—John, V, 39
GOD'S WORD
In its inmosts the Sacred Scripture is no other than God, that is, the Divine which proceeds from God.... In its derivatives it is accommodated to the perception of angels and men. In these it is Divine likewise, but in another form, in which this Divine is called "Celestial," "Spiritual," and "Natural." These are no other than coverings of God. Still the Divine, which is inmost, and is covered with such things as are accommodated to the perceptions of angels and men, shines forth like light through crystalline forms, but variously, according to the state of mind which a man has formed for himself, either from God or from self. In the sight of the man who has formed the state of his mind from God, the Sacred Scripture is like a mirror in which he sees God, each in his own way. The truths which he learns from the Word and which become a part of him by a life according to them, compose that mirror. The Sacred Scripture is the fulness of God.
—True Christian Religion, n. 6
IN ITS BOSOM SPIRITUAL
The Word in its bosom is spiritual. Descending from Jehovah the Lord, and passing through the angelic heavens, the Divine (in itself ineffable and imperceptible) became level with the perception of angels and finally the perception of man. Hence the Word has a spiritual sense, which is within the natural, just as the soul is in the body, or as thought is in speech, or volition in action.
—True Christian Religion, n. 193
THE LETTER OF THE WORD
The truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are in part appearances of truth, and are taken from things in nature, and thus accommodated and adapted to the grasp of the simple and also of little children. But being correspondences, they are receptacles and abodes of genuine truth; and are like enclosing and containing vessels. The naked truths themselves, which are enclosed and contained, are in the Word's spiritual sense; and the naked goods in its celestial sense.
The doctrine of genuine truth can also be drawn in full from the literal sense of the Word; for the Word in this sense is like a man clothed, whose face and hands are bare. All that concerns man's life, and so his salvation, is bare; the rest is clothed.
—Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture, nn. 40, 55
ITS LANGUAGE
The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world; not only generally, but in detail. Whatever comes forth in the natural world from the spiritual, is therefore called correspondent. The world of nature comes forth and subsists from the spiritual world, just as an effect does from its efficient cause.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 89
What is Divine presents itself in the world in what corresponds. The Word is therefore written wholly in correspondence. Therefore the Lord, too, speaking as He did from the Divine, spoke in correspondence.
—True Christian Religion, n. 201
"And behold a ladder set on the earth, and its head reaching to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold Jehovah standing above it." The ladder set between earth and heaven, or between the lowest and the highest, signifies communication. In the original tongue the term ladder is derived from an expression which signifies a path or way, and a path or way is predicated of truth. By a ladder, therefore, one extremity of which is set on the earth, while the other reaches to heaven, is signified the communication of truth which is in the lowest place with truth which is in the highest, indeed with inmost good and truth, such as are in heaven, and from which heaven itself is an ascent as it were from what is lowest, and afterward when the order is inverted, a descent, and is the order of man's regeneration. The arcanum which lies concealed in the internal sense of these words is, that all goods and truths descend from the Lord, and ascend to Him, for man is so created that the Divine things of the Lord may descend through him even to the ultimates of nature, and from the ultimates of nature may ascend to Him; so that man might be a medium uniting the Divine with the world of nature, and uniting the world of nature with the Divine, that thus, through man, as through the uniting medium, the very ultimate of nature might live from the Divine, which would be the case had man lived according to Divine order.
—Arcana Coelestia, nn. 3699-3702
ITS FUNCTION
Divine truth, in passing from the Lord through the three heavens to men in the world, is written and made the Word in each heaven. The Word, therefore, is the union of the heavens with one another, and of the heavens with the Church in the world. Hence there flows in from the Lord through the heavens a holy Divine with the man who acknowledges the Divine in the Lord and the holy in the Word, while he reads it. Such a man can be instructed and can draw wisdom from the Word as from the Lord Himself or from heaven itself, in the measure that he loves it, and thus can be nourished with the same food with which the angels themselves are fed, and in which there is life, according to these words of the Lord:
"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
"The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
—Apocalypse Explained, n. 1074
HOW TO USE IT
They who, in reading the Word, look to the Lord, by acknowledging that all truth and all good are from Him, and nothing from themselves,—they are enlightened, and see truth and perceive what is good from the Word. That enlightenment is from the light of heaven.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 9405
ITS DISSEMINATION OF LIGHT
There cannot be any conjunction with heaven unless somewhere upon the earth there is a Church where the Word is and by it the Lord is known. It is sufficient that there be a Church where the Word is, even though it should consist of few relatively. The Lord is present by it, nevertheless, in the whole world. The light is greatest where those are who have the Word. Thence it extends itself as from a centre out to the last periphery. Thence comes the enlightenment of nations and peoples outside the Church, too, by the Word.
