Every Christian knows from the Word that one's own life awaits him
after death; for it is there said in many passages that man will be
judged and rewarded according to his deeds and works; and no one who
thinks from good and from real truth can help seeing that he who
lives well goes to heaven and that he who lives wickedly goes to
hell. But the evil man is unwilling to believe that his state after
death is according to his life in the world; he thinks, especially
when he is sick, that heaven is granted to everyone out of pure
mercy, whatever his life may have been, and that this is done in
accordance with his faith, which he separates from life.
471. That man will be judged and rewarded according to his deeds and
works is declared in many passages in the Word, some of which I will
here quote:
The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with
His angels and then He will render unto everyone according
to his works (Matt. 16:27).
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their
works follow them (Apoc. 14:13).
I will give to everyone according to his works (Apoc.
2:23).
I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God; and
the books were opened and the dead were judged out of the
things that were written in the books according to their
works. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death
and hell gave up those that were in them, and they were
judged everyone according to their works (Apoc. 20:12,
13).
Behold I come, and My reward is with Me, to give to
everyone according to his works (Apoc. 22:12).
Everyone that heareth My words and doeth them I will liken
to a prudent man; but everyone that heareth My words and
doeth them not is likened to a foolish man (Matt. 7:24,
26).
Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of the heavens; but he that doeth the
will of My Father who is in the heavens. Many will say
unto Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Thy name, and through Thy name cast out demons, and in Thy
name done many mighty works? But then will I confess to
them, I know you not: depart from Me, ye workers of
iniquity (Matt. 7:21-23).
Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk before
Thee; Thou hast taught in our streets. But He will say, I
tell you I know you not, ye workers of iniquity (Luke
13:25-27).
I will recompense them according to their work and
according to the doing of their hands (Jer. 25:14).
Jehovah, whose eyes are open upon all the ways of men, to
give to everyone according to his ways and according to
the fruit of his works (Jer. 32:19).
I will visit upon his ways and recompense to him his works
(Hosea 4:9).
Jehovah doeth with us according to our ways and according
to our works (Zech. 1:6).
In foretelling the last judgment the Lord recounts nothing but works,
teaching that those that have done good works will enter into eternal
life, and those that have done evil works will enter into damnation,
as in Matthew (25:32-46), and in many other passages that treat of
the salvation and condemnation of man. It is clear that works and
deeds constitute the outward life of man, and that the quality of his
inward life is made evident in them.
472. But by deeds and works, what they are inwardly is here meant,
and not the way they outwardly appear; for everyone knows that every
deed and work goes forth from the man's will and thought; otherwise
it would be nothing but a movement like that of an automaton or
image. Consequently, a deed or work viewed in itself is merely an
effect that derives its soul and life from will and thought, even to
the extent that it is nothing but will and thought in effect, and
thus is will and thought in outward form. From this it follows that a
deed or work is in quality such as are the will and thought that
produce it. If the thought and will are good the deeds and works are
good; but if the thought and will are evil the deeds and works are
evil, although in outward form they appear alike. A thousand men may
act alike, that is, may do like deeds, so alike in outward form as to
be almost undistinguishable, and yet each one regarded in itself be
different, because from an unlike will. [2] For example, when one
acts honestly and justly with a companion, one person may do it for
the purpose of appearing to be honest and just out of regard to
himself and his own honor; another out of regard to the world and
gain; a third out of regard to reward and merit; a fourth out of
regard to friendship; a fifth from fear of the law and the loss of
reputation or employment; a sixth that he may draw some one to his
own side, even when he is in the wrong; a seventh that he may
deceive; and others from other motives. In all these instances
although the deeds are good in appearance, since it is a good thing
to act honestly and justly with a companion, they are nevertheless
evil, because they are done, not out of regard to honesty and justice
and for the love of these, but out of regard to love of self and the
world which are loved; and honesty and justice are made to serve that
love as servants serve a lord, whom the lord despises and dismisses
when they fail to serve him. [3] In outward form those act in a like
way who act honestly and justly with a companion because they love
what is honest and just. Some of these act from the truth of faith or
from obedience, because the Word so commands; some from the good of
faith or from conscience, because from a religious motive; some from
good of charity towards the neighbor because his good should be
regarded; some from the good of love to the Lord because good should
be done for the sake of good, as also what is honest and just should
be done for the sake of honesty and justice; and this they love
because it is from the Lord, and because the Divine that goes forth
from the Lord is in it, and consequently regarded in its very essence
it is Divine. The deeds or works of such are inwardly good, and
therefore are outwardly good also; for, as has been said above, deeds
or works are precisely such in quality as the thought and will from
which they proceed, and apart from thought and will they are not
deeds and works, but only inanimate movements. All this explains what
is meant in the Word by works and deeds.
