A clear definition of innocence

AC 9262 [2] From all that has just been stated regarding innocence it may be seen that what is Divine and the Lord’s cannot be received except within innocence. This being so, good is not good unless there is innocence within it, 2526, 2780, 3994, 6765, 7840, 7887, that is, unless there is the acknowledgement that from the self nothing but evil and falsity arises and that from the Lord comes all goodness and truth. Believing the former about the self, and believing the latter about the Lord and also desiring it to be so, are what constitutes innocence. Therefore the good of innocence is God’s goodness itself coming from the Lord and residing with a person. So it is that ‘the innocent’ means a person governed by interior good and in the abstract sense means interior good.

Innocence is the co-existence of the Lord and the hellish self

AC 9301 [2] The innocence that dwells in wisdom consists in the man’s knowing, acknowledging, and believing that he can understand nothing and will nothing from himself, and consequently in his not wishing to understand and will anything from himself, but only from the Lord; and also that whatever he supposes that he understands from himself is falsity; and whatever he supposes that he wills from himself is evil. This state of life is the state of innocence of the after state, in which are all who are in the third heaven, which is called “the heaven of innocence.” Hence it is that such are in wisdom, because all they understand and will is from the Lord. 

But the innocence which dwells in ignorance, such as exists with infants and children, consists in believing that all they know and think, and also all they will is in themselves; and that all they speak and do from this thought and will is from themselves. That these are fallacies, they do not apprehend. The truths belonging to this innocence are for the most part founded upon the fallacies of the external senses; and these fallacies must be shaken off as the man advances toward wisdom. From these few words it can be seen that the good of innocence of the after state must not be conjoined with the truth of innocence of the former state.

AC 10132[4]. It says that ‘the wolf will dwell with the lamb’ because ‘the wolf’ means those who are opposed to innocence, as also in the same prophet, The wolf and the lamb will feed together. They will not do evil nor destroy on all My holy mountain. Isaiah 65:25. And in Luke, Jesus said to the disciples whom He sent out, Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Luke 10:3. [5] Since the Lord when He was in the world was — as to His Human — Innocence itself, and since for this reason innocence emanates wholly from Him, the Lord is called the Lamb, and the Lamb of God.

Heaven and Hell 341 innocence is a willingness to be led by the Lord and not by oneself. Consequently, so far as a man is in innocence he is separated from his proprium, and so far as anyone is separated from his proprium he is in the Lord’s proprium.

The inner sense and literal sense in relation to innocence

AC 7840…What is meant by the interior and the exterior good of innocence shall be briefly told. In every good there must be innocence that it may be good; without innocence good is as if without its soul. The reason is that the Lord flows in by means of innocence, and by means of it vivifies the good with those who are being regenerated. The good which innocence vivifies is internal and external; internal good is with those who are called men of the internal church; but external good is with those who are men of the external church. Men of the internal church are they who have qualified their good by means of interior truths, such as are those of the internal sense of the Word; but men of the external church are they who have qualified their good by means of exterior truths, such as are those of the literal sense of the Word. 

 Innocence is the good of love to God, and dwells within ignorance, especially with the wise at heart. Those who are wise at heart know, indeed perceive, that nothing whatever of the wisdom within themselves originates in themselves, but that the all of wisdom is attributable to the Lord, that is, the all of the good of love and the all of the truth of faith are attributable to Him, and that for this reason even with the wise innocence dwells in ignorance. From this it is evident that the acknowledgement of this matter, and especially the perception of it, constitutes the innocence of wisdom.

AC 5608…[9] As regards the innocence of little children however, it is only external and not internal; and because it is not internal it cannot be conjoined with any wisdom. But the innocence of the angels, especially those of the third heaven, is internal innocence, and thus conjoined with wisdom (n. 2305, 2306, 3494, 4563, 4797). Man is so created that when he grows old and becomes like a little child, the innocence of wisdom conjoins itself with the innocence of ignorance which he had in infancy, and so he passes into the other life as a true infant. 

AC 9938(2). Innocence is the good of love to God, and dwells within ignorance, especially with the wise at heart. Those who are wise at heart know, indeed perceive, that nothing whatever of the wisdom within themselves originates in themselves, but that the all of wisdom is attributable to the Lord, that is, the all of the good of love and the all of the truth of faith are attributable to Him, and that for this reason even with the wise innocence dwells in ignorance. From this it is evident that the acknowledgement of this matter, and especially the perception of it, constitutes the innocence of wisdom.

