Heaven and its Wonders and Hell Part 5

In respect to this insight from heaven they said that it is the Divine flowing into such as are in the good of faith and life.

{Footnote 1} Unless man is raised above the sense-conceptions of the external man he has very little wisdom (n. 5089). The wise man thinks above these sense-conceptions (n. 5089, 5094).

When man is raised above these, he comes into clearer light, and finally into heavenly light (n. 6183, 6313, 6315, 9407, 9730, 9922). Elevation and withdrawal from these was known to the ancients (n. 6313).

75. From all my experience, which is now of many years, I am able to say and affirm that angels are wholly men in form, having faces, eyes, ears, bodies, arms, hands, and feet; that they see and hear one another, and talk together, and in a word lack nothing whatever that belongs to men except that they are not clothed in material bodies. I have seen them in their own light, which exceeds by many degrees the noonday light of the world, and in that light all their features could be seen more distinctly and clearly than the faces of men are seen on the earth. It has also been granted me to see an angel of the inmost heaven. He had a more radiant and resplendent face than the angels of the lower heavens. I observed him attentively, and he had a human form in all completeness.

76. But it must be remembered that a man cannot see angels with his bodily eyes, but only with the eyes of the spirit within him,{1} because his spirit is in the spiritual world, and all things of the body are in the natural world. Like sees like from being like.

Moreover, as the bodily organ of sight, which is the eye, is too gross, as everyone knows, to see even the smaller things of nature except through magnifying gla.s.ses, still less can it see what is above the sphere of nature, as all things in the spiritual world are.

Nevertheless these things can be seen by man when he has been withdrawn from the sight of the body, and the sight of his spirit has been opened; and this can be effected instantly whenever it is the pleasure of the Lord that man should see these things; and in that case man does not know but what he is seeing them with his bodily eyes. Thus were angels seen by Abraham, Lot, Manoah, and the prophets; and thus, too, the Lord was seen by the disciples after the resurrection; and in the same way angels have been seen by me.

Because the prophets saw in this way they were called "seers," and were said "to have their eyes opened" (1 Sam. 9:8; Num. 24:3); and enabling them to see thus was called "opening their eyes," as with Elisha's servant, of whom we read:

Elisha prayed and said, Jehovah, I pray Thee open his eyes that he may see; and Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

{Footnote 1} In respect to his interiors man is a spirit (n.

1594). And that spirit is the man himself, and it is from that spirit that the body lived (n. 447, 4622, 6054).

77. Good spirits, with whom I have spoken about this matter, have been deeply grieved at such ignorance in the church about the condition of heaven and of spirits and angels; and in their displeasure they charged me to declare positively that they are not formless minds nor ethereal breaths, but are men in very form, and see, hear, and feel equally with those who are in this world.{1}

{Footnote 1} Inasmuch as each angel is a recipient of Divine order from the Lord, he is in a human form, perfect and beautiful in the measure of his reception (n. 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 3804, 4622, 4735, 4797, 4985, 5199, 5530, 6054, 9879, 10177, 10594). It is by means of Divine truth that order exists; and Divine good is the essential of order (n. 2451, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555).

78. XI. IT IS FROM THE LORD'S DIVINE HUMAN THAT HEAVEN AS A WHOLE AND IN PART REFLECTS MAN.

That it is from the Lord's Divine Human that heaven as a whole and in part reflects man, follows as a conclusion from all that has been stated and shown in the preceding chapters, namely: (i) That the G.o.d of heaven is the Lord. (ii) It is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven. (iii) Heaven consists of innumerable societies; and each society is a heaven in a smaller form, and each angel in the smallest form. (iv) All heaven in the aggregate reflects a single man. (v) Each society in the heavens reflects a single man. (vi) Therefore every angel is in a complete human form. All this leads to the conclusion that as it is the Divine that makes heaven, heaven must be human in form. That this Divine is the Lord's Divine Human can be seen still more clearly, because in a compendium, in what has been collected, brought together and collated from the Arcana Coelestia and placed as a supplement at the end of this chapter. That the Lord's Human is Divine, and that it is not true that His Human is not Divine, as those with in the church believe, may also be seen in the same extracts, also in the chapter on The Lord, in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, at the end.

