七、凡不承认上帝者，皆当从教会中逐出并被定罪
14# 凡不承认上帝的人，当从教会中逐出，并被定罪。
凡不承认上帝的人理当从教会中逐出并被定罪，其缘由在于：上帝是教会的全部，被称为 “神学” 的神性事物构成了教会的本质。因此，否认上帝便是否认教会的一切；这种否认本身已将人逐出教会 —— 实则是人自行逐出自己，而非上帝将他逐出。
至于定罪的根由，则是被逐出教会的人，也一同被逐出天堂。因为地上的教会与天使的天堂本为一体，正如人的内在与外在，也如人里面的属灵与属世。上帝造人，原是要人以其内在居于灵界，以其外在居于自然界。换言之，人被造为两个世界的居民，目的是让属灵之事（即天堂之事）能如种子播入土壤一般，植入属世之事（即世间之事）之中，使人得以在永恒中稳固长存。
【2】人若因否认上帝自行逐出教会，进而逐出天堂，便是关闭了自己里面的内在人 —— 就意志而言，也就是就其内在的爱之喜乐而言。因为人的意志是爱的容器，也是爱的居所。但人无法关闭理智层面的内在人，倘若他真能做到，也就不再成其为人了。然而，他意志中的爱欲会以伪谬蒙蔽理智的上层区域，于是理智便如同被关闭 —— 就信仰的真理与仁义的良善而言。如此一来，他便愈发与上帝、与教会的属灵事物为敌，被隔绝在与天上天使的交通之外。一旦隔绝，他便陷入与地狱撒旦的交通之中，思想与他们全然同调。所有撒旦都否认上帝，对上帝与教会的属灵事物抱持愚妄的念头；与他们联合的人，也是如此。
【3】这等人退入自己的灵中时 —— 也就是独处之时，任由思想被自己孕育滋生的邪恶与伪谬的私欲牵引 —— 便会如此暗想：上帝本不存在，不过是讲坛上传出的声音，用来管束民众遵守社会的公义法则。他还会想：传道人用以讲论上帝的圣经，不过是异象汇编与人为拼凑之作，其神圣性不过是靠权威强加的名号。至于十诫或教理问答，不过是本小册子，等孩子们翻烂了就该丢弃 —— 其中所定的 “当孝敬父母”“不可杀人”“不可奸淫”“不可偷盗”“不可作假见证”，哪一样不是世间法律早已明文规定的？论到教会，他只当是单纯、轻信、怯懦之人的聚集，这群人自以为看见了实则根本看不见的东西。论到人，也论到自己身为 “人” 的身份，他看人与走兽并无分别；论到死后的生命，也以为与走兽死后的结局毫无二致。
【4】他的内在人便是如此思想，无论他外在的言行如何与此相悖。如前所述，人人都有内在与外在。人的内在构成了那被称为 “灵” 的生命，这灵在死后依然存活；而他赖以过着道德生活、伪装良善的外在，则要被埋葬。正因否认上帝，他便成了被定罪之人。
每个人的灵，在灵界中本就与性情相似的人结伴，彼此联为一体。我曾多次看见尚在世间活着之人的灵置身于这样的群体中 —— 有的在天堂的群体里，有的在地狱的群体里；我也曾连日与他们交谈。令我诧异的是，那尚在肉身中的本人，对此竟全然无知。由此可见，否认上帝的人，其实早已位列被定罪者之中，死后必要归到他的同类那里。
14# （7）凡不承认神的人都被逐出教会，并被定罪或受到诅咒。凡不承认神的人都被逐出教会，因为神是教会全部中的全部；被称为神学的神性事物或神性真理就是那构成教会的。因此，否认神就是否认属于教会的一切；正是这种否认将人逐出教会；因此，不是神，而是这个人将自己逐出教会。他也被定罪或受到诅咒，因为凡被逐出教会的人也被逐出天堂；事实上，地上的教会与天使天堂就像人的内在与外在，或属灵层与属世层那样构成一体。神如此创造人，是为了他可以在内在方面在灵界，在外在方面在自然界。因此，他被造为这两个世界的原住民，以便属于天堂的属灵层可以被植入属于世界的属世层，就像种子播种在地里一样，人因此可以变得稳固，并持续到永恒。
一个因否认神而将自己逐出教会，从而逐出天堂的人，在其意愿及其欢快的爱方面就关闭了他的内在人，因为人的意愿是他爱的容器，并成为爱的居所。但他无法在其理解力方面关闭他的内在人，因为他若能关闭，并且已经关闭了，将不再是人。然而，他的意愿之爱会用虚假迷恋理解力的高层区域，使这些区域变得愚蠢；因此，理解力向信之真理和仁之良善关闭，从而越来越反对神和教会的属灵事物。人就这样切断了与天堂天使的交流，当如此切断时，他就与地狱的撒但交流，完全像他们一样思考；所有撒但都否认神，并愚蠢地思想神和教会的属灵事物，与他们结合的人也是如此。
