1. I. La Divina Provvidenza è il governo del Divino amore e della Divina sapienza del Signore

Affinché sia noto cosa sia la Divina Provvidenza, e quale sia il governo del Divino amore e della Divina sapienza del Signore, è necessario conoscere ciò che è stato detto e mostrato sul Divino amore e sulla Divina sapienza nell’opera omonima dedicata a questo soggetto, con riguardo alle seguenti proposizioni:

nel Signore il Divino amore amore appartiene alla Divina sapienza (nn. Divino amore e Divina sapienza 34–39);

il Divino amore e la Divina sapienza non possono che essere in altri oggetti creati da essi (nn. Divino amore e Divina sapienza 47 – 51);

tutte le cose dell’universo sono state create dal Divino amore e dalla Divina sapienza (nn. 52, 53, 151 – 156);

tutte le cose dell’universo sono recipienti del Divino amore e della Divina sapienza (nn. Divino amore e Divina sapienza 54 – 60);

il Signore dinanzi agli angeli appare come sole. Il calore che ne procede è l’amore; e la luce che ne procede è la sapienza (nn. Divino amore e Divina sapienza 83–98; 296–301);

il Divino amore e la Divina sapienza che procedono dal Signore sono uno (nn. Divino amore e Divina sapienza 99 – 102);

il Signore ab eterno, che è Jehovah, ha creato l’universo e tutte le cose dell’universo da se stesso e non dal nulla (nn. Divino amore e Divina sapienza 282–284; 290–295).

90. Since angels are spiritual beings, they cannot live in any warmth or any light that is not spiritual. We, on the other hand, cannot live in any warmth or any light that is not physical. This is because what is spiritual suits what is spiritual, and what is physical suits what is physical. If angels were to depend on physical warmth and light to even the least extent, they would be destroyed. It is absolutely wrong for their life.

Each of us is a spirit, as far as the inner levels of our minds are concerned. When we die, we leave this world of nature completely behind. We give up everything it has to offer and enter a world that contains nothing proper to the world of nature. In that world we live so completely distanced from nature that there is no communication along a continuum, that is, nothing like degrees of purity or coarseness. It is a case of before and after, with no communication except by correspondences.

It stands to reason, then, that spiritual warmth is not a purer form of physical warmth, that spiritual light is not a purer form of physical light, but that they are completely different in essence. Spiritual warmth and light derive their essence from a sun that is nothing but love, a sun that is life itself, while physical warmth and light derive their essence from a sun that is nothing but fire, containing no life whatever, as I have already stated [89].

83. PART TWO

Divine love and wisdom appear in the spiritual world as the sun. There are two worlds, one spiritual and the other natural, and the spiritual world does not derive any of its character from the natural world, nor the natural world any of its character from the spiritual world. They are completely different worlds, communicating only through correspondent relationships, the nature of which we have shown many times elsewhere.

To illustrate this, take the following example. Heat in the natural world corresponds to the good of charity in the spiritual world, and light in the natural world corresponds to the truth of faith in the spiritual world. Who does not see that heat and the good of charity, and that light and the truth of faith, are altogether different in character?

[2] At first sight these appear to be so different as to be two completely disparate entities. That is how they appear if one ponders what the good of charity has in common with heat, or the truth of faith with light - when in fact spiritual heat is that good, and spiritual light is that truth.

Even though these are so different in themselves, still they accord by correspondence. They so accord that when a person reads in the Word of heat and light, the spirits and angels who are with the person then perceive, instead of heat, charity, and instead of light, faith.

We have cited this example to show that the two worlds, spiritual and natural, are so different that they have nothing in common with each other, and yet have been so created that they communicate - indeed, are conjoined - through correspondent relationships.