Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence pertain to the Divine wisdom from the Divine love.

That omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, pertain to the Divine wisdom from the Divine love, but not to the Divine love through the Divine wisdom, is an arcanum from heaven that has not yet dawned upon the understanding of anyone, because it has not yet been known what love is in its essence, and what wisdom therefrom is in its essence, and still less how one flows into the other; namely, that love, with each and all things of love, flows into wisdom and dwells in it, as a king in his kingdom, or as a master in his house, leaving all the administration of justice to the judgment of wisdom; and as justice pertains to love, and judgment to wisdom, love leaves all the administration of love to its own wisdom. But this arcanum will borrow light from what follows; meanwhile let it serve as a canon. That God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent through the wisdom of His love is meant by the words in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the world was made by Him. And the Word was made flesh (John 1:1, 3-4, 10, 14);

"the Word" here meaning the Divine truth, or, what amounts to the same thing, the Divine wisdom; and for this reason it is called "life" and "light," "life" and "light" being nothing else than wisdom.

Since in the Word justice [or righteousness] is predicated of love, and judgment of wisdom, I will cite some passages to show that it is by means of these two that God's government is carried on in the world:

Righteousness and judgment are the support of Thy Throne (Ps. 89:14).

Let him that glorieth glory in this, that Jehovah doeth judgment and righteousness in the earth (Jer. 9:24).

Let Jehovah be exalted, for He hath filled the land [Hebrew, Zion] with judgment and righteousness (Isa. 33:5).

Judgment shall flow as water, and righteousness as a mighty stream (Amos 5:24).

O Jehovah, Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God Thy judgments are a great deep (Ps. 36:6).

Jehovah shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday (Ps. 37:6).

Jehovah shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment (Ps. 72:2).

When I shall have learned the judgments of Thy righteousness seven times a day do I praise Thee because of the judgments of Thy righteousness (Ps. 119:7, 164).

I will betroth Me unto thee [Hebrew, thee unto Me] in righteousness and in judgment (Hos. 2:19).

Zion shall be redeemed in judgment and those that are brought back in righteousness (Isa. 1:27).

He shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it in judgment and in righteousness (Isa. 9:7).

I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King, and shall do judgment and righteousness in the land (Jer. 23:5).

Elsewhere it is said that judgment and righteousness ought to be done, as in Isa. 1:21; 5:16; 58:2; Jer. 4:2; 22:3, 13, 15; Ezek. 18:5; 33:14, 16, 19; Amos 6:12; Micah 7:9; Deut. 33:21; John 16:8, 10, 11).

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 both into the universe and into each and all things of it at the time of their creation.

How many and how great absurdities have crept into the minds of men, and thus into the church, through the heads of reformers, from their not understanding the order in which God created the universe and each and all things in it, will be seen from the mere recital of them in the following pages. But we will now begin an explanation of order with a general definition of it, as follows:

Order is the quality of the arrangement, determination, and activity, of the parts, substances, or elements, which constitute a form; from which is its state; and its perfection is produced by wisdom from its love, or its imperfection is the outcome of unsoundness of reason from cupidity.

In this definition substance, form, and state are mentioned, and by substance form also is meant, because every substance is a form, and the quality of the form is the state of it, while perfection or imperfection of state is a result of the order. All this must needs be obscure because it is metaphysical; but the obscurity will be dispelled in what follows by the use of examples which will illustrate the subject.

God is order because He is substance itself and form itself.

• He is substance because all things that subsist have come forth and continue to come forth from Him. • He is form because every quality of substances has sprung and continues to spring from Him, quality having no other source than form.

As God, then, is the Very, the Only, and the First Substance and Form, and at the same time the Very and Only Love and the Very and Only Wisdom, and as wisdom from love is what constitutes form, and its state and quality are in accordance with the order that is in it, it follows that God is order itself; consequently that God from Himself introduced order both into the whole universe and into all things and each thing in it; also that He introduced a most perfect order, because everything that He created was good, as we read in the Book of Creation. In its proper place it will be shown that evil things sprang up together with hell, thus after creation. But now let us consider things that more readily enter the understanding, more clearly enlighten it, and more gently affect it.

It would require many pages to explain the nature of the order into which the universe was created. A sketch of it will be given in a following section on the Creation [TCR 75]. It must be borne in mind that each and all things in the universe, that they might subsist by themselves, were created each into its own order, and in the beginning were so created as to conjoin themselves with the order of the whole universe, to the end that each particular order might have subsistence in the universal, and thus all might make one. But to refer to some examples —

Man was created into his own order, and every part of him into its own order; as the head into its order, the body into its order; the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, and stomach, each into its order; every organ of motion, called a muscle, into its order; and every organ of sense, as the eye, the ear, the tongue, into its order; nor does there exist any least artery or fiber there that has not its own order; and yet these innumerable parts join themselves with the common body, and so insert themselves in it that all together make one. The same is true of other things, the mere mention of which will suffice for illustration.

Every beast of the earth, every bird of heaven, every fish of the sea, every reptile, and every worm, even to the moth, has been created into its own order; equally so every forest tree and fruit tree, every shrub and plant; and still further every stone, every mineral, down to every grain of dust, into its order.

Who does not see that there cannot be found an empire, kingdom, dukedom, republic, state, or household, that is not established by laws which constitute its order and thus the form of its government?

In each one of them

• the laws of justice are in the highest place<
• political laws in the second
• economical laws in the third

or in comparison with a man,

• the laws of justice constitute the head
• political laws the body
• economic laws the garments

and thus these last, like garments, may be changed.

But in respect to the order in which the church has been established by God, it is this:

That God must be in each thing and all things of it, and the neighbor also towards whom order must be practiced. The laws of that order are as many as the truths in the Word,

• the laws relating to God constituting its head
• the laws relating to the neighbor constituting its body,
• ceremonies its garments

for unless there were these last to hold the former together in their order it would be as if the body were naked and exposed to the heat in summer and the cold in winter; or as if the walls and ceilings of a temple were taken away, and its sanctuary and altar and pulpit should thus stand unsheltered and exposed to many kinds of violence.

God's OMNIPOTENCE in the universe, with each and all things of it, proceeds and operates in accordance with the laws of His order.

God is omnipotent because He has from Himself all power; while all others have power only from Him. His power and His will are one; and as He wills only what is good, He can do nothing but what is good.