当这样一个人在灵里时，也就是当独自一人时，他允许自己的思维被他所想象，并允许在自己里面滋生的邪恶和虚假的快乐引导。这时他认为神不存在，只是从讲台发出的一个词，好让普通民众遵守正义的法律，也就是社会法律。他还认为让牧师们喋喋不休地谈论神的圣言就是一堆传教士的故事或异象的记录集，其神圣性源于权威。此外，十诫或教理问答只是一本小册子，在童年时期使用后，或被孩子们翻烂时，就可以丢弃了，因为它教导当孝敬父母，不可杀人，不可通奸，不可偷盗，不可作假见证；谁不能从民法中获知这些事？他认为教会是简单、轻信和意志薄弱之人的会众，他们看到了他们看不到的东西。他认为人，包括他自己，就像野兽，这两者死后的生命是一样的。
他的内在人就是这样想的，无论他的外在人说得多么不同。因为如刚才所述，每个人都有一个内在和一个外在；内在构成这个人，被称为灵，死后继续活着；而外在被埋进坟墓，他在外在上能通过过一种道德的生活来扮演伪善者；但在他死亡时，他因否认神而被定罪或受到诅咒。每个人就其灵而言，都与灵界中的同类相联系，并成为他们当中的一员。我经常被允许看到人们的灵仍然活着，有的在天使社群，有的在地狱社群。我还允许与他们交谈数日；我感到惊讶的是，一个人在过着肉身生活时，竟然对灵的生活一无所知。由此清楚可知，凡否认神的人都已经在受诅咒者当中了，或说已经被定罪了，死后就归到自己的同类中。
14. 7. Those who do not acknowledge God are cut off from the church and damned. People who do not acknowledge God are cut off from the church because the whole point of the church is God, and because the things related to God that are called theological teachings give the church its structure. Therefore to deny the existence of God is to deny everything having to do with the church. The denial itself is what cuts them off; that is, they cut themselves off. God does not cut them off.
They are damned as well because those who are cut off from the church are also cut off from heaven. The church on earth and the angelic heaven act as a unit, just like the inner and outer self, and like the spiritual part and the physical part in each of us. God created us in such a way that our inner self is in the spiritual world and our outer self is in the physical world. Therefore to make us permanent and everlasting beings, God made us citizens of both worlds so that the spiritual part of us, which belongs in heaven, could be planted in the physical part belonging to this world the way a seed is planted in the ground.
