bygrace's Tistory Blog

※ (주4). The Word is written solely by correspondences, and for this reason each thing and all things in it have a spiritual meaning (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2900, 9086).

창14:14

아브람이 그의 조카가 사로잡혔음을 듣고 집에서 길리고 훈련된 자 삼백십팔 명을 거느리고 단까지 쫓아가서 And Abram heard that his brother was taken captive; and he hastened his trained men that were born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued unto Dan.

1706

“Abram heard that his brother was taken captive” signifies that the interior man perceived in what state was the external man; “and he hastened his trained men that were born in his house” signifies those goods in the external man that were now delivered from the yoke of servitude; “three hundred and eighteen” signifies their quality; “and pursued unto Dan” signifies the commencement of purification.

1707

아브람이 그의 조카가 사로잡혔음을 듣고 Abram heard that his brother was taken captive.

1708

집에서 길리고 훈련된 자를 거느리고 And he hastened his trained men that were born in his house.

1709

삼백십팔 명 Three hundred and eighteen men.

That this signifies their quality, namely, that they are the holy things of combat, is involved in the number “eighteen,” and also in the number “three hundred”; for these numbers are composed of three and six. “Three” signifies what is holy (as shown n. 720, 901); and “six” combat (as shown n. 737, 900). That Abram hastened so many, is an historical truth but still it was representative, as is all the history in the Word in the five books of Moses, in Joshua, in Judges, in Samuel, in the Kings, in Daniel, and in Jonah, where the numbers in like manner involve arcana; for nothing has been written in the Word which was not of this nature, otherwise it would not be the Word, and otherwise it would not have been related that Abram hastened three hundred and eighteen; and also that these were in training, and born in his house; besides many other things which are said in this chapter.

1710

단까지 쫓아가서 And pursued even to Dan.

창14:19

그가 아브람에게 축복하여 이르되 천지의 주재이시요 지극히 높으신 하나님이여 아브람에게 복을 주옵소서 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram to God Most High, Possessor of the heavens and the earth.

1730

“And he blessed him” signifies the enjoyment of celestial and spiritual things; “and said, Blessed be Abram to God Most High” signifies the Lord’s interior man, that it came into the enjoyment of goods from his internal man; “Possessor of the heavens and the earth” signifies the conjunction of the internal man, or Jehovah, with the interior and the exterior man.

1731

그가 아브람에게 축복하여 He blessed him.

1732

이르되 지극히 높으신 하나님이여 아브람에게 복을 주옵소서 Blessed be Abram to God Most High.

1733

천지의 주재이시요 Possessor of the heavens and the earth.

This signifies the conjunction of the internal man or Jehovah with the interior and the exterior man, as appears from the signification of “heaven and earth.” That which is interior in man is called “heaven”; and that which is exterior is called “earth.” The reason why “heaven” signifies that which is interior in man, is that a man as to his interiors is an image of heaven, and so is a kind of little heaven. Primarily the Lord’s interior man is heaven, because the Lord is the all in all of heaven, and thus is heaven itself. It follows from this that the exterior man is called the earth. For the same reason also, by the “new heavens” and the “new earth,” spoken of in the prophets and in Revelation, nothing else is meant than the Lord’s kingdom, and everyone who is a kingdom of the Lord, or in whom the Lord’s kingdom is. That “heaven and earth” signify these things may be seen, as to “heaven,” n. 82, 911; and as to “earth,” n. 82, 620, 636, 913.

[2] That here “God most high, possessor of the heavens and earth” signifies the conjunction in the Lord of the internal man with the interior and exterior man, may be seen from the fact that as to his internal man the Lord was Jehovah himself; and because the internal man or Jehovah led and instructed the external, as a father his son, therefore relatively to Jehovah he is called, as to the external man, the “son of God”; but relatively to the mother, he is called the “son of man.” The Lord’s internal man, which is Jehovah himself, is what is here called “God most high”; and before plenary conjunction or union was effected, it is called “possessor of the heavens and earth,” that is, possessor of all things which are in the interior and the exterior man; for these, as before said, are here meant by “the heavens and the earth.”

※ (주4). The Word is written solely by correspondences, and for this reason each thing and all things in it have a spiritual meaning (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2900, 9086).

