change or variation in a series of things present and to come; what then
of progress to eternity? The situation is like that of an arrow shot from
a bow, which if it deviated from the target in the least on being aimed
would deviate widely at a thousand feet or more. The like would happen if
the Lord did not lead the states of the human mind every least moment.
The Lord does so according to the laws of His divine providence; it is
according to them that it seems to man he leads himself; but the Lord
foresees how he leads himself and constantly acts in adaptation. In what
follows it will be seen that laws of tolerance are also laws of divine
providence, that every man can be reformed and regenerated, and that no
other predestination is possible.
203. Since every man lives forever after death and is allotted a place
either in heaven or in hell according to his life, and heaven and hell
must each be in a form to act as a unit, as we said before, and since no
one can be allotted a place in that form other than his own, humanity in
all the world is under the Lord's guidance and everyone is led by the
Lord from infancy to the close of life in the least things, and his place
is foreseen and provided.
[2] Clearly then, the Lord's divine providence is universal by being in
the least things, and it is an infinite and eternal creation that He has
provided for Himself in creating the world. Man does not espy this
universal providence, and if he did, it would look to him like scattered
heaps and collections of material for building a house such as passersby
see, while the Lord beholds rather a magnificent palace, constantly
building and enlarging.
204. (v) _Heaven and hell are in the form described._ That heaven is in
the human form has been made known in the work _Heaven and Hell,_
published in London in 1758 (nn. 59-102), also in the treatise _Divine
Love and Wisdom,_ and here and there in the present treatise. I therefore
omit further confirmation. Hell is said to be in the human form also, but
it is in a monstrous human form, like that of the devil, by whom hell in
its entirety is meant. Hell is in the human form inasmuch as those who
are in it were born human beings too; they also possess the two human
faculties of liberty and rationality, though they have misused liberty by
willing and doing evil, and rationality by thinking and confirming evil.
205. (vi) _Those who have acknowledged nature alone and human prudence
alone make up hell, and those who have acknowledged God and His divine
providence make up heaven._ All who lead an evil life, inwardly
acknowledge nature and human prudence alone. This acknowledgment lies
hidden in all evil, however the evil may be veiled by good and truth,
which are borrowed raiment, or like wreaths of perishable flowers, put
around the evil lest it appear in its nakedness. That all who lead an
evil life, inwardly acknowledge nature and human prudence alone is not
known because of this general covering hiding it from view. The source
and cause of their acknowledgment, however, may make clear that they
acknowledge nature and one's own prudence. We shall say, therefore,
whence man's own prudence is and what it is; then whence divine
providence is and what it is; next who they are respectively, and of what
character, who acknowledge divine providence and who acknowledge man's
own prudence; and lastly show that those who acknowledge divine
providence are in heaven and that those who acknowledge man's own
prudence are in hell.
206. _Whence man's own prudence is and what it is._ It is from man's
proprium, which is his nature and is called his soul from his parent.
This proprium is self-love and the accompanying love of the world, or it
is love of the world and the accompanying self-love. Self-love by nature
regards self only and others as cheap or of no account. If it regards any
it does so as long as they honor and do it homage. Inmostly in that love,
like the endeavor in seed to fructify and propagate, there lies hidden
the desire to become great and if possible a king and then possibly a
god. A devil is such, for he is self-love itself; he adores himself and
favors no one unless he also adores him; another devil like himself he
hates, because he in turn wants alone to be adored. Since no love is
possible without its consort and the consort of love or of the will in
man is called the understanding, when self-love breathes itself into its
consort, the understanding, it becomes pride there, which is the pride of
self-intelligence, and from this comes man's own prudence.
[2] Inasmuch as self-love wants to be the one lord of the world and thus
a god, the lusts of evil which are derived from it have their life from
it, so have the perceptions of the lusts, which are schemes; likewise
the enjoyments of the lusts, which are evils, and the thoughts of the
lusts, which are falsities. All these are like slaves and ministers of
their lord, responding to his every nod, unaware that they do not act
but are acted upon; they are actuated by self-love through the pride of
self-intelligence. Hence man's own prudence because of its origin lies
concealed in every evil.
