The Search for Intelligence and Wisdom
Finding a life of True Happiness and Peace - Part 2
By Rev. Paul Booth
Finding a life of True Happiness and Peace - Part 2
By Rev. Paul Booth
It is obvious when man thinks from his natural mind that he thinks the Divine is somehow an extension of nature. Yet, we said, the Divine is not in space, but He is still present apart from space with man, for in the spiritual world the Lord is present with spirits according to one's state. Thus, in one's state of good and truth are the two qualities of the Lord - Love and Wisdom. In effect, it is as the sun's heat and light entering subjects here on earth, and, so, the spiritual world's Sun causes spiritual heat and light to enter into the man's spirit and so causes him to be a recipient of His truth and good according to the degree of his state, and so, we see the reason for the apparent distance from the Divine in the spiritual world. The Sun of the spiritual world is the first proceeding from the Divine; it is not the Divine Itself.
Everything of life is of love and wisdom. Take away love and wisdom from man, even from the composite man - the society, whether a country or kingdom, or the Church and is there any life or anything? There is nothing, for life with man or with anything in the universe is dependent upon its reception of both that love and wisdom. Now, when we say love and wisdom we mean the Divine's essence. Take away love and wisdom from a subject and there is no being of that subject and, of course, no human being. In fact without it there is no creation.
To further show that love and wisdom in everything is the cause of the universe, of its existence, examine that a man has two faculties of life, one from which he understands and the other from which he wills. So, a man receives God's love and wisdom. Of course, although he has these two faculties, we know from actual experience that man is not wise or loving in himself. The fact is he does have them 'as if' his own, yet they are essentially that with him. The truth is that if he did not have them 'as if' they were his own, he would not be human, which is to think and speak from thought and, so, to will and act from will. Thus, this is proof that the Divine dwells within man, for in the ability of these two faculties of being wise and of loving, the Lord is present, though not in the space of this world. His presence makes us human.
A man is intelligent, wise, and loving or good only to the degree that he receives love and wisdom, and in fact, these qualities constitute him. In truth, they are as real, no, more real as are natural substances, and they have form just as has the things sensed in this world. They have reality as does actual natural substance and, so, have form. The difference is that substance and form of love and wisdom are not obvious to the eyes of our natural body. What is, then, love and wisdom with man? The things of wisdom and love are called thoughts, perceptions, and affections. These are spiritual substances and they have form, if you will believe it.
The premise is that we exist from the Divine, Who is Infinite, that is, that the creation exists from the Uncreated. What this implies is that Reality is only the One and very Esse and Existere and that this is the only true substance and form. This we have shown were Divine Love and Divine Wisdom proceeding from the Sun of the spiritual world, and are the essence and the life of man, and in fact of the whole universe. Consider, then, how the senses of the body are in darkness to spiritual things of those who think from the sight of the natural eye and not from the sight of their understanding, which is the sight of their spirit. Thus, we come to understand why a man's natural understanding is and has been closed to true intelligence and wisdom. Thought from the eye (natural thought) closes the understanding, while thought from the understanding (spiritual thought) opens the eye (or one's natural though).
So, we come to see that all things of the universe are filled with the Divine's love and wisdom and are in an image of some degree of that Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Now, this does not appear to man, yet in him all things of the universe are in correspondences to him. Natural science has shown this. So, one could say that man is a kind of universe. He is a microcosm. When one looks at the animal kingdom one sees there a correspondence with his affections and so, of his thought. Thus, there is also a correspondence of his will. There is also a correspondence of his understanding with the things of the vegetable kingdom, although these are not apparent to him, unless he gives heed to the spiritual world. There, in the spiritual world, those things are understood as affections and thoughts - things derived from the will and understanding appears around them, even, as the universe appears around man. The difference is man is in a more perfect image and likeness in the spiritual world than here in this world, if he is not in hell. Here, in the natural world it can be known that such an image and likeness represents God from whom man comes. God is therefore true Man, that is, His love and wisdom, its image or likeness, is seen in the universe, for it comes from Him and is sustained by Him even as the sun of this world appears to sustain natural life here.
