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Download the pdf - Swedenborg Foundation

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8 DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM §171819he is intrinsically essential reality and manifestation, but because <strong>the</strong>reare infinite things in him. An infinite being without infinite thingswithin it would be infinite in name only.The infinite things in him should not be called “infinitely many” or“infinitely all,” because of our earthly concepts of “many” and “all.” Ourearthly concept of “infinitely many” is limited, and while <strong>the</strong>re is somethinglimitless about our concept of “infinitely all,” it still rests on limitedthings in our universe. This means that since our concept is earthly,we cannot arrive at a sense of <strong>the</strong> infinite things in God by some processof shifting it to a higher level or by comparison. However, since angelsenjoy spiritual concepts <strong>the</strong>y can surpass us by changing to a higher leveland by comparison, though <strong>the</strong>y cannot reach infinity itself.Anyone can come to an inner assurance about <strong>the</strong> presence of infinitethings in God—anyone, that is, who believes that God is a person;because if God is a person, he has a body and everything that having abody entails. So he has a face, torso, abdomen, upper legs, and lower legs,since without <strong>the</strong>se he would not be a person. Since he has <strong>the</strong>se components,he also has eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and tongue. He also has whatwe find within a person, such as a heart and lungs and <strong>the</strong> things that dependon <strong>the</strong>m, all of which, taken toge<strong>the</strong>r, make us human. We are createdwith <strong>the</strong>se many components, and if we consider <strong>the</strong>m in <strong>the</strong>ir interconnections,<strong>the</strong>y are beyond counting. In <strong>the</strong> Divine-Human One,though, <strong>the</strong>y are infinite. Nothing is lacking, so he has an infinite completeness.We can make this comparison of <strong>the</strong> uncreated Person, who is God,with us who are created, because that God is a person. It is because of[his being a person] that we earthly beings are said to have been createdin his image and in his likeness (Genesis 1:26, 27).The presence of infinite things in God is even more obvious to angelsbecause of <strong>the</strong> heavens where <strong>the</strong>y live. The whole heaven, made up ofmillions of angels, is like a person in its overall form. Each individualcommunity of heaven, large or small, is <strong>the</strong> same; and <strong>the</strong>refore an angelis a person. An angel is actually a heaven in its smallest form (see Heavenand Hell 51–87 [51–86]).Heaven is in this form overall, regionally, and in individuals becauseof <strong>the</strong> divine nature that angels accept, since <strong>the</strong> extent to which angelsaccept <strong>the</strong> divine nature determines <strong>the</strong> perfection of <strong>the</strong>ir human form.This is why we say that angels are in God and that God is in <strong>the</strong>m, andthat God is everything to <strong>the</strong>m.

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