Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 198
or myriads to one; and such is the wisdom of the angels of a
higher heaven compared with the wisdom of the angels of a
lower heaven. In like manner the wisdom of the latter surpasses
the wisdom of man, for man is in a bodily state and in those
things that belong to the bodily senses, and man’s bodily sense
belongs to the lowest degree. This makes clear what kind of
wisdom those possess who think from things of sense, that is,
who are called sensual men, namely, that they have no wisdom,
but merely knowledge. 186
But it is otherwise with men whose
thoughts are raised above the things of sense, and especially
with those whose interiors have been opened even into the
light of heaven.
268. It can be seen how great the wisdom of angels is from
the fact that in the heavens there is a communication of all
things; intelligence and wisdom are communicated from one to
another, and heaven is a common sharing of all goods; and this
for the reason that heavenly love is such that it wishes what is
its own to be another’s; consequently no one in heaven
perceives his own good in himself to be good unless it is also in
another; and this is the source of the happiness of heaven. This
186. The sensual is the outmost of man’s life adhering to and inhering
in his bodily part (n. 5077, 5767, 9212, 9216, 9331, 9730).
He is called a sensual man who judges all things and draws all his
conclusions from the bodily senses, and believes nothing except what he sees
with his eyes and touches with his hands (n. 5094, 7693). Such a man thinks
in externals, and not interiorly in himself (n. 5089, 5094, 6564, 7693). His
interiors are so closed up that he sees nothing of spiritual truth in them (n.
6564, 6844, 6845).
In a word, he is in gross natural light and thus perceives nothing that is
from the light of heaven (n. 6201, 6310, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622,
6624, 6844, 6845). Interiorly he is antagonistic to the things of heaven and
the church (n. 6201, 6316, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949). The learned who have
confirmed themselves against the truths of the church come to be such (n.
6316). Sensual men are more cunning and malicious than others (n. 7693,
10236). They reason keenly and cunningly, but from the bodily memory, in
which they place all intelligence (n. 195, 196, 5700, 10236). But they reason
from the fallacies of the senses (n. 5084, 6948, 6949, 7693).