TCR 392. Having treated of faith, charity now follows, because faith and charity are conjoined like truth and good, and these two like light and heat in spring. This is said because spiritual light, which is the light that goes forth from the sun of the spiritual world, is in its essence truth; and consequently in that world wherever truth appears, it shines with a splendor proportionate to its purity; and spiritual heat, which also goes forth from that sun, in its essence is good. This too is said because it is the same with charity and faith as with good and truth; for charity is the complex of all things pertaining to the good that a man does to his neighbor, while faith is the complex of all things pertaining to the truth that a man thinks respecting God and things Divine.

[2] As, therefore, the truth of faith is spiritual light, and the good of charity spiritual heat, it follows that it is the same with that light and heat as with the light and heat of the natural world, that is to say, as by the conjunction of the latter all things on earth spring forth, so by the conjunction of the former all things spring forth in the human mind; but with the distinction that on the earth this growth is effected by natural heat and light, but in the human mind it is effected by spiritual heat and light, and this latter being spiritual, is wisdom and intelligence. Moreover, as there is a correspondence between these, the human mind in which charity is conjoined with faith and faith with charity is in the Word likened to a garden, and this is what is meant by the garden of Eden. (This has been fully shown in the Arcana Coelestia, published in London.)

[3] Again, having treated of faith, charity must be treated of for the further reason that otherwise what faith is could not be comprehended, since, as stated and shown in the preceding chapter, faith without charity is not faith, nor is charity without faith charity, and neither of them is living except from the Lord (n. 355-361); also that the Lord, charity, and faith make one, like life, will, and understanding, and if they are divided, each perishes, like a pearl reduced to powder (n. 362-367); and finally, that charity and faith are together in good works (n. 373-378).

TCR 393. It is an unchanging truth, that, for man to have spiritual life, and therefore salvation, faith and charity must not be separated. This is self-evident to any man's understanding, even if it is not enriched with the treasures of learning. When one hears it said, that whoever lives well and believes aright is saved, does he not see this from a kind of interior perception and therefore assent to it with his understanding? And when he hears it said that he who believes aright and does not live well is also saved, does he not reject it from his understanding, as he would a piece of dirt falling into his eye? For from interior perception the thought instantly occurs, How can anyone believe aright when he does not live well? In that case, what is believing but a painted picture of faith, and not its living image? So again, if anyone hears it said, that whoever lives well is saved, although he does not believe, does not the understanding, while reflecting upon this or turning it over and over, see, perceive and think, that this also is not consistent, since right living is from God, because all good that is essentially good is from God? What then is living aright and not believing, but like clay in the hands of a potter, which cannot be formed into a vessel that would he of use in the spiritual kingdom, but only in the natural? Furthermore, cannot anyone see a contradiction in these two statements, namely, that he is saved who believes but does not live well, and that he is saved who lives well but does not believe? Since, then, living well, which pertains to charity, is at this day both understood and not understood-living well naturally being understood, while living well spiritually is not-therefore this subject, because it pertains to charity, shall be treated of, and this shall be done under a series of distinct propositions.

TCR 394. These three loves must first be considered for the reason that these three are the universal and fundamental of all loves, and that charity has something in common with each of them. For the love of heaven means both love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; and as each of these looks to use as its end, the love of heaven may be called the love of uses. The love of the world is not merely a love of wealth and possessions, but is also a love of all that the world affords, and of all that delights the bodily senses, as beauty delights the eye, harmony the ear, fragrance the nostrils, delicacies the tongue, softness the skin; also becoming dress, convenient houses, and society, thus all the enjoyments arising from these and many other objects. The love of self is not merely the love of honor, glory, fame, and eminence, but also the love of meriting and seeking office, and so of ruling over others. Charity has some thing in common with each of these three loves, because viewed in itself charity is the love of uses; for charity wishes to do good to the neighbor, and good and use are the same, and from these loves everyone looks to uses as his end; the love of heaven looking to spiritual uses, the love of the world to natural uses, which may be called civil, and the love of self to corporeal uses, which may also be called domestic uses, that have regard to oneself and one's own.

TCR 395. That these three loves reside in every man from creation and therefore from birth, and that when rightly subordinated they perfect him, and when not, they pervert him, will be shown in the next article. It may serve for the present merely to state, that these three loves are rightly subordinated when the love of heaven forms the head, the love of the world the breast and abdomen, and the love of self the feet and their soles. As repeatedly stated above, the human mind is divided into three regions. From the highest region man looks to God, from the second or middle region to the world, and from the third or lowest to himself. The mind being such it can be raised and can raise itself upward, because to God and to heaven; it can be extended and can extend itself to the sides in all directions, because into the world and its nature; and it can be let downward and let itself downward, because to earth and to hell. In these respects the bodily vision emulates the mind's vision; it also can look upward, round about, and downward.

[2] The human mind is like a house of three stories which communicate by stairs, in the highest of which angels from heaven dwell, in the middle men in the world, and in the lowest one, genii. The man in whom these three loves are rightly subordinated can ascend and descend in this house at his pleasure; and when he ascends to the highest story, he is in company with angels as an angel; and when he descends from that to the middle story he is in company with men as an angel man; and when from this he descends still further, he is in company with genii as a man of the world, instructing, reproving, and subduing them.

[3] In the man in whom these three loves are rightly subordinated, they are also coordinated thus: The highest love, which is the love of heaven, is inwardly in the second, which is the love of the world, and through this in the third or lowest, which is the love of self; and the love that is within directs at its will that which is without. So when the love of heaven is inwardly in the love of the world and through this in the love of self, man from the God of heaven, performs uses in each. In their operation these three loves are like will, understanding, and action; the will flows into the understanding, and there provides itself with the means whereby it produces action. But on these points more will be seen in the following article, where it will be shown that these three loves, when rightly subordinated, perfect man, but when not rightly subordinated, pervert and invert him.

TCR 396. But in order that what follows in this and the succeeding chapters on Freedom of choice, on Reformation, on Regeneration, and so forth, may be so presented in the light of reason as to be clearly seen, it is necessary to premise something respecting the will and understanding, good and truth, love in general, the love of the world and love of self in particular, the external and internal man, and the merely natural and sensual man. These things must be made clear, that the rational sight of man, in his perception of what follows further on, may not be as it were in a dense fog, and in that state be like one wandering through the streets of a city until he knows not the way home. For what is theology separated from the understanding, or with the understanding not enlightened when the Word is read, but like a lamp in the hand giving no light, such as were those of the five foolish virgins who had no oil? On each of these subjects, then, in their order.

TCR 397. (1) The will and understanding.

1. Man has two faculties which constitute his life; one called the will and the other the understanding. These are distinct from each other, but so created as to be one, and when they are one they are called the mind; consequently these are the human mind, and in them the whole of man's life resides in its principles, and therefrom in the body.

2. As all things in the universe which are according to order, have relation to good and truth, so all things in man have relation to the will and understanding; since good in man pertains to the will, and truth to the understanding; for these two faculties or these two lives of man are their receptacles and subjects--the will being the receptacle and subject of all things of good, and the understanding the receptacle and subject of all things of truth. Here and nowhere else are the goods and truths in man, and as goods and truths in man are nowhere else, so love and faith are nowhere else, since love belongs to good and good to love, while faith belongs to truth and truth to faith.

3. Again, the will and understanding constitute man's spirit, for in these his wisdom and intelligence reside, also his love and charity, and in general his life. The body is mere obedience.

4. Nothing is more important than to know how the will and understanding make one mind. They make one mind as good and truth make one; for there is a marriage between the will and the understanding the same as between good and truth. The nature of that marriage will be made clear in what is now to be set forth respecting good and truth--namely, that as good is the very being (esse) of a thing, and truth its manifestation (existere) therefrom, so is the will in man the very being of his life, while the understanding is its manifestation therefrom; for good, which belongs to the will, takes form in the understanding, and there presents itself to view.

TCR 398. (2) Good and truth.

1. All things in the universe that are in Divine order have relation to good and truth; for nothing can exist in heaven or in the world that does not have relation to these two. This is because both of these, good as well as truth, go forth from God from whom are all things.

[2] 2. From this it is clear that it is necessary for man to know what good is and what truth is, how the one has regard to the other and how the one is conjoined with the other; and this is especially necessary for the man of the church, since all things of the church have relation to good and truth, just as all things of heaven do, because the good and truth of heaven are also the good and truth of the church.

[3] 3. It is according to Divine order for good and truth to be conjoined and not separated, thus that they be one and not two; for they are conjoined when they go forth from God and are conjoined in heaven, and therefore must be conjoined in the church. The conjunction of good and truth is called in heaven the heavenly marriage, for all who are there are in that marriage. For this reason in the Word heaven is likened to a marriage, and the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband, and heaven, and likewise the church, the bride and wife. Heaven and the church are so called because those who are there receive the Divine good in truths.

[4] 4. All the intelligence and wisdom that the angels have is from that marriage, and nothing thereof is from good separated from truth, or from truth separated from good. It is the same with the men of the church.

[5] 5. Since the conjunction of good and truth is like a marriage, it is evident that good loves truth, and that truth in turn loves good, and that each desires to be conjoined with the other. The man of the church who has no such love and no such desire is not in the heavenly marriage; therefore the church is not yet in him, since the conjunction of good and truth is what constitutes the church.

[6] 6. Goods are manifold. In general there is spiritual good and there is natural good, and also the two conjoined in genuine moral good. As with goods so with truths, since truths are of good and are forms of good.

[7] 7. As with good and truth, so is it in an opposite way with evil and falsity; that is, as all things in the universe that are in accordance with Divine order have relation to good and truth, so do all things contrary to Divine order have relation to evil and falsity. Again, as good loves to be conjoined with truth, and truth with good, so does evil love to be conjoined with falsity and falsity with evil. And further, as all intelligence and wisdom is born from the conjunction of good and truth, so is all irrationality and folly born from the conjunction of evil and falsity. The conjunction of evil and falsity viewed interiorly is not marriage but adultery.

[8] 8. From the fact that evil and falsity are the opposites of good and truth, it is clear that truth cannot be conjoined with evil, nor good with the falsity of evil. If truth is joined to evil it comes to be no longer truth, but falsity, because it is falsified; and if good is joined to the falsity of evil it comes to be no longer good, but evil, because it is adulterated. But falsity that is not the falsity of evil may be joined to good.

[9] 9. No one who is in evil and therefrom in falsity by confirmation and life, can know what good and truth are, for he believes his own evil to be good, and therefore his own falsity to be truth; but everyone who is in good, and therefrom in truth by confirmation and life, can know what evil and falsity are. This is because all good and its truth are in their essence heavenly, while all evil and its falsity are in their essence infernal, and everything heavenly is in light, but everything infernal in darkness.

TCR 399. (3) Love in general.

1. The very life of man is his love, and as his love is such is his life, such even is the whole man; but it is the dominant or ruling love that makes the man. This love has many loves subordinate to it which are derivations from it; and while these are in appearance different loves, yet they are everyone included in the dominant love, and with it form one kingdom. The dominant love is like the king and head of the others; it directs them, and through them as mediate ends it looks to and is intent upon its own end (which is the first and last of all), and this both directly and indirectly.

[2] 2. What belongs to the dominant love is what is loved above all things. That which man loves above all things is constantly present in his thought, because it is in his will and constitutes his veriest life. For example, one who loves wealth above all things, whether money or possessions, is constantly studying how to acquire it, is inmostly delighted when he gets it, and inmostly grieved when be loses it. His heart is in it. He who loves himself above all things is mindful of himself in every least thing, thinks about himself, talks about himself, acts in his own behalf, for his life is the life of self.

[3] 3. What a man loves above all things is his end; that he looks to in all things and in every single thing. In his will it is like the latent current of a river, which draws and bears him away even when he is doing something else, for it is that which influences him. This it is that one man searches out and discovers in another, and thereby either controls him or acts with him.

[4] 4. Man is wholly such as is that which is dominant in his life. By this he is distinguished from others; according to it his heaven is formed if he is good, and his hell if he is evil; it is his very will, his very own (proprium), and his very nature, for it is the very being (esse) of his life. This cannot be changed after death, for it is the man himself.

[5] 5. Everything that gives delight, satisfaction, and happiness to anyone is wholly from his dominant love, and is in accordance with it; for that which he loves man calls delightful because he feels it to be so. What he thinks about and yet does not love, he may also call delightful, but it is not the delight of his life. The delight of a man's love is to him good, and what is undelightful is to him evil.

[6] 6. There are two loves, from which, as from their very fountains, all goods and truths spring; and there are two loves from which all evils and falsities spring. The two loves from which are all goods and truths are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, while the two loves from which are all evils and falsities are the love of self and the love of the world. When the two latter loves are dominate they are entirely opposite to the two former.

[7] 7. The two loves from which are all goods and truths, which, as has been said, are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, constitute heaven in man, for these rule in heaven; and because they constitute heaven in man they also constitute the church in him. The two loves from which are all evils and falsities, which, as has been said, are the love of self and the love of the world, constitute hell in man, for they rule in hell; and consequently they destroy the church in man.

[8] 8. The two loves from which are all goods and truths, which, as before said, are the loves of heaven, open and form the internal, spiritual man, because they reside there, but the two loves from which are all evils and falsities, which, as before said, are the loves of hell, when they predominate, close and destroy the internal spiritual man, and render man natural and sensual according to the extent and nature of their dominion over him.

TCR 400. (4) Love of self and love of the world in particular.

1. The love of self is wishing well to oneself only, and not to others except for the sake of self, not even to the church, one's country, any human society, or to a fellow-citizen; it is also doing good to them solely for the sake of one's own reputation, honor, and glory; and when these are not perceived in the good done to others, saying in one's heart, "What matters it? Why should I do this? What will I gain by it?"-and so leaving it undone. This makes evident that he who is in the love of self does not love the church, or his country, or society, or his fellow-citizen, or anything truly good, but only himself and his own.

[2] 2. Man is in the love of self, when he has no regard for the neighbor in what he thinks and does, thus no regard for the public, still less for the Lord, but only for himself and those who belong to him, and therefore does everything for the sake of himself and those who belong to him, or if for the public's sake, it is for appearance only, or if for the neighbor, it is to obtain his favor.

[3] 3. It is said, for the sake of himself and those who belong to him; for he who loves himself loves also those who belong to him, who are especially his children and grandchildren, and in general all who make one with him, whom he calls his own. Loving these is loving himself, for he regards them, as it were, in himself, and himself in them. Among those whom he calls his own are also included all who praise, and honor, and pay court to him. All others he indeed looks upon with his bodily eyes as men, but with the eyes of his spirit he scarcely regards them otherwise than as specters.

[4] 4. That man is in the love of self, who despises his neighbor in comparison with himself, and who regards his neighbor as an enemy if he does not favor him and does not venerate and pay court to him. Still more in the love of self is he who for these reasons hates his neighbor and persecutes him; and still more he who on this account burns with revenge against him and desires his destruction. Such at length love to be cruel.

[5] 5. The nature of the love of self can be made clear by comparison with heavenly love. Heavenly love is loving uses for the sake of the uses, or goods for the sake of the goods which a man does for the church, his country, human society, and the fellow-citizen. But he who loves these for his own sake, loves them only as he loves his household servants, because they serve him. From this it follows that he who is in the love of self, wishes the church, his country, society, and his fellow-citizens to serve him, instead of his serving them; he places himself above them, and them beneath himself.