[2] People who cut themselves off from the church and from heaven by denying the existence of God close their inner selves on the side of the will and shut themselves off from its positive love. (The will in us is a vessel for love and becomes its dwelling place.) Their inner selves on the side of the intellect, however, they are unable to close, because if they could and did they would no longer be human; but [evil] love in their will does befuddle their higher intellect with false ideas. As a result, their intellect becomes virtually closed to truths related to faith and good qualities related to goodwill and becomes more and more closed to the Lord and the spiritual teachings of the church. As a result, those denying the existence of God lose their partnership with angels in heaven. Once that is gone, they establish a partnership with satans in hell and think what the satans are thinking. All satans deny the existence of God and have absurd thoughts about God and about the church's spiritual teachings; and so do people on earth who are in partnership with them.
[3] Such people come into their spirit, so to speak, when they are at home alone and let their thoughts be guided by their pleasure in the evil and the falsity they have conceived and given birth to in themselves. In that state, their thought about God is that he does not exist - God is only a word intoned in the pulpit to constrain the lower classes to obey the laws of justice that are society's rules. The Word, the source of ministers pronouncements about God, they see as a haphazard and fanciful text to which authorities have attributed holiness. The Ten Commandments or the Catechism they see as a little book that is to be tossed aside once it has been worn out by the hands of the young. After all, that book prescribes that we honor our parents, that we not murder, whore, steal, or testify falsely, and who does not know all that from civil law? The church they think of as nothing more than a herd of uneducated, gullible, and timid people, who [think they] see what they do not see. Humans, including themselves, they think of as being much like animals; they think the same fate awaits humans and animals after death.
[4] This is what their inner selves think, no matter how differently their outer selves may talk. For, as I said, all people have an inner and an outer self. Their inner self is their real self, called their spirit. It is the part that lives after death. Their outer self, in which they practice hypocrisy through [apparent] morality, will be buried in the grave. Then because they denied the existence of God they will be condemned.
All of us on earth are associated in spirit with those in the spiritual world who are like ourselves; we are in a sense united to them. Quite often, in fact, I have been allowed to see the spirits of people who were still alive on earth. In some cases the spirits of these people were in angelic communities; in some cases, in hellish communities. I have even been allowed to spend days talking with the spirits of people. It has amazed me that the people themselves still alive in their bodies were completely unaware that this was happening. From these experiences it became clear to me that those who deny the existence of God are already among the damned. After death they are gathered to their people.
14. (vii) ANY PERSON WHO DOES NOT ACKNOWLEDGE GOD IS EXCOMMUNICATED FROM THE CHURCH AND DAMNED.
The reason why a person who does not acknowledge God is excommunicated from the church is that God is everything to the church and the Divine truths, which we call theology, are what make it a church. Consequently to deny God is to deny everything to do with the church; and it is this very denial which excommunicates a person, so that it is not God but the person who excommunicates himself. The reason why he is damned is that by being excommunicated from the church he is also excommunicated from heaven. For the church on earth and the heaven of angels act as one, like the internal and the external, or the spiritual and the natural in the case of a person. Man was created by God so as to have his internal in the spiritual world and his external in the natural world. Thus he was created a denizen of either world in order that the spiritual, which is heavenly, should be planted in the natural, which is worldly, just as a seed is planted in the ground, and he might thus become steadfast and enduring to eternity.
[2] A person who by denying God has excommunicated himself from the church, and thus from heaven, has shut off his internal man in respect of the will, and so in respect of the love which gives him pleasure. For a person's will is the receiver of his love and becomes its dwelling-place. But he cannot shut off his internal man in respect of the understanding, for if he could do this he would cease to be a human being. But the love in his will makes the higher regions of the understanding foolish with false notions, so that the understanding becomes as it were shut off from the truths which have to do with belief and the kinds of good which have to do with charity; thus he becomes more and more opposed to God and at the same time the spiritual side of the church. Thus he is cut off from communion with the angels of heaven, and by this exclusion he brings himself into communion with the satans of hell, and thinks exactly like them. All satans deny God and have foolish ideas about the spiritual side of the church, and a person who is linked with them does likewise.
