JLUSKAIKy DIVINITY SCHOOL TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY GIFT OF Library of the Reverend Otis 0. Wright w a, ^ w a - u m is w Q F Ld a j- < Angelic Wisdom CONCERNING THI Divine Love and Wisdom. 2 k < V) Q_ h EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. FSOH THB ORIGINAL LATIB AS EDITED BY DR. J. F. I. TAFEL. TRANSLATED BT R. NORMAN FOSTER. w a & PHILADELPHIA: o« .. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. W J H 1905. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. LtrpincoTT's Fbiii, PHil.m.nil. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. The sole aim of the following translation has been to put the English reader in full possession of the original ; and the method pursued has been everywhere subservient to the aim. In further ance of the same purpose, it remains for us to state briefly that method, wherein it has sometimes failed of a satisfactory result, and why ; also to acknowledge the two or three liberties taken with the original, and to give our reasons for so doing. The method has been, first to make sure of the sense of the original, and then to give it expression in our own language as nearly as possible in the terms of the original literally rendered, at the same time adhering as closely as possible even to its con struction. In short we have indulged no departures from a lite ral or word-for-word translation, except when adherence to it would obscure the sense, diminish the power, or lose the accu racy of the original, thereby defeating the very end of translation, especially in a work like the present ; or again, when a literal following would do violence to the structure and spirit of our own language, and thus stand opposed to our peculiar modes of thought. A glance at some of the terms of Swedenborg's cate gories will illustrate this whole matter. Love, wisdom, and use, — or will, understanding, and their exercise, — or affection, thought, and action, — are trinal categories perpetually recurring in all sorts of relations throughout the work. The good and the true, the evil and the false, as terms, occur still more frequently. In these very simple terms and their 4 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. relations the chief difficulties of translation present themselves. The four last mentioned, although adjectives, have a plural as well as a singular form in the Latin. By means of this plural form, the great variety of the good and true or of the evil and false (and their variety is infinite) , may be suggested. To the English reader the same variety will be made clear from the work itself, but cannot be always so forcibly suggested by the form of the adjective, since our language does not admit the right of the adjective to number. Again, these terms occur in the original in such connections as to necessitate the use of their substantive forms. Thus the Latin says literally the " Divine Good and True," which we must interpret as the "Divine Goodness and Truth," since common usage declares this to be in our language their substantive form. Strictly considered, however, it is not : "truth" is the substantive form of "the true;" but "goodness" is not in the same sense the substantive form of " the good ;" nor does our language afford such a form. In a few limited and idiomatic expressions, " good" is used as such ; but any attempt to force its use beyond well-defined limits, gives a very dis agreeable shock to our mental constitution. Furthermore, while the term " truths" will enable us to render the plural form of its Latin adjective accurately enough, we have no such facilities for rendering the plural form of "the good." "Goods" we have, but only in the sense of property, as dry goods, house hold goods, and so on. Again, we may say " evils," as the sub stantive equivalent for the plural form of its Latin adjective ; but despite of the just claims of " falsity," our idiom links to gether "evil and falsehood" as proper companions, just as it does " goodness and truth ;" and the use of "falsity" is far from being general ; we have employed it only when the word " false hood" would be liable to mislead. When compelled to de part from the adjective forms of the original therefore, we have used the four nouns, "goodness," "truth," "evil," and "false- TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 5 hood," as equivalents of "die good," "the true," "the evil," and " the false." But the noun "goodness" occurs but once through out the original of this work, and then in the sense of " excel lence ;" and the term " truth" or "truths," only in a few isolatea expressions ; "evil" in its substantive form occurs not more than twice. Swedenborg uses the adjective forms almost exclusively. Nevertheless, to so far justify our rendering, we may add that in some of his other works "goodness and truth" are used precisely as in this translation. As an illustration of some other terms a fine example occurs in n. 266, where the statement is made that a man can "see truths (the true), acknowledge them, and speak them;" also that he can "think them," "will them," and "do them." Now it is perhaps barely admissible to say a man can " speak truths," though we certainly should not choose that mode of ex pression ; and most assuredly we should not say he can "think truths," "will truths," and "do truths;" and if we address our neighbors in this style, we run the risk of not being under stood. Again in n. 425, the original, verbally rendered, gives us the statement that a man may, through his understanding, be in formed of the means which lead to the good ; and further on, that he may " know the means," "understand them," "think them," "will them," and "do them." Now in English phraseology, he can "know the means" that lead to good, he can also "under stand them ;" but he does not " think them," he " thinks of them ;" he does not " will them," he " desires them ;" and least of all can he "do them," he "makes use of them." And instead of "thinking truths" he "thinks truly," or "has truth in his thoughts ;" and instead of " willing" and " doing them," he " con forms to them in will and conduct" or "practice ;" and so on. These examples illustrate fairly the nature and extent of our departure from verbal translation, and the reasons therefor ; though we have not hesitated, when the nature of the case 6 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. seemed to require it, to strain usage to the utmost, and adopt ex pressions which only necessity can justify. As for the rest, paraphrase has not been indulged in more than half a dozen brief clauses, which seemed wholly unmanageable by other means. The references to the " Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture," and other subjects, we have, for the sake of euphony, and because we know from our author's other works that the terms are equivalent, rendered the " New Church Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture," or what ever the work may be. The term " Divine Man" is used instead of "God-Man," as more likely to be acceptable to the English reader. The former is the term generally used by Swedenborg, though in this work he uses the latter exclusively. The word " Absolute" in its specific application to the Divine, is an imper fect rendering ; but we know of no other in our judgment equal to it. A terse definition of it will be found in paragraph n. 45 : " That is called the Absolute, which alone IS." In the first edi tion the title-page was rendered "Angelic Philosophy of the Divine Love and Wisdom ;" but the term " Philosophy" has been thought by many to be too great a strain upon the original, and in some respects inapplicable to the book. We have there fore restored the more common rendering of the title. In this, is in all the other open questions of the translation, we have profited by the counsel of able and judicious friends and critics. With this brief explanation of the method pursued in its trans lation, the work is submitted to the public. A careful perusal of it can hardly fail to convince the thoughtful reader, that it is the most remarkable combination of philosophy, illumination, and seership, which either ancient or modern experience has produced. R. N. F. Philadelphia, April 20, 1868. CONTENTS. PART I. ¦ro. Love is the Life of Man I God alone, that is the Lord, is Love Itself, because He is Life Itself; and angels and men are recipients of Life 4 The Divine is not in space 7 God is Absolute Man 11 In the Divine Man, Being and Existence are one and yet distinct 14 In the Divine Man, infinite things are one and yet distinct 17 There is one Divine Man from whom all things are 23 The real Divine essence is Love and Wisdom 28 The Divine Love is a. property of the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Wisdom a property of the Divine Love 34 The Divine Love and Wisdom are a Substance and a Form 40 The Divine Love and Wisdom are Substance and Form in themselves — that is the Absolute and Only Substance and Form 44 The Divine Love and Wisdom must have their Being and Existence in other beings created from them 47 All things in the universe were created from the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Man 52 All things in the universe are recipients of the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Man 55 All created things in a certain image represent man 61 The uses of all created things ascend by degrees from ultimates to man, and through man to their origin in God the Creator 65 The Divine fills universal space without space 69 The Divine is in all time without time 73 The Divine in all things, great and small, is the same 77 7 8 CONTENTS. PART II. no. The Divine Love and Wisdom appear in the spiritual world as a Sun 83 From the Sun which exists from the Divine Love and Wisdom, pro ceed heat and light 8 That Sun is not God, but an emanation from the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Man : so likewise the heat and light from that Sun 93 Spiritual heat and light, because they proceed from the Lord as a Sun, are one, as His Divine Love and Wisdom are one 99 The Sun of the spiritual world appears at a middle altitude, and distant from the angels, as the sun of the natural world is from men 103 The distance between the Sun and the angels in the spiritual world is an appearance, and is according to their reception of the Divine Love and Wisdom 108 The angels are in the Lord. and the Lord in them; and because the angels are recipients, the Lord alone is heaven 131 In the spiritual world the east is where the Lord appears as a Sun, and the other quarters are determined by this 119 The quarters in the spiritual world are not from the Lord as a Sun, but from the angels according to reception 124 The angels turn their faces constantly to the Lord as a Sun, thus having the south on their right, the north on their left, and the west behind them. 129 All the interiors of the angels, both of mind and body, are turned to the Lord as a Sun 135 Every spirit, whatever may be his character, turns himself in like manner to his ruling love 140 The Divine Love and Wisdom which proceed from the Lord as a Sun, and produce heat and light in heaven, is that Divine Emana tion, the Holy Spirit I46 The Lord created the universe and all it contains by means of that Sun, which is the first emanation of Divine Love and Wisdom.... 151 The sun of the natural world is pure fire, and therefore dead ; and nature, because it originates in that sun, is also dead ic* CONTENTS. o no. Without two suns, one living and the other dead, creation is im possible ,g, The end of creation, which is that all things may return to the Creator, and thus effect a union with Him, exists in ultimates 167 PART III. Atmospheres, water, and land, exist in the spiritual world, precisely as in the natural world ; but in that world they are spiritual, and in this natural _«5 There are different degrees of love and wisdom, and therefore of heat and light, and of the atmospheres 176 Degrees are of two kinds ; degrees of altitude, and degrees of lati tude 184 Degrees of altitude are homogeneous, derived one from another in a series like end, cause, and effect 189 The primary degree is the all in all of the subsequent degrees 195 All perfection increases by degrees, and ascends in degrees 199 In successive order, the first degree constitutes the highest, and the third the lowest; but in simultaneous order, the first degree con stitutes the inmost, and the third the outermost 205 The ultimate degree is the complex, containant, and base of the prior degrees 209 Degrees of altitude in their ultimate are in fullness and in potency.... 217 There are degrees of both kinds in all created things, both in the greatest and in the least 222 The three degrees of altitude are infinite and uncreated in the Lord, but finite and created in man 23a These three degrees of altitude are in every man from his birth, and may be successively opened ; and as they are opened, man is in the Lord and the Lord in him 236 Spiritual light flows into man by three degrees, but not spiritual heat, except so far as he shuns evils as sins, and looks to the Lord 242 If the higher degree, which is spiritual, is not opened within man, he becomes natural and sensual 248 I. — What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man is 251 3 O CONTENTS. NO. II.— The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual de gree has been opened 2Sa III.— The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual de gree has not been opened, and yet is not wholly closed .... 253 IV. — The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual de gree is wholly closed 254 V. — The distinction between the life of a merely natural man and that of an animal 255 The natural degree of the human mind viewed in itself is continuous; but by its correspondence with the two higher degrees, when it is elevated, seems to be discrete 256 The natural mind, being the covering which contains the higher de grees of the human mind, is therefore a reagent, which, if the higher degrees are not opened, acts against them, and if they are opened, acts with them 260 The origin of evil is the abuse of those faculties proper to man, rationality and liberty 264 I. — A bad man enjoys these two faculties equally with a good one. 266 II. — A bad man abuses those faculties to confirm the evil and false, but a good man uses them to confirm the good and true 267 III. — The evil and false confirmed in man become permanent, in herent in his love and in his life 268 IV. — Whatever has become inherent in the love and life, is heredi tary in offspring 269 V. — All evil and all its falsehood, both hereditary and acquired, reside in the natural mind 270 The evil and false are totally opposed to the good and true, because the evil and false are diabolical and infernal, while the good and true are divine and heavenly 271 I.— The natural mind, which is in evil and therefore in the false, is a form and image of hell 27a II-— The natural mind, which is a form or image of hell, descends by three degrees 2nt ra-— The ^ree degrees of the natural mind, which is a form and image of hell, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual mind, which is a form and image of heaven 37s CONTENTS. II IV.— The natural mind, which is a hell, is totally opposed to the spiritual mind, which is a heaven 276 All that belongs to the three degrees of the natural mind is included in the works performed by bodily action 277 PART IV. The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and all its particulars from Himself, and not from nothing 282 The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, could not have created the universe and all its particulars from Himself, unless He were a Man 285 The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, produced from Himself the Sun of the spiritual world, and from this created the universe and all its particulars 290 There are three elements in the Lord, and which are the Lord, the Divine in love, the Divine in wisdom, and the Divine in use; and they are presented in appearance outside of the Sun of the spiritual world, the Divine in love by heat, the Divine in wisdom by light, and the Divine in use by the atmosphere which con tains them 296 The atmospheres, which in both the spiritual and the natural worlds are "three in number, in their ultimates terminate in the substances and matter which form the material world 302 In the substances and matter which form the material world, there is nothing of that which is in itself Divine, yet they are from it... 305 All uses, which are the ends of creation, exist in forms, and assume their forms from such substances and matter as form the material world 307 I. — There is in the material world an effort to produce uses in forms, or forms of use 310 II. — In all forms of use there is a certain image of creation 313 III. — In all forms of use there is a certain image of man 317 IV. — -n all forms of use there is a certain image of the infinite and eternal 318 All things in the created universe, viewed from their uses, represent man in image, which affirms that God is a Man 319 12 CONTENTS. so. All things created by the Lord are uses, and this in the order, degree, and respect in which they represent man, and through man the Lord in whom they originate 327 Evil uses were not created by the Lord, but originated with hell 336 I. — What is meant by the evil uses on earth 33^ II.— All things which are evil uses are in hell, and all which are good uses are in heaven 339 III. — There is a continual influx from the spiritual world into the natural 34° IV. — The operation of influx from hell produces evil uses in places where things correspondent exist 34* V. — This is done by the ultimate spiritual element separated from its higher element 345 VI. — There are two forms into which operation by influx takes place, the vegetable form and the animal 346 VII. — Each form, during its existence, is endowed with means of propagation 347 The visible universe bears witness that Nature has produced and does produce nothing, but that the Divine produces all things from Itself, and through the spiritual world 349 PART V. The Lord has created and formed in man two receptacles and habi tations for Himself, called the will and the understanding — the will for His divine love, and the understanding for His divine wisdom 358 The will and understanding, which are the receptacles of love and wisdom, are in the whole and in every part of the brain ; and from this in the whole and in every part of the body 362 I. — Love and wisdom, and therefore the will and understanding, constitute man's very life 363 II. — Man's life exists in first principles in the brain, and in deriva tives in the body 365 III. — Such as life is in its first principles, such is it in the whole and in every part 366 IV. — Life by means of its first principles exists from every part in the whole, and from the whole in every part 367 CONTENTS. 13 NO. V. -Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, and such consequently is the man 368 There is a correspondence of the will with the heart and of the under standing with the lungs 371 I. — All the constituents of the mind relate to the will and under standing, and all parts of the body to the heart and lungs. 372 II — There is a correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs, and therefore a correspondence of the whole mind with the whole body, in all their par ticulars 374 III. — The will corresponds to the heart 378 IV. — The understanding corresponds to the lungs 382 V. — By this correspondence may be discovered many arcana of the will and understanding, and therefore of love and wisdom 385 VI. — Man's mind is the spirit, and the spirit is a man, and the body is an external covering through which the mind or spirit feels and acts in the world 386 VII. — The union of man's spirit with the body is effected by the correspondence of the will and its understanding with the heart and its lungs, and their separation is caused by non-correspondence 39° From the correspondence of the heart with the will, and of the lungs with the understanding, may be learned all that can be learned of the will and understanding, or of love and wisdom, that is, of the soul .' 394 I. — Love or the will is man's very life 399 II. — Love or the will strives incessantly to assume the human form, and everything belonging to that form 400 III. — Love or the will cannot effect anything by its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the understanding 401 IV. — Love or the will prepares a home or bridal-chamber for its future bride, which is wisdom or the understanding 40a V. — Love or the will prepares everything in its own human form, that it may act in unison with wisdom or the understanding. 403 VI. — When the marriage has taken place, the first union is effected by the love of knowing, which originates the love of truth 4°4 14 CONTENTS. HO. VIL— The second union is effected by the love of understanding, which originates the perception of truth 404 VIII.— The third union is effected by the love of seeing truth, which originates thought 404 IX. — Love or the will by these three unions enters into its sensi tive and into its active life 406 X. — Love or the will introduces wisdom or the understanding to all things contained in its home 408 XI. — Love or the will does nothing unless in union with the understanding 409 XII. — Love or the will unites itself to wisdom or the understand ing, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally united to it 410 XIII. — Wisdom or the understanding, from the power given it by love, may be elevated to the reception and perception of what belongs to the light of heaven 413 XIV. — Love or the will may be similarly elevated to the perception of what belongs to the heat of heaven, if it loves its consort wisdom to that degree 414 XV. — Otherwise love or the will draws down wisdom or the un derstanding from its elevation, that it may act as one with itself. 416 XVI. — Love or the will is purified by wisdom in the understand ing, if both are elevated together 419 XVII. — Love or the will is corrupted in and by the understanding, if they are not elevated together 421 XVIII. — Love purified by wisdom in the understanding, becomes spiritual and celestial 42a XIX. — Love corrupted in and by the understanding, becomes natural and sensual 434 XX.— The ability to understand, called rationality, and the ability to act accordingly, called liberty, still remain 425 XXI. — Spiritual and celestial love is love of the neighbor and the Lord ; while natural and sensual love is love of the world and self 426 XXII. — It is the same with charity and faith and their union, as with the will and understanding and theirs 427 The initiatory form of man at conception \ .,2 DIVINE Love and Wisdom. PART I. i. Love is the Life of Man. Man knows that love exists, but he does not know what it is. He knows that it exists from the common use of the word, as in the expres sions, He loves me ; the king loves his subjects, and sub jects love their king; husband and wife, mother and children, love each other ; this man loves his country ; that his fellow-citizens or his neighbor. So also men are said to love certain things, this, that, or the other, without reference to persons. But although the word love is so universally used, few know what love is. Because men cannot, when reflecting upon it, form any definite idea of its nature, they deny its reality, or call it some influence entering man by sight, hearing, touch, or conversation, and affecting him. They are utterly ignorant of the fact that love is man's very life ; not only the general life of his whole body, and the general life of all his thoughts, but also the life of all their particulars. Any one of intel ligence can see this, if asked, Could you either think or act if the influence of love were withdrawn? Are not thought, language, and action chilled as love grows cold, and animated as love grows warm? But this he knows from experience ; not from any recognition of the truth that love is the life of man. 16 16 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. 2. No one knows what human life is, unless he knows that it is love. Ignorant of this, one may suppose that life is sensation and action ; another that it is thought. But in fact, thought is merely the first effect of life, while sensa tion and action are its secondary effects. Thought is called the first effect of life : but thought may be more and more internal, or more and more external. Inmost thought, which is a perception of ends, is actually the first effect of life. But of this again when the degrees of life are explained. 3. Some idea of love as being the life of man may be obtained from the effect of the sun's heat upon the world. It is known that this is the general life, as it were, of all vegetation ; for from its increase in spring, plants of every kind shoot from the soil, are adorned successively with leaves, flowers, and fruit, and so in a manner live. But when the heat diminishes, as in autumn and winter, they are stripped of their signs of life and wither. So is it with love in man ; for love and heat correspond to each other. Therefore love is warm. 4. God Alone, that is the Lord, is Love Itself, because He is Life Itself ; and angels and men are recipients of Life. This will be fully illustrated in treatises on the Divine Providence and on Life. Suffice it for the present that the Lord, who is God of the universe, is uncreated and infinite, while men and angels are created and finite ; and because He is uncreated and infinite, He is Being itself, which is called Jehovah, and is Life itself, or Life in Himself. From the Uncreated, the Infinite, Being itself, and Life itself, no beings can be created immediately, because the Divine is one and indivisible ; their creation can take place only from things created and finite, and so formed that the Divine can dwell in them. Angels and men are so formed ; and hence they are recipients of life. There fore if any man permits himself to be so far misled, as to THB SVN OF HEAVEN. 1 7 think that he is not a recipient of life, but life itself, he cannot be withheld from thinking that he is God. That man feels as though he were life, and therefore believes it, is because this feeling deceives him ; for the principal cause is always felt by the instrumental as one with itself, and not otherwise. That the Lord is Life in Him self He teaches in John v. 26: "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself:" and that He is "the Life," in John xi. 25; xiv. 6. Now since Love and Life are one and the same thing, as shewn above, n. 1 and 2, it follows that the Lord is Love itself, because He is Life itself. 5. To understand this, it must be known that because the Lord is Love in its own essence, that is, Divine Love, He appears to the angels in heaven as a Sun, from which proceed heat and light. That heat in its essence is love, and that light in its essence is wisdom ; and so far as an angel is a recipient of that spiritual heat and light, so far he is love and wisdom also — not love and wisdom from himself, but from the Lord. That spiritual heat and light not only flow into angels and act upon them, but also enter into man and act upon him ; and this precisely as he be comes a recipient ; and again, he becomes a recipient ac cording to his love of the Lord and the neighbor. That Sun, or the Divine Love, cannot by its heat and light create any one immediately from itself, for any one so created would be love in its own essence, which is the Lord Himself: but beings can be created from substances and materials so formed as to receive that heat and light. Just as the sun of this world cannot by its heat and light produce germination in the earth immediately ; but it can cause growth from those materials of the soil in which its light and heat can dwell. That the Lord's Divine Love appears in the spiritual world as a Sun, from which proceed spiritual heat and light, from which the angels derive their 1 8 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. love and wisdom, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 116 to 140. 6. Since man, therefore, is not life, but a recipient of life, it follows that the conception of man from the father is not a conception of life, but of the first and purest form receptive of life. To this, as a nucleus or starting-point, are successively added in the womb substances and mate rials adapted in their forms to the reception of life in its order and degree. 7. The Divine is not in Space. That the Divine or God is not in space, although omnipresent, with every man in the world, with every angel in heaven, and with every spirit under heaven, is beyond the merely natural comprehension, though it may be understood spiritually. This is because all natural ideas are based upon space ; for they are formed from things material, in each and all of which, so far as they are visible, space is involved; everything great or small ; everything that has length, breadth, and height ; in a word, every dimension, form, and figure of the material world is subject to space. There fore, when the Divine is said to be everywhere, and yet not in space, the statement is beyond the grasp of merely natural ideas. It may, however, be naturally understood, if to these ideas a man admits a little spiritual light. There fore the nature of spiritual ideas shall be briefly explained. A spiritual idea derives nothing from space, but everything from state. State is a term applied to love, life, wisdom, the affections, their joys, and in general to the good and true : and a truly spiritual idea of these things has in it nothing in common with space ; it is superior to ideas based upon space, and looks down upon them, as heaven looks down upon the earth. But angels and spirits have eyes to see with, just as men upon earth have, and objects cannot be seen except in space; therefore, in the spiritual world, THE DIVINE NOT IN SPACE. 19 where angels and spirits are, there seems to be space similar to that upon earth ; it is not real space, however, but apparent; for it is not fixed and bounded as in the world, but can be lengthened or shortened and otherwise changed and varied. Now because this spiritual space cannot be determined by measurement, it cannot be com prehended by natural, but only by spiritual ideas. And a spiritual idea of distance in space, is simply an idea of distance in goodness and in truth, which is affinity and resemblance according to their state. 8. Hence it is evident, that man by merely natural ideas cannot comprehend that the Divine is everywhere and yet not in space ; it is also evident that angels and spirits comprehend it clearly : consequently man can do so likewise, if he admits spiritual light into his thoughts ; and the reason is, that it is not his body, but his soul, which thinks ; that is, not the natural, but the spiritual. 9. Many do not understand this because they love the natural, and are therefore unwilling to raise their thoughts above it into spiritual light ; and those who will not, can not think even of God except from space ; and to think of God as in space, is to think of the expanse of nature. This must be premised, because without the knowledge and some perception of the fact that the Divine is not in space, nothing can be understood of the Divine life, which is love and wisdom, of which we here treat; and therefore little if anything of the divine providence, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, infinity, and eternity, which are to be discussed in order. 10. We have said that space appears in the spiritual world as in the natural, and consequently distance, but that they are appearances according to the spiritual affinities of love and wisdom, or of the good and true. Therefore it is that the Lord, although present with the angels through out the heavens, yet appears high above them as a Sun. 20 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. The reception of love and wisdom produces affinity with the Lord; therefore those heavens where the angels are in closer affinity from reception, appear nearer to the Lord than those in which this affinity is more remote. For the same reason the heavens, of which there are three, are distinct from each other ; so also are the societies of each heaven ; and again the hells beneath them are remote from the Lord according to their rejection of love and wisdom. The same is true of men, in whom and with whom the Lord is present throughout the world ; and this simply because the Lord is not in space. n. God is absolute Man. This is the only concep tion of God entertained throughout the heavens ; for the whole heaven, and every part of heaven, exists in the human form ; and the Divine present with the angels con stitutes heaven. Moreover, the tendency of thought is to the form of heaven, and therefore it is impossible for the angels to think of God except as a Man : for this reason, all upon earth who are in union with heaven, have the same conception of God, when they think deeply within themselves, or in spirit- Because God is a Man, all angels and spirits are men in perfect form : this is effected by the form of heaven, which in the greatest or the least of things is everywhere like itself. That heaven in the whole and in every part is in the human form, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 59 to 87 ; also that thoughts tend to the form of heaven, n. 203, 204. That man was created in the image and likeness of God is known from Genesis i. 26, 27 ; also that God appeared to Abraham and others as a Man. The ancients, wise and simple alike, conceived of God only as a Man ; and when at length men began to worship more gods than one, as at Athens and Rome, they worshiped all as men. This may be illustrated by the following extract from a small work formerly pub- GOD IS ABSOLUTE MAN. 21 lished : "The Gentiles, especially the Africans, who acknow ledge and worship one God, the Creator of the universe, con ceive of Him as a Man, and declare that no one can do otherwise. When told that many cherish the notion that God is like a light cloud in the air, they ask where such people are ; and when informed that they are among the Christians, they say it is not possible. They are told, that this idea arises from the fact that God is called a spirit in the Word ; and these people think a spirit is nothing but vapor, not knowing that every spirit and every angel is in the human form ; inquiry is then made as to whether their spiritual ideas are similar to their natural, and they are found different with those who interiorly ac knowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth. I once heard a Christian elder say that no man could conceive of a Divine Humanity ; and I saw him taken among the dif ferent Gentile societies, to those more and more interior in succession ; by these he was introduced into their heavens, and at last was taken to the Christian heaven ; and in each heaven their interior perception of God was com municated to him, and he saw that they all thought of God only as a Man, which is the same as to think of a Divine Humanity." 12. The common people of Christendom think of God as a Man, because in the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, God is called a person ; but the more learned affirm that God is invisible ; which they do, because they cannot comprehend how God as a Man could create heaven and earth, and fill the universe with His presence ; besides many other things which cannot be understood, while it is unknown that the Divine is not in space. But those who approach the Lord only, think of a Divine Humanity, and so conceive of God as a Man. 13. How important it is to have a correct idea of God, is evident from this, that the idea of God is the inmost of 22 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. thought with all who have religion ; for in all things re ligion and worship regard God : and because God is present universally and particularly in everything per taining to religion and worship, unless a correct idea of Him prevails there can be no communication with heaven. Therefore it is, that every nation in the spiritual world is located according to its conception of God as a Man ; for in this conception, and in no other, there is an idea of the Lord. That a man's state after death is according to the idea of God which he has established in his mind, is obvious from its opposite, that the denial of God consti tutes hell, and in Christendom, the denial of the Lord's Divinity. 14. In the Divine Man Being and Existence are One and yet distinct. Being and Existence are insep arable ; one is not possible without the other ; for Being is by means of Existence and not apart from it. This,.reason comprehends when it questions whether Being with no Existence, or Existence not from Being, is either of them possible. Since therefore each is possible with the other, and not without, it follows that they are one, but yet distinct. They are one and yet distinct, as Love and Wisdom. Indeed, Love is Being and Wisdom is Ex istence ; for Love is possible only in Wisdom, and Wis dom only from Love ; therefore when Love has its Being in Wisdom, it Exists. The unity of these two is such that they are separable in thought, but not actually : and because we can distinguish between them in thought, while yet they cannot be actually separated, they are said to be one and yet distinct. Being and Existence in the Divine Man also are one and yet distinct, as soul and body ; there is no soul without its body, and no body without its soul. By the Divine Being is meant the soul of the Divine Man, and by the Divine Existence is meant His Divine UNITT OF THINGS INFINITE. 23 Body. That a soul, possessing thought and wisdom, can exist without a body, is an error arising from false notions ; for every human soul lives in a spiritual body, after it has cast off the material coverings which it wore in the world. 15. That Being without Existence is not Being, is be cause it is thus without form ; and if without form, it is also without quality; and that which is without quality is nothing. Now that which has its Existence from Being is one with it, because it is derived from Being ; therefore their unition; therefore each belongs to the other; and therefore each is all in all to the other, as to itself. 16. From this it is obvious that God is a Man, and that therefore He is a God existent, — not existent from Himself, but in Himself. He who exists in Himself is God from whom all things are. 17. In the Divine Man Infinite Things are One and yet Distinct. It is known that God is infinite ; for He is called the Infinite. But he is called the Infinite, because He is infinite. He is not infinite merely because He is absolute Being and Existence in Himself; but be cause infinite things are in Him. An infinite Being not containing in Himself infinite things, is infinite only in name. These infinite things cannot be called infinitely many or infinitely all, because of the natural idea involved in the words "many" and "all;" for the natural idea of "infi nitely many" is limited, and that of " infinitely all," though in one sense not limited, still arises from the conception of things limited universally. And because man's ideas are thus natural, by no refinement or approximation of them can he attain to a conception of the infinite things in God: and although an angel, whose ideas are spiritual, can by those means advance a degree beyond man, even he cannot wholly attain to it. 18. Any one believing that God is a Man may be con- 24 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. vinced that infinite things are in Him ; and because He is a Man, He possesses a body and everything pertaining to a body ; He has a face, a breast, an abdomen, loins and feet ; for without these He would not be a Man : having these, He also has eyes, ears, nostrils, a mouth and a tongue ; also everything within a man, as the heart and lungs with all their dependencies, from all of which together man is man. In a created man these things are many, and viewed in their contextures they are innumer able ; but in the Divine Man they are infinite ; nothing whatever is wanting ; therefore His infinite perfection. A comparison may be made between created man and the un created, Who is God, because God is a Man ; and by Him is it said that the man of this earth was created in His image and in His likeness; Gen. i. 26, 27. 19. That there are infinite things in God is still more manifest to the angels from the heavens in which they dwell. The entire heaven, which is composed of countless myriads of angels, exists in the human form ; so likewise every society of heaven, great and small ; indeed for this reason an angel is a man, for he is a heaven in miniature. This is shown in the work on Heaven and' Hell, n. 51 to 87. Such is the form of heaven, in general, in every part, and in every individual, from the Divine which the angels receive ; for according to this reception is the angel more or less perfect in the human form. Therefore the angels are said to be in God, and God in them, and God is called their All. The things of heaven are innumerable; and since the Divine constitutes heaven, and these countless things are from the Divine, it is very evident that infinite things are in the Absolute Man, who is God. 20. This may also be inferred from the created universe, viewed as to its uses and their correspondences ; but before this can be understood, further illustration is necessary. 21. Since there are infinite things in the Divine Man, THE ONE DIVINE MAN. 25 which are seen in the heavens, in the angel and in man as in a mirror, and since the Divine Man is not in space, as shown above, n. 7, 8, 9 and 10, it may be in some measure seen and understood how God can be omni present, omniscient, and universally provident ; also how He is able as a Man to create all things, and as a Man to preserve His creation in order forever. 22. That infinite things are one and yet distinct in the Divine Man, can also be seen in man as in a mirror. As said above, there are things innumerable in a man, and yet he feels them all as one. He knows nothing, from sensation, of his brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen and pan creas ; nor of the countless things in the eyes, ears, tongue, stomach, organs of generation, and so on : and because he has no sensation of these parts, he is to himself a unit. The reason is, that all are in such a form, that no one can be lacking ; for that form is a recipient of life from the Divine Man, as shown above, n. 4, 5 and 6 ; and the order and connection of all the parts in that form produce the sense and consequent idea of their unity, but not of their multiplicity. We may therefore conclude that those innu merable things which in a man act as one, in the Absolute Man Who is God, are one and yet most perfectly distinct. 23. There is One Divine Man from whom all things are. All the principles of human reason are united and, as it were, concentrated upon this : that there is One God, the Creator of the universe ; so that a rea sonable man, from his common sense, does not and can not think otherwise. Say to any man of sound reason, tliat there are two Creators of the universe, and you will find in him a repugnance to the statement, perhaps to the bare sound of your words ; which shows that all the prin ciples of human reason are united and concentrated upon the conception of one God. For this there are two causes : 2b DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. First, — the faculty of reasoning, in itself considered, is not man's, but is God's in man; upon this divine faculty de pends human reason in its general principles ; and these principles cause man to see, as from himself, that God is one. The second cause is, that man by means of that fac ulty is either in the light of heaven, or derives therefrom the general laws of his thought ; and of that light it is the universal testimony that God is one. It is otherwise, however, if by means of this faculty any man has per verted the inferior things of his intellect : he still, it is true, possesses that faculty ; but by that perversion of inferior things he turns it aside, and his reason becomes un sound. 24. Every man thinks, although unconsciously, of a collective body of men as of one man ; so that he at once apprehends the meaning, when a king is called the head and his subjects the body, or when any man is said to occupy a certain place in the general body, that is, in the kingdom. In this respect the spiritual body is the same as the civil ; the spiritual body is the church, and its head is the Divine Man. This shows what the conception of the church as one man would be, if instead of one Creator and Upholder of the universe, we should think of several. The church would then appear as a body with many heads ; thus not as a man, but as a monster. And if we say these heads have all one essence, and so together con stitute one head, then they must be regarded, either as one head with several faces, or as one face with several heads ; and under any such conception the church must appear deformed. But in truth there is one God who is the Head, and the church is His body, which acts at the command of the Head, and not from itself, — as is also the case in a man. For this reason there can be but one king in a kingdom ; for several kings would divide it, while one can preserve its unity. MORE GODS THAN ONE IMPOSSIBLE. 27 25. So would it be with the church throughout the whole world, which is called a communion, because it exists as one body under one head. It is known that the head rules the subject body at will ; for in the head reside the understanding and the will, from which the body acts, and this only in perfect obedience. The body can do nothing, except from the understanding and will resident in the head ; nor the man of the church except from God. The body seems to act from itself, as though the hands and feet in their motion moved themselves, or the mouth and tongue in speaking moved themselves, by their own power ; nevertheless, they do not act from themselves in the smallest degree, but exclusively from the affections of the will and the consequent thoughts of the understanding in the head. Suppose now a body with several heads and each head independent in its own understanding and will ; could such a body exist? for within it there could be no such unanimity as exists in one head. As it is in the church, so is it in the heavens, which consist of countless myriads of angels ; were it not that these, one and all, regard one God only, they would separate from each other, and heaven would be destroyed. Therefore if an angel of heaven but thinks of several gods, he is immediately severed from the others ; for he is expelled to the utmost boundary of heaven and sinks downward. 26. Because the universal heaven and everything in heaven has relation to one God, angelic speech, being made harmonious with the general tone of heaven, closes with a single cadence ; a proof that angels cannot think of more than one God ; for speech is from thought. 27. Who that possesses true reason cannot see that the Divine is indivisible, and that therefore several infinite, uncreated and omnipotent Beings, that is several Gods, are impossible? But if any one not possessed of reason, should affirm that several infinite, uncreated and omnipo- 2S DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. tent beings, therefore several Gods, are possible, provided they have all one and the same essence, and that thus there would be but one infinite, uncreated and omnipotent Being, or one God ; we may ask, Is not that one and self same essence absolutely the same one? and the same one cannot be several. If it is affirmed that one is from the other, then we say, he who is from the other is not God in Himself; and yet God in Himself is the God from whom all things are, as shown above, n. 16. 28. The real Divine essence is Love and Wisdom. Sum up all you know, subject it to a thoughtful inspection, and search profoundly for the universal principle of it all : you cannot avoid the conclusion that it is Love and Wis dom ; for these two are the essentials in everything of man's life ; everything of that life, civil, moral and spirit ual, is dependent on these two elements, and without them is nothing. The same is true of the entire life of a com posite man, that is, as said above, of a society small or great, a kingdom, an empire, the church, or the angelic heaven. Deprive them of Love and Wisdom, and see if anything is left of them : you will find that without these as their origin they are nothing. 29. That Love and Wisdom are both in God in their very essence, cannot be denied : for He loves all from His own Love, and leads all by His own Wisdom. The created universe moreover, viewed in its order, is so filled with wisdom derived from love, that the whole might be called wisdom itself; for in it is an endless variety of objects, so disposed successively and simultaneously, that all together form one. From this, and this alone, the universe can be sustained and continually preserved. 30. It is because the real Divine Essence is Love and Wisdom, that man has two faculties receptive of life, from one of which he derives his understanding, and from the THE TWO HUMAN FACULTIES. 29 other his will. The faculty from which the understanding exists, receives everything belonging to it from the influx of wisdom from God ; and the faculty from which the will exists, receives everything from the influx of love from God. The absence of true wisdom and love in man does not deprive him of these faculties, but closes them ; and so long as they remain closed, though the understanding and will are still called understanding and will, they are not such in reality. Thus by the removal of these facul ties everything human would perish : for the human con sists of thought and language from thought, of will and action from will. It is obvious therefore, that the Divine presence with man is in these two faculties, which are the faculties or the capacity of being wise and loving. That man has the ability to love, although he is not wise and loves not as he might, I have learned from much experi ence, as shall elsewhere be abundantly shown. 31. It is because the real Divine essence is Love and Wisdom, that all things in the universe relate to the good and true : for everything proceeding from love is called good, and everything proceeding from wisdom is called true. But more of this hereafter. 32. It is also because the real Divine essence is Love and Wisdom, that the universe and all it contains, whether alive or dead, subsist from heat and light : for heat corres ponds to love, and light corresponds to wisdom : there fore indeed spiritual heat is love, and spiritual light is wisdom. But of this also more hereafter. 33. From the Divine Love and Wisdom, that consti tute the very essence which is God, spring all of man's affections and thoughts; his affections from the Divine Love, and his thoughts from the Divine Wisdom. The entire man is made of nothing but affection and thought ; they are as it were the fountain of all his life : all the joy and pleasure of. his life is from them, — the joy from his 30 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. affection, and the pleasure from its thought. Now since man was created to be a recipient, and since he is a re cipient so far as he loves God and from the love of God is wise — that is, so far as he is influenced by what is from God, and thinks under that influence — it follows that the Divine essence, which is creative, is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. 34. The Divine Love is a property of the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Wisdom a property of the Divine Love. That Being and Existence in the Divine Man are one and yet distinct, may be seen above, from n. 14 to 16 : and since the Divine Being is Divine Love, and the Divine Existence is Divine Wisdom, it follows that these two are also one and yet distinct. They are said to be one and yet distinct, because Love and Wisdom are two distinct elements, but are so united, that each is a property of the other : for Love has its Being in Wisdom, and Wisdom has its Existence in Love. And since Wisdom derives its Ex istence from Love, as shown in n. 15, the Divine Wisdom also is Being ; therefore Love and Wisdom regarded as to their unity, are the Divine Being ; but regarded as distinct, Love is called the Divine Being, and Wisdom the Divine Existence. Such is the angelic conception of the Divine Love and Wisdom. 35. Such being the union of Love with Wisdom, and of Wisdom with Love, in the Divine Man, the Divine essence is one : for the Divine essence is the Divine Love because it is a property of the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Wisdom because it is a property of the Divine Love ; and such being their union, the Divine life also is one. Life is the Divine essence. The Divine Love and Wisdom are one, because their union is reciprocal, and reciprocal union causes oneness. But more is to be said of reciprocal union elsewhere. UNITED ACTION OF LOVE AND WISDOM. 3l 36. There is a union of love and wisdom in all tne divine works also ; hence their perpetuity, and in truth their eternal duration. If in any created work there were either more or less of the divine love than of the divine wisdom, the work would not endure, except so far as these two were contained within it equally : the excess of either would pass off. 37. The Divine Providence, in the reformation, regen eration and salvation of mankind, partakes equally of the divine love and the divine wisdom ; from an excess of either, man could not be reformed, regenerated and saved. The divine love is willing to save all, but cannot, except by means of the divine wisdom ; and all the laws in accordance with which salvation is effected are from t^° divine wisdom, and the love cannot transcend those laws, because the divine love and wisdom are one and act in unison. 38. In the Word the Divine Love and Wisdom are meant by justice [or righteousness] and judgment, the Divine Love by justice, and the Divine Wisdom by judg ment. Therefore in the word justice and judgment are affirmed of God, as in David : '¦'¦'Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne;" Ps. lxxxix. 15. And again; "And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." Ps. xxxvii. 6. In Hosea; l' I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment," ii. 19. In Jeremiah ; "I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth," xxiii. 5. In Isaiah ; " Of the increase of his gov ernment and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to estab lish it with, judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever," ix. 7. And again; "The Lord is exalted; for He dwelleth on high ; He hath filled Zion with judgment 32 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. and righteousness," xxxiii. 5. Again in David; " I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments ," cxix. 7. "Seven times a day do I praise thee, because of thy righteous judgments," cxix. 164. The same is understood by Life and Light, as in John : "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men," i. 4. By life there is meant the Lord's Divine Love , and by light His Divine Wisdom. It is the same again with life and spirit, as in John : " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" vi. 63. 39. In man love and wisdom appear as two separate things, but in themselves they are one and yet distinct; for a man's love is according to his wisdom, and his wisdom -*i,-_orumg to his love. That wisdom which is not one with its love, though it seems to be wisdom, in reality is not; and that love which does not accord with its wisdom, though it seems to be the love of wisdom, in reality is not ; for these two draw their essence and life reciprocally from each other. Love and wisdom seem to be two separate things in man, because with him the capacity for under standing can be elevated into the light of heaven, but not his capacity for loving, except so far as he acts according to his understanding. Therefore that semblance of wisdom which is not one with a man's love of wisdom, relapses to the love with which it is one ; and this may be not the love of wisdom, but the love of folly. For from wisdom a man may know that it is his duty to do certain things, and yet do them not, because he does not love to do them. But so far as he does from love what wisdom teaches, he is an image of God. 40. The Divine Love and Wisdom are a Substance and a Form. It is the common idea that love and wisdom are something volatile, floating in the purer atmosphere or ether ; or that they are some kind of a vaporous exhalation. LOVE AND WISDOM A SUBSTANCE AND FORM. 33 Few suppose them to be really and actually a substance and a form : and even those who see that they are, still think of them as existing outside of their subject, and flowing from it ; and what they thus regard as an effluence distinct from its subject, though volatile and floating, they still call a substance and a form, not knowing that love and wisdom are the subject itself, and that what is supposed to be something outside of the subject, as a floating ex halation, is merely an appearance arising from the state of the subject within itself. There are several reasons why this has been hitherto unknown ; among others, that the human mind forms its understanding first from appearances, and it cannot disperse these except by the investigation of causes ; and if causes are deeply hidden, it cannot investi gate them except by retaining the intellect for some time in spiritual light; and this it cannot do, because natural light perpetually withdraws it. Still it is a truth that love and wisdom are the real and actual substance and form, which constitute the subject itself. 41. But because this is contrary to the appearance, it may seem unworthy of belief unless demonstrated ; and as it cannot be demonstrated except by such things as man can apprehend with his bodily senses, by those it shall be demonstrated. Man possesses five external senses, called feeling, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. The subject of feeling is the skin which envelops him ; the very substance and form of the skin cause it to feel whatever is applied to it. The sense of feeling is not in the things applied, but in the skin's own substance and form, which are the sub ject ; that sense is merely the affection of the skin by any thing applied to it. It is the same with taste : this sense is an affection of the substance and form of the tongue, the tongue being the subject. So also with smell : it is known that odors affect the nostrils, and are in them ; and that the nostrils are affected by the touch o£ji^!img 34 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. odoriferous. So again of hearing : hearing seems to be in the place where the sound originates ; but it is actually in the ear, and is an affection of the substance and form of the ear : that hearing seems to be at a distance from the ear is an illusion. In like manner with sight : when a man sees a distant object, his sight seems to be where the object is : but in reality it is in the eye, which is the subject, and is affected as the other organs are : the distance is a con clusion of the judgment, measuring space by intervening things, or by the diminution and consequent obscurity of the object, the image of which is formed within the eye according to the angle of incidence. It is therefore obvious that sight does not go out from the eye to the object, but the image of the object enters the eye, and affects its sub stance and form : for it is with sight as with hearing ; hearing does not go out from the ear to catch sounds, but sounds enter the ear and affect it. It is therefore evident that the affection of a substance and form which produces sensation, is not something separate from the subject, but simply effects a change in it, the subject being the subject still, as before and after. And it follows that sight, hear ing, smell, taste, and feeling, are not something volatile flowing from their organs ; but they are the organs them selves regarded in their own substance and form, from the affection of which arises sensation. 42. It is the same with love and wisdom, with this differ ence only, that the substances and forms which consist of love and wisdom, are not obvious to the eye, as are the organs of the external senses. Still no one can deny that what are called thoughts, perceptions, and affections, which are from love and wisdom, are substances and forms, and are not some volatile effluence from nothing, or abstracted from the real and actual substance and form which are their subjects. For in the brain are forms and substances innumerable, in which resides every interior sense referable BEING AND EXISTENCE IN ITSELF. 35 to the understanding and will. That all the affections, perceptions, and thoughts there, are not exhalations from those substances, but are really and actually the subjects, which emit nothing from them, but merely undergo changes of state according to the influences which affect them, is obvious from what has been said of the external senses. Of those influences more will be said below. 43. It may now be seen, that the divine love and wisdom in themselves are a substance and a form ; for they are absolute Being and Existence : and if they were not Being and Existence in such a sense as to be a substance and a form, they would be merely an abstract notion, which in itself is nothing. 44. The Divine Love and Wisdom are Substance and Form in themselves — that is, the Absolute and Only Substance and Form. It has just been proved that the divine love and wisdom are a substance and a form ; also that the Divine Being and Existence is a Being and Existence in itself. It cannot be called a Being and Exist ence from itself; because this implies origin, and moreover origin from something in that which is Being and Existence in itself. But an absolute Being and Existence in itself is eternal. An absolute Being and Existence in itself is also uncreated; and no created thing can exist but from the uncreated ; and what is created is also finite ; and the finite can exist only from the infinite. 45 . Whoever can study the subject thoughtfully until he comprehends what Being and Existence in itself is, will certainly conclude that it is the Absolute and Only Being and Existence. That is called the Absolute, which alone Is ; and the Only, from which everything else is derived. Now, since the Absolute and Only is a substance and a form, it follows that it is the absolute and only substance and form ; and since that absolute substance and form is 36 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. the divine love and wisdom, it follows that they are the absolute and only love and the absolute and only wisdom, consequently the absolute and only essence, and finally, the absolute and only Life ; for love and wisdom are life. 46. From this it appears how sensual (that is, derived from the bodily senses and their spiritual blindness) are the thoughts of those who call Nature self-existent. They think from sight, but cannot think from the understanding ; and thought from sight closes the understanding ; while thought from the understanding purifies the sight. They cannot conceive of a Being and Existence in itself, nor that it is eternal, uncreated, and infinite. Nor can they conceive of life but as something volatile and evanescent, nor of love and wisdom ; much less that they are the origin of all things in nature. That all nature is derived from these can only be seen while nature is viewed in its uses, according to their order and connection, and not in its mere forms, which are objects of sight only. For uses exist only from life ; while their connection and order are from wisdom and love ; and their forms are the embodi ments of the uses. Therefore if the mere forms of nature are regarded, nothing can there be seen of life, still less of love and wisdom, and so nothing of God. 47. The Divine Love and Wisdom must have their Being and Existence in other beings created from them. It is the very nature of love not to love self, but to love others, and by means of love to be united with them ; it is also the nature of love to be loved by others, for thus is union effected : the essence of all love is union ; and in truth this is the life of it, which is called joy, plea santness, delight, sweetness, bliss, agreeableness and hap piness. Love wishes its own to be another's ; this consti tutes love ; and to feel another's joy as our own is to love. But to feel our own joy in another, and not the other's in LOVE'S UNION IS FROM RECIPROCITY JfJ ourselves, is not to love ; for this is to love self, but that to love the neighbor. These two kinds of love are diamet rically opposed to each other : each effects union, it is true ; and the fact does not appear, that to love one's own, that is, to love one's self in another, actually separates ; yet it does separate so effectually, that just as any one has so loved another, so afterwards does he hate him ; for that kind of union is gradually dissolved of itself, and hatred as gradually takes its place. 48. Who, that understands the essential character of love, cannot see this? For what is the love of self alone, without the love of another apart from self, by whom one may be loved in return? This is disunion rather than union. ,XLove's union is from reciprocity ; and there is no reciprocity possible in self alone : if it seems to exist, it is from a supposed reciprocity in those loved. From which it is obvious, that the divine love cannot but have its Being and Existence in other beings whom it may love, and who may love it in return. For if this is the nature of all love, it is to the utmost, that is infinitely, the nature of Absolute Love. 49. With reference to God, to love and be loved recip rocally, with beings in whom there is anything infinite, any essential life of love in itself, or anything divine, is impossible. For if there were anything infinite, any essen tial life of love in itself, that is, anything divine, in those beings, He would not then be loved by other beings, but would love Himself. For the Infinite or Divine is One ; and if this were in other beings it would be absolute Being in them, and the love of it would be absolute self-love, no shadow of which is possible with God. For this is utterly opposed to the divine essence ; therefore this mutual love can exist only in other beings, in whom there is nothing in itself divine. That it does exist in beings created from the Divine Being, may be seen below. But that it may so 3b DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. exist, there must be an Infinite Wisdom which is one with Infinite Love : that is to say, there must be a Divine Love and a Divine Wisdom, each of which is an essential pro perty of the other : see above, n. 34-39. 50. Upon the proper conception and comprehension of this arcanum depend the conception and comprehension of all Existence, or of Creation ; also of its subsistence or preservation by God ; that is, the knowledge of all the works of God in the created universe, of which the follow ing pages treat. 5 1 . But I pray you not to perplex yourself with thoughts of time and space ; for just so far as you think of time and space in reading what follows, you will not understand it; for the Divine is not in time and space, as will be clearly shown in the progress of this work, especially where it treats of Eternity, Infinity and Omnipresence. 52. All things in the Universe were created from the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Man. The universe in things great and small, in its first and last elements alike, is so filled with the divine love and wisdom, that it may be called the image of that love and wisdom. This is clearly manifest from the corre spondence of the whole universe with man ; for all things in the created universe have such a correspondence with all things in man, and each with each, that man may even be called a kind of universe in himself. There is a corre spondence of his affections and their thoughts with the entire animal kingdom ; of his will and its understanding with the whole vegetable kingdom; and of his ultimate life with everything in the mineral kingdom. The fact of such correspondence is not apparent to those in the natural world, but is, to every one who observes it, in the spiritual world. There is in that world everything existing in the three kingdoms of the natural world ; and they are corre- THE UNIVERSE AN IMAGE OF GOD. 39 spondences of affections and thoughts, — of affections from the will, and thoughts from the understanding of those who are there, and of the ultimates of their life ; all of which are made visible about them in an order similar to that of the created universe, but in miniature. From this it is evident to the angels, that the created universe is an image representative of the Divine-Man, and that it is His love and wisdom .of which the universe is an image. Not that the created universe is the Divine Man, but it is from Him ; for nothing whatever in the created universe is in itself substance and form, nor life, nor love and wisdom ; no, nor is man man in himself; but everything is from God, who is, in Himself, Man, Love and Wisdom, Form and Substance. That which has being in itself is uncreated and infinite : but whatever derives its being from this, be cause it does not possess being in itself, is created and finite ; and this represents the image of Him from whom it has being and existence. 53. Being and existence may be affirmed of things created and finite, likewise substance and form, also life, even love and wisdom ; but they also are then created and finite ; and these things can be affirmed of the created and finite, not because they are in any degree Divine, but be cause they are in the Divine, and the Divine is in them. All created things are in themselves inanimate and dead ; but are animated and vivified by their being in the Divine, and the Divine in them. 54. The Divine is not different in different subjects, but one created subject is different from another ; for two sub jects cannot be alike ; hence each is a different embodi ment ; and therefore the Divine appears under a different form in each. Of its presence in opposites, more will be said in what follows. 55. All Things in the Universe are Recipients of 40 divine love and wisdom. the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Man. It is known that the universe in general and in particular was created by God ; therefore in the Word the universe with all its contents is called the work of the Lord's hands. It is said that the world in general was created from no thing ; and this nothing is supposed to be absolute nothing : but it is a positive truth, ^hat from absolute nothing, nothing comes, and nothing can come. Therefore the universe, which is an image of God, and consequently full of God, could not be created except in God and from God. For God is absolute Being, and whatever has being must be derived from Being ; but to create what is, from what is not, is a direct contradiction. Yet that which is created in God and from God is not continuous from Him ; for God is Being in Itself, and Being in itself is not possessed by things created ; if it were, it would be continuous from God ; and such a continuation from God is God. The angelic idea of this is, that what is created in God and from God, is like that in man, which he has evolved from his life, but from which the life has been withdrawn; so that it accords with, but still is not, his life. The angels illustrate this by many things, which exist in their heaven, where they say they are in God and God in them ; and yet they do not possess in their own being anything Divine, or which is actually God. Further proofs of this, as given by the angels, will be presented hereafter. This may serve for a present knowledge of the subject. 56. Every created thing is, by virtue of this origin, in its very nature a receptacle of God, not by continuity, but by contiguity : from this, and not from that, exists the capacity for union ; for everything is harmonious with God, because created in Him and from Him ; and because so created, is analogous to Him ; and by reason of that union with Him, is, as it were, a reflection of His image. 57. Therefore it is, that the angels are not angels from FINITE RECEPTACLES OF THE DIVINE. 41 themselves, but from that union with the Divine Man which union again is according to their reception of the Divine Goodness and Truth, which are God, and seem to proceed from Him, but in reality are in Him. Moreover that reception is according as they are compliant with the laws of order, which are divine truths ; and this they may be by the exercise of their freedom of thought and will, according to reason, a power which t1 .ty possess from the Lord as their own. Through this faculty they have a reception, as if by their own power, of the divine good ness and truth ; and from this again arises the reciprocality of love ; for, as said above, love is impossible, unless it is reciprocal. It is the same with men in the world. From what has been said it may now be seen, that all things in the created universe are recipients of the divine love and wisdom of the Divine Man. 58. That those things in the universe which are not like angels and men, are also receptacles of the divine love and wisdom of the Divine Man, as the creatures in ferior to man in the animal kingdom, the vegetable kingdom beneath them, and the mineral kingdom beneath this again, cannot be intelligibly explained, until more has been said of the degrees of life, and of degrees in its receptacles. With these the divine union is according to their use ; for the use of everything good originates solely in its union with God, a union always the same in kind, but different in degree. This union, in its descent, is gradually changed in degree, until its subjects are without freedom because without reason, and consequently without any appearance of life ; still they are receptacles ; and because they are receptacles, they are also reagents ; for by virtue of being reagents, they are the containants of life. Union with the use of things that are not good, will be explained after the origin of evil has been made known. 