THE LAWS OF PERMISSION
ARE ALSO
LAWS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE
(CONTINUATION)
nos.249-252

Selection from
ANGELIC WISDOM
CONCERNING
THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Translated from the Latin of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

• Every worshiper of himself and of nature confirms himself against the Divine providence when he sees in the world so many impious persons, and so many of their impieties, and at the same time the glorying of some in these impieties, and yet no punishment of such by God. All impieties and also the glorying in them are permissions, the causes of which are laws of the Divine providence. Every man can freely, yea, most freely, think as he wishes, as well against God as for God; and he that thinks against God is rarely punished in the natural world, because there he is always in a state to be reformed; but he is punished in the spiritual world. This takes place after death, because he can then no longer be reformed.

That the laws of Divine providence are the causes of permissions is clear from its laws that have been set forth above, when they are recalled and examined; which are these: Man should act from freedom in accordance with reason (see above, DP 71-99); Man should not be compelled by external means to think and will, and thus to believe and love, the things of religion, but should guide himself and sometimes compel himself (see DP 129-153); Man's own prudence is nothing, it merely appears to be something, and ought to appear as if it were; but the Divine providence, because of its minute particulars, is universal (DP 191-213); The Divine providence looks to eternal things, and to temporal things only so far as they make one with eternal things (DP 214-220); Man is admitted interiorly into truths of faith and into goods of charity only so far as he can be kept in them until the end of his life (DP 221-233).

That the causes of permissions are laws of the Divine providence will also be made clear from what is to follow, as from this: Evils are permitted for the sake of the end, which is salvation. Also from this: The Divine providence is unceasing, both with the evil and with the good. And finally from this: The Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of His Divine providence, for to act contrary to them would be acting contrary to His Divine love and to His Divine wisdom, thus contrary to Himself. When these laws are considered together they make clear the reasons why impieties are permitted by the Lord, and are not punished so long as they are in the thought, and rarely even while they are in the purpose and thus in the will, but not in the act. And yet its own punishment follows every evil; it is as if its punishment were inscribed upon the evil, and this punishment the wicked man endures after death.

By what has now been set forth that which was stated above (in DP 237) is also explained, namely, The worshiper of himself and of nature confirms himself against the Divine providence still further when he sees that plots, devices, and frauds are successful even against the pious, just, and sincere; and that injustice triumphs over justice in the courts and in business. All the laws of Divine providence are necessities; and as they are the causes of the permission of these things it is clear that if man is to live as a man, to be reformed and to be saved, these things can be taken away from him by the Lord only by means,-by the Word, and especially by the commandments of the Decalogue,-with those who acknowledge all kinds of murder, adultery, theft, and false witness as sins; but with those who do not acknowledge such things to be sins, by means of the civil laws and fear of their punishments, also by means of moral laws, and the fear of the loss of reputation, and thereby of honor and wealth. By these means the Lord leads the evil, but only away from doing these things, not from thinking and willing them; while by the former means He leads the good, not only away from doing these things, but also from thinking and willing them.

• The worshiper of himself and of nature confirms himself against the Divine providence when he sees the impious exalted to honors and to high offices in church and state, also abounding in wealth and living in luxury and magnificence, while he sees the worshipers of God despised and poor. The worshiper of himself and of nature believes dignities and wealth to be the highest and the only happiness that can be granted, thus happiness itself; and if he has any thought of God from a sense of worship instilled in infancy he calls them Divine blessings; and so long as he is not puffed up by them he thinks that there is a God, and even worships God. But there lies hidden in the worship what he is himself then ignorant of, an aspiration to be raised up by God to still higher dignities, and to still greater wealth; and when he reaches these his worship tends more and more to outward things, even until it falls away, and at length he despises and denies God; and he does the same if he is cast down from the dignity and opulence on which he has set his heart. What, then, are dignities and wealth to the wicked but stumbling-blocks?

