19. The presence of infinite things in God is even more obvious to angels because of the heavens where they live. The whole heaven, made up of millions of angels, is like a person in its overall form. Each individual community of heaven, large or small, is the same; and therefore an angel is a person. An angel is actually a heaven in its smallest form (see Heaven and Hell 51-87 [51-86]).

Heaven is in this form overall, regionally, and in individuals because of the divine nature that angels accept, since the extent to which angels accept the divine nature determines the perfection of their human form. This is why we say that angels are in God and that God is in them, and that God is everything to them.

The multiplicity of heaven is indescribable; and since it is Divinity that makes heaven, and therefore Divinity is the source of that indescribable multiplicity, we can see quite clearly that there are infinite things in that quintessential Person who is God.

304. We have been so created that we have a connection and a union with the Lord, while with angels we have only an association. The reason we have only an association, not a union, with angels is that we are from creation like angels in respect to the deeper levels of our minds. We have a similar purposefulness and a similar capacity to understand. This is why we become angels after death if we have lived according to the divine pattern, and why we then, like the angels, have wisdom. So when we talk about our union with heaven, we mean our union with the Lord and our association with angels, since heaven is not heaven because of anything that really belongs to the angels but because of the divine nature of the Lord. (On the fact that the Lord's divine nature makes heaven, see 7-22 [7-12] above.)

[2] Over and above what angels have, though, there is the fact that we are not just in a spiritual world by virtue of our inner natures but are at the same time in a natural world by virtue of our outward natures. These outward things that are in the natural world are all the contents of our natural or outer memory and the thinking and imaging we do on that basis. In general, this includes our insights and information together with their delights and charm to the extent that they have a worldly flavor, and all the pleasures that derive from our physical senses. Then too, there are those senses themselves and our words and actions. All these are ultimate things in which the Lord's divine inflow comes to rest, since it does not stop in the middle but goes on to its very limit.

We may gather from this that the ultimate form of the divine pattern is in us, and since it is the ultimate form, it is the basis and foundation.

[3] Since the Lord's divine inflow does not stop in the middle but goes on to its very limit, as just stated, and since the intermediate region it crosses is the angelic heaven and the limit is in us, and since nothing disconnected can exist, it follows that there is such a connection and union of heaven with the human race that neither can endure without the other. If the human race were cut off from heaven, it would be like a chain with a link removed, and heaven without the human race would be like a house without a foundation. ¹

脚注:

2853. 'In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed' means the salvation of all who are endowed with good. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed' as being enriched with celestial and spiritual good (dealt with in 981, 1096, 1420, 1422) and - since those who are saved are the subject - as being saved, for as is well known 'being blessed' has a wide range of meanings; from the meaning of 'seed' as faith that is the expression of charity, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610; and from the meaning of 'the nations of the earth' as those who are endowed with good, dealt with in 1159, 1258-1260, 1416, 1849.

[2] In addition to this, these words contain the following arcanum: By means of the Church, meant here by 'the earth', 662, 1066, 1068, 1262, those people are saved who are outside of the Church, for 'your seed', as has been stated, means faith that is the expression of charity. Faith that is the expression of charity occurs only with those within the Church since such faith is in essence truth taught by doctrine coupled to goodness of life. For the truth of the matter is that the Lord's kingdom on earth consists of all those who are endowed with good, who, though spread throughout the whole world, are nevertheless one, and as members constitute one body. The same is so with the Lord's kingdom in the heavens. There the whole of heaven presents itself as one entire human being, which is for that reason also called the Grand Man, 684, 1276. And what is a marvel and unknown until now, all parts of the human body correspond to communities in heaven. For this reason it is sometimes said that this group of communities belong to the province of the head, that group to the province of the eye, another group to that of the chest, and so on. This correspondence will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed in a section by itself.

[3] It is similar with the Lord's Church on earth. Here the Church is like the heart and lungs, and those outside of the Church resemble parts of the body which are sustained by, and get their life from, the heart and lungs. From this it is evident that without the Church somewhere on earth the human race cannot continue to exist, even as the body cannot without the heart and lungs in it, see 468, 637, 931, 2054. It is for this reason that as often as any Church reaches its end, that is, ceases to be a Church because no charity exists any more, the Lord in His Providence always raises up a new one. When for example the Most Ancient Church, which was called Man, perished, the Lord created a new one, which was referred to as Noah. This was the Ancient Church, which existed after the Flood. And when this declined and became no longer a Church, the Jewish and Israelite representative Church was brought into being. And when this became wholly extinct the Lord came into the world and again established a new one. This was done by Him to the end that heaven might be joined to the human race by means of the Church. This is also what is meant by the words 'in your seed all nations of the earth will be blessed'.