Charity · 9 of 12

Diversions of Charity

189.XI THERE ARE DIVERSIONS OF CHARITY, WHICH ARE VARIOUS ENJOYMENTS AND PLEASURES OF THE BODILY SENSES, USEFUL FOR RECREATING THE MIND [animus]. Such diversions are social intercourse, with its discussions about various matters, public, private, and domestic; also walks with their views, delightful on account of the various beauties and splendours of palaces and houses, of trees and flowers in gardens, woods, and fields, also of people, birds, and flocks; plays, moreover, of various kinds, presenting moral virtues, and turns of fortune from which something of Divine Providence shines out. These and similar things are for the sense of sight. Then, too, harmonies of music and of singing, that affect the mind [animus] according to their correspondence with affections; and besides these, seemly jests, that expand the mind [animus]. These are for the sense of hearing. Furthermore, banquets, feasts, and meals, with the cheerfulness attending them; and in addition, indoor games played with dice, balls, or cards; dancing, too, at weddings and festive gatherings. These and similar things are diversions useful for recreating minds [animus]. And in addition to these there are various kinds of manual work exercising the body and diverting the mind [animus] from its regular activities; then there is the reading of books containing opinions on history and philosophy which give delight, and the news in newspapers also.

190.With everyone who is in some position or employment these are diversions. They may therefore be termed diversions of such positions or employments; but in point of fact they are diversions of the affections from which each one carries on his employment. There is an affection in every employment, and it bends the mind [animus], [and] keeps the mind [mens] intent upon working or applying itself, and this latter mind, if not relaxed, becomes dulled, and its desire loses its keenness; just like salt when it loses its saltiness and is consequently without any savour or stimulus. It is also like a bent bow, which, unless it is unbent, loses the force it derives from its elasticity. It is precisely the same if the mind [mens] is kept a long time in the same ideas without any change; as is the case with the sight when only a single object or a single colour is looked at continuously; for the sight goes if anything black is looked at continuously, or anything red continuously, or anything white continuously; as, for instance, if snow is looked at continuously, the sight goes; but it is enlivened by several colours, whether seen one after another or all at the same time. Every form gives delight on account of the diverse things in it; for instance a garland of different coloured roses beautifully arranged. That is why a rainbow is more pleasing than the light itself.

191.When the mind [mens] has been continuously intent on any work, it longs for rest; and when resting it descends into the body, and there seeks its delights corresponding to the mind’s [mens] activities. It makes its choice in accordance with its interior state in the body. The interiors of the body derive their pleasurable things chiefly from sensations of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, which pleasurable things are indeed derived from things without, but they nevertheless insinuate themselves into the individual parts of the body, which are termed members and viscera. From this and no other source are their enjoyments and pleasures. Each of the fibres, and each tissue of the fibres, each capillary vessel, and thence general vessels, and thus everything in the whole body draws its own delights, which the man then feels not individually but as a whole: they become as it were one general thing. As is the mind of the head in them, so are the delights, pure or impure, spiritual or natural, heavenly or infernal; for inwardly in any of the body’s sensations there is his will’s love with its affections, and the understanding brings about a perception of the delights of these affections. For the will’s love with its affections makes the life of each one, and from it the understanding’s perception makes sensation; this is the origin of all delights and pleasures. For the body is a connected chain-like work, and a single form. Sensation communicates itself like a force applied to the separate links of a chain, and like a form made up of continuous chains.

192.But as the ministries, functions, offices, and works of all keep their minds [mens] on the stretch, and it is these that are to be relaxed, revived, and recreated by the diversions, it can be seen that the diversions are various in accordance with the interior affection in them; and that they are one thing if an affection of charity is in them, another thing if an affection for position only is in them, another if an affection for gain only is in them, another if done only for the sake of sustenance and the necessaries for living, another if only for the sake of a reputation, to become celebrated, another if only for what they earn, that they may increase their wealth, or that they may live in comfort; and so on.

