Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/257

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USE SHOULD BE THE END.
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Man ought to have a concern for his body, to nourish it, clothe it, and let it enjoy the delights of the world; but all this not for the sake of the body but the soul, viz. : that this latter in a sound body may act correspondently and rightly, and may have the body as an organ altogether obsequious to it.

Thus the soul should be the end; but man should have concern about it only as a mediate end, not for its sake, but for the sake of the uses which it should perform in each world. And when man regards uses as an end, he regards the Lord as an end, for the Lord arranges things for uses, and arranges uses themselves.

To regard anything as an end, is to love it above other things; for what a man loves, he regards as an end. What he regards as an end, is evidently discernible, for it rules universally in him; it is continually present, even at those times when he seems to himself not to be thinking at all about it; for it has its residence in him and constitutes his interior life, and thus concealedly rules all things in general and in particular.

As for example : he who from the heart honors his parents, has that honor present in all and singular the things which he acts in their presence, and which he thinks in their absence; and it is also perceived from his gestures and discourse. So he who from the heart fears and honors God, has that fear and honor present in everything which he thinks, speaks and acts; because it is in him even when it does not seem to be

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