April 17, 2019

PROVIDENCE (pt. 4)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
Doctrinal Series
PROVIDENCE
(pt. 4)


Everyone who rightly considers, may know that eminence and opulence in the world are not real divine blessings, notwithstanding man, from his pleasure in them, calls them so; for they pass away, and also seduce many, and turn them away from heaven; but that eternal life, and its happiness, are real blessings, which are from the Divine: this the Lord also teaches in Luke:
Make to yourselves a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where the thief approacheth not, neither the moth corrupteth; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12:33, 34).
(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 270)

April 16, 2019

PROVIDENCE (pt. 3)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
Doctrinal Series
PROVIDENCE
(pt. 3)


They who think from worldly things concerning the Divine Providence, conclude from them that it is only universal, and that the particulars appertain to man. But they do not know the arcana of heaven, for they form their conclusions only from the loves of self and of the world, and their pleasures; wherefore, when they see the evil exalted to honors, and acquire wealth more than the good, and also succeed in evils according to their arts, they, say in their heart, that it would not be so if the Divine Providence were in each and all things; but they do not consider that the Divine Providence does not regard that which soon passes away, and ends with the life of man in the world, but that it regards that which remains to eternity, thus which has no end.
What has no end, that is; but what has an end, that respectively is not.
Let him who can, think whether a hundred thousand years are anything compared to eternity, and he will perceive that they are not; what then are some years of life in the world?
(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 269)

April 15, 2019

PROVIDENCE (pt. 2)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
Doctrinal Series
PROVIDENCE
(pt. 2)


The Divine Providence of the Lord extends to the most minute things of a man's life; for there is only one fountain of life, which is the Lord, from whom we are, we live, and we act.
(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 268)