27...they should seek the Lord... though he be not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being... -Acts 17:27 Bible, King James Version
God is like the Sun which has a fiery centre from which radiates the Light in which we live, move and have our being. If God were to remove His Universal Light of Love we would cease to exist just as we would cease to exist if the Sun was to be removed from our Solar System. The inner Light of Heaven is within all outer life therefore the Lord is not far from every one of us.
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com
1217. ...[3] How the Lord can be present with all who are in heaven and throughout the whole earth, and can know all things, even the most particular things connected with them, both present and future, can be comprehended only by means of the following truths: (1) In the natural world there are spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances. (2) Spaces and times must be removed from the ideas before the Lord's omnipresence with all and with each individual, and His omniscience of things present and things future connected with them, can be comprehended. (3) All angels of heaven and all men of the earth who constitute the church are as one man, and the Lord is the life of that man. (4) Consequently as there is life in the particular and most particular things of man and it knows the entire state of these, so the Lord is in the particular and most particular things of the angels of heaven and of the men of the church. (5) The Lord, by the intellectual faculty that each man has, or by its opposite, is also present with those who are out of heaven and out of the church, that is, those who are in hell or who are to come into hell, and knows their whole state. (6) From the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord thus perceived it can be understood how the Lord is the all and is in all things of heaven and the church, and that we are in the Lord and He is in us. (7) The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe; for it was so created by Him that He is in things first and in things last, in the center and at the same time in the circumferences, and that the things in which He is are uses. (8) As the Lord has the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, so from these He has the Divine omnipresence and the Divine omniscience; but omnipresence is chiefly from the Divine love, and omniscience chiefly from the Divine wisdom.
1218. ...(Continuation) [2] (1)In the natural world there are spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances. The reason is that all things that appear in the spiritual world are immediately from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord's Divine love; but all things that appear in the natural world are from... the sun of the world, which is pure fire. Pure love, from which all things in the spiritual world exist immediately, is immaterial; but pure fire, through which all things in the material world exist mediately, is material. This is why all things that come forth in the spiritual world are by virtue of their origin spiritual, and all things that exist in the natural world are by virtue of their secondary origin material; and material things in themselves are fixed, permanent, and measurable. They are fixed because they endure, however the states of men may be changed, like the lands, mountains, and seas... In the spiritual world all things are as if they were fixed, as if they were permanent, and as if they were measurable, and yet in themselves they are not so. For they exist and continue according to the states of the angels, so that they make one with those states, and consequently they change in whatever way those states change. But this takes place especially in the world of spirits, into which every man first comes after death, and is not so in heaven or in hell. This occurs in the world of spirits, because every man there undergoes changes of state, and is thus prepared for heaven or for hell. [3] ...Spirits... see in the spiritual world things exactly like those they saw in the world, as lands, mountains, valleys, waters, gardens, forests, plants, palaces, houses, garments with which they are clothed, food by which they are nourished, animals, and themselves as men. All these things they see in a clearer light than that by which they saw like things in the world, and they feel them by a more exquisite touch than they had in the world. For these reasons man after death is wholly ignorant that he has put off his material part, and that he has emigrated from the world of his body into the world of his spirit. I have heard many declaring that they have not died... for the reason that all things in that world are like those in this world; and they do not know that the things they there see and feel are not material, but are substantial from a spiritual origin, and yet are real things, since they have the same origin that all things in this world have, with this difference only, that something additional like an outer garment has been added from the sun of the world to those things that are in the natural world by virtue of which they have become material, fixed, permanent, and measurable. But yet I can assert that those things that are in the spiritual world are more real than those in the natural world, for the dead part that is added in nature to the spiritual does not constitute reality but diminishes it. This is evident from the state of the angels of heaven compared with the state of men on the earth, and from all things that are in heaven compared with all things in the world.
