Начало 16. Об искушении

187. Только те, которые возрождаются, подвергаются духовным искушениям; ибо духовные искушения суть скорби духа, причиняемые злыми духами тем, которые находятся в добре и истине. Когда злые духи возбуждают находящееся в добрых людях зло, возникает тоска искушения. Человек не знает, откуда она, потому что не знает ее происхождения.

188. У каждого человека находятся злые духи и добрые духи; злые духи находятся в его зле, а добрые духи в его добре. Когда злые духи приближаются, то они вызывают его зло; наоборот, добрые духи вызывают его добро; вследствие этого происходит столкновение и брань, создающие внутреннюю тоску, которая есть искушение. Из этого явствует, что искушения происходят из ада, но не с неба; что также согласно с верой Церкви, которая учит, что Бог никого не искушает.

189. Бывает также внутренняя тоска и у тех, которые не находятся в добре и истине; однако она естественна, а не духовна. Они различаются тем, что естественная тоска имеет своим предметом мирское, тогда как духовная тоска - небесное.

190. В искушениях дело касается господствования добра над злом или зла над добром. Зло, которое хочет господствовать, находится в естественном или внешнем человеке, а добро - в духовном или внутреннем человеке. Если зло побеждает, тогда господствует естественный человек; если же побеждает добро, тогда господствует духовный человек.

191. Брань эта происходит чрез истины веры из Слова. Посредством их человек должен бороться со злом и ложью; если он борется посредством чего-либо другого, то он не побеждает, потому что ни в чем другом нет Господа. Так как брань происходит посредством истины веры, то человек допускается в нее не раньше, чем тогда, когда он находится в познании истины и добра и из них приобретает некоторую долю духовной жизни; поэтому эта брань происходит в человеке не раньше, чем тогда, когда он приходит в зрелый возраст.

192. Если человек побеждается, то состояние его делается после искушения хуже прежнего; потому что тогда зло приобретает господство над добром, а ложь над истиной.

193. Так как в настоящее время вера встречается редко, потому что нет благолюбия, ибо Церковь находится при конце своем, то очень мало людей допускается ныне до каких-либо духовных искушений; поэтому людям едва известно, что есть искушения и чему они служат.

194. Искушения служат доставлению господства добру над злом и истине над ложью; также утверждению истины и связи ее с добром, и вместе с тем рассеянию зла и из него происходящей лжи. Они служат также открытию внутреннего духовного человека и покорению ему естественного, а также преодолению себялюбия и любви к миру и укрощению из них проистекающих похотей. Когда это достигается, тогда человеку дается озарение и постижение того, что истинно и добро и что ложно и зло; благодаря чему человеку дается разумение и мудрость, которые потом возрастают изо дня в день.

195. Господь один борется за человека в искушениях. Если человек не верит тому, что Господь один борется и побеждает для него, тогда он подвергается лишь внешнему искушению, которое не приносит ему пользы.

196. From the Heavenly Arcana.

Before stating summarily what has been written in the Heavenly Arcana concerning temptations, something has to be premised on this subject, so that the source from whence temptations are, may be known more definitely. A temptation is said to be spiritual, when interiorly in a man the truths of faith are assaulted which he believes at heart, and according to which he loves to live; especially when the good of love, in which he places spiritual life, is assaulted. These assaults take place in various ways: as for instance, by an influx into the thoughts, and also into the will of stumbling-blocks against good and truth; further, by a constant rising up and bringing into remembrance, of the evils which a man has done, and also of the falsities which he has thought - and thus by a flooding of such things; and at the same time by an apparent closing up of the interiors of the mind, and thus of the communication with heaven, whereby there is intercepted from a man the thought flowing from his own faith, and the volition springing from his own love.

These things are caused by the evil spirits who are with a man; and when they happen, they take place under the form of an interior distress and of pangs of conscience; for such things affect and torture a man's spiritual life, the man not believing that they arise from evil spirits, but from himself in his interiors. A man does not know that these things arise from evil spirits, because he does not know that there are spirits with him; evil spirits in his evils, and good spirits in his goods; and that they are in his thoughts and affections. These temptations are most grievous, when conjoined with pains inflicted on the body; and still more so, if these pains continue long, and become intensified, and if the Divine Mercy is implored, and there is no deliverance: hence comes despair which is the end. Some statements shall first be adduced from the Heavenly Arcana, concerning the Spirits who are with a man; because temptations are from them.