—Doctrine concerning the Sacred Scripture, nn. 104, 106
A CANON ON A NEW PRINCIPLE
The books of the Word are all those which have an internal sense. In the Old Testament they are the five books of Moses, the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, the Psalms of David, the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zecharaiah, Malachi; and in the New Testament the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; and the Apocalypse.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 10,325
THE LIFE OF CHARITY AND FAITH
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."
—Micah, VI, 8
THE LAW OF CHARITY
Not to do evil to the neighbor is the first thing of charity, and to do good to him fills the second place.... That a man cannot do good which in itself is good before evil has been removed, the Lord teaches in many places: "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit"—Matt. XVI, 18.
So in Isaiah: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well" (I, 16,17).
—True Christian Religion, n. 445
GOOD IN ITS WHOLENESS
Before repentance good is not done from the Lord, but from the man. It has not, therefore, the essence of good within it, however it appears like good outwardly. Good after repentance is another thing altogether. It is a whole good, unobstructed from the Lord Himself. It is lovely; it is innocent; it is agreeable, and heavenly. The Lord is in it, and heaven. Good itself is in it. It is alive, fashioned of truths. Whatever is thus from good, in good, and toward good, is nothing less than a use to the neighbor, and hence it is a serving. It puts away self and what is one's own, and thus evil, with every breath. Its form is like the form of a charming and beautifully colored flower, shining in the rays of the sun.
—The Doctrine of Charity, n. 150
THE MAN OF CHARITY
Every man who looks to the Lord and shuns evils as sins, if he sincerely, justly and faithfully performs the work which belongs to his office and employment, becomes an embodiment of charity.
—The Doctrine of Charity, VII
In common belief charity is nothing else than giving to the poor, succoring the needy, caring for widows and orphans, contributing to the building of hospitals, infirmaries, asylums, orphanages, and especially churches, and to their decoration and income. But most of these things are not the proper activities of charity, but extraneous to it. A distinction is to be made between the duties of charity, and its benefactions. By the duties of charity those exercises of it are meant, which proceed directly from charity itself. These have to do primarily with one's occupation. By the benefactions those aids are meant which are given outside of, and over and above the duties.
—True Christian Religion, n. 425
THE ACTIVITY OF CHARITY
Charity is an inward affection, moving man to do what is good, and this without recompense. So to act is his life's delight.
The life of charity is to will well and to do well by the neighbor; in all work, and in every employment, acting out of regard to what is just and equitable, good and true. In a word, the life of charity consists in the performance of uses.
—Heavenly Doctrine, nn. 106, 124
FAITH THE PARTNER OF CHARITY
Neither charity alone nor faith alone can produce good works, any more than a husband alone or a wife alone can have offspring. The truths of faith not only illuminate charity, but qualify it, too; and, moreover, they nourish it. A man, then, who has charity and not truths of faith, is like one walking in a garden in the night-time, snatching fruit from the trees without knowing whether it is of a good or evil use.
—True Christian Religion, n. 377
THE PATRIOTISM OF CHARITY
One's country is the neighbor more than a society, for it consists of many societies, and consequently the love of it is a more extended and a higher love. Besides, to love one's country is to love the public welfare. A man's country is the neighbor because it is like a parent; for there he was born; it has nourished and still nourishes him; it has protected him from harm, and still protects him. From love for it he ought to do good to his country according to its needs, some of which are natural, and others spiritual. The country ought to be loved, not as a man loves himself, but more than himself. This is a law inscribed on the human heart. And from the law has issued the proposition, which has the assent of every true man, that if ruin threatens the country from an enemy or other source, it is illustrious to die for it, and glorious for a soldier to shed his blood for it. This is a common saying, because so much should one's country be loved. Those who love their country, and from good will do good to it, after death love the Lord's kingdom, for this is their country there; and they who love the Lord's kingdom, love the Lord, for He is the All in all of His Kingdom.
—True Christian Religion, n. 414
FAITH AND DOUBT
There are those who are in doubt before they deny, and there are those who are in doubt before they affirm. Those in doubt before they deny, are men who incline to a life of evil. When that life sways them, they deny things spiritual and celestial to the extent that they think of them. But those in doubt before they affirm, are men who incline to a life of good. When they suffer themselves to be turned to this life by the Lord, they then affirm things spiritual and celestial to the extent that they think of them.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 2568
THE FAITH OF THE FAITHFUL
It is one thing to know truths, another to acknowledge them, and yet another to have faith in them. Only the faithful can have faith.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 896
The only faith that endures with man springs from heavenly love. Those without love have knowledge merely, or persuasion. Just to believe in truth and in the Word is not faith. Faith is to love truth, and to will and do it from inward affection for it.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 482
If a man thinks to himself or says to another, "Who can have that inward acknowledgment of truth which is faith? I cannot," I will tell him how he may: "Shun evils as sins, and go to the Lord, and you will have as much as you desire."
—Doctrine Concerning Faith, n. 12
NEIGHBORS
Not only is the individual man the neighbor, but the collective man, too. A society, smaller or larger, is the neighbor; the Church is; the Kingdom of the Lord is; and above all the Lord Himself. These are the neighbor, to whom good is to be done from love. These are also the ascending degrees of the neighbor; for a society consisting of many is the neighbor in a higher degree than is the individual; one's country in a still higher degree; the Church in a still higher degree than one's country; in a degree higher still the Kingdom of the Lord; and in the highest degree the Lord Himself. These degrees of ascent are like the steps in a ladder, at the top of which is the Lord.
—Heavenly Doctrine, n. 91
DIVERSIONS
There is an affection in every employment, which puts the mind upon the stretch and keeps it intent upon its work or study. If it is not relaxed, this becomes heavy, and its desire meaningless; as salt, when it loses its saltness, no longer stimulates, and as the bow on the stretch, unless it is unbent, loses the force it gets from its elasticity. Continuously intent upon its work, the mind wants rest; and dropping to the physical life, it seeks pleasures there that answer to its activities. As is the mind in them, such are the pleasures, pure or impure, spiritual or natural, heavenly or infernal. If it is the affection of charity which is in them, all diversions will recreate it—shows, games, instrumental and vocal music, the beauties of field and garden, social intercourse generally. There remains deep in them, being gradually renewed as it rests, the love of work and service. The longing to resume this work breaks in upon the diversions and puts an end to them. For the Lord flows into the diversions from heaven, and renews the man; and He gives the man an interior sense of pleasure in them, too, of which those know nothing who are not in the affection of charity.
—Doctrine of Charity, nn. 127, 128, 130
THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE
—Psalm, XXIII, 2
THE DIVINE PURPOSE
The Divine Providence has for an end a heaven which shall consist of men who have become angels or who are becoming angels, to whom the Lord can impart from Himself all the blessedness and felicity of love and wisdom.
—Divine Providence, n. 27
THE LAWFUL ORDER OF PROVIDENCE
In all that proceeds from the Lord the Divine Providence is first. Indeed, we may say that the Lord is Providence, as we say that God is Order; for the Divine Providence is Divine Order with regard above all to the salvation of man. As order is impossible without laws, it follows that as God is order so is He the Law of His order. And as the Lord is His Providence, He is also the Law of His Providence. The Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of His Providence, for to act contrary to them would be to act contrary to Himself.
—Divine Providence, n. 331
A WORLD-WIDE LEADING
The Lord provides that there shall be religion everywhere, and in each religion the two essentials of salvation, which are, to acknowledge God, and not to do evil because it is contrary to God. It is provided furthermore that all who have lived well and acknowledge God should be instructed by angels after death. Then, they who, in the world, were in the two essentials of religion, accept the truths of the Church, such as they are in the Word, and acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and the Church. It has also been provided by the Lord that all who die infants shall be saved, wherever they may have been born.
