Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence Part 15

224. Who cannot see that it is the internal from which the external exists and that consequently the external has its essence from the internal? And who does not know by experience that the external can appear out of accord with the essence it has from the internal? It does so obviously with hypocrites, flatterers and dissemblers. That a person can outwardly feign to be other than himself is manifest from actors and mimics. They know how to represent kings, emperors and even angels in tone of voice, speech, face and gesture as though they were really such, when they are nevertheless only actors. We allude to this because man can similarly act the deceiver in spiritual things as well as civil and moral, and that many do is well known.

[2] When the internal in its essence is infernal, and the external in its form appears to be spiritual and yet has its essence, as we said, from the internal, the question arises where in the external that essence is hidden. It does not show in gesture, voice, speech or face, yet is interiorly hidden in all four. That it is, is plain from the same in the spiritual world. For when man pa.s.ses from the natural world to the spiritual, as he does at death, he leaves his externals behind along with his body and retains his internals, which he has stored up in his spirit.

If his internal was infernal, he then appears as a devil, such as he was as to his spirit during life in the world. Who does not acknowledge that everyone leaves external things behind with the body and enters into internal things on becoming a spirit?

[3] To this I will add that in the spiritual world there is a communication of affections and of thoughts from them, which results in no one's being able to speak except as he thinks; likewise, everyone changes facial expression and reflects his affection, and thus shows in his face what he is. Hypocrites are allowed sometimes to speak otherwise than they think, but the tone of the voice sounds utterly out of harmony with their interior thoughts, and they are recognized by the discord. It may be evident from this that the internal lies hidden in the tone of voice, the speech, the face and gesture of the external, and that it is not perceived by men in the world, but plainly by angels in the spiritual world.

225. It is plain from this that while he lives in the natural world man may be admitted into wisdom about spiritual things and into love of them also, and that this happens or can happen with the merely natural as well as with those who are spiritual, with this difference, however, that the latter are reformed by these means and the former are not. It may seem, also, that the former love wisdom, but they do so only as an adulterer loves a n.o.ble woman, that is, as mistress, speaking caressingly to her and giving her beautiful garments, but saying of her privately to himself, "She is only a vile harlot whom I will make believe that I love because she gratifies my l.u.s.t; if she should not, I would cast her away."

The internal man of the unreformed lover of wisdom is this adulterer; his external man is the woman.

226. (ii) _If man recedes from these later and turns to what is contrary, he profanes holy things._ There are many kinds of profanation of what is holy, of which in the following section, but this is the gravest of all.

Those who profane in this way become no longer human beings after death; they live indeed, but are continually in wild fantasies. They seem to themselves to soar aloft and while they remain there they sport with fantasies which they see as realities. No longer human, they are referred to not as "he" or "she" but "it." In fact, when they come to view in heaven's light they look like skeletons, some like skeletons of the color of bone, others like fiery skeletons, and still others like charred ones.

The world does not know that profaners of this kind become like this after death, and the reason is that the cause is unknown. The real cause is that when man first acknowledges and believes divine things and then lapses and denies them, he mixes the holy with the profane. Once they are mixed, they cannot be separated without destroying the whole. That these things may be perceived more clearly, they are to be disclosed in due order as follows: 1. Whatever a man thinks, speaks and does from the will, whether good or evil, is appropriated to him and remains. 2. The Lord in His divine providence constantly foresees and disposes that evil shall be by itself and good by itself, and thus may be separated. 3. This cannot be done, however, if man first acknowledges and lives according to truths of faith and afterwards recedes and denies them. 4. Then he mixes good and evil to the point that they cannot be separated. 5. Since good and evil in anyone must be separated, and in such a person cannot be, he is destroyed in all that is truly human.

