(1) Every man after death comes to
be his own love, and the spirit of man is nothing but the affection that is of
his love; when therefore a man becomes a spirit he thinks and thence speaks from
his affection; he also wills and thus acts from his affection; and he desires
and imbibes the things that are of his affection or love, and those that do not
belong to his affection or love he turns away from and rejects. And in fact, his
face gradually becomes the face of his affection or love, from which he is then
known, as he is also known from his speech, the tone of which is the tone of his
affection. In a word, a man after death becomes his love or his affection in
form; and consequently when anyone speaks against the affection which is of his
love, or assaults it, his face is changed, and he himself goes away or suddenly
vanishes. As all men after death are the substances and forms of their love,
therefore the whole heaven, which consists of angels who have been men, is
divided into societies according to the genera and species of the affections,
thus according to all the differences and varieties of the affections. And hell,
also, which consists of spirits who have been men, is divided into societies
according to the affections opposite to heavenly affections, and according to
all the differences and varieties of these in general and in particular. That
man after death is his love, or his affection which is of the love, has been
heretofore unknown in the world; for the world has believed that affection does
nothing and that thought does everything; and for the reason that man has not
been able to reflect upon the affections and the variations of them in himself,
but only upon thoughts and their variations; for thoughts he sees inwardly in
himself as it were, but not affections; and what does not reach the sight of his
thought, and thus become manifest, is not considered by him. But whoever is wise
can know his affections by his thoughts; for the affections manifest themselves
in the thoughts whenever a man is in the freedom of his spirit and is alone with
himself; for he then thinks from the affection which belongs to his love. Nor is
thought anything else than affection made visible in various forms by the influx
of light; therefore if you take away affection the thought immediately perishes,
just as light does if you take away the flame. From this it is clear how
important it is to acquire for oneself heavenly love or affection.
How this is
acquired shall be told in what follows. But it is to be known that
by affection love in its continuity is meant.
(2) That the whole life of man is the life of his love, and that the love
and the life make one and are one with man, can be seen from what has been said
above, namely, that everyone appears in the spiritual world with a face
according to his love, that he speaks according to it, thinks, wills, desires,
lusts, rejoices, and is sad, according to it, and these are the things that
constitute his life, and that proceed from it. That this is so is clearly
evident in the case of spirits and angels, who are all men both in face and in
body; for as soon as the love of one of them is assaulted he vanishes with his
whole body, even though he were sitting shut up in a room; and this I have
frequently seen; and thus it was made clear that an angel or spirit is not only
an affection in a human form, but also that his whole life from the head to the
sole of the foot, or from cap to shoe, is nothing but affection which is of
love; otherwise he could not have wholly vanished from the eyes of those sitting
by him. When inquiry was made whether his corporeal form with its members is
also affection which is of the love, it was found that each thing and all things
of these were so; for the reason that the universal heaven, which, as has been
said above, is divided and formed into societies according to all the
differences and varieties of the affections, has a relation to one man, and from
this all angels and spirits are human forms; therefore as heaven is a complex of
all affections, so, too, is an angel and a spirit, who are least forms of
heaven. This arcanum was thus made clear to me, and it was also confirmed from
heaven, that all things and everything of man, both of his mind and of his body,
are forms of love in a wonderful series, and that the organs of the brain and of
the face, as also the members and viscera of the body, are perpetual contextures
corresponding to those affections of heaven in which its societies are. And from
this still another arcanum was made clear to me, namely, that the affections of
the mind and the thoughts therefrom spread out and pour themselves forth into
all things of the body, as into the field of their excursion and circumgyration,
which field and circumgyration are from the affection of the mind and its
thought into the uses from which, in which, and according to which, the members
and viscera of the body are formed. For it is similar as with the affections and
thoughts therefrom of the angels, in that they pour themselves forth in every
direction into heaven and its societies; and according to their extension is the
wisdom of the angels.
[3] Since love constitutes the life of man, and man is to live to
eternity either in heaven or in hell in accordance with the life he has acquired
in the world, it is a matter of the highest importance to know how man acquires
heavenly love and becomes imbued with it, so that his life, which is to have no
end, may be blessed and happy.
[4] There are two chief faculties of man's life, namely, the will and the
understanding. The will is the receptacle of all things of good, and the
understanding is the receptacle of all things of truth from that good. Man
cannot be reformed except by means of these two faculties of life, and only by
their being filled by goods and truths. Reformation is effected in this order:
first, man must fill the memory with knowledges and cognitions of truth and
good, and by means of these he must acquire for himself the light of reason;
especially be must learn that God is one, that the Lord is the God of heaven and
earth, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death, and
that the Word is holy.
