Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence | Page 4

but sends the reader to it. Definitions
of a number of terms are embodied in it.
The appearance that man thinks, wills, speaks and acts all of his own
doing is the subject of much of the book, and this the index shows. The
"life's love" deserves to be a separate entry, for little of a psychological
nature in the book becomes more prominent than the love which forms
in the way one actually lives, and which embodies one's actual belief
and thought. Single words which have been scattered entries in the
index long used--usually Scripture words of which the correspondential
meaning is given--are assembled alphabetically under the entry
"Correspondences."
A signal feature of Swedenborg's thought is the unities he perceives. Of
love and wisdom he says that they can only be perceived as one (4(5)).
So good and truth do not exist apart, nor charity and faith, nor affection
and thought. These and other pairs of terms are therefore entered in the
index; after references on the two together, references follow on each
term alone.
The index, it is hoped, will do more than introduce the reader to
statements made in the book, but will carry him into its stream of
thought.
WM. F. WUNSCH
Angelic Wisdom about DIVINE PROVIDENCE
DIVINE PROVIDENCE
I. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS GOVERNMENT BY THE LORD'S
DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM
1. To understand what divine providence is--namely, government by

the Lord's divine love and wisdom--one needs to know what was said
and shown earlier about divine love and wisdom in the treatise about
them: "In the Lord divine love is of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom
of divine love" (nn. 34-39); "Divine love and wisdom cannot but be in,
and be manifested in, all else, created by them" (nn. 47-51); "All things
in the universe were created by them" (nn. 52, 53, 151-156); "All are
recipients of that love and wisdom" (nn. 55-60); "The Lord appears
before the angels as a sun, the heat proceeding from it being love, and
the light wisdom" (nn. 83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301); "Divine love and
wisdom, proceeding from the Lord, make one" (nn. 99-102); "The Lord
from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it
from Himself, and not from nothing" (nn. 282-284, 290-295). This is to
be found in the treatise entitled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and
Wisdom.
2. Putting with these propositions the description of creation in that
treatise, one may indeed see that what is called divine providence is
government by the Lord's divine love and wisdom. In that treatise,
however, creation was the subject, and not the preservation of the state
of things after creation--yet this is the Lord's government. We now treat
of this, therefore, and in the present chapter, of the preservation of the
union of divine love and wisdom or of divine good and truth in what
was created, which will be done in the following order:
i. The universe, with each and all things in it, was created from divine
love by divine wisdom. ii Divine love and wisdom proceed as one from
the Lord. iii. This one is in some image in every created thing. iv. It is
of the divine providence that every created thing, as a whole and in part,
should be such a one, and if it is not, should become such a one. v.
Good of love is good only so far as it is united to truth of wisdom, and
truth of wisdom truth only so far as it is united to good of love. vi.
Good of love not united to truth of wisdom is not good in itself but
seeming good, and truth of wisdom not united to good of love is not
truth in itself but seeming truth. vii. The Lord does not suffer anything
to be divided; therefore it must be either in good and at the same time
in truth, or in evil and at the same time in falsity. viii. That which is in
good and at the same time in truth is something; that which is in evil

and at the same time in falsity is not anything. ix. The Lord's divine
providence causes evil and the attendant falsity to serve for equilibrium,
contrast, and purification, and so for the conjunction of good and truth
in others.
3. (i) The universe, with each and all things in it, was created from
divine love by divine wisdom. In the work Divine Love and Wisdom we
showed that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, is in essence
divine love and wisdom, and that He created the universe and all things
in it from Himself. It follows that the universe, with each and all things
in it, was created from divine love by means of divine wisdom. We