to their conjunction with Him, or, what is the same, according to their
reception of love and wisdom from Him.
2. Each of them has a place allotted to him in the Lord, thus in heaven,
according to the nature of the conjunction or the reception of Him.
3. Each in his place has a state of his own distinct from that of others
and draws his portion from what is had in common according to his
situation, function and need, quite as each part does in the human body.
4. Everyone is brought into his place by the Lord according to his life.
5. Every human being is introduced from infancy into this divine man
whose soul and life is the Lord, and within it and not outside of it is
led and taught from His divine love according to His divine wisdom; but
as a man is not deprived of freedom, he can be led and taught only in the
measure of his receptiveness as of himself.
6. Those who are receptive are conducted to their places through an
infinite maze by winding paths, much as the chyle is carried through the
mesentery and the lacteal vessels there to its cistern, and from this
into the blood by the thoracic duct, and so to its place.
7. Those who are not receptive are parted from those within the divine
man, as excrement and urine are removed from man.
These are arcana of angelic wisdom which man can comprehend to some
extent; there are many more which he cannot.
165. (iii) _Man is led by the Lord through influx and taught through
enlightenment._ Man is led through influx by the Lord because "being
led" and "flowing in" are spoken of love and the will; and he is
taught by the Lord through enlightenment because "being taught" and
"enlightened" are spoken of wisdom and the understanding. It is known
that every person is led by himself from his own love and according to
it by others, and not by his understanding. He is led by his
understanding and according to it only as his love or his will prompts
the understanding, and then it can be said that his understanding is
led also. Even then the understanding is not led, but the will which
prompts it.
The term "influx" is used because it is commonly said that the soul flows
into the body; influx is spiritual and not physical, as we showed above,
and man's soul or life is his love or will. For another reason, influx is
comparatively like the flow of the blood into the heart and from the
heart into the lungs. We showed in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom
that the heart corresponds to the will and the lungs correspond to the
understanding, and that the conjunction of the will with the
understanding is like the flowing of the blood from the heart to the
lungs.
166. Man is taught, however, through enlightenment; being taught and
being enlightened are said of the understanding. For the understanding or
man's internal sight is enlightened by spiritual light quite as the eye
or man's external sight is by natural light. The two are also taught
similarly; the internal sight, however, which is that of the
understanding, by spiritual objects, and the external sight or the sight
of the eye by natural objects. There is spiritual light and natural
light, one like the other in outward appearance, but dissimilar in
internal appearance. For natural light comes from the sun of the natural
world and so is in itself dead, but spiritual light, which is from the
sun of the spiritual world, is in itself living. This light, not
nature's, enlightens the human intellect. Natural and rational light
comes from it and not from nature's light, and is here called natural and
rational because it is spiritual-natural.
[2] There are three degrees of light in the spiritual world: celestial,
spiritual and spiritual-natural. Celestial light is a flaming, ruddy
light and is the light of those who are in the third heaven; spiritual
light is a gleaming white light and is the light of those in the middle
heaven; and spiritual-natural light is like daylight in our world. This
is the light of those who are in the lowest heaven and of those in the
world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell; with the
good in that world it is like the light of summer on earth and with the
evil like winter's light.
It should be known, however, that light in the spiritual world has
nothing in common with light in the natural world; they are as different
as what is living and what is lifeless. It is plain, then, from what has
been said that it is spiritual light and not the natural light before our
eyes that enlightens the understanding. Man does not know this, not
having known anything hitherto about spiritual light. In the work _Heaven
and Hell_ we have shown (nn. 126-140) that spiritual light has its origin
in divine wisdom and truth.
167. Having spoken about the light of heaven, we should say something
about the light of hell. This also is of three degrees. The light in the
lowest hell is like that from fiery coals; in the middle hell like that
from the flame of a hearth; and in the highest hell like that from
candles and to some like moonlight at night. All this is spiritual light
and not natural, for all natural light is dead and extinguishes the
understanding. As has been shown, those in hell possess the faculty of
understanding called rationality; rationality itself comes from spiritual
light and not from natural light. The spiritual light which they have in
rationality is turned, however, into infernal light, as the light of day
is into the dark of night.
[2] Nevertheless, all those in the spiritual world, whether in the
heavens or the hells, see in their own light as clearly as man sees in
his by day. This is because everyone's eyesight is formed to receive the
light in which it finds itself. Thus the eyesight of the angels of heaven
is formed to receive the light in which they see, and the sight of the
spirits of hell is formed to receive their light; this is comparatively
like that of birds of night and bats, which see objects at night and in
the evening as clearly as other birds see them by day, for their eyes are
formed to receive their light.
