Heavenly Doctrine (Tafel) n. 51

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51. The Sciences and Knowledges through which the internal spiritual Man is opened. Those things are called scientifics which are in the external or natural man and in its memory, but not those which are in the internal or spiritual man, nos. 3019, 3020, 3293, 3309, 4967, 9918, 9922. Because scientifics belong to the external or natural man, they are respectively things of service, because the external or natural man was made to serve the internal or spiritual man, just as the world was made to serve heaven, nos. 5077, 5125, 5128, 5786, 5947, 10272, 10471. The external man is respectively a world, because the laws of the Divine order which are in the world, are inscribed upon it, and the internal man is respectively a heaven, because the laws of the Divine order which is in heaven, are inscribed upon it, nos. 4523, 5424, 5368, 6013, 6057, 9278, 9279, 9283, 9706, 10156, 10472; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, nos. 51 to 58. There are scientifics which concern natural things; there are such as relate to the civil state and life, and again there are such as relate to the moral state and life, and such as relate to the spiritual state and life, nos. 5774, 5934. But for distinction those which relate to the spiritual state and life, and which are chiefly doctrinals, are called knowledges, no. 9945. A man ought to become imbued with sciences and knowledges, because through them he learns how to think; afterwards how to understand what is true and good, and at length how to be wise; that is how to live according to what is true and good, nos. 129, 1450, 1451, 1453, 1548, 1802. Scientifics and knowledges are the first things, on which a man's civil, moral, and spiritual life are built and founded; but they ought to be learned for the sake of the use of life as an end, nos. 1489, 3310. Knowledges open the way to the internal man, and afterwards conjoin the internal with the external man according to uses, nos. 1563, 1616. The Rational is born through sciences and knowledges, nos. 1895, 1900, 3086. Still, not through the sciences and knowledges themselves, but through the affection of uses from them, and according to such affection, no. 1895. The internal man is opened and successively perfected through sciences and knowledges, if the man has for an end some good use; particularly the use which has respect to eternal life, no. 3086. In this case, the spiritual things from the celestial and spiritual man, go to meet the scientifics and knowledges which are in the natural man, and adopt those that agree, no. 1495. The uses of a heavenly life are then extracted, eliminated, and elevated by the Lord, through the internal man, from the scientifics and knowledges which are in the natural man, nos. 1895, 1896, 1900-1902, 5871, 5874, 5901. And the scientifics which do not agree, and which are inimical, are rejected to the sides and exterminated, nos. 5871, 5886, 5889. The sight of the internal man calls forth from the scientifics and knowledges of the external man, only such as belong to its love, no. 9394. Scientifics and knowledges are arranged in bundles, and conjoined according to the loves by which they have been introduced, no. 5881. The things belonging to the love are then in the middle and in clearness, under the sight of the internal man, but those which do not belong to the love are at the sides and in obscurity, nos. 6068, 6084. Scientifics and knowledges with a man are successively implanted in his loves, and dwell in them, no. 6325. A man would be born into every science, and into intelligence from it, if he were born into the love of the Lord, and into love towards the neighbour but since he is born into the love of self and the world, he is therefore born into [a state of] entire ignorance, nos. 6323, 6325. Knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom are the sons of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, nos. 1226, 2049, 2116. Since scientifics and knowledges belong to the external or natural man, they are in the light of the world; but the truths, which have become matters of love and faith, and have thus obtained life, are in the light of heaven, no. 5212. Still, the truths which have thus obtained life, are comprehended by a man by means of natural ideas, no. 5510. Spiritual influx takes place through the internal man into the scientifics and knowledges which are in the external man, nos. 1904, 8005. Scientifics and knowledges are receptacles, and as it were vessels, of the truth and good belonging to the internal man, nos. 1469, 1496, 3068, 5489, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077, 7770, 9922. Vessels in the Word, therefore, signify, in the spiritual sense, scientifics and knowledges, nos. 3068, 3069, 3079, 9394, 9544, 9723, 9724. Scientifics are a kind of mirrors, in which the truths and goods of the internal man appear, and are perceived, as in an image, no. 5201; they are together in them, as in their ultimate, nos. 5373, 5874, 5886, 5901, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077. Because scientifics are in the light of the world, they are confused and obscure when compared with the things which are in the light of heaven; consequently, so also are the things which are in the external man, when compared with those which are in the internal man, no. 2831. Therefore, what is intertwined or confused, signifies in the Word the Scientific, no. 2831; likewise by the obscurity of a cloud, nos. 8443, 10551. The starting-point ought to be made from truths of doctrine which are from the Word, and they ought first to be acknowledged; it is permitted afterwards to consult scientifics in order to confirm these truths, which are corroborated in this manner, no. 6047. Those who are in an