Charity · 3 of 12

The Neighbour to Be Loved Is Good and Truth

42.III THE NEIGHBOUR TO BE LOVED IS, IN A SPIRITUAL IDEA, GOOD AND TRUTH. It is said, “in a spiritual idea”, because it is in this that the spiritual man is interiorly, and because the angels are in the same idea. This idea is dissociated from matter, from space and time, and dissociated especially from person. Arrangement into order: (1) A man is not a man from the form, but from the good and truth with him, or what is the same, from the will and understanding. (2) It is therefore the good and truth with a man that is the neighbour to be loved. (3) The quality of neighbour with a man is in accordance with the quality of the good and truth with him; or such as the man is, such a neighbour is he. (4) The degree of neighbour is in accordance with the degree of good and truth with the man; and hence one man is not neighbour in the same degree as another. (5) The good of the internal will is the neighbour to be loved, and not the good of the external will, unless this makes one with it. (6) Truth is the neighbour in so far as it proceeds from good and makes one with it as a form makes one with its essence.

43.1. A man is not a man from the form, but from the good and truth with him, or what is the same, from the will and understanding. That the will and understanding are the man himself, not the form, which may appear like a man in face and body, is well known. There are some who are foolish and insane, and yet they appear to be men. There are some so natural that they are like animals, except that they can speak. There are others who are rational, and others who are spiritual. It may even be that the human form of the latter appears less beautiful, yet they are men more than the former. Take good and truth away from them, and there is a human form without a man in it. They are like paintings and sculptures, and like apes.

44.It is said, “good and truth, that is, will and understanding,” because good is of the will, and truth is of the understanding; for the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the receptacle of truth.

45.But yet it is only in their subject that good and truth can be. A thing cannot be separated from its subject; and therefore man is the neighbour; but in a spiritual idea it is good and truth, man being a man from these.

46.2. It is therefore the good and truth with a man that is the neighbour to be loved. Put in front of you three or ten persons whom you may select for some domestic matter. Do you select otherwise than according to the good and truth with them? It is from the latter that a man is a man.

47.If you are selecting someone for your household staff out of ten persons, do you not inquire about his will and understanding?

48.The one of them you select is to you the neighbour who is loved. In like manner, a devil-man may, in face, look like an angel-man. Is it not an angel-man that is to be loved, not a devil-man? You do good to an angel-man on account of the good and truth with him, but not to a devil-man. Charity requires that the latter should be punished if he does evil, and the angel-man rewarded.

49.If you have in view ten maidens for the purpose of selecting one of them to be your wife, five of whom are harlots and five chaste, do you not select one of the chaste, in accordance with the good in her that agrees with your own?

50.3. The quality of the neighbour with a man is in accordance with the quality of the good [and truth] with him; or such as a man is, such a neighbour is he. The Lord’s parable of the man wounded by robbers, where it is said that the one who helped him is neighbour, teaches that not every man is neighbour in the same way as another.

2-1 The Latin word proprium means “what is one’s own.” Swedenborg uses it in a special sense involving what is of the self.

5-1 Note on the left-hand margin of the original MS.: “Investigation: 1, If only as to actions it does not find out much, and this does not suffice; the reason; 2, but if as to thoughts and intentions then it finds out more; 3, but if he investigates what he reckons as a sin or as not a sin, then he finds out indeed, For whatever a man makes allowable in himself, that he does. To make allowable is of the will; it is effort, and in spirit is a deed; and he will do it in the body when obstacles are removed. Machiavellians also are such.

8-1 The Latin original has ex homine (from the man), but the context demands ex Domino (from the Lord).

16-1 Probably Rom. xiii. 8-10, and Gal. v. 14 were intended.

21-1 In the margin: “N.B.”

21-2 Matt. xxiii. 26.

26-1 Isaiah i. 16, 17.

29-1 In the margin: “N.B.”

50-1 Luke X. 29-37.

51.He who does not make distinctions in regard to the neighbour in accordance with the quality of the good and truth with him may be deceived a thousand times; his charity becomes confused and at length what is not charity. A devil-man may exclaim, “I am your neighbour: do good to me!” and if you do good to him, he may kill you or others. You are placing a knife or a sword in his hands.