—Divine Providence, n. 328
THE DIVINE PERSEVERANCE
The Divine Providence differs from all other leading and guidance in this, that it continually regards what is eternal, and continually leads to salvation, and this through various states, now glad, now sad,—states which a man cannot understand at all, and yet they all conduce to his life to eternity.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 8560
IN THE STREAM OF PROVIDENCE
The Divine Providence is universal, that is, in the leasts of all things. They who are in the stream of Providence are borne along continually to happiness, whatsoever the appearance of the means may be. They are in the stream of Providence, who put their trust in the Divine, and ascribe all things to Him. They are not in the stream of Providence who trust themselves alone and ascribe all things to themselves. As far as one is in the stream of Providence, so far one is in a state of peace. Such alone know and believe that the Divine Providence of the Lord is in each and all things, yea, in the leasts of all things.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 8478
CARE FOR THE MORROW
It is not contrary to order to look out for one's self and one's dependents. Those have "care for the morrow" who are not content with their lot, who do not trust in the Divine but themselves, and who regard only worldly and earthly things and not heavenly. With such there prevails universally a solicitude about things future, a desire to possess everything, and to rule over all. They grieve if they do not get what they desire, and suffer torment when they lose what they have. Then they grow angry with the Divine, rejecting it together with everything of faith, and cursing themselves. Altogether different is it with those who trust in the Divine. Though they have care for the morrow, yet they have it not; for they do not think of the morrow with solicitude, still less with anxiety. Whether they get what they wish or not, they are composed, not lamenting over losses, but being content with their lot. If they become rich, they do not set their hearts upon riches. If they are exalted to honors, they do not look upon themselves as worthier than others. If they become poor, they are not cast down. If their condition be mean, they are not dejected. They know that with those who put their trust in the Divine, all things work toward a happy state to eternity.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 8478
THE SUFFERANCE OF EVIL
The chief aim and effort of the Lord's Divine Providence is that a man shall be in what is good and in what is true at the same time; for thereby man is man, since he is then an image of the Lord. But because, in his life in the world, he can be in what is good and in what is false at the same time, and also in what is evil and what is true at the same time, nay, even in evil and at the same time in good, and thus be a double man, as it were, and because this division destroys God's image and so destroys the man, therefore the Lord's Divine Providence in all its workings seeks to prevent this division. Furthermore, because it is better for man to be in what is evil and in the same time in what is false than to be in good and at the same time in evil, therefore the Lord permits it; not as one willing it, but as one unable to prevent it consistently with the end, which is salvation.
—Divine Providence, n. 16
DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION
I awaked: for the Lord sustained me."
—Psalm, III, 5
"Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: for He is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for to Him all are living."
—Luke, XX, 37, 38
IMMORTAL BY ENDOWMENT
Man has been so created that as to his inward being he cannot die; for he can believe in God, and also love God, and thus be united to God in faith and love; and to be united to God is to live to eternity.
—Heavenly Doctrine, n. 223
FROM WORLD TO WORLD
When the body is no longer able to perform its functions in the natural world, a man is said to die. Still the man does not die; he is only separated from the bodily part which was of use to him in the world. The man himself lives. He lives, because he is man by virtue, not of the body, but of the spirit; for it is the spirit in man which thinks; and thought together with affection makes the man. It is plain, then, that when a man dies, he only passes from one world into the other.... The spirit of man after separation remains awhile in the body, but not after the motion of the heart has entirely ceased. This takes place with a variation according to the diseased condition of which the man dies. As soon as the motion ceases, the man is resuscitated. This is done by the Lord alone.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 445, 447
UNHURT BY DEATH
When a man passes from the natural world into the spiritual, he takes with him everything that belongs to him as a man except his earthly body. (This he leaves when he dies, nor does he ever resume it.[A]) He is in a body as he was in the natural world; and to all appearance there is no difference. But his body is spiritual, and is therefore separated or purified from things terrestrial. And when what is spiritual touches and sees what is spiritual, it is just the same as when what is natural touches and sees what is natural.... A human spirit also enjoys every sense, external and internal, which he enjoyed in the world. He sees as before, hears and speaks as before, smells and tastes as before, and feels when he is touched. He also longs, desires, craves, thinks, reflects, is stirred, loves, wills, as he did previously.... In a word, when a man passes from the one life into the other, or from the one world into the other, it is as though he had passed from one place to another; and he carries with him all that he possesses in himself as a man. It cannot, then, be said, that after death a man has lost anything that really belonged to him. He carries his natural memory with him, too; for he retains all things whatsoever which he has heard, seen, read, learned and thought in the world, from earliest infancy even to the last of life.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 461
[A] Heavenly Doctrine, n. 225.
