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Title: Spiritual Life and the Word of God

Author: Emanuel Swedenborg

Release date: November 11, 2004 [eBook #14026]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024

Language: English

Credits: E-text prepared by William J. Rotella

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD ***

SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD

by

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688-1772)

Extracted from the Apocalypse Explained

Contents

Part First—THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

   I. How Spiritual Life is Acquired
  II. Goods of Charity
 III. Shunning Evils
  IV. Cleansing the Inside
   V. What Religion Consists In

Part Second—THE COMMANDMENTS

   I. The First Commandment
  II. The Second Commandment
 III. The Third Commandment
  IV. The Fourth Commandment
   V. The Fifth Commandment
  VI. The Sixth Commandment
 VII. The Seventh Commandment
VIII. The Eighth Commandment
  IX. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments
   X. The Commandments in General

Part Third—PROFANATIONS OF GOOD AND TRUTH

   I. Goods and Truths and Their Opposites
  II. The First Kind of Profanation
 III. The Second Kind of Profanation
  IV. The Third Kind of Profanation
   V. The Fourth and Fifth Kinds of Profanation

Part Fourth—THE DIVINE WORD

   I. The Holiness of the Word
  II. The Lord is the Word
 III. The Lord's Words Spirit and Life
  IV. Influx and Correspondence
   V. The Three Senses of the Word
  VI. Conjunction by the Word
 VII. The Sense of the Letter

Part First—THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

I. How Spiritual Life is Acquired

Spiritual life is acquired solely by a life according to the commandments in the Word. These commandments are given in summary in the Decalogue, namely, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet the goods of others. These commandments are the commandments that are to be done, for when a man does these his works are good and his life is spiritual, and for the reason that so far as a man shuns evils and hates them so far he wills and loves goods.

For there are two opposite spheres that surround man, one from hell, the other from heaven; from hell a sphere of evil and falsity therefrom, from heaven a sphere of good and of truth therefrom; and these spheres do [not immediately] affect the body, but they affect the minds of men, for they are spiritual spheres, and thus are affections that belong to the love. In the midst of these man is set; therefore so far as he approaches the one, so far he withdraws from the other. This is why so far as a man shuns evils and hates them, so far he wills and loves goods and the truths therefrom; for no one can at the same time serve two masters, for he will hate the one and will love the other. (Matt. vi. 24).

But let it be noted, that man must do these commandments from religion, because they are commanded by the Lord; and if he does this from any other consideration whatever, for instance, from regard merely to the civil law or the moral law, he remains natural, and does not become spiritual. For when a man acts from religion, he acknowledges in heart that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death. But when he acts from regard merely to the civil and moral law, he may act in the same way, and yet in heart may deny that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death. And if he shuns evils and does goods, it is merely in the external form, and not in the internal; thus while he is outwardly in respect to the life of the body like a Christian, inwardly in respect to the life of his spirit he is like a devil. All this makes clear that a man can become spiritual, or receive spiritual life, in no other way than by a life according to religion from the Lord.

I have had proof that this is true from angels of the third or inmost heaven, who are in the greatest wisdom and happiness. When asked how they had become such angels, they said it was because during their life in the world they had regarded filthy thoughts as abominable, and these had been to them adulteries; and had regarded in like manner frauds and unlawful gains, which had been to them thefts; also hatreds and revenges, which had been to them murder; also lies and blasphemies, which had been to them false testimonies; and so with other things. When asked again whether they had done good works, they said they loved chastity, in which they were because they had regarded adulteries as abominable; that they loved sincerity and justice, in which they were because they had regarded frauds and unlawful gains as abominable; that they loved the neighbor because they had regarded hatreds and revenges as abominable; that they loved truth because they had regarded lies and blasphemies as abominable, and so on; and that they perceived that when these evils have been put away, and they acted from chastity, sincerity, justice, charity and truth, it was not done from themselves, but from the Lord, and thus that all things whatsoever that they had done from these were good works, although they had done them as if from themselves; and that it was on this account that they had been raised up by the Lord after death into the third heaven. Thus it was made clear how spiritual life, which is the life of the angels of heaven, is acquired.

It shall now be told how that life is destroyed by the faith of the present day. The faith of this day is that it must be believed that God the Father sent His Son, who suffered the cross for our sins, and took away the curse of the law by fulfilling it; and that this faith apart from good works will save everyone, even in the last hour of death. By this faith instilled from childhood and afterward confirmed by preachings, it has come to pass that no one shuns evils from religion, but only from civil and moral law; thus not because they are sins but because they are damaging.

Consider, when a man thinks that the Lord suffered for our sins, that He took away the curse of the law, and that merely to believe these things, or to have faith in them without good works saves, whether this is not to regard as of little worth the commandments of the Decalogue, all the life of religion as prescribed in the Word, and furthermore all the truths that inculcate charity. Separate these, therefore, and take them away from man, and is there any religion left in him? For religion does not consist in merely thinking this or that, but in willing and doing that which is thought; and there is no religion when willing and doing are separated from thinking. From this it follows that the faith of this day destroys spiritual life, which is the life of the angels of heaven, and is the Christian life itself.

Consider further, why the ten commandments of the Decalogue were promulgated from Mount Sinai in so miraculous a way; why they were engraved on two tables of stone, and why these were placed in the ark, over which was placed the mercy-seat with cherubs, and the place where those commandments were was called the Holy of holies, within which Aaron was permitted to enter only once a year, and this with sacrifices and incense; and if he had entered without these, he would have fallen dead; also why so many miracles were afterward performed by means of that ark. Have not all throughout the whole globe a knowledge of like commandments? Do not their civil laws prescribe the same? Who does not know from merely natural lumen, that for the sake of order in every kingdom, adultery, theft, murder, false witness, and other things in the Decalogue are forbidden? Why then must those same precepts have been promulgated by so many miracles, and regarded as so holy? Can there be any other reason than that everyone might do them from religion, and thus from God, and not merely from civil and moral law, and thus from self and for the sake of the world? Such was the reason for their promulgation from Mount Sinai and their holiness; for to do these commandments from religion purifies the internal man, opens heaven, admits the Lord, and makes man as to his spirit an angel of heaven. And this is why the nations outside the church who do these commandments from religion are all saved, but not anyone who does them merely from civil and moral law.

Inquire now whether the faith of this day, which is, that the Lord suffered for our sins, that he took away the curse of the law by fulfilling it, and that man is justified and saved by this faith apart from good works, does not cancel all these commandments. Look about and discover how many there are at this day in the Christian world who do not live according to this faith. I know that they will answer that they are weak and imperfect men, born in sins, and the like. But who is not able to think from religion? This the Lord gives to everyone; and in him who thinks these things from religion the Lord works all things so far as he thinks. And be it known that he who thinks of these things from religion believes that there is a God, a heaven, a hell, and a life after death; but he who does not think of these things from religion does not, I affirm, believe them. (A.E., n. 902.)

II. Goods of Charity

What is meant by goods of charity or good works is at this day unknown to most in the Christian world, because of the prevalence of the religion of faith alone, which is a faith separated from goods of charity. For if only faith contributes to salvation, and goods of charity contribute nothing, the idea that these goods may be left undone has place in the mind. But some who believe that good works should be done do not know what is meant by good works, thinking that good works are merely giving to the poor and doing good to the needy and to widows and orphans, since such things are mentioned and seemingly commanded in the Word. Some think that if good works must be done for the sake of eternal life they must give to the poor all they possess, as was done in the primitive church, and as the Lord commanded the rich man to sell all that he had and give to the poor, and take up the cross and follow Him (Matt. xix. 21). (A.E., n. 932.)

It has just been said that at this day it is scarcely known what is meant by charity, and thus by good works, unless it be giving to the poor, enriching the needy, doing good to widows and orphans, and contributing to the building of churches and hospitals and lodging houses; and yet whether such works are done by man and for the sake of reward is not known; for if they are done by man they are not good, and if for the sake of reward they are not meritorious; and such works do not open heaven, and thus are not acknowledged as goods in heaven. In heaven no works are regarded as good except such as are done by the Lord in man, and yet the works that are done by the Lord in man appear in outward form like those done by the man himself and cannot be distinguished even by the man who does them. For the works done by the Lord in man are done by man as if by himself; and unless they are done as if by himself they do not conjoin man to the Lord, thus they do not reform him. (A.E., n. 933.)

But for works to be done by the Lord, and not by man, two things are necessary: first, there must be an acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine, also that He is the God of heaven and earth even in respect to the Human, also that every good that is good is from Him; and secondly, it is necessary that man live according to the commandments of the Decalogue, by abstaining from those evils that are there forbidden, that is, from worshipping other gods, from profaning the name of God, from thefts, from adulteries, from murders, from false witness, from coveting the possessions and property of others. These two things are requisite that the works done by man may be good. The reason is that every good comes from the Lord alone, and the Lord cannot enter into man and lead him so long as these evils are not set aside as sins; for they are infernal, and in fact are hell with man, and unless hell is set aside the Lord cannot enter and open heaven. This is what is meant by the Lord's words to the rich man:

Who asked Him about eternal life, and said that he had kept the commandments of the Decalogue from his youth; whom the Lord is said to have loved, and to have taught that one thing was lacking to him, that he should sell all that he had and take up the cross (Matt. xix. 16-22; Mark x. 17-22; Luke xviii. 18-23).

"To sell all that he had" signifies that he should relinquish the things of his religion, which were traditions, for he was a Jew, and also should relinquish the things that were his own, which were loving self and the world more than God, and thus leading himself; and "to follow the Lord" signifies to acknowledge Him only and to be led by Him; therefore the Lord also said, "Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but God only." "To take up his cross" signifies to fight against evils and falsities, which are from what is one's own (proprium). (A.E., n. 934.)

III. Shunning Evils

In the previous chapter two things are said to be necessary that works may be good, namely, that the Divine of the Lord be acknowledged, and that the evils forbidden in the Decalogue be shunned as sins. The evils enumerated in the Decalogue include all the evils that can ever exist; therefore the Decalogue is called the ten commandments, because "ten" signifies all.

The first commandment, "Thou shalt not worship other gods," includes not loving self and the world; for he that loves self and the world above all things worships other gods; for everyone's god is that which he loves above all things.

The second commandment, "Thou shalt not profane the name of God," includes not to despise the Word and doctrine from the Word, and thus the church, and not to reject these from the heart, for these are God's "name."

The fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," included the shunning of frauds and unlawful gains, for these also are thefts.

The sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," includes having delight in adulteries and having no delight in marriages, and in particular cherishing filthy thoughts respecting such things as pertain to marriage, for these are adulteries.

The seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," includes not hating the neighbor nor loving revenge; for hatred and revenge breathe murder.

The eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," includes not to lie and blaspheme; for lies and blasphemies are false testimonies.

The ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house," includes not wishing to possess or to divert to oneself the goods of others against their will.

The tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, his man-servants," and so on, includes not wishing to rule over others and to subject them to oneself, for the things here enumerated mean the things that are man's own. Anyone can see that these eight commandments relate to evils that must be shunned, and not to goods that must be done. (A.E., n. 935.)

But many, I know, think in their heart that no one can of himself shun these evils enumerated in the Decalogue, because man is born in sins and has therefore no power of himself to shun them. But let such know that anyone who thinks in his heart that there is a God, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, that the Word is from Him, and is therefore holy, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after death, has the ability to shun these evils. But he who despises these truths and casts them out of his mind, and still more he who denies them, is not able. For how can one who never thinks about God think that anything is a sin against God? And how can one who never thinks about heaven, hell, and the life after death, shun evils as sins? Such a man does not know what sin is.

Man is placed in the middle between heaven and hell. Out of heaven goods unceasingly flow in, and out of hell evils unceasingly flow in; and as man is between he has freedom to think what is good or to think what is evil. This freedom the Lord never takes away from anyone, for it belongs to his life, and is the means of his reformation. So far, therefore, as man from this freedom has the thought and desire to shun evils because they are sins, and prays to the Lord for help, so far does the Lord take them away and give man the ability to refrain from them as if of himself, and then to shun them.

Everyone is able from natural freedom to shun these same evils because of their being contrary to human laws. This every citizen of a kingdom does who fears the penalties of the civil law, or the loss of life, reputation, honor, wealth, and thus of office, gain, and pleasures; even an evil man does this. And the life of such a man appears exactly the same in external form as the life of one who shuns these evils because they are contrary to the Divine laws; but in internal form it is wholly unlike it. The one acts from natural freedom only, which is from man; the other acts from spiritual freedom, which is from the Lord; both acting from freedom. When a man is able to shun these same evils from natural freedom, why is he not able to shun them from spiritual freedom, in which he is constantly held by the Lord, provided he thinks to will this because there is a heaven, a hell, a life after death, punishment and reward, and prays to the Lord for help?

Let it be noted, that every man when he is beginning the spiritual life because he wishes to be saved, fears sins on account of the punishments of hell, but afterward on account of the sin itself, because it is in itself abominable, and finally on account of the truth and good that he loves, thus for the Lord's sake. For so far as anyone loves truth and good, thus the Lord, he so far turns away from what is contrary to these, which is evil. All this makes clear that he that believes in the Lord shuns evils as sins; and conversely, he that shuns evils as sins believes; consequently to shun evils as sins is the sign of faith. (A.E., n. 936.)

But as all the evils into which man is born derive their roots from a love of ruling over others and from a love of possessing the goods of others, and all the delights of man's own life flow forth from these two loves, and all evils are from them, so the loves and delights of these evils belong to man's own life. And since evils belong to the life of man, it follows that man from himself can be no means refrain from them, for this would be from his own life to refrain from his own life. An ability to refrain from them of the Lord is therefore provided, and that he may have this ability the freedom to think that which he wills and to pray to the Lord for help is granted him. He has this freedom because he is in the middle between heaven and hell, consequently between good and evil. And being in the middle he is in equilibrium; and he who is in equilibrium is able easily and as of his own accord to turn himself the one way or the other; and the more so because the Lord continually resists evils and repels them, and raises man up and draws him to Himself. And yet there is combat, because the evils which belong to man's life are stirred up by the evils that unceasingly rise up from hell; and then man must fight against them, and, indeed, as if of himself. If he does not fight as if of himself the evils are not set aside. (A.E., n. 938.)

IV. Cleansing the Inside

It is acknowledged that man's interior must be purified before the good that he does is good; for the Lord says,

"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside may be clean also" (Matt. xxiii. 26).

Man's interior is purified only as he refrains from evils, in accordance with the commandments of the Decalogue. So long as man does not refrain from these evils and does not shun and turn away from them as sins, they constitute his interior, and are like an interposed veil or covering, and in heaven this appears like an eclipse by which the sun is obscured and light is intercepted; also like a fountain of pitch or of black water, from which nothing emanates but what is impure. That which emanates therefrom and that appears before the world as good is not good, because it is defiled by evils from within, for it is Pharisaic and hypocritical good. This good is good from man and is meritorious good. It is otherwise when evils have been removed by a life according to the commandments of the Decalogue.

Now since evils must be removed before goods can become good the Ten Commandments were the first of the Word, being promulgated from Mount Sinai before the Word was written by Moses and the prophets. And these do not set forth goods that must be done, but evils that must be shunned. For the same reason these commandments are the first things to be taught in the churches; for they are taught to boys and girls in order that man may begin his Christian life with them, and by no means forget them as he grows up; although he does so. The same is meant by these words in Isaiah:

"What is the multitude of sacrifices" to Me? Your meat offering, your incense, "your new moons, and your appointed feasts, My soul hateth. . . And when you multiply prayer I will not hear. . . Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil . . . . Then though your sins were as scarlet they shall be white as snow; though they were red as purple they shall be as wool" (i. 11-19).

"Sacrifices," "meat offerings," "incense," "new moons," and "feasts," also "prayer," mean all things of worship. That these are wholly evil and even abominable unless the interior is purified from evils is meant by "Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings, and cease to do evil." That afterward they are all goods is meant by words that follow. (A.E., n. 939.)

When man's interior is purified from evils by his refraining from them and shunning them because they are sins, the internal which is above it, and which is called the spiritual internal, is opened. This communicates with heaven; consequently man is then admitted into heaven and is conjoined to the Lord.

There are two internals in man, one beneath and the other above. While man lives in the world he is in the internal which is beneath and from which he thinks, for it is natural. This may be called for the sake of distinction the interior. But the internal that is above is that into which man comes after death when he enters heaven. All angels of heaven are in this internal, for it is spiritual. This internal is opened to the man who shuns evils as sins; but it is kept closed to the man who does not shun evils as sins.

This internal is kept closed to the man who does not shun evils as sins, because the interior, that is, the natural internal, until man has been purified from sins, is hell; and so long as there is hell there heaven cannot be opened; but as soon as hell has been set aside it is opened. But let it be noted that in the measure in which the spiritual internal and heaven are opened to man, the natural internal is purified from the hell that is there. This is not done at once, but successively by degrees. All this makes clear that man from himself is hell, and that man is made a heaven by the Lord, consequently that he is snatched out of hell by the Lord, and raised up into heaven to the Lord, not without means but through means; and these means are the commandments just mentioned, by which the Lord leads him who wishes to be led. (A.E., n. 940.)

When the spiritual internal is opened, and through it communication with heaven and conjunction with the Lord are granted, enlightenment takes place with man. He is enlightened especially when he reads the Word, because the Lord is in the Word, and the Word is Divine truth, and Divine truth is light to angels. Man is enlightened in the rational, for this directly underlies the spiritual internal, and receives light from heaven and transfers it into the natural when it is purified from evils, filling it with the knowledges of truth and good, and adapting to them the knowledges (scientiae) that are from world, for the sake of proof and agreement. Thus man has a rational, and thus he has an understanding. He who believes that man has a rational and an understanding before his natural has been purified from evils is deceived, for the understanding is seeing truths of the church from the light of heaven; and the light of heaven does not flow into those not purified. And as the understanding is perfected, the falsities of religion and of ignorance and all fallacies are dispersed. (A.E., n. 941.)

When a man has been admitted by the opening of his internal into heaven, and receives light therefrom, the same affections that angels of heaven have, with their pleasures and delights, are communicated to him. The first affection then granted is an affection for truth; the second is an affection for good; and the third is an affection for bringing forth fruits. For when a man has been admitted into heaven and into its light and heat he is like a tree growing from its seed. His first budding forth is from enlightenment; his blossoming before the fruit is from an affection for truth; the putting forth of fruit that follows is from an affection for good; the multiplication of itself again into trees is from an affection for producing fruit. The heat of heaven, which is love, and the light of heaven, which is the understanding of truth from that love, bring forth in subjects of life things like those that the heat of the world and its light bring forth in subjects not of life. That like things are brought forth is from correspondence. But in both cases the production is effected in springtime; and springtime in man is when he enters heaven, which is effected when his spiritual internal is opened; before that it is the time of winter to him. (A.E., n. 942.)

Man has affection for truth when he loves truth and turns away from falsity. He has an affection for good when he loves good uses and turns away from evil uses. He has an affection for bringing forth fruit when he loves to do goods and to be serviceable. All heavenly joy is in these affections and from them, and this joy cannot be described by comparisons, for it is supereminent and eternal. (A.E., n. 943.)

Into this state the man comes who shuns evils because they are sins, and looks to the Lord; and so far as he comes into this state he turns away from and hates evils as sins, and acknowledges in heart and worships the Lord only, and His Divine in the Human. This is a summary. (A.E., n. 944.)

When a man is in that state he is raised up from what is his own (proprium); for a man is in what is his own (proprium) when he is only in the natural external, but he is raised up from what is his own (proprium) when he is in the spiritual internal. This raising up from what is his own man perceives only by this, that he does not think evils, and that he turns away from thinking them, and takes delight in truths and in good uses. And yet if such a man advances further into that state he perceives influx by a kind of thought; but he is not withheld from thinking and willing as if from himself, for this the Lord wills for the sake of reformation. Nevertheless, man should acknowledge that nothing of good or of truth therefrom is from himself, but all is from the Lord. (A.E., n. 945.)

It follows from this that when man shuns and turns away from evils as sins and is raised up into heaven by the Lord, he is not longer in what is his own (proprium), but in the Lord, and thus he thinks and wills goods. Again, since man acts as he thinks and wills, for every act of man goes forth from the thought of his will, it follows that when he shuns and turns away from evils he does goods from the Lord and not from self; and this is why shunning evils is doing goods. The goods that a man does in this way are what are meant by good works; and good works in their whole complex are what are meant by charity. Man cannot be reformed unless he thinks, wills, and does as if from himself, since that which is done as if by the man himself is conjoined to him and remains with him, while that which is not done as if by the man himself, not being received in any life of sense, flows through like ether; and this is why the Lord wills that man should not only shun and turn away from evils as if of himself, but should also think, will, and do as if of himself, and yet acknowledge in heart that all these things are from the Lord. This he must acknowledge because it is the truth. (A.E., n. 946.)

V. What Religion Consists In

Religion with man consists in a life according to the Divine commandments, which are contained in a summary in the Decalogue. He that does not live according to these can have no religion, since he does not fear God, still less does he love God; nor does he fear man, still less does he love him. Can one who steals, commits adultery, kills, bears false witness fear God or man? Nevertheless everyone is able to live according to these commandments; and he who is wise does so live as a civil man, as a moral man, and as a natural man. And yet he who does not live according to them as a spiritual man cannot be saved; since to live according to them as a spiritual man means to live so for the sake of the Divine that is in them, while to live according to them as a civil man means for the sake of justice and to escape punishments in the world; and to live according to them as a moral man means for the sake of honesty, and to escape the loss of reputation and honor; while to live according to them as a natural man means for the sake of what is human, and to escape the repute of having an unsound mind.

