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The Doctrine of Charity - Swedenborg Foundation

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CHARITY 245receptacle. So with the other senses. And it is the same with themind, and its interior senses.103. <strong>The</strong>refore, man is indeed the subject <strong>of</strong> charity, but arecipient subject; for he is created in a form receptive <strong>of</strong> life, as theeye is in a form receptive <strong>of</strong> light, and <strong>of</strong> objects <strong>of</strong> vision by means<strong>of</strong> light; and the ear, in a form receptive <strong>of</strong> sound, by the inflowing<strong>of</strong> sound with its harmonies.104. Whoever believes that <strong>of</strong> himself he is a form <strong>of</strong> charity isdeceived. Either he believes that he is God, or that the Divine istransfused into him. Thus he denies God. Or, if he does not thinkso, he places merit in works <strong>of</strong> charity; so that his external becomescharity and not his internal; and then the Lord cannot abide inhim. <strong>The</strong> Lord abides not in those things which are <strong>of</strong> a man’sproprium, but in his own. He must abide in what is Divine, and somake the man a recipient <strong>of</strong> the Divine proceeding, that is, <strong>of</strong>charity.105. But man was so created that he might think and will as iffrom himself, and thence speak and act as if from himself; and yetis granted to know that every good <strong>of</strong> charity and truth <strong>of</strong> faith isfrom the Lord. He who does not think so according to this truth isnot in the light [lux] <strong>of</strong> truth, but in a fatuous light [lumen]; and, inthe light <strong>of</strong> heaven, this is darkness. He cannot, therefore, beenlightened in other truths, except as to the memory only, and notas to perception, which is faith in its essence.106. From these considerations it is clear that man is only a form<strong>of</strong> charity, and that charity is <strong>of</strong> the Lord with him; but that it isgranted man to seem as if he himself were charity, to the end thathe may become a receptacle, and so come into reciprocalconjunction, as if from himself, though really from the Lord.107. (4) A man is such a form <strong>of</strong> charity so far as good <strong>of</strong> the will isconjoined with truths <strong>of</strong> the understanding in him. All that is <strong>of</strong> thewill is called good, and all that is <strong>of</strong> the understanding is calledtruth; because the will is in the heat <strong>of</strong> heaven, and the

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