This is the first. Once having awakened out of sleep I fell into a profound meditation about God; and when I looked up I saw above me in heaven a very bright white light in an oval form. And as I fixed my attention on that light, it was receding to the sides and entering into the circumferences, and then behold, heaven was open to me, and I saw some magnificent things, and angels standing in the form of a circle on the south side of the opening, and they were talking among themselves. And because I was fired with the desire to hear what they were talking about, it was therefore given me first to hear the sound, which was filled with heavenly love, and afterwards to hear the speech, which was filled with wisdom derived from that love. They were talking together of THE ONE GOD, of CONJUNCTION WITH HIM, and of SALVATION thereby. They were speaking ineffable things, most of which cannot find an utterance in the words of any natural language. But because I had on several occasions been in association with angels in heaven itself, and had then been in similar speech with them because in a similar state, I could now therefore understand them, and select some things out of their conversation which can be expressed rationally with words of natural language. [2] They were saying that THE DIVINE ESSE (Being) IS ONE, THE SAME, THE VERY SELF, AND INDIVISIBLE; thus also the Divine Essence, because Divine Esse (Being) is Divine Essence; thus also God, because Divine Essence, which also is Divine Esse (Being), is God. They were illustrating this by means of spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine Esse (Being) cannot fall into many, every one of them having the Divine Esse, and yet Itself be One, the Same, the Very Self, and Indivisible: for each would think out of its own Esse of itself and by itself. If then also he should think at the same time from and by means of the others unanimously, there would be many unanimous gods and not the One God. For unanimity, because it is the common feeling of many, and at the same time of each one of himself and by himself, does not agree with the Unity of God, but with a plurality. They did not say 'of Gods', because they could not; for the light of heaven from which their thought was derived, and in which their conversation was proceeding, resisted. They were also saying that when they want to speak of 'Gods' and of each one of them as a Person by himself, the effort of utterance spontaneously falls into 'One', indeed into 'the Only God'. [3] To these things they were adding that the Divine Esse (Being) is Divine Esse in Itself, not from Itself, because 'from Itself' postulates an Esse in Itself from Which it is, thus it postulates a God from God, which is not given. That which is from God is not called 'God' but is called 'Divine'; for what is 'a God from a God', thus what is 'a God from a God born from eternity', and what is 'a God proceeding from a God by means of a God born from eternity', but words in which there is not a vestige of light out of heaven? It is otherwise in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him there is the Divine Esse Itself from Which [all things are], to Which in a man the soul corresponds; there is the Divine Human, to Which in a man the body corresponds; and there is the Divine proceeding, to Which in a man activity corresponds. This Trine is a one, because from the Divine from Which [all things are] by means of the Divine Human is derived the Divine proceeding. Therefore also in every individual angel and in every individual man, because they are images, there is a soul, a body, and activity, which make a one, since from the soul is derived the body, and from the soul by means of the body is derived the activity. [4] They were saying further that the Divine Esse (Being), which in itself is God, is THE SAME, the Same not simple (simplex) but Infinite, that is, the Same from eternity to eternity; the Same everywhere, and the Same with each individual and in each individual; but that everything diverse and subject to change is in the recipient, the recipient's state bringing this about. That the Divine Esse (Being), which is God in Himself, is THE VERY SELF they were illustrating in this way: God is the Very Self because He is Love Itself, Wisdom Itself, Good Itself, Truth Itself, Life Itself. Unless these were the Very Self in God they would not be anything in heaven and the world, because there would not be anything in them in relation to Himself. Every quality gets its own quality by derivation from that which is the Very Self from which it is derived, and to which it is related so as to be such. This Very Self, which is the Divine Being (Esse Divinum), is not in space but, in accordance with reception, is with those and in those who are in space; since of the Love and Wisdom and of the Good and Truth which are the Very Self in God, indeed are God Himself, there can be predicated neither space nor progression from one place to another, but absence of space, whence there is Omnipresence; and therefore the Lord says that 'He is in the midst of them', also 'Himself in them and they in Himself'. [5] But because such as He is in Himself He cannot be received by anyone, He appears such as He is in Himself as the Sun above the angelic heavens. Proceeding as light from this He is the Very Self as to Wisdom, and proceeding as heat He is the Very Self as to Love. The Very Self is not the Sun; but Divine Love and Divine Wisdom going forth from the Very Self very closely round about Him appear before the angels as the Sun. He Himself in the Sun is Man. He is our Lord Jesus Christ both as to the Divine from Which [all things are] and as to the Divine Human, since the Very Self, Which is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, was His soul from the Father, thus the Divine Life that is Life in itself. It is otherwise in each individual man. In him the soul is not life but a receiving of life. The Lord also taught this, saying:-

I am the Way, the Truth (veritas) and the Life [John xiv 6];

and elsewhere:-

As the Father has Life in Himself, so also has He given to the Son to have Life in Himself [John v 26].

Life in Himself is God. To these things they added that he who is in any spiritual light is able to perceive from these things that the Divine Esse (Being), which also is Divine Essence, because it is One, the Same, the Very Self, and consequently Indivisible, cannot be multiplied (dari in pluribus); and that if it should be said to be so there would be manifest contradictions in any additional statements.

[6] When I had heard these things, the angels perceived in my thought concerning God the general ideas of the Christian Church concerning the Trinity of Persons in Unity and their Unity in the Trinity, as also concerning the birth of a Son of God from eternity; whereupon they said, 'What are you thinking? Are you not thinking those things out of a natural light with which our spiritual light does not agree? And therefore unless you remove the ideas of that thought, we close heaven to you and go away.' But then I said to them, 'Please enter more deeply into my thought, and maybe you will see an agreement.' And they did so, and saw that by the three Persons I understood three proceeding Divine Attributes, which are Creation, Salvation and Reformation, and that those are Attributes of the One God; and that by the birth of the Son of God from eternity I understood His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time. And then I told them that I had my natural thought concerning the Trinity and Unity of Persons, and concerning the birth of the Son of God from eternity., derived from the Church's doctrine of faith, which has its name from Athanasius; and that that doctrine is just and right, provided that instead of a Trinity of Persons there is understood the Trinity of Person that is given solely in the Lord Jesus Christ and instead of the birth of the Son of God [from eternity] there is understood His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time, because as to the Human that He took to Himself in time He is openly called 'the Son of God'. [7] The angels then said, 'It is well'; and they asked that from their mouth I might state that if anyone does not approach the God of heaven and earth Himself he cannot come into heaven, because heaven is heaven by derivation from the One and Only God; and that that God is Jesus Christ Who is Jehovah the Lord, from eternity the Creator, in time the Saviour, and to eternity the Reformer; thus He Who is at once Father, Son and Holy Spirit. After these things the heavenly light formerly seen above the opening came back again, and gradually sank down therefrom and filled the interior things of my mind and enlightened my natural ideas about the Unity and Trinity of God. And then I saw the ideas about them held at the beginning, which had been merely natural, separated as chaff from wheat by the motion of a fan and carried away as if by a wind into the north of heaven, and dispersed.