spiritual servitude into spiritual freedom is that he does not know what
either is; he does not have the truths to teach this, and without them
spiritual servitude is believed to be freedom and spiritual freedom to be
servitude. A second reason is that the religion of Christendom has closed
the understanding, and "faith alone" has sealed it shut. Each has built
an iron wall around itself in the dogma that theological matters
transcend and cannot be approached by the reason, but are for the blind
and not the seeing. So truths that would teach what spiritual liberty is
have been hidden. A third reason is that few examine themselves and see
their sins, and one who does not see and quit them is in the freedom that
sins have, which is infernal freedom, in itself enslavement. To view
heavenly freedom, which is genuine freedom, from that freedom is like
trying to see daylight in pitch darkness or sunshine from under a black
cloud. So it happens that it is not known what heavenly freedom is, or
that the difference between it and infernal freedom is like the
difference between what is living and what is dead.
150. (vi) The external man is to be reformed by the internal, and not the
other way about. By internal and external man the same is meant as by
external and internal of thought, of which frequently before. The
external must be reformed by the internal because the internal flows into
the external and not the reverse. The learned world knows that what is
spiritual flows into what is natural and not the reverse, for reason
dictates it; the church knows that the internal man must first be
cleansed and made new and the external by it then, because the Lord
teaches it. He does so in the words:
Woe to you . . . hypocrites, for you make the outside of the cup and
platter clean, but the inside is full of extortion and excess. Blind
Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter that the
outside may also be made clean (Mt 23:25, 26).
We have shown in a number of places in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ that reason dictates this. For what the Lord teaches He grants
man to see rationally. This a man does in two ways: in one, he sees in
himself that something is so upon hearing it; in the other, he grasps it
by reasons for it. Seeing in oneself takes place in the internal man, and
understanding through reasoning in the external man. Who does not
perceive it within himself when he hears that the internal man is to be
purified first and the external by it? But one who does not receive the
general idea of this by influx from heaven may go astray when he consults
the external of this thought; from it alone no one sees but that outward
works of charity and piety are saving apart from the internal. It is so
in other things, as that sight and hearing flow into thought, and smell
and taste into perception, that is, that the external flows into the
internal, when the contrary is true. The appearance that what is seen and
heard flows into the thought is a fallacy, for the understanding does the
seeing in the eye and the hearing in the ear, and not the other way
about. So it is in all else.
151. But something should be said here on how the internal man is
reformed and by it the external. The internal man is not reformed solely
by knowing, understanding and being wise, consequently not by thinking
only; but by willing what these teach. When a person knows, understands
and has the wisdom to see that heaven and hell exist and that all evil is
from hell and all good from heaven, and if he then does not will evil
because it is from hell but good because it is from heaven, he has taken
the first step in reformation and is on the threshold from hell to
heaven. When he advances farther and resolves to desist from evils, he is
at the second step in reformation and is out of hell but not yet in
heaven; this he beholds above him. There must be this internal for man to
be reformed, but he is not reformed unless the external is reformed as
well as the internal. The external is reformed by the internal when the
external desists from the evils which the internal sets its will against
because they are infernal, and still further reformed when the external
shuns and fights against the evils. Thus the internal provides the will,
the external the deed. For unless a man does the deed he wills, inwardly
he does not will it, and finally he wills not to do it.
[2] One can see from these few considerations how the external man is
reformed by the internal. This is also meant by the Lord's words to
Peter:
Jesus said, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Peter said to
Him, not my feet only but my hands and head. Jesus said to him, he who
has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed, and is
entirely clean (Jn 13:8-10).
By "washing" spiritual washing is meant, which is purification from
evils; by "washing head and hands" purifying the internal man is meant,
and by "washing the feet" purifying the external. That when the internal
man has been purified, the external must be, is meant by this: "He who
has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed." That all
purification from evils is the Lord's doing, is meant by this, "If I do
not wash you, you have no part with Me." We have shown in many places in
_Arcana Caelestia_ that with the Jews washing represented purification
from evils, that this is signified by "washing" in the Word, and that
purification of the natural or external man is signified by the "washing
of feet."
152. Since man has an internal and an external and each must be reformed
for the man to be reformed, and since no one can be reformed unless he
examines himself, sees and admits his evils, and then quits them, not
only the external is to be examined, but the internal as well. If a man
examines only the external he sees only what he has committed to deed,
and that he has not murdered or committed adultery or stolen or borne
false witness, and so on. He examines bodily evils and not those in his
spirit; yet evils of the spirit are to be examined if one is to be
capable of reformation. Man lives as a spirit after death and all the
evils in his spirit persist. The spirit is examined only when a man
attends to his thoughts, above all to his intentions, for these are
thoughts from the will. There the evils exist at their source and roots,
that is, in their lusts and enjoyments. Unless they are seen and
acknowledged, a man is still in evils though he may not have committed
them outwardly. That to think with intention is to will and do, is plain
from the Lord's words:
If any one has looked on another's woman to lust after her, he has
already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).*
* See footnote at n. 111.
