Emanuel Swedenborg

“ In no other way can spiritual life be formed with man, or his spirit be prepared for heaven: for to live an internal life and not an external one at the same time, is like dwelling in a house which has no foundation, which successively either sinks into the ground, or becomes full of chinks and breaches, or totters till it falls. ”

“ In a word, when man passes from one life into the other, or from one world into the other, it is just as if he passed from one place to another; and he carries with him all things which he possessed in himself as a man. So that it cannot be said that a man after death,—which is only the death of the terrestrial body,—has lost anything that belonged to himself. He carries with him his natural memory also; for he retains all things whatsoever which he has heard, seen, read, learned and thought in the world, from earliest infancy even to the end of life. ”

“ Then for the first time does faith exist in man's spirit; for man's spirit, the life of which is his essential life, is formed from his will, and from so much of his thought as proceeds from his will; the memory of man, and the thought derived from it, being only the court-yard by which introduction is effected. Whether you say the will or the love, it is the same, since every one wills what he loves and loves what he wills; and the will is the receptacle of love, and the intellect whose province it is to think, is the receptacle of faith. ”

“ Their bodies also are monstrous; and their speech is like the speech of anger, hatred or revenge,—for every one speaks from his own falsity, and in a tone corresponding to his own evil. In a word they are all images of their own hell.
I have not been permitted to see what is the form of hell itself in general; I have only been told that, as the universal heaven in one complex resembles one man, so the universal hell in one complex resembles one devil, and may also be presented in the effigy of one devil. ”

“ There are two kinds of dominion; one is that of love toward the neighbor, and the other that of self-love. These two kinds of dominion are, in their essence, altogether opposite to each other. He who exercises rule from love toward the neighbor, wishes to do good to all, and loves nothing more than to perform uses, that is, to serve others. By serving others is meant to seek their good, and to perform uses, whether it be to the church, the country, society or a fellow-citizen. This is his love and this the delight of his heart. So far also as he is exalted to dignities above others, he is glad ”

“ All who have lived in good in the world, and have acted from conscience,—who are those that have acknowledged the Divine and have loved divine truths, especially those who have applied them to life,—appear to themselves, when let into the state of their interiors, like persons who are awakened out of sleep, and like those who come from darkness into light. They also think from the light of heaven, thus from interior wisdom, and they act from good, thus from interior affection. ”

“ Self-love is also of such a quality, that so far as the reins are given it,—that is, so far as external bonds are removed, which consist in fear of the law and its penalties, and of the loss of reputation, honor, gain, employment and life,—it rushes on in its mad career, until at last it not only desires to rule over the whole terrestrial globe, but also over the whole heaven, and over the Divine Himself. ”

“ That faith does not remain with man, unless it spring from heavenly love, has been made manifest to me by so much experience, that were I to recite all that I have seen and heard on this subject, it would fill a volume. This I can testify, that there is no faith at all, neither can there be any, with those who are in corporeal and worldly love without that which is celestial and spiritual; and that what some may regard as faith, is mere science, or a persuasion that such a thing is true because it serves their love. ”

“ At first I wondered why it was that self-love and the love of the world are so diabolical, and that they who are in those loves are such monsters to look upon; since in the world little thought is given to self-love, but only to that puffed-up state of mind, outwardly manifested, which is called pride; and which, because it appears to the sight, is alone believed to be self-love. ”

“ Every one's love is like spongy and porous wood, which imbibes such fluids as promote its growth, and repels others. It is also like animals of every kind, which know their proper food, and seek that which agrees with their nature, and turn away from whatever disagrees; for every love desires to be nourished by its proper aliments,—evil love by falsities, and good love by truths. ”

“ That the spirit of man is his ruling love, is manifest in all social intercourse in the other life; for so far as any one acts and speaks according to another's love, the latter appears conspicuously, with a full, cheerful and lively countenance; but so far as any one acts and speaks in opposition to the love of another, his countenance begins to change, to become obscure, and to fade from the sight, until at last he disappears entirely as if he had not been there. ”

“ Love or will is the very soul of a deed or work, forming its body in the sincere and just actions which a man performs. The spiritual body, or the body of a man's spirit, is from no other origin; that is, it is formed from nothing else but the things which the man does from his love or will. In a word, all things which belong to the man and to his spirit, are in his deeds or works. ”

“ They who have applied the doctrinals of the church derived from the Word immediately to life, are in the inmost heaven, and in the enjoyment of the delights of wisdom above the rest. In every single object they behold things divine. They see the objects, indeed, but the divine things corresponding to them flow immediately into their minds, and fill them with a blessedness wherewith all their sensations are affected. Hence all objects, to their eyes, seem as it were to laugh, sport, and live. ”

