Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 204
truths in the memory and stow them away with their
knowledge, and draw them out therefrom to perfect their
understanding by them, and will them and apply them to the
life, but with no interior perception whether they are truths;
and in consequence they are in comparative obscurity. It is a
notable fact that the angels of the third heaven are perfected in
wisdom by hearing and not by seeing. What they hear from
preachings does not enter into their memory, but enters
directly into their perception and will, and comes to be a
matter of life; but what they see with their eyes enters into their
memory, and they reason and talk about it; which shows that
with them the way of hearing is the way of wisdom. This, too,
is from correspondence, for the ear corresponds to obedience,
and obedience belongs to the life; while the eye corresponds to
intelligence, and intelligence is a matter of doctrine. 189
The
state of these angels is described in different parts of the Word,
as in Jeremiah:
I will put my law in their mind, and write it on their heart.
They shall teach no more everyone his friend and everyone his
brother, saying, Know ye Jehovah; for they shall all know Me,
from the least of them even unto the greatest of them (Jer. 31:33,
34).
And in Matthew:
Let your speech be Yea, yea, Nay, nay; what is more than
these is from evil (Matt. 5:37).
189. Of the correspondence of the ear and of hearing (n. 4652–4660).
The ear corresponds to and therefore signifies perception and obedience
(n. 2542, 3869, 4653, 5017, 7216, 8361, 9311, 9397, 10061).
The ear signifies the reception of truths (n. 5471, 5475, 9926).
The correspondence of the eye and its sight (n. 4403–4421,
4523–4534); from which the sight of the eye signifies the intelligence that
belongs to faith, and also faith (n. 2701, 4410, 4526, 6923, 9051, 10569).