Angelic Wisdom about Divine ProvidenceSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Providence and government of God -- Christianity
[4] This can make plain what kind of form or organ an evil man is and
what kind of form or organ a good man is, and that they are turned in
opposite directions. As the turning once established cannot be twisted
back it is plain that man remains to eternity such as he is at death.
The love of man's will is what effects this turning, or is what either
converts or inverts, for, as was said above, each person is his own love.
Hence, on death, everyone goes the way of his love, the man in a good
love to heaven, and the man in an evil love to hell, nor does he rest
except in that society where his ruling love is. Marvelous it is that
each knows the way; it is as though he scents it.
320. (iv) _If man believed, as is the truth, that all good and truth are
from the Lord and all evil and falsity from hell, he would not
appropriate good to himself and consider it merited, nor evil and make
himself responsible for it._ This is contrary to the belief of those who
have confirmed in themselves the appearance that wisdom and prudence come
from man and do not flow in according to the state of the organization of
the mind, treated of above (n. 319). It must therefore be demonstrated,
and to be done clearly, it will be done in this order:
1. One who confirms in himself the appearance that wisdom and prudence
are from man and thus in him as his, must take the view that otherwise he
would not be a man, but either a beast or a statue; yet the contrary is
true.
2. To believe and think, as is the truth, that all good and truth are
from the Lord and all evil and falsity from hell, seems impossible, yet
is truly human and hence angelic.
3. So to believe and think is impossible to those who do not acknowledge
the divine of the Lord and that evils are sins, but possible for those
who make these two acknowledgments.
4. Those who make the two acknowledgments alone reflect on the evils in
themselves, and so far as they flee them and are averse to them, they
send them back to hell from which they come.
5. So divine providence appropriates neither evil nor good to anyone, but
one's own prudence appropriates both.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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