23. О Провидении

267. Правление Господа на небесах и на земле называется Провидением. Так как все добро любви и вся истина веры, чрез которые спасение, происходят от Него, но никак не от человека, то ясно, что Божественное Провидение Господа находится как в общем, так и в частном всего того, что служит спасению рода человеческого. Сему Господь учит у Иоанна таким образом:

Я есмь путь, истина и жизнь X1V.6.

И в другом месте:

Как ветвь не может приносить плода сама собою, если не будет на лозе; так и вы, если не будете во Мне; ибо без Меня не можете делать ничего XV. 4. 5.

268. Божественное Провидение Господа простирается на все частности жизни человека; ибо существует только один источник жизни - Господь, из которого мы все существуем, живем и действуем.

269. Те, которые думают о Божественном Провидении по-мирскому, заключают, что Провидение существует только в общем, частности же зависят от человека; однако эти люди не знают тайн неба, ибо они заключают единственно из себялюбия и любви к миру и их услаждений. Поэтому когда они видят, что злые возвышаются в почестях и приобретают богатства преимущественно перед добрыми, и что злым удаются их хитрости, то говорят в своем сердце, что этого не могло бы быть, если бы Божественное Провидение действовало в общем и в частном. Но они не думают о том, что Божественное Провидение обращает внимание не на скоротечное и кончающееся вместе с жизнью человека в мире, но на то, что пребывает вечно, следовательно, на то, что не имеет конца. Что не имеет конца, то существует, а что имеет конец, то - сравнительно - не существует. Кто может, пусть подумает, значат ли что-нибудь сто тысяч лет пред вечностью; и он поймет, что они - ничто. Что же значат тогда несколько лет жизни в мире?

270. Здравомыслящий человек может понять, что высокое звание и богатство в мире не являются действительными благословениями Божьими, хотя человек из любви к ним и называет их таковыми, ибо они преходящи и даже соблазняют многих, и отвращают от неба; но что действительными благословениями, проистекающими из Божественного, является жизнь вечная и ее блаженство. Сему также учит Господь у Луки:

Собирайте себе сокровище неоскудевающее на небесах, куда вор не приближается, и где моль не съедает. Ибо где сокровище ваше, там и сердце ваше будет X11. 33.34.

271. Что злым удаются их хитрости, это происходит оттого, что, согласно Божественному порядку, каждый все им делаемое должен творить из своего рассудка и свободы. Поэтому если бы человеку не была предоставлена свобода действия, согласно его рассудку из свободы, а потому если бы хитрости, которые из них проистекают, не удавались бы, то человек никак не мог бы быть расположен к приятию жизни вечной; ибо она входит в его внутренне тогда, когда человек находится в свободе и его рассудок озарен. По этой причине никто не может быть принужден к добру, ибо все принужденное не укореняется в человеке, потому что оно не есть его собственное; только то становится собственностью человека, что он делает из свободы согласно своему рассудку; а из свободы он делает то, что делает из своей воли или любви; ибо воля или любовь есть сам человек. Если бы человек был принуждаем к тому, чего он не хочет, то его душа все же склонялась бы к тому, чего он хочет. Кроме того, каждый человек стремится к запрещенному, и скрытой причиной сего является стремление каждого к свободе. Отсюда явствует, что если бы человек не был содержим в свободе, то для него не могло бы быть предусмотрено никакое добро.

272. Предоставление человеку свободы мыслить, хотеть и даже делать зло, поскольку тому не препятствуют законы, называется Попущением.

273. Быть ведомым своими ухищрениями к благам мира кажется человеку происходящим от его собственного благоразумия, хотя и тогда Божественное Провидение сопутствует ему, попуская и непрестанно отводя от зла; когда же он ведется к небесному блаженству, то он знает и постигает, что оно не происходит из собственного благоразумия, потому что оно от Господа и дается согласно Его Божественному Провидению, которое располагает и непрестанно ведет человека к добру.

274. Что это так, человек не может понять из естественного света, ибо из него он не знает законов Божественного Порядка.

275. Надобно знать, что существуют Провидение и Предвидение. Добро есть то, что Господь провидит, а зло есть то, что Он предвидит. Одно сопутствует другому, потому что то, что происходит от человека, есть ни что иное, как зло, а что от Господа - ни что иное, как добро.

