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The Good of Faith
Arcana Coelestia 6325. It is an eternal truth that the Lord rules heaven and earth, and also that no one besides the Lord lives of himself, consequently that everything of life flows in-the good of life from the Lord, and the evil of life from hell. This is the faith of the heavens. When a man is in this faith (and he can be in it when he is in good), then evil cannot be fastened and appropriated to him, because he knows that it is not from himself, but from hell. When a man is in this state, he can then be gifted with peace, for then he will trust solely in the Lord.
Heaven is state of life with an appearance of it being a place
Spiritual Experiences 5125. THAT HEAVEN IS NOT A PLACE BUT A STATE OF LIFE. All who come from the world bring with them the opinion that heaven is on high, thus in place; for which reason, they say that they wish to be raised up into heaven. But they do not know that heaven is not a place, but a state of life, namely, of the life of love, charity and faith; and that, though they appear in a higher place than others, place is an appearance. I saw that certain ones ascended on high, as very many did in many ways; but, when there, they said that they are altogether like they were before, and that they see nothing; and so they wondered that heaven should be there. But if the state is changed to a good one, it becomes heaven with those in whom this can be effected – to just such an extent as they receive the state of love. Certain ones, when on high, were granted communication with the angels there; for they were invisible; but, when communication takes place, they appear for a little while. The evil then cast themselves down from thence, head-foremost; for they feel hell in themselves, grievous according to the degree and quality of their evil.
Conjugial Love 10. After this, the angel and his companions returned to the place of assembly from which the companies of the wise had not yet departed. There he called to him those who believed that heavenly joy and eternal happiness are merely admission into heaven–and admission by Divine grace; and that they will then have joy, as do those in the world who on festive days enter the palaces of kings, or by invitation go to a wedding. To these the angel said: “Remain here awhile. I will sound the trumpet, and hither will come men famed for wisdom in the spiritual things of the church.”
After some time, there came nine men, each decked with laurel as a mark of his renown. The angel introduced them into the house of assembly wherein all were present who had been called earlier. In their presence, the angel addressed the laurelled nine and said: “I know that, by your wish and in accordance with your idea, it has been granted you to ascend into heaven, and that you have returned into this lower or sub-heavenly earth with full knowledge of the state of heaven. Tell us, therefore, how heaven appeared to you.”
[2] They answered in turn. The FIRST said: “From early boyhood to the end of my life in the world, my idea of heaven had been that it was a place of all blessedness, happiness, enjoyment, pleasantness and pleasure; and that if I should be admitted there, I would be surrounded with an aura of felicities, and would breathe them in with full breast, like a bridegroom when he celebrates his nuptials and enters the bridal chamber with his bride. With this idea, I ascended into heaven and passed the first guards and also the second; but when I came to the third, the officer of the guard addressed me and said: “Friend, who are you?” I answered: “Is not this heaven? From the longing of my desire I have ascended hither. Pray, let me in.” He then let me in, and I saw angels in white raiment. They walked around me, and after examining me, murmured, “Lo, a new guest not clad in the garments of heaven.” Hearing this, I thought: “This seems to me like the case of the man of whom the Lord said that he had come to the wedding without a wedding garment.” So I said, “Give me such a garment.” And they laughed. Then one came running from the court with the command, “Strip him naked, cast him out and throw his garments after him.” And so I was cast out.”
[3] The SECOND in order said: “I believed as he did, that if only I could be let into heaven which is above my head, joys would flow around me and I would be animated by them to eternity, and I, too, obtained my wish. But on seeing me, the angels fled and said among themselves, “What is this monster? How came this bird of night hither?” And I actually had the feeling of being changed from a man [into a bird of night], although I was not changed–a feeling which came upon me from drawing in the heavenly atmosphere. But presently one came running from the court with the command that two servants should lead me out and take me back to my home by the way up which I had come. And when I was at home, I appeared to others and to myself as a man.”
[4] The THIRD said: “My constant idea of heaven was derived from place and not from love. Therefore, when I came into this world I longed for heaven with a great longing; and seeing those who were ascending, I followed them and was admitted, though no farther than a few steps. But when, by reason of my idea of the joys and beatitudes there I wanted to gladden my animus, 1 then, owing to the light of heaven which was white as snow and the essence of which is said to be wisdom, a stupor invaded my mind, and hence darkness my eyes, and I began to rave; and soon, owing to the heat of heaven which corresponded to the brightness of that light and the essence of which is said to be love, my heart palpitated, anxiety took possession of me and, tormented with inward pain, I threw myself flat on the ground. Then, as I lay prostrate, attendants from the court came with the command to carry me gently away into my own light and heat; and when I came into these, my spirit and my heart returned to me.”
