23. The Scripture says, God wills that all men should be saved
(1 Tim. ii. 4). And Christ is come to seek and save that which is lost (Matt, xviii. 11). And He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). Then, says reason, If God will that all men should be saved, and wills not the evil, can he not then save all? Why do they remain hardened, if he wills not their hardening?
24. Answer. The soul stands in the unsearchable 1 will of God, in the eternal speaking Word. It is a spark from the divine speaking, whereby the abyss, viz. the eternal One, expresses or speaks forth itself in the science, understanding, and knowledge of the severation. 2 In the speaking it is come into nature and creature, and has now the ability to express again, viz. an image of itself.
25. Also in its knowledge it speaks forth the wonders of the divine possibility in good and evil. It speaks itself in its essential speaking, out of the eternal science itself in evil: where it should speak God, it speaks in itself want: where it should speak in its science, into the eternal One, viz. into God's love and wisdom, there it speaks into severation, viz. into multiplicity; and brings the science of its ability, which stands in the eternal speaking Word, out of the temperament into a self-will, which breaks off from the only will of God and enters into self.
26. Therefore then it changes the eternal will of the Unity in it, into the centre of severation, wherein the only God introduces his only will, in the speaking forth of the Word, into nature and painfulness, to the divine perception and feeling, viz. into an essential spiritual fire; and out of the fire into a light, whereby the abyss becomes majestic and working. Thus the false or wicked soul speaks itself only into a source of fire.
27. For its will to the speaking, which in God stands in the abyss, which brings itself through the desire into the fire- speaking, viz. into properties, that goes not easily back again into the abyss, viz. into the eternal One: But if it go back again, viz. into the eternal One, viz. into God, then the fiery science becomes majestic and light, and then is the soul an angel of God, viz. an image of the eternal divine science.
1 Unfathomable. 2 Separability.
28. But if the will continue in the fire as a magical fire-source, then is the soul that very fire-source. Who shall now advise and persuade this fire-source, seeing it has its ground in the abyss, and is itself its ground? The power of the majesty shines through it; but the desire shuts it up, and makes it dark, so that the light cannot be manifest therein. As it stands in John i. 5, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not. They dwell one in another, as day and night: the soul, in its imprinted desire, makes itself darkness.
29. The eternal One, viz. God, is in it, and it comprehends him not; it makes an angry God to itself: Where God's word in the anger speaks, and forms itself into nature and creature, there it works in itself; evil. But if it stood still from its working [for] the twinkling of an eye, then it would dive again into the eternal One, viz. into God; and so the divine science in the light would begin to work in it, and so it would come to repentance, even as it comes to pass with the penitent. Concerning which Christ says, Except you be converted, and become as a child, you will not see God (Matt, xviii. 3).
30. The soul's will, which has its ground and rise in the divine revelation (whence it is become a working life), should and must turn again into its mother out of which it proceeded; and then it is as a child in the mother's womb. And so in its mother it beholds God, viz. the Abyss of all beings; and is new-born in its mother; that is, the mother gives it the light's power, and in that power it attains the ability to work repentance. And then the eternal unsearchable will of God, which is called the Father of all beings, begets his only Son, viz. his power of love, in and through the science 1 of the soul, as in the particular or parcel of the whole will of God; for the ground of the soul, and God's eternal speaking Word, is one only ground, undivided.
1 Or root.
23. The Scripture says, God wills that all men should be saved
(1 Tim. ii. 4). And Christ is come to seek and save that which is lost (Matt, xviii. 11). And He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). Then, says reason, If God will that all men should be saved, and wills not the evil, can he not then save all? Why do they remain hardened, if he wills not their hardening?
24. Answer. The soul stands in the unsearchable 1 will of God, in the eternal speaking Word. It is a spark from the divine speaking, whereby the abyss, viz. the eternal One, expresses or speaks forth itself in the science, understanding, and knowledge of the severation. 2 In the speaking it is come into nature and creature, and has now the ability to express again, viz. an image of itself.
25. Also in its knowledge it speaks forth the wonders of the divine possibility in good and evil. It speaks itself in its essential speaking, out of the eternal science itself in evil: where it should speak God, it speaks in itself want: where it should speak in its science, into the eternal One, viz. into God's love and wisdom, there it speaks into severation, viz. into multiplicity; and brings the science of its ability, which stands in the eternal speaking Word, out of the temperament into a self-will, which breaks off from the only will of God and enters into self.
26. Therefore then it changes the eternal will of the Unity in it, into the centre of severation, wherein the only God introduces his only will, in the speaking forth of the Word, into nature and painfulness, to the divine perception and feeling, viz. into an essential spiritual fire; and out of the fire into a light, whereby the abyss becomes majestic and working. Thus the false or wicked soul speaks itself only into a source of fire.
27. For its will to the speaking, which in God stands in the abyss, which brings itself through the desire into the fire- speaking, viz. into properties, that goes not easily back again into the abyss, viz. into the eternal One: But if it go back again, viz. into the eternal One, viz. into God, then the fiery science becomes majestic and light, and then is the soul an angel of God, viz. an image of the eternal divine science.
1 Unfathomable. 2 Separability.
28. But if the will continue in the fire as a magical fire-source, then is the soul that very fire-source. Who shall now advise and persuade this fire-source, seeing it has its ground in the abyss, and is itself its ground? The power of the majesty shines through it; but the desire shuts it up, and makes it dark, so that the light cannot be manifest therein. As it stands in John i. 5, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not. They dwell one in another, as day and night: the soul, in its imprinted desire, makes itself darkness.
29. The eternal One, viz. God, is in it, and it comprehends him not; it makes an angry God to itself: Where God's word in the anger speaks, and forms itself into nature and creature, there it works in itself; evil. But if it stood still from its working [for] the twinkling of an eye, then it would dive again into the eternal One, viz. into God; and so the divine science in the light would begin to work in it, and so it would come to repentance, even as it comes to pass with the penitent. Concerning which Christ says, Except you be converted, and become as a child, you will not see God (Matt, xviii. 3).
30. The soul's will, which has its ground and rise in the divine revelation (whence it is become a working life), should and must turn again into its mother out of which it proceeded; and then it is as a child in the mother's womb. And so in its mother it beholds God, viz. the Abyss of all beings; and is new-born in its mother; that is, the mother gives it the light's power, and in that power it attains the ability to work repentance. And then the eternal unsearchable will of God, which is called the Father of all beings, begets his only Son, viz. his power of love, in and through the science 1 of the soul, as in the particular or parcel of the whole will of God; for the ground of the soul, and God's eternal speaking Word, is one only ground, undivided.
1 Or root.
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