THE PROPRIUMOB

WHAT OF MAN IS NOT HIS OWN

AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLEAND EXPOUNDED BY

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

JOHN BIGELOW

The ftniDl' pot .. for .Uver, and the furnace for COld:ADd the man is tried by that whereof he bouteth.

~ba,IX~'J

Nam neque divltibus conUnpnt p.udia soIlsNee visit male, qui natus, moriensque fefelllt.

Horaee ~toIcJ, ZVlI

Belle qwlatuit bene visit.Ovid TriBt,"

THE NEW CHURCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION8 WEST 29TH STREET

NEW YORK1907

INTRODUCTION

I

WHEN .Jesus told His disciples that He was tosuffer many things, to be killed, and after threedays rise again. Peter. presumed to rebuke Him.Jesus. turning upon him, said. "Get thee behindme, Satan, for thou mindest Dot the things ofGod but the things of men." Peter was here rebuked for an infirmity common to all the ebil-

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and the glory of them, and said: All these thingsI will give thee if thou wilt fall down and wor-ship me. It was a heritage from His virginmother which even He only parted entirely withon the Cross.

From our early infancy we have a conscious-ness of being able to exert a power to do thingsthat responds to our desires, and as we advancein years and grow in strength we naturally con-tinue to regard that power as our own, and ap-propriate to ourselves credit for all its achieve-ments. The poets, the historians, the biograph-ers, have been employed from time immemorialin glorifying and perpetuating the names andfame of men assuming them to have been thearchitects of their eartl.l1y fortunes; the real au-thors of any achievements that have made themconspicuous. When any man whose Father inheaven has raised him a head and shoulders abovethe mass of his neighborhood, passes away,the public press exhausts the language of eulogyupon him, and hardly is he cold in his grave be-fore a paper is put in circulation for subscrip-tions to a monument in his honor, as though hehad been really his own Creator.

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OUB Christian Bible is Swedenborg's authorityfor affirming:

1st. That there is no real self-existent life butthe Divine Life and that men are only recipientsof this Life from "our Father Who art inheaven."

2d. That the Lord is in all the circumstancesof our lives, permitting and providing what weare spiritually qualified to accept and properlyenjoy and controlling them so as to promote thedevelopment of the spiritual life, whether forthat purpose it be necessary to send us joy or sor-row: but this control being exerted only to an ex-tent that shall not interfere with the absolutefreedom of man's will.

3d. That genuine spiritual life imports theextinction or death of the proprium as necessaryto the development of an interior life within thesoul, through love for the Lord and for theNeighbour and a Life responsive to those loves.

4th. That the spiritual life-which is the Di-vine life-can enter into man only as he expelshis proprium,-rids himself of the delusion thathe is the author of forces of which he is only apassive instrument or trustee.

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1)th. That all evils whatsoever originate in thisproprium, and goodness or righteousness entersthe soul only so far and so fast as this propriumis expelled.

The literature of the world can hardly be saidto have ever recognized the fact that all powercomes from our Heavenly Father and that Hischildren have no power which they may with anypropriety call their own, except that of choosingbetween good and evil,-in other words the spir-itual motive which animates their action.

We cannot read without a feeling of compas-sion the story of the rich young man who came toJesus and on his knees begged to be told what heshould do to inherit eternal life, claiming to havekept the Commandments from his youth up..Jesus loved him for this, (not because he sup-posed the young man had actually kept them,but because he had meant to and thought he hadkept them,) but he said-"One thing thou lack-est: go sell whatsoever thou hast and giveto the poor. So shalt thou have treasure inheaven. Then come take up thy cross and followme." "The young man," we are told, "wentaway sorrowing, for he had great possessions."

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Riches here, as most frequently in the Word,do not refer merely to what we call wealth; itcovers every kind of possession or power overwhich a man has the apparent control; everything which he regards as his own and whichseems in his eyes to give him pleasure, influence,or importance. This young man regarded allthese ~~riche," as his own. He had never combat-ted the concupiscences they gratified, nor had heyet acknowledged the Lord to be his-only hissupreme God. His proprium made him still aheathen-an idolater. He continued more orless unconscious that he was yet worshippinggods of man's device. He had never tried toovercome this proprium, and the necessity of en-gaging in such a struggle it was that sent himaway sorrowing. The lesson here given to him,is the spiritual symphony of the entire Word,from

Man's first disobedience and the fruitOf that forbidden tree, whose 'TTWrtal tasteBrought death into the world, and all our woe,

as represented in Genesis, down to the Angelin Revelation seen "flying in mid-heaven with a

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great voice saying, If any man worshippeth thebeast and his image and receiveth a mark on hisforehead or upon his hand, he also shall drink ofthe wine of the wrath of God which is preparedunmixed in the Cup of His Anger; and he shallbe tormented with fire and brimstone in the pres-ence of the holy Angels and in the presence ofthe Lamb and the smoke of their torment goethup forever and ever and they have no rest day ornight." In other words, from one end of the Bi-ble to the other the reader will scarcely find apage which does not contain a warning againstthis self-worship, against the blindness, ignor-ance, and spiritual insensibility implied in theword Proprium.

Some of these evils cannot be better stated thanthey were by Paul in his letter to the Galatians,Chapter V.:

Thou ~alt love thy neighbour as thyself. But ifye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be notconsumed one of another.

But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not ful-fil the lust of the :flesh. For the :flesh lusteth against theSpirit, and the Spirit against the :flesh; for these are

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contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do thethings that ye would. . .

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which arethese, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions,divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings,and such like: of the which I forewarn you, even as Idid forewarn you, that they which practise such thingsshall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit ofthe Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsufFering, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance: againstsuch there is no law. And they that are of Jesus Christhave crucified the :flesh with the passions and the luststhereof.

The evils of the proprium, so distinctly enu-merated by Paul, were prefigured in Adam'sreply in the Garden of Eden to God's inquiry,"Where art thou~"

"I heard Thy voic~ in the Garden and I wasafraid because I was naked and I hid myself."

The proprium's victim is always trying to hidehimself through shame, from his Maker.

A,~ain those evils were prefigured when thewhole earth was of one language and speech andthe descendants of Noah proposed to build a

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tower in the plain of Shinar "the top of whichmay reach unto heaven and let 'US make U8 aname."

The first penalty of their ambition was the con-founding of their language "that they may notunderstand one another's speech."

Such is to this 'day as much as in the days ofthe Patriarchs, the penalty of all who are domi-nated by their proprium instead of dominating it.Each speaks the language of his own selfhoodinstead of the common language of the universalheart, and consequently all distrust one an- Iother, knowing that their real meaning, being en-tirely selfish, is hidden in their words, as Adamwas hidden when his God called for him in theGarden. Hence the dispersion which followed;and it may not be usurping the functions of -Iprophecy to say, hence the separation of so manyof the nations and tribes of the human family bydifferent tongues. If all the nations spoke thesame tongue it is fair to presume that they wouldhave experienced the condign penalties whichtheir original dispersion was Providentially in-tended to guard against.

So the incestuous offspring of Lot were thex

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fmit of proprium, and their descendants, the Mo-abites and Amorites were the natural and persis-tent enemies of the true church organized underthe Covenant with Abraham.

n

No ONE, whether lay or clerical, however, seemsto have laid the stress upon these evils that Swe-derlborg did. There is rio guise of temptation orsinfulness against which he so frequently or moreearnestly wams his readers, or to which he at-taches greater importance, and for the simplereason that it is idolatry, a worship of other godsthan the one great I AM whom the Christian isrequired to love with all his heart and soul andmind and strength. I t is a blindness too whichrenders him at first indifferent and finally hostileto the neighbour whom he is required by the sameauthority to love as himself.

Though Swedenborg has given more promi-nence to this grade of sinfulness than any otherwriter ancient or modern outside of the Bible, ithad before his time been denounced as "the dark

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worm of hell" by J"acob Boehme, who died morethan half a century before Swedenborg was born.Speaking of the Centrum Naturae or the LifeWorm which viewed objectively he said "is theself-infolding fire which Ezekiel beheld in hisvision, he continues:

Viewed subjectively it is the restlessness of Desire.We say of a man that this or that is his Worm bywhich we mean a tendency or inclination within him inwhich his Ego is specially conspicuous and in which hespecially seeks satiety for his self-love. In proportionas the Worm which at the outset is impersonal becomesa personal entity, the more it reaches the point at whichit must be said that it is not so much the personalitythat is Lord over the Worm, as the Worm that is lordof the individual. And when the Worm attains absolutedominion, it becomes the Dark Worm of Hell, or as itmay also be termed, the burning and gnawing Worm ofHell of which Scripture says that "it dieth not." "Theirworm dieth not and their tire is not quenched."

Shakespeare rested from his labors a centuryand a half before Swedenborg, yet he has given inthe fifth act of his Richard Ill, by far the bestdescription, to this day to be found in the Eng-lish tongue, of a man presumed to have given a

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perfectly free rein to his proprium, and of its in-evitable consequences if unresisted.

After the ghosts of all his murdered victimshad passed before that King in his dream, horror-stricken he starts up in a dazed condition andcries:

Give me another horse: bind up my wounds.Have mercy, Jesu!-'

Soft! I did but dream_o coward conscience, how dost thou aftIict me!The lights bum blue. It is now dead midnight.Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.What do I fear?

myself?there's none else by:

Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.Is there a murderer here?