193.In those who have an affection of charity, all the diversions set forth above serve it for recreation, even plays and games, as well as harmonies of music and singing, and all the beautiful things in fields and gardens, and social intercourse in general. The affection of use abides inwardly in them, and, while thus resting, is gradually renewed. A desire for one’s function breaks off or ends those things. For the Lord inflows from heaven into them and effects the renovation; and He also gives an interior sense of gratification in them, of which those who are not in an affection of charity know nothing. He breathes into them something as it were fragrant or sweet only perceptible to oneself. It is said, fragrant, by which is meant spiritual pleasantness; and it is said, sweet, by which is meant spiritual delight. Pleasantness is said of wisdom, and of the understanding’s perception therefrom; and delight [jucundum] is said of love, and the will’s affection there from. With those who are not in an affection of charity, these things are not present, because their spiritual mind is closed; and in so far as they recede from charity, their spiritual mind, in respect of the Voluntary, is as if all stuffed up with glue.

194.In those who only have an affection for position, those, that is, who do the work of their function only for the sake of renown, so that they may be praised and promoted, these diversions are similar externally. They work hard, they take pains over their work, they do uses in abundance; not, however from the love of use, but from the love of self, thus not from the love of the neighbour, but from the love of glory. They can even feel delight in the work of their function; but it is an infernal delight. This, in their view, may counterfeit heavenly delight, since both delights are alike externally. But their delight is full of undelightful things, for there is no rest of mind [animus] or peace for them except when they are thinking about renown and position, or are being honoured and worshipped. When not thinking about those things, they throw themselves into sensuous pleasures, drunken bouts, luxuries, whoredoms, enmities, and acts of revenge, and slanders against their neighbours if they do not make libations in their honour. But gradually, if not raised into higher positions, they loathe their offices, and give themselves up to idleness, and become slothful; and when they have left this world they become demons.

195.In those who only have an affection for gain, these diversions are indeed diversions, but carnal ones, inspired within only by the delight of being wealthy. Such persons are diligent, prudent, industrious, especially when they are merchants, and workmen. If they are officials, they take pains over the duties of their office, and sell the uses they do; if judges, they sell justice; if priests, they sell salvation. To them, gain is the neighbour. By virtue of their office they love gain, and they love the gain derived from their office. Those who are in a high office may sell their country, and also betray the army and citizens to its enemies. It is clear from all this what the quality of their love is in the diversions set forth above; these are full of rapine. Moreover, in so far as they are not afraid of the civil laws or public penalties, or afraid of losing the renown that brings them the desired gain, they plunder and steal. Externally they are honest, but internally they are dishonest. The uses they do in their offices and employments are enjoyable and pleasant to them as dung is to swine, or as mice are to cats. They look upon other people as a tiger or a wolf looks upon lambs and sheep, which they devour if they can. As for the good of use, they do not know that it is anything. There is an infernal delight and pleasantness in their diversions. They are like asses, not seeing any pleasures in meadows and fields, except as something to feed upon, so long as there is wheat or barley in the ears. But these last things are said of the avaricious.

196.In those, however, who perform their employments solely for the sake of sustenance and the necessaries for living; also in those who perform them solely for the sake of a reputation, to become celebrated; and in those who perform them solely for what they earn, to the end that they may grow rich, or that they may live in comfort, the diversions set forth above are the only uses. They are corporeal and sensual men. Their spirits are unclean, being lustings and appetites. They do the duties of their employment for the sake of the diversions. They are beast-men - dead; and duties are a burden to them. They look for substitutes to do the work they ought to be doing; while they keep the reputation and the earnings. When not engaged in the diversions enumerated above, they are idlers and sluggards; they lie abed thinking of nothing else but how to find companions with whom to gossip, eat, and drink. They are a public burden. All such people after death are shut up in workhouses, where they are under an administrant judge, who daily appoints them the tasks they have to do; and if they do not do them they are given neither food, nor clothing, nor bed; and this goes on until they are driven to do something useful. The hells abound with such workhouses, about which [there may be] some thing at the end of this work. These workhouses stink; every grateful odour being from the life of spiritual love, or from the life of the love of use.

197.The conjunction of charity and faith is dealt with in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING FAITH; also in the EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE; as well as in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE; and in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM.

