THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
"Thou shalt not make to thee other
gods" includes not loving self and the world above all things; for
that which one loves above all things is his god. There are two
directly opposite loves, love of self and love to God, also love of
the world and love of heaven. He who loves himself loves his own
[proprium]; and as a man's own [proprium] is nothing but evil he
also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil hates
good, and thus hates God. He who loves himself above all things
sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own
[proprium], and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and
when one is sunk in the body and in his own [proprium] he is in
corporeal ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body,
and thus in thick darkness as to higher things; while he who is
raised up by the Lord is in light. He who is not in the light of
heaven but in thick darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies
God and acknowledges as god either nature or some man, or some idol,
and even aspires to be himself worshiped as a god. From this it
follows that he who loves himself above all things worships other
gods. The same is true, but in a less degree, of one who loves the
world; for there cannot be so great a love of the world as of one's
own [proprium]; therefore the world is loved because of one's own,
and for the sake of one's own, because it is serviceable to it. The
love of self means especially the love of domineering over others
from the mere delight in ruling and for the sake of eminence, and
not from the delight in uses and for the sake of the public good;
while the love of the world means especially the love of possessing
goods in the world from the mere delight in possession and for the
sake of riches, and not from the delight in uses from these and for
the sake of the good therefrom. These loves are both of them without
limit, and rush on to infinity so far as opportunity is given.
It is not believed in the world
that the love of ruling from the mere delight of ruling, and the
love of possessing goods from the mere delight of possession, and
not from the delight of uses, conceal in themselves all evils, and
also a contempt for and rejection of all things pertaining to heaven
and the church; and for the reason that man is stirred up by the
love of self and the love of the world to doing good to the church,
the country, society, and the neighbor, by making good deeds
honorable and looking for reward. Therefore this love is called by
many the fire of life, and the incitement to great things. But it is
to be known that so far as these two loves regard uses in the first
place and self in the second they are good, while so far as they
regard self in the first place and uses in the second they are evil,
since man then does all things for the sake of self and consequently
from self, and thus in every least thing he does there is self and
what is his own [proprium], which regarded in itself is nothing but
evil. But to regard uses in the first place and self in the second
is to do good for the sake of the church, the country, society, and
the neighbor; and the goods that man does to these for the sake of
these are not from man but from the Lord. The difference between
these two is like the difference between heaven and hell. Man does
not know that there is such a difference, because from birth and
thus from nature he is in these loves, and because the delight of
these loves continually flatters and pleases him.
But let him consider that the love
of ruling from the delight of ruling, and not from the delight of
uses, is wholly devilish; and such a man may be called an atheist;
for so far as he is in that love he does not in his heart believe in
the existence of God, and to the same extent he derides in his heart
all things of the church, and even hates and pursues with hatred all
who acknowledge God, and especially those who acknowledge the Lord.
The very delight of their life is to do evil and to commit wicked
and infamous deeds of every kind. In a word, they are very devils.
This a man does not know so long as he lives in the world; but he
will know that it is so when he comes into the spiritual world, as
he does immediately after death. Hell is full of such, where instead
of having dominion they are in servitude. Moreover, when they are
looked at in the light of heaven they appear inverted, with the head
downwards and the feet upwards, since they gave rule the first place
and uses the second, and that which is in the first place is the
head, and that which is the second is the feet; and that which is
the head is loved, but that which is the feet is trampled upon.
He is deceived who supposes that he
acknowledges and believes that there is a God before he abstains
from the evils forbidden in the Decalogue, especially from the love
of ruling from the delight in ruling, and from the love of
possessing the goods of the world from the delight of possession,
and not from the delight of uses. Let a man confirm himself as fully
as he can, from the Word, from preachings, from books, and from the
light of reason, that there is a God, and thus be persuaded that he
believes, yet he does not believe unless the evils have been removed
that spring from the love of self and of the world. The reason is
that evils and their delights block up the way, and shut out and
repel goods and their delights from heaven, and prevent their
confirmation. And until heaven is confirmed there is only a faith of
the lips, which in itself is no faith, and there is no faith of the
heart, which is real faith. A faith of the lips is faith in
externals, a faith of the heart is faith in internals; and if the
internals are crowded with evils of every kind, when the externals
are taken away (as they are with every man after death), man rejects
from them even the faith that there is a God.
So far as a man resists his own two
loves, which are the love of ruling from the mere delight of ruling
and the love of possessing the goods of the world from the mere
delight of possession, thus so far as he shuns as sins the evils
forbidden in the Decalogue, so far there flows in through heaven
from the Lord, that there is a God, who is the Creator and Preserver
of the universe, yea also that God is one. This then flows in for
the reason that when evils have been removed heaven is opened, and
when heaven is opened man no longer thinks from self but from the
Lord through heaven; and that there is a God and that God is one is
the universal principle in heaven which comprises all things. That
from influx alone man knows, and as it were sees that God is one, is
evident from the common confession of all nations, and from a
repugnance to thinking that there are many gods. Man's interior
thought, which is the thought of his spirit, is either from hell or
from heaven; it is from hell before evils have been removed, but
from heaven, when they have been removed. When this thought is from
hell man sees no otherwise than that nature is God, and that the
inmost of nature is what is called the Divine. When such a man after
death becomes a spirit he calls anyone a god who is especially
powerful; and also himself strives for power that he may be called a
god. All the evil have such madness lurking inwardly in their
spirit. But when a man thinks from heaven, as he does when evils
have been removed, he sees from the light in heaven that there is a
God and that He is one. Seeing from light out of heaven is what is
meant by influx.
