things. For all things which occur in the natural world correspond to
spiritual things in the spiritual world, and all spiritual things are
related to the church. It is not known in the world which kingdoms in
Christendom represent the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Syrians, the
Philistines, the Chaldeans and the Assyrians or others, with whom the
children of Israel waged war; yet there are nations that do so. Moreover,
the condition of the church on earth and what the evils are into which it
falls and for which it is punished by wars, cannot be seen at all in the
natural world, for only externals are manifest here and these do not
constitute the church. This is seen, however, in the spiritual world
where internal conditions appear and in these the church itself consists.
There all are united according to their various states. Conflicts between
them correspond to wars, which on both sides are governed by the Lord
correspondentially in accordance with His divine providence.
[5] The spiritual man acknowledges that wars on earth are ruled by the
Lord's divine providence. The natural man does not, except that at a
celebration of a victory he may thank God on his knees for having given
the victory, and except for a few words on going into battle. But when he
returns into himself he ascribes the victory either to the prudence of
the general or to some counsel or incident in the midst of the fighting
which escaped notice and yet decided the victory.
[6] It may be seen above (n. 212) that divine providence, which is called
fortune, is in the least things, even in trivial ones, and if you
acknowledge divine providence in these you will certainly do so in the
issues of war. Success and happy conduct of war, moreover, are in common
parlance called the fortune of war, and this is divine providence, to be
found especially in a general's judgments and plans, although he may at
the time and also afterwards ascribe all to his own prudence. This he may
do if he will, for he has full freedom to think in favor of divine
providence or against it, indeed in favor of God or against Him; but let
him know that no judgment or plan is from himself; it comes either from
heaven or from hell, from hell by permission, from heaven by providence.
252. _A worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine
providence when he thinks, as he sees it, that victories are on the side
of prudence and not always on the side of justice, and that it is
immaterial whether a commander is upright or not._ Victories seem to be
on the side of prudence and not always on the side of justice, because
man judges by the appearance and favors one side more than the other and
can by reasoning confirm what he favors. Nor does he know that the
justice of a cause is spiritual in heaven and natural in the world, as
was said just above, and that the two are united in a connection of
things past and of things to come, known only to the Lord.
[2] It is immaterial whether the commander is an upright man or not
because, as was established above (n. 250), the evil as well as the good
perform uses, and by their zeal more ardently than the good. This is so
especially in war because the evil man is more crafty and cunning in
devising schemes than a good man, and in his love of glory takes pleasure
in killing and plundering those whom he knows and declares to be the
enemy. The good man has prudence and zeal for defense and rarely for
attacking. This is much the same as it is with spirits of hell and angels
of heaven; the spirits of hell attack and the angels of heaven defend
themselves. Hence comes this conclusion that it is allowable for one to
defend his country and his fellow-citizens against invading enemies even
by iniquitous commanders, but not allowable to make oneself an enemy
without cause. To have the seeking of glory for cause is in itself
diabolical, for it comes of self-love.
253. The points made above (n. 237) by which the merely natural man
confirms himself against divine providence have now been explained. The
points which follow (n. 238) about the varieties of religion in many
nations, which also serve the merely natural man for arguments against
divine providence, are to be clarified next. For the merely natural man
says in his heart, How can so many discordant religions exist instead of
one world-wide and true religion when (as was shown above, nn. 27-45)
divine providence has a heaven from mankind for its purpose? But pray,
listen: all human beings who are born, however numerous and of whatever
religion, can be saved if only they acknowledge God and live according to
the precepts of the Decalog, which forbid committing murder, adultery,
theft, and false witness because to do such things is contrary to
religion and therefore contrary to God. Such persons fear God and love
the neighbor. They fear God inasmuch as they think that to do such things
is to act against God, and they love the neighbor because to murder,
commit adultery, steal, bear false witness and covet the neighbor's house
or wife is to act against one's neighbor. Heeding God in their lives and
doing no evil to the neighbor, they are led by the Lord, and those whom
He leads are also taught about God and the neighbor in accordance with
their religion, for those who live in this way love to be taught, but
those living otherwise have no such desire. Loving to be taught, they are
also instructed by angels after death when they become spirits, and
willingly receive such truths as the Word contains. Something about them
may be seen in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_
(nn. 91-97 and 104-113).
254. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
when he observes the religious conditions in various nations and notes
that some people are totally ignorant of God, some worship the sun and
moon, and some worship idols and graven images._ Those who argue from
these facts against divine providence are ignorant of the arcana of
heaven; these arcana are innumerable and man is acquainted with hardly
any of them. Among them is this: man is not taught from heaven directly
but mediately (this may be seen treated above, nn. 154-174). Because he
is taught mediately, and the Gospel could not through the medium of
missionaries reach all who dwell in the world, but religion could be
spread in various ways to inhabitants of the remote corners of the earth,
this has been effected by divine providence. For a knowledge of religion
does not come to a man from himself, but through another who has either
learned it from the Word or by tradition from others who have learned it,
for instance that God is, heaven and hell exist, there is a life after
death, and God must be worshiped for man to be blessed.
