1. That every man after death becomes his own love, and that the spirit of man is nothing but the affection of his love. Therefore, when a man becomes a spirit, he thinks and consequently speaks from his own affection; he also wills and thence acts from his own affection, and then he also desires and takes in the things belonging to his affection or love, and those which do not agree with it, he turns away from and rejects. In fact, his face becomes successively that of his affection or love, and he is afterwards known from this; so, too, is he known from his speech, the tone of which is the tone of his affection. In a word, a man after death becomes his own love, or his own affection, in form. Therefore when any one speaks against the affection of a man's love, or assaults it, his face changes, and he himself also goes away or vanishes suddenly.

Since all men after death are the substances and forms of their own love, therefore the whole heaven, which consists of angels who have been men, is divided into societies according to the classes and species of affections, thus according to all the differences and varieties thereof. In the same way hell, which also consists of spirits who have been men, is divided into societies according to affections the opposite of those that are heavenly, and according to all their differences and varieties in general and particular. That a man after death is his own love, or the affection of his love, has been hitherto unknown in the world; for men have believed that affection is of no account, while thought is; and this because man had not the power of reflecting upon the affections, and their variations in himself, but only upon the thoughts and their variations; for the latter he sees, as it were, inwardly in himself, but not his affections. And what is not seen in thought and made evident is not noticed. He, however, who is wise is able to know his affections from his thoughts; for the latter manifest themselves in the former, when a man is in the freedom of his spirit and with himself alone. For he then thinks from the affection of his love. Nor is thought anything else but affection made visible in various form by the influx of light. If, therefore, you were to take away affection, thought would immediately cease; just as light does if you take away flame. From these things it is evident how important it is to acquire for oneself heavenly love or affection; how this can be done will be shown in what follows. Let it be observed that by affection is meant love in its continuity.

[2] 2. That the whole life of man is the life of his love, and that the love and life in man make one, and are one, is evident from what has been said above - that every one appears in the spiritual world with a face like his love; that he speaks, thinks, wills, desires, lusts, rejoices, and is sad, in agreement with it, and that these constitute his life, and proceed from it. That this is the case is quite clear from spirits and angels, all of whom are men both in face and body. As soon as the love of any one is assaulted, he vanishes with his whole body, even although shut up in a chamber, as has been seen by me frequently. It was evident, therefore, that an angel and spirit is not only affection in a human form, but also that his whole life from the head to the sole of the foot, or from his hat to his shoe, is nothing but affection of love. Otherwise a spirit could not wholly disappear from the eyes of those sitting with him. Inquiry was made whether his bodily form and its members is also an affection of love; and this was found to be the case with every thing pertaining to them. The reason of this is, that the whole heaven, which, as was said above, is divided and formed into societies according to all the differences and varieties of affections, resembles one man, and all angels and spirits are consequently human forms. Therefore as heaven is the aggregate of all affections, so also is an angel and a spirit; these are the least forms of heaven.

Hence this mystery was made plain to me, and was also confirmed from heaven, that every thing in man, both mind and body, are forms of love in a wonderful series, and that the organs of the cerebrum and face, also the members and viscera of the body, are continuous structures corresponding to the affections of the societies of heaven. So also, another mystery was made known to me - that the affections, and thence the thoughts of the mind, extend and diffuse themselves into every thing belonging to the body, as into the field of their activity; this field is from the affection of the mind and its thought for uses, from which, in which, and according to which, the members and viscera of the body are formed. The case here is similar to that which happens with the affections and thoughts of the angels, which diffuse themselves in every direction into heaven and its societies. The wisdom of the angels is according to their extension. But upon this subject more may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell, namely, that all the angels are images of heaven, and thus, as it were, heavens in least forms (n. 41-58). That the whole heaven resembles one man, and that hence angels and spirits are human forms (n. 59- 102). That all thought from affection, proceeding from the angels, has extension into the societies of heaven, according to the quality of their love and wisdom (n. 200-212).

[3] 3. Since love constitutes a man's life, and man will live to eternity, according to his life acquired in the world, either in heaven or in hell, it is a matter of the highest importance to know how heavenly love is acquired, so that his life, which is to have no end, may be blessed and happy.

[4] 4. There are two primary faculties of man's life, namely, the will and the understanding. The will is the receptacle of all things pertaining to good, and the understanding is the receptacle of all things pertaining to truth from that good. A man cannot be reformed but by means of these two faculties of his life, and by their being filled with goods and truths. Reformation is effected in the following order. First, a man must fill his memory with the knowledges and cognitions of truth and good, by means of which he will acquire the light (lumen) of reason; and especially he must learn that God is one, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, that there are a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death, and that the Word is holy.

[5] 5. Then he must learn what evils are sins; first from the Decalogue, and afterwards from the Word throughout. And he must think that they are sins against God, and that therefore they keep back and separate man from heaven, and condemn and sentence him to hell. This is why the first thing in reformation is to desist from sins, to shun them, and at length to become averse to them; but in order to do this, he must ask the Lord for aid. He must also shun and hold them in aversion, because they are opposed to the Word, thus to the Lord, and consequently to heaven, and because they are in themselves infernal.

[6] 6. So far as a man shuns evils, and is averse to them because they are sins, and thinks of heaven, his salvation, and eternal life; so far is he adopted by the Lord, conjoined to heaven, and gifted, to the same extent, with spiritual affection; which is such that he not only desires to know truths, but also to understand them, also to will and to do them.

[7] 7. Thus is a man reformed by the Lord. And so far as a man then knows and understands truths, and also wills and does them, so far does he become a new man, in other words, a regenerate man, and he becomes an angel of heaven, who possesses heavenly love and life.

[8] 8. His love and life are altogether such as the works of his will are; and the works of the will are according to the truths that are applied to life. The knowledges of truth and good which man has acquired for himself from infancy, and with which he has filled his memory, do not live in him until he begins to be affected with truths because they are truths, and also to will and do them. Previous to this they only stand outside a man's life.

[9] 9. By good works are meant every thing that a man does after he has become averse to evils because they are sins against God; for then he no longer does them of himself but from the Lord. He then also learns every day what he is to do. He has also a clear discernment of goods and evils; he shuns the latter and does the former with prudence, intelligence, and wisdom. So far concerning love, which constitutes the life of man. Something shall now be said concerning faith.

[10] 10. The ancients did not know what faith is; but in place of faith they had truth. For truth, when perceived, or seen in the understanding, and thus acknowledged, is believed for its own sake. Therefore it cannot be said of it that one must have faith in it, for faith is in it. For example, suppose any one sees a tree and flower in a garden, and another were to say to him that he ought to believe, or have faith in the existence of the tree and flower, and that it is such and such a tree and flower; would not he answer, why do you want me to believe, or have faith in this, when I see it myself? This is why the angels of the third heaven, because they perceive truths from good, are not willing even to mention faith, nor indeed to know that it exists. Neither do the angels of the second heaven acknowledge the term faith, because they see truths from the light of truth, with which their understanding is enlightened. They wonder and smile, when they hear any one say, that the understanding is to be held captive in obedience to faith, and that one must have faith in things not perceived and not seen. They then say that in this way falsity might be believed, and be placed by confirmations, as it were, in light, and truth itself, as it were, in darkness; and thus truth might become the sport of falsity, as one plays with a ball.

[11] 11. When the world could no longer see truths from the love of them and from the light of them, owing to their becoming natural and external, then faith began to be spoken of; and everything connected with faith began to be called truth, although not perceived or seen, but merely affirmed by some leader of thought, and confirmed from passages of the Word not understood. This is the state in which the churches are at this day in the Christian world; in each of which it is believed that the doctrinals of their faith are true; and this for no other reason than that they are held by the church of their country. That nevertheless it is neither perceived nor seen whether they are true, is evident from the many discussions, disputations, opinions and heresies concerning them, in general and in particular, both at home and abroad.

[12] 12. So long as faith was conjoined to works, and charity was acknowledged as an equal with faith, or above it, so long was the church in truths from the Word, although they were few, because they did not see them. As soon, however, as faith was separated from charity, the church lapsed from truths into falsities, and at length into a faith that has destroyed all the truths of the church. This faith is that of justification and salvation by the merit of the Lord with the Father. For since this faith alone, and separated, moreover, from the goods of life, which are good works, saves, what need is there of truths that teach the way and lead to heaven? Live and believe however you like, and merely hold that faith, and you will be saved. But let me tell thee, my reader, that all who live that faith are in natural love separated from spiritual love; and such love is the love of self and the world, and thence the love of all evils, and from the evils the love of all falsities; and that all such are so empty, and at the same time so blind, that they do not know even a single genuine truth of the church, nor do they see one in the Word, although they have it and read it. Many of them also are such as to have no desire to know or see truth of any kind.

[13] 13. The reason is, that no truth, still less anything that can be called faith, can possibly exist with a man, unless he wills and does it; for previous to this it is not a truth of the life, but only a truth of the memory, which is extraneous to the man and not within him; and what is extraneous is dissipated. Hence it is evident, that faith without works is not faith, unless it is a faith of falsity from evil, which is a dead faith, such as reigns in hell.