3476. About those who grow insane from [speculating] what the Lord had done from eternity, before the creation of the universe, and thence draw conclusions even about the origin of the Lord
Those of a corporeal nature as they are especially on this planet, cannot reason, as long as they are such, except from the standpoint of bodily and material things, consequently from wholly finite and outermost things, such as some do from the standpoint of bodily pleasures concerning heavenly happiness, or from the bodily senses concerning every spiritual matter. Some such people whenever they reason, fall also into an argumentation based on wholly finite notions, namely, on time and space, coming to conclusions based on time about what is eternal, and on space about what is limitless, not knowing that in the other life there is no notion of time, nor of space.
[2] For those who had lived thousands of years do not know but that they have lived a minute; and those who had been farthest from me, as in the Indies, or even on other planets, compared to the distances of which distances on our earth vanish to nothing, nevertheless are brought to my presence in a moment. So the notion of time and of space does not obtain with spirits - only to those who are corporeal-minded, and to others when they are engrossed in corporeal matters. But still, these are not granted reflection on such matters, and in its absence there is no notion of them. This is evident from a person in the body not reflecting on corporeal things, who at such a time has no notion of them either.
These things were written in the presence of angels thus through angels.
3476. CONCERNING THOSE WHO ARE INSANITIES FROM INQUIRING WHAT GOD WAS EMPLOYED ABOUT FROM ETERNITY, BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, AND WHO THENCE INFER ON ORIGIN EVEN OF THE LORD HIMSELF.
Those who remain [in great measure] corporeal, very much as they were on earth, cannot reason, so long as they are of this character, otherwise than from corporeal and material things, consequently from the most finite and exterior, judging, for instance, of celestial happiness from the pleasures of the body, and of everything spiritual from the sensual joys of the flesh. Some of these also, when they reason, fall into speculations grounded upon the most finite things, as time and space, concluding from time respecting the eternal, and from space respecting the infinite, not knowing that in the other life there is no notion of time or space, for those who have lived thousands of years know not that they have lived a minute; and those who were locally the most remote from me, as in the Indies, or in other earths, compared with the distance of which, all the distances on our earth vanish to nothing, were yet made to be present in a moment of time. Wherefore the notion of time and space is not given to spirits, except to those who are corporeal, and while in corporeals. But a [true and correct] notion does not obtain even with them, because [interior] reflection is not given them, and without reflection a [true] notion does not exist, as is evident from the case of a man in the body who does not reflect upon corporeal things of this kind; he is not then in the notion of them. This is written in the presence of the angels, and thus with the angels.
3476. De iis qui insaniunt ex eo, quod [ratiocinantur] quid fecisse Dominum ab aeterno ante mundi creationem, et inde deducunt ortum etiam Domini
Qui corporei sunt, ut cumprimis in hac tellure, non ratiocinari possunt, quamdiu corporei sunt, quam a corporeis et materialibus; proinde a finitissimis et extimis, sicut quidam a voluptatibus corporis de felicitate coelesti, a sensualibus corporis de omni spirituali, tales cum quoque ratiocinantur, quidam eorum cadunt etiam in ratiocinationem a finitissimis, nempe a tempore et spatio, ad concludendum a tempore de aeterno, et a spatio de infinito, non scientes quod in altera [vita] nulla sit temporis notio, nec spatii, nam qui vixerunt millia annorum non sciunt [quam] quod vixerint minutum, et qui fuerunt longissime a me, ut in Indiis, etiam in aliis telluribus, ad quarum distantiam, distantiae nostrae telluris evanescunt, usque momento sistuntur praesentes, quare notio temporis et spatii spiritibus non datur, solum iis qui corporei sunt, et [aliis] dum in corporeis sunt, sed usque iis non datur reflexio talium, et absque reflexione, nulla notio talium, sicut constare potest ab homine in corpore, cum non reflectit super talia, et corporea, quod tunc nec in eorum notione est. Haec scripta in praesentia angelorum ita per angelos.