Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/169

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XI.

CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT.

ENLIGHTENMENT comes from the Lord alone, and is afforded to those who love truths for truth's sake, and apply them to the uses of life. No others can receive enlightenment from the Word.

The reason why enlightenment comes from the Lord alone, is, that He is in all things of the Word; and the reason of its being afforded only to those who love truths for truth's sake, and apply them to the uses of life, is, that they are in the Lord and the Lord in them. For the Lord is his own Divine Truth; and when this is loved for its own sake, which is the case when it is applied to use, then He is in it and is thus present with man.

The Lord teaches this in John: "At that day ye shall know that ye are in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; — and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him" (xiv. 20, 21, 23). And in Matthew: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (v. 8). These are they who are enlightened when they read the Word,

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