198.In them everything has reference to these two: 1. There cannot exist a grain of spiritual faith apart from charity, since charity is the life, soul, and essence of faith; 2. Such as the charity is, such is the faith; and the faith that precedes charity is a faith of cognitions, which is historical faith, in itself a knowing. [Here ends the MS. of the first draft of the work. The following pages contain: 1. A revised list of headings for a new draft. 2. Chapters I and II of the new draft. 3. Brief drafts of chapters XII and IV (on one page of the MS.). 4. The title of chapter III. See the Editorial Note.]

199.CHARITY The sections in their series. I. THE “FIRST” OF CHARITY is TO LOOK TO THE LORD AND SHUN EVILS AS SINS. II. THE “SECOND” OF CHARITY IS TO DO GOOD TO THE NEIGHBOUR. III. IN A NATURAL SENSE, THE NEIGHBOUR WHO IS TO BE LOVED IS A FELLOW CITIZEN, ALSO A SOCIETY, SMALL OR LARGE, ALSO ONE’S COUNTRY, ALSO THE HUMAN RACE. IV. THE NEIGHBOUR IS TO BE LOVED IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS SPIRITUAL GOOD, AND HIS MORAL, CIVIL, AND NATURAL GOOD THEREFROM; CONSEQUENTLY IT IS GOOD THAT, IN A SPIRITUAL SENSE, IS THE NEIGHBOUR TO BE LOVED. V. EVERYONE LOVES THE NEIGHBOUR FROM THE GOOD OF CHARITY IN HIMSELF; CONSEQUENTLY THE QUALITY OF ANYONE’S CHARITY IS SUCH AS THE CHARITY HE HIMSELF IS. VI. A MAN IS BORN TO THE END THAT HE MAY BECOME A CHARITY; BUT HE CANNOT BECOME A CHARITY UNLESS HE CONSTANTLY WILLS AND DOES THE GOOD OF CHARITY FROM AFFECTION AND ITS DELIGHT. VII. EVERY MAN, WHO LOOKS TO THE LORD, AND SHUNS EVILS AS SINS, BECOMES A CHARITY, IF HE HONESTLY, JUSTLY, AND FAITHFULLY CARRIES OUT THE WORK OF HIS OCCUPATION OR EMPLOYMENT. VIII. SIGNS OF CHARITY ARE ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE OF WORSHIP. IX. BENEFACTIONS OF CHARITY ARE ALL THE GOODS THAT A MAN WHO IS A CHARITY DOES, IN FREEDOM, OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF HIS OCCUPATION. X. OBLIGATIONS OF CHARITY ARE ALL THOSE THINGS IT BEHOVES A MAN TO DO IN ADDITION TO THOSE SET FORTH ABOVE. I. THERE ARE DIVERSIONS OF CHARITY, WHICH ARE VARIOUS ENJOYMENTS AND PLEASURES OF THE BODILY SENSES USEFUL FOR RECREATING THE MIND. XII. WHERE THERE IS NO TRUTH OF FAITH, THE CHURCH DOES NOT EXIST, AND WHERE THERE IS NO GOOD OF CHARITY, RELIGION DOES NOT EXIST. I THE “FIRST” OF CHARITY IS TO LOOK TO THE LORD AND SHUN EVILS AS SINS. It is well known that charity, or love towards the neighbour, is doing good to others. But how one should do good, and to whom, so that the charity may be charity, will be described in what follows. Everyone knows that no one can do good that is in itself good, except from Him who is Good Itself, or Good in Himself, that is, except from God. Moreover, it is possible for everyone to know that, so long as a man is in evil, and thus, through that evil, in company with the devil, he can do no other good than impure good, which outwardly has the appearance of being good, but inwardly is evil; which good is either pharisaical or done for reward. It will be necessary, therefore, to say first what a man should be, so that the good proceeding from him may be in itself good, thus the good of charity.

200.This, however, will be done in the following order: (1) No one can have charity except from the Lord. (2) No one can have charity from the Lord unless he shuns evils as sins. (3) A man ought to shun evils as sins, as from himself, while doing so nevertheless from the Lord. (4) In so far as anyone does not shun evils as sins, he remains in them. (5) In so far as anyone does not recognize and know what sins are, he sees no otherwise than that he is without sin. (6) In so far as anyone recognizes and knows what sins are, he can see them in himself, confess them before the Lord, and repent. (7) Good before repentance is not good, nor, before repentance, is charity charity. (8) Consequently, the “first” of charity is to look to the Lord and shun evils as sins, which is done by repentance.

