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Temptations A series of extracts compiled by Bazil Lazer from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg on the nature, cause and purpose of spiritual temptations CONTENTS
Introduction
"Regeneration takes place in order for the previous life of the person to die away and for a new life that is heavenly to come in. You can assume from this that there certainly will be a struggle, for the former person resists and does not want to die out, while the life of the new person can enter only where the old life has expired. Clearly there is a struggle on both sides, and a fierce one because it is a struggle for life" Emanuel Swedenborg
"Temptations" compiled by Bazil Lazer from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg New Translation of Latin quotations and revision of Basil Lazer's remarks by David F Gladish For Basil Lazer Trust The New Church Originally printed in Australia by Nadley Press • 68 Oak Road Kirrawee NSW 2232 ISBN 0 646 29546 2
Layout design and linocuts by Donna Heldon © 2009
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There is an ebb
and flow after temptation, because the person does not know what the
truth is. But as this gradually ends, the light of truth comes through.
The reason for this is that so long as someone is in that state, the
innermost plane cannot affect the outermost. On this deeper plane of a
person are imprints, which are affections for goodness and the truth. On
the outer level are greedy desires and the false ideas they produce. So
long as these surface qualities are not tamed and quenched, there is not
a clear path for the good traits and truths to come from within, i.e.
through the inner person from the Lord.
Temptations, therefore, serve to tame the outer person and make it
comply with the inner.
Anyone can appreciate this from the fact
that
as soon as things that someone loves are attacked and broken, as during
misfortunes, illness, and depression, his selfish wishes begin to
subside, and as they do, he begins to speak with piety. As soon as he
returns to his former state, however, his outer being rules, and he
hardly thinks of pious things. It is the same at the time of death, when
outer concerns begin to fade away. This should show what the inner person and the
outward person are, and what imprints are, and also how selfish desires
and self-indulgence prevent the Lord from being able to act through the
inner life of a person. Also from this it is clear to everyone what
temptations accomplish—those inner pangs called the remorse of
conscience—namely that the outer person complies with the inner.
Obedience of the outer person to the inner is nothing other than that
responses to goodness and truth are not interfered with, resisted, and
smothered by selfish wishes and the false ideas that they engender. Truth governs in a state of temptation. For everyone who is in temptation, a truth that guides and governs the thoughts flows in from the Lord. It helps them up whenever they sink into doubts and despair. This governing truth is truth such as they have been taught from the Word and from doctrine and have accepted as their belief. They do recall other truths at that time, but those do not govern their inner being. Sometimes the truth that governs does not emerge noticeably to the intellect but lies low in the background and governs nonetheless. For the Lord's Divinity flows into it and thus keeps the inner plane of the mind focused on it, and so when it comes to ______________________________________________________ no one is led into any spiritual temptation before he has reached adulthood ______________________________________________________ light, the person who is under temptation receives
consolation and is buoyed up. It is not this truth exactly, but an affection for it
through which the Lord guides people who are in temptation, for Divinity
influences only qualities related to affection. The
truth that is planted and rooted in people's inner life is planted and
rooted through affection and not at all without affection. This truth,
planted and rooted in through affection, is there to stay.
It is
recalled by affection, and
when it is, the affection related to this truth emerges. This affection
is the person's reciprocal affection. Since this is the situation for a person in
temptation, no one is led into any spiritual temptation before he has
reached adulthood and in the process has acquired some truth that he can
be governed by. Otherwise he would succumb, and then his condition
afterwards would be worse than before. These observations should show the meaning of truth
governing in a state of temptation, which is the meaning of "the keeper
of the prison" (Gen. 39:22). Temptations in people are spiritual struggles between
bad spirits and good ones. The struggles are caused by, and are about,
things a person has done and thought of which are in his memory. The bad
spirits accuse and assault, but the good exonerate and defend. These
struggles seem to be inside the person, for things that flow into people
from the spiritual world come out as if they were not from there but in
the people themselves. Temptations are the same way when spirits undergo
them, so when spirits are going to enter temptations, the Lord arranges
their inner being, i.e., their truths and their good qualities, in such
a way that false notions and evil motives from hell can be resisted
through His direct influence, and through His indirect influence via
heaven. People in temptation can be protected in this way. When someone is being tempted, he is near
hell—especially the hell that the Red Sea stands for, because people who
knew about the truth but lived an evil life, and who adopted false
concepts due to the evil, are in that hell. The things that bring people
anxiety during temptations flow in from the hells, through spirits.
