uncleannesses are which titillate the body's fibers in such persons and
comes to know the nature of them. In general they are things cadaverous,
excrementitious, filthy, malodorous, and urinous; for their hells teem
with such uncleannesses. These are correspondences, as may be seen in the
treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 422-424). After one has entered
hell, however, these filthy delights are turned into wretchedness. This
has been told in order that it may be understood what heaven's felicity
is and its nature, of which we are now to speak; for a thing is known
from its opposite.
39. It is impossible to describe in words the blessedness, satisfaction,
joy and pleasure, in short, the felicity of heaven, so sensibly perceived
there. What is perceived solely by feeling, cannot be described, for it
does not fall into ideas of thought nor, therefore, into words. For the
understanding sees only and sees what is of wisdom or truth, but not what
is of love or good. Those felicities are therefore inexpressible, but
still they ascend in like degree with wisdom. They are infinitely
various, and each is ineffable. I have heard this, also perceived it.
[2] These felicities enter when a man, of himself and yet from the Lord,
casts out the lusts of the love of evil and falsity. For these felicities
are the happinesses of the affections of good and truth, the opposites of
the lusts of the love of evil and falsity. Those happinesses begin from
the Lord, thus from the inmost, diffuse themselves thence into things
lower even to lowermost things, and thus fill the angel, making him a
body of delight. Such happinesses are to be found in infinite variety in
every affection of good and truth, and eminently in the affection of
wisdom.
40. There is no comparing the joys of the lusts of evil and the joys of
the affections of good. Inwardly in the former is the devil, in the
latter the Lord. If comparisons are to be ventured, the pleasures of the
lusts of evil can only be compared to the lewd pleasures of frogs in
stagnant ponds or to those of snakes in filth, while the pleasures of the
affections of good must be likened to the delights which the mind takes
in gardens and flower beds. For things like those which affect frogs and
snakes affect those in the hells who are in lusts of evil; and things
like those which affect the mind in gardens and flower beds affect those
in the heavens who are in affections of good. For, as was said above,
corresponding uncleannesses affect the evil, and corresponding
cleannesses the good.
41. Plainly, then, the more closely one is conjoined with the Lord the
happier one is. This happiness rarely shows itself in the world, however;
for man is then in a natural state, and the natural does not communicate
with the spiritual by continuity, but by correspondence. The
communication is felt only in a certain repose and peace of mind,
especially after struggles against evil. But when a person puts off the
natural state and enters the spiritual state, as he does on leaving the
world, the happiness described above gradually manifests itself.
42. (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._ The appearance is that the more
closely one is conjoined to the Lord the less one is one's own. This
appearance prevails with all the evil. It also prevails with those who
from religion believe that they are not under the yoke of the law and
that no one can of himself do good. All these inevitably think that to be
free only to do good and not to think and will evil is not to be one's
own. Inasmuch as a man who is conjoined to the Lord does not will and
cannot think or will evil, they conclude from the look that this is not
to be one's own. Yet that is the opposite of the truth.
43. There is infernal freedom, and there is heavenly freedom. Thinking
and willing evil and also speaking and doing it so far as civil and moral
laws do not prevent, is from infernal freedom. But thinking and willing
good and speaking and doing it so far as opportunity offers, is from
heavenly freedom. A man perceives as his own what he thinks, wills,
speaks and does in freedom. The freedom anyone has always comes from his
love. The man in an evil love cannot but deem infernal freedom to be real
freedom, and a man in love of the good perceives that heavenly freedom is
real freedom; consequently each regards the opposite of his freedom as
bondage. No one can deny that one or the other must be freedom, for two
kinds of freedom opposed to each other cannot both be freedom.
Furthermore it cannot be denied that to be led by good is freedom and to
be led by evil is bondage. For to be led by good is to be led by the
Lord, but to be led by evil is to be led by the devil.
