IN SUCCESSIVE ORDER THE FIRST DEGREE MAKES THE HIGHEST, AND THE THIRD THE LOWEST; BUT IN SIMULTANEOUS ORDER THE FIRST DEGREE MAKES THE INNERMOST, AND THE THIRD THE OUTERMOST

DLW 205. There is successive order and simultaneous order. The successive order of these degrees is from highest to lowest, or from top to bottom. The angelic heavens are in this order; the third heaven there is the highest, the second is the middle, and the first is the lowest; such is their relative situation. In like successive order are the states of love and wisdom with the angels there, also states of heat and light, and of the spiritual atmospheres. In like order are all the perfections of the forms and forces there. When degrees of height, that is, discrete degrees, are in successive order, they may be compared to a column divided into three stories, through which ascent and descent are made. In the upper rooms are things most perfect and most beautiful;in the middle rooms, things less perfect and beautiful; in the lowest, things still less perfect and beautiful. But simultaneous order, which consists of like degrees, has another appearance. In it, the highest things of successive order, which are the most perfect and most beautiful, are in the inmost, the lower things are in the middle, and the lowest in the circumference. They are as if in a solid body composed of these three degrees: in the middle or center are the finest parts, round about this are parts less fine, and in the extremes which constitute the circumference are the parts composed of these and which are therefore grosser. It is like the column mentioned just above subsiding into a plane, the highest part of which forms the innermost of the plane, the middle forms the middle, and the lowest the outermost.

DLW 206. As the highest of successive order becomes the innermost of simultaneous order, and the lowest becomes the outermost, so in the Word, " higher" signifies inner, and "lower" signifies outer. "Upwards" and "downwards," and " high" and " deep" have a like meaning.

DLW 207. In every outmost there are discrete degrees in simultaneous order. The motor fibers in every muscle, the fibers in every nerve, also the fibers and the little vessels in all viscera and organs, are in such an order. Innermost in these are the most simple things, which are the most perfect; the outermost is a composite of these. There is a like order of these degrees in every seed and in every fruit, also in every metal and stone; their parts, of which the whole is composed, are of such a nature. The innermost, the middle, and the outermost elements of the parts exist in these degrees, for they are successive compositions, that is, bundlings and massings together from simples that are their first substances or matters.

DLW 208. In a word, there are such degrees in every outmost, thus in every effect. For every outmost consists of things prior and these of their firsts. And every effect consists of a cause, and this of an end; and end is the all of cause, and cause is the all of effect; and end makes the inmost, cause the middle, and effect the outmost. The same is true of degrees of love and wisdom, and of heat and light, also of the organic forms of affections and thoughts in man (as will be seen in what follows). The series of these degrees in successive order and in simultaneous order has been treated of also in (Sacred n. 38), where it is shown that there are like degrees in each and all things of the Word.

Divine Love and Wisdom

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Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

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