Heaven and its Wonders and HellSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Heaven and its Wonders and Hell
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Future life -- Christianity -- Early work to 1800; Heaven -- Christianity; Hell -- Christianity
{Footnote 1} So far as man is raised up from outward towards
inward things he comes into light, that is, into intelligence
(n. 6183, 6313). There is an actual elevation (n. 7816, 10330).
Elevation from outward to inward things is like elevation out
of a mist into light (n. 4598). As outer things in man are
farther removed from the Divine they are relatively obscure (n.
6451). Likewise relatively confused (n. 996, 3855). Inner
things are more perfect because they are nearer to the Divine
(n. 5146, 5147). In what is internal there are thousands and
thousands of things that appear in what is external as one
general thing (n. 5707). Consequently as thought and perception
are more interior they are clearer (n. 5920).
{Footnote 2} The sensual is the outmost of man's life adhering
to and inhering in his bodily part (n. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216,
9331, 9730). He is called a sensual man who judges all things
and draws all his conclusions from the bodily senses, and
believes nothing except what he sees with his eyes and touches
with his hands (n. 5094, 7693). Such a man thinks in externals,
and not interiorly in himself (n. 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693). His
interiors are so closed up that he sees nothing of spiritual
truth in them (n. 6564, 6844, 6845). In a word, he is in gross
natural light and thus perceives nothing that is from the light
of heaven (n. 6201, 6310, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624,
6844, 6845). Interiorly he is antagonistic to the things of
heaven and the church (n. 6201, 6316, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949).
The learned who have confirmed themselves against the truths of
the church come to be such (n. 6316). Sensual men are more
cunning and malicious than others (n. 7693, 10236). They reason
keenly and cunningly, but from the bodily memory, in which they
place all intelligence (n. 195, 196, 5700, 10236). But they
reason from the fallacies of the senses (n. 5084, 6948, 6949,
7693).
268. It can be seen how great the wisdom of angels is from the fact
that in the heavens there is a communication of all things;
intelligence and wisdom are communicated from one to another, and
heaven is a common sharing of all goods; and this for the reason that
heavenly love is such that it wishes what is its own to be another's;
consequently no one in heaven perceives his own good in himself to be
good unless it is also in another; and this is the source of the
happiness of heaven. This the angels derive from the Lord, for such
is His Divine love. That there is such a communication of all things
in the heavens it has been permitted me to know by experience.
Certain simple spirits were at one time taken up into heaven, and
when there they entered into angelic wisdom, and then understood
things that they were never before able to comprehend, and spoke
things that they were unable to utter in their former state.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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