From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #170

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170. The grand purpose, or the purpose of all elements of creation, is an eternal union of the Creator with the created universe. This does not happen unless there are subjects in which his divinity can be at home, so to speak, subjects in which it can dwell and abide. For these subjects to be his dwellings and homes they must be receptive of his love and wisdom apparently of their own accord, subjects who will with apparent autonomy raise themselves toward the Creator and unite themselves with him. In the absence of this reciprocity, there is no union.

We are those subjects, people who can raise themselves and unite with apparent autonomy. I have already explained several times [4-6, 57, 68, 116] that we are subjects of this sort and that we are receptive of Divinity with apparent autonomy.

Through this union, the Lord is present in every work he has created, since in the last analysis everything has been created for our sake. As a result, the functions of all created things rise level by level from the lowest things to us, and through us to God the Creator, their source, as explained in 65-68 above.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #45

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45. Anyone who can with some thought conceive of and comprehend being and expression in itself must altogether conceive of and comprehend that it is the one and only absolute. The term absolute is used of that which alone is, and the term one and only of that which is the origin of everything else.

Now because the one and only absolute is substance and form, it follows that it is the one and only absolute substance and form. And because that absolute substance and form is Divine love and wisdom, it follows that it is the one and only absolute love, and the one and only absolute wisdom; consequently, that it is the one and only absolute essence, and the one and only absolute life. For love and wisdom together are life.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.