26. The "likeness of God," after which man was made, is that he is able to live, that is, to will, to love, and to intend, as also to think, reflect and choose, to all appearance as of himself; consequently, that he is able to receive from God those things which are of love and those which are of wisdom, and to reproduce them in an image, as God does, of himself; for God says:

Behold the man was as one of us, in knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:22);

for, without the faculty of receiving and reproducing those things which proceed into him from God, to all appearance as of himself, man would be no more a "living soul" than the oyster in its shell at the bottom of the river, which is not in the least able to move itself out of its place: nor would he be any more an "image of God" than a jointed carving of a man capable of motion by means of a handle, and of giving forth sound by being blown into; yea, the very mind of man, which is the same as his spirit, would actually be wind, air, or ether, according to the idea of the present Church respecting spirit; for, without the faculty of receiving and reproducing the things flowing in from God, altogether as of himself, he would not have anything of his own, or any proprium, except an imperceptible one, which is like the proprium of a lifeless carving. But more about the image and likeness of God with man may be seen in a memorable relation in the preceding work (n. True Christian Religion 48), of which this is the Appendix.

300. Sealed with seven seals. That this signifies altogether hidden, namely, the state of the life of all in heaven and on the earth, is evident from the signification of being sealed with seals, as denoting to be hid, for what is contained in a book sealed with seals, no one knows before it is opened and read; and from the signification of seven, as denoting all persons and all things, also what is full and whole (concerning which see above, n. 257); thus also altogether, because this means fully and wholly.