Arcana Coelestia #50
50. What the Most Ancient Church understood by 'the image of the Lord' exceeds everything one can say about it. Man is totally unaware of the fact that the Lord is governing him by means of angels and spirits, and that at least two spirits and two angels are present with everyone. By means of the spirits he is in communication with the world of spirits, and by means of the angels with heaven. Without this communication with the world of spirits by means of the spirits, and with heaven by means of the angels, and so by means of heaven with the Lord, a person cannot exist at all. His entire life depends upon that link, and if the spirits and angels were to withdraw he would perish instantly.
[2] As long as a person remains unregenerate he is governed in an entirely different way from when he is regenerate. As long as he is unregenerate, evil spirits reside with him, who have such dominion over him that angels, though present, can accomplish little more than simply distract him from plunging into utter evil and so divert him towards something good. Indeed they use his own unregenerate desires to divert him towards good, and his illusions of the senses to do so towards truth. At that point he is in communication with the world of spirits by means of the spirits who reside with him, but not in the same way with heaven, for the reason that evil spirits have dominion and angels simply forestall them.
[3] When however he is regenerate it is the angels who then have dominion, and they breathe into him every kind of good and truth, as well as a horror and dread of evils and falsifies. Angels do indeed lead, yet they are but servants, for it is the Lord alone who, by means of angels and spirits, governs a person. Now because this is done through the ministry of angels, it is said here, in the plural first of all, 'Let Us make man in Our image'. Yet because it is still He alone who rules and disposes, it is said in the following verse, in the singular, 'God created him in His image'. This the Lord also states plainly in Isaiah,
Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, He who formed you from the womb, I Jehovah make all things, stretching out the heavens Alone, spreading out the earth by Myself. Isaiah 44:24.
Angels themselves also profess that no power at all resides with themselves but that they act from the Lord alone.
Heaven and Hell #523
523. The Lord never does anything contrary to order, because He Himself is Order. The Divine Truth that goes forth from the Lord is what makes order; and Divine truths are the laws of order. It is in accord with these laws that the Lord leads man. Consequently, to save man as a result of immediate mercy is contrary to Divine order, and what is contrary to Divine order is contrary to the Divine. Divine order is heaven with man. Man has perverted this in himself by a life contrary to the laws of order, which are Divine truths. Into this order man is brought back by the Lord out of pure mercy by means of the laws of order; and so far as he is brought back into this order he receives heaven in himself; and he who receives heaven in himself comes into heaven. This again makes clear that the Lord's Divine mercy is pure mercy, and not immediate mercy. 1
Footnotes:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Divine Truth going forth from the Lord is the source of order, and Divine Good is the essential of order (Arcana Coelestia 1728, 2258, 8700, 8988).
Thus the Lord is order (Arcana Coelestia 1919, 2011, 5110, 5703, 10336, 10619).
Divine truths are the laws of order (Arcana Coelestia 2447, 7995).
The whole heaven is arranged by the Lord in accordance with His Divine order (Arcana Coelestia 3038, 7211, 9128, 9338, 10125, 10151, 10157).
Therefore the form of heaven is a form in accord with the Divine order (Arcana Coelestia 4040-4043, 6607, 9877).
So far as a man lives in accordance with order, that is, so far as he lives in good in accordance with Divine truths, he receives heaven in himself (Arcana Coelestia 4839).
Man is the being in whom are brought together all things of Divine order, and by creation he is Divine order in form, because he is a recipient of Divine order (Arcana Coelestia 3628, 4219-4220, 4223, 4523-4524, 5214, 6013, 6057, 6605, 6626, 9706, 10156, 10472).
Man is not born into good and truth but into evil and falsity, thus not into Divine order but into the opposite of order, and for this reason he is born into pure ignorance; consequently it is necessary for him to be born anew, that is, to be regenerated, which is effected by the Lord by means of Divine truths, that he may be brought back into order (Arcana Coelestia 1047, 2307-2308, 3518, 8480, 8550, 10283-10284, 10286, 10731).
When the Lord forms man anew, that is, regenerates him, He arranges all things in him in harmony with order, that is, in the form of heaven (Arcana Coelestia 5700, 6690, 9931, 10303).
Evils and falsities are contrary to order; nevertheless those who are in them are ruled by the Lord not in accordance with order but from order (Arcana Coelestia 4839, 7877, 10777).
It is impossible for a man who lives in evil to be saved by mercy alone, for that would be contrary to Divine order (Arcana Coelestia 8700).