When a man shuns and turns away
from evils because they are sins, he not only sees from the light of
heaven that God is and that God is one, but also that God is Man.
For he wishes to see his God, and he is incapable of seeing Him
otherwise than as Man. Thus did the ancients before Abraham and
after him see God; thus do the nations in countries outside the
church see God from an interior perception, especially those who are
interiorly wise although not from knowledges; thus do all little
children and youths and simple well-disposed adults see God; and
thus do the inhabitants of all earths see God; for they declare that
what is invisible, since it does not come into an idea, does not
come into faith. The reason of this is that the man who shuns and
turns away from evils as sins thinks from heaven; and the whole
heaven, and everyone there, has no other idea of God than as that of
Man; nor can he have any other idea, since the whole heaven is a man
in the largest form, and the Divine that proceeds from the Lord is
what makes heaven; consequently to think otherwise of God than
according to that Divine form, which is the human form, is
impossible to angels, since angelic thoughts pervade heaven. (That
the whole heaven in the complex answers to one Man may be seen in
the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 51-86; and that the angels think
according to the form of heaven, n. 200-212.)
This idea of God flows in from
heaven with all in the world, and has its seat in their spirit; but
it seems to be rooted out with those in the church who are in
intelligence from what is their own [proprium], indeed so rooted out
as to be no longer a possible idea; and this for the reason that
they think of God from space. But when these become spirits they
think otherwise, as has been made evident to me by much experience.
For in the spiritual world an indeterminate idea of God is no idea
of Him; consequently the idea there is determined to someone who has
his seat either on high or elsewhere, and who gives answers. From
the general influx which is from the spiritual world men have
received ideas of God as Man variously according to the state of
perception; and for this reason the triune God is with us called
Persons; and in paintings in churches God the Father is represented
as Man, the Ancient of Days. It is also from a general influx that
men, both living and dead, who are called saints, are adored as gods
by the common people in Christian Gentilism, and their sculptured
images are loved. The same is true of many nations elsewhere, of the
ancient peoples in Greece, in Rome, and in Asia, who had many gods,
all of whom were regarded by them as men. This has been said to make
known that there is an intuition, namely, in man's spirit, to see
God as Man. That is called an intuition which is from general
influx.
As man from a general influx out of
heaven sees in his spirit that God is Man, it follows that those who
are of the church where the Word is, if they shun and turn away from
evils as sins, see, from the light of heaven in which they then are,
the Divine in the Lord's Human, and the trine in Him, and Himself to
be the God of heaven and earth. But those cannot see this who by
intelligence from what is their own [proprium] have destroyed in
themselves the idea of God as Man; neither do they see from the
trinity that is in their thought that God is one; they call Him one
with the lips only. But those who have not been purified from evils,
and therefore are not in the light of heaven, do not in their spirit
see the Lord to be the God of heaven and earth; but in place of the
Lord some other being is acknowledged; by some of these someone whom
they believe to be God the Father; by others someone whom they call
God because he is especially powerful; by others some devil whom
they fear because he can bring evil upon them; by others nature, as
in the world; and by others no God at all. It is said "in their
spirit," because they are such after death when they become spirits;
therefore what lay concealed in their spirit in the world then
becomes manifest. But all who are in heaven acknowledge the Lord
only, since the whole heaven is from the Divine that proceeds from
Him, and relates to Him as Man; and for this reason no one can enter
heaven unless he is in the Lord, for he enters into the Lord when he
enters into heaven. If others enter they become impotent in mind and
fall backwards.
The idea of God is the primary of
all ideas; for such as this idea is such is man's communication with
heaven and his conjunction with the Lord, and such is his
enlightenment, his affection of truth and good, his perception,
intelligence, and wisdom; for these are not from man but from the
Lord according to conjunction with Him. The idea of God is the idea
of the Lord and His Divine, for no other is the God of heaven and
the God of earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew:
All authority has been given
unto Me in heaven and on earth (28:18).
But the idea of the Lord is more or
less full and more or less clear; it is full in the inmost heaven,
less full in the middle, and still less full in the ultimate heaven;
therefore those who are in the inmost heaven are in wisdom, those
who are in the middle in intelligence, and those who are in the
ultimate in knowledge. The idea is clear in the angels who are at
the center of the societies of heaven; and less clear in those who
are round about, according to the degrees of distance from the
center.
All in the heavens have places
allotted them according to the fullness and clearness of their idea
of the Lord, and they are in correspondent wisdom and in
correspondent felicity. All those who have no idea of the Lord as
Divine, like the Socinians and Arians, are under the heavens, and
are unhappy. Those who have a twofold idea, namely, of an invisible
God and of a visible God in a human form, also have their place
under the heavens, and are not received until they acknowledge one
God, and Him visible. Some in the place of a visible God see as it
were something aerial, and this because God is called a spirit. If
this idea is not changed with them into the idea of Man, thus of the
Lord, they are not accepted. But those who have an idea of God as
the inmost of nature are rejected, because they cannot help falling
into the idea of nature as being God. All nations that have believed
in one God, and have had an idea of Him as Man, are received by the
Lord. From all this it can be seen who those are that worship God
Himself and who those are that worship other gods, thus who live
according to the first commandment of the Decalogue and who do not.
Apocalypse Explained 950 - 957
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