16.许多基督教的学者惊讶地发现自己死后仍有身体、衣服、房子，和在世时一样。他们想起从前对死后生命、灵魂、天堂和地狱的想法，便感到羞愧，声称他们的观点很愚蠢，连信仰简单的人都比他们聪明得多。确认这些观点，将一切都归于自然的学者受到检查，结果发现他们心智的内层是关闭的，而外层是打开的，以致他们的目光不是盯着天堂，而是盯着大地，因而也直达地狱。因为人心智的内层越打开，他的目光就越盯着天堂；内层越关闭，外层打开，他的目光就越盯着地狱。人心智的内层是为接受天堂的一切事物而形成的，外层是为接受世界的一切事物而形成的；那些接受世界，同时不接受天堂的人就在接受地狱。
16. A great many of the learned from the Christian world are dumbfounded when after they die they find themselves having bodies, wearing clothes, and living in houses just as they did in the world. When they are reminded of what they had thought about life after death, the soul, spirits, and heaven and hell, they feel embarrassed and ashamed. They say that their thought had been foolish and that ordinary people had been far wiser in their beliefs than they were.
Some scholars who had convinced themselves of such beliefs and had attributed everything to nature 1were examined, and it turned out that the outer levels of their minds were opened but the inner levels were closed. This meant that they did not look toward heaven but toward the world and therefore toward hell, since to the extent that the deeper levels of our minds are opened, we look toward heaven, while to the extent that the inner levels are closed and the outer are opened, we look toward hell. 2The inner levels of our minds are formed to be receptive to all things of heaven and the outer levels are formed to be receptive to all things of this world, but if we are receptive to the world and not at the same time to heaven, then we are receptive to hell. 3
Footnotes:
1. It was characteristic of a great deal of Enlightenment thinking to exalt “Nature” as the guide to truth and the guarantor of happiness. The work of the Roman poet Titus Lucretius Carus (around 94-51 B.C.E.)-rediscovered in the fifteenth century and much published thereafter-was highly influential in this regard: his Epicurean poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), denied the existence of an afterlife and claimed that the gods had no influence on human affairs: “Nature is her own mistress and is exempt from the oppression of arrogant despots, accomplishing everything by herself spontaneously and independently and free from the jurisdiction of the gods” (Lucretius 2001, 63). Some of the key doctrines of ancient Epicureanism, including scientific atomism and ethical hedonism, enjoyed a great vogue during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Christian thinkers like René Descartes tried to reconcile the increasingly mechanistic understanding of the natural world with a traditional Judeo-Christian insistence on God's omnipotence by identifying natural laws with divine edicts. As Descartes said: “By Nature, I do not understand some Goddess, or some other imaginary power; I make use of this word to signify matter itself . . . under the condition that God continues to preserve it in the same way he created it” (quoted in Wilson 2008, 91-92). The Dutch Jewish philosopher Benedict de Spinoza went much further, setting Nature in apposition to God (for example, in the phrase Deus sive Natura, “God, or Nature”). He defined God as “an absolutely infinite being, that is, substance consisting of infinite attributes” (Spinoza [1677] 2006, 4), but held that another name for this “substance” was nature. While his views were more nuanced than this recapitulation may suggest, this was how he was often understood. Hence Spinoza was frequently characterized as an atheist, and in Swedenborg's time, “Spinozism” was more or less synonymous with atheism (Edwards 1967, 7:533, 541). To view the matter in a larger context, Swedenborg lived in a time when the vanguard of philosophical thought was moving from Deism, which posited a rational order to the universe proceeding from God, to naturalism and materialistic monism, which held that physical reality-that is, nature-constituted the sole reality of the universe. Diverse thinkers held these views (such as the French-German philosopher Paul-Henri Dietrich, Baron d'Holbach; see note 5 in Last Judgment 15), and it is likely that Swedenborg had in mind such thinkers as a group, rather than any specific individuals. For a discussion of this issue, see Taylor 1989, 272, 283, 308. On the preeminence of “nature” as a concept in the eighteenth century, see Lovejoy 1960b, 184. [RS, DNG]
2. For a fuller discussion of the points of view of the different levels of the mind, see Revelation Explained (= Swedenborg 1994-1997a) 208:3. Similar imagery about two ways of viewing the world, involving a door that can open in either direction, can be found in Worship and Love of God 56. Compare also Marriage Love 146; True Christianity 366:2, 381:4. On the inner and outer self as described by Swedenborg, see New Jerusalem 36-53. [SS]
3. [Swedenborg note] The spiritual world and the earthly world are joined together in us: 6057. The inner self is formed to be an image of heaven, while the outer is formed to be an image of the world: 3628, 4523, 4524, 6013, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472.
