883. THAT ANGELS CAN BECOME BETTER TO INFINITY, THAT IS, TO ETERNITY, BUT THEY CAN NEVER BECOME PERFECT I said to the spirits around me that no one, save the Lord alone, is perfect. The angels are not perfect, for heaven is not holy before the Lord [Job xv 15]; nevertheless, the angels can become better and better even to eternity, but they can never become holy in themselves or as to their proprium. Because this seemed strange to the spirits when represented in a spiritual manner, it was therefore elucidated by like things in nature, namely, that there are approximations to infinity, as they are called, which nevertheless do not reach infinity, as for example, between the asymptotes of the parabola.* But these things must be passed over because they are not understood by many; universals fall more easily into the understanding. Moreover, it was shown that angelic minds are only powers for receiving those things which are of faith, and thus must be formed; consequently, that they comprehend only the most general things. The singular things which are infinite in every least object can indeed be inscribed upon human minds, but only as to the most general things, never to perfection, because their powers are finite. Thus those things which are inscribed, as it were, on their generals, when effected by the Lord, are the things which perfect the angel more and more; and because they can be inscribed, and thus the angel be formed and perfected, even to infinity, he can never arrive at perfection, consequently neither can he arrive at holiness. Therefore heaven can never be holy before the Lord. 1748, Feb. 19. * This is evidently a slip for hyperbola. Compare DP 335.