Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 442
separated from heaven they act in unity with hell, and in
consequence are affiliated with those who are in hell.
[3] It is not so with those who in heart have acknowledged
the Divine, and in the actions of their lives have had respect to
Divine laws, and have lived as fully in accord with the first
three commandments of the Decalogue as they have in
accordance with the others. When the externals of such are
removed and they are let into their internals they are wiser than
they were in the world; for entering into their internals is like
entering from darkness into light, from ignorance into wisdom,
and from a sorrowful life into a happy life, because they are in
the Divine, thus in heaven. This has been said to make known
what the one kind of man is and what the other is, although
they have both lived the same external life.
532. Everyone may know that thoughts are led or tend in
accord with the intentions, that is, in the directions that one
intends; for thought is man’s internal sight, and resembles the
external sight in this, that to whatever point it is directed or
aimed, thither it turns and there it rests. Therefore when the
internal sight or the thought is turned toward the world and
rests there, the thought in consequence becomes worldly; when
it turns to self and self-honor it becomes corporeal; but when it
is turned heavenwards it becomes heavenly. So, too, when
turned heavenwards it is elevated; but when turned selfward it
is drawn down from heaven and immersed in what is
corporeal; and when turned toward the world it is also turned
downwards from heaven, and is spent upon those objects that
are presented to the natural sight.
[2] Man’s love is what constitutes his intention and
determines his internal sight or thought to its objects; thus the
love of self fixes it upon self and its objects, the love of the
world upon worldly objects, and the love of heaven upon
heavenly objects; and when the love is known the state of the
interiors which constitute the mind can be known, that is, the
interiors of one who loves heaven are raised toward heaven and