59. From this it i; obvious that the Divine is in all 42 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. things, singly and wholly, of the created universe ; and that the universe is therefore, as said in the Word, the work of the Lord's hands, that is, the work of the divine love and wisdom, for these are meant by the hands of the Lord. Yet, although the Divine is in each and everything in the created universe, there is nothing in itself Divine in their being ; for the created universe is not God, but from God ; and because f_om God, His image is in it, as a man's image is in a mirror, in which the man indeed appears, but yet there is nothing of the man really there. 60. I heard several, who were conversing near me in the spiritual world, say that they were quite willing to acknowledge the existence of something Divine in each and everything in the universe, because in them they saw Divine wonders, and the more interiorly they examined these things, the more wonderful they appeared. But when told that the Divine was actually present in each and everything in the created universe, they were in dignant, — an evidence that they did not believe it, but only said so. They were then asked if they could not see the truth of this, from the marvelous power possessed by any seed of reproducing its own kind in perfect order even to the seed again ; or from the suggestion, in every seed, of the infinite and eternal, since there is in them an effort to multiply and bear infinitely and eternally. Then again, they were told, that every animal, even the smallest, pos sesses sensual organs, brain, heart, lungs, and so on, together with arteries, veins, fibres, muscles, and their action ; besides marvellous things in their nature, about which volumes have been written. All these wonderful things are fr^m God ; but the forms with which they are clothed are from the world of matter, from which also come plants, and, in their order, men : therefore it is said of man, that he was made of clay, and is dust of the earth, into which the breath of life was 'ireathed. Gen. ii 7 : CREATED THINGS REPRESENTATIVE OF MAN. 43 from which it appears that the Divine is not man's own, but is added to him. 61. All created things in a certain image repre sent man. This may be proven by the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, vegetable, and mineral, with all their contents both general and particular. A relation to. man in each and everything in the animal kingdom is evi dent from this : that animals of every kind possess limbs as motive powers, organs of sense, and the viscera which actuate them, all in common with man ; they also possess appetites and affections similar to the natural affections and appetites of man ; and again these affections have corre spondent instincts, some of which seem almost spiritual, as is more or less clearly seen in beasts, birds, bees, the silkworm, ants, and so forth ; therefore it is that merely natural men say the creatures of this kingdom are the same as man except in speech. A relation to man is seen in the entire vegetable kingdom, and all its particulars, from these facts : that plants exist first from seed, and from thai pj. ogress through their successive stages of growth; that they enter into a kind of marriage, and then bring forth their offspring ; that their vegetative life is use, of which they are forms ; besides other things, in which they relate to man, and which have been described by certain authors. This relation to man is seen throughout the mineral kingdom only as an effort to produce forms which refer themselves to him, thus to promote use ; the forms it produces are, as said above, the whole vegetable kingdom ; for as soon as a seed is dropped in the bosom of the earth, the earth cherishes it, and provides it with nourishment from all sides, that it may grow, and show itself in a form representative of man. That there exists a similar effort in the harder formations of the mineral kingdom, is evi dent from the coral found in the depths of the ocean, and 44 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. fi am flowers in mines, produced there from minerals and even from metals. This effort to vegetate, and thus to pro mote use, is the last derivation from the Divine in created things. 62. As there is in the mineral an effort to vegetate, so there is in the vegetable an effort to produce animal life ; hence there are various kinds of insects corresponding to the different odors exhaled by plants. That this is not from the heat of the sun of this world, but from life ope rating through the sun, and according to the nature of the receptacle, will be _een in what follows. 63. That everything in the created universe bears re lation to man, may certainly be inferred from the above examples, but it can only be seen obscurely. In the spiritual world, however, it can be clearly seen. All things in the three kingdoms exist there ; in their midst is the Angel ; he sees them about him, and knows that they are representative of himself; indeed, when his inmost under standing is opened, he recognizes himself in them, and sees his image there, almost as in a mirror. 64. From these and many concurrent facts, which there is not time to adduce at present, it may be known with certainty that God is a Man, and that the created universe is His image : for the entire universe bears a general re lation to Him, just as its particulars have a special relation to man. 65. The Uses of All Created Things Ascend by Degrees from Ultimates to Man, and through Man to their Origin in God the Creator. Ultimates, as said above, are the entire contents of the mineral kingdom, which are all kinds of matter, rocks, salts, oils, minerals, metals, covered with earth formed of animal and vegetable substances reduced to powder by constant disintegration. In these materials all uses have their end, and here also DEGREES THROUGH WHICH USES ASCEND. 45 they begin. All use is from life, and it euds with the effort to ( roduce these materials, while its beginning is the active force arising from that effort. So far the mineral kingdom. The entire vegetable kingdom is mediate: it includes all kinds of grasses, herbs, plants, shrubs, and trees. Their use is to sustain the animal kingdom in all its forms, perfect and imperfect; these they nourish, de light, and vivify ; the animal body is nourished by their substance ; its senses pleased by their taste, smell, and beauty ; while they vivify its affections. An effort to ac complish these ends is inherent in the vegetable kingdom from life. The entire contents of the animal kingdom again are primary; its lowest members are worms and insects ; birds and beasts are mediate ; and man supreme. For every kingdom includes a lowest, a middle, and a supreme order ; the lowest for the use of the middle, and this again for the use of the highest ; and thus do the uses of all created things ascend in a series from ultimates to man, who is the first in order. 66. There are three degrees of ascent in the natural world, and the same in the spiritual. All animals are re cipients of life ; the more perfect, of the life of the three degrees of the natural world ; the less perfect, of the life of two degrees ; and the imperfect, of the life of one degree only. Man alone is a recipient not only of the life of all three degrees of the natural world, but also of the life of all three degrees of the spiritual world. Therefore he can be elevated above nature, while the animal cannot; he can reason analytically about moral and civil matters, which are within the domain of nature ; and likewise about things spiritual and celestial, which are above nature : nay more, he can even so advance in wisdom as to see God. But of the six degrees, through which the uses of all things created ascend in regular order even to God the Creator, we shall treat in the proper place. From the 46 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. above summary it may be seen, that all created things ascend to the First, who alone is Life, and that "lieir uses are the actual recipients of life ; therefore they are forms of use. 67. How man ascends, or is elevated, from the lowest degree of life to the first, shall now be briefly stated. He is born into the ultimate degree of the natural world ; by knowledge he is raised to the second degree ; and as his understanding is perfected, by increase of knowledge, he rises to the third degree, and then becomes rational. The three degrees of ascent in the spiritual world are in him above the three natural degrees ; nor do they appear until he is divested of his earthly body ; when this takes place, the first spiritual degree is opened in him, afterwards the second, and finally the third ; but this only with those who become angels of the third heaven. These are they who see God. They, in whom the second and ultimate degrees can be opened, become angels of the second and ultimate heavens. Every spiritual degree within man is opened according to his reception of divine love and wisdom from the Lord : they who receive but little, enter into the first or ultimate degree ; they who receive more, into the second or middle degree ; and they who receive much enter into the third or highest degree : but those who receive none, remain in the natural degrees, and draw from the spiritual nothing but the power of thought and will, and conse quently of speech and action, but without real intelligence. 68. Of man's interior or mental elevation, however, this also ought to be understood. In everything created by God there is reaction. Action belongs to Life alone, and reaction is caused by the action of Life. Now because this reaction takes place whenever any created thing is acted upon, it seems to belong to the thing created : thus in man, reaction seems to be his own, because he has no sense of life but as his own, although he is merely a re- THE DIVINE IS WITHOUT SPACE. 47 cipient of life. Therefore it is, that man from his heredi tary evil, reacts against God ; but if he believes that all his life is from God, and that all the good in life is from God's action, and its evil from man's reaction, then his reaction becomes the result of the Divine action upon him, and he acts with God as from himself. By simultaneous action and reaction all things are held in equilibrium ; and all things must be so held. This is here stated, lest man should believe that he ascends to God by his own power, and not by the power of the Lord. 69. The Divine fills Universal Space without Space. There are two things proper to Nature, Space and Time. All of man's thoughts, while he is in the natural world, and therefore his whole understanding, are based upon the conception of these two elements. If he remains in those ideas, not elevating his mind above them, he can nevef acquire any perception of things spiritual and Divine : for he confounds these things with ideas based upon space and time, and just so far as he does this, his inteljectual light becomes merely natural ; and to think, reasoning from this, of things spiritual and Divine, is like studying in nocturnal darkness things which are visible only in the light of day. This is the origin of Naturalism. But he who knows how to raise his mind above thoughts based upon space and time, passes from darkness into light, comprehends spiritual and divine things, and at length sees whatever is in them and from them ; by that light he dispels the darkness of natural thought, and ban ishes its illusions from the centre to the circumference. Any man possessed of an understanding, can by thought transcend those two properties of nature, and actually does so ; and then he will always affirm and see, that the Divine, because omnipresent, is not in space : and he can also affirm and see the truth of what has been said above. 48 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. But if he denies the divine omnipresence, and ascribes everything to nature, then he is unwilling to be elevated, though he may be. - 70. All who after death become angels, divest themselves of those two properties of nature before mentioned, space and time ; for they then enter into spiritual light, in which truths are the objects of thought ; and the objects of sight are similar to those in the world, but are the correspon dences of their thoughts. The objects of angelic thought which, as just stated, are truths, derive nothing whatever from space and time ; but the objects of angelic sight seem to partake of space and time ; yet the angels do not think of them under that appearance. This is because space and time are not fixed there as in the natural world, but change according to the angels' state of life ; therefore instead of space and time in angelic thoughts there are states of life ; instead of space, things relative to states of love ; and instead of time, things relative to states of wisdom. Therefore it is, that spiritual thought, and consequently spiritual language, differ so much from natural thought and language, that they possess nothing in common, unless viewed with reference to the interiors of things, which are all spiritual. Of this difference more will be said elsewhere. Now because the thoughts of angels derive nothing from space and time, but everything from states of life, it is evident that they do not know what is meant by the Divine filling space ; for they do not know what space is. But they understand fully, when, without any idea of space, the Divine is said to fill all things. 71 . To show that the merely natural man thinks of things spiritual and divine from space, and the spiritual man with out reference to space, the following illustration may serve : when the merely natural man thinks, his ideas are acquired from visible objects and their forms, angular or circular, as determined by the three dimensions of length, breadth and SPACE UNKNOWN TO SPIRITUAL THOUGHT. 49 thickness, which all visible objects contain. He has mani festly an idea of these dimensions when he thinks of the visible things of the world ; they are also present in his thoughts of the invisible, as of civil and moral affairs ; this he does not observe, but they are nevertheless there as a continuation of his mode of thought. With the spiritual man, especially with the angels of heaven, it is different. Their thought possesses nothing in common with dimension and form, in any way derived from spatial length, breadth, and thickness ; but only with dimension and form as de rived from the state of a thing, determined by the state of life within it. Thus, for length in space, spiritual thought substitutes the goodness of a thing, as determined by the goodness of the life it possesses ; for breadth in space, the truth of a thing, determined by the vital truth in it ; and for thickness in space, the degree in which the object contains these qualities. Thus the spiritual man thinks from the correspondence which exists between spiritual and natural things. On account of this correspondence, length in the Word, signifies the goodness of things, breadth their truth, and thickness, or height, the degree in which this goodness and truth exists in them. From this it is evident, that when the angels of heaven think of the divine omnipresence, they conceive of the Divine as existent in all things without space, nor can they think otherwise. What the angel thinks is true, because the light which illuminates his understanding is divine wisdom. 72. This conception of God is fundamental ; for without it, although what is to be said of the creation of the universe by the Divine Man, of His providence, omnipotence, omni presence and omniscience, may be understood, it cannot be retained. For the merely natural man, even while he understands it, relapses to his life's love, which is hij will ; and this destroys his comprehension of the subject, and im merses his thoughts in space : here is the light that he calls 7 50 DIVINE LOVE AND W'SDOM. rational, not knowing that he is irrational, just in the degree that he denies those truths. That this is the case may be confirmed by reference to the truth, that God is a Man. Read carefully, I pray you, what has been said from n. n- 13, and in subsequent numbers also, and you will see their truth ; but let your thoughts descend to the natural liglit which has reference to space, and will not those statements seem absurd ? And by a further descent, will you not deny them ? For this reason we have said that the Divine, not the Divine Man, fills universal space ; for if the latter were stated, the merely natural thought would not consent ; but it will admit that the Divine fills all space, because this agrees with the theological mode of expression, that God is omnipresent, and hears and knows all things. More upon this point may be seen above from n. 7-10. 73. The Divine is in All Time without Time. As the Divine is in all space without space, so is it in all time without time ; for nothing proper to nature can be affirmed of the Divine, and space and time are proper to nature. Space in nature is mensurable; so is time. Time is measured by days, weeks, months, years and ages ; days by hours ; weeks and months by days ; years by the four seasons ; and ages by years. Nature can thus be measured on account of the apparent diurnal revolution and annual motion of the sun. In the spiritual world it is otherwise : there also life seems to progress periodically ; for men live there with each other as in the world, which would be im possible without an appearance of time. But time there is not divided into periods as in the world, because the spirit ual Sun is motionless and always in the east ; for it is the Lord's divine love which appears to the angels as a Sun. Wherefore they have no days, weeks, months, years and ages, but instead, states of life from which their periods originate ; they cannot therefore be called periods of time, SPIRITUAL TIME AND SPACE. 51 but of state. Therefore it is, that the angels do not know what time is, and that, whenever it is mentioned, they have an idea of state ; and when state determines time, the time is only apparent; for a happy state makes time seem sho'.t, and an unhappy state makes it seem long. From all of which it is evident, that spiritual time is nothing but the character of spiritual states. Therefore in the Word, states in their orderly and general progress are signified by hours, days, weeks, months and years ; and w'ien time is mentioned with reference to the church, by morning is meant its first state, by noon its maturity, by evening its decline, and by night its end : so also by the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. 74. From this it is evident that spiritual time is one with thought from affection, for in this originates the character of a man's state. That distance, in progress through space in the spiritual world, is one with the progress of spiritual time, might be largely illustrated ; for journeys there are actually shortened or lengthened according to desires, which originate in thought derived from affection ; there fore we also speak of the length or shortness of time. But in these matters, unless there is thought in union with the man's peculiar affections, time is not noticed, as in dreams. 75. Now because periods of time, which are proper to the world of nature, are pure states in the spiritual world, — which states are there apparently progressive, because angels and spirits are finite, — it is obvious that in God they are not progressive, because He is infinite, and infinite things are in Him one, as demonstrated above, n. 17-22. Therefore it follows that the Divine is in all time without time. 76. He who does not know this, and cannot in thought form some conception of God apart from time, can form no conception whatever of eternity, except as an eternity of time ; in which case he must think insanely of God as exist- 53 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. ing from eternity; for he thinks from a beginning, and beginning belongs exclusively to time. He then insanely supposes that God must have existed from Himself; from vhich he rushes headlong to the origin of nature from her self. And this conclusion he cannot escape, except by the spiritual or angelic idea of eternity, which has no reference to time ; and in this case, the Eternal and the Divine are the same, and the Divine is Divine in itself, not from itself. The angels say that they can conceive of God as existent from eternity, but by no means of nature's existence from eternity, still less of nature's existence from herself, and least of all can they conceive of nature as nature in herself. Jox whatever has being in itself, is absolute Being, the source of all things ; and Being in itself is Life itself, which is the divine love belonging to divine wisdom, and the divine wisdom belonging to divine love. Such is the angelic conception of eternity, a thing as remote from time, as the uncreated is from the created, or the infinite from the finite, between which no ratio is possible. 77. The Divine in all Things, Great and Small, is the Same. This follows from the two preceding articles, which show that the Divine is in all space without space, and i_i all time without time ; and space is divisible into less and least, or greater and greatest quantities ; and as space and time are one in this respect, as said above, it is the same with time. That in these the Divine is always the same, is because the Divine is not various and changeable, as is everything pertaining to space and time, or everything natural ; but it is invariable and unchangeable, and is there fore everywhere and always the same. 78. It seems as if the Divine were not the same in one man as in another ; as if, for example, it were one thing in the wise man, and another in the simple ; one thing in the old man, and another in the child. But this is an illusion ; THE DIVINE THE SAME IN ALL. 53 the man is different, but the Divine within him is not. Man is a recipient, and recipients or receptacles vary; the wise man is a recipient of the divine love and wisdom more adequately, and so more fully than the simple man ; and the old man, if he is also wise, more than the infant or the youth ; but the Divine is the same in all. From the fact that the angels of heaven possess ineffable wisdom, as men do not, there arises the similar illusion, that the Divine is not the same with angels in heaven as with men upon earth. But the apparent difference is in the subjects, according to the character of their reception of the Divine, and not in the Lord. 79. That the Divine is the same in all things great and small, may be illustrated by heaven and an angel : the Divine in all heaven, and the Divine in one angel is the same ; therefore the entire heaven may even appear as one angel. It is the same with the church, and a man of the church. The greatest form receptive of the Divine is the entire heaven and the whole church together; the least form is an angel of heaven and a man of the church. A whole heavenly society has frequently appeared to me as one angelic man ; and it was declared that it could appear as a gigantic man, or as small as an infant ; and this be cause the Divine is in all things, great or small, the same. 80. The Divine is also the same in the least and greatest of those created things, which do not possess life ; for it is in all the goodness of their use. They do not possess life, because they are not forms of life, but of use ; and forms vary according to the excellence of their use. But how the Divine is present in these receptacles shall be explained in the following pages, where we treat of creation. 81. Remove space, utterly deny a vacuum, and then think of the divine love and wisdom as the Absolute Essence, existing without reference to space, and altogether opposed to a vacuum ; then think of space, and you will 54 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. see that the Divine is in the least and greatest space the same : for the terms small and great cannot be applied to an Essence abstracted from space, but sameness can. 82. Something shall now be said of a vacuum. I once heard some angels talking with Newton upon this subject, and saying that they could not endure the idea of a vacuum as being nothing ; because in their world, which is spiritual, and within or above the space and time of the natural world, they feel, think, are affected, love, possess will, breathe, and even speak and act, just as men do in the natural world ; and this would be wholly impossible in a vacuum, considered as nothing; because nothing is no thing, and of nothing nothing can be affirmed. Newton said he knew that the Divine, which is Being itself, filled all things ; and that to him the idea of a vacuum, as no thing, was horrible, because destructive of all existence. He warned those who spoke with him about it to beware of the thought of nothing, calling it the exhaustion of life, because in nothing any real mental existence was impos sible. PART II, 83. The Divine Love and Wisdom appear in the Spiritual World as a Sun. There are two worlds, a spiritual and a natural; and the spiritual world derives nothing whatever from the natural, nor the natural world from the spiritual: they are perfectly distinct, communi cating only by correspondences, the nature of which has been abundantly explained elsewhere. To illustrate this by example : Heat in the natural world corresponds to the good in charity in the spiritual world; and light in the natural world corresponds to the true in faith in the spiritual A SUN IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 55 world. Yet who does not see that the good and true in charity and faith are perfectly distinct from heat and light? From first impressions they seem so distinct, as to have no connection whatever, as when we inquire what the good in charity has in common with heat, or the true in faith with light; nevertheless spiritual heat is that goodness, and spiritual light is that truth. And although they are, in themselves considered, so perfectly distinct, they make one by correspondence ; so that while man reads of heat and light in the Word, the spirits and angels who are present with him, have a perception of charity instead of heat, and of faith instead of light. This example is ad duced to show that the two worlds, the spiritual and the natural, are so distinct, that they have nothing in common with each other ; and yet they are so created as to commu nicate, nay more, to be united by correspondences. 84. As these two worlds are so distinct, it may be seen clearly, that the spiritual world is under a Sun different from that of the natural. For there are heat and light in the spiritual world, just as in the natural ; but the heat there is spiritual, as also the light ; and spiritual heat is the good in charity, and spiritual light is the true in faith. Now because heat and light can originate only in a Sun, it follows that the Sun of the spiritual world is not the same as that of the natural world ; also that the Sun of the spiritual world is of such a nature that spiritual heat and light can proceed from it, while the sun of the natural world is of such a nature that natural heat and light can proceed from it. Everything spiritual, which is everything relating to the good and true, can have no other origin than the divine love and wisdom ; for all goodness is from love, and all truth is from wisdom : that they have no other origin any wise man can see. 85. It has hitherto been unknown that there is any otner sun than that of the natural world : this is because 56 D*,iNE LOVE AND WISDOM. man's spiritual being has become so immersed in his natural being, that he does not know what the spiritual is ; nor does he know, therefore, that there exists a spiritual world, the abode of spirits and angels, altogether different from the natural world. And because the spiritual world has been so deeply concealed from the knowledge of those in the natural world, it has pleased the Lord to open my spiritual sight, that I might see what is in that world, just as I see what is in this ; and moreover that I might describe it, which has been done in the work on Heaven and Hell, where there is one article which treats of the spiritual Sun. For I have seen that Sun, and it seemed to me of the same magnitude as the natural sun, and, like it, fiery, but more glowing. It was made known to me also, that the whole angelic heaven is under that Sun, and that the angels of the third heaven see it continually, the angels of the second heaven frequently, and those of the first heaven occasionally. That all their heat and light, and every thing visible in that world, is from that Sun, will be shown in what follows. 86. That Sun is not the Lord Himself, but is from Him : it is the divine love and wisdom proceeding from Him, which appear in that world as a Sun. And because love and wisdom in the Lord are one, as shown in Part I., that Sun is called the divine love. For the divine wisdom is a property of the divine love, and it therefore also is love. 87. That the spiritual Sun appears fiery to the angels, is because love and fire mutually correspond ; for love is not visible to the eyes of angels, but instead of love that which corresponds to it. For angels as well as men possess an internal and an external being ; it is their internal being which thinks, knows, wills and loves, and their external being which sees, feels, speaks and acts ; and their whole external being is a correspondence of their internal, but a spiritual correspondence, not a natural one. The divine SPIRITUAL HEAT AND LIGHT. 57 love is even felt as fire by the spiritual ; and therefore fire, when mentioned in the Word, signifies love. Such was the significance of the sacred fire in the Jewish Church , therefore also it is customary in prayer to God to ask that heavenly fire, that is, divine love, may inflame the heart. 88. Such being the distinction between the Spiritual and the Natural, as shown above, n. 83, no particle from the natural sun can penetrate the spiritual world, that is, none of its heat or light, nor any earthly object whatever. In the spiritual world natural light is darkness, and natural heat is death. But the heat of the world may be vivified by the influx of heavenly heat, and the light of the world may be brightened by the influx of heavenly light. This influx takes place by correspondence, and it is impossible for it to take place by continuity- 89. From the Sun, which Exists from the Divine Love and Wisdom, proceed Heat and Light. In the spiritual world where angels and spirits are, heat and light exist, just as in the natural world where men are ; the heat, moreover, is felt as heat, and the light is visible as light. And yet the heat and light of the two worlds differ so much, that, as said above, they have nothing in com mon. They differ as the living differs from the dead ; the heat of the spiritual world is in itself alive, equally so the light; but the heat of the natural world is in itself dead, so also its light. For the heat and light of the spiritual world proceed from a sun which is pure love ; but natural heat and light proceed from a Sun of pure fire ; and love is alive ; the divine love is Life itself; but fire is dead, and the solar fire is death itself, or may be so called, since it possesses in itself no life whatever. 90. As angels are spiritual, they cannot live in any but spiritual heat and light ; while men cannot live in any but natural heat and light; for spiritual agrees with spiritual, 5« DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. and natural with natural. Were an angel to derive the smallest influence from natural heat and light, it would destroy him, because they are totally opposed to his life. Every man, as to the interiors of his mind, is a spirit; when he dies, he passes beyond the world of nature, and quits it wholly, entering a world where nothing natural exists ; and in that world he lives so separate from nature, that between the two there is no continuous communication, that is, no relation as of a purer to a grosser ; but the re lationship is that of prior to posterior, between which no communication is possible except by correspondences. It is therefore obvious that spiritual heat is not a purer natural heat, nor spiritual light a purer natural light ; on the con trary, they are altogether different in essence ; for spiritual heat and light derive their essential quality from a Sun of pure love, which is Life itself; while natural heat and light derive their essential quality from a sun of pure fire, which is absolutely lifeless, as said above. 91. Such being the difference between the heat and light of the two worlds, it is now clear why those who are in one, cannot see those who are in the other. For the eye of man, who sees in natural light, is formed of the sub stances of his own world; and the eye of the angel of the substance of his world ; each is therefore perfectly adapted to the reception of its own light. From which it may appear, how great is the ignorance of those who will not believe that angels and spirits are men, because they are invisible to the natural eye. 92. It has been hitherto unknown that angels and spirits are in a light and heat altogether different from those in which men are, nay, even that any other light and heat were possible ; for human thought has not penetrated be yond the interior or purer things of nature. Therefore many have even located the abodes of angels and spirits in the ether, and some in the stars ; thus within nature, THE SPIRITUAL SUN IS NOT GOD. 59 and not above or out of it. Nevertheless angels and spirils are altogether above or out of nature, in a world of their own, which is under a different Sun : and because space in that world is an appearance, as above demonstrated, they cannot be said to live in the ether, or on the stars ; for they are present with man, and united to the affection and thought of his spirit : for man is a spirit ; therefore he possesses thought and will. Thus the spiritual world is wherever man is, and by no means situated apart from him. In one word, every man, as to the interiors of his mind, is in that world, in the midst of the spirits and angels there ; and he thinks from its light, and loves from its heat. 93. That Sun is not God, but an Emanation from the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Man : SO LIKEWISE THE HeAT AND LlGHT FROM THAT SUN. By that Sun which is visible to the angels, and the source of their heat and light, is not meant the Lord Himself, but the first emanation from Him, which is the extreme of spiritual heat. This extreme spiritual heat is spiritual fire, which is the divine love and wisdom in their first corre spondence. Therefore that Sun has a fiery aspect, and actually is like fire to the angels, but not to men. Fire with man is natural fire, not spiritual, and these differ as the living from the dead. Therefore the spiritual Sun by its heat, vivifies spiritual beings and renews all spiritual things ; while the natural sun in like manner vivifies natural beings and all that exists in nature, though not of itself, bul by the influx of spiritual heat, to which it lends sub servient aid. 94. That spiritual fire, in which also spiritual light originates, becomes spiritual heat and light, which de crease in their proceeding, and their decrease takes place oy degrees, of which more in what follows. The ancients represented this by circles of glowing fire and radiant light 6b DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. about the head of God, as is common even at this day in paintings representing God as a Man. 95. That love produces heat, and wisdom light, is mani fest from actual experience ; for man grows warm when he loves, and sees things, as it were, in light, when he thinks from wisdom ; from which it is obvious that heat is the first emanation of love, and light the first emanation of wisdom. It is also obvious that they are correspondences ; for heat does not exist in love itself, but from it, in the will first, and from that in the body ; and light does not exist in wisdom, but in the understanding, and its thoughts, and from these descends into language. Wherefore love and wisdom are the essence and life of heat and light ; heat and light are emanations from them ; and because they are emanations, they are also correspondences. 96. That spiritual light is altogether distinct from natural light, any one may know by observing the operations of his own mind. For in thought the mind sees the objects of thought in light; and those who think spiritually see truths, and this at midnight equally as in the day. For this reason the term light is applied to the understanding, and it is said to see ; for frequently one person will say of a statement made by another, that he sees it to be so ; that is, he understands it. And as the understanding is spiritual, it cannot see in that manner by natural light ; for natural light does not remain in the eye, but departs with the sun. From which it is obvious that the understanding enjoys a light different from that of the eye, and that the light has a different origin. 97. Let every one beware of thinking that the sun of the spiritual world is God Himself. God is a Man : the first emanation from His love and wisdom is spiritual fire, which to the angels appears as a Sun. Wherefore when the Lord manifests Himself to the angels in person, He manifests LOVE AND WISDOM ONE IN THE LORD. 6 1 Himself as a Man ; and this sometimes within the Sun, and sometimes out of it. 98. It is from this correspondence that the Lord in the Word is called not only a Sun, but also fire and light ; and He is called a Sun, with reference to His divine love and wisdom both; fire with reference to his divine love, and light with reference to his divine wisdom. 