[3] When this person is under the guidance of his spirit, which is when he is left to himself at home, he allows his thoughts to be guided by the pleasures of evil and falsity which he has conceived and brought to birth in himself. He then thinks that God does not exist, or that He is a mere word resounding from pulpits, to oblige the common people to obey the laws of the land, on which the community depends. He also thinks that the Word, which makes ministers keep harping on God, is a collection of visions or a mere compilation, the holiness of which has been established by authority. He regards the Ten Commandments or the catechism as a book, which when it has been worn out through handling by children, can be thrown away. For it laid down that parents are to be honoured, one is not to kill or go whoring, not to steal or bear false witness; and does not everyone know these same rules from the code of civil law? He thinks of the church as a mere congregation of the simple, the gullible and the weak-minded, who fancy they see what they do not. He regards human beings, and he includes himself among them, as animals; and his life after death as no different from that of an animal after death.
[4] This is how his internal man thinks, however differently the external man speaks. As said before, every man has an internal and an external: the internal, which is called the spirit, is what makes him human, and this lives on after death, while the external, which allows him to play the hypocrite by a show of morality, is buried. Then he is damned, because he denied God. Everyone is in his spirit associated with people like himself in the spiritual world, and is so to speak one with them. I have often been allowed to see the spirits of people still alive, some of them in communities of angels there, and others in communities of hell. I have been allowed to talk with them for days, and I was astonished to find that the person, who was still alive in the body, knew nothing at all of it. This experience made it clear that those who deny God are already among the damned, and after death are gathered to their own kind.
14. (7) Whoever does not acknowledge a God is excommunicated from the church and condemned. Whoever does not acknowledge a God is excommunicated from the church, because God is the all of the church; and Divine things which are called theological are what constitute the church; consequently a denial of God is a denial of all things pertaining to the church; and this denial is what excommunicates the man; thus he is excommunicated not by God, but by himself. And he stands condemned because he who is excommunicated from the church is also excommunicated from heaven; since the church on earth and the angelic heaven make one, like the internal and the external or the spiritual and the natural in man; and man was so created by God that in respect to his internal he might be in the spiritual world and in respect to his external in the natural world; consequently he was created a native of both worlds, in order that the spiritual which belongs to heaven might be implanted in the natural, which belongs to the world, just as seed is planted in the ground; and that man might thus become fixed and endure to eternity.
[2] The man who has excommunicated himself from the church and thus from heaven by a denial of God has closed up in himself his internal man in respect to his will and its genial love; for man's will is the receptacle of his love, and becomes its dwelling-place. But he cannot close up his internal man in respect to its understanding, for if he could and did he would be man no longer. Nevertheless, his will's love infatuates with falsities the higher faculties of the understanding; and in consequence the understanding becomes closed to the truths pertaining to faith and the goods pertaining to charity; thus more and more against God, and also against the spiritual things of the church. Thus man is shut out from communion with the angels of heaven, and when so shut out he enters into communion with the satans of hell, and thinks as they think; and all satans deny God, and think foolishly about God and the spiritual things of the church; and in the same way does the man think who is conjoined with them.
[3] When such a man is in his spirit, as he is when left privately to himself, he suffers his thoughts to be led by the delights of evil and falsity which he has conceived and brought forth in himself; and he then thinks that God has no existence, but is merely a word uttered from the pulpit to hold the common people in obedience to the laws of justice, which are, the laws of society. He also thinks the Word, from which ministers proclaim a God, to be a mass of missionary tales, which have been made holy by authority, and the Decalogue or catechism to be merely a little book to be thrown aside when it has been well worn by the hands of little boys, since it teaches that parents ought to be honored, forbids murder, adultery, theft, and false witness; and who does not learn the same things from civil law? He thinks of the church as an assembly of simple, credulous, and weak-minded people, who see what they see not. He thinks of man, and of himself as a man, as being like a beast, and of life after death as of the life of a beast after death.