In the spiritual world no one is able to do anything contrary to his will; and this is derived from God, because His power and will are one. Moreover, God is good itself, therefore in His doing good He is in Himself, and to go out of Himself is impossible. Evidently, then, God's omnipotence must go forth and operate within the sphere of extension of the good; and this sphere is infinite. For this sphere, [going forth] from the inmost, fills the universe and each and all things in it; and from the inmost rules the things which are without so far as they conjoin themselves with it in accordance with the laws of their own order; and if they do not conjoin themselves with it, it still sustains them, and by every endeavor labors to restore them to an order that is harmonious with the universal order, in which God Himself is in His omnipotence, and in accordance with which He acts. And when this is not accomplished they are cast out from Him; but even then He none the less sustains them from the inmost. From this it is clear that the Divine omnipotence cannot by any means go forth from itself to a contact with anything evil, or from itself promote anything evil; for evil turns itself away, and in consequence evil is wholly separated from Him and is cast into hell, between which and heaven, where He is, there is a great gulf. From these few statements it can be seen how deluded those are who think, and still more those who believe, and still more those who teach, that God can damn anyone, curse anyone, send anyone to hell, predestine any soul to eternal death, avenge wrongs, be angry, or punish. He cannot even turn Himself away from man, nor look upon him with a stern countenance. These and like things are contrary to His essence; and what is contrary to His essence is contrary to His very Self.

It is a prevailing opinion at this day that God's omnipotence is like the absolute power of a king in the world, who can at his pleasure do whatever he will, pardon or condemn whom he will, make the guilty innocent, declare the unfaithful faithful, exalt the unworthy and undeserving above the worthy and deserving, and even take away the property of his subjects under any pretext whatsoever, and condemn them to death, and so on. From this absurd opinion, belief, and doctrine respecting the Divine omnipotence, as many falsities, fallacies, and chimeras have flooded the church as there are changes, distinctions, and generations of faith in it; and the number that may yet flow in may equal the number of urns that might be filled from a great lake, or the number of serpents that might creep from their holes and bask in the sunshine in the desert of Arabia. What need is there except to pronounce these two words, omnipotence and faith, and then circulate among the common people conjectures and fables and nonsense such as will appeal to the bodily senses? For these two words banish reason; and when reason has been banished, what better is man's thought than the reason of the birds that fly over his head? Or what then is the spirituality that man possesses over and above the beasts but like the stench in the dens of beasts, which to them indeed is agreeable, but not to a man unless he is like them? If the Divine omnipotence were so extended as to do evil as well as good, what difference would there be between God and the devil? Would there be any but such as that between two monarchs, one of whom is both a king and a tyrant, while the other is a tyrant whose power is so restrained that he cannot be called a king; or such as that between a shepherd who is allowed to lead the sheep and also to act the wolf, and one who is not? Who cannot see that good and evil are opposites, and that if God from His omnipotence had the power to will both, and from will to do both, He would be able to will and do nothing at all? Thus He would have no power, much less all power. It would be like two wheels acting against each other by turning in opposite directions, by which opposition both wheels would be stopped and be perfectly at rest; or like a vessel in a rushing stream driving it contrary to its course, so that if not held by the anchor it would be carried away and destroyed; or like a man with two opposing wills, one of which must needs be quiescent when the other is acting, for if both should act at the same time delirium or giddiness would invade his mind.

If, in accordance with existing belief, God's omnipotence were absolute both to do evil and to do good, would it not be possible and even easy for God to elevate all hell to heaven, and to convert the devils and satans into angels, and to cleanse in an instant every impious man on earth from sin; to renew, sanctify, and regenerate him, and from a child of wrath make him a child of grace, that is, to justify him, which would be done by simply ascribing and imputing to him the righteousness of His Son? but God's omnipotence does not enable Him to do this, for the reason that it would be contrary to the laws of His order in the universe, and at the same time contrary to the laws of order enjoined upon every man, these laws requiring that the conjunction between God and man shall be mutual. This will be made clear in the following pages of this work.

From this absurd opinion and belief concerning God's omnipotence it would follow that God could convert every goat nature among men into a sheep, and at His good pleasure could transfer men from His left hand to His right; that He could at His good pleasure transform the spirits of the dragon into angels of Michael; and that a man with an understanding like that of a mole could be endowed with the vision of an eagle; in a word, that out of a man like an owl He could make a man like a dove. These things God cannot do, for the reason that they are contrary to the laws of His order; and yet He unceasingly wills and endeavors to effect them. If He could have done such things He would not have permitted Adam to listen to the serpent, and to pluck fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and put it to his mouth. If He could have done this He would not have permitted Cain to kill his brother, or David to number the people, or Solomon to build temples for idols, or the kings of Judah and Israel to profane the temple, which they often did. In fact, if He could have done this He would have saved the entire human race, without exception, through the redemption wrought by His Son, and have extirpated all hell. The ancient heathen ascribed omnipotence to their gods and goddesses and this gave rise to their fables, as that Deucalion and Pyrrha threw stones behind them which became men; that Apollo changed Daphne into a laurel; that Diana changed a hunter into a stag; and that another of their gods changed the virgins of Parnassus into magpies. There is at this day a like belief respecting the Divine omnipotence, and it is the source of the many superstitions and consequent heresies that have been introduced into the world in every country where there is any religion.

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.

God is omniscient, that is, perceives, sees, and knows all things, because He is wisdom itself and light itself; and wisdom itself perceives all things, and light itself sees all things. That God is wisdom itself has been shown above; He is light itself because He is the sun of the angelic heaven, which enlightens the understandings of all, both angels and men. For just as the eye is illuminated by the light of the natural sun, so is the understanding illuminated by the light of the spiritual sun nor is it illuminated merely, it is filled with intelligence in accordance with the love of receiving that light, for that light in its essence is wisdom. There fore it is said in David:

That God dwells in the light inaccessible (Ps. 104:2 comp. 1 Tim. 6:16);

and in the Apocalypse:

That in the New Jerusalem they need no candle, for the Lord God giveth them light (22:5);

and in John:

That the Word, which was with God and was God, is the light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world (1:1, 9)

the "Word" meaning the Divine wisdom. For this reason, so far as the angels are in wisdom they are in clearness of light, and for the same reason, whenever light is mentioned in the Word it means wisdom.

