110. The Sun of the spiritual world appears at a distance from the angels because they receive the Divine Love and Wisdom in the degree of heat and light adequate to them. For an angel, because created and finite, cannot receive the Lord in the first degree of heat and light such as is in the Sun, for he would then be entirely annihilated. Therefore the Lord is received by them in the degree of heat and light corresponding to their love and wisdom. The following can serve as illustration. An angel of the lowest heaven cannot ascend to the angels of the third heaven; if he doe so and enters their heaven, he falls as it were into a fainting condition, and his life struggles as it were with death; the reason is that the love and wisdom with him is in a lesser degree, and the heat of his love and the light of his wisdom are in the same degree as his love and wisdom. What, then, would happen if an angel were to ascend even to the sun and come into its fire? Because of the differences of reception of the Lord by the angels, the heavens also appear distinct from one another. The highest heaven, which is called the third, appears above the second, and the second above the first-not that the heavens are separated but they appear to be so. For the Lord is equally present with those who are in the lowest heaven as with those who are in the third heaven. That which causes the appearance of distance is in the subjects, that is, the angels, but not in the Lord.