Degrees Related to Divine Order

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Things interior and things exterior are not continuous but distinct and discrete in accordance with degrees, and each degree has its bounds

One thing has been formed from another, and the things so formed are not continuously purer and grosser.

One who does not perceive the difference between what is interior and what is exterior in accordance with such degrees can clearly understand neither the internal and external man nor the interior and exterior heavens.

He who does not know how degrees are related to Divine order cannot comprehend how the heavens are distinct or even what is meant by the internal and the external man. Most people in the world have no other idea of what is interior and what exterior, or of what is higher and what lower, than as something continuous or coherent by continuity from what is purer to what is grosser. But the relation of what is interior to what is exterior is not continuous but discrete. There are two kinds of degrees, those that are continuous and those that are not. Continuous degrees are related like the degrees of the waning of light from a bright blaze until it is obscured, or like the degrees of the decrease of vision from objects in the light to those in the shade, or like degrees of purity of the atmosphere from its depths to its highest point. These degrees are determined by distances.

On the other hand, degrees that are not continuous but discrete are distinguished like prior and posterior, like cause and effect or like what produces and what is produced. Whoever looks into the matter will see that in each and all things in the whole world, whatever they are, there are such degrees of producing and compounding, that is, that from one thing comes another, and from the other a third and so on.

One who does not acquire for himself a perception of these degrees cannot possibly discern the distinctions of the heavens, nor between the interior and exterior faculties of man, nor the distinction between the spiritual and the natural world, nor between the spirit of man and his body. So neither can he understand the nature and source of correspondences and representations nor what influx is. Sensual men do not apprehend these distinctions, for even where these degrees are concerned, they make increases and decreases to be continuous. Therefore, they cannot have any conception of what is spiritual otherwise than as a purer natural. Consequently, they stand outside, and are far removed from intelligence.

Finally, respecting the angels of the three heavens, it is permissible to relate a certain arcanum which has not hitherto entered the mind of anyone because degrees have not been understood. Namely, with every single angel and also with every single man, there is an inmost or highest degree or an inmost or highest something into which the Divine of the Lord first or most closely inflows and from which it disposes the other interior things which succeed in accordance with the degrees of order with them. This inmost or highest degree may be called the entrance of the Lord to the angel and to the man, and His very Own dwelling-place with them. It is by virtue of this inmost or highest that a man is a man and is distinguished from the brute animals, which do not have it. It is from this that a man, unlike the animals, is capable, in respect of all his interior things which pertain to his mind (mens) and "animus", of being raised up by the Lord to Himself; of believing in the Lord, of being moved by love to the Lord and thereby beholding Him, and of receiving intelligence and wisdom, and speaking from reason. Also it is by reason of this that he lives to eternity. But what is arranged and provided by the Lord in this inmost does not openly inflow into the perception of any angel, because it is above his thought and transcends his wisdom.

(from Heaven and Hell 38, 39)

The Universal Love in Spiritual and Natural Life

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
THE CHURCH IS THE NEIGHBOR WHO IS TO BE LOVED IN A STILL HIGHER DEGREE
AND THE LORD'S KINGDOM IN THE HIGHEST DEGREE

Since man was born for eternal life, and is introduced into it by the church, the church is to be loved as the neighbor in a higher degree, because it teaches the means which lead to eternal life and introduces man into it, leading to it by the truths of doctrine and introducing into it by goods of life. This does not mean that the priesthood should be loved in a higher degree, and the church because of the priesthood; but it means that the good and truth of the church should be loved, and the priesthood for the sake of these. The priesthood merely serves, and is to be honored so far as it serves. The church is the neighbor that is to be loved in a higher degree, thus even above one's country, for the reason also, that by his country man is initiated into civil life, but by the church into spiritual life, and by that life man is separated from a merely animal life. Moreover, civil life is a temporary life, which has an end and which is then as if it had not been; while the spiritual life is eternal, having no end; therefore of the latter may be predicated being [esse], but of the former non-being. The distinction is like that between the finite and the infinite, between which there is no ratio; for the eternal is the infinite as to time.

The Lord's kingdom is the neighbor that is to be loved in the highest degree, because the Lord's kingdom means the church throughout the world, which is called the communion of saints; also heaven is meant by it; consequently he who loves the Lord's kingdom loves all in the whole world who acknowledge the Lord and have faith in Him and charity towards the neighbor; and he loves also all in heaven. Those who love the Lord's kingdom love the Lord above all things, and are consequently in love to God more than others, because the church in the heavens and on earth is the body of the Lord, for those who are in it are in the Lord and the Lord in them. Therefore love towards the Lord's kingdom is love towards the neighbor in its fullness; for those who love the Lord's kingdom, not only love the Lord above all things, but also love the neighbor as themselves; for love to the Lord is a universal love, and consequently is in each thing and all things of spiritual life, and in each thing and all things of natural life; for that love has its seat in the highest things in man, and things highest flow into lower things and vivify them, as the will flows into all things of intention and of action therefrom, and the understanding into all things of thought and of speech therefrom. Therefore the Lord says:

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33).

That the kingdom of the heavens is the Lord's kingdom is evident from these words in Daniel:

Behold, there was coming with the clouds of heaven one like unto the Son of Man; and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages shall worship Him. His dominion is a dominion of ages, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14).

(True Christian Religion 415-416)

Being Led Spiritually or Naturally

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is a law of the divine providence that man should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven by means of the Word and by means of doctrine and preachings from the Word, and this to all appearance as if by himself.

The appearance is that man is led and taught by himself; but the truth is that he is led and taught by the Lord alone. Those who confirm in themselves the appearance and not also the truth are unable to put away from themselves evils as sins; but those who confirm in themselves both the appearance and the truth are able to do so, for in appearance it is man who puts away evils as sins, but in truth it is the Lord. This latter class can be reformed, the former cannot.

Those who confirm in themselves the appearance and not also the truth are all interior idolaters, since they are worshipers of self and the world. If they have no religion they become worshipers of nature and thus atheists; while if they have a religion they become worshipers of men and also of images. Such at the present day are meant by those described in the first commandment of the Decalogue, who worship other gods. But those who confirm in themselves both the appearance and the truth become worshipers of the Lord; for they are raised up by the Lord out of what is their own (proprium), which is in the appearance, and are brought into the light in which is truth and which is truth; and the Lord enables them to perceive interiorly that they are led and taught by Him, and not by themselves.

To many the rational of both classes seems to be the same, but it is different. The rational of those who are both in the appearance and in the truth is a spiritual rational, while the rational of those who are in the appearance apart from the truth is a natural rational. This natural rational may be likened to a garden as it is in the light of winter, while the spiritual rational may be likened to a garden as it is in the light of spring.

(from Divine Providence 154)