~ Come to Me ~

"Come to Me,
all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden light."

(Matthew 11:28-30)

DP 340 - Religion Is the Acknowledgment of God and Repentance

DP 340 [2-3]

Religion has two essential
and at the same time universal elements:
acknowledgment of God and repentance.
These two are pointless to people
who believe they are saved out of mercy alone,
no matter how they live;
for what more do they need to do than cry,
"Have mercy on me, O God!"
As to everything else having to do with religion
they are in a state of darkness.
Indeed, they love the darkness.

With respect to
the first essential element of the church,
which is an acknowledgment of God,
they think simply, "What is God? Who has seen Him?"
If told that He exists and that He is one,
they agree that He is one.
If told that He is three, they agree with that, too,
but say that the three must be called one.
This is their acknowledgment of God.

To the second essential element of the church,
which is repentance,
they give no thought.
Consequently
neither do they give thought to any sin,
and at last they do not know that anything is a sin.
They also then hear and take in with pleasure
the idea that the law does not condemn,
because a Christian is not under its yoke.
They think, "If you simply cry,
'Have mercy on me, O God, for the sake of the Son!'
you will be saved."
This is the repentance of life practiced by them.

Take away repentance, however,
or what is the same thing,
divorce life from religion,
and what remains but the phrase,
"Have mercy on me!"?
As a consequence they cannot help but say
that salvation is instantaneous
upon the saying of these words, and if not before,
still during the hour of death.

. . . In a word, if you do away with repentance,
which is to say, if you divorce life from religion,
what then is a person
but an embodiment of evil glowing with hellish fire,
or a fiery flying serpent in the church?
For without repentance
a person is impelled by evil,
and evil is hell.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

DP 338 - Salvation Does Not Happen In An Instant

DP 338 [8, 9, 10]

What church's doctrine is not founded
on the commandments of the Decalogue?
And the commandments of the Decalogue
are commandments to be lived.

. . . interiorly regarded,
the doctrines of all the churches teach a way of life,
and because they teach a way of life,
they teach that salvation depends
on the way one lives.
Moreover, a person's way of life
is not instilled in a moment,
but is formed gradually,
and is reformed as a person
refrains from evils as being sins,
thus according as he knows what is sinful
and recognizes and acknowledges it,
and as he does not will it,
and for that reason desists from it,
and also as he knows, too,
those means which relate to a concept of God.

By all of these means
a person's life is formed and reformed,
and they cannot be introduced in a single moment.
For hereditary evil must be removed,
which in itself is hellish,
and good implanted instead,
which in itself will be heavenly.

People know, furthermore,
that every intelligent person 
can become more intelligent,
and every wise person wiser;
that intelligence and wisdom can grow in a person -
and in some do grow -
from early childhood to the end of his life;
and that a person is thus
continually being perfected.
Why should this not be even more the case
with spiritual intelligence and wisdom?
These qualities ascend through two degrees
above natural intelligence and wisdom,
and as they ascend they become angelic,
so as to be indescribable.
In the case of angels they also grow to eternity . . ..

Who cannot comprehend if he will
that it is impossible for anything
being perfected to eternity
to be perfect in an instant?

 

DP 337 - Pure Mercy, Pure Love

DP 337

Divine providence does
all that it does out of pure mercy
because the Divine essence itself is pure love,
and it is this which operates through Divine wisdom,
whose operation is what we call Divine providence.

This pure love is pure mercy for the following reasons:

1. Because it operates
with all people throughout the whole world,
who are so formed
that they cannot do anything of themselves.

2. It operates with the evil and unjust
as much as with the good and just.

3. It leads the evil and unjust in hell
and rescues them from it.

4. It forever struggles with them there
and battles for them against the devil,
that is, against the evils of hell.

5. Therefore the Lord came into the world
and underwent temptations or trials
even to the last of them,
which was His suffering of the cross.

6. He acts continually with the unclean
to make them clean,
and with the irrational to make them rational.

Thus He labors continually out of pure mercy.

 

DP 335 - Divine Providence, Means & Methods Out of Pure Mercy

DP 335

The operation of Divine providence
takes place unceasingly,
through means,
out of pure mercy.
Divine providence has its means and methods.
Its means are the instruments by which
a person becomes human
and is perfected in intellect and in will.
Its methods
are the ways these goals are accomplished.

The means by which a person becomes human
and is perfected in intellect
are in common parlance called truths,
which in thought become ideas,
and in the memory are called facts,
and which in themselves
are the concepts on which
the various branches of knowledge are founded.

All of these means
regarded in themselves are spiritual.
But because they exist in natural embodiments,
owing to their investiture or clothing
they appear to be natural,
and some of them material.

These means are infinite in number
and infinite in their variety.
They are more or less simple or composite,
and they are more or less imperfect or perfect.

There are means for forming and perfecting
a person's natural, civil life,
means for forming and perfecting
his rational, moral life,
and also means for forming and perfecting
his heavenly, spiritual life.

These means follow in succession,
one kind after another,
from early childhood
to the final period of a person's life,
and after that to eternity.
As they follow in succession in their progress,
moreover, prior ones thus become
the means to later ones,
for they enter every development
as the mediating causes,
since every effect or every result
stemming from them is an efficient one
and so becomes itself a cause.
Thus later effects or results
become in succession means.
And because this continues to eternity,
there is no final, or last, concluding one.
For as eternity is without an end,
so wisdom that increases to eternity
is without an end.
If wisdom in a wise person were to reach an end,
his delight in wisdom,
which consists in a perpetual
augmentation and proliferation of it,
would die,
and so with it his life's delight,
and in its stead would arise a delight in glory,
which on its own contains no heavenly life.
The wise person then becomes no longer youthful
but as one advanced in age, and eventually decrepit.

Even though the wisdom
of a wise person in heaven increases to eternity,
still it is not possible for angelic wisdom
ever to so approach Divine wisdom
as to be able to touch it.
The case is comparatively like what is said of
a straight line drawn on either side of a hyperbola,
that it continually approaches it but never touches it.
It is also like what is said about squaring a circle.

It can be seen from this what is meant
by the means by which Divine providence operates
in order for a person to be human
and to be perfected in intellect,
and that these means
are in common parlance called truths.

There are just as many means, too,
by which a person is formed and perfected in will,
but these in common parlance are called goods.
It is owing to these that a person possesses love,
whereas it is owing to the former that he has wisdom.
The conjunction of the two form the person,
for a person's character is such
as the nature of the conjunction.
This conjunction is what we call
the marriage of good and truth.

