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Heaven and its Wonders and Hell

From Things Heard and Seen

by Emanuel Swedenborg.

Translated by John Ager.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send forth His angels with a trumpet and a great sound; and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the end to end of the heavens .

Those who understood these words according to the sense of the letter have no other belief than that during that latest period, which is called the final judgment, all these things are to come to pass just as they are described in the literal sense, that is, that the sun and moon will be darkened and the stars will fall from the sky, that the sign of the Lord will appear in the sky, and He Himself will be seen in the clouds, attended by angels with trumpets; and furthermore, as is foretold else where, that the whole visible universe will be destroyed, and afterwards a new heaven with a new earth will come into being. Such is the opinion of most men in the church at the present day. But those who so believe are ignorant of the arcana that lie hid in every particular of the Word. For in every particular of the Word there is an internal sense which treats of things spiritual and heavenly, not of things natural and worldly, such as are treated of in the sense of the letter. And this is true not only of the meaning of groups of words, it is true of each particular word. For the Word is written solely by correspondences, to the end that there may be an internal sense in every least particular of it. What that sense is can be seen from all that has been said and shown about it in the Arcana Coelestia; also from quotations gathered from that work in the explanation of The White Horse spoken of in the Apocalypse. It is according to that sense that what the Lord says in the passage quoted above respecting His coming in the clouds of heaven is to be understood. The "sun" there that is to be darkened signifies the Lord in respect to love; the "moon" the Lord in respect to faith; "stars" knowledges of good and truth, or of love and faith; "the sign of the Son of man in heaven" the manifestation of Divine truth; "the tribes of the earth" that shall mourn, all things relating to truth and good or to faith and love; "the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with power and glory" His presence in the Word, and revelation, "clouds" signifying the sense of the letter of the Word, and "glory" the internal sense of the Word; "the angels with a trumpet and great voice" signify heaven as a source of Divine truth. All this makes clear that these words of the Lord mean that at the end of the church, when there is no longer any love, and consequently no faith, the Lord will open the internal meaning of the Word and reveal arcana of heaven. The arcana revealed in the following pages relate to heaven and hell, and also to the life of man after death. The man of the church at this date knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell or about his life after death, although all these matters are set forth and described in the Word; and yet many of those born within the church refuse to believe in them, saying in their hearts, "Who has come from that world and told us?" Lest, therefore, such a spirit of denial, which especially prevails with those who have much worldly wisdom, should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple in faith, it has been granted me to associate with angels and to talk with them as man with man, also to see what is in the heavens and what is in the hells, and this for thirteen years; so now from what I have seen and heard it has been granted me to describe these, in the hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and unbelief dissipated. Such immediate revelation is granted at this day because this is what is meant by the Coming of the Lord.

The consummation of the age is the final period of the church .

The Lord's predictions in Matthew , respecting the consummation of the age and His coming, and the consequent successive vastation of the church and the final judgment, are explained in the prefaces to chapters 26-40 of Genesis .

Both in the wholes and in the particulars of the Word there is an internal or spiritual sense .

The Word is written solely by correspondences, and for this reason each thing and all things in it have a spiritual meaning .

In the Word the "sun" signifies the Lord in respect to love, and in consequence love to the Lord .

In the Word the "moon" signifies the Lord in respect to faith, and in consequence faith in the Lord .

In the Word "stars" signify knowledges of good and truth .

"Tribes" signify all truths and goods in the complex, thus all things of faith and love .

The coming of the Lord signifies His presence in the Word, and revelation .

In the Word clouds signify the Word in the letter or the sense of its letter .

In the Word "glory" signifies Divine truth as it is in heaven and as it is in the internal sense of the Word .

A "trumpet" or "horn" signifies Divine truth in heaven, and revealed from heaven ; and "voice" has a like signification .

First of all it must be known who the God of heaven is, since upon that all the other things depend. Throughout all heaven no other than the Lord alone is acknowledged as the God of heaven. There it is said, as He Himself taught,

That He is one with the Father; that the Father is in Him, and He in the Father; that he who sees Him sees the Father; and that everything that is holy goes forth from Him .

I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is One and this One is in the Lord. They also said that those of the church who come from this world having an idea of three Divine beings cannot be admitted into heaven, since their thought wanders from one Divine being to another; and it is not allowable there to think three and say one. Because in heaven everyone speaks from his thought, since speech there is the immediate product of the thought, or the thought speaking. Consequently, those in this world who have divided the Divine into three, and have adopted a different idea of each, and have not made that idea one and centered it in the Lord, cannot be received into heaven, because in heaven there is a sharing of all thoughts, and therefore if any one came thinking three and saying one, he would be at once found out and rejected. But let it be known that all those who have not separated what is true from what is good, or faith from love, accept in the other life, when they have been taught, the heavenly idea of the Lord, that He is the God of the universe. It is otherwise with those who have separated faith from life, that is, who have not lived according to the precepts of true faith.

Christians were examined in the other life in regard to their idea of the one God and it was found that they held the idea of three Gods . A Divine trinity in the Lord is acknowledged in heaven .