From the Heavenly Arcana.

Since all the good which is provided by the Lord for man flows in, therefore in what follows there shall also be adduced from the Heavenly Arcana what is stated there concerning Influx: and since the Lord provides all things according to Divine Order, there shall likewise be adduced what is stated there concerning Order.

276. Providence.
Providence is the Lord's government in the heavens and on earth, 10773.
By Providence Lord governs all things according to order; wherefore, government according to order, is Providence, 1755, 2447.
He governs all things either from will, from leave, or from permission; and thus in a different way according to a man's quality, 1755, 2447, 3704, 9940.
Providence acts invisibly, 5508.
Most things which happen under Providence, appear to a man as if they took place by chance, 5508.
Providence acts invisibly for this reason, that a man be not compelled to believe from things visible, and that thus his freedom be not violated; for unless a man is in a state of freedom he cannot be reformed, and thus cannot be saved, 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3854, 5508, 5982, 6477, 8209, 8987, 9588, 10409, 10777.
Divine Providence has no respect to temporal things, which pass away shortly, but to eternal things, 5264, 8717, 10776; illustrated, 6491.
Those who do not comprehend this, believe that wealth and rank in the world are the only things which are provided, which therefore they call blessings from the Divine; when yet they are not regarded by the Lord as blessings, but only as means for a man's life in the world; but the Lord has respect to those things which contribute to a man's eternal happiness, 10409, 10776.
Those who are in the stream of the Lord's Divine Providence, are led to eternity, in each and all things, to the things of blessedness, 8478, 8480.
Those who ascribe all things to nature and to their own prudence, and nothing to the Divine, neither think nor comprehend this, 6484, 10409, 10775.
The Lord's Divine Providence is not, as is believed in world, universal only; and the particulars, that is, the singulars do not belong to a man's own prudence, 8717, 10775.
No universal is possible except from singulars, and together with them: for the singulars taken together are called a universal just as the particulars taken together are called a general, 1919, 6159, 6338, 6482-6484.
The universal is such as are the singulars from which, and together with which, it exists, 917, 1040, 6483, 8857.
The Lord's Providence is universal, because it is in the minutest singulars, 1919, 2694, 4329, 5122, 5949, 6058, 6481-6486, 6490, 7004, 7007, 8717, 10774; confirmed from heaven, 6486.
Unless the Lord's Divine Providence were universal from, and in, the minutest singulars, nothing could subsist, 6338.
All things are thereby arranged in order, and kept in order, in general and in particular, 6338.
The case herein is comparatively as with a king on earth, 6482, 10800.
A man's own prudence is like a small speck in the universe, while the Divine Providence is respectively like the universe itself, 6485.
That this is so, men in the world comprehend with difficulty, 8717, 10775, 10780.
Because many fallacies oppose themselves, and induce blindness, 6481.
Concerning a certain person in the other life, who by dint of confirmation had believed in the world, that all things belonged to his own prudence, and nothing to the Divine Providence; the things which were with him appeared to be infernal, 6484.
The quality of the Lord's Providence with respect to evils, 6481, 6495, 6574, 10777, 10779.
Evils are governed by the Lord by the laws of permission, and they are permitted for the sake of order, 8700, 10778.
The permission of evil by the Lord is not the permission of one who wills, but of one who does not will, yet who, under the urgency of the end which is salvation, cannot bring assistance, 7877.
The leaving a man from his own freedom to think, and will evil, and, so far as the laws do not forbid, to do it, is permitting, 10778.
Apart from freedom, and thus apart from permission, a man cannot be reformed, and thus cannot be saved, as may be seen above in the Doctrine concerning Freedom, 141-149.
To the Lord belong Providence and Foresight, and the one does not exist without the other, 5195, 6489.
Good is provided for by the Lord, and evil foreseen, 5155, 5195, 6489, 10781.
There is no such thing as predestination or fate, 6487.
All are predestined to heaven and none to hell, 6488.
Under Providence there is no absolute necessity with a man, but he is in perfect freedom - illustrated by comparison, 6487.
By the "Elect" in the Word are meant those who lead a life of good, and consequently of truth, 3755, 3900, 5057, 5058.
How "God causeth one to meet another's hand" (Exod. xxi. 13) is to be understood, 9010.
Fortune, which in many things in the world appears wonderful, is the operation of the Divine Providence in the ultimate of order, according to the quality of a man's state; and this may serve as a confirmation that the Divine Providence is in the most minute singulars of all things, 5049, 5179, 6493, 6494.
Fortune comes from the spiritual world, and consequently its variations; also from experience, 5179, 6493, 6494.

