Angelic Wisdom about Divine ProvidenceSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Providence and government of God -- Christianity
203. Since every man lives forever after death and is allotted a place
either in heaven or in hell according to his life, and heaven and hell
must each be in a form to act as a unit, as we said before, and since no
one can be allotted a place in that form other than his own, humanity in
all the world is under the Lord's guidance and everyone is led by the
Lord from infancy to the close of life in the least things, and his place
is foreseen and provided.
[2] Clearly then, the Lord's divine providence is universal by being in
the least things, and it is an infinite and eternal creation that He has
provided for Himself in creating the world. Man does not espy this
universal providence, and if he did, it would look to him like scattered
heaps and collections of material for building a house such as passersby
see, while the Lord beholds rather a magnificent palace, constantly
building and enlarging.
204. (v) _Heaven and hell are in the form described._ That heaven is in
the human form has been made known in the work _Heaven and Hell,_
published in London in 1758 (nn. 59-102), also in the treatise _Divine
Love and Wisdom,_ and here and there in the present treatise. I therefore
omit further confirmation. Hell is said to be in the human form also, but
it is in a monstrous human form, like that of the devil, by whom hell in
its entirety is meant. Hell is in the human form inasmuch as those who
are in it were born human beings too; they also possess the two human
faculties of liberty and rationality, though they have misused liberty by
willing and doing evil, and rationality by thinking and confirming evil.
205. (vi) _Those who have acknowledged nature alone and human prudence
alone make up hell, and those who have acknowledged God and His divine
providence make up heaven._ All who lead an evil life, inwardly
acknowledge nature and human prudence alone. This acknowledgment lies
hidden in all evil, however the evil may be veiled by good and truth,
which are borrowed raiment, or like wreaths of perishable flowers, put
around the evil lest it appear in its nakedness. That all who lead an
evil life, inwardly acknowledge nature and human prudence alone is not
known because of this general covering hiding it from view. The source
and cause of their acknowledgment, however, may make clear that they
acknowledge nature and one's own prudence. We shall say, therefore,
whence man's own prudence is and what it is; then whence divine
providence is and what it is; next who they are respectively, and of what
character, who acknowledge divine providence and who acknowledge man's
own prudence; and lastly show that those who acknowledge divine
providence are in heaven and that those who acknowledge man's own
prudence are in hell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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