d. If we separate the Lord, goodwill, and faith, however, instead of being
a form that accepts these qualities we are a form that destroys them.
(a) The Lord flows into everyone with all his divine love, all his divine 364
wisdom, and all his divine life.In the Book of Creation, we read that we
were created in the image of God and that God breathed the breath of
life into our nostrils (Genesis 1 : 27 ; 2 : 7 ). This means that we are not life,
we are merely organs that receive life. God could not create another
being like himself. If he could have done so, there would be as many gods
as there are people. God could not create life or light either. God could,
however, create people as forms that receive life, just as he created the eye
as a form that receives light. God could not and still cannot divide his
own essence—it is an indivisible oneness. Therefore since God alone is
life, it follows without a doubt that God uses his life to bring us all to life.
Without being brought to life, we would all have flesh that was no more
than a sponge and bones that were no more than a skeleton. We would
have no more life than a clock that moves because of its pendulum and a
weight or a spring. Given this fact, it also follows that God flows into
every human being with all his divine life, that is, with all his divine love
and divine wisdom. (For these two things constituting his divine life, see
above, §§ 39 , 40 ). Divinity is indivisible.
[ 2 ] Furthermore, we can understand how God flows in with all his
divine life just as we understand that the sun in our world flows with all its
essence (heat and light) into every tree, every bush, and every flower, and
even into every stone, both precious and common. Every object draws its
own share from the general inflow. The sun does not divide up its heat
and light and give part of it to this thing and another part to that one.
The same thing is true of the sun in heaven—the source from which
divine love emanates in the form of heat and divine wisdom in the form
of light. Love and wisdom flow into human minds the way heat and light
from the world’s sun flow into bodies, bringing them to life depending
on the quality of their form. Each form takes what it needs from the gen-
eral inflow.
What the Lord says applies here:
Your Father makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5 : 45 )
[ 3 ] The Lord is omnipresent; and everywhere he is present, he is pres-
ent with his entire essence. It is impossible for him to take out some of
§364 faith 433