44. Divine love and wisdom are substance and form in and of themselves, and are therefore wholly "itself" and unique. I have just given evidence that divine love and wisdom is substance and form, and I have also said that the divine reality and its manifestation is reality and manifestation in and of itself. We cannot say that it is reality and manifestation derived from itself, because that would involve a beginning, a beginning from something else that had within it some intrinsic reality and manifestation; while true reality and its manifestation in and of itself exists from eternity. Then too, true reality and manifestation in and of itself is uncreated; and nothing that has been created can exist except from something uncreated. What is created is also finite; and what is finite can arise only from what is infinite.

230. There are three infinite and uncreated degrees of height in the Lord, and three finite and created degrees in people. There are in the Lord three infinite and uncreated degrees of height for the reason that the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, as we have shown in previous discussions; and because the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, therefore He is also useful endeavor itself. For love has as its end a useful result, which it produces through wisdom. Indeed, love and wisdom without a useful result have no terminus or end point, or no resting place in which to make their abode. Consequently they cannot be said to have being or expression without having a useful result in which to be and express themselves.

These three elements constitute the three degrees of height in living entities. The three are analogous to the first end, the intermediate end, which we call the cause, and the last end, which we call the effect. The fact that end, cause and effect constitute three degrees of height is something we have already shown and confirmed many times.