 

DP 332, 333- The Operation of Divine Providence to Save a Person

DP 332 [1, 3]

The operation of Divine providence to save a person
begins at the person's birth
and continues to the end of his life,
and afterward to eternity.

Since a person's life has a correspondence
with the growth of a tree,
let us draw a parallel or comparison.
A person's early childhood is comparatively like
the tender sprout of a tree
shooting up from its seed out of the earth.
A person's later childhood and adolescence
are like the same sprout growing into a sapling
and its little branches.
The natural truths
with which every person is first equipped
are like the leaves
which cover the sapling's branches
(leaves have just this
symbolic meaning in the Word).
A person's initial introductions
into the marriage of goodness and truth,
or spiritual marriage,
are like the flowers
which the tree produces in the spring.
Spiritual truths are the petals of those flowers.
The first stages of the spiritual marriage
are like the beginnings of the fruit.
Spiritual goods - the goods of charity -
are like the fruits themselves
(they are also symbolized by fruits in the Word).
The propagations of wisdom from love
are like the seeds,
as a result of which propagations
a person becomes like a garden or paradise.
A person is also described by a tree in the Word,
and his wisdom from love by a garden.
Nothing else is symbolically meant
by the Garden of Eden.

DP 333

We say that the operation
of Divine providence to save a person
begins at his birth
and continues to the end of his life.
To understand this
one must know that the Lord sees
what a person's character is,
and foresees what the person wills it to be,
thus what it will be.
Moreover, for him to be human and thus immortal,
his will's freedom cannot be taken away,
as we have shown many times before.
Consequently the Lord foresees
a person's state after death
and provides for it from his birth
even to the end of his life.
In the case of evil people
He provides by permitting
and continually steering away from evils.
But in the case of good people
He provides by leading to good.
Thus Divine providence operates unceasingly
to save a person.
But no more can be saved
than those who wish to be saved,
and those wish to be saved
who acknowledge God and are led by Him,
whereas those do not wish to be saved
who do not acknowledge God
and guide themselves.
For the latter do not think about
eternal life and salvation,
whereas the former do.

This the Lord sees, and yet He leads them,
and leads them in accordance with
the laws of His Divine providence,
which He cannot go against,
as to go against them
would be to go against His Divine love
and against His Divine wisdom,
thus against Himself.

 

DP 331 - The Divine Providence is the Divine Order

DP 331 [2]

One can also say that the Lord is providence,
as we say that God is order.
For Divine providence is
the Divine order primarily concerned with
the salvation of humankind,
and as order is impossible without laws,
since laws constitute it,
and since every law takes its origin from order,
so that it also is order,
therefore it follows that as God is order,
so He is the law of His order.
The same may be said of Divine providence,
that as the Lord is His providence,
He is also the law of His providence.

It is apparent from this
that the Lord cannot
go against the laws of His Divine providence,
because to go against them
would be to go against Himself.

 

DP 329, 330 - Predestination - Three Things

DP 329 [1]

Thus all are predestined for heaven,
and no one for hell.

The means of salvation
have to do with these two elements:
that one refrain from evils because they are contrary
to the Divine laws in the Decalogue,
and that one acknowledge the existence of God.

Everyone can do this,
provided he does not love evils.
For the Lord continually flows into the will
with a power that enables him to refrain from evils,
and into the intellect with a power that enables him
to think that God exists.
But even so, no one can do one
without at the same time doing the other.
The two are joined
as the two tables of the Decalogue are joined,
one of them being for the Lord,
and the other for man.
The Lord enlightens everyone from His table,
and empowers him,
but a person receives
the power and enlightenment in the measure
that he puts into practice the commandments
contained in his table.

DP 330 [5, 8]

. . . the idea that only those people
born in the church are saved is an insane heresy:
People born outside the church
are just as much human beings as those born in it,
being from the same heavenly origin,
with equally living and immortal souls.
They have religion, too, on which account
they acknowledge that there is a God
and that they must live rightly;
and as we showed above,
anyone who acknowledges God and lives rightly
becomes spiritual in his own degree and is saved.

People say that people born outside the church
have not been baptized,
but baptism saves only those
who are washed spiritually,
which is to say, regenerated,
for it is of this that baptism serves
as a sign and memorial.

. . . the idea that some members of the human race
have been damned by predestination
is a cruel heresy:
For it is cruel to believe that the Lord,
who is love itself and mercy itself,
would allow
so great a multitude of people to be born for hell,
or that so many millions
are damned and cursed at birth,
so as to be devils and satanic spirits from birth,
and that the Lord does not provide
with His Divine wisdom a way
to keep people who live rightly and acknowledge God
from being cast into everlasting fire and torment.

Yet the Lord is the Creator and Savior of all people,
and He Himself alone leads them
and wills no one's death.
It is cruel, therefore, to believe and think
that so great a multitude of nations and peoples
under His care and sight should, by predestination,
be handed over to the devil as spoil.

 

DP 328 - The Lord Provides That It Be Possible for Everyone to Be Saved

DP 328 [8-9]

The Lord provides
that there be everywhere some religion,
and in every religion the two essentials of salvation,
which are to acknowledge God
and not to do evil
because it is contrary to God.
All else having to do with the intellect
and its consequent thought called matters of faith
are provided to everyone
in accordance with his life . . ..

The Lord also provides
that all who have lived rightly
and have acknowledged God
be instructed after death by angels,
and people who have possessed
these two essentials of religion in the world
then accept such truths of the church
as are found in the Word
and acknowledge the Lord
as God of heaven and the church.
Moreover they embrace the latter
more easily than Christians
who have brought with them from the world
an idea of the Lord's humanity
as separate from His Divinity.

The Lord has provided, too,
that all who die as little children be saved,
wherever they were born.

Furthermore, every person is afforded
an opportunity after death to amend his life,
if possible.
They are all taught and led
by the Lord through angels,
and because they know then
that they are living after death,
and that heaven and hell exist,
at first they accept truths.
But those who have not acknowledged God
and abstained from evils as sins in the world
soon loathe the truths and turn away.

 

Psalm 119:33-40 (He)

Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees,
that I may follow it to the end.
Give me understanding,
so that I may keep your law
and obey it with all my heart.
Direct me in the path of your commands,
for there I find delight.
Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
preserve my life according to your word.
Fulfill your promise to your servant,
so that you may be feared.
Take away the disgrace I dread,
for your laws are good.
How I long for your precepts!
In your righteousness preserve my life.