All laws, civil, moral, and natural, prescribe that one must not steal, must not commit adultery, must not kill, must not bear false witness; and yet a man is saved not by shunning these evils from these laws alone, but by shunning them also from spiritual law, thus shunning them as sins. For with such a man there is religion, and a belief that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death; with such a man there is a civil life, a moral life, and a natural life; a civil life because there is justice, a moral life because there is honesty, and a natural life because there is manhood.

But he who does not live according to these commandments as a spiritual man is neither a civil man, nor a moral man, nor a natural man; for he is destitute of justice, of honesty, and even of manhood, since the Divine is not in these. For there can be nothing good in and from itself, but only from God; so there can be nothing just, nothing truly honest or truly human in itself and from itself, but only from God, and only when the Divine is in it. Consider whether anyone who has hell in him, or who is a devil, can do what is just from justice or for the sake of justice; in like manner what is honest, or what is truly human. The truly human is what is from order and according to order, and what is from sound reason; and God is order, and sound reason is from God. In a word, he who does not shun evils as sins is not a man. Everyone who makes these commandments to belong to his religion becomes a citizen and an inhabitant of heaven; but he who does not make them to belong to his religion, although in externals he may live according to them from natural, moral, and civil law, becomes a citizen and an inhabitant of the world, but not of heaven.

Most nations possess a knowledge of these commandments, and make them the commandments of their religion, and live according to them because God so wills and has commanded; and through this they have communication with heaven and conjunction with God, consequently they are saved. But most in the Christian world at this day do not make them the commandments of their religion, but only of their civil and moral life; and they do this that they may not appear in external form to act fraudulently and make unlawful gains, commit adulteries, manifestly pursue others from deadly hatred and revenge, and bear false witness, and do not refrain from these things because they are sins and against God, but because they have fears for their life, their reputation, their office, their business, their possessions, their honor and gain, and their pleasure; consequently if they were not restrained by these bonds they would do these things. Because, therefore, such form for themselves no communication with heaven or conjunction with the Lord, but only with the world and with self, they cannot be saved.

Consider is respect to yourself, when these external bonds have been taken away, as is done with every man after death, if there are no internal bonds, which are from fear and love of God, thus from religion, to restrain and hold you back, whether you would not rush like a devil into thefts, adulteries, murders, false witnesses, and lusts of every kind, from a love of these and a delight in them. That this is the case I have both seen and heard. (A.E., n. 948.)

So far as evils are set aside as sins so far goods flow in, and so far does man afterward do goods, not from self, but from the Lord.

As, first, so far as one does not worship other gods, and thus does not love self and the world above all things, so far acknowledgment of God flows in from the Lord, and then he worships God, not from self but from the Lord.

Secondly, so far as one does not profane the name of God, that is, so far as he shuns the lusts arising from the loves of self and of the world, so far he loves the holy things of the Word and of the church; for these are the name of God, and are profaned by the lusts arising from the loves of self and of the world.

Thirdly, so far as one shuns thefts, and thus shuns frauds and unlawful gains, so far sincerity and justice enter, and he loves what is sincere and just from sincerity and justice, and thus does what is sincere and just not from self but from the Lord.

Fourthly, so far as one shuns adulteries and thus shuns unchaste and filthy thoughts, so far marriage love enters, which is the inmost love of heaven, and in which chastity itself has its seat.

Fifthly, so far as one shuns murders, and thus shuns deadly hatreds and revenges that breathe murder, so far the Lord enters with mercy and love.

Sixthly, so far as one shuns false testimonies, and thus shuns lies and blasphemies, so far truth from the Lord enters.

Seventhly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the house of others, and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts for possessing the goods of others, so far charity toward the neighbor enters from the Lord.

Eighthly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the wives of others, their servants, etc., and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts of ruling over others (for the things enumerated in this commandment are what belong to man), so far love to the Lord enters.

These eight commandments include the evils that must be shunned, but the two others, namely, the third and fourth, include certain things that must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that parents must be honored. But how these two commandments should be understood, not by men of the Jewish church but by men of the Christian church, will be told elsewhere. (A.E., n. 949).

Part Second—THE COMMANDMENTS

I. The First Commandment

"Thou shalt not make to thee other gods" includes not loving self and the world above all things; for that which one loves above all things is his god. There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love to God, also love of the world and love of heaven. He who loves himself loves his own (proprium); and as a man's own (proprium) is nothing but evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil hates good, and thus hates God. He who loves himself above all things sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own (proprium), and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when one is sunk in the body and in his own (proprium) he is in corporeal ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body, and thus in thick darkness in respect to higher things; while he who is raised up by the Lord is in light. He who is not in the light of heaven but in thick darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies God and acknowledges as god either nature or some man, or some idol, and even aspires to be himself worshipped as a god. From this it follows that he who loves self above all things worships other gods.

The same is true, but in a less degree, of one who loves the world; for there cannot be so great a love of the world as of one's own (proprium); therefore the world is loved because of one's own and for the sake of one's own, because it is serviceable to it. Love of self means especially the love of ruling over others from a mere delight in ruling and for the sake of eminence, and not from a delight in uses and for the sake of public good; while love of the world means especially a love of possessing goods in the world from a mere delight in possession and for the sake of riches, and not from a delight in uses from these and for the sake of the consequent good. These loves are both of them without limit, and rush on, so far as scope is given, to infinity. (A.E., n. 950.)

It is not believed in the world that the love of ruling from a mere delight in ruling, and the love of possessing goods from a mere delight in possession, and not from delight in uses, conceal in themselves all evils, and also a contempt for and rejection of all things pertaining to heaven and the church; and for the reason that man is stirred up by the love of self and love of the world to right doing in respect to the church, to the country, to society, and to the neighbor, by making good deeds honorable and looking for reward. Therefore this love is called by many the fire of life, and the incitement to great things.

But it is to be noted that so far as these two loves give uses the first place and self the second they are good, while so far as they give self the first place and uses the second they are evil, since man then does all things for the sake of self and consequently from self, and thus in every least thing he does there is self and what is his own (proprium), which regarded in itself is nothing but evil. But to give uses the first place and self the second is to do good for the sake of the church, the country, society, and the neighbor; and the goods that man does to these for the sake of these are not from man but from the Lord. The difference between these two is like the difference between heaven and hell. Man does not know that there is such a difference, because from birth and thus from nature he is in these loves, and because the delight of these loves continually flatters and pleases him.

But let him consider that a love of ruling from delight in ruling, and not from a delight in uses, is wholly devilish; and such a man may be called an atheist; for so far as he is in that love he does not in his heart believe in the existence of God, and to the same extent he derides in his heart all things of the church, and he even hates and pursues with hatred all who acknowledge God, and especially those who acknowledge the Lord. The very delight of the life of such is to do evil and to commit wicked and infamous deeds of every kind. In a word, they are very devils.

This a man does not know so long as he lives in the world: but he will know that it is so when he comes into the spiritual world, as he does immediately after death. Hell is full of such, where instead of having dominion they are in servitude.

Moreover, when they are looked at in the light of heaven they appear inverted, with the head downward and the feet upward, since they gave rule the first place and uses the second; and that which is in the first place is the head, and that which is in the second is the feet; and that which is the head is loved, but that which is the feet is despised. (A.E., n. 951.)

He who supposes that he acknowledges and believes that there is a God before he abstains from the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, especially from the love of ruling from a delight in ruling, and from the love of possessing the goods of the world from a delight in possession, and not from delight in uses, is mistaken. Let a man confirm himself as fully as he can, from the Word, from preachings, from books, and from the light of reason, that there is a God, and thus be persuaded that he believes, yet he does not believe unless the evils that spring from love of self and of the world have been removed. The reason is that evils and their delights block up the way, and shut out and repel goods and their delights from heaven, and prevent their establishment. And until heaven is established there is only a faith of the lips, which in itself is no faith, and there is no faith of the heart, which is real faith. A faith of the lips is faith in externals, a faith of the heart is faith in internals; and if the internals are crowded with evils of every kind, when the externals are taken away (as they are with every man after death), man rejects from them even the faith that there is a God. (A.E., n. 952.)

So far as a man resists his own two loves, which are the love of ruling from the mere delight in rule and the love of possessing the goods of the world from the mere delight in possession, thus so far as he shuns as sins the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, so far there flows in through heaven from the Lord, that there is a God, who is the Creator and Preserver of the universe, and even that God is one. This then flows in for the reason that when evils have been removed heaven is opened, and when heaven is opened man no longer thinks from self but from the Lord through heaven; and that there is a God and that God is one is the universal principle in heaven which comprises all things. That from influx alone man knows and as it were sees that God is one, is evident from the common confession of all nations, and from a repugnance to think that there are many gods.

Man's interior thought, which is the thought of his spirit, is either from hell or from heaven; it is from hell before evils have been removed, but from heaven when they have been removed. When this thought is from hell man sees no otherwise than that nature is god, and that the inmost of nature is what is called the Divine. When such a man after death becomes a spirit he calls anyone a god who is especially powerful; and also himself strives for power that he may be called a god. All the evil have such madness lurking inwardly in their spirit. But when a man thinks from heaven, as he does when evils have been removed, he sees from the light in heaven that there is a God and that He is one. Seeing from light out of heaven is what is meant by influx. (A.E., n. 954.)

When a man shuns and turns away from evils because they are sins he not only sees from the light of heaven that there is a God and the God is one, but also that God is a Man. For he wishes to see his God, and he is incapable of seeing Him otherwise than as a Man. Thus did the ancients before Abraham and after him see God; thus do the nations in lands outside the church see God from an interior perception, especially those who are interiorly wise although not from knowledges; thus do all little children and youths and simple well-disposed adults see God; and thus do the inhabitants of all earths see God; for they declare that what is invisible, since it does not come into the thought, does not come into faith. The reason of this is that the man who shuns and turns away from evils as sins thinks from heaven; and the whole heaven, and everyone there, has no other idea of God than that He is a Man; nor can he have any other idea, since the whole heaven is a man in the largest form, and the Divine that goes forth from the Lord is what makes heaven; consequently to think otherwise of God than according to that Divine form, which is the human form, is impossible to angles, since angelic thoughts pervade heaven.

(That the whole heaven in the complex answers to a single man may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 51-86; and that the angels think according to the form of heaven, n. 200-212.)

This idea of God flows in from heaven into all in the world, and has its seat in their spirit; but it seems to be rooted out in those in the church who are in intelligence from what is their own (proprium), indeed so rooted out as to be no longer a possible idea; and this for the reason that they think of God from space. But when these become spirits they think otherwise, as has been made evident to me by much experience. For in the spiritual world an indeterminate idea of God is no idea of Him; consequently the idea there is determined to someone who has his seat either on high or elsewhere, and who gives answers.

From a general influx which is from the spiritual world men have received ideas of God as a Man variously according to the state of perception; and for this reason the triune God is with us called Persons; and in paintings in churches God the Father is represented as a man, the Ancient of Days. It is also from a general influx that men, both living and dead, who are called saints, are adored as gods by the common people in Christian Gentilism, and their sculptured images are esteemed. The same is true of many nations elsewhere, of the ancient peoples in Greece, in Rome, and in Asia, who had many gods, all of whom were regarded by them as men. This has been said to make known that there is an intuition, namely, in man's spirit, to see God as a man. That is called an intuition which is from general influx. (A.E., n. 955.)

As man from a general influx out of heaven sees in his spirit that God is a Man, it follows that those who are of the church where the Word is, if they shun and turn away from evils as sins, see, from the light of heaven in which they then are, the Divine in the Lord's Human, and the trine in Him, and Himself to be the God of heaven and earth. But those who by intelligence from what is their own (proprium) have destroyed in themselves the idea of God as a Man are unable to see this; neither do they see from the trinity that is in their thought that God is one; they call Him one with the lips only. But those who have not been purified from evils, and therefore are not in the light of heaven, do not in their spirit see the Lord to be the God of heaven and earth; but in place of the Lord some other being is acknowledged; by some of these someone whom they believe to be God the Father; by others someone whom they call God because he is especially powerful; by others some devil whom they fear because he can bring evil upon them; by others Nature, as in the world; and by others no God at all. It is said in their spirit, because they are such after death when they become spirits; therefore what lay concealed in their spirit in the world then becomes manifest. But all who are in heaven acknowledge the Lord only, since the whole heaven is from the Divine that goes forth from Him, and answers to Him as a Man; and for this reason no one can enter heaven unless he is in the Lord, for he enters into the Lord when he enters into heaven. If others enter they lose their mind and fall backward. (A.E., n. 956.)

The idea of God is the chief of all ideas; for such as this idea is such is man's communication with heaven and his conjunction with the Lord, and such is his enlightenment, his affection for truth and good, his perception, intelligence, and wisdom; for these are not from man but from the Lord according to conjunction with Him. The idea of God is the idea of the Lord and His Divine, for no other is God of heaven and God of earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew:

"Authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth" (xxviii. 18).

But the idea of the Lord is more or less full and more or less clear; it is full in the inmost heaven, less full in the middle, and still less full in the outmost heaven; therefore those who are in the inmost heaven are in wisdom, those who are in the middle in intelligence, and those who are in the outmost in knowledge. The idea is clear in the angels who are at the center of the societies of heaven; and less clear in those who are round about, according to the degrees of distance from the center.

All in the heavens have places allotted them according to the fullness and clearness of their idea of the Lord, and they are in correspondent wisdom and in correspondent felicity. All those who have no idea of the Lord as Divine, like the Socinians and Arians, are under the heavens, and are unhappy. Those who have a twofold idea, namely, of an invisible God and of a visible God in a human form, also have their place under the heavens, and are not received until they acknowledge one God, and Him visible. Some in the place of a visible God see as it were something aerial, and this because God is called a spirit. If this idea is not changed in them into the idea of a Man, thus of the Lord, they are not accepted. But those who have an idea of God as the inmost of nature are rejected, because they cannot help falling into the idea of nature as being God. All nations that have believed in one God, and have had an idea of Him as a Man, are received by the Lord. From all this it can be seen who those are that worship God Himself and who those are that worship other gods, thus who live according to the first commandment of the Decalogue and who do not. (A.E., n. 957.)

II. The Second Commandment

The second commandment is, "Thou shalt not profane the name of God."

In the first place, what is meant by "the name of God" shall be told, and afterward what is meant by "profaning" it. "The name of God" means every quality by which God is worshipped. For God is in His own quality, and is His own quality. His essence is Divine love, and His quality is Divine truth therefrom united with Divine good; thus with us on earth it is the Word; consequently it is said in John:

"The Word was with God, and the Word was God" (i. 1).

So, too, it is the doctrine of genuine truth and good from the Word; for worship is according to that.

Now as His quality is manifold, for it comprises all things that are from Him, so He has many names; and each name involves and expresses His quality in general and in particular. He is called "Jehovah," "Jehovah of Hosts," "Lord," "Lord Jehovah," "God," "Messiah (or Christ)," "Jesus," "Saviour," "Redeemer," "Creator," "Former," "Maker," "King," and "the Holy One of Israel," "the Rock" and "the Stone of Israel," "Shiloh," "Almighty," "David," "Prophet," "Son of God," and "Son of Man," and so on. All these names are names of the one God, who is the Lord; and yet where they occur in the Word they signify some universal Divine attribute or quality distinct from other Divine attributes or qualities. So, too, where He is called "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," three are not meant, but one God; that is, there are not three Divines, but one; and this trine which is one is the Lord.

Since each name signifies some distinct attribute or quality, "to profane the name of God" does not mean to profane His name itself but His quality. "Name" signifies quality for the reason that in heaven everyone is named according to his quality; and the quality of God or the Lord is everything that is from Him by which He is worshipped. For this reason, since no Divine quality of the Lord is acknowledged in hell the Lord cannot be named there; and in the spiritual world His names cannot be uttered by anyone except so far as His Divine is acknowledged; for there all speak from the heart, thus from love and consequent acknowledgment. (A.E., n. 959.)

Since "the name of God" means that which is from God and which is God, and this is called Divine truth, and with us the Word, this must not be profaned, because it is in itself Divine and most holy; and it is profaned when its holiness is denied, which is done when it is despised, rejected, and treated contemptuously. When this is done heaven is closed and man is left to hell. For as the Word is the only medium of conjunction of heaven with the church, so when the Word is cast out of the heart that conjunction is dissolved; and because man is then left to hell he no longer acknowledges any truth of the church.

There are two things by which heaven is closed to the men of the church. One is a denial of the Lord's Divine, and the other is a denial of the holiness of the Word; and for this reason, that the Lord's Divine is the all of heaven; and Divine truth, which is the Word in the spiritual sense, is what makes heaven; which makes clear that he who denies the one or the other denies that which is the all of heaven and from which heaven is and exists, and thus deprives himself of communication and consequent conjunction with heaven. To profane the Word is the same as "blaspheming the Holy Spirit," which is not forgiven to anyone, consequently it is said in this commandment that he who profanes the name of God shall not be left unpunished. (A.E., n. 960.)

As Divine truth or the Word is meant by "the name of God," and the profanation of it means a denial of its holiness, and thus contempt, rejection, and blasphemy, it follows that the name of God is interiorly profaned by a life contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue. For there can be a profanation that is inner and not outer, and there can be a profanation that is inner and at the same time outer, and there can be also a kind of profanation that is outer and not at the same time inner. Inner profanation is wrought by the life, outer by the speech. Inner profanation, which is wrought by the life, becomes outer also, or of the speech, after death. For then everyone thinks and wills, and so far as it can be permitted, speaks and acts, according to his life; thus not as he did in the world. In the world man is wont [accustomed], for the world's sake and to gain reputation, to speak and act otherwise than as he thinks and wills from his life. This is why it has been said that there can be a profanation that is inner and not at the same time outer. That there can be also a kind of profanation that is outer and not at the same time inner is possible from the style of the Word, which is not at all the style of the world, and for this reason it may be to some extent despised from an ignorance of its interior sanctity. (A.E., n. 962.)

He who abstains from profaning the name of God, that is, the holiness of the Word, by contempt, rejection, or any blasphemy, has religion; and such as his abstinence is such is his religion. For no one has religion except from revelation, and with us revelation is the Word. Abstinence from profaning the holiness of the Word must be from the heart, and not merely from the mouth. Those who abstain from the heart live from religion; but those who abstain merely from the mouth do not live from religion, for they abstain either for the sake of self or for the sake of the world, in that the Word can be made to serve them as a means of acquiring honor and gain; or they abstain from some fear. But of these many are hypocrites who have no religion. (A.E., n. 963.)

III. The Third Commandment

The third commandment is, to keep the Sabbath holy.

The third and fourth commandments of the Decalogue contain things that must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that parents must be honored. The other commandments contain things that are not to be done, namely, that other gods must not be worshipped; that the name of God must not be profaned; that one must not steal, must not commit adultery, must not bear false witness, must not covet the goods of others. These two commandments are commandments to be done because the sanctification of the rest of the commandments depends upon these, for the "Sabbath" signifies the union in the Lord of the Divine itself and the Divine Human, also His conjunction with heaven and the church, and thus the marriage of good and truth in the man who is being regenerated. This being the signification of the Sabbath, it was the chief representative of all things of worship in the Israelitish Church, as is evident in Jeremiah (xvii. 20-27), and elsewhere. It was the chief representative of all things of worship, because the first thing in all things of worship is the acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord's Human, for without that acknowledgment man can believe and do only from self, and to believe from self is to believe falsities, and to do from self is to do evils, as is also evident from the Lord's words in John:

To those asking, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom God hath sent" (vi. 28, 29).

And in the same,

"He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing" (xv. 5).

That the Sabbath represented that union and the holy acknowledgment of it, has been fully shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that the "Sabbath" signified in the highest sense the union of the Divine itself and the Divine Human in the Lord, in the internal sense the conjunction of the Lord's Human with heaven and with the church, in general the conjunction of good and truth, thus the heavenly marriage (n. 8495, 10356, 10730). Therefore the rest on the Sabbath day signified the state of that union, because the Lord then has rest; also through that union there is peace and salvation in the heavens and on the earth. In a relative sense it signified the conjunction of man with the Lord, because man then has peace and salvation (n. 8494, 8510, 10360, 10367, 10370, 10374, 10668, 10730). The six days preceding the Sabbath signified the labors and combats that precede union and conjunction (n. 8510, 8888, 9431, 10360, 10667). The man who is being regenerated is in two states, the first when he is in truths and by means of truths is being led to good and into good, the other when he is in good. When man is in the first state he is in combats or temptations; but when he is in the second state he is in the tranquillity of peace. The former state is signified by the six days of labor that precede the Sabbath; and the latter state is signified by the rest on the Sabbath day (n. 9274, 9431, 10360). The Lord also was in two states: the first when He was Divine truth and from it fought against the hells and subjugated them, the other when He was made Divine good by union with the very Divine in Himself. The former state was signified in the highest sense by the six days of labor, and the latter by the Sabbath (n. 10360). Because such things were represented by the Sabbath, it was the chief representative of worship, and the holiest of all (n. 10357, 10372). "To do work on the Sabbath day" signified to be led not by the Lord but by self, thus to be disjoined (n. 7893, 8495, 10360, 10362, 10365). The Sabbath day is not now representative, but is a day of instruction (n. 10360 at the end). (A.E., n. 965.)

IV. The Fourth Commandment

The fourth commandment of the Decalogue is that parents must be honored.

This commandment was given because honor to parents represented and thus signified love to the Lord and love toward the church, for "father" in the heavenly sense, that is, the Heavenly Father, is the Lord; and "mother" in the heavenly sense, that is, the heavenly mother, is the church; "honor" signifies good of love; and "length of days," which such will have, signifies the happiness of eternal life. So is this commandment understood in heaven, where no father but the Lord is known, and no mother but the kingdom of the Lord, which is also the church. For the Lord gives life from Himself, and through the church He gives nourishment. That in the heavenly sense no father in the world can be meant, and indeed, when man is in a heavenly idea, can be mentioned, the Lord teaches in Matthew:

"Call no man your father on earth; for one is your Father who is in the heavens" (xxiii. 9).

