Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 61
Divine itself that flows in, and also from the form of heaven in
harmony with which their thoughts spread forth. For every
thought of an angel spreads forth into heaven; and the angels
have intelligence and wisdom in the measure of that extension.
It is in consequence of this that all in heaven acknowledge the
Lord, because only in him does the Divine human exist. Not
only have I been told all this by angels, but when elevated into
the inner sphere of heaven I have been able to perceive it.
From this it is evident that the wiser the angels are the more
clearly they perceive this truth; and it is from this that the Lord
is seen by them; for the Lord is seen in a Divine angelic form,
which is the human form, by those who acknowledge and
believe in a visible Divine being, but not by those who believe
in an invisible Divine. For the former can see their Divine
being, but the latter cannot.
80. Because the angels have no perception of an invisible
Divine, which they call a Divine devoid of form, but perceive
only a visible Divine in human form, they are accustomed to
say that the Lord alone is man, and that it is from him that
they are men, and that each one is a man in the measure of his
reception of the Lord. By receiving the Lord they understand
receiving good and truth which are from him, since the Lord is
in his good and in his truth, and this they call wisdom and
intelligence. Everyone knows, they say, that intelligence and
wisdom make man, and not a face without these. The truth of
this is made evident from the appearance of the angels of the
interior heavens, for these, being in good and truth from the
Lord and in consequent wisdom and intelligence, are in a most
beautiful and most perfect human form; while the angels of the
lower heavens are in human form of less perfection and beauty.
On the other hand, those who are in hell appear in the light of
heaven hardly as men, but rather as monsters, since they are
not in good and truth but in evil and falsity, and consequently
in the opposites of wisdom and intelligence. For this reason
their life is not called life, but spiritual death.