LIFE, WHICH IS DIVINE LOVE, IS IN A FORM

The Divine Love which is Life Itself, is not love simply, but is the Divine proceeding forth, and the Divine proceeding forth is the Lord Himself. The Lord is indeed in the sun that is seen by angels in the heavens, from which goes forth love as heat, and wisdom as light; nevertheless, the love together with the wisdom is also Himself outside of the Sun; distance is only the appearance, for the Divine is not in space, but is "without spatial distance" (indistans), as said above.* The reason there appears to be distance, is that the Divine Love, such as it is in the Lord, cannot be received by an angel, for in itself being more ardent than the fire of the world's sun, angels would be consumed by it. On this account it is successively lessened in intensity by means of infinite circumvolutions, until, tempered and accommodated, it at length reaches the angels, who in addition are veiled by a thin cloud lest they should suffer injury from its ardour. This is the reason for what appears like distance between the Lord as a Sun and heaven where angels are; it is still the Lord Himself present in heaven, but suitably for His being received.

[2] [6.] The Lord's presence, moreover, is not like the presence of a man occupying space, but is a presence devoid of space; which is that He is in greatest things and in least things, thus He Himself is in greatest things and He Himself is in least things. I know it is only with difficulty that a man can grasp this idea, because it is only with difficulty that he can remove space from the ideas of his thought. It can be grasped by angels, however, into whose ideas spaces do not enter. In this respect spiritual thought differs from natural thought.

[3] [7.] Since therefore the Love going forth from the Lord as a Sun, is the Lord Himself, and since that Love is Life Itself, it follows that the Love Itself which is Life, is a Man, and so contains in an infinite form each and all things that are in man.

These things are also logical inferences from what has previously been said about the life of all from the Lord, and also about His Providence, His Omnipotence, His Omnipresence and His Omniscience.

[4] [8.] GOD IS VERY MAN.** * In APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, NOS. 1216-1228 ** The MS. shows, before the Section IV that follows, two previous attempts at Section IV of several lines each, which are deleted. Between the second of these and the final writing of the section, there appears the above clause. The position of this clause and the writing show that it was not included in the deletion but a later insertion, probably the heading to a new section to be elaborated later. This clause forms the title to paragraph No. 11 in his published work ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND THE DIVINE WISDOM."