That "Father" signifies the Lord in relation to Divine good may be seen in the Apocalypse Explained (n. 32, 200, 254, 297). That "mother" signifies the Lord's kingdom, the church, and Divine truth, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia (n. 289, 2691, 2717, 3703, 5581, 8897); that "length of days" signifies the happiness of eternal life (n. 8898); and the "honor" signifies good of love (n. 8897), and Apocalypse Explained (n. 228, 345). All this makes clear that the third and fourth commandments involve arcana relating to the Lord, namely, acknowledgment and confession of His Divine, and worship of Him from good of love. (A.E., n. 966.)

V. The Fifth Commandment

The fifth commandment is, "Thou shalt not steal." By "thefts" both open thefts and those not open are meant, such as unlawful usury and gains, which are effected by fraud and craft under various pretenses to make them appear lawful, or so done clandestinely as not to appear at all. Such gains are commonly made by higher and lower managers of the goods of others, by merchants, also by judges who sell judgments and thus make justice purchasable. These and many other things are thefts that must be abstained from and shunned, and finally renounced as sins against God, because they are against the Divine laws that are in the Word and against this law, which is one among the fundamental laws of all religions in the whole globe. For these ten commandments are universals, given to the end that in living from these a man may live from religion, since by a life from religion man is conjoined with heaven, while a life according to these from obedience to civil and moral law conjoins man with the world and not with heaven, and to be conjoined with the world and not with heaven is to conjoined with hell. (A.E., n. 967.)

Man is so created as to be an image of heaven and an image of the world, for he is a microcosm. He is born of his parents an image of the world, and he is born again to be an image of heaven. To be born again is to be regenerated; and man is regenerated by the Lord by means of truths from the Word and a life according to them. Man is an image of the world in respect to his natural mind, and he is an image of heaven in respect to his spiritual mind. The natural mind, which is the world, is beneath; and the spiritual mind, which is heaven, is above. The natural mind is full of all kinds of evil, such as thefts, adulteries, murders, false witnesses, covetousnesses, and even blasphemies and profanations respecting God. These evils and many others have their seat in that mind, for the loves of them are there, and thus the delights of thinking, willing, and doing them.

These things are inborn in that mind from parents, for man is born and grows up into the things that are in that mind, and is restrained only by the bonds of civil law and by the bonds of moral life from doing them, and from thus manifesting the tendencies of his depraved will. Who cannot see that the Lord cannot flow in out of heaven into man and teach him and lead him until these evils have been removed? For they obstruct, repel, pervert, and suffocate the truths and goods of heaven, which present themselves from above, press down, and strive to flow in. For evils are infernal and goods are heavenly, and everything infernal burns with hatred against everything heavenly.

This makes clear that before the Lord can flow in with heaven out of heaven and form man to the image of heaven, those evils that lie heaped up in the natural mind must needs be removed. Moreover, as the removal of evils must come first before man can be taught and led by the Lord, the reason is evident why in eight commandments of the Decalogue the evil works that must not be done are recounted, but not the good works that must be done. Good does not exist together with evil, nor does it exist until evils have been removed; for until then there is no way possible from heaven into man. Man is like a dark sea, the waters of which must be removed on either side before the Lord in a cloud and in fire can give a passage to the sons of Israel. The "dark sea" signifies hell, "Pharaoh with the Egyptians" the natural man, and "the sons of Israel" the spiritual man. (A.E., n. 969.)

Communication with heaven is not possible until the evils and the falsities therefrom with which the natural mind is stopped up have been removed; for these are like black clouds between the sun and the eye, or like a wall between the light of heaven and the lumen of a candle in a chamber. For so long as a man is in the lumen of the natural man only he is like one shut up in a chamber where he sees by a candle. But as soon as the natural man has been purified from evils and falsities therefrom he is as if he saw through windows in the wall the things of heaven from the light of heaven. For as soon as evils have been removed, the higher mind, which is called the spiritual mind, is opened, and this, viewed in itself, is a type or image of heaven. Through this mind the Lord flows in and enables man to see from the light of heaven, and through this He also reforms and at length regenerates the natural man, and implants in it truths in the place of falsities and goods in the place of evils. This the Lord does through spiritual love, which is a love for truth and good. Man is then placed in the midst between two loves, between the love of evil and the love of good; and when the love of evil recedes the love of good takes its place. The love of evil recedes solely through a life according to the commandments of the Decalogue, that is, through refraining from evils there enumerated because they are sins, and finally shunning them as infernal.

In a word, so long as man does not refrain from evils because they are sins the spiritual mind is shut; but as soon as he refrains from evils because they are sins the spiritual mind is opened, and with that mind heaven also. And when heaven is opened man comes into another light in respect to all things of the church, heaven, and eternal life; although so long as man lives in this world the difference between this and the former light is scarcely noticeable, and for the reason that in the world man thinks naturally even about spiritual things, and until he passes from the natural into the spiritual world spiritual things are enclosed in natural ideas; but in the spiritual world spiritual things are disclosed, perceived, and made evident. (A.E., n. 970.)

So far as man refrains from evils and shuns and turns away from them as sins, good flows in from the Lord. The good that flows in is an affection for knowing and understanding truths, and an affection for willing and doing goods. But man cannot refrain from evils by shunning and turning away from them of himself, for he himself is in evils from his birth, and thus from nature; and evils cannot of themselves shun evils, for this would be like a man's shunning his own nature, which is impossible; consequently it must be the Lord, who is Divine good and Divine truth, who causes man to shun them.

Nevertheless, man ought to shun evils as if of himself, for what a man does as if of himself becomes his and is appropriated to him as his own; while what he does not as if of himself in no wise becomes his or is appropriated to him. What comes from the Lord to man must be received by man; and it cannot be received unless he is conscious of it that is, as if of himself. This reciprocation is a necessity to reformation.

This is why the ten commandments were given, and why it is commanded in them that man shall not worship other gods, shall not profane the name of God, shall not steal, shall not commit adultery, shall not kill, shall not covet the house, wife, or servants of another, thus that man shall refrain from doing these things by thinking, when the love of evil allures and incites, that they must not be done because they are sins against God, and in themselves are infernal. So far, therefore, as a man shuns these evils so far the love of truth and good enters from the Lord; and this love causes man to shun these evils, and at length to turn away from them as sins. And as the love of truth and good puts these evils to flight it follows that man shuns them not from himself but from the Lord, since the love of truth and good is from the Lord. If a man shuns evils merely from a fear of hell they are withdrawn; but goods do not take their place; for as soon as the fear departs the evils return.

To man alone is it granted to think as if of himself about good and evil, that is, that good must be loved and done because it is Divine and remains to eternity, and that evil must be hated and not done because it is devilish and remains to eternity. To think thus is not granted to any beast. A beast can do good and shun evil, yet not of itself, but either from instinct or habit or fear, and never from the thought that such a thing is a good or an evil, thus not of itself. Consequently, one who would have it believed that man shuns evils or does goods not as if of himself but from an imperceptible influx, or from the imputation of the Lord's merit, would also have it believed that man lives like a beast, without thought of, or perception of, or affection for, truth and good.

That this is so has been made clear to me from manifold experience in the spiritual world. Every man after death is there prepared either for heaven or for hell. From the man who is prepared for heaven evils are removed, and from the man who is prepared for hell goods are removed; and all such removals are effected as if by them. Likewise those who do evils are driven by punishments to reject them as if of themselves; but if they do not reject them as if of themselves the punishments are of no avail. By this it was made clear that those who hang down their hands, waiting for influx or for the imputation of the Lord's merit, continue in the state of their evil and hang down their hands forever.

To shun evils as sins is to shun the infernal societies that are in them, and man cannot shun these unless he repels them and turns away from them; and a man cannot turn away from them with repulsion unless he loves good and from that love does not will evil. For a man must either will evil or will good; and so far as he wills good he does not will evil; and it is granted him to will good when he makes the commandments of the Decalogue to be of his religion, and lives according to them.

Since man must refrain from evils as sins as if of himself, these ten commandments were inscribed by the Lord on two tables, and these were called a covenant; and this covenant was entered into in the same way as it is usual to enter into covenants between two, that is, one proposes and the other accepts, and the one who accepts consents. If he does not consent the covenant is not established. To consent to this covenant is to think, will, and do as if of oneself. Man's thinking to shun evil and to do good as if of himself is done not by man, but by the Lord.

This is done by the Lord for the sake of reciprocation and consequent conjunction; for the Lord's Divine love is such that it wills that what is its own shall be man's, and as these things cannot be man's, because they are Divine, it makes them to be as if they were man's. In this way reciprocal conjunction is effected, that is, that man is in the Lord and the Lord in man, according to the words of the Lord Himself in John (xiv. 20); for this would not be possible if there were not in the conjunction something belonging as it were to man. What man does as if of himself he does as if of his will, of his affection, of his freedom, consequently of his life. Unless these were present on man's part as if they were his there could be no receptivity, because nothing reactive, thus no covenant and no conjunction; in fact, no ground whatever for the imputation that man had done evil or good or had believed truth or falsity, thus that there is from merit a hell for anyone because of evil works, or from grace a heaven for anyone because of good works. (A.E., n. 971.)

He who refrains from thefts, understood in a broad sense, and even shuns them from any other cause than religion and for the sake of eternal life, is not cleansed of them; for only by such refraining is heaven opened. For it is through heaven that the Lord removes evils in man, as through heaven He removes the hells. For example, there are higher and lower managers of property, merchants, judges, officers of every kind, and workmen, who refrain from thefts, that is, from unlawful modes of gain and usury, and who shun these, but only to secure reputation and thus honor and gain, and because of civil and moral laws, in a word, from some natural love or natural fear, thus from merely external constraints, and not from religion; but the interiors of such are full of thefts and robberies, and these burst forth when external constraints are removed from them, as takes place with everyone after death. Their sincerity and rectitude is nothing but a mask, a disguise, and a deceit. (A.E., n. 972.)

So far then as the various kinds and species of theft are removed, and the more they are removed, the kinds and species of goods to which they by opposition correspond enter and occupy their place; and these have reference in general to what is sincere, right and just. For when a man shuns and turns away from unlawful gains through fraud and craft he so far wills what is sincere, right, and just, and at length begins to love what is sincere because it is sincere, what is right because it is right, and what is just because it is just. He begins to love these things because they are from the Lord, and the love of the Lord is in them. For to love the Lord is not to love the person, but to love the things that go forth from the Lord, for these are the Lord in man; thus it is to love sincerity itself, right itself, and justice itself. And as these are the Lord, so far as a man loves these, and thus acts from them, so far he acts from the Lord and so far the Lord removes insincerity and injustice in respect to the very intentions and volitions in which they have their roots, and always with less resistance and struggle, and therefore with less effort than in the first attempts. Thus it is that man thinks from conscience and acts from integrity,—not the man of himself but as if of himself; for he then acknowledges from faith and also from perception that it seems as if he thought and did these things from himself, and yet he does them not from himself but from the Lord. (A.E., n. 973.)

When a man begins to shun and turn away from evils because they are sins all things that he does are good, and may be called good works; with a difference according to the excellence of the use. For what a man does before he shuns and turns away from evils as sins are works done by the man himself; and as the man's own (proprium), which is nothing but evil, is in these, and they are done for the sake of the world, so they are evil works. But the works that a man does after he shuns and turns away from evils as sins are works from the Lord, and because the Lord is in these and heaven with Him they are good works.

The difference between works done by man and works done by the Lord in man is not apparent to man's vision, but is clearly evident to the vision of angels. Works done by man are like sepulchers outwardly whitened, which within are full of dead men's bones. They are like platters and cups outwardly clean, but containing unclean things of every kind. They are like fruits inwardly rotten, but with the outer skin still shining; or like nuts and almonds eaten by worms within, while the shell remains untouched; or like a foul harlot with a fair face. Such are the good works done by man himself, since however good they appear on the outside, within they are full of impurities of every kind; for their interiors are infernal, while their exteriors appear heavenly.

But as soon as man shuns and turns away from evils as sins his works are good not only outwardly but inwardly also; and the more interior they are the more they are good, for the more interior they are the nearer they are to the Lord. Then they are like fruits that have a fine-flavored pulp, in the center of which are depositories with many seeds, from which new trees, even to whole gardens, may be produced; but everything and all things in his natural man are like eggs from which swarms of flying creatures may be produced, and gradually fill a great part of heaven. In a word, when man shuns and turns away from evils as sins the works that he does are living works, while those that he did before were dead works; for what is from the Lord is living but what is from man is dead. (A.E., n. 974.)

It has been said that so far as a man shuns and turns away from evils as sins he does goods, and that the goods that he does are such good works as are described in the Word, for the reason that they are done in the Lord; also that these works are good so far as man turns away from the evils opposed to them, because so far they are done by the Lord and not by man. Nevertheless, works are more or less good according to the excellence of the use; for works must be uses. The best are those that are done for the sake of uses to the church. Next in point of goodness come those that are done as uses to one's country; and so on, the uses determining the goodness of the works.

The goodness of works increases in man according to the fullness of truths from affection for which they are done; since the man who turns away from evils as sins wishes to know truths because truths teach uses and the quality of their good. This is why good loves truth and truth loves good, and they wish to be conjoined. So far, therefore, as such a man learns truths from an affection for them so far he does goods more wisely and more fully, more wisely because he knows how to distinguish uses and to do them with judgment and justice, and more fully because all truths are present in the performance of uses, and form the spiritual sphere that the affection for them produces. (A.E., n. 975.)

Take judges for an example: All who make justice venal [purchasable] by loving the office of judging for the sake of gain from judgments, and not for the sake of uses to their country, are thieves, and their judgments are thefts. It is the same if judgments are given according to friendship or favor, for friendships and favors are also profits and gains. When these are the end and judgments are the means, all things that are done are evil, and are what are meant in the Word by "evil works" and "not doing judgment and justice, perverting the right of the poor, of the needy, of the fatherless, of the widow, and of the innocent." And when such do justice, and yet regard profit as the end while they do a good work, to them it is not good; for justice, which is Divine, is to them a means, and such gain is the end; and that which is made the end is everything, while that which is made the means is nothing except so far as it is serviceable to the end. Consequently, after death such judges continued to love what is unjust as well as what is just, and are condemned to hell as thieves. I say this from what I have seen. These are such as do not abstain from evils because they are sins, but only because they fear punishments of the civil law and the loss of reputation, honor, and office, and thus of gain.

It is otherwise with judges who abstain from evils as sins and shun them because they are contrary to the Divine laws, and thus contrary to God. Such make justice their end, and they venerate, cherish, and love it as Divine. In justice they see God, as it were, because everything just, like everything good and true, is from God. They always join justice with equity and equity with justice, knowing that justice must be of equity in order to be justice, and that equity must be of justice in order to be equity, the same as truth is of good and good is of truth.

As such make justice their end, their giving judgments is doing good works; yet these works, which are judgments, are to them more or less good as there is in their judgments more or less of regard for friendship, favor, or gain; also as there is more or less in them of a love of what is just for the sake of the public good, which is that justice may prevail among their fellow citizens, and that those who live according to the laws may have security. Such judges have eternal life in a degree that accords with their works; for they are judged as they themselves have judged. (A.E., n. 976.)

Take as an example managers of the goods of others, higher or lower. If these secretly by arts or under some pretext by fraud deprive their kings, their country, or their masters of their goods, they have no religion and thus no conscience, for they hold the Divine law respecting theft in contempt and make it of no account. And although they frequent churches, devoutly listen to preachings, observe the sacrament of the Supper, pray morning and evening, and talk piously from the Word, yet nothing from heaven flows in and is present in their worship, piety, or discourse, since their interiors are full of theft, plundering, robbery, and injustice; and so long as these are within, the way into them from heaven is closed; consequently all the works they do are evil works.

But the managers of property who shun unlawful gains and fraudulent profits because they are contrary to the Divine law respecting theft, have religion, and thus also conscience; and all the works they do are good, for they act from sincerity for the sake of sincerity, and from justice for the sake of justice, and furthermore are content with their own, and are cheerful in mind and glad in heart whenever it happens that they have refrained from fraud; and after death they are welcomed by the angels and received by them as brothers, and are presented with good things even to abundance. But the opposite is true of evil managers; these after death are cast out of societies, and afterward seek wages and finally are sent into the caverns of robbers to labor there. (A.E., n. 977.)

Take merchants as an example: All their works are evil works so long as they do not regard as sins, and thus shun as sins, unlawful gains and wrongful usury, also fraud and craft; for such works cannot be done from the Lord, but must be done from man himself. And the more expert they are in skillfully and artfully contriving devices from within for overreaching their companions the more evil are their works. And the more expert they are in bringing such devices into effect under the pretense of sincerity, justice, and piety, the more evil still are their works. The more delight a merchant feels in such things the more do his works have their origin in hell.

But if he acts sincerely and justly in order to acquire reputation, and wealth through reputation, even so as to seem to act from a love of sincerity and justice, and yet does not act sincerely and justly from affection for the Divine law or from obedience to it, he is still inwardly insincere and unjust, and his works are thefts, for through a pretense of sincerity and justice he seeks to steal.

That this is so becomes evident after death, when man acts from his inner will and love, and not from the outer; for then he thinks about and devises nothing but sharp practices and robberies, and withdraws himself from those who are sincere, and betakes himself either to forests or deserts, where he devotes himself to stratagems. In a word, all such become robbers.

But it is otherwise with merchants who shun as sins thefts of every kind, especially the more interior and hidden, which are effected by craft and deceit. All the works of such are good, because they are from the Lord; for the influx from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, for accomplishing such works is not intercepted by the evils just mentioned. To such riches do no harm, because to them riches are means for uses. Their tradings are the uses by which they serve their country and their fellow citizens; and through their riches they are in a condition to perform those uses to which affection for good leads them. (A.E., n. 978.)

From what has been said above, what is meant in the Word by good works can now be seen, namely, that they are all works done by man when evils have been set aside as sins. For the works done after this are done by man only as if by him; for they are done by the Lord; and all works done by the Lord are good, and are called goods of life, goods of charity, and good works; as for instance, all judgments of a judge who has justice as his end, all who venerates and loves it as Divine, and who detests as infamous decisions made for the sake of rewards or friendship, or from favor. Thus he consults the good of his country by causing justice and judgment to reign therein as in heaven; and thus he consults the peace of every innocent citizen and protects him from the violence of evildoers. All these are good works. So all services of managers and dealings of merchants are good works when they shun unlawful gains as sins against the Divine laws. When a man shuns evils as sins he daily learns what a good work is, and an affection for doing good grows in him, and an affection for knowing truths for the sake of good; for so far as he knows truths he can perform works more fully and more wisely, and thus his works become more truly good. Refrain, therefore, from asking in thyself, "What are the good works that I must do, or what good must I do to receive eternal life?" Only refrain from evils as sins and look to the Lord, and the Lord will teach and lead you. (A.E., n. 979.)

VI. The Sixth Commandment

Thus far five commandments of the Decalogue have been explained. Now follows the explanation of the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

Who at this day can believe that the delight of adultery is hell in man, and that the delight of marriage is heaven in him, consequently so far as he is in the one delight he is not in the other, since so far as man is in hell he is not in heaven? Who at this day can believe that the love of adultery is the fundamental love of all hellish and devilish loves, and that the chaste love of marriage is the fundamental love of all heavenly and Divine loves; consequently so far as a man is in the love of adultery he is in every evil love, if not in act yet in endeavor; and on the other hand, so far as he is in the chaste love of marriage he is in every good love, if not in act yet in endeavor? Who at this day can believe that he who is in the love of adultery believes nothing of the Word, thus nothing of the church, and even in his heart denies God; and on the other hand, that he who is in the chaste love of marriage is in charity and in faith, and in love to God; also that the chastity of marriage makes one with religion, and the lasciviousness of adultery makes one with naturalism?

All this is at this day unknown because the church is at its end, and is devastated in respect to truth and in respect to good; and when the church is such, the man of the church, by influx from hell, comes into the persuasion that adulteries are not detestable things and abominations, and thus comes into the belief that marriages and adulteries do not differ in their essence, but only as a matter of order, and yet the difference between them is like the difference between heaven and hell. That such is the difference between them will be seen in what follows. This, then, is why in the Word in its spiritual sense heaven and the church are meant by nuptials and marriages, and hell and rejection of all things of the church are meant in the Word in its spiritual sense by adulteries and whoredoms. (A.E., n. 981.)

Since adultery is hell in man and marriage is heaven in him, it follows that so far as a man loves adultery he removes himself from heaven; consequently adulteries close heaven and open hell, and this they do so far as they are believed to be allowable and are perceived to be more delightful than marriages. The man, therefore, who confirms himself in adulteries and commits them from the favor and consent of his will, and turns away from marriage, closes heaven to himself, until finally he ceases to believe anything of the church or of the Word, and becomes a wholly sensual man, and after death an infernal spirit; for, as has been said above, adultery is hell, and thus an adulterer is a form of hell. And since adultery is hell it follows that unless a man abstains from adulteries and shuns them and turns away from them as infernal he shuts up heaven to himself, and does not receive the least influx therefrom. Afterward he reasons that marriages and adulteries are alike, but that marriages must be maintained in kingdoms for the sake of order and the training of offspring; also that adulteries are not criminal, since children are equally born from them; and they are not harmful to women, since they can endure them, and by them the procreation of the human race is promoted. He does not know that these and other like reasonings in favor of adulteries ascend from the Stygian [extremely dark] waters of hell, and that the lustful and bestial nature of man which inheres in him from birth attracts them and sucks them in with delight, as a swine does excrement. That such reasonings, which at this day possess the minds of most men in the Christian world, are diabolical, will be seen. (A.E., n. 982.)

