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    • In the Love of Spiritual Things the Word Born is the Same as the Word Conceived. It is Otherwise in the Love of Carnal Things.
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    Chapter 9.—In the Love of Spiritual Things the Word Born is the Same as the Word Conceived. It is Otherwise in the Love of Carnal Things.

    14. But the word conceived and the word born are the very same when the will finds rest in knowledge itself, as is the case in the love of spiritual things. For instance, he who knows righteousness perfectly, and loves it perfectly, is already righteous; even if no necessity exist of working according to it outwardly through the members of the body. But in the love of carnal and temporal things, as in the offspring of animals, the conception of the word is one thing, the bringing forth another. For here what is conceived by desiring is born by attaining. Since it does not suffice to avarice to know and to love gold, except it also have it; nor to know and love to eat, or to lie with any one, unless also one does it; nor to know and love honors and power, unless they actually come to pass. Nay, all these things, even if obtained, do not suffice. “Whosoever drinketh of this water,” He says, “shall thirst again.”708

    708 John iv. 13

    And so also the Psalmist, “He hath conceived pain and brought forth iniquity.”709

    709 Ps. vii. 14

    And he speaks of pain or labor as conceived, when those things are conceived which it is not sufficient to know and will, and when the mind burns and grows sick with want, until it arrives at those things, and, as it were, brings them forth. Whence in the Latin language we have the word “parta” used elegantly for both “reperta” and “comperta,” which words sound as if derived from bringing forth.710

    710 Partus

    Since “lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin.”711

    711 Jas. i. 15

    Wherefore the Lord proclaims, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden;”712

    712 Matt. xi. 28

    and in another place “Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days!”713

    713 Matt. xxiv. 19

    And when therefore He referred all either right actions or sins to the bringing forth of the word, “By thy mouth,”714

    714 Words.

    He says, “thou shalt be justified, and by thy mouth715

    715 Words.—A.V.

    thou shalt be condemned,”716

    716 Matt. xii. 37

    intending thereby not the visible mouth, but that which is within and invisible, of the thought and of the heart.

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