Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence by Emanuel Swedenborg (best book reader txt) 📕

[3] In the spiritual world, into which everyone comes after death, the question is not asked what your belief has been or your doctrine, but what your life has been. Was it such or such? For, as is known, such as one's life is, such is one's belief, yes, one's doctrine. For life fashions a doctrine and a belief for itself.

102. From all this it is plain that it is a law of divine providence that evils be removed by man, for without the removal of them the Lord cannot be conjoined to man and from Himself lead man to heaven. But it is not known that man ought to remove evils in the external man as of himself and that unless he does so the Lord cannot remove the evils in his internal man. This is to be presented, therefore, to the reason in light of its own in this order:

i. Every man has an external and an internal of thought. ii. His external of thought is in itself such as his internal is. iii. The internal cannot be purified from the lusts of evil as long as the evils in the external man have not been removed, for these impede. iv. Only with the man's participation can evils in the external man be removed by the Lord. v. Therefore a man ought to remove evils from the external man as of himself. vi. The Lord then purifies him from the lusts of evil in the internal man and from the evils themselves in the external. vii. The continuous effort of the Lord in His divine providence is to unite man to Himself and Himself to man, in order to be able to bestow the felicities of eternal life on him, which can be done only so far as evils, along with their lusts, are removed.

103. (i) Every man has an external and an internal of thought. By external and internal of thought the same is meant here as by external and internal man, and by this nothing else is meant than external and internal of will and understanding, for will and understanding constitute man, and as they both manifest themselves in thoughts, we speak of external and internal of thought. And as it is man's spirit and not his body which wills and understands and consequently thinks, external and internal are external and internal of his spirit. The body's activity in speech or deed is only an effect from the external and internal of man's spirit, for the body is so much obedience.

104. As he grows older, every person has an external and an internal of thought, or an external and an internal of will and understanding or of his spirit, identical with external and internal man. This is evident to anyone who observes another's thoughts and intentions as they are revealed in speech or deed, or who observes his own when he is in company and when he is by himself. For from the external thought one can talk amicably with another and yet in internal thought be hostile. From external thought and from its affection, too, a man can talk about love for the neighbor and for God when in his internal thought he cares nothing for the neighbor and does not fear God. From external thought together with its affection he can talk about the justice of civil laws, the virtues of the moral life, and matters of doctrine and the spiritual life, and yet in private and from his internal thought and its affection speak against the civil laws, the moral virtues, and matters of doctrine and spiritual life. So those do who are in lusts of evil but want to appear to the world not to be in them.

[2] Many also, as they listen to others, think to themselves, "Do those speaking think inwardly in themselves as they think in utterance? Are they to be believed or not? What do they intend?" Flatterers and hypocrites notoriously possess a twofold thought. They can be self-restrained and guard against the interior thought's being disclosed, and some can hide it more and more deeply and bar the door against its appearing. That a man possesses external and internal thought is also plain in that from his interior thought he can behold the exterior thought, can reflect on it, too, and judge whether or not it is evil. The human mind is such because of the two faculties, called liberty and rationality, which one has from the Lord. Unless he possessed internal and external of thought from these faculties, a man could not perceive and see an evil in himself and be reformed. In fact, he could not speak but only make sounds like a beast.

105. The internal of thought comes out of the life's love, its affections and the perceptions from them. The external of thought is from what is in the memory, serving the life's love for confirmation and as means to its end. From childhood to early manhood a person is in the external of thought from an affection for knowledge, which is then his internal; from the life's love born in one from parents something of lust and hence of disposition issues, too. Later, however, his life's love is as he lives, and its affections and the perceptions from them make the internal of his thought. From his life's love comes a love of means; the enjoyments of these means and the information drawn thereby from the memory make his external of thought.

106. (ii) Man's external of thought is in itself such as his internal is. We showed earlier that from head to foot a man is what his life's love is. Something must be said about his life's love, for until this is done nothing can be said about the affections which together with perceptions make the internal of man, or about the enjoyments of the affections together with thoughts which make his external. Loves are many, but two—heavenly love and infernal love—are like lords or kings. Heavenly love is love to the Lord and the neighbor; infernal love is love of self and the world. These are opposite to each other as heaven and hell are. For a man in love of self and the world wishes well only to himself; a man in love to the Lord and the neighbor wishes well to all. These two are the loves of man's life, though with much variety. Heavenly love is the life's love of those whom the Lord leads, and infernal love the life's love of those whom the devil leads.

