Understanding God
by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Old-Psalm 131 | New-John 14:8-11 | Third-Divine Love and Divine Wisdom 55
by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Old-Psalm 131 | New-John 14:8-11 | Third-Divine Love and Divine Wisdom 55
We all know love and wisdom are qualities of the very God Himself and these qualities flow out 'as it were' from Him into receptacles made of celestial and spiritual substances and eventually into natural substances of this universe that have form a natural man on earth. From this love and wisdom coming into the heaven of angels you see the form of man. Thus, it is that thought and affection proceeds according to that form of which an angel and a man. This is why angels think of God as Very Man. Likewise, the common people of the Christian world think of God as a man, for they call Him in their creed a person, though the more sapient say and think He is invisible. The reason for this is because they cannot comprehend God as a man could have created heaven and earth and then fill the universe with His presence. Nor can they know these things as long as they do not know that the Divine is not in space, but is apart from space. How God is approached and the idea they have of Him is very important. It must be is a just and correct idea, for all things of worship and religion have respect to God. Only a true Christian who sees the Lord as the Divine Human clearly sees He is God-Man and Man-God.
There is another attribute of God - Divine Esse and Existere - which is His very Being and Existing itself. Esse is Jehovah or mercy, that is love itself towards the human race and thus of a conjunction with man. From these comes one's being and existence. The one cannot not apart from the other. Now since these are with man as good and truth, as love and wisdom, and flow 'as if' forth from God they are distinctly one. Love exists in wisdom and, as such, is distinguished in thought though not in act. As the soul is one with the body, the Divine soul of God-Man is what is meant by the Divine Esse, while Divine body is mean the Divine Existere. Though some think the soul exists apart from the body and still exercise thought. However this error is from a fallacy - the soul itself having a body of its own after the material body is cast off. Esse or being is not Esse unless it exists. Thus there is a union between them that there may be anything. In thus way they are mutually and reciprocally the other's.
As such God exists in Himself and is thus God from whom all things are and in whom all things are. Heaven where angels are, are said to be in God and God in them; from this is their form, though less perfect, while God's is that perfect form of Man. In God there are infinite things, still these are distinctly one. One may see this for an angel and a man knows that in him are innumerable things and is conscious of them as a unity. Man does not know anything of his brain, or heart, liver or any of the rest of his interiors, and so he is to himself as one. Thus, he thinks God as being distinctly one. Though, some people in the Christian religion have divided God into three persons through error. Still they will say that there is but one God. Some in Hinduism have one, others more than one God; some religions have God and the universe as one. Still, to human reason all things conjoin and concentrate in God as one. This is caused in the fact that man's thinking rationally is from God. Upon this faculty human reason depends in general. And, so, man sees this (that God is one) 'as if' from himself. We are here speaking of a man who is in the light of heaven or derives the general ground of his thought from there. Otherwise man perverts his lower understanding, his natural understanding. In that case that faculty has been turned in another direction. Thus, as the head rules the body through the understanding and the will, these residing in the head where the brain is and is acted upon while the body is only the obedience. This is why a man of the church cannot do anything from his self except from God. Though the appearance is otherwise - the body i.e. man acts as if of self.
It is known that Divine Esse is Divine Love and Divine Existere is Divine Wisdom and therefore these are also distinctly one in God. This is because love and wisdom though two distinct things when united love is of wisdom and wisdom of love. Basically love is in wisdom while wisdom exists in love. The result understood is distinctly that love is Divine Esse; however love and wisdom taken together are the Divine Esse or Being. These two are in a union in God Man whose essence is Divine Love and is one Divine Life or Life is that Divine Essence. In this there is a reciprocal union which causes oneness. In the Divine work of God is that union of love and wisdom in which are its eternity. In man is their subsistence according to its union. Any excess of love over wisdom or will over understanding or the contrary there is no reformation, regeneration and salvation of man. Herein is Divine Providence: Love wills to save all but without Wisdom it cannot, for in Wisdom belong all the laws that make them (love and wisdom) one and act in union.
