Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence, Emanuel Swedenborg [best ereader for graphic novels .txt] 📗

than self-love? It happens as often as it is not honored to suit the haughtiness of its heart or as something does not succeed at its beck and wish. What, then, is standing except an idea, unless it attaches to the office or the use? Can the idea exist in any other thought than thought about self and the world, and does it not really mean that the world is all and eternity nothing?

[3] Something shall be said now why divine providence permits the impious at heart to be promoted to standing and to acquire wealth. The impious or the evil can render services as well as the pious or good, indeed with more fire, for they regard themselves in the use and their standing as the use. As self-love mounts, therefore, the lust of doing service for one's glory is fired. There is no such fire with the devout or good unless it is kindled incidentally to their standing. Therefore the Lord governs the impious at heart who have standing by their desire for a name and arouses them to perform uses to the community or their country, their society or city, and their fellow citizen or neighbor. With such persons this is the Lord's government which is called divine providence, for the Lord's kingdom is one of uses, and where only a few perform uses for uses' sake providence brings it about that worshipers of self are raised to higher offices, in which each is incited by his love to do good.

[4] Suppose an infernal kingdom in the world (though there is none) where self-love alone rules, which is itself the devil, would not everyone perform uses with the zeal of self-love and for the enhancement of his glory more than in another kingdom? The public good is borne on the lips of them all, but their own benefit in the heart. And as each relies on what rules him in order to become greater, and aspires to be greatest, how can he see that God exists? A smoke like that of a conflagration envelops him through which no spiritual truth can pass with its light. I have seen that smoke around the hells of such men. Light a lamp and inquire how many in present-day kingdoms aspire to eminence who are not loves of self and the world. Will you find fifty in a thousand who are loves of God, among whom, moreover, only a few aspire to eminence? Since so few are loves of God and so many are loves of self and the world and since the latter perform more uses by their ardor, how can one confirm himself against divine providence because the evil surpass the good in eminence and opulence?

[5] This is borne out also by these words of the Lord:

The lord praised the unjust steward because he had acted prudently; for the sons of this age are more prudent in their generation than the sons of light in their generation. So I say to you, Make friends for yourselves of the unjust mammon that when you fail they may receive you into eternal habitations (Lu 16:8, 9).

The meaning in the sense of the letter is plain. But in the spiritual sense by the "mammon of injustice" are meant knowledges of good and truth which the evil possess and employ solely to acquire standing and wealth for themselves. It is of these knowledges that the good or the children of light are to make friends for themselves and it is these knowledges that will conduct them into eternal homes. The Lord also teaches that many are loves of self and the world, and few are loves of God, in these words:

Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leads to destruction, and many there be who enter it, but narrow and strait is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Mt 7:13, 14).

It may be seen above (n. 217) that eminence and riches are either curses or blessings, and with whom they are the one or the other.

251. The worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine providence when he reflects that wars are permitted and the slaughter in them of so many men and the plundering of their wealth. It is not by divine providence that wars occur, for they entail murder, plunder, violence, cruelty, and other terrible evils which are diametrically opposed to Christian charity. Yet they cannot but be permitted because the life's love of mankind, since the time of the most ancient people, meant by Adam and his wife (n. 241), has become such that it wants to rule over others and finally over all, and also to possess the wealth of the world and finally all wealth. These two loves cannot be kept in fetters, for it is according to divine providence that everyone is allowed to act in freedom in accordance with reason, as may be seen above (nn. 71-97); and apart from permissions man cannot be led from evil by the Lord and consequently cannot be reformed and saved. For unless evils were allowed to break out, man would not see them, therefore would not acknowledge them, and thus could not be induced to resist them. Evils cannot be repressed, therefore, by any act of providence; if they were, they would remain shut in, and like a disease such as cancer and gangrene, would spread and consume everything vital in man.

[2] For from birth man is like a little hell between which and heaven there is perpetual discord. No one can be withdrawn from his hell by the Lord unless he sees he is in it and desires to be led out of it. This cannot be done apart from tolerations the causes of which are laws of divine providence. As a result, minor and major wars occur, the minor between owners of estates and their neighbors, and the major between sovereigns of kingdoms and their neighbors. Except for size the only difference is that the minor conflicts are held within limits by a country's laws and the major by the law of nations; each may wish to transgress its laws, but the minor cannot, and while the major can, still the possibility has limits.

