Divine Love and Wisdom (Rogers) n. 427

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427. (22) The case is the same with charity and faith and their conjunction as with the will and intellect and their conjunction. The heavens have been distinguished in accordance with two loves-celestial love and spiritual love. Celestial love is love toward the Lord, and spiritual love is love for the neighbor. These loves are differentiated by the fact that celestial love is a love of good, while spiritual love is a love of truth; for people who are motivated by celestial love perform useful services from a love of good, whereas those who are motivated by spiritual love perform useful services from a love of truth. Celestial love's marriage is with wisdom, while spiritual love's marriage is with intelligence; for it is the mark of wisdom to do good in accord with good, and the mark of intelligence to do good in accord with truth. Consequently celestial love does what is good, and spiritual love does what is true. [2] The difference between these two loves cannot be described other than by the following observations. People who are motivated by celestial love have wisdom engraved on their life and not on their memory, and for this reason they do not talk about Divine truths but practice them. In contrast, people who are motivated by spiritual love have wisdom engraved on their memory, and consequently they talk about Divine truths and practice them in accordance with principles retained in the memory. Because people who are motivated by celestial love have wisdom engraved on their life, therefore whenever they are told something, they instantly perceive whether it is true or not, and when they are asked whether it is true, they reply only either that it is or that it is not. These are the people meant by the Lord's words, "Your speech shall be 'Yes, yes,' or 'No, no' " (Matthew 5:37). Moreover, because they are of such a character, they do not wish to hear anything about faith, saying, "What is faith? Is it not wisdom? And what is charity? Is it not to practice?" And when they are told that faith is to believe something without understanding it, they turn away, saying, "The fellow is demented." [3] People of this character are those who live in the third heaven and who are the wisest of all. Those became of such a character in that world who immediately applied to life the Divine verities that they heard by turning away from evils as infernal and adoring the Lord alone. Because they are in a state of innocence, they appear to others like little children. And because they do not talk about truths of wisdom and have not a bit of conceit in their speech, they appear also simple. But yet when they hear someone speak, they perceive from his tone the whole nature of his love, and from his words the whole nature of his intelligence. People of this character are those who possess a marriage of love and wisdom from the Lord, and who have relation to heaven's kingdom of the heart, which we discussed previously.


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