The Swedenborg Library Vol 1/Chapter 12

by Emanuel Swedenborg

XII.

ADMISSION INTO HEAVEN NOT AN ACT OF IMMEDIATE MERCY.

HEY who are not instructed concerning heaven and the way thither, and concerning the life of heaven with man, suppose that to be received into heaven is purely of mercy, which is granted to those who are in faith and for whom the Lord intercedes; that it is therefore admission out of mere favor. Hence they suppose that all men without exception might be saved, if it were the Lord's good pleasure; yea, some imagine that even those in hell might be saved.

But such persons are totally unacquainted with the nature of man, not being aware that his character is altogether such as his life is, and that his life is such as his love is, not only as to his interiors which belong to his will and understanding, but also as to his exteriors which belong to his body; and that the corporeal frame is only an external form, wherein the interiors present themselves in effect; and hence that the whole man is his own love.

Nor are they aware that the body does not live of itself, but from its spirit, and that the spirit of man is his affection itself, and that his spiritual body is nothing else but the man's affection in a human form, such as he also appears in after death. So long as these truths are unknown, man may be induced to believe that salvation is nothing but the good pleasure of the Lord, which is called mercy and grace.

WHAT THE MERCY OF THE LORD IS.

But it shall first be declared what the divine mercy is. Divine mercy is the pure mercy of the Lord, which seeks the salvation of the whole human race; and it is likewise continual with every man, and in no case recedes from any one, so that every one is saved who can be saved.

But no one can be saved except by divine means, which are revealed by the Lord in the Word. Divine means are what are called divine truths. These teach how man must live in order that he may be saved. By means of these truths the Lord leads man to heaven and implants within him the life of heaven. This the Lord does with all. But the life of heaven cannot be implanted in any one unless he abstains from evil, for evil opposes. So far therefore as man abstains from evil, the Lord out of pure mercy leads him by His divine means from infancy to the end of his life in the world, and afterwards to eternity. This is the Divine mercy which is meant.

Hence it is evident that the mercy of the Lord is pure mercy, but not immediate; that is, not such as to save all out of mere good pleasure, however they may have lived.

The Lord never acts contrary to order, because He is order itself. The divine truth proceeding from Him is what makes order; and divine truths are the laws of order according to which the Lord leads man. Therefore, to save man by immediate mercy is contrary to divine order; and what is contrary to divine order is contrary to the Divine.

Divine order is heaven with man; this order man has perverted with himself by a life contrary to the laws of order, which are divine truths. Into that order man is brought back by the Lord out of pure mercy, by means of the laws of order; and so far as he is brought back, he receives heaven in himself; and he who receives heaven in himself, goes to heaven after death. Hence, again, it is evident that the divine mercy of the Lord is pure mercy, but not immediate mercy.

If men could be saved by immediate mercy, all would be saved, even they who are in hell. Yea, there would be no hell, because the Lord is mercy itself, love itself and good itself. Therefore it is contrary to his Divine to say that He is able to save all immediately, and does not save them. It is known from the Word that the Lord wills the salvation of all and the damnation of no one.

 

A PREVAILING ERROR IN REGARD TO SALVATION.

Most of those who go from the Christian world into the other life, carry with them the belief that they are to be saved by immediate mercy; for they implore that mercy. But when they are examined they are found to believe that to come into heaven is merely to be admitted; and that those who are admitted are in heavenly joy,—being totally unacquainted with the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy. Therefore they are told that heaven is not denied to any one by the Lord, and that they can be admitted if they wish, and tarry there as long as they please.

They who desired this have also been admitted. But when they reached the first threshold, they were seized with such anguish of heart, from the breathing upon them of heavenly heat which is the love in which the angels are, and from the influx of heavenly light which is divine truth, that they experienced infernal torment instead of heavenly joy; and in consequence of the shock, they cast themselves headlong thence. Thus they were instructed by living experience, that heaven cannot be given to any one from immediate mercy.

