[T]hings that are Divine, or that are infinite, are not apprehended except from
finite things of which man can form some idea. Without an idea derived from
finite things, and especially an idea from the things of space and time, man can
comprehend nothing of Divine things, and still less of the Infinite. Without an
idea of space and time man cannot have any thought at all (n. 3404); for in
respect to his body he is in time, and thus in respect to his thoughts which are
from the external senses; whereas the angels, not being in time and space, have
ideas of state, and therefore spaces and times in the Word signify states (see
n. 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, 3827).
[2] There are two states,
namely, a state that corresponds to space and a state that corresponds to time.
The state that corresponds to space is state as to being; and the state that
corresponds to time is state as to coming forth* (n. 2625). For there are two
things that make man, namely, being and coming forth. Man's
being is nothing
else than a recipient of the eternal which proceeds from the Lord; for men,
spirits, and angels are nothing but recipients, or forms recipient, of life from
the Lord. The reception of life is that of which coming forth is predicated. Man
believes that he is, and this of himself; when yet it is not true that he
is of
himself; but that as before said, he comes forth. Being is solely in the Lord,
and is called "Jehovah." From being, which is Jehovah, are all things which
appear to be [sicut sint]. But the Lord's being, or Jehovah, can never be
communicated to anyone; but solely to the Lord's Human. This was made the Divine
being, that is, Jehovah. (That the Lord is Jehovah as to both the Essences may
be seen above, n. 1736, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2156, 2329, 2921, 3023,
3035.)
[3] Coming forth also is predicated of the Lord; but only when He was
in the world, where He put on the Divine. But since He has become the Divine
being, coming forth can no longer be predicated of Him, except as a something
that proceeds from Him. That which proceeds from Him is that which appears as
the coming forth in Him; yet it is not in Him, but is from Him, and causes men,
spirits, and angels to come forth; that is, to live. In man, spirit, and angel,
coming forth is living; and his living is eternal happiness. The happiness of
eternal life is that to which in the supreme sense eternity, which is from the
Lord's Divine being, corresponds. That the happiness of eternal life is that
which is signified by "blessedness" in the internal sense, and by the delight of
the affections in the external sense, is manifest without explication.
[4]
But that which is here signified is the delight of the affections of truth and
good that corresponds to the happiness of eternal life. All affections have
their delights; but such as are the affections, such are the delights. The
affections of evil and falsity also have their delights; and before a man begins
to be regenerated, and to receive from the Lord the affections of truth and
good, these delights appear to be the only ones; so much so that men believe
that no other delights exist; and consequently that if they were deprived of
these, they would utterly perish. But they who receive from the Lord the
delights of the affections of truth and good, gradually see and perceive the
nature of the delights of their former life, which they had believed to be the
only delights-that they are relatively vile, and indeed filthy. And the further
a man advances into the delight of the affections of truth and good, the more
does he begin to regard the delights of evil and falsity as vile; and at last to
hold them in aversion.
[5] I have sometimes spoken with those in the other
life who had been in the delights of evil and falsity; and I have been permitted
to tell them that they have no life until they are deprived of their delights.
But they said (as say such persons in the world) that if they should be deprived
of them, nothing of life would be left them. But I was permitted to reply that
life then first begins, together with such happiness as there is in heaven,
which in comparison with that of their former delights is unutterable. But this
they could not apprehend, because what is unknown is believed to be nothing. It
is the same with all in the world who are in the love of self and of the world,
and therefore in no charity. They know the delight of these loves, but not the
delight of charity. Thus they are altogether ignorant of what charity is, and
still more that there is any delight in charity; when yet the delight of charity
is that which fills the universal heaven, and constitutes the blessedness and
happiness there; and if you will to believe it, it constitutes the intelligence
and wisdom also, together with their delights; for into the delights of charity
the Lord inflows with the light of truth and the flame of good, and with the
derivative intelligence and wisdom. But falsities and evils reject, suffocate,
and pervert these delights, and hence come folly and insanity. From all this it
is evident what is the nature and quality of the delight of the affections, and
that it corresponds to the happiness of eternal life.
[6] The man of this age
believes that if at the hour of death he merely has the confidence of faith, he
can get into heaven no matter in what affection he may have lived during the
whole course of his life. I have sometimes spoken with those who have so lived,
and have so believed. When they come into the other life, they at first have no
other idea than that they may enter into heaven, without any regard to their
past life, in which they had put on the delight of the affection of evil and
falsity from the loves of self and of the world, which had been their ends. I
have been permitted to tell them that everyone can be admitted into heaven,
because heaven is denied by the Lord to no one; but whether they can live there
they can know when admitted. Some who firmly believed that they could, have also
been admitted. But as the life there is that of love to the Lord and of love
toward the neighbor, which constitutes all the sphere and happiness of the life
there, on coming into it they began to be distressed, not being able to breathe
in such a sphere, and they then began to perceive the filthiness of their
affections, thus to feel infernal torment. In consequence of this they cast
themselves headlong down, saying that they desired to be far away, and marveling
that that was heaven which to them was hell. This shows what is the nature of
the one delight, and what is that of the other; and that they who are in the
delight of the affections of evil and falsity can by no means be among those who
are in the delight of the affection of good and truth; and that these delights
are opposite to each other, as are heaven and hell (see n. 537-539, 541, 547,
1397, 1398, 2130, 2401).
[7] Furthermore, as regards the happiness of eternal
life: during his life in the world the man who is in the affection of good and
truth cannot perceive it, but a certain delight in its stead. The reason of this
is that while in the body he is in worldly cares and consequent anxieties that
prevent the happiness of eternal life (which is deep within him) from then being
manifested in any other way. For when this happiness inflows from within into
the cares and anxieties that are with the man outwardly, it sinks down among the
cares and anxieties there, and becomes a kind of obscure delight; but still it
is a delight within which there is blessedness, and within this happiness. Such
is the happiness of being content in God. But when a man is divested of his
body, and at the same time of these worldly cares and anxieties, the happiness
which had lain hidden in obscurity within his interior man comes forth and
reveals itself.
[8] As affection is so often spoken of, let us state what is
meant by affection. Affection is nothing else than love, but is what is
continuous of it. For from love a man is affected either with evil and falsity,
or with good and truth. As this love is present and is within all things in
general and particular that belong to him, it is not perceived as love, but is
varied according to its matter in hand, and according to the man's states and
their changes; and this continually in everything that he wills, thinks, and
does. It is this continuous of love that is called affection; and it is this
continuous that reigns in a man's life and makes all his delight, and
consequently his very life; for man's life is nothing else than the delight of
his affection; and thus is nothing else than the affection of his love. Love is
man's willing, and derivatively is his thinking, and thereby his acting.
* Esse, here rendered being, and existere, here rendered coming forth, are terms
difficult to translate with precision, for in English "being" is often used in
the sense of living existence as distinguished from a thing without life; as, "a
human being," "human beings," "the Divine Being;" and as for the expression "to
exist," this has come to mean precisely the same as "to be." [REVISER.]
(Arcana Coelestia 3938)
