1093. Having great authority, signifies which has omnipotence, as in the heavens so upon the earth. This is evident from the signification of "great authority," as being, in reference to the Lord, omnipotence. "Great authority" here signifies omnipotence because according to the idea that man has of angels, great authority can be predicated of an angel, but not omnipotence; but when the Lord as to His Divine proceeding is meant by an angel, then "great authority" means omnipotence. Moreover, omnipotence belongs to the Lord because He is the God of heaven and the God of the earth, and by the Divine that proceeds from Him as a sun heaven and earth were created, and by it heaven with the earth is held together and subsists. The Divine proceeding is what is called in John, "the Word that was with God and that was God, by which all things were made that have been made, and by which also the world was made" (John 1:1, 2, 10). The Lord's omnipotence as in the heavens so upon the earth, is what is meant by "the great authority of the angel," because it is added, that "the earth was lightened by his glory;" for when the Last Judgment upon those who are meant by "the harlot or Babylon" was accomplished, the darkness that was interposed between heaven and earth was removed. But more upon this below.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] From what has been said it is clear that the thoughts of man are extensions into societies either heavenly or infernal, and that if there were no extensions there would be no thoughts. For man's thought is like the sight of his eyes; if sight had no extension out of itself, either there would be no sight or there would be blindness. But it is a man's love that determines his thoughts into societies, good love determining them into heavenly societies, and evil love into infernal societies; for the entire heaven is arranged into societies, generally, particularly, and most particularly, according to all the varieties of affections belonging to the love; while on the other hand, hell is arranged into societies according to the cupidities of the love of evil, which are opposite to the affections of the love of good.

[3] Man's love is comparatively like fire, and his thoughts are like rays of light therefrom. If the love is good, the thoughts, which are like rays, are truths. If the love is evil, the thoughts, which are like rays, are falsities. Thoughts from a good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven; while thoughts from an evil love, which are falsities, tend towards hell and conjoin themselves with homogeneous societies, that is, with societies of like love, and adapt themselves to them, and ingraft themselves into them, and so intimately that the man is wholly one with them.

[4] Through love to the Lord man is an image of the Lord. The Lord is the Divine love; and in heaven before the angels He appears as a sun. From that sun light and heat proceed; the light is the Divine truth and the heat is the Divine good. From these two is the whole heaven, and from them are all the societies of heaven. The Lord's love in a man who is an image of Him is like the fire from that sun, from which fire also light and heat proceed; the light is the truth of faith and the heat is the good of love; both of these are from the Lord, and both are implanted in the societies with which the man's love acts as one. That man from creation is an image and likeness of God is evident from Genesis (Genesis 1:26); and he is an image and likeness of the Lord by means of love, because by means of love he is in the Lord and the Lord is in him (John 14:20, 21). In a word, not the least thought can exist unless it finds reception in some society, not in the individuals or angels of the society, but in the affection of love from which and in which that society is; and for this reason the angels are not aware of the influx at all, and such influx in no way disturbs the society.

[5] From all this the truth is clear that while man is living in the world he is in conjunction with heaven and also in consociation with angels, although both men and angels are unconscious of it. They are unconscious of it because man's thought is natural and an angel's thought is spiritual, and these make one only by correspondence. Because man is inaugurated into societies either of heaven or hell by means of the thoughts of his love, so when he comes into the spiritual world, as he does immediately after death, his character is known merely by the extensions of his thoughts into societies; and thus everyone is explored; and he is reformed by the admissions of his thoughts into the societies of heaven, and is condemned by the immersions of his thoughts in the societies of hell.

3513. 'And I will eat' means in that way making it its own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being made one's own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3503. It is made its own when, by means of forms of pleasantness and delight, truths, that is, cognitions of good and truth, are instilled into the natural; and when these truths are allied to the good in the natural, communication is effected with the truth and good of the rational and so with the rational itself. It is this communication that the expression 'being made one's own' is used to describe, for those truths belong to the rational within the natural. Indeed truths in the rational are related to those in the natural in the way that individual parts are related to their general wholes. It is well known that a general whole is the product of its individual parts and that without the individual parts no general whole can be produced. It is the general whole produced from the individual parts belonging to the rational that is manifested in the natural. And being a general whole it takes a different form, doing so according to the order of the individual constituent parts, and so according to the form that results. If it is the more specific and the consequent individual parts of celestial good and spiritual truth that give form to the general whole within the natural, then it is a celestial and spiritual form that is presented, and something of heaven is represented as a kind of image in the specific parts constituting the general whole. But if the more specific and the individual parts which give form to the general whole within the natural do not consist of good and truth but of evil and falsity, something of hell is in that case represented as a kind of image in the specific parts constituting the general whole.

[2] Such are the things meant by eating and drinking in the Holy Supper, where again eating and drinking mean making one's own; that is to say, 'eating' means making good one's own and 'drinking' making truth one's own. If good, that is to say, love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, gives form to the internal or rational man, and by way of this rational man gives form to a corresponding external or natural man, the person becomes in particular and in general an image of heaven, and therefore an image of the Lord. But if contempt for the Lord and for the good and truth of faith, and hatred towards the neighbour give form to the rational man, the person becomes in particular and in general an image of hell - the more so if at the same time he eats and drinks in a holy manner, for profanation then results. Consequently people who eat and drink worthily make eternal life their own, whereas those who do so unworthily make [eternal] death their own.