inversion of God's image in man._ It is known that the human being was
created in the image and after the likeness of God (Ge 1:26), but let us
say what the image and the likeness of God are. God alone is love and
wisdom; man was created to be a receptacle of both love and wisdom, his
will to be a receptacle of divine love and his understanding a receptacle
of the divine wisdom. These two receptacles, it was shown above, are in
man from creation, constitute him, and are formed in everyone in the
womb. Man's being an image of God thus means that he is a recipient of
the divine wisdom, and his being a likeness of God means that he is a
recipient of the divine love. Therefore the receptacle called the
understanding is an image of God, and the receptacle called the will is a
likeness of God. Since, then, man was created and formed to be a
receptacle, it follows that he was created and formed that his will might
receive love from God and his understanding wisdom from God. He receives
these when he acknowledges God and lives according to His precepts,
receiving them in lesser or larger measure as by religion he has some
knowledge of God and of His precepts, consequently according to his
knowledge of truths. For truths teach what God is and how He is to be
acknowledged, also what His precepts are and how man is to live according
to them.
[6] The image and likeness of God have not been destroyed in man, but
seem to have been; they remain inherent in his two faculties called
liberty and rationality, of which we have treated above at many places.
They seem to have been destroyed when man made the receptacle of divine
love, namely, his will, a receptacle of self-love, and the receptacle of
divine wisdom, namely, his understanding, a receptacle of his own
intelligence. Doing this, he inverted the image and likeness of God and
turned these receptacles away from God and towards himself. Consequently
they have become closed above and open below, or closed in front and open
behind, though by creation they were open in front and closed behind.
When they have been opened and closed contrariwise, the receptacle of
love, the will, receives influx from hell or from one's proprium; so does
the receptacle of wisdom, the understanding. Hence worship of men arose
in the churches instead of the worship of God, and worship by doctrines
of falsity instead of worship by doctrines of truth, the latter arising
from man's own intelligence, and the former from love of self. Thence it
is evident that religion falls away in the course of time and is ended by
the inversion of God's image in man.
[7] Third: _This takes place as a result of a continual increase of
hereditary evil over the generations._ It was said and explained above
that hereditary evil does not come from Adam and his wife Eve by their
having eaten of the tree of knowledge, but is derived and transmitted
successively from parents to offspring. Thus it grows by continual
increase from generation to generation. When evil increases so among
many, it spreads to many more, for in all evil there is a lust to lead
astray, in some burning with anger against goodness--hence a contagion of
evil. When the contagion reaches leaders, rulers and the prominent in the
church, religion has become perverted, and the means of restoring it to
health, namely truths, become corrupted by falsifications. As a result
there is a gradual devastation of good and desolation of truth in the
church on to its end.
[8] Fourth: _Nevertheless the Lord provides that everyone may be saved._
He provides that there shall be religion everywhere and in it the two
essentials for salvation, acknowledgment of God and ceasing from evil
because it is contrary to God. Other things, which pertain to the
understanding and hence to the thinking, called matters of faith, are
provided everyone in accord with his life, for they are accessory to life
and if they have been given precedence, do not become living until they
are subsidiary. It is also provided that those who have lived rightly and
acknowledged God are instructed by angels after death. Then those who
were in the two essentials of religion while in the world accept such
truths of the church as are in the Word, and acknowledge the Lord as God
of heaven and of the church. This last they receive more readily than do
Christians who have brought with them from the world an idea of the
Lord's human nature parted from His divine. It is also provided by the
Lord that all are saved who die as infants, no matter where they have
been born.
[9] Furthermore, every person is given the opportunity after death of
amending his life if possible. All are instructed and led by the Lord by
means of angels. Knowing now that they live after death and that heaven
and hell exist, they at first receive truths. But those who did not
acknowledge God and shun evils as sins when in the world soon show a
distaste for truths and draw back, and those who acknowledged truths with
the lips but not with the heart are like the foolish virgins who had
lamps but no oil and begged oil of others, also went off and bought some,
but still were not admitted to the wedding. "Lamps" signify truths of
faith and "oil" signifies the good of charity. It may be evident then
that divine providence sees to it that everyone can be saved and that man
is himself in fault if he is not saved.