1219. ...(Continuation) [2] As there are like things in heaven and in our world, in the heavens there are spaces and times, but the spaces there, like the lands themselves and the things upon them, are appearances; for they appear according to the states of the angels, and the extensions of spaces and distances appear according to the similarities and dissimilarities of states. By states are meant states of love and wisdom, or of affections and of thoughts therefrom, which are manifold and various. According to these the angelic societies in the heavens are distant from each other, also the heavens are distant from the hells, and the societies of the hells from each other. It has been granted me to see how likeness of state conjoins, and lessens the extension of space or distance, and how unlikeness of state separates, and produces extension of space or distance. Those there who appear to be a mile apart can instantly be present with each other when the love of one for the other is stirred up, and on the other hand those who are talking together can instantly become a mile apart when anything of hatred is aroused. [3] That spaces in the spiritual world are mere appearances has also been made evident to me by this, that many from distant lands, as from various kingdoms of Europe, from Africa, and from India, also the inhabitants of different planets and of widely separated earths, have been present with me. And yet spaces in the heavens appear extended in the same way as the spaces of our earth. But as the spaces there have only a spiritual origin, and not at the same time a natural origin, and thus appear according to the states of the angels, so the angels can have no idea of spaces, but they have instead an idea of their states; for the changeableness of the spaces gives rise to the idea that they are from a spiritual origin, thus from a likeness or unlikeness of affections and of thoughts therefrom. [4] It is the same in regard to times, for as spaces are, so are times, since progressions through spaces are also progressions through times. Times also are appearances of states because the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, does not there make days and years by its revolutions and progressions, as the sun of the world seems to do; consequently in the heavens there is perpetual light and a perpetual spring, and therefore times there are not fixed, permanent, and measurable. And as times also vary according to the states of the affections and of the thoughts therefrom, for they are short or diminished by things delightful to the affections, and are long or lengthened by things undelightful to the affections, so the angels cannot have from appearance an idea of time, but they have instead an idea of states from its origin. All this makes clear that the angels in heaven have no idea of space and time, but they have a spiritual idea about these, which is an idea of state...
1220. ...(Continuation) [2] (2) Spaces and times must be removed from the ideas before the Lord's omnipresence with all and with each individual, and His omniscience of things present and future, can be comprehended. But inasmuch as spaces and times cannot easily be removed from the ideas of the thoughts of the natural man, it is better for a simple man not to think of the Divine omnipresence and omniscience from any reasoning of the understanding; it is enough for him to believe in them simply from his religion, and if he thinks from reason, let him say to himself that they exist because they pertain to God and God is everywhere and infinite, also because they are taught in the Word... The understanding with which man is endowed is capable of being raised up into the interior light of heaven if only man desires from love to know truths... The mind that... is unwilling to believe anything that it does not understand, cannot do otherwise than make blind its understanding, and from the dense darkness in which it is immersed, deny that there is any Divine providence, and thus deny the Divine omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, although these are just what religion teaches both within nature and above nature. And yet these cannot be comprehended by the understanding unless spaces and times are separated from the ideas of its thought... Divine spiritual things are the very essence of all things that have existed or that exist, and natural things apart from these are like bodies without souls, which become carcasses. [3] Every man who has become naturalistic by thoughts from nature continues such after death, and calls all things that he sees in the spiritual world natural, because they are similar. Such, however, are enlightened and taught by angels that these things are not natural, but are appearances of natural things; and they are so far convinced as to affirm that it is so. But they soon fall back and worship nature as they did in the world, and at length separate themselves from the angels and fall into hell... The reason is that their soul is not spiritual, but natural like the soul of beasts, although with the ability of thinking and speaking because they were born men. And because the hells at this day more than ever before are full of such, it is important that such dense darkness arising from nature, which at present fills and closes up the thresholds of the understanding of men, should be removed by means of rational light derived from spiritual.
1222. ...(Continuation) [2] All the angels of heaven and all the men on the earth who constitute the church are as one man, and the Lord is the life of that man. This you will see confirmed in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the following articles: The whole Heaven in the complex has relation to one Man (n. 59-67); Each Society in the heavens has relation to one Man (n. 68-72); Consequently each Angel is in a perfect Human Form (n. 73-77); Heaven as a whole and in part has relation to Man, and this is from the Lord's Divine Human (n. 78-86); There is a correspondence of all things of Heaven with all things of Man (n. 87-102; The same may be said of the Lord's church on the earth (n. 57). That heaven is like one man I have been taught by experience and am taught by reason. Experience: It has been granted me to behold a society consisting of thousands of angels as one man of a medium stature, and societies consisting of fewer angels in like form. This is seen, however, not by the angels in that society, but by angels outside of that society at a distance, and at the time when a society is to be purified of those who are foreign to it. When this is done all who constitute the life of that society are within that man, while those who do not are outside of him; and these are removed, but the former remain. It is the same with the whole heaven in the presence of the Lord. For this reason and no other every angel and spirit is a man, in a form like that which a man on earth has. [3] I have not seen but I have heard that the church on earth also before the Lord is like one man; and that it is also divided into societies, and that each society is a man; furthermore, that all who are within that man are within heaven, while those who are outside of him are in hell; and the reason has been stated, namely, that every man of the church is also an angel of heaven, for he becomes an angel after death. Moreover, not only does the church on earth together with the angels constitute the interiors of that man, the church constitutes also the exteriors...; this the church constitutes, because the men of the earth are provided with a body in which the lowest spiritual is clothed with the natural. This is what constitutes the conjunction of heaven with the church and of the church with heaven. [4] From reason: ...The angels are only recipients of the Divine from the Lord, and it is the Divine in them that constitutes what is angelic in them and thus heaven...
