Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 277
affection their reasonings is the fire of the love of self and the
world. Such are those who are in false intelligence and wisdom,
and who are meant by the Lord in Matthew:
Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do
they understand (Matt. 13:13–15).
These things are hid from the intelligent and wise, and
revealed unto babes (Matt. 11:25, 26).
354. It has been granted me to speak with many of the
learned after their departure from the world; with some of
distinguished reputation and celebrated in the literary world
for their writings, and with some not so celebrated, although
endowed with profound wisdom. Those that in heart had
denied the Divine, whatever their professions may have been,
had become so stupid as to have little comprehension even of
anything truly civil, still less of anything spiritual. I perceived
and also saw that the interiors of their minds were so closed up
as to appear black (for in the spiritual world such things
become visible), and in consequence they were unable to
endure any heavenly light or admit any influx from heaven.
This blackness which their interiors presented was more
intense and extended with those that had confirmed themselves
against the Divine by the knowledges they had acquired. In the
other life such accept all falsity with delight, imbibing it as a
sponge does water; and they repel all truth as an elastic bony
substance repels what falls upon it. In fact, it is said that the
interiors of those that have confirmed themselves against the
Divine and in favor of nature become bony, and their heads
down to the nose appear callous like ivory, which is a sign that
they no longer have any perception. Those of this description
are immersed in quagmires that appear like bogs; and there
But they reason from the fallacies of the senses (n. 5084, 6948, 6949, 7693).
Sensual men are more cunning and malicious than others (n. 7693, 10236).
By the ancients such were called serpents of the tree of knowledge (n.
195–197, 6398, 6949, 10313).