[6] 6. Again, so far as anyone is in heavenly love, which is loving uses and goods and having a heartfelt delight in promoting them, so far he is led by the Lord, because that is the love in which the Lord is, and which is from Him. But so far as anyone is in the love of self, so far he is led by himself, and so far is led by what is his own (proprium); and man's own is nothing but evil, for it is his inherited evil, which is loving oneself more than God and the world more than heaven.

[7] 7. Moreover, the love of self is such, that so far as the reins are given to it, that is, so far as external bonds are removed, which are fear of the law and its penalties, of the loss of reputation, honor, wealth, office, or life, so far it rushes on until its desire is not only to rule over the whole world, but also over heaven, and even over God Himself. There is nowhere any limit or end to it. This lurks in everyone who is in the love of self, although it is not apparent before the world, where it is held in check by the reins and bonds just mentioned; and any such man, when the impossible blocks his way, remains quiet until the possible comes about. Because of all this the man who is in such a love is not aware that such an insane and limitless cupidity lurks within him. Nevertheless, that it is so, no one can help seeing in rulers and kings, to whom there are no such reins and bonds and impossibilities, who rush on and subjugate provinces and kingdoms, and so long as they are successful, aspire to unlimited power and glory. And still more is it visible in those who extend their dominion into heaven, and transfer to themselves the whole of the Lord's Divine power. These continually desire more.

[8] 8. There are two kinds of dominion; one of love towards the neighbor, and another of love of self. These two kinds of dominion are opposites. He who exercises dominion from love towards the neighbor, desires the good of all, and loves nothing better than to perform uses, thus to serve others. Serving others is doing good from good will, and performing uses. Such is his love, and the delight of his heart. Moreover, so far as he is elevated to dignities he rejoices in it, not on account of the dignities, but on account of the uses which he can then perform to a greater extent and in a higher degree. Such is dominion in the heavens. But he who exercises dominion from love of self desires the good of none but himself and his own. The uses he performs are for the sake of his own honor and glory, which to him are the only uses. His end in serving others is that he himself may be served and honored, and may rule. He seeks dignities not for the sake of the goods he may do, but in order that he may gain eminence and glory, and may thereby be in his heart's delight.

[9] 9. His love of dominion remains with everyone after his life in the world; but to those who have exercised dominion from love towards the neighbor there is also entrusted dominion in the heavens, and then it is not they who rule, but the uses and goods which they love; and when uses and goods rule, the Lord rules. But those who in the world exercised dominion from self-love, after their life in the world are made to abdicate, and are reduced to servitude. From all this it is known who these are who are in the love of self. It does not matter what they may seem to be externally, whether haughty or humble, since such things reside in the internal man, and, by most men, the internal man is kept hidden, while the external is trained to counterfeit what belongs to the love of the public and the neighbor, thus the contrary of what is within; and this too is done for the sake of self; for they know that loving the public and the neighbor interiorly affects all men, and that they to that extent gain esteem. This love thus affects men because heaven flows into it.

[10] 10. The evils that prevail with those who are in love of self are, in general, contempt of others, envy, enmity toward those who do not favor them, from which results hostility, hatred of various kinds, revenge, craft, deceit, unmercifulness, cruelty. And where such evils prevail, there is also a contempt of God, and of Divine things, which are the truths and goods of the church. If they honor these things, it is with the lips only, not with the heart. And because such evils are from love of self, like falsities are also from it; for falsities are from evils.

[11] 11. But love of the world is a desire to draw to oneself the wealth of others by any device whatever, to set the heart upon riches, and to permit the world to withdraw and lead one away from spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor, that is, from heaven. Those are in love of the world who long to draw to themselves the goods of others by various devices, but especially those who wish to do so by craft and deceit, caring nothing for the good of the neighbor. Those who are in that love covet the goods of others, and so far as they do not fear the law and the loss of reputation on account of the gain, they get possession of others' goods, and even plunder them.

[12] 12. But love of the world is not opposed to heavenly love to such a degree as the love of self is, because so great evils are not concealed within it,

[13] 13. This love is manifold. There is a love of wealth as a means of being raised to honors; a love of honors and dignities as means of acquiring wealth; a love of wealth for the sake of various uses that afford worldly pleasure; a love of wealth for the mere sake of wealth, such as the avaricious have; and so on. The end for the sake of which wealth is sought is called the use, and it is the end or use from which love draws its quality; for such as the end is for which anything is done, such is the love; all else serves it as means.

[14] 14. In a word, love of self and love of the world are directly opposite to love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor. Consequently love of self and love of the world, such as have just been described, are infernal loves, and these reign in hell, and also constitute hell in man. But love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor are heavenly loves, and these reign in heaven, and also constitute heaven in man.

TCR 401. (5) The internal and external man.

1. Man was created so as to be at the same time in the spiritual world and in the natural world. The spiritual world is where angels are, and the natural world where men are. And as man was so created, there was given him an internal and an external-an internal whereby he is in the spiritual world, and an external whereby he is in the natural world. His internal is what is called the internal man, and his external the external mad

[2] 2. Every man has an internal and an external, but with a difference between the good and the evil. With the good the internal is in heaven and its light, and the external in the world and its light; and this light of the world in them is illumined by the light of heaven, and therefore in them the internal and external act as one, like cause and effect, or like the prior and the posterior. But with the evil the internal is in hell and its light, and this light, in comparison with the light of heaven is thick darkness, although their external may be in a light like that in which the good are; thus there is an inversion. On this account the evil, just like the good, can talk and teach about faith, charity, and God, but not from faith, charity, and God.

[3] 3. The internal man is what is called the spiritual man, because it is in the light of heaven, which is a spiritual light; while the external man is called the natural man, because it is in the light of the world, which is a natural light. The man whose internal is in the light of heaven, and his external in the light of the world, is a spiritual man in regard to both, because spiritual light from the interior illumines the natural light, and makes it as its own. But the reverse is true of the evil.

[4] 4. The internal spiritual man viewed in himself is an angel of heaven, and while living in the body is in association with angels, although he does not know it; and when released from the body he goes among angels. But with the evil the internal man is a satan, and while living in the body is in association with satans, and when released from the body goes among them.

[5] 5. With those who are spiritual men, the interiors of the mind are actually elevated towards heaven, for they look primarily to that; but with those who are merely natural, the interiors of the mind are turned away from heaven and towards the world, because they look primarily to the world.

[6] 6. Those who cherish a merely general idea of the internal and external man, believe that it is the internal man that thinks and wills, and the external that speaks and acts, because thinking and willing are internal, while speech and action are external. But let it be understood that when a man thinks and wills rightly respecting the Lord and the things pertaining to the Lord, and respecting the neighbor and what pertains to the neighbor, he thinks and wills from a spiritual internal, because from a belief in truth and a love of good; but when his thought and will respecting these things are evil, his thought and will are from an infernal internal, because from a belief in falsity and a love of evil. In a word, so far as man in love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, he is in a spiritual internal, and from that internal thinks and wills and also speaks and acts; while so far as he is in the love of self and the world, he thinks and wills from hell, even when he speaks and acts otherwise.

[7] 7. It has been provided and arranged by the Lord, that so far as man thinks and wills from heaven, the spiritual man is opened and formed, the opening being into heaven even to the Lord, while the forming is in conformity to the things of heaven. But on the contrary so far as man thinks and wills, not from heaven but from the world, so far the internal spiritual man is closed, and the external is opened and formed, the opening being into the world, while the forming is in conformity to the things of hell.

[8] 8. Those in whom the internal spiritual man is opened into heaven to the Lord are in the light of heaven, and in enlightenment from the Lord, and thereby in intelligence and wisdom; these see truth from the light of truth and perceive good from the love of good. But those in whom the internal spiritual man is closed do not know what the internal man is, neither do they believe in the Word or in a life after death, or in the things pertaining to heaven and the church; and because they are in merely natural light, they believe nature to be from itself and not from God; they see falsity as truth, and have a perception of evil as good.

[9] 9. The internal and external here treated are the internal and external of man's spirit; his body is only an additional external within which the former exist; for the body in no way acts from itself, but acts only from the spirit that is in it. It must be understood that the spirit of man, after its release from the body, thinks and wills and speaks and acts, just as before. Thinking and willing are its internal, while speech and action then constitute its external.

TCR 402. (6) The merely natural and sensual man. As there are few that know who are meant by sensual men, and what their nature is, and yet it is important to know it, therefore they shall be described:

1. He is called a sensual man who judges of all things by the bodily senses, and who believes in nothing except what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, calling this something real, and rejecting everything else; consequently, the sensual man is the lowest natural man.

[2] 2. The interiors of his mind, which see from the light of heaven, are closed, so that he there sees nothing of the truth that pertains to heaven and the church, since he thinks in outermosts, and not interiorly from any spiritual light.

[3] 3. Because he is in gross natural light he is inwardly opposed to the things of heaven and the church, although outwardly he may advocate them with a zeal proportionate to the dominion he may thereby secure.

[4] 4. Sensual men reason keenly and ingeniously, because their thought is so near to speech as to be almost in it, and, as it were, on the lips, and because they place all intelligence in speech from memory only.

[5] 5. Some of them can confirm whatever they wish, and can confirm falsities dexterously; and after confirming them they believe them to be truths; but their reasoning and confirming are from the fallacies of the senses, which captivate and persuade the common people.

[6] 6. Sensual men are more shrewd and crafty than others.

[7] 7. The interiors of their minds are loathsome and foul, because through them they communicate with the hells.

[8] 8. Those who are in the hells are sensual, and the deeper they are the more sensual. The sphere of infernal spirits joins itself with the sensual things of man from behind.

[9] 9. Sensual men do not see any genuine truth in light, but reason and dispute about everything, as to whether it is so or not; and these disputes when heard at a distance from them are like the gnashings of teeth, which viewed in themselves are the collision of falsities with each other, and also of falsity and truth. This therefore makes plain what is meant in the Word by the "gnashing of teeth," because reasoning from the fallacies of the senses corresponds to the teeth.

[10] 10. Accomplished and learned men who have deeply confirmed themselves in falsities, and still more those who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the Word, are more sensual than others, although they do not appear so to the world. Heretical doctrines have been introduced chiefly by such sensual men.

[11] 11. The hypocritical, the deceitful, the voluptuous, the adulterous, and the avaricious, are for the most part sensual.

[12] 12. Those who reason from sensual things only, and against the genuine truths of the Word and consequently of the church, were called by the ancients serpents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[13] As sensual things mean the things presented to the bodily senses and imbibed through those senses, it follows:

13. That by means of sensual things man communicates with the world, and by means of things rational above the sensual he communicates with heaven.

[14] 14. Things sensual furnish such things from the natural world as are of service to the interiors of the mind in the spiritual world.

[15] 15. There are sensual things that minister to the understanding, and these are the various natural studies called physics; and there are sensual things that minister to the will, and these are the delights of the senses and the body.

[16] 16. Unless the thought is elevated above natural things man has but little wisdom. The wise man thinks above sensual things; and when thought is elevated above what is sensual it enters into clearer light, and finally into the light of heaven; from this man has perception of truth which is properly intelligence.

[17] 17. The elevation of the mind above sensual things, and its withdrawal therefrom, was known to the ancients.

[18] 18. When sensual things are in the last place, by means of them a way is opened for the understanding, and truths are disengaged by a kind of extraction; but when sensual things are in the first place they close the way, and man sees truths only as in a mist, or as at night.

[19] 19. In a wise man sensual things are in the last place, and are subject to more interior things; but in an unwise man they are in the first place and have dominion. Such as these are they who are properly called sensual.

[20] 20. In man there are sensual things that he has in common with beasts, and others not so. To the extent that one thinks above sensual things, he is a man; but no one can think above sensual things and see the truths of the church, unless he acknowledges God and lives according to His commandments; for it is God who elevates and enlightens.

TCR 403. Something shall first be said of the subordination of these three universal loves, which are the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self, and then of the influx and insertion of one into the other, and finally of man's state according to that subordination. These three loves are related to each other like the three regions of the body, the highest of which is the head, the intermediate the chest and abdomen, while the knees and feet and soles of the feet form the third. When the love of heaven constitutes the head, love of the world the chest and abdomen, and love of self the feet and their soles, man is in a perfect state in accordance with his creation, because the two lower loves then minister to the highest, as the body and all its parts minister to the head. So when the love of heaven constitutes the head, it flows into the love of the world, which is chiefly a love of wealth, and by means of wealth it performs uses; and through this latter love it flows mediately into the love of self, which is chiefly the love of dignities, and by means of these dignities it performs uses. Thus do these three loves, by the influx of one into the other, breathe forth uses.

[2] Who does not comprehend, that when a man desires to perform uses from spiritual love, which is from the Lord and is what is meant by the love of heaven, his natural man performs them by means of his wealth and his other goods (the sensual man cooperating in its function), and that it is to his honor to produce them? Who does not also comprehend that all the works that a man does with his body are done according to the state of his mind in the head; and if the mind is in the love of uses, the body by means of its members accomplishes them? And this is so, because the will and the understanding in their principles are in the head, and in their derivatives in the body, as the will is in deeds, and the thought in speech, and comparatively as the prolific principle of the seed is in the whole tree and in every part of it, and through these produces fruit, which is its use. Or it is like fire and light within a crystalline vase which thereby becomes warm and shows the light through it. And again, the spiritual sight of the mind together with the natural sight of the body, in one in whom these three loves are truly and rightly subordinated, because of the light that flows in through heaven from the Lord, may be likened to an African apple, which is transparent to the very center, where there is the repository of the seeds. Something like this is meant by these words of the Lord,

[3] No man of sound reason can condemn wealth, for it is in the general body like the blood in a man; nor can he condemn the honors attached to office, for they are the hands of the king and the pillars of society, provided the natural and sensual love of them is subordinated to spiritual love. Moreover, there are administrative offices in heaven and honors attached to them; but those who administer them love nothing better than to perform uses, because they are spiritual.

TCR 404. But when love of the world or of wealth forms the head, that is, when it is the ruling love, man puts on a wholly different state; for then the love of heaven is exiled from the head and betakes itself to the body. The man who is in this state prefers the world to heaven; he worships God indeed, but from merely natural love which places merit in all worship; he also does good to the neighbor, but for the sake of recompense. To such, heavenly things are like clothing, clad in which they appear before the eyes of men to be walking in brightness, but before the eyes of angels they appear indistinct, for when love of the world possesses the internal man, and the love of heaven the external, the former makes all things belonging to the church obscure and hides them as under a veil. But this love is of great variety, worse in the degree that it verges toward avarice, in which the love of heaven grows black; so too if it verges toward pride and eminence over others from love of self. It is different if it verges towards prodigality, and is less hurtful if it has in view as an end the splendors of the world, as palaces, ornaments, magnificent clothing, servants, horses and carriages pompously arrayed, and other like things. The character of every love is determined by the end which it regards and intends. This love may be compared to blackish glass, which smothers the light and variegates it only in dark and evanescent hues. It is also like mists and clouds which take away the rays of the sun. It is also like new, unfermented wine, which tastes sweet but disturbs the stomach. Such a man when viewed from heaven looks like a hunchback walking with his head down looking at the ground, and when he raises his head towards heaven he strains the muscles, and quickly drops it down again. The ancients in the church called such men Mammons, and the Greeks called them Plutos.

TCR 405. But when love of self or love of ruling constitutes the head, the love of heaven passes down through the body to the feet; and as that love increases, the love of heaven descends through the ankles to the soles, and if it increases still further, it passes to the heels and is trodden upon. There is a love of ruling arising from love of the neighbor, and a love of ruling arising from love of self. Those who are in the love of ruling from love of the neighbor seek dominion to the end that they may perform uses to the public and to individuals; and to such, therefore, dominion is entrusted in the heavens.

