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
514. All who are in places of instruction dwell apart; for each one
is connected in regard to his interiors with that society of heaven
which he is about to enter; thus as the societies of heaven are
arranged in accord with the heavenly form (see above, n. 200-212), so
are the places there where instruction is given; and for this reason
when those places are viewed from heaven something like a heaven in a
smaller form is seen. They are spread out in length from east to
west, and in breadth from south to north; but the breadth appears to
be less than the length. The arrangement in general is as follows. In
front are those who died in childhood and have been brought up in
heaven to the age of early youth; these after passing the state of
their infancy with those having charge of them, are brought hither by
the Lord and instructed. Behind these are the places where those are
taught who died in adult age, and who in the world had an affection
for truth derived from good of life. Again, behind these are those
who in the world were connected with the Mohammedan religion, and
lived a moral life and acknowledged one Divine, and the Lord as the
very Prophet. When these withdraw from Mohammed, because he can give
them no help, they approach the Lord and worship Him and acknowledge
His Divinity, and they are then instructed in the Christian religion.
Behind these more to the north are the places of instruction of
various heathen nations who in the world have lived a good life in
conformity with their religion, and have thereby acquired a kind of
conscience, and have done what is just and right not so much from a
regard to the laws of their government, as from a regard to the laws
of religion, which they believed ought to be sacredly observed, and
in no way violated by their doings. When these have been taught they
are all easily led to acknowledge the Lord, because it is impressed
on their hearts that God is not invisible, but is visible under a
human form. These in number exceed all the rest, and the best of them
are from Africa.
515. But all are not taught in the same way, nor by the same
societies of heaven. Those that have been brought up from childhood
in heaven, not having imbibed falsities from the falsities of
religion or defiled their spiritual life with the dregs pertaining to
honors and riches in the world, receive instruction from the angels
of the interior heavens; while those that have died in adult age
receive instruction mainly from angels of the lowest heaven, because
these angels are better suited to them than the angels of the
interior heavens, who are in interior wisdom which is not yet
acceptable to them. But the Mohammedans receive instruction from
angels who had been previously in the same religion and had been
converted to Christianity. The heathen, too, are taught by their
angels.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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