Heaven and its Wonders and Hell. Emanuel Swedenborg

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СКАЧАТЬ is the light in the heavens that it exceeds by many degrees the noon-day light of the world. That light I have often seen, even during the evening and night. At first I wondered when I heard the angels say that the light of this world is little more than a shadow in comparison with the light of heaven; but having seen it I can testify that it is so. The brightness and splendor of the light of heaven are such as cannot be described. All things that I have seen in the heavens have been seen in that light, thus more clearly and distinctly than things in this world.

      127. The light of heaven is not a natural light, like the light of the world, but a spiritual light, because it is from the Lord as a sun, and that sun is the Divine love (as has been shown in the foregoing chapter). That which goes forth from the Lord as a sun is called in the heavens Divine truth, but in its essence it is Divine good united to Divine truth. From this the angels have light and heat, light from Divine truth, and heat from Divine good. As the light of heaven, and the heat also, are from such a source, it is evident that they are spiritual and not natural.{1}

      {Footnote 1} All light in the heavens is from the Lord as a sun (n. 1053, 1521, 3195, 3341, 3636, 3643, 4415, 9548, 9684, 10809). The Divine truth that goes forth from the Lord appears in heaven as light, and furnishes all the light of heaven (n. 3195, 3222, 3223, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684).

      128. The Divine truth is light to the angels because the angels are spiritual and not natural. Spiritual beings see from their sun, and natural beings from theirs. It is from Divine truth that angels have understanding, and their understanding is their inner sight, which flows into and produces their outer sight; therefore in heaven whatever is seen from the Lord as the sun is seen in light.{1} This being the source of light in heaven the light is varied there in accordance with the reception of Divine truth from the Lord; or what is the same, in accordance with the intelligence and wisdom in which the angels are, thus differently in the celestial kingdom and in the spiritual kingdom, and differently in each society. In the celestial kingdom the light appears flaming because the angels there receive light from the Lord as a sun; but in the spiritual kingdom the light is shining white, because the angels there receive light from the Lord as a moon (see above, n. 118). So, too, the light differs in different societies, and again in each society, those that are at the center being in greater light and those in the circumference in less light (see n. 43). In a word, the angels have light in the same degree in which they are recipients of Divine truth, that is, are in intelligence and wisdom from the Lord;{2} and this is why the angels of heaven are called angels of light.

      {Footnote 1} The light of heaven illumines both the sight and the understanding of angels and spirits (n. 2776, 3138).

      {Footnote 2} The light in heaven is in harmony with the intelligence and wisdom of the angels (n. 1524, 1529, 1530, 3339). Differences of light in the heavens are as many as there are angelic societies; and as there are in the heavens endless varieties of good and truth, so are there of wisdom and intelligence (n. 684, 690, 3241, 3744, 3745, 4414, 5598, 7236, 7833, 7836).

      129. As the Lord in the heavens is Divine truth, and the Divine truth there is light, so in the Word He is called Light, likewise all truth is from Him, as in the following passages:

      Jesus said, I am the light of the world; he that followeth

       Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of

       life (John 8:12).

      As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world

       (John 9:5).

      Jesus said, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness overtake you. While ye have the light believe in the light, that ye may be sons of light. I have come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me may not abide in darkness (John 12:35, 36, 46).

      Light has come into the world, but men have loved the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19).

      John says of the Lord:

      This is the true light which lighteneth every man (John 1:9).

      The people that sit in darkness have seen a great light, and to them that were sitting in the shadow of death light is sprung up (Matt. 4:16).

      I will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light

       of the Gentiles (Isa. 13:6).

      I have established Thee for a light of the Gentiles that

       Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth

       (Isa. 19:6).

      The nations of them that are saved shall walk in His light

       (Apoc. 21:24).

      Send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me (Psalm

       43:3).

      In these and other passages the Lord is called light from Divine truth, which is from Him; and the truth itself is likewise called light. As light in the heavens is from the Lord as a sun, so when He was transfigured before Peter, James, and John:

      His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light (Matt. 17:2).

      And His garments became shining, exceeding white as snow,

       so as no fuller on earth can whiten them (Mark 9:3; Matt.

       17:2).

      The Lord's garments had this appearance because they represented

       Divine truth which is from Him in the heavens, "garments" also in the

       Word signifying truths,{1} consequently it is said in David:

      O Jehovah, Thou coverest Thyself with light as with a

       garment (Psalm 104:2).

      {Footnote 1} In the Word "garments" signify truths, because truths clothe good (n. 1073, 2576, 5248, 5319, 5954, 9216, 9952, 10536). The Lord's garments when He was transfigured signified Divine truth going forth from His Divine love (n. 9212, 9216).

      130. That light in the heavens is spiritual and that this light is Divine truth may be inferred also from the fact that men as well as angels have spiritual light, and have enlightenment from that light so far as they are in intelligence and wisdom from Divine truth. Man's spiritual light is the light of his understanding, and the objects of that light are truths, which he arranges analytically into groups, forms into reason, and from them draws conclusions in series.{1} The natural man does not know that the light from which the understanding sees such things is a real light, for he neither sees it with his eyes nor perceives it by thought. And yet there are many who recognize this light, and distinguish it from the natural light in which those are who think naturally and not spiritually. Those think naturally who take account of the world only, and attribute all things to nature; while those think spiritually who take account of heaven and attribute all things to the Divine. It has often been granted me to perceive and also to see that there is a true light that enlightens the mind, wholly distinct from the light that is called natural light [lumen]. I have been raised up interiorly into that light by degrees; and as I was raised up my understanding became so enlightened as to enable me to perceive what I did not perceive before, and finally such things as I could not even comprehend by thought from natural light. Sometimes I felt indignant that I could not comprehend these things when they were so clearly and plainly perceived in the light of heaven.{2} Because there is a light that belongs to the understanding, the same things are said of it as of the eye, as that СКАЧАТЬ