524. 1. Everyone has imputed to him after death the evil in which he is engaged; likewise the good. To make this discernible in some clarity, we will examine it in distinct parts as follows:
1. Everyone has his own particular life.
2. His own life awaits everyone after death.
3. An evil person then has the evilness of his life imputed to him, and a good person the goodness of his life.
First, that everyone has his own particular life. People know that everyone has his own particular life, thus one distinct from that of another. For there is a perpetual variety in everything, and no two things are the same. Therefore everyone has his own identity. This is clearly apparent from people's faces. No one's face is exactly like that of another, nor can it be to eternity. That is because no two minds are alike, and the mind begets the face; for the face is, as people say, an image of the mind, and the mind draws its origin and form from the person's life.
[2] If a person did not have his own particular life, as he does his own particular mind and his own particular face, he would not have any life after death distinct from that of another. Indeed, neither would there be a heaven, for heaven consists of perpetually distinct individuals. Its form derives solely from varieties of souls and minds disposed into such an order that they constitute a united whole, and this from one whose life is in each and every element there as the soul is in man. If this were not so, heaven would be dispersed, because its form would be dissolved.
The one from whom each and every one of its constituents has life, and who causes the form to cohere, is the Lord.
Every form in general consists of a variety of elements, and its character depends on the harmonious coordination and disposition of these into a united whole. Such is the human form. So it is that, although consisting of so many members, viscera and organs, a person has no sensation of anything arising in him or emanating from him except as its being a united whole.
[3] Second, that his own life awaits everyone after death. People in the church know this from the Word, and it is known from the following passages there:
...the Son of man will come..., and then He will render to each according to his deeds. (Matthew 16:27)
...I saw...books...opened.... And they were judged, all according to their works. (Revelation 20:12-13)
...in the day of...judgment..., (God) will render to each one according to his works. (Romans 2:5-6. Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10)
The works according to which it will be rendered to everyone are his life, because it is his life that does them and they are in accord with his life.
Because it has been granted me for many years to be in the company of angels and to speak with newcomers from the world, I can testify for a certainty that everyone is examined there to discover what sort of life he led, and that the life he acquired in the world awaits him as his life to eternity. I have spoken with people who lived centuries ago, whose life was known to me from historical records, and I have found it to be like the description. I have also been told by angels that a person's life cannot be changed after death, because it has been structured in accordance with his love and consequent works. Moreover, that if it were changed, the organic structure would be destroyed, which can never happen. They also said that a change in the organic structure is possible only in the material body, and not at all possible in the spiritual body after the former has been cast off.
[4] Third, that an evil person then has the evilness of his life imputed to him, and a good person the goodness of his life. An imputation of evil does not require indictment, arraignment, conviction and sentencing as in the world, but it is brought about by the evil itself. For evil people of their own free will separate themselves from the good, since they cannot be together. The delights of an evil love detest the delights of a good love, and atmospheres of delight emanate from everyone there like odors from every plant on earth; for these are not absorbed and concealed by a material body as before, but flow freely out into the spiritual atmosphere from their loves. So, because evil there is detected virtually in its smell, it is this which indicts, arraigns, convicts and sentences, not in the presence of some judge, but in the presence of everyone who is in a state of good. This, then, is what we mean by imputation. Moreover, an evil person chooses companions with whom to live in his delight, and because he detests the delight of good, of his own accord he betakes himself to his like in hell.
[5] An imputation of good is effected similarly. This happens in the case of those who in the world acknowledged that every good in them was from the Lord and none from themselves. After they have been prepared, they are conveyed into the interior delights of good, and a path is then opened for them into heaven, to a society whose delights are homogeneous with theirs. This is brought about by the Lord.
