41. So also a false and wicked soul from the ens of God's anger in the curse, and from the inherited wickedness, as also from the actual wickedness, becomes a thistle, in that the will, viz. the science of the soul, speaks in [the quality] a thistle; and from such a false and wicked ground there grow more thistles. As God in Moses says, He will visit or reprove the sins of the father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation (Exod. xx. 5); and Christ says, A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matt. vii. 18).
42. Thus we see that perdition comes from the soul. And we see that God's holy will cannot be manifest in false and wicked working. So long as the soul's will works evil, so long God's speaking forms itself therein in anger; but when it begins to stand still from such working, then is God's power of love manifest therein: for if it works no more, then works in it the Abyss, viz. the One.
43. For God works from eternity to eternity, but no other than his Word; and that Word is God (John i. 1), viz. a manifestation of the Abyss. Now if the soul speaks no more its own will, then is the unsearchable will speaking in it: where the creature stands still, there God works.
44. Now if the creature will work with God, then must its will enter into God; and then God works with and through the creature; for the whole creation, both heavenly, hellish, and earthly, is no other than the working Word, the Word itself is All.
45. The creature is a compacted, coagulated vapour and exhalation from the Word. And as the Word is exhaled out of the free will, where the free will brings itself out of the Abyss into the profundity, so also the free will of the angels and souls brings the Word into a profundity. And that profundity is the creature, viz. a fire-source to its re-speaking-forth; and out of that re- speaking- forth proceeds evil and good; and according to that re-spoken-forth substance and power the soul has its judgement and sentence.
1 The soul.
46. For that is the judgement: that the evil be separated from the good, and that every thing possess its own principle. Whatsoever soul now speaks forth hellish source, viz. the curse, it must [speak it]
into death, that it no more bring God's Word into evil and good, but [into] the evil alone, that every thing may remain with its own.
47. And therefore because in the place of this world, through the Word, evil and good are spoken forth, therefore in that place is a final day of separation appointed, when good and evil shall cease to be spoken in any place. And the wicked shall have their place prepared, where evil shall be spoken in its eternity, that the good may be known, and in the good the joy be manifest. Also that it may be known what evil and what good are; also what life and death are; and that the children of God may rejoice.
48. For if evil were not known, joy would not be manifest; but if joy be manifest, then is the eternal Word spoken in joy: to which end. the Word, with nature, has brought itself into a creation.
49. And this is the true ground wherein all conceits and opinions are known, and all sophistry thrown to the ground; also all strife and contention has an end. Whosoever rightly sees and understands this, has no further question about anything; for he sees that he lives and subsists in God, and he gives himself up to God, that God may further know and will through him, and speak what and how he will. This party seeks only the estate of lowliness, that God in him may alone be high.
50. But so long as Lucifer has his dominion in man, so long the creature presses forward to advance itself and will be its own God. And this is also a wonder: as God's wisdom stands in the wonders in the love, so it is also in self; and in the appropriation of the creature.
51. Every thing is good in its own principle wherein it lives, but to another it is opposite: Yet it must be so that one may be manifest in the other, and the hidden wisdom may be known; and be a sport in the severation, wherewith the profundity, viz. the eternal One, may sport with itself before itself.
41. So also a false and wicked soul from the ens of God's anger in the curse, and from the inherited wickedness, as also from the actual wickedness, becomes a thistle, in that the will, viz. the science of the soul, speaks in [the quality] a thistle; and from such a false and wicked ground there grow more thistles. As God in Moses says, He will visit or reprove the sins of the father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation (Exod. xx. 5); and Christ says, A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matt. vii. 18).
42. Thus we see that perdition comes from the soul. And we see that God's holy will cannot be manifest in false and wicked working. So long as the soul's will works evil, so long God's speaking forms itself therein in anger; but when it begins to stand still from such working, then is God's power of love manifest therein: for if it works no more, then works in it the Abyss, viz. the One.
43. For God works from eternity to eternity, but no other than his Word; and that Word is God (John i. 1), viz. a manifestation of the Abyss. Now if the soul speaks no more its own will, then is the unsearchable will speaking in it: where the creature stands still, there God works.
44. Now if the creature will work with God, then must its will enter into God; and then God works with and through the creature; for the whole creation, both heavenly, hellish, and earthly, is no other than the working Word, the Word itself is All.
45. The creature is a compacted, coagulated vapour and exhalation from the Word. And as the Word is exhaled out of the free will, where the free will brings itself out of the Abyss into the profundity, so also the free will of the angels and souls brings the Word into a profundity. And that profundity is the creature, viz. a fire-source to its re-speaking-forth; and out of that re- speaking- forth proceeds evil and good; and according to that re-spoken-forth substance and power the soul has its judgement and sentence.
1 The soul.
46. For that is the judgement: that the evil be separated from the good, and that every thing possess its own principle. Whatsoever soul now speaks forth hellish source, viz. the curse, it must [speak it]
into death, that it no more bring God's Word into evil and good, but [into] the evil alone, that every thing may remain with its own.
47. And therefore because in the place of this world, through the Word, evil and good are spoken forth, therefore in that place is a final day of separation appointed, when good and evil shall cease to be spoken in any place. And the wicked shall have their place prepared, where evil shall be spoken in its eternity, that the good may be known, and in the good the joy be manifest. Also that it may be known what evil and what good are; also what life and death are; and that the children of God may rejoice.
48. For if evil were not known, joy would not be manifest; but if joy be manifest, then is the eternal Word spoken in joy: to which end. the Word, with nature, has brought itself into a creation.
49. And this is the true ground wherein all conceits and opinions are known, and all sophistry thrown to the ground; also all strife and contention has an end. Whosoever rightly sees and understands this, has no further question about anything; for he sees that he lives and subsists in God, and he gives himself up to God, that God may further know and will through him, and speak what and how he will. This party seeks only the estate of lowliness, that God in him may alone be high.
50. But so long as Lucifer has his dominion in man, so long the creature presses forward to advance itself and will be its own God. And this is also a wonder: as God's wisdom stands in the wonders in the love, so it is also in self; and in the appropriation of the creature.
51. Every thing is good in its own principle wherein it lives, but to another it is opposite: Yet it must be so that one may be manifest in the other, and the hidden wisdom may be known; and be a sport in the severation, wherewith the profundity, viz. the eternal One, may sport with itself before itself.
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