1224. ...(Continuation) [2] (5) The Lord by the intellectual faculty that each man has, or its opposite, is also present with those who are out of heaven and the church, with those who are in hell or who are to come into hell, and knows their whole state. Every man has three degrees of life, a lowest in common with beasts, and two higher that are not in common with beasts. By these two higher degrees man is a man; these are closed with the evil, but with the good are open. And yet, in regard to the light of heaven, which is the wisdom that proceeds from the Lord as a sun, these two degrees are not closed with the evil, but are closed in regard to the heat, which is the love, that at the same time proceeds therefrom. From this it is that every man, even an evil man, has a capacity to understand, but not a capacity to will from heavenly love, for the will is a receptacle of heat, that is, of love, and the understanding is a receptacle of light, that is, of wisdom, from that sun. [3] The reason why every man is not intelligent and wise is that some have by their lives closed up in themselves the receptacle of that love, and when that is closed they have no wish to understand anything except what they love, for that only do they wish and love to think about and thus understand. And as every man, even an evil man, has an ability to understand, and that ability is from an influx of light from the sun which is the Lord, it is clear that the Lord is also present with those who are out of heaven and the church, who are either in hell or are to come into hell. It is from the same ability that man is able to think and reason about various things, which beasts cannot do. It is from the same ability that man lives forever. [4] Another proof of the Lord's omnipresence in hell is that the entire hell, like the entire heaven, is before the Lord as one man, but as a man-devil or a man-monster; and in this all things are in opposition to those that are in the Divine man-angel, consequently from this latter everything that is in the former can be known, that is, from heaven everything that is in hell; for evil is known from good and falsity from truth, thus the entire quality of the one from the quality of the other. There are three heavens, and there are three hells; and as the heavens are divided into societies so are the hells; and each society of hell corresponds by opposition to a society of heaven. The correspondence is like that between good affections and evil affections, for all societies are affections. So in the same way that each society of heaven, as has been said, is in the Lord's sight as one man-angel in the likeness of its affection, each society of hell is in the Lord's sight as one man-devil in the likeness of its evil affection. This, too, it has been granted me to see. They appear like men, but monstrous. I have seen three kinds of them, the fiery, the black, and the pallid, but all of them with deformed faces, a husky voice, external speech, and like gestures. They all have a lascivious [or offensive sexual] love, and not one of them a chaste love. The delights of their will are evils, and the delights of their thoughts are falsities.
1225. ...(Continuation) [2] (6) From the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord thus perceived it can be understood how the Lord is the All and is in all things of heaven and the church, and that we are in the Lord, and He is in us. All things of heaven and the church mean the Divine truth and the Divine good; the former is from the light of the sun of heaven, which is wisdom, and the latter is from the heat of the sun of heaven, which is love; and in the same way that the angels are recipients of these are they a heaven in general and heavens individually, and in the same way that men are recipients of them are they a church in general and churches individually. There can be nothing with any angel that makes heaven in him, nor anything with any man that makes the church in him, except the Divine that proceeds from the Lord; for it is well known that every truth of faith and every good of love is from the Lord, and nothing of these from man. All this makes clear that the Lord is the All and is in all things of heaven and the church. [3] That we are in the Lord and He is in us, He Himself teaches in John: ... In that day ye shall know that ye are in Me and I in you (John 14:20-21). And elsewhere: That in Him we live and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). All the angels of heaven and all the men of the church are in the Lord and the Lord is in them when they are in that heavenly man spoken of above. Angels and men are then in the Lord because they are recipients of life from Him, and thus are in His Divine, and the Lord is in them because He is the life in the recipients. All this makes clear that all who are in a natural idea of the Lord cannot understand His Divine omnipresence in any other way than as intuitive, although it is an actual omnipresence, like the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, which is the Divine proceeding.