[2] Inasmuch as all he does in freedom appears to a man to be his own,
coming as it does from what he loves, and to act from one's love, as was
said, is to act freely, it follows that conjunction with the Lord causes
a man to seem free and also his own, and the more closely he is conjoined
to the Lord, to seem so much freer and so much more his own. He seems the
more distinctly his own because it is the nature of the divine love to
want its own to be another's, that is, to be the angel's or the man's.
All spiritual love is such, preeminently the Lord's. The Lord, moreover,
never coerces anyone. For nothing to which one is coerced seems one's
own, and what seems not one's own cannot be done from one's love or be
appropriated to one as one's own. Man is always led in freedom by the
Lord, therefore, and reformed and regenerated in freedom. On this much
more will be said in what follows; also see some things above, n. 4.
44. The reason why the more distinctly a man seems to be his own the more
plainly he sees that he is the Lord's, is that the more closely he is
conjoined to the Lord the wiser he becomes (as was shown, nn. 34-36), and
wisdom teaches and recognizes this. The angels of the third heaven, as
the wisest angels, perceive this and call it freedom itself; but to be
led by themselves they call bondage. They give as the reason for this
that the Lord does not flow immediately into the perceptions and thoughts
of wisdom, but into the affections of the love of good and by these into
the former, and this influx they perceive in the affection by which they
have wisdom. Hence, they say, all that they think from wisdom seems to be
from themselves, thus seemingly their own, and this gives reciprocal
conjunction.
45. As the Lord's divine providence has for its object a heaven from
mankind, it has for its object the conjunction of the human race with Him
(see nn. 28-31). It also has for its object that man should be more and
more closely conjoined to Him (nn. 32, 33); for thus man possesses a more
interior heaven. Further, it has for its object that by the conjunction
man should become wiser (nn. 34-36) and happier (nn. 37-41), for he has
heaven by and according to wisdom, and happiness by wisdom, too. Finally,
providence has for its object that man shall seem more distinctly his
own, yet recognize the more clearly that he is the Lord's (nn. 42-44).
All these are of the Lord's divine providence, for all are heaven and
heaven is its object.
III. IN ALL THAT IT DOES THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE LOOKS TO WHAT IS
INFINITE AND ETERNAL
46. Christendom knows that God is infinite and eternal. The doctrine of
the Trinity which is named for Athanasius says that God the Father is
infinite, eternal and omnipotent, so also God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, and that nevertheless there are not three who are infinite,
eternal and omnipotent, but One. As God is infinite and eternal, only
what is infinite and eternal can be predicated of Him. What infinite and
eternal are, finite man cannot comprehend and yet can comprehend. He
cannot comprehend them because the finite is incapable of what is
infinite; he can comprehend them because there are abstract ideas by
which one can see _that_ things are, though not _what_ they are. Of the
infinite such ideas are possible as that God or the Divine, being
infinite, is _esse_ itself, is essence and substance itself, wisdom and
love themselves or good and truth themselves, thus is the one Self,
indeed is veritable Man; there is such an idea, too, in speaking of the
infinite as "all," as that infinite wisdom is _omniscience_ and infinite
power _omnipotence._
[2] Still these ideas turn obscure to thought and may meet denial for not
being comprehended, unless what one's thought gets from nature is removed
from the idea, especially what it gets from the two properties of nature,
space and time. For these are bound to restrict the ideas and to make
abstract ideas seem to be nothing. But if such things can be removed in a
man, as they are in an angel, what is infinite can be comprehended by the
means just mentioned. Then also it will be grasped that the human being
is something because he was created by infinite God who is all; also that
he is a finite substance, having been created by infinite God who is
substance itself; further that man is wisdom inasmuch as he was created
by infinite God who is wisdom itself; and so on. For were infinite God
not all, and were He not substance and wisdom themselves, man would not
be anything actual, thus would either be nothing or exist only in idea,
as those visionaries think who are called idealists.
