104. Verse 4. But I have against thee that thou hast left thy first charity, signifies that they do not make such a life as those lived who were in the church at its beginning, the essential of knowledges. This is evident from the signification of "first charity," as being a life according to the knowledges of good and truth, such as those lived who were in the church at its beginning (of which presently); and from the signification of "leaving that charity," as being not to make it the essential of knowledges; for those who are eager for the knowledges of truth and good, and who believe that they are saved thereby, make knowledges essential, and not life, when yet a life according to knowledges is the essential. But as this essential of the church and of salvation is treated of in what follows, more will there be said about it. Charity is life, because all life in accordance with the precepts of the Lord in the Word is called "charity;" therefore to exercise charity is to live according to those precepts. (That this is so, see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, in the chapter on Love to the Neighbor or Charity 84-106; and in the small work on The Last Judgment 33-39.) The life of the church at its beginning is here meant by "first charity;" for every church begins from charity, and successively turns away from it to faith alone or to meritorious works. (On which subject, and on charity, see what is shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that every church begins from charity, but in process of time turns away from it, n. 494, 501, 1327, 3773, 4689; thus to falsities from evil, and at length to evils, n. 1834, 1835, 2910, 4683, 4689; commonly to faith alone, n. 1834, 1835, 2231, 4683, 8094. A comparison of the church in its beginning and in its decline, with the rising and setting of the sun, n. 1837; and with the infancy and old age of man, n. Arcana Coelestia 10134; that the church is not with man until the knowledges of good and truth have been implanted in the life, n. 3310; that charity constitutes the church, n. 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1844, 1894; that the internal of the church is charity, n. 4766, 5826; that there would be one church, and not many, as at this day, if all were regarded from charity, although they might differ in respect to doctrinals of faith and rituals of worship, n. 1286, 1316, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2385, 2982, 3267, 3451; that worship of the Lord consists in a life of charity, n. 8254, 8256; that the quality of worship is according to the quality of charity, n. 2190.)

151. These things saith the Son of man, signifies the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, from which is that essential of the church. This is evident from the signification of "the Son of man," as being the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and in respect to Divine truth, since Divine truth proceeds from Him (See above, n. 63); also as being that from which is that essential of the church, namely, the opening of the internal or spiritual man, and the conjunction thereof with the external, since everything of the church with man is from the Lord's Divine Human. For everything of love and faith, which two constitute the church, proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human, and not immediately from the Divine Itself; for what proceeds immediately from His Divine Itself, does not fall into any thought and affection of man, nor consequently into faith and love, because it is far above them. This can be seen from the fact that man is not able to think of the Divine Itself apart from the human form, except as he thinks of nature, as it were, in things least. Thought that is not determined to a certain figure is diffused in every direction, and what is diffused is dissipated. This has been given me to know most especially from those in the other life who are from the Christian world, who have thought only of the Father, and not of the Lord, that they make nature in its minutest parts their God, and finally fall away from all idea of God, consequently from the idea and faith in anything of heaven and the church.

[2] It is otherwise with those who have thought of God under the human form; these have all their ideas determined to the Divine, nor do their thoughts, like the thoughts of those mentioned before, wander in every direction. And as the Divine under the Human form, is the Lord's Divine Human, therefore the Lord bends and determines their thoughts and affections to Himself. This, because it is the primary truth of the church, unceasingly flows in out of heaven with man; consequently it is, as it were, implanted in everyone to think of the Divine under the human form, and thus to see His Divine inwardly in himself, with the exception of such as have extinguished in themselves this implanted thought (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 82). From this the reason can also be seen, why all men, whatsoever after death, when they become spirits, turn themselves to their own loves, and thus why those who have worshiped the Divine under the human form turn themselves to the Lord, who appears to them as a sun above the heavens. But those who have not worshiped the Divine under the human form, turn themselves to the loves of their natural man, all of which have reference to the loves of self and the world, thus turning backwards from the Lord; and turning oneself backwards from the Lord is turning towards hell. (That all in the spiritual world turn themselves to their own loves, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 17, 123, 142-145, 151, 153, 255, 272, 510, 548, 552, 561).

[3] All who lived in ancient times and worshiped the Divine saw the Divine in thought under the human form, and hardly anyone thought of an invisible Divine; and the Divine under the human form was even then the Divine Human. But as this Divine Human was the Divine of the Lord in the heavens and passing through the heavens, when at length heaven became enfeebled, because men, of whom heaven is made up, from internal successively became external and thus natural, therefore it pleased the Divine Itself to put on a human, and to glorify it, or make it Divine, that thus from Himself He might affect all, both those who are in the spiritual world and those who are in the natural world, and might save those who acknowledge and worship His Divine in the Human.

