48.对此，我补充一则记事：
有一次，我与两位天使交谈，一位来自东方天堂，另一位来自南方天堂。他们发觉我在默想关于爱的智慧奥秘，就说：“难道你不知道我们世界有关智慧竞技会的事？”“是的，至今不知”，我答道。“这样的竞技会有很多”，他们说，“参与者都是那些出于属灵的情感热爱真理之人，也就是说，他们热爱真理，是因为它们是真理，是通向智慧的途径。一旦有信号发出，他们就聚在一起讨论深奥的问题，并得出相关结论。”然后，他们拉着我的手说：“跟我们来，你必看到、听到。今天刚好有聚会的信号。”我被引领穿过一个平原，来到一座小山前。只见山脚下有一条两侧栽有棕榈树的林荫大道，一直通向山顶。我们沿着这条路向上走，在山顶看到一个小树林。在树丛当中，升起的地势形成一种剧院。该剧院当中有一块铺有各色鹅卵石的平地，平地周围的椅子排成四方形，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。
坐在椅子上的人邀请我们坐到空位上，不过，我回答说：“我只是被两位天使带来看看、听听，就不坐了。”然后，两位天使来到平地中间的桌子旁，启开纸的封印，然后向与会者读了记在纸上的智慧奥秘，他们即将讨论并解释这些奥秘。它们是由第三层天的天使写下来并放到桌子上的。奥秘有三个：第一，人既被造为神的形像和神的样式，那么该形像和样式分别是什么？第二，为何人生来没有任何爱的知识，而动物和鸟类，无论高级还是低级，生来就知道它们的爱所需的一切？第三，生命树、善恶知识树，以及吃它们的含义是什么？下面还有一段话：“将这三个主题合成一个观点并陈述出来，写在一张新纸上，然后放到桌子上，我们必看得见。若这个观点陈述得有条有理，准确无误，你们每个人都将得到智慧的奖赏。”读完，两位天使离开，升到他们的天堂去了。然后，那些参会者开始讨论并解释提给他们的奥秘。他们按照北、西、南、东的座次轮流发言。首先讨论了第一个问题，即人既被造为神的形像和神的样式，那么该形像和样式分别是什么？他们先读了创世记中的经文：
神说，我们要照着我们的形像，按着我们的样式造人。神就照着自己形像造人，乃是照着神的形像造他。（创世记1:26－27）
当神造人的日子，是照着自己的样式造的。（创世记5:1）
坐在北面的人首先发言，他们说：“神的形像和神的样式是由神吹入人里面的两个生命，就是意愿的生命和理解力的生命。因为我们读到：耶和华神将生气吹进亚当鼻孔里，这人就成了活的灵魂（创世记2:7）。这似乎意味着行善的意愿和对真理的直觉是被吹进人里面来的，它们可被称作生命的气息。由于生命由神吹入他里面，故形像和样式表示由他里面的爱和智慧、公义和判断力所产生的正义。”坐在西面的人同意这个观点，不过，他们补充了以下内容：由神吹入亚当里面的这种正义状态不断被吹入继亚当之后的每个人。但它在人内如在器皿内，人照着作为器皿的效用而成为神的形像和样式。
然后坐在南面的第三组说：“神的形像和神的样式是两样截然不同的事物，但在人里面，它们自他被造时就结合在一起。我们凭内在之光看到，人能破坏神的形像，但不能破坏神的样式。通过以下事实，如同通过屏幕一样可以看清这一点，即亚当在失去神的形像后仍保有神的样式。因为诅咒之后，经上说：看哪，那人已经像我们中间的一个，知道善恶（创世记3:22）。后来，他被称为神的样式，不再被称为神的形像（创世记5:1）。不过，还是把这个问题留给我们坐在东面、享有更高光明的朋友，让他们说说何为神的形像，何为神的样式。”
一阵静默过后，坐在东面的人起身，抬头仰望主，然后回到座位上，说，神的形像是神的接受器皿。由于神是爱本身和智慧本身，所以在人里面，神的形像就是从神那里接受爱与智慧；而神的样式则是爱与智慧存在于人里面并属于他的完美样式和十足表象。“因为人只知道他凭自己去爱，凭自己有智慧，或凭自己意愿良善、理解力真理，而事实上，丝毫不是凭他自己，而是靠着神。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。爱与智，或善与真存在于人里面，如同他自己的东西，正是这一样式或表象使人成为人，并使他能与神结合，从而活到永远。由此可知，人之为人，是由于他貌似能完全自主意愿良善、理解力真理，而同时又能知道并相信，他是通过神这样做的。照着人对这一点的认识和信念，神将祂的形像安置在他里面。若人以为是靠着自己，而不是靠着神，情况则不然。”
说到这里，热爱真理的激情感染他们，促使他们继续说：“若非感觉爱和智慧就是自己的，人怎会接受它，甚至还保留并繁殖它呢？若不赋予人某种相互结合的功能，人如何通过爱和智慧与神结合呢？结合若不是相互的，是不可能的。这种相互结合的功能就是人爱神并行出祂的旨意，仿佛他凭自己这样行，然而又相信这些事出自神。此外，若不与永生的神结合，人怎能活到永远呢？所以，若那样式不在他里面，人又如何成为人呢？”
全体一致鼓掌称赞这番话，并请求按着这些话得出一个结论。于是采纳了以下陈述：“人是接受神的器皿，神的器皿就是神的形像。由于神是爱本身和智慧本身，故人是接受爱和智慧的器皿；该器皿照其接受它们的程度而成为神的形像。人是神的样式，是由于以下事实：他从内心觉得他从神所接受的就是他的，好象是他自己的东西。不过，只有承认他里面的爱与智，或善与真不是他的，并非来自他，只存在于神里面，因而来自神，那样式才能使人成为神的形像。”
之后，他们着手讨论第二个问题，为何人生来没有任何爱的知识，而动物和鸟类，无论高级还是低级，生来就知道它们的爱所需的一切？首先，他们通过各种观察资料确认这个问题是事实。如，人生来没有任何知识，甚至连婚姻之爱的相关知识也没有。他们询问研究人员，从他们那里获悉：婴儿生下来甚至不知道母亲的乳房，而是在母亲或保姆的反复帮助下才知道；它只知道如何吸吮，而这也是它通过在母亲子宫内不断吸吮才学会的；后来，婴儿不知道如何走路，也不知道如何调和声音使之形成人的话，甚至不知道如何通过声音表达它的情绪，还不如动物。而且，它也不象动物那样知道适合自己的食物，而是碰见什么抓什么，无论脏、净，都往嘴里送。研究人员说，若不接受教导，人丝毫不懂如何做爱，甚至若非别人告知，连少男少女也不知道。总之，人生来纯是肉体，好比一条蠕虫。若不从别人那里学习如何获得知识、聪明和智慧，他仍是属肉体的。
然后，他们证实，动物，无论高级还是低级，包括地上的走兽，空中的飞鸟，各种爬行动物，鱼类和昆虫，天生就知道为了生活其爱所需的一切。例如，它们知道关乎喂食、居所、交配、繁殖、抚育后代的一切。他们通过从在世时的所见所闻所读回想起的奇妙例子证实了这些事实，尘世的动物不是代表物，而是真实的。充分证明了该问题的真实性之后，他们把注意力转向寻求并找出能使他们解释和阐明这个奥秘的原因。他们一致声称，这必缘于圣智，以使人成为人，动物成为动物，因此，人生来的不完美会变成他的完美，而动物生来的完美则就是它的不完美。
然后，北面的人开始表达自己的观点。他们声称，人生来没有任何知识，是为了他能接受各种知识。人若生来就有某种知识，就只能接受与生俱来的知识，无法再取得其它知识。他们用下面的比喻说明了这一点：人刚生下来，好比没有播种的土地，但这土地能接受各类种子，使之生长并结果。而动物好比早已播种过的土地，这土地满了青草和草本，除了已播入的种子外，不再接受其它种子。即便其它种子被播种，它也会将它们窒息。正因如此，人需要很多年才能逐渐长大，在这些年里，他象土地那样被耕种，可以说长出各样谷物、花木。而动物几年就长大，因为除了与生俱来的东西外，它不需要时间被耕种以产出任何事物。”
