Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence - Emanuel Swedenborg (sight word books .txt) 📗

wisdom and faith and in particular wisdom separate from love, and faith separate from charity, are meant by Cain. Wisdom as well as faith when separate is of such a nature that it not only rejects love and charity, but also destroys them and thus kills its brother. It is well known in Christendom that faith apart from charity does so; see Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Faith.

[2] The curse on Cain portends the spiritual state into which those come after death who separate faith from charity or wisdom from love. But lest wisdom or faith should perish, a mark was put on Cain lest he be slain, for love cannot exist without wisdom, nor charity without faith. As almost the same thing is represented by this as by eating of the tree of knowledge, it follows next after the account of Adam and his wife. Moreover, those in faith separate from charity are in intelligence of their own; those who are in charity and thence in faith are in intelligence from the Lord, thus in divine providence.

243. The Israelites worshiped a golden calf in the wilderness and acknowledged it as the god that had brought them out of Egypt, yet Jehovah saw this from Mt. Sinai near by and did not warn against it. This occurred in the desert of Sinai near the mountain. It is in accordance with all the laws of divine providence recounted so far and with those to follow that Jehovah did not restrain the Israelites from that atrocious worship. This evil was permitted them that they might not all perish. For the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt to represent the Lord's church; they could not represent it unless the Egyptian idolatry was first rooted out of their hearts. This could not be done unless it was left to them to act upon what was in their hearts and then to remove it on being severely punished. What further is signified by that worship, by the threat that they would be entirely rejected, and by the possibility that a new nation might be raised from Moses, may be seen in Arcana Caelestia on Exodus 32, where these things are spoken of.

244. David numbered the people and as a consequence a pestilence befell them in which so many thousands of them perished; God sent the prophet Gad to him not before but after the deed and denounced punishment. One who confirms himself against divine providence may have various thoughts about this also and ponder especially why David was not admonished first and why the people were so severely punished for the king's transgression. That he was not warned first is in accord with the laws of divine providence already adduced, especially with the two explained at nn. 129-153 and 154-174. The people were so severely punished for the king's transgression and seventy thousand smitten by the pestilence not on account of the king but on account of themselves, for we read

The anger of Jehovah kindled still more against Israel; therefore He incited David against them saying, Go, number Israel and Judah (2 Sa 24:1).

245. Solomon was allowed to establish idolatrous forms of worship. For he was to represent the Lord's kingdom or church in all varieties of religion in the world. For the church established with the Israelitish and Jewish nation was a representative church; all of its judgments and statutes represented the spiritual things of a church, which are its internals. The people represented the church, the king the Lord, David the Lord to come into the world, Solomon the Lord after His coming. As the Lord after the glorification of His humanity had all power over heaven and earth (as He said, Mt 28:18), Solomon as representative of Him appeared in glory and magnificence, was wise beyond all earthly kings, and also built the temple. Moreover, he permitted and set up the forms of worship of many nations, by which the various religions of the world were represented. His wives, who numbered seven hundred and his concubines who numbered three hundred (1 Kgs 11:13), had a similar signification, for "wife" in the Word signifies the church and "concubine" a form of religion. Hence it may be evident why it was granted Solomon to build the temple, by which the Divine Humanity of the Lord (Jn 2:19, 21) is signified and the church, too; and why he was allowed to establish idolatrous forms of worship and to take so many wives. See Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord (nn. 43, 44) that in many places in the Word the Lord who was to come into the world is meant by David.

246. After Solomon many kings were allowed to profane the temple and the sacred things of the church. This was because the people represented the church and the king was their head. The Israelitish and Jewish nation was of such a nature that they could not represent the church for long, for at heart they were idolaters; they therefore relapsed gradually from representative worship, perverting all things of the church, even to devastating it finally. This was represented by the profanations of the temple by the kings and by the people's idolatries; the full devastation of the church was represented by the destruction of the temple, the carrying off of Israel, and the captivity of Judah in Babylon. Such was the cause of this toleration; and what is done for some cause is done under divine providence according to one of its laws.

247. That nation was permitted to crucify the Lord. This was because the church with that nation was entirely devastated and had become such that they not only did not know or acknowledge the Lord, but hated Him. Still, all that they did to Him was according to laws of His divine providence. See in Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Lord (nn. 12-14) and in Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Faith (nn. 34, 35) that the passion of the cross was the last temptation or battle by which the Lord fully conquered the hells and fully glorified His Humanity.

