Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 62
81. Because heaven as a whole and in part, from the Lord’s
Divine human, reflects a man, the angels say that they are in
the Lord; and some say that they are in his body, meaning that
they are in the good of his love. And this the Lord himself
teaches, saying,
Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide
in Me. For apart from Me ye can do nothing. Abide in My love. If
ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love (John
15:4–10).
82. Because such a perception of the Divine exists in the
heavens, to think of God as in a human form is implanted in
every man who receives any influx from heaven. Thus did the
ancients think of him; and thus do the moderns think of him
both outside of the church and within it. The simple see him
in thought as the Ancient One in shining light. But this insight
has been extinguished in all those that by self-intelligence and
by a life of evil have rejected influx from heaven. Those that
have extinguished it by self-intelligence prefer an invisible God;
while those that have extinguished it by a life of evil prefer no
God. Neither of these are aware that such an insight exists,
because they do not have it; and yet it is the Divine heavenly
itself that primarily flows into man out of heaven, because man
is born for heaven, and no one without a conception of a
Divine can enter heaven.
83. For this reason he that has no conception of heaven, that
is, no conception of the Divine from which heaven is, cannot
be raised up to the first threshold of heaven. As soon as such a
one draws near to heaven a resistance and a strong repulsion
are perceived; and for the reason that his interiors, which
should be receptive of heaven, are closed up from their not
being in the form of heaven, and the nearer he comes to
heaven the more tightly are they closed up. Such is the lot of
those within the church who deny the Lord, and of those who,
like the Socinians, deny his Divinity. But the lot of those who