Scientific discovery of Spiritual Laws given in Rational Scientific Revelations


What is Not Known Revealed

Note: Swedenborg uses the expression "is not known" hundreds of times in his 17 theological works (1745-1771). Here is a sample. It indicates what topics Swedenborg felt were unknown and now were made known by his revelations.

AE 71. As it is not yet known that "waters" in the Word signify the truths of faith and the knowledges of truth, I would like, since this signification may possibly appear remote, to show here briefly that this is what is meant in the Word by "waters." This, moreover, is necessary, because without a knowledge of what "waters" signify, it cannot be known what baptism signifies, nor the "washings" in the Israelitish church so frequently referred to. "Waters" signify the truths of faith, as "bread" signifies the good of love. "Waters" and "bread" have this signification because things that pertain to spiritual nourishment are expressed in the sense of the letter by such things as belong to natural nourishment; for bread and water, which include in general all food and drink, nourish the body, while the truths of faith and the good of love nourish the soul. This also is from correspondence, for when "bread" and "water" are read of in the Word, angels, because they are spiritual, understand the things by which they are nourished, which are the goods of love and the truths of faith. [2] But I will cite some passages from which it may be known that "waters" signify the truths of faith, likewise the knowledges of truth.

AE 187a. Ver. 2. Be wakeful, signifies that they should acquire for themselves life. This is evident from the signification of "being wakeful," as meaning to be in spiritual life; but here, since those whose life is moral and not yet spiritual are treated of, "Be wakeful" is that they should acquire for themselves spiritual life. This life is meant by "wakefulness" and "being awake," because spiritual life is to moral life, apart from spiritual life, as wakefulness is to sleep, or as noonday light is to the evening, yea, to darkness. But that this is so is not known or perceived by those who are in natural life alone, neither by those who are in moral life apart from spiritual life, for this life also is natural life. They do not know or perceive this, because they are in natural lumen only, and this lumen in comparison with spiritual light is as the darkness of evening to the light of noonday.

Moreover, to such the darkness of evening seems like light; for their interior sight, which is that of the thought, is adapted to that darkness, just as the sight of owls, bats, and other birds that fly by night, is adapted to the shade. Consequently they believe themselves to be in light because they are able to reason, when yet they are in darkness. That this is so is manifest from the state of such after death, when they become spirits. They then believe, when with their companions, that they are in light, because they not only see all things that are about them, but also are able to think and speak about any matter whatever; and yet their light, when the light of heaven flows in with them, is changed into darkness, and they become so blind in respect to the understanding as not to be able to think at all. Moreover, when angels who are in the heavens look down on those who are in such lumen, they see nothing there but mere darkness. That spiritual life compared with moral life apart from spiritual life is as wakefulness compared with sleep, can be further seen from this, that those who are in spiritual light are in angelic wisdom and intelligence, which is such as to be incomprehensible and ineffable to those who are in natural lumen alone, and this not only with men while living in the world, but also with the same when after death they become spirits; and when intelligence and wisdom constitute wakefulness. From this it can now be seen that "Be wakeful" here signifies that they should procure for themselves spiritual life.

AE 236. This is evident also from the signification of "being rich," as being to possess the knowledges of truth and good, and to be intelligent and wise thereby (of which presently); also from the signification of "have gotten riches and have need of nothing," as being to know all things so that nothing is lacking. [2] That those who are in the doctrine of faith alone and justification by faith are such, or believe themselves to be so, is not known to those who are not in that faith, although they are among them; but that still they are so it has been given me to know by much experience. I have talked with many who in the world believed themselves to be more intelligent and wise than others, from their knowing many things about faith alone and justification by faith, and such things as the simple minded are ignorant of; and these they called interior things and mysteries of doctrine, and believed they knew and understood everything, with nothing lacking.

Among them were many who had written about faith alone and justification by faith. But it was shown them that they know nothing of truth, and that those who have lived a life of faith, which is charity, and have not understood justification by faith alone, are more intelligent and wise than they. It was also shown that the things they knew are not truths but falsities, and that knowing and thinking falsities is not being intelligent and wise, for intelligence is of truth, and wisdom is of the life therefrom. And the reason of this was disclosed, namely that they were in no spiritual affection of truth, but only in a natural affection of knowing the things taught by their leaders, by some for the sake of their function, by others for the fame of erudition; and that those who are in natural and not in spiritual affection believe that when they know these things they know everything. This is still more so with those who have confirmed these things by the sense of the letter of the Word, and have labored to connect these with other falsities by means of the fallacies of reason.

AE 304. form, which both have, but because of heaven and the church with them. This is why "heaven" and "earth," where angels and men dwell, signify the church; "heaven" the internal church and also the church with angels, and "earth" the external church and also the church with men. But since it can only with difficulty be believed that "earth" in the Word means the church, because it is not yet known that in every particular of the Word there is a spiritual sense, whence a material idea adheres and keeps the thought fixed in the nearest meaning of the expression, I wish to illustrate and confirm it by a number of quotations. [4] In Isaiah:-

Behold, Jehovah maketh the earth empty and maketh it void, and He shall disfigure the faces thereof; in emptying the earth shall be emptied, and in spoiling it shall be spoiled; the habitable earth shall mourn and be confounded; the world shall be confounded; the earth shall be profaned under its inhabitants; therefore a malediction shall devour the earth, and the inhabitants of the earth shall be burnt up, and a man shall be rare. A shout over the wine in the streets; tire gladness of the earth shall be banished; it shall be in the midst of the earth as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is ended. From the uttermost part of the earth we have heard songs, Glory to the righteous. The floodgates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth quake; in breaking the earth is broken, in rending the earth is rent asunder, in moving the earth is moved; in tottering the earth shall totter as one drunken; and it shall be moved to and fro as a veil; but it shall be in that day that Jehovah will visit upon the host of the height in the height, and upon the kings of the earth who are upon the earth (xxiv. 1,3-6,11,13,16,18-21).

Here it is very clear that "earth" does not mean the earth, but the church. Let the particulars be run over and considered. One who is in a spiritual idea does not think, when "earth" is mentioned, of the earth itself, but of the people on it and their quality; still more is this true of those who are in heaven; who, since they are spiritual, perceive that the church is meant. Here the church destroyed is treated of; its destruction in respect to the good of love and the truth of faith, which constitute it, is described by "Jehovah maketh the earth empty and maketh it void," "in emptying the earth shall be emptied, in spoiling it shall be spoiled," "it shall mourn and be confounded," "it shall be profaned," and "a malediction shall devour it;" "the floodgates from on high are opened, and the foundations of it quake;" "it is broken," "it is rent asunder," "it is moved," "it shall totter as one drunken." These things can be said neither of the earth, nor of any nation, but only of the church.

AE 391a. I saw under the altar, signifies those who were preserved under heaven. This is evident from the signification of "to see," as being to make manifest (see above, n. 351); also from the signification of "altar" as being, in the nearest sense, worship from the good of love to the Lord; in a more interior sense, heaven and the church, which are in that love; and in the inmost sense, the Lord's Divine Human in relation to the Divine good of the Divine love. "Under the altar" signifies those who were preserved under heaven, because it is said that be "saw under the altar the souls of those slain because of the Word of God, and because of the testimony that they held," and by these are meant those who were preserved under heaven until the Last Judgment; but as this is not yet known in the world, I will tell how it is. In the small work on The Lust Judgement it has been shown that before the Last Judgement took place there was a semblance of heaven which is meant by "the former heaven that passed away"(Apoc. xxi. 1) and that this heaven consisted of those who were in external worship without internal, and who therefore lived an external moral life, although they were merely natural and not spiritual.

Those of whom this heaven consisted before the Last judgment were seen in the spiritual world above the earth, also upon mountains, hills, and rocks, and therefore believed themselves to be in heaven; but those of whom this heaven consisted, because they were in an external moral life only and not at the same time in an internal spiritual life, were cast down; and when these had been cast down, all those who had been preserved by the Lord, and concealed here and there, for the most part in the lower earth, were elevated and transferred to these sane places, that is, upon the mountains, hills, and rocks where the others had formerly been, and out of these a new heaven was formed. These who had been preserved and then elevated were from those in the world who had lived a life of charity, and who were in the spiritual affection of truth. The elevation of these into the places of the others I have often witnessed. It is these who are meant by "the souls of those slain seen under the altar," and because they were guarded by the Lord in the lower earth, and this earth is under heaven, so "I saw under the altar" signifies those who were preserved under heaven.

AE 411c. [5] That "rock" signifies the Lord in respect to Divine truth, is plain from:-

The rock in Horeb from which waters were given to the Israelitish people (Exod. xvii. 5, 6);

and that it was commanded:-

That Moses and Aaron should speak unto the cliff, and thus should sanctify Jehovah in the eyes of the sons of Israel; but that Moses smote it with a staff two times, therefore it was declared to Moses and Aaron that they should not bring the people into the land of Canaan (Num. xx. 8-13).

It is known in the church that this "rock" signified the Lord; but it is not known that it had this signification because "rock" in the Word signifies the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord; this was why Moses and Aaron were commanded to speak to it, and thus to sanctify Jehovah in the eyes of the sons of Israelitish . Also "the waters" that Sowed forth signify Divine truth; and "the people drinking of them" signifies to nourish spiritually, which is done by instructing and teaching. (That "waters" signify truths, see above, n. 71; and that "to drink," and "to be given to drink," signify to be instructed and to be taught, see A.C., n. 3069, 3772,4017,4018, 8562, 9412 ).

AE 434. [3] "Reuben," or the tribe of Reuben, has the same signification as "Peter" the apostle; for the twelve apostles in a similar manner as the twelve tribes of Israelitish , represented all things of the church, and each apostle some universal essential of the church; and as Peter had a similar representation with Reuben, therefore was he the first of the apostles, as Reuben was the first of the sons of Jacob. (That "Peter" signifies truth in the light, and faith, see above, n. 9, 411a.)

[4] Reuben was the first of the sons of Jacob, and thence the tribe called from him is named in the first place in most passages of the Word, because he was the firstborn; and "firstborn" in the Word signifies truth from good, or what is the same thing, truth in light, and thus faith from charity. For truth and what is of faith appears to man to be first, for it enters by the hearing into the memory and is called forth therefrom into the thought; and that which a man thinks he sees and perceives by interior sight, and that which is first in sight and perception is first, but merely in appearance, not actually. Actually, good is the firstborn, or the first constituent of the church, since truth exists from good, for good forms itself in truths, and by means of truths presents itself to be seen, therefore truth is good in form. This is why truth is said to be from good and faith from charity, for that which is from anything is that thing imaged forth; and [truth] viewed in itself is good formed and born; such therefore is the meaning of "firstborn" in the spiritual sense of the Word.

Moreover, with infants the good of innocence is what is first imparted by the Lord, and it is from this that man first becomes a man; and because good is of love, and man does not reflect about his love but about his thought from the memory, and because good has no quality until it is formed into truths, and without quality nothing is perceived, so it is not known that good is first, and is the first born; for it is good that is first conceived from the Lord with man, and it is brought forth through truths, in which good is in its own form and effigy.

AE 482. That "to feed" signifies to instruct can be been without further explanation, since it is a custom derived from the Word to can those who teach "pastors (or feeders)," and those who are instructed "a flock;" but why they are so called is not yet known, and shall therefore be told. In heaven where all things that appear before the eyes are representative, representing under a natural appearance the spiritual things that angels think and by which they are affected; thus are their thoughts and affections presented before their eyes in such forms as exist in the world, that is, in forms similar to natural things, and this by virtue of the correspondence that is established by the Lord between spiritual things and natural. (This correspondence has been treated of in many places; also in the work on Heaven and Hell, n 87-102, and 103-115.) It is from this correspondence that in heaven flocks of sheep, lambs, and goats appear feeding in green pastures, and also in gardens; and these appearances spring from the thoughts of those who are in the goods and truths of the church, and who from these think intelligently and wisely. It is from this that mention is so often made in the Word of "flock," "pasture," as also of "feeding," and "feeder (or shepherd);" for the Word in the letter consists of such things as appear in heaven before the eyes, and these signify correspondent spiritual things.

AE 638. [17] In Jeremiah:- Jehovah called thy name a green olive-tree, beautiful with fruit of form; at the voice of a great tumult He hath kindled a fire upon it, and they have broken its branches; for Jehovah of Hosts, who planted thee, hath spoken evil against thee, because of the wickedness of the house of Israelitish and of the house of Judah (xi. 16, 17).

Here the house of Judah and Israelitish is called "a green olive-tree, beautiful with fruit of form," because "the olive-tree" and its "fruit" signify the good of love, and "green" and "beautiful in form" signify the truth of that good, from which comes intelligence; for "the house of Judah" signifies the church in respect to the good of love, and "the house of Israelitish " the church in respect to the truth of that good; "to call its name" signifies its quality; the destruction and vastation of that church by the love of evil is described by "Jehovah hath kindled a fire upon it, and hath broken its branches," "fire" signifying the love of evil, and "branches" truths, which are said "to be broken" when they perish by reason of that love. This is attributed to Jehovah because of the appearance that all evil almost seems to be from God, because He is omnipotent and does not avert it; for it is not known that to avert the evil of punishment would he contrary to order, for if it were averted evil would increase until there would be no good remaining.

