6872. 'You shall worship God beside this mountain' means perception and acknowledgement of the Divine springing from love. This is clear from the meaning of 'worshipping God' as adoration of the Divine, but when the expression is used in reference to the Lord the perception and acknowledgement of the Divine in the Human is meant; and from the meaning of 'mountain' as the good of God's love, dealt with in 795, 796, 2722, 4210, 6435, 6829. From these meanings it is evident that the words 'you shall worship God beside this mountain', when used in reference to the Lord, mean a perception and acknowledgement of the Divine springing from love.

[2] What is meant by a perception and acknowledgement of the Divine springing from love must be stated. Everyone's character is recognized from his love. For the inner being (esse) of anyone's life is love; his very life emanates from it. Therefore the kind of love that reigns with a person determines the person's character. If self-love and a love of the world reign, and as a consequence the love of vengeance, hatred, cruelty, adultery, and the like, then that person is a devil so far as his spirit or interior man which lives after death is concerned, no matter what he may seem to be to outward appearance. But if a love of God and a love of the neighbour are what reign with a person, and consequently a love of what is good and true, and also of what is just and honourable, then he is an angel so far as his spirit which lives after death is concerned, no matter what he may seem to be to outward appearance. But when God's love reigns with someone - as it has done only in the Lord - that one is God. Thus the Lord's Human was made Divine when He received in His Human His Father's love, which was the inner Being (Esse) of His life. From all this one may see what is meant by a perception and acknowledgement of the Divine that springs from love.

[3] It is an unalterable truth that a person is entirely the same in character as his love. This is evident from angels in the next life who, when they are seen, look like forms of love. Love itself not only shines but also breathes out of them, so that you may say that they are in every respect embodiments of love. The reason for this is that all the interiors of an angel, like those of a person in this world, are nothing other than forms that receive life. And being forms that receive life they are forms that receive different kinds of love; for these constitute a person's life. Since therefore the love that flows in and the form that receives it are compatible with each other it follows that the character of an angel or a person in this world is determined by his love. This applies not only to the primary organic substances in the brain but also to the whole body, since the body is nothing other than an organism formed from its primary substances.

[4] From all this it becomes clear that a person is made completely new when he is being regenerated; for at that time every single part of him is being made fit to receive heavenly kinds of love. With man however the earlier forms are not destroyed but removed, whereas with the Lord the earlier forms which came from His mother were completely destroyed and rooted out, and Divine forms were received and replaced them. For God's love is incompatible with any form other than a Divine one; it casts all the rest totally aside. As a consequence of this the Lord was no longer Mary's son once He was glorified.

304. Man is so created as to have a conjunction and connection with the Lord, but with the angels of heaven only an affiliation. Man has affiliation with the angels, but not conjunction, because in respect to the interiors of his mind man is by creation like an angel, having a like will and a like understanding. Consequently if a man has lived in accordance with the Divine order he becomes after death an angel, with the same wisdom as an angel. Therefore when the conjunction of man with heaven is spoken of his conjunction with the Lord and affiliation with the angels is meant; for heaven is heaven from the Lord's Divine, and not from what is strictly the angels' own [proprium]. That it is the Lord's Divine that makes heaven may be seen above (7-12).

[2] But man has, beyond what the angels have, that he is not only in respect to his interiors in the spiritual world, but also at the same time in respect to his exteriors in the natural world. His exteriors which are in the natural world are all things of his natural or external memory and of his thought and imagination therefrom; in general, knowledges and sciences with their delights and pleasures so far as they savor of the world, also many pleasures belonging to the senses of the body, together with his senses themselves, his speech, and his actions. And all these are the outmosts in which the Lord's Divine influx terminates; for that influx does not stop midway, but goes on to its outmosts. All this shows that the outmost of Divine order is in man; and being the outmost it is also the base and foundation.

[3] As the Lord's Divine influx does not stop midway but goes on to its outmosts, as has been said, and as this middle part through which it passes is the angelic heaven, while the outmost is in man, and as nothing can exist unconnected, it follows that the connection and conjunction of heaven with the human race is such that one has its permanent existence from the other, and that the human race apart from heaven would be like a chain without a hook; and heaven without the human race would be like a house without a foundation. ¹

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