
saying to themselves,
"What is something that is not eternal?
Is not something temporal relatively as nothing,
and does it not become nothing
when it comes to an end?
Not so something eternal.
That alone is real,
because its being does not come to an end."

To think in this way
is to think at the same time in terms of eternity
when thinking from the viewpoint
of one's present circumstance.
And when a person does so think
and at the same time so lives,
the emanating Divinity in him or Divine providence
regards throughout its progression
the state of his eternal life in heaven
and guides him to it.
________________

While out of sequence, this number keeps coming back to mind.
It's message of the amazing vastness of the care of the Lord's Providence is a constant message of hope, even in states of darkness.

" . . . 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 103, 104 - Internal & External Levels of Thought

DP 103

Every person has
an external and an internal level of thought.

. . . Now, because it is not a person's body
but his spirit that
wills and understands and so thinks,
it follows that these external and internal levels
are the external and internal levels
of a person's spirit.
That it is the body that acts,
whether in speaking or doing,
is simply the effect
of the internal and external levels of his spirit,
for the body is merely a compliant form.

DP 104 [2]

People know that flatterers and hypocrites
possess a double thought.
For they can contain themselves
and take care not to reveal their interior thought,
and some can hide it more and more deeply
and bar the door, so to speak,
to keep it from appearing.

That it is possible for a person to have
an exterior and interior thought
is clearly apparent from the fact
that one can, from his interior thought,
see his exterior thought,
and moreover reflect on it
and make judgments about it
as to whether it is evil or not.

That this is the nature of the human mind
is attributable to the two faculties
that a person has from the Lord,
called freedom and rationality.
If a person did not have
from these faculties
an external and internal level of thought,
he could not perceive and see any evil in him
and be reformed.
Indeed, he could not speak either,
but could only make sounds, like an animal.

 

DP 100 - The Opposition of Heaven and Hell; DP 101 - What Our Spirit Thinks

DP 100

Everyone can see from reason alone
that the Lord, who is good itself and truth itself,
cannot enter into a person
unless the evils and falsities in him are put away.
For evil is opposed to good, and falsity to truth,
and two opposites can never be commingled.
Rather, when one approaches the other,
a combat ensues,
which lasts until one gives way to the other,
and the one that gives way,
goes away, and the other takes its place.

In such an opposition are heaven and hell,
or the Lord and the devil.
Can anyone reasonably suppose
that the Lord can enter where the devil reigns?
Or that heaven and hell can exist together?
Who does not see
from the rationality granted to every sane person
that for the Lord to enter,
the devil must be cast out?
Or that for heaven to enter,
hell must be removed?

DP 101 [2-3]

. . . what a person thinks in spirit in the world,
he does after his departure from the world
when he becomes a spirit.

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.