西面的人接着发言说，人不象动物生来就有知识，但他天生有一种能力和倾向，即认知能力和爱的倾向。而且，人生来不但具有认知能力，还具有理解和变得智慧的能力。所以，他生来也具有最完美的爱的倾向，不仅热爱属乎自己和世俗之物，还热爱属乎神和天堂之物。因此，人生为一个器官，这器官凭其外在感觉生活得吃力、朦胧，他生来没有内在感觉，以便他能逐渐获得生命，首先成为一个属世人，继而成为一个理性人，最后变成一个属灵人。若他生来就象动物那样被赋予各种知识和爱，这一切是不可能的。因为与生俱来的知识和爱的情感会限制发展，而与生俱来的能力和倾向则对它没有任何限制。所以，人的知识、聪明和智慧能变得越来越完美，直到永远。
南面的人接着他们的话说，人从自己那里不可能获得任何知识，必须从别人那里获得它，因为他没有天生的知识。“人无法从自己那里获得任何知识，故也无法获得任何爱。因为没有知识，就没有爱。知识和爱是不可分割的伴侣，就象意愿与理解力，或情感与思维，甚或本质与形式那样无法分割。因此，当人从别人那里获得知识时，爱会象其伴侣那样依附于他。能使自己依附的普世之爱就是对认知的爱，后来则是对理解和变得智慧的爱。唯独人类才有这些爱，动物则没有，它们是从神那里流入的。
“我们赞同我们西面同伴的观点，即人生来没有任何爱，因而也没有任何知识，只有爱的倾向，以及随之而来的接受知识的能力，不过，并非从自己，而是从其他人那里接受，确切地说，是通过其他人。之所以说‘通过其他人’，是因为其他人也不是从自己那里接受任何事物，而从源头上说，一切知识皆来自神。我们也同意我们北面同伴的观点，即人刚出生时就象没有播种的土地；不过，一切种子，无论好坏，都能被种植其中。这就是为何人被称为从土里来的，并被称作亚当，因为亚当表示土。我们要补充的是，动物生来就具有属世之爱，因而具有对应这些爱的各种知识；然而，这知识并不能使它们去认知、思考、理解，并变得有智慧。它们只是被其爱引向这知识，就跟盲人被狗引领穿过街道差不多。就其理解力而言，它们是瞎的，确切地说，就象梦游者通过盲目的知识做事，而其理解力还在睡大觉。”
最后发言的是坐在东面的人。他们说：“我们一致赞同我们弟兄刚才所说的这一切，即人凭自己一无所知，只能通过并经由其他人拥有知识，以便他能认识并承认，他的一切知识、理解力和智慧都来自神。人只能以这种方式被神生出并创造，成为祂的形像和样式。人成为主的形像，是凭着他承认并相信，他已接受并继续接受的一切爱与仁之善和智与信之真皆来自主，没有一顶点来自他自己。他成为主的样式，是凭着他感觉自己里面的这些事物仿佛来自他自己。他有这种感觉是因为，他生来没有任何知识，而是接受各种知识，他觉得似乎是凭他自己接受的。神允许人有这种感觉，以便他能成为一个人，而不是一个动物，因为他通过貌似自主意愿、思考、热爱、认识、理解和变得智慧而接受各种知识并将它们升华为聪明，通过运用它们升华为智慧。神就是这样将人与祂自己结合起来，并且人将自己与神结合起来。若主没有规定人生在完全无知的状态，这些事是不可能发生的。”
说完这番话，大家都想通过刚才讨论的要点得出一个结论，并且得出以下结论：“人生来没有任何知识，是为了他能获得各种知识，并发展为聪明，再通过聪明发展为智慧。他生来没有任何爱，是为了他能通过运用源于聪明的知识获得各种爱，并通过爱邻获得对神的爱，从而与神结合，凭此结合成为完全的人，并活到永远。”
之后，他们又拿起那张纸，宣读了第三个题目，即生命树、善恶知识树，以及吃它们的含义？他们一致请求坐在东面的人解释这个奥秘，因为它需要更为深刻的领悟力。而来自东方的人享有火焰般的光芒，即爱的智慧。这智慧就是“伊甸园”所表示的，这两棵树就被置于其中。于是，他们回答说：“我们会告诉你们，不过，由于人无法从自己那里获得任何东西，所接受的一切皆来自神，所以我们会通过神来阐明，但仍貌似我们自己在说话那样来谈论。”他们接着说：“树表示人，它的果实表示生命的良善。所以，生命树表示从神拥有生命的人。由于爱与智，仁与信，或善与真构成人里面来自神的生命，所以生命树就表示从神拥有这些品质并因此拥有永生的这个人。在启示录（2:7；22:2，14），被赐给人吃的生命树具有相同的含义。
