Angelic Wisdom about Divine ProvidenceSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Providence and government of God -- Christianity
28. (i) _Heaven is conjunction with the Lord._ Heaven is heaven, not from
the angels but from the Lord. For the love and wisdom in which angels are
and which make heaven are not theirs, but the Lord's, indeed are the Lord
in them. And as love and wisdom are the Lord's, and are the Lord in
heaven, and make the life of angels, it is plain that their life is the
Lord's, indeed is the Lord. The angels themselves avow that they live
from the Lord. Hence it is evident that heaven is conjunction with the
Lord. But conjunction with Him is various and one man's heaven is not
another's; therefore heaven is also according to the conjunction with the
Lord. In the following proposition it will be seen that conjunction is
more and more close or more and more remote.
[2] Here let something be said about how the conjunction takes place and
what the nature of it is. It is a conjunction of the Lord with the angels
and of the angels with Him, therefore is reciprocal. The Lord flows into
the life's love of the angels, and they receive Him in wisdom, thus in
turn conjoining themselves with Him. It must be said, however, that it
seems to the angels that they conjoin themselves to the Lord by wisdom;
actually the Lord conjoins them to Himself by their wisdom, for the
wisdom is also from the Lord. It is the same thing if we say that the
Lord conjoins Himself to the angels by good and they in turn conjoin
themselves to the Lord by truth, for all good is of love, and truth, of
wisdom.
[3] This reciprocal conjunction is an arcanum, however, which few can
understand unless it is explained. I want therefore to unfold it so far
as it can be done by things within one's grasp. We showed in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 404, 405) how love unites itself with
wisdom, namely, through affection for knowing from which comes an
affection for truth, through affection for understanding from which comes
perception of truth, and through affection for seeing what is known and
understood, from which comes thought. Into all these affections the Lord
flows, for they are all derivatives of one's life's love, and the angels
receive the influx in perception of truth and in thought, for in these
the influx becomes apparent to them, but not in the affections.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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