THE IMPUTATION OF THE
TWO LOVES:
SCORTATORY AND CONJUGIAL
Selection from Conjugial Love #523 - 535 ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
IV. THAT EVIL IS
IMPUTED TO EVERY ONE ACCORDING TO THE NATURE OF HIS WILL
AND THE NATURE OF HIS UNDERSTANDING. It is known that there are two things which make man's life: will and understanding, all that is done by a man being done by his will and his understanding; also that without these agents man
would have no action or speech other than that of a machine. It is evident from this that a man is such or such a man according to his will and understanding; also that a man's action, viewed in itself is such as is the affection of his will which produces it; and that his speech
viewed in itself is such as is the thought of his understanding which produces it. Therefore, a number of men may act and speak in the same way and yet be acting and speaking differently, some from a depraved will and thought, and others from an upright will and thought. From
this it is evident that what is meant by the deeds or works
according to which every one will be judged, is the will and
understanding; and consequently, that by evil works are meant the
works of an evil will, howsoever they may have appeared in
externals, and by good works, the works of a good will even though
in externals they may have seemed to be the same as the works of an
evil man. Everything that is done by man's interior will is done
from purpose; for that will proposes to itself that which it does in
intention; and because the understanding confirms that intention,
everything that is done by the understanding is done from
confirmation. From this it is evident that evil or good is imputed
to every one according to the nature of the will in his deeds, and
according to the nature of his understanding concerning them. It is
allowed to confirm this by the following:
In the spiritual world
I have met with many who in the natural world had lived in the same
way as others, dressing finely, faring sumptuously, doing business
for gain like other men, attending dramatic performances, jesting
about amatory matters as if from lust, besides other like things;
yet in some the angels condemned these things as evils of sin, and
in some they did not account them as evils; and the latter they
declared guiltless, and the former guilty. To the question why they
did so when yet the men had done the same things, they answered that
they view all men from their purpose, intention or end, and make
distinction accordingly; thus that those whom the end excuses or
condemns, they excuse or condemn, for all in heaven have good as an
end, and all in hell have evil as an end.
To the above is added
the following: It is said in the church that no one can fulfill the
law, and the less so since he who transgresses against one
commandment of the Decalogue, transgresses against all. But this
formula of speech is not as it sounds. It must be understood in this
way: He who from purpose or confirmation acts against one
commandment acts against the rest; for to act thus from purpose or
confirmation is wholly to deny that the action is a sin, and he who
denies sin makes nothing of acting against the other commandments.
Who does not know that one who is an adulterer is not therefore a
murderer, a thief, and a false witness, and does not wish to be? But
one who is an adulterer from purpose and confirmation makes all
things of religion to be of no account, and so makes nothing of
murder, theft, and false witness, and abstains from them, not
because they are sins but because he fears the law and the loss of
his reputation. That adulterers from purpose and confirmation
account the sacred things of the church and of religion as of no
value may be seen above and in the two Relations. It is the same if
from purpose or confirmation one acts against any other commandment
of the Decalogue; because, not reputing anything as a sin, he acts
also against the rest.
The same is the case with those who
are in good from the Lord. If from will and understanding, or
purpose and confirmation, they abstain from one evil because it is a
sin, and still more if they abstain from several, they abstain from
all; for as soon as one from purpose or confirmation abstains from
any evil because it is a sin, he is held by the Lord in the purpose
of abstaining from the rest. Therefore, if he does evil from
ignorance or from some prevailing concupiscence of the body, it is
not imputed to him because he did not propose it to himself and does
not confirm it with himself. A man comes into this purpose if once
or twice a year he examines himself and repents of the evil which he
finds in himself. Not so with one who never examines himself. From
this it is manifest who it is to whom sin is not imputed, and who it
is to whom it is imputed.
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