Arcana Coelestia 6872. [2] What the perception and acknowledgment of the Divine from love are, must be told. Every man’s quality is known from his love; for love is the being of the life of everyone, from it springing the veriest life itself; such therefore as the love is with a man, such is the man. If there is the love of self and of the world, consequently the love of revenge, of hatred, of cruelty, of adultery, and the like, the man is a devil as to his spirit, or as to the interior man which lives after death, however he may appear in the outward form. But if there is with a man the love of God and the love of the neighbour, and consequently the love of good and truth, also of what is just and honorable, then however he may appear in the outward form, he is an angel as to his spirit which lives after death. But He with whom there is Divine love, which was with the Lord alone, is God; thus His Human was made Divine when He received in the Human the love of His Father, which was the being of His life. From all this it can be seen what is meant by the perception and acknowledgment of the Divine from love.

…[4] From all this it can be seen that man is made altogether new when he is being regenerated, for then each and all things with him are so disposed as to receive celestial loves. Nevertheless with man the prior forms are not destroyed, but only removed; but with the Lord the prior forms, which were from the maternal, were completely destroyed and extirpated, and Divine forms were received in their place. For the Divine love does not agree with any but a Divine form; all other forms it absolutely casts out; hence it is that the Lord when glorified was no longer the son of Mary.

AC 6876. And say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you. That this signifies that the Divine of the Ancient Church will be with those of the spiritual church is evident from the signification of the “God of their fathers” as being the Divine of the Ancient Church (that “fathers” denote those who are of the Ancient Church, see n. 6050, 6075, 6846); from the representation of the sons of Israel, here meant by “you” as being those of the spiritual church (see n. 6875); and from the signification of “being sent” as being to proceed (n. 2397, 4710, 6831); here that he will be with them, for it is said of the Divine of the Ancient Church that this shall be in the spiritual church, which is represented by the sons of Israel.

[2] The Divine which was of the Ancient Church was the Lord as to the Divine Human; the Ancient Church had this from the Most Ancient, and also from the fact that Jehovah was seen by them in a human form. When therefore they thought of Jehovah, they did not think of a universal entity, of which they could have had no idea, but of the Human Divine, into which they could determine their thought; for in this way they could both think of Jehovah and be conjoined with Him by love. Those who were of the Ancient Church, and especially those of the Most Ancient, were much wiser than the men of our times, and yet they could not think otherwise of Jehovah than as of a Man, whose Human was Divine; nor did there then flow into their thought any unbecoming idea taken from the natural man, and his infirmity and evil, but that which flowed in concerning Him was all holy. The angels themselves, who so far excel men in wisdom, cannot think otherwise of the Divine, for they see the Lord in the Divine Human; they know that an angel, with whom all things are finite, can have no idea whatever of the Infinite, except by what is like the finite.

[3] That in ancient times they adored Jehovah under a human Divine is very evident from the angels seen by Abraham in human form, also afterward by Lot, and likewise by Joshua, by Gideon, and by Manoah, which angels were called “Jehovah,” and were adored as the God of the universe. At this day if Jehovah were to appear in the church as a man, men would take offence, and would think that He could not possibly be the Creator and Lord of the universe, because he was seen as a man; and moreover they would not have any other idea of Him than as of a common man. In this they believe themselves wiser than the ancients, not knowing that in this they are altogether removed from wisdom; for when the idea of the thought is directed to a universal entity altogether incomprehensible, the idea falls into nothing, and is totally dissipated; and then in its place comes the idea of nature, to which each and all things are attributed. Hence the worship of nature is at this day so common, especially in the Christian world.

AC 141. Innumerable things might be said about man’s Own in describing its nature with the corporeal and worldly man, with the spiritual man, and with the celestial man.

With the corporeal and worldly man, his Own is his all, he knows of nothing else than his Own, and imagines, as before said, that if he were to lose this Own he would perish.

With the spiritual man also his Own has a similar appearance, for although he knows that the Lord is the life of all, and gives wisdom and understanding, and consequently the power to think and to act, yet this knowledge is rather the profession of his lips than the belief of his heart.

But the celestial man discerns that the Lord is the life of all and gives the power to think and to act, for he perceives that it is really so. He never desires his Own, nevertheless an Own is given him by the Lord, which is conjoined with all perception of what is good and true, and with all happiness. The angels are in such an Own, and are at the same time in the highest peace and tranquility, for in their Own are those things which are the Lord’s, who governs their Own, or them by means of their Own. This Own is the veriest celestial itself, whereas that of the corporeal man is infernal. But concerning this Own more hereafter.