serve for equilibrium, contrast, and purification, and so for the
conjunction of good and truth in others._ It is obvious from the
preceding that the Lord's divine providence continually operates in order
that truth may be united in man with good and good with truth, because
that union is the church and heaven. For that union is in the Lord and in
all that proceeds from Him. From that union, heaven and the church are
called a marriage, and the kingdom of God is likened in the Word to a
marriage. Again, the Sabbath signified that union and was the holiest
observance in the worship of the Israelitish Church. From that union also
there is a marriage of good and truth in the Word and in each and all
things of it (on this see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred
Scripture,_ nn. 80-90). The marriage of good and truth is from the
marriage of the Lord with the church, and this in turn from the marriage
of love and wisdom in Him, for good is of love, and truth of wisdom. It
is plain, then, that it is the constant aim of divine providence to unite
good to truth and truth to good in a man, for so he is united to the
Lord.
22. But many have severed and do sever this marriage, especially by
separating faith from charity (for faith is of truth and truth is of
faith, and charity is of good and good is of charity), and in so doing
they conjoin evil and falsity in themselves and thus come into and
continue in the opposite to good and truth. The Lord therefore provides
that they shall nevertheless serve for uniting good and truth in others,
through equilibrium, contrast and purification.
23. Conjunction of good and truth in others is provided by the Lord
through _equilibrium_ between heaven and hell. From hell evil and at the
same time falsity constantly exhale, and from heaven good and at the same
time truth. In equilibrium between them, and so in freedom to think,
will, speak and act in which he can be reformed, every man is kept while
he lives in the world. On the spiritual equilibrium from which the human
being has freedom, see the work _Heaven and Hell,_ nn. 589-596, 597-603.
24. Conjunction of good and truth is provided by the Lord through
_contrast._ For the nature of good is not known except by contrast with
what is less good and by its contrariety to evil. All perceptiveness and
sensitivity arise so; their quality is thence. All pleasantness is
perceived and felt over against the less pleasant and the unpleasant; all
the beautiful by reference to the less beautiful and the unbeautiful;
similarly all good of love by reference to lesser good and to evil; all
truth of wisdom by a sense of lesser truth and of falsity. Everything
inevitably varies from greatest to least, and with the same variation in
its opposite and with equilibrium between them, there is contrast degree
by degree, and the perception and sensation of a thing increase or
diminish. But be it known that an opposite may either lower or exalt
perceptions and sensitivities. It lowers them when it mingles in and
exalts them when it does not mingle in, for which reason the Lord
separates good and evil with man that they shall not mingle, as
exquisitely as He does heaven and hell.
25. Conjunction of good and truth in others is provided by the Lord
through _purification_ in two ways; one through temptations, and the
other through fermentations. _Spiritual temptations_ are nothing else
than combats against the evils and falsities exhaled from hell and
affecting man. By these combats a man is purified from evils and
falsities, and good and truth are united in him. _Spiritual
fermentations_ take place in many ways, and in heaven as well as on
earth; but in the world it is not known what they are or how they come
about. For evils and their falsities, let into societies, act as ferments
do in meal or in must, separating the heterogeneous and conjoining the
homogeneous until there is clarity and purity. Such fermentations are
meant in the Lord's words:
The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three
measures of meal until the whole was leavened (Mt 13:33; Lu 12:21).
26. The Lord provides these uses through the united evil and falsity of
those in hell. The Lord's kingdom, which extends over hell as well as
over heaven, is a kingdom of uses. It is the Lord's providence that there
shall be no creature and no thing whereby a use is not performed.
II. THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE HAS FOR ITS OBJECT A HEAVEN FROM THE
HUMAN RACE
27. Heaven does not consist of angels created such to begin with, nor
does hell come from any devil created an angel of light and cast down
from heaven. Both heaven and hell are from mankind, heaven consisting of
those in the love of good and consequent understanding of truth, and hell
of those in the love of evil and consequent understanding of falsity.
This has been made known and sure to me by long-continued intercourse
with angels and spirits. See what was said on the subject in the work
_Heaven and Hell_ (nn. 311-316); also in the little work _The Last
Judgment_ (nn. 14-27), and in _Continuation about the Last Judgment and
the Spiritual World_ (throughout).
