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
63. Heaven being such, it is ruled by the Lord as a single man is
ruled, thus as a one. For although man, as we know, consists of an
innumerable variety of parts, not only as a whole but also in each
part-as a whole, of members, organs, and viscera; and in each part,
of series of fibers, nerves, and blood-vessels, thus of members
within members, and of parts within parts-nevertheless, when he acts
he acts as a single man. Such likewise is heaven under the auspices
and direction of the Lord.
64. So many different things in man act as a one, because there is no
least thing in him that does not do something for the general welfare
and perform some use. The general performs a use for its parts, and
the parts for the general, for the general is composed of the parts
and the parts constitute the general; therefore they provide for each
other, have regard for each other, and are joined together in such a
form that each thing and all things have reference to the general and
its good; thus it is that they act as one. [2] In the heavens there
are like affiliations. Those there are conjoined according to uses in
a like form; and consequently those who do not perform uses for the
common good are cast out of heaven as something heterogeneous. To
perform use is to will well to others for the sake of the common
good; but to will well to others not for the sake of the common good
but for the sake of self is not to perform use. These latter are such
as love themselves supremely, while the former are such as love the
Lord supremely. Thence it is that those who are in heaven act as a
one; and this they do from the Lord, not from themselves, for they
look to Him as the Only One, the source of all things, and they
regard His kingdom as the general, the good of which is to be sought.
This is what is meant by the Lord's words,
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33).
"To seek His righteousness" means to seek His good.{1} [3] Those who
in the world love their country's good more than their own, and their
neighbor's good as their own, are they who in the other life love and
seek the Lord's kingdom; for there the Lord's kingdom takes the place
of country; and those who love doing good to others, not with self as
an end but with good as an end, love the neighbor; for in heaven good
is the neighbor.{2} All such are in the Greatest Man, that is,
heaven.
{Footnote 1} In the Wood "righteousness" is predicated of good,
and "judgment" of truth; therefore "to do righteousness and
judgment" is to do what is good and true (n. 2235, 9857).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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