AE 790b. It is known in the world that there is a natural man and a spiritual man, as also that the natural man is worldly and the spiritual man heavenly; but still it is not known what spiritual faith is, and how it differs from natural faith. [3] It is therefore to be known,

(1) That every man has two minds, one natura.l and the other spiritual; and as it is the mind that wills and thinks, every man has also natural will and thought and spiritual will and thought. The natural mind wills and thinks like a man in the world, and the spiritual mind wills and thinks like an angel in heaven. From this it follows that as faith is in man, it, too, is natural or spiritual; and that natural faith is according to man's will and thought in the world, and spiritual faith is according to his will and thought in heaven. It is said the will and thought, because all things from which man is a man have relation to these two, for from the will he acts, and from the thought he speaks. And as a man acts and speaks either from self or from God, so he wills and thinks either from self or from God. From this it is clear, in the first place, that there is natural faith and spiritual faith; and that natural faith apart from spiritual faith is to think such things as are in the Word from self, while natural faith from spiritual faith is to think such things as are in the Word from God; although this also seems to the man to be from himself.

(2) [4] As every man has two minds, a natural and a spiritual, and the natural mind is opened and formed by such things as are in the world, while the spiritual mind is opened and formed by such things as are in heaven, and as the things that are in heaven are all spiritual, so a man's spiritual mind must needs be opened and formed by such things as are in the Word, in which all things are spiritual because they are Divine. In the Word there are truths that are to be known and thought, and goods that must be willed and done; therefore it is by these goods and these truths that man's spiritual mind is opened and formed From this it follows, that unless the spiritual mind is opened and formed by truths and goods from the Word it remains closed; and when this is closed the natural mind only is opened and formed by such things as are rn the world, from which man, indeed, derives a natural lumen, but such as has in it no wisdom from heaven. From this it is clear, in the second place, that faith is not faith so long as the natural mind only is opened, but that if the thought that a thing is so is called faith it is historical faith, which is nothing but knowledge from which the natural man thinks.

(3) [5] That the spiritual mind may be opened and formed it must have a storehouse from which it may draw its supplies; since unless man has such a storehouse he is empty, and in emptiness there can be no Divine oration. This storehouse is in the natural man and it is its memory, in which everything knowable can be stored up and can be drawn forth from it. In this storehouse for the formation of the spiritual man there must be truths that are to be believed and goods that are to be done, both of them from the Word and from doctrine and preaching from the Word. These man must learn even from infancy. But all these things, however abundant they may be, although they are from the Word, are natural until the spiritual mind is opened; for they are mere knowledge. Thought from this storehouse is what is called faith by those who separate faith from good works in doctrine and in life.

(4) [6] The spiritual mind is primarily opened by man's abstaining from doing evils because they are contrary to the Divine commandments in the Word. If man abstains from evils from any other fear than this the spiritual mind is not opened. The following are the reasons why this is what opens the spiritual mind: First, that the evils with man must be removed before communication and conjunction with heaven can be granted him; since evils, which are all in the natural man, keep heaven closed, and yet heaven must be opened, for otherwise man remains natural. The second reason is that the Word is from the Lord, and consequently the Lord is in the Word, even so that He is the Word; for the Word is Divine truth all of which is from the Lord. From this it follows that he who abstains from doing evils because they are contrary to the Divine commandments in the Word abstains from them from the Lord. The third reason is, that as far as evils are removed so far goods enter. That this is so can be seen by man from natural lumen alone, for when lasciviousness is removed chastity enters; when intemperance is removed temperance enters; when deceit is removed sincerity enters; when hatred and the delight of revenge are removed love and the delight of love and friendship enter; and so in other cases; and this for the reason that the Lord enters, and heaven with Him, so far as man from the Word abstains from doing evils, since he then abstains from them from the Lord.

(5) [7] But this shall be illustrated by examples. Take for illustration the four commandments of the Decalogue, "thou shalt not commit adultery," "thou shalt not steal," "thou shalt not kill," "thou shalt not bear false witness." These commandments are Divine, since they are in the Word. When any one shuns and averts himself from adultery because of the fear that it is against the Lord, against heaven, and against the spiritual life, to be ia accord with which is eternal felicity, he loves chastity and loves his consort, because true conjugial love is chastity itself. When any one shuns and averts himself from theft because of a like fear as from adultery, he loves sincerity, and loves the good of the neighbor as his own good. When any one shuns and averts himself from murders or from deadly hatred from a like fear he loves the neighbor and is in charity. When any one shuns and averts himself from false testimony because of a like fear he loves justice and loves truthfulness, and this from the Lord, because from the Word; consequently when after death he becomes a spirit he is like an angel of heaven, and therefore becomes an angel of heaved.

But when one does not shun adultery from such a holy fear, but from a fear for his reputation, and thus of the loss of honor and gain, or from a fear of the law, or of disease, or because of weakness, he is still unchaste, since he merely fears the world and the loss of his prosperity in the world, and does not fear the Lord, and thus does not fear the loss of heaven and of eternal life. In like manner when any one abstains from thefts, from murders or deadly hatreds, and from false testimonies, from natural fear only and not from spiritual fear, he abstains from these from self and not from the Lord; and he who does this from self still remains in them; and no one can be withdrawn from these except by the Lord. From this it can be seen that the spiritual mind with man is opened by this, that from the Word he abstains from doing evils; and that it is opened in the same degree in which he abstains from them by shunning and turning away from them.

AE 839. It has been shown already that every man is his love, and that the love and life of man make one and are one. It shall now be shown that a man's faith is such as his love or life is, also that a man's faith is according to his works. It has been shown above that works contain in themselves all things of man's love and life, since works are their products and effects, and are the ultimates in which all things prior co-exist. For this reason angels of the third heaven know what the quality of a man is by the tone of his speech, also by his step, by the touch of the hand, by the action of the body, by his exultation, and by many other things, which are acts.

That a man is known in the third heaven by such things is not known in the world, because man believes that there is nothing in such things but mere motion; when yet the life of his mind produces these actions by means of the life of his body; and both of these lives, with every thing pertaining to them, concur in the production of these acts, from which it follows that they manifest themselves in them. Since, then, a man's life goes forth into works, and manifests itself in them, it follows that his faith does the same; for faith is the acknowledgment that a thing is so, and acknowledgment is of the thought and at the same time of the will; and as will and thought produce action by means of the life of the body, so also faith is manifested in works as to its quality. And yet nothing is acknowledged to be so in thought, will, and work together, except what pertains to man's love and life, for it is his love and life that acknowledge; which shows that as faith is such as man's love and life are, so it is such as his works are.

AE 897. [2] Something shall now be said about consolations after temptations. All who are being regenerated by the Lord undergo temptations, and after temptations experience joys. But the source of the temptations and of the joys that follow, which are here meant by consolations, is not yet known in the world, because there are few who experience spiritual temptations, for the reason that there are few who are in the knowledges of good and truth, and fewer yet who are in the marriage of good and truth, that is, in truths as to doctrine and at the same time in goods as to life; and no others are let into spiritual temptations; for it others were let into temptations they would yield, and if they yielded their latter state would be worse than their former state.

The true reason why only those who are in the marriage of good and truth can be let into spiritual temptations is that the spiritual mind, which is, properly, the internal man, can be opened only with these; for when that mind is opened temptations exist, and for the reason that heaven, that is the Lord through heaven, flows in through man's spiritual mind into his natural mind; there is no other way of heaven, that is of the Lord through heaven, into man; and when heaven flows in it removes the hindrances, which are evils and falsities therefrom, which have their seat in the natural mind, that is, in the natural man; and these can be removed only by a living acknowledgment of them by man, and grief of soul on account of them. This is why man is distressed in temptations by the evils and falsities that rise up into the thought; and so far as he then acknowledges his sins, regards himself as guilty, and prays for deliverance, so far the temptations are useful to him. From this it is clear that man has spiritual temptation, when his internal, which is called the spiritual mind, is opened, thus when man is being regenerated. When, therefore, man's evils and falsities are removed temptations are brought to an end; and when they are ended joy flows in through heaven from the Lord and fills his natural mind. This joy is what is here meant by consolations.

These consolations all those receive who undergo spiritual temptations. I speak from experience. After temptations man receives joys because after them man is admitted into heaven; for through temptations man is conjoined to heaven and is admitted into it, and consequently has joy like that of the angels there.

AE 1016. Such as was not since men were upon the earth, signifies that the state was more completely inverted than ever before in the countries where the church is. This is evident from the signification of "there was not such an earthquake," as being that the state of the church was more changed than heretofore, thus completely inverted; also from the signification of "the men that were upon the earth," as being with those who are of the church, thus who are in the countries where the church is. Here the state of the church with the Reformed is especially treated of, while the church with the Babylonians will be treated of hereafter. And that the state of the church has been turned into its opposite is clear from this, that it is not known at this day what good is, nor what truth nor even what love is, nor what faith is; for love is called faith, works are called faith, good is called faith, truth is called faith, and yet it is not in the least seen whether the accepted faith, in which every thing of the church is included, be a faith in truth, since it consists of mere incomprehensible things. (Continuation respecting the Seventh Commandment.)

AR 453. Verse 18. By these three was a third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, that issued out of their mouths, signifies that it is from these that the men of the church perish. "A third part of men being killed," signifies that the men of the church perish by the three things just now mentioned (n. 452); for by "being killed" is signified to be killed spiritually, which is to perish as to the soul; and by "a third part" is signified all who are in those falsities, which have been frequently enumerated above; what is signified by "fire," "smoke," and "brimstone," and what by "issuing out of their mouths," may be seen above (n. 452). It is from these falsities, that in the whole Christian world it is not known that "fire" here spoken of is the love of self and of the world, and that this love is the Devil; also that "the smoke" from this fire is the pride of one's own intelligence, and that this pride is Satan; as also that "brimstone" kindled by this fire, by means of that pride, is the lusts of evil and falsity; and that these lusts are the crew of the Devil and Satan, of which hell consists; and when these things are not known, it cannot be known what sin is, for sin derives all its delight and pleasantness from them.

AR 462. Since at this day it is not known what is meant by "enchantments," it shall briefly be explained. "Enchantments" are mentioned in the above passage, in place of the eighth precept of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," for the three other evils, which are "murder," "whoredom," and "thefts," are there named. "To bear false witness" signifies, in the natural sense, to act the part of a false witness, to lie and defame; and in the spiritual sense, to confirm and persuade that falsity is truth, and that evil is good; from which it is evident, that by "to enchant" is signified to persuade to what is false, and thus to destroy truth.

Enchantments were in use among the ancients, and were performed in three ways: First, they kept the hearing and thus the mind of another continually intent upon his words and sayings, without relaxing anything from them; and, at the same time, aspiring and inspiring thought conjoined with affection, by means of the breath, into the sound of the speech, whereby the hearer could not think anything from himself; thus the falsifiers poured in their falsities with violence. Secondly, they infused a persuasion, which was done by detaining the mind from everything contrary, and keeping the attention exclusively to the idea of that which was said by them, hence the spiritual sphere of his mind dispelled the spiritual sphere of the mind of the other, and stifled it. This was the spiritual fascination which the magi of old used, and which was called the binding and tying of the understanding. This kind of enchantment pertained only to the spirit or thought, but the former to the lips or speech also.

Thirdly, the hearer kept his mind so fixed in his own opinion, that he almost shut his ears against hearing anything from the speaker, which was done by holding the breath, and sometimes by a tacit muttering, and thus by a continual denial of his adversary's sentiment. This kind of enchantment was practised by those who heard others, but the two former by those who spake to others. These three kinds of enchantment prevailed among the ancients, and prevail still among infernal spirits; but with men in the world there remains only the third kind, and this with those who, from the pride of their own intelligence, have confirmed in themselves the falsities of religion; for these, when they hear things contrary, admit them no further into their thought than to mere contact, and then from the interior recess of their mind they emit as it were fire which consumes them, about which the other knows nothing except by indications from the countenance and the sound of the voice in the reply; provided the enchanter does not, by dissimulation, restrain that fire, or what is the same, the anger of his pride. This kind of enchantment operates at the present day to prevent truths from being accepted, and, with many, to their not being understood. That in ancient times many magical arts prevailed, and among these enchantments, is evident from Moses:-

When thou shalt come into the land, thou shalt not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations; there shall not be found in thee one that passeth his son or his daughter through the fire; a diviner by divination, a magician and a soothsayer, a sorcerer, and an enchanter of enchantment, and one that interrogateth a python, and an augur, and one that inquireth of the dead; for all these are an abomination to Jehovah (Deut. xviii. 9-11).

AR 756. It is manifest from this, that by "Babylon has become a habitation of demons," is signified that their hells are the hells of the lusts of having dominion from the heat of the love of self, and the lusts of profaning the truths of heaven from the spurious zeal of that love. It is not known in the world, that all after death become affections of the ruling love in themselves. Those become good affections, who have looked to the Lord and to heaven, and at the same time have shunned evils as sins; but those become evil affections, which are lusts, who have looked only to themselves and the world, and have shunned evils not as sins, but only as hurtful to one's reputation and honor. Those affections appear to the life and are perceived in the spiritual world, but in the natural world, only the thoughts from the affections.