473. As deeds and works are from the will and thought, so are they
from the love and faith, consequently they are such as the love and
faith are; for it is the same thing whether you say one's love or his
will, and it is the same thing whether you say one's faith or his
established thought; for that which a man loves he wills, and that
which a man believes he thinks; and when a man loves what he believes
he also wills it and as far as possible does it. Everyone may know
that love and faith are within man's will and thought, and not
outside of them, for love is what kindles the will, and the thought
is what it enlightens in matters of faith; therefore only those that
are able to think wisely are enlightened, and in the measure of their
enlightenment they think what is true and will it, or what is the
same, they believe what is true and love it.{1}
{Footnote 1} As all things that exist according to order in the
universe have relation to good and truth, so in man all things
have relation to will and understanding (n. 803, 10122). For
the reason that the will is a recipient of good and the
understanding a recipient of truth (n. 3332, 3623, 5232, 6065,
6125, 7503, 9300, 9995). It amounts to the same whether you say
truth or faith, for faith belongs to truth and truth belongs to
faith; and it amounts to the same whether you say good or love
for love belongs to good and good belongs to love (n. 4353,
4997, 7179, 10122, 10367). From this it follows that the
understanding is a recipient of faith, and the will a recipient
of love (n. 7179, 10122, 10367). And since the understanding of
man is capable of receiving faith in God and the will is
capable of receiving love to God, man is capable of being
conjoined with God in faith and love, and he that is capable of
being conjoined with God in love and faith can never die (n.
4525, 6323, 9231).
474. But it must be understood that it is the will that makes the
man, while thought makes the man only so far as it goes forth from
the will; and deeds and works go forth from both; or what is the
same, it is love that makes the man, and faith only so far as it goes
forth from love; and deeds or works go forth from both. Consequently,
the will or love is the man himself, for whatever goes forth belongs
to that from which it goes forth. To go forth is to be brought forth
and presented in suitable form for being perceived and seen.{1} All
this makes clear what faith is when separated from love, namely, that
it is no faith, but mere knowledge, which has no spiritual life in
it; likewise what a deed or work is apart from love, namely, that it
is not a deed or work of life, but a deed or work of death, which
possesses an appearance of life from an evil love and a belief in
what is false. This appearance of life is what is called spiritual
death.
{Footnote 1} The will of man is the very being [esse] of his
life, because it is the receptacle of love or good, and the
understanding is the outgo [existere] of life therefrom,
because it is the receptacle of faith or truth (n. 3619, 5002,
9282). Thus the life of the will is the chief life of man, and
the life of the understanding proceeds therefrom (n. 585, 590,
3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110). In the same way
as light proceeds from fire or flame (n. 6032, 6314). From this
it follows that man is man by virtue of his will and his
understanding therefrom (n. 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109,
10110). Every man is loved and esteemed by others in accordance
with the good of his will and of his understanding therefrom,
for he that wills well and understands well is loved and
esteemed; and he that understands well and does not will well
is set aside and despised (n. 8911, 10076). After death man
continues to be such as his will is, and his understanding
therefrom (n, 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153). Consequently after
death man continues to be such as his love is, and his faith
therefrom; and whatever belongs to his faith and not also to
his love then vanishes, because it is not in the man, thus not
of the man (n. 553, 2364, 10153).
475. Again, it must be understood that in deeds or works the whole
man is exhibited, and that his will and thought or his love and
faith, which are his interiors, are not complete until they exist in
deeds or works, which are his exteriors, for these are the outmosts
in which the will and thought terminate, and without such
terminations they are interminate, and have as yet no existence, that
is, are not yet in the man. To think and to will without doing, when
there is opportunity, is like a flame enclosed in a vessel and goes
out; also like seed cast upon the sand, which fails to grow, and so
perishes with its power of germination. But to think and will and
from that to do is like a flame that gives heat and light all around,
or like a seed in the ground that grows up into a tree or flower and
continues to live. Everyone can know that willing and not doing, when
there is opportunity, is not willing; also that loving and not doing
good, when there is opportunity, is not loving, but mere thought that
one wills and loves; and this is thought separate, which vanishes and
is dissipated. Love and will constitute the soul itself of a deed or
work, and give form to its body in the honest and just things that
the man does. This is the sole source of man's spiritual body, or the
body of his spirit; that is, it is formed solely out of the things
that the man does from his love or will (see above, n. 463). In a
word, all things of man and his spirit are contained in his deeds or
works.{1}
{Footnote 1} Interior things flow in successively into exterior
things even down to the extreme or outmost, and there they come
forth and have permanent existence (n. 634, 6451, 6465, 9215,
9216). They not only flow in, but in the outmost they form the
simultaneous, in what order (n. 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099).
Thereby all interior things are held together in connection,
and have permanent existence (n. 9828). Deeds or works are the
outmosts which contain the interiors (n. 10331). Therefore
being recompensed and judged according to deeds and works is
being recompensed and judged in accordance with all things of
one's love and faith, or of his will and thought because these
are the interiors contained in deeds and works (n. 3147, 3934,
6073, 8911, 10331, 10332).
