From Canons of the New Church ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
THE END ITSELF OF CREATION
IT IS AN ANGELIC HEAVEN FROM THE HUMAN RACE
In the created world there are perpetual progressions of ends; from first ends, through mediate ends, to ultimate ends.
The first ends are of love, or relations to love; mediate ends are of wisdom, or relations to wisdom; ultimate ends are of use, or relations to use. These things are so, because all things which are infinite in God and from God are of love, wisdom, and use.
These progressions of ends proceed from firsts to ultimates, and return from ultimates to firsts, and they proceed and return by periods which are called the circles of things.
These progressions of ends are more or less universal, and they are the aggregate of particular ends.
The most universal end, which is the end of ends, is in God; and it proceeds from God, from the firsts of the spiritual world to the ultimates of the natural world; and from these ultimates it returns to those firsts, and thus to God.
This most universal end, or that end of ends from God, is an angelic heaven from the human race.
That most universal end is the complex of all ends, and of their progressions in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural.
That most universal end is the inmost, and, as it were, the life and soul, the force and endeavor, in all and each created thing.
Thence there is a continued connection of all things in the created universe — from firsts to ultimates, and from ultimates to firsts.
From this end implanted in created things, in general and in particular, is the preservation of the universe.
On the Other Hand. —
- Love is spiritual conjunction.
- True love cannot be quiescent in itself, and be restrained within its own limits, but it wills to go forth and embrace others with love.
- True love wills to be conjoined to others, and to communicate with them, and to give of its own.
- True love wills to dwell in others, and in itself from others.
- The Divine Love, which is Love itself, and God Himself, wills that it may be in a subject which is His image and likeness; consequently He wills to be in man, and man to be in Him.
- In order that this may be effected, it follows from the very essence of Love, which is in God, and hence from an urgent cause, that the universe must needs be created by God, in which are earths, and upon them men, and in the men minds and souls, with which the Divine Love can be conjoined.
- Therefore all things which are created regard man as the end.
- Since the angelic heaven is formed from men, from their spirits and souls, all things which are created regard the angelic heaven as the end.
- The angelic heaven is the habitation itself of God with men, and of men with God.
- Eternal beatitudes, felicities, and delights together, are the ends of creation, because they are of love.
- This end is the inmost; thus as it were, the life and soul, and as force and endeavor in each and all created things.
- That end is God in them.
- This end implanted in created things, in general and in particular, causes the universe to be preserved in the created state, in so far as the ends of an opposite love do not obstruct and destroy.
- God from His Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience, continually provides lest opposite ends from opposite loves should prevail, and the work of creation be ruined even to destruction.
- Preservation is perpetual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence.
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THE OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD
The Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God do not fall within the human understanding; because the Omnipotence of God is Infinite Power, the Omniscience of God is Infinite Wisdom, and the Omnipresence of God is Infinite Presence, in all things which have proceeded, and which do proceed, from Him; and the Divine Infinite does not fall within the finite understanding.
[All things proceed according to order. God is order.]
That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, is acknowledged without a rational investigation; since this flows in from God into the higher region of the human mind and thence into an acknowledgment with all who have religion and sound reason. That it also flows in with those who have no religion; but with them there is no reception, and hence no acknowledgment.
That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, man can confirm from innumerable things which are of reason, and at the same time of religion, as from the following: —
- First.-God alone is and exists in Himself; and every other being and every other thing exists from Him.
- Second.-God alone loves, is wise, and lives and acts from Himself; and every other being and every other thing does so from Him.
- Third.-God alone has power from Himself; and every other being and every other thing has power from Him.
Unless each and all things in the world and in heaven, relate to the One who is, lives, and has power from Himself, the universe would be dissipated in a moment.
Hence the universe created by God is the fullness of God; wherefore He Himself said that:
He Is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, is, and will be, the Omnipotent (Revelation 1: 8, 11).The preservation of the universe, which is perpetual creation, is a full testimony that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent.
Opposites, which are evils, are not removed because God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent; since evils are outside of subjects, and outside created things, and do not penetrate to the Divine things which are within.
Evils, by the Divine Providence, which also is universal in the most particular things, are more and more removed from the interiors, and are cast out to the exteriors, and thus alienated and separated, lest they should inflict any injury on things internal, which are from the Divine.
[The Divine Omnipotence is [exercised] by means of His Human. This is "to sit at the right hand," and to be "The First and the Last" as is said of the Son of man in the Apocalypse, and there [it is said] that He is "Omnipotent." The reason is because God acts from firsts through ultimates and thus embraces all things.
The Lord acts from firsts through ultimates with men; not through anything belonging to the man but through His own in the man. With the Jews He acted through the Word, thus through His own; through the Word also He performed miracles through Elijah and Elisha; but because the Jews perverted the Word, God Himself came and made Himself the "Last." Then He performed miracles from Himself. Order was first created according to which God acts, wherefore God made Himself order.]
(from Canons of the New Church 10-12)