especially in saving mankind because its object is a heaven from mankind
(as was shown, nn. 27-45), and therefore it is man's reformation and
regeneration or salvation to which it especially looks, since heaven
consists of the saved or regenerate. To regenerate man, moreover, is to
unite good and truth or love and wisdom in him, as they are united in the
Lord's proceeding Divine; to this especially, therefore, providence looks
in saving the race. The image of the infinite and eternal is not to be
found elsewhere in man than in the marriage of good and truth. This
marriage the proceeding Divine effects. Men filled by the proceeding
Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit, have prophesied, as we know from
the Word; men enlightened by it see divine truths in heaven's light;
above all, angels sensibly perceive the presence, influx and conjunction,
though they are aware that the conjunction is no more than can be termed
adjunction.
59. It has not been known that divine providence in all its procedure
with man looks to his eternal state. It can look to nothing else because
the Divine is infinite and eternal, and the infinite and eternal or the
Divine is not in time; therefore all future things are present to it. It
follows that there is eternity in all that the Divine does. But those who
think from time and space perceive this with difficulty, not only because
they love temporal things, but also because they think from what is on
hand in the world and not from what is at hand in heaven; this is as
remote to them as the ends of the earth. Those, however, who are in the
Divine, inasmuch as they think from the Lord, think from what is eternal
as well as from what is at present, asking themselves, "What is that
which is not eternal? Is not the temporal relatively nothing and does it
not become nothing when it is past?" The eternal is not so; it alone
_is;_ its _esse_ has no end. To think thus is to think both from the
present and the eternal, and when a man not only thinks so but lives so,
the proceeding Divine with him or divine providence looks in all its
procedure to the state of his eternal life in heaven and guides to it. In
what follows it will be seen that the Divine looks to the eternal in
everybody, in an evil as well as in a good person.
60. (iv) _An image of the infinite and eternal offers in an angelic
heaven._ Among things we need to know about is the angelic heaven.
Everyone who has any religion thinks about heaven and wishes to go there.
Yet heaven is granted only to those who know the way to it and walk in
that way. We can know the way to an extent by knowing the character of
those who constitute heaven and by knowing that no one becomes an angel
or comes into heaven unless he brings with him from the world what is
angelic. In what is angelic there is a knowledge of the way from walking
in it, and a walking in the way through a knowledge of it. In the
spiritual world, moreover, there are actually ways leading to every
society of heaven or of hell. Each sees his own way as if for himself. He
does so because a way is there for every love; the love discloses the way
and takes a man to his fellows. No one sees other ways than the way of
his love. Plain it is from this that angels are nothing but heavenly
loves; otherwise they would not have seen the ways tending to heaven.
This will be plainer still when heaven is described.
61. Every man's spirit is affection and thought therefrom. And as all
affection is of love, and thought is of the understanding, every spirit
is his own love and his own understanding therefrom. When a man is
thinking solely from his own spirit, therefore, as he does in private
meditation at home, he thinks from the affection belonging to his love.
It is clear, then, that when a man becomes a spirit, as he does after
death, he is the affection of his own love and has no other thought than
that of his affection. If his love has been one of evil, he is an evil
affection, which is a lust; if his love has been one of good, he is a
good affection. Everyone has a good affection so far as he has shunned
evils as sins, and an evil affection so far as he has not shunned evils
as sins. As all spirits and angels, then, are affections, the whole
angelic heaven is nothing but the love of all the affections of good and
the attendant wisdom of all the perceptions of truth. Since all good and
truth are from the Lord and He is love itself, the angelic heaven is an
image of Him. Furthermore, as divine love and wisdom are human in form,
it also follows that the angelic heaven must be in that form. Of this we
shall say more in the following section.
62. The angelic heaven is an image of the infinite and eternal, then,
because it is an image of the Lord, who is infinite and eternal. The
image of His infinity and eternity is manifest in heaven's being
constituted of myriads and myriads of angels, and in its consisting of as
many societies as there are general affections of heavenly love;
manifest, again, in every angel's being distinctly his own affection;
manifest further in that the form of heaven--a unit in the divine sight
just as man is a unit--is assembled from so many affections, general and
particular; also manifest in that this form is perfected to eternity with
the increase in numbers, the greater the number of those entering into
the form of the divine love which is the form of forms, the more perfect
the resulting unity. It is plain from all this that the angelic heaven
presents an image of the infinite and eternal.
63. From the knowledge of heaven to be had from this brief description it
is evident that it is an affection of the love of good that makes heaven
in a man. But who knows this today? Who knows even what an affection of
the love of good is, or that these affections are innumerable, in fact,
infinite? For, as was said, each angel is his own particular affection;
and the form of heaven is the form of all the affections of the divine
love there. Only one Being can combine all affections into this form--only
He who is love and wisdom itself and who is at once infinite and eternal.
