XIII.
THE HUMAN FORM OF HEAVEN..
SWEDENBORG tells us repeatedly that heaven is in the human form. Not only every angel and every society of angels, but the entire angelic heaven, he says, is in this form; so that the angels, viewed collectively, appear before the Lord as one man. To cite a single passage:
Let us see, then, if the doctrine be either ridiculous or unreasonable. But first let us endeavor to learn what the author meant that we should understand by the expression. Maximus Homo.
When Swedenborg says that heaven is in the human form, he uses the word form in the sense in which we use it when speaking of civil, social, or ecclesiastical affairs. We speak of a form of government; but when such expression is used, no one thinks of any visible shape, but of the nature and adjustment of the various parts composing the government. A person who reads and understands the organic law of the state, sees therein its form of government. We speak, also, of the form of society in a particular age or nation; and by this is meant the nature and relation of its several parts—the nature and arrangement of its social, industrial, commercial, educational, artistic, moral and religious elements. Again, we speak of the form of a church, or of church polity; and by this we mean the order, relation, subordination, etc., of its various functionaries, the mode of their appointment, and their respective duties.
When it is said, therefore, that heaven is in the human form, the meaning is that it is in human order; that all the innumerable societies of which it consists, are so arranged and adjusted as to express most perfectly the truly human principles which constitute the essential spirit and life of heaven. In other words, the relation, mutual dependence, and intercommunication of the societies composing the whole angelic heaven, and the uses they respectively perform, correspond to those existing among the various organs of the human body, and to their respective uses. One is a perfect representative image of the other.
Accordingly, Swedenborg often speaks of the angelic societies as located in different organs of the Grand Man; of some as in the head, some in the heart, some in the spleen, some in the liver; and of others, again, as in the eye, ear, knee, or foot. And his meaning is, that such societies correspond to these bodily organs; that is to say, their relation to the other societies of heaven and the special functions which they perform in the Grand Man, correspond to the relation existing among such bodily organs, and to their respective uses in the human body.
"It has also," he says, "been given me to know what particular angelic societies belong to each particular province of the body, also what are their qualities; as, for instance, what and of what quality belong to the province of the heart; what and of what quality to the province of the lungs; what and of what quality to that of the liver; also what and of what quality to the different sensories, as the eye, the ear, the tongue, and so on."—A. C, n. 2998.
It thus becomes plain what he means when he says that heaven is in the human form. It is a spiritual and not a natural idea which he is endeavoring to express. And when we shall have fairly grasped his meaning, and duly considered the subject, we shall see that he could have employed no other terms which would express so fully and with such precision the beautiful and orderly arrangement of the whole angelic heaven, and the harmonious relation of its innumerable and diverse societies.
But let us push our inquiry a little further, that we may see more clearly the ground and origin as well as the truth of this disclosure.
Everything that exists must exist in some form. And the forms of all things will be found to correspond to their essential nature, or to the kind of life that determines their forms. The form always corresponds to the essence. The ox, the eagle, the lion, the dove, each has a form suited to its needs, or correspondent to its own peculiar life. It follows that the higher and nobler the life, the more beautiful and perfect will be the form; otherwise there would be no correspondence of one with the other.
If we look at the lowest creatures in the animal kingdom, we find them closely allied to vegetables, consisting of few parts, and these comparatively simple in their structure. Their forms are inferior, and their wants and Capacities correspondingly limited. As we ascend the scale of animated nature, we find a gradual increase of wants; powers more varied; faculties enlarged and multiplied. And corresponding to this increase of desires and enlargement and multiplication of faculties, we find the forms of life also becoming more complex. We find them rising above the earth, provided with the means of locomotion, and simulating, in degrees more or less remote, the human form; until at length we arrive at man, the last link in the great chain connecting all below him with all above. Created to stand erect, with his feet upon the earth and his face toward heaven, he alone is capable of looking above himself, and of intelligently reciprocating or giving back the love and wisdom which flow from God. In man, therefore, the circle of life is complete. In a state of order he is the image and likeness of his Maker. He is the complex, therefore, of all the powers and gifts of other creatures, with the two human faculties—liberty and rationality—superadded.