1226. ...(Continuation) [2] (7) The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe... The creation of the universe can be in no way so well understood as from types of it in the heavens. There creation is unceasing and instantaneous, for in the spiritual world lands exist in a moment, and upon them paradisal gardens, and in these trees full of fruits, also shrubs, flowers, and plants of every kind. When these are contemplated by one who is wise, they are found to be correspondences of the uses in which the angels are, to whom they are given as a reward. The angels, moreover, in accordance with their uses have houses given them, full of utensils and beautiful things according to uses; also garments according to their uses, and food that is... palatable according to their uses, and delightful conversations, which also are uses... All these things are given them gratuitously, and yet on account of the uses they perform. In a word, the whole heaven is so full of uses that it may be called the very kingdom of uses. [3] Those, on the other hand, who perform no uses, are sent into the hells, where they are compelled by a judge to perform tasks; and if they refuse no food is given them and no clothing, nor any bed but the ground, and they are scoffed at by their companions as slaves are by their masters. The judge even permits them to be their bond servants, and if they entice others from their tasks they are severely punished. All this is done until they yield. But those who cannot be made to yield are cast out into deserts, where a morsel of bread is given them daily, and water to drink, and they dwell by themselves in huts or in caves; and because they perform no uses the land about them is so barren that a grassy sod is rarely seen upon it. In such deserts and hells I have seen many of noble descent, who in the world gave themselves up to idleness, or sought offices, the duties of which they discharged not for the sake of use but for honor and gain, which were the only uses regarded. [4] The uses performed in the heavens and the tasks done in the hells are in part like those done in the world, although for the most part they are spiritual uses, that cannot be described by any natural language, and (what I have often wondered at) do not fall into the ideas of natural thought. But this is generally the case with what is spiritual. In the unceasing and instantaneous creation of all things in the heavens there can be seen as in a type the creation of the universe with its globes, and that there is nothing created in these except for use... [5] From the life of man. When this is regarded from the creation of all things in it no part will be found that is not for use... [6] That every man likewise was created and born for use is clearly evident from the use of all things in him, and from his state after death, when, if he performs no use, he is accounted so worthless that he is cast into infernal prisons or into desert places. That man is born to be a use is clear also from his life; for a man whose life is from a love of uses is wholly different from one whose life is from a love of idleness. By a life of idleness is meant a life made up of social interaction feasting, and entertainments. A life from the love of uses is a life of love of the public good and of love to the neighbor, and also a life of love to the Lord, for the Lord performs uses to man through man, consequently a life of the love of uses is the spiritual Divine life, and everyone who loves a good use and does it from a love for it is loved by the Lord, and is received with joy by the angels in heaven. But a life of the love of idleness is a life of the love of self and the world, and thus a merely natural life; and such a life does not hold the thoughts together, but diffuses them into every vain thing, and thereby turns man away from the delights of wisdom and immerses him in the delights of the body and of the world alone to which evils cling; therefore after death he is let down into the infernal society to which he has attached himself in the world, and is there compelled to work by force of hunger and lack of food. By uses in the heavens and on the earths are meant the ministries, functions, and pursuits of life, employments, various domestic tasks, occupations, consequently all things that are opposite to idleness and indolence [laziness.] [7] From the essence of uses. The essence of uses is the public good. With the angels the public good in the most general sense means the good of the entire heaven, in a less general sense the good of the society, and in a particular sense the good of the fellow citizen. But with men the essence of uses in the most general sense is both the spiritual and the civil good of the whole human race, in a less general sense the good of the country, in a particular sense the good of a society, and in an individual sense the good of the fellow citizen; and as these goods constitute the essence of uses, love is their life, since all good is of love and the life is in the love. In this love is everyone who takes delight in the use he is in because of its usefulness, whether he is a king, a magistrate, a priest, a minister, a general, a merchant, or a workman. Everyone who takes delight in the use of his function because of its usefulness loves his country and fellow citizens; but he who does not take delight in it because of its usefulness, but does it solely for the sake of self, or solely for the sake of honor and wealth, does not in his heart love his country and fellow citizens, but only himself and the world. This is because no one can be kept by the Lord in love to the neighbor unless he is in some love for the public good; and no one can be in that love unless he is in the love of use for the sake of use, or in the love of use from use, thus from the Lord. [8] Since, then, each thing, and all things in the world were created in the beginning for use, and in man also all things were formed for use, and the Lord from creation regarded the whole human race as one man, in which each individual is likewise for use or is a use, and since the Lord Himself, as has been said above, is the life of that man, it is clear that the universe was so created that the Lord is in things first and in things last, also in the center and in the circumference, that is, in the midst of all, and that the things in which He is are uses. And from all this the Lord's omnipresence and omniscience can be comprehended.
1228. ...(Continuation) [2] (8) As the Lord has the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, so from these He has Divine omnipresence and Divine omniscience, but omnipresence is chiefly from the Divine love, and omniscience is chiefly from the Divine wisdom. Love and wisdom in the Lord are not two but one, and this one is the Divine love, which appears before the angels of heaven as a sun. But when love and wisdom proceed from the Lord as a sun they appear as two distinct things, love appearing as heat, and wisdom as light. These from their origin... the sun act wholly as one; but with the angels of heaven and with the men of the church they are separated, some receiving more of love which is heat than of wisdom which is light, and these are called celestial angels and men; while others receive more of wisdom which is light than of love which is heat, and these are called spiritual angels and men. An illustration of this can be found in the sun of the world. In that sun fire and the origin of light are wholly one, and this one is the fiery element in that sun. From this the heat and light proceed together, but they appear as two distinct things, although from their origin they act as one... [3] It is similar with omnipresence and omniscience. In the Lord these are one; and yet they proceed from Him as two distinct attributes; for omnipresence has relation to love, and omniscience to wisdom; or what is the same, omnipresence has relation to good, and omniscience to truth, since all good is of love and all truth is of wisdom. The Lord's omnipresence has relation to love and to good because the Lord is present with man in the good of his love; and omniscience has relation to wisdom and to truth because from man's good of love the Lord is omnipresent in the truths of his understanding, and this omnipresence is called omniscience. As this is true individually of one man so it is true in general of all.
