Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 5940

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5940. ALL THINGS FROM THE SPIRITUAL WORLD ARE AFFECTIONS WHICH ARE OF LOVE. There were spirits with me, who were in thought as to what faith and love are; but, for an hour's time which passed they thought respecting affection, which is love, in this wise: that the universal heaven is arranged according to the variety thereof, and also everyone of the societies there among themselves; also, all and everyone of the things which are with man, in his understanding; consequently all things of the body, because these are material forms belonging to the will, and hence to the understanding; moreover, that there is nothing at all else, which lives and forms and acts; consequently, that there is no faith at all apart from it, since faith apart from it is formed from the affection which is of the love of self and the world, and then it forms that faith as it does worldly scientifics, and reigns over it in a similar way; for it produces it in a like manner. Hence it is, that there is with them nothing of truth, no rational sight, nor aught of life, in the things which pertain to the Church. It was also ascertained that the varieties of affections which are of love, are indefinite and manifold, and that few come to the knowledge of man; also, that the government of the Lord's Providence is through them, thus through good into truth, or through affection into thought.


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