156-1 Matt. Vi. 24; Luke xvi.13.

170-1 In the MS. the end of this line and another line are partly torn away and partly indecipherable. The Scripture references given are probably “Matt. xxviii. 18; John iii. 35, xvii. 2; Matt. xi. 27,” as in H.D. 291.

189-1 Swedenborg uses two terms for “mind,” mens and animus. Generally, the former is used for the higher level in which the will and understanding are rationally active, while the latter applies to the lower level in which desires and ideas in connection with the body and the world are active; but mens is occasionally used with a wider significance. Cf. n. 204.

199-1 In the left-hand margin of the MS. opposite sections vi.-x.: “Enumerate the sins of which a man is not in the least conscious if he does not search himself carefully, but which he either confirms with himself or does not reckon as sins, and which accordingly he does continually on account of the delights they yield from what is hereditary; from the Decalogue and from reason; up to 50 or a hundred of them can be enumerated, the civil as well as the spiritual ones, etc.”

199-2 From an examination of the MS. it appears that Swedenborg, after writing out the contents of the draft that follows, altered the sections II, III, and IV to read as follows: “II. The ‘second’ of charity is to do uses to the neighbour. “III. In a natural sense, the neighbour to whom uses are to be done is a fellow citizen, also a society, small or large, also one’s country, also the human race; and there are uses that are spiritual, and there are civil ones. “IV. Uses are to be done to the neighbour in accordance with his spiritual good, and his moral, civil, and natural good therefrom.” He also crossed off section XII, and inserted the following over it: “Charity and faith make one.”

199-3 Swedenborg wrote the following note in the left-hand margin of the MS. opposite this paragraph: “N.B. - From Paul respecting love towards the neighbour: If anyone asks which is first, to shun them as evils, or to love the neighbour.”

201.As regards the FIRST, No one can have charity except from the Lord. Here, as in what follows, we name only the Lord, because the Lord is the only God; for He is God of heaven and earth, as He himself teaches. . . He and the Father are one, like soul and body, as He also teaches . . . . He and the Spirit are the same, like the Divine in Him, and the Divine from Him. Thus He Himself is the One Only God; and thus the Divine Trinity is in His Person, and is named the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, because the whole Church, and all religion, is founded upon the idea of God, and upon the idea that God is one, and because this idea exists to no purpose unless God is one in Essence and in Person, and unless this unity of the trinity and trinity of the unity is in the Lord alone, therefore here at the very beginning, and afterwards in what follows, we name the Lord only. See, besides, THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD, from beginning to end; also ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE, nos. [157, 262, 263]. The reason no one can have charity except from the Lord, is that by charity is meant every good a man does to others; and the good a man does to others is indeed good for those to whom it is done, but it is not good him by whom is done, unless it is from God. For no good that is in itself a good, and is called a good of charity, and in its essence is a spiritual good, can flow forth from man, but from the Lord only. For, in order that a good of charity, or a spiritual good, may exist, the Lord must be in the Good, must indeed be the Good; for it proceeds from Him, and what proceeds from anyone derives its essence from Him; for He Himself is in what is His Own. If, therefore, the Lord were not the Good a man does to the neighbour, or, what is the same, unless the good a man does to the neighbour were from the Lord, it would not have an essence of good in it, but an essence of evil, for the man would be in it; and a man in himself and in his proprium is nothing but evil. This evil must first be removed, in order that the good proceeding from the man may not be the man’s but the Lord’s. A man is only a recipient of life: he is not life in himself, for, if he were life in himself, he would be God; and therefore, man is only a recipient of good, for good is of life, because love and wisdom are life, and good is of love, and truth is of wisdom. This life cannot be made over to man as his own; for man is finite and created, and the Lord cannot create and finite Himself in another. In that case, He Himself would no longer exist, and then the entire human race, and each individual by himself, would be God. To think this is not only irrational, but abominable also. In the spiritual world, such an idea about God and man stinks like a corpse. From all this it can be taken as established that there cannot be any good, which is in itself good, and is termed a good of charity, from man; it must be from the Lord, who alone is Good itself, thus is in Himself Good. This, the Lord does, indeed, produce from Himself, but through man. There is no subject through which the Lord produces good from Himself, other than man. Nevertheless the Lord has given man the faculty of feeling it in himself, indeed, as from himself, and therefore as his own, to the end that he may do it. For if he felt it was not from himself, but from the Lord, he would not do it; for he would then believe himself to be not a man, not even alive, and at length scarcely otherwise than like an automaton. And, from experience, I know that a man would rather die, than live perceptibly from another in himself. Indeed, unless a man felt the good he does as being from himself, the good would not remain in him either, but would flow through, like water through a water-skin all full of holes; nor could he then be formed for heaven, that is, reformed and regenerated, and so, being saved, live to eternity. Lest, however, a man, owing to this appearance, should attribute to himself the good or charity he does to the neighbour, and thereby appropriate evil to himself, in place of good, through believing he lives from himself, and consequently does the good from himself, thus attributing to himself what is the Lord’s, it has pleased the Lord to reveal this in His Word, and to teach it. For the Lord says, “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing” (John xv. 5, and elsewhere).

