585. Dat door het menigvuldig geworden kwade van de mensen op de aarde wordt aangeduid, dat de wil tot het goede ophield te bestaan, blijkt uit het voorgaande, namelijk dat er geen wil meer was, maar alleen begeerte; verder uit de betekenis van de mens op aarde. De aarde, in de letterlijke zin, is de plaats waar de mens is; en daar de liefde tot de wil of tot de begeerte behoort, zo wordt de aarde voor de wil van de mens zelf genomen, want de mens is men krachtens zijn willen, en niet zozeer krachtens zijn weten en verstaan, daar het weten en verstaan uit zijn wil voortvloeit; al wat niet uit zijn wil voortvloeit, dat wil hij niet weten, noch verstaan; ja zelfs, wanneer hij anders spreekt en handelt dan hij wil, is er toch iets van een wil, buiten zijn spreken en handelen om, dat hem regeert. Dat het land Kanaän of het Heilige Land, voor de liefde, en dus voor de wil van de hemelse mens genomen wordt, kan door vele plaatsen in het Woord bevestigd worden; op dezelfde wijze dat de landen van verschillende heidense volken hun liefde aanduiden, welke in het algemeen de eigenliefde en de liefde tot de wereld zijn; omdat dit echter zo vaak voorkomt, is er hier ter plaatse niet bij stilgestaan. Hieruit blijkt dat de boosheid van de mensen op de aarde zijn natuurlijke boosheid betekent, dat tot de wil behoort; en het wordt vermenigvuldigd geheten, daar het bij allen nog niet zo verkeerd was of zij wilden anderen het goede, zij het dan om eigenbelang; dat het echter geheel en al verdorven is geworden, duidt het gedichtsel van de gedachten van het hart aan.

35. Man has two faculties, one which is called the will, and the other the understanding (n. 35, 641, 3539, 3623, 5969, 10122). Those two faculties constitute the very man (n. 10076, 10109-10110, 10264, 10284). The quality of man is according to those two faculties with him (n. 7342, 8885, 9282, 10264, 10284). By them also man is distinguished from beasts, by reason that the understanding of man may be elevated by the Lord, and see Divine truths, and in like manner his will may be elevated and perceive Divine goods; and thus man may be conjoined to the Lord by those two faculties, which make him; but that the case is otherwise with beasts (n. 4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9231). And since man may thus be conjoined to the Lord, he cannot die as to his interiors, which are his spirit, but he lives forever (n. 5302). Man is not man from his form, but from good and truth, which are of his will and understanding (n. 4051, 5302).

As all things in the universe relate to good and truth, so do all things in man to the will and the understanding (n. 803, 10122). For the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the receptacle of truth (n. 3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930). It amounts to the same, whether you say truth or faith, for faith is of truth, and truth is of faith; and it amounts to the same whether you say good or love, for love is of good, and good is of love; for what a man believes, that he calls true; and what he loves, that he calls good (n. 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367). Hence it follows that the understanding is the recipient of faith, and the will the recipient of love; and that faith and love are in man, when they are in his understanding and will, for the life of man is nowhere else (n. 7179, 10122, 10367). And since the understanding of man is capable of receiving faith in the Lord, and the will of receiving love to the Lord, that by faith and love he may be conjoined to the Lord, and whoever is capable of conjunction with the Lord by faith and love, cannot die to eternity (n. 4525, 6323, 9231). Love is conjunction in the spiritual world (n. 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195-6196, 7081, 7086, 7501, 10130).

The will of man is the very esse of his life, because it is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the existere of life thence derived, because it is the receptacle of truth (n. 3619, 5002, 9282). Thus the life of the will is the principal life of man, and the life of the understanding proceeds therefrom (n. 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109-10110); comparatively as light proceeds from fire or flame (n. 6032, 6314). Whatever things enter into the understanding, and at the same time into the will, are appropriated to man, but not those which are received in the understanding alone (n. 9009, 9069, 9071, 9133, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109-10110).

Those things become of the life of man, which are received in the will, and thence in the understanding (n. 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109-10110). Every man also is loved and esteemed by others according to the good of his will and thence of his understanding; for he who wills well and understands well is loved and esteemed, and he who understands well and does not will well, is rejected and is held in low estimation (n. 8911, 10076).

