SWEDENBORG'S DOCTRINE OF USES
BY THE REV. Louis G. Hoeck, of
Cincinnati, OH
International Swedenborg Congress,
London, July 4 to 8, 1910
THIS doctrine is
one of the most comprehensive taught in the writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg. There is no form of life that is not in some way related
to it; for all things created by the Lord from highest to lowest, from
firsts to lasts, are forms of uses: they were created "from use, in
use, and for use" (A. E., 1194).
It
is
impossible in a short essay to present fully all the aspects given in
Swedenborg's writings. Probably it will be more satisfactory, then, to
confine our attention to a brief outline of the most important of
them, first in relation to creation, and, secondly, in relation to
man.
- I -
1. First, in its relation to creation, the doctrine of uses provides
the key that unlocks the mysteries of the great system of
correspondences in nature. If we would know the spiritual counterpart
of any phenomenon or object in nature we must learn its use. The
influx of life from the Lord into the universe “takes place into uses,
and from these into the forms of them” (D. Wis., XII. 5). “The
universe has been created by God that uses might come into existence,
and therefore the universe may be called a theatre of uses" (T. C. R.,
67). To know the use explains the form, and the form also indicates in
all its details the nature of the use. This was one of the great
principles by which Swedenborg was guided in his search after the soul
in its kingdom—the human body—and in other studies. It led him to very
wonderful deductions, which are of great value in understanding the
realm of nature as a "theatre of uses." But he did not behold the
breadth and depth of the principle until his spiritual sight was
opened, and he formulated it as the doctrine of correspondence.
Speaking of the
human body in Heaven and Hell, no. 96, he says, "the influx of heaven
is into the functions and uses of its members, and the uses because
they are from the spiritual world form themselves by such things as
are in the natural world, and set themselves forth in effect. Hence is
correspondence." Further, "the use existed before the organic forms
of the body came forth; and the use produced and adapted them to
itself, and not the converse. But when the forms have been produced or
the organs adapted, the uses proceed from them; and then it appears as
if the forms or organs exist before the uses, when yet it is not so;
for use inflows from the Lord and this through heaven according to the
order and form according to which heaven has been ordinated by the
Lord—thus according to correspondence " (A. C., 4223).
2. Yet
further, the application of the doctrine of uses to all things in
nature displays a correspondence with those things which are in man.
Man is thus seen to be "in little all the sphere." Man is a microcosm,
or little universe. Comparative embryology and the facts of Evolution
undoubtedly prove this on the merely physical plane. But the science
of correspondence and doctrine of uses display a much closer
relationship between nature and man on a higher plane. As Swedenborg
says: "In all forms of uses there is an image of man. All uses from
firsts to outmosts, and from outmosts to firsts, have relation to all
things of man and have correspondence with them; consequently man is
in an image a universe, and conversely, the universe viewed as to uses
is in image a man" (D. L. W., 317). This doctrine is capable of
infinite exemplification. Its application to the Word of God is also
of the greatest significance, for the objects therein mentioned must
be understood as having a direct reference to man. Take the use
signified by the word—that is, its correspondence—apply it to man, and
the life's lessons become evident.
3. Again, the doctrine of uses furnishes a rational explanation of Swedenborg's abstract doctrine of discrete degrees. The doctrines of
influx and correspondence already referred to likewise throw much
light on this complex doctrine of discrete degrees. This latter
doctrine may be thus briefly defined: "In everything of which anything
can be predicated there is a trine, which is called end, cause and
effect; and these three are related to one another according to
degrees of height," that is, discrete degrees (D. L. W., 209). The end
is in a degree by itself prior to and separate from the cause, and the
cause is also in a degree discrete or separate by itself from the
effect. The effect again is discrete or separated from either end or
cause, but yet contains both within it. The doctrine of uses explains
this, inasmuch as "all effects whatever are representative of the uses
which are the causes; and the uses are representative of the ends
which are their first principles" (A. C., 1807). "Every point in
creation, and in things created, is a use; yea, it is in an ascending
series from use in first things td use in those that are last; thus
from use to use continually" (D. Love, VIII). Thus we follow the chain
of uses from effects through causes to ends link by link even to the
First Cause which is in the Lord, and we find use in evidence
everywhere. According to the use so is the degree lower or higher in
the series.
The general order
of this great sequence of uses is given in Divine Love and Wisdom,
(327 et seq.). "All things created from the Lord are uses; they are
uses in the order, degree and respect in which they have relation to
man, and through man to the Lord from whom they are." There are uses
for sustaining the body—all things in the earth; there are uses for
perfecting the rational—every branch of study; and there are uses for
receiving the spiritual from the Lord—everything of worship and
religion. These present uses in an ascending scale which, when
recognized in their organic relation to each other, explains the
sequence of causes and ends, even to the highest end which is in the
Lord's love. For "life, which is the Divine love, is a form of use in
its whole complex" (D. Love, III, IV).
