Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 297[2] Those, therefore, who read the Word solely for repute oferudition, or to acquire fame that they may be exalted to honors ormay gain wealth, never see and perceive truths, but falsities instead;and the truths that stand out before the eyes in the Word theyeither pass by as if not seen or they falsify them. The reason is, thatto read the Word solely for the repute of erudition or for fame, thatthey may be exalted to honors and gain wealth, is to read it for thesake of self and the world as ends, thus from the loves of self andthe world. And as these loves are of man’s proprium so the thingsthat man sees and perceives from them are from self-intelligence.[3] But those who read the Word from the spiritual affection oftruth, which affection is a love of knowing truth because it is truth,see truths in the Word, and rejoice in heart when they see them;and this because they are in illumination from the Lord.Illumination descends from the Lord through heaven from the lightthere, which light is Divine truth. It is therefore given to them tosee truths from the light of truth, and this in the Word, because theWord is Divine truth, and in it are stored up all the truths ofheaven. But those only are in this illumination who are in the twoloves of heaven, which are love to the Lord and love towards theneighbor; for these loves open the inner or higher mind, which isformed to receive the light of heaven, and through that mind inthem the light of heaven flows in and illuminates. But so long asthey live in the world they do not perceive truths in that mind, butthey see them in the lower mind, the mind of the external ornatural man. Such as these do not think from self-intelligence whenthey read the Word. The especial reason why these do not thinkfrom their self-intelligence when they read the Word is, that theirinterior or spiritual mind looks to the Lord, and the Lord thenelevates it up to himself, and with it the lower or natural mind,thus withdrawing it from man’s proprium, which cannot be donewith those who have regard first and foremost to themselves andthe world.[4] From this it can be seen that man from self-intelligenceperceives nothing but evils and sees nothing but falsities; but thatgoods and truths that are of heaven and the church he perceives