124. To what has been said I will add two interior truths (arcana) of angelic wisdom from which the nature of the Divine Providence may be seen. The first is, that the Lord in no wise acts upon any particular thing in man separately, but upon all things at the same time; and the second is, that the Lord acts from inmost things and from ultimates at the same time. 1. The Lord in no wise acts upon any particular thing in man separately but upon all things at the same time. The reason is that all things of man are linked together in such a connected series and through this connection in such a form that they act not as many but as one. It is well known that man in respect to his body is in such a connected series and through this connection is in such a form. Moreover, the human mind is also in a similar form from the connection of all things in it, for the human mind is the spiritual man and is actually the man. Consequently the spirit of man, which is his mind in his body, is in its entire form a man. Therefore a man after death is as much a man as when in the world, with this difference only, that he has cast off the outer covering which formed his body in the world. [2] Now since the human form is such that all its parts form a general whole which acts as one, it follows that one part cannot be moved out of its place and changed in state except with the concurrence of the rest. For if one part were to be moved out of its place and changed in state the form which must act as one would suffer. From this it is clear that the Lord in no wise acts upon any particular thing but upon all things at the same time. In this way the Lord acts upon the universal angelic heaven because it is in His sight as one man; in this way the Lord acts upon each angel because each angel is a heaven in the least form; and in this way He acts upon every man first, as being nearest to Him, upon all things of his mind, and through these upon all things of his body. For the mind of man is his spirit and is an angel according to his degree of conjunction with the Lord, and his body is its obedient instrument. [3] It should, however, be clearly observed that the Lord also acts upon every particular thing in man separately, and most meticulously, but at the same time through all things of his form, yet without changing the state of any part, or of anything in particular, unless in accord with the form as a whole. But more will be said concerning this in following numbers, where it will be shown that the Divine Providence of the Lord is universal because it is in particulars, and that it is particular because it is universal. [4] 2. The Lord acts from inmost things and from ultimates at the same time. The reason is that in this way and in no other all things in general and in particular are held together in a connected series, intermediates depending successively from inmost things to ultimates, and all are in ultimates at the same time; for in the treatise THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, Part Three, it was shown that in the ultimate there is the simultaneous presence (simultaneum) of all the series from the first. For this reason also the Lord from eternity or Jehovah came into the world and there put on and assumed the Human in ultimates, in order that He might be from first things and in ultimates at the same time; and so that from first things by means of ultimates He might rule the whole world and thus save men, whom He is able to save according to the laws of His Divine Providence which are also the laws of His Divine Wisdom. Thus also is it true, as is acknowledged in the Christian world, that no mortal could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world. On this subject see THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING FAITH (n. 35). Hence it is that the Lord is called the First and the Last.