Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

48.  From this it also comes to pass that an angel who excels in wisdom instantly sees the quality of another from his face.  In heaven no one can conceal his interiors by his expression, or feign, or really deceive and mislead by craft or hypocrisy.  There are hypocrites who are experts in disguising their interiors and fashioning their exteriors into the form of that good in which those are who belong to a society, and who thus make themselves appear angels of light; and these sometimes insinuate themselves into a society; but they cannot stay there long, for they begin to suffer inward pain and torture, to grow livid in the face, and to become as it were lifeless.  These changes arise from the contrariety of the life that flows in and affects them.  Therefore they quickly cast themselves down into hell where their like are, and no longer want to ascend.  These are such as are meant by the man found among the invited guests at the feast not clothed with a wedding garment, who was cast out into outer darkness (Matt. 22:11, seq.).

49.  All the societies of heaven have communication with one another, though not by open interaction; for few go out of their own society into another, since going out of their own society is like going away from themselves or from their own life, and passing into another life which is less congenial.  But all the societies communicate by an extension of the sphere that goes forth from the life of each.  This sphere of the life is the sphere of the affections of love and faith.  This sphere extends itself far and wide into the surrounding societies, and farther and wider in proportion as the affections are the more interior and perfect.{1} In the measure of that extension do the angels have intelligence and wisdom.  Those that are in the inmost heaven and in the middle of it have extension into the entire heavens; thus there is a sharing of all in heaven with each one, and of each one with all.{2} But this extension will be considered more fully hereafter, where the form of heaven in accord with which the angelic societies are arranged, and also the wisdom and intelligence of angels, will be treated of, for in accordance with that form all extension of affections and thoughts proceeds.

{Footnote 1} A spiritual sphere, which is the sphere of life flows out from every man, spirit, and angel, and encompasses them (n. 4464, 5179, 7454, 5630).  It flows forth from the life of their affection and thought (n. 2459, 4464, 6206).  These spheres extend themselves far into angelic societies in accordance with the quality and quantity of their good (n. 6598-6612, 8063, 5794, 5797).

  {Footnote 2} In the heavens a sharing of all goods is possible
  because heavenly love shares with another everything that is
  its own (n. 549, 550, 1390, 1391, 1399, 10130, 10723).

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Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.