The Third Round: The Word becoming flesh – not as a person in time and space but as a state within the mind (reading the Text from first principles) (15mins)

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture. 98. XI. The Lord came into the world that He might fulfil all things of the Word, and thereby become Divine Truth, or the Word, even in ultimates.The Lord came into the World that He might fulfil all things of the Word. This may be seen in THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE LORD 8-11. That He thus became Divine Truth, or the Word, even in ultimates, is meant by the following passage in John: The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.To be made flesh is to become the Word in ultimates;

…The Lord as the Word in ultimates is also described by John in the Revelation 1:13-16, where all the details in the description of Him signify the ultimates of Divine Truth, or of the Word. Before this the Lord was indeed the Word, but in first principles; for it is said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. John 1:1-2. When, however, the Word was made flesh, then the Lord became the Word in ultimates also; and from this fact He is called the First and the Last, in Revelation 1:811172:821:622:12-13.

99. Before His Coming into the world the Lord was indeed present with men of the Church, but mediately through heaven; whereas after His Coming into the world He is present with men of the Church immediately.

 

On First Principles

The Worship and Love of God 99. The life of the Supreme from inmost principles; Heavenly Life, or the life of His Love, from principles proximate to them; also Mediating or natural life; finally Nature herself, who carries that order in herself, consequently in effigy; thus altogether according to the series of the folding together of the fibre we have been examining, and of the involution of its beginnings. Hence also it is evident how, according to that order, prior things infold themselves in posterior, and again unfold themselves from these latter; and thus in what manner they establish their gyre from first principles to last, and from last to first; for first principles infold themselves in things posterior, as centres in circumferences, or as the inmost principles of a nut in the husk and shell; and then and in like manner they unfold themselves, but backwards, as if removing their swaddling-clothes that they may return from things outmost to things inmost. Thus, and not otherwise, the gyre provided from eternity and established at first creation, is perfected.

Arcana Coelestia 4322. Who at this day does not believe that man comes into existence naturally from the seed and the ovum? and that in the seed from the first creation there is the ability to bring itself forth into such forms, first within the ovum, next in the womb, and afterwards of itself; and that it is not the Divine which brings things forth any longer? The reason why this is so believed is that no one knows of there being any influx from heaven (that is, through heaven from the Lord); and this because they do not desire to know that there is any heaven. For in their private meetings the learned discuss openly among themselves whether there is a hell, and thus whether there is a heaven. And as they are in doubt about heaven, they cannot receive as any first principle that there is an influx through heaven from the Lord; which influx nevertheless brings forth all things that are in the three kingdoms of the earth (especially those in the animal kingdom, and in particular in man), and holds them together in form according to their uses. Hence neither can they know that there is any correspondence between heaven and man; and still less that this is of such a nature that every several thing within him, nay, the veriest singular ones, come forth from this source, and also subsist from it, for subsistence is a perpetual coming forth, and consequently preservation in connection and form is perpetual creation.

True Christian Religion 20. (2) …Unless an idea is formed of God as the primal Substance and Form, and of His Form as the verily Human Form, the human mind may easily involve itself in spectral fancies about God Himself, the origin of man, and the creation of the world. It would then have no other conception of God than as the nature of the universe in its first principles, that is, as its expanse, or else as emptiness or nothingness; nor any other conception of man’s origin than as a flowing together of elements into that form by mere chance; nor of the creation of the world than that its substances and forms originated in points, and afterwards in geometrical lines, which are essentially nothing, because nothing can be predicated of them. In such minds everything belonging to the church is like the Styx or like Tartarean darkness.

Worship and Love of God 66. [8] At the close of this transaction, the wisdom, turning to her prince, said to him: You see how deformed they appeared, and how wild was their carriage, with their dishevelled hair on their shoulders, like furies, and with bloody and at the same time ghastly countenances, and yet they seem to themselves as images of the highest beauty. You see likewise, how great a confusion arose, and how great a one must arise, if that order be not observed, which requires that superior things should have the command over inferior, or life itself over nature; for the Supreme is the order of all orders; from Him flow ends, and thence the uses of ends, and the effects of uses. When this order is established, first principles steadily proceed in a right manner to their ultimates, and ultimates return to their first principles.

TCR 37…Those who deduce the creation of the world from any other source than the Divine love through the Divine wisdom, not knowing that these two constitute the Divine Essence, descend from reason’s sight to eyesight, and bestow kisses on nature as the creator of the universe; and thereby conceive chimeras and bring forth specters. They devise fallacies, and reason from them; and their conclusions are eggs that contain birds of night. Such should not be called minds, but eyes and ears without understanding, or thoughts without soul. They talk of colors as if these existed without light; of trees as if they existed without seed; and of all things in the world as existing without the sun; for they make derivatives to be first principles and things caused to be causes; thus they turn all things upside down, lull their reason to sleep, and the things they see are dreams.

Third Round posts are short audio clips which aim to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles .

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