4. In this
world, however, we meet with many things that cannot have had their
origin in the Divine love, "all evil things that have existence in
act," all noxious things in both the animal and vegetable kingdom, as
also in the mineral kingdom. These Swedenborg calls "evil uses,
because they are of use to the evil in doing evil, and also are
serviceable in absorbing malignities, and thus as remedies" (D. L. W.,
337). These things "did not derive their origin from the Lord and were
not created from the beginning, neither did they spring from nature
through her sun, but are from hell" (Ibid. 339).
5. Now we may glance at the forms of uses as a whole, or in their orderly relation to each other. By influx from the Lord all things were created from firsts to lasts. They proceed in progressive
succession from the sun of the spiritual world through its atmospheres to the sun of this world and its atmospheres, becoming continuously more and more condensed and less active, until we reach water, and finally the solid earth, which is the last reactive agent in
creation. In the earth we have matter that is inert and fixed, but which retains within it, from the atmospheres from which it originated, an effort and conatus to bring forth uses (D. L. W., 302, 303). In the sun of the spiritual world and its atmospheres, the sun of
this world and its atmospheres, and the earth, we have a wonderful and complete series of means toward an end which is a great system of uses beginning with the mineral kingdom, proceeding through the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom to the human race, and
thence to an angelic heaven from mankind, and thus back again to the Lord. Thus there is a descent from the Lord, who is Life itself, through suns and atmospheres to solid matter, and thence back again through forms of uses from lowest to highest until, through man's
conjunction with the Lord, the chain of life is completed. And this circle of life is progressing perpetually; it is a perpetual spiral. We see it imaged in the starry spheres, in the orbital and auxiliary motion of the planets. It is evident to the senses in the
formation of clouds, the rain, the flowing stream, the ocean, and the return to cloudland. It is again apparent in the seed, the tree, the leaf, the blossom, flower, fruit, and again the seed within the fruit. Yea, the perpetual spiral is everywhere in evidence in the
reproductive processes of nature. In the least and in the greatest forms of uses it is one and the same. The spiral of life is perpetual because He from whom it derives its existence is in perpetual activity.
- II -
1. Thus far
we have briefly traced the doctrine of uses from without, or in
relation to creation, thus more as something abstract than as a
practical doctrine. Swedenborg's teaching regarding it, however, has
an intensely practical and personal side. He says that "uses are
nothing but works for the neighbour, our country, the church, the
Lord's Kingdom" (A. C., 6073). "To do truths is to perform uses" (D.
L. W., 251). "Angelic life consists in uses" (A. C., 454). "The more
eminent the use the greater the delight" (A. C., 997). "All knowledge
must have use as an end. Unless men are learned for the sake of a life
of uses, they are of no moment, because of no use" (A. C., 1964). "It
is use through which the Lord is principally worshipped" (A. C.,
7038). "To live for others is to do uses" (C. L., 18). "The essence of
uses is the public good" (A. E., 1226). "In the spiritual sense use is
the neighbour" (A. E., 1193).
2. Swedenborg
makes a distinction between uses which are done from self and those
done from the love of the Lord. When any one performs uses for himself
alone, for his own honour or reputation, or for wealth or selfish
pleasure, these uses appear outwardly exactly the same as when they
are done from the love of use, the love of the neighbour, or the love
of the Lord. No one can tell the difference. The angels, and the Lord,
however, can clearly detect it. Uses done for the sake of selfish
benefit are of value to others, but of no value to self. Works of
themselves do not save, but the pure unselfish affection for use (D.
Love, XVII). Man may have this affection too without performing uses
outwardly. He may be in evils which injure others, but strive to
overcome all tendencies to evil and do good in the Lord's name.
3. A
remarkable characteristic of the useful life is that " man does not
feel and perceive the love of doing uses for the sake of uses, as he
does the love of doing uses for the sake of self; and therefore while
he is doing uses, he does not know whether he is doing them for the
sake of the uses or for the sake of self (D. L. W., 426). This for the
reason that "there is more of the fire and ardour of doing uses in the
love of self and of the world than in those who are not in these
loves" (D. P., 215). Wherever there is much money to be gained, or a
great reputation to be earned, there is the incentive to be useful,
but to think first of the reward and second of the use.
It is of prime
importance that every one should know whether he is influenced by the
selfish or unselfish love of use, for note the distinction between the
two when viewed from within. With those who regard themselves in their
useful works, "they themselves are the head; the world is the body;
church, country, and fellow citizens are the soles of the feet; and
God is the shoe. But with those that perform uses from the love of
uses, the Lord is the head; church, country and citizens, are the body
down to the knees; and the world is the feet, from the knees to the
soles; and they themselves are the soles beautifully shod" (D. Love,
XIV). How then shall we know to which class we belong? Swedenborg
answers "that man is doing uses for the sake of uses in proportion as
he is shunning evils as sins; for in proportion as any one is
shunning these, in the same proportion he is doing uses, not from
himself, but from the Lord" (D. L. W., 426). In other words, the
reversal of our nature is effected by making the last first, and the
first last.
