Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 361
from an enlightened reason the truths it contains? Is not this
the source of so many heresies from the same Word? 262
456. That the spirit of man, when it has been loosed from
the body, is still a man and in a like form, has been proved to
me by the daily experience of many years; for I have seen such
and have listened to them a thousand times, and have talked
with them about this fact, that men in the world do not believe
them to be men, and that those that do believe this are
regarded by the learned as simple. Spirits are grieved at heart
that such ignorance still continues in the world, and above all
within the church.
[2] But this belief they said had emanated chiefly from the
learned, who had thought about the soul from ideas derived
from bodily sense; and from such ideas the only conception
they formed of the soul was as being mere thought; and when
this is regarded apart from any subject as its container and
source it is merely a fleeting breath of pure ether that must
needs be dissipated when the body dies. But as the church
believes from the Word in the immortality of the soul they are
compelled to ascribe to it something vital, such as pertains to
thought, but they deny to it anything of sense, such as man
possesses, until it has again been joined to the body. On this
opinion the doctrine in regard to the resurrection is based, with
the belief that the soul and body will be joined again at the
262. The truths of doctrine of the church derived from the Word must
be the starting point, and these must first be acknowledged, and afterwards it
is permissible to consult knowledges (n. 6047). Thus it is permissible for
those that are in an affirmative state toward the truths of faith to confirm
them rationally by knowledges, but it is not permissible for those who are in
a negative state (n. 2568, 2588, 4760, 6047).
It is in accordance with Divine order to enter rationally from spiritual
truths into knowledges, which are natural truths, but not to enter from the
latter into the former, because spiritual influx into natural things is possible,
but not natural or physical influx into spiritual things (n. 3219, 5119, 5259,
5427, 5428, 5478, 6322, 9109, 9110).