DP 325, 326 - Everyone Can Be Saved . . .

DP 325

It is owing to Divine providence . . .
that every person can be saved,
and that those are saved
who acknowledge God and live rightly.

Some people suppose that the Lord's church
exists only in the Christian world,
because only there is the Lord known,
and only there is the Word found.
But at the same time
there are many who believe
that God's church is universal,
or extended and spread throughout the whole world,
existing thus also among people
who are ignorant of the Lord
and do not have the Word.
This they believe, saying
that it is not the others' fault,
that the others possess an insuperable ignorance,
and that it is contrary to God's love and mercy
that any should be born for hell,
when in fact they are equally human beings.

Now because Christians - if not all, still many -
have the belief that the church is universal,
calling it also a communion,
it follows
that there are universal elements of the church
that enter into all religions and form that communion.
These universal elements are
an acknowledgment of God and goodness of life . . .

DP 326 [9]

. . . these are the universal elements in all religions,
making it possible for everyone to be saved:
Acknowledging God
and not doing evil because it is contrary to God
are the two ingredients which make a religion a religion.
If one of these is lacking,
it cannot be called a religion,
inasmuch as to acknowledge God
and do evil is a contradiction,
and so is it to do good and not acknowledge God.
For one is impossible without the other.

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

DP 324 - We Are Created to Live to Eternity

DP 324 [3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11-12]

In order for every person to live to eternity,
that which is mortal in him is taken away.
His mortal component is his material body,
which is taken away by its death.
His immortal component, namely his mind,
is thus laid bare
and He becomes then a spirit in human form.
His mind is that spirit.

The fact that the human mind cannot die is
something ancient sages or wise men saw.
For they said, "How can the heart or mind die
when it can become wise?"
Few people today know
the interior idea they had of this,
but it was one that slipped into
their common perception from heaven,
that God is wisdom itself,
of which man is a partaker.
And God is immortal or eternal.

Moreover, what else is good but delight,
and what else is Divine good
but eternal blessedness?
Every good is called good because of
the delight or blessedness accompanying it.
Things that are given or owned are,
indeed, called goods,
but unless they are at the same time
a source of delight,
they are sterile goods
which in themselves are not good.

It is apparent from this
that eternal life is also eternal blessedness.

This state of a person is the end in creation.
But the fact that only those people
who enter heaven
are in that state
is not the Lord's fault, but the person's.

. . . every person has thus been created
to enter into heaven:
This is the end in creation.
But not all people enter into heaven,
because they soak up hellish delights
that are opposed to the blessedness of heaven,
and people not in the state
of the blessedness of heaven
cannot enter heaven,
as they cannot bear it.

Yet because evil cannot help but molest good,
as evil has in it a hostility toward good,
therefore to keep them from doing harm
such people are removed
and cast down into their places in hell,
where their delight
is turned into something undelightful.

. . . the case with many in the world,
because they love the first degree of their life,
called the natural degree,
and are unwilling to withdraw from it
and become spiritual.
Moreover, regarded in itself,
the natural degree of life
loves only self and the world,
for it is bound up with the physical senses,
which likewise exist for the world.
On the other hand, regarded in itself,
the spiritual degree of life
loves the Lord and heaven -
loving also self and the world,
but God and heaven as the higher,
principal and governing consideration,
and self and the world as a lower,
instrumental and subservient one.

in every human fetus
the Lord forms two recipient vessels,
one receptive of His Divine love
and the other of His Divine wisdom -
the vessel receptive of Divine love
for the person's future will,
and the vessel receptive of Divine wisdom
for his future intellect.
And we said, too,
that the Lord has thus endowed every person
with a faculty for willing good
and with a faculty for understanding truth.

Now because these two faculties
that a person has from birth
are bestowed by the Lord,
and therefore the Lord is in them
as in His own abodes in a person,
it is apparent that His Divine love cannot but will
that a person come into heaven
and there enjoy eternal blessedness,
and that His Divine wisdom also
cannot but provide for it.

However, because it is of the Lord's Divine love
that a person feel
the heavenly blessedness in him as his own,
and this cannot be the case
unless the person is kept
totally caught up in the appearance
that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts of himself,
therefore the Lord can lead a person
only in accord with the laws of His Divine providence.

 

DP 322 - Everyone Can Be Reformed - The Lord Predestines No One

DP 322 [1, 3]

Sound reason declares
that all people have been predestined for heaven
and no one for hell.
For all have been born human beings,
and therefore they have the image of God in them.
The image of God in them
is their ability to understand truth
and their ability to do good.
The ability to understand truth
originates from Divine wisdom,
and the ability to do good from Divine love.
This capacity is the image of God,
which remains in a healthy (whole, sane) person
and is not eradicated.

It is because of this
that a person can become civic-minded and moral,
and someone who is civic-minded and moral
can also become spiritual, 
for civic-mindedness and morality
are the recipient vessel of a spiritual quality.
He is called a civic-minded person
who knows the laws of the kingdom
of which he is a citizen and lives according to them;
and he is called a moral person
who makes those laws his mores and his virtues
and lives them in conformity with reason.

. . . every person is born to be able to become
a natural civic-minded and moral person,
so he is also born to be able to become
a spiritual civic-minded and moral one.
He has only to acknowledge God
and not commit evils
because they are opposed to God,
but do good things
because they are on the side of God.

 

DP 321 - The End in Divine Providence is Goodness

DP 321 [7, 8]

If the person now reflects on the evils in himself -
which is the same thing as examining himself -
and refrains from those evils,
he then frees himself from hell
and puts it behind him,
and introduces himself into heaven
and beholds the Lord there before him.
We say that the person does this,
but he does it as though of himself,
and in that case from the Lord.

When a person acknowledges this truth
with a good heart and a devout faith,
it then lies concealed within everything
that he afterward thinks and does
as though of himself,
like the generative force in a seed,
which accompanies it within
even to the production of new seed,
or like the pleasure in an appetite for food,
once he has acknowledged it
to be healthful for him.
In a word, it is like the heart and soul
in everything that he thinks or does.

Divine providence does not assign evil to anyone,
nor good to anyone,
but that it is a person's own prudence
that assigns the one or the other to him:
This follows from everything we have now said.
The end in Divine providence is goodness.
It therefore intends this in its every operation.
Consequently it does not assign good to anyone,
for in that case it would be made deserving of merit.
Nor does it assign evil to anyone,
for in that case it would make him guilty of evil.
Nevertheless a person does both
owing to his inherent nature,
because this is nothing but evil.
The inherent nature of his will is a love of self,
and the inherent nature of his intellect
is a conceit in his own intelligence,
and it is of the latter that his own prudence is born.

