Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 99

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99. Now although all bodily things of man correspond to all things of heaven, yet it is not in respect of his external form that man is an image of heaven but in respect of his internal form. For the interiors of man receive heaven and his exteriors receive the world. So far, therefore, as his interiors receive heaven, man is, in respect of them, a heaven in least form after the image of the greatest. But so far as his interiors do not receive heaven, he is not a heaven and an image of the greatest. Nevertheless, his exteriors which receive the world can be in a form in accordance with the order of the world and thus, variously beautiful. For outward beauty which pertains to the body is derived from parents and from formation in the womb, and is afterwards preserved by a general influx from the world. Hence it is that the form of one's natural man differs greatly from the form of his spiritual man. Several times I have been shown what was the form of man's spirit, and in some who were beautiful and charming in appearance the spirit was seen to be so deformed, black and monstrous that you would call it an image of hell, not of heaven; while in others not beautiful in outward form, there was a spirit beautifully formed, pure and angelic. Moreover, the spirit of man after death appears such as it was in the body when living in the world.


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