99. Spiritual Heat and Light, because they pro ceed from the Lord as a Sun, are one, as His Divine Love and Wisdom are one. How divine love and wis dom are one in the Lord has been explained in Part I. Spiritual heat and light make one in the same manner, be cause they are emanations from love and wisdom, and such emanations are one by correspondence ; for heat corres ponds to love, and light to wisdom. It follows therefore, that as divine love is the Divine Being, and divine wisdom the Divine Existence, as said above n. 14-16 ; so spiritual heat is the Divine emanating from the Divine Being, and spiritual light the Divine emanating from the Divine Exist ence. And since by the nature of their union the divine love is a property of divine wisdom, and the divine wisdom a property of the divine love, n. 34-39, so is spiritual heat property of spiritual light, and spiritual light of spiritual ..eat ; and such being their union, it follows that heat and light in their emanation from the Lord as a Sun are one. That they are not received as one by angels and men, will be seen in what follows. 100. The heat and light which proceed from the Lord as a Sun, are called the Spiritual by way of eminence ; and they are spoken of as one thing, because of their unity. Therefore when the Spiritual is mentioned in the following pages, both together are to be understood. From this Spiritual element that whole world is called the spiritual world ; for it originates wholly through that element, and 62 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. is named accordingly. That heat and light are said to be the Spiritual, because God is called a Spirit; and God, regarded as a Spirit, is that spiritual emanation. God from his very essence is called Jehovah ; but by that ema nation He vivifies and enlightens the angels of heaven and the men of the church ; therefore vivification and enlighten ment are ascribed to the spirit of Jehovah. 101. That heat and light, that is, the Spiritual proceeding from the Lord as a Sun, are one, may be illustrated by the heat and light which proceed from the natural sun ; these two are also one as they issue from that sun ; that they are not one in the world is owing to the earth, not to the sun ; for the earth revolves daily upon its axis, and has an annual motion in the ecliptic ; hence arises the appearance that heat and light are not one ; for in midsummer there is more heat than light, and in midwinter more light than heat. It is the same in the spiritual world ; though the earth there has no diurnal and annual motions, but the angels turn themselves more or less to the Lord ; and those who turn more to the Lord receive more heat and less light, while those who turn less receive more light and less heat. Therefore the heavens, which consist of angels, are divided into two kingdoms, one of which is called celestial, and the other spiritual. The celestial angels receive the more heat, and the spiritual angels more light. Moreover the earth they inhabit varies in appearance according to their recep tion of heat and light. The correspondence is perfect, if for the earth's motion we substitute change of state in the angels. 102. That all things spiritual originating through the heat and light of their own Sun, are similarly one in them selves regarded, but viewed as proceeding from the affec tions of the angels, are not one, will be seen in what follows. When heat and light are one in the heavens, it is like spring with the angels ; but when they are not one, it is SITUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL SUN. 63 like summer or winter, but like winter in the warmer regions, not in the frigid zones. For the equal reception of love and wisdom is the real angelic state ; wherefore an angel is an angel of heaven according to the union within him of love and wisdom. It is the same with the man of the church, if within him love and wisdom, or charity and faith, are one. 103. The Sun of the Spiritual World appears at a Middle Altitude, and distant from the Angels, as the Sun of the Natural World is from Men. The majority take with them from the world the idea that God is on high overhead, and the Lord in heaven among the angels. They entertain such an idea of God, because in the Word He is called the Highest, and is said to dwell on high ; therefore they raise their eyes and hands in prayer and worship, not knowing that the highest signifies the inmost. But they conceive of the Lord as present among the angels, because they think of Him only as a man, and some as an angel ; not knowing that the Lord is the very and only God, who governs the universe, and who, if among the angels, would not have the universe beneath His view, nor subject to His care and government. More over, if He did not shine as a Sun upon the inhabitants of the spiritual world, the angels could have no light; for the angels are spiritual, and none but spiritual light is adapted to their nature. That the light of heaven far exceeds that of earth will be seen below, when we treat of degrees. 104. Thus the Sun, from which the angels possess light and heat, appears at an elevation of about forty-five degrees, ->r a middle altitude, from the earth they inhabit ; and more- wer appears distant from the angels, as the natural sun i"rom man. It always appears at that altitude, and at that distance, nor does it ever remove. Therefore it is that the angels have no time divided into days and years ; nor does 64 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. their day progress from morning to noon, from noon to evening, and from evening to night ; nor their year from spring to summer, from summer to autumn, and from autumn to winter ; but they have constant light and a per petual spring : thus, as before said, in the spiritual world there is state instead of time. 105. The Sun of the spiritual world appears at a middle altitude, chiefly for the following reasons : First, because the heat and light which proceed from it are so of medium intensity, and are therefore both equal, and consequently of their proper temperature. For if that Sun appeared above the middle altitude, more of its heat than light would be felt; and if below, more light than heat; as upon the earth, when the sun is either above or below its middle altitude; when above, its heat exceeds its light; when below, the light exceeds the heat. For the light is the same both in summer and winter, but the heat increases or decreases according to the degree of the sun's altitude. Secondly, the Sun of the spiritual world appears at a middle altitude above the angelic heaven, for so all the angelic heavens enjoy perpetual spring ; they are therefore . in a state of peace, for this state corresponds to spring in the world. Thirdly, the angels can thus turn their faces con tinually to the Lord, and behold Him with their eyes ; for whatever way the angels turn, the East, that is the Lord, is before their faces : this is peculiar to the spiritual world, and would not be possible if the Sun of that world appeared either above or below a middle altitude, least of all if it were overhead in the zenith. 106. If the Sun of the spiritual world did not appear dis tant from the angels, as the sun of the natural world from men, the whole angelic heaven, and hell beneath, and our terraqueous globe beneath both, could not be subject to the oversight, care, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and provid"nce of the Lord. Just as the sun of our world, APPARENT AND REAL TRUTHS. 65 unless it were as we see it, at a great distance from the earth, could not be present and powerful by means of its heat and light throughout the whole world, and so could not lend a subservient aid to the Sun of the spiritual world. 107. It is most necessary to have a knowledge of the existence of two suns, a spiritual and a natural, — the spiritual Sun for those who are in the spiritual world, and the natural for those in the natural world. Unless this is known, nothing can be properly understood of creation and of man, of which we are to treat. Effects may be seen without this knowledge ; but unless their causes are also seen together with them, the effects can only be seen obscurely. 108. The Distance between the Sun and the Angels in the Spiritual world is an Appearance, and is according to their Reception of the Divine Love and Wisdom. All the illusions which prevail with wicked and with ignorant people, arise from the confirma tion of appearances. So long as appearances are accepted as appearances, they are apparent truths, according to which any one may think and speak ; but when appear ances are taken for actual truths, which is done when they are confirmed, they then become falsehoods and illusions. For example : it is an appearance that the sun revolves around the earth daily, and moves annually along the ecliptic : so long as this is not confirmed, it is the apparent truth, according to which any one may think and speak ; for any one is at liberty to say that the sun rises and sets, and so makes morning, noon, evening and night ; or that the sun is now in this or that degree of the ecliptic or of its altitude, and that this produces spring, summer, autumn and winter. But if any one confirms that appearance in his mind as the actual truth, he thinks and speaks falsely from an illusion. It is the same with other appearances 9 66 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. innumerable, not only in natural, civil and moral, but also in spiritual affairs. 109. It is the same with the distance of the Sun of the spiritual world, which is the first emanation of the Lord's divine love and wisdom ; the real truth is that there is no distance ; but only an appearance of distance, according to the reception of the divine love and wisdom by the angels in their degree of life. That all distance in the spiritual world is only an appearance, is evident from n. 7-9, and from n. 69-72, where it is demonstrated that the Divine is not in space ; and that it fills all space with out space. And if there is no space in the spiritual world, neither is there distance ; or, what is the same, if space there is only apparent, distance is apparent also ; for dis tance is a property of space. no. That the Sun of the spiritual W9rld appears distant from the angels, is because the divine love and wisdom are received by them in a degree of heat and light adapted to their state ; for an angel, because he is created and finite, cannot receive the Lord in the first degree of heat and light, such as exists in the Sun, for he would evidently be thereby consumed ; wherefore the Lord is received by them in a degree of heat and light corresponding to their love and wisdom. This may be illustrated thus : an angel of the lowest heaven cannot ascend to the angels of the third heaven; for if he ascends and enters their heaven, he falls as it were, in a swoon, and seems to struggle be tween life and death ; the reason is, because his love and wisdom are of a lower degree, and the heat of his love and the light of his wisdom are in this degree also. What then, if an angel should approach the Sun, and enter its fire? On account of these differences in the Lord's re ception by the angels, the heavens appear to be distinct from each other. The supreme heaven, which is called the third, seems to be above the second, and this again THE LORD ALONE IS HEAVEN. *>7 above the first. Not that the heavens are actually distant, but they so appear. For the Lord is as fully present with those in the lowest heaven as with those in the third ; the cause of their apparent distance from each other is in the subjects, that is, in the angels, not in the Lord. in. This to natural ideas, because they involve space, is of difficult comprehension ; but spiritual thought, such as belongs to angels, being free from space, can compre hend it. This much, however, is plain even to natural thought, that love and wisdom, or what is the same thing, the Lord, who is divine love and wisdom, cannot proceed through space, but is present with every one according to reception. That the Lord is present with all, He himself teaches in Matthew xxviii. 20 ; and that He makes His abode with those who love Him, in John xiv. 23. 112. This may seem to be a matter of superior wisdom, because its proofs have been drawn from the heavens and from angels. But the same condition prevails among men also : in the interiors of the mind they are warmed and enlightened, — warmed by the heat, and enlightened by the light, — of that same Sun, so far as they receive love and wisdom from the Lord. The difference between angels and men in this respect is, that angels are under the spiritual Sun only, while men are under this and under the natural sun also. For the human body could not exist and be sustained unless man were under both suns ; but with the angelic body, which is spiritual, it is otherwise. 113. The Angels are in the Lord, and the Lord in Them, and because the Angels are Recipients, the Lord alone is Heaven. Heaven is called the habi tation of God, and the throne of God, and it is therefore believed that God is there as a king in his kingdom. But God, that is, the Lord is in the Sun above the heavens ; and in the heavens by means of His presence in the heat 68 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. and light of that Sun, as shown in the two preceding articles. Yet although the Lord is in this manner present in heaven, He is there as in Himself; for, as has just been shown, n. 108-112, the distance between the Sun and heaven is not real, but apparent. Since therefore that distance is only apparent, it follows that the Lord Himself is in heaven, for He is in the love and wisdom of the angels ; and because he is in the love and wisdom of all the angels, and the angels constitute heaven, He is present throughout the universal heavens. 114. The Lord is not only in heaven, but also is heaven itself, because love and wisdom constitute an angel, and these two are the Lord's in the angels. It therefore fol lows that the Lord is heaven. For the angels are not angels from their selfhood, this being in all respects the same as the selfhood of man, which is evil ; for all angels were once men, and this selfhood is inherent in them from their birth. It can only be removed, and so far as it is removed, they receive within themselves love and wisdom, that is, the Lord. Any one, by a little elevation of thought, may see that the Lord can dwell in the angels only in what is His own, that is, in His own selfhood, which is love and wisdom ; but by no means in the angelic selfhood, which is evil. Therefore it is that so far as evil is removed, so far the Lord is present with the angels, and so far they are angels. The Divine love and wisdom is what is truly angelic in heaven : the Divine when it descends to the angels is called angelic : from which it is again obvious, that the angels are angels from the Lord, and not from themselves ; consequently the same is true of heaven. 115. But how the Lord is in the angel, and the angel in the Lord, cannot be understood unless the nature of their union is known. There is a union of the Lord with the angel, and of the angel with the Lord ; therefore the union is reciprocal : on the part of the angel it exists thus : he, THE NATURE AND USE OF RECIPROCALITT. 69 like man, feels only as though he were in love and wisdom from himself, and therefore as though love and wisdom were altogether his own : unless he so felt, there would be no union ; thus he would not be in the Lord and the Lord in him ; nor would it be possible for the Lord to be in any angel or man, unless he, in whom His presence with love and wisdom exists, should perceive and feel these as his own. By this means the Lord is not only received, but when received is also retained, and moreover is loved in return ; so by this means the angel becomes wise and remains wise. Who can desire to love the Lord and the neighbor, or to be wise, without a sense and perception of what he loves, learns, and acquires, as his own ? or who can otherwise retain it in himself? If this were not so, the influent love and wisdom would have no home in man ; for it would flow through him without affecting him, and thus the angel would not be an angel, nor would man be man ; nay, more, they would in no wise differ from inanimate objects. From this it is evident, that something reciprocal is essential to union. 116. But it must now be explained how the angel per ceives and feels love and wisdom as his own, and so receives and retains them, while yet they are not his own ; for it has been stated above that the angel is not an angel from himself, but from that in him which he derives from the Lord. It is effected thus : Every angel possesses freedom and rationality- These are given him in order that he may be receptive of love and wisdom from the Lord. But neither the liberty nor the rationality are his own ; they are the Lord's in him : but because they are intimately united to his life, so intimately that you may say they are ingrafted into it, they appear to be his own. From them he derives the power of thought and will, speech and action ; and whatever he so thinks, wills, says, or does, seems to be from himself; and this constitutes the 70 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. reciprocality, by which union is effected. Yet so far as the angel believes that love and wisdom are inherent in him, and so claims them as his own, so far the angelic element is not in him, and therefore he is so far not in union with the Lord : for he is not in the truth ; and since the truth is one with the light of heaven, in so far also he cannot enter heaven. For he thus denies that he lives from the Lord, and believes that he lives from himself, consequently that he possesses the divine essence. These two, liberty and rationality, constitute the life which is called angelic and human. From this it is evident, that the angel possesses reciprocality for the sake of union with the Lord ; while the faculty, in itself considered, is not his own, but the Lord's. Therefore he falls from the angelic state, if that which is reciprocal in him, from which he perceives and feels what is the Lord's as his own, is abused, which is done by appropriating it to himself. That union is reciprocal the Lord teaches in John xiv. 20-24 > xv- 45~6> a^so that the Lord's union with man, and man's with the Lord, is involved in what is there said of Him, and called " His Words," v. 7. 117. Some suppose that Adam possessed such liberty or free-will, that he could of himself love God and be wise, and that this free-will was lost among his posterity. But this is an error : for man is not life, but a recipient of life, as shown above, n. 4-6, 54-60 : and a recipient of life cannot love and be wise from any power of his own. Therefore Adam, when he desired to love and be wise from himself, fell away from wisdom and love, and was driven from paradise. 118. What has now been said of an angel, may also be said of heaven, which consists of angels, because the Divine is in all things, great and small, the same, as shown n. 77- 82. And again what has been said of an angel and of heaven, is equally applicable to a man and the church ; for the angels of heaven and the men of the church are QUARTERS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. ?i one by union ; moreover the man of the church in the in teriors of his mind is an angel. By a man of the church is meant a man in whom the church is. 119. In the Spiritual World the East is where the Lord appears as a Sun, and the other Quarters are determined by this. We have treated of the Sun of the spiritual world and its essence, also of its heat and light, and the Lord's presence in them. We shall now treat of the quarters in that world. The subject of thisi work is God, and Love and Wisdom ; therefore the spirit ual( world and its Sun are now discussed. For to treat sue h topics except from their very origin, would be to proceed I from effects, not from causes. But effects explain nothing ' beyond effects ; and these regarded alone throw no light upon causes ; but causes throw light upon effects ; and the knowledge of effects from causes is wisdom. An inquiry after causes from effects is not wisdom ; because illusions then present themselves, which the investigator calls causes, and thus turns wisdom into folly, For causes are prior, and effects posterior ; and the prior cannot be seen from the posterior ; but the posterior may be seen from the prior ; this is their order. Therefore we here treat of the spiritual world first, for all causes are there ; and afterwards of the natural world, where all things visible are effects. 120. We now proceed with the quarters in the spiritual world. There are quarters there just as in the natural world, but like the spiritual world itself, they. are spiritual ; while in the natural world the quarters, like the world itself, are natural. There is therefore a difference between them so great that they have nothing in common. The quarters in each world are four in number, and are the east, the west, the south, and the north. In the natural world these four quarters are constant, being determined by the sun when on the meridian : opposite this is the 73 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. north, the east is on one hand, and the west on the other, each particular place reckoning from its own meridian. For everywhere the position of the sun on the meridian is always the same, and is therefore a fixed point of refer ence. In the spiritual world it is otherwise ; the quarters there are determined by the spiritual Sun, which appears constantly in its place, and where it appears is the east : so that the quarters in that world are not determined by the south, as in the natural world, but by the east : opposite to this is the west, on one hand the south, and on the other the north. The quarters, however, are not from the spiritual Sun, but from the inhabitants of that world, who are spirits and angels ; as will be seen elsewhere. 121. Since these quarters from their origin, which is the Lord as a Sun, are spiritual, the abodes of angels and spirits, which are according to those quarters, are also spiritual ; and this because the angels are located accord ing to their reception of love and wisdom from the Lord. Those who possess a higher degree of love, dwell in the east; those who possess a lower degree of love, in the west ; those of superior wisdom dwell in the south ; and those of inferior wisdom in the north. Therefore in the Word, by the east, in the highest sense, is meant the Lord ; in a comparative sense, the love of Him ; by the west that love decreasing ; by the south wisdom in its clearness, and by the north wisdom in obscurity ; or the same with reference to the states of those there mentioned. 122. As all the quarters in the spiritual world are deter mined by the east, and as by the east, in the highest sense, is meant the Lord and also the divine love, it is clear that the Lord and the love of Him are the origin of them all ; and that so far as any one is not in that love, so far he is removed from the Lord, and dwells in the west, or in the south, or in the north, at distances varying according to the reception of love. SPIRITUAL QUARTERS— HOW DETERMINED. 73 123. Because the Lord as a Sun is constantly in the east, therefore the ancients, among whom everything per taining to worship was representative of spiritual things, in adoration turned their faces to the east ; and in order to do this in all their worship, they turned their temples also in that direction. For the same reason, moreover, churches arc at this day built in the same manner. 124. The Quarters in the Spiritual World are not from the Lord as a Sun, but from the Angels according to Reception. It has been stated that the angels dwell in different locations, some in the east, some in the west, some in the south, and some in the north ; and those who dwell in the east are in a greater degree of love ; those in the west are in less love ; those in the south in the light of wisdom ; and those in the north in its obscurity. This diversity of location seems to originate in the Lord as a Sun, but actually originates with the angels. For in the Lord there are no greater and less degrees of love and wisdom ; nor is He as a Sun present in a greater degree of heat and light with one angel than with another ; He is everywhere the same ; but He is not received in the same degree by one that He is by another ; and this causes the angels to appear to themselves more or less distant from each other, and also in different quarters. From which it follows, that the quarters of the spiritual world are merely differences in the reception of love and wisdom, and there fore of heat and light, from the Lord as a Sun. This is also evident from n. 108-112, where it is demonstrated that distance in the spiritual world is an appearance. 125. Since the quarters are differences in the reception of love and wisdom by the angels, the variations, from which that appearance exists, must be explained. The Lord is in the angels and the angels in the Lord, as shown in the preceding article. But because the Lord appears to 10 74 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. be outside of the angels as a Sun, it also appears as if the Lord saw them from the Sun, and they saw Him in the Sun, almost as an image in a mirror. Therefore if we may speak according to this appearance, the order is this : the Lord sees and looks at every angel face to face ; but the angels on their part do not so regard the Lord. Those who are in the love of the Lord, see Him directly, and therefore dwell in the east and west ; but those who excel in wisdom see Him obliquely, towards the right ; and the less wise obliquely towards the left; these two classes therefore occupy the north and south. This obliquity of view arises from the fact that love and wisdom proceed from the Lord as one, but are not so received by the angels, as has been already stated ; and that wisdom, which is in excess of love, though it seems to be wisdom, in reality is not ; because in such excess of wisdom there is not the life of love. From which is manifest the origin of that diversity of reception, in accordance with which the angels appear to dwell in the different quarters in the spiritual world. 126. That variation in the reception of love and wisdom produces the quarters in the spiritual world, is further ob vious from this, that an angel passes from one quarter to another according to the increase or decrease of his love. Evidently therefore, the quarters do not originate in the Lord as a Sun, but in the angel, according to reception. It is the same with man in spirit. He is spiritually in some quarter of the spiritual world, in whatever quarter of the natural world he may be ; for, as stated above, the quarters of that world have nothing in common with those of the natural world : man is in the latter in body, and in the former in spirit. 127. That the love and wisdom within angel and man may be one, all parts of the human body are in pairs. The eyes, ears, and nostrils, are pairs ; also the hands, loins, and feet ; the cerebrum is divided into two hemispheres, WHICH WAY THE ANGELS FACE. 7i> the heart into two chambers, the lungs into two lobes ; so likewise the other organs. And again in angel and man there is a right side and a left ; and all parts of their right relate to the love in which originates wisdom ; and all parts of their left, to the wisdom originating in love ; or what is the same, the right relates to the good from which is the true ; and the left to the true derived from the good. This duality exists in angels and men in order that love and wisdom, or the good and true, may act as one, and as one regard the Lord. But of this more in what follows. 128. From this are manifest the illusions and conse quent errors under which they labor, who think that God bestows heaven at will, or arbitrarily gives to one more wisdom and love than to another ; when in truth the Lord is just as willing that one should have wisdom and salva tion as another. For He provides means for all ; as any one accepts and lives according to the means given him, he is wise, and is saved; for the Lord is the same to all. But the recipients, which are angels and men, differ from difference in reception and in life. This may be evident from what has just been said of the spiritual quarters, and the location of the angels with reference to those quarters ; viz., that their diversity is not from the Lord, but from the recipients. 129. The Angels turn their Faces constantly to the Lord as a Sun, thus having the South on their right, the North on their left, and the West be hind them. Whatever is here said of the angels and their turning to the Lord as a Sun, is also to be understood of man, spiritually Considered ; for man as to his mind is a spirit, and if possessed of love and wisdom, is an angel ; therefore after death, when he has put off the external covering taken from the natural world, he becomes a spirit or an angel. And as the angels constantly turn their faces /6 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. to the east, that is, to the Lord, the man who is in love and wisdom from the Lord, is said to see God, to look to God, and to have God before his eyes ; by which is meant that he lives as an angel. These things are said in the world, both because they actually take place in heaven, and be cause they actually take place in the spirit of man. Who does not look before him to God in prayer, in whatever direction his face may be turned? / 130. The angels turn their faces constantly to the Lord /as a Sun, because they are in the Lord, and the Lord in /them, and the Lord interiorly attracts their affections and thoughts, and turns them to Himself: therefore they can- \ not but look to the east, where the Lord appears as a Sun. From which it is manifest that the angels do not turn themselves to the Lord, but the Lord turns them to Himself. For when the angels think interiorly of the Lord, they think of Him only as within themselves ; and interior thought does not cause distance ; that is done by exterior thought, which acts as one with the sight. This is because exterior thought is in space, but not interior thought ; and even where ' there is no space, as in the spiritual world, it is still in the appearance of space. But this can hardly be understood by man, who thinks of God with reference to space ; for God is everywhere, and yet not in space ; He is therefore both within an angel and without him, and thus the angel can see God, that is, the Lord, both within himself and out of himself; within him self, when he thinks from love and wisdom ; out of him self, when he thinks of love and wisdom. But of this more particularly in the treatment of the Lord's omni presence, omniscience, and omnipotence. Let every one beware of falling into that execrable heresy, that God has infused Himself into men, being in them, and no longer in Himself; when in truth He is everywhere, both within man, and out of him ; for He is in all space without space, THE LORD ALWATS BEFORE THE ANGELS. 77 as shown in n. 7-10, and 69-72. If God were in man, He would not only be divisible, but would be contained in space ; nay more, man might then think himself God. This heresy is so abominable, that in the spiritual world it smells like a putrid carcass. ' 131. The turning of the angels to the Lord is of such a nature, that in whatever direction they turn bodily, they behold the Lord before them as a Sun. An angel may turn round and round, so as to see the various objects which surround him, but still the Lord appears constantly before his face as a Sun. This may seem very strange ; nevertheless it is true. It has been granted me thus to see the Lord as a Sun ; I see him before my face ; and during several years, in whatever direction I might turn, I have seen Him in the same manner. 132. Since the Lord as a Sun, and therefore the east, is before the faces of all the angels of heaven, it follows that the south is on their right, the north on their left, and the west behind them, and this in whatever direction they turn their bodies. For, as before said, all the quarters in the spiritual world are determined by the east : therefore those who have the east always before them, are in these very quarters ; nay, more, they themselves determine the quarters ; for as shown above, n. 124-8, the quarters do not originate in the Lord as a Sun, but in the angels according to reception. 133. Such being the nature of the angels who constitute heaven, the universal heaven, as a consequence, turns toward the Lord, and by this means is governed by the Lord as one man, just as in His sight it is one man. That heaven is as one man in the sight of the Lord, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 59-87. Such is the origin of the quarters in heaven. 134. The quarters of the spiritual world being so in scribed, as it were, upon the angel, and likewise upon the 78 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. universal heaven, an angel, unlike man in the world, knows his own home and locality wherever he goes. A man does not know his spiritual home and locality from the quarters inherent within him, because he thinks with refer ence to space, that is with reference to the quarters in the natural world, which have nothing in common with those of the spiritual world. Yet birds and beasts have an instinctive knowledge of home and locality inherent within them, as proven by extensive observation ; an evidence, that such is the law of the spiritual world ; for all things existing in the natural world are effects ; and all things existing in the spiritual world are the causes of those effects .|S^ Nothing natural exists without a spiritual cause.\ 135. All the Interiors of the Angels, both of Mind and Body, are turned to the Lord as a Sun. The angel possesses understanding and will, face and body, to all of which belong interiors. The interiors of the angelic understanding and will, are whatever pertains to their interior affection and thought : the interiors of the face are the brains ; and the interiors of the body are the viscera, chief of which are the heart and lungs. In a word, the angels possess everything, one and all, which man upon earth possesses : this constitutes them men. The external form, without its internal contents, does not make them men ; but the external form, together with its internals, and indeed derived from them. Otherwise they would be merely lifeless images of men, because inwardly destitute of the forms of life. 136. It is known that the will and understanding rule the body at pleasure ; for what the understanding thinks the mouth speaks ; and the body does what the will deter mines. It is evident, therefore, that the body is a form corresponding to the understanding and will ; and as form is also attributed to the understanding and will, the form THEIR INTERIORS AND EXTERIORS AGREE. 79 of the body corresponds to their form. What the precise nature of either form is, this is not the place to explain. There are in either things innumerable, all in each form acting as one with all in the other, because they mutually correspond. Therefore it is, that the mind (or the will and understanding) rules the body at pleasure, altogether as it rules itself. It follows that the interiors of the mind act as one with those of the body, and the exteriors of the mind with those of the body also. Of these interiors, both of mind and body, more will be said hereafter when the de grees of life are explained. 