THE LORD LEADS MAN IN FREEDOM.

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This mediate arrangement, however, is also as if it were immediate from Himself: for what comes from heaven comes also from Himself through the medium of heaven. That it is so, the angels in heaven not only know, but also perceive in themselves.'

'How the case is with the influx of both kinds of life (which are in man), to wit, the influx of the life which pertains to his thought, and that of the life which belongs to his will, and both from the Lord, has been granted me to know through the medium of a revelation. It is in this way the Lord flows in after a two-fold manner, namely, by the way of heaven mediately, and from Himself immediately; and from Himself He flows in equally into the rational principles pertaining to man, which are his interiors, as into his natural principles which are the exteriors. What flows in from the Lord is the goodness of love and the truth of faith; for what proceeds from the Lord is Divine Truth in which is Divine Goodness. These, however, are received in various ways by man, according to his quality.

"The Lord does not compel man to the reception of what flows in from Himself; but He leads him in freedom; and in so far as man permits, He leads him by means of freedom to goodness. Thus the Lord leads man according to his delights, and also even according to his fallacies and the principles he has taken from these fallacies. But He leads him gently and gradually out of them. And this appears to the man as if it were done by himself. Accordingly the Lord does not break these principles in man, for this would be to violate his freedom, which, however, is a thing which must of necessity be preserved, that man may be capable of reformation.

'That the Lord thus flows in with man, that is to say, not only mediately by way of heaven, but also immediately from * Arcana Coelestia, § 8717.

Himself, into the interior as well as into the exterior principles that are in man, is a mystery which up to the present time (circ. 1750) has remained unknown.'*

.. From the Lord proceeds Divine truth, immediately and mediately. That which proceeds immediately, is above every angelic intellect. On the other hand, that which proceeds mediately, the same is on a level with the capacity of angels in heaven, and also of men; for it passes by means of heaven, and in its transit puts on an angelic quality, and a human quality. But into this latter truth the Lord also flows in immediately; and thus he leads angels and men, as well mediately as immediately. For all and everything is from the First Being; and the order has been so instituted+ that the First Being is present, both mediately and immediately, in the things derived from it; thus present, alike in the ultimate principle of order as well as in its first principle. For the Divine truth itself is the sole and only substantial Being. Beings that are derivative, are nothing but successive forms from this source. Hence also it is clear that what is divine flows in immediately into all and everything, for by Divine truth all things were created. Divine truth, indeed, is the sole and only essential Being: and thus it is that from which all things have their being. It is Divine truth which is called the Word in St. John :- In the beginning was the

* Arcana Coelestia, § 6472.

Cf. the beautiful Collect of the Church, for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels :-'O Everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order; Mercifully grant, that as thy Holy Angels alway do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth; &c.' In the bright light of our author's revelations on the subject, it is impossible not to be struck with the extremely accurate language in which the prayer is expressed. The words 'by thy appointment' essentially involve the principle above described as immediate influx, and serve to show the unlawfulness as well as the folly of offering prayers to saints or angels, or any other being but God alone.

DIFFICULTY OF THE SUBJECT.

353

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.' (i. 1, 3.) Through the medium of such influx the Lord leads man by a Providence which is not only in what is universal, but also in what is individual, yea, in what is the most individual of all things. . . That there is an immediate influx of the Lord where there is mediate influx, thus in the last of order, alike as in the first of order, was told me from heaven; and a living perception of the thing itself was granted to me: also that what takes place by means of mediate influx, that is to say, through the medium of heaven and also the angels there, is respectively very little; and further, that the Lord by the way of immediate influx leads heaven, and at the same time by means of it holds all and everything there in its connexion and order.'*

The doctrine of immediate and mediate Divine influx, of which the preceding extracts may serve to give a general notion, presents to the reader one of those transcendent analyses of spiritual truth peculiarly characteristic of our author's writings. The subject, indeed, is one that involves the consideration of questions far exceeding the capacity of the generality of readers. It is altogether new and foreign to current habits of thinking even amongst theologians. No one could be more fully aware than was Swedenborg himself, of the immense difficulties which stood in the way of the comprehension, not to say acceptance, of his wonderful expositions of the deepest and most difficult spiritual truths. This is evident from a passage in the Arcana Coelestia (§ 3563), which treats of the present subject as it bears on the process of man's regeneration, where the author observes that the subject is of such a character that it is capable of being brought on a level with the comprehension of few, owing to

* Arcana Coelestia, §7004. Cf. ibid. § 7270.

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a want of the necessary cognitions respecting it. I am well aware,' he adds, that these particulars, albeit they have been clearly stated, and consequently may be clearly perceived by those who are in the cognition of such things, are nevertheless obscure in the presence of those who know nothing of Influx, and more so to those who are not aware of the fact that what is rational is distinct from what is natural, and still more so to those who have no distinct idea concerning the good and the true.'

Glimpses of truth touching kindred subjects, mingled indeed with much that is obscure or altogether erroneous, have been seen, from time to time, by the most illustrious masters in the domain of metaphysical and theological thought. Consult, for example, on the subject of a Divine concursus-involving the still keenly disputed questions of Grace, Freewill, Physical Premotion, and the like-the Institutiones Logicae, Metaphysicae, et Ethicae of Cardinal Gerdil ;* or the Père Malebranche's Réflexions sur la prémotion physique, with the friendly criticisms of the Abbé Blampignon.‡

NOTE M., p. 44.

GOD IS LIFE IN HIMSELF.

This is a primary principle of the perfect system of Theology taught by Swedenborg. A clear and adequate comprehension of it is absolutely necessary to enable the reader to see a multitude of intellectual and spiritual truths which must otherwise remain shrouded in impenetrable mystery. Our author thus demonstrates the truth of the proposi

* De Deo concurrente, tom. ii. c. 2.

† Euvres, tom. ii.

Étude sur Malebranche.

FIRE CORRESPONDS TO LOVE.

355

tion 'that God, inasmuch as He is Love itself, and Wisdom itself, is also Life itself, which is Life in itself: '

'It is written in the Gospel according to St. John, The Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was Life, and the Life was the light of men. (C. i. 1, 4.) God signifies there, the Divine Love; and by the Word is meant the Divine Wisdom. Moreover, Divine Wisdom is properly Life; and Life is properly the Light which proceeds from the Sun of the spiritual world, in whose midst is Jehovah God. Divine love forms life as fire forms light.

There are two things in fire. There is a burning quality, and also brightness. From its burning quality proceeds heat; and from its brightness, light. In like manner, there are two things in love: one, to which the burning quality of fire corresponds, and which is a certain principle affecting inmostly the will of man; another, to which the brightness of fire corresponds, and which is a something affecting inmostly the intellect of man, Thence it is that man has love and intelligence. For, as stated above several times, from the sun of the spiritual world proceeds heat, which in its essence is love; and light, which in its essence is wisdom. These two principles flow-in into all and everything in the universe, and affect them inmostly. And in the case of men, they flow-in into their will and intellect, both of which were created to be receptacles of this influx: the will, to be the receptacle of love, the intellect to be the receptacle of wisdom. It thence clearly appears that the life of man has its habitation in the intellect, and that its quality is such as . is his wisdom; also that the love belonging to his will exercises a modifying influence on that life.

'It is also written in the Gospel according to St. John, As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself (ch. v. 26): by which is meant, that just as the Divinity which was from eternity, lives in itself,