Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/148

52 on the part of the hells. That these things were so I know of a certainty. (A. C. n. 1690.)

That the Lord suffered and sustained the most grievous temptations, or more grievous than all in the universe, is not so fully known from the [letter of the] Word; where it is only mentioned that He was in the wilderness forty days, and was tempted of the Devil. The temptations themselves which He then had are not described except in a few words; yet these few involve all. As for example it is mentioned in Mark (i. 12, 13), that He was with the beasts, by which are signified the worst of the infernal crew; and elsewhere it is related that He was led by the Devil upon a pinnacle of the Temple, and upon a high mountain, which are nothing else than representatives of most grievous temptations which He suffered in the wilderness, (ib. n. 1663.)

That the Lord at the last fought in temptations with the angels themselves, yea, with the whole angelic heaven, is an arcanum which has not until now been revealed. But the case is this:—The angels are indeed in the highest wisdom and intelligence, but all their wisdom and intelligence is from the Lord's Divine. Of themselves, or from what is their own, they have nothing of wisdom and intelligence; so far therefore as they are in truths and goods from the Lord's Divine they are wise and intelligent. The angels themselves openly confess that they have nothing of wisdom and intelligence from themselves; yea, are even indignant if one attributes to them anything of wisdom and intelligence. For they know and perceive that this would be to derogate from the Divine that which is Divine, and to claim for themselves what is not their own, thus to incur the crime of spiritual theft. The angels also say, that all their proprium is evil and false, both from what is hereditary and from actual life in the world when they were men; and that what is evil and false is not separated or wiped away from them, and they thus justified, but that it all remains with them; and that they are withheld from what is evil and false, and kept in good and truth by the Lord. These thhigs all angels confess; nor is any one admitted into heaven unless he knows and believes them; for otherwise they cannot be in the light of wisdom and intelligence which is from the Lord, and therefore not in good and truth. Hence also it may be known how it is to be understood, that heaven is not pure in the eyes of God, as in Job xv. 15. Because it is so, in order that the Lord might restore the universal heaven to heavenly order, He even admitted into Himself temptations from the angels; who in so far as they