For throughout that form is what is infinite and eternal; the infinite is
in its unity and the eternal in its perpetuity; were they removed the
form would instantly collapse. Who else can combine affections into a
form? Who else can bring about this unity? The unity can be accomplished
only in an idea of the total, and the total realized only in thought for
each single part. Myriads on myriads compose that form; annually myriads
enter it and will do so to eternity. All infants enter it and all adults
who are affections of the love of good. Again from all this the image of
the infinite and eternal in the angelic heaven is to be seen.
64. (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._ See in the work _Heaven and
Hell_ (nn. 59-86) that heaven as a whole is like one man in the Lord's
sight; that each society of heaven also is; that as a result each angel
is a human being in perfect form; and that this is because God the
Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, is Man; also (nn. 87-102) that as
a result there is a correspondence of all things of heaven with all
things in the human being. The entire heaven as one man has not been seen
by me, for only the Lord can so behold it; but that an entire society,
whether large or small, can appear as one man, I have seen. I was then
told that the largest society of all, which is heaven in its entirety, so
appears, but to the Lord alone; and that this causes every angel to be in
full form a human being.
65. As all heaven is like one man in the Lord's view, it is divided into
as many general societies as there are organs, viscera and members in
man, and each general society into as many less general or particular
societies as there are larger divisions in each of the viscera and
organs. This makes evident what heaven is. Because the Lord is very Man
and heaven is His image, to be in heaven is called "being in the Lord."
See in the work _Divine Love and Wisdom_ that the Lord is very Man
(nn. 11-13, 285-289).
66. From all this the arcanum, well called angelic, can in a measure be
seen, that each affection of good and at the same time of truth is human
in form. For whatever proceeds from the Lord gets from His divine love
that it is an affection of good and from His divine wisdom that it is an
affection of truth. An affection of truth proceeding from the Lord
appears in angel and man as perception and consequent thought of truth.
For we are aware of perception and thought, but little aware of the
affection whence they are, although all come as one from the Lord.
67. Man, then, is by creation a heaven in least form and hence an image
of the Lord; heaven consists of as many affections as there are angels;
and each affection in its form is man. It must then be the constant
striving of divine providence that a man may become a heaven in form and
an image of the Lord, and as this is effected by means of an affection of
the good and true, that he may become such an affection. This is
therefore the unceasing effort of divine providence. But its inmost aim
is that a man may be here or there in heaven or in the divine heavenly
man, for so he is in the Lord. But this is accomplished with those whom
the Lord can lead to heaven. As He foresees who can be led He also
provides continually that a man may become amenable; for thus everyone
who suffers himself to be led to heaven is prepared for his own place
there.
68. We have said that heaven is divided into as many societies as there
are organs, viscera and members in man; and in these no part can be in
any place but its own. As angels are the parts in the divine heavenly
man, and none become angels who were not men in the world, the man who
suffers himself to be led to heaven is continually prepared by the Lord
for his own place there. This is done by the affection of good and truth
which corresponds with that place. To this place every angel-man is also
assigned on his departure from the world. This is the inmost of divine
providence touching heaven.
69. On the other hand, a man who does not permit himself to be led to
heaven and allotted a place there is prepared for his own place in hell.
Of himself a man tends constantly to the depths of hell but is
continually withheld by the Lord. He who cannot be withheld is prepared
for a given place in hell, to which he is assigned on departure from the
world. This place is opposite one in heaven; for hell is the opposite of
heaven. So, as the angel-man according to his affection of good and truth
is allotted his place in heaven, the devil-man according to his affection
of evil and falsity is allotted his in hell. The two opposites, set
exactly over against each other, are kept in connection. This is the
inmost of divine providence touching hell.
IV. THERE ARE LAWS OF PROVIDENCE THAT ARE UNKNOWN TO MEN
70. Men know there is divine providence, but not what its nature is. This
is not known because its laws are arcana, hitherto hidden in the wisdom
of angels. These laws are to be revealed now in order that what belongs
to the Lord may be ascribed to Him, and nothing ascribed to man that is
not man's. For very many in the world attribute everything to themselves
and their prudence, and what they cannot so attribute they call
fortuitous and accidental, not knowing that human prudence is nothing and
that "fortuitous" and "accidental" are idle words.
[2] We say that the laws of divine providence are arcana "hidden until
now in the wisdom of the angels." They have been hidden because the
understanding has been closed in Christendom in religion's name on divine
things, and has been rendered so dull and averse in these matters that
man has not been able because he has not been willing, or has not been
willing because he has not been able, to understand anything about
providence beyond the mere fact that it exists, or to do more than argue
whether it exists or not, also whether it is only general or also
detailed. Closed up on divine things in the name of religion,
understanding could advance no further.
