uncreated because life can create but cannot be created, for to be created is to have existence from another, and if life had existence from another there would be another being even as to life, and that life would be life in itself. This First, which has being (Esse) in itself and from which all things have been created, is God, who is called Jehovah because He is Being in Himself. Now as there can be no Being unless it exists, so being and existing in God are one. This, therefore, is the life itself-which is God and which is Man. God has all power, and men and angels have none at all, because God alone is life, and men and angels are only recipients of life, and life is that which acts, and the recipient of life that which is acted upon. To the man who acknowledges that all things of his life are from the Lord, the Lord gives the delight and blessedness of His love, so far as the man acknowledges this and performs uses. Thus when man by acknowledgment and by faith from love, as if from himself, ascribes to the Lord all things of his life, the Lord in turn ascribes to man the good of His life, which carries with it every happiness and every blessedness, and also enables him to feel and perceive interiorly and exquisitely this good to be in himself as if it were his own, and the more exquisitely in proportion as man from the heart wills that which he acknowledges by faith. The perception is then reciprocal, for the perception that He is in man and man is in Him is grateful to the Lord, and the perception that he is in the Lord and the Lord in him is gratifying to man. Such is the union of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord by means of love. The Divine love, which is life itself, is not simply love, but is the proceeding Divine; and the proceeding Divine is the Lord Himself. The Lord is indeed in the sun which appears to angels in the heavens, and from which proceed love as heat, and wisdom as light; yet outside of that sun, love with wisdom is also the Lord. Since, therefore, love proceeding from the Lord as a sun is the Lord Himself, and this love is life itself, it follows that the love itself which is life, is Man; thus it contains in infinite form the things that are in man, one and all. These are conclusions from what has been said about the life of all things from the Lord. In fact, love is Esse, and wisdom is Existere.'

THE OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD

FIRST "Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence pertain

to the Divine wisdom from the Divine love.

Second-The Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence of God can be clearly understood, only when it is known what order is, and when it is known that God is order, and that He introduced order into the universe and into each, and all things of it at the time of their creation.

Third-God's Omnipotence in the universe, and in each and all things of it, proceeds and operates in accordance with the laws of his order.

Fourth God is Omniscient, that is, He perceives, sees and knows each thing and all things, even to the most minute, that take place according to order, and from these, the things also that take place contrary to order.

Fifth God is omnipresent from the firsts to the lasts of His order.
Sixth Man was created a form of Divine order.

Seventh From the Divine Omnipotence man has power over evil, and falsity, and from the Divine Omniscience has wisdom respecting what is good, and true, and from the Divine Omnipresence is in God just to the extent that he lives in accordance with Divine order."

"To sit at the right hand of power signifies the Lord's Divine omnipotence over the heavens, and over the earths, after He had subjugated the hells, and glorified His Human. To come upon the clouds of heaven, signifies by means of Divine truth in the heavens; for after the Lord united His Human to the Divine Itself then Divine truth proceeds from Him, and He Himself with angels,

THE OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD

and with men is in Divine truth in which, and from which is Divine Omnipotence. From His omnipotence God created the universe, and at the same time introduced order into each thing, and all things in it. From His omnipotence God also preserves the universe, and unceasingly watches over the order of it with its laws; and when anything falls from order He brings it back, and makes it whole again. Furthermore, from His omnipotence God instituted the church, and revealed the laws of its order in the Word; and when it fell from order He restored it; and when it wholly fell away, He Himself came down into the world, and putting on omnipotence by means of the Human then assumed, He re-established it. From His omnipotence, and omniscience God searches every man after death, and prepares the righteous or the sheep, for their places in heaven, and establishes a heaven for them; while He prepares the unrighteous, or the goats, for their places in hell, and establishes a hell for them. Moreover, there is granted to every man after death ample means of amending his life, if that be possible. All are taught and led by the Lord by means of angels; and as they then know that they are living after death, and that there is a heaven, and a hell, they at first receive truths; but those that in the world did not acknowledge God and shun evils as sins soon weary of truths, and withdraw; while those that acknowledged truths with the lips but not with the heart are like the foolish virgins who had lamps but no oil, and who begged oil of others, and who went away and bought, and yet were not admitted to the wedding. Lamps signify truths of faith, and oil signifies the good of charity. From this it can be seen that the Divine providence makes it possible for everyone to be saved, and that man himself is to blame if he is not saved. That to shun evils as sins is the Christian religion itself."

"Everyone who becomes an angel carries his heaven within him, because he carries within him the love that belongs to his heaven; for man by creation is a lesser likeness, image, and type of the great heaven; and the human form is nothing else; so that everyone enters that heavenly society whose form he is as an individual likeness; consequently when he enters into that society

he enters a form correspondent to his own, thus he enters the society as if entering into himself from himself, and as if from the society into the society in himself, and partakes of its life as his own, and of his own life as its life. Every society is like a common body, the angels therein are like parts of which the general co-exists. From this it now follows that those who are in evils, and in consequent falsities have formed in themselves a likeness of hell, and this is what suffers torture in heaven from the influx and vehemence of the activity of opposite against opposite; for infernal love is the opposite of heavenly love, and the delights of the two loves come into collision like hostile forces, and destroy each other when they meet. Love becomes spiritual and celestial by a life according to the truths of wisdom which the understanding teaches and requires. Love imbibes these truths by means of its understanding, and not from itself; for love cannot elevate itself unless it knows truths, and these it can learn only by means of an elevated and enlightened understanding; and then so far as it loves truths in the practice of them, so far it is elevated; for to understand is one thing, and to will is another. There are those who understand, and talk about the truths of wisdom, yet neither will, nor practice them. When, therefore, love puts into practice the truths of light which it understands, and speaks, it is elevated. This one can see from reason alone; for what kind of a man is he who understands the truths of wisdom and talks about them, while he lives contrary to them? Love purified by wisdom becomes spiritual, and celestial, for the reason that man has three degrees of life, called natural, spiritual, and celestial, and he is capable of elevation from one degree into another. Yet he is not elevated by wisdom alone, but by a life according to wisdom, for a man's life is his love. That those who are in celestial love have wisdom inscribed on their life and not on the memory."

THE INFINITY OF GOD, OR HIS IMMENSITY AND ETERNITY

F

IRST "God is Infinite because He is Being, and Existence in Himself, because all things in the universe have their being, and existence from Him.

Second-God is Infinite because He was before the world was, thus before spaces, and times arose.

Third-Since the creation of the world God is in space without space, and in time without time.

Fourth In relation to spaces God's Infinity is called Immensity, while in relation to times it is called Eternity, but although they are so related there is nothing of space in His Immensity, and nothing of time in His Eternity.

Fifth-The Infinity of God can be seen by enlightened reason, in very many things in the world.

Sixth-Every created thing is finite; and the Infinite is in finite things as in its receptacles, and is in man as in its images.

"That God, with the Divine that goes forth directly from Him, is not in space, although He is omnipresent, and is present with every man in the world, and with every angel in heaven, and every spirit under heaven, is beyond the comprehension of merely natural thought but may in some measure be comprehended by spiritual thought."

"God is present in space without space, and in time without time, because He is always the same from eternity to eternity; thus He is the same since the world was created as before, and as before creation there were in God, and in His sight no spaces, and no times, but only since, and as He is always the same, so is He in space without space, and in time without time. In consequence of this, nature is separate from Him, and yet He is omnipotent in nature;