1659

The things contained in this chapter appear as if they were not representative, for it treats only of wars between several kings, and the rescue of Lot by Abram; and finally concerning Melchizedek; and thus it seems as if they contained no heavenly arcanum. But still these things, like all the rest, conceal in the internal sense the deepest arcana, which also follow in a continuous series from those which go before, and connect themselves in a continuous series with those which follow.

[2] In those which precede, the Lord has been treated of, and his instruction, and also his external man, which was to be conjoined with the internal by means of knowledges [scientiae et cognitiones]. But as his external man was—as before said—of such a nature that it had in it by inheritance from the mother things that hindered conjunction, and yet that were to be expelled by means of combats and temptations, before his external man could be united to his internal man, or his human essence to the Divine essence, therefore these combats are treated of in this chapter; and are represented and signified in the internal sense by the wars of which it treats. It is known within the church that Melchizedek represented the Lord, and therefore that the Lord is meant in the internal sense where Melchizedek is mentioned. It may be concluded from this, that not only the things concerning Melchizedek, but all the rest also, are representative; for not a syllable can have been written in the Word which was not sent down from heaven, and consequently in which the angels do not see heavenly things.

[3] In very ancient times also, many things were represented by wars, which they called the wars of Jehovah, and which signified nothing else than the combats of the church, and of those who were of the church, that is, their temptations, which are nothing but combats and wars with the evils in themselves, and consequently with the diabolical crew that excite the evils, and endeavor to destroy the church and the man of the church. That nothing else is meant in the Word by “wars” may be clearly seen from the fact that nothing can be treated of in the Word except the Lord and his kingdom, and the church; because it is Divine and not human, consequently heavenly and not worldly, and therefore by “wars,” in the sense of the letter, nothing else can be meant in the internal sense. This will be more evident from what follows.

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There are two properties of the natural world which cause all things of it to be finite; one is space, and the other time. And as the natural world was created by God, and space and time were created together with it and render it finite, it is necessary to treat of the two origins of these properties, namely, immensity and eternity; for the immensity of God relates to spaces and his eternity to times; while both immensity and eternity are included in infinity. But because the infinite transcends the finite, and because a knowledge of the infinite transcends the finite mind, to render it in some measure conceivable it shall be carefully considered in the following order:

(1) God is infinite because he is being and existence in himself, and because all things in the universe have their being and existence from him.

(2) God is infinite because he was before the world was, thus before spaces and times arose.

(3) Since the creation of the world God is in space without space, and in time without time.

(4) In relation to spaces God’s infinity is called immensity, while in relation to times it is called eternity; but although they are so related there is nothing of space in his immensity and nothing of time in his eternity.

(5) The infinity of God can be seen by enlightened reason in very many things in the world.

(6) Every created thing is finite, and the infinite is in finite things as in its receptacles, and is in men as in its images.

These propositions shall be explained one by one.

※ (주4). The Word is written solely by correspondences, and for this reason each thing and all things in it have a spiritual meaning (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2900, 9086).

(계속) 천사들이 살아가는 빛에 관하여, 또 그들의 낙원 같은 경관들과 거처들에 관하여

CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE LIGHT IN WHICH ANGELS LIVE; ALSO CONCERNING THEIR PARADISAL SCENES, AND THEIR DWELLINGS

1619

사람의 내적 시야(man’s interior sight), 곧 영안(靈眼, the sight of his spirit)이지요, 이 시야가 열리면, 저세상에 있는 것들, 곧 육안으로는 절대 볼 수 없는 것들이 나타납니다. 선지자들이 보던 것들이 딴 게 아니었습니다. 천국에는, 이미 말씀드려 온 것처럼, 주님과 주님의 나라에 관한 표상들(表象, representations)이 계속되고요, 거기 있는 것들은 모두 이에 대한 상징들(significative)인데, 어느 정도냐면, 천사들의 시야에 표상도, 상징도 아닌 것들은 하나도 없을 정도입니다. 말씀(the Word)에 나오는 표상과 상징이 그래서 있는 것이며, 말씀이라는 것이 곧 천국을 통해 주님으로부터 온 것이기 때문에 그렇습니다. When man’s interior sight is opened, which is the sight of his spirit, the things in the other life appear, which cannot possibly be made visible to the sight of the body. The visions of the prophets were nothing else. In heaven, as has been said, there are continual representations of the Lord and his kingdom; and there are things that are significative; and this to such an extent that nothing exists before the sight of the angels that is not representative and significative. Thence come the representatives and significatives in the Word; for the Word is from the Lord through heaven.