[3] It is plain from what was shown in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ that the divine essence is love and wisdom (nn. 28-39); that
divine love and wisdom are substance itself and form itself, the one Self
and the sole underived being (nn. 40-46); and that God created the
universe and its contents from Himself, and not from nothing (nn. 282-284
). It follows that every creature and above all the human being and the
love and wisdom in him, are real, and do not exist only in idea. For were
God not infinite, the finite would not be; were the infinite not all, no
particular thing would be; and had not God created all things from
Himself, nothing whatever would be. In a word, we are because God is.
47. We are considering divine providence and at this point how it regards
what is infinite and eternal in all that it does. This can be clearly
told only in some order. Let this be the order:
i. The infinite and eternal in itself is the same as the Divine.
ii. What is infinite and eternal in itself cannot but look to what is
infinite and eternal from itself in finite things.
iii. Divine providence looks to the infinite and eternal from itself in
all that it does, especially in saving mankind.
iv. An image of the infinite and eternal offers in an angelic heaven
formed from a redeemed mankind.
v. The heart of divine providence is to look to what is infinite and
eternal by fashioning an angelic heaven, for it to be like one human
being before the Lord, an image of Him.
48. (i) _The infinite and eternal in itself is the same as the Divine._
This is plain from what was shown in many places in the work _Divine Love
and Wisdom._ The concept comes from the angelic idea. By the infinite,
angels understand nothing else than the divine _esse_ and by the eternal
the divine _existere._ But men can see and cannot see that what is
infinite and eternal in itself is the Divine. Those can see this who do
not think of the infinite from space and of the eternal from time; those
cannot see it who think of infinite and eternal in terms of space and
time. Those, therefore, can see it who think at some elevation, that is,
inwardly in the rational mind; those cannot who think in a lower, that is,
more external way.
[2] Those by whom it can be seen reflect that a spatial infinite is an
impossibility, so likewise a temporal eternity or an eternity from which
the world has been. The infinite has no first or final limit or
boundaries. They also reflect that there cannot be another infinite from
it, for "from it" implies a boundary or beginning, or a prior source.
They therefore think that it is meaningless to speak of an infinite and
eternal from itself, for that is like talking of an _esse_ from itself,
which is a contradiction. An infinite from itself could only be an
infinite from an infinite, and _esse_ from itself only _esse_ from
_esse._ Such an infinite or _esse_ would either be the same with the
infinite or be finite. From these and like considerations, inwardly seen
in the rational mind, it is plain that there is what is infinite in
itself and eternal in itself, and that they are the Divine whence are all
things.
49. I know that many will say to themselves, "How can anybody grasp
anything inwardly and rationally apart from space and time, and think
that it not only exists, but is also the all and the self from which are
all things?" But think deeply whether love or any affection of love, or
wisdom or any perception of wisdom, yes, whether thought is in space and
time, and you will grasp the fact that they are not. The Divine,
therefore, being love itself and wisdom itself, cannot be conceived of in
space and time; neither, then, can the infinite. To see this more clearly
ponder whether thought is in time and space. Suppose thought is sustained
for ten or twelve hours; may not the length of time seem like one or two
hours? May it not seem like one or two days? The seeming duration is
according to the state of affection from which the thought springs. If
the affection is a joyous one, in which time is not noticed, thought over
ten or twelve hours seems as though it were one or two hours. The
contrary is true if the affection is a sorrowful one, in which one
watches the passage of time. It is evident from this that time is only an
appearance according to the state of affection from which the thought
springs. The same is true of one's thought of the distance on a walk or a
journey.
50. Since angels and spirits are affections of love and thoughts thence
they are not in space or time, either, but only in an appearance of them.
Space and time appear to them in keeping with the states of their
affections and their thoughts thence. When one of them, therefore, thinks
with affection of another, intently desiring to see or speak with him,
the other is at once present.
[2] Hence, too, present with every man are spirits who are in an
affection like his--evil spirits with a man in an affection of similar
evil, and good spirits with the man in an affection of similar good. They
are as fully present as though he was one of their society. Space and
time have nothing to do with their presence, for affection and thought
therefrom are not in space and time, and spirits and angels are
affections and thoughts therefrom.
