The Doctrine of Charity - Swedenborg Foundation

CHARITY 240laws, are enacted as for one. One’s country, then, is as it were aman in the concrete; and it is called a body, in which the king issupreme. Its good which is to be promoted is called the publicgood, and the common good. It is said also of the king that thepeople are in the body of his government.84. And when it is the Lord’s good pleasure, any kingdom ispresented as a man before the angels of heaven, in a form that is thelikeness of its quality. The form is the form of its spiritual affection;the form of the face is that of the affection of its spiritual good; theform of the body is the form of its civil good; while its manners,speech, and the like manifest its rational good. When one views akingdom as one man its quality can be seen, and according to thisit is the neighbor.85. Birth does not make one more the neighbor than another,not even mother and father; neither does education. These are fromnatural good. Nor does nearness of abode, nor relationship makeone man more the neighbor than another; nor, therefore, one’snative country. This is to be loved according to the quality of itsgood. But it is a duty to benefit one’s country, which is done bypromoting its use; because one thus promotes the good of all. It isnot so much a duty to other kingdoms outside of one’s country,because one kingdom does not will another’s good, but wills todestroy it as to its wealth and its power, and thus, also, as to itsmeans of defense. To love another kingdom more, therefore, bydoing more to promote its use, makes against the good of thekingdom in which one dwells. For this reason one’s own country isto be loved in a higher degree.86. For example: if I had been born in Venice or in Rome, andwere a Reformed Christian, am I to love my country, or thecountry where I was born, because of its spiritual good? I cannot.Nor with respect to its moral and civil good, so far as this dependsfor existence upon its spiritual good. But so far as it does notdepend upon this I can, even if that country hates me. Thus, I mustnot in hatred regard it as an enemy, nor as an adversary, but muststill love it; doing it no injury, but consulting its good, so far as it is