True Christian Religion (Chadwick) n. 70

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70. The reason why a person is by Divine omnipresence in God to the extent that he lives in accordance with order, is that God is omnipresent and where He is present in His Divine Order, He is so to speak in Himself, since, as shown before, He is order. Now since man has been created to be a form for the Divine Order, God is present in him, but fully only to the extent that he lives in accordance with the Divine order. If he does not live in accordance with the Divine order, God is still present in him, but in his highest regions, giving him the ability to understand truth and will good, that is, giving him the faculty of understanding and the inclination to love. But in so far as he lives contrary to order, so far does he close up the lower regions of his mind or spirit, and thus prevent God from coming down and filling the lower regions with His presence. So God is present in him, but he is not in God. It is the general rule in heaven that God is present in every person, evil as well as good, but a person is not in God unless he lives in accordance with order. For the Lord says that He wills that a person should be in Him and He in the person (John 15:4).

[2] The reason why a person is in God if he lives in accordance with order is that God is omnipresent in the universe, and in every part of it, in the inmost of each, since these are in order. But in parts which are contrary to order, which are only those outside the inmost, God is omnipresent by a continual struggle with them as He strives continually to bring them into order. For this reason in so far as a person allows himself to be brought into order, so far is God omnipresent in his whole being, and consequently so far is God in him and he in God. The absence of God from man is no more possible than the absence of the sun, by way of its heat and light, from the earth. But objects on earth are only affected by its influence to the extent that they receive the heat and light radiated by the sun, which happens in spring and summer.

[3] This comparison can be applied to the omnipresence of God. A person is so far in spiritual heat and at the same time spiritual light, that is, in possession of the good of love and the truths of wisdom, as he is subject to order. But spiritual heat and light differ from natural heat and light. In wintertime natural heat is lost by the earth and things on it, and natural light is lost at nighttime, because the earth by its rotation and orbit around the sun causes the seasons and times of day. This does not happen with spiritual heat and light, for God is present supplying both by means of His sun, and this does not change as the natural sun appears to do. It is the person himself who turns away as the earth turns away from the sun, and when he turns away from the truths of wisdom, he can be compared to the earth turning away from the sun during the night; when he turns away from the kinds of good of love he is like the earth turning away from the sun during the winter. Such is the correspondence between the effects and services performed by the sun of the spiritual world and those performed by the sun of the natural world.


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