[3] I have been given to know this by living experience over many years.
For I have spoken with many on their death, some in different kingdoms of
Europe, and some in different kingdoms of Asia and Africa, and all were
near me. If space and time existed for them, a journey and time to make
it would have intervened.
[4] Indeed, every man knows this by some instinct in him or in his mind,
as has been verified to me by the fact that nobody has thought of
distances when I have reported that I had spoken with some person who
died in Asia, Africa or Europe, for example with Calvin, Luther, or
Melancthon, or with some king, governor or priest in a far region. The
thought occurred to no one, "How could he speak with those who had lived
there, and how could they come and be present with him, when lands and
seas lay between?" So it was plain to me that in thinking of those in the
spiritual world a man does not think of space and time. For those there,
however, there is an appearance of time and space; see the work _Heaven
and Hell,_ nn. 162-169, 191-199.
51. From these considerations it may now be plain that the infinite and
eternal, thus the Lord, are to be thought of apart from space and time
and can be so thought of; plain, likewise, that they are so thought of by
those who think interiorly and rationally; and plain that the infinite
and eternal are identical with the Divine. So think angels and spirits.
In thought withdrawn from space and time, divine omnipresence is
comprehended, and divine omnipotence, also the Divine from eternity, but
these are not at all grasped by thought to which an idea of space and
time adheres. Plain it is, then, that one can conceive of God from
eternity, but never of nature from eternity. So one can think of the
creation of the world by God, but never of its creation from nature, for
space and time are proper to nature, but the Divine is apart from them.
That the Divine is apart from space and time may be seen in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 7-10, 69-72, 73-76, and other places).
52. (ii) _What is infinite and eternal in itself cannot but look to what
is infinite and eternal from itself in finite things._ By what is
infinite and eternal in itself the Divine itself is meant, as was shown
in the preceding section. By finite things are meant all things created
by the Lord, especially men, spirits, and angels. By looking to the
infinite and eternal from itself is meant to look to the Divine, that is
to Himself, in these, as a person beholds his image in a mirror. This was
shown in several places in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
particularly where it was demonstrated that in the created universe there
is an image of the human being and that this is an image of the infinite
and eternal (nn. 317, 318), that is, of God the Creator, namely, the Lord
from eternity. But be it known that the Divine-in-itself is in the Lord;
whereas the divine-from-itself is the divine from the Lord in things
created.
53. But for better comprehension let this be illustrated. The Divine can
look only to the divine, and can do so only in what has been created by
it. This is evident from the fact that no one can regard another except
from what is his own in himself. One who loves another regards him from
his own love; a wise man regards another from his own wisdom. He can note
whether the other loves him or not, is wise or not; but this he does from
the love and wisdom in himself. Therefore he unites himself with the
other so far as the other loves him as he loves the other, or so far as
the other is wise as he is wise; for thus they make one.
[2] It is the same with the Divine-in-itself. For the Divine cannot look
to itself from another, that is, from man, spirit, or angel. For there is
nothing in them of the Divine-in-itself from which are all things, and to
look to the Divine from another in whom there is nothing of the Divine
would be to look to the Divine from what is not divine, which is an
impossibility. Hence the Lord is so conjoined to man, spirit, or angel
that all which is referable to the Divine is not from them but from the
Lord. For it is known that all good and truth which anyone has are not
from him but from the Lord; indeed that no one can name the Lord or speak
His names Jesus and Christ except from Him.
[3] Consequently the infinite and eternal, which is the same as the
Divine, looks to all things in finite beings infinitely and conjoins
itself with them in the degree in which they receive love and wisdom. In
a word, the Lord can have His abode and dwell with man and angel only in
His own, and not in what is solely theirs, for this is evil; if it is
good, it is still finite, which in and of itself is incapable of the
infinite. Plainly, the finite cannot possibly look to what is infinite,
but the infinite can look to the infinite-from-itself in finite beings.