The exterior sense becomes a plane for mature innocence

AC 5126… [2] In order that it may be known what is the exterior and what the interior natural, which are of the exterior man, and hence what is the rational, which is of the interior man, this must be briefly told. A man from his infancy even to childhood is merely sensuous, for he then receives only earthly, bodily and worldly things through the senses of the body, and from these things his ideas and thoughts are then formed — the communication with the interior man not being as yet open, or only so far that he can comprehend and retain these worldly things. The innocence which he then has is only external, and not internal; for true innocence dwells in wisdom. By external innocence the Lord reduces into order what enters through the senses; and without an influx of innocence from the Lord in that first age, there would never be any foundation upon which the intellectual or rational faculty which is proper to man, could be built.  [3] From childhood to early youth communication is opened with the interior natural by learning what is becoming, what the civil laws require, and what is honorable, both by instructions from parents and teachers and by studies. And from youth to early manhood communication is opened between the natural and the rational by learning the truths and goods of civil and moral life, and especially the truths and goods of spiritual life, through the hearing and reading of the Word; but insofar as the youth then becomes imbued with goods by means of truths, that is, insofar as he does the truths which he learns, so far the rational is opened; whereas insofar as he does not become imbued with goods by means of truths, or insofar as he does not do truths, so far the rational is not opened, and yet the knowledges still remain in the natural, namely, in its memory, and thus as it were on the threshold outside the house. [4] Insofar, however, as he then and in subsequent years disregards goods and truths, and denies and acts contrary to them, that is, instead of them believes falsities and does evils, so far the rational is closed, and also the interior natural; nevertheless of the Lord’s Divine providence so much of communication still remains as to enable him to apprehend goods and truths with some degree of understanding, yet not to make them his own unless he performs serious repentance and for a long while afterward struggles with falsities and evils. With those, however, who suffer themselves to be regenerated, the contrary comes to pass; for by degrees or successively the rational is opened in them, and to this the interior natural is made subordinate, and to this the exterior natural. This takes place especially in youth up to adult age, and progressively to the last years of their life, and afterward in heaven to eternity. From all this it may be known what is the interior and what the exterior natural in man.

Conjugial Love 413. XXI. THAT IT IS THERE PROVIDED BY THE LORD THAT THE INNOCENCE OF INFANCY WITH INFANTS BECOME THE INNOCENCE OF WISDOM. Many may think that infants remain infants and become angels immediately after death. But it is intelligence and wisdom that make an angel, and therefore, so long as infants do not have these, they are indeed with the angels but are not angels. They first become angels when they become intelligent and wise. Thus, infants are led from the innocence of infancy to the innocence of wisdom, that is, from external innocence to internal innocence, the latter being the end in all their instruction and progression. Therefore, when they come to the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of infancy, which meanwhile has served them as a plane, is adjoined to them. I have seen the nature of the innocence of infancy represented by something woody, almost devoid of life. This is vivified as the infant is imbued with knowledges of truth and affections of good. Later, the nature of the innocence of wisdom was represented by a living and naked infant.

AC 4563 [2] It is well known that a person derives evil from both parents and that this evil is called hereditary evil. He is therefore born with that evil, but it does not show itself until he grows up and acts from his understanding and his will based on his understanding. In the meantime it lies hidden, especially during early childhood. Now because in the Lord’s mercy no one can come to be blamed for his hereditary evil, only for the evil of his own doing, 966, 2308, and hereditary evil cannot become evil of his own doing until he acts from his own understanding and his own will, young children are therefore guided by the Lord by means of young children and angels. It is for this reason that they are seen to live in a state of innocence; yet hereditary evil lies hidden within each particular thing they do, 2300, 2307, 2308. This hereditary evil even provides them with nourishment, that is, it acts like a nurse until they reach the age of discretion, 4063. Then, if they are being regenerated, they are brought by the Lord into the state of a new infancy, and at length into heavenly wisdom, and so into genuine infancy, which innocence is; for genuine infancy, or innocence, dwells within wisdom, 2305, 3183. The difference is that the innocence of infancy is present outwardly and hereditary evil inwardly, whereas the innocence of wisdom is present inwardly and evil — hereditary and that of the person’s own doing — outwardly. From these considerations, and many others mentioned previously, it is evident that hereditary evil serves so to speak as nourishment from earliest infancy to the age of the new infancy. This explains why ‘a nurse’ means hereditary evil, as well as meaning the instillation of innocence by means of that which is celestial-spiritual. [3] Since the arrangement or ordering of truths by good within the Lord’s Natural, and consequently the progression towards aspects more interior, 4536, is the subject in the internal sense of this chapter therefore the casting out of hereditary evil is dealt with too. This is the reason why in this verse the death of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, and her burial under an oak tree are recorded, which are matters that would be too unimportant to interrupt the sequence of events described here if they did not embody the kind of the things that have been mentioned.

AC 3074…A summary description is here given of the process in which truth appears by means of memory-knowledges, and is elevated from them out of the natural man into the rational, and becomes rational truth (in the Lord, Divine); namely, that this is effected by the influx of the Divine love into the Human, from which comes the affection of truth in which is innocence. By virtue of such an influx, the memory-knowledges in the natural man were enlightened, and the truths made their appearance that were to be elevated into the rational and there conjoined with the good of the Divine love. The same things are described more particularly in what follows. But he who does not know that all things in general and in particular are disposed, even in the natural man, by an influx of love, and from this of an affection in which there is innocence, can have but a very obscure idea, if any, of what was said above and of what has now been said.

Extras

AC 10021 That the innocence of infants is external innocence, and dwells in ignorance, n. 2305, 2306, 3495, 3504, 4563, 4797, 5608, 9301: That the man who is being regenerated is conceived anew, is born, becomes an infant and a child, and grows up to maturity, n. 3203: That the innocence of infancy is a plane, n. 2780, 3183, 3994, 4797, 5608, 7840: That the knowledges of truth and good are implanted in the innocence of infancy as their plane, n. 1616, 2299, 3504, 4797: That the innocence of the regenerate is internal innocence, and dwells in wisdom, n. 1616, 3495, 3994, 4797, 5608, 9301, 9939: The difference between the external innocence of little children, and the internal innocence of the wise, n. 2280, 4563, 9301: That such is the case can be seen from the education and regeneration of little children in the other life, n. 2289-2309: That all the good of the church and of heaven has innocence in it, and that without innocence good is not good, n. 2736, 2780, 6013, 7840, 7887, 9262: What innocence is,  n.3994,  4001,  4797,  5236,  6107,  6765,  7902,  9262,  9936.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.