e that
which the spiritual man conceives, nor consequently express such
conceptions; wherefore Paul calls what he heard from the third heaven
ineffable. Moreover, to think spiritually is to think abstractedly from
space and time, and to think naturally is to think in conjunction with
space and time; for in every idea of natural thought there is something
derived from space and time, which is not the case with any spiritual
idea; because the spiritual world is not in space and time, like the
natural world, but in the appearances of space and time. In this respect
also spiritual thoughts and perceptions differ from natural; therefore
you can think of the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that
is, of God before the creation of the world, since you think of the
essence of God from eternity abstracted from time, and of his
omnipresence abstracted from space, and thus comprehend such things as
transcend the ideas of the natural man." I then related to them, how I
once thought of the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that
is of God before the creation of the world; and that because I could not
yet remove spaces and times from the ideas of my thought, I was brought
into anxiety; for the idea of nature entered instead of God: but it was
said to me, "Remove the ideas of space and time, and you will see." I
did so and then I saw; and from that time I was enabled to think of God
from eternity, and not of nature from eternity; because God is in all
time without time, and in all space without space, whereas nature in all
time is in time, and in all space in space; and nature with her time and
space, must of necessity have a beginning and a birth, but not God who
is without time, and space; therefore nature is from God, not from
eternity, but in time, that is, together with her time and space.

329. After the chief teacher and the rest of the assembly had left me,
some boys who were also engaged in the gymnasian exercise, followed me
home, and stood near me for a little while as I was writing: and lo! at
that instant they saw a moth running upon my paper, and asked in
surprise what was the name of that nimble little creature? I said, "It
is called a moth; and I will tell you some wonderful things respecting
it. This little animal contains in itself as many members and viscera as
there are in a camel, such as brains, hearts, pulmonary pipes, organs of
sense, motion, and generation, a stomach, intestines, and se