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com
1217. ...[3] How the Lord can be present with all who are in heaven and throughout the whole earth, and can know all things, even the most particular things connected with them, both present and future, can be comprehended only by means of the following truths: (1) In the natural world there are spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances. (2) Spaces and times must be removed from the ideas before the Lord's omnipresence with all and with each individual, and His omniscience of things present and things future connected with them, can be comprehended. (3) All angels of heaven and all men of the earth who constitute the church are as one man, and the Lord is the life of that man. (4) Consequently as there is life in the particular and most particular things of man and it knows the entire state of these, so the Lord is in the particular and most particular things of the angels of heaven and of the men of the church. (5) The Lord, by the intellectual faculty that each man has, or by its opposite, is also present with those who are out of heaven and out of the church, that is, those who are in hell or who are to come into hell, and knows their whole state. (6) From the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord thus perceived it can be understood how the Lord is the all and is in all things of heaven and the church, and that we are in the Lord and He is in us. (7) The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe; for it was so created by Him that He is in things first and in things last, in the center and at the same time in the circumferences, and that the things in which He is are uses. (8) As the Lord has the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, so from these He has the Divine omnipresence and the Divine omniscience; but omnipresence is chiefly from the Divine love, and omniscience chiefly from the Divine wisdom.
1218. ...(Continuation) [2] (1)In the natural world there are spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances. The reason is that all things that appear in the spiritual world are immediately from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord's Divine love; but all things that appear in the natural world are from... the sun of the world, which is pure fire. Pure love, from which all things in the spiritual world exist immediately, is immaterial; but pure fire, through which all things in the material world exist mediately, is material. This is why all things that come forth in the spiritual world are by virtue of their origin spiritual, and all things that exist in the natural world are by virtue of their secondary origin material; and material things in themselves are fixed, permanent, and measurable. They are fixed because they endure, however the states of men may be changed, like the lands, mountains, and seas... In the spiritual world all things are as if they were fixed, as if they were permanent, and as if they were measurable, and yet in themselves they are not so. For they exist and continue according to the states of the angels, so that they make one with those states, and consequently they change in whatever way those states change. But this takes place especially in the world of spirits, into which every man first comes after death, and is not so in heaven or in hell. This occurs in the world of spirits, because every man there undergoes changes of state, and is thus prepared for heaven or for hell. [3] ...Spirits... see in the spiritual world things exactly like those they saw in the world, as lands, mountains, valleys, waters, gardens, forests, plants, palaces, houses, garments with which they are clothed, food by which they are nourished, animals, and themselves as men. All these things they see in a clearer light than that by which they saw like things in the world, and they feel them by a more exquisite touch than they had in the world. For these reasons man after death is wholly ignorant that he has put off his material part, and that he has emigrated from the world of his body into the world of his spirit. I have heard many declaring that they have not died... for the reason that all things in that world are like those in this world; and they do not know that the things they there see and feel are not material, but are substantial from a spiritual origin, and yet are real things, since they have the same origin that all things in this world have, with this difference only, that something additional like an outer garment has been added from the sun of the world to those things that are in the natural world by virtue of which they have become material, fixed, permanent, and measurable. But yet I can assert that those things that are in the spiritual world are more real than those in the natural world, for the dead part that is added in nature to the spiritual does not constitute reality but diminishes it. This is evident from the state of the angels of heaven compared with the state of men on the earth, and from all things that are in heaven compared with all things in the world.
1219. ...(Continuation) [2] As there are like things in heaven and in our world, in the heavens there are spaces and times, but the spaces there, like the lands themselves and the things upon them, are appearances; for they appear according to the states of the angels, and the extensions of spaces and distances appear according to the similarities and dissimilarities of states. By states are meant states of love and wisdom, or of affections and of thoughts therefrom, which are manifold and various. According to these the angelic societies in the heavens are distant from each other, also the heavens are distant from the hells, and the societies of the hells from each other. It has been granted me to see how likeness of state conjoins, and lessens the extension of space or distance, and how unlikeness of state separates, and produces extension of space or distance. Those there who appear to be a mile apart can instantly be present with each other when the love of one for the other is stirred up, and on the other hand those who are talking together can instantly become a mile apart when anything of hatred is aroused. [3] That spaces in the spiritual world are mere appearances has also been made evident to me by this, that many from distant lands, as from various kingdoms of Europe, from Africa, and from India, also the inhabitants of different planets and of widely separated earths, have been present with me. And yet spaces in the heavens appear extended in the same way as the spaces of our earth. But as the spaces there have only a spiritual origin, and not at the same time a natural origin, and thus appear according to the states of the angels, so the angels can have no idea of spaces, but they have instead an idea of their states; for the changeableness of the spaces gives rise to the idea that they are from a spiritual origin, thus from a likeness or unlikeness of affections and of thoughts therefrom. [4] It is the same in regard to times, for as spaces are, so are times, since progressions through spaces are also progressions through times. Times also are appearances of states because the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, does not there make days and years by its revolutions and progressions, as the sun of the world seems to do; consequently in the heavens there is perpetual light and a perpetual spring, and therefore times there are not fixed, permanent, and measurable. And as times also vary according to the states of the affections and of the thoughts therefrom, for they are short or diminished by things delightful to the affections, and are long or lengthened by things undelightful to the affections, so the angels cannot have from appearance an idea of time, but they have instead an idea of states from its origin. All this makes clear that the angels in heaven have no idea of space and time, but they have a spiritual idea about these, which is an idea of state...
