26.⑶为叫我能知道，自创世之初以来，所有曾生而为人且已离世者要么在天堂，要么在地狱，我蒙允许与许多人交谈，其中有生活在大洪水之前的人，有生活在大洪水之后的人，有从旧约圣言为我们所知的一些犹太人，有生活在主时代的人，以及许多生活在后来的世纪，直到今日的人；此外我还与所有活在肉身时我所认识并已死去的人交谈，也与小孩子和许多外邦人或非基督徒交谈。这段经历使我完全确信，自最初创造这个星球以来，凡曾生而为人者，没有一个不在天堂或在地狱。
26. So that I might know that all humans without exception who have been born and have died since the beginning of creation are either in heaven or in hell, I have been allowed to talk with people from many ages, some of whom lived before the Flood 1and some of whom lived after the Flood; as well as with people of the Jewish nation known to us from the Word of the Old Testament, with some of those who lived at the time of the Lord, and with many of those who lived in later centuries right up to the present day. In addition, I have talked after their deaths with all the people I had known during their physical lives; I have also talked with little children who had died, and with many people of other religions.
This experience has utterly convinced me that there is not one human who has ever been born since the first creation of this planet who is not either in heaven or in hell.
Footnotes:
1. Swedenborg understood the Genesis account of the Flood (Genesis 6-8) to be a “correspondential” or symbolic account of changes in the spiritual state of the human race. See, for example, Secrets of Heaven 662 and 563 (preferably in that order). In general, Swedenborg gives the meaning of a flood as “a deluge of evil and falsity,” resulting in self-destruction (Secrets of Heaven 660). For more on the meaning of floods, see Secrets of Heaven 739, 787, 842:5, 4334; Revelation Explained (= Swedenborg 1994-1997a) Revelation Explained 633:4. For Swedenborg's encounters with spirits of those who lived before the Flood (that is, before the spiritual changes represented by the Flood), see Spiritual Experiences (= Swedenborg 1998-2013) 4183, and also Secrets of Heaven 311, 1265; compare also note 1 in New Jerusalem 301. On correspondence, see note 12 in New Jerusalem 1. [GFD, RS, LSW]
26. In order that I should know that all people who have been born from the beginning of creation, and have died, are in heaven or in hell, I have been permitted to speak with some who lived before the flood, with some who lived after the flood; with some of the Jews who are known from the Word of the Old Testament; with some who lived in the Lord's time, with many who lived in the following centuries up to the present; and in addition with all whom I had known in bodily life and had since died. I have also talked with children, and with many from non-Christian peoples. This experience has fully convinced me that there is not a single person who was ever born a human being from the earliest time of this planet's creation who is not in heaven or in hell.
26. III. In order that I might know that all who have ever been born men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell, it has been granted me to speak with some who lived before the flood; and also with some who lived after the flood; and with certain of the Jewish nation, who are made known to us from the Word of the Old Testament; with some who lived in the Lord's time; with many who lived in the ages succeeding, even down to the present day; and moreover with all those of the dead, whom I had known during their lives in the body; and likewise with infants; and with many of the Gentiles. From this experience I have been fully convinced, that there is not even one, who was ever born a man, from the first creation of this earth, who is not in heaven or in hell.
26. ((iii.)) Ut scirem quod omnes quotcunque nati sunt homines a principio creationis, et defuncti, in caelo vel in inferno sint, datum est mihi loqui cum aliquibus qui vixerunt ante diluvium; et quoque cum aliquibus qui vixerunt post diluvium; ut et cum quibusdam ex gente Judaica notis ex Verbo Veteris Testamenti; cum quibusdam qui vixerunt tempore Domini; cum pluribus, qui in sequentibus saeculis usque ad hodiernum ac insuper cum omnibus, postquam mortui sunt, quos in vita corporis eorum notos habui; et praeterea cum infantibus; et cum pluribus ex gentibus. Ex qua experientia plene evictus sum, quod ne unus sit, qui usquam natus homo, a prima hujus telluris creatione, qui non in caelo vel in inferno est.