Spiritual Life and the Word of GodSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Spiritual Life and the Word of God
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Spiritual life; Ten commandments; Word of God (Christian theology)
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.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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