The Gist of Swedenborg by Emanuel Swedenborg
page 47 of 72 (65%)
page 47 of 72 (65%)
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faith and love; and to be united to God is to live to eternity.
--_Heavenly Doctrine, n._ 223 FROM WORLD TO WORLD When the body is no longer able to perform its functions in the natural world, a man is said to die. Still the man does not die; he is only separated from the bodily part which was of use to him in the world. The man himself lives. He lives, because he is man by virtue, not of the body, but of the spirit; for it is the spirit in man which thinks; and thought together with affection makes the man. It is plain, then, that when a man dies, he only passes from one world into the other.... The spirit of man after separation remains awhile in the body, but not after the motion of the heart has entirely ceased. This takes place with a variation according to the diseased condition of which the man dies. As soon as the motion ceases, the man is resuscitated. This is done by the Lord alone. --_Heaven and Hell, nn._ 445, 447 UNHURT BY DEATH When a man passes from the natural world into the spiritual, he takes with him everything that belongs to him as a man except his earthly body. (This he leaves when he dies, nor does he ever resume it.[A]) He is in a body as he was in the natural world; and to all appearance there is no difference. But his body is spiritual, and is therefore |
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