Table Of Content

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: 800-355-3222 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