806. The British ¹ in the spiritual world.

Human beings have two modes of thinking, external and internal. In the natural world they use the external mode, in the spiritual world the internal. These two modes act as one in the case of the good, but not in the case of the wicked. It is rarely possible in the natural world to see what a person's interior is like, since he has learned from childhood to behave well and rationally, and he likes to seem to be so. But in the spiritual world everyone's nature is plain to see, for then he is a spirit, and the spirit is the internal man. Now because I have been allowed to be in that world and see there what internal men from different kingdoms are like, it is my duty, because of its importance, to make this generally known.

Footnotes:

50. (i) OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE ARE PROPERTIES OF THE DIVINE WISDOM RESULTING FROM THE DIVINE LOVE.

That omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are qualities of the Divine Wisdom as the result of the Divine Love, and not of the Divine Love by means of the Divine Wisdom, is a secret from heaven which up to now has not dawned on anyone's understanding, because no one so far has known what love is in its essence and what the wisdom derived from it is in its, not to mention the influence of one upon the other. What happens is that love with all its particulars flows into wisdom and there lives like a king in his realm or a master in his house, leaving all the administration of justice to its judgment. Since righteousness is an attribute of love and judgment an attribute of wisdom, love leaves all control to its wisdom. The following pages will shed more light on this secret, for the moment this statement may serve as a rule. The fact that God's omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence arise through the wisdom of His love is what is meant by the following passage from John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was nothing made which was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the world was made through Him; and the Word was made flesh, John 1:1, 3-4, 10, 14.

'Word' here means Divine Truth, or, what comes to the same thing, the Divine Wisdom. That is why it is also called life and light; for these are nothing but wisdom.