Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence by Emanuel Swedenborg (best book reader txt) 📕

"finis," for example, used in so many connections, can be rendered by one word in one connection and by another in another connection. The "goal" or the "object" of providence is plainer than the "end" of providence. The "close" of life is common speech. "Meritorious" has been kept in our translations, for in a restricted field of traditional theology it does mean that virtue, for example, earns a reward. To most readers the word will be misleading, for they will understand it in its usual meaning, that some act is well-deserving. The former is Swedenborg's meaning, which is that an act is done to earn merit, or is considered to have earned merit. We translate variously according to context to make that meaning clear (nn. 321(11), 326(8), 90).

As it is what Swedenborg has written that is to be translated, the Scripture passages which he quotes are translated without an effort to follow the Authorized Version, which he did not know. This is also done when he refers to the book which stands last in our Bibles; the name he knew it by, the Apocalypse, is retained.

THE SUBJECT INDEX

The rewording in this translation would have necessitated revision of the index long used in editions of Divine Providence, which goes back to an index in French done by M. Le Boys des Guays. The opportunity was seized to compile a subject instead of a word index. It is based on an analysis of the contents of the book, and can serve as a reading guide. It does not usually quote the text, but sends the reader to it. Definitions of a number of terms are embodied in it.

The appearance that man thinks, wills, speaks and acts all of his own doing is the subject of much of the book, and this the index shows. The "life's love" deserves to be a separate entry, for little of a psychological nature in the book becomes more prominent than the love which forms in the way one actually lives, and which embodies one's actual belief and thought. Single words which have been scattered entries in the index long used—usually Scripture words of which the correspondential meaning is given—are assembled alphabetically under the entry "Correspondences."

A signal feature of Swedenborg's thought is the unities he perceives. Of love and wisdom he says that they can only be perceived as one (4(5)). So good and truth do not exist apart, nor charity and faith, nor affection and thought. These and other pairs of terms are therefore entered in the index; after references on the two together, references follow on each term alone.

The index, it is hoped, will do more than introduce the reader to statements made in the book, but will carry him into its stream of thought.

WM. F. WUNSCH

Angelic Wisdom about DIVINE PROVIDENCE

DIVINE PROVIDENCE I. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS GOVERNMENT BY THE LORD'S DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM

1. To understand what divine providence is—namely, government by the Lord's divine love and wisdom—one needs to know what was said and shown earlier about divine love and wisdom in the treatise about them: "In the Lord divine love is of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom of divine love" (nn. 34-39); "Divine love and wisdom cannot but be in, and be manifested in, all else, created by them" (nn. 47-51); "All things in the universe were created by them" (nn. 52, 53, 151-156); "All are recipients of that love and wisdom" (nn. 55-60); "The Lord appears before the angels as a sun, the heat proceeding from it being love, and the light wisdom" (nn. 83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301); "Divine love and wisdom, proceeding from the Lord, make one" (nn. 99-102); "The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from Himself, and not from nothing" (nn. 282-284, 290-295). This is to be found in the treatise entitled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom.

2. Putting with these propositions the description of creation in that treatise, one may indeed see that what is called divine providence is government by the Lord's divine love and wisdom. In that treatise, however, creation was the subject, and not the preservation of the state of things after creation—yet this is the Lord's government. We now treat of this, therefore, and in the present chapter, of the preservation of the union of divine love and wisdom or of divine good and truth in what was created, which will be done in the following order:

i. The universe, with each and all things in it, was created from divine love by divine wisdom. ii Divine love and wisdom proceed as one from the Lord. iii. This one is in some image in every created thing. iv. It is of the divine providence that every created thing, as a whole and in part, should be such a one, and if it is not, should become such a one. v. Good of love is good only so far as it is united to truth of wisdom, and truth of wisdom truth only so far as it is united to good of love. vi. Good of love not united to truth of wisdom is not good in itself but seeming good, and truth of wisdom not united to good of love is not truth in itself but seeming truth. vii. The Lord does not suffer anything to be divided; therefore it must be either in good and at the same time in truth, or in evil and at the same time in falsity. viii. That which is in good and at the same time in truth is something; that which is in evil and at the same time in falsity is not anything. ix. The Lord's divine providence causes evil and the attendant falsity to serve for equilibrium, contrast, and purification, and so for the conjunction of good and truth in others.

