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Addendum.

1. THE LORD, like man in the world, had a spiritual body within His natural body. His spiritual body was at first like the spiritual body of a man, composed of the created substances of the spiritual world, as His natural body was at first like man's, composed of the, created substances of this world. And as His natural body was changed, that is, glorified, as above described, so was His spiritual body glorified. His spiritual body was glorified before the crucifixion, His natural body after. So that the LORD rose with His natural body which He had in the world, as well as with His spiritual body, both glorified and made Divine.

With the truth that the LORD rose with the natural body which He had in the world, do not fail to associate this truth that He rose with the body not in the same state as at burial, because while in the tomb He changed its state by dissipating its earthly substances and substituting in their place Divine substances from within and therefore rose with a Divine natural body. Thus, mark attentively, the New Church doctrine is not that the LORD put off His natural body so as to be deprived of the natural, but that He changed it, glorified it, rose with it and retains it to eternity.

That the LORD's natural body after resurrection was not material but Divine, is affirmed in The True Christian Religion,-  

"The Glorification of the LORD is the Glorification of His Human which He assumed in the world, and the Glorified Human of the LORD is the Divine Natural. That it is so is evident from this, that the LORD rose from the sepulchre with His whole body which He had in the world; nor did He leave anything in the sepulchre, consequently that He took thence with Him the Natural Human itself from its firsts to its lasts; wherefore He said to His disciples, after the resurrection when they supposed they saw His spirit, `See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; feel Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.' (Luke xxiv, 37, 39.) Whence it is manifest that the natural body by glorification, was made Divine... Hence the angels know that the LORD alone, in the whole spiritual world is fully Man." -TCR 109
Angels and spirits are not full men, - not having the ultimate, while the LORD, after death and resurrection as before, was a full Man, having His natural body complete like man in the world; this being the difference between men and spirits. (See also AC 1414, 1729, 2083, 3490, 3498, 3702, with DLW 22 1; AC 3737, 4618, 5077, 5078, 5079, 6716, 10252, 10125; AE 899, 1108, 1112 (Ath. Cr. 15, 18); D. L. in AE IV, V, XII; DP 220; L. 35; LJ 21; DLW 233, 234; TCR 92, 103, 109; HH 306, with 314, 304, 461; A.S.N.Y. Ed., p. 35, (London Ed., pp. 41, 42); S.D. Appendix, pp. 26, 41, 103.)

The LORD's body after resurrection was natural, meaning by natural not material but the lowest or ultimate degree, the higher degrees being either spiritual or celestial.

This body though composed of Divine substances is still natural, but Divine Natural. Before Glorification it was a material natural body. "Natural" and "material" are sometimes synonymous, sometimes not. We say "the natural heaven" meaning not the material heaven but the lowest of the three angelic heavens. "Natural" may mean the lowest in a series of degrees. When the LORD assumed the degrees composing His human in the whole, the lowest was "the very body," from the virgin. The next higher was His spiritual body. The lowest degree (from the virgin) was His natural body. This, as a degree of His Human, He did not put off but changed its nature or state. This degree was at first filled with matter and was a material body but when the material was expelled and the Divine substantial was put on in its place it was made Divine.

2. THE change from material to Divine in the natural body of the LORD was not a change of the matter into Divine Substance. The matter was "dissipated" -dissipated by the Fire of Divine Love from within (AC 6489) and the Divine-Substantial put on instead, thus making the body wholly Divine. With this Divine natural body He rose and ascended into heaven. In the Arcana we read, -   

"With the LORD the previous forms [substances in forms] were altogether destroyed and extirpated, and Divine forms received in their stead. for the Divine Love [the Essential Divine] does not agree with any but a Divine Form; all other forms it absolutely casts out,, and hence it is that the LORD when glorified was no longer the son of Mary."- AC 6872. (See also L. 35.)
3. THAT the rejection in the sepulchre of what "remained from the mother" was effected by "dissipation," is affirmed in the posthumous work, De Athanasii Symbolo. This is the manifest tenor of the published works. Read the following, - No other mode of rejection in this case seems adequate, or even, possible. We subjoin these passages from the posthumous work referred to, -
"That in the sepulchre the LORD put off all the maternal, and rising again therefrom glorified Himself, and that for the sake of this He died, is manifest from His having said concerning the seed cast into the earth, that first it dies; also, from what He said to the woman, that she must not yet touch Him because He was not yet ascended to the Father; for in the sepulchre all such [maternal human] was to be dissipated."

"That in the sepulchre, and thus by death, the LORD rejected all the human from the mother and dissipated it (from this He underwent temptations and the passion of the cross) and for the reason that it could not be conjoined with the Divine Itself; and that so He assumed the Human from the Father; thus that the LORD with the Human rose again thoroughly and clearly glorified." -- A. S. N. Y. Ed., p. 35 (London Ed., pp. 41, 42.)

4. "TOUCH me not for I am not yet ascended to My Father." (John xx, 17.) We must not infer from these words that His Human then remained in any respect unglorified. They are quoted in the Writings to show that His Human was then wholly Divine, everything from the mother having been rejected. In Apocalypse Explained, AE we read, - The Glorification, signified by the words "going to the Father" used before the crucifixion, and also by "resurrection," involves that the Human when glorified would be united with the Essential Divine. And the unition of the Human with the Divine, signified by "ascending to the Father" after the resurrection, that is after complete Glorification, implies such Glorification to have been accomplished, just as with man the regeneration of the natural precedes and its conjunction with the spiritual results. (AC 4612.)

That the Human was entirely glorified at the resurrection and that the body was raised because it was completely glorified and that this is the significance of all the occurrences after resurrection, is confirmed by the following, -

5.   THE distinction between the terms material and natural when applied to the body of the LORD, should be especially noted. Applied to man these terms are synonymous, his natural body always being material. Not so with the body of the LORD after Glorification; it was then a Divine Natural Body, the earthly substances having been expelled.

Material always refers to the substances of which the body was composed while yet unglorified. Natural, although it sometimes means material, has yet another and entirely different meaning, for example, in The True Christian Religion -  

"Natural" does not here mean material. It means the external, that which clothes and contains the internal. The LORD, like man, had an outer and an inner body, both of which were made Divine. That natural in the above passage means outer in distinction from inner, appears from this that the natural when glorified was still natural but Divine Natural. So the LORD after resurrection and to eternity has two Divine Bodies united. (HH 316, LJ 21.)

The body may be conceived of abstractly from the nature of the substance composing. it whether material, as of the LORD's body at first, or Divine, as of His body when glorified, just as we conceive of a garment abstractly from the kind of substance composing it whether wool or other substance.

6.  IN the light of the foregoing we see that there is a sense in which the LORD retained and glorified the human He assumed, and a sense in which He put it off and put on instead a Human from the Father in Himself. The Human retained and glorified is the Human in the abstract, or the Human Nature with which He clothed His Divinity by Incarnation. The human put off was the human in the concrete as composed of created substances, not the Human in the abstract as a series of degrees, for thus the Divine would be again unclothed.

That the LORD retained and glorified the Human which He assumed is affirmed as follows, -

These declarations apply not to the created substances in the human assumed for they could not be made Divine, but to the degrees or forms into which those substances were organized.

That the LORD put off the human assumed from the mother is also affirmed with the addition that He put on a Human from the Father in place of the human expelled, as appears from the following, -  

7. ALTHOUGH the LORD glorified the whole natural human which He had in the world, yet it is never said that He glorified the material body, nor that He rose with the crucified body. He glorified the degree taken on from Mary but not the matter thereof. To suppose that He rose with the crucified body would conflict with the doctrine that He rose because "while in the world He made the whole Human Divine." We "receive the LORD not as He hung on the cross but as He is in His Glorified Human." (TCR 728.)
8. FROM the foregoing it is clear that in the risen body there could be no wounds. The LORD indeed said to Thomas (possibly in accommodation to his idea) "Reach hither thy finger and see My hands and reach hither thy hand and put it into My side and be not faithless but believing." And Thomas answered and said unto Him, "My LORD and my God"." (John xx, 27, 28.)