1220. ...(Continuation) [2] (2) Spaces and times must be removed from the ideas before the Lord's omnipresence with all and with each individual, and His omniscience of things present and future, can be comprehended. But inasmuch as spaces and times cannot easily be removed from the ideas of the thoughts of the natural man, it is better for a simple man not to think of the Divine omnipresence and omniscience from any reasoning of the understanding; it is enough for him to believe in them simply from his religion, and if he thinks from reason, let him say to himself that they exist because they pertain to God and God is everywhere and infinite, also because they are taught in the Word... The understanding with which man is endowed is capable of being raised up into the interior light of heaven if only man desires from love to know truths... The mind that... is unwilling to believe anything that it does not understand, cannot do otherwise than make blind its understanding, and from the dense darkness in which it is immersed, deny that there is any Divine providence, and thus deny the Divine omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, although these are just what religion teaches both within nature and above nature. And yet these cannot be comprehended by the understanding unless spaces and times are separated from the ideas of its thought... Divine spiritual things are the very essence of all things that have existed or that exist, and natural things apart from these are like bodies without souls, which become carcasses. [3] Every man who has become naturalistic by thoughts from nature continues such after death, and calls all things that he sees in the spiritual world natural, because they are similar. Such, however, are enlightened and taught by angels that these things are not natural, but are appearances of natural things; and they are so far convinced as to affirm that it is so. But they soon fall back and worship nature as they did in the world, and at length separate themselves from the angels and fall into hell... The reason is that their soul is not spiritual, but natural like the soul of beasts, although with the ability of thinking and speaking because they were born men. And because the hells at this day more than ever before are full of such, it is important that such dense darkness arising from nature, which at present fills and closes up the thresholds of the understanding of men, should be removed by means of rational light derived from spiritual.
1222. ...(Continuation) [2] All the angels of heaven and all the men on the earth who constitute the church are as one man, and the Lord is the life of that man. This you will see confirmed in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the following articles: The whole Heaven in the complex has relation to one Man (n. 59-67); Each Society in the heavens has relation to one Man (n. 68-72); Consequently each Angel is in a perfect Human Form (n. 73-77); Heaven as a whole and in part has relation to Man, and this is from the Lord's Divine Human (n. 78-86); There is a correspondence of all things of Heaven with all things of Man (n. 87-102; The same may be said of the Lord's church on the earth (n. 57). That heaven is like one man I have been taught by experience and am taught by reason. Experience: It has been granted me to behold a society consisting of thousands of angels as one man of a medium stature, and societies consisting of fewer angels in like form. This is seen, however, not by the angels in that society, but by angels outside of that society at a distance, and at the time when a society is to be purified of those who are foreign to it. When this is done all who constitute the life of that society are within that man, while those who do not are outside of him; and these are removed, but the former remain. It is the same with the whole heaven in the presence of the Lord. For this reason and no other every angel and spirit is a man, in a form like that which a man on earth has. [3] I have not seen but I have heard that the church on earth also before the Lord is like one man; and that it is also divided into societies, and that each society is a man; furthermore, that all who are within that man are within heaven, while those who are outside of him are in hell; and the reason has been stated, namely, that every man of the church is also an angel of heaven, for he becomes an angel after death. Moreover, not only does the church on earth together with the angels constitute the interiors of that man, the church constitutes also the exteriors...; this the church constitutes, because the men of the earth are provided with a body in which the lowest spiritual is clothed with the natural. This is what constitutes the conjunction of heaven with the church and of the church with heaven. [4] From reason: ...The angels are only recipients of the Divine from the Lord, and it is the Divine in them that constitutes what is angelic in them and thus heaven...
