3. Aquellos de la iglesia que han negado al Señor, reconociendo tan sólo al Padre, y que se han confirmado en semejante fe, están fuera del cielo, y puesto que en ellos no tiene lugar influjo alguno del cielo, donde el Señor solo es adorado, son gradualmente privados de la facultad de pensar la verdad de cualquier cosa, y acaban por quedar o bien como mudos o bien hablando necedades, con el paso vacilante, los brazos pendientes y vibrando como si les faltare fuerzas en las articulaciones. Por otra parte, aquellos que han negado la Divinidad del Señor, reconociendo tan sólo su Humanidad, como los Socinianos, están igualmente fuera del cielo; son conducidos adelante un poco hacia la derecha, y despedidos en la profundidad, siendo así enteramente separados del resto del mundo cristiano. Pero los que se dicen creer en una Divinidad invisible, a la que llaman Ente del Universo (Ens Universi) y a la que atribuyen todas las cosas, rechazando la fe en el Señor, se aperciben de que no creen en Dios alguno, porque la Divinidad invisible es para ellos lo mismo que la Naturaleza en sus rudimentos, los cuales no pueden ser objeto de fe ni de amor porque no alcanza a ellos el pensamiento. Estos son desterrados con aquellos que se llaman naturalistas. Otra cosa sucede con los que han nacido fuera de la iglesia, llamados gentiles, de quienes hablaremos más adelante.

6849. 'For he was afraid to look at God' means for fear that they should suffer harm from the presence of the Divine itself. This is clear from the meaning of 'being afraid' as for fear that they, interior things, should suffer harm (for this was the reason for his fear); and from the meaning of 'looking at God' as the presence of the Divine itself. For the only way in which the Lord can make Himself present before a person is through the persons inner seeing, through seeing Him with the eye of faith that belongs to charity. If the Lord does manifest Himself in an outward visible form to someone, it is still the inner levels of mind that are affected, for the Divine reaches into the deepest parts of him. With regard to the meaning here, that interior things should not suffer harm from the presence of the Divine itself, and that therefore they were to be protected, the situation is this: The Divine itself is pure love, and pure love is like a fire hotter than the fire of the sun in this world. Consequently if Divine Love in its purity were to flow into any angel, spirit, or man, he would be completely destroyed, which is why so many times in the Word Jehovah or the Lord is called a consuming fire. To ensure therefore that the angels in heaven suffer no harm from the flow of heat from the Lord as the sun, each of them is veiled with a kind of thin cloud suited to the individual, which moderates the heat flowing in from that sun.

[2] The truth that without this form of preservation everyone would be destroyed by the presence of the Divine had been well known to the ancients, which was why they were afraid of seeing God, as is clear in the Book of Judges,

Gideon saw that he was the angel of Jehovah, therefore Gideon said, O Lord Jehovah! Inasmuch as I have seen the angel of Jehovah face to face. And Jehovah said to him, Peace be to you; do not fear, for you will not die. Judges 6:12, 23.

In the same book,

Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. Judges 13:22.

And in the Book of Exodus,

Jehovah said to Moses, You cannot see My face, for no man will see My face and live. Exodus 33:20.

[3] When therefore Moses was allowed to see God, he was placed in a cleft of the rock, Exodus 33:22, which represented the dimness of his faith, and the clouds that hid and protected him. How dangerous it can be for angels to be beheld by the Divine without being covered by a cloud is made very clear by the fact that when angels look at any spirit who is governed by evil he seems to change into something resembling a lifeless object, as I have often been allowed to see. The reason why this happens is that when the angels look at someone there is cast in his direction the light and heat of heaven, and the truth of faith and the good of love with them, which - when these penetrate - virtually deprive the evil of life.

[4] If this is what happens when angels look at them, what would happen if the Lord did so? This explains why the hells are utterly remote from heaven, and why those who are there wish to be remote, for if they are not they suffer dreadful torment. This makes plain the meaning of the following words, They will say to the mountains and rocks, Rush down on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne. Revelation 6:16; Luke 23:30; Hosea 10:8.

[5] Thus the presence of the Divine itself is such that no angel can bear it unless he is protected by a cloud which tempers and moderates the rays of light and the heat from that sun. From this one may recognize plainly that the Lord's Human is Divine, for if it were not Divine it could never have become so united to the Divine itself, called the Father, that they are one, according to the Lord's words in John 14:10 and following verses, and elsewhere. For that which is to receive the Divine in this way must be wholly Divine; what was not Divine from such a union would be plainly reduced to nothing. Let me use a comparison. Can anything be thrown into the fire of the sun and not be destroyed, unless it is similar in nature to the sun? So, can anyone enter the intense heat of infinite love unless he has in him the heat of the same kind of love, consequently unless he is none other than the Lord? The truth that the Father is within Him and that the Father does not show Himself except within His Divine Human is clear from the Lord's words in John,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

And elsewhere in the same gospel,

You have never heard His voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.