No.Yes, I am:

Then lIy.What, from myself?

Great reason why:Lest I revenge.

What, myself upon myself?Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? for any goodThat I myself have done unto myself?0, no! alas, I rather hate myself

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For hateful deeds committed by myself!I am a villain:

yet I lie, I am not.Fool, of thyself speak well:

fool, do not :flatter.My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,And every tongue brings in a several tale,And every tale condemns me for a villain.Perjury, perjury, in the high'st aegree;Murder, stem murder, in the direst degree;All several sins, all used in each degree,Throng to the bar, crying all, Guilty! guilty!I shall despair.

There is no creature loves me;And if I die, no soul shall pity me:Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myselfFind in myself no pity to myself?Methought the" souls of all that I had murder'dCame to my tent; and everyone did threatTo-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard.

III

PROVIDENTIALLY no one lacks a witness withinhimself of all that is disclosed on this subject inthe pages of the Bible or in the writings of Swe-

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INTRODUCTIONdenborg. In our daily intercourse with the worldwe cannot help feeling a distrust of any man'sjudgment and integrity of heart or mind who in-stead of walking humbly with God, appropriatesto himself the entire credit of everything he hasbeen enabled to do sufficiently well to attractothers' attention; who vaunts his prosperity in theworld or perverts the fruits of it in a way andwith the view of attracting to himself an homageexclusively due to his Maker. Wisely says theDuke In M earure for M earure:

I love the peopleBut do not like to stage me to their eyesThough it do well, I do not relish wellTheir loud applause and aves vehementNor do 1 think the man of ,afe di,cretitmThat doe' affect it.

"For men to search out their own glory is notglory," said the wisest of Kings.1 "Woe untothem that are wise in their own conceit and pru-dent in their own sight," sayeth the Prophet.2The same prophet emphatically says:

"To whom will ye liken me, and make meI Proverbs xxv. 97. I Isaiah v. iO.

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equal, and compare me, that we may be like1Such as lavish gold out of the bag, and weighsilver in the balance? they hire a goldsmith, andhe maketh it a god; they fall down, yea, theyworship. They bear him upon the shoulder, theycarry him, and set him in his place, and he stand-eth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, oneshall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, norsave him out of his trouble."1

"Now therefore hear this, thou that art given ''\\ to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest

"~~ .in.thine heart, 'I am, and there is none else besideme, I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall Iknow the loss of children.'

"But these two things shall come to thee in a mo-ment in one day. The loss of children, and wid-owhood: in their full measure shall they come-upon thee, despite of the multitude of thy sorcer-ies, and the great abundance of thine enchant-ments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness;thou hast said, None .seeth me; thy wisdom andthy knowledge, it hath perverted thee: and thouhast said in thine heart, I AM, and there is noneelse beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon

1 Isaiah xlvi I s.xvi

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thee; tbou shalt not know the dawning thereof:and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt notbe able to put it away and desolation shall comeupon thee suddenly which thou knowest not."l

It is also in every one's power to see and de-spise or pity the man who doest alms by soundinga trumpet before him "as the hypocrites do in thesynagogues and in the streets," and eke "the hyp-oorites who love to stand and pray in the syna-gogues and in the corners of the streets that theymay be seen of men."

Indeed no one discerns the propriwm in an-other quite so promptly as those who have mostof it to contend with. N either is it possible forany of us to withhold our confidence and respectfor a friend or neighbour but in proportion tohis success in reducing his proprium to subjection-no one being without it-and enthroning theauthor of every blessing in its place in his heart.

THE proprium of the natural, unregenerateman recalls to us the fable of the beautiful prin-cess, the walls of whose apartment were all reflec-tors of her charms.

1 ibid., i.

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All my walls are lost in mirrors, whereupon I traceSelf to right-hand, self to left-hand, self in every place,Self-same solitary figure, same self-seeking face.

Years rolled on, however, until the reflections ofher mirrors became somewhat monotonous. Asshe was riding one day through her domains, likePaul on his way to Damascus, she experienced agreat surprise. Her eyes were suddenly openedand, for the first time in her life, to the discoverythat every thing she then saw seemed to be con-tributing in some way to the growth, nurture orwelfare of something besides itself, and in thatservice to find its pleasure. The Howers were busyfurnishing sugar for the bees, fragrance for theatmosphere and decoration for the scenery. Thebees were making honey for their offspring andalso for the princess' table, and wax for the arts.The dew and the rain duly supplied nourishmentto the shrubbery of the gardens, .to the meadowsand the forest, and quenched the thirst of everything thirsty. The grateful meadows in theirturn supplied grass and corn and oats for thecattle and poultry, while the orchards, forests andwilling glebe yielded all kinds of nuts, fruits andvegetables, not only for princesses but for peas-

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aBtI as well. Even the countless heavenly bodiesnever failed to arrange the seasons, so as to meas-ure out the very days and hours to suit the wantsof every quarter of the inhabited globe and toteach navigators how with security to plough thetrackless ocean and make neighbours for us tolove as ourselves, of the most widely-separatedpeoples. She also listened with a beating heart to"loud lowings" of the cows returning from theirpasture for the milkmaids to receive and distrib-ute their milk to the children of her estate, asclamorous for their suppers as the cows to supplyit. She found that all things in the heavensabove and on the earth beneath seemed to be notonly working all the time but, whether consciousof it or not, were really doing much more for oth-ers than for themselves. A realization of thesefacts taught her that even the beasts that drewher carriage and ploughed her lands were as goodChristians as she was, and that nothing of all shehad been so proud of was really her own,-noteven her beauty.

On the return of the Princess to her Palace,she was again surprised to find that the mirrorson its walls had all miraculously disappeared.

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IV

THERE is perhaps no more honorable or usefulvocation than that which is exercised in directingthe political affairs of a nation. Those who dis-charge these functions are commonly known asstatesmen or politicians. Technically and ety-mologically both mean the same thing. Yet soit is that no one wishes to be spoken of as a politi-cian, neither does anyone feel injured whenspoken of as a statesman. The difference in thepresent popular meaning of these words is dueto the necessity of differentiating in our languagethe man who is presumed to discharge the dutiesof the office with which he may be charged faith-fully and effectually, from one known to seek andhold official stations for the gratification of hisambition, his vanity or his greed; to use a vulgarphrase current in political circles, "for what thereis in them." The one is dominated by his pro-prium, and the distmst with which this inspiresthe public has given to such the name of politi-cians, and denied them the title of statesmen.

Robert Barclay, who died a little more than:xx

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two centuries ago, in his .A.pology for the TrueChristian Divinity aB the 8ame i8 held forth a1ulpreached by the people, in 8corn called Quakers,applied to the priesthood of the EstablishedChurch of England the title of "hireling clergy"as a reproach. Though the Levites of the Societyof Friends receive no pay for their religious ser-vices, there was more propriety and thereforemore offensiveness in such a title in Barclay'stime than there is perhaps in these latter days; forthough the clergy of the Established Church inEngland in his day as now, were officers of thegovernment and compensated like other officers,it was then more than now the practice of makingthe Church an asylum for the younger sons of thenobility with scant reference to their habits, tastesor fitness for such a vocation. It was regardedmore as a provision of Parliament for the depend-ent members of the aristocracy than for the spir-itual comfort and edification of the parish towhich these dependents were assigned; and tosuch the title of "hireling clergy" was entirely ap-propriate, for both the nominator and nominee,in what they were doing, were animated only bytheir proprium. How far the proprium has to do

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with the call to the ministry in countries in whichthe clergy are not officers of the government,would be something which can only be surelyknown to the Master. The fact however that theSociety of Friends still adheres to the teachings ofBarclay implies that up to the present time, theyhave seen nothing in the operation of the salarysystem to encourage their adoption of it. Theoldest and most numerous branch of the ChristianChurch, with its headquarters at Rome has al-ways recognized the principle adopted by the So-ciety of Friends in reference to the breaking theBread of Life to their flock and has never treatedthe priesthood as a bread-winning professionthough by the latter the principle is somewhatless rigidly enforced.

THIS ecclesiastical proprium did not escape thescourge of J"ohn Milton than whom the Bibleprobably never had a much more faithful and de-vout student. He died fourteen years beforeSwedenborg was born, yet in his Lycidas will befound the following lines in which the scandalswrought in the Church by the proprium, thoughnot specifically named as such, are denounced

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with a force and eloquence only inferior to thatalready quoted from Shakespeare. If the evil ofa dominating proprium may be measured by de-grees, as the good of overcoming it may be, Mil-ton wrote these lines with a clear conviction that itsevil in the Church belonged to the superlativedegree.

Last came, and last did go,The pilot of the Galilean lake;Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain),He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake,

"How well could I have spar'd for thee, young swain,Enow of such as for their bellies' sakeCreep, and intrude, and climb into the fold!Of other care, they little reckoning makeThan how to scramble at the shearers' feast,And shove away the worthy bidden guest;Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to holdA sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else, the leastThat to the faithful herdsman's art belongs!What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;And when they list, their lean and flashy songsGrate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,

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But, swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;Besides what the grim wolf with privy pawDaily devours apace, and nothing said."