4. Swedenborg designates those uses done for selfish ends "evil or
infernal uses," and only those uses which have an unselfish purpose
through shunning evils as sins "heavenly uses" (A. E., 1193). In the
former category we may also include all evil actions, actions in
violation of the commandments. For no evil is permitted except in so
far as it is for man's eternal good. "The wrath of man shall praise
Thee, the remainder of wrath Thou wilt restrain." Thus good comes out
of evil (D. P., 275 et seq.). The good which results from the
permission of evil—and thus justifies its permission—is a use; for
"all good, regarded in itself, is nothing but use" (A. C., 4926).
5. As for
those who are in hell, even they cannot live without performing uses.
No idle person is tolerated in hell. Those there are compelled to do
"good work" (Doct. of Charity, 98); otherwise they receive no food or
clothing (A. E., 1194, 1126; L. J., post. 230). We have something to
learn from these revealed facts, something to labour for in this
world. For "in a well-constituted commonwealth provision is made that
no one shall be useless, and if useless he is compelled to some work ;
and a beggar is compelled if he is in health" (Doct. of Charity, 77).
6. The uses
men perform are not all of equal value. In determining their
excellence two elements must be considered, first, the nature of the
use itself; and second, the neighbour for whom it is performed. Some
uses are in themselves trivial, we might say menial, like those of
"the hewers of wood and drawers of water," while others are dignified
and exalted, as those performed by judges. Yet again, the neighbour
for whom the service is rendered differentiates its value. The Church
is neighbour in a higher degree than one's country, because the latter
only introduces man into civil life, while the former introduces him
into spiritual life (T. C. R., 415). Therefore the best of uses are
those done for the sake of use to the church (A. E., 975). Next in the
order of excellence come those uses done for the human race, our
native country, the state, the municipality, societies according to
their objects, the household, and finally individual friends or
strangers. We ought to perform uses to our neighbour in the restricted
and wider senses according to the good in him. It is a high honour to
die for the good of one's country when its welfare is seriously
threatened by any form of social evil (T. C. R., 414). The sacrifice
of life for the good of the many is a greater use than its sacrifice
for any individual. Yet here again, in the sight of the Lord, the
motive for all sacrifice of energy or life plays the most important
part in the act of service, great or small.
7. Swedenborg
gives more prominence to the mainspring of all actions—good or
evil—than to anything else. For if the motive is right, the action
will be right, or must in time be made right. He is insistent upon the
necessity of keeping the commandments in our daily, occupations. Here
is the chief sphere of performing uses. As he says, "Christian charity
with every one consists in his doing faithfully the duties of his
calling; for thus, if he shuns evils as sins, he daily does good, and
is himself his own particular use in the common body. Thus also the
common good is provided for, and that of each individual in
particular" (Doct. of Life, 114). He refers to other uses as general
uses—such as the education of children in the home, household economy,
contributing to the support of the Church, paying taxes, aiding in the
building or the maintenance of orphanages, hospitals, etc., and in
relieving the distressed or poverty-stricken (D. Wis. XI ; T. C. R.,
429-432). He also includes all innocent forms of recreation as uses
because they "divert the mind from the works of its calling," give it
a rest, and thus revive and restore it for better service. But the
diversions or recreations are different for those who strive to
observe the statutes of the Lord in their daily life and for those who
work for their private gain or reputation. With the former only the
diversions are true uses, "for the Lord flows into them from heaven
and renews; and He also gives an interior sense of pleasure in them
which they who are not in the affection of charity know nothing of."
He breathes into them, as it were, a fragrance or sweetness
perceptible only to themselves (Doct. of Charity, XI).
8. Swedenborg
gives a remarkable resume of the doctrine of uses in Conjugial Love
in the following words: "To live for others is to do uses. Uses are
the bonds of society which are as many in number as there are good
uses; and uses are infinite in number. (1) There are spiritual uses
which are of love to God and of love toward the neighbour; (2) there
are moral and civil uses which are of the love of the country and the
state in which the man is, and of the companions and citizens with
whom he is; (3) there are natural uses, which are of the love of the
world and its necessaries; and (4) there are bodily uses which are of
the love of the preservation of self for the sake of the higher uses.
