Heaven and its Wonders and Hell by Emanuel Swedenborg
page 7 of 570 (01%)
page 7 of 570 (01%)
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and finally they become as if dumb, or they talk stupidly, and ramble
about with their arms dangling and swinging as if weak in the joints. Again, those who, like the Socinians, have denied the Divinity of the Lord and have acknowledged His Humanity only, are likewise outside of heaven; they are brought forward a little towards the right and are let down into the deep, and are thus wholly separated from the rest that come from the Christian world. Finally, those who profess to believe in an invisible Divine, which they call the soul of the universe [Ens universi], from which all things originated, and who reject all belief in the Lord, find out that they believe in no God; since this invisible Divine is to them a property of nature in her first principles, which cannot be an object of faith and love, because it is not an object of thought.{1} Such have their lot among those called Naturalists. It is otherwise with those born outside the church, who are called the heathen; these will be treated of hereafter. {Footnote 1} A Divine that cannot be perceived by any idea cannot be received by faith (n. 4733, 5110, 5663, 6982, 6996, 7004, 7211, 9356, 9359, 9972, 10067, 10267). 4. Infants, who form a third part of heaven, are all initiated into the acknowledgment and belief that the Lord is their Father, and afterwards that He is the Lord of all, thus the God of heaven and earth. That children grow up in heaven and are perfected by means of knowledges, even to angelic intelligence and wisdom, will be seen in the following pages. |
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