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The infirm human from the mother
Arcana Coelestia 4692[5] The Lord was indeed born as is another man, and had an infirm human from the mother; but this human the Lord entirely cast out, so that He was no longer the son of Mary, and made the Human in Himself Divine, which is meant by His being glorified; and He also showed to Peter, James, and John, when He was transfigured, that He was a Divine Man.
AC 1414. The Lord’s heredity from the Father was the Divine, but His heredity from the mother was the infirm human. This infirm nature which a man derives hereditarily from his mother, is something corporeal that is dispersed when he is being regenerated, while that which a man derives from his father remains to eternity. But the Lord’s heredity from Jehovah, as was said, was the Divine. Another arcanum is that the Lord’s Human also was made Divine.
Doctrine of the Lord 35. vi. By successive steps the Lord put off the human taken from the mother, and put on a Human from the Divine within Him, which is the Divine Human, and is the Son of God. That in the Lord were the Divine and the human, the Divine from Jehovah the Father, and the human from the virgin Mary, is known. Hence He was God and Man, having a Divine essence and a human nature; a Divine essence from the Father, and a human nature from the mother; and therefore was equal to the Father as to the Divine, and less than the Father as to the human. It is also known that this human nature from the mother was not transmuted into the Divine essence, nor commingled with it, for this is taught in the Doctrine of Faith which is called the Athanasian Creed. For a human nature cannot be transmuted into the Divine essence, nor can it be commingled therewith.
[2] In accordance with the same creed is also our doctrine, that the Divine assumed the Human, that is, united itself to it, as a soul to its body, so that they were not two, but one Person. From this it follows that the Lord put off the human from the mother, which in itself was like that of another man, and thus material, and put on a Human from the Father, which in itself was like His Divine, and thus substantial, so that the Human too became Divine. This is why in the Word of the Prophets the Lord even as to the Human is called Jehovah, and God; and in the Word of the Evangelists, Lord, God, Messiah or Christ, and the Son of God in whom we must believe, and by whom we are to be saved.
Angels don’t think in terms of ‘person’ but instead in terms of ‘states of mind’
AC 6653… That by “people” are signified truths, is because in the Word those are called a “people” who are under a king, and by a “king” is signified truth (n. 6651). By a “people” are signified truths, but those are meant who are in truths. The reason why truths are spoken of abstractedly, is that spirits and angels so think and speak, for in this way they comprehend a subject in a universal manner, and at the same time singly the particulars belonging to it, without reflecting specifically on any people that is in truths, which reflection would withdraw the mind from a universal idea, thus from extension of view, consequently from wisdom. For determination of the thought to any specific people, as also to any person, limits and confines the ideas, and turns them from the perception of a subject as it is from one boundary to the other. As is the case with the idea of a “people,” so is it with other denominations which in the internal sense signify things unbounded—as with a “nation” as being good, with a “king” as being truth, with a “prince” as being primary truth, with a “priest” as being good, and with a “son,” “daughter,” “son-in-law,” “daughter-in-law,” “brother,” “sister,” “father,” “mother,” and many other denominations.
Spiritual Experiences 6049…All those who have not believed in the Lord, by acknowledging His Divine, and have not lived according to the precepts of religion, in the other life think materially. On this account, they are unable to think spiritually, that is, abstractly from space, time and persons – from which the ideas of natural thought arise – consequently, not like the angels of the higher heavens; for, to think spiritually is to think apart from these things. These [i.e. those who think spiritually] ascend above, and as it were leave those things beneath them, so that they do not appear.
Apocalypse Revealed 611…[6] The boys then asked, “What is it to meditate on the Word spiritually and materially?” And the master replied, “I will illustrate it by examples. Who, when he reads the Word, does not think of God, his neighbor, and heaven? Everyone who thinks of God only from Person, and not from Essence, thinks materially; also he who thinks of the neighbor only from form, and not from quality, thinks materially; and he who thinks of heaven only from place, and not from the love and wisdom which heaven is, he also thinks materially.” But the boys said, “We have thought of God from Person, of the neighbor from form, that he is a man, and of heaven from place; did we therefore, when we were reading the Word, appear to anyone as dead horses?”
[7] The master said, “No, you are yet boys, and could not think otherwise; but I have perceived in you an affection of knowing and understanding, which, because it is spiritual, shows that you have also thought spiritually. But I will return to what I said at first, that he who thinks materially, when he reads the Word or is meditating from it, appears at a distance like a dead horse; but he who reads it spiritually, like a living horse.
Conjugial Love 328…[2] Add to this, that to think spiritually is to think apart from time and space, and to think naturally is to think with time and space; for something of time and space adheres to every idea of natural thought, but not to any spiritual idea. The reason is, because the spiritual world is not in space and time like the natural world, but in the appearance of space and time. In the same way also do thoughts and affections differ [in the two worlds]. Therefore, you can think of the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, of God before the creation of the world, because you think of the essence of God from eternity apart from time, and of His omnipresence apart from space. Thus you can comprehend things which transcend the ideas of the natural man.”
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.