202.2. No one can have charity from the Lord unless he shuns evils as sins. By charity, here as above, is meant the good a man does to the neighbour. Everyone is able to do good to the neighbour, an evil man as well as a good man; but no one is able to do it by reason of good in himself, except from the Lord, and unless he shuns evils as sins. That no one is able to do good to the neighbour by reason of good in himself, except from the Lord, has been shown just above. The reason no one is able to do it unless he shuns evils as sins, is that the Lord cannot inflow into anyone with good so that it is received, unless the evils in him are removed; for evils do not receive good, they reject it. For it is the same with a man who is in evils, as it is with devils in hell. With devils, the Lord inflows with good, in just the same way as He inflows with angels in heaven; but the devils do not receive it, they turn the good into evil, and the truth into falsity, for their life’s form is such, and everything that inflows is turned into a likeness of the form; just as the pure heat of the sun is turned into putrid and noisome smells when it inflows into urine that has been stagnant, into dung, and into corpses. In the same way, the pure light of the sun, inflowing into objects in which all things are disordered, is turned into hideous colours. It is the same with heavenly heat, which is Divine Good, and heavenly light, which is Divine Truth, in the case of a man whose life’s form is inverted, and so is opposed to the heavenly form. From this it is evident that, as long as a man is not shunning evils as sins, he cannot be doing otherwise than loving evils; and the love with everyone makes the form of his life. It is comparatively like a bad tree, which receives heat and light from the sun just as a good tree does, but still can only produce fruit that is a likeness of its own form, and therefore bad. It is, too, comparatively like malignant and noxious plants, which derive from the sun’s heat and light the life by which they grow, just the same as good and useful plants, and yet can produce nothing but what agrees with their own form. Every man is the form of his own love. Nothing else forms a man in respect of his spiritual part, but his love. If he loves evils, he becomes a form of evil, which is an infernal form; whereas if he loves goods, he becomes a form of good, which is a heavenly form. From this it is evident that unless a man shuns evils as sins, the form of his mind [mens] becomes, in respect of its spiritual things, an infernal form, which in itself does not receive any good from the Lord, and consequently does not bring forth any good that is in itself good. The Lord can bring forth good through any man, and He can turn the evil that an evil man brings forth into good. He can rouse an evil man to do good from selfish and worldly considerations; but in that case the Lord does not inflow into the evil of the man himself, but round about it into the surrounding things in him, thus into his external, by means of which the man wants to appear like a good man. That good, therefore, is good so far as the surface goes, but intrinsically is evil. With hypocrites, it is like gilded dung, so that scarcely anyone thinks it to be other than pure gold; nevertheless, if it is brought near to a sensitive nostril, the smell of the dung in it is perceived. These things, however, are fully shown in THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE FOR THE NEW JERUSALEM, in the section where it is shown that, in so far as a man shuns evils as sins, he does goods, not from himself, but from the Lord, nos. 18-31; to which I will add only this, that every one can see this from merely general influx out of heaven. Take anyone you like, servant, farmer, workman, ship-captain, or merchant, provided only he has something rational, and tell him only that he who hates evil does good, and all of them will see it clearly. And, inasmuch as they know that all good is from God, tell them that, in so far is a man hates evil because it is against God, he does good from God; and they will see it. But say the same things to someone who has confirmed himself in faith alone, and accordingly at the same time in the idea that no one can do good from himself, and he will not see it; for false things have closed his rational sight or understanding, but not that of the others.

