From Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Every one has his peculiar life, thus a life distinct from that of another, is known; for there is a perpetual variety and no one thing is the same as another. Each one therefore has what is his own. This is very manifest from the faces of men, in that there is no one face just like another, and cannot be to eternity.The reason is that there are no minds alike, and the faces are from the mind; for the face, as has been said, is the type of the mind, and the mind derives its origin and form from the life.If a man had not his own life, just as he has his own mind and his own face, he would have no life after death distinct from that of another. Yea, neither would there be any heaven, for heaven consists of perpetually distinct individuals. Its form is solely from the varieties of souls and minds disposed in such order as to make one, and they make one from the One whose life is in all and in the single ones therein, as the soul is in man. If it were not so heaven would be dispersed because its form would be dissolved. The One, from whom all and each single individual have life, and from whom the form coheres, is the Lord. Every form in general is from various things, and is such as is their harmonious co-ordination and disposition into one. Such is the human form. Hence it is that man, consisting of so many members, viscera and organs, has no feeling within himself or from himself but that he is one.
That his own life awaits every one after death is known in the church from the Word, as from these things there:
The Son of man shall come, and then He shall reward every man according to his works (Matt. xvi. 27).
I saw the books opened, and they were judged every man according to his works (Rev. xx. 12, 13).
In the day of judgment God shall render to every man according to his deeds (Rom. ii. 5, 6; 2 Cor. v. 10).
The deeds, according to which it will be rendered to every one, are the life, because the life does them and they are according to the life.
As it has been given to me for many years to be with the angels, and to talk with those that were coming from the world, I can testify for a certainty that every one is explored there as to what his life has been; and that the life which he has contracted in the world remains with him to eternity. I have conversed with those who lived ages ago whose life was known to me from history, and have recognized that it was like the description. I have also heard from the angels that the life of no one can be changed after death, because it is organized, in accordance with his love and thence his works, and if they were changed the organization would be torn to pieces, which can never be done. And that a change in organization only takes place while in the material body, and is entirely impossible in the spiritual body, after the former is cast off.
That then is imputed to an evil man the evil of his life; and to the good man is imputed the good of his life. The imputation of evil is not accusation, crimination, inculpation, and judgment, as in the world, but the evil itself works this; for the evil, of their own free will, separate themselves from the good, because they cannot be together. The delights of the love of evil have an aversion to the delights of the love of good, and from every one his delights exhale, as do the odors from every plant on earth; for they are not absorbed and concealed by a material body as before, but flow freely forth from their loves into the spiritual aura. And as evil is there sensibly perceived as in its odor, it is this that accuses, criminates, inculpates, and judges, not before any judge, but before every one who is in good. And this is what is meant by imputation. Moreover an evil man chooses his companions, with whom he may live in his delight; and as he has an aversion to the delight of good, he of his own accord, betakes himself to his own in hell.
The imputation of good is effected in like manner. This takes place with those who in the world acknowledged that all the good in them is from the Lord and none from themselves. These are let into the interior delights of good, after they are prepared, and then the way is opened for them into heaven, to the society where its delights are homogeneous. This is done by the Lord. (Conjugial Love 524)