45.  He who by exercise of thought is able to grasp the idea of and to comprehend, Esse and Existere in itself, can certainly perceive and comprehend that it is the Very and the Only.  That is called the Very which alone is; and that is called the Only from which every thing else proceeds.  Now because the Very and the Only is substance and form, it follows that it is the very and only substance and form.  Because this very substance and form is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, it follows that it is the very and only Love, and the very and only Wisdom; consequently, that it is the very and only Essence, as well as the very and only Life:  for Life is Love and Wisdom.

46.  From all this it can be seen how sensually (that is, how much from the bodily senses and their blindness in spiritual matters) do those think who maintain that nature is from herself.  They think from the eye, and are not able to think from the understanding.  Thought from the eye closes the understanding, but thought from the understanding opens the eye.  Such persons cannot think at all of Esse and Existere in itself, and that it is Eternal, Uncreate, and Infinite; neither can they think at all of life, except as a something fleeting and vanishing into nothingness; nor can they think otherwise of Love and Wisdom, nor at all that from these are all things of nature.  Neither can it be seen that from these are all things of nature, unless nature is regarded, not from some of its forms, which are merely objects of sight, but from uses in their succession and order.  For uses are from life alone, and their succession and order are from wisdom and love alone; while forms are only containants of uses.  Consequently, if forms alone are regarded, nothing of life, still less anything of love and wisdom, thus nothing of God, can be seen in nature.

47.  Divine love and Divine wisdom must necessarily have being [Esse] and have form [Existere] in others created by itself.

It is the essential of love not to love self, but to love others, and to be conjoined with others by love.  It is the essential of love, moreover, to be loved by others, for thus conjunction is effected.  The essence of all love consists in conjunction; this, in fact, is its life, which is called enjoyment, pleasantness, delight, sweetness, bliss, happiness, and felicity.  Love consists in this, that its own should be another’s; to feel the joy of another as joy in oneself, that is loving.  But to feel one’s own joy in another and not the other’s joy in oneself is not loving; for this is loving self, while the former is loving the neighbor.  These two kinds of love are diametrically opposed to each other.  Either, it is true, conjoins; and to love one’s own, that is, oneself, in another does not seem to divide; but it does so effectually divide that so far as any one has loved another in this manner, so far he afterwards hates him.  For such conjunction is by its own action gradually loosened, and then, in like measure, love is turned to hate.