476. All this makes clear what the life is that awaits man after
death, namely, that it is his love and his faith therefrom, not only
in potency, but also in act; thus that it is his deeds or works,
because in these all things of man's love and faith are contained.
477. It is man's ruling love that awaits him after death, and this is
in no way changed to eternity. Everyone has many loves; but they are
all related to his ruling love, and make one with it or together
compose it. All things of the will that are in harmony with the
ruling love are called loves, because they are loved. These loves are
both inner and outer; some directly connected and some mediately;
some nearer and some more remote; they are subservient in various
ways. Taken together they constitute a kingdom, as it were, such
being the order in which they are arranged in man, although man knows
nothing what ever about that arrangement. And yet something of it is
made manifest to him in the other life, for the spread of his thought
and affection there is in accordance with the arrangement of his
loves, his thought and affection extending into heavenly societies
when the ruling love is made up of the loves of heaven, but into
infernal societies when it is made up of the loves of hell. That all
the thought and affection of spirits and of angels has extension into
societies may be seen above, in the chapters on the wisdom of the
angels of heaven, and on the form of heaven which determines
affiliations and communications there.
478. But what has been said thus far appeals only to the thought of
the rational man. That it may also be presented to the perception
derived from the senses, I will add some experiences by which it may
be illustrated and confirmed. First, Man after death is his own love
or his own will. Second, Man continues to eternity such as his will
or ruling love is. Third, The man who has heavenly and spiritual love
goes to heaven, while the man who has corporeal and worldly love, and
no heavenly and spiritual love, goes to hell. Fourth, Unless faith is
from heavenly love it does not endure in man. Fifth, Love in act,
that is, the life of man, is what endures.
479. (i) Man after death is his own love or his own will. This has
been proved to me by manifold experience. The entire heaven is
divided into societies according to differences of good of love; and
every spirit who is taken up into heaven and becomes an angel is
taken to the society where his love is; and when he arrives there he
is, as it were, at home, and in the house where he was born; this the
angel perceives, and is affiliated with those there that are like
himself. When he goes away to another place he feels constantly a
kind of resistance, and a longing to return to his like, thus to his
ruling love. Thus are affiliations brought about in heaven; and in a
like manner in hell, where all are affiliated in accordance with
loves that are the opposites of heavenly loves. It has been shown
above (n. 41-50 and 200-212) that both heaven and hell are composed
of societies, and that they are all distinguished according to
differences of love. [2] That man after death is his own love might
also be seen from the fact that whatever does not make one with his
ruling love is then separated and as it were taken away from him.
From one who is good everything discordant or inharmonious is
separated and as it were taken away, and he is thus let into his own
love. It is the same with an evil spirit, with the difference that
from the evil truths are taken away, and from the good falsities are
taken away, and this goes on until each becomes his own love. This is
effected when the man-spirit is brought into the third state, which
will be described hereafter. When this has been done he turns his
face constantly to his own love, and this he has continually before
his eyes, in whatever direction he turns (see above, n. 123, 124).
[3] All spirits, provided they are kept in their ruling love, can be
led wherever one pleases, and are incapable of resistance, however
clearly they may see that this is being done, and however much they
may think that they will resist. They have often been permitted to
try whether they could do anything contrary to their ruling love, but
in vain. Their love is like a bond or a rope tied around them, by
which they may be led and from which they cannot loose themselves. It
is the same with men in the world who are also led by their love, or
are led by others by means of their love; but this is more the case
when they have become spirits, because they are not then permitted to
make a display of any other love, or to counterfeit what is not their
own. [4] All interaction in the other life proves that the spirit of
man is his ruling love, for so far any one is acting or speaking in
accord with the love of another, to the same extent is the other
plainly present, with full, joyous, and lively countenance; but when
one is speaking or acting contrary to another's love, to that extent
the other's countenance begins to be changed, to be obscured and
undiscernible, until at length he wholly disappears as if he had not
been there. I have often wondered how this could be, for nothing of
the kind can occur in the world; but I have been told that it is the
same with the spirit in man, which when it turns itself away from
another ceases to be within his view. [5] Another proof that a spirit
is his ruling love is that every spirit seizes and appropriates all
things that are in harmony with his love, and rejects and repudiates
all that are not. Everyone's love is like a spongy or 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 the things that agree with their nature, and avoid what
disagrees; for every love wishes to be nourished on what belongs to
it, evil love by falsities and good love by truths. I have sometimes
been permitted to see certain simple good spirits desiring to
instruct the evil in truths and goods; but when the instruction was
offered them they fled far away, and when they came to their own they
seized with great pleasure upon the falsities that were in agreement
with their love. I have also seen good spirits talking together about
truths, and the good who were present listened eagerly to the
conversation, but the evil who were present paid no attention to it,
as if they did not hear it. In the world of spirits ways are seen,
some leading to heaven, some to hell, and each to some particular
society. Good spirits go only in the ways that lead to heaven, and to
the society there that is in the good of their love; and do not see
the ways that lead elsewhere; while evil spirits go only in the ways
that lead to hell, and to the society there that is in the evil of
their love; and do not see the ways that lead elsewhere; or if they
see them have no wish to enter them. In the spiritual world these
ways are real appearances, which correspond to truths or falsities;
and this is why ways have this signification in the Word.{1} By this
evidence from experience what has previously been affirmed on the
ground of reason is made more certain, namely, that every man after
death is his own love and his own will. It is said one's own will
because everyone's will is his love.
