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)
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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