Page:Swedenborg's Doctrine of Correspondence.djvu/118

112

In concluding this general statement of doctrine, a summary statement of some of the laws of Divine Providence is offered.

1. It is a law of Divine Providence that man should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven, through the Word and doctrine from it, and thus to all appearance as by himself. He is led by influx according to the correspondence of his affections and thoughts with societies in the spiritual world; and he is taught by enlightenment according to his understanding of the Word and life in obedience to it. "The affections of man," we are taught, "from which his thoughts proceed, extend into the societies in the spiritual world in every direction, into more or fewer of them according to the extent and quality of his affection. Within these societies is man as to his spirit, attached to them as it were, with extended cords circumscribing the space in which he walks. As he proceeds from one affection to another, so he proceeds from one society to another, and the part of the society in which he is, is the centre from which issue his affections and thoughts to all the other societies as circumferences. Through these societies the