“ I have seen such spirits assembled together, adoring a magician, debating about nature, and behaving like fools, as if they were beasts under a human form. Among them also were some who in the world had been exalted to posts of dignity, and some who had been reputed learned and wise. ”

“ Every one in civil life thinks of others according to what he has heard and understood concerning them, either from report or from conversation. Yet he does not speak with them according to his thought; and although they are evil, still he treats them with civility. That this is the case is especially evident from pretenders and flatterers, who speak and act altogether different from what they think and will and from hypocrites, who talk about God, and heaven, and the salvation of souls, and the truths of the church, and their country's good, and their neighbor, as if from faith and love ”

“ There is no faith if there is no charity. It is supposed that faith exists so long as the doctrinals of the church are believed; or that they who believe, have faith; and yet mere believing is not faith, but willing and doing what is believed, is faith. When the doctrinals of the church are merely believed, they are not in a man's life, but only in his memory, and thence in the thought of his outer man ”

“ I have been told by the angels that the life of the ruling love is never changed with any one to eternity, since every one is his own love; therefore to change that love in a spirit, would be to deprive him of his life, or to annihilate him. ”

“ For no one goes to hell until he is in his own evil and in the falsities of evil, since it is not allowed any one there to have a divided mind, that is, to think and speak one thing, and to will another. Every evil spirit must there think what is false derived from evil, and must speak from such falsity; in both cases from the will, thus from his own proper love and its delight and pleasure; as he did in the world when he thought in his spirit, that is, as he thought in himself when he thought from interior affection. ”

“ It is believed that at the time of the last judgment, the Lord will appear in the clouds of heaven with the angels in glory, and awaken from the sepulchres all who have ever lived since the beginning of creation, clothing their souls with bodies; and that when they are thus summoned together, He will judge them—those who have done well, to eternal life or heaven, those who have done wickedly, to eternal death or hell. ”

“ All those, therefore, who can imitate spiritual life in externals, and present it to appearance in a moral life as if it were really within, whatever they may be as to love and faith in internals, are preserved; as are those also who have outward though they have not inward sanctity. Such were many of that people, for they could discourse piously with the vulgar, and adore the Lord devotionally with them; could implant religion in their minds, and lead them to think of heaven and hell, and could uphold them in doing good by preaching works. ”

“ All the delights which man enjoys are those of his ruling love; for he feels nothing to be delightful except what he loves. Consequently that which he loves supremely, is in the highest degree delightful. It amounts to the same, whether we say the ruling love, or that which is loved above all things.
These delights are various. There are in general as many as there are ruling loves, and therefore as many as there are men, spirits, and angels,—for the ruling love of one is never in all respects like that of another. Hence it is that the face of one is never exactly like that of another ”

“ A man's intention, from which his internal sight or thought is determined, is his will; for what a man wills, he intends, and what he intends, he thinks. If, therefore, his intention be toward heaven, his thought is determined thither, and with it his whole mind, which is thus in heaven; whence he afterwards surveys the things belonging to the world beneath him, like one who looks from the roof of a house.
Hence it is that the man who has the interiors of his mind open, can discern the evils and falsities appertaining to him, for these are beneath the spiritual mind. ”

“ Hypocrites are those who have talked like angels, but who interiorly have acknowledged nothing but nature, and thus have denied the Divine, and consequently the truths which belong to heaven and the church.
It is worthy of remark, that the human form of every man after death is the more beautiful, the more interiorly he had loved divine truths and had lived according to them; for the interiors of every one are opened and formed according to his love and life. Therefore the more interior is the affection, the more conformable it is to heaven, and hence the more beautiful is the face. ”

“ The life of a man after death is the life of his love and faith; hence the nature of his life to eternity is determined by the quality of these during his life in the world. With those who had loved themselves and the world supremely, this life is the life of hell ”

“ They who have not acted clandestinely, but have been willing that all their thoughts should be known abroad, so far as was consistent with the interests and customs of civil life,—because they have thought nothing but what was sincere and just from the Divine,—appear in heaven with radiant faces, wherein every affection aud thought are imaged, while their speech aud actions are the very forms of their affections. ”

“ And because the Divine of the Lord makes heaven, therefore nothing but good flows in from the Lord with man, and nothing but evil from hell; and thus the Lord is continually withdrawing man from evil and leading him to good, while hell is continually leading him into evil.
Unless man were between both he would have no thought, nor any will, still less any freedom and choice; for man enjoys all these in consequence of the equilibrium between good and evil. Therefore if the Lord were to turn Himself away and man were left to evil alone, he would no longer be a man. ”