[3] But it is acknowledged in the church that man cannot of himself do
good which is in itself good or of himself think truth which is in itself
truth. This acknowledgment is at one with divine providence; these are
interdependent beliefs. Lest therefore one be affirmed and the other
denied and both fail, what divine providence is must by all means be
revealed. It cannot be revealed unless the laws by which the Lord
oversees and governs the volitions and thoughts of the human being are
disclosed. The laws enable one to know the nature of providence, and only
one who knows its nature can acknowledge providence, for then he beholds
it. The laws of divine providence, hitherto hidden with angels in their
wisdom, are therefore to be revealed now.
V. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL ACT FROM FREEDOM
ACCORDING TO REASON
71. As is known, man is free to think and will as he wishes, but not to
speak whatever he thinks or to do whatever he wills. The freedom meant
here, therefore, is spiritual freedom and natural freedom only as they
make one; for thinking and willing are spiritual, and speaking and acting
are natural. The two are readily distinguishable in man, for he can think
what he does not utter and will what he does not do; plainly, spiritual
and natural are discriminated in him. He can pass from the former to the
latter therefore only on a decision to do so--a decision which can be
likened to a door that must first be unfastened and opened. This door, it
is true, stands open, as it were, in those who think and will from reason
in accord with the civil laws of the land and the moral laws of society,
for they speak what they think and do what they will to do. But in those
who think and will contrary to those laws, the door stands shut, as it
were. One who watches his volitions and subsequent deeds knows that such
a decision intervenes, sometimes more than once in a single utterance or
action. This we have premised for it to be understood that by acting from
freedom according to reason is meant to think and will freely _and_
thence to speak and do freely what is according to reason.
72. Since few know, however, that the law above can be a law of divine
providence, principally because a man is also free then to think evil and
falsity (still divine providence is continually leading him to think and
will what is good and true), for clearer perception we must proceed step
by step and shall do so in this order:
i. The human being has reason and freedom or rationality and liberty, and
has these two faculties from the Lord.
ii. Whatever a man does in freedom, whether with reason or not, provided
it is according to his reason, seems to him to be his.
iii. Whatever a man does in freedom according to his thought, is
appropriated to him as his and remains.
iv. A man is reformed and regenerated by the Lord by means of the two
faculties and cannot be reformed and regenerated without them.
v. A man can be reformed and regenerated by means of the two faculties so
far as he can be led by them to acknowledge that all truth and good which
he thinks and does are from the Lord and not from himself.
vi. The conjunction of the Lord with man, and man's reciprocal
conjunction with the Lord, is effected by means of these two faculties.
vii. In all the procedure of His divine providence the Lord safeguards
the two faculties in man unimpaired and as sacred.
viii. It is therefore of the divine providence that man shall act in
freedom according to reason.
73. (i) _The human being has reason and freedom or rationality and
liberty, and has these two faculties from the Lord._ Man has a faculty of
understanding, which is rationality, and a faculty of thinking, willing,
speaking and doing what he understands, which is liberty; and he has
these two faculties from the Lord (see the work _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
nn. 264-270, 425, and above, nn. 43, 44). But many doubts may arise about
either of the two faculties when thought is given to them; therefore I
want to say something at this point just about man's freedom to act
according to reason.
[2] First, it should be known that all freedom is of love, so much so
that love and freedom are one. As love is man's life, freedom is of his
life, too. For man's every enjoyment is from some love of his and has no
other source, and to act from the enjoyment of one's love is to act in
freedom. Enjoyment leads a man as the current bears an object along on a
stream. But loves are many, some harmonious, others not; therefore
freedoms are many. In general there are three: natural, rational, and
spiritual freedom.
[3] _Natural freedom_ is man's by heredity. In it he loves only himself
and the world: his first life is nothing else. From these two loves,
moreover, all evils arise and thus attach to love. Hence to think and
will evil is man's natural freedom, and when he has also confirmed evils
in himself by reasonings, he does them in freedom according to his
reason. Doing them is from his faculty called liberty, and confirming
them from his faculty called rationality.
[4] For example, it is from the love into which he is born that he
desires to commit adultery, to defraud, to blaspheme, to take revenge.
Confirming these evils in himself and by this making them allowable, he
then, from his love's enjoyment in them, thinks and wills them freely and
as if according to reason, and so far as civil laws do not hinder, speaks
and does them. It is of the Lord's divine providence that man is allowed
to do so, for freedom or liberty is his. This natural freedom is man's by
nature because by heredity, and those are in this freedom who have
confirmed it in themselves by reasonings from enjoyment in self-love and
love of the world.
[5] _Rational freedom_ is from the love of good repute for the sake of
standing or gain. The delight of this love is to seem outwardly a moral
person. Loving this reputation, the man does not defraud, commit
adultery, take revenge, or blaspheme; and making this his reasoned
course, he also does in freedom according to reason what is sincere,
just, chaste, and friendly; indeed from reason can advocate such conduct.