227. These are the causes that lead to such enormity, but as they are obscure as a result of ignorance of them, they are to be explained so that they will be plain to the understanding. 1. _Whatever man thinks, speaks and does from the will, whether good or evil, is appropriated to him and remains._ This was explained above (nn. 78-81); for man has an external or natural memory and an internal or spiritual memory. On the latter memory are written each and all things that he thought, spoke or did from his will in the world, so fully that nothing is lacking. This memory is his book of life, which is opened after death and according to which he is judged. Much more about this memory is reported from experience in the work _Heaven and h.e.l.l_ (nn. 461-465).

[2] 2. _The Lord in His divine providence constantly foresees and disposes that evil shall be by itself and good by itself, and thus may be separated._ Everyone is both in evil and in good, for he is in evil from himself and in good from the Lord; he cannot live without being in both.

If he were in himself alone and thus in evil alone, he would not possess anything living; nor would he if he were in the Lord alone and thus in good alone. In the latter case he would be like one suffocated and gasping for breath or like one dying in agony; in the former case he would be devoid of life, for evil apart from good is dead. Therefore everyone is in both, with the difference that in the one instance he is inwardly in the Lord and outwardly as if in himself, and in the other inwardly in himself and outwardly as if in the Lord. The latter man is in evil, the former in good, and yet each is in good and evil both. The wicked man is in both because he is in the good of civil and moral life and outwardly, in some measure, in the good of spiritual life, too, besides being kept by the Lord in rationality and liberty, making it possible for him to be in good. This is the good by means of which everyone, even a wicked man, is led by the Lord. It may then be seen that the Lord keeps evil and good apart, so that one is interior and the other exterior, and thus provides against their being mingled.

[3] 3. _This cannot be done, however, if man first acknowledges and lives according to truths of faith and then later recedes and denies them._ This is plain from what has just been said, that all which a man thinks, speaks and does from the will is appropriated to him and remains; and that the Lord in His divine providence constantly foresees and disposes that good shall be by itself and evil by itself, and so can be separated.

They are also separated by the Lord after death. Those who are inwardly evil and outwardly good are deprived of the good and left to their evil.

The reverse occurs with the inwardly good who outwardly like other men have acquired wealth, sought distinction, delighted in the mundane, and indulged some l.u.s.ts. Good and evil have not been commingled by them, however, but are separate, like internal and external; they have resembled the evil in many ways outwardly but not inwardly. Evil is separate from good in the evil, too, who have appeared outwardly like the good for piety, wors.h.i.+p, speech and deeds, although wicked inwardly. With those, however, who have first acknowledged and lived by truths of faith and then lived contrary to them and rejected them and particularly if they have denied them, good and evil are no longer separate, but mixed.

Such a person has appropriated both good and evil to himself, and thus combined and mixed them.

[4] 4. _He then mixes good and evil to a point where they cannot be separated._ This follows from what has just been said. And if evil cannot be separated from good and good from evil, a person can be neither in heaven nor in h.e.l.l. Everyone must be in one or the other; he cannot be in both; for so he would be now in heaven and now in h.e.l.l; and in heaven he would act in h.e.l.l's favor and in h.e.l.l act in heaven's favor. He would thus destroy the life of all around him, heavenly life among the angels and infernal life among the devils; as a result everyone's life would perish. For everyone must live his own life; no one lives a life foreign to his own, still less one opposed to it. Hence, in every man after death, when he becomes a spirit or a spiritual being, the Lord separates good from evil and evil from good, good from evil in those who are inwardly in evil, and evil from good in those inwardly in good. This accords with His own words:

To every one who has, shall be given, that he may abound, and from him who has not, shall even what he has be taken away (Mt 13:12; 25:29; Mk 4:25; Lu 8:18; 19:26).

