Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 412

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412. Scarcely any who enter the other life know what heavenly blessedness and happiness are, because they do not know what internal joy is, deriving their perception of it solely from corporeal and worldly gladness and joy. In consequence, what they are ignorant of they suppose to be nothing, when in fact corporeal and worldly joys are of no account in comparison. In order, therefore, that the well-disposed, who do not know what heavenly joy is, may know and realize what it is, they are taken first to paradisal scenes that transcend every conception of the imagination. They then think that they have come into the heavenly paradise; but they are taught that this is not true heavenly happiness. And so they are permitted to realize such interior states of joy as are perceptible to their inmost. They are then brought into a state of peace even to their inmost, when they confess that nothing of it is in the least expressible or conceivable. Finally, they are brought into a state of innocence even to their inmost sense. Thus, they are permitted to learn what truly spiritual and heavenly good is.


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