110. The sun in the spiritual world appears to be at a distance from the angels for the reason that Divine love and wisdom are received by them in a matching degree of heat and light. For being created and finite, an angel cannot receive the Lord in the first degree of heat and light such as exists in the sun, because he would in that case be entirely consumed by it. Angels therefore receive the Lord in a degree of heat and light corresponding to their love and wisdom. This can be illustrated by the following circumstance. An angel of the lowest heaven cannot ascend to angels of the third heaven, for if he ascends and enters their heaven, he falls as though into a swoon and his life appears to struggle with death. The reason is that he possesses love and wisdom in a lesser degree, and in that same degree are the warmth of his love and the light of his wisdom. What then would be the case if an angel were to ascend on toward the sun and enter into its fire? Because of the differences in angels' reception of the Lord, the heavens also appear to be set apart from each other. The highest heaven, called the third heaven,* appears above the second heaven, and the second heaven above the first. Not that the heavens are separated by distance, but they appear to be. For the Lord is just as present in angels who are in the lowest heaven as He is in angels who are in the third. What causes the appearance of distance lies in the recipient vessels, in this case the angels, not in the Lord. * Cf. 2 Corinthians 12:2.