Divine Providence
The New Century Edition
of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg
Jonathan S. Rose
Series Editor
Stuart Shotwell
Managing Editor
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Wendy E. Closterman
Lisa Hyatt Cooper
George F. Dole
David B. Eller
Robert H. Kirven
Sylvia Shaw
Alice B. Skinner
Angelic Wisdom about
Divine Providence
Emanuel Swedenborg
Translated from the Latin by George F. Dole
With an Introduction by Gregory R. Johnson
Annotated by George F. Dole, Gregory R. Johnson, and Jonathan S. Rose
With Additional Notes by Reuben P. Bell, Glen M. Cooper, and Stuart Shotwell
SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION
West Chester, Pennsylvania
© Copyright 2003 by the Swedenborg Foundation, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN (hardcover) 0-87785-480-7 (bound with Divine Love and Wisdom)
ISBN (paperback) 0-87785-505-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688–1772.
[Sapientia angelica de divina providentia. English]
Angelic wisdom about divine providence / Emanuel Swedenborg ; translated from the Latin by George F. Dole ; with an introduction by Gregory R. Johnson ; annotated by George F. Dole, Gregory R. Johnson, and Jonathan S. Rose ; with additional notes by Reuben P. Bell, Glen M. Cooper, and Stuart Shotwell.
p. cm.— (The new century edition of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-87785-505-6 (alk. paper)
1. Providence and government of God. I. Dole, George F. II. Johnson, Gregory R. III Rose, Jonathan S. IV. Title.
BX8712 .D6 2002
231'.5—dc21
2002013693
Cover designed by Caroline Kline
Text designed by Joanna V. Hill
Ornaments from the first Latin edition, 1764
Indexes by Bruce Tracy
Typeset by Nesbitt Graphics
For information contact:
Swedenborg Foundation
320 North Church Street
West Chester PA 19380 USA
Contents
George F. Dole
Works Cited in the Translator’s Preface
Selected List of Editions of Divine Providence
Gregory R. Johnson
Works Cited in the Introduction
Short Titles and Other Conventions Used in This Work
[1] §§1–26 / Divine Providence Is the Form of Government Exercised by the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom
[2] §§27–45 / The Lord’s Divine Providence Has as Its Goal a Heaven from the Human Race
[4]§70 / There Are Laws of Divine Providence That People Do Not Know
[13] §§234–274 / Laws of Permission Are Also Laws of Divine Providence
[14] §§275–284 / Evils Are Permitted for a Purpose: Salvation
[15] §§285–307 / Divine Providence Is for Evil People and Good People Alike
[17] §§322–330 / Everyone Can Be Reformed, and There Is No Such Thing as Predestination
Index to Preface, Introduction, and Notes
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’s1 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.2 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).3 Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to be manifested in others that it has created (§§47–51). Everything in the universe was created by 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 (§§83–88, 89–92, 93–98, 296–301). The divine love and wisdom that emanate from the Lord constitute a single whole (§§99–102). The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah,4 created the universe and everything in it from himself and not from nothing (§§282–284, 290–295). These propositions may be found in the work entitled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom.5
Further, if we put these propositions together with what I said about creation in that work, it shows that the way the Lord’s divine love and wisdom look after us is what we call divine providence. However, since that book was about creation and not about how the state of things was maintained after creation (which is the way the Lord is looking after us), I need to deal with that now. In this section, though, I will be dealing with the way the oneness of divine love and wisdom (or of what is good and true in divinity) is maintained in what has been created; and I will do so in the following sequence:6
1. The universe as a whole and in every detail was created out of divine love, by means of divine wisdom.
2. Divine love and wisdom radiate from the Lord as a single whole.
3. There is some image of this whole in everything that has been created.
4. It is the intent of divine providence that everything created, collectively and in every detail, should be this kind of whole, and that if it is not, it should become one.
5. The good that love does is actually good only to the extent that it is united to the truth that wisdom perceives, and the truth that wisdom perceives is actually true only to the extent that it is united to the good that love does.
6. If the good that love does is not united to the truth that wisdom perceives, it is not really good, but it may seem to be; and if the truth that wisdom perceives is not united to the good that love does, it is not really true, but it may seem to be.
7. The Lord does not let anything remain divided. This means that things must be focused either on what is both good and true or on what is both evil and false.
