love and wisdom, in heaven._ As the natural man calls the enjoyments of
self-love, which are also the enjoyments of the lusts of evil, good, and
confirms that they are goods, he calls distinction and wealth divine
blessings. But when the natural man sees the wicked as well as the good
raised to distinction and prospered, and still more when he beholds the
good despised and poorly off and the wicked honored and affluent, he
thinks to himself, "Why is this? It cannot be by divine providence. For
if providence governed everything, it would lavish distinction and wealth
on the good and inflict contempt and poverty on the wicked, and thus
drive the wicked to acknowledge there is a God and divine providence."
[2] But unless he is enlightened by the spiritual man, that is, is at the
same time spiritual, the natural man does not see that distinction and
wealth can be blessings but also curses, and that when they are from God
they are blessings, and when they are from the devil they are curses. It
is well known, moreover, that the devil bestows distinction and wealth;
it is on this account that he is called the prince of the world. As it is
not known when distinction and wealth are blessings and when they are
curses, let it be told in this order: 1. Distinction and wealth are
blessings and are curses. 2. When they are blessings they are spiritual
and eternal; when they are curses they are temporal and ephemeral. 3.
Distinction and wealth which are curses, compared with those which are
blessings, are as nothing compared with everything or as that which has
no existence in itself compared with that which has.
217. The three points are now each to be clarified. 1. _Distinction and
wealth are blessings and are curses._ Common experience attests that both
the pious and the impious, or the just and the unjust, that is, the
wicked and the good, gain distinction and wealth, and yet it is
undeniable that the impious and unjust, that is, the wicked, enter hell,
and the pious and just, that is, the good, enter heaven. As this is true,
distinction and wealth or standing and means are either blessings or
curses, blessings with the good and curses with the evil. It was shown in
the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published in London in the year 1758, that
rich and poor and great and small are found in both heaven and hell (nn.
357-365). It is plain from this that distinction and wealth with those
now in heaven were blessings in the world, and with those now in hell
were curses in the world.
[2] If he will think about the matter with reason, anyone can know when
distinction and wealth are blessings or curses, namely, that they are
blessings with those who do not set their heart on them, and curses with
those who do. One sets the heart on them in loving oneself in them, and
one does not set the heart on them when he loves uses and not himself in
them. Above (n. 215) we told what the difference between the two loves,
and the nature of it, is. It is to be added that distinction and wealth
seduce some and not others. They do so when they excite the loves in
man's proprium, that is, self-love, which is the love found in hell and
is called the devil (as remarked above), and they do not seduce if they
do not excite that love.
[3] Both the wicked and the good come to distinction and are prospered in
means because the wicked as well as the good perform uses. The wicked
perform uses for the sake of their personal standing and gain; the good
do so for the sake of the standing and profit of the work which they do.
The good regard the standing and profit of their work as principal causes
of action, and personal standing and gain as instrumental causes; but the
wicked regard their personal standing and gain as the main incentives and
the standing and gain of their work as the instrumental. Yet who does not
see that a person, whatever his function or standing, is to serve the
affairs which he administers, and not they him? Who does not see that a
judge is to serve justice, a magistrate the common welfare, a king his
kingdom, and that it is not to be the other way around? According to the
laws of a kingdom, a man is invested therefore with distinction and
standing in keeping with the eminence of the work he does. Moreover, who
does not see that the difference between the two loves is like that
between what is principal and what is instrumental? One who ascribes to
himself personally the eminence of a position appears in the spiritual
world, when this inversion is pictured, as himself inverted, feet up and
head down.