Man also after death remains such as his will and the understanding are (n. 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153) and those things which are of the understanding, and not at the same time of the will, then vanish, because they are not in man's spirit (n. 9282). Or, what amounts to the same, man after death remains as his love and its faith are, or as his good and its truth are; and the things which are of the faith and not at the same time of the love, or the things which are of truth and not at the same time of good, vanish, because they are not in the man, thus not man's (n. 553, 2363, 10153). Man is capable of comprehending with the understanding what he does not do from the will, or he may understand what he does not will, because it is against his love (n. 3539).

The will and the understanding constitute one mind (n. 35, 3623, 5835, 10122). Those two faculties of life ought to act as one, that man may be man (n. 3623, 5835, 5969, 9300). How perverted a state they are in, whose understanding and will do not act as one (n. 9075). Such is the state of hypocrites, the deceitful, flatterers, and simulators (n. 2426, 3573, 4799, 8250). The will and the understanding are reduced to one in another life, and there it is not allowable to have a divided mind (n. 8250).

Every doctrinal of the church has its own ideas by which its quality is perceived (n. 3310). The understanding of the doctrinal is according to those ideas, and without an intellectual idea, man would only have an idea of words, and none of things (n. 3825). The ideas of the understanding extend themselves widely into the societies of spirits and angels round about (n. 6599, 6600-6605, 6609, 6613). The ideas of man's understanding are opened in another life, and appear to the life as to their quality (n. 1869, 3310, 5510). Of what quality the ideas of some appear (n. 6200, 8885).

All the will of good and the understanding of truth is from the Lord, but not so the understanding of truth separate from the will of good (n. 1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153). It is the understanding which is enlightened by the Lord (n. 6222, 6608, 10659). The Lord grants to those who are enlightened, to see and understand truth (n. 9382, 10659). The enlightening of the understanding is various, according to the states of man's life (n. 5221, 7012, 7233). The understanding is enlightened as far as man receives truth in the will, that is, as far as he wills to act according thereto (n. 3619). They have their understanding enlightened who read the Word from the love of truth and from the love of the uses of life; but not they who read it from the love of fame, honor, and gain (n. 9382, 10548-10549, 10551). Enlightenment is an actual elevation of the mind into the light of heaven (n. 10330); from experience (n. 1526, 6608).

Light from heaven is the enlightenment of the understanding, as light from the world is to the sight (n. 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128). The light of heaven is the Divine truth, from which is all wisdom and intelligence (n. 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684). It is the understanding of man which is enlightened by that light (n. 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569).

The understanding is such as are the truths from good, of which it is formed (n. 10064). The understanding is that which is formed by truths from good, but not what is formed by falsities from evil (n. 10675). The understanding consists in seeing truths, the causes of things, their connections, and consequences in regular order, from those things which are of experience and science (n. 6125). The understanding consists in seeing and perceiving whether a thing be true, before it is confirmed, but not in being able to confirm everything (n. 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521,8780).

The light of confirmation without a previous perception of truth, is natural light, and may be possessed even by those who are not wise (n. 8780). To see and perceive whether a thing be true before it is confirmed, is only given with those who are affected with truth for the sake of truth, consequently who are in spiritual light (n. 8780). Every dogma even what is false, may be confirmed, even so as to appear true (n. 2243, 2385, 4677, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7950).

How the rational is conceived and born with man (n. 2094, 2524, 2557, 3030, 5126). It is from the influx of the light of heaven from the Lord through the internal man into the knowledges and sciences, which are in the external, and an elevation thence (n. 1895, 1899, 1902). The rational is born by truths, and not by falsities; consequently according to the quality of the truths, such is the rational (n. 2094, 2524, 2557). The rational is opened and formed by truths from good, and it is shut and destroyed by falsities from evil (n. 3108, 5126). A man is not rational who is in falsities from evil; and consequently a man is not rational from being able to reason upon every subject (n. 1944).

Man scarcely knows how to distinguish between the understanding and the will, because he scarcely knows how to distinguish between thinking and willing (n. 9995).

Many more things concerning the will and the understanding may be known and concluded from what has been just adduced concerning good and truth, provided the will be perceived instead of good, and the understanding instead of truth, for the will is of good, and the understanding is of truth.

