The Gist of Swedenborg Part 2

Man inclines to the nature he derives hereditarily, and lapses into it. Thus he strengthens any evil in it, and also adds others of himself. These evils are quite opposed to the spiritual life. They destroy it. Unless, therefore, a man receives new life from the Lord, which is spiritual life, he is condemned; for he wills nothing else and thinks nothing else than concerns him and the world.

--_Heavenly Doctrine, n._ 176

LOVES OF SELF AND THE WORLD

The reason why the love of self and the love of the world are infernal loves, and yet man has been able to come into them, and thus to ruin will and understanding in him, is as follows: By creation the love of self and the love of the world are heavenly loves; for they are loves of the natural man serving his spiritual loves, as a foundation does a house. From the love of self and the world, a man wishes well by his body, desires food, clothing and habitation, takes thought for his household, seeks occupation to be useful, wishes also for obedience's sake to be honored according to the dignity of the thing he does, and to be delighted and recreated by the pleasures of the world;--yet all this for the sake of the end, which must be use. By this a man is in position to serve the Lord and to serve the neighbor. But when there is no love of serving the Lord and the neighbor, but only a love of serving oneself at the world's hands, then from being heavenly that love becomes infernal, for it causes a man to sink mind and character in his _proprium_, or what is his own, which in itself is the whole of evil.

--_Divine Love and Wisdom, n._ 396

THE NEED FOR SELF-ACTION

No one can cleanse himself of evils by his own power and abilities; but neither can this be done without the power and abilities of the man, used as his own. If this strength were not to all appearance his own, no one would be able to fight against the flesh and its l.u.s.ts, which, nevertheless, is enjoined upon all men. He would not think of combat. Because man is a rational being, he must resist evils from the power and the abilities given him by the Lord, which appear to him as his own; an appearance that is granted for the sake of regeneration, imputation, conjunction, and salvation.

--_True Christian Religion, n._ 438

THE WARFARE OF REGENERATION

"Blessed be the Lord my strength, Who teacheth my hands to war, And my fingers to fight: My goodness, and my fortress; My high tower and my deliverer; My shield, and He in whom I trust; Who subdueth my people under me."

--_Psalm,_ CXLIV, 1, 2

"TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH"

Because man is reformed by conflicts with the evils of his flesh and by victories over them, the Son of Man says to each of the seven Churches, that He will give gifts "to him that overcometh."

--_True Christian Religion, n._ 610

Without moral struggle no one is regenerated, and many spiritual wrestlings succeed one after another. For, inasmuch as regeneration has for its end that the life of the old man may die and the new and heavenly life be implanted, there will unfailingly be combat. The life of the old man resists and is unwilling to be extinguished, and the life of the new man cannot enter, except where the life of the old has been extinguished. From this it is plain that there is combat, and ardent combat, because for life.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 8403

REPENTANCE AND THE REMISSION OF SINS

He who would be saved, must confess his sins, and do repentance. _To confess sins_ is to know evils, to see them in oneself, to acknowledge them, to make oneself guilty and condemn oneself on account of them.

Done before G.o.d, this is to confess sins. _To do repentance_ is to desist from sins after one has thus confessed them and from a humble heart has besought forgiveness, and then to live a new life according to the precepts of charity and faith.

He who merely acknowledges generally that he is a sinner, making himself guilty of all evils, without examining himself,--that is, without seeing his sins,--makes a confession but not the confession of repentance. Inasmuch as he does not know his evils, he lives as before.

One who lives the life of charity and faith does repentance daily. He reflects upon the evils in him, acknowledges them, guards against them, and beseeches the Lord for help. For of oneself one continually lapses toward evil; but he is continually raised up by the Lord and led to good.