[2] Emperors, kings, and noblemen, who have been born and brought up to positions of authority, if they humble themselves before God, are sometimes less in that love than those who are of humble origin and who from pride are more eager than others for places of pre-eminence. But to those who are in the love of ruling from love of self, the love of heaven is like a bench on which, to please the people, they place their feet, but which when the people are out of sight, they toss into a corner or out of doors. This is because they love themselves alone, and consequently immerse their wills and the thoughts of their minds in what is their own (proprium), which viewed in itself is inherited evil, and this evil is diametrically opposed to the love of heaven.

[3] The evils of those who are in the love of rule from love of self, are in general as follows: Contempt of others, enmity against those who do act favor them; consequently, hostility; hatred; revenge; unmercifulness; ferocity, and cruelty; and where such evils prevail, there is also contempt of God and of Divine things, which are the truths and goods of the church; or if they honor these it is with the lips only, lest they should be denounced by the church authorities and censured by others.

[4] But this love is one thing with the clergy and another with the laity. With the clergy it climbs upward, when the reins are given to it, even until they wish to be gods; but with the laity until they wish to be kings; to such an extent do the hallucinations of that love carry their minds away.

[5] Since in the perfect man the love of heaven holds the highest place, and forms, as it were, the head of all that follow from it, the love of the world being beneath it like the chest beneath the head, and the love of self beneath this like the feet, it follows, that if love of self were to form the head, the man would be completely inverted. He would then appear to the angels like one lying bent over, with his head to the ground and his back toward heaven; and when worshiping, he would appear to be frolicking on his hands and feet like a panther's cub. Furthermore, such men would appear under the forms of various beasts with two heads, one head above having the face of a wild animal, and the other below having a human face, which would be constantly thrust forward by the upper one and compelled to kiss the earth. All these are sensual men, and are such as were described above (n. 402).

TCR 406. Man is born not for the sake of himself but for the sake of others; that is, he is born not to live for himself alone but for others; otherwise there could be no cohesive society, nor any good therein. It is a common saying that every man is a neighbor to himself; but the doctrine of charity teaches how this is to be understood, namely, that everyone should provide for himself the necessaries of life, as food, clothing, a dwelling, and other things which are necessarily required in the social life in which he is, and this not only for himself, but also for his family, nor for the present alone, but also for the future. For unless a man acquires for himself the necessaries of life, he is not in a condition to exercise charity, since he is in want of everything. But how every man ought to be a neighbor to himself may be seen from the following comparison: Every man ought to provide his body with food; this must be first, but the end should be that he may have a sound mind in a sound body; and every man ought to provide his mind with food, namely, with such things as pertain to intelligence and judgment; but the end should be that he may thereby be in a state to serve his fellow-citizens, society, his country, the church, and thus the Lord. He who does this provides well for himself to eternity. From this it is plain what is first in time, and what is first in end, and that the first in end is that to which all things look. It is also like building a house; first the foundation must be laid; but the foundation must be for the house, and the house for a dwelling-place. He who believes himself to be a neighbor to himself in the first place or primarily, is like one who regards the foundation, not the dwelling, as the end; and yet the dwelling is itself the first and the last end, and the house with its foundation is only a means to the end.

TCR 407. What it is to love the neighbor shall be explained. To love the neighbor is not alone to wish well and do good to a relative, a friend, or a good man, but also to a stranger, an enemy, or a bad man. But charity is to be exercised toward the latter in one way and toward the former in another; toward a relative or friend by direct benefits; toward an enemy or a bad man by indirect benefits, which are rendered by exhortation, discipline, punishment, and consequent amendment. This may be illustrated thus: A judge who punishes an evil-doer in accordance with law and justice, loves his neighbor; for so he makes him better, and consults the welfare of the citizens that he may not do them harm. everyone knows that a father who chastises his children when they do wrong, loves them, and that, on the other hand, he who does not chastise them therefor, loves their evils, and this cannot be called charity. Again, if a man repels an insulting enemy, and in self-defence strikes him or delivers him to the judge in order to prevent injury to himself, and yet with a disposition to befriend the man, he acts from a charitable spirit. Wars that have as an end the defense of the country and the church, are not contrary to charity. The end in view declares whether it is charity or not.

TCR 408. Since, therefore, charity in its origin is good will, and good will has its seat in the internal man, it is plain that when anyone who has charity resists an enemy, punishes the guilty, and chastises the wicked, he does this by means of the external man; and therefore, after he has done it he returns to the charity that resides in his internal man, and then, so far as he can, and so far as is useful, he wishes him well, and from good will does good to him. Those who have genuine charity have a zeal for what is good, and that zeal may appear in the external man like anger and flaming fire; but its flame dies out and is quieted as soon as his adversary returns to reason. It is different with those who have no charity. Their zeal is anger and hatred; for by these their internal man is heated and set on fire.

TCR 409. Before the Lord came into the world scarcely anyone knew what the internal man is or what charity is, and this is why in so many places He taught brotherly love, that is, charity; and this constitutes the distinction between the Old Testament or Covenant and the New. That good ought to be done from charity to the adversary and the enemy the Lord taught in Matthew:--

And when Peter asked Him how often he should forgive one sinning against him, whether he should do so until seven times, He replied:--

And I have heard from heaven that the Lord forgives to everyone his sins, and never takes vengeance nor even imputes sin, because He is love itself and good itself; nevertheless, sins are not thereby washed away, for this can be done only by repentance. For when He told Peter to forgive until seventy times seven, what will not the Lord do?

TCR 410. Since charity itself has its seat in the internal man, wherein it is willing well, and from that is in the external man, wherein it is well-doing, it follows that the internal man is to be loved, and from that the external; consequently that a man is to be loved according to the quality of the good that is in him. Therefore good itself is essentially the neighbor. This may be illustrated thus: When one selects for himself from among three or four a steward for his house, or a servant, does he not try to find out about his internal man, and choose one who is sincere and faithful, and for that reason love him? In like manner a king or magistrate from three or four persons would select one competent for office, and would refuse the incompetent, whatever his looks, or however favorable his speech and actions.

[2] Since, then, every man is the neighbor, and the variety of men is infinite, and everyone is to be loved as a neighbor according to his good, it is plain that there are genera and species and also degrees of love to the neighbor. And because the Lord is to be loved above all things, it follows that the degrees of love towards the neighbor are to be measured by love to the Lord, that is, by how much of the Lord or of what is from the Lord the other possesses in himself; for thus far he possesses good, since all good is from the Lord.

[3] But as these degrees are in the internal man, and the internal man rarely manifests itself in the world, it is sufficient that the neighbor be loved according to the degrees that are known. But after death these degrees are clearly perceived; for the affections of the will and the consequent thoughts of the understanding form a spiritual sphere round about those in the spiritual world, which is felt in various ways; while in this world this spiritual sphere is absorbed by the material body, and encloses itself within a natural sphere, which then flows forth from man. That there are degrees of love towards the neighbor, is plain from the Lord's parable of the Samaritan who showed mercy to the man wounded by thieves, whom the priests and the Levite saw and passed by; and when the Lord asked which of those three seemed to have been the neighbor, He was answered,

TCR 411. It is written,

To love the neighbor as oneself is, not to hold him in light esteem in comparison with oneself, to deal justly with him, and not to pass evil judgments upon him. The law of charity set forth and given by the Lord is this:--

So do they love the neighbor who are in the love of heaven; while those who are in the love of the world love the neighbor from the world and for the sake of the world; and those who are in the love of self love the neighbor from self and for the sake of self.

TCR 412. Those who do not know what the term neighbor means in its true sense, suppose that it means nothing else than the individual man, and that loving the neighbor means conferring benefits upon him. But the neighbor and love to him have a wider meaning and a higher meaning as individuals are multiplied. Who cannot understand that loving many men in a body is loving the neighbor more than loving one individual of a body? Thus, a community smaller or greater is the neighbor because it is a collective man; and from this it follows that he who loves a community loves those of whom the community consists; therefore he who wills and acts rightly towards a community consults the good of each individual. A community is like a single man; and those who enter into it form as it were one body, and are distinct from each other like the members of one body. When the Lord and the angels from Him look down upon the earth, they see an entire community just like a single man, with a form according to the qualities of those in it. It has been granted me to see a certain community in heaven precisely as a single man, in stature like that of a man in the world.

[2] That love towards a community is a fuller love to the neighbor than love towards a separate or individual man, is obvious from this, that dignities are measured out according to the kind of administration over communities, and honors are attached to offices according to the uses they promote. For in the world there are higher and lower offices subordinated according to their more or less universe government over communities; and the king is he whose government is the most universal; and each one has remuneration, glory, and the general love according to the extent of his duties, and the goods of use which be promotes.

[3] Nevertheless, the rulers of this age can perform uses and consult the good of society, and not love the neighbor; as those do who perform uses and consult the good of others with reference to the world or to self, or for the sake of appearances, or that they may be thought worthy to be elevated to higher dignities. But although the character of such is not discerned in the world, it is discerned in heaven; and in consequence those who have promoted uses from love to the neighbor, are the ones placed as rulers over heavenly communities, and there enjoy splendor and honor; and yet such do not set their hearts upon these things, but upon uses. But the others, who have performed uses from love of the world and of self, are rejected.

TCR 413. The difference between love to the neighbor and the exercise of it when directed towards man as an individual and towards the collective man or a community, is like that between the duty of a private citizen and the duty of a civil officer or a military officer, or like that between the one who traded with two talents and the one who traded with five (Matt. 25:14-30); or it is like the difference between the value of a shekel and that of a talent, or between the product from a vine and that from a vineyard, or between the product from an olive tree and that from an oliveyard, or the product from a tree and that from an orchard. Moreover, love to the neighbor in man ascends more and more interiorly, and as it ascends he loves a community more than an individual, and his country more than a community. Since, then, charity consists in right willing and right doing therefrom, it follows that it ought to be exercised towards a community in much the same way as towards the individual, but in one way towards a community of good men and in another way towards a community of evil men. Towards the latter charity is to be exercised according to natural equity; towards the former according to spiritual equity. But on these two kinds of equity something will appear elsewhere.

TCR 414. One's country is more a neighbor than a single community, because it consists of many communities, and consequently love towards the country is a broader and higher love. Moreover, loving one's country is loving the public welfare. One's country is the neighbor, because it is like a parent; for one is born in it, and it has nourished him and continues to nourish him, and has protected and continues to protect him from injury. Men ought to do good to their country from a love for it, according to its needs, some of which are natural and some spiritual. Natural needs relate to civil life and order, and spiritual needs to spiritual life and order. That one's country should be loved, not as one loves himself, but more than himself, is a law inscribed on the human heart; from which has come the well-known principle, which every true man endorses, that if the country is threatened with ruin from an enemy or any other source, it is noble to die for it, and glorious for a soldier to shed his blood for it. This is said because so great should be one's love for it. It should be known that those who love their country and render good service to it from good will, after death love the Lord's kingdom, for then that is their country; and those who love the Lord's kingdom love the Lord Himself, because the Lord is the all in all things of His kingdom.

TCR 415. Since man was born for eternal life, and is introduced into it by the church, the church is to be loved as the neighbor in a higher degree, because it teaches the means which lead to eternal life and introduces man into it, leading to it by the truths of doctrine and introducing into it by goods of life. This does not mean that the priesthood should be loved in a higher degree, and the church because of the priesthood; but it means that the good and truth of the church should be loved, and the priesthood for the sake of these. The priesthood merely serves, and is to be honored so far as it serves. The church is the neighbor that is to be loved in a higher degree, thus even above one's country, for the reason also, that by his country man is initiated into civil life, but by the church into spiritual life, and by that life man is separated from a merely animal life. Moreover, civil life is a temporary life, which has an end and which is then as if it had not been; while the spiritual life is eternal, having no end; therefore of the latter may be predicated being (esse), but of the former non-being. The distinction is like that between the finite and the infinite, between which there is no ratio; for the eternal is the infinite as to time.

TCR 416. The Lord's kingdom is the neighbor that is to be loved in the highest degree, because the Lord's kingdom means the church throughout the world, which is called the communion of saints; also heaven is meant by it; consequently he who loves the Lord's kingdom loves all in the whole world who acknowledge the Lord and have faith in Him and charity towards the neighbor; and he loves also all in heaven. Those who love the Lord's kingdom love the Lord above all things, and are consequently in love to God more than others, because the church in the heavens and on earth is the body of the Lord, for those who are in it are in the Lord and the Lord in them. Therefore love towards the Lord's kingdom is love towards the neighbor in its fulness; for those who love the Lords kingdom, not only love the Lord above all things, but also love the neighbor as themselves; for love to the Lord is a universal love, and consequently is in each thing and all things of spiritual life, and in each thing and all things of natural life; for that love has its seat in the highest things in man, and things highest flow into lower things and vivify them, as the will flows into all things of intention and of action therefrom, and the understanding into all things of thought and of speech therefrom. Therefore the Lord says:--

That the kingdom of the heavens is the Lord's kingdom is evident from these words in Daniel:--

TCR 417. Who does not know that a man is not a man because of his having a human face and a human body, but because of the wisdom of his understanding and the goodness of his will? As the quality of these ascends, he becomes the more a man. At birth man is more a brute than any animal, but he becomes a man through instruction of various kinds, by receiving which his mind is formed, and from his mind and according to it man is a man. There are some beasts whose faces resemble the human face, but these enjoy no faculty of understanding or of doing anything from the understanding; but they act from the instinct which their natural love excites. The difference is that a beast expresses by sounds the affections of its love, while man speaks them as they are formulated in thought; also, a beast with his face downward looks upon the ground, while man with his face raised beholds heaven all about him. From all this it may be inferred that man is a man so far as he speaks from sound reason, and looks forward to his abode in heaven; while so far as he speaks from perverted reason, and looks only to his abode in the world, so far he is not a man. Yet even such are men potentially, though not actually; for every man enjoys the ability to understand truth and to will what is good; but so far as he has no wish to do good or understand truth, he can only counterfeit man in externals and play the ape.

TCR 418. Good is the neighbor, because good belongs to the will and the will is the being (esse) of man's life. The truth of the understanding is also the neighbor, but only so far as it proceeds from the good of the will; for the good of the will takes form in the understanding, and makes itself visible there is the light of reason. That good is the neighbor is evident from all experience. Who loves a person except from the quality of his will and understanding, that is, from what is good and just in him? For example, who loves a king, a prince, a general, a governor, a consul, any magistrate or judge, except for the judgment from which they act and speak? Who loves a primate, a minister of the church, or a canon, except for his learning, his integrity of life, and his zeal for the salvation of souls? Who loves the general of an army or any officer under him, except for bravery combined with prudence? Who loves a merchant except for his honesty? Who loves a workman or a servant, except for his fidelity? Nay, who loves a tree except for its fruit, the soil except for its fertility, a precious stone except for its value? and so on. And what is remarkable, it is not only the upright man who loves what is good and just in another, the man who is not upright does so also, because with him he is in no fear of losing reputation, honor, or wealth. But the love of good in one who is not upright, is not love of the neighbor; for he loves another interiorly only so far as he is of service to him. But loving what is good in another from the good in oneself is genuine love to the neighbor; for the goods then kiss and mutually unite with each other.

TCR 419. The man who loves good because it is good, and truth because it is truth, loves the neighbor eminently, because he loves the Lord who is good itself and truth itself. There is no love of good and love of truth from good, that is, love to the neighbor, from any other source. Love to the neighbor is thus formed from a heavenly origin. It is the same thing whether you say use or good; therefore performing uses is doing good; and according to the quantity and quality of the use in the good so far in quantity and quality the good is good.