Such self-examination is of the internal man, and from it the external
man is truly examined.
153. I have often marveled that although all Christendom knows that evils
must be shunned as sins and otherwise are not forgiven, and that if they
are not forgiven there is no salvation, yet scarcely one person among
thousands understands this. Inquiry was made about this in the spiritual
world, and it was found to be so. Anyone in Christendom knows it from the
exhortations, read out to those who attend the Holy Supper, in which it
is publicly stated; and yet when asked whether they know it, they reply
that they do not know it and have not known it. The reason is that they
have paid no attention to it, and most say they have thought only about
faith and salvation by faith alone. I have also marveled that "faith
alone" has closed their eyes so that those who have confirmed themselves
in it do not see anything in the Word when they read it about love,
charity and works. It is as though they spread "faith" all over the Word,
as red lead is spread over writing so that nothing underneath shows; if
anything does show, it is absorbed by faith and declared to be faith.
VIII. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL BE LED AND TAUGHT
BY THE LORD OUT OF HEAVEN BY MEANS OF THE WORD AND DOCTRINE AND PREACHING
FROM IT, AND THIS TO ALL APPEARANCE AS OF HIMSELF
154. The appearance is that man is led and taught by himself; in reality
he is led and taught by the Lord alone. Those who confirm the appearance
in themselves and not the reality at the same time are unable to remove
evils from themselves as sins, but those who confirm the appearance and
at the same time the reality can do so; for evils are removed as sins
apparently by the man, but really by the Lord. The latter can be
reformed, but the former cannot.
[2] All who confirm the appearance in themselves and not the reality
also, are idolaters inwardly, for they are worshipers of self and the
world. If they have no religion they become worshipers of nature and thus
atheists; if they have some religion they become worshipers of men and of
images. Such are meant now in the first commandment of the Decalog under
those who worship other gods. Those, however, who confirm in themselves
the appearance and also the reality become worshipers of the Lord, for He
raises them out of what is their own, in which the appearance is,
conducts them into the light in which the reality is and which is the
reality, and gives them to perceive inwardly that they are not led and
taught by themselves but by Him.
[3] The rational capacity of the two may seem much the same to many, but
it differs. In those who are at once in the appearance and the reality,
it is a spiritual reasoning ability, but in those in the appearance but
not at the same time in the reality it is a natural reasoning ability;
this can be likened to a garden in winter light, and the spiritual
reasoning capacity to a garden in springtime light. But If these things
more in what follows, in this order:
i. Man is led and taught by the Lord alone.
ii. He is led and taught by the Lord alone through and from the angelic
heaven.
iii. He is led by the Lord through influx and taught through
enlightenment.
iv. Man is taught by the Lord through the Word and doctrine and preaching
from it, thus immediately by Him alone.
v. Man is led and taught in externals by the Lord to all appearance as of
himself.
155. (i) _Man is led and taught by the Lord alone._ This flows as a
general consequence from all that was demonstrated in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom;_ from what was said in Part I about the Lord's
divine love and wisdom; in Part II about the sun of the spiritual world
and the sun of the natural world; in Part III about degrees; in Part IV
about the creation of the universe; and in Part V about the creation of
the human being.
156. Man is led and taught by the Lord alone in that he lives from the
Lord alone; for his life's will is led, and his life's understanding is
taught. But this is contrary to the appearance, for it seems to man that
he lives of himself, and yet the truth is that he lives from the Lord and
not from himself. Man cannot, however, be given a sense-perception of
this while he is in the world (the appearance that he lives of himself is
not taken away, for without it man is not man). This must be established
by reasons, therefore, which are then to be confirmed from experience and
finally from the Word.
157. That the human being has life from the Lord alone and not of himself
is established by these considerations: 1. There is an only essence,
substance and form from which all the essences, substances, and forms
exist that have been created. 2. The one essence, substance and form is
divine love and wisdom from which is all that is referable to love and
wisdom in man. 3. It is also good itself and truth itself to which all
things are referable. 4. Likewise it is life, from which is the life of
all and all things of life. 5. Again the only One and very Self is
omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. 6. This only One and very Self is
the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah.
[2] 1. _There is an only essence, substance and form from which all the
essences, substances, and forms exist that have been created._ This was
demonstrated in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn.44-46). In Part
II it was shown that the sun of the angelic heaven, which is from the
Lord and in which He is, is the one sole substance and form from which
all that has been created exists, also that nothing can exist or come
into existence except from it. In Part III it was shown that all things
arise from that sun by derivations according to degrees.