{Footnote 1} A "way," a "path," a "road," a "street," and a
"broad street," signify truths leading to good, or falsities
leading to evil (n. 627, 2333, 10422). "To sweep [or prepare] a
way" means to prepare for the reception of truths (n. 3142).
"To make known the way" means, in respect to the Lord, to
instruct in truths that lead to good (n. 10565).
480. (ii) Man after death continues to eternity such as his will or
ruling love is. This, too, has been confirmed by abundant experience.
I have been permitted to talk with some who lived two thousand years
ago, and whose lives are described in history, and thus known; and I
found that they continued to be just the same as they were described,
that is, in respect to the love out of which and according to which
their lives were formed. There were others known to history, that had
lived seventeen centuries ago, others that had lived four centuries
ago, and three, and so on, with whom I was permitted to talk; and I
found that the same affection still ruled in them, with no other
difference than that the delights of their love were turned into such
things as correspond. The angels declare that the life of the ruling
love is never changed in any one even to eternity, since everyone is
his love; consequently to change that love in a spirit is to take
away or extinguish his life; and for the reason that man after death
is no longer capable of being reformed by instruction, as in the
world, because the outmost plane, which consists of natural
knowledges and affections, is then quiescent and not being spiritual
cannot be opened (see above, n. 464); and upon that plane the
interiors pertaining to the mind and disposition rest as a house
rests on its foundation; and on this account such as the life of
one's love had been in the world such he continues to be to eternity.
The angels are greatly surprised that man does not know that everyone
is such as his ruling love is, and that many believe that they may be
saved by mercy apart from means, or by faith alone, whatever their
life may be; also that they do not know that Divine mercy works by
means, and that it consists in man's being led by the Lord, both in
the world and afterwards to eternity, and that those who do not live
in evils are led by the Divine mercy; and finally that faith is
affection for truth going forth from heavenly love, which is from the
Lord.
481. (iii) The man who has heavenly and spiritual love goes to
heaven; while the man who has corporeal and worldly love and no
heavenly and spiritual love goes to hell. This has been made evident
to me from all whom I have seen taken up into heaven or cast into
hell. The life of those taken up into heaven had been derived from a
heavenly and spiritual love, while the life of those cast into hell
had been derived from a corporeal and worldly love. Heavenly love
consists in loving what is good, honest, and just, because it is
good, honest and just, and in doing this from love; and those that
have this love have a life of goodness, honesty, and justice, which
is the heavenly life. Those that love what is good, honest, and just,
for its own sake, and who do this or live it, love the Lord above all
things, because this is from Him; they also love the neighbor,
because this is the neighbor who is to be loved.{1} But corporeal
love is loving what is good, honest, and just, not for its own sake
but for the sake of self, because reputation, honor, and gain can
thus be acquired. Such, in what is good, honest, and just, do not
look to the Lord and to the neighbor, but to self and the world, and
find delight in fraud; and the goodness, honesty and justice that
spring forth from fraud are evil, dishonesty, and injustice, and
these are what are loved by such in their practice of goodness,
honesty, and justice. [2] As the life of everyone is determined by
these different kinds of love, as soon as men after death enter the
world of spirits they are examined to discover their quality, and are
joined to those that are in a like love; those that are in heavenly
love to those that are in heaven, and those that are in corporeal
love to those that are in hell; and after they have passed through
the first and second state they are so separated as to no longer see
or know each other; for each one becomes his own love, both in
respect to his interiors pertaining to his mind, and in respect to
his exteriors pertaining to his face, body, and speech; for everyone
becomes an image of his own love, even in externals. Those that are
corporeal loves appear gross, dusky, black and misshapen; while those
that are heavenly loves appear fresh, bright, fair and beautiful.
