Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/240

144 is heaven in man, and that all the Divine is in the Lord; for men are in the life of evil. (ib. n. 2357.)

The Lord does not admit man interiorly into the truths of wisdom and into the goods of love, except so far as man can be kept in them to the end of life. (D. P. n. 233.)

They who know what the truth and good of faith is and yet do not in heart believe, as is the case with very many at this day, cannot profane; because the intellectual faculty does not receive and imbue itself therewith. (A. C. n. 4601.)

That the Word in the letter conceals such sublime treasures within it, is often visibly shown to spirits or souls that come into the other life; and it has sometimes been granted me to be present when this was done. . . . A certain spirit came to me, not long after his departure from the body,—as I could infer from the fact that as yet he did not know that he was in the other life, but imagined he was still living in the world. Perceiving that he was given to study, I spoke with him about his studies. But he was suddenly carried up on high; at which, being surprised, I conjectured that he was one of those who aspire to exalted station,—for such are often elevated to a lofty position; or of those that imagine heaven is on high,—who likewise are taken up, that they may thus know that heaven is not above, but within. But I soon perceived that he was taken up to the angelic spirits who are before, a little to the right, at the first threshold of heaven. He afterwards spoke with me from there, saying that he saw sublimer things than human minds can anywise conceive. When this occurred I was reading the first chapter of Deuteronomy, about the Jewish people, how that some were sent to explore the land of Canaan and what was there. But as I was reading he said he perceived nothing of the sense of the letter, but the things which are in the spiritual sense, and that these were wonderful,—such as could not be described. This was at the first threshold of the heaven of angelic spirits. What would not be perceived then in that heaven itself! And what, in the heaven of Angels! . . . . After this, on two occasions, I saw others taken up among the angelic spirits in another heaven, and they talked with me from there. I was then reading the third chapter of Deuteronomy, from the beginning to the end. They said they were in the interior sense only of the Word, and earnestly declared that there is not even a point in which there is not a spiritual sense, most beautiful, coherent with all the rest; and that the names are significant. (A. C. n. 3473, 3474.)