To assist the reader to apprehend the value ofevery word of these lines I must beg him to reada comment upon them of John Ruskin,-givingprecedence however to some of his very pertinentremarks which led up to it:

Among the ideas most prevalent and effective inthe mind in this busiest of countries, I suppose the first-at least that which is confessed with the greatestfrankness, and put forward as the fittest stimulus toyouthful exertion-is this of "Advancement in life."May I ask you to consider with me what this idea prac-tically includes, and what it should include.

Practically, then, at present, "advancement in life"means becoming conspicuous in life,-I)btaining a posi-'tion which shall be acknowledged by others to be respect-able or honorable. We do not understand by this ad-vancement, in general, the mere making of money, butthe being known to have made it ; not the accomplishmentof any great aim, but the being seen to have accom-plished it. In a word, we mean the gratification of ourthirst for applause. That thirst, if the last infirmity

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of noble minds, is also the first infirmity of weak ones;and, on the whole, the strongest impulsive influence ofaverage humanity: the greatest efforts of the race havealways been traceable to the love of praise, as its greatestcatastrophes to the love of pleasure.

The value of the commentary, which promptsits introduction here, is the distinctness withwhich it develops the infirmity to which all eccle-siasticism is liable and which Swedenborg throughthe Bible traces directly to the proprium. Rus-kin says:

First, is it not singular to find Milton assigning toSt. Peter,not only his full episcopal function, but the verytypes of it which Protestants usually refuse most pas-sionately? His "mitred" locks! Milton was no Bishop-lover; how comes St. Peter to be "mitred"? "Two massykeys he bore." Is this, then, the power of the keysclaimed by "the Bishops of Rome, and is it acknowledgedhere by Milton only in a poetical license, for the sake ofits picturesqueness, that he may get the gleam of thegolden keys to help his effect? Do not think it. Greatmen do not play stage tricks with doctrines of life anddeath: only little men do that. Milton means what hesays; an~ means it with his might too-is going to putthe whole strength of his spirit presently into the saying

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of it. For though not a lover of false bishops, he riM alover of true ones; and the Lake-pilot is here, in histhoughts, the type and head of true episcopal power.For Milton reads that text, "I will give unto thee thekeys of the kingdom of heaven," quite honestly. Puritanthough he be, he would not blot it out of the book becausethere have been bad bishops; nay, in order to understandhim, we must understand that verse first; it will not doto eye it askance, or whisper it under our breath, as if itwere a weapon of an adverse sect. It is a solemn, uni-versal assertion, deeply to be kept in mind by all sects.But perhaps we shall be better able to reason on it if wego on a little farther, and come back to it. For clearlythis marked insistence on the power of the true episcopateis to make us feel more weightily what is to be chargedagainst the false claimants of episcopate; or generally,against false claimants of power and rank in the body ofthe clergy; they who, "for their bellies' sake, creep, andintmde, and climb into the fold.'; .

Never think Milton uses those three words to 6ll up ,his verse, as a loose writer would. He needs all the three;specially those three, and no more than those-"Creep,"and "intrude," and "climb"; no other words would orcould serve the turn, and no more could be added. Forthey exhaustively comprehend the three classes, cor-respondent to the three characters, of men who dis-honestly seek ecclesiastical power. First, those who

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".-.p" into tile fold; who do not care for office, norname, but for secret in1Iuence, and do all things occultlyand cunningly,consenting to any servility of office or con-duct, so only that they may intimately discern, and un-awares direct, the minds of men. Then these who "in-trude" (thrust, that is) themselves into the fold, who bynatural insolence of heart, and stout eloquence of tongue,and fearlessly perseverant self-assertion, obtain hearingand authority with the common crowd. Lastly, thosewho "climb," who by labor and learning, both stout andsound, but selfishly exerted in the cause of their ownambition, gain high dignities and authorities, and be-come ''lords over the heritage," though not "ensamplesto the flock."

Now go on:Of other care they little reckoning make,Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast.BUntl 'IROUIh,~

I pause again, for this is a strange expression; abroken metaphor, one might think, careless and un-scholarly.

Not so; its very audacity and pithiness are intendedto make us look close at the phrase and remember it.ThOle two monosyllables express the precisely accuratecontraries ot right character, in the two great offices oftlte Church-those of bishop and pastor.

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INT~ODUCTIONA "Bishop" means a "person who sees."A "Pastor" means a "person who feeds."The most unbishoply character a man can have is

therefore to be Blind.The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to

be fed,-t9 be a Mouth.Take the two revenes together, and you have "blind

mouths." We may advisably follow out this idea alittle. Nearly all the evils in the Church have &risenfrom bishops desiring porIJer more than light. Theywant authority, not outlook. Whereas their real office isnot to rule; though it may be vigorously to exhort andrebuke; it is the king's office to role; the bishop's officeis to ooer,ee the flock; to number it, sheep by sheep; tobe ready always to give full account of it. Now it isclear he cannot give account of the souls, if he has not80 much as numbered the bodies of his flock. The firstthing, therefore, that a bishop has to do is at least toput himself in a position in which, at any moment, hecan obtain the history, from childhood, of every livingsoul in his diocese, and of its present state. Down inthat back street, Bill, and Nancy, knocking each other'steeth out t-Does the bishop know all about it? Has hehis eye upon them? Has he had his eye upon them?Can he circumstantially explain to us how Bill got intothe habit of beating Nancy about the head? If he can-not, he is no bishop, though he had a mitre as high as

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Salisbury steeple; he is no bishop,-he has sought to beat the helm instead of the masthead; he has no sight ofthings. "Nay," you say, "it is not his duty to look afterBill in the back street." What! the fat sheep that havefull-fleecea-you think it is only those he should lookafter, while (go back to your Milton) "the hungry sheeplook up, and are not fed, besides what the grim wolf,with privy paw" (bishops knowing nothing about it)"daily devours apace, and nothing said"?

"But that's not our idea of a bishop." Perhaps not;but it was St. Paul's; and it was Milton's. They maybe right, or we may be; but we must not think we arereading either one or the other by putting our meaninginto their words.

'But, swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw.

This is to meet the vulgar answer that "if the poor arenot looked after in their bodies, they are in their souls;they have spiritual food."

And Milton says: "They have no such thing as spir-itual food; they are only swollen with wind." At firstyou may think that is a coarse type, and an obscure one.But again, it is a quite literally accurate one. Take upyour Latin and Greek dictionaries, and find out themeaning of "Spirit." It is only a contraction of theLatin word "breath," and an indistinct translation of theGreek word for "wind." The same word is used in writ-

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INTRODUCTIONing, "The wind bloweth where it listeth" ; and in writing,"So is everyone that is born of the Spirit" ; born of thebreath, that is ; for it means the breath of God, in soul andbody. We have the true sense of it in our words "in-spiration" and "expire." Now, there are two kinds ofbreath with which the flock may be filled; God's breath,and man's. The breath of God is health, and life, andpeace to them, as the air of heaven is to the flocks on thehills; but man's breath-the word which he calls spiritual-is disease and contagion to them, as the fog of thefen. They rot inwardly with it; they are puffed up by

I it, as a dead body by the vapors of its own decom-position. This is literally true of all false religiousteaching; the first and last, and fatalest sign of it is that"pu1Bng up." Your converted children, who teach theirp~ents; your converted convicts, who teach honest men;your converted dunces, who, having lived in cretinousstupefaction half their lives, suddenly awakening to thefact of there being a God, fancy themselves thereforeHis peculiar people and messengers; your sectarians ofevery species, small and great, Catholic or Protestant, ofhigh church or low, in so far as they think themselvesexclusively in the right and others wrong; and pre-eminently, in every sect, those who hold that men canbe saved by thinking rightly instead of doing rightly,by word instead of act, and wish instead of work ;-theseare the true fog children-clouds, these, without water;

sn

INTRODUCTIONbodies, these, of putrescent vapor and skin, withoutblood or flesh; blown bagpipes for the fiends to pipewith-corrupt, and corrupting,-"swoln with wind, andthe rank mist they draw."

I do not know where, outside of one's own ob-servation and the paramount teachings of theWord, can be found so much aid in correctly ap-preciating the evils to which our proprium ex-poses us, or a better guide to show how these per-ils may be most successfully combatted, than inthe selections from the Writings of Swedenborgwhich are presented in the following pages, ex-cept in the voluminous collections of his writingswhich are permeated with these teachings as ouratmosphere is pemneated with the heat and lightof the SWl.

v

THE word selected as a title for this publicationcan scarcely be said to have any precise equivalentin our language, hence its adoption. As an ad-jective Swedenborg frequently uses the word toexpress 'What i, a man'8 own, or is claimed by him

xxxi

INTRODUCTION

to be such, and it. is used in that sense both inLatin and Greek, and as an adjective perhapsmay be adequately translated into English asOWN; but the Propriuin, as used by Sweden-borg in the following pages, is also a substantiveand signifies the fact, real or imaginary, both ofpossessing and the possessor; while it defines only ,what is from and belongs to the Lord, of whichman is never more than a trustee. The Propriumtherefore in man is an appropriation to himself-that is, a selfish appropriation of divine resources.