137. As the interiors of the mind make one with those of the body, when the interiors of the mind turn to the Lord as a Sun, those of the body also turn in like manner. And because the exteriors of both mind and body depend upon their interiors, they also turn in the same way ; for what ever the external does, it does from the internal ; because everything in the general is derived from the particulars of which it is constituted. It is therefore evident that the . angel, because he turns his face and body to the Lord as a Sun, turns all the interiors of his mind and body to Him also. It is the same with man, if he keeps the Lord con tinually before his eyes, as he does when in love and wisdom : he then turns to the Lord not only his eyes and his countenance, but also all his mind and heart; that is, his whole will and understanding, and at the same time his whole body. 138. This turning to the Lord is an actual turning, and a kind of elevation ; for the man is elevated into the heat and light of heaven, which is effected by the opening of the interiors. When these are opened, love and wisdom flow into the interiors of the mind, and the heat and light of heaven into the interiors of the body ; hence the eleva tion, as if from clouds to a clear atmosphere, or from air to ether, Moreover this love and wisdom, with their heat 80 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. and light, are the Lord's presence with man, Who, as be fore said, turns man to himself. On the contrary, with those who are not in love and wisdom, and still more with those who are opposed to them, their interiors both of mind and body are closed, and in this condition the ex teriors react against the Lord, for such is their nature. Therefore they turn themselves away from the Lord, which is to turn towards hell. 139. This actual turning to the Lord is not from love alone, nor from wisdom alone, but from both together. Love alone is like Being without its Existence, for love has its existence in wisdom : and wisdom without love is like Existence without its Being ; for wisdom derives its existence from love. There is, indeed, love without wis dom ; but that love is man's, not the Lord's. There is also wisdom without love, but such wisdom, although from the Lord, has not the Lord within it : for it is like the light of winter, which is indeed from the sun, but still does not contain within it the sun's essence, which is heat. 140. Every Spirit, whatever may be his charac ter, turns himself in like manner to his ruling love. The difference between an angel and a spirit must first be explained. Every man after death at first enters the world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell, and he there spends his time, or completes his states, and according to his life is prepared for heaven or hell. So long as he remains in that world, he is called a spirit : he who ascends from that world to heaven, is called an angel ; and he who descends to hell is called a satan or a devil. So long as they remain in the world of spirits, he who is preparing for heaven is called an angelic spirit, and he who is preparing for hell an infernal spirit. Mean while the angelic spirit is in union with heaven, and the infernal spirit with hell. All the spirits in the world of THE TWO RULING LOVES. 8l spirits are in association with men ; because men, in the interiors of their minds, are similarly situated between heaven and hell, and by means of those spirits communi cate with heaven or hell according to their states of life. It ought to be known that the World of Spirits is one thing, and the Spiritual World another. It is the World of Spirits of which we now speak : whereas the Spiritual World in cludes that, together with heaven and hell. 141. As our present subject is the turning of angels and spirits to their loves as they are moved by them, we shall speak briefly of loves in general. The universal heaven is divided into societies, formed according to all the different loves. Hell and the world of spirits are similarly disposed. , But heaven is divided into societies according to the different heavenly loves ; hell according to the various infernal loves ; and the world of spirits according to the different loves of both kinds. There are two loves, which are chief among all others, or to which all others relate. The chief love, or that to which all heavenly loves relate, is the love of the Lord. And the chief love, to which all infernal loves relate, is the love of rule from self-love. These two loves are diametrically opposed. 142. As these two loves, the love of the Lord and the love of rule originating in self-love, are utterly opposed to each other ; and as all who love the Lord turn themselves to Him as a Sun, as shown in the preceding proposition ; it is obvious that all who are in the love of rule from self- love, turn themselves away from the Lord. These move ments are thus opposed, because those who love the Lord, love nothing better than to be led by the Lord, and desire the Lord alone to rule ; while those who love to rule from self-love, love nothing better than to be led by themselves, and wish to have exclusive rule themselves. We say the love of rule from self-love, because there is a love of rule originating in the love of being useful, a love which a< cords 11 82 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. with neighborly love, and is therefore spiritual. But this love ought rather to be called the love of being useful. 143. Every spirit of whatever character turns to his dominant love, because love is every one's life, as shown in Part I., 1, 2,3: and life turns its receptacles, the limbs, organs, viscera, and so the entire man, to that society in which prevails a love similar to his own, that is, to his own love. 144. The love of rule from self-love being the exact opposite of love to the Lord, the spirits who are in that love, turn their faces from the Lord, and therefore look to the west in the spiritual world ; and being thus turned bodily in a contrary direction, the east is behind them, the north on their right, and the south on their left. The east is behind them, because they hate the Lord ; the north on their right, because they love illusions and their falsehoods ; and the south on their left, because they despise the light of wisdom. They may turn in any direction, but every thing surrounding them seems similar to their own love. They are all natural and sensual, some imagining that they alone are alive, and regarding others as mere images ; and although they are fools, they think themselves superior to all others in wisdom. 145. In the spiritual world are seen roads, extended like those of the natural world, some leading to heaven, and some to hell. But the roads which lead to hell are not visible to those going to heaven ; nor are the roads to heaven visible to those going to hell. These roads are innumerable, for they lead to every society in heaven and hell. Every spirit takes the road leading to the society of his own love ; nor does he see the roads which lead else where. Therefore it is, that each spirit makes progress, simply by turning to his dominant love. 146. The Divine Love and Wisdom which proceed the divine emanation. 83 from the Lord as a Sun, and produce Heat and Light in Heaven, is that Divine Emanation, the HolySpirit; In the New Church Doctrine of the Lord, it was shown that God in Person and in Essence is one, and in Him is a Trinity ; that the Lord is that God, and His Trinity is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; and moreover, that the Divine Substance is called the Father, the Divine Humanity the Son, and the Divine Emanation the Holy Spirit. We say the Divine Emanation ; but why this term is used, will not be understood, because it has been heretofore unknown that the Lord appears before the angels as a Sun, from which proceeds a heat, which in its essence is divine love, and a light, which is essentially divine wisdom. So long as this was unknown, the Divine Emanation must have been regarded as a Divine Being ; therefore in the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, it is declared that there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But now, the Lord's appearance as a Sun being understood, there is possible a correct conception of the Divine Emanation, called the Holy Spirit, as being one with the Lord, but proceeding from Him as heat and light from a Sun ; which, moreover, is the reason that the angels are in love and wisdom, so far as they are in Divine heat and light. Without a knowledge of the Lord's appearance in the spiritual world as a Sun, from which His Divinity so emanates, no one could possibly know what is meant by emanation ; whether it is a communication of what belongs to the Father and Son, or merely enlightenment and in struction. But even so, it is not the part of enlightened reason to acknowledge it as a Divine Being, to call it God, and distinct from God, when it is known that God is one, and, furthermore, omnipresent. 147. It was shown above that God is not in space, and is thereby omnipresent ; also that the Divine is everywhere the same, though its appearance varies in angels and men 84 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. from difference of reception. Now because the Divine Emanation from the Lord as a Sun is contained in light and heat, which flow first into universal receptacles, in the world called atmospheres, these again being the receptacles of clouds ; it is obvious, that just as the interiors, which pertain to the understanding of man or angel, are enveloped with such clouds, the understanding is a receptacle of the Divine Emanation. By clouds are meant spiritual clouds, which are thoughts, and these, if derived from the true, are accordant with divine wisdom ; but if from the false, dis cordant. Therefore in the spiritual world, thoughts from the true, when made visible, are like bright clouds ; and thoughts from the false seem like black clouds. From this / it is evident that the Divine Emanation is actually present in all men, but variously veiled. 148. Since the Divine itself is present in angel and man, by means of spiritual heat and light, those who are in the true from divine wisdom, and in the good from divine love, while under their influence, and so thinking of and from them, are said to partake of a Divine warmth. This is sometimes perceived, and even sensibly, as when a preacher speaks with zeal. They are also said to be enlightened by God, because the Lord by His Divine Emanation, not only enkindles the will with spiritual heat, but also enlight ens the understanding with spiritual light. 149. That the Holy Spirit is the same as the Lord, and is Truth itself, by which man is enlightened, is manifest from the Word in the following passages : " Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak." "He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you," John, xvi. 13, 14. " He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you," xiv. 17. See also John xv. 26. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are CREATION EFFECTED BT THE SPIRITUAL SUN. 85 life," vi. 63. It is clear from these passages, that the Truth itself, which proceeds from the Lord, is called the Holy Spirit; which truth enlightens, because it is in spiritual light. 150. Man's enlightenment, which is attributed to the Holy Spirit, is indeed from the Lord, but is effected through the mediation of spirits and angels. The nature of this media tion cannot as yet be explained ; except to state, that angels and spirits can by no means enlighten man from themselves ; because they also, like man, are enlightened by the Lord. It therefore follows, that all enlightenment is from the Lord alone. It takes place by means of angels and spirits, because man, in states of enlightenment, is placed in the midst of those angels and spirits, who receive more enlightenment than others. 151. The Lord created the Universe and all it contains by means of that sun, which is the flrst Emanation of Divine Love and Wisdom. By the Lord is meant God, Who existed from eternity, or Jehovah, Who is called the Father, and the Creator ; because they are one, as shown in the "New Church Doctrine of the Lord." Therefore in the following pages, even where creation is the subject, God is called the Lord. 152. That everything in the universe was created by the divine love and wisdom, was fully shown in Part I., espe cially in n. 52, 53. We shall now show that they were created by means of that Sun, which is the first Emanation of the divine love and wisdom. No one capable of viewing effects from causes, and of pursuing their development from causes in an orderly series, can deny that the sun is the first of creation ; for all things in the world are sustained by it ; and because sustained by it, they have also derived their existence from it; one fact affirms and proves the other. For to the Sun's oversight all things are subject ; it 86 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. disposes their existence ; and to hold them in subjection to itself, is to dispose of them continually. Therefore sub sistence is called perpetual existence. If anything were wholly deprived of the sun's influx through the atmos pheres, it would be immediately dissolved; for the atmos pheres, which are purer and purer, and endowed with active power by the sun, hold all things in connection. Now because the entire universe is sustained by the sun, the sun is manifestly the first of creation, in which the universe originates. We say the universe is sustained by the sun, which means by the Lord through the sun ; for the sun also was created by the Lord. 153. There are two suns, by means of which the Lord created all things, one of the spiritual world and one of the natural. The Lord created all things by means of the spiritual Sun, not the natural, for this sun is far beneath the other ; it occupies a middle distance, the spiritual world being above it, and the natural world beneath ; and the sun of the natural world was created to give a subservient aid to the spiritual sun ; of which more in what follows. 154. The Lord created everything in the universe by • means of the spiritual Sun, because that Sun is the first emanation of the divine love and wisdom ; and that all things originate in the divine love and wisdom, was de monstrated above, n. 52-82. In every created thing great and small there are three constituents, End, Cause, and Effect : there is nothing created in which they are not. In the largest form, or in the universe, they exist in the follow ing order : in the Sun, which is the first emanation of the divine love and wisdom, are contained all Ends ; in the spiritual world, all Causes ; and in the natural world, all Effects. How these three also exist both in things primary and ultimate, shall be explained hereafter. Now as there is nothing created which does not contain these three con stituents, it follows, that the whole universe was created CREATION WAS FROM ETERNITT. 87 by the Lord by means of that Sun which includes all Ends. 155. The subject of Creation cannot be intelligibly pre sented, unless time and space be excluded from thought : on these conditions it is comprehensible. Exclude them therefore, at least so far as possible, and, keeping the mind free from any reference to them, you will perceive that there is no difference between the greatest space and the least ; and then you will observe that the creation of the whole universe is in no way different from the creation of each of its particulars. You will also observe that the diversity of created things arises from the Infinite things in the Divine Man, and the consequent indefinite things in the Sun, which is the first emanation from Him ; this endless variety presents its image in the created universe. There fore it is impossible for two things to be alike ; therefore that perpetual variety, which is presented to the sight in the natural world in space, and with an appearance of space in the spiritual world ; a variety which prevails alike in generals and in particulars. This is what was demonstrated in Part I., as follows : In the Divine Man infinite things are one and yet distinct, n. 17-22. All things in the universe were created from the Divine love and wisdom, n. 52, 53. All things in the created universe are recipients of the divine love and wisdom of the Divine Man, n. 55-60. The Divine is not in space, n. 7-10. The Divine fills all space without space, n. 69-72. The Divine in all things great and small is the same, n. 77-82. 156. The creation of the universe in all its particulars cannot be called a progressive work, advancing from one point in space to another, and from time to time success ively. Creation was from eternity and infinity ; not from an eternity of time, for this does not exist, but from eternity without time, for this is identical with the Divine ; nor yet from an infinity of space, for this does not exist, but from 88 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. infinity without space, for this also is the same as the Divine. I know that this transcends the light of natural thought ; but in the light of spiritual thought it is compre hensible, for this has no reference to space or time. Yet it is not wholly beyond comprehension in natural light; for when we say there is no infinity of space, any man will assent from his own reason. It is the same with eternity ; for this, in the case supposed, is infinity of time. ' ' To eternity" may be understood with reference to time ; but "from eternity" cannot be understood, unless time be excluded. 157. The Sun of the Natural world is pure fire, and therefore dead ; and nature, because it origi NATES in that Sun, is also dead. Not the smallest share in actual creation can be attributed to the sun of the natural world ; the whole belongs to the spiritual Sun ; for the former is obviously dead, while the latter is alive, be cause it is the first emanation of the divine love and wisdom. That which is dead does not act at all of itself, but is acted upon : wherefore to attribute to that any of the work of creation, is to attribute the work of an artist to the instru ment he uses. The sun of the natural world is pure fire, from which all life has been abstracted ; while the Sun of the spiritual world is fire within which is Divine Life. The angelic idea of the difference between the fire of the two suns is this : that the Divine Life is in the fire of the spiritual Sun internally, but in the fire of the natural sun externally. From which it will be seen, that the actuating power of the natural sun is not from itself, but from a living force proceeding from the spiritual Sun ; and therefore, if this vital force were withheld or taken away, the natural sun would be annihilated. For this reason, the worship of the sun is the lowest of all kinds of Divine worship, for NATURE IS DEAD. 89 it is as dead as the sun itself. This worship is therefore in the Word called an abomination. 158. The natural sun being pure fire and therefore dead, the heat and light proceeding from it are also dead ; so are the atmospheres, known as ether and air, since they receive in their bosom and transmit the heat and light of that sun. These being dead, every particle of subjacent matter com posing the earth is also dead. Yet these materials, one and all, are encompassed by the spiritual elements issuing and flowing from the spiritual Sun ; otherwise the earth could not be made active and productive of forms of use, which are vegetables, nor of forms of life, which are animals ; neither could it provide the materials, which are means for the existence and sustenance of man. 159. Now since nature begins in that sun, and every thing which derives existence and sustenance from that is called the Natural ; it follows that nature, throughout all her forms, is dead. Nature seems to be alive in animal and man, because of the life which accompanies and ac tuates it. 160. As the lowest materials of nature, which constitute the earth, are dead, and incapable of change and variety according to states of affection and thought, as in the spiritual world, therefore in nature there is space, of which distance is a property. The lowest is thus fixed and un changeable, because there creation closes, and is sustained at rest. Manifestly, therefore, space is a property of Nature ; and as this space is not an appearance of space varying according to states of life, as in the spiritual world, it also may be called dead. 161. Time, being in like manner determinate and con stant, is also a property of nature. For the length of the day is always twenty-four hours, and the year is always three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter ; and the changes of light, shade, cold, and heat, which take place 90 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. within those periods, also return at regular intervals ; as morning, noon, evening, and night, in each day ; and spring, summer, autumn, and winter, in the year. More over the seasons of the year perpetually modify the changes of the day. All these changes also are dead, because they are not changes in states of life, as in the spiritual world. For in the spiritual world the light and heat are perpetual, the light corresponding to the state of the angel's wisdom, and the heat to that of his love. Angelic states are there fore living. • 162. From this is manifest the folly of those who ascribe everything to nature. Those who have confirmed them selves in favor of nature, have induced upon themselves such a state, that they no longer desire to elevate their minds above nature, and therefore their minds are closed above, and opened below : man then becomes natural and sensual ; and as such he is spiritually dead. And as he then thinks exclusively from sensual experience, or from worldly experience obtained through the senses, he in heart denies God. Then, because his union with heaven is de stroyed, union with hell takes place, the power of thought and volition alone remaining, that is to say, the ability to think rationally, and freedom of will. These two faculties are in every man from the Lord, nor are they ever taken from him ; they are possessed alike by angels and devils ; but the latter exercise them in foolishness and evil-doing, while the angels exercise them in wisdom and in doing good. 163. Without Two Suns, one Living and the other dead, Creation is impossible. The universe in general is divided into two worlds, the spiritual and the natural. The spiritual world is the abode of angels and spirits ; the natural world of men. The two worlds are exactly alike in outward appearance, so that one cannot be distinguished WHY THERE ARE TWO SUNS. 9- from the other ; but their internal aspects are wholly unlike. Even the men of the spiritual world, who, r.s before stated, are called angels and spirits, are spiritual ; and being such, they think spiritually and speak spiritually : but the men of the natural world are natural, and therefore think and speak naturally. And these two kinds of thought and language have nothing in common. Evidently, therefore, these two worlds, the spiritual and the natural, are so dis tinct from each other, that they can in no respect occupy the same plane. 164. Now because these two worlds are so distinct, there is a necessity for two suns, one as the origin of all things spiritual, and the other of all things natural. And because everything spiritual is in its origin alive, while everything natural is from its origin dead, and the origin of each is a sun, it follows that one sun is alive, and the other dead ; also that the dead sun was created by the Lord through the living one. 165. The dead sun was created, that everything might be fixed, determined, and permanent in ultimates, and so things substantial and lasting might have existence. This is the only basis of creation. The terraqueous globe, in which, on which, and around which, are these permanent materials, is, as it were, the base and solid foundation ; for it is the ultimate creative work, in which all things termi nate, and upon which they repose ; that it is also a kind of matrix, from which are brought forth those effects which are the ends of creation, will be shown in what follows. 166. That the Lord created all things by means of the living Sun, and nothing by the dead, is obvious from this : that the living subjects what is dead to its own service, moulding it to its own ends, that is, into forms of use ; but the reverse cannot take place. Only a person bereft of { reason, and ignorant of what life is, can think of nature as originating all things, even life itself. Nature, because! 92 DIVINE LOVJz AND WISDOM. in itself totally inert, cannot impart life to anything, For the dead to act upon the living, or a dead power upon a living power, or, what is the same thing, for the natural to act upon the spiritual, is entirely contrary to order ; and to think it possible is opposed to the light of sound reason. The dead, or the natural, may indeed be perverted or changed by external accidents ; yet it cannot act upon life, but life acts upon it according to the change of form thereby induced. This is like physical influx into the spiritual operations of the soul, which influx, as is known, does not take place, because it is impossible. 167. The End of Creation, which is that all things may return to the Creator and thus effct a union with Him, exists in Ultimates. First, of Ends in general : they are three in number, following each other in order, and are called, the Primary end, the Mediate end, and the Ultimate end ; they are also called End, Cause, and Effect. These three must enter into the constitution of everything, in order to give it existence ; for a primary end, without both a mediate and an ultimate end ; or, what is the same thing, an end alone, without cause and effect, cannot exist. It is equally impossible for a cause alone to exist, without an end from which it is derived, and an effect in which it terminates. Neither is there any such thing as an effect alone, or an effect without a cause and its end. This will be understood if it is observed, that an end without an effect, or separated from its effect, is not anything substantial, and is therefore a mere term. For an end, to have actual existence, must be wrought out ; and it is wrought out in the effect, in which it is first properly called an end, because it is the end there involved. It seems as if the active or efficient power had an existence in itself alone ; but this appearance arises from its presence in the effect ; and if it be separated from the effect, it imme- END, CAUSE, AND EFFECT. 93 diately vanishes. It is therefore evident that these three constituents, End, Cause, and Effect, are necessary to the existence of anything whatever. 168. It must further be known that the end is every thing, both in the cause and in the effect. Therefore it is, that end, cause, and effect, are called the primary, the mediate, and the ultimate ends. But that the end may be everything in the cause, there must exist from itself in the cause something adapted to its reception ; and that it may be everything in the effect, there must exist from itself in the effect and through the cause something in like manner adapted to its reception. For the end can have no being in itself alone, but only in something existing from itself, within which it may be wholly present, and efficient in action, until it exists fully. This it does in the ultimate end, which is called the effect. 169. Throughout the created universe, alike in its mi nutest and largest forms, are present these three, end, cause, and effect; and they are thus universally constitu tive, because they exist in God the Creator, Who is the Lord from eternity. But because He is infinite, and in the Infinite infinite things are one and yet distinct, as shown above, n. 17-22 ; therefore those three elements in Him, and in the infinite things pertaining to Him, are also one, and yet distinct. And thus the universe, which was created from His Being, and regarded in its uses is His image, must maintain this trinal structure in each and all of its forms. 170. The universal end, or the end of all creation, is an eternal union of the Creator with the created universe. Such union is not possible, except by means of subjects, in whom His Divinity may exist as in Himself, thus in whom He may permanently dwell. To be His permanent habi tations, these subjects must be recipients of His love and wisdom, as if it were their own ; and must thus be capable 94 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. of elevating themselves, as if by their own power, to the Creator, and of effecting a union with Him. Without this reciprocality, union is not possible. These subjects are men ; who, as if by their own power, can so elevate them selves, and effect a union. That men are such subjects, and are recipients of the Divine, as if it were their own, has been frequently demonstrated above. By means of this union the Lord is present in every work He has created ; for everything created is at last for the sake of man ; and thus the uses of all created things ascend by degrees from ultimates to man, and through man to their origin in God the Creator ; as shown n. 65-68. 171. To this ultimate end creation perpetually progresses through those three modes, end, cause, and effect, because they exist in the Lord, the Creator, as stated just above. Then again, as the Divine is in all space without space, n. 69-72 ; and is the same in all things, great and small, n. 77-82 ; it is obvious that the universe, created in the general progression as an ultimate end, is comparatively a mediate end. For from the earth forms of use are continually pro duced by the Lord, the Creator, in order up to man, whose body is from the earth also. Finally, man is elevated by the reception of love and wisdom from the Lord ; while for their reception by him all means are provided, and he is made able to receive, if he will. From this it may be seen, although as yet in its general aspect only, that in ultimates exists the end of creation, which is the return of all things to their Creator, and their union with Him. 172. The existence of these three constituents, end, cause, and effect, in all created things and in each, is also manifest in this : that all effects, which are called ultimate ends, become anew primary ends, in a series reaching con tinuously from the First, which is the Lord the Creator, to the last, which is man's union with Him. That all ulti mate ends become again primary ends, is affirmed by the THE SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL WORLDS. 95 fact that nothing exists so inert and lifeless as to be. wholly powerless. Even from sand there exhales that which aids in production, and is therefore so far efficient. PART III. 173. Atmospheres, Water and Land, exist in the Spiritual World, precisely as in the Natural World ; but in that world they are Spiritual, and in this Natural. That the spiritual and natural worlds are ahke, with the sole difference that everything in the former is spiritual, while everything in the latter is natural, has been shown in the preceding pages, and in the work on Heaven and Hell. And as the two worlds are thus alike, each contains atmospheres, water and land, as its general elements, by means of which, and from which, exists the whole with all its particulars in infinite variety. 174. As to the atmospheres, which are called ether and air, they are alike in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, except that they are spiritual in the former and natural in the latter. Those are spiritual, because they exist from the Sun, which is the first emanation of the divine love and wisdom of the Lord, and from Him receive into themselves that divine fire, which is love, and the divine light, which is wisdom, and bear them to the heavens of the angels, and so make that Sun present in every form there, both small and great. These spiritual atmospheres are discrete substances, or most minute forms, originating in the Sun, each of which is a separate recipient of the Sun: and therefore the Sun's fire, distributed among so many substances or forms, and as it were, enfolded in them, and tempered by these enfoldings, becomes at length 96 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. a heat adapted to the love of the angels in heaven, and of the spirits below heaven : in like manner the Sun's light. In this respect the natural atmospheres are similar to the spiritual, for they also are discrete substances, and most minute forms, originating in the natural sun. They also separately receive the sun, absorb its fire, and bring it to the earth where man dwells, as heat : so also the light. 175. The difference between the spiritual and natural atmospheres is this : the spiritual atmospheres are recep tacles of divine fire and light, that is, of love and wisdom ; for these they enclose within them. But the natural atmos pheres are receptacles, not of Divine fire and light, but of the fire and light of their own sun, which is in itself dead, as shown above : therefore they do not inwardly contain anything from the spiritual Sun ; yet they are surrounded by the spiritual atmospheres of that Sun. This statement of the difference between the spiritual and natural atmos pheres is derived from angelic wisdom. 176. That atmospheres exist in the spiritual world as well as in the natural, may appear from the fact, that angels and spirits breathe, talk, and hear, equally with men in the natural world ; and respiration, speech, and hearing, are all effected by means of the air, or lowest atmosphere. Then again, angels and spirits see, just as men in the natural world ; and sight is possible only by means of an atmosphere purer than air. Moreover, angels and spirits are possessed of thought and affection, like men in the natural world ; and thought and affection are possible only by means of still purer atmospheres. And finally all the parts, both external and internal, of the bodies of angels and spirits, are held in connection by the atmos pheres, the external parts by the air, and the internal by the ether : without the surrounding pressure and action of those atmospheres, the interior and exterior forms of the body would manifestly dissolve. The angels being spirit- DEGREES OF LOVE AND WISDOM. 97 ual, and the whole angelic body and all its parts being held in connection, form, and order, by means of atmos pheres, these atmospheres must also be spiritual ; which they are, because they originate in the spiritual Sun, which is the first emanation of the Lord's divine love and wisdom. 177. That water and land exist in the spiritual world, like those in the natural, except that they are spiritual, has been stated above, and shown in the work on Heaven and Hell. And because they are spiritual, they are actuated and modified by the heat and light of the spiritual Sun, operating through its atmospheres ; precisely as the water and land of the natural world are affected by the heat and light of the natural sun, operating through its atmos pheres. 178. Atmospheres, water and land, are here mentioned, because these three are the general elements, from which and by means of which all things exist with their infinite variety. The atmospheres are the active force, water the mediate force, and land the passive force, by which all effects exist. These three kinds of material are such a series of forces, solely by virtue of the Life which proceeds from the Lord as a Sun, and renders them active. 179. There are different Degrees of Love and Wisdom, and therefore of Heat and Light, and of the Atmospheres. Without a knowledge of degrees, their nature, and differences, what follows cannot be understood ; because there are degrees in every created thing or form. Therefore in this Part of Angelic Wisdom we shall treat of degrees. The existence of different de grees of love and wisdom will be evident from the angels of the three heavens. The angels of the third heaven so far surpass those of the second in love and wisdom, and these again so far surpass the angels of the ultimate heaven, 13 98 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. that they cannot associate. The different degrees of love and wisdom distinguish and separate them. Therefore the angels of the lower heavens cannot ascend to those of the higher ; and even if they are permitted to ascend, they cannot see the higher angels, nor anything belonging to their heaven. This is because the love and wisdom of these angels is of a degree higher than their own, and so transcends their perception. For every angel is his own love and wisdom ; and love together with wisdom are, in their proper form, man ; because God, Who is love itself and wisdom itself, is a Man. I have sometimes been per mitted to see angels of the ultimate heaven trying to ascend to those of the third heaven ; and when they had succeeded, and were even in the midst of the other angels, I heard them complaining that no one was visible to them ; and they were afterwards instructed, that the other angels were invisible to them, because their love and wisdom were im perceptible to them ; also that love and wisdom cause an angel to appear as a man. 180. The existence of different degrees of love and wis dom is still more manifest from the love and wisdom of angels compared with those of men. The wisdom of angels is known to be comparatively ineffable : that it is even incomprehensible to men, while they are in natural love, will be seen in what follows. And it seems to be ineffable and incomprehensible, because it is of a higher degree. 181. As there are degrees of love and wisdom, so also are there degrees of heat and light; that is, of spiritual heat and light, such as exist among the angels of heaven, and among men in the interiors of their minds ; for men partake of the same heat of love and the same light of wisdom that angels do. In the heavens the angels possess a heat exactly proportionate, in quality and quantity, to their love ; and a light in like manner proportionate to their DEGREES OF SPIRITUAL HEAT AND LIGHT. 99 wisdom. This is because love is present in their heat, and wisdom in their light, as shown above. It is the same with man upon earth, though with this difference, that to angels the heat is sensible and the light visible, but not to man ; because man is in natural heat and light, and meanwhile is insensible to spiritual heat, except by a certain feeling of happiness in love ; and he sees spiritual light only in a certain perception of truth. Now because man, while he remains in natural heat and light, knows nothing of the spiritual heat and light within him, and as this cannot be known except by experience of the spiritual world, we shall therefore now treat especially of the heat and light existing among the angels and in their heavens. There is no other source of enlightenment in this matter. 