With every man there are spirits and angels, 697, 5846-5866.
They are in his thoughts and affections, 2888, 5846, 5848.
If spirits and angels were removed, a man could not live, 2887, 5849, 5854, 5993, 6321.
Because through spirits and angels he communicates, and is conjoined, with the spiritual world, without which he would not have any life, 697, 2796, 2886, 2887, 4047, 4048, 5846-5866, 5976-5993.
The spirits with a man are changed according to the affections belonging to his love, 5851.
The spirits from hell are in the loves peculiar to a man, 5852, 5979-5993.
The spirits enter into all things of a man's memory, 5853, 5857, 5859, 5860, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199;
the angels into the ends from which, and for the sake of which, a man thinks, wills, and acts so, and not otherwise, 1317, 1645, 5854.
The man is not visible to the spirits, even as the spirits are not visible to the man, 5862.
Wherefore it is impossible for spirits through a man to see anything which is in our solar world, 1880.
Though there are spirits and angels with a man, in his thoughts and affections, still he is in the freedom of thinking, willing, and acting, 5982, 6477, 8209, 8307, 10777;
see also the work on Heaven and Hell, where The Conjunction of Heaven with the Human Race is treated of, 291-302.

197. Temptations, their source and quality.
Temptations arise from the evil spirits who are with a man, and who insinuate stumbling-blocks against the goods and truths which the man loves and believes; and who likewise stir up the evils which he has done and the falsities which he has thought, 741, 751, 761, 3927, 4307, 4572, 5036, 6657, 8960.
Evil spirits in such cases make use of every kind of cunning and malice, 6666.
The man who is in temptations is near hell, 8131.
Two forces are active in temptations, the force from the Lord which acts from within, and the force from hell which acts from without, the man being in the middle, 8168.
A man's ruling love is assaulted in temptations, 847, 4274.
Evil spirits attack only those things which belong to a man's faith and love, and consequently those which belong to his very spiritual life; wherefore his eternal life is then at stake, 1820.
The state of temptations compared with the state of a man among thieves, 5246.
In temptations, the man through angels from the Lord is kept in the truths and goods which are with him, but through evil spirits in the falsities and evils which are with him; hence conflict and combat, 4249.
Temptation is a combat between the internal or spiritual man, and the external or natural man, 2183, 4256;
thus between the delights of the internal man, and those of the external man, which are then in opposition to each other, 3928, 8351.
It has place on account of the antagonism between them, 3928, 8351.
The dominion of one over the other is what is contended for, 3928, 8961.
No one can be tempted unless he is in the acknowledgment of truth and good, and in an affection for them, because otherwise there is no combat; for the Spiritual does not act then against the Natural, wherefore there is no question about rule, 3928, 4299.
He is tempted who has acquired something of spiritual life, 8963.
Temptations exist with those who have conscience, and consequently, with those who are in spiritual love; more grievous temptations, however, exist with those who have perception, and, therefore, with those who are in celestial love, 1668, 8963.
Dead men, that is, those who are neither in faith, nor in love to God and love towards the neighbour, are not admitted into temptations, because they would succumb, 270, 4274, 4299, 8964, 8968.
Wherefore few at the present day come into spiritual temptations, 8965.
They are, however, in states of distress on account of various causes in the world, past, present, and future; which causes are wont to be combined with faintness of mind and weakness of body; these states, however, are not those of the distress of temptations, 762, 8164.
Spiritual temptations are sometimes combined with pains of the body, and sometimes they are not, 8164.
A state of temptations is an unclean and filthy state, because evils and falsities, and also doubts concerning goods and truths, are injected, 5246.
Further, because indignation, pain of mind, and many affections which are not good are involved in temptations, 1917, 6829.
Likewise, states of obscurity and doubt concerning the end, 1820, 6829.
And also concerning the Divine Providence and the hearing of prayer, since prayers are not answered in temptations, as they are when out of them, 8179.
And because a man, when in temptation, seems to himself to be in a state of damnation, 6097.
The reason of this is, that a man perceives clearly what takes place in the external man, and consequently what is injected and called forth by evil spirits, in accordance with which the man also thinks of his state; but he does not perceive what takes place in his internal man; nor consequently what flows in from the Lord through the angels; from which, therefore, he cannot judge of his state, 10236, 10240.
Temptations for the most part are carried on even to despair, which is their end, 1787, 2694, 5279, 5280, 6144, 7147, 7155, 7166, 8165, 8567.
The reasons whereof, 2694.
In the temptation itself also there are despairs, but these terminate in the general one, 8567.
In a state of despair a man speaks bitter things, but they are not heeded by the Lord 8165.
After a temptation has ended, there is at first a fluctuation between truth and falsity, 848, 857.
Afterwards, however, the truth shines, and there arises serenity and gladness, 3696, 4572, 6829, 8367, 8370.
Those who are being regenerated do not undergo temptations only once, but many times, because many evils and falsities are to be removed, 8403.
If those who have acquired some spiritual life, do not undergo temptations in this world, they undergo them in the other life, 7122.
How temptations take place in the other life, and where, 537-539, 699, 1106-1113, 2694, 4728,4940-4951, 6119, 6928,7090, 7122, 7127, 7186, 7317, 7474, 7502, 7541, 7542, 7545, 7768, 7990, 9331, 9763.
The state of enlightenment of those who come out of temptation, and are raised into heaven, and their reception there, 2699, 2701, 2704.
The nature of the temptation occasioned by a failure of truth, which is attended then by a desire for truth, 2682, 8352.
The temptation of children in the other world, whereby they learn how to resist evils, 2294.
The difference there is between temptations, infestations, and vastations, 7474.