79. That this is true has been proved to me by much experience, about which something shall now be said. No angel in the heavens ever perceives the Divine as being in any other than a human form; and what is remarkable, those in the higher heavens are unable to think of the Divine in any other way. The necessity of thinking in this way comes from the Divine itself that flows in, and also from the form of heaven in harmony with which their thoughts spread forth. For every thought of an angel spreads forth into heaven; and the angels have intelligence and wisdom in the measure of that extension. It is in consequence of this that all in heaven acknowledge the Lord, because only in Him does the Divine Human exist. Not only have I been told all this by angels, but when elevated into the inner sphere of heaven I have been able to perceive it. From this it is evident that the wiser the angels are the more clearly they perceive this truth; and it is from this that the Lord is seen by them; for the Lord is seen in a Divine angelic form, which is the human form, by those who acknowledge and believe in a visible Divine Being, but not by those who believe in an invisible Divine. For the former can see their Divine Being, but the latter cannot.

80. Because the angels have no perception of an invisible Divine, which they call a Divine devoid of form, but perceive only a visible Divine in human form, they are accustomed to say that the Lord alone is man, and that it is from Him that they are men, and that each one is a man in the measure of his reception of the Lord. By receiving the Lord they understand receiving good and truth which are from Him, since the Lord is in His good and in His truth, and this they call wisdom and intelligence. Everyone knows, they say, that intelligence and wisdom make man, and not a face without these. The truth of this is made evident from the appearance of the angels of the interior heavens, for these, being in good and truth from the Lord and in consequent wisdom and intelligence, are in a most beautiful and most perfect human form; while the angels of the lower heavens are in human form of less perfection and beauty. On the other hand, those who are in h.e.l.l appear in the light of heaven hardly as men, but rather as monsters, since they are not in good and truth but in evil and falsity, and consequently in the opposites of wisdom and intelligence. For this reason their life is not called life, but spiritual death.

81. Because heaven as a whole and in part, from the Lord's Divine Human, reflects a man, the angels say that they are in the Lord; and some say that they are in His body, meaning that they are in the good of His love. And this the Lord Himself teaches, saying,

Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me. For apart from Me ye can do nothing. Abide in My love. If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love (John 15:4-10).

82. Because such a perception of the Divine exists in the heavens, to think of G.o.d as in a human form is implanted in every man who receives any influx from heaven. Thus did the ancients think of Him; and thus do the moderns think of Him both outside of the church and within it. The simple see Him in thought as the Ancient One in s.h.i.+ning light. But this insight has been extinguished in all those that by self-intelligence and by a life of evil have rejected influx from heaven. Those that have extinguished it by self-intelligence prefer an invisible G.o.d; while those that have extinguished it by a life of evil prefer no G.o.d. Neither of these are aware that such an insight exists, because they do not have it; and yet it is the Divine heavenly itself that primarily flows into man out of heaven, because man is born for heaven, and no one without a conception of a Divine can enter heaven.

83. For this reason he that has no conception of heaven, that is, no conception of the Divine from which heaven is, cannot be raised up to the first threshold of heaven. As soon as such a one draws near to heaven a resistance and a strong repulsion are perceived; and for the reason that his interiors, which should be receptive of heaven, are closed up from their not being in the form of heaven, and the nearer he comes to heaven the more tightly are they closed up. Such is the lot of those within the church who deny the Lord, and of those who, like the Socinians, deny His Divinity. But the lot of those who are born out of the church, and who are ignorant of the Lord because they do not have the Word, will be described hereafter.

84. That the men of old time had an idea of the Divine as human is evident from the manifestation of the Divine to Abraham, Lot, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah and his wife, and others. These saw G.o.d as a man, but nevertheless adored Him as the G.o.d of the universe, calling Him the G.o.d of heaven and earth, and Jehovah. That it was the Lord who was seen by Abraham He Himself teaches in John (8:56); and that it was He who was seen by the rest is evident from His words:

No one hath seen the Father, nor heard His voice, nor seen His form (John 1:18; 5:37).

85. But that G.o.d is man can scarcely be comprehended by those who judge all things from the sense-conceptions of the external man, for the sensual man must needs think of the Divine from the world and what is therein, and thus of a Divine and spiritual man in the same way as of a corporeal and natural man. From this he concludes that if G.o.d were a man He would be as large as the universe; and if He ruled heaven and earth it would be done through many others, after the manner of kings in the world. If told that in heaven there is no extension of s.p.a.ce as in the world, he would not in the least comprehend it. For he that thinks only from nature and its light must needs think in accord with such extension as appears before his eyes.

But it is the greatest mistake to think in this way about heaven.

Extension there is not like extension in the world. In the world extension is determinate, and thus measurable; but in heaven it is not determinate, and thus not measurable. But extension in heaven will be further treated of hereafter in connection with s.p.a.ce and time in the spiritual world. Furthermore, everyone knows how far the sight of the eye extends, namely, to the sun and to the stars, which are so remote; and whoever thinks deeply knows that the internal sight, which is of thought, has a still wider extension, and that a yet more interior sight must extend more widely still. What then must be said of Divine sight, which is the inmost and highest of all?

Because thoughts have such extension, all things of heaven are shared with everyone there, so, too, are all things of the Divine which makes heaven and fills it, as has been shown in the preceding chapters.

86. Those in heaven wonder that men can believe themselves to be intelligent who, in thinking of G.o.d, think about something invisible, that is, inconceivable under any form; and that they can call those who think differently unintelligent and simple, when the reverse is the truth. They add, "Let those who thus believe themselves to be intelligent examine themselves, whether they do not look upon nature as G.o.d, some the nature that is before their eyes, others the invisible side of nature; and whether they are not so blind as not to know what G.o.d is, what an angel is, what a spirit is, what their soul is which is to live after death, what the life of heaven in man is, and many other things that const.i.tute intelligence; when yet those whom they call simple know all these things in their way, having an idea of their G.o.d that He is the Divine in a human form, of an angel that he is a heavenly man, of their soul that is to live after death that it is like an angel, and of the life of heaven in man that it is living in accord with the Divine commandments." Such the angels call intelligent and fitted for heaven; but the others, on the other hand, they call not intelligent.

EXTRACTS FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA RELATING TO THE LORD AND HIS DIVINE HUMAN.

[2] The Divine was in the Lord from very conception (n.

4641, 4963, 5041, 5157, 6716, 10125).

The Lord alone had a Divine seed (n. 1438).

His soul was Jehovah (n. 1999, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025).

Thus the Lord's inmost was the Divine Itself, while the clothing was from the mother (n. 5041).

The Divine Itself was the Being [Esse] of the Lord's life, and from this the Human afterwards went forth and became the outgo [existere] from that Being [Esse] (n. 3194, 3210, 10269, 10738).

[3] Within the church where the Word is and by it the Lord is known, the Lord's Divine ought not to be denied, nor the Holy that goes forth from Him (n. 2359).

Those within the church who do not acknowledge the Lord have no conjunction with the Divine; but it is otherwise with those outside of the church (n. 10205).

The essential of the church is to acknowledge the Lord's Divine and His union with the Father (n. 10083, 10112, 10370, 10730, 10738, 10816-10820).

[4] The glorification of the Lord is treated of in the Word in many pa.s.sages (n. 10828).

And in the internal sense of the Word everywhere (n. 2249, 2523, 3245).

The Lord glorified His Human, but not the Divine, since this was glorified in itself (n. 10057).

The Lord came into the world to glorify His Human (n.

3637, 4287, 9315).

The Lord glorified His Human by means of the Divine love that was in Him from conception (n. 4727).

The Lord's life in the world was His love towards the whole human race (n. 2253).

The Lord's love transcends all human understanding (n.

2077).

The Lord saved the human race by glorifying His Human (n.

4180, 10019; 10152, 10655, 10659 10828).

Otherwise the whole human race would have perished in eternal death (n. 1676).