[10] Fifth: _It is also provided that a new church shall succeed in place
of a former devastated church._ It has been so from the most ancient days
that on the devastation of a church a new one followed. The Ancient
Church succeeded the Most Ancient; the Israelitish or Jewish Church
followed the Ancient; after this came the Christian Church. And this, it
is foretold in the Apocalypse, will be followed by a new church,
signified in that book by the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. The
reason why a new church is provided by the Lord to follow in place of a
former devastated church may be seen in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem
about Sacred Scripture_ (nn. 104-113).
329. (iv) _Thus all are predestined to heaven, and no one to hell._ In
the work _Heaven and Hell_ (London, 1758) we showed at nn. 545-550 that
the Lord casts no one into hell; the spirit himself does this. So it
happens with every evil and impious person after death and also while he
is in the world, with the difference that while he is in the world he can
be reformed and can embrace and avail himself of the means of salvation,
but not after departure from the world. The means of salvation are summed
up in these two: that evils are to be shunned because they are contrary
to the divine laws in the Decalog and that it be acknowledged that God
exists. Everyone can do both if he does not love evils. For the Lord is
constantly flowing into his will with power for shunning evils and into
his understanding with power to think that God there is. But no one can
do the one without doing the other; the two are joined together like the
two tables of the Decalog, one relating to God and the other to man. In
accordance with what is in His table the Lord enlightens and empowers
everyone, but man receives power and enlightenment so far as he does what
he is bidden in his table. Until then the two tables appear to be laid
face to face and to be sealed, but as man acts on the biddings in his
table they are unsealed and opened out.
[2] Today is not the Decalog like a small, closed book or document,
opened only in the hands of children and the young? Tell someone farther
along in years, "Do not do this because it is contrary to the Decalog"
and who gives heed? He may give heed if you say, "Do not do this because
it is contrary to divine laws," and yet the precepts of the Decalog are
the divine laws themselves. Experiment was made with a number in the
spiritual world, who at mention of the Decalog or Catechism rejected it
with contempt. This is because in the second table, which is man's, the
Decalog teaches that evils are to be shunned, and one who does not do so,
whether from impiety or from the religious tenet that deeds effect
nothing, only faith does, hears mention of the Decalog or Catechism with
disdain, as though it was a child's book he heard mentioned, no longer
of use to adults.
[3] These things have been said in order that it may be known that a
knowledge of the means by which one can be saved is not lacking to
anyone, nor power if he wants to be saved. It follows that all are
predestined to heaven and no one to hell. Since, however, a belief in a
predestination not to salvation but to damnation has prevailed with some,
and this belief is damaging and cannot be broken up unless one's reason
sees the insanity and cruelty in it, it is to be dealt with in this
order:
1. Predestination except to heaven is contrary to divine love and its
infiniteness.
2. Predestination other than to heaven is contrary to divine wisdom and
its infiniteness.
3. That only those born in the church are saved is an insane heresy.
4. That any of mankind are condemned by predestination is a cruel heresy.
330. That it may be apparent how damaging the belief is in predestination
as this is commonly understood, these four arguments are to be taken up
and confirmed. First: _Predestination except to heaven is contrary to
divine love and its infiniteness._ In the treatise _Divine Love and
Wisdom_ we demonstrated that Jehovah or the Lord is divine love, is
infinite, and is the esse of all life; also that the human being was
created in God's image after God's likeness. As everyone is formed in the
womb by the Lord into that image and after that likeness, as was also
shown, the Lord is the heavenly Father of all human beings and they are
His spiritual children. So Jehovah or the Lord is called in the Word, and
so human beings are. Therefore He says:
Do not call your father on earth your father, for One is your Father, who
is in the heavens (Mt 23:9).
