Power in Ultimates

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There is successive order and there is simultaneous order. In successive order things pure and perfect appear above, and those less pure and perfect appear below. The three heavens are in successive order, one above another; and in the higher heavens all things are pure and perfect, while in the lower they are less pure and perfect. Simultaneous order exists in lower things, and fully in the lowest; for higher things let themselves down and place themselves in the order that is called simultaneous, in which the pure and perfect things, which were the higher, are in the middle or center, and the less pure and perfect, which were the lower, are in the circumferences. Therefore all things that have existed in successive order are together in ultimates in their order.

And as all higher things place themselves in what is lowest in simultaneous order, it follows that in the ultimates of the Word, which constitute the sense of its letter, are all things of the Divine truth and of the Divine good, even from their firsts. And as all things of the Divine truth and the Divine good are together in their ultimate, which is the sense of the letter of the Word, there evidently is the power of Divine truth, yea, the omnipotence of the Lord in saving man. For when the Lord operates, He operates not from first things through mediates into ultimates, but from first things through ultimates and thus into mediates.

This is why the Lord is called in the Word the First and the Last; and this is why the Lord assumed the Human, which in the world was the Divine truth or the Word, and glorified it even to the ultimates, which are the bones and the flesh, in order that He might operate from first things through ultimates, and not as before from man, but from Himself.

This power in ultimates was represented by the hair with the Nazirites, as with Samson, for the hair corresponds to the ultimates of the Divine truth. And for this reason, to produce baldness was regarded in ancient times as disgraceful.

The boys who called Elisha "bald head" were torn in pieces by bears, because Elisha and Elijah represented the Word; and the Word without the sense of the letter, which is like a head without hair, is without any power, and thus is no longer the Word. (See 2 Kings 2) "Bears" signify those that have strength from the ultimates of truth. The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power to open heaven, whereby communication and conjunction are effected, and also the power to fight against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. A man who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter of the Word can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew and their devices in which they place their power, which are innumerable, and this in a moment, merely by a look and by an effort of the will. In brief, in the spiritual world nothing can resist genuine truths confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word.

(Apocalypse Explained 1086:b)

The Divine Formed as a Man

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... "to go out" or proceed, in the spiritual sense, is to present one's self before another in a form accommodated to him, thus to present one's self the same, but in a different form. In this sense "going out" is said of the Lord in John:

Jesus said about Himself, I went out and am come from God (John 8:42).

The Father loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I went out from God. I went out from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said, We believe that thou wentest out from God (John 16:27-30).

They knew of a truth that I went out from God (John 17:8).

To illustrate what is meant by "going out" or proceeding, let us take the following examples. - Truth is said to "go out" or proceed from good, when truth is the form of good, or when truth is good in a form that the understanding can apprehend. The understanding also may be said to "go out" or proceed from the will, when the understanding is the will formed, or when it is the will in a form perceivable by the internal sight. So in regard to the thought of the understanding, this may be said to "go out" or proceed when it becomes speech; and of the will, that it "goes out" when it becomes action. Thought clothes itself with another form when it becomes speech, but still it is the thought that so goes out or proceeds; for the words and tones with which it is clothed are mere additions that cause the thought to be appropriately perceived. In like manner the will becomes of another form when it becomes action, but still it is the will that is presented in such a form; the gestures and movements that are put on are merely additions that cause the will to appear and affect the beholder appropriately. So also it may be said of the external man, that it "goes out" or proceeds from the internal man, nay, that it does so substantially, because the external man is nothing else than the internal man so formed that it may act suitably in the world in which it is. From all this it is evident what "to go out" or proceed is in the spiritual sense, namely, that when predicated of the Lord it is the Divine formed as a Man and thereby accommodated to the perception of those who believe; nevertheless both of these are one.

(Arcana Coelestia 5337)

The First Degree is the ALL in Everything of the Subsequent Degrees

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

This is because the degrees of each subject and of each thing are homogeneous; and they are homogeneous because produced from the first degree. For their formation is such that the first, by bundlings or groupings, in a word, by aggregations of parts, produces the second, and through this the third; and discretes each from the other by a covering drawn around it; from which it is clear that the first degree is chief and singly supreme in the subsequent degrees; consequently that in all things of the subsequent degrees, the first is the all.
...
This can be applied to ... the muscles, the nerves, the matters and parts of both the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, to the organic substances that are the subjects of thoughts and affections in man, to atmospheres, to heat and light, and to love and wisdom. In all these, the first is singly supreme in the subsequent things; yea, it is the sole thing in them, and because it is the sole thing in them, it is the all in them. That this is so is clear also from these well-known truths; that the end is the all of the cause, and through the cause is the all of the effect; and thus end, cause, and effect are called first, middle, and last end. Further, that the cause of the cause is also the cause of the thing caused; and that there is nothing essential in causes except the end, and nothing essential in movement excepting effort [conatus]; also, that the substance that is substance in itself is the sole substance.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 195;197)