277. Influx.
Concerning the influx of heaven into the world, and the influx of the soul into all things of the body; from experience, 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626.
Nothing exists from itself, but from something prior to itself; thus all things from a First, 4523, 4524, 6040, 6056.
All things even as they have existed, so also they subsist, because subsistence is perpetual existence, 2886, 2888, 3627, 3628, 3648, 4523, 4524, 6040, 6056.
Influx takes place according to that order, 7270.
From this it is evident that all things perpetually subsist from a first Esse, because they have had their existence therefrom, 4523, 4524, 6040, 6056.
The all of life flows in from a First, because it is from it - thus from the Lord, 3001, 3318, 3337, 3338, 3344, 3484, 3628, 3741-3743, 4318-4320, 4417, 4524, 4882, 5847, 5986, 6325, 6468-6470, 6479, 9276, 10196.
All Existere is from Esse, and nothing can exist unless its own Esse is in it, 4523, 4524, 6040, 6056.
All things which a man thinks and wills enter by influx; from experience, 904, 2886-2888, 4151, 4319, 4320, 5846, 5848, 6189, 6191, 6194, 6197-6199, 6213, 7147, 10219.
A man's ability of beholding things, of thinking, and of drawing analytical conclusions, is from influx, 2888, 4319, 4320.
If the influx from the spiritual world were taken away from a man he could not live for a moment; but the man is still in freedom; from experience, 2887, 5849, 5854, 6321.
The life which flows in from the Lord is varied according to a man's state, and according to reception, 2069, 5986, 6472, 7343.
The good which flows in from the Lord is with the wicked turned into evil, and truth into falsity; from experience, 3643, 4632.
So far as the good and truth, which constantly flow in from the Lord, are received, so far evil and falsity do not obstruct, 2411, 3142, 3147, 5828.
All good flows in from the Lord, and all evil from hell, 904, 4151.
A man at the present day believes that all things are in himself and from himself, when nevertheless they enter by influx, and he knows from a doctrinal of the Church that all good is from heaven, and all evil from hell, 4249, 6193, 6206.
But if he would believe as the case really is, he would not appropriate evil to himself: for he would cast it away from himself into hell; neither would he account good to be his own, and thus would not claim any merit from it, 6206, 6324, 6325.
How happy the state of a man would then be, because from the interior he would then see from the Lord both good and evil, 6325.
Those who deny heaven, or know nothing about it, are ignorant of the fact that there is any influx from it, 4322, 5649, 6193, 6479.
What influx is; illustrated by comparisons, 6128, 6190, 9407.
Influx is spiritual and not physical; consequently, there is an influx from the spiritual world into the natural, and not from the natural world into the spiritual, 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322, 9109, 9110.
Spiritual influx takes place through the internal into the external man, and not conversely, 1702, 1707, 1940, 1954, 5119, 5259, 5779, 6322, 9380.
Because the internal man is in the spiritual world, and the external in the natural world, 978, 1015, 3628, 4459, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6309, 9701-9709, 10156, 10472.
The appearance is as though influx passed from external into internal things, but this is a fallacy, 3721.
Influx with a man takes place into his rational, and through them into his scientific things, and not conversely, 1495, 1707, 1940.
The nature of the order of influx, 775, 880, 1096, 1495, 7270.
There is an immediate influx from the Lord, and also a mediate influx through the spiritual world, that is, through heaven, 6063, 6307, 6472, 9682, 9683.
The Lord's immediate influx takes place into the minutest singulars, 6058, 6474-6478, 8717, 8728.
Concerning the Lord's mediate influx through heaven, 4067, 6982, 6985, 6996.
It takes place through the spirits and angels who are adjoined to the man, 697, 5846-5866.
Through angels the Lord flows into the ends from which, and for the sake of which, a man thinks, wills, and acts, 1317, 1645, 5846, 5854.
And thus He flows into those things which belong to conscience with a man, 6207, 6213.
Through spirits however He flows into the thoughts, and from them into the things of the memory, 4186, 5854, 5858, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199, 6319.
It is difficult for man to believe this, 6214.
The Lord flows into first, and at the same time into last, things, that is, He flows into inmost, and at the same time into outermost, things, and in what manner, 5147, 5150, 6473, 7004, 7007, 7270.
The Lord's influx with a man is into good, and through good into truth, and not conversely, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153.
Good imparts the faculty of receiving influx from the Lord, but not truth apart from good, 8321.
Nothing is hurtful that enters into the thought, but that which enters into the will, because this is appropriated to the man, 6308.
The Divine in the highest parts is tacit and peaceful but in proportion as it descends with a man towards the lower parts, it becomes unpeaceful and noisy, on account of the things therein being without order, 8823.
The quality of the Lord's influx with the prophets, 6212.
There is a general influx; which is described, 5850.
It consists in a constant effort of acting according to order, 6211.
This influx takes place into the lives of animals, 5850.
And also into the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, 3648.
Thought also in accordance with general influx descends with man into speech, and will into gestures, 5862, 5990, 6192,6211.

