AC 1006 - a person or a beast?

AC 1006
A person is a person
from love and charity,
but he is a wild beast
from hatred, revenge, and cruelty.

SD 1176 - a soft sound

SD 1176
. . . I perceived and heard a soft sound,
namely, something angelic and sweet,
in which there was nothing but what was orderly.
. . . This angelic stream continued for some time,
being often repeated,
and I was told that in this way the Lord governs
disconnected and disorderly things which flow round about.
For He works from inner peacefulness, and in a peaceful way,
so that everything outside or peripheral
must necessarily be brought back into order,
each one from the error of his own acquired nature.
So He governs the human race,
as well as its outer elements,
which are the fantasies
that determine people's actions and conversation at this day.
(March 5 & 6, 1748)

AC 997 - the kingdom of the Lord

AC 997
. . . it is in its practice or use that charity consists.
He who loves the neighbor as himself
perceives no delight in charity except in its exercise, or in use;
and therefore a life of charity is a life of uses.
Such is the life of the whole heaven;
for the kingdom of the Lord,
because it is a kingdom of mutual love,
is a kingdom of uses.
Therefore every pleasure which is from charity,
has its delight from use.
The more noble the use,
the greater the delight.
Consequently the angels have happiness from the Lord
according to the essence and quality of their use.

AC 981 - "God blessed" - the presence & grace of the Lord

AC 981
That "God blessed" signifies the presence and grace of the Lord . . ..
"To bless" in the Word, in the external sense signifies
to enrich with every earthly and corporeal (bodily) good.
This is also how all people
who keep to the external sense
explain the Word . . ..
Consequently they have focused the Divine blessing, and still do,
on wealth, on having plenty of everything, and on personal glory.
But in the internal sense
'blessing' means being enriched with all spiritual and celestial good,
a blessing which neither does nor can possibly exist
unless it comes from the Lord.
This is why 'blessing' means the Lord's presence and grace.

[2] The reason the expression grace and not mercy is used . . .
is that celestial people do not talk of grace but of mercy,
while spiritual people talk not of mercy but of grace.
This difference has its origins in the fact
that celestial people acknowledge that the human race is wholly unclean . . ..

[3] Spiritual people however,
though they are aware that the human condition is such,
do not acknowledge it,
for they still remain in, and love, their proprium;
and therefore they find it difficult to make mention of mercy
but easy to do so of grace.
It is the different kind of humility existing with each
that produces this verbal difference.
The more anyone loves himself
and imagines that he is able to do good of himself and so merit salvation,
the less he is able to plead for the Lord's mercy.

SD 1139, 1140 - those who are not willing to hear the interior things of the Word

SD 1139, 1140
There are spirits who, although they are good,
cannot as yet be admitted into heaven
because they are not willing to hear and to admit
the interior and more interior things of the Word . . ..
For they who do not agree to interior things
cannot learn the things
which are of the interior and more interior person,
since they do not know that there are interior,
still less more interior things,
such as those that concern the works of faith
done from obedience to the Word.

. . . Moreover, those who do not want at all to hear
and open their minds to inward and more inward things,
remain outside of heaven,
and they cannot help entertaining a kind of hatred of them,
because they are inward and very inward things,
and also of those who teach them.
I expect there will be many on earth in the future
who hate the inward things of the Word,
and the very inward things even more,
because these touch the life of their loves too closely,
confronting them with what they see as insurmountable difficulties.
So they much prefer that the way toward inward things be closed off
than that they should favor them with assent.
Besides, they do not want to be bothered by such things
as they are not capable of understanding.

AC 977 - the characteristics of the regenerate person vs. the unregenerate person

AC 977
With the regenerate person
there is a conscience of what is good and true,
and he does good and thinks truth from conscience;
the good which he does being the good of charity,
the truth which he thinks being the truth of faith.
The unregenerate person has no conscience,
or if any, it is not a conscience of doing good from charity,
and of thinking truth from faith,
but is based on some love that regards himself or the world,
wherefore it is a spurious or false conscience.

