Chapter 16

unite man to Himself and Himself to man, in order to be able to bestow the felicities of eternal life on him, which can be done only so far as evils, along with their lusts, are removed.

103. (i) _Every man has an external and an internal of thought._ By external and internal of thought the same is meant here as by external and internal man, and by this nothing else is meant than external and internal of will and understanding, for will and understanding constitute man, and as they both manifest themselves in thoughts, we speak of external and internal of thought. And as it is man's spirit and not his body which wills and understands and consequently thinks, external and internal are external and internal of his spirit. The body's activity in speech or deed is only an effect from the external and internal of man's spirit, for the body is so much obedience.

104. As he grows older, every person has an external and an internal of thought, or an external and an internal of will and understanding or of his spirit, identical with external and internal man. This is evident to anyone who observes another's thoughts and intentions as they are revealed in speech or deed, or who observes his own when he is in company and when he is by himself. For from the external thought one can talk amicably with another and yet in internal thought be hostile. From external thought and from its affection, too, a man can talk about love for the neighbor and for God when in his internal thought he cares nothing for the neighbor and does not fear God. From external thought together with its affection he can talk about the justice of civil laws, the virtues of the moral life, and matters of doctrine and the spiritual life, and yet in private and from his internal thought and its affection speak against the civil laws, the moral virtues, and matters of doctrine and spiritual life. So those do who are in lusts of evil but want to appear to the world not to be in them.

[2] Many also, as they listen to others, think to themselves, "Do those speaking think inwardly in themselves as they think in utterance? Are they to be believed or not? What do they intend?" Flatterers and hypocrites notoriously possess a twofold thought. They can be self-restrained and guard against the interior thought's being disclosed, and some can hide it more and more deeply and bar the door against its appearing. That a man possesses external and internal thought is also plain in that from his interior thought he can behold the exterior thought, can reflect on it, too, and judge whether or not it is evil. The human mind is such because of the two faculties, called liberty and rationality, which one has from the Lord. Unless he possessed internal and external of thought from these faculties, a man could not perceive and see an evil in himself and be reformed. In fact, he could not speak but only make sounds like a beast.

105. The internal of thought comes out of the life's love, its affections and the perceptions from them. The external of thought is from what is in the memory, serving the life's love for confirmation and as means to its end. From childhood to early manhood a person is in the external of thought from an affection for knowledge, which is then his internal; from the life's love born in one from parents something of lust and hence of disposition issues, too. Later, however, his life's love is as he lives, and its affections and the perceptions from them make the internal of his thought. From his life's love comes a love of means; the enjoyments of these means and the information drawn thereby from the memory make his external of thought.

106. (ii) _Man's external of thought is in itself such as his internal is._ We showed earlier that from head to foot a man is what his life's love is. Something must be said about his life's love, for until this is done nothing can be said about the affections which together with perceptions make the internal of man, or about the enjoyments of the affections together with thoughts which make his external. Loves are many, but two--heavenly love and infernal love--are like lords or kings. Heavenly love is love to the Lord and the neighbor; infernal love is love of self and the world. These are opposite to each other as heaven and hell are. For a man in love of self and the world wishes well only to himself; a man in love to the Lord and the neighbor wishes well to all. These two are the loves of man's life, though with much variety. Heavenly love is the life's love of those whom the Lord leads, and infernal love the life's love of those whom the devil leads.

[2] No one's life's love can be without derivatives, called affections. The derivatives of infernal love are affections of evil and falsity --lusts, properly speaking; and those of heavenly love are affections of good and truth--loves, strictly. Affections, or strictly lusts, of infernal love are as numerous as evils are, and affections, or properly loves, of heavenly love are as many as there are goods. Love dwells in its affections like a lord in his domain and a king in his realm; its domain or realm is over the things of the mind, that is, of the will and understanding and thence of the body. By its affections and the perceptions from them and by its enjoyments and the thoughts therefrom, the life's love of man rules him completely, the internal of the mind by the affections and perceptions from them, and the external by the enjoyments of the affections and of the thoughts from them.

107. The manner of this rule may be seen to some extent from comparisons. Heavenly love with its affections of good and truth and the perceptions from them, together with the enjoyments of such affections and the thoughts from these, may be compared to a tree, notable for its branches, leaves and fruit. The life's love is the tree; the branches with their leaves are the affections of good and truth with their perceptions; and the fruits are the enjoyments of the affections with their thoughts. Infernal love, however, with its affections or lusts of evil and falsity, together with the enjoyments of the lusts and the thinking from those enjoyments, may be compared to a spider and the web spun about it. The love itself is the spider; the lusts of evil and falsity together with their subtle cunning are the net of threads nearest the spider's post; and the enjoyments of the lusts together with their crafty schemes are the more remote threads where flies are snared on the wing, enveloped and eaten.

108. These comparisons may help one to see the connection of all things of the will and understanding or of man's mind with his life's love, and yet not to see it rationally. Rationally it may be seen in this way. Everywhere there are three which make one, called end, cause and effect. Here the life's love is end; the affections with their perceptions are cause; and the enjoyments of the affections and consequent thoughts are effect. For as an end passes into effect through a cause, love passes by its affections to its enjoyments and by its perceptions to its thoughts. The effects are in the enjoyments of the mind and the thoughts thence when the enjoyments are from the will and the thoughts from the attendant understanding, that is, when all fully agree. The effects are then part of man's spirit and although they do not come into bodily act are still a deed there when there is this agreement. At the same time they are in the body, dwelling there with man's life's love and longing for the deed, which occurs when nothing hinders. The same is true of lusts of evil and evil deeds with those who make evils allowable in spirit.

[2] As an end unites itself with a cause and by the cause with an effect, the life's love unites itself with the internal of thought and by this with its external. It is plain then that man's external of thought is in itself what his internal is, for an end imparts all of itself to the cause and through the cause to the effect. Nothing essential is present in an effect which is not in the cause and through the cause in the end, and as the end is what essentially enters cause and effect, these are called "mediate end" and "final end" respectively.

109. Sometimes the external of thought seems to be different in itself from the internal. This is because the life's love with its internals about it sets a vicar under it called the love of means, and directs it to watch and guard against anything of its lusts appearing. This vicar, with the cunning of its chief, the life's love, therefore speaks and acts in accordance with the laws of a kingdom, the ethical demands of reason, and the spiritual requirements of the church, so cunningly, too, and cleverly that no one sees that persons are other than they say and act, and finally the persons themselves, so disguised, scarcely know otherwise. Such are all hypocrites. Such are priests, also, who at heart care nothing for the neighbor and do not fear God, yet preach about love of the neighbor and of God. Such are judges who judge by gifts and friendships while affecting zeal for justice and speaking with reason about judgment. Such are traders who at heart are insincere and fraudulent while dealing honestly for the sake of profit. Such are adulterers when, from the rationality every man possesses, they talk about the chastity of marriage; and so on.

[2] The same persons, when they strip the love of means, the vicar of their life's love, of the purple and linen which they have thrown around it and put its house dress on it, then think exactly the contrary, and exchanging thought with their best friends who are in a similar life's love, they speak so. It may be believed that when they have spoken so justly, honestly and piously from the love of means, the character of the internal of thought was not in the external of their thought; yet it was; hypocrisy is in them, and love of self and the world is in them, the cunning of which aims to capture a reputation for the sake of standing or gain through just the outward appearance. This, the nature of the internal, is in the external of their thought when they speak and act so.

110. With those in a heavenly love, however, internal and external of thought or internal and external man make one when they speak, and they are aware of no difference. Their life's love, with its affections of good and the perceptions of truth from these, is like a soul in what they think and then say and do. If they are priests, they preach out of love to the neighbor and to the Lord; if judges, they judge from justice itself; if tradesmen, they deal with honesty; if they are husbands, they love the partner with true chastity; and so on. Their life's love also has a love of the means for vicar, which it teaches and leads to act with prudence and clothes with garments of a zeal for both truths of doctrine and goods of life.

