314. (18) For everywhere one finds a sequential order and a concurrent order, and the concurrent order evolves from the sequential order and in accordance with it. We cite this in explanation and corroboration of the preceding discussion. People know the difference between a sequential arrangement and a concurrent one, but they do not know that any instance of concurrent order evolves from a sequential one and in accordance with it. It is at the same time very difficult to present to human perception how sequential elements project themselves into concurrent ones, and the kind of order they form there, since the learned do not have among them as yet any theory serving to explain the concept. So, because an initial idea of this secret cannot be conveyed in a few words, and to interject one at length here would distract people's minds from a more uncluttered view of conjugial love, the following may suffice to illustrate the matter. These brief observations concerning the two kinds of order, sequential and concurrent, and the influx of the first into the second, were presented in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, which we repeat from there:*
[2] Everywhere in heaven and in the world we find a sequential order and a concurrent order. In sequential order one thing...follows after another from the highest elements to the lowest. In concurrent order, however, one thing exists alongside another from the inmost elements to the outmost. Sequential order is like a column with descending levels from top to bottom, while concurrent order is like a continuous piece of work...from center to surface.... ...sequential order becomes concurrent in its concluding element...in the following way. The highest elements in the sequential order become the inmost elements of the concurrent order; and the lowest elements in the sequential order become the outmost elements of the concurrent order. It may be likened to a column with descending levels sinking down to become a continuous mass on the same plane. That is how a concurrent arrangement is formed from sequential elements; and this in each and every thing of the spiritual world, and in each and every thing of the natural world.
See in that work nos. 38, 65; and still more on the same subject in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 205-229. [3] It is similar with the sequential progression leading to marriage, and the concurrent set of elements in marriage; namely, that the latter results from the former and in accordance with it. (One who is acquainted with the way sequential order flows into a concurrent one can understand why it is that angels are able to see all the thoughts and intentions of a person's mind in his hand.** And also that wives sense their husband's affections from the touch of the husbands' hands upon their breasts - a phenomenon that has been mentioned several times in the narrative accounts.*** The reason is that the hands are a person's terminal parts, into which the deliberations and resolutions of his mind are directed and where they form a concomitant presence. That too is why we find it said in the Word that this or that was written on the hands.****) * I.e., from no. 38. ** Cf. no. 261:3 at the end. *** See no. 155[r]:4. Other mentions of wives' sensing from the touch of the hands refer to a wife's doing so by touching her husband with her hand. **** See Exodus 13:9,16; Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18; Isaiah 49:16; Revelation 13:16, 14:9, 20:4; also Job 31:7. Cf. Psalms 7:3, 24:4; also Job 11:14.
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