善恶知识树表示人相信他凭自己而非神拥有生命；因此他的爱与智，仁与信，即善与真是他的，而非神的。之所以有这样的信念是因为，他觉得他完全就象是自主思考、意愿、言说和行动，而且从表面上看也是如此，以至于他确信，他就是神，故蛇说：
神知道，你们吃那树的果子之日眼睛就开了，你们便如神能知道善恶。（创世记3:5）
吃这两棵树表接受并变成自己的。吃生命树表接受永生，吃善恶知识树表接受诅咒。这也是为何亚当及其妻子，连同蛇一起受到诅咒的原因。蛇表以我欲和自我聪明为骄傲的。
这爱就是善恶知识树的主人，凡由于我欲而骄傲的人就是这种树。所以，认为亚当凭自己有智慧和行善，并且这是他的完备状态，是一个巨大的错误。事实上，亚当本人就是因这样的信念而受诅的。这就是吃善恶知识树所表示的，这就是为何那时他其完备状态堕落了。而亚当处于完备状态正是由于他相信他有智慧并行善，靠的是神，根本不是他自己，这就是吃生命树所表示的。当主在世时，唯有祂凭自己而有智慧，凭自己行善，因为自出生时神性本身就在祂里面，是祂的。所以，祂凭自己的力量成为救世主和救主。”
他们由此得出这一结论：生命树、善恶知识树和吃它们表示：人的生命就是他里面的神，当神在他里面时，他便拥有天堂和永生；而人的死亡则是被说服并确信，他的生命不是神，而是他自己，这种信念通向地狱和永死，也就是诅咒。
此后，他们看了看天使留在桌子上的纸，见上面写着：“将这三点合成一个观点。”于是，他们将这三点合起来，发现它们形成一个连贯的系列，该系列或观点如下：“人如此被造以至于能从神那里接受爱与智慧，然而，表面上完全看似从他自己那里接受，这是为了接受和结合。因此，人生来没有任何爱或知识，甚至没有通过自己去爱和变得智慧的能力。所以，人若将一切爱之善和一切智之真归于神，就成了活人；但若将其归于自己，就成了死人。”他们将这些话写在一张新纸上，放到桌子上。突然，天使一团亮云中出现了，并将这张纸带到天堂。纸上的内容在那里被读完，在座的听到有声音天堂传来：“说得好，说得好，说得好。”紧接着，就看到一位天使从天堂飞来。他的脚上好象有两个翅膀，太阳穴有两个翅膀，带来了奖品，这奖品是长袍、帽子和月桂花冠。降落后，他将蛋白石色的长袍奖给坐在北面的人；将猩红色的长袍奖给坐在西面的人；将帽子奖给坐在南面的人，帽子的帽沿饰有金边和珍珠，左侧的卷起处饰有花形钻石；将内有红宝石和蓝宝石的月桂花冠奖给坐在东面的人。装饰上这些奖品后，他们全都开心地离开智慧的竞技会回家了。
48. 關於這些觀點, 我再講講以下一些難忘的經歷:
有一次, 我與兩位天人交談, 一位來自東面的天國,一位來自南面。當他們意識到我正在沉思有關智慧與仁愛的奧秘, 就說:"你不知道在我們心靈世界舉行的智慧活動嗎？"
"不知道啊。"我回答。
"有很多這類的活動呢。"他們說。於是他們解釋, 這類的活動就是那些熱愛真理的靈聚集一處領受異象, 然後一起辯論一些較為深刻的焦點問題, 並得出結論。
二位天人牽起我的手, 對我說:"跟我們走, 今天正好有這樣的聚會, 你去看看。"他們帶我穿過一片空曠的平地, 走到一座小山前。我驚奇地發現這裡居然有一條鋪砌的道路, 兩邊全是棕櫚樹構成的廊柱, 從山腳一直到山頂。在山頂, 映入眼簾的是一片樹林, 圍繞成圈, 如同看臺。中心的一片空地上, 有一塊鋪滿不同顏色卵石的平地。在鋪石平地的四周有許多座椅, 那些智慧的熱愛者們坐在其上。整個空地的中央擺著一張桌子。上面放著一份用圖章密封著的文件。
[2]坐在椅子上的人們邀請我們坐在空位上, 不過我謝絕說:"我被二位天人帶到這裡, 不是坐在這裡的, 只是看看,聽聽而已。"