Hence it is, that man does not know that hell is in the affections of the love of evil, and heaven in the affections of the love of good. That man does not know and that he does not perceive it, is because the lusts of the love of evil derive from heredity that they are delightful in the will, and thence are pleasant in the understanding; and a man does not reflect upon that which is delightful and pleasant, because it leads his mind (animus) along, as the current of a swift river carries a vessel. Wherefore they who have immersed themselves in those delights and pleasures cannot come to the delights and pleasures of the affections of the love of good and truth any otherwise than as those who urge the oars against the current of the swift river with the strong power of the arms. But it is otherwise with those who have not immersed themselves deeply.

AC 1889. In this chapter it is the same with the names Abram, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael; and what they involve may be seen from the CONTENTS, and further on from the explication of each name in its place. But these matters are of a nature that does not admit of easy explication, for the subject treated of in connection with these names is the Lord's rational, and how it was conceived and born, and what its quality was before it was united to the Lord's Internal, which was Jehovah. The reason why this subject is not of easy explication, is that at this day it is not known what the internal man is, what the interior, and what the exterior. When the rational is spoken of, or the rational man, some idea can be formed of it; but when it is said that the rational is the intermediate between the internal and the external, few if any comprehend it.

Yet as the subject here treated of in the internal sense is the Lord's Rational Man, and how it was conceived and born by the influx of the internal man into the external, and as it is these very matters that are involved in the historical facts stated concerning Abram, Hagar, and AE, therefore in order to prevent what we have to say in the following explication from being utterly unintelligible, be it known that in every man there is an internal man, a rational man which is intermediate, and an external man, and that these are most distinct from one another. (Concerning this subject see what was said above, n. 978.)

AC 2435. [2] This was the source of all the contentions, and also all the laws, respecting primogeniture that are mentioned in the Word. The cause of there being such a controversy was that it was not known, as even at this day it is not known, that a man has only so much of faith as he has of charity; and that when a man is being regenerated, charity presents itself to faith, or what is the same, good presents itself to truth, and insinuates itself into it and adapts itself to it in every particular, causing faith to be faith; and thus that charity is the very firstborn of the church, although to man it appears otherwise (see also n. 352: 367). But as these things will frequently be treated of hereafter, of the Lord's Divine mercy we shall say more on the subject as the occasion arises.

AC 3021. Put I pray thy hand under my thigh. That this signifies pledging it according to its power to the good of conjugial love, is evident from the signification of "hand," as being power (see n. 878); and from the signification of "thigh," as being the good of conjugial love, concerning which in what follows. That it is pledging to the extent of its power, is evident from the fact that they who were pledged to anything that related to conjugial love, by an ancient rite placed the hand under the thigh of him to whom they were being pledged, and in this manner they were put under oath by him; and this for the reason that the "thigh" signified conjugial love, and the "hand" power, or so far as was possible; for all the parts of the human body correspond to spiritual and celestial things in the Grand Man which is heaven, as was shown above (n. 2996, 2998); and as will be shown more fully, of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter The thighs themselves together with the loins, correspond to conjugial love.

These things were well known to the men of the most ancient times; and therefore they had a number of rites based on this correspondence, of which one was that they placed the hands under the thigh when they were pledged to any good of conjugial love. The knowledge of such things, which was in highest esteem among the ancients, and was one of the chief things of their knowledge and intelligence, is at this day wholly lost; so completely that it is not even known that there is any correspondence and some may therefore wonder that such things are signified by the rite here described. The rite is mentioned in the present case because the betrothing of Isaac to some one of the family of Abraham is treated of, and the discharge of the duty was intrusted to the elder servant.

AC 3761. And Jacob lifted up his feet. That this signifies the elevation of the natural, is evident from the signification of "lifting up," as being elevation; and from the signification of the "feet," as being the natural, concerning which in what follows. The elevation here signified is that treated of in this chapter, which is from external truth to internal good. In the supreme sense it is shown how the Lord elevated His natural even to the Divine, according to order, by ascending from external truth through the degrees to internal good; and in the representative sense, how the Lord makes new the natural of man when He regenerates him, according to a similar order. That the man who is being regenerated in adult age advances according to the order described in the internal sense in this and the following chapters, is known to few, for the reason that few reflect upon it, and also that few at this day can be regenerated.

For these are the last times of the church, when there is no longer any charity, consequently not any faith and this being the case, it is not even known what faith is, although it is on the lips of all that man is saved by faith. Still less is it known what charity is; and as these two are known merely as terms, and are unknown in respect to their essence, it is on this account said that few can reflect upon the order according to which man is made new, or is regenerated, and also that few can be regenerated.

AC 3901. [6] In Job:--

Does the hawk fly by thine intelligence, and stretch her wings toward the south? Does the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? (xxxix. 26, 27);

it is evident that the "eagle" here is reason, which is of intelligence. Such was the signification of the "eagle" in the Ancient Church; for the book of Job is a book of the Ancient Church (see n. 3540, end). Almost all the books of that period were written by means of significatives; but in process of time the significatives have become so completely forgotten that it is not even known that "birds" in general denote thoughts, although they are so frequently mentioned in the Word and it appears quite plain that they have another meaning. [7] That in the opposite sense an "eagle" signifies rational things that are not true, and thus false, is evident from the following passages. In Moses:--

Jehovah shall bring upon thee a nation from far from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou hearest not, a nation hard in faces (Deut. xxviii. 49, 50). In Jeremiah:--

Behold he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. 1 Woe unto us! for we are laid waste (iv. 13).

AC 4062. [2] In order that it may be comprehended how the case is in regard to the goods and truths in man, what is known to scarcely any one must be revealed. It is indeed known and acknowledged that all good and all truth are from the Lord; and it is also acknowledged by some that there is an influx, but of such a nature that man is not aware of it. Yet as it is not known, at least is not acknowledged at heart, that there are spirits and angels around man, and that his internal man is in the midst of them, and is thus ruled by the Lord, it is little believed, although said.

There are innumerable societies in the other life that are disposed and set in order by the Lord according to all the genera of good and truth; and there are societies in the opposite that are disposed according to all the genera of evil and falsity; insomuch that there is not any genus of good and truth, nor any species of that genus, nor indeed any specific variety, which does not have such angelic societies, or to which there are not angelic societies that correspond. Nor on the other hand, is there any genus of evil and falsity, nor any species of that genus, nor indeed any specific variety, to which there are not diabolical societies that correspond. In a society of such is every man as to his interiors (that is, as to his thoughts and affections) although he is not aware of it. Everything that a man thinks and wills is from this source, insomuch that if the societies of spirits and angels in which he is were taken away, he would that moment have no thought and no will, and would even fall down absolutely dead. Such is the state of man, although he believes that he has all things from himself, and that there is neither a hell nor a heaven; or that hell is far removed from him, and heaven also.

[3] Moreover the good in a man appears to him as what is simple or one, and yet is so manifold, and consists of things so various, that the man cannot possibly explore so much as its generals. It is the same with the evil in a man. Such as is the good in a man, such is the society of angels with him and such as is the evil in a man, such is the society of evil spirits with him. The man summons these societies to himself, that is, he places himself in a society of such spirits; for like is associated with like. For example: the man who is avaricious summons to himself societies of like spirits who are in the same cupidity. The man who loves himself in preference to others, and who despises others, summons those who are like himself. He who takes delight in revenge summons such as are in a like delight; and so in all other cases. These spirits communicate with hell, and the man is in the midst of them, and is altogether ruled by them, insomuch that he is not at his own disposal, but is at theirs, although from the delight and consequent freedom that he enjoys he supposes that he directs himself.

But the man who is not avaricious, or who does not love himself in preference to others, nor despise others, and who does not take delight in revenge, is in a society of similar angels, and is led by the Lord by their means, and indeed by means of his freedom, to all the good and truth to which he suffers himself to be led; and in proportion as he suffers himself to be led to more interior and more perfect good, in the same proportion he is brought to more interior and perfect angelic societies. The changes of his state are nothing else than changes of societies. That this is the case is evident to me from the continuous experience of many years, whereby the fact has become as familiar to me as is that which has been familiar to a man from his infancy.

[4] From all this it is now evident how the case is with man's regeneration, and with the mediate delights and goods by means of which he is brought by the Lord from the state of his old man to the state of his new man - namely, that this is effected by means of angelic societies, and by changes of them. Mediate goods and delights are nothing else than such societies, which are applied to man by the Lord, to the intent that by their means he may be introduced to spiritual and celestial goods and truths; and when he has been brought to these, the societies are separated, and more interior and more perfect ones are adjoined to him. Nothing else is meant by the mediate good signified by "Laban," and by the separation of that good, which is the subject treated of in this chapter.

AC 4404. The external senses, which are five, namely, touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight, have each of them a correspondence with the internal senses. But at this day correspondences are known to scarcely any one because it is not known that there are any correspondences, and still less that there is a correspondence of spiritual things with natural, or what is the same, of the things of the internal man with those of the external. As regards the correspondence of the senses, speaking generally the sense of touch corresponds to the affection of good, the sense of taste to the affection of knowing, the sense of smell to the affection of perceiving, the sense of hearing to the affection of learning, and also to obedience, and the sense of sight to the affection of understanding and of being wise.

AC 5365. [2] How the case is in regard to the need of good for truth, must be told. Truth has need of good, and good has need of truth; and when truth has need of good, truth is conjoined with good, and when good has need of truth, good is conjoined with truth; for the reciprocal conjunction of good and truth, namely of truth with good and of good with truth, is the heavenly marriage. In the early stages of man's regeneration, truth is multiplied, but not good; and as truth has then no good with which to be conjoined, it is drawn in and stored up in the interiors of the natural mind, that it may be called forth thence according to the increasings of good. In this state truth is in need of good, and moreover conjunction of truth with good takes place according to the inflow of good into the natural; but still no fruitfulness is effected by this conjunction. But when man has been regenerated, then good increases; and as it increases it is in need of truth, and also procures truth for itself with which it may be conjoined, and thereupon there is a conjunction of good with truth. When this takes place, truth is made fruitful from good, and good from truth.

[3] That this is the case is entirely unknown in the world, but is very well known in heaven; and yet were it known in the world (not only by knowledge but also by perception) what celestial love or love to the Lord is, and what spiritual love or charity toward the neighbor is, it would also be known what good is, for all good is of these loves; and moreover it would be known that good desires truth, and truth good, and that they are conjoined according to the desire and its quality. This might be plain from the fact that when truth is thought of, the good adjoined to it is presented at the same time; and when good is stirred, the truth adjoined to it is presented at the present time--in both cases with affection, desire, delight, or holy aspiration; and from this the quality of the conjunction might be known. But as it is not known from any inward sensation or perception what good is, such things cannot come to knowledge; for that about which nothing is known is not understood, even when it comes to view. [4] And as it is not known what spiritual good is, and that it is charity toward the neighbor, therefore it is a matter of dispute in the world, especially among the learned, what is the highest good; and scarcely any one has maintained that it is that delight, satisfaction, blessedness, and happiness which is perceived from mutual love devoid of any selfish or worldly end, and which makes heaven itself.

From this also it is plain that in the world at this day it is not at all known what spiritual good is, and still less that good and truth form a marriage together, and that heaven is in this marriage, and that those who are in it are in wisdom and intelligence and have satisfactions and happinesses with unlimited and inexpressible variety, not one of which is known by the world, nor is its existence even recognized and believed; when in fact it is heaven itself, or that very heavenly joy of which so much is said in the church.

AC 5862. It is not known to the spirits with man, but only to angels from the Lord, that they are with him, because they are adjoined to his soul or spirit, and not to his body. Those things which from the thoughts are determined into speech, and those which from the will are determined into acts in the body, flow in order into act by general influx, according to the correspondences with the Grand Man; and therefore the spirits who are with man have nothing in common with these things: thus they do not speak through man's tongue, which would be obsession; nor see through his eyes, nor hear through his ears, what is in the world. It is otherwise with me, for the Lord has opened my interiors so that I might see the things in the other life: hence spirits have known that I was a man in the body, and opportunity has been given them of seeing through my eyes things in the world, and of hearing those speaking to me who were in my company.

AC 6175. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were seven years and a hundred and forty years. That this signifies the general state and its quality, may be seen if the numbers "seven," "forty," and a "hundred" are unfolded. What "seven" signifies may be seen above (n. 395, 433, 716, 728, 881, 5265, 5268); what "forty" signifies (n. 730, 862, 2272, 2273); and what a "hundred" (n. 1988, 2636, 4400). But the numbers thus compounded cannot be easily unfolded, for they contain more things than can be reduced to a summary statement, and be expressed to the apprehension.

These numbers in general contain the whole state of that which is represented by Jacob, and its quality. These things the angels see in one complex from the very number a hundred and forty-seven; for all numbers in the Word fall with them into ideas of things, as has been made plain to me from the fact that sometimes numbers in a long succession have appeared to me, and the angels then said that those numbers enfolded within them in succession likewise the things of which they were conversing. From this also the most ancient people, who were of the celestial church, made a computation consisting of numbers, by which were conveyed heavenly things not easily comprehensible to the ideas of the natural mind. But after their times these computations perished, together with the perception of heavenly things, and there remained only the knowledge of the general signification of the simple numbers, as "three," "six," "seven," "twelve;" and not so much of the signification of compound numbers. But at this day it is not known that the numbers in the Word signify anything except number, and therefore what has been said on the subject will perhaps be thought incredible.

