Heaven and Hell #336

By Emanuel Swedenborg

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336. I was also shown the nature of their delicate understanding. When I was saying the Lord's Prayer and they were flowing into my concepts from their own comprehension, I noticed that their inflow was so delicate and gentle that it was almost nothing but a feeling. At the same time, I noted that their understanding had been opened to the Lord, for it was as though what was coming from them was flowing through them. In fact, the Lord flows into children's concepts, primarily from the deepest ones. Nothing has closed these off, as happens with adults - no principles of falsity closing them off from true understanding, no life of evil closing them off from accepting what is good and thus from being wise.

We may gather from all this that children do not become angels immediately after their death but are gradually led [into heaven] through awareness of what is good and true, all according to the design of heaven. This is because the least details of their nature are known to the Lord, so they are led, in cooperation with every least impulse of their inclinations, toward the acceptance of truths that arise from good and the good that is done from truth.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.