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
369. It is acknowledged, indeed, that man is such as his reigning love
is, but only in respect to his mind and disposition, not in respect to
his body, thus not wholly. But it has been made known to me by much
experience in the spiritual world, that man from head to foot, that is,
from things primary in the head to the outmosts in the body, is such as
his love is. For all in the spiritual world are forms of their own love;
the angels forms of heavenly love, the devils of hellish love; the devils
deformed in face and body, but the angels beautiful in face and body.
Moreover, when their love is assailed their faces are changed, and if much
assailed they wholly disappear. This is peculiar to that world, and so
happens because their bodies make one with their minds. The reason is
evident from what has been said above, that all things of the body are
derivatives, that is, are things woven together by means of fibers out of
first principles, which are receptacles of love and wisdom. Howsoever
these first principles may be, their derivatives cannot be different;
therefore wherever first principles go their derivatives follow, and
cannot be separated. For this reason he who raises his mind to the Lord
is wholly raised up to Him, and he who casts his mind down to hell is
wholly cast down thither; consequently the whole man, in conformity to his
life's love, comes either into heaven or into hell. That man's mind is a
man because God is a Man, and that the body is the mind's external, which
feels and acts, and that they are thus one and not two, is a matter of
angelic wisdom.
370. It is to be observed that the very forms of man's members, organs,
and viscera, as regards the structure itself, are from fibers that arise
out of their first principles in the brains; but these become fixed by
means of such substances and matters as are in earths, and from earths
in air and in ether. This is effected by means of the blood. Consequently,
in order that all parts of the body may be maintained in their formation
and rendered permanent in their functions, man requires to be nourished
by material food, and to be continually renewed.
371. THERE IS A CORRESPONDENCE OF THE WILL WITH THE HEART, AND OF THE
UNDERSTANDING WITH THE LUNGS.
This shall be shown in the following series:
(1) All things of the mind have relation to the will and understanding,
and all things of the body to the heart and lungs.
(2) There is a correspondence of the will and understanding with the
heart and lungs, consequently a correspondence of all things of the
mind with all things of the body.
(3) The will corresponds to the heart.
(4) The understanding corresponds to the lungs.
(5) By means of this correspondence many arcana relating to the will and
understanding, thus also to love and wisdom, may be disclosed.
(6) Man's mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the man, while the body
is the external by means of which the mind or spirit feels and acts in
its world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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