64. A remarkable illustration of the Divine omnipresence is the way angels and spirits become present in the spiritual world. Since that world has no space, but only the appearance of space, an angel or a spirit can in an instant present himself to another, so long as he assumes a similar affection of love and so thinks alike; for it is these two factors which control the appearance of space. It was plain to me that presence there is of this nature from the fact that I could see Africans and Indians there in close proximity, despite the miles that separate them on earth. Indeed I was able to be in company with those who inhabit the planets of this solar system, and even with those from planets in other systems outside that of our sun. This presence, which depends not on position but an appearance of position, has allowed me to speak with Apostles, with dead Popes, Emperors and Kings, with the founders of the present church, Luther, Calvin and Melanchthon, as well as others from remote areas. When angels and spirits have such powers of being present, is there anything the Divine presence in the universe cannot do, seeing it is infinite?
[2] The reason angels and spirits have such powers of being present is that every affection of love and so every thought of the understanding is non-spatially in space and non-temporally in time. Anyone can think about a brother, relation or friend who is in the Indies and feel as if he were present with him. Likewise he can by calling them to mind feel the emotion of love for them. These matters which lie within the range of human experience can afford some sort of illustration of the Divine omnipresence. So too can human thoughts which allow us, by recalling to our memory what we saw in various places on a journey, to feel as if we were actually present in them. Even bodily sight imitates this kind of presence, taking no note of distance except by means of intervening objects, which provide a scale for measurement. The sun itself would appear close to the eye, if not actually within the eye, if there were nothing in between to show how distant it is, an observation made by writers on optics in their treatises. The sight of the understanding as well as that of the body allows a person to have this feeling of presence, because his spirit sees through his eyes. But no animal has this, because animals do not have any spiritual sight. All these facts serve to establish that God is present everywhere from first to last in His order. The previous section showed that He is present also everywhere in hell.
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