[2] As heaven is from mankind and is an abiding with the Lord to
eternity, it must have been the Lord's purpose in creation; being the
purpose in creation, it is the purpose of His providence. The Lord
created the world not for His own sake but for the sake of those with
whom He would be in heaven. Spiritual love by nature desires to give its
own to another, and so far as it can do so is in its _esse,_ peace, and
blessedness. Spiritual love derives this from the Lord's divine love
which is such infinitely. It follows that the divine love and hence
divine providence has for its object a heaven consisting of human beings
who have become or are becoming angels, on whom the Lord can bestow all
the blessings and felicities of love and wisdom and do so from Himself in
men. It must be in this way, for the Lord's image and likeness are in men
from creation, the image in them wisdom and the likeness love.
Furthermore, the Lord in them is love united to wisdom and wisdom united
to love or (what is the same) is good united to truth and truth united to
good (this union was treated of in the preceding chapter).
[3] What heaven is in general or with a number, and in particular or with
an individual, is not known. Nor is it known what heaven is in the
spiritual world and what it is in the natural world. Yet this knowledge
is important, for heaven is the purpose of providence. I therefore desire
to set the subject in some light in this order:
i. Heaven is conjunction with the Lord.
ii. By creation the human being is such that he can be conjoined more and
more closely to the Lord.
iii. The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the wiser one becomes.
iv. The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the happier one
becomes.
v. The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the more distinctly does
he seem to himself to be his own, and the more plainly does he recognize
that he is the Lord's.
28. (i) _Heaven is conjunction with the Lord._ Heaven is heaven, not from
the angels but from the Lord. For the love and wisdom in which angels are
and which make heaven are not theirs, but the Lord's, indeed are the Lord
in them. And as love and wisdom are the Lord's, and are the Lord in
heaven, and make the life of angels, it is plain that their life is the
Lord's, indeed is the Lord. The angels themselves avow that they live
from the Lord. Hence it is evident that heaven is conjunction with the
Lord. But conjunction with Him is various and one man's heaven is not
another's; therefore heaven is also according to the conjunction with the
Lord. In the following proposition it will be seen that conjunction is
more and more close or more and more remote.
[2] Here let something be said about how the conjunction takes place and
what the nature of it is. It is a conjunction of the Lord with the angels
and of the angels with Him, therefore is reciprocal. The Lord flows into
the life's love of the angels, and they receive Him in wisdom, thus in
turn conjoining themselves with Him. It must be said, however, that it
seems to the angels that they conjoin themselves to the Lord by wisdom;
actually the Lord conjoins them to Himself by their wisdom, for the
wisdom is also from the Lord. It is the same thing if we say that the
Lord conjoins Himself to the angels by good and they in turn conjoin
themselves to the Lord by truth, for all good is of love, and truth, of
wisdom.
[3] This reciprocal conjunction is an arcanum, however, which few can
understand unless it is explained. I want therefore to unfold it so far
as it can be done by things within one's grasp. We showed in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 404, 405) how love unites itself with
wisdom, namely, through affection for knowing from which comes an
affection for truth, through affection for understanding from which comes
perception of truth, and through affection for seeing what is known and
understood, from which comes thought. Into all these affections the Lord
flows, for they are all derivatives of one's life's love, and the angels
receive the influx in perception of truth and in thought, for in these
the influx becomes apparent to them, but not in the affections.
[4] As the perceptions and thoughts appear to the angels to be their own,
although they arise from affections which are from the Lord, the
appearance is that the angels reciprocally conjoin themselves to the
Lord, when nevertheless the Lord conjoins them to Himself. The affection
itself produces the perceptions and thoughts, for the affection, which is
of love, is their soul. Apart from affection no one can perceive or think
anything, and every one perceives and thinks according to his affection.
It is evident that the reciprocal conjunction of the angels with the Lord
is not from them, but as it were from them. Such, too, is the conjunction
of the Lord with the church and of the church with Him, a union called
celestial and spiritual marriage.