But if his rational is only natural and not spiritual, his freedom is
only external and not internal. He does not love these goods inwardly at
all, but only outwardly for reputation's sake, as we said. The good deeds
he does are therefore not in themselves good. He can also say that they
should be done for the sake of the general welfare, but he speaks out of
no love for that welfare, but from love of his own standing or gain. His
freedom therefore derives nothing from love of the public good, nor does
his reason, which complies with his love. This rational freedom,
therefore, is inwardly natural freedom. The Lord's divine providence
leaves everyone this freedom too.
[6] _Spiritual freedom_ is from love of eternal life. Into this love and
its enjoyment only he comes who regards evils as sins and therefore does
not will them, and who also looks to the Lord. Once a man does this he is
in this freedom. One can refuse to will and do evils for the reason that
they are sins, only from an interior or higher freedom, belonging to his
interior or higher love. This freedom does not seem at first to be
freedom, yet it is. Later it does seem freedom, and the man acts in real
freedom according to true reason, thinking, willing, speaking and doing
the good and the true. This freedom grows as natural freedom decreases
and serves it; and it unites with rational freedom and purifies it.
[7] Anyone can come into this freedom if he is willing to think that
there is a life eternal, and that the joy and bliss of life in time and
for a time is like a passing shadow to the joy and bliss of life in
eternity and for eternity. A man can think so if he will, for he has
rationality and liberty, and the Lord, from whom he has the two
faculties, constantly enables him to do so.
74. (ii) _Whatever a man does in freedom, whether with reason or not,
provided it is according to his reason, seems to him to be his._ Nothing
makes so clear what rationality and liberty are, which are proper to the
human being, as to compare man and beast. Beasts do not have any
rationality or faculty of understanding, or any liberty or faculty of
willing freely. They do not have understanding or will, therefore, but
instead of understanding they have knowledge and instead of will
affection, both of these natural. Not having the two faculties, animals
do not have thought, but instead an internal sight which makes one with
their external sight by correspondence.
[2] Every affection has its mate, its consort, so to speak. An affection
of natural love has knowledge, one of spiritual love has intelligence,
and one of celestial love, wisdom. Without its mate or consort an
affection is nothing, but is like esse apart from existere or substance
without form, of which nothing can be predicated. Hence there is in every
created thing something referable to the marriage of good and truth, as
we have shown several times. In beasts it is a marriage of affection and
knowledge; the affection is one of natural good, and the knowledge is
knowledge of natural truth.
[3] Affection and knowledge in beasts act altogether as one. Their
affection cannot be raised above their knowledge, nor the knowledge above
the affection; if they are raised, they are raised together. Nor have
animals a spiritual mind into which, or into the heat and light of which,
they can be raised. Thus they have no faculty of understanding or
rationality, or faculty of freely willing or liberty, and nothing more
than natural affection with its knowledge. Their natural affection is
that of finding food and shelter, of propagating, of avoiding and
guarding against injury, together with the knowledge needed for this. As
this is their kind of existence, they cannot think, "I will this but not
that," or "I know this but not that," still less, "I understand this" or
"I love that." They are borne along by affection and its knowledge
without rationality and liberty. It is not from the natural world that
they are borne along so, but from the spiritual world. Nothing can exist
in the natural world that does not have its connection with the spiritual
world: thence is every cause that accomplishes an effect. On this see
also some things below (n. 96).
75. It is otherwise with man, who has affections not only of natural
love, but also of spiritual and celestial loves. For man's mind is of
three degrees, as was shown in Part III of the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom._ Man can be raised therefore from natural knowledge into
spiritual intelligence and on into celestial wisdom. From the two,
intelligence and wisdom, he can look to the Lord, be conjoined with Him,
and thereby live to eternity. This elevation as to affection would not be
possible did he not from rationality have the power to raise the
understanding, and from liberty the power to will this.
[2] By means of the two faculties man can think in himself about what he
perceives outside him through the senses, and can also think on high
about what he thinks below. Anyone can say, "I have thought and I think
so and so," "I have willed and I will so and so," "I understand that this
is a fact," "I love this for what it is," and so on. Obviously, man
thinks above his thought, and sees it, as it were, below him. This comes
to him from rationality and liberty; from rationality he can think on
high, and from liberty he can will so to think. Unless he had liberty to
think so, he would not have the will, nor the thought from it.
[3] Those, therefore, who will to understand only what is of the world
and nature and not what moral and spiritual good and truth are, cannot be
raised from knowledge into intelligence, still less into wisdom, for they
have stifled those faculties. They render themselves no longer men except
that they can understand if they wish, and can also will, by virtue of
the implanted rationality and liberty; from the two capacities it is that
one can think and from thought speak. In other respects, they are not men
but beasts, and some, in their abuse of those faculties, are worse than
beasts.