8. If something is focused on what is both good and true, then it is something; but if it is focused on what is both evil and false, it is not anything at all.
9. The Lord’s divine providence works things out so that what is both evil and false promotes balance, evaluation, and purification, which means that it promotes the union of what is good and true in others.
1. The universe as a whole and in every detail was created out of divine love, by means of divine wisdom. I explained in Divine Love and Wisdom that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, is essentially divine love and wisdom, and that he himself created the universe and everything in it out of himself [§§28–33, 52–60, 282–295]. It then follows that the universe and everything in it was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.
I also explained in that work that love cannot do anything apart from wisdom and that wisdom cannot do anything apart from love [§401]. Love without wisdom (or our volition apart from our discernment)7 cannot think anything. It cannot actually see, feel, or say anything. This means that love apart from wisdom (or our volition apart from our discernment) cannot do anything. By the same token, wisdom apart from love (or our discernment apart from our volition) cannot think anything, see or sense anything, or even say anything. This means that wisdom apart from love (or our discernment apart from our volition) cannot do anything. If you take the love away, there is no longer any intention, so there is no action. If this is how things work for us when we do something, it was all the more true of the God who is love itself and wisdom itself when he created and made the universe and everything in it.
[2] Everything that meets our eyes in this world can serve to convince us that the universe and absolutely everything in it was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom. Take any particular thing and look at it with some wisdom, and this will be clear. Look at a tree—or its seed, its fruit, its flower, or its leaf. Collect your wits and look through a good microscope and you will see incredible things; and the deeper things that you cannot see are even more incredible.8 Look at the design of the sequence by which a tree grows from its seed all the way to a new seed, and ask yourself, “In this whole process, is there not a constant effort toward ongoing self-propagation?” The goal it is headed for is a seed that has a new power to reproduce. If you are willing to think spiritually (and you can if you want to), surely you see wisdom in this. Then too, if you are willing to press your spiritual thinking further, surely you see that this power does not come from the seed or from our world’s sun, which is nothing but fire, but that it was put into the seed by a creator God who has infinite wisdom. This is not just something that happened at its creation; it is something that has been happening constantly ever since. Maintenance is constant creation, just as enduring is a constant coming into being.9 This is like the way labor ceases if you take the intention out of the activity, the way speech ceases if you take thinking out of it, or the way motion ceases if you take the energy out of it, and so on. In short, if you take the cause away from the effect, the effect ceases.
[3] A force is instilled into everything that has been created. However, the force does not do anything on its own; it depends on the one who instilled it. Look at some other subject on our planet. Look at a silkworm or a bee or some little creature and examine it, first physically, then rationally, and finally spiritually. If you can think deeply, you will be stunned at everything. If you listen to the inner voice of wisdom, you will exclaim in amazement, “Can anyone fail to see Divinity here? These are the marks of divine wisdom!”
Beyond this even, if you look at the functions of everything that has been created, you will see how they follow in sequence all the way to humanity and from us to our source, the Creator. You will see how the connectedness of everything depends on the Creator’s union with us; and if you are willing to admit it, the preservation of everything depends on this as well.
In what follows, you will see that divine love created everything, but that it did nothing apart from divine wisdom.
2. Divine love and wisdom radiate from the Lord as a single whole. We can see this from several things that I explained in Divine Love and Wisdom, especially the following. In the Lord, reality and its manifestation10 are both distinguishable and united (§§14–17 [14–16]). In the Lord, infinite things are distinguishably one (§§17–22). Divine love is a property of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom is a property of divine love (§§34–39). Unless it is married to wisdom, love cannot accomplish anything (§§401–403). Love or volition does not do anything without wisdom or discernment (§§409–410). As spiritual warmth and light radiate from the Lord as the sun, they make a unity the way divine love and divine wisdom make a single whole in the Lord (§§99–132 [99–102]).
We can see the truth of the present proposition from what is explained in these passages. However, since people do not know how two things can act in unison if they are different from each other, I should like to show at this point that no unity occurs apart from a form. Rather, the form itself is what makes the whole. Then I should like to show that a form makes a whole more perfectly as its constituents are distinguishably different and yet united.