[3] The difference between the one light and the other appears very
clearly, however, to those who look from one to the other. When, for
instance, an angel of heaven looks into hell he sees only thick darkness,
and when a spirit of hell looks into heaven he sees only thick darkness
there. For heavenly wisdom is like thick darkness to those in hell; in
turn, infernal insanity is like thick darkness to those in heaven. It is
plain from all this that such as a man's understanding is, such is the
light he has, and that after death everyone comes into his own light, for
he sees in no other. In the spiritual world, moreover, where all are
spiritual even to the body, the eyes of all are formed to see by their
own light. Everyone's life-love fashions an understanding for itself and
thus a light, also, for love is like the fire of life and from this comes
the light of life.
168. As few know anything about the enlightenment in which the
understanding of a man is who is taught by the Lord, something will be
said of it. There is inner and outer enlightenment from the Lord, and
inner and outer enlightenment from oneself. Inner enlightenment from the
Lord consists in man's perceiving on first hearing something whether it
is true or not; outer enlightenment consists in thought from this. Inner
enlightenment from oneself is simply from confirmation and outer
enlightenment merely from information. We will say something of each.
[2] By inner enlightenment from the Lord a rational person perceives
about many things the moment he hears them whether they are true or not;
for example, that love is the life of faith or that faith lives by love.
By interior enlightenment a person also perceives that a man wills what
he loves and does what he wills, consequently that to love is to do;
again, that a man wills and does whatever he believes from love, and
therefore to have faith is also to do; and that the impious man cannot
have love for God or faith then in Him. By inner enlightenment a rational
man also perceives the following truths at once on hearing them: God is
one; He is omnipresent; all good is from Him; all things have relation to
good and truth; all good is from good itself and all truth from truth
itself. A man perceives these and other similar truths inwardly in
himself on hearing them and does so because he possesses a rationality
which is in heaven's enlightening light.
[3] Outer enlightenment is enlightenment of one's thought from this inner
enlightenment. One's thought is in this enlightenment so far as it
remains in the perception it has from inner enlightenment and so far as
it possesses knowledge of good and truth, for it gets from this
knowledge reasons confirming it. Thought from outer enlightenment sees a
matter on both sides; on the one, it sees reasons which confirm it, and
on the other, the appearances that weaken it; it dispels these and
assembles the reasons.
[4] Inner enlightenment from oneself, however, is quite different. By it
one regards a matter on one side only, and having confirmed it sees it in
light apparently like that just spoken of, but it is a wintry light. For
example, a judge who judges unjustly in view of gifts or gain, once he
has confirmed the judgment by law and reason sees in it nothing but
justice. Some judges see the injustice but not wanting to see it, they
keep it out of sight and blind themselves and so do not see. The same is
true of a judge who renders judgments out of friendship, or to gain
favor, or on account of relationship.
[5] Such persons act in the same way in anything they have from a man in
authority or from the mouth of a celebrity or have hatched from
self-intelligence; they are blind reasoners, for they see from the
falsities which they confirm; falsity closes the sight, just as truth
opens it. They do not see any truth in the light of truth nor justice
from a love for it but from the light of confirmation, which is an
illusory light. They appear in the spiritual world like headless faces or
like faces resembling human faces on wooden heads, and are called
reasoning animals for rationality is potential in them. Those have outer
enlightenment from themselves who think and speak solely from information
impressed on the memory; of themselves they can hardly confirm anything.
169. Such are the differences in enlightenment and consequently in
perception and thought. There is actual enlightenment by spiritual light,
but it is not manifest to one in the natural world because natural light
has nothing in common with spiritual light. This enlightenment has
sometimes been manifested to me in the spiritual world, however, visible
in those enlightened by the Lord as a luminosity around the head, aglow
with the color of the human face. With those in enlightenment from
themselves the luminosity was not around the head but around the mouth
and over the chin.
170. Besides these kinds of enlightenment there is another in which it is
revealed to one in what faith, intelligence and wisdom he is; he
perceives this in himself, such is the revelation. He is admitted into a
society where there is genuine faith and true intelligence and wisdom.
There his interior rationality is opened, from which he sees the nature
of his own faith, intelligence and wisdom, even to avowing it. I have
seen some as they returned and heard them confessing that they had no
faith although in the world they had believed they had much faith and
markedly more than others; they said the same of their intelligence and
wisdom. Some were in faith alone and in no charity, and some in
self-intelligence.
171. (iv) _Man is taught by the Lord through the Word and doctrine and
preaching from it, thus immediately by the Lord alone._ We said and
showed above that man is led and taught by the Lord alone, and from
heaven but not through heaven or any angel there. As it is by the Lord
alone, it is done immediately and not mediately. How this takes place
will be told now.