AC 8164. And they said unto Moses. That this signifies the height of temptation when there is despair, is evident from the words that follow, for they are involved in "they said;" that the following words are words of temptation, when this comes to its height, and when there is despair, is evident. It is said "despair," because for the most part this is the end, or is at the end, of spiritual temptations (see n. 1787, 2694, 5279, 5280, 7147, 7155, 7166). Inasmuch as at this day few undergo spiritual temptations, and consequently it is not known how the case is with temptations, I may say something further on the subject. There are spiritual temptations, and there are natural temptations. Spiritual temptations belong to the internal man, but natural ones to the external man. Spiritual temptations sometimes arise without natural temptations, sometimes with them.

Natural temptations exist when a man suffers as to the body, as to honors, as to wealth, in a word, as to the natural life, as is the case in diseases, misfortunes, persecutions, punishments, and the like. The anxieties which then arise, are what are meant by "natural temptations." But these temptations effect nothing whatever toward man's spiritual life, neither can they be called temptations, but griefs; for they arise from the wounding of the natural life, which is that of the love of self and of the world. The wicked are sometimes in these griefs, and they grieve and are tormented in proportion to the extent of their love of self and of the world, and the life they have from this source.

[2] But spiritual temptations belong to the internal man, and assault his spiritual life. In this case the anxieties are not on account of any loss of natural life, but on account of the loss of faith and charity, and consequently of salvation. These temptations are frequently induced by means of natural temptations, for if when a man is in these--that is, in disease, grief, the loss of wealth or honor, and the like--he begins to think about the Lord's aid, His providence, the state of the evil in that they glory and exult when the good suffer and undergo various griefs and various losses, then spiritual temptation is conjoined with natural temptation. Such was the last temptation of the Lord in Gethsemane, and when He suffered the cross, which was the most frightful of all. From all this it is evident what natural temptation is, and what spiritual. There is also a third kind, namely, melancholy anxiety, the cause of which is for the most part to be found in an infirm state of the body or of the lower mind. In this anxiety there may be something of spiritual temptation, or there may be nothing of it.

AC 9152. He shall repay double. That this signifies restoration to the full, is evident from the signification of "repaying," as being restoration (see n. 9087); and from the signification of "double," as being to the full (n. 9103). In this verse, and in those which follow, as far as verse 14, the subject treated of in the internal sense is the loss of the truth of faith with a man, thus the loss of spiritual life, and its restoration; for by means of the truths of faith a man is brought into the good of charity, and becomes spiritual. But the things treated of in the internal sense in what now follows are for the most part unknown to man.

The reason is that it is not known what spiritual life is, thus neither that spiritual life is an interior life distinct from the natural life, which is exterior. Neither is it known that spiritual life is given by the Lord to man through the reception of the truth of faith in the good of charity. Consequently what is said about the loss of this spiritual life and its restoration falls into thick darkness with a man, because it falls among things of which he has no knowledge. Nevertheless such things make angelic wisdom, for they are suited to the light in which the angels are; and there fore when a man of the church who is in the good of faith reads the Word, angels adjoin themselves to him, and are delighted in the man, because of the wisdom which then inflows to them through the Word from the Lord. From this is the conjunction of heaven with man, which would not be possible without the Word. For the Word is such that there is not even a point or a jot in its original tongue which does not affect the angels, and conjoin them with man. That this is the case I can assever, because it has been shown me from heaven.

AC 9396. [2] But at the present day it is not known what is the conjunction of the Lord with the man of the church through the Word, because heaven is now closed. For at the present day scarcely any one speaks with angels and spirits, and thereby knows how they perceive the Word; when yet this was known to the ancient, and especially to the most ancient people, for it was a common thing with them to speak with spirits and angels. The reason was that in ancient times, and especially in the most ancient times, men were interior men, for they thought in the spirit almost abstractedly from the body; whereas modern men are exterior men, and think in the body almost abstractedly from the spirit. Hence it is that heaven has as it were gone away from man; for the communication of heaven is with the internal man when this can be abstracted from the body, but not with the external man immediately. Consequently the nature of the conjunction of the Lord with man through the Word is not now known.

[3] Those who think from the sensuous of the body, and not from the sensuous of the spirit, must needs conceive that the sense of the Word in heaven is such as it is in the world, that is, such as it is in the letter. If it be said that the sense of the Word in heaven is such as is the thought of the internal man, which is devoid of material ideas, that is, of worldly, bodily, and earthly ideas, this would now be a paradox; and especially if it should be said that the sense of the Word in heaven differs as much from its sense in the world (that is, in the letter), as a heavenly paradise differs from an earthly one, and as heavenly food and drink differ from earthly. How great the difference is, appears from the fact that the heavenly paradise is intelligence and wisdom; that heavenly food is all the good of love and charity; and heavenly drink all the truth of faith from this good.

At the present day who would not marvel if he should hear that when mention is made in the Word of a "paradise," a "garden," a "vineyard," in heaven there are perceived no paradise, garden, or vineyard; but instead of these such things as belong to intelligence and wisdom from the Lord; and that when mention is made of meat and drink, such as "bread," "flesh," "wine," "water," instead of these there are perceived in heaven such things as belong to the good of love and truth of faith from the Lord; and this not by unfoldings nor in a comparative manner, but in actuality from correspondences; because the heavenly things that pertain to wisdom, intelligence, the good of love, and the truth of faith, correspond in actuality to these earthly things. And into this correspondence was the internal man created relatively to the external man; thus heaven which is in the internal man relatively to the world which is in the external man. And such is the case in general.

That in heaven the Word is understood and perceived according to correspondences, and that this sense is the internal sense, has been shown throughout in the preceding pages. [4] He who apprehends what has just been said, can know, and in some measure perceive, that through the Word there is a conjunction of man with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; and that without the Word there would be no conjunction. (See what has been shown on this subject in n. 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094, 9212, 9216, 9357, and in many other places.) From this it is now evident why Moses took the book of the covenant and read it before the people; and why he then sprinkled the blood on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant." This was done for the reason that in heaven the blood of the sacrifice denotes the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, thus on our earth the Word (n. 9393).

As by a "covenant" is signified conjunction, and as conjunction is effected through the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord, that is, the Word, therefore all things that belong to the Divine truth from the Lord, or to the Word, are called a "covenant," such as the tables on which the ten commandments were writ ten, and also the judgments, statutes, and all other things contained in the books of Moses, and in general all things contained in the Word of both Old and New Testaments.

AC 9814. [2] But who could possibly believe that within the church, where there is the Word, and the consequent enlightenment about Divine and heavenly things, ignorance so great should reign that it is not known that angels and spirits are in the human form, and appear to themselves as men; and also that they see and hear each other, and converse together; and that it is known still less that they appear clothed in garments. That this is the case falls not only into doubt, but also into total denial, with those who are so much immersed in outward things as to believe that the body alone lives, and that all is nothing which they do not see with the bodily eyes, and touch with the bodily hands (n. 1881); when yet the heavens are full of men, who are angels, and who are clothed in garments of varied resplendence. But nothing of these things can be seen by a man on earth through the eyes of his body; but through the eyes of his spirit, when these are opened by the Lord.

The angels who were seen by the ancients, as by Abraham, Sarah, Lot, Jacob, Joshua, Gideon, and also the prophets, were not seen with the eyes of the body, but with the eyes of the spirit, which were then opened. That these angels appeared clothed in garments, is evident from the angels who sat at the Lord's sepulchre, and were seen in shining white garments by Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James (Matt. xxviii. 3; Mark xvi. 5; Luke xxiv. 4); and especially is the same thing evident from the Lord Himself when seen in His glory by Peter, James, and John, in that His raiment was then white and glistering, and was like the light (Matt. xvii. 2; Luke ix. 29); by which raiment there was also represented the Divine spiritual, that is, the Divine truth which is from Him. [3] From this it can be seen what is signified by "white garments" in the Apocalypse:-

Thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white garments (Rev.iii. 4, 5);

here "garments" denote spiritual truths, which are truths from good (as was shown above); and "white" denotes genuine truth (n. 3301, 4007, 5319).

AC 9905. From all this it can now be seen that through the Urim and Thummim, that is to say, through the shining forth of the light of heaven, the breastplate revealed Divine truths in the natural sphere, thus in ultimates. There is also a similar shinIng forth inwardly with those who are in truths from good, which dictates, and as it were gives answers, when truth is sought from the affection of the heart, and when it is loved as good. That there is such a shining forth, whereby Divine truth is revealed from heaven in the natural man, with those who are enlightened from the Word, is not perceived in the world, for the reason that it is not known that any light from heaven enlightens man's understanding.

But that such is the case has been given me to perceive, and also to see. Be it known further that this shining forth appears in ultimates, because all things that belong to light from the Divine descend even to the ultimate bounds; and because they descend to these, they also shine forth there, and from thence. This then is the reason why the breastplate was put upon the ephod, and above its girdle; for the ephod represented Divine truth In ultimates (n. 9824); and its girdle represented a general bond, that all things might be held in connection (n. 9828, 9837). Therefore it is said, "and they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod, that it may be upon the girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate withdraw not from upon the ephod" (verse 28 of this chapter). The reason why the names of the sons of Israelitish were also engraved on it, was that the twelve tribes likewise represented all things of Divine good and truth in the heavens, consequently heaven together with all the societies there; and that they represented various things according to the order In which they are mentioned In the Word (see n. 3858, 3862, 3926, 3939, 4060, 4603, 6335, 6337, 6397, 6640, 7836, 7891, 7973, 7996, 7997).

AC 10125. [3] Moreover it is said in the Athanasian Creed, which contains the faith received throughout the Christian world, "As the body and the soul is one man, so the Divine and the Human in the Lord is one Christ." He therefore who is acquainted with the union of the soul in the body, and the image of the former in the latter, may in some measure know the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord, and the image of the one in the other; and from this he might know that the Divine which is called the Father, and the Human which is called the Son, were one, and the one in the other, that is, the Father in Him and He in the Father; according to the Lord's words in John x. 30; xiv. 10, 11.

But as at this day it is not known what the soul is, and scarcely that it is from the father, and that the body is its image, and that the two are one as are the prior and the posterior, or as being and that which comes forth from it, therefore man has separated the Divine from the Human in the Lord, and has distinguished them into two natures, and from this has conceived no other idea of the Human of the Lord than as of the human of a man; when yet the soul of a man is finite from his father, and has evil in it by inheritance; whereas the soul of the Lord, being from Jehovah, was infinite, and was nothing else than the Divine good of the Divine love, and consequently after glorification His Human was not like the human of a man.

[4] For this reason the Lord took up into heaven all His Human glorified, that is, made Divine from Himself, and left nothing of it in the sepulchre, otherwise than is the case with man. That the Lord glorified His very body even to its ultimates which are the bones and the flesh, the Lord also manifested to His disciples, saying, "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Feel me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have" (Luke xxiv. 39); and yet He entered through doors that were shut, and after He had manifested Himself became invisible (John xx. 19; Luke xxiv. 31). These things have been said in order that it may be known that the Lord alone as to His Human was the Anointed of Jehovah; not indeed anointed with oil, but with the Divine good itself of the Divine love, which is signified by "oil," and which was represented by anointing (n. 9954).

AC 10252. [6] The reason why the wise men from the east offered these things to the Lord then born, was that they might signify His Divine in the Human; for they knew what gold signified, what frankincense, and what myrrh, because they were in the science of correspondences and representations. In those times this was the chief science among the Arabians, Ethiopians, and others in the east; and therefore also in the Word by "Arabia," "Ethiopia," and "the sons of the east," in the internal sense, are meant those who are in the knowledges of heavenly things (n. 1171, 3240, 3242, 3762).

But in course of time this science perished, because when the good of life ceased it was turned into magic. It was first obliterated with the Israelitish nation, and afterward with the rest; and at this day so completely that it is not even known to exist. So much is this the case in the Christian world, that if it were said that all things of the Word in the sense of the letter signify heavenly things by correspondence, and that from this is its internal sense, no one would know what was meant.

[7] As "myrrh" signified truth the most external, which is sensuous truth, and its perception, therefore the bodies of the dead were formerly anointed with myrrh and aloes, by which anointing was signified the preservation of all truths and goods with the man, and also their resurrection. For this reason such a substance was employed as signified the ultimate of life with man, which ultimate is called the sensuous life. (That the body of the Lord was anointed with such things, and was encompassed with them, together with a linen cloth, and that this was the custom of the Jews, may be seen in John xix. 39, 40; Luke xxiii. 53, 56.) But be it known that what is said of the Lord Himself in the Word is to be understood in a supereminent sense, and therefore these things here signify His Divine life in the sensuous, which is the life proper to the body, and also the resurrection of this. It is known that the Lord rose again with the whole body which He had in the world, differently from other men, for He left nothing in the sepulchre; and therefore He also said to the disciples, who when they saw the Lord supposed that they saw a spirit, "Why are ye troubled? behold My hands and My feet, touch Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have" (Luke xxiv. 38, 39).