That marriage is heaven and that adultery is hell cannot be better seen than from considering their origin. The origin of true marriage love is the Lord's love for the church; and this is why the Lord is called in the Word a "Bridegroom" and a "Husband," and the church a "bride" and a "wife." It is from this marriage that the church is a church in general and in particular. The church in particular is a man in whom the church is. From this it is clear that the Lord's conjunction with a man of the church is the very origin of true marriage love; and how that conjunction can be the origin shall be told.

The Lord's conjunction with a man of the church is a conjunction of good and truth; good is from the Lord, and truth is a man, and from this is the conjunction that is called the heavenly marriage, and from that marriage true marriage love exists between the married pair that are in such conjunction with the Lord.

From this it is now evident that true marriage love is from the Lord alone, and exists in those who are in the conjunction of good and truth from the Lord. As this conjunction is reciprocal it is said by the Lord that

They are in Him, and He in them (John xiv. 20).

This conjunction or this marriage was thus established from creation. The man was created to be an understanding of truth, and the woman to be an affection for good; and thus the man to be a truth, and the woman to be a good. When understanding of truth which is in the man makes one with the affection for good which is in the woman, there is a conjunction of the two minds into one. This conjunction is the spiritual marriage from which marriage love descends. For when two minds are so conjoined as to be one mind there is love between them; and when this love, which is the love of spiritual marriage, descends into the body it becomes the love of natural marriage. That this is so anyone can clearly perceive if he will. A married pair who interiorly or in respect to their minds love each other mutually and reciprocally also love each other mutually and reciprocally in respect to their bodies. It is well known that all love descends into the body from an affection of the mind, and that apart from such an origin no love exists.

Since then the origin of marriage love is the marriage of good and truth, which marriage in its essence is heaven, it is clear that the origin of the love of adultery is a marriage of evil and falsity, which in its essence is hell. Heaven is a marriage because all who are in the heavens are in a marriage of good and truth; and hell is adultery because all who are in the hells are in a marriage of evil and falsity. From this it follows that marriage and adultery are as opposite as heaven and hell are. (A.E., n. 983.)

Man was so created as to be spiritual and celestial love, and thus an image and likeness of God. Spiritual love, which is a love for truth, is an image of God; and celestial love, which is a love for good, is a likeness of God. All angels in the third heaven are likenesses of God; and all angels in the second heaven are images of God. Man can become the love which is an image or likeness of God only by a marriage of good and truth; for good and truth inmostly love one another, and ardently long to be united that they may be one; and for the reason that Divine good and Divine truth go forth from the Lord united, therefore they must be united in an angel of heaven and in a man of the church.

This union is by no means possible except by a marriage of two minds into one, since, as has been said before, man was created to be an understanding of truth, and thus a truth, and woman was created to be an affection for good, and thus a good; therefore in them a conjunction of good and truth is possible. For marriage love which descends from that conjunction is the veriest medium by which man (homo) becomes the love that is an image or likeness of God. For the married pair who are in conjugal love from the Lord love one another mutually and reciprocally from the heart, thus from inmosts; and therefore although apparently two they are actually one, two in respect to their bodies, but one in respect to life.

This may be compared to the eyes, which are two as organs but one in respect to the sight; also to the ears, which are two as organs but one in respect to hearing; so, too, the arms and the feet are two as members but one in respect to use, the arms one in respect to action, and the feet one in respect to walking. So with the other pairs with man. All these have reference to good and truth, the organ or member on the right to good, and that on the left to truth. It is the same with a husband and wife between whom there is a true marriage love; they are two in respect to their bodies but one in respect to life; consequently in heaven the married pair are not called two angels but one. All this makes clear that through marriage man becomes a form of love, and thus a form of heaven, which is an image and likeness of God.

Man is born into a love of evil and falsity, which love is the love of adultery; and this love cannot be turned about and changed into spiritual love, which is an image of God, and still less into celestial love, which is a likeness of God, except by a marriage of good and truth from the Lord, and not fully except by a marriage of two minds and two bodies. From this it is clear why marriages are heavenly and adulteries infernal; for marriage is an image of heaven, and true marriage love is an image of the Lord, while adultery is an image of hell, and love of adultery is an image of the devil. Moreover, marriage love appears in the spiritual world in form like an angel, and love of adultery in form like a devil. Reader, treasure this up within you, and after death, when you are living as a spirit-man, inquire whether this is true, and you will see. (A.E., n. 984.)

How profane and thus how much to be detested adulteries are can be seen from the holiness of marriages. All things in the human body, from the head to the sole of the feet, both interior and exterior, correspond to the heavens, and in consequence man is a heaven in its least form, and also angels and spirits are in form perfectly human, for they are forms of heaven. All the members devoted to generation in both sexes, especially the womb, correspond to societies of the third or inmost heaven, and for the reason that true marriage love is derived from the Lord's love for the church, and from the love of good and truth which is the love of the angels of the third heaven; therefore marriage love, which descends therefrom as the love of that heaven, is innocence, which is the very being (esse) of every good in the heavens. And for this reason embryos in the womb are in a state of peace, and when they have been born as infants are in a state of innocence; so, too, is the mother in relation to them.

As this is the correspondence of the genital organs in the two sexes, it is evident that by creation they are holy, and therefore they are devoted solely to chaste and pure marriage love, and are not to be profaned by the unchaste and impure love of adultery, by which man converts the heaven in himself into hell; for as the love of marriage corresponds to the love of the highest heaven, which is love to the Lord from the Lord, so the love of adultery corresponds to the love of the lowest hell.

The love of marriage is so holy and heavenly because it has its beginning in the inmosts of man from the Lord Himself, and it descends according to order to the outmosts of the body, and thus fills the whole man with heavenly love and brings him into a form of the Divine love, which is the form of heaven, and is an image of the Lord. But the love of adultery has its beginning in the outmosts of man from an impure lascivious fire there, and thus, contrary to order, penetrates toward the interiors, always into the things that are man's own, which are nothing but evil, and brings these into a form of hell, which is an image of the devil. Therefore a man who loves adultery and turns away from marriage is in form a devil.

As the organs of generation in the two sexes correspond to the societies of the third heaven, and the love of a married pair corresponds to the love of good and truth, so those organs and that love correspond to the Word. The reason is that the Word is Divine truth united to Divine good going forth from the Lord; and this is why the Lord is called "the Word," also why in every particular of the Word there is a marriage of good and truth, or a heavenly marriage. That there is such a correspondence is a mystery not yet known in the world, but it has been made evident and proved to me by much experience.

From this also it is clear how holy and heavenly marriages are in themselves, and how profane and diabolical adulteries are. And for this reason adulterers make no account of Divine truths and thus of the Word, and if they were to speak from the heart they would even blaspheme the holy things that are in the Word. This they do when they have become spirits after death, for every spirit is compelled to speak from the heart, that his interior thoughts may be revealed. (A.E., n. 985.)

As all the delights that man has in the natural world are turned into correspondent delights in the spiritual world, so are the delights of the love of marriage and the delights of the love of adultery. The love of marriage is represented in the spiritual world as a virgin, whose beauty is such as to inspire the beholder with the charms of life; while the love of adultery is represented in the spiritual world by an old woman, whose deformity is such as to inspire in the beholder a coldness and death to every charm of life. Therefore in the heavens the angels are beautiful according to the quality of marriage love in them, and in the hells the spirits are deformed according to the quality of the love of adultery in them. In a word, the angels of heaven have life in their faces, in the movements of the body, and in their speech, in the measure of their marriage love, while the spirits of hell have death in their faces in the measure of their love of adultery.

In the spiritual world the delights of marriage love are represented to the sense by odors from fruits and flowers of various kinds, while the delights of the love of adultery are there represented to the sense by the stenches from excrements and putridities of various kinds. Moreover, the delights of the love of adultery are actually turned into such things, since all things pertaining to adultery are spiritual filth. Therefore from the brothels in the hells stenches pour forth that excite vomiting. (A.E., n. 986.)

How holy in themselves, that is, from creation, marriages are can be seen from the fact that they are the nurseries of the human race; and as the angelic heaven is from the human race they are also the nurseries of heaven; consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the heavens are filled with inhabitants; and as the end of the entire creation is the human race, and thus heaven, where the Divine itself may dwell as in its own and as it were in itself, and as the procreation of mankind according to Divine order is accomplished through marriages, it is clear how holy marriages are in themselves, that is, from creation, and thus how holy they should be esteemed. It is true that the earth might be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well as by marriages, but not heaven; and for the reason that hell is from adulteries but heaven from marriages.

Hell is from adulteries because adultery is from the marriage of evil and falsity, from which hell in the whole complex is called adultery; while heaven is from marriages because marriage is from the marriage of good and truth, from which heaven in its whole complex is called a marriage. That is called adultery where its love, which is called a love of adultery, reigns, whether it be within wedlock or apart from it, and that is called marriage where its love, which is called marriage love, reigns.

When procreations of the human race are effected by marriages in which the holy love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is on earth as it is in the heavens, and the Lord's kingdom on earth corresponds to the Lord's kingdom in the heavens. For the heavens consist of societies arranged according to all the varieties of celestial and spiritual affections, from which arrangement the form of heaven springs, and this pre-eminently surpasses all other forms in the universe. There would be a like form on the earth if the procreations there were effected by marriages in which a true marriage love reigned; for then, however many families might descend in succession from one head of a family, there would spring forth as many images of the societies of heaven in a like variety.

Families would then be like fruit-bearing trees of various kinds, forming as many different gardens, each containing its own kind of fruit, and these gardens taken together would present the form of a heavenly paradise. This is said in the way of comparison, because "trees" signify men of the church, "gardens" intelligence, "fruits" goods of life, and "paradise" heaven. I have been told from heaven that with the most ancient people, from whom the first church on this globe was established, which was called by ancient writers the golden age, there was such a correspondence between families on the earth and societies in the heavens, because love to the Lord, mutual love, innocence, peace, wisdom, and chastity in marriages then prevailed; and it was also told me from heaven that they were then inwardly horrified at adulteries, as at the abominable things in hell. (A.E., n. 987.)

That heaven is from marriages and hell from adulteries has been shown above. What this means shall now be told. The hereditary evils into which man is born are not from Adam's having eaten of the tree of knowledge, but from the adulteration of good and the falsification of truth by parents, thus from the marriage of evil and falsity, from which a love of adultery springs. The ruling love of parents by means of a germ from it passes over into the offspring and is transcribed upon it and becomes its nature. If the love of the parents is a love of adultery it is also a love of evil for falsity and of falsity for evil. From this source man has all evil, and from evil he has hell. All this makes clear that it is from adulteries that man has hell, until he is reformed by the Lord by means of truths and a life according to them. And no one can be reformed unless he shuns adulteries as infernal and loves marriages as heavenly. In this and in no other way is hereditary evil broken and rendered milder in the offspring.

It is to be noted, however, that while from adulterous parents man is born a hell, he is not born for hell but for heaven. For the Lord provides that no one shall be condemned to hell on account of hereditary evils, but only on account of the evils that the man has actually made his own by his life, as can be seen from the lot of infants after death, all of whom are adopted by the Lord, educated under His auspices in heaven, and saved. This makes clear that every man, although from the evils with which he is born he is a hell, is born not for hell but for heaven.

It is the same with every man born from adultery if he does not himself become an adulterer. Becoming an adulterer means living in the marriage of evil and falsity by thinking evils and falsities from a delight in them and by doing them from a love for them. Every man who does this becomes an adulterer. Moreover, it is from Divine justice that no one suffers punishments on account of the evils of his parents, but only on account of his own; therefore the Lord provides that hereditary evils shall not return after death, but only one's own evils, and it is only for those that return that a man is then punished. (A.E., n. 989.)

It has been said that the difference between a love of marriage and a love of adultery is like that between heaven and hell. There is a like difference between the delights of these loves; for delights derive their all from the loves from which they spring. The delights of the love of adultery derive what they are from the delights of doing evil uses, thus of evil-doing; and the delights of the love of marriage from the delights of doing good uses, thus of well-doing. Therefore such as the delight of the evil is in doing evil such is the delight of their love of adultery; because a love of adultery descends therefrom. That it descends from that scarcely anyone can believe; and yet such is its origin. From this it is evident that the delight of adultery ascends from the lowest hell. But the delight of the love of marriage, since it is from the love of the conjunction of good and truth and from the love of doing good, is a heavenly delight; and it comes down from the inmost or third heaven, where love to the Lord from the Lord reigns.

From this it can be seen that the difference between these two delights is like that between heaven and hell. And yet, for a wonder, it is believed that the delight of marriage and the delight of adultery are similar; nevertheless the difference between them is such as has now been described. But the difference can be discerned and felt only by one who is in the delight of marriage love. One who is in that delight plainly feels that in the delight of marriage there is nothing impure or unchaste, thus nothing lascivious; and that in the delight of adultery there is nothing but what is impure, unchaste, and lascivious. He feels that unchastity comes up from beneath, and that chastity comes down from above. But one who is in the delight of adultery is incapable of feeling this, because he feels what is infernal as his heavenly.

From all this it follows that the love of marriage, even in its outmost act, is purity itself and chastity itself; and that the love of adultery in its acts is impurity itself and unchastity itself. Since the delights of these two loves are alike in outward appearance, although inwardly they are wholly unlike, because opposites, the Lord provides that the delights of adultery shall not ascend into heaven and that the delight of marriage shall not descend into hell; and yet that there shall be some correspondence of heaven with prolification in adulteries, though none with the delight itself in them. (A.E., n. 990.)

It has been said that marriage love, which is natural, descends from the love of good and truth, which is spiritual; this spiritual therefore is in the natural love of marriage as a cause is in its effect. So from the marriage of good and truth there comes forth a love of bearing fruit, that is, good through truth and truth from the good; and from that love a love of producing offspring descends, and in that love there is every delight and pleasure.

On the contrary, love of adultery, which is natural, springs from a love of evil and falsity, which is spiritual; consequently this spiritual is in the natural love of adultery as a cause is in its effect. So from the marriage of evil and falsity by love there comes forth a love of bearing fruit, namely, evil through falsity and falsity from evil; and from that love a love of producing offspring in adulteries descends, and in that love there is every delight and pleasure.

There is every delight and pleasure in the love of producing offspring, because all that is delightful, pleasurable, blessed, and happy, in the whole heaven and in the whole world, has been from creation brought together into the effort and thus into the act of bringing forth uses; and these joys increase in an ascending degree to eternity, according to the goodness and excellence of the uses. This make evident why the pleasure of producing offspring, which surpasses every other pleasure, is so great. It surpasses every other because its use, which is the procreation of the human race, and thus of heaven, surpasses all other uses.

From this, too, comes the pleasure and delight of adultery; but as prolification by adulteries corresponds to the bringing forth of evil through falsity and of falsity from evil, that pleasure or delight decreases and becomes vile by degrees until it is changed at last into aversion and disgust. Because, as has been said above, the delight of the love of marriage is a heavenly delight, so the delight of adultery is an infernal delight, so the delight of adultery is from a certain impure fire, which as long as it lasts, counterfeits the delight of the love of good, but in itself it is the delight of the love of evil, which is in its essence the delight of hatred against good and truth. And because this is its origin there is not love between an adulterer and an adulteress except such as the love of hatred is, which is such that they can be in conjunction in externals but not in internals. For in the externals there is something fiery, but in the internals there is coldness; therefore after a short time the fire is extinguished and coldness succeeds, either with impotence or a turning away as from something filthy.

It has been granted me to see that love in its essence, and it was such that within it was deadly hatred, while without it appeared like a fire from burning dung and putrid and stinking matters. And as that fire with its delight burnt out, so by degrees the life of mutual discourse and intercourse expired, and hatred came forth, manifested first as contempt, afterward as aversion, then as rejection, and finally as abuse and contention. And what was wonderful, although they hated each other they could from time to time come together and for the time feel the delight of hatred as the delight of love; but this came from a hankering of the flesh.

What the delight of hatred and thus of doing evil is with those who are in hell can neither be described nor believed. To do evil is the joy of their heart, and this they call their heaven. Their delight in doing evil derives its all from hatred and vengeance against good and truth; when, therefore, they are moved by a deadly and devilish hatred they rage against heaven, especially against those who are from heaven and who worship the Lord; for they violently burn to slaughter them, and because they cannot destroy their bodies they desire to destroy their souls. It is, therefore, the delight of hatred which, becoming a fire in the extremes and being injected into the lusting flesh, becomes for the moment the delight of adultery,—the soul in which the hatred lies concealed then withdrawing itself. It is for this reason that hell is called adultery, and also that adulterers are desperately unmerciful, savage, and cruel. This, then, is the infernal marriage. (A.E., n. 991.)

It has been said that the love of adultery is a fire enkindled from impurities that soon burns out and is turned into cold, and into an aversion corresponding to hatred. But the reverse is true of the love of marriage. This is a fire enkindled from a love of good and truth and from a delight in well-doing, thus from love to the Lord and from love toward the neighbor. This fire, which from its origin is heavenly, is full of innumerable delights, as many, in fact, as are the delights and blessednesses of heaven. It has been told me that the charms and pleasantnesses of that love, which are manifested from time to time, are so many and such that they cannot be numbered or described. Moreover, they are multiplied with continued increase to eternity. These delights have their origin in the fact that the married pair wish to be united into one in respect to their minds, and into such a union heaven breathes from the marriage of good and truth from the Lord in heaven. (A.E., n. 992.)

That true marriage love contains in itself ineffable delights that can neither be numbered nor described can be seen from the fact that this is the fundamental love of all celestial and spiritual loves, since through that love man becomes love; for from it each of the married pair loves the other as good loves truth and truth loves good, thus representatively as the Lord loves heaven and the church. Such a love can come forth only through a marriage in which the man is truth and the wife is good. When a man through marriage has become such a love he is also in love to the Lord and in love toward the neighbor, and thus in a love for all good and in a love for all truth. For from man as a love loves of every kind must proceed; therefore marriage love is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven. And as it is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven it is also the foundation of all the delights and joys of heaven, since every delight and joy is of love. From this it follows that heavenly joys, in their order and in their degrees, have their origins and their causes in marriage love.

From the felicities of marriages a conclusion may be drawn respecting the infelicities of adulteries, namely, that the love of adultery is the fundamental love of all infernal loves, which are in themselves not loves, but hatreds, consequently from the love of adultery hatreds of every kind gush forth, both against God and against the neighbor, and in general against every good and truth of heaven and the church; therefore to it all infelicities belong, for, as has been said before, from adulteries man becomes a form of hell, and from the love of adulteries he becomes an image of the devil. That from the marriages in which there is true marriage love all delights and felicities increase even till they become the delights and felicities of the inmost heaven, and that all that is undelightful and unhappy in the marriages in which love of adultery reigns increases in direfulness even to the lowest hell, can be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 386). (A.E., n. 993.)

True marriage love is from the Lord alone. It is from the Lord alone because it descends from the Lord's love for heaven and the church, and thus from the love of good and truth; for good is from the Lord, and truth is in heaven and the church; and from this it follows that true marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord. And from this it is that no one can be in true marriage love and in its pleasantnesses, delights, blessings, and joys, unless he acknowledges the Lord alone, that is, that the trinity is in Him. One who approaches the Father as a person by Himself, or the Holy Spirit as a person by Himself, and not these as in the Lord, can have no marriage love.

The genuine conjugal principle is given especially in the third heaven, because the angels there are in love to the Lord and acknowledge Him alone as God, and do His commandments. To them doing the commandments is loving the Lord. To them the Lord's commandments are the truths in which they receive Him. There is conjunction of the Lord with them, and of them with the Lord; for they are in the Lord because they are in good, and the Lord is in them because they are in truths. This is the heavenly marriage, from which true marriage love descends. (A.E., n. 995.)

As true marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the Lord it is also innocence. Innocence is loving the Lord as one's Father by doing His commandments and wishing to be led by Him and not by oneself, thus like a little child. As that love is innocence, it is the very being (esse) of all good; and therefore man has so much of heaven in himself, or he is so much in heaven, as he is in marriage love, because he is so far in innocence. It is because true marriage love is innocence that the playfulness between a married pair is like the play of little children; and this is so in the measure in which they love each other, as is evident in the case of all in the first days after the nuptials, when their love emulates true marriage love. The innocence of marriage love is meant in the Word by the "nakedness" at which Adam and his wife blushed not; and for the reason that there is nothing of lasciviousness, and thus nothing of shame, between a married pair, any more than between little children when they are naked together. (A.E., n. 996.)

Since marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the Lord, and thus is innocence, marriage love is also peace, such as angels in the heavens have. For as innocence is the very being (esse) of all good, so peace is the very being (esse) of all delight from good, consequently is the very being (esse) of all joy between the married pair. As, then, all joy is of love, and marriage love is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven, so peace itself has its seat chiefly in marriage love. Peace is bliss of heart and soul arising from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, as well as from conjunction of good and truth, when all conflict and combat of evil and falsity with good and truth has ceased. And as marriage love descends from such conjunction so all the delight of that love descends and derives its essence from heavenly peace. Moreover, this peace shines forth in the heavens as heavenly bliss from the faces of a married pair who are in that love, and who mutually regard each other from that love. But such heavenly bliss, which inmostly affects the delights of loves, and is called peace, can be granted only to those who can be joined together inmostly, that is, as to their very hearts. (A.E., n. 997.)

Man has such and so much of intelligence and wisdom as he has of marriage love. The reason is that marriage love descends from the love of good and truth as an effect does from its cause, or as the natural from its spiritual; and from the marriage of good and truth the angels of the three heavens have all their intelligence and wisdom; for intelligence and wisdom are nothing else than the reception of light and heat from the Lord as a sun, that is, the reception of Divine truth joined to Divine good, and of Divine good joined to Divine truth; thus it is a marriage of good and truth from the Lord.

