How the Life of Heaven and the World are Animated
By Rev. Paul Booth
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Psalm 63 | John xiv. 21, 23, 35 |The Divine Wisdom IX. 2
"The Lord by His Divine Love and Divine Wisdom animates all things in heaven, and all things in the world, even to their ultimates, causing some to live, and some to be and exist".
The Divine Wisdom XII
The Divine Wisdom XII
In this sermon we will see how the creation of the universe and heaven are explained even more clearly in the Word than what one just reads in the beginning few chapters of Genesis of the Old Testament.
We behold the universe and think about it and we know that it just did not suddenly happen. As Christians, especially as Lord's New Church Christians, we understand God created the heavens and the universe from Himself out of His Love and Wisdom. Our determination of the creation comes from an understanding according to our religion. Of course, there are others who may think it was created from nature. "Those who think from nature and takes a middle course and thinks it is from a being which they do not know, are 'interior natural' men while those who think from nature (alone) are 'exterior natural' men." We find that some of us may be also called exterior-spiritual men and others interior-spiritual men. "Those who are in simplicity, from religion, think of God as the Creator of the universe, are exterior-spiritual men; while those who think of God wisely from religion as the Creator of the universe are interior-spiritual: the latter two think from the Lord" (The Divine Wisdom XII). By God is the Lord from eternity meant, and 'from eternity' is meant the Divine Love itself and the Divine Wisdom itself, thus life itself is meant. It has been shown in prior sermons that the Lord is within the spiritual Sun in the angelic heaven. What one also needs to realize is that in the spiritual world all things are from a spiritual origin and that all things in the natural world are from both a spiritual and a natural origin.
The two suns - the spiritual and the natural sun - are different with angels and men, each deriving their own light and heat. It is from the light and heat of the spiritual Sun that angels and spirits have their essence. In the natural world men derive their essence from the natural world's sun. However, it may not be known that the spiritual Sun's light and heat comes also from our natural sun's light and heat, for it (the spiritual sun's light and heat) adjoins our natural sun's light and heat. Of course, we should realize that from the natural world everything natural originates and that from the spiritual comes everything spiritual. Thus, we see spiritual essence is understood to be derived from "Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, for to love and be wise is is to be spiritual" (Divine Wisdom XII:1). It was not until the Last Judgment and the coming of a New Church that there was known of a spiritual Sun and that spirits and angels are men and like men of this world are altogether now above nature with that spiritual Sun's light and heat. This spiritual Sun is the source of everything of love and wisdom and of what is truly human.
It is also from that spiritual Sun that the source and origin of all things are which is from eternity, and is the esse itself in itself, the infinite and eternal, the love itself, wisdom itself, and life itself, and is the common center from which the Lord rules. Thus there is a conjunction according to which there is the life of love and wisdom coming into both the spiritual and the natural worlds. It is the Sun that appears to the angels as the center fiery and flaming, as the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom proceeding from God, thus coming to exist spiritually and by this means the natural also comes to exist, even the natural sun, being the medium of this universe. "He is the common center, from which He regards, rules, and provides all things as present. . .that the center appears before the angels as a Sun, fiery and flaming. . . from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom which proceeds from God, and from which every thing spiritual exists, and by means of the Spiritual, everything natural, the sun of the world being the medium" (The Divine Wisdom XII 2), through which all things on earth come into being - in particular the three natural kingdoms - the mineral, plant and animal.
Of these two suns, the spiritual Sun looks to ultimates which is primary and the sun of our world looks to ultimates which is the medium of the first Sun. God is within and the Life itself within from which all things have been made and are created. However, in this world's sun there is fire and from this fire there is no life by which any natural thing is created, which things are below the medium and in themselves are dead.
