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Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love and Wisdom EMANUEL SWEDENBORG Translated from the Original Latin by John C. Ager STANDARD EDITION SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION West Chester, Pennsylvania © 2009 Swedenborg Foundation This version was compiled from electronic files of the Standard Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg as further edited by William Ross Woofenden. Pagination of this PDF document does not match that of the corresponding printed volumes, and any page references within this text may not be accurate. However, most if not all of the numerical references herein are not to page numbers but to Swedenborg’s section numbers, which are not affected by changes in pagination. If this work appears both separately and as part of a larger volume file, its pagination follows that of the larger volume in both cases. This version has not been proofed against the original, and occasional errors in conversion may remain. To purchase the full set of the Redesigned Standard Edition of Emanuel Swedenborg’s works, or the available volumes of the latest translation (the New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg), contact the Swedenborg Foundation at 1-800-355-3222, www.swedenborg.com, or 320 North Church Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380. Contents Editor’s Preface 1. [The Creator] Love is the life of man God alone, consequently the Lord, is Love itself, because he is life itself, and angels and men are recipients of life The Divine is not in space God is very man In God-Man esse and existere are one distinguishably In God-Man infinite things are one distinguishably There is one God-Man, from whom all things come The Divine essence itself is love and wisdom Divine love is of Divine wisdom, and Divine wisdom is of Divine love Divine love and Divine wisdom are substance and are form Divine love and Divine wisdom are substance and form in itself, thus the very and the only Divine love and Divine wisdom must necessarily have being and have form in others created by itself All things in the universe are creationed from the Divine love and the Divine wisdom of God-man All things in the created universe are recipients of the Divine love and the Divine wisdom of God-Man All created things have relation in a kind of image to man The uses of all created things ascend by degrees from last things to man, and through man to God the creator, from whom they are The Divine, apart from space, fills all spaces of the universe The Divine is in all time, apart from time The Divine in things greatest and least is the same 2. [The Means of Creation] Divine love and Divine wisdom appear in the spiritual world as a sun Out of the sun that takes form from the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, heat and light go forth The sun of the spiritual world is not God, but is a proceeding from the Divine love and Divine wisdom of God-Man; so also are the heat and light from that sun (n. 93). Spiritual heat and light, in proceeding from the Lord as a sun, make one, just as his Divine love and Divine wisdom make one The sun of the spiritual world appears at a middle altitude, far off from the angels, like the sun of the natural world from men The distance between the sun and the angels in the spiritual world is an appearance according to reception by them of Divine love and Divine wisdom Angels are in the Lord, and the Lord in them; and because angels are recipients, the Lord alone is heaven In the spiritual world the east is where the Lord appears as a sun, and from that the other quarters are determined The quarters in the spiritual world are not from the Lord as a sun, but from the angels according to reception Angels turn their faces constantly to the Lord as a sun, and thus have the south to the right, the north to the left, and the west behind them All interior things of the angels, both of mind and body, are turned to the Lord as a sun Every spirit, whatever his quality, turns in like manner to his ruling love Divine love and Divine wisdom, proceeding from the Lord as a sun and producing heat and light in heaven, are the proceeding Divine, which is the holy spirit The Lord created the universe and all things of it by means of the sun which is the first proceeding of Divine love and Divine wisdom The sun of the natural world is pure fire, consequently dead; nature also is dead, because it derives its origin from that sun Without a double sun, one living and the other dead, no creation is possible The end of creation has form in outmosts, which end is that all things may return to the creator and that there may be conjunction 3. [The Structure of Creation] In the spiritual world there are atmospheres, waters, and lands, just as in the natural world; only the former are spiritual, while the latter are natural There are degrees of love and wisdom, consequently degrees of heat and light, also degrees of atmosphere Degrees are of a two-fold kind, degrees of height and degrees of breadth Degrees of height are homogeneous, and one is from the other in succession, like end, cause, and effect The first degree is the all in every thing of the subsequent degrees All perfections increase and ascend along with degrees and according to them In successive order the first degree makes the highest, and the third the lowest; but in simultaneous order the first degree makes the innermost, and the third the outermost The outmost degree is the complex, container, and base of the prior degrees The degrees of height are in fullness and in power in their outmost degree There