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.

7. V. Both that heat and that light flow into man: the heat into his will, where it produces the good of love; and the light into his understanding, where it produces the truth of wisdom.

It is well known that all things universally have relation to good and truth, and that there is not a single thing in existence in which there is not something related to those two. On this account there are two receptacles of life in man: one, which is the receptacle of good, called the will; and another, which is the receptacle of truth, called the understanding; and, as good is of love and truth is of wisdom, the will is the receptacle of love, and the understanding the receptacle of wisdom. Good is of love, because what a man loves that he wills, and when he brings it into action he calls it good: and truth is of wisdom, because all wisdom is from truths; indeed, the good which a wise man thinks is truth, which becomes good when he wills and does it.

[2] He who does not rightly distinguish between these two receptacles of life, which are the will and the understanding, and does not form for himself a clear notion respecting them, strives in vain to comprehend the nature of spiritual influx. For there is influx into the will, and there is influx into the understanding. Into the will of man there is an influx of the good of love, and into his understanding there is an influx of the truth of wisdom, each proceeding from Jehovah God, directly through the sun in the midst of which He is, and indirectly through the angelic heaven. These two receptacles, the will and the understanding are as distinct as heat and light; for, as was said above, the will receives the heat of heaven, which in its essence is love, and the understanding receives the light of heaven, which in its essence is wisdom.

[3] There is an influx from the human mind into the speech, and there is an influx into the actions; the influx into speech is from the will through the understanding, but the influx into the actions is from the understanding through the will. Those who are only acquainted with the influx into the understanding, and not at the same time with that into the will, and who reason and conclude therefrom, are like one-eyed persons, who only see the objects on one side of them, and not at the same time those on the other; and like maimed persons, who do their work awkwardly with one hand only; and like lame persons, who walk by hopping on one foot, with the assistance of a staff. From these few observations it is plain that spiritual heat flows into the will of man, and produces the good of love, and that spiritual light flows into his understanding, and produces the truth of wisdom.

6338. 'Assemble' means that they should arrange themselves into order. This is clear from the meaning of 'assembling' as becoming arranged into order. 'Assembling' has no other meaning in the spiritual sense, for truths and forms of good cannot assemble without also becoming arranged into order. For the universal influence which emanates from the Lord causes this to happen, because that influence covers all specific things, including the most specific. All these taken together compose the universal influence by which all things in heaven are arranged into order. When that universal influence is at work forms of good and truths appear to arrange themselves into order, as though they moved into such order of their own accord. This is true of heaven taken as a whole; it is in a state of order and is constantly preserved in that state by the universal influence emanating from the Lord. It is also true of the communities of heaven in general, and it is true in addition of the communities there in particular. For as soon as angels or spirits assemble they instantly become arranged, seemingly all by themselves, into a state of order, and in so doing constitute a heavenly community that is an image of heaven. This would never happen if the universal influence emanating from the Lord did not cover the most specific things of all, and if all these were not in an utterly perfect state of order. If, as most people think, only some universal influence unconcerned with things of a specific nature came from God, and man, spirit, or angel controlled those things for himself, then instead of order everything would be in a state of confusion, and there would not be any heaven, or hell, or human race, or indeed any natural world.

[2] This may be illustrated from many things existing with a person. Unless for example his thoughts were arranged into order as a general whole, and at the same time in each specific part by the affections belonging to his love, those thoughts could never flow in a rational and analytical manner. Nor likewise could his actions. Also, unless there were universal and specific influences from the soul into the internal organs of the body, no order or control could be established in the body. But when there are specific influences and thus a universal one, all things are arranged into order seemingly by themselves. These matters have been stated so that people may know how to understand the idea that truths and forms of good should arrange themselves into order.