The Divine Essence Itself is Love And Wisdom

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Sum up all things you know and submit them to careful inspection, and in some elevation of spirit search for the universal of all things, and you cannot conclude otherwise than that it is Love and Wisdom. For these are the two essentials of all things of man's life; everything of that life, civil, moral, and spiritual, hinges upon these two, and apart from these two is nothing. It is the same with all things of the life of the composite Man - a society, larger or smaller, a kingdom, an empire, a church, and also the angelic heaven. Take away love and wisdom from these, and consider whether they be anything, and you will find that apart from love and wisdom as their origin they are nothing.

Love together with wisdom in its very essence is in God. This no one can deny;

For God loves every one from love in Himself, and leads every one from wisdom in Himself.

The created universe, too, viewed in relation to its order, is so full of wisdom coming forth from love that all things in the aggregate may be said to be wisdom itself. For things limitless are in such order, successively and simultaneously, that taken together they make a one. It is from this, and this alone, that they can be held together and continually preserved.

It is because the Divine Essence itself is Love and Wisdom that man has two capacities for life - from one of these he has understanding, from the other will. The capacity from which he has understanding derives everything it has from the influx of wisdom from God, and the capacity from which he has will derives everything it has from the influx of love from God.

Man's not being truly wise and not loving rightly does not take away these capacities, but merely closes them up; and so long as they are closed up - although the understanding is still called understanding and the will is called will - they are not such in essence.

If these two capacities, therefore, were to be taken away, all that is human would perish; for the human is to think and to speak from thought, and to will and to act from will. From this it is clear that the Divine has its seat in man in these two capacities, the capacity to be wise and the capacity to love (that is, that one may be wise and may love).

That in man there is a possibility of loving [and of being wise], even when he is not wise as he might be and does not love as he might...

It is because the Divine Essence itself is Love and Wisdom, that all things in the universe have relation to good and truth; for everything that proceeds from love is called good, and everything that proceeds from wisdom is called truth. ...

It is because the Divine Essence itself is Love and Wisdom, that the universe and all things in it - alive and not alive - have unceasing existence from heat and light; for heat corresponds to love, and light corresponds to wisdom; and therefore spiritual heat is love and spiritual light is wisdom. ...

From Divine Love and from Divine Wisdom, which make the very Essence that is God, all affections and thoughts with man have their rise - affections from Divine Love, and thoughts from Divine Wisdom - and each and all things of man are nothing but affection and thought; these two are like fountains of all things of man's life.

All the enjoyments and pleasantnesses of his life are from these - enjoyments from the affection of his love, and pleasantnesses from the thought therefrom. Now since man was created to be a recipient, and is a recipient in the degree in which he loves God and from love to God is wise, in other words, in the degree in which he is affected by those things which are from God and thinks from that affection, it follows that the Divine Essence, which is the Creator, is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 28 - 33)

The Salvation of the Faithful, and The Condemnation of the Unfaithful

Excerpts from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Judgment belongs to the Lord's Divine Human and Holy proceeding

That it belongs to the Divine Human see in John:  The Father judgeth not anyone, but hath given all judgment unto the Son   (John 5:22); by the "Son" is meant the Divine Human.

That Judgment belongs to the Holy that proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human, see also in John:  If I go away, I will send the Comforter unto you; and when He is come, He shall reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go unto My Father, and ye shall see Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (John 16:7-11)

"Sin" here denotes all unfaithfulness. His "reproving in regard to righteousness" means in regard to all that is against good, when yet the Lord united the Human to the Divine to save the world - which is the meaning of I go unto My Father and ye shall see Me no more.

His "reproving in regard to judgment" means in regard to all that is against truth, when yet evils were cast down into their hells so as no longer to be able to inflict injury - which is meant by the prince of the world being judged.

In general, His "reproving in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment," means that it was in regard to all unfaithfulness against good and truth; and thus that there was no charity and faith; for in ancient times by righteousness and judgment were understood, as regards the Lord, all mercy and grace; and as regards man, all charity and faith.     (Arcana Cœlestia 2235:6)

[T]hat the Holy proceeds from the Lord, see in the same:  He shall not speak from Himself but shall take of Mine, and shall declare it  (John 16:13, 15); and this when the Human was made Divine, that is, when the Lord had been glorified, see in the same:  The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified  (John 7:39).

The human race could no longer have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world and had united the Divine Essence to the Human Essence; for without the Lord's Human made Divine salvation could no longer have reached to man.

The Holy Itself that proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human is that which separates the evil from the good

for the evil so fear and shudder at the Lord's Holy that they cannot approach it, but flee far away from it into their hells, each one according to the profaneness that is in him.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2320-2321)

Good Cannot Die, Because Evil Can Be Separated From It

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

to "cause the righteous to die with the wicked," is to make good die with evil

As this ought not to be done, and causes horror to think of, it is removed in the internal sense, and then there is presented this: that good cannot die, because evil can be separated from it.

Be it known that all the good a man has thought and done from infancy even to the last of his life, remains; in like manner all the evil, so that not the least of it completely perishes. Both are inscribed on his book of life (that is, on each of his memories [interior and exterior]), and on his nature (that is, his native disposition and genius). From these he has formed for himself a life, and so to speak a soul, which after death is of a corresponding quality.

But goods are never so commingled with evils, nor evils with goods, that they cannot be separated; for if they should be commingled, the man would eternally perish.

In relation to this the Lord exercises His providence, and when a man comes into the other life, if he has lived in the good of love and of charity, the Lord then separates his evils, and by what is good with him elevates him into heaven. But if he has lived in evils, that is, in things contrary to love and charity, the Lord then separates from him what is good, and his evils bring him into hell. Such is the lot of everyone after death; but it is a separation, and in no wise a complete removal.

Moreover, as the will of man, which is the one part of his life, has been utterly destroyed, the Lord separates this destroyed part from the other which is his intellectual part, and in those who are being regenerated, implants in this intellectual part the good of charity, and through this a new will — these are they who have conscience. Thus also, speaking generally, the Lord separates evil from good. These are the arcana which are meant in the internal sense by the statement that good cannot die, because evil can be separated from it.

(Arcana Cœlestia 2256)