Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen EMANUEL SWEDENBORG Translated from the Original Latin by John C. Ager STANDARD EDITION SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION West Chester, Pennsylvania © 2009 Swedenborg Foundation This version was compiled from electronic files of the Standard Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg as further edited by William Ross Woofenden. Pagination of this PDF document does not match that of the corresponding printed volumes, and any page references within this text may not be accurate. However, most if not all of the numerical references herein are not to page numbers but to Swedenborg’s section numbers, which are not affected by changes in pagination. If this work appears both separately and as part of a larger volume file, its pagination follows that of the larger volume in both cases. This version has not been proofed against the original, and occasional errors in conversion may remain. To purchase the full set of the Redesigned Standard Edition of Emanuel Swedenborg’s works, or the available volumes of the latest translation (the New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg), contact the Swedenborg Foundation at 1-800-355-3222, www.swedenborg.com, or 320 North Church Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380. Contents Editor’s Preface Author’s Preface Part I: Heaven 1. The God of Heaven Is the Lord 2. It Is the Divine of the Lord That Makes Heaven 3. In Heaven the Divine of the Lord Is Love to Him and Charity toward the Neighbor 4. Heaven Is Divided into Two Kingdoms 5. There Are Three Heavens 6. The Heavens Consist of Innumerable Societies 7. Each Society Is a Heaven in a Smaller Form, and Each Angel in the Smallest Form 8. All Heaven in the Aggregate Reflects a Single Man 9. Each Society in Heaven Reflects a Single Man 10. Therefore Every Angel Is in a Complete Human Form 11. It Is from the Lord’s Divine Human That Heaven as a Whole and in Part Reflects Man. Extracts from Arcana Coelestia relating to the Lord and His Divine Human 12. There Is a Correspondence of All Things of Heaven with All Things of Man 13. There Is a Correspondence of Heaven with All Things of the Earth 14. The Sun in Heaven 15. Light and Heat in Heaven 16. The Four Quarters in Heaven 17. Changes of State of the Angels in Heaven 18. Time in Heaven 19. Representatives and Appearances in Heaven 20. The Garments with Which Angels Appear Clothed 21. The Places of Abode and Dwellings of Angels 22. Space in Heaven 23. The Form of Heaven That Determines Affiliations and Communications There 24. Governments in Heaven 25. Divine Worship in Heaven 26. The Power of the Angels of Heaven 27. The Speech of Angels 28. The Speech of Angels with Man 29. Writings in Heaven 30. The Wisdom of the Angels of Heaven 31. The State of Innocence of Angels in Heaven 32. The State of Peace in Heaven 33. The Conjunction of Heaven with the Human Race 34. Conjunction of Heaven with Man By Means of the Word 35. Heaven and Hell Are from the Human Race 36. The Heathen, or Peoples outside of the Church, in Heaven 37. Little Children in Heaven 38. The Wise and the Simple in Heaven Extracts from Arcana Coelestia respecting Knowledges 39. The Rich and the Poor in Heaven 40. Marriages in Heaven 41. The Occupations of Angels in Heaven 42. Heavenly Joy and Happiness 43. The Immensity of Heaven Part II: The World of Spirits and Man’s State after Death 44. What the World of Spirits Is 45. In Respect to His Interiors Every Man Is a Spirit 46. The Resuscitation of Man from the Dead and His Entrance into Eternal Life 47. Man After Death Is in a Complete Human Form 48. After Death Man Is Possessed of Every Sense, and of All the Memory, Thought, and Affection That He Had in the World, Leaving Nothing Behind except His Earthly Body 49. Man After Death Is Such as His Life Had Been in the World 50. The Delights of Every One’s Life Are Changed after Death into Things That Correspond 51. The First State of Man after Death 52. The Second State of Man after Death 53. Third State of Man after Death, Which Is a State of Instruction for Those Who Enter Heaven 54. No One Enters Heaven by Mercy apart from Means 55. It Is Not So Difficult to Live the Life That Leads to Heaven As Is Believed Part III: Hell 56. The Lord Rules the Hells 57. The Lord Casts No One into Hell; This Is Done by the Spirit 58. All Who Are in Hell Are in Evils and Related Falsities Derived from the Loves of Self and of the World 59. What Hell Fire Is and What the Gnashing of Teeth Is 60. The Malice and Heinous Artifices of Infernal Spirits 61. The Appearance, Situation, and Number of the Hells 62. The Equilibrium between Heaven and Hell 63. By Means of the Equilibrium between Heaven and Hell Man Is in Freedom. Extracts from Arcana Coelestia Respecting the Freedom of Man, Influx, and the Spirits through Whom Communications Are Effected Index of Scripture References Index HEAVEN AND HELL 1 Editor’s Preface First published in London in 1758, Heaven and Hell has become Emanuel Swedenborg’s most popular work. In 66 brief chapters, this book contains descriptions of some of Swedenborg’s most startling spiritual revelations. These include actual descriptions of life after death, a declaration that the final judgment foretold in the Bible did not predict the destruction of this earth (but that it had already taken place in the spiritual world), accounts involving married partners in heaven, and details about the work and character of angels. There have been at least nineteen distinct translations or revisions of translations of this work in English since the first English translation by Thomas Hartley in 1778. There have also been editions in German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Arabic and Russian, to mention a few. The present translation, by John Ager, was first published by the Swedenborg Foundation in both an English version and a Latin-English edition in 1900. The text of this current edition was electronically scanned from the Foundation’s Standard Edition of Swedenborg’s theological works. This process has allowed the book to be completely reset in a more readable typeface. Certain stylistic elements have also been modernized and the spelling updated to reflect contemporary usage. In a few cases English words that have changed meaning significantly since the turn of the century have been replaced by words which more accurately reflect Swedenborg’s Latin. A case in point is the word “intercourse,” which appeared nine times in the earlier edition to translate several Latin words with a range of meanings. But this word is seldom used today in its earlier general meaning, and words such as “association,” “discussion,” etc., have been substituted. Arabic numbers have replaced Roman numerals, and several of the running heads have been HEAVEN AND HELL 2 reworded to reflect more clearly the subject matter of the chapters. On the whole, however, the Ager translation has not been materially altered. This is the only major published work of Swedenborg in which the author inserted copious references from an earlier publication (his Arcana Coelestia), both in the form of footnotes and also as grouped excerpts. As these extracts are an integral part of the work, they have been retained in this edition. (The popular paperback editions of this work have generally omitted both the author’s footnotes and the three sections of grouped extracts from Arcana Coelestia: pages 59–64, 271–274, and 500–503 in this edition.) As was the custom in his day, Swedenborg referred to the Psalms as the book of David. As with previous printings, the bold numerals in brackets, [2], [3], etc., indicate divisions of Swedenborg’s long numbered sections, made for the convenience of the reader by J. F. Potts in his six-volume Swedenborg Concordance (London: Swedenborg Society, 1888–1902). William Ross Woofenden Sharon, Massachusetts HEAVEN AND HELL 3 Author’s Preface 1. The Lord, speaking in the presence of his disciples of the consummation of the age, which is the final period of the 1 church, says, near the end of what he foretells about its 2 successive states in respect to love and faith: Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a trumpet and a great sound; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the end to end of the heavens (Matt. 24:29–31). Those who understand these words according to the sense of the letter have no other belief than that during that latest period, which is called the final judgment, all these things are to come to pass just as they are described in the literal sense, that is, that the sun and moon will be darkened and the stars will fall from the sky, that the sign of the Lord will appear in the sky, and he himself will be seen in the clouds, attended by 1. [References in this edition, unless otherwise noted, are to Emanuel Swedenborg’s Arcana Coelestia and were made by Swedenborg.] The consummation of the age is the final period of the church (n. 4535, 10622). 2. The Lord’s predictions in Matthew (24 and 25), respecting the consummation of the age and His coming, and the consequent successive vastation of the church and the final judgment, are explained in the prefaces to chapters 26–40 of Genesis (n. 3353–3356, 3486–3489, 3650–3655, 3751–3757, 3897–3901, 4056–4060, 4229–4231, 4332–4335, 4422–4424, 4635–4638, 4661–4664, 4807–4810, 4954–4959, 5063–5071).