It is this idea, involving the sense and exerciseof an absolute ownership of all one has or pre-tends to have and be, that is contained in Sweden-borg's substantive, Proprium-an idea new andfundamental in his philosophy and bearing aname in his Writings, and for which there is noother recognized English equivalent. We canrender it approximately in certain cases by"self," "selfhood," "ownhood," or "ownership,"but for its full significance I find no satisfactorysubstitute. Nor is there any occasion to. Ourauthor's Latin word has already found a home inour standard English dictionaries and will soonbecome familiar to the English reader, where al-

xxxii

INTRODCCTIOS

ready numerous members of its famil)9 hae forcenturies found congenial homes. Of these it issufficient to name proper, property, propriety,properliness, proprietor, proprietary, propitious~propitiate, propitiable, propitiatory, propinquity,appropriate, appropriation, appropriateness, ap-propriated,approach,approachable~-allof whichwords are descended from the Latin prope, pro-prior, propissim'IU. A single quotation from thewritings of Tyndall, and in itself quite pertinentto the subject dealt with in the following pages,shows that this family was thoroughly domestica-ted in our tongue over two centuries ago, and thatthe word Proprium has quite as good a right to aplace in the English lexicon as any of its congen-eracy ever had.

"Now doth the Scripture ascribe both Faythand W orkes not to vs but to God onely to Whothey belong, to Who they are appropriate, Whosegifts they are and the proper worke of HisSpirit."

J. B.

xxxiii

FROM the following selections the Editor hasfelt warranted in omitting such passages and cita-tions as did not bear upon the topic to which hehas desired to give special prominence. To eachselection however a reference is given to the workfrom which it is taken, so that the curiosity ofthose who may be farther interested in the topicor text commented upon, may be readily gratifled by referring to the originals which are desig- Jnated by the following abbreviations:

A. C. Arcana Cmlestia.D. P. Divine Providence.D. L. Divine Love and Wisdom.E. U. Earths in the Universe.H. H. Heaven and Hell.A. E. Apocalypse Explained.T. C. R. True Christian Religion.

CONTENTSPAY.

262882

iii-xxxiv8845679

1011121816

Introduction. . . Antithesis of Charity .n the Dominion of the Proprium beganan's Proprium is Hell ...Y of Faith and Doctrine .... Man's Proprium does not leave him a Beast . .'. Evils subdued, not removed, by Regeneration .Life of the Proprium is Infernal Life . .Shedder of Blood shall have his Blood ShedlX of Good and Evil . . . . .lCience and the Intellectual Propriumtity of Babel and Proprium . . ..gonism of the External and Internal Man. the Proprium separates the Internal from therternal Man . . . . . . 18:of the Neighbour . . . 21t is a Full Measure? . . . . . . 28Lord Alone is Righteousness . . 24Kingdom of the Lord a Kingdom of Ends and

les . . 's Celestial Proprium .Imcision signifies Purity .Two Loves that obstruct the Influx of Heavenly.ve . . . . . . . . . . . . 84m or the Evils of Self-Love. . . . 85Difference of Sodom and Gomorrah . 87First State of the Reformed 87

xxxv

CONTENTSPAGI

The Nature and Quality of the Reformed 88Nothing appears to lIan as his Own but what is Volun-

tary . . . . . . . . . 89Filling the Wells of Abraham with Dust 40Esau and Jacob, or Natural Good and Spiritual Good

Contrasted . . . . . . 41Why the Regenerating Man first thinks the Good he

does is from Himself 4~All of Life is by Influx from Above or from Below 45That which was torn of Beasts . . 47Love towards the Neighbour receives the Life of

Heaven-Self-Love the Life of Hell. 61The Doctrine of Charity . . . 541Why the Water at Marah tasted bitter 57Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy is acting Dot from the

Proprium . . . . 59Pride and Proprium are the same. 61

t How our Proprium prompts the Making and Worshipof Graven Images . . 68

Why Hewn Stones were condemned . 65Evils and Falses are expelled only by little and little 68Why is the Lord called Zealous? ... 69The Proprium of Angels like that of Men 70The Heavenly Proprium and the Infernal Proprium. 71The Source and Quality of Children's Innocence 71The Different Centers of Self-Love and Spiritual Love 72Universality of a Divine Providence . . 74Of the Serpent that Seduced our First Parents 75How MaD may be elevated above his Proprium 76It is Every Man's Fault if he is Dot Saved , 76

THE PROPRIUM

THE PROPRIUM

TIlE ANTITHESIS 0)0 CRUlTY

EXODUS D. A. C. 8865. Every man has a propriUID,which he loves above all things; thia proprium is calledthe principle which has dominion, or which universallymlel with him: it is present in his thouRht, and also inhis will continually; and it constitutes his very essentiallife.

WB:&N TU DOKlNION OJ' TB:!: P1OPUU"K BEGAN

E. U. 174. The dominion of se!flove, which is oppositeto the dominion of neighbourly love, began when manalienated himself from the Lord; for in proportion uman does not love and worship the Lord, in the same pro-portion he loves and worships himselt, and in the sameproportion also he loves the world. Then it was, that,compelled by motives of self-preservation and securityfrom injustice, Dations, consisting of families andhouaea, cemented themselves into one body, and eata~

./

THE PROPRIUMlished governments under various forms; for in propor-tion as self-love increased, in the same proportion allkinds of evil, as enmity, envy, hatred, revenge, crueltyand deceit, increased with it, being exercised towards allwho opposed that love; because from man's selfhood,which has rule in those who are principled in self-love,nothing but evil springs, inasmuch as man's selfhood isnothing else but mere evil, &Dd of consequence is notreceptive of any good from heaven.

A. KAN'S PBOPBIUM: IS HELL

D. P. !tOO. WHENCE AND WHAT aelf-de";loed prudence u.It is from a man's proprium which is his nature, and iscalled his soul, derived from the parent. This propriumis the love of self and the love of the world thence de-rived, or the love of the world and the love of self thencederived. The love o( self is such, that it regards itselfonly, and looks upon others either as vile or of no ac-count; or if it respects any person or thing, it is only 80long as they honour and worship itself. Just like theefFort to fructify and propagate, which is contained ina seed, there lies concealed in the inmost of self-love adesire to become great, to be made 8r king if possible, andthen if possible to be deified. Such is a devil, because heis essentially the love of self, being such that he adoreshimself, and favours no one who does not also adorehim. He hates another devil like himself, because hewishes himself alone to be adored. As no love can existwithout its consort, and the consort of love or of the willin a man is called the understanding, therefore when thelove of self inspires its love into the understanding, its

4t

THE" PROPRIlT~1consort, it there becomes conceit, .. which is the conceit ofseIf-derived intelligence, from which seIf-derived pru-dence proceeds. Now, since the love of self desires to besole lord of the world, consequently a god, therefore theconcupiscenees of evil, which are derivations thence, havefrom it life in themselves, as have in like manner theperceptions of concupiscences, which are all sorts ofcraft and cunning; and as have also the delights of con-cupiscences which are evils, and their thoughts which arefaIses. All these are like servants and ministers of theirlord, and act at his command, not knowing that they donot act, but are acted upon, being acted upon by thelove of self through the conceit of self-derived intelli-gence. Hence it is that self-derived prudence, by virtueof its origin, lies concealed in every evil. The reason whyan acknowledgment of nature alone also lies concealedtherein, is, because self-love has clos~d as it were its upperwindow, or sky-light, by which there is an open com-munication with heaven, and the side windows also, lestit should see and hear that the Lord alone governs allthings, that nature in herself is void of life, that a man'sproprium is hell.

UNITY OF FAITH AND DOCTBDOI

GENESIS XI. 6. A. C. 1816. Behold, the people if MI6,aM 'leg MYJe aU Une Zip. These words signify thatthey all had one truth of faith, and one doctrine. Whereeach regards his own private good as his end, the Lordcannot possibly be present. This very thing, man'spropriwm, or what is purely his own, excludes and re-moves the Lord; for the man who regards this as his end

is

THE PROPRIUM

bends the general good of society, and that of the church,yea, and the kingdom of the Lord, towards himself, asthough they only existed for him: thus he takes awayfrom the Lord what is his, and substitutes himself in itsplace. When this is man's ruling principle, it commu-nicates its influence to all his thoughts, yea, to theminutest particulars of his thoughts; as is universallythe case with whatever has the supreme rule in the mind.But when the people is one, and the lip or language one,that is, when the general good of all is regarded as thechief end, then one never appropriates to himself thedelight of another, or destroys another's freedom, but,as far as he is able, promotes and increases them.

WHY MAN'S PROPRIUM DOES NOT LEAVE HIM: A BEAST

GENESIS VII. 2. A. C. 714. By every clean beast theafFections of good are signified, because man consideredin himself, and in his own propriwm, is nothing but abealt, having like senses, appetites, lusts, and also affec-tions in every respect. His good, yea even his highestloves are also very similar, as the love of associates of"his own species, and the love of his wife and children, sothat there is no real difFerence between them. The pecu-liar attribute of man, however, and that in which hissuperiority to the beasts consists, is his possession of aninterior life, which they neither have nor are capable ofhaving. This life is the life of faith and love from theLord; and were not this present in all those facultieswhich he enjoys in common with animals, he could neverbe superior to them. If, for example, his love towardshis associates existed only for the sake of himself, with-

6

THE PROPRIUMout being in1luenced by something more celestial anddivine, he could not thence be characterized as a man,since a similar love prevails among the beasts; whereforeunless the life of love from the Lord were present in hiswill, and that of faith from the Lord in his understand-ing, he could never, in the proper sense of the word, be-comeaman.

