—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 1050

All states of innocence from infancy on, of love toward parents, brothers, teachers and friends; of charity to the neighbor, and also of mercy to the poor and needy; all states of goodness and truth, with their goods and truths, impressed on; the memory, are preserved in man by the Lord, and are stored up unconsciously to himself in his internal man, and are carefully kept from evils and falsities.  They are all so preserved by the Lord that not the smallest of them is lost.  Every state from infancy even to extreme old age not only remains in another life, but also returns.  Returning, these states are such as they were during a man’s abode in the world.  Not only the goods and truths, stored up in the memory, remain and return, but likewise all the states of innocence and charity; and when states of evil and the false, or of wickedness and phantasy recur, these latter states are attempered by the former through the Divine operation of the Lord.

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 561

PRAYER

“O Thou who hearest prayer;
Unto Thee shall all flesh come.”

—­Psalm, LXV, 2

Prayer, in itself considered, is speech with God.  There is then some inward view of the objects of the prayer, and answering to that something like an influx into the perception or thought.  Thus there is a kind of opening of the man’s interiors toward God, with a difference according to the man’s state and according to the nature of the object of the prayer.  If one prays out of love and faith and only about and for things heavenly and spiritual, then there appears in the prayer something like revelation, which shows itself in the affection of the suppliant, in hope, solace, or an inner gladness.

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 2535

THE SERVICE OF WORSHIP

“I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy;
In Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.”

—­Psalm, V, 7

One should not omit the practice of external worship.  Things inward are excited by external worship; and outward things are kept in holiness by external worship, so that things inward can flow in.  Moreover, a man is imbued in this way with knowledge, and prepared to receive celestial things, so as to be endowed with states of holiness, though he is unaware of it.  These states of holiness the Lord preserves to him for the use of eternal life; for in the other life all one’s states of life recur.

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 1618

THE SACRAMENTS

Baptism and the Holy Supper are the holiest acts of worship.  Baptism and the Holy Supper are as it were two gates, through which a man is introduced into eternal life.  After the first gate there is a plain, which he must traverse; and the second is the goal where the prize is, to which he directed his course; for the palm is not given until after the contest, nor the reward until after the combat.