These observations explain the meaning of
temptations flowing in from hell, which is represented by camping near
the "Let us alone to serve the Egyptians" (Exodus. 14:12)
means not wanting to be kept from giving in. Serving the Egyptians is
giving in to those who infest through false ideas. "Let us alone," when
said on account of the influence of Divine Truth during infestations and
temptations, means not to hinder and not to restrain. This is because
two forces or powers act in these states, one that comes from false
ideas from the hells induced into the outer person, and the other from
truths supplied by the Lord in the inner person. These two forces are
mutually opposed. The false concepts induced from the hells take their
force and power from self-interest and materialism in the outward part
of the person, but the truths supplied by the Lord take their force and
power from one's love for other people and for the Lord. When someone wins, this inner force and power always prevails, because it is Divine and does not let the force and power from false notions build up to more than can be ______________________________________________________ after each spiritual temptation come enlightenment, tender feelings, well-being and happiness ______________________________________________________ repelled. When these two forces act, the inner force, from the Lord, keeps pulling the person out of it, so to speak, and holding him back to keep the falsities from dragging him down so that he might fall. For when two forces meet in opposition, one generally advances, and the other withdraws. Forces in the spiritual world are the affections associated with what one loves. The tools they work with are truths, and in the opposite sense, false concepts. [Arcana Coelestia 8168] ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________ A state of temptation is turbulent but the state following temptation is peaceful. (linocut by Donna Heldon © 2009) After each spiritual temptation
come enlightenment, tender feelings, well-being, and
happiness—well-being from the enlightenment by truth, and happiness
from positive feelings about goodness. Consolation follows temptation.
The reason is that temptations implant and unite truths and good
patterns of life so that as to his spirit the person is brought farther
into heaven and into heavenly communities he had not been in before.
When the temptation is over, communication with heaven, which had been
partly closed before, is opened. This is where the enlightenment, good
feelings, well-being, and happiness come from, for angels with whom the
person is now in touch pour in through the truth and the good. The twelve springs at Elim
(Exodus. 15:27) stand for enlightenment by truth and the well-being from
it, for springs stand for truths. The seventy palm trees stand for
positive feelings toward the truth that comes from goodness, and a
resultant happiness. All organisation of truths is done
by the good effects of love, because it is under the influence of
goodness and according to it that truths fit together and, with
goodness, form a body, so to speak, in the image of the person they are
in. For the image of a person's spirit, which is indeed the person
because it is the inner person, precisely corresponds to the
organisation of the truths that spring from the goodness in him. This is
why an angelic sphere of the goodness of love pours out and affects
people when angels are brought near them, and true beliefs shine in
their faces. Things like this are seen very noticeably in the spiritual
world. This organising comes about after
temptation because temptation sows the goodness and truths in people,
but only later are these organised. A state of temptation is turbulent,
but the state following temptation is peaceful. Organisation comes about
in quiet. And this is also why a happy feeling follows temptation, due
to enlightenment by truth, and the joy of responding to goodness. Good loves and true beliefs do not become part of a person during temptations, but after them, because when temptations are going on, evils and evil's misconceptions are stirred up on the one side, and on the other the goodness in the person, and the truths of the goodness. His state is troubled. In this state his inner dimensions open up. But after temptations he quiets down, and in this state the Lord brings goodness and the truths of goodness into his opened inner life. This clarifies what is meant by good loves and true beliefs not becoming part of a person while temptations are going on. [Arcana Coelestia 10686]
Read the next [8th] chapter "The use or purpose of temptation"
Or go
to the previous [6th] chapter
"Evil from Hell Good from
Heaven"
[1] Where temptations come from
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