things of the three kingdoms, in the midst of which is the angel, who sees them about him, and knows that they are representations of himself; yea, when the inmost principle of his understanding is opened, he knows himself, and sees his image in them as in a glass. 64. From these and many other similar things, which there is not room to adduce here, it may be known for certain, that God is a Man, and that the created universe is an image of Him; for all things have a common relation to Him, as they have a particular relation to man. 65. THAT THE USES OF ALL CREATED THINGS ASCEND BY DEGREES FROM ULTIMATES TO MAN, AND THROUGH MAN To God THE CREATOR, FROM WHOM THEY HAD THEIR ORIGIN. Ultimates, as has been said above, are all and every thing of the mineral kingdom, which are material substances of various kinds, as stony, saline, oily, mineral, and metallic substances, covered over with earth, consisting of vegetable and animal matters reduced to the finest powder: in these resides the end, and also the beginning, of all the uses which are from life; the end of all uses is the endeavor to produce them, and the beginning is the power acting from that endeavor. These are of the mineral kingdom. Mediates (media) are all and every thing of the vegetable kingdom, which are grasses and herbs of all kinds, plants and shrubs of all kinds, and trees of all kinds. The uses of these are for all and every thing of the animal kingdom, as well imperfect as perfect; they nourish them, delight them, and vivify them; they nourish their bodies with their materials, delight their senses with their taste, smell, and beauty, and vivify their affections. An endeavor to do these things is in them from the principle of life. Primaries (prima) are all and every thing of the animal kingdom; the lowest in this kingdom are called worms and insects, the middle, birds and beasts, and the supreme, men; in every kingdom there are things lowest, middle, and supreme; the lowest for the use of the middle, and the middle for the use of the supreme. Thus the uses of all created things ascend in order from ultimates to man, who is the first in order. 66. There are three degrees of ascent in the natural world, and there are three degrees of ascent in the spiritual world. All animals are recipients of life; the more perfect animals, of the life of the three degrees of the natural world, the less perfect, of the life of two degrees of that world, and the imperfect, of one degree of the same. But man alone is a recipient of the life of the three degrees, not only of the natural world, but also of the three degrees of the spiritual world. Hence it is, that man may be elevated above nature, which is not the case with any other animal: he has the power of thinking analytically and rationally of civil and moral things which are within the sphere of nature, and of spiritual and celestial things which are above it; yea, he may be elevated into wisdom, insomuch that he may see God. But the six degrees, by which the uses of all created things in order ascend to God the Creator, will be treated of in the proper place. From this summary it may be seen, that there is an ascent of all created things to the First Being, Who alone is life, and that the uses of all things are the very recipients of life, and consequently the forms of uses. 67. It shall also be shewn in a few words, how man ascends, or is elevated, from the ultimate degree to the first. He is born into the ultimate degree of the natural world; he is then elevated by sciences to the second degree; and as by means of sciences he perfects his understanding, he is elevated to the third degree, and becomes rational. The three degrees of ascent in the spiritual world are in him above the three natural degrees, nor do they appear before he puts off his earthly body: when he puts it off, the first spiritual degree is opened to him, afterwards the second, and lastly the third, but only in those who become angels of the third heaven; these are they who see God. Those in whom the second and ultimate degree is capable of being opened, become angels of the second and of the ultimate heaven. Every spiritual degree in man is opened according to the reception of divine love and divine wisdom from the Lord. Those who receive some portion thereof, come into the first or ultimate spiritual degree: those who receive more, into the second or middle spiritual degree; and those who receive much, into the third or supreme: but those who receive none of these, remain in the natural degrees, and derive nothing more from the spiritual degrees, than the power of thinking and thence of speaking, and the power of willing and thence of acting, but not intelligently. : 68. Concerning the elevation of the interiors of a man's mind, this also is to be observed: there is from God in every created thing a re-action life alone has action, and re-action is excited by the action of life: this re-action appears as if it belonged to the created being, because it exists when the being is acted upon; thus in man it appears as if it were his own, because he does not perceive any otherwise than that life is his own, when nevertheless man is only a recipient of life. From this cause it is, that man, from his own hereditary evil, re-acts against God; but so far as he believes that all his life is from God, and every good of life from the action of God, and every evil of life from the re-action of man, re-action becomes correspondent with action, and man acts with God as from himself. The equilibrium of all things is from action and joint re-action, and every thing must be in equilibrium. These things are said, that no man may believe that he ascends to God from himself, but from the Lord. 69. THAT THE DIVINE FILLS ALL SPACES OF THE UNIVERSE WITHOUT SPACE. There are two things proper to nature, space and time from these in the natural world man forms the ideas of his thought and thence his understanding: if he remains in these ideas, and does not elevate his mind above them, he never can perceive any thing spiritual and divine; for he involves it in ideas which are derived from space and time, and in proportion as he does this, the light of his understanding is merely natural. Thinking from this merely natural light in reasoning of things spiritual and divine, is like thinking from the darkness of night of those things which only appear in the light of day; hence comes naturalism. But he that knows how to elevate his mind above the ideas of thought which partake of space and time, passes from darkness to light, and becomes wise in spiritual and divine things, and at length sees those things which are in them and from them; and then, by virtue of that light, he shakes off the darkness of natural light, and removes its fallacies from the middle to the sides. Every man who has understanding, may think above those things proper to nature, and does actually so think, and then he affirms and sees, that the Divine, as being omnipresent, is not in space; and also he may affirm and see those things which are adduced above: but if he denies the divine omnipresence, and ascribes all things to nature, then he is not willing to be elevated, although he is able. 70. All who die, and become angels, put off those