1708. Human bodies come to exist and are maintained by the Lord by means of the grand human being
How the Lord's life pours also into evil people
Spirits have quite often more or less chided me, saying I have no life, because I have said it as it is, that those on earth, spirits and angels do not live from their own power, but from the Lord, and are merely instruments of life. Therefore they declared that I possess no life in me. It was also because I have said that whatever evil was aroused in me was theirs, and whatever good, the Lord's. This they are unwilling to understand, having made up their minds that I possess no life. They really dislike it when I say it, for they want to live on their own power, and have consequently often complained, indignantly, when I spoke in this way.
1708. THE EXISTENCE AND SUBSISTENCE OF HUMAN BODIES FROM THE LORD BY [OR THROUGH] THE GRAND MAN. HOW LIFE FROM THE LORD IS INFUSED EVEN INTO THE EVIL.
(Spirits often upbraided me, as it were, as having no life, because I said to them - what is the fact - that neither men, spirits, nor angels live from themselves, but from the Lord, and that they are only organs of life. This prompted them to say that I was possessed of no life at all; and moreover, when I stated that whatever evil was excited with me pertained to them, and whatever of good to the Lord, this they were unwilling to comprehend, still insisting that [on this ground] I must be destitute of life. They have in fact a decided aversion to hearing such assertions, for they wish to live from themselves, and for this reason they often complained, and were indignant that I thus spoke.)
1708. Corporum humanorum existentia et subsistentia a Domino per hominem maximum Quomodo vita Domini infunditur etiam in malos
Spiritus saepius me quasi increparunt, quod nullam habere 1
vitam, quia sicut est, dixi, quod homines, spiritus, angeli, non vivant ex se, sed ex Domino, et quod solum organa vitae sint, ideo dixerunt, quod nulla vita praeditus essem, tum etiam ideo, quia eorum esset, quicquid mali excitaretur penes me, et Domini quicquid boni; hoc comprehendere non volunt, illud statuunt, sic putantes quod nulla vita praeditus: aversantur etiam quod ita iis dicam, nam volunt vivere ex semet, quare saepe conquesti sunt, et indignati, quod ita loquutus.
Footnotes:
1. sic manuscript; vide praefationem hujus editionis sub capite "Idiosyncrasies"