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
But say the same things
to one of the learned, who has not thought from common perception, but
from principles or from ideas obtained from the world through sight, and
he will not see. Then consider which is the wiser.
362. WILL AND UNDERSTANDING, WHICH ARE THE RECEPTACLES OF LOVE AND WISDOM,
ARE IN THE BRAINS, IN THE WHOLE AND IN EVERY PART OF THEM, AND THEREFROM
IN THE BODY, IN THE WHOLE AND IN EVERY PART OF IT.
This shall be shown in the following order:
(1) Love and wisdom, and will and understanding therefrom, make the very
life of man.
(2) The life of man in its first principles is in the brains, and in its
derivatives in the body.
(3) Such as life is in its first principles, such it is in the whole and
in every part.
(4) By means of first principles life is in the whole from every part,
and in every part from the whole.
(5) Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, consequently such is the man.
363. (1) Love and wisdom, and will and understanding therefrom, make the
very life of man. Scarcely any one knows what life is. When one thinks
about life, it seems as if it were a fleeting something, of which no
distinct idea is possible. It so seems because it is not known that God
alone is life, and that His life is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. From
this it is evident that in man life is nothing else than love and wisdom,
and that there is life in man in the degree in which he receives these.
It is known that heat and light go forth from the sun, and that all things
in the universe are recipients and grow warm and bright in the degree in
which they receive. So do heat and light go forth from the sun where the
Lord is; the heat going forth therefrom is love, and the light wisdom (as
shown in Part Second). Life, therefore, is from these two which go forth
from the Lord as a sun. That love and wisdom from the Lord is life can be
seen also from this, that man grows torpid as love recedes from him, and
stupid as wisdom recedes from him, and that were they to recede altogether
he would become extinct. There are many things pertaining to love which
have received other names because they are derivatives, such as affections,
desires, appetites, and their pleasures and enjoyments; and there are many
things pertaining to wisdom, such as perception, reflection, recollection,
thought, intention to an end; and there are many pertaining to both love
and wisdom, such as consent, conclusion, and determination to action;
besides others. All of these, in fact, pertain to both, but they are
designated from the more prominent and nearer of the two. From these two
are derived ultimately sensations, those of sight, hearing, smell, taste,
and touch, with their enjoyments and pleasures. It is according to
appearance that the eye sees; but it is the understanding that sees
through the eye; consequently seeing is predicated also of the
understanding. The appearance is that the ear hears; but it is the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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