1224. ...(Continuation) [2] (5) The Lord by the intellectual faculty that each man has, or its opposite, is also present with those who are out of heaven and the church, with those who are in hell or who are to come into hell, and knows their whole state. Every man has three degrees of life, a lowest in common with beasts, and two higher that are not in common with beasts. By these two higher degrees man is a man; these are closed with the evil, but with the good are open. And yet, in regard to the light of heaven, which is the wisdom that proceeds from the Lord as a sun, these two degrees are not closed with the evil, but are closed in regard to the heat, which is the love, that at the same time proceeds therefrom. From this it is that every man, even an evil man, has a capacity to understand, but not a capacity to will from heavenly love, for the will is a receptacle of heat, that is, of love, and the understanding is a receptacle of light, that is, of wisdom, from that sun. [3] The reason why every man is not intelligent and wise is that some have by their lives closed up in themselves the receptacle of that love, and when that is closed they have no wish to understand anything except what they love, for that only do they wish and love to think about and thus understand. And as every man, even an evil man, has an ability to understand, and that ability is from an influx of light from the sun which is the Lord, it is clear that the Lord is also present with those who are out of heaven and the church, who are either in hell or are to come into hell. It is from the same ability that man is able to think and reason about various things, which beasts cannot do. It is from the same ability that man lives forever. [4] Another proof of the Lord's omnipresence in hell is that the entire hell, like the entire heaven, is before the Lord as one man, but as a man-devil or a man-monster; and in this all things are in opposition to those that are in the Divine man-angel, consequently from this latter everything that is in the former can be known, that is, from heaven everything that is in hell; for evil is known from good and falsity from truth, thus the entire quality of the one from the quality of the other. There are three heavens, and there are three hells; and as the heavens are divided into societies so are the hells; and each society of hell corresponds by opposition to a society of heaven. The correspondence is like that between good affections and evil affections, for all societies are affections. So in the same way that each society of heaven, as has been said, is in the Lord's sight as one man-angel in the likeness of its affection, each society of hell is in the Lord's sight as one man-devil in the likeness of its evil affection. This, too, it has been granted me to see. They appear like men, but monstrous. I have seen three kinds of them, the fiery, the black, and the pallid, but all of them with deformed faces, a husky voice, external speech, and like gestures. They all have a lascivious [or offensive sexual] love, and not one of them a chaste love. The delights of their will are evils, and the delights of their thoughts are falsities.
1225. ...(Continuation) [2] (6) From the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord thus perceived it can be understood how the Lord is the All and is in all things of heaven and the church, and that we are in the Lord, and He is in us. All things of heaven and the church mean the Divine truth and the Divine good; the former is from the light of the sun of heaven, which is wisdom, and the latter is from the heat of the sun of heaven, which is love; and in the same way that the angels are recipients of these are they a heaven in general and heavens individually, and in the same way that men are recipients of them are they a church in general and churches individually. There can be nothing with any angel that makes heaven in him, nor anything with any man that makes the church in him, except the Divine that proceeds from the Lord; for it is well known that every truth of faith and every good of love is from the Lord, and nothing of these from man. All this makes clear that the Lord is the All and is in all things of heaven and the church. [3] That we are in the Lord and He is in us, He Himself teaches in John: ... In that day ye shall know that ye are in Me and I in you (John 14:20-21). And elsewhere: That in Him we live and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). All the angels of heaven and all the men of the church are in the Lord and the Lord is in them when they are in that heavenly man spoken of above. Angels and men are then in the Lord because they are recipients of life from Him, and thus are in His Divine, and the Lord is in them because He is the life in the recipients. All this makes clear that all who are in a natural idea of the Lord cannot understand His Divine omnipresence in any other way than as intuitive, although it is an actual omnipresence, like the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, which is the Divine proceeding.