52.This is what the simple do. They say, “Every man is equally my neighbour,” also “It is not my business to investigate his quality, but this is regarded by God; I must simply help my neighbour.” Yet this is not loving the neighbour. He who loves a neighbour from genuine charity finds out what sort of a man he is, and does good to him with discrimination, in accordance with the quality of his good.

53.In the other life such simple people are removed from others and kept apart; for if they come among diabolical spirits they are drawn into doing good to them, and into doing evil to the good. The evil cry out, “Set me free, help me!” This is the very great strength that they acquire for themselves. Without the help of the simple, and as it were conjunction with them, they are not strong at all; but together with those they have deceived by the name of “neighbour,” they are strong.

54.Genuine charity itself is prudent and wise. The other charity is spurious, because it is of the will or of good only, and not at the same time of the understanding, or of truth.

55.4. The degree of neighbour is in accordance with the degree of good and truth with the man; and hence one man is not neighbour in the same degree [as another]. Good is distinguished, in accordance with its degrees, into civil good, moral good, and spiritual good.

56.The neighbour a man ought to love from charity is spiritual good. Apart from this good there is no charity; for the good of charity is spiritual good, since it is in accordance with that good that, in the case of each one in the heavens, conjunction is effected.

57.Moral good, which is human good itself, being the rational good according to which man lives with man as a brother and companion, is the neighbour according to how much it derives from spiritual good. For moral good without spiritual good is external good; it is of the external will, and is not internal good. It may be evil, which ought not to be loved.

58.Civil good is the good of a life in accordance with the civil laws; and its beginning and foundation, which is “not to act against those laws,” is on account of the penalties. If there is not moral good in this good, and spiritual good within that, then it is no other than the animal good in which beasts are, when kept shut up or chained, towards those who feed, punish, or caress them.

59.A man learns these goods in early childhood from the Decalogue. The laws of the Decalogue are first made civil laws, next moral laws, and at length spiritual laws; and then first the goods become goods of charity, in accordance with these degrees.

60.Charity itself regards the good of a man’s soul first, and loves it as being that by which conjunction is effected. Next, it regards his moral good, and loves that in so far as he lives morally, in accordance with the state of perfection of his reason. And lastly it regards the civil good, in accordance with which a man has his standing in the world. Through his civil good a man is a man of the world; in accordance with his moral good he is a man above the worldly man and lower than the heavenly; but in accordance with his spiritual good he is a man of heaven, or an angel. The associating of men together is effected through this good, and then, according to these degrees, through the goods of the lower degrees. For example: There is the spiritual man who wishes well and does not understand well; and a man who does not understand well does not do well, so that he is scarcely a rational moral man. There is the man who understands well and does not wish well. He is the neighbour according to the understanding. But a man who does not wish well, however well he understands, is not the neighbour.

61.In a word, the will makes the neighbour, and the understanding in so far as it is of the will.

62.5. The good of the internal will is the neighbour to be loved, and not the good of the external will, unless this makes one with it. There is an internal will and an external will; likewise an internal and an external understanding.

63.The internal will has conjunction with heaven, and the external will with the world.

64.Every good is of the will; and the good-of-charity itself is the good of the internal will.

65.It is customary for these to be separated with man; and they are separated to the greatest extent with hypocrites, pretenders, and flatterers for the sake of gain.

66.But when those wills make a one, then both the goods make one good, which is the neighbour. These things to be illustrated by means of examples, and comparisons.

67.6. Truth is the neighbour in so far as it makes one with good, and it makes one with it as a form makes one with its essence. Every form derives its own [character] from an essence; therefore, such as the essence is, such is the form.

68.This can be illustrated by the fact that the understanding, regarded in itself, is such as the will is.

69.It can be illustrated by sound and speech. And by several other things.

70.That truth is good in form, may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED.

71.From this it is evident that, in a spiritual idea, good is the neighbour to be loved; or a man according to his good.