Influx also: Afflux

See also:  Dualism || Vertical Community || Divine Providence  

Arcana Coelestia

AC 6481. Spirits coming into the other life bring with them the opinion that the Divine Providence is universal, but not in the singulars. The cause of this opinion had been that they had seen the evil exalted to honors, and become rich, and crowned with success, which such persons ascribe to their own sagacity; not knowing that the Divine Providence has for its end the eternal salvation of man, thus not his good fortune in this world, namely, his opulence and eminence, wherein most persons during the life of the body make happiness itself consist; when yet the fact is not so, for eminence usually begets the love of self, and opulence the love of the world, thus what is contrary to love to God and to charity toward the neighbor. Therefore such things are given to the evil, and also to the good if they are not unsuitable and do not withdraw them from heaven.

Moreover the Lord provides for His ends through the evil equally as through the good; for the Lord moves the evil through their very loves to do what is good to the neighbor, to their country, and the church; for the evil desire to be in eminence, they desire their own advantage, and for the sake of these things they desire to seem upright and zealous, and from this desire, as from a fire, they are more strongly moved to do such things than are the well-disposed. It is also permitted the evil to believe that all things are of their own sagacity, and that there is no Divine Providence, or only one that is universal. As they are not willing to perceive otherwise, and in order that they may perform such things as are conducive to the public good, successes are also given them in accordance with their projects, which successes are greater incitements to them from the fact that they ascribe them to themselves.

AC 6482. I have spoken with spirits about the universal government of the Lord-that what is universal is impossible without its singulars, and that without these what is universal is nothing; for it is called universal because its singulars taken together are so called, just as particulars when taken together are called a general; and therefore to say that there is Providence in the universal and not in the singulars, is to say nothing. If anyone by Providence in the universal understands the preservation of the whole according to an order impressed on universal nature at its first creation, he does not consider that nothing can subsist unless it perpetually comes into existence; for, as is known in the learned world, subsistence is a perpetual coming into existence, thus preservation is perpetual creation; consequently providence is constantly in the details.

Some confirm themselves in the persuasion that what is universal may exist without what is particular, from the case of a king, who rules only universally, and not in every detail; but they do not consider that the royalty is not only with the king himself, but also with his ministers, who are his vice-regents in things where he himself is not able to act; it is in this way that the universal which is of the king is in all the details. But with the Lord there is no need of this; for whatever is in Him is infinite, because Divine. The reason why the angels are His ministers is in order that they may be in active life, and thence in happiness; nevertheless the ministries which they discharge are not from them, but from influx from the Lord, as also the angels unanimously confess.

AC 6484. There was a certain one who had confirmed himself in the notion that nothing is of the Divine Providence, but that each and all things are of sagacity, and are also from fortune and chance. He granted that there is fortune, but knew not what it is. He was one of the subtle evil spirits, because he had been more given to thought than to speech and conversation. When he came into the other life he continued there his former life, as all do; he sought out and learned all things-even magical arts-that he supposed might be of service to him, and by means of which he might take such care of himself as to be fortunate from himself. I conversed with him, and he said that he was in his heaven when this was the case, and that there could not possibly be any other heaven than that which he made for himself. But it was given to answer that his heaven is turned into hell as soon as the real heaven flows into it. He was then in the world of spirits, and when spirits are there they are in the delights of the loves in which they had been in the world (see n. 5852). But it then came to pass that heaven flowed into his delight, and he then suddenly felt hell, and said with horror that he had never believed this.

I was told by good spirits that he was worse than the others because there was a more subtle influx from him than from the others. Afterward the same spirit was reduced into the state of his infancy, and the Lord showed the angels what his quality had been at that time, and also what was the then foreseen quality of his future life, and that every detail of his life had been led by the Lord, and that he would have plunged into the most atrocious hell if there had been even the least cessation of the continual providence of the Lord. This can be presented to view before the angels. He was also asked whether he had ever thought about eternal life. He said that he had not believed in it, and that he had rejected everything of the kind, because he saw so much confusion, the righteous suffering, and the wicked glorying, with other such things; also because he saw that brute animals have similar senses and life, also discernment and sagacity; thus he had believed that he should die as they do. He said that he had been in the utmost amazement when he perceived that he lived after death.