111. ( iii) _The internal cannot be purified from the lusts of evil as long as evils in the external man are not removed, for these impede._ This follows from what has been said above, that the external of man's thought is in itself what the internal of his thought is and that they cohere as what is not only in the other but also from the other; one cannot be removed, therefore, unless the other is at the same time. This is true of any external which is from an internal, and of anything subsequent from what is prior, and of every effect from a cause.

[2] As lusts together with slynesses make the internal of thought with evil persons, and the enjoyments of the lusts together with scheming make the external of thought in them, and the two are joined into one, it follows that the internal cannot be purified from the lusts as long as the evils in the external man are not removed. It should be known that man's internal will is in the lusts; his internal understanding in the slynesses; his external will in the enjoyments of the lusts; and his external understanding in the sly scheming. Anyone can see that lusts and their enjoyments make one, that slynesses and scheming also do, and that the four are one series and as it were make a single bundle. From this again it is evident that the internal, consisting of lusts, cannot be cast out except on the removal of the external, consisting of evils. Lusts produce evils by their enjoyments, and when evils are deemed allowable, as they are when will and understanding agree on it, the enjoyments and the evils make one. It is well known that assent is deed; this is also what the Lord said:

If anyone looks on the woman of another to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).*

The same is true of all other evils.

* The Greek is simply "on a woman" and does not have the word here rendered "of another." Though Swedenborg quotes the verse several times in his works he seems not to have checked as he usually did beyond the rendering of the Schmidius Latin Bible which he used.

112. From this it may now be evident that for a person to be purified from the lusts of evil, evils must by all means be removed from the external man, for the lusts have no way out before. If no outlet exists, they remain within and breathe out enjoyments and so incite man to consent, thus to deed. Lusts enter the body by the external of thought; when there is consent, therefore, in the external of thought they are instantly in the body; the enjoyment felt is bodily. See in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 362-370) that the body, thus the whole man, is what the mind is. This can be illustrated by comparisons, and by examples.

[2] By _comparisons:_ lusts with their enjoyments can be compared to a fire which blazes the more, the more it is nursed; the freer its way the more widely it spreads until in a city it consumes houses and in a woods the trees. In the Word, moreover, lusts are compared to fire, and the evils from them to a conflagration. The lusts of evil with their enjoyments also appear as fires in the spiritual world; hellfire is nothing else. Lusts may also be compared to floods and inundations as dikes or dams give way. They may also be likened to gangrene and abscesses which bring death to the body as they run their course or are not healed.

[3] By _examples:_ it is obvious that when evils are not removed in the external man, the lusts with their enjoyments grow and flourish. The more he steals the more a thief lusts to steal until he cannot stop; so with a defrauder, the more he defrauds; it is the same with hatred and vengeance, luxury and intemperance, whoredom and blasphemy. It is notorious that the love of ruling from the love of self increases when left unbridled; so also the love of possessing things from love of the world; they seem to have no limit or end. Plain it is then that so far as evils are not removed in the external man, lusts for them intensify; also that in the degree that evils are given free rein, the lusts increase.

113. A person does not see the lusts of his evil; he sees their enjoyments, to be sure, but still he reflects little on them, for they divert thought and drive off reflection. Unless he learned from elsewhere that they are evils he would call them goods and give them expression freely according to his thought's reasoning; doing so, he appropriates them to himself. So far as he confirms them as allowable he enlarges the court of his ruling love, which is his life's love. Lusts constitute its court, being its ministers and retinue, as it were, by which it governs the exteriors of its realm. But such as is the king, such are the ministers and retinue, and such is the kingdom. If the king is diabolic, his ministers and the retinue are insanities, and the people of his realm are falsities of every kind. The ministers (who are called wise although they are insane) cause these falsities to appear as truths by reasonings from fallacies and by fantasies and cause them to be acknowledged as truths. Can such a state in a man be changed except by the evils being removed in the external man? Then the lusts which cling to the evils are also removed. Otherwise no outlet offers for the lusts; they are shut in like a besieged city or like an indurated ulcer.

