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Academy of the New Church
Philosophy 4
Bryn Athyn, August, 1934

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE HUMAN BODY
Lectures by Hugo Lj. Odhner

PART ONE
Chapter Three

GOD AS MAN

 1.    The Divine Human Form before Creation.

W. 285

    "The Lord could not have created the universe unless He had been a Man."  (W. 21e)

W. 52. (General article):

    " All things in the universe have been created by the divine Love and the divine Wisdom of God-Man."  (P. 3, gne art.)

    T. 36f

          "The Love and Wisdom of God constitute His essence.

    T. 37

          "God is the First and Only - the first substance and form - whose essence is love and wisdom; and because out of Him all things were made that were made, it follows that He created the universe with everything of it, out of love by wisdom.  Thence the Divine Love together with the Divine Wisdom is in all and every created subject.  Love...is not only the essence which forms all things, but it also unites and conjoins them, and thus keeps them when formed in connection...." (Illus.)

    T. 49

          "Omnipotence, Omniscience, and omnipresence, pertain to the Divine Essence.

    W. 55

          "It is known that the things of the universe, one and all, were created by God; hence the universe with all and each of the things in it is called in the Word the work of the hands of Jehovah.  It is said that the world with all that is in it was created out of nothing; and concerning that nothing an idea is entertained as of absolutely nothing; when yet from absolutely nothing nothing is made, or can be made.  This is an evident truth.  The universe therefore, which is an image of God, and therefore full of God, could only be created in God from God; for God is Esse Itself, and that which is must be from Esse.  To create that which is created in God From God is not continuous from Him; for God is Esse in Itself, and that which is must be from Esse.  To create that which is, from nothing, which is not, is an utter contradiction.

          "Nevertheless, that which is created in God from God is not continuous from Him; for God is Esse in Itself, and in created things there is not any Esse in itself.  If in created things there were any Esse in itself, this would be continuous from God, and what is continuous from God is God.

          "The angelic idea on the subject is like this:  That what is created in God from God is like that in man which he has taken from his life, but from which life is withdrawn, which is such that it agrees with his life but still is not his life.  The angels confirm this by many things which exist in their heaven, where they say they are in God, and God is in them, and yet they have nothing of God, which is God, in their esse.  Many things by which they confirm this will be adduced in what follows; here it is only mentioned for information."  (W. 55)

        Discuss:

          Creation from "nothing"; cp. history of the idea.
          Gentile idea of Matter as co-eternal with God.  Persian Dualism.
          Christian Fathers opposed this by the doctrine of creation "from nothing"; to avoid pantheism.

    W. 55:

          All that is created is in se inanimate and dead, but is animated and vivified by the Divine in it, and by it being in the Divine.

T. 46:

    It is the properties of Divine Love that have made creation possible.

T. 43:

    It is the essence of Love to love others outside of itself, to will to be one with them, and to make them happy from itself.

W. 47:

    Love is to feel the joy of another as joy in one's self.  To feel one's own joy in another, and not other's joy in one's self, is not loving.

     

     

              The Lord from eternity was Man (the Father in human form), but not yet in the flesh,even as an angel has not "flesh" (A. 93150 Lk. 24:39; E. 1112).

               In God-Man, infinite things are one distinctly (W. 17, 22).

              The Creator should be conceived of as a Divine Man in Firsts (Ath.Cr. 120).

          D. 4847:

                There are not three equal essences in God, but three successive essences. (Expl.)  "The Divine Itself which is the first essence was MAN in contu seu in fieri; whence He was Man (ita reflexive homo)"  Second, Man born, and essentially from the first.  Third, in successivo, homo procedens, quod est totum coelum, and thus the Holy Spirit.

          W. 233:

                Two prior degrees actually, the third degree in potency.
               Superinduced the third degree, called the Natural.

                All the degrees are infinite and uncreate in the Lord.  Compare W. 222.

          Q. ii.

                 The Lord from eternity...was Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, and had then the Divine Celestial and Divine Spiritual, but not the Divine Rational before He assumed the Human.  [The Rational from heaven, see Representative Human.]
                 See also: A. 6280, 10579, 5110, 4687.