[3] The acknowledgment of nature alone is also hidden in it, for
self-love has closed the window overhead through which heaven is plain
and the side windows, too, in order not to see or hear that the Lord
alone governs all things, that nature in herself is lifeless, and that
man's proprium is infernal and consequently love of it is diabolical.
With the windows shuttered, self-love is in darkness, builds itself a
hearth fire at which it sits with its consort, and the two reason
amicably in favor of nature as against God and in favor of man's own
prudence as against divine providence.
207. _Whence and what divine providence is._ It is the divine activity in
the man who has removed self-love. For, as was said, self-love is the
devil, and lusts with their enjoyments are the evils of his kingdom,
which is hell. On the removal of self-love the Lord enters with the
affections of neighborly love, opening the overhead window and then the
side windows, thus enabling man to see that there is a heaven, a life
after death and eternal happiness. By the spiritual light and at the same
time the spiritual love which then flow in, the Lord causes him to
acknowledge that God governs all things by His divine providence.
208. _Who and of what nature those in each group are._ Those who
acknowledge God and His divine providence are like the angels of heaven,
who are averse to being led by themselves and love to be led by the Lord.
It is a sign that they are led by the Lord that they love the neighbor.
Those, however, who acknowledge nature and one's own prudence are like
the spirits of hell, who are averse to being led by the Lord and love to
be led by themselves. If they were powerful persons in a kingdom or
prelates in the church they want to dominate all things. If they were
judges, they pervert judgment and exercise power over the laws. If they
were learned, they apply scientific information to confirm nature and
man's proprium. If they were merchants they act like robbers, and if
husbandmen like thieves. All are enemies of God and scoffers at divine
providence.
209. It is amazing that when heaven is opened to such men and they are
told that they are insane, and this is made plain to their very
perception by influx and enlightenment, still they angrily shut heaven
away from them and look to the earth beneath which is hell. This is done
with such men while they are still outside hell. It makes plain how
mistaken those are who think, "If I see heaven and hear angels speaking
with me, I shall acknowledge." Their understanding makes the
acknowledgment, but if the will does not at the same time, they still do
not acknowledge. For the love of the will inspires in the understanding
what it wills (it is not the other way about); indeed, it destroys
everything in the understanding which is not from itself.
210. _All this can be effected only as it appears to man that he thinks
from himself and disposes by himself._ In what precedes we have shown
fully that unless it seemed to man that he lives of himself and thus
thinks and wills, speaks and acts of himself, he would not be man.
Consequently, unless he could in his own prudence make the disposition of
all pertaining to his function and life, he could not be led and guided
by divine providence. He would be like one with his hands hanging limp,
his mouth open, his eyes shut, holding his breath in expectation of
influx. He would divest himself of the human which he has from the
perception and sensation that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts as it
were of himself. At the same time he would divest himself of the two
faculties, liberty and rationality, distinguishing him from the beasts.
Above in this treatise and in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ it
was shown that without this appearance a man would not have the power to
receive or reciprocate nor have immortality then.
[2] If then you desire to be led by divine providence, use prudence as a
servant and minister that faithfully dispenses his master's goods. This
prudence is the talent given to the servants to trade with, of which they
were to give account (Lu 19:13-28; Mt 25:14-31). It seems to man to be
his own, and he believes it is his own as long as he holds shut up within
him the bitterest enemy God and divine providence have, the love of self.
This dwells in the interiors of every man by birth; if you do not
recognize it (and it wishes not to be recognized), it dwells securely and
guards the door lest man open the door and the Lord cast it out. The door
is opened by man through shunning evils as sins as if of himself with the
acknowledgment that he does so from the Lord. With this prudence divine
providence acts as one.
211. Divine providence operates so secretly that scarcely anyone is aware
it exists in order that man may not perish. For man's proprium, which is
his will, never acts at one with divine providence, against which it has
an inborn enmity. The proprium is the serpent which seduced the race's
parents of which it is said,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and
her Seed, and It shall bruise your head (Ge 3:15).
