2271. CONCERNING WHAT IS TO COME. Angels do not know what is to come; the Lord alone knows, and he to whom He thinks worthy to reveal it. I first perceived something to be, as it were, execrated when certain desired to know what was to come, for thence some think to know whether [a thing] is true or not, as is the case with men on earth; but in the last times miracles do not occur, nor are things to come predicted, for many reasons: one only it is permitted to adduce, [namely] [that] the angels, in order that they may be in felicity, must not know in the least what is future, for the Lord looks out for them, what they think, every least moment. So the Lord has said that they were not anxious about the future. Moreover, the knowledge of the future, after which spirits long very much, would involve very many things that would disturb them, and order; wherefore also it is wholly opposed to the government [regimen] of spirits and angels, who must take nothing to themselves [ipsi for ipsis, I think] of their own, but what is permitted them. - 1748, June 10.