172. It was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred
Scripture_ that the Lord is the Word and that all the doctrine of the
church is to be drawn from the Word. Inasmuch as the Lord is the Word the
man who is taught from the Word is taught by the Lord alone. This is
comprehended with difficulty and will be clarified in this order:
1. The Lord is the Word because the Word is from Him and about Him.
2. Also because the Word is divine truth together with divine good.
3. To be taught from the Word is to be taught from Him, therefore.
4. That this is done mediately through preaching does not take away its
immediacy.
[2] First: _The Lord is the Word because it is from Him and about Him._
No one in the church denies that the Word is from the Lord, but that it
is about Him alone, while not denied, is not known. This was shown in
_Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord,_ nn. 1-7, 37-44, and in
_Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 62-69,
80-90, 98-100. Inasmuch as the Word is from the Lord alone and treats of
Him alone, a man is taught by the Lord when he is taught from the Word,
for it is the divine Word. Who can communicate what is divine and implant
it in the heart except the Divine Himself from whom it is and of whom it
treats? Therefore, in speaking of His union with His disciples He says
that they are to abide in Him and His words in them (Jn 15:7 ), that His
words are spirit and life (Jn 6:63), and that He makes His abode with
those who keep His words (Jn 14:20-24). To think from the Lord therefore
is to think from the Word, and as it were, through the Word. It was shown
in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture_ from
beginning to end that all things of the Word have communication with
heaven, and as the Lord is heaven, this means that all things of the Word
have communication with the Lord Himself. The angels of heaven indeed
have communication; this, too, is from the Lord.
[3] Second: _The Lord is the Word because it is divine truth together
with divine good._ The Lord teaches that He is the Word by these words in
John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God . . . and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (1:1, 14).
This passage has been understood hitherto to mean only that God teaches
men through the Word and has been explained as an hyperbole, with the
implication that the Lord is not the Word itself. This is because
expositors did not know that the Word is divine truth together with
divine good or, what is the same, divine wisdom together with divine
love. That these are the Lord Himself was shown in the treatise _Divine
Love and Wisdom,_ Part I, and that they are the Word in _Doctrine of the
New Jerusalem about the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 1-86.
[4] We will say briefly in what way the Lord is divine truth together
with divine good. Each human being is human not because of face and body
but from the good of his love and the truths of his wisdom; and because a
man is a man from these, he is also his own good and his own truth or his
own love and his own wisdom; without these he is not a human being. But
the Lord is good itself and truth itself or, what is the same, love
itself and wisdom itself; and these are the Word which in the beginning
was with God and was God and which was made flesh.
[5] Third: _To be taught from the Word, then, is to be taught by the Lord
Himself._ For it means that one is taught from good itself and truth
itself or from love itself and wisdom itself, and, as we have said, these
are the Word. But everyone is taught according to an understanding
agreeing with his love; what goes beyond this does not remain. All who
are taught by the Lord in the Word are instructed in a few truths while
in the world but in many when they become angels. For the interiors of
the Word, which are divine spiritual and divine celestial, are implanted
at the time, but are not consciously possessed until a man on his death
is in heaven where he is in angelic wisdom which, compared with human
wisdom, thus his earlier wisdom, is ineffable. That divine spiritual and
divine celestial things which constitute angelic wisdom are present in
each and all things of the Word see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about
the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 5-26.
[6] Fourth: _That this teaching is done mediately through preaching does
not take away the immediacy._ Inevitably the Word is taught mediately by
parents, teachers, preachers, books and particularly by reading. Still it
is not taught by them but by the Lord through them. Preachers, aware of
this, say that they speak not from themselves but from the spirit of God
and that all truth like all good is from God. They can speak it and bring
it to the understanding of many, but not to anyone's heart; and what is
not in the heart passes away from the understanding; by "heart" a man's
love is meant. From this it is plain that man is led and taught by the
Lord alone and immediately by Him when he is taught from the Word. This
is a supreme arcanum of angelic wisdom.
173. We have shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred
Scripture_ (nn. 104-113) that those outside the church who do not have
the Word still have light by means of it. Man has light by means of the
Word and from the light has understanding, and both the wicked and the
good have understanding. It follows that from light in its origin there
is light in its derivatives which are perceptions and thoughts on
whatever subject. The Lord says that without Him men can do nothing (Jn
15:5); that a man can receive nothing unless it is given him from heaven
(Jn 3:27); and that the Father in the heavens makes His sun to rise on
the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Mt
5:45). In the Word in its spiritual sense by "sun" here, as elsewhere, is
meant the divine good of divine love and by "rain" the divine truth of
divine wisdom. These are extended to the evil and the good, to the unjust
and the just, for if they were not, no one would possess perception and
thought. It was shown above that there is only one Life from which all
have life. But perception and thought are part of life; they are
therefore from the same fountain from which life springs. It has been
shown many times before that all the light which forms the understanding
is from the sun of the spiritual world, which is the Lord.