[4] Thus does his internal man think, however differently his external man may speak. For, as just said, every man has an internal and an external; and it is the internal that makes the man, that is, the spirit, which is what lives after death; while the external, in which by a semblance of morality he plays the hypocrite, is laid in the grave; and on account of his denial of God the man then stands condemned. In respect to his spirit every man is associated in the spiritual world with his like, and becomes as one of them. It has frequently been granted me to see there in societies the spirits of men still living, some in angelic and some in infernal societies, and also to converse with them for days; and I have wondered how the man himself while still living in the body could be wholly ignorant of this. Thus was it made clear that he who denies God is even now among the damned, and that after death he is gathered to his own.
14. (7) THE MAN WHO DOES NOT ACKNOWLEDGE GOD IS EXCOMMUNICATED FROM THE CHURCH AND CONDEMNED.
The man who does not acknowledge God is excommunicated from the Church because God is the All-in-all of the Church, and Divine things, which are called theological, constitute it. Therefore a denial of God is a denial of everything pertaining to the Church; and this very denial excommunicates him, so that man himself and not God is the author of his exclusion. He is also condemned, because whoever is excommunicated from the Church is likewise excluded from heaven, for the Church on earth and the angelic heaven make one, like the internal and the external, and like the spiritual and the natural in man. For man was created by God to be in the spiritual world as to his internal, and is the natural world as to his external. He was thus created a native of both worlds in order that the spiritual, or that which is of heaven, should be implanted in the natural, which is of the world, like a seed sown in the ground, so that he might thus acquire an existence fixed and eternal.
[2] The man who by a denial of God has excluded himself from the Church, and thereby from heaven, has closed his internal man as to his will, and thus as to his nature's love, for a man's love is received into his will, and abides there. He cannot, however, close his internal man as to his understanding, for if he were to do this he would no longer be a man. The love which his will does entertain attracts falsities into the higher parts of his understanding, which thus become closed as it were to the truths of faith and the goods of charity; thus more and more against God and the spiritual things of the Church. In this way he is excluded from communion with the angels of heaven. He thereupon enters into communion with the satans of hell; and as all satans deny God, and form absurd ideas concerning Him and the spiritual things of the Church, so also does the man who is joined with them.
[3] When he is in the spirit, as when left to himself at home, he allows his thoughts to be led away by the pleasures of the evil and the falsity which he has conceived and allowed to come forth within himself. He then thinks that there is no God, but that God is merely a name uttered from pulpits to keep the common people in obedience to the laws of justice framed by society. He also thinks that the Word, from which the clergy proclaim God, is a collection of visionary records whose sanctity is derived from authority. Moreover, the Decalogue, or Catechism, 1 is only a little book which, after its use in childhood, may be discarded, for it enjoins that parents should be honored, and forbids murder, adultery, theft, and false witness, enactments which everyone knows are part of the civil law of every country. He regards the Church as a congregation of simple, credulous and weak-minded people, who fancy they see what they do not see. He regards man, and himself a man, merely as a beast, and thinks that life after death will be the same for both. These are the opinions of his internal man whatever his external man may declare.
[4] For, as has been said above, every man has an internal and an external. His internal constitutes the man, and is called his spirit, and lives on after death, but his external is buried in the grave. Whilst in his external, he has been enabled to play the hypocrite by living a moral life, but at his death, because of his denial of God, he is condemned. Every man, as to his spirit, is associated with his like in the spiritual world, and is as one with them. I have frequently been permitted to see the spirits of persons still living, some in angelic and some in infernal societies. I have also been permitted to converse with them for days together, and I have been astonished that a man, while living the life of the body, should be so utterly ignorant of the life of the spirit. It was, therefore, manifest that whoever denies God is already among the condemned, and after death joins his companions.