MAN'S EVILS SUBDUED, NOT BEKOVED BY B.EGENElLATION

GENESIS VIn. 18. A. C. 868. The drying up of thewater. frOfll, off the face' of the earth, signifies the ap-parent dissipation of falsities, as is manifest from thestate of man when regenerated. It is universally be-lieved in the present day that evils and falsities in manare entirely separated and abolished during regenera-tion, 80 that when he becomes regenerate, nothing of theevil or falsity remains, but that he is clean and right-eous, like one washed and purified with water. Thisnotion is, however, utterly erroneous; for not a singleevil or falsity ean be so shaken ofF as to be abolished; butwhatever has been hereditarily derived in infancy, oracquired by man's own act and deed, remains; so thatman, notwithstanding his being regenerate, is altogetherevil and false. The truth of this fact may appear suffi-ciently evident from the consideration, that there is noth-ing good and true in man except from the Lord, and thatall evil and falsity are from propriwm, hence that everyman, and every spirit, yea, and every angel, if left for asingle moment to himself, would rush spontaneously intohell; wherefore also it is said, in the Word, that thehea'DeRI are oot pure. This the angels acknowledge, and

'7

THE PROPRIUMwhosoever refuses to acknowledge it cannot dwell withthem, for it is the mercy of the Lord alone which deliversthem; yea, which draws and keeps them out of hell, lestthey should precipitate themselves thither of their ownaccord. The angels perceive manifestly that they arethus kept by the Lord from falling into hell, and it isalso evident in some degree to good spirits; but evil spir-its, like evil men, do not believe it, although it has beenoften proved to them experimentally. Since thereforethe state of man is such, that not a single evil or falsitycan be so entirely separated as to be completely abol-ished, because his proper life consists in the evil and thefalse, the Lord, out of his divine mercy, whilst regen-erating man, so overcomes his evils and falses by tempta-tions, that they appear as it were dead, although theyare not really so, being only subdued, to prevent theirresisting the goods and truths which are from the Lord.At the same time also, the Lord, by means of tempta-tions, confers on man a new faculty of receiving goodsand truths, by gifting him with ideas and afFections ofthe good and the true, to which evils and faIses may bebended or turned; and by insinuating into his generalknowledges, particulars, and into these, single truths,which had been stored up in him, and of which he is al-together ignorant, in consequence of their being interior.to the sphere of his capacity and perception. Thesetruths nevertheless are of such a nature that they serveas receptacles or vessels into which charity may be in-sinuated by the Lord, and by charity, innocence; and bytheir admirable arrangement in men, spirits, and angels,they may be made to represent a kind of rainbow, where-fore the rainbow became the sign of the covenant (chap.

8

THE PROPRIrllix. 11-16), of ..hich, by the diriDe merry of the Lord,we shall speak mort! puticuJarly in the explanation ofthat chapter. When man is thus formed, he is said to be regenerate, all his erils aDd falses still remaining, aswell as all his goods and truths. He who is eriI, experi-ences in another life a return of aD his eTiIs aDd falses,altogether 88 be ..as in them during the life of the body,and they are then turned into infernal phantasies andpunishments; but he ..ho is good enjoys the reproductionof all his states of goodness and troth, as friendship,charity, and innocence,..nth their delights and happinessimmensely increased and multiplied. This then is whatis signified by tile drying up of the flJtJter" which is theapparent dissipation of falsities.

TIlE LIPE 0 .. THE noPUUJI JB INYEIlNAL LIPE

GENESIB IX. t. A. C. 1000. The.end signifies life, asmight be proved by numerous citations from the Word.It is there used to denote life in general, as well what isinternal, or the life of the internal man, as what is ex-ternal, or the life of the external man. Now as it denotesall life, it necessarily signifies the life of the man ofwhom it is predicated, and it is here predicated of thelife of the regenerate man, which is distinct from that ofhis will; for, as was before observed, the new life whichthe regenerate spiritual man receives from the Lord isaltogether separate from his voluntary principle orpropriwm, or proper life, which is.not life, although it isso called, but is death, inasmuch as it is infernal life.Here, therefore, fleah with the 80ul thereof, 'Which they'Were not to eat, means fleah together with it, aoul, that is,

9

THE PROPRIUMthey were not to commingle this new life, which is of theLord, and the evil or excrementitious life, which is ofman-his voluntary principle or propriwm.

THE SHEDDER OF BLOOD SHALL HAVE HIS BLOOD SHED

GENESIS IX. 6. A. C. 1011. Shall hia blood be ,ked. Theliteral sense suggests the idea that the shedder of blood,or the murderer, should be punished with death; but theinternal sense, that he who bears hatred against hisneighbour is by that very hatred condemned to death, or,in other words, to hell, as the Lord also teaches in Mat-thew: "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool,shall be in danger of hell fire" (v. ~2). When charityis extinguished, man is left to himself and his propritwm,being no longer governed by the Lord by means of in-ternal bonds-which are of conscience-but by externalbonds, which are of human law, and which man framesfor himself that he may become rich and powerful. Whenthose bonds, therefore, become loosened-as in the otherworld-he plunges into every act of unleavened crueltyand obscenity, and consequently into his own condemna-tion. That the ,hedder of blood should have hi, blood,ked, is a law of retaliation with which the ancients werewell acquainted, and according to which they judgedcrimes and misdemeanors, as is demonstrable from manyparts of the Word. This law has its origin in theuniversal law, that no one should do to another what hewould not wish another to do to him (Matt. vii. 11);and also in this circumstance, that according to the gen-eral order which prevails in the other world, evil andfalsity punish themselves, so that in them is formed their

10

THE I'llOPll.ILlI

OWII pm-M 'b";~~ pemIBl~ iIIiio 'bat&Il51FeriDg to hii eril. 85 laeft. liig:nilied ~ ~ wonk.WJK.o .a.e.JcJptja blood, IIball~ D biaad .bed, th8t ..will faD h-dkmg int8 mpdpnmatian.

Luo: u.1L A.C-.s. .AM la ~.",;w tlaat ..i1ultlJl ". to ". ~ ftIeW iD t'" lii:aNe. "nIela.... of retwJjwtjrw gi1reD to the IKII of kmel, becauwsuch la....~ iD tiE spiritual ...or~ -riaeft be Tbodoes good to ..",.,. &am a.e heart.,~ similargood; IJml,e he W"hD does eril to aaotle- ram the heart,reeei.... IIimiIar enI; for good frmn the heart is LUljaiDedwith ibftfi~ IIIId enI frmn the heart is LUljaiDedwith its pmrislanrnt,~ the good inherit heaTeD, andthe evil helL That the fad: ... has hem giwD to mo.rfrom much~ WIth him, -.rho dots good fromthe heart, good Ion in OD all sides from heawm. into hisheart and I0Il1, and iaspires good; in which ease theaWectiOll or love for tile neighbour is augmented to himwho does good, aDd with that demon the delight, whichis celestial and ineffable; the ft&IOD of this is, because thegood of love from the Lord is ....hat reigns universally inheaven, and tows in continually according to the degreein which it is expressed to another. So with him whodoes evil to another from the heart, evil from hell flows inon all sides into his heart, and excites evil; in this casethe afFection of self-love is increased at the same timt'tand with it the delight of hatred and revenge; the re&8onof this is, because the evil of self-love is what reigns uni-versally in hell, and flows in continually according to the

11

THE PROPRIUMdegree in which it is expressed to another. The groundof these things is, because the laws of order in anotherlife are not learnt from books, and thence stored up inthe memory, as with men in the world, but are inscribedin the heart~ the laws of evil in the heart of the .evil, andthe laws of good in the heart of the good; for everyman carries along with him into the other life what hehad impressed on his heart by life in the world, viz., evilwith the evil, and good with the good. The law of orderfrom which these things How, is what the Lord taught inLuke vi. 81: "As ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them likewise." Order is from the DivineTruth which proceeds from the Lord; the laws of orderin heaven are truths derived from good, and truthsseparated from good, in hell; they are said to- be sepa-rated, not however by the Lord, but by man, good beingseparated by its non-reception.

CON8cmNCE AND THE INTELLECTUAL PROPRIDM:

GENESIS IX. 9. A. C. 1028. When the will of man hadbecome altogether corrupt, the Lord miraculously sep-arated his intellectual-proprium from his corrupt volWII-tarll-proprium, and in the former implanted a netIJ 'lIJill,which is conacience, into conscience insinuating charity,and into charity innocence, an\i thus conjoined himselfwith, or, what is the same thing, entered into covenantwith, man. So far as man's voluntary propriam is ca-pable of being separated from his intellectual-proprium"the Lord can be present with, conjoin himself, or enterinto covenant with, him. Temptations and similar meansof regeneration cause the voluntary-proprium of man to

1~

THE PROPRIUMbecome quiescent-as if it were annihilated and dead-and in proportion as this is effected, the Lord is enabledto operate by means of the cOfIIcieftce implanted in char-ity in man's mteUectfUJl-proprium: this then is what ishere called a covenant.

