Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/108

12 that He Has hidden the hells under them, which are as many in number as the heavens. Moreover, that He alone gives life to all and each of the things which are in the worlds of nature and in the worlds above nature; and as He alone gives life, that no angel, spirit, or man, can move hand or foot except from Him. The quality of the infinite power of the Lord is especially evident from the consideration that He alone receives all that come from so many earths into the spiritual worlds, who are some myriads every week from our earth, and consequently so many myriads from so many thousands of earths in the universe; and not only receives, but also by a thousand mysteries of Divine wisdom leads every one to the place of his life, the faithful to their places in the heavens, and the unfaithful to their places in the hells; and that He everywhere rules the thoughts, intentions, and wills of all, singly as well as universally; and causes all and each one in the heavens to enjoy their felicity, and all and each one in the hells to be held in their bonds, insomuch that not one of them can lift up a hand, much less rise out, to the injury of any angel. Also that all are thus held in order, and in bonds, howsoever the heavens and the hells may be multiplied, to eternity. These and many other things, which from their abundance cannot be enumerated, would be impossible if the Lord had not infinite power. (A. E. n. 726.)

God perceives, sees, and knows all things, even to the most minute, that are done according to order; because order is universal from things the most single. For the single things taken together are denominated the universal; as the particulars taken together are denominated a general. The universal together with its most single things is a work cohering as one, insomuch that one part cannot be touched and affected without some sense of it being communicated to all the rest. It is from this quality of order in the universe that there is something similar in all created things in the world. But this shall be illustrated by comparisons taken from things that are visible. In the whole man there are things general and particular, and the general things there include the particulars, and adjust themselves by such a connection that one thing is of another. This is effected by the fact that there is a common covering about every member of the body, and that this insinuates itself into the single parts therein, so that they make one in every office and use. For example, the covering of every muscle enters into the single moving fibies therein, and clothes them from itself; in like manner the