THE WORLD OF SPIRITS
Every man at death comes first into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell; and there he passes through his own states, and is prepared either for heaven or for hell according to his life.... It is to be observed that the world of spirits is one thing, and the spiritual world another. The spiritual world embraces the world of spirits and heaven and hell.
—Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 140
THE WAY OF ONE'S OWN LOVE
After death every one goes the way of his love—he who is in a good love, to heaven, and he who is in a wicked love, to hell. Nor does he rest until he is in that society where his ruling love is. What is wonderful, every one knows the way.
Every one's state after death is spiritual, which is such that he cannot be anywhere but in the delight of his own love, which he has acquired for himself by his life in the natural world. From this it appears plainly that no one can be let into the delight of heaven who is in the delight of hell.... This may be still more certainly concluded from the fact that no one is forbidden after death to ascend to heaven. The way is shown him, opportunity is given him, and he is let in. But when one who is in the delight of evil comes into heaven, and breathes in its delight, he begins to be oppressed, and racked at heart, and to feel in a swoon, in which he writhes like a snake put near a fire; and with his face turned away from heaven and toward hell, he flees headlong, nor does he rest until he is in the society of his own love.
—Divine Providence, nn. 319, 338
It is an abiding truth that every man rises again after death into another life, and presents himself for judgment. This judgment, however, is circumstanced as follows: As soon as his bodily parts grow cold, which takes place after a few days, he is raised by the Lord at the hands of celestial angels who first are with him. If he is such that he cannot be with them, he is received by spiritual angels, and in turn afterwards by good spirits. For all who come into the other life, whoever they may be, are grateful and welcome new-comers. But as every one's desires follow him, he who has led a bad life cannot remain long with angels or good spirits, but in turn separates himself from them, until at length he comes to spirits of a life conforming with the life he had in the world. Then it seems to him as if he were back in the life of the body; his present life being, in fact, a continuation of his past life. With this life his judgment commences. They who have led a bad life in process of time descend into hell; they who have led a good life, are by degrees raised by the Lord into heaven.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 2119
THE FIRST THREE STATES AFTER DEATH
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
—Rev., XXII, 11
CONTINUATION OF THE OUTWARD LIFE
There are three states through which a man passes after death, before he enters either heaven or hell. The first state is that of his outward nature and life; the second, that of his inward nature and life; and the third, one of preparation. A man passes through these states in the world of spirits.
The first state of a man after death is like his state in the world, because he is then similarly in things outward. His appearance is similar, and so are his speech, his mental habit, and his moral and civil life. As a result he does not know but that he is still in the world, unless he pays attention to things that meet his eye, and to what the angels told him at his resuscitation, that now he is a spirit. Thus one life is carried on into the other, and death is only the transition.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 491, 493
REVELATION OF THE INNER LIFE
After the first state is past, which is the state of the outward nature and life, a spirit is admitted into the state of his inward will and thought, in which, on being left to himself to think freely and unchecked, he had been in the world. He slips unawares into this state, just as he did in the world. When he is in this state, he is in himself, and in his very life; for to think freely from the affection properly one's own, is the very life of man, and is the man.
When a spirit is in the state of his inward nature and life, it appears plainly what manner of man he was in the world; for then he acts from his very self. A man who was inwardly in good in the world, then acts rationally and wisely—more wisely, in fact, than he did in the world; for he has been loosed from connection with the body, and so with worldly things, which caused obscurity and, as it were, interposed a cloud. But a man who was in evil in the world, then acts foolishly and insanely—more insanely, in fact, than he did in the world, for now he is in freedom and not coerced. For when he lived in the world, he was sane in his outward life, for so he assumed the appearance of a rational man. When, therefore, his outward life is laid off, his insanities reveal themselves.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 502, 505
INSTRUCTED FOR HEAVEN
The third state of a man after death is a state of instruction. This is a state in the experience of those who enter heaven and become angels.