54. It seems as if the infinite could not be conjoined to the finite
because no ratio is possible between them and because the finite cannot
compass the infinite. Conjunction is possible, nevertheless, both because
the Infinite created all things from Himself (as was shown in the work
_Divine Love and Wisdom,_ nn. 282-284), and because the Infinite cannot
but look in things finite to what is infinite from Him, and this
infinite-from-Him in finite beings can appear as if it were in them.
Thereby a ratio is possible between finite and infinite, not from the
finite, indeed, but from the infinite in the finite. Thereby, too, the
finite is capable of the infinite, not the finite being in himself, but
as if in himself from the infinite-from-itself in him. But of this more
in what follows.
55. (iii) _Divine providence looks to the infinite and eternal from
itself in all that it does, especially in saving mankind._ The infinite
and eternal in itself is the Divine itself, or the Lord in Himself; the
infinite and eternal _from_ itself is the proceeding Divine or the Lord
in others created by Him, thus in men and angels. This Divine is
identical with divine providence, for by the divine from Himself the Lord
provides that all things shall be held together in the order in which and
into which they were created. This the Divine in the act of proceeding
accomplishes and consequently all this is divine providence.
56. That divine providence in all that it does looks to what is infinite
and eternal from itself is evident from the fact that every created thing
proceeds from a first, which is the infinite and eternal, to things last,
and from things last to the first whence it is (as was shown in the work
_Divine Love and Wisdom,_ in the part in which the creation of the world
is treated of). But the first whence anything is, is inmostly in all the
progression, and therefore the proceeding Divine or divine providence in
all that it does has in view some image of the infinite and eternal. It
does so in all things, in some obviously so that it is perceptible, in
others not. It makes that image evident to perception in the variety, and
in the fructification and multiplication, of all things.
[2] _An image of the infinite and eternal is apparent in the variety of
all things,_ in that no one thing is the same as another nor can be to
eternity. The eye beholds this in the variety of human faces ever since
creation; in the variety of minds, of which faces are types; and in the
variety of affections, perceptions and thoughts, for of these the mind
consists. In all heaven, therefore, no two angels or spirits are the
same, nor can be to eternity. The same is true of every object to be seen
in either the natural or the spiritual world. Plainly, the variety is
infinite and eternal.
[3] _An image of the infinite and eternal is manifest in the
fructification and multiplication of all things,_ in the vegetable
kingdom in the capacity implanted in seeds, and in the animal kingdom in
reproduction, especially in the family of fishes. Were the seeds to bear
fruit and the animals to multiply in the measure of ability, they would
fill all the world, even the universe, in a generation. Obviously there
is latent in that ability an endeavor after self-propagation to infinity.
And as fructification and multiplication have not failed from the
beginning of creation and never will, plainly there is in that ability an
endeavor after self-propagation to eternity also.
57. The like is true of human beings as to their affections, which are of
love, and their perceptions, which are of wisdom. The variety of either
is infinite and eternal; so, too, is their fructification and
multiplication, which is spiritual. No person enjoys an affection and
perception so like another's as to be identical with it, nor ever will.
Affections, moreover, may be fructified and perceptions multiplied
without end. Knowledge, it is well known, is inexhaustible. This capacity
of fructification and multiplication without end or to infinity and
eternity exists in natural things with men, in spiritual with the
spiritual angels, and in celestial with the celestial angels. Affections,
perceptions and knowledges have this endless capacity not only in
general, but in every least particular. They have it because they exist
from the infinite and eternal in itself through what is infinite and
eternal from itself. But as the finite has in it nothing of the Divine,
nothing of the kind, not the least, is in the human being as his own. Man
or angel is finite and only a receptacle, by itself dead. Whatever is
living in him is from the proceeding Divine, joined to him by contact,
and appearing in him as if it were his. The truth of this will be seen in
what follows.