114. (iv) _Only with man's participation can evils in the external man be removed by the Lord._ In all Christian churches it is an accepted point of doctrine that before coming to the Holy Communion a person should examine himself, see and confess his sins, and do penitence, desisting from his sins and rejecting them because they are from the devil; and that otherwise the sins are not forgiven him and he is damned. The English, despite the fact that they are in the doctrine of faith alone, nevertheless in the exhortation to the Holy Communion openly teach self-examination, acknowledgment, confession of sins, penitence and renewal of life, and warn those who do not do these things with the words that otherwise the devil will enter into them as he did into Judas, fill them with all iniquity, and destroy both body and soul. Germans, Swedes and Danes, who are also in the doctrine of faith alone, teach the same in the exhortation to the Holy Communion, also warning that otherwise the communicants will make themselves liable to infernal punishments and eternal damnation for mixing sacred and profane together. These words are read out by the priest in a deep voice to all who are about to observe the Holy Supper, and are listened to by them in full acknowledgment that they are true.

[2] Nevertheless, after hearing a sermon on the same day about faith alone and to the effect that the law does not condemn them because the Lord has fulfilled it for them, and that of themselves they cannot do any good which is not self-righteous and thus that one's works have nothing saving in them, only faith alone has, these same persons return home completely forgetting their earlier confession and rejecting it so far as they think along the lines of the sermon. But which is true, the latter or the former? Contrary to each other, both cannot be true. Which is? That there can be no forgiveness of sins, thus no salvation but only eternal damnation, apart from self-examination, the knowledge and acknowledgment, confession and breaking off of sins, that is, apart from repentance? Or that such things effect nothing towards salvation inasmuch as full satisfaction for all the sins of men has been made by the Lord through the passion of the cross for those who have faith, and that those in faith alone with trust that it is so and with confidence in the imputation of the Lord's merit, are sinless and appear before God like men with shining faces for having washed?

[3] It is plain from this that the religion common to all churches in Christendom is that one shall examine himself, see and acknowledge his sins and then desist from them, and that otherwise there is no salvation, but damnation. This, moreover, is divine truth itself, as is plain from passages in the Word in which man is bidden to do penitence, as from the following:

John said, Do . . . fruits worthy of repentance . . . this moment the axe is at the root of the tree; every tree not giving good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire (Lu 3:8, 9).

Jesus said, Unless you do repentance, you shall all . . . perish (Lu 13:3,5).

Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God; . . . do repentance, and believe the gospel (Mk 1:14, 15).

Jesus sent out the disciples who on going out were to preach that men should repent (Mk 6:12).

Jesus told the apostles that they were to preach repentance and the remission of sins to all peoples (Lu 24:27).

John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mk 1:4; Lu 3:3).

Think about this also with some degree of understanding; if you have religion, you will see that repentance of one's sins is the way to heaven, that faith apart from repentance is not faith, and that those in no faith for lack of repenting are in the way to hell.

115. Those in faith severed from charity who have confirmed themselves in it by Paul's saying to the Romans that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law (3:28) worship that saying quite like men who worship the sun. They become like those who fix their gaze steadily on the sun with the result that the blurred vision sees nothing in normal light. For they fail to see what is meant in the passage by "works of the law," namely, the rituals described by Moses in his books, called "law" in them everywhere, and not the precepts of the Decalog. Lest it be thought these are meant, Paul explains, saying at that point,

Do we not then make the law void through faith? Far from it, rather we establish the law (verse 31 of the same chapter).

Those who have confirmed themselves by that saying in faith severed from charity, looking on it as on the sun, do not see the passages in which Paul lists the laws of faith and that these are the very works of charity. What indeed is faith without its laws? Nor do they see the passages in which he lists evil works, declaring that those who do them cannot enter heaven. What blindness has been brought about by this one passage badly understood!

116. Evils in the external man cannot be removed without man's cooperation for the reason that it is by divine providence that whatever a man hears, sees, thinks, wills, speaks and does shall seem to him to be his own doing. Apart from that appearance (as was shown above, nn. 71-95 ff.) there would be no reception of divine truth on man's part, nor determination to do what is good, nor any appropriation of love and wisdom or of charity and faith, hence no conjunction with the Lord, no reformation therefore or regeneration, and thus no salvation. Without that appearance, repentance for sins would clearly be impossible and in fact faith would; without that appearance, likewise, man is not man but is devoid of rational life like the beasts. Let him who will, consult his reason whether it appears otherwise than that man thinks from himself about good and truth, spiritual as well as moral and civil; then accept the doctrine that all good and truth are from the Lord and none from man. Must he not then acknowledge as a consequence that man is to do good and think truth of himself, yet always acknowledge that these are from the Lord? And acknowledge further that man is to remove evils of himself, but still acknowledge that he does so from the Lord?