That it is such has been made clearly evident by angels in the heavens. When these are separated from their consorts they are indeed in intelligence, but not in wisdom; but when they are with their consorts they are also in wisdom; and what seemed wonderful, as they turn the face to their consort they are to the same extent in a state of wisdom; for the conjunction of truth and good is effected in the spiritual world by looking; and the wife there is good and the husband truth; therefore as truth turns itself to good so truth becomes living. By intelligence and wisdom ingenuity in reasoning about truths and goods is not meant, but a capacity to see and understand truths and goods, and this capacity man has from the Lord. (A.E., n. 998.)

True marriage love is a source of power and protection against the hells, as it is against the evils and falsities that ascend from the hells, and for the reason that through marriage love man has conjunction with the Lord, and the Lord alone has power over all the hells; also because through marriage love man has heaven and the church; consequently as the Lord unceasingly protects heaven and the church from the evils and falsities that rise up from the hells, so He protects all who are in true marriage love, because such and no others have heaven and the church. For heaven and the church are a marriage of good and truth, from which is marriage love, as has been said above. And this is why through marriage love man has peace, which is inmost joy of heart from a complete safety from the hells and a protection from infestations of the evil and falsity therefrom. (A.E., n. 999.)

Those who are in true marriage love, when after death they become angels, return to their early manhood and to youth, the males, however spent with age, becoming young men, and the wives, however spent with age, becoming maidens. Each of the married pair returns to the flower and joy of the age when marriage love begins to exalt the life with new delights, and to inspire playfulness for the sake of prolification. The man who while he lived in the world had shunned adulteries as sins, and who has been inaugurated by the Lord into marriage love, comes into this state first outwardly and afterward more and more interiorly to eternity.

As such continue to grow young more interiorly it follows that true marriage love continually increases and enters into its charms and satisfactions, which have been provided for it from the creation of the world, and which are the charms and satisfactions of the inmost heaven, arising from the love of the Lord for heaven and the church, and thus from the love of good for truth and truth for good, which loves are the source of every joy in the heavens. Man thus grows young in heaven because he then enters into the marriage of good and truth; and in good there is the conatus [instinct] to love truth continually, and in truth there is the conatus [instinct] to love good continually; and then the wife is good in form and the husband is truth in form. From that conatus [instinct] man puts off all the austerity, sadness, and dryness of old age, and puts on the liveliness, gladness, and freshness of youth, from which the conatus [instinct] becomes living and a joy.

I have been told from heaven that such then have the life of love, which cannot otherwise be described than as the life of joy itself. That the man who lives in true marriage love in the world comes after death into the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of good and truth springing from the marriage of the Lord with the church, is clearly evident from this, that from the marriages in the heavens, although the married pair have consociations there like those on the earth, children are not born, but instead of children goods and truths, and thus wisdom, as has been said above. And this is why births, nativities, and generations mean in the Word, in its spiritual sense, spiritual births, nativities, and generations, and sons and daughters mean the truths and goods of the church, and other like things are meant by daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law, and fathers-in-law. This also makes clear that marriages on the earth correspond to marriages in the heavens; and that after death man comes into the correspondence, that is, comes from natural bodily marriage into spiritual heavenly marriage, which is heaven itself and the joy of heaven. (A.E., n. 1000.)

From marriage love angels have all their beauty; thus each angel has beauty in the measure of that love. For all angels are forms of their affections, for the reason that it is not permitted in heaven to counterfeit with the face things that do not belong to one's affection; consequently their faces are types of their minds. When, therefore, they have marriage love, and love of wisdom, these loves in them give form to their faces, and show themselves like vital fires in their eyes; to which innocence and peace add themselves, which complete their beauty. Such are the forms of the inmost angelic heaven; and they are truly human forms. (A.E., n. 1001.)

From what has been thus far presented what the good is that results from chastity in marriage can be inferred, consequently what the good works of chastity are that a man does who shuns adulteries as sins against God. The good works of chastity concern either the married pair themselves, or their offspring and posterity, or the heavenly societies.

The good works of chastity that concern the married pair themselves are spiritual and celestial loves, intelligence and wisdom, innocence and peace, power and protection against the hells and against the evils and the falsities therefrom, and manifold joys and felicities to eternity. Those who live in chaste marriages, as before described, have all these.

The good works of chastity that concern the offspring and posterity are that so many and so great evils do not become innate in families. For the ruling love of parents is transmitted to the offspring and sometimes to remote posterity, and becomes their hereditary nature. This is broken and softened in parents who shun adulteries as infernal and love marriages as heavenly. The good works of chastity that concern the heavenly societies are that chaste marriages are the charms of heaven, that they are its nurseries, and that they are its supports. They supply charms to heaven by communications; they are nurseries to heaven by producing offspring; and they are supports to heaven by their power against the hells; for at the presence of conjugal love devilish spirits become furious, insane, and mentally impotent, and cast themselves into the deep. (A.E., n. 1002.)

From the goods enumerated and described that result from chaste marriages it may be concluded what the evils are that result from adulteries; for such evils are the opposites of such goods; that is, in place of the spiritual and celestial loves that those have who live in chaste marriages, there are the infernal and devilish loves that those have who are in adulteries. So in place of the intelligence and wisdom that those have who live chastely in marriages there are the insanities and follies that those have who are in adulteries; in place of the innocence and peace that those have who live in chaste marriages there are the deceit and no peace that those have who are in adulteries; in place of the power and protection against the hells that those have who live chastely in marriages there are the very Asmodean demons and the hells that those have who live in adulteries; in place of the beauty that those have who live chastely in marriages there is the deformity that those have who live in adulteries, which is monstrous according to what they are. Their final lot is that from the extreme impotence to which they are at length reduced they become emptied of all the fire and light of life, and dwell alone in deserts as images of the slothfulness and weariness of their own life. (A.E., n. 1003.)

True marriage love is impossible except between two, like the Lord's love toward heaven, which is one from Him and in Him, or toward the church, which like heaven is one from Him and in Him. All who are in the heavens and who are in the church must be one through mutual love from love to the Lord. An angel in heaven or a man in the church who does not thus make one with the rest is not of heaven or of the church. Moreover, in the whole heaven and in the whole world there are two things to which all things have reference; these two are called good and truth, from which, when joined into one, all things in heaven and in the world have had existence and subsistence. When these are one, good is in truth and truth is in good, and truth is of good and good is of truth; thus one recognizes the other as its mutual and reciprocal, or as an agent recognizes its reagent, each in its turn.

This universal marriage is the source of marriage love between husband and wife. The husband has been so created as to be the understanding of truth, and the wife so created as to be the will of good, and thus the husband to be a truth and the wife a good, as well as that both may be truth and good in form, which form is man, and an image of God.

Since, then, for truth to come to be of good and good to be of truth mutually and reciprocally has its origin in creation, so it is impossible for one truth to be united to two diverse goods, or the reverse; neither is it possible for one understanding to be united to two diverse wills or the reverse; neither for one person who is spiritual to be united to two diverse churches; neither in like manner for one man (vir) to be inmostly united to two women. Inmost union is like that of soul and heart; the soul of the wife is the husband, and the heart of the husband is the wife. The husband communicates and conjoins his soul to the wife by actual love; it is in his seed; and the wife receives it in her heart, and from this the two become one, and then each and all things in the body of the one look to their mutual in the body of the other. This is genuine marriage, which is possible only between two. For it is by creation that all things of the husband, both of his mind and of his body, have their mutual in the mind and in the body of the wife; and thus the most particular things look mutually to each other and will to be united. From this looking and conatus [instinct] marriage love springs.

All things in the body, which are called members, viscera, and organs, are nothing but natural corporeal forms corresponding to the spiritual form of the mind; from this each and all things of the body so correspond to each and all things of the mind that whatever the mind wills and thinks the body at its command instantly brings forth into act. When, therefore, two minds act as one their two bodies are potentially so united that they are no more two but one flesh. To will to become one flesh is marriage love; and such as the willing is, such is that love.

It is allowed to confirm this by a wonderful thing in the heavens. There are married pairs there in such marriage love that the two can be one flesh, and are one whenever they wish, and they then appear as one man. I have seen and talked with such; and they said that they have one life, and are like the life of good in truth and the life of truth in good, and are like the pairs in man, that is, like the two hemispheres of the brain enclosed in one membrane, the two ventricles of the heart within a common covering, likewise the two lobes of the lungs; these, although they are two, yet are one in regard to life and the activities of life, which are uses. They said that their life so conjoined is full of heaven, and is the very life of heaven with its infinite beatitudes, for the reason that heaven that heaven also is such from the marriage of the Lord with it, for all the angels of heaven are in the Lord and the Lord in them.

Furthermore, they said that it is impossible for them to think from any intention about an additional wife or woman, because this would be turning heaven into hell, consequently if an angel merely thinks of such a thing he falls from heaven. They added that natural spirits do not believe such conjunctions as theirs to be possible, for the reason that with those who are merely natural there is no marriage from a spiritual origin, which is of good and truth, but only a marriage from a natural origin; therefore there is no union of minds, but only a union of bodies from a lascivious disposition in the flesh; and this lust is from a universal law impressed upon and thus implanted in everything animate and inanimate from creation. The law is that everything in which there is force wills to produce its like and to multiply its kind to infinity and to eternity. As the posterity of Jacob, who were called the sons of Israel, were merely natural men, and thus their marriages were not spiritual but carnal, so they were permitted on account of the hardness of their hearts to take more wives than one. (A.E., n. 1004.)

But it is to be noted that adulteries are more and less infernal and abominable. The adulteries that spring from more grievous evils and their falsities are more grievous, and those from the milder evils and their falsities are milder; for adulteries correspond to adulterations of good and consequent falsifications of truth; adulterations of good are in themselves evils, and falsifications of truth are in themselves falsities. According to correspondences with these the hells are arranged into genera and species. (A.E., n. 1006.)

In brief, from every conjunction of evil and falsity in the spiritual world a sphere of adultery flows forth, but only from those who are in falsities in regard to doctrine and in evils in regard to life; not from those who are in falsities in regard to doctrine but are in goods in regard to life, for in such there is no conjunction of evil and falsity, but only in the former. That sphere flows forth particularly from priests who have taught falsely and lived wickedly; for these have adulterated and falsified the Word. Although such were not adulterers in the world, adultery is excited by them; but it is an adultery called sacerdotal [priestly] adultery, which is distinguishable from other adulteries. All this makes clear that the origin of adulteries is the love and consequent conjunction of evil and falsity. (A.E., n. 1007.)

Adulteries are less abhorrent to Christians than to the heathen, and even to some barbarous nations, for the reason that at present in the Christian world there is no marriage of good and truth, but a marriage or evil and falsity. For the religion and doctrine of faith separated from good works is a religion and doctrine of truth separated from good; and truth separated from good is not truth, but inwardly regarded is falsity; and good separated from truth is not good, but inwardly regarded is evil. Consequently in the Christian religion there is doctrine of falsity and evil, from which origin a desire and inclination for adultery from hell flow in; and this is why adulteries are believed in the Christian world to be allowable, and are practiced without shame. For, as has been said above, the conjunction of evil and falsity is spiritual adultery, from which according to correspondence natural adultery springs. For this reason "adulteries" and "whoredoms" signify in the Word adulterations of good and falsifications of truth; and for this reason Babylon is called in the Apocalypse a "harlot," and Jerusalem is so called in the Word of the Old Testament; and the Jewish nation was called by the Lord "an adulterous nation," and "from their father the devil." (A.E., n. 1008.)

He that abstains from adulteries from any other motive than because they are sins and are against God is still an adulterer; as for instance when anyone abstains from them from fear of the civil law and its penalties, from fear of the loss of reputation and thus of honor, from fear of resulting diseases, from fear of upbraidings at home from his wife and consequent intranquility of life, from fear of chastisement by the servants of the injured husband, from poverty, or from avarice; from infirmity arising from abuse or from age or impotence or disease; in fact, when one abstains because of any natural or moral law, and does not at the same time abstain because of the Divine law, he is interiorly unchaste and an adulterer, since he none the less believes that adulteries are not sins, and therefore declares them lawful in his spirit, and thus commits them in spirit, although not in the body; consequently after death when he becomes a spirit he speaks openly in favor of them, and commits them without shame.

It has been granted me in the spiritual world to see maidens who regarded whoredoms as wicked because they are contrary to the Divine law, and also maidens who did not regard them as wicked and yet abstained from them because the resulting bad name would turn away suitors. These latter I saw encompassed with a dusky cloud in their descent to those below, while the former I saw encompassed with a shining light in their ascent to those above. (A.E., n. 1009.)

VII. The Seventh Commandment

In what now follows something shall be said about the seventh commandment, which is, "Thou shalt not kill." In all the commandments of the Decalogue, as in all things of the Word, two internal senses are involved (besides the highest which is a third), one that is next to the letter and is called the spiritual moral sense, another that is more remote and is called the spiritual celestial sense.

The nearest sense of this commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," which is the spiritual moral sense, is that one must not hate his brother or neighbor, and thus not defame or slander him; for thus he would injure or kill his reputation and honor, which is the source of his life among his brethren, which is called his civil life, and afterward he would live in society as one dead, for he would be numbered among the vile and wicked, with whom no one would associate. When this is done from enmity, from hatred, or from revenge, it is murder.

Morever, by many in the world this life is counted and esteemed in equal measure with the life of the body. And before the angels in the heavens he that destroys this life is held to be as guilty as if he had destroyed the bodily life of his brother. For enmity, hatred, and revenge breathe murder and will it; but they are restrained and curbed by fear of the law, of resistance and of loss of reputation. And yet these three are endeavors toward murder; and every endeavor is an act, for it goes forth into act when fear is removed. This is what the Lord teaches in Matthew:

"Ye have heard that it was said to them of old, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be liable to the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the judgment; whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be liable to the hell of fire." (v. 21-26)

But the more remote sense of this commandment, Thou shalt not kill, which is called the celestial spiritual sense, is that one shall not take away from man the faith and love of God, and thus his spiritual life. This is murder itself, because from this life man is a man, the life of the body serving this life as the instrumental cause serves its principal cause. Moreover, from this spiritual murder moral murder is derived; consequently he who is in the one is also in the other; for he who wills to take away a man's spiritual life is in hatred against him if he cannot take it away, for he hates the faith and love in him, and thus the man himself. These three, namely, spiritual murder, which pertains to faith and love, moral murder, which pertains to reputation and honor, and natural murder, which pertains to the body, follow in a series one from the other, like cause and effect. (A.E., n. 1012.)

As all who are in hell are in hatred against the Lord, and thus in hatred against heaven, for they are against goods and truths, so hell is the essential murderer or the source of essential murder. It is the source of essential murder because man is man from the Lord through the reception of good and truth; consequently destruction of good and truth is destruction of the human itself, thus the killing of man.

That those who are in hell are such has not yet been known in the world, because in those who belong to hell and therefore after death come into hell no hatred against good and truth, or against heaven, or still less against the Lord, is evident. For everyone while he lives in the world is in externals; and these externals are taught and trained from infancy to counterfeit such things as are honest and decorous, right and equitable, and good and true. Nevertheless, hatred lies concealed in their spirit, and this in equal degree with the evil of their life. And as hatred is in the spirit it breaks forth when the externals are laid aside, as is the case after death.

This infernal hatred against all who are in good is deadly hatred because it is hatred against the Lord. This can be seen particularly in their delight in doing evil, which is such as to exceed in degree every other delight, for it is a fire that burns with a lust for destroying souls. Moreover, it has been ascertained that this delight is not from hatred against those whom they attempt to destroy, but from hatred against the Lord Himself. And since man is a man from the Lord, and the human which is from the Lord is good and truth, and since those who are in hell are, from hatred against the Lord, eager to kill the human, which is good and truth, it follows that hell is the source of murder itself. (A.E., n. 1013.)

From what has been said above it can be seen that all who are in evils in respect to life, and in the falsities therefrom, are murderers; for they are enemies and haters of good and truth, since evil hates good and falsity hates truth. The evil man does not know he is in such hatred until he becomes a spirit; then hatred is the very delight of his life. Consequently from hell, where all the evil are, there constantly breathes forth a delight in doing evil from hatred; while from heaven, where all the good are, there constantly breathes forth a delight in doing good from love. Therefore two opposite spheres meet each other in the middle region between heaven and hell, and engage in reciprocal combat. While man lives in the world he is in this middle region. If he is then in evil and in falsities therefrom he passes over to the side of hell, and thus comes into a delight in doing evil from hatred. But if he is in good and in truths therefrom, he passes over to the side of heaven, and thus comes into a delight in doing good from love.

The delight in doing evil from hatred, which breathes forth from hell, is a delight in killing. But as they cannot kill the body they wish to kill the spirit; and to kill the spirit is to take away spiritual life, which is the life of heaven. This makes clear that the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," involves also thou shalt not hate thy neighbor, also thou shalt not hate the good of the church and its truth; for if one hates good and truth he hates the neighbor; and to hate is to wish to kill. This is why the devil, by whom hell in the whole complex is meant, is called by the Lord,

"A murderer from the beginning" (John viii, 44).

Since hatred, which is a desire to kill, is the opposite of love to the Lord and also of love toward the neighbor, and since these loves are what make heaven in man, it is evident that hatred, being thus opposite, is what makes hell in him. Nor is infernal fire anything else than hatred; and in consequence the hells appear to be in a fire with a dusky glow according to the quality and quantity of the hatred, and in a fire with a dusky flame according to the quantity and quality of the revenge from hatred.

Since hatred and love are direct opposites, and since hatred in consequence constitutes hell in man, just as love constitutes heaven in him, so the Lord teaches,

"If thou shalt offer thy gift upon the altar, and shalt there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to they brother, and then coming offer thy gift. Be well disposed toward thine adversary whiles thou art in the way with him; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, Thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing" (Matt. v. 23-26).

To be delivered to the judge, and by the judge to the officer, and by him to be cast into prison, depicts the state of the man who is in hatred after death from his having been in hatred against his brother in the world, "prison" meaning hell, and "paying the uttermost farthing" signifying the punishment that is called the fire everlasting. (A.E., n. 1015.)

Since hatred is infernal fire it is clear that it must be put away before love, which is heavenly fire, can flow in, and by light from itself give life to man; and this infernal fire can in no wise be put away unless man knows whence hatred is and what it is, and afterward turns away from it and shuns it. There is in every man by inheritance a hatred against the neighbor; for every man is born into a love of self and of the world, and in consequence conceives hatred, and from it is inflamed against all who do not make one with him and favor his love, especially against those who oppose his lusts. For no one can love himself above all things and love the Lord at the same time; neither can anyone love the world above all things and love the neighbor at the same time; since no one can serve two masters at the same time without despising and hating the one while he honors and loves the other. Hatred is especially in those who are in a love of ruling over all; with others it is unfriendliness.

It shall be told what hatred is. Hatred has in itself a fire which is an endeavor to kill man. That fire is manifested in anger. There is a seeming hatred and consequent anger in the good against evil; but this is not hatred, but an aversion to evil; neither is it anger, but a zeal for good in which heavenly fire inwardly lies concealed. For the good turn away from what is evil, and are seemingly angry at the neighbor, in order that they may remove the evil; and thus they have regard to the neighbor's good. (A.E., n. 1016.)

When a man abstains from hatred and turns away from it and shuns it as devilish, love, charity, mercy, clemency flow in through heaven from the Lord, and then for the first time the works that he does are works of love and charity; while the works he had done before, however good might be their appearance in the external form, were all works of love of self and of the world, in which hatred lurked whenever they were not rewarded. So long as hatred is not put away so long man is merely natural; and the merely natural man remains in all his inherited evil, nor can he become spiritual until hatred, with its root, which is love of ruling over all, is put away; for the fire of heaven, which is spiritual love, cannot flow in so long as the fire of hell, which is hatred, stands in the way and shuts it out. (A.E., n. 1017.)

VIII. The Eighth Commandment

The eighth commandment of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," shall now be explained. "To bear false witness" signifies in the sense nearest to the letter to lie about the neighbor by accusing him falsely. But in the internal sense it signifies to call what is just unjust, and what is unjust just, and to confirm this by means of falsities; while in the inmost sense it signifies to falsity the truth and good of the Word, and on the other hand to prove a falsity of doctrine to be true by confirming it by means of fallacies, appearances, fabrications, knowledges falsely applied, sophistries, and the like. The confirmations themselves and the consequent persuasions are false witnesses, for they are false attestations.

From this it can be seen that what is here meant is not only false witness before a judge, but even a judge himself who in perverting right makes what is just unjust, and what is unjust just, for he as well as the witness himself acts the part of a false witness. The same is true of every man who makes what is straight to appear crooked, and what is crooked to appear straight; likewise any ecclesiastical leader who falsifies the truth of the Word and perverts its good. In a word, every falsification of truth, spiritual, moral, and civil, which is done from an evil heart, is false witness. (A.E., n. 1019.)

When a man abstains from false testimonies understood in a moral and spiritual sense, and shuns and turns away from them as sins, a love of truth and a love of justice flow in from the Lord through heaven. And when, in consequence, the man loves truth and loves justice he loves the Lord, for the Lord is truth itself and justice itself. And when a man loves truth and justice it may be said that truth and justice love him, because the Lord loves him; and as a consequence his utterances become utterances of truth, and his works become works of justice. (A.E., n. 1020.)

IX: The Ninth and Tenth Commandments

The ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house," is now to be treated of. There are two loves from which all lusts spring and flow forth perpetually like streams from their fountains. These loves are called love of the world and love of self. Lust is a love continually desiring, for what a man loves, that he continually longs for. But lusts belong to the love of evil, while desires and affections belong to the love of good. Now because love of the world and love of self are the fountains of all lusts, and all evil lusts are forbidden in these last two commandments, it follows that the ninth commandment forbids the lusts that flow from love of the world, and the tenth commandment the lusts that flow from love of self. "Not to covet a neighbor's house" means not to covet his goods, which in general are possessions of wealth, and not to appropriate them to oneself by evil arts. This lust belongs to love of the world. (A.E., n. 1021.)

