AC 3762 - the truths of love

AC 3762 [2]
These truths (the truths of love),
that relate to charity toward the neighbor
and to love to the Lord,
must be learned
before it is possible for a person to be regenerated;
and must also be acknowledged and believed;
and insofar as they are acknowledged,
believed, and implanted in the life,
so far the person is regenerated . . ..
They are first implanted (in the natural)
through instruction by parents and teachers;
next from the Word of the Lord;
and afterwards
through the person's own reflection about them . . .
but still not acknowledged, believed, and implanted,
unless the life is in accordance with them;
for in this case the person comes into affection,
and insofar as he comes into affection from life,
so far these truths are implanted in his natural . . ..

SD 4837 - a new creation

SD 4837
In the Word, it is often said that the Lord is the Creator,
that He created the heavens and earth,
also that He creates new ones;
and man is said to be a new creature.
Since this is the case,
man, so far as his hereditary constitution
and actual life from himself are concerned,
does not appear like a man in the other life,
but like a horrible monster.
But just as he receives from the Lord a new life,
so he receives the human form and, at length,
a very beautiful angelic form,
which is the likeness of the Lord.
Thus it is as if He had created man anew,
in similar fashion and in like manner.
So it is that to create is to regenerate,
and that a regenerated man is a new creature.

AC 3742 - the Lord wills to give Himself to everyone

AC 3742
That there is one only life,
which is from the Lord alone,
and that angels, spirits, and people
are only recipients of life . . ..
Heaven itself is in the perception that this is the case,
insomuch that the angels clearly perceive the influx,
and also how it flows in . . ..
When they are in a fuller state of reception
they are then in their peace and happiness;
otherwise they are in a state of unrest and of a certain anxiety.
Nevertheless the life of the Lord is so appropriated to them
as to cause them to feel that they live from themselves,
but yet they know that it is not from themselves.
The appropriation of the Lord's life
comes from His love and mercy
toward the universal human race,
in that He wills to give Himself to everyone, and all that is His,
and in that He actually does give them
insofar as they receive, that is to say,
insofar as they are in the life of good and in the life of truth,
as being likenesses and images of Him.

AC 3739 - things higher and lower

AC 3739 [2]
Whether we speak of things higher and lower,
or interior and exterior, it is the same;
for to a person's view things interior appear as higher;
and for this reason a person places heaven on high,
when yet it is in what is internal.

AC 3726 - what the soul (or spirit) is

AC 3726 [4]
Spirits themselves are forms, that is,
they consist, as much as people do,
of a whole combination of forms.
But those forms consist of purer substances
not visible to the sight of the body, that is, of the eye.
Now because those forms or substances
are not visible to the eye of the body
mankind today inevitably conceives
of knowledges and thoughts as mere abstractions.
This is also the reason for the insanity of our times,
in that people do not believe
that they have a spirit within them
which will live after the body has died -
yet the spirit is a substance far more real
than the material substance constituting the body.
Indeed, if you can believe it,
following its release from bodily things
the spirit is the purified body itself . . ..
The fact that spirits, or what amounts to the same, souls,
are endowed with a body,
see one another in broad daylight,
talk to one another, hear one another,
and actually have far keener senses
than when they were in the body or the world . . ..

AC 3718 - two kinds of fear

AC 3718
Speaking generally, "fear" is of two kinds -
fear in what is not sacred,
and fear in what is sacred;
fear in what is not sacred
is the fear in which are the wicked;
but fear in what is sacred
is the fear in which are the good.
This latter fear . . . is called reverential or sacred fear,
and is the result of our wonder at
and longing for what is Divine,
and also of our love.
. . . The fear of love is a fear of injuring the Lord in any way,
or of injuring the neighbor in any way,
thus of injuring what is good and true in any way,
and consequently of injuring
the sacred things of love and faith
and the consequent worship.
But this fear is various,
and is not the same with one person as with another.
Speaking generally,
the greater the amount of the love of good and truth,
the greater the fear of injuring them;
and yet in the same proportion
this fear does not appear to be fear;
whereas the less the amount of the love of good and truth,
the less the fear on their account,
and the less this fear appears to be love,
but appears to be . . . the fear of hell.
And where there is nothing of the love of good and truth,
there is nothing of reverential or sacred fear;
but only fear of the loss of honor, of gain,
of reputation for the sake of these,
and also of penalties and death;
which fear is external,
and chiefly affects the body
and the natural person and its thoughts;
whereas the former fear, that is,
reverential or sacred fear,
chiefly affects the spirit,
that is, the internal person, and its conscience.

AC 3709 - truths of the good of doctrine

AC 3709
Truths of the good of doctrine
are the doctrinal things of love to the Lord
and of charity toward the neighbor,
which are said to be conjoined
with good in the natural person
when to know them
for the sake of doing them
is a pleasure and a delight.

AC 3704 - Divine Good - Father; Divine Truth - Son

AC 3704 [2,6]
. . . the Lord in His essence
is nothing else than Divine good,
and this as to both the Divine Itself and the Divine Human;
but Divine truth is not in Divine good,
but from Divine good . . ..
And as Divine good comes to appearance as Divine truth,
therefore for the sake of a person's understanding
the Lord's Divine is distinguished
into Divine good and Divine truth,
and Divine good is that which in the Word is called "Father,"
and Divine truth is that which is called "Son."
This is the arcanum which lies concealed in the fact
that the Lord Himself so often speaks of His Father as distinct,
and as if another than Himself;
and yet in other places asserts that He is one with Himself.

When being initiated into the good of love and its truth,
all little children are there (in heaven)
taught to acknowledge the Lord alone as their Father;
even novitiates who come into heaven
are taught with solicitous care that there is one God . . ..

AC 3703 - heaven is . . .

AC 3703
Heaven itself,
which consists of nothing else
than the Divine marriage of good and truth,
is from the Divine marriage of good and truth
and of truth and good in the Lord.

AC 3701 - a new life

AC 3701 [2,3,4,5]
It is known that a person is born
into the nature of his parents, and of his grandfathers,
and also of those who have been his ancestors for ages;
thus he is born into the hereditary evil of them all . . ..
The result of this is that as to both understanding and will
a person has been utterly destroyed;
and of himself wills nothing of good,
and consequently understands nothing of truth;
and therefore that which he calls good
and believes to be good, is evil;
 and that which he calls truth
and believes to be truth, is falsity.

When such a person comes into the other life
he has the same desires (putting self first);
the very nature which he has contracted in the world
by actual life remains . . ..
This nature is that which must be rooted out
while the person lives in the world,
which cannot possibly be done
except by the Lord through regeneration;
that is, by his receiving a totally new will
and derivative new understanding . . ..
But in order that this may be effected,
the person must first of all be reborn as a little child,
and must learn what is evil and false,
and also what is good and true;
for without knowledge he cannot be imbued with any good;
for from himself
he acknowledges nothing to be good but what is evil,
and nothing to be true but what is false.

To this end such knowledges are insinuated into him
as are not altogether contrary to those which he had before;
as that all love begins from self;
that self is to be taken care of first and then others;
that good is to be done
to such as appear poor and distressed outwardly,
no matter what may be their inward character;
in like manner that good is to be done
to widows and orphans simply because they are so called;
and lastly, to enemies in general, whoever they may be;
and that thereby a person may merit heaven.

These and other such knowledges
are those of the infancy of his new life,
and are of such a nature
that while they derive somewhat from his former life
or the nature of his former life,
they also derive somewhat from his new life
into which he is thereby being introduced . . ..
These are the lowest goods and truths,
from which those who are being regenerated commence,
and because these admit into themselves truths
that are more interior or nearer to Divine truths,
by their means there may also be rooted out the falsities
which the person had before believed to be truths.

But they who are being regenerated
do not learn such truths simply as memory-knowledges,
but as life, for they do these truths;
but that they do them is from the beginning of the new will
which the Lord insinuates entirely without their knowledge;
and insofar as they receive of this new will,
so far they receive of these knowledges,
and bring them into act, and believe them;
but insofar as they do not receive of the new will,
so far they are indeed capable of learning such things,
but not of bringing them into act,
because they care merely for memory-knowledge,
and not for life. 

AC 3696 - coming into states of tranquility

AC 3696 [1-3]
With those who are to be regenerated,
who are here treated of in the internal representative sense,
the case is
that first of all they are in a state of tranquility,
or in a state of external peace
(for external peace, or peace in externals, is called "tranquility");
and the same is produced from the Divine state of peace
that is inmostly within it;
and it comes forth into the externals
through the removal of cupidities and falsities;
for these are what cause all unrest.
Moreover at the beginning of his life, that is, during his infancy,
every person is in a state of tranquility;
but as he advances in life,
that is, grows up to manhood,
he removes himself from this state,
because he gives himself up to worldly cares,
and consequently to anxieties
caused by the cupidities of the love of self and of the world,
and the derivative falsities.

The case is almost the same
with the new life in the person who is being regenerated:
at first he is in a state of tranquility;
but as he passes into a new life,
he also passes at the same time into an untranquil state;
for the evils and falsities
with which be had before become permeated
emerge and come forth, and disturb him,
and this at last to such a degree
that he is in temptations and vexations
inflicted by the diabolical crew,
who are continually striving to destroy the state of his new life.
Yet inmostly the person is in a state of peace,
for unless this were with him inmostly, he would not combat,
for in his battles he is continually looking to this state as the end,
and unless he had such an end,
he would in no wise have power and strength to combat.
This moreover is the reason why he overcomes;
and because this is the end in view,
he also comes into this state after the combats or temptations.
This is like the state of spring,
which succeeds the state of autumn and winter;
or it is like the state of dawn,
which succeeds evening and night.

If you walk in My statutes,
and keep My commandments and do them,
I will give peace in the land,
and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid;
and I will cause the evil wild beast to cease out of the land,
neither shall the sword pass through your land.
(Leviticus 26:3, 6)

He will make me to lie down in green pastures;
He will lead me to the waters of rest;
He will restore my soul.
(Psalm 23:2-3)

AC 3688 - giving to the poor

AC 3688
[3] Take as our example the kind of person who can be regenerated; for the Lord foresees that he can be, and because He foresees it He also makes provision for it. At the outset while a young child he does not yet know what the works of charity towards the neighbour are, for he does not yet know what charity is or what the neighbour is. Consequently because he knows from the Word that one ought to give to the poor and that anyone who does so has his reward in heaven he helps beggars more than all others for he believes that these are the poor who are meant in the Word. He does not take into account the fact that the kind of people who beg on the streets for the most part lead godless and even criminal lives, despise everything associated with Divine worship, and surrender themselves completely to laziness and inactivity. Nonetheless a person in the first stages of regeneration helps those people with all his heart. These good actions are examples of the good which springs from external truth and with which his regeneration begins. The truth of good, which is more internal, flows accordingly into those actions, fashioning these as directed by the cognitions which the child knows?

[4] At a later stage however, when more enlightened, he is willing to do good to all he believes to be poor and needy, but he still makes scarcely any distinction between the godly poor and needy and the ungodly poor and needy. He believes that all are to be regarded and rated equally as the neighbour. But when he becomes more enlightened in these matters he does make a distinction and provides help only to the good and upright. He knows that providing help to the evil does harm to many, for by the aid and support these get he gives them the opportunity to harm others. At length when he is being regenerated he does not do good to any but the good and the godly, for at this point he is not stirred by an affection simply for the person he does good to but by the good itself residing with that person. And since the Lord is present within all good and godliness he accordingly bears witness also, through his affection towards what is good, to his love to the Lord. When he is at heart moved by charity such as this he can become regenerate.

[5] From this it is evident that in relation to this state his previous state was an inverse one, that is to say, he believed that to be good which was not in fact good. Nevertheless at the beginning of regeneration he still had to put into practice that which, though not in fact good, he believed to be so since what he knew went no further and since more interior good that flows from charity was not able to enter into any truth apart from that of which he actually knew. It is also evident that more interior good was always present and fashioning it, and this good could not have manifested itself previously until by means of cognitions he had been gradually enlightened about the nature of goods and truths. From this it is evident to some extent what is meant by the good of truth, which 'Jacob' represents here, what is meant by the truth of good, which 'Esau' represents, and that at first these exist inversely but subsequently are joined together.

AC 3680 - knowledges of good; knowledges of truth

AC 3680
They are called the knowledges of good,
because all truths are knowledges of good;
and truths which are not from good,
or which do not look to good as the end,
are not truths;
but insofar as they look to doctrine,
they are called the knowledges of truth.

AC 3671 - growing seeds

AC 3671 [2]
Understanding good and truth and willing them
is the function of the rational,
and perceptions of good and truth 
resulting from this
are like seeds;
but knowing them and doing them
is the function of the natural.
Facts and deeds are like the soil.
When a person has an affection for the facts
that corroborate what is good and true,
the more so when he experiences joy
in bringing them into act,
those facts are seeds
that are present and growing in the natural
as their own proper soil;
and there they grow.
As a consequence good is made fruitful
and truth is multiplied,
and they are constantly springing up out of that soil
into the rational and perfecting it.
The situation is different
when a person understands what is good and true,
and also interiorly perceives that he wills something,
and yet does not desire to know these things,
let alone do them.
 In that case good cannot be made fruitful
nor truth be multiplied within the rational.

SD 4832 - our material world

SD 4832
This happens in a spiritual manner,
not capable of being expressed by words
which belong to the material form;
for the words of the speech of our earth
are forms of material things,
from which spiritual ideas are indeed arrived at,
but which are, all the while,
founded on material things;
from which things
if material conceptions be abstracted,
the idea perishes.
This is the case because
the inhabitants of our earth 
relate to the external senses.

AC 3665 - knowledges with young children

AC 3665 [2, 5]
When a person is being regenerated,
he is at first led by the Lord as an infant,
then as a child,
afterwards as a youth,
and at last as an adult.
The truths he learns as an infant child
are altogether external and corporeal,
for as yet he is unable to understand interior truths.
These truths are no other than knowledges
of such things as contain, in their inmost, things Divine . . ..

With regard to these very knowledges
of external or corporeal truth
which are from collateral good,
and which as before said
contain in them what is Divine,
and consequently are capable of admitting genuine goods
- such as are the knowledges with young children
who are afterwards regenerated -
they are in general such as are contained
in the historicals of the Word,
such as what is said there concerning paradise (Eden),
concerning the first man in it,
concerning the tree of life in its midst,
and concerning the tree of knowledge,
where was the serpent that practiced the deception.
These are the knowledges
that contain within them what is Divine,
and admit into them spiritual and celestial goods and truths,
because they represent and signify these goods and truths.
Such knowledges also are
all other things in the historicals of the Word,
as what is said concerning the tabernacle and the temple
and concerning the construction of these;
in like manner what is said concerning
the garments of Aaron and of his sons;
also concerning the feasts of tabernacles,
of the firstfruits of harvest, of unleavened bread,
and concerning other like things.

When such knowledges as these are known
and thought of by a young child,
the angels who are with him think of the Divine things
which they represent and signify;
and because the angels are affected with these,
their affection is communicated,
and causes the delight and pleasure
which the child experiences . . .
and prepares his mind to receive genuine truths and goods.

SD 4819 - the Lord

SD 4819
. . . the Lord rules each and every event,
and that He sees and foresees 
each and every event with a person,
even to the minutest details.

AC 3651 - "holy place"

AC 3651 [3]
Standing in the holy place;
(Matthew 24:15)
signifies devastation as to all things which are of good and truth;
the "holy place" is a state of love and faith;
the holy of this state is the good which is of love,
and the derivative truth which is of faith;
and nothing else than these is meant by "holy" in the Word,
because these things are from the Lord,
who is the Holy itself, 
or the Sanctuary.

SD 4792 - reception of the Lord

SD 4792
. . . the Lord is the Holy Itself;
and that it is not possible
for those who are of a filthy and profane life,
to receive the holy;
for that which receives the Lord,
is the Divine Itself,
or the holy of the Lord in a person . . ..

Like are adjoined to like.

AC 3624, 3634, 3645 - being in correspondence

AC 3624, 3634, 3645

. . . the universal heaven is so formed
as to correspond to the Lord, to His Divine Human;
and that a person is so formed
as to correspond to heaven
in regard to each and all things in him,
and through heaven to the Lord.
This is a great mystery which is now to be revealed . . ..

A person who is in correspondence,
that is, who is in love to the Lord
and in charity toward the neighbor,
and consequently in faith,
is as to his spirit in heaven,
and as to his body in the world;
and so because he acts as one with the angels,
he is also an image of heaven . . ..

The universal kingdom of the Lord
is a kingdom of ends and uses.
. . . Each and all things flow forth from this sphere,
and are directed by it.
Insofar as the affections, thoughts, and actions
have within them the end to do good from the heart,
so far the person, spirit, or angel 
is in the Grand Man, that is, in heaven;
but insofar as a person or spirit
has the end to do evil from the heart,
so far he is out of the Grand Man,
that is, is in hell.