DLW Part One - Numbers 4-6

From A Companion to Divine Love and Wisdom,
by Rev. Prescott A. Rogers

God alone, thus the Lord,
is love itself,
because He is life itself;
and angels and people are recipients of life.
(DLW 4)

Since love is the essence of life,
it really is life. 
The primary difference
between the Lord and human beings
is that He is the source of life,
and they receive that life. 
The more people receive the Lord's love as life,
the more alive they are spiritually.

. . . As love itself
the Lord appears in the spiritual sun
seen everywhere in heaven. 
The heat from that sun
actually is the Lord's love that is felt as heat,
and the light of that sun is actually
the Lord's wisdom that appears as light. 
But the actualities (i.e. actual things)
and the appearances are received by angels,
as they are received in the minds or spirits
of people on earth
who love the Lord and the neighbor above all else.

. . . In every one of the three realms off existence--
the Divine realm, the spiritual realm
and the natural realm,
there are substance and form as well as essence. 
With God
the substance and form are Divine.
In the spiritual world
the substance and forms are spiritual.
In the natural world they are natural.

. . . The term "essence"
is the most important of the three terms:
"Essence," "Form," and "Substance."
Whatever is essential is more important
than what is formal
(that is, what is formed from and by its essence).
And together essence and form
are more important than substance,
for substance is merely the material
from which form takes the shape
in which the essence resides.

In every series of three degrees,
the first degree is the essence
of the other two degrees,
the second degree is the form
of the first degree,
and the third degree is the proceeding
of the essence and form into action.
This necessitates that attention be paid
to the series under discussion.

ESSENCE		FORM		EXPRESSION
Love	and	Wisdom	expressed in	Use
Good	and	Truth	expressed in	Action
Charity	and	Faith	expressed in	Good Works
Affections	and	Thoughts	expressed in	Activities
Delights	and	Satisfaction	expressed in	Happiness

The first column has to do with essence,
as love is the essence of wisdom
and good is the essence of truth.
The items in this column
all have to do with the human will.

The second column has to do with form,
as wisdom is the form of love
and truth is the form of good.
The items in this column have to do with the intellect.
The third column has to do with
the expression of good and truth together.
All the items in this column
have to do with the body
by which a person's will and intellect
express themselves. (Happiness is an exception.)

The relation of the terms of the first line
of the chart (love, wisdom and use)
with those in the second line
(good, truth and action)
is a matter of a whole consisting of its constituent parts.
Love is the whole
made of the quantity and quality of its goods.
The greater the number of goods and, more importantly,
the greater the quality of goods, the greater is the Love.
Likewise, the greater the number and quality
of truths with a person,
the greater is his or her wisdom.
A person's use consists of
the many and useful actions done in his or her life
with regard to responsibilities at home,
at work and in the community.

The third line contains terms
that are particular forms of the first line.
Charity is love to the neighbor
and faith is wisdom with regard to the Lord,
and together they are expressed in
the good works a person does
in the name of the Lord
and for the sake of both the Lord and the neighbor.
The terms in the fourth line
show how the items in the first line
make themselves known to people
who reflect on their lives daily
and occasionally deep self-examination. 
They are also how the items in the first line
motivate people. 
Love motivates them by means of affections
and reveals itself in those affections.
Wisdom motives affections
and reveals itself in those affections.
Wisdom motivates them in thoughts
and reveals itself in those thoughts.
Use motivates the activities in which it reveals itself.

The terms in the last line--
delights, satisfaction, and happiness
are the results of the affections of one's love
and the thoughts of one's wisdom
being successfully expressed and received
by those one loves.
The overall result
of all these actualities mentioned in the chart
is a deep and lasting happiness.
People can also get an idea of this love
in what is delightful,
and idea of this wisdom in what is intellectually satisfying,
and an idea of this use in their overall happiness with life.

. . . Correspondence is a vital relationship
in which what is essential gives life to what is formal
and what is formal gives a necessary support
so that what is essential can exist.
Essence and form need each other.
For example,
the spiritual world is the essence of the natural world
and the natural world is the form of the spiritual world.
The spiritual world is more important
since it is the "essential" world
while the natural world is the "formal" world.
Since loves and wisdom together
are the essence of all creation,
everything in creation corresponds to love and wisdom.
Everything in creation is an appearance
of love and wisdom as actualities.