Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/152

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THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY.

A HOME IN HEAVEN FOR ALL WHO LIVE WELL.

Among the arcana of heaven is this: That the angelic heaven is in the sight of the Lord as one man, of whom the Lord is the soul and life; and this divine man is in every particular of his form a man, not only as to his external, hut also as to his internal members and organs which are many, and likewise as to the skin, membranes, cartilages and bones. None of these parts in that man however are material, but all are spiritual.

And it is provided by the Lord that those whom the gospel cannot reach, but yet some religion, may likewise have a place in that man, that is, in heaven, by constituting the parts called the skin, membranes, cartilages and bones; and that they may live in heavenly joy just as well as others. It makes no difference whether a person be in such joy as is experienced by the angels of the highest heaven, or in such as is experienced by the angels of the lowest heaven, since every one, who is received into heaven, enters into the supreme or full joy of his heart; and greater than that he cannot bear, for thereby he would be suffocated.

The case is similar to that of a husbandman as compared with a king. The former may be in a state of the greatest happiness when he goes clad in a new suit of coarse worsted apparel, and sits down to a table furnished with plain and wholesome food; and he would be distressed at heart if he were to be clothed like a king in purple, silk, gold and silver, and if a table were

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