Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem · 12 of 14

Combats Against Evils

92.NO ONE CAN SHUN EVILS AS SINS SO AS TO BE INWARDLY AVERSE TO THEM EXCEPT BY MEANS OF COMBATS AGAINST THEM. Everybody knows from the Word and from doctrine drawn from it that the Own of man is evil from his birth, and that this is the reason why from inborn concupiscence he loves evils and is drawn into them. This is why he desires to have revenge, and to commit fraud, defamation, and adultery. And unless he takes thought that such things are sins, and on this account resists them, he does them whenever an opportunity offers, provided that his reputation and thereby his honors and gains do not suffer. Consider also that unless he has religion the man does these things from delight.

93.As this Own of man constitutes the first root of his life, it is evident what kind of a tree a man would be unless this root were plucked up, and a new root planted in its place. He would be a rotted tree, of which it is said that it must be cut down and cast into the fire (Matt. 3:10; 7:19). And this root is not removed and a new one set in its place unless the man regards the evils that constitute the root as injurious to his soul, and on this account desires to rid himself of them. But as these evils belong to man’s Own, and are therefore delightful to him, he cannot do this except against his will, with a struggle, and therefore with battling.

94.Everyone does this battling who believes in the existence of hell and of heaven: that heaven is eternal happiness, and hell eternal unhappiness; and that those who do evils go to hell, and those who do goods to heaven. And one who thus fights acts from within, and against the concupiscence itself which constitutes the root of the evil, for one who fights against anything does not will it, and to desire is to will. This shows that the root of evil is not removed except by means of combat.

95.In proportion therefore as anyone battles with and thus removes evil, in the same proportion good takes its place, and from this good the man in the same proportion looks evil in the face, and sees that it is infernal and horrible, and on this account he not only shuns it, but feels averse to it, and at last abhors it.

96.A man who fights against evils cannot but do so as of himself, for one who does not fight as of himself does not do so at all, but stands like an automaton that sees nothing and does nothing, and from evil he is continually thinking in favor of evil, and not against it. But be it well known that it is the Lord alone who fights in a man against his evils, and that it only appears to the man that he fights of himself, and also that the Lord wills that it should so appear to him, because without this appearance no combat takes place and therefore no reformation.

97.This combat is not severe except in the case of those who have given free rein to their concupiscences, and have indulged them of set purpose, and also in the case of those who have stubbornly cast off the holy things of the Word and of the church. With others it is not severe; let them even once in a week, or twice in a month, resist the evils they are inclined to, and they will perceive a change.

98.The Christian Church is called the church militant, and it cannot be called militant except as against the devil, and thus against the evils that are from hell. Hell is the devil. And the temptation that the man of the church undergoes is this warfare.

99.Battlings against evils, which battlings are temptations, are treated of in many places in the Word. They are meant by these words of the Lord: I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit (John 12:24). And also by these: If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it (Mark 8:34-35). The “cross” means temptation (as also in Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:27). By his “life” is meant the life of man’s Own (as also in Matt. 10:39; 16:25; Luke 9:24; and especially in John 12:25), which is also the “life of the flesh that profiteth nothing” (John 6:63). In regard to battlings against evils, and victories over them, the Lord speaks in the Revelation to all the churches: To the church in Ephesus: To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. 2:7). To the church in Smyrna: He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death (Rev. 2:11). To the church in Pergamos: To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it (Rev. 2:17). To the church in Thyatira: He that overcometh, and that keepeth My words unto the end, to him will I give power [potestas] over the nations; and the morning star (Rev. 2:26, 28). To the church in Sardis [He that overcometh shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels (Rev. 3:5). To the church in Philadelphia:] He that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, of the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and My new name (Rev. 3:12). To the church in Laodicea: He that overcometh I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne (Rev. 3:21).

100.These battlings, which are temptations, may be seen specially treated of in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, published in London in the year 1758 (from n. 187 to n. 201): Whence and what they are (n. 196, 197) How and where they take place (n. 198) What good they effect (n. 199) That the Lord fights for man (n. 200): Concerning the Lord’s battlings or temptations (n. 201).

74-1 This projected little work was afterwards expanded by Swedenborg into a large one, and was published by him in Amsterdam in the year 1768, under the (translated) title: The Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love; after which follow the Pleasures of Insanity concerning Scortatory Love. The original MS outline for the De Conjugio is now preserved in the library of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. It was published in the original Latin at Tubingen by Dr. Jo. Fr. Im. Tafel in the year 1860. [Tr.]

92-1 The Latin word proprium is the term used in the original text that in this and other places has been rendered by the expression “Own.” The dictionary meaning of proprius, as an adjective, is “one’s own,” “proper,” “belonging to one’s self alone,” “special,” “particular,” “peculiar.” The neuter of this which is the word proprium, when used as a noun means “possession,” “property;” also “a peculiarity,” “characteristic mark,” “distinguishing sign,” “characteristic.” The English adjective “own” is defined by Webster to mean “belonging to,” “belonging exclusively or especially to,” “peculiar;” so that our word “own” is a very exact equivalent of proprius, and if we make it a noun by writing it “Own,” in order to answer to the Latin proprium, we effect a very close translation. [TR.]