With the regenerate person
there is joy when he acts according to conscience,
and anxiety when he is forced to do or think contrary to it;
but it is not so with the unregenerate,
for very many such people do not know what conscience is,
much less what it is to do anything either according or contrary to it,
but only what it is to do the things that favor their loves.
This is what gives them joy,
and when they do what is contrary to their loves,
this is what gives them anxiety.

With the regenerate person there is a new will and a new understanding,
and this new will and new understanding are his conscience,
that is, they are in his conscience,
and through this the Lord works the good of charity and the truth of faith.
With an unregenerate person there is not will,
but instead of will there is cupidity,
(cupidity - greed, avarice, greediness)
and a consequent proneness to every evil;
neither is there understanding,
but mere reasoning and a consequent falling away to every falsity.

With the regenerate person there is celestial and spiritual life;
but with the unregenerate person there is only corporeal and worldly life,
and his ability to think and understand what is good and true
is from the Lord's life through the remains before spoken of,
and it is from this that he has the faculty of reflecting.

With the regenerate, the internal person has the dominion,
the external being obedient and submissive;
but with the unregenerate the external person rules,
the internal being quiescent, as if it had no existence.

The regenerate person knows, or has a capacity of knowing on reflection,
what the internal person is, and what the external;
but of these the unregenerate person is altogether ignorant,
nor can he know them even if he reflects,
since he is unacquainted with the good and truth of faith originating in charity.

So it may be seen what is the quality of the regenerate,
and what of the unregenerate person,
and that they differ from each other like summer and winter,
and light and darkness;
wherefore the regenerate is a living, but the unregenerate a dead person.

SD 1094, 1096, 1099 - when a person dies

SD 1094, 1096, 1099
The heart was first occupied,
and . . . seemed to be conjoined to the celestial . . .

Moreover, there were also certain good or celestial genii
who were seated by (the) head.
Thus it is the general rule that the celestial are then seated at the head,
as we read concerning the angels of the Lord in the sepulchre.
This happens to every one who dies.

Therefore when a person dies the celestial are immediately present,
seated at his head, and they are indeed continually present;
thus they protect him, lest any evil genii draw near.
This is the case with every person.
The celestial remain with him quite a considerable time,
even some time after his soul has been released from corporeal things.
It matters not whether the person dies in his bed, or in any other way;
for whatever is vital in a person,
even if the parts of the body were to be scattered a thousand miles,
is nevertheless gathered in a moment,
and it is together, and becomes his likeness.

SD 1076 - the Lord's universal government

SD 1076
. . . a universal cannot be given unless it is in the most single things,
and that from the most single things the universal exists,
as the general exists from the particulars;
and that without the most single things there could be no universal,
for thus a universal sense would be nothing.

So, unless individuals are reading the Lord's Word,
shunning evils as sins against Him,
living according to the Ten Commandments,
and charity to the neighbor,
we won't have the Lord and His church in us as individuals.
Consequently, if individuals aren't reading and doing,
it won't matter how the organized church group is governed,
or advertizes or builds buildings. It will not be a church.
But the more who read and do,
the more the Lord can grow and govern His church.

AC 959 - sleep

AC 959
I was surprised that they should be so grievously punished,
but perceived that the crime is enormous
from the necessity of a person's being able to sleep in safety,
without which the human race would perish;
so that it is of necessity that there should be so great a penalty.

The Lord guards a person with most especial care during his sleep.

SD 1050, 1051 - communication

SD 1050, 1051
Those who represent things to others only by means of words,
and by . . . speech as most people do - can never understand
how spirits communicate their thoughts among themselves;
and the more they adhere to the words and the particular ideas,
the less can they understand.
. . . those who have more universal ideas,
thus ideas abstracted from particulars,
can understand somewhat better.

. . . let this be mentioned merely as an example:
When someone asserts that shame is not possible
unless it is accompanied with reverence,
it is then usual to spend many hours discussing these things by words,
or by the writing of many pages,
in regard to what both shame and reverence are;
wrangling about what shame is,
and the classifications which are predicated (asserted) of it
in general and in particular . . .
consequently innumerable conclusions can be drawn
according to the idea of the subject
each one has acquired and the state he has formed.
All these things are perceived by a spirit by spiritual intuition alone,
without any description or an idea of particulars being known,
and they are communicated to others in a moment . . .
so that they at once know the conclusions.
. . . Those who have not blinded their rational sight by fantasies
understand better.

