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
Those who think from interior reason can see that there is a
connection of all things through intermediates with the First, and
that whatever is not in connection is dissipated. For they know, when
they think about it, that nothing can have permanent existence from
itself, but only from what is prior to itself, thus all things from a
First; also that the connection with what is prior is like the
connection of an effect with its effecting cause; for when the
effecting cause is taken away from its effect the effect is dissolved
and dispersed. Because the learned thought thus they saw and said
that permanent existence is a perpetual springing forth; thus that
all things have permanent existence from a First; and as they sprang
from that First so they perpetually spring forth, that is, have
permanent existence from it. But what the connection of everything is
with that which is prior to itself, thus with the First which is the
source of all things, cannot be told in a few words, because it is
various and diverse. It can only be said in general that there is a
connection of the natural world with the spiritual world, and that in
consequence there is a correspondence of all things in the natural
world with all things in the spiritual (see n. 103-115); also that
there is a connection and consequently a correspondence of all things
of man with all things of heaven (see n. 87-102).
304. Man is so created as to have a conjunction and connection with
the Lord, but with the angels of heaven only an affiliation. Man has
affiliation with the angels, but not conjunction, because in respect
to the interiors of his mind man is by creation like an angel, having
a like will and a like understanding. Consequently if a man has lived
in accordance with the Divine order he becomes after death an angel,
with the same wisdom as an angel. Therefore when the conjunction of
man with heaven is spoken of his conjunction with the Lord and
affiliation with the angels is meant; for heaven is heaven from the
Lord's Divine, and not from what is strictly the angels' own
[proprium]. That it is the Lord's Divine that makes heaven may be
seen above (n. 7-12). [2] But man has, beyond what the angels have,
that he is not only in respect to his interiors in the spiritual
world, but also at the same time in respect to his exteriors in the
natural world. His exteriors which are in the natural world are all
things of his natural or external memory and of his thought and
imagination therefrom; in general, knowledges and sciences with their
delights and pleasures so far as they savor of the world, also many
pleasures belonging to the senses of the body, together with his
senses themselves, his speech, and his actions. And all these are the
outmosts in which the Lord's Divine influx terminates; for that
influx does not stop midway, but goes on to its outmosts. All this
shows that the outmost of Divine order is in man; and being the
outmost it is also the base and foundation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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