is. To create what is, from nothing which is not, is an utter
contradiction. But still, that which is created in God from God is not
continuous from Him; for God is Esse in itself, and in created things
there is not any Esse in itself. If there were in created things any
Esse in itself, this would be continuous from God, and that which is
continuous from God is God. The angelic idea of this is, that what is
created in God from God, is like that in man which has been derived from
his life, but from which the life has been withdrawn, which is of such a
nature as to be in accord with his life, and yet it is not his life. The
angels confirm this by many things which have existence in their heaven,
where they say they are in God, and God is in them, and still that they
have, in their esse, nothing of God which is God. Many things whereby
they prove this will be presented hereafter; let this serve for present
information.

56. Every created thing, by virtue of this origin, is such in its nature
as to be a recipient of God, not by continuity, but by contiguity. By
the latter and not the former comes its capacity for conjunction. For
having been created in God from God, it is adapted to conjunction; and
because it has been so created, it is an analogue, and through such
conjunction it is like an image of God in a mirror.

57. From this it is that angels are angels, not from themselves, but by
virtue of this conjunction with God-Man; and this conjunction is according
to the reception of Divine Good and Divine Truth, which are God, and which
seem to proceed from Him, though really they are in Him. This reception
is according to their application to themselves of the laws of order,
which are Divine truths, in the exercise of that freedom of thinking and
willing according to reason, which they possess from the Lord as if it
were their own. By this they have a reception, as if from themselves, of