God perceives, sees, and knows all things, even to the most minute, that take place according to order, because order, from being in the smallest particulars, is universal, for these smallest particulars taken together are called the universal, as the particulars taken together are called the general. The universal, including its smallest particulars, is a work coherent as a unit, to the extent that no one part can be touched and affected without some sense of it overflowing to all the rest. Such being the nature of the order of the universe there is a likeness of it in all created things in the world. But this shall be illustrated by comparisons taken from things visible.

In man as a whole there are generals and particulars, the generals including the particulars, with all harmoniously arranged in such connection that each belongs to the other. This is effected by means of a common covering surrounding every member of the body, and insinuating itself into every particular therein, so that they act as one in every function and use. For example, the covering of each muscle enters into the particular motor fibers and clothes them from itself. So the coverings of the liver, the pancreas, and the spleen enter into the interior parts of these organs; and the covering of the lungs, which is called the pleura, enters into their interiors; in like manner the pericardium enters into each and all parts of the heart; and in general the peritoneum enters all parts by anastomoses with the coverings of all the viscera. So again, the meninges of the brain, by threads drawn from them, enter into all the underlying glands, and through these into all the fibers, and through these again into all parts of the body. And it is in this way that the head by means of the brain rules each and all things subject to it.

These facts are cited simply that by means of visible things some idea may be formed of how God perceives, sees, and knows all things, even to the most minute, which take place according to order.

That from the things that are according to order God perceives, knows, and sees each and all things even to the most minute that take place contrary to order, is because He does not keep man in evil, but withholds him from evil; thus He does not lead him on, but strives with him. From this perpetual striving, struggling, resistance, repugnance, and reaction of evil and falsity against His good and truth, thus against Himself, God perceives both their quantity and their quality. This follows from God's omnipresence in all things and in each thing of His order, and also from His perfect knowledge of each thing and all things of it, comparatively as one with an ear for harmony and consonance notices accurately what is inharmonious and dissonant, when it comes in, also the extent and character of the discord; or as one whose feelings are occupied with what is delightful detects the intrusion of what is undelightful; or as one whose eye is occupied with what is beautiful notices it with more precision when anything unshapely is beside it; for which reason it is customary for painters to place an ugly face beside a beautiful one. It is the same with good and truth when evil and falsity are striving against them; since from good and truth evil and falsity are distinctly perceived. For everyone who is in good can perceive evil; and he who is in truth can see falsity. And the reason is that good is in the heat of heaven, and truth is in its light; while evil is in the cold of hell, and falsity in its darkness. This may be illustrated by the fact that the angels of heaven can see whatever is done in hell, and what kind of monsters exist there; while, on the other hand, the spirits of hell can see nothing whatever that is going on in heaven; they can no more see the angels than if they were blind, or were gazing into the empty air or ether.

Those whose understandings are in light from wisdom are like men who at midday are standing upon a mountain and seeing clearly all that is below; while those who are in still superior light are comparatively like men who see, through telescopes, outlying and lower objects as if they were near at hand.

But those who are in the false light of hell, through the confirmation of falsities, are like men standing upon the same mountain at night with lanterns in their hands, who see only the objects nearest to them, and these with forms indistinct and colors confused. A man who is in some light of truth, although in evil of life, while he finds delight in his love of evil, sees truths at first much as a bat sees linen hanging in a garden, to which it flies as to a place of refuge. Afterwards he becomes like a bird of night, and at length like a screech-owl. Then he becomes like a chimney-sweep sticking fast in the gloom of a chimney, and seeing, when he looks upward, the sky through smoke, and when downward the hearth from which the smoke comes.

It must be remembered that the perception of opposites is different from the perception of relatives; for opposites are things without, and are opposed to things within. An opposite has its beginning where one thing wholly ceases to be anything, and another then arises with an effort to act against the former, as when a wheel acts against another wheel, or a current against another current. But relatives pertain to the arrangement of many and various parts in an order that is concordant and harmonious, like precious stones of various colors in the stomacher of a queen, or like flowers of different colors arranged in a garland to give pleasure to the sight. Therefore in both of these opposites there are relatives, that is, in what is good as well as in what is evil, in what is true as well as in what is false, thus both in heaven and in hell, all the relatives in hell being the opposites of the relatives in heaven. Since, then, from the order in which He is, God perceives and sees and is cognizant of all things relative in heaven, and thereby perceives, sees, and is cognizant of all the opposite relatives in hell (as follows from what has been said), it is clear that God is omniscient in hell as well as in heaven, and in like manner with men in the world; thus that He perceives, sees, and is cognizant of their evils and falsities from the good and truth in which He Himself is, and which in their essence are Himself; for we read:

If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there (Ps. 139:8);

and again:

Though they dig into hell, thence shall My hand take them (Amos 9:2).

God is OMNIPRESENT from the firsts to the lasts of His order.

God is omnipresent from the firsts to the lasts of His order by means of the heat and light of the spiritual sun, in the midst of which He is. It was by means of that sun that order was produced; and from it He sends forth a heat and a light which pervade the universe from firsts to lasts, and produce the life that is in man and in every animal, and also the vegetative soul that is in every germ upon the earth; and these two flow into each thing and all things, and cause every subject to live and grow according to the order implanted in it by creation. And as God, though not extended, fills every extense in the universe, He is omnipresent. It has been shown elsewhere that God is in all space without space, and in all time without time, and consequently that the universe in its essence and order is the plenitude of God; and this being so,

• by His OMNIPRESENCE He perceives all things,
• by His OMNISCIENCE He provides all things,
• by His OMNIPOTENCE He effects all things.

From this it is clear that omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence make one, or that one implies the others; and thus that they cannot be separated.