The serpent is evil of every sort; its head is self-love. The seed of the
woman is the Lord, and the enmity set is between the love of man's
proprium and the Lord, thus between man's own prudence and the Lord's
divine providence. For man's own prudence is constantly exalting that
head, and divine providence is constantly abasing it.
[2] If man felt this, he would be enraged and wrought-up against God and
would perish. While he does not feel it, he may be enraged and wrought-up
against others or himself or against fortune without perishing. Therefore
the Lord leads man by His divine providence in freedom always, and the
freedom seems to man to be utterly his own. To lead a man freely in
opposition to himself is like raising a heavy and resisting weight from
the ground by means of screws through the power of which weight and
resistance are not felt. And it is as though someone is unknowingly with
an enemy who means to kill him and a friend leads him away quietly and
only afterwards tells him the enemy's intention.
212. Who does not talk of fortune? Who does not acknowledge it by
speaking of it and know something of it by experience? Yet who knows what
it is? One cannot deny that it is something, for it exists and occurs,
and a thing cannot exist and occur without being caused; but the cause of
this something, fortune, is not known. Lest fortune be denied merely
because the cause is unknown, consider dice or playing cards and play
yourself or ask the players; do any deny that fortune exists? For they
play with it and it plays with them surprisingly. Who can repulse it if
it opposes him? Does it not laugh then at prudence and wisdom? When you
shake the dice or shuffle the cards, does fortune not seem to know and
direct the turns and twists of the wrists in favor of one player rather
than another for some cause? Can the cause have any other source than
divine providence in outermost things where it works along with human
prudence in a wonderful way, constant or changeful, concealing itself at
the same time?
[2] We know that pagans of old acknowledged Fortune and built a temple to
her, as Italians did at Rome. It has been granted me to learn many things
which I am not permitted to make public about this fortune, which, as was
said, is divine providence in outmosts. These made it plain to me that
fortune is not an illusion of the mind nor a sport of nature nor
something without a cause, for this has no reality, but is visible
evidence that divine providence is over the least things in human thought
and action. As divine providence occurs in these least things which are
insignificant and trifling, why should it not in the significant and
important matters of peace and war in the world and of salvation and life
in heaven?
213. I know, however, that human prudence bears the rational faculty its
way more than divine providence does its way, for the latter does not
show itself and the former does. It can be accepted more readily that
there is only one life, namely God, and that all men are recipients of
life from Him, as we have shown many times, yet this amounts to saying
that prudence is from Him, for prudence is part of life. What man,
speaking in favor of nature and of human prudence in his reasoning, is
not speaking from the natural or external man? And what man, speaking in
favor of divine providence and of God in his reasoning, is not speaking
from the spiritual or internal man? But, "Pray, write two books," I say
to the natural man, "and fill them with plausible, likely and lifelike
reasons which in your judgment are solid ones, the one book in favor of
one's own prudence, and the other in favor of nature. Then hand them to
any angel. I know he will write down on them these few words: `All this
is appearance and fallacy.'"
XI. DIVINE PROVIDENCE LOOKS TO WHAT IS ETERNAL, AND TO THE TEMPORAL ONLY
AS THIS ACCORDS WITH THE ETERNAL
214. That divine providence looks to what is eternal and to the temporal
only so far as this makes one with the eternal, will be demonstrated in
this order:
i. The temporal has to do with distinction and wealth, thus with standing
and gain, in the world.
ii. The eternal has to do with spiritual standing and abundance, of love
and wisdom, in heaven.
iii. The temporal and the eternal are separated by man, but are united by
the Lord.
iv. The uniting of temporal and eternal is the Lord's divine providence.