[4] Second: _When distinction and wealth are blessings they are spiritual
and eternal, but when they are curses they are temporal and ephemeral._
There are distinction and wealth in heaven as there are in the world. For
governments and hence administrations and functions exist there, trade
also and hence wealth, for there are societies and communities. All
heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one called the celestial kingdom and
the other the spiritual kingdom. Each kingdom is divided into innumerable
societies, larger and smaller, all of which with all in them are arranged
according to differences of love and of wisdom thence, the societies of
the celestial kingdom according to differences of celestial love, which
is love to the Lord, and the societies of the spiritual kingdom according
to differences of spiritual love, which is love to the neighbor. Inasmuch
as there are such societies, and all who are in them were men in the
world and hence retain the loves they cherished in the world, with the
one difference that they are spiritual beings now, and that distinction
and wealth are spiritual in the spiritual kingdom and celestial in the
celestial kingdom, therefore those have greater distinction and abundance
than others who have greater love and wisdom. And to them distinction and
wealth in the world were blessings.
[5] The nature of spiritual distinction and wealth may then be plain--they
attach to one's function and not to one's person. The distinguished
person in the spiritual world indeed enjoys magnificence and glory like
those of kings on earth, yet does not regard the distinction itself as
anything but rather the uses in the administration and discharge of which
he is engaged. Each also receives the honors of his high post but
ascribes them not to himself but to the uses, and as all uses are from
the Lord, he ascribes the honors to the Lord as their source. Such are
the spiritual distinction and wealth which are eternal.
[6] It is quite otherwise with those to whom eminence and wealth were
curses in the world. Having attributed these to themselves and not to
uses, and not wanting the uses to control them but wanting to control the
uses, which they regarded as uses only as they served their own standing
and honor, they are in hell and are base slaves, despised and wretched.
Their distinction and wealth are gone, therefore are called temporal and
fleeting. The Lord teaches about both sorts in the words:
Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust
corrupt and thieves break through and steal; but lay up treasures for
yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts and where
thieves do not break through and steal; for where your treasure is . . .
your heart also is (Mt 6:19-21).
[7] Third: _The distinction and wealth which are curses, compared with
those which are blessings, are as nothing compared with everything or as
that which has no existence in itself compared with that which has._
Everything that perishes and comes to nothing is inwardly nothing in
itself. Outwardly, indeed, it is something and appears to be much and to
some everything while it lasts; but inwardly in itself it is not. It is
like a surface with nothing beneath or like an actor in kingly robes when
the play is over. But what remains to eternity is something in itself
perpetually, thus everything, and it truly is, for it does not cease to
be.
218. (iii) _The temporal and the eternal are separated by man, but are
united by the Lord._ For all that is man's is temporal, and he may
therefore be called temporal, but all things that are the Lord's are
eternal, and so the Lord is called eternal. Temporal things are such as
come to an end and perish, eternal things are such as do not. Anyone can
see that the two can be united only by the infinite wisdom of the Lord,
thus by Him and not by man. To make it known, however, that the two are
separated by man and united by the Lord, this is to be demonstrated in
the following order:
1. What temporal things are and what eternal are.
2. The human being is in himself temporal and the Lord in Himself
eternal, and only the temporal can proceed from man, and only the eternal
from the Lord.
3. Temporal things separate eternal things from themselves, while eternal
things join temporal things to themselves.
4. The Lord joins man to Himself by means of appearances.
5. He does so by correspondences also.
219. These points will be clarified and established one by one. First:
_What temporal things are and what eternal are._ The temporal are all
things that are proper to nature and from nature proper to man. Space and
time especially are proper to nature, both of them having a limit or
termination. Things thence derived and proper to man are all things of
his own will and understanding, thus of his affection and thought and
especially of his prudence; it is well known that these are finite and
limited. Eternal things, however, are all that are proper to the Lord and
from Him seemingly proper to man. What is proper to the Lord is all of it
infinite and eternal, thus timeless, endless and without limit; what is
seemingly proper to man thence is also infinite and eternal; but nothing
of this is actually proper to man, but the Lord's alone in him.