203.3. A man ought to shun evils as sins, as from himself, while doing so nevertheless from the Lord. Who, having read the Word, and having some religion, does not know that evils are sins? This is what the Word teaches from beginning to end, and this is the whole of religion. Evils are termed sins on account of their being contrary to the Word, and to religion. Who does not know that no one can shun evils as sins unless he does so as from himself? Who can repent any other way? Does not a man say within himself, “I won’t do this. I will give up doing this. Indeed, when it recurs, I will fight against it and overcome it”? No one ever speaks in this way within himself, however, unless he believes in God. He who does not believe in God does not reckon an evil as a sin, and so does not fight against it, but rather in favour of it. But he who believes in God says also within himself, “With God’s help I will overcome it”; and so he makes supplication, and gets help. This is not denied to anyone, but is given to him, because the Lord, from His Divine Love, is in the continual endeavour to reform and regenerate man, and so to purify him from evils, and this constant endeavour of the Lord comes into effect, when the man truly desires it, and makes an effort for it. In this and no other way does a man receive the power to resist evils and to fight against them. Before this, he does not receive it, he rejects it. This, then, is shunning evils as sins as from oneself, while doing so nevertheless from the Lord. But on this subject, THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE FOR THE NEW JERUSALEM, nos. 101-107, may also be seen; to which I will add this: Say to a man of sound reason, “Only believe that Christ, the Son of God, redeemed you from hell, and thus from all evil, and beseech God the Father to forgive you your sins on that account, and He will do so; and in that case there will be no need for you, as of yourself, to shun evils as sins. You can’t do anything of yourself, can you? What is ‘as of yourself,’ then?” And picking up a pebble, or a little bit of wood, tell him, “Are you any more able to do anything towards justification and salvation than this pebble, or little bit of wood?” Then the man of some reason will reply, “I know I can do nothing of myself, but all the same I should repent of evils. This, the Lord Himself taught: His apostles taught it: Paul taught it: the Word teaches it, and so does all Religion. When I practise repentance, shall I not be doing something as of myself?” Suppose you then say, “What will you be doing, seeing you can do nothing? Do it if you like: I repent through faith, and faith saves without works.” But the man of sound reason will reply, “You are mistaken, Sir. The Lord taught that I am both to do and to believe. For you, let it be faith; for me there shall be faith and works together. I know that after death a man will have to render an account of his works, and that everyone’s believing is according to his doing.”

204.4. In so far as anyone does not shun evils as sins, he remains in them. Man was created into the image and likeness of God, and made so that he might be a recipient of the Lord’s love and wisdom. But, because he did not want to be a recipient, but wanted to be actual love and wisdom, and thus like God, he consequently inverted his form, and so turned away his affections and thoughts from the Lord to himself, and so began to love, even to worship, himself more than the Lord. In this way he estranged himself from the Lord, and looked backwards away from Him, thereby perverting the image and likeness of God in himself, and making it into an image and likeness of hell. This is signified by his eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By the serpent which he obeyed is signified the sensual, which is the ultimate of the natural man, and its lust. The sensual, because it exists in the world, and admits therefrom the objects it desires, loves the things of the world; and, if it is allowed to rule, it draws the mind [mens] away from the objects of heaven, which are goods of love and truths of wisdom, in themselves Divine. This is the origin of man being, in respect of his proprium, nothing but evil, and of his being born into it from parents. But means have been provided by the Lord, so that he may not perish on account of this; and these are, to look to the Lord and acknowledge that every good of love and every truth of wisdom is from Him, and nothing from man himself. In this way man inverts his form, turning away from himself and turning round to the Lord; thus he returns to the state into which he was created, which was, as has been said, that he might be a recipient of good and truth from the Lord, not from himself at all. Man’s proprium having, by this inversion, become evil only, there is the other means of recovering the image of God, shunning evils as sins. For if a man does not shun evils as sins, but only shuns them as hurtful, he is still not looking to the Lord, but to himself, and so continues in a perverted state. When, however, he shuns evils as sins, he is also shunning them because they are against the Lord and contrary to His Divine laws; and then he beseeches the Lord for help and for power to resist them; and this power, when besought, is never denied. It is by these two means that a man is purified from his innate evils. Consequently, if he does not adopt these two means, he cannot but remain such as he was born. He cannot be purified from evils if he only looks to God and prays; for in that case he believes, after having prayed, either that he is entirely without sins, or that they have been remitted, by which he understands that they have been taken away. But in that case he still remains in them; and to remain in them is to increase them; for they are like a disease that eats away everything round about it and brings death. Nor are evils removed by only shunning them; for in that case the man is looking to himself, and he thereby strengthens the origin of evil, which was, that he turned himself backwards, away from the Lord, and round towards himself.

