25
To this I will add the following memorable relation:
On one occasion, awaking from sleep I fell into a profound meditation about God; and looking up I saw above me in heaven an exceedingly bright light of oval form; and as I fixed my gaze upon it the light withdrew to the sides and formed a circle; and then, behold, heaven opened to me, and I saw magnificent scenes, and angels standing in a circle on the southern side of the opening talking together. As I greatly wished to hear what they were saying, I was permitted first to hear the sound of their voices, which was full of heavenly love, and afterwards what they said, which was full of wisdom from that love.
They were talking together about the one God, and conjunction with him, and salvation thereby. They uttered things ineffable, most of which could not possibly be expressed in any natural language. But at different times I had been in company with the angels in heaven itself, and at such times had been in a state like theirs and in a similar language, and consequently I was now able to understand them, and select from what they said some things that can be rationally expressed in the words of natural language.
[2] They said that the Divine esse is one, the same, the itself, and indivisible. This they illustrated by spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine esse could not separate itself into several, each of them possessing the Divine esse, and still itself be one, the same, and indivisible; since each one from his own esse would then think from himself and by himself separately; and even if the Divine esse could so separate itself, and all should think unanimously, each from the others, there would still be several unanimous Gods, and not one God. For unanimity, which means the agreement of several, each for himself and by himself, is not consistent with the unity, but only with the plurality of God. The angels did not say “of Gods,” because they could not; for such an expression would be strenuously resisted by the light of heaven, which is the source of their thought, and by the aura in which their words are conveyed.
They said furthermore, that when they wished to utter the word “Gods,” meaning each one a person by himself, the effort to utter it fell at once into the expression “one God,” and even “one only God.” To this they added that the Divine esse is Divine esse in itself, not from itself; because the expression “from itself” implies esse in itself from another and prior esse; and this implies a God from God, which is impossible. That which is from God is not called God, but is called Divine; for what is a God from God? Thus what is a God born from God from eternity? And is a God going forth from God through a God born from eternity anything else than words in which there is no light from heaven?
[3] They said still further, that the Divine esse, which is in itself God, is the same; not the same simply, but infinitely, that is, the same from eternity to eternity; the same everywhere and the same with everyone and in everyone; and that all variableness and change are in the recipient, caused by the state of the recipient.
That the Divine esse which is God in himself is the itself, they illustrated thus: God is the itself because he is love itself and wisdom itself, that is, he is good itself and truth itself, and therefore life itself. Unless these in God were love and wisdom itself and were good and truth itself and therefore life itself, they would not be anything in heaven and in the world, because there would be nothing in them related to the itself. Every quality is what it is from the fact that there is an itself in which it originates, and to which it must be related in order to be what it is. This itself, which is the Divine esse, is not in place; but it is present with and in those who are in place in accordance with their reception of it, since place, or progress from place to place, cannot be predicated of love and wisdom nor of good and truth, nor of life therefrom, which are itself in God, and are even God himself. On this rests his omnipotence. So the Lord says that he is in the midst of them, and that he is in them and they in him.
[4] But as he can be received by no one as he is in himself, what he is in his essence is made manifest as a sun above the angelic heavens, and what goes forth from that sun as light is himself in respect to wisdom, and what goes forth as heat is himself in respect to love. That sun is not God himself; but the Divine love and Divine wisdom as they most nearly proceed from him, all about him are seen by the angels as a sun. He himself within the sun is a man. He is our Lord Jesus Christ, in regard both to the Divine from which [he is] and to the Divine human, because the itself which is love itself and wisdom itself was his soul from the Father, that is, the Divine life, or life in itself. It is not thus in any man. In man the soul is not life, but is a recipient of life. This the Lord teaches, saying:
예수께서 이르시되 내가 곧 길이요 진리요 생명이니 나로 말미암지 않고는 아버지께로 올 자가 없느니라 (요14:6) I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).
아버지께서 자기 속에 생명이 있음 같이 아들에게도 생명을 주어 그 속에 있게 하셨고 (요5:26)As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself(John 5:26);
“life in himself” meaning God.
To this they added, that those who are in any spiritual light are able to perceive from these statements that the Divine esse, because it is one, the same, the itself, and indivisible, cannot exist in several; and if the opposite is asserted manifest contradictions must result.
26
When I had heard this the angels perceived in my thought those ideas of God that prevail in the Christian church respecting a trinity of persons in unity and a unity of persons in a trinity; also respecting a birth of the son of God from eternity; and they said, “What is your thought? Are you not thinking from natural light, which is not in accord with our spiritual light? Unless, therefore, you dismiss these ideas we must shut up heaven against you and depart.”
But I said, “Enter, I pray you, more deeply into my thought, and you will see, perhaps, that there is an agreement between us.” This they did; and they saw that by three persons I understood three Divine attributes going forth, creation, redemption, and regeneration, and that these are attributes of one God; also that by the birth of the son of God from eternity I understood his birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time; also that to think of the son born of God from eternity would, to me, be not above nature and reason but contrary to nature and reason; while to think of the son born of God in time through the virgin Mary as the only son of God, and the only-begotten, is very different; and to believe otherwise than this would be a monstrous error. I then told them that the source of my natural thought about a trinity and unity of persons, and the birth of a son of God from eternity, was the doctrine of faith in the church which has its name from Athanasius.
Then the angels said, “Very well,” and asked me to say from them that only those who approach the very God of heaven and earth can enter heaven, because heaven is heaven from that only God, and that this God is Jesus Christ, who is the Lord Jehovah, from eternity the creator, in time the redeemer, and to eternity the regenerator, thus who is at once Father, son, and Holy Spirit; and this, they said, is the gospel to be preached.
After this the heavenly light which had been seen before over the opening returned, and gradually descended and filled the interiors of my mind, and enlightened my ideas on the trinity and unity of God; and the ideas which I had first formed on these subjects, and which had been merely natural, I then saw separated as chaff is separated from wheat by winnowing, and carried away as by a wind to the north of heaven, and scattered.
