1. A

Abaddon [Abaddon]. See Destroyer.

Abomination [abominatio]. The evils enumerated in the second table of the Decalogue are called abominations, shown n. 891.

Abyss [abyssus]. A description of the pit of the abyss, where they are who have confirmed in themselves faith alone separated from charity, n. 421, 442.

Accuse, to [accusare]. Accuser and to accuse, when spoken of the devil, signifies to bring forth various things out of man, and to condemn, n. 554.

Adore, to [adorare]. To adore signifies to acknowledge as holy or sacred, n. 579, 580, 588, 630. When spoken with respect to the Lord, it signifies to acknowledge him as the God of heaven and earth, and to adore him, n. 630.

Adultery [adulterium]. To commit adultery and whoredom signifies to adulterate and to falsify the goods and truths of the Word, illustrated and shown n. 134. The reason is, because in the Word and in every part thereof there is a marriage of the Lord and the church, also a marriage of good and truth, which constitutes the church; concerning which, n. 134, 359, 380, 812, 816, 881, 955. See Marriage and Bridegroom. That by the great harlot of Babylon is signified the adulteration and profanation of the Word, n. 719. See Papists.

Afar off [longinquum]. Afar off signifies remoteness of state, that is, removed from such things as constitute states of good and truth, and thence appertain to the church, illustrated and shown n. 769. The contrary is signified by near, n. 947. See At hand. To stand afar off, and to lament over damnation signifies to be in a state remote from damnation and in fear, n. 769,783, 787.

Affection [affectio]. See Love.

Affliction [afflictio]. Affliction signifies the state of the church infested by evils and falsities, shown n. 33. It also signifies temptations, n. 377. Affliction is predicated of falsities, n. 95,137.

After [post]. To walk after another signifies to obey, shown n. 578.

Air [aer]. What is signified by air, see n. 708.

Alas [vae]. See Woe.

Allelujah [alleluia]. It signifies praise ye God; it was an expression of thanksgiving, confession, and celebration of the Lord from joy of heart, shown n. 803, 807, 808. See To praise.

Altar [altare]. In the church amongst the children of Israel there were two altars, one for burnt offerings, the other for incense; and by the altar for burnt offerings is represented, and thence signified worship from celestial love, and by the altar for incense, worship from spiritual love illustrated and shown n. 392, 649. See Sacrifice and Incense. The altar for burnt offerings also signifies the celestial kingdom of the Lord, n. 649. Fire was continually burning upon the altar of burnt offering, and that hence fire was taken in the censer, and offered with incense, shown n. 395. That fire signifies the Divine celestial love, n. 395. See Fire.

Amen [amen]. Amen signifies confirmation from the truth, and since the Lord is truth itself, it signifies confirmation from the Lord, shown n. 23, 61, 199, 292, and it also signifies consent of all, n. 375.

Amphitheater [amphitheatrum]. Concerning the amphitheater where the dragons held their diversions, illustrated n. 655. Concerning their diversions there, see Faith.

Angel [angelus]. By angel, in the highest sense, is meant the Lord, in a respective sense, heaven, also a heavenly society, and likewise Divine truth, n. 647, 910. By angel, in the highest sense, is meant the Lord, illustrated and shown n. 5, 258, 344, 465, 647, 910, also by the seven angels, n. 657. By angel and angels are signified heaven because heaven is heaven from the Lord, n. 5, 342, 910. By Michael and Gabriel are not meant any archangel but societies of heaven and ministries therein, by Michael are meant societies of angels, whose special ministry is to teach, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and that God the Father and he are one; and by Gabriel are meant societies of angels, wherein is taught, that Jehovah came into the world, and that his human is the son of God, n. 77, 548, 564. Angel signifies Divine truth n. 900, 910. Concerning the angels of the third heaven, n. 120, and in the following. An angel does not speak with man out of heaven, but the Lord through heaven; but when an angel is to talk with man, he is sent out of heaven, and talks with man from the Lord, n. 816 See Heaven. The angels are not superior men, but their equals; the reason why they excel men in wisdom is because they are in spiritual light, but men in natural light 818. Angels and spirits know nothing of man, with whom they do not speak; the reason is because they are consociated by correspondences, n. 943. Angels are consociated with men, but the Lord only is conjoined with them n. 818, 946. Angels are not to be invoked, much less worshiped, but only the Lord, n. 818. He is an angel of heaven who receives the Lord in love and faith, n. 344.

Animals [animalia]. See Beasts. Concerning the four animals, see Cherubim.

Anointing, to Anoint [unctio, ungere]. See Oil.

