32. (v) THERE IS MUCH IN THE WORLD WHICH CAN ENABLE ENLIGHTENED REASON TO SEE THE INFINITY OF GOD THE CREATOR.

I shall list some of the things which enable the human reason to see the infinity of God.

(1) The whole of creation does not contain two things which are identical. Scholars have seen and confirmed by their reason that such identity does not exist among things simultaneously present, although there is no limit to the number of substances and forms of matter regarded individually. The rotation of the earth can prove that two identical effects cannot be produced in the world at successive times, because the eccentricity of the poles ensures that the same situation never recurs. The same is obvious from a consideration of people's faces; throughout the world there is no single face entirely similar and identical with another, nor can there be to eternity. This infinite variety could only arise from the infinity of God the Creator.

[2] (2) It is impossible for one person's opinion to be completely like another's, which is why there is a proverb 'many men, many minds.' Similarly it is impossible for one person's mind, that is, his will and understanding, to be completely like and identical with another's. Consequently neither can one person's speech, both in sound and in the thought it expresses, nor one person's actions, either in gesture or the affection that motivates them, be exactly equal to another's. This infinite variety is a kind of mirror showing the infinity of God the Creator.

[3] (3) There is a sort of immensity and eternity inherent in the seed of every animal or vegetable: immensity in that it is capable of infinite multiplication; and eternity, in that the process of multiplication has continued without interruption from the creation of the world down to the present day, and will continue perpetually. In the animal kingdom, take the fish of the sea: if they multiplied in accordance with the quantity of their seed, they would within twenty or thirty years ¹ fill the oceans, so that they consisted of nothing but fish, and their waters would flood and destroy all the land. But to prevent this, God has provided that some fish should be food for others. It would be the same with the seeds of plants. If as many as each plant produces annually were to grow into new plants, within twenty or thirty years they would cover the surface not just of one earth, but many. For there are shrubs, every seed of which produces a hundred or a thousand plants each. Try multiplying these figures by themselves to the power of twenty or thirty, and you will see. From both these examples one can grasp a sort of outline of the immensity and eternity of God, which must inevitably produce their like.

[4] (4) An enlightened reason can also grasp something of the infinity of God from the absence of limits to the growth of any science, and so to the growth of an individual's intelligence and wisdom, each of which is capable of growth as a tree grows from seed, and woods and gardens from trees, for here there is no limit. The human memory is the soil in which they are planted, the understanding the medium in which they shoot, the will that in which they bear fruit. These two faculties, the understanding and the will, are such that they are capable of being cultivated and perfected throughout life in this world and afterwards to eternity.

[5] (5) The infinity of God the Creator can also be seen from the infinite number of the stars, each of which are suns, each having its own planetary system. The existence of planets among the stars of the sky, inhabited by human beings, animals, birds and plants, has been demonstrated in a small book of descriptions of things seen. ²

[6] (6) An even plainer proof of the infinity of God was afforded me by the heaven of the angels and also by hell; both of these are organised and mutually arranged into countless communities or groups depending upon all the varieties of love of good and evil in them. Every person is allocated his place according to the nature of his love. For here are gathered together all the members of the human race from the creation of the world; and here they will be gathered for ever and ever. Yet although each person has his own place or residence, all there are so linked that the whole of the heaven of the angels is a representation of one Divine Man, and the whole of hell is a representation of one monstrous devil. These two together with the countless wonders they contain provide a clear illustration of the immensity as well as the omnipotence of God.

[7] (7) Again, is there anyone who cannot understand, with only a slight rise in the level of his powers of reasoning, that everlasting life, which everyone has after death, is only possible as the gift of an everlasting God?

[8] (8) In addition to these matters there is a kind of infinity in many things which fall within the reach of a person's natural or spiritual enlightenment. On the natural level, there are various geometrical series which progress to infinity. There is progress to infinity in the three degrees of height: the first degree, called the natural, cannot be perfected and raised to the perfection of the second degree, called the spiritual; nor can this be raised to the perfection of the third, which is called the celestial. There is a similar relationship between end, cause, and effect; no effect can be so perfected as to become as it were its own cause, nor any cause so as to become as it were its own end. This can be illustrated by the atmospheres, of which there are three degrees. The highest is the aura, beneath this there is the ether, and air below this; nor can any quality of the air be raised to any quality of the ether, nor this to any quality of the aura; and yet in each one the raising of perfections is possible to infinity. On the spiritual level, natural love, which is experienced by animals, cannot be raised to the level of spiritual love, which is implanted in human beings from their creation. It is the same with the natural intelligence of animals compared with the spiritual intelligence of human beings. But since these matters are so far not generally known, they will be explained elsewhere.

[9] These examples will establish that universals in the world are permanent models of the infinity of God the Creator. If, however, we ask how the separate instances reflect the universals, that is an abyss, an ocean on which the human mind can as it were set sail; but beware of the storm which arises from the natural man, a storm which can sink the ship, mast, sails and all, stern first, where the natural man stands in all his self-confidence.

Footnotes:

8866. 'Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves' means deliverance by Him from hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing out' as deliverance; from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as molestations by those from hell, dealt with in 7240, 7278; and from the meaning of 'the house of slaves' as spiritual captivity, dealt with in 8049. The reason why 'the house of slaves' means spiritual captivity and also hell is that being held captive by those in hell and being led by them is slavery, whereas being led by the Lord is freedom, 892, 905, 2870-2875, 2882, 2884, 2892, 2893, 6205, 8209. The fact that those belonging to the spiritual Church, who are represented by the children of Israel, were delivered from hell by the Lord, through His coming into the world and making Divine the Human within Himself, see 6854, 6914, 7035, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8321.