二位天人走到空地中央的桌子邊, 撕開檔的封印。對所有在座的參會者宣讀檔上所寫內容, 就是這一群人要討論和揭示的關於智慧的奧秘。這些奧秘是由三層天的天人寫下並傳送到那張桌上。
有三個奧秘:第一, 人按上帝的形像和樣式被造(創世記1:26); 形像是什麼,樣式又是什麼？第二, 畜牲和禽鳥, 無論貴賤, 生來就有知識; 為何人不是生來就有這些知識？第三, 生命樹是什麼意思？善惡知識樹是什麼意思？吃它們的果子表示什麼意思(創世記2:9, 16-17; 3:6)? 這三點的下方寫著:"將這三點的答案連成一個獨立的陳詞, 寫在另一張紙上, 放在桌面, 我們會看。倘若你們的陳述考慮充分並且確切, 就會為你的智慧贏得獎賞。"
高聲讀完之後, 二位天人離開桌子, 回到各自的天國。然後, 坐在椅子上的人們開始討論這些擺在面前的奧秘,去弄清楚它們。他們輪流發言。坐在北邊的先發言, 然後是西邊的, 接著是南邊的, 最後輪到東邊的。
他們先從第一個開始討論:"人按上帝的形像和樣式被造; 那形像是什麼,那樣式又是什麼？"首先, 他們從『創世記』中找出下面的經文在眾人面前宣讀。上帝說:"我們要照著我們的形像,按我們的樣式造人。"上帝就照著祂自己的形像造人, 乃是照著祂的形像造男造女(創世記1:26-27)。當上帝造人的日子, 祂是照著自己的樣式造的(創世記5:1)。
[3]那些坐在北邊的首先發言。他們說:"上帝的形像和樣式是上帝吹入所有我們的兩種生命:在我們意志裡的生命和在我們認知裡的生命。我們讀到:'耶和華上帝將生命的氣吹進亞當的鼻孔裡, 人就成了有靈的活人'(創世記2:7)。我們相信這裡的意思是:對善的意志和對理的感知就是吹進亞當鼻孔裡的, 這就是就他如何受了"生命的氣"。因為吹進亞當的生命來自於上帝, 形像和樣式表示愛與智,公義和公平在亞當裡面的淨化。"
坐在西邊的表示同意, 不過有所增加:上帝吹進亞當裡的純全狀態, 是自那以後繼續不斷地吹進每個人裡面的。然後, 鑒於他們是接收它的器皿, 這樣的純全的狀態就會在人裡面出現。作為接收器皿的容納程度如何, 讓人成為上帝的形像和樣式如何。
[4]坐在南邊的第三個發言, 他們說:"上帝的形像與上帝的樣式是兩回事, 儘管從創世以來,它們曾在人裡面結合為一過。發自內心想想, 我們可看出:我們所有人都可以損毀我們自己裡面的上帝的形像, 而不能損毀上帝的樣式。哪怕有面紗遮蓋, 我們也能瞥見這樣的事實:在失去上帝的形像後, 亞當仍保留著上帝的樣式。當他受到詛咒後, 是這樣說的:'看, 那人已經與我們相似, 能知道善惡'(創世記3:22)。後來, 亞當被稱為"上帝的樣式", 而非上帝的形像(創世記5:1)。不過, 還是請坐在東邊的朋友來講講上帝的形像和樣式的真實含義, 因為他們更有亮光。"
[5]安靜片刻後, 那些坐在東邊的站起身, 仰望主的方向。然後坐回座位說:"上帝的形像就是上帝的器皿。上帝是仁之本和智之本, 因此上帝的形像就是我們對來自上帝的仁與智的坦率接受。上帝的樣式則是另一方面, 指的是仁與智在我們裡面完美的相似和完全的外顯, 就好像這仁與智完全是我們自己的。我們充分地感覺到, 好像我們自己擁有仁與智, 好像我們自己想要行善, 好像自己能明白真理。實際上, 沒有一丁點來自我們自己, 全部來自於上帝。唯獨上帝獨自擁有仁與智, 因為上帝是仁與智自身。仁與智,或善與理在我們裡面的樣式或顯現,就像是我們自己擁有的。是這樣的樣式或顯現讓我們成為人,並讓我們能與上帝建立聯合的關係,以及因此能活到永遠。也就是說, 讓我們成為人的因素, 一方面是完全來自我們自己的意圖行善和明白真理的能力; 另一方面是對曉得並相信如此行是在於上帝幫助的接納程度。因為我們知道並相信, 我們從上帝獲得幫助, 上帝就將祂的形像放在我們裡面。如果我們相信,無需上帝的幫助也能成事, 上帝就不會將祂的形像放在我們裡面。"