[2] No whole occurs apart from a form. Rather, the form itself is what makes the whole.11 Anyone who thinks with real mental focus will see clearly that no whole occurs apart from a form. If a whole occurs, it is a form. Whatever comes into being derives from its form what we refer to as its quality, attributes, changes of state, relationships, and the like. So anything that is not in some form is of no effect, and anything that is of no effect is of no substance.12 The form itself is the source of all these qualities. Further, since all the constituents of a form—if the form is complete—relate to each other like link to link in a chain, it follows that the form itself is what makes the whole and therefore is the object to which we can attribute quality, state, effect, and so on, all depending on the completeness of the form.
[3] Everything we see with our eyes in this world is this kind of whole, and so is everything we do not see with our eyes, either in the depths of nature or in the spiritual world. An individual is this kind of whole, and so is a human community. Further, the church13 is this kind of whole, and so is the whole angelic heaven in the Lord’s sight. In short, the created universe is this kind of whole not only in its entirety but also in every detail.
If the whole and every part is to be a form, it is necessary that the one who created them all should be form itself and that all the things that have been created in their particular forms should come from that essential form. That is the reason for a number of statements in Divine Love and Wisdom; for example, the following: Divine love and wisdom is substance and is form14 (§§40–43). Divine love and wisdom are form in and of themselves, and are therefore wholly “itself” and unique15 (§§44–46). Divine love and divine wisdom are a single whole in the Lord (§§14–17 [14–16], 18–22 [17–22]). They emanate from the Lord as a single whole (§§99–102 and elsewhere [§125]).
[4] A form makes a unity more perfectly as its constituents are distinguishably different, and yet united. It is hard for our discernment to accept this unless it is raised up, because it seems as though the only way a form can make a single whole is if its constituents have some regular similarity.
I have often talked with angels about this. They have told me that this is a mystery clearly grasped by the wise among them but dimly grasped by the less wise. Still, the truth is that a form is more perfect as its constituents are distinguishably different but still united in some particular way. In support of this, angels have cited the communities in the heavens. Taken all together, these communities make up the form of heaven. They have also cited the angels in each community, saying that the more clearly individual angels are on their own—are therefore free—and love the other members of their community on the basis of their own affection, in apparent freedom, the more perfect is the form of the community.
They have also referred by way of illustration to the marriage of what is good and what is true. The more clearly these are two, the more perfectly they can form a unity. It is the same with love and wisdom. Anything unclear is confused, and this is what gives rise to all imperfection of form.
[5] Angels have also offered abundant evidence of the way completely different things are united so that they form a single whole. They have called attention particularly to things within a person, where all the countless parts are similarly differentiated and yet are united—differentiated by membranes and united by ligaments. They have said that it is the same with love and all its components and with wisdom and all its components, which are perceived simply as unities.
There is more on this subject in Divine Love and Wisdom 14–22 and in Heaven and Hell 56, 489 [56, 71, 418].16 I include all this because it is a matter of angelic wisdom.
3. There is some image of this unity in everything that has been created. We can tell from what is presented throughout Divine Love and Wisdom that in everything created there is some image of the divine love and wisdom that are a whole in the Lord and that emanate from him as a whole. See especially §§47–51, 54–60 [55–60], 282–284, 290–295, 316–318 [313–318], 319–326, and 349–457 [349–357]. I have explained in these passages that Divinity is present in everything that has been created because God the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, brought forth the sun of the spiritual world from his actual self, and by means of that sun brought forth the whole universe. This means that that sun, which is from the Lord and is where the Lord is, is not only the first but the only substance of which everything is made. Since it is the only substance, it follows that it is present in everything that has been created, but with infinite variety depending on function.
[2] In the Lord, then, there is divine love and wisdom; in the sun that comes from him there is divine fire and divine radiance; and from that sun come spiritual warmth and spiritual light, with the two making a single whole. It follows, then, that some image of this whole is present in everything that has been created.
This is why everything in the universe is based on what is good and what is true and in fact on their union, or (which amounts to the same thing) everything in the universe is based on love and wisdom and on their union, since goodness is a matter of love and truth is a matter of wisdom. Love in fact calls everything of its own good, and wisdom calls everything of its own true.
We will see now that this union is present in everything that has been created.
It is widely recognized that there is only one substance that is the first and is the basis of everything, but the nature of that substance is a mystery. People think that it is so simple that nothing could be simpler, that it is like a dimensionless point, and that dimensional forms emerge from an infinite number of such points.17 However, this is an illusion arising from spatial thinking; spatial thinking makes the smallest element look like this. The truth is, though, that the simpler and purer anything is the greater and fuller it is. This is why the more deeply we look into anything, the more amazing, perfect, and beautiful are the things we see; so in the first substance of all there must be the most amazing, perfect, and beautiful things of all.
This is because the first substance comes from the spiritual sun, which as already noted [§5] is from the Lord and is where the Lord is. That sun itself is therefore the only substance, and since it is not in space, it is totally present in everything, in the largest and the smallest components of the created universe.
[2] Since that sun is the first and only substance that gives rise to everything, it follows that it contains infinitely more things than we can see in the substances that arise from it, which we refer to as derivative substances and ultimately matter. The reason we cannot see these things is that they come down from the sun by two kinds of level, and that all aspects of their perfection decrease by these two kinds of level. This is why the more deeply we look into anything, the more amazing, perfect, and beautiful are the things we see, as just noted.
I mention this in support of the proposition that there is some image of Divinity in everything that has been created, allowing for the fact that this image is less and less apparent as we come down level by level.18 It is even less apparent when a lower level, separated from a higher one by its closure, is clogged by earthly matter.
Still, all this cannot help but seem obscure unless you have read and comprehended what was explained in Divine Love and Wisdom about the spiritual sun (§§53–172 [83–172]), levels (§§173–281), and the creation of the universe (§§282–357).
4. It is the intent of divine providence that everything created, collectively and in every detail, should be this kind of whole, and that if it is not, it should become one. This means that there should be something of divine love and something of divine wisdom together in everything that has been created, or (which amounts to the same thing) something good and something true in everything that has been created—or a union of what is good and what is true. Since what is good is a matter of love and what is true is a matter of wisdom, as I noted in §5 above, throughout the following pages I will be talking about what is good and what is true instead of about love and wisdom, and about the marriage of goodness and truth instead of the union of love and wisdom.19
We can see from the preceding section that in everything that has been created by the Lord there is a kind of image of the divine love and wisdom that are a unity in the Lord and that emanate from the Lord as a single whole. Now I need to say something more specific about the unity or union that is called the marriage of goodness and truth.
(a) This marriage is in the Lord himself, since as already noted divine love and wisdom are a unity in him.20 (b) It is from the Lord, since love and wisdom are completely united in everything that emanates from him. They both emanate from the Lord as the sun—divine love as warmth and divine wisdom as light. (c) Angels accept them as two, but the Lord unites them within the angels; and the same holds true for people of the church. (d) It is because of the inflow of love and wisdom from the Lord as a single whole into angels of heaven and people of the church and because of their acceptance by angels and people that the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband in the Word21 and the church is called the bride and wife. (e) To the extent, then, that heaven and the church in general, or angels of heaven and people of the church in particular, participate in this union, or in the marriage of goodness and truth, they are images and likenesses of the Lord. This is because these two realities are a single whole in the Lord and in fact are the Lord. (f) In heaven and the church in general, and in angels of heaven and people of the church in particular, love and wisdom are a single whole when volition and discernment (and therefore goodness and truth) form a single whole, or what is the same thing, when charity and faith form a single whole; or what is also the same thing, when a belief system from the Word and a life according to it form a single whole. (g) I have, however, explained how these two realities form a single whole in us and in all aspects of our being in part 5 of Divine Love and Wisdom, where I dealt with our creation and especially with the correspondence22 of our volition and discernment to our heart and lungs (§§385–432 [358–432]).
As for the way love and wisdom form a unity in things beneath or outside us—in the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom—this will come up throughout the following pages. I may mention three things by way of preface. First, there was a marriage of goodness and truth in the universe and in absolutely everything in it that the Lord created. Second, this marriage was broken up in us after creation. Third, it is a goal of divine providence that what has been broken apart should become a whole and therefore that the marriage of goodness and truth should be restored.
These three propositions have been given ample support in Divine Love and Wisdom, so there is no need of further support. Then too, everyone can see on the basis of reason that if there was a marriage of goodness and truth in everything that was created and this marriage was later broken up, the Lord would be constantly working for its restoration. This means that its restoration and therefore the union of the created universe with the Lord by means of us must be a goal of divine providence.
5. The good that love does is actually good only to the extent that it is united to the truth that wisdom perceives, and the truth that wisdom perceives is actually true only to the extent that it is united to the good that love does. The reason for this lies in the origin of goodness and truth. Goodness has its origin in the Lord and so does truth, because the Lord is goodness itself and truth itself, and these two form a unity in him. This is why the goodness in heaven’s angels and in us on earth is not really good except to the extent that it is united to truth, and why the truth is not really true except to the extent that it is united to goodness.
We know that everything good and true comes from the Lord, so because goodness forms a single whole with truth and truth with goodness, it follows that if anything good is to be really good and anything true is to be really true, they need to form a single whole in their vessels. These vessels are heaven’s angels and we who are on earth.
It is generally recognized that everything in the universe involves what is good and what is true. That is, we understand “goodness” to mean that which everywhere comprehends and comprises everything that has to do with love, and we understand “truth” to mean that which everywhere comprehends and comprises everything that has to do with wisdom. It has not been generally recognized, though, that something good is nothing unless it is united to something true and that something true is nothing unless it is united to something good.
It does seem as though something good could be real apart from something true and that something true could be real apart from something good, but this is not the case. In fact, love (all of whose elements are called good) is the reality of anything, and wisdom (all of whose elements are called true) is the manifestation of that thing that follows from its reality, as I explained in Divine Love and Wisdom 14–16. Just as reality is nothing apart from manifestation, then, and manifestation is nothing apart from reality, so goodness apart from truth or truth apart from goodness is nothing. By the same token, what is something good apart from its relationship to something else? Can we really call it good? There is no effectiveness or perception involved in it.
[2] The element that has an effect when it is united to goodness, the element that makes perception and sensation possible, involves what is true because it involves what is in our discernment. Say to someone simply “goodness” without saying that some particular thing is good—is that “goodness” really anything? It is something only because of the particular thing that we identify with it. The only place this identification occurs is in our discernment, and our discernment involves what is true.
The same holds true for intending. To intend without knowing, perceiving, and considering what we intend is nothing, but together with these functions it is something. All our intending is a matter of love and involves what is good; and all our knowing, perceiving, and considering is a matter of discernment and involves what is true; so we can see that “intending” is nothing. Intending something in particular, though, is something.
[3] It is the same with all acts of service, because acts of service are good. Unless an act of service is focused on some benefit that is integral to it, it is not really an act of service, so it is nothing. It gets its focus from our discernment; and what is therefore united to or associated with the act involves what is true. This is where the act of service gets its quality.
[4] We can tell from these few examples that nothing good is really anything at all apart from something true, and that nothing true is anything at all apart from something good. We say that goodness together with truth, or truth together with goodness, is something. It follows, then, that evil together with falsity, or falsity together with evil, is nothing. This is because they are opposites to goodness and truth, and an opposite is destructive. In this case, it destroys the “something.” But more on this later [§19].
However, there is a marriage of goodness and truth in a cause, and from that cause there is a marriage of goodness and truth in an effect. The marriage of goodness and truth in a cause is a marriage of our volition and discernment, or of our love and wisdom. This marriage is happening in everything we intend and think and therefore decide and focus on.
This marriage enters into the effect and makes it happen, but as it makes it happen the two aspects seem like different events because something that is simultaneous is working itself out by stages. For instance, when we intend and consider providing ourselves with food, clothing, or shelter, or engaging in our job or some task or in social interaction, then at first we are intending and considering it (or deciding and focusing on it), both at the same time. When we express these intentions in specific effects, though, one action follows another, even though in our intent and thought they still form a single whole.
The services that are performed in these effects are the results of love or of goodness. The means to these services are the effects of discernment or truth. Anyone can support these general observations by specific examples, provided there is a clear sense of what belongs to the good that love can do and what belongs to the truth that wisdom perceives, and provided there is a clear grasp of how they are reflected in a cause and how they are reflected in an effect.23
I have stated on occasion that love is what constitutes our life, but this does not mean love separated from wisdom, or what is good separated from what is true in the cause. This is because love by itself, or what is good by itself, is nothing. Consequently, the love that constitutes our deepest life, the life that comes from the Lord, is love and wisdom together. So too, the love that constitutes our life to the extent that we are open to it is not love by itself in the cause, though it is by itself in the result. Love is incomprehensible apart from its quality, and its quality is wisdom. That quality or wisdom can come only from its underlying reality, which is love. This is why they are a single whole; and the same holds true for what is good and what is true.
Now since what is true comes from what is good the way wisdom comes from love, both together are called love or good. Love in its form actually is wisdom, and what is good in its form is true. Form is the one and only source of quality.24
We can therefore conclude that what is good is actually good only to the extent that it is united to what is appropriately true, and that what is true is actually true only to the extent that it is united to what is appropriately good.
6. If the good that love does is not united to the truth that wisdom perceives, it is not really good, but it may seem to be; and if the truth that wisdom perceives is not united to the good that love does, it is not really true, but it may seem to be. The truth of the matter is that nothing good occurs that is really good unless it is united to something true that is appropriate to it, and nothing true occurs that is really true unless it is united to something good that is appropriate to it.
Still, there is such a thing as something good separated from what is true and something true separated from what is good. This happens with hypocrites and flatterers, with all kinds of evil people, and with people who are involved in good on the earthly25 level but not at all on the spiritual level. All of these people can do things that are good for church, country, community, and fellow citizen, for the poor and needy, and for widows and orphans. They can understand truths, too, and can think about them discerningly and talk about them and teach them. However, those good and true characteristics are not particularly deep, so they are not essentially good and true for the people who display them. They are outwardly good and true, and therefore are only facades.26 They exist solely for the sake of themselves and the world and not for the sake of goodness itself and truth itself, which means that they are not derived from what is good and true. They come simply from the mouth and the body, then, and not from the heart.
[2] We might compare them to gold or silver that has been overlaid on slag, rotten wood, or dung, and we might compare the uttered truths to our breath, which dissipates, or to a will-o’-the-wisp that vanishes. Outwardly, they may still seem genuine. While these truths have one guise for the people themselves, however, they can look very different to people who hear and accept them without knowing their source. The way we are affected outwardly depends on what lies within us. Some truth enters the hearing of others, and no matter whose mouth it has come from, the way the other minds grasp it depends on their own state and quality.
It is much the same for people who by reason of their heredity are involved in something that is good on the earthly level but not in something that is spiritually good. What lies within anything good and anything true is spiritual, and this banishes whatever is false and evil. Still, what is solely earthly sides with what is evil and false, and siding with evil is not in harmony with doing good.
The reason that goodness can be separated from truth and truth from goodness and that they still seem good and true even when separated is that we have an ability to act, called freedom, and an ability to discern, called rationality. It is by the misuse of these abilities that we can seem different outwardly than we actually are inwardly, so that an evil individual can do what is good and say what is true, and so that a devil can pretend to be an angel of light.27
On this subject, see the following propositions from Divine Love and Wisdom. The origin of evil is in the abuse of the abilities proper to us called rationality and freedom (§§264–270). These two abilities exist in both evil and good individuals (§425). If love is not married to wisdom (or if goodness is not married to truth), it cannot accomplish anything (§401). Love or volition does not do anything without wisdom or discernment (§409). Love or volition marries wisdom or discernment to itself and arranges things so that wisdom or discernment marries it willingly (§§410–412). Because of the power given it by love, wisdom or discernment can be raised up, can accept things in heaven’s light, and can grasp them (§413). Love can be raised up in the same way and can grasp things in heaven’s warmth provided it loves its spouse, wisdom, to that degree (§§414–415). Otherwise, love pulls wisdom or discernment back from its height so that they act in unison (§§416–418). If they are raised up together, love is cleansed in our discernment (§§419–421). Love that has been cleansed by wisdom in our discernment becomes spiritual and heavenly, and love that has been polluted in our discernment becomes limited to our senses and our bodies (§§422–424). It is the same for charity and faith and their union as it is for love and wisdom and their union (§§427–430). What charity in the heavens is (§431).28
7. The Lord does not let anything remain divided. This means that things must be focused either on what is both good and true or on what is both evil and false. The first of the goals toward which the Lord’s divine providence works is that we should be engaged in what is good and what is true together. That is our “good” and our love and that is our truth and our wisdom, because that is what makes us human and images of the Lord. However, since while we are living in this world we can be engaged simultaneously in what is good and what is false, or in what is evil and what is true—even in what is at once evil and good, and therefore double—and since this division destroys that image and therefore our very humanity, the Lord’s divine providence is trying to get rid of this division in everything it does.