[3] Hidden in the stores of divine wisdom are several causes why the major wars of kings and rulers, involving murder, looting, violence and cruelty as they do, are not prevented by the Lord, either at their beginning or during their course, only finally when the power of one or the other has been so reduced that he is in danger of annihilation. Some of the causes have been revealed to me and among them is this: all wars, although they are civil in character, represent in heaven states of the church and are correspondences. The wars described in the Word were all of this character; so are all wars at this day. Those in the Word are the wars which the children of Israel waged with various nations, Amorites, Moabites, Philistines, Syrians, Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians. Moreover, it was when the children of Israel, who represented the church, departed from their precepts and statutes and fell into evils represented by other peoples (for each nation with which the children of Israel waged war represented a particular evil), that they were punished by that nation. For instance, when they profaned the sanctities of the church by foul idolatries they were punished by the Assyrians and Chaldeans because Assyria and Chaldea signify the profanation of what is holy. What was signified by the wars with the Philistines may be seen in Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Faith (nn. 50-54).

[4] Wars at the present day, wherever they may occur, represent similar things. For all things which occur in the natural world correspond to spiritual things in the spiritual world, and all spiritual things are related to the church. It is not known in the world which kingdoms in Christendom represent the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Syrians, the Philistines, the Chaldeans and the Assyrians or others, with whom the children of Israel waged war; yet there are nations that do so. Moreover, the condition of the church on earth and what the evils are into which it falls and for which it is punished by wars, cannot be seen at all in the natural world, for only externals are manifest here and these do not constitute the church. This is seen, however, in the spiritual world where internal conditions appear and in these the church itself consists. There all are united according to their various states. Conflicts between them correspond to wars, which on both sides are governed by the Lord correspondentially in accordance with His divine providence.

[5] The spiritual man acknowledges that wars on earth are ruled by the Lord's divine providence. The natural man does not, except that at a celebration of a victory he may thank God on his knees for having given the victory, and except for a few words on going into battle. But when he returns into himself he ascribes the victory either to the prudence of the general or to some counsel or incident in the midst of the fighting which escaped notice and yet decided the victory.

[6] It may be seen above (n. 212) that divine providence, which is called fortune, is in the least things, even in trivial ones, and if you acknowledge divine providence in these you will certainly do so in the issues of war. Success and happy conduct of war, moreover, are in common parlance called the fortune of war, and this is divine providence, to be found especially in a general's judgments and plans, although he may at the time and also afterwards ascribe all to his own prudence. This he may do if he will, for he has full freedom to think in favor of divine providence or against it, indeed in favor of God or against Him; but let him know that no judgment or plan is from himself; it comes either from heaven or from hell, from hell by permission, from heaven by providence.

252. A worshiper of self and of nature confirms himself against divine providence when he thinks, as he sees it, that victories are on the side of prudence and not always on the side of justice, and that it is immaterial whether a commander is upright or not. Victories seem to be on the side of prudence and not always on the side of justice, because man judges by the appearance and favors one side more than the other and can by reasoning confirm what he favors. Nor does he know that the justice of a cause is spiritual in heaven and natural in the world, as was said just above, and that the two are united in a connection of things past and of things to come, known only to the Lord.

[2] It is immaterial whether the commander is an upright man or not because, as was established above (n. 250), the evil as well as the good perform uses, and by their zeal more ardently than the good. This is so especially in war because the evil man is more crafty and cunning in devising schemes than a good man, and in his love of glory takes pleasure in killing and plundering those whom he knows and declares to be the enemy. The good man has prudence and zeal for defense and rarely for attacking. This is much the same as it is with spirits of hell and angels of heaven; the spirits of hell attack and the angels of heaven defend themselves. Hence comes this conclusion that it is allowable for one to defend his country and his fellow-citizens against invading enemies even by iniquitous commanders, but not allowable to make oneself an enemy without cause. To have the seeking of glory for cause is in itself diabolical, for it comes of self-love.

253. The points made above (n. 237) by which the merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence have now been explained. The points which follow (n. 238) about the varieties of religion in many nations, which also serve the merely natural man for arguments against divine providence, are to be clarified next. For the merely natural man says in his heart, How can so many discordant religions exist instead of one world-wide and true religion when (as was shown above, nn. 27-45) divine providence has a heaven from mankind for its purpose? But pray, listen: all human beings who are born, however numerous and of whatever religion, can be saved if only they acknowledge God and live according to the precepts of the Decalog, which forbid committing murder, adultery, theft, and false witness because to do such things is contrary