Heaven and Hell

581 Pages·2009·1.77 MB·English

by  Emanuel Swedenborg

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).