117. Many are unaware that they are in evils since they do not do them outwardly, fearing the civil law and the loss of reputation. Thus by custom and habit they practice to avoid evils as detrimental to their standing and interests. But if they do not shun evils on religious principle, because they are sins and against God, the lusts of evil with their enjoyments remain in them like impure waters stopped up or stagnant. Let them probe their thoughts and intentions and they will come on the lusts provided they know what sins are.

[2] Many such, who have confirmed themselves in faith separated from charity and who believe that the law does not condemn, pay no attention to sins. Some doubt there are sins, or if so, that they exist in God's sight, having been pardoned. Such also are natural moralists, who believe that civil and moral life with its prudence accomplishes all things and divine providence nothing. Such are those, also, who strive with great care after a reputation and a name for honesty and sincerity for the sake of standing and preferment. But those who are such and who at the same time have spurned religion become lustful spirits after death, appearing to themselves like men indeed, but to others at a distance like _priapi;_ and they see in the dark and not at all in the light, like night-owls.

118. Proposition v, that _a man ought to remove evils from the external man of himself,_ is substantiated then. Further explanation may be seen in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem_ under three propositions: 1. No one can flee evils as sins so as to be averse to them inwardly except by combats against them (nn. 92-100); 2. A man ought to shun evils as sins and fight against them as of himself (nn. 101-107); and 3. If he shuns evils for any other reason than that they are sins, he does not shun them, but only keeps them from appearing to the world.

119. (vi) _The Lord then purifies man from the lusts of evil in the internal man and from the evils themselves in the external._ The Lord purifies man from the lusts of evil only when man as of himself removes the evils because He cannot do so before. For the evils are in the external man and the lusts in the internal man, and they cling together like roots and a trunk. Unless the evils are removed, therefore, no outlet offers; they block the way and shut the door, which the Lord can open only with a man's participation, as was shown just above. When the man as of himself opens the door, the Lord then roots out the lusts.

[2] A second reason why the Lord cannot do so sooner is that He acts upon man's inmost and by that on all that follows even to outmosts where man himself is. While outmosts, therefore, are kept closed by man, no purification can take place, but only that activity of the Lord in interiors which is His activity in hell, of which the man who is in lusts and at the same time in evils is a form--an activity which is solely provision lest one thing destroy another and lest good and truth be violated. It is plain from words of the Lord in the Apocalypse that He constantly urges and prompts man to open the door to Him:

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me (3:20).

120. Man knows nothing at all of the interior state of his mind or internal man, yet infinite things are there, not one of which comes to his knowledge. His internal of thought or internal man is his very spirit, and in it are things as infinite and innumerable as there are in his body, in fact, more numerous. For his spirit is man in its form, and all things in it correspond to all things of his body. Now, just as man knows nothing by any sensation about how his mind or soul operates on all things of the body as a whole or severally, so he does not know, either, how the Lord works on all things of his mind or soul, that is, of his spirit. The divine activity is unceasing; man has no part in it; still the Lord cannot purify a man from any lust of evil in his spirit or internal man as long as the man keeps the external closed. Man keeps his external closed by evils, each of which seems to him to be a single entity, although in each are infinite things. When a man removes what seems a single thing, the Lord removes infinite things in it. So much is implied in the Lord's purifying man from the lusts of evil in the internal man and from the evils themselves in the external.

121. Many believe that a person is purified from evils merely by believing what the church teaches; some, by doing good; others by knowing, speaking and teaching what is of the church; others by reading the Word and books of devotion; others by going to church, hearing sermons and especially by observing the Holy Supper; still others, by renouncing the world and devoting oneself to piety; others still by confessing oneself guilty of all sins; and so on. And yet none of these things purifies man at all unless he examines himself, sees his sins, acknowledges them, condemns himself on account of them, and repents by desisting from them, and does all this as of himself, yet with the acknowledgment in heart that he does so from the Lord.

