Heaven and Hell #25
25. The angels in the Lord's heavenly kingdom far surpass the angels of the spiritual kingdom in regard to wisdom and splendor because they accept the Lord's divine nature on a deeper level. They live in love for him, and are therefore more intimately united to him. 1 The reason for their excellence is that they have accepted divine truths directly into their lives and continue to do so, rather than taking them into memory and thought first, the way spiritual angels do. This means they have them engraved on their hearts and grasp them, virtually see them, within themselves. They never calculate whether or not they are true. 2 They are like the people described in Jeremiah,
I will put my law in their mind and engrave it on their heart: no longer will one person teach a friend or a brother, saying, "Know Jehovah;" from the smallest to the greatest, they will know me. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
In Isaiah, they are called "the people who have been taught by Jehovah" (Isaiah 54:13). In John 6:45-46, the Lord himself teaches that those who are taught by Jehovah are the ones who are taught by the Lord.
Bilješke:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Heavenly angels are far wiser than spiritual angels: 2718, 9995. On the nature of the difference between heavenly angels and spiritual angels: 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 3235, 3240, 4788, 7068, 8121 [8521?], 9277, 10295.
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] Heavenly angels do not reason about truths of faith because they grasp them within themselves, while spiritual angels do reason about whether they are true or not: 202, 337, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387 [1384?], 1398 [1385, 1394], 1919, 3246, 4448, 7680, 7877, 8780, 9277, 10786.
Arcana Coelestia #5682
5682. 'And they bowed, and bowed down' means an expression of humility, exterior and interior. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing' as an expression of exterior humility, and from the meaning of 'bowing down' as an expression of interior humility. For bowing is something less than bowing down and is therefore an expression of exterior humility, whereas bowing down is something more and is therefore an expression of interior humility. In addition to this, 'bowing' is the humility expressed by truth, that is, by those motivated by truth, and so is the humility of those who are spiritual; but 'bowing down' is the humility expressed by good, that is, by those motivated by good, and so is the humility of those who are celestial. Thus 'bowing also means the expression of exterior humility, and 'bowing down' the expression of interior humility; for those motivated by good are people who are more interior than those motivated by truth. The explanation of the major part of the contents of the internal sense in this section has been confined simply to the meanings of the words that are used, for the reason that they are matters such as have appeared in explanations prior to this.