205.5. In so far as anyone does not recognize and know what sins are, he sees no otherwise than he is without sin. Every man loves his proprium, both the voluntary proprium and the intellectual. The voluntary proprium is evil, and the intellectual proprium is falsity from that evil, thus it is the falsity of evil. And because every man loves his proprium, he is thus loving the evil and its falsity; and, because everything that is loved is also delightful, therefore he knows no otherwise than that the evil he has is good, and that its falsity is truth - for that which is said to be good is all that which is delightful. From these things it can be seen at the outset that, if a man does not recognize and know what sins are, to that extent he sees no otherwise than that he is without sin. But, inasmuch as a man loves his own evil and its falsity, because he loves his proprium, he is not able from himself to know which thing is evil, and what thing is falsity from it; he has to see it from some other source. He must see it from the precepts of religion, all of which have reference to the ten precepts of the Decalogue. If at heart he rejects these precepts, he cannot by any means see otherwise than that he is without sin; and in that case, having been initiated from childhood into the worship of God, and being aware from the Church’s teaching that he is a sinner from his very origin and subsequent birth, he sets about confessing that he is a sinner; but nevertheless, being unaware of what sin is, he believes all the time that he is not a sinner. I have heard people declaring that they were sinners, that they were in sins of every kind from conception and birth, that, from the head to the sole of the foot, there was no soundness in them, and more things of the same kind; but, because they did not know what sin is, they did not know that the love of self, and arrogance, are the heads of all sins. They did not know that bearing hatred and taking revenge just because one is not honoured and worshipped as a demigod, is a sin, nor that slandering the neighbour out of enmity and thus bearing false witness against him, is a sin; nor that deceiving anyone by word or deed, is a sin; that despising another in comparison with oneself, envying him his goods, being covetous of them, are sins. They did not know, either, that claiming merit for performing the various acts of worship towards God, in matters both of faith and of charity, is a sin; besides innumerable other things. I have heard them say that they did not know such things were sins; nor anything, indeed, no matter what the nature of it, that one thinks but does not say, or wills but does not do. On account of this ignorance one of them said he did not know he was a sinner - “and if I am,” he said, “I am purified from them when I have said this prayer, ‘I know not my sins, O God, take them away.’” But when the same person examined himself, which took place in the world of spirits, he noticed that his sins were so numerous that he could not tell them all. He saw, too, that he could, if he wanted to, recognize and know them. He said, however, that he did not want to, as he would then have to abstain from thinking and willing them, to do which would conflict with the delight of his life. From these things it is now evident that, in so far as any one does not recognize and know what sins are, he sees no otherwise than that he is without sin.