 

DP 318, 319 - How a Person's State Is Changed By Affirmations and Consequent Persuasions

DP 318 [2, 5, 7, 8, 9]

Since every falsity shines in the natural self
with its appearances and illusions,
and truth only in the spiritual self,
it is apparent
that falsity can be defended more easily than truth.

. . . truth is not seen by confirmed falsity,
but confirmed truth causes falsity to be seen:
Every falsity resides in darkness,
and every truth in light;
and in darkness nothing is seen,
indeed neither is anything known,
except by feeling.
It is different in the light.
Therefore in the Word falsities are called darkness,
and accordingly
those who are caught up in falsities
are said to walk in darkness
and in the shadow of death.
And conversely, truths are called light there,
and accordingly those who are guided by truths
are said to walk in the light
and are called the children of light.

Who can feel the spiritual uncleanness of adultery
but one who possesses
the spiritual cleanliness of chastity?
Who can feel the cruelty of vengeance
but one who is governed
by good from a love of the neighbor?
What adulterer and what person eager for revenge
does not deride people
who call their delights infernal,
and the delights of married love
and love of the neighbor
on the other hand heavenly? And so on.

. . . to be able to affirm whatever one pleases
does not constitute intelligence,
but only ingenuity,
possible even in the worst of people.   

Falsity not of evil can be joined with good,
but not the falsity of evil,
and the reason is that falsity not of evil
is falsity in the intellect and not in the will,
while the falsity of evil
is falsity in the intellect from evil in the will.

DP 319 [1, 4]

Everything affirmed by the will and intellect together
remains to eternity for the reason
that everyone is an expression of his love,
and love is a property of his will.
A second reason is that every person
is an expression of his good or evil,
as everything he calls good
is connected with his love, and so, too,
everything he calls evil.

. . . For this reason
everyone goes the way of his love after death,
to heaven if he has been directed by a good love,
and to hell if he has been directed by an evil love.
Nor does he find rest
except in the society where his is the reigning love.
And what is surprising,
everyone knows the way.
It is as though his nostrils smelled it.

 

DP 317 - Seeing Truth

DP 317

Many people believe
that a person can see no truth without proofs,
but that is not the case.
In civil and economic matters
relating to a kingdom or republic,
nothing useful or good can be seen
without knowing many of the statutes
and enactments there,
and in judicial matters,
without knowing the laws,
and in natural studies, as in physics, chemistry,
anatomy, mechanics, and others,
without the person's being steeped in the sciences.
But in purely rational, moral and spiritual matters,
truths appear in their own, true light,
provided the person has become
somewhat rational, moral and spiritual
from a right education.

The reason is that in respect to his spirit,
which is the component that thinks,
every person is in the spiritual world
and one of the inhabitants there,
so that he is in spiritual light,
which enlightens the inner regions of his intellect
and, as it were, issues dictates.
For spiritual light in its essence
is the Divine truth of the Lord's Divine wisdom.

It is because of this
that a person can think analytically,
draw conclusions about what is just and right
in judicial matters,
and see what is honorable in living morally
and what is good in living spiritually.
And he can see also many truths,
which fall into darkness
only as a result of confirmed falsities.

DP 313 - Adam & Eve and the Garden of Eden; DP 316 - People Who Are Led By the Lord's Divine Providence

DP 313

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

The rest of the particulars symbolize the following:

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

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

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

The curse on the serpent
symbolizes the damnation of mankind's own love
and mankind's own intelligence.
The curse on Eve,
the damnation of his volitional nature,
and the curse on Adam,
the damnation of his intellectual nature.
The thorn and thistle
which the earth would cause to sprout up for him
symbolize sheer falsity and evil.
Being expelled from the garden
symbolizes the loss of wisdom.
Guarding the way to the tree of life,
the Lord's protection to keep
the sanctities of the Word and the church
from being violated.

The fig leaves with which
Adam and Eve covered their nakedness
symbolize the moral truths
with which those people veiled
the inclinations of their love and conceit.
And the tunics of skin
with which they were afterward clothed
symbolize appearances of truth,
which were the only ones they had.

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

DP 316

People who are led by the Lord's Divine providence
are raised above their inherent character,
and they see then
that all goodness and truth originate from the Lord.
Indeed, they see also
that whatever is in a person from the Lord
is perpetually the Lord's and never the person's.

 

DP 310 - One's Own Prudence Is From Self; DP 311 - Not One's Own Prudence Is From the Lord

 DP 310 [1, 2, 5]

People caught up in their own prudence
are those who inwardly affirm appearances
and regard them as truths -
especially the appearance
that their own prudence is everything,
and Divine providence nothing,
unless it is some universal entity,
which nevertheless is not possible
without consisting of specifics . . ..

They are more cunning and guileful than others,
and clever reasoners.
They call cunning and guile intelligence and wisdom,
nor do they know any different.
They regard people who are not of such a character
as simple and stupid,
especially those who are worshipers of God
and proponents of Divine providence.
As for the interior principles of their minds,
of which they themselves are little aware,
they are like those people called Machiavellian,
who regard murder, adultery, theft and false witness,
viewed in themselves, as inconsequential.
And if they argue against these,
it is owing simply to their prudence,
that they may not appear to be of that character.

People who become of such a character
are those who in the world did not believe
in anything of Divine providence,
and who explore in others
only the others' lusts and desires
and thus lead them along
until they rule over them.
And because they do this
so secretly and so cunningly
that the other person is unaware of it,
and after death become such as they were,
therefore as soon as they come
into the spiritual world
they are cast into that hell.
When seen in the light of heaven
they appear to have no nose;
and what is surprising,
although they are so clever,
they are nevertheless more sensual than others.

DP 311 [1, 2-3, 4]

From the description of one's own prudence
and of those caught up in it,
it can be seen what prudence not one's own is like
and the kind of people who are governed by it,
namely that prudence not one's own
is the prudence in people
who do not affirm in themselves
that intelligence and wisdom originate from man,
but say, "How can anyone be wise of himself,
and how can anyone do good of himself?"

