Apocalypse Explained #184
184. And the seven stars. That this signifies from whom are all the knowledges of truth and good, is evident from the signification of seven, as being what is full, and all things (concerning which see above, n. 20, 24), and from the signification of stars, as being the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and good (concerning which see also above, n. 72). The reason why it is said to the angel of the church in Sardis, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars, is, that the subject treated of is those within the church whose life is moral but not spiritual, inasmuch as they lightly esteem the knowledges of spiritual things, and thence intelligence and wisdom. For by the seven spirits of God are signified all the truths of heaven and the church; and by the seven stars the knowledges of truth and good, by which two things all intelligence and wisdom are acquired. To the angel of each church something concerning the Lord is premised, which indicates the subject treated of, as may be seen above (n.113).
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #28
28. Will and Understanding
We have two abilities that make up our life, one called will and the other understanding. 1 They are distinguishable, but they are created to be one. When they are one, they are called the mind; so they are the human mind and it is there that all the life within us is truly to be found.
Fußnoten:
1. The Latin words here translated "will" and "understanding" are voluntas and intellectus, respectively; the latter is also sometimes translated " intellect. " In Swedenborg's use, however, intellectus has a somewhat broader connotation than understanding or intellect has today, one more consonant with the use of the Latin word in the system of the Scholastics. For example, in the philosophy of the major figure of Scholastic thought, Thomas Aquinas (1224 or 1225-1274), which underlies the terminology of much of philosophical language up to and including Swedenborg's time, intellectus encompasses all of what we associate with the faculties of mind, not only the capacity to reason and understand, but the capacity to perceive ideas in the abstract, as well as the mind's ability to be aware of itself (Shallo 1923, 115-116). The complementarity of will and intellect is also something Swedenborg shares with Scholastic thought. For an overview of the relationship between the will and the intellect, see True Christianity 397; for a detailed and extensive account of their interaction as analogous to that of the heart and the lungs, see Divine Love and Wisdom 394-431. For discussion of the related term "intellectual truth," see note 1 in New Jerusalem 26 above. For further discussion of the will and the understanding, see note 1 in New Jerusalem 33 below. [GFD, RS, JSR]