Also in their minds and thoughts they are wholly unlike, those that
are heavenly loves being intelligent and wise, while those that are
corporeal loves are stupid and as it were silly. [3] When it is
granted to behold the interiors and exteriors of thought and
affection of those that are in heavenly love, their interiors appear
like light, and some like a flamy light, while their exteriors appear
in various beautiful colors like rainbows. But the interiors of those
that are in corporeal love appear as if black, because they are
closed up; and the interiors of some who were interiorly in malignant
deceit appear like a dusky fire. But their exteriors appear of a
dirty color, and disagreeable to the sight. (The interiors and
exteriors of the mind and disposition are made visible in the
spiritual world whenever the Lord pleases.) [4] Those that are in
corporeal love see nothing in the light of heaven; to them the light
of heaven is thick darkness; but the light of hell, which is like
light from burning coals, is to them as clear light. Moreover, in the
light of heaven their inward sight is so darkened that they become
insane; consequently they shun that light and hide themselves in dens
and caverns, more or less deeply in accordance with the falsities in
them derived from their evils. On the other hand those who are in
heavenly love, the more interiorly and deeply they enter into the
light of heaven, see all things more clearly and all things appear
more beautiful to them, and they perceive truths more intelligently
and wisely. [5] Again, it is impossible for those who are in
corporeal love to live at all in the heat of heaven, for the heat of
heaven is heavenly love; but they can live in the heat of hell, which
is the love of raging against others that do not favor them. The
delights of that love are contempt of others, enmity, hatred and
revenge; and when they are in these delights they are in their life,
and have no idea what it is to do good to others from good itself and
for the sake of good itself, knowing only what it is to do good from
evil and for the sake of evil. [6] Those who are in corporeal love
are unable to breathe in heaven. When any evil spirit is brought into
heaven he draws his breath like one struggling in a contest; while
those that are in heavenly love have a freer respiration and a fuller
life the more interiorly they are in heaven. All this shows that
heaven with man is heavenly and spiritual love, because on that love
all things of heaven are inscribed; also that hell in man is
corporeal and worldly love apart from heavenly and spiritual love,
because on such loves all things of hell are inscribed. Evidently,
then, he whose love is heavenly and spiritual enters heaven, and he
whose love is corporeal and worldly apart from heavenly and spiritual
love enters hell.
{Footnote 1} In the highest sense, the Lord is the neighbor,
because He is to be loved above all things; but loving the Lord
is loving what is from Him, because He Himself is in everything
that is from Him, thus it is loving what is good and true (n.
2425, 3419, 6706, 6711, 6819, 6823, 8123). Loving what is good
and true which is from the Lord is living in accordance with
good and truth, and this is loving the Lord (n. 10143, 10153,
10310, 10336, 10578, 10645). Every man and every society, also
one's country and the church, and in a universal sense the
Lord's kingdom, are the neighbor, and doing good to these from
a love of good in accord with their state is loving the
neighbor; that is, their good that should be consulted is the
neighbor (n. 6818-6824, 8123). Moral good also, which is
honesty, and civil good, which is justice, are the neighbor;
and to act honestly and justly from the love of honesty and
justice is loving the neighbor (n. 2915, 4730, 8120-8123). Thus
charity towards the neighbor extends to all things of the life
of man, and loving the neighbor is doing what is good and just,
and acting honestly from the heart, in every function and in
every work (n. 2417, 8121, 8124). The doctrine in the Ancient
Church was the doctrine of charity, and from that they had
wisdom (n. 2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628).
482. (iv) Unless faith is from heavenly love it does not endure in
man. This has been made clear to me by so much experience that if
everything I have seen and heard respecting it were collected, it
would fill a volume. This I can testify, that those who are in
corporeal and worldly love apart from heavenly and spiritual love
have no faith whatever, and are incapable of having any; they have
nothing but knowledge or a persuasion that a thing is true because it
serves their love. Some of those who claimed that they had faith were
brought to those who had faith, and when they communicated with them
they perceived that they had no faith at all; and afterwards they
confessed that merely believing what is true and believing the Word
is not faith, but that faith is loving truth from heavenly love, and
willing and doing it from interior affection. Moreover, they were
shown that their persuasion which they called faith was merely like
the light of winter, in which light, because it has no heat in it,
all things on the earth are bound up in frost, become torpid, and lie
buried under the snow. As soon, therefore, as the light of persuasive
faith in them is touched by the rays of the light of heaven it is not
only extinguished but is turned into a dense darkness, in which no
one can see himself; and at the same time their interiors are so
obscured that they can understand nothing at all, and at length
become insane from falsities. Consequently with such, all the truths
that they have known from the Word and from the doctrine of the
church, and have called the truths of their faith, are taken away;
and they imbibe in their place every falsity that is in accord with
the evil of their life. For they are all let down into their loves
and into the falsities agreeing with them; and they then hate and
abhor and therefore reject truths, because they are repugnant to the
falsities of evil in which they are. From all my experience in what
pertains to heaven and hell I can bear witness that all those who
from their doctrine have professed faith alone, and whose life has
been evil, are in hell. I have seen many thousands of them cast down
to hell. (Respecting these see the treatise on The Last Judgment and
the Destruction of Babylon.)
483. (v) Love in act, that is, the life of man, is what endures. This
follows as a conclusion from what has just been shown from
experience, and from what has been said about deeds and works. Love
in act is work and deed.
