Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/201

 man. Hence also it is, that judgment is executed upon men when they have put off their natural and put on their spiritual bodies.

In the spiritual body, moreover, man appears such as he is in respect to love and faith; for every one in the spiritual world is the image of his own love not only as regards the face and body, but even as regards the speech and actions. Hence it is that the true character of all is known, and their instantaneous separation effected whenever the Lord pleases. From what has been said, it is plain that judgment is effected in the spiritual but not in the natural world, or on the earth.

The natural life in man has no potency, but his spiritual life in the natural, since what is natural of itself is void of life; and the life which appears in it is from the life of the spiritual man, and therefore it is the spiritual man who is judged; and being judged according to his deeds, means that man's spirit is judged; for every one after death is such as his life in the world has been.

Every one after death is bound to some society, even when he first comes into the spiritual world; but a spirit in his first state is ignorant of this, for he is then in externals and not yet in internals. When he is in this state, he goes hither and thither,