This means that He alone is the Father with reference to the life in us,
and the earthly father is father of the covering on life, which is the
body. In heaven, therefore, no one but the Lord is called Father. And
from many passages in the Word it is clear that those who do not pervert
that life are said to be His sons and to be born from Him.
[2] Plainly, then, the divine love is in every man, an evil man as well
as a good man, and the Lord who is divine love cannot act otherwise than
a father on earth does with his children, infinitely more lovingly
because divine love is infinite. Furthermore, He cannot withdraw from
anyone because everyone's life is from Him. He appears to withdraw from
those who are evil, but it is they who withdraw, while He still in love
leads them. Thus the Lord says:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it
shall be opened to you . . . What man of you, if his son shall ask bread,
will give him a stone? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good
things to your children, how much more shall your Father, who is in
heaven, give good things to those who ask Him (Mt 7:7-11),
and in another place,
He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
just and unjust (Mt 5:45).
It is also known in the church that the Lord desires the salvation of all
and the death of no one. It may be seen from all this that predestination
except to heaven is contrary to divine love.
[3] Second: _Predestination other than to heaven is contrary to divine
wisdom, which is infinite._ By its divine wisdom divine love provides the
means by which every man can be saved. To say that there is any
predestination except to heaven is therefore to say that divine love
cannot provide means to salvation, when yet the means exist for all, as
was shown above, and these are of divine providence which is boundless.
The reason that there are those who are not saved is that divine love
desires man to feel the felicity and blessedness of heaven for himself,
else it would not be heaven to him, and this can be effected only as it
seems to man that he thinks and wills of himself. For without this
appearance nothing would be appropriated to him nor would he be a human
being. To this end divine providence exists, which acts by divine wisdom
out of divine love.
[4] But this does not do away with the truth that all are predestined to
heaven and no one to hell. Were the means to salvation lacking, it would;
but, as was demonstrated above, the means to salvation have been provided
for everyone, and heaven is such that all of whatever religion who live
rightly have a place in it. Man is like the earth which produces fruits
of every kind, a power the earth has as the earth. That it also produces
evil fruits does not do away with its capability of producing good
fruits; it would if it could only produce evil fruits. Or, again, man is
like an object which variegates the rays of light in it. If the object
gives only unpleasing colors, the light is not the cause, for its rays
can be variegated to produce pleasing colors.
[5] Third: _That only those who have been born in the church are saved is
an insane heresy._ Those born outside the church are human beings equally
with those born within it; they have the same heavenly origin, and like
them they are living and immortal souls. They also have some religion by
virtue of which they acknowledge God's existence and that they should
live aright. One who acknowledges God and lives aright becomes spiritual
in his measure and is saved, as we showed above. It may be protested that
they have not been baptized, but baptism does not save any who are not
washed spiritually, that is, regenerated, of which baptism is a sign and
reminder.
[6] It is also objected that the Lord is not known to them and that there
is no salvation without Him. But salvation does not come to a person
because the Lord is known to him, but because he lives according to the
Lord's precepts. Moreover, the Lord is known to everyone who acknowledges
God, for He is God of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches (Mt 28:18
and elsewhere). Furthermore, those outside the church have a clearer idea
about God as Man than Christians have, and those who have a concept of
God as Man and live rightly are accepted by the Lord. They also
acknowledge God as one in person and essence, differently from
Christians. They also give thought to God in their lives, for they regard
evils as sins against God, and those who do this regard God in their
lives. Christians have precepts of religion from the Word, but few draw
precepts of life from it.
[7] Roman Catholics do not read the Word, and the Reformed who are in
faith apart from charity do not attend to those utterances in it which
concern life, only to those which concern faith, and yet the Word as a
whole is nothing else than a doctrine of life. Christianity obtains only
in Europe; Mohammedanism and Gentilism are found in Asia, the Indies,
Africa and America, and the people in these parts of the globe are ten
times more numerous than those in the Christian part, and in this part
few put religion in life. What then is more mad than to believe that only
these latter are saved and the former condemned, and that a man has
heaven on the strength of his birth and not on the strength of his life?