Instruction in heaven differs from instruction on earth, in that knowledge is not committed to memory, but to life; for the memory of spirits is in their life, inasmuch as they receive and become imbued with everything that agrees with their life, and they do not receive, still less do they become imbued with, anything that disagrees with it; for spirits are affections, and are in a human form like their affections. Being such, they have inspired in them continually an affection for truth for the sake of the uses of life; for the Lord provides that every one may love the uses which suit his genius, a love that is exalted, too, by the hope of becoming an angel.... With every one, therefore, the affection of truth is united to the affection of use, so fully that they act as one. Thereby truth is planted in service, so much so that the truths which angelic spirits learn, are truths of use. Thus are they instructed and prepared for heaven.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 512, 517
HEAVEN
"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life; and may enter in through the gates into the city."
—Rev., XXII, 14
In Thy presence is fulness of joy;
At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore."
—Psalm, XVI, II
"THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU"
Heaven is in a man; and they who have heaven within themselves, come into heaven. Heaven in a man is to acknowledge the Divine, and to be led by the Divine.
Every angel receives the heaven which is around him according to the heaven which is within him. Unless heaven is within a man, none of the heaven around him flows in and is received.
Love to the Lord is the love regnant in the heavens; for there the Lord is loved above all things. Thus the Lord is All in all there. He flows into all the angels, and into each of them. He disposes them; He induces a likeness of Himself on them, and causes Heaven to be where He is. Hence an angel is heaven in the least form; a society is heaven in a greater form; and all the societies together are heaven in the greatest form.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 319, 54, 58
AN ACTUAL WORLD
In general, what appears in heaven, appears the same as it does in our material world of three kingdoms. Things appear before the eyes of angels just as objects of the three kingdoms do before the eyes of men in the world. Still there is this difference: the things which appear in heaven, have a spiritual origin, and those which appear in our world a material origin. Objects of a spiritual origin affect the senses of angels because these senses are spiritual, as those of a material origin affect the senses of men, inasmuch as their senses are material. Heavenly objects are said to have a spiritual origin, because they exist from the Divine which proceeds from the Lord as a Sun; and the Divine that proceeds from the Lord as a Sun is spiritual. For there the Sun is not fire, but Divine Love, appearing before the eyes of the angels as the sun of the world does before the eyes of men; and whatever proceeds from the Divine Love is Divine and is spiritual. Of this origin are all things which exist in the heavens, and they appear in forms like those in our world. It is due to the order of creation that they appear in such forms. According to that order, things which are of love and wisdom with the angels, on descending into the lower sphere in which angels are in respect of their bodies and of their sensation, present themselves in such forms and under such types. These are correspondences.
—Apocalypse Explained, n. 926
A WORLD OF ACTION
All heaven's delights are united to uses and inhere in them, because uses are the goods of love and charity, in which the angels are. The angels find all their happiness in use, from use, and according to use. There is the highest freedom in this because it proceeds from interior affection, and is conjoined with ineffable delight. Uses exist in the heavens in all variety and diversity. Never is the use of one angel quite the same as that of another; nor the delight. What is more, the delights of any one person's use are countless. These countless and various delights are nevertheless united in an order so that they mutually regard one another, as do the uses of every member, organ and inner part of the body. They are even more like the uses of each vessel and fibre in every member, organ and vital part; each and all of which are so related that they regard each of its own good in the other, and thus in all, and all in each. As a result of this general and several regard they act as one.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 402, 403, 404, 405
OUR CHILDREN IN HEAVEN
Every little child, wheresoever born, whether within the Church or out of it, whether of pious parents or of impious, is received by the Lord at death; is educated in heaven; is taught and imbued with affections of good and by these with knowledges of truth; and then, as he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom, is introduced into heaven and becomes an angel.
When children die, they are still children in the other life. They have the same infantile mind, the same innocence in ignorance, and the same tenderness in all things. They have only the rudimentary capacity of becoming angels; for children are not yet angels, but are to become angels. The state of children in the other life far surpasses that of children in the world; for they are not clothed with an earthly body, but with a body like that of the angels. The earthly body is in itself heavy, and does not receive its first sensations and impulses from the interior or spiritual world, but from the exterior or natural world. In this world, therefore, infants must learn to walk, to control the body's motions, and to talk. Even their senses, like sight and hearing, must be developed by use. It is quite otherwise with children in the other life. Being spirits, they act at once in expression of their inner being, walking without practice, and also talking, but at first from general affections not yet distinguished into ideas of thought. They are quickly initiated into these, too, however; and this for the reason that outer and inner are homogeneous with them.