The Divine omnipresence may be illustrated by the wonderful way in which angels and spirits become present to each other in the spiritual world. Because there is no space in that world, but only an appearance of space, an angel or spirit may instantly become present with another whenever he comes into a like affection and consequent thought; for it is these two that cause the appearance of space. That such is the nature of presence with all there, has been made evident to me by having seen Africans and Asiatics there near together, although on the earth they are so many miles apart; and that I could even become present with those on the planets of our solar system, and also with those on planets belonging to other systems. Owing to this presence, not in space but in appearance of space, I have spoken with apostles, with departed popes, with emperors and kings, with the modern reformers of the church-Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, and with others from widely separated countries. Such being the presence of angels and spirits, what limit is there to the Divine presence, which is infinite, in the universe? Angels and spirits are thus present, because every affection of love and every consequent thought of the understanding is in space without space, and in time without time. For anyone can think of a brother, relative, or friend who is in the Indies, and then have him as if present; in like manner he may, by remembrance, be moved by their love. From these facts, as they are known to man, the Divine omnipresence may in some measure be made clear; so, too, from human thought - as when anyone calls to mind what he has seen while traveling in various places, it is just as if he were present in those places again. Even bodily vision emulates this same kind of presence; it notices distance only by means of intermediate things, by which, as it were, the distance is measured. The sun itself would be near the eye, even as if in the eye, if intermediate objects did not reveal the fact of its being so distant. That this is so, optical writers have noted in their writings. This kind of presence pertains both to man's intellectual sight and to his bodily sight, because what sees is his spirit looking through his eyes; but such is not the case with any animal, because animals have no spiritual sight. All this enables us to see that God is omnipresent from the firsts to the lasts of His order. That He is also omnipresent in hell has been shown in a former section.

Man was created a form of Divine order.

Man was created a form of Divine order because he was created an image and likeness of God; and as God is order itself, he was created an image and likeness of order. There are two things which are the source of order and which give it permanence, namely, the Divine love and the Divine wisdom; and man was created a receptacle of these, and was therefore created also into the order in accordance with which these two act in the universe, and especially in accordance with which they act in the angelic heaven; consequently that the entire heaven is in its largest effigy a form of Divine order, and is in the sight of God like one man. Moreover, there is a plenary correspondence between that heaven and man; for there is not a society in heaven that does not correspond to some one of the members, viscera, or organs in man; and therefore it is there said that such a society is in the province of the liver, or of the pancreas, or of the spleen, or of the stomach, the eye, the ear, or the tongue, and so on. Furthermore, the angels themselves know in what region of any part of man they dwell. That this is so I have been permitted to learn by living experience. I have seen as a single man a society consisting of some thousands of angels; and thus it was made clear that heaven in its complex is an image of God; and an image of God is a form of Divine order.

It must be understood that all things that proceed from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God, have relation to man; and therefore whatever things come forth in that world conspire towards the human form, and exhibit that form in their inmosts; thus all objects there that are presented to the sight are representative of man. Animals of all kinds are seen there, and they are likenesses of the affections of love and consequent thoughts of the angels; and the same is true of the trees, flowers, and green fields there; and what affection this or that object represents the angels are permitted to know; and what is wonderful, when their inmost sight is opened, they recognize their own image in them; and this takes place because every man is his own love and his own thought therefrom. And because in every man affections and thoughts therefrom are various and manifold, some of them relating to the affection of one animal and some to that of another, the images of these affections become manifest in this way. But of this more will be seen in the section on Creation [TCR 75]. From all this the truth is seen that the end of creation was an angelic heaven from the human race, and consequently man, in whom God can dwell as in His receptacle; and this is the reason why man was created a form of Divine order.

Previous to creation God was love itself and wisdom itself and the union of these two in the effort to accomplish uses; for love and wisdom apart from use are only fleeting matters of reason, which fly away if not applied to use. The first two separated from the third are like birds flying above a great ocean, which are at length exhausted by flying, and fall down and are drowned. Evidently, therefore, the universe was created by God to give existence to uses; and for this reason the universe may be called a theater of uses. And as man is the chief end of creation, it follows that each and all things were created for the sake of man; and therefore each and all things belonging to order were brought together and concentrated in him, to the end that through him God might accomplish primary uses.

Love and wisdom apart from their third, which is use, may be likened to the sun's heat and light; which, if they did not operate upon men, animals, and vegetables, would be worthless things; but by influx into and operation upon these they become real. For there are three things that follow each other in order, namely, end, cause, and effect; and it is known in the learned world that the end is nothing unless it regards the effecting cause, and that the end and this cause are nothing unless an effect is produced. The end and cause may indeed be contemplated abstractly in the mind, but still only on account of some effect which the end purposes and the cause secures. It is the same with love, wisdom, and use -

use is the end which love purposes, and through the cause accomplishes; and when use is accomplished love and wisdom have a real existence; and in the use they make for themselves a habitation and foundation where they rest as in their home.

It is the same with the man who has in him the love and wisdom of God when he is performing uses; and to enable him to perform Divine uses he was created an image and likeness of God, that is, a form of Divine order.

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.

It is from the Divine omnipotence that man has power over evil and falsity just to the extent that he lives in accordance with Divine order, for the reason that no one but God can resist evils and their falsities. For all evils and their falsities are from hell; and in hell they cohere as a unit, the same as all goods and their truths do in heaven. For, as has been said above, before God all heaven is like a single man; and on the other hand, all hell is like a single gigantic monster; consequently, to act against a single evil and its falsity is to act against that gigantic monster or hell; and this no one is able to do except God, because He is omnipotent. From this it is clear that unless man approaches the omnipotent God he has from himself no more power against evil and its falsity than a fish has against the ocean, than a flea against a whale, or than a grain of dust against a falling mountain; and much less than a locust has against an elephant, or a fly against a camel. Moreover, man has all the less power against evil and its falsity because he is born into evil; and evil cannot act against itself. From all this it follows that unless man lives in accordance with order, that is, unless he acknowledges God and His omnipotence, and the resulting protection against hell, and also on his part fights with evil in himself (for order requires both of these), he cannot but be immersed and overwhelmed in hell, and there be driven about by evils, one after another, as a skiff at sea is driven by the storms.

From the Divine omniscience man has wisdom respecting what is good and true to the extent that he lives in accordance with the Divine order, because all love of good and all wisdom of truth, or all good of love and all truth of wisdom, are from God. That this is so is in accordance with the confession of all the churches in the Christian world. From this it follows that man cannot be interiorly in any truth of wisdom except from God, since God has omniscience, that is infinite wisdom. The human mind, like the angelic heaven, is divided into three degrees, and may therefore be lifted up into a higher and still higher degree or be let down into a lower and still lower degree; but so far as it is lifted up into the higher degrees it is lifted up into wisdom, because into the light of heaven; and this God only can do. Moreover, so far as the mind is thus lifted up it becomes a man; while so far as it is let down into the lower degrees it enters the delusive light of hell, and is not man but a beast. This is why man stands erect upon his feet and turns his face heavenward, and can raise it to the zenith, while a beast stands upon its feet in a position parallel with the earth, and turns its whole face in that direction; nor can it without difficulty raise its face heavenward.

