God. They picture these faithful people as ants that crawl on the ground
and tread a well-worn path. Some they picture as butterflies that flit
around in the air. “Dreams”—that is what they call the dogmas of the
faithful, who see what they themselves do not see. “Who has seen God?”
they say; “Who has notseen nature?”
[ 2 ] While I stood amazed at the vast number of such people, an angel
appeared at my side and said, “What are you thinking about?”
I replied, “I’m thinking about the vast number of people who believe
that nature exists from itself—that nature itself created the universe.”
“All hell is made up of such people,” the angel told me. “There they
are called satans and devils. The satans are those who have come to deny
the existence of God because they have convinced themselves to believe
in nature. The devils are those whose acknowledgment of God has been
driven from their hearts because they have spent their lives committing
crimes. I will take you to lecture halls in the southwest where there are
people like this who are not yet in hell.”
The angel took me by the hand and led me there. I saw humble
buildings that contained the lecture halls. In the middle I saw a building
that looked like the main hall for the rest. It was built out of stones as
black as tar that had been covered with little glasslike disks made to look
as though they were sparkling with gold and silver, much like what we call
selenite or mica; shiny seashells had also been worked in here and there.
[ 3 ] We went up to the building and knocked. Soon a man opened
the door, saying, “Welcome!” Then he hurried over to a table and
picked up four books [he had written]. He said, “These books contain
wisdom that has now been hailed by a host of nations. This book here,
this wisdom, has been hailed by many people in France; this one, by
many people in Germany; this one, by some people in the Netherlands;
and this one, by some people in Britain.” He added, “If you’d like to see
it, I’ll make these four books shine before your eyes!” Then he poured
forth on all sides the glory of his own reputation, and soon the books
seemed to gleam with light; but the light immediately disappeared
before our eyes.
Then the angel and I asked what he was writing now. He replied that
he was currently extracting matters of inmost wisdom from their hidden
treasuries, in summary namely: ( 1 ) whether nature comes from life or life
comes from nature;( 2 ) whether the center comes from the expanse or the
expanse from the center;and ( 3 ) a discussion of the center of the expanse and
of life.
§35 god the creator & creation 49