Chapter XXIX. The Glorification; Its First Stage-Infancy.

THIS diagram represents the state of the LORD's Human at the completion of the first great step of glorification. This step was accomplished in infancy, and answers to the first stage of preparation for regeneration with man as shown in Diagram XIX. This step consisted in making Divine the highest or celestial degree of the spiritual mind a and at the same time the development and storing of the lowest degree of the natural mind f and of the limbus i and in a growth and improvement of the gross body j.

The planes f i j cohere in idea and act together as an ultimate of the highest degree of the spiritual mind a. While a was being made Divine these degrees would necessarily open and be stored from that highest with infantile remains suitable to each. These remains like all others in the Human of the LORD were indefinitely more excellent and abundant than can exist in any man. Yet these remains were somewhat impure from various evils and infirmities.

The development of these degrees (f i j) is indicated to a certain extent in the diagram by larger lines and the remains therein by the tint of red and white, raising the Colour from a darker to a lighter shade. (Compare f i j with f j k in Diagram XXVIII.)

The highest degree of the spiritual mind is drawn in white be cause it is now Divine Truth. In the next diagram it will be red because made Divine Good. In glorifying the Human, the LORD first made it truth divine, then Divine Truth, and lastly Divine Good. (AC 7014.) Truth divine is truth from the Divine, - Truth finite and rendered comparatively weak and impure by reception among the angels, - truth with good divine in it, - truth angelic in distinction from Divine Truth above the heavens. His spiritual mind B was truth divine by assumption from the heavens. This mind in such state was the human divine taken on from the angels at the Incarnation.

While the highest degree a was being made Divine Truth from the essential Divine, while the natural -f and i- were being opened and restored with remains, and the gross body j was developed (the main features of the first great step), b underwent a certain preparatory advancement, being made a higher order of truth divine than at birth, and c d e g h having progressed each according to its state and place in the series. For this reason b in the diagram is green tinted with white, green indicating truth divine and white the increase and strength thereof.

As the Human of the LORD commences in the inmost of the rational and as He made all His Human Divine, therefore He first glorified the highest degree (a) and through this the next (b) and so in order to the last. (AC 2194.) Thus the Glorification was accomplished by discrete steps from the highest degree to the very lowest.

Yet in each degree there was a progression from external to internal, that is, from truth to good. Truth was first appropriated and by the truth good. The good from which that truth proceeded was present and operative within though not then perceived and so not appropriated and yet was the real force from which the truth was adopted. We have said good was appropriated by means of truth and so it appears. Still good puts forth truth and causes it to be appropriated that itself may have a form in which the good may be felt and enjoyed. The good and truth of a lower degree are always though often imperceptibly connected with the good and truth of a higher degree and by this with higher still even to the Supreme. The lower are under the inspection and government of the higher and could not even exist apart from their organic dependence on them. The lower act from the causative presence of the higher and only under their supervision can they be appropriated.

The glorification by degrees successively from above down agrees with the creation of the human in this order, and with the order of its assumption at the Incarnation.

This order of glorification besides being affirmed in such passages as Arcana Coelestia AC 2194 and implied in the whole tenor of the Writings, is clearly involved in this, -  

"The natural could not be made Divine before the rational was made Divine, because the natural was made Divine by the rational."- AC 3245.

The terms good and truth are often used relatively. We are taught in the Writings that in the LORD all is Divine Good and that Divine Truth proceeds from Him, and yet that Good and Truth are in the LORD in conjunction and proceed in conjunction from Him. Good and truth in the LORD are called good in relation to good and truth proceeding from Him, and good and truth proceeding from Him are called truth in relation to good and truth in Him. The Divine Esse is in the LORD, and the Divine Existere is from Him. Yet, in another view the Divine Esse and Existere are both conjoined as one and inseparable in the LORD. It is only a derivative Existere that proceeds from the LORD, it is a proceeding from the Divine Existere which is in the LORD, and has a proceeding from the Divine Esse in it; so that the proceeding Existere is composed of Esse and Existere which together stand to Esse and Existere in the LORD as Existere to Esse.

As already indicated, the Glorification of the LORD may be compared with the regeneration of man. During minority man's spiritual mind is formed and filled with remains by successive degrees from above down and his natural developed and stored from below up, which two processes meet at adult age between his spiritual and his natural mind. (See Diagrams XIX, XX, XXI.) In adult age, as man advances in regeneration there are also two processes at the same time, one a descent of influx from the spiritual mind into the natural, regenerating its degrees from above down, the other an opening of the degrees of the spiritual mind and an ascent into them from its lowest up. (Diagrams XXII, XXIII, and XXIV.)

Processes like these took place with the LORD with such difference as arose from His being God Himself clothed with the Human. With Him from birth to adult age there was in His spiritual mind an infilling with the Divine by degrees from above down (a b c) and a development and storing of His natural by degrees from below up (f e d) or briefly, during minority his spiritual mind was made Divine, and His natural mind was opened and stored with remains. These ascending and descending processes met at adult age midway between His spiritual and natural minds. During His adult life there were also two processes. One, the descent of Divine Good and Truth from His spiritual mind into His natural mind making its several degrees Divine from above down, the other opening the now Divine degrees of the spiritual mind, and an ascent into them from below up.