Antipas [Antipas]. The martyr, that is, a confessor of the truth, n. 112.

Apes [simia]. Concerning apes mounted on horses, and seated thereon with their bodies reversed: who they were, and of what nature and quality, illustrated n. 839.

Apocalypse [Apocalypsis]. The Apocalypse treats concerning the last state of the Christian church, afterwards concerning the last judgment, and lastly concerning the new church, which is the new Jerusalem, and not concerning the empires or kingdoms of the world, Preface, and n. 2, 227, 387, 483, 543. In series it treats of the falsities in the church, inasmuch as the truths of the new church cannot be received before those falsities are discovered and removed, n. 700. The Apocalypse was manifested to John by the Lord, and it is now opened by him, preface, and n. 953, 954, 957. Nothing shall be added or taken away from what is written in Revelation signifies that nothing shall be added or taken away from the truths of the new church which contain prophecies, and are now revealed, illustrated n. 957–959. The last words in Revelation are the words of betrothal between the Lord and the church to marriage, n. 960.

Apostles [apostoli]. By the disciples of the Lord are meant those who are taught and instructed in the goods and truths of the church, n. 79. By apostles are meant those who teach the goods and truths of the church, and the twelve apostles of the Lord consequently represent and thence in the Word signify the church as to all the goods and truths thereof, n. 5, 233, 790, 903, 915. What is signified by Peter, James, and John, n. 5. The same is signified by the apostles sitting on twelve thrones, and judging the twelve tribes of Israel, n. 233, 798. The apostles are called holy, because they represent holy things, n. 790.

Ark [arca]. See Decalogue.

Armageddon [Armageddon]. Armageddon signifies the love of honor, dominion, and preeminence, shown n. 707. To gather together to war, in Armageddon signifies a state of combat from falsities against truths, and a desire of destroying the new church, arising from a love of dominion or power and preeminence, n. 707, illustrated n. 839. Concerning the combat in Armageddon with respect to the understanding of the Lord’s prayer in its beginning, illustrated n. 839. See Prayer.

Arms [arma]. Arms signifies such things as belong to spiritual war, shown n. 436. See War. Breast plates signify argument, shown n. 436, 450.

Army or Host [exercitus]. An army signifies those who are in Divine goods and truths, and thence abstractly goods and truths, and in the opposite sense, those who are in evils and falsities, and thence abstractly evils and falsities, illustrated and shown n. 447, 833. Therefore the sun, moon, and the stars, are called hosts or armies, shown n. 447. By sun, moon, and stars, are signified the goods and truths of the church, also its evils and falsities, n. 413. See Sun, Moon, and Stars.

Artificer [artifex]. An artificer signifies a man who is intelligent, and who from understanding thinks truths, and, in the opposite sense, who from self-derived intelligence thinks falsities, illustrated and shown n. 793. Every kind of device in the world corresponds with such things as belong to angelic wisdom, illustrated n. 793.

Asher [Ascher]. Asher in the highest sense signifies eternity, in the spiritual sense, eternal happiness, in the natural sense, the affection of good and truth, also the love of being useful, which is called mutual love, shown n. 353.

Asia [Asia]. Asia signifies those who are in the light of truth from the Word, illustrated n. 11. Concerning Great Tartary in Asia, n. 11. See Tartary.

Assyria or Ashur [Assyria]. It signifies the rational faculty of the church, illustrated n. 444. See Euphrates.

At Hand, Near, Nearness [prope, propinquum]. At hand and near signifies nearness of state, also that it is absolutely necessary, illustrated n. 947. See also Afar Off, and Shortly.

Atmospheres [atmospherae]. In the spiritual world there are atmospheres like ether, air, and water, in which the angels of the three heavens dwell, and those atmospheres are spiritual, n. 238, 878.

Axe [securis]. An axe signifies the falsity from one’s own intelligence, illustrated and shown n. 847.

421. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. This symbolizes their hell opened.

A key symbolizes the power to open, and also to close (nos. 62, 174, 840). And a bottomless pit symbolizes hell, where those people reside who have affirmed in themselves justification and salvation by faith alone, all of whom come from the Protestant Reformed Church. Here, however, they are people who appear in their own eyes and so in the eyes of many others to be educated and erudite - even though in the sight of angels in heaven they appear to be bereft of intellect as regards matters having to do with heaven and the church, since people who affirm such a faith, even so far as to affirm its inner tenets, close the higher constituents of their intellect, and this at last to such an extent that they can no longer see any spiritual truth in any light. The reason is that an affirmation of falsity constitutes a denial of the truth. Consequently, whenever they hear some spiritual truth, namely, a truth of the Word serviceable for doctrine and life for people of the church, they keep their mind in the falsities they have affirmed; and then they either shroud the truth they have heard in falsities or reject it as nothing but words, or they yawn at it and turn away, and this the more conceited they are owing to their erudition. For conceit glues the falsities together until they at last stick together, like solidified sea foam. The Word is therefore hidden from them, like a book sealed with seven seals.

