364. (i) The Lord flows into every human being with all His Divine love, all His Divine wisdom, and so with all His Divine life.

We read in the Book of Creation that man was created an image of God, and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 1:27; 2:7). This description means that he is an organ of life, not life itself. For God could not have created another like Himself; if He could have done so, there would be as many gods as there are people. Nor could He create life, just as neither can light be created. But He could create man to be a form for life to act on, just as He created the eye to be a form for light to act on. Nor could God, nor can He, divide His essence, since it is one and indivisible. So since God alone is life, it follows indubitably that God uses His own life to give life to every human being. Without that quickening man would be as regards flesh nothing but a sponge, and as regards bones nothing but a skeleton, no more alive than a clock, which is kept running by a pendulum together with a weight or a spring. Since this is so, it also follows that God flows in with every person with all His Divine life, that is, with all His Divine love and Divine wisdom. These two make up His Divine life (39-40 above); for the Divine cannot be divided.

[2] However, the manner in which God flows in with all His Divine life can be grasped as somewhat resembling the way the sun of the world flows in with all its essence, which is heat and light, into every tree, into every shrub and flower, into every stone, ordinary as well as precious, so that each single object draws its ration from this common inflow; but the sun does not split up its light and heat, giving part to this object and part to that. It is much the same with the sun of heaven, which radiates Divine love as heat and Divine wisdom as light. These two flow into human minds, just as the heat and light of the sun of the world flow into human bodies, giving them life depending on the nature of their form; the form of each takes from the common inflow what it needs. The following saying of the Lord can be applied to this:

Your Father makes His sun rise upon the wicked and the good, and sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous, Matthew 5:45.

[3] Also, the Lord is omnipresent, and where He is present, there He is with His whole essence. It is impossible for Him to take anything away from that essence, so as to give a part to one and another part to another, but He gives it in its entirety, enabling a person to take a little or much. He says too that He has His dwelling with those who keep His commandments, and that the faithful are in Him and He is in them. In short, everything is full of God, and from that fulness each takes his own share. Everything held in common is like this, for instance, the atmospheres or the oceans. The atmosphere is the same on the smallest as it is on the largest scale. It does not assign a part of itself to a person's breathing, to a bird's flying, or to the sails of a ship, or the sails of a wind-mill; but each takes from it its own portion and uses for itself as much as is enough. It is also similar with a granary full of wheat; the owner each day takes from it his own rations, and it is not the granary that distributes them.

38. (ii) GOD IS GOOD ITSELF AND TRUTH ITSELF, BECAUSE GOOD REFERS TO LOVE AND TRUTH TO WISDOM.

Everyone knows that everything has reference to good and truth, an indication that everything owed its origin to love and wisdom. For everything which comes from love is called good, for so it is felt, and the pleasure by which love shows itself is each person's good. Everything which comes from wisdom is called truth, for wisdom is composed of nothing but truths and bathes its objects in beautiful light; this beauty when so perceived is the truth arising from good. Love therefore is a compound of all kinds of goodness, and wisdom a compound of all kinds of truth. But both of these are from God, who is Love itself and thus Good itself, and Wisdom itself and thus Truth itself. This is why the church has two essentials, called charity and faith, which make up its whole structure and are present in every part of it. The reason is that all the kinds of good belonging to the church are part of and are called charity, and all its truths are part of and are called faith. The delights of love, which are also the delights of charity, are responsible for the delights being called goods; and the beauties of wisdom, which are also the beauties of faith, are responsible for truths being called truths. It is the delights and beauties which give them life; unless they have life from this source, the different kinds of good and truth are so to speak lifeless and barren.

[2] But the delights of love are of two kinds, and so are the beauties which look as if they belonged to wisdom. There are the delights of the love of good and those of the love of evil, and so too there are the beauties of faith in truth and those of faith in falsity. Both those kinds of delight of love are called good by the people who possess them, because this is how they are felt; and both those kinds of faith are also called good, since this is how they are perceived. But because they are in the understanding they are actually truths. All the same they are opposites, and the good of one love is good, that of the other is evil; and the truth of one faith is truth, that of the other is falsity. The love whose delight is in essence good resembles the heat of the sun, which gives life and fruitfulness as it works upon a fertile soil, useful trees and crops. Where its power is felt, a paradise is created, a garden of Jehovah, a sort of land of Canaan. The beauty of its truth resembles the sun's light in springtime, or light striking a crystal vessel full of lovely flowers, and giving out fragrance when it is opened. But the delight of the love of evil is like the heat of the sun parching and withering as it works on barren soil, and harmful trees, such as thorns and briars. Where its power is felt, an Arabian desert is created, full of poisonous snakes and fiery serpents; and the beauty of falsity is like the sun's light in winter, or light striking a leather bottle, full of worms swimming in vinegar, and foul-smelling creeping things.

[3] It ought to be known that every good is formed by truths, and clothes itself by their means, so as to be distinct from any other good. Moreover, the goods of one family group themselves in bundles, and give these a covering, to make them distinct from others. It is evident from all the parts of the human body that its structures are so organised. The reason the same thing happens in the human mind is that everything in the mind perpetually corresponds to the details of the body. Consequently the human mind is organised inwardly out of spiritual substances, externally out of natural substances and finally out of matter. The mind, whose delights of love are good, is inwardly built up of the kind of spiritual substances which are to be found in heaven. But the mind whose delights are evil is built up inwardly of the kind of spiritual substances which are to be found in hell. The evils of one are gathered into bundles by falsities, the kinds of good of the other by means of truths. Since kinds of good and evil are made up into such bundles, the Lord says that the tares are to be collected into bundles for burning, and so are the things which give offence (Matthew 13:30, 40-41; John 15:6).