AE 1154 - A Garden and a House

AE 1154 [2-3]

The operation of the Divine providence,
man not knowing it,
may be illustrated by two comparisons.

It is like a gardener
collecting the seeds of shrubs, fruit trees,
and flowers of all kinds,
and providing himself with spades, rakes,
and other tools for working the land,
and then fertilizing his garden, digging it,
dividing it into beds, putting in the seeds,
and smoothing the surface.
All these things man must do as if of himself.
But it is the Lord who causes the seeds to take root,
to spring forth out of the earth,
to shoot forth into leaves,
and then into blossoms,
and finally to yield new seeds
for the benefit of the gardener.

Again, it is like a man about to build a house,
who provides himself with the necessary materials,
as timber, rafters, stones, mortar, and other things.
But afterwards the Lord builds the house
from foundation to roof
exactly adapted to the man,
though the man does not know it.
From this it follows,
that unless a man provides the necessary things
for a garden or a house,
he will have no garden with the benefit of its fruits,
and no house and thence no habitation.

So it is with reformation.
The things that man must provide himself with
are the knowledges of truth and good from the Word,
from the doctrine of the church,
from the world,
and by his own labor.
The Lord does everything else
while man is ignorant of it.
But it is to be known,
that all things necessary
to planting a garden or building a house,
which, as has been said,
are the knowledges of truth and good,
are nothing but the materials,
and have no life in them
until man does them or lives according to them
as if of himself.
When that is done
the Lord enters and vivifies and builds,
that is, reforms.
Such a garden, or such a house
is man's understanding,
for therein is his wisdom,
which derives from love all that it is.