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
It has been shown in the preceding chapter that the ruling affection
or dominant love in everyone continues to eternity. It shall now be
explained how the delights of that affection or love are changed into
things that correspond. Being changed into corresponding things means
into things spiritual that correspond to the natural. That they are
changed into things spiritual can be seen from this, that so long as
man is in his earthly body he is in the natural world, but when he
leaves that body he enters the spiritual world and is clothed with a
spiritual body. It has already been shown that angels, and men after
death, are in a complete human form, and that the bodies with which
they are clothed are spiritual bodies (n. 73-77 and 453-460); also
what the correspondence is of spiritual things with natural (n.
87-115).
486. All the delights that a man has are the delights of his ruling
love, for he feels nothing to be delightful except what he loves,
thus especially that which he loves above all things. It means the
same whether you say the ruling love or that which is loved above all
things. These delights are various. In general, there are as many as
there are ruling loves; consequently as many as there are men,
spirits, and angels; for no one's ruling love is in every respect
like that of another. For this reason no one has a face exactly like
that of any other; for each one's face is an image of his mind; and
in the spiritual world it is an image of his ruling love. In
particular, everyone's delights are of infinite variety. It is
impossible for any one delight to be exactly like another, or the
same as another, either those that follow one after another or those
that exist together at the same time, no one ever being the same as
another. Nevertheless, the particular delights in everyone have
reference to his one love, which is his ruling love, for they compose
it and thus make one with it. Likewise all delights in general have
reference to one universally ruling love, which in heaven is love to
the Lord, and in hell is the love of self.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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