wisdom.

32. (ii) _By creation the human being is such that he can be conjoined
more and more closely to the Lord._ This becomes evident from what was
shown about degrees in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_ Part III,
especially in the propositions: "By creation there are three discrete
degrees or degrees of height in the human being" (nn. 230-235); "These
three degrees are in man from birth, and as they are opened, the man is
in the Lord, and the Lord in him" (nn. 236-241); "All perfection
increases and mounts with and according to the degrees" (nn. 199-204).
Evidently, then, man is such by creation that he can be conjoined with
the Lord more and more closely according to these degrees.

[2] But one must know well what degrees are and that there are two kinds
--discrete degrees or degrees of height, and continuous degrees or degrees
of breadth; also how they differ. It must be known, too, that every human
being has by creation and hence from birth three discrete degrees or
degrees of height, and that he comes at birth into the first degree,
called natural, and can grow in this degree continuously until he becomes
rational. He comes into the second degree, called spiritual, if he lives
according to spiritual laws of order, which are divine truths. He can
also come into the third degree, called celestial, if he lives according
to the celestial laws of order, which are divine goods.

[3] These degrees are opened in a person by the Lord according to his
life and actually opened in the world, but not perceptibly and sensibly
until after his departure from the world. As they are opened and later
perfected a man is conjoined to the Lord more and more closely. This
conjunction can grow to eternity in nearness to God and does so with the
angels. And yet no angel can attain or touch the first degree of the