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).

6472. The nature of the influx of both kinds of life - the life of thought and the life of the will coming from the Lord - has been made known to me through revelation. That is to say, I have been shown that the Lord flows in in two ways - indirectly by way of heaven, and from Himself directly - and that the influx from Himself is both into the rational levels of a person's mind, which are his interior ones, and into the natural levels of it, which are his exterior ones. What flows in from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith, for what goes forth from the Lord is Divine Truth holding Divine Good within it. But the way a person receives them varies, that is to say, his particular character determines how they are received.

[2] The Lord does not compel a person to accept what flows in from Himself but leads him in freedom; and so far as the person allows He leads him by means of freedom to good. Thus the Lord leads a person in accordance with his delights. He also leads him in accordance with his illusions and resulting false assumptions; but from these He gradually leads him away, though it seems to the person as though he leads himself away. Thus the Lord does not shatter those assumptions, for that would violate the person's freedom, which must of necessity exist if a person is to be reformed, 1937, 1947, 2875, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031. The fact that the Lord flows into a person in this way - not only indirectly by way of heaven, but also from Himself directly, both into the interior levels of a person's mind and into the exterior ones - is an arcanum that has remained unknown up to now.