error of the age to believe
1. That evils are separated and in fact cast out from man when they are
remitted; and
2. That the state of man's life can be changed in a moment, even to its
opposite, so that from wicked he becomes good, and consequently can be
led from hell and be transported straightway to heaven, and this by the
Lord's sheer mercy.
3. But those who believe and suppose so, do not know at all what evil and
good are and nothing at all about the state of man's life.
4. Moreover, they are wholly unaware that affections, which are of the
will, are nothing other than changes and variations of the state of the
purely organic substances of the mind; and that thoughts, which are of
the understanding, also are; and that memory is the permanent state of
these changes.
When one knows these things, one can see clearly that an evil can be
removed only by successive stages, and that the remission of an evil is
not complete removal of it. But all this has been said in summary form
and unless the items are demonstrated may be assented to and yet not
comprehended. What is not comprehended is as indistinct as a wheel spun
around by the hand. The points made above are therefore to be
demonstrated one by one in the order in which they were set forth.
[2] First: _It is an error of the age to believe that evils are separated
and in fact cast out when they are remitted._ It has been granted me to
learn from heaven that no evil into which man is born and which he has
made actual in him is separated from him, but is removed so as not to
appear. Earlier I shared the belief of most persons in the world that
when evils are remitted they are cast out and are washed and wiped away
as dirt is from the face by water. It is not like this with evils or
sins. They all remain. When they are remitted on repentance, they are
thrust from the center to the sides. What is in the center, being
directly under view, appears as in the light of day, and what is to one
side is in shadow and at times in the darkness of night. Inasmuch as
evils are not separated but only removed, that is, thrust to one side,
and as man can go from The center to the periphery, he can return, as it
may happen, to his evils, which he supposed had been cast out. For the
human being is such that he can go from one affection to another and
sometimes to the opposite, and thus from one center into another; the
affection in which he is at the time makes the center, for he is then in
the enjoyment and light of it.
[3] Some who are raised after death into heaven by the Lord, for they
have lived well, have carried with them, however, the belief that they
are clean and rid of sins, therefore are not in a state of guilt. In
accord with their belief they are clothed at first in white garments, for
white garments signify a state purified from evils. But after a time they
begin to think, as they did in the world, that they are washed, as it
were, from all evil, and to glory that they are no longer sinners like
other men. This can hardly be kept from being an elation of mind and a
contempt of others in comparison with oneself. In order, therefore, that
they may be delivered from their imaginary belief, they are sent down
from heaven and let back into the evils which they pursued in the world;
they are also shown that they are in hereditary evils of which they had
not known. When they have been led in this way to realize that their
evils have not been separated from them but only put aside, thus that in
themselves they are impure, indeed nothing but evil, and that they are
withheld from evils and held in goods by the Lord, and that this only
seems to be their doing, they are raised again into heaven by the Lord.
[4] Second: _It is an error of the age to believe that the state of man's
life can be changed in a moment, so that from wicked he can become good,
and consequently can be led from hell and transported at once to heaven,
and this by the Lord's direct mercy._ Those who separate charity and
faith and place salvation in faith alone, commit this error. For they
suppose that merely to think and speak formulas of that faith, if it is
done with trust and confidence, justifies and saves one. Many think it is
done instantly, too, and if not previously, can be done in the last hour
of one's life. These are bound to believe that the state of man's life
can be changed in a moment and that he can be saved by direct mercy. But
in the last chapter of this treatise it will be seen that the Lord's
mercy is mediated, that man cannot become good in a moment from being
wicked, and can be led from hell and transported to heaven only by the
continual activity of divine providence from infancy to the very close of
life. Here it need only be said that all the laws of divine providence
have the salvation and reformation of the human being for their object,
in other words, the inversion of his state, which by nativity is
infernal, into the opposite, which is heavenly. This can only be done
progressively as man recedes from evil and its enjoyment and comes into
good and its enjoyment.
[5] Third: _Those who believe in an instantaneous change do not know at
all what evil and good are._ For they do not know that evil is the
enjoyment of the lust of acting and thinking contrary to divine order,
and good is the enjoyment of the affection for acting and thinking in
accord with divine order. They do not know, either, that myriads of lusts
enter into and compose each individual evil and myriads of affections
enter into and compose each individual good, and that these myriads are
in such order and connection in man's interiors that it is impossible to
change one without changing all at the same time. Those who are ignorant
of this may believe or suppose that evil, which seems to them to be a
single entity, can be easily removed, and that good, which also seems to
be a single entity, can be introduced in its place. Not knowing what evil
and good are, they cannot but suppose that there is such a thing as
instantaneous salvation and such a thing as direct mercy. That these are
not possible will be seen in the last chapter of this treatise.
