21. (iii) THE DIVINE BEING IS BEING (ESSE) IN ITSELF, AND AT THE SAME TIME COMING-INTO-BEING (EXISTERE) IN ITSELF.

Jehovah God is Being in itself, because He is I am, the very, sole and prime source, from eternity to eternity, of everything in existence, which allows it to exist. In this and no other sense He is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega. One cannot say that His Being is from itself, because 'out of itself' presupposes what is earlier and thus time; but time is inconsistent with the Infinite, which is said to be 'from eternity'. It also presupposes another God, who is God in Himself, and thus God originating from God; in other words, that God formed Himself, so that He could not be uncreated or infinite, because in this case He would have distinguished Himself either from Himself or from another.

It follows from the fact that God is Being in itself that He is Love in itself, Wisdom in itself and Life in itself, and that it is He who is the source of everything, who is the point of reference of everything, if it is to exist. It is clear from the Lord's words in John (John 5:26) that God is Life in itself and thus God; and in Isaiah:

I, Jehovah, make all things, I alone spread out the heavens and stretch out the earth by Myself, Isaiah 44:24.

and that He is the only God and there is no God beside Him (Isaiah 45:14-15, 21-22; Hosea 13:4).

[2] The reason why God is not only Being in itself, but also Coming-into-Being in itself is that unless Being comes into being it does not exist; and likewise Coming-into-Being can only arise from Being. Therefore the one supposes the other. In the same way form cannot exist without substance; nothing can be predicated of substance unless it has form, and what is devoid of qualities is in itself nothing. The terms Being (Esse) and Coming-into-Being (Existere) are used here, not Essence and Existence, because a distinction should be made between Being and Essence, and therefore between Coming-into-Being and Existence, similar to that between prior and posterior, and what is prior is more universal than what is posterior. Infinity and eternity are applicable to the Divine Being, but the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom and through them both omnipotence and omnipresence are applicable to the Divine Essence and Existence. These subjects will be discussed in their proper place.

8885. 'Remember' means what is perpetually in the thoughts. This is clear from the meaning of 'remembering', when said in connection with the kind of thing which must by no means be forgotten, as what is perpetually in the power of thought. What is perpetually in the thoughts is that which reigns universally there; and that reigns universally with a person which is present perpetually in his thoughts, even when his mind is on other things or he is occupied with his work. A person's thoughts contain a number of things existing together with one another, for it is the form produced by a number of things which have entered in successive stages. The ones which are clearly perceptible lie in the middle then and so are in the light that inner sight possesses, while the remainder then are to the sides round about. Those which lie in the surrounding parts are in obscurity and are not plainly visible, except when the kinds of matters which they have been connected with crop up. But those which are even more outlying, and are not on the same level but slope away downwards, are the kinds of things which a person has thrown aside and which he detests. The latter are evils and falsities in the case of people who are good, and forms of good and truths in the case of those who are bad.

[2] Within a person's thoughts there are things which are there perpetually, that is, they reign universally there; these are his inmost things. From them the person regards others which are not perpetually there, that is, are not yet reigning universally, as being outside himself, and also as beneath himself and not as yet related to him. From these others he can at that time choose and link to himself ones which accord with the inmost; and when they have been linked to and at length combined with them, the inmost, that is, those reigning universally, are made stronger. This is done by means of new truths in the case of those who are good, and by means of new falsities, or by wrong application of truths, in the case of those who are bad.

[3] It should be recognized in addition that that which reigns universally is whatever has been instilled into the actual will, which is the inmost part of a person because it has been formed from his love. For whatever a person loves, that is what he wills; and what he loves above all he wills in his inmost being. The understanding however serves to make plain to others the things a person wills, that is, loves. But also it serves to bend other people's wills; the person uses ideas formulated in various ways to make their wills comply with his own. When this happens love or affection also passes from the will into ideas in the understanding, and by means of a kind of inspiration breathes life and movement into them.

[4] In the case of people who are good those ideas in the understanding make one with affections belonging to the will. But in the case of people who are bad it is different. With them thought and will inmostly do indeed accord with each other; for the evil desired by the will occupies the understanding in the form of falsity according with that evil. But this agreement is not evident to people in the world; for they learn from earliest childhood to speak other than they think, and to do other than they will. In short they learn to separate their inner man from their outer man, to develop in the latter a will and also thought other than what is in the inner man, and so by means of their outer man to feign good that is altogether out of keeping with their inner man, which in the same instant desires evil and also imperceptibly is thinking it. But what the inner will and thought are like is evident in the next life, as in broad daylight; for there externals are taken away and internals are laid bare.