Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom | Page 9

the Word of God; as in David:
Righteousness and judgment are the support of Thy Throne (Ps. 89:14).
Jehovah shall bring forth righteousness as the light, and judgment as
the noonday (Ps. 37:6).
In Hosea:
I will betroth thee unto Me for ever, in righteousness, and in judgment
(2:18).
In Jeremiah:
I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who shall reign as King and
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth (23:5).
In Isaiah:
He shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to
establish it in judgment and in righteousness (9:7). Jehovah shall be

exalted, because He hath filled the earth with judgment and
righteousness (33:5).
In David:
When I shall have learned the judgments of Thy righteousness. Seven
times a day do I praise Thee, because of the judgments of Thy
righteousness (Ps. 119:7, 164).
The same is meant by "life" and "light" in John:
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (1:4).
By "life" in this passage is meant the Lord's Divine Love, and by
"light" His Divine Wisdom. The same also is meant by "life" and
"spirit" in John:
Jesus said, The words which I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life (6:63).
39. In man love and wisdom appear as two separate things, yet in
themselves they are one distinctly, because with man wisdom is such as
the love is, and love is such as the wisdom is. The wisdom that does not
make one with its love appears to be wisdom, but it is not; and the love
that does not make one with its wisdom appears to be the love of
wisdom, but it is not; for the one must derive its essence and its life
reciprocally from the other. With man love and wisdom appear as two
separate things, because with him the capacity for understanding may
be elevated into the light of heaven, but not the capacity for loving,
except so far as he acts according to his understanding. Any apparent
wisdom, therefore, which does not make one with the love of wisdom,
sinks back into the love which does make one with it; and this may be a
love of unwisdom, yea, of insanity. Thus a man may know from
wisdom that he ought to do this or that, and yet he does not do it,
because he does not love it. But so far as a man does from love what
wisdom teaches, he is an image of God.
40. DIVINE LOVE AND DIVINE WISDOM ARE SUBSTANCE

AND ARE FORM.
The idea of men in general about love and about wisdom is that they
are like something hovering and floating in thin air or ether or like what
exhales from something of this kind. Scarcely any one believes that
they are really and actually substance and form. Even those who
recognize that they are substance and form still think of the love and
the wisdom as outside the subject and as issuing from it. For they call
substance and form that which they think of as outside the subject and
as issuing from it, even though it be something hovering and floating;
not knowing that love and wisdom are the subject itself, and that what
is perceived outside of it and as hovering and floating is nothing but an
appearance of the state of the subject in itself. There are several reasons
why this has not hitherto been seen, one of which is, that appearances
are the first things out of which the human mind forms its
understanding, and these appearances the mind can shake off only by
the exploration of the cause; and if the cause lies deeply hidden, the
mind can explore it only by keeping the understanding for a long time
in spiritual light; and this it cannot do by reason of the natural light
which continually withdraws it. The truth is, however, that love and
wisdom are the real and actual substance and form that constitute the
subject itself.
41. But as this is contrary to appearance, it may seem not to merit belief
unless it be proved; and since it can be proved only by such things as
man can apprehend by his bodily senses, by these it shall be proved.
Man has five external senses, called touch, taste, smell, hearing and
sight. The subject of touch is the skin by which man is enveloped, the
very substance and form of the skin causing it to feel whatever is
applied to it. The sense of touch is not in the things applied, but in the
substance and form of the skin, which are the subject; the sense itself is
nothing but an affecting of the subject by the things applied. It is the