28、如果把你所知道的都汇集起来，仔细研究它们，从灵的某种高度上探究万物的共性，你能得出的唯一结论是：万物的共性就是爱与智慧。因为这二者是构成一个人生活的一切的两个基本要素；生活的一切，包括社会的、道德的和属灵的，都仰赖这二者，离了它们什么也不是。这也同样适用于人的集合体，也就是前面所说的大大小小的社区、国家或帝国、教会，以及天使天堂。想想若从它们那里拿走爱与智慧，会是什么样子；你会发现，没有爱与智慧作为它们源头，它们什么也不是。
28. The true divine essence is love and wisdom. If you gather together everything you know, focus your mind's insight on it, and look through it carefully from some spiritual height to discover what is common to everything, the only conclusion you can draw is that it is love and wisdom. These two are essential to every aspect of our life. Everything we deal with that is civic, everything moral, and everything spiritual depends on these two things. Apart from them, there is nothing. The same holds true for everything in the life of that composite person who is (as already noted [24]) our larger and smaller community, our monarchy or empire, the church, and also the angelic heaven. Take love and wisdom away from any of these collective bodies and ask whether there is anything left, and you will be struck by the fact that without love and wisdom as their source, they are nothing.
28. The Divine essence itself is love and wisdom. If you muster everything you know and submit it to your mind's inspection, and in a somewhat elevated state of the spirit examine what the universal element is in all things, you cannot help but conclude that it is love and wisdom. For these two are the essential ingredients in all components of a person's life. All his civil life, all his moral life, and all his spiritual life hang on these two. Without these two they are nonexistent.
The same is true of all the components in the life of the collective person, meaning, as before said, a society greater or smaller, a kingdom or empire, the church, and also the angelic heaven.
Take from these love and wisdom and consider whether they have any reality, and you will find that without love and wisdom as their origin they do not exist.
28. THE DIVINE ESSENCE ITSELF IS LOVE AND WISDOM
If you gather together all the things that you know, and submit them to mental reflection, and in some elevation of spirit search for the universal of them all, you cannot draw any other conclusion than that Love and Wisdom are such. For these are the two essentials of all the things of a man's life. Everything civil, moral and spiritual of a man's life depends upon these two, and apart from these two, they are not anything. It is the same with all the things of the life of the composite Man which is, as was stated above, a society larger or smaller, a kingdom, an empire, the Church and also the angelic heaven. Take away love and wisdom from these, and consider whether they be anything, and you will find that, without these as their origin, they are nothing.
28. THE DIVINE ESSENCE ITSELF IS LOVE AND WISDOM
Sum up all things you know and submit them to careful inspection, and in some elevation of spirit search for the universal of all things, and you cannot conclude otherwise than that it is Love and Wisdom. For these are the two essentials of all things of man's life; everything of that life, civil, moral, and spiritual, hinges upon these two, and apart from these two is nothing. It is the same with all things of the life of the composite Man, which is, as was said above, a society, larger or smaller, a kingdom, an empire, a church, and also the angelic heaven. Take away love and wisdom from these, and consider whether they be anything, and you will find that apart from love and wisdom as their origin they are nothing.
28. QUOD IPSA DIVINA ESSENTIA SIT AMOR ET SAPIENTIA. Si colligis omnia, quaecunque nosti, et mittis illa sub mentis tuae intuitionem, et in aliqua spiritus elevatione scrutaris, quid Universale omnium est, non potes concludere aliud quam quod sint Amor et Sapientia; sunt enim illa duo essentialia omnium vitae hominis; omne Civile ejus, omne Morale ejus, et omne Spirituale ejus, a duobus illis pendent; absque illis duobus non sunt aliquid: similiter omnia vitae Hominis compositi, qui est, ut prius dictum est, Societas major et minor, Regnum et Imperium, Ecclesia, et quoque Coelum Angelicum. Deme illis amorem et sapientiam, et cogita num sint aliquid, et deprehendes quod absque illis, ut ex quibus, sint nihil.