[2] Until this is done, the things mentioned above do not avail, being either self-righteous or hypocritical. Such persons appear to the angels in heaven either like pretty courtesans smelling badly of their corruption, or like unsightly women painted to appear handsome, or like masked clowns and mimics in the theater, or like apes in men's clothes. But when evils have been removed, then all that has just been mentioned becomes the expression of love in such persons, and they appear as beautiful human beings to the sight of the angels in heaven and as partners and companions of theirs.

122. But it should be rightly known that in repenting a man ought to look to the Lord alone. He cannot be purified if he looks to God the Father alone, or to the Father for the sake of the Son, or to the Son as a man only. For there is one God and the Lord is He, for His Divine and Human is one Person, as we have shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord._ In order that the intending penitent may look to Him alone, the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, which confirms the remission of sins in those who repent, and does so because everyone is kept looking to the Lord alone in it.

123. (vii) _The perpetual effort of the Lord in His divine providence is to conjoin man with Himself and Himself with man, in order to be able to bestow the felicities of eternal life on him, which can be done only so far as evils with their lusts have been removed._ It was shown above (nn. 27-45) that it is the unceasing effort of the Lord in His divine providence to conjoin man to Himself and Himself to man; that this conjunction is what is called reformation and regeneration; and that by it man has salvation. Who does not see that conjunction with God is life eternal and salvation? Everyone sees this who believes that men by creation are images and likenesses of God (Ge 1:26, 27) and who knows what an image and likeness of God is. [2] What man of sound reason, thinking from his rationality and wanting to think in freedom, can believe that there are three Gods equal in essence and that divine being or essence can be divided? One can conceive and comprehend a Trine in the one God, however, just as soul, body and outgoing life in angel and man are comprehensible. As this Trine in One exists only in the Lord, conjunction must be with Him. Use your power of reason together with your liberty of thought, and you will see this truth in its own light; but admit first that God is, and heaven, and eternal life.

[3] As, then, God is one, and the human being was made by creation an image and likeness of Him, and inasmuch as by infernal love and its lusts and enjoyments man has come into a love of all evils and thus destroyed the image and likeness of God in him, it follows that it is the continuous effort of the Lord's divine providence to conjoin man to Himself and Himself to man and thus make him an image of Himself. It also follows that this is to the end that the Lord may be able to bestow on him the felicities of eternal life, for such is divine love.

[4] He cannot bestow them, however, nor make man an image of Himself, unless man removes sins in the external man as of himself, because the Lord is not only divine love but also divine wisdom, and divine love does nothing except by its divine wisdom and in consonance with it. It is according to divine wisdom that man cannot be conjoined to the Lord and thus reformed, regenerated and saved unless he is allowed to act in freedom according to reason, for so man is man. Whatever is according to the Lord's divine wisdom is also of His divine providence.

124. To this let me append two arcana of angelic wisdom showing further what divine providence is like. One is that the Lord never acts on one thing by itself in man, but on all things at the same time, and the other is that He acts at once from inmosts and outmosts. He never acts on some one thing by itself but on all things together because all things in man are in such connection and from this in such form that they act not as a number but as one. We know that there is such connectedness and by it such organization in man's body. The human mind is in similar form as a result of the connection of all things, for the mind is the spiritual man and truly the man. Hence man's spirit or the mind in the body in its entire form is man. Consequently man is man after death equally as he was in the world with the sole difference that he has thrown off the clothing which made up his body in the world.

[2] As the human form, then, is such that all its parts form a community which acts as a whole, some one thing cannot be moved out of place or altered in state except with adaptation of the rest, for if it were, the form which acts as a whole would suffer. Hence it is plain that the Lord never acts on any one thing without acting on all. So He acts on the total angelic heaven since in His view it is like one man; so He acts on each angel, for each angel is heaven in least form; so He acts also on each man, most nearly on all things of man's mind and by these on all things of his body; for man's mind is his spirit and in the measure of conjunction with the Lord is an angel, and the body is obedience.