[2] See in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_ (nn.
101-103) that religion spread throughout the world from the Ancient Word
and afterwards from the Israelitish Word, and (nn. 114-118) that unless
there had been a Word no one could have known about God, heaven and hell,
life after death, and still less about the Lord. Once a religion is
established in a nation the Lord leads that nation according to the
precepts and tenets of its own religion, and He has provided that there
should be precepts in every religion like those in the Decalog, that God
should be worshiped, His name not be profaned, a holy day be observed,
that parents be honored, murder, adultery and theft not be committed, and
false witness not be spoken. A nation that regards these precepts as
divine and lives according to them in religion's name is saved, as was
just said (n. 253). Most nations remote from Christendom regard these
laws not as civil but as divine, and hold them sacred. See in _Doctrine
of the New Jerusalem [about Life] from the Precepts of the Decalog,_ from
beginning to end, that a man is saved by a life according to these
precepts.
[3] Also among the arcana of heaven is this: in the Lord's sight the
angelic heaven is like one man whose soul and life is the Lord. In each
particular of his form this divine man is man, not only as to the
external members and organs but as to the more numerous internal members
and organs, also as to the skins, membranes, cartilages and bones; but in
that man all these, both external and internal, are not material but
spiritual. Further, the Lord has provided that those who cannot be
reached by the Gospel but only by some form of religion shall also have a
place in this divine man, that is, in heaven, by constituting the parts
called skins, membranes, cartilages and bones, and like others should be
in heavenly joy. For it does not matter whether their joy is that of the
angels of the highest heaven or of the lowest heaven, for everyone
entering heaven comes into the highest joy of his own heart; joy higher
still he does not endure; he would suffocate in it.
[4] A peasant and a king may serve for comparison. A peasant may reach
the height of joy when he steps out in a new suit of homespun wool or
seats himself at a table with pork, a piece of beef, cheese, beer and
fiery wine on it. He would feel constricted at heart if he was clothed
like a king in purple, silk, gold and silver, or if a table was set for
him on which were delicacies and costly viands of many kinds with noble
wine. It is plain from this that the last as well as the first find
heavenly happiness, each in his measure, those outside Christendom also,
therefore, provided they shun evils as sins against God because these are
contrary to religion.
[5] Few are entirely ignorant of God. If they have lived a moral life
they are instructed after death by angels and receive what is spiritual
in their moral life (see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred
Scripture,_ n. 116). The same is true of those who worship sun and moon,
believing that God is there. They know no better, therefore it is not
imputed to them as a sin, for the Lord says,
If you were blind (that is, if you did not know), you would have no sin
(Jn 9:41).
But there are many who worship idols and graven images even in the
Christian world. This, to be sure, is idolatrous, yet not with all. There
are those for whom graven images serve as a means of exciting thought
about God, for by an influx from heaven one who acknowledges God desires
to see Him, and these, unable to raise the mind above the sensuous as
those do who are inwardly spiritual, rouse it by means of statue or
image. Those who do so and do not worship the image itself as God are
saved if they also live by the precepts of the Decalog from religious
principle.
[6] It is plain, then, that as the Lord desires the salvation of all, He
has also provided that everyone who lives well may have a place in
heaven. See in the work _Heaven and Hell,_ published at London, 1758 (nn.
59-102 ), in _Arcana Caelestia_ (nn. 5552-5569) and above (nn. 201-204)
that heaven in the Lord's sight is like one man; that heaven accordingly
corresponds to each and all things in man; and that there are also those
who represent skin, membranes, cartilages and bones.
255. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
when he sees the Mohammedan religion accepted by so many empires and
kingdoms._ The fact that this form of religion is accepted by more
kingdoms than Christianity is may be a stumbling-block to those who give
thought to divine providence and at the same time believe that no one can
be saved unless he has been born a Christian, thus where the Word is, by
which the Lord is known. That form of religion is no stumbling-block,
however, to those who believe that all things are of divine providence.
These ask in what the providence consists and find it is in this, that
Mohammedanism, acknowledges the Lord as Son of God, the wisest of men and
a very great prophet who came into the world to teach men; most
Mohammedans consider Him to be greater than Mohammed.
[2] That form of religion was called forth in the divine providence to
destroy the idolatries of many nations. To make this fully known we will
pursue some order; first, something on the origin of idolatries.
