To fly, and go forth abroad, as in Genesis 39:12, signifies that separation was made, or that there was no longer anything common. To fly, when related to the Lord, also signifies omnipresence.

To fly from the face of any one, as in Genesis 16:6, signifies indignation.

To fly, and to fall, as in Genesis 14:10, signifies to be conquered.

To fly, as in Psalm 18:11, signifies to enlighten the middle heaven. To fly, when spoken of the Lord, signifies to foresee and to provide.

To fly, as a cloud, and as doves to their windows, as in Isaiah 60:7, 8, signifies inquiry and investigation into truth, from the literal sense of the Word.

To fly, in the midst of heaven, as in Revelation 8:13, signifies to instruct and foretell.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 244; Revelation 12, 12:14, Revelation 14)

20. (ii) THE ONE GOD IS SUBSTANCE ITSELF AND FORM ITSELF, AND ANGELS AND MEN ARE SUBSTANCES AND FORMS DERIVED FROM HIM; TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY ARE IN HIM AND HE IN THEM, SO FAR ARE THEY IMAGES AND LIKENESSES OF HIM.

Since God is Being, He is also substance, for unless being is substance, it is an imaginary entity, for substance is a subsisting entity. One who is substance must also be form, for substance without form is an imaginary entity. Both can therefore be predicated of God, but on condition that He is the sole, very and prime substance and form. It was proved in THE WISDOM OF THE ANGELS ON THE DIVINE LOVE AND THE DIVINE WISDOM (published at Amsterdam in 1763) that this form is the very form of man, that is, God is very man, and all of his attributes are infinite; and likewise that angels and men are substances and forms created and ordered so as to receive the Divine influences reaching them through heaven. In the Book of Creation they are therefore called images and likenesses of God (Genesis 1:26-27); elsewhere they are called His sons and begotten of Him. It will be proved at length in the course of this book that in so far as a man lives under Divine guidance, that is, allows himself to be led by God, so far does he become, more and more inwardly, an image of God.

[2] If the minds of men did not form the idea that God is prime substance and form, and that His form is the very form of man, they would easily fall into fantastic, ghost-like, ideas about God Himself, the origin of man and the creation of the world. They could not avoid thinking of God as the primeval nature of the universe, and consequently as its expanse, or as it were a void or nothingness. They would think of the origin of man as if it were a fortuitous concourse of atoms to make such a form; of the creation of the world as owing its substances and forms to geometric points and lines, which since they lack attributes are in themselves non-existent. In the case of such people everything relating to the church is like the river Styx or the thick darkness of Tartarus.