[3] It is to be well noted, however, that the Lord does act on each particular thing in man singly, singularly so, when acting on all things in man's organization; even so He does not alter the state of any part or of any one thing except suitably to the whole form. But more will be said of this in following numbers where we shall show that divine providence is general because it extends to particulars, and particular because it is general.

[4] The Lord acts from inmosts and outmosts at the same time because only in this way are all things held in connection, for the intermediate things depend one upon another from inmosts to outmosts and are assembled in outmosts (it was shown in Part III of the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom_ that all things from the inmost onward are present simultaneously in what is outmost ). For this reason the Lord from eternity or Jehovah came into the world and assumed and bore human nature in outmosts. He could thus be at once from firsts in lasts, and from firsts by lasts govern the whole world and so save whom He could save according to the laws of His divine providence, which are also the laws of His divine wisdom. For it is true, as Christendom knows, that no mortal could have been saved had the Lord not come into the world (see _Doctrine for the New Jerusalem on Faith,_ n. 35). For the same reason the Lord is called "The First and the Last."

125. These angelic arcana have been premised in order that it may be comprehended how the Lord's divine providence operates to unite man to Him and Himself to man. It does not act upon a particular thing by itself in man, but on all things together and from man's inmost and outmosts simultaneously. Man's inmost is his life's love; the outmosts are in the external of thought; what is intermediate is in the internal of thought (what external and internal are like with the wicked was shown earlier); from which it is plain again that the Lord cannot act by inmosts and outmosts simultaneously except together with man, for in the outmosts man and the Lord are together. Wherefore, as the man acts in outmosts, which are in his determination, being within the range of his freedom, so the Lord acts from man's inmosts and in what follows from them to the outmosts. Man does not know at all what is in the inmosts and in what follows to the outmosts, therefore is unaware of how the Lord acts there or what He effects there. But as all these things cohere as one with the outmosts, man does not need to know more than that he should shun evils as sins and look to the Lord. Only so can his life's love, which by birth is infernal, be removed by the Lord and a heavenly life's love be implanted in its place.

126. When a heavenly life's love has been implanted by the Lord in place of an infernal life's love, affections of good and truth are implanted in place of lusts of evil and falsity; enjoyments of affections of good are implanted instead of enjoyments of lusts of evil and falsity, and goods of heavenly love in place of evils of infernal love; prudence is implanted in place of cunning, wise thinking in place of malevolent. So a man is born again and becomes a new man. What goods replace evils you may see in _Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem,_ nn. 67-73, 74-79, 80-86, 87-91; likewise that so far as man shuns and is averse to evils as sins so far he loves truths of wisdom, nn. 32-41, and has faith and is spiritual, nn. 42-52.

127. From the exhortations read aloud in all Christian churches before Holy Communion we showed that it is the common religion of all Christendom that a man should examine himself, see his sins, avow them, confess them before God, and desist from them; and that this is repentance, remission of sins and hence salvation. This is also evident from the Creed named after Athanasius and received throughout Christendom which concludes with the words:

The Lord will come to judge the living and the dead; at whose coming those who have done good will enter into life eternal, and those who have done evil, into everlasting fire.

128. Who does not know from the Word that everyone is allotted a life after death according to his deeds? Open the Word, read it, and you will see this clearly, but the while remove the thoughts from faith and justification by faith alone. The few passages following are testimony that the Lord teaches so everywhere in His Word:

Every tree which does not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire. By their fruits therefore shall you know them (Mt 7:19, 20).

Many will say to Me in that day, Lord . . . have we not prophesied in your name, . . . and in your name done many mighty things? But I shall confess to them then, I know you not, depart from Me, you who work iniquity (Mt 7:22, 23).

Everyone who hears my words and does them I shall liken to a prudent man who built a house on a rock: . . . but everyone who hears my words but does not do them shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the ground without a foundation (Mt 7:24, 26; Lu 6:46-49).

[2] The Son of man will come in the glory of His Father .. . and render then to everyone according to his deeds (Mt 16:27).

The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and given to a people bringing forth its fruits (Mt 21:43).