278. The Influx of Life with Man in particular.
There is one only life, from which all both in heaven and in the world live, 1954, 2021, 2536, 2658, 2886-2889, 3001, 3484, 3742, 5847, 6467.
This life is from the Lord alone; illustrated by various things, 2886-2889, 3344, 3484, 4319, 4320, 4524, 4882, 5986, 6325, 6468-6470, 9276, 10196.
The Lord is Life itself; see John i. 1, 4; v. 26; xiv. 6.
Life from the Lord flows in with angels, spirits, and men, in a wonderful manner, 2886-2889, 3337, 3338, 3484, 3742.
The Lord flows in from His Divine Love, which is of such a character, that it wills that what is its own shall be another's, 3742, 4320.
All love is such a quality; the Divine Love, consequently, is infinitely more, so, 1820, 1865, 2253, 6872.
Life thus appears as though it were within man, and not as if it were flowing in, 3742, 4320.
Life appears as if it were within man also, for this reason, that the principal cause which is life from the Lord, and the instrumental cause which is the recipient form, act as one cause, which is felt in the instrumental cause, 6325.
The chief thing of the wisdom and intelligence of the angels consists in perceiving and knowing that the all of life is from the Lord, 4318.
Concerning the joy of the angels arising from their not living from themselves, but from the Lord, which was perceived and confirmed by their speech to me, 6469.
The evil are not willing to be convinced that life enters by influx, 3743.
Doubts concerning the influx of life from the Lord cannot be removed, so long as fallacies, ignorance, and a negative principle prevail, 6479.
All who are of the Church know, that all good and truth are from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, and that all evil and falsity are from hell; when yet the all of life has relation to good and truth, and to evil and falsity, so much so indeed, that apart from them there is nothing of life, 2893, 4151.
This also is declared by a doctrinal of the Church, which is derived from the Word, 4249.
Nevertheless a man does not believe that life enters by influx, 4249.
If communication and conjunction with spirits and angels were taken away, a man would instantly die, 2887.
From this it is also evident, that the all of life flows in from the First Esse of life, because nothing has existed from itself, but from things prior to itself, and thus each and all things from a First; and because, even as a thing has existed, so also it is bound to subsist, subsistence being perpetual existence, 4523, 4524.
Angels, spirits, and men, have been created in order to receive life, wherefore they are only forms recipient of life, 2021, 3001, 3318, 3344, 3484, 3742, 4151, 5114, 5986.
They are such forms as is their quality of reception, 2888, 3001, 3484, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472.
Wherefore men, spirits, and angels are of such a character, as they are forms recipient of life from the Lord, 2888, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472.
Man has been so created that in his inmost parts, and from thence in those which follow in order, he is able to receive the Divine and to be raised to the Divine, and to be conjoined with the Divine through the good of love and the truths of faith; on which account, differently from animals, he lives to eternity, 5114.
Life from the Lord flows in likewise with the wicked, and hence also with those who are in hell, 2706, 3743, 4417, 10196.
But the latter turn good into evil, and truth into falsity, and thus life into spiritual death; for such as the man is, such is his reception of life, 4319, 4320, 4417.
Goods and truths from the Lord also flow in constantly with them; but they either reject, suffocate, or pervert them, 3743.
Those who are in evils and the falsities thence, have no real life; the quality of their life, 726, 4623, 10284, 10286.

279. Order.
It is from the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord that Order is, and Divine Good is the essential of Order, 1728, 2258, 8700, 8988.
The Lord is order, because Divine Good and Divine Truth are from the Lord, yea, are the Lord, in the heavens and on earth, 1919, 2011, 5110, 5703, 10336, 10619.
Divine truths are the laws of order, 2447, 7995.
Where order is, there the Lord is present; but where there is no order, there the Lord is not present, 5703.
Since Divine Truth is order, and Divine Good the essential of order, therefore each and all things in the universe, in order to be something, have reference to good and truth, because they have reference to order, 2452, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555.
Because good is the essential of order, therefore it arranges truths into order; and not conversely, 3316, 3470, 4302, 5704, 5709, 6028, 6690.
The universal heaven, so far as all the angelic societies are concerned, has been arranged by the Lord according to His Divine order, because the Divine of the Lord with the angels constitutes heaven, 6338, 7211, 9128, 9338, 10125, 10151, 10157.
For this reason, the form of heaven is a form according to Divine order, 4040-4043, 6607, 9877.
So far as a man lives according to order, and thus so far as he is in good according to Divine truths, which are the laws of order, so far he is a man, 4839.
So far indeed as he lives thus, he appears in the other life as a perfect and handsome man; but so far as he does not live thus, so far he appears as a monster, 4839, 6605, 6626.
From this it is evident that it is man into whom are collected all things of order, and that from creation man is Divine order in form, 4219, 4220, 4223, 4523, 4524, 5114, 5368, 6013, 6057, 6605, 6626, 9706, 10156, 10472.
Because every angel is a recipient of Divine order from the Lord, he is in a human form which is perfect and beautiful according to reception, 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 3804, 4622, 4735, 4797, 4985, 5199, 5530, 6054, 9879, 10177, 10594.
The angelic heaven, in its whole aggregate, in form is also like a man; and indeed for this reason that the entire universal heaven, in respect to all the angelic societies therein, has been arranged by the Lord according to Divine order, 2996, 2998, 3624-3629, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625.
From this it is evident, that it is the Divine Human from which are all these things, 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3745.
From this it also follows, that the Lord is the only Man, and that those are men who receive the Divine from Him, 1894.
So far as they receive the latter, so far they are images of the Lord, 8547.
A man is not born into good and truth, but into evil and falsity; thus he is not born into Divine order, but into the opposite of order; and on this account it is that he is born into sheer ignorance, and that he must necessarily be born anew, that is, regenerated; which is brought about through Divine truths from the Lord, and through a life according thereto, to the intent that he may be initiated into order, and thus become a man, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10286, 10731.
When the Lord regenerates a man, He arranges all things with him according to order, that is, according to the form of heaven, 5700, 6690, 9931, 10303.
The man who is led by the Lord, is led according to Divine order, 8512.
The interiors which are of the mind, with the man who is in Divine order are open into heaven, even to the Lord, but they are closed with him who is not in Divine order, 8513.
So far as a man lives according to order, so far he has intelligence and wisdom, 2592.
The Lord governs the first and last things of order, and He governs the first things from the last, and the last things from the first; and thus He holds all things together in connexion and order, 3702, 3739, 6040, 6056, 9828.
Concerning successive order; and the ultimate of order, in which things successive are also together in their order, 634, 3691, 4145, 5114, 5897, 6239, 6326, 6465, 8603, 9215, 9216, 9828, 9836, 10044, 10099, 10329, 10335.
Evils and falsities are contrary to order, and still they are governed by the Lord, not according to order, but from order, 4839, 7877, 10778.
Evils and falsities are governed through the laws of permission, and indeed for the sake of order, 7877, 8700, 10778.
What is opposed to Divine order is impossible; as for instance, that a man who lives in evil can be saved from pure Mercy, and further, that in the other life the evil may be consociated with the good, and many other things, 8700.