[5] Fifth: _Since good and evil in anyone must be separated and in such a person cannot be, he is destroyed in all that is truly human._ As was shown earlier, everyone has what is truly human from rationality, in that he can see and know what is true and good if he wishes, and from liberty, enabling him to will, think, speak and do it. But this liberty has been destroyed along with their rationality in those who have commingled good and evil in themselves, for they cannot from good see evil, nor from evil recognize good; the two make one in them. Hence they no longer possess rationality in any efficacy or power, nor any liberty. For this reason they are like the sheerest wild fantasies, as we said above, and no longer look like men but like bones covered with skin, and therefore when mentioned are referred to not as "he" or "she" but "it." Such is the lot of those who have commingled sacred and profane in the manner we have described. There are several kinds of profanation which are not of this character, however; of them in a later section.

228. No one can profane holy things in the way described who is ignorant of them. For one who is ignorant of them cannot acknowledge them and then deny them. Those, therefore, who are outside Christendom and know nothing of the Lord or of redemption and salvation at His hands do not profane the holiness of this in not accepting it or even by speaking against it.

The Jews do not profane its sanct.i.ty, for from infancy they have no desire to receive and acknowledge it. It would be otherwise if they received and acknowledged it and afterwards denied it. This seldom occurs, however; for many among them acknowledge it outwardly but deny it inwardly and are like hypocrites. But those who first accept and acknowledge and later lapse and deny, are the ones who profane holy things by mingling them with profane.

[2] It is beside the point here that holy things are accepted and acknowledged in infancy and childhood, as they are by every Christian.

For what pertains to faith and charity is not accepted and acknowledged at that age from any rationality and liberty, that is, in the understanding from the will, but only by the memory and from confidence in the teacher; and if the life is in accord it is so by blind obedience.

If, however, on coming into the exercise of his rationality and freedom, which one does gradually in growing up to youth and manhood, a man acknowledges truths and lives by them only later to deny them, he does mingle the holy with the profane and (as was said above) from being human becomes a monster. On the other hand, if a man is in evil after attaining rationality and freedom, that is, after becoming his own master, even in his early manhood, but later acknowledges truths of faith and lives by them and remains in them also to the close of life, he does not commingle the holy and the profane. The Lord then severs the evils of his earlier life from the good of his later life, as is done with all who repent. Of this more will be said in what follows.

229. (iii) _There are many kinds of profanation of what is holy, but this kind is the worst of all._ In the widest sense by profanation all impiety is meant, and by profaners, therefore, all the impious who at heart deny G.o.d, the holiness of the Word, and consequently the spiritual things of the church which are essentially holy, and who also speak of them impiously. We are not now treating of such profaners but of those who profess G.o.d, uphold the holiness of the Word, and acknowledge the spiritual things of the church (yet most persons do so with the lips only). These commit profanation for the reason that holiness from the Word is in them and with them, and this which is in them, part of their understanding and will, they profane. But in the impious who deny the Divine and divine things, there is nothing holy which they can profane; they are profaners, of course, but still not profane as the others are.

230. The profanation of what is holy is meant in the second precept of the Decalog, "You shall not profane the name of your G.o.d," and that it ought not to be profaned is meant in the Lord's Prayer by "Hallowed be Thy name." Hardly anyone in Christendom understands what is meant by G.o.d's name. The reason for this is that in the spiritual world names are not what they are in this world; everyone has a name in accord with the character of his love and wisdom. As soon as he enters a society or into fellows.h.i.+p with others he is named according to his character. This can be done in spiritual language, which is such that it can give a name to everything, for each letter in the alphabet signifies some one thing, and the several letters combined in a word, making a person's name, involve the whole state of the subject. This is among the wonders in the spiritual world.

[2] From this it is plain that by "the name of G.o.d" in the Word, G.o.d with all the divine in Him and proceeding from Him is signified. And as the Word is the divine proceeding, it is G.o.d's name, and as all the divine things which are called the spiritual things of the church are from the Word, they, too, are G.o.d's name. It may be seen then what is meant in the second commandment of the Decalog by

You shall not profane the name of G.o.d (Ex 20:7);

and in the Lord's Prayer by

Hallowed be Thy name (Mt 6:9).

