Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3637

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3637. In relation to man the Grand Man is the whole of the Lord's heaven, but in the highest sense the Grand Man is the Lord Himself; for it is from Him that heaven has its being, and to Him everything there corresponds. Since the human race had become utterly corrupted on account of a life of evil and consequent false persuasions, and since at that time the lower things with man were beginning to take control over the higher, that is, natural things were taking control over spiritual, and as a result Jehovah or the Lord was no longer able to flow in by way of the Grand Man, that is, by way of heaven, and bring those things back into proper order, it was consequently necessary for the Lord to come into the world. It was necessary because in so doing He assumed a human and made this Divine. Then by means of that human made Divine He restored order so that the whole of heaven might have reference to Himself as the one and only Man and might correspond to Him alone, once those who were under the influence of evil and so of falsity had been trodden down and so cast outside the Grand Man. This explains why people in heaven are said to be 'in the Lord', indeed in His body; for the Lord is the All of heaven, and being in Him every single angel there is assigned to a particular province and function.


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