APPEARANCES ACCORDING TO WHICH IT IS PROPER TO SPEAK, BUT NOT TO THINK. (1.) That God punishes the wicked; that he is angry; that he puts away from himself: that he does not regard, c.* (2.) That man does good and speaks truth; that man is good and true; that man lives from himself, when yet he can neither live from himself, nor think nor will good from himself.

WHAT GOOD IS, WHAT THE TRUTH OF GOOD, AND WHAT TRUTH. Let fruit be [taken as an example]:

-The use which fruit answers, is good. -The manner in which the use is to be applied, is the truth of good. -The quality of the fruit as to taste, smell, and beauty, is truth. The odor of fruits or flowers:

-The use which odor subserves relative to the brain, the lungs, and the heart, is good. -The manner in which it is to be applied, so as to answer its use, as to the nostrils, the temples, or about the head like a wreath, is the truth of good. -The quality of the odor, and the like, are truth. Charity:

-The use it serves, is good. -How charity is to be dispensed, is the truth of good. -The quality of charity, is truth.

THE GENERAL LAW OF HEAVEN. (1.) So far as the love of ruling enters with man, so far love towards the neighbor departs. (2.) Thus also so far as love towards the neighbor departs, so far love to the Lord departs; for the good which is from Him is the neighbor, and also the truth of good. (3.) Thence it follows, that so far as the love of ruling enters, so far a saving faith, which is from the Lord, departs; for faith is of truth which is of good. (4.) That this is so appears from conjugial love, which departs just in proportion as the love of ruling enters. -Conjugial love is the fundamental of all loves. * It is not of course implied by this, that, in the righteous government of God, the wicked are not punished, but simply that this punishment results from the contrariety of nature between the Divine Being and the offender. This appears as the exercise of wrath on the part of God, and the Scriptures are in great measure constructed on the principle of apparent rather than real truth. It is the sinner who punishes himself by his own evil. To a man with diseased eyes who looks towards the sun, it appears as if the sun, by his positive influence, caused the pain which he feels; whereas the true cause is in the state of his eyes, and which he may have procured to himself by his own act. If the eye were sound the light would not harm him. This is Swedenborg's doctrine of punishment. It is the necessary and inevitable result of transgression, by the law of its own working. A nature alienated from God regards God as opposed to him and fighting against him, whereas God is unchangeable love, goodness and mercy. Still the transgressor is punished, not only by the natural effects of this contrariety in its bearings towards himself, but by the malignant passions of other wicked spirits, a part of whose evil is this very infernal prompting to inflict misery upon others in ways that are ineffable to men in the body. The doctrine delivered by Swedenborg on this head may be seen in what follows: - "That Jehovah has not any anger is evident from this, that He is love itself, good itself, and mercy itself, and anger is the opposite, and is, also an infirm principle, which cannot be imputed to God: wherefore when anger in the Word is predicated of Jehovah, or the Lord, the angels do not perceive anger, but either mercy, or the removal of the evil from heaven. That anger in the Word is attributed to Jehovah or the Lord, is because it is a most general truth, that all things come from God, thus both evils and goods but this most general truth, which infants, young people, and the simple, must receive, ought afterwards to be illustrated, namely, by teaching that it is so said to the intent that they may learn to fear God, lest they should perish by the evils which they themselves do. The reason why by anger is meant mercy and clemency is, because all the punishment of the evil exist from the Lord's mercy towards the good, lest these latter should be hurt by the evil; but the Lord does not inflict punishments upon them, but they upon themselves, for evils and punishments in the other life are conjoined. The evil inflict punishment upon themselves principally when the Lord does mercy to the good, for then their evils increase, and thence punishments: it is from this ground that instead of the anger of Jehovah, by which are signified the punishments of the evil, mercy is understood by the angels. From these considerations it may be manifest what the quality of the Word is in the sense of the letter, also what the quality of truth divine is in its most general sense or meaning, namely, that it is according to appearances, by reason that man is of such a quality, that what he sees and apprehends from his sensual, he believes, and what he does not see, neither apprehend from his sensual, he does not believe, thus does not receive. Hence it is, that the Word in the sense of the letter is according to those things which appear; nevertheless in its interior bosom it contains a store of genuine truths, and in its inmost bosom truth divine itself." - AC 6997. -Tr.