The Swedenborg Library Vol 1/Chapter 3
III.
DEATH.
AN is so created that, as to his internal, he cannot die; for he is capable of believing and of loving God, and thus of being conjoined to Him by faith and love. And to be thus conjoined to God is to live to eternity.
This internal exists in every man who is born; his external is that by which he brings into effect the things which belong to his faith and love. The internal of man is the spirit, and the external is the body. The external or the body is suited to the performance of uses in the natural world, and is rejected or put off at death; but the internal which is called the spirit, and which is suited to the performance of uses in the spiritual world, never dies. After death, this internal exists as a good spirit or angel, if the man had been good during his abode in the world; but if he had lived a wicked life, he is, after death, an evil spirit. (N. J. D. 223, '4.)
When the body is no longer capable of performing its functions in the natural world, corresponding to the thoughts and affections of its spirit which are from the spiritual world, then a man is said to die. This occurs when the respiratory motions of the lungs and the systolic motions of the heart cease. But still the man does not die, but is only separated from the corporeal part which was of use to him in the world; for the man himself lives. It is said that the man himself lives, because he is not man by virtue of the body but by virtue of the spirit; since it is the spirit in man which thinks, and thought together with affection makes the man.
Hence it is evident that when man dies, he only passes from one world into another. Hence it is that death, in the internal sense of the Word, signifies resurrection and continuation of life.
The inmost communication of the spirit is with the respiration and with the motion of the heart; its thought with the respiration, and affection which is of love, with the heart. When therefore these two motions cease, the separation of the spirit from the body takes place immediately. These two motions,—the respiratory motion of the lungs and the systolic motion of the heart,—are the very bonds on the sundering of which the spirit is left to itself; and the body being then without the life of its spirit, grows cold and putrefies. The inmost communication of the spirit of man is with the respiration and the heart, because all the vital motions depend upon these two, not only in the body generally, but also in every part of it.
The spirit of man after the separation, remains a little while in the body, but not after the motion of the heart has entirely ceased. This takes place sooner or later according to the nature of the disease of which the man dies; for in some cases the motion of the heart continues a long time, while in others it quickly ceases. As soon as this motion ceases, the man is resuscitated; but this is done by the Lord alone. (H. H. 445-447.)
