comprehended there by any natural idea, but only by a spiritual idea. The
spiritual idea of distances of space is the same as of distances of good
or distances of truth, which are affinities and likenesses according to
states of goodness and truth.

8. From this it may be seen that man is unable, by a merely natural idea,
to comprehend that the Divine is everywhere, and yet not in space; but
that angels and spirits comprehend this clearly; consequently that a man
also may, provided he admits into his thought something of spiritual light;
and this for the reason that it is not his body that thinks, but his
spirit, thus not his natural, but his spiritual.

9. But many fail to comprehend this because of their love of the natural,
which makes them unwilling to raise the thoughts of their understanding
above the natural into spiritual light; and those who are unwilling to do
this can think only from space, even concerning God; and to think according
to space concerning God is to think concerning the expanse of nature. This
has to be premised, because without a knowledge and some perception that
the Divine is not in space, nothing can be understood about the Divine
Life, which is Love and Wisdom, of which subjects this volume treats; and
hence little, if anything, about Divine Providence, Omnipresence,
Omniscience, Omnipotence, Infinity and Eternity, which will be treated
of in succession.

10. It has been said that in the spiritual world, just as in the natural
world, there appear to be spaces, consequently also distances, but that
these are appearances according to spiritual affinities which are of love
and wisdom, or of good and truth. From this it is that the Lord, although
everywhere in the heavens with angels, nevertheless appears high above
them as a sun. Furthermore, since reception of love and wisdom causes
affinity with the Lord, those heavens in which the angels are, from
reception, in closer affinity with Him, appear nearer to Him than those
in which the affinity is more remote. From this it is also that the
heavens, of which there are three, are distinct from each other,
likewise the societies of each heaven; and further, that the hells under
them are remote according to their rejection of love and wisdom. The same
is true of men, in whom and with whom the Lord is present throughout the
whole earth; and this solely for the reason that the Lord is not in space.

11. GOD IS VERY MAN.

In all the heavens there i