182. But the degrees of spiritual heat. cannot be de scribed from experience, because love, to which spiritual heat corresponds, is not thus perceptible to thought; but spiritual light is, for it is a property of thought, and its degrees may therefore be described. Yet the degrees of spiritual heat may be understood from those of light, for heat and light exist in equal degrees. As to the spiritual light in which angels dwell, I have been permitted to see it with my own eyes, and among the angels of the higher heavens it is so bright and yet so glowing as to surpass description, even by the dazzling whiteness of snow, and the radiance of the natural sun. In a word, it exceeds a thousand fold the noon-day light of the world . And even the light among the angels of the lower heavens, though it may in some degree be represented by comparisons, still far ex ceeds the brightest light of the world. The light of the angels dwelling in the higher heavens surpasses descrip tion, because their light is one with their wisdom ; and as their wisdom, compared with man's, is ineffable, therefore their light is also ineffable. From these brief statements it will appear, that there are different degrees of light ; and ioo DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. as wisdom and love contain similar degrees, therefore similar degrees exist in heat. 183. The atmospheres being the receptacles which con tain heat and light, it follows that there are as many de grees of atmospheres as of heat and light; and further more, as many as there are of love and wisdom. The existence of several atmospheres, and their separation into distinct degrees, has been made evident to me by much experience in the spiritual world, especially from this : that the angels of the lower heavens cannot breathe in the region of the higher angels, but seem to gasp, as animals do when taken up from air into ether, or as fishes re moved from water to air. The spirits beneath heaven, moreover, seem to live in a cloudy atmosphere. That there are several atmospheres, separated into distinct de grees, may be seen above, n. 176. 184. Degrees are of Two Kinds ; Degrees of Al titude, and Degrees of Latitude. A knowledge of degrees is like a key opening causes, and giving entrance into them. Without this knowledge causes must remain almost wholly unknown ; for without it, the subjects and objects of both worlds seem simple, as though they con tained within them no more than is visible on the surface ; when in reality, this, compared with what they interiorly conceal, is as one to thousands, or to myriads. These in terior things which are not outwardly manifest, it is utterly impossible to discover except by a knowledge of degrees ; for the progress of the exterior to the interior, and through this to the inmost, is by degrees ; not by continuous de grees, but by discrete degrees. Gradations from grosser to finer, or from denser to rarer, or rather gradations from finer to grosser, or from rarer to denser, like the gradations of light to shade, or of heat to cold, are called continuous degrees. But discrete degrees are altogether different, DEGREES CONTINUOUS AND DISCRETE. 101 they are related as primary, mediate, and ultimate ; or as end, cause, and effect. These degrees are called discrete, because the primary exists apart by itself, the mediate apart by itself, and the ultimate apart by itself; and yet they together constitute one. The atmospheres, which are called ether and air, from highest to lowest, or from the sun to the earth, are of such discrete degrees ; and they are as simple forms, the compounds of those simple forms, and the compounds of these again, all of which together are called the composite form. These are discrete de grees, because they exist separately, and these are meant by degrees of altitude. But the former are continuous de grees, because their gradation is continuous ; and these are meant by degrees of latitude. 185. Both the spiritual and the natural worlds, and all their particulars, are constituted of discrete degrees, and of continuous degrees, both together ; or of degrees of al titude, and degrees of latitude. The dimension resulting from discrete degrees is called altitude ; that from con tinuous degrees latitude ; and this without regard to position as determined by the eye. Without a knowledge of these degrees, nothing can be known of the distinction existing between one and another of the three heavens ; of the dis tinction between the love and wisdom of the angels in one heaven and in another ; of the distinction between their heat and light in one heaven and in another ; nor of the distinction of the atmospheres which encompass and con tain them. Again, without a knowledge of these degrees, the distinction existing among the interior faculties of man's mind must remain unknown ; also their state with reference to reformation and regeneration ; also the distinction exist ing among those external faculties pertaining to the body of both man and angel. Then again nothing whatever can be known of the distinction between the spiritual and the natural, and therefore nothing of correspondence. No 102 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. distinction will be recognized between the life of a man, and the life of a beast; nor between the more and less perfect beasts ; and none in the various forms of the vege table kingdom, nor in the materials of the mineral kingdom. From which it will appear, that they who are ignorant of degrees, can have no intelligent discernment of causes ; they see effects only, and from these infer causes ; and these generally as a continuous deduction from effects : notwithstanding that causes do not produce effects by con tinuous, but by discrete modes. For the cause is one thing, and the effect another ; they are discrete, as prior and pos terior, or as the formative and the formed. 1 86. Still better to understand discrete degrees, their nature, and their difference from continuous degrees, take for example the angelic heavens. There are three heavens, separated from each other by degrees of altitude : one is therefore beneath the other ; nor do they communicate with each other except by the influx, which descends from the Lord through the heavens, from highest to lowest, and not in the reverse order. But each heaven in itself is not separated into degrees of altitude, but of latitude : those who dwell in the centre, are in the light of wisdom ; but those who dwell towards the circumference, and on the boundaries, are in its shade ; for wisdom decreases to igno rance, as light wanes to shade, which is by a continuous gradation. It is the same with men : the interiors of their minds are separated into as many degrees as the angelic heavens are, and one degree is above another ; wherefore they are separated into discrete degrees, or degrees of altitude. Therefore it is, that man can be in the lowest degree, and again in the higher, or even in the highest, according to the degree of his wisdom ; and when he is in the lowest degree only, the higher is closed, its opening being dependent upon his reception of wisdom from the Lord. There are also in man, as in the heavens, continu- DISCRETE DEGREES. 103 ous degrees, or degrees of latitude. Man is thus similar to the heavens, because in the interiors of his mind he is a heaven in miniature, so far as he is in love and wisdom from the Lord. That man's mind is interiorly a heaven in miniature, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 51-58. 187. From these few examples it will appear that no one ignorant of discrete degrees, or degrees of altitude, can understand man's state of reformation and regeneration, which are effected by his reception of love and wisdom from the Lord, and then by the opening of the interior de grees of his mind in their order ; nor can he at all under stand the mode of influx from the Lord through the heavens ; nor the order in which he is created. For any one studying these things from continuous degrees, or degrees of latitude, and not from discrete degrees, or degrees of altitude, can see in them only what belongs to effects, and nothing of their causes ; and to see from effects only, is to see from illusions, whence originate errors, one after another, which may be multiplied by deductions, until enormous falsities are taken for truths. 188. I am not aware whether anything has been hereto fore known of the existence of discrete degrees, or degrees of altitude ; or only of continuous degrees, or degrees of latitude. And yet, veritable causes cannot be at all under stood, without a knowledge of both kinds of degrees. Therefore Part III. will be wholly devoted to this subject. For the object of this work is to disclose causes, that from them effects may be visible, and thus the darkness dis pelled, which from the man of the church hides the know ledge of God, of the Lord, and of all Divine or spiritual things. This I may say, that the angels sorrow for the darkness of the world ; they say that hardly anywhere is light visible ; that men sieze upon illusions and confirm *-hem, and thus heap falsehood upon falsehood ; and they 104 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. labor to establish these, by such reasoning from the false and from the true falsified, as cannot be overcome, owing to the obscurity which rests upon causes, and the ignorance of real truths. The angels especially lament the confirmed belief in faith separate from charity, and in justification thereby. They also grieve over the prevalent ideas of God, angels, and spirits ; and the existing ignorance of the nature of love and wisdom. 189. Degrees of Altitude are Homogeneous, de rived One from Another in a Series like End, Cause, and Effect. As degrees of latitude or continu ous degrees are like the gradations from light to shade, from heat to cold, from hard to soft, from dense to rare, from gross to fine, and so on ; and as these degrees are known from sensual and ocular experience, while discrete degrees, or degrees of altitude, are not; therefore in the present Part we shall treat especially of discrete degrees ; for without a recognition of these, causes cannot be seen. It is known indeed, that end, cause, and effect, follow each other in order, as the primary, the mediate, and the ulti mate ; and that the end produces the cause, and through this the effect, in order that the end may exist ; and many other things concerning them. Nevertheless, to know this much, without seeing it by application to existing things, is merely abstract knowledge, which endures only while the mind is occupied with things analytical or metaphysical. Therefore it is, that although the progress of end, cause, and effect, is by discrete degrees, yet of these degrees little or nothing is known in the world. For a knowledge of mere abstractions is evanescent, like something aerial ; but if the abstractions are applied to things material, they be come fixed in the memory, like anything seen in the world. 190. Everything in the world possessing the three dimensions, or called composite, is constituted of discrete DISCRETE DEGREES ILLUSTRATED. IOC degrees, or degrees of altitude, as examples will illustrate. It is known by ocular experience, that every muscle in the human body consists of most minute fibres, which being arranged in small bundles, form the larger, called the motive fibres ; while collections of these again form the composite body called muscle. So with the nerves : from their smallest fibres combined are formed the larger, which resemble threads ; and from these again combined is formed the nerve. It is the same with the other combina tions, collections, and aggregations, which constitute the various organs and viscera : for they are all composed of fibres and vessels variously arranged in similar degrees. It is the same in the whole vegetable kingdom, and in the whole mineral kingdom, and throughout all their particu lars. In all wood there is a combination of filaments in threefold order. In metals and stones there is a consoli dation of particles in the same order. From which is manifest the nature of discrete degrees, as existing thus : from the first degree the second, and through the second the third, which is called the composite ; each degree being discrete from the other. 191. From these visible things, may be inferred the structure of the invisible (since the order of both is the same), as the organic substances of the brain, which are the receptacles and abodes of thoughts and affections ; the atmospheres ; heat and light ; and love and wisdom : for the atmospheres are receptacles of heat and light, while heat and light are receptacles of love and wisdom. And therefore, as there are different degrees of atmospheres, so are there different degrees of heat and light, and of love and wisdom. Among all these no different proportions prevail. 192. From what has now been said, these degrees are evidently homogeneous, that is, of the same constitution and nature. The motive fibres of muscles, the minute, the 106 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. larger, and the largest, are homogeneous ; the nervous fibres, minute, larger, and largest, are homogeneous; the filaments of wood, from the smallest to the composite form, are homogeneous ; in like manner the particles of all kinds of stone and metal. The organic substances, which are the receptacles and abodes of affections and thoughts, from their simplest form to their common aggregate, the brain, are homogeneous ; so are the atmospheres, from the pure ether to the air. The degrees of heat and light in a series corresponding to the degrees of the atmospheres, are homogeneous ; consequently the degrees of love and wis dom are homogeneous also. Those substances which are not of the same constitution and nature are heterogeneous, and do not harmonize with the homogeneous, thus cannot unite with them to form discrete degrees, but only with their own substances, which are of the same constitution and nature, and with which they are homogeneous. 193. That these in their order are as ends, causes, and effects, is obvious ; for the primary, or most minute form, achieves its cause through the mediate, and its effect through the ultimate. 194. It ought to be known that each degree is separated from the others by its own proper covering ; and all together are distinguished by a common covering. More over, the common covering communicates with the interior and with the inmost in their order : therefore the union and harmonious action of all. 195. The Primary Degree is the All in All of the Subsequent Degrees. This is because the degrees of every subject and thing are homogeneous ; and they are homogeneous, because produced by the primary degree. For such is their formation, that the primary, by collec tions and consolidations, in a word, by aggregation, pro duces the second, and through this the third ; while it also The primary degree all-inclusive. 107 separates each degree from the other by a surrounding covering. Evidently therefore, the primary degree is the principal, and is exclusively regnant in the subsequent degrees ; consequently, the primary degree is the all in all of the subsequent degrees. 196. Such is said to be the difference in degrees, but by this is meant the difference of substances in their degrees. To speak of degrees themselves, is to make the statement abstract, that is, universal, and so applicable to any subject or thing whatever that is constituted of degrees of this kind. 197. This application may be made to all the things specified in the preceding proposition ; as the muscles, the nerves, the materials and particles of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, the organic substances, which are the subjects of man's affections and thoughts, the atmospheres, heat and light, love and wisdom. In all of these the primary is exclusively regnant in the subsequent degrees ; nay more, is their sole constituent, and for this reason, is their all. This is evidently so, moreover, from the follow ing well-known truths : viz. , that the end is everything in the cause, and through the cause is also everything in the effect : and therefore end, cause, and effect, are called the primary, the mediate, and the ultimate ends : moreover, that the cause of the cause is also the cause of the thing caused : and in causes there is nothing essential but the end, and nothing essential in motion but effort ; and finally that there is one only substance, which is substance in itself. 198. From these statements it will clearly appear that the Divine, which is substance in itself, or the sole and exclusive substance, is that from which the whole universe and all its particulars were created ; and thus God is the all in all of the universe, as demonstrated in Part I., as follows : The divine love and wisdom are a substance and io8 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. a form, n. 40-43. The divine love and wisdom are sub stance and form in themselves — that is, the absolute and only substance and form, n. 44-46. All things in the universe were created from the divine love and wisdom, n. 52-60 ; and therefore the created universe is God's image, n. 61-65. The Lord alone is the heaven in which the angels dwell, n. 113-118. 199. All Perfection Increases by degrees, and ascends in degrees. That degrees are of two kinds, degrees of latitude and degrees of altitude, has been shown above, n. 184-188 : also that degrees of latitude are like the gradation of light to shade, or of wisdom to igno rance ; but degrees of altitude are as end, cause, and effect, or as primary, mediate, and ultimate. These degrees are said to ascend or descend, for they are degrees of altitude ; but those are said to increase or decrease, for they are degrees of latitude. These two kinds of degrees are so different, as to have nothing in common : they ought there fore to be carefully distinguished, and in no respect con founded with each other. 200. That all perfection increases by degrees and ascends in degrees, is because all predicates follow their subjects, and perfection and imperfection are general predicates ; for they are predicates of life, of powers, and of forms. The Perfection of Life is the perfection of love and wis dom ; and as the will and understanding are their recep tacles, the perfection of life is also the perfection of the will and understanding, and consequently of the affections and thoughts : and as spiritual heart contains love, and spiritual light contains wisdom, their perfection also may be compared to the perfection of life. The Perfection of Powers is the perfection of all things actuated and moved by life, though in themselves void of life : the atmospheres, as to their active operation, are such powers; such also PERFECTION IN ITS RELATION TO DEGREES. 109 are the organic substances, both interior and exterior, in man, and in all kinds of animals ; and such powers are all things in the natural world which derive their activity both mediately and immediately from the natural sun. The Perfection of Forms and the perfection of powers make one ; for as the powers are, such are the forms, with this difference only, that the forms are substances, while the powers are their activity : the degrees of perfection are therefore the same in both. Even forms, which are not also powers, are perfect according to degrees. 201. We shall not here treat of that perfection of life, powers and forms, which increases or decreases according to degrees of latitude or continuous degrees, because these degrees are understood in the world ; but of that perfection of life, powers, and forms, which ascends or descends according to degrees of altitude or discrete degrees ; for these are not understood in the world. But how perfection ascends or descends according to these degrees can hardly be learned from the visible things of the natural world, but it is clearly manifest from things visible in the spiritual world. By the things visible in the natural world this only is disclosed : that the more interiorly they are examined, the greater wonders they present ; as for example, in the eyes, the ears, the tongue, the muscles, the heart, the lungs, the liver, the pancreas, the kidneys and the other viscera ; and again in seeds, fruits and flowers ; also in metals, minerals and stones. All these, it is known, ex hibit more wonderful things the more interiorly they are examined ; yet from this it is but little known that they are interiorly more perfect according to discrete degrees or de grees of Jtitude ; ignorance of these degrees has concealed this fact. But because those degrees stand out prominently in the spiritual world (for that whole world from highest to lowest is distinctly separated into them) , from that world a knowledge of them may be acquired ; and from this again no DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. may be inferred the perfections of the powers and forms, which exist in similar degrees in the natural world. 202. In the spiritual world are three heavens disposed according to degrees of altitude ; in the supreme heaven the angels excel those of the intermediate heaven in every perfection ; and the angels of the intermediate heaven again in every perfection excel those -of the lowest heaven. The degrees of these perfections are such, that the angels of the lowest heaven cannot reach the first entrance to the perfections of the angels in the intermediate heaven ; nor these the first entrance to the perfections of the angels in the supreme heaven. This may seem incredible, and yet it is most true : the reason is, the angels are associated according to discrete, and not according to continuous de grees. I have learned by experience, that the difference between the affections and thoughts, and consequently the language, of the angels in the higher and those in the lower heavens, is so great, that they have nothing in com mon ; also that they communicate only by correspondences, which exist by the immediate influx of the Lord into all the heavens, and His mediate influx through the highest heaven down to the lowest. Such being the nature of these differences, natural language cannot express them, and they are therefore indescribable ; for the thoughts of the angels being spiritual, cannot be adapted to natural ideas : they can be expressed and described only by them selves, in their own language, words, and writings, but not by human means. Therefore is it said, that in heaven are seen and heard things ineffable. Those differences may be in some measure understood from this : the thoughts of the angels of the supreme or third heaven are thoughts of ends ; the thoughts of the angels of the intermediate or • second heaven are of causes ; and those of the angels of the lowest or first heaven are of effects. To think from ends, it must be known, is one thing, and to think of ends DEGREES OF THE MIND. in is another ; to think from causes is one thing, and to think of causes, another ; as also to think from effects, and of effects. The angels of the lower heavens think of causes and ends, but the angels of the higher heavens think from causes and ends : to think from them belongs to superior wisdom; and to think of them, to inferior wisdom. To think from ends belongs to wisdom, from causes to intelli gence, and from effects to knowledge. From all of which it is evident, that all perfection ascends and descends by degrees and according to them. 203. As the interiors of man's will and understanding are, with regard to degrees, like the heavens (for man in the interiors of his mind is a heaven in miniature), the perfection of these interiors is like that of the heavens also. But this perfection is not apparent to man while he lives in the world, because he is then in the lowest degree, and from this the higher degrees cannot be recognized. But they are discerned after death ; because man then enters that degree which corresponds to his love and wisdom ; for he becomes an angel, thinking and uttering things ineffable to him as a natural man. This is because his whole mind is then elevated not in a simple, but in a trip licate ratio, this latter being the ratio of degrees of altitude, while the former is the ratio of degrees of lati tude. But none ascend to those degrees and are so ele vated, except those who were in truths in the world, and had applied them to life. 204. The prior seems to be less perfect than the pos terior, or the simple than the composite ; but in reality the prior from which the posterior exists, or the simple from which the composite exists, is the more perfect. The reason is, the prior or simpler is more naked, thus less covered up by substances and materials deprived of lite : they are also, as it were, more divine, and therefore nearer to the spiritual Sun where the Lord is. For perfection 112 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. itself is in the Lord, and proceeds from Him to the Sun, which is the first emanation of His divine love and wisdom ; from this again it descends to those things next succeeding, and so in order to the lowest, which become less perfect as they recede. Without this preeminent perfection in the prior and simple, neither man nor animal could exist from seed, and afterwards be sustained ; nor could the seed of trees and fruits vegetate and bear; for the more prior everything prior is, and the simpler everything simple is, the more secure it is from injury, because it is more perfect. 205. In Successive Order the First Degree con stitutes the Highest, and the Third the Lowest ; but in Simultaneous Order the First Degree con stitutes the Inmost, and the Third the Outermost. There is a successive order, and a simultaneous order : the successive order of these degrees is from highest to lowest, or from summit to base. This is the order of the angelic heavens ; the third is the highest, the second intermediate, and the first lowest : such is their relative situation. The states of love and wisdom with the angels are in the same successive order ; so are heat and light, and the spiritual atmospheres. All the perfections of forms and powers in the spiritual world partake of he same order. When dis crete degrees or degrees of altitude exist in successive order, they may be compared to a tower of three stories, with a mode of ascent and descent from one story to another ; the upper story containing the most perfect and most beautiful things ; the middle story those less perfect and less beautiful ; and the lowest those still less perfect and less beautiful. But the simultaneous order, even of the same degrees, presents a different aspect. In this, the highest things of successive order, which are, as already stated, the most perfect and beautiful, are in the inmost, the lower are intermediate, and the lowest on the circum- SUCCESSIVE AND SIMULTANEOUS ORDER. 113 ference, as in a solid body constituted of these three degrees ; in the centre are the finest parts, around these the less fine, and on the boundaries, which form the surface, are parts composed of these, and therefore grosser. It is as if the tower just mentioned should subside to a plane ; its highest story becoming the inmost, its middle story the intermediate, and its lowest the circumference. 206. As the highest in successive order becomes the inmost in simultaneous order, while the lowest becomes the outermost, therefore in the Word the higher signifies the interior, and the lower the exterior. Similar is the signification of upward and downward, and of high and low. 207 . In all ultimates discrete degrees are in simultaneous order. The motive fibres in every muscle, the fibres in every nerve, and the fibres and vesicles in all the viscera and organs, exist in this order. Inmost in them are their simplest and most perfect forms ; the outermost consists of these in a composite form. The same order of these de grees prevails in every kind of seed, in all fruit, and again in all metals and stones ; their parts of which the whole is composed, are of this nature : their inmost, intermediate, and outermost divisions exist in these degrees, because they are successive compositions, or collections and con solidations of the simple forms, which are their primary substances or materials. 208. In a word, these degrees are in everything ulti mate, and thus in every effect : for every ultimate form consists of prior forms, and these again of their own primary forms ; as every effect is constituted of a cause, and this again of an end. Moreover, the end is everything in the cause, and the cause everything in the effect, as demonstrated above ; and thus the end constitutes the in most, the cause the intermediate, and the effect the ulti mate. It is the same with the degrees of love and wisdom, 15 114 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. of heat and light, and of the organic forms of man's affec tions and thoughts, as will be shown in what follows. Of the arrangement of these degrees in successive order and in simultaneous order, we have treated in the New Church Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, n. 38 ; and else where it was shown that in the whole Word, and in every part of it, there are similar degrees. 209. The Ultimate Degree is the Complex, Con- tainant, and Base of the Prior Degrees. The Doc trine of Degrees herein delivered has been thus far illus trated by a variety of objects in both worlds ; as by the de grees of the heavens where the angels dwell, by the degrees of heat and light among them, by the degrees of the atmospheres, and by different things in the human body, and in the animal and mineral kingdoms. But this doctrine extends much further : it is applicable not only to natural things, but also to things civil, moral, and spiritual, and to everything general and particular in cluded in them. The doctrine of degrees is of such exten sive application for two reasons : First, because in every thing of which anything may be affirmed, there is the trine called end, cause, and effect; and the relation of these three is according to degrees of altitude. Secondly, because things civil, moral and spiritual, are not mere abstractions from substance, but are substances. For as love and wisdom are not abstractions, but substance, as demonstrated above, n. 40-43, so also are all those things called civil, moral, and spiritual. These may indeed be considered abstractly, apart from their substances, but in themselves they are not abstract; 'as for example, affection and thought, charity and faith, will and understanding ; for with these, the same as with love and wisdom, they do not exist outside of subjects which are substances, but are the states of the subjects or substances. That these substances PRIOR DEGREES IN THE ULTIMATE. n_, undergo changes which present variations, will be seen in what follows. By substance form also is understood ; for there is no substance without form. 210. From the fact that will and understanding, affection and thought, charity and faith, may be regarded abstractly, apart from the substances which are their subjects, and are so regarded, the proper conception of them, as being states of substances and forms, has been lost. They are pre cisely like sensation and action, which are not something abstracted from the organs of sense and motion ; so ab stracted, or separate, they are mere figments of the reason ; for they are like sight without an eye, hearing without an ear, taste without a tongue, and so on. 211. As all things civil, moral, and spiritual pass through degrees in the same manner as natural things do, not only through continuous, but also through discrete degrees ; and as the progress of discrete degrees is like the progress of ends to causes, and of causes to effects ; I wish to illustrate and confirm the present proposition, that the ultimate de gree is the complex containant, and base of the prior degrees, by what has been referred to above, that is by what pertains to love and wisdom, will and understanding, affection and thought, charity and faith. 212. That the ultimate degree is the complex, containant, and base of the prior degrees, is very manifest from the progress of ends and causes to effects ; that the effect is the complex, containant, and base of causes and ends,- enlight ened reason can comprehend ; but it is not so evident, that the end with all it includes, and the cause with all it includes, are actually present in the effect, the effect being a full complex of them. That such is the case may appear from statements already made in this Part, especially the follow ing : that one is from the other in a threefold series ; that the effect is nothing but the end in its ultimate ; and as the Il6 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. ultimate is the complex, it is consequently the containant, and also the base. 213. As to love and wisdom, love is the end, wisdom the cause through which it operates, and use the effect ; thus use is the complex, containant, and base of wisdom and love. Moreover use is such a complex and containant, that the whole of love and the whole of wisdom are actually included within it. Use is their simultaneous form. But it must be well understood that all things pertaining to love and wisdom, which are homogeneous and harmonious, are included in use, according to the laws stated and ex plained from n. 189-194. 214. Affection, thought, and action also exist in a series of similar degrees ; because all affection relates to love, all thought to wisdom, and all action to use. Charity, faith and good works exist in a similar series ; for charity belongs to affection, faith to thought, and good works to action. Again, will, understanding and practice exist in a series of similar degrees ; for the will is a property of love, and consequently of affection ; the understanding is a pro perty of wisdom, and consequently of faith; while practice belongs to use, therefore to works. Thus, as the whole of wisdom and love is contained in use, so is the whole of thought and affection in action, the whole of faith and charity in good works, and so on : but all in each series are homogeneous, that is harmonious. 215. That in each series the ultimate, which is use. action, works and practice, is the complex and containant of all the prior constituents, is yet unknown : there appears to be in use, action, works and practice, nothing more than is in motion; nevertheless all the prior constituents are actually in them, and so fully that nothing is wanting: they are contained within them as wine in a vessel, or as furniture in a house. They are not apparent, because they are only seen externally, and their external aspect presents MAN KNOWN BT HIS WORKS. 117 only activities and motions ; as when the arms and hands move, and it is not known that a thousand motive fibres concur in every single movement of them, and to these motive fibres correspond a thousand things of thought and affection, which excite the motive fibres, but which, be cause they operate deeply within, are not apparent to any bodily sense. It is known, however, that nothing acts in the body, or through it, except from the will through thought ; and because both of these act, it cannot possibly be, but that the whole of will and thought in all their par ticulars are present in action : they cannot be separated. Therefore it is, that by a man's deeds or works others judge of the thoughts of his will, or his intentions. This I have learned : that the angels, from man's deeds or works alone, perceive and see his whole will and thought ; the angels of the third heaven see from his will the end for which he acts, and the angels of the second heaven the cause through which the end operates. Therefore in the Word works and deeds are so frequently commanded, and a man is said to be known by his works. 216. It is angelic wisdom, that unless will and under standing, or affection and thought, that is again, charity and faith* embody and establish themselves in works or deeds, when possible, they are like passing vapors or perishable images in the air ; also that they first become permanent in man, and part of his life, when he exercises them in deeds. This is because the ultimate is the complex, containant, and base of things prior. Such a vapor or image in the air is faith separate from good works, also faith and charity separated from the practice of them, with this difference only, that they who uphold both faith and charity, know how to do good, and may be willing ; but not those who are in faith separate from charity. 217. Degrees of Altitude in their Ultimate are Ii8 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM in Fullness and in Potency. In the preceding article we have shown that the ultimate is the complex and con tainant of the prior degrees. It follows that the prior de grees are in fullness in their ultimate ; for they are in their effect, and every effect is the fnllness of its causes. 