Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 198

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198. Shall be clothed in white garments. That this signifies intelligence and wisdom according to truths and their reception is evident from what was said above (n. 195, 196), where it was shown that white garments are Divine truths. The reason why to be clothed with them signifies intelligence and wisdom according to truths and their reception is, that all intelligence and wisdom are from Divine truths according to their perception and their reception in life. To see truths and distinguish their quality is from perception, and to live according to them is from reception; and according to such perception and reception man has intelligence and wisdom. Intelligence and wisdom that are not derived from Divine truths, but from worldly things alone, are not intelligence and wisdom, but merely knowledge (scientia), and thence a faculty of reason. For intelligence is to perceive inwardly in one's mind whether a thing is true or not; but those who are wise from worldly things alone do not perceive truths inwardly in themselves, but from others, and to perceive from others is merely to know; nor do truths in this case enter into the mind's intuition deeper than is necessary for confirmation. In this state are the majority of people at this day within the church, who make faith alone saving apart from life; this is why truths do not enter into their spirit, but merely into the memory of the natural man; and yet the light of heaven, which is Divine truth, can enter by no other way into man than by the way of his spirit, which is also the way of his soul. Man's spirit is exactly according to the quality of his life, but not according to that of his memory apart from life; and the light of heaven enters into man's spirit when he is in the good of love and charity from the Lord, and when in that good he is then also in faith. (That man has no faith where there is no love or charity, may be seen in the little work, The Last Judgement, n. 33-40. Moreover, what true intelligence is, and what spurious and what false intelligence are, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell, n. 346-356.)


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