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To this I will add the following memorable relation:

On one occasion, awaking from sleep I fell into a profound meditation about God; and looking up I saw above me in heaven an exceedingly bright light of oval form; and as I fixed my gaze upon it the light withdrew to the sides and formed a circle; and then, behold, heaven opened to me, and I saw magnificent scenes, and angels standing in a circle on the southern side of the opening talking together. As I greatly wished to hear what they were saying, I was permitted first to hear the sound of their voices, which was full of heavenly love, and afterwards what they said, which was full of wisdom from that love.

They were talking together about the one God, and conjunction with him, and salvation thereby. They uttered things ineffable, most of which could not possibly be expressed in any natural language. But at different times I had been in company with the angels in heaven itself, and at such times had been in a state like theirs and in a similar language, and consequently I was now able to understand them, and select from what they said some things that can be rationally expressed in the words of natural language.

[2] They said that the Divine esse is one, the same, the itself, and indivisible. This they illustrated by spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine esse could not separate itself into several, each of them possessing the Divine esse, and still itself be one, the same, and indivisible; since each one from his own esse would then think from himself and by himself separately; and even if the Divine esse could so separate itself, and all should think unanimously, each from the others, there would still be several unanimous Gods, and not one God. For unanimity, which means the agreement of several, each for himself and by himself, is not consistent with the unity, but only with the plurality of God. The angels did not say “of Gods,” because they could not; for such an expression would be strenuously resisted by the light of heaven, which is the source of their thought, and by the aura in which their words are conveyed.

They said furthermore, that when they wished to utter the word “Gods,” meaning each one a person by himself, the effort to utter it fell at once into the expression “one God,” and even “one only God.” To this they added that the Divine esse is Divine esse in itself, not from itself; because the expression “from itself” implies esse in itself from another and prior esse; and this implies a God from God, which is impossible. That which is from God is not called God, but is called Divine; for what is a God from God? Thus what is a God born from God from eternity? And is a God going forth from God through a God born from eternity anything else than words in which there is no light from heaven?

[3] They said still further, that the Divine esse, which is in itself God, is the same; not the same simply, but infinitely, that is, the same from eternity to eternity; the same everywhere and the same with everyone and in everyone; and that all variableness and change are in the recipient, caused by the state of the recipient.

That the Divine esse which is God in himself is the itself, they illustrated thus: God is the itself because he is love itself and wisdom itself, that is, he is good itself and truth itself, and therefore life itself. Unless these in God were love and wisdom itself and were good and truth itself and therefore life itself, they would not be anything in heaven and in the world, because there would be nothing in them related to the itself. Every quality is what it is from the fact that there is an itself in which it originates, and to which it must be related in order to be what it is. This itself, which is the Divine esse, is not in place; but it is present with and in those who are in place in accordance with their reception of it, since place, or progress from place to place, cannot be predicated of love and wisdom nor of good and truth, nor of life therefrom, which are itself in God, and are even God himself. On this rests his omnipotence. So the Lord says that he is in the midst of them, and that he is in them and they in him.

[4] But as he can be received by no one as he is in himself, what he is in his essence is made manifest as a sun above the angelic heavens, and what goes forth from that sun as light is himself in respect to wisdom, and what goes forth as heat is himself in respect to love. That sun is not God himself; but the Divine love and Divine wisdom as they most nearly proceed from him, all about him are seen by the angels as a sun. He himself within the sun is a man. He is our Lord Jesus Christ, in regard both to the Divine from which [he is] and to the Divine human, because the itself which is love itself and wisdom itself was his soul from the Father, that is, the Divine life, or life in itself. It is not thus in any man. In man the soul is not life, but is a recipient of life. This the Lord teaches, saying:

예수께서 이르시되 내가 곧 길이요 진리요 생명이니 나로 말미암지 않고는 아버지께로 올 자가 없느니라 (요14:6) I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

아버지께서 자기 속에 생명이 있음 같이 아들에게도 생명을 주어 그 속에 있게 하셨고 (요5:26)As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself(John 5:26);

“life in himself” meaning God.