198. How and when Temptations take place.
Spiritual combats are chiefly carried on by means of truths of faith, 8962.
Truth is the first thing of combat, 1685.
The men of the spiritual Church are tempted with regard to the truths of faith, wherefore they combat by truths; but the men of the celestial Church are tempted with regard to the goods of love, wherefore they combat by goods, 1668, 8963.
Those who are of the spiritual Church, for the most part, do not combat from genuine truths, but from such as they believe to be genuine from a doctrinal of their Church; but which doctrinal ought nevertheless to be such as to be capable of being conjoined with good, 6765.
Whoever is regenerated must undergo temptations, and without them he cannot be regenerated, 5036, 8403.
Wherefore temptations are necessary, 7090.
The man who is being regenerated comes into temptations, when evil strives to gain dominion over good, and the natural man over the spiritual man, 6657, 8961.
And he comes into temptations when good is about to have the precedence, 4248, 4249, 4256, 8962, 8963.
Those who are being regenerated are first let into a state of tranquillity, then into temptations, and afterwards return into a state of tranquillity of peace, which is the end, 3696.

199. The good effected by Temptations.
A summary of what is effected by temptations, 1692, 1717, 1740, 6144, 8958-8969.
Dominion is acquired through temptations for the spiritual or internal man over the natural or external man, and consequently for good over evil, and truth over falsity; for in the spiritual man there is good, without which the spiritual man has no being, and in the natural man there is evil, 8961.
Since temptation means the combat between these, therefore dominion is the object of the strife, namely, whether the spiritual man shall have dominion over the natural man, and thus whether good shall have dominion over evil, or conversely; and, consequently whether the Lord or hell shall have dominion over man, 1923, 3928.
The external, that is, the natural man, through temptations, receives truths which correspond to the affection thereof in the internal, that is, in the spiritual man, 3321, 3928.
The internal spiritual man is opened, and conjoined with the external man, through temptations, in order that the man as to both may be capable of being elevated, and of looking to the Lord, 10685.
The reason why the internal spiritual man is opened and conjoined with the external through temptations, is, that the Lord acts from the interior, and from it flows into the external man, and therein removes and subjugates evils, and together therewith subjects the external man, and renders it subordinate to the internal, 10685.
Temptations are for the sake of the conjunction of good and truth, and for the sake of the dispersion of the falsities which adhere to truths and goods, 4572.
Through temptations, consequently, good is conjoined with truths, 2272.
The vessels receptive of truth are softened through temptations, and put on a state in which they are capable of receiving good, 3318.
Truths and goods, and thus the things belonging to faith and charity, are confirmed and implanted through temptations, 8351, 8924, 8966, 8967.
And evils and falsities are removed, and room is thus afforded to goods and truths, 7122.
The loves of self and of the world, from which spring all evils and falsities, are broken through temptations, 5356.
And the man is thus humbled, 8966, 8967.
Evils and falsities are subdued, separated, and removed, but not abolished, through temptations, 868.
Corporeal things with their concupiscences are subdued through temptations, 857, 868.
A man through them learns what good and truth are, even from their relation to their opposites, which are evils and falsities, 5356.
He also learns that with himself there is nothing but evil, and that all the good which is with him, is from the Lord and His Mercy, 2334.
Through the temptations in which a man conquers, evil spirits are deprived of the power of operating further against him, 1695, 1717.
The hells do not dare to rise up against those who have suffered temptations and have conquered, 2183, 8273.
After the temptations in which a man has conquered, there is joy arising from the conjunction of good and truth, although the man does not know that the joy proceeds therefrom, 4572, 6829.
There exists then enlightenment of the truth which belongs to faith, and a perception of the good which belongs to love, 8367, 8370.
From it a man has intelligence and wisdom, 8966, 8967.
After temptations, truths increase immensely, 6663.
And good then has the precedence, that is, holds the first place, and truth the second, 5773.
As to his internal spiritual man, the man is admitted into angelic societies, and thus into heaven, 6611.
Before a man undergoes temptations, truths with goods are arranged with him in order by the Lord, so that he may resist the evils and falsities which are with him from hell, and which are being stirred up, 8131.
In temptations the Lord provides good in place of the evil which is intended by infernal spirits, 6574.
After temptations the Lord reduces truths with goods into a new order, and arranges them into a heavenly form, 10685.
The interiors of the spiritual man are arranged into a heavenly form; see in the work on Heaven and Hell, 200-212.
Those who fall in temptations come into damnation, because evils and falsities are victorious, and the natural man prevails over the spiritual man, and afterwards has dominion: the latter state then becomes worse than the former, 8165, 8169, 8961.

