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
138. This turning to the Lord is an actual turning, a kind of elevation;
for there is an uplifting into the heat and light of heaven, which takes
place by the opening of the interiors; when these are opened, love and
wisdom flow into the interiors of the mind, and the heat and light of
heaven into the interiors of the body. From this comes the uplifting,
like a rising out of a cloud into clear air, or out of air into ether.
Moreover, love and wisdom, with their heat and light, are the Lord with
man; and He, as was said before, turns man to Himself. It is the reverse
with those who are not in love and wisdom, and still more with those who
are opposed to love and wisdom. Their interiors, both of mind and body,
are closed; and when closed, the exteriors re-act against the Lord, for
such is their inherent nature. Consequently, such persons turn themselves
backward from the Lord; and turning oneself backward is turning to hell.
139. This actual turning to the Lord is from love together with Wisdom;
not from love alone, nor from wisdom alone; for love alone is like esse
[being] without its existere [taking form] since love has its form in
wisdom; and wisdom without love is like existere without its esse, since
wisdom has its form from love. Love is indeed possible without wisdom;
but such love is man's, and not the Lord's. Wisdom alone is possible
without love; but such wisdom, although from the Lord, has not the Lord
in it; for it is like the light of winter, which is from the sun; still
the sun's essence, which is heat, is not in it.
140. EVERY SPIRIT, WHATEVER HIS QUALITY, TURNS IN LIKE MANNER TO HIS
RULING LOVE.
It shall first be explained what a spirit is, and what an angel is. Every
man after death comes, in the first place, into the world of spirits,
which is midway between heaven and hell, and there passes through his own
times, that is, his own states, and becomes prepared, according to his
life, either for heaven or for hell. So long as one stays in that world
he is called a spirit. He who has been raised out of that world into
heaven is called an angel; but he who has been cast down into hell is
called either a satan or a devil. So long as these continue in the world
of spirits, he who is preparing for heaven is called an angelic spirit;
and he who is preparing for hell, an infernal spirit; meanwhile the
angelic spirit is conjoined with heaven, and the infernal spirit with
hell. All spirits in the world of spirits are adjoined to men; because
men, in respect to the interiors of their minds, are in like manner
between heaven and hell, and through these spirits they communicate with
heaven or with hell according to their life. It is to be observed that
the world of spirits is one thing, and the spiritual world another; the
world of spirits is that which has just been spoken of; but the spiritual
world includes that world, and heaven and hell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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