These two in man are separate and yet are distinctly one. The reason is because the wisdom is such as the love is and likewise the love as is the wisdom. One can understand this when he sees these qualities 'as if' inter mankind, these being the essence from its life reciprocally in the Lord. The man's understanding can be raised into the light of heaven. It is not the same with the will or the faculty of loving, except he does as he understands, otherwise he has only an apparent wisdom. One can see that such love is not of wisdom. Here it is realized a man may know from wisdom and that he should do such and such a thing, but he does not do it if he does not love it.
Today rarely man thinks Love and Wisdom as actually Subsistence and Form and most likely they still perceive these as outside the subject of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom and as it were flowing forth while love and wisdom is the subject itself. This is merely the appearance of the state of the subject in itself. To see these things the mind must be kept in spiritual light, but one's natural light or understanding continually pulls the thought back. From God only comes spiritual light.
To get a more clearer understanding of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom as subsistence and form and that they are not merely appearances floating outside the subject let it be demonstrated by things that a man can perceive through his external senses - touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight. The very form and substance of the skin cause it to feel what is applied and touches it. We see here it is in the subsistence and form of the skin that is the subject. The sense of touch is not in the things applied to it. This sense is only an affection and form of the things applied; it is the same with the other senses. One sees then that it is not any volatile thing effluent from them, but are the organs regarded in their subsistence and form, that when effected sense takes place. Now it is the same with Love and Wisdom with the only difference love and wisdom are not extent before the eyes as the organs of the external senses. But who does not know the things of love and wisdom are the thoughts, perceptions, and affections, and are substances and forms and so are not entities 'as it were' flying or flowing out of nothing nor abstracted from a real and actual subsistence and form which are subjects. The brain has innumerable substances and forms in which resides interior sense related to the understanding and will. These undergo changes according to the waves of things that they - love and wisdom - affect like the natural senses are affected.
Let us note that so far Divine Love and Divine Wisdom is Subsistence and Form and that Divine Esse and Existere is Esse and Existence in itself. Yet, it is not Esse and Existere from itself, for such would involve a beginning or a derivation from something in it which must be Esse and Existere in itself. This we are to know is from eternity and is uncreated. While everything created is from an Uncreate - created things are finite and exist from the Infinite. Follow this thought and you see that Very Reality and One only Reality appertain to the Infinite. One therefore may say Very Reality Is and the one only Reality of that from which every other thing Is. Thus it is that Very Reality is the very and one Subsistence and Form and so the very and only Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. These are the one Essence and Life - Love and Wisdom being that Life. This further explains about God. Though when a man thinks from the body's senses will say nature is from herself. His is because a person thinks from the eyes - from what is seen in this world - and not from the understanding. Such thought closes up the understanding, while thought from the understanding opens the eye. The end result of thinking that all things are from the Eternal, Uncreate, and Infinite is in regarding nature as from Uses. For uses come from life only and their series and order for wisdom and love. Therefore it is that forms are the continents of uses.
Religions say the universe and all things in it are created by God who is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom and is God Man. Thus, the universe, in the greatest and least things, is full of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom and so is defined as an image thereof. One may see this in the correspondences with all things of the universe with all things with man. In fact man may be said to be a kind of universe. As for example man's affections and thoughts correspond with the animal kingdom. While his will and his understanding correspond with the vegetable kingdom and lastly a man's ultimate life corresponds with all things of the mineral kingdom. Yet this does not appear to man in this natural world, though it does in the spiritual world if an angel attend to it, for in the spiritual world all things which are in the natural world exist in its three kingdoms. These are correspondences of affections from the will and thoughts from the understanding plus the ultimate or last things of life appear around angels as they do in the created universe; the only difference is that their embodiment is smaller. Thus angels see plainly that the created universe is an image representative of God Man and is Love and Wisdom presented in an image. Nevertheless the created universe is not God Man but is from Him. The created universe is not subsistence and form in itself neither is it love and wisdom in itself; in truth a man is not man in himself; but all is from God Man, who is Man as Wisdom and Love, Form and Subsistence in Himself and these are Uncreate and Infinite. What comes from God carries nothing with it which is self-existent thus it is created and finite represented in an image of Him and exists from Him. Nevertheless of created and finite things may be predicated esse and existere, plus substance and form, even life - love and wisdom. Still they are created and finite. As such these attributes are in the Divine and the Divine is in them. All that is created is in itself is inanimate and dead and become animate and alive by the fact that the Divine is in them and they in the Divine; The Divine being apart from spaces and times.