200. The Lord combats for a Man in Temptations.
The Lord alone in a man struggles in temptations, and the man does not struggle at all from himself, 1692, 8172, 8175, 8176, 8273.
From himself a man cannot struggle at all against evils and falsities, because that would mean struggling against all the hells, which no one except the Lord alone can subdue and conquer, 1692.
The hells fight against a man, and the Lord fights for him, 8159.
The man struggles from the truths and goods, and thus from the knowledges and the affections thereof which are with him; but it is not the man that struggles, but the Lord that struggles through them, 1661.
When in temptations, the man thinks that the Lord is absent, because his prayers are not listened to as they are when he is not in them; nevertheless, the Lord is then more present, 840.
In temptations a man ought to struggle as from himself, and not to hang down his hands, or to expect immediate help; but he ought nevertheless to believe that help is from the Lord, 1712, 8179, 8969.
Otherwise the man cannot receive a heavenly Self, 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891.
The quality of that Self, that it is not man's but the Lord's with him, 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891, 8497.
Temptation serves no purpose, and is productive of no good, unless the man, at least after the temptations, believes that the Lord has fought and conquered for him, 8969.
Those who place merit in works, cannot struggle against evils, because they struggle from Self, and do not allow the Lord to combat for them, 9978.
Those who believe that by temptations they have merited heaven, are saved only with difficulty, 2273.
The Lord does not tempt, but He liberates, and introduces good, 2768.
It appears as if temptations were from the Divine, when yet they are not, 4299.
How the petition: "Lead us not into temptation", is to be understood in the Lord's Prayer; from experience, 1875.
The Lord does not concur in temptations by permitting them, according to the idea of permission entertained by man, 2768.
In every temptation there is freedom, although it does not appear so; but this freedom is with man interiorly from the Lord, and by virtue of it he combats and desires to conquer, and not to be conquered; without that freedom he would not do this, 1937, 1947, 2881.
The Lord effects this through the affection of truth and good which has been impressed on the internal man, the man being ignorant of it, 5044.
For all freedom belongs to affection, that is, to love, and is according to its quality, 2870, 3158, 8987, 8990, 9585, 9591.

201. The Lord's Temptations.
The Lord endured the most grievous and terrible temptations, which are but little treated of in the literal sense of the Word, but much in the internal sense, 1663, 1668, 1787, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2814, 9528.
The Lord fought from Divine Love towards the whole human race, 1690, 1691, 1812, 1813, 1820.
The Lord's love was the salvation of the human race, 1820.
The Lord combated from His own power, 1692, 1813, 9937.
The Lord alone became Justice and Merit, through temptations and victories from His own power, 1813, 2025-2027, 9715, 9809, 10019.
Through temptations the Lord united the Divine Itself which was in Him from conception, to His Human, and made this Divine; as He makes a man spiritual through temptations, 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 3318, 3381, 3382, 4286.
The temptations of the Lord in the end were attended with despair, 1787.
Through the temptations admitted against Himself, the Lord subjugated the hells, and reduced all things in them and in the heavens to order, and at the same time glorified His Human, 1737, 4287, 9315, 9528, 9937.
The Lord alone fought against all the hells, 8273.
He admitted temptations from hell against Himself, 2816, 4295.
The Lord could not be tempted as to the Divine, because the hells cannot assault the Divine; wherefore He assumed from the mother such a Human as could be tempted, 1414, 1444, 1573, 5041, 5157, 7193, 9315.
Through temptations and victories He expelled everything hereditary from the mother, and put off the Human from her, until at length He was no longer her son, 2159, 2574, 2640, 3036, 10830.
Jehovah, who was in Him from conception, appeared to be absent in His temptations, 1815.
This was the state of His humiliation, 1785, 1999, 2159, 6866.
His last temptation and victory, by which He fully subjugated the hells, and made His Human Divine, was in Gethsemane and on the cross, 2776, 2803, 2813, 2814, 10655, 10659, 10828.
Not to eat any bread and not drink any water for forty days, signifies an entire state of temptations, 10686.
Forty years, months, or days, signify a complete state of temptations from beginning to end; such a state is meant by the deluge lasting forty days; by Moses abiding upon Mount Sinai during forty days; by the sons of Israel sojourning in the desert, for forty years; and by the Lord's temptation in the desert for forty days; 730, 862, 2272, 2273, 8098.