Previously to that form of religion the worship of idols was general in
the world. This was because the churches before the Lord's advent were
all representative churches. The Israelitish church was of this
character. In it the tabernacle, Aaron's garments, the sacrifices, all
things of the temple in Jerusalem, the statutes also, were
representative. Moreover, the ancients had a knowledge of
correspondences, which is the knowledge of representations--it was the
chief knowledge of their wise men. This knowledge was cultivated
especially in Egypt and was the origin of Egyptian hieroglyphics. By that
knowledge the ancients knew what animals of every kind signified and what
trees of every kind signified, as they did what mountains, hills, rivers
and fountains signified, as well as sun, moon and stars. As all their
worship was representative, consisting of sheer correspondences, they
worshiped on mountains and hills and in groves and gardens, regarded
fountains as sacred, and in adoration of God faced the rising sun.
Furthermore, they made graven images of horses, oxen, calves and lambs,
and of birds, fish and serpents, and placed them in their houses and
elsewhere, arranged according to the spiritual things of the church to
which they corresponded or which they represented. They placed similar
objects in their temples, too, to put them in mind of the holy things
they signified.
[3] Later, when the knowledge of correspondences had been lost, their
posterity began to worship the graven images themselves, as holy in
themselves, not knowing that their forefathers had seen no holiness in
them, but only that they represented holy things by correspondences and
thus signified them. So arose the idolatries which filled the whole
world, Africa and Europe as well as Asia with its adjacent islands. In
order that all these idolatries might be uprooted, of the Lord's divine
providence it was brought about that a new religion, adapted to the
genius of Orientals, should start up, in which there would be something
from each Testament of the Word, and which would teach that the Lord had
come into the world and was a very great prophet, wisest of all, and Son
of God. This was done through Mohammed, from whom the religion is called
the Mohammedan religion.
[4] Of the Lord's divine providence this religion was raised up and, as
we said, adapted to the genius of Orientals, in order that it might
destroy the idolatries of so many peoples and give them some knowledge of
the Lord before they passed into the spiritual world. This religion would
not have been accepted by so many kingdoms or had the power to uproot
idolatries, had it not suited and met the ideas and thinking of them all.
It did not acknowledge the Lord as God of heaven and earth, for the
Orientals acknowledged God the Creator of the universe, but could not
comprehend that He came into the world and assumed human nature, quite as
Christians do not comprehend this, who therefore separate His divine from
His humanity in their thinking and place His divine near the Father in
heaven and His humanity they know not where.
[5] Hence it may be seen that the Mohammedan religion arose under the
Lord's divine providence and that all adherents of it who acknowledge the
Lord as Son of God and live according to the precepts of the Decalog,
which they also have, shunning evils as sins, come into a heaven called
the Mohammedan heaven. This heaven, like others, is divided into three,
the highest, middle and lowest. Those who acknowledge the Lord to be one
with the Father and thus the one God are in the highest heaven; in the
next heaven are those who renounce a plurality of wives and live with
one; and in the lowest are those who are being initiated. More about this
religion may be seen in _Continuation about the Last Judgment and the
Spiritual World_ (nn. 68-72), where the Mohammedans and Mohammed are
treated of.
256. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
when he sees that the Christian religion exists only in a small part of
the habitable world, called Europe, and there is divided._ The Christian
religion exists only in the small part of the habitable world called
Europe because it was not adapted to the genius of Orientals as was a
mixed one like the Mohammedan religion, as was just shown; and an
unadapted religion is not received. For example, a religion which ordains
that it is unlawful to take more than one wife is not received but
rejected by those who for ages have been polygamists. This is true of
other ordinances of the Christian religion.
[2] Nor is it material whether a smaller or a larger part of the world
has received this religion, as long as there are people with whom the
Word is. For those who are outside the church and do not possess the Word
still have light from it, as was shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
about Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 104-113. It is a marvel that where the Word
is reverently read and the Lord is worshiped from it, He is present with
heaven. The reason is that He is the Word and the Word is divine truth
which makes heaven. The Lord therefore says:
Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of
them (Mt 18:20).
Europeans can bring this about with the Word in many parts of the
habitable globe, for they trade the world over and read or teach the Word
everywhere. This seems like fiction and yet is true.
[3] The Christian religion is divided because it is from the Word and the
Word is written in sheer correspondences and these in large part are
appearances of truth in which, nevertheless, genuine truths lie
concealed. As a church's doctrine is to be drawn from the sense of the
letter of the Word which is of this character, disputes, controversies
and dissensions were bound to arise over the understanding of the Word,
but not over the Word itself or the Divine itself of the Lord. For it is
acknowledged everywhere that the Word is holy and that the Lord possesses
the divine, and these two are essentials of the church. Those, therefore,
who deny the Divine of the Lord and are called Socinians have been
excommunicated from the church, and those who deny the holiness of the
Word are not regarded as Christians.