It is therefore that all created things are recipients of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God Man. It has also been said by some that the universe is created out of nothing, but from an absolute nothing is made or can be made. Herein one understands the universe as an image of God is full of God and is created in God from God because God is Esse itself and that which is, must be from Esse. Nonetheless that created in God from God is continuous from Him. While in created things there is not any esse in itself, for in created things there is no Esse in itself otherwise it would be God. In order to help us see this it is like the image of man in a mirror. It is not the man himself, but is continuous from him. As result man in his nature he is a recipient of God though not by continuity, but by contiguity and so conjunction with God is by contiguity not continuity.
All created things since origin are such in their nature a recipient of God not by continuity but by contiguity. This is conformable, man having been created in God from God. In this way it is as an analogue. Thus, the conjunction is as an image in a mirror. Therefore from this we see angels are not angels from themselves, but by virtue of this conjunction with God Man. Such conjunction is according to the Divine Good and Divine Truth, which appears to proceed from God when yet they are in Him. This is possible through reception according to applying the laws of order to their self, which are Divine Truths. This is done through the freedom of willing and thinking in reason. This they have from the Lord as their own as doe's man. It is as if they have reception of Divine Good and Divine Truth as from themselves. By this comes reciprocity of love, love needing to be reciprocal. It is the same with men on earth.
The other things of the universe - the animal kingdom below man, the vegetable kingdom, and the mineral kingdom - are recipients also of God's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Though one needs first to understand the degrees of life according to their uses since all good uses are from a conjunction with God though dissimilar according to degrees. These degrees - animal, plant, and mineral - mentioned above in their descent in nature has nothing of freedom because nothing of reason; though they are still recipients. In which case, they are but re-agents and continents. One can from here now say the Divine is in everything in the universe in both general and particular, that it is the work of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. However, because the Divine in Itself is not in man's esse, for the universe is not God, but from God, and thus is as an image in a mirror appearing as man, when still there is nothing of the man in it.
It becomes known that all things created in the world have relation to man though this is seen only obscurely. In the spiritual world an angel sees these around him and knows they are his representation and even sees or recognizes him self as an image in them 'as if' in a mirror. Surely in this God can be known as a Man and that the created universe is in His image, such being the general relation of things is to Him, and the particular relation the man and angel.
We see also that in created things are uses and that in the last things - the mineral kingdom - lie concealed the end and also the beginning of all uses of life. The end use is the effort to produce such uses. The beginning is the force acting out of that effort of the mineral kingdom. Next we see in the middle or in the vegetable kingdom the uses are for the animal kingdom for food, for the delight of their senses and to vivify the affections. The effort is also in them from life. Then there follows the first things - the animal kingdom. These are divided from the lowest to the middle to the highest - from insects, worms, etc, to birds and beasts and animals the highest being the man. Thus the uses of all such things created ascend in order from the last things to man, who is the first in order. One sees the three degrees in the natural world. Likewise there are three degrees in the spiritual world. We have shown all animals are recipient of life. Of the three natural degrees the more perfect animals are man, the less perfect (beasts and birds) are of the second natural degree. The imperfect animals are of only the first degree. However God has created man not only as recipient of natural degrees, but of spiritual degrees as well. In this way a man can be elevated into the spiritual world above the natural. An animal cannot be elevated. A man can think analytically and rationally of civil and moral things which are within nature and he can think of spiritual and celestial things above nature. Here we see an ascent of all things created to the First, Who alone is Life Itself, and so it is that all things are the forms of Uses. As concerns man who is born into the last degree, the third, of the natural world, it is by sciences that he is elevated into the second, where his mind is developed and receives conscience. In accordance as he perfects his understanding he is elevated into the third degree and he becomes rational. In him are the three spiritual degrees of ascent, but they do not appear to him until he puts off the earthy body.
