The Lord’s Own with Man

By the Reverend Theodore Pitcairn

It has been repeatedly stated that DE HEMELSCHE LEER teaches that man is Divine. This statement by itself is totally misleading, for there is but one sense in which it can be said that man is Divine, a sense clearly taught in the Latin Word, but a sense in which the word Man is used in a special meaning which is entirely different from the usual meaning. It is only when Man is used with the meaning defined in the following number that he may be said to be Divine: “In the Most Ancient Church, with the members of which the Lord conversed face to face, the Lord appeared as a Man; concerning which much may be related, but the time has not yet arrived. On this account they called no one Man but the Lord Himself, and the things which were of Him; neither did they call themselves men but only those things in themselves, as all the good of love and all the truth of faith, which they perceived they had from the Lord”, A. C. 49.

That the goods of love and the truths of faith which are from the Lord with man, and which are essentially Man, are Divine even in the natural mind, is taught as follows: “In the present chapter in the internal sense the subject is the natural, and how the Lord made it Divine in Himself. Esau is the good thereof and Jacob the truth. For when the Lord was in the world He made His whole Human Divine in Himself, both the interior Human which is the rational, and the exterior Human which is the natural, and also the very corporeal; and this according to the Divine Order, according to which the Lord also makes man new or regenerates him. And therefore in the representative sense the regeneration of man as to his natural is also here treated of, in which sense Esau is the good of the natural, and Jacob the truth thereof, and yet both Divine, because all the good and truth in one who is regenerate are from the Lord”, A. C. 3490.

In the above number the infinite difference between the Lord and man is evident. This difference consists not only in this, that the good and truth in the Lord was infinitely above the good and truth with man; but also in this that Good and Truth with the Lord was in and from Himself, and was therefore intrinsically in Him and was His Own or His Proprium. While man has no good or truth which is in and from himself, that is intrinsically in him, for man’s proprium, that is what is his own, is nothing but evil and falsity, wherefore all good and truth which are with man as if they were his own are from the Lord, yea from His Proprium. Wherefore we read that “Angels are withheld from their proprium, .and are kept in the Lord’s Proprium which is Good Itself”, H.H. 591. Because the Lord made His Proprium Divine -from Himself therefore He said of the Father: “All Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine”, JOHN 17 : 10; while it is said of man that “the Divine can be with man, but not in his proprium; for the proprium of man is nothing but evil; and therefore he who ascribes what is Divine to himself as his own profanes it. What is Divine is exquisitely separated by the .Lord from the proprium of man, and is elevated above it and never immersed in it”, A.R. 758. Hence we read: “For the Lord is not conjoined with the proprium of man, but with His Own with him. The Lord removes the proprium of man, and gives from His Own and dwells in it”, A.E. 291.

Another difference between the Lord and man is involved in A.C. 3490, quoted above, namely that the Lord made the very corporeal in Himself Divine, while with man the corporeal is not regenerated.
As the Most Ancient Church called only the Lord and the good and truth with them from the Lord “Man”, with the fall of that Church this truth was profaned into the idea that they themselves as men were Divine, and therefore like gods. This profanation is described as follows: “There were Nephilim in the land in those days; and’ especially after the sons of God went in unto the daughters of man, and they bare to them, the same became mighty men, who were of old, men of renown. This signifies that they became Nephilim when they had immersed the doctrinals of faith in their cupidities”, A.C. 582. Concerning these perversions we are told that they were of a more interior nature than any that have existed in the world since, and for this reason that they were a perversion of celestial troth. While the New Church will not be able to see celestial truth proper until it returns into the celestial state, and therefore will, before that time, not be able to have an interior idea concerning the perversions spoken of, we can nevertheless see certain of their truths and their perversions as in an image.

