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
in the mere delights of the body and of the flesh from the love of
self and of the world; while all that are in the heavens were, while
they lived in the world, in the delights of the soul and spirit from
love to the Lord and love to the neighbor; and as these are opposite
loves, so the hells and the heavens are entirely separated, and
indeed so separated that a spirit in hell does not venture even to
put forth a finger from it or raise the crown of his head, for if he
does this in the least he is racked with pain and tormented. This,
too, I have frequently seen.
401. One who is in the love of self and love of the world perceives
while he lives in the body a sense of delight from these loves and
also in the particular pleasures derived from these loves. But one
who is in love to God and in love towards the neighbor does not
perceive while he lives in the body any distinct sense of delight
from these loves or from the good affections derived from them, but
only a blessedness that is hardly perceptible, because it is hidden
away in his interiors and veiled by the exteriors pertaining to the
body and dulled by the cares of the world. But after death these
states are entirely changed. The delights of love of self and of the
world are then turned into what is painful and direful, because into
such things as are called infernal fire, and by turns into things
defiled and filthy corresponding to their unclean pleasures, and
these, wonderful to tell, are then delightful to them. But the
obscure delight and almost imperceptible blessedness of those that
had been while in the world in love to God and in love to the
neighbor are then turned into the delight of heaven, and become in
every way perceived and felt, for the blessedness that lay hidden and
unrecognized in their interiors while they lived in the world is then
revealed and brought forth into evident sensation, because such had
been the delight of their spirit, and they are then in the spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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