The tenth commandment is "Thou shalt not covet (or try to get possession of) thy neighbor's wife, his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass." These are lusts after what is man's own, because the wife, man-servant, maid-servant, ox, and ass, are within his home, and the things within a man's home mean in the spiritual internal sense the things that are his own, that is, the wife means affection for spiritual truth and good, "man-servant and maid-servant," affection for rational truth and good serving the spiritual, and "ox and ass" affection for natural good and truth. These signify in the Word such affections; but because coveting and trying to get possession of these affections means to wish and eagerly desire to subject a man to one's own authority or bidding, it follows that lusting after these affections means the lusts of the love of self, that is, of the love of ruling, for thus does one make the things belonging to a companion to be his own.

From this it can now be seen that the lust of the ninth commandment is a lust of the love of the world, and that the lusts of the tenth commandment are lusts of the love of self. For, as has been said before, all lusts are of love, for it is love that covets; and as there are two evil loves to which all lusts have reference, namely, love of the world and love of self, it follows that the lust of the ninth commandments has reference to love of the world, and the lust of this commandment to love of self, especially to the love of ruling. (A.E., n. 1022.)

X. The Commandments in General

The commandments of the Decalogue are called the ten words or ten commandments, because "ten" signifies all; consequently the ten words mean all things of the Word, and thus all things of the church in brief. All things of the Word and all things of the church in brief are meant, because there are in each commandment three interior senses, each sense for its own heaven, for there are three heavens. The first sense is the spiritual moral sense; this is for the first or outmost heaven; the second sense is the celestial spiritual sense, which is for the second or middle heaven; and the third sense is the Divine celestial, which is for the third or inmost heaven. There are thus three internal senses in every least particular of the Word. For from the Lord, who is in things highest, the Word has been sent down in succession through the three heavens even to the earth, and thus has been accommodated to each heaven; and therefore the Word is in each heaven and I may say in each angel in its own sense, and is read by them daily; and there are preachings from it, as on the earth.

For the Word is Divine truth itself, thus Divine wisdom, going forth from the Lord as a sun, and appearing in the heavens as light. Divine truth is the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit, for it not only goes forth from the Lord but it also enlightens man and teaches him, as is said of the Holy Spirit. As the Word in its descent from the Lord has been adapted to the three heavens, and the three heavens are joined together as inmosts are with outmosts through intermediates, so, too, are the three senses of the Word; which shows that the Word is given that by it there may be a conjunction of the heavens with each other, and a conjunction of the heavens with the human race, for whom the sense of the letter is given, which is merely natural and thus the basis of the other three senses. That the ten commandments of the Decalogue are all things of the Word in brief can be seen only from the three senses of those commandments, which are as above stated. (A.E., n. 1024).

What these three senses in the commandments of the Decalogue are can be seen from the following summary explanation. The first commandment, "Thou shalt not worship other gods beside Me," involves in the spiritual moral sense that nothing else nor anyone else is to be worshipped as Divine; nothing else, that is, Nature, by attributing to it something Divine of itself; nor anyone else, that is, any vicar of the Lord or any saint. In the celestial spiritual sense it involves that one God only is to be acknowledged, and not several according to their qualities, as the ancients did, and as some heathens do at this day, or according to their works, as Christians do at this day, who make out one God because of creation, another because of redemption, and another because of enlightenment.

This commandment in the Divine celestial sense involves that the Lord alone is to be acknowledged and whorshipped, and a trinity in Him, namely, the Divine itself from eternity, which is meant by the Father, the Divine Human born in time, which is meant by the Son of God, and the Divine that goes forth from both, which is meant by the Holy Spirit. These are the three senses of the first commandment in their order. From this commandment viewed in its threefold sense it is clear that it contains and includes in brief all things that concern the essence of the Divine.

The second commandment, "Thou shalt not profane the name of God," contains and includes in its three senses all things that concern the quality of the Divine, since "the name of God" signifies His quality, which in its first sense is the Word, doctrine from the Word, and worship of the lips and of the life from doctrine; in its second sense it means the Lord's kingdom on the earth and the Lord's kingdom in the heavens; and in its third sense it means the Lord's Divine Human, for this is the quality of the Divine itself.

In the other commandments there are likewise three internal senses for the three heavens; but these, the Lord willing, will be considered elsewhere. (A.E., n. 1025.)

As the Divine truth united to Divine good goes forth from the Lord as a sun, and by this heaven and the world were made (John i. 1, 3, 10), it follows that it is from this that all things in heaven and in the world have reference to good and to truth and to their conjunction in bringing forth something. These ten commandments contain all things of Divine good and all things of Divine truth, and there is also in them a conjunction of these. But this conjunction is hidden; for it is like the conjunction of love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, Divine good belonging to love to the Lord, and Divine truth to love toward the neighbor; for when a man lives according to Divine truth, that is, loves his neighbor, the Lord flows in with Divine good and conjoins Himself. For this reason there were two tables on which these ten commandments were written, and they were called a covenant, which signifies conjunction; and afterward they were placed in the ark, not one beside the other, but one above the other, for a testimony of the conjunction between the Lord and man. Upon one table the commandments of love to the Lord were written, and upon the other table the commandments of love toward the neighbor. The commandments of love to the Lord are the first three, and the commandments of love toward the neighbor are the last six; and the fourth commandment, which is "Honor thy father and thy mother," is the mediating commandment, for in it "father" means the Father in the heavens, and "mother" means the church, which is the neighbor. (A.E., n. 1026.)

Something shall now be said about how conjunction is effected by means of the commandments of the Decalogue. Man does not conjoin himself to the Lord, but the Lord alone conjoins man to Himself, and this He does by man's knowing, understanding, willing, and doing these commandments; and when man does them there is conjunction, but if he does not do them he ceases to will them, and when he ceases to will them he ceases also to understand and know them. For what does willing amount to if man when he is able does not do? Is it not a figment of reason? From this it follows that conjunction is effected when a man does the commandments of the Decalogue.

But it has been said that man does not conjoin himself to the Lord, but that the Lord alone conjoins man to Himself, and that conjunction is effected by doing; and from this it follows that it is the Lord in man that does these commandments. But anyone can see that a covenant cannot be entered into and conjunction be effected by it unless there is some return on man's part, not only in consent but also in acceptance. To this end the Lord has imparted to man a freedom to will and act as if of himself, and such a freedom that man does not know otherwise, when he is thinking about truth and doing good, than that the freedom is in himself and thus from himself. There is this return on man's part in order that conjunction may be effected. But as this freedom is from the Lord, and continually from Him, man must by all means acknowledge that thinking about and understanding truth and willing and doing good are not from himself, but are from the Lord.

Consequently when man through the last six commandments conjoins himself to the Lord as if of himself, the Lord then conjoins Himself to man through the first three commandments, which are that man must acknowledge God, must believe in the Lord, and must keep His name holy. These man does not believe, however much he may think that he does, unless the evils forbidden in the other table, that is, in the last six commandments, he abstains from as sins. These are the things pertaining to the covenant on the part of the Lord and on the part of man, through which there is reciprocal conjunction, which is that man may be in the Lord and the Lord in man (John xiv. 20). (A.E., n. 1027.)

It is said by some that he who sins against one commandment of the Decalogue sins also against the rest, thus that he who is guilty of one is guilty of all. It shall be told how far this is in harmony with the truth. When a man transgresses one commandment, assuring himself that it is not a sin, thus offending without fear of God, because he has thus rejected the fear of God he does not fear to transgress the rest of the commandments, although he may not do this in act.

For example, when one does not regard as sins frauds and illicit gains, which in themselves are thefts, neither does he regard as a sin adultery with the wife of another, hating a man even to murder, lying about him, coveting his house and other things belonging to him; for when he rejects from his heart in any one commandment the fear of God he denies that anything is a sin; consequently he is in communion with those who in like manner transgress the other commandments. He is like an infernal spirit who is in a hell of thieves; and although he is not an adulterer, nor a murderer, nor a false witness, yet he is in communion with such, and can be persuaded by them to believe that such things are not evils, and can be led to do them. For he who becomes an infernal spirit through the transgression of one commandment, no longer believes it to be a sin to do anything against God or anything against the neighbor.

But the opposite is true of those who abstain from the evil forbidden in one commandment, and who shun and afterward turn away from it as a sin against God. Because such fear of God, they come into communion with angels of heaven, and are led by the Lord to abstain from the evils forbidden in the other commandments and to shun them, and finally to turn away from them as sins; and if perchance they have sinned against them, yet they repent and thus by degrees are withdrawn from them. (A.E., n. 1028.)

Part Third—PROFANATIONS OF GOOD AND TRUTH

I. Goods and Truths and Their Opposites

The Divine good that goes forth from the Lord is united with His Divine truth, as heat from the sun is with light in the time of spring. But angels, who are recipients of the Divine good and Divine truth going forth from the Lord, are distinguished as celestial and spiritual. Those who receive more of the Lord's Divine good than of His Divine truth are called celestial angels; because these constitute the kingdom of the Lord that is called the celestial kingdom. But the angels who receive more of the Lord's Divine truth than of his Divine good are called spiritual angels, because of these the Lord's spiritual kingdom consists. This makes clear that goods and truths have a twofold origin, namely, a celestial origin and a spiritual origin. Those goods and truths that are from a celestial origin are the goods and truths of love to the Lord; while those goods and truths that are from a spiritual origin are the goods and truths of love toward the neighbor. The difference is like that between higher and lower, or between inner and outer; thus like that between things that are in a higher or inner degree, and those that are in a lower or outer degree; and what this difference is can be seen from what has been said in the work on Heaven and Hell about the three degrees of the heavens, and thus of the angels and their intelligence and wisdom (H.H., n. 33, 34, 38, 39, 208, 209, 211, 435). (A.E., n. 1042.)

As the heavens are divided into two kingdoms, namely, into a celestial kingdom and a spiritual kingdom, so are the hells divided into two domains opposite to those kingdoms. The domain opposite to the celestial kingdom is called devilish, and the domain opposite to the spiritual kingdom is called infernal. These domains are distinguished in the Word by the names Devil and Satan. There are two domains in the hells, because the heavens and the hells are opposite to each other; and opposite must fully correspond to opposite that there may be equilibrium. For the springing forth and permanence of all things, both in the natural world and in the spiritual world, depend upon an exact equilibrium between two activities that are opposite; and when these act against each other manifestly, they act by forces, but when not manifestly they act by endeavors (canatus). By means of equilibriums all things in both worlds are preserved; without this all things would perish. In the spiritual world the equilibrium is between good from heaven and evil from hell; and thus between truth from heaven and falsity from hell. For the Lord arranges unceasingly that all kinds and species of good and truth in the heavens shall have opposite to them in the hells evils and falsities of kinds that correspond by opposition; thus goods and truths from a celestial origin have for their opposites evils and falsities that are called devilish; and in like manner goods and truths from a spiritual origin have for their opposites evils and falsities that are called infernal. The cause of these equilibriums is to be found in the fact that the same Divine goods and Divine truths that the angels in the heavens receive from the Lord, the spirits in the hells turn into evils and falsities. All angels, spirits, and men are kept by the Lord in equilibrium between good and evil, and thus between truth and falsity, in order that they may be in freedom; and thus may be led from evil to good and from falsity to truth easily and as if by themselves, although in fact they are led by the Lord. For the same reason they are led in freedom from good to evil, and from truth to falsity, and this, too, as if by themselves, although the leading is from hell. (A.E., n. 1043.)

II. The First Kind of Profanation

Profanations are of many kinds. The most grievous kind is when one acknowledges and lives according to the truths and goods of the Word, of the church, and of worship, and afterward denies them and lives contrary to them, or even lives contrary to them and does not deny them. Such profanation effects a conjunction and coherence of good with falsity, and of truth with evil, and from this it comes to pass that man is at the same time in heaven and in hell; consequently, when heaven wills to have its own, and hell wills to have its own, and yet they cohere, they are both swept away, and thus the proper human life perishes, and the man becomes like a brute animal, continually delirious, and carried hither and thither by fantasy like a dragon in the air, and in his fantasy shreds and specks appear like giants and crowds, and a little platter like the universe; and so on.

As such have no longer any human life they are not called spirits, but something profane, nor are they called he or she, but it; and when they are seen in the light of heaven they appear like dried skeletons. But this kind of profanation is rare, since the Lord provides against a man's entering into a belief in truth and a life of good unless he can be kept in them continually even to the end of his life. (A.E., n. 1047.)

It has been said that the most grievous kind of profanation is when the truths of the Word are acknowledged in faith and confirmed in the life, and man afterward recedes from faith and lives wickedly, or if he does not recede from faith he nevertheless lives wickedly. But one who is in faith and in a life according to it from childhood to youth, and afterward in adult age recedes from faith and from a life of faith, does not profane, for the reason that the faith of childhood is a faith of the memory, and is the master's faith in the child; while the faith of adult age is a faith of the understanding, and thus a man's own faith. This faith a man can profane if he recedes from it and lives contrary to it, but not the former. For nothing enters the life of a man and affects it except what comes into the understanding and from that into the will; and a man does not think from his own understanding and act from his own will until he arrives at adult age. Before that he has thought merely from knowledge and acted merely from obedience; and this does not make a part of his life, and therefore cannot be profaned.

In a word, whatever a man thinks, speaks, and does, from the understanding with the will favoring it, this belongs to his life or comes to be of his life; and if this is holy it is profaned by his receding. But the profanations of this kind are more or less grievous according to the quality of the truth and the consequent faith, and according to the quality of the good and the consequent life, and according to the quality of the withdrawal from these; and therefore there are many specific differences in this profanation. (A.E., n. 1049.)

Why the state of profaners after death is so horrible shall be disclosed. Man has two minds, a natural and a spiritual. The natural mind is opened to him by knowledges (scientiae et cognitiones) of truth and good, and the spiritual mind is opened by a life according to these; and this is effected in those who know, acknowledge, and believe the truths of the Word and live according to them. In others that mind is not opened. When the spiritual mind has been opened, the light of heaven, which is Divine truth, flows through it into the natural mind, and there arranges truths in a corresponding order. Therefore when a man passes over into a contrary state, and either in faith or life denies the truths of the Word that he has previously acknowledged, the things that are in the natural mind no longer correspond with those that are in the spiritual mind; consequently heaven with its light flows in through the spiritual mind into non-corresponding things, or into things opposite to those that correspond in the natural man; and from this a fantasy arises that is so direful that they seem to themselves to fly in the air like dragons, while shreds and specks appear to them like giants and crowds, and a little ball like the whole globe, and other like things. The reason of this is that they have heaven in the spiritual mind and hell in the natural mind, and when heaven, which is in the spiritual mind, acts into hell, which is in the natural mind, such things appear. And as this destroys all things pertaining to the understanding, and the will with the understanding, the man comes to be no longer a man. And this is why a profaner is no longer called a man, nor he or she, but it, for he is a brute. (A.E., n. 1050.)

This kind of profanation exists especially in those who acknowledge the Lord and His Divine, and the Word and its holiness; and for the reason that the Lord alone by means of truths from the Word opens heaven to the man who lives according to those truths; and unless heaven is opened such profanation is not possible. And this shows why the Gentiles, who are ignorant of the Lord and know nothing about the Word, cannot bring upon themselves such profanation; neither can the Jews, for they deny the Lord from their infancy, and heaven is not opened to them by means of the Word; neither can the impious who have been such from childhood; for, as has been said, those only profane who believe rightly and live rightly, and afterward believe wrongly and live wrongly. Besides this kind of profanation there are other kinds that shall be treated of. (A.E., n. 1051.)

III. The Second Kind of Profanation

There is another kind of profanation of holy things that those come into who have supremacy as their end, and regard the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, as means. The Divine order is that heaven and the church, and consequently the holy things of these, be the end, and supremacy the means for promoting that end. For when holy things are the end and supremacy the means, the Lord is worshipped and adored; but when supremacy is the end and holy things the means, man instead of the Lord is worshipped and adored. For the means look to the end as servants look to their master, and the end looks to the means as a master looks to his servants; consequently as a master esteems and loves his servants according to the compliance they render to his will, so a man who has supremacy as his end esteems and loves the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, according to the compliance they render to his end, which is supremacy. And on the other hand, as a lord despises and dismisses servants and takes others in their place when they are not subservient to his will, so a man who has supremacy as his end despises and rejects the holy things of the church, and takes other things in their place when they are not subservient to his end, which is supremacy.

From this it is clear that in those who have supremacy as their end, holy things are of no account except so far as they are subservient to the end, and also that they are not holy, but are profane when they are subservient to this end; and for the reason that the end, when it is supremacy, is the man himself, and as this end is love of self it is the man's own (proprium); and man's own when viewed in itself is nothing but evil, and indeed is profane, and the end joins to itself the means that they may be as one. In this kind of profanation are all those who are in sacred ministries, and who are seeking by means of the holy things of the church to gain honor and glory, and these and not use, which is the salvation of souls, are what give them joy of heart. (A.E., n. 1053.)

Those who are in this kind of profanation cannot do otherwise than adulterate the goods of the Word and falsify its truths, and thus pervert the holy things of the church; for these are not in accord with the end, which is the supremacy of man over them, for they are Divine things that cannot be mere servants; therefore from necessity, that the means may be in accord with the end, goods are turned into evils, truths into falsities, and thus holy things into things profane, and this in an increasing degree as the supremacy, which is the end, is increased.

That this is so can be clearly seen from the Babylon of the present day, to which the holy things of the Word, of the church and of worship, are means, and supremacy is the end. So far as they have magnified supremacy they have minimized the holiness of the Word, and have actually exalted above it the holiness of the Pope's decrees; they have claimed to themselves power over heaven, and even over the Lord Himself, and they have instituted the idolatrous worship of men, both living and dead, and this until there is nothing left of Divine good and Divine truth.

That the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, have been so changed is of the Lord's Divine providence; not of His providence that this should be done, but of His providence that when men wish to rule and do rule by means of the holy Divine things, they should choose falsity in place of truth and evil in place of good, for otherwise they would defile holy things, and render them abominable before angels; but when holy things no longer exist this cannot be done. Take as an example what has been done with the Holy Supper instituted by the Lord: they have separated the bread and the wine, giving the bread to the people and drinking the wine themselves. For "bread" signifies good of love to the Lord, and "wine" the truth of faith in Him; and good separated from truth is not good, nor is truth separated from good truth, for truth is truth from good, and good is good in truth. And so in other things. (A.E., n. 1054.)

Those who are in the love of self, and from that in the love of ruling, and who covet, acquire, and afterward exercise supremacy by means of the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, are those who profane. For the delight of the love of ruling for self's sake, that is, for the sake of eminence, and consequent homage and a kind of worship of self, is an infernal delight. Moreover, this prevails in hell, for in hell everyone wills to be the greatest, while in heaven everyone wills to be the least; and to rule over holy things from an infernal delight is to profane them.

But this second kind of profanation of the holy things of the church is not like the former kind of the profanation of them. Those fall into the former kind in whom a communication with heaven has been effected by the opening of their spiritual mind; while this second kind of profanation those fall into in whom the spiritual mind has not been opened, or communication with heaven effected through it. For so long as the delight of the love of ruling resides in man, that mind cannot be opened, and communication with heaven is not possible to him.

Moreover, the lot of these profaners after death differs from the lot of the former. The former, as has been said, are in an unceasing delirium of fantasy; but these hate the Lord, hate heaven, hate the Word, hate the church, and hate all its holy things; and they come into such hatred because their dominion is taken away from them, and thus their state is changed into its opposite. They appear like something fiery, and their hell appears like a conflagration; for infernal fire is nothing else than a lust for ruling from love of self. These are among the worst, and are called devils, while the others are called satans. (A.E., n. 1055.)

The love of ruling by the holy things of the church as means wholly shuts up the interiors of the human mind from the inmosts toward the outmosts, according to the kind and strength of that love. But to make clear that they are shut up, something shall first be said about the interiors belonging to the human mind. Man has a spiritual mind, a rational mind, a natural mind, and a sensual mind. By means of the spiritual mind man is in heaven and is a heaven in its least form. By means of the natural mind he is in the world and is a world in its least form. Heaven in man communicates with the world in him by means of the rational mind, and with the body by means of the sensual mind. The sensual mind is the first to be opened in man after his birth; after that the natural mind, and as he seeks to become intelligent the rational mind, and as he seeks to become wise the spiritual mind. And at length, as man becomes wise the spiritual mind becomes to him as the head, and the natural mind as the body, and the rational mind serves as a neck to join this to the head, and then the sensual mind becomes like the sole of the foot.

In little children the Lord so arranges all these minds by means of the inflow of innocence from heaven that they can be opened. But with those who begin from childhood to be inflamed with the lust of ruling through the holy things of the church as means, the spiritual mind is wholly shut; so, too, is the rational mind, and finally the natural mind, even to the sensual mind, or as it is said in heaven, even to the nose. And thus men become merely sensual, and are the most stupid of all in things spiritual and thus in things rational, and the most crafty of all in worldly and thus in civil matters. That they are so stupid in spiritual things they do not themselves know, because in heart they do not believe these things, and because they believe craft to be prudence and cunning to be wisdom. And yet all of this kind differ according to the kind and strength of their lust for ruling and for exercising rule, also according to the kind and strength of the persuasion that they are holy, and according to the kind of good and truth from the Word that they profane. (A.E., n. 1056.)

Profaners of this kind are stupid and foolish in spiritual things, but are crafty and keen in worldly things, because they make one with the devils in hell, and because, as has been said above, they are merely sensual, and are therefore in what is their own (proprium), which draws its delight of life from the unclean effluvia that exhale from waste matters in the body, and that are emitted from dunghills; and these cause a swelling of their breasts when their pride is active and the titillation of these cause delight. That such is the source of their delight is made evident by their delights after death when they are living as spirits; for then more than the sweetest odors do they love the rank stenches arising from the gases of the belly and from outhouses, which to their smell are more fragrant than thyme. The approach and touch of these close up the interiors of their mind, and open the exteriors pertaining to the body, from which come their quickness in worldly things and their dullness in spiritual things.

