Angelic Wisdom about Divine ProvidenceSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Providence and government of God -- Christianity
[5] Third: _External enjoyments entice assent and love from the
internal._ Enjoyments are of two kinds, of the understanding or of the
will. Enjoyments of the understanding are also enjoyments of wisdom, and
those of the will also enjoyments of love; for wisdom belongs to the
understanding and love to the will. Enjoyments of the body or of the
senses, which are external pleasures, act as one with the internal
enjoyments, which are enjoyments of the understanding and the will.
Therefore, just as the internal is so averse to compulsion by the
external as to turn away, it looks so kindly on enjoyment in the external
that it turns to it. Assent follows on the part of the understanding, and
love on the part of the will.
[6] In the spiritual world all children are introduced by the Lord into
angelic wisdom and through this into heavenly love by delightful and
charming means, first by pretty things in the home and the charms of a
garden; then by representations of spiritual things affecting the
interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by truths of wisdom
and goods of love. Thus they are steadily led by enjoyments in due order,
first by the enjoyments of a love of the understanding and of its wisdom,
and then by the enjoyments of the love of the will which is their life's
love, to which all else that has entered through enjoyment is kept
subordinate.
[7] This is done because the will and understanding must all be formed by
what is external before they are formed by what is internal, for they are
formed first by what enters by the physical senses, chiefly the sight and
the hearing; then when a first will and understanding have been formed,
the internal of thought regards them as the externals of its thinking,
and either joins itself to them or separates itself from them, as they
are or are not enjoyable to it.
[8] It should be well understood, however, that the internal of the
understanding does not unite itself to the internal of the will, but it
is the latter that unites itself to the former and causes reciprocal
union. This is done by the internal of the will, not at all by the
internal of the understanding. Hence it is that man cannot be reformed by
faith alone, but by the love of the will which makes a faith for itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account