423. Having the seal of the living God, signifies the Divine will. This is evident from the signification of "having the seal" of anyone, as meaning to have command, for a command is confirmed by a seal; therefore "to have the seal of the living God" means to have Divine command. Here Divine command means the Divine will, because "the angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal," signifies Divine love proceeding from the Lord; and whatever goes forth from Divine love is the Divine will. There are also Divine commands that are not from the Divine will, but from sufferance and permission, many of which were given to the sons of Israel, as that it was permitted them to take several wives, and to give bills of divorcement, with other like things. These commands were from permission, given because of the hardness of their hearts (as is evident from the Lord's words in Matthew 19:8; and Mark 10:4, 5); but the commands that are immediately from the Divine love are all of the Divine will; therefore it is said, "the seal of the living God;" for the Lord is called "the living God" from the Divine love, for love is man's very life, and the Divine love is the source of the life of all.

141. The Four Quarters in Heaven

There are four quarters in heaven just as there are in the world - east, south, west, and north. These are determined in each world by its sun, in heaven by heaven's sun, which is the Lord, and on earth by earth's sun. However, there are major differences. The first is that in our world we call "south" the direction in which the sun reaches its greatest height above the earth, and "north" where it is below the earth, in the opposite direction. East is where the sun rises at the equinoxes, and west is where it sets at that time. So on earth, all the directions are determined on the basis of the south. In heaven, though, they call "east" where the Lord is seen as the sun. West is in the opposite direction, south in heaven on the right, and north on the left. This holds true wherever people turn their faces and their bodies. So in heaven, all the directions are determined on the basis of the east.

The reason they give the name "east" to the direction in which the Lord is seen as the sun is that the whole source of life is from him as the sun. Further, to the extent that warmth and light, or intelligence and wisdom from him, are accepted among angels, they say that the Lord has risen among them. This is also why the Lord is called the east in the Word. ¹

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