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
57. What has been said of heaven may be said also of the church, for
the church is the Lord's heaven on earth. There are also many
churches, each one of which is called a church, and so far as the
good of love and faith reigns therein is a church. Here, too, the
Lord out of various parts forms a unity, that is, one church out of
many churches.{1} And the like may be said of the man of the church
in particular that is said of the church in general, namely, that the
church is within man and not outside of him; and that every man is a
church in whom the Lord is present in the good of love and of
faith.{2} Again, the same may be said of a man that has the church in
him as of an angel that has heaven in him, namely, that he is a
church in the smallest form, as an angel is a heaven in the smallest
form; and furthermore that a man that has the church in him, equally
with an angel, is a heaven. For man was created that he might come
into heaven and become an angel; consequently he that has good from
the Lord is a man-angel.{3} What man has in common with an angel and
what he has in contrast with angels may be mentioned. It is granted
to man, equally with the angel, to have his interiors conformed to
the image of heaven, and to become, so far as he is in the good of
love and faith, an image of heaven. But it is granted to man and not
to angels to have his exteriors conform to the image of the world;
and so far as he is in good to have the world in him subordinated to
heaven and made to serve heaven.{4} And then the Lord is present in
him both in the world and in heaven just as if he were in his heaven.
For the Lord is in His Divine order in both worlds, since God is
order.{5}
{Footnote 1} If good were the characteristic and essential of
the church, and not truth apart from good, the church would be
one (n. 1255, 1316, 2952, 3267, 3445, 3451. 3452). From good
all churches make one church before the Lord (n. 7396, 9276).
{Footnote 2} The church is in man, and not outside of him, and
the church in general is made up of men that have the church in
them (n. 3884 [6637]).
{Footnote 3} A man who is a church is a heaven in the smallest
form after the image of the greatest, because his interiors,
which belong to his mind, are arranged after the form of
heaven, and consequently for reception of all things of heaven
(n. 911, 1900, 1928, 3624-3631, 3634, 3884, 4041, 4279, 4523,
4524, 4625, 6013, 6057 9279, 9632).
{Footnote 4} Man has an internal and an external; hid internal
is formed by creation after the image of heaven, and his
external after the image of the world; and for this reason man
was called by the ancients a microcosm (n. 3628, 4523, 4524,
5115, 5368, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156, 10472). Therefore
man was created to have the world in him serve heaven, and this
takes place with the good; but it is the reverse with the evil,
in whom heaven serves the world (n. 9278, 9283).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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