ints in what follows in
this order:

i. The goal of creation is a heaven from mankind.
ii. Of divine providence, therefore, every man can be saved, and those
are saved who acknowledge God and live rightly.
iii. Man himself is in fault if he is not saved.
iv. Thus all are predestined to heaven, and no one to hell.

323. (i) _The goal of creation is a heaven from mankind._ It has been
shown above and in the work, _Heaven and Hell_ (London, 1758), that
heaven consists solely of those who have been born as human beings. Since
heaven consists of no others, it follows that the purpose of creation is
a heaven from mankind. This has been shown above (nn. 27-45), it is true,
but will be seen more clearly still with explanation of the following:

1. Everyone is created to live forever.
2. Everyone is created to live forever in a blessed state.
3. Thus every person has been created to enter heaven.
4. The divine love cannot but will this, and the divine wisdom cannot but
provide it.

324. One can see from these points that divine providence is none other
than predestination to heaven and cannot be altered into anything else.
We must now demonstrate, therefore, in the order proposed, that the goal
of creation is a heaven from the human race. First: _Everyone has been
created to live to eternity._ In the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
Parts III and V, it was shown that there are three degrees of life in
man, called natural, spiritual and celestial, that they are actually in
everyone, and that in animals there is only one degree of life, which is
like the lowest degree in man, called the natural. The result is that by
the elevation of his life to the Lord man is in such a state above that
of animals that he can comprehend what is of divine wisdom, and will what
is of divine love, in other words, receive what is divine; and he who can
receive what is divine, so as to see and perceive it within him, cannot
but be united with the Lord and by the union live to eternity.

[2] What would the Lord do with all the created universe if He had not
also created images and likenesses of Himself to whom He could
communicate His divine? What would He exist for, otherwise, except to
make this and not that or bring something into existence but not
something else, and this merely to be able to contemplate from afar only
incidents and constant changes as on a stage? What would there be divine
in these unless they were for the purpose of servi