16. Many learned men from the Christian world are amazed to find themselves after death in possession of a body, of clothes and houses, as in the world. When they are reminded of what they had thought about life after death, about the soul, spirits, heaven and hell, they are embarrassed and admit that their views were foolish, and those of a simple faith were much wiser. Learned men who had become convinced of such views and ascribed the cause of everything to Nature were examined, and it was found that the interiors of their minds were closed, and the exteriors were open, so that their gaze was fixed not on heaven but on the earth, and so reached as far as hell. For the more the interiors of a person's mind are open, the more his gaze is fixed on heaven; and the more the interiors are closed and the exteriors open, the more his gaze is fixed on hell. The interiors of a person's mind are designed to receive all influences coming from heaven, and the exteriors to receive all influences from the world; and those who receive from the world and not at the same time from heaven are receiving from hell. 1
Footnotes:
1. In man the spiritual world is linked with the natural world (6057) A person's internal is designed to be an image of heaven, his external to be an image of the world (3628, 4523-4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472).
16. Very many of the learned from the Christian world are amazed when they see themselves after death in a body, in garments, and in houses as they were in the world; and when they recall to memory what they had thought of the life after death, of the soul, of spirits, of heaven and of hell, they are affected with shame, declare that they have thought foolishly, and that the simple in faith are much wiser than they. The learned were explored, who had confirmed themselves in such things, and who had attributed all things to nature, and it was found, that the interiors of their minds were closed, and the exteriors opened, so that they had not looked to heaven, but to the world, and hence also to hell; for so far as the interiors of the mind are opened, so far man looks to heaven; but so far as the interiors are closed, and the exteriors opened, so far he looks to hell; for the interiors of man are formed for the reception of all things of heaven, and his exteriors for the reception of all things of the world, and they who receive the world, and not at the same time heaven, receive hell. 1
Footnotes:
1. In man the spiritual and the natural worlds are conjoined (6057). Man's internal is formed in the image of heaven, but his external in the image of the world (3628, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472).
16. Permulti ex eruditis e Christiano orbe obstupescunt, cum se post obitum vident in corpore, in vestibus, inque domibus, sicut in mundo; et cum revocantur in memoriam quae cogitaverunt de vita post mortem, de anima, de spiritibus, ac de caelo et inferno, pudore afficiuntur, et dicunt se fatue cogitavisse, ac simplices fide multo sapientius quam illi. Explorati sunt eruditi, qui confirmaverunt se in talibus, et qui omnia naturae addixerunt; et compertum est, quod interiora mentis eorum clausa sint, et exteriora aperta, sic ut non spectaverint ad caelum sed ad mundum, proinde etiam ad infernum; nam quantum interiora mentis aperta sunt, tantum spectat homo ad caelum; quantum autem interiora clausa sunt et exteriora aperta, tantum spectat ad infernum; interiora enim hominis ad receptionem omnium caeli formata sunt, et exteriora ad receptionem omnium mundi, et qui recipiunt mundum et non simul caelum, recipiunt infernum. 1
Footnotes:
1. Quod in homine conjunctus sit mundus spiritualis et mundus naturalis (6057).
Quod internum hominis sit ad imaginem caeli formatum, externum autem ad imaginem mundi (3628, 4523-4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472).