True Christian Religion (Chadwick) n. 778

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

778. Every person is his love and his intelligence. Everything which comes from him derives its essence from those two essentials or characteristics of his life. As a result of this angels recognise what a person is like in essence from brief contact with him; they can tell his love from the sound of his voice and his intelligence from what he says. This is because the two universals of anyone's life are his will and his understanding. The will is the receiver and seat of his love, the understanding the receiver and seat of his intelligence. Consequently everything coming from the person, whether action or speech, makes up the person and is the person himself.

[2] In a similar manner, but in a pre-eminent degree, the Lord is Divine love and Divine wisdom; or, what is the same thing, Divine good and Divine truth. For His will belongs to Divine love, and Divine love belongs to His will; and His understanding is Divine wisdom*, and Divine wisdom belongs to His understanding. The human form is their container. These statements will allow one to form some idea of how the Lord is the Word. On the contrary, however, anyone who is against the Word, that is, against the Divine truth in it, and thus against the Lord and His church, is his own evil and his own falsity, both as regards his mind and as regards its effects from the body, effects which relate to actions and utterances.

* The clauses are not strictly parallel as given in the Latin, and it is possible that this should read 'belongs to Divine wisdom'.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church