484. It must be understood that all works and deeds pertain to moral
and civil life, and therefore have regard to what is honest and
right, and what is just and equitable, what is honest and right
pertaining to moral life, and what is just and equitable to civil
life. The love from which deeds are done is either heavenly or
infernal. Works and deeds of moral and civil life, when they are done
from heavenly love, are heavenly; for what is done from heavenly love
is done from the Lord, and everything done from the Lord is good. But
the deeds and works of moral and civil life when done from infernal
love are infernal; for what is done from this love, which is the love
of self and of the world, is done from man himself, and everything
that is done from man himself is in itself evil; for man regarded in
himself, that is, in regard to what is his own, is nothing but
evil.{1}
{Footnote 1} Man's own consists in loving himself more than
God, and the world more than heaven, and in making nothing of
his neighbor in comparison with himself, thus it consists in
the love of self and of the world (n. 694, 731, 4317). Man is
born into this own, and it is dense evil (n. 210, 215, 731,
874-876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550,
10283, 10284, 10286, 10732). From what is man's own not only
every evil but also every falsity is derived (n. 1047, 10283,
10284, 10286). The evils that are from what is man's own are
contempt for others, enmity, hatred, revenge, cruelty, deceit
(n. 6667, 7370, 7373, 7374, 9348, 10038, 10742). So far as what
is man's own rules, the good of love and the truth of faith are
either rejected or suffocated or perverted (n. 2041, 7491,
7492, 7643, 8487, 10455, 10742). What is man's own is hell in
him (n. 694, 8480). The good that man does from what is his own
is not good, but in itself is evil (n. 8480).
485. L. THE DELIGHTS OF EVERY ONE'S LIFE ARE CHANGED AFTER DEATH INTO
THINGS THAT CORRESPOND.
It has been shown in the preceding chapter that the ruling affection
or dominant love in everyone continues to eternity. It shall now be
explained how the delights of that affection or love are changed into
things that correspond. Being changed into corresponding things means
into things spiritual that correspond to the natural. That they are
changed into things spiritual can be seen from this, that so long as
man is in his earthly body he is in the natural world, but when he
leaves that body he enters the spiritual world and is clothed with a
spiritual body. It has already been shown that angels, and men after
death, are in a complete human form, and that the bodies with which
they are clothed are spiritual bodies (n. 73-77 and 453-460); also
what the correspondence is of spiritual things with natural (n.
87-115).
486. All the delights that a man has are the delights of his ruling
love, for he feels nothing to be delightful except what he loves,
thus especially that which he loves above all things. It means the
same whether you say the ruling love or that which is loved above all
things. These delights are various. In general, there are as many as
there are ruling loves; consequently as many as there are men,
spirits, and angels; for no one's ruling love is in every respect
like that of another. For this reason no one has a face exactly like
that of any other; for each one's face is an image of his mind; and
in the spiritual world it is an image of his ruling love. In
particular, everyone's delights are of infinite variety. It is
impossible for any one delight to be exactly like another, or the
same as another, either those that follow one after another or those
that exist together at the same time, no one ever being the same as
another. Nevertheless, the particular delights in everyone have
reference to his one love, which is his ruling love, for they compose
it and thus make one with it. Likewise all delights in general have
reference to one universally ruling love, which in heaven is love to
the Lord, and in hell is the love of self.
487. Only from a knowledge of correspondences can it be known what
spiritual delights everyone's natural delights are changed into after
death, and what kind of delights they are. In general, this knowledge
teaches that nothing natural can exist without something spiritual
corresponding to it. In particular it teaches what it is that
corresponds, and what kind of a thing it is. Therefore, any one that
has this knowledge can ascertain and know what his own state after
death will be, if he only knows what his love is, and what its
relation is to the universally ruling loves spoken of above, to which
all loves have relation. But it is impossible for those who are in
the love of self to know what their ruling love is, because they love
what is their own, and call their evils goods; and the falsities that
they incline to and by which they confirm their evils they call
truths. And yet if they were willing they might know it from others
who are wise, and who see what they themselves do not see. This
however, is impossible with those who are so enticed by the love of
self that they spurn all teaching of the wise. [2] On the other hand,
those who are in heavenly love accept instruction, and as soon as
they are brought into the evils into which they were born, they see
them from truths, for truths make evils manifest. From truth which is
from good any one can see evil and its falsity; but from evil none
can see what is good and true; and for the reason that falsities of
evil are darkness and correspond to darkness; consequently those that
are in falsities from evil are like the blind, not seeing the things
that are in light, but shunning them instead like birds of night.{1}
But as truths from good are light, and correspond to light (see
above, n. 126-134), so those that are in truths from good have sight
and open eyes, and discern the things that pertain to light and
shade. [3] This, too, has been proved to me by experience. The angels
in heaven both see and perceive the evils and falsities that
sometimes arise in themselves, also the evils and falsities in
spirits in the world of spirits that are connected with the hells,
although the spirits themselves are unable to see their own evils and
falsities. Such spirits have no comprehension of the good of heavenly
love, of conscience, of honesty and justice, except such as is done
for the sake of self; neither what it is to be led by the Lord. They
say that such things do not exist, and thus are of no account. All
this has been said to the intent that man may examine himself and may
recognize his love by his delights; and thus so far as he can make it
out from a knowledge of correspondences may know the state of his
life after death.
