1210. Saying, Praise God, all ye His servants, signifies worship of the Lord by those who are in truths. This is evident from the signification of "praising God," as being to confess and worship Him (of which presently); also from the signification of "servants of God," as being those who are in truths from the Lord (see n. 6, 409). In many passages in the Word the expression "praising God" signifies to confess Him with the heart and with the lips, thus also to worship; "to praise God" has a similar signification as "Hallelujah," because "Hallelujah" means "praise ye God," and that means, as has been said before, the voice of joy and gladness in confessions of God and in the worship of God. "To praise God" signifies confession and worship, because the Lord has no wish to be praised and glorified from any love of Himself, but only from His love for man, for man must needs praise and glorify the Lord, that is, give praise and glory to Him, when he acknowledges in heart that there is nothing of good in himself, and that he can do nothing of himself, and on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord, and that the Lord can do all things. When man is in this acknowledgment he puts aside what is his own [proprium], which belongs to the love of self, and opens all things of his mind, and thus gives room for the Divine to flow in with good and with power. This is why it is necessary for man to be in humiliation before the Lord, and why humiliation can be from no other source than self-acknowledgment and acknowledgment of the Lord, according to which reception is effected. That "to give praise to God" and "to praise God" mean to confess Him and from confession of heart to worship Him is evident from many passages in the Word (as Matt. 21:16; Luke 2:13-14, 20; 5:25-26; 7:16; 13:13; 18:43; 19:28-40; 24:52-53; also Psalm 148:1-5, 7, 13; and elsewhere.)
(Continuation)
[2] (5) From the spiritual, by means of these forces, both plants and animals, both those that appear in heaven and those in the world, have their existence. Such things exist also in heaven, because these forces are in the spiritual in things greatest and in things least, in its firsts and its ultimates, thus in the spiritual both in heaven and in the world. Its firsts are in the heavens, its ultimates are in the world. For there are degrees of spiritual things, and each degree is distinct from the other, and the prior or higher degree is more perfect than the posterior or lower. This is evident from the light and the heat in the heavens, and from the wisdom of the angels from these. The light in the highest or third heaven is from a flame so brilliant as to exceed a thousand times the midday light of the world; in the middle or second heaven the light is less bright, and yet exceeds a hundred times the noonday light of the world; in the lowest or first heaven the light is like the noonday light of our world. Also there are degrees of heat, which in heaven is love, and according to those degrees the angels have wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. Everything spiritual belongs to the light and heat that are from the Lord as a sun, and wisdom and intelligence are from these. [3] There are also as many degrees of things spiritual below the heavens, that is, in nature, which are lower degrees of things spiritual, as can be seen from man's natural mind, and from its rationality and sensuality; rational men are in its first degree, sensual men are in its last, and others are in the middle; and all thought and affection of the natural mind is spiritual. These three forces, namely, the active force, the creative force, and the formative force, are in the spiritual in every degree of it, but with a difference of perfection. But since there is nothing without its ultimate, in which it terminates and subsists, so the spiritual has its ultimate, which in the earth is in its lands and waters; and from this ultimate the spiritual produces plants of all kinds, from the tree to the blade of grass, and in these the spiritual abides, manifesting itself only in a certain likeness to animals that has been spoken of above.
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