10738. Before these things were said, they had believed that our company also was one of those which desired to confuse them about God by the idea of three; and therefore after hearing these words, they said that some have been sent by God (whom they then called the Lord) to teach them about Him; and that they are not willing to admit visitors who disturb them, especially by means of three Persons in the Godhead, because they know that God is one, consequently that the Divine is one, and not a unanimity of three-unless their visitors are willing to think of God as of an angel, in whom there is an inmost of life that is invisible, and from which he thinks and is wise; and an external of life that is visible under the human form, and from which he sees and acts; and also a proceeding of life which is a sphere of love and faith around him. For from the sphere of life proceeding from him, the quality of every spirit and angel in respect to his love and faith is perceived at a distance. And in regard to the Lord they said that the proceeding sphere of life from Him is the Divine Itself that fills the heavens and makes them, because it is from the very Being of the life of love and of faith.
[2] After hearing these words it was given to say that such an idea about what is trine and at the same time one, is in agreement with the angelic idea about the Lord, and that it is from the very doctrine of the Lord about Himself, for He teaches that the Father and He are one, that the Father is in Him and He in the Father, that whoso seeth Him seeth the Father, and whoso believeth in Him believeth in the Father and knoweth Him, and also that the Paraclete, whom He calls the Spirit of truth and also the Holy Spirit, proceeds from Him and does not speak from Himself, but from Him, whereby is meant the Divine proceeding.
[3] And it was given to say, further, that an idea of what is trine and at the same time one is in agreement with the Being and Manifestation [Esse et Existere] of the life of the Lord when He was in the world. The Being of His life was the Divine Itself, for He was conceived of Jehovah; and the being of the life of everyone is that from whom he is conceived. The Manifestation of life from this Being is the Human in form. The being of the life of every man, which he has from his father, is called the soul; and the manifestation of life thence derived is called the body. The soul and the body constitute one man.
[4] The likeness between the two is like that between that which is in an endeavor and that which is in the consequent act; for an act is an endeavor acting, and thus these two are one. In man, endeavor is called "will;" and endeavor acting is called "action." The body is the instrumental by which the will, which is the principal, acts; and in acting the instrumental and the principal are together a one. And so it is with the soul and the body. The angels in heaven have such an idea about the soul and the body; and from this they know that the Lord made His Human Divine from the Divine in Himself, which was His soul from the Father. Moreover, the faith everywhere received in the Christian world does not dissent from this, for it teaches, "As the body and soul are one man, so also in the Lord, God and Man are one Christ."
[5] As such was the union, or such the one, in the Lord, He therefore rose again not only as to the soul; but, differently from any man, as to the body which He glorified in the world. He also instructed the disciples about this, saying, "Feel Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have."
[6] From this it is that the church acknowledges the omnipresence of His Human in the Sacrament of the Supper, which could not be acknowledged unless His Human also was Divine. These things were well understood by these spirits; for such things fall into the understanding of angelic spirits; and they said that the Lord alone has power in the heavens, and that the heavens are His. To this it was given to reply that the church also knows this from the mouth of the Lord Himself before He ascended into heaven, for He then said, "All power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."