They are not, through any affirmations of appearances,
caught up in misconceptions.
As a result they know and perceive
that murder, adultery, theft, and false witness are sins,
and therefore refrain from them.
Moreover they know and perceive
that maliciousness is not wisdom,
and that guile is not intelligence.
When they hear clever arguments
founded on misconceptions,
they are surprised and laugh to themselves.
The reason is that they do not have in them
a veil between their inner and outer elements,
or between the spiritual
and natural components of the mind,
as there is in sensual people.
Consequently they receive an influx from heaven
which enables them to see these things interiorly.

They speak more straightforwardly
and honestly than others,
and place wisdom in life and not in speech.
They are comparatively like lambs and sheep,
while those caught up in their own prudence
are like wolves and foxes.

It can be seen from this
that prudence not one's own
is prudence from the Lord,
having the same appearance in outward respects
as one's own prudence,
but altogether different in inward respects.

DP 301 - The Angels in Heaven and the Spirits in Hell

DP 301

Angels in heaven
are embodiments of affections for good
and the accompanying thoughts of truth
because they are recipient vessels
of Divine love and wisdom from the Lord -
all affections for good originating from Divine love,
and all thoughts of truth from Divine wisdom.

Spirits in hell, on the other hand,
are lusts for evil
and the accompanying suppositions of falsity
because they are governed by self-love
and their own intelligence,
and all lusts for evil arise from self-love,
and suppositions of falsity
from one's own intelligence.

 

DP 298 - Intelligence and Reformation

DP 298 [5-6]

All reformation is effected by means of truth
and not apart from it,
for without truth
the will is continually intent on its evil,
and if it consults the intellect,
it is not instructed,
but the evil is justified by falsities.

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

DP 296 - An Evil Person

DP 296 [1, 3, 7, 15]

Every spirit is himself an evil,
appearing to himself as a single entity,
but having in him countless constituents,
as many as the lusts of that evil.
For every person is his own evil or his own good,
from his head to the sole of his foot.

Since that is the case with an evil person,
it is apparent therefore that he is a single evil
composed of various, countless constituents,
which are evils individually
and are called lusts for evil.

It follows from this that all of these constituents,
in the order in which they exist,
must be repaired and transformed by the Lord
for a person to be reformed,
and that this can be accomplished
by the Lord's Divine providence only gradually,
from a person's first age even until his last.

. . . an evil person of himself
steers himself ever more deeply into his evils . . .
for he turns the good coming from the Lord
into evil . . ..

. . . Divine providence with evil people
is a continual permitting of evil in order to effect
a continual tuning away from it . . ..
Moreover the Lord does not introduce evil
into the life of the will
and through that into the thought,
but it is introduced by the person,
and this is called permission.

. . . in every person
Divine providence operates in a thousand ways,
even in very secret ways;
that it continually has as its end to purge him,
because it has as an end to save him;
and that nothing more is incumbent on the person
than to put away evils in his external self.
The Lord provides the rest, if entreated to.

 

DP 294 - Thinking

DP 294 [4, 6]

Now because a person does not wish to know
that he is directed to think by others,
but wishes to think on his own,
and also believes that he does,
it follows that he himself is at fault for doing evil;
nor can he free himself from being at fault
as long as he likes to think what he is thinking.
On the other hand, if he does not like it,
he frees himself
from any connection with its sources.
This he does when he knows that something is evil,
and therefore wills to shun it and desist from it.
He is also released then by the Lord
from the society of spirits that is caught up in that evil
and transferred to a society
in which that evil does not exist.
However, if he knows that something is evil
and does not refrain from it,
the fault is then imputed to him
and he becomes guilty of that evil.

Whatever a person believes that he does on his own,
therefore, is said to be done by the person,
and not by the Lord.

. . . The Lord's Divine love is infinite,
and His Divine wisdom is infinite,
and infinite radiations of love
and infinite radiations of wisdom
emanate from the Lord.
These in turn flow into all the inhabitants in heaven,
and from there into all the inhabitants in hell,
and from both heaven and hell
into all people in the world.
Consequently there can be no one
without the ability to think and will,
for infinite things are all things infinitely.

The infinite radiations which emanate from the Lord
flow in not only universally but also most particularly,
for the Divine is universal in consequence
of its presence in the least particulars,
and the most particular Divine elements
constitute what we call universal . . ..
Moreover, the least particular Divine element
is also infinite.

It can be seen from this
that the Lord alone causes everyone
to think and will according to his character,
and in accordance with
the laws of His Divine providence.

 

DP 290, 291, 293 - The Origins of Our Thoughts

DP 290

. . . as soon as some evil crept into my will,
or some falsity into my thought,
I inquired into its source
and it was disclosed to me;
and I was also granted to speak with its originators,
to rebuke them and compel them to go away,
and so to take back their evil and falsity
and keep it to themselves,
and not to infuse such a thing
into my thought any longer.

I have done this a thousand times.
I have, moreover,
continued in this state now for many years,
and continue still in it.
And yet I seem to myself to think and will of myself,
like others, without any difference.
For it is of the Lord's providence
that it so appear to everyone . . ..

DP 291

The fact that all good comes from heaven
and all evil from hell
is something not unknown in the world.
Everyone in the church knows it.
What person
who has been inaugurated into the priesthood
does not teach that all good is from God,
that man can take nothing of himself
that has not been given him from heaven,
and moreover that the devil
infuses evils into a person's thoughts,
leads him astray, and incites him to do them?

DP 293

. . . that to think and will of oneself
is in essence Divine,
while to think and will from God
is the essence of what it is to be human;
and what is in essence Divine
cannot be transferred to any person,
for in that case the person would be God.

 

DP 284 - When Good and Evil Are in Opposition

DP 284

A person's intellect is receptive of both good and evil,
and of both truth and falsity,
but not so a person's underlying will.
This must be
either in a state of evil or in a state of good.
It cannot be in both,
for the will is the essential person,
and in it resides his life's love.

Good and evil in the intellect, however,
are kept apart
as something internal and something external.
Thus a person can be
inwardly in a state of evil
and outwardly in a state of good.
But when the person is being reformed,
the good and evil are brought into opposition,
and a conflict and struggle arises then,
which if severe is called a temptation or trial,
but which if not severe
is like the fermentation of wine or liquor.
If good wins out then,
evil with its falsity is moved to the sides,
comparatively as sediment
falls to the bottom of a vessel,
and the good becomes
like vintage wine after fermentation or clear liquor.
But if evil wins out,
then good with its truth is moved to the sides,
and becomes turbid and repulsive
like unfermented wine or unfermented liquor.

