[2] Continuation.- The reason why the Lord alone resists evils with man, and not by means of any angels of heaven, is that the resistance of evils with man is the work of the Divine Omnipotence, the Divine Omniscience, and the Divine Providence. It is the work of the Divine Omnipotence, because to resist one evil is to resist many, and also to resist the hells. For every evil is conjoined with innumerable evils, cohering one with another like the hells. For as the hells make one, so also do evils, and to resist the hells so conjoined is not possible for any one but the Lord alone. It is the work of the Divine Omniscience, because the Lord alone knows what the quality of a man is, and what his evils are, and how they are connected with all other evils; thus in what order they must be removed that a man may be inwardly or radically cured. It is the work of the Divine Providence, lest anything be done contrary to the laws of order, and further, that what is done may conduce to man s happiness to eternity; for the Divine Providence, the Divine Omniscience, and the Divine Omnipotence have regard in every thing to what is eternal.

[3] From these things it is evident that no angels can resist evils with man, but the Lord alone. The Lord effects this with man both immediately from Himself, and also mediately through heaven; but still in such a manner, that no angel knows anything of it. For heaven as a collective whole is the Lord, because it is His proceeding Divine, and therefore when He operates through heaven, He operates from Himself; but it is said mediately, because the Divine Operation flows through the heavens, still it takes nothing from the proprium of any angel there, but what it does take from them belongs to itself. The appearance is like that of a man performing an action; in order to cause the action he moves innumerable motive fibres scattered throughout the whole body, of which operation no single fibre knows anything whatever. Such also are the angels in the Divine Body, which is called heaven.