Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/167

Rh one sees or apprehends spiritual truth according to his own state or character. The higher and more heavenly is one's state, therefore, the higher and clearer are his apprehensions of heavenly truth. And in consequence of this law, the character and aspect of the Divine Being himself, are very different to different individuals—and to the same individual in different states of mind, or when contemplating the Divine from different principles. It is so even in heaven.

Swedenborg says that the angels do not all see God alike; that his appearance differs as their states differ. To those in the highest or celestial heaven, that is, to those whose love is most exalted, pure and fervent, He appears as a Sun, immeasurably more brilliant than the sun of this world; because such appearance corresponds to, and is one of the normal results of, the clear shining of his truth and love in their hearts. To the spiritual angels, or those in a lower state. He appears less brilliant—comparatively as a Moon. And to infernal spirits—those who are dominated by the passions and propensities of their lower nature—those whose souls are darkened by falsity, selfishness and sin, He appears as darkness and thick darkness according to the nature and degree of the evils in which they are immersed. For the great and eternal law of correspondence between the inner and the outer, is what