[5] Next he must learn what evils are sins, first from the Decalogue, and
afterwards from the Word everywhere, and must think that they are sins against
God, and that they therefore withhold and separate man from heaven, and condemn
and sentence him to hell. Consequently, the first thing of reformation is to
refrain from sins, to shun them, and finally to be averse to them; but that he
may refrain from them, shun them, and be averse to them he must pray to the Lord
for help. But he must shun them and turn away from them because they are
opposed to the Word, thus opposed to the Lord, and thence opposed to heaven, and
because they are in themselves infernal.
[6] So far as man shuns evils, and turns away from them because they
are sins, and thinks about heaven, his salvation and eternal life, so far he is
adopted by the Lord, and conjoined to heaven, and so far he is endowed with
spiritual affection, which is such that he not only wishes to know truths, but
also to understand them, and to will and do them.
[7] Thus is man reformed by the Lord; and so far as he then knows and
understands truths and wills and does them, so far he becomes a new man, that
is, a regenerate man, and thus becomes an angel of heaven, and has a heavenly
love and life.
[8] The love and life of such a one are wholly according to the works of his
will; and the works of the will are according to the truths that are applied to
the life. The knowledges of truth and good that a man has acquired for himself
from infancy, and with which he has filled his memory, are not living in him
until he begins to be affected by truths because they are truths, and begins to
will and to do them. Until then they are only outside of the life of man.
[9] By good works are meant each and every thing that a man does after he has
turned away from evils because they are sins against God; for then he no longer
does good works or operates them from self but from the Lord. He then also
learns daily what he is to do; and he has a clear discernment of goods and
evils, and shuns evils and does good with prudence, intelligence, and wisdom.
Thus much respecting the love, which constitutes the life of man.
Something shall now be said respecting faith.
[10] The ancients did not know what faith is; but in place of faith they
had truth; for when truth is perceived or is seen in the understanding, and thus
acknowledged, it is believed on its own account; consequently it cannot be said
of it that faith must be had in it, since faith is in it. If, for example, one
sees a tree and a flower in a garden, and another should say that he should
believe or have faith that there is a tree and a flower there, and that it is
such a tree and such a flower, would he not answer, Why do you wish me to
believe or to have faith in this when I myself see it? This is why the angels of
the third heaven, since they perceive truths from good, are unwilling even to
mention faith, and in fact, do not know that it exists; and why angels of the
second heaven, since they see truths from the light of truth by which their
understanding is enlightened, do not acknowledge the word faith. They
wonder and laugh when they hear anyone saying that the understanding is to be
held captive under obedience to faith, and that one should have faith in what is
not perceived and seen; and they say that in this way what is false may be
believed, and by confirmations be placed as if in light, and truth itself as if
in darkness; and thus falsity may play with truth as with a ball.
[11] When the world could no longer see truths from the love of them and
from their light, because men had become natural and external, then faith began
to be mentioned, and everything of faith began to be called truth, although it
was not perceived or seen but only asserted by some leader and confirmed by
passages of the Word not understood. This is the condition of the churches in
the Christian world at this day, in every one of which the doctrinals of their
faith are believed to be truths, and this for the sole reason that these are
held by the church of their native land; and yet that it is not perceived or
seen whether they are true is clear from the discussions, disputings, opinions,
and heresies respecting them, in general and in particular, both public and
private.
[12] So long as faith was joined with works, and charity was acknowledged
in an equal degree with faith, or above it, the church was in truths from the
Word, but only in a few, because they did not see them. But as soon as faith was
separated from charity the church fell from truths into falsities, and at length
into a faith that has destroyed all the truths of the church. This faith is a
faith in justification and salvation by the merit of the Lord with the Father. For if man is saved by this faith alone, and this faith also is separated from
the goods of life, which are good works, what need is there of truths, which
teach the way to heaven and lead to it? Live and believe in any way you wish,
and merely hold that faith, and you will be saved. But let me tell you, my
reader, that all who live that faith are in natural love separated from
spiritual love; and natural love separated from spiritual love is the love of
self and the world, and thus the love of all evils and of all falsities from
evils; and that all who thus live are so empty and so blind that they do not
even know and do not see a single genuine truth of the church in the Word,
although they have it and read it; and many of them have no desire to know or
see truth of any kind.
[13] The reason for this is that there is no truth with man, still less any
faith, unless he wills it and does it, for until then it is not a truth of the
life, but only a truth of the memory, which is outside of man and not within
him; and what is outside of him is dispersed. From this it is clear that faith
without works is not faith-unless it be a faith in falsity from evil, which is a
dead faith, such as reigns in hell.
