From Swedenborg's Works

 

The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine #106

Study this Passage

  
/ 325  
  

106. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

Heaven is distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, and the other the spiritual kingdom; the love in the celestial kingdom is love to the Lord, and is called celestial love; and the love in the spiritual kingdom is love towards the neighbor, or charity, and is called spiritual love (n. 3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9835, 9961). Heaven is distinguished into two kingdoms, see the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 20-28); and the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to Him, and charity towards the neighbor (n. 13-19 in the same).

It cannot be known what good is and what truth is, unless it be known what love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor are, because all good is of love, and all truth is of good (n. 7255, 7366). To know truths, to will truths, and to be affected with them for the sake of truths, that is, because they are truths, is charity (n. 3876-3877). Charity consists in an internal affection of doing truth, and not in an external affection without an internal one (n. 2429, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8033). Thus charity consists in performing uses for the sake of uses (n. 7038, 8253). Charity is the spiritual life of man (n. 7081). The whole Word is the doctrine of love and charity (n. 6632, 7262). It is not known at this day what charity is (n. 2417, 3398, 4776, 6632). Nevertheless man may know from the light of his own reason, that love and charity make the man (n. 3957, 6273). Also that good and truth agree together, and that one is of the other, and so also love and faith (n. 7627).

The Lord is the neighbor in the highest sense, because He is to be loved above all things; and hence all is the neighbor which is from Him, and in which he is, thus good and truth (n. 2425, 3419 , 6706 , 6819 , 6823, 8124). The distinction of neighbor is according to the quality of good, thus according to the presence of the Lord (n. 6707-6710). Every man and every society, also our country and the church, and, in the universal sense, the kingdom of the Lord, are the neighbor, and to do good to them according to the quality of their state from the love of good, is to love the neighbor; thus the neighbor is their good, which is to be consulted (n. 6818-6824, 8123). Civil good, which is justice, and moral good, which is the good of life in society, and is called sincerity, are also the neighbor (n. 2915, 4730, 8120-8122). To love the neighbor does not consist in loving his person, but in loving that with him from which he is, consequently good and truth (n. 5028, 10336). They who love the person, and not that which is with him from which he is, love evil as well as good (n. 3820). And they do good to the evil as well as to the good, when nevertheless doing good to the evil is doing evil to the good, which is not loving the neighbor (n. 3820, 6703, 8120). The judge who punishes the evil that they may be amended, and that the good may not be contaminated by them, loves the neighbor (n. 3820, 8120-8121).

To love the neighbor is to do what is good, just, and right, in every work and in every office (n. 8120-8122). Hence charity towards the neighbor extends itself to each and every thing which man thinks, wills, and does (n. 8124). To do what is good and true is to love the neighbor (n. 10310, 10336). They who do this love the Lord, who in the highest sense is the neighbor (n. 9210). The life of charity is a life according to the commandments of the Lord; and to live according to Divine truths is to love the Lord (n. 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645).

Genuine charity is not meritorious (n. 2027, 2343, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393). Because it is from internal affection, consequently from the delight of the life of doing good (n. 2373, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393). They who separate faith from charity, in another life hold faith and the good works which they have done in the external form as meritorious (n. 2373). They who are in evils from the love of self or the love of the world, do not know what it is to do good without remuneration, thus what that charity is which is not meritorious (n. 8037).

The doctrine of the Ancient Church was the doctrine of life, which is the doctrine of charity (n. 2385, 2417, 3419-3420, 4844, 6628). Thence they had intelligence and wisdom (n. 2417, 6629, 7259-7262). Intelligence and wisdom increase immensely in the other life with those who have lived a life of charity in the world (n. 1941, 5859). The Lord flows in with Divine truth into charity, because into the essential life of man (n. 2063). The man with whom charity and faith are conjoined is like a garden; but like a desert with whom they are not conjoined (n. 7626). Man recedes from wisdom in proportion as he recedes from charity; and they who are not in charity, are in ignorance concerning Divine truths, however wise they think themselves (n. 2417, 2435). The angelic life consists in performing the goods of charity, which are uses (n. 454). The spiritual angels, who are they that are in the good of charity, are forms of charity (n. 553, 3804, 4735).

All spiritual truths regard charity as their beginning and end (n. 4353). The doctrinals of the church effect nothing unless they regard charity as their end (n. 2049, 2116).

The presence of the Lord with men and angels is according to their state of love and charity (n. 549, 904). Charity is the image of God (n. 1013). Love to the Lord, consequently the Lord, is within charity, although man does not know it (n. 2227, 5066-5067). They who live a life of charity are accepted as citizens both in the world and in heaven (n. 1121). The good of charity is not to be violated (n. 2359).

They who are not in charity cannot acknowledge and worship the Lord except from hypocrisy (n. 2132, 4424, 9833). The forms of hatred and of charity cannot exist together (n. 1860).

  
/ 325  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8037

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

8037. Those who have self-love and love of the world as their end in view cannot have any charity or faith at all within them. People ruled by those loves do not even know what charity is or what faith is; they do not begin to understand that when a person desires his neighbour's good without thought of reward he has heaven within himself, or that this affection brings happiness as great as that enjoyed by the angels, which is indescribable. For those people think that if they are deprived of the joy received from the glory of holding important positions and possessing wealth, no joy at all exists any longer. But that is just when heavenly joy begins; and this joy is infinitely superior.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9835

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

9835. 'With the work of a designer' means a product of the understanding. This is clear from the meaning of 'a designer' as the power of understanding, dealt with in 9598, 9688, so that 'the work of a designer' means that which is a product of that power. 'A designer' (excogitator) means the power of understanding because thought (cogitatio) belongs to the understanding, even as love and affection belong to the will. In the internal sense 'a designer' and 'thought' have the same meaning; for in that sense no attention is paid to the person, only to the actual reality that is meant, and 'designer' carries the idea of a person. For the truth of this, see 5225, 5287, 5434, 8343, 8985, 9007. What 'a product of the understanding' means must be stated briefly. The subject at present is the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and this kingdom - so far as all truths and forms of good there are concerned - belongs to the understanding part of the mind, whereas things in the Lord's celestial kingdom belong to the will part. For there are two entities with which everything in all creation has connection, good and truth; and this is why in the human being there are two mental powers, will and understanding. The will exists for the sake of good, and the understanding for the sake of truth; for the will is the recipient of good, and the understanding that of truth.

[2] The situation in the heavens is similar. There two kingdoms exist, the celestial and the spiritual. The celestial kingdom exists to be a recipient of good and the spiritual kingdom to be a recipient of truth. And since the whole heaven corresponds to everything that exists with the human being, and heaven in the Lord's sight is consequently like one complete human being, this as well has the two powers of will and understanding, the will residing in the celestial kingdom and the understanding in the spiritual kingdom. Now because the spiritual kingdom was represented by Aaron's garments and heaven's power of understanding resides in this kingdom, 'the work of a designer' accordingly means the power of understanding.

The whole heaven, by virtue of the correspondence with every single thing that exists with the human being, is like one complete human being and is called the Grand Man, see the places referred to at the end of 9276. The forms of good and the truths present with those in the Lord's spiritual kingdom have been inscribed on the understanding part of their mind, but with those in His celestial kingdom on the will part, see the places referred to in 9277, 9596.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.