Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/93

 The state of life, therefore, in which Swedenborg tells us the angels are, is clearly a high state. Hence we may understand why heaven is said to be on high, and why the word itself in both the Greek and Hebrew, according to its primitive literal import, means a locality that is high. And we may see, too, why man is said to have been made "a little lower than the angels." In his fallen or unregenerate state, he is a great deal lower.

Because the word high when used in Scripture has such spiritual signification, denoting elevation of state, or purity of love and exaltation of wisdom, therefore the Lord is called the Most High, and is said to dwell on high, above the earth and above the heavens. Certainly natural or spatial elevation is not to be thought of, when such things are predicated of the omnipresent Jehovah. No. It is because He is the highest as to state or quality of life—infinitely exalted above men and angels as to the quality and degree of his love and wisdom, that He is said to be the Highest, above the earth and the heavens. And what is it that really exalts men, or makes them spiritually high, but such a reception of the Lord's love and wisdom as recreates them in his own image and likeness? This lifts their souls on high. We know it is not uncommon for Christians, when in a cold, external, or very low state of mind, to pray that the Lord would lift them up out of that state. And the Psalmist speaks of God's setting certain ones on "high," and of others being "brought low"—where it is plain that these terms have no reference whatever to space, but to mental state.

But the Bible furnishes still more positive evidence