Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 285
4976, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5410, 5426, 5576, 5582, 5588, 5655, 6277,
8562, 9003).
The knowledge of the ancients was the knowledge of correspondences and
representations, by which they gained entrance into the cognition of spiritual
things; but that knowledge at this day is wholly lost (n. 4749, 4844, 4964,
4965).
[12] For spiritual truths to be comprehended the following universals must
be known. (1) All things in the universe have relation to good and truth and
to their conjunction that they may be anything, thus to love and faith and
their conjunction. (2) Man has understanding and will; and the
understanding is the receptacle of truth and the will of good; and all things in
man have relation to these two and to their conjunction, as all things have
relation to truth and good and their conjunction. (3) There is an internal
man and an external man, which are as distinct from each other as heaven
and the world are, and yet for a man to be truly a man, these must make one.
(4) The internal man is in the light of heaven, and the external man is in the
light of the world; and the light of heaven is Divine truth itself, from which is
all intelligence. (5) Between the things in the internal man and those in the
external there is a correspondence, therefore the different aspect they present
is such that they can be distinguished only by means of a knowledge of
correspondences. Unless these and many other things are known, nothing
but incongruous ideas of spiritual and heavenly truths can be conceived and
formed; therefore without these universals the knowledges and cognitions of
the natural man can be of but little service to the rational man for
understanding and growth. This makes clear how necessary knowledges are.