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
{Footnote 1} The will of man is the very being [esse] of his
life, because it is the receptacle of love or good, and the
understanding is the outgo [existere] of life therefrom,
because it is the receptacle of faith or truth (n. 3619, 5002,
9282). Thus the life of the will is the chief life of man, and
the life of the understanding proceeds therefrom (n. 585, 590,
3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110). In the same way
as light proceeds from fire or flame (n. 6032, 6314). From this
it follows that man is man by virtue of his will and his
understanding therefrom (n. 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109,
10110). Every man is loved and esteemed by others in accordance
with the good of his will and of his understanding therefrom,
for he that wills well and understands well is loved and
esteemed; and he that understands well and does not will well
is set aside and despised (n. 8911, 10076). After death man
continues to be such as his will is, and his understanding
therefrom (n, 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153). Consequently after
death man continues to be such as his love is, and his faith
therefrom; and whatever belongs to his faith and not also to
his love then vanishes, because it is not in the man, thus not
of the man (n. 553, 2364, 10153).
475. Again, it must be understood that in deeds or works the whole
man is exhibited, and that his will and thought or his love and
faith, which are his interiors, are not complete until they exist in
deeds or works, which are his exteriors, for these are the outmosts
in which the will and thought terminate, and without such
terminations they are interminate, and have as yet no existence, that
is, are not yet in the man. To think and to will without doing, when
there is opportunity, is like a flame enclosed in a vessel and goes
out; also like seed cast upon the sand, which fails to grow, and so
perishes with its power of germination. But to think and will and
from that to do is like a flame that gives heat and light all around,
or like a seed in the ground that grows up into a tree or flower and
continues to live. Everyone can know that willing and not doing, when
there is opportunity, is not willing; also that loving and not doing
good, when there is opportunity, is not loving, but mere thought that
one wills and loves; and this is thought separate, which vanishes and
is dissipated. Love and will constitute the soul itself of a deed or
work, and give form to its body in the honest and just things that
the man does. This is the sole source of man's spiritual body, or the
body of his spirit; that is, it is formed solely out of the things
that the man does from his love or will (see above, n. 463). In a
word, all things of man and his spirit are contained in his deeds or
works.{1}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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