[2] Second: _The human being is in himself temporal and the Lord in
Himself eternal, and only the temporal can proceed from man, and from the
Lord only the eternal._ Man, we said, is in himself temporal and the Lord
in Himself eternal. Since only what is in a person can proceed from him,
nothing can proceed from man except what is temporal, and nothing from
the Lord except what is eternal. For the infinite cannot proceed from the
finite; that it can is a contradiction. The infinite, however, can
proceed from the finite, still not from the finite but from the infinite
by the finite. In turn, what is finite cannot proceed from the infinite;
this is also a contradiction; it can be produced from the infinite and
this is creation and not proceeding. On this subject see _Angelic Wisdom
about Divine Love and Wisdom,_ from beginning to end. If then the finite
proceeds from the Lord, as it does in many ways with man, it proceeds not
from the Lord but from man, and can be said to do so from the Lord by
man, because it so appears.
[3] This may be clarified by these words of the Lord:
Let your communication be, Yea, yea, Nay, nay, what is more than these
comes of evil (Mt 5:37).
Such is the speech of all in the third heaven. For they never reason
about divine things whether a thing is so or not, but see in themselves
from the Lord whether or not it is. To reason about divine things whether
they are so or not comes from the reasoner's not seeing them from the
Lord, but wanting to see them from himself, and what one sees from
oneself is evil. But still the Lord desires man to think and speak about
things divine, also to reason about them, in order that he may see
whether or not they are so. Such thought, speech and reasoning may be
said to be from the Lord in man provided the end is to see the truth,
although they are from the man until he sees and acknowledges the truth.
Meanwhile it is from the Lord alone that he can think, speak and reason;
for he does so from the two faculties, called liberty and rationality,
which are his from the Lord alone.
[4] Third: _Temporal things separate eternal things from themselves,
while eternal things join temporal things to themselves._ That temporal
things separate eternal things from themselves means that man, who is
temporal, does so from the temporal in himself; and that eternal things
join temporal things to themselves means that the Lord, who is eternal,
does so from what is eternal in Himself, as was said above. In what
precedes we showed that there is a conjunction of the Lord with man and a
conjunction in turn of man with the Lord, but the reciprocal conjunction
of man with the Lord is not man's doing but the Lord's; also that man's
will goes counter to the Lord's will or, what is the same, man's own
prudence goes counter to divine providence. From these circumstances it
follows that man puts the eternal things of the Lord aside by force of
the temporal things in him, but the Lord joins His eternal things to
man's temporal, that is, Himself to man and man to Him. As these points
have been treated many times in what precedes, there is no need to
confirm them further.
[5] Fourth: _The Lord joins man to Himself by means of appearances._ For
it is an appearance that of himself man loves the neighbor, does good,
and speaks truth. Unless this appeared to man to be so, he would not love
the neighbor, do good, or speak truth, and therefore would not be
conjoined with the Lord. Since love, good and truth are from the Lord,
plainly the Lord joins man to Himself by means of the appearance. This
appearance, and the Lord's conjunction with man and man's with the Lord,
have been treated above at length.
[6] Fifth: _The Lord unites man to Himself by means of correspondences._
He does this by means of the Word, the sense of the letter of which
consists wholly of correspondences. In _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
about Sacred Scripture,_ from beginning to end, it was shown that by
means of that sense there is a conjunction of the Lord with man and a
reciprocal conjunction of man with the Lord.
220. (iv) _The conjunction of the temporal and the eternal in man is the
Lord's divine providence._ As this cannot come at once to the perception
of the understanding or before being reduced to order and then unfolded
and demonstrated according to that order, let this be the order in
considering it:
1. It is by divine providence that man puts off the natural and temporal
through death and puts on the spiritual and eternal.
2. Through His divine providence the Lord joins Himself with natural
things by means of spiritual and to temporal by means of eternal in
accordance with uses.
3. The Lord joins Himself to uses by means of correspondences, and so by
means of appearances according as man confirms these.
