4204. CONCERNING THOSE WHO THINK THAT ALL THINGS HAD AN ORIGIN AND THUS GOD IS NOT ETERNAL. Concerning those who entertain this opinion I have already remarked that they are in the extreme limits of the universe, and it was observed that whenever this idea recurs evil spirits pant in breathing and good spirits who are in the idea of time are distressed; those who are in the idea of time cannot think otherwise than by time [per tempus], viz., that eternity itself is nothing different from time, when yet with the Lord all and single things are eternal, and the idea of time cannot accord with the idea of eternity. Those spirits therefore were rendered anxious and oppressed by that idea, pondering as they did upon the origin of the Lord because in the idea of time. As soon, however, as they are elevated above the idea of time all such anxious cogitation vanishes; from which it appears how much of time inheres in the ideas. It was then said and insinuated into their ideas that they should think whence was the origin of all things, or whence was the origin of nature - whether nature was before the world was created, and thus whether nature was eternal - whether God was eternal or whether nature was - if nature, whence His origin, since the lower cannot be the origin of the superior, but on the contrary exists and subsists from the interior or superior, as otherwise the lower world would not be at all. There must be a cause of all things, a cause prior to the thing caused; of every cause there must be an end, the end must be prior to the cause, and thus everything must be from Him who is End itself, the first and the last, thus eternal; that is to say, everything must be from God or the Lord. By this idea the impression was conveyed that whether nature was eternal, that is, without origin, or whether the Lord was, anxiety ought at any rate to be put to rest. - 1749, April 9.