Hence Every Angel is in a Perfect Human Form (73~77)

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73.   In the two preceding chapters it has been shown that heaven as a whole and in like manner every society in heaven, is in the human form; and from the chain of reasoning there brought forward, it follows that the same is true of every angel.  As heaven is in the human form on the grandest scale and every society of heaven on a smaller scale, so lastly is every angel in the human form; for in a most perfect form, such as that of heaven, the whole is similar to every part and every part to the whole.  The reason of this is that heaven is a communion sharing all it has with each of its inhabitants, and every inhabitant receiving all he has from this communion.  An angel is a heaven in miniature because he is a recipient of all heavenly things, as was shown above in its proper section.  Thus, also, man, so far as he receives heaven, is such a recipient, a heaven and an angel (see above, n. 57).  This is described in the Apocalypse in these words: “He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is, of an angel” (21. 17).  Jerusalem here spoken of is the Lord’s Church, and in a more exalted sense, heaven; its wall is truth which protects from the assault of falsities and evils; the number a hundred and forty-four denotes all good and truth in their entirety; the measure is its quality; man is the recipient of all good and truth in general and in particular and therefore of heaven; and since an angel is also a man by virtue of these gifts, therefore it is said “the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.”  This is the spiritual sense of these words.  Without a knowledge of that sense, who could understand what is meant by the wall of the holy Jerusalem being “the measure of a man, that is, of an angel”?

74.   But to proceed to my own experience.  I have seen a thousand times that angels are human forms or men.  I have spoken with them as one man with another, sometimes with one alone and sometimes with many together, nor did I ever see anything in their form differing from that of a man.  I have sometimes wondered that this was the case, and lest it should be said that I was deceived by some illusion or visionary fancy, I have been permitted to see them when I was fully awake, in the exercise of every bodily sense and when my mind was clear and alert.  I have also frequently told them that men in the Christian world are in such gross ignorance respecting angels and spirits that they believe them to be minds without form, or mere thoughts, of which they have no other idea than as of something ethereal possessing a vital principle; and because they thus ascribe to spirits nothing human except a faculty of thinking, they believe that they cannot see, because they have no eyes; nor hear, because they have no ears; nor speak, because they neither mouth nor tongue.  To this the angels replied, that they knew such a belief exists with many in the world, and that it prevails among the learned, and also, to their astonishment, among the clergy.  They assigned as a reason for this, that the learned, who were the leaders, and who first broached such an idea of angels and spirits, thought of them from the sensuous ideas of the external man; and those who think thus, not being enlightened by the general idea implanted in every one, must of necessity invent such fictions, because the sensuous ideas of the external man comprehend only what is in nature, nothing that transcends nature and thus nothing whatever of the spiritual world.  From these leading authorities this erroneous mode of thinking about angels has extended to others, who have not thought for themselves, but have taken their opinions from their leaders; and those who take their opinions from others, adopt them as articles of faith and afterwards review them in their own minds, can with difficulty give them up and so for the most part rest satisfied with them and confirm them.

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   They said further, that the simple in faith and heart do not entertain such ideas concerning angels, but think of them as heavenly men; for they have not extinguished, by erudition, the light infused into them from heaven, neither can they conceive of anything without a form.  For this reason angels in churches, whether sculptured or painted, are always represented as men.  As to what is infused from heaven, they said that it is the Divine Sphere flowing into those who are in the good of faith and of life.

-    $/ erudition: (문학, 어학, 역사 등의) 박식, 박학.

-    $/ infuse: 붓다, 주입하다(into);

75.   From all my experience, which has now extended over many years, I can declare and solemnly affirm that angels as to their form are in every respect men; that they have a face, eyes, ears, a body, arms, hands and feet; that they see, hear and converse with one another, and, in a word, that they are deficient in nothing that belongs to a man except that they are not clothed with a material body.  I have seen them in their own light which exceeds by many degrees the noonday light of the world; and in that light all their features could be seen more distinctly and clearly that the faces of men on earth.  It has also been granted me to see an angel of the inmost heaven.  His countenance was brighter and more resplendent than the faces of the angels of the lower heavens.  I observed him attentively and he had a human form in all perfection.

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76.   It must be observed, however, that angels cannot be seen by man with the eyes of the body but only with the eyes of the spirit within him; for his spirit is in the spiritual world and all things of the body are in the natural world.  Like sees like, because from a like standpoint.  Besides, every one knows that the eye, the organ of bodily vision, is so gross that it cannot see even the smaller objects of nature except by the aid of the microscope; much less, then, can it discern objects which are above the sphere of nature, as are all things in the spiritual world.  Yet they may be seen by man, when he is withdrawn from the sight of the body and the eyes of his spirit are opened, as can be effected instantly when it pleases the Lord that man should see spiritual things.  In that case he is not at all aware that he does not see them with the eye of the body.  In this way angels were seen by Abraham, Lot, Manoah and the Prophets.  In this way also the Lord was seen by the disciples after the resurrection.  In the same way also angels have been seen by me.  Because the prophets saw in this way they were called seers, and men whose eyes were open (I Sam, 9. 9; Numb. 24. 3); and causing them to see in this manner was called “opening their eye.”  This was the case with the servant of Elisha of whom we read, “Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see: and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6. 17).

77.   Good spirits, with whom I have conversed on this subject were grieved to hear that such ignorance existed in the church about the nature of heaven and of spirits and angels; and they indignantly charged me to declare that they are not minds without form nor breaths of air, but that they are men in form and that they see, hear and feel equally with men in the world.

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