The reason which the LORD Himself gives for the belief of Thomas is that he saw the LORD: "Thomas because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed." It may be asked, Was there not an appearance of wounds to Thomas? It would rather seem that although he was at first in doubt but well disposed, yet on seeing the LORD Himself and feeling the potent influx of the Divine emanating from His Glorified Body, he was moved to acknowledgement deeper and holier than could arise from an appearance of wounds. When Thomas said "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails I will not believe" he represented the sensual degree in a crude and unenlightened state. But "After eight days" (John xx, 26) on seeing and hearing the LORD Himself and answering "My LORD and my God" he represents the sensual greatly improved. It may be asked, Why is the Scripture so written that the reader may erroneously infer the existence of wounds? This is among the deep things of Providence concerning the Word, one of which is that its literal sense may be accommodated to such as are in appearances and fallacies. While considering whether there was an appearance of wounds note well the reason of the LORD'S manifestation of Himself, showing His hands and feet, which was to teach that He was not a spirit merely but a man; though His natural body was wholly Divine. (TCR 109; HH 316; LJ 21.)

9. IN The True Christian Religion we read, -

What is the meaning of "He left nothing in the sepulchre"? He left not the body there. He dissipated the matter and put on the Divine instead. Had He not dissipated the matter by the Divine descending into the ultimate plane, the body would have been left in the sepulchre. He would then have risen only with His spirit. (See 2 and 3 above.)

10. WE read, - "The LORD was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God." (Mark xvi, 19.) The Glorification however was not completed at ascension but at resurrection. (HH 316.)  

This truth, that the Glorification was completed at the resurrection is involved in what is said of the Divine Force proceeding from the LORD after the human was made Divine, that is, after resurrection. (AC 6945; AE 659[d].)

11. THE Human was Divine Good as well as Divine Truth at the resurrection.

The Human being Divine Good "after the resurrection" in the, light of the foregoing passages means that it was Divine Good at the resurrection and thereafter. "That the LORD when He was in the world made Himself Divine Truth and when He departed out of the world made Himself Divine Good" (AC 10011) appears further from the passages cited in Arcana. 9315, 9199, 10011. As above explained, the expression "when He was in the world" in this and similar passages means from birth up to but not including the resurrection. "When He departed out of the world" means the time of His resurrection. At that time and thereafter He was Divine Good. (See also AC 3212 and 6716 (to be read with L. 16), 8127, 9199, 9315, 10076; TCR 140, 154; AE 815 [c].)

The LORD imparted the Holy Spirit on the day of His resurrection (John xx, 22); this Spirit proceeded from the LORD after the lowest plane of His Human had been made Divine Good. The Holy Spirit is Divine Truth with Divine Good in it proceeding from the Human of the LORD after complete Glorification. Read Arcana Coelestia AC 9818 and 9229 on the meaning of the passage "The LORD breathed on His disciples saying unto them 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit"' (John xx, 22); then read those parts of numbers 7499, 8127, and 9199 which treat of the time when the LORD was made Divine Good, and Truth proceeded from Him.

The Writings mention the LORD's departure from the world on being completely glorified, yet there is a sense in which the LORD has not departed from the natural world any more than He has from the spiritual world. He assumed an inner body from the created substances of the spiritual world and an outer body from the substances of the natural world as shown in preceding pages. These substances He expelled and put on instead Divine or uncreated substances, rendering His spiritual body Divine Spiritual, and His natural body Divinely natural. Thus, although He transcended the created natural and the created spiritual, yet by emanation He is omnipresent, in each sphere, having in His Human a Divine Spiritual from which He flows immediately into the spiritual world and a Divine Natural from which He flows immediately into the natural world. (TCR 109; DLW 221, 233.)

The Divine Natural and Spiritual are the same in degree as the created natural and spiritual and are related to the Divine Inmost or Father as the same degrees in man are to his inmost.

The LORD then, as to His Divine Natural is as present in the natural world as He is with His Divine Spiritual in the spiritual world.

