Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/35

 gross body which he had in the world. He leaves this when he dies, nor does he ever resume it.

This continuation of life is meant by the resurrection. The reason that men believe they shall not rise again before the last judgment, when, as they think, the whole visible creation will be destroyed, is, that they do not understand the Word; and because sensual men place all their life in the body, and imagine that unless the body be re-animated, a man can have no existence hereafter.

The life of a man after death is the life of his love and faith; hence the nature of his life to eternity is determined by the quality of these during his life in the world. With those who had loved themselves and the world supremely, this life is the life of hell; and with those who had loved God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, it is the life of heaven. The latter have faith, but the former have not. The life of heaven is called eternal life; and the life of hell is called spiritual death.

That man continues to live after the death of the body, is plainly taught in the Word; as when it is said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matt. xxii. 31); that Lazarus after death was carried into heaven, and that the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell (Luke xvi. 22, 23, and the following verses); that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in heaven (Matt. viii. 11; xxii. 31, 32; Luke xxii. 37, 38); and when Jesus said to the thief on the cross,