10659. 'Because in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt' means because then there was deliverance from hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'the month of Abib' as the beginning of a new state, as immediately above in 10658; and from the meaning of 'coming out of Egypt' as deliverance from molestation by falsities, thus also from hell, dealt with in 9292, and in the places referred to in 8866, 9197. From all this it becomes clear that the feast of Passover, which was also called the feast of unleavened bread, was established for a remembrance of the Lord's deliverance of mankind from hell. This deliverance was accomplished by the Lord's subduing of the hells and glorifying of His Human, see just above in 10655.

[2] The majority of people within the Church believe that the Lord came into the world to reconcile the Father through the passion of the Cross, after which those for whom He interceded would be accepted. They also believe that He released mankind from damnation by the fulfillment - by Himself alone - of the law, which otherwise would have condemned everyone; and thus that all who held to that belief with confidence and assurance would be saved. But those with any enlightenment from heaven can see how wrong it is to think that the Divine, who is Love itself and Mercy itself, could cast the human race away from Himself and condemn them to hell; that He had of necessity to be reconciled by the passion of His Son on the Cross; that His Mercy was not aroused by anything other than this; that afterwards no one would be condemned for the way he lived, provided he held with confidence to belief in that reconciliation; and that all salvation is accomplished through faith or belief instilled out of mercy. Those who think and believe such things cannot see anything at all; they speak but have no understanding of anything. Mysteries therefore is what they call those things which are to be believed but not by any means understood. From this it follows that any enlightenment from the Word showing that the situation is different from what they suppose it to be is rejected; for light from heaven cannot enter where such dimness resulting from contradictory ideas prevails. The word 'dimness' is used to describe that which is not understood at all.

[3] But to those who receive enlightenment the Lord imparts an ability to understand the things they believe. Those who acknowledge the Lord and love to lead a life in keeping with His commandments are the ones who are enlightened when they read the Word and who have an understanding of it, not those who say they believe and do not lead such a life. For the Lord flows into a person's life and from this into his belief, but not into a person's belief separate from his life. What those who are enlightened by the Lord through the Word understand is that the Lord came into the world to subdue the hells and to restore everything there and in the heavens to order, which could not by any means have been accomplished except through His Human; for He was able from the Human, but not from the Divine without the Human, to fight against the hells. Their understanding is that He also came into the world to glorify His Human, in order that through that glorified Human all things restored to order by Him might be maintained forever in that condition. From this comes the salvation of mankind. For every person is surrounded by the hells; each one is born into evils of every kind, and where evils exist, so do the hells. And unless these had been thrown back by the Lord's Divine Power no one at all could have been saved. These are the things which the Word teaches and which are discerned by all who let the Lord into their life, these, as stated above, being people who acknowledge Him and love to lead a life in keeping with His commandments. See what has been quoted and shown from the Word in 9937, 10019, 10152, 10579, and many other places.

[4] Being led away from evils, being regenerated, and so being saved is all an act of Mercy. This Mercy however does not operate by direct intervention, as people believe, but indirectly, that is, in those who depart from evils and so let the truth of faith and the good of love from the Lord into their life. The direct intervention of mercy, which everyone would experience if no more than God's good pleasure were necessary, is contrary to Divine order; and what is contrary to Divine order is contrary to God, since order begins in God and what is Divine and His in heaven constitutes order. When people accept order in themselves they are saved, and this comes about solely as a result of their leading a life in keeping with the Lord's commandments. The regeneration of a person takes place to the end that he may accept the order of heaven within himself; and that regeneration is accomplished by means of faith and the life of faith, which is charity. Anyone who has that order within him is in heaven, and also presents a kind of image of heaven; but anyone who does not have it is in hell and presents a kind of image of hell. One cannot by any means be changed and transformed into the other by any direct intervention of mercy, since they are opposites; for evil is the opposite of good, and good has life and heaven within it, whereas evil has death and hell within it. The impossibility for one to be transformed into the other is the Lord's teaching in Luke,

Abraham said to the rich man in hell, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass across from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there pass across to us. Luke 16:26.

Furthermore if the direct intervention of mercy were possible all people in the world, however many, would be saved, and hell would not exist; for the Lord, being Love itself which desires the salvation of all and the death of none, is Mercy itself.