EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
created man: who imagines anything more? But that these things contain arcana which have never hitherto been revealed, will be sufficiently evident from what follows; and indeed that the first chapter of Genesis in the internal sense treats of the New Creation of man, or of his Regeneration, in general, and of the Most Ancient Church in particular; and indeed in such manner that there is not the least particle of an expression that does not represent, signify, and involve these things.
"V. But that such is the case no mortal can ever know unless from the Lord. For this reason it is permitted to state at the outset that of the Lord's mercy it has been granted me now for several years to be constantly and continuously in the company of spirits and angels, to hear them speaking and in turn to speak with them; hence it has been given me to hear and see astonishing things which are in the other life, which have never come to the knowledge of any man, nor into his idea. I have there been instructed concerning different kinds of spirits, concerning the state of souls after death, concerning hell or the lamentable state of the unfaithful, concerning heaven
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