[6]當他們說完這些, 熱愛真理的熱情抓住他們的心, 引領他們說出接下來的話:"如果沒有經歷任何仁愛或智慧,如同是自己的, 我們如何能接收,保持或傳遞仁與智呢？如果在我們沒有辦法去盡自己一方之力去與上帝建立合作的關係, 如何能夠通過仁與智而與上帝有此關係呢？沒有相互關係, 就不存在什麼合作。構成合作關係的相互性, 對我們這一方而言, 在於我們愛上帝,以及我們行出從上帝那裡所領受的; 如此行,就像是我們自己行出來的, 但要相信我們有上帝的幫助。如果與這位永恆的上帝沒有這種合作的關係, 我們如何活到永遠？這樣的樣式不在我們裡面, 我們又怎樣是個人呢？
[7]所有人都同意這點, 並且說:"我們需要總結以上所述。"於是他們接下來說:"我們是接收上帝的器皿。接收上帝的器皿就是上帝的形像。因為上帝是仁之本和智之本, 因此我們是接收仁與智的器皿。我們這器皿若真實地接收仁與智, 就變成上帝的形像。因著我們實踐從上帝領受的,如同是我們自己的, 我們就是上帝的樣式了。當我們承認在我們裡面的仁和智,或善與理並不是我們的, 也非源自於我們; 它們唯獨存在於上帝之中, 並且它們唯獨源自上帝, 我們達到如此程度時, 就從上帝的樣式進而到上帝的形像了。"
[8]接著, 眾人就第二個題目開始討論:"畜牲和禽鳥, 無論貴賤, 生來就有知識; 為何人不是生來就有這些知識？"
與會者們開始以各樣的方式來討論這個題目, 特別是人類為何沒有天生常識或本能, 甚至連關於交配的一點點常識都沒有。他們從各方調查獲悉, 新生嬰兒甚至缺乏識別他們母親乳房的天生常識或本能。只有當他們的母親將乳房湊給他們時, 這些新生兒才學會吃奶。新生兒只會吮吸, 也是在母親子宮裡時一直吮吸而獲得這樣本能。出生後不久, 他們不知道怎麼走路, 或者如何發聲說任何話, 甚至不懂像動物那樣用不同的聲音來表達他們的愛和情感。不像動物那樣, 對什麼食物對他們有益或什麼東西能吃, 他們一無所知, 不管手裡抓到什麼, 乾淨的或骯髒的, 就會往嘴裡塞。調查者還說, 如果沒有某種形式的教導, 人對如何同異性交配都全然不知。若不是從其它人學到, 甚至年輕男女都不知道怎麼回事。簡單地說, 我們出生時什麼都不知道, 而且接下來也是如此, 除非從他人學會如何去認識,認知並增長見識。
[9]然後眾人證實, 動物不分貴賤, 生來就有知識來發揮在它們的生活之中。陸上的畜牲,空中飛鳥,爬行動物,水中游魚, 甚至微小的,諸如昆蟲類的動物, 都是如此。它們都知道什麼食物適合它們, 知道為自己建造居所的一切事情, 也知道一切關於交配和繁殖後代的事情。參會者們藉著回想他們在世時聽到,看到,讀到的這些奇妙事情來證實這點。
證實了這個命題的真實性之後, 與會者們將焦點轉向去想方設法揭示這個奧秘。他們都說, 這樣的現象定是來自聖智的作為, 為的是使人是人,動物是動物。並創造如此的環境, 讓我們從出生時的不完全變得完全, 而動物生時的完全變得不完全。
[10]接著, 北邊的會眾開始發表他們的意見。他們說:"我們生時無知, 是為了我們能向所有的知識敞開。如果我們生來就有知識, 就不會向其它觀念敞開, 就不會去獲得任何更多的知識。"
他們打比方來說明:"剛出生時, 我們就像沒有播種的土地, 能容下任何種子,並幫助它們成長和結果。一個動物就像一塊地長滿草和灌木, 所容之處都已種滿。倘若再有種子被種下, 就會因壅塞而被扼殺。這就是我們為何要經過這麼多年的成長, 在此期間, 我們像土地那樣能被耕作而長出莊稼,鮮花和各樣的樹木。而動物的成長一般僅有幾年, 在它們成長的年月裡, 它們不能被培育而超越它們天生的本能。"
