19. [56.] XIX. IN THE WORD "TO LOVE" MEANS "TO DO USES"
The reason for this is that "to love" is "to will," and "to will" is "to do." That "to love" is "to will" has been established just above; but that "to will" is "to do," has now to be established.
Regarded in itself the Will is not love, but the receptacle of love, and such a receptacle that it not only receives love, but also takes on its states, and assumes forms in accordance with them. For everything of a man's life flows in, because a man is not life, but a recipient of it; and consequently, because love is life, he is a recipient of love. This may be illustrated by man's organs of sense; for the eye is a recipient of light, but it is not light, nevertheless it is formed for receiving all variations of light; the ear is a recipient of sound and of its modulation and articulation, but it is not sound; likewise with man's other external senses. It is similar with the internal organs of sense, these being varied and actuated by spiritual light and heat; consequently it is similar with the Will: this is the receiving-organ for spiritual heat, which in its essence is love. This receiving-organ is in every part of man, but it is in its primes in the brains. These primes, or beginnings, or heads, are the cortical and cineritious substances, as they are called, in the brains. Commencing from these substances, by means of fibres, as if by rays, it descends from everywhere in the brains into every part of the face and every part of the body, and there, in accordance with its form, an animate spiritual form which has been treated of elsewhere, 1
it coils and winds in circles. In this way is actuated each and everything in face and body, from initial things to ultimate things, and in the ultimate things are presented the effects. It is well known that everything is put in motion as the result of effort, and that when the effort ceases, the motion ceases. So every volition of a man's Will is a living effort in him, and it acts in the ultimates of the body by means of the fibres and nerves, these latter being in themselves nothing else but perpetuated efforts continued from their beginnings in the brains right down to the ultimates in the different parts of the body, where the efforts become acts. These things are mentioned to make known what the Will is, namely, that it is the receptacle for love, in a continual effort to act, which effort is stimulated and determined into act by the love that flows in and is received.
[57.] From the above now it follows, that "to love," because it is "to will," is "to do;" for whatever a man loves, that he wills, and what he wills, that, if possible, he does; and even when he does not do it owing to its being impossible, still it is in interior act, which is not manifest. For there can be no effort or Will with any one, unless it is also in ultimates; and being in ultimates, it is in interior act; this act, however, is unperceived by any one even by the man himself, because it has its existence in his spirit. It is on account of this that the Will and act are a one, and that Will is accounted as act; but not in the natural world, for, in the natural world, interior acts of the Will are not apparent; it is so in the spiritual world, however, where these are apparent. For, in the spiritual world, every one acts in accordance with his love; those who are in a heavenly love act sanely: those who are in an infernal love act insanely, or, if they refrain from acting in this way on account of some fear, still interiorly their Will is active, and is only being restrained by them from breaking out. Moreover this interior action only ceases when the Will for it ceases. And so, Will and act being a one, and Will being the effort of love, it follows that nothing else is meant by "loving" in the Word than "doing," consequently by "loving the Lord and loving the neighbour" is meant "doing uses to the neighbour from love derived from the Lord." That this is so, the Lord Himself teaches in John:
He that hath My precepts and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me . . . but he that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words (John 14:21, 24).
Also in John:
Abide in My love.... If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love (John 15:9-10).
And again:
Three times the Lord said to Peter, Lovest thou Me?, and three times Peter replies that he does love Him, and the Lord in reply said three times, Feed My lambs and My sheep (John 21:15-17).
Moreover, there are two things that cannot be separated, namely Being (esse) and Existing (existere): "Being" is not anything unless it has existence, and it becomes something by existing. So also with "loving" and "doing," or "willing" and "acting," there being no such thing as loving and not doing, nor any such thing as willing and not acting; they have indeed no existence, for it is by "doing" and by "acting" that they have existence. Consequently, it is only when any one does and acts, that love and Will first exist.
It is in this way and in no other that the Lord and the neighbour are loved.
Footnotes:
