关于“上帝的本质”的灵界见闻
48# 关于前文观点，我再补记以下可述之事：
昔时我曾与两位天使交谈，其一来自东方天堂，其一来自南方天堂。二天使察见我心中正默思爱与智慧的深层奥秘，便问：“你可知我们灵界之中，有以智慧为乐的集会游戏？” 我答未曾听闻。天使便道：“此类集会颇多。但凡因属灵之情爱慕真理之人 —— 亦即因真理本为真、因真理而生发智慧而爱慕真理之人，一闻集会讯号便齐聚一处，研讨辨析理智深处的精微事理。”
言毕，二天使牵起我的手说：“随我们同往，你便可亲眼目睹、亲耳听闻，今日集会讯号已然发出。” 我随二人行过一片平原，抵达一座小山；山脚延伸一道棕榈长廊，直通山巅。我们步入长廊拾级而上，至峰顶，见一片林地，林间起伏的高地天然形成剧场形制，中央一方平地铺着各色碎石。平地四周方形排布座椅，一众慕求智慧者安坐其上；剧场正中置一案几，案上封存一封盖印文书。
【2】座中众人邀我入席空位。我答道：“我蒙二位天使引至此处，只为观听论辩，不便落座。” 二天使遂行至中央案前，拆开封印，当众宣读文书所载智慧奥秘，交由众人研讨阐发。此三篇奥秘，乃是第三层天堂天使所撰，降置案上。
文书所载共三项论题：
一、人受造所拥有的 “上帝的形像” 与 “上帝的样式”，其本义为何；
二、何以人初生不具备任何关乎爱的知识，而飞禽走兽，无论灵钝高下，生来便具足维系自身一切爱欲所需的全部知识；
三、“生命树”、“分别善恶树” 各象征什么，食二树之果又代表何种内涵。
文末另有附言：“请将三项论题融会贯通，共断一论，誊录于新文书中，放回此案。我们将核验评判；若论断公允持平、合乎天平，在座诸位皆可领受智慧之赏。”
宣读完毕，二天使辞别众人，各归所属天堂。
座中众人随即依次研讨剖明面前的三重奥秘，发言次序由北至西，再至南方，最后为东方。众人先论第一题：人身上 “上帝的形像” 与 “上帝的样式” 究竟何谓。
此时有人当众诵读《创世记》经文：“上帝说：我们要照着我们的形像，按着我们的样式造人…… 上帝就照着自己的形像造人，乃是照着祂的形像造男造女。”（创 1:26-27）“上帝创造人的日子，是照着上帝的样式造他。”（创 5:1）
【3】居北方席位者率先发言：上帝的形像与样式，是上帝吹入人内的双重生命，即意志之生命与理智之生命。经文中记有：“雅威上帝将生气吹在亚当鼻孔里，他就成了有灵的活人。”（创 2:7）由此可见，对良善的意愿、对真理的理解一同被吹入人内，也就是双重灵命灌注其身。生命既由上帝赋予，则形像与样式，便是人内由爱与智慧、公义与审判所构成的完备本体。
居西方席位者认同此言，又补充道：亚当初得的完备状态，亦持续灌注后世每一人；只是这份完备存于人内，如同置于承接器皿之中，人自身作何等器皿，便对应成为何等程度的上帝之形像与样式。
【4】继而轮到南方席位众人发言：“上帝的形像与样式本为两重内涵，受造之初在人内浑然合一。我们借着内在微光窥见，上帝的形像可以遭人损毁，上帝的样式却永不磨灭。此事仿佛隔栅观物，有经文为证：亚当丧失上帝的形像之后，依旧留存上帝的样式；受咒诅之后经文记载：‘那人已经与我们相似，能知道善恶。’（创 3:22）后世记载亚当，也称其为‘上帝的样式’，而非‘上帝的形像’（创 5:1）。这一层精微分别，交由居于东方、身处更高天光之中的同道阐释，何为严格意义上的上帝之形像，何为上帝之样式。”
【5】众人静默片刻，东方席位之人起身仰望主，复归坐席，开口言道：上帝的形像，是人承接上帝的器皿。上帝本为爱本身、智慧本身，故而上帝的形像，便是人在自身之中接纳自上帝而来的爱与智慧。而上帝的样式，是全然的相似与完整表象，仿佛爱与智慧全然内在于人、全然属于人自身。
“人所能体察到的，唯有自己在爱人、自己拥有智慧，仿佛是自主生发善念、自主分辨真理；然而究其实情，爱与智慧无一丝一毫出自人自身，全然源自上帝。唯独上帝自本体而生爱、自本体而有智慧，只因祂是爱本身、智慧本身。这份爱与智慧看似存于人身、仿佛归属于人的表象，便是‘样式’；正因这份表象，人方能成其为人，得以与上帝联结，享有永生。
由此可知，人之为人的根本，在于人能够自主生发向善之志、自主分辨真理，同时心里清楚、相信这一切源头在上帝；人若存此认知与信靠，上帝便将祂的形像印刻于人内。倘若人误以为善与真全然出自自我，而非源自上帝，则全然不同。”
【6】话音落，众人因爱慕真理而生热忱，接续言道：
“倘若人无法感知爱与智慧仿佛属于自身，又何以承接、持守、生发这份恩赐？倘若没有双向互通的联结根基，人又怎能借着爱与智慧与上帝相合？一切联结，皆需彼此呼应的互通；这份互通便是：人仿佛凭着自身爱慕上帝、践行属天之事，内心却深知这一切本源在于上帝。
再者，人若不能与永恒之上帝联结，何以得享永生？倘若人内无此‘样式’所带来的自主表象，人便不复为人。”
【7】一番论辩完毕，众人皆表认同，齐声道：“请就此共立定论。” 于是众人共拟论断如下：
人是承接上帝的器皿，此器皿便是上帝的形像；上帝本为爱本身与智慧本身，故人便是爱与智慧的承接器皿，器皿接纳恩赐到何等程度，便成就何等程度的上帝之形像。人之所以具备上帝的样式，是因自身感知自上帝而来的善与真仿佛归属自己；但人唯有承认爱与智慧、善与真并非源于自身、不属于自我，唯独根植、出自上帝，方能借着这份样式，成为承载上帝的形像。
【8】论毕第一题，众人转向第二论题：何以人初生不具备任何关乎爱的知识，而飞禽走兽，无论高下，生来便具足自身一切爱欲所需的全部知识。
众人先以诸多实例印证此理属实。论及人类：人降生之时一无所有，连婚姻之爱的本能认知亦全然空白。经多方考察求证，婴儿并非天生知晓吮吸母乳，须由母亲、乳母将其送至乳前方能习得；唯有吮吸的动作，是在母腹之中反复习得的本能。长大之后，人不知如何行走，不懂如何将气息吐纳为人语音节，亦不像兽类一般，天生能发出对应情爱、喜怒的声响。
人亦无天生分辨食物的本能，凡伸手所触之物，无论洁净污秽，皆会放入口中。研究者言道，若无他人教导，人全然不知两性相爱的事理；少男少女若无旁人指点，对此一无所知。总而言之，人初生之时，肉身心智如同虫豸；若不经后天教导、学习，永远停留在粗鄙肉身的层次，无从分辨事理、生发智慧。
【9】继而众人印证兽类全然相反：地上走兽、空中飞鸟、爬虫游鱼、微小昆虫，自诞生起，便具足维系自身生命之爱所需的一切知识：觅食之法、筑居之术、雌雄繁育、抚育幼崽，一应俱全。
众人追忆在世时所见所闻、典籍所载的诸多奇妙例证，一一佐证。彼时他们尚居尘世，所见皆为真实活物，非灵界象征之兽。
待这一事实充分印证，众人便潜心探求背后根源，以此解开这一奥秘。众人一致认为，这般分别全然出自神性智慧，为使人成就为人、使兽固守为兽；是以人初生心智虚空，方有圆满成全的余地；兽生来禀赋完备，反局限自身、永无进阶之可能。
【10】北方席位之人率先阐发见解：人初生无知，是为容纳一切知识；倘若生来便被限定一套固有认知，便无法接纳其余事理，终身困于先天禀赋之中，亦无从将一切认知归于自身体悟。
众人以譬喻明晓此理：初生之人，如同未曾播种的沃土，可接纳一切种子，抽芽结果；兽类则如同早已长满草木的田地，先天种子填满土壤，再容不下其他新种，外来种子反会被原有草木窒死。因此人需多年成长，此间如同耕耘田地，可习得万般事理，心中生发各样善念、真知；兽只需短短数年便长成，一生只能固守先天禀赋，无从教化、无从拓展。
【11】继而西方席位之人起身论道：人初生不似兽类先天具足知识，却禀赋内在的潜能与趋向：与生俱来有认知万物的能力，亦有爱慕外物的本心；这份禀赋不止使人能够认知，更能领悟、生发智慧。人心中的趋向至为完备，既能爱慕关乎自身、尘世的事物，亦能渴慕属乎上帝与天堂的一切。人降生之时，肉身器官虽备，仅能借外在感官模糊感知，内在灵性感官尚未苏醒。这般安排，是为使人循序渐进、逐步成就完整人格：先成属世之人，再进为理性之人，至终成为属灵之人。倘若如兽一般生来便满载固有知识与情欲，这层层进阶便无从实现；先天固化的认知与喜好会束缚灵性成长，唯有纯粹的潜能与趋向，不设任何局限。是以人可在学识、明辨、智慧之中，永世不断臻于完善。
【12】随后南方众人依次阐发己见：人无法自内生发任何知识，一切认知皆需从他人习得，先天本空无一物。且无知识则无爱，知识与爱相伴相生、不可割裂，如同意志不离理智、情感不离思维、本质不离形质。人从他人领受何等知识，与之匹配的爱便同步相伴而生。统摄一切认知的初始之爱，便是求知之心，继而生发领悟之爱、爱慕智慧之心；此数种爱意唯独为人所有，兽类无份，皆是由上帝向内流注。
【13】“我们认同西方同道所言：人先天不承载任何爱欲，故而亦无固有知识；仅存爱慕的趋向，借此容纳外来的认知，这份认知并非源自自身，而是经由他人传递。之所以说‘经由他人’，是因他人亦不能自存知识，一切本源皆在上帝。我们亦认同北方同道之譬喻：初生之人如同未曾播种的沃土，贵贱各类种子皆可栽种其间。‘人’拉丁名 Homo，本源出自 Humus，意为土地；亚当之名 Adam，亦源自 Adama，即泥土，正合此喻。除此以外我们补充：兽类生来便被赋予属世情欲，随之配套对应本能知识；但它们并非凭借这份知识思索、分辨、生发智慧，只是被内在情欲牵引而行，恰似盲人由犬引路穿行街巷，理智层面全然昏昧。或可更贴切言之，兽类如同梦游之人，仅凭懵懂本能行事，理智长久沉睡。”
【14】最后，东方席位之人开口论辩：“我们认同诸位弟兄所言：人无一事出自自身，一切认知皆由他人中转领受，使人得以知晓、承认自己的见识、领悟与智慧全数源自上帝。唯有如此，人方能由上帝而生，成为祂的形像与样式。
人之所以为上帝的形像，在于他承认、确信一切仁义良善、信仰真理，皆是领受自上帝，无一分一毫出于自我；人之所以为上帝的样式，是因内心感知这份爱与智慧仿佛内生自有。人之所以生出‘仿佛属己’的感受，正因先天空白，后天逐步接纳知识，在自身感受中便好似自我生发。上帝特意赋予人这般感知，以此区隔人与兽：人借着这份看似自主的意愿、思索、爱慕、认知、领悟与智慧，收纳学识，升为明辨，再依托万事功用抵达真智慧。由此上帝与人彼此联结，人也主动趋近上帝。若上帝未曾使人初生全然无知，这一切联结便无从谈起。”
【15】一席论辩完毕，众人合议，总结定论如下：
人初生空无知识，是为容纳一切学识，循序抵达明辨，再由明辨升进智慧；人先天不具定型情欲，是为借着由明辨而生的事理，接纳万般爱意，由爱人如己进阶至爱慕上帝。人借此与上帝相融，成就人之本体，并得永生。
【16】论毕第二题，众人展开文书，研读第三论题：生命树、分别善恶树各象征何物，食二树之果又有何种寓意。众人恳请东方之人阐释此层深奥事理，只因东方天使居于火焰般的天光之中，持守源于爱的智慧，而伊甸园本身便是这份智慧的象征，两棵树便安置园内。东方天使应声作答：“我们乐意剖明此理；但人不能自存分毫恩赐，一切皆领受自上帝，故此论说之源出于祂，只是借我们之口，仿佛由自身道出。”继而言道：
“‘树’象征人，‘树上果子’象征生命的良善。是以生命树，代表依靠上帝而活之人；爱与智慧、仁义与信仰，也就是良善与真理，构成上帝寓于人中的生命，故生命树象征内里承载此等属天恩赐之人，并预表永生。《启示录》所载赐人采食的生命树，亦是同一寓意（启 2:7；22:2、14）。
【17】分别善恶树，则象征执迷于自我生命之人，认定自身存活不靠上帝，全然源于自我；并以为心中的爱与智慧、仁义与信仰，即良善与真理，归属自身而非上帝。人之所以生出这般妄念，是因思虑、抉择、言语、行事之时，表象上全然自主；人被此表象迷惑，甚至妄图自比神明。正如蛇所言：‘上帝知道，你们吃的日子眼睛就必开了，你们便如上帝，能知道善恶。’（创 3:5）
【18】从那树上‘吃’，寓意接纳并占为己有；从生命树上“吃”，是接纳永生；善恶知识树上“吃”，是自取定罪。‘蛇’指代魔鬼，对应自我之爱、倚仗私智的骄傲，这股私欲便是分别善恶树的根源。深陷这份骄傲私欲之中的人，自身便是这棵树。世人常有一大谬误，以为亚当凭自身生发智慧、自行行善便是完满状态。实则亚当正因这份‘一切出自自我’的执念承受咒诅，这正是采食分别善恶树之果的属灵含义；他由此脱离原本的完备光景。亚当初始的完满，源自确信智慧与良善全然来自上帝、不属自身，便是采食生命树之果的象征。唯独道成肉身的主，智慧与良善全然出自自身；神性本体自降生便内在于祂、归属于祂，故此祂凭己身成就救赎，作世人的拯救者。”
【19】众人依此共立论断：
生命树、善恶知识树，以及采食二树之果的寓意为：上帝寓于人身，便是人的生命，人因此拥有天堂与永生；若人妄信生命源于自我而非上帝，便堕入地狱、承受永死，即定罪。
【20】此后众人回望天使遗留的文书，文末吩咐：将三项论题融会，共作总判。众人梳理三篇论辩，见三者脉络连贯、次第相生，遂拟定总论断：
人受造，是为领受来自上帝的爱与智慧；但上帝使人在一切表象中感知这份恩赐仿佛内生自有，为成就彼此接纳、相融合一。是以人先天不具定型之爱，亦无固有学识，更无凭自我生发爱与智慧的本能。人若将一切良善、一切真理归于上帝，便是活人；若尽数归于自我，便是死人。
众人将此番定论誊录新文书，安放案上。转瞬之间，天使驾洁白云团显现，携文书升天。天上天使读完文书，座中众人听见从天而来的声音连道：甚好，甚好，甚好。
不多时，一位天使凌空降临，身生四翼：双足旁各生一翼，两鬓侧亦各垂一翼，手中捧着各样奖赏。他降落平地，将蛋白色长袍赐予北方论辩者；朱红长袍赐予西方论辩者；为南方之人献上礼冠，冠沿镶金珠束带，冠侧雕琢花形钻石；又将嵌有红宝石、蓝宝石的桂冠赠予东方之人。众人身披赏赐，满心喜乐，散去结束这场以智慧为乐的灵界集会。
48# 对此，我补充以下记事：
有一次，我与两位天使交谈，其中一位来自东方天堂，另一位来自南方天堂。当这些天使发觉我在沉思关于爱的智慧奥秘时，他们说：“难道你不知道我们世界的智慧竞赛？”我回答说：“尚不知道。”他们说，这样的智慧竞赛有很多，那些出于属灵情感热爱真理，因为它们是真理，还因为智慧通过它们来获得的人，收到特定信号后就聚集在一起，讨论并解决那些需要深刻理解的问题。然后，他们拉着我的手说：“跟我们来，你会看到和听到；今天会面的信号已经发出了。”我被带领穿过一片平原，来到一座小山上；看哪，山脚下有一条直达山顶的棕榈树大道。我们踏上这条大道并登高，在山顶看到一片小树林，在树木中间，抬高的地面形成一种剧院，在这个剧院里面有用各种颜色的小石头铺成的光滑地板，四面都摆好了椅子，上面坐着智慧的热爱者，剧院中央有一张桌子，上面放着一张密封的纸。
那些就座的人邀请我们坐到空座位上；但我回答说：“我只是被两位天使带到这里来看一看、听一听，就不坐了。”然后，两位天使来到地板中间的桌子旁，拆开纸上的封条，向就座的人宣读了写在纸上的智慧奥秘，他们现在要讨论并展开它们。这些奥秘是由第三层天堂的天使写下来并放在桌子上的。奥秘有三个：第一，人被造为的“神的形像”和“神的样式”分别是什么？第二，为什么人没有生在适合任何爱的知识中，而动物和鸟类，无论珍贵与否，或说无论最高级的，还是最低级的，都生在适合其一切爱的知识中？第三，“生命树”是什么意思，“善恶知识树”是什么意思，“吃”它们又是什么意思？下面写着：“把这三个问题的答案合成一个观点，写在一张新纸上，并放在桌子上，我们就会看见。如果这个观点看起来既平衡又正确，那么你们每个人都将获得智慧的奖品。”读完这些话，两位天使就撤离了，被提到他们的天堂。于是，那些就座的人开始讨论并展开摆在他们面前的奥秘，按这一顺序来发言：首先是坐在北边的人，然后是坐在西边的人，接着是坐在南边的人，最后是坐在东边的人。他们开始讨论第一个主题，即：人被造为的“神的形像”和“神的样式”分别是什么？首先，在所有人面前，从创世记中读了这些话：
我们要照着我们的形像，按着我们的样式造人。神就照着自己的形像创造人，乃是照着神的形像造他。（创世记1:26，27）
又：
当神创造人的日子，是照着神的样式造他的。（创世记5:1）
坐在北边的人首先发言说：“神的形像和神的样式就是神吹入人的两个生命，就是意愿的生命和理解力的生命；因为我们读到：
耶和华神将生命的气息吹进（亚当的）鼻孔，人就成了一个活的灵魂。（创世记2:7）
这句话的意思似乎是说，对良善的意愿和对真理的感知，因而生命的灵魂被吹到他里面。由于生命被神吹到他里面，所以形像和样式表示在他里面来自爱和智慧，并来自公义和公平的完好或纯洁。”坐在西边的人同意这个观点，但补充说，由神吹进亚当的这种完好或纯洁的状态不断被吹进继亚当之后的每个人；但它在人里面，就像在一个接受的容器里面；人随着他成为一个容器而成为神的形像和样式。
后来，按顺序排第三的坐在南边的人说：“神的形像和神的样式是两种截然不同的事物，尽管在创造时在人里面是合一的；我们仿佛从一种内在之光中看到，人可能会毁坏神的形像，但不能毁坏神的样式。我们从以下事实中仿佛透过一层薄纱那样隐约窥见这一点，即：亚当在失去神的形像后仍保留了神的样式，因为诅咒之后，经上说：
看哪，那人已经像我们中的一个，知道善恶。（创世记3:22）
之后他被称为神的样式，但不再被称为神的形像（创世记5:1）。不过，让我们把这个问题留给坐在东边，因而处于更高的光中的同伴们，来说说什么才是神的形像，什么才是神的样式。”
一阵沉默之后，坐在东边的人起身仰望主，然后重新就坐，说，神的形像是接受神的一个容器；由于神是爱本身和智慧本身，所以神的形像就是人里面对来自神的爱和智慧的接受，或说是人向来自神的爱和智慧的敞开；而神的样式是仿佛爱和智慧在人里面，因而完全属于他自己的一个完美的样式和完全的表象。因为人只感觉他凭自己去爱，凭自己有智慧，或凭自己意愿良善、理解真理；而事实上，这一切一点也不来自他自己，而是来自神，或说他不是凭自己，而是靠着神做这些事。唯独神凭自己去爱，凭自己有智慧，因为神是爱本身和智慧本身。这种样式或表象，即：爱和智慧，或良善和真理在人里面，如同他自己的一样，就是那使人成为人，并使他能与神结合，从而活到永远的。由此可知，人之所以是人，是因为他能完全貌似凭自己意愿良善、理解真理，但又能知道并相信，他如此行是靠着神；正因他知道并相信这一点，所以神把祂的形像放在他里面；但如果人以为他如此行是靠自己，而不是靠神，神就不会把祂的形像放在他里面。”
说完这些话，对真理的爱所产生的热情鼓舞他们继续说：“除非人感觉爱和智慧是他自己的，否则他怎能接受任何爱和智慧，保留并传播它呢？除非人那一方有某种相互的东西来实现结合，否则怎么可能通过爱和智慧与神结合呢？因为没有相互性，结合是不可能的。结合的这种相互性就是人爱神，并貌似凭自己去做属于神的事，却又相信他靠着神而如此行。此外，除非人与永生神结合，否则他怎能活到永远呢？因此，除非人拥有这样式，否则人怎能成为人呢？”
所有人都同意这些话，并说：“让我们根据这些观点得出一个结论。”他们得出以下结论：“人是接受神的一个容器，神的容器就是神的形像；由于神是爱本身和智慧本身，所以人是接受爱和智慧的容器；这个容器只要接受神，就成为神的形像。此外，人因以下事实而为神的样式：他觉得来自神的事物在他里面，如同他自己的；然而，只有他承认他里面的爱和智慧，或良善和真理不是他自己的，也不是来自他，只在神里面，因而来自神，他才因这个样式而成为神的形像。”
之后，他们开始讨论第二个主题，为什么人没有生在适合任何爱的知识中，而动物和鸟类，无论珍贵与否，或说无论最高级的，还是最低级的，都生在适合其一切爱的知识中？首先，他们通过各种论据确认了这个命题的真实性，然后举例说，人没有生在任何知识中，甚至没有生在婚姻之爱的知识中。他们进行了调查，并从调查人员那里获悉：婴儿出于与生俱来的知识，甚至不认识母亲的乳房，而是通过被放在乳房前而从母亲或保姆那里学到这种知识；它只知道如何吮吸，而这也是它通过在母亲子宫内不断吮吸才知道的。后来，它不知道如何走路，也不知道如何将声音清晰表达为人类的话语，甚至不知道如何像动物一样通过声音表达它的爱之情感。此外，它不像动物那样知道什么样的食物适合自己，而是抓住凡它所遇到的东西，无论干净还是不干净，都送到嘴里。调查人员说，没有教导，人对性爱一无所知，少女和少男甚至也没有这种知识，直到他们被其他人教导。总之，人生来是纯肉体的东西，就像一条虫子，并继续是这样，除非他从其他人那里获得知识、理解和智慧。
此后，他们证实，动物，无论珍贵与否，或说无论最高级的，还是最低级的，如地上的走兽，空中的飞鸟，爬行动物，鱼类和昆虫，都生在适合其生命之爱的一切知识中，如生在与它们的营养、住所、性爱、繁殖和养育后代有关的一切知识中。他们通过回忆起在他们以前生活的自然界中所看到、听到和读到的奇妙事实来证实这一切，在自然界，动物是真实的，不是代表。这个命题的真实性被如此确立，或得到证明后，他们把心智转向对原因的调查和发现，以便通过这些原因，这个奥秘可以被展开解释，并变得清晰。他们都说，这些事只源于神性智慧，以便人可以成为人，动物可以成为动物；因此，人出生时的不完美变成他的完美，而兽出生时的完美是它的不完美。
然后，坐在北边的人开始表达他们的观点；他们说，人生来没有知识，是为了他能获得一切知识。然而，人若生在知识中，就不能获得其它知识，只能获得他与生俱来的知识，也不能将任何知识变成他自己的。他们通过以下对比说明了这一点：人出生时，就像没有播种的土地，但这土地能接受所有种子，使它们生长并结出果实。而动物就像已经播种，并长满青草和草本的土地，除了早已播种的种子外，这土地不能接受其它种子，即便接受，也会窒息它们。因此，人需要很多年才能成熟，在此期间，他能像土地那样被耕种，可以说长出各种各样的谷物、鲜花和树木，而动物几年内就会成熟，在此期间，除了它与生俱来的东西外，它不能被改进，或说不能被培育出任何东西。”
坐在西边的人接着发言说：“人不像动物那样生来就具有知识，而是生来就具有一种能力和倾向，即认识的能力和爱的倾向。此外，人生来就具有爱的能力，不仅能爱属于自我和世界的东西，也能爱属于神和天堂的东西。因此，人出生时只是一个器官，只通过外在感官过着一种模糊或不确定的生活，没有内在感官，以便他的生命可以逐步发展，首先成为一个属世人，然后成为一个理性人，最后成为一个属灵人。如果他像动物一样生在知识和爱中，那么这将是不可能的。因为与生俱来的知识和爱之情感会限制这种发展，而仅仅与生俱来的能力和倾向不会限制它，这样人就能在知识、聪明和智慧上被完善到永恒。
坐在南边的人接着发表他们的观点，说：“对人来说，从自己那里获得任何知识是不可能的，他因没有与生俱来的知识，所以只能从其他人那里获得它。此外，人因不能从自己那里获得任何知识，故也不能获得任何爱，因为没有知识，就没有爱，知识和爱是不可分割的伴侣，就像意愿和理解力，或情感和思维，甚至本质和形式一样不可分割。因此，随着人从其他人那里获得知识，爱就作为伴侣与这知识结合。能使自身结合的最普遍的爱就是对认识的爱，之后是对理解和变得智慧的爱。只有人才有这些爱，动物则没有；它们是从神那里流入的。
“我们同意我们西边的同伴，即：人没有生在任何爱中，因而没有生在任何知识中，只生在爱的倾向中，从而生在接受知识的能力中，但他不是从他自己那里，而是从其他人那里，也就是说，通过其他人获得知识的。我们说‘通过其他人’，是因为其他人也不是从他们自己那里获得任何东西的，从源头上说，都是从神那里获得的。我们也同意我们北边的同伴，即：人出生时就像没有播种的土地，但这土地可以种下各种各样的种子，无论好坏。这就是为何人因土地（humus）而被称为人（homo），因亚当（adamah，意思是土地）而被称为亚当（Adam，希伯来语为人）。对此，我们要补充的是，动物生在属世之爱中，并从这些属世之爱而生在相对应的知识中。然而，它们所拥有的知识不能使它们去认识或学习、思考、理解，或变得智慧；但它们被它们的爱所驱使，或说它们的爱把它们引向这些知识，几乎就像盲人被狗带着穿过街道一样，因为就理解力而言，动物是瞎的；更确切地说，动物就像梦游的人，无论做什么，都是出于盲目的知识来做的，而它们的理解力仍在沉睡。”
最后坐在东边的人发言说：“我们同意我们的弟兄们所说的，即：人从自己那里什么都不知道，只能从其他人那里并通过其他人获得知识，以便他可以认识到并承认，他的一切知识、理解和智慧都来自神；否则，人不能从神而生而养，并成为祂的形像和样式。事实上，人成为神的形像，是因为他承认并相信，他从神那里所接受，并继续接受的一切爱与仁之良善，并一切智慧与信仰之真理都来自主，没有任何东西是来自他自己的；而他是主的样式，是因为他感觉这些良善和真理在他自己里面，就好像它们来自他自己。他之所以有这种感觉，是因为他没有生在知识中，而是获得它们；他所获得的东西在他看来，似乎来自他自己。此外，这种感觉也是神赋予他的，以便他可以成为一个人，而不是一个动物，因为正是通过人貌似凭自己意愿、思考、爱、认识、理解并变得智慧，他才获得知识，并把它们提升为聪明，又通过运用它们而把它们转化为智慧。通过这种方式，神将人与祂自己结合，人则将他自己与神结合。除非神规定，人生在完全的无知中，否则这是不可能的。”
这些话说完后，所有人都希望从讨论的要点中得出一个结论，并得出如下结论：“人没有生在知识中，是为了他可以获得一切知识，进而获得聪明，再通过聪明获得智慧。他没有生在爱中，是为了他可以通过聪明地运用知识来获得一切爱，尤其是为了他可以通过对邻之爱来获得对神之爱，从而与神结合，由此成为一个人，并活到永远。”
随即他们拿起那张纸，宣读了第三个讨论的主题，即：“生命树”、“善恶知识树”，以及“吃”它们分别表示什么？他们都要求坐在东边的人解释这个奥秘，因为它是一个异常困难、需要更深理解的问题，而来自东方的人处于火热的光，也就是说，处于爱的智慧，“伊甸园”就是指这智慧，伊甸园里栽了这两棵树。他们回答说：“我们会表达我们的观点；但正如人不是从自己那里获得任何东西，而是从神那里获得一切，我们会从神那里说话，但仍貌似凭我们自己而从我们自己那里说话。”他们接着说：“树表示人，它的果实表示生活的良善；因此，生命树表示人从神那里活着；由于爱和智慧，或仁爱和信仰，或良善和真理，构成人里面神的生命，所以生命树表示一个从神那里而在自己里面拥有这些事物或品质，因而拥有永生的人。被赐予来吃的生命树（启示录2:7; 22:2，14中提到）具有相同的含义。
善恶知识树表示一个相信他从自己那里，而不是从神那里活着；因此，爱和智慧，或仁爱和信仰，也就是良善和真理，不属于人里面的神，而是属于他自己的人；他之所以相信这一点，是因为人在一切样式和表象上都貌似从他自己那里思考、意愿、说话和行动；由于人据此说服自己相信他自己就是神，所以蛇说：
神知道，你们吃那棵树上的果子的日子，你们的眼睛就开了，你们便如神一样知道善恶。（创世记3:5）
“吃这些树表示接受和占有或内化；吃生命树表示接受永生，吃善恶知识树表示接受诅咒或永恒的死亡。蛇是指在自我之爱和自我聪明的骄傲方面的魔鬼。自我之爱是这棵树的拥有者，而那些处于这爱的骄傲之人就是这样的树。因此，相信亚当从自己那里有智慧并行善，并且这是他的完好状态，是一个巨大的错误；而事实上，亚当自己就因这样相信而受到诅咒；这就是吃善恶知识树所表示的；这就是为何那时他从他所享有的完好状态中堕落了，而他拥有这种完好的状态，正是因为他相信，他是从神那里，根本不是从他自己那里而有智慧并行善的，这就是他吃生命树的意思。当主在世时，唯独祂从自己那里有智慧，并从自己那里行善，因为神性本身自祂出生时就在祂里面，并且是祂的；因此，祂凭自己的能力成为救赎主和救主。”
他们从这些要点中得出这样的结论：“生命树、善恶知识树和吃它们是指人的生命就是他里面的神，当神在他里面时，他就拥有天堂和永生；而人的死亡就是被说服并相信，他的生命不是神，而是他自己，如此相信会带来地狱和永死，即诅咒。”
此后，他们看了看天使们留在桌子上的那张纸，看到上面写着：“把这三个结论合成一个观点，或一个总体的结论。”他们就把它们合起来，发现这三个结论形成一个连贯的系列；这个系列或观点如下：“人被如此创造，是为了能从神那里接受爱和智慧，而在一切样式或表象上，却是貌似从他自己那里接受的，这是为了接受和结合；这就是为何人没有生在任何爱中，也没有生在任何知识中，甚至没有生在从自己那里去爱并变得智慧的任何能力中。因此，他若将一切爱之良善和一切信之真理，或智慧之真理，都归于神，就会成为活人；但他若将它们都归于自己，就会成为死人。”他们将这个观点或结论写在一张新纸上，放在桌子上；看哪，天使们立刻出现在亮云中，并把这张纸带到天堂。当这张纸在那里被宣读时，就座的人从天上听到这些话：“做得好，做得好，做得好。”很快，只见一位天使可以说从天上飞来，他的脚上好像有两个翅膀，太阳穴有两个翅膀；他带来了奖品，即长袍、帽子和月桂花环。他降下来，将蛋白石色长袍给了坐在北边的人，将朱红色长袍给了坐在西边的人，将帽子给了坐在南边的人，帽子的边缘饰有金子和珍珠的带子，左边的帽顶饰有花形钻石；而他将叶子间镶嵌着红宝石和蓝宝石的月桂花环给了坐在东边的人。所有参与智慧竞赛的人都装饰上这些奖品，欢欢喜喜地回家了。
48. To these points I will add the following memorable occurrence.
Once I had a conversation with two angels, one of whom came from a heaven in the east and the other from a heaven in the south. When these angels realized that I was meditating on secrets of wisdom having to do with love, they said, "Are you not aware of the wisdom games that take place in our world?"
"Not yet," I said.
"There are lots of them," they said. They explained that spirits who love truth in a spiritual way (loving it because it is true and because it leads to wisdom) gather together on receiving a sign; these spirits then debate issues that require deep understanding, and draw conclusions.
The angels took me by the hand, saying to me, "Come with us and you will see and hear. We received the sign that a gathering is happening today. "
They led me across a large flat area of land to a hill. I was surprised to see here a covered walkway or colonnade formed entirely of living palm trees. It began at the bottom of the hill and continued to the top. We went into it and made our way up the hill. At the hills highest point a stand of trees came into view. Within this stand of trees, earth had been built up in such a way as to form an arena. In the arena there was a level area paved with pebbles of different colors. Around the paved part, on all four sides, there were chairs set up on which the lovers of wisdom were sitting. At the center of the whole arena there was a table. On it lay a document sealed with a signet ring.
[2] The people sitting on the chairs invited us to take some unoccupied seats, but I replied, "I was brought here by these two angels not to sit, but to watch and to listen. "
Then the two angels went to the table in the middle of the paved area and broke the seal on the document. To the seated participants they read what was written in the document - mysteries of wisdom that the crowd was to discuss and unfold. These mysteries had been written by angels of the third heaven and sent down to that table.
There were three mysteries. First, human beings were created in the image and the likeness of God [Genesis 1:26]; what is that image and what is that likeness? Second, animals and birds, whether noble or not, are born with knowledge that relates to every drive or love they have; why then are human beings born without any knowledge that relates to any drive or love they have? Third, what does the tree of life mean, what does the tree of the knowledge of good and evil mean, and what does eating from them mean [Genesis 2:9, 16-17; 3:6]? Below these points it said, Connect these three into a single statement, write it on a new sheet of paper, put it on this table, and we will look at it. If on balance your statement seems well considered and accurate, each of you will be given a prize for your wisdom.
After they had read this aloud the two angels walked away and were lifted up into their respective heavens. Then the people on the chairs began to discuss the mysteries set before them and to unravel them. They took turns speaking. Those sitting on the north side went first, then those sitting on the west side, then those sitting on the south side, and finally those sitting on the east side.
The group took up the first topic for discussion: Human beings were created in the image and the likeness of God; what is that image and what is that likeness? First the following verses from the Book of Creation were read before the whole group:
God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, according to our likeness. " And God created human beings in his own image; in the likeness of God he made them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
On the day that God created human beings, he made them in the likeness of God. (Genesis 5:1)
[3] Those sitting on the north side spoke first. They said, "The image of God and the likeness of God are the two kinds of life that God has breathed into us all: the life in our will and the life in our intellect. We read, 'Jehovah God breathed a soul of lives into Adams nostrils, and the human being turned into a living soul' (Genesis 2:7). We believe this means that willing what is good and perceiving what is true were breathed into Adam - this is how he received 'a soul of lives. ' Because the life breathed into Adam came from God, the image and the likeness mean a purity of love and wisdom, and of justice and judgment, in Adam. "
Those sitting on the west side agreed, but added that the pure state God breathed into Adam is something God has been continually breathing into everyone else ever since. That pure state, then, is present in human beings inasmuch as they are vessels that receive it. Their capacity as receiving vessels makes human beings images and likenesses of God.
[4] Those sitting on the south side were the third to take a turn. They said, "The image of God and the likeness of God are two different things, although they have been united in human beings ever since creation. From some kind of inner light we see that we all have the power to destroy the image of God in ourselves, but not the likeness of God. We can glimpse this as though through a veil from the fact that Adam kept the likeness of God after he lost the image of God. After the curse it says, 'See how this human being knows good and evil, like one of us' (Genesis 3:22); and later on, Adam is called the likeness of God, but not the image of God (Genesis 5:1). We will leave it, however, to our friends sitting on the east side, who therefore have better light, to say what the image of God and the likeness of God really are. "
[5] When it had grown quiet, those sitting on the east side rose from their chairs and looked up toward the Lord. Then they sat back down and said, An image of God is a vessel for God. God is love itself and wisdom itself; therefore the image of God is our openness to love and wisdom from God. The likeness of God, on the other hand, is the perfect likeness and the full appearance that love and wisdom are in us as if they were completely our own. We all utterly feel as if we have love and wisdom on our own, as if we intend what is good and understand what is true by ourselves. In reality, though, not a bit of it comes from us; it is from God. God alone has love and wisdom on his own, because God is love itself and wisdom itself. The likeness or the appearance that love and wisdom or goodness and truth are in us as our very own makes us human and enables us to have a partnership with God and therefore to live to eternity. It flows from this that what makes us human is our ability on the one hand to intend what is good and understand what is true completely as if we were on our own, and our capacity on the other hand for knowing and believing that we are doing this with God's help. As we come to know and believe that we are getting help from God, God puts his image in us. God does not put his image in us, however, if we believe that we are doing it on our own without God's help.
[6] When they had said this, a passion from their love for truth came over them, which led them to say the following: "How could any of us receive, retain, or pass on any love or wisdom if we did not experience it as our own? How could we have a partnership with God through love and wisdom if we had no way of doing our part to form that partnership? There is no such thing as a partnership without mutuality. What makes the partnership mutual is that we love God and we act on what we receive from God, doing so as if we were on our own but trusting that we have God's help. How could we live to eternity if we had no partnership with the eternal God? How then would we be human if that likeness were not in us?"
[7] All agreed with this and said, "We need to draw a conclusion from all this. " They came to the following: "We are vessels to receive God. A vessel to receive God is an image of God. Because God is love itself and wisdom itself, we are vessels to receive love and wisdom; our vessel becomes an image of God as we actually do receive love and wisdom. We are a likeness of God because we experience things from God in ourselves as if they were our own. We go from being a likeness to being an image of God to the extent that we acknowledge that the love and wisdom or goodness and truth in us are not ours and did not originate in us; they exist solely in God and they come exclusively from God.
[8] Next the group took up the second topic for discussion: "Animals and birds, whether noble or not, are born with knowledge that relates to every drive or love they have; why then are human beings born without any knowledge that relates to any drive or love they have?"
The participants began by verifying the truth of the premise in various ways, particularly the notion that human beings have no innate knowledge or instinct, not even in relation to marriage love. They made inquiries and heard from researchers that newborns lack even an innate knowledge or instinct for recognizing their mother's breast; newborns learn to nurse only when their mother or whoever is nursing them gives them her breast. Newborns know only how to suck, an instinct they gained from sucking all the time while in their mother's womb. Shortly after birth, they do not know how to walk or how to shape sound into any human word, or even how to use different sounds to express their love and emotions the way animals do. Unlike animals, they have no idea what food would be good for them - they seize anything at hand, clean or dirty, and put it in their mouths. The researchers also said that without instruction people have absolutely no idea how to make love to the opposite sex. Not even young men and women know how without learning about it from others. In a nutshell, we are born as mindlessly physical as a worm and remain that way unless we learn from others how to know, understand, and grow wise.
[9] Next the participants verified that animals, whether noble or not, are born with all the knowledge related to the various drives or loves that affect their lives. This is true of land animals, birds that fly in the sky, reptiles, fish, and even the little creatures known as insects. They all know everything that is good for them to eat, everything about how to make a home for themselves, and everything about how to mate and how to produce and raise their offspring. The participants verified these facts by recalling the astounding things they had seen, heard, and read in the physical world where they used to live, in which animals are real rather than symbolic.
Once the truth of the premise was proven in this way, the participants turned their minds to hunting for and finding a means of unfolding and uncovering this mystery. They all said that these phenomena must come about as a result of divine wisdom intentionally making humans human and animals animal, and creating the circumstance that our imperfection at birth becomes our perfection, while an animals perfection at birth becomes its imperfection.
[10] Then the people on the north side went first in giving their opinion. They said, "We are born without knowledge so that we can be open to all knowledge. If we had been born with knowledge, we would not have been open to any concepts except those we were born with; nor would we have been capable of acquiring any further knowledge. "
They illustrated this with an analogy: "When first born we are like ground in which no seeds have been planted, but which has the capacity to take in any and all seeds and help them grow and bear fruit. An animal is like ground that is already sown and is full of grasses and small plants. The seeds already sown in that ground fill it to capacity. If more seeds are planted, they are choked out. This is why we take so many years to grow up. In our growing years we are like ground that can be cultivated to yield crops, flowers, and trees of all kinds. Animals grow up in just a few years, and in their growing years they cannot be cultivated beyond their innate potential. "
[11] The people on the west side spoke next. They said, "It is true that unlike animals we are born without knowledge. We are, however, born with a capacity and a tendency - a capacity for knowing and a tendency to love. We have an inborn ability to love not only things that have to do with ourselves and the world but also things that have to do with God and heaven. At birth our physical senses are scarcely alive except in a dim way and our inner senses are not alive at all - a situation that allows us progressively to come to life and become human. First we become earthly, and then rational, and finally spiritual. This would not happen if we were born like animals with various types of knowledge and love already in place. Knowledge and feelings of love that are inborn limit the progression; but capacities and tendencies that are inborn do not limit it at all. Human beings are therefore capable of being perfected in knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom to eternity. "
[12] The people on the south side then took their turn in giving their opinion. They said, "It is impossible for human beings to learn anything from themselves. Since they have no innate knowledge, they have to learn it all from others. Because they cannot acquire any knowledge from themselves, they cannot acquire any love from themselves either, since where there is no knowledge there is no love. Knowledge and love are partners that are no more separable than the will and the intellect or feelings and thoughts, or essence and form for that matter. Therefore as we pick up knowledge from others, love accompanies it. The universal love that attaches to knowledge is love for knowing, and later it becomes love for understanding and growing wise. These types of love are found only in human beings, never in animals; they flow in from God.
[13] "We stand in agreement with our colleagues on the west side on the point that we are all born without love and therefore without knowledge; we are born only with a tendency to love and a resulting capacity for acquiring knowledge. We acquire knowledge from others, not from ourselves. Actually this happens through others, in the sense that they did not receive the knowledge from themselves either - it all comes originally from God.
"We also agree with our colleagues on the north side on the point that when first born we are all like ground in which no seeds have yet been planted, but in which all seeds, whether noble or not, can be planted. This is why human is related to 'humus,' and 'Adam' to adama, or 'soil. ' We would like to add to these points that animals are born with earthly loves and with the knowledge that goes with these loves. Nevertheless the knowledge animals possess does not lead them to know, think, understand, or be wise about anything. Their loves lead them to knowledge much the way guide dogs lead the blind through streets. Animals are blind in intellect. Or better yet, they are like sleepwalkers who do what they do from blind knowledge while their intellect sleeps. "
[14] The last to speak were the people on the east side. They said, "We agree with what our friends have said. We humans learn from and through others, not from ourselves. Therefore we need to recognize and acknowledge that everything we know, understand, and have wisdom about comes from God. There is no other way for us to be born or generated by God and become an image and a likeness of him. An image of God is what we become by acknowledging and believing that all the goodness of love and goodwill and all the truth of wisdom and faith that we have received and are still receiving come from God, and none comes from ourselves. A likeness of God is what we are as a result of experiencing these things in ourselves as if they were our own. We experience them in this way because rather than being born with knowledge, we acquire it as we go along. Our acquiring of knowledge seems to us to be something we do ourselves. God grants us this experience so that we may be human rather than animal. Our seeming autonomy in intending, thinking, loving, knowing, understanding, and becoming wise allows us to acquire knowledge, elevate it to an understanding, and turn it into wisdom as we put it to use. This is how God unites us to himself, and how we unite ourselves to God. None of this could take place unless God had provided for us to be born in total ignorance. "
[15] After this statement the whole group wanted to form a conclusion from their discussion. Their conclusion was, "We are born without any knowledge so that we can come into all knowledge, make progress in understanding, and move onward into wisdom. We are born without any love so that by intelligently applying what we learn we can come into all love, can come to love God through loving our neighbor, and can thereby develop a partnership with God that makes us truly human and allows us to live forever. "
[16] Then the participants picked up the document and read the third topic for discussion: "What does the tree of life mean, what does the tree of the knowledge of good and evil mean, and what does eating from them mean?"
They all asked the group on the east side to unravel this mystery, "since," they said, "it is a matter of deeper understanding and you who are from the east have a blazing light, meaning that you have a wisdom that comes from love. This kind of wisdom is in fact what the garden of Eden means, where the two trees were situated. "
The people on the east side replied, "We will give an answer, yet because human beings receive everything from God and nothing from themselves, we will give an answer from him, although we will still give it as if it were our own.
"A tree means a human being," they said. "Its fruit means the good done by that human beings life. Therefore the tree of life means someone who lives from God. Because love and wisdom, along with goodwill and faith - or rather, goodness and truth - are God - life in us, the tree of life means people who have those things from God and who have eternal life as a result. Much the same thing is meant by the tree of life from which people were allowed to eat (Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14).
[17] "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil means those who believe that they live on their own rather than from God - that the love and wisdom and the goodwill and faith - or again, the goodness and truth - that are in them are their own and not God's. They believe this because the likeness and appearance of their thinking, intending, speaking, and acting on their own is completely convincing. Because they use this appearance to convince themselves that they are in fact God, therefore the serpent said, 'God knows that on the day you eat some of the fruit of that tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil' (Genesis 3:5).
[18] "Eating from those trees means accepting and internalizing. Eating from the tree of life means accepting eternal life. Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means accepting damnation. The serpent means the Devil, which is loving ourselves and having pride in our own intelligence. Love for ourselves owns the latter tree. If we have pride because we love ourselves, we are trees of the knowledge of good and evil.
"It is horrendously wrong, then, to believe that Adam was wise and did what was good on his own, and that this was what was pure about his state. Adam himself was in fact cursed because of that very belief. That is what it means to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that is why Adam fell at that time. His earlier state had been pure because then he believed he was wise and was doing what was good with God's help and in absolutely no respect on his own. This is what it means to eat from the tree of life. The only person who ever became wise on his own and did what was good on his own was the Lord while he was in the world, because divinity itself was in him and was his from birth. That is how he became the Redeemer and Savior by his own power. "
[19] From these points the participants drew the following conclusion: "The meaning of the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and eating from those trees is as follows: Our life is God in us. With God in us we have heaven and eternal life. Our death, on the other hand, is the conviction and belief that our life is we ourselves and not God. This attitude brings us hell and eternal death, meaning damnation. "
[20] After this they checked over the document that the angels had left on the table. They saw written at the bottom, "Connect these three into a single statement. "
They brought them together and found that the three connected to form a single chain. The chain, their statement, was this: "We human beings have been created to receive love and wisdom from God and yet to experience them completely as if they came from ourselves, for the sake of our receiving them and forming a partnership with God. For this reason we are not born with any love, any knowledge, or any capability whatever for loving or becoming wise on our own. If we attribute all the goodness of love and all the truth of wisdom to God, we become living human beings. If we attribute them to ourselves, we become dead human beings. "
They wrote this on a new sheet of paper and placed it on the table. Suddenly angels were present in a shining white cloud. They took the document to heaven. After it was read there, the people sitting on the chairs heard voices from heaven saying, "Good! . . . Good! . . . Good!"
Immediately someone came into view, flying down from above. He had two wings attached to his ankles and two more attached to his temples. He was carrying prizes - robes, hats, and laurel wreaths. He landed on the ground, then gave opalescent robes to the people sitting on the north side. To the people sitting on the west side he gave scarlet robes. To the people sitting on the south side he gave hats whose rims were decorated with bands of gold and bands of pearls, and whose raised left sides were decorated with diamonds cut in the shape of flowers. To the people sitting on the east side, however, he gave laurel wreaths with rubies and sapphires in them. Decorated with these prizes from their wisdom games, they all went joyfully home.
48. At this point I shall insert the following account of an experience. 1
Once I had a talk with two angels, one from the eastern and one from the southern heaven. When they perceived that I was pondering the mysteries of wisdom on the subject of love, they said: 'Don't you know anything about the contests of wisdom in our world?' 'Not yet,' I replied.
'There are many of them,' they said, adding that those who love truths with a spiritual affection, that is, love them because they are truths and are the way to wisdom, meet when the signal is given, to discuss matters requiring profound understanding and form conclusions about them.
They then took me by the hand saying, 'Come with us, and you will see and hear. The signal has been given for a meeting to-day.'
I was taken across a plain to a hill, at the foot of which there was an avenue of palm trees extending all the way to the top. We went into it and climbed the hill. On the top or summit of the hill we saw a wood, among the trees of which a rise in the ground formed a sort of theatre. Inside this was a flat space paved with pebbles of different colours, and around this were ranged seats in a square; these were occupied by the lovers of wisdom. In the middle of the theatre was a table, and a document secured with a seal lay on it.
[2] Those who were sitting on the seats invited us to occupy some which were still vacant, but I replied: 'I have been brought here by two angels to see and listen, not to take part in the session.'
Then the two angels went up to the table in the middle of the arena and broke the seal on the document; they then read out to the meeting the mysteries of wisdom written in the document, which they were to discuss and expound. It had been written by angels of the third heaven, and sent down to lie on the table. There were three mysteries: the first, 'What is the image of God and the likeness of God in which man was created?', the second, 'Why is man born without knowledge of what he should love, yet animals and birds, the highest as well as the lowest, are born knowing all their loves require?'; the third, 'What is the meaning of "the tree of life," "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and "eating of them"?'
Underneath was written: 'Link these three subjects into a single statement of opinion, and write it on a fresh sheet of paper; then replace it on this table, and we shall look at it. If the opinion appears well-balanced and fair, each of you will be awarded a prize for wisdom.' After reading this out the two angels went away and rose up into their own heavens.
Then those taking part in the session began to discuss and expound the mysteries set before them. They spoke in turn, beginning with those who sat on the north side, then those who sat on the west, then the south and finally the east. They took up the first subject for discussion, which was: 'What is the image of God and what is the likeness of God in which man was created?' First of all the following passages were read aloud from the Book of Creation:
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and God created man in His own image, to be an image 2 of God He made him, Genesis 1:26-27.
On the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God, Genesis 5:1.
[3] Those who sat on the north side were the first to speak. They said that the image and the likeness of God are the two lives breathed into man by God, the life of the will and the life of the understanding. 'For we read,' they said,
Jehovah God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of lives 3 , and man became a living soul, Genesis 2:7.
This seems to mean that the will to do good and the perception of truth was breathed into him, which could be called the breath of lives. And because life was breathed into him by God, image and likeness mean his uprightness arising from love and wisdom, and from righteousness and the powers of judgment present in him.'
Those who sat on the west side supported this view, with, however, this addition, that the state of uprightness breathed into Adam by God, is constantly breathed into every person after Adam; but it is present in man as it were in a receiver, and a person is an image and likeness of God in accordance with his effectiveness as a receiver.
[4] Then the third group, who sat on the south side, said: 'The image of God and the likeness of God are two separate things, but in man they are combined from his creation. Some kind of inward illumination shows us that the image of God can be destroyed by man, but not His likeness. This is visible as it were through a screen from the fact that
Adam retained the likeness of God, after he had lost the image of God. For we read after his cursing:
See, man is as one of us, knowing good and evil, Genesis 3:22.
and afterwards he is called a likeness of God, but not an image of God (Genesis 5:1). But we would leave our colleagues on the east, who are therefore in better illumination, to say what the image of God and the likeness of God properly are.'
[5] Then, when there was silence, those who sat on the east side rose from their seats and looked up to the Lord. Then they sat down again and said that an image of God was a receiver of God, and since God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, the image of God is the receiving of love and wisdom from God in the man; but the likeness of God was the perfect likeness and complete appearance of love and wisdom being present in man and of belonging to him. 'For man does not know but that he loves and is wise of himself, or that he wills good and understands truth of himself. In fact not a whit is of himself, but from God. It is only God who loves of Himself and is wise of Himself, because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself. The likeness or appearance that love and wisdom, or good and truth, are present in man as if they belonged to him is what makes a man human, and thus able to be linked to God and so to live for ever. The consequence of this is that man's humanity is the result of his ability to will good and understand truth exactly as if he did so of himself, while at the same time knowing and believing that he does so from God. For to the extent that he knows and believes this, God places His image in man; it would be otherwise if he believed it was of himself and not from God.'
[6] After saying this, their love of truth made zeal overcome them and this led them to say: 'How can a person receive any love and wisdom, keep it and reproduce it, unless he feels that it is his own? And how can he be linked with God by love and wisdom, unless he is granted some reciprocal function to permit linking? No linking is possible without reciprocation, and the reciprocal function is man's loving God and doing His will, as if he acted of himself, yet believing that these things come from God. Again, how can a man live for ever, unless he is linked to the everlasting God? So how can a person be human, without that likeness in him?'
[7] All applauded this speech and asked for a conclusion to be drawn from what had been said. The following statement was adopted: 'Man is a receiver of God, and a receiver of God is an image of God. Because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, man is a receiver of both of these. The receiver becomes an image of God to the extent that he receives them. Man is a likeness of God by virtue of the fact that he feels in himself that what he receives from God is his as if it belonged to him. But still that likeness makes him an image of God to the extent that he acknowledges that the love and wisdom, or good and truth, in him are not his, and do not come from him, but are present only in God and therefore come from Him.
[8] They then took up the next subject for discussion, 'Why is man born without knowledge of what he should love, yet animals and birds, the highest as well as the lowest, are born knowing all their loves require?'
First they established the truth of the proposition by various observations. For instance that man is born without any knowledge, not even knowing about conjugial love. 4 They made enquiry and heard from researchers that a baby does not even know its mother's breast from birth, but learns about it by having it repeatedly offered by its mother or nurse; it only knows how to suck, and that is because it has learnt this by continually sucking in its mother's womb. Later on, it does not know how to walk, or to adapt the sounds it makes to form any human word, not even how to express its emotions by sounds as animals do. Moreover, it does not know what food is suitable for it, as animals do, but grabs anything it finds, whether clean or dirty, and puts it in its mouth. The researchers reported that without instruction man knows nothing of the manner of sexual intercourse, and not even young men and women know about this without being told by others. In short, a man is born a mere bodily being like a worm, and bodily he remains unless he learns from others to know, understand and be wise.
[9] They then established that both the higher and lower animals, such as land animals, the birds of the air, reptiles, fish and insects, are born knowing all their loves require in order to live; for instance, everything they need to know about feeding, about where to live, how to copulate and produce young, and about how to bring up their young. They established these facts by remarkable observations which they recalled to mind from what they had seen, heard and read during their previous life in the natural world, where the animals that exist are not representative but real. When they had fully approved the truth of the proposition, they turned their minds to seeking and finding the reasons which would allow them to explain and elucidate this mystery. They all asserted that it must inevitably be due to the Divine Wisdom, that a man is a man and an animal an animal, and thus the imperfection in the birth of man becomes his perfection, and the perfection in the birth of an animal is its imperfection.
[10] The northerners then began to state their opinion. They said that man is born without knowledge, so that he can receive all kinds of knowledge. But if he acquired these by birth, he could never receive any others than those he acquired by birth, and then neither could he make any his own. They illustrated this by a simile. Man at birth is like soil in which no seeds have been planted, but which can receive every kind of seed, grow them and bring them to fruiting. But an animal is like soil which has already been sown, filled with grass and plants, and unable to receive any seeds other than those implanted. If others were sown, it would choke them. That is the reason why it takes man many years to grow up, a period long enough to allow him to be cultivated like the soil, and to bring forth, so to speak, all kinds of crops, flowers and trees. An animal, however, takes only a few years, because it does not need time to be cultivated to produce anything but what it possesses from birth.
[11] The westerners spoke next. They said that man has by birth, not knowledge like an animal, but ability and inclination, the ability to know and the inclination to love. He has by birth not only the ability [to know, but also to understand and to be wise. Also he is born with the most perfect inclination not only] 5 to love what is his own and worldly, but also what is God's and heavenly. As a result man is born an organ which lives with difficulty and dimly by its external senses, and he has by birth no internal senses, so that he may by stages acquire life and become first a natural man, then a rational and finally a spiritual man. This would not happen, if he were endowed by birth with knowledge and loves, like animals. For inborn knowledge and affections of love limit that progress, but mere abilities and inclinations can be inborn without limiting it. Consequently man is capable of becoming more perfect in knowledge, intelligence and wisdom for ever.
[12] The Southerners followed on with their statement. They said that it is impossible for man to acquire any knowledge from himself, but he must do so from others, since he has no inborn knowledge. 'Since he cannot acquire any knowledge from himself, neither can he acquire any love, since where there is no knowledge, there is no love. Knowledge and love are inseparable companions, and can no more be divided than will and understanding, or affection and thought, indeed no more than essence and form. Therefore as a person acquires knowledge from others, so love attaches itself to him as his companion. The universal love which attaches itself is the love of knowing, and later on the loves of understanding and being wise. Only man has these loves, animals have none; they flow in from God.
[13] 'We agree with our colleagues on the west that man has by birth no love and consequently no knowledge, but only the inclination to love, and consequently the ability to receive knowledge, not from himself, but from others, that is, by way of others. We say "by way of others," because neither have they received anything from themselves, but in origin all knowledge is from God. We also agree with our colleagues on the north that man immediately at birth is like soil in which no seeds have been planted, but where fine as well as worthless seeds can be planted. That is why man (homo) is so called from soil (humus), and is called Adam from adama, which means soil. 6 We would add that animals have by birth natural loves, and consequently the kinds of knowledge that correspond to them, yet this knowledge does not enable them to know, think, understand and be wise, but they are guided to this knowledge by their loves, almost like blind people being guided through the streets by dogs. As far as their understanding is concerned, they are blind, or rather, like sleepwalkers who do what they do by blind knowledge while the understanding is asleep.'
[14] The last to speak were the easterners. 'We are in agreement,' they said, 'with what our brothers have said, that man knows nothing from himself, but only from others and by way of others, so that he may recognise and acknowledge that all he knows, understands and is wise about he owes to God. Man could not in any other way be born and be created by God, and become His image and likeness. For he becomes an image of God by his acknowledgment and belief that he has received and continues to receive all the good of love and charity and all the truth of wisdom and faith from God, and not a whit from himself. He is a likeness of God by his feeling these things in himself as if from himself. He has this feeling because he has no knowledge from birth, but receives different kinds of knowledge, and it seems to him as if he received them from himself. Man is permitted by God to have this feeling so that he should be a man and not an animal, since by willing, thinking, loving, knowing, understanding and being wise as if from himself he receives different kinds of knowledge and sublimates them into intelligence, and by using them into wisdom. Thus God links man to Himself, and man links himself to God.
These things could not happen if God had not provided that man was born in a state of complete ignorance.'
[15] After this statement there was a general move to draw a conclusion from the matters discussed, and the following was adopted. 'Man is born without any knowledge so that he can acquire knowledge of all kinds and advance to intelligence and through this to wisdom. He is born without any loves so that he can acquire all kinds of loves, by putting to use his knowledge derived from his intelligence, and acquire love to God by means of love towards the neighbour. Thus he may be linked with God and so become fully man and live forever.'
[16] Then they took up the document again and read out the third subject for discussion. This was: 'What is the meaning of "the tree of life," "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and "eating of them"?' They all begged those on the east to expound this mystery, since it required a more profound understanding, and those who are from the east enjoy a flame-like light, that is, the wisdom of love. This wisdom is what is meant by "the Garden of Eden," in which those two trees were placed.
'We will tell you.' they replied, 'but since man gets nothing from himself, but from God, we shall draw our statement from God, but still speak as if it were we ourselves who were speaking. "A tree,' they went on to say, "Means man, and its fruit the good of life. So "the tree of life" means a man who has life from God. And since love and wisdom, charity and faith, or good and truth make up life from God in man, "the tree of life" means the man who has these qualities from God, and thus everlasting life. "The tree of life" from which people will be given to eat (Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14) has a similar meaning.
[17] "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil" means a man who believes that he has life from himself, and not from God; and so, that love and wisdom, charity and faith, that is, good and truth in him are his and not God's. He believes this because in what he thinks and wills, says and does, he seems and appears to behave exactly as if he did so of himself. So since he goes so far as to persuade himself that he is God, the serpent said:
God knows that on the day you eat of the fruit of that tree your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil, Genesis 3:5.
[18] "Eating" from those trees means receiving and making one's own. "Eating of the tree of life" means receiving everlasting life; "eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" means receiving damnation. "The serpent" means the devil, a personification of self-love and pride in one's own intelligence. Self-love is the owner of that tree, and people who are proud of that love are those trees. It is therefore a huge error if people believe that Adam was wise and did good of himself, and this was his uncorrupted state, when in fact Adam himself was cursed for holding that belief. For this is the meaning of "eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." He therefore fell from his uncorrupted state, which he had by virtue of his belief that he was wise and did good entirely from God and in no respect of himself; for this is what "eating of the tree of life" means. Only the Lord, during His life on earth, had wisdom from Himself and did good of Himself, because the Divine itself was in Him and was His from birth. Therefore by His own power He became the Redeemer and Saviour.'
[19] From both these points they reached the following conclusion: "The tree of life" and "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and "eating of them" mean that life for a person is having God in him, and then he enjoys heaven and everlasting life; and that it is death for a person to be persuaded and believe that life for a man is not God but himself, for thus he finds hell and everlasting death, in other words, damnation.'
[20] Then they looked at the document the angels had left on the table and read the words written at the bottom: 'Link these subjects into a single opinion.' Then they brought the three subjects together and saw that they hung together in a single series. This series or opinion was as follows: 'Man has been created so that he may receive love and wisdom from God, yet it appears exactly as if he did so from himself, which is to allow him to receive them and so be linked; therefore man is born without any love or any knowledge, without even the ability to love and be wise of himself; therefore if he attributes all the good of love and all the truth of wisdom to God he becomes a living man, but if he attributes them to himself he becomes a dead man.'
They wrote these words on a fresh sheet of paper and laid it on the table. Suddenly the angels appeared in a shining cloud and carried the document off to heaven. When it had been read there, those who sat on the seats heard the words, Well done, well done, well done. At once there appeared one as it were flying; he had two wings at his feet and two more at his temples. He brought as prizes gowns, hats and laurel-wreaths. He came down and gave those who sat on the north gowns of iridescent colour; to those on the west gowns of scarlet; to those on the south hats decorated at the rim with bands of gold and pearls, and on the raised left side with diamonds cut into the shape of flowers. To those on the east he gave laurel-wreaths decorated with rubies and sapphires. All who had taken part in the contest of wisdom went cheerfully home resplendent in their prizes.
Footnotes:
1. This is repeated from <../cl/132.htm">Conjugial Love 132-136.
2. The Latin has 'likeness', but the author's copy has this corrected to 'image' in keeping with the Hebrew, cf. <../cl/132.htm">Conjugial Love 132.
3. The Latin follows the Hebrew in using the plural 'lives' here.
4. Or marriage love.
5. These words are missing in the original, but are supplied from <../cl/133.htm">Conjugial Love 133 where this account was first printed.
6. This Latin etymology is supported by expert opinion; the Hebrew word for 'soil' or 'ground' is adama.
48. To this I will add this Memorable Relation:
I was once talking with two angels, one from the eastern and the other from the southern heaven. When they perceived that I was meditating upon the arcana of wisdom respecting love, they said, "Do you know anything about the schools of wisdom in our world?"
I answered, "Not yet."
They said that there were many such, and that those who love truths from spiritual affection, or because they are truths, and because by means of them wisdom is acquired, come together at a given signal and discuss and settle those questions that spring from a deeper understanding.
They then took me by the hand, saying, "Follow us, and you shall see and hear; the signal has been given for a meeting today."
I was led over a plain to a hill; and behold, at the foot of the hill was an arcade of palms reaching to its very top. This we entered and ascended; and on the top or summit of the hill a grove was seen, and among its trees the raised ground formed a kind of theater, within which was a level spot paved with little stones of various colors. Around this in quadrangular form seats were placed upon which lovers of wisdom were sitting; and in the middle of the theater there was a table, upon which was laid a paper sealed with a seal.
[2] Those who were seated invited us to the still vacant seats; but I answered, "I have been brought here by two angels to see and hear, not to sit."
Then the two angels went to the table in the middle of the level spot, and broke the seal of the paper, and read to those seated the arcana of wisdom written on the paper, which they were now to discuss and unfold. These arcana were written by angels of the third heaven, and let down upon the table. There were three: First, What is "the image of God," and what is "the likeness of God," into which man was created? Second, Why is man not born into the knowledge proper to any love, when even beasts and birds, both the noble and the ignoble, are born into the knowledges proper to all their loves? Third, What does "the tree of life" and what does "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" signify, and what is signified by "eating" of them?
Underneath was written, "Unite the answers to these three in one opinion. Write it on a fresh paper, and place it on this table, and we shall see. If the opinion seems well-balanced and correct, each one of you shall receive the prize for wisdom." Having read this the two angels withdrew, and were taken up into their heavens.
Then those sitting upon the seats began to discuss and unfold the arcana proposed to them, speaking in this order, first those, who sat on the north side, then those on the west, next those on the south, and lastly those on the east. And they took up the first subject of discussion, which was, What is "the image of God" and what is "the likeness of God" into which man was created? In the first place there was read to all of them these words from the Book of Creation
God said, Let us make man into Our image, after Our likeness. So God created man into His own image, into the likeness of God made He him (Genesis 1:26-27).
In the day that God created man, into the likeness of God made He him (Genesis 5:1).
[3] Those who sat on the north spoke first, saying that an image of God and a likeness of God are the two lives breathed into man by God, which are the life of the will and the life of the understanding; for we read:
Jehovah God breathed into the nostrils [of Adam] the breath of lives, and man was made into a living soul (Genesis 2:7).
This seems to mean that there was breathed into him the will of good and the perception of truth, thus the soul of lives. And inasmuch as life from God was breathed into him, image and likeness signify integrity in him from love and wisdom, and from righteousness and judgment."
To this those sitting on the west assented, adding, however, that the state of integrity breathed into Adam from God is continually breathed into every man after him; but in man it is as into a receptacle; and man is an image and likeness of God in proportion as he becomes a receptacle.
[4] Afterwards the third in order, who were those seated at the south, said, "An image of God and a likeness of God are two distinct things but in man they are united by creation; and we see as if from some interior light that while the image of God may be destroyed by man, the likeness of God cannot. This we see as through a network, in that Adam retained the likeness of God after he had lost the image of God; for after the curse we read:
Behold the man has become as one of us, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:22)
and after this he was called a likeness of God, but not an image of God (Genesis 5:1). But let us leave to our companions who sit at the east, and are therefore in superior light, to say what is properly an image of God, and what is properly a likeness of God."
[5] Then after a period of silence, those seated towards the east arose from their seats and looked up to the Lord, and again took their seats, and said that an image of God is a receptacle of God; and as God is love itself and wisdom itself, an image of God is the reception in that receptacle of love and wisdom from God; while a likeness of God is a perfect likeness and full appearance that love and wisdom are in man, and are therefore entirely his. For man has no other feeling than that he loves from himself and is wise from himself, or that he wills what is good and understands truth from himself; nevertheless, this is not from himself in the least degree, but from God. God alone loves from Himself and is wise from Himself, because He is love itself and wisdom itself. The likeness or appearance that love and wisdom, or good and truth, are in man as his own, is what makes man to be man, and makes him capable of conjunction with God, and thus of living to eternity; from which it follows that man is man from his being able to will what is good and understand truth wholly as if from himself, and yet with the ability to know and believe that he does so from God; for as man knows and believes this, God puts His image in man; but not so if man believes that he does this from himself, and not from God.
[6] When this had been said there came upon them a zeal arising from a love for the truth, from which they spoke as follows: "How can man receive anything of love and wisdom, and retain it and reproduce it, unless he feels it to be his own? And how is any conjunction with God by means of love and wisdom possible unless there has been given to man something by which he may reciprocate the conjunction? For without a reciprocal no conjunction is possible. And the reciprocal of conjunction is man's loving God and doing what is of God as if from himself, and yet believing that it is from God. Moreover, how can man live to eternity unless he is joined to the eternal God? Consequently, how can man be man without that likeness in him?"
[7] These remarks were approved by all, and they said, "Let us form a conclusion from all this." This was done as follows: "Man is a receptacle of God, and a receptacle of God is an image of God; and as God is love itself and wisdom itself, man is a receptacle of these; and the receptacle becomes an image of God in the measure in which it receives. And man is a likeness of God from his feeling that the things that are from God are in him as his own; and yet from that likeness he is only so far an image of God as he acknowledges that love and wisdom, or good and truth, are not his own in him, and are not from him, but are solely in God, and consequently from God."
[8] After this they took up the second subject of discussion, Why is man not born into the knowledge proper to any love, when even beasts and birds, both the noble and the ignoble, are born into the knowledges proper to all their loves? They first confirmed the truth of the proposition by various arguments, as, that man is born into no knowledge, not even into a knowledge of marriage love. They inquired and learned from investigators the fact that an infant from connate knowledge does not even know its mother's breast, but learns of it from the mother or nurse by being put to the breast; that it merely knows how to suck, and this it has acquired from continual suction in the mother's womb; that subsequently it does not know how to walk, or to articulate sound into any human word, and not even to express by sounds its love's affections as beasts do; furthermore, that it does not know what food is suitable for it, as beasts do, but seizes upon whatever comes in its way, clean or unclean, and puts it in its mouth. The investigators said that man without instruction knows nothing whatever of the modes of loving the sex, virgins and youths even knowing nothing about it until they have been taught by others. In a word, man is born a purely corporeal thing, like a worm, and so continues unless he acquires knowledge, understanding, and wisdom from others.
[9] After this they confirmed the fact that both noble and ignoble animals, as the beasts of the earth, the birds of heaven, reptiles, fishes, and the smaller creatures called insects, are born into all the knowledges proper to their life's loves, as into all things pertaining to nutrition, to their habitations, to sexual love and prolification, and all things pertaining to the rearing of their offspring. All this they confirmed by wonderful facts which they recalled to memory from what they had seen, heard, and read in the natural world, where they had formerly lived, and where the animals are real and not representative. When the truth of the proposition had been thus established, they applied their minds to the investigation and discovery of the reasons by means of which this arcanum might be unfolded and made clear. And they all said that these things could spring only from the Divine wisdom, to the end that man might be man, and beast might be beast; and thus man's imperfection at birth becomes his perfection, and the beast's perfection at birth is its imperfection.
[10] Then those on the north began to express their views; and they said that man is born without knowledges in order that he may be able to receive all knowledges; while if he were born into knowledges he would not be capable of receiving other knowledges beyond those into which he had been born, nor would he be capable of making any knowledge his own. This they illustrated by the comparison that man at birth is like ground in which no seed has been sown, but which nevertheless is capable of receiving all seeds and of causing them to grow and bear fruit; while a beast is like ground already sown, and full of grasses and herbs, which can receive no other seeds than those already sown, or if it did, would choke them. For this reason man is many years in coming to maturity, during which he can be cultivated, like soil, and bring forth, as it were, all kinds of crops, flowers, and trees, while the beast matures in a few years, during which it is capable of improvement only in the things into which it was born.
[11] Afterwards those on the west spoke, and said, "Man is not, as a beast is, born a knowledge, but is born a faculty and inclination-a faculty for knowing and an inclination for loving. Moreover, he is born a faculty for loving both what pertains to self and the world and what pertains to God and heaven. Consequently, man at birth is merely an organ, living only an obscure life through the external senses, and with no internal senses, to the end that his life may develop step by step, and he may become first a natural man, then a rational man, and finally a spiritual man; and this he could not become if he were born into knowledges and loves as beasts are. For that development is limited by connate knowledges and affections of love, while mere connate faculties and inclinations do not limit it. This is what gives man the ability to be perfected to eternity in knowledges, intelligence, and wisdom.
[12] Those on the south followed, and pronounced their opinion, saying that it is impossible for man to derive any knowledge from himself, and since he has no connate knowledge he can only gain it from others. "And as man can acquire no knowledge from himself, neither can he any love, since where knowledge is not love is not. Knowledge and love are inseparable companions, as inseparable as will and understanding, or as affection and thought, or even as essence and form. Therefore as man acquires knowledge from others, love unites with it as a companion. The most general love that unites itself is the love of knowing, and afterwards the love of understanding and of being wise. No beast has these loves, but man only; and they flow in from God.
[13] We agree with our fellow-members on the west that man is not born into any love, and consequently not into any knowledge, but is born merely into an inclination for loving and thus into a faculty for receiving knowledge, not from himself but from others, that is, through others. We say through others, because neither do these receive anything from themselves, but originally from God. We agree also with our fellow-members on the north, that man at his birth is like soil in which no seeds have been planted, but in which all seeds, both noble and ignoble, may be planted. This is why man was called homo [man], from humus [soil], and Adam [Hebrew for man], from adamah, which means soil. To this we add that beasts are born into natural loves, and from these into knowledges corresponding thereto; and yet they have no ability to learn or to think or to understand or to be wise from knowledges; but are impelled to these by their loves, much as the blind are conducted through the streets by dogs (for beasts are blind so far as understanding is concerned; or rather, beasts are like persons walking in sleep, who do whatever they do from blind knowledge, their understanding being asleep)."
[14] Finally those on the east spoke and said, "We assent to what our brethren have said, that man derives no knowledge from himself, but only from and through others, in order that he may recognize and acknowledge that all his knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are from God; also that man can in no other way be born and begotten of God, and become His image and likeness. For man becomes an image of God by acknowledging and believing that he has received and continues to receive from God every good of charity and every truth of wisdom and faith, and none whatever from himself; while he is a likeness of God by his feeling these goods and truths to be in himself as if they were from himself. This he feels because he is not born into knowledges but acquires them; and what he requires seems to him to be from himself. Moreover to so feel is bestowed upon man by God in order that he may be a man and not a beast, since it is through man's willing, thinking, loving, understanding, and being wise as if from himself, that he receives knowledges, and exalts them to intelligence, and, by using them, to wisdom; thus God conjoins man to Himself, and man conjoins himself to God. All this could not be done unless it had been provided by God that man should be born in total ignorance."
[15] After this had been said it was the desire of all that a conclusion be drawn from the points discussed, and this was done as follows: "Man is born into no knowledge that he may be capable of entering into all knowledge and progressing into intelligence, and through this into wisdom; and he is born into no love that he may be capable of entering, into all love by the application of knowledges from intelligence, and into love to God through love of the neighbor, and thus of being conjoined to God, and thereby becoming man and living forever."
[16] After this they took up the paper and read the third subject of discussion, which was, What is signified by "the tree of life," and by "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and by "eating" of them? They all requested that those in the east should unfold this arcanum, because it was a matter of deeper understanding, and because those from the east were in flaming light, that is, in the wisdom of love, and this wisdom is meant by "the garden of Eden," in which those two trees were placed.
They replied, "We will speak; but as man receives nothing from himself, but everything from God, we will speak from Him, and yet from ourselves as if from ourselves." And they said, "A tree signifies man, and its fruit the good of life therefore 'the tree of life' signifies man living from God; and as love and wisdom, or charity and faith, or good and truth, constitute the life of God in man, 'the tree of life' signifies a man who has these within him from God, and in consequence, eternal life. The tree of life of which it shall be given to eat (mentioned in Revelation 2:7, 22:2, 14) has the same signification.
[17] 'The tree of the knowledge of good and evil' signifies a man who believes that he lives from himself and not from God; thus that love and wisdom, or charity and faith, that is, good and truth, are not God's in man, but his own, the reason for this belief being that man thinks and wills and speaks and acts in all likeness and appearance as if from himself; and as man thereby persuades himself that he is himself a god, the serpent said
God doth know that in the day ye eat of the fruit of that tree your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5).
[18] "'Eating' of these trees signifies reception and appropriation, 'eating of the tree of life' reception of eternal life, and 'eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil' the reception of damnation. 'The serpent' means the devil in respect to the love of self and the conceit of one's own intelligence; this love is the possessor of that tree, and the men who are in the conceit derived from that love are such trees. It is therefore a monstrous error to believe that Adam was wise and did good from himself, and that this was his state of integrity; when in fact Adam was himself cursed on account of that belief; for this is what is meant by his 'eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;' and this was why he then fell from his state of integrity, which had been his possession because of his believing that he was wise and did good from God, and in no respect from himself, which is what is meant by his 'eating of the tree of life.' The Lord alone when He was in the world was wise from Himself and did good from Himself, because the Divine Itself was in Him, and was His from His birth; therefore by His own power He became the Redeemer and Savior."
[19] From all this they formed this conclusion: "'The tree of life, ' 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,' and 'eating' therefrom, mean that man's life is God in him, and when God is in him he has heaven and eternal life; while the death of man is the persuasion and belief that his life is not God, but himself, and this belief leads to hell and eternal death, which is damnation."
[20] After this they looked at the paper left by the angels on the table, and saw written upon it, "Bring these three together in one opinion;" and bringing them together they saw that the three formed one coherent series, and the series or opinion was as follows: "Man was so created as to be capable of receiving love and wisdom from God, and yet in all likeness as if from himself, and this for the sake of reception and conjunction; and this is why man is not born into any love, nor into any knowledge, nor even into any power to love and be wise from himself. Therefore when he attributes every good of love and every truth of faith to God he becomes a living man; but when he attributes them to himself he becomes a dead man."
This they wrote on a fresh paper, and placed it on the table; and behold, immediately angels came in, a bright cloud and carried the paper away to heaven.
And when it had been read there, those sitting upon the seats heard from heaven the words, "Well done, well done, well done." And presently one from heaven was seen flying as it were with what appeared like two wings on his feet and two on his temples, bringing rewards, which were robes, caps, and laurel wreaths. He descended and gave to those sitting at the north robes of an opaline color; to those at the west robes of scarlet; to those at the south caps with borders ornamented with bands of gold and pearls, and with their tops on the left side adorned with diamonds cut in the form of flowers; while to those on the east he gave wreaths of laurel in which were rubies and sapphires. And all, decorated with these rewards, went home from the school of wisdom with joy.
48. MEMORABILIA.
To the above will now be added this spiritual experience. I was once conversing with two angels, one from the eastern heaven and the other from the southern. When they perceived that I was meditating upon the mysteries of wisdom involved in love, they asked if I knew anything of the schools of wisdom in their world. On my replying that I did not yet, they said: "There are several where those, who love truths from spiritual affection, or truths because they are truths and the means of attaining wisdom, meet together at an appointed sign, and discuss and determine matters requiring more than ordinary consideration." They then took me by the hand saying: "Come with us, and you shall see and hear, for to-day the signal for a meeting has been given." I was conducted across a plain to a hill, at the foot of which was an avenue of palm trees stretching to the top. We entered this avenue and ascended, and at the top or summit of the hill was a grove within whose trees the ground was raised to form a sort of theatre, with a smooth floor of small colored stones. Around it in the form of a square were seats on which lovers of wisdom sat, and in the centre of the theatre was a table on which was laid a sealed paper.
[2] Those who were seated invited us to places that were still unoccupied, but I replied: "I have been brought here by two angels to see and hear but not to take a seat." The two angels then walked to the table in the middle of the door, and, breaking the seal on the paper, they read out to those who were seated the mysteries of wisdom written on the paper which they were now to discuss and unfold. These had been written by angels of the third heaven and deposited on the table. They consisted of three subjects, the first of which was, What is the image of God and what is the likeness of God in which man was created? The second was, Why is man not born into the knowledge relating to any love, while beasts and birds both noble and vile are born into the knowledge relating to all their loves? The third was, What is meant by the tree of life, what by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what by eating of them? Underneath was written: "Combine your answers to these three questions into one, write it upon a fresh paper and place it on the table, and we shall see it. If your decision appears well-balanced and just, each of you shall be awarded the prize of wisdom." Having read these words the two angels retired and were borne away to their own heaven. Thereupon those who were seated began to discuss and unfold the propositions laid before them. They spoke in order, first those who sat on the north, then those on the west, next those on the south, and lastly those on the east. They began with the first subject of consideration, namely, What is the image of God and what is the likeness of God in which man was created? In the first place from the Book of Creation in the presence of all were read these words:
"God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:... So God created man in His own image, in the likeness (A.V., image) of God created He him" Genesis 1:26-27;
"In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him" Genesis 5:1.
[3] Those who sat on the north spoke first. They said: "The image of God and the likeness of God are the two lives breathed into man by God, which are the life of the will and the life of the understanding; for it is written: 'JEHOVAH God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives (A.V., life), and man became a living soul.'" Genesis 2:7.
These words seem to mean that there was breathed into him the will of good and the perception of truth, and thus the soul of lives; and because life was breathed into him by God, an image and a likeness signify integrity from love and wisdom, and from justice and judgment in him." Those who were seated on the west agreed with this opinion, but with this addition, that the state of integrity inspired into him by God at creation is continually inspired by God into every man since; but that it is in man as in a recipient, and man, as a recipient, is an image and likeness of God.
[4] Afterwards the third in order, who sat on the south, said: "The image of God and the likeness of God are two distinct things, but united in man at creation; and we see, as by a kind of interior light, that the image of God may be destroyed by man, but not the likeness of God. This seems to be implied by the fact that Adam retained the likeness of God after he had lost the image of God, for it is said after the curse:
"Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" Genesis 3:22; and later he is called the likeness of God, and not the image of God, Genesis 5:1. But let us leave it to our friends who sit on the east and are therefore in a higher light to say what is properly an image of God, and what a likeness of God."
[5] Then after a silence, those who were seated on the east rose; and looking up to the Lord they resumed their seats and said: "An image of God is a recipient of God; and because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, an image of God is the result of the reception of love and wisdom from God in a man. On the other hand, a likeness of God is a perfect likeness and full appearance as if love and wisdom were in a man and consequently were altogether his own; for then he feels just as if he loves from himself and is wise from himself, or that he wills good and understands truth from himself; whereas he does none of these things from himself, but from God. God alone loves from Himself and is wise from Himself, because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself. The likeness or appearance that love and wisdom, or goodness and truth, are in a man as his own causes him to be a man, and enables him to be united with God, and so live for ever. Hence it follows that man is man because be is able to will good and to understand truth, altogether as from himself, and yet to know and believe that good and truth are from God; for as he knows and believes this, God implants His image in him. It would be otherwise were he to believe that love and wisdom were from himself and not from God."
[6] Having spoken these words, and being inspired with zeal for the truth they continued as follows: "How can a man receive any love and wisdom, retain it and give it forth unless he feels it as his own? How can there be conjunction with God by means of love and wisdom unless there is something reciprocal on the part of man to effect conjunction? For without reciprocation no conjunction is possible. What is necessary for conjunction is that a man should love God and do the things that are of God as if from himself, and yet in the belief that he does so from God. Moreover, how can a man live to eternity unless he is conjoined with the eternal God? And consequently how can a man be man unless he has that likeness in him?"
[7] All agreed with these words and said: "Let our conclusion be drawn up in accordance with these sentiments." This they did as follows: "A man is a recipient of God, and a recipient of God is an image of God; and since God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, a man is a recipient of these, and a recipient becomes an image of God in so far as it receives Him. Further, a man is a likeness of God because he feels in himself that the things which are from God are in him as his own. Still he is an image of God from that likeness only in so far as he acknowledges that love and wisdom, or good and truth in him are not his own, and consequently are not from himself, but that they are only in God, and consequently from God."
[8] After this they took up the second subject of inquiry: Why is man not born into the knowledge relating to any love, while beasts and birds, both noble and vile, are born into the knowledge relating to all their loves? They first confirmed the truth of the proposition by various considerations. Then they instanced that in the case of man he is born into no knowledge, not even into knowledge concerning conjugial love. They made inquiry and found out from investigators that an infant does not even know from innate knowledge its mother's breast, but that it learns this from its mother or its nurse by being put to the breast; and that it only knows how to suck from having learned it by continual suction in its mother's womb. Afterwards it does not know how to walk, or how to articulate sound in any human language, or even how to give expression to its affections of love as beasts do. Moreover, it does not know what food is suitable for it, as beasts do, but lays hold of whatever comes its way, clean or unclean, and puts it into its mouth. The investigators also said that without instruction man knows nothing at all about sexual love: that not even do maidens and youths have such knowledge except by instruction from others. In short, a man is born corporeal like a worm, and remains so, unless he learns to know, to understand, and to be wise from others.
[9] After this they confirmed that beasts, both noble and vile, as animals of the earth, the birds of heaven, reptiles, fish and insects, are born into all knowledge of the loves of their life, as into what relates to their nourishment, habitation, sexual love, propagation of their kind and up-bringing of their young. These things they confirmed by the wonderful things they recalled to memory from what they had seen, heard and read in the natural world where they formerly lived, and where there are not representations, but real beasts. When the truth of this proposition was thus proved, they turned their minds to investigate and discover reasons by which they might resolve and explain this mystery. They all said that these things could only be from the Divine Wisdom, to the end that man may be man and beast may be beast; and that thus the imperfection of man at his birth is his perfection, and the perfection of beasts at their birth is their imperfection.
[10] Then those on the north first expressed their views, and they said: "Man is born without knowledge that he may be able to acquire all knowledge. If, however, he were born with knowledge he would not be able to acquire any beyond what was innate, and would therefore not be able to appropriate any to himself." This they illustrated by means of the following comparison. "When a man is born he is at first like ground in which no seed has been sown, but which can receive all kinds of seed, cause them to grow and bear fruit. Beasts on the other hand are like ground already sown and covered with grass and herbs. This ground receives no other seed than what has already been sown; and if it were to receive other seed it would choke them. Hence a man takes many years to reach maturity, and during this time he can be cultivated like the ground, and bring forth, as it were, all kinds of grain, flowers and trees. A beast, however, reaches maturity in a few years, during which it cannot be cultivated to produce anything but what was innate."
[11] Those on the west next spoke, and they said: "A man is not born with knowledge, like a beast, but with faculty and inclination, with faculty to know and with inclination to love; and not only to love whatever relates to himself and the world, but also whatever relates to God and heaven. Consequently a man is by birth an organism, at first living only an uncertain kind of life, using external but no internal senses, to the end that he may live a life of ever-increasing fulness, and become first a natural, then a rational, and finally a spiritual man. This would not be possible if, like the beasts', his knowledge and his loves were innate. For such knowledge and love would limit this progression, whereas innate faculties and inclinations set no bounds, and thus a man may be perfected in knowledge, intelligence and wisdom to eternity."
[12] Those on the south next took up the subject and said: "It is impossible for a man to acquire any knowledge from himself, but he must acquire it from others, since no knowledge is born with him. Moreover, as he cannot acquire any knowledge from himself, neither can he acquire any love, for where there is no knowledge there is no love, knowledge and love being inseparable companions. They can no more be separated than the will and the understanding, or affection and thought, or essence and form. Therefore as man acquires knowledge from others, love joins it as a companion. The universal love which joins it is the love of knowing, and afterwards that of understanding and of being wise.
[13] Man only, and not beasts, has these loves, and they flow in from God. We agree with our friends on the west that a man is not born with any love, and consequently, not with any knowledge, but that he is born only with an inclination to love, and consequently with a faculty to receive knowledge, not indeed from himself, but from others, that is, through others: 'through others,' because neither have these acquired anything from themselves, but originally from God. We agree also with our friends on the north that a man, when born, is like ground in which no seed has been sown, but in which all kinds, both good and bad, can be planted. It is for this reason that man was called homo from humus, 'the ground,' and Adam from Adama, which also means 'the ground.' We add, however, that beasts are born with all kinds of natural love, and consequently with the knowledge concerning these. Still from this knowledge they do not exercise the power of knowing, thinking, understanding, nor do they become wise; but they are impelled by their love almost as blind men are led along the streets by their dogs, for they are blind as to intellectual sight; or rather they are like sleep-walkers, whose actions are all done blindly, and whose mental faculties are sound asleep."
[14] Lastly those on the east spoke, and they said: "We agree with what our brethren have stated, that a man knows nothing from himself, but only from others and through others, in order that he may realize and acknowledge that all his knowledge, intelligence and wisdom are from God; otherwise a man could not be born and begotten of God, and become an image and likeness of Him. For he becomes an image of God as he acknowledges and believes that all the good of love and charity and all the truth of wisdom and faith which he has received and continues to receive are from God, and that none whatever is from himself; and he is a likeness of God in that he sensibly perceives these things in himself as if they were from himself. He so feels because he is not born with knowledge, but acquires it; and what a man acquires appears to him to be from himself. God grants that he should have this feeling that he may be a man and not a beast. Since by it he wills, thinks, loves, knows, understands and becomes wise as from himself, he acquires knowledge, exalts it to intelligence, and by using it converts it into wisdom. In this way God conjoins man to Himself and a man conjoins himself to God. This would have been impossible had God not provided that a man should be born in total ignorance."
[15] After this statement all desired that a conclusion should be drawn up from the views expressed, and this was done as follows: "A man is born without knowledge in order that he may acquire all knowledge, advance to intelligence, and thence to wisdom. He is born with no love that he may acquire all love by the intelligent use of knowledge; and particularly that he may acquire love of God by love towards the neighbor, that he may thus be conjoined to God, and consequently become a man and live for ever."
[16] Thereupon they took up the paper and read the third subject of inquiry, which was: What is meant by the tree of life, what by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what by eating of them? As this is a subject of unusual difficulty, all requested that those on the east should explain it, because those from the east are in that fiery light which is the wisdom of love. This wisdom is meant by the Garden of Eden, in which were planted those two trees. They replied: "We will express our views, but as man does not derive anything from himself but from God, we will speak from Him, but still as from ourselves." They then spoke as follows: "A tree signifies a man, and its fruit the good of life. Hence by the tree of life is signified a man living from God; and because love and wisdom, and charity and faith, or good and truth, constitute the life of God in a man, by the tree of life is signified a man who has those qualities from God, and who consequently has eternal life. The same is signified by the tree of life of which it will be granted to eat, Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14.
[17] By the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is signified a man who believes that he lives from himself, and not from God; thus that love and wisdom, charity and faith, that is, good and truth, are in a man as his own, and not God's. He believes this because he thinks and wills, speaks and acts to all appearance as if from himself; and because a man by such a belief persuades himself that he is a god, therefore the serpent said:
"God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God (A.V., gods), knowing good and evil" Genesis 3:5.
[18] By eating of those trees is signified reception and appropriation: by eating of the tree of life, the reception of eternal life, and by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the reception of eternal death or damnation. By the serpent is meant the devil as to the love of self and the pride of self-intelligence. Love of self is the possessor of that tree, and men who are in the pride of that love are such trees. Those therefore are in great error who believe that Adam was wise and did good from himself and that his was a state of integrity, seeing that Adam himself was cursed for that belief; for this is signified by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For this reason he fell from the state of integrity he enjoyed while he believed that he was wise and did good from God, and not from himself; for this is meant by eating of the tree of life. The Lord alone, when He was in the world, was wise and did good from Himself, because the Divine itself was in Him and was His from birth; therefore also by His own power He became the Redeemer and Savior."
[19] From these arguments they came to this conclusion: "By the tree of life, and by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and by eating of them is meant that God in a man is his life, and His presence brings heaven and eternal life; but death for a man is the rooted belief that his life is not God but man himself, and this brings hell and eternal death, which is meant by damnation."
[20] After this they looked at the paper which had been left by the angels upon the table, and read what was written as a post-script: "Unite these three in one general conclusion." They brought them together and saw that the three formed a coherent sequence which they expressed as follows: "Man was created to receive love and wisdom from God, yet to all appearance as if from himself, and this for the sake of reception and conjunction; and therefore a man is not born with any love, nor any knowledge, nor even any power of loving and of becoming wise from himself. Therefore if he ascribes all the good of love and all the truth of wisdom to God, he becomes a living man; but if he ascribes them to himself, he becomes a dead man." This they wrote upon a fresh paper and laid it on the table; and suddenly angels appeared in a bright cloud, and carried the paper into heaven. When it was read there those who sat on the seats heard words of approbation. Immediately there appeared one flying as it were from heaven, with two wings about his feet and two about his temples, bringing the rewards which consisted of robes, caps and laurel wreaths. When he alighted he presented to those who sat on the north opal-colored robes, to those on the west scarlet-colored robes, and to those on the south caps having their borders adorned with bands of gold and pearls, and ornamented on the top of the left side with diamonds cut in the form of flowers; but to those on the east he presented laurel wreaths with rubies and sapphires among the leaves. Then, decorated with these rewards, they all went joyfully home from the school of wisdom.
48. His adjicietur hoc MEMORABILE. Quondam cum duobus Angelis loquutus sum; unus erat e Coelo orientali, alter e Coelo meridionali; qui cum perceperunt quod Arcana sapientiae de Amore meditarer, dicebant, nostine aliquid de Ludis sapientiae in nostro Mundo; respondi quod nondum; et dixerunt, sunt plures, et quod illi, qui amant vera ex affectione spirituali, seu vera quia vera sunt, et quia per illa est sapientia, ad datum signum conveniant, ac ventilent et concludant illa quae profundioris intellectus sunt. Illi tunc prehenderunt me manu, inquientes, sequere nos, et videbis et audies; datum est hodie signum conventus. Ducebar per planitiem ad collem, et ecce ad pedem collis porticus ex palmis, continuatus usque ad ejus caput; intravimus illum, et ascendimus; et super capite seu vertice collis visus est Lucus, inter cujus arbores humus elevata formabat sicut Theatrum, intra quod erat Planum lapillis varie coloratis stratum: circum illud in forma quadrata posita erant Solia, super quibus sedebant amatores sapientiae; et in medio Theatri erat Mensa, super qua posita fuit Charta sigillo obsignata.
[2] Sedentes super Soliis invitabant nos ad Solia adhuc vacua, et respondi, hic ductus sum a duobus Angelis, ut videam et auscultem, et non ut sedeam: et tunc bini illi Angeli in medium Plani ad mensam ibant, et sigillum chartae solvebant, et coram sedentibus legebant arcana sapientiae Chartae inscripta, quae nunc ventilarent et evolverent; scripta fuerunt ab Angelis tertii Coeli, et super mensam demissa; erant tria Arcana, PRIMUM, quid Imago Dei, et quid Similitudo Dei, in quas homo creatus est. SECUNDUM, cur homo non nascitur in scientiam ullius amoris, cum tamen Bestiae et Aves, tam nobiles quam ignobiles, nascuntur in scientias omnium suorum amorum. TERTIUM, quid significat Arbor vitae, et quid Arbor scientiae boni et mali, et quid Esus ex illis: his subscriptum erat, conjungite illa tria in unam sententiam, et scribite hanc super Charta nova, et illam reponite super hac Mensa, et videbimus; si sententia super lance aequilibris et justa apparet, dabitur cuique vestrum praemium sapientiae. His lectis recesserunt bini Angeli, ac sublati sunt in suos Coelos. Et tunc Sedentes super Soliis incipiebant ventilare et evolvere Arcana illis proposita; et loquuti sunt in ordine, primum, qui sedebant ad Septentrionem, dein illi qui ad Occidentem, postea qui ad Meridiem, et ultimo qui ad Orientem; et assumserunt Primum subjectum ventilationis, quod erat, QUID IMAGO DEI, ET QUID SIMILITUDO DEI, IN QUAS HOMO CREATUS EST; et tunc primum ex Libro creationis coram omnibus lecta sunt haec, "Dixit Deus, faciamus hominem in IMAGINEM NOSTRAM, secundum SIMILITUDINEM NOSTRAM: et creavit Deus hominem in IMAGINEM SUAM, in SIMILITUDINEM DEI fecit eum, Genesis 1:26-27: 1 Quo die Deus creavit hominem, in SIMILITUDINEM DEI fecit eum, Genesis 5:1."
[3] Illi qui sedebant ad SEPTENTRIONEM primum loquuti sunt, dicentes, quod Imago Dei et Similitudo Dei, sint binae Vitae homini a Deo inspiratae, quae sunt Vita voluntatis et Vita intellectus, nam legitur, Jehovah Deus inspiravit in nares Adami animam VITARUM, et factus est homo in Animam viventem, Genesis 2:7 per quae videtur intelligi, quod ei inspirata sit Voluntas boni, et Perceptio veri, et sic Anima vitarum; et quia vita a Deo illi inspirata est, Imago et Similitudo significant integritatem ex amore et sapientia, exque justitia et judicio in illo. His illi qui sedebant ad OCCIDENTEM favebant, adjiciendo tamen hoc, quod status integritatis illi a Deo inspiratus, cuivis homini post illum continue inspiretur; sed quod in homine sit sicut in receptaculo, ac homo, sicut est receptaculum, est imago et similitudo Dei.
[4] Postea Tertii in ordine, qui erant qui sedebant ad MERIDIEM, dixerunt; Imago Dei et Similitudo Dei sunt duo distincta, sed in homine a creatione unita, et videmus sicut ex quadam luce interiore, quod imago Dei possit disperdi ab homine, non autem similitudo Dei; hoc apparet sicut per transennam ex eo, quod Adamus retinuerit similitudinem Dei, postquam amiserat imaginem Dei, nam legitur post maledictionem, "Ecce homo est sicut unus ex nobis, sciendo bonum et malum," Genesis 3:22 et postea vocatur similitudo Dei, et non imago Dei, Genesis 5:1, sed relinquamus consociis nostris, qui ad Orientem sedent, et inde in superiore luce sunt, dicere, quid proprie imago Dei, et quid proprie similitudo Dei.
[5] Et tunc post silentium factum, Sedentes ad Orientem e soliis surrexerunt, et suspexerunt ad Dominum, et post remiserunt se super solia, et dixerunt; quod Imago Dei sit receptaculum Dei, et quia Deus est ipse Amor et ipsa Sapientia, quod imago Dei sit receptio amoris et sapientiae a Deo in illo: at quod Similitudo Dei sit perfecta similitudo et plena apparentia sicut amor et sapientia sint in homine, et inde prorsus sicut ejus; homo enim non sentit aliter, quam quod amet a se et sapiat a se, seu quod bonum velit et verum intelligat a se; cum tamen ne hilum a se, sed a Deo; Solus Deus amat a se, et sapit a se, quia Deus est ipse Amor et ipsa Sapientia; similitudo seu apparentia, quod amor et sapientia, seu bonum et verum, sint in homine sicut ejus, facit ut homo sit homo, utque possit conjungi Deo, et sic vivere in aeternum; ex quo fluit, quod homo sit homo ex eo, quod possit velle bonum ac intelligere verum prorsus sicut a se, et usque scire et credere quod a Deo, nam sicut hoc scit et credit, ponit Deus imaginem suam in homine; aliter si crederet quod a se et non a Deo.
[6] His dictis, supervenit illos zelus ex amore veritatis, ex quo loquuti sunt haec; quomodo potest homo recipere aliquid amoris et sapientiae, ac retinere illud, et reproducere illud, nisi sentiat illud sicut suum; et quomodo potest conjunctio dari cum Deo per amorem et sapientiam, nisi datum sit homini aliquod reciprocum conjunctionis, nam absque reciproco nulla conjunctio dabilis est; et reciprocum conjunctionis est, quod homo amet Deum, et faciat illa quae Dei sunt, sicut a se, et tamen credat quod a Deo; tum quomodo potest homo vivere in aeternum, nisi conjunctus sit Deo aeterno; consequenter quomodo homo potest esse homo, absque illa similitudine in illo.
[7] His dictis faverunt omnes, et dixerunt, fiat Conclusum ex his, et factum est hoc: Homo est receptaculum Dei, et Receptaculum Dei est Imago Dei; et quia Deus est ipse Amor et ipsa Sapientia, est homo Receptaculum illorum, ac Receptaculum fit imago Dei sicut recipit: et quod homo sit similitudo Dei ex eo, quod sentiat in se, quod illa quae a Deo sunt, sint in illo sicut ejus; at usque quod tantum ex similitudine illa sit Imago Dei, quantum agnoscit quod amor et sapientia, seu bonum et verum, non sint in illo ejus, et inde nec ab illo, sed solum in Deo, et inde a Deo.
[8] Post haec Alterum objectum ventilationis assumserunt, "CUR HOMO NON NASCITUR IN SCIENTIAM ULLIUS AMORIS, CUM TAMEN BESTIAE ET AVES, TAM NOBILES QUAM IGNOBILES, NASCUNTUR IN SCIENTIAS OMNIUM SUORUM AMORUM. Primum veritatem propositionis confirmabant per varia, ut de homine, quod nascatur in nullam scientiam, ne quidem in scientiam amoris conjugialis; et inquisiverunt, et a rimatoribus audiverunt, quod infans ne quidem ex connata scientia sciat uber matris, sed quod ex matre seu nutrice hoc per admotiones discat, et quod modo sciat sugere, et quod hoc hauserit ex continua suctione in utero matris; et quod postea non sciat gradiri, nec articulare sonum in aliquam vocem humanam, imo nec sonare affectiones amoris, sicut bestiae; 2 porro quod non sciat aliquam alimoniam sibi conducibilem, sicut bestiae, sed quod arripiat obvium, sive sit mundum sive immundum, et inferat in buccam: rimatores dixerunt, quod homo absque instructione, prorsus nihil sciat de modis amandi sexum, et quod hos ne quidem virgines et adolescentes absque eruditione ab aliis: verbo, homo nascitur corporeus sicut vermis; et manet corporeus, nisi discat scire, intelligere et sapere ex aliis.
[9] Post haec confirmabant, quod Bestiae tam nobiles quam ignobiles, ut animalia terrae, volucres coeli, reptilia, pisces, vermiculi 3 qui vocantur insecta, nascantur in omnes scientias amorum vitae suae, ut in omnia quae nutritionis sunt, in omnia quae habitationis sunt, in omnia quae amoris sexus, et prolificationis sunt, inque omnia quae educationis foetuum suorum sunt: haec confirmabant per mirabilia, quae revocabant in memoriam ex visis, auditis et lectis in Mundo naturali, in quo prius vixerunt, in quo non repraesentativae sed reales bestiae dantur. Postquam veritas propositionis ita comprobata est, intendebant mentes ad indagandum et inveniendum causas, per quas hoc Arcanum evolverent et detegerent; et dixerunt omnes, quod illa non possint non ex Divina Sapientia existere, ut homo sit homo, et bestia sit bestia, et sic quod imperfectio nativitatis hominis sit 4 ejus perfectio, et perfectio nativitatis bestiae sit ejus imperfectio.
[10] Coeperunt tunc SEPTENTRIONALES primum aperire suam mentem, et dixerunt, quod homo nascatur absque scientiis, ut recipere possit omnes, at si nasceretur in scientias non posset recipere ullas, praeter illas in quas natus est, et tunc nec posset sibi appropriare ullam; quod illustrabant per hanc comparationem; homo primum natus est sicut humus, cui nulla semina implantata sunt, sed quae usque potest recipere omnia, ac proferre et fructificare illa; at bestia est sicut humus jamdum sata, ac impleta graminibus et herbis, quae non recipit alia semina quam insita, si alia, suffocaret illa; inde est, quod homo adolescat per plures annos, intra quos potest sicut humus excoli, ac proferre sicut omnis generis segetes, flores et arbores; bestia autem per paucos, per quos non potest in alia, quam in connata excoli.
[11] Postea OCCIDENTALES loquuti sunt, et dixerunt, quod homo non nascatur scientia sicut bestia, sed quod nascatur Facultas et Inclinatio, Facultas ad sciendum, et Inclinatio ad amandum, et quod nascatur Facultas non modo [ad sciendum, sed etiam ad intelligendum et sapiendum; et quoque quod nascatur Inclinatio perfectissima, non modo] 5 ad amandum illa, quae sui et mundi sunt, sed etiam illa quae Dei et Coeli sunt; consequenter quod homo nascatur Organum, quod vix sensibus externis, nisi obscure vivit, at nullis internis, propter causam, ut successive vivat, et fiat homo, primum naturalis, postea rationalis, et demum spiritualis; quod non fieret, si nasceretur in scientias et amores, sicut bestiae; scientiae enim et affectiones amoris connatae finiunt illam progressionem, at solum facultates et inclinationes connatae nihil finiunt; quapropter homo potest perfici scientia, intelligentia et sapientia in aeternum.
[12] MERIDIONALES exceperunt, et ediderunt suum effatum, dicentes, quod impossibile sit homini sumere aliquam scientiam a se, sed sumet illam ab aliis, quoniam nulla scientia ei connata est; et quia non potest ullam scientiam sumere a se, nec potest ullum amorem, quoniam ubi non scientia ibi non amor; sunt scientia et amor individui comites, nec possunt plus separari quam voluntas et intellectus, aut affectio et cogitatio, imo non plus quam essentia et forma; quare sicut homo sumit scientiam ab aliis, ita se ei adjungit amor ut ejus comes: universalis amor qui se adjungit, est amor sciendi, et postea intelligendi et sapiendi; hi amores sunt soli homini, et nulli bestiae, ac influunt a Deo.
[13] Nos convenimus cum sodalibus nostris ab Occidente, quod homo non nascatur in ullum amorem, et inde nec in ullam scientiam, sed quod solum nascatur in inclinationem ad amandum, et inde in facultatem ad recipiendum scientias, non a se sed ab aliis, hoc est, per alios; per alios dicitur, quia nec hi receperunt aliquid a se, sed originitus a Deo. Convenimus etiam cum sodalibus nostris ad Septentrionem, quod homo primum natus sit sicut humus, cui non aliqua semina implantata sunt, sed cui omnia tam nobilia quam ignobilia implantari possunt; inde est quod HOMO dictus sit ab Humo, ac ADAM ab Adama quae est Humus. His adjicimus, quod Bestiae nascantur in naturales amores, et inde in scientias illis correspondentes, et quod usque non aliquid ex scientiis sciant, cogitent, intelligant, et sapiant, sed quod ad illas ex amoribus suis ferantur, paene sicut caeci per plateas a canibus, quoad intellectum enim caecae sunt; at potius sicut noctambuli, qui ex caeca scientia, sopito intellectu, faciunt quae faciunt.
[14] Ultimo loquuti sunt ORIENTALES, et dixerunt, consentimus ad illa, quae fratres nostri loquuti sunt, quod homo nihil sciat ex se, sed ex aliis et per alios, ut cognoscat et agnoscat, quod omnia quae scit, intelligit et sapit, sint ex Deo; et quod homo non possit aliter nasci et generari a Deo, ac fieri Ipsius imago et similitudo; nam imago Dei fit, per quod agnoscat et credat, quod omne bonum amoris et charitatis, et omne verum sapientiae et fidei, acceperit et accipiat ex Deo, et ne hilum ex se; et similitudo Dei est, per quod sentiat illa in se sicut a se; hoc sentit, quia non nascitur in scientias, sed accipit illas, et quod accipiat, apparet illi sicut a se; ita sentire etiam datur homini a Deo, ut sit homo et non bestia, quoniam per id quod velit, cogitet, amet, sciat, intelligat et sapiat sicut ex se, recipit scientias, et exaltat illas in intelligentiam, et per illarum usus in sapientiam, ita Deus conjungit hominem sibi, et homo se Deo: haec non fieri potuissent, nisi a Deo provisum fuerit, ut homo in totali ignorantia nasceretur.
[15] Post hoc effatum voluerunt omnes, ut ex ventilatis fieret Conclusum, et factum est hoc, "Quod homo nascatur in nullam scientiam, ut possit venire in omnem, et progredi in intelligentiam, et per hanc in sapientiam; et quod nascatur in nullum amorem, ut possit venire in omnem, per applicationes scientiarum ex intelligentia, et in amorem in Deum per amorem erga proximum, et sic conjungi Deo, et per illud fieri homo, et vivere in aeternum."
[16] Post haec sumserunt Chartam, et tertium Objectum ventilationis legerunt, quod erat, QUID SIGNIFICAT ARBOR VITAE, QUID ARBOR SCIENTIAE BONI ET MALI, ET QUID ESUS EX ILLIS; et rogaverunt omnes, ut illi qui ab Oriente erant, evolverent hoc Arcanum, quia profundioris intellectus est, et quia illi qui ex Oriente sunt, in flammea luce, hoc est, in amoris sapientia sunt, et haec sapientia intelligitur per Hortum Edenis, in quo illae duae Arbores positae fuerunt; et responderunt, dicemus, sed quia homo non sumit quicquam ex se, sed ex Deo, dicemus ex Ipso, at usque a nobis sicut a nobis; et tunc dixerunt: Arbor significet hominem, et fructus ejus bonum vitae, inde per Arborem vitae significatur homo vivens ex Deo; et quia amor et sapientia, ac charitas et fides, seu bonum et verum, faciunt vitam Dei in homine, per Arborem vitae significatur homo in quo illa sunt a Deo, et inde illi vita aeterna: similia significantur per Arborem vitae, e qua dabitur edere, Apocalypsis 2:7; 22:2, 14.
[17] Per Arborem scientiae boni et mali significatur homo credens quod vivat ex se, et non a Deo, ita quod amor et sapientia, charitas et fides, hoc est, bonum et verum, sint in homine ejus et non Dei, hoc credens quia cogitat et vult, ac loquitur et facit, in omni similitudine et apparentia sicut ex se; et quia homo inde sibi persuadet, quod etiam sit Deus, ideo dixit serpens, "Novit Deus, quo die comederitis de fructu illius arboris, aperientur Oculi vestri, et eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum," Genesis 3:5.
[18] Per Esum ex illis arboribus, significatur receptio et appropriatio, per Esum ex arbore vitae receptio vitae aeternae, et per Esum ex arbore scientiae boni et mali, receptio damnationis; per Serpentem intelligitur diabolus quoad amorem sui et fastum propriae intelligentiae, et ille Amor est possessor illius arboris, et homines qui in fastu ex illo amore sunt, illae arbores sunt. Sunt itaque illi in enormi errore, qui credunt Adamum sapuisse et bonum fecisse ex se, et hoc fuisse statum ejus integritatis, cum tamen ipse Adamus propter illam fidem maledictus est; hoc enim significatur per Edere ex arbore scientiae boni et mali; quare tunc excidit e statu integritatis, qui illi fuit ex eo, quod crederet se sapere et bonum facere ex Deo et nihil ex se, hoc enim intelligitur per Edere ex Arbore vitae. Solus Dominus, cum fuit in Mundo, sapuit ex Se, et bonum fecit ex Se, quia Ipsum Divinum a nativitate fuit in Ipso et Ipsius, quare etiam ex propria potentia factus est Redemptor et Salvator.
[19] Ex his et illis Conclusum fecerunt hoc, "Quod per Arborem vitae, et per Arborem scientiae boni et mali, et per Esum ex illis, intelligatur, quod Vita homini sit Deus in illo, et quod tunc ei Coelum et Vita aeterna; et quod Mors homini sit persuasio et fides, quod vita homini non sit Deus sed ipse, unde ei Infernum et Mors aeterna, quae est damnatio."
[20] Post haec inspexerunt Chartam ab Angelis super mensa relictam, et viderunt subscriptum, CONJUNGITE ILLA TRIA IN UNAM SENTENTIAM; et tunc collegerunt 6 illa, et viderunt, quod Tria illa in una serie cohaererent, et quod series seu sententia illa sit haec, "Quod Homo creatus sit, ut recipiat amorem et sapientiam a Deo, et tamen in omni similitudine sicut a se, et hoc propter receptionem et conjunctionem; et quod ideo homo non nascatur in aliquem amorem, nec in aliquam scientiam, et ne quidem in aliquam potentiam amandi et sapiendi ex se: quapropter si addicit omne bonum amoris, et omne verum sapientiae Deo, fit Homo vivus; ast si addicit illa sibi, fit homo mortuus." Haec inscripserunt novae Chartae, et hanc posuerunt super Mensa; et ecce subito Angeli in candida nube aderant, et Chartam in Coelum deportabant, et postquam ibi lecta est, Sedentes super soliis audiverunt inde voces, bene, bene, bene. Et actutum apparuit Unus inde sicut volans, cui sicut duae alae circa pedes, et duae circa tempora, ferens praemia, quae erant Togae, Pilei, et Laureae, ac demisit se, ac illis qui sederunt ad Septentrionem dedit Togas coloris opalini; illis qui ad Occidentem Togas coloris coccinei; illis qui ad Meridiem Pileos, quorum limbos ornabant fasciae ex auro et margaritis, et sinistri lateris elevationes 7 Adamantes secti floriformes; illis autem qui, ad Orientem dedit Laureas in quibus rubini et sapphiri: et omnes his praemiis decorati e Ludo sapientiae domum cum gaudio abiverunt.
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: Genesis 1.
2. Prima editio: bastiae.
3. Prima editio: vermiculI.
4. Prima editio: fit. Fortasse fiat, sic Worcester.
5. Sic DAC 134.