Life of Emanuel Swedenborg: Together with a brief synopsis of his writings, both philosophical and theologicalWhite, William
Religion
Life of Emanuel Swedenborg: Together with a brief synopsis of his writings, both philosophical and theological
White, William
Mystics -- Sweden -- Biography; Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688-1772
_The Divine Love and Divine Wisdom—The Continuation of the Last
Judgment._
The treatise on the Divine Love and Wisdom, is a book which, when
mastered, affords a key to the whole philosophy of the New Church, and to
a rational understanding of all the writings of Swedenborg. When we say
this, it will be easily understood that it is not a book to be read in a
few hours, or hastily glanced over. Every page is pregnant with thought,
and many of its paragraphs might be expanded into volumes. It is a book
which, full of thought on the deepest subjects, demands an exercise of
like thought on the part of its reader; and if he has patience, and a
simple love of truth for its own sake, happy will he be when he has made
himself familiar with the divine thoughts which, like stars, gem every
page of this matchless treatise.
The book is divided into five Parts. The First Part sets forth, in the
simplest language, the doctrine of the Divine Nature. The Lord’s essence
is shown to be Infinite Love, and its manifestation to be Infinite
Wisdom. It is proved that the Divine Love is the only life in the
universe, and that in God “all things live, move, and have their being.”
The Lord is also proved to be very and essential Man, yet above and
independent of all space and time, filling all spaces of the universe
without space, and all time without time; and being in the greatest
and the least things evermore the same. These statements may appear
inconsequential, but in our limited space, we can not explain more
fully. We could not give the proofs satisfactorily, without quoting the
volume itself. Argument is so linked to argument, that they hardly admit
of separation.
The Second Part of the work treats of the sun of heaven, and the sun of
our world. It is shown that from the Lord flows a Divine Sphere, which
appears in the spiritual world as a sun. From its heat, angels and man
have their love, and from its light their wisdom, thus their life. This
sun is not God, but it is the first proceeding from the Divine Love and
the Divine Wisdom of God-Man. By means of this sun the Lord created the
universe and all things in it. The sun of the natural world is pure fire,
and therefore dead; and since nature derives its origin from that sun, it
also is dead. Without two suns, the one living and the other dead, there
could be no creation. The end of creation is, that all things may return
to the Creator, and conjunction may exist in its ultimates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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