Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 452
into hell until he is in falsities from evil. (That this is so can be
seen in the chapters treating of the first, second, and third
states of man after death, n. 491–520; and that all power
belongs to truth from good can be seen in the chapter on the
power of angels in heaven, n. 228–233.)
540. Such, then, is the equilibrium between heaven and hell.
Those who are in the world of spirits are in that equilibrium,
for the world of spirits is midway between heaven and hell.
From the same source all men in the world are kept in a like
equilibrium, since men in the world are ruled by the Lord by
means of spirits in the world of spirits, as will be shown
hereafter in its own chapter. No such equilibrium would be
possible unless the Lord ruled both heaven and hell and
regulated both sides. Otherwise falsities from evil would
preponderate, and would affect the simple good who are in the
outmost regions of heaven, and who can be more easily
perverted than the angels themselves; and thereby equilibrium
would perish, and with it freedom in men.
541. Hell, like heaven, is divided into societies, and into as
many societies as there are in heaven; for every society in
heaven has a society opposite to it in hell, and this for the sake
of equilibrium. But evils and falsities therefrom are what
distinguish the societies in hell, as goods and truths therefrom
are what distinguish the societies in heaven. That for every
good there is an opposite evil, and for every truth an opposite
falsity may be known from this, that nothing can exist without
relation to its opposite, and what anything is in kind and
degree can be known from its opposite, and from this all
perception and sensation is derived. For this reason the Lord
continually provides that every society in heaven shall have an
opposite in some society of hell, and that there shall be an
equilibrium between the two.
542. As hell is divided into the same number of societies as
heaven, there are as many hells as there are societies of heaven;
for as each society of heaven is a heaven in smaller form (see