I have occasionally conversed on this subject with the angels, and have told them that most of those in the world who live in evil, when they talk with others about heaven and eternal life, seem to have no other idea than that to enter heaven is merely to be admitted from mercy alone, and that this is especially believed by those who make faith the only medium of salvation; for such persons, from the principles of their religion, have no regard to the life and the deeds of love which make the life; thus neither to any other means whereby the Lord implants heaven in man, and renders him receptible of heavenly joy. And because they thus reject every actual means, they settle down in the belief, which follows of necessity from the principles assumed, that man goes to heaven from mercy alone, to which they believe that God the Father is moved by the intercession of the Son.

To these things the angels replied, that they are aware that such a tenet follows of necessity from the assumption that man is saved by faith alone. And inasmuch as this dogma is the head of all the rest, and into this, because it is not true, no light from heaven can flow, thence comes the ignorance wherein the church is at this day, concerning the Lord and heaven and the life after death and heavenly joy and the essence of love and charity, and in general concerning good and its conjunction with truth; consequently concerning the life of man, whence it is, and what is its quality; yet no one ever derives this from thought, but from will and the deeds thence, and only so far from thought as this partakes of the will; thus not from faith, except so far as faith partakes of love.

 

CAUSING EVEN THE ANGELS TO GRIEVE.

The angels grieve that these same persons do not know that faith alone cannot exist with any one; since faith without its origin which is love, is merely science, and with some a kind of persuasion which has the semblance of faith; which persuasion is not in the man's life, but out of it, for it is separated from the man if it does not cohere with his love.

They further said, that they who are in such a principle concerning the essential medium of salvation with man, cannot do otherwise than believe in immediate mercy; because they comprehend from natural lumen, and likewise from the experience of sight, that faith alone does not constitute a man's life, since they who lead an evil life can think and persuade themselves in like manner as others. Hence it comes to be believed that the wicked can be saved as well as the good, provided they speak with confidence at the hour of death concerning intercession, and mercy procured thereby.

The angels confessed that they had never yet seen any one received into heaven by an act of immediate mercy, who had lived an evil life, however he had spoken in the world from that trust or confidence, which is understood by faith in an eminent sense. On being questioned concerning Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, and concerning the apostles, whether they were not received into heaven from immediate mercy, they replied, Not one of them; and declared that every one was received according to his life in the world; and that they knew where they were; and that they are not more highly esteemed there than others.

The reason, they said, that these are mentioned with honor in the Word, is, that by them in the internal sense is meant the Lord; by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord as to the Divine and the Divine Human; by David, the Lord as to the Divine Royalty; and by the apostles, the Lord as to divine truths; and that they have not the least perception of those individuals when the Word is read by man, since their names do not enter heaven; but instead of them, they have a perception of the Lord, as just stated; and that therefore in the Word which is in heaven, those individuals are no where mentioned, since that Word is the internal sense of the Word which is in the world.

TESTIMONY FROM EXPERIENCE.

I can testify from much experience, that it is impossible to implant the life of heaven in those who have led an opposite life in the world. There were some who imagined that they should easily receive divine truths after death, when they heard them from the angels, and that they should believe them, and consequently should live a different life, and thus be received into heaven. But the experiment was made with great numbers; yet only with those who were in such a belief, to whom the trial was permitted in order that they might know that repentance after death is not possible.

Some of those with whom the trial was made, understood truths, and seemed to receive them; but as soon as they turned to the life of their love, they rejected them and even spoke against them. Some rejected them immediately, being unwilling to hear them. Some were desirous that the life of the love which they had contracted in the world, might be taken away from them, and that angelic life, or the life of heaven, might be infused in its place. This also by permission was accomplished for them; but when the life of their love was taken away, they lay as if dead, having no longer the use of any of their faculties.

From these and other experiments the simple good were instructed that no one's life can possibly be changed after death; and that evil life can by no means be changed into good life, nor infernal life into angelic, since every spirit from head to foot is of the same quality as his love, and therefore of the same quality as his life; and that to transmute this life into the opposite, were to destroy the spirit altogether. The angels declare that it were easier to change a bat into a dove, or an owl into a bird of paradise, than an infernal spirit into an angel of heaven.

From these considerations it may now be manifest, that no one can be received into heaven by an act of immediate mercy. (H. H. 521-527.)