174. (v) _Man is led and taught in externals by the Lord to all
appearance as of himself._ This is so of man's externals, but not
inwardly. No one knows how the Lord leads and teaches man inwardly, just
as no one knows how the soul operates so that the eye sees, the ear
hears, the tongue and mouth speak, the heart circulates the blood, the
lungs breathe, the stomach digests, the liver and the pancreas
distribute, the kidneys secrete, and much else. These processes do not
come to man's perception or sensation. The same is true of what the Lord
does in the infinitely more numerous interior substances and forms of the
mind. The Lord's activity in these is not apparent to man, but many of
the effects are, as well as some of the causes producing the effects. It
is in the externals that man and the Lord are together, and as the
externals make one with the internals, cohering as they do in one series,
no disposition can be made by the Lord except in keeping with the
disposition made in the externals with man's participation.
[2] Everyone knows that man thinks, wills, speaks and acts to all
appearance as of himself, and everyone can see that without this
appearance man would have no will and understanding, thus no affection
and thought, also no reception of any good and truth from the Lord. It
follows that without this appearance there would be no rational
conception of God, no charity and no faith, consequently no reformation
and regeneration, and therefore no salvation. Plainly, this appearance is
granted to man by the Lord for the sake of all these uses and
particularly that he may have the power to receive and reciprocate so
that the Lord may be united to him and he to the Lord, and that through
this conjunction the human being may live forever. This is "appearance"
as it is meant here.
IX. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL NOT PERCEIVE OR FEEL
ANY OF THE ACTIVITY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, AND YET SHOULD KNOW AND
ACKNOWLEDGE PROVIDENCE
175. The natural man who does not believe in divine providence thinks to
himself, "What can divine providence be when the wicked are promoted to
honors and gain wealth more than the good, and many such things go better
with those who do not believe in divine providence than with the good who
believe in it? Indeed, infidels and the impious can inflict injuries,
loss, misfortune and sometimes death on the believing and pious, doing
so, too, by cunning and malice." He thinks therefore, "Do I not see in
full daylight, as it were, in actual experience that crafty schemes
prevail over fidelity and justice if only a man can make them seem
trustworthy and just by a clever artfulness? What is left except
necessities, consequences and the fortuitous in which there is no
semblance of divine providence? Does not nature have its necessities, and
are not consequences causes arising from natural or civil order, while
the fortuitous comes, does it not, from unknown causes or from none?" So
the natural man thinks to himself who attributes all things to nature and
nothing to God, for one who ascribes nothing to God ascribes nothing to
divine providence either; God and divine providence make one.
[2] But the spiritual man speaks and thinks within himself quite
otherwise. Although he does not perceive the course of divine providence
by any thought or feel it from any sight of it, he still knows and
acknowledges providence. Inasmuch as the appearances and resulting
fallacies just mentioned have blinded the understanding, and this can
receive sight only when the fallacies which have induced the blindness
and the falsities which have induced the darkness are dispelled, and
since this can be done only by truths which have the power to dispel
falsities, these truths are to be disclosed, and for distinctness let it
be in this order:
i. If man perceived or felt the activity of divine providence he would
not act in freedom according to reason, nor would anything appear to be
his own doing. It would be the same if he foreknew events.
ii. If man saw divine providence plainly, he would inject himself into
the order and tenor of its course, and pervert and destroy them.
iii. If man beheld divine providence plainly he would either deny God or
make himself god.
iv. Man can see divine providence on the back and not in the face; also
in a spiritual, not a natural state.
176. (i) _If man perceived or felt the activity of divine providence he
would not act in freedom according to reason, nor would anything appear
to be his own doing. It would be the same if he foreknew events._ In
given articles we made evident to the understanding that it is a law of
providence that man should act in freedom according to reason; also that
all which a man wills, thinks, speaks and does shall seem to be his own
doing; that without this appearance a man would have nothing of his own
nor be his own man. He would thus have no selfhood and nothing could be
imputed to him, and in that case whether he did good or evil would not
matter, and whether he believed in God or was under the persuasion of
hell would be immaterial; in a word, he would not be a human being.
[2] We have now to show that man would have no liberty to act according
to reason and there would be no appearance of self-activity if he
perceived or felt the activity of divine providence, for if he did he
would also be led by it. The Lord leads all men by His divine providence
and man only seemingly leads himself, as was shown above. If, therefore,
man had a lively perception or sense of being led, he would not be
conscious of living life and would be moved to make sounds and act much
like a graven image. If he were still conscious of living he would be led
like one bound in manacles and fetters or like a yoked animal. Who does
not see that man would have no freedom then? And without freedom he would
be without reason, for one thinks from and in freedom; whatever he does
not so think seems to him to be not from himself but from someone else.
Indeed if you consider this interiorly you will perceive that he would
not possess thought, still less reason, and hence would not be a human
being.