Repentance of the mouth and not of the life is not repentance. Nor are sins pardoned on repentance of the mouth, but on repentance of the life. Sins are constantly pardoned man by the Lord, for He is mercy itself; but still they adhere to man, however he supposes they have been remitted. Nor are they removed from him save by a life according to the precepts of true faith. So far as he lives according to these precepts, sins are removed; and so far as they are removed, so far they are remitted.

--_Heavenly Doctrine, nn._ 159-165

TEMPTATION AND PRAYER

When a man shuns evils as sins, he flees them because they are contrary to the Lord and to His Divine laws; and then he prays to the Lord for help and for power to resist them--a power which is never denied when it is asked. By these two means a man is cleansed of evils. He cannot be cleansed of evils if he only looks to the Lord and prays; for then, after he has prayed, he believes that he is quite without sins, or that they have been forgiven, by which he understands that they are taken away. But then he still remains in them; and to remain in them is to increase them. Nor are evils removed only by shunning them; for then the man looks to himself, and thereby strengthens the origin of evil, which was that he turned himself back from the Lord and turned to himself.

--_The Doctrine Concerning Charity, n._ 146

THE GREAT ARENA

In temptations the h.e.l.ls fight against man, and the Lord for him. To every falsity which the h.e.l.ls inject, there is an answer from the Divine. The falsities inflow into the outward man, the answer into the inward man, coming to perception scarcely otherwise than as hope, and the resulting consolation, in which, however, there is a mult.i.tude of things of which the man is unaware.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 8159

In temptations a man is left, to all appearance, to himself alone; yet he has not been left alone, for G.o.d is then most present in his inmost being, and upholds him. When anyone overcomes in temptation, therefore, he enters into closer union with G.o.d.

--_True Christian Religion, n._ 126

"BY LITTLE AND LITTLE"

When man is being regenerated, he is not regenerated speedily but slowly. The reason is that all things which he has thought, purposed and done since infancy, have added themselves to his life and have come to const.i.tute it. They have also formed such a connection among themselves that no one thing can be removed unless all are at the same time. Regeneration, or the implantation of the life of heaven in man, begins in his infancy, and continues to the last of his life in the world, and is perfected to eternity.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 9334

A NEW MAN

When a man is regenerated, he becomes altogether another, and a new, man. While his appearance and his speech are the same, yet his mind is not; for his mind is then open toward heaven, and there dwell in it love for the Lord, and charity toward the neighbor, together with faith. It is the mind which makes another and a new man. The change of state cannot be perceived in man's body, but in his spirit. When it [the body] is put off then his spirit appears, and in altogether another form, too, when he has been regenerated; for it has then a form of love and charity with inexpressible beauty, in the place of the earlier form, which was one of hatred and cruelty with a deformity also inexpressible.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 3212

CHILDHOOD

"It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."

--_Matthew_, XVIII, 14

Never could a man live,--certainly not as a human being,--unless he had in himself something vital, that is, some innocence, neighborly love, and mercy. This a man receives from the Lord in infancy and childhood. What he receives then is treasured up in him, and is called in the Word the _remnant_ or _remains_, which are of the Lord alone with him, and they make it possible for him truly to be a man on reaching adult age. These states are the elements of his regeneration, and he is led into them; for the Lord works by means of them. These _remains_ are also called "the living soul" in all flesh.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 1050

All states of innocence from infancy on, of love toward parents, brothers, teachers and friends; of charity to the neighbor, and also of mercy to the poor and needy; all states of goodness and truth, with their goods and truths, impressed on; the memory, are preserved in man by the Lord, and are stored up unconsciously to himself in his internal man, and are carefully kept from evils and falsities. They are all so preserved by the Lord that not the smallest of them is lost. Every state from infancy even to extreme old age not only _remains_ in another life, but also returns. Returning, these states are such as they were during a man's abode in the world. Not only the goods and truths, stored up in the memory, remain and return, but likewise all the states of innocence and charity; and when states of evil and the false, or of wickedness and phantasy recur, these latter states are attempered by the former through the Divine operation of the Lord.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 561