[4] This is clearly stated in many passages in the Old Testament Prophets, as well as in the Evangelists; of these I will cite only the following in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And that Light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. It was the true Light, which lighteth every man coming into the world. He was in the world, but the world acknowledged Him not. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory (John 1:1-14).

It is plainly evident that the Lord in respect to the Human is here meant by "the Word," for it is said, "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." It is also evident that the Lord made His Human to be Divine, for it is said, "the Word was with God and God was the Word, and this became flesh," that is, a man. And since all Divine truth proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human, and this is His Divine in the heavens, therefore by "the Word" is also signified Divine truth; and thence He is said to be "the Light which lighted every man coming into the world." Moreover, "light" is Divine truth; and because men from being internal became so external or natural as no longer to acknowledge Divine truth or the Lord, therefore it is said that "the darkness apprehended not the light," and that "the world acknowledged Him not." (That the Word is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human and Divine truth proceeding therefrom, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 263, 304. That "light" is Divine truth, and "darkness" the falsities in which those are who are not in the light, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 126-140, 275.)

[5] That they who acknowledge the Lord and worship Him from love and faith, and are not in the love of self and the love of the world, are regenerated and saved, is also taught in these words in John:

As many as received Him, to them gave He power to be children of God, even to them that believe in His name; which were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12, 13).

Here "of bloods" means such as destroy love and charity. "The will of the flesh" is every evil from the love of self and love of the world, also man's will-proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil; "the will of man" is falsity thence that comes from that will-proprium. That those who are not in these loves receive the Lord and are regenerated and saved, is meant by its being said that those who "believe in His name become children of God," and are "born of God."

(That to "believe in the Lord's name" is to acknowledge His Divine Human and to receive love and faith from Him, see above. n. 102, 135.

That "bloods" are the things that destroy love and charity, see Arcana Coelestia 4735, 5476, 9127; that "flesh" is man's will-proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil, n. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 4328, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10732; and that man's proprium is the love of self and the love of the world, n. 694, 731, 4317, 5660.

That "man" [vir] is the intellectual, and therefore truth or falsity, since the intellectual is of the one or the other, see n. 3134, 3309, 9007.

Thus "the will of man" [viri] is the intelligence-proprium, which, when it exists from the will-proprium [which in itself is nothing but evil], is nothing but falsity, for where evil is in the will there is falsity in the understanding.

That to be "born of God" is to be regenerated by the Lord, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 173-184.

Moreover, that all in the universe, from influx out of heaven and from revelation, worship the Divine in the human form, see Earths in the Universe 98, 121, 141, 154, 158, 159, 169; likewise all angels of the higher heavens, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 78-86.)

[6] From this it can now be seen that everything of the church, thus also everything of heaven with men, is from the Lord's Divine Human. For this reason "the Son of man," who is the Divine Human, is described in the first chapter of Revelation by various representatives; and from that description the introductory sentences to each of the churches are taken (as may be seen above, n. 113, and what is said to this church in particular treats of this chief essential of the church, namely, the conjunction of the internal and external, or the regeneration of the man of the church; for it is said to the angel of this church, "These things saith the Son of God, that hath His eyes as a flame of fire."

1937. That 'humble yourself beneath her hands' means that it ought by self-compulsion to place itself under the controlling power of that interior truth is clear without explanation. In the original language 'humbling oneself' is expressed by means of a word which means to fling down. That 'flinging oneself down' in the internal sense is compelling oneself becomes clear from very many places in the Word, the meaning of which will be dealt with later on. The need for the individual to compel himself to do good, to obey what the Lord has commanded, and to utter truths, meant by 'humbling herself beneath her mistress's hands', that is, submitting oneself beneath the controlling power of Divine good and truth, comprehends more arcana within itself than can be explained briefly.

[2] There are certain spirits who during their lifetime, having heard that all good originated in the Lord and that man was unable from himself to perform any good at all, had for these reasons held to a principle of not compelling themselves in anything and of remaining utterly passive; for they had supposed that, what they had heard being true, any effort at all made by them was totally ineffectual. They had therefore waited for immediate influx into the effort of their will and had not compelled themselves to do anything good. Indeed when anything evil had crept in, since they did not feel from within any resistance to it, they had gone so far as to abandon themselves to it, imagining that it was permissible to do so. But those spirits are such that they do not possess so to speak any selfhood, and so do not possess any mind of their own, and are therefore among the more useless; for they suffer themselves to be led just as much by the evil as by the good, and suffer much from the evil.