[11]接著由西邊的會眾發言。他們說:"我們出生時確實不像動物那般具備知識。然而, 我們生來有一種能力和一種傾向, 就是獲取知識的能力,去愛的傾向。我們先天具備去愛的能力, 不僅愛適於自己和世界的事情, 還愛那些適於上帝和天國的事情。剛出生時, 我們身體的官能毫無活力, 內在的感官根本無生氣。這樣的情形, 能讓我們逐步接收生命,並變成人。最先, 我們成為屬世的, 接著理性的, 最後屬靈的。但如果我們生來就像動物那樣, 具備各樣的知識和已成型的愛, 那麼從屬世到理性,最終成為屬靈之人的過程就無法發生。生來就固有的知識和愛的感覺會限制這樣的發展, 但生來所具備的能力和傾向一點也不妨礙這樣的發展。這樣, 人類就能夠在知識,智力和智慧方面逐漸完全, 直到永恆。"
[12]輪到南邊的會眾發表他們的見解。他們說:"人類不可能靠自己學到什麼。因為他們天生並無知識, 所有知識都是從別人或別處學來的。因為他們不能從自身獲取任何知識, 因而也無法從自身獲得任何愛。因為沒有知識, 也就沒有愛。知識與愛如同搭檔不分開, 就像意志與認知,或感覺和想法, 又或某種物質的實質與形式。所以, 當我們從別人獲取知識, 同時就伴隨著愛的獲取。這種依附於知識的普遍之愛, 是指愛認知, 接著變成愛領悟, 再成長為愛智慧。這樣類型的愛只會在人類身上找到, 從未出現在動物身上。這愛源自上帝,注入到人類。
[13]"我們同意西邊夥伴的以下見解, 就是我們生來並沒有愛,因而沒有知識。我們生時只有愛的傾向,以及因此擁有獲取知識的能力。我們從別人那裡獲取知識, 並非從我們自己。準確地說, 是通過別人獲取知識, 因為他們也無法由自身獲得任何知識。所有知識追其源頭, 都來自於上帝。
"我們也贊同北邊朋友的以下觀點, 就是我們出生時都像未曾播種的土地, 所有的種子-不論貴賤, 都可以種植。關於這些觀點, 我們想添加的是:動物出生時就具備屬世的愛,以及與這愛相隨的知識。儘管如此, 動物擁有的知識並不會引導它們去對任何事物進行認知,思考,認知。它們的愛將它們引向知識, 就如同導盲犬引盲人過街。動物對智力完全無知。或者這樣形容更好一點, 它們就像夢遊者對所做之事完全無知, 當時它們的智力在沉睡。"
[14]最後發言的是坐在東西的會眾。他們說:"我們同意朋友們剛才所說。我們由別人或通過別人學到知識, 而非從自己。因此我們應當認可並承認, 我們所知道,認知,以及因其而有智慧的一切一切, 都來自於上帝。除此之外, 沒有任何方法能使我們被上帝生出或重生,成為祂的形像和樣式。因著我們承認並相信, 所有我們已接收的和正在接收的關於仁和義的良善以及關於智和信的真理都來自於祂, 沒有絲毫來於自己, 這樣就成為上帝的形像。而成為上帝的樣式, 是因著我們親身經歷這些良善與真理,如同它們出於自己。我們以這樣的方式來經歷它們, 而不是生來就擁有這些知識。我們一邊前行時一邊獲取知識。這樣獲取知識, 看起來好像是我們自己所為。上帝允許我們這樣的感受, 以致於我們是人,而非動物。我們看起來在意圖,思考,熱愛,認知並變得在智慧方面有自由意志。由此我們去獲取知識, 進而認知它們; 當付諸使用時, 變得有智慧。這就是上帝如何把我們與祂自己聯合, 以及我們自己如何與上帝聯合。我們出生時完全無知, 倘若不是上帝如此安排, 以上的聯合就不可能發生。
[15]各自陳述後, 全體會眾想從這些討論中得出總結。他們的總結是這樣的:我們出生時沒有半點知識, 為的是我們能夠得到盡可能多的知識, 在認知上得進步, 向智慧靠近。我們出生時無絲毫的愛, 為了是藉著明智地運用我們所學,得到盡可能多的愛, 進而通過愛我們的鄰舍來愛上帝。因此, 我們能發展與上帝的合作關係, 令我們成為真正的人, 並讓我們活到永遠。"
[16]然後, 參會者們拿起文件讀第三個議題:"生命樹是什麼意思？善惡知識樹是什麼意思？吃它們的果子表示什麼意思？"