29. All conjunction in the spiritual world is effected by intent regard.
When anyone there thinks of another with a desire to speak with him, the
other is at once present, and the two come face to face. Likewise, when
one thinks of another from an affection of love; by this affection,
however, there is conjunction, but by the other only presence. This is
peculiar to the spiritual world; for there all are spiritual beings. It
is otherwise in the natural world where all are physical beings. In the
natural world something similar takes place in the affections and
thoughts of the spirit; but as there is space here, while in the
spiritual world space is appearance only, what takes place here in one's
spirit occurs outwardly there.
[2] We have said so much to make known how conjunction of the Lord with
angels and their seemingly reciprocal conjunction with Him is effected.
All angels turn the face to the Lord; He regards them in the forehead,
and they regard Him with the eyes. The reason is that the forehead
corresponds to love and its affections, and the eyes correspond to wisdom
and its perceptions. Still the angels do not of themselves turn the face
to the Lord, but He faces them toward Himself, doing so by influx into
their life's love, by this entering the perceptions and thoughts, and so
turning the angels to Him.
[3] There is such a circuit from love to thoughts and under love's
impulse from thoughts to love in all the mind's activity. It may be
called the circling of life. On these subjects see some things also in
the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom:_ as that "Angels constantly turn
the face to the Lord as a sun" (nn. 129-134); "All the interiors of both
the mind and the bodies of the angels are likewise turned to the Lord as
a sun" (nn. 135-139); "Every spirit, whatever his character, turns
himself likewise to his ruling love" (nn. 140-145); "Love conjoins itself
to wisdom and causes wisdom to be conjoined reciprocally with it" (nn.
410-412); "Angels are in the Lord and He in them; and as the angels are
only recipients, the Lord alone is heaven" (nn. 113-118).
30. The Lord's heaven in the natural world is called the church; an angel
of this heaven is a man of the church who is conjoined to the Lord; on
departure from this world he also becomes an angel of the spiritual
heaven. What was said of the angelic heaven is evidently to be
understood, then, of the human heaven also which is called the church.
The reciprocal conjunction with the Lord which makes heaven in the human
being is revealed by the Lord in these words in John:
Abide in Me, and I in you; ... he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing (15:4, 5, 7).
31. It is plain from this that the Lord is heaven not only in general
with all in heaven, but in particular with each one there. For each angel
is a heaven in least form; of as many heavens as there are angels, does
heaven in general consist. In substantiation see _Heaven and Hell_ (nn.
51-58). Since this is so, let no one cherish the mistaken idea, which
first visits the thought of so many, that the Lord dwells in heaven among
the angels or is among them like a king in his kingdom. To the sight He
is above them in the sun there; He is in them in their life of love and
wisdom.
32. (ii) _By creation the human being is such that he can be conjoined
more and more closely to the Lord._ This becomes evident from what was
shown about degrees in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ Part III,
especially in the propositions: "By creation there are three discrete
degrees or degrees of height in the human being" (nn. 230-235); "These
three degrees are in man from birth, and as they are opened, the man is
in the Lord, and the Lord in him" (nn. 236-241); "All perfection
increases and mounts with and according to the degrees" (nn. 199-204).
Evidently, then, man is such by creation that he can be conjoined with
the Lord more and more closely according to these degrees.
[2] But one must know well what degrees are and that there are two kinds
--discrete degrees or degrees of height, and continuous degrees or degrees
of breadth; also how they differ. It must be known, too, that every human
being has by creation and hence from birth three discrete degrees or
degrees of height, and that he comes at birth into the first degree,
called natural, and can grow in this degree continuously until he becomes
rational. He comes into the second degree, called spiritual, if he lives
according to spiritual laws of order, which are divine truths. He can
also come into the third degree, called celestial, if he lives according
to the celestial laws of order, which are divine goods.