4. This conjunction of temporal and eternal is divine providence.
All this will be placed in clearer light by explanation.
[2] First: _It is of divine providence that man puts off the natural and
temporal through death and puts on the spiritual and eternal._ Natural
and temporal things are the outermost and lowest things which man first
enters, as he does on being born, to the end that he may be introduced
then into interior and higher things; for the outmost and lowest things
are containants, and these are in the natural world. For this reason no
angel or spirit was created such at once, but all were born as men first
and then were introduced into interior and higher things. Thus they have
an outmost and lowest which in itself is fixed and stable, within and by
which the interiors can be held in connection.
[3] Man first puts on the grosser substances of nature; his body consists
of them; but he puts these off by death, retaining the purer substances
of nature nearest to the spiritual, which then are his containants.
Moreover, all interior or higher things are together in the outmost and
lowermost, as was shown earlier in passages on the subject. Every
activity of the Lord is therefore from topmost and outmost simultaneously
and so is in fullness. But as the farthest and outmost things of nature as
they are in themselves cannot receive the spiritual and eternal things
for which the human mind was formed, and yet man was born to become
spiritual and live forever, man puts them off and retains only those
interior natural things which suit and harmonize with the spiritual and
celestial and serve to contain them. This is effected by the rejection of
the temporal and natural outmosts, which is the death of the body.
[4] Second: _Through His divine providence the Lord joins Himself with
natural things by means of spiritual things and to temporal by means of
eternal in accordance with uses._ Natural and temporal things are not
only those proper to nature, but also those proper to men in the natural
world. At death man puts off both of these and puts on the spiritual and
eternal things corresponding to them. That he puts these on according to
uses has been shown in much that precedes. The natural things proper to
nature relate in general to time and space and in particular to things
visible on earth. These man leaves behind at death and instead receives
spiritual things which are similar in outward aspect or appearance but
not in their inward aspect and actual essence. This also was considered
above.
[5] Temporal things proper to men in the natural world in general are
related to distinction and wealth and in particular to human needs such
as food, clothing and habitation. These are also put off at death and
left behind; things are put on and received that are similar in outward
aspect or appearance but not in their internal aspect and essence. All
these get their inward aspect and essence from the uses made of temporal
things in the world. Uses are the goods which are called goods of
charity. It is evident, then, that the Lord through His divine providence
unites spiritual and eternal things to natural and temporal things
according to uses.
[6] Third: _The Lord joins Himself to uses by means of correspondences,
and thus by means of appearances according as man confirms these._ As
this must seem obscure to those who have not yet acquired a clear idea of
correspondence and appearance, what these are must be illustrated by
examples and explained. All the sayings of the Word are outright
correspondences of spiritual and celestial things, and being
correspondences are also appearances, that is, are all divine goods of
divine love and divine truths of divine wisdom which in themselves are
naked, but are clothed upon by the Word's literal meaning. They therefore
appear as a man would clothed, if his clothing corresponded to the state
of his love and wisdom. Obviously, then, if one confirms appearances in
himself, he mistakes the clothing for the man, whereupon appearance
becomes fallacy. It is otherwise if he seeks truths and sees them in the
appearances.
[7] Inasmuch as all uses or truths and goods of charity, which a man
renders to the neighbor may be rendered either according to the
appearance or according to the verities of the Word, he is in fallacies
if he renders them according to the appearances he has confirmed, but
renders them as he should if he does so in accord with the verities. This
may make plain what is meant when the Lord is said to join Himself to
uses through correspondences and thus through appearances according to
the confirmation of these by man.
[8] Fourth: _This conjunction of temporal and eternal is divine
providence._ This is to be illustrated by two instances in order to bring
it before the understanding in some light. The one instance is that of
eminence and standing, and the other that of riches and wealth. These are
all natural and temporal in outward form but spiritual and eternal in
inward form. Distinction with its standing is natural and temporal when a
man has regard in them only to himself personally and not to the common
welfare and to the uses. For he is bound then to think inwardly that the
community exists for his sake and not he for its sake. It is like a
king's thinking that the kingdom and all its members exist for his sake,
and not he for the sake of kingdom and people.