To this they added, that those who are in any spiritual light are able to perceive from these statements that the Divine esse, because it is one, the same, the itself, and indivisible, cannot exist in several; and if the opposite is asserted manifest contradictions must result.

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When I had heard this the angels perceived in my thought those ideas of God that prevail in the Christian church respecting a trinity of persons in unity and a unity of persons in a trinity; also respecting a birth of the son of God from eternity; and they said, “What is your thought? Are you not thinking from natural light, which is not in accord with our spiritual light? Unless, therefore, you dismiss these ideas we must shut up heaven against you and depart.”

But I said, “Enter, I pray you, more deeply into my thought, and you will see, perhaps, that there is an agreement between us.” This they did; and they saw that by three persons I understood three Divine attributes going forth, creation, redemption, and regeneration, and that these are attributes of one God; also that by the birth of the son of God from eternity I understood his birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time; also that to think of the son born of God from eternity would, to me, be not above nature and reason but contrary to nature and reason; while to think of the son born of God in time through the virgin Mary as the only son of God, and the only-begotten, is very different; and to believe otherwise than this would be a monstrous error. I then told them that the source of my natural thought about a trinity and unity of persons, and the birth of a son of God from eternity, was the doctrine of faith in the church which has its name from Athanasius.

Then the angels said, “Very well,” and asked me to say from them that only those who approach the very God of heaven and earth can enter heaven, because heaven is heaven from that only God, and that this God is Jesus Christ, who is the Lord Jehovah, from eternity the creator, in time the redeemer, and to eternity the regenerator, thus who is at once Father, son, and Holy Spirit; and this, they said, is the gospel to be preached.

After this the heavenly light which had been seen before over the opening returned, and gradually descended and filled the interiors of my mind, and enlightened my ideas on the trinity and unity of God; and the ideas which I had first formed on these subjects, and which had been merely natural, I then saw separated as chaff is separated from wheat by winnowing, and carried away as by a wind to the north of heaven, and scattered.

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(5) The doctrine of a plurality of gods, both in past ages and at the present day, has sprung solely from a failure to understand the Divine esse.

It has been shown above (n. 8) that the unity of God is inmostly inscribed on the mind of every man, since it lies at the center of all that flows from God into the soul of man; and yet it has not descended therefrom into the human understanding, for the reason that the knowledges by which man must ascend to meet God have been lacking. For everyone must prepare the way for God, that is, must prepare himself for reception; and this is done by means of knowledges. The knowledges that have been lacking, and that enable the understanding to penetrate far enough to see that God is one, and that not more than one Divine esse is possible, and that from him is everything in nature, are as follows: (a) Heretofore no one has known anything about the spiritual world, the abode of spirits and angels, which every man enters after death. (b) It is equally unknown that there is in that world a sun, which is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. (c) That from this sun a heat goes forth, which in its essence is love, and a light which in its essence is wisdom. (d) That in consequence all things in that world are spiritual, and affect the internal man, and constitute his will and understanding. (e) That Jehovah God from his sun has produced not only the spiritual world and all the spiritual things in it, which are innumerable and substantial, but also the natural world and all the natural things in it, which also are innumerable but are material. (f) Hitherto no one has known what the distinction is between the spiritual and the natural, nor even what the spiritual is in its essence. (g) Nor has anyone known that there are three degrees of love and wisdom, in accordance with which the angelic heavens are arranged. (h) Nor that the human mind is divided into that number of degrees, to the end that it may be raised after death into one of the three heavens, which takes place in accordance both with its life and its faith. (i) Finally, that not the least particle of any of these things could have had existence except from a Divine esse which in itself is the itself, and thus the first and the beginning, the source of all things. Hitherto these knowledges have been lacking; and yet these are the means through which a man may rise to a knowledge of the Divine esse.

[2] It is said that the man rises; but the meaning is that he is raised up by God. For in acquiring knowledges for himself man exercises his freedom of choice; but as he acquires for himself knowledges from the Word by means of his understanding he prepares the way by which God comes down and raises him up. The knowledges by means of which the human understanding rises, God holding it in his hand and leading it, may be likened to the steps of the ladder seen by Jacob, which was set upon the earth with the top of it reaching to heaven, by which the angels ascended while Jehovah stood above it (Gen. 28:12, 13). It is wholly different when these knowledges are lacking, or when man despises them. In that case the elevation of the understanding might be likened to a ladder reaching from the ground to the windows in the first story of a magnificent palace which is a dwelling place of men, and not to the windows of the second story which is a dwelling place of spirits, and still less to the windows of the third story which is a dwelling place of angels. The result of this is that man remains in the atmospheres and material things of nature only, and confines his eyes and ears and nostrils to these, and from these he derives no other ideas of heaven and of the esse and essence of God than such as pertain to the atmospheres and to matter. Thinking from such ideas man can form no conclusions about God, as to whether he is or is not, or whether he is one or many; still less what he is in respect to his esse and essence. This is the origin of the belief in the plurality of gods, both in past ages and at the present day.