But to the good they are not so, because they do not set their hearts on them, but on the uses or the goods in the performance of which dignities and wealth are of service as means. Therefore only he that is a worshiper of himself and nature can confirm himself against Divine providence because of the advancement of the impious to honors and wealth and to high offices in church and state. Moreover, what is dignity greater or less? And what is opulence greater or less? In itself is it anything but an imaginary something? Is one person more fortunate or happier than another? Does a great man, or even a king or emperor, after a single year, regard the dignity as anything more than something common, which no longer exalts his heart with joy, but may even become worthless to him? Are such by virtue of their dignities in any greater degree of happiness than those who are in less dignity, or even in the least, like farmers and even their servants? These, when all goes well with them, and they are content with their lot, may have a greater measure of happiness. What is more restless at heart, more frequently provoked, more violently enraged, than self-love; and this as often as it is not honored according to the pride of its heart, and as often as anything does not succeed according to its wish and whim? What, then, is dignity, if it does not pertain to some matter or use, but an idea? And can there be such an idea in any thought except thought about self and the world, which essentially in itself is that the world is everything and the eternal nothing:

Something shall now be said about the Divine providence, why it permits the impious in heart to be raised to dignities and enriched with possessions. The impious or wicked can perform uses equally with the pious or good, and even with greater zeal, for they have regard to themselves in the uses, and to the honors as the uses; therefore to whatever height the love of self climbs the lust of performing uses for the sake of its own glory burns in it. With the pious or good there is no such fire, unless unconsciously kindled by some feeling of honor. Thus the Lord governs the impious in heart who are in places of dignity, by the glory of their name, and incites them to the performance of uses to the community or country, to the society or city in which they dwell, and to their fellow-citizen or neighbor with whom they are associated. This is the Lord's government, which is called the Divine providence with such; for the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses; and where there are but few who perform uses for the sake of uses He causes the worshipers of self to be raised to the higher offices, in which each one is incited to do good by means of his own love.

Suppose an infernal kingdom in the world (although there is none such) where none but the loves of self rule (and the love of self is itself the devil), would not every one perform uses from the fire of self-love and for the splendor of his own glory, to a greater extent than in any other kingdom? But there the public good would be in every mouth, but his own good in every heart. And as each one would look to his own chief for his advancement (for each one would aspire to become greatest), could such a man see that there is a God? A smoke like that of a conflagration would surround him, through which no spiritual truth in its own light could pass. I have seen that smoke about the hells of such. Light your lamp and search, and see how many there are in the kingdoms of the present day who aspire to dignities and who are not loves of self and the world. Will you find fifty in a thousand who are loves of God, and among these some, perhaps, who aspire to dignities Since, then, there are so few who are loves of God, and so many who are loves of self and the world, and since the latter loves from their fire perform uses more than the loves of God from theirs, how can anyone confirm himself [against the Divine providence] because the evil are in eminence and opulence more than the good?

This is shown in these words of the Lord:-

The Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely; for the sons of this age are in their own generation wiser than the sons of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles (Luke 16:8, 9).

• The worshiper of himself and of nature confirms himself against Divine providence when he reflects that wars are permitted, and the consequent slaughter of so many men, and the plundering of their wealth. It is not from the Divine providence that wars exist, for they are connected with murders, plunderings, violence, cruelties, and other terrible evils, which are directly opposed to Christian charity; and yet they must needs be permitted, because, since the time of the most ancient people, meant by Adam and his wife (of whom above, DP 241), the life's love of man has become such that it wills to rule over others, and finally over all; also to possess the wealth of the world, and finally all wealth. These two loves cannot be kept bound, for it is according to the Divine providence that every one be allowed to act from freedom in accordance with reason (see DP 71-99); furthermore, without permissions man cannot be led from evil by the Lord, and thus be reformed and saved. For unless evils were permitted to break out man would not see them, and therefore would not acknowledge them, and thus could not be led to resist them. For this reason evils cannot be prevented by any providence; for if they were they would remain shut in, and like the diseases called cancer and gangrene would spread about and consume all that is vital in man.

For man from birth is like a little hell, between which and heaven there is perpetual discordance. No man can be withdrawn from his hell by the Lord unless he sees that he is in hell and wishes to be led out; and this cannot be done without permissions, the causes of which are laws of the Divine providence. For this reason there are wars, lesser and greater, the lesser between the possessors of estates and their neighbors, and the greater between the rulers of kingdoms and their neighbors. Between the lesser and greater there is no difference, except that the lesser are kept within bounds by the laws of the nation, and the greater by the laws of nations; also that while both the lesser and greater wish to transgress their laws, the lesser cannot, and the greater can, although not beyond its abilities.

