Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3685[4] From this it may in some measure appear how the case is withthe derivations from first to last, or from the intellectual part downto the sensuous. The life of man, which is from the Lord’s Divine,passes through these degrees from the inmost down to the last orultimate degree, and in each degree it is derived from what is prior,becoming more and more general, and in the ultimate degree mostgeneral. The derivations in the lower degrees are merelycompositions, or rather combinations [conformationes], of thesingulars and particulars of the higher degrees in succession,together with an addition from purer nature, and then from grossernature, of such things as may serve for containing vessels; and ifthese vessels are decomposed, the singulars and particulars of theinterior degrees, which had been combined therein, return to thedegree next higher. And as with man there is a connection with theDivine, and his inmost is of such a nature that he can receive theDivine, and not only receive it, but also make it his own byacknowledgment and affection, thus by reciprocation, he thereforecan never die, because he has thus been implanted in the Divine,and is therefore in what is eternal and infinite, not merely throughthe influx thence, but also through the reception of it.[5] From this it may be seen how unlearnedly and inanely thosethink about man who compare him to the brute animals, andbelieve that he will not live after death any more than they—notconsidering that with the brute animals there is no reception, northrough acknowledgment and affection any reciprocalappropriation, of the Divine, and consequent conjunction with it;and not considering that in consequence of the state of animalsbeing of this nature, the recipient forms of their life cannot but bedissipated; for with them the influx passes through their organicforms down into the world, and there terminates and vanishes, andnever returns.5115. And it was as though it budded. That this signifies the influxby which the rebirth is effected is evident from the signification of“budding” or producing leaves and afterward blossoms, as being thefirst of rebirth. The reason why influx is signified is that when manis being reborn, spiritual life flows into him, exactly as when a tree