Divine Providence (Dick and Pulsford) n. 189

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189. * The man who has become spiritual by the acknowledgment of God and wise by the rejection of his proprium sees the Divine Providence in the whole world and in all things therein in general and in particular. If he looks at natural things he sees it; if he looks at civil matters he sees it; if he looks at spiritual things he sees it; and this in things both in their simultaneous and in their successive relationships. He sees it in ends, in causes, in effects, in uses, in forms, in things great and small. Especially does he see it in matters concerning the salvation of men, as that Jehovah gave the Word, taught men by it concerning God, heaven and hell and eternal life, and that He Himself came into the world that He might redeem and save men. These things and many others, and the Divine Providence in them, man sees from spiritual light in natural light. [2] The merely natural man, however, sees none of these things. He is like one who sees a magnificent temple and hears a preacher enlightened in Divine things, but who declares, when he returns home, that he saw nothing but a rock-built house, and heard nothing but a succession of sounds. Or he is like a near-sighted person who goes into a garden with a remarkable variety of fruits, and who on returning home declares he saw only a wood and trees. When such persons after death have become spirits, and when they are raised into the angelic heaven where all things are in forms representative of love and wisdom they see none of these things, and do not even see that they exist. This I have seen happen with many who denied the Divine Providence of the Lord. * This number follows 187, as in Original Edition.


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