It is quite obvious the world's sun is present with all things in the world according to its heat and light. From correspondence we know then that the Lord is present with all or is omnipresent with all, but this is so only on the things of this world or in natural things which is according to order: "It is the Sun of heaven from which the sun of the world is, and spiritual things are those from which the natural things are" (The Divine Wisdom XII: 3). "The presence of the Sun of heaven is universal, not only in the spiritual world where angels and spirits are, but also in the natural world where men are; for men receive the love of their will and the wisdom of their understanding from no other source" (Divine Wisdom XII: 3. 2). In matter of fact, no animal could live or plant exist without the spiritual Sun. Obviously, the sun of this world is subordinate to the spiritual Sun and is ruled by it and is, thus, a servant to it. Again, the two suns are distinct from one another in that the spiritual Sun is not in spatial extension and time, while the sun in the natural world is in such extension, an spatial extension as it was created along with nature.
In a prior lecture it was shown that the heavens were not created with angels; that men on earth who became angels were created for heaven. "That all things have been created in subordination to life, which is to the Lord, follows in its order from this, that men and from these (that is from men) angels have been created to receive life from the Lord. . ." (The Divine Wisdom XII: 2. 3).
It is here that we may begin to see and understand that by 'souls of life' are meant men and angels. By animals are called 'living souls' in the Word, and by vegetative souls are meant, trees and plants of every kind. The man and the angel are animated by life from the Lord. Vegetative souls are souls of use and are the ultimate effects of life. However, it is the 'living souls' that are meant affections of various kinds of men on earth corresponding to the life of those who are in the spiritual world. These are called mediate lives. By animation is meant not only that they live, but also that they are and exist.
We are however not to think their continual living or animation is from their worldly creation as if the Lord had put within them - the plants, animals, and mankind - a kind of creative force or power to continue earthly life. "The reason why they are continually animated, that is, live, are and exist from the Lord, is, that creation, when once perfected, is still continued by influx from the Sun of heaven. Unless influx from this Sun were continuous, everything would perish; for the influx of the sun of the world is nothing without the former, the latter being only an instrumental cause, while the former is the spiritual one" The Divine Wisdom XII: 5. 1).
But, how is this life made animate both in heaven and in the world? First, the proceeding Divine is by means of "spiritual atmospheres, which He (the Lord) had created for the transmission of light and heat even to angels, and which He accommodated to the life of both their minds and bodies, in order that they might receive intelligence, and also see, and according to correspondences order that they might love from heat, and have sensation. . . and their hearts might beat" (The Divine Wisdom XII 5. 2). As these atmospheres descend they increase intensity by discrete degrees and are accommodated accordingly by the angels that will come to dwell there. Thus, in the highest heaven angels there live in pure aura; in the middle as in ether and those in the lowest live as in air. It is below these each that there are lands where they (angels) dwell and have their palaces and houses and gardens. These are all from a spiritual origin and none come from a natural origin and are thus from the Lord.
The angels see the creation in this way: First, God is of eternity and He is the center of creation and is a Man and by this only is there creation. Next, He created the universe by HIs Proceeding Divine which is also life itself. Thus all things were believed created by life and from life, which is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. They also say that the ancients portrayed golden circles around the head of God. Thus, it is by heaven's Sun; the Lord being within that Sun, "that circles proceed, one after another and one from another, even to the ultimate, where their termination is, and where they subsist at rest. . .(and) are spiritual atmospheres. . .filled with light and heat from their Sun, by which they propagate themselves to the ultimate circle" (The Angelic Idea Concerning the Creation of the Universe by the Lord 1.)
As for the creation of the earth and the things upon it, it was "afterwards (was accomplished) by means of natural atmospheres which are from the sun of the world, which creation is afterwards continued by means of generations from seeds, in wombs or in eggs" (The Angelic Idea Concerning the Creation of the Universe by the Lord ). One must here understand that creation was from the Primal or First and thence from every prior into every posterior even to the lasts and that thus the posteriors co-exist in their last order.
And they also said that from the spiritual Sun proceed circles one after another and one from another, even to the ultimate and terminates and subsists at rest. These were the spiritual atmospheres filled with light and heat from that spiritual Sun. It is also by such means that the natural atmospheres are continued on earth from the "generation of seeds, in wombs (ova) and or in eggs," (The Angelic Idea Concerning the Creation of the Universe by the Lord) this being a continuous work, a connected whole actuated and ruled by the Lord. It is here that one learns from where hell comes. We learned that it was caused by man breaking that continuity in himself; he being in freedom to do so, and so came to deny God.
