Chapter XXVII. The Degrees of the Human, and whence taken.

First, The Divine Esse or Essential Divine A coinciding with the inmost or supreme degree in man;

Second, The three degrees of His spiritual mind B taken from the angelic heavens which also are the two Kingdoms or two prior degrees (DLW 233);

Third, The three degrees of His natural mind C (including the spiritual body) taken from the world of spirits; Fourth, His material body D taken from the virgin and coinciding with the natural world. The natural mind and material body together constitute the third degree held in potency by Him before He came into the world. (DLW 233.)

His natural or external man C was taken from the world of spirits. He descended through the heavens (from which He took His spiritual mind) into and through the world of spirits whence He took a degree below that from the heavens and above that from Mary. This is analogous to the descent of the Word "through the angelic heaven, and thus through the world of spirits, till it reaches man, before whom it presents itself in such form as the Word has in its letter." (AC 1887. See HH 430 on the rational answering to C which coincides with the world of spirits. (Also S D. 3020.)

From the world of nature He assumed by the virgin His natural or material body D, the lowest plane of the Human. (DLW 234; L. 35 to be read with TCR 92, 103; AR 820.) As above remarked the term natural or material body - that part of the Human assumed directly from the mother and said, in Doctrine Concerning the LORD 35, to be material, covers both the limbus and the gross body.

The spiritual mind B can be considered either in three degrees as here drawn, in two degrees as the two kingdoms, or in one; it should be borne in mind however that the spiritual mind whether drawn in one, two or three degrees is still equivalent to the two prior degrees mentioned in Divine Love and Wisdom 233. The natural mind C called also the natural or external man and sometimes the exterior man may also be considered in one, two, or three degrees.

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