1226. ...(Continuation) [2] (7) The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe... The creation of the universe can be in no way so well understood as from types of it in the heavens. There creation is unceasing and instantaneous, for in the spiritual world lands exist in a moment, and upon them paradisal gardens, and in these trees full of fruits, also shrubs, flowers, and plants of every kind. When these are contemplated by one who is wise, they are found to be correspondences of the uses in which the angels are, to whom they are given as a reward. The angels, moreover, in accordance with their uses have houses given them, full of utensils and beautiful things according to uses; also garments according to their uses, and food that is... palatable according to their uses, and delightful conversations, which also are uses... All these things are given them gratuitously, and yet on account of the uses they perform. In a word, the whole heaven is so full of uses that it may be called the very kingdom of uses. [3] Those, on the other hand, who perform no uses, are sent into the hells, where they are compelled by a judge to perform tasks; and if they refuse no food is given them and no clothing, nor any bed but the ground, and they are scoffed at by their companions as slaves are by their masters. The judge even permits them to be their bond servants, and if they entice others from their tasks they are severely punished. All this is done until they yield. But those who cannot be made to yield are cast out into deserts, where a morsel of bread is given them daily, and water to drink, and they dwell by themselves in huts or in caves; and because they perform no uses the land about them is so barren that a grassy sod is rarely seen upon it. In such deserts and hells I have seen many of noble descent, who in the world gave themselves up to idleness, or sought offices, the duties of which they discharged not for the sake of use but for honor and gain, which were the only uses regarded. [4] The uses performed in the heavens and the tasks done in the hells are in part like those done in the world, although for the most part they are spiritual uses, that cannot be described by any natural language, and (what I have often wondered at) do not fall into the ideas of natural thought. But this is generally the case with what is spiritual. In the unceasing and instantaneous creation of all things in the heavens there can be seen as in a type the creation of the universe with its globes, and that there is nothing created in these except for use... [5] From the life of man. When this is regarded from the creation of all things in it no part will be found that is not for use... [6] That every man likewise was created and born for use is clearly evident from the use of all things in him, and from his state after death, when, if he performs no use, he is accounted so worthless that he is cast into infernal prisons or into desert places. That man is born to be a use is clear also from his life; for a man whose life is from a love of uses is wholly different from one whose life is from a love of idleness. By a life of idleness is meant a life made up of social interaction feasting, and entertainments. A life from the love of uses is a life of love of the public good and of love to the neighbor, and also a life of love to the Lord, for the Lord performs uses to man through man, consequently a life of the love of uses is the spiritual Divine life, and everyone who loves a good use and does it from a love for it is loved by the Lord, and is received with joy by the angels in heaven. But a life of the love of idleness is a life of the love of self and the world, and thus a merely natural life; and such a life does not hold the thoughts together, but diffuses them into every vain thing, and thereby turns man away from the delights of wisdom and immerses him in the delights of the body and of the world alone to which evils cling; therefore after death he is let down into the infernal society to which he has attached himself in the world, and is there compelled to work by force of hunger and lack of food. By uses in the heavens and on the earths are meant the ministries, functions, and pursuits of life, employments, various domestic tasks, occupations, consequently all things that are opposite to idleness and indolence [laziness.] [7] From the essence of uses. The essence of uses is the public good. With the angels the public good in the most general sense means the good of the entire heaven, in a less general sense the good of the society, and in a particular sense the good of the fellow citizen. But with men the essence of uses in the most general sense is both the spiritual and the civil good of the whole human race, in a less general sense the good of the country, in a particular sense the good of a society, and in an individual sense the good of the fellow citizen; and as these goods constitute the essence of uses, love is their life, since all good is of love and the life is in the love. In this love is everyone who takes delight in the use he is in because of its usefulness, whether he is a king, a magistrate, a priest, a minister, a general, a merchant, or a workman. Everyone who takes delight in the use of his function because of its usefulness loves his country and fellow citizens; but he who does not take delight in it because of its usefulness, but does it solely for the sake of self, or solely for the sake of honor and wealth, does not in his heart love his country and fellow citizens, but only himself and the world. This is because no one can be kept by the Lord in love to the neighbor unless he is in some love for the public good; and no one can be in that love unless he is in the love of use for the sake of use, or in the love of use from use, thus from the Lord. [8] Since, then, each thing, and all things in the world were created in the beginning for use, and in man also all things were formed for use, and the Lord from creation regarded the whole human race as one man, in which each individual is likewise for use or is a use, and since the Lord Himself, as has been said above, is the life of that man, it is clear that the universe was so created that the Lord is in things first and in things last, also in the center and in the circumference, that is, in the midst of all, and that the things in which He is are uses. And from all this the Lord's omnipresence and omniscience can be comprehended.
1228. ...(Continuation) [2] (8) As the Lord has the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, so from these He has Divine omnipresence and Divine omniscience, but omnipresence is chiefly from the Divine love, and omniscience is chiefly from the Divine wisdom. Love and wisdom in the Lord are not two but one, and this one is the Divine love, which appears before the angels of heaven as a sun. But when love and wisdom proceed from the Lord as a sun they appear as two distinct things, love appearing as heat, and wisdom as light. These from their origin... the sun act wholly as one; but with the angels of heaven and with the men of the church they are separated, some receiving more of love which is heat than of wisdom which is light, and these are called celestial angels and men; while others receive more of wisdom which is light than of love which is heat, and these are called spiritual angels and men. An illustration of this can be found in the sun of the world. In that sun fire and the origin of light are wholly one, and this one is the fiery element in that sun. From this the heat and light proceed together, but they appear as two distinct things, although from their origin they act as one... [3] It is similar with omnipresence and omniscience. In the Lord these are one; and yet they proceed from Him as two distinct attributes; for omnipresence has relation to love, and omniscience to wisdom; or what is the same, omnipresence has relation to good, and omniscience to truth, since all good is of love and all truth is of wisdom. The Lord's omnipresence has relation to love and to good because the Lord is present with man in the good of his love; and omniscience has relation to wisdom and to truth because from man's good of love the Lord is omnipresent in the truths of his understanding, and this omnipresence is called omniscience. As this is true individually of one man so it is true in general of all.
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