329. 4. This means that everyone is predestined to heaven and no one to hell. I have explained in Heaven and Hell 545-550 (published in London in 1758) that the Lord does not throw anyone into hell, but that spirits throw themselves in. That is how it is with everyone who is evil and cynical after death. It is much the same with people who are evil and irreligious in this world, except that in this world they can be reformed; they can embrace and absorb the means of salvation, which they cannot do after they leave this world.

The means of salvation boil down to these two, that we are to abstain from evils because they are against the divine laws in the Ten Commandments, and that we are to acknowledge that God exists. We can all do this, provided we do not love what is evil. The Lord is constantly flowing into our volition with the power to abstain from evils and into our discernment with the power to think that God is real. However, no one can do one of these things without doing the other as well. They are united the way the two tablets of the Ten Commandments are united, the one being for the Lord and the other for us. From his tablet, the Lord is enlightening and empowering everyone, but we accept that power and enlightenment only as we do what is on our tablet. Until we do that, it is as though the two tablets were lying face to face and closed with a seal; but as we do what is on our tablet, they are unsealed and opened.

[2] What are the Ten Commandments nowadays but a closed booklet or leaflet opened only by the hands of children and youths? Try telling people of mature years that they should not do something because it is against the Ten Commandments--who actually cares? Of course, if you say that they should not do something because it is against divine laws they may listen. But the Ten Commandments are divine laws. I have checked this out with any number of people in the spiritual world, people who sneered when I talked about the Ten Commandments or the catechism. This is because the second tablet of the Ten Commandments, our tablet, tells us that we are to abstain from evils; and if people do not abstain from them, whether because they are irreligious or because their religion says that works do nothing for our salvation, only faith, they feel smug on hearing talk of the Ten Commandments or the catechism. It is like hearing about some children's book that is no longer of any use to them.

[3] I mention this to show that none of us is unfamiliar with the means by which we can be saved, or the power, if we want to be saved. It follows from this that everyone is predestined to heaven, and no one to hell.

However, since for some people a belief in predestination to nonsalvation, which is damnation, has taken over, and this belief is vicious, and since it cannot be dispelled unless reason sees its insanity and cruelty, I need to deal with the matter in the following sequence. (a) Any predestination but predestination to heaven is contrary to divine love and its infinity. (b) Any predestination but predestination to heaven is contrary to divine wisdom and its infinity. (c) It is an insane heresy to believe that only those born in the church are saved. (d) It is a cruel heresy to believe that any member of the human race is damned by predestination.

6408. 'From Asher' means the blessedness that the affections possess, that is to say, heavenly affections, which are those of love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour. This is clear from the representation of 'Asher' as the happiness of eternal life and the blessedness that the affections possess, dealt with in 3938, 3939, in addition to which he was called Asher from a word meaning blessedness. As regards that blessedness, it is not easy to describe it, for the reason that it is an inner blessedness, which rarely reveals itself physically in a person and so is rarely perceptible. For while a person lives in the body he is distinctly aware of what presents itself in his body, but he is only very dimly aware of what presents itself in his spirit; for while a person is living in his body worldly concerns impede his awareness of it. The blessedness that the affections possess cannot flow into his perception in the body where those concerns are centred unless what exists on the natural and sensory levels has been brought into agreement with what exists on interior levels; and even then it is only a dim awareness, no more than a calm feeling brought about by his contented state of mind. But after he has died that blessedness makes itself plain and is felt to be blessing and happiness, which affect him both interiorly and exteriorly. In short the blessedness that heavenly affections possess is that which his soul or spirit possesses, flowing in by an interior route and reaching through to the body, where it is received to the extent that the delights springing from the loves that belong to the natural and the senses do not stand in the way.

[2] This blessedness does not exist in any way at all with those whose delight is that of self-love and love of the world; for these loves are quite the opposite of it. People ruled by these loves therefore are not at all able to understand how any blessedness can exist apart from that of being promoted to important positions, being venerated as if they were gods, having an abundance of riches, and possessing more wealth than others. And if these people are told that the delight that springs from those loves is external and perishes along with the body, and that what remains of it in the mind is turned after death into a miserable and hideous delight, such as exists with those in hell, but that an internal kind of delight exists, and that this is a blissful and happy one such as exists with those in heaven, they do not comprehend these things at all, for the reason that with them the external holds sway and the internal is closed. From all this one may see how to understand 'the blessedness that the affections possess', a blessedness meant by 'Asher'.