522. First, though, let me state what divine mercy is. Divine mercy is a pure mercy toward the whole human race with the intent of saving it, and it is constant toward every individual, never withdrawing from anyone. This means that everyone who can be saved is saved. However, no one can be saved except by divine means, the means revealed by the Lord in the Word. Divine means are what we refer to as divine truths. They teach how we are to live in order to be saved. The Lord uses them to lead us to heaven and to instill heaven's life into us. The Lord does this for everyone; but he cannot instill heaven's life into anyone who does not refrain from evil, since evil bars the way. So to the extent that we do refrain from evil, the Lord in his divine mercy leads us by divine means, from infancy to the end of life in the world and thereafter to eternity. This is the divine mercy that I mean. We can therefore see that the Lord's mercy is pure mercy, but not unmediated: that is, it does not save people whenever it feels like it, no matter how they have lived.

57. It is owing to this that angels are not angels of themselves, but are angels in consequence of their conjunction with the human God; and that conjunction depends on their reception of Divine good and Divine truth, which are God, and which appear to emanate from Him, even though they are in Him. Moreover, their reception depends on their application of the laws of order - which Divine truths are - to themselves, because of their freedom to think and will in accordance with reason, faculties that they have from the Lord as though they were theirs. The result is their reception of Divine good and Divine truth as though of themselves, and this makes possible a reciprocation of love; for as we said above, ¹ love does not exist unless it is reciprocal.

The same is the case with people on earth.

From these observations it can now for the first time be seen that every constituent of the created universe is a recipient of the Divine love and wisdom of the human God.

V: