AE 176 - Natural Truth

AE 176

Natural truth is truth in the memory,
not in the life;
truth of life is good.

 

AE 174 - Persevering; AE 175 - The Lord Scatters Evils

AE 174

. . . he who perseveres even unto death
in love and faith is saved;
for such as he then is
in respect to his life,
and he then remains to eternity.

AE 175

It is said that evils will be scattered by the Lord,
for the Lord scatters evils by means of truth.
He first discovers them to a person
by means of truths,
and when a person acknowledges the evils,
the Lord scatters them.

 

AE 173 - "Hold Fast Till I Come"

AE 173

"Nevertheless that which you have,
 hold fast till I come,"
(Revelation 2:25)

signifies steadfastness in a state 
of the good of love and faith, 
even until visitation. 
This is evident from the signification 
of "that which ye have hold fast," 
as being to be steadfast in a state of love and faith, 
thus in a state of conjunction 
of the internal with the external, 
in which they are capable of being
so far as they resist the delights 
of the loves of self and of the world. 
For so far as a person removes 
these delights from him 
is the internal conjoined with the external, 
thus more in one person and less in another. 
This is evident also 
from the signification of "till I come," 
as meaning visitation.

 

AE 166 - Why "The Son of Man"?

AE 166

. . .the Lord called Himself "the Son of man,"
because He was Divine truth,
and because every truth of heaven and of the church,
proceeds from Him.

 

AE 163 - Whatever Is Mentioned in the Word

AE 163 [8]    

. . . whatever is mentioned in the Word, 
even in the historical Word, 
is significative as to every expression. 
From this it is that the Word is spiritual 
in each and every particular, 
and therefore Divine from inmosts to ultimates.

 

AE 162 - Jezebel

AE 162 [2]

A person sees from the Word 
the truths of the church 
from the spiritual or internal person 
and from its intellectual, 
but he does not receive them 
except to the extent that he loves them 
so as to wish to do them. 
When person so wills, 
his internal or spiritual person calls forth 
and elevates to itself, 
out of the natural person and its memory, 
the truths that are there, 
and conjoins them to the love that is of his will; 
thus the internal spiritual person, 
where person's interior and higher mind resides, 
is opened 
and is successively filled and perfected. 
But if a person permits the natural delight, 
which is the delight of the love of self and the world, 
to have dominion, 
then he views all things from that delight; 
and if he then sees truths 
he applies them to his own love and falsifies them. 
When this is done 
the internal spiritual person is closed; 
for as this is suited only to 
the reception of such things as are in heaven, 
it cannot bear that truths should be falsified; 
consequently when truths are falsified 
it contracts itself and closes  . . .. 
When the internal is once closed, 
the love of self reigns, 
or the love of the world, or both together; 
and they form the external or natural person 
altogether in opposition to 
the internal or spiritual person. 
For this reason 
those who have falsified truths by applying them
to the delights of the love of self and the world 
are unable afterwards to turn themselves to truths.  
This is what is here meant by these words, 
"I gave to the woman Jezebel time 
that she might repent of her whoredom, 
and she repented not."
(Revelation 2:21)

  

AE 159 - When a Person Loves

AE 159 [2]

. . . when a person loves God above all things, 
and his neighbor as himself; 
then the Lord turns the interiors 
which are of a person's mind, 
or of his thought and intention, to Himself, 
thus turning them away 
from person's proprium [what is his own], 
and elevating them; 
and this without a person's knowing anything about it. 
From this it is that a person's spirit, 
which is the person himself, 
after its release from the body 
is actually turned to its own love, 
because that constitutes his life's delight, 
that is, his life.