[2] No one's life's love can be without derivatives, called affections. The derivatives of infernal love are affections of evil and falsity —lusts, properly speaking; and those of heavenly love are affections of good and truth—loves, strictly. Affections, or strictly lusts, of infernal love are as numerous as evils are, and affections, or properly loves, of heavenly love are as many as there are goods. Love dwells in its affections like a lord in his domain and a king in his realm; its domain or realm is over the things of the mind, that is, of the will and understanding and thence of the body. By its affections and the perceptions from them and by its enjoyments and the thoughts therefrom, the life's love of man rules him completely, the internal of the mind by the affections and perceptions from them, and the external by the enjoyments of the affections and of the thoughts from them.

107. The manner of this rule may be seen to some extent from comparisons. Heavenly love with its affections of good and truth and the perceptions from them, together with the enjoyments of such affections and the thoughts from these, may be compared to a tree, notable for its branches, leaves and fruit. The life's love is the tree; the branches with their leaves are the affections of good and truth with their perceptions; and the fruits are the enjoyments of the affections with their thoughts. Infernal love, however, with its affections or lusts of evil and falsity, together with the enjoyments of the lusts and the thinking from those enjoyments, may be compared to a spider and the web spun about it. The love itself is the spider; the lusts of evil and falsity together with their subtle cunning are the net of threads nearest the spider's post; and the enjoyments of the lusts together with their crafty schemes are the more remote threads where flies are snared on the wing, enveloped and eaten.

108. These comparisons may help one to see the connection of all things of the will and understanding or of man's mind with his life's love, and yet not to see it rationally. Rationally it may be seen in this way. Everywhere there are three which make one, called end, cause and effect. Here the life's love is end; the affections with their perceptions are cause; and the enjoyments of the affections and consequent thoughts are effect. For as an end passes into effect through a cause, love passes by its affections to its enjoyments and by its perceptions to its thoughts. The effects are in the enjoyments of the mind and the thoughts thence when the enjoyments are from the will and the thoughts from the attendant understanding, that is, when all fully agree. The effects are then part of man's spirit and although they do not come into bodily act are still a deed there when there is this agreement. At the same time they are in the body, dwelling there with man's life's love and longing for the deed, which occurs when nothing hinders. The same is true of lusts of evil and evil deeds with those who make evils allowable in spirit.

[2] As an end unites itself with a cause and by the cause with an effect, the life's love unites itself with the internal of thought and by this with its external. It is plain then that man's external of thought is in itself what his internal is, for an end imparts all of itself to the cause and through the cause to the effect. Nothing essential is present in an effect which is not in the cause and through the cause in the end, and as the end is what essentially enters cause and effect, these are called "mediate end" and "final end" respectively.

109. Sometimes the external of thought seems to be different in itself from the internal. This is because the life's love with its internals about it sets a vicar under it called the love of means, and directs it to watch and guard against anything of its lusts appearing. This vicar, with the cunning of its chief, the life's love, therefore speaks and acts in accordance with the laws of a kingdom, the ethical demands of reason, and the spiritual requirements of the church, so cunningly, too, and cleverly that no one sees that persons are other than they say and act, and finally the persons themselves, so disguised, scarcely know otherwise. Such are all hypocrites. Such are priests, also, who at heart care nothing for the neighbor and do not fear God, yet preach about love of the neighbor and of God. Such are judges who judge by gifts and friendships while affecting zeal for justice and speaking with reason about judgment. Such are traders who at heart are insincere and fraudulent while dealing honestly for the sake of profit. Such are adulterers when, from the rationality every man possesses, they talk about the chastity of marriage; and so on.

[2] The same persons, when they strip the love of means, the vicar of their life's love, of the purple and linen which they have thrown around it and put its house dress on it, then think exactly the contrary, and exchanging thought with their best friends who are in a similar life's love, they speak so. It may be believed that when they have spoken so justly, honestly and piously from the love of means, the character of the internal of thought was not in the external of their thought; yet it was; hypocrisy is in them, and love of self and the world is in them, the cunning of which