Page:Swedenborg's Doctrine of Correspondence.djvu/47

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THE TWO WORLDS.
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desire. The reason is because fire corresponds to love, and signifies it. That such fire has heat proceeding from it, appears plainly from the effects of love. Thus a man is set on fire, grows warm and becomes inflamed, as his love is exalted into zeal, or into the glow of anger. The heat of the blood or the vital heat of men and animals in general proceeds solely from love which constitutes their life. Neither is infernal fire anything else than love opposite to heavenly love. Thence it is, that the Divine love appears to the angels in their world as a sun, fiery like our sun; and that the angels enjoy heat according to their reception of love from the Lord by means of that sun. It follows that the light there is in its essence wisdom; for love and wisdom are indivisible, since love exists by means of wisdom and according to it. I have often seen that spiritual light," he says, "and it immensely exceeds natural light in brightness and splendor. As light is wisdom, therefore the Lord calls Himself the light which enlighteneth every man. It is believed that natural lumen, which also is rational, proceeds from the light of our world; but it proceeds from the light of the sun of the spirit-