1209. And a voice came out of the throne.- That this signifies unanimity of the whole heaven, is evident from the signification of a voice coming out of the throne, as denoting the unanimity of the whole heaven, namely, to glorify the Lord; for by the throne is signified the whole heaven, by reason of the Lord being upon it, and the Lord being heaven itself. The angels, of whom heaven consists, do not constitute anything of heaven from their own proprium, but it is the Divine which proceeds from the Lord in them, which makes heaven. Hence it is, that a voice out of heaven signifies unanimity of all in the heavens, or of the whole heaven. That a throne, where the Lord is treated of, signifies heaven, may be seen (n. 253, 462, 477).
[2] Continuation [concerning the Vegetable Kingdom].- 4. There are three forces inherent in everything spiritual - the active, the creative, and the formative.
The existence of the active force is plain, because the Spiritual proceeds from the primal source of all forces, which is the Sun of heaven, and this is the Divine Love of the Lord; and since love is the essential agent, the living force, which is life, proceeds from it.
[3] The creative force is that which produces causes and effects from the beginning to the end, extending from the First, through intermediates, to the last. The First is the very Sun of heaven, which is the Lord; intermediates are spiritual things, in the next place are natural things, and then terrestrial things, from which the productions are finally derived. And since this force in the creation of the universe extended from the First to the last, therefore it still extends in the same way, in order that the productions may be continual; for otherwise they would cease. For the First continually regards as an end that which is last; and unless the First provided for the last continually from itself, through intermediates, according to the order of creation, every thing would perish. The productions therefore, which are chiefly animals and plants, are the continuations of creation. It does not affect the point that those continuations take place by means of seeds; it is still the same creative force which produces them.
[4] The formative force is the ultimate force from ultimates; for it is the force which produces animals and plants from the ultimate substances of nature collected in the earth. The forces inherent in nature from its source, which is the sun of the world, are not living but dead forces. They are not unlike the forces of heat in men and animals, which keep the body in such a state, that the will by means of its affection, and the understanding by means of its thought, which are spiritual, may enter by influx, and perform in it their own operations. They are again not unlike the forces of light in the eye, which merely cause the mind, which is spiritual, to see by means of its own organ; since it is not the light of the world that sees, but the mind by means of the light of heaven. It is the same with plants. He is much deceived who believes that the heat and light of the sun in the world operate further than to open and dispose things proper to nature to receive influx from the spiritual world.