8854. He who loves wealth above all things, whetherit be money or other property, is continually occupied inhis mind as to the manner of procuring it ; the acquisitionof it causes his inmost joy, and the loss of it his inmostgrief, for his heart is in it. In like manner he who loveshimself above all things, has respect to himself in everything, thinks of himself, speaks of himself, acts for thesake of himself; for his life is a life of self.

IDENTITY OF BABEL AND PBOPBIUM:

GENESIS XI. 9. A. C. 182.6. Wherefore he called I'Mname thereof Babel. The kind and quality of the wor-ship signified by Babel, was inwardly full of self-love,consequently of every thing most filthy and profane.From self-love, or propriwm, flow all evils, as hatred,revenge, cruelty, adultery, deceit, hypocrisy, impiety;wherefore when self-love, or propriwm, is within man'sworship, those evils are within it also, but with a difFer-ence and degree as to measure and quality, proportionedto the influence of that love; hence comes all profanationof worship. In proportion to the measure of self-love orproprium that intrudes itself into man's worship, in-ternal worship recedes, or is annihilated. Internal wor-ship consists in the afFection of goodness and the ac-knowledgment of truth; but in proportion as self-love or

18

THE PROPRIUM

lished governments under various forms; for in propor-tion as self-love increased, in the same proportion allkinds of evil, as enmity, envy, hatred, revenge, crueltyand deceit, increased with it, being exercised towards allwho opposed that love; because from man's selfhood,which has rule in those who are principled in self-love,nothing but evil springs, inasmuch as man's selfhood isnothing else but mere evil, &Dd of consequence is notreceptive of any good from heaven.

A. KAN'S PBOPBIUM: IS HELL

D. P. !t06. WHENCE AND WHAT ,elf-derived prudence u.It is from a man's proprium which is his nature, and iscalled his soul, derived from the parent. This propriumis the love of self and the love of the world thence de-rived, or the love of the world and the love of self thencederived.- The love o( self is such, that it regards itselfonly, and looks upon others either as vile or of no ac-count; or if it respects any person or thing, it is only 80long as they honour and worship itself. Just like theefFort to fructify and propagate, which is contained ina seed, there lies concealed in the inmost of self-love adesire to become great, to be made Br king if possible, andthen if possible to be deified. Such is a devil, because heis essentially the love of self, being such that he adoreshimself, and favours no one who does not also adorehim. He hates another devil like himself, because hewishes himself alone to be adored. As no love can existwithout its consort, and the consort of love or of the willin a man is called the understanding, therefore when thelove of self inspires its love into the understanding, its

4t

THE PROPRIUM

consort, it there becomes conceit,.. which is the conceit ofself-derived intelligence, from which self-derived pru-dence proceeds. Now, since the love of self desires to besole lord of the world, consequently a god, therefore theconcupiscences of evil, which are derivations thence, havefrom it life in themselves, as have in like manner theperceptions of concupiscences, which are all sorts ofcraft and cunning; and as have also the delights of con-cupiscences which are evils, and their thoughts which arefalses. All these are like servants and ministers of theirlord, and act at his command, not knowing that they donot act, but are acted upon, being acted upon by thelove of self through the conceit of self-derived intelli-gence. Hence it is that self-derived prudence, by virtueof its origin, lies concealed in every evil. The reason whyan acknowledgment of nature alone also lies concealedtherein, is, because self-love has clos~d as it were its upperwindow, or sky-light, by which there is an open com-munication with heaven, and the side windows also, lestit should see and hear that the Lord alone governs allthings, that nature in herself is void of life, that a man'sproprium is hell.

UNITY OF FAITH AND DOCTBINB

GENESIS XI. 6. A. C. 1816. Behold, the people if one,aM 'leg MfJe aU one Zip. These words signify thatthey all had one truth of faith, and one doctrine. Whereeach regards his own private good as his end, the Lordcannot possibly be present. This very thing, man'sproprium, or what is purely his own, excludes and re-moves the Lord; for the man who regards this as his end

is

THE PROPRIUM

ANTAGONISM OF THE EXTEBNAL AND INTEBNAL KAN

GENESIS XnI. 6. A. C. 1568. AM the laM 'llJti'Uld ROtbear them to dweU together. There are in the externalman many things with which the internal man can abidein co~ection, as the affections of good, and the delightsand pleasures thence arising; for these are the effects ofthe principles ot good, belonging to the internal man,and of its delights and felicities; and when they are theeffects of such principles of good, they are in completecorrespondence with their origin; in which case they arethe products of the internal man, not of the external: foran effect, as is well known, is not the product of theeffect, but of the efficient cause. As, for example: thelove that beams from the countenance is not producedby the countenance, but by the love which is within, andwhich imparts its form to the countenance, and producesits effect. So innocence amongst little children, whichmanifests itself in their looks, their gestures, and theirplay with each other, is not produced by the countenance,or the gestures, but by innocence from the Lord, whichdescends, by influx through the soul, into those formsand actions; which, therefore, are its effect&. The sameis true in all other instances. Hence it appears, thatthere are many things appertaining to the external man,which can abide together, or agree, with the internal.But there are also several things which do not agree, orwith which the internal man cannot abide in connection.Such are all thing, which spring from ,elf-love and thelove of 'he world: for all things that flow from thosefountains have respect to self and the world as their ends

16

THE PROPRIUMand objects: with these, therefore, it is impossible thatthings celestial, which are such as relate to love to theLord, and neighbourly love, should agree; since theseregard the Lord, His kingdom, and all things relating toHim and His kingdom, as their ends and objects. Theends of self-love and the love of the world are directedoutwards or downwards; but the ends of love to the Lordand neighbourly love are directed inwards or upwards.From these considerations it may appear, that there issuch a disagreement between them, that it is impossiblefor them to abide together. To know what produces acorrespondence and agreement of the external man withthe internal, and what causes disagreement, let a persononly rellect upon the ruling ends of his life, or, what isthe same thing, upon his ruling loves; for a man's lovesare his ends, since whatever is loved is regarded as anend: it will thus appear what is the kind and quality ofhis life, and what it will be after death; for the life isformed by the ends which are regarded, or what is thesame thing, by the ruling loves. The life of every manis altogether constituted according to this law. Thethings appertaining to man which disagree with eternallife, that is, with spiritual and celestial life, which iseternal life, if they are not removed in the life of thebody, must be removed in the other life: and if theycannot be then removed, he must needs be unhappy toeternity. What has been now said is with a view to shew,that there are in the external man such things as agreewith the internal, and such as disagree, and that thosewhich agree cannot abide together with those that dis-agree; and further, that the things in the external manwhich agree, descend from the internal man, that is,

17

THE PROPRIUM

through the internal man from the L~rd; like a coun-tenance which beams with love, or the expression of lovein the countenance; or like innocence in the looks andgestures of little children; as was observed above: butthe things which disagree are of man and his propriwm.Hence it may be known what is signified by these words,"That the land would not bear them to dwell together."

HOW THE PROPRIUM SEPARATES THE INTERNAL FROMTHE EXTERNAL MAN

GENESIS XID. I!. A. C. 1594. And they were ,eparated,a man from his brother. What disunites the externalman from the internal, is unknown to man; the cause ofwhich ignorance is manifold. It is owing, partly, to hisnot knowing, or, if he be told it, to his not believing, thatthere is any internal man; and, partly, to his not know-ing, or, if he be told it, to his not believing, that self-loveand the lusts belonging to it are the things which dis-unite; as also the love of the world and its lusts; butthese not so much as self-love. The reason why man doesnot know, and, if he be told it, does not believe, thatthere is an internal man, is, because he lives in his corpo-real and sensual principles, which cannot possibly seewhat is of an interior nature. Interior things are cap-able of seeing what is exterior, byt exterior things arenot capable of seeing what is interior; as, in the case ofvision, the internal sight can see what the external sightdoes; but the external sight cannot at all see what theinternal sight does: or, what is a similar case, the intel-lectual and rational principle can perceive the nature

~nd quality of the scientific; but the sQentific principle18

THE PROPRIUMcannot perceive the nature and quality of the intelleetuaiand rational. A further reason why man does not knoW',and, if he be told it, does not believe, that there is aninternal man, is, because he does not believe that there isa spirit which is separated from the body at death, andscarcely that there is an intemallife which is called thesoul: for when the sensual and corporeal man thinks ofseparating the spirit from the body, it occurs to him asa thing impossible, by reason of his making all life toreside in the body; in which idea he confirms himself bythis, amongst other considerations, that brutes also livein the body, and yet do not live after death. Thisignorance and incredulity of the sensual and corporealman, are a consequence of his living merely in his sensualand corporeal principles; which life, considered in itself,is little else than the life of brute animals, only with thisdifference, that man has a capacity of thinking, and ofreasoning, notwithstanding his want of reflection on thisdistinguishing faculty. This cause, however, is not thatwhich chielly operates in disuniting the external manfrom the internal; for the greatest part of mankind areinfluenced by this incredulity, and the most learned morethan the simple; but what is principally effective of suchdisunion is self-love 88, also, the love of the world, thoughnot 80 much &8 the other. The reason why man is ignor-ant of this, is, because he lives unprincipled in charity;and, when this is the case, it cannot appear to him thatthe life of self-love and of its lusts is so contrary to ce-lestial love. There is also in self-love, and in its lusts, akind of inflammatory principle, with a delight thencederived, which so affects the life, that it almost appearsto the person under its influence as if eternal happiness

