From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Providence #1

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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.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #89

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89. Warmth and light emanates from the sun that arises from divine love and wisdom. In the spiritual world where angels and spirits live, there is just as much warmth and light as there is in the physical world where we live. The warmth feels just like warmth and the light looks just like light, as well. Still, the warmth and light of the spiritual world and the warmth and light of the physical world are so different that they have nothing in common, as I have already mentioned [83]. They are as different as life and death. The warmth of the spiritual world is essentially alive, and so is the light; while the warmth of the physical world is essentially dead, and so is the light. The warmth and the light of the spiritual world come from a sun that is nothing but love, while the warmth and light of the physical world come from a sun that is nothing but fire. Love is alive, and divine love is life itself. Fire is dead, and solar fire is death itself. We may call it that because it has absolutely no life in it.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #796

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796. 18:23 "The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore." This symbolically means that those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it are without any enlightenment from the Lord and so without any perception of spiritual truth.

The light of a lamp symbolizes enlightenment by the Lord and a consequent perception of spiritual truth. That is because the light means the light of heaven, which is the light angels have, and people, too, as regards their intellect, because the light in its essence is Divine wisdom. For it emanates from the Lord as the sun of the spiritual world, which in its essence is the Divine love in Divine wisdom, and the only light that can emanate from it is the light of Divine wisdom, and the only warmth the warmth of Divine love. The reality of this is something we showed in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 83-172.

Since that light comes from the Lord, and the Lord is omnipresent in it and by means of it, therefore it is the means of all enlightenment and the consequent perception of spiritual truth, a perception that those people have who love Divine truths spiritually, that is, who love Divine truths because they are true, thus because they are Divine. Plainly this is what it is to love the Lord. For the Lord is omnipresent in that light, inasmuch as Divine love and wisdom do not exist in space, but are present wherever they are received, in accordance with their reception.

[2] That people caught up in the Roman Catholic religion are without any enlightenment and so without any perception of spiritual truth, can be seen from the fact that they have no love for any spiritual light. For as we said, spiritual light originates from the Lord, and the only people who can receive and accept that light are people conjoined with the Lord, and conjunction with the Lord is achieved solely by an acknowledgment and worship of Him, and at the same time by a life in accordance with His commandments from the Word. An acknowledgment and worship of the Lord and reading the Word bring about the Lord's presence, but it is these two things combined at the same time with a life in accordance with His precepts that bring about a conjunction with Him.

The opposite is the case in Roman Catholicism. The Lord is acknowledged in it, but without His having any dominion, and the Word is acknowledged without its being read. Instead of the Lord they worship the Pope, and instead of the Word they acknowledge papal bulls, and live according to those bulls, and not according to the commandments in the Word. The bulls, moreover, have as their goal the dominion of the Pope and his ministers over heaven and the world, while the commandments in the Word have as their goal the dominion of the Lord over heaven and the world. These two goals are as diametrically opposed to each other as heaven and hell.

We have said this much for it to be known that people caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it are without the least light of a lamp, that is to say, without any enlightenment from the Lord and so without any perception of spiritual truth.

[3] That the Lord is the light that produces all enlightenment and perception of spiritual truth is apparent from the following:

He was the true light which enlightens every person coming into the world. (John 1:4-12)

This in reference to the Lord.

This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world... Whoever does the truth comes to the light... (John 3:19, 21)

Jesus said..., "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you... While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of light." (John 12:35-36)

(Jesus said,) "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness." (John 12:46)

(Jesus said,) ."..I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)

(Simeon said,) ."..my eyes have seen Your salvation..., a light for revelation to the Gentiles...." (Luke 2:30-32)

The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; upon those sitting in the region and shadow of death, light has arisen. (Matthew 4:16, Isaiah 9:2)

I have given You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)

The city (New Jerusalem) has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:23, cf. 22:5)

It is apparent from this that the Lord is the light that produces all enlightenment and the consequent perception of spiritual truth. And because the Lord is the light, the Devil is darkness. The Devil is also the love of exercising dominion over all the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord, and over the Lord Himself; and to the extent it achieves that dominion, it darkens, extinguishes, sets on fire and burns up the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord.

  
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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.