[3] These degrees are opened in a person by the Lord according to his
life and actually opened in the world, but not perceptibly and sensibly
until after his departure from the world. As they are opened and later
perfected a man is conjoined to the Lord more and more closely. This
conjunction can grow to eternity in nearness to God and does so with the
angels. And yet no angel can attain or touch the first degree of the
Lord's love and wisdom, for the Lord is infinite and an angel is finite,
and between infinite and finite no ratio obtains. Man's state and the
state of his elevation and nearness to the Lord cannot be understood
without a knowledge of these degrees; they have been specifically treated
of, therefore, in the treatise Divine _Love and Wisdom,_ nn. 173-281,
which see.
33. We shall say briefly how man can be more and more closely conjoined
to the Lord, and then how the conjunction seems closer and closer. _How
man is more and more closely conjoined to the Lord:_ this is effected not
by knowledge alone, nor by intelligence alone, nor even by wisdom alone,
but by a life conjoined to them. A man's life is his love, and love is
manifold. In general there are love of good and love of evil. Love of
evil is love of committing adultery, taking revenge, defrauding,
blaspheming, depriving others of their possessions. In thinking and doing
such things the love of evil finds its pleasure and joy. Of this love
there are as many derivatives, which are affections, as there are evils
in which it can find expression. And there are as many perceptions and
thoughts of this love as there are falsities favoring and confirming such
evils. The falsities make one with the evils as understanding makes one
with will; they are mutually inseparable; the one is of the other.
[2] Inasmuch as the Lord flows into one's life's love and by its
affections into the perceptions and thoughts, and not the other way
about, as we said above, it follows that the Lord can conjoin Himself
more closely to a man only as the love of evil is removed along with its
affections, which are lusts. These lusts reside in the natural man. What
a man does from the natural man he feels that he does of himself. For his
part, therefore, a man should remove the evils of that love; so far as he
does, the Lord comes nearer and conjoins Himself to him. Anyone can see
from reason that lusts with their pleasures block and close the door to
the Lord and cannot be cast out by the Lord as long as the man himself
keeps the door shut and presses and pushes from outside to keep it from
being opened. It is plain from the Lord's words in the Apocalypse that a
man must himself open the door:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me (3:20).
[3] Plainly, then, so far as one shuns evils as diabolical and as
obstacles to the Lord's entrance, he is more and more closely conjoined
to the Lord, and he the most closely who abhors them as so many dusky and
fiery devils. For evil and the devil are one and the same, and the
falsity of evil and satan are one and the same. As the Lord's influx is
into the love of good and into its affections and by these into the
perceptions and thoughts, which have it from the good in which a man is
that they are truths, so the influx of the devil, that is of hell, is
into the love of evil and its affections, which are lusts, and by these
into the perceptions and thoughts, which have it from the evil in which
the man is that they are falsities.
[4] _How the conjunction seems closer and closer._ The more the evils in
the natural man are removed by shunning and turning away from them, the
more closely a man is conjoined to the Lord. Love and wisdom, which are
the Lord Himself, are not in space, as affection which is of love, and
thought which is of wisdom, have nothing in common with space. In the
measure of the conjunction by love and wisdom, therefore, the Lord seems
nearer; and, contrariwise, in the measure of the rejection of love and
wisdom, more distant. There is no space in the spiritual world; distance
and presence there are appearances according to similarity or
dissimilarity of the affections. For, as we said, affections which are of
love, and thoughts which are of wisdom, in themselves spiritual, are not
in space (on this see what was shown in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom,_ nn. 7-10, 69-72, and elsewhere).
[5] The Lord's conjunction with a man in whom evils have been put away is
meant by the Lord's words:
The pure in heart shall see God (Mt 5:8);
and by the words:
He who has my commandments and does them . . . with him will I make an
abode (Jn 14:21, 23).
"To have the commandments" is to know and "to do them" is to love, for it
is also said: "he who does my commandments, he it is that loves Me."
34. (iii) _The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the wiser one
becomes._ As there are three degrees of life in man by creation and so
from birth (see just above, n. 32), there are specifically three degrees
of wisdom in him. These degrees it is that are opened in man according to
conjunction, that is, according to love, for love is conjunction itself.
