Purity Of Actions and Thoughts: From “Divine Providence” by Emanuel Swedenborg (vegetarian), Part 1 of 2

On today’s show, we are pleased to present excerpts from Chapter 6 of “Divine Providence” by Emanuel Swedenborg (vegetarian), which discusses the importance of Heavenly Love, defined as love for the Lord and our neighbors, for goodness, and for truth.

Chapter 6 It is a law of Divine Providence that man shall remove evils as sins in the external man of himself, and only so can the Lord remove the evils in the internal man and at the same time in the external.

“The internal of thought comes out of the life’s love, its affections and the perceptions from them. The external of thought is from what is in the memory, serving the life’s love for confirmation and as means to its end. From childhood to early manhood, a person is in the external of thought from an affection for knowledge, which is then his internal; from the life’s love born in one from parents, something of lust and hence of disposition issues, too. Later, however, his life’s love is as he lives, and its affections and the perceptions from them make the internal of his thought. From his life’s love comes a love of means; the enjoyments of these means and the information drawn thereby from the memory make his external of thought.

Man’s external of thought is in itself such as his internal is. We showed earlier that from head to foot, a man is what his life’s love is. Something must be said about his life’s love, for until this is done, nothing can be said about the affections which together with perceptions make the internal of man, or about the enjoyments of the affections together with thoughts which make his external.

Loves are many, but two – heavenly love and infernal love – are like lords or kings. Heavenly love is love to the Lord and the neighbor; infernal love is love of self and the world. These are opposite to each other as Heaven and hell are. For a man in love of self and the world wishes well only to himself; a man in love to the Lord and the neighbor wishes well to all. These two are the loves of man’s life, though with much variety. Heavenly love is the life’s love of those whom the Lord leads, and infernal love the life’s love of those whom the devil leads. […]”