Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 1

1. CONVERSATIONS WITH ANGELS

One evil contains in itself innumerable lusts, interior and exterior, of which man knows nothing.

All these are removed by the Lord, while man looks to the Lord, and shuns evil as of himself.

Illustration by various examples with man, as of the stomach, the kidneys, the members devoted to generation.

There is no need for man to know of these.

Evil appears to man as one, and nevertheless they are in all lusts, interior and exterior, thus in successive order, but they are in the evil in simultaneous order. This also must be illustrated.

Man is not purified by shunning evils solely on account of civil and moral causes; because by this he is purified only as to externals, but not as to internals.

Thus no one is purified by the faith of the present day, which promotes only civil, moral and political works.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 2

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 2

2. Those who, from confirmation within themselves, make the Human of the Lord like the human of another man, divide the Lord into two.

They are in heart Socinians and Arians; with whom there is no church.

Faith alone effects this.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 3

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 3

3. He who is in faith alone cannot do otherwise than make God three.

On the other hand, he who makes God three, loves faith alone.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 4

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 4

4. The Lord and man are together in love towards the neighbor.

Conjunction is effected by that love.

Those who are in that love, love the Lord.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 5

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 5

5. He who makes any evil allowable in his mind, continually does it.

There is then the endeavor to do it whenever it is possible. The endeavor resides not only in the mind, but also in the body.

That endeavor is the will, which is only restrained by external causes.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 6

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 6

6. The internal man is not merely to understand, to think and to know.

But it is to will what he understands, thinks and knows

Hence it can be seen what the internal man is when separated from the external, and what it is when not separated.

All the spiritual is in thought from will, and thought without will is external like a court.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 7

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 7

7. There are three things which follow in order and make one: charity, faith and works, - like will, understanding and deeds.

If one is lacking, the remaining two fall or vanish.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 8

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 8

8. Man is to act and think in spiritual things as of himself. Otherwise man would not be man. This is the image of God in man. This is given continually by the Lord.

It is given as the reciprocal of love, and thence is conjunction.

Otherwise the Word would be of no use.

Otherwise there would be no religion

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 9

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 9

9. All things inflow with man, so that man is only a recipient organ.

He is an organ recipient of all things of heaven as to his mind, and recipient of the world as to his body.

As the eye is a recipient of light, the ears recipients of sound, and the remaining things of the body, so the understanding is a recipient of the light of heaven or of wisdom, and the will is a recipient of the heat of heaven, thus of love.

There is nothing in man but the faculty of receiving. It may be illustrated by the organs what the faculty is.

Natural objects are felt in the organs of the body as if they were in them, and spiritual objects in like manner are felt as if in the mind, although they are not there.

These are fallacies of sensation

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 10

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 10

10. Fallacies arise from inverted ideas.

As concerning God from Person and not from essence; concerning the neighbor from person or from the human form, and not from his quality; concerning heaven from place and not from love and wisdom; concerning the church from external worship, and not from charity and faith therefrom, which are its internals; yea, concerning various things from delights, and not from the loves from which they are.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 11

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 11

11. The state of man as to the will or love is not changed after death. The reason is because it is his life.

So also as to charity.

The state of man as to the understanding is changed, and it is changed according to the love of the will.

A man in the world may think that he is in heaven on account of the understanding, when yet he is not.

Therefore the truths and goods in his understanding are taken away, because they do not agree with the love of the will.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 12

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 12

12. Absurdities about instantaneous faith, and thus instantaneous salvation. Likewise about immediate mercy, because this makes one with instantaneous faith.

Although indeed man is reformed and regenerated successively even to the end of life, and then to eternity.

And he can never be perfectly regenerated, only as to the most general things, and some general things under them.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 13

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 13

13. The understanding in spiritual things is destroyed with those of the clergy who have confirmed with themselves the falsities of the faith of the present day.

It is not destroyed with the laity, because they have not confirmed it.

How a clergyman closes his understanding to spiritual things with himself, and also with the laity. Confirmation closes it, why? Many kinds of confirmation. Confirmation by life is the worst.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 14

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 14

14. How the sense of the letter of the Word is abolished when it passes into heaven and becomes spiritual.

There is a putting off, and a revelation of the interiors of truth.

Experiments, that when truth lies hidden within with a man, the sense of the letter is open in heaven, and on the other hand it is dissipated, and sometimes with a noise; and if the confirmation of the love of evil lies hidden within, there appear as it were sparks of fire, and an explosion.

All things of the sense of the letter of the Word communicate with all things of the heavens.

Thus the Word is the conjunction of heaven and the church

This cannot be comprehended without a knowledge of correspondences.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 15

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 15

15. A false principle in spiritual things falsifies all things.

Thus it falsifies all things of the Word.

It falsifies while he is reading the Word even though man does not know it.

Falsities still insinuate themselves in each thing of the Word, from the side or in the middle.

This falsity is not manifested, unless while it is in the middle it is placed in direct view of the thought.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 16

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 16

16. Truths do not falsify the Word wherever it is read, because they are continuously present in the series.

The good of life does not falsify the Word, because this is within in each and everything of the Word.

Thus the sense of the letter of the Word can be turned hither and thither, by the man who is in truths of doctrine and in the good of life.

Conv Ang (Whitehead) n. 17

Conversations with Angels (Whitehead) n. 17

17. With those who are in faith alone all good works become meritorious, even repentance.

They falsify the whole Word who confirm falsities within themselves, and they do not know this. Luther.

That all things are from God may be illustrated by all the correspondences with man; from the spheres around the angels.

Charity and faith make one like affection and thought, so that there is not given anything of one more than of the other.

Faith is described such as it is with the ancients, it is vivified by charity, the faith which is historical, in other respects denotes knowledge.