1643. Therefore no one in heaven claims credit for having taught much during life
Two whom I had known in life who had taught much, and who had been quite diligent in their preaching, began to tell that they were now possessed with an eagerness to teach. I noticed that the zeal they had had during life was thus reviving, so to speak, but from what kind of desire their eagerness arose was concealed from me.
However, I spoke with others who were high above me who, I suppose, had been teachers during their life and were therefore very high in heaven. We spoke, in fact, of someone who had possessed an intense love of teaching, which was almost his whole life.
This occasioned me to discuss this case, saying that I did not know the source of their desire to teach. I knew they had been like this in their bodily life, but there are some who possess that zeal so that they may be regarded as wise by the world, being moved by that ambition. In this case they can expect no reward in heaven due to that zealous labor, because it is for their own sake, so as to be looked upon as wise.
Others may have the motive of becoming great persons, and of being honored, others, motives of profit, while yet others are compelled to engage in it to make a living, when yet they would take more pleasure in different, more mundane pursuits; still others have an inborn, native urge to teach, but still can expect no [reward] for this.
But as for the zeal for teaching, regarded in itself, it is not theirs, but the Lord's, as these same persons confess in their preachings. Therefore, anyone in the other life taking credit for this zeal, obtains nothing in heaven.
1643. THAT NO ONE TAKES AUGHT OF CREDIT TO HIMSELF IN HEAVEN BECAUSE HE HAS TAUGHT MANY THINGS.
The spirits of two individuals known to me in their lifetime, and who had been distinguished as teachers, and had labored with exemplary diligence in preaching, began to say that they were now also prompted by a [similar] desire of teaching. I perceived that the desire by which they were influenced in their lifetime has thus, as it were, revived, but the motive by which it was prompted was concealed from me. But when certain others, who were high above me, and who, as I presume, were teachers while in the world, on which count they were now exceedingly high in heaven, entered into conversation with me respecting a certain one who when living on earth had been actuated by an intense love of teaching, so that it seemed to constitute his very life, I thence took occasion for further converse, and remarked that I knew not whence their ardent desire of teaching arose, though I knew that they had been of such a quality In the life of the body. But there are some who are prompted to that pursuit from a desire of being accounted wise in the estimation of the world, this being in fact their grand incentive; wherefore from such a pursuit or labor they can expect no reward in heaven, inasmuch as their motive is selfish, to wit, to acquire the reputation of wisdom. Others [engage in it] with a view to becoming great and being promoted to honors; others for the sake of gain; others forcedly, having an eye to the compensation, though their delights are rather in other and worldly things; others again from a natural inbred love for the employment, so that they could reasonably expect nothing [by way of remuneration] therefrom. Indeed as to what concerns this zeal in teaching it is not their own, but the Lord's, as they themselves confess in their preachings. Wherefore if anyone places merit in such an occupation, he obtains nothing in heaven.
1643. Quod nullus ideo sibi quid in coelo vindicet, quod multa in vita docuerit
Bini in vita mihi noti, qui multa docuerunt, et satis diligentes in praedicatione fuerunt, ceperunt {a} dicere, quod studio docendi nunc praediti sint; cognovi, quod studium quod in vita habuerunt, sic quasi revivisceret, sed mihi abscondebatur ex quo desiderio 1
, id studium; at cum aliis, qui supra me alte sunt, qui, ut reor, doctores in vita fuerunt, et ideo in altissimo coelo, loquutus sum 2
, et quidem de quodam, qui summo studio docendi in vita gavisus est, in quo ejus vita paene constitit: inde occasio loquendi, dicendo, quod nesciam unde cupido eorum docendi, novi quod tales fuerint in vita corporis, sed sunt quidam qui ideo eo studio praediti sunt, ut sapientes audiant coram mundo, quae cupido eos excitat, quare ex studio seu labore isto nihil mercedis in coelo possunt expectare, quia propter se, ut audiant sapientes: alii propter id, ut inde fiant magni, et promoveantur ad honores; alii lucri causa, alii coacte, quia stipem quaerunt, cum in aliis seu mundanis potius delectentur, alii ex studio insito, ut naturali, sic usque nihil inde possunt exspectare; quod vero concernit zelum in docendo in se spectatum, hoc eorum non est, sed Domini, sicut iidem fatentur in praedicationibus suis. Quare si quisquam in altera vita meritum ponat in tali studio, nihil in coelo obtinet.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has desiderium
2. The Manuscript has mecum loquuti sunt