"Thou shalt not make to thee other gods" includes not loving self and
the world above all things; for that which one loves above all things is
his god. There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love
to God, also love of the world and love of heaven. He who loves himself
loves his own (proprium); and as a man's own (proprium) is nothing but
evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil
hates good, and thus hates God. He who loves himself above all things
sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own
(proprium), and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when
one is sunk in the body and in his own (proprium) he is in corporeal
ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body, and thus in
thick darkness in respect to higher things; while he who is raised up by
the Lord is in light. He who is not in the light of heaven but in thick
darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies God and acknowledges as
god either nature or some man, or some idol, and even aspires to be
himself worshipped as a god. From this it follows that he who loves
self above all things worships other gods.
The same is true, but in a less degree, of one who loves the world; for
there cannot be so great a love of the world as of one's own (proprium);
therefore the world is loved because of one's own and for the sake of
one's own, because it is serviceable to it. Love of self means
especially the love of ruling over others from a mere delight in ruling
and for the sake of eminence, and not from a delight in uses and for the
sake of public good; while love of the world means especially a love of
possessing goods in the world from a mere delight in possession and for
the sake of riches, and not from a delight in uses from these and for
the sake of the consequent good. These loves are both of them without
limit, and rush on, so far as scope is given, to infinity. (A.E., n.
950.)
It is not believed in the world that the love of ruling from a mere
delight in ruling, and the love of possessing goods from a mere delight
in possession, and not from delight in uses, conceal in themselves all
evils, and also a contempt for and rejection of all things pertaining to
heaven and the church; and for the reason that man is stirred up by the
love of self and love of the world to right doing in respect to the
church, to the country, to society, and to the neighbor, by making good
deeds honorable and looking for reward. Therefore this love is called
by many the fire of life, and the incitement to great things.
But it is to be noted that so far as these two loves give uses the first
place and self the second they are good, while so far as they give self
the first place and uses the second they are evil, since man then does
all things for the sake of self and consequently from self, and thus in
every least thing he does there is self and what is his own (proprium),
which regarded in itself is nothing but evil. But to give uses the first
place and self the second is to do good for the sake of the church, the
country, society, and the neighbor; and the goods that man does to these
for the sake of these are not from man but from the Lord. The
difference between these two is like the difference between heaven and
hell. Man does not know that there is such a difference, because from
birth and thus from nature he is in these loves, and because the delight
of these loves continually flatters and pleases him.
But let him consider that a love of ruling from delight in ruling, and
not from a delight in uses, is wholly devilish; and such a man may be
called an atheist; for so far as he is in that love he does not in his
heart believe in the existence of God, and to the same extent he derides
in his heart all things of the church, and he even hates and pursues
with hatred all who acknowledge God, and especially those who
acknowledge the Lord. The very delight of the life of such is to do
evil and to commit wicked and infamous deeds of every kind. In a word,
they are very devils.
This a man does not know so long as he lives in the world: but he will
know that it is so when he comes into the spiritual world, as he does
immediately after death. Hell is full of such, where instead of having
dominion they are in servitude.
Moreover, when they are looked at in the light of heaven they appear
inverted, with the head downward and the feet upward, since they gave
rule the first place and uses the second; and that which is in the first
place is the head, and that which is in the second is the feet; and that
which is the head is loved, but that which is the feet is despised.
(A.E., n. 951.)
He who supposes that he acknowledges and believes that there is a God
before he abstains from the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, especially
from the love of ruling from a delight in ruling, and from the love of
possessing the goods of the world from a delight in possession, and not
from delight in uses, is mistaken. Let a man confirm himself as fully
as he can, from the Word, from preachings, from books, and from the
light of reason, that there is a God, and thus be persuaded that he
believes, yet he does not believe unless the evils that spring from love
of self and of the world have been removed. The reason is that evils
and their delights block up the way, and shut out and repel goods and
their delights from heaven, and prevent their establishment. And until
heaven is established there is only a faith of the lips, which in itself
is no faith, and there is no faith of the heart, which is real faith. A
faith of the lips is faith in externals, a faith of the heart is faith
in internals; and if the internals are crowded with evils of every kind,
when the externals are taken away (as they are with every man after
death), man rejects from them even the faith that there is a God.
(A.E., n. 952.)
So far as a man resists his own two loves, which are the love of ruling
from the mere delight in rule and the love of possessing the goods of
the world from the mere delight in possession, thus so far as he shuns
as sins the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, so far there flows in
through heaven from the Lord, that there is a God, who is the Creator
and Preserver of the universe, and even that God is one. This then
flows in for the reason that when evils have been removed heaven is
opened, and when heaven is opened man no longer thinks from self but
from the Lord through heaven; and that there is a God and that God is
one is the universal principle in heaven which comprises all things.
That from influx alone man knows and as it were sees that God is one, is
evident from the common confession of all nations, and from a repugnance
to think that there are many gods.
Man's interior thought, which is the thought of his spirit, is either
from hell or from heaven; it is from hell before evils have been
removed, but from heaven when they have been removed. When this thought
is from hell man sees no otherwise than that nature is god, and that the
inmost of nature is what is called the Divine. When such a man after
death becomes a spirit he calls anyone a god who is especially powerful;
and also himself strives for power that he may be called a god. All the
evil have such madness lurking inwardly in their spirit. But when a man
thinks from heaven, as he does when evils have been removed, he sees
from the light in heaven that there is a God and that He is one. Seeing
from light out of heaven is what is meant by influx. (A.E., n. 954.)