[6] Fourth: _Those who believe in instantaneous salvation and unmediated
mercy do not know that affections, which are of the will, are nothing
other than changes of state in the purely organic substances of the mind;
that thoughts, which are of the understanding, are nothing other than
changes and variations in the form of those substances; and that memory
is the persisting state of the changes and variations._ Everyone
acknowledges, on its being said, that affections and thoughts exist only
in substances and their forms, which are the subjects; existing in the
brain which is full of substances and forms, they are called purely
organic forms. No one who thinks rationally can help laughing at the
fancies of some that affections and thoughts do not have substantive
bases, but are exhalations given shape by heat and light, like images
apparently in the air or ether. For thought can no more exist apart from
a substantial form than sight can apart from its form, the eye, or
hearing apart from its form, the ear, or taste apart from its form, the
tongue. If you examine the brain, you will see innumerable substances and
fibres, also, and see, too, that everything in it is organized. What more
is needed than this ocular proof?
[7] But one may ask, What are affection and thought then? A conclusion
can be reached from each and all things in the body. In it are many
viscera, each fixed in its place, and all performing their several
functions by changes and variations of state and form. It is well known
that they are engaged in their own activities--the stomach, the
intestines, the kidneys, the liver, the pancreas, the spleen, the heart
and the lungs, each in its particular activity. All the activities are
maintained from within, and to be actuated from within means that it is
by changes and variations of state and form. It may be plain then that
the activities of the purely organic substances of the mind are similar,
the one difference being that those of the organic substances of the body
are natural, but of the mind are spiritual; plainly, also, the two make
one by correspondences.
[8] The nature of the changes and variations of state and form in the
organic substances of the mind, which are affections and thoughts, cannot
be shown to the eye. It may, however, be seen as in a mirror by the
changes of state in the lungs on speaking and singing. There is
correspondence, moreover; for the sound of the voice in speaking and
singing, and the articulations of the sound which are the words of speech
and the modulations of song, are produced by means of the lungs; sound
corresponds to affection, and speech to thought. Sound and speech are
produced also from affection and thought. This is done by changes and
variations in the state and form of the organic substances of the lungs,
and from the lungs through the trachea or windpipe in the larynx and
glottis, and then in the tongue, and finally in the lips. The first
changes and variations in the state and form of the sound occur in the
lungs, the second in trachea and larynx, the third in the glottis by the
different openings of its orifice, the fourth in the tongue by its
various positions against palate and teeth, and the fifth in the lips by
the various modifications of form in them. It may be evident, then, that
these consecutive changes and variations in the state of organic forms
produce the sounds and their articulations which are speech and song.
Inasmuch, then, as sound and speech are produced from no other source
than the affections and thoughts of the mind (for they exist from them
and are never apart from them), clearly the affections of the will are
changes and variations in the state of the purely organic substances of
the mind, and the thoughts of the understanding are changes and
variations in the form of those substances, quite like those in the
substances of the lungs.
[9] Since affections and thoughts are simply changes of state in the
forms of the mind, memory is nothing other than the permanent state of
those changes. For all changes and variations of state in organic
substances are such that once they are habitual they become permanent. So
the lungs are habituated to produce certain sounds in the trachea, to
vary them in the glottis, articulate them by the tongue, and modify them
by the mouth; once these organic activities have become habitual, they
are settled in the organs and can be reproduced. These changes and
variations are infinitely more perfect in the organs of the mind than in
those of the body, as is evident from what was said in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 199-204), where we showed that all
perfections increase and ascend by and according to degrees. More on this
will be seen below (n. 319).
280. _It is also an error of the age to suppose that when sins are
remitted they are taken away._ This is the error of those who believe
that their sins are pardoned by the sacrament of the Holy Supper although
they have not removed them from themselves by repentance. Those also
commit this error who believe that they are saved by faith alone; those
also who believe that they are saved by papal dispensations. All these
believe in unmediated mercy and instant salvation. But when the statement
is reversed it becomes truth, that is, when sins are removed they are
also remitted. For repentance precedes pardon, and aside from repentance
there is no pardon. Therefore the Lord bade His disciples:
That they should preach repentance for the remission of sins (Lu 24:27,
47),
and John preached
The baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Lu 3:3).
The Lord remits the sins of all; He does not accuse and impute; but He
can take sins away only in accordance with laws of His divine providence.
For when Peter asked how often he was to forgive a brother sinning
against him, whether seven times, the Lord said to him:
That he should forgive not only seven times, but seventy times seven (Mt
18:21, 22).
What then will the Lord not do, who is mercy itself?
