1196. Verse 1. After these things I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude in heaven signifies the joy and gladness of the angels of the higher heavens because of the condemnation and casting out of those signified by "Babylon" and by "the beasts of the dragon," and because of the light of Divine truth that will consequently arise for the sake of the New Church that is to be established by the Lord. This is evidently the signification of "the voice of a great multitude in heaven," for these are the subjects treated of in this and the following chapters; the condemnation and casting out of those meant by "Babylon" are treated of in verses 2-3; the condemnation and casting out of "the beasts of the dragon" in verses 19-21; joy because of the New Church to be established by the Lord in verses 7-9, 17-18; and the light springing therefrom in verses 11-16.
(Continuation)
[2] Something shall now be said about the life of animals, and afterwards about the soul of vegetables. The whole world, with each and every thing in it, came into existence and continues to exist from the Lord the Creator of the universe. There are two suns, the sun of the spiritual world and the sun of the natural world. The sun of the spiritual world is the Lord's Divine love, the sun of the natural world is pure fire. From the sun that is the Divine love every work of creation has begun, and by means of the sun that is fire it has been carried to completion. [3] Everything that proceeds from the sun that is the Divine love is called spiritual, and everything that proceeds from the sun that is fire is called natural. The spiritual from its origin has life in itself, but the natural from its origin has nothing of life in itself. And because from these two fountains of the universe all things that are in both worlds have come into existence and continue to exist, it follows that there is in every created thing in this world a spiritual and a natural, a spiritual as its soul and a natural as its body, or a spiritual as its internal and a natural as its external; or a spiritual as the cause and a natural as the effect. That these two in any particular thing cannot be separated every wise person knows, for if you separate cause from effect or the internal from the external, the effect or the external goes to pieces, as when the soul is separated from the body. [4] That there is such a conjunction in the particular and even in the most particular things of nature has not yet been known. It has not been known because of the existing ignorance respecting the spiritual world, the sun there, and heat and light there, and because of the insanity of sensual men in ascribing all things to nature, and rarely anything to God except creation in general; and yet not the least thing is possible or can be possible in nature in which there is not a spiritual. That this spiritual is in each and every thing of the three kingdoms of nature, and how it is therein, will be explained in what follows.
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