Angelic Wisdom about Divine ProvidenceSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Providence and government of God -- Christianity
[2] From this it is plain that man can be admitted into wisdom about
spiritual things and also into love of them and still not be reformed; he
is admitted only into a natural love of them, not into a spiritual. This
is for the reason that man can admit himself into a natural love, but the
Lord alone can admit him into a spiritual love, and those admitted into
this are reformed, but those admitted only into the natural love are not.
For the most part the latter are hypocrites, and many are of the Order of
Jesuits who inwardly do not believe in the divine at all, but play
outwardly with divine things like actors.
223. It has been granted me by much experience in the spiritual world to
know that man possesses in himself the faculty of apprehending arcana of
wisdom like the angels themselves. For I have seen fiery devils who not
only understood arcana of wisdom when they heard them, but who spoke
them, too, out of their rationality. But the moment they returned to
their diabolical love they did not understand them, but in place of them
the contrary, which was insanity, and this they called wisdom. In fact, I
was allowed to hear them laugh at their insanity when they were in a
state of wisdom, and at wisdom when they were in an insane state. One who
has been of this character in the world, on becoming a spirit after death
is usually brought into states of wisdom and insanity by turns, for him
to distinguish the one from the other. But although such men see from the
wisdom that they are insane, when the choice is given them, as it is to
each, they betake themselves into the state of insanity, love it and feel
hatred for the state of wisdom. The reason is that their inward nature
has been diabolical and their outward seemingly divine. They are meant by
devils who affect to be angels of light, and by the man in the house of
the nuptials who was not dressed in a wedding garment and was cast into
outer darkness (Mt 22:11-13).
224. Who cannot see that it is the internal from which the external
exists and that consequently the external has its essence from the
internal? And who does not know by experience that the external can
appear out of accord with the essence it has from the internal? It does
so obviously with hypocrites, flatterers and dissemblers. That a person
can outwardly feign to be other than himself is manifest from actors and
mimics. They know how to represent kings, emperors and even angels in
tone of voice, speech, face and gesture as though they were really such,
when they are nevertheless only actors. We allude to this because man can
similarly act the deceiver in spiritual things as well as civil and
moral, and that many do is well known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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