VISIO SECUNDA, cap. IV
The Two Fires of Divine Power and Judgment
The vision reveals two concentric circles of fire — a bright upper fire signifying God's life-giving power and a dark lower fire of judgment — which are joined as one, showing that divine power and judgment are united in a single righteousness, and that God's mercy surpasses the terrors of deserved punishment.
But the fact that in its uppermost part, along the circuit of its roundness, a circle appears in the likeness of bright fire means that the first element, which is fire, exists first, because it is light and encompasses the other elements, and illuminates them, and passes through all creatures, supplying them with the joy of its light — signifying the power of God, who is above all and who grants life to all. Beneath it another circle is shown, like the circle of black fire, because this fire, existing under the power of the former, is judicial and nearly hellish, made for the punishment of evildoers, and it spares nothing on which its just judgment falls — since in it is shown that everyone who opposes God will be turned into the blackness of many calamities. For in summer, when the sun rises upward, the same fire carries out God's vengeance in the burning of lightning; but in winter, when the sun descends downward, it reveals judicial plagues in frost and hail and in cold — since every sin is tested by fire or by cold or by certain other plagues according to its own manner. And the same circle of bright fire surpasses the circle of black fire twice over in its density, because this black fire exists with such strength and bitterness in its blackness that it would overshadow and scatter the upper bright fire, if the latter did not surpass it in density — deeming it right that the vengeance for human sins holds so many perils of punishments within itself that no human being could endure them, if the grace and mercy of God did not come first. And those two circles are joined together as if they were one circle, because they burn in the ardor of fire, and since the power and judgment of God, holding themselves together in one righteousness, are not separated from each other.
Turning to the Circle of Pure Ether
The visionary voice now turns to the third circle of pure ether, posing the question of its purpose, meaning, and remarkable density.
Concerning the circle of pure ether, which is the third: what purpose does it serve within its own constitution, and what does it signify, and why is it of as great density as the two above it?
Read the original Latin
Quod autem in ejus suprema parte per circuitum rotunditatis suae circulus in similitudine lucidi ignis apparet, hoc est quod primum elementum quod ignis est primum existit, quia levis est, caeteraque elementa comprehendit, et illuminat, ac omnes creaturas pertransit eisque gaudium luminis sui subministrat, significans potentiam Dei, qui super omnes est, et qui omnibus vitam tribuit. Sub quo circulus alius sicut circulus nigri ignis demonstratur, quia ignis iste sub potestate prioris existens, judicialis et fere gehennalis est ad vindictam malorum factus, nec ulli rei parcit super quam justo judicio cadit, quoniam in eo ostenditur, quod omnis qui se Deo opponit, in casum nigredinis multarumque calamitatum vertetur. Nam in aestate cum sol sursum ascendit, idem ignis vindictam Dei in combustione fulguris exercet, cum vero in hieme sol deorsum descendit, ille judiciales plagas in gelu et grandine, ac in frigore ostendit, quoniam quodque peccatum seu igne, seu frigore, seu aliis quibusdam plagis secundum modum suum examinatur. Et idem circulus lucidi ignis eumdem circulum nigri ignis bis densitate sua superat, quia niger ignis iste tantae fortitudinis et amaritudinis in nigredine sua existit, ut superiorem lucidum ignem obumbraret et dissiparet, si ille hunc densitate sua non superaret dignans quod vindicta peccatorum hominum tot pericula poenarum in se habet, ut homo durare non posset si gratia et clementia Dei illa non praeveniret. Et ii duo circuli quasi unus circulus sint sibi invicem conjunguntur, quia in ardore ignis flagrant, et quoniam potestas et judicium Dei in una rectitudine se continentes ab invicem non separantur.
De circulo puri aetheris, qui tertius est, ad quid in constitutione sua valeat, et quid significet, et quare tantae densitatis sit quantae duo superiores.
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