Revelation 4:11
11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Heaven and Hell #73
73. Therefore Every Angel Is in Perfect Human Form
It has been explained in the two preceding chapters that heaven as a whole reflects a single individual and that the same holds true for each community in heaven. From the chain of causes presented there, it follows that each single angel reflects the same as well. As heaven is a person in greatest form and a community of heaven is a person in lesser form, so an angel is a person in least form; for in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole. The reason for this is that heaven is a commonwealth. In fact, it shares everything it has with each individual, and individuals receive everything they have from the commonwealth. An angel is a recipient and therefore a heaven in least form, as has been explained in the relevant chapter above.
To the extent that they accept heaven, people here too are receptacles and heavens, and are angels (see 57 above).
This is described in the Book of Revelation as follows: "The wall of the holy Jerusalem was measured, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of an individual, that is, of the angel" (Revelation 21:17). "Jerusalem" in this passage is the Lord's church, and in a more elevated sense, heaven. 1 The wall is the truth that protects it from the assault of false and evil things. 2 "A hundred and forty-four" refers to all good and true things as a whole. 3 "Measure" refers to its quality. 4 The human being is where all these things are found, in general and in specific, and therefore where heaven is found; and since an angel is a person as well because of these characteristics, it says "the measure of an individual, that is, of the angel." This is the spiritual meaning of these words. Apart from this meaning, who would understand that the measure of the wall of the holy Jerusalem would be the measure of an individual, which was the measure of the angel? 5
Footnotes:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] "Jerusalem" is the church: 402, 3654, 9166.
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] A wall is truth protecting from the assault of false and evil things: 6419.
3. [Swedenborg's footnote] Twelve refers to all true and good things taken together: 577, 2089, 2129-2130, 3272, 3858, 3913. The same holds for seventy-two and for a hundred and forty-four, because a hundred and forty-four is twelve multiplied by itself: 7973. All the numbers in the Word mean something: 482, 487, 647-648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 5265. Multiples have the same meaning as the simple numbers that produce them: 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973.
4. [Swedenborg's footnote] Measurement in the Word means the quality of an entity in regard to truth and good: 3104, 9603.
5 On the spiritual or inner meaning of the Word, see the expository work The White Horse Mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and the appendix to The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine.
