also created images and likenesses of Himself to whom He could
communicate His divine? What would He exist for, otherwise, except to
make this and not that or bring something into existence but not
something else, and this merely to be able to contemplate from afar only
incidents and constant changes as on a stage? What would there be divine
in these unless they were for the purpose of serving subjects who would
receive the divine more intimately and see and sense it? The divine is of
an inexhaustible glory and would not keep it to itself, nor could. For
love wants to communicate its own to another, indeed to impart all it can
of itself. Must not divine love do this, then, being infinite? Can it
impart and then take away? Would that not be to give what will perish,
what in itself is nothing, coming to nothing when it perishes? What
really _is_ is not in it. But divine love imparts what really _is_ or
what does not cease to be, and this is eternal.
[3] In order that a man may live forever, what is mortal with him is
taken away. This mortal of his is his material body, which is taken away
by its death. His immortal, which is his mind, is thus laid bare and he
becomes a spirit in human form; his mind is this spirit. Ancient sages
and wise men perceived that man's mind cannot die. They asked how the
mind could die when it is capable of wisdom. Few today know the interior
idea they had in this. It was the idea, slipping into their general
perception from heaven, that God is wisdom itself, of which man partakes,
and God is immortal or eternal.
[4] Since it has been granted me to speak with angels, I will say
something from experience. I have spoken with those who lived many ages
ago, with some who lived before the Flood and some who lived after it,
with some who lived at the time of the Lord and with one of His apostles,
and with many who lived in the centuries since. They all seemed like men
of middle age and said that they do not know what death can be unless it
is condemnation. Further, all who have lived well, on coming into heaven,
come into the state of early manhood in the world and continue in it to
eternity, even those who had been old and decrepit in the world. Women,
too, although they had become shrunken and old, return into the bloom and
beauty of their youth.
[5] That man lives after death to eternity is manifest from the Word,
where life in heaven is called eternal life, as in Mt 19:29, 25:46; Mk
10:17; Lu 10:25, 18:30; Jn 3:15, 16, 36, 5:24, 25, 39, 6:27, 40, 68,
12:50; also called simply life (Mt 18:8, 9; Jn 5:40, 20:31). The Lord
also told His disciples,
Because I live, you will live also (Jn 14:19),
and concerning resurrection said that
God is God of the living and not God of the dead, and that they cannot
die any more (Lu 20:38, 36).
[6] Second: _Everyone is created to live forever in a blessed state._
This naturally follows. He who wills that man shall live forever also
wills that he shall live in a blessed state. What would eternal life be
without this? All love desires the good of another. The love of parents
desires the good of their children, the love of the bridegroom and the
husband desires the good of the bride and the wife, and love in
friendship desires the good of one's friends. What then must divine love
desire! What is good but enjoyment, and divine good but eternal
blessedness? All good is so named for its enjoyableness or blessedness.
True, anything one is given or possesses is also called good, but again,
unless it is enjoyable, it is a barren good, not in itself good. Clearly,
then, eternal life is also eternal blessedness. This state of man is the
aim of creation; that only those who come into heaven are in that state
is not the Lord's fault but man's. That man is in fault will be seen in
what follows.
[7] Third: _Thus every person has been created to come into heaven._ This
is the goal of creation, but not all enter heaven because they become
imbued with the enjoyments of hell, the opposite of heavenly blessedness.
Those who are not in the blessedness of heaven cannot enter heaven, for
they cannot endure doing so. No one who comes into the spiritual world is
refused ascent into heaven, but when one ascends who is in the enjoyment
of hell his heart pounds, his breathing labors, his life ebbs, he is in
anguish and torment and writhes like a snake placed near a fire. This
happens because opposites act against each other.