TCR 420. In every man there is an internal and an external. His internal is what is called the internal man, and his external what is called the external man. But one who does not know what the internal man and the external man are, may suppose that it is the internal man that exercises thought and will, and the external that speaks and acts. These latter belong, indeed, to the external man, and the former to the internal; yet they are not what essentially constitute the external and internal man. In common perception indeed man's mind is his internal man, but the mind is itself divided into two regions; the one region which is higher and more internal is spiritual; and the other which is lower and more external is natural. The spiritual mind looks mainly to the spiritual world, and has for its objects the things that are there, either such as are in heaven or such as are in hell; for both are in the spiritual world. But the natural mind looks mainly to the natural world, and has for its objects the things that are there, whether good or evil. All of man's action and speech proceeds from the lower region of the mind directly, and indirectly from its higher region, since the lower region of the mind is nearer to the bodily senses, and the higher region more remote from them. There is this division of the mind in man, because he was so created as to be both spiritual and natural, and thus a man and not a beast. All this makes clear that the man who looks primarily to himself and the world is an external man, because he is natural, not only in body but also in mind; while the man who looks primarily to the things of heaven and the church is an internal man, because he is spiritual both in mind and body. He is spiritual even in body, because his actions and words proceed from the higher mind which is spiritual through the lower which is natural. For it is known that effects proceed from the body, and the causes that produce the effects proceed from the mind; also that the cause is everything in the effect. That the human mind is so divided is clearly evident from the fact that a man can act the part of a dissembler, a flatterer, a hypocrite, or an actor; and that he can assent to what another says and yet laugh at it; doing one from the higher mind and the other from the lower.

TCR 421. From all this it can be seen how it is to be understood that charity and good works are distinct like willing well and doing well; that is to say, formally they are distinct, as the mind, which thinks and wills, is distinct from the body through which the mind speaks and acts; while essentially they are distinct because of the distinction in the mind itself which has an inner region that is spiritual, and an outer that is natural, as said above; so that when works proceed from the spiritual mind, they proceed from its good will, which is charity; but when they proceed from the natural mind, they proceed from a good will that is not charity. For even when it appears in the external form like charity, it is not charity in the internal form. In fact, charity in external form merely presents the show of charity, but does not possess its essence. This may be illustrated by a comparison with seeds in the ground. Each seed produces a plant, whether useful or useless, according to the nature of the seed. So is it with spiritual seed, which is the truth of the church derived from the Word; from this seed doctrine is formed, useful if from genuine truths, useless if from truths falsified. It is the same with charity that springs from good will, whether the good will is for the sake of self and the world or for the sake of the neighbor in a limited or in a broad sense; if for the sake of self and the world, it is spurious charity, but if for the sake of the neighbor, it is genuine charity. But of this more may be seen in the chapter on Faith, especially in the section where it is shown that charity is willing well, and good works are doing well from willing well (n. 374); and that charity and faith are only mental and perishable things unless they are determined to works and coexist in them when possible (n. 375, 376).

TCR 422. Charity itself is acting justly and faithfully in the office, business, and employment in which a man is engaged, because all that such a man does is of use to society, and use is good; and good in a sense abstracted from person is the neighbor (That not a single man only, but also a lesser community, and even a man's country, is the neighbor, has been shown above.) Take, for example, a king who sets his subjects an example of well-doing, who wishes them to live according to the laws of justice, rewards those who so live, regards everyone according to his merits, protects his subjects against injury and invasion, acts the part of a father to his kingdom, and consults the general prosperity of his people; in his heart there is charity, and his deeds are good works. The priest who teaches truth from the Word, and thereby leads to good of life, and so to heaven, because he consults the good of the souls of those of his church, is eminently in the exercise of charity. The judge who judges according to law and justice, and not for reward, friendship and relationship, consults the good of society and of each individual; of society because it is thereby kept in obedience to law and in the fear of transgressing it; and of the individual because justice thereby triumphs over injustice. The merchant who acts from honesty and not from deceit, consults the good of his neighbor with whom he has business. It is the same with a common or skilled workman, if he does his work rightly and honestly, and not fraudulently and deceitfully. It is the same with all others, as with captains and sailors, with farmers and servants.

TCR 423. This is charity itself, because charity may be defined as doing good to the neighbor daily and continually, not only to the neighbor individually, but also to the neighbor collectively; and this can be done only through what is good and just in the office, business, and employment in which a man is engaged, and with those with whom he has any dealings; for this is one's daily work, and when he is not doing it it still occupies his mind continually, and he has it in thought and intention. The man who thus practises charity, becomes more and more charity in form; for justice and fidelity form his mind, and the practice of these forms his body; and because of his form he gradually comes to will and think only such things as pertain to charity. Such at length come to be like those of whom it is said in the Word, that they have the law written on their hearts. Nor do they place merit in their works, because they do not think of merit but of duty,-that it becomes a citizen so to act. But a man can by no means of himself act from spiritual justice and fidelity; for every man inherits from his parents a disposition to do what is good and just for the sake of himself and the world; but no man inherits a disposition to do it for the sake of what is good and just; consequently, only he who worships the Lord, and acts from Him when acting from himself, attains to spiritual charity, and becomes imbued with it by the practice of it.

TCR 424. There are many who act justly and faithfully in their occupation, and thus promote works of charity, and yet do not possess any charity in themselves. But in these the love of self and the world predominates, and not the love of heaven; or if, perchance, the love of heaven is present, it is beneath the former love, like a servant under his master, a common soldier under his officer, or a doorkeeper standing at the door.

TCR 425. We must distinguish between the obligations of charity and its benefactions. By the obligations of charity those exercises of it that proceed directly from charity itself are meant. These, as has just been shown, relate primarily to one's occupation. But benefactions mean such acts of assistance as are given apart from these obligations. These are called benefactions because doing them is a matter of free choice and pleasure; and when done they are regarded by the recipient simply as benefactions, and are bestowed according to the reasons and intentions that the benefactor has in mind. In common belief charity is nothing else than giving to the poor, relieving the needy, caring for widows and orphans, contributing to the building of hospitals, infirmaries, asylums, orphans' homes, and especially of churches, and to their decorations and income. But most of these things are not properly matters of charity, but extraneous to it. Those who make charity itself to consist in such benefactions must needs claim merit for these works; and although they may profess with their lips that they do not wish them to be considered meritorious, still a belief in their merit lurks within. This is clearly evident from the conduct of such after death, when they recount their works, and demand salvation as a reward. But the origin of their works and the resulting quality of them is then inquired into, and if it is found that they proceeded from pride or a striving for reputation, or from bare generosity, or friendship, or merely natural inclination, or hypocrisy, from that origin the works are judged, for the quality of the origin is within the works. But genuine charity proceeds from those who are imbued with charity because of the justice and judgment in the works, and they do the works apart from any remuneration as an end, according to the Lord's words in (Luke 14:12-14). They also call such things as are mentioned above, benefactions as well as duties, although they pertain to charity.

TCR 426. It is known that some who perform these benefactions which present to the world an image of charity, entertain the opinion and belief that they have practised works of charity, and look upon them as many in popedom regard indulgences, as means whereby they are purified from sins, and that they are worthy, as if regenerated, to have heaven bestowed upon them, and yet they do not regard adultery, hatred, revenge, fraud, and in general the lusts of the flesh, in which they indulge at pleasure, as sins. But in that case what are these good works but painted pictures of angels in company with devils, or boxes made of lapis lazuli containing hydras? It is wholly otherwise when these benefactions are done by those who shun the evils above mentioned as hateful to charity. Nevertheless, these benefactions are advantageous in many ways, especially giving to the poor and to beggars; for thereby boys and girls, servants and maids, and in general all simple-minded persons, are initiated into charity, for these are its externals whereby such are trained in the practice of charity, for these are its rudiments, and are then like unripe fruit. But with those who are afterwards perfected in right knowledges respecting charity and faith, these acts become like ripe fruit, and then they look upon those former works, which were done in simplicity of heart, merely as what they owed to others.

TCR 427. At this day these benefactions are believed to be those proper acts of charity that are meant in the Word by good works, because charity is often described in the Word as giving to the poor, helping the needy, and caring for widows and orphans. But hitherto it has not been known that the Word in its letter makes mention only of the outer things of worship, even the outermost things, and that these signify spiritual things, which are internal (as may be seen above, in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture, n. 193-209). From all this it is plain, that by the poor, the needy, the widows and orphans there mentioned, such persons are not meant, but those who are spiritually such. That the "poor" mean those who are without knowledges of truth and good, may be seen in the Apocalypse Revealed (AR n. 209) and that "widows" mean those who are without truths and yet desire them (AR n. 764); and so on.

TCR 428. Those who are by nature compassionate, and do not make their natural compassion spiritual by putting it in practice in accordance with genuine charity, believe that charity consists in giving to every poor person, and relieving everyone who is in want, without first inquiring whether the poor or needy person is good or bad; for they say that this is not necessary, since God regards only the aid and alms. But after death these are clearly distinguished and set apart from those who have done the beneficent works of charity from prudence; for those who have done them from that blind idea of charity, then do good to bad and good alike, and with the aid of what is done for them the wicked do evil and thereby injure the good. Such benefactors are partly to blame for the injury done to the good. For doing good to an evil-doer is like giving bread to a devil, which he turns into poison; for in the hands of the devil all bread is poison, or if it is not, he turns it into poison by using good deeds as allurements to evil. It is also like handing to an enemy a sword with which he may kill some one; or like giving the shepherd's staff to a wolfish man to guide the sheep to pasture, who, after he has obtained it, drives them away from the pasture to a desert, and there slaughters them; or like giving public authority to a robber, who studies and watches for plunder only, according to the richness and abundance of which he dispenses the laws and executes judgments.

TCR 429. The benefactions of charity and the duties of charity are distinct, like the things done from choice and the things done from compulsion. But by the duties of charity official duties in a kingdom or state are not meant,--as the duties of a minister to minister, of a judge to judge, and so on,--but the duties of everyone whatever his employment may be. Thus these duties are from a different origin, and flow forth from a different will, and are therefore done from charity by those who have charity, and on the other hand from no charity by those who have no charity.

TCR 430. The public duties of charity are especially the payment of tribute and taxes, which ought not to be confounded with official duties. Those who are spiritual pay these with one disposition of heart, and those who are merely natural with another. The spiritual pay them from good will, because they are collected for the preservation of their country, and for its protection and the protection of the church, also for the administration of government by officials and governors, to whom salaries and stipends must be paid from the public treasury. Those, therefore, to whom their country and also the church are the neighbor, pay their taxes willingly and cheerfully, and regard it as iniquitous to deceive or defraud. But those to whom their country and the church are not the neighbor pay them unwillingly and with resistance; and at every opportunity defraud and withhold; for to such their own household and their own flesh are the neighbor.

TCR 431. The domestic duties of charity are those of the husband toward the wife, and of the wife toward the husband, of fathers and mothers toward their children, and of children towards their fathers and mothers, also the duties of masters and mistresses towards servants, male and female, and of the latter towards the former. These duties, because they are the duties of education and management at home, are so numerous that if recounted they would fill a volume. To the discharge of these duties everyone is moved by a love different from that which moves him to discharge the duties of his employment; husbands and wives are moved to their duties towards each other by marriage love and according to it; parents towards their children by the love implanted in everyone, called parental love; and children towards their parents by and according to another love which is closely connected with obedience from a sense of duty. But the duties of masters and mistresses towards their servants, male and female, have their source in the love of governing, and this love is according to the state of each one's mind.

[2] But marriage love and the love of children, with the duties of these loves and the practice of these duties, do not produce love to the neighbor as the practice of the duties in one's employment does; for the love called parental love exists equally with the bad and the good, and is sometimes stronger with the bad; moreover, it exists in beasts and birds, in which no charity can be formed. It is known that it exists with bears, tigers, and serpents, as much as with sheep and goats, and with owls as much as with doves.

[3] As to the duties of parents to children in particular, they are inwardly different with those who are in charity and those who are not, although externally they appear alike. With those who are in charity, that love is conjoined with love towards the neighbor and love to God; for by such children are loved according to their morals, virtues, good will, and qualifications for serving the public. But with those who are not in charity, there is no conjunction of charity with the love called parental love; consequently, many such parents love even wicked, immoral, and crafty children more than the good, moral, and discreet; thus they love those who are useless to the public, more than those who are useful.

TCR 432. The private duties of charity are also numerous, such as the payment of wages to workmen, the payment of interest, the fulfilment of contracts, the guarding of securities, and so on, some of which are duties enforced by statute law, some by common law, and some by moral law. These duties also are discharged by those who are in charity from one state of mind, and by those who are not in charity from another state of mind. Those who are in charity perform them justly and faithfully; for it is a precept of charity that everyone should act justly and faithfully toward all with whom he has any business or dealing (n. 422-425). But those who are not in charity discharge these same duties very differently.

TCR 433. It is known that dinners and suppers are everywhere customary, and are given for various purposes, and that with most they are given for the sake of friendship, relationship, enjoyment, gain and remuneration; also that they are employed for corrupting men and drawing them over to certain parties; and that among the great they are given for the sake of honor, and in kings' palaces for splendor. But dinners and suppers of charity are given only among those who are in mutual love from similarity of faith. With the Christians of the primitive church dinners and suppers had no other object; they were called Feasts, and were given both in order that they might heartily enjoy themselves, and at the same time be drawn together. In the first state of the establishment of the church suppers signified consociation and conjunction, because evening, when they took place, signified that state. But in the second state, when the church had been established, there were dinners, for morning and day signified that state. At table they conversed on various subjects, both domestic and civil, but especially on such as pertained to the church. And because they were feasts of charity, whatever subject they talked about, charity with its delights and joys was in their speech. The spiritual sphere that prevailed at those feasts was a sphere of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, which cheered the mind of everyone, softened the tone of every voice, and from the heart communicated festivity to all the senses. For there emanates from every man a spiritual sphere, which is a sphere of his love's affection and its thought therefrom, and this interiorly affects his associates, especially at feasts. This sphere emanates both through the face and through the respiration. It is because dinners and suppers, or feasts, signified such association of minds that they are so frequently mentioned in the Word, and nothing else is there meant by them in the spiritual sense; and the same is meant in the highest sense by the paschal supper among the children of Israel, also by their banquet at other festivities, and by their eating together of the sacrifices near the tabernacle. Conjunction itself was then represented by the breaking and distribution of bread, and by drinking from the same cup and handing it to another.

TCR 434. As to social gatherings, they were composed in the primitive church of such as called themselves brethren in Christ; they were therefore assemblies of charity, because there was spiritual brotherhood. They were also a consolation in the adversities of the church, seasons of rejoicing on account of its increase, recreations of mind after study and labor, and at the same time opportunities for conversation on various subjects; and as they flowed from spiritual love as from a fountain, they were rational and moral from a spiritual origin. There are at this day assemblies of friendship, which regard as an end the delights of sociability, the exhilaration of the mind by conversation, the consequent expansion of the feelings and the liberation of imprisoned thoughts, and thus the rekindling of the sensual faculties and the renewal of their state. But as yet there are no gatherings of charity; for the Lord says,

This is because the church has not yet acknowledged the Lord God the Saviour as the God of heaven and earth, and gone to Him directly, from whom alone genuine charity goes forth and flows in. But social gatherings where friendship emulating charity does not bring minds together, are nothing but pretenses of friendship, deceptive attestations of mutual love, seductive insinuations into favor, and sacrifices offered to the delights of the body, especially the sensual, whereby people are carried away like ships by sails and favoring currents, while sycophants and hypocrites stand in the stern and hold the helm.