218. That these ascending and descending degrees, also called prior and posterior, or degrees of altitude and dis crete degrees, are in potency in their ultimate, may be proved by the various objects perceptible and sensible, which were brought forward as proofs of the preceding statements. But here I wish to demonstrate them only by Effort, Power, and Motion, both in living subjects and in those without life. It is known that effort effects nothing by itself alone, but operates through powers corresponding to it, and through them manifests motion ; and that there fore effort is everything in power, and through power in motion ; and as motion is the ultimate degree of effort, that through it effort exerts its potency. Effort, power, and motion are united only according to degrees of altitude, the union of which is not continuous (for they are discrete degrees) , but by correspondences : for effort is not power, nor is power motion ; but power is produced by effort^ for it is effort excited ; and motion is produced by power. Thus there is no potency whatever in effort alone, nor in power alone, but only in motion, which is their product. This as yet may seem doubtful, because not illustrated by ap plication to things sensible and perceptible existing in nature. Nevertheless, such is the progression from effort to power. 219. But apply these statements to living effort, living power, and living motion. The hving effort in man, who is a living subject, is his will united to his understanding ; the living powers in him are the interior constituents of his body, in all of which are motive fibres variously inter woven ; and the living motion in him is action, which is ALL POWER IN ULTIMATES. 119 produced through those powers by means of his will and understanding united. For the interiors of his will and understanding constitute the first degree ; the interiors of his body the second ; and his whole body, which is their complex, is the third degree. The interiors of the mind are known to possess no potency except through the powers of the body, and these powers are known to be without potency, except through the action of the body itself. These three do not act continuously, but discretely, that is, by correspondences. The mind's interiors correspond to those of the body, and these again to the bodily ex teriors, through which exists action : therefore the two former are in potency through the latter, or the bodily ex teriors. Effort and power in man may seem to possess some potency apart from action, as in dreams and states of rest ; but even then the tendency of effort and power is to the common motors of the body, the heart and lungs ; but when the action of these ceases, power also ceases, and with it effort. 220. The potency- of the whole, or of the body, being determined chiefly to the arms and hands, which are its ultimates, therefore in the Word the hands signify power, and the right hand superior power. Such being the evo lution and outgrowth of degrees from effort to potency, therefore from the action of the hands alone the angels, who are present with man and in full correspondence with him, know the character of his understanding and will, of his charity and faith, of his internal or mental life, and of the external bodily life derived from it. I often wondered that the angels could obtain such knowledge merely from the action of the body through the hands ; nevertheless it has been repeatedly proved to me by vivid experience; and I was told that therefore inauguration into the ministry takes place by the imposition of hands, and that to touch with the hand signifies communication, besides other things 120 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. of the same kind. The conclusion from this was, that the whole of charity and faith is embodied in works, and that charity and faith without works are as rainbows about the sun, evanescent, and dissipated by a cloud. Therefore in the Word works are frequently mentioned, and the doing of them, as that upon which man's salvation depends. Moreover, he who does them is called wise, and he who does them not, foolish. But by works here, it must be known, are meant uses actually performed ; for all of charity and faith is involved in use, and is according to it. With use there exists this correspondence, because the corre spondence is spiritual, though carried out by means of substances and materials, which are its subjects. 221. Two arcana, which by the foregoing statements will be understood, may here be revealed. The first is, That the Word in the literal sense is in its fullness and in its potency ; for there are three senses in the Word, a celestial sense, a spiritual sense, and a natural sense, ex isting according to the three degrees. As these senses exist in the Word according to the three degrees of alti tude, their union taking place through correspondences, therefore the ultimate sense, which is the natural or the sense of the letter, is not only the complex, containant and base of the corresponding interior senses, but the Word in its ultimate sense is also in its fullness and in its potency. This truth has been abundantly set forth and confirmed in the New Church Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, n- 27_35 » 3^-49 ; 50-61 ; 62-69. The second arcanum is, That the Lord came into the world and assumed Hu manity, that He might have power to subjugate the hells, and to restore to order all things both in the heavens and on earth. This Humanity He induced upon His former Humanity. The Humanity which He superadded in the world, was like the humanity of man in the world ; but in the Lord both were Divine, and therefore infinitely trans- DEGREES IN ALL CREATED THINGS. 121 cended the finite humanity of angels and men : and because He fully glorified the natural Humanity even to its ultimates, He arose with His whole body, unlike any man. By the assumption of this Humanity He put on Divine Omnipo tence, not only to subjugate the hells and to restore the heavens to order, but also to hold the hells in subjection, and to save men, eternally. This power is meant by His sitting at the right hand of the power of God. As the Lord, by the assumption of a natural Humanity, made Himself Divine Truth in ultimates, therefore He is called the Word, and the Word is said to have become flesh, Divine Truth in ultimates being the Word in its literal sense : this He made Himself by the fulfillment of all things written in the Word concerning Him by Moses and the prophets. For every man is his own goodness and his own truth : man is man for no other reason ; but the Lord by the assumption of the natural Humanity is the actual Divine Goodness and Truth, or, what is the same, the actual Divine Love and Wisdom, both in first principles and in ultimates. Therefore He appears in the angelic heavens as a Sun, and since His advent into the world, with a more powerful radiance and with greater splendor than before. This is an arcanum which may be under stood by the doctrine of degrees. Of His Omnipotence before His advent into the world, we shall speak here after. 222. There are Degrees of both kinds in all created things, both in the greatest and in the least. That all things, both greatest and least, consist of discrete and continuous degrees, or of degrees of altitude and degrees of latitude, cannot be illustrated by visible examples, because the most minute forms are not visible, and the largest forms, which are visible, do not exhibit their separation into degrees. Therefore we can only 16 122 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. demonstrate this subject in general terms; and as the angels are in wisdom from a knowledge of general princi ples, and from these derive their knowledge of particulars, we may be allowed to present their statements. 223. The statements of the angels are as follows : There is nothing so minute as not to contain degrees of both kinds ; not the most minute form in any animal, nor in any vegetable ; not the least particle of mineral ; nor the small est atom of ether or air. And since ether and air are re ceptacles of heat and light, the smallest atom of heat and light is not without these degrees. And as spiritual heat and light are receptacles of love and wisdom,, the smallest forms of these also contain degrees of both kinds. The angels also affirm, that the smallest affection and the smallest thought, nay, even the most minute idea in a thought, each consists of degrees of either kind ; and that the least thing not consisting of these degrees is nothing ; for it has no form, and therefore no quality, nor any state which may be changed and varied, and through this varia tion give the thing existence. This the angels confirm by the truth, that in God the Creator, Who is the Lord from eternity, infinite things are one, and yet distinct; also that there are infinities in His infinite things, and in these infi nitely infinite things degrees of both kinds,- which are also one in Him and yet distinct. And because such things are in Him, and all things are created by Him, and in a certain image resemble what is in Him, it follows that there does not exist the smallest finite form, which does not contain these degrees. That these degrees are alike in things small and great, is because the Divine is in things great and small the same. That in the Divine Man infinite things are one and yet distinct, may be seen above, n. 17-22 : and that the Divine is the same in things great and small, n. 77-82 : which are further illustrated n. 155, 169, 171. THESE DEGREES UNIVERSAL. 123 224. Not the least of love and wisdom, nor of affection and thought, nor the smallest idea in a thought, exists, in which there are not degrees of both kinds, as before stated, because love and wisdom are a substance and form, as shown in n. 40-43. The same is true of affection and thought. And because, as stated above, there is no form which does not contain these degrees, it follows that love, wisdom, affection and thought also contain them. For to separate love and wisdom, and affection and thought, from substance existing in its form, is to annihilate them ; be cause apart from their subjects they do not exist ; for they are manifested by the states of these subjects, made per ceptible to man by their variations. 225. The greatest forms containing both kinds of degrees are the entire complex universe ; the natural world in the complex ; also the spiritual world ; every empire and every kingdom in the complex ; also everything civil, moral, and spiritual belonging to them, in the complex ; the whole animal kingdom, the whole vegetable kingdom, and the whole mineral kingdom, each in its complex form : and finally all the atmospheres of each world taken together, and their different kinds of heat and light. The same is true of forms less general ; as of a man, of every animal, every tree and shrub, and of every stone and metal, each in its complex form. The forms of 'all these objects are similar in this, that they consist of degrees of both kinds. This is because the Divine, from which they were created, is in all things great and small the same, as demonstrated above, n. 77-82. Moreover, in all these objects the par ticular and most particular forms are similar to their gene ral and most general forms in this, that they contain both kinds of degrees. 226. Things greatest and least being forms of both kinds of degrees, are thereby connected from primaries to ulti mates ; for their similarity unites them. Yet no minute 124 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. form is the same as another ; and thus is preserved a dis tinction among all the forms, particular and most particular. There is not anything the most minute repeated in any form, or in other forms, because the same degrees exist in the greatest forms, and these consist of the smallest : and since such degrees exist in the greatest forms, and from them arises a perpetual distinction from highest to lowest, and from centre to circumference ; it follows that their smaller and smallest constituents, which contain similar degrees, are none of them the same. 227. It is also angelic wisdom, that the perfection of the created universe arises from the similarity of its general and particular, or of its greatest and least forms, as to these degrees ; for thus each form regards the other as its like ness, with which it can be united in every use, and bring every end into effect. 228. This may seem paradoxical, because not proved by application to visible things ; yet abstract statements, be cause universal, are often better understood than statements so applied ; for these are of perpetual variety, and variety obscures. 229. By some a substance is said to exist, so simple that it is not a form composed of lesser forms ; and that from collected masses of this substance are produced secondary or compound substances, and at last the substance called matter. But no such most simple substance exists. For what is a substance without a form ? It is a something of which we can predicate nothing ; and out of bare entity, of which nothing can be predicated, no collection into masses can produce anything. That things innumerable exist in all first created substances, which are the most minute and simplest forms, will be seen, when the subject of Form is discussed, in the following pages. 230. The Three Degrees of Altitude are Infinite degrees infinite and finite. 125 and Uncreated in the Lord, but Finite and Created in Man. The three degrees of altitude are infinite and uncreated in the Lord, because the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, as previously demonstrated; and because He is love itself and wisdom itself, He is therefore also use itself. For the end of love is use, which it produces through wisdom ; for without use, love and wisdom have no terminus or bounds, or are homeless. They cannot therefore be said to have being and existence, without use as their receptacle. These three constitute the three degrees of altitude in living subjects ; they are as the primary end, the mediate end or cause, and the ultimate end or effect. That end, cause, and effect constitute the three degrees of altitude was shown above and abundantly confirmed. 231. That those three degrees exist in man, may be seen from the elevation of his mind even to the degrees of love and wisdom belonging to angels of the second and third heaven. For all angels were born men, and man in the interiors of his mind is a heaven in miniature. Thus there are in man by creation as many degrees as there are heavens. Moreover man is an image and likeness of God, and therefore these three degrees are inscribed upon him, because they exist in the Divine Man, that is, in the Lord. That these degrees are infinite and uncreated in the Lord, while they are finite and created in man, will appear from demonstrations in Part I., as from the following: that the Lord is love and wisdom in Himself; that man is a recipi ent of love and wisdom from the Lord ; and that nothing but what is infinite can be attributed to the Lord, and to man nothing but what is finite. 232. Among the angels these three degrees are denomi nated the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural ; the celestial degree being to them the degree of love ; the spiritual the degree of wisdom ; and the natural the degree of use. These degrees are so named because the heavens 126 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. are divided into two kingdoms, one called the celestial kingdom, and the other the spiritual kingdom, to which is added a third, which includes men in the world, and is called the natural kingdom. Furthermore, the angels who constitute the celestial kingdom are in love ; those who constitute the spiritual kingdom in wisdom ; while men in the world are in use : and therefore these kingdoms are united. How it is to be understood that men are in use, will be explained in Part IV. 233. It was told me from heaven, that in the Lord from eternity, Who is Jehovah, before His assumption of Hu manity in the world, the two prior degrees existed actually, and the third degree potentially, as they exist in the angels ; but that after His assumption of Humanity in the world, He put on the third or natural degree also, and thus became man, similar to a man in the world, though with the differ ence that in Him this, like the prior degrees, is infinite and uncreated, while in angel and man they are all finite and created. For the Divine which filled all space without space, n. 69-72, penetrated to the very ultimates of nature ; but before the assumption of the Humanity the Divine influx into the natural degree was mediate, through the angelic heavens, while after the assumption it was immediate, from the Lord Himself. For this reason all the churches in the world before His advent were representative of things spiritual and celestial ; but after His advent they became spiritual-natural and celestial-natural, and representative worship was abolished. For this reason also the Sun of the angelic heaven, which, as before said, is the first ema nation of His Divine Love and Wisdom, after His assump tion of Humanity, shone with a more effulgent radiance and splendor than before. This is the meaning of these words in Isaiah : "Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the OBJECT OF THE INCARNATION. 127 Lord bindeth up the breach of His people," xxx. 26. This is said of the state of heaven and the church after the Lord's advent into the world. Again in Revelation : " His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength," i. 16 : and elsewhere, as in Isaiah, lx. 20 : 2 Samuel, xxiii. 3, 4 : Matthew, xvii. 1, 2. The mediate enlightenment of men through the angelic heaven, such as took place before the Lord's advent, may be compared to the light of the moon, which is a mediate light of the sun. But because after the Lord's advent this enlightenment was immediate, it is said in Isaiah : ' ' The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun;" and in David : "In his days shall the righteous flourish ; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth," Ps. lxxii. 7. This also is said with reference to the Lord. 234. The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, superadded that third degree by the assumption of Humanity in the world, for the reason that He could not enter into it except by means of a nature similar to human nature, that is, by conception from His own Divinity, and birth from the virgin ; for He could thus put off nature, which in itself is dead, though a receptacle of the Divine, and put on the Divine. This is meant by the two states of the Lord while in the world, called His state of humiliation, and His state of glorification, which are treated of in the New Church Doctrine of the Lord. 235. This much in general is said of the threefold ascent of degrees of altitude; but as these degrees exist in all things greatest and least alike, as shown in the preceding proposition, they cannot here be particularly discussed ; we can only state that such degrees exist in love in general, and in all its particulars, and from these again they exist in all use, and in every particular use ; but in the Lord all are infinite, while in angel and man they are all finite. But how these degrees exist in love, wisdom, and use, 128 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. cannot be unfolded and explained except in a regular order. 236. These Three Degrees of Altitude are in every Man from his Birth, and may be successively opened ; and as they are opened, man is in the lord and the Lord in Him. The existence of three degrees of altitude in every man has been hitherto unrecognized, be cause nothing has been known of these degrees ; and so long as they remain concealed, only continuous degrees can be known ; and in this case, it may be supposed that love and wisdom in man increase only by continuity. But it is to be known that three degrees of altitude or discrete degrees, exist in every man from his birth, one above or within the other; and each degree of altitude or discrete degree, contains also degrees of latitude or continuous degrees, according to which it increases continuously, since degrees of both kinds exist in the greatest and least of all things, as shown above, n. 222-229 5 f°r one kind of degrees cannot exist without the other. 237. The three degrees of altitude are called the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial, as stated above, n. 32 : when man is born, he enters the natural degree, and this enlarges within him continuously according to the increase of his knowledge, and according to the understanding by it ac quired, until he attains that perfection of understanding called rationality. Yet this does not open the second de gree called the spiritual : this is opened by a love of use arising from a knowledge of it, but by a spiritual love of use, which is the love of the neighbor. This degree may also be enlarged continuously even to its perfection; its enlargement taking place by a knowledge of the good and true, or by spiritual truths. Yet even these do not open the third or celestial degree : this is effected by the celes tial love of use, which is the love of the Lord, and the OPENING OF THE DEGREES IN MAN. 129 love of the Lord is none other than committing to life the teachings of the Word, the sum of which is to shun evils because they are infernal and diabolical, and to do good because it is heavenly and divine. The three degrees in man are thus successively opened. 238. While man lives in the world he knows nothing of the opening of these three degrees within him, because he is then in the natural degree, which is the ultimate, and from this thinks, wills, speaks, and acts ; and the spiritual degree, which is interior, does not communicate with the natural by continuity, but by correspondences ; and com munication by correspondences is not felt. But when man puts off the natural degree, as he does at death, he then enters that degree which was opened within him in the world ; he in whom the spiritual degree was opened enters into the spiritual, and he in whom the celestial degree was opened into the celestial. He who after death enters the spiritual degree, no longer thinks, wills, speaks, and acts naturally, but spiritually ; and he who enters the celestial degree, thinks, wills, speaks, and acts according to that degree. And as there is a communication of the three degrees only by correspondences, therefore the distinction of love, wisdom, and use from each other, as regards de grees, is such that they have nothing in common by con tinuity. From which it will appear, that three degrees of altitude exist in man, which may be successively opened. 239. As there are three degrees of love, wisdom, and consequent use in man, it follows that three degrees of will, understanding, and their resultant, or determination to use, also exist within him ; for the will is a receptacle of love, the understanding a receptacle of wisdom, and their resultant is use. There is evidently, therefore, within every man a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial will and understanding, existing from his birth potentially, and actually when opened. In a word, the human mind, which 17 130 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. consists of will and understanding, is of three degrees from creation, and therefore from birth ; so that man possesses a natural mind, a spiritual mind, and a celestial mind, and can thus be elevated to angelic wisdom. This he may possess while in the world, yet he cannot enter it until after death, and unless he becomes an angel, in which case he utters things ineffable, and to the natural man incompre hensible. I knew a man of moderate learning in the world, whom I saw and spoke with after death : and I perceived clearly that he spoke as an angel, and that what he said was incomprehensible to a natural man. This was because he had applied the teachings of the Word to life, and had worshiped the Lord, and had therefore been ele vated by the Lord to the third degree of love and wisdom. It is important to know of this elevation of the human mind, for upon it depends the understanding of what follows. 240. Man derives from the Lord two faculties, which distinguish him' from beasts. One of these faculties is the ability to understand what is true and what is good, and is called Rationality ; it is the faculty of the understand ing. The other faculty is the ability to do what is true and good ; this is called Liberty, and it is the faculty of ' the will. For from his rationality man can think what he pleases, both for God and against Him, also for and against the neighbor ; moreover he can will and do what he thinks ; but when he sees evil and fears punishment, he can from his liberty abstain from doing it. By these two faculties man is man, and is distinguished from the beasts : he de rives them from the Lord, and this continually ; he is never deprived of them ; for if he were, his humanity would be destroyed. The Lord is present in these two faculties with every man, with the good and evil alike. They are His dwelling-place in the human race ; therefore it is that every man, good or evil, lives forever. But the Lord's abode with man is nearer, 3s man by means of those faculties INFLUX OF SPIRITUAL LIGHT AND HEAT. 131 opens the higher degrees ; for by this opening he enters the higher degrees of love and wisdom, and so draws nearer to the Lord. From all of which it may now appear, that as those degrees are opened, so is man in the Lord, and the Lord in him. 241. It has been stated above that the three degrees of altitude are as end, cause, and effect ; and that love, wis dom, and use succeed each other according to those de grees. We shall therefore speak briefly here of love, wisdom, and use, as being respectively end, cause, and effect. Any one judging from an enlightened reason, may see that a man's love is the sole end of his existence. For what a man loves, upon that he thinks, about that he de cides, and that he does ; consequently that is his end. A man may also see from his own reason that wisdom is cause ; for he, or his love which is the end, searches the understanding for means by which to' obtain the end ; that is, he consults his wisdom, and those means constitute the cause through which the end acts. That use is the effect is evident without explanation. But the love of one man is not the same as that of another, nor is the wisdom of one the same as that of another, nor consequently the use. And as these three are homogeneous, as shown above, n. 189-194, it follows that whatever is the character of a man's love, such also is the character of his wisdom and of his use. By the term wisdom is here meant what per tains to the understanding. 242. Spiritual Light flows into man by Three degrees, but not Spiritual Heat, except so far as he shuns Evils as Sins, and looks to the Lord. From previous demonstrations it is manifest, that from the Sun of heaven, which is the first emanation of the divine love'and wisdom (of which in Part II.), proceed light and heat, — light from its wisdom, and heat from its love ; also 132 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. that the light is a receptacle of wisdom, and the heat a receptacle of love ; furthermore, that so far as man attains to wisdom, he enters that divine light, and so far as he attains to love, he enters that divine heat. It is also evi dent from preceding demonstrations, that there are three degrees of light and three of heat, or three degrees of wisdom and of love ; and that those degrees are formed in man, that he may be a receptacle of the divine love and wisdom, that is, of the Lord. It is now to be demonstrated that spiritual light flows into man by three degrees, but not spiritual heat, except so far as man shuns evils as sins, and looks to the Lord ; or what is the same thing, a man can receive wisdom even to the third degree, but not love, unless he shuns evils as sins and looks to the Lord ; or in other words yet, man's understanding may be elevated to wisdom, but not his will, unless he shuns evils as sins. 243. That the understanding may be elevated into the light of heaven, or into angelic wisdom, while the will cannot be elevated into the heat of heaven or into angelic love, unless man shuns evils as sins and looks to the Lord, has been made very evident to me by experience in the spiritual world. I have frequently seen and perceived that simple-minded spirits, who hardly knew anything beyond the mere existence of God, and the Lord's birth as a man, fully understood the arcana of angelic wisdom almost as the angels : and not these only, but also many of the devils. But they understood them only when they heard of them, not from their own thought. For when they heard truth from others, a higher light entered their minds ; but when their own thought was active, then no other light could enter than what corresponded to their own heat or love. Therefore even after they had heard those arcana with a true perception of their meaning, when they ceased to listen, they retained none of them ; while the devils re jected and wholly denied them : this was because the fire UNDERSTANDING AND WILL. 133 of their love and its light, being delusive, induced a dark ness which extinguished the heavenly light entering from above. 244. The same takes place in the world. Any man not altogether stupid, nor confirmed in the false by pride in his own intelligence, when he hears conversation on pro found subjects, or reads of them, if he has any love of knowledge, understands them, also retains them, and may afterwards confirm them. Either a bad or a good man can do this. A bad man, although in heart he denies the Divine things belonging to the church, can still under stand them, also speak of them and preach them, or even prove them learnedly by writing ; but when left to his own reflections, he thinks against these truths from his infernal love, and denies them. From which it is obvious, that the understanding may be in spiritual light, even if the will is not in spiritual heat. It therefore follows that the under standing does not lead the will, nor does wisdom produce love, but merely teaches, and shows the way — teaches how man is to live, and shows him what way to go. It more over follows, that the will leads the understanding, and causes it to act in unison with itself; and love, which belongs to the will, calls that which agrees with itself in the understanding, wisdom. Yet the will by itself, as will appear hereafter, without the understanding, does nothing, but in all it does, acts in union with the understanding ; and the will draws the understanding into fellowship by influx, but not the reverse. 245. We shall now explain the nature of the influx of light into the three degrees of life in man's mind. The forms within man which are receptacles of heat and light or of love and wisdom, and which, as we have said, are in threefold order or of three degrees, are from his birth transparent, transmitting spiritual light as crystalline glass •ransmits natural light; therefore man may be elevated 134 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. in wisdom to the third degree. Yet these forms are not opened until spiritual heat unites itself to spiritual light, or love to wisdom. By this union the transparent forms are opened according to degrees. The order is the same as that of light and heat from the sun of the world in their action upon the vegetable kingdom. The winter's light, which is equally bright with that of summer, opens nothing in seed or tree ; but when the vernal heat is united to it, the light is effective. This similarity exists, because spiritual light and heat correspond to natural light and heat. 246. This spiritual heat is obtained only by shunning evils as sins, and by looking to the Lord ; for so long as man is in evils, he is in the love of them, and lusts after them ; and the love of evil and its lust, are in a love opposed to spiritual love and affection, and cannot be re moved except by shunning evils as sins : and as man can not shun evil of himself, but only from the Lord, he must look to Him. When he thus shuns evils from the Lord, the love of evil and its heat are removed, and in their place are introduced the love of the good and its heat, by which a higher degree is opened ; for the Lord flows in from above and opens it, and unites love or spiritual heat, to wisdom or spiritual light, from which union man begins spiritually to flourish, as a tree in spring. 247. By the influx of spiritual light into all three degrees of the mind man is distinguished from animals, and so far excels them that he can think analytically, can see not only natural but also spiritual truths, and when he sees can acknowledge them, and so may be reformed and regene rated. The faculty of receiving spiritual light is meant by rationality (of which above) , which every man possesses from the Lord, and which is not taken from him, for if it were, he could not be reformed. It is from the faculty of rationality that man derives not only the. power of thought, DEGREES— HOW OPENED IN MAN. 135 but also the power of speech from thought, in this respect differing from animals. Finally, from the other faculty called liberty (of which also above) , man can do what his understanding contemplates. As these two faculties, ra tionality and liberty, which are proper to man, have been treated of above, n. 240, we shall not speak of them further at present. 248. If the Higher Degree, which is Spiritual, is NOT OPENED WITHIN MAN, He BECOMES NATURAL AND Sensual. It was shown above that the human mind is of three degrees, called natural, spiritual, and celestial, which degrees in man may be successively opened. We have also shown that the natural degree is first opened ; next in order, if man shuns evils as sins and looks to the Lord, the spiritual degree ; and last of all the celestial. As the de grees are successively opened according to the man's life, it follows that the two higher degrees may remain unopened, and that he then continues in the natural or ultimate degree. That there is a natural man and a spiritual man, or an ex ternal man and an internal, is known in the world ; but it is not known that the natural man becomes spiritual by the opening of a higher degree within him, and that this open ing is effected by a spiritual life, that is by a life according to the Divine precepts, while without such a life man re mains natural. 249. There are three classes of natural men : the first consists of those who are ignorant of the Divine precepts ; the second of those who know them, but take no thought to live according to them ; and the third of those who despise and deny them. As to the first class, which con sists of those who are ignorant of the Divine precepts, they must necessarily remain natural, because they cannot in struct themselves ; for every man is taught the Divine pre cepts by those who from religion know them, and not by 136 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. immediate revelation ; of which more may be seen in the " New Church Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture," n. 114- 118. The second class, who know the Divine precepts, but care nothing for a life according to them, also remain natural, and are regardless of everything except worldly and corporeal affairs. After death they become subject and servile, according to their usefulness to those who are spiritual. For the natural man is a servant and slave, while the spiritual is a lord and master. They of the third class, who despise and deny the Divine precepts, not only remain natural, but become sensual according to the char acter of their contempt and denial. The sensual are the lowest natural, who are unable to think above the appear ances and illusions of the bodily senses. After death they are in hell. 250. As it is unknown in the world what the spiritual man is and what the natural, and as by many the merely natural is called spiritual and the spiritual natural, their distinction shall be explained in the following order: — I. What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man is. II. The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened. III. The character of the natu ral man in whom the spiritual degree has not been opened, and yet is not wholly closed. IV. The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is wholly closed. V. The distinction between the life of a merely natural man and that of an animal. 251- I- — What the natural man is, and what the spirit ual man is. Man is not man from his form and features, but from his understanding and will ; therefore by the terms "natural man" and "spiritual man," we mean a natural and spiritual understanding and will. The natural man in his understanding and will is like the natural world, and may be called a world or microcosm ; while the spiritual man in his understanding and will is like the spiritual THE NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN. 137 world, and may be called a spiritual world or heaven. Evidently, therefore, the natural man being an image of the natural world, loves what belongs to that world ; while the spiritual man, being an image of the spiritual world, loves what belongs to that, or to heaven. The spiritual man also loves the natural world, but only as a master loves his servant, on account of his usefulness. Further more, by usefulness the natural man becomes like the spiritual, that is, when he feels in use a delight from spiritual sources. A natural man in this slate may be called spiritual-natural. The spiritual man loves spiritual truths ; not only does he love the knowledge and compre hension of them, but his will harmonizes with them. The natural man loves to speak of those truths, and to practice them : to put truths in practice is to be useful. This sub ordination arises from the union of the spiritual and natural worlds ; for everything done and apparent in the natural world derives its cause from the spiritual. From this it is obvious that the spiritual man is quite distinct from the natural, with no communication between them except that which prevails between cause and effect. 