AC 10258. And cassia. That this signifies a more interior truth from good, is evident from the signification of "cassia," as being the interior truth of the internal man. That "cassia" has this signification is plain from what has been said and shown above; for heavenly things follow in this order, from the outermost to the inmost, and therefore it is inmost truth which is signified by "cassia," for it is the fourth in order.

That "cassia" denotes truth from good is because inmost truth proceeds immediately from good, and in lower things acts in conjunction with good. This takes place when the understanding acts wholly as a one with the will, so that it is not known whether the act is from the one or from the other. Moreover the more interior heavenly things are, the more perfect they are, for all perfection increases toward the interiors, and all perfection is from good, that is, through good from the Lord.

CL 32. II. THAT THE MALE IS THEN A MALE, AND THE FEMALE A FEMALE. Since man lives as a man after death, and man is male and female, and the masculine is one thing and the feminine another, being so different that the one cannot be changed into the other, it follows that after death the male lives as a male, and the female as a female, each being a spiritual man. It is said that the masculine cannot be changed into the feminine, nor the feminine into the masculine, and that therefore after death the male is a male and the female a female; but because it is not known in what the masculine essentially consists, and in what the feminine, it shall here be told in a few words.

The distinction essentially consists in the fact that in the male,the inmost is love and its clothing wisdom, or, what is the same thing, he is love veiled over with wisdom; and that in the female, the inmost is that wisdom of the male, and its clothing, the love therefrom. This love, however, is feminine love, and is given by the Lord to the wife through the wisdom of her husband, while the former love is masculine love, being the love of growing wise, and this is given by the Lord to the husband according to his reception of wisdom. It is from this that the male is the wisdom of love, and the female the love of that wisdom. Therefore, from creation there is implanted in each the love of conjunction into a one. But of this, more will be said in the following pages. That the feminine is from the masculine, or that woman was taken out of man, is evident from these words in Genesis:

Jehovah God... took one of the ribs of the man and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and he builded the rib which he had taken out of the man into a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; hence she shall be called woman (Ishah) because she was taken out of man (Ish). Gen. ii. 21-23.

As to what is signified by rib, and what by flesh, this will be told elsewhere.

CL 58. I. THAT THERE IS A LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL, WHICH IS SO RARE AT THIS DAY THAT IT IS NOT KNOWN WHAT IT IS AND SCARCELY THAT IT IS.

That there is a conjugial love such as is described in the following pages, can indeed be acknowledged from the first state of that love when it is insinuating itself and entering into the heart of a young man and woman; thus as it is with those who begin to love one only of the sex and to desire her as their bride; and still more during the time of betrothal and during the continuance of this time as it progresses towards the nuptials, and then in the nuptial ceremony and during the first days that follow.

Who does not then give acknowledgment and consent to the following: That this love is the fundamental of all loves, and that into it are gathered all joys and all delights from their first to their last. And who does not know, that after this happy time these states of gladness successively decline and pass away till at last the married pair become scarcely sensible of them? If it be said to them then, as before, that this love is the fundamental of all loves and that into it is gathered every joy and gladness, they neither assent to it nor acknowledge it, and perhaps they will say that these are idle words or that they are transcendental mysteries. It is evident from this, that the primitive love of marriage emulates love truly conjugial and presents it to view in an image; and this because love of the sex, which is unchaste, is then cast out and, implanted in its place, resides love of one of the sex, which is love truly conjugial and is chaste. Who does not then look upon other women with a loveless nod and upon his own with a loving?

DLW 248. UNLESS THE HIGHER DEGREE WHICH IS THE SPIRITUAL IS OPENED IN MAN, HE BECOMES NATURAL AND SENSUAL.

248. It was shown above that there are three degrees of the human mind, called natural, spiritual, and celestial, and that these degrees may be opened successively in man; also, that the natural degree is first opened; afterwards, if man flees from evil as sins and looks to the Lord, the spiritual degree is opened; and lastly, the celestial. Since these degrees are opened successively according to man's life, it follows that the two higher degrees may remain unopened, and man then continues in the natural degree, which is the outmost. Moreover, it is known in the world that there is a natural and a spiritual man, or an external and an internal man; but it is not known that a natural man becomes spiritual by the opening of some higher degree in him, and that such opening is effected by a spiritual life, which is a life conformed to the Divine precepts; and that without a life conformed to these man remains natural.

DLW 319. ALL THINGS OF THE CREATED UNIVERSE, VIEWED IN REFERENCE TO USES REPRESENT MAN IN AN IMAGE, AND THIS TESTIFIES THAT GOD IS A MAN

319. By the ancients man was called a microcosm, from his representing the macrocosm, that is, the universe in its whole complex; but it is not known at the present day why man was so called by the ancients, for no more of the universe or macrocosm is manifest in him than that he derives nourishment and bodily life from its animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that he is kept in a living condition by its heat, sees by its light, and hears and breathes by its atmospheres. Yet these things do not make man a microcosm, as the universe with all things thereof is a macrocosm. The ancients called man a microcosm, or little universe, from truth which they derived from the knowledge of correspondences, in which the most ancient people were, and from their communication with angels of heaven; for angels of heaven know from the things which they see about them that all things of the universe, viewed as to uses, represent man as an image.

DLW 361. That every man has these two, will and understanding, and that they are distinct from each other, as love and wisdom are distinct, is known and is not known in the world. It is known from common perception, but it is not known from thought and still less from thought when written out; for who does not know from common perception that the will and the understanding are two distinct things in man? For every one perceives this when he hears it stated, and may himself say to another, This man means well, but does not understand clearly; while that one's understanding is good, but his will is not; I like the man whose understanding and will are both good; but I do not like him whose understanding is good and his will bad. Yet when he thinks about the will and the understanding he does not make them two and distinguish them, but confounds them, since his thought then acts in common with the bodily sight.

When writing he apprehends still less that will and understanding are two distinct things, because his thought then acts in common with the sensual, that is, with what is the man's own. From this it is that some can think and speak well, but cannot write well. This is common with women. It is the same with many other things. Is it not known by everyone from common perception that a man whose life is good is saved, but that a man whose life is bad is condemned? Also that one whose life is good will enter the society of angels, and will there see, hear, and speak like a man? Also that one who from justice does what is just and from what is right does right, has a conscience? But if one lapses from common perception, and submits these things to thought, he does not know what conscience is; or that the soul can see, hear, and speak like a man; or that the good of life is anything except giving to the poor. And if from thought you write about these things, you confirm them by appearances and fallacies, and by words of sound but of no substance.

For this reason many of the learned who have thought much, and especially who have written much, have weakened and obscured, yea, have destroyed their common perception; while the simple see more clearly what is good and true than those who think themselves their superiors in wisdom. This common perception comes by influx from heaven, and descends into thought even to sight; but thought separated from common perception falls into imagination from the sight and from what is man's own. You may observe that this is so. Tell some truth to any one that is in common perception, and he will see it; tell him that from God and in God we are and live and are moved, and he will see it; tell him that God dwells with man in love and in wisdom, and he will see it; tell him further that the will is the receptacle of love, and the understanding of wisdom, and explain it a little, and he will see it; tell him that God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, and he will see it; ask him what conscience is, and he will tell you.

But say the same things to one of the learned, who has not thought from common perception, but from principles or from ideas obtained from the world through sight, and he will not see. Then consider which is the wiser.

DP 4. II. THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM PROCEED FROM THE LORD AS ONE.

This proposition also is evident from what was shown in the treatise THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, especially from these matters treated there: Being (Esse) and Existing (Existere) in the Lord are distinctly one (n. 14-77). In the Lord infinite things are distinctly one (n. 17-22). The Divine Love is of the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Wisdom is of the Divine Love (n. 34-39). Love apart from union with wisdom cannot do anything (n. 401-403). Love does nothing unless in conjunction with wisdom (n. 409, 410). Spiritual heat and spiritual light, in proceeding from the Lord as a Sun, form one, as the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom in the Lord are one (n. 99-102). The truth of this proposition is evident from what has been shown in these passages; but as it is not known how two things distinct from one another can act as one, I will here show

1. that one without form does not exist, but that form itself makes one; and then

2. that form makes one more perfectly in proportion as those things which enter into it are distinct from one another and yet are united.

[2] i. A one without form does not exist, but form itself makes one. Everyone who thinks intently may see clearly that one without form does not exist, and if one does exist that it is a form; for whatever exists derives from its form what is called quality, also what may be predicated, and change of state, relation in sequence, and the like. Therefore whatever is not in a form is not capable of any affinity (affectio), and what is not capable of affinity is capable of nothing, the form itself giving all these. As all things which are in form, if the form is perfect, mutually regard each other as one link in a chain regards another, therefore it follows that form itself makes one, and consequently a subject of which may be predicated quality, state and affection (affectio), thus something, according to the perfection of its form. [3]

Such a one is everything which is visible to the eye in the world; and such a one is everything which is not visible to the eye, whether it is in the interior parts of nature or in the spiritual world. Such a one is man, and such a one is a society of men. Such a one is the Church, and also the universal angelic heaven before the Lord; in a word, such a one is the created universe, not only in general but also in every particular. In order that all things in general and in particular should be subject to form, it is essential that He who created all things should be Form itself, and also that from Form itself all created things should be in forms. This also was shown in the treatise THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM in the following propositions: The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom are substance and form (n. 40-43). The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom are [Substance and] Form in themselves, and consequently the Self and the one only subsisting Essence (n. 44-46). The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom in the Lord are one (n. 14-17, 18-22); and they proceed as one from the Lord (n. 99-102, and elsewhere).

2. Form makes one more perfectly in proportion as those things which [4] enter into it are distinct from one another and yet are united. This is difficult of comprehension unless the understanding is elevated, since there is an appearance that form can only make one through like things being equal in those factors which constitute form. On this subject I have very frequently conversed with angels. They said that this is an arcanum {1} which the wise among them perceive clearly, but the less wise dimly. Nevertheless it is a truth, they declared, that the form is more perfect in proportion as those things which constitute it are distinct from one another but yet are united in a particular manner. They confirmed this by reference to societies in the heavens which, taken together, constitute a form of heaven; and also by reference to the angels of each society, for, they affirmed, the more every individual has a distinct character of his own, and so in freedom loves his associates as from himself and from his own affection, the more perfect is the form of the society.

They also illustrated this proposition by the union of good and truth, because the more distinctly they are two, the more perfectly can they constitute one. It is similar with love and wisdom; and they explained that what is indistinct is confused, whence results all imperfection of form. Moreover, they confirmed by many [5] examples how things perfectly distinct are united, and so constitute one. They especially took as illustrations innumerable things in man which are distinct yet united, such as things distinct by their outer coverings and united by their ligaments. They said it is the same with love and all things pertaining to it, and with wisdom and all things pertaining to it, for love and wisdom are not perceived, except as one. More may be seen on these matters in the treatise THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM (n. 14-22); and in the work HEAVEN AND HELL (n. 56 and 489). This is adduced because it pertains to angelic wisdom.

DP 11. It is known, indeed, that all things in the universe have relation to good and truth; for by good is understood that which universally comprehends and involves all things of love, and by truth that which universally comprehends and involves all things of wisdom; but it is not yet known that good has no reality unless united to truth, and truth has no reality unless united to good. It appears, indeed, as if good has reality without truth, and as if truth has reality without good; but still they have not. For love, all things pertaining to which are called goods, is the being (esse) of a thing, and wisdom, all things pertaining to which are called truths, is the existing (existere) of a thing from that being, as is shown in the treatise THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM (n. 14-16). Since being has no reality without existing, and existing has no reality without being, so good has no reality without truth and truth has no reality without good. So, too, what is good that is not related to anything? Can it be called good, since it is subject neither to affection nor to perception?

[2] The principle in intimate connection with good which affects, and which causes itself to be perceived and felt, has relation to truth, for it has relation to what is in the understanding. If you say to anyone simply "good", and not that this or that thing is good, has good any reality? It has reality when it is used of something which is perceived to be good. This union with good takes place nowhere but in the understanding, and every thing of the understanding relates to truth. It is the same with willing. To will, without knowing, perceiving, and thinking what one wills, has no reality; but together with these it takes on reality. All willing is of love, and has relation to good; and all knowing, perceiving, and thinking are of the understanding, and have relation to truth. From this it is clear that to will has no reality, but to will this or that has reality.

It is the same with every use, because a use is a good. Unless [3] a use is determined to something with which it may be one, it is not a use, and thus it has no reality. Use derives from the understanding that something as its own; and that which is united or adjoined to the use from the understanding has relation to truth; and from this the use derives its quality. From these few illustrations it may be evident that good [4] without truth has no reality; and likewise truth without good. When it is said that good with truth and truth with good have reality, it follows from this that evil with falsity and falsity with evil have no reality; for the latter are opposite to the former. Now opposition destroys, and in this case it destroys that which has reality; but this will be treated in what follows.

