1112. About the pleasure of the heavenly angels
Just as the heavenly are set apart from the spiritual in other respects, so they are also in their feeling of joy. Heavenly joy is a pleasantness that cannot be described, still less understood except by those who are given by the Lord to experience it. It fills the whole body with its pleasantness, which I have been given to feel for some time. It is a clear sensation of the whole body, as if coming from the heart and spreading itself gently throughout all the tissues, not unlike that supreme pleasantness of married partners in their joy, but spreading from the smallest simple tissues to the more complex.
But one must carefully distinguish between pleasure coming from the innermost regions, and pleasure existing merely on the outside. On this subject, see earlier [379, 903-904]. 1748, 1 March.
1112. CONCERNING THE DELIGHT OF THE CELESTIAL
As the celestial are distinct from the spiritual in other things, so also are they distinct in their sense of joy. The joy of the celestial is a kind of delight which cannot be described, still less can it be understood, except by those to whom it has been given by the Lord to know it through experience; for it fills the whole body with its delight, as has been granted me to feel for a considerable time. It is a manifest sensation of the whole body come from the heart, as it were, and gently diffusing itself through all the fibers, not unlike the greatest delight of married consorts in their joy; it is a diffusion from the least single fibers to the more composite. But it must be carefully distinguished whether this delight comes from inmost things, or whether it only subsists in the externals, concerning which see above [nos. 379, 903-904. 1748, Mar. 1.
1112. De coelestium jucunditate
Sicut coelestes distincti sunt a spiritualibus in caeteris, ita quoque in sensu gaudii, coelestium gaudium est quaedam jucunditas, quae describi nequit, minus intelligi nisi ab iis, quibus id nosse datur a Domino per experientiam, nam totum corpus jucunditate tali adimplet, quam sentire mihi datum est per multum tempus, est sensus manifestus totius corporis, sicut a corde veniens, seque diffundens molliter per omnes fibras, non dissimilis jucunditati summae conjugum in suo gaudio, sed diffuso a singulis minimis ad compositiora 1
; sed probe distinguendum, num ab intimis veniat, vel an subsistat modo in externis, de quibus vide prius [379, 903-904]. 1748, 1 Martius.
Footnotes:
1. exitus oblitus in the Manuscript