There are many other reasons stored up in the treasury of Divine wisdom why the Lord does not check the greater wars, with their kings and commanders, connected as they are with murders, depredations, violence, and cruelties, neither in their beginning nor in their progress, but only at the close, when the power of one or the other has become so reduced that he is in danger of destruction. Some of these reasons have been revealed to me, and among them is this: that all wars, however much they may belong to civil affairs, represent in heaven the states of the church, and are correspondences. Such were all the wars described in the Word, and such also are all wars at this day. The wars described in the Word are those that the children of Israel waged with various nations, as the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Philistines, the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Assyrians; and when the children of Israel, who represented the church, departed from their commandments and statutes and fell into the evils signified by those nations, they were punished by some nation, because each nation with which the children of Israel waged war signified some particular kind of evil. For example, when they profaned the holy things of the church by foul idolatries they were punished by the Assyrians and Chaldeans, because "Assyria" and "Chaldea" signify the profanation of what is holy. What was signified by their wars with the Philistines may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning Faith (n. 50-54).

Like things are represented by the wars of the present day, wherever they occur; for all things that take place in the natural world correspond to spiritual things in the spiritual world, and every thing spiritual has relation to the church. It is not known in this world what kingdoms in Christendom answer to the Moabites and Ammonites, what to the Syrians and Philistines, or what to the Chaldeans and Assyrians, and the others with whom the children of Israel waged war; and yet there are those that do answer to them. Moreover, what the quality of the church upon earth is and what the evils are into which it falls, and for which it is punished by wars, cannot be seen at all in the natural world; because in this world externals only are evident, and these do not constitute the church; but this is seen in the spiritual world, where internals are manifest, in which the church itself is; and there all are conjoined in accordance with their various states. The conflicts of these in the spiritual world correspond to wars; which are governed by the Lord on both sides correspondentially, in accordance with His Divine providence.

That in this world wars are governed by Divine providence the spiritual man acknowledges, but the natural man does not, except when a festival is appointed on account of a victory that he may return thanks on his knees to God that He has given the victory, also by a few words before going into battle. But when he returns into himself he ascribes the victory either to the prudence of the general or to some measure or occurrence in the midst of the battle, which they had not thought of, from which nevertheless came the victory.

That the Divine providence that is called fortune is in the least particulars of even trivial things may be seen above (DP 212); and if in these you acknowledge the Divine providence you must certainly acknowledge it in the affairs of war. Also the successes and favorable occurrences of war are called in common language the fortune of war; and this is Divine providence, especially in the plans and preparations of the general, even although he then and afterwards may ascribe it all to his own prudence. And let him do this if he will, for he is in full liberty to think in favor of the Divine providence or against it, and even in favor of God and against Him; but let him know that no part whatever of the plan or preparation is from himself; it all flows in either from heaven or from hell, - from hell by permission, from heaven by providence.

• The worshiper of himself and of nature confirms himself against Divine providence when he reflects according to his perception that victories are on the side of prudence, and sometimes not on the side of justice; and that it makes no difference whether the commander is an upright man or not. Victories seem to be on the side of prudence, and sometimes not on the side of justice, because man judges from the appearance, and favors one side more than the other, and that which he favors he is able to confirm by reasonings; nor does he know that in heaven there is a spiritual justice to a cause and in the world a natural justice, as has just been said, and that these are conjoined by means of a connection between things past and things future that are known only to the Lord.

It makes no difference whether the commander is an upright man or not, for the same reason as was set forth above (DP 250), namely, that the wicked perform uses equally with the good, and the evil from their fire with more ardor than the good, especially in wars, because the evil man is more crafty and shrewd in contriving devices; and from a love of glory he takes more delight than a good man in killing and plundering those whom he knows and declares to be his enemies; for a good man is prudent and zealous only in defending, and rarely is prudent and zealous in any degree in attacking. It is the same as with spirits of hell and angels of heaven; the spirits of hell attack, while the angels of heaven defend themselves. From this comes the conclusion that it is allowable for any one to defend his country and his fellow-citizens against invading enemies, even by means of wicked commanders, but that it is not allowable to become an enemy without cause. A cause that looks to glory alone is in itself diabolical, for it is of the love of self. Thus far have been explained the things presented above (in DP 237), by which the merely natural man confirms himself against Divine providence. The things that follow (in DP 238), relating to the state of religion in various nations, that also may serve the merely natural man as arguments against Divine providence, shall now be explained.  ... (Continue)

(The Divine Providence 249 - 252)