Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 80

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80. Because the angels have no perception of an invisible Divine, which they call a Divine devoid of form, but perceive a visible Divine in Human form, they are accustomed to say that the Lord alone is Man, and that they are men from Him, each one being a man in the measure of his reception of the Lord. By receiving the Lord they mean receiving the good and truth which are from Him, since the Lord is in His good and in His truth. This they call wisdom and intelligence. Everyone knows, they say, that it is intelligence and wisdom that make a man, and not a face without these. The truth of this is evident from the appearance of the angels of the interior heavens, for they, being in good and truth from the Lord, and consequently in wisdom and intelligence, are in the most beautiful and perfect human form, while the angels of the lower heavens are in a human form of less perfection and beauty. In hell, the reverse is the case. Those who are there appear in the light of heaven hardly as men, but as monsters. For they are in evil and falsity and not in good and truth, and so are in the opposites of wisdom and intelligence. For this reason, their life is not called life, but spiritual death.


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