The Lord flows into the ideas of children chiefly from their inmost soul, for nothing has closed their ideas, as with adults. No false principles have closed them to the understanding of truth, nor any evil life to the reception of good, nor to becoming wise.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 416, 330, 331, 836
TOWARD THE MORNING OF LIFE
The Lord is present with every human being, urgent and instant to be received; and when a man receives Him, as he does when he acknowledges Him as his God, Creator, Redeemer and Saviour, then is His first Coming, which is called the dawn. From this time the man begins to be enlightened, as to understanding in things spiritual, and to advance into a more and more interior wisdom. As he receives this wisdom from the Lord, so he advances through morning into day, and this day lasts with him into old age, even to death; and after death he passes into heaven to the Lord Himself, and there, though he died an old man, he is restored to the morning of his life, and to eternity he develops the beginnings of the wisdom that was implanted in the natural world.
—True Christian Religion, n. 766
The people of heaven are continually advancing towards the spring-time of life; and the more thousands of years they live, the more delightful and happy is the spring to which they attain. Women who have died old and worn out with age, and have lived in faith in the Lord and in charity to the neighbor, come, with the succession of years, more and more into the flower of youth and early womanhood, and into a beauty exceeding every idea of beauty ever formed through the sight. In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 414
HELL
—Psalm, CXXXIX, 8
EVIL IS HELL
Evil with man is hell with him; for it is the same thing whether we say evil or hell. And as a man is the cause of his own evil, therefore he, and not the Lord, also leads himself into hell. So far is the Lord from leading man into hell, that He delivers him from it as far as a man does not will and love to be in his own evil.
All a man's will and love remains with him after death. He who wills and loves evil in the world, wills and loves the same evil in the other life; and then he no longer suffers himself to be withdrawn from it. This is the reason that a man who is in evil is bound fast to hell and is actually there, too, in spirit, and after death he desires nothing more than to be where his evil is. After death, therefore, a man casts himself into hell, and not the Lord.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 547
EVIL AND PUNISHMENT
All evil bears its punishment with it. Evil spirits are punished because the fear of punishment is the one means of subduing evils in this state. Exhortation no longer avails, nor instruction, nor fear of the law nor fear for one's reputation; for now the spirit acts from a nature which cannot be coerced or broken except by punishment.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 509
It is a law in the other life that no one shall become worse than he had been in the world.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 6559
GOD WILLS THE DAMNATION OF NONE
If men could be saved by immediate mercy, all would be saved, even those in hell; and indeed there would be no hell, because the Lord is mercy itself and good itself. Therefore it is contrary to His Divine Nature to say that He can save all immediately, and does not save them. We know from the Word that the Lord wills the salvation of all and the damnation of none.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 524
MASTER PASSIONS OF HELL
Love of self and love of the world rule in the hells and also constitute them. Love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor rule in the heavens and also constitute them. These loves are diametrically opposite. Love of self consists in wishing well to oneself alone, and not to others except for the sake of oneself, not even to the Church, to one's country, or to any human society; also in doing good to them, but for the sake of one's reputation, honor and glory. Unless he sees these in the services he renders them, he says in his heart, "Of what use is it? Why should I do it? Of what advantage will it be to me?", and he leaves it undone. His delight is only that of self-love. And because the delight which springs from his love makes the life of a man, therefore his life is the life of self; and the life of self is life from man's proprium; and the proprium of man, viewed in itself, is nothing but evil. Love of self is of such a quality, too, that, as far as the reins are given it, it rushes on until at length it desires to rule not only over the whole earth, but over the whole heaven, too, and over the Divine Himself.
—Heaven and Hell, nn. 554, 556, 559
"OUR NAME IS LEGION"
Men have believed hitherto that there is some one devil who is over the hells, and that he was created an angel of light; but that after he turned rebel, he was cast down with his crew into hell. Men have had this belief because the Devil is named in the Word, and Satan, and also Lucifer, and in these passages the Word has been understood according to the sense of the letter, when yet hell is meant in them by the Devil and Satan.... That there is no single Devil to whom the hells are subject, is also evident from this fact, that all who are in the hells, like all who are in the heavens, are from the human race; and that from the beginning of the creation to this time they amount to myriads of myriads, every one of whom is a devil of a sort according with his opposition to the Divine in the world.
—Heaven and Hell, n. 544