[3] Who does not perceive by the reason and acknowledge that there is
some one essence from which is all essence, or one being from which is
all being? What can exist apart from being, and what can being be from
which is all other being except being itself? Being itself is also unique
and is being in itself. Since this is so (and anyone perceives and
acknowledges it by reason, or if not, can do so), what else follows than
that this Being, the Divine itself, Jehovah, is all in all in what is or
comes to be?
[4] It is the same if we say there is an only substance from which all
things are, and as there is no substance without form there is a single
form from which all things are. We have shown in the treatise mentioned
above that the sun of the angelic heaven is that substance and form, also
shown how that essence, substance and form is varied in things created.
[5] 2. _The one essence, substance and form is divine love and wisdom
from which is all that is referable to love and wisdom in man._ This also
was fully demonstrated in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom._ Whatever
appears to live in man is referable to will and understanding in him;
any-one can perceive by the reason and acknowledge that these two
constitute his life. What else is "This I will," or "This I understand,"
or "I love this," or "I think this"? And as man wills what he loves, and
thinks what he understands, all things of the will relate to love and
those of the understanding to wisdom. As no one has love or wisdom from
himself but only from Him who is love itself and wisdom itself, they are
from the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah. If they were not, man would be
love itself and wisdom itself, thus God-from-eternity, at which the human
reason itself is horrified. Can anything exist except from a prior self?
Or the prior self exist except from one prior to it? And finally from a
first or from underived being?
[6] 3. _It is also good itself and truth itself, to which all things are
referable._ Everyone possessed of reason agrees and acknowledges that God
is good itself and truth itself, likewise that all good and truth are
from Him, therefore that any good and truth can come only from good
itself and truth itself. All this is acknowledged by every rational
person when he first hears it. When it is said, then, that everything of
the will and understanding, of love and wisdom, or of affection and
thought in a man who is led by the Lord relates to good and truth, it
follows that all that such a man wills and understands or loves and has
for his wisdom, or is affected by and thinks, is from the Lord. Hence
anyone in the church knows that whatever good and truth a man has in
himself is not good and truth except as it is from the Lord. Since this
is true, all that such a man wills and thinks is from the Lord. It will
be seen in following numbers that an evil man can will and think from no
other source.
[7] 4. _The one essence, substance and form is likewise life, from which
is the life of all and all things of life._ This we have shown in many
places in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom._ At the first hearing the
human reason also agrees and acknowledges that all man's life is that of
the will and understanding, for if these are taken away he ceases to
live, or what is the same, that all his life is one of love and thought,
for if these are taken away he does not live. Inasmuch as all of the will
and understanding or all of love and thought in man is from the Lord, all
of his life, as we said above, is from Him.
[8] 5. _This only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and
omnipotent._ This also every Christian acknowledges from his doctrine and
every gentile from his religion. In consequence, wherever he is, a man
thinks that God is there and that he prays to God at hand; thinking and
praying so, men cannot but think that God is everywhere, that is,
omnipresent; likewise omniscient and omnipotent. Everyone praying to God,
therefore, implores Him from the heart to lead him because He can lead
him; thus he acknowledges the divine omnipresence, omniscience and
omnipotence, doing so in turning his face to the Lord; thereupon the
truth flows in from the Lord.
[9] 6. This only One and very Self is the Lord-from-eternity or Jehovah.
In Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord it was shown that God is
one in essence and in person and that He is the Lord, and that the Divine
itself, called Jehovah Father, is the Lord-from-eternity; that the Divine
Human is the Son conceived by His Divine from eternity and born in the
world; and that the proceeding Divine is the Holy Spirit. He is called
"very Self" and "only One" because, as was said, the Lord-from-eternity
or Jehovah is life itself, being love itself and wisdom itself or good
itself and truth itself, from which are all things. That the Lord created
all things from Himself and not from nothing may be seen in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ nn. 282-284, 349-357. So the truth that the
human being is led and taught by the Lord alone is established by
reasons.
158. This same truth is established in angels not only by reasons but
also by living perceptions, especially with angels of the third heaven.
They perceive the influx of divine love and wisdom from the Lord.
Perceiving it and in their wisdom aware that love and wisdom are life,
they declare that they live from the Lord and not of themselves, and not
only say so but love and will it so. Yet they are in the full appearance
that they live of themselves, yes, more strongly in the appearance than
other angels. For as was shown above (nn. 42-45) the more nearly one is
united with the Lord, the more distinctly does he seem to himself to be
his own, and the more plainly is he aware that he is the Lord's. For many
years now it has been granted me to be in a similar simultaneous
perception and appearance, and I am fully convinced that I will and think
nothing from myself but that it only appears to be from myself; it has
also been granted to love and will it so. The same truth may be
established by much else from the spiritual world, but these two
references must suffice now.
