Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence by Emanuel Swedenborg
page 127 of 404 (31%)
page 127 of 404 (31%)
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other appearance is to be seen in that world, and one who wishes may see
it when he enters that world on death. Furthermore, enforced worship shuts one's evils in, which are hidden then like fire in wood under ashes which keeps stirring and spreading until it bursts into flame. But worship, not enforced but spontaneous, does not shut evils in; these are therefore like a fire that flares up and goes out. Thence it is plain that the internal refuses to be forced by the external and turns away. The internal can compel the external because it is like a master and the external like a servant. [5] Third: _External enjoyments entice assent and love from the internal._ Enjoyments are of two kinds, of the understanding or of the will. Enjoyments of the understanding are also enjoyments of wisdom, and those of the will also enjoyments of love; for wisdom belongs to the understanding and love to the will. Enjoyments of the body or of the senses, which are external pleasures, act as one with the internal enjoyments, which are enjoyments of the understanding and the will. Therefore, just as the internal is so averse to compulsion by the external as to turn away, it looks so kindly on enjoyment in the external that it turns to it. Assent follows on the part of the understanding, and love on the part of the will. [6] In the spiritual world all children are introduced by the Lord into angelic wisdom and through this into heavenly love by delightful and charming means, first by pretty things in the home and the charms of a garden; then by representations of spiritual things affecting the interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by truths of wisdom and goods of love. Thus they are steadily led by enjoyments in due order, first by the enjoyments of a love of the understanding and of its wisdom, and then by the enjoyments of the love of the will which is their life's |
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