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
That God is infinite is well known, for He is called the Infinite; and
He is called the Infinite because He is infinite. He is infinite not from
this alone, that He is very Esse and Existere in itself, but because in
Him there are infinite things. An infinite without infinite things in it,
is infinite in name only. The infinite things in Him cannot be called
infinitely many, nor infinitely all, because of the natural idea of many
and of all; for the natural idea of infinitely many is limited, and the
natural idea of infinitely all, though not limited, is derived from
limited things in the universe. Therefore man, because his ideas are
natural, is unable by any refinement or approximation, to come into a
perception of the infinite things in God; and an angel, while he is
able, because he is in spiritual ideas, to rise by refinement and
approximation above the degree of man, is still unable to attain to
that perception.
18. That in God there are infinite things, any one may convince himself
who believes that God is a Man; for, being a Man, He has a body and every
thing pertaining to it, that is, a face, breast, abdomen, loins and feet;
for without these He would not be a Man. And having these, He also has
eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and tongue; also the parts within man, as the
heart and lungs, and their dependencies, all of which, taken together,
make man to be a man. In a created man these parts are many, and regarded
in their details of structure are numberless; but in God-Man they are
infinite, nothing whatever is lacking, and from this He has infinite
perfection. This comparison holds between the uncreated Man who is God
and created man, because God is a Man; and He Himself says that the man
of this world was created after His image and into His likeness
(Gen. 1:26, 27).
19. That in God there are infinite things, is still more evident to the
angels from the heavens in which they dwell. The whole heaven, consisting
of myriads of myriads of angels, in its universal form is like a man. So
is each society of heaven, be it larger or smaller. From this, too, an
angel is a man, for an angel is a heaven in least form. (This is shown
in the work Heaven and Hell, n. 51-86.) Heaven as a whole, in part, and
in the individual, is in that form by virtue of the Divine which angels
receive; for in the measure in which an angel receives from the Divine
is he in complete form a man. From this it is that angels are said to be
in God, and God in them; also, that God is their all. How many things
there are in heaven cannot be told; and because the Divine is what makes
heaven, and consequently these unspeakably many things are from the
Divine, it is clearly evident that there are infinite things in Very Man,
who is God.
20. From the created universe a like conclusion may be drawn when it is
regarded from uses and their correspondences. But before this can be
understood some preliminary illustrations must be given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account