TEN LAWS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Selections from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

[Interspersed Series Between Numbers 1135 - 1194 From The Apocalypse Explained]

Lesson 10
 

(10) The tenth law of the Divine providence is that man has led himself to eminence and riches by his own prudence, when these lead astray, for by the Divine providence man is led only to such things as do not lead astray and as are serviceable to eternal life; for all things of the Divine providence with man look to what is eternal, since the life which is God, from which man is man, is eternal. There are two things that especially influence the minds of men, eminence and riches; eminence relates to the love of glory and of honors, riches to the love of money and possessions. These especially influence men's minds because they belong to the natural man; consequently those who are merely natural have no other idea than that eminence and riches are real blessings that are from God, when in fact they may be curses, as may be clearly inferred from this, that they are the portion both of good men and of evil men. I have seen the eminent and the rich in the heavens and I have seen them in the hells; therefore, as has been said, when eminence and riches do not lead astray they are from God, but when they do they are from hell.

In the world man does not distinguish between their being from God or from hell, because the natural man separated from the spiritual cannot perceive this distinction; but the distinction can be seen in the natural man that is from the spiritual, and yet with difficulty, because the natural man is taught from infancy to counterfeit the spiritual man; and in consequence when he performs uses to the church, to the country, to society and his fellow citizens, thus to the neighbor, he not only professes but also is able to persuade himself that he has done it for the sake of the church, the country, society, and his fellow citizens, and yet he may have done it for the sake of self and the world as ends. Man is in such blindness because he has not put away evils from himself by any combat; for so long as evils remain man can see nothing from the spiritual in his natural; he is like one in a dream who believes himself to be awake, or like a bird of night that sees the darkness as light. Such is the natural man when the gate of heavenly light is closed. Heavenly light is the spiritual that enlightens the natural man. Since, then, it is of the greatest importance to know whether eminence and riches, or the love of glory and honor, and the love of money and of possessions, are ends or are means, ends and means shall first be defined, for if these are ends they are curses, but if they are not ends, but means, they are blessings.

End, mediate causes, and effect, are called also the chief end, intermediate ends, and the final end. Intermediate and final ends are called ends, because the chief end produces them, is everything in them, is their esse and is their soul. The chief end is the will's love in man, the intermediate ends are subordinate loves, and the final end is the love of the will existing as it were in its effigy. As the chief end is the love of the will it follows that intermediate ends, being subordinate loves, are foreseen, provided, and produced through the understanding, and that the final end is the use foreseen, provided, and produced by the love of the will through the understanding, for everything that love produces is a use. This must be premised in order that what has just been said may be perceived, namely, that eminence and riches may be blessings or that they may be curses.

Now as the end, which is the love of man's will, provides or acquires for itself through the understanding the means through which the final end may exist, to which the first end advances through the means, and this is the end coming into existence, which is the use, it follows that the end loves the means when they promote that use, and does not love them when they do not promote it, but then rejects them, and through the understanding provides or acquires for itself other means. This makes clear the quality of a man whose chief end is the love of eminence, or the love of glory and honor, or whose chief end is the love of wealth, or love of money or possessions, namely, that he regards all means as servants that are serviceable to him for his final end, which is love coming into existence, and this love is use to himself.

Take, for example, a priest whose chief end is love of money or possessions, his means are the ministerial office, the Word, doctrine, learning, preaching from these, and instruction of men of the church and their reformation and salvation by means of these. These means are valued by him according to the end and for the sake of the end, and yet they are not loved, although with some they appear to be loved; for wealth is what is loved, since this is the first and the final end, and that end, as has been said, is everything in the means. Such assert, indeed, that their desire is that men of their church be taught, reformed, and saved; but as wealth is the end from which this is said, it is not said from their love, but only as means of acquiring reputation and gain for the sake of the end.

The same is true of a priest whose chief end is a love of eminence over others, as will be seen if gain or honor is separated from the means. It is wholly different when instruction, reformation, and salvation of souls is the chief end, and wealth and eminence are the means; for a priest is then a wholly different man, for he is a spiritual man, while the former is a natural man. With a spiritual priest wealth and eminence are blessings, but with a natural priest wealth and eminence are curses. This has been made evident by much experience in the spiritual world. Many have been seen and heard there who asserted that they had taught, had written, and had reformed men; but when the end or love of their will was disclosed, it was clear that they had done all things for the sake of self and the world, and nothing for the sake of God and the neighbor, and that they even cursed God and did evil to the neighbor. Such are meant in Matt. 7:22-23; and in Luke 13:26-27.