[2] I will describe, furthermore, their character, and the character of their hell, because it has been given me to see it and speak with the inhabitants there, and also to see the locusts that issued from it:

That pit, which is like the mouth of a furnace, appears in the southern zone, and the abyss beneath it extends a great distance toward the east. The inhabitants in it have light, but if light from heaven is let in, the hell becomes dark. Consequently the pit is closed above.

Seen there are huts with arched roofs, built seemingly of brick, which are divided into several small rooms, and each room has in it a table, with sheets of paper lying on it, along with some books. At each table sits someone who in the world affirmed justification and salvation by faith alone, making charity a merely natural moral act, and deeds of charity simply those of civil life by which people are able to achieve rewards in the world; but if people should do those deeds for the sake of salvation, they condemn those deeds, and some of them do so severely, because the deeds have in them human reason and human will.

All the people in this abyss were educated and erudite in the world. And among them are some metaphysicians and scholastics who are held in higher esteem than the rest there. I recognized several when it was granted me to speak with them.

[3] Their fate, however, is this: When they are first admitted there, they sit in the first small rooms; but as they argue for faith to the exclusion of works of charity, they leave their former seats and go into little rooms nearer the east, and this repeatedly until they reach the end, where those people reside who use the Word to defend those tenets. And because they cannot help but falsify the Word then, their huts vanish, and they see themselves in a desert; and at that point they undergo such experiences as described in no. 153 above.

There is also another abyss beneath that abyss, where the residents are people who have similarly argued for justification and salvation by faith alone, but who within themselves, in their spirit, have denied God, and at heart have laughed at the sanctities of the church. They do nothing but argue there, tearing their garments, climbing up on the tables, stamping their feet and battling each other with invectives. And because no one is permitted to do physical harm there, they threaten vocally and shake their fists.

The environment there is unclean and squalid. But this a subject for another time.

153. To this I will add the following account, regarding the lot after death of people who in both doctrine and life have confirmed themselves in the doctrine of faith alone to the point of believing it to be justifying.

1. When they are physically dead and come to life again in the spirit, which generally happens on the third day after the heart has stopped beating, they appear to themselves to have the same body that they had before in the world, so much so that they do not know otherwise than that they are living in the prior world. Yet they do not have a material body, but rather a spiritual one, and to their senses, which are also spiritual, their body appears as though material, even though it is not.

[2] 2. After several days they see that they are in a world where various societies have been established - a world called the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell. All the societies there, of which there are a countless number, have been marvelously organized in accordance with the inhabitants' natural affections, good and evil. Societies organized in accordance with good natural affections communicate with heaven, while societies organized in accordance with evil affections communicate with hell.

[3] 3. A newly arrived spirit or new spiritual person is taken about and conveyed into various societies, both good and evil, and he is examined to see whether he is affected by truths, and in what way, or whether he is affected by falsities, and in what way.

[4] 4. If the person is affected by truths, he is led away from evil societies and introduced into good ones, and into various good ones, until he comes to a society corresponding to his natural affection, and there he experiences a goodness in harmony with that natural affection. This continues until he sheds the natural affection and takes on a spiritual one, at which point he is raised into heaven. But this is what happens in the case of people who in the world lived a life of charity and so also a life of faith, which consisted in their believing in the Lord and refraining from evils as sins.

[5] 5. In contrast, people who in both doctrine and life had confirmed themselves in the doctrine of faith alone to the point of believing it alone to be justifying - these, because they are affected not by truths but by falsities, and because they have dismissed goods of charity or good works from being means of salvation, are led away from good societies and introduced into evil ones, and into various evil ones, until they come to a society corresponding to the lusts of their self-love. For anyone who loves falsities cannot help but love evils.

[6] 6. However, because they feigned good affections in outward appearances in the world (even though they inwardly harbored nothing but evil affections or lusts), they are periodically kept at first in states of outward pretense. Moreover, those who in the world had presided over companies of others are set here and there over societies in the world of spirits, in overall charge or in part, according to the scope of the positions they had held before. Yet because they like neither truth nor justice, and cannot be enlightened sufficiently to know what truth and justice are, therefore after several days they are discharged. I have seen spirits like this conveyed from one society to another, and though everywhere given some administrative position, after a short time they are just as often discharged.

[7] 7. After repeated dismissals, some of these people out of weariness do not wish to seek further positions, and some out of a fear of losing their reputation do not dare to. Therefore they go off and sit sadly, and at that point they are led away into an uninhabited region where they find cabins, which they enter. There they are given some work to do, and to the extent that they do it they are given food. But if they do not do it, they go hungry and are not given any. Necessity accordingly compels them.

Foodstuffs in that world are like those in our world, only they come from a spiritual origin and are given by the Lord from heaven to all in accordance with the useful functions they perform. Idle people, as they perform no useful function, are not given any.

[8] 8. After a while these people loathe work, and they then leave the cabins. If they were priests, they wish to become builders, and instantly then piles of hewn stones, bricks, boards and wooden panels appear, with heaps of reeds and rushes, clay, plaster and asphalt. When they see these, they are fired with an urge to build, and they begin to construct a house, taking now a stone, now a piece of wood, now a reed, now wet clay, and placing one upon another in haphazard fashion, though in their eyes an ordered one. Yet what they build by day collapses overnight; and the following day they gather the fallen materials from the rubble and build again, and this repeatedly until they grow weary of building.

This is the case because they used to pile up falsities to confirm the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, and that is how these falsities build the church.

[9] 9. Out of weariness these people next go off and sit solitary and idle, and because, as we said, idle people are not given any food from heaven, they begin to hunger. They also begin to think of nothing else than how to get food and relieve their hunger.

When they are in this state, some people come to them, from whom they beg assistance. But those other people say to them, "Why are you sitting so idle? Come with us to our houses, and we will give you jobs to do and feed you."

They joyfully then arise and go away with those people to their houses, and each is there given his job, and in exchange for the work food. However, because all who have confirmed themselves in falsities of faith cannot do works of good and useful service, but only works that serve evil, and because they do not do the works faithfully, but only so that people may see them, for the sake of acclaim or material gain, therefore they abandon their jobs and care only to socialize, talk, walk, and sleep. And then, because their employers can no longer induce them to work, they are therefore forced to leave as serving no useful function.

[10] 10. When they have been forced to leave, their eyes are opened and they see a path leading to a certain cavern. When they go to it, the entrance opens and they go in, inquiring whether there is any food there, and when they are told that there is, they ask permission to remain. They are then told that they may, and they are taken in, with the entrance closing behind them.

The master of the cavern then comes and says to them, "You cannot leave anymore. See your fellow inhabitants. They all work, and as they work, they are given food from heaven. I tell you this so that you know."

Their fellow inhabitants say, moreover, "Our master knows for what work each of us is suited, and every day he assigns it to us. Every day that you finish it you are given food. But if you do not finish it, you are given neither food nor clothing. Also, if anyone does evil to another, he is forced to a corner of the cavern, onto a bed of accursed dust, ¹ where he is miserably tortured, and this until the master sees some sign of repentance in him. He is then taken out and ordered to do his work."

They are told, too, that after they have done their work, they are all allowed to walk about, converse, and later sleep. They are also taken deeper into the cavern where there are whores, and they are each permitted to choose one of them to be his woman, but are forbidden under threat of penalty to go whoring promiscuously.

[11] The whole of hell consists of such caverns, which are nothing less than eternal workhouses. I have been given to go into some and see, in order that I might make this known, and the people all appeared to be of a low class, nor did any one of them know who he had been in the world or what his occupation had been. But an angel who accompanied me told me that this one had been a household servant in the world, this one a soldier, this one an administrator, this one a priest, this one a person of high rank, this one a person of wealth; and yet none of them knew anything other than that they had been servants, and their fellows likewise. That is because they had been inwardly alike, even though unalike outwardly, and it is people's inner qualities that affiliate them in the spiritual world.

Such is the lot of people who have set aside a life of charity, and so have not lived it in the world.

[12] As regards the hells in general, they consist solely of such caverns and workhouses, but of one sort where they are inhabited by satanic spirits, and of another where they are inhabited by diabolical spirits. Satanic spirits are ones who have been governed by falsities and their resulting evils, while diabolical spirits are ones who have been governed by evils and their accompanying falsities.

Satanic spirits appear in the light of heaven as cadaverous, and some black, like mummies, while diabolical spirits appear in the light of heaven dark and fiery, and some as black as soot. All, however, in face and body are monstrous. Yet in their own light, which is like that of burning coal, they do not appear as monstrous, but as human. This appearance is granted to them to enable them to associate with one another.

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