Angelic wisdom concerning the divine love and the divine wisdom. Transl

290

That in the Lord there are three things which are the Lord, the divine

of love, the divine of wisdom, and the divine of use; and that these

three are presented in appearance out of the sun of the spiritual

world; the divine of love by heat, the divine of wisdom by light, and

the divine of use by the atmosphere, which is the continent

That the atmospheres, which are three in both the spiritual and natural

worlds, in their ultimates end in substances and matters, like those

on the earth

That in the substances and matters of which earths consist, there is

nothing of the Divine in itself, but that still they are from the Divine

in itself

That all uses, which are the ends of creation, are in forms, and that they

receive their forms from such substances and matters as those on the earth 307

I. That in earths there is an endeavor to produce uses in forms,

or forms of uses

II. That there is a certain image of creation in all forms of uses

III. That there is a certain image of man in all forms of uses

IV. That there is a certain image of infinite and eternal in all

forms of uses

That all things of the created universe, viewed from uses, represent

man in an image; and that this testifies that God is a man

That all things created by the Lord are uses; and that they are uses in

the order, degree, and respect, in which they have relation to man,

and by man to the Lord their Creator

Uses for receiving a spiritual principle from the Lord

That evil uses were not created by the Lord, but that they originated

together with hell

I. What is meant by evil uses on earth

II. That all things that are evil uses are in hell, and all that are

good uses in heaven

III. That there is a continual influx from the spiritual into the

natural world

IV. That influx from hell operates those things that are evil uses,

in places where those things are that correspond

V. That the spiritual ultimate, separated from its higher prin-

VI. That there are two forms on which operation takes place by

influx, the vegetable and the animal form

346

VII. That both forms, as long as they exist, receive the means of

propagation

That the visible things in the created universe testify, that nature has

produced nothing and does produce nothing, but that the Divine has

produced and does produce all things from Himself, and through the

OF THE CREATION OF MAN.

That two receptacles and habitations for Himself, called the will and

understanding, have been created and formed by the Lord in man;

the will for His Divine Love, and the understanding for His Divine

Wisdom

That the will and understanding, which are the receptacles of love and

wisdom, are in the brains, in the whole and in every part thereof, and

thence in the body, in the whole and in every part thereof

I. That love and wisdom, and hence the will and understanding,

constitute man's life

very

II. That man's life in its principles is in the brains, and in its

principiates in the body

III. That as the life is in its principles, such is it in the whole and

in every part

358

362

IV. That the life, by these principles, is from every part in the

whole, and from the whole in every part

V. That such as the love is, such is the wisdom, and hence such

is the man

That there is a correspondence of the will with the heart, and of the

understanding with the lungs

I. That all things of the mind are referable to the will and

understanding, and all things of the body to the heart and

lungs

372

II. That there is a correspondence of the will and understanding

with the heart and lungs, and thence a correspondence of all

things of the mind with all things of the body

III. That the will corresponds to the heart

IV. That the understanding corresponds to the lungs

V. That this correspondence may be the means of discovering

many arcana concerning the will and understanding, thus also

concerning love and wisdom

VI. That a man's mind is his spirit, and that the spirit is a man,

and that the body is the external by which the mind or spirit

feels and acts in the world

VII. That the conjunction of a man's spirit with his body is by the

correspondence of his will and understanding with his heart

and lungs, and their disjunction by the non-correspondence

385

386

390

That all things that can be known of the will and understanding, or of

love and wisdom, consequently all that can be known of man's soul,

may be known from the correspondence of the heart with the will,

and of the understanding with the lungs

I. That love or the will is a man's essential life

II. That love or the will constantly tends to the human form, and

to all things of the human form

III. That love or the will cannot do any thing by its human form

without a marriage with wisdom or the understanding

IV. That love or the will prepares a house or bridal apartment

for a future spouse, which is wisdom or the understanding

V. That love or the will also prepares all things in its human

form, that it may act conjointly with wisdom or the under-

standing

VI. That after the marriage, the first conjunction is by the affec-

tion of knowing, whence comes the affection of truth

402

403

VII. That the second conjunction is by the affection of understand-

ing, whence comes the perception of truth

404

VIII. That the third conjunction is by the affection of seeing truth,

whence comes thought

404

IX. That love or the will by these three conjunctions is in its sen-

sitive and active life

406

X. That love or the will introduces wisdom or the understanding

to all things in its house

XI. That love or the will does nothing but in conjunction with

wisdom or the understanding

XII. That love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the under-

standing, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be reci-

procally conjoined to it

XIII. That wisdom or the understanding, by virtue of the power

given it by love or the will, may be elevated, and receive the

things which are of the light of heaven, and perceive them 413

XIV. That love or the will can in like manner be elevated, and

perceive the things which are of the heat of heaven, if it love

its spouse in that degree

XV. That otherwise love or the will draws down wisdom or the

understanding from its elevation, to act as one with it

XVI. That love or the will is purified by wisdom in the understand-

ing, if they be elevated together

XVII. That love or the will is defiled in the understanding, and by

it, if they be not elevated together

414

XVIII. That love purified by wisdom in the understanding becomes

spiritual and celestial

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XIX. That love defiled in and by the understanding, becomes natural,