3. (i) The universe, with each and all things in it, was created from divine love by divine wisdom. In the work Divine Love and Wisdom we showed that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, is in essence divine love and wisdom, and that He created the universe and all things in it from Himself. It follows that the universe, with each and all things in it, was created from divine love by means of divine wisdom. We also showed in that treatise that love can do nothing without wisdom, and wisdom nothing without love. For love apart from wisdom, or the will apart from understanding, cannot think anything, indeed cannot see, feel or say anything, so cannot do anything. Likewise, wisdom apart from love, or understanding apart from will, cannot think, see, feel, or speak, therefore cannot do, anything. For if love is removed from wisdom or understanding, there is no willing and thus no doing. If this is true of man, for him to do anything, it was much more true of God—who is love itself and wisdom itself—when He created and made the world and all that it contains.

[2] That the universe, with each and all things in it, was created from divine love by divine wisdom may also be established from objects to be seen in the world. Take a particular object, examine it with some wisdom, and you will be convinced. Take the seed, fruit, flower or leaf of a tree, muster your wisdom, examine the object with a strong microscope, and you will see marvels. Even more wonderful are the more interior things which you do not see. Note the unfolding order in the growth of a tree from seed to new seed; reflect on the continuous effort in all stages after self-propagation—the end to which it moves is seed in which its reproductive power arises anew. If then you will think spiritually, as you can if you will, will you not see wisdom in all this? Furthermore, if you can think spiritually enough, you will see that this energy does not come from the seed, nor from the sun of the world, which is only fire, but is in the seed from God the Creator whose wisdom is infinite, and is from Him not only at the moment of creation but ever after, too. For maintenance is perpetual creation, as continuance is perpetual coming to be. Else it is quite as work ceases when you withdraw will from action, or as utterance fails when you remove thought from speech, or as motion ceases when you remove impetus; in a word, as an effect perishes when you remove the cause.

[3] Every created thing is endowed with energy, indeed, but this does nothing of itself but from Him who implanted it. Examine any other earthly object, like a silkworm, bee or other small creature. View it first naturally, then rationally, and at length spiritually, and if you can think deeply, you will be astounded at all you see. Let wisdom speak in you, and you will exclaim in astonishment, "Who does not see the divine in such things? They are all of divine wisdom." Still more will you exclaim, if you note the uses of all created things, how they mount in regular order even to the human being, and from man to the Creator whence they are, and that the connection, and if you will acknowledge it, the preservation also of them all, depend on the conjunction of the Creator with man. That divine love created all things, but nothing apart from the divine wisdom, will be seen in what follows.

4. (ii) Divine love and wisdom proceed as one from the Lord. This, too, is plain from what was shown in the work Divine Love and Wisdom, especially in the propositions: "Esse and existere are distinguishably one in the Lord" (nn. 14-17); "Infinite things are distinguishably one in Him" (nn. 17-22); "Divine love is of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom of divine love" (nn. 34-39); "Love not married to wisdom cannot effect anything" (nn. 401-403); "Love does nothing except in union with wisdom" (nn. 409, 410); "Spiritual heat and light, proceeding from the Lord as a sun, make one as divine love and wisdom make one in Him" (nn. 99-102). The truth of the present proposition is plain from these propositions, demonstrated in that treatise. But as it is not known how two distinct things can act as one, I wish now to show that there is no "one" apart from form, and that the form itself makes it a unit; then, that a form makes a "one" the more perfectly as the elements entering into it are distinctly different and yet united.

[2] There is no "one" apart from form, and the form itself makes it a unit. Everyone who brings his mind to bear on the matter can see clearly that there is no "one" apart from form, and if a thing exists at all, it is a form. For what exists at all derives from form what is known as its character and its predicates, its changes of state, also its relevance, and so on. A thing without form has no way of affecting us, and what has no power of affecting, has no reality. It is form which enables to all this. And as all things have a form, then if the form is perfect, all things in it regard each other mutually, as link does link in a chain. It follows that it is form which makes a thing a unit and thus an entity of which character, state, affection or anything else can be predicated; each is predicated of it according to the perfection of the form.

[3] Such a unit is every object which meets the eye in the world. Such, too, is everything not seen with the eye, whether in interior nature or in the spiritual world. The human being is such a unit, human society is, likewise the church, and in the Lord's view the whole angelic heaven, too; in short, all creation in general and in every particular. For each and all things to be forms, He who created all things must be form itself, and all things made must be from that form. This, therefore, was also demonstrated in the work Divine Love and Wisdom, as that "Divine love and wisdom are substance and form" (nn. 40-43); "Divine love and wisdom are form itself, thus the one Self and the single independent existence" (nn. 44-46); "Divine love and wisdom are one in the Lord" (nn. 14-17, 18-22), "and proceed as one from Him" (nn. 99-102, and elsewhere).

[4] A form makes a one the more perfectly as the elements entering into it are distinctly different and yet united. This hardly falls into a comprehension not elevated, for the appearance is that a form cannot make a one except as its elements are quite alike. I have spoken with angels often on the subject.