Now it is because human life is the highest and noblest kind of life—because human wants are more numerous, and the human faculties more enlarged, exalted, and varied than those of any other creature, that the human form through whose instrumentality alone these faculties can manifest themselves, is the very perfection of all forms. God himself, who is the perfection of all that is human, is in this form. He is a perfect Divine Man. In Him everything truly human exists in infinite fulness, variety and perfection. Therefore when He manifested Himself on earth to the eye of sense. He appeared in the human form. And when in more ancient times He filled the body of an angel with his own Divine life, and thus became manifest to the spiritual senses of his chosen seers as "the angel of Jehovah," his form was always the human.
And it is a Divinely-revealed truth that man was created in the image and likeness of God. His form, therefore, is one capable of recetving and expressing, in a finite degree, something of that truly human life which flows from the Divine Humanity. This life when received, becomes in man the life of love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor. And this is the essential life of heaven. Other creatures below man may receive and enjoy lower degrees of life; but he alone can receive and enjoy this higher or heavenly life, because he alone is in the human form. And the more we receive of this life, the more truly human we become in our thoughts, feelings, dispositions and purposes; and the more faithfully do we express through our human form—by our looks, words and actions—the love and wisdom which are the essential constituents of true humanity. For the most beautiful and perfect human form is that which best expresses the purest and most exalted human love.
And as it is with a single individual, so with a society or community—with men in the aggregate. The more of true human life each member of a community receives, or the more each one suffers himself to be governed by the highest good and truth, the more orderly, industrious, united, healthy and happy is that community. The more truly human does it become in its form, organization and activities. It appoints its wisest men to preside over its interests, because every one is aiming to subject himself to the government of the highest good and truth. And so the form or order of that community becomes more and more human. All its corporate acts express more and more faithfully the human thoughts and feelings with which the minds of its individual members are imbued. Such community is in the human form, therefore, just so far as the individual minds composing it are truly human. It is the tendency of true human life, wherever it exists, to mould the collective as well as the individual man into a corresponding human form.
But a consideration of the wonderful mechanism of the human body, and of the mutual dependence of its various parts, will furnish the best idea of the human form, and reveal most clearly the order of heaven. For as the body in its entireness corresponds to the soul, so its different parts correspond to the various faculties and functions of the soul, or to the goods and truths of heaven in their various orders and degrees. Therefore the bodily organs correspond to the various societies of which the whole angelic heaven is composed, and which are the living embodiment of these goods and truths.
On a careful survey of the human system, we find it composed of numerous parts which are all different from each other. Its structure is the most complex of any object in the universe. There is no other created thing which consists of so many parts; yet no two of these parts are found to be precisely alike. Some of them differ widely both in form and function. But, notwithstanding the endless number and diversity of parts, they are all mutually dependent, mutually adapted to each other's wants, and work together in admirable harmony. Every organ however minute, has its post assigned it, and its appropriate work given it to do. The brain, heart, liver, pleura, the lungs, pancreas, and abdominal viscera—how different are these from each other in their form and structure! How different also in their functions, or in the work given them to do! Yet how admirably do they harmonize! What entire unanimity among these numerous and diverse parts! What perfect concert of action!—all the more perfect because of their diversity. With what beautiful brotherly love do they all work together, and what tender regard has each for the welfare of all the rest! If one is out of order, all the others are more or less uncomfortable. If one suffers, all the rest sympathize and suffer with it. It is a law—and herein we have a beautiful illustration of the great law of brotherhood—that each shall discharge its appropriate function, not apart from the others and for the sake of itself alone, but in harmony with and for the welfare of all the rest. And the more faithfully it labors to do this, the more does it promote its own health and strength, as well as the health and strength of the other members. The welfare of each is linked indissolubly with that of all the others. One life pervades them all, and each receives and enjoys that life in proportion as it respects and faithfully works for the good of the whole. The moment one ceases to do its work, or appropriates more than its share of the juices elaborated, or more than it needs to fit it for the performance of its appointed use, that moment comes disease—disease to itself and disease to all the rest. And if it persevere in this abnormal course, sooner or later death ensues. Such is the law, fixed and unalterable. There is no escape from it. And what a striking exemplification does it furnish of the great law of spiritual life, the law of neighborly love!—yes, and the sure consequence of a persistent violation of this law.
