Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/286

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

proximate to the Creator, in which He dwells by immediate influx, and by which man is conjoined to Him. Being so conjoined to the Creator, man can never die. The animal soul, not having that Inmost and thereby conjunction with the Creator, upon the death of the material body is dissolved, and its spiritual particles return to the unorganized form of spiritual substance as the material particles of the natural body return to unorganized nature. Man, having the suitable internal, receives Divine love and wisdom from the Creator, and thereby may become the image and likeness of God. He is thus enabled to reason from cause to effect, to learn truths from teachers, books, and revelation, and from interior perception of Divine order, through instruction and experience, comprehend Divine uses, shun evils, and worship God from a love for God and from a desire to attain unto fulness and perfection.

The animal is entirely wanting in these abilities because the Inmost, in which the Creator dwells and to which He imparts His human nature, and the Spiritual Mind are wholly wanting. But because they have that which is below these, they receive an influx from the coincident planes of the spiritual world, whereby they know their food, provide for their young, seek shelter, flee