affirmative principle in respect to the truths of faith, are therefore permitted to confirm these truths intellectually by means of scientifics, but not those who are in a negative principle; for the affirmation which precedes inclines all things in favour of its own side, while the negation which precedes inclines them to its side, nos. 2568, 2588, 3913, 4760, 6047. There is an affirmative principle of doubt, and a negative principle of doubt; the former is with some who are good, and the latter with the evil, no. 2568. Entering into scientifics from the truths of faith, is agreeable to order; but, conversely, entering into the truths of faith from scientifics, is contrary to order, no. 10236. For influx is spiritual, and not physical, that is, natural; and, therefore, it takes place from the truths of faith because they are spiritual, into scientifics because they are natural, nos. 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5779, 6322, 9109, 9110. Whoever is in a principle of negative doubt, which in itself is negative, and who says that he will not believe until he is persuaded through scientifics, will never believe, nos. 2094, 2832. Those who do so, become insane as to the things which belong to the Church and Heaven, nos. 128-130. They lapse into falsities of evils, no. 232, 233, 6047. And in the other life, when thinking about spiritual things, they are like drunken persons, no. 1072. A further description of their quality, no. 196. Instances to illustrate that spiritual things cannot be comprehended, if you enter into them in an inverted order, nos. 233, 2094, 2196, 2203, 2209. Many of the learned are more insane in spiritual things, than the simple-minded, because they are in a negative principle, and are furnished in abundance with scientifics by which they confirm the negative [state], no. 4760. An instance of an educated person, who was unable to understand anything concerning the spiritual life, no. 8629. Those who reason from scientifics in opposition to the truths of faith, reason sharply, because [they do so] from the fallacies of the senses, which are captivating and persuasive; for they can be shaken off only with difficulty, no. 5700. Those who do not understand anything of truth, and they also who are in evil, are able to reason concerning the truths and goods of faith, and yet they are not able to be in any enlightenment, no. 4214. The mere confirmation of a dogma is not the part of an intelligent man, because a falsity can be confirmed as easily as a truth, nos. 1017, 2482, 2490, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780. Those who reason concerning the truths of the Church, whether a thing be so or not, are totally in the dark with respect to truths, and are not yet in spiritual light, nos. 215, 1385, 3033, 3428. There are scientifics which admit Divine truths, and others that do not, no. 5213. Useless scientifics ought to be destroyed, nos. 1489, 1492, 1499, 1500. Those scientifics are useless which regard as their end, and confirm, the loves of self and the world, and which withdraw [the mind] from love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour; because such scientifics shut up the internal man, so that the man is afterwards unable to receive anything from heaven, nos. 1563, 1600. Scientifics are means for becoming wise, and means for becoming insane; and through them the internal man may either be opened or shut; and thus the Rational may either be cultivated or destroyed, nos. 4156, 8628, 9922. After death the sciences are of no account, but only what a man through the sciences has imbibed into his understanding and life, no. 2480. Still all scientifics remain after death, but they are quiescent, nos. 2476-2479, 2481-2486. The same scientifics which are false with the wicked because they are applied to evils, are true with the good because they are applied to goods, no. 6917. Scientific truths are not truths with the evil, however they may appear like truths while they pronounce them for interiorly there is evil in them, and from it they are falsified; science with the evil does not even deserve to be called science, because it is without life, no. 10331. Being wise is one thing, understanding another, being acquainted with a thing is a further, and doing is another still; nevertheless with those who lead a spiritual life, they follow in order and correspond, and in the doing or the works they are together simultaneously, no. 10331. It is also one thing to know, another to acknowledge, and still another to have faith, no. 896. An instance of the quality of the desire of knowing with spirits, no. 1973. The angels have an immeasurable desire of knowing and of becoming wise, because knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, are spiritual food, nos. 3114, 4459, 4792, 4976, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582; 5588, 5655, 6277, 8562, 9003. The chief science with the ancients was the science of correspondences, but this science at the present day has perished, nos. 3021, 3419, 4280, 4844, 4964, 4966, 6004, 7729, 10252. The science of correspondences existed among the eastern nations, and in Egypt, no. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407. Their hieroglyphics were derived from that source, nos. 6692, 7097. Through the science of correspondences the ancients introduced themselves into the knowledges of spiritual things, nos. 4749, 4844, 4966. The Word was written by mere correspondences, and its internal or spiritual sense is from that source; and without the science of correspondences it is impossible to know that this sense exists, or yet what the quality of the Word is, nos. 3131, 3472-3485, 8615, 10687. How much the science of correspondences excels the other sciences, no. 4280.


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