206.6. In so far as anyone recognizes and knows what sins are, he can see them in himself, confess them before the Lord, and repent of them. This follows as a result of all that has now been said. Therefore, in order that a man may see what sins are, the “first” of the Word was the Decalogue. For that reason also the Decalogue is a complex of all things of the Word. That is why it is called the Ten Words, the Ten Words signifying all truths in the complex. For the same reason, too, there are similar precepts among all nations in the universe with whom there is religion. Moreover, the man who knows that they are Divine laws, and that consequently anyone acting contrary to them is acting against God, or sinning, can receive Divine influx, and with that, too, a will or effort as of himself, that he would like to give up doing them and repent. The confession of one’s sins before the Lord brings about conjunction with Him, and a reception of influx from Him; and then the Lord does it, while giving to the man to do it all the time as of himself. Otherwise the man would not do it. The Lord then operates through his inmost things right down to the outermost, and removes the lustings that are the roots of evil. This it is impossible for the man himself to do of himself. Of himself man acts upon the outermost things only, whereas it is the inmost things that make these. Therefore, if a man of himself were to remove the outermost things, the lustings would still remain.

207.7. Good before repentance is not good, nor, before repentance, is charity charity. Before repentance a man is in evil; he is evil only, for he is a form of evil and an image of hell. By repentance, however, the evil is removed and good is implanted. From which it follows that the good before repentance is not good. Before repentance the good is not done from the Lord, but from the man; and therefore it has not an essence of good but an essence of evil within it, however much in its form it appears outwardly as good. This is not recognized in the world, but it is after death, manifestly. It is heard in the very tone of his speech, and more, which evil there is in it, whether there is deceitfulness, enviousness, vaingloriousness, haughtiness, blasphemousness, or what is hypocritical, or even a desire for reward. All the words of his speech derive their tone from the evil that is in it and regards only itself. After repentance, however, the good is quite a different thing. It is a full good, open from the Lord Himself. It is lovely, innocent, pleasing, heavenly. There is the Lord and heaven in it, there is good itself in it. It is alive; it is formed out of truths though being from good, in good, and towards good; it is nothing else but some use to the neighbour; and hence it is serving. With every breath it puts away itself and its proprium, thus putting away evil. Its form is like the form of a lovely and beautifully coloured flower, shining out brilliantly under the sun’s rays. Consequently, too, in the case of those who are in good, they are forms that can never be comprehended by the natural man: they cannot be depicted, nor can they be described: the forms they have are forms of good. It is rightly said that they are forms of good; yet the form itself consists of truths, while its life is the good of love; for the good sets the truths into a form suited to itself, and makes every one of its truths living. This is what good after repentance is like.

208.8. Consequently, the “first” of charity is to look to the Lord and shun evils as sins, which is done by repentance. Who does not see that before a man can do good that is good, he must be cleansed from his evils? Does not a cup have to be cleansed? And if it is not cleansed, does not the wine get a taste from its uncleanness? And does not a dish have to be cleansed before food is put on it? For if the inside of the dish is all unclean, will not the food excite aversion? How can anything pure inflow from heaven into a man, when he is wholly impure and unclean? Must not the impure and unclean things be removed first? If you let your bedroom get filled with excreta, would not the whole house have an offensive smell? Could anyone go into it? Would not anyone going in say, “I can’t,” and would he not turn away from the house, saying, “It’s only fit for swine”? Consequently, before the Lord can inflow with good, evil must be removed; for influx before that is dangerous, as the good is turned into evil and increases it. The first thing, therefore, is to remove evil, and afterwards to inflow with good, and bring it into operation by means of the man. Anyone attempting to do good from the Lord, before evil has been removed by repentance, or without shunning evils as sins, is attempting what is impossible, and such things as may make him worse, inasmuch as, in the case of a wicked man, the good is turned into evil, and in that way it is profaned. That evil must be removed first, is clearly evident from the precepts of the Decalogue. Who is loving a person, when he wants to kill him, or hates him? Who is loving the neighbour, when he commits whoredom with someone else’s wife? Who is loving the neighbour, when he defrauds him? Who is loving the neighbour, when he slanders him? Who is loving the neighbour, when he covets what belongs to him? Those evils, therefore, must first be removed; and in the measure that they are being removed, to that extent the neighbour is being loved. Paul speaks of these things thus: . . . But people ask whether love towards the neighbour should be first, or whether shunning those evils should be first. Everyone can see that shunning those evils should be first, inasmuch as a man is born into evil. Is it not necessary then for him to repent?