into men, and affect them, altogether in proportion as they become recipients; and they become recipients according to their love of the Lord, and their love towards the neighbour. This sun, or divine love, cannot create any one immediately from itself by its heat and light; for in that case he would be love in its essence, or the Lord Himself; but it can create beings from substances and materials so formed as to be capable of receiving its heat and light; comparatively as the sun of this world cannot, by its heat and light, immediately produce germination in the earth; but it can produce it from earthy materials, in which it may be present by its heat and light, and give vegetation. That the divine love of the Lord appears as a sun in the spiritual world, and that spiritual heat and spiritual light proceed therefrom, whence the angels have their love and wisdom, may be seen in the work ON HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 116 to 140 6. Since therefore a man is not life, but a recipient of life, it follows that the conception of a man from his father is not a conception of life, but only of the first and purest form receptible of life, to which, as a stamen or beginning, substances and matters are successively added in the womb, in forms adapted to the reception of life in their order and degree. 7. THAT THE DIVINE IS NOT IN SPACE. That the Divine or God is not in space, although He is omnipresent, and present with every man in the world, and every angel in heaven, and every spirit under heaven, cannot be comprehended by any merely natural idea, but it may by a spiritual idea. The reason why it cannot be comprehended by a natural idea, is, because there is space in such idea; for it is formed of such things as are in the material world, in all and every one of which, that are seen with the eyes, there is space. Every thing in that world, both great and small, has relation to space; every thing that has length, breadth, and height, has the same relation; in a word, space is connected with every measure, figure, and form that exists in the world of matter. Wherefore it is said, that it cannot be comprehended by any merely natural idea, that the Divine is not in space, when it is said that the Divine is every where. Nevertheless, a man may comprehend this by natural thought, if he will only admit into such thought somewhat of spiritual light; wherefore, first of all, something shall be said concerning spiritual ideas and the thought thence derived. A spiritual idea does not derive any thing from space, but it derives every thing appertaining to it from state. State is predicated of love, of life, of wisdom, of the affections, of the joys thence derived; in general, of good and of truth. An idea truly spiritual concerning those things has nothing in common with space, being superior thereto, and seeing the ideas of space under it, as heaven sees the earth. But whereas angels and spirits see with their eyes in the same manner as men do, and objects cannot be seen but in space, therefore in the spiritual world, where spirits and angels are, there appear spaces like the spaces on earth, which, nevertheless, are not spaces but appearances; for they are not fixed and stationary as on earth; they may be lengthened and shortened, changed and varied; and, as they cannot be determined by measure, they cannot in that world be comprehended by any natural idea, but only by a spiritual idea, which is no other concerning distances of space, than as concerning distances of good or distances of truth, which are affinities and similitudes according to their states. 8. Hence it may appear, that a man cannot comprehend that the Divine is every where, and yet not in space, from a merely natural idea; and yet that angels and spirits clearly comprehend this; consequently that a man also may, if he will admit something of spiritual light into his thought. The reason why a man may comprehend it is, because his body does not think, but his spirit; thus not his natural but his spiritual [part]. 9. But the reason why many do not comprehend this is, because they love what is natural, and therefore will not elevate the thoughts of their understandings into spiritual light; and those who will not, cannot think even of God but from space; and to think of God from space is to think of the extense of nature. This is expedient to be premised, because without a knowledge and some perception that the Divine is not in space, nothing can be understood concerning the divine life, which is love and wisdom, here treated of; and therefore very little, if any thing, concerning the divine providence, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, infinity, and eternity, which are to be treated of in their series. 10. It has been said, that in the spiritual world spaces appear equally as in the natural world, consequently also distances; but that they are appearances according to spiritual affinities, which are of love and wisdom, or of good and truth. Hence it is that the Lord, although He is in the heavens with the angels every where, nevertheless appears high above them as a sun; and whereas the reception of love and wisdom constitutes affinity with Him, therefore those heavens appear nearer to Him where the angels are in a nearer affinity from reception, than where they are in a more remote affinity. Hence also it is, that the heavens, which are three, are distinct from each other, and in like manner the societies of each heaven; also that the hells under them are remote according to their rejection of love and wisdom. Similar is the case with man, in whom and with whom the Lord is present in the universal terrestrial globe; and this solely because the Lord is not in space. 11. THAT GOD IS VERY MAN. In all the heavens there is no other idea of God than that of a Man: the reason is, because heaven in the whole, and in part, is in form as a man, and the Divine, which is with the angels, constitutes heaven; and thought proceeds according to the form of heaven; wherefore it is impossible for the angels to think of God otherwise: hence it is that all those in the world who are in conjunction with heaven, think in like manner of God, when they think inwardly in themselves, or in their spirit. Since God is a Man, all angels and all spirits are men in a perfect form: this is a consequence of the form of heaven, which in its greatest and least parts is like itself. That heaven in the whole, and in every part, is in form as a man, may be seen in the work ON HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 59 to 86; and that thoughts proceed according to the form of heaven, n. 203, 204. That men were created after the image and likeness of God, is known from Genesis i. 26, 27; also that God was seen as a Man by Abraham and others. The ancients, from the wise to the simple, thought no otherwise of God than as of a Man, and at length, when they began to worship a plurality of gods, as at Athens and Rome, they worshiped them all as men. What has been said may be illustrated by the following extract from a small treatise, published some time ago: "The Gentiles, particularly the Africans, who acknowledge and worship one God the Creator of the universe, entertain an idea of God as of a Man, and say that no one can have any other idea of God. When they hear that many form an idea of God as of a little cloud in the midst of the universe, they ask where such are; and when it is said that there are such among Christians, they deny that it is possible; but in reply it is shown, that some Christians conceive such an idea from this circumstance, that God in the Word is called a spirit, and of a spirit they think no otherwise than as of a thin cloud, not knowing that every spirit and every angel is a man. Nevertheless examination was made, whether their spiritual idea was similar to their natural idea, and it was found that with those who interiorly acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth it was not similar. I heard a certain presbyter of the Christians say, that no one can have any idea of a Divine Humanity; and I saw him carried about to various nations, successively to such as were more and more interior, and from them to their heavens, and lastly to the Christian heaven, and every where there was a communication of their interior perception of God; and he observed that they had no other idea of God than the idea of a Man, which is the same with the idea of a Divine Humanity." 12. The idea of the common people in the Christian world concerning God is as of a Man, because God is called a Person in the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity: but those who are wiser than the common people pronounce God to be invisible; for they are not able to comprehend how God, as a Man, could have created heaven and earth, and fill the universe with His presence, with other particulars, which cannot be rightly apprehended so long as man is ignorant that the Divine is not in space. But those who approach the Lord alone, think of a Divine Humanity, and therefore of God as a Man. 13. The great importance of having a just idea of God, appears from this consideration, that the idea of God constitutes the inmost thought of all those who have any religion; for all things of religion and divine worship have respect to God: and as God is universally and particularly in all things of religion and of worship, therefore, unless there be a just idea of God, no communication is possible with the heavens: hence it is, that in the spiritual world every nation has its place according to its idea of God as a Man; for in this and in no other is the idea of the Lord. That the state of every man's life after death is according to the idea of God which he has confirmed in himself, appears manifestly from the reverse of the proposition; namely, that the negation of God constitutes hell, and, in the Christian world, the negation of the Lord's Divinity. ONE. 14. THAT ESSE AND EXISTERE* IN GOD-MAN ARE DISTINCTLY Where there is Esse, there is also Existere: one is not possible without the other; for Esse is by Existere, and not without Reason comprehends this, when it thinks whether there can be any Esse which does not Exist, and whether there can be any Existere but from an Esse; and as the one has place with and not without the other, it follows that they are one, but distinctly one. They are distinctly one, as is the case with love and wisdom; for love also is Esse and wisdom Existere, since love does not exist but in wisdom, nor wisdom but from love; wherefore when love is in wisdom then it exists. These two are such a one, that they may be distinguished indeed in thought, but not in act: and as they are distinguishable in thought, but not in act, therefore it is said they are distinctly one. Esse and Existere in God-Man are also distinctly one, as soul and body: the soul does not exist without its body, nor the body without its soul. The divine soul of GodMan is understood by the divine Esse, and His divine body by the divine Existere. To think that the soul can exist and exercise thought and wisdom without the body, is an error proceeding from fallacies: the soul of every man is in a spiritual body, after it has put off the material coverings which it carried about with it in the world. 15. An Esse is not an Esse unless it exists, because it is not in a form; and what is not in a form has no quality, and what has no quality is nothing. Whatever exists from an Esse, makes one with the Esse, because it is from the Esse; hence there is a uniting into one; and hence one is the other's mutually and reciprocally, and one is all in all in the other as in itself. 16. Hence it may appear that God is a Man, and that thereby *To be and to exist. He is a God existing; not existing from Himself, but in Himself. He who exists in Himself is God, from whom all things are. 17. THAT IN GOD-MAN INFINITE THINGS ARE DISTINCTLY ONE. It is well known that God is infinite, for He is called infinite; but He is called infinite because He is infinite. He is not infinite by virtue of this alone, that He is real Esse and Existere in Himself, but because infinite things are in Him: an infinite without infinite things in Himself is not infinite but as to the bare name. Infinite things in Him cannot be said to be infinitely many, nor infinitely all, because of the natural idea of many and all; for the idea of infinitely many is limited, and the idea of infinitely all, although unlimited, is derived from limited things in the universe: wherefore since man's ideas are natural, he cannot by any sublimation and approximation come to a perception of the infinite things in God; but an angel, whose ideas are spiritual, may by sublimation and approximation be elevated above the degree of a man, but yet not to the thing itself. 18. That there are infinite things in God, any one may affirm in himself who believes that God is a Man; and that being a Man, He has a body and every thing belonging to it; thus that He has a face, a breast, an abdomen, loins, and feet; for without these He would not be a man; and that having these, He has also eyes, ears, nostrils, a mouth, and a tongue; and also the organs that are within a man, as the heart and lungs and their dependencies; all which, taken together, are what make a man to be a man. In created man those things are many, and, in their contextures, innumerable; but in God-Man they are infinite, there being nothing wanting; whence He has infinite perfection. A comparison is made between uncreated Man, who is God, and created man, because God is a Man, and it is said by Him in the first chapter of Genesis, that man in this world was "created after His image and according to His likeness." v. 26, 27. 19. That there are infinite things in God appears more manifestly to the angels from the heavens in which they are. The universal heaven, consisting of myriads of myriads of angels, in its universal form is as a man; so also are all the societies in heaven, great and small: hence also an angel is a man; for an angel is a heaven in its least form. That this is the case may be seen in the work ON HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 51 to 87. The form of heaven in the whole, in part, and individually, is such by virtue of the Divine which the angels receive; for in proportion as an angel receives of the Divine, in the same proportion he is in perfect form a man: hence it is that the angels are said to be in God, and God in them, also that God is all in all with them. It is impossible to describe the innumerable things in heaven; and as the Divine constitutes heaven, and consequently those ineffably many things |