Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 342things that be has thought from his own love when he was alone,for his spirit then thinks from itself and not from the things in thememory of his body that do not make one with his love. There aretwo states of man, one when he thinks from his spirit, and theother when he thinks from the memory of his body; when thesetwo states do not make one, man can think in one way by himself,and can think and speak in another way with others.[2] Take a preacher, for instance, who loves himself and theworld above all things, and cares nothing for the Divine, even sothat he denies it in heart, and therefore schemes evils of every kind,in consort with the crafty and malignant of the world; and yetwhen he is speaking with others, especially when he is preaching, hemay be able to speak as from zeal for the Divine, and for Divinetruths, and even at such times may be able to think in like manner;but this state is a state of his thought from the memory of the body,and is evidently separated from the state of his thought from thespirit, since when left to himself he thinks contrary to these things.This is the state that remains with man after death, but the otherstate does not remain, because it belongs to his body and not to hisspirit; consequently when he becomes a spirit, which takes placewhen he dies, all knowledges that he acquired for himself from theWord that do not agree with the life of his spirit’s love, he castsaway from him. But it is otherwise with those who, when left tothemselves alone, think justly about the Divine, about the Wordand the truths of the church therefrom, and who love truths evento the life, that is, so that they wish to live according to them. Thethoughts of these in their spirit make one with their thoughts fromthe memory of the body, thus they make one with the knowledgesof truth and good which they have from the Word; and so far asthese make one, these knowledges receive spiritual life, for they areelevated by the Lord from the external or natural man into theinternal or spiritual man, and constitute the life, that is, theunderstanding and will, of the spiritual man. Truths, in thespiritual man, are living truths, because they are Divine, and fromthese man has life there. That this is so it has been granted me toknow from much experience; if I were to adduce it all it would fillmany pages. (Something may be seen in the work on Heaven andHell, n. 491–498, 499–511; and above, n. 114.)