Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence — John Shaqi
Angelic Wisdom about Divine ProvidenceSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Providence and government of God -- Christianity
30. The Lord's heaven in the natural world is called the church; an angel
of this heaven is a man of the church who is conjoined to the Lord; on
departure from this world he also becomes an angel of the spiritual
heaven. What was said of the angelic heaven is evidently to be
understood, then, of the human heaven also which is called the church.
The reciprocal conjunction with the Lord which makes heaven in the human
being is revealed by the Lord in these words in John:
Abide in Me, and I in you; ... he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing (15:4, 5, 7).
31. It is plain from this that the Lord is heaven not only in general
with all in heaven, but in particular with each one there. For each angel
is a heaven in least form; of as many heavens as there are angels, does
heaven in general consist. In substantiation see _Heaven and Hell_ (nn.
51-58). Since this is so, let no one cherish the mistaken idea, which
first visits the thought of so many, that the Lord dwells in heaven among
the angels or is among them like a king in his kingdom. To the sight He
is above them in the sun there; He is in them in their life of love and
wisdom.
32. (ii) _By creation the human being is such that he can be conjoined
more and more closely to the Lord._ This becomes evident from what was
shown about degrees in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ Part III,
especially in the propositions: "By creation there are three discrete
degrees or degrees of height in the human being" (nn. 230-235); "These
three degrees are in man from birth, and as they are opened, the man is
in the Lord, and the Lord in him" (nn. 236-241); "All perfection
increases and mounts with and according to the degrees" (nn. 199-204).
Evidently, then, man is such by creation that he can be conjoined with
the Lord more and more closely according to these degrees.
[2] But one must know well what degrees are and that there are two kinds
--discrete degrees or degrees of height, and continuous degrees or degrees
of breadth; also how they differ. It must be known, too, that every human
being has by creation and hence from birth three discrete degrees or
degrees of height, and that he comes at birth into the first degree,
called natural, and can grow in this degree continuously until he becomes
rational. He comes into the second degree, called spiritual, if he lives
according to spiritual laws of order, which are divine truths. He can
also come into the third degree, called celestial, if he lives according
to the celestial laws of order, which are divine goods.
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