Love's ascent by degrees, however, is only obscurely perceived by man;
but wisdom's ascent is clearly perceived by those who know and see what
wisdom is. The degrees of wisdom are perceived because love by its
affections enters the perceptions and thoughts, and these present
themselves to the internal mental sight, which corresponds to the
external bodily sight. Thus wisdom appears, but not the affection of love
which produces it. It is the same with all a man's deeds; he is aware how
the body does them, but not how the soul does them. So he perceives how
he meditates, perceives and thinks, but not how the soul of these mental
activities, which is an affection of good and truth, produces them.
[2] There are three degrees of wisdom: natural, spiritual, and celestial.
Man is in the natural degree of wisdom during his life in the world. This
degree can be perfected in him to its height, but even so cannot pass
into the spiritual degree, for the latter is not continuous with it, but
conjoined to it by correspondences. After death man is in the spiritual
degree of wisdom. This degree also is such that it can be perfected to
its height, and yet cannot pass into the celestial degree of wisdom,
because neither is this continuous with the spiritual but conjoined to it
by correspondences. Plainly, then, wisdom can be raised threefold, and in
each degree can be perfected but only to its peak.
[3] One who understands the elevation and perfecting of these degrees can
see to an extent why angelic wisdom is said to be ineffable. So
ineffable, indeed, is it, that a thousand ideas in the thought of angels
in their wisdom can present only a single idea in the thought of men in
their wisdom, the other nine hundred and ninety-nine ideas being
unutterable, because they are supernatural. Many a time have I been given
to know this by living experience. But, as was said, no one can enter
into the ineffable wisdom of the angels except by and according to
conjunction with the Lord, for He alone opens spiritual and celestial
degrees, and only in those who are wise from Him. Those are wise from the
Lord who cast the devil, that is, evil, out of themselves.
35. But let no one believe that he has wisdom because he knows many
things, perceives them in some light, and is able to talk intelligently
about them, unless his wisdom is conjoined to love. For it is love that
through its affections produces wisdom. Not conjoined to love, wisdom is
like a meteor vanishing in the air and like a falling star. Wisdom united
to love is like the abiding light of the sun and like a fixed star. A man
has the love of wisdom when he is averse to the diabolical crew, that is,
to the lusts of evil and falsity.
36. Wisdom that comes to perception is perception of truth from being
affected by it, especially perception of spiritual truth. For there is
civil, moral, and spiritual truth. Those who have some perception of
spiritual truth from affection by it also have perceptions of moral and
civil truth, for the affection of spiritual truth is the soul of those
perceptions. I have spoken with angels at times about wisdom who said
that wisdom is conjunction with the Lord because He is wisdom itself, and
that the man who rejects hell comes into this conjunction and comes into
it so far as he rejects hell. They said that they picture wisdom to
themselves as a magnificent and highly ornate palace into which one
mounts by twelve steps. No one arrives at even the first step, they said,
except from the Lord by conjunction with Him; and according to the
measure of conjunction one ascends; also as one ascends, one perceives
that no man is wise from himself but from the Lord. Furthermore, they
said that the things in which one is wise are to those in which one is
not wise like a few drops of water to a large lake. By the twelve steps
into the palace of wisdom are meant goods united to truths and truths
united to goods.
37. (iv) _The more closely one is conjoined to the Lord the happier one
becomes._ The like can be said of degrees of happiness as was said (nn.
32 and 34) of degrees of life and of wisdom according to conjunction with
the Lord. Happiness, that is, blessedness and joy, also are heightened as
the higher degrees of the mind, called spiritual and celestial, are
opened with man. After his life in the world these degrees grow to
eternity.
38. No one who is in the pleasures of the lusts of evil can know anything
of the joys of the affections of good in which the angelic heaven is.
These pleasures and joys are opposites in internals and hence inwardly in
externals, though superficially they may differ little. Every love has
its enjoyments; the love of evil with those in lusts also has, such as
the love of committing adultery, of taking revenge, of defrauding, of
stealing, of acting cruelly, indeed, in the worst men, of blaspheming the
holy things of the church and of inveighing against God. The fountainhead
of those enjoyments is the love of ruling from self-love. They come of
lusts which obsess the interiors of the mind, from these flow into the
body, and excite uncleannesses there which titillate the fibers. The
physical pleasure springs from the pleasure which the mind takes in
lusts.