DP 27. Since, however, it is not known what heaven is in general, that [3] is, in a community of persons, and what it is in particular, that is, in the individual; and what heaven is in the spiritual world and what it is in the natural world; and yet it is important to know this, because heaven is the end of the Divine Providence, I will present this subject with some clearness in the following order:

I. Heaven is conjunction with the Lord.

II. Man by creation is such that he can be more and more nearly conjoined to the Lord.

III. The more nearly a man is conjoined to the Lord the wiser he becomes.

IV. The more nearly a man is conjoined to the Lord the happier he becomes.

V. The more nearly a man is conjoined to the Lord the more distinctly does he appear to himself to be master of himself (suus), and yet the more evidently does he recognise that he is the Lord's.

DP 70. THERE ARE LAWS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE, AND THESE ARE UNKNOWN TO MEN

70. It is well known that there is a Divine Providence, but it is not known what its nature is. This is not known because the laws of the Divine Providence are interior truths, hitherto concealed within the wisdom of the angels; but they are now to be revealed in order that what belongs to the Lord may be ascribed to Him, and what does not belong to man may not be ascribed to any man. For very many in the world attribute all things to themselves and their own prudence; and what they cannot so ascribe they call accidental or happening by chance, not knowing that human prudence is nothing and that accidental and happening by chance are empty words.

It is said that the laws of the Divine Providence are interior [2] truths, hitherto concealed within the wisdom of the angels. This is because in the Christian world, as far as religion is concerned (ex religione), the understanding has been closed in respect to Divine things, and consequently has become in such things so dull and resisting that man has not been able because he has not been willing, or has not been willing because he has not been able, to understand anything about the Divine Providence except the fact that it exists, and to reason whether it exists or not, and also whether it is only universal or also particular. When, so far as religion is concerned, the understanding has been closed in respect to Divine things, it could advance no further.

Since it has been acknowledged in the Church that man is [3] unable from himself to do good that is in itself good, and is unable from himself to think truth that is in itself truth, and since these are one with the Divine Providence so that belief in one depends on belief in the other, therefore, lest one be affirmed and the other be denied and thus both perish, it must be explicitly revealed what the Divine Providence is. This, however, cannot be revealed unless the laws are disclosed by which the Lord provides and rules the things of man's will and understanding; for these laws enable man to know the nature of the Divine Providence; and only he who knows its nature can acknowledge it, for in this case he sees it. For this reason the laws of the Divine Providence, hitherto concealed within the wisdom of the angels, are now revealed.

DP 180. II. IF A MAN SAW CLEARLY THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE HE WOULD INTERPOSE IN THE ORDER AND TENOR OF ITS COURSE, AND WOULD PERVERT AND DESTROY THAT ORDER.

In order that this may come within the clear perception of the rational man and also of the natural man it may be illustrated by examples and in this order:

1. There is such a connection between external and internal things that they make one in every operation.

2. Man is associated with the Lord only in certain externals; and if he were at the same time in internals he would pervert and destroy the whole order and tenor of the course of the Divine Providence; but as has just been said, it will be illustrated by examples.

First: There is such a connection between external and internal things [2] that they make one in every operation. This will be illustrated here by examples taken from several parts of the human body. In the whole body and in every part there are both externals and internals; its externals are called skins, membranes, and sheaths (or coverings); while the internals are forms variously composed and interwoven of nerve fibres and blood vessels. The surrounding sheath by offshoots from itself enters into all the interiors even to the inmost parts; and thus the external, which is a sheath, unites itself with all the internals, which are organic forms composed from fibres and vessels. From this it follows that as the external acts or is acted upon so the internals act or are acted upon; for there is a continuous binding together of them all.

Take some common sheath in the body, the pleura for example [3] which is the common sheath of the chest, or of the heart and lungs, and examine it with an anatomical eye; or if you have not made a study of anatomy, consult anatomists. You will learn that this common sheath, by various circumvolutions, and then by continuations from itself becoming finer and finer, enters into the innermost parts of the lungs, even into the tiniest bronchial branches and into the very minute sacs which are the beginnings of the lungs; not to mention its subsequent progress through the trachea to the larynx towards the tongue. From these things it is clear that there is a continuous connection between the outer-most things and the inmost.

Therefore, just as the outermost acts or is acted upon so also the interiors from the inmost things act or are acted upon. This is the reason that, when this outermost sheath, the pleura, becomes congested or inflamed or ulcerated, the lungs labour from their inmost parts; and if the disease grows worse, all action of the lungs ceases and the man dies. It is the same everywhere else in the whole body; as with the [4] peritoneum, the common sheath covering all the abdominal viscera, and also with the sheaths surrounding the several organs as the stomach, the liver, the pancreas, the spleen, the intestines, the mesentery, the kidneys, and the organs of generation in both sexes. Take any one of these viscera, and either examine it yourself and you will see, or consult those skilled in this science and you will learn. Take for instance the liver, and you will find that there is a connection between the peritoneum and the sheath of that organ and through the sheath with its inmost parts; for there are continual extensions from the sheath, and insertions towards the interior parts, and in this way continuations to the inmost parts.

Hence there is a binding together of the whole so that when the sheath acts or is acted upon the whole form acts or is acted upon in like manner. It is the same with the rest of the organs, because in every form the general and the particular, or the universal and the singular, by wonderful conjunction act as one.

[5] It will be seen below that in spiritual forms and in the changes and variations of their state, which have relation to the operations of the will and the understanding, the same course is followed as in natural forms and in their operations, which have relation to motion and action. Now since man is associated with the Lord in certain external operations, and since no one is deprived of the liberty of acting according to reason, it follows that the Lord can only act in internals as He acts together with man in externals. Therefore, if man does not shun and turn away from evils as sins, the external of his thought and will and at the same time the internal become vitiated and are destroyed, comparatively as the pleura is affected by its disease called pleurisy, which causes the death of the body.

[6] Second: If man were at the same time in internals he would pervert and destroy the whole order and tenor of the Divine Providence. This also may be illustrated by examples from the human body. If man knew all the workings of both brains into the fibres, of the fibres into the muscles, and of the muscles into actions, and from his knowledge of these things were to dispose all things as he disposes [7] his actions, would he not pervert and destroy them all? If man knew how the stomach digests, how the surrounding viscera absorb their own portion, work upon the blood, and distribute it for all the needs of life, and if he had the disposing of these as he has of external things, such as eating and drinking, would he not pervert and destroy them all?

When he is unable to dispose the external, which appears to be a single thing, without destroying it by luxury and intemperance, what would he do if he had the disposition of the internals, which are infinite in number? Therefore man's internals, lest he should enter into them by the exercise of his will and gain control of them, are entirely removed from the scope of the will, with the exception of the muscles which constitute the covering; and, moreover, it is not known how these act; it is only known that they do act.

It is the same with the other organs; as, for example, if man [8] had the disposing of the interiors of the eye for seeing, the interiors of the ear for hearing, the interiors of the tongue for tasting, the interiors of the skin for feeling, the interiors of the heart for systolic action, the interiors of the lungs for breathing, the interiors of the mesentery for distributing the chyle, the interiors of the kidneys for secretion, the interiors of the organs of generation for propagating, the interiors of the womb for perfecting the embryo, and so on, would he not in innumerable ways pervert and destroy in them the order of the course of the Divine Providence?

It is known that man is in externals, as, for example, that he sees with the eye, hears with the ear, tastes with the tongue, feels with the skin, breathes with the lungs, contributes to propagation, and so on. Is it not enough for him to know about the externals and to dispose them for the health of body and mind? When he is unable to do this, what would happen if he also had the disposing of the internals? Hence it may now be evident that if man saw clearly the Divine Providence he would interpose in the order and tenor of its course, and pervert and destroy that order.

DP 205. VI. THOSE WHO HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED NATURE ALONE AND HUMAN PRUDENCE ALONE CONSTITUTE HELL; WHILE THOSE WHO HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED GOD AND HIS DIVINE PROVIDENCE CONSTITUTE HEAVEN.

All who lead an evil life interiorly acknowledge nature and human prudence alone; for this acknowledgment lies inwardly hidden in all evil however covered over it may be with good and truth. These are only borrowed garments, or like wreaths of flowerets that perish, thrown around the evil lest it should appear in its nakedness. It is not known that all who lead an evil life interiorly acknowledge nature and human prudence alone, because of this general covering by which it is hidden from view.

However, that they do acknowledge them may be clear from the source and cause of their acknowledgment. In order that this may be made evident it shall be stated whence man's own prudence is and what it is; then whence the Divine Providence is and what it is; next who they are and what their nature is who acknowledge the Divine Providence, and who acknowledge man's own prudence; and lastly, that those who acknowledge the Divine Providence are in heaven, and those who acknowledge man'S own prudence are in hell.

DP 226. II. IF A MAN AFTERWARDS DEPARTS FROM THESE AND TURNS ASIDE INTO WHAT IS CONTRARY, HE PROFANES HOLY THINGS.

There are many kinds of profanation of what is holy, and these will be treated in the following section; but this kind is the most grievous of all; for profaners of this kind after death come to be no longer men. They indeed live, but are continually subject to fantastic hallucinations, appearing to themselves to be flying on high; and while they remain there they sport with fantasies which they see as real things; and as they are no longer men they are not called "he and she" but "it". Indeed, when they are presented to view in the light of heaven they appear like skeletons, some like skeletons of the colour of bone, some as fiery skeletons and some as scorched. It is not known in the world that profaners of this kind become like this after death; and it is not known for the reason that the cause is not known.

The real cause is that when a man at first acknowledges Divine things and believes in them and afterwards departs from them and denies them, he mingles what is holy with what is profane; and when these have been mingled together they cannot be separated without destroying the whole. However, in order that these things may be more clearly perceived they shall be explained in the following order:

1. Whatever a man thinks, speaks and does from his will, whether good or evil, is appropriated to him, and remains.

2. But the Lord by His Divine Providence continually foresees and disposes, that evil may be by itself and good by itself and thus that they may be separated.

3. This cannot be done if man first acknowledges the truths of faith and lives according to them, and afterwards departs from them and denies them.

4. He then mingles good and evil to such a degree that they cannot be separated.

5. And since the good and the evil in every man must be separated, and in such a person they cannot be separated, therefore he is destroyed as to everything that is truly human.

DP 265. 3. A doubt may be raised against the Divine Providence from the fact that hitherto it has not been known that to shun evils as sins is the Christian religion itself. That this is the Christian religion itself is shown in THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE FOR THE NEW JERUSALEM, from beginning to end; and because faith separated from charity is the only obstacle to its being received, that also is treated of. It is stated that it has not been known that to shun evils as sins is the Christian religion itself; for it is unknown to almost everyone, and yet everyone does know it, as may be seen above (n. 258).

Nevertheless, it is unknown to almost everyone, because faith so separated has obliterated it; for this faith affirms that faith alone saves and not any good work, that is, good of charity; also that they are no longer under the yoke of the law but are free. Those who have frequently heard such teaching no longer give any thought to any evil of life or to any good of life. Moreover, everyone by nature is inclined to embrace this idea; and once he has embraced it he gives no further thought to the state of his life. This is why it is not known [that to shun evils as sins is the Christian religion itself].

[2] That this is unknown was disclosed to me in the spiritual world. I have asked more than a thousand newcomers from this world whether they knew that to shun evils as sins is religion itself. Their answer was that they did not know it; and that this was a new idea they had not heard before, but that they had heard that they cannot do good of themselves, and that they are not under the yoke of the law. When I asked whether they knew that a man must examine himself see his sins, repent, and then enter upon a new life, and that otherwise sins are not remitted, and that if sins are not remitted men are not saved; and when I reminded them that this was read aloud to them each time they approached the Holy Supper, they replied that they paid no attention to these things, but only to this, that they have remission of sins by means of the Sacrament of the Supper, and that faith, without their knowledge, does the rest.

[3] Again I asked, Why did you teach your children the Decalogue? Was it not that they might know what evils are sins to be shunned? Or was it only that they might know these things and believe, and not act accordingly? Why then is it asserted that this is new? To this they could only reply that they know and yet do not know, declaring that they never think about the sixth {1} commandment when committing adultery, or about the seventh commandment when committing theft or fraud by stealth, and so on; still less do they think that such things are contrary to Divine law, and thus offences against God.

[4] When I mentioned many things from the doctrines of the Churches and from the Word confirming the teaching that to shun and to turn away from evils as sins is the Christian religion itself and that everyone has faith only in proportion as he does so, they were silent. They were convinced, however, that this is true when they saw that all were examined as to their life, and were judged according to their deeds, and that no one was judged according to faith separated from life, because the faith of everyone is commensurate with his life.

[5] The circumstance that the Christian world for the most part did not know this is from the law of the Divine Providence that everyone is left to act from freedom according to reason, treated of above in (n. 71-99); and (n. 100-128); also from the law that no one is taught immediately from heaven, but mediately through the Word, and doctrine and preaching from the Word, treated of in n. 154-174; and also from all the laws of permission, which are also laws of the Divine Providence. Concerning these more may be seen above (n. 258).

DP 296. In order, therefore, that the Divine Providence with the wicked may be clearly seen and thus understood, the propositions stated above now fall to be explained in the order in which they were presented.