Take as another example a king, a prince, a magistrate, a governor, or an official, whose chief end is the love of rule, and whose means are all things belonging to their dominion, administration, and function. The uses they perform do not have the good of the kingdom, commonwealth, country, societies, and fellow- citizens, as their end, but delight in ruling, consequently self. The uses themselves are not to them uses, but minister to their pride. They perform uses for the sake of appearances and of distinction; they do not love them, but they commend and yet make light of them, just as a master does his servants. I have seen such after death, and have been amazed. They were devils among the burning; for when the love of rule is the chief end it is the very fire of hell.

I have also seen others whose chief end was not love of rule, but love of God and the neighbor, which is the love of uses; these were angels to whom dominion in the heavens was granted. From all this again it is clear that eminence may be a blessing or may be a curse, and that eminence as a blessing is from the Lord, and eminence as a curse is from the devil. What the love of rule is when it is the chief end, anyone who is wise can see from the kingdom that is meant in the Word by "Babylon," that set its throne in the heavens above the Lord by claiming to itself all His authority; consequently it abrogated the Divine means of worship, which are from the Lord through the Word, and in their place instituted demoniacal means of worship, which are adorations of living and dead men, also of sepulchers, carcasses, and bones. That kingdom is described by "Lucifer" in Isaiah (14:4-24). But only those that have exercised that dominion from the love of it are Lucifers, not the rest.

As the love of rule and the love of riches prevail universally in the Christian world, and these loves at this day are so deeply rooted that it is not known that they in any wise lead astray, it is important that their quality should be set forth. They lead every man astray who does not shun evils because they are sins; for he who does not thus shun evils does not fear God, and therefore remains natural. And as the love of ruling and the love of riches are the natural man's own loves, he does not see with any interior acknowledgment what the quality of those loves are in him. This he does not see unless he is reformed, and he can be reformed only by combat against evils. It is believed that he can be reformed by faith; but there can be no faith of God in man until he fights against evils. When man has thus been reformed light flows in from the Lord through heaven and gives him the affection of seeing and the ability to see what those loves are, and whether they rule or serve in him, thus whether they are in the first place in him and make as it were the head, or are in the second place and make as it were the feet. If they rule and are in the first place they lead astray and become curses; but if they serve and are in the second place they do not lead astray but become blessings.

I can assert that all in whom the love of rule is in the first place are inwardly devils. This love is known from its delight, for it exceeds every other delight of the life of man. It is continually exhaled from hell, and the exhalation appears like the fire of a great furnace, kindling the hearts of men whom the Lord does not protect from it. The Lord protects all who are reformed. Nevertheless, the former although in hell, are led by the Lord but only by means of external bonds, which are fears on account of the penalties of the law and the loss of reputation, honor, gain, and consequently pleasures. He leads them also by means of worldly rewards. He cannot lead them out of hell because the love of rule does not admit of internal bonds, which are the fear of God and affections of good and truth, by means of which the Lord leads all who will follow Him to heaven and in heaven.

Something shall now be said about man's being led by the Divine providence to such things as do not lead astray, but are serviceable to eternal life. These things also have reference to eminence and wealth. It is made clear that this is so by what I have seen in the heavens. The heavens are divided into societies, and those who are eminent and rich are to be found in every society. The eminent there are in such glory, and the rich in such abundance, that the glory and abundance of the world are almost nothing in comparison. But all the eminent there are wise, and all the rich abound in knowledge; thus eminence there is wisdom and wealth there is knowledge. Such eminence and wealth can be acquired in this world, both by those who are eminent and rich and by those who are not, for they are acquired here by all who love wisdom and knowledge. To love wisdom is to love uses that are true uses, and to love knowledge is to love the cognitions of good and truth for the sake of such uses. When uses are loved more than self and the world, and the cognitions of good and truth are loved for the sake of uses, uses have the first place and eminence and wealth the second place; and this is the case with all who are eminent and rich in the heavens. They look upon the eminence they have from wisdom, and the wealth they have from knowledge, just as a man looks upon his garments.

The eminence and wealth of the angels of heaven shall also be described. In the societies of heaven there are higher and lower governors, all arranged by the Lord and subordinated according to their wisdom and intelligence. Their chief, who excels the rest in wisdom, dwells in the midst in a palace so magnificent that nothing in the whole world can be compared with it. Its architecture is so wonderful that I can truthfully assert that not a hundredth part of it can be described by natural language, for art itself is there in its art. Within the palace are rooms and bed-chambers, in which all the furniture and decorations are resplendent with gold and various precious stones in such forms as no artist in the world can imitate either in painting or sculpture. And what is wonderful, the particulars, even to the minutest particulars, are for use; and everyone who enters sees their use, perceiving it by a breathing forth, as it were, of the uses through their images. But no wise person who enters keeps his eyes fixed very long on the images, but his mind attends to the uses, since these delight his wisdom. Round about the palace are colonnades, pleasure gardens, and smaller palaces, each in the form of its own beauty a heavenly delight. Besides these magnificent objects there are attendant guards, all clad in shining garments, and many other things. The subordinate governors enjoy similar luxuries, which are magnificent and splendid according to the degrees of their wisdom, and their wisdom is according to the degrees of their love of uses. And not only do the rulers have such things, but also the inhabitants, all of whom love uses and perform them by various employments.