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(4) It is impossible for the Divine esse and existere in itself to produce another Divine which is esse and existere in itself; therefore another God of the same essence is impossible.

It has been shown already that the one God who is the creator of the universe, is esse and existere in itself, that is, God in himself; and from this it follows that God from God is impossible, because in such a being the verily essential Divine, which is esse and existere in itself, is impossible. It is the same whether you say “begotten of God” or “proceeding from God”; it means, in either case, produced by God, and this differs but little from being created.

Therefore, to introduce into the church a belief in three Divine persons each of whom singly is God, and of the same essence, one of them born from eternity, and a third proceeding from eternity, is to destroy utterly the idea of God’s unity, and with it every idea of divinity, and so cause all the spirituality of reason to be driven into exile. Then man is man no longer; but is so wholly natural as to differ from a beast only in the power of speech, and is opposed to all the spiritual things of the church, for these the natural man calls foolishness. This is the source and only source from which have sprung the monstrous heresies concerning God; and thus the division of the Divine trinity into persons has introduced into the church not night alone but death as well.

[2] That the identity of three Divine essences is an offense to reason was made evident to me by angels, who said that they could not even utter the words “three equal divinities”; and that if anyone should come into their presence wishing to utter these words he could not but turn himself away; and after uttering them he would become like the trunk of a man, and would be hurled downward; and would afterwards betake himself to those in hell who do not acknowledge any God. The truth is that to implant in the mind of a child or youth the idea of three Divine persons, to which inevitably the idea of three gods clings, is to deprive it of all spiritual milk, and then of all spiritual food, and finally of all ability to reason spiritually, and to bring spiritual death upon those who confirm themselves in that idea. The difference between those who in faith and heart worship one God as the creator of the universe, and those who worship him as both the redeemer and the regenerator, is like the difference between the city of Zion in the time of David and the city of Jerusalem in the time of Solomon after the temple had been built; while a church that believes in three persons and in each as a distinct God, is like the city of Zion and Jerusalem after it had been overthrown by Vespasian and the temple burned. Furthermore, the man who worships one God in whom is a Divine trinity, and who is thus one person, becomes more and more a living and angelic man; while he who confirms himself in a belief in a plurality of Gods from believing in a plurality of persons, gradually becomes like a statue with movable joints, within which Satan stands and speaks through its artificial mouth.

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(3) The Divine esse is at once esse [being] in itself and existere [manifestation] in itself.

Jehovah God is esse in itself, because he is the I am, the only, and the first, from eternity to eternity, the source of everything that is, without whom it could not be. In this way and not otherwise he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the alpha and omega. It cannot be said that his esse is from itself, because the expression from itself implies something prior, and therefore time; and time is not applicable to the infinite, which is called infinite from eternity; it also implies another God who is God in himself, thus it implies God from God, or that God formed himself; in which case he would neither be uncreate nor infinite, for he would thus have made himself finite, either from himself or from another. From the fact that God is esse in itself it follows that he is love in itself, wisdom in itself, and life in itself, and that he is the itself, the source of all things, to which each thing must have relation in order to be anything. That God is God because he is life in itself is evident from the Lord’s words in John (5:26) and in Isaiah:

네 구속자요 모태에서 너를 지은 나 여호와가 이같이 말하노라 나는 만물을 지은 여호와라 홀로 하늘을 폈으며 나와 함께 한 자 없이 땅을 펼쳤고 (사44:24) I am Jehovah that maketh all things; that spreadeth forth the heavens alone that stretcheth forth the earth by myself (Isa. 44:24)

and that he alone is God, and beside him there is no God (Isa. 45:14, 15, 21, 22; Hos. 13:4). God is not only esse [being] in itself, but also existere [manifestation] in itself, because esse without existere is nothing, equally so existere unless it is from esse; therefore where the one is the other must needs be. The same is true of substance and form. Unless a substance is also a form nothing can be predicated of it, and for the reason that having no quality it is in itself nothing. The terms esse and existere are here used, and not essence and existence, because a distinction must be made between esse and essence, and between existere and existence, like that between the prior and the posterior, the prior being more universal than the posterior. To the Divine esse infinity and eternity are applicable; while to the Divine essence and existence, Divine love and wisdom are applicable, and through these two omnipotence and omnipresence, which will be considered in their order.