[4] To this let me add a remarkable item about the Word from which one
may conclude that inwardly the Word is divine truth itself and inmostly
the Lord. When a spirit opens the Word and touches his face or dress with
it, just from the contact his face or garment shines as brightly as the
moon or a star, in the sight of all, too, whom he meets. It is evidence
that there is nothing holier in the world than the Word.
That the Word is written throughout in correspondences may be seen in
_Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 5-26; that
the church's doctrine is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the
Word and confirmed thereby, nn. 50-61; that heresies can be wrested from
the sense of the letter of the Word, but that it is harmful to confirm
them, nn. 91-97; that the church is from the Word and is such as is its
understanding of the Word, nn. 76-79.
257. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
because in many kingdoms where the Christian religion is accepted there
are those who arrogate divine power to themselves, want to be worshiped
as gods, and also invoke dead men._ To be sure, they say that they have
not arrogated divine power to themselves and do not wish to be worshiped
as gods. Yet they say that they can open and close heaven, remit and
retain sins, and so save and condemn men, and this is what is divine
itself. Divine providence has no other purpose than reformation and hence
salvation; this is its unceasing activity with everyone. And salvation
can be effected only by acknowledgment of the divine of the Lord and by
confidence that He brings salvation as man lives according to His
commandments.
[2] Who cannot see that the usurpation of divine power is the Babylon
described in the Apocalypse and the Babel spoken of here and there in the
Prophets? It is also Lucifer in Isaiah 14, as is plain from verses 4 and
22 of that chapter, where are the words:
You shall speak this parable about the king of Babel (verse 4);
(Then), I will cut off the name and remnant of Babel (verse 22);
it is plain from this that this Babel is Lucifer, of whom it is said:
How you have fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! ... For
you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the
congregation, at the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds; I will be like the Most High (Isa 14:12-14).
It is well known that the same persons invoke the dead and pray to them
for help. We make the assertion because such invocation was established
by a papal bull, confirming the decree of the Council of Trent, in which
it is openly said that the dead are to be invoked. Yet who does not know
that only God is to be invoked, and not any dead person?
[3] It shall be told now why the Lord has permitted such things. Can one
deny that He has done so for the sake of the end in view, namely
salvation? For men know that there is no salvation without the Lord.
Therefore it was necessary that the Lord should be preached from the Word
and that the Christian Church should be established by this means. This
could be done, however, only by leaders who would act with zeal and no
others offered than those who burned with zeal out of self-love. At first
this fire aroused them to preach the Lord and teach the Word. From this
their first state Lucifer is called "the son of the morning" (14:12).
But as they saw that they could dominate by means of the sanctities of
the Word and the church, the self-love by which they were first aroused
to preach the Lord broke out from within and finally exalted itself to
such a height that they transferred all the Lord's divine power to
themselves, leaving Him none.
[4] This could not be prevented by the Lord's divine providence, for if
it had been they would have declared that the Lord is not God and that
the Word is not sacred and would have made themselves Socinians and
Arians, so would have destroyed the whole church. But, whatever its
rulers are, the church continues among the people submissive to them. For
all in this religion who approach the Lord and shun evils as sins are
saved; therefore many heavenly societies are formed from them in the
spiritual world. It has also been provided that there should be a nation
among them that has not bowed to the yoke of such domination and that
regards the Word as holy; this noble nation is the French nation.
[5] But what was done? When self-love exalted its dominion even to the
Lord's throne, removing Him and setting itself on it, that love, which is
Lucifer, could not but have profaned all things of the Word and the
church. Lest this should happen, the Lord in His divine providence took
care that they should recede from worship of Him, invoke the dead, pray
to graven images of the dead, kiss their bones and kneel at their tombs,
should ban the reading of the Word, appoint holy worship in masses not
understood by the common people, and sell salvation for money. For if
they had not done this, they would have profaned the sanctities of the
Word and the church. For, as was shown in the preceding section, only
those profane holy things who know them.
[6] Lest, too, they should profane the most Holy Supper it is of the
Lord's divine providence that they divide it, giving the bread to the
people and drinking the wine themselves. For the wine of the Supper
signifies holy truth and the bread holy good; but divided the wine
signifies truth profaned and the bread good adulterated. It is also of
the Lord's divine providence that they should render the Holy Supper
corporeal and material and give it the prime place in religion. Anyone
who gives these particulars his attention and reflects on them in some
enlightenment of his mind can see the amazing action of divine providence
for the protection of the sanctities of the church and for the salvation
of all who can be saved and are ready to be snatched from the fire, so to
speak, from which they must be snatched.
258. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
because some among those who profess the Christian religion place
salvation in certain phrases which they are to think and speak and not at
all in good works which they are to do._ We showed in _Doctrine of the
New Jerusalem about Faith_ that these are such as make faith alone saving
and not the life of charity, thus such as separate faith from charity. It
was also shown that these are meant in the Word by "Philistines,"
"dragon" and "goats."