So the Lord says:
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and recline with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of
the kingdom shall be cast out (Mt 8:11, 12).
[8] Fourth: _That any of mankind are condemned by predestination is a
cruel heresy._ For it is cruel to believe that the Lord, who is love
itself and mercy itself, suffers so vast a throng of persons to be born
for hell or so many myriads of myriads to be born condemned and doomed,
that is, to be born devils and satans, and that He does not provide out
of His divine wisdom that those who live aright and acknowledge God
should not be cast into everlasting fire and torment. The Lord is still
the Creator and the Savior of all men and wills the death of no one. It
is cruel therefore to believe and think that a vast multitude of nations
and peoples under His auspices and care should be handed over as prey to
the devil by predestination.
XVIII. THE LORD CANNOT ACT CONTRARY TO THE LAWS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
BECAUSE TO DO SO WOULD BE TO ACT CONTRARY TO HIS DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM,
THUS CONTRARY TO HIMSELF
331. It was shown in _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom_ that
the Lord is divine love and wisdom, and that these are being itself and
life itself from which everything is and lives. It was also shown that
they proceed from Him, so that the proceeding divine is the Lord Himself.
Paramount in what proceeds is divine providence, for this is constantly
in the end for which the universe was created. The operation and progress
of the end through means is what is called divine providence.
[2] Inasmuch as the proceeding divine is the Lord Himself and paramount
in it is divine providence, to act contrary to the laws of His divine
providence is to act contrary to Himself. One can also say that the Lord
is providence just as one says that God is order, for divine providence
is the divine order with reference primarily to the salvation of men. As
order does not exist without laws, for they constitute it, and each law
derives from order that it, too, is order, it follows that God, who is
order, is also the law of His order. Similarly it is to be said of divine
providence that as the Lord is providence Himself, He is also the law of
His providence. Hence it is clear that the Lord cannot act contrary to
the laws of His divine providence because to do so would be to act
contrary to Himself.
[3] Furthermore, there is no activity except on a subject and on the
subject by means; action is impossible except on a subject and on it by
means. Man is the subject of divine providence; divine truths by which he
has wisdom, and divine goods by which he has love, are the means; and by
these means divine providence pursues its purpose, which is the salvation
of man. For he who wills the purpose, wills the means. Therefore when he
who wills the purpose pursues it, he does so through means. But these
things will become plainer on being examined in this order:
i. The activity of divine providence to save man begins at his birth and
continues to the close of his life and afterwards to eternity.
ii. The activity of divine providence is maintained steadily out of pure
mercy through means.
iii. Instantaneous salvation by direct mercy is impossible.
iv. Instantaneous salvation by direct mercy is the flying fiery serpent
in the church.
332. (i) _The activity of divine providence to save man begins at his
birth and continues to the close of his life and afterwards to eternity._
It was shown above that a heaven from mankind is the very purpose of the
creation of the universe; that this purpose in its operation and progress
is the divine providence for the salvation of man; and that all which is
external to man and available to him for use is a secondary end in
creation--in brief, all that is to be found in the three kingdoms, animal,
vegetable and mineral. When all this constantly proceeds according to
laws of divine order fixed at the first of creation, how can the primary
end, which is the salvation of the human race, fail to proceed constantly
according to laws of its order, which are the laws of divine providence?
[2] Observe just a fruit tree. It springs up first as a slender shoot
from a tiny seed, grows gradually into a stalk, spreads branches which
become covered with leaves, and then puts forth flowers and bears fruit,
in which it deposits fresh seed to provide for its perpetuation. This is
also true of every shrub and of every herb of the field. Do not each and
all things in tree or shrub proceed constantly and wonderfully from
purpose to purpose according to the laws of their order of things? Why
should not the supreme end, a heaven from the human race, proceed in
similar fashion? Can there be anything in its progress which does not
proceed with all constancy according to the laws of divine providence?
