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
395. Since the soul in its very esse is love and wisdom, and these two in
man are from the Lord, there are created in man two receptacles, which are
also the abodes of the Lord in man; one for love, the other for wisdom,
the one for love called the will, the other for wisdom called the
understanding. Now since Love and Wisdom in the Lord are one distinctly
(as may be seen above, n. 17-22), and Divine Love is of His Divine Wisdom,
and Divine Wisdom is of His Divine Love (n. 34-39), and since these so go
forth from God-Man, that is, from the Lord, therefore these two
receptacles and abodes of the Lord in man, the will and understanding, are
so created by the Lord as to be distinctly two, and yet make one in every
operation and every sensation; for in these the will and understanding
cannot be separated. Nevertheless, to enable man to become a receptacle
and an abode of the Lord, it is provided, as necessary to this end, that
man's understanding can be raised above his proper love into some light of
wisdom in the love of which the man is not, and that he can thereby see
and be taught how he must live if he would come also into that higher
love, and thus enjoy eternal happiness. But by the misuse of this power
to elevate the understanding above his proper love, man has subverted in
himself that which might have been the receptacle and abode of the Lord
(that is, of love and wisdom from the Lord), by making the will an abode
for the love of self and the world, and the understanding an abode for
whatever confirms those loves. From this it has come that these two abodes,
the will and understanding, have become abodes of infernal love, and by
confirmations in favor of these loves, abodes of infernal thought, which
in hell is esteemed as wisdom.
396. The reason why the love of self and love of the world are infernal
loves, and yet man has been able to come into them and thus subvert the
will and understanding within him, is as follows: the love of self and
the love of the world by creation are heavenly loves; for they are loves
of the natural man serviceable to spiritual loves, as a foundation is to
a house. For man, from the love of self and the world, seeks the welfare
of his body, desires food, clothing, and habitation, is solicitous for
the welfare of his family, and to secure employment for the sake of use,
and even, in the interest of obedience, to be honored according to the
dignity of the affairs which he administers, and to find delight and
refreshment in worldly enjoyment; yet all this for the sake of the end,
which must be use For through these things man is in a state to serve the
Lord and to serve the neighbor. When, however, there is no love of serving
the Lord and serving the neighbor, but only a love of serving himself by
means of the world, then from being heavenly that love becomes hellish,
for it causes a man to sink his mind and disposition in what is his own,
and that in itself is wholly evil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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