[9] The identical distinction, however, along with the standing it
brings, is spiritual and eternal when man considers that he exists for
the sake of the common well-being and for uses, and not these for his
sake. Doing this, he is in the truth and essence of the distinction and
of the standing it brings. But doing as described above, he is in the
correspondence and appearance; if then he confirms these, he is in
fallacies and has conjunction with the Lord only as those have who are in
falsities and evils therefrom, for fallacies are falsities with which
evils unite themselves. Such men have indeed done uses and good but from
themselves and not from the Lord, thus have put themselves in the Lord's
place.
[10] The same is true of riches and wealth; for these also are natural
and temporal, and spiritual and eternal. They are natural and temporal
with those who have regard only to them and to themselves in them and who
find all their pleasure and enjoyment in them. But they are spiritual and
eternal with those who regard good uses in them and take an interior
pleasure and enjoyment in uses. The outward pleasure and enjoyment in
such men also becomes spiritual, and the temporal becomes eternal. They
are therefore in heaven after death and in palaces there, the useful
designs of which are resplendent with gold and precious stones. They look
on these things, however, as the shining and translucent external of
inward things, namely, of uses, in which they take a pleasure and
enjoyment which are the happiness and joy of heaven. The opposite is the
lot of those who have looked on riches and wealth just for the sake of
riches and wealth and for their own sake, thus on the externalities and
on nothing inward; thus on appearance and not on the essential reality.
When they put off the externalities, as they do on dying, they come into
their internals, and as these are not spiritual, they cannot but be
infernal; they must be one or the other and cannot be spiritual and
infernal at the same time. The lot of these men then is poverty instead
of riches and wretchedness instead of wealth.
[11] By uses not only the necessities of life are meant, such as food,
raiment and habitation for oneself and one's own, but also the good of
one's country, community and fellow-citizens. Business is such a good
when it is the end-love and money is a mediate, subservient love, as it
is only when the businessman shuns and is averse to fraud and bad
practices as sin. It is otherwise when money is the end-love and business
the mediate, subservient love. For this is avarice, which is a root of
evils (on this see Lu 12:15 and the parable on it, verses 16-21).
XII. MAN IS NOT ADMITTED INWARDLY INTO TRUTHS OF FAITH AND GOODS OF
CHARITY EXCEPT AS HE CAN BE KEPT IN THEM TO THE CLOSE OF LIFE
221. It is well known in Christendom that the Lord wills the salvation of
all, and also is almighty. From this many conclude that He can save
everyone and saves those who implore His mercy, especially those who
implore it by the formula of the received faith that God the Father may
be merciful for the sake of the Son, particularly if they pray at the
same time that they may receive this faith. That it is quite otherwise,
however, will be seen in the last chapter of this treatise where it will
be explained that the Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of His divine
providence because that would be acting against His divine love and
wisdom, thus against Himself. There, too, it will be seen that such
immediate mercy is impossible, for man's salvation is effected by means,
and he can be led in accordance with these means only by Him who wills
the salvation of all and is at the same time almighty, thus by the Lord.
These means are what are called laws of divine providence. Among them is
this, that man is not admitted inwardly into truths of wisdom and goods
of love except as he can be kept in them to the close of life. To make
this plain to the reason, it is to be explained in this order:
i. Man may be admitted into wisdom about spiritual things and also
into love of them and still not be reformed.
ii. If he recedes from them afterwards and turns to what is the contrary,
he profanes holy things.
iii. There are many kinds of profanation, but this kind is the worst of
all.
iv. The Lord therefore does not admit man interiorly into truths of
wisdom and at the same time into goods of love except as man can be kept
in them to the very close of life.