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
402. In uses all the delights of heaven are brought together and are
present, because uses are the goods of love and charity in which
angels are; therefore everyone has delights that are in accord with
his uses, and in the degree of his affection for use. That all the
delights of heaven are delights of use can be seen by a comparison
with the five bodily senses of man. There is given to each sense a
delight in accordance with its use; to the sight, the hearing, the
smell, the taste, and the touch, each its own delight; to the sight a
delight from beauty and from forms, to the hearing from harmonious
sounds, to the smell from pleasing odors, to taste from fine flavors.
These uses which the senses severally perform are known to those who
study them, and more fully to those who are acquainted with
correspondences. Sight has such a delight because of the use it
performs to the understanding, which is the inner sight; the hearing
has such a delight because of the use it performs both to the
understanding and to the will through giving attention; the smell has
such a delight because of the use it performs to the brain, and also
to the lungs; the taste has such a delight because of the use it
performs to the stomach, and thus to the whole body by nourishing it.
The delight of marriage, which is a purer and more exquisite delight
of touch, transcends all the rest because of its use, which is the
procreation of the human race and thereby of angels of heaven. These
delights are in these sensories by an influx of heaven, where every
delight pertains to use and is in accordance with use.
403. There were some spirits who believed from an opinion adopted in
the world that heavenly happiness consists in an idle life in which
they would be served by others; but they were told that happiness
never consists in abstaining from work and getting satisfaction
therefrom. This would mean everyone's desiring the happiness of
others for himself, and what everyone wished for no one would have.
Such a life would be an idle not an active life, and would stupefy
all the powers of life; and everyone ought to know that without
activity of life there can be no happiness of life, and that rest
from this activity should be only for the sake of recreation, that
one may return with more vigor to the activity of his life. They were
then shown by many evidences that angelic life consists in performing
the good works of charity, which are uses, and that the angels find
all their happiness in use, from use, and in accordance with use. To
those that held the opinion that heavenly joy consists in living an
idle life and drawing breaths of eternal joy in idleness, a
perception was given of what such a life is, that they might become
ashamed of the idea; and they saw that such a life is extremely sad,
and that all joy thus perishing they would in a little while feel
only loathing and disgust for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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