Divine Love and Wisdom. The Portable New Century Edition

225 Pages·2016·0.85 MB·English

by  Swedenborg Emanuel.

D L
I V I N E O V E
a n d
W
I S D O M

D L
I V I N E O V E
a n d
W
I S D O M
The Portable New Century Edition
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Translated from the Latin by George F. Dole
SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION
West Chester, Pennsylvania
Originally published in Latin as Sapientia angelica de divino amore
© Copyright 2010by the Swedenborg Foundation, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage or retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN (library) 978-0-87785-480-7
ISBN (paperback) 978-0-87785-481-4
ISBN (portable) 978-0-87785-404-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688-1772.
[Sapientia angelica de divino amore. English]
Divine love and wisdom/ author, Emanuel Swedenborg ; translator, George F.
Dole. — Portable ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-87785-402-9 (alk. paper)
1. God (Christianity)—Love. 2. God (Christianity)—Wisdom. I. Title.
BX8712.D3 2008
231'.6—dc22
2008013017
Senior Copyeditor, Alicia L. Dole
Text designed by Joanna V. Hill
Ornaments from the first Latin edition, 1771
Typesetting by Alicia L. Dole
Cover designed by Karen Connor
For information contact:
Swedenborg Foundation
320North Church Street
West Chester, PA 19380USA
tel: [phone]
web: www.swedenborg.com
or
email: [email protected]
Contents
Conventions Used in This Work xi
Part 1
[1] §§1–3/ Love is our life. 1
[2] §§4–6/ God alone—the Lord—is love itself, because he
is life itself. Both we on earth and angels are life-receivers. 2
[3] §§7–10/ Divinity is not in space. 3
[4] §§11–13/ God is the essential person. 5
[5] §§14–16/ In the Divine-Human One, reality and its
manifestation are both distinguishable and united. 6
[6] §§17–22/ In the Divine-Human One, infinite things are
distinguishably one. 7
[7] §§23–27/ There is one human God who is the source
of everything. 9
[8] §§28–33/ The true divine essence is love and wisdom. 11
[9] §§34–39/ Divine love is a property of divine wisdom,
and divine wisdom is a property of divine love. 13
[10] §§40–43/ Divine love and wisdom is substance and is form. 15
[11] §§44–46/ Divine love and wisdom are substance and form
in and of themselves, and are therefore wholly “itself” and unique. 17
[12] §§47–51/ Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to
be manifested in others that it has created. 18
[13] §§52–54/ Everything in the universe was created by the
divine love and wisdom of the Divine-Human One. 19
[14] §§55–60/ Everything in the created universe is a vessel
for the divine love and wisdom of the Divine-Human One. 20
[15] §§61–64/ All the things that have been created reflect the
human in some respect. 23
v
vi DIVINE LOVE and WISDOM
[16] §§65–68/ The useful functions of everything created tend
upward, step by step, from the lowest to us, and through us
to God the Creator, their source. 24
[17] §§69–72/ Divinity fills all space in the universe nonspatially. 26
[18] §§73–76/ Divinity is in all time, nontemporally. 28
[19] §§77–82/ Divinity is the same in the largest and smallest
things. 30
Part 2
[20] §§83–88/ In the spiritual world, divine love and wisdom
look like a sun. 33
[21] §§89–92/ Warmth and light emanates from the sun that
arises from divine love and wisdom. 35
[22] §§93–98/ That sun is not God. Rather, it is an emanation
from the divine love and wisdom of the Divine-Human One.
The same is true of warmth and light from that sun. 37
[23] §§99–102/ The spiritual warmth and light that result from
the emanation from the Lord as the sun form a single whole
just as his divine love and wisdom do. 38
[24] §§103–107/ The sun of the spiritual world is seen at a
middle elevation, as far from angels as our physical world’s
sun is from us. 40
[25] §§108–112/ The distance between the sun and angels in
the spiritual world is an apparent distance that depends on
their acceptance of divine love and wisdom. 41
[26] §§113–118/ Angels are in the Lord and the Lord is in
them; and since angels are vessels, the Lord alone is heaven. 43
[27] §§119–123/ The east in the spiritual world is where the Lord
is seen as the sun, and the other directions follow from that. 46
[28] §§124–128/ The regions in the spiritual world are not
caused by the Lord as the sun but by the angels, depending on
their receptivity. 47
[29] §§129–134/ Angels always face the Lord as the sun, so south
is on their right, north on their left, and west behind them. 49
contents vii
[30] §§135–139/ Everything in the deeper reaches of angels’ minds
and bodies alike is turned toward the Lord as the sun. 51
[31] §§140–145/ Every kind of spirit turns toward her or his
ruling love in the same way. 53
[32] §§146–150/ The divine love and wisdom that emanate from
the Lord as the sun and constitute heaven’s warmth and light
is the emanating Divinity that is the Holy Spirit. 55
[33] §§151–156/ The Lord created the universe and everything in
it by means of that sun that is the first emanation of divine love
and wisdom. 56
[34] §§157–162/ The physical world’s sun is nothing but fire and