The conclusion is that nothing in the universe is substance and form in itself, not love or wisdom, indeed, neither is a man a man in himself. All is of and from God, Who is the Divine Man and is Wisdom and Love Itself and is Himself Form and Substance in Himself. Now, since the universe and all in it have nothing of Divine Being in itself, and is created and finite, the Divine is present and represents God-Man in image from Who its existence comes.
Thus, we come to understand that all things in the universe are recipients of the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God-Man. The universe was created by God and, yet, is not God. Nonetheless, do not think the universe was created out of nothing, for from nothing comes nothing. The universe's creation could only be created in God from God and in His image and likeness and, so, is full of God. Yet, the universe is not God itself. It is not continuous from Him as some extension. Any created thing or being, if it were continuous from God would be God, for God cannot be divided. Those who are called Christian may have learned that God is in them and they in God, yet they also learn and say that in themselves there is nothing of good or of truth, and still believe that God is not with them until they are redeemed or saved. What is with them are God's and not theirs.
What this confirms is that man is a recipient of God's qualities of love and wisdom and, thus can be a reception of intelligence and wisdom by virtue of his origin, that is, of his creation. Since we have shown that God is not conjoined with us through continuous degree of life, and since we have shown that because of the state of man, which is natural, that he does not know how he is to be conjoined, that is, how the qualities of love and wisdom or good and truth are to be received, then how is he a recipient and so, come into this great intelligence? Or how is man created in an image and likeness of God? Can we learn by natural scientific knowledge about God? Can we find out the secrets and mysteries that reveal not only the truths about God and man, but about a higher knowledge or spiritual intelligence? Can we learn of such a conjunction and communication to superior intelligence? I will tell you that you will never find this knowledge by continuous degrees of natural life that we now live in, but only by degrees of contiguity, that is, by one's adjacency or through one's nearness to the Lord God from which such knowledge comes. Our conjunction with the Divine is therefore according to our likeness and resemblance or from a correspondence with God.
Man is not man from self or what is his own, but he is through the reception and through this he has conjunction with God, who is Very Man. It appears 'as if' God's Divine Good and Truth proceeds to the man although they are in him as his own. How this can be understood may be seen through the truth when applied to one's self, that is, by the laws of Divine order, for these are Divine Truths. This may be explained as such: We have freedom to think and to will according to reason which we have from the Lord 'as if' it were our own. In that freedom and that in willing there is reception of the Divine good and truth, though it is 'as if' from ourselves, for it comes through our natural senses.
Everything of life is of love and wisdom. Take away love and wisdom from man, even from the composite man - the society, whether a country or kingdom, or the Church and is there any life or anything? There is nothing, for life with man or with anything in the universe is dependent upon its reception of both that love and wisdom. Now, when we say love and wisdom we mean the Divine's essence. Take away love and wisdom from a subject and there is no being of that subject and, of course, no human being. In fact without it there is no creation.
To further show that love and wisdom in everything is the cause of the universe, of its existence, examine that a man has two faculties of life, one from which he understands and the other from which he wills. So, a man receives God's love and wisdom. Of course, although he has these two faculties, we know from actual experience that man is not wise or loving in himself. The fact is he does have them 'as if' his own, yet they are essentially that with him. The truth is that if he did not have them 'as if' they were his own, he would not be human, which is to think and speak from thought and, so, to will and act from will. Thus, this is proof that the Divine dwells within man, for in the ability of these two faculties of being wise and of loving, the Lord is present, though not in the space of this world. His presence makes us human.
A man is intelligent, wise, and loving or good only to the degree that he receives love and wisdom, and in fact, these qualities constitute him. In truth, they are as real, no, more real as are natural substances, and they have form just as has the things sensed in this world. They have reality as does actual natural substance and, so, have form. The difference is that substance and form of love and wisdom are not obvious to the eyes of our natural body. What is, then, love and wisdom with man? The things of wisdom and love are called thoughts, perceptions, and affections. These are spiritual substances and they have form, if you will believe it.
The premise is that we exist from the Divine, Who is Infinite, that is, that the creation exists from the Uncreated. What this implies is that Reality is only the One and very Esse and Existere and that this is the only true substance and form. This we have shown were Divine Love and Divine Wisdom proceeding from the Sun of the spiritual world, and are the essence and the life of man, and in fact of the whole universe. Consider, then, how the senses of the body are in darkness to spiritual things of those who think from the sight of the natural eye and not from the sight of their understanding, which is the sight of their spirit. Thus, we come to understand why a man's natural understanding is and has been closed to true intelligence and wisdom. Thought from the eye (natural thought) closes the understanding, while thought from the understanding (spiritual thought) opens the eye (or one's natural though).
So, we come to see that all things of the universe are filled with the Divine's love and wisdom and are in an image of some degree of that Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Now, this does not appear to man, yet in him all things of the universe are in correspondences to him. Natural science has shown this. So, one could say that man is a kind of universe. He is a microcosm. When one looks at the animal kingdom one sees there a correspondence with his affections and so, of his thought. Thus, there is also a correspondence of his will. There is also a correspondence of his understanding with the things of the vegetable kingdom, although these are not apparent to him, unless he gives heed to the spiritual world. There, in the spiritual world, those things are understood as affections and thoughts - things derived from the will and understanding appears around them, even, as the universe appears around man. The difference is man is in a more perfect image and likeness in the spiritual world than here in this world, if he is not in hell. Here, in the natural world it can be known that such an image and likeness represents God from whom man comes. God is therefore true Man, that is, His love and wisdom, its image or likeness, is seen in the universe, for it comes from Him and is sustained by Him even as the sun of this world appears to sustain natural life here.
The conclusion is that nothing in the universe is substance and form in itself, not love or wisdom, indeed, neither is a man a man in himself. All is of and from God, Who is the Divine Man and is Wisdom and Love Itself and is Himself Form and Substance in Himself. Now, since the universe and all in it have nothing of Divine Being in itself, and is created and finite, the Divine is present and represents God-Man in image from Who its existence comes.
Thus, we come to understand that all things in the universe are recipients of the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God-Man. The universe was created by God and, yet, is not God. Nonetheless, do not think the universe was created out of nothing, for from nothing comes nothing. The universe's creation could only be created in God from God and in His image and likeness and, so, is full of God. Yet, the universe is not God itself. It is not continuous from Him as some extension. Any created thing or being, if it were continuous from God would be God, for God cannot be divided. Those who are called Christian may have learned that God is in them and they in God, yet they also learn and say that in themselves there is nothing of good or of truth, and still believe that God is not with them until they are redeemed or saved. What is with them are God's and not theirs.
What this confirms is that man is a recipient of God's qualities of love and wisdom and, thus can be a reception of intelligence and wisdom by virtue of his origin, that is, of his creation. Since we have shown that God is not conjoined with us through continuous degree of life, and since we have shown that because of the state of man, which is natural, that he does not know how he is to be conjoined, that is, how the qualities of love and wisdom or good and truth are to be received, then how is he a recipient and so, come into this great intelligence? Or how is man created in an image and likeness of God? Can we learn by natural scientific knowledge about God? Can we find out the secrets and mysteries that reveal not only the truths about God and man, but about a higher knowledge or spiritual intelligence? Can we learn of such a conjunction and communication to superior intelligence? I will tell you that you will never find this knowledge by continuous degrees of natural life that we now live in, but only by degrees of contiguity, that is, by one's adjacency or through one's nearness to the Lord God from which such knowledge comes. Our conjunction with the Divine is therefore according to our likeness and resemblance or from a correspondence with God.
Man is not man from self or what is his own, but he is through the reception and through this he has conjunction with God, who is Very Man. It appears 'as if' God's Divine Good and Truth proceeds to the man although they are in him as his own. How this can be understood may be seen through the truth when applied to one's self, that is, by the laws of Divine order, for these are Divine Truths. This may be explained as such: We have freedom to think and to will according to reason which we have from the Lord 'as if' it were our own. In that freedom and that in willing there is reception of the Divine good and truth, though it is 'as if' from ourselves, for it comes through our natural senses.