First: There are innumerable things in every evil. In man's sight every evil appears as one single thing. This is the case with hatred and revenge, theft and fraud, adultery and whoredom, arrogance and high-mindedness, and with every other evil; and it is not known that in every evil there are innumerable things, exceeding in number the fibres and vessels in a man's body. For a wicked man is a hell in its least form; and hell consists of myriads of myriads of spirits, and every one there is in form like a man, although a monstrous one, in which all the fibres and vessels are inverted.

The spirit himself is an evil which appears to himself as a "one"; but there are innumerable things in it as many as the lusts of that evil, for every man is his own evil, or his own good, from the head to the sole of his foot. Since then a wicked man is such, it is evident that he is one evil composed of innumerable different evils each of which is a distinct evil, and they are called lusts of evil. Hence it follows that all these in their order must be restored and changed by the Lord in order that the man may be reformed; and this cannot be effected unless by the Divine Providence of the Lord, step by step from the earliest period of man's life to the last.

[2] In hell every lust of evil when visually represented appears like a noxious creature, as a dragon, or a cockatrice, or a viper, or a bird of night, or an owl, and so on; and similarly do the lusts of evil appear in a wicked man when he is viewed by angels. All these forms of lusts must be changed one by one; and the man himself, who with respect to his spirit appears as a human monster or devil, must be changed to become like a beautiful angel; and every lust of evil must be changed to appear like a lamb, or a sheep, or a pigeon, or a turtle dove, as the affections of good in the angels appear in heaven when visually represented; and to change a dragon into a lamb, a cockatrice into a sheep, and an owl into a dove can only be effected step by step, by rooting out evil from its very seed and implanting good seed in its stead.

This, however, can only be done as is done, for example, in the grafting of trees. When their roots with some of the trunk remain, the engrafted branch draws sap through the old root and turns it into sap that makes good fruit. The branch that is to be engrafted can only be taken from the Lord, who is the Tree of Life. This, moreover, is in accordance with the words of the Lord (John xv. 1-7).

Second: A wicked man from himself continually leads himself more [3] and more deeply into his evils. It is said, from himself, because all evil is from man, for man turns good that originates from the Lord into evil, as was said above. The real reason why the wicked man immerses himself more deeply in evil is that as he wills and commits evil he advances into infernal societies more and more interiorly and also more and more deeply. Hence also the delight of evil increases, and so occupies his thoughts that at last he feels nothing more pleasant.

He who has advanced more interiorly and deeply into infernal societies becomes as if he were bound with chains. So long as he lives in the world, however, he does not feel his chains, for they are as if made from soft wool or from fine threads of silk, and he loves them as they give him pleasure; but after death, instead of being soft they become hard, and instead of being pleasant they become galling. That the delight [4] of evil mounts up from strength to strength is well known from thefts, robberies, plunderings, acts of revenge, tyranny, unlawful acquisition of wealth and other evils. Who does not feel the exaltation of delight as he succeeds in them and as he practises them without restraint?

It is well known that a thief feels such delight in thefts that he cannot desist from them, and what is wonderful, that he finds more pleasure in one stolen coin than in ten that are given him as a gift. It would be the same with adultery if it had not been provided that the power of committing this evil decreases with its indulgence; but yet with many there remains the delight of thinking and talking about it; and if nothing more, there is still the lust of touch.

It is not known, however, that this increase of delight comes [5] from a man's penetrating into infernal societies more and more interiorly and more and more deeply as he commits the evils from will and at the same time from thought. If the evils are only in thought and not in the will, the man is not yet in an infernal society with the evil, but he enters it when the evils are also in the will. If he then also thinks that the evil is contrary to the precepts of the Decalogue, and considers these precepts as Divine, he commits the evil of set purpose, and thereby plunges to a depth from which he can be led out only by actual [6] repentance.

It should be known that every man as to his spirit is in the spiritual world in some society there, a wicked man in an infernal society and a good man in a heavenly society; and sometimes he also appears there when in deep meditation. Moreover, as the sound of the voice with the spoken words diffuses itself in the air in the natural world, so affection with its thought diffuses itself among societies in the spiritual world; and there is a correspondence between them, for affection corresponds to sound and thought to speech.

[7] Third: The Divine Providence with the wicked is a continual permission of evil, to the end that there may be a continual withdrawal from it. The Divine Providence with wicked men is a continual permission because nothing but evil can proceed from their life; for man, whether he is in good or in evil, cannot be in both at the same time, nor in each alternately unless he is lukewarm; and evil of life is not introduced into the will and through it into the thought by the Lord but by man; and this is called permission. [8] Now since everything that a wicked man wills and thinks is of permission the question arises, What then is the Divine Providence here, which is said to be in the most individual things with every man, both wicked and good? It consists in this, that it continually grants permission for the sake of the end, and permits such things as pertain to the end and no others; and the evils that proceed by permission it continually keeps under view, separates and purifies, sending away and removing by unknown ways whatever is not consistent with the end.

These things are effected principally in man's interior will, and from this in his interior thought. The Divine Providence is also unceasing in providing that what must be sent away and removed is not received again by the will, since all things that are received by the will are appropriated to the man; but those which are received by the thought and not by the will are separated and removed. This is the Lord's continual Providence with the wicked and is, as has been stated, a continual permission of evil to the end that there may be an unceasing withdrawal from it.

[9] Man knows scarcely anything of these operations because he does not perceive them. The chief reason why he does not perceive them is that the evils pertain to the lusts of his life's love, and these evils are not felt as evils but as delights to which no one pays attention. Who pays any attention to the delights of his love? His thought floats on in them like a boat which is borne along on the current of a river, and there is perceived as it were a fragrant-smelling atmosphere, which is inhaled with a full breath. Only in his external thought can he feel something of them, but even there he pays no attention to them unless he knows well that they are evils. But more will be said concerning this in what follows.

Fourth: The withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand [10] ways that are most secret. Of these only some have been disclosed to me, and none but the most general, as, that the delights of lusts of which man knows nothing are admitted by companies and groups into the interior thoughts of man's spirit and from these into his exterior thoughts in which they make their appearance under a certain sense of satisfaction, pleasure, or longing; and there they mingle with his natural and sensual delights. Here are the means of separation and purification, and also the ways of withdrawal and removal.

The means are chiefly the delights of meditation, thought and reflection for the attainment of certain ends which are uses; and ends that are uses are as many in number as the particular and individual matters of one's business and office. They are also as many as the delights of reflection for the attainment of certain ends, as that he may appear to be a civil and a moral man and also a spiritual man, besides the undelightful things which interpose. These delights, because they belong to his love in the external man, are the means of separation, purification, rejection and withdrawal of the delights pertaining to the lusts of evil that belong to the internal man.

Take, for example, an unjust judge who regards gains or [11] friendship as the ends or uses of his office. Inwardly he is continually engrossed in these, but outwardly his object is to act as a skilled lawyer and a just man. He continually delights in meditating, thinking, reflecting and framing intentions that he may bend, turn, adapt and adjust the right so that it may still appear to conform to the laws and bear a semblance to justice. He does not know that his internal delight consists of cunning, fraud, deceit, clandestine theft and many other evils; and that this delight, composed of so many delights of the lusts of evil, rules in every detail of his external thought, where he harbours the delights of appearing to be a just and sincere man. Internal delights are let down into these external delights and they are mingled like food in the stomach; and there they are separated, purified and drawn away. This, however, is done only with the more grievous delights of the lusts of evil.

With a wicked man no separation, purification and removal is [12] possible other than of the more grievous from the less grievous evils. With a good man, however, there can be the separation, purification and removal not only of the more grievous but also of the less grievous evils. This is effected by the delights of the affections of the good and the true, of the just and of the sincere, into which he comes so far as he regards evils as sins, and so shuns and turns away from them, and still more if he fights against them. These are the means by which the Lord cleanses all who are saved. He cleanses them also by external means which pertain to fame and honour, and sometimes to wealth; yet into these the Lord introduces the delights of the affections of good and truth, by which they are so directed and adapted as to become delights of the love of the neighbour.

[13] If anyone were to see the delights of the lusts of evil together in some form, or were to perceive them distinctly by any sense, he would see and perceive them to be so numerous that they could not be defined; for the whole of hell is only a form of all the lusts of evil, and there no lust of evil is exactly like another or the same as another, nor can there be such likeness to eternity. Of these innumerable lusts man knows scarcely anything, much less how they are linked together. Yet the Lord by His Divine Providence continually permits them to come forth, to the end that they may be withdrawn; and this is effected in their every order and series; for a wicked man is a hell in its least form, as a good man is a heaven in its least form.

[14] That the withdrawal from evils is effected by the Lord in numerable and hidden ways cannot be better seen and thus acknowledged than from the hidden operations of the soul in the body. Those of which man has some knowledge are the following: The food which he is about to eat he looks at, learns its nature from its odour, has an appetite for it, tastes it, chews it with his teeth, rolls it with his tongue down to the gullet, and thus to the stomach. But the hidden operations of the soul, of which man knows nothing because he does not perceive them, are the following: The stomach rolls about the food it receives, opens and separates it by means of solvents, that is, digests it, and distributes appropriate portions to the little mouths opening there of the veins which drink them in. It also sends some to the blood, some to the lymphatic vessels, some to the lacteal vessels of the mesentery and some down to the intestines.

Then the chyle, conveyed through the thoracic duct from its cistern in the mesentery, is carried into the vena cava, and so into the heart. From this it is carried into the lungs, from them through the left ventricle of the heart into the aorta, and from this by its branches into the viscera of the whole body and also to the kidneys. In each of these organs is effected a separation of the blood, a purification, and a removal of heterogeneous substances, not to mention how the heart sends up its blood to the brain, after it has been purified in the lungs, which is done by the arteries called carotids, and how the brain returns the blood, now vivified, to the vena cava mentioned above, where the thoracic duct brings in the chyle, and so back again to the heart.

[15] These and innumerable others are the secret operations of the soul in the body. They are not felt by man, and he who is not versed in the science of anatomy knows nothing of them. Yet similar operations take place in the interiors of man's mind; for nothing can take place in the body except from the mind, since a man's mind is his spirit, and his spirit is equally a man, with this difference only that whatever is done in the body is done naturally, and whatever is done in the mind is done spiritually: there is a perfect similitude. Hence it is evident that the Divine Providence operates with every man in a thousand hidden ways; and that its unceasing care is to cleanse him because its end is to save him; and that nothing more is incumbent on man than to remove evils in the external man. The rest the Lord provides, if His aid is earnestly implored.

ISB 17. XV. Ends are in the first degree, causes in the second, and effects in the third.

17. Who does not see that the end is not the cause, but that it produces the cause, and that the cause is not the effect, but that it produces the effect; consequently that they are three distinct things which follow in order? The end with man is the love of his will, for what a man loves, this he proposes to himself and intends; the cause with him is the reason of his understanding, for by means of it the end seeks for mediate or efficient causes; and the effect is the operation of the body from them and according to them.

Thus there are three things in man, which follow each other in order, in like manner as the degrees of altitude follow each other. When these three things appear in act, then the end is inwardly in the cause, and the end through the cause is in the effect, wherefore the three coexist in the effect. On this account it is said in the Word, that every one shall be judged according to his works; for the end, or the love of his will, and the cause, or the reason of his understanding, are together in the effects, which are the works of his body; thus the quality of the whole man is in them.

They who do not know these things, and do not thus distinguish the objects of reason, cannot avoid terminating the ideas of their thought in the atoms of Epicurus, the nomads of Leibnitz, or in the simple substances of Wolff, and thus they close up their understandings as with a bolt, so that they cannot even think from reason concerning spiritual influx, because they cannot think concerning any progression; for the author says concerning his simple substance, that if it is divided it falls into nothing. Thus the understanding stands still in its first light, which is merely from the senses of the body, and does not advance a step further.

Hence it is not known but that the spiritual is a subtile natural, and that beasts have a rational as well as men, and that the son is a breath of wind such as is breathed forth from the breast when a person dies; besides many things which are not of light but of thick darkness. Since all things in the spiritual world and all things in the natural world proceed according to these degrees, as was shown in the preceding article, it is evident that intelligence properly consists in knowing and extinguishing them, and seeing them in their order. By means of these degrees, also, every man is known as to his quality, when his love is known; for, as was said above, the end which is of the will, and the causes which are of the understanding, and the effects which are of the body, follow from his love, as a tree from its seed, and as fruit from the tree.

There are three kinds of loves, the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self; the love of heaven is spiritual, the love of the world is material, and the love of self is corporeal. When the love is spiritual, all the things which follow from it, as forms from their essence, derive their spiritual nature; similarly if the principal love is the love of the world or of wealth, and thus is material, all the things which follow from it, as derivatives from their principle derive their material nature; likewise if the principal love is the love of self, or of eminence above all others, and thus is corporeal, all the things which follow from it derive their corporeal nature.

The reason is, because the man who is in this love regards himself alone, and thus immerses the thoughts of his mind in his body. Wherefore, as was just now said, he who knows the ruling love of any one, and at the same time the progression of ends to causes and of causes to effects, which three things follow in order according to the degrees of altitude, knows the whole man. Thus the angels of heaven know every one with whom they speak; they perceive his love from the tone of his speech; and they see his image from his face, and his character from the gestures of his body.