{Footnote 1} From correspondence "darkness" in the Word
signifies falsities, and "thick darkness" the falsities of evil
(n. 1839, 1860, 7688, 7711). To the evil the light of heaven is
thick darkness (n. 1861, 6832, 8197). Those that are in the
hells are said to be in darkness because they are in falsities
of evil; of such (n. 3340, 4418, 4531). In the Word "the blind"
signify those that are in falsities and are not willing to be
taught (n. 2383, 6990).
488. How the delights of everyone's life are changed after death into
things that correspond can be known from a knowledge of
correspondences; but as that knowledge is not as yet generally known
I will try to throw some light on the subject by certain examples
from experience. All who are in evil and who have established
themselves in falsities in opposition to the truths of the church,
especially those that have rejected the Word, flee from the light of
heaven and take refuge in caves that appear at their openings to be
densely dark, also in clefts of rocks, and there they hide
themselves; and this because they have loved falsities and hated
truths; for such caves and clefts of rocks,{1} well as darkness,
correspond to falsities, as light corresponds to truths. It is their
delight to dwell in such places, and undelightful to dwell in the
open country. [2] Those that have taken delight in insidious and
secret plots and in treacherous machinations do the same thing. They
are also in such caves; and they frequent rooms so dark that they are
even unable to see one another; and they whisper together in the ears
in corners. Into this is the delight of their love changed. Those
that have devoted themselves to the sciences with no other end than
to acquire a reputation for learning, and have not cultivated their
rational faculty by their learning, but have taken delight in the
things of memory from a pride in such things, love sandy places,
which they choose in preference to fields and gardens, because sandy
places correspond to such studies. [3] Those that are skilled in the
doctrines of their own and other churches, but have not applied their
knowledge to life, choose for themselves rocky places, and dwell
among heaps of stones, shunning cultivated places because they
dislike them. Those that have ascribed all things to nature, as well
as those that have ascribed all things to their own prudence, and by
various arts have raised themselves to honors and have acquired
wealth, in the other life devote themselves to the study of magic
arts, which are abuses of Divine order, and find in these the chief
delight of life. [4] Those that have adapted Divine truths to their
own loves, and thereby have falsified them, love urinous things
because these correspond to the delights of such loves.{2} Those that
have been sordidly avaricious dwell in cells, and love swinish filth
and such stenches as are exhaled from undigested food in the stomach.
[5] Those that have spent their life in mere pleasures and have lived
delicately and indulged their palate and stomach, loving such things
as the highest good that life affords, love in the other life
excrementitious things and privies, in which they find their delight,
for the reason that such pleasures are spiritual filth. Places that
are clean and free from filth they shun, finding them undelightful.
[6] Those that have taken delight in adulteries pass their time in
brothels, where all things are vile and filthy; these they love, and
chaste homes they shun, falling into a swoon as soon as they enter
them. Nothing is more delightful to them than to break up marriages.
Those that have cherished a spirit of revenge, and have thereby
contracted a savage and cruel nature, love cadaverous substances, and
are in hells of that nature; and so on.
{Footnote 1} In the word a "hole" or "the cleft of a rock"
signifies obscurity and falsity of faith (n. 10582). Because a
"rock" signifies faith from the Lord (n. 8581, 10580); and a
"stone" the truth of faith (n. 114, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426,
8609, 10376).
{Footnote 2} The defilements of truth correspond to urine (n.
5390).
489. But the delights of life of those that have lived in the world
in heavenly love are changed into such corresponding things as exist
in the heavens, which spring from the sun of heaven and its light,
that light presenting to view such things as have what is Divine
inwardly concealed in them. The things that appear in that light
affect the interiors of the minds of the angels, and at the same time
the exteriors pertaining to their bodies; and as the Divine light,
which is Divine truth going forth from the Lord, flows into their
minds opened by heavenly love, it presents outwardly such things as
correspond to the delights of their love. It has already been shown,
in the chapter on representatives and appearances in heaven (n.
170-176), and in the chapter on the wisdom of the angels (n.
265-275), that the things that appear to the sight in the heavens
correspond to the interiors of angels, or to the things pertaining to
their faith and love and thus to their intelligence and wisdom. [2]
Having already begun to establish this point by examples from
experience, to make clearer what has been previously said on the
ground of causes of things I will state briefly some particulars
respecting the heavenly delightful things into which the natural
delights of those that have lived in heavenly love in the world are
changed. Those that have loved Divine truths and the Word from an
interior affection, or from an affection for truth itself, dwell in
the other life in light, in elevated places that appear like
mountains, where they are continually in the light of heaven. They do
not know what darkness is, like that of night in the world; they live
also in a vernal temperature; there are presented to their view
fields filled with grain and vine-yards; in their houses everything
glows as if from precious stones; and looking through the windows is
like looking through pure crystal. Such are the delights of their
vision; but these same things are interiorly delightful because of
their being correspondences of Divine heavenly things, for the truths
from the Word which they have loved correspond to fields of grain,
vineyards, precious stones, windows, and crystals.{1} [3] Those that
have applied the doctrinals of the church which are from the Word
immediately to life, are in the inmost heaven, and surpass all others
in their delights of wisdom. In every object they see what is Divine;
the objects they see indeed with their eyes; but the corresponding
Divine things flow in immediately into their minds and fill them with
a blessedness that affects all their sensations. Thus before their
eyes all things seem to laugh, to play, and to live (see above,
n. 270). [4] Those that have loved knowledges and have thereby
cultivated their rational faculty and acquired intelligence, and at
the same time have acknowledged the Divine-these in the other life
have their pleasure in knowledges, and their rational delight changed
into spiritual delight, which is delight in knowing good and truth.