Further, since it is better for us to be engaged in something evil and something false than in something good and something evil at the same time, the Lord lets the first of these pairings occur. He does so not from intent but from an inability to prevent it because of the ultimate goal, which is our salvation. It is because of these two factors—our ability to be engaged in something evil and something true at the same time, and the Lord’s inability to prevent this because of the goal, which is our salvation—that our discernment can be lifted up into heaven’s light and see what is true or recognize it when we hear it even while our love remains down below. This means that we can be in heaven in our discernment and in hell in our love; and we cannot be denied this possibility because we cannot be deprived of the two abilities that make us human and distinguish us from the beasts, the two abilities that alone make our rebirth and salvation possible, namely, our rationality and our freedom. These two abilities, that is, are what enable us to act in keeping with wisdom or to act in keeping with a love that has no wisdom. These are what enable us to look down from wisdom on our love below and therefore see our thoughts, intentions, and feelings, to see what is evil and false and what is good and true in our life and our beliefs. If we could not recognize and admit these things in ourselves, we could not be remade. I have already discussed these abilities [§15] and will have more to say about them later [§§71–99].
This is how we can be engaged in what is good and what is true together and in what is evil and what is false together, and do this alternately.
It is hard for us to attain union or unity (of what is good and what is true or of what is evil and what is false) in this world, because as long as we are living here we are kept in a state of reformation or rebirth. We all attain one union or the other after death, though, because then we can no longer be remade or reborn: we keep the quality of the life we led in the world, that is, the quality of our primary love. If our life was governed by evil love, anything true we have learned in this world from teachers, sermons, or the Word is taken away. Once it is gone, we soak up the falsity that agrees with our evil the way a sponge soaks up water.
Conversely, if our life has been governed by good love, then everything false we have picked up from what we have heard and read in the world without intentionally adopting it is taken away, and in its place we are given the truth that agrees with our good.
This is the intent of these words of the Lord:
Take the talent from this one and give it to the one who has ten talents. To all those who have, more will be given, in ample supply; but from those who do not have, even what they have will be taken away. (Matthew 25:28, 29; 13:12; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18; 19:24–26)
The reason everyone must be engaged in what is good and what is true together after death or in what is evil and what is false is that good and evil cannot be united. Neither can good and any falsity that is prompted by evil, or evil and any truth that is prompted by anything good. Such things are opposites, and opposites battle with each other until one destroys the other.
It is people who are engaged in evil and good at the same time that are referred to in these words of the Lord to the church in Laodicea in the Book of Revelation:
I know your works,29 that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. However, since you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:15, 16),
and by these words of the Lord:
No one can serve two masters. You will either hate one and love the other or cling to one and ignore the other. (Matthew 6:24)
8. If something is focused on what is both good and true, then it is something; but if it is focused on what is both evil and false, it is not anything at all. Section 11 above shows that whatever is focused on what is both good and true is something, and it follows from this that anything that is both evil and false is nothing. “Being nothing” means having no power, no trace of spiritual life.
People who are focused on what is evil and false together (all of whom are in hell) do have a kind of power among themselves. An evil individual can do harm and in fact does harm in thousands of ways, though it is only from evil that an evil individual can harm evil people. Still, an evil person can do no harm whatever to good people. If that happens (which it sometimes does), it is through the evil one identifying with something evil in the good.30 [2] This gives rise to temptations that are attacks by evil people among themselves, resulting in the struggles that enable good people to be freed from their evils.
Because evil people have no power, all hell is a virtual nothing in the Lord’s sight, an absolute nothing when it comes to power. I have seen this quite convincingly time after time.
The remarkable thing is, though, that all the evil people believe they are powerful and all the good people believe they themselves are not. This is because evil people ascribe everything to their own power, their own deviousness and malice, and nothing to the Lord, while good people ascribe nothing to their own prudence and everything to the Lord, who is omnipotent.
Another reason anything both evil and false is nothing is that it has no trace of spiritual life. This is why a hellish life is called “death” rather than “life”; so since anything that exists belongs to life, nothing that exists can belong to death.
