But he then asked, "Whence comes the fire of the sun of the
world, or of nature?" We replied, that it is derived from the sun of the
angelic heaven, which is not fire, but divine love proximately
proceeding from God, who is love itself. As he was surprised at this, we
thus proved it: "Love in its essence is spiritual fire; hence fire in
the Word, in its spiritual sense, signifies love: it is on this account
that priests, when officiating in the temple, pray that heavenly fire
may fill their hearts, by which they mean heavenly love: the fire of the
altar and of the candlestick in the tabernacle amongst the Israelites,
represented divine love: the heat of the blood, or the vital heat of men
and animals in general is from no other source than love, which
constitutes their life: hence it is that a man is enkindled, grows warm,
and becomes on fire, while his love is exalted into zeal, anger, and
wrath; wherefore from the circumstance, that spiritual heat, which is
love, produces natural heat with men, even to the kindling and inflaming
of their faces and limbs, it may appear, that the fire of the natural
sun has existed from no other source than the fire of the spiritual sun,
which is divine love.
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