From Being Natural — To Becoming Spiritual
Three Things Must Be Considered
Selection from
ANGELIC WISDOM
CONCERNING
THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Translated from the Latin of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
It is by means of these two faculties—rationality and liberty—that man is reformed and regenerated by
the Lord; and without them he cannot be reformed and regenerated. The Lord
teaches that:-
Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God
(John 3: 3, 5, 7).
But very few know what it is to be born again or
regenerated, for the reason that it has not been known what love and charity
are, nor, therefore, what faith is; for if one does not know what love and
charity are, he cannot know what faith is, since charity and faith make one,
like good and truth, and like affection which belongs to the will and thought
which belongs to the understanding. Respecting this union, see the work on The
Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom (n. 427-431); also The Doctrine of the New
Jerusalem (n. 13-24); and above (Divine Providence n. 320).
No one can come into the kingdom of God unless he has been born again, for
the reason that man by inheritance from his parents is born into evils of
every kind, but with an ability to become spiritual by the removal of
those evils; and unless he becomes spiritual he cannot come into heaven.
From being natural to become spiritual is to be born again or regenerated.
But to know how man is regenerated these three things must be considered:
∙ what his first state is,
which is a state of damnation
∙ what his second state is,
which is a state of reformation
∙ what his third state is, which
is a state of regeneration.
Man's first state, which is a state of damnation, every one has by
inheritance from his parents; for man is thereby born into the love of
self and love of the world, and from these as fountains, into evils of
every kind. It is by the enjoyments of these loves that he is led; and
these enjoyments cause him not to know that he is in evils; for no
enjoyment of a love is felt otherwise than as a good: consequently unless
a man is regenerated he knows no otherwise than that to love himself and
the world above all things is goodness itself; and to rule over all, and
to possess the wealth of all, is the highest good. Moreover, this is the
source of all evil; for a man then from love looks to no one but himself;
or if from love he looks to another, it is as a devil looks to a devil, or
a thief to a thief, when they act together.
Those who, from the enjoyment of these loves confirm in themselves these
loves and the evils flowing from them, remain natural and become
corporeal-sensual, and in their own thought, which is the thought of their
spirit, are insane. Nevertheless, while they remain in the world they are
able to speak and act rationally and wisely, because they are men, and in
consequence possess rationality and liberty; but even this they do from
love of self and the world. After death, when they become spirits, they
are incapable of any other enjoyment than that which they had in spirit
while in the world; and that enjoyment is the enjoyment of infernal love,
which is then turned into what is undelightful, painful, and terrible; and
this is what is meant in the Word by torment and hell-fire. All this makes
clear that man's first state is a state of damnation, and that those are
in it who do not permit themselves to be regenerated.
Man's second state, which is the state of reformation, is that in
which he begins to think about heaven with reference to the joy of heaven,
and from this about God, who is to him the source of heavenly joy. But at
first this thought springs from the enjoyment of love of self, which
enjoyment is to him heavenly joy. And as long as the enjoyment of that
love reigns, together with the enjoyments of the evils that flow from it,
he must needs think that he draws near to heaven by pouring out prayers,
listening to preaching, going to the Holy Supper, giving to the poor,
helping the needy, spending money on churches, contributing to hospitals,
and so on. A man in this state knows no otherwise than that he is saved by
mere thought about those things which religion teaches, whether it be what
is called faith, or what is called faith and charity. He has no other idea
than that he is saved by so thinking, because he gives no thought to the
evils that he finds enjoyment in, and as long as their enjoyments remain
the evils remain. The enjoyments of evil are from lust for them that
continually inspires them, and also when no fear prevents, brings them
forth.
So long as evils continue in the lusts of their love, and the consequent
enjoyments, there is no faith, charity, piety or worship except in mere
externals, which to the world seem real, and yet are not. These may be
compared to water issuing from an impure fountain, which no one can drink.
Man continues in the first state as long as he thinks from religion about
heaven and about God, and yet gives no thought to evils as sins; but he
comes into the second state, or the state of reformation, when he begins
to think that there is such a thing as sin; and still more when he thinks
that this or that is a sin, and when he examines it in himself to some
extent, and refrains from willing it.
Man's third state, which is a state of regeneration, takes up and
continues the former state. It begins when man refrains from evils as
sins, and it progresses as he shuns them, and is perfected as he fights
against them; and as he from the Lord conquers them he is regenerated.
With one who is regenerated the order of life is reversed; from being
natural he becomes spiritual; for when the natural is separated from the
spiritual it is contrary to order, while the spiritual is in accordance
with order. Consequently the regenerate man acts from charity; and
whatever belongs to his charity he makes to be of his faith also. Yet he
becomes spiritual only so far as he is in truths; for man is regenerated
only by means of truths and a life in accordance with them; for by means
of truths he knows what life is, and by means of the life he does the
truths, and thus he conjoins good and truth, which is the spiritual
marriage in which heaven is.
By means of these two faculties, called rationality and liberty, man is
reformed and regenerated, and without them he cannot be reformed and
regenerated, for it is by means of rationality that he is able to
understand and know what is evil and what is good, and thus what is false
and what is true; and it is by means of liberty that he is able to will
what he understands and knows. But so long as enjoyment from the love of
evil rules he is not able to will freely what is good and true and to make
these to be of his reason, and cannot therefore appropriate them to
himself. For, as shown above, it is that which a man does from freedom in
accordance with reason that is appropriated to him as his; and unless good
and truth are appropriated as his, man is not reformed and regenerated.
Again, man does not act from an enjoyment of the love of good and truth
until the enjoyment from the love of evil and falsity has been removed;
for two kinds of enjoyment from love that are opposites are not possible
at the same time. Acting from an enjoyment of love is acting from freedom;
and since reason favors the love, this is also acting in accordance with
reason.
As the evil man as well as the
good man has rationality and liberty, so the evil man as well as the good
man is able to understand truth and do good; but while the good man is
able to do this from freedom in accordance with reason, the evil man is
not; because the evil man is in the enjoyment of the love of evil, while
the good man is in the enjoyment of the love of good. Consequently the
truth that the evil man understands and the good that he does are not
appropriated to him, while to the good man good and truth are
appropriated, and without appropriation as one's own there is no
reformation nor regeneration. For in the wicked, evils with falsities are
as it were in the center, while goods with truths are in the
circumferences; but in the good, goods with truths are in the center and
evils with falsities are in the circumferences; and in both cases that
which is at the center flows out even to the circumferences, as heat from
a central fire, or as cold from a central frigidity. Thus in the evil the
goods in the circumferences are defiled by the evils at the center; while
in the good, the evils in the circumferences are moderated by the goods at
the center. This is why evils do not damn the regenerate man, and goods do
not save the unregenerate man.
(The Divine
Providence 82 - 86)
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