One sees that to understand God in a more spiritual sense rather than from just in a natural sense understood from any religion explained through various religious writings there must be enlightenment from the Divine Human. Therefore, the Human of God had to come into the world and as a human become united with the Divine Itself becoming the Divine Human, even as He was the Divine Human in the spiritual world and was Jehovah 'as it were' flowing through heaven when He spoke the Word.
Amen.
There is another attribute of God - Divine Esse and Existere - which is His very Being and Existing itself. Esse is Jehovah or mercy, that is love itself towards the human race and thus of a conjunction with man. From these comes one's being and existence. The one cannot not apart from the other. Now since these are with man as good and truth, as love and wisdom, and flow 'as if' forth from God they are distinctly one. Love exists in wisdom and, as such, is distinguished in thought though not in act. As the soul is one with the body, the Divine soul of God-Man is what is meant by the Divine Esse, while Divine body is mean the Divine Existere. Though some think the soul exists apart from the body and still exercise thought. However this error is from a fallacy - the soul itself having a body of its own after the material body is cast off. Esse or being is not Esse unless it exists. Thus there is a union between them that there may be anything. In thus way they are mutually and reciprocally the other's.
As such God exists in Himself and is thus God from whom all things are and in whom all things are. Heaven where angels are, are said to be in God and God in them; from this is their form, though less perfect, while God's is that perfect form of Man. In God there are infinite things, still these are distinctly one. One may see this for an angel and a man knows that in him are innumerable things and is conscious of them as a unity. Man does not know anything of his brain, or heart, liver or any of the rest of his interiors, and so he is to himself as one. Thus, he thinks God as being distinctly one. Though, some people in the Christian religion have divided God into three persons through error. Still they will say that there is but one God. Some in Hinduism have one, others more than one God; some religions have God and the universe as one. Still, to human reason all things conjoin and concentrate in God as one. This is caused in the fact that man's thinking rationally is from God. Upon this faculty human reason depends in general. And, so, man sees this (that God is one) 'as if' from himself. We are here speaking of a man who is in the light of heaven or derives the general ground of his thought from there. Otherwise man perverts his lower understanding, his natural understanding. In that case that faculty has been turned in another direction. Thus, as the head rules the body through the understanding and the will, these residing in the head where the brain is and is acted upon while the body is only the obedience. This is why a man of the church cannot do anything from his self except from God. Though the appearance is otherwise - the body i.e. man acts as if of self.
It is known that Divine Esse is Divine Love and Divine Existere is Divine Wisdom and therefore these are also distinctly one in God. This is because love and wisdom though two distinct things when united love is of wisdom and wisdom of love. Basically love is in wisdom while wisdom exists in love. The result understood is distinctly that love is Divine Esse; however love and wisdom taken together are the Divine Esse or Being. These two are in a union in God Man whose essence is Divine Love and is one Divine Life or Life is that Divine Essence. In this there is a reciprocal union which causes oneness. In the Divine work of God is that union of love and wisdom in which are its eternity. In man is their subsistence according to its union. Any excess of love over wisdom or will over understanding or the contrary there is no reformation, regeneration and salvation of man. Herein is Divine Providence: Love wills to save all but without Wisdom it cannot, for in Wisdom belong all the laws that make them (love and wisdom) one and act in union.
These two in man are separate and yet are distinctly one. The reason is because the wisdom is such as the love is and likewise the love as is the wisdom. One can understand this when he sees these qualities 'as if' inter mankind, these being the essence from its life reciprocally in the Lord. The man's understanding can be raised into the light of heaven. It is not the same with the will or the faculty of loving, except he does as he understands, otherwise he has only an apparent wisdom. One can see that such love is not of wisdom. Here it is realized a man may know from wisdom and that he should do such and such a thing, but he does not do it if he does not love it.
Today rarely man thinks Love and Wisdom as actually Subsistence and Form and most likely they still perceive these as outside the subject of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom and as it were flowing forth while love and wisdom is the subject itself. This is merely the appearance of the state of the subject in itself. To see these things the mind must be kept in spiritual light, but one's natural light or understanding continually pulls the thought back. From God only comes spiritual light.
To get a more clearer understanding of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom as subsistence and form and that they are not merely appearances floating outside the subject let it be demonstrated by things that a man can perceive through his external senses - touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight. The very form and substance of the skin cause it to feel what is applied and touches it. We see here it is in the subsistence and form of the skin that is the subject. The sense of touch is not in the things applied to it. This sense is only an affection and form of the things applied; it is the same with the other senses. One sees then that it is not any volatile thing effluent from them, but are the organs regarded in their subsistence and form, that when effected sense takes place. Now it is the same with Love and Wisdom with the only difference love and wisdom are not extent before the eyes as the organs of the external senses. But who does not know the things of love and wisdom are the thoughts, perceptions, and affections, and are substances and forms and so are not entities 'as it were' flying or flowing out of nothing nor abstracted from a real and actual subsistence and form which are subjects. The brain has innumerable substances and forms in which resides interior sense related to the understanding and will. These undergo changes according to the waves of things that they - love and wisdom - affect like the natural senses are affected.
Let us note that so far Divine Love and Divine Wisdom is Subsistence and Form and that Divine Esse and Existere is Esse and Existence in itself. Yet, it is not Esse and Existere from itself, for such would involve a beginning or a derivation from something in it which must be Esse and Existere in itself. This we are to know is from eternity and is uncreated. While everything created is from an Uncreate - created things are finite and exist from the Infinite. Follow this thought and you see that Very Reality and One only Reality appertain to the Infinite. One therefore may say Very Reality Is and the one only Reality of that from which every other thing Is. Thus it is that Very Reality is the very and one Subsistence and Form and so the very and only Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. These are the one Essence and Life - Love and Wisdom being that Life. This further explains about God. Though when a man thinks from the body's senses will say nature is from herself. His is because a person thinks from the eyes - from what is seen in this world - and not from the understanding. Such thought closes up the understanding, while thought from the understanding opens the eye. The end result of thinking that all things are from the Eternal, Uncreate, and Infinite is in regarding nature as from Uses. For uses come from life only and their series and order for wisdom and love. Therefore it is that forms are the continents of uses.
Religions say the universe and all things in it are created by God who is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom and is God Man. Thus, the universe, in the greatest and least things, is full of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom and so is defined as an image thereof. One may see this in the correspondences with all things of the universe with all things with man. In fact man may be said to be a kind of universe. As for example man's affections and thoughts correspond with the animal kingdom. While his will and his understanding correspond with the vegetable kingdom and lastly a man's ultimate life corresponds with all things of the mineral kingdom. Yet this does not appear to man in this natural world, though it does in the spiritual world if an angel attend to it, for in the spiritual world all things which are in the natural world exist in its three kingdoms. These are correspondences of affections from the will and thoughts from the understanding plus the ultimate or last things of life appear around angels as they do in the created universe; the only difference is that their embodiment is smaller. Thus angels see plainly that the created universe is an image representative of God Man and is Love and Wisdom presented in an image. Nevertheless the created universe is not God Man but is from Him. The created universe is not subsistence and form in itself neither is it love and wisdom in itself; in truth a man is not man in himself; but all is from God Man, who is Man as Wisdom and Love, Form and Subsistence in Himself and these are Uncreate and Infinite. What comes from God carries nothing with it which is self-existent thus it is created and finite represented in an image of Him and exists from Him. Nevertheless of created and finite things may be predicated esse and existere, plus substance and form, even life - love and wisdom. Still they are created and finite. As such these attributes are in the Divine and the Divine is in them. All that is created is in itself is inanimate and dead and become animate and alive by the fact that the Divine is in them and they in the Divine; The Divine being apart from spaces and times.
It is therefore that all created things are recipients of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God Man. It has also been said by some that the universe is created out of nothing, but from an absolute nothing is made or can be made. Herein one understands the universe as an image of God is full of God and is created in God from God because God is Esse itself and that which is, must be from Esse. Nonetheless that created in God from God is continuous from Him. While in created things there is not any esse in itself, for in created things there is no Esse in itself otherwise it would be God. In order to help us see this it is like the image of man in a mirror. It is not the man himself, but is continuous from him. As result man in his nature he is a recipient of God though not by continuity, but by contiguity and so conjunction with God is by contiguity not continuity.
All created things since origin are such in their nature a recipient of God not by continuity but by contiguity. This is conformable, man having been created in God from God. In this way it is as an analogue. Thus, the conjunction is as an image in a mirror. Therefore from this we see angels are not angels from themselves, but by virtue of this conjunction with God Man. Such conjunction is according to the Divine Good and Divine Truth, which appears to proceed from God when yet they are in Him. This is possible through reception according to applying the laws of order to their self, which are Divine Truths. This is done through the freedom of willing and thinking in reason. This they have from the Lord as their own as doe's man. It is as if they have reception of Divine Good and Divine Truth as from themselves. By this comes reciprocity of love, love needing to be reciprocal. It is the same with men on earth.
The other things of the universe - the animal kingdom below man, the vegetable kingdom, and the mineral kingdom - are recipients also of God's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Though one needs first to understand the degrees of life according to their uses since all good uses are from a conjunction with God though dissimilar according to degrees. These degrees - animal, plant, and mineral - mentioned above in their descent in nature has nothing of freedom because nothing of reason; though they are still recipients. In which case, they are but re-agents and continents. One can from here now say the Divine is in everything in the universe in both general and particular, that it is the work of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. However, because the Divine in Itself is not in man's esse, for the universe is not God, but from God, and thus is as an image in a mirror appearing as man, when still there is nothing of the man in it.
It becomes known that all things created in the world have relation to man though this is seen only obscurely. In the spiritual world an angel sees these around him and knows they are his representation and even sees or recognizes him self as an image in them 'as if' in a mirror. Surely in this God can be known as a Man and that the created universe is in His image, such being the general relation of things is to Him, and the particular relation the man and angel.
We see also that in created things are uses and that in the last things - the mineral kingdom - lie concealed the end and also the beginning of all uses of life. The end use is the effort to produce such uses. The beginning is the force acting out of that effort of the mineral kingdom. Next we see in the middle or in the vegetable kingdom the uses are for the animal kingdom for food, for the delight of their senses and to vivify the affections. The effort is also in them from life. Then there follows the first things - the animal kingdom. These are divided from the lowest to the middle to the highest - from insects, worms, etc, to birds and beasts and animals the highest being the man. Thus the uses of all such things created ascend in order from the last things to man, who is the first in order. One sees the three degrees in the natural world. Likewise there are three degrees in the spiritual world. We have shown all animals are recipient of life. Of the three natural degrees the more perfect animals are man, the less perfect (beasts and birds) are of the second natural degree. The imperfect animals are of only the first degree. However God has created man not only as recipient of natural degrees, but of spiritual degrees as well. In this way a man can be elevated into the spiritual world above the natural. An animal cannot be elevated. A man can think analytically and rationally of civil and moral things which are within nature and he can think of spiritual and celestial things above nature. Here we see an ascent of all things created to the First, Who alone is Life Itself, and so it is that all things are the forms of Uses. As concerns man who is born into the last degree, the third, of the natural world, it is by sciences that he is elevated into the second, where his mind is developed and receives conscience. In accordance as he perfects his understanding he is elevated into the third degree and he becomes rational. In him are the three spiritual degrees of ascent, but they do not appear to him until he puts off the earthy body.
One sees that to understand God in a more spiritual sense rather than from just in a natural sense understood from any religion explained through various religious writings there must be enlightenment from the Divine Human. Therefore, the Human of God had to come into the world and as a human become united with the Divine Itself becoming the Divine Human, even as He was the Divine Human in the spiritual world and was Jehovah 'as it were' flowing through heaven when He spoke the Word.
Amen.
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