2.    The Divine Human before Incarnation.

    From the first creation He was in the Human from Himself, viz., in the universal heaven which, in the comples, refers to one Man...

    A. 6000:

          Before the Advent, the Divine Human was Jehovah in the heavens.  He presented Himself as a Divine Man.  (Not so completely ONE with the Divine in Se)

    A. 5663:

      The Divine Human in the ancient churches was this Divine in the Heavens as a Divine Man.

    Q. vi:

      Before the Incarnation there was not any Divine Human except a representative one by means of some angel whom the Lord infilled with His Spirit...

    A. 6571:

          For previously the divine transflux through heaven had been the Divine Human; it was also the divine Man which was presented to view when Jehovah so appeared; but this divine Human ceased when the Lord Himself made the Human in Himself Divine.

    A. 46872:

          The ancients perceived the Infinite Existing (Existens), in which is the Infinite Esse, as a divine Man...  For whatever passes through the Grand Man from the infinite Esse is attended with this image of it...   A. 46924.

3.    The Divine Human after Incarnation.

W. 221:

        This Human He put on over the former Human.

L. 36:

        God thus became Man, as in primes, so in ultimates.   (Cp. D. 4847)

        God the Savior, Jesus Christ (in PTW p. 553)

      39.   Christ alone is Man from eternity and natural Man in time.
      27.   ...in no other way [than by the Incarnation] could He...add the Human in time to the Divine from eternity.  (Cp. E. 1112)
      8.      The One God willed to become a natural Man and thus full Man. (why).

        "Ecco Homo"  explained in A. 914411.

4.    The Divine Human after Glorification.

W. 389:

        To be Man nothing must be lacking.

    W. 18:

          "Every one who believes that God is Man, can satisfy himself that there are infinite things in God.  And because He is Man, He has a body, and everything belonging to the body; thus He has a face, a breast, an abdomen, loins, feet; for without these He would not be Man.  And having these, He has also eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, tongue; as also the things which are within a man, as heart, lungs, and their appendages; all of which, taken together, make man to be man.  In a created man these parts are many, and in their details of structure they are innumerable; but in
      God-Man they are infinite, nothing being wanting, and therefore He has infinite perfection.  A comparison is made between the Uncreate Man, Who is God, and a created man, because God is Man, and it is said by Him that the man of this world was created after His image and into His likeness"  (Genesis 1:26,27).

    W. 14:

          The Divine Soul of God-Man is what is meant by the Divine ESSE, and the Divine Body is what is meant by the Divine EXISTERE.

    W. 2653

          His Human Body cannot be thought of as either great or small...

          Moreover the Human is the inmost of every created thing, but devoid of space.

    J.Post. 129:

          Rejecting His finite, His Body became like His Soul, thus Infinite.  (Cp. n. 87)

    D. 4845:

          With the Lord's glorified Human, the Divine Love (the Esse of His life) had formed the body after its likeness...to such a degree that all [the organs] should be formed of Divine Love, and since it was made Divine, they are Divine Love.  Nothing there is closed, as in finites; but all things are formed according to the idea of an infinite heaven.

    E. 151:

          The necessity of the idea of God-man.

      Man cannot think of the Divine Itself devoid of the human form, except as of Nature in its seasts.

      Reason for the denial of the Divine Human form at this day:-  they form a conclusion from space  Ath.Cr. 154.

      Thought of Godin a spiritual light apart from space is possible.  w. 7, 70f.

      Elevation into heaven necessarily causes thought of the Divine under the Human Form.  D. 5775e; E 27

5.    The Divine Human as Divine Truth and Spiritual Law, and as the WORD.  The Second Coming.

    In the Letter of the Word He is as to the Human; in the Internal Sense (now revealed through Swedenborg) He is as to His Divine.  Inv. 44

    The Lord is present in Divine Truths from the Word, which are from Him and are Himself.  E. 726.\

    The Word interiorly is alive.  De Varbo ii.


End of Chapter 3.