8. VI. Those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow conjointly from God into the soul of man; and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts; and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body.

The spiritual influx hitherto treated of by inspired men is that from the soul into the body, but no one has treated of influx into the soul, and through this into the body; although it is known that all the good of love and all the truth of faith flow from God into man, and nothing of them from man; and those things which flow from God flow first into his soul, and through his soul into the rational mind, and through this into those things which constitute the body. If any one investigates spiritual influx in any other manner, he is like one who stops up the course of a fountain and still seeks there perennial streams; or like one who deduces the origin of a tree from the root and not from the seed; or like one who examines derivations apart from their source.

[2] For the soul is not life in itself, but is a recipient of life from God, who is life in Himself; and all influx is of life, thus from God. This is meant by the statement: “Jehovah God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives, and man was made a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). To breathe into the nostrils the breath of lives signifies to implant the perception of good and truth. The Lord also says of Himself, “As the Father hath life in Himself so hath He also given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26): life in Himself is God; and the life of the soul is life flowing in from God.

[3] Now inasmuch as all influx is of life, and life operates by means of its receptacles, and the inmost or first of the receptacles in man is his soul, therefore in order that influx may be rightly apprehended it is necessary to begin from God, and not from an intermediate station. Were we to begin from an intermediate station, our doctrine of influx would be like a chariot without wheels, or like a ship without sails. This being the case, therefore, in the preceding articles we have treated of the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God (5); and of the influx thence of love and wisdom, thus of life (6, 7).

[4] That life flows from God into man through the soul, and through this into his mind, that is, into its affections and thoughts, and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body, is because these are the things pertaining to life in successive order. For the mind is subordinate to the soul, and the body is subordinate to the mind. The mind, also, has two lives, the one of the will and the other of the understanding. The life of its will is the good of love, the derivations of which are called affections; and the life of the understanding there is the truth of wisdom, the derivations of which are called thoughts: by means of the latter and the former the mind lives. The life of the body, on the other hand, are the senses, speech, and actions: that these are derived from the soul through the mind follows from the order in which they stand, and from this they manifest themselves to a wise man without examination.

[5] The human soul, being a superior spiritual substance, receives influx directly from God; but the human mind, being an inferior spiritual substance, receives influx from God indirectly through the spiritual world; and the body, being composed of the substances of nature which are called matter, receives influx from God indirectly through the natural world.

That the good of love and the truth of wisdom flow from God into the soul of a man conjointly, that is, united into one, but that they are divided by the man in their progress, and are conjoined only with those who suffer themselves to be led by God, will be seen in the following articles.

5. III. The sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it.

Spiritual things cannot proceed from any other source than from love, nor love from any other source than from Jehovah God, who is love itself: hence the sun of the spiritual world, from which, as from their fountain, all spiritual things stream forth, is pure love proceeding from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. That sun itself is not God, but is from God: it is the nearest sphere around Him from Himself. By means of this sun the universe was created by Jehovah God; by which are meant all worlds considered as one whole, which are as many as the stars in the expanse of our heaven.

[2] Creation was effected by means of that sun, which is pure love, thus by Jehovah God, because love is the very Being [esse] of life, and wisdom is the Manifestation [existere] of life from thence, and all things were created from love by means of wisdom. This is understood by these words in John: “The Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made: and the world was made by Him” (John 1:1, 3, 10). The Word there is the Divine Truth, thus likewise the Divine Wisdom; therefore, also, the Word is there called (verse 9) the light which enlightens every man, in like manner as does the Divine Wisdom by means of the Divine Truth.

[3] Those who deduce the origin of worlds from any other source than from the Divine Love by means of the Divine Wisdom are deluded like those mentally afflicted, who see spectres as men, phantoms as luminous objects, and imaginary beings as real figures. For the created universe is a coherent work, from love by means of wisdom: this you will see, if you are able to view the connection of things in order, from first principles to ultimates.

[4] As God is one, so also the spiritual sun is one; for extension of space is not predicable of spiritual things, which are its derivations: and essence and existence, which are without space, are everywhere in spaces without space; thus the Divine Love is everywhere from the beginning of the universe to all its boundaries. That the Divine fills all things, and by such infilling preserves them in the state in which they were created, the rational faculty sees remotely: and it sees it more nearly, in proportion as it has a knowledge of the nature of love as it is in itself; of its conjunction with wisdom that ends may be perceived, of its influx into wisdom that causes may be exhibited, and of its operation by means of wisdom that effects may be produced.

238. 4. Internal reasons for cold states stem from religion. The real origin of conjugial love is seated in the inmost recesses in a person, that is to say, in his soul, and everyone is convinced of this simply from the following considerations:

The soul of offspring comes from the father - a fact that is recognized from their similarity in inclinations and affections, and also from the commonality of their facial features, persisting from the father even in a much later generation. Secondly, the procreative ability was implanted from creation in souls. And in addition, one finds an analogous parallel in members of the vegetable kingdom, in that reproduction of the seed itself, and thus of the whole plant, lies within the inmost workings of their germinations, whether it be a tree, bush or shrub.

[2] This reproductive or creative force in seeds in the vegetable kingdom, and in souls in the animal kingdom, originates from no other source than the conjugial atmosphere - the atmosphere of good and truth which continually emanates and flows in from the Lord, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe (concerning which above, nos. 222-225) - and from the effort of these two in it - good and truth - to join themselves into one. This conjugial effort inherent in souls is the motive force from which conjugial love springs in the first place.

The same marriage from which this universal atmosphere flows also forms the church in a person, as we have shown amply enough and more in the chapter on "The Marriage of the Lord and the Church" ¹ and in a number of other places. ²

It is fully and plainly apparent to the sight of reason from this that the origin of the church and the origin of conjugial love have the same seat in a person, and that they are locked in a continual embrace. For more on this subject, however, see no. 130 above, where we showed that conjugial love depends on the state of the church in a person, consequently that it stems from religion, because it is religion which forms that state.

[3] Besides, people were created to be able to become more and more interior beings, thus to be introduced or elevated nearer and nearer to a marriage of good and truth and so into truly conjugial love, to the point that they feel its state of bliss. The only means by which they can be introduced or elevated is religion, which is clearly apparent from what we have already said, that the origin of the church and the origin of conjugial love have the same seat in a person and are there locked in a continual embrace, so that they cannot help but be joined together.

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