[3] As there is a correspondence of man's life with the growth of a tree,
let us draw the parallel or make the comparison. His infancy is
relatively like the tender shoot of the tree sprouting from seed out of
the ground; his childhood and youth are like the shoot grown to a stalk
with its small branches; the natural truths with which everyone is imbued
at first are like the leaves with which the branches are covered
("leaves" signify precisely this in the Word); man's first steps in the
marriage of good and truth or the spiritual marriage are like the
blossoms which the tree puts forth in the springtime; spiritual truths
are the petals in these blossoms; the earliest signs of the spiritual
marriage are like the start of fruit; spiritual goods, which are goods of
charity, are like the fruit (they are also signified in the Word by
"fruits"); the procreations of wisdom from love are like the seed and by
them the human being becomes like a garden or paradise. Man is also
described in the Word by a tree, and his wisdom from love by a garden;
nothing else is meant by the Garden of Eden.
[4] True, man is a corrupt tree from the seed, but still a grafting or
budding with shoots taken from the Tree of Life is possible, by which the
sap drawn from the old root is turned into sap producing good fruit. The
comparison was drawn for it to be known that when the progression of
divine providence is so constant in the growth and rebirth of trees, it
surely must be constant in the reformation and rebirth of human beings,
who are of much more value than trees; so the Lord's words:
Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, yet not one of them is
forgotten by God? But even the hairs of your head are all numbered; fear
not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Which of you
moreover can by taking thought add a cubit to his stature? .. . if then
you are unable to do what is least, why do you take thought for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow . . . If then God so clothed the
grass, which is in the field today and is cast into an oven tomorrow, how
much more will he clothe you, 0 men of little faith? (Lu 12: 6, 7,
25-28).
333. The activity of divine providence for man's salvation is said to
begin with his birth and continue to the close of his life. For this to
be understood, it should be known that the Lord sees what a man's nature
is and foresees what he wills to be and thus what he will be. For him to
be man and thus immortal, his freedom of will cannot be taken away. The
Lord therefore foresees his state after death and provides for it from
the man's birth to the close of his life. With the evil He makes the
provision by permitting and withdrawing from evils, in the case of the
good by leading to good. Divine providence is thus continually acting for
man's salvation, but more cannot be saved than are willing to be saved,
and those are willing who acknowledge God and are led by Him. Those are
not willing who do not acknowledge God and who lead themselves. The
latter give no thought to eternal life and to salvation, the former do.
The Lord sees the unwillingness but still He leads such men, and does so
in accordance with the laws of His divine providence, contrary to which
he cannot act, for to act contrary to them would be to act contrary to
His divine love and wisdom, and this is to act contrary to Himself.
[2] Inasmuch as the Lord foresees the states of all after death, and also
foresees the places in hell of those who do not desire to be saved and
the places in heaven of those who do desire to be saved, it follows that
He provides their places for the evil by the permitting and withdrawing
of which we spoke, and their places for the good by leading them. Unless
this was done steadily from birth to the close of life neither heaven nor
hell would remain standing, for apart from this foresight and providence
neither would be anything but confusion. It may be seen above (nn. 202,
203) that everyone has his place provided for him by the Lord through
this foresight.
[3] A comparison may throw light on this. If a javelin thrower or a
marksman should aim at a target, from which a line was drawn straight
back for a mile and should err in aim by only a finger's breadth, the
missile or the bullet at the end of the mile would have deviated very far
from the line. So would it be if the Lord did not, at every moment and
even the least fraction of a moment, look to what is eternal in
foreseeing and making provision for one's place after death. But this the
Lord does: the entire future is present to Him, and the entire present is
to Him eternal. That divine providence looks in all it does to what is
infinite and eternal, may be seen above, nn. 46-49, 214 ff.