[3] But those who have practiced self-compulsion and set themselves against evil and falsity - even though at first they had imagined that they did so of themselves, or by their own power, but had after that been enlightened to the effect that their effort originated in the Lord, even the smallest of all the impulses of that effort - in the next life cannot be led by evil spirits, but are among the blessed. This shows that a person ought to compel himself to do what is good and to speak what is true. The arcanum Lying within this is that in so doing a person has a heavenly proprium bestowed on him from the Lord. This heavenly proprium is formed within the effort of his thought; but if he does not maintain that effort through self-compulsion - as this appears to be the way it is maintained - he does not by any means do so by abstaining from self-compulsion.

[4] To make this matter clearer let it be said that within all compulsion towards what is good a certain freedom exists, which is not recognized as freedom while a person is exercising self-compulsion, but is nevertheless inwardly present. Take for example one who is willing to risk death for the sake of some particular end, or one who is willing to endure physical pain for the sake of his health. There is a willingness and so a certain freedom in those actions, though while he is taking risks or suffering pain these remove any feeling of willingness or freedom. So also with those who compel themselves to do what is good. Present within them there is a willingness and thus freedom, which is the source of and the reason for their self-compulsion. That is to say, they compel themselves for the reason that they may obey the things which the Lord has commanded and that their souls may become saved after death; and within these a still greater reason is present, though the person himself is not aware of it, namely the Lord's kingdom, and indeed the Lord Himself.

[5] This applies most of all in times of temptation. In these, when a person practices self-compulsion and sets himself against the evil and falsity that are implanted and prompted by evil spirits, more freedom is present than there would ever be in any state outside those times of temptation, though the person cannot comprehend it then. It is an interior freedom, which produces in him the will to subdue evil and which is great enough to match the power and might of the evil assailing him; otherwise he would not be able to fight at all. This freedom comes from the Lord who implants it in his conscience and by means of it causes him to overcome evil as though he did so from his own proprium. By means of that freedom the person receives a proprium into which the Lord is able to exert good. Without a proprium acquired, that is, conferred, by means of freedom, no one can possibly be reformed, since he is unable to receive a new will, which is conscience. The freedom so conferred is the actual plane into which the influx of good and truth from the Lord passes. Consequently people who in times of temptation do not put up any resistance from that will or freedom conferred on them go under.

[6] Present in all freedom is a person's life, because present there is his love. Whatever a person does from love appears to him as freedom. But within that freedom, when the person practices self-compulsion, setting himself against evil and falsity and doing what is good, heavenly love is present which the Lord instills at that time and by means of which He creates that person's proprium. It is the Lord's will therefore that this proprium should appear to the person to be his own, though in fact it is not. This proprium which a person receives in this manner during his lifetime by means, as it seems, of compulsion, the Lord replenishes in the next life with limitless forms of delight and happiness. Such people are also by degrees enlightened, or rather are confirmed, in the truth that their self-compulsion has not commenced at all in themselves but that even the smallest of all the impulses of their will has been received from the Lord. They are also led to see that the reason why their compulsion had appeared to commence in themselves was that the Lord might give them a new will as their own, and in this way the life belonging to heavenly love might be imparted to them as their own. Indeed the Lord's will is to share with everyone that which is His, thus that which is heavenly, so that it may appear to be that person's and to be within him, though in fact it is not his. A proprium such as this exists with angels, and insofar as they accept the truth that everything good and true comes from the Lord the delight and happiness belonging to such a proprium exist with them.

[7] People however who despise and reject everything good and true and who are unwilling to believe anything that conflicts with their evil desires and their reasonings are unable to compel themselves and so are unable to receive this proprium imparted to conscience, that is, to receive a new will. From what has been stated above it is also evident that self-compulsion is not the same as being compelled, for no good ever results from being compelled, as when one person is being compelled by another to do good. What is being discussed here is self-compulsion which is the product of a certain freedom unknown to the individual, for the Lord is never the source of any compulsion. From this comes the universal law that everything good and true is implanted in freedom. Otherwise the ground never becomes receptive and able to foster what is good; indeed there is no ground for the seed to grow in.