215. (i) _The temporal has to do with distinction and wealth, thus with
standing and gain, in the world._ Many things are temporal, but they are
all related to distinction and wealth. By the temporal is meant all that
either perishes in time or at least comes to an end with man's life in
the world. By the eternal is meant all that does not perish or come to an
end in time and thus not with life in the world. Since, as we said, all
that is temporal concerns distinction and wealth, it is important to know
the following: what, and whence, distinction and wealth are; the nature
of the love of them for themselves and the nature of the love of them for
the sake of use; that these two loves are distinct from each other, as
hell and heaven are; and that man hardly knows the difference between
them. But of these points one by one.
[2] _First: What, and whence, distinction and wealth are._ Distinction
and wealth in the most ancient times were quite different from what they
gradually became later. Distinction in those times existed only in the
relation of parents and children and was one of love, a love full of
respect and veneration, accorded the parents not because of birth from
them, but because of the instruction and wisdom received from them, which
was a second birth of the children, in itself spiritual, being of their
spirit. This was the sole distinction in most ancient days because
tribes, families, and households dwelt separately and not like today
under governments. The distinction attached to the head of the family.
Men of old called the times golden ages.
[3] But after those times the love of ruling, just out of enjoyment of
that love, crept in by stages, and as enmity and hostility did so at the
same time towards those who were unwilling to submit, tribes, families,
and households congregated of necessity in communities and set over
themselves one whom they called judge at first, then prince, and finally
king and emperor. They also began to protect themselves by towers,
earthworks and walls. The lust of ruling spread like a contagion to many
from the judge, prince, king or emperor as from the head into the body,
and as a result degrees of distinction arose and prestige according to
them, and self-love also and pride in one's own prudence.
[4] The same thing happened with the love of riches. In the most ancient
days when tribes and families lived by themselves, there was no other
love of riches than to possess the necessaries of life which they
provided for themselves from flocks and herds and from the lands, fields
and gardens which supplied their food. Suitable houses, furnished with
useful articles of every kind, and clothing were also among their
necessities of life. Parents, children and male and female servants,
making up the household, engaged in the care and labor for all these
necessities.
[5] But after the love of dominion entered and destroyed this state of
society, the love of having means beyond what was needed crept in also
and grew to the extreme of wanting to possess the wealth of all other
men. The two loves are like blood relatives, for one who wants to rule
over all things, also wants to possess all things; for then all others
become servants, and they alone masters. This is clearly evident from
those in the papist world who have exalted their dominion even into
heaven, to the Lord's throne, on which they have placed themselves, and
who at the same time seek the wealth of the whole earth and want to
enlarge their treasury endlessly.
[6] Second: _The nature of the love of distinction and wealth for their
own sake and for usefulness' sake respectively._ The love of distinction
and standing for their own sake is self-love--strictly, the love of ruling
from self-love; and the love of riches and wealth for their own sake is
love of the world--more precisely, the love of possessing the goods of
others by whatever device. But the love of distinction and riches for
usefulness' sake is love of the use, which is the same as love to the
neighbor; for that for the sake of which a man acts is the purpose from
which he acts, and is first or primary, and all else is means and
secondary.
[7] As for the love of distinction and standing, identical with self-love
and strictly with the love of ruling from self-love, it is the love of
the proprium; and man's proprium is all evil. Hence it is said that man
is born into all evil and that what he has by heredity is nothing but
evil. What he has by heredity is his proprium in which he is and into
which he comes through self-love and especially through the love of
ruling from self-love; for one who is in that love regards only himself
and thus immerses his thoughts and affections in his proprium. Hence a
love of evil-doing is present in self-love. The reason is that he does
not love the neighbor but only himself; and one who loves himself only,
sees others as outsiders or as mean or nothing worth, despises them, and
does not hesitate to do them injury.
[8] For this reason one who is in the love of ruling from the love of
self thinks nothing of defrauding his neighbor, committing adultery with
his wife, slandering him, breathing vengeance on him even to the death,
treating him cruelly, and other such deeds. This a man gets from the fact
that the devil himself, with whom he is conjoined and by whom he is led,
is nothing else than the love of ruling from self-love. One who is led by
the devil, that is, by hell, is led into all these evils and is
constantly led by enjoyments of these evils. Hence all who are in hell
want to do evil to all, but those in heaven want to do well by all. From
this opposition there results the intermediate state in which man is and
in it is in equilibrium, as it were, so that he can turn towards hell or
towards heaven. So far as he favors the evils of self-love he turns
towards hell, and so far as he removes them from him he turns towards
heaven.