281. (iv) _Thus the permission of evil is for the sake of the end,
namely, salvation._ It is well known that man has full liberty to think
and will but not to say and do whatever he thinks and wills. He may think
as an atheist, deny God and blaspheme the sanctities of Word and church.
He may even want to destroy them utterly by word and deed, but this is
prevented by civil, moral and ecclesiastical laws. He therefore cherishes
this impiety and wickedness inwardly by thinking, willing and even
intending to do it, but not doing it actually. The man who is not an
atheist also has full liberty to think many evil things, things
fraudulent, lascivious, revengeful and otherwise insane; he also does
them at times. Who can believe that unless man had full liberty, he not
only could not be saved but would even perish utterly?
[2] Now let us have the reason for this. Everyone from birth is in evils
of many kinds. They are in his will, and what is in the will is loved.
For what a man wills inwardly he loves, what he loves he wills, and the
will's love flows into the understanding where it makes its pleasure felt
and thereupon enters the thoughts and intentions. If, therefore, he were
not allowed to think in accord with the love in his will, which is
hereditarily implanted in him, that love would remain shut in and never
be seen by him. A love of evil which does not become apparent is like an
enemy in ambush, like matter in an ulcer, like poison in the blood, or
corruption in the breast, which cause death when they are kept shut in.
But when a person is permitted to think the evils of his life's love,
even to intend doing them, they are cured by spiritual means as diseases
are by natural means.
[3] It will be told now what man would be like if he were not permitted
to think in accord with the enjoyment of his life's love. No longer would
he be man, for he would lose his two faculties called liberty and
rationality in which humanness itself consists. The enjoyment of those
evils would occupy the interiors of his mind to such an extent that it
would burst open the door. He could then only speak and commit the evils;
his unsoundness would be manifest not only to himself but to the world;
and at length he would not know how to cover his shame. In order that he
may not come into this state, he is permitted to think and to will the
evils of his inherited nature but not to say and commit them. Meanwhile
he is learning civil, moral and spiritual things. These enter his
thoughts and remove the unsoundness and he is healed by the Lord by means
of them, only to the extent, however, of knowing how to guard the door
unless he also acknowledges God and implores His aid for power to resist
the unsoundness. Then, so far as he resists it, he does not let it into
his intentions and eventually not even into his thoughts.
[4] Since man is free to think as he pleases to the end that his life's
love may emerge from its hiding-place into the light of his
understanding, and since he would not otherwise know anything of his own
evil and consequently would not know how to shun it, it is also true that
it would increase in him so much that recovery would become impossible in
him and hardly be possible in his children, were he to have children, for
a parent's evil is transmitted to his offspring. The Lord, however,
provides that this may not occur.
282. The Lord could heal the understanding in every man and thus cause
him to think not evil but good, and this by means of fears of different
kinds, miracles, conversations with the dead, or visions and dreams. But
to heal the understanding alone is to heal man only outwardly, for
understanding with its thought is the external of man's life while the
will with its affection is the internal. The healing of the understanding
alone would therefore be like palliative healing in which the interior
malignity, closed in and kept from issuing, would destroy first the near
and then the remote parts till all would become mortified. The will
itself must be healed, not by the influx of the understanding into it,
for that is impossible, but by means of instruction and exhortation from
the understanding. Were the understanding alone healed, man would become
like a dead body embalmed or covered by fragrant spices and roses which
would soon get such a foul odor from the body that they could not be
brought near anyone's nostrils. So heavenly truths in the understanding
would be affected if the evil love of the will were shut in.
283. Man is permitted, as was said, to think evils even to intending them
in order that they may be removed by means of what is civil, moral and
spiritual. This is done when he considers that they are contrary to what
is just and equitable, to what is honest and decorous and to what is good
and true, contrary therefore to the peace, joy and blessedness of life.
By these three means the Lord heals the love of man's will, in fear at
first, it is true, but with love later. Still the evils are not separated
from the man and cast out, but only removed in him and put to the side.
When they are and good has the center, evils do not appear, for whatever
has the central place is squarely under view and is seen and perceived.
It should be known, however, that even when good occupies the center man
is not for that reason in good unless the evils at the side tend downward
or outward. If they look upward or inward they have not been removed, but
are still trying to return to the center. They tend downward and outward
when man shuns his evils as sins and still more when he holds them in
aversion, for then he condemns them, consigns them to hell, and makes
them face that way.
284. Man's understanding is the recipient of both good and evil and of
both truth and falsity, but not his will. His will must be either in evil
or in good; it cannot be in both, for it is the man himself and in it is
his life's love. But good and evil are separate in the understanding like
what is internal and what is external. Thus man may be inwardly in evil
and outwardly in good. Still, when he is being reformed, the two meet,
and conflict and combat ensue. This is called temptation when it is
severe, but when it is not severe a fermentation like that of wine or
strong drink occurs. If good conquers, evil with its falsity is carried
to the side, as lees, to use an analogy, fall to the bottom of a vessel.
