Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

Heaven and its Wonders and Hell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about Heaven and its Wonders and Hell.

and those seen in heaven by John: 

     Who had garments of fine linen and white (Apoc. 4:4;
     19:14).

And because intelligence is from Divine truth: 

     The garments of the Lord, when He was transfigured, were
     radiant and glistening white like the light (Matt. 17:2;
     Mark 9:3; Luke 9:29).

As light is Divine truth going forth from the Lord (see above, n. 129), so in the Word garments signify truths and intelligence from truths, as in the Apocalypse: 

     Those that have not defiled their garments shall walk with
     Me in white, for they are worthy.  He that overcometh shall
     be clothed in white garments (3:4, 5);

     Blessed is he that is awake and keepeth his garments
     (16:15).

And of Jerusalem, which means a church that is in truth,{1} it is written in Isaiah: 

     Awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on the garments of
     thy beauty, O Jerusalem (52:1).

And in Ezekiel: 

     Jerusalem, I girded thee about with fine linen, and
     covered thee with silk.  Thy garments were of fine linen
     and silk (16:10, 13);

besides many other passages.  But he who is not in truths is said “not to be clothed with a wedding garment,” as in Matthew: 

When the king came in he saw a man that had not on a wedding garment; and he said unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?  Wherefore he was cast out into the outer darkness (22:11-13).

The house of the wedding feast means heaven and the church because of the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church by means of His Divine truth; and for this reason the Lord is called in the Word the Bridegroom and Husband; and heaven, with the church, is called the bride and the wife.

  {Footnote 1} “Jerusalem” signifies a church in which there is
  genuine doctrine (n. 402, 3654, 9166).

181.  That the garments of angels do not merely appear as garments, but are real garments, is evident from the fact that angels both see them and feel them, that they have many garments, and that they put them off and put them on, that they care for those that are not in use, and put them on again when they need them.  That they are clothed with a variety of garments I have seen a thousand times.  When I asked where they got their garments, they said from the Lord, and that they receive them as gifts, and sometimes they are clothed with them unconsciously.  They said also that their garments are changed in accordance with their changes of state, that in the first and second state their garments are shining and glistening white, and in the third and fourth state a little less bright; and this likewise from correspondence, because their changes of state have respect to intelligence and wisdom (of which see above, n. 154, 161).

182.  As everyone in the spiritual world has garments in accordance with his intelligence, that is, in accordance with truths which are the source of intelligence, so those in the hells, because they have no truths, appear clothed in garments, but in ragged, squalid, and filthy garments, each one in accordance with his insanity; and they can be clothed in no others.  It is granted them by the Lord to be clothed, lest they be seen naked.

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Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.