is therefore dead; and since nature has its origin in that sun,
nature is dead. 59
[35] §§163–166/ There would be no creation if it were not for this
pair of suns, one living and one dead. 60
[36] §§167–172/ The goal of creation—that everything should
return to the Creator and that there should be a union—
becomes manifest in outermost forms. 62
Part 3
[37] §§173–178/ There are atmospheres, liquids, and solids in the
spiritual world just as there are in the physical world, but they
are spiritual, while ours are physical. 65
[38] §§179–183/ There are levels of love and wisdom, consequent
levels of warmth and light, and also levels of atmosphere. 67
[39] §§184–188/ There are two kinds of levels, vertical levels and
horizontal levels. 69
[40] §§189–194/ Vertical levels are matched in kind, with one
following from another in sequence like a purpose, a means,
and a result. 72
[41] §§195–198/ The first level is the sum and substance of all
the levels. 74
[42] §§199–204/ All processes of perfection increase and rise by
and according to levels. 75
viii DIVINE LOVE and WISDOM
[43] §§205–208/ In a sequential arrangement, the first level is
the highest and the third the lowest, while in a simultaneous
arrangement, the first level is the center and the third level is
the circumference. 78
[44] §§209–216/ The final level is the composite, vessel, and
foundation of the prior levels. 79
[45] §§217–221/ The vertical levels find their full realization and
power in their final form. 82
[46] §§222–229/ There are levels of both kinds in everything that
has been created, no matter how large or small. 85
[47] §§230–235/ There are three infinite and uncreated vertical
levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us. 87
[48] §§236–241/ These three vertical levels exist in each of us
from birth and can be opened in sequence. As they are opened,
we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us. 90
[49] §§242–247/ Spiritual light flows in within us through three
levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extent that we
abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord. 92
[50] §§248–255/ If that higher level, the spiritual level, is not
opened in us, we become focused on the physical world and
our sense impressions. 95
[51] §§256–259/ In its own right, the earthly level of the human
mind is a continuum, but because of its responsiveness to the
two higher levels, it seems to have distinct levels when it is
raised up. 100
[52] §§260–263/ The earthly mind, being the envelope and vessel
of the higher levels of the human mind, is reactive. If the higher
levels are not opened, it acts against them; whereas if they are
opened, it acts with them. 103
[53] §§264–270/ The origin of evil is in the abuse of the abilities
proper to us called rationality and freedom. 106
[54] §§271–276/ Evil and false things are absolutely opposed to
good and true things because evil and false things are demonic
and hellish, while good and true things are divine and heavenly. 110
[55] §§277–281/ Everything in the three levels of the earthly mind
is enclosed in the works that are done by our physical actions. 115
contents ix
Part 4
[56] §§282–284/ The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created
the universe and everything in it not from nothing but
from himself. 119
[57] §§285–289/ The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, could not
have created the universe and everything in it except as a person. 121
[58] §§290–295/ The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, brought forth
the sun of the spiritual world out of himself, and created the
universe and all its contents from it. 123
[59] §§296–301/ There are three things in the Lord that are the
Lord—a divine element of love, a divine element of wisdom,
and a divine element of service. These three things are made
visible outside the sun of the spiritual world—the divine element
of love through its warmth, the divine element of wisdom
through its light, and the divine element of service through
the atmospheres that enclose it. 126
[60] §§302–304/ The atmospheres—three in number in each
world, spiritual and physical—in their final forms terminate
in the kinds of material substance characteristic of our earth. 128
[61] §§305–306/ There is nothing of absolute Divinity in the
material substances that make up earth, but they are still
derived from absolute Divinity. 129
[62] §§307–318/ All useful functions, which are the goals of
creation, are in forms, and they get these forms from the
material substances characteristic of earth. 130
[63] §§319–326/ From a functional point of view, everything in
the created universe is in our image; and this testifies that God
is human. 136
[64] §§327–335/ All of the Lord’s creations are useful functions;
and they are useful functions in the sequence, on the level, and
in the specific way that they relate to humanity and through
humanity to the Lord, their source. 138
[65] §§336–348/ Evil functions were not created by the Lord.
Rather, they came into being along with hell. 142
[66] §§349–357/ What we can see in the created universe bears
witness to the fact that nature has brought forth nothing and