Swedenborg equates the process of growing up to the process of spiritual development, from the pure innocence and undifferentiated potential of infancy to the spiritual fullness of old age. In that view, “children” occupy a fairly specific slot, older than “sucklings” (toddlers, to be more modern) and younger than “youths” — probably roughly ages 5 to 12. Swedenborg says these children no longer represent innocence, as younger ones do, but that the love for parents which predominates at that age represents the affection for what is good. This can be broken down further into a sort of pure affection that comes from a love of the Lord, and a more thoughtful affection expressed in friendship and a state of caring about others.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 430
430. ‘A little one’ or little child in the Word means innocence, and also charity, for true innocence does not exist without charity, nor true charity without innocence. There are three degrees of innocence, which are distinguished in the Word as sucklings, infants, and little children. And because true innocence cannot exist without true love and charity these same three, sucklings, infants, and little children, also mean three degrees of love, which are the tender love which is like that of a suckling for mother or nursemaid; the love which is like that of an infant for parents; and charity which is like a little child’s attitude towards its teacher; as in Isaiah,
The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child will lead them. Isa 11:6.
Here ‘lamb’, ‘kid’, and ‘calf’ stand for the three degrees of innocence and of love, ‘wolf’, ‘leopard’, and ‘young lion’ for their opposites. ‘A little child’ stands for charity.
Arcana Coelestia n. 3183
Sucklings and those who suckle them are mentioned frequently in the Word, where they mean the first state that young children pass through, which is plainly a state of innocence. For as soon as anyone is born he is brought into a state of innocence. This state then serves as the basis of all other states and is the inner core of them all; and this state is meant in the Word by ‘a suckling’. After he has been brought into a state of innocence he is led into a state of affection for celestial good, that is, into a state of love towards parents, which with them exists in place of love to the Lord; this state is meant by ‘a young child’. After that he is led into a state of affection for spiritual good, which is mutual love, or charity towards those who are children like himself, which state is meant by the expression ‘boys’. When he grows up further still he is led into a state of affection for truth; this is meant by the expression ‘young men’. Subsequent states however are meant by ‘men’ and at last ‘old men’. This final state, which is meant by the expression ‘old men’, is a state of wisdom which has the innocence of earliest childhood within it, and so the first state and the last are united. And when he is old, being so to speak a small child again yet one who is now wise, that person is led into the Lord’s kingdom.
Arcana Celestia n. 3690-2
[2] To demonstrate more fully what that life is, and what it is like, let a further brief statement be made about it. All the details of the historical tales contained in the Word are truths more remote from the actual matters of doctrine that are Divine. Nevertheless they are of service to young and older children in that by means of those tales they are led gradually into more interior matters of doctrine concerning what is true and good, and at length into Divine ones; for inmostly those tales hold what is Divine within them. When young children read them and in innocence are filled with affection for them, the angels present with them experience a delightful heavenly state, for the Lord fills those angels with affection for the internal sense and so for the things which the events of the historical tales represent and mean. It is that heavenly delight experienced by angels which flows in and causes the young children to take delight in those tales. In order that this first state may exist, that is, the state in early and later childhood of those who are to be regenerated, the historical tales in the Word have therefore been provided and written in such a way that every single detail there contains that which is Divine within them.
Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 277
277. The innocence of childhood or of little children is not genuine innocence, for it is innocence not in internal, but only in external form. Nevertheless, one may learn from it what innocence is. For it shines forth from the faces of children and from some of their movements and from their earliest speech, and affects those about them. It can be seen that children have no internal thought, for they do not yet know what is good andwhat is evil, or what is true and what is false, of which such thought consists. [2] Consequently, they have no prudence from their proprium, no purpose or deliberation, thus no intention of an evil nature. They have no proprium acquired from love of self and the world. They do not attribute anything to themselves, regarding all as received from their parents. They are content with the few insignificant things presented to them, anddelight in them. They have no anxiety about food and clothing, and none about the future. They do not look to the world and covet many things from it. They love their parents and nurses and their child companions with whom they play in innocence. They suffer themselves to be led, they give heed and obey. [3] Being in this state they receive all things with their life. Therefore, without knowing why, they acquire becoming manners, learn to talk, and have the beginning of memory and thought, their state of innocence serving as a medium whereby these things are received and implanted. But this innocence, as stated above, is external, because it belongs to the body alone, and not to the mind (mens);# for their minds are not yet formed, the mind being understanding and will, and thought and affection therefrom. [4] I have been told from heaven that little children are especially under the Lord’s care, and that they receive influx from the inmost heaven, where there is a state of innocence, and that this influx passes through their interiors, and that in its passing through, their interiors are affected solely by the innocence. It is because of this that innocence is shown in their faces and in some of their movements and becomes evident. Also, it is this innocence by which parents are inmostly affected, and that gives rise to the love that is called natural affection (storge).
Heaven and Hell (Ager) n. 329.
It is a belief of some that only such children as are born within the church go to heaven, and that those born out of the church do not, and for the reason that the children within the church are baptized and by baptism are initiated into faith of the church. Such are not aware that no one receives heaven or faith through baptism; for baptism is merely for a sign and memorial that man should be regenerated, and that those born within the church can be regenerated because the Word is there, and in the Word are the Divine truths by means of which regeneration is effected, and there the Lord who regenerates is known.# Let them know therefore that every child, wherever he is born, whether within the church or outside of it, whether of pious parents or impious, is received when he dies by the Lord and trained up in heaven, and taught in accordance with Divine order, and imbued with affections for what is good, and through these with knowledges of what is true; andafterwards as he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom is introduced into heaven and becomes an angel. Everyone who thinks from reason can be sure that all are born for heaven and no one for hell, and if man comes into hell he himself is culpable; but little children cannot be held culpable.
Heaven and Hell (Ager) n. 330
330. When children die they are still children in the other life, having a like infantile mind, a like innocence in ignorance, and a like tenderness in all things. They are merely in the rudiments of a capacity to become angels, for children are not angels but become angels. For everyone passing out of this world enters the other in the same state of life, a little child in the state of a little child, a boy in the state of a boy, a youth, a man, an old man, in the state of a youth, a man, or an old man; but subsequently each one’s state is changed. The state of little children surpasses the state of all others in that they are in innocence, and evil has not yet been rooted in them by actual life; and in innocence all things of heaven can be implanted, for it is a receptacle of the truth of faith and of the good of love.