Although one life pervades all the bodily organs, they do not all receive it alike. Their receptivity is as various as their forms. Some receive it in a higher degree than others, and perform more important and varied functions, and may therefore be said to be of a higher grade. And so there are gradations of rank among the members of the body. No one is entirely independent of the rest. No one is so high that it can dispense with the services of the most humble, and no one so low that it cannot do something to promote the health and strength of the highest. The head needs the foot, and the heart the hand, no less than the foot needs the head or the hand the heart. Even the hair and nails and the coarse cuticle on the soles of the feet have their use, and add to the beauty, completeness and perfection of the whole.
Behold, here, then, in the human body, a representative image of heaven!—the most perfect image of order, harmony, unity, freedom, mutual dependence and brotherly love! The relation of the bodily organs to each other, and the uses they respectively perform, are as the relation existing among the angelic societies, and their respective uses; because heaven as a whole and in each of its parts, is in the human form. And notwithstanding there are in heaven as in the human body gradations of rank and office, notwithstanding some there have more important functions to perform than others, there is no pride or disdain on the one hand, nor envy or humiliation on the other, any more than among the different members of the body. Notwithstanding there exist authority and obedience, there is nothing like tyranny on the one hand or slavishness on the other. There is the most perfect freedom coupled with unspeakable bliss; for every one acts as his ruling love prompts, but he loves nothing which is not good and true. Be his office high or low, he does precisely that which he is qualified to do best, and in the doing of which he finds a pure delight. Conscious that he could not be so useful or happy in any other sphere, he has no desire to be anywhere or anything else than he is. Whatever there is, therefore, of exaltation or subordination, of authority or obedience there, neither is felt or thought of as such, any more than in the human body.
From what has been said, we trust that Swedenborg's meaning, when he says that heaven is in the human form, will be sufficiently plain. And although the heavenly societies are innumerable, and all different from each other, yet there exists the most perfect union among them—a union corresponding to, and beautifully symbolized by, that among the different organs of the human body. And herein is revealed the true nature of that union among Christians on earth, to which the Lord refers when He speaks of his disciples being made "perfect in one." It is a union of parts that are as different as are the different members of the human body; parts animated, nevertheless, by one and the same life, as in the case of the bodily organs; for the essential life of all in heaven, is the life of love to the Lord and the neighbor.
It cannot be denied that the human form is the most perfect of all forms. And if the Lord's disciples (and surely those composing the heavenly societies are to be reckoned as such) are "made perfect in one," then must the whole heaven of angels be in the human form; and the doctrine of the Grand Man as revealed through Swedenborg, must be true. For under any other form than the human, or arranged in any other order than that of the different parts of the human body, the heavenly societies could not be said to be "perfected into one;" since their arrangement would be less beautiful and orderly and their union less perfect than it might be.
Then the testimony of the great Apostle to the Gentiles might be cited in corroboration of the truth of this doctrine. Writing to the Church at Rome, he says: "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ." (Rom. xii. 4, 5.) Again to the Corinthian Church: "For the body is not one member, but many; and ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." He further says there is no schism among the bodily members, and there ought not, therefore, to be any in the body of Christ; that the various parts or members of this body (the church), "should have the same care one for another."
Now the church on earth ought to be, and so far as it is a true and living church it will be, an image of heaven. And Paul, in the passages referred to, plainly teaches that the church of Christ is in the human form; that its various parts or members, in their mutual relation and dependence, correspond to the différent parts of the human body. And if many persons on earth—all of them disciples of the Lord—are "one body in Christ, and every one members one of another," should not the same be true in heaven? Should not the diversity be even greater there than in the church on earth, and the harmony and union at the same time more complete? and the form or order of heaven, therefore, more perfectly human than that of the church?