 

DP 279, 280 - The Removal of Evil to the Sides, and the Lord's Forgiveness and Mercy

DP 279 [1, 2, 4, 5]

(3) Evils are forgiven to the extent
that they are removed.
It is an error of the age to believe
that when evils are forgiven,
they are separated from a person,
indeed cast out.
It is an error also to believe
that the state of a person's life
can be changed in an instant,
even into an opposite one,
that a person from being evil
can thus be made good,
and that he can in consequence
be withdrawn from hell
and transported at once into heaven,
and this owing to the Lord's mercy
apart from means.

. . . an evil can be removed only gradually,
and that the forgiving of an evil
does not mean its removal.

it is an error of the age to believe
that when evils are forgiven,
they are separated from a person,
indeed cast out:
. . . every evil into which a person is born
and which he himself actually embraces
is not separated from him,
but is moved to the side so as not to appear.
. . . They all remain,
and when, after repentance,
they are forgiven,
they are moved from the center to the sides.
Then what is at the center, being directly in view,
appears as though in the light of day,
while that which is at the sides is in the shadows,
and sometimes as though in the darkness of night.

. . . it is an error of the age to believe
that the state of a person's life
can be changed in an instant,
that a person from being evil can thus be made good,
and that he can in consequence
be withdrawn from hell
and transported at once into heaven . . ..

. . . evil is the delight of a lust
to act and think contrary to Divine order,
while good is the delight of an affection
for acting and thinking
in accordance with Divine order;
that there are thousands of lusts
which enter into and compose each evil,
and thousands of affections
which enter into and compose each good;
and that these thousands of lusts
exist in such an order and connection
in a person's interior constituents
that not one can be changed
unless they are all changed together.

DP 280

The Lord forgives all people their sins.
He does not accuse or impute.
But He still cannot take those sins away
except in accordance with
the laws of His Divine providence.
For when Peter asked Him how often
he should forgive a brother sinning against him,
whether he should do so up to seven times,
the Lord said that he should forgive
not only seven times,
but up to seventy times seven (Matthew 19:21-22).
That being the case,
what will the Lord not do, who is mercy itself?

DP 278, 278 [repeated] - Evils Cannot Be Removed Unless They Appear.

DP 278

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

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

DP 278 [repeated] [6]

Every person in respect to his spirit
is in some society -
in a society of heaven
if he is impelled by an affection for good,
but in a society of hell if impelled by a lust for evil.
The person is not aware of this
while living in the world,
but yet he is, in respect to his spirit,
in some one or other of them.
Without this he could not live,
and through it he is directed by the Lord.

If he is in a society of hell,
the Lord can lead him out of it
only in accordance with
the laws of His Divine providence.
Among them is one that requires a person to see
that he is there and wish to get out,
and to make the effort himself, of himself, to do so.
This a person can do when in the world,
but not after death,
for he then remains to eternity in the society
into which in the world he introduced himself.

 

DP 277, 278 - Death Does Not Change Our Character

DP 277

. . . a person cannot do good of himself;
for evil does not do good,
except such good as has evil with in.

. . . If affections springing from love
are thus derived from parents
and transmitted by them,
it follows that evils are too,
because evils are matters of the affections.

DP 277 [repeated]

That a person must be
led away from evil to be reformed
is apparent without explanation.
For one who has been impelled by evil in the world
is impelled by evil
after his departure from the world.
If evil is not removed in the world, therefore,
it cannot be removed thereafter.
Where the tree falls, there it lies.
So, too, with a person's life.
When he dies, it remains such as it was.
Everyone is judged also in accordance with his deeds,
not that they are enumerated,
but because he goes back to them
and behaves in the same way.
For death is a continuation of life,
with the difference,
that a person cannot then be reformed.

. . . the last elements of life
that a person takes with him after death
become quiescent, and harmonize with,
that is, act in concert with,
his interior elements.

 

DP 275, 276 - The Garden of Eden and Now

DP 275

If people were born with the love
into which human beings were created,
no one would have any evil.
Indeed, no one would even know what evil is,
for it is impossible for one
who has not experienced any evil
and so is not caught up in any evil
to know what evil is.
If he should be told that this or that is evil,
he would not believe it possible.
This state is the state of innocence
in which Adam and his wife Eve were.
The nakedness of which they were not ashamed
symbolized that state.

A concept of evil after the Fall
is meant by their eating of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

DP 276 [2]

Everyone can see that love of the neighbor
and love of self are opposing loves.
For love of the neighbor wishes well
from self to everyone else,
whereas love of self wishes well
only to itself from everyone else.
Love of the neighbor
wishes to serve everyone else,
while love of self
wishes everyone else to serve self.
Love of the neighbor regards everyone else
as a brother and friend,
whereas love of self regards everyone else
as its servant,
and if they do not serve, as its enemy.
In a word, it has regard for itself alone,
and for others scarcely as human beings,
whom at heart it values less
than it does its horses and dogs.
Moreover, because it regards them as so inferior,
it also makes it of no consequence
to do evil to them.
From it spring acts of hatred and revenge,
of adultery and licentiousness, of theft and fraud,
of lying and slander, of savagery and cruelty,
and other like evils.

These are the evils
to which a person is impelled from birth.
. . . they are permitted for the sake of the end
which is salvation . . ..

 

DP 265 - The Lost Essence of the Christian Religion

DP 265

(3) That a doubt may arise against Divine providence
from the fact that Christians
have previously not known
that to refrain from evils as sins
is the essence of Christian religion:
. . . because faith divorced from charity
is the sole obstacle to its being accepted,

We say that Christians have not known
that to refrain from evils as sins
is the essence of Christian religion,
because nearly all do not know.
And yet everyone does know . . ..
Still, nearly all do not know
because faith alone has blotted it out,
for it declares that faith alone saves,
and not any good work or good of charity,
and that people are no longer
under the yoke of the law,
but have been set free.
People who have heard
such pronouncements a number of times
no longer pay attention to any evil of life,
nor to any goodness of life.
Moreover, owing to his inherent nature,
every person is inclined to embrace this concept,
and when he has once embraced it,
he no longer thinks about the state of his life.

DP 264 - The Timing of the Second Coming

DP 264 [1, 5, 6]

(2) That a doubt may arise against Divine providence
from the fact that Christians
have previously not known of the existence
of a spiritual meaning in every particular of the Word,
and that this meaning is the reason for its holiness:
For one may introduce
a doubt against Divine providence, saying,
"Why has this been revealed for the first time now?
And why has it been revealed
through an ordinary person,
and not through some prelate of the church?"

