December 9, 2016

The Lord in Mercy Adjoins Man to Himself

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
In order that a more distinct idea may be formed concerning the union of the Lord's Divine Essence with His Human Essence, and concerning the Lord's conjunction with the human race through the faith of charity, it may be well ... to call the former Union, but the latter Conjunction.

Between the Lord's Divine Essence and His Human Essence there was a Union; but between the Lord and the human race there is a Conjunction, through the faith of charity, as is evident from the fact that Jehovah or the Lord is Life, and that His Human Essence also was made Life ... and between Life and Life there is Union. Whereas man is not Life, but a recipient of life ... when Life flows into a recipient of life, there is conjunction; for it is adapted to the recipient as is the active to the passive, or as that which is in itself alive to that which is in itself dead, and which lives therefrom.  The principal and the instrumental - as they are termed - do indeed appear to be conjoined together as if they were a one, but still they are not a one; for the former is by itself, and the latter is by itself. Man does not live from himself, but the Lord in mercy adjoins man to Himself and thereby causes him to live to eternity; and because the Lord and man are thus distinct, it is called conjunction.

(Arcana Coelestia 2021)