In man's case, remains are never more than mere tempered and accommodated good and truth received from the Divine sphere of the LORD. But with the LORD the very Divine Good and Truth Itself descended from His Divine Esse or Inmost A into the several degrees of His spiritual mind, dispelling thence all created substances and forms which had been provisionally assumed from the heavens and rendering those degrees wholly Divine, a in infancy, b in childhood, and c in youth.

The Glorification of His spiritual mind in minority answers to the implantation of remains in man's spiritual mind in his minority. The Essential Divine Good and Truth causing the Glorification are not however to be confounded with the good and truth of the human divine with which the LORD was born. This human divine was assumed as a medium for bringing down the absolute Divine. For the LORD Glorified His Human by means of the angels, yet He took nothing from them, nothing truly Glorifying. After this provisional use of the human divine it was superseded by the absolute Divine.

His spiritual mind having been glorified He was prepared at the commencement of adult age to carry the glorifying process into His natural mind (into the degrees d c f successively) rendering this mind also Divine. This was accomplished just before the crucifixion. During this descent of the Divine into the natural there was also with the LORD as with the fully regenerated man an opening and ascent into the three degrees of His spiritual mind, elevating the interior seat of His Divine Perception into these glorified degrees, into c b and a successively.

Nothing finite can abide in the immediate presence of the Divine, it would be utterly dissipated. (AC 6849.) Therefore the Divine on its descent into His spiritual mind expelled thence all substances, forms and states assumed from the heavens, and on its. descent into His natural mind expelled all that had been taken from the world of spirits preparatory for glorification.

What the LORD assumed from the heavens, the world of spirits, and the virgin was not only the means of putting on the Divine. Human but also of subduing the bells for the Redemption of man and the restoration of the heavens to order. By the disorder of the degrees assumed, evil spirits assaulted in temptations, and by His Divine He subdued them.

When in adult life influx descends from the degrees of the spiritual mind into those of the natural, regenerating them, or, in the LORD's case glorifying them, the lower are thereby conjoined to the higher and thereafter act as one with them. This is accompanied by an elevation of the interior seat of perception from the lower into the higher. Thus, d of the natural is conjoined with c of the spiritual, and the perception raised into c; so with c and b, and with f and a.

At this stage the parallel between the ascent in the LORD and in man ceases. With the LORD Glorification progressed to a degree yet lower and the opening and elevation to a degree still higher, not so regeneration with man. With the LORD the Divine descended into the plane of the natural body which He had in the world (TCR 109) and casting out thence all material substances made that degree also Divine, and He rose from the tomb with the whole of this degree (the body) now Divine and because it was Divine, differently from man who rises only with his spirit. (AC 5078.) So His natural body became the Divine-Human ultimate of His Inmost, the Inscrutable Divine Esse, to which, through the intermediate degrees, this ultimate was united and into which Esse was elevated the interior seat of His perception; whereupon His outermost perception became one with His Inmost Divine Perception.

The processes above outlined which constitute the stages in the LORD'S life succeeding infancy, will be continued in the subsequent Chapters.

The state of the LORD at birth was in one respect much like the state of man at adult age, His spiritual mind being even at birth filled with finite good and truth assumed from the heavens, that is, from the Divine through the heavens. This state is reached by man only in adult age. (Compare Diagram XXVIII with XXI.)

With man, the actual seat of perception is in the limbus or mental part of the natural derived from his mother, or what is the same, is in the plane of his external or material memory. (S.D. 2752.) So with the LORD during life in the world. With the man who becomes regenerate the interior seat of perception is elevated during childhood step by step through the natural mind and in manhood through the spiritual mind. So with the LORD.

During infancy the interior seat of perception was formed in the lowest plane f of His natural mind. This seat of perception exists here from a corresponding seat more interior, that is from the highest plane of His spiritual mind a, which has been made Divine Truth Itself from the Essential Divine. All perception in every degree of His Human has its primal origin in the Divine Esse Itself Perception, however, in each degree is according to the state of the degree, at the time.

As it pleased the LORD in assuming and glorifying the Human to follow the order appointed for man except where His being the Divine Itself as to His Inmost involved a departure from that order, we have divided His life in the world into two great periods, Minority and Manhood, and His Minority we have subdivided into three periods, Infancy, Childhood and Youth; and His Manhood up to His resurrection into four periods. The first three of these periods resemble those of a man who in adult life is regenerated and introduced, first into the lowest heaven, then into the second and finally into the third. The fourth state with the LORD, UNPARALLELED in man (to be presented in Chapter XXXV), is the crowning act of entering with His very body completely glorified into most intimate union with the Divine Esse the Father. This glorification of the Human and its entrance into perfect union with the Essential Divine called the Father was signalized by His resurrection, involving as a consequence the elevation and complete unification of the actual scat of His perception with the perception of the Inmost, signalized by His ascension.

The LORD'S whole life from earliest childhood to the last hour in the world "was a continual temptation and a continual victory." (AC 1690.) Hence the work of the first great period presented in this diagram though accomplished in infancy was effected by means of temptation combats and victories. The work of Redemption was also commenced in this period and carried forward by the same means. The power of the hells over the world of spirits was beginning to be subdued; the order and comfort of the heavens to be restored and enhanced; and the Day Spring from on high to visit the earth.
 

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