The Forty Questions of the Soul

17. For he hath many helpers, viz. the angels; they shall sever and f part all asunder; and then the Father, 6 cum Verbo Domini, pronounceth the sentence by the mouth of Christ, and then the world beginneth to burn, and everything entereth into its own granary and reservatory.

1 Or justice.

2 Or manifestation.

3 Or property.

4 Or works.

5 artificer, or framer of all things.

6 with the Word of the Lord.

* "its own mansion," lit., "its eternal abode."

f "part all asunder" (entsondern), to separate according to its kind, or distinguish, discriminate.

18. For the reservatories will be divers, not only two, viz. the two Principles, yet in two Principles, but with much difference, everything according to its * virtue.

19. For every work standeth in its magical Principle, wherein it is contained, as a several distinct wonder, both in heaven and hell, everything according to its spirit; as it hath been good or evil, so will its form appear; and so also will its virtue be, like the flowers of the field in their varieties: And in this manner also shall the glorification and joy of man be, all according to 2 the essence which he brought forth here.

20. But we understand here the essence of faith, which is the virtue in the essence of love, and not of the outward work; for all shall be represented in the figure, in the wonders, and that both as to the beginning and circumstances.

21. When the last day shall dawn, then the Deity manifesteth itself once more, and that is the third time, in all forms, in love and anger; and then all things together at once shall be plainly manifested, and visibly set forth in the sight of all creatures, in the manner following.

22. The beginning of the creation in the Word Fiat hath enclosed this world in itself as a model, and 3 founded the limit wherein now the wonders are contained, which should be manifested in the middle, *in the time, and brought to essence, which were foreseen from eternity in the wisdom, in the magia of God, and will be all in the essence then, and then the 4 limit is nigh at hand, and there will be no time of seeking more, for then all is finished; whatsoever God had in his eternal counsel, he hath conceived and manifested in time.

1 Or power.

2 his works which he wrought here.

3 Or appointed.

4 end, conclusion, or consummation of all things.

* "in the time" (in einer Zeit), in a time.

23. Now here is the end of time, for then the beginning hath found the end, and the end is then the beginning, and passeth again into that which it was from eternity.

24. But the l middle, with the 2 wonders which were manifested in the time, continueth for evermore in the beginning and in the end, as an eternal middle, with its wonders, viz. with the angels and men, and their essences; as also the figures of all creatures, and all whatsoever hath been essential at any time; the earth with its metals and stones, and all material substances, as trees and herbs, all these stand in the figure, in the middle, and in the wonders, but quite void of such essences and life [as they have here].

25. For no beast cometh again, but its figure continueth in the magia, for it arose out of the eternal glass; so that now, when the outward earthly glass breaketh, it must remain in the eternal as a wonder, to God's honour and glory for evermore.

1 Viz. the world and every creature.

2 Viz. all that hath been done in the world from the beginning to the end.

26. And these essences belong all to paradise; for they shall be the holy paradise, wherein the heavenly essences shall bear essential, palpable fruit.

27. And as here in this hfe we account the fruits of the earth, proceeding from its essence, as 1 dead things without 2 understanding, so also the bestial and earthly image of this world shall appear as a dead essence, and so shall the essence of all creatures; they shall remain as a shadow.

28. But paradise hath and beareth fruit from the virtue of eternal life, that is,