People who are involved in evil and in truth at the same time can be compared to eagles that soar high overhead but plunge down if they lose their wings. Something like this happens to people after death, when they become spirits, if they have understood, discussed, and taught truths but have never turned to God in their lives. Their comprehension lifts them on high; and sometimes they get into heaven and pretend to be angels of light.31 However, when they are deprived of their truths and dismissed, they plunge into hell. Eagles mean predatory people who have intellectual vision, and wings mean spiritual truths.
I mentioned that these are people who never turn to God in their lives. “Turning to God in our lives” simply means thinking that some particular evil action is a sin against God and therefore not doing it.
9. The Lord’s divine providence works things out so that what is both evil and false promotes balance, comparison, and purification, which means that it promotes the union of what is good and true in others. It follows from what has just been said that the Lord’s divine providence is constantly working to unite what is true with what is good and what is good with what is true within us, because this union is the church and heaven. This union exists in the Lord and in everything that emanates from him. It is because of this union that heaven is called “a marriage,” as is the church; so in the Word the kingdom of God is compared to a marriage.32 This union is the reason the Sabbath was the holiest part of worship in the Israelite church,33 since it means that union. This is also why there is a marriage of what is good and what is true throughout the Word and in every detail of it (see Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 80–90).34
The marriage of what is good and what is true comes from the marriage of the Lord and the church, and this in turn comes from the marriage of love and wisdom in the Lord. Goodness is actually a matter of love, and truth is a matter of wisdom. We can see from this that the constant objective of divine providence is to unite what is good to what is true and what is true to what is good within us. This is how we are united to the Lord.
However, many people have broken this marriage and still do. They do this especially by separating faith from thoughtful living (faith being a matter of truth and truth a matter of faith, with thoughtful living being a matter of goodness and goodness being a matter of thoughtful living). By so doing they unite what is evil and false within themselves and have become opponents, and continue to be so.35 The Lord nevertheless provides that they may still help unite what is good and true in others through balance, comparison, and purification.
The Lord provides for the union of what is good and true in others by the balance between heaven and hell. What is evil and what is false are continually breathing out together from hell, and what is good and what is true are continually breathing out together from heaven. Every one of us is kept in that balance as long as we are living in this world, and this is what gives us our freedom to think, intend, speak, and act, the freedom in which we can be reformed. (On this spiritual balance that gives us our freedom, see Heaven and Hell 589–596 and 597–603).
The Lord provides for the union of what is good and what is true by comparison. We recognize the quality of what is good only by its relationship to something that is less good and by its opposition to what is evil. This is the source of everything in us that is perceptive and sensitive, because this is what gives perception and sensitivity their quality. That is, anything pleasing is perceived and sensed by contrast with something that is less pleasing and with what is unpleasant, anything beautiful by contrast with something less beautiful and with something ugly. By the same token, any good that love does is perceived and sensed by contrast with what is less good and by something evil, and anything true that wisdom offers is perceived and sensed by contrast with what is less true and by something false.
In everything there needs to be a range from most to least, and when there is also a range from most to least in its opposite and a balance exists between them, then a balance is established between them in keeping with their levels. As a result, our perception and sensation are either enhanced or dulled.
We need to realize, that is, that the opposition may either deaden or intensify our perceptions and sensations. It deadens them when the opposites are mingled and intensifies them when they are not mingled. This is why the Lord separates goodness from evil very precisely so that they will not be mingled in us, just as he keeps heaven and hell separate.
The Lord provides for the union of what is good and true in others by purification. This happens in two ways, by temptations and by fermenting. Spiritual temptations are simply battles against the evil and false things that breathe forth from hell and affect us. These battles purify us from things that are evil and false, so that goodness in us is united to truth and truth to goodness.
Spiritual fermenting happens in many ways both in the heavens and on earth, but people in our world do not know what these processes are or how they happen. There are things that are both evil and false that are injected into communities the way agents of fermentation are injected into flour or grape juice. These serve to separate things that do not belong together and unite things that do, so that the substance becomes pure and clear.
These are the processes referred to by the Lord’s words,
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened. (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:21)
These useful functions are provided by the Lord through the union of what is evil and false that prevails among people in hell, since the Lord’s rule (which is not only over heaven but also over hell) is a functional rule and the Lord’s providence intends that there should be no one and nothing there that does not do some service or enable some service to happen.