SD 887. The memory of spirits or of souls is, as was said, interior. It is not, however, a memory of particulars like that of man, for the memory of particulars is of use (only) to man, for it is suited to those things which his life in the body and the world requires. But the memory of spirits is interior; it is not known to souls. Therefore as often as I have spoken with souls about it, which is very often, they supposed that it was nothing, for during their life they had known nothing about it. Their phantasies and like things which they love are of that memory. Cupidities are things that flow from the imaginary harmony of phantasies. They are not unlike some who are pleased with instruments not in accord, but of a harsh sound, out of tune among themselves; others only enjoy those that are in just and true accord.

SD 2590. THAT SPIRITS KNOW FROM REFLECTION THAT THEY ARE PRESENT.

2590. It had happened many times when I was thinking concerning any one that he was displayed (as) present, and when I was not thinking (concerning him) that (he was) as it were absent; and indeed when I was thinking (concerning him), he was immediately near me, yea, at (my) head. I have seen the proximate cause (thereof), that when they were present they have not known without reflection that they were present, as is wont to happen in the life of the body, in societies, although (they) are present, yet without reflection it is not known what is present: from which it may also be manifest what reflection affects in the other life, where they are visible to themselves, in such a manner, by the sight of the body.--1748, July 13.

SD 2901. CONCERNING THOSE WHO TAKE NOTICE OF FILTH.

2901. I spoke with spirits concerning those who, wherever they are, reflect upon filth, of whom (I have spoken) before; and it was given to tell them, that they are like wasps, who when they fly, still discover, by smell alone, it is not known (that they do so) by sight, where ordure is; they are borne (carried along) according to the odor, for the odor is agreeable to them; wherefore, they are carried away by pleasantness, and there live: thus that those spirits are carried away, as it were, by smell, or something represented by smell, so as to have observed such things; which otherwise would have been wholly unobserved. -1748, August 23.

SD 5189. The science of correspondences and representatives is the ultimate plane of angelic wisdom; and since this science has, at the present day, been lost, so that it is not even known that there is such a thing, therefore, it is now revealed anew. It was granted me to see a certain one of the ancients, who was in a great angelic society, withdraw himself; and, then, an appearance of darkness immediately overshadowed the society, and its wisdom was taken away. He, also, who was of the ancients, and who withdrew, was in the knowledges of wisdom; and hence the rest had wisdom by communication.

SD 5741. IT IS NOT KNOWN WHAT REGENERATION IS.

5741. Many of the learned theologians were explored, in the other life, as to whether they knew what regeneration is, but no one of them knew. Most of them said, To be born anew through water and the Spirit, -by which they understood baptism; some called it justification; and I was exceedingly surprised that the more lied in the world did not understand this matter, which, nevertheless, is such an essential of the Church that no one can enter into heaven except he be horn anew, according to the Lord's words in John, chapter in iii.

I was exceedingly astonished that they were unaware of this; when nevertheless, the majority know from the Word how to describe regeneration, so that it appears that they know it thoroughly: as, for example, that the old man with his concupiscences must be slain, and the new must arise; and that in the new life be will walk before in white garments, and will See evils, and other like things; by which he who knows what regeneration is, if he is able to look no farther than to the words, believes that they must know what regeneration is: but they did not then say these things.

It was asked whence it happens that they do not know what regeneration is; and it was ascertained that they do not know what charity towards the neighbor is, or, consequently, what the good of life is; and, inasmuch as they believe the good of life, or charity, not to be an essential of salvation, but only faith alone, even though a man were destitute of good of life; and that through faith alone, from mere mercy, heaven is given to those for whom the Lord intercedes;-inasmuch as this is perpetually in their minds, therefore, they can yet in no wise know what regeneration is.

TCR 697. Sixth Memorable Relation:-

I once saw not far from me a meteoric display. I saw a cloud divided into little clouds, some of which were blue, and e dark; and I saw them dashing against each other as it were, with rays of light glittering in streaks across them; which at one time appeared sharp like pointed swords, and again blunt like broken swords, now the streaks would shoot out at each other, and again they withdrew into themselves, exactly like combatants. In this way those differently colored clouds seemed to be fighting with each other, but it was only play. As this display did not seem to be far from me, I raised my eyes and looked at it carefully, and beheld boys, young men, and old men entering into a house built of marble on a foundation of porphyry. The phenomenon was over this house. I then spoke to one of those who were entering, and asked him what was there.

He replied, "It is a gymnasium, where youths are initiated into various matters pertaining to wisdom." [2] Hearing this, I entered with them. I was in the spirit, that is, in a state like that of the inhabitants of the spiritual world, who are called angels and spirits. And behold, in the gymnasium opposite the entrance was a desk, in the center were benches, round about the sides were seats, and over the entrance was an orchestra The desk was for the youths who were to give answers to the problem to be proposed on that occasion; the benches were for the auditors, the seats at the sides for those who had answered wisely on former occasions, and the orchestra for older men, who were to be arbiters and judges. In the center of the orchestra was a pulpit, where a wise man, whom they called the head teacher was sitting, who proposed the problems to which the youths gave answer from the desk.

When they had assembled, the man arose in the pulpit and said, "Now please to answer this problem, and solve it if you can, What is the soul, and what is its nature?" [3] All were amazed when they heard this, and murmured at it; and some of those seated on the benches exclaimed, "What man, even from the Saturnian age to our own, has been able by any rational thought to see and fully comprehend what the soul is, still less what the nature of it is? Is not this question above the sphere of the understanding of all men?" But to this those in the orchestra replied, "The question is not above the understanding, but in and before it; only answer it."

And the youths who had been chosen for that day arose and went up to the desk and answered the problem. There were five of these who had been examined by the elders and found endowed with much sagacity, and who were then sitting on sofas near the desk, and who afterward went up to the desk in the order in which they sat. Each one as he went up put on a silk tunic of an opalic color, and over it a gown of fine wool inwoven with flowers, and also a cap, on the top of which was a rosette encircled by small sapphires.

[4] I saw the first one go up so clothed, and he said, "What the soul is and what its nature is, has not been revealed to any man since the day of creation; it is hidden in the treasure house of God alone. But this much has been disclosed, that the soul has her seat in man like a queen; but where her court is, learned masters have but guessed; some, that it is in the small tubercle between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, whig is called the pineal gland; in this they have fixed the seat of the soul because the whole man is governed from those two brains, and that tubercle regulates them; therefore, this, which regulates the brain at will, also regulates the entire man from head to foot. And this," he continued, "seemed therefore to be the truth or the probability to many in the world; but after their time it was rejected as a mere invention."

[5] When he had so spoken he put off the gown, tunic, and cap, and the second of those chosen put them on and entered the desk His statement respecting the soul was that throughout all heaven and all the world it is not known what the soul is, or what its nature is. "This much," he said, "is known, that there is a soul and that it is in man, but where it is, is a matter of conjecture. This is certain, that it is in the head, for there the understanding thinks, and there the will intends, and in the fore-part of the head, that is, in the face, are man's five sensories; and the only source of life to all these is the soul which has its seat within the head. But where its court there is, I dare not say.

Sometimes I agree with those who have assigned it a seat in the three ventricles of the brain, sometimes with those who assign it a seat in the coporastriata, sometimes with those who locate it in the medullary substance of beth brains, or again with those who say it resides in the cortical substance, or with those who say it is in the dura mater; for evidences have not been lacking in favor of each of these locations; in favor of the three ventricles on the ground that these are the receptacles of the animal spirits and the different kinds of lymph belonging to the brain; in favor of the ear-a strata on the ground that they form the marrow through which the nerves go forth, and through which both brains are continued into the spinal column, and from this column and this substances the fibers emanate from which the whole body is woven; in favor of the medullary substance of both brains on the ground that this substance is a collection and mass of all the fibers that go to form the rudiments of the entire man; in favor of the cortical substance on the ground that first and last ends reside there, and therefore the beginning of all fibers, and thus of all sense and motions; in favor of the dura mater, on the ground that it is the common covering of both brains, and extends itself therefrom, by a kind of continuity, over the heart and over the viscera of the body. As for myself, I do not decide in favor of one more than another. Do you decide, I beg of you, and choose which you prefer."

[6] When he had said this he came down from the desk and handed the tunic, gown, and cap to the third, who stepped up to the desk and spoke as follows, "What has a youth like me to do with so sublime a problem? I appeal to the learned men sitting here beside me, I appeal to you wise men in the orchestra; I appeal even to the angels of the highest heaven, whether any one from his own rational light can acquire for himself any idea respecting the sod But respecting its seat in man, I can like others form conjectures; and my conjecture is that it has its seat in the heart, and therefrom in the blood. And this is my conjecture, because the heart by its blood rules both the body and the head; for it sends forth the great vessel called the aorta throughout the whole body, and the vessels called the carotid arteries into all parts of the head. There fore it is universally agreed that the soul, from the heart through the blood, sustains, nourishes, and vivifies the whole organic system of both the body and the head. It adds credence to this assertion, that soul and heart are so frequently mentioned in Sacred Scripture, as,

That thou shalt love God with the whole soul and the whole heart, and that God creates in man a new soul and a new heart (Deut. vi. 5; x. 12; xi. 13; xxvi. 16; Jer. xxxii. 41; Matt. xxii. 37; Mark xii. 30, 33; Luke x. 27 and elsewhere).

It is also openly stated that the blood is the soul of the flesh (Lev. xvii. 11, 14)." Some when they heard these remarks, cried out, "Learned, Learned!" These were of the canonical order.

[7] Then the fourth, having put on the vestments of the preceding speaker, stepped to the desk and said, "I too suspect that there is no man of so acute and cultivated a genius as to be able to see clearly what the soul is, and what its nature is; and I am therefore of the opinion that the acuteness of any one who wished to pry into this subject will be exhausted without result. Nevertheless, from my boyhood I have held steadfastly to the belief of the ancients, that man's soul resides in the whole of him and in every part of this whole, and thus both in the head and each part of it, and in the body and each part of it; and that it is a useless invention of the moderns to assign it a seat, in any one place, and not everywhere. Moreover, the soul is a spiritual substance, of which neither extension nor place can he predicated, but only habitation and impletion. Furthermore, does not every one mean the life, when he says the soul? Does not the life reside in the whole and in every part?"

Many of the audience favored these remarks.

[8] After him the fifth arose and having put on the same vestments, he spoke from the desk as follows, "I will not stop to inquire where the soul is, whether in some part of the body or everywhere in the whole; but from my own store and larder I will open my mind respecting what the soul is and what is its nature. No one thinks of the soul except as a pure something which may he likened to ether or air or wind, in which there is a vital element arising from rationality, which man possesses in higher degree than the beasts. This opinion I have based upon the fact that when a man dies he is said to breath out his soul or give up the ghost, and therefore the soul as it lives after death is believed to be such a breath having in it a cogitative life that is called the soul. What else can the soul be? But as I have heard some of those in the orchestra saying that the problem respecting the soul, what it is, and the nature of it, is not above the understanding, but in it and before it, I ask and pray that they themselves will open to us this eternal mystery."

[9] The elders in the orchestra then looked at the head teacher who had proposed that problem, and he understood by their nods that they wished him to descend and instruct them. And he at once descended from the pulpit, crossed the auditorium, and went into the desk; and there stretching forth his hand he said, "Listen, I pray. Who does not believe that the soul is man's inmost and finest essence? Yet what is an essence without a form but a mere figment of the reason? The soul is therefore a form, but what kind of a form shall be explained. It is the form of all things of love and all things of wisdom; all things of love are called affections, and all things of wisdom are called perceptions.

These perceptions from their affections and with them constitute one form in which are innumerable things in such an order, series, and coherence and that they may be called a unit; and they may be called a unit because if it is to be such nothing can be tag n from it or added to it. What is the human soul but such a form? Are not all things of love and all things of wisdom the essentials of that form? And in man these are in the soul, and from the sod in the head and body. [10] You are called spirits and angels; and in the world you believed spirits and angels to be like wind or ether, and thus to be minds or dispositions; but now you see clearly that you are truly, really, and actually men, who in the world thought and lived in a material body; and you knew that it was not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body; and this you called the soul, although of its form you had no knowledge, and yet you have now seen it and still see it. All of you are souls, respecting the immortality of which you have heard, thought, spoken, and written so much; and being forms of love and wisdom from God, you can never die.

Thus the soul is a human form, from which not an iota can be taken away, and to which not an iota can be added; and it is the inmost form of all the forms of the entire body And as exterior forms receive both essence and form from the inmost form, so you, as you appear to yourselves and to us, are souls. In a word the soul is the man Himself, because it is the inmost man; and therefore its form is fully and completely the human form. Yet it is not life, but the nearest receptacle of life from God, and thus God's dwelling-place."

[11] Many applauded these remarks: but some said, "We will think about it."

I then went home. And behold, in the place of the former meteoric display there appeared over the gymnasium a bright cloud, without any contending streaks or rays. This cloud penetrated the roof and brightened the Walls; and I heard that they saw writings, among other things this:-

And Jehovah God formed man, and breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul (Gen. ii. 7).


See also Resistance to Swedenborg


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