[8] Nevertheless, having been born human beings, consequently with the
faculties of thought and volition and hence of speech and action, they
cannot die, but they can live only with those in a similar enjoyment of
life and are sent to them, those in enjoyments of evil to their like, as
those in enjoyments of good are to their like. Indeed, everyone is
granted the enjoyment of his evil provided that he does not molest those
who are in the enjoyment of good. Still, as evil is bound to molest good,
for inherently it hates good, those who are in evil are removed lest they
inflict injury and are cast down to their own places in hell, where their
enjoyment is turned into joylessness.
[9] But this does not alter the fact that by creation and hence by birth
man is such that he can enter heaven. For everyone who dies in infancy
enters heaven, is brought up there and instructed as one is in the world,
and by the affection of good and truth is imbued with wisdom and becomes
an angel. So could the man become who is brought up and instructed in the
world; the same is in him as in an infant. On infants in the spiritual
world see the work _Heaven and Hell,_ London, 1758 (nn. 329-345).
[10] This does not take place, however, with many in the world because
they love the first level of their life, called natural, and do not
purpose to withdraw from it and become spiritual. The natural degree of
life, in itself regarded, loves only self and the world, for it keeps
close to the bodily senses, which are to the fore, also, in the world.
But the spiritual degree of life regarded in itself loves the Lord and
heaven, and self and the world, too, but God and heaven as higher,
paramount and controlling, and self and the world as lower, instrumental
and subservient.
[11] Fourth: _Divine love cannot but will this, and divine wisdom cannot
but provide it._ It was fully shown in the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ that the divine essence is divine love and wisdom, and it was
also demonstrated there (nn. 358-370) that in every human embryo the Lord
forms two receptacles, one of the divine love and the other of the divine
wisdom, the former for man's future will and the latter for his future
understanding, and that in this way the Lord has endowed each human being
with the faculty of willing good and the faculty of understanding truth.
[12] Inasmuch as man is endowed from birth with these two faculties by
the Lord, and the Lord then is in them as in what is His own with man, it
is manifest that His divine love cannot but will that man should come
into heaven and His divine wisdom cannot but provide for this. But since
it is of the Lord's divine love that man should feel heavenly blessedness
in himself as his own, and this cannot be unless man is kept in the
appearance that he thinks, wills, speaks and acts of himself, the Lord
can therefore lead man only according to the laws of His divine
providence.
325. (ii) _Of divine providence, therefore, every man can be saved, and
those are saved who acknowledge God and live rightly._ It is plain from
what has been demonstrated above that every human being can be saved.
Some persons suppose that the Lord's church is to be found only in
Christendom, because only there is the Lord known and the Word possessed.
Still many believe that the Lord's church is general, that is, extends
and is scattered throughout the world, existing thus with those who do
not know the Lord or possess the Word. They say that those men are not in
fault and are without means to overcome their ignorance. They believe
that it is contrary to God's love and mercy that any should be born for
hell who are equally human beings.
[2] Inasmuch as many Christians, if not all, have faith that the church
is common to many--it is in fact called a communion--there must be some
very widely shared things of the church that enter all religions and that
constitute this communion. These most widely shared factors are
acknowledgment of God and good of life, as will be seen in this order:
1. Acknowledgment of God effects a conjunction of God and man; denial of
God causes disjunction.
2. Each one acknowledges God and is conjoined with Him in accord with the
goodness of his life.
3. Goodness of life, or living rightly, is shunning evils because they
are contrary to religion, thus to God.
4. These are factors common to all religions, and by them anyone can be
saved.
326. To clarify and demonstrate these propositions one by one. First:
_Acknowledgment of God brings conjunction of God and man; denial of God
results in disjunction._ Some may think that those who do not acknowledge
God can be saved equally with those who do, if they lead a moral life.
They ask, "What does acknowledgment accomplish? Is it not merely a
thought? Can I not 'acknowledge God when I learn for certain that God
there is? I have heard of Him but not seen Him. Let me see Him and I will
believe." Such is the language of many who deny God when they have an
opportunity to argue with one who acknowledges God. But that an
acknowledgment of God conjoins and denial disjoins will be clarified by
some things made known to me in the spiritual world. In that world when
anyone thinks of another and desires to speak with him, the other is at
once present. The explanation is that there is no distance in the
spiritual world such as there is in the natural, but only an appearance
of distance.