But few of these things can be described; those that cannot be described are innumerable, for as they are in their origin spiritual they do not fall into the ideas of the natural man, and consequently not into the expressions of His language, except into these, that when wisdom builds for itself a habitation, and makes it comformable to itself, everything that lies inmostly concealed in any science or in any art flows together and accomplishes the purpose. These things have been written to make known that all things in the heavens also have reference to eminence and wealth, but that eminence there pertains to wisdom and wealth to knowledge, and that such are the things to which man is led by the Lord through His Divine providence.

Something shall now be said about the uses through which men and angels have wisdom. To love uses is nothing else than to love the neighbor, for use in the spiritual sense is the neighbor. This can be seen from the fact that everyone loves another not because of his face and body, but from his will and understanding; he loves one who has a good will and a good understanding, and does not love one with a good will and a bad understanding, or with a good understanding and a bad will. And as a man is loved or not loved for these reasons, it follows that the neighbor is that from which everyone is a man, and that is his spiritual. Place ten men before your eyes that you may choose one of them to be your associate in any duty or business; will you first find out about them and choose the one who comes nearest to your use? Therefore he is your neighbor, and is loved more than the others. Or become acquainted with ten maidens with the purpose of choosing one of them for your wife; do you not at first ascertain the character of each one, and if she consents betroth to you the one that you love? That one is more your neighbor than the others. If you should say to yourself, "Every man is my neighbor, and is therefore to be loved without distinction," a devil-man and an angel-man or a harlot and a virgin might be equally loved. Use is the neighbor, because every man is valued and loved not for his will and understanding alone, but for the uses he performs or is able to perform from these. Therefore a man of use is a man according to his use; and a man not of use is a man not a man, for of such a man it is said that he is not useful for anything; and although in this world he may be tolerated in a community so long as he lives from what is his own, after death when he becomes a spirit he is cast out into a desert.

Man, therefore, is such as his use is. But uses are manifold; in general they are heavenly or infernal. Heavenly uses are those that are serviceable more or less, or more nearly or remotely, to the church, to the country, to society, and to a fellow-citizen, for the sake of these as ends; but infernal uses are those that are serviceable only to the man himself and those dependent on him; and if serviceable to the church, to the country, to society, or to a fellow citizen, it is not for the sake of these as ends, but for the sake of self as the end. And yet everyone ought from love, though not from self-love, to provide the necessaries and requisites of life for himself and those dependent on him.

When man loves uses by doing them in the first place, and loves the world and self in the second place, the former constitutes his spiritual and the latter his natural; and the spiritual rules, and the natural serves. This makes evident what the spiritual is, and what the natural is. This is the meaning of the Lord's words in Matthew:

     Seek ye first the kingdom of the heavens* and its justice, and all things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33).

(* Photolithograph has "kingdom of the heavens." Schmidius also has it. The Greek is "Kingdom of God.")

"The kingdom of the heavens" means the Lord and His church, and "justice" means spiritual, moral, and civil good; and every good that is done from the love of these is a use. Then "all things shall be added," because when use is in the first place, the Lord, from whom is all good, is in the first place and rules, and gives whatever contributes to eternal life and happiness; for, as has been said, all things of the Lord's Divine providence pertaining to man look to what is eternal. "All things that shall be added" refer to food and raiment, because food means everything internal that nourishes the soul, and raiment everything external that like the body clothes it. Everything internal has reference to love and wisdom, and everything external to wealth and eminence. All this makes clear what is meant by loving uses for the sake of uses, and what the uses are from which man has wisdom, from which and according to which wisdom everyone has eminence and wealth in heaven.

As man was created to perform uses, and this is to love the neighbor, so all who come into heaven, however many there are, must do uses. All the delight and blessedness of these is according to uses and to the love of uses. Heavenly joy is from no other source. He who believes that such joy is possible in idleness is much deceived. No idle person is tolerated even in hell. Those who are there are in workhouses and under a judge who imposes tasks on the prisoners that they must do daily. To those who do not do them neither food nor clothing is given, but they stand hungry and naked; thus are they compelled to work there. The difference is that in hell uses are done from fear, but in heaven from love; and fear does not give joy, but love does. Nevertheless it is proper to vary occupations in different ways in company with others, and these serve as recreations, which are also uses. It has been granted me to see many things in heaven, many things in the world, and many things in the human body, and to consider at the same time their uses; and it has been revealed that every particular thing in them, both great and small, was created from use, in use, and for use; and that the part in which the ultimate that is for use ceases is separated as harmful and is cast out as condemned.