8 Of the Threefold Life

Nature desires to penetrate into God.

...to penetrate and to satisfy itself in the power original: "dat is den Sone" of the Son the second person of the Trinity, representing divine light and love of God. But because the soul cannot enter into the light and power of God with its entire being, that is, with its own essences fundamental spiritual substances, any more than the eternal nature can penetrate into the light of God to possess that light as its own property or by its own power. Instead, the light shines from love into its own principle a fundamental realm or state of being within the eternal nature. Thus, the light remains a Lord within the eternal nature, since the eternal nature does not comprehend it. Rather, nature rejoices in the light and brings its wonders to light in the power and understanding of the light, where they then become manifest. Likewise, the soul cannot penetrate into the light of God in its own essences to overpower or seize it. Instead, it must penetrate into God, into His love, within itself as if in another principle.

15. How the light and the life of God come into the soul.

15. For here you must understand another new birth in the soul. It must not only press out from the life of the stars and elements, but also out of its own source-quality original: "quael," the inherent driving characteristic or torment of a thing's nature. It must create its will in the life of God, desiring to be therein. That same created will is accepted by God, and God dwells in that same will. In this way, the light and the life of God come into the soul, and it is thus a child of God. For it stands in its source-quality and life just as God the Father Himself stands in the source-quality of the eternal nature.

16. In the eternal nature, outside the Divine light, is an anxious property; souls and Angels come only from the eternal nature: why the outward being is perishable, the cause of the terrible fall of our souls.

16. And here we understand that outside the Divine light, which is the second principle, there is an anxious source-quality in the eternal nature. For the bond of life stands in the fire. But when that same fire is inseinated original: "geinsiceert," meaning permeated or ignited by an indwelling influence and captured by the holy Divine love, then the life in itself goes upward into a source-quality. For another principle is opened to it, in which it lives. That same life is in God, just as God dwells in Himself, and yet it is truly everything itself, for everything has come from His nature. But you must understand it correctly. It is not that everything has come from the eternal nature alone, like the soul and the Angelic Spirits, but from His created or creaturely will, which has a beginning, such as the external world. Therefore, all beings of this outer world are perishable. And herein we find the great and terrible fall of our souls in our first parents. The soul entered into the spirit of this world, into a strange inn, and left the Divine light, in which it was an Angel and a child of God. Therefore, it must again go out from the spirit of the stars and elements and step into a new birth in the life of God.

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9 Of the Threefold Life

17. In what ways we are able to penetrate into the new birth; a beautiful explanation.

17. But since this was not possible for the soul, the life of God came to us in the flesh out of love and grace. It took our human soul back into itself, into the Divine life, in the power of the light, so that we can here penetrate into that same life toward God in a new birth. For just as we all went out from the life of God with the soul of Adam, for the children of Adam inherited the soul from their parents, as if all were grown from one tree, so the life of God has born us again in Christ. Thus, we can enter again into the life of God in the life of Christ. And as it is now, our soul stands in the bond of the eternal foundation original: "bevestiugh," the primal source or original constitution. It is inseinated with the spirit of this world and captured by the wrath or the severity of the eternal foundation in the life of the eternal fire, as in the eternal nature. Therefore, we must penetrate with our souls, each for himself, in the life of Christ toward God, into the new rebirth in the life and the Spirit of Christ. Here, neither hypocrisy, outward holiness, nor any works of merit help. For the poor soul cannot be helped otherwise, unless it enters into itself in a newly created will with great and constant earnestness into the life of Christ. There it is received with very great honor by God and His children in the second principle. It is given the noble and precious treasure, the light of eternal life. This light illuminates the source-quality of the soul's fire in the first principle, in which it essentially stands for eternity with its essences. It turns anguish into love. Out of the climbing and burning of the fire's own right, it makes a humble and lovely smile in pleasant joy.

18. A comparison of how the soul is in a state of rejoicing in the Divine life.

18. And thus the soul is in a state of rejoicing in the Divine life. I might compare it to a lit candle, where the wick of the candle burns and gives off a friendly radiance. In that radiance, there is no source-quality or pain, but a bright friendliness. Yet the burning heat remains. However, you must understand the comparison as if no pain were found in the heat, but that it was only a cause of the life's luster. For no kind of fire can be compared with the Divine fire.

19. How in the fire of the Divine life no nature is felt; the inability of the soul to seize the light.

19. For the Divine nature, from which the Divine fire of life burns, is inseinated with the love of God. Thus, the Light of God makes another principle in itself, where no nature is felt, for it is the end of nature. Therefore, the soul cannot catch or master the Light of God in its own essences. For it is a fire...