[2] A second phenomenon: as thought from some acquaintance with another
causes his presence, love from affection for another causes conjunction
with him. So spirits move about, converse as friends, dwell together in
one house or in one community, meet often, and render one another
services. The opposite happens, also; one who does not love another and
still more one who hates another does not see or encounter him; the
distance between them is according to the degree in which love is wanting
or hatred is present. Indeed, one who is present and recalls his hatred,
vanishes.
[3] From these few particulars it may be evident whence presence and
conjunction come in the spiritual world. Presence comes with the
recollection of another with a desire to see him, and conjunction comes
of an affection which springs from love. This is true also of all things
in the human mind. There are countless things in the mind, and its least
parts are associated and conjoined in accord with affections or as one
thing attracts another.
[4] This is spiritual conjunction and it is the same in things large and
things small. It has its origin in the conjunction of the Lord with the
spiritual world and the natural world in general and in detail. It is
manifest from this that in the measure in which one knows the Lord and
thinks of Him from knowledge of Him, in that measure the Lord is present,
and in the measure in which one acknowledges Him from an affection of
love, in that measure the Lord is united with him. On the other hand, in
the measure of one's ignorance of the Lord, in that measure He is absent;
and so far as one denies Him, so far is He separated from one.
[5] The result of conjunction is that the Lord turns man's face towards
Himself and thereupon leads him; the disjunction results in hell's
turning man's face to it and it leads him. Therefore all the angels of
heaven turn their faces towards the Lord as the Sun, and all the spirits
of hell avert their faces from the Lord. It is plain from this what the
acknowledgment of God and the denial of God each accomplish. Those who
deny God in the world deny Him after death also; they have become
organized as described above (n. 319); the organization induced in the
world remains to eternity.
[6] Second: _Everyone acknowledges God and is conjoined with Him
according to the goodness of his life._ All who know something of
religion can know God; from information or from the memory they can also
speak about God, and some may also think about Him from the
understanding. But this only brings about presence if a man does not live
rightly, for despite it all he can turn away from God and towards hell,
and this takes place if he lives wickedly. Only those who live rightly
can acknowledge God with the heart, and these the Lord turns away from
hell and towards Himself according to the goodness of their life. For
these alone love God; for in doing what comes from Him they love what is
divine. The precepts of His law are divine things from Him. They are God
because He is His own proceeding divine. As this is to love God, the Lord
says:
He who keeps my commandments is he who loves me . . . But he who does not
keep my commandments does not love me (Jn 14: 21, 24).
[7] Here is the reason why there are two tables of the Decalog, one
having reference to God and the other to man. God works unceasingly that
man may receive what is in His table, but if man does not do what he is
bidden in his own table he does not receive with acknowledgment of heart
what is in God's table, and if he does not receive this he is not
conjoined. The two tables were joined, therefore, to be one and are
called the tables of the covenant; covenant means conjunction. One
acknowledges God and is conjoined to Him in accord with the goodness of
his life because this good is like the good in the Lord and consequently
comes from the Lord. So when man is in the good of life there is
conjunction. The contrary takes place with evil of life; it rejects the
Lord.
[8] Third: _Goodness of life, or living rightly, is shunning evils
because they are contrary to religion, thus to God._ That this is good of
life or living rightly is fully shown in _Doctrine of Life for the New
Jerusalem,_ from beginning to end. To this I will only add that if you do
good aplenty, build churches for instance, adorn them and fill them with
offerings, spend money lavishly on hospitals and hostels, give alms
daily, aid widows and orphans, diligently observe the sanctities of
worship, indeed think and speak and preach about them as from the heart,
and yet do not shun evils as sins against God, all those good deeds are
not goodness. They are either hypocritical or done for merit, for evil is
still deep in them. Everyone's life pervades all that he does. Goods
become good only by the removal of evil from them. Plainly, then,
shunning evils because they are contrary to religion and thus to God is
living rightly.