They dwell in gardens where flower beds and grass plots are seen
beautifully arranged, with rows of trees round about, and arbors and
walks, the trees and flowers changing from day to day. The entire
view imparts delight to their minds in a general way, and the
variations in detail continually renew the delight; and as everything
there corresponds to something Divine, and they are skilled in the
knowledge of correspondences, they are constantly filled with new
knowledges, and by these their spiritual rational faculty is
perfected. Their delights are such because gardens, flower beds,
grass plots, and trees correspond to sciences, knowledges, and the
resulting intelligence.{2} [5] Those that have ascribed all things to
the Divine, regarding nature as relatively dead and merely
subservient to things spiritual, and have confirmed themselves in
this view, are in heavenly light; and all things that appear before
their eyes are made by that light transparent, and in their
transparency exhibit innumerable variegations of light, which their
internal sight takes in as it were directly, and from this they
perceive interior delights. The things seen within their houses are
as if made of diamonds, with similar variegations of light. The walls
of their houses, as already said, are like crystal, and thus also
transparent; and in them seemingly flowing forms representative of
heavenly things are seen also with unceasing variety, and this
because such transparency corresponds to the understanding when it
has been enlightened by the Lord and when the shadows that arise from
a belief in and love for natural things have been removed. With
reference to such things and infinite others, it is said by those
that have been in heaven that they have seen what eye has never seen;
and from a perception of Divine things communicated to them by those
who are there, that they have heard what ear has never heard. [6]
Those that have not acted in secret ways, but have been willing to
have all that they have thought made known so far as civil life would
permit, because their thoughts have all been in accord with what is
honest and just from the Divine-these in heaven have faces full of
light; and in that light every least affection and thought is seen in
the face as in its form, and in their speech and actions they are
like images of their affections. Such, therefore, are more loved than
others. While they are speaking the face becomes a little obscured;
but as soon as they have spoken, the things they have said become
plainly manifest all at once in the face. And as all the objects that
exist round about them correspond to their interiors, these assume
such an appearance that others can clearly perceive what they
represent and signify. Spirits that have found delight in clandestine
acts, when they see such at a distance flee from them, and appear to
themselves to creep away from them like serpents. [7] Those that have
regarded adulteries as abominable, and have lived in a chaste love of
marriage, are more than all others in the order and form of heaven,
and therefore in all beauty, and continue unceasingly in the flower
of youth. The delights of their love are ineffable, and increase to
eternity; for all the delights and joys of heaven flow into that
love, because that love descends from the conjunction of the Lord
with heaven and with the church, and in general from the conjunction
of good and truth, which conjunction is heaven itself in general, and
with each angel in particular (see above, n. 366-386). What their
outward delights are it is impossible to describe in human words.
These are only a few of the things that have been told me about the
correspondences of the delights of those that are in heavenly love.
{Footnote 1} In the Word a "field of corn" signifies a state of
the reception and growth of truth from good (n. 9294).
"Standing corn" signifies truth in conception (n. 9146),
"Vineyards" signify the spiritual church and the truths of that
church (n. 1069, 9139). "Precious stones" signify the truths of
heaven and of the church transparent from good (n. 114, 9863,
9865, 9868, 9873, 9905). A "window" signifies the intellectual
faculty which pertains to the internal sight (n. 655, 658,
3391).
{Footnote 2} A "garden," a "grove," and a "park," signify
intelligence (n. 100, 108, 3220). This is why the ancients
celebrated holy worship in groves (n. 2722, 4552). "Flowers"
and "flower beds" signify truths learned and knowledges (n.
9553). "Herbs," "grasses," and "grass plots" signify truths
learned (n. 7571). "Trees" signify perception and knowledges
(n. 103, 2163, 2682, 2722, 2972, 7692).
490. All this makes evident that everyone's delights are changed
after death into their correspondences, while the love itself
continues to eternity. This is true of marriage love, of the love of
justice, honesty, goodness and truth, the love of sciences and of
knowledges, the love of intelligence and wisdom, and the rest. From
these loves delights flow like streams from their fountain; and these
continue; but when raised from natural to spiritual delights they are
exalted to a higher degree.