When a man shuns and turns away from evils because they are sins he not
only sees from the light of heaven that there is a God and the God is
one, but also that God is a Man. For he wishes to see his God, and he
is incapable of seeing Him otherwise than as a Man. Thus did the
ancients before Abraham and after him see God; thus do the nations in
lands outside the church see God from an interior perception, especially
those who are interiorly wise although not from knowledges; thus do all
little children and youths and simple well-disposed adults see God; and
thus do the inhabitants of all earths see God; for they declare that
what is invisible, since it does not come into the thought, does not
come into faith. The reason of this is that the man who shuns and turns
away from evils as sins thinks from heaven; and the whole heaven, and
everyone there, has no other idea of God than that He is a Man; nor can
he have any other idea, since the whole heaven is a man in the largest
form, and the Divine that goes forth from the Lord is what makes heaven;
consequently to think otherwise of God than according to that Divine
form, which is the human form, is impossible to angles, since angelic
thoughts pervade heaven.
(That the whole heaven in the complex answers to a single man may be
seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 51-86; and that the angels think
according to the form of heaven, n. 200-212.)
This idea of God flows in from heaven into all in the world, and has its
seat in their spirit; but it seems to be rooted out in those in the
church who are in intelligence from what is their own (proprium), indeed
so rooted out as to be no longer a possible idea; and this for the
reason that they think of God from space. But when these become spirits
they think otherwise, as has been made evident to me by much experience.
For in the spiritual world an indeterminate idea of God is no idea of
Him; consequently the idea there is determined to someone who has his
seat either on high or elsewhere, and who gives answers.
From a general influx which is from the spiritual world men have
received ideas of God as a Man variously according to the state of
perception; and for this reason the triune God is with us called
Persons; and in paintings in churches God the Father is represented as a
man, the Ancient of Days. It is also from a general influx that men,
both living and dead, who are called saints, are adored as gods by the
common people in Christian Gentilism, and their sculptured images are
esteemed. The same is true of many nations elsewhere, of the ancient
peoples in Greece, in Rome, and in Asia, who had many gods, all of whom
were regarded by them as men. This has been said to make known that
there is an intuition, namely, in man's spirit, to see God as a man.
That is called an intuition which is from general influx. (A.E., n.
955.)
As man from a general influx out of heaven sees in his spirit that God
is a Man, it follows that those who are of the church where the Word is,
if they shun and turn away from evils as sins, see, from the light of
heaven in which they then are, the Divine in the Lord's Human, and the
trine in Him, and Himself to be the God of heaven and earth. But those
who by intelligence from what is their own (proprium) have destroyed in
themselves the idea of God as a Man are unable to see this; neither do
they see from the trinity that is in their thought that God is one; they
call Him one with the lips only. But those who have not been purified
from evils, and therefore are not in the light of heaven, do not in
their spirit see the Lord to be the God of heaven and earth; but in
place of the Lord some other being is acknowledged; by some of these
someone whom they believe to be God the Father; by others someone whom
they call God because he is especially powerful; by others some devil
whom they fear because he can bring evil upon them; by others Nature, as
in the world; and by others no God at all. It is said in their spirit,
because they are such after death when they become spirits; therefore
what lay concealed in their spirit in the world then becomes manifest.
But all who are in heaven acknowledge the Lord only, since the whole
heaven is from the Divine that goes forth from Him, and answers to Him
as a Man; and for this reason no one can enter heaven unless he is in
the Lord, for he enters into the Lord when he enters into heaven. If
others enter they lose their mind and fall backward. (A.E., n. 956.)
The idea of God is the chief of all ideas; for such as this idea is such
is man's communication with heaven and his conjunction with the Lord,
and such is his enlightenment, his affection for truth and good, his
perception, intelligence, and wisdom; for these are not from man but
from the Lord according to conjunction with Him. The idea of God is the
idea of the Lord and His Divine, for no other is God of heaven and God
of earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew:
"Authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth" (xxviii. 18).
But the idea of the Lord is more or less full and more or less clear; it
is full in the inmost heaven, less full in the middle, and still less
full in the outmost heaven; therefore those who are in the inmost heaven
are in wisdom, those who are in the middle in intelligence, and those
who are in the outmost in knowledge. The idea is clear in the angels
who are at the center of the societies of heaven; and less clear in
those who are round about, according to the degrees of distance from the
center.
All in the heavens have places allotted them according to the fullness
and clearness of their idea of the Lord, and they are in correspondent
wisdom and in correspondent felicity. All those who have no idea of the
Lord as Divine, like the Socinians and Arians, are under the heavens,
and are unhappy. Those who have a twofold idea, namely, of an invisible
God and of a visible God in a human form, also have their place under
the heavens, and are not received until they acknowledge one God, and
Him visible. Some in the place of a visible God see as it were
something aerial, and this because God is called a spirit. If this idea
is not changed in them into the idea of a Man, thus of the Lord, they
are not accepted. But those who have an idea of God as the inmost of
nature are rejected, because they cannot help falling into the idea of
nature as being God. All nations that have believed in one God, and have
had an idea of Him as a Man, are received by the Lord. From all this it
can be seen who those are that worship God Himself and who those are
that worship other gods, thus who live according to the first
commandment of the Decalogue and who do not. (A.E., n. 957.)