Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
In the world there are angel-men and devil-men.Heaven is constituted of angel-men, and hell of devil-men.
With an angel-man all the degrees of his life are open to the Lord; but with a devil-man only the lowest degree is open, and the higher degrees are closed.
• An angel-man is led by the Lord both from within and from without;
• A devil-man is led by himself from within, and by the Lord from without.
• An angel-man is led by the Lord according to order, from within from order, and from without to order;
• A devil-man is led by the Lord to order from without, but by himself against order from within.
• An angel-man is continually led away from evil by the Lord, and led to good;
• A devil-man also is continually led away from evil by the Lord, but from a more to a less grievous evil, for he cannot be led to good.
• An angel-man is continually led away from hell by the Lord, and is led into heaven more and more interiorly;
• A devil-man is also continually led away from hell, but from a more grievous to a milder hell, for he cannot be led into heaven.
• Because an angel-man is led by the Lord, he is led by civil law, by moral law, and by spiritual law, for the sake of the Divine in them;
• A devil-man is led by the same laws, but for the sake of himself [suum] in them.
• An angel-man from the Lord loves the goods of the church, which are the goods of heaven, because they are goods, also its truths because they are truths; but he loves from self the goods of the body and of the world because they are for use and because they are for pleasure, likewise the truths that belong to the sciences; but although he loves all these in appearance from self, in reality he loves them from the Lord.
• A devil-man also loves from self the goods of the body and of the world, because they are for use and because they are for pleasure, likewise the truths that belong to the sciences; but although he loves all these in appearance from self, in reality he loves them from hell.
• An angel-man is in freedom and in the delight of his heart when he is doing good from good, and when he is not doing evil;
• A devil-man is in freedom and in the delight of his heart when he is doing good from evil, and when he is doing evil.
An angel-man and a devil-man in externals appear alike, but in internals they are wholly unlike; therefore when external things are laid aside by death they are manifestly unlike. The one is taken up into heaven, and the other is taken down into hell.
(from Apocalypse Explained 1145)