Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 263
minds also nourish their bodies, and this from correspondence;
for the form of the body is simply the external form of the
interiors. But it should be understood that in heaven children
advance in age only to early manhood, and remain in this to
eternity. That I might be assured that this is so I have been
permitted to talk with some who had been educated as children
in heaven, and had grown up there; with some also while they
were children, and again with the same when they had become
young men; and I have heard from them about the progress of
their life from one age to another.
341. That innocence is a receptacle of all things of heaven,
and thus the innocence of children is a plane for all affections
for good and truth, can be seen from what has been shown
above (n. 276–283) in regard to the innocence of angels in
heaven, namely, that innocence is a willingness to be led by the
Lord and not by oneself; consequently so far as a man is in
innocence he is separated from what is his own, and so far as
one is separated from what is his own he is in what is the
Lord’s own. The Lord’s own is what is called his righteousness
and merit. But the innocence of children is not genuine
innocence, because as yet it is without wisdom. Genuine
innocence is wisdom, since so far as anyone is wise he loves to
be led by the Lord; or what is the same, so far as anyone is led
by the Lord he is wise.
[2] Therefore children are led from the external innocence in
which they are at the beginning, and which is called the
innocence of childhood, to internal innocence, which is the
innocence of wisdom. This innocence is the end that directs all
their instruction and progress; and therefore when they have
attained to the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of
Because bread means all food in general it signifies every good, celestial
and spiritual (n. 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 6118, 8410).
And for the reason that these nourish the mind, which belongs to the
internal man (n. 4459, 5293, 5576, 6277, 8410).