AC 945 - rating pleasures

AC 945
If while living in luxury, grandeur, and splendor,
they have at the same time lived in faith in the Lord
and in charity towards the neighbor,
they are among the happy in the next life.
For the idea that heaven is merited
by renouncing the enjoyments of life
and by renouncing power and wealth,
and so by suffering hardship is untrue.
What the Word means by such renunciation
is rating pleasures as well as power and wealth as nothing
in comparison with the Lord,
and the life of the world as nothing
in comparison with heavenly life.

AC 933, 935 - alternating states; AC 925 - the Lord's kingdom

AC 933 [4]
. . . when he (a person) is in corporeal and worldly things,
he is absent and remote from internal things,
so that he not only takes no thought about them,
but feels in himself cold at the thought of them;
but that when corporeal and worldly things are quiescent,
he is in faith and charity.
He may also know from experience that these states alternate,
and that therefore
when corporeal and worldly things begin to be in excess
and to want to rule,
he comes into straits and temptations,
until he is reduced into such a state
that the external person becomes compliant to the internal,
a compliance it can never render
until it is quiescent and as it were nothing.

AC 935 [2]
That there are alternations with the regenerate person -
now no charity, and now some charity -
is clearly evident for the reason that in everyone,
even when regenerated,
there is nothing but evil,
and everything good is the Lord's alone.
And since there is nothing but evil in him,
he cannot but undergo alternations
and now be as it were in summer, that is, in charity,
and now in winter, that is, in no charity.
Such alternations exist in order
that a person may be perfected more and more,
and thus be rendered more and more happy,
and they take place with the regenerate person
not only while he lives in the body,
but also when he comes into the other life,
for without alternations as of summer and winter as to what is of his will,
and as of day and night as to what is of his understanding,
he cannot possibly be perfected and rendered more happy;
but in the other life
these alternations are like those
of summer and winter in the temperate zones,
and those of day and night in springtime.

AC 925 [3]
. . . the state of the Lord's kingdom is a state of peace,
and in a state of peace
there come forth all the happy states
that result from love and faith in the Lord.

SD 1026 - falsities and truths

SD 1026
. . . falsities induce hardness,
but truths dissolve,
and induce what is soft and fluid.

AC 916 - What is a commandment for?

AC 916
. . . what is a commandment for?
not that a person may know,
but that he may live
according to the commandment.
For then he has in himself the kingdom of the Lord,
since the kingdom of the Lord consists solely
in mutual love and its happiness.

SD 935 - revenge

SD 935
. . . within revenge are the most disgusting filthy things . . .

AC 904, 905 - the presence of the Lord

AC 904
The Lord speaks with every person,
for whatever a person wills and thinks that is good and true,
is from the Lord.
There are with every person at least two evil spirits and two angels.
The evil spirits excite his evils,
and the angels inspire things that are good and true.
Every good and true thing inspired by the angels is of the Lord;
thus the Lord is continually speaking with a person,
but quite differently with one person than with another.
With those who suffer themselves to be led away by evil spirits,
the Lord speaks as if absent, or from afar,
so that it can scarcely be said that He is speaking;
but with those who are being led by the Lord,
He speaks as more nearly present;
which may be sufficiently evident from the fact
that no one can ever think anything good and true
except from the Lord.

[3] The presence of the Lord is first possible with a person
when he loves the neighbor.
The Lord is in love;
and so far as a person is in love,
so far the Lord is present;
and so far as the Lord is present,
so far He speaks with a person.
. . . His speaking to Noah denotes being present,
because the subject is now the regenerated person,
who is gifted with charity.