[9] Fourth: _These are factors common to all religions, and anyone can be
saved by them._ To acknowledge God, and to refrain from evil because it
is contrary to God, are the two acts that make religion to be religion.
If one is lacking, it cannot be called religion, for to acknowledge God
and to do evil is a contradiction; so it is, too, to do good and yet not
acknowledge God; one is impossible apart from the other. The Lord has
provided that there should be some religion almost everywhere and that
these two elements should be in it, and has also provided that everyone
who acknowledges God and refrains from doing evil because it is against
God shall have a place in heaven. For heaven as a whole is like one man
whose life or soul is the Lord. In that heavenly man are all things to be
found in a natural man with the difference which obtains between the
heavenly and the natural.
[10] It is a matter of common knowledge that in the human being there are
not only forms organized of blood vessels and nerve fibres, but also
skins, membranes, tendons, cartilages, bones, nails and teeth. These have
a smaller measure of life than those organized forms, which they serve as
ligaments, coverings or supports. For all these entities to be in the
heavenly humanity, which is heaven, it cannot be made up of human beings
all of one religion, but of men of many religions. Therefore all who make
these two universals of the church part of their lives have a place in
this heavenly man, that is, heaven, and enjoy happiness each in his
measure. More on the subject may be seen above (n. 254).
[11] That these two are primary in all religion is evident from the fact
that they are the two which the Decalog teaches. The Decalog was the
first of the Word, promulgated by Jehovah from Mount Sinai by a living
voice, and also inscribed on two tables of stone by the finger of God.
Then, placed in the ark, the Decalog was called Jehovah, and it made the
holy of holies in the tabernacle and the shrine in the temple of
Jerusalem; all things in each were holy only on account of it. Much more
about the Decalog in the ark is to be had from the Word, which is cited
in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ (nn. 53-61). To that I will
add this. From the Word we know that the ark with the two tables in it on
which the Decalog was written was captured by the Philistines and placed
in the temple of Dagon in Ashdod; that Dagon fell to the ground before
it, and afterward his head, together with the palms of the hands, torn
from his body, lay on the temple threshold; that the people of Ashdod and
Ekron to the number of many thousands were smitten with hemorrhoids and
their land was ravaged by mice; that on the advice of the chiefs of their
nation, the Philistines made five golden hemorrhoids, five golden mice
and a new cart, and on this placed the ark with the golden hemorrhoids
and mice beside it; with two cows that lowed before the cart along the
way, they sent the ark back to the children of Israel and by them cows
and cart were offered in sacrifice (1 Sa 5 and 6).
[12] To state now what all this signified: the Philistines signified
those who are in faith separated from charity; Dagon signified that
religiosity; the hemorrhoids by which they were smitten signified natural
loves which when severed from spiritual love are unclean, and the mice
signified the devastation of the church by falsification of truth. The
new cart on which the Philistines sent back the ark signified a new but
still natural doctrine (chariot in the Word signifies doctrine from
spiritual truths), and the cows signified good natural affections.
Hemorrhoids of gold signified natural loves purified and made good, and
the golden mice signified an end to the devastation of the church by
means of good, for in the Word gold signifies good. The lowing of the
kine on the way signified the difficult conversion of the lusts of evil
of the natural man into good affections. That cows and cart were offered
up as a burnt offering signified that so the Lord was propitiated.
[13] This is how what is told historically is understood spiritually.
Gather all into a single conception and make the application. That those
who are in faith severed from charity are represented by the Philistines,
see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Faith_ (nn. 49-54), and that the
ark was the most holy thing of the church because of the Decalog enclosed
in it, see _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ (nn. 53-61).
