EVERYDAY BLESSINGS

  { PT.  21 } - PART SECOND--THE COMMANDMENTS                                                I.  The First Commandment - Thou shalt not make to thee  other gods includes not loving self and the world above all things; for that which ones loves above all things is his god. There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love of the world and love of heaven. He who loves himself loves his own ( proprium ); and as a man's own ( proprium ) is nothing but evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil hates good, and thus hates God. He who loves himself above all things sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own ( proprium ), and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when one is sunk in the body and in his own ( proprium ) he is in corporeal ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the...

  { PT.  20 } - Fifthly, so far as one shuns murders, and thus shuns deadly hatreds and revenges that breathe murder, so far the Lord enters with mercy and love. Sixthly, so far as one shuns false testimonies, and thus shuns lies and blasphemies, so far truth from the Lord enters. Seventhly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the house of others, and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts for possessing the goods of others, so far charity toward the neighbor enters from the Lord. Eightly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the wives of others, their servants, etc., and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts of ruling over others ( for the things enumerated in this commandment are what belong to man ), so far love to the Lord enters. These eight commandments include the evils that must be shunned, but the two others, namely, the third and fourth, include certain things that must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that parents must be honored. B...

  { PT.  19 } - Consider is respect to yourself, when these external bonds have been taken away, as is done with every man after death, if there are no internal bonds, which are from fear and love of God, thus from religion, to restrain and hold you back, whether you would not rush like a devil into thefts, adulteries, murders, false witnesses, and lusts of every kind, from a love of these and a delight in them. That this is the case I have both seen and heard ( A.E., n. 948 ). So far as evils are set aside as sins so far good flow in, and so far does man afterward do goods, not from the Lord. As, first, so far as one does not worship other gods, and thus does not love self and the world above all things, so far acknowledgment of God flows in from the Lord, and then the worships God, not from self but from the Lord. Secondly, so far as one does not profane the name of God, that is, so far as he shuns the lusts arising from the loves of self and of the world, so far he loves th...

  { PT  18 } - Everyone who makes these commandments to belong to his religion becomes a citizen and an inhabitant of heaven; but he who does not make them to belong to his religion, although in externals he may live according to them from natural, becomes a citizen and an inhabitant of the world, but not of heaven. Most nations possess a knowledge of these commandments, and make them the commandments of their religion, and live according to them because God so wills and has commanded; and through this they have communication with heaven and conjunction with God, consequently they are saved. But most in the Christian world at this day do not make them the commandments of their religion, but only of their civil and moral life; and they do this that they may not appear in external form to act fraudulently and make unlawful gains, commit adulteries, manifestly pursue others from deadly hatred and revenge, and bear false witness, and do not refrain from these things because they a...

  { PT.  17 } - And yet he who does not live according to them as a spiritual man cannot be saved; since to live according to them as a spiritual man means to live so for the sake of the Divine that is in them, while to live according to them as a civil man means for the sake of justice and to escape punishments in the world; and to live according to them as a moral man means for the sake of honesty, and to escape the loss of reputation and honor; while to live according to them as a natural man means for the sake of what is human, and to escape the repute of having an unsound mind. All laws, civil, moral, and natural, prescribe that one must to steal, must not commit adultery, must not kill, must not bear false witness; and yet a man is saved not by shunning these evils from these laws spiritual law, thus shunning them as sins. For with such a man there is religion, and a belief that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death; with such a man there is a civil...

  { PT.  16 } - Again, since man acts as he thinks and wills, for every act of man goes forth from the thought of his will, it follows that when he shuns and turns away from evils he does goods from the Lord and not from self; and this is why shunning evils is doing goods. The goods that a man does in this way are what are meant by good works in their whole complex are what meant by charity. Man cannot be reformed unless he thinks, wills, and does as if from himself, since that which is done as if by the man himself is conjoined to him and remains with him, while that which is not done as if by the man himself, not being received in any life of sense, flows through like ether; and this is why the Lord wills that man should not only shun and turn away from evils as of of himself, but should also think, will, and do as if of himself, and yet acknowledge in heart that all these things are from the Lord. This he must acknowledge because it is the truth. ( A.E., n. 946 ). V.  ...

  { PT.  15 } - Man has affection for truth when he loves truth and turns away from falsity. He has an affection for good when he loves good when he loves good uses and turns away from evil uses. He has an affection for bringing forth fruit when he loves to do goods and to be serviceable. All heavenly joy is in these affections and from them, and this joy cannot be described by comparisons, for it is supereminent and eternal. ( A.E., n. 943 ). Into this state the man comes who shuns evils because they are sins, and looks to the Lord; and so far as he comes into this state he turns away from and hates evils as sins, and acknowledge in heart and worships the Lord only, and His Divine in the Human. This is a summary. ( A.E., n. 944 ). When a man is in that state he is raised up from what in his own ( proprium ); for a man is in what is his own ( Proprium ) when he is only in the natural external, but he is raised up from what is his own ( proprium ) when he is in the spiritual in...

  { PT.  `14 } - When the spiritual internal is opened, and through it communication with heaven and conjunction with the Lord are granted, enlightenment especially when he reads the Word, because the Lord is in the Word, and the Word is Divine truth is light to angels. Man is enlightened in the rational, for this directly underlies the spiritual internal, and receives light from heaven and transfers it into the natural when it is purified from evils, filling it with the knowledge of truth and good, and adapting to them the knowledges ( scientiae ) that are from world, for the sake of proof and agreement. Thus man has a rational, and thus he has an understanding. He who believes that man has a rational and an understanding before his natural has been purified from evils is deceived, for the understanding is seeing truths of the church from the light of heaven; and the light of heaven does not flow into those not purified. And as the understanding is perfected, the falsities of...