The good is like wine that becomes generous on fermentation and like
strong drink which becomes clear. But if evil conquers, good with its
truth is borne to the side and becomes turbid and noisome like
unfermented wine or unfermented strong drink. Comparison is made with
ferment because in the Word, as at Hosea 7:4, Luke 12:1 and elsewhere,
"ferment" signifies falsity of evil.
XV. DIVINE PROVIDENCE ATTENDS THE EVIL AND THE GOOD ALIKE
285. In every person, good or bad, there are two faculties one of which
makes the understanding and the other the will. The faculty making the
understanding is the ability to understand and think, therefore is called
rationality. The faculty making the will is the ability to do this
freely, that is, to think and consequently to speak and act also,
provided that it is not contrary to reason or rationality; for to act
freely is to act as often as one wills and according as one wills. The
two faculties are constant and are present from first to last in each and
all things which a man thinks and does. He has them not from himself, but
from the Lord. It follows that the Lord's presence in these faculties is
also in the least things, indeed the very least, of man's understanding
and thought, of his will and affection too, and thence of his speech and
action. If you remove these faculties from even the very least thing, you
will not be able to think or utter it as a human being.
[2] It has already been shown abundantly that the human being is a human
being by virtue of the two faculties, enabled by them to think and speak,
and to perceive goods and understand truths, not only such as are civil
and moral but also such as are spiritual, and made capable, too, of being
reformed and regenerated; in a word, made capable of being conjoined to
the Lord and thereby of living forever. It was also shown that not only
good men but evil also possess the two faculties. These faculties are in
man from the Lord and are not appropriated to him as his, for what is
divine cannot be appropriated but only adjoined to him and thus appear to
be his, and this which is divine with the human being is in the least
things pertaining to him. It follows that the Lord governs the least
things in an evil man as well as in a good man. This government of His is
what is called divine providence.
286. Inasmuch as it is a law of divine providence that man shall act from
freedom according to reason, that is, from the two faculties, liberty and
rationality; and a law of divine providence that what he does shall
appear to be from himself and thus his own; and also a law that evils
must be permitted in order that man may be led out of them, it follows
that man can abuse these faculties and in freedom according to reason
confirm whatever he pleases. He can make reasonable whatever he will,
whether it is reasonable in itself or not. Some therefore ask, "What is
truth? Can I not make true whatever I will?" Does not the world do so?
Anybody can do it by reasoning. Take an utter falsity and bid a clever
man confirm it, and he will. Tell him, for instance, to show that man is
a beast, or that the soul is like a small spider in its web and governs
the body as that does by threads, or tell him that religion is nothing
but a restraining bond, and he will prove any one of these propositions
until it appears to be truth. What is more easily done? For he does not
know what appearance is or what falsity is which in blind faith is taken
for truth.
[2] Hence it is that a man cannot see this truth, namely, that divine
providence is in the very least things of the understanding and the will,
or what is the same, in the very least things of the thoughts and
affections of every person, wicked or good. He is perplexed especially
because it seems then that evils are also from the Lord, but it will be
seen in what follows that nevertheless there is not a particle of evil
from the Lord but that evil is from man in that he confirms in him the
appearance that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts of himself. In order
that these things may be seen clearly, they will be demonstrated in this
order:
i. Divine providence is universal in the least things with the evil as
well as the good, and yet is not in one's evils.
ii. The evil are continually leading themselves into evils, but the Lord
is continually leading them away from evils.
iii. The evil cannot be fully withdrawn from evil and led in good by the
Lord so long as they believe their own intelligence to be everything and
divine providence nothing.
iv. The Lord rules hell through opposites; and rules the evil who are in
the world, in hell as to their interiors, but not as to their exteriors.
287. (i) _Divine providence is universal in the least things with the
evil as well as the good, and yet is not in one's evils._ It was shown
above that divine providence is in the least things of man's thoughts and
affections. This means that man can think and will nothing from himself,
but that everything he thinks and wills and consequently says and does,
is from influx. If it is good, it is from influx out of heaven, and if
evil, from influx out of hell; or what is the same, the good is from
influx from the Lord and the evil from man's proprium. I know that it is
difficult to grasp this, because what flows in from heaven or from the
Lord is distinguished from what flows in from hell or from man's
proprium, and yet divine providence is said to be in the least of man's
thoughts and affections, even so far that he can think and will nothing
from himself. It appears like a contradiction to say that he can also
think and will from hell and from his proprium. Yet it is not, and this
will be seen in what follows, after some things have been premised which
will clarify the matter.