Observations placeholder
Pordage, John - The Deity is not solitary or unattended
Identifier
000621
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
John Pordage himself drew a diagram of what he ‘saw’. The black spot in the centre of the circle represented the eye of eternity and the black points with which ‘the whole circumference was filled’ represented the ‘pure simplified spirits’ he described.
He described the spirits as ‘numberless and distinct from one another’, like stars in the firmament.
A description of the experience
The Wisdom of John Pordage [editor Arthur Versluis]
You must not think that the Deity is solitary or unattended … for there are innumerable pure simplified spirits that stand ready in humble resigned obedience to execute the will and perform the pleasure of the Father of spirits.
Pure and simple spirits exist without eternal nature in the still eternity; mixed spirits are those created out of eternal nature and exist the same as angelic spirits do. They are said to be mixed because they do not immediately proceed from the supreme unity, as simple spirits do, but are created out of nature’s forms. Those who suppose the angels are spirits of the first degree of perfection are mistaken; they are indeed the most perfect created out of the principle of eternal nature, but they do not reach the perfection of those simple spirits who proceed from the Unity in the still eternity. They are most simple essences and powers, free from all admixture and duality, without any angelic or other figure and are eternal unities, proceeding from the supreme Unity itself.....................
..............The simplified spirits are generated by God out of himself, in the likeness of himself, and for himself. How were they generated by God? This I confess is a great mystery, but we can say that these simplified spirits did from all eternity exist ideally in the eye of eternity, and these ideas were actually manifested before all worlds, for they are ideas conceived in the divine mind, which then desired that they come into being.