252. II. — The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened. This is explained in the foregoing ; to which we may add that the natural man is the complete man, when the spiritual degree within him has been opened ; because he is then associated both with angels in heaven and with men in the world, and lives in both worlds under the guidance of the Lord ; for the spirit ual man receives his commands from the Lord through the Word, and executes them through the natural man. The natural man, in whom the spiritual degree has been opened, does not know that he thinks and acts from his spiritual man, for he seems to act from himself; yet his actions are not from himself, but from the Lord. Neither does he know that in his spiritual man he is in heaven ; yet his 18 138 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. spiritual man is in the midst of the angels of heaven, and is sometimes visible to them ; but as he constantly with draws to the natural man, after a brief stay he disappears. Nor does the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is opened know that his spiritual mind is filled with countless arcana of wisdom, and countless joys from the Lord, into the possession of which he comes after death, when he be comes an angel. Of all this the natural man is ignorant, because his communication with the spiritual man is by correspondences ; and this kind of communication is per ceived in the understanding only as the power to see truths clearly, and in the will only as a love of being useful. 253. III. — The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree has not been opened, and yet is not wholly closed. The spiritual degree has not been opened, but still is not wholly closed, in those who have lived in some measure a life of charity, and yet have known but little of genuine truth. This is because that degree is opened by the union of love and wisdom, or of heat and light : love alone, or spiritual heat alone, does not open it,- nor does wisdom or spiritual light alone, but both united. Wherefore if genuine truths, in which wisdom or light originates, are unknown, love alone does not prevail to open that degree, but merely preserves it in the possibility of being opened : this is what is meant by that degree not being wholly closed. This is similar to what takes place in the vegetable kingdom, where heat alone does not cause growth in seeds and trees, but heat operating in union with light. It is to be known that the true is ail from spiritual light, and the good all from spiritual heat, and that the good by means of the true opens the spiritual degree ; for the good by means of the true accomplishes use, and use is the good that is in love, and that derives its essence from the union of the good and true. After death, the lot of those in whom the spiritual degree is not opened and yet EVIL CLOSES THE HIGHER DEGREES. 139 not closed, is this : because they are still natural and not spiritual, they are located in the lowest parts of heaven, where they sometimes suffer much ; or they are located on the boundaries of some higher heaven, in a light like that of evening ; for as before stated, the light of every society in heaven decreases from the centre to the circumference, those who excel the others in divine truths being in the centre, and those who possess but little truth, on the boun daries. They possess but little truth, who from religion know only that God is, that the Lord suffered for them, and that charity and faith are the essentials of the church, yet do not study much to know what charity and faith are ; although faith in its essence is truth, and truth is manifold ; and charity is every work of his employment which a man performs from the Lord. Whatever a man does is from the Lord, when he shuns evils as sins. This agrees fully with the previous statement, that the end is everything in the cause, and the effect is the whole end evolved through the cause ; the end is charity, or the good ; the cause is faith, or the true ; and the effect is good works, or use. From all of which it is evident, that charity cannot enter into works, except so far as it is united to the truths belong ing to faith ; for through these truths charity enters into works and qualifies them. 254. IV. — The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is wholly closed. The spiritual de gree is closed in those whose life is in evils, and still more in those who from evils are in the false. For as the fibrilla of a nerve contracts at the least touch of anything heterogeneous, or as every motive fibre of muscle, a whole muscle, or even the whole body, shrinks at the touch of anything hard or cold, so do the substances and forms of the spiritual degree in man shrink from the evil and false, because they are heterogeneous. For the spiritual degree being a form of heaven admits nothing but the good, and 140 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. truths from the good, for they are homogeneous to it ; while evil and the false from evil, are heterogeneous. This de gree is contracted, and by contraction closed, especially with those in the world who are in the love of rule from self-love, this love being the opposite of love to the Lord. It is closed also, but not so entirely, with those who from the love of the world have a mania for possessing the property of others. These loves close the spiritual de gree, because they are the origin of all evils. The con traction or closing of this degree is like the backward return of a spire : for which reason that degree, after it is closed, reflects the light of heaven, and darkness prevails there instead of that light; and therefore truth, which is in heavenly light, becomes nauseous. With these, not only is the spiritual degree closed, but also the higher region, which is called the rational, of the natural degree. This closing continues even until the lowest region of the natural degree, or the sensual, alone stands open ; for this is nearest the world and the external bodily senses, from which the man afterwards thinks, speaks, and reasons. The natural man, who has become sensual through evil and its false hood, in the spiritual world and in the light of heaven does not appear as a man, but as a monster with retracted nose : the nose seems indrawn, because it corresponds to the per ception of truth. He cannot endure a ray of heavenly light. In the caverns of such there is only a light like that of burning coal or charcoal. It is now manifest who they are, and what is their character, in whom the spiritual degree has been closed. 255. V. — The distinction between the life of a merely natural man and that of an animal. We shall speak particularly of this distinction hereafter, where we treat of Life ; at present we shall only say that the distinction is this : Man possesses three degrees of mind, or three de grees of understanding and will, which may be success- ANIMALS HAVE NOT THE HIGHER DEGREES. 141 ively opened ; and because they are transparent, his under standing may be elevated into the light of heaven, and see truths, not only civil and moral, but also spiritual truths, and from many truths seen may infer general principles, and thus perfect his understanding eternally. But in ani mals the two higher degrees are wanting ; they possess the natural degree only, which apart from the higher de grees has not the capacity for thinking upon any civil, moral, or spiritual subjects. And as the natural degree in animals cannot be opened, and so elevated into higher light, they cannot think in successive, but only in simul taneous order, which is not thinking, but acting from a knowledge corresponding to their love ; and because they cannot think analytically, and see lower thoughts from higher, they have not the faculty of speech, but utter sounds accordant with the knowledge belonging to their love. Yet the sensual man, who is the lowest natural, differs from an animal only in the ability to store his memory with facts, and to think and speak of them. This ability he derives from the faculty proper to every man, — the ability to understand truth if he will. This faculty distinguishes man from animals, yet many by its abuse have made themselves lower than animals. 256. The Natural Degree of the Human Mind viewed in Itself is Continuous ; but by its Corre spondence WITH THE TWO HIGHER DEGREES, WHEN IT IS ELEVATED, SEEMS TO BE DISCRETE. Although this is hardly comprehensible to those who have no knowledge of degrees of altitude, yet it ought to be revealed, because it is of angelic wisdom ; and this wisdom, although the natural man's thought cannot receive it as the angels do, is nevertheless within the grasp of the understanding, when this is elevated to the degree of light in which angels are : for the understanding can be so far elevated, 142 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. and enlightened according to its elevation. The enlight enment of the natural mind does not ascend by discrete degrees, but increases by continuous degrees ; and as it increases, is enlightened from within by the light of the two higher degrees. How this takes place may be under stood from a proper conception of degrees of altitude, as being one above the other, while the natural degree, which is the ultimate, is like a common covering for the two superior degrees. Then, as the natural degree is elevated towards the higher degree, this acts upon the exterior natural degree from within, and illuminates it. This il lumination comes indeed from within, from the light of the higher degrees ; but it is received continuously by the natural degree which encompasses and clothes it, and is thus clearer and purer according to its ascent : that is, the natural degree is enlightened from within by the light of the higher degrees, discretely ; but in itself, continuously. From which it is evident that man, while he lives in the world and is therefore in the natural degree, cannot be elevated into the same wisdom in which angels are, but only into higher light, even up to the angels ; and he may receive enlightenment from their light, which flows into and illuminates him from within. But this cannot as yet be clearly explained ; it may be better understoood from effects ; for effects bring the causes that are within them to light, and illustrate them, when causes are in some measure previously understood. 257. The effects which illustrate are these : — 1. The natural mind may be elevated even to the light of heaven in which angels are, and may perceive naturally what angels perceive spiritually, thus not so perfectly as angels ; but yet man's natural mind cannot be elevated into angelic light itself. 2. Man, by the elevation of his natural mind towards the light of heaven, can think and even speak with angels ; but in that case angelic thought and language CHARACTER OF THE NATURAL MIND. 143 flow into man's natural thought and language, and not the reverse : wherefore angels speak with a man in his own natural language. 3. This takes place by a spiritual influx into the natural, and not by any natural influx into the spiritual. 4. Human wisdom, which is natural so long as man lives in the world, can by no means be elevated into angelic wisdom, but only into an image of it ; this is be cause the natural mind is elevated continuously, as from shade to light, or from grosser to purer. But the man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened, enters into that wisdom when he dies ; and may also enter into it by the suspension of bodily sensation, and then by an influx from above into the spiritual region of his mind. 5. The natural mind of man consists of both spiritual and natural substances ; thought originates in the spiritual substances, not in the natural, which recede when man dies, while the spiritual substances remain. Therefore the spiritual mind retains after death, when man becomes a spirit or angel, the same form which it had in the world. 6. The natural substances of that mind, which, as before stated, recede at death, constitute the cutaneous covering of the spiritual body belonging to spirits and angels. By means of this covering taken from the natural world, their spiritual bodies are sustained ; for the natural is the ultimate which contains them : therefore it is that no spirit or angel exists who was not born a man. These arcana of angelic wisdom are adduced to show the character of man's natural mind, of which we shall further treat in subsequent pages. 258. Every man is born into the capacity of understand ing truth even to the inmost degree, in which are the angels of the third heaven: for the human understanding, rising up by continuous degrees around the two higher degrees, receives the light of their wisdom in the manner above explained, n. 256. Therefore man may become rational according to his elevation : if he is elevated to the i44 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. third degree, from that degree he becomes rational ; if to the second degree, he becomes rational from that ; and if not elevated, he is rational in the first degree. He is said to become rational from those degrees, because the natural degree is the common receptacle of their light. That man does not become perfectly rational as he might, is because love which belongs to the will, cannot be elevated like wisdom which belongs to the understanding. The will's love is elevated only by shunning evils as sins, and then by the good in charity, which is use, that a man finally per forms from the Lord. Therefore if the will's love is not elevated, the wisdom of the understanding, however it ascends, again relapses to its love : and therefore man, unless his love also is elevated to the spiritual degree, is not rational except in the ultimate degree. From which it is evident that man's rationality has the appearance nf containing three degrees, one from the celestial, one from spiritual, and one from the natural ; moreover, that ration ality itself, which renders him capable of elevation, re mains with man, whether he is elevated or not. 259. Every man, we have said, is born into that faculty, or into rationality ; but this means every man whose ex ternals have not been injured by accident, either in the womb, or after birth by disease, or by wounds in the head, or by insane passion breaking out and throwing off all restraint. In such the rational cannot be elevated, because the life which belongs to their will and understanding has, to its activity, no fixed limits so disposed that it may achieve ultimate action according to order. For life acts according to ultimate limits, though not from them. Neither can rationality exist with infants and children, as may be seen below, n. 266, at the end. 260. The Natural Mind, being the Covering which CONTAINS THE HlGHER DEGREES OF THE HUMAN MlND, IS THE NATURAL MIND A REAGENT. 145 THEREFORE A REAGENT, WHICH, IF THE HlGHER DE GREES ARE NOT OPENED, ACTS AGAINST THEM, AND IF they are opened, acts with them. In the preceding proposition it was shown that the natural mind, because it is in the ultimate degree, covers and incloses the spiritual and celestial minds, which are of the higher degrees. It is now to be demonstrated that the natural mind reacts against the higher or interior minds. It reacts, because it covers, includes, and contains them, which cannot be done without reaction. For unless the natural mind reacted, the inclosed interiors would become relaxed, escape, and be wasted : just as the viscera, which are the interiors of the human body, would break out and fall asunder, if their various tunics did not react against them ; or as, if the mem brane surrounding the motive fibres of muscle did not react against the force of those fibres in their action, not only would their action cease, but all their interior textures would be dissolved. In degrees of altitude this is true of every ultimate degree, consequently of the natural mind with respect to the higher degrees ; for, as said above, the human mind is of three degrees, natural, spiritual, and celestial, and the natural mind is in the ultimate degree. Another cause for the reaction of the natural mind against the spiritual is, that the natural mind consists not only of substances from the spiritual, but also of substances from the natural world, as stated above, n. 257 ; and the sub stances of the natural world from their own nature react against those of the spiritual, for they are in themselves dead, and are outwardly acted upon by the substances of the spiritual world. Everything dead, and acted upon from without, from its very nature resists, and therefore naturally reacts. From which it will appear that the natural man reacts against the spiritual, and there is con flict between them. Whether we say the natural and the 19 146 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. spiritual man, or the natural and the spiritual mind, it is the same. 261. It is now evident that if the spiritual mind is closed, the natural mind continually acts against its influence, being fearful of any disturbance from this source to its own states. All that flows in through the spiritual mind is from heaven, for that mind in its form is a heaven : and everything which flows into the natural mind is from the world, for in its form this mind is a world. It follows, therefore, that the natural mind, when the spiritual is closed, reacts against every thing heavenly, giving it no admission except so far as serviceable in acquiring the possession of worldly things. And when heavenly things subserve as means the purposes of the natural mind, the means although in appearance heavenly, also become natural ; for the end qualifies them, and they become as mere facts of the natural man's know ledge, which are interiorly devoid of life. And as things heavenly and natural cannot be united so as to act in unison, they separate, and the heavenly with merely natural men rearranges itself on the surface, encircling the natural which is within ; so that a merely natural man can talk of heavenly things, and preach them, and even imitate them in his conduct, although internally opposed to them : this when he is alone, but that in public. But of this more hereafter. 262. The natural mind or the natural man, from this innate reaction, acts against the influences of the spiritual man, when he loves above all things himself and the world. He then takes delight in all kinds of wickedness, as in adultery, fraud, revenge, blasphemy, and so on; he then regards nature as the creatress of the universe ; confirms everything by his own reason ; and afterwards perverts the goodness and truth of heaven and the church, or suffocates them, or throws them back ; finally he shuns them with aversion, and even with hatred. All this he does in spirit, UNIVERSAL EQUILIBRIUM. 147 and openly so far as he can speak from his heart to others, without fearing the loss of reputation, wealth, or honor. In such a man the spiritual mind is more and raore firmly closed : the confirmation of evil by the false especially closes it. Therefore evil and the false once confirmed, cannot be extirpated after death ; this can only be done in the world, by repentance. 263. But the state of the natural mind when the spiritual is opened is altogether different ; it is then rendered sub ordinate and obedient to the spiritual ; for the latter acts upon the natural mind from above or from within, and re moves what there reacts, adapting to itself whatever is harmonious, and so gradually removing excessive reaction. It is to be known that throughout the universe, in every thing great and small, living or dead, there is action and reaction, which maintain universal equilibrium. This equi librium is destroyed when either action or reaction is in excess. So likewise in the spiritual and natural minds : when the natural mind acts from the joy of its own love, and the pleasantness of its thought, which are in themselves evil and false, then its reaction removes the influences of the spiritual mind, and closes the doors lest they enter, thus causing action to take place only from what accords with its own reaction. From this arises an action and re action of the natural mind opposed to the action and re action of the spiritual ; and then the spiritual mind is closed like the backward turning of a spire. But when the spiritual mind is opened, the action and reaction of the natural mind are reversed : for the spiritual acts from above or within, and moreover, through what has been rendered obedient in the natural mind either from within or from without; and by this means the spiral motion resulting from the action and reaction of the natural mind, is re versed. This mind is from birth directly opposed to the spiritual mind, which tendency is known to be its parental 148 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. inheritance ; and the change of its state, as above described, is what is called reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before reformation may be compared to a spire revolving with a downward motion ; and after reformation to a spire revolving with an upward motion. Therefore man before reformation, looks downward to hell ; but after reformation, upward to heaven. 264. The Origin of Evil is the Abuse of those Faculties proper to Man, Rationality and Liberty. Rationality means the capacity for understanding the true, and therefore the false, the good also, and therefore the evil ; and liberty means freedom of thought, will, and action. From previous treatment it is obvious, and will be made more so in what follows, that these two faculties are inherent in every man by creation, and therefore from birth ; that they are from the Lord, and are never taken away ; that from them arises the appearance that man thinks, speaks, wills, and acts from himself; that the Lord dwells with every man in these faculties, and from this union man lives forever; that by them he may be re formed and regenerated, but not without them ; and finally, that they distinguish man from the animals. 265 . That the abuse of these faculties is the origin of evil, shall be explained in the following order : — I. A bad man enjoys those two faculties equally with a good one. II. A bad man abuses them to confirm the evil and the false ; but a good man uses them to confirm the good and the true. III. The evil and false confirmed in man be come permanent, inherent in his love, and therefore in his life. IV. Whatever has become inherent in the love and life, is hereditary in offspring. V. All evil, both heredi tary and acquired, resides in the natural mind. 266. I. — A bad man enjoys these two faculties equally with a good one. The natural mind may be elevated in LIBERTY ENJOYED BY ALL ALIKE. 149 understanding to the light enjoyed by angels of the third heaven, can see truths, acknowledge them, and utter them, as shown in the preceding proposition. And because the natural mind is capable of such elevation, it is evident that a bad man equally with a good one enjoys the faculty of rationality ; and for the same reason he can think and speak truths ; that he may also conform to them in will and conduct, although he does not, reason and experience both affirm. Reason affirms it ; for who cannot shape his will and action to his thought? and if he does not, it is be cause he does not love to do so. The power of volition and action is liberty, which every man possesses from the Lord ; and if his will does not favor the good, and he does it not, when he can, it is from the love of evil which opposes, but which nevertheless he may resist, as many do. Experience in the spiritual world has often affirmed it ; I have listened to wicked spirits, who were internally devils, and had in the world rejected the truths of heaven and the church ; and when the love of knowing, which is common to all men from childhood, was excited in them by the glory which encompasses every love as a fiery radiance, they perceived arcana of angelic wisdom as clearly as good spirits who were internally angels. Even the diabolical spirits declared that they could conform to those arcana in will and conduct, but they were not willing. When told that they would be willing if they would only shun evils as sins, they replied that they could do that also, but were not willing. From which it was evident that the faculty called liberty is enjoyed equally by the wicked and the good. Let any one consult himself, and he will see that it is so. Man has this power of volition, because the Lord, from whom the faculty of liberty is de rived, continually gives it to him ; for, as stated above, the Lord dwells with every man in those two faculties, thus ;n the faculty or power of volition. As to the faculty oi 150 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. understanding, or rationality, man does not attain to it until his natural mind has matured ; meanwhile that faculty is like the seed in unripe fruit, which cannot vegetate in the soil, and grow : nor does it exist with those mentioned in n. 259. 267. II. — A bad man abuses those faculties to confirm the evil and false; but a good man uses them to confirm the good and true. The intellectual faculty called ration ality, and the voluntary faculty called liberty, give man the power to confirm whatever he will. For the natural man may elevate his understanding to higher light as far as he desires ; but he who is in evil and its falsehood, does not elevate it above the higher region of his natural mind, or rarely to the region of his spiritual mind. This is be cause he is in the delight of his natural mind's love, and if he rises above it, that delight perishes. If he rises still higher, and sees truths opposed to the delights of his life, or to the principles of his own intelligence, he falsifies them, or passes on, leaving them with contempt; or he retains them in memory as means to subserve his life's love, or the pride of his own intelligence. That the natural man may confirm whatever he will, is very evident from the numerous heresies in the Christian world, every one of which is confirmed by its own adherents. Who does not know that all kinds of wickedness and falsehood may be confirmed? It may be confirmed, and by the wicked is confirmed in their own minds, that there is no God; that nature is the only existence, and self-created; that religion is only a means for keeping weak minds in bond age ; that human prudence controls everything, and the Divine providence does nothing, except to preserve the uni verse in the order in which it was created ; that murder, adultery, theft, fraud, and revenge are right, according to Machiavelli and his admirers. All this and more the natural man may confirm, i->d f»n fill books with the CONVICTIONS PERMANENT. 15 1 arguments ; and when he has done so, those falsehoods seem bright with their delusive light, and truths so shadowy as to be invisible, except as spectres in the night. In a word, assume the falsest statement, present it in the form of a proposition, and ask an ingenious person to prove it ; he will do so to the total extinction of the light of truth. But set aside his proofs, return and examine the proposition from your own rationality, and you will see its falsehood in all its deformity. Evidently, therefore, man may abuse those two faculties implanted in him by the Lord, to con firm evil and falsehood of every kind. This no animal can do, because it does not enjoy those faculties : and therefore an animal is born into the perfect order of its life, and into all the knowledge of its natural love, as man is not. 268. III. — The evil and false confirmed in man become permanent, inherent in his love and in his life. The confirmation of the evil and false is simply the removal of the good and true, which if continued amounts to their re jection ; for evil removes and rejects the good, as the false does the true. Therefore a confirmation of the evil and false is the exclusion of heaven, for everything good and true flows into man from the Lord through heaven : and when heaven is closed man is in hell, in a society where evil and falsehood like his own are dominant, and from which finally he cannot be delivered. I have been per mitted to converse with some who ages since had confirmed in themselves the false doctrines of their religion, and I saw that they still adhered to them just as in the world. This is because everything which a man confirms in him self becomes inherent in his love and life. It is inherent in his love, because inherent in his will and understand ing, and these constitute a man's life. And everything inherent in a man's life, is inherent not only in his whole mind, but also in his whole body. Evidently, therefore, 152 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. a man who has confirmed himself in evil and falsehood, becomes false and evil from head to foot ; and being such throughout, his state cannot by any process be reversed or changed to an opposite state, so as to release him from hell. From these and preceding statements in this propo sition, may be seen the origin of evil. 269. IV. — Whatever has become inherent in the love and life, is hereditary in offspring. It is known that man is born in evil, which he inherits from his parents ; some believe it is from Adam through parents ; but this is an error : man derives his evils from his father, who gives him soul, which the mother clothes with a body. For the semen, which is from the father, is the first receptacle of life, but a recep tacle of the same nature with the father ; for it is in the form of his love ; and the love of every one is in all things great and small like itself, and there is within it an effort to the human form, which it gradually assumes. It follows, that those evils which are called hereditary, are transmitted from fathers to children through successive generations. Observation teaches the same thing ; for whole races re semble their first progenitors in affections ; the resemblance in families is closer ; and in particular households closei still. So manifest is this resemblance, that different races may be recognized by their dispositions, and even by their features. But of the transmission of the love of evil from parents to offspring, we shall speak further when we come to treat of the correspondence of the mind, or will and understanding, with the body and its members and organs. These brief statements are here introduced merely to show that evil is hereditary, and increases by additions from one generation to another, until man from his very birth is nothing but evil. Moreover, the malignity of evil increases as the spiritual mind is closed, for by this means the natural mind also is closed above ; and for this there is no .-emedy except to shun evils as sins, from the Lord : by EVIL RESIDES IN THE NATURAL MIND. 153 these means only can the spiritual mind be opened, and by this again the natural mind reduced to a corresponding form. 270. V. — All evil and all its falsehood, both hereditary and acquired, reside in the natural mind. Evil and its falsehood reside in the natural mind, because that mind is in form or image a world ; but the spiritual mind is in form or image a heaven ; and evil cannot be entertained in heaven. Therefore this mind is not opened at birth, but only capable of being opened. Furthermore, the natural mind takes its form in part from the substances of the natui al world, but the spiritual mind consists wholly of the substances of the spiritual world, which are preserved in their integrity by the Lord, in order that man may become man ; for he is born an animal, but becomes a man. AU the parts of the natural mind have a spiral formation from right to left, but those of the spiritual mind from left to right : the two minds are therefore contrary to each other in their movements ; a proof that evil resides in the natural mind, and that this in itself acts against the spiritual. Again, rotation from right to left is a downward movement, which is towards hell ; but rotation from left to right is an upward movement, which is towards heaven. This I have seen proved by the fact that an evil spirit cannot rotate from left to right, but only from right to left ; while a good spirit can with difficulty rotate from right to left, but easily in the opposite direction ; for rotation obeys the currents of the mind's interiors. 271. The Evil and False are totally opposed to the Good and True ; because the Evil and False are Diabolical and Infernal, while the Good and True are Divine and Heavenly. Every one at the first hearing of it, acknowledges that evil and good are opposites, also the false in evil and the true in the good. _54 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. But those who are in evil have no sense or perception but that evil is good; for evil pleases their senses, especially their sight and hearing, and so pleases their thoughts and perception : therefore, although they acknowledge that evil and good are opposites, yet when in evil, from their delight in it, they call evil good and good evil. For example : the man who abuses his liberty in evil thoughts and actions, calls that freedom ; and the opposite, good thoughts which are good in themselves, he calls slavery ; whereas the latter is true freedom, and the former slavery. He who loves adultery, calls its commission freedom ; and not to be allowed to commit adultery, he calls slavery ; because he feels delight in lust, but none in chastity. They who are in the love of rule from self-love feel a delight in that love surpassing every other kind of delight, and so call every thing pertaining to that love good, and everything which opposes it evil ; while the reverse is the truth. It is the same with every other evil. Wherefore, although every one acknowledges that good and evil are opposed, yet those who are in evil cherish a contrary conception of that opposition, and only those who are in good have the cor rect conception of it. No one who is in evil can see the good ; but he who is in the good can see evil ; evil is below as in a cave, and the good above as on a mountain. 272. But as few know the nature of evil and its entire opposition to the good, and as this knowledge is important, the subject shall be illustrated in the following order: — I. The natural mind, which is in evil and therefore in false hood, is a form and image of hell. II. The natural mind, which is a form and image of hell, descends by three de grees. III. The three degrees of the natural mind, which is a form and image of hell, are opposed to the three de grees of the spiritual mind, which is a form and image of heaven. IV. The natural mind, which is a hell, is totally opposed to the spiritual mind, which is a heaven. THE NATURAL MIND A FORM OF HELL. 155 273. I. — The natural mind which is in evil and there fore in the false, is a form and image of hell. The character of man's natural mind in its substantial form, or in its form as constructed from substances of both worlds in the brain, where it resides in its primary elements, can not be here described : its general outlines will be given hereafter, when we treat of the correspondence of the mind and body. Here we shall speak briefly of the states of that form and their changes, from which arise perceptions, thoughts, intentions, volitions, and all their results ; for with reference to these the natural mind, which is in the evil and therefore in the false, is a form and image of hell. This form demands a substantial form as its subject ; for changes of state without a substantial form as their subject cannot take place, no more than sight without an eye, or hearing without an ear. As to the form and image by which the natural mind resembles hell, they are such, that the dominant love with its lusts, which constitutes the gene ral state of that mind, are like a devil in hell ; and the false thoughts originating in that dominant love are like the devil's subjects. This is what is meant in the Word by the devil and his angels. The similarity does exist ; for the dominant love of hell is the love of rule from self-love ; it is there called the devil, and the false affections together with the thoughts springing from that love, are called his angels. It is the same with every infernal society, with a difference in each like the specific differences in genera. The natural mind, which is in evil and therefore in the false, is in the same form ; therefore the natural man, being of this character, after death enters a hell similar to him self, and acts as one with it in all things general and par ticular; for he simply enters his own form, that is, his own state of mind. There is also another love called satan, subordinate to that called the devil : it is the love of pos sessing the property of others by all possible devices ;