GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, AND OMNIPRESENCE 1. God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence do not come within the scope of the human understanding because God's Omnipotence is infinite power, God's Omniscience is infinite wisdom, and Omnipresence is infinite presence in all the things that have gone forth and that do go forth from Him; and indeed the Infinite Divine does not come within the scope of a finite understanding.* 2. That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent is acknowledged without rational investigation; for this flows in from God into the higher part of the human mind, and thence, with all with whom there is religion and sound reason, into acknowledgement. It flows in also with those with whom there is not religion; but with these, there is not reception, and hence not acknowledgement. 3. That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, a man can himself confirm from innumerable things that are matters of reason and at the same time of religion, as for instance these that follow:

4. First, God alone is and exists in Himself; and every other being and every other thing is from Him. 5. Second, God alone loves, is wise, and lives and acts from Himself; every other being and every other thing does so from Him. 6. Third, God alone has power from Himself; every other being and every other thing has power from Him. 7. Consequently, God is the soul of the whole, from which all beings and all things are, live, and move. 8. Unless every single thing in the world and in heaven had relation to One who is, lives, and has power from Himself, the universe would be dissipated in a moment. 9. On this account the universe was created by God a fullness of God, wherefore He Himself said that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, is, and will be, the Almighty. [Rev. i 8, 11.] 10. The preservation of the universe which is an unceasing creation is complete evidence that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. 11. The reason contrary things, which are evils, are not taken away because God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, is that evils are extraneous to subjects and created things and so do not penetrate to the Divine things that are within. 12. Of the Divine Providence, which indeed is universal in the very smallest things, evils are removed more and more from the interiors and cast out to the outside, and in this way are conveyed away and separated in order that they should not do any harm to the internal things that are Divine.** * In Sk. words follow here which N. regarded as a marginal note:

"All things proceed according to order. God is order." ** The three following paragraphs are regarded by N. as annotations and are not numbered. In Sk. the first and second are united as number 13, and the last is numbered as 14. "There is Divine Omnipotence by means of His Human; this is 'sitting at the right hand' [Mark xiv 62; xvi 19; Matt. xxvi 64) and being 'the First and the Last', as is said of the Son of Man in the Revelation [i 8, 11, and it is there said that He is 'the Almighty'. The reason is that God acts from first things by means of the last, and thus holds all things together. The Lord acts from first things by means of the last things with men; not by means of anything of man's, but by what is His Own in man; in the case of the Jews He acted by means of the Word with them, thus by what was His Own; by it also He performed miracles through Elijah and Elisha; but because the Jews perverted the Word. God Himself came and made Himself 'the Last'; and so then He performed miracles from Himself. There is an order first created, according to which God may act and therefore God Himself made Himself Order.