Whether the person is a prelate
or the servant of a prelate, however,
is a matter of the Lord's good pleasure.
He knows the character of the one and of the other.

But the reason the spiritual meaning of the Word
has not been revealed before is that:

1. If it had been, the church would have profaned it,
and profaned thereby the very sanctity of the Word.

2. Nor did the Lord reveal the genuine truths
of which the spiritual meaning of the Word consists
until after the Last Judgment took place
and He was about to establish the new church
meant by the Holy Jerusalem.

. . . the Word's spiritual meaning was to be revealed
for a new church
that will acknowledge and worship the Lord alone,
hold His Word sacred,
love Divine truths,
and reject faith divorced from charity.

. . . it is of the Lord's Divine providence
that the spiritual meaning has lain hidden
from the world until the present time,
and that in the meantime
it has been preserved in heaven among angels,
who draw their wisdom from it.

 

DP 262 - Turning to the Lord

DP 262 [8]

. . . no one can turn to the Lord
and at heart acknowledge Him
as God of heaven and earth
unless he lives according to the Lord's precepts.
In the spiritual world,
where everyone is constrained
to speak as he thinks,
no one can even utter the name Jesus
unless he lived as a Christian in the world.
This, too, is of the Lord's Divine providence,
to keep His name from being profaned.

 

DP 259 - The Will Must See in the Intellect and the Three Components of the Church

DP 259

. . . the will must see in the intellect,
and not the intellect in the will . . ..
If the reverse were to occur,
the intellect could be led by an evil love,
even a diabolical one,
to seize on whatever strikes it through the senses
and direct the will to do it.

One can see from this
the reasons for disagreements and heresies.

But still it has been provided
that no matter what heresy a person is caught up in
as regards his intellect,
everyone can still be reformed and saved
provided he refrains from evils as sins
and does not defend in himself the heresy's falsities.
For by refraining from evils as sins
the will is reformed,
and through the will the intellect,
which comes for the first time
then from darkness into light.

There are three essential components of the church:
acknowledgment of the Lord's Divinity;
acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word;
and living the life called charity.
Everyone has faith
according as he lives a life of charity;
from the Word
he has a concept of what that life must be;
and from the Lord
he gains reformation and salvation.

If these three had been regarded
as the church's essential components,
intellectual disagreements would not have divided it,
but only varied it,
as light varies colors in beautiful objects,
or as various jewels
produce the beauty in a king's crown.

 

DP 257, 258 - Salvation

DP 257

. . . salvation cannot be achieved
except by acknowledgment of the Lord's Divinity
and confidence
that the Lord accomplishes that salvation
when a person lives according to His precepts.

DP 258 [3]

. . . it is not that faith saves,
but a life of charity with which faith is united.

DP 256 - Where the Word Is Read Reverently

DP 256 [2]

. . . wonderful to say,
where the Word is read reverently
and the Lord worshiped in the light of the Word,
there the Lord is present with heaven.
And the reason is that the Lord is the Word,
and the Word is
the Divine truth which produces heaven.
Therefore the Lord says,

. . . where two or three
are gathered together in My name,
I am there in the midst of them.
(Matthew 18:20)

 

DP 254 - Religion and Salvation

DP 254 [2, 3, 6]

For no one has any religion on his own,
but receives it from someone else
who knows from the Word,
either independently or by transmission from others,
that there is a God,
a heaven and a hell,
and life after death,
and that God must be worshiped for a person
to be among the blessed.

Once religion has been implanted,
that nation is led by the Lord in accordance with
the precepts and tenets of its religion,
and the Lord has provided that every religion
contain precepts like those in the Decalogue,
as that God is to be worshiped,
that His name is not to be profaned,
that a holy day is to be observed,
that parents are to be honored,
and that one is not to murder, commit adultery,
steal, or bear false witness.
The nation that makes these precepts Divine,
and lives according to them
in conformity with religion, is saved . . ..

Most nations far removed from the Christian world
also regard these laws not as civil laws,
but as Divine ones, and hold them sacred.

. . . everyone who enters into heaven
enters into his heart's highest joy.
He can bear no higher one,
since he would be suffocated in it.

It is apparent from this
that because the Lord wills the salvation of all,
He has also provided that it be possible
for everyone to have some place in heaven
if he has lived rightly.

 

DP 253 - Why Are There So Many Religions?

DP 253 

"How can so many conflicting religions exist,
and not one true religion throughout the whole world,
when Divine providence has as its end
a heaven from the human race?"

But please listen. All people can be saved,
however many are born and in whatever religion,
provided they acknowledge God
and live according to
the commandments found in the Decalogue,
namely not to murder, not to commit adultery,
not to steal, and not to bear false witness,
because to do these things is against religion,
thus against God.

Such people have in them a fear of God
and a love of the neighbor
- a fear of God because they think
that to do these things is against God,
and a love of the neighbor
because to murder, commit adultery, steal,
bear false witness,
and covet the neighbor's house or wife
is against the neighbor.
Because they look to God in their life
and do not do evil to the neighbor,
they are led by the Lord,
and those who are so led
are also taught in accordance with their religion
about God and the neighbor.
For those who live thus love to be taught,
whereas those who live otherwise do not.
And because they love to be taught,
they are also instructed by angels after death,
when they become spirits,
and they willingly accept such truths
as are found in the Word.

 

DP 251 - Wars

DP 251 [1, 3, 6]

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

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

. . . all wars, though occurring on the civil plane,
are representative of states of the church in heaven,
and are corresponding parallels.

Such were all the wars described in the Word,
and such also are all wars at the present day.

Everything flows in either from heaven or from hell -
from hell by permission,
from heaven by providence.

 

DP 249, 250 - What Motivates Useful Service? (short follow up)

DP 249 [3]

. . . the Lord cannot go against
the laws of His Divine providence,
because to go against them
would be to go against His Divine love
and against His Divine wisdom,
thus against Himself.

DP 250 [3]

The Lord therefore governs the impious at heart
who are in positions of honor
by the repute in which their name is held,
and so spurs them to perform useful services
for the commonwealth or country or the community
or city in which they live,
and also to the fellow citizen or neighbor
with whom they are associated.