[5] The FOURTH said that he also had been in the idea of a place respecting heaven, and not in an idea of love. “When I first came into the spiritual world”‘ he said, “I asked the wise whether one would be permitted to ascend into heaven. They told me that it was permitted every one, but that men should take heed lest they be cast down. At this I laughed, and I ascended, believing, as do others, that all in the whole world are capable of receiving the joys of heaven in their fullness. But in truth, as soon as I was in, I almost lost my breath, and from pain and consequent torment in head and body, I threw myself on the ground and, writhing like a serpent before a fire, crawled to a precipice and threw myself over it. Afterwards I was picked up by some bystanders below and carried to an inn, where sanity returned to me.”
[6] The five others also gave amazing accounts of their ascent into heaven, comparing the changes of the states of their life to the state of fishes when lifted out of water into the air, and to that of birds in the ether. They said that after these severe experiences, they no longer had any desire for heaven but only for a life in companionship with their like, wherever they were; and they added, “We now know that in the world of spirits where we are, all are first prepared, the good for heaven and the evil for hell; and when prepared, they see ways open for them to societies of their like with whom they will dwell forever. They then enter these ways with delight because they are the ways of their love.”
Upon hearing these accounts, all who were first summoned confessed that they, too, had had no other idea of heaven than as of a place where with open mouth they would drink in to all eternity the joys which surrounded them.
[7] After this, the angel of the trumpet said to them: “You now see that the joys of heaven and eternal happiness are not the joys of a place but of the state of a man’s life, and that the state of heavenly life is from love and wisdom; and because the containant of these two is use, the state of heavenly life is from their conjunction in use. It is the same thing if it be said charity, faith, and good works; for charity is love, faith is truth from whence is wisdom, and good works are uses. Moreover, in our spiritual world there is place just as in the natural world, otherwise there would be no habitations and separate abodes. But here place is not place but an appearance of place according to the state of love and wisdom, or charity and faith.
[8] Every one who becomes an angel carries his heaven within him, because he carries within him the love of his heaven; for, by creation, man is a least effigy, image and type of the great heaven, the human form being nothing else. Therefore, every man comes into that society of heaven of which he is the form in individual effigy, and when he enters that society, he enters into a form corresponding to himself. Thus, he enters into that self-form as of himself, and from that form, as it were, into the same form in himself, breathing its life as his own and his own as its. Each society is as one common whole; and the angels there, are as the similar parts from which this common whole coexists. From this it now follows, that they who are in evils and thence in falses have formed within themselves an effigy of hell, and in heaven this effigy is in torment by reason of the influx of opposite into opposite, and of the violence resulting from their activity; for infernal love is opposed to heavenly love, and therefore the delights of the two loves clash with each other as enemies, and when they come together, they destroy each other.”
Heaven is the Word
True Christian Religion 272 … as the Lord is the Word, heaven is also the Word, since heaven is heaven from the Lord, and the Lord through the Word is the all in all things of heaven.
The church militant
6308. This influx is effected by means of spirits and angels. The order of the influx is that evil spirits first flow in, and the angels disperse their action. That there is such an influx the man does not perceive, because his thought is kept in freedom by means of the equilibration between these two influxes, and because he does not attend to such things; nor could the evil know if they did attend, because with them there is no equilibrium between evil and good. But they who are in good can know it; and they also know from the Word that there is something within which fights against the evil and falsity with them, and that the spiritual man fights against the natural; thus the angels, who are in man’s interiors and in his spiritual things, against the evil spirits who are in his exteriors and in his natural things; and it is also from this that the church is called militant. But the evil which flows into the thought from the evil spirits, does the man no harm if he does not receive it; but if he receives it and transfers it from the thought into the will, he makes it his own; and he then goes over to the side of the infernal spirits, and withdraws from the angels of heaven. This is what the Lord teaches when He says that the things which enter into a man do not make him unclean; but the things which go out of him, because these go forth from the heart, that is, from the will (Mark 7:14-23).
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.