他們全都邀請東邊那組來解開這個奧秘, 他們說:"因為這個問題需要更深層的認知力, 你們來自東面,且閃耀著光芒, 意思是你們有從愛而來的智慧。這樣的智慧實際就是伊甸園所表示的意思, 那裡有這兩顆樹。"
東邊的會眾回答說:"我們將會回答這個問題, 然而因為人的一切都來自上帝,沒有一點來於自身, 因此我們給出的答案乃是從祂而來, 儘管感覺上好像是出於我們自己的回答。"
"樹指人, "他們說:"樹的果子指人生活所行的善。因此生命樹的意思是靠上帝而活的人。因為仁與智,義與信,善與理, 是上帝的生命在我們裡頭。生命樹就是指裡面有這些之人, 這些都是從上帝而來, 這樣的人因此有永生。在啟示錄中, 允許人們去吃的生命樹表示同樣的意思(啟示錄2:7; 22:2, 14)。
[17]"善惡知識樹的意思指那些相信靠自己而活,而非靠上帝而活。且相信在他們裡面的仁與智,義與信,善與理是他們自己的, 而非上帝的。他們這樣的認為, 是因為從表面上看, 他們全憑自己去思考,意圖,說話,行動, 以至於他們確信真是真的如此。他們利用這些表象來確證他們實際上是神明。因此蛇說:'上帝知道, 你們吃的日子眼睛就明亮了, 你們就如上帝能知道善惡'(創世記3:5)。
[18]"吃這些樹的果子表示接受和內化。吃生命樹的表示接受永生, 吃善惡知識樹的表示接受詛咒。蛇表示魔鬼, 就是愛自己,以自己的聰明為傲。愛自己就擁有後者之樹, 若因愛自己而自傲, 那就是善惡知識樹了。
"若相信亞當有智慧,憑自己行了善, 或相信這是他的狀態之純潔, 那就太可怕了。事實上, 亞當自己被詛咒正是因為他這樣相信。這就是吃善惡知識樹所表示的意思, 這就是為何亞當從那時起墮落。他最初的狀態確實是純潔的, 那是因為他相信自己有智慧,能行善是在於上帝的幫助,完全不憑自己, 這是吃生命樹的所表示的意思。靠自己變得有智慧, 並憑自己行善的唯一一人只有曾在世的主耶穌。因為從出生時, 神性自身在祂裡面,且是祂的神性。這就是祂如何靠自己的力量成為救贖者和拯救者。"
[19]從這些觀點, 與會者們得出結論:"生命樹, 善惡知識樹, 以及從吃他們的果子表示的意思如下:我們的生命取決於上帝在我們裡面。上帝在我們裡面, 我們就有了天國和永生。而另一面, 我們的死亡, 在於確信我們的生命取決於我們自身,而非上帝。這樣的態度為我們帶來地獄和永死, 也就是詛咒。"
[20]在這之後, 他們再檢查一下天人留在桌上的檔。他們看到檔底端寫著:"將三點連貫成一個獨立的陳詞。"
他們將三者匯總, 發現這三者彼此相連,形成一串鏈子。這鏈子的含義如下:"我們人類被造來接收源自上帝的仁愛與智慧。當去實踐這仁與智時, 如同仁與智從我們自己而來。這樣做, 是為了去接收仁與智,並與上帝形成聯合的關係。因此, 我們出生時沒有任何仁愛與知識, 無法靠自己去仁愛或變得有智慧。如果我們將所有的仁之善和智之理都歸功於上帝, 我們就成了活的人。如果將它們歸功於我們自己, 就成了死的人。"
他們將這些陳詞另外寫在一張紙上, 並放在桌上。突然, 有天人在閃耀的白雲中顯現。他們將這張紙拿到天上。在那裡讀後, 坐在椅子上的眾人聽到從天上傳來聲音說:"好！…好！…好！"
突然, 上面有一位顯現, 從天上飛下來。他的踝部附著一對翅膀, 鬢角處另附一對翅膀。他帶著各樣的獎賞, 有袍子,帽子和桂冠。落地後, 他先將白袍賜給北面的人。至於西邊的, 他賜了紅袍。南邊的, 他賜給他們有金邊和珍珠邊裝飾的帽子, 帽子左邊卷起部分還鑲有切成花朵狀的鑽石。然而, 他將鑲有紅寶石和藍寶石的桂冠賜給東邊的會眾。裝扮上各自從這場智慧活動贏得的獎賞, 他們開心地回家去了。
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.