The man who lifts his mind to God and acknowledges that all the truth of wisdom is from God, and at the same time lives in accordance with order, is like one who stands upon a lofty tower and sees beneath him a populous city and all that is being done in its streets. But the man who confirms in himself the belief that all truth of wisdom is from the natural light in himself, that is, is from himself, is like one who remains in a cavern beneath that tower and looks through holes at the same city, seeing nothing but the wall of a single house in that city, and how its bricks are joined. Again, the man who derives wisdom from God is like a bird flying aloft, which looks around upon all things in the gardens, woods, and fields, and flies to those things that are of use to it; while the man who derives such things as pertain to wisdom from himself, with no added belief that they are from God, is like a hornet flying near the ground, which, seeing a dunghill, settles upon it and finds enjoyment in its stench.

Every man, so long as he is living in the world, walks midway between heaven and hell, and is thereby in equilibrium, and thus in freedom of choice either to look upwards to God or downwards to hell. If he looks upwards to God he acknowledges that all wisdom is from God, and in spirit he is actually with the angels in heaven; while he who looks downward (as everyone does who is in falsities from evil) is in spirit actually with the devils in hell.

From the Divine omnipresence man is in God to the extent that he lives in accordance with order, for the reason that God is omnipresent; and where God is in His Divine order, there He is as in Himself, because He is order, as has been shown above. Since, then, man was created a form of Divine order, God is in him - fully in him - to the extent that he is living in accordance with Divine order. Nevertheless, God is in him if he is not living in accordance with Divine order, but only in the highest regions in him, thereby giving him the ability to understand what is true and to will what is good; that is, giving him the faculty of understanding and the inclination to love. But so far as man lives contrary to order he shuts up the lower regions of his mind or spirit, and thus prevents God's descending and filling these lower regions with His presence; consequently, while God is in him he is not in God. It is a general canon in heaven that God is in every man, the evil and the good alike; but that man is not in God unless he lives in accordance with order; for the Lord says:

That it is His will that man should be in Him and He in man (John 15:4).

Man is in God by means of a life in accordance with order, because God is omnipresent in the universe and in each and all things of it in their inmosts, for these inmosts are in order. But in those things that are contrary to order (which are solely those that are outside of the inmosts) God is omnipresent by a continual striving with them, and by a continual effort to bring them back to order. Thus it is that so far as man permits himself to be brought back to order, God is omnipresent in the whole of him, and consequently to the same extent God is in him and he is in God. The absence of God from man is no more possible than the absence of the sun from the earth through its heat and light. But earthly objects are affected by the sun's power only so far as they receive the heat and light that go forth from that sun, as in spring time and summer time.

This is applicable to the Divine omnipresence in this way, that so far as man is in order he is in spiritual heat and also in spiritual light; that is, in the good of love and the truth of wisdom. But spiritual heat and light are unlike natural heat and light, in that natural heat recedes from the earth and its objects in winter, and natural light at night; and this takes place because the earth by its diurnal and annual motions produces these periods. But with spiritual heat and light it is not so; since God through His sun is present with both heat and light, and does not undergo changes, as the sun of the world apparently does. Man turns himself away comparatively as the earth turns away from the sun; and when he turns away from the truths of wisdom he is like the earth when turned from its sun at night; and when he turns away from the goods of love he is like the earth when turned from its sun in winter. Such is the correspondence between the effects and uses from the sun of the spiritual world, and the effects and uses from the sun of the natural world.

(True Christian Religion 50-70)

Comprehending the Lord's Omnipresence and Omniscience

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In every religion it is acknowledged that God is omnipresent and omniscient; therefore prayer is offered to God that He will hear and that He will see and will have mercy; which would not be done unless His omnipresence and omniscience were believed in. This belief is from an influx out of heaven into those that have any religion, for it does not come into question from religion itself whether it is granted or how it is granted. But at this day, especially in the Christian world, natural men have become very numerous, and such see nothing of God; and unless they see they do not believe, or if they profess to believe it is either done from conventionality or from blind knowledge, or from hypocrisy; and yet they have the ability to see. In order, therefore, that the things relating to God may be seen, it is permitted to treat of them from light and from consequent rational sight.

For every man, even a merely natural and sensual man, is endowed with an understanding that can be raised up into the light of heaven, and can see spiritual things, and even Divine things, and can comprehend them, but only while he is hearing them or reading about them; and afterwards he can talk about them from the memory, but cannot think about them within himself from himself. The reason of this is that when he is listening or reading, the understanding is separated from its own affection, and when so separated it is in the light of heaven, but when he is thinking within himself from himself, the understanding is joined to the affection of his will, and that affection fills the understanding and occupies it, and hinders it from going out of itself. Nevertheless, the fact is that the understanding can be separated from the affection of the will, and thus can be raised up into the light of heaven with such natural men as have any affection of truth and as have not confirmed themselves in falsities; but scarcely with those that have no affection of truth from having rejected all Divine things or from having confirmed themselves in falsities. In such, between spiritual light and natural light there is a sort of darkening veil, although with many this is transparent.

Any man, even a corporeal sensual man, when he reaches adult age is endowed with such an ability to understand that he can comprehend the things that relate to God when he is listening or reading, and afterwards can retain them in his memory, and thus talk, teach, and write about them.

The Divine Omnipresence and the Divine Omniscience shall be considered, lest the merely natural man, from a lack of willingness (which he calls a lack of ability) to understand anything Divine or spiritual, should bring these into doubt, and even denial.

(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 same, but by means of 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. They are permanent, because they recur regularly in turn, like the seasons, generations, and germinations. And they are measurable, because all things can be defined, as spaces by miles and furlongs, and these by feet and spans, and as times by days, weeks, months, and years.

But 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.

But spirits do not reflect upon these changes and variations, because they are spiritual and are thus in spiritual thought, and with this each and all things that they perceive by sense make one; also because they are separated from nature, and yet they 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 (to leave your country of origin and live someplace else) from the world of his body into the world of his spirit. I have heard many declaring that they have not died, and that they could not understand how anything of their body could have been rejected in the grave; and 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.

