(treated
of in Part Second), light and heat proceed - light from its wisdom, and
heat from its love; also that light is the receptacle of wisdom, and heat
of love; also that so far as man comes into wisdom he comes into that
Divine light, and so far as he comes into love he comes into that Divine
heat. From what has been shown above it is also evident that there are
three degrees of light and three degrees of heat, that is, three degrees
of wisdom and three degrees of love, and that these degrees have been
formed in man in order that he may be a receptacle of the Divine Love
and the Divine Wisdom, thus of the Lord. It is now to be shown that
spiritual light flows in through these three degrees in man, but not
spiritual heat, except so far as man shuns evils as sins and looks to
the Lord - or, what is the same, that man is able to receive wisdom even
to the third degree, but not love, unless he flees from evils as sins
and looks to the Lord; or what is still the same, that man's understanding
can be raised into wisdom, but not his will, except so far as he flees
from evils as sins.
243. That the understanding can be raised into the light of heaven, that
is, into angelic wisdom, while the will cannot be raised into the heat
of heaven, that is, into angelic love, unless man flees from evils as
sins and looks to the Lord, has been made plainly evident to me from
experience in the spiritual world. I have frequently seen and perceived
that simple spirits, who knew merely that God is and that the Lord was
born a man, and who knew scarcely anything else, clearly apprehended the
arcana of angelic wisdom almost as the angels do; and not these simple
ones alone, but many also of the infernal crew. These, while they
listened, understood, but not when they thought within themselves;
for while they listened, light entered from above, and when they thought
within themselves, no light could enter except that which corresponded
to their heat or love; consequently when they had listened to and
perceived these arcana, as soon as they turned their ears away they
remembered nothing, those belonging to the infernal crew even rejecting
these things with disgust and utterly denying them, because the fire of
their love and its light, being delusive, induced darkness, by which the
heavenly light entering from above was extinguished.
244. The same thing happens in the world. A man not altogether stupid,
and who has not confirmed himself in fal
|