327. (iii) _Man himself is in fault if he is not saved._ As soon as he
hears it any rational man acknowledges the truth that evil cannot issue
from good nor good from evil, for they are opposites; consequently only
good comes of good and only evil of evil. When this truth is acknowledged
this also is: that good can be turned into evil not by a good but by an
evil recipient; for any form changes into its own nature what flows into
it (see above, n. 292). Inasmuch as the Lord is good in its very essence
or good itself, plainly evil cannot issue from Him or be produced by Him,
but good can be turned into evil by a recipient subject whose form is a
form of evil. Such a subject is man as to his proprium. This constantly
receives good from the Lord and constantly turns it into the nature of
its own form, which is one of evil. It follows that man is in fault if he
is not saved. Evil is indeed from hell but as man receives it from hell
as his and appropriates it to himself, it is the same whether one says
that evil is from man or from hell. But whence there is an appropriation
of evil until finally religion perishes will be told in this order:
1. Every religion declines and comes to an end in the course of time.
2. It does so through the inversion of God's image in man.
3. This takes place through a continual increase of hereditary evil over
the generations.
4. Nevertheless the Lord provides that everyone may be saved.
5. It is also provided that a new church shall succeed in place of the
former devastated church.
328. These points are to be demonstrated in the order given. First:
_Every religion declines and comes to an end in the course of time._
There have been several churches on this earth, one after another, for
wherever mankind is, a church is. For, as was shown above, heaven, which
is the goal of creation, is from mankind, and no one can enter heaven
unless he is in the two universal marks of the church which, as was shown
just above (n. 326), are the acknowledgment of God and living aright. It
follows that there have been churches on this earth from the most ancient
times to the present. These churches are described in the Word, but not
historically except the Israelitish and Jewish church. There were
churches before it which are only described in the Word under the names
of nations and persons and in a few items about them.
[2] The first, the Most Ancient Church, is described under the names of
Adam and his wife Eve. The next church, to be called the Ancient Church,
is described by Noah, his three sons and their posterity. This church was
widespread and extended over many of the kingdoms of Asia: the land of
Canaan on both sides of the Jordan, Syria, Assyria and Chaldea,
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Arabia, Tyre and Sidon. These had the Ancient Word
_(Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 101-103).
That this church existed in those kingdoms is evident from various things
recorded about them in the prophetical parts of the Word. This church was
markedly altered by Eber, from whom arose the Hebrew church, in which
worship by sacrifices was first instituted. From the Hebrew church the
Israelitish and Jewish church was born and solemnly established for the
sake of the Word which was composed in it.
[3] These four churches are meant by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in
a dream, the head of which was of pure gold, the breast and arms of
silver, the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs and feet of iron and
clay (Da 2:32, 33). Nor is anything else meant by the golden, silver,
copper and iron ages mentioned by ancient writers. Needless to say, the
Christian church succeeded the Jewish. It can be seen from the Word that
all these churches declined in the course of time, eventually coming to
an end, called their consummation.
[4] The consummation of the Most Ancient Church, brought about by the
eating of the tree of knowledge, meaning by the pride of one's own
intelligence, is depicted by the Flood. The consummation of the Ancient
Church is depicted in the various devastations of nations mentioned in
the historical as well as the prophetical Word and especially by the
expulsion of the nations from the land of Canaan by the children of
Israel. The consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish church is
understood by the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem and by the
carrying away of the people of Israel into permanent captivity and of the
Jewish nation to Babylon, and finally by the second destruction of the
temple and of Jerusalem at the same time, and by the dispersion of that
nation. This consummation is foretold in many places in the Prophets and
in Daniel 9:24-27. The gradual devastation of the Christian church even
to its end is pictured by the Lord in Matthew (24), Mark (13) and Luke
(21), but the end itself in the Apocalypse. Hence it may be manifest that
in the course of time a church declines and comes to an end; so does a
religion.