Amen.
We behold the universe and think about it and we know that it just did not suddenly happen. As Christians, especially as Lord's New Church Christians, we understand God created the heavens and the universe from Himself out of His Love and Wisdom. Our determination of the creation comes from an understanding according to our religion. Of course, there are others who may think it was created from nature. "Those who think from nature and takes a middle course and thinks it is from a being which they do not know, are 'interior natural' men while those who think from nature (alone) are 'exterior natural' men." We find that some of us may be also called exterior-spiritual men and others interior-spiritual men. "Those who are in simplicity, from religion, think of God as the Creator of the universe, are exterior-spiritual men; while those who think of God wisely from religion as the Creator of the universe are interior-spiritual: the latter two think from the Lord" (The Divine Wisdom XII). By God is the Lord from eternity meant, and 'from eternity' is meant the Divine Love itself and the Divine Wisdom itself, thus life itself is meant. It has been shown in prior sermons that the Lord is within the spiritual Sun in the angelic heaven. What one also needs to realize is that in the spiritual world all things are from a spiritual origin and that all things in the natural world are from both a spiritual and a natural origin.
The two suns - the spiritual and the natural sun - are different with angels and men, each deriving their own light and heat. It is from the light and heat of the spiritual Sun that angels and spirits have their essence. In the natural world men derive their essence from the natural world's sun. However, it may not be known that the spiritual Sun's light and heat comes also from our natural sun's light and heat, for it (the spiritual sun's light and heat) adjoins our natural sun's light and heat. Of course, we should realize that from the natural world everything natural originates and that from the spiritual comes everything spiritual. Thus, we see spiritual essence is understood to be derived from "Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, for to love and be wise is is to be spiritual" (Divine Wisdom XII:1). It was not until the Last Judgment and the coming of a New Church that there was known of a spiritual Sun and that spirits and angels are men and like men of this world are altogether now above nature with that spiritual Sun's light and heat. This spiritual Sun is the source of everything of love and wisdom and of what is truly human.
It is also from that spiritual Sun that the source and origin of all things are which is from eternity, and is the esse itself in itself, the infinite and eternal, the love itself, wisdom itself, and life itself, and is the common center from which the Lord rules. Thus there is a conjunction according to which there is the life of love and wisdom coming into both the spiritual and the natural worlds. It is the Sun that appears to the angels as the center fiery and flaming, as the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom proceeding from God, thus coming to exist spiritually and by this means the natural also comes to exist, even the natural sun, being the medium of this universe. "He is the common center, from which He regards, rules, and provides all things as present. . .that the center appears before the angels as a Sun, fiery and flaming. . . from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom which proceeds from God, and from which every thing spiritual exists, and by means of the Spiritual, everything natural, the sun of the world being the medium" (The Divine Wisdom XII 2), through which all things on earth come into being - in particular the three natural kingdoms - the mineral, plant and animal.
Of these two suns, the spiritual Sun looks to ultimates which is primary and the sun of our world looks to ultimates which is the medium of the first Sun. God is within and the Life itself within from which all things have been made and are created. However, in this world's sun there is fire and from this fire there is no life by which any natural thing is created, which things are below the medium and in themselves are dead.
It is quite obvious the world's sun is present with all things in the world according to its heat and light. From correspondence we know then that the Lord is present with all or is omnipresent with all, but this is so only on the things of this world or in natural things which is according to order: "It is the Sun of heaven from which the sun of the world is, and spiritual things are those from which the natural things are" (The Divine Wisdom XII: 3). "The presence of the Sun of heaven is universal, not only in the spiritual world where angels and spirits are, but also in the natural world where men are; for men receive the love of their will and the wisdom of their understanding from no other source" (Divine Wisdom XII: 3. 2). In matter of fact, no animal could live or plant exist without the spiritual Sun. Obviously, the sun of this world is subordinate to the spiritual Sun and is ruled by it and is, thus, a servant to it. Again, the two suns are distinct from one another in that the spiritual Sun is not in spatial extension and time, while the sun in the natural world is in such extension, an spatial extension as it was created along with nature.
In a prior lecture it was shown that the heavens were not created with angels; that men on earth who became angels were created for heaven. "That all things have been created in subordination to life, which is to the Lord, follows in its order from this, that men and from these (that is from men) angels have been created to receive life from the Lord. . ." (The Divine Wisdom XII: 2. 3).
It is here that we may begin to see and understand that by 'souls of life' are meant men and angels. By animals are called 'living souls' in the Word, and by vegetative souls are meant, trees and plants of every kind. The man and the angel are animated by life from the Lord. Vegetative souls are souls of use and are the ultimate effects of life. However, it is the 'living souls' that are meant affections of various kinds of men on earth corresponding to the life of those who are in the spiritual world. These are called mediate lives. By animation is meant not only that they live, but also that they are and exist.
We are however not to think their continual living or animation is from their worldly creation as if the Lord had put within them - the plants, animals, and mankind - a kind of creative force or power to continue earthly life. "The reason why they are continually animated, that is, live, are and exist from the Lord, is, that creation, when once perfected, is still continued by influx from the Sun of heaven. Unless influx from this Sun were continuous, everything would perish; for the influx of the sun of the world is nothing without the former, the latter being only an instrumental cause, while the former is the spiritual one" The Divine Wisdom XII: 5. 1).
But, how is this life made animate both in heaven and in the world? First, the proceeding Divine is by means of "spiritual atmospheres, which He (the Lord) had created for the transmission of light and heat even to angels, and which He accommodated to the life of both their minds and bodies, in order that they might receive intelligence, and also see, and according to correspondences order that they might love from heat, and have sensation. . . and their hearts might beat" (The Divine Wisdom XII 5. 2). As these atmospheres descend they increase intensity by discrete degrees and are accommodated accordingly by the angels that will come to dwell there. Thus, in the highest heaven angels there live in pure aura; in the middle as in ether and those in the lowest live as in air. It is below these each that there are lands where they (angels) dwell and have their palaces and houses and gardens. These are all from a spiritual origin and none come from a natural origin and are thus from the Lord.
The angels see the creation in this way: First, God is of eternity and He is the center of creation and is a Man and by this only is there creation. Next, He created the universe by HIs Proceeding Divine which is also life itself. Thus all things were believed created by life and from life, which is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. They also say that the ancients portrayed golden circles around the head of God. Thus, it is by heaven's Sun; the Lord being within that Sun, "that circles proceed, one after another and one from another, even to the ultimate, where their termination is, and where they subsist at rest. . .(and) are spiritual atmospheres. . .filled with light and heat from their Sun, by which they propagate themselves to the ultimate circle" (The Angelic Idea Concerning the Creation of the Universe by the Lord 1.)
As for the creation of the earth and the things upon it, it was "afterwards (was accomplished) by means of natural atmospheres which are from the sun of the world, which creation is afterwards continued by means of generations from seeds, in wombs or in eggs" (The Angelic Idea Concerning the Creation of the Universe by the Lord ). One must here understand that creation was from the Primal or First and thence from every prior into every posterior even to the lasts and that thus the posteriors co-exist in their last order.
And they also said that from the spiritual Sun proceed circles one after another and one from another, even to the ultimate and terminates and subsists at rest. These were the spiritual atmospheres filled with light and heat from that spiritual Sun. It is also by such means that the natural atmospheres are continued on earth from the "generation of seeds, in wombs (ova) and or in eggs," (The Angelic Idea Concerning the Creation of the Universe by the Lord) this being a continuous work, a connected whole actuated and ruled by the Lord. It is here that one learns from where hell comes. We learned that it was caused by man breaking that continuity in himself; he being in freedom to do so, and so came to deny God.
Amen.
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