664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

13. Every work of God reflects infinity and eternity. There are many proofs of this among things to be seen both in heaven and on earth. In either place there is never anything exactly like or identical with another. There is not a face exactly like or identical with another, nor will there ever be. Equally one person's character is not exactly like another's. Consequently there are as many faces and as many characters as there are human beings and angels. In one person, who contains countless parts making up the body and countless affections making up the character, there is never one thing which is exactly like and identical with another's. That is why every individual lives a life different from anyone else's. The situation is similar in every detail of Nature.

Such an infinite variety in details is caused by the fact that all things owe their origin to the Divine, who is infinite. There is thus a certain image of the infinite everywhere, so that all things may be looked upon by the Divine as His work, and at the same time that all things may reflect the Divine as being His work.

A rather trivial example may serve to illustrate how everything in Nature reflects infinity and eternity. Every seed, whether the fruit of a tree, a cereal or a flower, is so created that it is capable of infinite multiplication and eternal duration. For a single seed may produce many more, perhaps five or ten or twenty or a hundred, and each of these may produce as many more. If the fruitfulness of a single seed continued without a break, it might in only a hundred years cover the surface of not merely one planet, but of tens of thousands of planets. The seeds too are so created that they can continue in existence for ever. So it is plain how these contain the idea of infinity and eternity; and likewise other things.

The heaven of angels is the reason why everything in the universe has been created. For the heaven of angels is the purpose for which the human race was created, and the human race is the purpose for which the visible heavens and the planets it contains were created. Consequently that work of God, the heaven of angels, primarily has regard to infinity and eternity, and thence to its unlimited reproduction, for it is there the Divine Himself resides. From this it may be established that the human race will never come to an end; for if it did, the work of God would be restricted to a fixed number, and thus would cease to reflect infinity.