AC 905
So long as Noah was in the ark
and surrounded with the waters of the flood,
the signification was that he was in captivity,
that is, he was tossed about by evils and falsities,
or what is the same thing, by evil spirits,
from whom is the combat of temptation.
So it follows that to "go forth from the ark" signifies freedom.
The presence of the Lord involves freedom,
the one following the other.
The more present the Lord,
the more free the person;
that is, the more a person is in the love of good and truth,
the more freely he acts.
Such is the influx of the Lord through the angels.
But on the other hand,
the influx of hell through evil spirits is forcible,
and impetuous, striving to dominate;
for such spirits breathe nothing but the utter subjugation of a person,
so that he may be nothing,
and that they may be everything;
and when they are everything
a person is one of them, and scarcely even that,
for in their eyes he is a mere nobody.
Therefore when the Lord is liberating a person
from their dominion and from their yoke
there arises a combat;
but when a person has been liberated, that is, regenerated,
he, through the ministry of angels,
is led by the Lord so gently
that there is nothing whatever of yoke or of dominion,
for he is led by means of what is delightful and pleasing,
and is loved and esteemed.
This is what the Lord teaches in Matthew:

My yoke is easy, and My burden is light,
(Matthew 11:30)

and is the reverse of a person's state
when under the yoke of evil spirits, who, as just said,
account a person as nothing,
and, if they were able,
would torment him every moment.

SD 895 - reading when no attention is being paid

SD 895
Some may be surprised at the fact
that when writings are being read
and no attention is being paid by the reader,
or there is no perception of the things written,
the sense and perception of those things
are then elevated to the angels more distinctly
than when the natural human mind is in them at the same time.
When the sense of things is to be more clearly perceived,
it is as though the states of the body
must be withdrawn from the interior mind,
so the idea always becomes clearer . . ..
The fact that the angels understand the sense of a writing
even if the person does not,
may seem surprising and thus paradoxical,
yet it is most true,
for today's experience testifies to it.
From this it can be concluded
that when little children read the Holy Bible,
angels understand or perceive the sense of the Word
more clearly than when adults read it,
as was also told me before.
(February 20, 1748)

SD 891a - Is it a good pleasure, leave or permission?

SD 891a
With those who are led by the Lord
there is a certain interior perception or observance
as to those things which are to be done,
especially in the doing of them.
This is so evident to those led by the Lord
that in the single things they do
there is nothing but what is either from the Lord's good pleasure,
or from leave, or from permission.
These are distinct in themselves,
and can also be distinctly perceived.
But this cannot be understood by a person unless he is such;
others . . . still do not believe them
because they do not understand . . ..
Those who know,
and who have no desire to think from themselves,
and so are in the way of truth,
acquire such a perception.
(February 20, 1748)

AC 896 - In the Word "to see" signifies to understand and to have faith.

AC 896
It is one thing to know truths,
and quite another to acknowledge them,
and still another to have faith in them.
To know is the first thing of regeneration,
to acknowledge is the second,
to have faith is the third.
What difference there is
between knowing, acknowledging, and having faith
is evident from the fact that the worst people may know,
and yet not acknowledge,
like . . . those who attempt to destroy doctrinal things by specious reasoning;
and that unbelievers may acknowledge,
and in certain states preach, confirm, and persuade with zeal;
but none can have faith who are not believers.

[2] Those who have faith,
know, acknowledge, and believe,
they have charity, and they have conscience . . ..
This then it is to be regenerate.
Merely to know what is of faith is of a person's memory,
without the concurrence of his reason.
To acknowledge what is of faith is a rational consent
induced by certain causes and for the sake of certain ends.
But to have faith is of conscience,
that is, of the Lord working through conscience.

AC 896 - In the Word "to see" signifies to understand and to have faith.

AC 896
It is one thing to know truths,
and quite another to acknowledge them,
and still another to have faith in them.
To know is the first thing of regeneration,
to acknowledge is the second,
to have faith is the third.
What difference there is
between knowing, acknowledging, and having faith
is evident from the fact that the worst people may know,
and yet not acknowledge,
like . . . those who attempt to destroy doctrinal things by specious reasoning;
and that unbelievers may acknowledge,
and in certain states preach, confirm, and persuade with zeal;
but none can have faith who are not believers.

[2] Those who have faith, know, acknowledge, and believe,
they have charity,
and they have conscience . . ..
This then it is to be regenerate.
Merely to know what is of faith is of a person's memory,
without the concurrence of his reason.
To acknowledge what is of faith is a rational consent
induced by certain causes and for the sake of certain ends.
But to have faith is of conscience,
that is, of the Lord working through conscience.