whole divine chain of development.[1]
Swedenborg's definition of man, as a substantial organic form recipient of the life of love and wisdom ought now to be intelligible. He is "a thought of God," indeed; but not a "projection into nothing" as would be the case if he were not by created forms separated from the Creator in order that he may be a personal existence. As was shown in the general doctrine, "life must have an organism to operate a function; and the organism must be two-fold, spiritual to receive life, and, at first, material to give permanence to spiritual forms, and react upon the inflowing life." It was shown that this necessity calls for two suns, a living and a dead, and two worlds; and without birth into this world, spiritual organic forms, such as are the will and understanding of man, could not be given and developed.
Now consider in this connection the following: "That the Lord has created man, and afterwards forms with him, a receptacle of love which is his will, and adjoins to it a receptacle of wisdom, which is his understanding. That these forms, which are the
- ↑ See Dr. Burnham in N. C. Messenger, Vol. 27, pp. 291, 303.