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.

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.

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.

But this idea of state with the consequent idea of the appearance of space and time comes solely in and from the ultimates of creation there; the ultimates of creation there are the lands upon which angels dwell. It is there that spaces and times appear, and not in the spiritual things themselves by which the ultimates were created; nor do they appear in the affections themselves of angels, except when the thought from them extends to ultimates.

But it is otherwise in the natural world where spaces and times are fixed, permanent, and measurable, and therefore enter into the thoughts of men and limit them, and distinguish them from the spiritual thoughts of angels. This is the chief reason why man cannot easily comprehend the Divine omnipresence and omniscience, for even when he wishes to comprehend them he is liable to fall into the error that God is the inmost of nature, and is for that reason omnipresent and omniscient.

(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; and if he thinks of them from nature and from its spaces and times, let him say to himself that they are miraculously brought about. But inasmuch as the church is at present almost overwhelmed by naturalism, and this can be shaken off only by means of rational considerations which enable man to see what is true, it will be well by means of such to draw forth these Divine attributes out of the darkness that nature induces into the light; and this can be done because, as has been said, 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.

All naturalism arises from thinking about Divine things in accord with what is proper to nature, that is, matter, space, and time. The mind that clings to these, and 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; for these are in some way present in every idea of thought, and unless they are separated man cannot think otherwise than that nature is everything, that it is from itself, and consequently that the inmost of nature is what is called God, and that all beyond it is merely ideal. And such, I know, will wonder how anything can possibly exist where there is no time or space; and that the Divine itself is without them, and that the spiritual are not in them, but are only in appearances of them; and yet 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.

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, and cannot be taken out to eternity. 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.

(3) 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.

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, which are called the cartilaginous and bony parts; 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.

From reason: Heaven and the church are a man, in the greatest, the lesser, and the least sum or complex, for the sole reason that God is Man, and consequently the Divine proceeding, which is the Divine from Him, is the same in every least and greatest respect, which is man. For it has been said above that the Divine is not in space and extension, but causes spaces and extensions to exist in the ultimates of His creation, in the heavens apparently, in the world actually. Nevertheless spaces and extensions are not spaces and extensions before the Lord, for He is in His Divine everywhere. This is clearly manifest from this, that the whole angelic heaven with the church is as one man before God; and so is a society consisting of thousands of angels, although their habitations appear extended through much space. The same is evident also from this, that the whole heaven, also an entire society in heaven, can appear at the good pleasure of the Lord, as a man, great or small, as a giant or as an infant. But it is not the angels that so appear, but the Divine in them; for 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. As angels are only recipients, and the Divine in them constitutes what is angelic and heaven, it is clear that the Lord is the life of that man, that is, of heaven and the church.

(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. Life is in the particular and most particular things of man, because the various and diverse things in him, called members, organs, and viscera, so make one that he knows no otherwise than that he is a simple and not a composite being. That life is in the most particular things of man is evident from the fact, that from his life he sees, hears, smells, and tastes, which could not be unless the organs of those senses lived from the life of his soul; also from the fact that the whole surface of the body possesses the sense of touch, and it is the life that produces that sense, and not the skin apart from the life. This is evident also from the fact that all the muscles under the skin are under the control of the life of man's will and understanding, and are moved at their pleasure, thus not only the hands and feet and the entire body, but also the tongue, the lips, the face, and the entire head. None of these could be moved by the body alone, but they are moved by life from the will and understanding together with the life in these members. The same is true of all the viscera in the body, each of which performs its own office, and acts submissively according to the laws of order inscribed on it. But it is the life that does this by its motion from the heart and lungs in every part, and by sensation from the cerebellum in every part, while man is unconscious of its action.

Life is in the particular and most particular things of man, because the animal form, is the real form of life; for life from its first fountain, which is the sun of heaven or the Lord, is unceasingly in the effort to form a likeness and image of itself, that is, a man, and out of man an angel. Therefore from the ultimates that it has created it joins to itself things proper to the existence of man in whom life can live. From this it is clear that life is in the particular and most particular things of man, and that any part or least particle from which life is absent becomes dead and is dissociated. Since, then, men and angels are not lives, but only recipients of life from the Lord, and since the whole heaven with the church is before the Lord as one man, it is clear that the Lord is the life of that man, that is, of heaven and the church, and also that He is omnipresent and omniscient in the particular and most particular things of the angels of heaven and the men of the church. And as the whole heaven with the church is, before the Lord, as one man, great or small, according to His will, as a giant or as an infant, it is clear that the life or the spiritual that proceeds from the Lord is not in space or extended with the angels and with the men of the church; consequently that spaces and times must be separated from their ideas, in order that the Lord's omnipresence and omniscience with all and with each individual may be comprehended.

(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.

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.

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 love, and not one of them a chaste love. The delights of their will are evils, and the delights of their thoughts are falsities.

(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.

That we are in the Lord and He is in us, He Himself teaches in John:

Jesus said, He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him (John 6:56).

And in the same:

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 this 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.

(7) The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe; for the universe was so created by Him that He is in things first and in things last, in the center and in the circumferences, and that the things in which He is are uses. This can be seen to be true from the creation of the universe, from the life of man, and from the essence of uses.

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 esculent and palatable according to their uses, and delightful conversations, which also are uses because they are recreations. 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.

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.

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, and in general, one kingdom of nature for another, the mineral kingdom for the vegetable, this for the animal, and both for the human race, that they may serve the Lord for performing uses to the neighbor.

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, not a fiber or minute vessel in the brains, in the organs of sense, in the muscles, or in any of the viscera of the thorax and the abdomen, or anywhere else, that is not for the sake of use in general and in particular, thus for the sake of the whole and of each thing connected with it, and not for its own sake. The greater forms, which are called members, sensories, muscles, and viscera, which are made up and organized from fibers and vessels, all are formed from use, in use, and for use, so that they may be simply called uses, of which the whole man is composed and formed. It is therefore clearly evident that they have no other origin and no other end than use.

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.

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.

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.

(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 from 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. That one appears on the earth in the spring and summer seasons, yet they are two distinct things according to the turning of the earth towards the sun, and thus according as the reception is direct or oblique. This correspondence may serve as an illustration.

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.

(from Apocalypse Explained 1216; 1218 - 1228)

Man in an Image

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

All things of the created universe, viewed in reference to uses represent man in an image, and this testifies that God is a Man.

By the ancients man was called a microcosm, from his representing the macrocosm, that is, the universe in its whole complex; but it is not known at the present day why man was so called by the ancients, for no more of the universe or macrocosm is manifest in him than that he derives nourishment and bodily life from its animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that he is kept in a living condition by its heat, sees by its light, and hears and breathes by its atmospheres. Yet these things do not make man a microcosm, as the universe with all things thereof is a macrocosm.

The ancients called man a microcosm, or little universe, from truth which they derived from the knowledge of correspondences, in which the most ancient people were, and from their communication with angels of heaven; for angels of heaven know from the things which they see about them that all things of the universe, viewed as to uses, represent man as an image.

But the truth that man is a microcosm, or little universe, because the created universe, viewed as to uses is, in image, a man, cannot come into the thought and from that into the knowledge of any one on earth from the idea of the universe as it is viewed in the spiritual world; and therefore it can be corroborated only by an angel, who is in the spiritual world, or by some one to whom it has been granted to be in that world, and to see things which are there. As this has been granted to me, I am able, from what I have seen there, to disclose this arcanum.

It should be known that the spiritual world is in external appearance, wholly like the natural world. Lands, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, fields, lakes, rivers, springs of water are to be seen there, as in the natural world; thus all things belonging to the mineral kingdom. Paradises, gardens, groves, woods, and in them trees and shrubs of all kinds bearing fruit and seeds; also plants, flowers, herbs, and grasses are to be seen there; thus all things pertaining to the vegetable kingdom. There are also to be seen there, beasts, birds, and fishes of every kind; thus all things pertaining to the animal kingdom. Man there is an angel or spirit. This is premised that it may be known that the universe of the spiritual world is wholly like the universe of the natural world, with this difference only, that things in the spiritual world are not fixed and settled like those in the natural world, because in the spiritual world nothing is natural but every thing is spiritual.

That the universe of that world represents man in an image can be clearly seen from this, that all things appear to the life, and take form about the angel, and about the angelic societies, as if they were produced or created by them; they are about them permanently, and do not pass away. That they are as if they were produced or created by them is seen by their no longer appearing when the angel goes away, or when the society passes to another place; also when other angels come in place of these the appearance of all things about them is changed - in the paradises the trees and fruits are changed, in the flower gardens the flowers and seeds, in the fields the herbs and grasses, also the kinds of animals and birds are changed. Such things take form and are changed in this manner, because all these things take form according to the affections and consequent thoughts of the angels, for they are correspondences. And because things that correspond make one with that to which they correspond they are an image representative of it. The image itself is not seen when these things are viewed in their forms, it is seen only when they are viewed in respect to uses. It has been granted me to perceive that angels, when their eyes were opened by the Lord, and they saw these things from the correspondence of uses, recognized and saw themselves therein.

Inasmuch as these things which have existence about the angels, corresponding to their affections and thoughts, represent a universe, in that there are lands, plants, and animals, and these constitute an image representative of the angel, it is evident why the ancients called man a microcosm.

That this is so has been abundantly confirmed in the Arcana Coelestia, also in the work Heaven and Hell, and occasionally in the preceding pages where correspondence is treated of. It has been there shown also that nothing is to be found in the created universe which has not a correspondence with something in man, not only with his affections and their thoughts, but also with his bodily organs and viscera; not with these however as substances, but as uses. From this it is that in the Word, where the church and the man of the church are treated of, such frequent mention is made of trees, such as "olives," "vines," and "cedars;" of "gardens," "groves" and "woods;" and of the "beasts of the earth," "birds of the air," and "fish of the sea." They are there mentioned because they correspond, and by correspondence make one, as was said above; consequently, when such things are read in the Word by man, these objects are not perceived by angels, but the church or the men of the church in respect to their states are perceived instead.

Since all things of the universe have relation in an image to man, the wisdom and intelligence of Adam are described by the "garden of Eden," wherein were all kinds of trees, also rivers, precious stones, and gold, and animals to which he gave names; by all of which are meant such things as were in Adam, and constitute that which is called man. Nearly the same things are said of Ashur, by whom the church in respect to intelligence is signified (Ezek. 31:3-9); and of Tyre, by which the church in respect to knowledges of good and truth is signified (Ezek. 28:12, 13).

From all this it can be seen that all things in the universe, viewed from uses, have relation in an image to man, and that this testifies that God is a Man. For such things as have been mentioned above take form about the angelic man, not from the angels, but from the Lord through the angels. For they take their form from the influx of the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom into the angel, who is a recipient, and before whose eyes all this is brought forth like the creation of a universe. From this they know there that God is a Man, and that the created universe, viewed in its uses, is an image of God.

(from Divine Love and Wisdom 319-326)

Investigation and Inquiry Concerning the Human Soul and Mind, and Its Rationality

Selection from Interaction of the Soul and Body ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are three degrees in the spiritual world, and three degrees in the natural world, hitherto unknown, according to which all influx takes place.

It is discovered, by the investigation of causes from effects, that there are degrees of two kinds, one in which are things prior and posterior, and another in which are things greater and less. The degrees which distinguish things prior and posterior are to be called degrees of altitude, and also discrete degrees; but the degrees by which things greater and less are distinguished from each other are to be called, degrees of latitude, and also continuous degrees.

Degrees of altitude, or discrete degrees, are like the generations and compositions of one thing from another; as, for example, of any nerve from its fibers, and of any fiber from its fibrils; or of any piece of wood, stone, or metal from its parts, and of any part from its particles.

But degrees of latitude or continuous degrees are like the increments and decrements of the same degree of altitude as to breadth, length, height, and depth; as of greater and smaller volumes of water, or air, or ether; and as of large and small masses of wood, stone, or metal.

All and each of the things in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, are, from creation, in degrees of both these kinds. The whole animal kingdom in this world is in those degrees both in general and in particular; and the whole vegetable kingdom and the whole mineral kingdom likewise; as also is the expanse of atmospheres from the sun even to the earth.

There are therefore three atmospheres discretely distinct according to the degrees of altitude, both in the spiritual world and in the natural world, because each world has its sun; but the atmospheres of the spiritual world, by virtue of their origin, are substantial, and the atmospheres of the natural world, by virtue of their origin, are material. And because the atmospheres descend from their origins according to those degrees, and are the containants, and, as it were, the carriers of light and heat, it follows that there are three degrees of light and heat.

And because light in the spiritual world in its essence is wisdom, and heat there in its essence is love, it follows also that there are three degrees of wisdom and three degrees of love, hence three degrees of life; for they are graded by those things through which they pass.

Hence it is that there are three angelic heavens: a highest, which is also called the third heaven, where are the angels of the highest degree; a middle, which is also called the second heaven, where are the angels of the middle degree; and a lowest, which is also called the first heaven, where are the angels of the lowest degree. Those heavens are also distinguished according to the degrees of wisdom and love.

• Those who are in the lowest heaven are in the love of knowing truths and goods
• Those who are in the middle heaven are in the love of understanding them
• Those who are in the highest heaven are in the love of being wise, that is, of living according to those things which they know and understand.

Since the angelic heavens are distinguished into three degrees, therefore the human mind is also distinguished into three degrees, because the human mind is an image of heaven, that is, it is a heaven in the least form. Hence it is that man can become an angel of one of those three heavens, and this is effected according to his reception of wisdom and love from the Lord:

• An angel of the lowest heaven if he receives only the love of knowing truths and goods
• An angel of the middle heaven if he receives the love of understanding them
• An angel of the highest heaven if he receives the love of being wise, that is, of living according to them.

That the human mind is distinguished into three regions, according to the three heavens, may be seen in the Relation inserted in the work on Conjugial Love (n. 270).—

One morning after sleep I was plunged deep in thought about some of the arcana of marital love, finally about this: in what region of the human mind true marital love resides and hence in what region marital cold resides. I knew that there are three regions of the human mind, one above another, and that natural love inhabits the lowest region, spiritual love the higher, and celestial love the highest, and that in each region there is a marriage of good and truth; and as good is of love and truth is of wisdom, that in each region there is a marriage of love and wisdom; and that this marriage is the same as the marriage of the will and the understanding, since the will is the receptacle of love and the understanding is the receptacle of wisdom.

While I was deep in the thought, I beheld two swans flying northward, and presently two birds of paradise flying southward, and also two turtledoves flying in the east. As my gaze followed their flight I saw that the two swans bent their way from the north to the east, likewise the two birds of paradise from the south; and that they joined the two turtledoves in the east and together they flew to a certain lofty palace there, surrounded by olive trees, palms and beeches. The palace had three rows of windows one above another; and as I watched I saw the swans fly into the palace through the opened windows of the lowest row, the birds of paradise through the opened windows of the middle row, and the turtledoves through the opened windows of the top row.

As I looked an angel presented himself, and said: "Do you understand what you have seen?" I replied, "In some small measure."

He said, "This palace represents the dwelling-places of marital love in the human mind. The highest part of the palace, into which the turtle-doves entered, represents the highest region of the mind, where marital love dwells in the love of good with its wisdom. The middle part to which the birds of paradise betook themselves represents the middle region, where marital love dwells in the love of truth with its intelligence. The lowest part to which the swans betook themselves represents the lowest region of the mind, where marital love dwells in the love of what is just and right with its knowledge.

The three pairs of birds have a similar significance - the pair of turtledoves signify the marital love of the highest region, the pair of birds of paradise marital love of the middle region, and the pair of swans marital love of the lowest region.

The three kinds of trees around the palace - the olives, palms and beeches have the same significance.

We, in heaven, call the highest region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, and the lowest natural. We also conceive of these regions as habitations in a house, one above another, with an ascent from one to the other by degrees as by stairs; and in each part are as it were two apartments, one for love, the other for wisdom; and in front is a bedchamber, as it were, where love with its wisdom, or good with its truth, or, what is the same, where the will with its understanding consociate in bed. All the arcana of marital love appear in that palace as in effigy."

Hearing these things, and kindled with a desire to see the palace, I asked whether one could enter and view it, inasmuch as it was a representation. He answered: "Only those in the third heaven can do so, for to them every representative of love and wisdom becomes real. I heard from them what I have related to you. Also this, that true marital love dwells in the highest region in the midst of mutual love in the marriage chamber or apartment of the will, and in the midst of perceptions of wisdom in the marriage chamber or apartment of the understanding; and that they are consociated in bed in the bedchamber which is toward the front and east."

I asked, "Why are there two marriage chambers?" He said, "The husband is in the marriage chamber of the understanding, and the wife in the marriage chamber of the will."

And I asked, "Since marital love dwells there, where then does marital cold dwell?"

He answered, "That also dwells in the highest region, but only in the marriage chamber of the understanding, when the marriage chamber of the will is closed. For the understanding can ascend at will with its truths by a spiral stairway into the highest region to its marriage chamber; but if the will does not ascend at the same time with the good of its love into the allied marriage chamber, the latter is shut and cold comes in the other, and this is marital cold. When there is such cold toward the wife, the understanding looks down from this highest region to the lowest, and, if not restrained by fear, also descends to be warmed by illicit fire."

Having said this, he would have recounted still more about marital love from its effigies in that palace, but said: "Enough for the present. First inquire whether these things are above the general understanding. If they are, why say more? But if they are not, more will be disclosed."

From these things it is evident that all spiritual influx to man and into man descends from the Lord through these three degrees, and that it is received by man according to the degree of wisdom and love in which he is.

The knowledge of these degrees is of the greatest use at the present day; since many, because they do not know them, subsist and inhere in the lowest degree, in which are the senses of their body, and from ignorance, which is intellectual thick darkness, cannot be elevated into spiritual light, which is above them. Hence naturalism invades them, as it were spontaneously, as soon as they enter on any investigation and inquiry concerning the human soul and mind, and its rationality, and still more if they inquire concerning heaven and the life after death. Thus they become comparatively like those who stand in the marketplaces with telescopes in their hands, looking at the sky, and utter vain predictions; and also like those who chatter and also reason concerning every object they see, and everything they hear, without there being in it anything rational from the understanding. But such persons are like butchers, who believe themselves to be skilled in anatomy, because they have examined the viscera of oxen and sheep outwardly but not inwardly.

But it is a truth, that to think from the influx of natural light, not enlightened by the influx of spiritual light, is nothing else than dreaming, and to speak from such thought is to talk nonsense.

(from Interaction of the Soul and Body 16)