In a word, the love of ruling by means of the holy things of the church corresponds to filth, and its delight to a stench indescribable by words, and at which angels shudder. Such is the exhalation from their hells when they are opened; but they are kept closed because of the oppression and occasional swooning which they produce. (A.E., n. 1057.)

IV. The Third Kind of Profanation

In the third kind of profanation are those who with devout gestures and pious utterance worship Divine things, and yet in heart and spirit deny them; thus who venerate the holy things of the Word and of the church and of worship outwardly or before the world, and yet at home or in secret deride them. When those of this class are in a holy external, and are teaching in a church or conversing with the common people, they do not know otherwise than that what they are saying is so; but as soon as they return into themselves their thought is reversed. Because these are such they can counterfeit angels of light, although they are angels of darkness.

From this it is clear that this kind of profanation is a hypocritical kind. They are not unlike images made of filth and gilded, or like fruits rotten within but with a beautiful skin, or like nuts eaten by worms within but with a whole shell. From all this it is evident that their internal is diabolical, and therefore that their holy external is profane.

Such are some of the rulers in the Babylon of the present day, and many of a certain society in Babylon, as those of them know who claim to themselves dominion over the souls of men and over heaven. For to believe as they do, that power has been given them to save and to admit into heaven, is the very opposite of acknowledging in heart that there is a God, and for the reason that man, in order to be saved and admitted into heaven, must look to the Lord and pray to Him. But a man who believes that such power has been given him looks to himself, and believes the things that are the Lord's to be in himself; and to believe this, and at the same time to believe that there is a God or that God is in him, is impossible. For a man to believe that God is in him when he thinks himself to be above the holy things of the church, and heaven to be in his power, is like ascribing that belief to Lucifer, who burns with the fire of ruling over all things. If such a man thinks that God is in him he cannot think this otherwise than from himself; and thinking from himself that God is in him is thinking not that God is in him, but that he himself is God, as is said of Lucifer in Isaiah (xiv. 13, 14), by whom is there meant Babylon, as is evident from the fourth and twenty-second verses of the same chapter.

Moreover, such a man of himself, when power is given him, shows forth what he is of himself, and this by degrees according to his elevation. From this it is clear that such are atheists, some avowedly, some clandestinely, and some ignorantly. And as they regard dominion as an end, and the holy things of heaven and the church as means, they counterfeit angels of light in face, gesture, and speech, and thus profane holy things. (A.E., n. 1058.)

Those who are in this kind of profanation, which is hypocritical, differ in this respect, that there are those who have less ability and those who have more ability to conceal the interiors of their mind, that they may not be disclosed, and to shape the exteriors, which pertain to face and mouth, into an expression of sanctity. When such after death become spirits they appear encompassed with a cloud, in the midst of which is something black, like an Egyptian mummy. But as they are raised up as it were into the light of heaven, that bright cloud changes to a diabolical duskiness, not from any shining through it, but from a breathing through it, and the consequent disclosing. In hell, therefore, these are black devils. The differences in this kind of profanation are known from the blackness, as being more or less horrifying. (A.E., n. 1059.)

V. The Fourth and Fifth Kinds of Profanation

A fourth kind of profanation is to live a life of piety, by frequenting churches, listening devoutly to preachings, observing the sacrament of the Supper, and the other appointed forms of worship, reading the Word at home, and sometimes books of devotion, and habitually praying morning and evening, and yet making the precepts of life that are in the Word, particularly in the Decalogue, of no account, by acting dishonestly and unjustly in business and in judgments for the sake of gain or influenced by friendship; committing whoredom and adultery when lust inflames and urges; burning with hate and revenge against those who do not favor their gain or honor; lying, and speaking evil of the good, and good of the evil, and so on. When a man is in these evils, and has not been purified from them by turning away from them and hating them, and still worships God devoutly, as has been said above, then he profanes; for he mingles his internals which are impure with externals that are pious, and these he defiles.

For there can be nothing external that does not proceed and have existence from internals. The actions and speech of man are his externals, and thoughts and volitions are his internals. Man can speak only from thought, and can act only from volition. When the life of the thoughts and of the will is infected with craft, cunning, and violence, it must needs be that these, as interior evils of the life, will flow into the speech and actions pertaining to worship and piety, and defile them as filth defiles waters.

This worship is what is meant by "Gog and Magog" (Apoc. xx. 8), and is thus described in Isaiah:

"What is the multitude of sacrifices unto Me, meat offerings, incense, sabbaths, new moons, appointed feasts, and prayers, when your hands are full of bloods? Wash you, make you clean, put away the wickedness of your doings . . . ; cease to do evil" (i. 11-19).

This kind of profanation is not hypocritical like the former, because the man who is in it believes that he will be saved by external worship separate from internal, and does not know that the worship by which he can be saved is external worship from internal. (A.E., n. 1061.)

Those who give themselves up wholly to a life of piety, who walk continually in pious meditations, who pray frequently upon their knees, and talk about salvation, faith, and love at all times and in all places, and yet do not shun frauds, adulteries, hatreds, blasphemies, and the like, as sins against God, nor fight against them, such are the kind that are more fully profaners; for by the impurities of their minds they defile the piety of their lips, especially when they renounce the world and lead solitary lives. Of this kind there are some who are still more profaners; these are like those just described, but by reasonings and by the Word falsely interpreted they defend their vices as adulteries and lusts that belong to their nature, and thus to their enjoyment. Such first regard themselves as free from danger, afterward as blameless, and at length as holy; and thus under the veil of sanctity they cast themselves into uncleannesses with which both themselves and their garments are polluted. (A.E., n. 1062.)

To this class of profaners those especially belong who read the Word and know about the Lord; because from the Lord through the Word are all things holy that can be profaned; things not from that source cannot be profaned. That is said to be profane that is the opposite of what is holy, and that offers violence to what is holy and destroys it. From this it follows that those who do not read the Word and do not approach the Lord, as is the case with the Papists, still less those who know nothing about the Lord and the Word, like the Gentiles, do not belong to this class of profaners.

Those who belong to this class of profaners appear after death at first with a face of human color, around which float many wandering stars; and those of them that had been leaders sometimes appear shining about the lips. But as they are brought into the light of heaven, the stars and the shining of the lips vanish, and the color of the face is changed to black, and likewise their garments. But the blackness of these profaners tends to blue, as the blackness of the other kind of profaners tends to red, for the reason that the latter profane the goods of the Word and of the church, while the others profane the truths of the Word and of the church. For red derives from the sun its signification of good, while blue derives from the sky its signification of truth. (A.E., n. 1063.)

The fifth kind of profanation is not like the others that have been treated of, for it consists in jesting from the Word and about the Word. For those who make jokes from the Word do not regard it as holy, and those who joke about it hold it in no esteem. And yet the Word is the very Divine truth of the Lord with men, and the Lord is present in the Word, and heaven also; for every particular of the Word communicates with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; therefore to jest from the Word or about the Word is to bespatter the holy things of heaven with the dust of the earth. (A.E., n. 1064.)

Part Fourth—THE DIVINE WORD

I. The Holiness of the Word

It was said of old that the Word is from God, Divinely inspired, and thus holy; and yet it has not been known heretofore where in the Word the Divine is. For the Word appears in the letter like a common writing in a foreign style, and a style not so sublime or so lucid as appears in the writings of the present ages. For this reason a man who worships nature more than God, or in place of God, and thus thinks from himself and what is his own (proprium), and not from the Lord out of heaven, can easily fall into error respecting the Word, and into contempt for it, saying in his heart when he reads it, What is this, or what is that? Is this Divine? Can God who has infinite wisdom speak in this manner? Where is its holiness, and from what source, unless from the religion whose ministers it serves? and other like things. But that it may be known that the Word is Divine, not only in every meaning but also in every expression, its internal sense, which is spiritual, and which is in its external sense, which is natural, as a soul in its body, has now been revealed. This sense can bear witness to the Divinity and consequent holiness of the Word; and can convince even the natural man that the Word is Divine if he is willing to be convinced. (A.E., n. 1065.)

In brief, the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels and enlightens men. As Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and as what goes forth is Himself out of Himself, the same as light and heat go forth from the sun and are the sun, that is, are of the sun out of it, and as the Word is Divine truth, it is therefore the Lord, as it is called in John (i. 1-3, 14). In as much as Divine truth, which is the Word, in its descent into the world from the Lord, has passed through the three heavens, it has become accommodated to each heaven, and lastly to men also in the world. This is why there are in the Word four senses, one outside of the other from the highest heaven down to the world, or one within the other from the world up to the highest heaven. These four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural from the celestial and spiritual, and the merely natural. This last is for the world, the next for the lowest heaven, the spiritual for the second heaven, and the celestial for the third. These four senses differ so greatly from one another that when one is exhibited beside the other no connection can be recognized; and yet they make one when one follows the other; for one follows from the other as an effect from a cause, or as what is posterior from what is prior; consequently as an effect represents its cause and corresponds to its cause, so the posterior sense corresponds to the prior; and thus it is that all four senses make one through correspondences.

From all this these truths follow. The outmost sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter, and the fourth in order, contains in itself the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens. These three senses are unfolded and exhibited in the heavens when a man on the earth is reverently reading the Word. Therefore the sense of the letter of the Word is that from which and through which there is communication with the heavens, also from which and through which man has conjunction with the heavens. The sense of the letter of the Word is the basis of Divine truth in the heavens, and without such a basis Divine truth would be like a house without a foundation; and without such a basis the wisdom of the angels would be like a house in the air. It is the sense of the letter of the Word in which the power of Divine truth consists. It is the sense of the letter of the Word through which man is enlightened by the Lord, and through which he receives answers when he wishes to be enlightened. It is the sense of the letter of the Word by which everything of doctrine on the earth must be established. In the sense of the letter of the Word is Divine truth in its fullness. In the sense of the letter of the Word Divine truth is in its holiness. (A.E., n. 1066.)

That the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels and enlightens men, can be perceived or seen only by a man enlightened. For to a worldly man, whose mind has not been raised above the sensual sphere, the Word in the sense of the letter appears so simple that scarcely anything could be more simple; and yet Divine truth, such as it is in the heavens and from which angels have their wisdom, lies concealed in it as in its sanctuary. For the Word in the letter is like the adytum [sanctum] in the midst of a temple covered with a veil, within which lie deposited mysteries of heavenly wisdom such as no ear hath heard. For in the Word and in every particular of it there is a spiritual sense, and in that sense a Divine celestial sense, which regarded in itself is Divine truth itself, which is in the heavens and which gives wisdom to angels and enlightenment to men.

The Divine truth that is in the heavens is light going forth from the Lord as a Sun, which is Divine love. And as the Divine truth that goes forth from the Lord is the light of heaven, so it is the Divine wisdom. It is this that illuminates both the minds and the eyes of angels, and it is this also that enlightens the minds of men, but not their eyes, and that enables them to understand truth and also to perceive good when man reads the Word from the Lord and not from self; for he is then a participator with angels, and has an inward perception like the spiritual perception of angels; and that spiritual perception which the angel-man has flows into his natural perception which is his own while in the world and enlightens it. Consequently the man who reads the Word from an affection for truth has enlightenment through heaven from the Lord. (A.E., n. 1067.)

II. The Lord is the Word

Since the Word is Divine truth, and this goes forth from the Lord's Divine Esse (being), as light from the sun, it follows that the Lord is the Word because He is Divine truth. The Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth, and this goes forth His Divine Esse (being), which is Divine love, because the Divine love was in Him when in the world as a soul is in its body; and as Divine truth goes forth from Divine love as light goes forth from the sun, as has been said, so the Lord's Human in the world was Divine truth going forth from the Divine love that was in Him. That the Divine itself, which is called "Jehovah" and the "Father," and which is the Divine love, was in the Lord from conception, is evident in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In Matthew from these words:

When Mary the mother of Jesus had been betrothed to Joseph, "before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." And the angle said to Joseph in a dream, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" . . . This came to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet: . . . "Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son." And Joseph "knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son; and he called His name Jesus" (i. 18-25).

And in Luke from these words:

The angel said to Mary, "Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus; He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High." . . . Then Mary said unto the angel, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the Holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (i. 30-35).

It was because He was conceived of Jehovah that He is so frequently
called in the Word "the Son of God," and Jehovah is called His "Father."
Jehovah in respect to His Esse (being) is Divine love, and in respect to
His Existere (outgo) He is Divine good united to Divine truth.

From this it can be seen what is meant by:

The Word that was with God and that was God, and also was the light that enlighteneth every man (John i. 1-10), namely, that it was Divine truth going forth from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect to His Existere (outgo). That the Lord in respect to His Existere was Divine truth, and that this was His Divine Human, because this came forth from His Divine Esse as a body from its soul, these words in John clearly certify:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father (i. 14).

"The Word" is the Divine truth, which also is "glory"; "flesh" means the Divine Human; "the only begotten of the Father" means the springing forth or going forth from the Divine Esse in Him. (A.E., n. 1069.)

But as the world does not know how the words in John (i. 1, 2, 14) that the Lord is the Word, are to be understood, this shall be further explained. It is known in the church that God is good itself and truth itself, and thus that all the good that an angel has and that a man has is from God, and likewise all truth. Now since the Lord is God He is also Divine good and Divine truth; and this is what is meant by "the Word, that was with God, and was God," and also was "the light that enlighteneth every man," and that also "became flesh," that is, Man in the world.

That when the Lord was in the world He was the Divine truth, which is the Word, He Himself teaches in many passages where He calls Himself "the Light," also where He calls Himself "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"; and where He says that "the Spirit of truth" goes forth from Him. "The Spirit of truth" is the Divine truth. When the Lord was transfigured He represented the Word, "His face that shone as the sun" represented its Divine good; and His garments, which were "bright as the light" and "white as snow," represented its Divine truth. "Moses and Elijah," who then talked with the Lord, also signified the Word, "Moses" the historical Word and "Elijah" the prophetic Word. Moreover, all things of the Lord's passion represented the kind of violence that the Jewish nation offered to the Word. Again, the Lord from Divine truth, which He is, is called "God," "King," and "Angel," and is meant by "the rock in Horeb," and "the rock" where Peter is spoken of. All this makes clear that the Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth. The Word in the letter, which is with us, is the Divine truths in outmosts. (A.E., n. 1070.)

As it cannot but transcend the comprehension that the Lord in relation to His Human in the world was the Word, that is, Divine truth; according to these words in John,

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (i. 14), it shall be explained, as far as possible, to the comprehension. It can be said of every regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, since the thought which belongs to his understanding is from truths, and the affection which belongs to his will is from goods. Whether you say, therefore, that a man is his own understanding and his own will, or that a man is his own truth and his own good, it amounts to the same thing. The body is mere obedience; for it speaks that which man thinks from the understanding, and does that which he wills from affection. Thus these things and the body mutually correspond and make one, like an effect and its effecting cause; and these taken together constitute the human.

As it can be said of the regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, so it can be said of the Lord as Man, that He is truth itself or Divine truth, and good itself or Divine good. All this makes evident the truth that the Lord in relation to His Human in the world was Divine truth, that is the Word; and that everything that He then said was Divine truth, which is the Word; and that since the time when he went to the Father, that is, became one with the Father, the Divine truth going forth from Him is the Spirit of truth, which goes out and goes forth from Him, and at the same time from the Father in Him. (A.E., n. 1071.)

III. The Lord's Words Spirit and Life

That the Word is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts is not evident to the man who leads himself, but is evident to the man whom the Lord leads. For the man who leads himself sees only the external of the Word, and forms his opinion of it from its style; but the man whom the Lord leads forms his opinion of the external of the Word from the holiness that is in it.

The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in which are delicacies and charms of every kind, delicacies from the fruits, and charms from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of the forest, and near them rivers. The man who leads himself forms his opinion of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference, where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads forms his opinion of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are. The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the circumference, and looks away from it to the world.

Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp, and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ that germinates in good soil. Again, the Word is also like a most beautiful infant, about which, except the face, there are wrappings upon wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on the earth. As the Word is such it is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts. (A.E., n. 1072.)

The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that goes forth from the Lord, and is called Divine truth; and when this descended to men in the world it passed through the heavens in their order according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was recorded in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels there. Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to men, and there it was recorded and made known in adaptation to man's understanding and apprehension. This, therefore, is the sense of its letter, and in this lies Divine truth such as it is in the three heavens, stored up in distinct order.

From this it is clear that the entire wisdom of the angels in the three heavens has been imparted by the Lord to our Word, and in its inmost there is the wisdom of the angels of the third heaven, which is incomprehensible and ineffable to man, because full of mysteries and treasures of Divine verities. These lie stored up in each particular and in all the particulars of our Word. And as Divine truth is the Lord in the heavens, so the Lord Himself is present, and may be said to dwell in all the particulars and each particular of His Word, as He does in His heavens; and in the same way as He has said of the ark of the covenant, in which were deposited only the Ten Commandments written on the two tables, the first-fruits of the Word, for He said that He would speak there with Moses and Aaron, that He would be present there, that He would dwell there, and that it was His holy of holies, and His dwelling place as in heaven. (A.E., n., 1073.)

As the Divine truth, in passing from the Lord Himself through the three heavens down to men in the world, is recorded and becomes the Word in each heaven, so the Word is a bond of union of the heavens with each other, and a bond of union of the heavens with the church in the world. For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in perfection of glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are; consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens into the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord's Divine and the holiness of the Word whenever he reads the Word; and so far as such a man loves wisdom he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished, and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:

"The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life" (John vi. 63). "The water that I will give you shall become . . . a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life" (John iv. 14). "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4). "Work . . . for the meat that abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you" (John vi. 27).

Such is the Word. (A.E., n. 1074.)

It has been said that the Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and that the Word is from that, and that through the Word angels and men have wisdom. But so long as it is unknown how Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, this may be said but it cannot be understood. Divine truth, which is the same as Divine wisdom, goes forth from the Lord as light and heat do from the sun. The Lord is Divine love itself, and love appears in the heavens from correspondence as fire, and the Lord's Divine love as a sun, glowing and resplendent like the sun of the world. From that sun, which is high above the heavens where the angels are, and which is Divine love, heat and light go forth; the heat therefrom is Divine good, and the light therefrom is Divine truth. The heat is Divine good, because all heat of life going forth from love is felt as good, for it is spiritual heat; and the light is Divine truth because all light going forth from love is felt as truth, for it is spiritual light; consequently it is from that light that the understanding sees truths, and it is from that heat that the will is sensible of goods; and this is why in the Word love is meant by heavenly fire and wisdom by heavenly light.

It is the same with a man and with an angel. Every angel and man is his own love, and a sphere flowing out from his love encompasses every man and angel. That sphere consists of the good of his love and of the truth of his love, for love gives forth both, as fire gives forth both heat and light; from the will of a man or angel it gives forth good, and from his understanding it gives forth truth. This sphere, when the man or angel is good, has an extension into the heavens in every direction according to the character and amount of the love, and into the hells in every direction when the man or angel is evil. But the sphere of the love of a man or an angel has a finite extension into a few societies only of heaven or hell, while the sphere of the Lord's love, being Divine, has an infinite extension, and creates the heavens themselves. (A.E., n. 1076.)

The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this respect, that in every particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which testifies that the Word is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord, which is Divine good and Divine truth reciprocally united; and also testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven and the church, which also is reciprocal. There is a marriage of good and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal. This reciprocal love the Lord sets forth in John:

"He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him" (vi. 56).

In the same,

"In that day ye shall know, that . . . ye are in Me and I in you. He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; . . . and I will love him" (xiv. 20, 21).

The reciprocality is that such are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, also that whoever loves the Lord, the Lord also will love him. "To have His commandments" is to be in truths, and "to do them" is to be in good.

Reciprocality is also described by the Lord in His union with the
Father, in these words,

"Philip, . . . How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? . . . Believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me" (John xiv. 9-11).

From this reciprocal union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord the reciprocal union of Divine good and Divine truth goes forth; and this goes forth from the Lord's Divine love; and the same is true of the Lord's reciprocal union with heaven and the church, and in general the reciprocal union of good and truth in an angel of heaven and in a man of the church. And as good is of charity and truth is of faith, and as charity and faith make the church, it follows that the church is in a man when there is a reciprocal union of charity and faith in him. Again, as good is of the will and truth is of the understanding, and as the will and understanding make man, it follows that a man is a man according to the union of the will and all things belonging to it with the understanding and all things belonging to it, and this reciprocally. This union is what is called marriage, which from creation is in every particular of heaven and in every particular of the world; and from this is the production and the generation of all things. That in every particular of the Word there is such a marriage that good loves truth and truth loves good, thus mutually and in turn, is disclosed in the spiritual sense of the Word; and it is from this marriage that good and truth are one and not two, and are one when good is of truth and truth is of good. (A.E., n. 1077).

The Word in the sense of the letter appears very simple, and yet there is stored up in it the wisdom of the three heavens, for each least particular of it contains interior and more interior senses; an interior sense such as exists in the first heaven, a still more interior sense such as exists in the second heaven, and an inmost sense such as exists in the third heaven. These senses are in the sense of the letter, one within the other, and are evolved therefrom one after the other, each from its own heaven, when the Word is read by a man who is led by the Lord. These interior senses differ in a degree of light and wisdom according to the heavens, and yet they make one by influx, and thus by correspondences. How they thus make one shall be told in what follows. All this makes clear how the Word was inspired by the Divine, and that it was written from an inspiration to which nothing else in the world can in anywise be compared. The mysteries of wisdom of the three heavens contained in it are the mystical things of which many have spoken. (A.E., n. 1079.)

