( SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD ) - { PT. 12 }


 { PT.  11 } - But as all the evils into which man is born derive their roots from a love of ruling over others and from a love of possessing the goods of others, and all the delights of man's own life flow forth from these tow loves, and all evils are from them, so the loves and delights of these evils belong to man's own life. And since evils belong to the life of man, from himself can be no means refrain from them, for this would be from his own life to refrain from his own life. An ability to refrain from them of the Lord is therefore provided, and that he may have this ability the freedom to think that which he wills and to pray to the Lord for help is granted him. He has this freedom because he is in the middle between heaven and hell, consequently between good and evil. And being in the middle he is in equilibrium; and he who is in equilibrium is able easily and as of his own accord to turn himself the one way or the other; and the more so because the Lord continually resists evils and repels them, and raises man up and draws him to Himself. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD { PT. 55 }

Image
  { PT.  55 } - When a man shuns evils as sins he daily learns what a good work is, and an affection for doing good grows in him, and an affection for knowing truths for the sake of good; for so far as he knows truths he can perform works more fully and more wisely, and thus his works become more truly good. Refrain, therefore, from asking in thyself, What are the good works that I must do, or what good must I do to receive eternal life? Only refrain from evils as sins and look to the Lord, and the Lord will teach and lead you. ( A.E., n. 979). VI. The Sixth Commandments of the Decalogue have been explained. Now follow the explanation of the sixth commandment, mit adultery. Who at this day can believe that the delight of adultery is hell in man, and that the delight of marriage is heaven in him, consequently so far as he is in the one delight he is not in the other, since so far as man is in hell he is not in heaven? Who at this day can believe that the love of adultery is the...
Read more

SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD - { PT. 76 }

Image
  { PT.  76 } - To them doing the commandments is loving the Lord. To them the Lord's commandments are the truths in which they receive Him. There is conjunction of the Lord with them, and of them with the Lord; for they are in the Lord because they are in good, and the Lord is in them because they are in truths. This is the heavenly marriage, from which true marriage love descends. ( A. E., n. 995 ). As true marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the Lord it is also innocence. Innocence is loving the Lord as one's Father by doing His commandments and wishing to be led by Him and not by oneself, thus like a little child. As that love is innocence, it is very being ( esse ) of all good; and therefore man has so much of heaven in himself, or he is so much in heaven in himself, or he is so much in heaven, as he is in marriage love, because he is so far in innocence. It is because true marriage love is innocence that the playfulness between a married pair is l...
Read more

SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD - { PT. 57 }

Image
  { PT.  57 } - And since adultery is hell it follows that unless a man abstains from adulteries and shuns them and turns away from them as infernal he shuts up heaven to himself, and does not receive the least influx therefrom. Afterward the reasons that marriages and adulteries are alike, but the marriages must be maintained in kingdoms of the training of offspring; also that adulteries are not criminal, since children are equally born from them; and they are not harmful to women, since they can endure them, and by them the procreation of the human race is promoted. He does not know that these and other like reasonings in favor of adulteries ascend from the Stygian [ extremely dark ] waters of hell, and that the lustful and bestial nature of man which inheres in him from birth attracts them and sucks them in with delight, as a swine does excrement. That such reasonings, which at minds of most men in the Christian world are diabolical, will be seen, ( A.E., n. 982 ). That mar...
Read more