1. Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence

Divine Providence Is the Form of Government Exercised by the Lord's Divine Love and Wisdom

To understand what divine providence is--that it is the way the Lord's divine love and wisdom govern us--it is important to be aware of the following things, which were presented in my book on the subject.

In the Lord, divine love is a property of divine wisdom and divine wisdom is a property of divine love (Divine Love and Wisdom 34-39).

Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to be manifested in others that it has created (Divine Love and Wisdom 47-51).

Everything in the universe was created by divine love and wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 52, 53, 151-156).

Everything in the created universe is a vessel of divine love and wisdom (54-60 [55-60]).

The Lord looks like the sun to angels; its radiating warmth is love and its radiating light is wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301).

The divine love and wisdom that emanate from the Lord constitute a single whole (Divine Love and Wisdom 99-102).

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from himself and not from nothing (Divine Love and Wisdom 282-284, 290-295). These propositions may be found in the work titled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom.

83. Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love

Part 2

In the spiritual world, divine love and wisdom look like a sun. There are two worlds, one spiritual and one physical; and the spiritual world does not derive anything from the physical one, nor does the physical one derive anything from the spiritual one. They are completely distinct from each other, communicating only by means of correspondence, whose nature has been amply explained elsewhere. The following example may be enlightening. Warmth in the physical world is the equivalent of the good that thoughtfulness does in the spiritual world, and light in the physical world is the equivalent of the truth that faith perceives in the spiritual world. No one can fail to see that warmth and the goodness of being thoughtful, and light and the truth of faith, are completely distinct from each other.

At first glance, they seem as distinct as two quite different things. That is what comes to the fore when we start thinking about what the goodness of being thoughtful has in common with warmth and what the truth of faith has in common with light. Yet spiritual warmth is that very "goodness," and spiritual light is that very "truth."

In spite of the fact that they are so distinct from each other, though, they still make a single whole by means of their correspondence. They are so united that when we read about warmth and light in the Word, the spirits and angels who are with us see thoughtfulness in the place of warmth and faith in the place of light.

I include this example to make it clear that the two worlds, the spiritual one and the physical one, are so distinct from each other that they have nothing in common, and that still they have been created in such a way that they communicate with each other and are actually united through their correspondences.

795. But let us illustrate this with an example: Who cannot see that people caught up in Roman Catholicism have inquired into and investigated ways to enable them to establish this egregious falsity, that the bread and wine in the Eucharist should be divided, with the bread given to the laity and the wine to the clergy? This can be seen from simply reading the confirmation put together at the Council of Trent and established by papal bull, which says the following:

...that immediately after the consecration the true body and the true blood (of Jesus Christ), together with His soul and Divinity, are contained truly, really and substantially under the form of bread and wine, the body under the form of bread and the blood under the form of wine, by virtue of the words; but the very same body under the form of wine and the same blood under the form of bread and the soul under both, by virtue of that natural connection and concomitance whereby the parts of Christ the Lord are mutually united; and the Divinity on account of its admirable hypostatic union with His body and soul. That as much is contained under either form as under both. And that the whole of Christ is entirely present under the form of bread and under every part of that form, and the whole also under the form of wine and all its parts. ¹

Moreover, that water is to be mixed with the wine. ²

These are their very words, which they themselves confess to be contrary to the import of the Lord's words.

Who possessing sound judgment does not see that real truths are there turned upside down and converted into falsities by their reasonings, which the upright in heart cannot but abominate?

Why is this? Is it not solely for the sake of their masses, which they call propitiatory sacrifices, most holy and pure, with nothing but what is holy in them - masses by which they inspire a sense of holiness in people's bodily senses, and at the same time the darkness of night in everything having to do with faith and spiritual life - and this in order to achieve in that darkness dominion and material gain, and to implant the idea of their ministers as being full of the Lord, and having the Lord in them. And to keep themselves from wearying, they take the wine, and so as not to become inebriated, they mix it with water.

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