607. IX. A person who is regenerate is in touch with the angels of heaven, one who is not with the spirits of hell.

The reason why everyone on earth is in touch, that is, is associated with either the angels of heaven or the spirits of hell, is that he has by birth the ability to become spiritual. This would be impossible unless he were somehow linked with those who are spiritual. I showed in my book HEAVEN AND HELL that as regards his mind a person is in both the natural and spiritual worlds. This link is not known to men on earth, nor is it to angels or spirits because, so long as a person lives in the world, he is in the natural state, while an angel or spirit is in the spiritual state. The difference between the natural and the spiritual prevents the one from being seen by the other. There is a description of the nature of this difference in my book CONJUGIAL LOVE; see the account of an experience related there (326-329) ¹ . From this it is plain that what links them is not thoughts, but affections; and hardly anyone reflects on his affections, because they are not exposed to the light enjoyed by the understanding and consequently its thought-processes, but to the heat enjoyed by the will and consequently the affection of its love. The link between men and angels and spirits brought about by the affections of love is so close that if it were broken and angels and spirits were thus cut off, men would immediately fall unconscious; and if the link were not repaired and re-established, they would die.

[2] When we say that a person by regeneration becomes spiritual, this does not mean that he becomes spiritual in the way an angel is in himself. It means that he becomes spiritual-natural; that is to say, his natural has something spiritual within it. This is like the presence of thought in speech, and of will in action, for if one ceases, so does the other. Likewise a person's spirit is present in everything that happens in the body, and it is the spirit which impels the natural to do what it does. The natural regarded in itself is passive, a dead force, but the spiritual is active, a living force. What is passive or a dead force cannot act of its own accord, but must be impelled by what is active or a living force.

[3] Since a person lives constantly in touch with the inhabitants of the spiritual world, when he leaves the natural world, he is therefore at once brought into the company of those who resemble the companions he had while he was in the world. That is why everyone after death has the impression that he is still living in the world. For he then comes into the company of those who share similar affections of the will; he recognises such people, in much the same way as relations recognise those who are akin to them in the world. This is what is said in the Word about those who die, that they are collected and gathered to their own people. These considerations can now establish that a regenerate person is in touch with the angels of heaven, an unregenerate one with the spirits of hell.

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