Jesus said, These are My mother and brothers who hear the Word of God and do it (Lu 8:21).

Then shall you begin to stand . . . and knock at the door, saying, Lord, . . . open to us, but replying He will say to them, I know not whence you are; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity (Lu 13:25-27).

Those who have done good shall go out into the resurrection of life, but those who have done evil into the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:29).

[3] We know . . . that God does not hear sinners, but if a man worships God and does His will, him He hears (Jn 9:31).

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them (13:17).

He who has My commandments and does them, he it is who loves Me, ... and I will love him, . . . and I will come to him, and make an abode with him (14:15, 21-24).

You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you... . I have chosen you . . . that you may bear fruit and that your fruit may remain (15:14, 16).

[4] The Lord said to John, Write to the angel of the Ephesian church, I know your works: . . . I have against you that you have left an earlier charity; . . . repent, and do the former works; else . . . I shall remove your candlestick from its place (Apoc 2:1, 2, 4, 5).

To the angel of the church of the Smyrneans write, I know your works (2:8, 9).

To the angel of the church in Pergamos write, . . . I know your works, repent (2:12, 13, 16).

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write, . . . I know your works and charity, . . . and your later works are more than the first (2:18, 19).

To the angel of the church in Sardis write, . . . I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead; . . . I have not found your works perfect before God; . . . repent (3:1-3).

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, I know your works (3:7, 8).

To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, I know your works; . . . repent (3:14, 15, 19).

I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on; ... their works follow them (14:13).

A book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged, ... all according to their works (20:12, 13).

Lo, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work (22:12).

These are passages in the New Testament;

[5] there are still more in the Old, from which I shall quote only this one:

Stand in the gate . . . of Jehovah, and proclaim this word there: Thus says Jehovah Zebaoth the God of Israel, Make your ways good, and your works; . . . put not your trust in lying words, saying, The temple, the temple, the temple of Jehovah is this. . . . Thieving and killing and committing adultery and swearing falsely . . . will you then come to stand before Me in this house which is called by My name and say, We are delivered? When you do those abominable things? Has not this house been made a den of robbers? Even I, lo, I have seen it, is the word of Jehovah (Je 7:2-4, 9-11).

VII. IT IS A LAW OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE THAT MAN SHALL NOT BE COMPELLED BY EXTERNAL MEANS TO THINK AND WILL, THUS TO BELIEVE AND LOVE WHAT PERTAINS TO RELIGION, BUT BRING HIMSELF AND AT TIMES COMPEL HIMSELF TO DO SO

129. This law of divine providence follows from the preceding two, namely: man is to act in freedom according to reason (nn. 71-99); and is to do this of himself and yet from the Lord, thus as of himself (nn. 100-128). Inasmuch as being compelled is not to act in freedom according to reason and also not to act of oneself, but to act from what is not freedom and from someone else, this law of divine providence follows in due order on the first two. Everyone knows that no one can be forced to think what he is unwilling to think or to will what he decides not to will, thus to believe what he does not believe, least of all what he wills not to believe, or to love what he does not love and still less what he wills not to love. For the spirit or mind of man enjoys complete freedom in thinking, willing, believing and loving. It does so by influx which is not coercive from the spiritual world (for the human spirit or mind is in that world); and not by influx from the natural world, received only when the two agree.

[2] A man can be driven to say that he thinks and wills, believes and loves what is religious, but if this is not a matter of his affection and reasoning or does not become so, he does not think, will, believe or love it. A man may also be compelled to speak in favor of religion and to act according to it, but he cannot be compelled to think in its favor from any faith or to will in its favor out of love for it. In countries in which justice and judgment are guarded, one is indeed compelled not to speak or act against religion, but still no one can be compelled to think and will in its favor. For everyone has freedom to think and to will along with, and in favor of, hell or along with, and in favor of, heaven. Reason, however, teaches what either course is like and what lot awaits it, and by reason the will has the choice and decision.

[3] Plainly, then, what is external cannot coerce what is internal; nevertheless it happens sometimes, but that it works harm will be shown in this order:

i. No one is reformed by miracles and signs, for they coerce.