19

THE PROPRIUMitself consisted in it; accordingly, many make eternalhappiness to censist in becoming great after the life ofthe body, and in being served by others, even by angels;when yet they themselves are unwilling to serve any, ex-cept with a secret view to themselves that they may beserved. When they say that at that time they shall bewilling to serve the Lord alone, they say what is false:for they who cherish self-love would have even the LordHimself serve them; and in proportion as this is not done,they recede from their professions. Thus the desire oftheir hearts is, that they themselves may be lords, andgovern the universe. Hence may appear what is thenature and quality of self-love; as also from this con-sideration, that it conceals in its bosom hatred against allwho do not subj ect themselves to it as slaves: and as itcarries hatred in its bosom, so, consequently, does it in-clude all sorts of revenge, cruelty, deceit, and otherabominable dispositions. But mutual love, which aloneis celestial, consists in this; that whosoever is influencedby it, not only says, but also acknowledges and believes,that he is most unworthy, that he is somewhat vile andfilthy, and that the Lord, out of an infinite mercy, iscontinually drawing and keeping him out of hell, intowhich he is continually attempting, nay, desiring, toplunge himself. The ground of such his acknowledg-ment and belief is, because it is the truth; not that theLord, or any angel, desires such acknowledgment and be-lief from anyone, with a view to receive homage by hisabasement, but to prevent his being puffed up withpride, when in reality he has 80 little to be proud of. Inproportion, therefore, as man acknowledges and believeshis nature and quality to be such as it really is, he re-

_0

THE PROPRIUM

cedes from self-love and its lusts, and regards self withabhorrence; and so far as this is the case with him, hereceives from the Lord heavenly love, that is mutual love,which consists in a desire to serve all others. These arethey who are understood by the least, who become great-est in the kingdom of God (Matt. xx. !6, !7, !8; Lukeix. 46; 47, 48). Hence it may appear, that what prin-cipally disjoins the external man froIn the internal, ipself-love; and that mutual love is what principally tendsto unite them; which latter cannot exist before self-loverecedes: for they are altogether contrary to each other.

LOVE OF THE NEIGHBOUB.

LUKE x. !7. T. C. R. 411. Thou ,halt love the Lordthy God above aU thmg', a'llil thy neighbour aB thy,eZf.To love our neighbour as ourselves is, not to despise himin comparison with ourselves, but to deal justly with himand not to judge of him unjustly. The law of charityenacted and given by Ule Lord Himself is this, "As yewould that men should do unto you, do ye even so tothem likewise." Tltey, who are in the love of heaven,love their neighbour according to this law; but they, whoare in the love Qf the world, love their neighbour fromthe world, and for the sake of the world; and they, whoare in the love of self, love their neighbour from self, andfor the sake of self.

LOVE OF THE NEIGHBOUR (conIinwd)

LUKE x. 87. A. E. 629. By the words "Judge not andye shall not be judged," &te., is described charity towards

_1

THE PROPRIUMthe neighbour, or the spiritual affection of troth andgood, viz., so far as anyone is in that charity or thataffection in the world, so far he comes into it afterdeath; that he ought not to think ill concerning goodand concerning truth, is meant by the words, "judge notand ye shall not be judged, condemn not and ye shall notbe condemned"; it is allowed everyone to think ill oon-cerning what is evil and false, but not concerning what isgood and troe for good and troth, in the spiritual sense,are man's neighbour; inasmuch as charity towards theneighbour is what is understood, therefore it is also said,-"Forgive and ye shall be forgiven, give and it shall begiven unto you"; that the spiritual affection, which iscalled charity, is to remain after death, according to itsquantity and quality, is meant by the words, ''With whatmeasure ye mete it shall be measured to you again"; andthat the quantity and quality shall be filled to eternity, i~meant by "Good measure being given, pressed down,shaken together, and running over," denoting the qualityand quantity of charity, which will be increased to eter-nity within or according to the degree thereof attainedin the world. That no other thought, nor other judg-ment is meant, than concerning the spiritual life of an-other, may be manifest from this consideration, that itis allowed to everyone to think concerning the moral andcivillife of another, and likewise to judge concerning it,since without such judgment and thought concerningothers, it would be impossible for any civil society to sub-sist; wherefore by not "judging and condemning" issignified, to not think ill concerning a neighbour spiri-tually understood, viz., concerning his faith and love,which are of man's spiritual life, for those things lie con-

--

THE PROPRIUMcealed in his interiors, and hence are not known to anyone but to the Lord alone.

WHAT 18 A FULL MEASURE?

Lu:o x. 88. A. C. 7984. Give, and it ,hall be pm toyou, good, meaaure, &c. It may be expedient to say whatis meant by a full state; every one who is either con-demned or saved, has a certain measure, which is capableof being filled; the wicked, or they who are condemnoo,have a certain measure of wha1! is evil and false; and thegood, or they who are saved, have a certain measure ofwhat is good and true; this measure appertaining toevery one, is tilled in the other life; but with some themeasure is greater, with others less; this measure is pro-cured in the world by affections which are of the love, forthe more that anyone had loved what is evil, and what isfalse, as thence derived, so much the greater measure hehas procured to himself; and the more anyone hadloved what is good, and the truth thence derived, so muchthe greater measure pertains to him; the limits and de-grees of the extension of that measure manifestly appearin the other life, and cannot there be transcended, butmay be 6lled, and likewise actually are tilled, viz., filledwith goods and truths, with those who have been in theaffection of what is good and true, and with evils andfalses with those who have been in the affection of whatis evil and false; hence it is evident that the measure isthe faculty, procured in thE! world, of receiving eitherwhat is evil and false or what is good and true; this stateis what is meant by a full state. That the measure ofevery one is ftlled, the Lord also teaches in Luke, "Give,

18

THE PROPRIUMand it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down,shaken together, and running over, shall tbey give intoyour bosom." From these considerations it is now evi-dent what is meant by a full state.

THE LORD ALONE IS B.IGHTEOUSNESS

GENESIS xv. 6, 7. A. C. 1818. AM he imputed it tohim for righteoume". That the Lord alone was maderighteousness for the whole human race, may appearfrom this circumstance, that he alone engaged in spiri-tual combats from a principle of divine love, that is, oflove towards the whole human race, whose salvation wasthe single object which he desired in his combats, and'with ardour for which he was inllamed. The Lord wasnot born righteousness as to his Human Essence, butwas made righteousness by temptation-combats and vic-tories, and this by his own proper power. As often as hefought and conquered, it was imputed to him for right-eousness; that is, what he thus acquired was added tothe righteousness which he was being made, as a con-tinual increase, until he became pure righteousness. Aman who derives his birth from a human father, when heengages in spiritual conllict from himself, cannot pos-sibly combat from any other love than that of self andthe world, consequently not from heavenly but infernallove; such being the nature and quality of his propriumderived from his father, together with the propriwm re-quired by acts of his own: wherefore whosoever thinksto fight against the devil from himself, or from anypower of his own, is greatly deceived; in like manner,whosoever would make himself righteous by his own

1!4

THE PROPRIUMpowers, that is, whd should believe that the good thingsof charity and the truths of faith are from himself, con-sequently who should think to merit heaven thereby, inso doing acts and thinks contrary to the good and truthof faith; for the truth of faith, that is, the truth itself,is, that it is the Lord who tights for man: as, therefore,in such case he acts and thinks contrary to the truth offaith, hE! robs the Lord of what is his, and takes to him-self what is the Lord's, or, what is the same thing, hesubstitutes himself in the Lord's place, consequently heestablishes in himself that which is infernal. Hence it isthat such wish to be great or greatest in the kingdom ofheaven: they alsa falsely believe that the Lord foughtagainst the hells with a view to become greatest. Suchare the phantasies which attend man's proprium, andwhich appear as if they were truths, when neverthelessthey are directly the rontrary That the Lord came intothe world that he might become righteousness, and thathe alone is righteousness, was foretold by the prophets,consequently this might have been known before his com-ing: it was also foretold that he could not become right-eousness otherwise than by temptations, and victoriesover all evils, and aver all the hells; as in Jeremiah: "Inhis days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwellsafely: thi, is his naqne whereby he shall be caZled,J ehofJah our righteousness" (xxiii. 6). Again, in thesame prophet, "In those days, and at that time, I willcause the branch of righteousness to grow up untoDavid; and he shall execute judgment and righteoumessin the land. In those days Judah shall be saved, andJerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name where-rDith he 'halZ be called, J ehovah our righteoume,,'

!5

THE PROPRIUM(xxxiii. 15, 16). So in Isaiah, "He saw that there wasno man, and wondered that there was no intercessor;therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and hilrighteo'lJJ8'ness sustained him. For he put on righteo'IU-ness as a breast-plate, and & helmet of salvation upon hishead" (lix. 16; see also Isaiah hiii. 8, 5); his armsignifies his own proper power. Since the Lord alone isrighteousness, he is also called the habitation of right-eousness (Jerem. xxxi. i8; i. 7).

