196. We can illustrate this by our own thoughts, which are also devoid of space; for whatever we focus on intently in our thought is seemingly present. Then too, anyone who reflects on it realizes that our eyesight registers space only through the intermediate objects on earth that we see at the same time, or from our knowing from experience that things are a certain distance away. This is because we are dealing with a continuum, and in a continuum there is no apparent distance except by means of discontinuities. This is even more the case for angels because their sight acts in unison with their thought, and their thought in unison with their affection, and also because things seem near or remote, and things change, in response to the states of their deeper natures, as already noted.

25. Which are in sight of His throne, signifies presence and providence. This is evident from the signification of "sight," as being, when predicated of the Divine, presence, and providence therefrom (of which more in what follows); and from the signification of "throne of God," as being Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, thus heaven, because it is its receptacle (concerning which see Arcana Coelestia 5313, 6397). "Look" means presence, because by look or sight the understanding and thence thought are signified; and in the understanding everything that is thought stands forth as present. For this reason, those in the spiritual world with whom another desires to speak appear present provided the person had formed any idea of them from sight in the world, especially if this is true of both. This is why friends meet there, and also wives and husbands; the reason is that internal sight, which is the understanding, acts as one, in a spirit, with his external sight or sight of the eye; and as spaces in the spiritual world are not like spaces in the natural world, in that world what one desires to see is near, and what he does not desire to see is far off. From this now it is that "look" signifies presence.

(That "look" or "sight" signifies the understanding, see Arcana Coelestia 2150, 2325, 2807, 3764, 3863, 3869, 10705; and therefore signifies presence, n. 4723; and that spaces in heaven are not like spaces in the world, see i n the work on Heaven and Hell 191-199.) "Look," in respect to the Lord, as here, signifies His Divine presence, because the Lord knows all, and they, in turn, know the Lord who are in love and faith towards Him; consequently with such the Lord is present in the goods of love and in the truths of faith that are in them from Him. For these [goods and truths] are the Lord in heaven and in the church; since the things that proceed from the Lord are not merely His, but they are Himself

[2] From this it is clear how the Lord is in man; thus, how that is to be understood that he spoke in John:

Abide in Me, and I in you; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit (John 15:4-5).

In the same:

He that loveth Me keeps My word; and the Father and I will come unto him, and make Our abode with him (John 14:23).

In the same:

Jesus said to His disciples, Ye know the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you (John 14:17).

The "Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth," is the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord; or what is the same, it is the Lord as to Divine truth; and "disciples" are all who are in goods and thence in truths; it is therefore said, "He shall be in you." In the same:

The Word became flesh and dwelt in you ¹ (John 1:14).

The Word, too, is Divine truth; and that the Word is the Lord is clear, since it is said that "the Word became flesh." (That the "Word" signifies Divine truth, and signifies the Lord, see Arcana Coelestia 4692, 5075, 9987) "Look" here also signifies providence, because all presence of the Lord is providence (as may appear from what is said and shown in the small work on The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 267-279; and in the work on Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell 9, n. 9, 12, 143, 145).

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