Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 475

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475. Again, it ought to be known that in deeds or works the whole man is exhibited, and that his will and thought or his love and faith, which are the interiors of a man, are not complete until they exist in deeds or works, which are the exteriors of a man, for these are the ultimates in which the will and thought terminate, and without such terminations they are as if interminate, and have as yet no existence, that is, are not yet in the man. To think and to will without doing, when there is opportunity, are like a flame, enclosed in a vessel, which goes out; also like seed cast upon the sand, which fails to grow, and so perishes with its power of germination. But to think and will and from that to do is like a flame that gives heat and light all around, or like a seed in the ground that grows up into a tree or flower and has existence. Everyone can know that willing and not doing, when there is opportunity, is not willing; also that loving and not doing good, when there is opportunity, is not loving, but mere thought which one wills and loves; and this is thought separate, which vanishes and is dissipated. The love and will is the very soul of a deed or work. It forms its body in the honest and just things that the man does. This is the sole source of man's spiritual body, or the body of his spirit; that is, it is formed solely out of the things that the man does from his love or will (see above, n. 463). In a word, all things of man and his spirit are in his deeds or works.# # Interior things flow in successively into exterior things even down to the extreme or ultimate, and there they come forth and continue in existence (n. 634, 6451, 6465, 9215, 9216). They not only flow in, but in the ultimate they form the simultaneous: in what order (n. 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099). Thereby all interior things are held together in connection, and continue in existence (n. 9828). Deeds or works are the ultimates which contain the interiors (n. 10331). Therefore being recompensed and judged according to deeds and works is being recompensed and judged in accordance with all things of one's love and faith, or of his will and thought, because these are the interiors contained in deeds and works (n. 3147, 3934, 6073, 8911, 10331, 10332).


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