there, and how could they come and be present with him, when lands and
seas lay between?" So it was plain to me that in thinking of those in the
spiritual world a man does not think of space and time. For those there,
however, there is an appearance of time and space; see the work _Heaven
and Hell,_ nn. 162-169, 191-199.

51. From these considerations it may now be plain that the infinite and
eternal, thus the Lord, are to be thought of apart from space and time
and can be so thought of; plain, likewise, that they are so thought of by
those who think interiorly and rationally; and plain that the infinite
and eternal are identical with the Divine. So think angels and spirits.
In thought withdrawn from space and time, divine omnipresence is
comprehended, and divine omnipotence, also the Divine from eternity, but
these are not at all grasped by thought to which an idea of space and
time adheres. Plain it is, then, that one can conceive of God from
eternity, but never of nature from eternity. So one can think of the
creation of the world by God, but never of its creation from nature, for
space and time are proper to nature, but the Divine is apart from them.
That the Divine is apart from space and time may be seen in the treatise
_Divine Love and Wisdom_ (nn. 7-10, 69-72, 73-76, and other places).

52. (ii) _What is infinite and eternal in itself cannot but look to what
is infinite and eternal from itself in finite things._ By what is
infinite and eternal in itself the Divine itself is meant, as was shown
in the preceding section. By finite things are meant all things created
by the Lord, especially men, spirits, and angels. By looking to the
infinite and eternal from itself is meant to look to the Divine, that is
to Himself, in these, as a person beholds his image in a mirror. This was
shown in several places in the treatise _Divine Love and Wisdom,_
particularly where it was demonstrated that in the created universe there