It was a remnant of this perversion that passed down through the Indian religiosities and passed into Europe by means of Theosophy. As a result of this influence it is believed by many that man is Divine and has as his soul a spark of the Divine, which idea involves that man has something intrinsically Divine within him. In the history of the New Church related falsities have arisen and have seduced certain of its members. On account of these perversions a fear is aroused when the Divine with man is spoken of, yet while seeing the danger from the possibility of the perversion of a truth, we must not let this deter us from acknowledging the truth. A genuine truth always has the effect of bringing man into a state of humility before the Lord, while its perversion into a falsity has the effect of exalting man in the pride of his own conceit. If it is acknowledged from the heart that man is nothing but evil and falsity, and therefore that the Lord cannot dwell in anything proper to man, but that He can dwell only in His Own with man, that is in His own goods and truths with man, which being the Lord’s are Divine, man is brought into a state of humility in which he realizes his dependence on the Lord, not only in general, but in everything of his life. Whether it is said that goods and truths with man are the Lord’s and not man’s own, or whether it is said that they are Divine, it is the same thing, wherefore it is just to the extent that a man acknowledges that the goods and truths with him are Divine, that he can come into genuine humility. On the other hand to the extent that a man believes that the good and truth with him are not Divine, to the same extent he denies that they are the Lord’s, and to the same extent man comes into the pride of his own intelligence.

The object of regeneration is to remove the things of man’s proprium. In so far as these are removed man is in the Lord’s Proprinm, for we read: “The internal man of the Angels . . . in so far as their proprial things do not hinder, is the Lord”, A.C. 1745; and again: “This is the celestial proprium, which in itself is of the Lord alone appropriated to those who are in good and thence in truth”, A.C. 3813. It is the nature of man’s proprium to wish to have goods and truths as its own, and as none but Nephilim dare to claim the Divine as their own, therefore with others it is of the proprium to deny that goods and truths with them are Divine, in order that they may believe that in some sense the goods and truths with them are theirs.

While the goods and truths with man from the Lord are Divine, they are not the Infinite Divine as they were with the Lord after Glorification. Concerning the Divine truth which constitutes the wisdom, intelligence, and science of Angels and men we read as follows: “Divine truth in its descent proceeds according to degrees, from the highest or inmost to the lowest or ultimate. Divine Truth in the highest degree is such as is the Divine that proceeds most nearly from the Lord, thus such as is the Divine Truth above the Heavens; and as this is infinite, it cannot come to the perception of any Angel. But Divine Truth of the first degree is that which comes to the perception of the Angels of the inmost or third Heaven, and is called celestial Divine Truth; from this is the wisdom of those Angels. Divine Truth of the second degree is that which comes to the perception of the Angels of the middle or second Heaven and constitutes their wisdom and intelligence, and is called spiritual Divine Truth. Divine Truth of the third degree is that which comes to the perception of the Angels of the lowest Heaven and constitutes their intelligence and science, and is called celestial-natural and spiritual-natural Divine Truth. But Divine Truth of the fourth degree is that which comes to the perception of the men of the Church who are living in the world, and constitutes their intelligence and science; this is called natural Divine Truth, and its lowest is called sensual Divine Truth”, A.E. 627.

That the Divine Truths which constitute the wisdom, intelligence, and science of Angels and men, refer to truths when received and not to truths before reception, is taught as follows: “The Lord is nothing but Divine Good; that “which proceeds from His Divine Good and inflows into Heaven, in the celestial kingdom is called the Divine celestial, and in the spiritual kingdom the Divine spiritual; thus the Divine spiritual and the Divine celestial are so called relatively to receptions”, A.C. 6417. See also A.E. 496, where, speaking of Divine Love celestial and Divine Love spiritual, it says: “But the Lord’s Divine love in the Heavens is called celestial and spiritual merely from the reception of it by the Angels”. Further concerning the reception of good and truth with man, as being the Lord’s with him, we read as follows: “The Lord cannot love and dwell with man unless He is received; . .. to enter to any one, and remain, with whom there is no reception is impossible. As the reception and the reciprocal in man are from the Lord, He says abide in Me and I in you”, Doc. LIFE, 102. And again: “The Father in the Heavens flows in equally with the evil and the good. but the reception of it must be on man’s part, yet not on man’s part as from man, but as if from man, for the ability to receive truth is given to man continually, and it flows in to the extent that man removes the evils that oppose, and does this also from the ability which is continually given; the ability appears to be man’s although it is the Lord’s”, A.E. 644. Hence when it states in the number quoted at the commencement of this paper that “they did not call themselves men, but only those things in themselves ? as all the good of love and all the truth of faith ? which they perceived they had from the Lord”, the reference is not to the goods and truths which flow in with the good and evil alike, but to substantial forms of good and truth which were created and are continually preserved in them from the Lord, and which are the actual “sons of God” as distinguished from what is called in the number “they themselves”, see A.C. 2022, 2023.

It is indeed profane to say that man is Divine, unless by the word Man is understood solely what is from the Lord, who is the only Man.