Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 400from the signification of “not denying jay name,” as being toacknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human (see above, n.135).[2] It should be known that there are two principal things of thechurch, namely, the acknowledgment of the Lord’s Divine in HisHuman, and making the truths from the Word to be of one’s life;moreover, no one can he in the one of these unless he is at the sametime in the other; for all truths that are made to be of the life arefrom the Lord, and this is done with those who acknowledge theDivine in His Human. For the Lord flows in with all, as well in theheavens as on the earth, from His Divine Human, and not fromthe Divine separately. Consequently those who in their thoughtseparate the Divine of the Lord from His Human, and look to theDivine of the Father not as in the Human but as beside it or aboveit, thus separated from it, receive no influx from the Lord nor thusfrom heaven, for all who are in the heavens acknowledge the Lord’sDivine Human (see concerning this in the work on Heaven andHell, n. 2–19, 59–72, 78–86 seq., 212). From this it is clear that alltruths that are made of the life are from the Lord with those whoacknowledge the Divine in His Human, that is the Divine Human.Truths become of the life when man loves them, thus when he willsthem and does them, for he who loves, wills and does; in a word,truths are made of the life when man from affection lives accordingto them. Such truths are from the Lord because the Lord flows intothe love with man, and through the love into truths and thus makesthem to be of the life.[3] Something shall now he said about the power that man hasfrom the Lord against evils and falsities. All power that angels haveand also that men have is from the Lord; and the measure in whichthey receive the Lord is the measure of their power. He whobelieves that any power against evils and falsities comes from whatis man’s own (proprium) is greatly mistaken; for it is evil spirits,conjoined to the hells, that induce evils and falsities thence withmen, and these spirits are numerous, and each one of them isconjoined to many hells, in each of which also there are manyspirits, and no one except the Lord can turn these away from man,