are degrees of both kinds in the greatest and in the and least of all created things In the Lord the three degrees of height are infinite and uncreate, but in man the three degrees are finite and created These three degrees of height are in every man from birth and can be opened successively; and as they are opened, man is in the Lord and the Lord in man Spiritual light flows in with man through three degrees, but not spiritual heat, except so far as man flees from evils as sins and looks to the Lord Unless the higher degree, which is the spiritual, is opened in man, he becomes natural and sensual The natural degree of the human mind regarded in itself is continuous, but by correspondence with the two higher degrees it appears when it is elevated as if it were discrete The natural mind, since it is the covering and container of the higher degrees of the human mind, is reactive; and if the higher degrees are not opened it acts against them, but if they are opened it acts with them The origin of evil is from the abuse of the capacities proper to man that are called rationality and freedom Evils and falsities are in complete opposition to goods and truths, because evils and falsities are diabolical and infernal, while goods and truths are divine and heavenly (n. 271). All things of the three degrees of the natural mind are included in the deeds that are done by the acts of the body 4. [The Method of Creation] The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and all things thereof from Himself, and not from nothing The Lord from eternity, that is, Jehovah, could not have created the universe and all things thereof unless he were a man The Lord from eternity, that is, Jehovah, brought forth from Himself the sun of the spiritual world, and from that created the universe and all things thereof There are in the Lord three things that are the Lord: the Divine of love, the Divine of wisdom, and the Divine of use; and these three are presented in appearance outside of the sun of the spiritual world, the Divine of love by heat, the Divine of wisdom by light, and the Divine of use by the atmosphere which is their container The atmospheres, of which there are three both in the spiritual and in the natural world, in their outmosts close into substances and matters such as are in lands In the substances and matters of which lands are formed there is nothing of the Divine in itself, but still they are from the Divine in itself All uses, which are ends of creation, are in forms, which forms they take from substances and matters such as are in lands All things of the created universe, viewed in reference to uses, represent man in an image; and this testifies that God is man All things created by the Lord are uses; they are uses in the order, degree, and respect in which they have relation to man, and through man to the Lord, from whom [they are] Evil uses were not created by the Lord, but originated together with hell The visible things in the created universe bear witness that nature has produced and does produce nothing, but that the Divine out of itself, and through the spiritual world, has produced and does produce all things 5. [The Goal of Creation] Two receptacles and abodes for himself, called will and understanding, have been created and formed by the Lord in man; the will for his Divine love, and the understanding for his Divine wisdom Will and understanding, which are the receptacles of love and wisdom, are in the brains, in the whole and in every part of them, and therefrom in the body, in the whole and in every part of it There is a correspondence of the will with the heart, and of the understanding with the lungs From the correspondence of the heart with the will and of the lungs with the understanding, everything may be known that can be known about the will and understanding, or about love and wisdom, therefore about the soul of man What man’s beginning is from conception Index of Scripture Passages Index DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM 1 Editor’s Preface Divine Love and Wisdom is a philosophical work that was first published in Latin in 1763. It states in a concise and ordered way the philosophy of creation that underlies all of Swedenborg’s theological writings. This philosophy of creation can first be unquestionably identified in two works he published in 1734, his Principia and his Infinite and Final Cause of Creation, which are both based on the premise that this is a created universe. Swedenborg held consistently to this belief from at least this time through the rest of his life. In chapter 3, n. 188, the author states that “it is the object of this little work to uncover causes, that effects may be seen from them, and thus the darkness may be dispelled in which the man of the church is in respect to God and the Lord, and in respect to Divine things in general which are called spiritual things.” Divine Love and Wisdom was first translated into English in 1788 by Nathaniel Tucker and printed in Manchester, England. There is a copy of this edition in the library of the British Museum with manuscript notes by William Blake. The present version was translated by John Ager and first published by the Swedenborg Foundation in 1885. This work has also been printed in several other languages, including Danish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Russian and Swedish. Although this book is Swedenborg’s most orderly presentation of a philosophic concept, its five chapters are untitled. Descriptive titles have been supplied by this editor and added in brackets on the first page of each chapter, and they also have been placed in the running heads.