The name of G.o.d and of the Lord has a like signification in many pa.s.sages in the Word of either Testament, as in Mt 7:22; 10:22; 18:5, 20; 19:29; 21:9; 24:9, 10; Jn 1:12; 2:23; 3:17, 18; 12:13, 28; 14:14-16; 16:23, 24, 26, 27; 17:6; 20:31; besides other pa.s.sages, and in very many in the Old Testament.

[3] One who knows this significance of "name" can know what is signified by these words of the Lord:

Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; whoever receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward . . . and whoever will give one of these little ones to drink a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple . . . shall not lose a reward (Mt 10:41, 42).

One who understands by the name of a prophet, of a righteous man and of a disciple only a prophet, a righteous man and a disciple knows only the sense of the letter in that pa.s.sage. Nor does he know what is signified by a prophet's reward, a righteous man's reward, or by the reward given a disciple for a cup of cold water, when yet by the name and reward of a prophet the state and happiness of those who are in divine truths is meant; by the name and reward of a righteous man is meant the state and happiness of those in divine goods; by a disciple is meant the state of those who are in a measure of the spiritual things of the church, and by a cup of cold water is meant a measure of truth.

[4] That the nature of a state of love and wisdom or of good and truth is meant by "name" is also made evident by these words of the Lord:

He who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep; the porter opens to him, and the sheep hear his voice; he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out (Jn 10:2, 3).

To "call the sheep by name" is to teach and lead everyone who is in the good of charity according to the state of his love and wisdom; by the "door" the Lord is meant, as verse 9 makes plain:

I am the door; if a man enters by Me, he will be saved (Jn 10:9).

It is clear from this that for one to be saved the Lord Himself is to be approached; one who does so is a "shepherd of the sheep" and one who does not is a "thief"' and a "robber" (so the first verse of the chapter).

231. Profanation of what is holy is predicated of those who know truths of faith and goods of charity from the Word and also acknowledge them in some measure, not of those who do not know them, nor of those who impiously reject them altogether. Therefore what now follows is said of the former, not of the latter; by the former many kinds of profanation, lighter and graver, are committed, but they may be summed up in the seven following.

A first kind of profanation on their part is making jokes from the Word or about the Word, or of and about the divine things of the church. Some do this from a bad habit, picking names or expressions from the Word and mingling them with unseemly and sometimes filthy speech. This cannot be done without some contempt being added for the Word. Yet the Word in each and all things is divine and holy; every expression in it stores in its bosom something divine and by means of it gives communication with heaven. This kind of profanation is lighter or more grave according to one's acknowledgment of the sacredness of the Word and to the unseemliness of the comment into which it is brought by those who jest about it.

[2] A second kind of profanation by those under discussion is that while they understand and acknowledge divine truths, they live contrary to them. Those who only understand profane more lightly, and those who also acknowledge profane more seriously; for the understanding only teaches quite as a preacher does, but does not of itself unite with the will, but acknowledgment does, for one cannot acknowledge anything without the consent of the will. Still this union with the will varies and the profanation is according to the measure of it in living contrary to acknowledged truths. Thus if one acknowledges that revenge and hatred, adultery and fornication, fraud and deceit, blasphemy and lying are sins against G.o.d and yet commits them, he is therefore in the more grievous of this kind of profanation. For the Lord says:

The servant who knows his lord's will and does not do it, shall be beaten with many strokes (Lu 12:47).

And again,

If you were blind, you would not have sin, but you say, We see; therefore your sin remains (In 9:41).

But it is one thing to acknowledge apparent truths and another to acknowledge genuine truths. Those who acknowledge genuine truths and yet do not live by them appear in the spiritual world to be without the light and warmth of life in voice and speech, as though they were so much inertness.

[3] A third kind of profanation is committed by those who apply the sense of the letter of the Word to confirm evil loves and false principles.

