3054. THAT THE LORD RULES THE UNIVERSE. I have perceived in spiritual idea that the Lord rules the universe, and that wood-cutters [lignarii] and sawyers [serrarii], and others, when in the sphere of faith, so far as they place merit in themselves, so far do they grow cold, and fall to phantasies, or lives, according with their fantasies; further, I have understood that the sphere of faith, the sphere of interior, more interior and inmost things, inasmuch as it is divine, is the sphere itself of goodness and truth; wherefore it is a universal [sphere]; so that nothing is given in the universe which does not exist thence. - 1748, September 5.