278. Of the influx of life with man in particular.

There is one only fountain of life, from which all live both in heaven and in the world (n.1954, 2021, 2536, 2658, 2886-2889, 3001, 3484, 3742, 5847, 6467).

This life is from the Lord alone, illustrated by various things (n. 2886-2889, 3344, 3484, 4319-4320, 4524, 4882, 5986, 6325, 6468-6470, 9276, 10196).

The Lord is life itself, may be seen (John 1:1; 1:4; 5:26; 14:6).

Life from the Lord flows in with angels, spirits, and men, in a wonderful manner (n. 2886-2889, 3337-3338, 3484, 3742).

The Lord flows in from His Divine love, which is of such that it wills that what is its own should be another's (n. 3742, 4320).

All love is such; thus the Divine love is infinitely more so (n. 1820, 1865, 2253, 6872).

Hence life appears as if it were in man, and not as inflowing (n. 3742, 4320).

Life appears as if it were in man, because the principal cause, which is life from the Lord, and the instrumental cause, which is the recipient form, act as one cause, which is felt in the instrumental (n. 6325).

The chief of the wisdom and intelligence of the angels consists in perceiving and knowing that the all of life is from the Lord (n. 4318).

Concerning the joy of angels perceived and shown by their discourse to me, from this that they do not live from themselves, but from the Lord (n. 6469).

The evil are not willing to be convinced that life inflows (n. 3743).

Doubts concerning the influx of life from the Lord cannot be removed, so long as fallacies, ignorance, and the negative reign (n. 6479). All in the church know that all good and truth is from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, and that all evil and falsity is from hell; and yet the all of life has relation to good and truth, and to evil and falsity, there being nothing of life without them (n. 2893, 4151).

The doctrinal of the church derived from the Word teaches the same thing (n. 4249). Nevertheless man does not believe that life inflows (n. 4249).

If communication and connection with spirits and angels were taken away, man would instantly die (n. 2887).

It is evident from hence, that the all of life flows in from the first esse of life, because nothing exists from itself, but from things prior to itself, thus each and all things exist from the First; and because everything must subsist from the same source from which it first existed, since subsistence is perpetual existence (n. 4523-4524).

Angels, spirits, and men, were created to receive life, thus they are only forms recipient of life (n. 2021, 3001, 3318, 3344, 3484, 3742, 4151, 5114, 5986). Their forms are such as the quality of their reception (n. 2888, 3001, 3484, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472). Men, spirits, and angels, are therefore such as are their forms recipient of life from the Lord (n. 2888, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472). Man is so created, that in his inmost, and hence in those which follow in order, he can receive the Divine, and be elevated to the Divine, and be conjoined with the Divine by the good of love and the truths of faith, and on this account he lives to eternity, otherwise than beasts (n. 5114).

Life from the Lord flows in also with the evil, thus also with those who are in hell (n. 2706, 3743, 4417, 10196). But they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, and thus life into spiritual death, for such as the man is, such is his reception of life (n. 4319-4320, 4417). Goods and truths from the Lord also continually inflow with them, but they either reject, suffocate, or pervert them (n. 3743). They who are in evils, and thence in falsities, have no real life; the quality of their life (n. 726, 4623, 4747, 10284, 10286).

2021. 'For an eternal covenant' means conjunction with these people. This is clear from the meaning of 'a covenant' as conjunction, dealt with already in 665, 666, 1023, 1038; and that this conjunction is with those called 'the seed' is clear from the fact of its coming immediately after a reference to that 'seed', and of its being a second mention in this verse of a covenant. Thus the first mention of 'a covenant' has reference to the union of Jehovah with the Human Essence, and the second to the conjunction with those who are 'the seed'. To allow a clearer idea of the union of the Lord's Divine Essence with the Human Essence and of the conjunction of the Lord with the human race by means of the faith that inheres in charity, let the term union here and from now on be used to describe the first of these, and conjunction the second. Indeed the bond between the Lord's Divine Essence and Human Essence really was a union, but that between the Lord and the human race by means of the faith that inheres in charity is conjunction. From this it is clear that because Jehovah or the Lord is Life, His Human Essence became Life as well, as shown above. It was a union of life with life. Man however is not life but a recipient of life, as also shown already. When life flows into a recipient of life conjunction takes place, for life accommodates itself to the recipient as active does to passive or as that which in itself is living does to that which in itself is dead but made living from that which in itself is living. In the case of the principal and the instrumental, as they are called, they do indeed seem to have been joined together to exist as one. Nevertheless they are not one, for each exists by itself. Man does not live of himself, but the Lord in His mercy links him to Himself and in so doing causes him to live for ever. And because the Lord and man are distinct and separate from each other the term conjunction is used.