940. Just and true are thy ways. That this signifies that all the truths of heaven and the church are from Him, is evident from the signification of ways, as denoting truths (concerning which see n. 97); therefore when said of the Lord, all the truths of heaven and the church are signified. They are called just and true ways, because truths of the Lord, and from the Lord, are from good, consequently are goods; for just, in the Word, is predicated of good. The reason why ways signify truths is, that truths lead man like ways; therefore ways signify truths leading. This signification of ways is derived from the spiritual world, where all walk in ways according to their truths. Ways in that world are not like the ways in our world, made plain and determined from one place to another; but they are opened to every one according to his truths, and are of such a nature, that no one who is in other truths can see them, but only the person himself. The ways lead them to the places whither they go, as to societies, with which they are to be conjoined, or from which they are to be separated; and lastly to the society where they are to remain.
Continuation:-
[2] When a man's interior is purified from evils by desisting from them and shunning them because they are sins, then the internal is opened, which is above it, and which is called the spiritual internal. This communicates with heaven; hence it is that a man is then introduced into heaven, and conjoined to the Lord.
There are two internals with man, one beneath and the other above. The internal which is beneath is that in which a man is, and from which he thinks, while he lives in the world, for it is natural. This, by way of distinction, we shall call the interior. But the internal which is above is that into which a man comes after death when he comes into heaven. All the angels of heaven are in this internal, for it is spiritual. It is this internal which is opened to the man who shuns evils as sins, but it is kept closed to the man who does not shun, evils as sins.
[3] The reason why this internal is kept closed to the man who does not shun evils as sins is, that the interior, or natural internal, before man becomes purified from sins, is hell; and so long as hell is there, heaven cannot be opened; but as soon as hell is removed, then it is opened. It must be known, however, that the spiritual internal and heaven are opened to man, so far as the natural internal is purified from the hell which is there; and this is not effected at once, but by degrees successively. From these things it is evident that a man of himself is hell, and becomes heaven by the Lord. Consequently, that he is rescued from hell by the Lord, and raised up to Himself into heaven, not immediately, but mediately, the means being the precepts just mentioned, by which the Lord leads him who is willing to be led.
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