Spiritual Life and the Word of GodSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Spiritual Life and the Word of God
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Spiritual life; Ten commandments; Word of God (Christian theology)
It has been said that the Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and
that the Word is from that, and that through the Word angels and men
have wisdom. But so long as it is unknown how Divine truth goes forth
from the Lord, this may be said but it cannot be understood. Divine
truth, which is the same as Divine wisdom, goes forth from the Lord as
light and heat do from the sun. The Lord is Divine love itself, and
love appears in the heavens from correspondence as fire, and the Lord's
Divine love as a sun, glowing and resplendent like the sun of the world.
From that sun, which is high above the heavens where the angels are, and
which is Divine love, heat and light go forth; the heat therefrom is
Divine good, and the light therefrom is Divine truth. The heat is
Divine good, because all heat of life going forth from love is felt as
good, for it is spiritual heat; and the light is Divine truth because
all light going forth from love is felt as truth, for it is spiritual
light; consequently it is from that light that the understanding sees
truths, and it is from that heat that the will is sensible of goods; and
this is why in the Word love is meant by heavenly fire and wisdom by
heavenly light.
It is the same with a man and with an angel. Every angel and man is his
own love, and a sphere flowing out from his love encompasses every man
and angel. That sphere consists of the good of his love and of the
truth of his love, for love gives forth both, as fire gives forth both
heat and light; from the will of a man or angel it gives forth good, and
from his understanding it gives forth truth. This sphere, when the man
or angel is good, has an extension into the heavens in every direction
according to the character and amount of the love, and into the hells in
every direction when the man or angel is evil. But the sphere of the
love of a man or an angel has a finite extension into a few societies
only of heaven or hell, while the sphere of the Lord's love, being
Divine, has an infinite extension, and creates the heavens themselves.
(A.E., n. 1076.)
The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this respect, that in every
particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which
testifies that the Word is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord,
which is Divine good and Divine truth reciprocally united; and also
testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven
and the church, which also is reciprocal. There is a marriage of good
and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in
order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to
men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from
truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal. This
reciprocal love the Lord sets forth in John:
"He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in
him" (vi. 56).
In the same,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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