sensual, and corporeal

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XX. That the faculty of understanding, called rationality, and the

faculty of acting, called liberty, still remain

XXI. That spiritual and celestial love is love towards the neighbor,

and love to the Lord; and that natural and sensual love is

love of the world and love of self

XXII. That it is the same with charity and faith and their conjunc-

tion, as with the will and understanding and their conjunction

The nature of a man's initiament at conception

426

427

432

ANGELIC WISDOM

CONCERNING

THE DIVINE LOVE.

PART I.

1. THAT LOVE IS THE LIFE OF MAN. Man is aware of the existence, but not of the nature, of love. He is aware of its existence from the use of the word in common speech, as when it is said, such a one loves me, the king loves his subjects and subjects love their king, the husband loves his wife and the mother her children, and vice versa; also when it is said that this or that person loves his country, his fellow-citizens, or his neighbour; in like manner when it is said of things abstracted from person, that we love this or that thing. Nevertheless, though the word love is so universally in the mouths of men, scarcely any one knows what love is: whilst meditating on it, since he cannot form any idea of thought concerning it, he says either that it is nothing real, or that it is only something that flows in through the sight, hearing, feeling, and conversation, and thereby affects him; he is altogether ignorant that it is his very life, not only the common life of his whole body, and the common life of all his thoughts, but also the life of all the particulars thereof. A wise man may perceive this from the following queries: If you remove the affection which is of love, can you think any thing? and can you do any thing? In proportion as the affection which is of love grows cold, do not thought, speech, and action grow cold also? and in proportion as it is heated, are not they also heated? But this a wise man perceives, not from a knowledge that love is the life of man, but from experience of this fact.

2. No one knows what is the life of man, unless he knows that it is love. If this be not known, one person may believe that the life of man consists only in feeling and in acting, another in thinking, when nevertheless thought is the first effect of life, and sensation and action are the second. It is said that thought is the first effect of life; but thought is of different degrees, interior and more

interior, also exterior and more exterior: inmost thought, which is a perception of ends, is actually the first effect of life: but of these hereafter, when the degrees of life are treated of.

3. Some idea of love, as being the life of man, may be had from the heat of the sun in the world, which, as is well known, is the common life as it were of all vegetation: from that heat, when it commences in the time of spring, vegetables of all kinds shoot from the ground, are adorned with leaves, afterwards with flowers, and lastly with fruit, and thus, as it were, live; but when the heat retires in the autumnal and winter seasons, they are stripped of those signs of their life, and wither. Similar is the case of love in man; for love and heat mutually correspond to each other; wherefore also love is warm.

4. THAT GOD ALONE, CONSEQUENTLY THE LORD, IS LOVE ITSELF, BECAUSE HE IS LIFE ITSELF; AND THAT ANGELS AND MEN ARE RECIPIENTS OF LIFE. This will be abundantly illustrated in the treatises on DIVINE PROVIDENCE and on LIFE; we shall here only observe, that the Lord, who is the God of the universe, is uncreate and infinite, whereas man and angel is created and finite; and because the Lord is uncreate and infinite, He is Being [Esse] Itself, which is called Jehovah, and He is Life Itself or Life in Himself. From the uncreate, infinite, Esse Itself and Life Itself, no being can be immediately created, because the Divine is one and not divisible; but from created and finite substances, so formed that the Divine may be in them, beings may be created. Since men and angels are such beings, they are recipients of life; wherefore if any man suffers himself to be so far misled, as to think that he is not a recipient of life, but life itself, he cannot be withheld from thinking himself a god. Man's feeling as if he were life itself, and thence believing it, is grounded in fallacy; for in the instrumental cause, the principal cause is no otherwise perceived than as one with it. That the Lord is Life in Himself, He Himself teaches in John: "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself," v. 26; and "that He is the Life," John xi. 25; xiv. 6. Now since life and love are one, as appears from what has been said above, n. 1, 2, it follows that the Lord, being Life Itself, is Love Itself.

5. But in order that this matter may be rightly apprehended, it is necessary to be known, that the Lord, being love in its very essence, that is, divine love, appears before the angels in heaven as a sun; and that heat and light proceed from that sun; and that the heat thence proceeding, in its essence, is love, and the light thence proceeding, in its essence, is wisdom; and that in proportion as the angels are recipients of that spiritual heat and light, they are loves and wisdoms; not loves and wisdoms from themselves, but from the Lord. This spiritual heat and spiritual light not only descend by influx into angels and affect them, but also

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