2077. That 'Abraham said to God' means the Lord's perception from love is clear from the meaning of 'saying to God' as perceiving, dealt with quite often already. That 'Abraham' here means the Lord when passing through that state and that age has been stated above in 1989. The Lord, it is evident, uttered this out of love, for the actual words used, 'O that Ishmael might live before You!' are an expression of an affection originating in love. The Lord's affection or love was Divine; that is to say, it was directed towards the whole human race which He desired, through the union of His Human Essence with the Divine Essence, to join completely to Himself and save eternally. Concerning that love see Volume One, in 1735; concerning the fact that the Lord out of this love contended constantly with the hells, 1690, 1789, 1812; and concerning the fact that in the union of His Human with the Divine His sole regard was nothing other than the conjunction of the Divine with the human race, 2034 above.

[2] The nature of the Lord's love surpasses all human understanding and is unbelievable in the extreme to people who do not know what heavenly love is in which angels abide. To save a soul from hell the angels think nothing of giving their own lives; indeed if it were possible they would suffer hell themselves in place of that soul. Consequently their inmost joy is to transport into heaven someone rising from the dead. They confess however that that love does not originate one little bit in themselves but that every single aspect of it does so in the Lord alone. Indeed they are incensed if anyone thinks anything different.

1735. That 'blessed be God Most High' means the Lord's Internal Man is clear from what has been stated just above concerning the Internal Man. Jehovah was called 'God Most High' in the Ancient Church for the reason that 'height' represented and therefore meant what is internal, so that 'Most High' meant that which is inmost. This is why the worship of the Ancient Church was celebrated on high places, mountains, and hills. Also, that which is inmost in relation to the exterior and outermost is exactly the same as that which is the most high in relation to lower and lowest. The Most High, or Inmost, is the Celestial element of Love, or Love itself. Jehovah, or the Lord's Internal, was the Celestial element itself of Love, that is, it was Love itself, to which no other attributes are appropriate than those of pure Love and so of pure Mercy towards the whole human race, that Mercy being such that it wills to save all men, to make them eternally happy, and to impart to them all that is its Own - thus out of pure Mercy and by the mighty power of love to draw towards heaven, that is, towards Itself, all who are willing to follow. That Love itself is Jehovah. To Love alone, and to nothing else, is [the substantive verb] Am or Is truly applicable.

[2] From that Love the Being (Esse) of all life is derived, that is, Life itself is derived; for that Being is present within Love and is Love itself. And because Jehovah alone, since He alone is Love, is the Being (Esse) of life, or Life itself, every single thing has its being (esse) and its life from Him. Nor can anyone except Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord alone, be and live from himself. And because no one except the Lord alone can do so, men's seeming to themselves to live from themselves is an illusion of the senses. Angels perceive clearly that they do not live from themselves but from the Lord, since they live in the Being (Esse) of the Lord's life because they abide in His Love. Yet to them more than to all others there is granted, together with indescribable happiness, the appearance of living as if from themselves. This therefore is what is meant by living in the Lord, something that is not possible unless one lives in His Love, that is, in charity towards the neighbour.