CL 130 - Concerns of the Church, Civil State, and Knowledge, Experience & Skill Relating to: What Is Wisdom?

CL 130 [2, 4]

Concerns that have to do with the church
and are called spiritual
have their seat in the inmost recesses in a person.
Concerns that have to do with the civil state
and are called political
occupy a position below them.
And concerns that have to do with
knowledge, experience and skill
and are called natural - these form their footstool.

Concerns that have to do with the church
and are called spiritual
have their seat in the inmost recesses in a person,
because they are connected with heaven
and through heaven with the Lord.
For it is just these concerns
that enter a person from the Lord through heaven.

Concerns that have to do with the civil state
and are called political
occupy a position below spiritual matters,
because they are connected with the world,
since they have to do with the world.
For they are the statutes, laws and regulations
by which men are bound,
in order that they may be formed into
a stable and united society and state.

Concerns that have to do with
knowledge, experience and skill
and are called natural -
these form the footstool,
because they are closely connected with
the five senses of the body,
and the senses are the lowest elements,
on which rest, so to speak,
the interior elements
that have to do with the mind
and the inmost elements
that have to do with the soul.

Since wisdom is . . . a matter of life first
and consequently of reason,
the question arises,
what wisdom of life is.
In brief summary, it is this:
to refrain from evils because
they are harmful to the soul,
harmful to the civil state,
and harmful to the body,
and to do good things because
they are of benefit to the soul,
to the civil state,
and to the body.