What, now, are the practical considerations suggested by this disclosure?—for it has important practical bearings. What is its legitimate tendency? Plainly to enlarge and liberalize the mind that accepts it, and to impart to the affections something of that breadth and expansiveness which characterize the Lord's all-encircling love. It shows us that there are innumerable kinds and degrees of good and truth in heaven, all derived from the infinity of the Divine Goodness; endless diversity of character and state even among the angels, and consequently a place somewhere in the abodes of the blessed, for every one who has within him anything of the life of heaven, however humble in quality or limited in degree. It is opposed, therefore, to everything like narrowness, bigotry, sectarianism, or exclusiveness. It encourages us to look chiefly at the essential things of religion,—the spirit and the life of heaven,—and to regard as of comparatively small consequence whatever does not lead to or in some way promote these. It rebukes the natural disposition to make ourselves the standards of all excellence, and to judge the character of others by our own peculiar views and feelings; and does not allow us to depreciate another's good because it differs from our own in kind or in degree. It teaches us that good people are not all alike; that, although so different sometimes as to be quite uncongenial to each other, they may, nevertheless, belong to the great body of Christ,—may dwell, as to their spirits, in the same Heavenly Father's house, although in different apartments.
The doctrine further teaches that the most perfect union, harmony, peace and good-fellowship are compatible with great diversity of character, rank, occupation and office; that this diversity, indeed, renders the union and harmony all the more perfect when the different parts in the social body are duly adjusted, and one life pervades them all. It shows us that gradations of rank and character may exist without pride, disdain, or tyranny on the one hand, or envy, jealousy, or humiliation on the other; and that these very gradations furnish wider scope for the infinitely diversified powers of man, and multiply and strengthen the ties that bind the human race together. Its tendency is to make us regard as honorable every position and occupation in life which is useful; to lead every one to desire and seek just that sphere of usefulness which his gifts of body and mind best qualify him to fill; and whether that sphere be high or low—in the head or foot, the eye or hand of the social body—to work there contentedly and faithfully, forever thankful that he is a man.
Let this doctrine be generally accepted and devoutly believed, and what a change would speedily be wrought by it in nearly all existing churches! How quickly would bigotry, intolerance, and belittling sectarianism—all doleful creatures of the night—take their departure, as owls and bats retire at the approach of dawn! For all agree that the Church on earth ought to be, and in a state of true order will be, somewhat like the church in heaven. All Christians, indeed, pray for this. Accepting, therefore, the new doctrine of the human form of heaven—the doctrine of endless diversity coupled with completest harmony and unity—they would no longer aim at perfect uniformity in things pertaining to the church, for they would see that no such uniformity exists in heaven. They would see that perfect agreement in doctrine or ritual (save in two or three fundamentals) is neither to be expected nor desired; that variety everywhere—in the spiritual no less than in the natural realm—is the Divine order. And seeing this, they would allow and encourage the utmost freedom of thought and inquiry on religious or doctrinal questions, not deprecating but cordially welcoming whatever diversity might result from such freedom. Prejudice against new ideas, or against writings said to contain them, would everywhere be condemned and frowned upon as a hindrance to religious progress.
Thus would bigotry and intolerance be banished from the churches, and in their place would come a grand catholicity, broad and beautiful as that in heaven. Instead of antagonistic sects warring against, fretting and weakening each other, we should have, out of many and diverse communions, one harmonious and united Church; not one in doctrine, discipline and form of external worship, but one in spirit,—one in the real and practical acknowledgment of the Lord and his Word,—a Church all the more beautiful and perfect, because of the endless diversity among its component parts.
It cannot be denied, therefore, that this doctrine of the human form of heaven, is good and wholesome in its practical tendency. And what stronger evidence of its truth could any one desire than this? No such beneficent results could flow legitimately from a doctrine which is itself false. "Of a bramble-bush men do not gather grapes, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."