God's love? I have already answered you, that love and anger are in contest. Whereinto the ens does espouse itself; of that it is apprehended and confirmed; yet so, that the will is free to go from the evil into the good, and from the good into the evil; and that while it lives upon the earth both doors stands open unto it: for the free will is not bound: but if it were bound then no judgement could with righteousness pass upon it. It has laws and instructions, which are given it, not unto death but unto life; but if it transgresses these, and continues in the transgression, now the judgement passes upon it; for every judgement [or sentence of condemnation] arises from the transgression of the command.
52. you say he cannot keep them, he is drawn [to transgression]. Yea, very right. Does not the truth rebuke him even to the face, that he is a faithless wretch, that suffers himself to be drawn to evil. The law to do right is in his vital light as a continual lookingglass: he sees and knows it very well, that he is a liar, and walks upon the way of the devil: it shows him the way of truth, but the free will rejects it;
at present he is predestinated to condemnation, yet so, that the will is free so long as he is in this cottage. But the heavy band of God's anger, in the drawing of the devil's desire, draws many a one to the damnation of death.
53. Reason says, If a man has free will, then God is not omnipotent over him, to do what he please with him. The free will is not from any beginning, also not amassed or taken out of any ground into any thing, or formed by any thing.
It is its own peculiar original out of the Word of the divine power, out of God's love and anger. It forms itself in its own will a centre to its seat; it begets itself in the first Principle to the fire and light; its right and genuine original is in the Nothing, where the Nothing, viz. the /_V [triangle forward slash]
(or as a man might unfold it, A. O. V.) does introduce itself into a lubet to contemplation; and the lubet brings itself into a will, and the will into a desire, and the desire into a substance.
54. Now the Eternal Original, viz. God, is a Judge over the substance; if the lubet (which is departed from him) has introduced itself into an evil being, then he judges that being or substance in its Principle. In what source and property soever, or in what ens soever, the lubet, proceeding from the departed /_V, has introduced itself into a Principle, therein the universal eternal free will, which is the abyss, and cause of all byss, does confirm and settle it.
55. The abyssal judges that which does introduce itself into byss, and severs the good (which has introduced itself into a good ens) into the good, viz. into the divine love; and the evil (which has brought itself into an evil ens, and set and formed itself into a centre to an evil spirit and will) into his wrath and anger.
56. For how can he judge a thing whose own it is not? How would God judge the will of the creature, if it were not sprung [or arisen] from him? Or rather, how can a judgement pass upon a thing which is bound, and not free in its willing and working?
57. The human and angelical will is arisen with the motion of the abyss (when the Deity once moved itself in its contemplation and sensation, and with the motion introduced itself into a beginning of the spirits) [the will of men and angels did spring forth] out of this beginning. Now every beginning goes into its end; and the end is that which was before the beginning; and there is the trial of the beginning, [which shows] whereinto the beginning has introduced itself.
58. Now God is before and without all beginnings, and from him every beginning proceeds; also he is the end of all beginnings. Now the middle of all inchoated things stands between the beginning and the end; for it must with its beginning enter again through the end into that whence it did arise.
God's love? I have already answered you, that love and anger are in contest. Whereinto the ens does espouse itself; of that it is apprehended and confirmed; yet so, that the will is free to go from the evil into the good, and from the good into the evil; and that while it lives upon the earth both doors stands open unto it: for the free will is not bound: but if it were bound then no judgement could with righteousness pass upon it. It has laws and instructions, which are given it, not unto death but unto life; but if it transgresses these, and continues in the transgression, now the judgement passes upon it; for every judgement [or sentence of condemnation] arises from the transgression of the command.
52. you say he cannot keep them, he is drawn [to transgression]. Yea, very right. Does not the truth rebuke him even to the face, that he is a faithless wretch, that suffers himself to be drawn to evil. The law to do right is in his vital light as a continual lookingglass: he sees and knows it very well, that he is a liar, and walks upon the way of the devil: it shows him the way of truth, but the free will rejects it;
at present he is predestinated to condemnation, yet so, that the will is free so long as he is in this cottage. But the heavy band of God's anger, in the drawing of the devil's desire, draws many a one to the damnation of death.
53. Reason says, If a man has free will, then God is not omnipotent over him, to do what he please with him. The free will is not from any beginning, also not amassed or taken out of any ground into any thing, or formed by any thing.
It is its own peculiar original out of the Word of the divine power, out of God's love and anger. It forms itself in its own will a centre to its seat; it begets itself in the first Principle to the fire and light; its right and genuine original is in the Nothing, where the Nothing, viz. the /_V [triangle forward slash]
(or as a man might unfold it, A. O. V.) does introduce itself into a lubet to contemplation; and the lubet brings itself into a will, and the will into a desire, and the desire into a substance.
54. Now the Eternal Original, viz. God, is a Judge over the substance; if the lubet (which is departed from him) has introduced itself into an evil being, then he judges that being or substance in its Principle. In what source and property soever, or in what ens soever, the lubet, proceeding from the departed /_V, has introduced itself into a Principle, therein the universal eternal free will, which is the abyss, and cause of all byss, does confirm and settle it.
55. The abyssal judges that which does introduce itself into byss, and severs the good (which has introduced itself into a good ens) into the good, viz. into the divine love; and the evil (which has brought itself into an evil ens, and set and formed itself into a centre to an evil spirit and will) into his wrath and anger.
56. For how can he judge a thing whose own it is not? How would God judge the will of the creature, if it were not sprung [or arisen] from him? Or rather, how can a judgement pass upon a thing which is bound, and not free in its willing and working?
57. The human and angelical will is arisen with the motion of the abyss (when the Deity once moved itself in its contemplation and sensation, and with the motion introduced itself into a beginning of the spirits) [the will of men and angels did spring forth] out of this beginning. Now every beginning goes into its end; and the end is that which was before the beginning; and there is the trial of the beginning, [which shows] whereinto the beginning has introduced itself.
58. Now God is before and without all beginnings, and from him every beginning proceeds; also he is the end of all beginnings. Now the middle of all inchoated things stands between the beginning and the end; for it must with its beginning enter again through the end into that whence it did arise.
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