Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine WisdomSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom
Swedenborg, Emanuel
God (Christianity) -- Love; God (Christianity) -- Wisdom
332. Uses for perfecting the rational are all things that give instruction
about the subjects above mentioned, and are called sciences and branches
of study, pertaining to natural, economical, civil and moral affairs,
which are learned either from parents and teachers, or from books, or
from interaction with others, or by reflection on these subjects by
oneself. These things perfect the rational so far as they are uses in a
higher degree, and they are permanent as far as they are applied to life.
Space forbids the enumeration of these uses, by reason both of their
multitude and of their varied relation to the common good.
333. Uses for receiving the spiritual from the Lord, are all things that
belong to religion and to worship therefrom; thus all things that teach
the acknowledgment and knowledge of God and the knowledge and
acknowledgment of good and truth and thus eternal life, which are
acquired in the same way as other learning, from parents, teachers,
discourses, and books, and especially by applying to life what is so
learned; and in the Christian world, by doctrines and discourses from
the Word, and through the Word from the Lord. These uses in their full
extent may be described under the same heads as the uses of the body, as
nourishment, clothing, habitation, recreation and enjoyment, and
preservation of state, if only they are applied to the soul; as nutrition
to goods of love, clothing to truths of wisdom, habitation to heaven,
recreation and enjoyment to felicity of life and heavenly joy, protection
to safety from infesting evils, and preservation of state to eternal life.
All these things are given by the Lord according to the acknowledgment
that all bodily things are also from the Lord, and that a man is only as
a servant and house-steward appointed over the goods of his Lord.
334. That such things have been given to man to use and enjoy, and that
they are free gifts, is clearly evident from the state of angels in the
heavens, who have, like men on earth, a body, a rational, and a spiritual.
They are nourished freely, for food is given them daily; they are clothed
freely, for garments are given them; their dwellings are free, for houses
are given them; nor have they any care about all these things; and so far
as they are rational-spiritual do they have enjoyment, protection, and
preservation of state. The difference is that angels see that these
things, - because created according to the state of their love and
wisdom, - are from the Lord (as was shown in the preceding chapter,
n. 322); but men do not see this, because their harvest returns yearly,
and is not in accord with the state of their love and wisdom, but in
accord with the care bestowed by them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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