Some may ask, Why cannot the LORD be seen in the natural world as well as in the spiritual? We believe He may. But by what sight? The kind of spiritual sight by which the LORD is seen since His resurrection is left to enlightened reason. The sight by which the LORD is seen in person does not appear to be the ordinary spiritual sight by which a man sees spirits and angels and by which they see each other and the objects in their. world. There are several degrees of spiritual sight one within and discrete from another, the most interior of which is the sight of the inmost. (See AC 1954, to be read with 1940 which shows that the sight of the internal mentioned in 1954 is the sight of the inmost or supreme degree, and consult Chapters III and XVII, where A represents this degree.) If now we admit that the initial of the sight of every degree below the inmost, is in the inmost (A in Diagram XVII), and recollect that it is 'only occasionally that the LORD is seen in person by spirits and angels of any degree, thus not by their ordinary sight but by some interior sight opened for the purpose which it would seem must be the sight of the inmost adequate to the degree in which He appears, we may then conclude that He can as well be seen with His Divine Natural in the natural plane as with a higher degree in a higher plane. As there are different degrees of conjunction with the LORD in His Human, some being conjoined to His Divine Rational, some to His Divine Natural, and others more gross to His Divine Sensual (AC 4211), a specific sight of the LORD for each of these degrees seems needful as a base and containant of the intellectual perception of the respective grades.
 

12. THE human of man in the world embraces his material body as its ultimate plane and the infirm human of the LORD included His material body from the virgin; accordingly "the glorification of the whole human" includes the glorification of the natural body as its ultimate plane.

This appears from the meaning of "body," and of "human.", (L. 35; D.L. in AE VII, 2; Inf. 8,9,12; - n. 12 showing the meaning of "natural body," and hence the meaning of natural body" TCR 109. The title lntercourse between Soul and Body ("Influx") refers to the material body as appears from its 8, 9, 12. All such passages as AC 4963, read with TCR 92, and L. 35, sustain the point. Read - AE 1207, 899, 659, with L. 35 and TCR 92; LJ 9, with D. W. in AE VIII, 4, and AR 504. Read together, and note mutual bearing of DP 220 and. DLW 388; D. W. in AE VII, 4, 5, and VIII, 4; HH 60, 464, 461, 314, 432; TCR 281; AR 153. In AC 5114 it is said that "the spirit of man is in the interior degree, and the body [material body] in the exterior," and the whole number shows that the distinction is that of degree. AC 4659, 5078, and 5079, with 5077. TCR 103 with DLW 388 shows the body to be an external part of man while in the world or before death. A.S. N.Y.. Ed. p.39, (London Ed. p. 46); S.D. App., pp. 26, 41, 103; DLW 287, 107, 1; S.D. 2751, 2752.)

Hence man's rising with his spirit only and not with his body means not with his material body; and the LORD rising with the body He had in the world because it was glorified means with a body in the same degree as His material body but Divine as to substance, the glorification of the body having been wrought in the sepulchre by substitution.

SUMMARY OF THE FOREGOING POINTS  

  1. THE LORD in the world had two bodies, a spiritual and natural, and both were made Divine.
  2. The change in His natural body from material to Divine was not wrought by transmutation.
  3. The rejection of what remained from the mother (the matter of His crucified body) was effected by dissipation in the sepulchre.
  4. The LORD'S words to Mary, "Touch me not," do not mean, that He was not fully glorified but that the Glorification was then complete.
  5. We must discriminate between material and natural as applied to the body of the LORD, His natural body after the Glorification was not material but Divine.
  6. There is a sense in which the LORD glorified the Human He assumed, and retained it; and a sense in which He put off the human assumed and put on the Divine Human in its stead.
  7. Although He glorified and rose with "the whole natural Human which He had in the world" yet He did not glorify the matter thereof
  8. In the Risen Body there were no wounds. Whether there was an appearance of wounds is a matter of opinion.
  9. "The LORD left nothing in the sepulchre." The material substance was dissipated.
  10. The Glorification was completed at Resurrection, not Ascension.
  11. The Human was Divine Good as well as Divine Truth at the Resurrection.
  12. The material body of the LORD constituted the ultimate degree of His infirm human; and He glorified the whole human which He assumed. Thus the Glorification descended even into this ultimate plane, dissipating the material and substituting the Divine Substantial.
END OF PART II
 
 
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