Angelic Wisdom about DIVINE PROVIDENCE

DIVINE PROVIDENCE

I. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS GOVERNMENT BY THE LORD'S DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM

1. To understand what divine providence is--namely, government by the
Lord's divine love and wisdom--one needs to know what was said and shown
earlier about divine love and wisdom in the treatise about them: "In the
Lord divine love is of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom of divine love"
(nn. 34-39); "Divine love and wisdom cannot but be in, and be manifested
in, all else, created by them" (nn. 47-51); "All things in the universe
were created by them" (nn. 52, 53, 151-156); "All are recipients of that
love and wisdom" (nn. 55-60); "The Lord appears before the angels as a
sun, the heat proceeding from it being love, and the light wisdom" (nn.
83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301); "Divine love and wisdom, proceeding from
the Lord, make one" (nn. 99-102); "The Lord from eternity, who is
Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from Himself, and not
from nothing" (nn. 282-284, 290-295). This is to be found in the treatise
entitled _Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom._

2. Putting with these propositions the description of creation in that
treatise, one may indeed see that what is called divine providence is
government by the Lord's divine love and wisdom. In that treatise,
however, creation was the subject, and not the preservation of the state
of things after creation--yet this is the Lord's government. We now treat
of this, therefore, and in the present chapter, of the preservation of
the union of divine love and wisdom or of divine good and truth in what
was created, which will be done in the following order: