Week 4    Day 5

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Not by thy Head

Matthew 5:35

Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

Apocalypse Explained 608:9

The “head” means intelligence [from doctrine] (see above, n. 553, 577); therefore it is said, “thou canst not make one hair white or black,” which signifies that man of himself can understand nothing.

Matthew 6:27

And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?

Divine Providence 158

With the angels, especially the angels of the third heaven, the same truth is established not only on rational grounds but also by actual perceptions. These angels perceive the influx of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom from the Lord; and because they perceive it, and from their wisdom know that Love and Wisdom are life, they say that they live from the Lord and not from themselves; and they not only say this but they also love it and desire it to be so. ... The more nearly anyone is conjoined to the Lord the more distinctly does he appear to himself to be master of himself, and yet the more evidently does he recognise that he is the Lord’s. It has also been granted to me for several years now to be conscious of a like perception and appearance at the same time, and consequently I have been fully convinced that nothing I will and think is from myself but that it only appears as from myself; and it has also been granted to me to will and to love this.

Arcana Coelestia 8478

“Let no one make a residue of it till the morning.” That this signifies that they should not be solicitous about acquiring it from themselves, is evident from the fact that the manna was to be given every morning, and that worms would be bred in that which was left over, by which is signified that the Lord daily provides necessaries, and that therefore they ought not to be solicitous about acquiring them from themselves....

But those have care for the morrow who are not content with their lot; who do not trust in the Divine, but in themselves; and who have regard for only worldly and earthly things, and not for heavenly things. ...

[3] Very different is the case with those who trust in the Divine. These, notwithstanding they have care for the morrow, still have it not, because they do not think of the morrow with solicitude, still less with anxiety. Unruffled is their spirit whether they obtain the objects of their desire, or not; and they do not grieve over the loss of them, being content with their lot... They know that for those who trust in the Divine all things advance toward a happy state to eternity, and that whatever befalls them in time is still conducive to it.

[5] But they who are in the opposite are scarcely willing to hear Providence mentioned, for they ascribe everything to their own sagacity; and what they do not ascribe to this they ascribe to fortune or chance; some to fate, which they do not educe from the Divine, but from nature. They call those simple who do not attribute all things to themselves or to nature.

Arcana Coelestia 6692:2

Magic is nothing but the perversion of order, and it is especially the abuse of correspondences. It is order that the goods and truths which proceed from the Lord should be received by man. When this is done, there is order in everything the man intends and thinks. But when a man does not receive goods and truths according to the order which is from the Lord, but believes that all things are blind flowings, and that if there comes forth anything that has been determined, it is of his own prudence, he perverts order; for he applies to himself the things of order with a view to taking care only of himself, and not of his neighbor, except so far as his neighbor favors him...

Arcana Coelestia 6655

“Come, let us use prudence with it.” That this signifies cunning, is evident from the signification of “prudence,” when said of the evil, who have been alienated from truth and good, as being cunning; for that which the evil do from cunning, and also from deceit, they call prudence. Of the cunning which is signified by “prudence,” something may here be related. All who are in evil call cunning “prudence,” and make intelligence and wisdom to consist in nothing else.

Divine Providence 210:2

If therefore, you wish to be led by the Divine Providence, use prudence as a servant and steward does who faithfully dispenses the goods of his master. This prudence is the talent which was given to the servants to trade with, of which they must render an account (Luke 19:13-25; Matt. 25:14-31). Prudence itself appears to man as his own; and it is believed to be his own so long as he keeps shut up within him the deadliest enemy of God and the Divine Providence, the love of self. This dwells in the interiors of every man from birth. If you do not recognize it—for it does not wish to be recognized—it dwells securely, and guards the door lest man should open it, and it should thus be cast out by the Lord. Man opens this door by shunning, as of himself, evils as sins, with the acknowledgment that he does so from the Lord. This is the prudence with which the Divine Providence acts as one.

See also Arcana Coelestia 8478:4.

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