159. It is plain from the following passages in the Word that life is the
Lord's alone.
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die,
shall live (Jn 11:25).
I am the way and the truth and the life (Jn 14:6).
The Word was God . . . and in Him was life; and the life was the light of
men (Jn 1:1, 4).
"The Word" in this passage is the Lord.
As the Father has life in Himself, so has he given the Son to have life
in Himself (Jn 5:26).
From the following it is clear that man is led and taught by the Lord
alone:
Without Me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5).
A man cannot receive anything unless it is given him from heaven (Jn
3:27).
A man cannot make one hair white or black (Mt 5:36).
By "hair" in the Word the least of all is signified.
160. It will be shown in what follows in an article of its own that the
life of the wicked has the same source; now this will merely be
illustrated by a comparison. Heat and light flow in from the sun of the
world alike to trees bearing bad fruit and to trees bearing good fruit,
and they are alike quickened and grow. The forms into which the heat
flows make the difference, not the heat in itself. It is the same with
light, which is turned into various colors according to the forms into
which it flows. The colors are beautiful and gay or ugly and sombre, and
yet it is the same light. It is so with the influx of spiritual heat
which in itself is love, and with spiritual light which in itself is
wisdom, from the sun of the spiritual world. The forms into which they
flow cause diversity, but not in itself that heat which is love or that
light which is wisdom. The forms into which these flow are human minds.
It is clear from these considerations that man is led and taught by the
Lord alone.
161. What the life of animals is, however, was shown above (nn. 74, 96),
namely that it is a life of merely natural affection with its attendant
knowledge, and a mediated life corresponding to the life of human beings
in the spiritual world.
162. (ii) _Man is led and taught by the Lord alone through the angelic
heaven and from it._ We say "through" the angelic heaven and from it, but
that He does so "through" the angelic heaven is the apparent fact, while
"from it" is the reality. The Lord seems to lead and teach through the
angelic heaven because He appears above that heaven as a sun, but the
reality is that He does so from heaven because He is in heaven as the
soul is in man. For the Lord is omnipresent and not in space, as was
shown above. Therefore distance is an appearance according to conjunction
with Him, and the conjunction is according to the reception of love and
wisdom from Him. Since no one can be conjoined to the Lord as He exists
in Himself He appears to angels at a distance as a sun; nevertheless He
is in the angelic heaven as the soul is in man. He is similarly in every
society of heaven and in every angel, for man's soul is not only the soul
of man as a whole but also of every part of him.
[2] It is according to the appearance that the Lord governs all heaven
and through it the world from the sun which is from Him and in which He
is (about the sun see Part II of the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_),
and everyone is allowed to speak according to the appearance, cannot, in
fact, do otherwise. Everyone who is not in wisdom itself is also allowed
to think that the Lord rules each and all things from His sun and rules
the world through the angelic heaven. Angels of the lower heavens think
from the appearance, but those of the higher heavens speak indeed in
keeping with the appearance but think from the reality, namely, that the
Lord rules the universe from the angelic heaven, that is, from Himself.
[3] One can illustrate by the sun of the world that simple and wise speak
alike but do not think alike. All speak from the appearance that the sun
rises and sets. Despite speaking so the wise think it stands still, which
is again the reality, as the other is the appearance. The same thing can
be illustrated from appearances in the spiritual world, for space and
distance appear there but are dissimilarities of affections and of
resulting thoughts. The same is true of the Lord's appearing in His sun.
163. We shall say briefly how the Lord leads and teaches everyone from
the angelic heaven. In the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ and above in
the present treatise, also in the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published in
London in the year 1758, it has been made known from things seen and
heard that the angelic heaven appears before the Lord as one man, and
each society of heaven likewise, and it is from this that each angel or
spirit is a human being in complete form. It was also shown in the
treatises mentioned that heaven is not heaven from anything belonging to
the angels but from their reception of divine love and wisdom from the
Lord. Hence it may be evident that the Lord rules the whole angelic
heaven as one man, and since heaven is itself man, it is the very image
and likeness of the Lord and the Lord rules it as the soul rules its
body. Since all mankind is ruled by the Lord, it is ruled by the Lord not
through heaven, but from heaven, consequently by Him, for He is heaven,
as we have said.
164. This is an arcanum of angelic wisdom, however, and therefore cannot
be comprehended by man unless his spiritual mind has been opened; for
such a man, who is united with the Lord, is an angel. From what has
preceded he can comprehend the following: