new church life: jan uary/february 2016
will; yet it does not blaze up in the will itself, but in the intellect. For in the
will it is like a smoldering fire, and in the intellect like a flame. . . . When,
therefore, love is attacked, it rouses itself to anger in the intellect, doing so by
various kinds of reasoning.
These various kinds of reasoning are like sticks of wood which are ignited
by the fire and then blaze up. They can be compared to many pieces of kindling
or combustible material. This is what causes the spiritual flame of which we
are speaking, in all its many varieties.
361. The deep reason why a person is set afire by an attack on his love
shall be disclosed. By creation the human form, in essence, is a form of love
and wisdom. All affections of love and all perceptions of wisdom therefrom
are arranged in a person in a most perfect order, so as to constitute what is
unanimous and thus a one; they assume substance, for their subjects are
substances.
Since the human form is thus composed, it is plain that if a love is
attacked, the whole form with everything in it is attacked at the same instant.
By creation a desire has also been induced on all living things to persist in
their own form; the general composite therefore wills this from its parts, and
the parts from the general composite.
When then a love is attacked, it defends itself through its intellect, and the
intellect makes rational and imaginative conjectures, picturing the potential
outcome. Were this not so, or if there were a lack of such love, the whole
form would be overthrown. In order to resist attacks, then, love hardens the
substances of its form, and erects them as it were into so many tufts or crests;
that is, it bristles. Such is the nature of love when provoked, which is called
zeal.
If power to resist is not available, anxiety and grief arise, because the
person foresees the extinction of inner life with its enjoyments. But when,
instead of being assailed, love is cherished and caressed, the form relaxes,
softens and expands, while the substances comprising the form become soft,
smooth, gentle and pleasant.
362. A person’s zeal is such as one’s love is. Therefore, it is one thing with
the person whose love is good, and another with the person whose love is evil.
As zeal is of love, it follows that it is such as the love is. This is because there
are, in general, two kinds of love: a love of goodness and so of truth, and a
love of evil and so of falsity. In general, there is a zeal for goodness and so for
truth and a zeal for evil and so for falsity.
It is to be known that each love has infinite variety. This is plain from the
angels of heaven and the spirits of hell. Both of these in the spiritual world are
forms of their love, and yet no angel of heaven is absolutely like another, in
face, speech, gait, gestures or ways, nor any spirit of hell like another; none
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