TCR 435. In the doctrine of charity this holds the first place, that the first thing of charity is not to do evil to the neighbor; and to do good to him holds the second place. This tenet is like a door to the doctrine of charity. It is admitted that evil is firmly seated in every man's will from his birth; and as all evil has relation to man both nearly and remotely, and also to society and one's country, it follows that inherited evil is evil against the neighbor in every degree. A man may see from reason itself, that so far as the evil resident in the will is not put away, the good that he does is impregnated with that evil; for evil is then inside the good, like a kernel in its shell or like marrow in a bone; therefore although the good that is done by such a man appears to be good, still intrinsically it is not good; for it is like a healthy-looking shell containing a worm-eaten kernel, or like a white almond rotten within, with streaks of rottenness extending even to the surface.

[2] Willing evil and doing right are two essentially opposite things; for evil belongs to hatred towards the neighbor and good belongs to love towards the neighbor, or evil is the neighbor's enemy and good is his friend. These two cannot exist in the same mind, that is, evil in the internal man and good in the external; if they do, the good in the external is like a wound superficially healed, within which there is putrid matter. Man is then like a tree with a decayed root, which still produces fruit that outwardly looks like well-flavored and useful fruit, but is inwardly offensive and useless. He is also like rejected scoria, which, being bright on the surface and beautifully colored, may be sold for precious stones; in a word, he is like an owl's egg, which men are made to believe to be a dove's egg.

[3] Man ought to know that the good that a man does by means of his body proceeds from his spirit, or out of his internal man, the internal man being the spirit which lives after death. Therefore when the man (above described) casts off the body which formed his external man, all there is of him is in evils and takes delight in them, and is averse to good as something inimical to his life.

[4] That until evil has been put away man cannot do good that is good in itself the Lord teaches in many places:--

And in Isaiah:--

TCR 436. This may be further illustrated by the following comparisons: One cannot visit another who keeps a leopard and a panther shut up in his chamber (living safely with them himself because he feeds them), until these wild beasts have been removed. Who, when invited to the table of a king and queen, does not, before he goes, wash his hands and face? Who does not purify ores by fire and separate the dross before he obtains pure gold and silver? Who does not separate the tares from the wheat, before putting the wheat into his granary? Who does not prepare raw food by cooking it before it is made eatable and placed upon the table? Who does not beat the worms from the foliage of the trees in his garden, so that the leaves may not be devoured and the fruit thereby destroyed? Who loves and seeks to marry a maiden who is full of disease, and covered with pimples and blotches, however she may paint her face, dress finely, and labor by the charms of her conversation to affect him with the enticements of love? Man himself ought to purify himself from evils, and not wait for the Lord to do this without his co-operation, (n. 331). Otherwise he would be like a servant, going to his master, with his face and clothes befouled with soot or dung, and saying, "Master, wash me." Would not his master answer him, "You foolish servant, what are you saying? See, here are water, soap, and a towel; have you not hands of your own and the power to use them? Wash yourself." And so the Lord God will say, "These means of purification are from Me; and your ability to will and do are also from Me; therefore use these My gifts and endowments as your own, and you will be purified."

TCR 437. At the present day it is believed that charity is simply doing good, and that then one does not do evil; consequently that the first thing of charity is to do good, and the second not to do evil. But it is wholly the reverse; the first thing of charity is to put away evil, and the second to do good; for it is a universal law in the spiritual world and from that in the natural world also, that so far as one does not will evil he wills good; thus that so far as he turns away from hell from which all evil ascends, so far he turns towards heaven from which all good descends; consequently also, that so far as anyone rejects the devil he is accepted by the Lord. One cannot stand with his head vibrating between the two, and pray to both at once; for of such the Lord says:--

Who can skirmish with his troop between two armies, favoring both? Who can be evil disposed towards the neighbor, and at the same time well disposed towards him? Does not evil then lie hidden in the good? Although the evil that so hides itself does not appear in the man's acts, it manifests itself in many things when they are reflected upon rightly. The Lord says:--

TCR 438. But no one is able to purify himself from evils by his own power and his own abilities; yet neither can it be done without the power and abilities of man as if these were his own. If these were not as if they were his own, no man would be able to fight against the flesh and its lusts, which everyone is commanded to do; he would not even be able to think of any combat, thus his mind would be opened to evils of every sort, and would be restrained from them as deeds only by the laws of justice established in the world, and their penalties; and thus he would be inwardly like a tiger, a leopard, or a serpent, which never reflect at all upon the cruel delights of their loves. From this it is clear that as man, in contrast with wild beasts, is rational, he ought to resist evils by the power and abilities given him by the Lord, which in every sense appear to him to be his own; and this appearance has been granted by the Lord to every man for the sake of regeneration, imputation, conjunction, and salvation.

TCR 439. To ascribe merit to works that are done for the sake of salvation is harmful because evils lie concealed in so doing of which the doer is wholly ignorant. There also lies hid in it a denial of God's influx and operation in man; also a confidence in one's own power in matters of salvation; faith in oneself and not in God; self-justification; salvation by one's own abilities; a reducing of Divine grace and mercy to nought; a rejection of reformation and regeneration by Divine means; especially a limitation of the merit and righteousness of the Lord God the Saviour, which such claim for themselves; together with a continual looking for reward, which they regard as the first and last end; a submersion and extinction of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; a total ignorance and lack of perception of the delight of heavenly love as being without merit, and a sense only of self-love. For those who put rewards in the first place and salvation in the second, and who value salvation for the sake of the reward, invert order and immerse the interior desires of the mind in what is their own (proprium), and defile them in the body with the evils of the flesh. This is why the good that claims merit appears to the angels as rust, and the good that does not claim merit as purple. That good ought not to be done for the sake of reward, the Lord teaches in Luke:--

And that man cannot do good that in itself is good, except from the Lord, He teaches in John:--

And again,

TCR 440. But to think about getting into heaven, and that good ought to be done for that reason, is not to regard reward as an end and to ascribe merit to works; for thus do those also think who love the neighbor as themselves and God above all things; so thinking from faith in the Lord's words,

Such do not trust to reward on the ground of their merit, but have faith in the promise from grace. With such the delight of doing good to the neighbor is their reward. This is the delight of the angels in heaven, and it is a spiritual delight which is eternal, and immeasurably exceeds all natural delight. Those who are in this delight are unwilling to hear of merit, for they love to do, and in doing they perceive blessedness. They are sad when it is believed that they work for the sake of recompense. They are like those who do good to friends for the sake of friendship, to brethren for the sake of brotherhood, to wife and children for the sake of wife and children, and to their country for their country's sake; thus from friendship and love. Those who do acts of kindness also say and give evidence that they are doing this not on their own behalf, but on behalf of the others.

TCR 441. It is wholly different with those who regard reward as the essential end in their works. These are like such as form friendships for the sake of gain, and who make presents, perform services, and profess love seemingly from the heart, but when they fail to obtain what they hoped for, they turn about, renounce their friendship, and devote themselves to the enemies of their former friends and to those who hate them. They are also like nurses who suckle infants merely for wages, and in presence of their parents kiss and fondle them; but as soon as they cease to be fed with delicacies and rewarded just as they wish, they turn against the infants, treat them harshly, beat them, and laugh at their cries.

[2] They are also like those whose regard for their country springs from love of self and the world, and who say that they are willing to give their property and their lives for it; and yet, if they do not acquire honors and riches as rewards, they speak ill of their country, and connect themselves with its enemies. They are also like shepherds who care for sheep merely for hire, and if the hire is not given when they wish it, drive the sheep with their crook from the pasture to the desert. Like these again are priests who discharge the duties of their office solely for the sake of the emoluments attached to them, and who, evidently, regard as of little account the salvation of the souls over whom they have been placed as guides.

[3] It is the same with magistrates who look only to the dignity of their office and its revenues; and when they do right, it is not for the sake of the public good, but for the sake of the delight in the love of self and the world, which delight they breathe in as the only good. It is the same with all the rest; the end in view carries every point, and the mediate causes pertaining to the function are renounced if they do not promote the end.

[4] And the same is true of those who demand reward on the ground of merit in matters of salvation. Such after death confidently demand heaven; but when it has been found that they have no love to God or love towards the neighbor, they are sent back to those who can instruct them concerning charity and faith; and if they repudiate their instructions, they are sent away to their like, among whom are some who are enraged against God because they do not obtain rewards, and who call faith a mere figment of reason. Such are meant in the Word by "hirelings," who were allotted service of the lowest kind in the outer courts of the temple. At a distance they appear to be splitting wood.

TCR 442. It must be well understood that charity and faith in the Lord are closely conjoined, consequently, such as the faith is such is the charity. That the Lord, charity, and faith make one, like life, will, and understanding (in man), and if they are divided each perishes like a pearl reduced to powder, may be seen above (n. 362, 363); and that charity and faith are together in good works (n. 373-377). From this it follows that such as faith is, such is charity, and that such as charity and faith are together, such are works. If then there is a faith that all the good that a man does as if of himself is from the Lord, man is the instrumental cause of that good, and the Lord the principal cause, which two causes appear to man to be one, and yet the principal cause is the all in all of the instrumental cause. From this it follows that when a man believes that all good that is good in itself is from the Lord, he does not ascribe merit to works; and in the degree in which this faith is perfected in man, the fantasy about merit is taken away from him by the Lord. In this state man enters fully into the exercise of charity with no anxiety about merit, and at length perceives the spiritual delight of charity, and then begins to be averse to merit as a something harmful to his life. The sense of merit is easily washed away by the Lord with those who become imbued with charity by acting justly and faithfully in the work, business, or function in which they are engaged, and towards all with whom they have any dealings (n. 422-424). But the sense of merit is removed with difficulty from those who believe that charity is acquired by giving alms and relieving the needy; for when they do these things, in their minds they desire reward, at first openly and then secretly, and draw to themselves merit.

TCR 443. Every man is taught by his parents and teachers to live morally, that is, to act the part of a good citizen, to discharge the duties of an honorable life (which relate to the various virtues that are the essentials of an honorable life), and to bring them forth through the formalities of an honorable life, which are called proprieties; and as he advances in years he is taught to add to these what is rational, and thereby to perfect what is moral in his life. For in children, even to early youth, moral life is natural, and becomes afterwards more and more rational. anyone who reflects well upon it can see that a moral life is the same as a life of charity, and that this is to act rightly towards the neighbor, and to so regulate the life as to preserve it from contamination by evils; this follows from what has been shown above (435-438). And yet, in the first period of life, a moral life is a life of charity in outermosts, that is, it is merely the outer and foremost part of it, not the inner part.

[2] For there are four periods of life through which man passes from infancy to old age; the first is when he acts from others according to instructions; the second, when he acts from himself, under the guidance of the understanding; the third, when the will acts upon the understanding, and the understanding regulates the will; and the fourth, when he acts from confirmed principle and deliberate purpose. But these periods of life are the periods of the life of a man's spirit, not in like manner of his body; for the body can act morally and speak rationally while its spirit is willing and thinking opposite things. That this is the nature of the natural man is obvious in the case of pretenders, flatterers, liars, and hypocrites. These evidently enjoy a double mind, that is, their minds are divided into two discordant minds. It is otherwise with those who will rightly and think rationally, and consequently act rightly and talk rationally. These are meant in the Word by the "simple in spirit;" they are called simple, because they are not double-minded.

[3] From all this it can be seen what is meant specifically by the external man; also that, from the morality of the external man, no one can form any conclusion as to the morality of the internal, since this may be turned in an opposite direction, and may hide itself as a tortoise hides its head within its shell, or as a serpent hides its head in its coil. For such a so-called moral man is like a robber in a city and in a forest, acting the part of a moral person in the city, but of a plunderer in the forest. It is wholly otherwise with those who are moral inwardly or in the spirit, which they become through regeneration by the Lord. These are meant by the spiritually-moral.

TCR 444. Moral life, when it is also spiritual, is a life of charity, because the practices of a moral life and of charity are the same; for charity is willing rightly towards the neighbor, and consequently acting rightly towards him; and this is also moral life. The spiritual law is this law of the Lord:--

This same law is the universal law of moral life. But to recount all the works of charity, and to compare them with the works of moral life, would fill many pages; let the six commandments of the second table of the Decalogue serve for illustration. It is evident to everyone that these are precepts of moral life. That they include everything relating to love to the neighbor, may be seen above (n. 329-331). That charity is the fulfilling of all these precepts, is evident from the following in Paul:--

He who thinks from the external man only, cannot but wonder that the seven commandments of the second table were promulgated by Jehovah on Mount Sinai with so great a miracle; when yet these same precepts, in all the kingdoms of the world, consequently also in Egypt whence the children of Israel had lately come, were the precepts of the law of civil justice, for without them no kingdom can continue to exist. But they were promulgated by Jehovah, and were, moreover, written by His finger on tables of stone, in order that they might be not only the precepts of civil society, and therefore of natural-moral life, but also the precepts of heavenly society, and therefore of spiritual-moral life; so that acting contrary to them would be not only acting in opposition to men, but also to God.

TCR 445. Viewing moral life in its essence, it can be seen that it is a life that is in accordance both with human laws and with Divine laws; therefore he who lives in accordance with these two laws as one law, is a truly moral man, and his life is charity. anyone, if he will, can understand from external moral life the nature of charity. Only transfer external moral life, such as prevails in civil communities, over into the internal man, so that in its will and thought there may be a likeness and conformity to the acts in the external, and you will see charity in its true image.

TCR 446. A friendship of love means interior friendship, which is such that not only is the man's external man loved but his internal also, and this without scrutiny into the quality of his internal or spirit, that is, into his mind's affections, as to whether these spring from love towards the neighbor and love to God, and are thus adapted to association with angels of heaven, or whether they spring from a love opposed to the neighbor and a love opposed to God, and are thus adapted to association with devils. Such friendship is contracted in many instances from various causes and for various purposes. It is distinct from external friendship, which relates only to the person and exists for the sake of various bodily and sensual delights, and for the sake of mutual intercourse in various ways. This kind of friendship may be formed with anyone, even with the clown who jokes at the table of a nobleman. This is called friendship simply; but the former is called the friendship of love, because friendship is natural conjunction, while love is spiritual conjunction.

TCR 447. That the friendship of love is detrimental after death, can be seen from the state of heaven, of hell, and of man's spirit in relation to them. As to the state of heaven, it is divided into innumerable societies according to all the varieties of affections of the love of good; while hell, on the other hand, is divided according to all the varieties of affections of the love of evil; and after death, man, who is then a spirit, is at once adjudged, according to his life in the world, to the society where his ruling love prevails to some heavenly society, if love to God and love towards the neighbor has formed the head of his loves, and to some infernal society, if love of self and the world has formed the head of his loves. Immediately after his entrance into the spiritual world, which is effected through the death of the material body and its rejection to the sepulchre, man for some time undergoes a preparation for the society to which he has been adjudged, which preparation is effected by the rejection of such loves as are not in accord with his chief love. Thus one is then separated from another, friend from friend, dependent from patron, also parent from children, and brother from brother; and each one of these is connected with those interiorly like himself, with whom he is to live to eternity a life in common with them and yet properly his own. Nevertheless, during the first period of the preparation they all come together, and converse in a friendly way, as in the world. But little by little they are separated, and in ways they are not sensible of.

TCR 448. But those who in the world have contracted with each other friendships of love cannot be separated like others in accordance with order, and adjudged to societies correspondent to their lives; for they are bound together interiorly as to the spirit, nor can they be torn apart, because they are like scions ingrafted into branches; consequently, if one as to his interiors is in heaven, and the other as to his interiors in hell, they stick together much as a sheep tied to a wolf, or a goose to a fox, or a dove to a hawk; and he whose interiors are in hell breathes his infernalism into the other whose interiors are in heaven. For among the things well known in heaven is this, that evils may be breathed into the good, but not goods into the evil; and for this reason that everyone is in evils by birth; and in consequence, the interiors of the good, who are thus joined fast to the evil, are closed, and both are thrust down to hell, where the good spirit suffers severely, but finally, after a lapse of time, he is released, and only then begins his preparation for heaven. It has been granted me to see spirits so bound together, especially brothers and relatives, also patrons and their dependents, and many with flatterers, the two having contrary affections and diverse inclinations. I have seen some who were like kids with leopards, who were kissing each other and swearing to maintain their former friendship; and I then perceived that the good were absorbing the delights of the evil, holding each other by the hand and entering caves where crowds of the evil appeared in their hideous forms, although to themselves, owing to the illusions of phantasy, they seemed lovely. But after a while I heard from the good cries of fear, as if they were in snares, and from the evil rejoicings, like those of enemies over spoils; besides other sad scenes; and I was told that when the good had been released they were prepared for heaven by means of reformation, but not so easily as others.

TCR 449. It is wholly different with those who love the good in another, that is, who love justice, judgment, sincerity, and benevolence arising from charity, and especially with those who love faith in the Lord and love to Him. Because these love the things within man apart from the things without, when they do not discover the same things in the person after death, they at once withdraw from the friendship and are associated by the Lord with those who are in like good. It should be said that no one is able to explore the interiors of the mind of those with whom he associates or deals; and this is not necessary; only let him guard against a friendship of love with anyone. External friendship for the sake of various uses does no harm.

TCR 450. There is no genuine, that is, living charity, except that which makes one with faith, and the two look conjointly to the Lord; for these three, the Lord, charity, and faith, are the three essentials of salvation, and when they make one, charity is charity, and faith is faith; and the Lord is in them and they are in the Lord (n. 363-367, 368-372). On the other hand, when these three are not conjoined, charity is either spurious, or hypocritical, or dead. In Christianity since its establishment there have been various heresies, even down to the present day, in each of which these three essentials God, charity, and faith, have been and still are acknowledged; for apart from these three, there is no religion. As to charity in particular, it may be joined to any heretical belief, as with that of the Socinians, the Enthusiasts, the Jews, and even to the faith of idolaters; and they may all believe it to be charity, since it appears like it in the external form. Nevertheless, the quality of charity is changed in accordance with the faith to which it is joined, as may be seen in the chapter on Faith.

TCR 451. All charity that is not conjoined with faith in one God in whom is a Divine trinity, is spurious like the charity of the present church, the faith of which is a faith in successive order in three persons of the same Divinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and being a faith in three persons, each one of whom is a self-subsistent God, it is a faith in three Gods. To such a faith charity may be joined (as has been done by its supporters), but never can be conjoined; and the charity that is only joined to faith is merely natural, and not spiritual, and is therefore a spurious charity. The same is true of the charity of many other heresies, as the charity of those who deny a Divine trinity and thus approach God the Father only, or the Holy Spirit only, or both of these apart from God the Saviour. To the faith of such, charity cannot be conjoined, or when conjoined or joined to it it is a spurious charity. It is called spurious, because it is like the offspring of an illegitimate bed, or like the son of Hagar born to Abraham, who was cast out of the house (Gen. 21:10). Such charity is like fruit upon a tree where it has not grown, but has been fastened to it with a needle; and it is like a carriage to which horses are fastened only by the reins in the driver's hands, and when they spring forward, they drag the driver from his seat, and leave the carriage behind.

TCR 452. But hypocritical charity is the charity of those who in their churches and private dwellings humble themselves almost to the floor before God, devoutly pour forth long prayers, put on a holy expression of countenance, kiss images of the cross and the bones of the dead, and kneel beside sepulchres and there with their mouths mutter words of holy veneration for God, and yet in their heart they are thinking of being themselves worshiped and seeking to be adored as divinities. It is such as these whom the Lord describes in the following words:--

Beside other passages. Such are like flesh without blood, like crows and parrots taught to repeat the words of a psalm, and like birds taught to sing the tune of a sacred hymn; and the sound of their voice is like that of a bird-catcher's whistle.

TCR 453. But dead charity is the charity of those whose faith is dead; since the charity is such as the faith is. That they make one, has been shown in the chapter on Faith. That the faith of those who are without works is dead, appears from the Epistle of (James 2:17, 20). Furthermore, faith is dead in those who do not believe in God; but believe in living and dead men, and who worship images as holy in themselves, as the gentiles formerly did. The offerings of those who are in such a faith, which for the sake of salvation they bestow upon their miracle-working images, as they call them, including these offerings among works of charity, are precisely like the gold and silver that are put in the urns and monuments of the dead; they are even like the meat given to Cerberus, or the fee paid to Charon for ferriage to the Elysian fields. But the charity of those who believe that there is no God, but only nature instead, is neither spurious, hypocritical, nor dead; it is no charity at all, because it is not joined to any faith, and cannot be called charity, since the quality of charity is determined by faith. Such charity, viewed from heaven, is like bread made of ashes, a cake made of fishes' scales, or fruit made of wax.

TCR 454. It has been shown above that every man has an internal and an external, and that his internal is called the internal man and his external the external man. To this may be added, that the internal man is in the spiritual world, and the external in the natural world. Man was so created in order that he might be associated with spirits and angels in their world, and might thereby be able to think analytically, and after death be transferred from his own world to another. By the spiritual world both heaven and hell are meant. As the internal man is in company with spirits and angels in their world, and the external man with men, it is evident that man can be affiliated both with the spirits of hell and with the angels of heaven. By this capacity and power man is distinguished from beasts. Man is essentially (in se) such as he is in his internal man, not such as he is in his external, for the internal man is his spirit, and this acts through the external. The material body with which his spirit is clothed in the natural world, is an accessory for the sake of procreation and for the sake of the formation of the internal man; for the internal man is formed in the natural body as a tree in the soil, or as seed in fruit. More on the internal and external man may be seen above (n. 401).

TCR 455. But what the evil man is as to his internal man, and what the good man is as to his, may be seen from the following brief description of hell and heaven, for the evil man's internal is conjoined with the devils in hell, and the good man's with angels in heaven. Hell from its loves is in the delights of all evils, that is, in the delights of hatred, revenge, murder, plunder and theft, of railing and blasphemy, of denial of God and profanation of the Word. Such delights lurk in lusts upon which man does not reflect. These lusts blaze in these delights like lighted torches; and are what is meant in the Word by infernal fire. But the delights of heaven are the delights of love towards the neighbor and of love to God.

[2] Inasmuch as the delights of hell are opposite to the delights of heaven, there is between them a great interspace, into which the delights of heaven flow from above, and those of hell from beneath. While man is living in the world he is in the middle of this interspace, in order that he may be in equilibrium, and thus in a state of freedom to turn either to heaven or to hell. This interspace is what is meant by "the great gulf fixed" between those who are in heaven and those who are in hell (Luke 16:26).

[3] From this it can be seen what the friendship of love is among the evil, namely, that in their external man it is posturing and mimicry and pretences of morality, in order that they may spread their nets and discover opportunities for gratifying their loves' delights, with which their internal man is on fire. Nothing but fear of the law and consequent fears for their reputation and life withholds them and restrains their actions. Consequently their friendship is like a spider in sugar, a viper in bread, a young crocodile in a cake of honey, or a snake in the grass.

[4] Such is the friendship of the evil with everyone. But among those confirmed in evil, such as thieves, robbers, and pirates, friendship is intimate so long as they are with one mind bent on acquiring plunder; for they then embrace each other like brothers, enjoy themselves with feasting, singing, and dancing, and conspire to destroy others; yet each one within himself regards his companion as one enemy regards another; this, too, is what a cunning robber sees and fears in his fellow. Evidently, therefore, among such there is no friendship, but intestine hatred.

TCR 455a. Any man who has not openly connected himself with evil-doers and committed robberies, but has led a civil moral life for the sake of various uses as ends, and yet has not curbed the lust residing in his internal man, may suppose that his friendship is not of such a nature. Nevertheless, from many exemplifications in the spiritual world, it has been granted me to know with certainty that it is such, in different degrees, with all who have rejected faith and despised the holy things of the church, regarding those as nothing to them, but only for the common herd. In some of these the delights of infernal love have lain hidden like fire in smouldering logs covered with bark; in some like coals under ashes; in some like waxen torches that blaze up when fire is applied to them; and in others in other ways. Such is every man who has rejected from his heart the things of religion. The internal man of such is in hell; but being ignorant of this because of their pretended morality in externals so long as they live in the world they acknowledge no one as their neighbor except themselves and their own children; they regard others either with contempt-and then they are like cats lying in wait for birds in their nests-or with hatred, and then they are like wolves when they see dogs that they may devour. These statements are made to show from its opposite what charity is.

TCR 456. It is known that the Law promulgated from Mount Sinai was written upon two tables, one of which related to God and the other to men; that in the hands of Moses they were one table, the writing on the right side of which related to GOD, and that on the left to men; and that when so presented to the eyes of men the writing on both sides was seen at the same time, thus one side was in view of the other, like Jehovah talking to Moses and Moses to Jehovah, face to face, as it is written. This was done in order that the tables so united might represent the conjunction of God with men, and the reciprocal conjunction of men with God; and this is why the written law was called a Covenant and a Testimony, "covenant" signifying conjunction, and "testimony" life according to the compact. These two tables so united exhibit the conjunction of love to God with love towards the neighbor. The first table includes all things pertaining to love to God, which are, primarily, that man should acknowledge the one God, the Divinity of His Human, and the holiness of the Word, and that God is to be worshiped through the holy things that proceed from Him. That this table includes these things is evident from the explanation, in chapter five, of the commandments of the Decalogue. The second table includes all things pertaining to love towards the neighbor, its first five commandments all things pertaining to action, which are called works, and the last two all things pertaining to the will, thus to charity in its origin; for in these it is said, "Thou shalt not covet," and when man does not covet what belongs to his neighbor, he wishes well to him. That the ten commandments of the Decalogue contain all things pertaining to love to God and all things pertaining to love towards the neighbor, may be seen above (n. 329-331); where it is also shown that there is a conjunction of the two tables in those who are in charity.

TCR 457. It is different with those who merely worship God, and do not at the same time do good works from charity. These are like those who violate covenants. It is different again with those who divide God into three and worship each one separately; and still different with those who do not approach God in His Human; these are such

It is also different with those who from confirmation deny the Lord's Divinity. With all of these there is no conjunction with God, and therefore no salvation; and their charity is nothing but spurious charity, and this does not effect conjunction by the face, but by the side or back.

[2] How conjunction is effected shall be told in a few words. With every man God flows into man's knowledge of Him with acknowledgment of Him, and at the same time flows in with His love towards men. The man who receives in the former way only, and not in the latter, receives that influx in the understanding and not in the will, and remains in knowledge of God without an interior acknowledgment of God; and his state is like that of a garden in winter. But the man who receives in both ways, receives the influx in the will and from that in the understanding, thus in the whole mind, and he has an interior acknowledgment of God which vivifies in him the knowledges of God; and his state is like that of a garden in spring.

[3] Conjunction is effected by charity, because God loves every man, and as He cannot do good to man immediately, but only mediately through men, He inspires men with His own love, as He inspires parents with love for their children; and the man who receives that love has conjunction with God, and from God's love loves his neighbor; and in him God's love is within man's love towards the neighbor, and produces in him the will and the ability.

[4] Moreover, as man does nothing that is good unless it appears to him that the ability, the will and the doing are from himself, this appearance is granted him; and when he does good from freedom as if of himself, it is imputed to him, and is accepted as the reciprocation by which conjunction is effected. This is like active and passive, and that co-operation of the passive which is effected from the active in the passive. It is also like will in doing, and like thought in words, the soul operating from the inmost into both. It is also like effort in motion; and like the prolific in seed, which from the interior operates in the juices through which the tree grows even to fruit, and through fruit produces new seed. It is also like light in precious stones which is reflected according to the texture of the parts, producing various colors, belonging apparently to the stones, but in fact to the light.

TCR 458. This makes clear the origin and the nature of the conjunction of love to God and love towards the neighbor, as being the influx of God's love for men, the reception of which by man and his co-operation therewith being love towards the neighbor. In a word conjunction is effected in accordance with this Saying of the Lord:--

Also according to this,

All of the Lord's commandments have relation to love towards the neighbor, and in a word they are not doing evil to the neighbor, but doing good to him. That those who do this love God and God loves them, is in accordance with these words of the Lord. Because such is the conjunction of these two loves, John says:--

TCR 459. To this the following Memorable Relations shall be added. First:-

I saw at a distance five gymnasia, each encompassed by a different kind of light; the first by a flame-colored light, the second by a yellow light, the third by a white light, the fourth by a light intermediate between that of noon and evening, the fifth was hardly visible, standing as if shrouded by the shades of evening. And on the roads I saw some on horseback, some in carriages, some walking, and some running and hurrying towards the first gymnasium, which was enveloped in the flamy light.

Seeing this, I was seized and impelled by a strong desire to go there and to hear what was under discussion. Therefore I quickly got ready and joined company with those hastening to the first gymnasium, and entered with them; and behold! there was a large assembly, part of which moved off to the right and part to the left, to seat themselves on benches near the walls. Before me I saw a low pulpit, in which stood one who filled the office of president, having a staff in his hand, a cap on his head, and a robe tinted with the flame-colored light of the gymnasium.

[2] When the people had assembled, he spoke aloud and said, "Brethren, you will today discuss the question, What is charity? Each one of you can understand that charity is spiritual in its essence, and natural in its practices."

Immediately one of those on the first bench on the left, on which those who were reputed wise were sitting, arose and beginning to speak, said, "It is my opinion that charity is morality inspired by faith." This he corroborated thus: "Who does not know that charity follows faith, as a waiting-maid follows her mistress, and that the man who has faith obeys the law, and thus practises charity so spontaneously that he is unaware that it is the law and charity according to which he is living? For if he did this knowingly, and at the same time thought of salvation as his end, he would pollute holy faith with his selfhood (proprium) and thus impair its efficacy. Is not this in accordance with the dogma of our church?" And he looked towards those sitting beside him, among whom were some of the regular clergy, and they nodded assent.

[3] "But what," he said, "is spontaneous charity but morality into which everyone is initiated from infancy, and which is therefore in itself natural, but becomes spiritual when inspired by faith? Who, from the moral life of men, can distinguish whether they have faith or not, for every man lives morally? But God alone, who implants and seals faith, recognizes and distinguishes. I therefore assert that charity is morality inspired by faith; and that such morality, owing to the faith in its bosom, is saving, while all other morality brings no salvation, because it claims merit. Thus all those who mix together charity and faith, that is, all who conjoin them inwardly instead of connecting them outwardly, lose their oil; for to mix and join these together would be like putting into the carriage with a primate the servant who stands behind, or like introducing the porter into the dining-hall, and seating him at the table with a nobleman."

[4] After this another rose up from the first bench on the right, and said, "It is my opinion that charity is piety inspired by commiseration. This opinion I corroborate as follows: That nothing has such effect in propitiating God as piety arising from a humble heart; and piety prays unceasingly for God to bestow faith and charity; and the Lord says:--

and because both are given, they are both in that piety. I say that charity is piety inspired by commiseration; for all devout piety commiserates, for piety so moves the heart of man that he groans, and what is that but commiseration? This indeed recedes after we have prayed, but it comes back when we pray again; and when it returns there is piety in it, and thus there is piety in charity. Our priests ascribe all things that promote salvation to faith, and nothing to charity. What then remains but piety praying fervently for both? When I have read the Word I have been able to see nothing else than that faith and charity are the two means of salvation. But when I have consulted the ministers of the church I have heard that faith is the only means, and that charity is nothing. And then it has seemed to me that I was on the sea, in a ship that was drifting between two rocks; and when I feared that the ship would be broken to pieces, I betook myself to a boat and sailed away. My boat is piety; and piety, moreover, is profitable for all things."

[5] After him another, from the second bench on the right, arose and said, "It is my opinion that charity is doing good to everyone, virtuous and vicious alike; and this opinion I corroborate as follows: What is charity but goodness of heart? And a good heart wishes good to everyone, to the virtuous and the vicious alike. And the Lord has said, that good ought to be done even to our enemies. Therefore, when you withhold charity from anyone, does not charity on that side become null, and thus like a man who has lost one foot, and goes hopping on the other? A vicious man is a man equally with a virtuous one, and charity regards a man as a man; if he is vicious, what is that to me? It is with charity as with the heat of the sun, which vivifies beasts, both fierce and gentle, wolves as well as sheep, and causes trees to grow, both good and bad, and the thorns as well as the vine." So saying he took in his hand a fresh grape, and said, "It is with charity as it is with this grape; divide it, and all its contents run out." He divided it, and out they ran.

[6] After this speech another from the second bench on the left, arose and said, "It is my opinion that charity is to serve by every means one's relatives and friends, which I corroborate thus: Who does not know that charity begins with oneself, since everyone is neighbor to himself? Therefore charity goes forth from oneself through grades of nearness first to brother and sister, and from these to kinsmen and relatives; and thus the progression of charity is self-limited. Those who are beyond its limits are strangers, and strangers are not interiorly recognized, and thus are as aliens to the internal man. But those related by blood and birth are joined together by nature, and friends by custom, which is a second nature, and these become the neighbor in that way. Charity unites also another to itself from within, and so from without, and those not united from within may be called companions merely. Do not all birds recognize their own kindred, not by their plumage but by the sound they make, and when they are near, by the sphere of life exhaled from their bodies? This affection for kindred and consequent conjunction is called in birds instinct; while the same affection in men, when it is for those nearest to them, is truly an instinct of human nature. What except blood causes homogeneity? This a man's mind, which is also his spirit, feels, and, as it were, smells. In this homogeneity and consequent sympathy the essence of charity consists. But heterogeneity, on the contrary, from which antipathy springs, is, as it were, not blood, and therefore not charity. And as habit is second nature, and this also causes homogeneity, it follows that charity is also doing good to one's friends. When one comes from the sea into some port and finds that it is a foreign country, the language and customs of whose inhabitants he is unacquainted with, is he not, as it were, out of himself, feeling none of the joy of love toward them? But if he finds himself in his own country with whose language and customs he is familiar, he is, as it were, within himself, and then feels a joy arising from love, which is the joy of charity."

[7] Then from the third bench on the right another arose, and speaking with a loud voice, said: "It is my opinion that charity is giving alms to the poor, and assisting the needy. This surely is charity, for the Divine Word so teaches, the statements of which admit of no contradiction. What is giving to the rich and the possessors of abundance but vain glory, in which there is no charity but only a looking for return? And in this there can be no genuine affection of love towards the neighbor, but only spurious affection, which is effective on earth but not in heaven. Therefore want and poverty ought to be relieved, because into this no idea of recompense enters. In the city where I lived, and where I knew who were virtuous and who were not, I observed that all of the virtuous, when they saw a beggar in the street, would stop and give him alms; while the non-virtuous, seeing a beggar beside them, would pass him by as if blind to his presence and deaf to his voice. And who does not know that the virtuous have charity, and the non-virtuous have not? He who gives to the poor and relieves the needy, is like a shepherd who leads hungry and thirsty sheep to pasture and water; while he who gives only to those who are rich and possess abundance, is like one who devotes himself to the prosperous or presses food and drink upon those who are intoxicated."

[8] After him arose another, from the third bench on the left, and said: "It is my opinion that charity is building hospitals, infirmaries, orphans' homes, and asylums, and supporting them by contributions. This I corroborate by the fact that such beneficences and aids are public, and are many leagues beyond private benefactions; consequently charity becomes richer and more replete with good, as the good is multiplied by the number aided, and the reward hoped for from the promises of the Word become more abundant, for as one ploughs and sows, so he reaps. Is not this giving to the poor and relieving the needy in an eminent degree? Does not one thereby secure worldly fame and praises in the humble voice of gratitude from those helped? Does not this exalt the heart, and with it the affection that is called charity, even to the highest point? The rich, who do not walk the streets, but ride, cannot notice and hand pennies to those sitting at the sides of the streets by the wall of the houses; but they make their contributions of such a kind as to serve many at once. But lesser persons who walk the streets and have not stores of wealth, may do otherwise."

[9] Hearing this, another from the same bench quickly drowned the voice of the first with his louder voice, saying: "Let not the rich, however, exalt the munificence and excellence of their charity over the pittance that one poor man gives to another; for we know that everyone in what he does acts according to what is suitable to his person, whether he is a king or a magistrate, a commander or an attendant. For charity, viewed in itself, is not estimated by the excellence of the person, and consequently of the gift, but by the amplitude of the affection that prompts it; so that a menial giving one penny may do so from a larger charity than the great man who gives or bequeaths an immense sum. This is in accordance with these words:--

TCR 459a.

[10] After these one arose from the fourth bench on the left, and said: "It is my opinion that charity is to endow churches, and to do good to their ministers; which I confirm by this, that he who does so meditates upon what is holy and acts from what is holy in his own mind, and moreover, that this sanctifies his gifts. Charity demands this, because it is in itself holy. Is not all worship in churches holy? For the Lord says,

and the priests His servants conduct the worship. From this I conclude that the gifts which are bestowed upon ministers and churches are superior to those bestowed upon other persons and for other objects. Moreover, there is given to a minister the power to bless, whereby he also sanctifies those gifts; and after that there is nothing that expands and rejoices the mind more than to look upon one's gifts as so many holy shrines."

[11] Then one from the fourth bench on the right arose and spoke as follows: "It is my opinion that the old Christian brotherhood is charity. This I confirm by the fact that every church that worships the true God begins in charity the same as the early Christian church did. Because charity unites minds and makes one out of many, the members of that church called themselves brethren--but brethren in Jesus Christ their God. But because they were then surrounded by barbarous nations whom they feared, they established a community of property, which enabled them to enjoy themselves together in harmony, and at the same time conversed together daily at their meetings about the Lord God their Saviour Jesus Christ, and at their dinners and suppers about charity; hence their brotherhood. But after those times, when schisms began to spring up, and finally the abominable Arian heresy arose, which with many swept away the idea of the Divinity of the Lord's Human, charity decayed and their brotherhood was dissolved. It is true that all who worship the Lord in truth and keep His commandments are brethren (Matt. 23:8), but brethren in spirit; and as it is unknown at this day what any man is in spirit, for men to call each other brethren is of no account. A brotherhood of faith alone, and still less a brotherhood of faith in any other God than the Lord God the Saviour, is not a brotherhood, because in that faith there is no charity, which is what makes brotherhood. I therefore conclude that the old Christian brotherhood was charity. But that was, and now is not; yet I prophesy that it will return."

When he had said this, a flame-colored light appeared through the eastern window, and tinged his cheeks, at the sight of which the assembly were amazed.

[12] Finally one arose from the fifth bench on the left, and asked permission to add his contribution to the remarks of the last speaker. When this had been granted, he said, "It is my opinion that charity is to forgive everyone his trespasses. This opinion I have drawn from the customary saying of those who approach the Holy Supper; for some then say to their friends, `Forgive me what I have done amiss;' thinking that they have thus discharged all the duties of charity. But I have thought in my own mind that this is nothing but a painted picture of charity, not the real form of its essence; for this is said both by those who do not forgive, and by those who make no effort to follow charity; and such are not included in the Prayer which the Lord Himself taught, Father, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. For trespasses are like ulcers, within which, if they are not opened and healed, diseased matter collects, which infects the neighboring parts, and creeping about like a serpent, turns the blood everywhere into such matter. It is the same with trespasses against the neighbor, which, unless removed by repentance and by a life according to the Lord's commandments, remain and devour; while those who, without repentance, merely pray to God to forgive their sins, are like the inhabitants of a city, who, being infected with a contagious disease, go to the chief magistrate and say, Sir, heal us; and he would answer, How can I heal you? Go to a physician, find out what medicines you need, get them for yourselves from an apothecary and take them, and your health will be restored. So the Lord will say to those who pray for the forgiveness of their sins without actual repentance. Open the Word, and read what I have spoken in Isaiah:--

.

[13] When all this had taken place, I raised my hand, and asked them to permit me, although a stranger, to offer my opinion also. The president proposed this, and consent being given, I spoke as follows: "It is my opinion that charity is to act with judgment from a love of justice in every employment and office, but from a love derived from no other source than the Lord God the Saviour. All that I have heard from those sitting up. on the benches, both on the right and on the left, are eminent examples of charity; but, as the president of this assembly stated, at first, charity in its origin is spiritual, but in its flowing forth is natural; and natural charity, if it is inwardly spiritual, appears to the angels transparent like a diamond; but if not inwardly spiritual, and therefore purely natural, it appears to the angels like a pearl that resembles the eye of a cooked fish.

[14] It is not for me to say, whether the eminent examples of charity which you have presented in order, are inspired by spiritual charity or not; but I can say what the spiritual that ought to be in them, must be, that they may be natural forms of spiritual charity. The spiritual itself of these is this, that they be done with judgment from a love of justice; that is, that in the exercise of charity man should see clearly whether he is acting from justice, and this he sees from judgment. For a man may do evil by deeds of beneficence; and by what appear to be evil deeds he may do good. For example: One who gives to a needy robber the means wherewith to buy a sword, by a beneficent act is doing evil; although the robber in begging the money did not tell what he would do with it. So again, if one rescues a robber from prison and shows him the way to a forest, saying to himself, It is not my fault that he commits robbery; I have given succor to the man. Take as another example, one who feeds an idler, and prevents his being compelled to work, saying to him, Go into a chamber in my house, and lie in bed; why should you weary yourself? Such a one favors idleness. Or again, take one who promotes relatives and friends with dishonest inclinations to offices of honor, wherein they can plot many kinds of mischief. Who cannot see that such works of charity do not proceed from any love of justice combined with judgment?

[15] On the other hand, a man may do good through what appear to be evil deeds. Take as an example a judge who acquits an evil-doer because he sheds tears, pours out words of piety, and begs the judge to pardon him because he is his neighbor. But in fact a judge performs a work of charity when he decrees the man's punishment according to the law; for he thus guards against the man's doing further evil and being a pest to society, which is the neighbor in a higher degree, and he prevents also the scandal of an unjust judgment. Who does not know also, that it is good for servants to be chastised by their masters, or children by their parents, when they do wrong? The same is true of those in hell, all of whom are in the love of doing evil. They are kept shut up in prisons, and when they do evil are punished, which the Lord permits for the sake of their amendment. This is so because the Lord is justice itself, and does whatever He does from judgment itself.

[16] From all this it can be seen clearly, why, as just said, spiritual charity is done with judgment from a love of justice, and yet from a love derived from no other source than the Lord God the Saviour. This is because all good of charity is from the Lord; for He says,

;

and all love of justice with judgment is from no other source than the God of heaven, who is justice itself, and the source of all man's judgment (Jer. 23:5; 33:15).

[17] From all this we may conclude that all that has been said about charity from the benches on the right and left, namely, That charity is morality inspired by faith; That it is piety inspired by commiseration; That it is doing good alike to the virtuous and the vicious; That it is to serve by every means one's relatives and friends; That it is giving to the poor and assisting the needy; That it is building infirmaries and supporting them by contributions; That it is endowing churches and doing good to their ministers; That it is the old Christian brotherhood; That it is to forgive everyone his trespasses; - all these are eminent examples of charity when they are done with judgment from a love of justice. Otherwise they are not charity, but are merely like brooks separated from their fountains, or like branches torn from their tree; because genuine charity is to believe in the Lord and to act justly and rightly in every employment and office. Therefore he who from the Lord loves justice and practises it with judgment, is charity in its image and likeness."

[18] When this had been said there was silence, such as comes to those who from their internal man, but not as yet in the external, see and acknowledge that something is true. This I perceived from their faces. But I was then suddenly removed out of their sight, returning from the spirit into my material body; for the natural man, because of his being clothed with a material body, is not visible to any spiritual man, that is, to a spirit or angel, nor they to him.

TCR 460. Second Memorable Relation:-

Once when looking about in the spiritual world I heard some thing like the gnashing of teeth, also a kind of beating, and mingled with these a grating sound, and I asked what they were.

The angels who were with me said: "They are fraternities, which are called by us debating clubs, where they dispute with each other. Their disputations sound at a distance in this way, but near at hand their disputations only are heard."

Drawing near, I saw huts built of reeds plastered together with mud. I wished to look in through a window (not being permitted to enter through the door, because light would then flow in from heaven and produce confusion), but there was no window. But just then a window was made suddenly on the right side, and then I heard them complaining that they were in darkness. Presently a window was made on the left side, that on the right being closed, and then the darkness was gradually dispelled, and they appeared to themselves to be in their proper light. Afterward I was permitted to enter by the door and listen.

In the center there was a table, and benches round about; yet to me they all seemed to be standing on the benches and disputing bitterly with each other about faith and charity; one party maintained that faith is the essential of the church, and the other, charity.

Those who made faith the essential thing, said: "By faith do we not deal with God, and by charity with man? Therefore is not faith heavenly, and charity earthly? Is it not by means of heavenly things that we are saved, and not by means of earthly things? Again, cannot God bestow faith from heaven, because it is heavenly, and must not man acquire charity for himself, because it is earthly? And what man acquires for himself does not pertain to the church, and thus is not saving. Therefore can anyone be justified before God by the works that are called the works of charity? Believe us, that we are not only justified but also sanctified by faith alone if our faith is not defiled by a sense of merit arising from works of charity;" and so on.

[2] But those who made charity the essential of the church sharply refuted these arguments, saying: "Charity is saving, and not faith. Does not God hold all men dear, and desire the good of all? How can God effect this good except through men? Does God merely give us the power to talk to men about matters of faith, and not the power to do for them what charity requires? Do you not see that your saying that charity is earthly is absurd? Charity is heaven, and because you do not do the good of charity, your faith is earthly. How do you receive your faith except like stocks or stones? You say, by hearing the Word. But how can the Word operate merely by being heard, and how upon a stock or a stone? It may be that you are quickened, yourselves being wholly unconscious of it. But what is the quickening, except that you are able to say that faith alone justifies and saves? And what faith is, and what kind of faith is saving, you do not know."

[3] Then one arose who by the angel conversing with me was called a syncretist. He took off his cap and placed it on the table, but hastily put it on his head again, because he was bald. He said: "Listen to me; you are all wrong. It is true that faith is spiritual, and charity is moral, but still they are conjoined; and they are conjoined by means of the Word, and thus by means of the Holy Spirit, and by their effect which may be called obedience, although man has no more part whatever in it because when faith is brought in man knows no more about it than a statue. I have long meditated on these subjects, and I have at length discovered that man may accept from God a faith that is spiritual, but he can no more be moved by God to a charity that is spiritual than a stock."