All these uses have been inscribed on man, and follow in order one
after the other. They who are in the first uses, which are spiritual,
are also in all the succeeding ones, and these are wise. But they who
are not in the first uses, and yet are in the second and thence in the
sequent ones, are not so wise, but only appear to be so by virtue of
an external morality and civility. Those who are neither in the first
nor second uses, but are in the third and fourth, are not at all wise;
for they are satans, loving only the world and themselves for the sake
of the world. And they who are solely in the fourth uses are least
wise of all, for they are devils, because they live for themselves
alone, and if for others it is only for the sake of themselves" (no.
18).
9. But
further we learn from Swedenborg that all uses are coordinated or
bound together in one. In a certain sense we recognize the truth of
this when we reflect upon the interdependence of all workers in the
social organism. The evil doing of one, moreover, affects all the
others in the community. The useless are a burden to all. It is,
however, in a deeper sense that all true uses, and they who perform
them, are regarded as a unit in the Lord's sight. This is the great
doctrine of the "Maximus Homo." The doctrine of uses helps us to
understand it better than any other.
"In the Lord's
view the whole human race is as one man; all in a kingdom are also as
one man; likewise all in a province, all in a city and all in a
household. It is not the men themselves that are thus seen together,
but the uses in them. They that are good uses, that is, they that
perform good uses from the Lord, when viewed together are seen as a
man, perfect in form and beautiful. But they that perform uses not for
the sake of uses, but for the sake of themselves alone or the world
alone, likewise appear before the Lord as one man, but as an imperfect
and deformed man" (D. Love, 6).
"The reason so
many various things in man act as one is that there is not anything
therein which does not do something for the common weal and perform
use. The whole performs use to its parts, and the parts perform use to
the whole; for the whole is from the parts, and the parts constitute
the whole. Thus they provide for each other, they have respect to each
other, and are conjoined in such a form that all and each have
reference to the whole and its good. Hence it is that they act as one.
Similar are the consociations in the heavens; they are conjoined
there according to uses in a like form. Therefore those who do not
perform use to the whole are cast out of heaven, because they are
things heterogeneous. To perform uses is to will well to others for
the sake of the common good; and not to perform uses is to will well
to others not for the sake of the common good, but for the sake of
self. The latter are those who love themselves above all things; but
the former are those who love the Lord above all things. Hence it is
that they who are in heaven act as one, and this not from themselves,
but from the Lord; for they regard Him as the only one from whom all
things are, and His kingdom as the whole which is to be provided for"
(H. H., 64). In this way all who work for the Lord work for one
another, and are so directed in their work that they act as one man.
Some are in the head, some in the heart, some purify the blood of the
nation, cleanse the thoughts of men from all impurities, while many
are subordinates, and act as hands and feet. "The whole heaven
resembles one man." Likewise all good men on earth who love the Lord
are seen in the same human form.
SUMMATION.—Finally, we turn to the most precious and significant
feature of this great doctrine of uses as presented in the writings of
Swedenborg, the conclusion drawn from all that has already been said
about it, namely, the proof which it gives that the Lord, the Creator
of the universe, is a Man. This doctrine of uses probably furnishes
the very strongest rational proof that God is in the Human Form, is
Very Man indeed. If we see that the macrocosm—every thing in nature,
when regarded as to uses, is merely a reflection on a larger scale of
the microcosm—man; and, if we recognize, further, that all good men,
as to their functions and uses in relation to each other are but man
on a larger scale, then the conclusion is irresistible that God, the
Creator of all, is a Man. It matters not that we are unable to trace
the use of all things in the universe and tell their counterpart in
man. It signifies little that we are unable to group the multiform
uses of men in, say, any given nation, and behold all working as one
great unit. It is sufficient to be assured from innumerable instances
that nothing exists without a use. It is enough that we have tested
the truth that all uses in nature are represented in man from many
instances, particularly from the Word of God. And although we cannot
see the commonwealth as a unit, as one man, we can safely conclude
that it must be so from a clear perception of the human form in a
lesser organism—a small corporate body or a household. "We are all
members of one body."
We should no more
think of questioning these great universal truths because we cannot
verify them in every particular instance than we should presume to
doubt the law of gravitation because we are unable to ratify its
action throughout the whole stellar region. The fact is, we can prove
the existence of this law in only an infinitesimal portion of the
heavens. Yet all calculations in astronomy are based upon it, and no
one doubts its infallibility, or is ever likely to doubt it. Even so,
Swedenborg reveals to us the perfect law of creation from firsts to
lasts, and from lasts to the First Cause—the law of use. It is the
only law that furnishes an adequate and satisfactory explanation of
the universe, and unifies all things and all men. And this doctrine
forces us to the final conviction that the Creator, the source of all
life, is One and that He must be in the Human Form, for that is the
form of Use Itself.
[References in this article, are
from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth century
scientist (read the full biography). Swedenborg penned thirty-five volumes from things he
heard and saw in the spiritual world for a period of more than twenty-five years. This material is available
online or in literature form. If I can be of assistance, feel
free to contact our offices.] |
