12...work out your own salvation... 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. -Philippians 2:12-13 King James Version (KJV)
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com
1164.
...(Continuation) [2] That a man may be led out of hell and led into heaven by the Lord, he must himself resist hell, that is, evils, as if from himself. If he does not resist as if from himself, he remains in hell and hell in him, nor is he separated from it to eternity. This follows from the laws of the Divine providence... Moreover, experience will teach that this is true. Evils are removed from man either by punishments, or by temptations, and consequent turning away, or by the affections of truth and good. With those not reformed[,] evils are removed by punishments; with those about to be reformed they are removed by temptations and consequent turning away; and with the regenerate[d] by the affections of truth and good. The experience is this: When an unreformed or evil person endures punishments, as takes place in hell, he is kept in the punishments until it is perceived that of himself he does not will the evils; not until then is he set free. Thus is he compelled of himself to put away evils... With those about to be reformed evils are removed by temptations, which are not punishments but combats. Such persons are not compelled to resist evils, but they compel themselves and pray to the Lord, and thus are delivered from the evils which they have resisted. Such afterwards refrain from evils, not from any fear of punishment but from an aversion to evil; and at length this aversion to evil is their resistance. But with the regenerate there are no temptations or combats, but the affections of truth and good that keep evils far away from them; for they are wholly separated from hell, which is the source of evils, and are conjoined to the Lord. [3] To be separated and removed from evils is the same thing as to be separated and removed from infernal [or hellish] societies. The Lord has the power to separate and remove from infernal societies, that is, from evils, and the power to transfer to heavenly societies, that is, to goods, anyone He may wish; but such a change can continue only for a few hours, after which the evils return. I have frequently seen this done; and seen that the evil continued evil as before. In the whole spiritual world there is not an instance of anyone's having been removed from evils in any other way than by combat or resistance as if from himself, or of anyone doing this except of the Lord alone.
...(Continuation) Let experience testify further on this subject. The quality of all who come from the earth into the spiritual world is known from their ability or inability to resist evils as if from themselves. Those who are able to do this are saved, while those who are not able are not saved. The reason is that man is not able to resist evils from himself, but only from the Lord; for it is the Lord who resists evils in man and gives man to feel and perceive as if he does it from himself. Therefore those in the world who have acknowledged the Lord, and have acknowledged that all good and truth are from Him, and that nothing is from man, and thus that power over evils is from the Lord, and not from themselves, such resist evils as if from themselves. But those who have not acknowledged this in the world are unable to resist evils as if from themselves... An experiment was made whether such were able to resist evils when the punishments of hell were described to them, and even when those punishments were seen and were felt; but it was in vain; for they hardened their minds, saying, Let this be so, and let it come, but so long as I am here let me be in the pleasures and joys of my heart... Such when their time is fulfilled are cast into hell; and there they are compelled by punishments to refrain from doing evil; but punishments do not take away the will, intention, and consequent thought of evil; they merely take away the acts. All this makes clear that the power to resist evils is not from man, but is from the Lord with those who acknowledge Him, and that the Lord causes it to appear as if done by man.
...(Continuation.) [2] The Lord alone resists the evils with man by Himself and not through any angels of heaven, because to resist evils with man is a work of Divine omnipotence, Divine omniscience, and Divine providence. It is a work of Divine omnipotence, because to resist one evil is to resist many, and even to resist the hells. For every evil is joined with innumerable other evils, and they cling together like the hells with each other; for as evils make one so do the hells, and as the hells make one so do evils, and no one but the Lord is able to resist the hells so united. It is a work of Divine omniscience, because the Lord alone knows what man is and what his evils are, and what their connection is with other evils, thus in what order they must be removed that man may be inwardly or radically cured. It is a work of Divine providence, that nothing may be done contrary to the laws of order, and that what is done may promote man's eternal good; for Divine omnipotence, Divine omniscience, and Divine providence have respect in every least particular to what is eternal. [3] All this makes clear that no angel is able to resist the evils with man, but the Lord only. The Lord carries on this work in man both immediately from himself, and mediately through heaven, and yet in such a way that no angel knows anything about it. For heaven in the whole complex is the Lord, because it is His Divine proceeding; consequently when He is working through heaven He is working from Himself. It is said mediately because the Divine operation flows through the heavens, and yet it takes nothing from the own of any angel there, but only from what is its own with them. The appearance is the same as when a man does any act; to produce it he moves innumerable motor fibers scattered through his whole body, but of this action no single fiber knows anything. Such are angels in the Divine Body which is called heaven.
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