Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 261is only willed and not done, when man is able to do, does not yethave existence, see Heaven and Hell, n. 475–476.)[2] To this I will add an arcanum not yet known. After death,man’s spirit appears in a human form according to the life of hisaffection while in the world; in a beautiful form if he lived a life ofheavenly love; in an unbeautiful form if he lived a life of worldlylove. It is from this that angels are forms of love and charity; yettheir form is not so beautiful from the affection of thought and willalone as from the affection of these expressed in deeds or works; fordeeds or works from the affection of the will and thought, or oflove and faith, are what constitute the outward aspect of the spirit,thus the beauty of his face, body, and speech. The reason for this is,that as the interiors terminate in deeds or works as into theirextremes, so do they terminate in the outward form of the body.For it is well known that everything of man’s will terminates in theextremes of his body. Any part of the body in which the will doesnot terminate is not a part of the body; as is evident from theactions of the body, even the least of them; for these all flow fromthe impulse of the will and are manifested in the extremes of thebody (see Heaven and Hell, n. 59–60; and Last Judgment, n.30–31).[3] The same is manifest from this, that man’s spirit is altogetheras his will is; not as his will is that does not go forth into act whenit can (that will is nothing but thought in which there is anappearance of willing), but as the actual will is, which has no otherdesire than to act; this will is the same with man’s love; inaccordance with this is the whole spirit and its human form. (Thatthe will or love is the spirit itself, see above, n. 105; and Heaven andHell, n. 479.) On this account it is so often said in the Word thatman ought “to do the Lord’s commandments,” and that he will berecompensed according to his “doings,” that is, according to thelove in deeds, but not according to the love without deeds, whendoing is possible.[4] It is said, “I know thy works, and the last to be more than thefirst”; by “the last being more than the first” is meant that the