[9] It has been granted me to feel the nature and also the strength of
the enjoyment of ruling from the love of self. I was let into it that I
might know. It was such as to exceed all worldly enjoyments. It was an
enjoyment of the whole mind from its inmosts to its outmosts, but felt in
the body only as pleasure and gratification, making the chest swell. It
was also granted me to perceive that there issued from this enjoyment as
from their fountainhead the enjoyments of evils of all kinds, such as
adultery, revenge, fraud, slander, and evil-doing in general. There is a
similar enjoyment in the love of possessing the wealth of others by
whatever ruse, and from this love in the lusts derived from it; yet not
the same degree of enjoyment unless this love is conjoined with
self-love. As for distinction and riches sought not for themselves but
for usefulness' sake, this is not love of them but love of uses;
distinction and wealth serve it as means. This love is heavenly. But of
it more in what follows.
[10] Third: _These two loves are distinct from each other, as heaven and
hell are._ This is plain from what has just been said, to which I will
add the following. All who are in the love of ruling from self-love,
whoever they are and whether they are great or small, are in hell in
spirit. They are also in the love of all evils. If they do not commit
them, still in their spirit they believe that they are allowable, and
when honor, standing, or fear of the law do not deter, they commit them
physically. What is more, the love of ruling from self-love hides hatred
of God deeply within itself, consequently of divine things which are of
the church and especially of the Lord. If such men acknowledge God it is
with the lips only, and if they acknowledge the divine things of the
church, it is for fear of losing standing. This love hides hatred of the
Lord deeply within it because deep in it is the desire to be God, for it
worships and adores itself alone. Hence if anyone honors it, even to
saying that it possesses divine wisdom and is the god of the world, it
loves him with all the heart.
[11] It is otherwise with the love of distinction and wealth for
usefulness' sake; this love is heavenly, for, as was said, it is the same
as love of the neighbor. By uses goods are meant, and by doing uses doing
good is meant, and by doing uses or good, serving and helping others is
meant. Although those doing so may possess distinction and wealth, they
regard these only as means for doing uses, thus for serving and helping.
They are meant in these words of the Lord:
Whoever would be great among you, must be your minister; and whoever
would . . . be first, must be your servant (Mt 20:26, 27).
It is these also whom the Lord entrusts with ruling in heaven. For ruling
is to them the means of doing uses or good, thus of serving; and when
uses or good deeds are their purpose and their love, they do not rule;
the Lord does, from whom is all that is good.
[12] Fourth: _Man hardly knows the difference between the two loves._ For
most men of distinction and wealth also perform uses, yet do not know
whether they do so for their own sake or for the sake of usefulness. They
know this the less because love of self and the world has more fire and
ardor for doing uses than have those who are not in love of self and the
world. The former do uses, however, for the sake of fame or gain, thus
for their own benefit; but the latter, doing so for the sake of
usefulness and what is beneficial, act not from themselves but from the
Lord.
[13] The difference between the two loves can scarcely be recognized by
man, for he is ignorant whether he is being led by the devil or by the
Lord. Led by the devil he does uses for his own sake or the world's; led
by the Lord, he does them for the sake of the Lord and of heaven. All who
shun evils as sins do uses from the Lord; all who do not shun evils as
sins do uses from the devil, for evil is the devil, and use or good is
the Lord. Only so is the difference in question recognizable. Outwardly
the two loves look the same; inwardly they are wholly unlike. One is like
gold with dross in it, the other like gold with pure gold in it. One is
like artificial fruit, looking outwardly like the fruit of a tree, but is
colored wax with dust or pitch in it; the other is like noble fruit,
flavorsome and fragrant, with seeds in it.