Footnotes:
14. VII. QUOD HOMO, QUI NON AGNOSCIT DEUM, AB ECCLESIA SIT EXCOMMUNICATUS, ET DAMNATUS. Quod homo, qui non agnoscit Deum, ab Ecclesia excommunicatus sit, est quia Deus est omne Ecclesiae, et Divina, quae vocantur Theologica, faciunt Ecclesiam, quare negatio Dei, est negatio omnium Ecclesiae; et haec ipsa negatio excommunicat illum, ita ipse homo se, et non Deus illum: quod ille damnatus 1 sit, est quia excommunicatus ab Ecclesia, ille etiam excommunicatus est e Coelo; Ecclesia enim in terris et Coelum angelicum unum agunt, sicut Internum et Externum, ac sicut Spirituale et Naturale apud hominem; et homo a Deo creatus est, ut quoad Internum suum sit in Mundo spirituali, et quoad Externum suum in Mundo naturali; proinde quod creatus sit indigena utriusque Mundi, propter causam, ut spirituale, quod Coeli est, implantetur naturali quod Mundi est, quemadmodum fit cum semine in humo, et sic homo fiat constans et perdurans in aeternum.
[2] Homo, qui per negationem Dei se excommunicavit ab Ecclesia, et sic a Coelo, occlusit Internum hominem apud se quoad voluntatem, ita quoad genialem suum amorem; voluntas hominis enim est receptaculum amoris ejus, et fit habitaculum hujus; at non potest occludere Internum suum hominem quoad Intellectum, nam si hoc posset et faceret, homo non foret homo amplius, sed amor voluntatis ejus superiora Intellectus infatuat falsis; inde fit Intellectus quasi occlusus quoad vera quae fidei sunt, et quoad bona quae charitatis, ita plus et plus contra Deum, et simul contra spiritualia Ecclesiae; et sic excluditur e communione cum Angelis Coeli, e qua cum exclusus est, se infert in communionem cum Satanis Inferni, et unum cogitat cum illis; et omnes Satanae negant Deum, ac de Deo et de spiritualibus Ecclesiae cogitant fatue; similiter homo conjunctus illis;
[3] hic dum in Spiritu suo est, quod fit quum domi sibi relictus patitur cogitationes duci a jucundis mali et falsi, quae concepit et parturivit 2 apud se, tunc cogitat de Deo quod non sit, sed quod sit modo vox sonans ex pulpitis, ad vinciendum plebem ad obedientiam legum justitiae, quae Societatis sunt; et quoque cogitat, quod Verbum, ex quo ministri sonant Deum, sit visionarium et congestum quid, cui Sanctitas ex Auctoritate inducta est; tum quod Decalogus seu Cathechismus sit libellus, qui postquam tritus est a manibus puerorum, rejectibilis sit, sanxit enim quod parentes honorandi sint, non occidendum, non scortandum, non furandum, non false testandum, et quis non ex lege civili eadem scit: de Ecclesia cogitat, quod modo sit congregatio simplicium, ad credendum facilium, et pusillanimorum, qui vident quod non vident: de homine, et de se ut homine, cogitat similiter ut de bestia; et de vita post mortem, similiter quod de vita bestiae post illam.
[4] Ita cogitat Internus ejus homo, utcunque aliter loquitur Externus; nam, ut dictum, est cuivis homini Internum et Externum, et Internum ejus facit hominem, qui vocatur Spiritus, et vivit post mortem, et Externum, ex quo per moralitatem agit hypocritam, sepelitur; et tunc propter negationem Dei fit damnatus. Omnis homo quoad Spiritum suum est sui similibus consociatus in Mundo Spirituali, et est sicut unus cum illis; et datum est mihi saepius videre hominum adhuc viventium Spiritus in Societatibus, quorundam ibi in angelicis, et quorundam in infernalibus, et quoque per dies datum est loqui cum illis, et miratus sum quod ipse homo in suo corpore adhuc vivens de hoc prorsus nihil sciret: exinde patuit, quod qui negat Deum, jamdum inter damnatos sit, et quod post mortem colligatur ad suos.
Footnotes: