Terrestrial effects being thus linked to
celestial causes, all things
are CORRESPONDENT and SIGNIFICANT. Man is the means of union between
the Natural and the Spiritual.'
"The Angelic Spirits
therefore know the very nature of the
Correspondences which link to heaven all
earthly things; they know,
too, the inner meaning of the
prophetic" target="_blank" title="a.预言(家)的;预示的">
prophetic words which foretell their
evolutions. Thus to these Spirits everything here below has its
significance; the tiniest flower is a thought,--a life which
corresponds to certain lineaments of the Great Whole, of which they
have a
constant intuition. To them Adultery and the excesses
spoken of
in Scripture and by the Prophets, often garbled by self-styled
scholars, mean the state of those souls which in this world
persist in
tainting themselves with
earthly affections, thus compelling their
divorce from Heaven. Clouds
signify the veil of the Most High.
Torches, shew-bread, horses and horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in
short, everything named in Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning,
and reveals the future of terrestrial facts in their relation to
Heaven. They
penetrate the truths contained in the Revelation of Saint
John the
divine, which human science has
subsequently demonstrated and
proved
materially; such, for
instance, as the following ('big,' said
Swedenborg, 'with many human sciences'): 'I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away'
(Revelation xxi. 1). These Spirits know the supper at which the flesh
of kings and the flesh of all men, free and bond, is eaten, to which
an Angel
standing in the sun has bidden them. They see the winged
woman, clothed with the sun, and the mailed man. 'The horse of the
Apocalypse,' says Swedenborg, 'is the
visible image of human
intellectridden by Death, for it bears within itself the elements of its own
destruction.' Moreover, they can
distinguish beings concealed under
forms which to
ignorant eyes would seem
fantastic. When a man is
disposed to receive the
prophetic" target="_blank" title="a.预言(家)的;预示的">
prophetic afflation of Correspondences, it
rouses within him a
perception of the Word; he comprehends that the
creations are
transformations only; his
intellect is sharpened, a
burning
thirst takes possession of him which only Heaven can quench.
He conceives, according to the greater or
lesserperfection of his
inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he advances, led by
Desire (the least
imperfect state of unregenerated man) towards Hope,
the
gateway to the world of Spirits,
whence he reaches Prayer, which
gives him the Key of Heaven.
"What being here below would not desire to render himself
worthy of
entrance into the
sphere of those who live in secret by Love and
Wisdom? Here on earth, during their
lifetime, such spirits remain
pure; they neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are
two ways by which
perception comes,--one
internal, the other
external.
Man is
whollyexternal, the Angelic Spirit
whollyinternal. The Spirit
goes to the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows
their significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity
it shares in all things. 'An Angel,' says Swedenborg, 'is ever present
to a man when desired' ('Angelic Wisdom'); for the Angel has the gift
of detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the
prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it. 'In this state,'
writes Swedenborg ('True Religion,' 136), 'the spirit of a man may
move from one place to another, his body remaining where it is,--a
condition in which I lived for over twenty-six years.' It is thus that
we should interpret all Biblical statements which begin, 'The Spirit
led me.' Angelic Wisdom is to human
wisdom what the
innumerable forces
of nature are to its action, which is one. All things live again, and
move and have their being in the Spirit, which is in God. Saint Paul
expresses this truth when he says, 'In Deo sumus, movemur, et
vivimus,'--we live, we act, we are in God.
"Earth offers no
hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word
offers him no
obscurity. His approaching
divinity enables him to see
the thought of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner
being, the Spirit is in
communion with the
hidden meaning of all
things on this earth. Science is the language of the Temporal world,
Love is that of the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than
he is able to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends.
Science depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still
seeking, Love has found. Man judges Nature according to his own
relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to
Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the Spirit. Spirits are
in the secret of the
harmony of all creations with each other; they
comprehend the spirit of sound, the spirit of color, the spirit of
vegetable life; they can question the
mineral, and the
mineral makes
answer to their thoughts. What to them are sciences and the treasures
of the earth when they grasp all things by the eye at all moments,
when the worlds which
absorb the minds of so many men are to them but
the last step from which they spring to God? Love of heaven, or the
Wisdom of heaven, is made
manifest to them by a
circle of light which
surrounds them, and is
visible to the Elect. Their
innocence, of which
that of children is a
symbol, possesses,
nevertheless, a knowledge
which children have not; they are both
innocent and
learned. 'And,'
says Swedenborg, 'the
innocence of Heaven makes such an impression
upon the soul that those whom it affects keep a rapturous memory of it
which lasts them all their lives, as I myself have
experienced. It is
perhaps sufficient,' he goes on, 'to have only a
minimumperception of
it to be forever changed, to long to enter Heaven and the
sphere of
Hope.'
"His
doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: 'The
Lord has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and
bestowed them upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and
this grace of his life, he is harsh, sad, and
sullen; when he is
reunited to them he is
joyful and complete.' The Angels are ever at
the perfect point of beauty. Marriages are
celebrated by wondrous
ceremonies. In these unions, which produce no children, man
contributes the UNDERSTANDING, woman the WILL; they become one being,
one Flesh here below, and pass to heaven clothed in the
celestialform. On this earth, the natural
attraction of the sexes towards
enjoyment is an Effect which allures, fatigues and disgusts; but in
the form
celestial the pair, now ONE in Spirit find within theirself a
ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was led to see these nuptials of
the Spirits, which in the words of Saint Luke (xx. 35) are neither
marrying nor giving in marriage, and which
inspire none but
spiritualpleasures. An Angel offered to make him
witness of such a marriage and
bore him
thither on his wings (the wings are a
symbol and not a
reality). The Angel clothed him in a
weddinggarment and when
Swedenborg,
finding himself thus robed in light, asked why, the answer
was: 'For these events, our
garments are illuminated; they shine; they
are made nuptial.' ('Conjugial Love,' 19, 20, 21.) Then he saw the two
Angels, one coming from the South, the other from the East; the Angel
of the South was in a
chariot drawn by two white horses, with reins of
the color and
brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they were near him
in the sky,
chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the East,
clothed in
crimson, and the Angel of the South, in
purple, drew
together, like breaths, and mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the
other the Angel of Wisdom. Swedenborg's guide told him that the two
Angels had been linked together on earth by an
inward friendship and
ever united though separated in life by great distances. Consent, the
essence of all good marriage upon earth, is the
habitual state of
Angels in Heaven. Love is the light of their world. The eternal
rapture of Angels comes from the
faculty that God communicates to them
to render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. This reciprocity
of infinitude forms their life. They become
infinite by participating
of the
essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself.
"The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if
man were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the
sun to the earth, and if he gazed throughout
eternity, his eyes could
not reach the
horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea
of the joys of heaven. 'It is,' says Swedenborg ('Angelic Wisdom,' 7,
25, 26, 27), 'a vapor of the
virtue of God, a pure emanation of His
splendor, beside which our greatest
brilliance is
obscurity. It can
compass all; it can renew all, and is never
absorbed: it environs the
Angel and unites him to God by
infinite joys which
multiplyinfinitely
of themselves. This Light destroys whosoever is not prepared to
receive it. No one here below, nor yet in Heaven can see God and live.
This is the meaning of the
saying (Exodus xix. 12, 13, 21-23) "Take
heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount--lest ye break
through unto the Lord to gaze, and many perish." And again (Exodus
xxxiv. 29-35), "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two