This is the Lord's government
that we call Divine providence
with people of that character.
For the Lord's kingdom
is a kingdom of useful endeavors,
and where there are but few
who are performing useful services
for the sake of the useful services,
He causes worshipers of self to be raised
to higher positions of authority,
in which each is spurred by his love
to render good service.

 

How Loving Our Self Above All Led to the Fall of Mankind (long)

DP 241

(1) That the wisest of mankind, Adam and his wife,
allowed themselves to be seduced by the serpent,
and that God did not
by His Divine providence prevent it:
God did not by His Divine providence prevent it
because by Adam and his wife are not meant
the very first people created in this world,
but the people of the Most Ancient Church,
whose new creation or regeneration is thus described.
Their new creation itself or regeneration
is described in the first chapter of Genesis
by the creation of heaven and earth;
their wisdom and intelligence by the Garden of Eden;
and the end of that church
by their eating of the tree of knowledge.
For the Word at its core is spiritual,
containing secrets of Divine wisdom,
and in order for it to contain these
it was written solely in terms of things
that correspond and represent.

It is apparent from this that the people of that church,
who in the beginning were the wisest of people,
and at the end,
owing to their conceit in their own intelligence,
the worst,
were not seduced by any serpent,
but by their love of self,
which in the account is the serpent's head
that the seed of the woman -
that is, the Lord - would trample.

DP 242

(2) That their first son, Cain, killed his brother Abel,
and God did not deter him at the time
by speaking to him,
but only after the deed by cursing him:
Since by Adam and his wife
is meant the Most Ancient Church, as just said above,
therefore by Cain and Abel, their first sons,
are meant the two essentials of the church,
which are love and wisdom or charity and faith -
by Abel love and charity,
and by Cain wisdom or faith,
specifically wisdom divorced from love,
or faith divorced from charity.
And wisdom or faith thus divorced is such
that it not only rejects love and charity,
but also destroys them,
and so kills its brother.
It is well known in the Christian world
that this is what faith divorced from charity does.

The curse on Cain has to do with their spiritual state,
the state into which those people come after death
who separate faith from charity, or wisdom from love.

But still,
to keep wisdom or faith from therefore perishing,
a mark was placed on Cain to prevent his being killed.
For love does not exist apart from wisdom,
nor charity apart from faith.

Because almost the same thing
is represented by this account
as by eating of the tree of knowledge,
it follows therefore in sequence
after the description of Adam and his wife.
People who are governed
by a faith divorced from charity
are governed by their own intelligence,
while people who are governed by charity,
and for that reason by faith,
are governed by an intelligence from the Lord,
thus by Divine providence.

DP 243

(3) That in the wilderness
the Israelite nation worshiped the golden calf
and acknowledged it as the God
who had led them out of the land of Egypt,
even though Jehovah saw this
from Mount Sinai nearby
and did not act to avert it:
. . . The people were permitted this evil
to keep them from all perishing.
For the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt
to represent the Lord's church,
and they could not represent this
unless Egyptian idolatries were first eradicated
from their hearts.
This in turn could not be accomplished
unless they were left to do
according to what was in their heart,
and so to put that away on being severely punished.

DP 244

(4) That David numbered the people,
and in consequence a pestilence was sent upon them,
as a result of which
so many thousands of the people died,
and that God did not send the prophet Gad to him
and pronounce the punishment beforehand
but only afterward:
One who confirms himself against Divine providence
may entertain and consider
various explanations for this also,
especially as to why David was not warned beforehand,
and why the people should be
so grievously punished for the king's transgression.

. . . That the people were so grievously punished
for the king's transgression
and seventy thousand stricken with pestilence
was not the king's fault but the people's, for we read,

Again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel;
(therefore) He incited David against them, saying,
"Go, number Israel and Judah."
(2 Samuel 24:1)

DP 245

(5) That Solomon was permitted
to establish idolatrous forms of worship:
This was permitted in order
that he might represent
the Lord's kingdom or the church,
together with all the religious practices
observed throughout the world.
For the church
instituted among the Israelite and Jewish people
was a representative church.
Consequently all the judgments
and statutes of that church
represented the spiritual constituents of a church,
which are its internal components
- the people representing the church,
the king the Lord -
David the Lord who would come into the world,
and Solomon the Lord after His advent.
And because, after the glorification of His humanity,
the Lord had power over heaven and earth . . .
therefore as His representative
Solomon was surrounded by glory and magnificence,
and possessed greater wisdom
than all the kings of the earth,
and also built the Temple.
Moreover, he permitted and instituted as well
the forms of worship of many nations,
which represented the various religious practices
in the world.
The like was symbolized by his wives,
of which he had seven hundred,
and by his concubines,
of which he had three hundred (1 Kings 11:3).
For in the Word a wife symbolizes the church,
and a concubine a form of religion.

It can be seen from this
why it was granted Solomon to build the Temple,
which symbolized the Lord's Divine humanity
(John 2:19, 21), 
and also the church.
So, too, why it was permitted him
to establish idolatrous forms of worship
and marry so many wives.

DP 246

(6) That many kings after Solomon
were allowed to profane the temple
and sanctities of the church:
This was allowed
because the people represented the church,
and the king was their head.
And because the Israelite and Jewish nation
was such that they could not represent
the church for long,
for they were at heart idolaters,
therefore they gradually turned away from
their representative worship
by perverting everything
having to do with the church,
until at last they brought about its ruin.
This was represented
by the kings' profanings of the Temple,
and by their idolatries -
the final ruination of the church
being represented by the destruction of the Temple
and by the Israelite people's being carried off
and the Jewish people's being taken captive to Babylon.

DP 247

(7) That that nation was permitted to crucify the Lord:
This was permitted
because the church with that nation was utterly ruined
and became such
that the people not only failed to recognize
and acknowledge the Lord,
but in fact hated Him.
But still, all that they did to Him
accorded with the laws of His Divine providence.

 

DP 234 - Laws of Permission Are Also Laws of Divine Providence

DP 234

When we say, therefore, that God permits,
we do not mean that He wills,
but that for the sake of the goal,
which is salvation,
He cannot prevent.
Whatever happens for the sake of salvation
as the goal,
happens in accordance with
the laws of Divine providence.
For, as we have said before,
Divine providence continually operates counter to
and in conflict with a person's will,
continually intent on the goal.
Consequently at every moment of its operation,
or at every step of its progress,
when it sees a person stray from the goal,
it guides, bends, and directs the person
in accordance with its laws,
withdrawing him from evil,
leading him to good.
This cannot be done
without the permitting of evil . . ..