two things proper to nature, which, as has been said, are space and time; for they enter into spiritual light, in which the objects of thought are truths, and the objects of sight are similar to those in the natural world, but corresponding to their thoughts. The objects of their thoughts, which, as has been said, are truths, derive nothing at all from space and time: the objects of their sight indeed appear as in space and in time, but still they do not think from them. The reason is, because spaces and times there are not stated, as in the natural world, but changeable according to the states of their life: hence instead of spaces and times, in the ideas of their thought, there are states of life: instead of spaces, such things as relate to states of love, and instead of times, such things as relate to states of wisdom. Hence it is, that spiritual thought, and thence also spiritual speech, differ so much from natural thought and speech derived from it, that they have nothing in common, except as to the interiors of things which are all spiritual; concerning which difference more will be said elsewhere. Now since the thoughts of the angels derive nothing from space and time, but from states of life, it is evident that they do not comprehend what is meant when it is said, that the Divine fills space, for they do not know what space is, but that they comprehend clearly when it is said, without any idea of space, that the Divine fills all things. 71. That the merely natural man thinks of things spiritual and divine from space, and the spiritual man without space, may be thus illustrated: the merely natural man thinks by ideas which he has acquired from the objects of sight, in all which there is figure derived from length, breadth, and height, and from form terminated by them, which is either angular or circular these are manifestly in the ideas of his thought concerning the visible things on earth, and they are also in the ideas of his thought concerning invisible things, as things civil and moral; he does not indeed see them, but still they are there as continuous. Not so the spiritual man, especially the angel of heaven; his thought has nothing in common with figure and form deriving any thing from the length, breadth, and height of space, but from the state of a thing as grounded in its state of life: hence instead of length of space, he thinks of the good of a thing grounded in the good of life; instead of breadth of space, of the truth of a thing grounded in the truth of life; and instead of height, of the degrees of these; thus he thinks from the correspondence which there is between spiritual and natural things; from which correspondence, length, in the Word, signifies the good of a thing, breadth, the truth of a thing, and height, their degrees. Hence it is evident that an angel of heaven can by no means think otherwise, when he thinks of the divine omnipresence, than that the Divine fills all things without space: what an angel thinks, is truth, because the divine wisdom is the light which illuminates his understanding. 72. This thought concerning God is fundamental, for without it those things which will be said of the creation of the universe from God-Man, and of His providence, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, may indeed be understood, but still not retained, because the merely natural man, when he understands them, still relapses into the love of his life, which is of his will, and this love dissipates them, and immerses them in space, in which is what he calls his rational light, not knowing, that in proportion as he denies those things, so far he is irrational. That this is the case may be confirmed by the idea concerning this truth, THAT GOD IS A MAN. Read, I beseech you, with attention, what is written above, n. 11 to 13, and what follows after; then you will understand that it is so; but let down your thoughts into natural light which partakes of space, and will it not appear to you a paradox? and if you let it down much, will you not reject the idea? This is the reason why it is said, that the Divine fills all spaces in the universe, and why it is not said that God-Man fills them; for if this were said, merely natural light would not assent to it; but when it is said that the Divine fills them, this is assented to, because it agrees with the form of speech of theologians, that God is om nipresent, and hears and knows all things. More may be seen on this subject above, n. 7 to 10. ; 73. THAT THE DIVINE IS IN ALL TIME WITHOUT TIME. As the Divine is in all space without space, so it is in all time without time; for nothing which is proper to nature can be predicated of the Divine, and space and time are proper to nature. Space and time in nature are measurable. Time is measured by days, weeks, months, years, and ages; and days, by hours weeks and months, by days; years, by the four seasons; and ages, by years. Nature derives this mensuration from the apparent gyration and revolution of the sun of this world. But it is not so in the spiritual world; there the progressions of life in like manner appear in time, for its inhabitants live with one another, as men in the world live with one another, which is not possible without an appearance of time: but time there is not distinguished into seasons as in the world, for their sun is constantly in its east, never removed: it is the divine love of the Lord which appears to them as a sun; therefore they have no days, weeks, months, years, and ages, but states of life instead, by which a distinction is made, which cannot be called a distinction into times, but into states. Hence the angels do not know what time is, and when it is named, they perceive state instead of it; and when state determines time, time is only an appearance: for the delight of state causes time to appear short, and the unpleasantness of state causes it to appear long; from which it is evident that time there is nothing but the quality of state. Hence hours, days, weeks, months, and years, in the Word, signify states, and their progressions in their series and their complex; and when times are predicated of the church, morning signifies its first state, noon, its fullness, evening, its decrease, and night, its end; and the four seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn, and winter,-signify the same. 74. From these considerations it appears, that time makes one with thought grounded in affection; for hence the quality of a man's state is derived. That distances in progressions through spaces in the spiritual world make one with the progressions of time, might be illustrated by many things; for ways in that world are actually shortened according to the desires of the thought from affection, and vice versa are lengthened. Hence it is that we speak also of spaces of time. But in such things, when thought does not join itself with the proper affection of man, time does not appear, as in dreams. 75. Now since times, which are proper to nature in her world, are pure states in the spiritual world, which there appear progressive, because angels and spirits are finite, it may be seen that in God they are not progressive, because He is infinite, and infinite things in Him are one, according to what was de |