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
117. Although the sun of the world is not seen in heaven, nor
anything from that sun, there is nevertheless a sun there, and light
and heat, and all things that are in the world, with innumerable
others, but not from a like origin; since the things in heaven are
spiritual, and those in the world are natural. The sun of heaven is
the Lord; the light there is the Divine truth and the heat the Divine
good that go forth from the Lord as a sun. From this origin are all
things that spring forth and are seen in the heavens. This light and
heat and things existing therefrom in heaven will be treated of in
the following chapters; in this chapter we will speak only of the sun
there. In heaven the Lord is seen as a sun, for the reason that He is
Divine love, from which all spiritual things, and by means of the sun
of the world all natural things, have their existence. That love is
what shines as a sun.
118. That the Lord is actually seen in heaven as a sun I have not
only been told by angels, but it has occasionally been granted me to
see it; and therefore what I have heard and seen respecting the Lord
as a sun I shall be glad to tell in a few words. The Lord is seen as
a sun, not in heaven, but high above the heavens; and not directly
overhead or in the zenith, but before the faces of the angels at a
middle height. He is seen at a considerable distance, in two places,
one before the right eye and the other before the left eye. Before
the right eye He is seen exactly like a sun, as it were, with a glow
and size like that of the sun of the world. But before the left eye
He is not seen as a sun, but as a moon, glowing white like the moon
of our earth, and of like size, but more brilliant, and surrounded
with many little moons, as it were, each of them of similar whiteness
and splendor. The Lord is seen so differently in two places because
every person sees the Lord in accordance with the quality of his
reception of the Lord, thus He is seen in one way by those that
receive Him with the good of love, and in another by those that
receive Him with the good of faith. Those that receive Him with the
good of love see Him as a sun, fiery and flaming, in accordance with
their reception of Him; these are in His celestial kingdom; while
those that receive Him with the good of faith see Him as a moon,
white and brilliant in accordance with their reception of Him, and
these are in His spiritual kingdom.{1} This is so because good of
love corresponds to fire; therefore in the spiritual sense fire is
love; and the good of faith corresponds to light, and in the
spiritual sense light is faith.{2} And the Lord appears before the
eyes because the interiors, which belong to the mind, see through the
eyes, from good of love through the right eye, and from good of faith
through the left eye;{3} since with angels and also with men all
things at the right correspond to good from which truth is derived,
and all at the left to truth that is from good.{4} Good of faith is
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