IV. Influx and Correspondence

It has been said that there is a Word in each heaven and that these Words are in our Word in their order, and that they thus make one by influx and consequent correspondences. Here, therefore, it shall be told what correspondence is and what influx is; otherwise what the Word is inwardly in its bosom, thus in respect to its life from the Lord, which is its soul, cannot be understood.

But what correspondence is and what influx is shall be illustrated by examples. The changes of the face that are called expressions correspond to the affections of the mind; consequently the face changes in respect to its expressions just as the affections of the mind change in respect to their states. These changes in the face are correspondences, as consequently the face itself is; and the action of the mind into it, that the correspondences may be exhibited, is called influx. The sight of man's thought, which is called the understanding, corresponds to the sight of his eyes; and consequently the quality of the thought from the understanding is made evident by the light and flame of the eyes. The sight of the eye is a correspondence, as consequently the eye itself is; the action of the understanding into the eye, by which the correspondence is exhibited, is influx. Active thought, which belongs to the understanding, corresponding to speech, which belongs to the mouth. The speech is a correspondence, likewise the mouth and everything belonging to it, and the action of thought into speech and into the organs of speech is influx. The perception of the mind corresponds to the smell of the nostrils. The smell and the nostrils are correspondences, and the action is influx. For this reason a man who has interior perception is said to have a keen nose, and perceiving a thing is called scenting it out. Hearkening, which means obedience, corresponds to the hearing of the ears; consequently both the hearing and the ears are correspondences, and the action of obedience into the hearing, that a man may raise his ears and attend, is influx; therefore hearkening and hearing are both significative, hearkening and giving ear to anyone meaning to obey, and hearkening and hearing anyone meaning to hear with the ears. The action of the body corresponds to the will, the action of the heart corresponds to the life of the love, the action of the lungs, which is called respiration, corresponds to the life of the faith, and the whole body in respect to all its members, viscera, and organs, corresponds to the soul in respect to all the functions and powers of its life.

From these few examples it can be seen what correspondence is and what influx is; and that when the spiritual, which belongs to the life of man's understanding and will, flows into the acts which belong to his body, it exhibits itself in a natural effigy, and there is correspondence; also that thus the spiritual and the natural act as one by correspondences, like interior and exterior, or like prior and posterior, or like the effecting cause and the effect, or like the principal cause which belongs to man's thought and will, and the instrumental cause which belongs to his speech and action. There is such a correspondence of natural things and spiritual not only in each and every thing of man, but also in each every thing of the world; and the correspondences are produced by an influx of the spiritual world and all things of it into the natural world and all things of it. From all this it can be seen in some measure how our Word, as to the sense of the letter, which is natural, makes one by influx and correspondences with the Words in the heavens, the senses of which are spiritual. (A.E., n. 1080.)

What the Word is in respect to influx and correspondences can now be shown. It is said in John:

"He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should turn themselves and I should heal them" (xii. 40).

The "eyes" that are blinded signify the understanding of truth and belief in it; the "heart" that is hardened signifies the will and love of good; and "to be healed" signifies to be reformed. They were not permitted "to turn themselves and be healed" lest they should commit profanation; for a wicked man who is healed and who returns to his evil and falsity commits profanation; and so it would have been with the Jewish nation. In Matthew:

"Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear" (xiii. 16).

Here, too, the "eyes" signify the understanding of truth and belief in it; so "to see" signifies to understand and believe, and the "ears" signify obedience, thus a life according to the truths of faith, and "to hear" signifies to obey and live. For one is blessed not because he sees and hears, but because he understands, believes, obeys, and lives. In the same,

"The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be sound the whole body is light, if the eye be evil the whole body is darkened. If, therefore, the light . . . be darkness, how great is the darkness" (vi. 22, 23).

Here, again, the "eye" signifies the understanding of truth and belief in it, which is called a lamp from the light of truth that man has from understanding and belief. And because a man becomes wise from understanding and believing in truth, it is said "if the eye be sound the whole body is light." The "body" means the man, and "to be light" means to be wise. But it is the reverse with the "evil eye," that is, understanding and believing in falsity. "Darkness" means falsities, "if the light be darkness" signifies if the truth be false or falsified, and because truth falsified is worse than any other falsity, it is said, "If the light be darkness, how great is the darkness."

These few examples make clear what correspondence is and what influx is, namely, that the eye is a correspondence of the understanding and faith, the heart a correspondence of the will and love, the ears a correspondence of obedience, the lamp and light correspondences of truth, and darkness a correspondence of falsity, and so on; and as the one is spiritual and the other is natural, and the spiritual acts into the natural and forms it to a likeness of itself that it may appear before the eyes or before the world, so that action is influx. Such is the Word in each and every particular. (A.E., n. 1081.)

The spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the natural, in order that the end may become a cause, and the cause become an effect, and thus the end through the cause may present itself in the effect as visible and sensible. This trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists from creation in every heaven. The end is good of love, the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. The producing force is love, and the product therefrom is of love from good by means of truth. The final products, which are in our world, are various, as numerous as the objects are in its three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral. All products are correspondences. As this trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists in each heaven, there must be in each heaven products that are correspondences, and that are like in form and aspect the objects in the three kingdoms of our earth; from which it is clear that each heaven is like our earth in outward appearance, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. Now in order that the Word may be full, that is, may consist of effects in which are a cause and an end, or may consist of uses in which truth is the cause and good is the end and love is the producing force, it must needs consist of correspondences; and from this it follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. What this difference is shall be told elsewhere. (A.E., n. 1082.)

V. The Three Senses in the Word

As there is a trine, one within another, in every last particular of the Word, and this trine is like that of effect, cause, and end, it follows that there are three senses in the Word, one within another, namely, a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial; a natural for the world, a spiritual for the heavens of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and a celestial for the heavens of His celestial kingdom. (That the entire heavens are divided into two kingdoms, the spiritual and the celestial, may be seen in Heaven and Hell, n. 20-28.) Now as there is one sense within another, a first which is the sense of the letter for the natural world, a second which is the internal sense for the spiritual kingdom, and a third which is the inmost for the celestial kingdom, it follows that a natural man draws from it his sense, a spiritual angel his sense, and a celestial angel his sense, thus everyone what is analogous to and in agreement with his own essence and nature. This takes place whenever a man who is led by the Lord is reading the Word.

But let this be illustrated by examples. When this commandment of the Decalogue is read, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother," a man in the world understands by "father and mother" a father and mother on the earth, and also all who are or may be in the place of father or mother; and by "honoring" he understands to hold such in honor. But an angel of the spiritual kingdom understands by "father" the Divine good, and by "mother" the Divine truth, and by "honoring" loving; while an angel of the celestial kingdom understands by "father" the Lord, and by "mother" heaven and the church, and by "honoring" doing.

When the fifth commandment of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal," is read, by "stealing" a man understands stealing, defrauding, and taking away under any pretense his neighbor's goods. But an angel of the spiritual kingdom by "stealing" understands depriving another of his truths and goods by means of falsities and evils, while an angel of the celestial kingdom by "not to steal" understands not to attribute to himself the things that are the Lord's, as the good of love and the truth of faith; for thereby good becomes not good, and truth not truth, because they are from men.

When the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," is read, a man by "committing adultery" understands committing adultery and whoredom, also thinking filthy thoughts, speaking lasciviously, and doing obscene things. But an angel of the spiritual kingdom by "committing adultery" understands falsifying the truths of the Word and adulterating its goods; while an angel of the celestial kingdom by "committing adultery" understands blaspheming against the Lord, heaven, and the church.

When the seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," is read, by "killing" a man understands hating and desiring revenge, even to murder. But an angel of the spiritual kingdom by "killing" understands the killing of a man's soul by stumbling blocks to the life and by reasonings, whereby a man is led into spiritual death, while an angel of the celestial kingdom by "killing" understands seducing a man into believing that there is no God and no heaven and no hell, for thus man's eternal life is destroyed.

When the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," is read, a man by "false witness" understands lying and defamation. But an angel of the spiritual kingdom by "false witness" understands asserting, proving, and persuading that falsity is truth and evil is good, or on the other hand that truth is falsity and good is evil, while an angel of the celestial kingdom by "false witness" understands every falsity against the Lord, and against heaven in favor of hell.

All this makes clear how a man draws and calls forth from the Word in the letter a natural sense, a spiritual angel a spiritual sense, and a celestial angel a celestial sense, much as the wood of a tree draws its sap, the leaf its sap, and the fruit its sap, from the same soil. And what is wonderful, this is done instantly, without the angel's knowing what the man thinks, or the man what the angel thinks, and yet their thoughts are one by correspondences, as end, cause, and effect are one. Moreover, ends are actually in the celestial kingdom, causes in the spiritual kingdom, causes in the spiritual kingdom, and effects in the natural world. (A.E., n. 1083.)

VI. Conjunction by the Word

Since it is from creation that end, cause, and effect shall together make one, so it is from creation that the heavens shall make one with the church on the earth, but by means of the Word, when it is read by man from a love of truth and good. For the Word was given by the Lord to this end, that there might be a perpetual conjunction of the angels of heaven with men on the earth, and a perpetual communication according to conjunction. Without this medium there would be no conjunction or communication with heaven on this earth. The conjunction and communication are instantaneous, and for the reason that all things of the Word in the sense of the letter are as effects, in which the cause and the end exist together, and the effects, which are in the Word, are called uses, their cause truths, and their ends goods; and the Divine love, which is the Lord, unites these three together in the man who is in an affection for uses from the Word.

How a man draws and calls forth from the Word in the letter the natural sense, a spiritual angel the spiritual sense, and a celestial angel the celestial sense, and this instantly, from which there is a communication and a conjunction, shall be illustrated by comparisons; first by something in the animal kingdom, afterward by something in the vegetable kingdom, and finally by something in the mineral kingdom.

From the Animal Kingdom:—From the food, when it has been changed into chyle, the vessels draw and call forth their blood, the fibers of the nerves their fluid, and the substances that are the origins of fibers their spirit, which is called the animal spirit; and this is done through the vital heat, which in its essence is love. The vessels, the fibers, and the substances which are their origins, are distinct from each other, and yet they act as one throughout the body, and they act together and on the instant.

From the Vegetable Kingdom:—The tree, with its trunk and branches, leaves and fruits, stands upon its root, and from the soil where its root is draws and calls forth its sap, a coarser sap for the trunk and branches, a purer for the leaves, and a still purer and also nobler for the fruits and for the seeds in them; and this is done by means of heat from the sun. Here the branches, leaves, and fruit are distinct, and yet they extract together and instantly and from the same soil foods of such different purity and nobleness.

From the Mineral Kingdom:—In the bosom of the earth in certain places there are minerals impregnated with gold, silver, copper, and iron. From vapors stored up in the earth the gold attracts its element, silver its element, copper and iron theirs, distinctly, together, and on the instant, and this by means of some power of unknown heat.

As it is allowable to illustrate spiritual things by means of comparisons drawn from natural things, these will serve to illustrate how interior things, which are spiritual and celestial, and by which a man of the church has communication and conjunction with the heavens, can be drawn and called forth and extracted and eliminated from the Word in its outmosts, that is, the sense of the letter. Comparisons can be made with these, because all things in the three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral, correspond to the spiritual things that are in the three heavens, as the food of the body with which a comparison has been made, corresponds to the food of the soul, which is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom; a tree, with which also a comparison has been made, corresponds to man, the tree to man himself, the wood to his good, the leaves to his truths, and the fruits to his uses; so, too, gold, silver, copper, and iron, correspond to goods and truths, gold to celestial good, silver to spiritual truth, copper to natural good, and iron to natural truth. Moreover, these things have these significations in the Word. And what is wonderful, the purer are contained in the grosser and are drawn from them, as the animal spirit and the nerve fluid are contained in blood from which the original substances and nerve fibers draw and extract their distinct portions. So, again, fruits and leaves draw theirs from the gross fluid that is brought up from the soil by the wood and its bark, and so on. Thus comparatively, as has been said, the purer senses of the Word are drawn and called forth from the sense of the letter. (A.E., n. 1084.)

VII. The Sense of the Letter

As there are three senses in the Word, a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial, and as its natural sense, which is the sense of the letter, is a containment of the two senses, the spiritual and celestial, it follows that the sense of the letter of the Word is the basis of those senses. And as the angels of the three heavens receive their wisdom from the Lord through the Word that they have, and as their Words make one with our Word by correspondences, it also follows that the sense of the letter of our Word is the basis, support, and foundation of the wisdom of the angels of heaven. For the heavens rest upon the human race as a house rests upon its foundation; so the wisdom of the angels of heaven rests in like manner upon the knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom of men from the sense of the letter of the Word; for, as has been said above, communication and conjunction with the heavens are effected through the sense of the letter of the Word. For this reason, as a result of the Lord's Divine providence, there has been no mutilation of the sense of the letter of the Word from its first revelation, not even in a word or letter in the original text; for each word, and in some measure each letter, is a support.

From all this it is clear what a profanation it is to falsify the truths and adulterate the goods of the Word, and how infernal it is to deny or to weaken its holiness. As soon as that is done, for that man of the church heaven is closed. The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which cannot be forgiven, is the blasphemy of the Word by those who deny its holiness. Since the Word is the basis of the heavens, and since the Word was wholly falsified and adulterated by the Jewish nation by traditions and adaptation of the sense of the letter to favor their evil loves, lest the heavens should be endangered and the wisdom of the angels there should become foolishness it pleased the Lord to come down from heaven and to put on the Human and to become the Word (as is evident from John i. 14), and thus to restore the state of heaven. (A.E., n. 1085.)

There is a successive order and there is a simultaneous order. In successive order things pure and perfect appear above, and those less pure and perfect appear below. The three heavens are in successive order, one above another; and in the higher heavens all things are pure and perfect, while in the lower they are less pure and perfect. Simultaneous order exists in lower things, and fully in the lowest; for higher things let themselves down and place themselves in the order that is called simultaneous, in which the pure and perfect things, which were the higher, are in the middle or center, and the less pure and perfect, which were the lower, are in the circumferences. Therefore all things that have come forth in successive order are together in outmosts in their order.

As all higher things place themselves in what is lowest in simultaneous order, it follows that in the outmosts of the Word, which constitute the sense of its letter, are all things of Divine truth and of Divine good, even from their firsts. And as all things of Divine truth and Divine good are together in their outmost, which is the sense of the letter of the Word, there evidently is the power of Divine truth, yea, the omnipotence of the Lord in saving man. For when the Lord operates He operates not from first things through mediates into outmosts, but from first things through outmosts and thus into mediates. This is why the Lord is called in the Word the First and the Last; and this is why the Lord assumed the Human, which in the world was Divine truth or the Word, and glorified it even to outmosts, which are the bones and flesh, in order that He might operate from first things through outmosts, and not as before from man, but from Himself.

This power in outmosts was represented by the hair with the Nazirites, as with Samson, for the hair with the Nazirites, as with Samson, for the hair corresponds to the outmosts of Divine truth. And for this reason, to produce baldness was regarded in ancient times as disgraceful.

The boys who called Elisha "bald head" were torn in pieces by bears, because Elisha and Elijah represented the Word; and the Word without the sense of the letter, which is like a head without hair, is destitute of all power, and thus is no longer the Word. "Bears" signify those that have strength from the outmost of truth.

The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power to open heaven, whereby communication and conjunction are effected, and also the power to fight against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. A man who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter of the Word can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew and their devices in which they place their power, which are innumerable, and this in a moment, merely by careful thought and an effort of the will. In brief, in the spiritual world nothing can resist genuine truths confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word (A.E., n. 1086.)

Now since all interior things, that is, the spiritual and celestial things that are in the Words of the three heavens, are together in the outmost sense of the Word, which is called the sense of the letter (for in its inmosts there are the things that are in the Word that the angels of the third heaven have, and in its middle parts the things that are in the Words belonging to the angels of the lower heavens, and these are encompassed by such things as exist in the nature of our world and are included in these), so the sense of the letter of our Word is from all these. From this it can be seen that Divine truth is in its fullness in the sense of the letter of our Word. That is said to be full which contains in itself all things prior, even from the first, or all things higher even from the highest; the last is what includes these. The fullness of the Word is like a general vessel of marble, in which are countless lesser vessels of crystal, and in these still more numerous vessels of precious stones, in and about which are the most delightful things of heaven which are for those who perform noble uses according to the Word.

That the Word is such is not evident to man while he is in the world; but it is evident to him when he becomes an angel. Because the Word is such in outmosts it follows that it is not the Word until it is in that outmost, that is, until it is in the sense of the letter. The Word not in that outmost would be like a temple in the air and not on the earth, or like a man having flesh but without bones.

As Divine truth is in its fullness and also in its power in its outmost, for when it is in that it is in all things at once, so the Lord never works except from first things through outmosts, and thus in fullness. For He reforms and regenerates man only through truths in outmosts, which are natural. And this is why a man remains after his departure out of the world to eternity such as he has been in the world. For the same reason heaven and hell are from the human race, and angels are not created immediately such; for in the world a man is in his fullness, consequently he can there be conceived and born, and afterward be imbued with knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and become an angel. To create angels in any other way is impossible.

Because the Lord works all things from things first through outmosts, and is in His power and in His fullness in outmosts, so it pleased the Lord to take upon Him the Human and to become Divine truth, that is, the Word, and thus from Himself to reduce to order all things of heaven and all things of hell, that is, to execute a last judgment. This the Lord could accomplish from the Divine in Himself, which was in things first, through His Human which was in outmosts, and not, as before, from His presence or abode in the men of the church; for these had wholly forsaken the truths and goods of the Word, in which the Lord had previously had His dwelling-place with men. This was the chief reason for the Lord's coming into the world, also for making His Human Divine; for He thus put Himself into possession of a power to hold all things of heaven and all things of hell in order for ever. This is meant by

"Sitting at the right hand of God" (Mark xvi. 19).

"The right hand of God" means Divine omnipotence, and "to sit at the right hand of God" means to be in that omnipotence through the Human. That the Lord ascended into heaven with His Human glorified even to outmosts He testifies in Luke:

Jesus said to the disciples, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye behold Me having" (xxiv. 39).

This the Lord said just after His resurrection. "Flesh and bones" are the outmosts of the human body, on which its strength depends. (A.E., n. 1087.)

Divine truth is what is called holy, but only when it is in its outmost, and its outmost is the Word in the sense of the letter; therefore the Divine truth there is holy, and may be called a holy place, and for the reason that that sense contains and encloses all the holy things of heaven and the church. The appearance is that Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are more holy than the Divine truths in the sense of the letter of the Word, which are natural; but the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are comparatively like the lungs and heart in man, which form the chest only when they are encompassed by ribs, and enclosed in the pleura and diaphragm; for without these integuments, and even unless connected with them by bonds, they could not perform their vital functions. The spiritual things of the Word are like the breathing of the lungs, its celestial things are like the systole and diastole of the heart, and its natural things are like the pleura, the diaphragm, and the ribs, with the moving fibers attached, by which the motions are made reciprocal.

Again, the spiritual and celestial things of the Word are comparatively like the holy things of the tabernacle, which consisted of the table upon which was the shew bread, the golden altar upon which was the incense, the perfumes and the censor, also the lampstand with the lamps, and still further within, the cherubim, the mercy seat, and the ark. All these were the holy things of the Jewish and Israelitish church; nevertheless they could not be called holy and a sanctuary until they had been covered by curtains and veils, for without those coverings they would have stood under the naked sky, exposed to showers and storms, to the birds of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth, and also to robbers that would violate, plunder, and scatter them. So would it be with the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, unless they were enclosed in natural truths, like the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word.

Natural truths, which are the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, are not the very truths of heaven, but are appearances of them; and appearances of truth encompass, enclose and contain the truths of heaven, which are genuine truths, and cause them to be in connection and order and to act together, like the cardiac and pulmonary organs with their coverings and ribs, as has been said above; and when these truths are held in connection and in order they are holy, and not till then. This the sense of the letter of our Word does by means of the appearances of truth of which its outmost consists; and this is why that sense is the holy Divine itself and a sanctuary.

But he is greatly mistaken who separates appearances of truth from genuine truths and calls these appearances holy by themselves and of themselves, and not the sense of the letter holy by these and from these, and together with these. He separates these who sees only the sense of the letter and does not explore its meaning, as those do who do not read the Word from doctrine. The "cherubim" mean in the Word guard and protection that the holy things of heaven be not violated, and that the Lord be approached only through love; consequently these signify the sense of the letter of the Word, because that is what guards and protects. It guards and protects in this manner that man can think and speak according to appearances of truth so long as he is well-disposed, simple, and as it were a child; but he must take heed not to so confirm appearances as to destroy the genuine truths in the heavens. (A.E., n. 1088.)

It is an invariable truth that no one can understand the Word without doctrine; for he may be led away into any errors to which he may be inclined from some love, or to which he may be drawn from some principle, whereby his mind becomes unsettled and uncertain, and at length as it were destitute of truth. But he who reads the Word from doctrine sees all things that confirm it, and many things that are hidden from the eyes of others, and does not permit himself to be drawn away into strange things; and thus his mind becomes so settled as to see with certainty.

Again, unless the Word is read from doctrine it may be drawn away to confirm heresies, for the reason that the sense of its letter consists of mere correspondences, and these are in great part appearances of truth, and in part genuine truths, and unless there be doctrine for a lamp these cannot be seen and cannot be distinguished from each other.

And yet only from the Word can doctrine be acquired, and it can be acquired only by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord. Those are in enlightenment who love truths because they are truths and make them to be of their life. Moreover, all things of doctrine must be confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word, because Divine truth is in its fullness and in its power in that sense, and through it man is in conjunction with the Lord and in consociation with the angels. In brief, he who loves truth because it is truth can inquire of the Lord, as it were, in doubtful matters of faith, and can receive answers from Him, but nowhere except in the Word for the reason that the Lord is the Word. (A.E., n. 1089.)

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