THE KINGDOM OF THE LORD A KINGDOM: OF ENDSAND USES

LUKE x. 87. A. C. 8796. Judge not, and ye shall notbe judged. The genuine affections of truth and good,which are perceived by man, are all from a Divine origin,because from the Lord, but in the way, as they descend,they go off into various diverse channels, and there formto themselves new origins, for as they How in intp affec-tions not genuine, into spurious affections, and into theaffections of what is evil and false pertaining to man,they are thus varied. They often present themselves inthe external form like genuine affections, but still in theinternal form they are of such a varied quality. Theonly mark by which to know them is from the end re-garded; for if this end be for the sake of self or theworld, in this case those affections are not genuine; butif it be for the sake of the good of the neighbour, thegood of societies, the good of a man's country, and espe-cially, if the end be for the good of the church, and thegood of the Lord's kingdom, they are genuine; for thenthey are for the sake of the Lord, inasmuch as the Lord

16

THE PROPRIUMis in those goods; nevertheless it is the part of a wiseman to discover the ends regarded in himself, since itsometimes appears as if they are for the sake of himself,when yet they are not, inasmuch as man is of such Equality that in every particular thing he reflects uponhimself, and this from custom and habit; but if anyoneis desirous to know the ends regarded by himself, let himonly attend to the delight which he perceives in himselffrom praise and self-glory, and to the delight which heperceives from we separate fl-om himself; if he per-ceives this latter delightful, he is then in genuine affec-tion; he ought also to attend to the various states inwhich he is,.for states themselves for the most part varyperception. Man is able to explore these things in him-self, but he cannot explore them in others, for the endsof the affection of anyone are known to the Lord alone;}lence it is that the Lord said, "Judge not, and ye shallnot be judged, condemn not, and ye shall not be con-demned"; for a thousand persons may appear in similaraffection as to truth and good, and yet everyone is indissimilar as to origin, that is, the end regarded; thatthe end regarded determines the quality of affection,whether it be genuine, or spurious, or false, is from thisground, because the end regarded is the very essential lifeof man, for man regards as an end what is of his life, or,what is the same thing, that which is of his love; whenthe good of his neighbour, the general good, the good ofthe Lord's church and kingdom, is the end regarded, insuch case man, as to his soul, is in the kingdom of theLord;thus with the Lord, for the kingdom of the Lordis nothing but a kingdom of ends and of uses for thesake of the good of the human race; the angels them-

17

THE PROPRIUMselves, who are attendant on man, are in those his endsalone; in proportion as man is in such an end as prevailsin the Lord's kingdom, so far the angels are delightedwith him alld conjoin themselves to him as a brother; butso far as man is in an end which regards himself, so farthe angels recede, and so far evil spirits from hell ac-cede, for in hell no other end has rule; from these con-siderations it may be manifest of what concern it is toexplore and know from what origin affections are, whichcannot be known from any other source than from theend regarded.

MAN'S CELESTIAL PROPB.IUM

GENESIS XVI. 9, 10. A. C. 1987. Humble th!J.elf 'U/fl,derher hand.. To humble one's self is expressed in theoriginal tongue by a word which signifies to afflict; andfor a person to afBict himself means, in the internal sense,to compel himself, as may appear from very many pas-sages in the Word; concerning which its significationmore will be said elsewhere. That man ought to compelhimself to do good, to obey the things which the Lordhas commanded, and to speak truths, which is to humblehimself beneath the Lord's hands, or to submit him-self under the power of Divine Good and Truth, im-plies and involves more arcans than it is possible to un-fold in a few words. There are certain spirits who hadlaid it down as a principle, during their abode in theworld, that because they heard that all good was fromthe Lord, and that Ilian could do no good of himself,therefore they should not compel themselves to do anJthing, but should cease from their own exertions, under

i8

THE PROPRIUM

the supposition that all endeavour must therefore bevain; wherefore they waited for an immediate influx tomove their will, and did not compel themselves to do anysort of good; yea, so far did they carry this principle,that when any evil insinuated itself, they gave themselvesup to it, imagining it to be permitted, because they werenot sensible of any resistance to it from within: but theses:oirits are such, that they are as it were without anything of their own, or any proprium, so as to have noprinciple of determination, in consequence of which theyare amongst the unprofitable; for they suffer themselvesto be led alike by the wicked and by the good, and enduremuch from the wicked. But such as have compelledthemselves in opposing evil and falsity, although at firstthey thoughtthat their exertion was from themselves, orfrom their own power, yet being afterwards enlightenedto see that it was from the Lord, even as to the smallestmotions towards it,-these cannot, in the other life, beseduc'ed by evil spirits, but are "amongst the happy.Hence it may appear, that man ought to force himselfto do good, and to speak truth. The arcanum hereinconcealed is this: that man is hereby gifted of the Lordwith a celestial proprium. Man's celestial propri'Ulm is

. formed in the effort or tendency of his thought; and ifhe does not obtain it by compelling hinruJelf, 8S it ap-pears, he never will obtain it by not compelling himself.For the better understanding of how this is, it may beexpedient to observe, that in all self-compulsion to goodthere is a certain freedom, which is not so plainly per-ceivable during the act of compulsion, b~t still it is with-in. Thus, in the case of a person who willingly subjectshimself to the hazard of losing life with a view to some

19

THE PROPRIUMend, or who willingly undergoes a painful operation forthe recovery of his health, there is a principle of willing-ness, and consequently of liberty, in so doing, by virtuewhereof he acts, although the hazards and the pains,whilst he is in them, take away the perception of suchwillingness or freedom. The case is the same with thosewho compel themselves to good: there is within a prin-ciple of willingness, consequently of freedom, by virtueof which, and for the sake of which, they compel them-selves, viz., there is the motive of obedience to thosethings which the Lord has commanded, and the motiveof obtaining the salvation of their souls after death; inwhich there is a more inward motive still, though the manis ignorant of it, viz., that' of regard to the Lord's king-dom, yea, to the Lord himself. This is more especiallythe case in temptations, in which, whilst man compelshimself to resist the evil and the falsity, which are in-fused and suggested by wicked spirits, there is m~re offreedom than ever exists in any state out of temptations,although man cannot conceive it at the time: it is sn in-terior freedom, by virtue whereof he is desirous to subduethe evil; and this desire is so strong as to be equivalentto the force and strength of the evil which assaults him;otherwise he would never engage in the combat. Thisfreedom is from the Lord, who insinuates it into theman's conscience, and thereby causes him to conquer theevil as if by his own power, or from a propriwm of hisown. By this freedom man receives a proprium on whichthe Lord can operate good. Without a propri'lJlTTl" orsomething of his own acquired, that is, given by free-dom, no man can be reformed, because he cannot receivea new will, which is conscience. Freedom thus conferred

80

THE PROPRIUM

is the very plane into which the influx of good and truthfrom the Lord descends. Hence it is that they who do notresist in tempt~tions from such a principle of willing-ness, or freedom, fall therein. The life of man consistsin freedom, because this is his love; for whatever a mandoes from a principle of love appears to him to be free;but in the freedom above spoken of, when man compelshimself to resist evil and falsity, and to do good, thereis heavenly love, which the Lord at that time insinuates,and by which he creates his proprium: wherefore theLord wills that that proprium should appear to man ashis, although it is not his. This proprium, which manthus receives by an apparent compulsion in the life of thebody, is filled by the Lord in the other life with indefinitedelights and felicities. They, also, who receive this pro-prium are by degrees enlightened, yea, are confirmed inthis truth; that they have not compelled themselves, inthe least instance, from themselves, but that all themotions of their will therein, even the most minute werefrom the Lord, and that the reason why the compulsionappeared to be from themselves, was, that they might begifted of the Lord with a new will-principle as their own,and that thus the life of heavenly love might be appro-priated to them. For the Lord is willing to communicateto everyone what is his, consequently, to communicate acelestial principle, so as for it to appear to man as hisown, and as in him, although it is not his. The angelsare in such a proprium: and in proportion as they areprincipled in this truth, that all good and truth is fromthe Lord, they are in the delight and happiness of thatpropri'lJ/TTt. But they who despise and rej ect all that isgood and true, and who are unwilling to believe any

81

THE PROPRIUMthing which is repugnant to their lusts and reasonings,cannot compel themselves, consequently, they cannot re-ceive this proprium of conscience, or new will-principle.From what has here been offered it appears also, thatthere is a difference between a man's compelling himself,and his being compelled: for no good can possibly comefrom being compelled, as when one man is compelled byanother to do good: but for a man to compel himaelf isto act from a certain free-principle unknown to himself:for nothing that is compulsive comes from the Lord.Hence it is a universal law, that all good and truthshould be inseminated in freedom, otherwise the groundis not at all recipient and nutritive of good; nay, thereis not any ground in which the seed can possibly grow.

cmCUMCISION SIGNIFIES PURITY

GENESIS XVll. A. C. ~089. Every male among youshall be circumcised. That this sigqifies purity, appearsfrom the representation and consequent significationof circumcising, in the internal sense. Circumcision, orthe cutting off of the foreskin, signified nothing else butthe removing and wiping away of those things whichobstructed and defiled heavenly love, which are the evilsoriginating in lusts, particularly in the lusts of self-love,and the falsities thence derived. The reason of thissignification is, because the genitals of both sexes rep-resent heavenly love. There are three kinds of lovewhich constitute the celestial things of the Lord's king-dom, viz., conjugial love, love towards infants, and thelove of society, or mutual love. Of all these conjugiallove is the principal; for it has for its end the greatest

8~

THE PROPRIUMuse, viz., the propagation of the human race, and therebyof the Lor