On living forever

"That after death man lives to eternity is manifest from the Word, where life in heaven is called life everlasting; and the Lord said to His disciples, ’because I live, ye shall live also;’ and concerning the resurrection He said that ‘God is the God of the living, and not of the dead, for all live unto Him,’ and that they cannot die any more."

"When the body is no longer able to discharge its functions in the natural world, corresponding to the thoughts and affections of its spirit, which it has from the spiritual world, then man is said to die. This occurs when the breathing of the lungs and the beating of the heart cease. Yet the man does not then die, but is only separated from the bodily part which he had for use in the world; for the man himself lives. It is said that the man himself lives, because man is not many by virtue of the body, but by virtue of the spirit; for the spirit thinks in man, and thought with affection makes the man. Hence it is evident that when man dies, he only passes from one world into another."

"Man is so created that as to his internal he cannot die; for he can believe in God, and can also love God, and can thus be conjoined with God by faith and love; and to be conjoined with God is to live to eternity."

"After the death of the body, the spirit of man appears in the spiritual world in the human form, altogether as it appeared in the natural world. He also enjoys the faculty of hearing of speaking, and of feeling, as before in the world; and he is endowed with every faculty of thought, of will, and of action, as before in the world; in a word, he is a man in all things and in every particular, as he was before in the world, except that he is not encompassed with that gross body which he had before; he leaves this when he dies, nor does he ever resume it. This continuation of life is what is meant by the resurrection."

Every man is created to live to eternity in a happy state; for He that wills that every man should live to eternity, wills also that he should live in a happy state. What would eternal life be without it? This state of man, indeed, is the end of creation."

"But because they were born men, and cannot die, it is provided that every man shall dwell with his like, or with those who are in a similar delight of life, the evil with the evil, and the good with the good; and it is allowed every one, even the evil, to be in his own delight, provided he does not infest the good."

"He who is in evil in the world is in evil after his departure from the world; wherefore if evil is not removed in the world, it cannot be removed afterwards. Where the tree falls, there it lies. So, too, does a man’s life, when he dies, remain such as it has been."

"Every one is judged according to his deeds; not that they are recounted, but because he returns to them, and acts in like manner, for death is a continuation of life, with the difference that men cannot then be reformed."

Every man is created to live to eternity in a happy state; for He that wills that every man should live to eternity, wills also that he should live in a happy state. What would eternal life be without it? This state of man, indeed, is the end of creation."

"In uses all the delights of heaven are brought together and are present, because uses are the goods of love and charity in which angels are; therefore every one has delights that are in accord with his uses, and in the degree of his affection for use."

"In the heavens as on the earth there are many forms of service, for there are ecclesiastical affairs, there are civil affairs, and there are domestic affairs."

"Every one there performs a use, for the Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of uses."