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
350. All are received into heaven who have loved truth and good for
the sake of truth and good; therefore those that have loved much are
called the wise, and those that have loved little are called the
simple. The wise in heaven are in much light, the simple in less
light, everyone in accordance with the degree of his love for good
and truth. To love truth and good for the sake of truth and good is
to will and do them; for those love who will and do, while those who
do not will and do do not love. Such also love the Lord and are loved
by the Lord, because good and truth are from the Lord. And inasmuch
as good and truth are from the Lord the Lord is in good and truth;
and He is in those who receive good and truth in their life by
willing and doing. Moreover, when man is viewed in himself he is
nothing but his own good and truth, because good is of his will and
truth of his understanding, and man is such as his will and
understanding are. Evidently, then, man is loved by the Lord just to
the extent that his will is formed from good and his understanding
from truth. Also to be loved by the Lord is to love the Lord, since
love is reciprocal; for upon him who is loved the Lord bestows
ability to love.
351. It is believed in the world that those who have much knowledge,
whether it be knowledge of the teachings of the church and the Word
or of the sciences, have a more interior and keen vision of truth
than others, that is, are more intelligent and wise; and such have
this opinion of themselves. But what true intelligence and wisdom
are, and what spurious and false intelligence and wisdom are, shall
be told in what now follows. [2] True intelligence and wisdom is
seeing and perceiving what is true and good, and thereby what is
false and evil, and clearly distinguishing between them, and this
from an interior intuition and perception. With every man there are
interior faculties and exterior faculties; interior faculties
belonging to the internal or spiritual man, and exterior faculties
belonging to the exterior or natural man. Accordingly as man's
interiors are formed and made one with his exteriors man sees and
perceives. His interiors can be formed only in heaven, his exteriors
are formed in the world. When his interiors have been formed in
heaven the things they contain flow into his exteriors which are from
the world, and so form them that they correspond with, that is, act
as one with, his interiors; and when this is done man sees and
perceives from what is interior. The interiors can be formed only in
one way, namely, by man's looking to the Divine and to heaven, since,
as has been said, the interiors are formed in heaven; and man looks
to the Divine when he believes in the Divine, and believes that all
truth and good and consequently all intelligence and wisdom are from
the Divine; and man believes in the Divine when he is willing to be
led by the Divine. In this way and none other are the interiors of
man opened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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