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That God is the itself, the only, and the first, which is called esse and existere in itself, the source of all that has being and existence, the natural man is wholly unable to discover by his own reason; for by his own reason the natural man can apprehend only what belongs to nature, since that agrees with the essential nature of his reason, because from his infancy and childhood nothing else had entered into his reason. But because man was so created as to be spiritual as well as natural, since he is to continue to live after death, and then to live among those who are spiritual in their world, God has provided the Word— in which he has revealed not only himself but also that there is a heaven and a hell, and that in one or the other of these every man is to live to eternity, in accordance both with his life and his faith. Moreover, God has revealed in the Word that he is the I Am or esse and the itself and only, which in itself is, and thus the first or beginning, the source of all things.

[2] By this revelation the natural man is enabled to raise himself above nature, thus above himself, and to see such things as pertain to God, yet only as if at a distance, although God is nigh to every man, for in his essence he is in man; and being in man he is very nigh to those who love him; and those love him who live according to his commandments and believe in him; these as it were see him. What is faith but to see spiritually that God is? And what is a life according to his commandments but an acknowledgment in act that from him are salvation and eternal life? But those whose faith is not spiritual but natural, which is mere knowledge, and whose life is therefore natural, do indeed see God, but from afar off, and this only when they speak of him. The difference between these two classes is like the difference between those who stand in a clear light and see men near by and touch them, and those who stand in a thick mist in which they are unable to distinguish between men and trees or stones.

[3] Or it is like the difference between men on a high mountain on which there is a city, who are going about there having interaction with their fellow townsmen, and men looking down from the top of that mountain who are unable to tell whether the objects they see below are people, beasts, or statues. Or it is like the difference between men standing upon some planet and seeing those about them, and men on another planet looking at these through telescopes, and saying that they see people there, when in fact they see nothing but a most general outline of the land as lunar brightness, and the watery parts as spots. Such is the difference in seeing God and Divine things in the mind that go forth from him, between those who are both in faith and in a life of charity, and those who merely know about faith and charity; and such consequently is the difference between natural and spiritual men. But those who deny the Divine holiness of the Word, and yet carry their religion about as in a sack upon the back, do not see God at all, but only utter the word “God,” almost like parrots.

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(2) This one God is substance itself and form itself and angels and men are substances and forms from him, and so far as they are in him and he in them are images and likenesses of him.

As God is esse he is also substance; for unless esse is substance it is a figment of the reason; for substance has subsistent being. Moreover, one who is a substance is also a form; for unless a substance is a form it is a figment of the reason. Wherefore both substance and form may be predicated of God, but in the sense that he is the only, the very, and the primal substance and form. That this form is the verily human form, that is, that God is verily man, infinite in every respect, has been shown in Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, published at Amsterdam in 1763; where it is also shown that angels and men are substances and forms created and organized for receiving what is Divine flowing into them through heaven. For this reason they are called in the book of creation “images and likenesses of God” (Gen. 1:26, 27); and elsewhere “his sons,” and “born of him.” In the course of this work it will be fully shown that so far as man lives under Divine direction, that is, suffers himself to be led by God, so far he becomes an image of God more and more interiorly. Unless an idea is formed of God as the primal substance and form, and of his form as the verily human form, the human mind may easily involve itself in spectral fancies about God himself, the origin of man, and the creation of the world. It would then have no other conception of God than as the nature of the universe in its first principles, that is, as its expanse, or else as emptiness or nothingness; nor any other conception of man’s origin than as a flowing together of elements into that form by mere chance; nor of the creation of the world than that its substances and forms originated in points, and afterwards in geometrical lines, which are essentially nothing, because nothing can be predicated of them. In such minds everything belonging to the church is like the Styx or like Tartarean darkness.