[4] When this was said those who were in faith alone applauded, but those who were in charity hissed; and these, being indignant, said; "Listen, friend; you do not know that there is spiritual moral life and merely natural moral life-spiritual moral life with those who do good from God and yet as if of themselves, and merely natural moral life with those who do good from hell, and yet as if of themselves."

[5] I said that the disputation sounded like the gnashing of teeth, also like a kind of beating mingled with a grating sound The disputation that sounded like the gnashing of teeth was from those who made faith the one only essential of the church; the beating was from those who made charity the one only essential; and the mingled grating sound was from the syncretist. The tones of their voices were so heard at a distance, because they had all when in the other world been given to disputation, and had not shunned any evil, and therefore had not done any good that was from a spiritual source. Moreover, they were wholly ignorant that the all of faith is truth and the all of charity is good; that truth without good is not truth in spirit, and that good without truth is not good in spirit; and thus that each constitutes the other.

TCR 461. Third Memorable Relation:-

I was once carried away in spirit to the southern quarter of the spiritual world, and into a certain paradise there; and I saw that this paradise excelled all that I had before surveyed. This was because a garden signifies intelligence, and because all those who are pre-eminent in intelligence are conveyed to the south. The garden of Eden, in which were Adam and his wife, has no other significance; so their expulsion therefrom involved expulsion from intelligence, and thus also from integrity of life. While I was walking in this southern paradise, I noticed certain persons sitting under a laurel eating figs. I turned to them and asked them for some figs, which they gave me; and lo, in my hand the figs became grapes.

As I wondered at this, an angelic spirit who stood near me said, "The figs became grapes in your hand because figs by correspondence signify the goods of charity and of faith therefrom in the natural or external man, while grapes signify the goods of charity and of faith therefrom in the spiritual or internal man; and this has happened to you because you love spiritual things; for in our world all things occur and come forth, and are also changed, in accordance with correspondences."

[2] Then suddenly there came upon me a desire to know how man can do good from God, and yet do it altogether as if of himself. I therefore asked those who were eating the figs how they understood the matter.

They said that they could understand it only in this way, that God effects this inwardly in man and through man when he is ignorant of it; because if man were conscious of it, and in that state were to do good, he would do only apparent good, which inwardly is evil. "For all that goes forth from man goes forth from his own (proprium), and this is evil from birth; and how can good from God and evil from man be conjoined, and thus conjointly go forth into act? What is man's own in matters pertaining to salvation constantly breathes forth a sense of merit, and so far as it does this, it detracts from the Lord His own merit; and this is the height of injustice and impiety. In a word, if the good which God works in man, were to inflow into man's willing and thence into his doing, the good would assuredly be defiled and also profaned, and this God never permits. Man can think, indeed, that the good he does is from God, and can say that it is essentially God's; but still that it is so we do not comprehend."

[3] Then I opened my mind and said, "You do not comprehend this because you think from appearance, and thought confirmed from appearance is fallacy. To you there is such appearance and consequent fallacy because you believe everything that a man thinks and wills and does and says therefrom, is in himself, and consequently from himself, when in fact there is no part of them in him except the state to receive what inflows. Man is not life in himself, but an organ receptive of life. The Lord is life in Himself, as He says in John:--

[4] "There are two things that constitute life, namely, love and wisdom, or what is the same thing, the good of love and the truth of wisdom. These flow in from God, and are received by man as if they were his; and because they are so felt by man they go forth from man as if they were his. Their being so felt by man is the Lord's gift, to the end that what flows in may affect man, and so be received and remain. But inasmuch as all evil likewise flows in, not from God but from hell, and is received with delight (because man is such an organ by birth), so good is received from God only in proportion as evil is removed by man as if of himself; and this is done by repentance coupled with faith in the Lord.

[5] That love and wisdom, charity and faith, or, more generally speaking, the good of love and charity, and the truth of wisdom and faith, flow in, and that what flows in appears in man to be wholly his own, and thus goes forth from his own, all this can clearly be seen from the sense of sight, of hearing, of smell, of taste, and of touch. All things that are felt in the organs of those senses flow into those organs from without and are felt within them. It is the same in the organs of the internal senses, with the sole difference that spiritual things, which are not manifest, flow into the former. In a word, man is an organ receptive of life from God; consequently, so far as he refrains from evil, he is a recipient of good. The power to refrain from evil the Lord gives to every man, because He gives him the power to will and to understand; and whatever man does from his will in accord with his understanding, or, what is the same, from freedom of will in accord with reason of the understanding, is permanent. It is by means of this that the Lord brings man into a state of conjunction with Himself, and in that state reforms, regenerates, and saves him.

[6] "The life that flows into man is life that goes forth from the Lord, which life is also called the Spirit of God, and in the Word the Holy Spirit, and this life is said to enlighten and vivify man, and even to work in him. But his life is varied and modified according to the organization induced by means of his love. You may also know that all the good of love and charity, and all the truth of wisdom and faith flow in, and are not in man (originally). This may be known from the fact that he who thinks that there is anything of the kind in man by creation must needs conclude at last that God has infused Himself into man, and thus that men are partly gods; and yet those who so think from faith become devils, and with us smell like corpses.

[7] Furthermore, what is man's action but the mind acting? For what the mind wills and thinks it does and says by means of its organ the body; so when the mind is led by the Lord, action and speech are also led by Him; and these are by Him when man believes in Him. If this were not so, explain, if you can, why the Lord, in thousands of places in His Word, has commanded man to love his neighbor, to perform the good works of charity, to bear fruit like a tree, and to keep the commandments, and all this that he may be saved. And again, why He has said that man shall be judged according to his deeds or works, those who do good to heaven and life, and those who do evil to hell and death. How could the Lord have said such things, if all that goes forth from man must need be a matter of merit, and therefore evil? Be it known to you, then, that if the mind is charity, the action is charity also; but if the mind is faith alone, which is faith separate from spiritual charity, the action also is that faith."

[8] Hearing this, those sitting under the laurel said, "That you have spoken rightly we comprehend, and yet do not comprehend."

I replied, "You comprehend that I have spoken rightly from the general perception that man has from the influx of light from heaven when he hears any truth; but your failure to comprehend is from the self-perception that man has from the influx of light from the world. In wise men these two kinds of perception, internal and external, or spiritual and natural, make one. You also can make them one if you look to the Lord and put away evils."

Because they understood this, I plucked some twigs from a vine and handed them to them, saying, "Do you believe that this is of me, or of the Lord?"

They said that it was from me, but of the Lord. And lo, the twigs put forth grapes in their hands.

But as I withdrew I saw under a green olive tree around which a vine had entwined itself, a cedar table on which there was a book. I looked and lo, it was a book written by me, entitled Arcana Coelestia; and I said that it was fully shown in that book that man is not life but an organ receptive of life; also that life cannot be created and when so created be in man, any more than light in the eye.

TCR 462. Fourth Memorable Relation:-

Looking toward the sea-shore in the spiritual world, I saw a splendid dockyard. I went near and looked into it, and behold, there were large and small vessels, and in them merchandise of every kind, and on benches there were sitting boys and girls distributing the merchandise to all who wanted it.

And they said, "We are waiting to see our beautiful tortoises, which will soon rise up out of the sea to us."

And behold, I saw both large and small tortoises, on the shells and scales of which sat young tortoises looking toward the surrounding islands. The paternal tortoises had two heads, a large one covered over with a shell like the shells on their bodies, which gave them a reddish hue, and a small one, such as tortoises have; this they drew back into the forepart of the body, and also, in some unseen way, inserted into the larger head.

But I kept my eyes on the large red head; and I saw that it had a face like the face of a man, and it talked with the boys and girls on the seats and licked their hands. Then the boys and girls patted them, and gave them food and dainties, and also costly things, such as silk for clothing, thyine-wood for tables, purple for decorations, and scarlet for coloring.

[2] Seeing these things, I wished to know what they represented, as I knew that all things that appear in the spiritual world are correspondences, and represent the spiritual things pertaining to affection and to thought therefrom.

They then spoke to me from heaven and said, "You yourself know what the dockyard represents, and the ships, and the boys and girls that are on them; but you do not know what the tortoises signify." And they said, "The tortoises represent such of the clergy there as altogether separate faith from charity and its good works, affirming in themselves, that there is clearly no conjunction of these, but that the Holy Spirit, through man's faith in God the Father on account of the merit of the Son, enters into man, and purifies his interiors even to his own will; out of which they make a sort of oval plane; and they claim that when the operation of the Holy Spirit comes near this plane, it bends itself around it towards the left and does not touch it at all; so that the inner or higher part of man's nature is for God, and the outer or lower part for man; consequently nothing that man does, whether good or evil, is apparent to God-not the good, because this is a matter of merit, nor the evil, because it is evil, for if either of these were to appear to God, man would perish because of it. And this being so, man is at liberty to will and think and say and do whatever he pleases, provided he is discreet before the world."

[3] I asked whether they also asserted that man is permitted to think of God as not omnipresent and omniscient.

They answered from heaven that this is permitted, for the reason that in a man who has acquired faith, and has been purified and justified thereby, God does not look at anything pertaining to his thought and will, and that he still retains in his inner bosom, or in the higher region of his mind or nature, the faith that he had received in the act of faith, it being sometimes possible for that act to return without man's being conscious of it. "These are the things represented by the small head, which they draw into the forepart of the body, and insert into the larger head when they are talking with the laity, for with them they do not talk from the small head, but from the large one, which in appearance is provided in front with a human face; and with them they talk from the Word about love, charity, good works, the commandments of the Decalogue, and repentance, selecting from the Word almost everything that is there said on these subjects. But in so doing they insert the small head into the large one, and from this they understand inwardly in themselves that none of these things are to be done for the sake of God and salvation, but only for the sake of public and private good.

[4] And inasmuch as they talk about these subjects from the Word, especially about the Gospel, the operation of the Holy Spirit, and salvation, in a pleasing and elegant manner, they seem to their hearers to be handsome men and the wisest in all the world. This is why, as you saw, costly and precious things were given them by the boys and girls who sat upon the benches in the vessels; also why you saw them represented as tortoises. In your world they are but little distinguished from others, except by this, that they imagine themselves the wisest of men, and laugh at others, even at those who entertain a like doctrine of faith but are not in these mysteries. They carry with them on their clothing a certain mark by which they make themselves distinguishable from others."

[5] He who was talking to me said, "I will not tell you what their sentiments are respecting other matters of faith, such as election, freedom of choice, baptism, and the holy supper, which are of such a nature that they do not divulge them; but we in heaven know what they are. But because they are such in the world, and because no one is allowed after death to think one thing and say another, and therefore they can then do no otherwise than speak from the insanities of their thoughts, they are regarded as insane and are expelled from societies, and finally sent down to the bottomless pit spoken of in the (Apocalypse 9:2). There they become corporeal spirits, and look like the mummies of the Egyptians. For a callousness has been induced upon the interiors of their minds, owing to the barrier they had interposed when they were in the world. The infernal society composed of them borders upon the infernal society from the Machiavelians, and they pass indiscriminately from one to the other, and call each other fellow-members. But they go back because there is a difference between them, arising from the fact that there has been with them some religious principle respecting the act of justification by faith, while the Machiavelians have no religious principle at all."

[6] After I had seen them expelled from societies and collected together to be cast down, I saw a vessel flying in the air with seven sails, and therein officers and sailors dressed in purple clothing and having splendid laurels on their caps, and shouting, "Lo, we are in heaven; we are purple-robed doctors of the highest degree, since of all the wise men among the clergy in Europe we are the heads."

I wondered what this meant, and was told that they were images of pride and of the visionary thoughts called fantasies, which spring from those who before appeared as tortoises, but these had now been cast out of the societies as insane and gathered into one body and now stood together in one place.

I then wished to speak with them, and therefore went to the place where they were standing and saluted them, and said, "Are you those who have separated the internals of men from their externals, and who have separated the operation of the Holy Spirit, as being in faith, from its cooperation with man outside of faith, and thus you have separated God from man? Have you not thus not only removed charity itself and the works of charity from faith, as many others of the learned clergy have done, but also faith itself from man as to its manifestation before God?

[7] But I pray you, which do you prefer, that I should speak to you on this matter from reason, or from Holy Scripture?"

They said, "Speak first from reason."

And I spoke as follows, "How can the internal man and external man be separated? Who does not see or cannot see from common perception, that all of man's interiors go forth and are continued into his exteriors, and even into his outermosts, in order to work out their effects and produce their works? Are not internals for the sake of externals, that they may terminate in them and find permanence in them, and so come forth, nearly the same as a column rests upon its base? You can see that unless there were a continuation and thus a conjunction, outermosts would dissolve and pass away like bubbles in the air. Who can deny that the interior operations of God in man are myriads of myriads and of these man knows nothing? And what need is there of his knowing about them, provided he knows about the outermosts, in which, with his thought and will, he is together with God?

[8] But this shall be illustrated by an example. Does man understand the interior operations of his speech, as how the lungs draw in the air, and fill the little vessels with it, and the bronchial tubes, and the lobes; how they send out the air into the trachea, and there turn it into sound; how that sound is modified in the glottis with the aid of the larynx; and how the tongue then articulates it, and the lips complete the articulation that it may become speech? Do not all these interior operations, of which man knows nothing, exist for the sake of the outermost, which is that man may have power to speak? Remove or separate one of these internals from its continuity with the outermosts, and could man speak any more than a stock?

[9] Take another example. The two hands are the outermosts of man. Do not the interiors, which are continued thither, come from the head through the neck, also through the chest, the shoulders, the arms, and the forearms? And there are the innumerable muscular textures, innumerable battalions of motor fibers, innumerable combinations of nerves and blood-vessels, and the many bony articulations with their ligaments and membranes. What does a man know about these things? And yet the working of his hands is from each and all of them. Suppose that these interior parts were to turn back to the right or left near the elbow, instead of continuing onward, would not the hand drop down from the forearm and rot like something torn away from the body and deprived of life? If you will believe it, it would be with the hand as it would be with the body if the man were beheaded. It would be precisely the same with the human mind and its two lives, the will and the understanding, if the Divine operations, which are those of faith and charity, were to cease half way and not pass by a continuous course even to the man himself. Clearly man would then be not merely a brute, but a rotten stick. All this is in accordance with reason.

[10] Furthermore, if you will listen, it is also in accordance with the Sacred Scripture. Does not the Lord say,

Is not the fruit the good works which the Lord does through man, and man does of himself from the Lord? The Lord also says,

And again:--

These are but a few passages. Pages might be filled from the Word on this subject, that man ought to bear fruit like a tree, to do according to the commandments, to love God and the neighbor, and so forth.

[11] But I am aware that your self-intelligence is unable to hold to anything such as it is in itself, that is in common with these things from the Word, for although you give utterance to it, your ideas pervert it. And you cannot do otherwise, because you remove from man everything belonging to God as to communication and conjunction. What then remains but to remove all that pertains to worship also?"

Afterward these spirits appeared to me in the light of heaven, which discloses and manifests the character of everyone. And they did not then appear as they did before, in a ship in the air, as if in heaven; neither were they clad in purple robes and crowned with laurel, but in a sandy place, in garments of rags, and girt about the loins with network like fishers' nets, through which their nakedness was visible. And then they were sent down to the society bordering on that of the Machiavelians.