This is because the confirmation of falsity is the denial of truth, and the confirmation of evil is a rejection of good. In its bosom the Word is nothing but divine truth and good. But this does not appear in the lowest sense or sense of the letter in genuine truths, except where the Lord and the very way of salvation are taught, but in clothed truths, called appearances of truth.

That sense can therefore be seized upon to confirm heresies of many kinds. But one who confirms evil loves does violence to divine goods, and one who confirms false principles does violence to divine truths. The latter violence is called falsification of truth and the former adulteration of good; both are meant by "bloods"* in the Word. For a spiritual holiness, which is also the spirit of truth proceeding from the Lord, is in every particular of the sense of the letter of the Word. This holiness is injured when the Word is falsified and adulterated. It is plain that this is profanation.

* Plural in the Hebrew, especially of blood that has been shed. "Both" is emphatic here, and for the significance of the plural see Arcana Caelestia, n. 374e and Apocalypse Explained, n. 329(27).

[4] A fourth kind of profanation is committed by those who utter pious and holy things and also counterfeit affections of a love for them in tone and manner, and yet at heart do not believe and love them. Most of these are hypocrites and Pharisees who are deprived after death of all truth and good and thereupon are sent into outer darkness. Those who have confirmed themselves by this kind of profanation against the Divine and against the Word and thus against the spiritual things of the Word, sit in outer darkness dumb, unable to speak, wanting to babble pious and holy things as they did in the world, but unable to do so. For in the spiritual world everyone is compelled to speak as he thinks. A hypocrite, however, wants to speak otherwise than he thinks, but there is impediment in the tongue as a result of which he can only mumble. Hypocrisies are lighter or more grave in the measure of the confirmation against G.o.d and of the outward rationalizing in favor of G.o.d.

[5] A fifth kind of profanation is committed by those who ascribe to themselves what is divine. These are meant by Lucifer in Isaiah 14; and by Lucifer Babylon is meant, as is plain from verses 4 and 24 of that chapter, where the fate, too, of such profaners is described. The same profaners are also meant and described in the Apocalypse (chapter 17) under the harlot seated on the scarlet beast. Babylon and Chaldea are mentioned at many places in the Word; by Babylon profanation of good is meant and by Chaldea profanation of truth; the one and the other committed by those who ascribe to themselves what is divine.

[6] A sixth kind of profanation is committed by those who acknowledge the Word but deny the divine of the Lord. In the world they are called Socinians and some Arians. The lot of both is that they invoke the Father and not the Lord and keep praying the Father, some of them for the sake of the Son, that they may be admitted to heaven, but in vain, until they lose hope of salvation. They are then sent down to h.e.l.l among deniers of G.o.d. They are meant by those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit and who will not be forgiven in this world or that to come (Mt 12:32). For G.o.d is one in person and essence, in Him is the Trinity, and this G.o.d is the Lord.

Since the Lord is heaven also and thus those in heaven are in the Lord, those who deny the divine of the Lord cannot be admitted to heaven and be in the Lord. It was shown above that the Lord is heaven and that those in heaven are therefore in Him.

[7] The seventh kind of profanation is committed by those who first acknowledge and live by divine truths and then recede from them and deny them. This is the worst kind of profanation because holy things are mixed by them with profane to the point where they cannot be separated. Yet they must be separated for one to be either in heaven or in h.e.l.l, and as this cannot be accomplished with them, all that is human, either of the understanding or of the will, is rooted out, and they become, as we said, no longer human beings. Almost the same occurs with those who acknowledge the divine things of the Word and of the church at heart but immerse them entirely in their proprium, which is a love of ruling over all things, of which much has been said before. After death, when they become spirits, they do not want to be led by the Lord but by themselves. When loose rein is given their love, they want to rule not only over heaven but over the Lord, too; and as they cannot do this, they deny the Lord and become devils. It should be known that the life's love, which is one's reigning love, remains with everyone after death and cannot be taken away.

[8] Profaners of this cla.s.s are meant by the lukewarm, of whom it is written in the Apocalypse: