Coronis (Buss) n. 16

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16. Moreover, the arrangement of all in the heavens, and of all in the hells, is most perfect. For every heaven that is founded by the Lord after the consummation of each Church is made three-fold: it is made highest, middle and lowest. Into the highest are elevated those who are in love to the Lord and in wisdom thence; into the middle, those who are in spiritual love towards the neighbour and in intelligence thence; into the lowest, those who are in spiritual-natural love towards the neighbour, which is called charity, and thence in the faith of the truths concerning God and in a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue. These three heavens constitute three expanses, one above another, and communicate with each other by a Divine influx from the Lord out of the sun of the spiritual world. In the depth underneath, there are also three expanses into which the hells are distinguished, between which, in like manner, there is provided a communication by means of an influx through the heavens from the Lord. By means of these communications there is an intimate and indissoluble conjunction of all things in the heavens, and of all things in the hells; but in the latter it is a conjunction of all the lusts of the love of evil, while in the heavens it is a conjunction of all the affections of the love of good. By virtue of that conjunction, heaven is like one Lord sitting upon a throne girt about with wreaths formed of precious stones of every kind; but hell is like one devil sitting upon a seat entwined with vipers, serpents and poisonous worms. From this orderly arrangement, induced on both, it follows that both abide under the guidance and control of the Lord to eternity.


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