248. So far the points listed at n. 236 have been explained, involving passages in the Word by which the naturally minded reasoner may confirm himself against divine providence. For, as was said, whatever such a man sees, hears or reads he can make into an argument against providence. Few persons, however, confirm themselves against divine providence from incidents in the Word, but many do so from things before their eyes, listed at n. 237. These are to be explained now in like manner.

249. Every worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine providence when he sees so many impious in the world and so many of their impieties and how some glory in them, yet sees the impious go unpunished by God. All impieties and all gloryings in them are permissions, of which the causes are laws of divine providence. Each human being can freely, indeed very freely, think what he wills, against God as well as in favor of God. One who thinks against God is rarely punished in the natural world, for he is always in a state to be reformed then, but is punished in the spiritual world, which is done after death, for then he can no longer be reformed.

[2] That laws of divine providence are the causes of tolerance is clear from the laws set forth above, if you will recall and examine them. They are: that man shall act in freedom according to reason (of this law above, nn. 71-79); that he shall not be forced by external means to think and will, thus to believe and love what is of religion, but bring himself and sometimes compel himself to do so (nn. 129-153); that there is no such thing as one's own prudence, but there only appears to be and it should so appear, but divine providence is universal from being in the least things (nn. 191-213); divine providence looks to what is eternal, and to the temporal only as this makes one with the eternal (nn. 214-220); man is not admitted inwardly into truths of faith and goods of charity except as he can be kept in them to the close of life (nn. 221-233).

[3] That the laws of divine providence are the causes of tolerance will also be evident from the following, for one thing from this: evils are tolerated because of the end, which is salvation. Again from this: that divine providence is continual with the wicked as well as with the good. And finally from this: the Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of His divine providence because to do so would be to act contrary to His divine love and wisdom, thus contrary to Himself. Brought together, these laws can make the causes manifest why impieties are tolerated by the Lord and are not punished while they exist in the thought only and rarely, too, while they exist in intention, thus in the will but not in act. Yet its own punishment follows every evil; it is as if its punishment were inscribed on an evil, and the impious man suffers it after death.

[4] These considerations also explain the next point, listed at n. 237: The worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself still more against divine providence when he sees plots, schemes and frauds succeed even against the devout, just and sincere, and injustice triumph over justice in the courts and in business. All the laws of divine providence have requirements; and as they are the causes why such things are permitted, it is plain that for man to live as a human being and be reformed and saved, these things can be removed from him by the Lord only through means. The Word and, in particular, the precepts of the Decalog are the means with those who acknowledge all kinds of murder, adultery, theft and false witness to be sins. With those who do not acknowledge such things as sins, they are removed by means of the civil laws and fear of their penalties and by means also of the moral laws and fear of disrepute and consequent loss of standing and wealth. By the latter means the Lord leads the evil, but only away from doing such things, not from thinking and willing them. But by the former means He leads the good, not only away from doing them, but from thinking and willing them, too.

250. The worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine providence on seeing the impious advanced to honors and becoming leaders in the state and in the church, abounding, too, in riches and living in luxury and magnificence, and on the other hand sees worshipers of God despised and poor. A worshiper of self and of nature believes that standing and riches are the greatest and the one felicity possible, thus felicity itself. If he has some thought of God as a result of worship begun in childhood, he calls them divine blessings, and as long as he is not elated by them he thinks that there is a God and worships Him. But in the worship there lurks a desire, of which he is unaware then, to be advanced by God to still higher standing and to still greater wealth. If he attains them, his worship tends more and more to externalities until it slips away and at last he makes little account of God and denies Him. The same thing occurs if he is cast down from the standing and loses the riches on which he has set his heart. What, then, are standing and riches to the wicked but stumbling blocks?

[2] To the good they are not, for these do not set their heart on them, but on the uses or goods for rendering which standing and wealth serve as means. Hence only a worshiper of self and of nature can confirm himself against divine providence because the impious are advanced to honors and become leaders in the state and in the church. Moreover, what is greater or less standing, or greater or less wealth? Is this not in itself imaginary? Is one person more blessed and happier than another for it? Is a great man's standing, or even a king's or an emperor's, not regarded in a year's time as a commonplace, no longer exalting his heart with joy but quite possibly becoming worthless to him? Have those with standing a larger measure of happiness than those with little standing or even the least standing, like farmers and their hands? May not these enjoy more happiness when it is well with them and they are content with their lot? What is more unquiet at heart, more often provoked, or more violently enraged