A Divine that cannot be perceived by any idea cannot be received by faith .

That all things of the Father are His .

And that He hath all power in heaven and on earth .

He says "in heaven and on earth," because He that rules heaven rules the earth also, for the one depends upon the other. "Ruling heaven and earth" means to receive from the Lord every good pertaining to love and every truth pertaining to faith, thus all intelligence and wisdom, and in consequence all happiness, in a word, eternal life. This also the Lord taught when He said:

He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life .

Again:

I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he die yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die .

And again:

I am the way, the truth, and the life .

The entire heaven is the Lord's . He has all power in the heavens and on the earths . As the Lord rules heaven He rules also all things that depend thereon, thus all things in the world . The Lord alone has power to remove the hells, to withhold from evil and hold in good, and thus to save .

The angels taken collectively are called heaven, for they constitute heaven; and yet that which makes heaven in general and in particular is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord and flows into the angels and is received by them. And as the Divine that goes forth from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith, the angels are angels and are heaven in the measure in which they receive good and truth from the Lord.

The angels of heaven acknowledge all good to be from the Lord, and nothing from themselves, and the Lord dwells in them in His own and not in their own . Therefore in the Word by "angels" something of the Lord is meant . Furthermore, angels are called "gods" from the reception of the Divine from the Lord . Again, all good that is good, and all truth that is truth, consequently all peace, love, charity, and faith, are from the Lord . Also all wisdom and intelligence .

Those who are in heaven are said to be in the Lord .

Good from the Lord has the Lord inwardly in it, but good from one's own has not .

Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing .

The Divine that goes forth from the Lord is called in heaven Divine truth, for a reason that will presently appear. This Divine truth flows into heaven from the Lord from His Divine love. The Divine love and the Divine truth therefrom are related to each other as the fire of the sun and the light therefrom in the world, love resembling the fire of the sun and truth therefrom light from the sun. Moreover, by correspondence fire signifies love, and light truth going forth from love. From this it is clear what the Divine truth that goes forth from the Lord's Divine love is-that in its essence it is Divine good joined to Divine truth, and being so conjoined it vivifies all things of heaven; just as in the world when the sun's heat is joined to light it makes all things of the earth fruitful, which takes place in spring and summer. It is otherwise when the heat is not joined with the light, that is, when the light is cold; then all things become torpid and lie dead. With the angels this Divine good, which is compared to heat, is the good of love; and Divine truth, which is compared to light, is that through which and out of which good of love comes.

In the Word "fire" signifies heavenly love and infernal love . "Holy and heavenly fire" signifies Divine love, and every affection that belongs to that love . "Light" from fire signifies truth going forth from good of love; and light in heaven signifies Divine truth .

Love is the fire of life, and life itself is actually therefrom .

To love the Lord and the neighbor is to live according to the Lord's commandments .

To love the neighbor is not to love the person, but to love that in him from which he is what he is, that is, his truth and good . Those who love the person, and not that in him from which he is what he is, love evil and good alike . Charity is willing truths and being affected by truths for the sake of truths . Charity towards the neighbor is doing what is good, just, and right, in every work and in every function .

He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and I will love him and will make My abode with him .

And again:

If ye do My commandments ye shall abide in My love .

Angels are forms of love and charity .

A spiritual sphere, which is a sphere of the life, overflows and pours forth from every man, spirit, and angel, and encompasses them . It flows from the life of their affection and consequent thought .

Spirits and angels turn themselves constantly to their loves, and those in the heavens turn themselves constantly to the Lord . Quarters in the other life are to each one in accordance with the direction of his face, and are thereby determined, otherwise than in the world .

Tell me, dear Adelaide, thou suffering Saint! Chaste martyr of the holiest love, say, with what feelings do you now enshrined in glory review the sorrows, which oppressed you in your mortal progress? Doubtless you review them not with such tears as obscure the eyes of your friend, while in this mournful hour of midnight solitude she retraces the transactions of your eventful life! Methinks I see your form radiant with light hover round me, and hear you with a smile bid me weep no more over afflictions, which now seem to yourself no longer deserving of a single tear!

You see, Urania, how difficult I find the task of beginning a narrative, which must rend open anew many an old and cruel wound; you see how anxiously I endeavour to delay the executing so painful a commission. But I gave you my promise! You shall be satisfied!--Permit me, however, to be as brief as possible, and to reserve the relation of minute particulars till the time, when I shall have an opportunity of explaining them to you in person.

That which I look upon as the first of our dear Adelaide's misfortunes, was her being the daughter of Lucretia Malaspina. Lucretia was not lovely enough to bind Count Ethelbert's heart in lasting fetters; nor did she possess that generous and almost Saint-like forbearance, with which Urania supported the misfortunes necessarily entailed upon the wife of such an husband. The discovery of an artifice, which her short-sighted policy had induced her to practice upon him, contributed to alienate Ethelbert's affections, and to convert what already was indifference into the most positive aversion.

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