Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 213intelligence through the good of love and of charity, and thus pourslife into it.83. With every man there are two faculties of life, calledunderstanding and will. The understanding is the receptacle oftruth and the derivative wisdom, and the will is the receptacle ofgood and the derivative love. For a man to be a man of the churchthese two must make a one, and this they do when the man formshis understanding from genuine truths, which to all appearance isdone as by himself; and when his will is infilled with the good oflove, which is done by the Lord. From this the man has a life oftruth and a life of good, a life of truth in the understanding fromthe will, and a life of good in the will through the understanding.This is the marriage of truth and good in a man, and also themarriage of the Lord and the church in him. But concerning thisreciprocal conjunction called a marriage, more will be seen inAngelic Wisdom concerning Divine Providence, Divine Love andWisdom, and Doctrine of Life.84. Readers of the Word who pay attention to the matter can seethat there are pairs of expressions in it that appear like repetitionsof the same thing, such as “brother” [and “companion,” “poor”]and “needy,” “waste” and “solitude,” “vacuity” and “emptiness,”“foe” and “enemy,” “sin” and “iniquity,” “anger” and “wrath,”“nation” and “people,” “joy” and “gladness,” “mourning” and“weeping,” “righteousness” and “judgment,” etc. These expressionsappear synonymous but are not so, for “brother,” “poor,” “waste,”[“vacuity,”] “foe,” “sin,” “anger,” “nation,” “joy,” “mourning,” and“righteousness” are predicated of good, and in the opposite sense ofevil; whereas “companion,” “needy,” “solitude,” “emptiness,”“enemy,” “iniquity,” “wrath,” “people,” “gladness,” “weeping,” and“judgment” are predicated of truth, and in the opposite sense offalsity. And yet it seems to a reader who is not acquainted with thissecret, that “poor” and “needy,” “waste” and “solitude,” “vacuity”and “ emptiness,” “foe” and “enemy,” are one and the same thing;and in like manner “sin” and “iniquity,” “anger” and “wrath,”“nation” and “people,” “joy” and “gladness,” “mourning” and“weeping,” “righteousness” and “judgment”; and yet they are not