AE 112 - Looking Up or Down and Knowledges Are Vessels

AE 112 [2, 4-5]

In general, 
there are affections of truth from two sources, 
namely, from a natural and from a spiritual source. 
Those who are in the affection of truth 
from a natural source 
look first to self and the world, 
and so are natural; 
but those who are in the affection of truth 
from a spiritual source 
look first to the Lord and to heaven, 
and so are spiritual. 
A person's affection or love 
looks either downwards or upwards; 
those who look to self and the world 
look downwards, 
but those who look to the Lord and to heaven 
look upwards. 
A person's interiors, which are of his mind, 
actually look in the same direction 
as his love or affection does, 
for love determines them; 
and such as is the determination 
of a person's interiors, which are of his mind, 
such after death does the person remain to eternity. 
Looking downwards or upwards is looking 
from love through the understanding, 
thus through the things 
that form and make the understanding, 
which are the knowledges of truth and good.

The spiritual comes to a person 
from no other source than from charity. 
Those who are in spiritual affection 
are interested in the Word, 
and desire nothing more earnestly 
than to understand it. 
But as there are innumerable things therein 
that they do not understand, 
because the Word in its bosom is spiritual 
and the spiritual includes infinite arcana, 
therefore, so long as a person lives in the world 
and then sees from the natural person, 
he can only be a little 
in the knowledges of truth and good, 
and in generals only, in which, however, 
innumerable things may be implanted 
when he comes into the spiritual world or heaven.

A person who is in the affection of truth 
from a spiritual origin 
knows many more things than he knew before; 
for the general knowledges that he has 
are like vessels that can be filled with many things,
and they are also actually filled 
when he comes into heaven.

 

 

AE 110 - "Paradise of God"

AE 110 [1, 3]

Heaven and the church are called the "paradise of God," 
because the Lord is in the midst of them, 
and from Him is all intelligence and wisdom.

. . . the Lord is in the good of His love 
with a person, spirit, and angel.

To love God and to believe in Him 
involve all things that the church teaches, 
called doctrinals and knowledges, 
since from these is God loved and believed in. 
There is no love and faith 
without previous knowledges; 
for without knowledges a person would be empty.

 

AE 108 - Hearkening or Understanding and Doing

AE 108

"He that has an ear 
let him hear what the Spirit said unto the churches," 
is said to each of the churches, 
in order that everyone 
who is of the church may know 
that it is not knowing and understanding 
the truths and goods of faith, 
or doctrinals, or even the Word, 
that makes the church, 
but hearkening, that is, understanding and doing; 
for this is signified by the words 
"He that has an ear let him hear 
what the Spirit said unto the churches." 
Because this makes the church 
and forms heaven with a person, 
and knowing and understanding, 
apart from doing, does not . . ..

 

AE 105 - Be Mindful

AE 105

Be mindful therefore of where you have fallen, 
and repent, 
and do the first works, 
(Revelation 2:5)

signifies the remembrance of former things, 
and the remembrance 
of having deviated from the truth; 
and this, in order that the good of life 
of the church at its beginning 
may come into mind.
. . . That a life in accordance with knowledges 
is the essential of the church, 
and not knowledges apart from such a life, 
can be seen by everyone who thinks about it; 
for knowledges, 
so long as there is no life according to them, 
reside in the memory only; 
and so long as they reside there only 
they do not affect a person's interiors; 
for memory is given to a person to be a receptacle, 
from which may be taken 
what will be serviceable to the life; 
and things are serviceable to the life 
when a person wills them and does them.

The whole spirit of a person is nothing but his will; 
when, therefore, a person becomes a spirit, 
he is unable to resist anything 
that is favored by his will, 
for the whole person strives after it. 
. . . a person's will is what gives form to his spirit, 
and that a person's spirit 
after it has left the body is his will. 
Whether you say will or love it is the same, 
for what a person loves he wills . . .. 
The knowledges of good and truth, 
before they enter a person's will or love, 
contribute nothing whatever to his salvation, 
because they are not within the person: 
but out of him. 
But still knowledges are necessary, 
for without them 
a person can know nothing of spiritual life, 
and he who knows nothing of spiritual life 
cannot become spiritual; 
for that which a person knows 
he can think, can will, and can do, 
but not that which he does not know. 

 

AE 104 - Charity: Living His Truth

AE 104

Charity is life, 
because all life in accordance with 
the precepts of the Lord in the Word 
is called "charity;" 
therefore to exercise charity 
is to live according to those precepts.

 

AE 10 - For the Sake of His Name

AE 102 [1, 3,  4]

In many passages of the Word it is said, 
"for the sake of Jehovah's name," 
"for the sake of the Lord's name," 
"for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ," 
that "the name of God should be sanctified," 
and the like. 
Those whose thoughts do not go beyond 
the sense of the letter 
suppose that the name alone is meant; 
but what is meant is not the name, 
but everything whereby the Lord is worshiped; 
and all of this has relation to love and faith. 
Therefore by "the Lord's name" in the Word 
all things of love and of faith 
by which He is worshiped are meant . . ..

. . . by "Jesus" is meant the Lord 
in respect to Divine good; 
and by "Christ" the Lord in respect to Divine truth . . ..

The "name of the Lord," in the New Testament 
means the like as the "name of Jehovah" in the Old, 
because the Lord there is Jehovah.

 

AE 100 - The Apostles

AE 100

. . . those who are in the knowledges 
of the holy things of the church 
need first to know in general 
what good and truth are, 
also what evil and falsity are, 
for upon this knowledge 
all other knowledges are founded.

The kingdom of God on the earth is the church. 
From this it is evident what is meant by "apostles" 
in the spiritual sense of the Word, 
namely, not the twelve apostles 
who were sent by the Lord 
to teach concerning Him and His kingdom, 
but all who are in the truths of the church, 
and in a sense abstracted from persons, 
the truths themselves.